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 โ 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 weโre going to be families. Iโll have the PacMan scratch offs in the Maryland lottery Iโll 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. Weโre going to be doing the crabcake toward Pappus in late May. Weโre going to be safe fair in June. Weโre going to be a Costas in June. Weโre gonna be Cocoโs 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 didnโt 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 isnโt going anywhere. And the next minute, we have a billionaire in a splash outfit out in left field squirting fans. Boy, weโve come a long way baby, havenโt we?
Marty Conway 01:28
Whiplash. And itโs happened so fast, right? It happened literally almost overnight. In that time. What was it? I donโt 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 hereโs where we are so and then in the last eight to 10 weeks, it feels like whiplash, right in terms of whatโs changed. Excuse me in and around the franchise. So, but yeah, and by the way, do not underestimate me. Iโm a great celebrity spotter in crowds. Iโm pretty good at finding people. As soon as we walk in, I scan the room, and Iโm usually pretty good about that. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:09
Iโll take you to Taylor Swift next time I go to Taylor Swift would be the first time. Um, alright, so I donโt even know where to open the can of worms with all this other than the state. Look, Iโm 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. Weโre gonna hire you and youโre 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. Youโre 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 werenโt from here, but you figured it out. And 30 years later, youโre still here and youโre figuring it out? Every single day. We both predicted that 1,000,000,007 would buy you a rich guy whoโs from Baltimore, who has some roots here. Now is TJ Brightman gonna run it is Greg Bader. Weโre gonna run it is Jennifer Grondahl guy who, whoโs 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 thatโs 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 Donโt be Peter angelos, donโt engage, engage, engage. Do you must be maybe your consulting because engaging is putting on the rubber ducky going to left field you canโt get more engagement than that. Right?
Marty Conway 04:05
Yeah, look, I think itโs Googleโs philosophy or mission which is do no harm, right? Thatโs your first obligation to do that which isnโt. Itโs not you know, itโs not that difficult to actually you know, Iโve 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 itโs opening day or whether youโre opening a store or whatever youโre 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
and all that. Yeah, exactly. Sure. Right.
Marty Conway 05:14
So itโs gonna be very, very few changes that you can make. That had a meaningful impact. Now, publicly, thatโs, thatโs 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 commanderโs right. Dan Snyder was popular until he wasnโt, 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. Itโs very confusing. And one of the things thatโs happening is masking is being bumped to a, a new tier that XFINITY has, I think itโs called choice or something like that. And so we all all of us have to sort out what does that mean financially? Well, theyโre bundling it. So what theyโre doing is to the customer, Masson, and I presume I didnโt 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, youโre going to have to make an active selection to say, I want to pay an additional, whether itโs $10 a month, I have to look carefully at that number charged to my bill, that which means that Iโm going to make an effort to really watch it, if Iโm paying additional for additional services, Xfinity has rolled out a program in Baltimore in the surrounding area where theyโre phasing it in. So by the end of the season, if you still have it, youโll be paying the full, I think itโs 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 itโs being phased in, excuse me into a tear, then youโre 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.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:18
Watching him I mean, I talked about paywalls all time Marty media I mean, you bought a banner if you donโt pay him youโre 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, nobodyโs cheating anymore. Or you know, like, I donโt 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. Youโre really going out of your way if itโs 20 bucks a month to get the baseball games and you and Iโve 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. Heโs got his billion seven. But this 20 bucks that youโre gonna give them? Itโs 120 Whatโs 2020 times 12? Itโs $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. Iโm assuming of the people that want this if thereโs a Cinemax or another this that K sports channel that five sports channels you get for this bundle. I donโt know how much of it they get but like I wonder how much theyโre 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 thatโs where they are. I know that thereโs going to be a split and all of this stuff, but I can think of myself when maths and maths in anymore and itโs 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. Iโm in the Mac. So it makes sense to somebody to him, right? I mean, even if heโs stroking the check the math of the new media, it doesnโt really make sense to most anybody yet, does it? Yeah,
Marty Conway 10:19
well, weโre definitely in a period of flux, and itโs changing. So just a backup on that if if itโs 9099, roughly $20 a month. And itโs a bundle of several channels, whether itโs MLB Network and mastering or whatever that package is, I have to look at that carefully to see whatโs in there. Obviously, youโre youโre 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, youโre getting a smaller amount, but youโre getting a larger universe. Now over time, youโre flipping that model to maybe a smaller universe of people who are stepping in to take the choice package, but youโre getting a larger percentage of that 1999. Presumably, to do it, right. Thatโs whatโs happening. But thatโs going to be over time, thatโs going to take months and months, itโs
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 donโt care if you hate us, and you and your Nestor family was paying Mr. Angeloโs money, just by simply having the cable plugged into the wall thatโs 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 youโre stepping down and cable, and youโre not going to have this choice package. Hereโs a package. I think the the the two Pittsburgh teams, the the penguins, and the pirates just came out with their package. And I donโt remember if it was 189 99 a month or 3999 a month, where youโll be able to get on a streaming package, on an ad on an app on your smart TV, youโll be able to get access to all the games. So whether youโre selling it directly to consumers, or youโre selling it indirectly through Comcast, XFINITY, youโre 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 thatโs channel 1113 45, youโre going to need certain times of the year, whether itโs opening day and other games, youโre going to want those on your highest profile, most accessible channels. So thatโs 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 donโt revert to the VPN, which you know, theyโre paying somebody in Europe $59 for some device, which allows them to essentially pirate the games and you donโt 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 havenโt watched any of the Rubenstein stuff so like him with Cal Ripken. I saw thereโs an hour of that pitching Baltimore as a business place and he encountered together. I kind of thought Iโd have my press credential back by now. And I thought I would like meet him meet him I donโt really want to meet him on the internet watching him on TV. Iโll 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, Iโm being handled. Iโm Iโm under review, whatever that means. I donโt even know. They havenโt even told me what that means. So Iโm reporting that to everybody whoโs asking me and there were 100 people last week, but Iโm 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 Iโm sure heโs 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 thatโs meant to feel that way itโs meant to feel like this was Mr. Rubinsteinโs idea to go score it people didnโt love it. I donโt know. I donโt know how I handled orchestrated it is I can say from my end. You know, it feels like theyโve hired a firm to say this is a Johnny Bravo yourself and make yourself ingratiate it here, or theyโve done some sort of market research, or Mr. Rubenstein showed up last week and said, Hey, itโd be fun to be the splash guy. Weโre given the Bible anyway. Iโll go splash people. I donโt know. But whatever it is, it smells nice to the fans right now. It certainly is not. I mean, incredible. Itโs 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 arenโt fireworks night, but theyโre 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 wasnโt getting the money. And I donโt hate Rubenstein no Rubinstein like, Iโd like to get my press credential back, that would be number one for my integrity test for him when heโs allowing my Caucasian employee to have a seat and some days, our seats empty, and I canโt sit in it. But thatโs 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, heโs doing everything thatโs the ante Peter in such an incredible way to win friends and influence people. And itโs working beautifully. And at some point to your point, thereโll be bad news signing players, not any of that. But six weeks in, I donโt know that we can give anything but a pluses on the team how great the team is how the perception that thereโs a new owner. So the perception is so strong that I donโt 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 nothingโs more welcoming than the owner in goggles in a tutu outskirt and fans and left field like thatโs something I was not expecting from anybody that own the team, quite frankly, itโs, itโs out there.
Marty Conway 17:45
Yeah, look, I think itโs been gradual, and itโs probably been measured. Itโs 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 theyโve sort of analyzed, okay, was this favorable to use? Or did you feel comfortable in it? All those things, and itโs a logical next step to do it. That would be my whether itโs 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, Iโll go back to the days. Itโd 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 didnโt, it didnโt 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, theyโve looked at each one of these times that heโs appeared in something a commercial on Twitter, and theyโve gauge the favourability unfavorability. Iโm sure itโs highly, highly favorable at this point. Because as you said, the team is winning. Theyโve 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 thatโs thatโs 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, thatโs great. And as long as it lasts, then itโs favorable. You just have to be careful to watch for the period when, when itโs about the team and not about who owns the team and who runs the team or whether itโs the general manager, President, etc. Fans love to see access to an owner in every sport that Iโve ever been around until a certain point, like I said, so while it while it while it runs, let it run. And I think itโs interesting, and itโs, itโs good for Baltimore in this regard, because very clear, David Rubenstein is from an all about Baltimore. Heโs 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 itโs 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, thatโs how youโre able to fund payroll is through all those important financial decisions.
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:22
Marty Conway is our guest. Heโs 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. Thatโs the word I keep coming back to. With Luke Jones. Iโve used authenticity. I think itโs the word people have been using about my documentaries is you sort of canโt fake being here for two years. And you canโt fake you know, you canโt you canโt fake having an Oriole shirt on when youโre five years old, in my case, or David Rubenstein case, or in you know, the 3540 years youโve been here, you know doing it and feeling like itโs yours. Right. And you know, Iโve known you a long time I always sensed you had some real bile about the Angelos thing and you didnโt 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 thatโs the way to draw Steinberg felt about it thatโs the way bridge valance thatโs 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 canโt buy. Itโs something that Sashi brown canโt buy when heโs boxing me out of CEO club luncheons, because heโs not from around here. And he wouldnโt value that or know how to value that or Chad steel would never understand heโs not from here. They wouldnโt understand the key bridge going down. They just wouldnโt understand those things. Thereโs 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 canโt buy it. You canโt buy it. Itโs the one thing you canโt buy, and he has it and that spiking the ball on that is everything given where weโve been the last three decades. Yeah,
Marty Conway 23:47
no, I think thatโs, you know, what you talked about is spot on. Itโs especially in Baltimore. I think itโs 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. Baltimoreโs is a city of neighborhoods, though, is Rubinstein has often said the first thing he asked me pointing meets them and they say Iโm 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 youโre from and then the conversation
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:20
profile because Iโm a Dundalk guy. Is that what youโre telling me? Is that why Iโm 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 itโs important, like I said, and I think you you you highlight that as much as possible as you can because itโs a itโs a fun thing. You can play along with it. Itโs really super helpful when youโre 10 or 12 games over 500 baseballโs the ultimate like I said, you know, itโs 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 youโre over 500, you want to exploit that, you know, weโll see if things turn differently, you know whether the tactics turned to be a part of it, but itโs important. And, again, I think itโs important for this community to see now, I think, additionally, theyโll rally behind it. As you said, his work with Cal Jr. and others is about resurgence of the business community to support, thereโs going to be a lot of need for that going forward. Because the ballpark itself canโt 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 itโs been stuck in ownership and political issues over the last decade plus that probably last time. And now itโs time to make up for that because that entire football baseball complex needs to grow together. Right now. Itโs 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 itโs always
Nestor 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. Thatโs the baseball side. Thatโs the football side, once purple ones arenโt. Like itโs not like that in other places. Philadelphiaโs 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 Menโs Lacrosse Championship on Memorial Day weekend that sort of ran its course, weโve talked about, weโve 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 itโs going to take a lot of work. A lot of efforts can take a lot of money, itโs 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 donโt live here, I think weโre going to have to generate some enthusiasm for that. Thatโs whatโs 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 youโre listening Marty Conwayโs here will stop boring you with the business of sports and hey, Marty HVAC good team youโre pretty good, huh? Dude, how I every night I pitched my wife and Iโm like, the best team Iโve ever seen. Like Iโve never seen anything like how good the team can be and they havenโt won anything and whatever. But the prosperity level of seeing 2224 2526 year old guys come up who arenโt 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 youโve lived here. 30 years and Iโve been here 50 years sort of waiting for right like this is this is all of it in a bag of doughnuts. And itโs hard on a daily basis, especially when they get shut out. And Burnley you know, the morning after you lose itโs 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
Yeah, and well, I think a lot of it has to do with player development, right? Itโs one thing to, you know, be in a position. Thereโs 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 havenโt been able to convert to do that. So not only drafting the talent, but developing the talent. And increasingly today Nestor itโs about the number one ability in sports today is availability. And if your best players who typically youโre paying the most to, if theyโre not available because of physical health, you know, Tommy John surgeries, all the things that go with it. If theyโre 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 canโt think of you know, thereโs been the occasional John mean situation, but generally speaking, theyโve 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 theyโve 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 thatโs their only question going forward is do they get the same production in the bullpen this year as theyโve gotten in the last two years? So if they get that then I think theyโre 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 donโt have Kara Cole coming at you. Right. So same thing will be said for the Orioles. If Rodriguez werenโt here and means and Bradish donโt 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 thatโs the secondary market because I think those tickets originally sell for 10 or $12. And itโs mine. Okay. So theyโre not
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:30
scammers. They provide a service and for that service, you must pay you
Marty Conway 31:34
know, and they better do it before Maryland passes the law. I think thatโs 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 donโt need to get scored by the new group. But the Orioles are red hot and we got a race coming next week. I donโt 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 Iโve ticked youโre already on last week to just talking about the future of biblical and whatโs 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. Weโre 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