Take me out to the ballpark...

A little while ago, my sister and her husband (see picture below) joined Pam and me in an excursion to the Great American Ballpark to watch the Cincinnati Reds take on the Milwaukee Brewers.

I found it hard to believe, but it seems that Luke and Linda had never been to a Reds game in that ballpark.  They had been to the old Riverfront stadium on several occasions, but just not to the new venue.  And since they hadn't been to GABP for a game, it also made sense to plan to tour the Reds' Hall of Fame building located just outside the complex.

We got to the Hall of Fame and it wasn't toooooo crowded!   But it was really a neat place to see.  It's like a lot of museums -- you can't take in all it has to offer in just one visit.  There is just too much to read and see.  But one thing we did have to do was go to the third floor and see the two Cincinnati greats who were there to meet fans -- Tom Browning and Jim Maloney.

Jim Maloney (seated left) and Tom Browning (seated right)  with Luke and me.

Just so you know why it was cool to meet these two guys, here are some highlights.  Maloney was throwing his fastball an unheard of 99 m.p.h. back in the early 70s.  He owns two no-hitters, had 200 strike-outs in four consecutive seasons (63-66), and was elected to the Reds Hall of Fame in 1973.  Browning is also known as "Mr. Perfect."  His perfect game (27 batters up, 27 batters out)  at that time only the 12th perfect game in major league history, came on Sept. 16, 1988. In that game he never took any batter to a 3-ball count!  He just missed a second perfect game on July 4, 1989 when a Philly hitter got a single in the 9th inning.  So meeting these guys was pretty cool.

Some of the other exhibits at the HofF were also pretty cool.

I particularly liked the one which gave a graphic picture of the magnitude of Pete Rose's hit streak/record.  It began on the first floor and was a baseball which was attached to the wall representing each of Pete's hits.  The display covered the entire width of the wall and all three stories of the building, ending with his 4,256th hit.  Imagine --- three floors of baseballs to depict this feat!  It is reported that Shin-Soo Choo asked Joey Votto about this record when Choo first came to Cincinnati.  Votto put it in perspective -- If you were a rookie and got your first hit on the first day of the season, you would have to have 20 years as a major league player at 200 hits per year and even then you would come up 256 hits short of his record.  Nobody ever has or had 20 years in the majors and no one will break this record.

On paper, the game we were to attend looked like a good one for the Reds.  Homer Bailey was to pitch.  He had been really hot in his last few games.  Maloney and Browning were there to throw out the first pitch and it was the 75th anniversary of Johnny Vander Meer's second no-hitter (He threw back-to-back no-hitters on June 11 & 15, 1938).  We can't lose, right?

I should have known better when we went to our seats, just got seated, and a bird that was flying over the stadium pooped on Linda!!!  What are the odds of that happening to you?  Anyway -- it turned out to be a crappy day for the Reds too.  The Reds lost, no pizza for the fans, and a dry cleaning bill for Linda.  Oh yeah -- Bailey went on to pitch his second career no-hitter in his next outing!!

It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball.  I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.(Hank Aaron)


Hooah

P.s.  Why does everyone stand during the middle of the 7th inning and sing "Take me out to the ballpark" when they are already there????