April 16, 1951 – Opening Day, Crosley Field, Cincinnati

Opening Day in 1951 was the traditional Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Cincinnati Reds had the honor of opening the baseball season because of their status as the first professional baseball team, all the way back in 1869. Opening Day became a holiday of sorts in Cincy, eventually a school holiday as well.

And so on, April 16th, the Reds opened the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Crosley Field. The temperature at game time was a bracing 40 degrees and there were some snow flurries. Still, a crowd of 30,441 was on hand to take in the game.

If the attendance doesn’t sound like much of a crowd for Opening Day by 2011 standards, consider this: the seating capacity of Crosley Field in 1951 was about 30,000.

Crosley Field
While Crosley field wasn’t built until 1912, the site of Crosley was the site of the Reds home field from 1884 until 1970 when the Reds moved into Riverfront Stadium. The Reds played at Crosley Field from 1912 until 1970.

If you look closely, you will notice a slight incline around the outfield, near the fence. This is especially prominent in left field where the incline was about 15 degrees. This slope was called "The Terrace" and was used by standing room only crowds in the early days when spectators were allowed on the field behind ropes for big games like Opening Day or the World Series. Also notice that the the outfield side of the infield dirt cutout is pretty squared off compared to the uniform rounded arc of the modern infield.

For those who decry the commercialism about naming rights for major league stadiums, Crosley Field was named after Reds owner Powel Crosley, who made his fortune manufacturing radios, appliances, and even automobiles. The Crosley Corporation is still in existence today, manufacturing retro record/CD players and other appliances.

Crosley Auto

Dimensions of Crosley in 1951:
     Left field line: 328 (down from 360 when it opened in 1912)
     Right field line: 366 (down from 360)
     Center: 380
     Right Center: 383
     Center field: 390 (420 in 1912)
     Home plate to backstop: 66 feet (up from 38 feet when the park opened)

The Game
Oh, yes, the Opening Day Game. The Pirates won the game 4-3. The starting lineups:

Are any of those names familiar to you?

            1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9    R H E
Pirates  0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0   4 12 2
Reds    0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0    3  9 2

The winning pitcher was Lefty Chambers (1-0) who pitched 6.2 innings and gave up 3 runs, all earned, 8 hits, struck out 1 and walked 2. Bill Werle pitched the final 2.1 innings, giving up 1 hit, striking out 2 and walking 1.

The losing pitcher was Ewell Blackwell (0-1) who gave up 4 runs (3 earned) in 3 innings, striking out 3 and walking 1.

Despite the fact that the Reds used 4 pitchers, 3 pinch hitters, and a pinch runner, and the Pirates used 2 pitchers, the time of the game was 2 hours 18 minutes, very quick by today’s standards. It also struck me that all of the Reds pitching changes came between innings following pinch hitters for the pitcher; no situational relief pitchers (each of the 3 relievers pitched 2 innings).

One final game note: only 3 umpires were used in the game. The use of 4 umpires wasn’t implemented until 1952, although 4 umpire crews were used in the World Series as far back as 1909.

Did you know – that during the 1950s the Reds changed their name to the “Redlegs” for a few years because of the fear of Communism during the Cold War? The communists were referred to as “Reds” and the Cincinnati ballclub wanted no part of that.