Cardinal Blogger Appreciation Month: BugsAndCranks.com

It is week three of BAM! already, and we're going in a slightly different direction for our Cardinal Blogger this week: a female. Yes guys, women appear on sites not called YouPorn and RedTube, I know it's hard to believe.

This week's guest is Andrea Reiher, one of the Cardinal writers from BugsAndCranks.com, as well as Ladies..., and she even has a blog of her own. She's really working hard - we ought to try that some day.

What's the best part about Andrea? I like her sense of humor, I like her writing style, and I like any woman who's a Cardinal fan. But above all that, I'm very impressed with her undefeated record in bar fights (you'll read about this below). Now that's what I'm talking about!

When I emailed Andrea about doing this interview, I was fully confident that she wouldn't disappoint. I think you'll be pleased. Here is our email one-on-one with Lady Andrea:

1) Why did you start blogging about the Cardinals?

I started blogging about the Cards because Bugs & Cranks let me. I was brought in as a "Clubhouse" writer, which meant I didn't have a team and could write about anything. Recently the site has decided to have more than one writer per team, especially the big market teams, so I got to start officially covering Cardinals stuff. They're my team, so it's a fun thing to write about that I'm very interested in.

2) What are your other favorite sites or blogs?

I got my start in the world of sports blogs on Deadspin. There was a piece done in its first couple months of existence that was about Brady Quinn and it got forwarded to a bunch of my friends at Notre Dame law. I discovered it was a pretty cool site and it's been all downhill from there. As for other sports blogs, I enjoy a lot of different ones, but the ones I check regularly are Hugging Harold Reynolds, Viva El Birdos, and Cardinals Diaspora. The other stuff I generally just see when Deadspin links to it. Deadspin is really my home base of blogging.

As far as non-sporting blogs, I discovered Television Without Pity and Zap 2 It a couple years ago. They both have TV-related content, but TWoP is more heavily recaps of TV shows and Zap 2 It is more newsy, though there is overlap. Both are excellent. I recently started writing for Zap 2 It, actually, which is awesome. It's like suddenly if your favorite band asked you to tour with them. I really like it so far.

3) No one can accuse us of sexism - we have two females on staff (racism, yes...but no way in hell we're sexist!). Blogging, or blogging about the Cardinals at least, seems to be a male-dominated field. Do you ever feel like a tiny buoy of reason awash in a sea of testosterone and BBQ sauce?

I wouldn't say "buoy of reason" because men can be perfectly reasonable. It is male-dominated, but I've always gravitated towards having male friends and hanging out with guys more than girls, so it's not weird. It'd be cool to see more female bloggers, but I don't want them just for the sake of having them. They have to be good. Same goes for guys. There are good female writers and not-so-good female writers; there are good male writers and not-so-good male writers. It's just about quality writing, insight and content.

4) Where do you watch the Cardinals? Do you prefer to watch from a bar, the comforts of your living room, or are you a go-to-the-games kind of girl?

If I lived in St. Louis, I would attend as many games as I could afford. Last summer, when the Cardinals started heating up I just decided I was sick of watching games on TV, so I bought 1 ticket for each of a Saturday doubleheader and Sunday day game, hopped in the car at 6 am Saturday morning and drove from Grand Rapids, MI to St. Louis. I slept on the couch of a Deadspin commenter whom I had never met before and we went to the two Saturday games together. It was great.

Since I don't live in St. Louis, I try to watch as many games as I can on TV. I like going to a bar, so sometimes I'll do that even if I have to go alone, but it's also nice to stay at home and watch with my dad (he's a Cards fan too) and my mom hangs right in there, asking good questions and stuff (she's not quite as into baseball as we are).

Two summers ago I studied in London and I bought MLB.tv so I could watch games. With the time difference, I could go out on the town, drink a little, go to a club, whatever, and then come home to the dorm we were housed in and watch games at 2 am. It was awesome. I didn't get much sleep that summer.

5) I've heard many women say they despise the pink Cardinals shirts/jerseys because pink is not the team's color. Discuss.

I have no ill-will towards pink gear in general. My St. Louis hat, that I have just about worn out, is pink. It was a gift from my grandpa and I think he probably thought to himself, "Andrea likes the Cardinals and girls like pink, so this is perfect." It was a very sweet, grandpa-y thing to do.

It's annoying that marketing people think that that's the ONLY gear a female fan might want. It used to be I could either buy a men's red Cardinals shirt that looked like jammies, or a pink shirt that looked like it had been attacked by my elementary school art teacher and her Bedazzler (she really had one). I am finally starting to see women's apparel in team colors, which is nice.

I also don't think you can just assume pink apparel = no knowledge of the game. I know girls who like sports who also just really like pink girlie crap. I also know girls who wear the traditional apparel who don't know jack about the sport, so it just depends. I say wear what you like. And if you love sports, great. And if you don't, that's fine too. What I find more annoying than all those things is a girl who feigns sports interest/knowledge for attention. I quite enjoy exposing their ignorance.

6) A couple months ago for insideSTL.com I did a research project about how ladies love Yadier Molina. As a female, give us your take on the Cardinals catcher

I remember that piece, actually. I was in total agreement. The Cards shirt I am currently wearing is a Molina jersey shirt. First off, he has an adorable face. Secondly, I love the way he goofs around with Albert Pujols. It's almost like we've got this monster leader figure with Albert and then he's cutie smiley little brother. Thirdly, he's amazing at what he does. Catching is hard. I caught one game of softball my entire career and I think my left knee has yet to fully recover. Finally, catchers in general are the hottest baseball players (to me). The gear, the backwards hat, the eye black, taking a full-on charge at the plate, calling the game, keeping a pitcher out of his head, gunning someone down at 2nd base. It's a bad-ass position.

7) Hypothetical question: look deep into the future, say 2009. Human cloning has become legal, only on the condition that Mike Shannon is the only person who could be cloned. How do you think this would effect society, and what would we do with all those Shannon clones?

Not having lived in St. Louis, I don't actually have strong feelings for Mike Shannon one way or the other. I enjoy his speaking voice.

8) Because of our ultra-nerdness, we love anything related to baseball cards of the 80s and 90s, thus we appreciate your Flashback Humor articles. Are you teasing us with baseball cards you found on a Google image search, or were you a big collector back in the day? All your credibility is riding on this one question. No pressure.

You seriously like those posts? That's awesome! I dropped the ball last week because my cards got put away and I couldn't find them and then suddenly it was the weekend and I had to work. Anyway, I'll do two this week just for you guys! The cards are actually from 3 whole boxes of minor league cards that I found in an antique store last fall. They were completely unopened full boxes, one from 1988, one from 1992 and one from 1994 and I thought minor league cards are pretty unusual, so I bought all 3 boxes and just waded through them, picking out guys I recognized or whose name rang a vague bell.

Thanks to The Good Face for sending in Q's 9 and 10. Like I couldn't have come up with this...

9) Besides gross t-shirt jerseys, what do you look for in a male Cardinals fan?

Well, this is a good post about how to win me over. And to be honest, I look for the same thing in all guys, Cards fan or not. Someone who challenges my intellect and makes me laugh will get very far with me. I've even met guys who initially I wasn't attracted to, but they were smart and incredibly funny and I ended up really liked them. Sports knowledge and fandome is important, but it doesn't have to be my sports or my teams. He just needs to be able to understand my passion for sports.

Good manners are important, I get really upset with rudeness. Not just pleases and thank yous, but also calling me when you said you'd call or not talking down to me, especially in front of other people. I also don't like to play games. If you like me, tell me you like me and we'll hang out. No big deal. Witty banter is fun. Ability to quote Ghostbusters, Jaws and Top Gun is cool. Someone who would cuddle up and watch 6 straight hours of the West Wing or The Office is nice. Even more obscure pop culture references are a definite plus.

I also need a guy who can appreciate the arts. That can be hard to find in a big sports guy, but I really like to sing, act in plays and go to museums, and I would like to encourage my kids to participate in the arts. I can't have a guy who is super into sports and would be really mean and disappointed in his son if he wanted to, say, play the trumpet in marching band instead of play football. This is actually really important to me because there is nothing "wrong" with choosing one activity or another. Do what you enjoy, you know?

10) Do you think you could take Brad Thompson in a fight?

Absolutely. I've been in two bar fights and I won them both. Both guys bled from the nose and were kicked out of the bar. Brad Thompson doesn't seem particularly tough. Wainwright would be tough. He's got that long reach, like Lincoln.


Thanks again to Andrea for helping us out!