HOSTILE TERRITORY: Great American Ballpark

Tuesday night ended up being a historic outing for your Philadelphia Phillies, and I was there as they visited Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. If you haven't already listened to my podcast about the experience, you can do so here:

For those keeping score at home, this is my third consecutive visit to an opposing stadium in as many weeks. I didn't get to enjoy as much of the surrounding atmosphere this time around due to work constraints, but I can imagine the neighborhood right outside the ballpark being a lot of fun on a weekend or before the rare Reds playoff game:

I suppose I don't have much room to talk. The Reds have been in the playoffs more recently than the Phillies. Anyway, there are a number of bars and restaurants that I'd love to visit if I have more time on my next visit (whenever that is). I paused just long enough to take the above photo before turning around and heading in to the stadium:

The main entrance features statues of many Reds greats, including former Phillies great Pete Rose (a.k.a. Charlie Hustle):

Putting aside his personal life, there is no debating that he was one of the greatest ballplayers of all time, and the Phillies owe their first World Championship partially to his joining the team. For those of you who aren't aware, Rose played for some of the greatest Reds teams in history known as "The Big Red Machine" in the 1970's alongside other stars such as Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and Johnny Bench among many others:

As you have probably noticed, the skies were threatening before gametime, but the worst of the weather did hold off for the most part. It was a decent night to be at a ballpark, or Bark in the Park if you owned a dog:

I actually didn't see as many dogs as I thought I would. Perhaps the threatening weather played a factor in that. In any case, I got to revisit one of my favourite stadium beer bars (this is my third visit to this stadium) in the Brewery District:

It features many local beers plus some popular national craft brews. I thought about also stopping by JJ Bootleggers just because it looked so neat, like something straight out of the 1920's:

A quick walk around the outfield before game time yielded a couple interesting finds. There's a riverboat sculpture overlooking the Ohio River beyond the center field fence:

Keeping with that theme, there's a rentable suite/club above the hitter's eye that's also shaped like a steamboat (with some smokestacks next door):

Finally, tucked underneath the bleachers and the Bowtie Bar is the opposition bullpen:

I had quite the adventure getting to my seats in the upper deck. Maybe I was a bit ignorant of signage, but this was the only place I saw anything telling me how to get to the escalators to the top level, tucked way behind home plate somewhere:

In any case, I found my way up there, but I spent most of my time in "The Gap," a standing area in the upper deck that provides a great view of the playing field and much easier access to concessions and restrooms. Seen here is that view with my usual scorecard purchase:

If you've listened to the pod already, here are the "toothbrush" scoreboards I mentioned in there. They're pretty neat, but I did find them somewhat hard to figure out:

Note that I didn't say that I couldn't read them. My eyes are still fine. However, I can also understand them being hard to read. It's a neat concept, but could use improvement.

Later on in the game when things were mostly in hand, I headed back down to the lower deck to meet up with some friends I hadn't seen since before the pandemic, ironically at a Phillies/Reds game:

My move had me sitting next to a woman who had a Phillies tattoo and some neat custom sneakers to match:

Among the more interesting fan jerseys I spotted this evening was this kiddo rocking a Kyle Gibson jersey. He was the pitcher of record this evening, but I'm not sure I'd have shelled out the money to get the replica jersey of a 4th (at best) starter:

Whatever the case, Gibson pitched well enough for the Phillies to secure their 10,000th win in franchise history that night:

It's somewhat tough to tell the difference between Reds and Phillies fans due to the similar color schemes, but trust me when I tell you that most of the fans who had stuck around were cheering for the away team.

I'm glad the guy a couple rows behind me made me aware of the situation. I thanked him by putting him in my video of the final out:

And so it was a great evening at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. I'm not sure when I'll return, but so far I've enjoyed my visits. I hope you enjoy your weekend, and go Phillies!