Yankee Stadium games postponed

NEW YORK Hundreds of city workers combed Yankee Stadium today,inspecting the 75-year-old ballpark for any more defects like the onethat sent a steel joint crashing into the seats a day earlier.

A 500-pound steel joint dating to 1927 fell from the upper levelMonday, hours before the New York Yankees' game with the AnaheimAngels. The mishap caused two games with the Angels to be postponed,and moved a third to Shea Stadium.

No one was injured, and no fans were inside the House That RuthBuilt at about 2 p.m. when the steel chunk fell an estimated 40 feetfrom the underside of the upper deck into the mezzanine section downthe third-base line.As the Yankees held batting practice today, about 300 workersfrom eight city agencies inspected the beams and joints in theinterior of the stadium's upper deck."The engineers are working their way from the top of the stadiumdown," said Jerome Hauer, director of the mayor's office of emergencymanagement."Clearly the games in the next couple of days will not be playedhere," Hauer said.He said the inspectors found the comparable joint in theunderside of the upper deck down the first-base line and determinedit was structurally sound. The joints were added to the stadiumduring an expansion in 1927, four years after it opened."Yankee Stadium is crumbling. . . . Everybody is in a littledisarray right now," pitcher David Cone said Monday.A crowd of more than 20,000 had been expected to watch theAngels and Yankees."This could have been a terrible tragedy," Mayor RudolphGiuliani said. "You could see that if someone were sitting there atthe time that the beam came down, that person would now be dead.The episode gave added ammunition to Yankees owner GeorgeSteinbrenner, who has been seeking a new stadium. The team's leasewith the city expires in 2002."We'll overcome this one, but we've got to be sure it doesn'thappen again," the owner told the New York Times. "If that means anew stadium, we'll have to see."The stadium, owned by the city and leased to the team, is set tocelebrate its 75th anniversary Saturday. Those plans were put onhold.The seat was smashed to pieces and a 6-inch hole was gouged inthe concrete. The joint tore another hole in the ceiling of theupper deck.The collapse also caused a chain reaction in altering thisweek's schedule.Night games Monday and Tuesday were called off immediately, andthe Yankees announced they would play the Angels at 1 p.m. Wednesdayat Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets. The Mets are scheduledto play at Shea that night, at 7:40 p.m. against the Cubs.A replacement joint was being built in Yankee Stadium, andGiuliani said it might be installed today.If the park is not repaired, the Yankees and Detroit Tigerscould move their three-game weekend series to Shea.