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National League Ballparks |
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Overview
It was the home of #714 and #4,192. It was the home of the Big Red
Machine, Marge Schott and the Cincinnati Bengals. It was, in many respects, just another cookie cutter, but it saw perhaps
more history than any of them.
Riverfront Stadium opened in 1970 with a Reds' loss to the Braves and
closed in 2002 with a Reds' loss to the Phillies.
The construction of Riverfront was a subject of great debate in the 1960s.
It overcame the obstacles posed by those who wanted to build low income housing on the riverfront and the critics who wanted
Cincinnati to have a dome. It was completed quickly in time for the All Star Game that year and was the site of a World Series
in its first year.
Getting to Riverfront from downtown required traversing several streets
and highways by means of two pedestrian bridges that were normally filled with the music of sidewalk performers.
Inside, Riverfront was a four decked, four colored round, sterile ballpark
that intentionally for many years was kept so plain that there were few signs that it was home of the Reds. It had the classic
bright green astroturf, a small but informative scoreboard and few gimmicks, but normally had many intelligent baseball
fans and great teams.
The story of Riverfront was more about the teams it housed than the ballpark
itself. It was an above average cookie cutter in a nice setting, but Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Barry Larkin
and Eric Davis lit it up with three World Series titles, numerous records and other feats of greatness.
In 2001 to make way for the new stadium a large section of the outfield
seats was chopped off of Riverfront...or by that time Cinergy Field. Grass was installed and Cincinnati fans got to experience
two years of a new style in the park. It was demolished on December 29 ,2002.
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Basic stats
Photos
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