''Since I've been running the parade . . . there has been a baseball game without a parade and a parade without a baseball game. This is my last year as chairman, and I'm trying to keep it under control,'' says Mr.Gibbs, parade chairman since 1989 and owner of J.E. Gibbs Cheese and Sausage Shop at the market.
''I've done my part to secure tradition in this town,'' he says.
His last parade will be one of his biggest with 165 entrants.
''The parade is bigger than usual because there are more bands. We got lucky the way spring break fell,'' Mr. Gibbs says.
Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott will start the parade. She'll blast a fire truck siren at 11 a.m. at the corner of Elder and Race streets. The parade will proceed south on Race and then east on Fifth Street, winding up at the Taft Theatre.
This year's grand marshal will be Linda Vester, a Cincinnati native and anchor for NBC News at Sunrise.
Ms. Vester will throw the first pitch at the Reds game against the San Diego Padres beginning at 2:05 p.m. in Cinergy Field, and Mayor Roxanne Qualls will proclaim Tuesday Linda Vester Day in Cincinnati.
The parade master will be Paul Kramer, executive secretary of the the Kid Glove Game program, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Cincinnati Police Officer Kathleen ''Katy'' Conway, who was shot four times in a Feb. 2 attack while patrolling in Over-the-Rhine, will ride with the police department's mounted patrol, which traditionally is at the front of the parade.
The parade, expected to last 1 1/2 hours, will feature high school bands, specially designed floats, Cincinnati Zoo elephants, llamas of Jodi Moore, galloping Belgium draft horses, and dog teams from the Cincinnati St. Bernard Club and the Cumberland and Ohio New Foundland Club.
Other special attractions will include the restored Tally-Ho wagon, which was the parade's first entry in 1920 and was used to carry Reds players to the ballpark. Also, Budweiser Clydesdales and the H.J. Heinz Co. hitch team will be in the parade.
''It's a very well organized parade with a very good public appreciation,'' said John Dryer, general manager of the Heinz hitch team.
To register for next year's parade contact, Neil Luken, owner of Charles Bare & Sons butcher shop in the Findlay Market at 621-8684.
