Saturday February 28th, 2015

Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum

The Reds Hall of Fame, which opened in 2004, is an interactive, historical museum
dedicated to recognizing and celebrating Cincinnati Reds baseball.
The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is an entity established by Major
League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds franchise that pays homage to the team's past
through displays, photographs and multimedia. It was instituted in 1958 to recognize
the career of former Cincinnati Reds players, managers and front-office executives.

The Reds first teamed up with the Cincinnati Chapter of Commerce in 1958 to
promote the inductions, which were voted on by Reds fans. Nevertheless, no
induction took place in 1985, and starting in 1989, the discontinuation of the
ceremonies lasted for nine years. In 1998, Reds executive John Allen revived the
inductions and turned over voting to the local chapter of the Baseball Writers
Association of America, which also votes annually for the team's Most Valuable
Player and pitcher. The museum opened September 25, 2004, next to Great
American Ball Park. It has more than 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) of exhibit space
on two floors and is open year-round. The museum showcases such unique items
such as World Series trophies (from 1975, 1976 and 1990), the scorebook from the
1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (baseball's first professional team), MVP trophies of
Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, a gallery of the Reds Hall of Fame plaques and
other items. Rick Walls took over the role of museum executive director on August 1,
2007, for Greg Rhodes (the museum's first executive director), who remained with
the Cincinnati Reds as team historian.

Currently, the Hall of Fame section is home to 81 inductees. These inductees include
players, managers & executives who were involved in Cincinnati's baseball legacy,
which dates back to 1869, the year the original Cincinnati Red Stockings took the
field. Inductions take place every other year.