Take Us Out To The Ballgame

Weather considerations caused us to change our plans and attend the Cincinnati Reds baseball game Friday night instead of going Saturday night.  Today the temperatures are below 60F and the wind is blowing fierce.  Last night at the ballgame it was warm enough to leave your coat in the car.

Bruce and I hope to visit a lot of the major league baseball parks during our trips.   We got sidetracked for a few years with taking our parents on trips, but we are back on our plan for that now.  So far, over the years, we have been to homegames for the following teams:

Atlanta Braves
Texas Rangers
Chicago White Sox
Boston Red Sox (twice)
Tampa Bay Devilrays
California Angels (season tickets for many years)
Los Angeles Dodgers
Seattle Mariners (Bruce went with s-i-l)
Houston Astros (Bruce only, during a business trip)
New York Yankees (ME....on a trip to visit family...Bruce is still jealous)

Now we can add the Cincinnati Reds to our list.  We drove to the ballpark from our campground, which is about 15 to 20 miles west.  We passed the ballpark on our way into town, so we knew where to go.  The main problem became where to park.  There weren't clear directions or signs anywhere.  We eventually found a parking garage that looked good and pulled in.  What luck!  It was the perfect one that had a direct walk-way to the ballpark.  The price to park was $12.00.

The ballpark is no longer Riverfront Stadium.  That one was demolished and this new one was opened in March of 2003.  It is called the Great American Ballpark.  It will hold 42,059 fans.  The photo on the right was taken from the walk-way out of the parking garage.  

We bought tickets up in the upper decks (nosebleed section) where we usually sit.  The price was $19.00 per seat.  They had some $5.00 seats but they were sold out because it was ladies night.  Who knows where they were?  From our seats above home plate we could look to our right and see the Ohio River and Kentucky beyond.

We planned on buying dinner at the game.  We checked out the possibilities and settled on a hot dog with sauerkraut and grilled peppers.  Yeah, it was good.  We got the "value meal" which gave us this hot dog, a small bag of chips and a small soda.  The price for the value meal was $7.00 each.   The price for a single hot dog or a bratwurst were $5.25 or $5.50 each. 

The Chicago Cubs were playing the Reds during this weekend and there were a lot of Cubs fans in attendance.   The Reds fans far outnumbered the fans from the visiting team, as it should. Like all the modern ballparks these days, they have a jumbo-tron screen and scoreboard.  

While you enjoy the game you can also see the tug boats moving barges up and down the Ohio River.  Awesome views of the area.

We enjoyed the evening but we left after the 6th inning.  The Reds were losing and we had to make our way back to the motorhome and Annie, who was waiting for us.  It was fun and we are glad to went.

Until next time.....so long for now!