After months of growing anticipation, Great American Ball Park hosted an action-packed night of baseball and music last Friday, when the Reds played the Brewers followed by a Zac Brown Band benefit concert 4ALS, presented by Ohio Lottery.

A regular-season-record crowd of 44,073 -- just surpassing the 44,063 from Opening Day this year -- packed the park on MLB’s third annual Lou Gehrig Day, which honors the Hall of Famer’s legacy while raising awareness and funds for ALS research.

“We are so grateful to our incredible fans for turning out in record numbers to support ALS research,” said Phil Castellini, the Reds' president and chief operating officer. “The powerful presence of the Zac Brown Band and the generosity of our fans shined a bright light on baseball’s relationship with ALS through Lou Gehrig to help increase funding for ALS research.”

A portion of the proceeds from all tickets sold for the game benefited the Hop On A Cure Foundation to fight ALS, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The foundation, started by band member John Driskell “Hop” Hopkins and his wife, Jennifer, after the bass player was diagnosed with ALS in December 2021, is committed to supporting the research to prevent, reverse and cure ALS while raising awareness, building a compassionate community and unleashing the healing power of hope.

"Not only is MLB stepping up, but individual teams are stepping up, and it’s really exciting to see the support," Hopkins said to MLB.com. "We stand facing a disease that is not incurable but is grossly underfunded, and we need to make ALS first livable and then work towards reversing it. We need to stop it in its tracks like we did with HIV. We as a human force can make this progress and can be victorious over this thing. It takes teamwork and communication, and we’re excited to be helping lead that charge. We’ll need everyone to pitch in.”

On November 17 of last year, the Reds announced the special benefit concert. Ever since, the buzz never stopped building for one of the city’s most popular concerts of the year. Hopkins, along with fellow band members Jimmy De Martini and Daniel De Los Reyes, made an appearance at 2022 Redsfest presented by PNC Bank to unofficially kick off the partnership with a Q&A session and live performance.

“The warm welcome that our fans gave to Hop, Jimmy and Danny at Redsfest let them know how much Reds Country cares,” said Castellini. “The heartfelt speech given by Hop at the start of the show united everyone around a shared mission to increase funding for ALS, and the band poured all that positive energy into the show.”

Tickets were gobbled up early and often in the months following, and fans eagerly made their way to the banks of the Ohio River to take in an early evening ballgame last Friday, featuring the Reds wearing their newly unveiled Nike City Connect uniforms, followed by the concert and fireworks.

Hopkins helped kick off the evening by singing the national anthem. The Reds also recognized several groups during pregame ceremonies: the Lou Gehrig Day Committee, the Central & Southern Ohio Chapter of the ALS Association, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and I am ALS. All on-field personnel wore “Lou Gehrig Day” patches on their uniforms. In addition, the game featured commemorative base jewels and lineup cards, with some players and coaches all electing to wear red “4ALS” wristbands.

In a ceremony following the game, Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson and pitcher Graham Ashcraft presented a check to Hop On A Cure for $125,000. Zac Brown Band also presented a signed guitar to the Reds which will be displayed in the team’s front office lobby. To cap off a tremendous night on and off the field, it was announced that an additional $75,000 was donated by fans to the foundation, boosting the total money raised to more than $200,000.