Yes Cincinnati

I planned on getting to a game in Cincinnati last year.  That didn't happen so I went during my four day weekend for Ascension Thursday.  With my trip to Cincinnati, I have now been to every stadium in the National League.

My view at Great American Ballpark

I started the day in Cincinnati by going to Tom and Chee, a grilled cheese and soup place that was featured on Man vs. Food Nation (I know, I probably shouldn't acknowledge the existence of that season, but I needed a place to go for lunch).  They had lots of grilled cheese sandwiches with all sorts of different stuff, but I just had a simple grilled cheese with tomatoes.  You can also get a very small soup for dipping for $1 so I did that.  It was very good.  I wish I could try some of the more complicated sandwiches too.

Tom and Chee

After that, I walked down to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  I had about two hours there before it closed.  I could have spent at least another hour there.  I've been teaching the build up to the Civil War and this would have been great for my students.  Most of the museum was on the struggle against slavery, but they also had exhibits on Auschwitz and human trafficking today.  I spent most of my time looking at all the stuff on slavery, but I had to rush through the stuff on Auschwitz and human trafficking.  Outside the museum they had a piece of the Berlin Wall.  So I definitely recommend checking this out if you're ever in Cincinnati.

A slave trying to escape

A piece of the Berlin Wall

After recharging my phone at the hotel, I walked to the stadium.  I took a lap around the stadium before going in.  The Reds Hall of Fame is outside the stadium, which I didn't have time to check out.  There are also statues of Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, Joe Nuxhall, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench outside the stadium also.  I took pictures of all of them except for Joe Morgan.  Inside the gates, they have Mr. and Mrs. Red.  They're pretty much Mr. and Mrs. Met, except with Reds uniforms.  Mr. Met made his debut in 1964.  Mr. Red wasn't a person until the 1970s, but there was a cartoon version on the Reds' uniforms in 1955.

Johnny Bench

Mr. and Mrs. Red

I had high expectations for the stadium and it exceeded them.  The food selection is outstanding.  There are so many different options.  Skyline Chili is a chain in Cincinnati that had Cheese Coney Dogs.  It was a hot dog with chili, mustard, onions, and cheese.  It really wasn't anything special.  But almost none of the concession stands had lines.  The only place where there was a long line was the one concession stand on the upper level where they were selling hot dogs for $1.

There's a hot dog, chili, onions, and mustard under there somewhere.  I took a lot of the cheese off.

The beer selection was the best I've seen in baseball.  There's a huge bar on the lower concourse on the third base side.  There was a very wide selection.  They did have Sam Adams Summer Ale, but once again, I wanted to try a local beer (actually Sam Adams was all over the place in Cincinnati because a lot of their beer is brewed there).  So I had a Rivertown Blueberry Lager.  It was fine, but I've had better blueberry beers.  But there was an area on the lower concourse between home plate and third base with plenty of room to stand and watch the game.  I watched about an inning there as I drank my beer.  It was a very good view of the field.

Blueberry Lager with the field in the background

The game was not entertaining.  It was Jason Marquis against Madison Bumgarner.  Marquis pitched three and gave up six.  Bumgarner pitched seven and gave up two.  Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, Zack Cozart, and Billy Hamilton hit home runs.  The Giants were up 6-1 after three and ended up winning 10-2.  The most interesting part of the game was the fire.  The Reds have these two smokestacks out in right center where they shoot flames and/or fireworks when they strike somebody out or hit a home run.  At one point, one of the smokestacks started firing when nothing was happening.  And then smoke started drifting across the field toward third base.  They cleared out the two sections of seats by the smokestacks and the fire department came in.  A couple of firefighters went up on the smokestack and put out the fire.

Smoke coming from the smokestack on the right

I could have written some title for this post like "Not So Great American Ballpark" or "Average American Ballpark."  But Great American Ballpark lives up to its name (which is actually a corporate sponsor name).  I'm sliding it in at number 6 on my rankings.  Wrigley Field is a mess with all the renovations going on.  I'll probably have to reevaluate Wrigley whenever those are done (which I think is a couple of years down the road).  I really liked Kauffman Stadium, but Great American Ballpark has a much better location.  You could make the case to put it ahead of Petco Park also.  I'm going to keep Petco ahead because the dimensions at Great American Ballpark are much smaller and it's more of a hitters' park (although not as much as I expected before going through years of park factor data).

Since I've finished the National League, I'm ranking the National League West the best division and the National League East the worst.  I think a lot of people would say the Central was the best, and I would say it's close.  Dodger Stadium, Petco Park, and AT&T Park get the nod over PNC Park, Great American Ballpark, and whoever you put at third in that division (Busch Stadium or Wrigley Field).  If they finish the Wrigley renovations and it's one of the top five stadiums in baseball, then the Central probably wins.  As for the worst NL division, it's easily the East.  I like Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, and Citi Field, but they can't compete with the top three from other divisions.  And Turner Field and Marlins Park are the two worst in the National League, but the Braves are getting a new stadium soon.

Hopefully I'll get to Target Field and Angel Stadium this summer, but I don't have anything planned yet.  There might some more minor league games in my future too.  We'll see.