Morning briefing

A ‘House’ full of memories

All season, there’s a long goodbye going on at Yankee Stadium, and rightfully so for the “House That Ruth Built,” all cement and grass and facade, a nostalgic memory-making machine that started churning out magic moments once the turnstiles started spinning, April 18, 1923.

A new Yankee Stadium opens next door in 2009.

There are probably a million or so great moments at Yankee Stadium that were carefully collected over the years, many of them intensely personal, but others to be shared by sports fans forever.

Sporting News made a list of the top 10 Yankee Stadium events, No. 1 being Lou Gehrig’s “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech, July 4, 1939. No. 2 was Don Larsen’s perfect game in the World Series against the Dodgers, Oct. 8, 1956.

Among the other notable moments: No. 4, Knute Rockne delivers his “win one for the Gipper” speech at halftime and Notre Dame defeats Army, Nov. 12, 1928; No. 6, Babe Ruth hits his 60th home run, Sept. 30, 1927; No. 9, Ruth’s farewell speech, June 13, 1948; and No. 10, Ruth lies in state and 200,000 view his coffin, Aug. 17, 1948.

Think about it. What would you want to see on the list of Yankee Stadium’s top moments?

Trivia time

What is the worst regular-season record for a National League team that made it to the World Series?

An assist

LeBron James donated $20,000 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, but if that could also be taken as an endorsement its effect appears debatable.

For example, this response was among the first comments posted about the news on The Times’ Top of the Ticket blog:

“Lebron (sic) James knows about as much about politics as I do about dunking a basketball. NONE!!!!!”

Gridlock

Maybe the Bruins want to make sure they don’t run out of gas. UCLA and the Auto Club Speedway are putting together a special ticket package that combines the Pepsi 500 NASCAR race Aug. 31 at Fontana with the UCLA-Tennessee game Sept. 1 at the Rose Bowl.

Included in the $99 package is a question-and-answer session with driver Sterling Marlin, a Tennessee native.

For equal time, maybe UCLA should counter with a question-and-answer with any student engaged in the daily desperate search for a parking space in Westwood.

Sticky situation

David Tyree of the New York Giants, whose one-handed, off-his-helmet, 32-yard pass reception set up the winning touchdown in February’s Super Bowl, says he has all kinds of helmets that come in handy.

Said Tyree: “One with bubble gum, one with Velcro and one with good old-fashioned Krazy Glue.”

No close shaves

Nobody mentioned it, probably because it’s too trivial (although probably not in Chicago). Last Monday, Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks joined Sal “The Barber” Maglie as the only pitchers to go 10-0 against the Cubs in their careers.

Trivia answer

The New York Mets were 82-79 in 1973 but won the NL East and advanced to the World Series against Oakland . . . which ought to give the Dodgers some hope.

And finally

Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy says he is protective of quarterback Zac Robinson and is concerned about what would happen if he gets hurt: “I worry about that every night . . . just before I take a sleeping pill.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com