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| Obligatory legal information: This site is copyright 1998-2008 Kevin Reichard/August Publications. All rights reserved. My wife is a lawyer, so she will come and chop off your hand in a legal fashion if you rip off this site in any form. All logos are the property of their respective owners. |
Cincinnati is often called the "cradle of baseball." When baseball fans think about Cincinnati, they think about firsts. The first professional baseball team. Charter members of the National League and the American Association. The first night game. The first pitch of the season. For six decades this city of baseball firsts played its games at the "old boomerang at Findlay and Western," Crosley Field. The park was a green oasis amidst the smokestacks and warehouses of Cincinnati’s west end. Crosley was intimate and unpretentious, and its many stories and unique characteristics gave the average fan a lot of baseball to experience.
Dating back to 1884, the Reds played baseball at the intersection of Findlay Street and Western Avenue. League Park was the first to open there, and as happened with most wooden ballparks of the day, it burned to the ground. In 1893, League Park was rebuilt, columned, expanded, and renamed The Palace of the Fans. The Palace of the Fans resembled a Greek temple, with an extravagant façade and opera-style private boxes. Alas, it too burned, in 1911, and gave way to Redland (later Crosley) Field.
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| Crosley Field opened as Redland Field on April 12, 1912, as the home of the Reds. Compare this photo to the photo above and see how the park was expanded over the years. |
Despite the cozy confines for the fans, the park played big. It was a pitcher-friendly 360 feet to left, 420 feet to center, and 360 feet to right. Throughout its early years, Redland was said to have the hardest and fastest playing surface in the league. (Coincidentally, and unfortunately, years down the road at Riverfront Stadium, the Reds would become the first outdoor team to play its home games on the slick, billiards table-like artificial turf.) Before the 1927 season, responding to the popularity of Babe Ruth and the Home Run era, the Reds turned their playing field and moved home plate out 20 feet, creating better dimensions for sluggers (339’, 395’, 366’).
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It was said that Powel Crosley was not a man of broad interests, and his wife complained that they did little together other than fish and watch baseball. That's a little unfair: Crosley invented the first compact car (which was sold through department stores, not traditional dealerships), the first car radio (the Roamio), the first refrigerator with door shelving units (the Shelvador), and a bed cooling system (the Koolrest). To his credit, he gave the majority of ownership responsibilities to his younger brother Lewis (Lewis actually ran all the businesses for Powell), changed the name of the park to Crosley Field, and hired Larry MacPhail to be the general manager.
Many of the major structural renovations at the stadium happened after the new administration took over. Between the 1937-38 seasons, home plate was moved another twenty feet out (328’, 387’, 366’) and in the middle of their pennant winning season of 1939, the Reds added roofed upper decks to the left and right field pavilions. This gave Crosley Field 5,000 extra seats and the appearance it would retain for the rest of its existence.
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The Terrace in left field, similar to Duffy’s Cliff at old Fenway and Tal’s Hill in present-day Houston, was the scourge of National League outfielders. Due to an underground stream, about twenty feet out from the left field fence, the ground sloped upward, gradually inclining until it reached the four feet grade at the wall. Thus, the left field fence measured 14’ high but was 18’ above home plate. In 1935, near the end of his career, Babe Ruth playing with the Boston Braves went back on a fly ball and tripped on the incline, falling flat on his face. Ruth got up and solemnly walked off the field in disgust. He would not return to the game and retired a few days later.
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| The scoreboard was the center of signage at Crosley Field. Note the scoreboard's listing of Redlegs (as opposed to Reds); during the Communist hysteria of the 1950s the team used Redlegs as a nickname in order to avoid any association with those nasty Russians. (Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds.) (Click on the image for a larger version.) |
Center field at Crosley was the source of some
controversy over the years. The three-story brick
Crowe Engineering Company building in center was
where 1950’s Reds’ skipper Fred Hutchinson would
position his sign stealers. That is at least what
the Cubs alleged. Also, a fluke play in center
cost the Reds a potentially critical game in their
pennant winning season of 1940. Street lights
behind the center field fence caused such glare
that canvas shields were placed on the fence to
protect the batter’s eyes. The shields were then
taken down for day games. Following a night game
on June 5th, someone from the Reds forgot to take
the shields down. In the ninth inning of a day
game two days later, the Reds’ Harry Craft hit a
shot that struck a shield above the center field
fence. The ball fell to the ground and Craft wound
up at third with a triple. Reds manager Bill
McKechnie argued for thirty minutes that the call
should have been a game-winning home run.
Ultimately, the umpires ruled against the Reds
because it was their fault, and predictably, they
lost the game in extra innings by one run.
Right field was the only section of Crosley that
was completely exposed to the sun and the
bleachers were thusly nicknamed the Sun Deck. A
huge sun burst was painted on the rear wall. At
night, naturally, the area was called the Moon
Deck. For two periods during the 1940s and 1950’s,
seats were installed in front of the Sun/Moon
Deck, cutting the distance in right field from
366’ to 342’. This area was called the Goat Run or
the Chicken Run or the Giles’ Chicken Run. This
was expected to aid the popular, sleeveless
strongman Ted Kluszewski. The right0field fence
intersected at a point with the center field
concrete wall. This necessitated a home run line,
a white vertical stripe painted on the center
field wall that read "Batted ball hitting concrete
wall on fly to right of white line – home run."
Never before or since has a ground rule been
painted on an outfield wall.
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| In the old day a television broadcast from any ballpark was a major undertaking, and TV stations made a huge deal of their remote broadcasting capabilities. Here's a promotional photo from WLW-TV describing their remote capabilities. |
Of these fans, the most celebrated was Harry Thobe. Dancing a perpetual jig, flashing 12 gold teeth, the superfan and crowd entertainer attended almost every game in the 1940s and 1950s, wearing his customary white suit with red stripes, one red and one white shoe, a straw hat with a red band, and a red and white parasol.
Major upgrades were undertaken at Crosley prior to the 1957 season. The red brick façade was painted white, new lights were installed and the largest scoreboard of its day replaced the old one in left center. The scoreboard stood 58 feet high and 65 feet wide. Atop the scoreboard was eight-foot-tall Longines clock. In addition to showing scores of all the major league games in progress and displaying full home and visiting team line-ups, the new board was the first to feature up-to-date players’ batting averages.
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| Another view of he famous Crosley Field scoreboard with the Longines clock at the top. (Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds.) (Click on the image for a larger version.) |
Because of their standing as the first professional baseball team, traditionally the Reds were allowed to be the opening game of opening day. From 1876 to 1989, spanning the entire life of Crosley Field, the official beginning of each baseball season was in Cincinnati. The city would throw a parade and the Reds, in addition to hosting pre-game festivities, would bring in temporary seating in front of the left and right fences. The tradition of opening the season in Cincinnati ended recently with Major League Baseball acquiescing to ESPN and their Sunday “Baseball Tonight” openers, and other nonsense, like opening the season in Tokyo in March.
In 1929, the Reds became the first team to have
daily radio coverage. In fact, a few years later, MacPhail gave the great Red Barber his first
professional baseball radio gig. Crosley Field
also held the first “Ladies Night” in 1936.
“Ladies Night” took on a whole new meaning the
year before.
Two months after MacPhail and the Reds turned on
the lights for the first time, he had oversold the
teams’ next night game by about 10,000 tickets.
Fans from adjoining states -- Indiana, Kentucky,
West Virginia -- were pursued by the Reds to
experience night baseball first hand. The
marketing blitz proved successful and MacPhail had
another sell out. When the game started, however,
most of the out-of-towners had not arrived. Their
trains had been delayed. The ticket staff went
ahead and sold the late arriving tickets to an
anxious walk-up crowd. When the trains finally
arrived, fans were perplexed to see Crosley Field
full and their seats taken. Seeing the potential
for disaster, MacPhail went home and left his
secretary in charge. Arguments erupted and
fistfights ensued. Eventually thousands of fans
were let on to the field, stationed behind ropes
down the foul lines and in the outfield. In the
bottom of the eighth, a local burlesque dancer
named Kitty Burke rushed to home plate, grabbed
Babe Herman’s bat and asked Reds hurler Paul Dean
to pitch. After some trepidation, Dean obliged,
throwing under handed, and getting the showgirl to
ground out back to him. Later, Ms. Burke would
bill her stage routine as "featuring the only girl
who ever batted in the big leagues."
Another notable Crosley Field moment was when the Mill Creek Flood of 1937 drowned the park in 21 feet of water. Reds pitcher Lee Grissom and traveling secretary John McDonald rowed a boat over center field.
Crosley Field was the site of four World Series (1919, ’39, ’40, and ’61) and two All-Star Games (1938 and 1953). The most (in)famous series of all was, of course, in 1919. The first two games were played at Crosley and won by the Reds. In Game One, Black Sox hurler Eddie Cicotte hit Reds leadoff batter Morrie Rath between the shoulder blades. This meant the fix was on and pools of money switched hands, all to be wagered on the Reds.
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The first of Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters was thrown at Crosley on June 11, 1938. Nine years later Ewell “the Whip” Blackwell almost duplicated the feat. On June 18, 1947, Blackwell no-hit Boston. Four days later, he went eight and one-third hitless innings until visiting Brooklyn second baseman Eddie Stanky broke up the bid in the ninth.
More history was made at Crosley on June 10th, 1944 when fifteen year old Joe Nuxhall took the mound and became the youngest player in major league history. His line on the day: 2/3 of an inning, five runs on five walks, two singles and a wild pitch. Final score: Cardinals 18, Reds 0.
More firsts: the first twin nine-inning no-hitter was thrown at Crosley when the Reds Fred Toney went toe-to-toe against the Cubs Hippo Vaughn. Crosley was also the first parked leased to the Negro Leagues (the Cuban Stars of the 1920s, the Cincinnati Tigers in 1937, and the Cincinnati Clowns in the 1940s).
The Reds
monopolized the Most Valuable Player Award from
1938-1940 (Lombardi, Bucky Walters, Frank
McCormick respectively) and the Redlegs of the
1950s (they weren’t called the Reds then because of
communist hysteria) marched out the most imposing
group of sluggers in the league: Wally Post, Ted Kluszewski, Gus Bell, Ed Bailey, and a rookie who
set a record with 38 dingers in 1956, Frank
Robinson. Some of the cogs and wheels of the Big
Red Machine, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez,
Davey Concepcion and Don Gullett, had their start
at Crosley Field.
In 1970, in one of its last great moments, Crosley
Field was the site of Hank Aaron’s 3,000 hit.
By the 1960s, the economic growth that Cincinnati
was experiencing was all but absent from the
warehouses and factories of the west end of town.
When the Superior Towel and Linen Service laundry
left the area and took with it one of Crosley’s
hallmarks, it symbolically predicted the Reds'
abandonment of the area. The team, playing in the
major’s smallest stadium, was eager to jump on the
multi-purpose stadium bandwagon and flee to the
publicly financed Riverfront Stadium downtown on
the banks of the Ohio. The final game at Crosley
was played on June 24, 1970. Over 28,000 nostalgic
fans saw Johnny Bench and Lee May homer to edge
Juan Marichal and the Giants, 5-4. After the game,
a helicopter transported home plate to the new
digs downtown. Crosley would spend the next two
years as an auto impound lot and was eventually
bulldozed in 1972. An industrial park now occupies
the site.
Fifteen miles northeast of downtown lies the
suburb of Blue Ash, where a life-size replica of
Crosley Field stands as a memorial to the
venerable park. Six hundred of the original seats
were installed, the same ticket booths are used,
and there the colossal scoreboard sits, displaying
the batting orders, umpires, and line scores of
Crosley’s last game, forever frozen in time. --Joe Schwei
Dimensions
| Year | LF | LC | C | RC | RF |
| 1912 | 360 | 380 | 420 | 383 | 360 |
| 1921 | 320 | 380 | 420 | 383 | 384 |
| 1926 | 352 | 380 | 417 | 383 | 400 |
| 1927 | 339 | 380 | 395 | 383 | 383 |
| 1930 | 339 | 380 | 393 | 383 | 383 |
| 1931 | 339 | 380 | 407 | 383 | 383 |
| 1933 | 339 | 380 | 393 | 383 | 383 |
| 1936 | 339 | 380 | 407 | 383 | 366 |
| 1938 | 328 | 380 | 387 | 383 | 366 |
| 1939 | 328 | 380 | 380 | 383 | 366 |
| 1940 | 328 | 380 | 387 | 383 | 366 |
| 1942 | 328 | 380 | 387 | 383 | 342 |
| 1944 | 328 | 380 | 390 | 383 | 342 |
| 1950 | 328 | 380 | 390 | 383 | 366 |
| 1953 | 328 | 380 | 390 | 383 | 342 |
| 1955 | 328 | 380 | 387 | 383 | 342 |
| 1958 | 328 | 380 | 387 | 383 | 366 |
Capacity
| 1912 | 25,000 |
| 1927 | 30,000 |
| 1938 | 33,000 |
| 1948 | 30,000 |
| 1952 | 29,980 |
| 1958 | 29,603 |
| 1960 | 30,328 |
| 1961 | 30,274 |
| 1964 | 29,603 |
Attendance
| Year | Attendance | Average | Rank in League | Record | Standing |
| 1912 | 344,000 | 4,468 | 4th out of 8 | 70-83 | 4 |
| 1913 | 258,000 | 3,308 | 6th out of 8 | 64-89 | 7 |
| 1914 | 100,791 | 1,039 | 8th out of 8 | 60-94 | 8 |
| 1915 | 218,878 | 2,771 | 8th out of 8 | 71-83 | 7 |
| 1916 | 255,846 | 3,366 | 7th out of 8 | 60-93 | 8 |
| 1917 | 269,056 | 3,363 | 5th out of 8 | 78-76 | 4 |
| 1918 | 163,009 | 2,296 | 4th out of 8 | 68-60 | 3 |
| 1919 | 532,501 | 7,607 | 2nd out of 8 | 96-44 | 1/WS |
| 1920 | 568,107 | 7,378 | 3rd out of 8 | 82-71 | 3 |
| 1921 | 311,227 | 4,095 | 7th out of 8 | 70-83 | 6 |
| 1922 | 493,754 | 6,250 | 6th out of 8 | 86-68 | 2 |
| 1923 | 575,064 | 7,373 | 4th out of 8 | 91-63 | 2 |
| 1924 | 473,707 | 6,233 | 5th out of 8 | 83-70 | 4 |
| 1925 | 464,920 | 6,117 | 5rd out of 8 | 80-73 | 3 |
| 1926 | 672,987 | 8,749 | 4th out of 8 | 87-67 | 2 |
| 1927 | 442,164 | 5,527 | 6th out of 8 | 75-78 | 5 |
| 1928 | 490,490 | 6,288 | 6th out of 8 | 78-74 | 5 |
| 1929 | 295,040 | 3,783 | 7th out of 8 | 66-88 | 7 |
| 1930 | 386,727 | 5,022 | 6th out of 8 | 59-95 | 7 |
| 1931 | 263,316 | 3,420 | 7th out of 8 | 58-96 | 8 |
| 1932 | 256,950 | 4,636 | 5th out of 8 | 60-94 | 8 |
| 1933 | 218,281 | 2,763 | 7th out of 8 | 58-94 | 8 |
| 1934 | 206,773 | 2,651 | 7th out of 8 | 52-99 | 8 |
| 1935 | 448,247 | 5,898 | 5th out of 8 | 68-85 | 6 |
| 1936 | 466,345 | 6,136 | 4th out of 8 | 74-80 | 5 |
| 1937 | 411,221 | 5,140 | 6th out of 8 | 56-98 | 8 |
| 1938 | 706,756 | 9,179 | 3rd out of 8 | 82-68 | 4 |
| 1939 | 981,443 | 12,117 | 2nd out of 8 | 97-57 | 1 |
| 1940 | 850,180 | 11,041 | 2nd out of 8 | 100-53 | 1/WS |
| 1941 | 642,513 | 8,146 | 3rd out of 8 | 88-66 | 3 |
| 1942 | 427,031 | 5,546 | 6th out of 8 | 76-76 | 4 |
| 1943 | 379,122 | 4,861 | 7th out of 8 | 87-67 | 2 |
| 1944 | 409,567 | 5,251 | 6th out of 8 | 89-65 | 3 |
| 1945 | 290,070 | 3,767 | 7th out of 8 | 61-93 | 7 |
| 1946 | 715,751 | 9,295 | 8th out of 8 | 67-87 | 6 |
| 1947 | 899,975 | 11,688 | 8th out of 8 | 73-81 | 5 |
| 1948 | 823,386 | 10,693 | 7th out of 8 | 64-89 | 7 |
| 1949 | 707,782 | 9,074 | 8th out of 8 | 62-92 | 7 |
| 1950 | 538,794 | 7,089 | 8th out of 8 | 66-87 | 6 |
| 1951 | 588,794 | 7,640 | 7th out of 8 | 68-86 | 6 |
| 1952 | 604,197 | 7,847 | 7th out of 8 | 69-85 | 6 |
| 1953 | 548,086 | 7,027 | 8th out of 8 | 68-86 | 6 |
| 1954 | 704,167 | 9,145 | 7th out of 8 | 74-80 | 5 |
| 1955 | 693,662 | 9,009 | 7th out of 8 | 75-79 | 5 |
| 1956 | 1,125,928 | 14,622 | 3rd out of 8 | 91-63 | 3 |
| 1957 | 1,070,850 | 13,907 | 4th out of 8 | 80-74 | 4 |
| 1958 | 788,582 | 10,241 | 8th out of 8 | 76-78 | 4 |
| 1959 | 801,298 | 10,406 | 7th out of 8 | 74-80 | 5 |
| 1960 | 663,486 | 8,617 | 8th out of 8 | 67-87 | 6 |
| 1961 | 1,117,603 | 14,514 | 4th out of 8 | 93-61 | 1 |
| 1962 | 982,095 | 12,125 | 4th out of 10 | 98-64 | 3 |
| 1963 | 858,805 | 10,603 | 7th out of 10 | 86-76 | 5 |
| 1964 | 862,466 | 10,518 | 7th out of 10 | 92-70 | 3 |
| 1965 | 1,047,824 | 12,936 | 7th out of 10 | 89-73 | 4 |
| 1966 | 742,958 | 9,405 | 9th out of 10 | 76-84 | 7 |
| 1967 | 958,300 | 11.831 | 7th out of 10 | 87-75 | 4 |
| 1968 | 733,354 | 8,943 | 8th out of 10 | 83-79 | 4 |
| 1969 | 987,991 | 12,197 | 8th out of 10 | 89-73 | 3 |
Other Resources
This page covers the basics of Crosley Field. For a more in-depth remembrance, check out "Chuck" Foertmeyer's excellent Crosley Field site.
Trivia
- First MLB home run hit in Crosley Field: Jimmy Esmond, Cincinnati Reds, 4/21/1912.
- Last MLB home run hit in Crosley Field: Lee May, Cincinnati Reds, 6/24/1970.
- Player who hit the most home runs hit in Crosley Field: Frank Robinson, 174 (all as a Red), and Eddie Matthews (59 as a visiting player).
- Total home runs hit in Crosley Field: 4,558
- Johnny Vander Meer is the only man to throw consecutive no-hitters. The first one was thrown at Crosley Field on June 11, 1938; he followed it up with a June 15 no-hitter of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
- The neighborhood surrounding the Crosley Field site also hosted early professional baseball teams. The 1869 Red Stockings played two blocks away at Union Grounds (the site is now part of the Cincinnati Museum Center), while the 1882 Red Stockings played at Bank Street Grounds, located tow blocks away as well. Plus, the Reds' home before Crosley Field -- the Palace of the Fans -- was in the same location.
- It was not until 1938 that a press box was added to Crosley Field.
- In 1947 pay phones were removed from the ballpark to cut down on the amount of illegal gambling on Reds games.
- By 1961 the Reds advertised Crosley Field as being "air-cooled," as Westinghouse fans were used at the ends of the grandstand to circulate air throughout.
This page from the 1961 Reds program shows
the parking in the Crosley Field area as well as ballpark
highlights.
This page comes from a 1964 guide to
baseball..