WE STORM THE RED BASTILLE

May 10, 1924

What's it like to wake up in Cincinnati? For me it could have been the Moon. There was ugly flower wallpaper all around the hotel room, strange sausage smells coming in the open window, and looking out I saw at least three or four big hills surrounding the city, and I don't think I ever saw one in Philadelphia.

Benny was snoring until at least nine, and after a pretty tasty breakfast at a place next to the hotel that served something called salt pork and eggs, we got back in the car and started searching for Redland Field. Two different people sent us in the wrong direction, or maybe we just took wrong turns because of our excitement. Anyway, we finally spotted two kids in Reds caps hustling along and Benny slowed down next to them and asked, "How ya get to the BALL-game?" but they couldn't tell us the street names so we let them hop in back and show us instead.

The field actually wasn't that hard to miss, because it was so big it dominated its factory-type neighborhood. Fans were lining up early for tickets, and because it was Saturday there were bunches and bunches of kids, but we only had to stand in line for about an hour before they went on sale. Benny was feeling all high and mighty with the bucks busting out of his pocket, so he asked for the best seats in the house and got us stuck way up in an upper deck behind a post. We ended up spending every inning in a different seat, using Benny's famous method of sitting in empties until asked to move, all the time going in a downward direction. By the sixth we were close enough to Edd Roush outside the Cincy dugout that we could see a blister pop open on one of his hands.

Redland Field is gigantic as far as the fences go, too, over 400 feet to both center field and the right field pole. We also realized that it's about five times more hot and humid in Cincinnati than back home, and we were dying for soda pops before long. Oescheger pitched for us, and he was tough, only giving the Reds five singles for two runs through the 3rd. Then we went to work on Tom Sheehan. Wrightstone and Jimmie Wilson singled to open the 4th, Mokan walked and Ford tied the game with a sharp hit past Boob Fowler at short. "No wonder they call you a boob!" yelled Benny, which I could have bet he would do. But then Oescheger whacked a double to put us ahead and even I was screaming.

Rube Bressler booted one at first to get us going in the 5th, and Wrightstone took the next pitch and shot it out of his bat cannon, deep and high over the right field wall! Burns doubled in a run to make it 5-3 us, but then the starters beared down the rest of the way. When Oescheger gave up a one-out single in the 8th, though, Fletcher brought in Johnny Couch so he could use his snappy bat in the 9th. And guess what he did? Socked a homer deep to left! Critz tripled with one out for them in the 9th, but Couch got the Boob to end it.

A couple of rough-looking older kids with German accents followed us out of the park, but we were able to lose them and find our car in the crowded parking lot. Benny wanted to look for a "beer garden speakeasy" to celebrate our win but I wasn't too sure about that so we drove over to Fountain Square instead and saw a movie and stage show at the Lyric Theatre. The movie was a western story called "The Iron Horse" with actors named George O'Brien and Madge Bellamy in it, and there was too much romance to keep Benny awake, but he sure liked the magician and tumblers that performed after.

There were lots of people in Fountain Square because it was a warm Saturday night, and Benny tried real hard again to find a speakeasy but didn't really want to leave me out so we went back to our hotel room after a while and just rolled some dice. Then as I was getting ready for bed I remembered something, and ran down to the hotel lobby to send a telegram to Philadelphia:

HI MAMA. SORRY I CAN'T BE WITH YOU ON MOTHER'S DAY TOMORROW. HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE ONE. LOVE FROM CINCY. VINNY.

PHL 000 320 001 - 6 9 0
CIN 002 010 000 - 3 11 2

Other National League games today:

ROBINS 4-8-0, CUBS 1-4-1
Rachel's Raiders attack Wrigley Field and just don't let up. BIll Doak goes to 4-1, hits a homer and drops his earned run average to 1.65.

at PIRATES 5-13-2, BRAVES 4-4-1
With only four hits, the Braves almost pull off a miracle win but three runs on five hits in the 7th put them away and keep the race with Brooklyn tight.

at CARDINALS 7-12-1, GIANTS 3-10-1
New York continues to not scare anybody. The Giants score three in the 1st inning but the Cards have a 4-3 lead two innings later on a Ray Blades homer. Hornsby triples in two runs later to help Haines get his third win. I can hardly wait to see Hornsby hit in person!

NATIONAL LEAGUE through Saturday, May 10
Brooklyn Robins	16	7	.696	—
Pittsburgh Pirates	15	9	.625	1.5
Cincinnati Reds	14	11	.560	3
New York Giants	13	11	.542	3.5
St. Louis Cardinals	12	13	.480	5
Philadelphia Phillies	9	15	.375	7.5
Boston Braves	9	15	.375	7.5
Chicago Cubs	9	16	.360	8