“We were going to be the first to go and there was a lot of responsibility to do this right,” Murphy said.
In the preceding years, there’d been some naysayers in town – from politicians to media types – who doubted the $23.1 million stadium on the site of the old Sears store on the eastern edge of downtown would fare any better the last venture, the Dayton Indians, who lasted four seasons and were done by 1951.
But Murphy — who half-jokingly said we’re “obsessive compulsive perfectionists” — pressed to make sure the public’s first impression would be a good one.
That’s why the Dragons — a Class A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds — started that inaugural 2000 season with a 21-day road trip as Fifth Third Field (as Day Air Ballpark was then known) was being finished.
Mike Vander Woude, the Dragons’ first media director and play-by-play announcer, remembers that start:
“We went to Lansing, Michigan in early April and it was cold. We played the first game, but the next morning we woke up to two inches of snow and ice. The games the next three days were cancelled.”
On the trip, he said players constantly were checking a live construction site camera whose images appeared on the Dragons website:
“The big question was “Is the ballpark going to be ready?‘”
The home opener was April 27th and that morning cement was still being poured on parts of the concourse. Two hours before the gates opened, workers were still bolting down seats.
Although most of the stadium was complete, there were some noticeable make-do measures in place: The jumbo video scoreboard hung from a crane beyond the centerfield wall; lawn chairs served as the dugout benches; and yellow caution tape hung on some suites.
“We didn’t get the occupancy license until 30 minutes before we were to open,” Murphy admitted.
By then, hundreds of people were lined up at the gates.
When the front gate opened, there stood Murphy — just as does now 25 years later — greeting people as they came in. And once the fans got further into the park, they were in awe.
‘A part of history’
On that warm and beautiful evening, 8,833 people packed the ballpark and another 1,000 who didn’t have tickets congregated on sidewalks outside.
“I just want to be a part of history,” 75-year-old Bill Grimes of Springfield told me that night. “I saw Babe Ruth play at the old Redleg Field in Cincinnati and now I’m going to this great park.
“I don’t think it will put Dayton on the map like NCR did, but it’s a great night for this city.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
The national anthem that night was sung by nine-year old Andre Peterson from the Shiloh Baptist Church choir.
“He was tremendous,” Murphy said. “I believe he went on to Broadway.”
Tom Nichols, the Dragons’ current director of media and broadcasting, said Peterson’s performance was prophetic:
“Just as he hit the last note, I’m told the four jets (from the Air National Guard in Springfield) flew over. You could never do that so exactly if you’d tried. The symmetry was perfect.”
It was a sign of what would come over the next 25 years.
Record sellout streak
The Dragons have gone on to become one of the most celebrated minor league organizations in baseball history.
Since opening night, the club — recently bought by Diamond Baseball Holdings, which also owns the Reds’ Triple A Louisville Bats — has sold out every home game. That’s 1,537 straight, in what is the longest sellout streak in North American professional sports history.
Credit: Skip Peterson
Credit: Skip Peterson
“I don’t think — year-round, regardless of the sport — there is a better fan base than Dayton, Ohio,” said Vander Woude, who worked for several minor league teams and now is a contractor at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“You have over 13,000 people show up to every Dayton Flyers’ game, whether they’ve won 25 games that season or 10. And look at the crowds for the First Four. What other city would sell out for a game like this year’s between Alabama State and Saint Francis?”
As people have continued to flock to Dragons games, the area around the ballpark has turned into the vibrant Water Street District, with restaurants, bars, hotels and high-end living options.
The success has been just as pronounced on the playing field. At last count, 149 Dragons players have gone on to play in the Major Leagues, most of them with the Reds.
The list includes past stars like Joey Votto, Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, Homer Bailey, Johnny Cueto, Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, and Billy Hamilton; and current Reds like Hunter Greene, Matt McLain, T.J. Friedl, and everyone’s favorite, Elly De La Cruz.
Right from the start, Dragon fans got a taste of what was to come from some of their heroes.
In that inaugural game, Kearns hit a home run in what would be a 4-3 Dragons victory over Cedar Rapids.
Later that season, he would put on a hitting display that Freddie Benavides, then the Dragons’ manager and now the Reds bench coach, still talked about the other day:
“There was a one-week stretch (in July) when he hit 10 home runs (and had 20 RBI). It was incredible to see.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
The following year the Dragons put on another jaw-dropping power display. The team hit 144 home runs, compared to 114 last year, and had four guys — Wily Mo Pena, Samon Peters, Stephen Smitherman and Randy Ruiz — hit 20 or more, and Mike Calitri added 16.
They blasted balls over the left field wall and across Monument Avenue, breaking out windows so regularly at the Requarth Lumber Company that the employees had an ongoing contest to see how many home run balls each person collected.
A community unified
When the Dragons have their home opener Tuesday against Fort Wayne — just as he did 12 days ago when the Cincinnati Reds played here against the organization’s top prospects in the “25th Season Celebration Game” — Murphy plans to continue his tradition and be at the front gate, thanking fans for their support.
And now — just like a quarter century ago — once the game starts, everyone will get a steady offering of the baseball and entertainment mix the Dragons have patented over the years.
Credit: Michael Cooper
Credit: Michael Cooper
Over the years, the annual crowd-pleasing bits between innings — the toddler races, Roofman, and the Retirement Village People with their rendition of YMCA — have been eclipsed by some especially touching moments.
Murphy said one of his all-time favorites was in 2007 when Captain Jim Thigpen from WPAFB surprised his family on the field, who thought he was still on his second tour of duty in Iraq.
The Dragons had his wife Kim and young sons, Caleb and Jacob, watching the Jumbotron board for what was supposed to be a live video call with him from Baghdad.
Suddenly, the screen went fuzzy and faded out and the PA announcer apologized. Meanwhile, Thigpen had slipped out of the visitors’ dugout and was approaching his family from behind.
When the crowd realized what was happening, it began to cheer. Kim and the boys turned around and soon were running through their tears to his open arms.
Murphy mentioned some of the other special ventures the club has had on the field:
They’ve brought organ donors and recipients together for the first time.
There are the Home Run for Life kids who are battling serious medical conditions and get to run the basepaths as the crowd cheers.
There are the naturalization ceremonies for new U.S. citizens and the salutes to veterans.
And there’s the Dragons MVP program that coordinates with teachers in over 1,200 fourth and fifth grade area classrooms to honor students who excel in various ways.
Credit: Lisa Bernheim
Credit: Lisa Bernheim
“As divided as our world is on every issue now, when you come to a Dragons game, the Dayton community is completely unified,” Murphy said.
“This is the place where people celebrate everything that is good and great about being in Dayton. That’s what I’m most proud of.”
‘There’s a real pride in that’
Since he managed the Dragons in that inaugural season, Benavides — a Reds infielder in the early 1990s — has moved up through the organization in a variety of positions and since 2019 has been the Reds’ bench coach.
But coming back to Dayton, as he did for the “Celebration” game, is still special, he said:
“This place is unbelievable. The front office does it right here.”
In five different seasons, Murphy has been named Minor League Baseball’s Executive of the Year by either the Midwest League, The Sporting News, Baseball Digest or Baseball America.
He credits the team that works with him — he said it takes as many as 300 people to put on a single game — and noted some of his top assistants have been with him all 25 years.
One of the most interesting is John Wallace, who started as the strength and conditioning coach in 2000 and today is the vice president of Team and Stadium Operations.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Wallace was a Reds fan growing up in Ironton and loves seeing players come through Dayton and then blossom in Cincinnati:
“One year about every position player of the Reds had been a Dragons player except Brandon Phillips. There’s a real pride in that.”
Benavides said the players know they are part of something special, too:
“When you’re a young guy and you play in front of 8,000 to 9,000 people every night, you feel the pressure and the adrenalin. It feels like you’re playing in a big-league stadium.”
Murphy said while the club is dedicated to developing players for the Reds organization, it also tries to provide each of the Dragons with a space for personal growth.
Players learn how to deal with the media; visit a hospital and connect with children; and Spanish-speaking players have been taught English in special classes the club offers.
‘A pretty special moment’
One of Vander Woude’s favorite moments involved Eddy Rodriguez, the Dragons catcher in 2007.
Fourteen years earlier, when Rodriguez was eight, he, his sister, cousin and parents escaped Cuba in a small fishing boat. The craft nearly capsized in a storm and when they ran out of food, the family ate coffee beans to survive.
They eventually were rescued by the Coast Guard. Eddy played baseball at the University of Miami, was drafted in the 20th round by the Reds in 2006 and a year later was a Dragon.
“We had a couple of days off and he went and became a citizen,” Vander Woude said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
Rodriguez briefly made it to the big leagues with San Diego. His first game was in Cincinnati where, in his very first at bat, he hit a home run off Cueto.
Seven days later he was back in the minor league and never was called up again.
Off that first team, four players — Kearns, Dunn, Jose Acevedo and Ray Olmedo — made it to the Majors.
Now when you enter the lobby of Day Air Ballpark — as Fifth Third Field was renamed in 2020 — you’ll find a touch screen display that gives you the history of all 149 Dragons big leaguers.
‘They didn’t want to leave Dayton’
Joe Giuliano — who now runs the JEB Woodwork company in Hamilton and serves as the assistant softball coach at Badin High where his youngest daughter Jessie plays — has a connection to the Dragons like few other former players.
Once a star at Badin himself, he joined the Dragons as a pitcher in 2000 after six minor league seasons with five other clubs.
When he was growing up he learned woodworking skills from his dad and when he got to Fifth Third Field the Dragons called on him for more than his curve and fastball.
He and hitting coach Brian Conley were hired to build the bat and helmet racks for the dugouts.
“They used them for at least five to six years, I believe, until guys smashed them enough with their bats and destroyed them,” he said with a laugh.
Credit: Aimee Obidzinski
Credit: Aimee Obidzinski
In 2000, Giuliano had just married Alison, his high school sweetheart, and they bought a home in Hamilton.
“A lot of the guys would come down to our house — especially Dunn and Kearns — and we’d go fishing and grill out,” he said.
After that season with the Dragons, Giuliano retired and soon started his own woodworking business. Last year the Dragons called him back up … to remodel several suites at the ballpark.
“When they first built the stadium, Dayton was the kind of town you didn’t think about going to that much,” he said. “But when the stadium came in, Dayton just kind of evolved around it.
“The ballpark is an absolute great place to go. And Dayton has become a really nice city to visit, especially around the ballpark for sure. It’s a place you like coming to.”
And one that some Dragons don’t like to leave, Benavides said.
After managing the Dragons, he became the minor league coordinator and sometimes would come back to Dayton with good news:
“Back in the day I’d come and tell guys they’d been promoted to Sarasota, which was High A ball. They’d be playing in front of just 200 or 300 people, not 9,000, but they were moving up.
“But players didn’t want to leave here. They didn’t want to leave Dayton.”
More than anything, that’s proof the Dragons met that initial directive “to do this right.”
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