Ballparking It

For my first of 30 ballparks for turning 30, my brother and I headed to Cincinnati for a Saturday afternoon matchup between the Cardinals and Reds at Great American Ball Park. The forecast looked almost as bleak as the Reds’ rocky start to the season, but I wasn’t about to let a little rain stop me.

Game Day Eve (April 13, 2018)

A majestic bald eagle christened the Ballparking It journey with a dramatic flyover somewhere on Interstate 74 in rural Indiana. I wish we would’ve had our cameras ready, but when the speed limit is 70 and you’ve never seen a bald eagle in the wild before, you’re not necessarily anticipating it.

(But really, how American is a bald eagle flying over your vehicle on your way to your first of 30 MLB stadiums … which coincidentally, happens to be called Great American Ball Park? Come on.)

We arrived at our hotel (the Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter in Covington, Kentucky) on Friday evening and spent the rest of the day scoping out the area and checking out the ballpark from afar.

Cincinnati sits right on the Ohio River, which defines the Ohio-Kentucky state border, and the ballpark overlooks the river and northern Kentucky shoreline in right field. The location offers beautiful views from inside and maybe even better views outside from Kentucky.

We took advantage of those views the evening we arrived and every subsequent chance we got.

Game Day (April 14, 2018)

We left our hotel on Saturday morning with the intention of walking to the stadium by way of the John A. Roebling Bridge (pictured above), a suspension bridge that opened in the 1860s and is more than a 1,000 feet long. Sadly, the bridge was closed for repair, so we took an Uber instead. The ride was about 6 minutes.

Great American Ball Park generally opens 90 minutes before each game, which in our case, had a 1:10 p.m. ET start. (Opening times vary for a few games this season.)

We got to the ballpark a little before 11 a.m. to explore the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum before the stadium doors opened. The museum opens at 10 a.m. on game days and off days throughout the season and is a few steps west of the ballpark.

With so much Reds history, the Hall of Fame and Museum deserves a post of its own … so more on that at a later time. I do HIGHLY recommend visiting it if you’re going to a Reds game or if you’re in Cincinnati and like baseball at all whatsoever. The experience is well worth the $10 admission fee.

The rain rolled in at some point while we were in the museum, and I was pretty thankful to have an umbrella for the day.

I normally wouldn’t bring an umbrella to the stadium for fear of blocking someone’s view, but we had noticed the night before how few fans were in attendance … and I wasn’t about to invest in a Reds poncho.

A statue of Reds Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench greets fans as they enter the stadium. (Bench ended up being relevant to our game in an interesting historical coincidence that I’ll explain later.)

Security and the ticket area are on par with what I expected (metal detectors, bag-checking areas, etc.), and everyone involved was exceptionally nice.

The stadium, which opened in 2003, reminds me of an old-school amusement park. I don’t know if that’s the look it was going for, and I’ve seen it described as modern, but for some reason, its white beams and poles remind me of Coney Island.

We were handed our very own Tucker Barnhart bobbleheads at the gate.

My theory is the Reds decided to troll Cardinals fans and eight-time Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina by presenting Barnhart’s 2017 Gold Glove Award before the game and handing out a bobblehead to commemorate it. (Sigh.)

Our first stop in the stadium (after a quick peak at the tarp-covered infield) was the Kroger Fan Zone, located outside the concourse on the first base side.

The Fan Zone is uncovered and features baseball-themed carnival games, a Reds Statue of Liberty (pictured below), a kids’ whiffle ball field, a concert stage and food stands, including Frisch’s Big Boy, Porkopolis and Skyline Chili.

With all the rain and wind, my brother and I decided it wasn’t the right time to try Skyline Chili, which I think was the right call for the conditions, but I regret not trying Frisch’s.

After exploring the Fan Zone, we made our way back inside and down to the field to check out the views behind the home dugout. No one checked our tickets at this point, but I’m guessing the staff lets people down to take photos (and get autographs when it’s not raining) early before the game.

We explored the concourse and team store and ate hot dogs under a tiny overhang. In hindsight, we could have eaten downstairs, but we weren’t that familiar with our surroundings.

(For example, we were so unfamiliar that we took the stairs EVERY time we went up or down a level before and during the game. We finally took the ramp on our way out, but we never used the escalator. So. Many. Steps.)

Great American Ball Park offers a variety of hot dog options in addition to Skyline Chili.

I had a Nathan’s all-beef frank, and my brother had a Kahn’s hot dog. I paid $12.25 for the frank and a Cherry Coke. The all-beef frank was pretty good, not the best I’ve ever had.

(My biggest regret of the day was buying that Cherry Coke when it was slightly chilly and raining pretty steadily. I’m not even a huge soda drinker.)

We took in the views of the Ohio River from the concourse before making our way to our seats, section 521, row E, seats 11 and 12, which were in the lower section of the upper deck, just left of home plate.

The Reds game day crew makes great use of the smokestacks in center field. The smoke itself is cool but is nothing compared to the fiery flames that shoot out every time a Reds pitcher strikes out an opposing batter. (I unfortunately did not get a photo of the fire.)

Like many teams, the Reds have a variety of scoreboard games. The traditional ball-under-hat game features a ball under a plate of Skyline Chili spaghetti rather than under a baseball cap, which is an interesting concept but slightly gross when you really think about it.

My favorite in-game promotion between innings was without a doubt, Redzilla, a rapid-fire, souvenir-launching ATV with more than 50 barrels that can blast T-shirts into the upper deck with ease. I unfortunately was so in awe that I didn’t get a decent video or photo (not because I was enjoying it with my own eyes but because I accidentally didn’t press record on my phone when I thought I did … oops).

I’m the type of fan who doesn’t want to leave my seat at any point during the game, but I made an exception to make a team store purchase and visit both fan accommodation stations.

The nice lady who sold me my hot dog earlier in the day had told me about a certificate I could get for being a first-time visitor at Great American Ball Park. You can get these certificates for free at fan accommodation, which happens to be right outside and below the section where we sat.

After picking up my free certificate, I made a quick run to the team store on the lower level of the stadium to buy a Major League Baseball GameDay Pass-Port. I had spotted it in the store before the game, and (because it takes me hours, sometimes days … months … years to make a decision) I had finally decided to purchase one in the sixth inning.

The GameDay Pass-Port tells you where you can get special stamps at each of the 30 MLB ballparks. We stopped at a fan accommodation station, this time on the lower level, to get my first stamp.

We made it back to our seats in time for the seventh-inning stretch, and I stayed there for the rest of the game. My bro slipped out to get some nachos, which he kindly shared with me.

They weren’t my favorite nachos of all time, but I am fond of almost anything with jalapeños. They definitely weren’t bad.

My favorite walk-up song of the day and one of my favorite moments of the day in general was when Alex Blandino (I think), who had come in to play short in the seventh, batted to James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” in the eighth. I could not stop laughing, especially at how well it fit with his scoreboard video intro. (Side note, I had no idea that song had three “man’s” in the title until now.)

Game Highlights

The game itself was a bit of a blowout. The Reds aren’t good, more like historically awful so far this year, as evidenced by their manager getting fired soon after our weekend in town.

The Cardinals won 6-1 with only a bit of trouble in the ninth, when Jordan Hicks gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases. He got out of it, and the Reds stranded the bases loaded. The Cardinals took the third of what turned out to be a four-game sweep in the Queen City.

Cardinals infielder Greg Garcia served up the in-game excitement for the day with two home runs, both off starter Brandon Finnegan, who had just come off the disabled list. Garcia also had a double before the day was done.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the platoon second baseman in his fifth year in the big leagues, Garcia had seven home runs in his first four seasons, so he basically reached his yearly quota during this game.

We didn’t know it at the time, but a little history was made at Great American Ball Park that day. On Tucker Barnhart Bobblehead Day, a celebration of the current Reds catcher, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina passed Reds Hall of Famer Johnny Bench on the all-time innings caught list to rank 13th.

And now is as good of time as any to mention that Reds fans HATE (or at least love to boo) Molina. I have a feeling it still has to do with that not-so-minor altercation from 2010 I mentioned in my preview. (Way to stick it to your haters, Yadi.)

More history was made during this series when the Cardinals premiered their home run conga line during the Thursday game and continued in our game after both of Garcia’s bombs.

I’m not sure which affected attendance more, the rain or the Reds’ record, but the stadium, which holds 42,271, was less than half full at 19,213 (and that might have been tickets sold rather than turnstile … not sure how they calculate it).

Game Summary

One Down, 29 to Go

Our first of 30 was a huge success. I’m 1-0 cheering on the Cardinals on this adventure, and the forecasted thunderstorms stayed away. Plus, we got through nine innings without a rain delay (but not without plenty of rain).

I discovered Great American Ball Park is an accurate description, but the fans were so sparse and down on the Reds that I almost felt bad wearing my Cardinals sweatshirt … almost.

Check out my Great American Ball Park photo gallery at the end of this post, and stay tuned for more on Cincinnati as I explore the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum and wrap up my stay with a trip to Newport Aquarium and Skyline Chili.

Great American Ball Park Photo Gallery #1stof30