Zell's Pinstripe Blog

The last place at old Yankee Stadium still intact is the”Lou Gehrig Room”. This is where Gehrig went to seek solace when he was sick. The picture above is showing Yankees executive, Ray Negron explaining the story behind the room. It’s definitely something that gives the stadium more mystique and aura. Some fans out there don’t even know that this room exists.

Via Jim Baumbach of Newsday:

Finally, there’s a movie tentatively entitled “Keeper of the Pinstripes,” focusing on a kid Steinbrenner finds on the street and instructs to move the ghosts and spirits from the old Yankee Stadium to the new one before it is gone. That’s why Negron and his movie crew were on hand at the old stadium yesterday.

“You want to feel the heart and soul of what Yankee Stadium represents, and you want to feel the spirits in the room,” executive producer Alfred Zaccagnino said, “so you can convey that on screen.”

“Keeper of the Pinstripes” is now set for release in October 2010 (USA). Josh Lucas (as Thurman Munson) and Bernie Williams (a street musician) will appear in the movie. Tim Robbins, Luis Guzmán, and Jeff Garlin are rumored to be in the movie as well.

Gehrig’s widow once told Negron Gehrig used to go to sit, cry and pray in his remaining days as a Yankee.

To commemorate the room, there is a painting on the pillar of Yankees captains Gehrig, Thurman Munson and Derek Jeter, which still stands there today amid the construction.

“Jeter would never come into this room,” Negron said. “He was afraid. Everyday I used to say to him, ‘Let’s go to the room.’ And he’d say, ‘We will. We will.’ But I finally gave up.
“A month before we closed the stadium, I accidentally bumped into him right by the room and I said, ‘This is not a coincidence. Do me a favor. Let’s go there.’ And we did.

“He saw this, and he was silent but you could tell he was moved. He only said one thing. He repeated thank you, eight or nine times.”

That it was Negron who was in position to give Jeter that perspective of history is not lost on him.

Negron is the first to tell you he’s lived a life every Yankees fan could dream of, and he owes it all to a can of graffiti and an owner willing to give a kid a chance.