Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the incredible spot start of veteran Albert Suarez start, another walkoff home run by Cedric Mullins and the re-emergence of Cal Ripken to Orioles baseball this month as the team heads to Kansas City and Anaheim before returning home on Friday, April 26th against the Oakland Athletics.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
talking, baseball, orioles, pitching, years, team, cal ripken, week, wednesday, spring training, homerun, run, suarez, give, remember, royals, gunnar, players, mullins, homestand
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are WNS TA in 1570, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. We got a weekend where the Orioles will not drag you down to the ballpark but they will drag you to your televisions to your apples to your to your iPhones through my wife’s I pad that she streaming digitally from the other room or he was going on the road and playing a torrid brand of baseball with Jones tonight we’ll be together next Friday at fade Lee seafood Alexina market I love these Pac Man scratch offs courtesy of our friends at the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends at Liberty pure solutions where we have clean water and I’m I’m drinking out of the orange colored glass just everybody knows officially it’s not orange Kool Aid. It’s I don’t real thing. And Liberty pure solutions gives me the water for that as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare on Wednesday, I will be at Green Mountain bowl next to Green Mountain station eating the Green Mountain station crabcake but we’re gonna be in the bowling alley. And it’s gonna be a bathroom racing commission about what’s going on in Maryland racing and magma and we also have the Preakness one month out now you would not know that we got the Kentucky Derby in two weeks so a lot of things going on the NFL draft is next week Luke will be doing split duty between the draft and when the Orioles get back next week including joining me at fate leads where he will also get another Pac Man scratch off for a second chance and you spent a lot of time at the ballpark my man you know we’re you know week every day you’ve been down there for a week. They went a lot. They win in impressive fashion a lot. They’ve that what they did Wednesday, you know calling up a pitcher they didn’t want to use there wasn’t one of their guys. We talked so much two weeks ago, all the way back in opening day how they’re gonna utilize more than just what they had. And here you go every night there’s a different star. Last week we’re dealing Cedric Mullins for a relief pitcher from the Reds at the trading deadline this week. It’s like no, no, no, no, no, he’s, he’s good. He’s really good. And last week was Couser. This week, it’s Mullins. Here we go do this isn’t really good baseball team.
Luke Jones 02:12
It is but we need to start with all due respect to Cedric Mullins who we already talked about the amazing play he made on Monday night play of the year candidate in mid April. I mean, that’s how impressive that play was in the first inning of Cole Irvin start and what was an eventual win for the Orioles. Walk off home run. We’ll get to that. And again, we’ve talked we talked about this. Cedric Mullins, I was ready to trade them but he wasn’t healthy last year and he really struggled. But we’ve really seen over the last two weeks. What kind of player he is have reminded what kind of player he is when he’s healthy. But the story of the day Wednesday salvors for us, I mean, this is a guy who was 34 years old, at this time last year was pitching in the KBO had not made a major league appearance since 2017. In 2017 Gunnar Henderson was still in high school. Adley rutschman was still in college, Cedric Mullins had not yet made his major league debut. And Jackson Holliday was 13 years old. So it speaks to how long it’s been since Albert Suarez was in the major leagues, and to see him come up with the need because of Tyler wells going on the aisle. We had talked in a previous segment and I said, Hey, it’s just a guess. I don’t know if it’s going to be Bruce simmerman. The Orioles decided not because Minnesota being a mostly right handed lineup, save for a couple guys. I think they preferred right handed option and you probably have forgotten Nestor. And if you haven’t credit to you because it was a pretty forgettable game. Albert Suarez started that game in Fort Myers in which you and I attended down at Fenway South he started for the Orioles in that game. And you know the results were not anything that wowed you. But for the third innings, one earned run a couple a few strikeouts for four hits. And he had a spring training that put him on the map in this in the sense of not that he was going to be in the opening day rotation of course because he wasn’t. But Mike Elias spoke at the end of spring training. And I even went when I transcribed his long interview session with the media where 50% of the dialogue was about Jackson Holliday being sent down. I actually highlighted he was asked about the rotation and yeah, he mentioned Kay Povich. He mentioned McDermott, you mentioned Seth Johnson, who they got in the trade man Seanie trade a couple years ago, but he mentioned Albert Suarez and the quote was, he’s looking like a hell of a signing out of the KBO and they signed him last September. They worked with him a little bit in terms of making some mechanical adjustments. his fastball is ticked up. We saw it on on Wednesday 95 to 97. He got quite a bit of swing and miss. And I get it. The twins are awful offensively, and I’m just not sure if they’re very good at it. way, but they’re still a major league team and you’re talking about someone who hadn’t pitched in seven years in the major leagues, for him to go out at a time where the Orioles had a need at a time where the Orioles were not doing very much offensively over the course of the day against Pablo Lopez on the other side, for him to toss five and 2/3 scoreless innings. I have no idea if Albert’s Flores will do anything else of consequence for the Orioles the rest of the year. But he was pivotal. He was critical and then winning a baseball game on Wednesday. And you said it over the course of 162. And we saw this play out a number of times last year, you’re going to have to get some contributions from some unexpected contributors because things happen guys get hurt, guys get kicked out of games, guys. You lose players in lengthy rain delays, you know, paternity lists, all kinds of different things that happen. You need some guys that come out of nowhere to help you out, even if it’s just for a game or two along the way. And he certainly helped them on Wednesday and
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:01
a big league pitcher dude in like, a way that like, I’m not saying he’s going to be a guy or a dude or whatever. But it looked like he’d been there before. It didn’t. I mean, even from the from the first pitch of the game. He looked like a guy in India, they’re talking about the history and the KBO you know, all of that stuff and where he had been in his journey and his mid 30s. He’s almost your age. But I, I would say for him from the beginning. He had some strange sense of belonging in a weird way. And look, man, these stories get written in a lot of different ways. And I keep saying Elias is a genius. And we’re talking about Korea. I mean, you can Google Korean Oreos and put a picture up of they weren’t allowed in Korea, you know this time, 10 years ago. But this is a guy Sunday night, Monday night, was thinking about his next AAA star, and probably happy to be pitching in AAA, right. Probably happy to be back in just, hey, the weather’s cold. It’s bad. But I’m back in America. I’m a heartbeat away. I’m a chance away, maybe, maybe, maybe maybe what I’m gonna wear. I’ll go do that. And it didn’t look big for him in the way that it looked big for Jackson holiday a little bit over the weekend that starts between 20 and 34. Two?
Luke Jones 07:17
Yeah, yeah, sure. And, look, that’s a lesson right there of just dealing with failure. I mean, this is a guy pitch for the Giants back in 16. And 17. He was in Arizona system in 18. I think it was. And then he was very shortly after that. He was off to Japan. And he pitched in Japan multiple years. And of course, we’re talking about the pandemic era, and how challenging that’s that’s going to be for anyone that’s pitching outside of their, their own country. And he had to have thought, you know, you get, we see examples of guys that go a few years in between major league appearances, you know, that’s not that unheard of. But seven years, I mean, that’s a long, that’s a really long time. So for him to do what he did for the Orioles pro scouting, to identify him over in the KBO, which most people will tell you KBOs wa in terms of talent level, I mean, we’ve seen plenty of KBO guys, John Su, Kim example who was a simpler for the Orioles for a minute or two. We’ve seen pitchers go over there and then come back and have some success at the major league level. But for him to do what he did, and to persevere all that time and to come back and have this story. It’s really fun. And to your point, it didn’t look completely fun. You know, this wasn’t like some junk ball guy that’s just throwing slop up there and, and all that and then look, as I said he could get shelled his next three outings and BDF aid, but he was very net was a very reputable, very legitimate performance on Wednesday afternoon. And the thing that really stood out about him over the spring, and that’s why he kind of got on the radar in terms of being a what if guy for them. You look at his spring stats, I think, you know, looking at it 15 and two thirds innings, get 19 strikeouts, and two walks over 15 and two thirds innings. They like his fastball, and they liked the fact that he throws strikes. So that’s what we saw against the twins on Wednesday. So it’s great to see and
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:23
he’s Venezuelan, too. I like that anymore. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Why would
Luke Jones 09:30
you know being a baseball guy like, yeah, you being a baseball guy like me over the course of your lifetime watching baseball on a nightly basis putting aside the Orioles over the last 30 years and the lack of success, playoffs all that kind of stuff. But just being a baseball fan watching it on a nightly basis. You know how random it can be you also know how the monotony of it right you watch a game and more often than not you watch that game and you completely forget about it a couple of days later. This is is one of those instances that you’ll remember for a while. I mean, this guy that you might forget his name, but someone will bring it up and you’ll say, oh, that’s the guy. He didn’t didn’t do rails brought him
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:09
in like 95 or 9495 from buoy, when that was very uncommon. And he made an afternoon start, and he held his own. I can’t remember his name. I will Google it, I will find it I’ll drop it like a shell on you next Friday at fade Lee’s because he was a very forgettable name, but it was a yet it had a lot of syllables in it, as I remember it, have three, four or five syllables. It was a long name. And he came up and I was there that day and it was just this kid. He wasn’t a big guy either. It was a shortish, 510 guy pitcher, and I don’t think he ever pitched in the big leagues again. I mean, I have to look it up. And maybe I got it wrong by maybe he made eight more starts with the Tigers two years later, something like that. But he was a younger guy. But it was very unlikely story. And 30 years later, I still can sort of, you know, if I, if I finger rolled through some pictures of that year, I’d find his stat somewhere in there one game started and be like, oh, yeah, that guy. This is a different story. Because I think they’ll be inclined, like I said to my wife was ever said, Hey, can you use this guy in a bullpen or something? Right, like, I mean, like, he looked like he at least wanted to be there and look like he, Johnny Bravo. He fit the part he fit the suit is I’d say.
Luke Jones 11:33
Yeah, I mean, he had he showed and looked like he knew what he was doing out there. And again, part of this might just be that the twins look really lousy right now. They’ve been terrible offensively, you know, especially without Korea and the lineup and, and whatnot. But it was very legitimate. The effort was legitimate. And, you know, the, like I said, 95 to 97 got a lot of swing and miss, you know, threw strikes. And I mean, the fact that there were there were no designs that he was gonna go out there and throw 100 pitches for them. So, you know, for him to get into the SEC six thinning, and to do what he did. I mean, it was really impressive. I’ll give you I’ll give you a couple examples. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:10
got it for you. I got the name. And he did pitch a little bit more. And he did pitch for another team. And he did make 39 starts in the big leagues. Are you ready, Scott? Klingon back? Oh, yeah, I remember him as God calling him back came up in 1994. He made one start in 94. He had a 3.86 yard he went seven innings. Six hits four runs three earned gave up a homerun walk for struck out five. And they sent him back. Yeah, that’s what I say clay i Dude, I’m a baseball guy. David Rubenstein. I’m a baseball guy. I want you to know that. But I came up with that. So there have at it.
Luke Jones 12:54
I’ll give you a couple that came to mind. One a pitcher and the other not a pitcher.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:58
I got another pitcher for you.
Luke Jones 13:00
8I thought of Chris waters. Who if you recall now this was in the midst of the Orioles 14 Straight losing seasons. But he had a really impressed I think it was 2008 I want to say it was it was against the angels. Maybe he had a really impressive debut. And then he I don’t know if you throw a complete game shutout. But he had another amazing performance like two or three stars up front that didn’t do much else other than that, but that came to mind for me as far as like a pitcher coming out of nowhere to pitch really well. And I’ll give you the one and this is one that’s really stuck with me was nine years ago. Henry rudia, who Dan Duquette signed was a Cuban ballplayer defected you know, he ended up not being what the this was another one of the rare international signings that the Orioles would make in that era. And you know, he ended up not amounting to much he did get to the majors though. And in 2015 hit a golf homerun against the Mets opposite field. I can remember it like it was yesterday. And you know, he stuck around in the big leagues for a little while. But I just remember it because he had been through so much. And obviously it defected. I mean, any player defects from Cuba has a story, right? You know whether they end up being a great player or not. And I just remember, he did the postgame interview. And I had known that he had spoke that he spoke English, his English in just a matter of a couple years from coming to Cuba to end making it to the states and being in the minors and working his way up to the major leagues. He spoke better English than any of the reporters in the post game, Scrum in the clubhouse. And he was just he was so reflective for someone of his age and he was probably 26. At that point. He wasn’t that young as rookies go. And I remember he got the ball back from the fan who caught the homerun and he was just so emotional and how he talked about he was gonna give that to his son his son. I remember seeing him In the hallway down, underneath in the bowels of the ballpark, some was like one year one, you know, one and a half, something like that, you know? No, he’d have no recollection of it. But we got choked up talking about it being that ball to his son, and I kid you not. There wasn’t a reporter in that scrum who didn’t get misty eyed because it was just something that it just stuck stuck with you. And look, well, Albert Suarez do anything else
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:26
in your book of memoirs, when I’m long gone.
Luke Jones 15:31
And again, this goes back to what I was saying. And you appreciating this as a baseball nut like I am, you watch so much baseball over the course of your life. And I’m not even talking as a reporter. I’m just talking as a baseball fan, someone who’s loved baseball from the time I was two years old, you know, as long before I can remember, I love baseball, you watch so many games, and so many of them feel exactly the same win or loss. Something might happen. That’s kind of sort of neat, or it might be completely nondescript, you forget so many of the games, right? They just become numbers that you look up used to say on the back of a baseball card. Now it’s baseball reference. This is one of those really good stories. And again, who the heck knows if he’s going to do anything else of consequence he’s gonna get he’s gonna get a couple more opportunities, at least I think that much is clear after doing what he did, but it’s just such a neat story. And it was neat to see him talk talk about it to us reporters in the clubhouse and just about every reporter after his interview was over. They as they walked by said congratulations. And you could just tell I as we were leaving the clubhouse right now Castle, went up to him and gave him a big handshake and a bro hug. And you could tell that players in that clubhouse, even though they weren’t expecting him to be there Wednesday or you know, even Tuesday night, if they knew he was going to start Wednesday, you could tell that he made enough of an impression in spring training to thought hey, you know, this guy’s got a good arm, you know, for 3434 year old guy that was pitching in Korea and Japan over the last four or five, six years and completely off the Major League radar. I mean, yeah. And again, talked
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:01
about him being well liked by the veteran teammates, Ryan, he had a relationship and that they you know, spring trainings like that you golf together, fish together, hang together, there’s time to Hey, what do you do? Did you play with that guy played with that guide? You hit off that guy? Yeah. I mean, I remember those conversations. Well, and that’s the brotherhood of baseball, but in a big way, different than the brother of question. And you’ve covered a lot of football too. Well, yeah. And
Luke Jones 17:31
you know this with baseball, I mean, whether you’re talking about I mean, spring training is training camp, gives you that kind of setting to a degree but spring training, you have all those bus rides, right? I mean, some of those are long bus rides, but over the course of a 162 game season, I mean, these guys spend more time with their teammates and with their coaches than they do their wives and their families so 100 nights in a hotel like a year so there’s a there’s just a brotherhood with that and anyone you know, rhino horn is a great example I mean a guy that you know, wasn’t making it with the Royals we go look at what his numbers were but for the Orioles got him last offseason. So but but I think when you’re talking about spring training, setting where you’re doing planting, live BP all major leaguers know when someone has something, and again, I don’t want to make too much of this, Albert Suarez might get lit up over the next couple of times. He’s out there, he might be out of the organization come early June. But you could tell and even from hearing Brandon Hyde talk after that last start in Fort Myers, hearing some of the guys talk about it after Wednesday’s game, you can tell that he turned some heads in the spring. And as I mentioned that Mike Elias quote I just gave you that it was from March 21. You could tell that they thought you know, this guy might have a chance to help us at some point and again, might be one spot start. It might be three starts to your point he might settle into the bullpen. Who knows. I mean, especially a mid 90s fastball, you know, that’s, that’s still it’s not 100 I didn’t know much about
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:04
it. But I saw some Rise and shine on 97. That said to me, I that’s when I said Jen and I can least fit their bullpen. He looks better than some of the guys that they brought out. He he looks like he can be good he can. He can be a guy an arm that we’ve talked about one of those guys and another organization that we said Elias to pull a rabbit and it was the KBO and a Venezuelan guy, right. Yeah,
Luke Jones 19:31
I mean, I don’t want to put them in the Batista category because the TISA throws 102 When he’s healthy, but but but your points well taken. And again, he made an impression the fact that he would think about this, I was talking about Bruce Zimmerman. Why because he’s been around and he was already on the 40 man roster for this guy to be the first guy up. Understanding John means making it at least one more start Norfolk Bradish just starting the rehab assignment, but for him to be the next man, the proverbial next man up it shows you they thought something of him. So we’ll see how it works out. And again, if nothing else, he helped them win a baseball game on April 17. And that might not seem that consequential now, but if it’s the difference between winning the division or getting the number one seed or the number two seed, and it’s by one game, you’ll look back on this and say, Hey, that was one of those days where a completely unknown guy to the typical fan and even, you know, typical media who weren’t down at Spring Training for six weeks every day. He helped them win. And it was fun, and he pitched well. And like I said, on a day where Pablo Lopez after the gunner Henderson, homerun, I mean he completely shut the Orioles down. I think maybe the other MVP besides Suarez and Cedric Mullins, it might have been Rocco Baldelli for taking out taken out Pablo Lopez when I think he still had another inning left in him. So you know, Santander hit the home run to tie the game then but you know, on a day where pit you know, the pitching really shined for both sides, you know, starting pitching specifically, Suarez gave the Orioles everything they could possibly dreamt of expecting out of him. So good to see. And again, a good way to cap what was a nice strong finish to the homestand. After as we recapped a few days ago, a tough series against Milwaukee. The Orioles took it out on the twins big time that much is clear. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:24
did a segment with Seth Elkins from the Maryland lottery. We talked about he’s a he’s a pirates fan. So he got a hold of me. And with all this prosperity, it feels like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, you know, couple series Lost, like all of that. It feels like all right, Kansas City, go back out on the road, you’re gonna have to play the angels certainly didn’t look very good beginning of the season to look for good in the middle of the season, and won’t look good at the end of the season that the A’s coming in. I mean, this is a period for them. Where bats are coming to life. weather’s getting better. Although it’s supposed to be a little yucky in Kansas City this weekend. You’ve now been through two homestand. I’ve been to one game on one opening day. My press credential is under review. I don’t know what that means. But that’s what they told me. So people have been asking me are they letting you back? I’m seeing Rubenstein I’m seeing Cal Ripken, Cal Ripken and more Cal Ripken and it’s clear that Peters dead John’s gone. There’s a new sheriff in town. I keep saying Well, Greg Vader’s there. And TJ Brightman is there and I don’t know who’s running mass and I don’t know it feels like Ben McDonald and Kevin brand and somebody sat down with them and say do your thing. Peters dad he’s gone. Nobody John’s not listening. Go do your Brugg I mean, the broadcast are phenomenal. Like I I don’t want to say that from a hunting sports perspective or their angles and I just mean like to sit as a an interested observer watching the games. You’re there. You’re tweeting on here. I’m watching. I have enjoyed the broadcast the information I love Ben I’ve always loved Ben but I love Ben and and then there’s cow and I’m looking on the broadcast to see what’s different. Well, I’ll tell you one thing it’s different Kevin Brown doesn’t think he’s getting fired or benched and doesn’t have a maniac who owns the team might be different maniac. I don’t know. It’s David Roberts. I don’t know what I don’t know anything about him. But I that crazy? family’s gone. And the first thing I noticed is Ben can joke about his love life and his wife and bread Hollander is telling me his dog has immediate pass literally bread Hollander said his dog has a press pass. So I don’t know what to make of it because I haven’t run around but everybody I know Bill Cole and I did an almost an hour on this earlier. You go listen to that out of Baltimore positive deal. You’ll hear it on the radio. Just about how my timeline. People I know the people who’ve always gone you Ed Lauer are the people that always go are going. But other people are going and they’re going in a different way. Bill calls got a 21 year old son who doesn’t really like baseball who was down there last Friday and now wants to go again. Because he went to pickles and there were girls. So there’s just a lot of entry points. I saw a 50% off tickets after the walk off. Oh my time. I don’t know what it man. I don’t know if it’s fishing. You know, I think at the end of it, TJ Brightman is running the place. I don’t know what’s but if you click on it, you want it 50% off tickets. I’m just gonna give them the benefit of the doubt because Peters gone that actually wasn’t a scam. And that you might be able to buy some $8 tickets on a certain night and load up on a couple of tickets. The way the 420 people be loading up on curio this weekend for the year but I’m looking I’m reading all their emails I’m seeing what they’re doing. I’m wondering when they’re gonna name like a team president and they’re gonna come in with whatever they come in with. Man they got a good team. I keep saying this like, like cow being out in front of this even when the place is sort of empty, you know, sometimes and it’s not a Yelper deck and we’d like to sell a lot more tickets or whatever buddy in baseball, but cow being out in front of it this much in a way where he doesn’t look any different. Aren’t he doesn’t look like he’s got a King crown on or that he’s running things or they made the joke about the desk at shortstop, which I thought it was a little sophomore, but okay, I mean, you’re doing John John and Peter on here the ladder you can yell about that. And the more you can do for that, the more a lot of people are going to want to come back and think about coming back and Bacau being out in front of it. I’ll be interested to talk to cow whenever I talk to cow whether I get my press pass back or not. I run into Cow places just to vibe him because I’ve known Cal over 30 years now going on 35 years and I don’t know what his expect. I don’t know. I mean, I see his son running around doing a lot his son’s got a press credentials, been in the media for six months. And he’s getting all these one on ones. It’s family. It’s what you like on hotdogs. I like Ryan repeat a lot. I like Cal Ripken a lot. I liked Kelly. I’m sure I’d like to daughter if I knew I live I’ve always liked the rapids. I love Bill found a fun picture of him is going to be in my documentary. You know, it’s day three by the way. When the three day countdown I got a bill and I picture I’ve never shared before. I love the Redskins. I love mom, you know? Everybody loves cow. And now the cows back in this. It does feel pinch me because he’s not going away. He’s here forever. Like literally I mean like, and they can’t yell about that enough especially when Gunnar Henderson’s hitting homeruns and Cedric Mullins is sitting walk offs and some guy named Albert Suarez, who didn’t bite anybody’s ear. That’s a soccer reference. You won’t get that Luke but that this has been an exciting three weeks in a whirlwind, Willy Wonka kind of way. I feel like we’re all kind of going through this and saying, it’s the best team ever. I’ve said that to my wife. I’m like, no, there. This is. I’ve seen a lot of stuff. This is the best group of young players they’ve ever, ever, ever add. And they’re building from nothing. And I see Cal Ripken every night. And it’s like one of cows people I’ve been going back and forth in cows orbit of people said, It’s 23 years later than it should have been. But here he is. And we’re all alive. A lot of us are alive. And I’m excited by it. I really am. And it’s been. I’m looking forward to the next game. I look forward to the game starting. I look forward to talking to you. You and I are talking more. I’m working you to death. But it’s fun. This is This is beautiful. I’ve waited a long, long time for this man.
Luke Jones 27:27
You know, and look, I mean, this started last year on the field, right? I mean, they won 101 Game One games. I mean, they first 100 win season for the Orioles. And since 1980. I mean that preceded Cal Ripken. Right. So. But now when you have new ownership, had we seen Khalil more the last couple years as they were getting better? Yeah, sure. I mean, Cathy’s local, he loves baseball, but and I even said this to a few other reporters just to make sure I wasn’t crazy. I mean, these first couple homestand I feel like he was at every game other than two or three. So even if it’s not David Rubenstein there every night and look, I don’t need ownership to be there. Every night. These guys have lives. And it’s an 81 home schedule. Right?
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:10
Anyway, they should get Jeppe saisie owner every night, because he enjoys it more than anybody I know. I love Steve. Well, he’s,
Luke Jones 28:17
he’s there a lot. Yeah, I mean, he’s behind first base dugout, I mean, he I see him there all the time. But But I think it’s it does mean something when people tune in to watch the game on a nightly basis. The team is really good, right? I mean, I don’t know if they’re gonna win 100 Want more than 101 games, you know, because again, we know how baseball works, but they’re really good. And I think they’re upside and the potential and the growth for this team is higher than it was last year. You know, the potential is greater than it was last year. And that’s saying something even it’s just because they’re a year experience and these guys now have playoff experience. I’ll be it wasn’t pleasant experience, but it was experienced nonetheless. But to tune in and to see a legend a Hall of Famer, you know, the I know you’ll say Jim Palmer and I don’t want to disrespect and choose one or the other but one of the two greatest living Orioles sitting behind home plate on an almost nightly basis. There’s value to that. I don’t know how you quantify that. Exactly. I don’t know how hands on cows going to be but your seat. That’s a perfect example of why David Rubenstein or whoever was going to buy the club wanted to have Cal Ripken involved because he’s going to be present. Right and, and that commercial to your point. I had to laugh because I saw a lot of fans thinking it was some cryptic message that they were extending Gunnar Henderson and I thought that was a little crazy. That was a major leap.
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:44
But that said,
Luke Jones 29:47
how was it not a bad idea to have those two guys, you know, to have Gunnar Henderson the future the guy who looks like he has a chance to be the best player in baseball. I mean, he’s on fire. Go look at that. numbers are one thing, go look at the exit Vilo and all the peripherals. I mean, this kid is crushing the baseball. It looks like the one of the absolute best players in the game at this point. It’s like
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:09
bonsey. A little bit weird, right? Like the way the
Luke Jones 30:13
ball. I mean, the guy hit one of his, you know, the guy that he really looked looked up to. And they faced off in the playoffs last year. I mean, it’s like Corey Seager. I mean, that’s, you know, this big left handed swinging shortstop who, right away, you look at him and say, well, he’s not gonna stick at shortstop, and he makes big time plays. Now.
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:33
You know, there’s a guy out there with a desk who was too big to stick at shortstop, too.
Luke Jones 30:38
But that’s my whole point. From a marketing standpoint, even if it’s just like to your point, it was campy, you know, it was cheesy, but it was good, cheesy, you know, the fact that you have Gunnar Anderson interacting with Cal Ripken. I mean, why would you not want to do something like that? Whether it means, you know, whether they’re going to extend them or not, you know, putting aside the, the fans jumping to conclusions based on just what was a silly commercial, but he’s here for the next five years, at the very least, right? Yeah. And you hope longer than that, because, again, this kids, he’s incredible. I mean, it’s why, starting last year, I said to you, nothing against Adley rutschman. But if you’re asking me Gunnar Henderson or Adley, rutschman. I’m taking honor, I just am, you know that that position, age is better than catcher but that aside, just doing those types of things, and having Cal Ripken involved in present, and even if it’s just sitting behind home plate? I mean, we didn’t we didn’t talk about it. But how about maths and getting him on the phone when they were in Boston, talking about the fact that Jackson holiday, took his number or took to Cal seniors number and there had been some dialogue and Jackson holiday actually reached out in him and wanted to talk to him a little bit just to say, thank you. I really appreciate this, I want to do the number proud. I want to I want to represent your thought the memory of your father in a respectable way. And I mean, that’s good for a team that, at times, ran from its history, you know, in these weird ways are fun. That’s all they really had to sell. Even though it’s all they had to sell for the longest time. But it was just that weird contrast that weird clash. For that to feel like that’s gone away. And now, again, you have Cal there every night, Jim Palmer is still part of the broadcast team. Eddie was there, you know, Eddie Murray, was there. The day that Rubenstein had the press conference? I mean, they had their three living Hall of Fame, Orioles present. I mean, it’s what else? That’s what Orioles fans have wanted for all these years. I mean, we can remember when Brooks left the broadcast booth in wasn’t really involved. Other he was still local. Like he was still around in the community. But he wasn’t involved with the Orioles anymore, which was offended. It was just something that was senseless, you know, right. And look, we don’t need to dwell on that. But now to see what this is and the potential that it has. And even though there are still lots of issues to hash out, the the winning and the winning at this clip, deodorizes. Anything else? That’s a question or anything else, that’s a potential. I don’t want to say Pitfall, but anything that still has to be worked out. We’ve talked about it mass and still needs, you know, what’s the long term viability of mass? And how’s that going to look? How’s it gonna look on the business side? Who are they going to hire you mentioned, whether it’s a team president or a CEO, at some point, you know, who within the organization is going to stay? Who’s going to go because we know changes are inevitable whenever you change ownership? I mean, in any business, that’s always going to happen. So there are questions, and even things that could be potential concerns. But in the meantime, you’ve got this ballclub that is off to a great start on the heels of a great 2023 season. And now that you at least have owner new ownership in place. And as we said the day that that news broke the the Darren to dream of being able to raise that bar, wherever however high it can go. It’s there now when it wasn’t there. And oh, yeah, Mike Elias is still running the show. And you still have all these great young players and you have more on the way. I’ve said it sounds so cliched, but boy, it’s a heck of a time to be an Orioles fan right now. I mean, it’s just it really there’s room on that bandwagon. Absolutely, and fair and those who’ve stuck, whether we’re talking about those who’ve stuck through it, and continue to go out there when there were 8000 people in the ballpark, or those who were offended and walked away because of not liking ownership or not liking Davey Johnson being fired or John Miller, going off to San Francisco. And Brooks work here that all day. So anyone who’s come back or anyone who’s stuck with it, I mean, this fan base deserves it. And again, speaking as someone who’s 40 years old and did not get to live the glory days. I want those glory days to return as much as they can anyway, but you know what, you know, things aren’t the same. It’s 2024 Well, it’s not 1966 or 1983 anymore,
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:02
why keep keeping my eye on the big prize for me, which is when that glory day comes, and the team gets better. And what does that mean for the city? I guess it meant on Sunday, the 35,000 real people came downtown. I don’t know what that meant for me cheese. I don’t know what that meant for South Baltimore. I don’t know what that meant for hotels, and this and that, and foot traffic and the tax base. But there is something about people that beget other people and opportunities, all of that jobs living what what it means for the city, that the baseball team can be the kind of team that can attract two and a half 3 million people downtown every year for the next 10 years. Because it’s the exact opposite of what it’s been the last three decades, which is really well run for what it is in a smaller market with all of these assets, and all of the problems including the city and crime and like all the reasons people wouldn’t want to come. But 35,000 people, they come on Sunday in April, and the weather was nice, and people came out. And they weren’t given away five bobbleheads and they actually came to the game. Maybe they were on the basis. But I just it’s always been such a beautiful asset and such a beautiful thing for the community. And that’s why I did free the birds. I’m re learning my own ideologies as I put this 25th anniversary documentary together, and why I did what I did, and the reasoning behind it. And it really was to get to this point that if Peter would have died in 2009, and it was new owners in 2010, and it was Rubinstein or some guy like that
Luke Jones 36:34
with cow.
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:35
how different the last 15 years would have been. You just like how different this can be in the first Oh, I don’t know. 18 days since opening day. That’s it fifth, I was gonna say 15 days, it’s been less than three weeks since opening day. And we’ve already got cow cow cow gunner first place Yankees here pitching Corbin burns, extend this guy, then that guy holidays up. Like, we’re there. We’re there and hope they’re gonna pick football players next week to everybody’s bored by that. Anything you want to say to rapper Kansas City, I mean, we’ll be back at it again. That’s the beauty of this baseball thing. It’s sort of, for you and me now that the team is good. It’s a never ending conversation. And the people that are coming and watching us and listening to us and interacting with us and clicking on our stuff at Baltimore positive or watching my documentary next weekend or following your draft or on the text service. The baseball heartbeat is what founded this company. It’s been found in my career. It’s the only thing I had in 1992 and three and four and five in the beginning, including the strike years. So the fact that this heartbeat is back, I recognize it for what it is and scheduling my days around the games. And it’s been a while but I lived most of my life that way. It’s just been the last really 10 years were felt like it was Cuban, it was never gonna get fixed. That I you know, I’m hard and I hope to sit next to you in the press box and have a hot dog one day or even better sit there when you’re not there because you’re out covering the draft, like maybe next weekend or something like that, you know, a
Luke Jones 38:02
couple things one, the Ravens had and I don’t want to get into too much of that. But I’m just making an observation here. The Ravens had an availability on Wednesday for the start of the offseason program and they made Derrick Henry available. Ro Quan Smith available. Tyler Linder Bom yo, good players, star players. There were and not everyone in the media covers all the teams. Right? Not Not everyone covers the ravens and the Orioles.
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:34
was the owner of the company but but
Luke Jones 38:36
there were a few. There were a few other reporters besides just me who were at the ballpark. And that’s the Ravens had a good availability. Again, I’m not but think about in years past if the Orioles were seven and 14 you know if the record was flipped, and they were six and 12 rather than 12 and six Yeah, I would have been at in Owings Mills and others would have been and that would have been probably the headline of the day whereas it didn’t really feel that way. Other thing and this is more on that just on the field. You made mention the Kansas City Royals this weekend. Don’t sleep on the Royals. I don’t know if you’ve paid attention to what they’ve done since leaving Baltimore after a series where the Orioles they gave them the Orioles everything they could handle to win to two out of three member to walk offs in that series that that the Orioles needed. The Royals are 12 and seven. They have pitched extremely well. They have hit baseball, they have a star and Bobby Witt they still have some other Salvador Perez and some other guys that have been around for them. And this is gonna be this could be a as intriguing as it can be in mid to late April, in terms of one team that’s clearly established as a contender contender because the Orioles did that last year. But I’m telling you the Royals and we kind of talked about this in passing a little bit what before that series of We talked about it a little bit when it concluded but they’re playing really good baseball right now the run differential is excellent for scoring runs to pitching. We already saw Cole Reagan’s once Orioles. You know, we’re gonna see burns and Reagan’s on Saturday of that series. So as much as the Orioles are off to a good start, and they’re going on the road again and yet, you know, they played some teams like the twins, for example, who are not playing good baseball right now. But this is they better be ready, because the Royals are playing some really good baseball. And, you know, I don’t know if we’re gonna see you a rematch of 2014 at some point in October. I’m not ready to say that. But this is a way better Royals team than they’ve been for several years now. So looking forward to that and certainly will recap it but good way to finish this homestand. And, again, Albert Suarez and Cedric Mullins, the stars are on Wednesday but Orioles, five straight games with three or more homeruns first time they’ve done that since 1996, that record breaking homerun club that slugged their way even though they didn’t have much pitching to talk about other than Mike Mussina. They slugged their way to the postseason that year. First time they homered three times in five straight games going back to 1996. So and you said it on opening day, they’re gonna hit the baseball and boy, they’re really hitting the baseball and that’s without Jackson holiday or Austin Hays or a couple other guys that still waiting to get going. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 41:28
I mentioned Seth Elkins from the Maryland lottery doing the show this week. He’s a he’s a baseball nerd. And he was on baseball reference because they had the homerun riches. And every time the bases are loaded, they have a chance to get $5,000 away right and for every homerun instead of 500. So they’ve had more bases loaded situations this year than any other team and it’s like how many Grand Slams are they going to hit? We’re gonna find out how many home runs are they gonna hit? John Martin was unavailable this week with to do the show. He was so busy giving money away. And that’s really what the story was this week so I will not be too busy to give money away will be a green male bowl on Wednesday. Yes next to Green Mountain station in the Greenmount station crabcake but I’ll be talking bowling and I’ll be talking horse racing. I’ll be giving the Pac Man scratch offs way over the top price. 10,000 bucks. We’ve had a lot of fun giving these away will be a fade these on Friday given these away as well. I hope everybody has a great weekend. enjoys the baseball live via satellite from Kansas City. I mean you get me hungry you touched are talking about going back to Kansas City. I mean I’m ready for barbecue. So you know get me there this weekend. I’m ready for all that. He is Luke Jones. You can follow him at Baltimore Luke anywhere the internet is served. You can follow both of us at Baltimore positive anywhere the internet is served as well. We have the 25th anniversary documentary coming out next week. No one listens every one years. I’m a star but Luke Jones makes some cameos. It is a retrospective piece on how this got here and how we did 25 years of all this and how we’re hoping to be here for 25 More covering the Orioles and the Ravens. And during the good work that we do political season. If you heard Sheila Dixon this week if you’re a Janet Sneed, you’ll be hearing lots of political candidates next couple of weeks because I like talking about making the city better. I think it’s important. I am Nestor he is Luke we are wn st am 1570 TAs in Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
