Inside Great American Ball Park
The first team ever founded in the history of professional baseball is the Cincinnati Reds, so if you’re a baseball history buff, then you’re in for a real treat when you visit Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.
For starters, GABP brings one of, if not THE best, entrances you’ll cruise through as you enter a Major League ballpark. As you come up on the entrance on the corner of Second Street and Joe Nuxhall Way, the first thing you see is the Pete Rose statue, and I am not sure I’ve ever seen a better depiction of an athlete in statue form. Pete was known for his headfirst slides, with his hair flowing as he flew parallel to the ground for a second or two—slides I used to imitate on my mom’s couch when I was five years old as Rose helped the Phillies win the 1980 World Series. This statue is an incredible throwback to Charlie Hustle’s playing days en route to becoming baseball’s Hit King.
The best part of a ballgame along the banks of the Ohio River is the fact that you can walk almost everywhere you want to go. The downtown ballpark is a short walk from any food or drink you’d ever need before/after a game.
The Banks, which opened in the early 2010s, has it all: bars, restaurants, apartments, you name it! A brief walk over I-71, and you’re smack dab in downtown, with plenty of hotels, Fountain Square, and some of the best local bars and restaurants in the game. Knockback Nat’s, Madonna’s, and O’Malley’s in the Alley are some of the places we would hit after games for some wings and a beer. Again, all a short walk from GABP. The bar at Knockback Nat’s features baseball cards from decades past lacquered into its surface. It’s a fun experience to look through these cards while eating some of the Queen City’s best wings, and perhaps the oldest popcorn machine in American history. I’ve eaten a LOT of popcorn from that machine over my years covering the game, and so I can tell you it’s the best!
Wait, where was I? Oh yes, GABP. Before you get there, carve out some time to check out the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Prepare yourself to be blown away by the history in that place. The folks who run it are some of the most educated Reds fans you’ll ever engage. The place is huge—and it would have to be, given that it contains almost a century and a half of baseball lore. If you love baseball history and recalling old names and teams, this place will make you say “WOW” the minute you walk in. Trust me, it’s worth your time.
GABP is known for giving up a ton of homers, and the team has had their ups and downs over the past few decades, but between the tributes to the Big Red Machine, the Nasty Boys, the toothbrush light towers, and the views of the Ohio River and the state of Kentucky, the visual experience at a Reds game is one of the great joys in all of baseball.
At the main entrance, you will walk into an enormous concourse area that provides plenty of food and drink options, including the famous Skyline Chili, a Cincy staple.
They love their baseball in Cincinnati, probably more than any non-native would realize, and look no further than Opening Day for all the proof you’d ever need.
In my 11 seasons as the Pirates TV reporter, I was fortunate enough to experience three Opening Days in Cincinnati (2015, 2019, and 2023), and they may have been the three most memorable I’ve ever seen.
Many of us in the game always lament how Opening Day (notice how I capitalized it) should be a holiday. Well, in Cincinnati, it essentially is. The entire city shuts down. The Reds always begin the season at home, and except for a handful of times, it’s been that way since 1876. You won’t find many people in the office that day. They’re either at the game or at the parade. Yes, I said the parade. It’s stretches for about a mile-and-a-half along a route from downtown into the ballpark. The Grand Marshals each year are famous former players and dignitaries. Big names, too, such as Johnny Bench, Lou Piniella, Rob Manfred, Frank Robinson, Sean Casey and many more. You get the point. It’s “Big League,” and it feels that way from the time the day begins.
Opening Day, to me, is the best sports day of the year. Yes, the Super Bowl is right there with it, but there’s just something naturally beautiful about the start of a new baseball season. Every year, it has been the only day when I wake up BEFORE my alarm can go off. My three Opening Days in Cincy, I would wake up even earlier than that—not from the natural joy and excitement that day always brings me, but because the drums, music, and fun in Fountain Square had already begun. We’re talking before 8am, a solid seven or eight hours before first pitch is thrown at 3:10pm! All three times it happened, I would pull back the hotel shades with one eye open and look down at a sea of Red, the roads all blocked off for the parade, still hours away from commencing.
The vibe is unlike any other Opening Day experience in baseball. Cincinnati is the best! Whether or not you like the Reds or their opponent that day, if you love baseball, you have to experience an Opening Day there.
Barry Larkin went into Cooperstown in 2012, and has continued his hometown Hall-of-Fame legacy as a TV broadcaster for Reds home games. Beside him is John Sadak, one the most talented and well-liked play-by play men in the game. The two form a top-level TV team and are some of the nicest people an opposing reporter could ever get to know. They have a chemistry similar to what you’d see half a mile down the Ohio River when you watch Ja’Marr Chase catch beautifully thrown balls from Joe Burrow. Reds fans are very lucky to have this quality of a TV broadcast each night.
Joey Votto played his entire 17-year career as a Red, while Ken Griffey Jr. spent 9 of his 22 in Cincy. Griffey Jr.’s father played for the Reds as well, winning two World Series and making three all-star teams. Don’t sleep on Ken Griffey Sr.’s career as a Red!
My overall point here is that you can easily get lost in baseball history in Cincinnati, as it’s one of the best baseball cities in America. Just get there, and thank me later!
