Cincinnati Sports & Outdoors

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Cincinnati Bengals games. Fun. Crowd is a little on the tame side compared to other NFL Stadiums. Don't be afraid to wear your jersey if you are a visiting team fan. As long as you keep to yourself and aren't obnoxious, you will be just fine.
Tickets aren't cheap by any means and neither are the beers. $8.50 for a regular sized beer, mainly just Bud Light and Budweiser.
Open aired stadium and during the winter months, this place gets extremely cold because you are right next to the Ohio River. The cold breezes are bone chilling.
Nearly 70,000 seats. Be sure to read up on your seats before you purchase your tickets. I have attached a link to help you choose your seats at the game.

As far as dining, there is very little in downtown Cincinnati especially near the two stadiums. It is very strange. Fountain square has all of the dining including RockBottom Brewery, Chipotle, Mccormick and Schmicks and Morton's Steakhouse. Very few fast food joints aside from the food court in the Tower Place Shops.

You will have fun. It's a promise.

Equipment: Dress warm during winter months for games. Ohio River makes the weather even colder. As far as team gear, Koch's Sporting Goods on Fourth Avenue has everything Reds and Bengals that you will ever need, affordable too. Stay away from the team's pro shops.

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West Chester's VOA Park was the original site of the Voice of America broadcast which had the largest broadcast range in the US reaching around the globe, sort of akin to Radio Free Europe in Europe. Unfortunately, this is no longer the site of VOA having been decommissioned in 1995, the year I moved to this area. The broadcast antenna was a signature feature of the rolling landscape surrounding West Chester at the cross roads of Cox & Tylersville Roads. Plans are underway to build a museum.

This park is now used for Little League baseball games & soccer games. The park is huge & can accommodate many teams in its far-reaching areas. When our daughter was in soccer a few years ago, we used to come here quite a bit to watch her practice & to attend her games. As mentioned in a restaurant tip, it is customary after the games to go to the nearby The Cone for an after-game ice cream treat!

In recent years, soccer has really picked up popularity in the U.S. which is why there are so many growing teams across the country and why we now have the ubiquitous "soccer mom" in our lexicon. For those who don't know, a "soccer mom" is a mom who's responsibility is to drive many team members back & forth to the practices & games in her minivan. She almost invariably has a soccer sticker in the window.

Also, this is a great place to go kite flying in early spring (March-April) or sledding during winter months when it snows!

Equipment: The kids, the soccer or baseball gear, protective equipment, water/juice/fruit/snacks for energy, sleds when it snows, kites during early spring.

Photos: December 2004

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Watch the Reds play at Great American Stadium.

Cincinnati was home to America's first professional baseball team- the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Cincinnati was originally a member of the National League along with Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Hartford, Louisville, New York and Philadelphia. They were expelled from the NL in 1880, due in part to its refusal to stop renting out their ballpark on Sundays and to cease selling beer during games. The following year, they were made part of the new American League. Then in 1889 they were granted admission back into the National League.

Equipment: The Reds played first on Redland Field which was renamed Crosley Field in 1934 in honor of the new team owner Powel Crosley Jr. Crosley, a radio tycoon, who had bought the team earlier in the year. In 1967, the Reds moved to the new Riverfront Stadium which was later renamed Cinergy Field. In 2003, the Reds moved to the Great American Ball Park.

The Great American Ball Park, new Ohio riverfront home of the Cincinnati Reds, opened in the spring of 2003. The Reds are the oldest professional baseball team in America. This ultra-modern professional baseball complex was built at a cost of $280 million and seats 42,263, with 19,012 of the seats on the first level.

Click on the web link below to find the current game schedule and for ticket information.

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If you love sports, Cincinnati is your place. There are major U.S. cities that don't have one pro sports team. Cincinnati has several and there is a reason for that...Cincinnatians are loyal fans.

You might finding them attending church on Sundays and attending to the TV or the football stadium on fall Sunday afternoons. Weeknights you're liable to find people still dressed in their work attire catching a Cincinnati Reds' game in the spring. On weekends, the ballpark is a family affair still where you'll see youngsters everywhere with baseball gloves hoping to catch that foul ball. In the winter, people flock to hockey games. Cincinnati doesn't have an NHL team, but they do have the Cincinnati Cyclones and the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks and their fans are avid followers.

If you're more of a fan of college sports, Cincinnati has many noteworthy teams in the city or within driving distance. In Cincinnati, there are the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the Xavier Musketeers - best known for their basketball teams. Every basketball season, there is a 'Crosstown Shootout" game and tickets will sell out to see two of the nation's great basketball teams take it to the court. Love college football? Miami University is just to the Northwest of the city. Ohio State is also a two-hour drive North of the city.

If you're one who likes to go out and DO, you're also in luck, especially if you're a golfer! There are many quality golf courses in the area. The city also has a fantastic park system where you can play all kinds of sports. Check out the parks here: http://www.hamiltoncountyparks.org/ - The Ohio River is also a great place to bring your boat and there is always East Fork State Park in Clermont County about 30-40 minutes East of the city. This park is also great for camping, fishing, horseback riding and has a sand beach.

If you time your trip just right, you can catch quite a a few sporting events in overlapping seasons and also partake in all the other fun that Cincinnati has to offer.

Equipment: Golf Galaxy is a great place to get golf equipment...they also provide putting greens and driving rooms with sensors to measure your progress. You can find a list of locations for any state here: http://images.golfgalaxy.com/f/726/16199/4h/www.golfgalaxy.com/galaxy/dept.asp?s%5Fid=0&dept%5Fid=250&#oh

There are also great little stores to get sporting equipment in called 'Play it Again Sports' where you can get discounted gently-used sports equipment. It lists three Cincinnati locations, but I think there are more in smaller suburbs of Cincinnati if you're not staying near one of these locations. I'd call first. The locations listed can be found here: http://www.playitagainsports.com/franchise/storefinder.asp

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American Football

Named for the famous Bengal tigers at the Cincinnati Zoo, the Bengals in their signature Orange/Black team colors train a full hour away in their Georgetown, KY training camp. Their cheerleaders are known as the Ben-GALS (clev-er).

I have never seen a Bengals football game & I doubt that I will. I suppose I'm a little bitter that this team has bilked Cincinnati citizens out of millions of future tax dollars. Historically, consistently one of the worst professional teams in the league, they've somehow managed to con a brand-new stadium out of the City of Cincinnati claiming that they would be a much better team if they just had a new stadium. The worst part is that they've just announced they cannot pay their stadium rent. It looks like a spaceship, doesn't it?

But after years of bitterly complaining about the Bengals I must admit to kicking myself this year because THE BENGALS ARE NOW ONE OF THE BEST TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE!! Read about it here

To read about local coverage of the team by the Cincinnati Enquirer click HERE.

For less biased coverage from ESPN, click HERE.

Click here to see the current schedule.

Equipment: Bring your MONEY! You'll need money for the souvenirs & the beer & hotdogs you'll buy not to mention the cost of parking (Cincinnati Enquirer Bldg)!

You might also wish to show up with a Bengals football jersey jacket to prove your loyalty to the team!

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BASEBALL!

It seems every kid in America grew up playing baseball or, at the very least, softball. Without being able to cite official rules we still all know how to play the game. I tried recently to explain to a European friend how to play it, simple right? It took me much longer to explain than I expected and I doubt he has any more idea of how to play than before I told him.

The first professional baseball franchise, the Cincinnati Reds was one of the best professional Major League baseball teams during the 1980s led by baseball great, Pete Rose. This team garnered the nickname during that time of the Big Red Machine, denoting its position of power. One of the great tragedies of baseball is that Pete Rose has not yet been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, is apparently waiting for Rose to make a full confession on his gambling activities. Perhaps when that happens, Pete will at last have his rightful place in Baseball history.

Current Reds manager is Dave Miley.

Current favorites in the stadium are Ken Griffey, Jr. & Barry Larkin. I get a chill every time the announcer drawls out BA-aaaaaaaRRY LARKIN! It's just great!

Our family loves going to the games. There's such a great deal of excitement, an energy in the air that just isn't as palpable watching the game from home or in a sports bar. The stadium is huge, the lights are bright, close-ups of the game are shown up on the monitor & during the breaks in the game, the players warm up & do crazy things with the crowd.

STRICTLY FOR THOSE WHO DON'T FOLLOW BASEBALL:
Click here to read the Official Baseball Rules (you may click further links in the left-hand margin of the website).

Located here is also the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.

Equipment: Bring your MONEY! You'll need money for the souvenirs & the beer & hotdogs (& peanuts & popcorn & cracker jacks) you'll buy not to mention the cost of parking!

You might also wish to show up with a Reds baseball jacket or a Reds ballcap indicating your loyalty to the team! When I was growing up baseball meant the Cincinnati Reds. If you were going to a pro game it automatically meant you were going to Cincinnati. GO REDS!

Ah, the Cincinnati Reds. This is the team that was the first professional baseball team, the team that brought you the signs for balls and strikes, and is the proud holder of the opening day tradition.

Yeah, that's great and all, but they haven't been in the playoffs in decades!

The Cincinnati Reds do win occasionally, sometimes in big ways. And if you want to see the stars of the future, the team has a bunch! They also have stars of the present, but they are always injured.

The red seats are cheap, and still a pretty decent view of the action, and if you eat before coming to the ballpark, you have an evening of entertainment for a fairly small expense.

Equipment: Really, Great American Ballpark has everything you need. All you need to do is bring yourself and money to cover whatever kind of stuff you want to buy.