Tags
Cincinnati, Cincinnati Reds, Great American Ball Park, Richmond Virginia, Savannah Gerogia, St. Augustine Florida, The Big Red Machine
Our July baseball road trip took us to Cincinnati, Ohio, the final stop in my stadium quest of the National League Central Division stadiums. The Reds play in Great American Ballpark on the banks of the Ohio River. The team is the oldest professional baseball club, celebrating their 150th year in existence. This trip eventually took us to my favorite mother-in-law’s a sibling gathering to celebrate my seventieth birthday. and a visit with friends in Adams County, Pennsylvania. On the road back to Florida My Jane and I stopped to look at antiques in Richmond, Virginia, quilt fabric in Savannah, Georgia and touring in St. Augustine, Florida.
On our departure date my Jane steeled herself and buckled into ‘shotgun’ for the trip to Cincinnati. Neither of us wanted to be away from our own bed too many nights, so we front loaded miles the first two days of the journey.
We collapsed into our hotel bed the first night out of Florida in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our secret for surviving long drives is audio books. My Jane doesn’t even notice the antique shop billboards along the way when we are listening to an audio book. I think she didn’t want to get out of the car when we did that evening because she was so into the story. But I had been driving long enough, so we checked into a hotel for the night knowing the book would be waiting for us in the morning. And the book was waiting for us and accompanied us all the way through Tennessee (Those are mountains! We don’t have geography like that in Florida.) and on to our hotel in Covington, Kentucky across the Ohio River from Great American Ball Park.
We were worried about the weather because we had driven through some heavy rain just south of Covington but the rain clouds never appeared over the stadium. Buying our tickets, we never expected we would be attending a Brawlgame. The Reds and Pirates have had tension since way back in 1974 during a game in Pittsburgh. Doc Ellis started the game that day for The Pirates and proceeded to purposely hit the first three Reds, Pete Rose, (with Johnny Bench) Joe Morgan (not being thrown at by Doc) and Dan Driessen.
Tony Perez was the fourth Red to step into the batter’s box.
Doc tried to hit Perez but Tony was too nimble and walked forcing in one run. Johnny Bench was the next target but after two pitches at him Danny Murtaugh came to the mound and took Doc out of the game. Baseball fans know the Reds team that year, that decade actually, as the Big Red Machine. They were awesome. It seems current players not born before that day carry a grudge against each other from that incident. To be fair there is some ‘history’ between some of the current Pirates and Reds that can erupt during a game. But, come on fellows neither team has a remote change to make the play offs. ‘Just go out and play the game’, says the first baseman who knocked a runner down with a ‘tag’ to the solar plexus before turning to the ump and emphatically questioning, ‘Is he out?’ while standing over the crumpled former base runner. I cringe at the thought of that action.
Anyway, the ribbing began when the policeman directing traffic noticed the ‘P’ on my hat. (At the corner of Johnny Bench and Pete Rose Way.) Of course, as My Jane and I settled into our seats we had to endure the taunting from the Reds fans around us. (Actual moment of taunting.) But we all got along. The lady next to My Jane even handed her a wipe because I had failed to bring napkins with the delicious but sloppy Philly Cheese steaks we bought in the third inning. My Jane promised the gal she would tell people the Cincinnati fans were a friendly bunch. My Jane says, “The Cincinnati fans are friendly people.”
While settling into our seat’s in section 129 row MM daughter, Sarah sent us a text informing us that cousin Dan was also at the game. Dan was sitting three rows behind the Pirate’s dugout. We were across the diamond under the second deck on the Red’s side of the field.
After the seventh inning stretch My Jane and I wandered over to the third base side in search of cousin Dan. A Reds player was hit by a pitch the inning before we went looking for Dan. I traveled up and down every aisle behind the dugout with no success. Maybe the disappointment of not finding our relative nudged us on to the exit and back to our hotel. Whatever the reason for our early departure we missed the brawl. (Alexa: Play ‘Somethings Happening Here’ by Buffalo Springfield)
Six players were suspended after the fight including Yasiel Puig
who had been traded that night to Cleveland. This is pretty funny, but I bet the Indians weren’t too happy about the suspension. The Pirates won the game which is something the team hasn’t done often since the All-Star break, or as My Jane calls it ‘halftime’. We did witness “Redzilla” spewing out t-shirts between innings, however.
The exciting part of this game in Cincinnati for me is that following the game looking across the river I had finally visited all the ball parks in the National League Central Division. (The brawl might have been going on as I took this photo.) For some reason Cincinnati had alluded me for a couple of years. Trips to Cincinnati where scheduled the last two summers but got scrubbed for one reason or another. So, I have now visited all but one National League ballpark. Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona home of the Diamondbacks is the only National League city waiting to be visited. There are still six American League stadiums waiting for a visit, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and Oakland. With the baseball season beyond halfway in my seventieth year some anxiety is growing for me. I wonder how many more years I will be able to travel in order to complete my quest to visit all thirty major league parks. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, (I’m almost certain there is a grand scheme of things.) visiting thirty baseball parks is not high on the list of important items to complete in a lifetime. But I feel the need to put a period on my baseball quest by stepping into the remaining ball fields. Oh well, this year isn’t over yet. Who knows?
See you next time.