Written by Jonathan Leshanski (Contact & Archive) on December 29, 2002
The park originally called Riverfront Stadium. opened June 30th of 1970, and was used for both baseball and football. The park seated 52,952 fans and had dimentions as follows.
Foul lines 330 feet
Power alley 375 feet
Center field 404 feet.
It was the first of the full artificial turf parks, and was a considered to be part of the series of nearly idential stadiums which included Three River Stadium (Pittsburgh), Fulton County Stadium (Atlanta) and Busch Stadium (St. Louis).
In its inaugural season it hosted the All-Star Game, as well as a Reds-Pirates League Championship Series and a World Series where the Reds finally saw their dream season end against Baltimore.
It was there that the Big Red machine finally brought home its World Series titles in 1975 and 1976. It was where Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all time hit record. It was also where Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s all time home run record.
Oh, some great football moments may have occured there too.
In any case, another piece of baseball’s history has departed to only be remembered by fans and on film.
The location will become part of the concourse of the Great American Ball Park and will house the Reds Hall of Fame. This part of the concourse will not be open until 2004.
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