Great American Ballpark with my dad for Father's Day

Cross another MLB ballpark off the list.  Over Father's Day weekend, I made a deal with my dad.  I'd go with him to the "new" Horseshoe Casino in Cincinnati, OH if he promised to go with me to Great American Ballpark to watch the Milwaukee Brewers play the Cincinnati Reds.  He agreed and immediately I went to StubHub to seek out a pair of tickets.

I settled on Scout seats.  If you've never sat in Scout seats before, I highly recommend them.  They're behind home plate, but higher up than the section right behind home plate.  The seats are cushioned and you have access to Scouts' Alley (i.e. a private concession area -- where you pay -- but you don't have to wait in lines behind people in "regular" seats).  I didn't actually go and check out Scouts' Alley because the lines weren't too bad at all at Frisch's Big Boy.  My dad had a burger and I had the chicken fingers.  I ordered a souvenir drink and it came with a coupon for a free refill.  Seriously?  When have you ever seen free refills at a ballpark?  What a good value!

We settled into our seats and I started to look around the park.  To be honest, I didn't see anything special.  It'd been AGES since I'd seen the Reds play at home.  The last time I'd been to a Reds' game they were playing at Riverfront Coliseum. 

Gone is the old circular structure and a park that resembles the Twins/Orioles/Indians/etc. stands. 

I'm so happy I finally checked off another venue, and even happier that I got to go to the game with my dad.  For someone like him that complains that he doesn't watch any baseball, he sure did know a lot about Joey Votto and Johnny Cueto!

The rain started to come down a bit and it was refreshing, since it was so hot and muggy.  When the drops got bigger and fell down faster, we walked back to the casino (i.e. where we parked) and decided to start gambling.

The Reds won, and we won.

Happy Father's Day!


THE WIRK

The ALDS and NLDS begin next week ~ Take me out to the ball game!

Seeing as though I spend a lot of time traveling, I'm excited about the MLB post-season.  Specifically, I'm anxiously awaiting to "final" ALDS and NLDS match-ups so I can determine where I want to go and how much time (i.e. if any) I want to take off of work.  It's been a long time since I've been in a city where there's post-season baseball.  Lately, I've been spending a lot of time in Minneapolis, and I'm excited to head to Target Field for game 1 of the Minneapolis Twins series.  From what I can see, Game 1 of the ALDS is Wednesday, October 6.  I cannot wait.

Moreover, as an Ohio girl, I'm thrilled to see the Cincinnati Reds are in the NLDS hunt. I haven't been to the new ballpark in Cincinnati yet, but I have fond memories of going to the old Riverfront Coliseum as a kid and listening to "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang while fireworks peppered the sky (i.e. if the Reds won).  When I was younger, my mom was strict.  Now I'm older, but let's face it ~ she's still strict.  She's so strict that she wouldn't let me watch the Cincinnati Reds when they were playing the Oakland A's in the 1990 World Series.  I was forced to listen to the games on the radio!  On the radio!  Yes, RADIO!!!  I couldn't believe it...  LOL.

Regardless, I bet a classmate of mine (i.e. Aaron Howard) that Oakland would win.  I couldn't believe he'd picked Cincinnati to win it all, considering the Reds were the underdogs.  Needless to say, I lost my bet.

Years ago, I ran into Pete Rose in Las Vegas.  He was more than gracious and knew exactly what I was talking about when I told him where I was from.  Scandal aside, I found him to be a reasonable guy to chat with as he autographed a photo for me and posed for pictures.  I know he's in Las Vegas often.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Keep the jokes to yourself.  I'm from Ohio.  Pete Rose will always be special to me, and if I had a vote, I'd use it to vote him into the Hall of Fame.  If you ask me, he belongs in Cooperstown.  He's the "Hit King".

Well, mom.  I'm a BIG kid now, and you better believe that schedule permitting I'm going to be at a game or games this MLB post-season...  But I must admit, there's nothing like listening to the games on the radio... 

If you're curious and want to see the current MLB post-season schedule, here's a link: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/ps.jsp?y=10

For those of you Reds fans that want to re-live the good old days.  Here you go.

THE WIRK