Summer 1988

The Life and Times of theOld CincinnatiBallparks

Cincinnati Ballparks

Richard Miller andGregory L. Rhodes

For the newest of Cincinnati baseball fans,Riverfront Stadium is the only home the Reds have had, theonly field where they have seen professional baseball played.But far removed from Riverfront, in time and space, othermemories still linger across the city. Riverfront is the last ofthree generations of baseball parks to host Cincinnati crowdssince baseball's first professional nine took the field in theWest End in 1869.1

Old wooden parks dominated baseball in Amer-ica from the 1860's until the first decade of the twentiethcentury. These were baseball's turbulent years, and the parks,like the game itself, were unstable. Like the mining boomtownsof the 1 86o's and '70's, the old parks were built hastily andcheaply of wood. Inside, they were much the same as rowdywestern saloons. Fights were common, with fans and playersmixing it up with each other or themselves, and the umpirewas everybody's favorite target. The winning team was notalways the best, but the toughest. Like the mining towns,these first wooden parks were short lived and soon deserted.

The charm of these parks was their simplicity.They were neither presumptuous nor symbols of prestigeand power but were mirrors of the times. The United Stateswas still fighting Indian wars, and the country was movingwest. America still had a cowboy mentality, even in the East,and nothing reflected this more than the old wooden ballparks.They were new frontiers in American society. Such was thebackdrop for the old Cincinnati parks: Union Grounds(1 867-1 870), Avenue Grounds (1 876-1 880), Bank StreetGrounds (18 81 -1 8 84), Pendleton Park (1891), and old LeaguePark (1884-1902).

Baseball came of age during the woodenballpark era. The cut throat competition among leagues andassociations for supremacy in the cities from Massachusettsto Missouri ended. Teams put down roots, and baseballbecame America's first truly national pastime.

The sense of stability and confidence in thefuture of the game was grandly evident in the new cementand iron parks of the early twentieth century. The Palace ofthe Fans (1902-1911) and Redland Field (1912-19 34), both

built on the site of League Park at Findlay Street and West-ern Avenue, were Cincinnati's contribution to this secondgeneration of parks. Crosley Field, the old park mostCincinnatians remember best, evolved from Redland Fieldin 1934; only the name was changed. There were a fewadditions and window dressings after 1934, but basicallyCrosley Field was the same cement and iron park that openedas Redland Field in 1912.

Riverfront Stadium, opened in 1970, repre-sents the last generation of parks, the multi-purpose stadiumfor the current era. These city-owned parks, regal concretecrowns with acres of parking lots and nary a knothole topeek through, are a definite swing away from the democraticcharacter of the earlier ballparks. Today, there are domes andstadiums; then there were the more romantic "grounds" and"yards" and "orchards." Teams now play in markets andregions rather than cities and neighborhoods.

The old baseball parks were as much a part ofthe neighborhood as the cop on the beat, the parish church,or the corner drug store where you could stop and see a fewinnings of baseball on the way home from school or work.Daily routines, businesses, children's games, the entire folk-lore of the neighborhood were all shaped by the presence ofthe park. These were the sites where heroes lived and leg-ends roamed, and where one can still hear the roar of anafternoon crowd echoing through Camp Washington andthe West End.

Richard Miller, baseball his-torian, is a nationally recognizedauthority on old ballparks.

Union Grounds was the homeof baseball's first professionalteam, the Cincinnati RedStockings.

Queen City Heritage

Union Grounds was the home of baseball'sfirst professional team, the famous Cincinnati Red Stock-ings of i 8 69-1 8 70. Built in 1 8 67, it was located on the site ofthe fountain in front of where Union Terminal now stands,and served as the home of the Cincinnati Baseball Club from1867 until 1870. The main wooden grandstand, called "TheGrand Duchess," dominated the park. Rows of covered anduncovered bleacher seats ran part way out each foul line.

The first time in Cincinnati fans paid admis-sion fees to watch a baseball game was at Union Grounds.Silver coins were scarce and fans paid their way into the parkwith "shinplasters," ten, fifteen, twenty-five, and fifty centpaper currency. The paper currency was thrown into a barrelat the gate and took several hours to count. In 1869 the RedStockings won all their home games and after defeating thebest teams in the East were declared the national champions.The team's winning streak ended midway through the 1870season when the Red Stockings lost to the Brooklyn Atlan-

AMUSEBtENTg.

STEW CIMCIJrJTATI BAHJbl-BAJLI, P A R K

ONES MOREBj Special Bequest, Commencing THIS (MONDAY) AFTERNOON.

Owing to the continued success of

The management hare decided to remain another week. •

Afternoon «,t 8 O'Olook../ A D M I S S I O N 15 AND SO CENTS.I CHILDREN IS CENTS.

This places ttfe Century's Novelty within the reaoh of all.Street Cars right to the Rate. Doors open at 1 o'clock.

GRAND STREET PARADE THIS MORNING!

tics in extra innings. At the conclusion of the i 870 season,the team disbanded, with many of the star players, includingplayer-manager Harry Wright, moving to Boston. Wrightalso took his famous red socks and the Cincinnati nicknamewith him, and created the "Red Sox."

The National League formed in 1876; Cincin-nati rejoined the new league that year after a six year absence

from the professional ranks. Meat packers George and JosiahKeck owned the club and they built the new park near theirbusiness. Located just north of the stockyards on SpringGrove Avenue, the park went by several names, includingthe Cincinnati Baseball Park, Avenue Grounds, and Brigh-ton Park. Regular admission charge was fifty cents, but therewere ten cent seats, after the fifth inning, and a specialsection called the "Little Dukes" for those who wanted to benear the bar.

On September 6, 1877, Lipman Pike, the firstJewish player in the major leagues, and a favorite of Cincin-nati fans, hit a Jim Devlin pitch for a home run over the rightfield fence that won the game 1 -o for Cincinnati over Louis-ville. This was the first time in major league history that ahome run won a game 1 -o for a team.

The next home of the Red Stockings, theBank Street Grounds, was closer to downtown, at the cornerof Bank Street and Western Avenue. There are no knownphotographs or illustrations of the park. The team movedhere in 1880 to a vacant lot where the circus and wild westshows played. This turned out to be the team's last year inthe National League. Before the 1 8 81 season began, theleague expelled the club for selling beer and renting the parkfor Sunday baseball. In 1881 amateur and semi-pro ballteams used the park.

In 1882 Cincinnati joined the AmericanAssociation, the league of Sunday baseball, twenty-five centseats, and liquor in the park. The club must have enjoyedthese new conditions for they won the league, becomingin 1882 Cincinnati's first league champions (there were noleagues in 1 869).

The first "World Series" occurred in October,1882 when the Reds, winners of the American Association

The old ballparks hosted morethan baseball games, as this1884 advertisement indicates.

The Reds were an AmericanAssociation club until 1889when they rejoined the NationalLeague.

In 1884 the American Associa-tion Reds owners scrambled tofind a new home—an old brick-yard at the corner of WesternAvenue and Findlay Street.

Summer 1988

title, and the Chicago White Stockings (later the ChicagoCubs), winners of the National League, played at BankStreet Grounds. The series ended in a tie of one gameapiece. Other owners in the American Association pressuredAaron Stern, a clothing merchant who owned the Reds,not to play a deciding third game and risk possible embar-rassment to the Association should the Reds lose.

In 1 884 the Reds failed to renew their parklease on time. The enterprising upstart Union League beatthem to the punch and became the new tenants of the BankStreet Grounds. The American Association Reds scrambledto find a new home and settled on an old brickyard at thecorner of Western Avenue and Findlay Street.

The Union League team had its problems atthe Bank Street Grounds. The park's grandstand structurewas weakened by floods and the outfield fence blew downduring the season. The club sold tickets on streetcars butattendance remained low and the new league and the parkfaded away after the season ended.

The American Association Reds opened a newwooden park called League Park at the new site whichwriters referred to as the Western Avenue Orchard. Anex-sideshow barker stood in front of the main entrance andhawked the pleasures of the game. The terrain sloped upwardsin the outfield, and rather than leveling the field, manage-ment decided to use the terrace as a bleacher area. Baseballsof this era were spongy and "dead;" few balls were hit on a flyas far as the terrace seats.

During the first season League Park was open,the home team had to compete for fans with Cincinnati'sother team playing at the nearby Bank Street Grounds. Thenewspapers took sides, and indicated their loyalties in theirdescriptions of the new League Park. The Commercial Gazette,firmly in the camp of the American Association Reds, calledthe new park the best in baseball, while the Enquirer, a

Cincinnati Ballparks 27

supporter of the rival Union League, called the park a deathtrap, suggested children be kept away, and encouraged adultsto check their life insurance policies before visiting the park.In fact, a portion of a grandstand walkway did collapse onopening day and injured a few spectators. A sensationalstory in the Enquirer erroneously reported that one personwas killed; this myth of an opening day fatality persists tothis day.

Although the park was not a "death trap" forfans, its layout killed a lot of hitter's hopes. Home plate facedthe "wrong" way, to the west, so the afternoon sun wasdirectly in the batter's eyes. The only major league game evercalled because of the sun was cancelled in 1892 on a hotSunday afternoon in a game against Boston. The batters hadlooked into the blinding rays of the sun which seemed toperch majestically on top of Price Hill overlooking left fieldfor fourteen scoreless innings.

The Reds played at League Park as an Ameri-can Association club until 1889 when they rejoined theNational League. However, in 1 891, the American Associa-tion returned briefly to Cincinnati with a new entry thatplayed its home games in the East End. This was the firsttime major league baseball invaded the eastern section of thecity. The other four parks had been located along the Millcreek.

The home park for this short-lived AmericanAssociation venture was Pendleton Park, located near thefoot of Delta Avenue on the Ohio River. The hills of Ken-tucky across the river, covered with beautiful green foliage,and the hard-working paddle wheelers chugging up anddown the Ohio created a picturesque setting and atmo-sphere like something out of Huckleberry Finn.

It was one of the few major league parks wherefans came to the game by steamboat. The steamer, Music, leftfrom the foot of Walnut Street every game day at 2:00 p.m.sharp. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran just back of the main

Queen City Heritage

entrance, and many fans rode the train to the games. Street-cars which ran out Eastern Avenue were slow and crowded,and not a very convenient way to the ballpark.

The characteristic that made the park roman-tic also proved to be its undoing. Its remote setting was justtoo far from downtown. Although transportation was readi-ly available, it was slow and time consuming. The clubremained in Cincinnati for about one half of the 1891 seasonbefore moving to Kansas City.

The collapse of the American Association team,and the continued success of the Reds at League Park effec-tively sewed up the city for the National League. Baseballhad found a permanent home in Cincinnati at the old brick-yard at Western Avenue and Findlay Street, and the Redsplayed ball there until 1970.

Many notable events occurred at the old wood-

en ballpark during its lifetime, but few were as celebrated asthe wedding at home plate. On September 18, 1893, theReds defeated Baltimore and Louie Rapp, the Reds'assistant groundskeeper, married Rose Smith at plate.

The bleachers were packed that afternoon andfor the first time in the history of Cincinnati baseball, the fairsex had invaded the sun seats.

A popular picture has been mistakenly identi-fied as "Opening Day at Union Grounds, 1869." However,the photo is of League Park some ten years after it openedin 1884.

The skyline beyond the grandstand whichmatches other photos taken from League Park is of FindlayStreet, not of West End streets as would be the case if it wereUnion Grounds. Furthermore, the shape of the grandstanddoes not even closely resemble the sketch of Union Grounds.

The flagpole and grandstand provide an addi-

In the early years of baseballscorecards were very ornate,and they quickly became a partof the ballpark. Fans used themas megaphones, and to whacka neighbor on the head aftera great play.

This is a scorecard from the1880's when the Reds playedin old League Park. On the coveris a rare individual picture ofWill White, who won fortygames three times for the Reds.

' a -<7

tional clue: touches of Queen Anne architecture which wasnot introduced into League Park until 1894 when clubowners moved home plate so that batters faced east insteadof west. They built a new grandstand behind the new homeplate area and it featured these architectural details. Thisview of the Findlay Street skyline was only possible after thefield was turned.

The decorated wagons and flags hint this is afestive occasion, such as an opening day. In the 1890's, theReds regularly paraded in wagons to League Park throughthe streets of Over-the-Rhine to attract crowds.

A fire in the middle of the 1900 season burnedall of the main grandstand at League Park, sparing only thebleachers along the left field line. In order to give fans anacceptable view of the game-, the owners moved home platein front of the remaining bleachers, which happened to be itsoriginal position when the park was first built. Batters againfaced the sun. A roof was put over the old bleachers andthese now served as the main grandstand for the makeshift

Located on the Ohio River,Pendleton Park offered apanoramic view of the hills ofKentucky. After professionalbaseball was no longer playedhere, the Cincinnati Gymnasiumand Athletic Club added a

swimming pool and club houseto the grounds.

Mistakenly labeled "OpeningDay 1869," this picture isLeague Park in the 1890's—approximately ten years afterit opened.

On September 18, 1893, LouieRapp, assistant groundskeeperfor the Reds, married RoseSmith at home plate.

Queen City Heritage

park in which the Reds played the second half of the 1900season and all of the 1901 season.

League Park was the most difficult one inbaseball to play third base. Rays of the sun reflected off theskin infield. Worse, the third baseman had to pick up therapidly moving ball against a sea of white. The white lettersof the big sign on the front of the temporary woodenbleachers and a shirt-sleeved crowd in the bleachers gavehim an almost all white background.

On big game days, when the park would nothold the crowd, fans found box cars, sitting on the railroadtracks back of left and center field excellent—and cheap—seats.

Reds' owner, John T. Brush, an Indianapolismerchant, had an elaborate new grandstand constructed toreplace the one lost in the fire. In 1902, the Reds opened thenew stands and renamed League Park, "The Palace of theFans." That summer, Brush sold the club to local interests,including businessmen Julius and Max Fleischmann, andpolitical bosses George B. Cox and August "Garry" Herrmann.Herrmann became president of the club, and remained in

control until 1927.Befitting a new century and baseball's grow-

ing role in American society, the new grandstand featured adistinctive architectural design, patterned after the motif ofthe Chicago World's Fair. The Palace of the Fans was thefirst major league baseball park with definite architecturalovertones, and it was the second to use iron and cement asthe major part of its foundation and superstructure. The firstpark built primarily of other material other than wood wasthe Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, home of the Phillies.

Only the main grandstand of the Palace of theFans was cement and sculptured iron. The right field pavil-ions and bleachers were wood. These sections survived the1900 fire and were incorporated into the new park. Thecompletion of the new grandstand enabled the team tomove home plate back to its "proper" location so that battersfaced east instead of west.

The Palace of the Fans was long on looks butshort on seats. It had the lowest number of box seats in themajor leagues, and as a result, the lowest per capita incomein the league. After the 1911 season, the new grandstand andthe old wooden bleachers were razed, and owner Herrmanncontracted with Cincinnati architects Hake and Hake toconstruct a new park with more box seats.

The result was Redland Field, a spacious parkwith one of the largest playing areas in the major leagues.Center field was 420 feet from home plate and it was 3 60 feetdown both lines. The dimensions indicate the conservativephilosophy of the owners toward offense and the domi-nance of defense. It was 1921 before Cincinnati outfielderPat Duncan hit the first home run over the fence at RedlandField. Duncan's homer cleared the left field wall and hit asurprised policeman standing on York Street. The first player

The Palace of the Fans was thefirst major league baseball parkwith definite architectural over-tones, and the second to useiron and cement. (Photocourtesy Tom Pfirrman, Base-ball Card Corner)

The new Palace of the Fansgrandstand featured a distinc-tive architectural designpatterned after the motif of theChicago World's Fair.

Summer 1988 Cincinnati Ballparks

ever to hit a ball over the center field and right field fences atRedland Field, did so in an exhibition game later in the 1921season. His name: Babe Ruth.

The only World Series played at Redland Fieldwas in 1919 between the Reds and the Chicago White Sox.Redland Field took on a new look for the Series with tempo-rary stands built over York Street. These seats provided the

only left field bleachers the park ever had and sold for S 3.00.The Reds won the Series but the victory was

tainted when several White Sox players admitted that theyconspired with gamblers to throw the games.

Many sports writers failed to sense somethingwas wrong and felt the Reds had fairly won a hard-foughtseries, which they did. Most of the players involved in the

THE NEW BALL PARK, BEDLANO FIELD, CINCINNATI, OHIO.

After the 1911 season AugustHerrmann commissioned Cin-cinnati architects Hake andHake to design a new park withmore box seats. The result wasRedland Field, a spacious park

with the largest playing areain the major leagues.

Queen City Heritage

£CTRIC CO. • DYHAMOS

* SALJc UMMf&S

II I PUWI M «i 4 8 R.UNE 9 LUKE 7

WITH-

scandal played as hard as they could after a promised payoffnever materialized.

Beyond the fence and the Scoreboard, whichwas designed by park superintendent Matty Schwab espe-cially for the series, the "Western Avenue irregulars" jammedwindows and building tops, and even climbed telephonepoles for a view of the action. These fans painted a vividportrait of the "renegade" bleachers and the neighborhoodenvironment that was so much a part of the character of theold Cincinnati ballparks.

Park superintendent Matty Schwab was morethan just an employee of the ballpark. He was the ballpark.Matty was groundskeeper at the Cincinnati parks for sixty-nine years and park superintendent for sixty years. In histenure he saw twenty-six full time managers and over i ,000different players come and go for the Reds. Matty readiedthe park for four World Series, and cleaned up after severalfloods. He saw one park burn and four different parks built,all on the same site, the corner of Western Avenue andFindlay Street.

The terrace in right and center field at oldCrosley Field was designed by Matty. He designed the basesused in every major league park, and designed the drainage

system in Cincinnati and many other parks. He worked withhundreds of umpires and six owners and won praises fromall of them.

He built the scoreboards in Redland Fieldand Crosley Field. Schwab owned his own Scoreboard com-pany and built the Scoreboard in the Polo Grounds in 191 3,and the one in Ebbets Field a short time later. Subsequently

The "Western Avenue irregu-lars" jammed windows andbuilding tops to view the 1919World Series.

In this picture, the Reds' firstbaseman Jake Daubert has justmade the first hit of the 1919series. Four of the eight "BlackSox" players who were barredfrom baseball for life becauseof their involvement in the

scandal are in the field: thirdbaseman Buck Weaver, short-stop Swede Risberg, pitcher EdCicotte, and left fielder"Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

Cincinnati Ballparks 3 3

he erected scoreboards in Toronto, Boston, Pittsburgh, Phil-adelphia, Yankee Stadium, and other parks.

Matty Schwab's father, John, was grounds-keeper at old League Park in the late i 88o's. He held thisposition until Matty succeeded him in 1903. Matty's son,Matthew, was park superintendent in Ebbets Field, the PoloGrounds, and Candlestick Park. His grandson, Mike, suc-ceeded Matty as superintendent at Crosley Field after heretired in 1963.

Usually club owners hire general managers torun their teams. But in 1934, the Reds went about it back-wards: general manager Larry McPhail, one of the best inthe business, persuaded Powel Crosley, Jr. to purchase theReds. It was a wise choice. Crosley had the image, money,and business experience to head a successful major leaguefranchise, especially in a time of general economic depression.

Crosley had personally broadcast the first Cin-cinnati baseball game ever heard on radio, and had beenabsorbed by the game as a youngster. As owner of the Reds,Crosley again grew to love the game that he had drifted awayfrom over the years. He became one of the game's greatinnovators, hosting professional baseball's first night gamein 1935, and promoting baseball on radio.

Crosley, a successful businessman, generallyavoided promoting his products directly at the ballpark. Theonly time he ever associated business and baseball was in themid-1930's immediately after he purchased the club. Repli-

cas of Crosley products, a washing machine and a radio,appeared at the top of the Scoreboard on either side of theclock for a couple of seasons.

Powel Crosley, Jr. had the honor of being inthe best of company of other owners who have had majorleague parks named for them: Ebbets, Shibe, Wrigley, andComiskey.

Major league night baseball was a product ofthe Great Depression. As the nation's economic malaiselingered, attendance suffered at the parks in both theNational League and American League. One solution advo-cated by many was night baseball; high school football andminor league baseball had played games under the lights foryears. During the 19 34 winter meetings, the National Leaguevoted to allow seven night games for each team in the 1935season.

Only Powel Crosley, Jr. and Larry McPhailgrabbed the opportunity. The other owners, a genuinelyconservative lot, feared that fans would not be able to seeas well and that clubs would be swamped with requests forrefunds. But Crosley and McPhail, saddled with a last placeclub and thousands of empty seats, figured they had littleto lose.

The first night game was held May 23, 1935,and by long distance, President Franklin D. Rooseveltswitched 632 lights on. The Reds beat the Phillies 2-1. Acrowd of 20,422 watched, about ten times the number fora regular weekday game, and nobody asked for their moneyback. Except for the Giants who refused to play night base-ball, the Reds played one night game with every team in

Matty Schwab worked at theCincinnati parks for sixty-nineyears and held the title of parksuperintendent for sixty years.

In 1934 Powel Crosley, Jr.purchased the Reds and be-came one of the game's greatinnovators.

Powel Crosley, Jr. (center)with Manager Bill McKechnie(on left) and General ManagerWarren Giles (on right).

",

the league that season.Night baseball was born out of financial neces-

sity, and its success was immediately measured in gate receipts.In 1935 the total attendance for seven night games in Cin-cinnati was 1 30,3 37—a figure that exceeded the total homeattendance in seventy-seven games for some teams that year.

On the night of July 31, 193 5, a most bizarreevent took place. The St. Louis Cardinals were in town. The

Queen City Heritage

Cards were a flamboyant bunch, the old rough and tumbleGas House Gang: the Dean brothers, Frankie Frisch, PepperMartin, Leo Durocher, Joe Medwick, and many other color-ful characters. Fresh off a world championship they were abig draw in any town. Combined with the novelty of a nightgame, the Reds enjoyed a big advance sale, but an evenbigger crowd showed up for the game.

The general admission pavilion seats down

Night baseball proved a successfor the Cincinnati franchise.Over 130,337 fans attendedthe seven night games in 1935.

Summer 1988 Cincinnati Ballparks

The Cincinnati Postr. H \\ 1

VOL. 110. i >»O. 38, ' 1N« I.W.Vri. • n i l l M U Y , .AUGUST 3, 1935,.

Part of 30,000 Crowd That Kicked Up Heels at Night Game

tti Or«sle* fielA at test nirbt** e td«ng the feasr me plate. (Photo by Carl B»wrs, Post staff cameraman).

the foul line were quickly filled. Late arrivals poured overinto the empty reserved grandstand seats and filled those aswell. An excursion train loaded with fans from Dayton,Ohio, arrived just before game time and found their reservedseats already occupied. The excursion leader promptly marchedthe group onto the field and stood them along the right fieldfoul line. Other spectators kept arriving and soon the out-field was lined with fans from foul line to foul line.

As the game progressed the crowd inched upthe sidelines until people stood five and six deep along thelines and back of home plate making it impossible for aplayer to move through the crowd to catch a foul fly. Playersfrom both teams left their dugouts for a better view of thegame. Relief pitchers had to warm up between the crowdand the dugouts, and some spectators were so close to the

bullpen catcher that they flinched each time the pitch smackedinto the catcher's glove.

The carnival atmosphere reached a peak whenKitty Burke, one of the spectators on the field, commandeereda bat from Red's slugger Babe Herman and strode up to theplate between innings. She stood in the batter's box with thebat on her shoulder while the Cardinal pitcher warmed up.

Official attendance figures tallied 3 0,001 fans,but Larry McPhail said many more had jumped over theturnstiles on their way into the park. Even without theturnstile vaulters, this was a serious overflow crowd. Thepavilions had not yet been double-decked, so the park offi-cially only held about 26,000.

The mind boggling fact of the evening wasthat the Commissioner of Baseball, Judge K.M. Landis, and

The Cincinnati Post gave frontpage coverage to the near riotcrowd conditions at the July31 , 1935, night game.

Queen City Heritage

Reds' owner Powel Crosley were in attendance. Neitherordered the game stopped despite the obvious threat ofinjury to a fan, nor did the St. Louis manager ask for a forfeitdue to the unusual playing conditions.

Following the game a new head usher wasnamed and Matty Schwab suggested that the left field ter-race be extended to center and right fields for the seating ofthe overflow crowds in the outfield (a common practice atthe time). The terrace was completed before the end of theseason. In later years, when fans were no longer permitted tosit on the field, the terrace served as a warning "track" foroutfielders.

The 1937 Flood, one of the most devastatingin Cincinnati history engulfed Crosley Field. Flood watersreached twenty-one feet at home plate and completely cov-ered the left and center field walls.

Lee Grissom, the Reds' eccentric left hander,and John McDonald, the club's traveling secretary, hap-pened to be meeting in McDonald's downtown office at thetime of the flood. Grissom, who had already borrowed

against his 1937 salary, was requesting another $50 advancefrom the club, when word reached McDonald that the floodwaters were now precariously close to reaching the teamrecords housed at the ballpark.

McDonald said no to Grissom's request, butasked him to come along to the ballpark to rescue therecords. The only way into the park was by boat, and as thetwo rowed over the left center field fence, Grissom askedMcDonald if he could swim. McDonald said no. Grissomreplied, "Well, you had better learn, because you are goingover if I don't get the $50."

No monument marks the site of this incident,but a yellow line on the Scoreboard and a yellow ring aroundthe flagpole marked the high tide of the 1937 flood water inthe outfield area of Crosley Field.

Night baseball and other innovations aside,the Reds still felt the impact of the Depression. Generaladmission tickets in 1937 cost $ 1 and bleacher seats weresixty cents but often the only sizeable block of fans in attend-ance at games was from Cincinnati's Knothole Club, begun in

The 1937 Flood engulfedCrosley Field with flood waterscompletely covering the centerand left field walls.

Summer 1988

1934 with the backing of Larry McPhail. The club played abig part in the personality of Crosley Field. Every day exceptLadies Day, Sundays, and holidays was Knothole Day. Young-sters ages nine to sixteen could join, and each memberreceived a special colored card. A radio program for Knotholerstold, among other things, what colored cards were good foradmission on what days.

The regular Knothole section was in the rightfield pavilion, but sometimes the left field pavilion was openas well. The two sections would compete to see which onecould root the loudest. After 1938 the Knotholers sat in theupper deck of the pavilions and stomped their feet on themetal floor until the noise reached a deafening crescendo.

The teams played more and more night gamesafter World War II, and as a result, Knothole days becamefewer and fewer. The familiar tenor cadence of young fans,unprompted by Scoreboard machinations, shouting "Wewant a hit, we want a hit!" gradually faded into the past andwas lost forever.

In the 19 3 o's and 1940's radio became a famil-iar part of Cincinnati baseball and Dick Bray, along withwell-known broadcasters Red Barber and Waite Hoyt, becamea part of the history of Crosley Field. Bray did a fifteenminute radio program, "Fans in the Stands," before eachhome game. It was a light-hearted, fast-paced program thatgave the fans at home a sense of being at the park.

Bray borrowed the idea from the old Olsonand Johnson comedy team whom he had heard interviewfans before the 19 34 World Series. When he came to Cincin-

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nati's WSAI in 19 3 7 as Red Barber's assistant, Bray suggestedinterviewing people standing in line for opening day tickets.Powel Crosley, Jr. heard the program, called the stationmanager, and said he wanted the show done the next dayfrom the bleachers. This was the start of a seventeen-yearmarriage between Dick Bray and the fans in the stands atCrosley Field.

He carried a thirty-two pound transmitter onhis back for each broadcast and interviewed more than35,000 fans. Each person who appeared on the programreceived a coupon for a loaf of Rubels Rye Bread.

The Reds had participated in only one WorldSeries (1919) in the thirty-six years of the event until 1939when the team returned to the fall classic. The Reds' longwait for a place in the sun was quickly eclipsed by fourstraight losses to the Yankees, topped off by Ernie Lombardi'sfamous "snooze" at home plate. The Reds' Hall of Famecatcher was momentarily knocked out by a knee to the groinby Yankee runner Charlie Keller; by the time Lombardirecovered, Joe DiMaggio had scored a second run.

The next season, the Reds' repeated as Nation-al League champs and were back in the series against theDetroit Tigers. The deciding seventh game was played atCrosley Field. The Reds were down 1 -o in the seventh whenthey scored twice to take the lead. Paul Derringer held theTiger's scoreless over the last two innings, and the Reds hadwon their second World Series, this one untainted by scan-

The Great Depression had aneconomic impact on the Redsand often the only sizeablegroup attending was from theCincinnati Knothole Club.

Dick Bray did a fifteen minuteprogram, "Fans in the Stands"for seventeen years. Some-times Bray interviewed cele-brities such as baseball com-missioner A. B. "Happy"Chandler.

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dal. It was also the only World Series the Reds have everclinched at home. Interestingly, the game was not a sellout.

By 1961, Crosley Field had ceased to be aneighborhood park. The automobile in post-World War IICincinnati changed forever the urban landscape surround-ing Crosley Field. The ballpark was no longer a part of theneighborhood; there was no neighborhood left to be a partof. Even though Crosley Field remained the same, the thirdgeneration of ballparks had arrived: the ballpark as spectacle,a bigger than life object that dominated its surroundings.From this time on, no new park could be built withoutbowing to the automobile; acres of adjacent parking andfreeway access dictated the location and design of new stadi-ums in Cincinnati and other cities. The era of the neighbor-hood park was gone.

Queen City Heritage

The razing of the neighborhood for addition-al parking marked the end of Crosley Field as a neighbor-hood park, but the timing was right for the Reds. A teamthat was picked to finish fifth or sixth quickly moved intocontention and drew big crowds all year. The Reds woundup in the World Series on the strength of believing inthemselves, on the great pitching of Joey Jay, Jim O'Toole,and Bob Purkey, on a solid outfield featuring the league'sMost Valuable Player, Frank Robinson, and on the inspira-tion of manager Fred Hutchinson.

The ragamuffins of 1961 proved to be justthat, however, in the Series. The Reds split the first twogames at Yankee Stadium, but then lost three straight athome. The final game on October 9,1961 was the last WorldSeries game played at Crosley Field.

In the final game of the 1940World Series at Crosley Field,Jimmy Ripple tagged up andscored the winning run on along fly to center field by BillyMyers.

Summer 1988 Cincinnati Ballparks

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tiardi, Wil

The World Champion Redsrushed onto the field to con-gratulate Paul Derringer, win-ning pitcher of the final game.

4 o Queen City Heritage

In addition to the World Series games of 19 3 9,1940, and 1961, and the first night game in 1935, CrosleyField was the scene of many other notable events. Theseincluded:

* The 1938 and 1953 All-Star games

* Walker Cooper's ten RBPs in one game in 1949

* Frank Robinson's hitting for the cycle (home run, triple,double, and single in one game) in 1959

*

Art Shamsky's four consecutive home runs (in two games)

in 1966

*Jim Maloney striking out eighteen batters in one game in

1 1 9 6 5

* Back-to-back no hit games by Maloney and Houston's

Don Wilson in 1969

*No hitters by Clyde Shoun (1944), Ewell Blackwell (1947),and Maloney (1965 and 1969.)

Reds pitcher, Johnny VanderMeer pitched consecutive no-hit games in 1938. The firstcame against the Boston Bravesat Crosley Field; the final outis pictured here. The second nohitter came four days later in

the first night game played atBrooklyn's Ebbets Field.

This view of the left field areaof Crosley Field about 1940vividly portrays the park aspart of the urban fabric. Adver-tising signs and landmarksimmediately beyond the fencewere extensions of the parkitself.

Summer 1988

In 1938 the first half of perhaps the greatestpitching feat in modern baseball, the consecutive no-hitgames of Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer, was accom-plished at Crosley Field. Four days later, in the first nightgame played at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, Vander Meer againpitched a no-hitter, beating the Dodgers 6-0. He was thereaf-ter known as "Double No-Hit" Vander Meer, and his perform-ance has never been equalled. The pitcher to come theclosest was another Red, Ewell Blackwell, and ironically, thesame clubs were again involved. Blackwell pitched a no-hitgame against the Boston Braves on June 18,1947, and in hisnext start against Brooklyn, he threw no-hit ball into theninth inning before finally giving up a single.

By the mid-i 960's, it was clear that the Redsneeded a new ballpark if the team was to remain in Cincin-nati. In an era when franchise shifts were common, the citymade a commitment to do what was necessary to keep theReds from moving. Riverfront Stadium became a reality asdowntown development needs, parking considerations, free-way access, and the participation of the Cincinnati Bengalscame together.

From the beginning, Riverfront was desig-nated as a modern, multi-purpose, bowl-shaped stadium.Construction began in 1968; the final game at Crosley Fieldwas played on June 24, 1970. A 100 year tradition of profes-sional baseball in the Mill Creek valley had ended. CrosleyField's home plate was saved and installed in Riverfront, andthe first game in the new stadium was played June 30, 1970.Cincinnati's era of modern ballparks had officially begun.

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1. Much of the information in this article is taken from research by RichardMiller for his forthcoming book on the nation's oldest baseball parks. Allphotographs and other memorabilia are courtesy of the Richard MillerCollection, Archives and Rare Books Department, University ofCincinnati Libraries and the Cincinnati Historical Society.

The decline of public trans-portation and the popularity ofthe automobile caused majorproblems for Crosley Field andthe Cincinnati baseball team.

Crosley Field served as an autoyard before it was razed in1972.