March 28, 2025 • 9 mins
Thursday's edition of "Lima's Morning News" emanated from Great American Ballpark for Opening Day with the Reds.
Todd Walker visited with Rick Walls and they talked about the Reds Hall of Fame. This year's main exhibit is focused on the 1975 World Champions.
Todd Walker visited with Rick Walls and they talked about the Reds Hall of Fame. This year's main exhibit is focused on the 1975 World Champions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great American Ballpark. It is eight forty seven Lama's Morning News,
Todd Walker here. We're brought to you by a quick
as a wink printing. It is opening day. The one
and forty ninth edition of Reds Baseball gets going today
three forty pre game four tennis game time here on
your home of the Reds, Hunter Green against the logan
Web of the Giants. Rick Walls is here. Well, let's
(00:21):
he's the executive director of the Reds Hall of Fame,
which of course is right here adjacent to the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rick, good morning, Good morning, a great opening day.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It is happy opening day to you. And you know,
let's talk about the Hall of Fame as an entity
because it while it's obviously affiliated with the Reds, connected
to the stadium, it is not technically owned by the Reds.
Right your a separate organization with your own fundraising needs
and things.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Exactly five o'h one c three in corporated in two
thousand and four, the year the Hall of Fame open,
when year after this ballpark open. Induction started in nineteen
fifty eight, So you always had the idea of a
Hall of Fame, but it was the Chamber of commerce.
Back in nineteen fifty eight, they decided we need to
do something to honor the former players, so they led
the charge, got the support of the Reds at the time.
(01:08):
In fact, it was Gabe Paul, the general manager, developed
this induction process and then it was sporadic for many
many years, didn't come to a building like we have
now fifteen thousand square feet largest team Hall of Fame
in baseball.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And with that the fundraising sometimes that you can sort
of have to your detriment, the fact that people may
think that basically the team props up the hall or
you know, pays for the Hall of Fame. But do
you have to have your your own ways of raising
money And obviously admission is one of those things, but
you have events of things too.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
We do, and that you're right, the Reds obviously one
hundred percent supportive, will back us in anything and everything
we do. If it weren't for their support, you know,
and promotion and then even services to help create some
of our displays and stuff, it would be really hard.
And every nonprofit, every museum has that challenge. So our
support is that club and then the fans who paid mission,
(02:02):
who buy memberships, who go to our events, who buy
our merchandise, who buy this year hopefully a lot of
our great eight fiftieth anniversary statue collection sets, which is
our big fundraiser to try to help pay for the
reunions and things that we do this year bringing.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Back all the players.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Speaking of that, it is the fiftieth anniversary of the
nineteen seventy five Reds World Championship, and of course they
did win again there in seventy six, so you guys
really have a sort of a two year arc here
to celebrate the big Red Machines ultimate two years there.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
We've been waiting for this for fifty years, right. It
is something that we all talk about. Every fan that
kind of thinks about today's team that's been around for
a while measures them against that team. It's almost unfair, right,
because that team was unbelievable before free agency. Bob House
and the Architect pulled together probably the big greatest group
(02:55):
of players to play together at that time in Riverfront Stadium,
Ost Turfield. So the strategy behind developing that team and
trading away good players, which is what they did. They
give Tommy Holmes and Lee May and they bring in
Morgan and Geronimo and Jack Billion. So all these things happened,
and it was probably at the time fans were not
happy with all that. Sure favorites and gone. But yeah,
(03:17):
that team is the best. It's the pinnacle of Red's history,
I think. I mean, it's nineteen nineteen, nineteen nineteen World
Series champion.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Is a solid team, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And there's some other really good teams, but for a
decade that dominate the National League, I mean the rivalries
with the Dodgers and the Oakland A's, I mean, that
was spectacular baseball well.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And with that, even though we have lost some of
the big Red Machine players, most notably of Pete Rose
most recently, but Don Gullet, Joe Morgan, still many of
those guys, thankfully, are still with us, and many of
them will be here this summer for a reunion.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Right, Yeah, we're gonna bring them all back. We've invited everybody,
their guests.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We're gonna put them up for four days.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
They're going to be in the Hall of Fame doing
meet and greets. They'll be on the field with pregame ceremonies.
We'll have some other special opportunities maybe where you can
get your photograph taken with them, or get an autograph.
So this is a really important time in Red's history
fifty years. As you mentioned, with the players that we've
lost recently, it's going to be special for them because
(04:17):
they know that they.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Can't do this forever.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And I think that's important and it's important for the
fans to know too that come out and support this
one more time with these guys.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
When is the weekend with the reunion?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
When are they coming late June?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I think we're talking about the twenty fifth through the thirtieth,
working on the details now, there'll be a lot coming
out soon, but it'll be a fun, fun time and
for our goal is about them and the entire team,
not just about the starting eight.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
With you always hear about the grade eight.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That is critical part of it, but this is about
a group a group of people to come together for
one cause to win, and we're going to celebrate that absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And even though the starting lineup is the most important,
it took thirty guys on the roster or more each year,
and back to you guys said that what there were
twenty seven or twenty eight players that played on both teams, Yeah,
which really of course buttresses what you talked about earlier
before free agency. I don't know that we'd have that
from year to year with any Reds team of recent victims.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Well can you imagine back to back championships and then
you get rid of Tony Perez?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right, yeah, because I mean just you have.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Two championships and you you know, you've got this key thing,
and then you have to start dismantling it, and then
the story kind of there's so many storylines behind what
made that team great?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Why are they remembered so well?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Why are they I mean, look at the personalities bench
Rose Perez, conception on Geronimo Foster, these guys in Morgan,
they just were national celebrities in many ways, drew attention
to them and everybody wanted to watch them. And then
of course when you watch the starting lineup of an
All Star game, Reds, Reds, Reds, Reds Gold.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Clubs, National League MVPs all start.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I mean, it just was NonStop accolades for that club,
and we all desire that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think it's it's tough, but it's that exhibit will
cover all of that.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Rick Wallas is whether that's the executive director of the
Reds Hall of Fame. You know. The thing is too
As you mentioned, Tony Perez departed after the seventy sixth season,
and I think part of the reason that team is
so finally remembered, even outside of Cincinnati, is because it's
an era that was the end of that era. Free
agency was about to explode. Soon Pete Rose would be
(06:22):
gone and others, And I think that's why it's so
indelible with people that were around them.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, you got to know the players.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
They were with teams for quite a long time, and
I think that losing that and the dismantling of that team,
and it was a plan. It wasn't just we got
to dismail the team and everything. There was free agency.
But at the same time they saw Danny Dreesen as
a great replacement for Tony. You know, people you have
to refill, right, You can't just ride one group all
the way out. So they thought that was the right
time to do that. Remember they traded Frank Robinson at
(06:49):
one time. Can you imagine doing that right?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yes, that one didn't work out well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Maybe worse trading in Red history. But all of that
stuff is a really tough call. For whoever's running the
team at that time, and sitting back watching the videos
when you're in the Hall of Fame and you watch
the highlights of the sty you sit back and watch
the seventy five World Series and you go, oh, I
forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That was really cool.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Look at that play, look at Morgan, look at the
way they played the game, and that feeling is what
really kind of transcended the Reds fan base and you
just fell in love with that effort and hard work
and it was what Cincinnati was all about.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And you're seeing that.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Now with the current team too, the way that their
Tito's trying to bring this team together, and you know
they got to fight to win, and you're not going
to have to be able to put that same team
together like that.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
No one, nobody in the league has it.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
That team is considered one of the best teams in
baseball history, the seventy five seven six team.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Rick, What are some of the maybe under the radar
things that the Reds Hall of Fame. I know everybody
likes to check out the wall with four and ninety
two baseballs on it and the obvious things. What are
some of the hidden things that you want to recommend
maybe some of them, my hardcore Reds baseball guys should
make sure and see it the Reds Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, it's it's kind of hard to say exactly, but
I know because I go through every day. New item
is the is the third base from Fenway Park Game
seven World Series nineteen seventy five. So think about that
series and how that changed the game in so many ways.
We have the base that was, and then we got
that through a lender.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
We have a lot of people that have collected these
things and are able to loan them or give them
to the Hall of Fame so we can share them
with the public. So we've become this great repository for that.
But I like, you know, the old the baseball card
collection is is awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Is one of the best.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
You know, over fifty five hundred cards on display cards back.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
To eighteen sixty nine.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
You could just peruse those and all day long and
kind of reminisce about players that you might remember, and
just learning about how baseball cards impacted, you know, really
the game and the society because it was they were
given away with a kind of everything.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
The marketing gimmick from you know black of better term.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You guys have my Pete Rose Rookie card that I
put in between the spokes of my bike and messed up.
Is that in your collection?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Oh man, I'm wondering how many people did that?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh yeah, don't get a started, I Rick. What's a
website or a way people can follow the Hall of
Fame and maybe make contributions?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Are joined here absolutely Redsmuseum dot org. So Redsmuseum dot
org has all the info on all of our events
next cities. There are meet and greets with players throughout
the year. Just stay there, You'll be with us.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You'll know everything. I'm meeting up.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Red's Museum dot org. Rick Walls of the Reds Hall
of Fame, thanks for stopping buying.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
We're live at Great American Ballpark on eleven fifty WIMA.
Are you
Great American Ballpark. It is eight forty seven Lama's Morning News,
Todd Walker here. We're brought to you by a quick
as a wink printing. It is opening day. The one
and forty ninth edition of Reds Baseball gets going today
three forty pre game four tennis game time here on
your home of the Reds, Hunter Green against the logan
Web of the Giants. Rick Walls is here. Well, let's
(00:21):
he's the executive director of the Reds Hall of Fame,
which of course is right here adjacent to the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rick, good morning, Good morning, a great opening day.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It is happy opening day to you. And you know,
let's talk about the Hall of Fame as an entity
because it while it's obviously affiliated with the Reds, connected
to the stadium, it is not technically owned by the Reds.
Right your a separate organization with your own fundraising needs
and things.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Exactly five o'h one c three in corporated in two
thousand and four, the year the Hall of Fame open,
when year after this ballpark open. Induction started in nineteen
fifty eight, So you always had the idea of a
Hall of Fame, but it was the Chamber of commerce.
Back in nineteen fifty eight, they decided we need to
do something to honor the former players, so they led
the charge, got the support of the Reds at the time.
(01:08):
In fact, it was Gabe Paul, the general manager, developed
this induction process and then it was sporadic for many
many years, didn't come to a building like we have
now fifteen thousand square feet largest team Hall of Fame
in baseball.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And with that the fundraising sometimes that you can sort
of have to your detriment, the fact that people may
think that basically the team props up the hall or
you know, pays for the Hall of Fame. But do
you have to have your your own ways of raising
money And obviously admission is one of those things, but
you have events of things too.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
We do, and that you're right, the Reds obviously one
hundred percent supportive, will back us in anything and everything
we do. If it weren't for their support, you know,
and promotion and then even services to help create some
of our displays and stuff, it would be really hard.
And every nonprofit, every museum has that challenge. So our
support is that club and then the fans who paid mission,
(02:02):
who buy memberships, who go to our events, who buy
our merchandise, who buy this year hopefully a lot of
our great eight fiftieth anniversary statue collection sets, which is
our big fundraiser to try to help pay for the
reunions and things that we do this year bringing.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Back all the players.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Speaking of that, it is the fiftieth anniversary of the
nineteen seventy five Reds World Championship, and of course they
did win again there in seventy six, so you guys
really have a sort of a two year arc here
to celebrate the big Red Machines ultimate two years there.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
We've been waiting for this for fifty years, right. It
is something that we all talk about. Every fan that
kind of thinks about today's team that's been around for
a while measures them against that team. It's almost unfair, right,
because that team was unbelievable before free agency. Bob House
and the Architect pulled together probably the big greatest group
(02:55):
of players to play together at that time in Riverfront Stadium,
Ost Turfield. So the strategy behind developing that team and
trading away good players, which is what they did. They
give Tommy Holmes and Lee May and they bring in
Morgan and Geronimo and Jack Billion. So all these things happened,
and it was probably at the time fans were not
happy with all that. Sure favorites and gone. But yeah,
(03:17):
that team is the best. It's the pinnacle of Red's history,
I think. I mean, it's nineteen nineteen, nineteen nineteen World
Series champion.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Is a solid team, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And there's some other really good teams, but for a
decade that dominate the National League, I mean the rivalries
with the Dodgers and the Oakland A's, I mean, that
was spectacular baseball well.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And with that, even though we have lost some of
the big Red Machine players, most notably of Pete Rose
most recently, but Don Gullet, Joe Morgan, still many of
those guys, thankfully, are still with us, and many of
them will be here this summer for a reunion.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Right, Yeah, we're gonna bring them all back. We've invited everybody,
their guests.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We're gonna put them up for four days.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
They're going to be in the Hall of Fame doing
meet and greets. They'll be on the field with pregame ceremonies.
We'll have some other special opportunities maybe where you can
get your photograph taken with them, or get an autograph.
So this is a really important time in Red's history
fifty years. As you mentioned, with the players that we've
lost recently, it's going to be special for them because
(04:17):
they know that they.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Can't do this forever.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And I think that's important and it's important for the
fans to know too that come out and support this
one more time with these guys.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
When is the weekend with the reunion?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
When are they coming late June?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I think we're talking about the twenty fifth through the thirtieth,
working on the details now, there'll be a lot coming
out soon, but it'll be a fun, fun time and
for our goal is about them and the entire team,
not just about the starting eight.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
With you always hear about the grade eight.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That is critical part of it, but this is about
a group a group of people to come together for
one cause to win, and we're going to celebrate that absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
And even though the starting lineup is the most important,
it took thirty guys on the roster or more each year,
and back to you guys said that what there were
twenty seven or twenty eight players that played on both teams, Yeah,
which really of course buttresses what you talked about earlier
before free agency. I don't know that we'd have that
from year to year with any Reds team of recent victims.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Well can you imagine back to back championships and then
you get rid of Tony Perez?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right, yeah, because I mean just you have.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Two championships and you you know, you've got this key thing,
and then you have to start dismantling it, and then
the story kind of there's so many storylines behind what
made that team great?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Why are they remembered so well?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Why are they I mean, look at the personalities bench
Rose Perez, conception on Geronimo Foster, these guys in Morgan,
they just were national celebrities in many ways, drew attention
to them and everybody wanted to watch them. And then
of course when you watch the starting lineup of an
All Star game, Reds, Reds, Reds, Reds Gold.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Clubs, National League MVPs all start.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I mean, it just was NonStop accolades for that club,
and we all desire that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think it's it's tough, but it's that exhibit will
cover all of that.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Rick Wallas is whether that's the executive director of the
Reds Hall of Fame. You know. The thing is too
As you mentioned, Tony Perez departed after the seventy sixth season,
and I think part of the reason that team is
so finally remembered, even outside of Cincinnati, is because it's
an era that was the end of that era. Free
agency was about to explode. Soon Pete Rose would be
(06:22):
gone and others, And I think that's why it's so
indelible with people that were around them.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, you got to know the players.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
They were with teams for quite a long time, and
I think that losing that and the dismantling of that team,
and it was a plan. It wasn't just we got
to dismail the team and everything. There was free agency.
But at the same time they saw Danny Dreesen as
a great replacement for Tony. You know, people you have
to refill, right, You can't just ride one group all
the way out. So they thought that was the right
time to do that. Remember they traded Frank Robinson at
(06:49):
one time. Can you imagine doing that right?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yes, that one didn't work out well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Maybe worse trading in Red history. But all of that
stuff is a really tough call. For whoever's running the
team at that time, and sitting back watching the videos
when you're in the Hall of Fame and you watch
the highlights of the sty you sit back and watch
the seventy five World Series and you go, oh, I
forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That was really cool.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Look at that play, look at Morgan, look at the
way they played the game, and that feeling is what
really kind of transcended the Reds fan base and you
just fell in love with that effort and hard work
and it was what Cincinnati was all about.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And you're seeing that.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Now with the current team too, the way that their
Tito's trying to bring this team together, and you know
they got to fight to win, and you're not going
to have to be able to put that same team
together like that.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
No one, nobody in the league has it.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
That team is considered one of the best teams in
baseball history, the seventy five seven six team.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Rick, What are some of the maybe under the radar
things that the Reds Hall of Fame. I know everybody
likes to check out the wall with four and ninety
two baseballs on it and the obvious things. What are
some of the hidden things that you want to recommend
maybe some of them, my hardcore Reds baseball guys should
make sure and see it the Reds Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, it's it's kind of hard to say exactly, but
I know because I go through every day. New item
is the is the third base from Fenway Park Game
seven World Series nineteen seventy five. So think about that
series and how that changed the game in so many ways.
We have the base that was, and then we got
that through a lender.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
We have a lot of people that have collected these
things and are able to loan them or give them
to the Hall of Fame so we can share them
with the public. So we've become this great repository for that.
But I like, you know, the old the baseball card
collection is is awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Is one of the best.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
You know, over fifty five hundred cards on display cards back.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
To eighteen sixty nine.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
You could just peruse those and all day long and
kind of reminisce about players that you might remember, and
just learning about how baseball cards impacted, you know, really
the game and the society because it was they were
given away with a kind of everything.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
The marketing gimmick from you know black of better term.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You guys have my Pete Rose Rookie card that I
put in between the spokes of my bike and messed up.
Is that in your collection?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Oh man, I'm wondering how many people did that?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Oh yeah, don't get a started, I Rick. What's a
website or a way people can follow the Hall of
Fame and maybe make contributions?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Are joined here absolutely Redsmuseum dot org. So Redsmuseum dot
org has all the info on all of our events
next cities. There are meet and greets with players throughout
the year. Just stay there, You'll be with us.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You'll know everything. I'm meeting up.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Red's Museum dot org. Rick Walls of the Reds Hall
of Fame, thanks for stopping buying.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Awesome. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
We're live at Great American Ballpark on eleven fifty WIMA.
Are you
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