This week I made the Crack Technical Staff, who is still shaking off the bug he had this weekend, get back out of bed to record and edit the podcast. That's dedication, baby.

We ramble on about:

• Blogger weekend
• The implications of winning the four-game series against the Cubs
• Belisle going up against the Marlins tomorrow
• The final series with Pittsburgh
• The end of the season
• Appearing on Ken Broo's program, Sports Rock, and the other cool stuff Ken Broo does
• Appearing on the Big League Baseball Report tomorrow

Keep those calls coming to the Red Hot Mama Line at (513) 729-7106. Or rather, start those calls coming to the Red Hot Mama Line. I'm tired of just getting vague pick up lines from guys who don't realize I'm not a phone escort.

Episode 24: Blogger Day and Other Stuff (13.5 MB, 19:43)

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I'm home. I've got the game on WGN. Why not talk to myself in the comments of a post about how, by embarrassing themselves in this series, the Reds are helping themselves for next year by keeping Dusty Baker employed?

Bronson Arroyo has already given up a hit to Pierre. Gotta love it.

Looks like we'll be treated to the defensive styling of Juan Castro a little while longer. According to Marc, the Reds have inked him to a two-year contract extension with a club option for 2009.

I expect this is just the first of many, many similar deals we'll see before spring training 2007 and beyond. Before we know it, the Reds will be known as the Equipo de Oro. Whether they'll be the Equipo de Ganar is yet to be determined.

Saturday was Blogger Day in Cincinnati, and what a day it was. I started off my day bright and early on Saturday morning, getting up at 8 so I could be out the door by 9:30 to drop my boy off with his Grandma in time to get to Dewey's Pizza by 1. Even though the alarm usually goes off at 5:30, 8 a.m. is NOT sleeping in.

Getting to Cincinnati was easy enough, but when our direction to the pizza place instructed us to “Take the left exit” was where we got lost. Once we got close, we still couldn't find the building. It was dumb luck that the Crack Technical Staff® happened to park in the correct garage. It was several more minutes of going up and down stairs at Newport on the Levee before we finally found ourselves on the chilly, damp patio with a bunch of not-so-strangers.

I forgot to take my camera, so I won't linger on lunch. Just that everyone was fun and there was beer for all! And we left the restaurant only half an hour after we were supposed to have arrived at the Reds Hall of Fame.

We just got out of this afternoon's Reds' game. While the total number of errors by the Reds was far superior to last night, the company of yesterday's game simply can't be beat. We've got lots of pictures and I'll post an exhaustive report once we get home. For the moment, I'm in the restaurant of the Millennium Hotel taking advantage of the Wi-Fi and waiting on my Ahi tuna melt.

The Crack Technical Staff and I had an absolutely fantastic time with the blogger community here on this Blogger Day 2006. Everyone was really nice and way more normal that you'd expect and not a single one of them said, “I thought you'd be hotter,” so I especially appreciate that.

I've still got a few hours to kill in the Cincinnati area. Tonight at 9 p.m. I'm scheduled to tape an appearance on Ken Broo's sports talk show. I'm not from the Cincinnati area, so I'm not sure when the show even airs. I hope Mr. Broo will be able to tell me. In the meantime, here's my request to the reading community to get the appearance on tape for me. Certainly there's something in it for you. I'm not sure what, but we'll work something out.

Go Reds!