Tomball Golf

Crosley Field, Cincinnati, OH, July 30, 1967 - Reds left fielder Pete Rose is standing in the shadow of one of the most majestic scoreboards the majors have ever seen with a 7-foot Longines clock perched on top.

It was built in 1957 standing 58-feet tall and it took five people to man it. Note the slope of the field nicknamed "The Terrace", instead of a warning track the Crosley Field simply elevated the turf 15 feet in front of the fence, It rose four feet at a 15-degree angle to the wall. Rose once explained how he dealt with the unorthodox slope, “What you do is play on the bottom of the terrace. Too many guys played where they took three or four steps, then hit the terrace and fell down. But if you played right on the bottom of the terrace where your first step is on the hill, then you won't fall down.”.

Sadly, this beautiful ballpark and scoreboard's lifespan was winding down, in 1970 the Reds would move from Crosley Field into Riverfront Stadium, a multi-purpose facility that would become one of the many "cookie-cutter" stadiums built in the 1970s that were loathed by many baseball fans, and on On April 19, 1972 the historic ballpark would be razed to the ground.

-Ron A. Bolton

Info source - Bill Guttman

‘MERICA