By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Two and a half years of toiling by architects and construction crews produced a striking new baseball facility on the Ohio River, but no matter how hard they worked, no matter how many flourishes they added, they couldn't transform their work into an actual ballpark by themselves.

PHOTO GALLERY   16 photos from the first game at Great American Ball Park

That transformation took place Friday at 7:11 p.m. when Reds right-hander Ryan Dempster delivered the first pitch to Cleveland Indians center fielder Milton Bradley, who grounded it to second baseman Aaron Boone.

Boone flipped the ball to first baseman Sean Casey to retire Bradley, and Great American Ball Park was born.

It was only an exhibition game - the true Opening Day will occur Monday when the Reds play the Pittsburgh Pirates at 4:10 p.m. - but it was the first time a baseball game was played in the new park on the river.

Only about half the spectators in the sellout crowd of 42,263 were settled into their seats when Dempster made his first pitch, but those who were on hand marked the occasion with a flurry of camera flashes as they attempted to record a slice of Reds history.

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Aerial view of the first game at Great American Ball Park. (Glenn Hartong photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

The Reds take the field to start Friday's exhibition game with the Indians. (AP/Mark Duncan photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

Austin Kearns runs out of the dugout. (AP/Scott Osborne photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

The sun sets over Great American Ball Park, downtown and the river. (AP/Tom Uhlman photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

The Reds take batting practice. (Craig Ruttle photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

Among the fans who had come to see the first game at Great American Ball Park were Ron and Rhonda Chambless of Amberley Village, who arrived more than an hour before the game and promptly deposited themselves in their terrace infield box seats behind home plate to drink in the atmosphere.

"The first thing I said was, `Wow, this is Crosley Field,' " said Rhonda, a Reds season-ticket holder since 1981.

There was no shortage of exclamations about the new ballpark, from both fans and players as they became accustomed to the new surroundings.

"To me, it's the best park to look at," said left fielder Adam Dunn. "I'd love to be a fan sitting in the stands watching a game here. If I ever get ejected, I'm going to get a ticket and watch the game."

Dunn and the Reds got their first look at their new home Thursday night when the plane transporting the Reds to Cincinnati from their spring training home in Sarasota, Fla., flew over the glittering park on its way to the airport.

"I don't know if that was planned," Dunn said, "but if it was, that was a good idea. The lights were on. It looked awesome. I thought the plane was going to tip over. Everybody moved to one side of the plane."

Several hours before the game, third baseman Aaron Boone sat in the Reds' dugout, which had the scent of a new car, and marveled at what he saw.

"I walked out here by myself last night with the lights on," Boone said. "When I walked out here, I was like, `Wow this is a miracle, seeing where it started from and watching it go up before your eyes. It's a special place. Hopefully we can make some memories in it."

Ken Griffey Jr. produced the first Reds hit, a single up the middle off Indians right-hander Ricardo Rodriguez.

But it was the Indians who produced the most memories, beginning with left fielder Matt Lawson's first-inning home run off Dempster, who departed after 31/3 innings, having allowed six runs and six hits.

This wasn't a night, though, to fret about the Reds' starting pitching or their inability to hit. It was a night for marveling at the new jewel on the riverfront.

And it was a night for fathers like Bob Soehner of Fairfield Township, who stationed himself before the game in the lower left-field seats with a glove on his left hand, as the Indians took batting practice, trying to secure a ball for his 6-year-old son, Matt.

"It's beautiful," Soehner said. "It's a ballpark. It's a real ballpark. Riverfront in its day was nice, but there's no comparison."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com