6/30/2009 - Great American Ballpark - MLB Ballpark #12

2009 Game #10 - Arizona Diamondbacks at Cincinnai Reds
Final Score: Diamondbacks 6, Reds 2
Hot Dog - 1/5

I really like Great American Ballpark.  While it’s not the newest or prettiest of the parks we’ve seen, it has a charm to it.

Like PNC Park (Pittsburgh), it’s built right on a river (in this case, the Ohio) and is positioned right along the coast.  It has an in-stadium, behind-the-giant-boat walkway that is only a road away from the water’s edge.  There’s a really nice view there of the passing steamboats and, in the other direction, of the city itself, poking out from behind the ballpark superstructure.  As an aside, the giant boat (an outfield upper deck) can be rented for a game, if anybody’s interested.

The inside of the ballpark is nice enough.  The concourses are wide open, more so than in any park we’ve visited thus far and the lights are the most toothbrush-looking of any we’ve seen.

Also, the seating bowl is appropriately colored, a fact really driven home by the rather small crowd in attendance for tonight’s game.

That crowd kept quiet for most of the game, as did the Reds’ bats.  Diamondbacks’ pitcher Dan Haren was dealing tonight, making the Reds’ hitters look foolish on strikeout after strikeout.  Reds’ pitcher–and former Red Sox folk hero–Bronson Arroyo pitched for Cincy.  BroYo, by the way, is a self-styled rock god.  I hope that keeps going for him, because he’s currently pitching poorly. (He’s contemplating surgery for carpal tunnel.)

The D-Backs owned Arroyo, scoring most of their runs off him.  The Reds tried to mount a comeback against the Arizona bullpen, but to no avail.  It looks like Mr. Redlegs is going to have a long, sad ride home with the Missus tonight.

In other news, I’m learning on this trip that I don’t know my US geography.  I’m sure my seventh grade social studies teacher would be disappointed (Sorry, Mrs. Grace!), but I had no idea that Kentucky was south of Ohio.  I also did not know that Cincinnati is on the southern border of Ohio, separated from the aforementioned Kentucky by only the Ohio River.  What’s next?  I suppose you’d like me to believe that Kentucky is only one state away from Alabama?  Yah!  It is!  (Sorry, Tennessee.)  Quick, somebody get me an atlas.

Well, that’s all from the Queen City.  We’re off to St. Louis, where we’ll meet you at the fair… or at Busch Stadium (with its Batman font).

-Rich