Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Judy thank you. My stepdaughter Elizabeth made masks for everyone in the family. She knew my preference. 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I'm waiting for a mask to come in the mail from the WHHS Alumni Foundation.

Jerry Ochs

The correct way to wear a mask.

Philip Spiess

I suppose we have to keep hounding people to wear their masks.

(Don't forget to wear your mask on Hallowe'en!)

Doug Gordon

I have to add my memories of Crosley Field, which started when my dad took me to my first-ever game on Opening Day when I was in maybe 1st or 2nd grade. It was really exciting since I got a note to get out of class early and meet him in front of the school. We parked on the street downtown and my dad gave a quarter to a local kid who offered to "watch our car" (urban protection racket?). The Reds played the Phillies with Robin Roberts on the mound. They lost that game, but that memory has been brought back every time I enter a major league ballpark and get that first sight of the green, green grass as I come out of the chaotic concourse and approach the seats. Tiger Stadium here in Detroit was of a similar vintage and style, and I miss it for the same reasons; Comerica Park is awful by comparison.

Jon, thanks for making me feel guilty again about the way we often treated Mr. Fish. Even in those days, I sometimes felt bad about it and realized that he had a really tough job to do. At least he tried to actually teach us something even as things got more and more out of control.

And Judy, my brother told me that he's recently been in contact with your brother again. I think Dave's the only once that Colin's kept in touch with over all these years.

Chuck Cole

I wonder if any in any other major league cities students were excused from classes if they had a ticket to the opening game.  I always liked the fact that the first game of the season (for every team) was always played in Cincinnati, in homage to the country's firsst professonal baseball team, the Cincinnati Redlegs.  

Phillip Spiess--does you historical purview extend the Cincinnati Redlegs, later Reds, of the 19th century?

Paul Youngs

I remember vividly all the Reds games I would listen to on the radio. Even today I don't watch much baseball on TV but love listening to the Phillies on the radio while in the car. Ray Jablonsky, Roy McMillan, Johnny Temple, Gus Bell, Andy Seminick, Smokey Burgess, Ed Bailey, Jim Greengrass, Glen Gorbous, Wally Post, and the BIg Klu. I can still remember the day my father told me that he was traded to the White Sox- I was convinced initially that my father was joking. Broke my heart!

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Hi Doug.

Yes, my brother David speaks sometimes about Collin. They were pretty close friends, and he's always very happy to reconnect. Unlike me, my brother sometimes goes back to Ye Olde Countrye to class reunions and comes back all charged up and full of stories.

I don't think I'll be able to leave Israel in 2021 to come back to a reunion if we have one, unless there's a vaccine tested on elderlies....

Gail, what's the latest about 2021? Zoom zoom zoom?

David Buchholz

And speaking of Crosley Field...in 1965 I watched Jim Maloney pitch a no-hitter through nine innings, then lose 1-0 to the Mets on a rookie's home-run in the tenth.  The next day I climbed aboard a TWA flight to San Francisco and was puzzled to see that the plane was full of young men, each holding a drink, chatting, and taking up most of the coach seats.  As we prepared for take-off a man sat down next to me in the middle seat.  I looked at him and asked, "Are you Warren Spahn?"  "Yes," he answered.  "And all the Mets are on the plane?"  I asked.  "Yes," he answered.  "Can I have your autograph?"  I asked, then looked around for paper, a pen, or anything that he could possibly write on.  Frustrated, I found the only paper in front of my seat, and Warren Spahn autorgraphed my vomit bag.  I remembered that Casey Stengel managed the team at that time.  "Is Casey here?" I asked.  "Yes," Spahn answered.  "He's in first class."  Undaunted, I climbed out of my seat, walked through the curtain, found Stengel, turned the vomit bag over, and asked for his autograph, too.

I offered the bag to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They loved the story but didn't want the bag.  It's on a wall in my office.  Every once in a while I turn it over and change names.

Philip Spiess

Chuck Cole:  Okay, this one came out of left field, but it can be done (but I'll have to brush up on it a bit first).  The team was originally the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1869, first professional team and first to have night games (and, I believe, first to have air-conditioned dugouts).  The head of the Cincinnati Waterworks, "Boss" Cox's right-hand man, Gary Herrmann, was (I think) the founder of the National League.  As I recall from my last visit a number of years ago to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (where I lived for several years in the early 1970s), there was a break in the Red Stockings' being a Cincinnati team (towards the end of the 1880s-early 1890s?) -- and, to my astonishment (again, if I recall -- but I'll check this out), there was some connection between the old Cincinnati team and what became the Boston Red Sox.  Some remains of Crosley Field are in Kentucky down what used to be the Dixie Highway.

(And by the way, Dave, the pop-culture statue of Casey Stengel in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution here in Washington, is, to my eye and mind, the most charming portrait in the entire Gallery.)

David Buchholz

And one more from Crosley Field...Scorebook for a game played 84 years ago...

Stephen Collett

Damn,  You baseball guys are incredible. I am gassed by the flip-flop fun of the current World Series. I last watched it with Davie Schneider in his kitchen so late at night that I wanted to give it up, but then we got to talking and by the time we looked again it had completely changed. Which Series was that, David? One of our last reunions. No, not last of course, I meant recent.

Philip Spiess

Histories of baseball and other sports are long and complicated, filled with wins and losses, names of team members, statistics, franchise buyouts and trades, and many other things.  In order to respond to Chuck Cole’s request on the history of the Cincinnati Reds, I am going to dodge most of those things, letting those interested in the arcana of team sports report on those.  But as a lagniappe, or perhaps an appetizer, to my main reporting on the Cincinnati Reds baseball team in the 19th century, I offer the following (in order to buy me a little time to draw together the basics of the historical information requested):

NOTES ON CROSLEY FIELD:  A Time Line

1869:  Union Cricket Grounds (on the site where Cincinnati Union Terminal now stands), at the western end of Lincoln Park, served as the first ballpark for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, America’s first professional baseball team.  (The team's name was shortened to the Cincinnati Reds in 1890.)

1875-1879:  The reorganized baseball team of the Cincinnati Red Stockings played its home games at a ballpark known as Avenue Grounds (also known as Brighton Park and Cincinnati Baseball Park).  Atlases of the period show this park to have been located two short blocks west of Spring Grove Avenue at Alabama Avenue, between the rairoad tracks and the Mill Creek (on a north-south line, between the old Cincinnati Stockyards and the Cincinnati Workhouse).  The park had a grandstand that could seat up to 3,000 people, and was distinguished in baseball history for two events:  (1) it held the first major league Ladies' Day in 1876, and (2) it was the park where the first home run ever was hit in professional baseball.  The park was used through the mid-1890s for various sports, even after the Red Stockings had left in 1879.

1882-1883:  The Bank Street Grounds ballpark, located northwest of the intersection of Bank Street and McLean Avenue (the "foot of Bank Street"), was home to the yet-again reorganized (1882) Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association (the current Reds franchise, which moved to the National League in 1890) from 1882 to 1883.  When the new Union Association ball club, the "Cincinnati Unions" (better known as the "Cincinnati Outlaw Reds") team took over the Bank Street Grounds in 1884, the Red Stockings team moved to "Findlay and Western" (see below).  (The Bank Street Grounds was also the home park of the short-lived "Cincinnati Stars" team -- 1880 only -- of the National League.)

                                      *                    *.                   *.                   *.                   *

1884-1901:  “Findlay and Western,” the intersection of Findlay Street (on the south) and Western Avenue (on a northwest angle) in western downtown Cincinnati, east of the Mill Creek and the major railway lines, was the location of three different baseball parks for the Cincinnati Reds from 1884 to 1970.  The first baseball park was League Park.  Mathias “Matty” Schwab served as groundskeeper at the park (and then at Crosley Field) from 1894 until 1963 [!]; thus the park was sometimes called “Schwab’s Field.”  
1902-1911:  The second baseball park at “Findlay and Western” was the Palace of the Fans.
1911-1912:  Between the 1911 and the 1912 seasons, the entire seating area of the Palace of the Fans and the remaining seating from the original League Park were demolished.  
1912-1933:  The third baseball park, Redland Field, featured a new stadium, the third steel-and-concrete stadium built in the National League (Chicago's Wrigley Field and Boston's Fenway Park remain in use today).  Built by Cincinnati architect Harry Hake, Sr., for $225,000, the grandstand was double-decked with single deck pavilions extending outward and bleachers in right field (later known as the “Sun Deck”).  Because the angled covered areas had a distinctive V-shape, the park was nicknamed “The Old Boomerang.”
1934-1970:  Cincinnati businessman Powell Crosley, Jr., buys the struggling (because of many years of being a mediocre team, attendance was usually low) Cincinnati Reds in 1934; the ballpark is renamed Crosley Field in honor of the man who rescued the team.  (Crosley also advertises his Crosley radios and automobiles on the outfield fences.)  Crosley Field was considered among the smallest of the major league baseball parks:  in 1912, its capacity was 25,000 seats; at its peak, it had just above 30,000 seats.
1935:  Because it had long been plagued by low attendance, the Reds convince major league baseball owners to allow night baseball at Crosley Field.  Thus by May 24, 1935, 632 individual lamps on eight stanchions had been installed, the Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies, and President Franklin Roosevelt lit up Crosley Field by pressing a button at the White House.
1936-1937:  Crosley Field, in addition to the Reds, serves as the home of the Negro League’s Cincinnati Tigers baseball team.
1937:  Crosley Field is flooded by the Ohio River flood of 1937, the worst flood in the recorded history of the Ohio River; the field is under twenty feet of water.  The original 1937 Cincinnati Bengals football team plays home games at Crosley Field.
1938:  The Reds host Cincinnati’s first All-Star Game on July 6, 1938 (they hosted a second one in 1953).
1939:  Roofed upper decks are added to the left and right wing pavilions [see above], giving the ballpark the appearance it would have for the rest of its existence.
1940s-1950s:  Events at Crosley Field include:  a political rally for presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie; a Roy Rogers rodeo (the “King of the Cowboys” was born in Cincinnati as Leonard F. Slye); and an Ice Capades show [!].
1961:  Powell Crosley, Jr., dies; Bill DeWitt purchases the Cincinnati Reds.
1966:  The Beatles perform at Crosley Field, August 21, 1966, on their final tour.
1970:  Crosley Field closes on June 24, 1970, as the Cincinnati Reds move to Riverfront Stadium.  Cincinnati mayor Eugene Ruehlmann symbolically takes up home plate at Crosley Field and flies it by helicopter to Riverfront Stadium, installing it in the artificial turf.  (Crosley Field’s small size, lack of adequate parking in the neighborhood, the rise of crime in the area, and planning for a national football franchise in Cincinnati to possibly share a stadium with baseball all contribute to its closing.)  
1972:  Crosley Field, having been bought by the city and used as an auto impound lot, is demolished on April 19, 1972.
1974-1984:  Larry Luebbers builds a replica of Crosley Field on his farm in Union, Kentucky, with memorabilia he had collected from Crosley Field during its demolition.  It includes seats, signage, the ticket booth, and advertising on the fences.  He opened it for the Cincinnati Suds professional softball team (which he owned), but eventually he had to sell off the whole farm to settle his finances.
1988:  Marvin Thomson, then city manager of Blue Ash, Ohio, makes one of the ballfields of the city’s new community sports complex a re-creation of Crosley Field, using collected memorabilia from old Crosley Field (donated by fans), including 400 original seats.  The field is used by various teams at various levels of play, but it is home field of Moeller High School’s varsity baseball team.

[Key books on the Cincinnati Reds and Crosley Field are:  Lee Allen:  The Cincinnati Reds (New York:  G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1948); and Greg Rhodes and John Erardi:  Cincinnati’s Crosley Field:  The Illustrated History of a Classic Ballpark (n.p.p.:  Road West Publishing, 1995).]

Philip Spiess

Remember that November 1 is "All Saints' Day," and thus the evening of October 31 is "All Hallows Eve," when the spirits come out.

And speaking of Spirits, here is a Classic Cocktail to revive your spirit:

"THE CORPSE REVIVER #2". (There were other numbers -- variants -- but this is the best):

1 ounce Gin; 1 ounce Cointreau; 1 ounce Lillet Blanc; 1 ounce Lemon Juice; 1-3 drops Absinthe.  Mix all in an iced cocktail shaker, shake 30 times, and strain into a cocktail glass, serving it with a cherry.

(And as for that changing the time, "fall back one hour" thing early on Sunday morning, I'm not doing that.  I have no wish to add even one hour more to 2020!)

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

Finally jumping in about Crosley Field memories:

In 1961, my mother won two newpaper lottery tickets to a Cincinnati Redlegs vs NY Yankees World Series game. She and I went. Even though we lost the WS 1-4, it was the most extraordinary game I had ever attended. The energy in Crosley Field was palpable. Absolutely palpable. I will never forget that.

On September 1, 1967, I had my first date with my late husband, David Stern. When he asked what I'd like to do, I said, "Go to a Reds game." We did. Turns out that it was the longest game in MLB history. We lost to the SF Giants 1-0 in 21 innings. Much to David's chagrin, we stayed to the cold, after midnight bitter end. Hot chocolate and seat cushions were passed out to the remaining diehard fans. I wasn't going to leave before the final out. At the time, it was the longest game in MLB history. It is still the longest game in Reds history. A first date to remember.

Judy and all: 75th Birthday Reunion update:

As of today, there is not a definite decision, but it is highly unlikely that it will take place in-person in Cncinnati in June, 2021. Will keep you posted......

Gail Weintraub (Stern)

WHHS CLASS OF 1964 PERFORMING ARTS FUND update:

Due to COVID restrictions, WHHS is not able to reopen and continues in remote learning mode. The Theatre Department requested help in the live stream production of Hamlet. Our PAF committee unanimously decided to sponsor Hamlet. The production is being produced and filmed in the WHHS Auditorium. Actors and crew are masked and are following strict COVID-19 guidelines while filming. 

On Demand Streaming begins November 20 and runs through December 31. Ticket sales for the show will begin Monday, November 2. Streaming Passes are $10 (service fees apply). No live audience will be permitted for performances. Tickets can be purchased through the WHHS Theatre Department website: 

https:/sites.google.com/view/whhstheatredepartment/tickets

Let's support our alma mater and the Theatre Department. Go Eagles!

Jeff Daum

For something a little different: this morning we had a gorgeous sunrise along with the setting full moon over Las Vegas.  Here is a quick video of what we enjoyed from our home in the mountains southwest of Vegas.

Here is the link to the short video: https://youtu.be/FrKZPTNtSpQ  Note, best viewed in HD 1080p

Jerry Ochs

I am aware that we have agreed to refrain from topics that may tear our group asunder, but I do not think that expressing horror at the news that law enforcement agencies and shopkeepers are preparing for violence as a result of Tuesday's election is controversial; it is truly horrifying.  

Philip Spiess

REDS BASEBALL:
Sorting Out the Nomenclature
(or How Cincinnati Got Connected to Boston)

1866:  Cincinnati gets an official baseball team organized under the name “The Cincinnati Baseball Club.”  (Official club stationery still carried the name “Cincinnati Baseball Club Co.” as late as 1954.)
1867:  At some point in 1867 the Cincinnati baseball team was being called the “Cincinnati Red Stockings,” after the distinctive feature of the team’s uniforms, which were designed by team member George Ellard.  (The team name “Red Stockings” was still appearing in the team’s yearbook as late as 1953.)
1870:  The “Cincinnati Red Stockings” baseball team folds after the 1870 season, and its manager, Harry Wright, is hired to organize a new baseball team in Boston; he brings three teammates and the “Red Stockings” nickname along with him.  Therefore, in 1871 --
1871:  The “Boston Red Stockings” baseball team of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) is founded.    
1876:  When a new Cincinnati baseball club is formed as a charter member of the new National League, the “Cincinnati Red Stockings” name had been reserved for it, and so the Boston team came to be known as the “Boston Red Caps.”
1884:  The “Boston Reds” baseball team of the Union Association is founded. 
1888:  An African-American baseball team in Norfolk, Virginia, calls itself the “Red Sox.”
1890-Now:  The Cincinnati baseball franchise shortens its name in popular usage to the “Cincinnati Reds.”
1890:  The “Boston Red Stockings” baseball team of the Players’ League is founded; it joins the American Association in 1891; it is more often called the “Reds” than the “Red Stockings.”
1901:  The Boston baseball team (the current franchise) is founded as one of the American League’s eight founding franchises; it is called at that time the “Boston American League Baseball Company”; for seven seasons it wore dark blue stockings.
1908-Now:  The Boston American League team owner, John I. Taylor, chooses the name “Red Sox” for his team after the 1908 uniforms, which feature a large red stocking angling across the shirt-front; it is also to distinguish the team from the earlier Boston teams of similar names (see above).
1912:  The Boston baseball club (last seen as the “Boston Red Caps,” above, of the National League) officially adopts the nickname “Boston Braves”; the franchise later becomes the “Milwaukee Braves,” and then eventually the “Atlanta Braves.”
1953-1959:  Because of Cold War-era McCarthyism fomenting fear and worries about the Communist “Reds,” the Cincinnati Reds baseball team general manager Gabe Paul changes the team name in April to the “Cincinnati Redlegs” (it was changed back to the “Cincinnati Reds” in 1959).

Paul Simons

This time we kicked their ass. Eagles 23 Cowboys 9. Yeah, way “more than a rivalry”. 

Stephen Collett

Thanks Gail. September 1, 1967 was my wedding date, in Sandnes, Norway, in the office of the judge.

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Gail, as usual, I loved your stories, this time about the Red Sox. 

About the 75th Birthday Reunion: Ssssshhhh. I have a confession. I will be quietly happy if it will be by zoom. I've always wanted to go to a reunion, but there was always something that stood in the way. Now I will be able to "attend"!   Try not to hate me.....

I can even go to see the streamed Hamlet!!!  Try not to hate me, again....

Jerry, I hypothesize that because we are not living in the States ourselves, it's possible that we are more sensitive to fears of  widespread rioting after the elections.... I positively gasped the other day when one newscaster rather casually said that it would probably happen, but "would stop short of revolution." Honestly!! My son came over yesterday to bring me some fertilizer for flowers I had just bought (plant nursery finally opened up after month+ -long lockdown), and he and I kind of railed at each other about American society. Not that he knows from personal experience about it, as I do, but at 41, he's old enough to remember several  previous presidential election cycles. We only have each other to talk to and analyze about these matters, so it gets pretty intense when we get together. Good luck, America!

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Gail, I suppose going to a Reds game has become a "first date" for many through out the years. My first date with Ed was also to a game in August 1980. I have no recollection of who the Reds played, but I do recall that in my attempt to wear something to reflect team spirit, I wore the only red top that I had in my closet, a red wool pullover sweater!! That turned out to be a poor choice of apparel for August in Cincinnati!!  Ed and a couple of his friends had shared season tickets for years at Riverfront, several seats back from home plate. We attended many games there, including the year that the Reds went wire to wire and swept Oakland to win the World Series.  The guys gave up the seats with the MLB strike in 1994.

Ed never got a chance to see the Redlegs play at Great American Ballpark, but I have enjoyed many games there, including the game when Rick treated us to diamond seats at our  2010 reunion. He also "assisted" my then 8 year old grandson, Griffin, with catching a game ball. Steve Kanter was gracious enough to capture him with his camera!!

Jerry Ochs

Judy,

If you put a frog into a pot of boiling water it will hop out, but if you put it in cool water and slowly heat it up, it will think everything is OK (so I've heard).  There are some other ex-pats on this forum and I'd like to know how they see the situation.

Philip Spiess

If you put a lobster into a pot of boiling water, it will turn red (see "Reds" above, Post #5228), and then you can shell it and eat it with melted butter!  Voila!  [Frogs are better fried as frogs' legs -- "Redlegs"? -- well, not if battered ("Batter up!").  Frogs don't listen to the news:  they're in the swamp, croaking.]