Bill's Journal Entry #31

Great American Ballpark

Date: April 13, 2003

Location:  Cincinnati, Ohio

Opponents: Philadelphia Phillies

Travel companions: My dad, Marv Verkuilen

Link to my photos   Note that the first 13 photos on this link are my shots from my trip to Cinergy Field in 2002. The remaining photos are all from my trip to Cincinnati in 2003.

Game Result: Well, the good news for Reds fans is that they shut out the Phillies for 8 innings—specifically, the first through third, and fifth through ninth innings. The bad news for the Reds was that there was also a fourth inning—in which the Phillies scored 13 runs. It marked the most runs that the Phillies had scored in one inning, EVER, and was the most runs the Reds had given up in an inning since a 1954 game against Brooklyn. Just how bad was it? The Reds walked seven batters in the inning—and three of those walks forced in runs! Final score—13-1, Phillies.

Stadium Summary: Thankfully, the new stadium in Cincy proved to be FAR more attractive than the team playing in it!

The Great American Ballpark is a beautiful park that embodies a lot of classic features, as well as plenty of modern touches, without getting excessively gimmicky. Behind home plate and down both lines, there are three decks—although the size, height, and ticket prices of those decks are different depending on which side of home plate you’re on. Also behind home, slightly to the third base side of being straight behind home, is “The Notch”—an opening in the upper two decks that is supposed to allow fans approaching the stadium via Sycamore Street to see straight in. I don’t think it really works this way, however—elevated crosswalks obscure much of that view, and straight behind the Notch is a large office tower, not a street. It may, however, set up businesses in that building to sell tickets to watch the game, Cincinnati’s version of the Wrigley Field apartment rooftops. Two pairs of light standards emerge from each of those upper decks, another pair towers over right field, and a final pair extends over the scoreboard in left field. The lights are in a vertical rectangle pattern, and look most similar to those in Cleveland’s Jacobs Field. In left field are two decks of bleachers, with a very impressive scoreboard over them—a very long, horizontal board, the far right end of which is a color video monitor (the rest is black-and-white). There are billboards below it, and one billboard and a large time-of-day clock above it—but it is easy to discern the advertising from the scoreboard, unlike, say, those in Detroit or Cleveland. 

But, like Pac Bell and PNC Parks, this stadium’s primary visual feature isn’t architectural. GABP (as it’s frequently abbreviated) is located on the shores of the Ohio River. It’s not as close to the water as San Fran’s and Pittsburgh’s stadiums—there is a street that runs between the stadium and the water here—but the views here are still as impressive. I like Pac Bell’s and PNC’s water views better, though. Pittsburgh’s because the bridges and the city of Pittsburgh are also part of the view (here, Cincinnati is behind home plate), and San Fran’s because, well, it’s that gorgeous San Francisco Bay. Cincinnati has added another feature, though, that really stands out nicely—a pair of riverboat “smokestacks”, that shoot out fireworks after any Reds homer. It’s a nice touch, that ties in with Cincinnati’s river tradition very well—particularly when an actual riverboat passes by during the game. Next to these smokestacks, there is a single deck of seats in right field—easy to see over from the upper deck to get a view of the river and a park area of Covington, Kentucky, but completely obstructing the view from most of the lower decks. They should have considered not having these seats at all—this place won’t sell out frequently enough to justify blocking that view.

From the outside, the stadium is a bit bland—at least for now. A large, plain, brick building sits north of the stadium, and currently houses ticket and team offices, and some ramps to the upper deck. Directly behind home plate is Crosley Terrace—or at least the start of it. It currently only has a series of sidewalks leading to the main gate, and a single statue. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if this expands to the west eventually—right now, that area is taken up by the Cinergy Field demolition project.

Concessions were neither stupendous nor disappointing-the Skyline chili dog is still a favorite. One thing that was a bit surprising was the souvenir stands. Most new stadiums have a significant “team store” just inside the main gate. Nothing like that was seen here-it will be part of another building that has yet to be constructed. There was a small indoor store in the upper deck of the park, but other than that, all souvenirs were sold at small stands and kiosks around the park. Which is completely fine, although a bit surprising to me-I would have expected a higher priority being placed on getting a money maker like the team store ready for the stadium opener.

All in all, Cincinnati has built a wonderful treat of a park—fun, simple, and effective!

Best corporate sponsorship name for a stadium: No, the “Great American” in the stadium name is not simply a patriotic tribute to our great country. It’s actually the name of an insurance company. But it’s so easy to pretend that this isn’t the case!

Worst way to keep fans from returning to your new park: Make the same mistake that Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Detroit did with their new stadiums—fill it with a lousy team.

Most unusual foreign language: In my baseball travels, I’ve heard several foreign tongues—Japanese in Seattle, French in Montreal, Spanish in Miami and San Juan, and all sorts of languages in New York—but those were all easy for me to understand, compared with trying to make out a single word spoken by the Kentucky Auctioneers Association conventioneers at our hotel.

Best nickname for a new park that gives up a lot of home runs (tie): Great American Smallpark, and Coors Light.

Worst way to make a brand new park look like it’s been around for years: The stadium is two weeks old, and large patches of paint have ALREADY peeled off the roof of the Reds dugout!

Most interesting change for a 2002 Major League stadium: Cinergy Field is now a quickly clearing pile of rubble. All that is currently left standing is a couple decks of the parking garage under the stadium. Actually, I think that the current rubble looks better than Cinergy Field did!

Stadium grade: A   Cincinnati will attract a lot of new fans with this gem of a park…

Overall grade of my experience at the game: B-  …and then lose them with this joke of a team.

-- Bill Verkuilen  biggbill@hotmail.com