Tuesday, April 06, 1999

Parade garb reflects team's

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Black accents join sea of red

BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Opening Day parade winds down Fifth Street. | ZOOM |

        Cincinnatians painted the town red for the 80th annual Findlay Market Opening Day parade Monday and trimmed themselves, for a change, in black.

        Reflecting the addition of black to the home team's traditional red-and-white uniforms, hundreds of fans along the parade route donned caps, T-shirts and jackets with various black accents.

        “I love the black,” said Charles Webb Sr. of Mount Carmel. He and his wife, Debby, their son and two friends watched the parade from the southeast corner of Fifth and Vine streets for the 10th consecutive year.

        The Reds later lost their opener, 11-8, to the San Francisco Giants before 55,112 fans Monday afternoon at Cinergy Field.

Grand Marshal Joe Nuxhall | ZOOM |

        For the game and the parade, Mr. Webb wore one of the Reds' new caps, black with a red bill.

        “Just the cap, so far,” he said. “I've got my eye on the Reds' warm-up jacket with the black sleeves.”

        It was a jacket style modeled by the parade's grand marshal, Joe Nuxhall, the former Reds pitcher who began his 33rd year as a Reds broadcaster later Monday afternoon.

        Mr. Nuxhall, riding in the back of a red GTO convertible, got a warm reception throughout the 18-block parade route stretching from Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine to the Taft Theatre downtown.

Tianna Knight, 6, of Madisonville, sneaks a peek down Race Street. | ZOOM |

        Several fans left their curbside seats to shake Mr. Nuxhall's hand as the parade passed slowly by.

        At Central Parkway and Race Street, John Songer, 68, of Northside stood behind his friend, Carl Adkins, 92, of Mount Airy, who was seated in a lawn chair.

        “Joe, were you at the first parade 80 years ago?” Mr. Songer yelled out.

        Mr. Nuxhall smiled, laughed and waved.

        “He's trying to squeeze everything out of life,” said Mr. Songer, who was 8 when he met Mr. Adkins. “He said he wants me to take him to a game when the new ballpark opens.”

        The Reds are scheduled to move into a new ballpark in 2003. Architects designing it handed out surveys Monday asking fans what features they want to see in the new park.

        They also studied how a capacity crowd uses the concession areas in Cinergy Field. The architects want to figure that out before before deciding how much of Cinergy must be torn down in order to build the new ballpark, said Mike Hand, a vice president with HOK Sport, the Kansas City firm designing the new ballpark.

        “When we remove a portion, we have to make sure everything still works well,” he said.

Fresh eyes
        Besides the black caps and some talk of a new ballpark, there wasn't much new to the parade. Unless you count spectators.

Big crowds gathered at Fifth and Vine. | ZOOM |

        Deron and Mary Courtney of Covington, both 34, brought daughter Megan, 4. They watched from near the steps to Fountain Square. It was the first time for all three.

        “We thought we'd bring her this year because she's old enough to understand what's going on,” Mr. Courtney said.

        Megan said she liked the marching bands and the oversized figures from the TV show Rugrats the best. After a while, though, most of her attention was focused on her hot dog, sans bun, that she dipped in ketchup.

        Cincinnati Police had no estimate of the crowd along the parade route, although several regulars said it was larger than it had been in recent years.

        Many fans said they are enthusiastic about the Reds' off-season trades that brought to town slugger Greg Vaughn from San Diego and pitcher Denny Neagle from Atlanta, even through some fans said they hated to see second baseman Bret Boone dealt to the Braves.

        “This is the first year I've been excited about the Reds in a long time,” said Charles Webb Jr., a fifth-year Ohio State University student from Mount Carmel who watched the parade and game with his parents and two friends.

Schott appearance
        Team owner Marge Schott, a big supporter of the Opening Day parade, made an appearance and signed some autographs near Findlay Market but was not seen along the route.

        Standing curbside near Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine, Jessica Lawrence, 10, of Kennedy Heights, waited excitedly for the parade to start. She came with her dad, Larry Lawrence, 65, who was attending for the 10th consecutive year — since he retired from B&O Railroad.

        “All the way, win or lose, I love the Reds,” Mr. Lawrence said. “I think we're going to have a great year if the pitching holds up.”

        Jessica's not much into baseball. “I love parades,” she said.

        Outside of Mr. Nuxhall and a handful of military bands and units, the last of the 140 parade entries, the Budweiser Clydesdales of St. Louis, probably received the biggest ovation from onlookers. They held the attention of people along the route far more than the seemingly endless stream of hair-sprayed politicians and radio personalities, commercial entries, red automobiles and fire trucks.

        Lucy May contributed to this report.

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