Cincinnati never loved Cinergy Field the way it did Crosley Field. But I sense sentimental feelings in the air as time runs out for the ugly heap of concrete and steel.

        Maybe people feel they're losing an old friend.

        For 32 years, the bland bowl born as Riverfront Stadium has welcomed millions of visitors. They know the stadium from what happened on the field.

        They don't know the half of it. With Cinergy Field, what you see is not necessarily what you get.

The Cincinnati skyline is changing. (Steven M. Herppich photo) DESKTOP WALLPAPER Click to load image, then right-click | ZOOM |

        The stadium has many rarely seen gems. I saw some Sunday.

        Boxes marked “Pete's Balls” in the Reds' vault.

        Marge Schott's luxury suite.

        Crosley Field memorabilia.

        The grounds crew's cage.

        Few have seen these places and things. After the stadium's planned 7 a.m. Dec. 29 implosion, no one will ever see some of them again.

        Taking in these seldom-seen sights required the services of a seasoned tour guide.

        No one's more seasoned than Bob Harrison, the Reds' building superintendent.

        Bob started working at the stadium on Jan. 26, 1976.

        “I've been here so long,” he said, “I know where everything is.”

Bob Harrison, building superintendent, shows off some of the many broken bats stored in the depths of Cinergy Field. Many will be displayed at the Reds' new museum at Great American Ball Park. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        The tour started in Bob's office. Behind an unmarked door.

        Most of the stadium's doors are that way. But Bob always knows what's inside. Even down to the location of the light switch.

        Click! On went the light inside the Reds' attic, the space called dead storage that's under the seats along the stadium's third base line.

        Think of the final scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Leaky warehouse. Boxes everywhere. Hidden treasure.

        At the end of one aisle sat a box of uniform jerseys. Ted Kluszewski's Size 50, No. 18 jersey covered Joe Morgan's Size 40, No. 8 from 1977.

        A bronze plaque honoring Johnny Bench rested against the leg of a shelving unit.

        Featuring the catcher's palm and cleat prints, the plaque was set in concrete in 1984 on the stadium's plaza. When the plaza was resurfaced, the plaque was mothballed.

        Two massive plaques from the 1920s leaned against a wall. One was a tribute to Pat Moran, manager of the 1919 Reds, the team's first World Series champs.

        Another corner held remnants of Crosley Field. Wooden seats. Metal boxes for ticket stubs. A mural that once hung above the old ballpark's concession stands.

Bill Littlejohn (center) and other members of the grounds crew relax while it rains before Sunday's game. The crew is based in a fenced-off area below the stands behind home plate. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        “All of this,” Bob said while standing by a lumberyard of broken bats, “will go on display at the Great American Ball Park or the Reds' museum.”

        It better. Otherwise the Reds and their fans will miss out on a chance to connect with the team's storied, but often neglected, past.

        John Allen stopped by on his way to his morning workout. The chief operating officer offered to show the treasures in the Reds' vault.

        Behind the safe's thick door are two boxes marked: “Pete's Balls.”

        The Reds' executive opened one box and pulled out a gray envelope. A baseball bulged at the bottom. Handwriting at the top noted: 4157 July 12, 1985.

        “Pete Rose hit these balls leading up to breaking Ty Cobb's all-time hit record,” he said.

        Closing the safe, he brought the tour to his office. A gnarled wooden stake and a weathered brass disk with a rod in its center sat on the executive suite's carpet.

        The wooden stake was used for base measurements during the construction of Riverfront Stadium. The brass piece did the same job at the new ballpark.

        Cradling both markers, the Reds' chief said: “They're going with me to the new stadium.”

        That's the thing about Cinergy. People want a piece of the old stadium at the Reds' new home.

        Two levels above John Allen, Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall prepared to broadcast another game in their 29th season on radio.

        “Stark, isn't it?” Marty said of the dicor in the duo's open-air booth.

        Millions of Reds fans have heard Marty and Joe broadcast from this place. Few have seen it.

        The concrete block walls are barren. No framed photos of famous Reds broadcasters. No plaque commemorating Marty's induction into baseball's Hall of Fame. Or Joe's membership in the Reds' hall.

        Nothing except gray paint.

        “I love this old booth,” Marty said. “It's not pretty.”

        Or comfortable. Only in the last five years have Marty and Joe broadcast atop a carpeted riser and sat on padded chairs.

        “We used to work on a concrete floor,” Marty said. And they sat on wobbly stack chairs.

        “Still, this place means the world to me,” he added. “This is the only home I've known for broadcasting baseball games in Cincinnati.”

        Joe played in and broadcast from Crosley Field. He's ready for the new ballpark.

Tom Tuerck, game day maintenance supervisor, shows the spot on Cinergy Field's roof where fireworks are launched. Fireworks mark Reds home runs and victories, and will bid farewell to Cinergy. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        “But it's going to be tough leaving this old joint,” he said.

        The old lefthander reeled off Riverfront/Cinergy memories.

        “The Big Red Machine. Pete's 4,192 hit. Tom Browning's perfect game.”

        The memories go with Marty and Joe. But they also want to take something tangible.

        “We'll take the photos from our wall of shame,” Marty said.

        Pictures of Elvis. Reds dressed as the Village People. Frank Sinatra. Lists of foreign e-mail.

        All of this adorns the wall of shame, i.e. the back of a door to one of the booth's two storage closets.

        “We just have a cross-section of crap,” Marty said. “But it's special and it's going with us. Guess we'll just take down the photos.”

        Joe had a suggestion: “Take the whole door.”

        Marty's eyes twinkled.

        “We could frame it and hang it in our new booth,” he said. “That would be huge.”

        Three booths down, 12 computer wizards hunched over their keyboards. They were busily plugging information into the scoreboard.

        Rich Linville worked on the Mr. Red race. He knows Reds fans have a thing for the race where three computerized images of the team's baseball-headed mascot dash across the scoreboard. The race's outcome generates lots of beer bets in the stands.

        There are 15 Mr. Red races. Rich picks them at random.

        “I have been approached about revealing who wins,” he said.

        “But there is no violating the sanctity of the Mr. Red race.”

        Just a few steps from the scoreboard booth stands a door marked 401 Private.

        Welcome to Marge's world. Stadium insiders say Cinergy's most ornately decorated luxury suite is Marge Schott's.

        Detailed woodwork, rich paneling and brass hardware line this shrine to all things Marge.

        The suite is jammed with photos, paintings, awards and knickknacks connected with the former Reds boss and her beloved dogs.

        A life-sized stuffed toy St. Bernard guarded the bar.

        A teddy bear sat nearby. The bear wore a T-shirt whose front proclaimed, “A woman's place is at home,” and whose back declared, “And at 1st base, 2nd base and 3rd base . . . Right, Marge?”

        Fireworks follow a home run and a home team victory. Their launching pad sits on the catwalk circling Cinergy's roof — 325 feet above home plate.

        The game-day explosives have lots of company on the catwalk. Pallets, each holding six orange tubes of fireworks, are in place along the steel walkway. They'll be detonated after Friday night's game from the stadium's peak.

Sunday's game sold out in less than an hour, but you can still get tickets for Friday and Saturday. Or, see your friendly neighborhood scalper. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        Cinergy's lowest point, a pumping station for keeping flood waters out of the stadium, sits 22 feet below the playing field in the home-run territory of center field.

        When the river rose, Bob Harrison would play submariner as he lifted a lid on the stadium's floor and eased down a ladder in a narrow concrete tube to the subterranean station.

        “Had to make sure those pumps were working,” he said, “or the stadium would flood.”

        Closing the pumping station's hatch, Bob pointed out two pieces of Cinergy trivia: the restaurant that never was and the stadium's rear wall.

        Overhead, a section of the yellow-seat level sported the Power Alley party area. That space was supposed to be the stadium restaurant. It became a monument to frustration. The Reds and Bengals, the stadium's tenants, never agreed how to share the restaurant's proceeds with the city, then the stadium's owner. Shades of things to come at Paul Brown Stadium.

        Nodding toward Cinergy's riverside wall, Bob noted: “No one can say all of the old stadium is coming down Dec. 29. Part of that old wall stays. It's attached to an exit for the new ballpark.”

        Walking along the service tunnel ringing the stadium's base, Bob stopped to unlock yet another unmarked door.

        “This is new storage,” he said. Home to game-day giveaways like bobblehead dolls and the 30-year-old “Big Red Machine” AstroZamboni. The four-wheel contraption with 564.5 miles on its odometer and a 100-gallon drum on its back vacuumed rain from the stadium's carpet when it was AstroTurf.

        Rumor has the AstroZamboni making one more trip to the field. Its mission: Take home plate on its ceremonial ride to the new stadium.

        Without AstroTurf, rain soaks into the stadium's grass. Puddles are tended to by members of the grounds crew.

        They're headquartered in what they call “The Cage.” That's a fenced-off area under the stands behind home plate.

        During a rare downpour, the crewmen lounged in the cage before Sunday's game. A cooking show host jabbered on a nearby TV. No one jotted down the recipe.

        They were preoccupied thinking about the end of Cinergy Field.

        “I saw the Reds play like champions in '95 and '99 and (Junior) Griffey's debut here,” said Tony Hert, an 11-year stadium employee and grounds crew rookie.

        “If I'm not lucky to help move home plate to the new park, I'll be happy just to take my memories.”

        Matt Williams plans to do that. And more.

        The second-year grounds crewman saw his first big-league baseball game at the stadium in 1982. He came to Cincinnati with his dad from their hometown of Mount Vernon, Ohio.

        “My grandfather, Floyd Williams, had a lawnmower shop there for years,” Matt said.

        “He passed away before I graduated from college. But I know he'd be interested in the mowers we use.

        “So, after the last game, I'm going to take some of the grass I've cared for and plant it by his grave. A little bit of this stadium will be there forever.”

        That piece of Cinergy sod will be a tribute to his grandfather. Compliments of a friend.

        ———

        Call Cliff Radel at 768-8379; or e-mail cradel@enquirer.com.

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