Baseball’s Cathedral. The House that Ruth Built. The Stadium. Parkland?

When you look at baseball’s historic ballparks, three names come to mind: Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago and, of course, Yankee Stadium in New York.

Very soon, that list will dwindle to two.

Next year, the New York Yankees will move into their new, state-of-the-art ballpark across the street from the current one. The team gets a brand new park and fans get a cleaner stadium. It seems like a good deal. Everyone wins, right?

Not quite.

While the new stadium may seem just like the old one, it can never replace it. And that’s why the team should never have decided to make the move in the first place.

What makes Yankee Stadium a baseball landmark is its history. After Fenway (1912) and Wrigley (1914), the Stadium (1923) is by far the oldest in the majors.

The team has 19 players in the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing Yankee caps, with an additional 15 Hall of Famers having played for the Yankees at some point in their careers. Only the Dodgers and Giants can boast more.

Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. Mantle. Maris. Berra. Mattingly. Pettitte. Posada. Mariano. Jeter. The list goes on and on, without including such managers as Stengel and Torre, or even owner George Steinbrenner. These men made Yankee Stadium a place not only of champions, but of legends.

Over the years from 1923 to 2008, the Yankees won 26 World Series championships, a feat no other team has come close to accomplishing. Coming into Yankee Stadium isn’t like walking into a museum, it’s like walking into a sanctuary. Members of the team walk onto the field each day with reverence.

As Mickey Mantle said, “To play 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ball player.”

Opposing players come onto the field and know the history, are awed by the legendary names that called the park home. It was part of the Yankee aura and mystique that helped make this team as respected a part of baseball as it is today.

It’s not only about baseball, either; it’s part of American culture. A football game known as “the greatest game ever played” was played there. American boxer Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling fought there twice. Three popes have celebrated mass at the stadium. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the nation turned its eyes to Yankee Stadium as President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch of Game 3 of the World Series.

Trying to build a new stadium as a replica of the old one is almost an insult. Just because it shares the name and appearance of the old Yankee Stadium doesn’t mean that this one carries along the history. You can’t take the “Mona Lisa” and make a replica, arguing that it looks nicer. There is always something about the original that makes it special.

So why make this move?

Clearly, the new stadium is simply a way of increasing revenues. There will be 4,000 fewer seats in the new park, but the number of luxury suites will nearly triple. New stadiums are known to bring in increased revenue to teams, an incentive for more teams to build new parks. The team is receiving funding and tax breaks from the city to help alleviate the costs. Meanwhile, the old stadium will be torn down and replaced with parkland. People will run on and trample the once-hallowed grounds that baseball’s greats called home. The numbers certainly add up for the Yankee business, but the concept doesn’t fit the Yankee team that has become known for its pride in its history.

The stadium has certainly gotten older and more worn down, but nobody is talking about closing Wrigley or Fenway. Those teams could never get away with tearing down their historic ballparks. In fact, when the Red Sox discussed the exact same move the Yankees are making — opening a new park near the old one that would be a near replica — the response from fans was so volatile that the plans were scratched. People continue to visit Fenway and Wrigley, and are able to appreciate the history while still being comfortable. Why can’t the New York Yankees, a team that has as much history and pride, not to mention money, as any other organization, find a way to do the same?

The Yankees have not completely sold out. They, fortunately, have agreed not to have corporate sponsorship (you lose credibility with McDonald’s Field at Yankee Stadium), one of the few teams to continue to do so. But how can a team wave away 86 years of history and simply claim it will be the same? Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mantle and Phil Rizzuto knew no other home.

Perhaps it is fitting that this team finished its years at the stadium missing the postseason after a World Series drought, which included an infamous 2004 American League Championship Series, leading to the end of the Red Sox curse. This isn’t the same Yankee team that once occupied the prestigious Yankee Stadium. It’s a replica of the old clubs, fitting for the new replica of Yankee Stadium.

As Yogi Berra said, “I’m going to miss it all.”