Now, this is important! A friend of mine, Kevin Fisher, of Kansas, recently took a trip to the old Crosley site and became totally confused by the placement of "Home Plate" outside the front of Phillip's Supply. He was right to be confused because that is not where home plate was located! Furthermore, the memorial home plate faces in the wrong direction, adding to the confusion. It will lead the informed baseball fan to believe that the playing field was to the south of Phillip's Supply, across Findlay Street. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It lay to the north and east of this bronze plate. Visit this section of the site and you will see what I mean and discover how to find the true location of home plate. The link will open in a new browser screen so you can close that screen and return here. Thanks for pointing this out, Kevin!

Now let's head back towards the monument. When you get to Dalton, remember that this is where it ended. Dalton (going north) deadended into Crosley. Now let's take a left turn on Dalton. You are now proceeding right through the middle of Crosley Field, heading straight for the left-center corner of the park. When you come to York you are at the left-center field wall. Take a left turn and proceed west on York to the Moellering building. This building was standing at the time Crosley Field was here and now marks the extreme NW corner of the ballpark. The low wall with the name Moellering on it is an extention of the left field wall of Crosley Field.

Alongside the Moellering Building, to the east, you can see the old terraced ground of left field.   (Note in Photo: The terrace slope is NOT the right to left slope you see, but the upward slope you see going away from you. Look at the base of the white brick wall and you will see it plainly). The field actually rose to meet the fence. The players had an uphill run as they approached the wall. This terrace remains, at this point, but this portion would have been just behind the stands. You see, the park was built on an old brick yard, whose surface was below road level. The terrace was already there before the park was built. (Left field only. The terrace was extended around to the right field corner in 1936.)

Are you getting the feel for it yet? Now walk back York to Dalton Street and look straight ahead. Imagine that York goes on straight ahead (as it used to). Look to the back corner of the parking lot in front of you. That is where Western Avenue once came through. Now cross Dalton and go to the back of the parking lot and look south. You can see where Western Avenue used to come straight to you and meet with York. The view in this photo would be along the center field wall, looking south down Western Avenue. Picture the backs of these buildings on the right as the outside of the center field wall of Crosley.The scoreboard (left-center field) was at the SW corner of York and Western, right about where this building is now. In fact, when looking at this building from this vantage point, it is just as if you were looking at the back of the old scoreboard while standing in the intersection of Western & York! Now that you have seen this building up close, you can refer back to the view from Clifton Hill and find this building in that photo. It is plainly visible at the left of the photo. Now turn to your right and look back down York Street. This would have been looking right down the left field wall when Crosley was still here. The wall stretched all the way from the Moellering Building (behind those trees) to where you are standing (at the scoreboard). Where those trucks are parked was where the Superior Towel & Linen building was located. Take a look back in time. Now, see them side by side.

Now, here is a comparison of two photos taken from Clifton Hill, one taken during the Crosley era, and one after she was gone, as Queensgate appears today.

Now you have pretty well walked the length and breadth of the old park. I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I did when I recently went down there again.

[INDEX ]

1969

Other Info... Open this photo of Crosley Field and notice that spectators are seated in the outfield on the terrace. This was not common practice. This photo was probably taken on an opening day, when seating on the terrace was the practice. In 1946, seats were installed on the terrace in front of the right field bleachers during the regular season. This area was known as the "goatrun"! Over the next thirteen years it was removed and rebuilt intermittently. The addition of this extra seating reduced the right field line to a mere 342 feet. Remember, without the "goatrun" the right field line was 366 feet. This photo was taken sometime between 1935 and 1938. The lights (present in photo) were added for night baseball in 1935 (The first night game in MLB history was hosted at Crosley on May 24, 1935). The lack of a press box on the grandstand roof shows that the photo is pre 1938 as that was the year the press box was added. The extended upper deck (not present in this photo) was added in 1939 adding 3000 much needed seats. When the upper deck was extended in late 1939 (My father's photos from the 40's show it extended) it created whole new effect at Crosley. The decking was steel, rather than concrete, and when fans stomped on it in unison it created quite a noise!

[INDEX ]

Crosley Field is most well known as the cathedral of Cincinnati Reds' Baseball. From 1912 until 1970 over 4500 baseball games were played within her confines. Throughout the years, however, Crosley was used for other purposes, as well. Perhaps the most memorable use of Crosley was the half hour Beatles concert held there on a Sunday afternoon in 1966. The concert was attended by 15,000 screaming fans!

Thanks to the photography of photojournalist Gordon Baer, we can relive this event in Crosley Field history.

Beatles' concerts were not the only other use of Crosley Field. In 1884 Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show" put on a performance at Findlay Street and Western Avenue. This was, of course, before Crosley Field was built at that location, but it was the Reds' ball field they used. At that time League Park was located there.

Redland Field played host to The Holy Name Parade in the 1920's.

Crosley Field, like many ballparks of its era, was the scene of many different functions. There were boxing matches, moonlight dances, circus performances, and concerts. Although they call the new stadia "multi-purpose", they have nothing on old Crosley Field!

Oh yes, Crosley Field had one last use in her long and glorious life. Crosley's final use, and it was sad to see, was as an auto impound lot. The once grand cathedral of Cincinnati baseball stood alone in a vast sea of abandoned parking lots, her field strewn with impounded automobiles. Ironic, in that it was the automobile more than anything else, that forced Crosley's "relocation" to an area with better traffic flow and more parking.

[INDEX ]