When local businessman 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.

The major league owners acquiesced; 632 individual lamps in eight metal stanchions were erected in 1935 and the Reds hosted the Philadelphia Phillies under the lights on Friday, May 24.

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.

[6] On July 31, a large crowd showed up to see the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, the defending World Series champions, in the sixth night game at Crosley Field.

[7] As the game progressed, the throng of Reds fans forced people onto the field of play which caused mass confusion for the police and umpires.

During a lull in the eighth inning, a local burlesque performer named Kitty Burke came out of the crowd, picked up the Reds outfielder Floyd "Babe" Herman's bat, stepped into the batter's box, and dared the Cardinals' starter, Paul "Daffy" Dean, to throw her a pitch.

The "pinch hit" appearance was never recorded as an official at bat, of course, but nonetheless, Burke began promoting herself as the first woman in major league history.

After the 1937 season, home plate was moved 20 feet (6 m) toward center field, decreasing the park's outfield dimensions while expanding foul ground.

The following summer, Crosley hosted Cincinnati's first All-Star Game on Wednesday, July 6, 1938, won by the National League.

[8] In the middle of a pennant-winning season of 1939, their first in twenty years, the Reds added roofed upper decks to the left and right side pavilions, increasing the seating capacity by some 5,000 to give the ballpark the appearance it retained for the rest of its existence.

The Reds lost the World Series to the powerful New York Yankees in a four-game sweep, but bounced back to win the pennant again in 1940, then defeated the Detroit Tigers in a seven-game thriller.

By the 1950s, the Reds were back to mediocrity, but they had some sluggers, including the muscle-bound Ted Kluszewski, who took full advantage of Crosley's cozy dimensions.

The dream season ended for the Reds at the hand of the Yankees, whose slugging duo of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle had demolished the rest of the American League.

Maris, who had set a record with 61 home runs that season, also knocked one into the Moon Deck in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the World Series.

The neighborhood was not suited for the automobile; parking increasingly became a major problem in the last 15 years of Crosley Field's existence, as did crime — especially during night games.

Around 1960, Powel Crosley was courted by a group seeking to return a National League franchise to New York City to replace the Dodgers and the Giants, who had moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively after the 1957 season.

However, delays in final construction of Riverfront Stadium, led to the Reds opening the 1970 season at Findlay and Western, against the Montreal Expos.

With the Reds trailing Juan Marichal and the Giants 4–3 in the eighth inning, catcher Johnny Bench tied the game on a solo home run.

The outfield area at Findlay and Western was already small, so building inner bleachers was not practical, and the Crosley terrace persisted and became one of the park's trademarks.

It was used, as Duffy's Cliff had been, for temporary spectator seating, in the days when standing-room-only crowds would be allowed at the fringes of the field behind ropes.

At the north end of the box-seat aisle, behind the corner boxes, and visible in some photos, was a stairway up to a roll-up exit gate to York Street.

The other, more famous posted ground rule in the right-center field corner above the 387 sign (later 390) read, "Batted ball hitting wall on fly to right of white line - home run."

To commemorate their Crosley Field years, the main entrance of the Cincinnati Reds' new park, Great American Ball Park, features a monument called "Crosley Terrace" that features inclines and statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson.

The band lineup included: The Stooges, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Traffic, Mighty Quick, Bob Seger, Mott The Hoople, Ten Years After, Bloodrock, Savage Grace, Brownsville Station, Zephyr, Damnation Of Adam Blessing, and John Drakes Shakedown.

Other events held there included a Roy Rogers rodeo, a political rally for Wendell Willkie, and an Ice Capades show.

After the sale was made official, the city turned the park into an auxiliary auto impound lot while the Queensgate project was finalized.

Two years later, the demolition of Crosley Field began in earnest: the lights were dismantled and relocated to various recreation areas in the city.

Items such as usher's uniforms, signage, rooftop pennants, and a field microphone were given to the new project, which opened in 1988 with an Old Timer's game (which has been discontinued).

This re-creation was met with positive reviews from fans old enough to remember the real park, as well as retired Reds players such as Pete Rose, Joe Nuxhall, and Jim O'Toole.

Rohr, who wasn't a baseball fan when the project began, stated: "Sometimes I have a hard time understanding the people who come and stare at this place with tears in their eyes; a woman actually hugged the ticket booth and kissed it".