Cincinnati’s Crosley Field was the home of the National League’s Cincinnati Reds from 1912 through June 24, 1970, and the original Cincinnati Bengals football team, members of the second (1937) and third American Football League (1940–41).

When Cincinnati businessman and radio pioneer Powel Crosley Jr. bought the struggling Reds in 1934, team president Larry MacPhail insisted that the ballpark be renamed in honor of the man many thought had rescued the franchise. Thus, the park was renamed "Crosley Field", and Crosley himself took the opportunity to advertise his Crosley cars. Under Crosley's ownership, the park underwent notable structural renovations. With the effects of the Great Depression in Cincinnati, the Reds convinced baseball owners to allow night baseball at Crosley Field. Without lights, MacPhail insisted, the team would fold because of low attendance. Lights had been installed in several Minor League baseball parks in the early 1930s, with positive results. The major league owners acquiesced; 632 individual lamps in eight metal stanchions were erected and on May 24, 1935, the Reds hosted the Philadelphia Phillies under the lights. In attendance at the game was Ford Frick, President of the National League. In the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a button that lit up Crosley Field, where a crowd of 20,422 fans, sizable for a last-place team in the middle of the Great Depression, came out to watch the game. Lou Chiozza was the leadoff man for the Phillies and thus has the distinction of being the first player to bat under the lights in a night game in the majors. The Reds won the game 2–1 behind right-hander Paul Derringer.

Presented is a 1935 Crosley Field stadium seat representing that dawn of a new era in Major League Baseball history. Imagine that you are in Cincinnati for the first MLB night game in this green-painted wood seat and green-painted iron frame measures 19 x 22 x 27-inches and has a red-paint stencil “5” in the center of the seat back. The paint is in very good condition, as are the wood slats and iron frame.

Crosley Field remained the home of the Reds until the middle of the 1970 season when they moved to the multi-purpose Riverfront Stadium. In 1972, the demolition of Crosley Field began in earnest. The lights were dismantled and relocated to various recreation areas in the city. The park was soon gutted; seats sold for $10 and fans and present and former club employees scrounged for mementos. On April 19, 1972, Pete Rose, Jr. pulled a lever that sent a wrecking ball into the side of Crosley Field. By autumn, just the faint outline of the grandstand remained. Today, seven buildings occupy the site and a street runs through it. The former site of home plate has been painted in an alley.

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