Top Eight Riverfront Stadium Memories (Part 1)
By Thaq Diesel

This list contains events that were witnessed in person at the late, great Riverfront stadium. Again, they only span my experiences with the Reds, so they won’t cover the Big Red Machine or Pete Rose’s record-breaking single. I also lament that I never personally saw Schottzie or Schottzie #2 take a dump on the worn astroturf. If I had asked her, I’m sure Marge would have said something to me like, “You know what honey, it wasn’t all that exciting. She does it every day…”

At this point, I have a confession to make: I have yet to make a trip to the Great American Ballpark. Life events (grad school, children, increasing job responsibilities) have simply precluded a trip to Cincy to make it happen. It will happen this season (the subject of a future article, in fact). I’m told balls fly out of there faster than at the Las Vegas adult video awards show. But I digress – on with the list:

8. I witnessed my first live triple play. Runners were on second and third, one-hop hard shot to Sabo who fielded the ball with his feet already on the bag at third. Boom – a 5-4-3 triple play. It happened so fast, I had to think for a minute about what I had just witnessed. I saved the scorecard for as long as I could, but alas, my wife eventually threw such “trash” away not long after we were married.

7. It was Griffey’s first (half) season with the Reds. I travelled to the ‘natti to see him live only to find he was under the weather and not starting. It was the seventh inning I believe, Reds down by 1 with two on. Griffey comes up to pinch hit. I would witness a classic Griffey at-bat that demonstrates in one stroke his incredible cockiness and unmatched raw talent. He takes two pitches; strikes down the heart of the plate. Griffey then does his patented two-strike step out of the box to call time just as the pitcher is getting ready to start his motion. (I promise, despite my bitching, that I really do love the guy. But come on! If I was a pitcher, I’d probably bean him or throw over his head if he was doing that to me; it’s so disprespectful) Still, this was the honeymoon period and this quirk was new to me. Griffey then takes three balls, never moving the bat from his shoulder. With the 3-2 count, he takes his first lazy swing and summarily deposits the ball in the right field bleachers directly in front of me. I remember feeling both awe and giddiness that we had ten more years of such greatness in front of us… (which of course would later be laid bare by a consistent barrage of freak injuries)

6. It was the magical 70 homerun season for McGuire. I went to Riverfront late in the season to see if Mac would hit a homerun, and it became one of the few sellout crowds I was actually a part of. Almost everyone was in their seats for batting practice. MacGuire gets in the cage and lays down a bunt on the first pitch(which, had people been paying attention, every single Cardinal had done to that point). People booed him mercilessly. The second batting practice pitch was a monster, I mean MONSTER 512 ft. homerun into the Reds seats in left. He absolutely destroyed that ball. He was walked most of the game so that was the lone highlight of the day. It didn’t show up in the box score, but that moonshot was still very memorable

5. I was watching the Reds play Pittsburgh and Barry Bonds in 1993 (this was the skinny, but still incredibly-talented-as-long-as-it-wasn’t-the-postseason Barry Bonds, mind you). I didn’t like him then and during the game (where he had to that point posted an 0-fer) I had deluded myself into believing that he was really not very talented at all. Barry cured me of this when, in the top of the 9th and down two runs with two outs, he smacks a two-strike bases-clearing triple. I remember thinking to myself, “Okay, we’re probably going to lose this game, (which the Reds did, in fact, do.) but I have to acknowledge that was a moment of greatness. “

Permalink | Posted in Debate