Park #1

August 2-Stop one of my baseball tour: Cincinnati, Ohio. To be blunt, the Great American Ballpark is somewhat impressive from the outside, but that is it, everything else about it was decent at best. Let's start with the one redeeming quality, the exterior. As you approach the main gate of the park, there is a small courtyard with statutes of Joe Nuxhall and Ted Kluzewski, always a plus for a stadium. Plus they have a small structure called "The Reds Hall of Fame" which wasn't too impressive, but a good thought. You could really tell that the surrounding area of the park was really dedicated to baseball. As you go in the park, all you see is concession stands, which is normally a good thing, makes you feel like you are at a county fair, but there was really no baseball memoribilia, fanfare, or pomp, which in direct contrast to the exterior of the park, quite weird. Now lets get to the food. $3 for a skyliner, COME ON. They cost $1.19 at home, and they are $3 a pop in the city where they were born; that's like paying $26 for a lobster in maine when they only cost $12 in Missouri. However, I did have my hot dog (which i plan on having one of at every park). oh my god, this was the worst hot dog ever. It was, and i wish i was kidding, the color of human skin. Pink and just gross. Of course i ate it within about 8 seconds, because it's still food, but it was awful. I did notice that the park had a rather large picnic area in right field, with tables and cutouts of players you could get a picture with, but this was so far off of right field, that you couldnt see anything about the game if you were over there. It seemed kind of pointless, and basically just a glorified smokers lounge. In addition to all this mediocrity, the Reds lost to the Braves 12-2, Ramon Ortiz gave up 6 runs in an inning and a third, and I think there as many Braves fans there as reds fans. On a good note, we did have some good seats, you know, buying the $5 seats and then sneaking into the right field stands, 10th row or so. It's not stealing!Also, I stayed with my friend, who you may know is married and has a baby due in a few months, WOOHOO!!!! It was a great time catching up with him and hearing about how responsible he has, which is contrasted with me, who is becoming a travelling hermit for six months, oh, don't you love a good dichotomy.However, i dealt with it when Ben got married, I'm doing fine with Ben having a baby, but Ben just bought a minivan, that may be the last straw, I think we may need an intervention. So, to recap, good company, good seats, not-so-great stadium, horrible food. Laz gives the Great American Ballpark a "C". Stay tuned for more stadiums, and i'll attach a link to the pictures when i get them posted. 1 down, 19 to go.LAZ