Babies Make Four: The Great American Ballpark

The obsession with baseball in my family goes back several generations. While Dillon's family are tried and true Baltimore Orioles fans (with the exception of Russ who was a die-hard Yankees fan), my roots are tied with the Cincinnati Reds.

My great-grandpa Estep loved baseball. Loved it so much that he played baseball for the coal camp leagues and would travel with them to play. His major league team was the Cincinnati Reds and he never missed a game if he could. He would even catch the train to Cincinnati for the weekends when they'd run a special train for baseball games. It's rumored that his wife, Bessie, came in one day while he was watching a game, announcing that she didn't feel well and felt like she should probably go to the hospital. He made her wait until the end of the inning before he loaded her up to go.

I guess it's no shocker that my dad inherited my great-grandpa's love for the game and for the Reds. We always know where he'll be when a game is on and he travels several times a year with his buddies up to Cincinnati to see games. They've traveled up there for almost 30 years to see games and have stayed and seen just about all there is to do in the area. So I knew when we were planning our excursions to tour baseball stadiums and the country, Cincinnati would be one of the first on the list and that my dad would have to go.

When we learned at the beginning of the year that, yes, baseball would take place in 2022, we decided to take a long weekend with my mom and dad and head up to Ohio. It blew my mind that, being born in WV, I have NEVER been to Ohio and this was my first time in the state. Of course, my mom and dad had been several times in their life and Dillon had gone to Columbus at one point for some training. But for me and the kids, this was the first time we tiptoed into Ohio (almost literally, since Cincinnati is right outside of Kentucky).

We planned out our visit and found a nice AirBnb located about 5 minutes from the stadium. It was truly downtown and we were able to walk around to lots of restaurants. We arrived on a Thursday and stayed until Sunday, seeing 2 games in total while we were there. We tried Skyline Chili (on spaghetti no less!) which Luke LOVED. That surprised me because he's never liked chili but he downed his plate in no time.

We also went to the Cincinnati Museum Center which was so cool. It was located in a huge old train station that was beautiful! Amtrak still runs their trains through that station. They had natural history, a children's museum, one on the history of Cincinnati and the Holocaust museum. We saw some huge dinosaur bones and learned a lot about the history of Cincinnati. We had planned on going to the zoo, but the weather didn't cooperate and this was an awesome alternative.

The Reds played the Tampa Bay Rays (who we saw in April!) We had some nice seats, high up in the shaded area of the park. The games were a little boring until the very end when they tied, both games, and the Reds pulled out ahead to win. The first night we were trying to stay because they were having fireworks and I thought we'd be there forever, and then the Red's guy who was on third all of a sudden was told to take home plate. The pitcher had balked! I didn't even know what balking was but apparently if he moves his glove like he's going to pitch he has to go ahead and pitch. The poor kid didn't even realize what he had done and it lost the game for the Rays. The second game, we all thought the Reds had completely lost and we left at the top of the 9th inning. By the time we got back to the house, they had scored 3 runs and were tied with the Rays again! This time we finished the game at home in our pj's.

I really loved Cincinnati. It's a beautiful city with an awesome history. The old homes are beautiful and what I daydream of owning one day. My dad is already planning another family trip back next year so I'd say that the Great American Ballpark is one that we will visit more than once!