St. Louis to Cincinnati to Greensburg, Indiana - Saturday, 27 July 2019

Had a bit of a reprieve from early morning departures this morning as we didn't have to leave our Hampton Inn in Collinsville, IL until 9:00. Even a half hour makes a difference. I must say the whole group has been very punctual and we never have had to wait for anyone. 

Again, we had quite the drive ahead of us today as we traveled to  Cincinnati, Ohio. This meant that we had to change time zones and actually lose an hour. We only had one stop for lunch on our way and that was about midway through the drive. The Cracker Barrel in Terre Haute did a nice job of serving all 40 of us in a timely fashion. 

Very close to the Reds' park is Paul Brown Stadium, where the Bungals play. 

 

We got to Great American Ballpark about 4:30. The name of the park is derived from the Great American Insurance Company and not because it is a great American park. 

With our Jay Buckley name tags we had free admission to the Reds Hall of Fame. What a wonderful job this club has done with the tribute to their team. It is a two story building that sits next to the park. On the first floor are a group of mannequins representing some of the most famous Reds as well as a theatre. The sculpture of Sparky Anderson was a great image of him. 

Sparky Anderson

 The second floor was comprised of a champions gallery, the Reds Hall of Fame Gallery, a simulation of the broadcast booth where one could make a recording wearing typical clothes of Joe Nuxhall and Marty Brennaman, the Reds timeline, baseball cards of all Reds players, their ballparks, and a history of firsts. This was a most impressive museum and one that I wished PNC Park would emulate instead of so much history being hidden in the exclusive club level seats.

It was nice to see that Pete Rose was not ignored.
 

 We still had some time before entering the park and so visited all the statues. 

Johnny Bench

 

Tony Pérez - it was also Tony Pérez bobblehead nigh

Pete Rose

Peter Rose

Ted Kluszeski - also played for the Pirates

Frank Robinson, Ernie Lombardi

Joe Nuxhall

We scoped out the food options. Earle was disappointed not to be able to find Skyline chile. Instead he opted for a Frybox, that consisted of fries, buffalo chicken, blue cheese, and celery. It was really too gross to photo, but he loved it. I had a Skyline chile hot dog. 

Our seats were quite good as we have come to expect. 

 The park is small and it is really a hitter's park with home runs being hit at a record pace. 

We saw the Reds hit two (Suarez and VanMeter) as they went on to win the game over Colorado 3-1. We were rooting, of course, for the Rockies!

Because of the length of the drive and Ollie's need for rest, we anticipated having to leave the game by 10:00. It ended at 9:53, the shortest game we had seen. 

The coach picked us up right in front of the stadium and we were on our way to Greenburg, Indiana, about an hour's drive. 

Check in was without incident and we were in bed shortly after.