Truist Park Guided Tour

September 28, 2021

Let's start this post off by saying we thought we had quite the heavily stacked schedule on this day. We purchased the earliest possible entrance time to the largest Jim Henson collection in the world. We knew we had to leave this glorious exhibit no later than 1:30 if we were to get to Truist Park in time for our guided tour. Unfortunately, we finished the entire exhibit in 30 minutes. It was awkward because we had not planned for the extra time. So we went back to the hotel to nap instead of going to the World of Coca-Cola because who really gives a giant F about soda? It's not alcohol.

ANYWHO, back to the real purpose of this blog. We picked the last tour of the day prior to game time, so we didn't get to see the broadcast booth or visit the field and dugout, but we aren't totally sure if the tour guide would have hit the field and dugout ANYWAY because the team clubhouse is off limits regardless of game day rules due to an apparent "towel incident" on a prior tour. 

Our tour guide was a lovely, stereotypical southern gentleman type of man. Though he did give us a little ribbing from being New Yorkers and specifically to Lisa for being a Mets fan. Thankfully, his jokes never came across as being "dick-ish" unlike some other ass clowns we've come into contact with. Or else this tour could've gotten really ugly. And possibly criminal. 

We will talk about the area surrounding the park (known as The Battery) in our game post, so if you're interested in reading about that, you'll have to check that out. For now, we will keep this focusing strictly on the actual guided tour. 

When we do guided tours of baseball stadiums, we bump into two kinds of people. The first group of people think we're super interesting for being in the midst of a ballpark bucket list or having completed the aforementioned bucket list. These people ask us a lot of questions about ballparks they've yet to visit and opinions about the ballparks they've also been to. 

Then we get the second type of people. When we went to St. Louis, we had an entire tour group of these individuals. It's the type of people who hate us for this bucket list. We're not sure why, but they never make it a point to hide their animosity towards us. We've yet to meet anyone in this category that's actually completed the bucket list. Usually the fellow bucket list completers are found in the first category of baseball fans - cool people that are excited to meet other people that have done what they've done. The trolls tend to be openly mean and often aggressively challenge our opinions about the ballparks we've visited. On this tour group, we had a couple that fell into this category. At least, we think they're a couple. They may have been brother and sister or colleagues, but who the f*ck knows? They angrily asked what our favorite parks were and seemed offended that we didn't choose Target Field. She, in particular, also seemed offended when we said that Oakland's park was trash, but let's be serious. Even the A's agree that their stadium is trash. That's why they keep trying to leave. Both also rolled their eyes or had snide comments to make whenever we answered one of the guide's baseball trivia questions correctly. 

End rant. 

One of the first spots on this tour is this tomahawk made entirely of Legos, which was built by a young fan. If a grown man had built this, we probably would have spent some time making fun of him, but since a kid did it, we can call it, "impressive." He also apparently did this without any sort of directions, so it's possible that this kid is a borderline genius. Perhaps he will solve the environmental crisis. 

We headed up to the top level of the park where he showed us a few things, including the broadcast booth that we could not visit because it was too close to game time. 

Franchise titles and also Cathy the Cow (she used to hold a tomahawk over at Turner, but now she holds a Chik-Fil-A sign with the kind of spelling that makes Serena twitch in anger):

Retired Numbers (Dale Murphy, Bobby Cox, Chipper Jones, Warren, Spahn, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Phil Niekro, Eddie Matthews, Hank Aaron, Tom Glavine, Jackie Robinson):

A huge drum that is, from what we can see, purely ceremonial because we did not see it get used once. Not during the tour and not during the game. From our original position behind home plate, we did think that it was a large coffee cup. We did not figure out that it was a drum until we got next to it, so not sure what that says about us. Either we have a severe coffee addiction or our eyesight is failing us in our old age. Or mayhaps it is both. 

They do have quite a few luxury boxes and as usual with these guided tours, we visited them all. It's becoming pretty tired for us, so we're no longer going to report or share every single club that we're shown. We're only going to share the highlights of these locations. In the case of the Hank Aaron suite, they had two pretty cool features. 

The wall of bats represent each home run Hank Aaron hit, as well as the date and location/team he did it against. The bat is the  one he hit his 715th home run with. It HAS vacationed in Cooperstown, but Hank felt that the bat belonged in Atlanta and here it stays. 

This is a painting of dots:

He said quite a bit about the local artist that created this and the other dot paintings in the area, but we have ADD and we didn't pay attention to any of it. 

This is a suite with some sort with a "wall of fame" type of vibe, but again, we kind of zoned out, so you're lucky you're even getting these pictures. 

Braves Monument Park IS super cool, but not nearly as cool as the original museum that Turner Field had. Also, the tour is a good way to get clean photos of everything because during the game, it gets crowded.

Tom Glavine is the only Brave we can ever truly love. Javy Lopez is hot. Physically. He might actually be a beautiful idiot though. They always are beautiful idiots.

This is weird cafe/homage to Chipper Jones. Who is terrible. That is all you really need to know. 

Here is the view of the field from the fanciest seats in the house:

A Phillies player headed towards the dugout, but he had a sweatshirt on and we weren't close enough to really see who he was. Serena sat up at attention when he started walking towards the dugout because she wanted to flip the middle finger if it was Bryce Harper. It wasn't and apparently the player mistook her Kermit the Frog stare down as a compliment because he waved at us. We begrudgingly waved back. 

Great American Ballpark Guided Tour

Tickets for the guided tour of were $22 and it includes access to the Reds' Hall of Fame and Museum. Since we arrived at the stadium early, we decided to check out the museum prior to our tour. It was amazing and worth checking out even if you don't have time to do a full guided tour like we did. Without the tour, entrance to the museum does have a fee, but it was worth it. Here are some photos from our visit to the museum:

 

 

 

 

 

 Crosley Field was the first ballpark to host a night game. Fun fact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met our tour guide/group outside the museum. Since we were the last group, the tour guide insisted on doing his normal tour out of order so that he could guarantee us time on the field. We started in the press box:

 

And then headed right to the Mercedes Benz Diamond Club because it has direct access to the field.

 

 

On the other side of this glass is the hall the players walk down in order to get down to the field, so if you get to the club early enough, you can claim the tables alongside the window and try your very best to interact with the players. Possibly try to give one of them your phone number. Hope he takes it down and uses it.

 The club comes with posh, cushy seats right on field level. Super cozy.

 

 

From the bougie seats, we headed for the field, dugouts, and clubhouses.

 

 

 

 

 

There are two amazing mosaics in the main lobby. The First Nine is of the original Red Stockings and The Great Eight is of the Big Red Machine.

 

Outside, there are five plaques commemorating the All Star Gates hosted by the Reds.

 

 

 

 

This is the exterior of the Hall of Fame:

This pretty little flower garden has a sea of red and pink roses. As you can see, there is a little white rose right in the middle. If you can't see it, we've taken the liberty of circling it. The white flower symbolizes the location of where Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit landed.

A bonus fun fact: in the bar across the street from the ballpark is a plaque marking the spot of Riverfront Stadium's first base.

Our last stop on the tour covered the statues surrounding the stadium. This primary set up is called the "Reds Legends of Crosley Field" and is of Ted Kluszewski, Ernie Lombardi, Joe Nuxhall, and Frank Robinson. They layout is that of a baseball field. 

 

 

Joe Morgan. Who we hate listening to do in-game commentary because of his pronunciation of Carlos Beltran and his hatred of New York teams. In Cincinnati, however, they love him. 

 Pete Rose apparently had ferocious and fantastic hair.

 Tony Perez.

  Johnny Bench.