What some call "the cathedral of baseball" will hear its last "play ball" on Sunday, Sept. 21.

The old Yankee Stadium will close. Something spectacular will open across the street next season. (And, this Yankees fan hopes, it will be home to a spectacular team -- rather than a spectacle of a team or a team that needs spectacles, as this year's chewing-gum-stuck-to-my-shoe edition.)

I've got a ton of memories from growing up in New York City -- the whiz of a home run passing overhead, a brawl with Red Sox fans, yanking out some turf on Sept. 30, 1973 before the old stadium's final remodeling. I last saw a game there in 2003, after a gap of about 27 years -- I found it to be a cramped, disinviting relic (obviously I'd been spoiled by glitz parks in San Francisco and Seattle).

But here's what I hope to do this weekend -- rent a movie. No, not the venerable "Pride of the Yankees." I'm thinking of renting "Finding Forrester" -- ever seen it?

It came out in 2000, starring Sean Connery. The basic plot line: A snooty school recruits an African-American teen-ager who proves to be a writing prodigy, mentored by a reclusive author.

There's a Yankee Stadium moment in this spirit-lifting movie that no amount of Billy Crystal-Yankee-loving cinematography could outdo. Yeah, I think "Finding Forrester" will ease the pain of a lost season and a departing icon.