It was not a major league team because there was no major league back then. This a commemorative plaque on a wall at Great American Ballpark.
This was the final stop on my World Tour of Major League Ballparks. At least it was at that time. Since then I had to top it off in Atlanta and then top hot off again at the new Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Kara and I flew jetBlue to CVG airport, which is in Covington, Kentucky, and headed to the Nationwide rental area where I could go past the desk, pick any car in the aisle and just go. No talking to any humans unless you want to, and I didn’t. That’s not true, I’m just making fun of Patrick, the guy on their TV spots. As we pulled out I said to Kara, “Have you ever been in Kentucky?” She said no. “Well now you have. Knock one more state off your list.”
We crossed the Ohio River on the WKRP in Cincinnati bridge (the one you see in the opening credits) and headed for downtown. I parked downtown a few blocks away and as we about to cross the street to the ballpark I noticed the sign on the big building next to us: Great American Insurance Company. Ooh. Great American doesn’t mean it’s a good old middle-America throwback ballpark…Great American has naming rights. Okay. It’s still a very good ballpark name.
There are still older locals who pronounce it “Cincinnat-uh,” and Mickey Vernon, father of my longtime News Director at Magic 106.7 Gay Vernon and two-time American League Batting Champion (1946 and 1953) would say it that way, and my brother Peter, with his Boston accent, would say, “Cincinn-AAH-tee”…but that usually elicits an eye roll.
Backstory: Cincinnati was one of five National League cities that had multipurpose “concrete donut” stadiums that could be configured for baseball or football, but not that well. Baseball was usually the bigger loser in terms of sight lines, seat position. etc. Plus, they all (except Atlanta) had crappy fake fields with lumpy seams and no real infield. Just little cutouts.
One by one they were replaced. Cincinnati’s turn came in 2003. When I first heard the name was Great American Ball Park I thought it was a nice name to honor the city where the first professional team played: the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869 and 1870. There’s a color mural in the ballpark depicting them (see above). Lots of Cincinnatians claim they had the first Major League team, but that’s not true. They were the first professional team where the players were paid to play baseball. But no major leagues had been established, so they played pickup games – back then it was called barnstorming – playing teams from area businesses. Much like a men’s slow pitch softball game of today.
Interesting tidbit #1: The first team the Cincinnati Red Stockings played in 1869 was a company team from Great American Insurance. The same Great American that today has naming rights to the ballpark.
Baseball was becoming very popular. So popular that a group got together and decided to form a league. It was called the National Association of Base Ball Clubs (note that baseball was two words back then). The inaugural season was 1871 and the 9 charter teams were the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, New York Mutuals, Washington Olympics, Troy Haymakers, Cleveland Forest Citys, Fort Wayne Kekiongas and Rockford Forest Citys. You’d think the Forest Citys would play in Forest City, but no.
You might also note that Cincinnati does not have a team in the league. And there’s a reason: Harry Wright, owner/manager of the Red Stockings convinced most of his players that Boston would be a better place to play than Cincinnati so the team packed up and headed east on whatever the highway was back then. When the season began they were the Boston Red Stockings (note: this is not the same team as the current Boston Red Sox). Cincinnati had no pro team.
The National Association lasted for five seasons: 1871-1875. Each year some teams would drop out and other teams were added. Only one team made it through all five seasons: The Boston Red Stockings.
In 1876 it was decided that a better organized, more professional league was in order and the National League as we know it today was formed. After five seasons without a pro team Cincinnati wanted to be back in as a charter team and wanted to use their original name: Red Stockings. The Boston Red Stockings were also a charter NL team and they decided to let Cincinnati have the name Red Stockings seeing as how Cincy had used it first, and changed their nickname to Red Caps. Then to Beaneaters. They eventually settled on Braves. That franchise played in Boston for 82 years, 1871 to 1953, then moved to Milwaukee for 13 years, 1953 to 1965, and in 1966 made a final move to Atlanta.
Interesting tidbit #2: That franchise that began in 1871 is the longest continuously-running team in all of baseball and pro sports. That’s why in SunTrust Park, the new ballpark in Atlanta (now renamed Truist Park), the concessions are all called the 1871 Grille.
The new Cincinnati Red Stockings had a disappointing debut in the National League, going 9-56 (.138), 42-1/2 games behind the Chicago White Stockings (the team that is now the Chicago Cubs). In 1880 Cincinnati got kicked out of the NL for selling beer at games. Heavens to Betsy! What’s next? Peanuts and crackerjack??
After two more years of no pro team, Cincinnati was admitted to the new American Association in 1882. The AA – despite the initials – did allow beer sales at games. Eight years later the name was shortened from Red Stockings to Reds and Cincinnati was readmitted to the National League where they remain today.
Interesting tidbit #3: In the 1950s the team name was changed to Redlegs from 1953 to 1959 to avoid sounding too Communist during the Cold War.
Game: Wednesday, August 13, 2014. I parked downtown a few blocks away and as we about to cross the street to the ballpark I noticed the sign on the big building next to us: Great American Insurance Company. Ooh. Great American doesn’t mean it’s a good old middle-America throwback ballpark…Great American has naming rights. Okay. It’s still a very good ballpark name.
It was a beautiful summer day – an afternoon getaway game but they still had 32,000 fans show up to see two teams who were both in the cellar or close to it in their divisions. There’s a gap in the upper deck stands which is only there so you can see the sign on the Great American building across the street. The park itself is very nice. Wide aisles, comfortable seating, lots of concessions. They don’t have any special music they play and they don’t have any stupid ketchup vs. mustard races to bet on in the 3rd inning. The big local cuisine is Skyline Chili. Kara and I hd both been tipped off to that by her friend Jessie Cooper and my longtime co-worker Nancy Quill who had both lived in Cincinnati. I’d also heard about it from Keith Lockhart, Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Another Cincinnatian. We got some at the game, and afterward went downtown to the main store to get seconds.
They do have two big riverboat smokestacks in right field. When a Red hits a homer the horns blast and the smoke shoots into the sky. Right fielder Skip Schumaker hit one in the 4th inning and one batter later pitcher (!) Mike Leake also went deep. Both Cincy home runs came off Sox starter Anthony Ranaudo, who had played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod League in 2008. Mike Napoli had a 3-run bomb in the 5th. There was no scoring after the 5th. In the bottom of the 9th fireballer Aroldis Chapman came in to end it but got no save as Boston prevailed, 5-4. Ranaudo was the winning pitcher.
PS: Not liking to leave things unfinished I decided to look up ECHL that I mentioned in the first caption. It’s minor league hockey – AA level – with 24 teams, some with the kind of name you can only get away with in the minors: The Florida Everblades (get it?), the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, the Newfoundland Growlers (the logo is a big dog), the Toledo Walleye (a Walleye is a fish also called a pickerel) and the Worcester Railers (steam locomotive logo).
