Fun At The Old Ball Yard

My fantasy baseball team, Saxman's Kings, is off to a really slow start. The Kings are seventh of ten teams in the standings after this first week of action. To take the sting off the slow start, I decided to go up to Great American Ball Park to watch the Reds and do some fantasy baseball scouting.

Sharon, Michelle, Matt, and I met friend Barry in Lexington this morning to head up to Cincy. Barry was going to ride with us in the Bengalmobile (converted today to the Redsmobile) and needed to leave his car parked somewhere in Lexington. I suggested that he leave the vehicle in a business parking lot, some store that he frequents and gives lot of business, one that wouldn't mind him leaving his vehicle there all day. He told me to meet him off Winchester Road at his favorite place. To my surprise he was parked in the Cracker Barrel lot, not the Hustler lot.

I purchased some inexpensive tickets Saturday afternoon from the Reds website and was pleasantly surprised at the awesome view our seats provided. They were eight rows up in the top level and directly behind the plate. We parked in Kentucky, enjoyed the walk across the bridge, rode the escalator to the top level, then walked up eight steps. That was it. I remember sitting up high at the old Riverfront Stadium and having to seemingly walk forever up those long ramps and steps. This was so easy, only eight steps. I took this photo from my seat. The photo looks pretty good, but in person the view was breathtaking.


On the way home we stopped at a rest area and grilled up some smokies and dogs on our trusty camp grill. A dog at the game goes for $4.50. We knew this, so instead of buying them at the game, we went to the grocery before the trip and spent $7.00. That bought us 8 jumbo franks, 8 smoked sausages, and 16 buns. The grill was smoking and everything tasted great.




I remember, as a kid, going with Dad to Crosley Field and later to Riverfront Stadium to watch the Reds play. Those are great, great memories. I hope my kids will remember their trips to the park as fondly as I remember mine. I think I'll end this blog entry now, as I'm going to put on my Field Of Dreams dvd and think about some of those great, great memories.