Error: Invalid Attempt To Read When No Data Is Present

I am getting this error even though there should be data present.  When I test the SQL statement in query analyzer, it returns 1 row.

<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" %>
<%@ Page Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPage.master" Title="Blog" %>

<script runat="server">Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

Dim strConnection As String = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("currentConnection").ToString
     'currentConnection is defined in web.config and works when used in other pages on the site
Dim dbConn As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(strConnection)

dbConn.Open()

Dim strSelectCommandFirstEntry As String = "SELECT MAX(blogEntryId) as maxID FROM site_Blog"
Dim cmdFirstEntry As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand(strSelectCommandFirstEntry, dbConn)
Dim rdrFirstEntryData As SqlDataReader = cmdFirstEntry.ExecuteReader()
Dim strFirstEntryData As Int32 = rdrFirstEntryData(0) 
      'error occurs here, i have also tried rdrFirstEntryData("maxID") with same errorrdrFirstEntryData.Close()
dbConn.Close()

</script>

When debugging this code and stopping on this line:

 Dim strFirstEntryData As Int32 = rdrFirstEntryData(0)

rdrFirstEntryData has the following values:
hasRows = True,
FieldCount=1,  
Item=In order to evaluate an indexed property, the property must be qualified and the arguments must be explicitly supplied by the user.
   and when i click the refresh button...
Item = Overload resolution failed because no accessible 'Item' accepts this number of arguments.

I suspect that the note for "Item" is my clue to the source of the problem, but I don't know what it means.  Please, help.