Crosley Field

Often nicknamed “The Old Boomerang,” Crosley Field was an MLB stadium located in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. This particular ballpark was home to the Cincinnati Reds, starting from 1912, to 1970. This was also the place where the Cincinnati Bengals football team performed, not to be confused with the NFL franchise by the same name, who also performed there. The stadium came as a replacement of a former facility known as Palace of the Fans, which was already being demolished by 1912. The new stadium would eventually become the third baseball park in the National League to be constructed using steel and concrete This particular structure was quite innovative for the times, but the Cincinnati Reds were not having great seasons. The team had been struggling through the 20s, and eventually, an entrepreneur named Powel Crosley Jr. eventually purchased the team in 1934. Because so many people thought that Crosley had actually rescued this franchise with his purchase, the stadium was actually renamed Crosley Field under the drive of the team’s president, Larry MacPhail. In addition to that, Crosley himself was actually quite pleased with the name change, since he could use it for marketing purpose and advertise his products, especially his Crosley Cars, which were becoming increasingly popular at the time. The park finally entered a new golden age, with a wide variety of new addition brought on in order to modernize the structure and make it more efficient. It was important for the team to be able to cater to an audience that was in line with what other teams managed to host in their home stadiums! Having said that, the Great Depression hit the United States fairly suddenly, putting plans on hold and shifting the focus on renovations. Unfortunately, many games had to be performed at night, something that was quite unusual at the time. The stadium was outfitted with lights, sot hat people could attend games during the late hours, as they would spend most of the day looking for work or actually working. This was a time when recreational hours and free time allocation was actually shifting, and it seems that night games were a more viable opportunity for promoters to actually make more ticket sales. The Reds had a poor performance through the 50s and 60s, and eventually, the stadium closed in 1970. The park was eventually sold to the city and turned into an auto impound lot.