This one is much better than I was led to believe and will contend with the other new ones on the trip for the title of Best We Saw. It has some support on the bus as the No. 1 park.
It's a victim of geography. Because it opens onto the Ohio River, away from the Cincinnati skyline, it's an empty vista especially stark after we saw Pittsburgh. The solution to that would have been to build the park in Covington across the river. No? Heck, they put the airport there.
The riverboat-style structure in centerfield does little for me, though it's more attractive at night and is cool when the smokestacks spew fireworks for a Reds home run (five of them tonight). The scoreboard is inferior to Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Everything else is top-notch.
Forget the argument about whether Philadelphia or Boston has the best food selection. Cincinnati does, no contest.
Forget my praise for Philadelphia's historical elements. Cincinnati blows it away with its Reds Hall of Fame. They have a Pete Rose exhibit, the ball that was the last out in the 1919 World Series, the World Series trophies of 1975, 1976 and 1990, and more. The spin they have on the Black Sox Scandal, by the way, is a comparison making the case that the Reds were the better team anyway.
The concourses are open and the widest I've seen. The plaza area, with games for kids and a band playing tonight, is spacious. Detroit's was livelier, but that was a Sunday afternoon game.
I'll give this one an A-minus, meaning I've waffled my way to a four-way tie among the new ones. Doesn't mater, I'm revisiting them all in my mind now that I've seen all. We'll have rankings tomorrow.
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