The story of Crosley Field's sloped outfield

For some it was an endearing ballpark quirk. For the Reds, it could be a home-field advantage. For visiting teams, the sloped terrace in the outfield of Crosley Field could be downright annoying.

"Crosley Field was a tough place for outfielders to play," Reds great outfielder and Hall of Famer Frank Robinson told MLB.com in 2015. "You couldn't just run up the terrace, you had to climb it. And if there was a ball over your head, you could never climb it fast enough to make a play against the wall."

Originally opened as Redland Field in 1912, and renamed Crosley Field in '34, the ballpark was built on the corner of Western Avenue and Findlay Street in the West End of Cincinnati. The slope began its rise about 20 feet from the outfield wall.

“They dug the field down into the ground a little bit,” said Rick Walls, executive director of the Reds Hall of Fame. “The slope was really up to the street level at that point. It became an important part of Crosley Field. It served a purpose as a warning track, and a big warning track at that. You had a terrace that went all the way around from left field to right field. It was maybe more pronounced in certain areas.”

• Crosley Field Terrace had unique charm

Because the original dimensions were expansive -- 360 feet to both left and right field and 420 to center field, the first home run to clear the fence wasn’t hit at Crosley Field until Pat Duncan did it nine years after it opened -- June 2, 1921.

The hill caused its share of trouble. Playing left field for the Boston Braves vs. the Reds on May 28, 1935, Babe Ruth stumbled and fell trying to catch a fly ball. He played his last game two days later before retiring.

In a 2010 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, fellow Hall of Famer Willie Mays discussed how he also took a tumble on the Crosley terrace.

"I remember the first game I played at Crosley," Mays said. "I fell down and dropped the ball. When you're running on flat ground and all of a sudden you get to that embankment, you'd better know that it's coming and make an adjustment or you're going down."

The Reds moved downtown to Riverfront Stadium in 1970 and Crosley Field was demolished in '72. The club did not take its slope to the new facility, nor is it part of the surface at Great American Ball Park currently.

In 2000 when Minute Maid Park opened in Houston, the Astros installed a similar 30-degree slope in center field. It was named “Tal’s Hill,” after Astros executive Tal Smith successfully lobbied for it because he was a fan of Crosley Field’s terrace.

When the Astros made improvements to their ballpark, the slope was eliminated in 2016.

The Crosley terrace remains an enduring legacy of the Reds’ former home, however.

“It worked out to be a pretty neat moniker of that ballpark,” Walls said.