When Yankee Stadium opened its doors on April 18, 1923, a record 74,200 fans flocked to the first triple-tiered baseball stadium ever built to be a part of it.

At least 25,000 more made their way to the east bank of the Harlem River in the Bronx, only to find the stadium gates shut half an hour before the start of the season opener between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

They didn’t see Babe Ruth blast a home run into the right field bleachers in the third inning – the first in the new stadium, described by The New York Times as its “real baptism” – but they heard the roar that erupted and felt its vibrations as tens of thousands rose to their feet cheering on Ruth as he crossed home plate, cap in hand, waving to the crowds.

The Yankees won, 4-1 – largely due to Ruth’s three-run homer run in the third inning – and went on to win the first of its 26 World Series titles and 39 pennants – the most in the sport’s history.

Over the decades, the perfectly lush, green field of the stadium would hold legendary moments across a range of sports – and events with worldwide significance. In 2012, Yankee Stadium could be part of the biggest sporting event in the world – as the proposed venue for Olympic Baseball – adding another chapter to its already storied history.

“It was the first American League ballpark of any consequence in New York,” said Chris Jennison, author of Yankee Stadium: 75 Years of Drama, Glamor, and Glory. “It just took on this legendary myth-making property.”

Ruth’s revolutionary slugging and immense drawing power left the Yankees without a home and led them to build the largest baseball facility of their time.

In 1921, a year after Ruth joined the team, the Yankees were forced out of the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, where, since 1913, they had shared the field with their landlord - the erstwhile baseball superstars, the New York Giants of the National League.

In the 1920 season, Ruth smashed 54 homers – a number previously unheard of for a single player and greater than the combined home runs of any team at the time in the American League.

Baseball fans responded by swarming the Polo Grounds to see Ruth, doubling Yankees attendance and outdrawing their hosts.

“It became an untenable situation for the Giants management to endure losing the fans to these upstart Yankees,” said Tony Morante, a Yankees’ historian and tour guide at the Yankee Stadium. “They asked them to leave.”

Visionary Yankees owners, Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast Huston, responded by building an 80,000-capacity stadium at a cost of $2.5 million in the Bronx within view of the Polo Grounds on the other side of the Harlem River.

Owned by William Waldorf Astor, the land – four blocks long – was near subways and elevated trains, prompting the owners to declare in a New York Times article on February 6, 1921, that the location seemed “ordained by the marvelous transportation facilities to become the site of baseball grounds suitable for the demands of the greatest city in America.”

A day later, a New York Times article envisioned the new stadium would “provide a setting for big pageants,” among them, “Olympic Games… and other first-rank affairs.”

The Yankees concluded their first year in the Bronx by defeating the New York Giants and claiming their first World Series title.

Over the decades, the Yankees’ continued dominance has kept fans coming in record numbers – 3.5 million in 2003 – leading the major leagues in attendance.

But baseball wasn’t the only sport fans came to see.

Before a crowd of more than 61,000, professional football entered its first-ever sudden-death overtime period in a dramatic game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts. The ferocity of the game helped establish then-fledgling American football as a major sport.

International football (soccer) was also given a boost when the great Brazilian player, Pele, played at the stadium for the New York Cosmos in 1976.

Pointing to second base, Morante described how a ring would come up from beneath the ground for boxing legends Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, and Sugar Ray Robinson – among the boxing legends who competed in the 30 championship fights held at the stadium. On June 1, 1939, Max Baer and Lou Nova’s heavyweight bout became the first televised boxing match in the U.S.

In 2012, the eyes of the world could be on Yankee Stadium as it welcomes Olympic Baseball players to the place that has popularized and revolutionized the sport and fired the imagination of millions of fans worldwide.