As the holidays draw near, Nestor Aparicio is gathering some end-of-year guests to assess a wild ride in Baltimore sports. On the Maryland Crab Cake Tour at Amicci’s in Little Italy, sports editor of The Baltimore Banner Chris Korman discusses modern journalism and local coverage – and the high expectations – of the Orioles and Ravens and a cranky beltway fan base.
Nestor Aparicio and Chris Korman, Executive Sports Editor of the Baltimore Banner, discuss the challenges faced by the Baltimore Orioles and the Ravens. Korman highlights the need for the Orioles to invest in players and community engagement, noting the discontent among fans. Aparicio criticizes the Orioles’ lack of effort in selling tickets and engaging with the media, contrasting it with the Ravens’ success. They also discuss the importance of streaming services for sports and the need for the Orioles to adapt to modern media consumption. Korman emphasizes the Baltimore Banner’s role in providing critical, community-focused journalism.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles fan discontent, Birdland membership, empty seats, community engagement, media access, streaming platforms, payroll investment, fan loyalty, Ravens success, Baltimore Banner, journalism sustainability, sports coverage, fan experience, team ownership, media challenges
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Chris Korman
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
8
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 task, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively not in the studio. I got Christmas ornaments around. There’s beautiful local art everywhere. We’re in a meet cheese of Little Italy. We got great guests. Matt Campbell, can be coming on a little later on. We could talk about the Baltimore Convention Center as the c, a, p, s, caps, caps, caps, first place. Caps, yeah, yeah, he’s yelling. Chris Corman is here. He is my latest victim. Alan McCallum is tardy. He doesn’t feel tardy, but he’s tardy with his mask on. So we’re gonna have Alan and the Mac coming. Chris Corman is the executive sports editor, they still call them executive or just sports editor, why not? That sounds better. ESP like ESPN, executive sports editor of the Baltimore best made you more money, $10,000 raise. He’s an executive now. Your offices are right here. Yeah, I invite you onto the show. Often you’re busy. Your staff is growing. Your brand is growing. I see all that stuff happening. It’s been not a year. I had you on in February. Okay, when I had you on the Angelo’s death had just hadn’t happened yet. Okay, the sale had happened. Angelo said not died yet. So it’s middle effect Super Bowl week. Adjour Pappas, right? You’re talking literally out your little league dads with you that time. Yeah, we’re nine months later. Baseball, the city, the empty seats at the playoff game, the kind of year they had payroll I had Cal ripkens guy John maroon was here for an hour talking about cows, involvement and all that. Where are you with baseball and how you felt nine months ago, and the heartbeat and the temperature of all of it? And really, I think heavy lifting that needs to be done by Katie Griggs, well,
Chris Korman 01:52
I mean, they have to spend money. I mean, like Orioles fans want to know that. Maybe not gunner Henderson, maybe not, you know, but like, they got to keep somebody, they got to keep Adley, they got to keep Grayson, they got to do something, and they got to invest in players that aren’t here yet. I My sense is that fans, we know of fans who are waiting they have till January 15 to renew their tickets, and they are saying, when you spend, I’ll spend. And I think it’s different running the
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
sports department than when I was younger. I mean, I was the barometer taking phone calls. I was the one guy taking phone calls forever, and I would get the temperature that way. But in the modern era, I don’t take phone calls anymore. I go on my social media and I see when the Birdland memberships go out, and I see I’m disgruntled fan number one, right? Like, I’m the most famously disgruntled, awful human being. Fought with it, like I fought for integrity, basically. So, like, I’m the last guy to get back on the boat. But the people that are already invested in this dude, the people that have been spending money on Mark Trumbo, spending money on Mark Reynolds, spending despite this, giving them their money and either coming or not coming, giving them their time, buying Christmas ornaments to say, Orioles, they this is my argument from the beginning, got me thrown out. They deserve more than this. The community deserves more than a new team president that’s been in three months that I think she’s talked to you, but she hasn’t talked to me and she hasn’t really sat with you, she hasn’t really been out in the way that they need a front for this organization. I mean, it can’t be gunner Anderson. I’m talking they need a community business front to attack the trauma that has been brought onto the community for three decades. And they can’t pretend it didn’t happen because it did. You saw it. You’re not even an oral fan. You saw working at the other paper. Like those 10,000 empty seats, they have to really piss somebody off around there. It piss me off, right?
Chris Korman 03:52
You would think, but they haven’t done anything right, like, what? What are they? You know, I first came, I came to a game at Kevin yards, the first year to open, it was 11, packed and like, and I go to games down, I’m like, Wait,
8Nestor Aparicio 04:06
why is this not happening? What happened? How did you chase all those people? Because they,
Chris Korman 04:10
they, it worked, right? Like, the five years of awfulness worked, and now we have these great players, right? And it’s not, it’s go time, right? It’s not delivering the fans. And I don’t know, you know, we talk about that a lot as a staff, what is it? What is causing this, this malaise in this market? Because other markets, people are going to games. You know, it’s not like Philadelphia, they’re they’re all the stands always full. So it’s not like, oh, parents are busy. Can’t weeknight games. There’s something else happening?
Nestor Aparicio 04:41
What is that? Well, that means, dude, you and I’m not a real journalist. I just play one on the radio. But like, it is up for us to ask these tough questions, because who else is asking? I think it’s that they haven’t. If it’s not your beat writers, if it’s not your columnist, if it’s not me, it’s not going to be Bal. It’s not gonna be these places that are and I don’t know how. Under thumb, you are, you’re getting funded by different places, and there’s expectations and whatnot. And like, if I work for you, I wouldn’t have a press pass, and then you’d have to go fight with them, right? So, like, you know, I can’t work for you because of that, right? So they have set the a lower bar and a different kind of standard with Angelo’s, that has to be erased. And I said this to John maroon an hour ago, standing right here. I’m like, you know, it’s one thing to put Cal Ripken in front of it, but that’s designed to make us feel better. And those commercials that David Rubenstein, but then the off season happens, and then there’s two months of nothingness. And when you say, who are the best players available, and the oral say, well, we we can’t afford them, right? That’s not what the fan base wants to hear from the billionaire just bought the team after 30 years of having a guy who wouldn’t afford it, who wouldn’t front face, wouldn’t do anything in the community. But this has to be dramatically different. And I’m telling you, dude, it hasn’t felt dramatically different to me. It, you know, in the way that I want invest in it. And that’s not my press pass. That is like, where are the games? What’s the deal? What’s the Birdland membership? Come on to my show and say, I don’t even know. Like a fan of told me two weeks ago, that he gives him 1200 bucks,
Chris Korman 06:16
81200 how many tickets is that
Nestor Aparicio 06:20
gives them 1200 bucks and puts it on the account, knowing you’ll just spend it during the year, so it doesn’t come with it that this first thing I said is like, is that the 13 game plan is that the Twilight, but no, that’s just you give them funny money and they bonus you back cheaper beer, and then you can then Use that money and say more. I want two tickets. I want to go on Tuesday because somebody’s pitching and the Royals are in town or whatever. And I’m gonna use part of that money then Chris, I think, by the way, Chris Corman from the Baltimore banners, our guest, my biggest question as a guy who’s banned, right, that I don’t think they’re giving me a press pass back. So therefore I don’t think I’m really gonna give them money or a ticket or buy the Birdland thing, right? Love,
Chris Korman 07:05
if you broke that news right now that you got a press pass back, that’s for
Nestor Aparicio 07:10
the banner to break, that you guys, you have access to ask the questions as to why I don’t have a press pass. So if you’re doing your journalistic duty, you’d be asking that question. So would your kids. But I would just say the the media part of this is the biggest thing. How am I going to consume the it’s a great week to ask this. When Apple, TV, Netflix, Amazon, are going to run me around for games this week? I don’t know. You know, Christmas Day I might have Netflix on to watch the game. I guess I am right. Watch the game. I bailed on that Miami, Kansas City game last year when they put the eight o’clock playoff game on on Apple or whatever, I just didn’t watch Orio Friday night games. I don’t watch them. They play on the channel I don’t have right those Saturday afternoon games that they put on at 1130 in the morning that they think people I don’t watch them. To me the Birdland membership. If I were asking Katie Griggs, what is the model five years from now, for people who love your brand and love your team, how are you going to give them the games so that when I’m in the car on Friday night and I’m driving Ocean City, I can watch the game on my phone. When I’m in an airport in Tahiti, I can watch the game on my phone, right like they don’t have the distribution of their game in a media world where everything comes at you in real time, right? They are the place that still, if my mother were 103 and alive, she wouldn’t know where to go to get the game. I’m 56 and I don’t know where to go to get the game to me, this membership thing that they had, this $1,200 this guy took that gives to them. It has to come with, I’m getting the thing where I get every game, because that’s the mustard. Like, if I stop watching the games, I’m gonna stop going to the games, right? So you got to give me the games where I am anytime I want it, and you got to make it one price, no bullshit, telling me I got to pay four different services, and you’re going to involve other credit cards and other streaming. No, give me the games. I’m an Oriole fan. Let me pay $259 a year, and it comes with two tickets for a game. It comes with a some I don’t know, but they’re gonna have to get into this mass and model of where the media is and figure out where that money is, because Alan loves euros. I don’t know how much he’s willing to give them to get the games every night. I don’t know, but it came out of our cable building. We never felt it before. I mean, you’re a young parent, you feel all of it now. The Disney Channel, the paramet you, you feel all of that. What’s the Oriole channel?
8Chris Korman 09:33
I feel, I feel so much during Christmas especially. I mean, it’s got to be that they’re gonna I mean, I think MLB wants to move to streaming like they are buying up as many of these channels as they can. The problem with massen is that it is part of the deal that allowed the nationals to move here, and it’s supposed to give the Orioles an advantage, and it never has. Well, yeah, I mean, it certainly is not given. It’s given some. Be an advantage.
Nestor Aparicio 10:00
You know, John, that was the poison pill. The Poison Pill was always, we’re gonna give them the same as you and I’m gonna control the bank, so we’re gonna get both as little as possible, and I’m gonna pack up the money, right? I mean, that was a
Chris Korman 10:11
20 year scam, right? Yeah. And now John Angeles is somewhere spending that money, but, yeah, I mean, I think that it’s
Nestor Aparicio 10:17
8gonna hit a walk off Grand Slam. Born on third hit, a walk off Grand Slam, 1.7
Chris Korman 10:24
billion. Jeez, yeah. I mean, I think streaming is where it’s going to be, but the question is, how they get there, and who gets the money. And the Orioles, you know, depending on how much I don’t know, how much you believe John, that they don’t have the money to spend in this market like science, certainly should.
Nestor Aparicio 10:44
I saw Rubenstein speak at Beth to filler last month. I shook his hands first time I met him. Uh, listen to him. And First things first, he doesn’t know a lot about baseball, like, if you were to sit and talk to him that he admitted, he admitted that. So, so from that perspective, how many I can’t even ask him questions, because he doesn’t really have the answers, like any more that he asked me about the Magna Carta I you know, like I don’t have the answers, right? You know, it’s not what I do, right? He said, on stage in our industry, you know, it’s pretty routine that we spend what we what we make. And I took a moment and I thought, Well, that won’t be good enough. That just won’t be good enough.
Chris Korman 11:23
And it’s also not true. I mean, the Philadelphia Phillies owner has said, I’m here to win. I’m gonna spend whatever I need to spend the Mets owner Padres before he died. I mean, right? Like, that’s just not if you’re gonna
8Nestor Aparicio 11:33
have 120 250 mile, million dollar payroll here, and you’re gonna claim more small market, and you’re gonna cry that nobody came to the playoff games, and you’re gonna spend the whole off season doing nothing, and you’re gonna ban people like me who want to talk about your team and want to help you sell tickets and want to create authenticity and spirit. I don’t know what to say, but this is new, and it was supposed to be better than this. And I don’t mean they had to sign one Soto, but they had to get on the phone and pretend. I mean, even if they weren’t Angelus, pretend that he was trying to sign mark to share somebody. Believe that I didn’t, but, but there is a point where trying to sign the best players, he
Chris Korman 12:09
then signed people. He signed, I mean, wasn’t Shera and then Palmeiro. I mean, wasn’t it like, I mean, he signed like, when, when Peter angels bought the team, he went out and No, no,
Nestor Aparicio 12:19
no. I’m talking about, this is 15 nobody would take his money. I’m talking about that the share error was he was just lying and saying, we’re involved. We offered to share a fair No, no, you offer him $200 million less than anybody. It’s not a fair country. Same thing with Messina. He said that. He said to me, we offered Messina plenty of money. Well, it wasn’t enough. So that philosophy is the same for Juan Soto, without anybody saying it is. If you don’t want the best players, and you’re not going to compete it that way, and you’re going to say, we’re small market, we’re cheaper work, then you get what you get for 10,000 empty seats. Because if you’re not trying hard, don’t expect the fan base to try hard.
Chris Korman 12:56
8Oh yeah. I mean, that’s where I’m at. I think that’s that’s the case right now, fans are waiting to see that they’re going to take an actual step. You know, it’s one thing to build and draft and bring those guys up, which is hard to do. And I think Mike Elias wants a lot of credit for that, and he deserves the credit. But like, you also have to take that step. You have to say we’re going to go out and get somebody to supplement this. The window is open, right? Like, this is gunner Henderson’s time he’s, he’s as good as he’s. I mean, like, he’ll get a little he’s not gonna sign, but boy, right, so the horsing
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
away four years, well, that’s what I said three weeks ago when soda was still around. I’m, like, if you’re telling me, we’ll sign gunner when the time comes, Gunner might not want to be the beer you can’t get. You know, he might have his eyes set on being a Dodger or Yankee, and when the money gets there is agents got them all lubed up about that. He doesn’t like empty he don’t want to play in a ballpark with empty seats or playoff like all these guys feel all that, and they all have an ego about it, but just thinking we’re gonna wait and give our guy the money. Your guy might not want. The money he really might not. Manny Machado did not want to be here, even if Manny Machado would have taken $300 million 100 million dollars from Peter, right? He didn’t want to
Chris Korman 14:05
be here. Let’s, let’s also be clear that this money that they’re giving the players, they make it back in multiple fold. Like, they, you know, Shohei Ohtani makes the Dodgers hundreds of millions dollars a year, and then they pay him some of that. Like, it’s like, if you’re doing it right, right? I mean, this business is not like, we do not need to feel bad. All I
Nestor Aparicio 14:25
would say to Rubenstein is, dude, you bought the freaking team, don’t poor mouth now, right? You got involved in this, you know, you got involved in this knowing the Yankees are always gonna spend 300 and you’re gonna be lucky to ever get to a buck 75 and it may break you to do that. You may have to put 25 to 50 million into the kitty every year, until you get to the point where this city reaches into its pockets with their credit cards out, and everybody buys your streaming because they have to have the game. And with that comes the chance to come down to the ballpark and get a hat and get a pennant and be a fan. That to me. Be the buy in. And I keep saying this, and maybe it’s the first time you’ve heard it, because I haven’t heard anybody else saying it. You look at me a little weird. The buy in is the media thing. The new buy in is, do I have the Oriole package? Am I buying it, or am I not? And this is the story for streaming with everything. When a movie comes out and they say, well, it’s only on Disney plus, well, I don’t have that Oriole games on Apple. Plus, I’m not watching I’m just not watching it, you know, that’s it. You know, concerts. Pro jam wants $500 I ain’t going Taylor Swift wants a grand i That’s fine, you know? I mean, there is a point for all of that, and they don’t carry the juice here that they did where the game has to be on in a bar. I go into bars all the time in the city, and the oral games aren’t on, really. It’s been going on for 20 years. I first thing I noticed on a summer night as I walk in no and say, Are the Orioles relevant enough that not never to meet? She’s now here. It’s always because they have the Orio countdown here. They have the standings up here on a day by day, base is a baseball bar. But in a general sense, do you have to have the Oriole game on on a Friday night? If you’re in a bar, you have to pay at you, don’t? You just don’t. Nobody’s gonna say, Well, I’m gonna go to the other bar to watch because they don’t care about the Orioles that way they did 30 years ago, when you were 11 years old. I promise you, there was no place you went in this city in 1995 9697 98 anywhere, anywhere on oral game night where the Orioles weren’t the center of gravity for everybody in the bar, even if you were on a romantic date, you had an eye up just to see if how messine was pitching right.
8Chris Korman 16:33
And so what, and what to you, is the difference, like, where did it get lost?
Nestor Aparicio 16:38
The owner ran a team into the ground. The owner lied to everybody. The new
Chris Korman 16:42
owner has not shown. Hey, I’m different. See if the other
Nestor Aparicio 16:45
8owner were here and he were alive right now, he’d come back and he’d say something like it. You folks over the bear, you have no idea what the Baltimore Sun put me. You weren’t the Baltimore Sun. Corman, let me tell you what they did. It was their fault. It was a media’s fault. They missed, portrayed, misconstrued, my generosity. You know, go watch the tape of the Ripken night, of what he did with his 14 minute speech, and then watch all of the actions. I mean, John root sat here and basically, for the first time ever sort of threw Peter under the bus. He said, today, Cal wasn’t involved for two decades. We don’t really know why. We do know why Cal wasn’t involved for two decades, right? Brooks wasn’t involved, right? So they but what they did to businesses. Chris, I can’t you don’t sell for a living. Your sports editor, I know your world. I lived in it. I worked and it’s all ever wanted to do. I go out on the street and I talk to businesses. I can’t begin to tell you how many people got fried by the Angelos family. And I’m talking about salesmen that went in and sold a cow. CEO W cow, not Cow, cow on the outfield wall, right? And they went into pre production to make the cow, and Peter got wind of the cow. There’s all gonna be a cow on my wall. So now the executive business leader has to call Chick fil A and say, there’s no sponsorship. And Chick fil A says, what, we took $500,000 out of the budget to give you to hit the cow. Well, we’re not. Peter had a thing about the walls. You don’t know any of this stuff. Oh, dude, I know crazy stuff. Peter. Peter hated color schemes on the outfield wall. He hated foreign cars, so he threw Toyota out. That’s I’m not, I’m not making that up. He threw Toyota. Al, so like one year was like, for Maryland National Bank, or was a bank, he didn’t like their their color, and he said, We don’t want to see that color on the scoreboard. And they had to make the ad green and white, like the Fenway Park ads. They had to take their own color palette. In other words, Coach red, I like blue, right? Let’s sell to Pepsi instead. There were crazy things that went on in this organization that didn’t make any sense. Yeah, and you’re laughing at them, thinking, I like, I’m making it up. I’m promising you that out on the street for 30 years of doing this, the businesses were the ones that were stung, and this really came. Just go through all of the suite owners for the Ravens. Just go through all of their sweet owners. Every one of those businesses owned a suite at Oriole Park from 92 to oh two. And when the 10 years were up, the Ravens had just won the Super Bowl, and they all said, Well, let’s go get a suite at the or we have both. We don’t really need the Orioles one anymore. We don’t use the tickets. And that’s when the Orioles cleared out. The orals cleared out, no 20304, and that’s when Peter really started losing money. That’s when the state that’s when I wrote this, Peter personal. That’s when, well, I mean, Sid thrift told me this Joe for everybody. Their payroll went off. They signed David Sagitta. He. Was putting 25 to $50 million of his own money in knowing that his kids would get 1,000,000,008 later. Exactly what you’re talking about like, over funding the team, knowing it was gonna sell for $2 billion so what’s Rubenstein basic business? Like, I’m thinking if Rubenstein bought this team for 1,000,000,008 and he’s looking at the payrolls, even if he’s just a math guy, and he is. He’s a big time math guy, right? He would look at this and say, I’m 74 my exit strategy is to sell it at 84 in 10 years, with $600 million of funding and our own television network and a good team, we’re going to be able to sell this franchise with the casino that we’re going to attach to the stadium and the new revenues. We’re gonna sell this for 3.5 billion. 4 billion is a target, okay? 4 billion whatever someone owned to think 10 years, and it’s going to appreciate 200 million a year. Let’s just take 75 million of that every year and pay too much for players. Let’s just pay too much for players for the first five years, just so we can see how good we can make this. Let’s see how we can maximize revenue. Let’s go make relationships with the people we let’s call that a hole from Dundalk with the long hair. Give his press pass back. Let’s fix the things that we can fix that are easy, free and kind, and then maybe after we invest, instead of 1,000,000,008 we’re up to two point 1,000,000,005 years from now, and we have great players. We’ve nobody talks about Peter Angelo’s anymore when a sports editor of the banner and the crazy FCC license owner get together. They don’t even mention Peter anymore. They talk about what the team on the field, the stars, the work in the community, the Winter Carnival, the things they’re doing the community, all the brand building that they want without earning it.
Chris Korman 21:56
Yeah, and Rubenstein, if he had, we did a story that Peter Angelo if he had taken the money he had taken the money he spent on the oils and just put it in the stock market, he would have made more money. Right? Now, that doesn’t, that doesn’t take into account he may have been profiting year over year, but like, you’re buying fun, right? David Rubenstein didn’t buy the team strictly as an investment. It’s not the best investment you can make with money, right? This is not like if you were strictly saying, like, I would like to make my progeny even more fabulously, ridiculously wealthy. You do something else with this money. So you automatically are buying fun. And
Nestor Aparicio 22:31
when you go in, you know you’re gonna have to give a one soda 700 million if you’re adverse to that. But look, they’re not even
Chris Korman 22:37
in the 700 million cat like we’re talking like we’d like them to get into the we’re gonna sign a picture for more than one year
8Nestor Aparicio 22:44
that we’ve heard of, right? That’s not 35 from Japan.
Chris Korman 22:47
I mean, then that guy just one year, like, they’re, you know, they’re like, they just will not step
Nestor Aparicio 22:53
up. They won’t commit. So why am I gonna commit?
Chris Korman 22:58
8Great question. I mean, I think, and that’s where Orioles fans are we. They’re literally waiting for that. And I don’t know if Elias just thinks he is so smart that he can do this his way, and he just wants to prove like, Hey, I’m always going to get value out of players, because that’s the hidden thing in sports, is like you have to overpay, right? Like you have to, you have to waste
Nestor Aparicio 23:22
money, right? You have a little bit. And sometimes it’s Marcus Williams, and we sit here and bitch about it when it’s the ravens, but that’s, that’s the cost of doing this,
Chris Korman 23:30
right? But then they make a ton of like Lamar Jackson. They pay the most, but they’re making all that money back. Lamar Jackson’s a marvel. He’s incredible. People are buying his jersey. People will follow this ravens team for
Nestor Aparicio 23:41
it. Well, the most important thing is he makes the team good, right? That’s the most important thing.
8Chris Korman 23:44
And then, and then they take some risks with other players. You know, they spend money in other places, and like the girls just need to do that. They
Nestor Aparicio 23:52
I just wanted to see a real energy change with the franchise. And Katie Griggs is not going to be the energy and she’s just not. I think if that was going to be the case, I don’t know where the off season energy is, and they need to be better at that. For you, getting your press, getting me, getting us talking about them in a positive way, and not in a we’re going to give a community investment. We’re going to build that’s all great. The team is the most important thing right now. The Ravens do all of that stuff, and they say they do all that, that they need to be Pittsburgh on Saturday, like you could do all the rest of that stuff, but performing on the field and then backing it up in the off season, and being what you say you’re going to be a community organization, a local guy, winning,
Chris Korman 24:40
showing what you’re trying is the most important thing, I think, bringing back pride to the fan base. Yeah, fans are smart enough to know that. Okay, if you don’t quite win, like, okay, one team wins at the end of the year, but, but if you’re not even trying, I mean, that is the difficulty, almost like the jets and and to do it on purpose. For so many years, and to not at some point to get to, like, Okay, we have Adley. And like, Adley has turned out to be good, but, oh, might not, might not be what we thought, but gunner is better than anybody thought in
Nestor Aparicio 25:12
8well, the Adley thinks it’s not good or bad. He just went off the cliff, and now we got to figure out what happened. And, you know, I’m the journalist, like, well, the other part is, was he healthy? Is his mind, right? Was there something off the field? Was there just something not right about clearly, the results were not right, right? So I and they’re not going to talk, right? I mean, it’s our job as journalists to try to figure it out, but we gave Adley every opportunity
Chris Korman 25:37
to say, Hey, you’re hurt, right? Oh, I know something’s wrong with your hand? You got hit?
Nestor Aparicio 25:41
Yeah, well, there’s something wrong with the hand. Thing that there was video evidence that that that would have been easy. And it’s not about being a tough guy or not. It’s about the results, and about saying, Are you a mess, or was it just a bad summer? And I think with him, with the track record, I think it was just a bad summer. I think he’s he, he’s shown at every level that that’s who he is. Something really went awry this summer, but you need to fix that, right? That, and he’s still
Chris Korman 26:06
a plus value player by far, right? Like he is throwing arms, not great, but he’s a good defensive catcher, I don’t
8Nestor Aparicio 26:13
know dude, his hitting was really, really bottom a class for too long, way too long. Wasn’t a wasn’t a month or two months. It was a season. It’s
Chris Korman 26:21
a real concern and a reason that, like, you go out and you spend money, they’re gonna say, well, we spent, we gave Gary, you know, we gave Sanchez 8 million or whatever, which is a lot for a probable backup. They’re gonna say that. But, like, there’s, you know, you look
Nestor Aparicio 26:36
it’s gonna get 280 at bats. Yeah, he is. You look around
Chris Korman 26:39
8the league, and lots of teams are spending a lot of money
Nestor Aparicio 26:42
that they don’t have a legend, and they write and the or like
Chris Korman 26:46
it is a direct competition. They have to keep up with these teams.
Nestor Aparicio 26:49
I keep going back to this 10,000 empty playoff seats, and I think to myself, if I own the team, if I represented the team, if I were a base runner for the team, I’m a fan of the team. I’m a deposed fake media guy, and I’m mad about it. You know, like, asses should get you when there’s 10,000 MP seats for playoff game, yeah, the players should be chewing the asses of the front saying, we’re down here playing. You guys can’t sell tickets. What’s wrong with this place? Why would I want to sign here, where they’re not even coming to playoff game? Like, there’s a little bit of that. And I was stunned by it. I mean, I’ve been here a long time, and I think of myself as an expert, a smart guy, and all that. I did radio with Luke that week, and I saw that there were a lot of tickets. And Joe Enoch’s one of my longtime sponsors and buddies, and he’s a curmudgeon, way more curmudgeonly to me, and he and I are always looking at ticket apps. It’s like our little fun, because that’s the real the value of the Raven Steelers tickets is $300 this Saturday, because the mark because the market says so it’s a big deal.
8Chris Korman 27:44
Does that get in 303 it’s three, it’s 300 to get it would
Nestor Aparicio 27:47
probably be a buck and a half by Saturday. Could be cold and like weather does affect all that. But for the baseball thing, for tickets to be $15 on the night of a playoff game everywhere, I hit Joe on that Saturday and Sunday and said, the Orioles been doing this for a long time. They scout their own tickets. Everybody knows this opening day, they hold everything back, and then they flood the market the day before opening day, and ticket prices depreciate dramatically because they held them all back, trying to sell what you would call a season ticket, right, right? All they did that with the playoff tickets. They were trying to get a buck and a quarter at all the playoff tickets, and nobody was paying it. And then all of a sudden, it’s a day before the day before the playoff game. They got 20,000 empty seats, and they went 7050, 3020, 1815, 12, and there were still a couple 1000 empty seats. And then they lost, didn’t score, and then the next day, the real embarrassment happened, because nobody came back, right and I was at a bar. I was at the Beaumont over Catonsville the night that they got eliminated, and now maybe the first night, but either way, I was at the bar. And it’s a small bar, like amici. There were dozen people. It was after the games, like eight o’clock at night, so everybody there was wearing a cap, and everybody had come from the game. It was a little cold, too, as I remember it, and everybody started talking about what they paid to get in. I bought early. I paid a buck and a half. Man, I should have waited $20 today, 15. Dude, that’s not what you want at the bar Catonsville, after you get eliminate. You know what I mean? Like, it really was a I paid what for that hotel room, and you pay, and we had the same hotel, right? There was a lot of that going on because the Orioles tried to scalp their their playoff tickets, and they didn’t get away with it. Then they tried to give them way and nobody wanted to come. That’s that breaks my heart. And I’m, you know, it breaks my heart on behalf of Angelos and the old things or whatever, but just on behalf of how hard the players were, how long of a season it was that they deserved more support there at the end. And you can’t ask for more than $10 tickets and $15 tickets and $15 tickets if nobody wants to come, they don’t want to come. I’m I’m worried about them. You know what I mean? I’m worried about what it’s going to take for them to get up and run, not about them being nice to me, or whether they’re going to get their $800 a year from me to go to some games, and I would give them money. I would come. I would forget that Peter ever lived if they didn’t treat me like he stole. Live on a personal level, but they’re treating everybody like you still alive. In regard to customers, fans, communication, how they’re positioning this, how they should want all of us to buy tickets today, how they should have a winner, all of that, how they should be begging you to write shit about them and begging you to offer them ticket. I don’t know. They’re not doing any of the above, from what I can see, from what I see.
Chris Korman 30:25
No, I mean, I think they, I think they and most sports, you know, it’s not much different. On the Ravens side, you know, the Ravens have the benefit of having been good consistently for a long time. But sports, the Ravens have the benefit of the doubt, right? Sports teams now, I mean, they, they very much see themselves in the seat of power, and in some ways they are. They see themselves as their own PR machines. They don’t really think they need us. They would much prefer to put their player. You know, they would never have a player come speak with you when they could have a players speak with them, one of their employees, and say, Sit on the lounge, man. You’re so great. Tell me how great you are. You’re great. Tell Tell me about the you know
Nestor Aparicio 31:04
8what I really loved about the game last weekend that we lost. Like, yeah, I had Mark Hyman on. Were you a Maryland guy? You Maryland school guy? We’re no,
Chris Korman 31:14
no, I went to Penn State. But I knew I know Mark Well, well, Mark was calling me
Nestor Aparicio 31:17
Mark’s one of the first people I met 40 years ago in the business. I had mark on for an hour two weeks ago, and he’s reluctant to come on because he thinks I’m gonna go down the Chad Steele road or whatever. And he comes on four years Well, there is a point where not to be a jerk to you, but you’re the sports editor, if you’re not willing to ask Chad Steele why I don’t have a press pass, and if the journalism the head of the journalism school doesn’t want to talk to me about journalism access for someone who’s done it for then I have no hope. You know, if you’re not going to hold them accountable and the journalism people are, then I have to hold them accountable, you know? But, but, well, here’s
Chris Korman 31:54
an aunt. They haven’t answered you, right? I mean, they don’t know they’re I mean, they don’t answer us about a lot of things we ask either. So, you know that’s, oh, I understand.
8Nestor Aparicio 32:01
I fully get it, but that doesn’t they had 20,000 Eagle fans in their seats two weeks ago.
Chris Korman 32:08
You know, somebody sitting in a how many Steelers fans are? They’re gonna be plenty,
Nestor Aparicio 32:12
because our fans don’t pay $300 for tickets. They sell their tickets for $300 to suckers from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. He’s from Philadelphia, but Chris Gordon’s here at the Baltimore banner. He is, he executive Sports Center just made in the executive sports that’s what Jack Gibbons was. And Marty Kaiser, he worked at the sun for a long time. He’s running the banner. They’re doing good stuff. Tell me what you proud about with your your outfit, because you and I, as I remember, sat right here where Mac and Alan were back before you were a publication, and back for you had a sports section like literally, and you and I sat here, and I don’t know you. I only know you through the air. We haven’t we don’t get together much, but we sat here and you had a dream. Ted venetoulis had a dream. All of you had a dream of doing this. And I had someone on the air this with Matt Gallagher from goal sector came on last week at failies, and he reiterated something that I don’t say enough, and I, I met Kyle goon one time, but you guys are doing something nobody else is doing this. Crowd funded journalism, and not for profit. Journalism, this is not you being successful at it is really important for the country, and I say that as somebody who stands on the outside, trying to take it all in after the Sinclair people bought and completely corrupted the place we both worked, right?
Chris Korman 33:27
8Yeah. I mean, what I’m most proud of, honestly, is the entire effort of the banner, right? Like it is essential that we have someone, we have people doing journalism in this town that are not just looking at the flaws of the city. That is a very easy thing to do. It’s how the rest of the country looks at us, and it is not a horribly flawed place.
Nestor Aparicio 33:48
He says, All Baltimore positives.
Chris Korman 33:51
You know, it has its challenges, but it has its solutions too. I mean, the murder rate is way down. Like when we work on things, we can, we can make them better. And I think we all see what’s happening at the sun. We see that the way that they want to make money, right? We see the types of stories they want to to put out and the type of subscription dollars they want to bring in. And we are doing something much different than that, right? We are trying to show the reality of Baltimore, but also the possibility of Baltimore. And we’re able to do that because of where we’re situated on the sports side. That means that we tell some nice stories, you know, we just tell great stories about the people making sports happen here. We’re critical when we need to be. We’ve been critical of these teams whenever it’s been called for but I just think we have really thoughtful writers who are trying to tell the stories that help connect people. You know that bits of staff now, we’ve six writers, a an audience, engagement, editor, couple edit, a couple other editors behind the scenes. So
Nestor Aparicio 34:53
yeah, but I just know so many people in your building, and when I invited Chris, like 80, you know, I’ve invited you to Fauci. These and you’ve been busy, and you can walk up there. But when today happened, you’re like, I want to walk to a meet cheese and come over to a me cheese. And I mean, your office right down here in the harbor. And I see Fenton and all sorts of people putting pictures up all the time when they’re at the office. And you know, I had worked in that building at one point, in the quarters building, there various points doing different things. The notion that to me, you and I sat at the bar here two years ago, and this thing was a thing, but not really a full thing. And now it’s, I want to say the thing, because there’s no other thing in regard to breaking news, and I see it on my timeline all the time. Because unlike something where I could put together some funding and have created something like this 15 years ago. This thing’s funded to the point where you can do it appropriately. I mean, I tried to fund the sports operation 15 years ago, Brian pill against some other people. We were underfunded as an am radio station. And what I wanted to do, and maybe what press box has done, I think, poorly in a magazine standpoint, is be the sports because it’s poorly because only once a month, right? Like it’s not a daily thing, in the way that I saw what Comcast SportsNet was trying to do, what the Baltimore Sun had always done, that that that missing piece, that when the Baltimore Sun shrunk, was that the revenue wasn’t there, and they had to fire all these people and shrink and shrink and shrink and shrink and shrink. The banner feels like it’s right sized from the beginning to break the news cover City Hall. Do the important thing, do the heavy lifting. That if I’m not implicating Brandon Scott as being corrupt, but if you were, you’d have people there breaking that story, because they’re the same people who did it the Pew 10 years ago. Right? That I know there’s a capability there for the people you have to do real journalism. I’m not, I know that that’s not capable anymore the sun, yeah. I mean, I had Dan Rogers. I know that that’s just that’s not going to be the way they do it any more than rock Abaco was going to be a journalist working for the Baltimore Orioles and working for Peter anymore. It’s just that’s not the way it’s going to be, yeah,
8Chris Korman 37:02
and honestly we, I mean, the banner still needs a lot of support right from from the city, like, I will come on air and say, subscribe. Right? Need subscribers because, like, we are doing what the Orioles should do, and we are spending above our where we should, right, like, We’re
Nestor Aparicio 37:20
great way to put it, you’re overspending to make it great in the hopes that we’ll build it and they’ll come, and
Chris Korman 37:25
we’re trying to prove that it’s important that this work, and that having these sort of conversations, I mean, which I think you have all the time, is an important way to make Baltimore a better place. You know, thank you. It’s not, I mean, holding people accountable 100% like that is that is the main thing that drives us right, is holding people in power. You know, whatever they are doing, whatever they’re doing with your tax money, whatever they’re doing with the city, the land like that’s a huge deal. But
Nestor Aparicio 37:54
8well, Wes Moore has been running for me while he ran on my air. He’s been running for me ever since he did the Papa wave with John angelos, hmm, because he doesn’t want to talk about it, I guess, yeah. But his people, Angela also Brooks, I had two dates with her. She canceled them both before the election. Larry Hogan never got back to me, but he’s Republican, so it’s okay. They won the country. So there is a point where, like, if you don’t want to come on, you get what you get, but if you come on, you get what you get, which is a chance to tell them, everybody me. So then I go back on the air tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and everywhere I go, I say, hey Corman, he’s the right guy. There’s banner people. They’re trying hard down there. They’re doing, they’re they’re front facing, they’re trying to and look, man, what’s happened to the Sun the last six months? I don’t want to say it was inevitable because I didn’t see it as an I didn’t think that the Sinclair people would want to buy it, but to buy it and hollow it out and just sort of wreck it for anybody who ever read it, knowing that it’s just, it’s it’s propaganda. Now it’s no longer news. It’s so much more important that Stuart Banham and Ted, before we died, had this vision to put this thing in because if our city didn’t have you, right now, I don’t know what it would have I mean, in regard to journalism, because I see these other cities that don’t have you, New Orleans, and these other cities where the newspaper just stop publishing every day or like in the sunset, they’re publishing the Bemidji, you know, they’re not publishing it on the street anymore, what you guys are doing, and the time you came in, so freaking critical man, especially with Trump running the country and us, with African American Democrat, left leaning leadership throughout the state, what’s gonna happen to the city in the state and the bridge? You know, I need you on that wall. Tell everybody down there, yeah. And we’ve
Chris Korman 39:40
got 8080, some people now doing that day by day. You know, the energy in that building is incredible. Like, we
Nestor Aparicio 39:46
do great work. You really are doing great work. So how much it cost to subscribe? How you get me deal? I get 10% off. I know Corman, what
Chris Korman 39:52
I Yeah, sure. I mean, it’s $1 for six months. We’re gonna, we’ll have some new deals, I think, starting next year. And
8Nestor Aparicio 39:57
then, what is it after six months that’s important? Question, yeah. Like, you know why I asked a month, 20 bucks a month. The reason I asked you this, did I tell you this list? I’m had you on Baltimore Sun when you were working there. I canceled you. Can I tell you that I canceled you when I was gonna run for mayor? Moeller thought it was important that I subscribe to the sun because I hadn’t been subscribing. So I, I did the dollar for sick, the Black Friday, whatever, right? So I put my money in, and then I start seeing my credit card get banged and then the plague is going on. And then I’m like, All right, I’m not reading it. I gotta cancel it. I think he was left
Chris Korman 40:36
by that. Yeah, I was gone for a long while. That point, he wasn’t
Nestor Aparicio 40:39
but it’s okay. So I called to cancel it. I got put on hold with somebody in the Philippines for an hour. I was on hold forever. They picked up, and this person was a pit bull Nestor. You do not want the concept of Baltimore Sun. We will give you more opportunities to now. I just want to cancel, dude, take my credit, but Sir, you’re missing out on the opportunity. He was just reading the sheet right like it was unbelievable, and it went on and on and on. And I’m like, Oh my God, if Dan Rodricks knew that I was going through this right now, he would get a different gig because, like, I love Dan, I love the paper. I worked at the paper like it was institution. I mean, and canceling it was by far other than that McAfee guy that was stealing the money from everybody’s credit cards and down in Panama, this was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to get off my credit card. So it was a nightmare. I gave him a buck in the beginning, then I gave him $27 a month for like, a year, until I realized, oh, okay, this has got to go. And they refused to let me get out. Right? Like, literally, right. So that’s why, when I said to you, wink, wink is all right, Bucha, for six months, all right, 20 bucks. Can I cancel it? If I had that’s all. I don’t have to call the Philippines a cancel.
Chris Korman 42:02
8I sure hope not. My looking to that for my understanding is that our situation is a lot better. You can talk to the person online, and they will, you know, nobody wants to offer you other things. The
Nestor Aparicio 42:14
idea is to not make you want to cancel. That’s the idea, right? And to know what you’re getting into. Yeah.
Chris Korman 42:19
I mean, and, yeah, they, they are going, I mean, dynamic prices. Pricing is where we’re headed for media in general. You know, it’s gonna be sort of a situation where you’re saying, Well, what do you want? How much do you want to pay for it? So, like, Spring
Nestor Aparicio 42:34
Street, tickets, yeah.
8Chris Korman 42:37
So, you know, I think that’s where we’re headed. Like, I saw a paper recently that had a five day pass for $5 thought that was brilliant. You know, like, what a great idea for the people who want to try it out, or just need one story. Or,
Nestor Aparicio 42:48
I’ll say this to you on a general sense, pay walls, or bitch, that’s all I’m gonna say. And when I hit them, when I see something on Twitter, blue sky fit and hit it, hit the pay wall, I’m like, I’m not giving the Boston Globe five bucks to just read this one piece, right? Right? So I don’t, there’s got to be a better I don’t know the model, right, but I don’t think that’s it. And I think it fundamentally. The reason I’ve been worried about the banner, other than the funding itself, that it will have, is, is it sustainable? Same question Mr. Rubenstein should be asking about his baseball team. You know what? What makes the payroll sustainable? And for you guys, you’re doing great work, man. So I just want to give you some love. Thanks. Happy holidays. Thanks. You too. All right. You see Mr. Rubenstein. Tell me, give me my pass back.
Chris Korman 43:25
You saw him yourself, and then sounds like it didn’t work. He had very
Nestor Aparicio 43:29
little interest in talking to an Aparicio. Very little interest. They do great work at the Baltimore banner. Make sure you’re following them. Hi Kyle. Hi everybody out there covering Justin. Come back, do the show, and I’m gonna Pam. Pam did the show before the election. Oh dear, yeah, Pam spent we thought was gonna work the other way around. We didn’t. Who would have seen this coming? We’re at a me cheese. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. I’m giving you the $5 holiday luck doubler. This is for Chris Corman the Baltimore banner. Alan McCallum is here. Matt Campbell is here. Those guys are best of friends, and they didn’t know that I was inviting them both onto the show. So this is a little holiday magic. It’s eggnog magic. It’s Italian magic. Where to meet you. Stay with us next. Come by, Chris. Appreciate you.
