Crosley Field was a Major League Baseball park in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the home field of the National League's Cincinnati Reds from 1912 through June 24, 1970, and the original Cincinnati Bengals football team, members of the second (1937) and third American Football League (1940–41). It was not the original home of the current NFL franchise of the same name: the home of those Bengals in 1968 and 1969 was nearby Nippert Stadium, located on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Crosley Field was on an asymmetrical block bounded by Findlay Street (south), Western Avenue (northeast, angling), Dalton Avenue (east), York Street (north) and McLean Avenue (west) in the Queensgate section of the city. Crosley has the distinction of being the first major-league park with lights for playing night games.
The "Findlay and Western" intersection was the home field of the Reds from 1884 until mid-season 1970, when the team moved to Riverfront Stadium. The location of the diamond and consequently the main grandstand seating area was shifted several times during the seasons that the Reds played at the site. Three different parks stood there:
1884–1901: League Park 1902–1911: Palace of the Fans 1912–1970: Redland Field, renamed Crosley Field in 1934
History
Rebuilding Between the 1911 and 1912 seasons, the entire seating area of the Palace of the Fans and the remaining seating from the original League Park were demolished. They were replaced with the third steel-and-concrete stadium in the National League. It consisted of a double-deck grandstand around the diamond, positioned in the southwest corner of the lot. Beyond first and third base were single-deck covered pavilions extended to the corners, with bleachers in the right field area. The unusual angle of the covered areas down the lines, and behind home plate gave that area a distinctive "V" shape, giving rise to one of several nicknames the park had, "The Old Boomerang."
Redland Field, whose name was a reference to the Reds' name and color, was built for $225,000 by Harry Hake Sr.'s architectural firm. Initially, Cincinnati fans that were not interested in the new name continued to call the facility League Park (IV), just like with the Palace of the Fans. Unlike the Palace of the Fans, the new name of the ballpark stuck around and fans got used to it. It was one of many classic steel and concrete ballparks constructed during the first ballpark boom era of 1909–1923. Chicago's Wrigley Field and Boston's Fenway Park were also built during this era and remain in use today. Although occupying the site since 1884, the Reds dated their ballpark from the permanent structure opened in 1912.
Throughout its history, Redland/Crosley Field was usually among the smallest parks in the major leagues. It accommodated 25,000 fans in 1912; even at its peak, it barely exceeded 30,000 seats, excluding temporary seating areas created for opening day and World Series games. Contributing to this was the lack of bleachers in left or center fields; all outfield seating (about 4,500 seats), were in the semi-trapezoid-shaped right field stands that came to be known as the "Sun Deck" (or, in the case of night games, the "Moon Deck").
On August 3, 1919, up 2.5 games on the second place New York Giants, 43,000 fans crowded into the park to see the Reds host the Giants. The official attendance was 31,363, but it was reported in the press, "Forty-three thousand baseball enthusiasts were wadded tightly into every conceivable corner that would hold a human being and it was not the fault of the rooting that the Reds lost."
Groundskeeper Mathias "Matty" Schwab, who had been hired in 1894, had the sod laid just in time for the Reds' first game at the new park, April 11, 1912. In the game, the Reds rallied from a 5–0 deficit to defeat the Chicago Cubs 10–6, the same team that had opened and closed at the Palace in 1902 and 1911 respectively. Schwab would be the Reds' groundkeeper until he retired at age 83 in 1963.
The Reds' on-field success continued to be sparse most of the time, but the club won the National League pennant in 1919, the franchise's first league title in 37 years, going back to the AA inaugural season. It was also the 50th anniversary of the Cincinnati Red Stockings' historic tour, and was a celebratory occasion for Cincinnati fans, especially when they scored an upset win over the Chicago White Sox in the World Series. The win was tainted by the fact, made public a year later, that the Series had been "thrown" by the heavily favored Sox. The Reds gradually returned to mediocrity and attendance flagged.
Crosley and lights When local businessman Powel Crosley Jr. bought the struggling Reds in 1934, team president Larry MacPhail insisted that the ballpark be renamed in honor of the man many thought had rescued the franchise.Naylor Stone. "Changes in Baseball Effective Here, Too It Is Crosley Field.Cincinnati Post, April 17, 1934, p. 12. Thus, the park was renamed "Crosley Field", and Crosley himself took the opportunity to advertise his Crosley cars. Under Crosley's ownership, the park underwent notable structural renovations.
With the effects of the Great Depression in Cincinnati, the Reds convinced baseball owners to allow night baseball at Crosley Field. Without lights, Larry MacPhail insisted, the team would fold because of low attendance. Lights had been installed in a number of minor league ballparks in the early 1930s, with positive results. The major league owners acquiesced; 632 individual lamps in eight metal stanchions were erected in 1935 and the Reds hosted the Philadelphia Phillies under the lights on Friday, May 24. In attendance at the game was Ford Frick, president of the National League. In the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a button that lit up Crosley Field, where a crowd of 20,422 fans, sizable for a last-place team in the middle of the Great Depression, came out to watch the game. Lou Chiozza was the leadoff man for the Phillies and thus has the distinction of being the first player to bat under the lights in a night game in the majors. The Reds won the game 2–1 behind right-hander Paul Derringer.
On July 31, a large crowd showed up to see the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, the defending World Series champions, in the sixth night game at Crosley Field. As the game progressed, the throng of Reds fans forced people onto the field of play which caused mass confusion for the police and umpires. (This was during a time in baseball when overflow crowds were often allowed to sit or stand on the fringes of the playing field.) Reds manager Chuck Dressen could only follow the game via the scoreboard. At one point, he was heard to say: "I see the Cardinals got a run — but I don't know how they got it".
During a lull in the eighth inning, a local burlesque performer named Kitty Burke came out of the crowd, picked up the Reds outfielder Floyd "Babe" Herman's bat, stepped into the batter's box, and dared the Cardinals' starter, Paul "Daffy" Dean, to throw her a pitch. He accommodated Burke with a soft toss; Burke grounded weakly to first base. The "pinch hit" appearance was never recorded as an official at bat, of course, but nonetheless, Burke began promoting herself as the first woman in major league history. Allegedly, the Reds gave her a uniform.
The late 1930s finally brought some prosperity to the club again, along with some changes to the ballpark. After the 1937 season, home plate was moved toward center field, decreasing the park's outfield dimensions while expanding foul ground. Left field was reduced from ; right field from ; and the deepest part of center field, at the corner of the Sun Deck, was reduced from . In 1937, the Mill Creek flooded, submerging the field under of water. As a lark, Reds pitcher Lee Grissom and the team's traveling secretary, John McDonald, got into a rowboat and entered Crosley Field over the left field fence and rowed to the area of the pitcher's mound. There was a photographer present, of course, and the picture has been well-circulated since then. For example, it can be seen on p. 40–41 of Lost Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter.
The following summer, Crosley hosted Cincinnati's first All-Star Game on Wednesday, July 6, 1938, won by the National League. In the middle of a pennant-winning season of 1939, their first in twenty years, the Reds added roofed upper decks to the left and right side pavilions, increasing the seating capacity by some 5,000 to give the ballpark the appearance it retained for the rest of its existence. The Reds lost the World Series to the powerful New York Yankees in a four-game sweep, but bounced back to win the pennant again in 1940, then defeated the Detroit Tigers in a seven-game thriller.
Later years By the 1950s, the Reds were back to mediocrity, but they had some sluggers, including the muscle-bound Ted Kluszewski, who took full advantage of Crosley's cozy dimensions. Crosley Field again hosted the All-Star Game in 1953.
After a poor season in 1960, the "Ragamuffin Reds" put everything together in 1961 and won the National League pennant, an effort documented in pitcher Jim Brosnan's book, Pennant Race. The dream season ended for the Reds at the hand of the Yankees, whose slugging duo of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle had demolished the rest of the American League. Maris, who had set a record with 61 home runs that season, also knocked one into the Moon Deck in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the World Series.
Crosley Field was the site of the major leagues' first save, after the save became an official statistic in 1969. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Bill Singer earned the save on April 7, 1969, in the season opener, working three scoreless innings after taking over for Dodgers starting and winning pitcher Don Drysdale. Singer did not allow a hit, walking one batter and striking out one, as the Dodgers beat the Reds, 3–2.
The Reds would continue to be a frequent contender, gradually building up toward what would become known as the "Big Red Machine". By the time the Reds reached that peak, though, Crosley would be but a memory. Crosley Field's decline had begun in earnest in the mid-1950s with the automobile supplanting the train as the main method of transportation. The ballpark was located in the dense west end. Businesses (such as the Superior Towel and Linen Service, a.k.a. "The Laundry", as well as a large factory) bounded the park on three sides. The neighborhood was not suited for the automobile; parking increasingly became a major problem in the last 15 years of Crosley Field's existence, as did crime — especially during night games.
Around 1960, Powel Crosley was courted by a group seeking to return a National League franchise to New York City to replace the Dodgers and the Giants, who had moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively after the 1957 season. The moves left the American League Yankees as the city's sole baseball team. A move to New York was speculated in the media as early as 1957, prior to the Dodgers and Giants moving to California. Crosley was unwilling to move. However, he died the following year and his estate sold the team a few months later to Bill DeWitt, who kept Crosley's name on the park.
Complicating matters was that legendary football coach Paul Brown, the founder of the Cleveland Browns, who had been deposed by new owner Art Modell in 1963, was wanting to get back into professional football. He was granted an American Football League franchise for Cincinnati, the Bengals. A contingency of that agreement was that an appropriate facility be ready by the time the 1970 National Football League season began, which would be the first season that the AFL was fully merged with the NFL.