Red Hot Mama

The latest podcast installment comes from the game the Cincinnati Reds played against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Memorial Day this week. It was our first trip out to visit the Pirates’ beautiful park, and we discuss that during an abbreviated 8th inning show.

For Joey Votto bobble head night, we watched the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals from the comfortable confines of the Champions Club. In this episode of the podcast, we review the abundant food selections in the Club, as well as discuss the recent trip to the disabled list by Scott Rolen. The continued frustrating play of the Reds warranted a mention or two, as well, thanks to the Reds managing to score just one run during the game.

After a year-long hiatus, the Red Hot Broadcast returns with a recording from the eighth inning of the Reds’ Opening Day win over the Marlins. We discuss our first ever Opening Day experience, including the parade, the new features at Great American Ball Park, and the capacity crowd, as well as a little bit about Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips.

The Cincinnati Reds played their second game of the season last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, and we were there. Listen as we discuss the Opening Night festivities, those recent comments by Jim Edmonds, and the Reds victory over the Brewers.

Our trip out to Arizona to catch a few Cincinnati Reds Spring Training games ended yesterday. And while the flight home left us too tired today, it was worth it. The most painful part is always the leaving, no matter what my back was telling me after being cramped inside a turbulent airplane for more than 3 hours. Here’s a podcast from the final game we attended, when the Reds traveled to the new Spring Training digs of the Colorado Rockies.

We meant to record this one earlier, but the game just flew by, taking all of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Still, there’s some time to hear a bit of us from Goodyear Ballpark as the Cincinnati Reds lost to the California Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim County.

We were having such a good time today at HoHoKam Park watching the Cincinnati Reds play the Chicago Cubs–and eating Island Noodles–that we whipped out the audio recorder and grabbed our ramblings to share with the wide world at large. There are also lots of pictures of the Reds 7-6 win, and those will be uploaded later.

The Red Hot Family was in Cincinnati last night to see first hand the game that might have seen the Reds take over the NLC. While it didn’t turn out that way, it was still a helluva game and we immortalized some of the excitement for this installment of The 8th Inning Show.

Jon and I made a trip to Cincinnati this weekend to take in a little live music and a nice ball game. The Reds had their season-high streak of five games in a row to keep going, and we would have loved to have seen them stretch it to six. Before the game, the Screaming Mimes played to a crowd of about 50 concert goers plus a zillion people in line for the $1 concession stand. Even an hour before game time, the line was already impressive, and showed no sign of slackening as the game went on. After the show, we enjoyed the feature presentation…up until the sixth inning. We don’t like to think about that part, though. Instead, we’ll share the photo of a Drew “Stubby” Stubbs and Joey “Baby Kangaroo” Votto high five after the Paul “Soft J” Janish home run. Alas, we didn’t have a lot that was good to talk about when we recorded in the eighth inning. Thankfully, the inning was short and so was the podcast.

Saturday night the Crack Technical Staff and I, along with some other members of the Red Hot Family, headed out to a game at Great America Ball Park. We had every intention of drinking some beer, enjoying some baseball, and recording another episode of The Eighth Inning Show. And then the rain came. Unprotected by roof, we were unwilling to sit in the rain or to stand in the concourse waiting through what turned out to be a 2-hour delay. Besides the pain in the neck it would be to entertain our 8-year old through that amount of time, there was also the fact that we were beat. It had been a long week. The game took only 2 hours to resume, but our plans to record a podcast took all the way until today. Nevertheless, the CTS and I just recorded episode 111 in which we talk about our weekend trip to Cincinnati, my visit to Victory Field last night, the All-Star Game (plus my plan to get Votto voted in next year), whose on the DL, and Brandon Phillips nibbling on pretzels.

Just in case you missed the Reds Caravan this year, you can catch all the excitement, plus a few smart-ass remarks, in this podcast. Tune in to hear Dusty telling it like it is and the thrilling origin of the Cowboy’s nickname.

So, those Reds traded Ryan Freel, eh? Might actually be a decent move, I suppose, but against the backdrop oft he cluster that is Dusty Baker’s management, it’s hard to see this move as anything other than more of said cluster. In any event, the massive level of annoyance that it aroused in the Red Hot Household was enough to shake us from our three-month long podcasting malaise. This ought to motivate us for at least a couple months, at which time I guess they’ll have to trade Brandon Phillips to the Nationals in order to raise my ire enough to create more audio content.

There’s not a whole lot going on in baseball right now, unless you find who received arbitration offers exciting. Which I don’t, or I would have written about it. To tide you over, here’s an interview Ken Broo did with Joey Votto.

This episode is recorded live on location at beautiful Victory Field in Indianapolis, Indiana. The last place Indianapolis Indians (Pirates’ affiliate) hosted the division leading Louisville Bats (Reds’ affiliate) as they always do during the holiday weekends. The Bats had long since clinched the division, so it was hard to imagine that they’d put too much effort into their last series: 4-games against the cellar-dwellers (and that was just in Indy; afterward, they immediately took off for two more games in Louisville). But it was a good time anyway, seeing the Reds and Pirates of the future (and past *cough*Chris Duffy*cough*) defining themselves on the field. We attended all four games, but only stayed for the duration on Saturday (darn school nights), so this program is the culmination of four days and about 20 innings of baseball spectatorship.

As much as this season sucks for Reds fans, it’s got to suck even harder for the players. I mean, sure, they’re making the big bucks, but I can escape the games by going to work. For them, the games are the work. When I’m in the office, only a handful of people give me grief about how bad the team is; for them, all 10,000 people who bother to show up let them know about it. And if I really need my decent-team fix, I can just look at the Cubs, Brewers, or Cardinals, all of whom are within the scope of my blog and none of whom are rotten. All the Reds players can do is hope to be traded to Arizona. In fact, what I actually do is get so busy doing other things, that I end up stocking up almost a month’s worth of content to cram into on podcast. Enjoy!

This week on the podcast, the CTS and I take the day off work to visit Victory Field where the Indianapolis Indians took on the Charlotte Knights for a business person’s special. The background noise is all AAA ball, but the subject matter is all NLC. In addition to a minor sunburn, our seats on the third-base side gave us a great view of the Indians pitchers warming up in the bullpen. I imagine the CTS took this photo in direct response to me giving him a hard time about taking pictures of the Reds cheerleaders at the last game we went to. He’s safe! You can’t beat the up-close experience of a minor league ball park.

This week on the podcast, the Crack Technical Staff and I talk all-star selections, good players that bad teams out to trade, and everything in between. Specifically: The Brewers signed C.C. Sabathia Inspiring the Cubs to follow up with Rich Harden The Pirates might like to send Jack Wilson to the Dodgers, While the Reds may still think they’re in it. Even though it’s clear that HAIRSTON SHOULD GO! The Cubs represent in the All Star Game Roster While the Reds represent in the List of Guys who Lied About Being Drafted in the 30th round.

This week on the podcast: Shawn Chacon’s breathtaking misadventures Lou Piniella gets fired. Up. Why we hate umpires And all this *before* Corey Patterson came up with two outs in the bottom of 11 and the winning run on base.

This week on the podcast we run down some of the crazy injuries plaguing the NLC right now: The Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano is on the DL for the first time, like, ever The Reds can’t keep a shortstop to saves their lives The Cardinals might get mentioned in there somewhere The injury to Adam Dunn’s pride to find out that the Blue Jays’ GM isn’t attracted to him The Crack Technical Staff works on his Ed McMahon impression, and you can actually hear me sipping my glass of pinot grigio. Truly, an episode not to be missed.

This week on the podcast, the Crack Technical Staff and I have a lot of catching up to do. We discuss our trip to Victory Field tonight, and how the Columbus Clippers are now a Nationals affiliate that employ Ray Olmedo. We discuss the trade rumors around Ken Griffey, the injuries affecting the Cardinals, the .500 play of the Pirates, and the shocking interest of MLB in instant replay (it’s technology that’s only twice as old as my son!)