CINCINNATI — The star of a longtime baseball tradition in Cincinnati is retiring, but not before he takes one last flight over the bases Tuesday evening.
The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens announced Sam the beloved bald eagle will make one final flight from the outfield to the pitcher's mound at Great American Ball Park before the Reds game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday night. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m.
Sam's retirement, well-earned after hundreds of flights to kick off Reds home games over two decades, was prompted after zoo veteranarians determined the bald eagle has cataracts.
As a result, Sam's final appearance at GABP will end with him being walked out during the singing of the National Anthem.
"Vision is so important to eagles," said Sam's long-time trainer, Eddie Annal. "Sam has flown from the outfield to the mound at GABP hundreds of times in the past two decades. Thanks to all that repetition and training, he knows the general direction to go, but still needs to be able to see where to land."
Annal said during practice flights Monday morning, he noticed Sam was having difficulty finding him. Suspecting something wasn't quite right with the bald eagle, he was examined by zoo vets.
Dr. Mike Wenninger said he found Sam has partial bilateral cataracts and, as a result, recommended he retire from flying.
"Sam should be able to function relatively normally, but is unlikely to fly confidently," said Wenninger. "Cataracts generally progress slowly over time. I suspect his recent changes indicate that they have progressed to a point that he is experiencing trouble with depth perception and visual acuity. I suspect things look very cloudy through his lenses."
Sam's flights at Great American Ball Park have been a longstanding tradition — he's also the first and, so far, only bald eagle to get his own bobblehead design. The bobblehead was part of a themed ticket package for GABP's Zoo Night in 2019.
Sam was found injured on the side of a road in 1999 when he was just months old; he was taken to Michigan State University, but Sam had sustained permanent wing damage that could not be repaired, which meant he could never survive in the wild.
He arrived in Cincinnati in 2003.
"He had never been on a glove and we had no idea what his flight ability would be," said Annal. "The first time he came out of his carrier at the ballpark, he sat on his perch for about five minutes, probably figuring out how he would get down to me. Eventually, he glided down to me in center field like a big paper airplane. He had figured out how to soar down despite his injury."
Sam will remain at the Cincinnati Zoo for the golden years of his retirement, where he will make appearances in Wings of Wonder for "as long as he chooses to participate," said the zoo. Sam won't fly — but he will continue to be an ambassador for his species at the zoo.
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