In episode 7 and episode 9, you got to hear the smack talk that Bellyscratcher, I, and our gentleman friends shared for game 11 in the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Today, to continue commemorating the Reds-Cardinals series (already half-won by the Reds!), we're posting episode 10 which details game 12 from April 16. You'll notice that there's not as much commentary as there had been for the previous game: we were a little tired after a weekend of beer.

I was struck by the culture of fandom in the city of St. Louis. Not just at the games, but everywhere you looked people on the street were walking around in their team colors. Cardinals merchandise is available everywhere. There's not a thing you can't have with a Cardinals logo on it: barbecue sets, bathrobes, there's probably even a toilet brush.

The few people we saw walking around in Reds gear saw us and, apparently feeling like we in the minority needed to band together, acknowledged us without fail. A few Cardinals fans felt the need to acknowledge us too. On the walk back to the car after this game, a man in his 40s gave us the finger-and-thumb L on the forehead, which made him look super cool, let me tell you. I sat there grinning at the idiot, but Bellyscratcher was nice enough to tell him off on our behalf.

Episode 10: Game 12. (11.9 MB, 17:23)

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Way back in Episode 7 you got the pre-game and first inning of game 11. It's been a while, but the Cards are in town tonight and it seems like a good time to get the rest of the game out there for your listening enjoyment. Game 12 will be posted tomorrow.

You won't be able to follow the game or anything from the audio, but it was a crappy game anyway. Pretty much, it's just a preview of the on-line sass that we'll be enjoying here at RHM tonight.

Lots of people have asked what I thought of Busch III, and I guess I thought it was just OK. Many of the problems that it had were transient because it isn't really done yet. The speaker system wasn't working in our section, so we couldn't hear the announcer properly. The scoreboard (or scoreboard operator) was usually behind or just plain wrong. It's utterly undramatic to see Pujols hit homers into an empty section of the stands that doesn't even have seats yet. Stuff like that.

Other things were problems with the design that seem like they're just a result of thoughtlessness. The seats are not angled toward home plate, so by the end of the game you have a stiff neck from looking off to the side for three hours. The foul poles and guard rails obstruct your view of the field. Though there are a million souvenir shops, bathrooms, and beer stands, they all still have lines.

And then there's the eerie way that sound falls dead around you, such that your cheers seems to hit a wall and go flat. I stood in the middle of a crowd of 40,000 screaming fans, feeling the stadium shake under my feet, and could still converse with the person beside me.

Of course, there are lots of good things about the stadium, too. It's got some neat historical stuff up on the walls for your perusing enjoyment before the game starts. There's some cute architectural details on the concourse. And, of course, the view is fantastic.

It's just too bad about the team.

Episode 9: Game 11, Part 2. (16.5 MB, 22:55)

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This week on the podcast we'll take a break from our increasingly outdated smack talk with Bellyscratcher to chat with the Mr. Tom Browning.

For those of you who are as new to the game as I am, Browning is probably a name you've heard, but you're not sure why. So allow me to list some of his better-known accomplishment:

• He was voted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame this last time around.
• He pitched the only perfect game in Cincinnati Reds history.
• He pulled a stunt in which he sat on a rooftop in Chicago, in uniform, during a game. Apparently that's pretty unusual.
• He broke his arm mid-pitch. Unfortunately, that's slightly less unusual.
• He's the first person ever to be interviewed on the Red Hot Mama podcast.

You'll learn about all this and more (well, not the podcast one) in his new book, Tom Browning's Tales from the Dugout. Read my review here. It's available online for $19.95 from www.BrowningBook.com or autographed for $5 more. While you're on the site, you can find out about opportunities to get the book autographed live-and-in-person, which I think is the way to go. I can now say from experience that Tom's a heck of a guy to chat with.

In today's podcast we talk about:

• The book. Duh.
• Life in the bigs. You'll be surprised to learn that it's not PG-rated. I even got up the nerve to ask about Charlie Sheen's party.
• Race relations in the clubhouse in the 80s and 90s.
• The time he signed a woman's underwear with her still in them.
• His hopes for the 2006 team. Yes, he does have them.

Episode 8: Interview with Tom Browning. (11.0 MB, 15:17)

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Last weekend the crack technical staff and I met up with my chick-blogging Cardinals fan counterpart, bellyscratcher, for a couple games and some partying in St. Louis.

We usually sass each other on-line during Reds-Cardinals games, but since there wasn't a convenient Internet connection for miles, we just recorded ourselves instead.

Today's podcast features highlights from our conversation during the pre-game and the first inning from Saturday. I've got my crack audio editing staff working on the rest of the weekend's audio for future installments, but I got sick of waiting and insisted that we just post whatever was ready right now.

Episode 7: Game 11, Part 1. (6.75 MB, 9:22)

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In the vein of live blogging, I'm pleased to bring you live podcasting. And thanks to the editing skills of my crack technical staff, the end result is just over 21 minutes instead of over 3 hours.

Pretty much I just recorded my impressions of the game in St. Petersburg against the Tampa Bay Rays as it happened. The recording was done in the iRiver, a portable digital recorder. The quality isn't quite as high as the real-live microphone back home, but I think it came out pretty well.

Make sure you don't miss the intro to the program. It is the mystery, super-special event that I wanted to keep a secret on Friday.

So finally you can know what it would be like to sit near the RHM at a baseball game and go forward in life requesting seats as far away from me as possible. I should also mention that there are a couple dirty words in the broadcast, so to all you kids listening: don't tell your parents where you heard them.

Red Hot Mama Shares the Game Experience for March 25, 2006. (14.6 MB, 21:17)

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