As has become customary every few years the Cincinnati Reds will play an exhibition game against one of their minor league affiliates in 2017. The Louisville Bats will play host to the Reds on March 31st as the two teams finish up spring training. This will be the first time that the Reds and Bats face off since the 2014 season. In that game the Reds shared a player or three with the Bats as Homer Bailey and Mike Leake started the game as both needed to start on schedule.
These games have been played over the years, perhaps as a reward for a good relationship and re-upping with the Reds on new player developmental contracts. The Reds were one of the first teams to start doing these kinds of things and now they are commonplace around Major League Baseball.
If you’re interested in going to the game there are two options here. You can buy a three-game ticket pack, which includes tickets to three bobblehead games for the Bats, starting tomorrow either by phone or online at BatsBaseball.com. With that package you get the exhibition game against the Reds which doubles as an Adam Duvall bobblehead game, Amir Garrett bobblehead game on June 9th and Buddy Bat bobblehead day on July 22nd. That starts at $39.
If you are just interested in the Reds versus Bats exhibition game, those tickets go on sale on November 1st at 10am. Tickets start at $17 and go up to $29.
My plan is to make another trip out to Arizona for spring training, though I can’t be for sure until we get closer to March – but if I plan things well enough, I hope to be in Louisville on March 31st for this game. Last year I didn’t get back from Arizona until April, so I will need to just plan accordingly.