Cincinnati's 150-Year Opening Day History: The Hoopla Started With A Parade

The first professional baseball team—Cincinnati's famous Red Stockings—played its first game on May 4, 1869. Cincinnati's 150-Year Opening Day History: The Hoopla Started with a Parade captures the history of Cincinnati's unique celebration of Opening Day. Cincinnati bears the distinction of being the only city in professional sports with the honor of hosting Opening Day every year! The days leading up to and including Opening Day have become such a celebrated holiday in the Queen City that author Fred Schwed once described Opening Day as a “notch below Christmas” for Cincinnati Reds fans. Cincinnati's 150-Year Opening Day History: The Hoopla Started with a Parade also highlights local, national, and world events that occurred on or around Opening Day and sometimes impacted the festivities. Featured events include everything from world wars to floods, assassinations, local and national scandals, and interesting historical achievements. The book is crammed with rarely seen, stunning photos from 1869 forward. Every Cincinnati Reds fans should have a copy on his or her bookshelf to enjoy throughout the year! In the January 2019 edition of Reds Report, best-selling baseball author Mike Shannon had this to say about the book : "[Randy] Freking's love for [Opening Day] and his dedication to it comes through on every page. The best summary of the book I could relay is by Freking himself, who said, ‘My goal has been to summarize the evolution of Opening Day traditions in the context of events that were happening in Cincinnati, the nation, and the world. It was delightful to find that Opening Day has been surprisingly impervious to the kind of cultural transformation that has affected so many of our societal institutions. Cincinnatians have worked hard to protect the unique and treasured spectacle represented by Opening Day.'" This edition available on Amazon has a color cover, but the price is discounted because the photos inside are black and white. The original version contains four, eight page sections of color photos and is available at openingdaybook.com.