This weekend at Great American Ball Park was Joe Morgan Weekend. Once this was announced earlier this season, I decided that I was going to make the trip to Cincinnati from my home in Louisville, Kentucky. A part of Joe Morgan Weekend was Morgan getting his “Sculpture” out in front of the stadium. As a huge Reds fan and a historian of the Reds this was a great moment for me and my dad. The best thing about the weekend, the entire Big Red Machine made the trip, including the hit king Pete Rose.

Ryan Ritchey (Featured Baseball Columnist): Follow @baseballaddicts

It was finally here, Joe Morgan Weekend.

As a life long Reds fan and a huge fan of Reds history, this was a huge weekend for me. I had it circled on my calendar since the day they announced it.

Joe Morgan was to become the sixth player in Cincinnati Reds history to have a statue put out in front of Great American Ball Park.

The other five were very good players as well, Ted Kluszewski, Ernie Lombardi, Frank Robinson, Joe Nuxhall, and Johnny Bench. Morgan would be joining great company to say the least. 

The festivities were on Friday and Saturday, but Morgan would remain for the third game on Sunday, which happened to be the Sunday Night Baseball game.

I was lucky enough to be there both Friday and Saturday for both sets of festivities and here is my perspective on each day.

Joe Morgan Speech, Unveiling of Sculpture:

The Great 8 could be the best lineup ever assembled. Yes, there is the 1927 Yankees, but as a Reds fan I am going with the 1975-76 Reds. You don’t see too many players like they had. Three Hall of Famers, should be four made up the starting eight for Sparky Anderson. This night was one to remember for a lifetime.

It all started Friday as the Reds opened up a three game set at home against the hottest team in the National League, Los Angeles Dodgers.

This was a huge weekend for the Reds season, but even more pressure was put on the team.

The Great 8 from the Big Red Machine were going to be at the ball park for the unveiling of Joe Morgan’s sculpture. 

The Reds wrapped up the win as Chapman threw a 102 MPH fastball past Hanley Ramirez. Then the real fun began.

The Great 8 were going to come out on the field as a team for the first time at Great American Ball Park. 

I was lucky enough to be in attendance. I was 20 rows up behind the Dodgers dugout taking in all the action. Each player one by one were going to be announced and head out to their position.

It all started with George Foster, the left fielder who caught the final out to secure the 1976 World Series. He came out of the dugout all smiles, with his hands in the air, just excited to be at the ball park with his former teammates.

Little does the average person know, but George Foster was taken to the hospital earlier in the evening. I will have a little more on how I found out about that a little later. He returned just in time for the ceremony on the field. 

They finished the outfield with Cesar Geronimo and Ken Griffey Sr. The next guy on the field was the one all Reds fans were waiting to see. The one that is banned from the game of baseball.

The hit king Pete Rose was announced and walked up the steps of the dugout. Chants of “PETE, PETE, PETE” broke out throughout the stadium. He starts to tear up walking across the infield.

I have chills running through my body, seeing the greatest hitter of all time take the field. As I am only 19, I didn’t get to see Rose play live. I have seen him on DVD.

He finishes his slow walk to third and stomps on the star laid on the field for him. It was a great moment and one that I will never forget. 

Davey Conception was next. He darts out of the dugout as happy as could be. Concepion, in my opinion should be a hall of famer. They skipped around to the catcher, number five Johnny Bench.

Bench as I said earlier got his statue back in 2011. He proceeded to turn his hat around and squat behind home plate. Another awesome moment from this night. 

Next was the Hall of Fame first baseman Tony Perez. He got a great ovation as well and should be the next to get his statue out in front of Great American Ball Park.

Then the guy that was getting remember, Joe Morgan. Morgan made his way out to second base and the Great 8 were officially back on the field together.

Morgan made a quick speech to all the fans and his teammates. What happened next would bring a tear to almost any Reds fan that knows anything about the 75-76 teams. 

The jumbo-tron comes on and it is the Reds former manager, Sparky Anderson.

It is a video of him talking about those two teams and how great they were. How they were a team and played as a team for one goal. The video was filmed soon before he passed and you can hear the passion in his voice for those teams.

This concluded the night and it concluded on a very good note. 

The fun was just beginning for me and my dad. As I am not from Cincinnati, I would either have to drive back on Saturday or stay the night in a hotel, well I did neither.

My dad and I slept in our car in the parking for a couple of hours and made our way to the statue at 3:30 AM. Here is the photo to prove it…

My pic at 3:30 AM from Crosley Terrace of the covered Joe Morgan Statue.

You may think that I am crazy for being at the statue this early, but for me it is dedication for the team that I love.

I may go a little overboard at times, but it isn’t every day that you get to see the Great 8 of the Big Red Machine in person. 

It was an awesome night of people coming up to us, asking what we were doing, to getting interviewed for two Cincinnati news stations.

First was a cop that was watching the statue to make sure no one vandalized it. We got to talking and he asked about the night’s game and festivities after.

He went on to say that George Foster wasn’t at the ceremony. Indeed he was, so we were wondering why he would think that.

He got a call saying that George Foster was taken to the hospital from the 4192 Club in Great American Ball Park.

He had choked on food that the Great 8 were having as a team. Everything turned out alright and Foster did make it to the ceremony. 

The sculpture presentation was to begin at 10 AM on Saturday and so it did. After six and a half hours of waiting it was here. The Great 8 were called out one by one once again to come on to the stage next to the statue.

Once again Pete Rose  got the biggest ovation as chants of “Hall of Fame” broke out among the fans. Again chills ran through my body. 

The presentation was called by none other than Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman. He was great and gave great notes about each of the players.

There was an estimated 10,000 people at the unveiling and to be the first person there was pretty special. 

Joe Morgan then made his speech, which I have above in the video. It was a great, passionate speech that you can feel came from the heart. T

he 5’5″ Morgan played with heart and passion and that is the way the speech went. It was short and sweet, with emotions held back but all in all, was a great speech. 

It was finally here, time to take the cover off the sculpture. Joe Morgan, joined by his wife, four children and the rest of the Great 8 stood around the statue.

We all counted down from 8, and finally the life size statue of Joe Morgan was unveiled. It was a long time coming for the Reds second baseman, but he finally got it and no one can take that away from him. 

I made my way to the season ticket holder line and entered into the stadium to receive my free Joe Morgan shirt. Of course they didn’t have any mediums so I had to settle for the only size they had, Xtra Large.

Yes, it’s sad to see when you are only 5’7″ but I will never wear the shirt I was given, as I will be framing it along with the ticket and some pictures I took, which will then be placed on my wall. 

There was another ceremony on the field for Morgan, where again he got choked up during his speech. It was brief once again, and he then proceeded to throw the first pitch to catcher Johnny Bench, with his teammates at their position behind him. 

I had seats in the front row in right center to enjoy the game. I predicted a pitchers duel, but it was far from it as Latos and Greinke both struggled early.

As always, things calmed down and it was a great game. It ended up heading into extra innings. We all knew it was coming, Billy Hamilton.

Ryan Ludwick takes a lead-off walk and here comes Billy from the first base dugout. He waits a pitch and then takes off for second. He slides in safely without a throw for his fourth career stolen base in as many tries.

Next up was Todd Frazier who singled to right and Hamilton motors home and beats the Yasiel Puig throw to the plate and the Reds are walk-off winners. What a way to end a tremendous first two games of the series. 

Joe Morgan remained in Cincinnati for the finale of the series against the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball. It didn’t disappoint. Jay Bruce hit two homers off of Clayton Kershaw, as he becomes the first person to do so since Adam Dunn.

The game was tied in the 9th when Ryan Hanigan came to the plate with Zack Cozart on first. Hanigan roped a ball down the left field line, Cozart hustles around third, dives in head first to score and the Reds sweep the Dodgers. 

What a way to end Joe Morgan Weekend and a terrific weekend with my dad. It isn’t very often you get to share moments like that and this will be one I will never forget.

Just remember folks, Joe Morgan is the best second baseman the game of baseball has ever seen. 

The Reds sweep the Dodgers and are now tied with the Pirates for second place in the National League Central only 1.5 games back of the Cardinals. Mark your calendars for the last weekend of the season as Pittsburgh travels to Cincinnati in a series that could determine who wins the division, or who gets home field for the one game playoff. Congratulations to Joe Morgan on his sculpture and to the Great 8 for getting to be apart of it. It was an awesome weekend and I hope we can do it again in two years for a Tony Perez statue.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners ***

A big thank-you goes out to Our ‘Featured Baseball Columnist‘ Ryan Ritchey for preparing today’s featured article.  Ryan is a Baseball Writer for MLB reports. He is a sophomore at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky.

Ryan is a huge fan of Barry Larkin and Brandon Phillips  He has been a baseball fan his whole life and has been writing about baseball since his freshman year of High School.

You can reach Ryan on Twitter  Follow @baseballaddicts

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