The good professor of all things sports business and longtime MLB executive Marty Conway joins Nestor to discuss the quickly-changing and evolving Baltimore Orioles franchise of David Rubenstein – and the many challenges ahead after the Splash of the honeymoon period and a great team on the field.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
rubenstein, baltimore, people, team, orioles, years, xfinity, package, pay, games, unorthodox, splash, feel, marty, day, good, paywalls, buy, channels, players
SPEAKERS
Marty Conway, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:00
Hey welcome home we are wn st Towson, Baltimore. And Baltimore positive we are getting the Maryland crabcake tour out on the road anytime the Orioles are home on Fridays we’re going to be families. I’ll have the PacMan scratch offs in the Maryland lottery I’ll be giving away. Also our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care as well as Liberty pure solutions. They keep my water clean and keep your well water clean. You can find more at Liberty pure solutions.com And you can find me at fade these big crabcake shrimp salad. We’re going to be doing the crabcake toward Pappus in late May. We’re going to be safe fair in June. We’re going to be a Costas in June. We’re gonna be Coco’s in June, but fails in the near short term and I was gonna invite this guy out. I mean, I LM at least two failures crabcakes and probably aside a mac and cheese. He is a man that I didn’t realize could spot a lacrosse Hall of Famer at 100 yards in a town like Syracuse, New York. He is a born to run Hall of Famer and a one time Oracle executive one time Major League Baseball executive one time Texas Rangers, vice president as well. He has now settled in as the good professor at Georgetown University in regard to all things Sport, Sport business, and Marty Conway, you know, so much changes so quickly. You know, one moment Peter Angelos is alive and owning the team at John Angelos isn’t going anywhere. And the next minute, we have a billionaire in a splash outfit out in left field squirting fans. Boy, we’ve come a long way baby, haven’t we?
8Marty Conway 01:28
Whiplash. And it’s happened so fast, right? It happened literally almost overnight. In that time. What was it? I don’t know, four weeks before opening day, somewhere like that, that they announced, you know, the purchase of a percentage of the team. And then what another three weeks pass, Peter passes away, and then opening day and now here’s where we are so and then in the last eight to 10 weeks, it feels like whiplash, right in terms of what’s changed. Excuse me in and around the franchise. So, but yeah, and by the way, do not underestimate me. I’m a great celebrity spotter in crowds. I’m pretty good at finding people. As soon as we walk in, I scan the room, and I’m usually pretty good about that. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:09
I’ll take you to Taylor Swift next time I go to Taylor Swift would be the first time. Um, alright, so I don’t even know where to open the can of worms with all this other than the state. Look, I’m not gonna kiss your ass too much. Because, you know, I respect you. And you are one of the people that if I bought the team, or if Mr. Rubenstein would have called me January 23, and said, Hey, I hear that you know, Peter hated you. Perfect. We’re gonna hire you and you’re gonna bring people in, who would you bring in? And who would be your the brain trust? You would certainly be on that committee. I would call Rick Vaughn. I would call Charles Steinberg. I would call the people that understood Baltimore, not Sashi Brown as an example or Chad Steele people who new Baltimore people. You’re not even from Baltimore. I learned that you know, Syracuse, cop, family, best friend. Carry your dome, awful seats, concrete, awful sound, nice little town, good coffee. But like you weren’t from here, but you figured it out. And 30 years later, you’re still here and you’re figuring it out? Every single day. We both predicted that 1,000,000,007 would buy you a rich guy who’s from Baltimore, who has some roots here. Now is TJ Brightman gonna run it is Greg Bader. We’re gonna run it is Jennifer Grondahl guy who, who’s going to run mass? And what are they going to do with mass and like all of these things that were out there, and I will use this with you because this is your word. You would always say Mr. Angeles was unorthodox. Well, putting the splash outfit on and go into left field that’s unorthodox to in a lot of ways. If you were the guy, day one, and you were his handler, and you were handling me and putting my press credential under review, and all of that, what the advice you would give and I know, I could go back and rewind you eight weeks ago, but I think it would be something like Don’t be Peter angelos, don’t engage, engage, engage. Do you must be maybe your consulting because engaging is putting on the rubber ducky going to left field you can’t get more engagement than that. Right?
Marty Conway 04:05
Yeah, look, I think it’s Google’s philosophy or mission which is do no harm, right? That’s your first obligation to do that which isn’t. It’s not you know, it’s not that difficult to actually you know, I’ve said this publicly and privately The most difficult thing about owning a professional sports team typically is getting the team getting it from whoever is selling it, whatever running the team, etc. is not usually as hard as actually getting it financing it getting partners raising money, doing things a sword like that. So the Do No Harm principle is one that usually is pretty easily adhere to to do it. A couple of things about it. Number one is, you know, walking into any business, literally the day that it opens, whether it’s opening day or whether you’re opening a store or whatever you’re doing if you walk into it. It this season is baked for the most part Are there are a few things you could change along the way. And maybe as you get closer to the postseason, you could do that. But, you know, the prices have been determined the policies, the philosophies, and all those things, fireworks
05:11
8and all that. Yeah, exactly. Sure. Right.
Marty Conway 05:14
So it’s gonna be very, very few changes that you can make. That had a meaningful impact. Now, publicly, that’s, that’s different. As you said earlier, just not being Peter or John Angelos is something you know, to aspire to, but leadership of a professional sports team over time, especially if you grew up around that team. Dan Snyder grew up around the commander’s right. Dan Snyder was popular until he wasn’t, he was popular because he bought the team. And he was more in the moment like he was available, etc. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:53
I found the tape he did Marsh national syndicated show 25 years ago, Dan Snyder off at 10 minutes.
Marty Conway 05:59
Yeah, so always coming in as the number one fan is a nice way to come in whether like I said, no matter whether what kind of team that you buy, over time, though, the arc of that bends in more difficult directions, because you have to make some really difficult decisions on payroll on signing players long term or not signing players long term, or other key decisions. And I think I repeat what I said earlier, the most, some of the most important things that they have to sort out is the untangling of mass. And I got my I met XFINITY customer, and I got my new channel line up a new pricing lineup the other day, and I just printed it out. And I started to look at it. It’s very confusing. And one of the things that’s happening is masking is being bumped to a, a new tier that XFINITY has, I think it’s called choice or something like that. And so we all all of us have to sort out what does that mean financially? Well, they’re bundling it. So what they’re doing is to the customer, Masson, and I presume I didn’t look carefully, some other channels, sports related channels are moving up to a higher paid tier. So instead of it being included in your basic package, and being charged for it, whether you watch it or not, now, you’re going to have to make an active selection to say, I want to pay an additional, whether it’s $10 a month, I have to look carefully at that number charged to my bill, that which means that I’m going to make an effort to really watch it, if I’m paying additional for additional services, Xfinity has rolled out a program in Baltimore in the surrounding area where they’re phasing it in. So by the end of the season, if you still have it, you’ll be paying the full, I think it’s actually $20 a month for that entire package for that for that tear. So what that means is, over time, the number of folks who are exposed to the games are likely to drop during the course of the season. Because if you were getting the channel as part of your broad basic package, and now it’s being phased in, excuse me into a tear, then you’re going to lose some of that audience perhaps who are able to watch the games. So access to the games is going to be a really important thing to sort out during the course of this year.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 08:18
Watching him I mean, I talked about paywalls all time Marty media I mean, you bought a banner if you don’t pay him you’re not reading it. Same thing with the sun. Same thing with any, any athletic any of these places. And I often think like, you know, nobody’s cheating anymore. Or you know, like, I don’t know, you put that much effort into it. But these fire sticks and these, you know, internet you what are they VPN,
Marty Conway 08:39
virtual, private network, VPN, all of these
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:42
ways to sort of cheated a little bit. You’re really going out of your way if it’s 20 bucks a month to get the baseball games and you and I’ve talked at length about whatever the next model is going to be out of this. 20 bucks a month. I almost reverted Marty. I almost said how much is John getting of this? Yeah, Johnny get anything. He’s got his billion seven. But this 20 bucks that you’re gonna give them? It’s 120 What’s 2020 times 12? It’s $240 a year right. So how much of that does Masson get? How much of that does XFINITY get and like I know that used to get three $4 A sub for over millions of subs. I’m assuming of the people that want this if there’s a Cinemax or another this that K sports channel that five sports channels you get for this bundle. I don’t know how much of it they get but like I wonder how much they’re tweeting me how much because I do wonder this when the orals in the nationals are playing each other. And I see two really subpar broadcasts by the way on Tuesday night. I mean, the choice was bad and better and worse and worse are in regard to the broadcast because that’s where they are. I know that there’s going to be a split and all of this stuff, but I can think of myself when maths and maths in anymore and it’s just oriels television, not you know Oreos and nationals if it really is a split How many people will finance this on a spreadsheet? That Mr. Rubenstein says, Well, I got 1,000,000,007. I’m in the Mac. So it makes sense to somebody to him, right? I mean, even if he’s stroking the check the math of the new media, it doesn’t really make sense to most anybody yet, does it? Yeah,
Marty Conway 10:19
8well, we’re definitely in a period of flux, and it’s changing. So just a backup on that if if it’s 9099, roughly $20 a month. And it’s a bundle of several channels, whether it’s MLB Network and mastering or whatever that package is, I have to look at that carefully to see what’s in there. Obviously, you’re you’re sprinkling out to each of those entities based on who, who takes your package. But presumably, the principle is, if you were operating at 3 million subscribers, in your broad basic cable footprint, and they were all getting mass, and at some price, right, you’re getting a smaller amount, but you’re getting a larger universe. Now over time, you’re flipping that model to maybe a smaller universe of people who are stepping in to take the choice package, but you’re getting a larger percentage of that 1999. Presumably, to do it, right. That’s what’s happening. But that’s going to be over time, that’s going to take months and months, it’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:16
also going to create, they have to recruit the Orioles will have to recruit customers, instead of oh, you get cable, we don’t care if you hate us, and you and your Nestor family was paying Mr. Angelo’s money, just by simply having the cable plugged into the wall that’s going to go away. Right, it
Marty Conway 11:35
puts organizations and for example, both the Orioles and the Nationals would be in the situation where they would have to be actively marketing, not only the team and a membership, but also including access to the games, whether that is through your pay television package of XFINITY, you want to encourage that or some other streaming option, which I think is probably coming to them, which is if you choose not to do that, if you’re stepping down and cable, and you’re not going to have this choice package. Here’s a package. I think the the the two Pittsburgh teams, the the penguins, and the pirates just came out with their package. And I don’t remember if it was 189 99 a month or 3999 a month, where you’ll be able to get on a streaming package, on an ad on an app on your smart TV, you’ll be able to get access to all the games. So whether you’re selling it directly to consumers, or you’re selling it indirectly through Comcast, XFINITY, you’re going to have to be increasingly in that business of offering access to your games. And then I think the next package from there is what games can you put strategically on the over the air network, here in Baltimore and or Washington, whether that’s channel 1113 45, you’re going to need certain times of the year, whether it’s opening day and other games, you’re going to want those on your highest profile, most accessible channels. So that’s part of the strategy that will have to be developed by not just the Orioles and nationals, but all teams going forward in this ever evolving situation where like you were saying, many, many more people have paywalls in front of them now. And how do you actively and aggressively offer ways in through that paywall premium promotions, so that people don’t revert to the VPN, which you know, they’re paying somebody in Europe $59 for some device, which allows them to essentially pirate the games and you don’t get any of that revenue. So you want to do whatever, you can even get portions of it. Marty
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:44
Conway is here he is the good professor of all things sports and business and sort of I haven’t watched any of the Rubenstein stuff so like him with Cal Ripken. I saw there’s an hour of that pitching Baltimore as a business place and he encountered together. I kind of thought I’d have my press credential back by now. And I thought I would like meet him meet him I don’t really want to meet him on the internet watching him on TV. I’ll say this, the the handling of me by a communications professional, which is always a little tenuous for me. If you know me over 40 years and you watch my documentary, I’m being handled. I’m I’m under review, whatever that means. I don’t even know. They haven’t even told me what that means. So I’m reporting that to everybody who’s asking me and there were 100 people last week, but I’m the handling part of this where he buys the team. He already has a communications guy he has an internal team that worked for him I’m sure he’s a billionaire. He sits on these boards he does all of these things. He has a television show and the Bloomberg and all the celebrity this and money that finance world and all of that stuff. In your opinion, these commercials, this idea to go splash people is this TJ Brightman and the current team coming to him with ideas of things to get him involved. Is this some third party coming to him with storyboards and saying, Well Mr. Rubenstein you can go splash people in left field or you can do a commercial with Gunnar Henderson and Cal Ripken about this cute little shortstop thing where your desk is upset like it feels to me like ESPN. This is sports center writers are involved in this that this is orchestrated that this if that’s meant to feel that way it’s meant to feel like this was Mr. Rubinstein’s idea to go score it people didn’t love it. I don’t know. I don’t know how I handled orchestrated it is I can say from my end. You know, it feels like they’ve hired a firm to say this is a Johnny Bravo yourself and make yourself ingratiate it here, or they’ve done some sort of market research, or Mr. Rubenstein showed up last week and said, Hey, it’d be fun to be the splash guy. We’re given the Bible anyway. I’ll go splash people. I don’t know. But whatever it is, it smells nice to the fans right now. It certainly is not. I mean, incredible. It’s unorthodox, but different unorthodox than what we had before. But I do wonder, these TV commercials in this sort of rollout of ideas you say that aren’t fireworks night, but they’re totally designed to make you as you began this forget about theater. And it made me feel differently. Curio gave me four tickets and I sat on the dugout last Thursday, heckling the Yankees on 100 degree days ever getting their ass kicked, it was great. And I pulled my credit card out and used it in the ballpark. I spent money in the ballpark for the first time in 20 years. Because I felt like John Angeles wasn’t getting the money. And I don’t hate Rubenstein no Rubinstein like, I’d like to get my press credential back, that would be number one for my integrity test for him when he’s allowing my Caucasian employee to have a seat and some days, our seats empty, and I can’t sit in it. But that’s for me. But for the fans. This is their eating this up like what the wrestling world would say their marks for whatever it is, he’s doing everything that’s the ante Peter in such an incredible way to win friends and influence people. And it’s working beautifully. And at some point to your point, there’ll be bad news signing players, not any of that. But six weeks in, I don’t know that we can give anything but a pluses on the team how great the team is how the perception that there’s a new owner. So the perception is so strong that I don’t have my press pass back. And I gave him money on my credit card last week, inside the ballpark because I want to be a customer I want to be welcomed. I want to feel all of that. But nothing’s more welcoming than the owner in goggles in a tutu outskirt and fans and left field like that’s something I was not expecting from anybody that own the team, quite frankly, it’s, it’s out there.
8Marty Conway 17:45
Yeah, look, I think it’s been gradual, and it’s probably been measured. It’s probably been, you know, sort of more than measured, but you know, really looked at strategically to see what was the engagement and reception, even from the opening press conference. And then small things after that, which you saw him, you know, strategically on his Twitter profile, and other areas like that. My suspect, my suspect is that each step they’ve sort of analyzed, okay, was this favorable to use? Or did you feel comfortable in it? All those things, and it’s a logical next step to do it. That would be my whether it’s from inside the warehouse or from, you know, PR teams that he was worked with that obviously as either way, we saw this a little bit, I’ll go back to the days. It’d be like Jacobs when he first bought the team. He had folks because Eli was not somebody that was comfortable in the public at all. And he had folks who were trying to make that. So now it didn’t, it didn’t work. It never worked. And some of the things that were on the docket actually never happened. So there is usually thought to how do we project this profile to do it. So I suspect that my hunch is that over time, they’ve looked at each one of these times that he’s appeared in something a commercial on Twitter, and they’ve gauge the favourability unfavorability. I’m sure it’s highly, highly favorable at this point. Because as you said, the team is winning. They’ve got a young roster. They added a free agent pitcher over the course of the winter, though, a lot of those things have built up to a very favorable first two months of the season. Baseball is a long season. We play in baseball every day, though there is no hiding from reality as you go about it. As I said, I think that’s that’s today. I think some of the medium to longer term challenges that that put them in front of it which is television, ballparked development and all star game. Some other things like that. will need to Um, but for right now, bathe in the moment. No, you know, no pun intended for being out there squirting people to do it, that’s great. And as long as it lasts, then it’s favorable. You just have to be careful to watch for the period when, when it’s about the team and not about who owns the team and who runs the team or whether it’s the general manager, President, etc. Fans love to see access to an owner in every sport that I’ve ever been around until a certain point, like I said, so while it while it while it runs, let it run. And I think it’s interesting, and it’s, it’s good for Baltimore in this regard, because very clear, David Rubenstein is from an all about Baltimore. He’s very authentic in that regard, which I think is really good for the Orioles franchise, in particular because of their longevity in the market and how they came here. So I think it’s really important to have that. And again, I think that had a lot to do with who John and Mrs. Angelos decided to sell the team to, I think they wanted to control who that was. And I think they made a wise choice with David Rubenstein. But like I said, the question is over the longer period of time, seasons, not one season, you know how the franchise is positioned strategically and how successful it is financially, because ultimately, that’s how you’re able to fund payroll is through all those important financial decisions.
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:22
Marty Conway is our guest. He’s the good professor of all things sports business at Georgetown University, longtime Major League Baseball executive with the Orioles in the Rangers, amongst others. saw a picture of Uber off the other day, by the way, maybe Thank you. Authenticity, that was a word you threw in that began very early in the morning, when I was talking to Bill Cole and Leonard Raskin and other people. That’s the word I keep coming back to. With Luke Jones. I’ve used authenticity. I think it’s the word people have been using about my documentaries is you sort of can’t fake being here for two years. And you can’t fake you know, you can’t you can’t fake having an Oriole shirt on when you’re five years old, in my case, or David Rubenstein case, or in you know, the 3540 years you’ve been here, you know doing it and feeling like it’s yours. Right. And you know, I’ve known you a long time I always sensed you had some real bile about the Angelos thing and you didn’t mind coming on and talking about it being unorthodox and all that because you felt like it was yours and it was something that was wrecked and that’s the way to draw Steinberg felt about it that’s the way bridge valance that’s the way all of us felt about it anybody and you Blood Sweat Tears decade be in there more than that work in in our trying to build relationships, do things the right way. Or as Charlie Ekman would say, be a right guy back in the day and authenticity is something you can’t buy. It’s something that Sashi brown can’t buy when he’s boxing me out of CEO club luncheons, because he’s not from around here. And he wouldn’t value that or know how to value that or Chad steel would never understand he’s not from here. They wouldn’t understand the key bridge going down. They just wouldn’t understand those things. There’s something about Rubinstein that this authenticity that you speak of when he goes on the broadcast and talks about Louis Aparicio. And goes treon does and ribs Palmer and talks about walking from City College over to ballgames and then decides to go out with the fans and do this stunt, whatever promotion whatever we would call it reminds me of William Donald Schaefer who also had authenticity, right? Like to the day he died. He was a man of love him hate him, you know, whatever, authenticity. You work real hard down there with those kids at Georgetown and rich kids and all that much money, you can’t buy it. You can’t buy it. It’s the one thing you can’t buy, and he has it and that spiking the ball on that is everything given where we’ve been the last three decades. Yeah,
Marty Conway 23:47
no, I think that’s, you know, what you talked about is spot on. It’s especially in Baltimore. I think it’s unique in that regard. I think Pittsburgh is unique. I think Milwaukee is unique in St. Louis is unique in that the ownership really needs to fit in with the community. Baltimore’s is a city of neighborhoods, though, is Rubinstein has often said the first thing he asked me pointing meets them and they say I’m from Baltimore City where you go to high school, right? Because it really tells you kind of about the region or part of the city or the county that you’re from and then the conversation
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:20
8profile because I’m a Dundalk guy. Is that what you’re telling me? Is that why I’m under review? Or under review?
Marty Conway 24:25
Yeah, no, what I what I meant is that I think it tells a lot of people just about what your experience of Baltimore is based on. They
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:35
know your real guy. Yeah.
Marty Conway 24:38
Exactly. They know exactly. But I do think it’s important, like I said, and I think you you you highlight that as much as possible as you can because it’s a it’s a fun thing. You can play along with it. It’s really super helpful when you’re 10 or 12 games over 500 baseball’s the ultimate like I said, you know, it’s like going to work Every day like those of us that go to work every day, you play baseball every day. So after 162 games, you know how good you actually are. So when you’re over 500, you want to exploit that, you know, we’ll see if things turn differently, you know whether the tactics turned to be a part of it, but it’s important. And, again, I think it’s important for this community to see now, I think, additionally, they’ll rally behind it. As you said, his work with Cal Jr. and others is about resurgence of the business community to support, there’s going to be a lot of need for that going forward. Because the ballpark itself can’t stay the way it is. There has to be some expansion around it, there has to be some development. It has to grow out towards the community, as it always was intended to do. And I think it’s been stuck in ownership and political issues over the last decade plus that probably last time. And now it’s time to make up for that because that entire football baseball complex needs to grow together. Right now. It’s separated by some parking lots. I think it needs to grow in ways that people feel comfortable being there on non game days, and other days on weekends. And it’s always
8Nestor J. Aparicio 26:11
felt like shooting for places though, right? I mean, just psychologically, physically, all the years of going down the rate Lewis and all the years of the awful baseball in it, it really feels like that freeway that separates it. That’s the baseball side. That’s the football side, once purple ones aren’t. Like it’s not like that in other places. Philadelphia’s not that way right? And,
Marty Conway 26:31
and bringing new and different events to that area. So for a while, we had a run of bringing the Men’s Lacrosse Championship on Memorial Day weekend that sort of ran its course, we’ve talked about, we’ve had some concerts at the baseball stadium. But I think generally speaking, that area has to fulfill its destiny. With a casino and a driving range on one end, and the baseball leading up to Howard Street, Utah street all the way up through it has to fulfill its destiny to revitalize the west side of it, and I think it can definitely do that. But it’s going to take a lot of work. A lot of efforts can take a lot of money, it’s going to take a lot of relationship building with commercial developers and other folks, not only in Baltimore, but people who have interest in Baltimore. If you don’t live here, I think we’re going to have to generate some enthusiasm for that. That’s what’s really important to really make it fulfill itself like I said, so that in 2030 It looks a whole lot different than it did when it was originally built in 1992.
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:28
So if you’re listening Marty Conway’s here will stop boring you with the business of sports and hey, Marty HVAC good team you’re pretty good, huh? Dude, how I every night I pitched my wife and I’m like, the best team I’ve ever seen. Like I’ve never seen anything like how good the team can be and they haven’t won anything and whatever. But the prosperity level of seeing 2224 2526 year old guys come up who aren’t might be mean. And when these guys go and little slumps, cows or whatever that you know, figured out Westberg figured it out now, boy, this thing is settled in very, very quickly new ownership splash zone. All of this is happening. This is what you’ve lived here. 30 years and I’ve been here 50 years sort of waiting for right like this is this is all of it in a bag of doughnuts. And it’s hard on a daily basis, especially when they get shut out. And Burnley you know, the morning after you lose it’s different. But this is as good as it gets from a the team on the field and the pure potentiality of what they can sell as a brand.
Marty Conway 28:33
8Yeah, and well, I think a lot of it has to do with player development, right? It’s one thing to, you know, be in a position. There’s a lot of teams that have had first and second picks or multiple picks over two or three rounds. If you look at the what the Washington Nationals did, they built that championship contender in that world series winner on the Strasburg and Harper drafts, right and the other talent that came around that other teams have been in that position, repeatedly drafted high and haven’t been able to convert to do that. So not only drafting the talent, but developing the talent. And increasingly today Nestor it’s about the number one ability in sports today is availability. And if your best players who typically you’re paying the most to, if they’re not available because of physical health, you know, Tommy John surgeries, all the things that go with it. If they’re not available, then your chances of winning go dramatically down. So I think one of the untold stories probably of the the oil success has been the general availability of their players and pitchers. I can’t think of you know, there’s been the occasional John mean situation, but generally speaking, they’ve done a great job of not only developing their players, but keeping them healthy and available because this is the window for those players who you drafted before they hit arbitration years before they hit for The Agency years, you have to capitalize during this period. And the number one thing is they’ve got to be on the field. So hats off to their backroom staff, medical staff, all the things that they do to keep these really good young players on the field 450 160 games, making 3035 starts. I think if they sort out the bullpen with this particular team. I think that’s their only question going forward is do they get the same production in the bullpen this year as they’ve gotten in the last two years? So if they get that then I think they’re in a great position come September in October, a
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:38
lot easier to beat the Yankees three out of four when they don’t have Kara Cole coming at you. Right. So same thing will be said for the Orioles. If Rodriguez weren’t here and means and Bradish don’t come back. This is a different story two weeks ago than it is right now. And I think that makes us all even more bullish on all of this. Especially as maybe Austin Hays comes back and trying to figure out mayo and holiday and add on a farm Marty Conway is here he is monitoring this new ownership group he will be watching every splash by the way. I went before the segment I went online to see if I could buy tickets in the splash and there are four seats in second row right in front of Mr. Rubenstein $205 apiece. I think if I were Baltimore positive shirt, the cameras are gonna be on out there can be a hell of it inside marketing effort. What do you think?
Marty Conway 31:22
Wow, that tells you that’s the secondary market because I think those tickets originally sell for 10 or $12. And it’s mine. Okay. So they’re not
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:30
scammers. They provide a service and for that service, you must pay you
8Marty Conway 31:34
know, and they better do it before Maryland passes the law. I think that’s pending actually on, on what you can actually charge for tickets. So more to come on that.
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:42
All right, I will. I will pay $98 to dine with Sashi Brown I will not pay $205 to sit in the vicinity where Mr. Rubenstein could squirt me I already got scored by the last ownership group. I don’t need to get scored by the new group. But the Orioles are red hot and we got a race coming next week. I don’t even talk any Preakness with you and all that. But I did get a chance to talk to Alan for him and I got a chance to talk Dave Richards and I I’ve ticked you’re already on last week to just talking about the future of biblical and what’s going to happen to Laura with a couple of pregnancies down the line and then this whole stroke neck and naming for the Preakness and what the race is going to be here and what the future the racecourse is gonna be. We’re gonna be all about that next week. And hopefully the ratio will be as good as tucky Derby where three horses come down to the end of when by no so well Good Times ran your big week. Springtime baseball first place baseball, new ownership, splashy, splashy, all of that good stuff and rookies reporting in Owings Mills. I am Nestor. We are wn S, T A and 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive
