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Riverfront Stadium was a pretty typical cookie cutter stadium. It had
very few frills or gimmicks. On a night game against the Marlins, as in this picture, it wasn't the most exciting place to
be.
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Of course, when the All Star Game came to town, like in 1988, pictured
here, Riverfront could put on quite a show. It hosted three World Series champions, Hank Aaron's home run #714 and Pete Rose's
hit #4,192. (Sorry for the poor image quality)
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Riverfront sat atop three levels of its parking garage. When the Ohio
River flooded, like in 1997, pictured here, the ballpark stayed above water.
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Prior to the 2001 season, some changes to the ballpark were made and
grass was installed. Views were generally pretty good for a cookie cutter. The stadium was divided into four decks - blue,
green, yellow and red. It was a real shot to hit a red seat homer.
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In 2001 and 2002 fans got a bit of a river view as the new ballpark was
being built just beyond the left field fence.
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During 2001 and '02, in order to have an adequate hitter's backdrop
team management had installed a 40-foot center field fence that became known as the "black monster," topping Boston's wall
by three feet.
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Although this picture quality is extremely poor - film is tough to transfer
to digital - Cinergy's scoreboard was moved to right field in its last few years. The scoreboard was very simple, but unusually
informative - part of the no gimmicks approach.
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In the distance is US Bank Arana, formerly known as the Firstar Center,
the Crown, and Riverfront Coliseum. It was added on as part of a complex with the the cookie cutter ballpark and still stands
next to the new park.
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