A Trip to Cincinnati

This weekend, my wife and I traveled to Cincinnati, primarily to see the Pirates take on the Reds, but also because we had never been there before and, frankly, we were in need of a little vacation. We arrived late afternoon Friday, during a torrential downpour, but were pleasantly surprised by the traffic, or lack thereof, in downtown Cincinnati. I realize it was a Friday, but at 5 pm, in any city, shouldn't it take more than 10 minutes, from the time we enter the city limits, to reach out hotel? Maybe we've just spent too much time in the Bay Area.

When we moved to Bloomington, Indiana a few months back, we fully expected to be charmed by the good old fashioned Midwest hospitality, but, unfortunately, Bloomington is lacking in that department. However, Cincinnati may be the friendliest place I've ever been. At our hotel, the front desk clerk accidentally checked us into the wrong room. Within 5 minutes, the very same desk clerk arrived at our door, apologized, and led us to the correct room. We ate dinner at a restaurant in the hotel that night, and our server, while a little slow with the check, was incredibly friendly. Even the employees at the coffee shop we stopped in on Saturday were nice. And strangers on the street. And a random woman we rode in the parking garage elevator with. Nice people everywhere. Weird.

Nyjer Morgan steps to the plate

The game itself was quite fun. Luckily we chose the Saturday game of this series, as Friday's was rained out and Sunday's was won by the Reds. Anyway, the game was great. Paul Maholm pitched wonderfully. Nyjer Morgan caused a lot of trouble for the Reds, reaching base 4 times and breaking up plays on the base paths. Nate McLouth, Ryan Doumit and Adam LaRoche each homered and the Pirates ended up winning 10-2.

Paul Maholm on the mound

The Reds' stadium, the Great American Ball Park, is a very nice place. It looks a lot more impressive in person than it does on television. Having never been to PNC Park, I can't imagine the same could be said for it, since it already looks spectacular on TV. But I digress. So, our seats were just on the first base side of home plate, many rows back, underneath the second deck. We still had a very good view though, but it would have been nice to be in the sun as the cool breeze became a bit much. It wasn't San Francisco cold, but it was still pretty cold.

Nate McLouth completes his home run trot

The stadium is very well laid out and very clean. Though we didn't stray from the ballpark staples of hot dogs and nachos, there did seem to be a decent selection of food. And the service here was great too. At one concession, I asked for nachos and the woman working the counter told me, "You don't want these nachos. The good ones are in an alcove down the first base line." And she was right. Also, when we first arrived, the usher showed us to our seats and wiped them down for us. WTF? At the Oakland Coliseum, the ushers spit in your seats.

Great game, great little weekend escape. Very nice introduction to Cincinnati for us. I've now seen Major League games in 6 different ballparks, and the Pirates in 5 of those. Hopefully, this summer we'll be able to shoot over to Pittsburgh to see my first ever Pirates' home game. At the very least, we'll certainly head up to Indianapolis some time to check out the Indians.