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Here are 3 notable opening day moments from Reds history.
1. Take me out to the ball game
The first opening day “festivities” held for the Cincinnati Red Stockings took place in 1889, according to Reds.
Back then if you bought a ticket to sit in a box, it would have only cost you $1. A ticket to sit in the reserved grandstand cost 75 cents, a seat in a covered pavilion was 50 cents and a quarter would get you a seat in the bleachers. Season tickets back then were $35.
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Credit: Ron Alvey
Credit: Ron Alvey
2. Everyone loves a parade
The inaugural parade celebrating Cincinnati baseball was held in 1890, according to the Findlay Market Opening Day website. That parade consisted of three street cars – one for the Reds, one for the visiting Chicago Colts team and the third for a marching band.
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Findlay Market made its debut in the parade at Opening Day in 1920. The festivities gathered steam through the years, and in 1970, local news stations began covering it live on television.
3. Resting up for the big game
The night before Pete Rose made his major league debut in 1963, a psychologist ordered him to spend the night in a hotel to ward off a potential case of the nerves.
“I was nervous only once. That was about an hour before the game when they took my picture with mom and dad and my little brother, David,” Rose told the Dayton Daily News after the next day’s opener. “That’s the only time I thought very much about playing in front of my folks and my friends in the big league. Then it wore off and I was all right.”
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