NEW YORK (Reuters) - Say it ain’t so. An era ends on Sunday when the curtain comes down on baseball in storied Yankee Stadium, scene of more moments that will live in sporting history than any other place in America.

New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio in a 1941 photo. REUTERS/File

Strangely, in Sunday night’s final contest between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles, nothing more than pride is at stake. The Yankees have had a rare down season and will not be adding to their championship record this year.

Wrecking balls and sledgehammers, not baseballs and bats, will soon be the equipment of choice as the stadium is demolished in coming months, although there may yet be a “closing ceremony” featuring big name rock stars before the wrecking crews move in.

Next season, the Yankees will take their bats, balls and fabled pinstriped uniforms to a brand new Yankee Stadium nearing completion across the street from the current one.

Americans have always been wistful about their National Pastime. Many cherish memories of playing catch with their fathers and of their first childhood visits to ballparks.

“This field, this game. It’s a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again,” James Earl Jones’s character said in the film “Field of Dreams.”

Through baseball history, no venue came closer to capturing that mystical quality than Yankee Stadium.

Built in 1923 to accommodate fans of slugger Babe Ruth, the first three-tiered baseball stadium quickly became known as “The House That Ruth Built.”

Over the next 85 years, the Yankees, who had won only one World Series before moving in, would accrue 25 more World Series crowns and 37 American League pennants at the stadium.

A succession of Yankee superstars achieved almost national mythic status -- Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and others. Heroes came and went, but through it all, the stadium remained.

NOT JUST BASEBALL HISTORY

Yankee Stadium also provided a venue for historical events, both political and religious, that had nothing do with baseball.

The first papal mass ever on U.S. soil was celebrated there by Pope Paul VI on October 4, 1965. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI would also bless the faithful there.

A rally at the stadium on June 21, 1990, honored Nelson Mandela after his release from prison following the end of apartheid in South Africa.

There were also memorable moments in other sports. At halftime of a scoreless college football game between the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and Army on November 12, 1928, coach Knute Rockne delivered his famous “Win one for the Gipper!” speech. Notre Dame responded with a 12-6 victory.

On June 22, 1938, boxer Joe Louis avenged his defeat of two years earlier with a first-round knockout of Max Schmeling in a politically-freighted showdown between the “Brown Bomber” and the German brawler hailed by Adolf Hitler.

Generations of ballplayers have spoken of their emotions on walking into the stadium for the first time. They invariably bring up the sense of history and tradition and the place the structure holds in the hearts of fans.

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Arguably the most poignant moment the stadium ever witnessed happened on July 4, 1939.

Yankee captain and first baseman Lou Gehrig had been recently diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease that now bears his name and would take his life in less than two years.

Gehrig was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support he received on a day of appreciation staged for him.

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” he said.

He concluded with, “I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”