Another home run record fell on the final night of the regular season at the new Yankee Stadium.
Derek Jeter homered against Kansas City's Robinson Tejeda leading off the bottom of the first inning Wednesday, and the $1.5 billion ballpark became the first major league stadium with home runs in all but one regular-season game.
Three ballparks had home runs in 79 of 81 games, according to STATS LLC: Edison Field (2000), Coors Field (2001) and U.S. Cellular Field (2004). The only game without a home run at Yankee Stadium this season was on June 18, when the Washington Nationals won 3-0 after a 5-hour, 26-minute rain delay at the start.
Playing its regular-season home finale, New York also became the first team to go deep in 73 home games, according to STATS. The 2004 Chicago White Sox homered in 72 home games.
"Early on it played different than the old ballpark, but lately, you know the last three, 3 1/2 months, I think it's been pretty similar," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before New York's 4-3 loss. "We love this ballpark. This ballpark has been very good for our team. And our team seems to be built around this ballpark — and that's not surprising to me because it was modeled after the last ballpark."
It was Jeter's 18th homer and fourth this season leading off a game. He also did it on Aug. 10, 23 and 28.
Yankee Stadium finished its first season with a major league-leading 237 home runs, tied for the 18th-most during one season at a big league ballpark, STATS said. A record 303 homers were hit at Denver's Coors Field in 1999.
New York hit 136 home runs at home, matching the eighth-highest total in major league history. Texas set the record with 153 at Ameriquest Field in 2005.
Before the June 18 game, an average of 3.5 homers per game were hit. It dwindled to 2.5 per game for the remainder of the season.
New York's most home runs at the old Yankee Stadium was 126 in both 2004 and 2005. The high for home and visitors was 215 in 2004.
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