Great American Ballpark

Between living in San Diego and the DC area, I spent four years in Lexington Kentucky. The closest major league park to me was Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, about a 1.5 hour drive. I attended a handful of games from 2004 to 2007. This is a nice park. When you’re inside, you get the sense that all seats are on top of the action. It’s easy to get in and out with parking with good freeway access. Just outside of the park is a Reds Hall of Fame [and gift shop]. As you might notice with this blog, I take pictures of the parks I visit. One day I’m comparing 2006 and 2007 pictures and see that they added this outfield deck with a river boat theme. It’s a nice addition, but not so spectacular that I noticed the change in person.

During this time the Reds were a mediocre team, never finishing above .500. They had pretty good offense including Ken Griffey, Adam Dunn, Sean Casey, Austin Kearns, and Rich Aurilia. Reds starting pitching included Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Harang, Paul Wilson, and Matt Belisle. Some of the better opposing players I got to see in Cincinnati were Derrek Lee and Prince Fielder. I saw home runs from Lee, Dunn, and Griffey and a Trevor Hoffman save.

One frustrating thing about this park was opening day. As I mentioned, the Reds never finished above .500 during the four years I lived there and never drew a large crowd – except opening day. This was the toughest ticket to get and were not available for sale online. You could get them with season tickets. The ones for sale on ebay were more than I cared to spend on a game, which says a lot for someone who has attended at least one opening day game for the previous decade [excluding the 1995 boycott]. One final thought about this park, you want to avoid talking about how Pete Rose should not be in the [real] Hall of Fame. In Cincinnati he is 100% innocent. Even after he admitted to wrong-doing.

Center field before the steam boat addition.

 
Update April 2016: After a 10 year hiatus I was able to get back to GAB for a pair of games. The Rockies were in town. Despite being early in the season expectations for the Reds this season are extremely low. Joey Votto is still on the team and there are other pretty good offensive players. The issue is pitching. During the first game Jumbo Diaz pitched so poorly that he was sent to AAA and his replacement Robert Stephenson got the start that evening. The Rockies were not loaded with star power either. Trevor Story was off to a hot start with 7 HRs in the first 3 weeks. He hit #8 during one of the games I attended.