Mark Bennett: Despite cynicism, baseball's Opening Day still offers hope

Mar. 30—The condition of our one-year-old "Vette" exemplified what my wife and I endured to witness Opening Day 1985 at old Riverfront Stadium.

All four sides of the car's once-shiny white exterior were crumpled. It spun on black ice atop an interstate overpass, banging into the guardrails again and again as we tried to drive home from Cincinnati to Terre Haute.

That Chevrolet wound up mangled in a wrecking yard in Shelbyville. (Lest anyone cringe too deeply, I should clarify that the car was a Chevette, not a Corvette.) We were, thank heavens, unhurt, though, and spent the night at a Holiday Inn nearby.

There were insurance headaches and a new job ahead for me at this newspaper. But, we got to watch the Reds' opener in Cincinnati, where Opening Day has been basically a citywide holiday for more than a century.

In those days past, the Reds played Major League Baseball's traditional first game each season by virtue of Cincinnati's status as the pro game's oldest franchise. Fans packed the streets around the stadium — from the days of Crosley Field to Riverfront then Great American. The Findlay Market Parade, a 104-year tradition, preceded the games.

This year, the MLB kicked off its 2023 season Thursday with all 30 teams scheduled to play games. The Reds played host to the Pirates in Cincinnati's current stadium, Great American Ballpark, in a game that started at 4:10 p.m. Six other games were already in progress or over by then. Still, the parade unfolded again, and photos show that fans swarmed the streets before Cincy took on Pittsburgh.

Times and traditions change. A lot.

Nonetheless, the sense that anything can happen for your team, maybe even a playoff or World Series appearance, makes Opening Day a breath of spring air. Cynicism surrounding the big-league game's eye-popping salaries, new rules, ticket prices, sign-stealing scandal and other controversies never truly subsides in the snark of social media circa 2023. Yet, for at least the John Lennon-style dreamers of the world, Opening Day allows some hope.

That state of mind gripped me in 1985, as I covered the Reds game against the Montreal Expos in Riverfront. Pete Rose, a Cincinnati legend who led the "Big Red Machine" to World Series titles in 1975 and '76, was beginning his first full season as the Reds' player-manager. At age 43, his prime playing days were past, but his baseball savvy sparked hints that another championship era may be brewing.

Indeed, such a glorious run was ahead, but it happened much differently than anyone in 1985 expected.

Recollections of the Opening Day in '85 flooded back when my brother and sister-in-law recently uncovered a roll of photo negatives I shot at Riverfront that day.

There was Rose, stirring the pregame excitement. Those black-and-white photographs, snapped with my trusty Pentax K1000 camera, show Charlie Hustle joking with then-new MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and Expos Manager Buck Rodgers, staring at incoming pitches in batting practice, fielding ground balls hit by Reds coach Tommy Helms, and watching young Cincinnati slugger Eric Davis take cuts in the batting cage.

More vestiges of the Big Red Machine swirled around rose on the bouncy artificial turf of Riverfront that day. Two of Rose's former "Great Eight" teammates from the '70s — smooth-fielding Dave Concepcion and clutch-hitting future Hall of Famer Tony Perez — were in that position once again on Opening Day 1985.

Rose had left the Reds for the Phillies in 1979, won another World Series in Philadelphia, wandered north to Montreal, then returned to his hometown of Cincinnati to be the Reds' player-manager late in the '84 season. Concepcion was still Cincinnati's shortstop. Perez joined the club as a reserve first baseman.

Another Big Red Machine cog, Dan Driessen, played first base for the Expos that day. And, Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan was on the field before the game, working as a TV commentator.

Interviewing and just seeing Rose, Morgan, Perez, Concepcion and Driessen made the day special, as only the national pastime's mystic energy could.

The hoped-for storyline played out, other than the game being delayed twice, not by rain but by snow squalls. (That's what led to the black ice on the drive home.) The Reds beat the Expos 4-1, thanks to Rose's two hits and three runs batted in, new Reds owner Marge Schott threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and Davis delivered a key hit.

By the end of the 1985 season, Rose had broken Ty Cobb's all-time hit record and took over as baseball's "Hit King." The nucleus of Cincinnati's next World Series championship team, which happened in 1990, was forming under Rose's watch in '85.

Of course, Rose didn't manage that 1990 Reds team. He got banned from baseball in 1989, when a MLB investigation found Rose had gambled on big-league baseball games, breaking the pro game's cardinal rule. Instead, Lou Piniella managed the '90 team to a wire-to-wire title.

Cincinnati hasn't been back to the World Series since. The last several years have been tough on Reds followers, especially 2022, when club owners unleashed most of its top players in a cost-cutting move that resulted in just the second 100-loss season in franchise history. It disappointed me and my family, which has followed the Reds since my folks were kids, growing up Aurora, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

Most prognosticators doubt the Reds will escape last place in the National League Central Division, where St. Louis, Milwaukee and maybe the Cubs are expected to contend for first. Cincinnati's roster, by contrast, is loaded with young (and lower-paid) players. Some, like a trio of starting pitchers, hold lots of promise.

For now, most Reds fans will hope for a surprise. That's the beauty of Opening Day, a new season, fresh grass, sunshine and the possibility that anything can happen.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.