July 22, 2022, Cincinnati, OH - Mr. Redlegs the mascot. Rosie Red the mascot. Pete Rose the manager / player. A stadium address on Pete Rose Way. A sea of red seats in the stadium. The red in the American flag. The Great American Ballpark. The Cincinnati Reds.
I'm detecting a theme.
You can't argue with the execution of the "red" motif of The Great American Ballpark. From Central Bridge you can see the twin posts of the faux steamboat nestled next to a large sign with a waving Mr. Redlegs. However, the upper deck of red seats dominate the view. Even with the stadium bowl orientated toward the river, I don't think the steamboat theme the designers went for really sticks.
The front of the stadium is adorned with statues of past Red's greats. Of course, a statue of a headfirst base-diving Pete Rose is there. I gave a bored Sam a history of why betting on baseball is an unforgivable sin, and how Rose broke that taboo. But telling him that at a stadium on Pete Rose Way in front a statue of Pete Rose was a hard sell.
It was a hot evening, but the layered seating tiers provided some shade. There was a band playing in one of the stadium alcoves, and concessions offered a $25 "all you an eat" stand. We did not take advantage of it, but I appreciate the effort to cap the food expenses.
The stadium complex is placed in a river front park area that has really nice gardens. The football stadium is just a few blocks away and was hosting a music festival headlined by Janet Jackson. That pushed up our hotel charge, but we felt lucky to even get a room that was within walking distance. The city was hopping.
We stayed across the river in Newport. See our travel blog "Cincinnati Puts Chili on Spaghetti." The river bridge walks were nice as well as convenient. The hotel grounds had a fence which is always a warning sign. As with any big city, there is some homelessness. However, we never felt threatened as we navigated back and forth across the river.
It was a good game with a bit of drama. Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson was hit by a foul tip in the first inning which broke his clavicle. The tip was difficult to see but Stephenson was clearly unable to use his throwing arm as he exited the game. You hardly ever see a catcher get injured - those guys are tough.
In the eighth inning the Cardinals manager was ejected by the umpire -- normal baseball argument stuff.
Cincinnati won 9 to 5 over the Cards. Oh yeah, guess what color the Cardinals' fans were wearing?
Stadium Ratings are exciting, good, meh, bad, disastrous.
Facility - You get a good view of the river and city from the upper seats, or you get a good view of the field from the bottom seats. You don't get both. The staff was friendly and the venue had fan perks like a band playing and a history museum (we did not have time to visit it). There is a lot concrete, but the pavilions are open and airy for the most part. Post game fireworks were fine, but next time I would try to view them from the Central Bridge where I imagine the river view would make them spectacular. Rating: Good
Food - Food was the normal expensive fare, but not out of the ordinary for MLB. I appreciated the "all you can eat" concept even though I did not use it. The hot dogs were fine. Beer selection was very good. Rating: Meh
Mascot - I'm not sure about this baseball head thing. It is a bit disturbing. I'm not sure how they keep from falling over. I will say that Mr. Redlegs having a mustache somehow helps. Rose Red is also a baseball head, but she has long hair so that also helps. They were both active and the crowd enjoyed them. Rating: Good