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Great American Ball Park |
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Cincinnati, OH |
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Number of Games: 1 |
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First Game: August 1, 2006 |
Dodgers 10, Reds 4 |
Man, does I ever love me a baseball museum, especially one that
is local in scope and attached to a stadium. I love
getting
prepped for a night of baseball by immersing myself in baseball
history, as one is able to do in Texas and
in Atlanta. If you're like me, when you visit
Great American Ball Park, you're going to want to get there early. The
Reds museum is worth a couple of hours of your time.
I'm not really a Reds fan, but you can't argue against
their history. Pro baseball began in Cincinnati, after all, in 1869--and
the museum accounts for pretty much all of the key moments since then.
While I was there, the highlighted exhibit focused on the World Championship
team of 1919...yeah, the other team in that World Series.
How much would it suck to win a championship and
always
be remembered for having the other team lose it? I'd never really thought of
that until seeing the story from the Reds'
perspective
in the museum. Speaking of
gamblers, the museum has a
fine way of commemorating Pete Rose's 4,256 hits: they have 4,256
baseballs displayed against a wall...about 10-15 yards
across and four stories high, behind a staircase and a glass wall. Quite
lovely. Tributes to past ballparks, past teams, and the best moments in
Reds history are there. My favorite highlights are
reproduced here:
a scorecard from Tom Browning's perfect game, lots of statues, including this
one of Sparky Anderson, the pennant from the 1981 team which was denied the
postseason during the strike-interrupted year, and the Reds Hall of Fame, where
they honor pretty-good-but-not-really-great players from the team's past.
Every team should have a place to honor its Mario Sotos.
The ballpark itself, I'm afraid, doesn't live up to the
experience of the museum. I do like its location right on the river and the fact
that, unlike at Riverfront Stadium (on which GABP,
for all its faults, is still
an
improvement), one can actually see the river from the upper deck. And the
history I so enjoyed in the museum appears in the ballpark proper as well, with
sculptures, murals, and even a scoreboard feature of "past Reds to wear this
number." (Ed Armbrister got a ballpark mention this way.) But in the
final analysis, there was just too much kitsch and too many stinking amenities.
The ballpark simply tries too hard.
I mean, the notion that the ballpark looks like a
steamboat from the outside is sort of cute, I guess, but is entirely
unnecessary. Seriously: isn't a ballpark beautiful because it is a
ballpark? Why bother trying to make it impressive looking with this sort
of extra effort? It's like too much makeup
on
a beautiful woman--it leaves me wanting less. Also, from my seat, I
looked down into a spot sponsored by a furniture store where the mucky-mucks
could sit on cushy furniture and not watch the game. I wanted to mark up
that leather sofa with cotton candy. I wouldn't go so far as to say
that the baseball is secondary at GABP: it certainly beats abominations like
Detroit (with its amusement park rides) and
Houston (with its damn stock quotes).
Still, I felt there was too much effort to distract. All the distraction I
need is in the river, with the barges and
speedboats passing by. I didn't
need more. Even what the ballpark did well--like have lineups
displayed on
the concourse, minor-league style--had flaws (like the misspelling of Wilson
Betemit's name).
Longtime friends and fantasy baseball rivals Joe and
Alison j
oined
me for the game. The live in rural Central Ohio...about a 3-hour haul from
Cincinnati. Alison is a lifelong Tribe fan; Joe is partial to the
Nationals. But both did me the honor of joining me for this one, and even
headed across to PNC Park the next night. Add to
that the playoff ballgame in Cleveland in '01, and you
have among the league leaders in Seeing Major League Ballparks With Paul.
(First place is still my dad, but my wife is catching up fast!) Needless
to say, a fine time was had by all of us. We headed up high into the upper
deck...the better to have silly conversations without worrying about being
overheard. The topics of those silly conversations? Well, they're
lost to history--I seem to remember trying to figure out what industries still
use barges along the Ohio--but I do know I'm grateful to have friends that are
willing and able to decimate a week driving all over Ohio to hang at ballgames
with me, and also willing to lug me back to their place for lodging.
Appreciated as always, folks. I'd love to return the favor for you and
your family whenever you get to the West Coast.
So, in the end, the ballpark is somewhere in the middle--or a hair below it--when compared with its contemporaries. Nonetheless, the quality hardly mattered to me. The museum was fantastic, and the friends even better.
BASEBALL STUFF I'VE SEEN HERE:
The Dodgers win a key wildcard matchup. Wilson Betemit channels his obvious anger at his misspelled name into a 2-run homer, and Rafael Furcal knocks in four runs.
Adam Dunn and David Ross homer for the Reds.
In the first game after the 2006 trade deadline, I see Julio Lugo make his debut for the Dodgers, and Rheal Cormier and Kyle Lohse for the Reds.
Great American Ball Park MLB site
Next stadium (chronologically)
Written December 2006.