A Day at the Great American Ballpark

The Cincinnati Reds opened their 'new' ballpark back in 2003...sad to say the Reds have not put much to view out on the field as they near completion of the 7th Season at GABP. For the most part the Reds have finished around 5th in the six team NL Central, and this season, after getting off to a good start in April, May, and June, the River City boys have floundered back into old territory, and reside in 5th place, just ahead of the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates.

I long ago got tired of the cost, political correctness, and free agency of Major League Baseball and seldom go...I had not been to a Reds game since 2005 when my buddy Andy, his brothers, some nephews and me went to see a weekend inter league series between the Reds and upstate rivals, The Cleveland Indians. Yesterday would be my 4th trip to Great American and first one in 4 seasons....much preferring to view minor league games at Fort Wayne.

Anyway, being on the board of Directors of Mercer Residential Services, with daughter Anissa being a client, Patricia, Anissa, and I, tagged along with 5 of the residents and 2 staff workers yesterday to see the Reds take on the San Francisco Giants...the Cincinnati Reds crew, with injuries to many regulars and not much hitting regardless, had fallen 19 games under the .500 mark and had lost 5 in a row. The clients headed down in the handicapped accessible van from MRS, while the Houseworth clan took Patricia's van and headed south as well. The forecast was not good, thunderstorms and rain showers were forecast throughout the day, some severe...so it appeared this would be a hit-and-miss day at the ballpark.

Down I-75 past Wapak, Sidney, Dayton, and Middletown, we traveled the 130 miles to the Queen City. The 12:35pm starts are called "Business Day Specials" at GABP...they usually happen on Thursdays, called "Get Away Days", when the Reds and/or their opponents are getting ready to finish a series and head out of town...in this case the Reds to Pittsburgh. Anyway, it rained off and on all the way down the interstate, but things started to clear a bit by the time we reached the parking garage. When we got inside to our seats the rain had stopped, and we would only see a sprinkle or 2 late in the game...things went well.

The Reds won the game 2-1 on a "walk off home run" in the bottom of the 10th of the extra inning contest, and we stayed dry...Anissa and some of the guys bought items to take home, Anissa, a T-Shirt fanatic, picked up a old fashion "Mr Red" logo shirt which made her day...the only hitch on the way home was the fact that I got "lost" when getting off the exit at Middletown, where we were to meet up with the rest of the guys for Pizza at the Pizza Hut....road construction put the directions on worthless...but not to matter, we grabbed a bite at Wendy's, called Terry, the van driver, told him not to wait on us, and we made it home by 7:30.

A Cincinnati win, no rain out, good weather, and no problems driving{for the most part}, and a good day was had by all.....The announced crowd was 13,390, one of the worst of the year...the bare bones Reds squad, bad record, and severe weather threat probably had the number of folks show up at about 10,000...can't really tell from my Camera Phone shot from behind and above home plate, but the stands were pretty empty...giving us plenty of "stretch out and move around room". So it was not all that bad to see a small crowd.

Type 2 Pre-Diabetes?____

Got back from Cincinnati last night and listened to a message on the land line answering..."call tomorrow about you blood sugar test". Well this cant' be good, otherwise they would have just said all is fine, I thought. Anyway, long story short...blood sugar is still elevated. Possible Pre-Diabetes or Type 2 already in the works. Well Shit! No known Diabetes in the family, don't eat much sugar{plenty of beer though, especially in the summer baseball season}...but 20 pounds too heavy for my size, somewhat high blood pressure...you never know. So Tuesday morning I head back to the Doc's office at Minster and get "stuck" again for a Hemoglobin A1C test to see what is up.

To tell the truth, I'm not overly concerned, at 60 Obama and his Marxist henchman would like to see old Conservative Christians dead anyway, we are a pain in his and his agenda's ass. So sure, I can lose the weight, cut back on fatty foods, already eat plenty of veggies and fruits, already pretty active for my age{as 110 High School and American Legion baseball games this season can attest to}, but probably should walk more, and cut back on my beer consumption, which maybe the hardest part, especially in warm/hot weather. But I will do what I have to do, and see how that works out....guess I'll know more by the end of next week.

No football scrimmages this weekend, but will get back at it on Monday at Rockford, then Thursday at Spencerville.....the Regular season begins next Friday for the Varsity squads and the JV begin on Saturday August 29th when I have the Celina vs Lima Senior Junior Varsity game here at Celina Stadium. Patricia heads back to school at St. Henry on Monday, and the students return for classes next Tuesday.

That's about it for now....

back later

Photos-I took along an extra battery and extra disk for the Sony Digital...jumped out of the car, left the extra disk in it, thinking "no problem, I've got a new one in the camera, good for 15 or 20 shots"...wrong, I left the one at home, and when I went to snap the first photo at the entrance to GABP..."NO DISK" was the message...so anything on here is either "borrowed from the Internet, or from the Phone Camera on my cell...which the quality sucks...but, what you see, is what you get...sorry!

We had good seats for the game, right behind home plate in the second deck of the Mezzanine, giving us a row for special needs folks by ourselves...I even had a padded chair, which Patricia swapped{stole} from me about half way though the game...{top left} The entrance to GABP with the statue of "The Old Lefthander" Joe Nuxhall at the front....The Radar as it looked at 9AM, and the lack of crowd tanken by cell phone from our seats above and behind home plate.