SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 1; Sports Desk 

LENGTH: 1162 words

HEADLINE: BASEBALL;
Yankee Stadium Closed as Beam Falls Onto Seats

BYLINE:  By RANDY KENNEDY 

BODY:
A 500-pound concrete and steel beam suspended beneath the upper deck of Yankee Stadium came loose and crashed into the empty seats below yesterday afternoon, prompting city officials to close the landmark stadium and forcing the Yankees to postpone last night's and tonight's games with the Anaheim Angels.

The beam, which collapsed about 3 P.M. and fell with such force that it obliterated one seat along the third-base line and punched a hole in the concrete below it, caused no injuries but led city and private engineers to begin a full structural inspection of the stadium, which will turn 75 on Saturday. Officials said late last night that they hoped to reopen the stadium as early as tomorrow for the third game of the series. But they worked on backup plans to move that game to Shea Stadium and to move a series with the Detroit Tigers, which begins on Friday, to either Shea Stadium or Detroit if more problems are found.

"This could have been a terrible tragedy," Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said, surveying the damage. "You could see that if someone were sitting there at the time that the beam came down, that person would now be dead. So we can't take a risk that something like that is going to happen."

The collapse came as the Yankees and Angels were about to begin batting practice, about four hours before their game was to start.

The mishap will very likely strengthen the hand of the team's principal owner, George Steinbrenner, who has been negotiating with city officials for several years in hopes of getting his team a new stadium. Mr. Steinbrenner has often complained that Yankee Stadium, though one of the nation's most recognizable sports landmarks, is an antiquated relic, unsuited for modern sports and entertainment.

The 18-inch-long beam joined two longer steel beams, much like the crosspiece in the letter "H," and allowed them to move slightly. City and team officials believed that it was part of the stadium's original construction in 1923, said Richard Visconti, the deputy commissioner of the Department of Buildings. A replacement joint is being built, he said.

Sonny Hight, the stadium's director of operations, said it appeared yesterday that "inch by inch, instead of shifting to absorb the shock from the fans," the beam "just worked itself loose and today it fell."

Bill LeSuer, the Angels' strength and conditioning coach, who was walking from the outfield fence in left-center field to the team's dugout as the beam plummeted, looked up "when there was a real loud bang and explosion, extremely loud."

He added: "I looked up and there was a real big puff of smoke. When I saw the hole, I realized something had fallen." Being from California, Mr. LeSuer said that his first thought was that he was in the middle of an earthquake, but then he added: "If we were in Anaheim, you could see an earthquake happening. But not here. It's New York."

Yankees officials, scrambling to salvage their schedule, said last night that the third game of the series with Anaheim might be played at Yankee Stadium tomorrow night if city officials gave their approval. Lonn Trost, the team's executive vice president and general counsel, said officials would examine the stadium to see if there were any similar problems before making a decision.

If the game cannot be played at Yankee Stadium, it will be played at Shea Stadium. The game is scheduled for 1 P.M. but might be moved to noon at Shea because the Mets are scheduled to play the Chicago Cubs at 7:40 P.M. the same day.

The officials said they could not move tonight's game with the Angels to Shea because of the logistical difficulties of transferring the ticketing system and preparing the stadium. But tickets for tomorrow's game would be honored at Shea, they said.

While a significant number of fans heard about the postponement of last night's game on the radio before they began to trek to the stadium, others were not so lucky. Anthony Grieca, a self-described 19-year-old "bleacher creature" who showed up for the game, greeted the postponement with exasperation. After leaving his job in a Trumbull, Conn., supermarket early and driving an hour and a half to the Bronx, he was turned away at the gate. "I think I'm in the twilight zone," he said. "This is the worst day ever."

But Yankees officials and players took the chaos mostly in stride.

"It's just fortunate that it happened here today instead of yesterday," Joe Torre, the team's manager, said, referring to the Yankees' afternoon game on Sunday against the Oakland Athletics.

David Cone held a less sanguine view. "Yankee Stadium is crumbling," he said, adding, "Everybody is in a little disarray right now."

The incident comes as tense negotiations continue between city officials and Mr. Steinbrenner, who has long made it clear he is unhappy with the team's aging South Bronx home.

The team leases the 57,000-seat stadium, the fourth-oldest ball park in the major leagues, from the city's Parks Department; the lease runs through the 2002 season. Mr. Steinbrenner has threatened to take the team out of New York unless he is given a modern stadium, with the West Side of Manhattan being suggested as the most likely site. Mr. Steinbrenner has also spoken with New Jersey officials about building a stadium near Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Mr. Giuliani played down the notion that the collapse would give Mr. Steinbrenner more leverage in the negotiations. But he added, "I think he's right that they are entitled to a new stadium, and I believe the Mets are entitled to a new stadium."

Speaking to reporters near the Yankees' dugout, the Mayor said city engineers would begin a close inspection of the site of the collapse and determine whether any other beams are loose.

Both city and team officials were unable to offer an exact description of how the piece of steel that fell was installed or how it limited the movement of the longer beams, which run from the back of the stadium like spokes toward the field.

The beam crashed through a drop ceiling made of plywood and metal grating that serves as a kind of ceiling above the second deck, also known as the loge level. It then fell about 30 feet and landed atop Seat 7 in the second row of Section 22. The metal and blue-plastic chair was crushed, and a beam punched a hole in the concrete in front of it.

It was not the first time that section of the stadium has had problems. Two years ago, during a game with the Baltimore Orioles, fans were drenched when rain leaked through the roof above the upper deck, cascading like a waterfall onto a walkway below and drenching premium seats near the field.

The stadium underwent a $100 million renovation during the 1974 and 1975 seasons that essentially added a new skin over the stadium's 1923 foundation. But by 1979, city officials found that design errors and poor workmanship were causing leaks and cracks in the concrete around two main expansion joints.


GRAPHIC: Photos: Michael Muganga, a consulting engineer for the city, checking out the damage after the beam fell in the loge section along the third-base line. The Yankees and Angels conducted batting practice at Yankee Stadium yesterday after the beam fell. Two of the teams' games were postponed. (Photographs by Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times)(pg. C3)
 
Diagram/Photo: "The Damage"
The 500-pound bean, left, fell into the loge boxes between third and left field at Yankee Stadium at about 3 P.M. yesterday and forced the postponement of at least two games. The diagram shows the location of the damage. (Photo by Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times)(pg. A1)

LOAD-DATE: April 14, 1998