Friday, May 12, 2000
PRO: Plan gives fans what they want
The Reds will have a chapel in their new ballpark, a room where players can bow their heads before a game.
I'm praying for that chapel and every other plan the Reds unveiled Thursday.
That includes engraving the outbuilding next to the team's offices with the trademark sign-off of Reds announcer Joe Nuxhall:
“Rounding third and heading for home.”
If my prayers are answered, if the latest, more-detailed drawings, blueprints and computerized renderings become a reality, the people of Greater Cincinnati will have a ballpark that feels like home. It embraces tradition.
Touching all the bases
The ballpark honors the team's rich history. An enticing courtyard pays homage to the Reds' heroes and the outfield terrace of Crosley Field. A mosaic honors the Big Red Machine. A rose garden marks the spot where Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's record for most hits in a career.
Design elements underscore how much the Reds fit into the city's fabric. A stone wall sculpture, “The Story of Baseball,” and a facade of buff-colored bricks and stone, steel beams and cables, recall features of two local landmarks, Union Terminal and the Suspension Bridge.
If the plans become brick and stone, concrete and steel, the Reds will have a true people's ballpark.
We should. We, the taxpayers of Hamilton County, are footing the bill.
We should get what we want. And deserve.
The people's requests have been voiced in this column and elsewhere.
We want a park to rival Baltimore's Camden Yards and Cleveland's Jacobs Field.
We want to pay tribute to Crosley Field and the Big Red Machine, as well as the other pennant-winning teams that have worn the wishbone “C” representing the home of professional baseball.
We want a place that says Cincinnati.
The plans unveiled Thursday give us what we want.
The ball club and the architects have paid attention to the team's history and status as a Cincinnati icon.
They have listened to their clients, the people paying for the ballpark. And they don't think our desires are out of reach.
The design features, said lead architect Joe Spear, are “within the budget.” They are not “expendable” details ready to fall victim to value engineering when costs need to be cut.
In the show
Joe Spear never went beyond playing outfield in the pee-wee league of Parsons, Kan. But he is a big-league architect.
He's led teams that designed six major-league ballparks, including Jacobs Field and Camden Yards.
His design isn't perfect. Even the architect still calls it “a work in progress.”
So, there's time to tweak the playing field — give it features as unique as the exterior — and spiff up the complex's outbuildings.
The Reds' office and hall of fame buildings need to look less like warehouses.
The hall of fame could use an engraved saying on top, just like the building next to the Reds' offices.
The latter has Joe Nuxhall's words.
A catch phrase coined by Joe's sidekick, Marty Brennaman, should top the hall of fame. Whenever the team wins — and Cincinnati celebrates — the Cooperstown-bound announcer crows:
“And this one belongs to the Reds.”
Columnist Cliff Radel can be reached at 768-8379; fax 768-8340.
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PRO: Plan gives fans what they want
