Opening Day In Cincinnati 2009

Today is Opening Day in Cincinnati as the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Redlegs, takes the field against the New York Mets at 1pm. Opening Day is a big deal in Cincinnati with a parade that starts uptown at the historic Findlay Street Market and makes its way downtown to Fifth Street and Fountain Square. It is not the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, but then only people that lived here, or are serious baseball fans will remember those great Reds teams of 1975 and 1976. Those two years were the high points of the decade that saw the Reds play in the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles (1970), the Oakland A's (1972), the Boston Red Sox (1975) and the New York Yankees (1976). The '75 and '76 Reds won both those World Series with players like Johnny Bench, catcher; Tony Perez, 1st base; Joe Morgan, 2nd base; Davey Concepcion, shortstop; Pete Rose 3rd base; George Foster, left field; Ceasar Geronimo, center field; and Ken Griffey, Sr., right field. This team was as good as any team that put on a baseball uniform and that includes the 1927 New York Yankees. But baseball needs it own course in what makes a level playing field. Small market cities can not compete with Big market cities and the greed of some will over time weaken the fabric of Major League Baseball (MLB) in my opinion. The National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have addressed the issue of the level playing field and are light years ahead of MLB. It is high time that the people that run MLB wake up before that goose that lays the golden eggs flys away. Good Luck to all the teams in MLB and may all the ballplayers have a healthy and safe season. PLAY BALL!!!