These two guys watched the 1996 and 1997 Orioles playoff disappointments together from the press box in Cleveland and New York. Now, with the next Baby Birds headed into a second straight October, our old pal Allen McCallum joins Nestor to prep for a wild baseball playoff orange carpet ride once again. Is this the year?
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, orioles, oyster, game, luke, baseball, happened, alan, talk, day, win, watched, fan, season, playing, series, bullpen, friends, week, world
SPEAKERS
Allen McCallum, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W NST AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore, as well as Baltimore positive.com we, we have so much going on here, man. We got a football aftermath of a very, very big victory over the Buffalo Bills, but we’re going to table that to at least but point we get to Cincinnati or the Orioles are on to New York, maybe on Saturday night. It is a big, big week around here. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour next Friday the 11th, which will be between game four and five of the ALDs. I had a day where we could do it. It’s Luke’s birthday, my birthday. We’re combining it. We’re going to Pizza John’s. We’re giving away these very lucky Raven scratch offs. Had a very lucky batches to fade these last week, as well as a Costas where I gathered and talked about all of my capital center memories. Then I got to pull all my ticket stubs out. So I found a lot of my Memorial Stadium memories by pulling all that stuff out. And I have a lot of oyster memories from last month. Our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, have sent me out for 26 oysters in 26 days, one and under clean water, they take care of your water. This way, the oysters take care of the bay water. And our friends at the Oyster recovery partnership Jiffy lubes got Luke going back and forth from Owings Mills to Camden Yards, my next guest will be pleased to know that I have written a letter to Mr. Rubenstein on behalf of the fact that I am banned yet again second ownership. I haven’t done anything to this guy yet, other than tell the truth, which I’m about to do, so there’ll be a Dear David Rubenstein letter out this week as well. And our friends at Curia wellness and foreign daughter also powering up our 26th anniversary. For 26 oysters that I now have in my belly. We’re gonna be announcing all that and all the cool oysters we’ve had at a Baltimore positive beginning on October 1, which is when the postseason begins. Alan McCallum is our defending champion. He’s been at this for a little over three decades, and doing this here I’ve been at 33 years. I’ve known him about 30 right about now, 31 maybe at this point. No, 29 I don’t know. Dude, I lose track of it. Are they going to win a playoff series? I mean, that’s what I need to know. Are you and I going to have to reconvene on Friday and maybe pull you away from your very important work down at the and I know the guy that runs the board, he probably give you the night off. Maybe you could sit behind home plate with me in the Bronx on Saturday. That what do you think, Alan, we going to win some baseball games this week,
8
Allen McCallum 02:21
or what? I certainly hope so. I certainly don’t think it’s beyond their own possibility. But, you know, the Kansas City Royals are incentivized to win, as we are, I’m sure, so let the games begin.
Nestor Aparicio 02:36
How you feel? Be honest with me here. I mean, in the perfect world, nobody gets hurt. They win 104 games. They beat the Yankees by six games. They’re sitting around icing their pitching. Um, one of the reasons they’re not icing their pitching is their pitching wasn’t good enough to ice, uh, let alone the bullpen. So there is some validity to going out and doing this. Man had Barry bloom on a couple weeks ago, who he would tell you that you know he saw Cy Young pitch. I don’t know if he did or didn’t. I’m making that up, but he remembers when baseball was baseball, and real memo real men, and you went out and took the ball and went eight innings in the post, like all of that. But more or less than that, is this weird part where the best teams go ice themselves for a week, hitters and pitchers, all of it. And I don’t know that that’s been real good in the modern vernacular, it certainly wasn’t good for the Orioles last year, they never won another game.
Allen McCallum 03:27
Historically, it has not been good for teams. There have only been a few teams that have gotten through after sitting for a week. Baseball is a game that’s played every day. How do I feel? Yes, it’s possible. We convened two weeks ago to talk about the ills of the second half of the Orioles, they finished with 91 wins, 10 game 10 wins less than last year, and for all the hand wringing and the stress and I can’t believe this is happening through July and August and September, if I told you that the team that won 101 games last year, traded for Corbin burns, was expected to come back strong, and then Grayson, Rodriguez, Kyle, Bradish, John means, and consistently, two or three of their best relievers were going to be out for the better part of the season, and that they were going to lose Jordan westburg, Ryan mountcastle, and the guys that were ultimately going to play second base in Ramon yez and Jorge Mateo for various periods of time, and the guy that they were expecting to be their best prospect wasn’t ready yet. We’re hoping that’s all it was, and they finished with 91 wins. You’d say, sign me up, right? I know I would. I mean, ultimately, you’re talking about maybe two or three wins less over the course of three months to get them to 91 wins. It’s really hard to talk about firing. Brandon Hyde and Mike Elias and anybody else when you look at it that way, not to mention that this team is was clearly going through a transition between the veteran guys, particularly the outfielders that carried them through years of struggle, into into promising winning, to find a way to bring their young guys in. Mean, there that was clearly going on on this team. With all that they win 91 games. They finished with the top wildcard seed. It’s really, really hard to argue with all the things that happened when you look through the season with that filter. Regardless they have, they’re they’ve put them in themselves, in a position where you can’t scream about icing, you can’t say they don’t have a shot. Clearly, they do. And getting a few of the guys back late in the season, you can see the team immediately be something very different over the last week, as they got mount castle in westburg and ureas back. And I will say this, of all the things that happened offensively for this club over the course of the summer, I would tell you that Jordan westburg, at least from the offensive standpoint, offensive and defensive standpoint, was really the linchpin for a lot of the struggles. Westburg is a settling force in this lineup. He certainly settles down the infield. He gives the club a right handed presence, either at the top or some or down further in the in the order that really gives them balance. He’s a professional hitter. He gives you consistently really strong at bats. I’m not telling you that was all that happened, but I think this team changed dramatically when they lost Jordan westburg to the hand injury and getting him back, whether he gets a hit or not, there’s there’s a professional, strong presence from a young guy that feels like a veteran, that really helps to establish his club in a very different way. And having him back, I feel like is a strong piece to say the Orioles have a shot to do this. Kansas City has a has a good line of exceptionally strong starting pitching. We’re going to we’re going to face our demon right away, in the sense that Who would you rather have? Bobby with junior Adley rutschman? Well, hello, because it’s right here to have that argument, and I think that a lot of it’s going to do with whether Vinnie pasquatino is in the lineup for them or not over the next two to three games, because that lineup much like Jordan Westbrook for the Orioles. Is entirely different when they have him in the middle, middle of theirs, and it helps balance out their roster. So we’re going to find out a lot of things very quickly once they start
Nestor Aparicio 07:52
8playing Alan. I, I watched a lot of baseball, so of you and you know, it’s rarefied air to get into this. We’re always watching the other teams play and how they match it up. And Every game’s a game seven, right? Like, that’s the thing the fans going down to the ballpark. Eighth inning of Tuesday, you’re playing like it’s game seven. You’re playing for your balls, you’re playing for extra innings, you’re playing for whatever you have to play for. Not worry. I mean, we’ll figure out Wednesday’s bullpen. We get to Wednesday and hope that F gets his five or six innings Right? Like, and you hope that he comes to post and wherever, Kramer and Suarez and whatever you need, you make it happen on Tuesday and Wednesday. So there’s that desperate brand of baseball that everybody plays. You know, once you get into this, it’s not as much in a seven game series or five, but when you’re getting these, you know, you lose. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it creates drama that didn’t exist years ago. It creates a really unfair balance for what’s a good team and a bad team, and how teams get knocked out. I think the sitting and icing team sounds good in football hasn’t worked out great football for the ravens, either for other teams, either sitting around and getting cold. But the pitching side of this, and where the Orioles pitching is, where they wanted it to be. And you go through the starters and where all that this is, where Luke becomes when, when he and I get together, I have to beat him up a little bit, because he goes into the valley a little bit of concern, you know, the valley of despair, in regard to the bullpen, that sure, um, if they’re going to win, they’re going to hit home runs, and they’re they’re going to be much better with runners in scoring position. And are sweep the bases a couple of times when they have some runners on. They can be two for seven runners in scoring position, as long as both times they were three run home runs, you know, right? Literally, right. The other times, whatever, right. But if they can get to six or seven or eight, then count that high in these, specifically in these games, they should be able to win some games here and stack something and get into the weekend they play well against New York. They’re not intimidated by the Yankees. The Yankees will be a little bit more iced. And just all, you know, there’s all of that. But these. Next couple of days and how the pitching can hold up, and now we can hold up after, let’s say, fixed, sixth, seventh, eighth inning. You tell me they’re gonna have a clean sheet after the sixth inning both days they’re going to be playing this weekend, they are. I mean, I because I think they’ll hit the ball later in the game, right? Because I think they’ll hit I think they’re a better team. I’m not going to judge them. Last time you and I got together, like, maybe two, three weeks ago, you know, like, is this guy coming back? Is that guy coming back? Is now? Where’s westbur? Where’s, where’s the bullpen? Where we you know, where’s the left hand, where’s cologne? Is he throwing strikes? Um, little worried about Cano, because I think he could be a saving grace for them, and they would definitely need innings out of a guy like him, if not in the next couple of days. But this isn’t about next week or next month or the Yankees this weekend or Saturday night, as Tommy Conwell once sang, and it’s not your man, the revised version. There ain’t no tomorrow, baby. There’s just right now.
Allen McCallum 10:56
Look the three game the best of three is is a heck of a lot different than the best of seven um game one is is absolutely crucial. And look, a year ago, we had two starters that you thought could really get you had a chance to get you through, and then dean Kramer. And this year, you have two starters that you really think have a chance to get you through, and then dean Kramer. And the difference is the two guys this year are veterans in Burns and effluent, as opposed to Rodriguez and Bradish, although Bradish pitched really well in that game one, but you have to look to them particularly in this series and say, We need to lean on those veterans to get us through. From a starting standpoint this club, obviously you need burns and effluent to be those guys, right? That that’s how you get through this part of the series. I think defense is going to be key. And as I said, I think the infield defense is is much better with Urias and westburg in to help settle down that infield, but you’re going to need five or six innings at least from from burns and effluent. This is obviously as much as the postseason has evolved into this thing where bullpens take hold. I don’t know this is a club that you say, Hey, we’re going to try and get four or five from our starter, particularly in the three game series, and then we’re going to turn to the bullpen to get us through because that’s not this club. I think you think you want to try and get six or seven out of burns Nestor and then use two or three guys to get you through two games. I think they want to try and win this game in this series, in two the first two games. The problem is that Cole Regan’s, as much as Seth Lugo had a great year. Cole Regan’s is a lefty, and if there’s anything that’s That should scare the Orioles, it’s a quality lefty coming at them, and especially when
Nestor Aparicio 12:54
McCann’s going to be the catcher, right? I mean, and rushman will be a DH, right? So it’s how they balance this lineup, and it’s really who hits in Tuesday. I mean, a handful of the bats. It’s a very small sample size, and it’s very, very situational, and that the shadows matter. I think, you know, there’s all sorts of things going to be happening here that ain’t like any other game we play around here, other than the Zach Britton game that, you know, I still remember, you know, in Toronto, I watched a game of Buffalo Wild Wings. It just sort of like shaking my head, because you remember every situation about these kind of games because they’re so magnified. I remember
Allen McCallum 13:35
Messina in Cleveland in the 90s, and he pitched brilliantly, and I think he had something like 14 strikeouts of some ridiculous number, and nobody could see the ball. They’re right. They were talking about the game, kind of how brilliant he was. And he, he it was just the most honest thing I’ve ever seen an athlete say, is like they couldn’t see the ball coming out of my hand. And it was, it was true. I mean, he was still, by the way,
8Nestor Aparicio 13:59
his brother argued that with me on the internet. And I was at his locker in Cleveland with you, and I now that you said it out loud, I remember him saying that to me. He’s because Bruce and I were pretty close. He’s like, they couldn’t see the ball, like, literally. And I’m and I argued that because Mark was last most season, was making some ish about this and that. And I’m like, you do know your your brother admitted and he fought with me. By the way, I invited him on today too. He should get in the middle of you and me one day. I mean, maybe we should have him down for that network viewing party so he can see you know Ned Beatty with his finest work.
Allen McCallum 14:34
Marcus, welcome at my home anytime. Um,
Nestor Aparicio 14:36
better your home than mine. He eats too much pizza.
Allen McCallum 14:39
8Well, I’ll tell you what I mean. If it’s going to be as rainy over the next couple days as as it looks, you know, maybe the shadow won’t play as much. But bottom line is, if the Orioles need, need to hit a quality lefty. And that’s right now, that’s the way. If you ask me how to beat the Orioles, definitively, how do you beat the Orioles? I’ll tell you. Throw a. Quality lefty Adam and that could shut down the club. Now, you mentioned James McCann, and I got to tell you, there’s a part of me that thinks you Why not start James McCann in every game? Because I don’t know that Ali Richmond is the guy I want to lean on, based on on his the second half of his season. That’s
Nestor Aparicio 15:18
you with him. Where are you with him? With rochman. How do you mean, you feel like he’s hurt?
Allen McCallum 15:23
Yeah, I think he has a hand injury. I think that. I mean, if you look at the numbers after he got hit on the hand, I mean, it’s clear that said when, before they drafted him, I said to you, I wouldn’t draft a catcher at number one. And the reason I felt that was that catchers have more put on them than any other athlete. Maybe in sports, it’s very hard to stay even the best hitting catchers. It’s very hard to keep them healthy and ready all the time and ultimately, if you’re drafting a guy to rebuild a team and to be good potentially for years to come, the most unpredictable player, other than a pitcher, to do that with is a catcher, not to mention that, Bobby Wood, Jr. I mean, his pedigree just looked outstanding. Adley has been there’s, I said this to you, and Max in the middle, I guess maybe in early June, when the Orioles were killing it. There’s no question that the moment Ali rushman came up to the major leagues, this team changed. No question about it. And we could, we could talk forever and not be sure why that is, but obviously Adley is a positive presence and has done a ton for the scene that said, if you look at his offensive history since coming up, it’s just very wax on, wax off. He walked too much, then he swung the bat too much, and you can it always feels like he’s trying to find his balance. He was having a very solid season. No question about it, going through this year, but yeah, I think his hand injury, and it’s hard, it’s hard to talk about him and not think about what this lineup. Just imagine for a split second if Bobby Wood Jr was playing short and gunner Henderson was playing Henderson was playing third, because that’s something that could have happened for this club, just to think about that. But there’s no point in doing that, because Bobby Wood Jr is probably going to be a lifelong royal at this point. I i believe that Ali Richmond’s going to have a strong career for the Orioles based on this year, it’s hard to know what’s going to come, but having James McCann, who’s swinging the bat Well, except for the moments when he lets it go, it’s hard to say that he wouldn’t be the better presence right now, not to mention the numbers with him behind the plate for both burns And
Nestor Aparicio 18:01
Alan McCallum is our guest. He’s our longtime baseball friend. My movie a buff, even though I don’t see movies except when I’m in Alan’s house, and they have to be from the 1970s and Max Weiss has to be involved from Baltimore magazine. We can belabor this, and I want to get you back on I hope that there’s more baseball to talk about this weekend. I hope to drag you off to New York and try to have a little bit of fun through this. I do hope you read my letter to David Rubenstein, because I will it’s It’s disgraceful for both of these franchises to try to Texas Chainsaw Luke Jones to covering both teams this week, where we won’t have a representative at ravens camp on Wednesday and Thursday because they’ve decided to discriminate against me and not allow me to come so or my company. So I’m pissed off about it. Should be pissed off about it. My audience should be pissed off about it. If you love me and care about my mental health, you be pissed off about it. And certainly it’s just wrong. So I will say that that being said this part of the baseball journey. And I’m writing this to Rubenstein about, like, How much money are you going to spend? Who you sign in? What’s the investment? Are you hiring Janet Marie to fix the stadium up? Who’s Katie Griggs? Is she going to come out and actually meet people like, all the above, right? All the above. And one of the things I’m writing to him is there’s been a lot of trauma here with Peter Angelo’s right? And the trauma moves further if they lose two games here, and they’re asleep by Wednesday night and they got seven hits in two games. I mean, you know, I’ve watched it the last two months that, being said, they could win 12 to two in game one, and seven, three in game two. And we’re, we’re, I mean, Luke and I are paying, paying tolls and stopping to pee on the turnpike on, you know, on the way to New York on Saturday, right? There’s a point for this look. This time last year, they were showering John Angelos in the locker room. He was telling Wes Moore, we got a deal that we don’t, you know, like all. Of that, right? So things happen quickly. Rubenstein’s been involved in all of this, and it’s a new thing. They bought Eflin, right? I mean, his first purchase was, go get me a pitcher, right? I mean, Bradish is hurt, we’ll spend money to have a game one starter. They thought game one might be accomplished, right, right. What’s that accomplished? Right? So here we are. They have the Milwaukee Brewers Cy Young Award winner because they were willing to pay him and pay for him something we never had before, which was prospects to get a guy, let alone to pay him the $20 million is going to cost to start game one, game one. I’ve talked about game one, game one, game one, ever since the last game one, because when you lose game one, bad stuff happens. So they have a game one starter. That’s a Cy Young. He was great early, good in September, not so great in the middle, decent, more than decent at the end, okay, yeah, and then the effluent thing only happened because everybody else’s arms fell off, right? So they made that happen, and they made a deal to make that happen, but that deal was about a bag of baseballs and $18 million next year picking up a salary, and is he good enough? And the old ownership never would have done that. So, right, right? So, like, even in a good year, the old ownership wouldn’t have done that, especially when they were trying to, like, you know, get get Acme brand ketchup at the end, because they were selling the place and getting rid of it and liquidating because mama needed to check, and the kids were nuts. So all of that that we’ve endured as fans, and how that relates to who’s on the hill, who’s on the bump, as Ben McDonald would say, but there’s no Ben McDonald, there’s no Jim Palmer this week. So we get different company, we get different observations. Places going to be loud, there’s going to be bunting. Aren’t going to be any Royals fans. It’s going to be all us for $65 you can get out of the game. Might be 30 bucks by the time the game starts on Tuesday, um, burns and effluent, right? Never would have seen this coming this time last year, right? Never would have seen new ownership coming last year. Never would have seen Cal rip and sit behind home plate last year, $40 million worth of pitch we’re gonna see next two days, right? And it only reason we’re seeing $40 million a bit our guys arms fell off. Rodriguez Bradish means to study on the list. Wells that that was the rotation this time last year. They would have dreamed up a four last year, it would have been radish, top Rodriguez to forget Kramer Suarez for even though he’s Venezuelan, and they do forget about the Venezuelans down there. I checked the
8Allen McCallum 22:32
press gate was in April of this year, let alone last year. All of
Nestor Aparicio 22:37
that, right? All of the above. We could talk about all of it, but this is really and Mr. Rubenstein, although I’m taking you behind the woodshed, you and the whistler for denying me a press credential based on something a dead guy thought about me quite frankly, who picked the fight because he never punched down? Disgraceful. All of it’s been disgraceful, all of it that I’ve witnessed, but I’m still watching, and I still go Orioles and all of that, but this is really about the owner ponying up money for two pitchers to try to get you into next week. Because where the hell would they be if they didn’t spend money? I mean, seriously, right? Like, so who would be Dean Kramer be starting game one, and there would be no game one, because there would have been no burns here. There would have been no Calvary. Kate Povich would have had a 70 RA and made 26 starts. That McDermott kid that wasn’t like, that’s what they would have been doing. That’s what they always did. So there is time where I’m not going to kiss his ass this week while he’s restricting my press pass, I’m going to kiss his ass here on the radio and say somebody’s paying for this.
Allen McCallum 23:45
They would have traded for somebody’s number three, maybe a surprise number two, that was 34 and a guy that who’s a contract was expiring. They would have done something like that. So there would have been somebody else in the rotation. But burns and effluent are both legit, for real guys you would expect to see starting in the first two games of a postseason playoff series. So yeah, I mean, for all the things that have happened, they’ve got literally two of the best out there for the first two games. And we’ll see where that where that puts them. It certainly it got them to 91 wins, and it gets them to a point where they can, they can look across the field of Kansas City Royals and say, we’re going to give you everything we’ve got. So you can’t argue with that. Certainly not
Nestor Aparicio 24:37
8the point for me in believing that I’ll be in New York this weekend and next week, when I’m giving away these Raven scratch Austin, the Maryland lottery, and we’re having birthday pizza and cake and ice cream and Luke those little those little brownie fudge, top things, black, bottom, brown, whatever they call those things. They’re delicious. So. Little cheesecakes over there, little raspberry cheesecakes and milkshake. And we get Luca milkshake for his birthday and a pepperoni pizza. And I’m getting a crab cake as well. Cake in New York. I’m
Allen McCallum 25:10
getting a crab cake at Pizza John’s next Friday,
Nestor Aparicio 25:12
scrap cake Maryland. Crab cakes were presented by the Maryland lottery. Good junction with Jiffy Luke. So it’s our so next Friday, if they’re still playing baseball on october 11, it’s like the case to be made for that, and the belief in that is starting pitching is good enough. Bullpen is suspect, but capable of winning a game or two, a good three guys out against the Royals in the eighth inning. In the ninth inning, there
Allen McCallum 25:43
is nothing about the pulpit. There’s nothing in this bullpen that makes you say they can’t win a game. With the bullpen, they have guys that have quality arms and can get guys out for a short time. They also have guys that can fall apart very quickly, but all of them are capable. I mean, from Soto to to Yanira, Cano, Danny, Kalam, they’ve all done it at one time or another. There’s, there’s no question about it. They just have to, right now. They need to turn it on period. But they can do it. Somebody’s going to
8Nestor Aparicio 26:19
turn on one World Series, and I don’t know necessarily think it’s at the necessarily think it’s the Dodgers or I think it’s the Indians because of their bullpen. Or, I mean, turning it off, they’re turning it back on this weekend. Wake me next Monday, after the Ravens hopefully beat the Bengals and go to three and two, two and three wouldn’t be good. Losing the Bengals wouldn’t be good. Um, but wake me next Monday, and I’ll let you know how this Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, Indians, everybody sits around ice and who’s up to oh and who’s down to oh and who’s won one, and where we are once we get into that next round. Because look, man, this next 48 hours, 72 hours, you know, it is really a roll of the dice is Buck would say, right? Like anything can happen here, but they’re not over matched. They’re not in over your heads. I’m not even particularly upset that they’re not the one seed taking the week off, because I think there’s a benefit to going to Yankee Stadium Saturday, where they’re not afraid of that. And there’s a point where our fans will get on busses and go up there a little bit, probably have a little bit of fun over the weekend, on Saturday and into Monday. I know Luke and I are strongly considering watching the the Bengals and ravens game from some sequestered location somewhere in the Bronx, or maybe I’ll take them over to Brooklyn, Brooklyn stick up better pizza in Brooklyn on a Sunday. So maybe I’ll take him over there. Um, but I’m dreaming a little bit, Alan. I mean, I’m writing basically an F u to the owner for locking me out. I’ve waited my whole life for them to play playoff games. I’ve waited 41 years for them to win the World Series on behalf of my father, so they can hate me all they want, and Greg Bader can tell the whole world I’m a bad guy and all that. But I don’t want him to lose this week. I want to be in New York this weekend. I want to see the community engage. I want to see people out. I want to see it fun. And I told Luke this, and I guess we can close, and we can even get together again later. Hopefully we will, because I’ll keep playing. I want you and Luke and Luke’s mother, I don’t say I don’t care anymore, because they don’t care about me, right? They’ve been trying to put me out of business two ownerships deep now, so I’m now caring more about the $600 million and how they’re spending that, and what Mr. Rubin said is really going to do to sustain this, that this isn’t a one off, especially if they go out to games because they get the bad stuffed up their ass, because then you have to wait another year, and there’s another 40 million. You have to put in the pitching, and it’s another year. What are we going to give gunner 300 million? And you know, they can, they can hide from me. He can hide doing his television show and send a Whistler out to yell at me and yell Shut up at me six times and treat me like a sewer rat. But I’m gonna hold him accountable the way I hold the other old man accountable, the way I’m gonna hold Michael araghetti accountable and Priscilla all of them for what they’re going to do to manage this operation and manage our city and manage this asset, I’ll hold all that accountable. But in the meantime, this is what it’s all about. It’s about making a memory. This is what I said to Luke, the Delman young thing to me, no offense. It’s almost laughable for anybody that’s had real memories of winning championships with every other fan base has been through for 41 years. Luke was born two weeks before they won the World Series. Right? Like, do you any members of 83 you weren’t even a fan in 83 right? At all. Right?
Allen McCallum 29:33
I was a fan. I was, I mean, I was 11, um, and it wasn’t as important
Nestor Aparicio 29:40
to you then as it was when you were 21 right? Oh,
Allen McCallum 29:43
8of course not. I mean, but I mean, look, I remember distinctly the Orioles lost the first game of the World Series, and I was, I remember my dad and I were going to the giant on Liberty Road. That was my giant until they closed it about a year ago, little more a year ago. So before the game, getting ice cream, and I was really scared. And I said, Dad, can the Orioles still win the World Series? And he laughed at me. Said, of course they can. And there was, I mean, there was genuine excitement, but, but yeah, I mean, I’m certainly dyed in the wool, black and orange in a way I was now, in a way that I wasn’t. Then. It’s been a long, dark road. I mean, it’s hard, it’s hard to imagine the Orioles winning the World Series. I had a dream in the 90s that the Orioles won the World Series, and I remember for like a year, I kept thinking, did they win the World Series? And I forgot about it, and I had to convince myself that it was a dream, because it felt so real, that’s the closest thing to the feeling that I’ve had in the last 40 years. But look, this is the weirdest season for baseball that I can ever imagine. There were some dominant clubs, and the Orioles were one of them, and then all of a sudden they weren’t, and they all weren’t at the same time, and then all these mediocre teams got really good, and then they weren’t. So there’s nobody in this field right now. There is not one team that you look and say that team is ticketed to win the World Series. None of them, the Orioles, have as much, because they’re all flawed. They’re all, you name a team, and I can give you a scenario for them to win the World Series. Probably the team best suited to win the World Series is the San Diego Padres, and they’re as flawed as anybody else, although they have the pieces on paper to look really good, but
Nestor Aparicio 31:39
there was momentum, I would say, right? Like, yeah, sort of had it a little bit like, where it is and you’re playing well, or you’re not playing well, and the Padres certainly playing well. I mean, hell, the Mets and the Braves are playing to try to get in Arizona’s waiting to get on a plane. Like it is a little chaotic for everyone, and just the fact that it’s going to be chilly, cloudy, you know, shadows falling later in the day. Weird game. It looks just all of it. And the the that Delman young moment, that moment that happens, that happens in the middle of a game, that can only happen in a game in October, you can water hose, all you want squirt all you want bring Joan Jett. Cal red do every all that you can get bobble heads out you can hit walk off home runs in May, you could do all of that. I mean, only thing people really remember is Delman young. I mean, literally, I told Luke, this is your loose Christian. I said, I said to Luke, the Pope. Cal Ripken and Delman Young. That’s about it. That’s about 32 years. That’s about it, really, bro Springsteen
Allen McCallum 32:48
and Billy Delman Young is the is the, my most fond playoff memory. I was there to see it. I’ve seen some games in the postseason, but that was incredible. So, I mean, and they didn’t win the World Series, so I mean that for me, that that’s what I have to hold on to. So I’m certainly aware that of the glory years for the Orioles, I was too young. I was either not alive or too young to really hold on to them in that way. Look the Detroit the Detroit Tigers, getting into the post season is the strangest thing I can remember seeing in a long time. I know the Rockies had a really incredible run back in the day when when Matt Holliday Jackson’s father was their leader. I remember that. But watching the Tigers get in postseason, I still can’t quite believe that happened. But if you look at momentum, they certainly are the team that you would say. But that said they, it feels like they ice themselves a little bit against the White Sox in the in the weekend prior to the end of the season. So we’ll see. There are a lot of again, there are a lot of clubs. Momentum has certainly been a driver in the in the last decade of Major League Baseball’s postseason, and if you look at momentum, then yeah, the padres, the Tigers, maybe the Braves or the Mets after after a bizarre doubleheader on the Monday after the season ends, I can’t see how the Diamondbacks get in, because if whoever wins Game one, you’ve got to believe they’re going to play their B team in game two and save their their best starter for game one of the postseason. So I can’t see the Diamondbacks winning it. I Stranger things have happened, I guess. But yeah, there are a lot of weird things that happened in this in this season for the field to look the way it the way it does, and and I’m hoping that will make for a really exciting postseason, with the Orioles coming out on top, it will have been a long time coming, and I think we’re all ready for it. If it does, Al McAllen
Nestor Aparicio 34:57
is here. He is always here on the. Present. You know, we got a table this network movie night till till we have evenings free. And hopefully that lingers into early November. Ravens taking on Cincinnati this week, Luke will not be in Owings Mills because he will be at Camden Yards. I will not be in Owings Mills. See Chad Steele. There’s some letters up at the Baltimore positive. I’m writing a letter to David Rubenstein, who’s also banned me from Oriole Park to Camden Yards, along with his crew, which is just really disappointing after, you know, 18 years of waiting for new ownership and waiting for this kind of baseball team in these kinds of games, Luke will be sitting in the W n s t c in the Orio Park press box. I will be here doing my thing, w n s t tech service back and available if you hear it, hear Luke. Voice, not mine, because Luke sends it. It’s all brought to you by Cole roofing. If you want to join that service, it’s 410, 821, wnst to send the word join and you are on the tech service. Obviously, everywhere we go Baltimore positive goes around the world the Maryland crab cake tour back after it next Friday with our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have these Raven scratch offs to give away, as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare. And the Maryland oyster tour is about to conclude, at least for me, having 26 oysters in 26 days, I’ll be platforming those in October, because it’s oyster month, and the oyster recovery partnership last week taught me a whole bunch of stuff. So, man, I’ve seen so many friends. I’ve eaten so many interesting oysters. Some of the videos are up at YouTube. I’ll be getting that stuff at the Baltimore positive. And I’m really hoping to circle back with some folks at the Federal House down Annapolis. My new buddy Finn out at mama’s on the hash shell. Scunny, son, who I had a oyster, was stunning son the other day, and I think we’re to do the crab cake tour out there. By the way, my kid turned 40 last week. Alan, I know
8Allen McCallum 36:43
I remember Barry following me around, asking me about Star Wars, and I think he was like 12. So it makes me feel old, it makes me feel depressed, and it makes me feel excited and proud of the man that he’s become. But it’s, it’s a sobering reality that Barry has turned 40 and I’m 52 but you know the
Nestor Aparicio 37:08
well I’ve already referenced, yeah, I’ve referenced Messina in this reference with Mark and I invited him on. He couldn’t come on. I invited Howard Scherer on hump and how he was my original ballpark reporter, along with Tom Cat when you many, many moons ago, and Mike Wargo and Eric Turner and a whole bunch of other people that I’m still good friends with who’ve gone on to lead better lives outside of sports journalism, like you. So you don’t live long enough to be the band Latino guy in both programs here after supporting them publicly for 33 years on the radio. It’s disgraceful, both of you, all of you, you know who you are. But I would also say this, my kid went down to Ocean’s calling on Friday night, and I woke up at three in the morning because I’ve been writing this Dear David Rubenstein letter, because I want him to know exactly how I feel about things. And I woke up at three in the morning. It was a video my daughter in law, of them, getting pounded by the rainstorm, by the tropical storm. Helene, yeah, yeah. So that went up and I put up. I’m like, I’ve never been more simultaneously appalled and really proud of you for being out at an offspring concert and blink one eight just getting pounded with rain after his 40th birthday. Mind you, this isn’t some dumb I’m gonna get in the car with Glenn Clark. We’re gonna drive all night to Atlanta to see Dave Matthews when you’re 17. Now, this is 40 years old, out on a beach with 100,000 people getting pounded in rain. So for my kid, big, big. Thumbs up for that, you know, I must say, so, yeah, so you know, very, very proud of him, and you know, proud of all of our operation. We made it through another year to get back to Oriole playoff games and into another season. We’re having fun around here, right? Absolutely speaking,
Allen McCallum 38:52
as a person who makes his living with live music performances, I encourage every human being on Earth to continue to go to see music live, because there is nothing quite like it. Yeah, Barry is a fine man, and I’m happy that he has made it through this way, and I’m excited that we’re here talking two years in a row about Orioles baseball going into October and having a chance to win the World Series, because I remember many a year talking to you about what the future hopes would be in May of Evan Orioles season, as opposed to October, in the future. In the future is right now. So more power to him, and let let’s see if we can get this thing done this year.
Nestor Aparicio 39:39
8He’s 40, and the last time that the Orioles had back to back playoff seasons, he was 13, and I remembered vividly broadcasting from balls that night, and I had a ticket for him right off of third base. I was going to take him to the ALCS Yankees were in. And he looks at me, he’s like that, I don’t feel good. I think I’m going to throw up. I’m like, it was. 20 minutes for the game. We’re two blocks away. I’m like getting a cab. I gave the cabbie 20 bucks. I said, Take him. Take him my mother’s house and Colgate. Take him to East Point right now. And, you know, cell phones and all that. But he missed the playoff game, and he never had a chance to go again. This is 97 not 96 so I took him to one playoff game in Philly when they played a wild card game against like Colorado in 2005 like a long time ago, back in the, you know, the Howard era and the, you know, the era, right, J roll all that, right, almost 20 years ago, and I had my Cisco that’s kind of Phillies bubble p on from the 83 World Series and but I did get to take Barry to the American League Championship Series. He and I were sitting at Reggie’s drinking beer 10 years ago. I had him come downtown. I was on whatever StubHub whatever. I said, Dude, we’re gonna buy tickets at 710 we’re gonna have a nice Reggie fries and a cheeseburger and, you know, delicious crab tots or whatever they were. And sure enough, I clicked on two tickets. We walked up to the ballpark. I think I bought us a couple of tickets for about 75 bucks, maybe 80 bucks. We were right at third base, about 10 rows behind the dugout. Bought the tickets game night. I think it was game two. I’m not mistaken, because we went to Kansas City and lost. So I did get to take my kid to take my kid to the American League Championship Series, so don’t think I’m a bad parent, alright, I don’t want you thinking I’m a bad parent. Alright,
Allen McCallum 41:27
certainly not alright.
Nestor Aparicio 41:29
I’ll take you to New York this week. We’ll have fun. I
Allen McCallum 41:33
want to point out that I’m wearing the Angry Bird. No more, no smiley faces, no
8Nestor Aparicio 41:39
dent. Dent. Leather bean. Jen, I want
Allen McCallum 41:43
them to go out and bat, some people metaphorically in the head with their baseball bats as they crush the baseball out of the ballpark. I want them to be mean. I want them to be serious. I want them to take the field and knock it out of the park.
Nestor Aparicio 41:57
Start spreading the news. You know, last time you and I got together in the Bronx to watch a playoff game,
Allen McCallum 42:04
8I’m well aware of what happened that in that game, yes, a kid reached over the fence and took a game one winning opportunity away from the Baltimore Orioles. I
Nestor Aparicio 42:18
remember vividly. Have you watched the documentary yet,
Allen McCallum 42:22
I’ve watched a lot of stuff about it. I can’t say that I was, I don’t know.
Nestor Aparicio 42:25
Watch the documentary. It’s at the front of wnst. It has a moment in it that has that moment in it. There’s a moment in my documentary. Greg Landry, a Towson transfers and Blue Rock put it together, and he saw that piece of the videos like that’s going in. And I did a television show The morning after that in New York. I did a like, like, American edition, or whatever, Nancy glass. And that part of the documentary is Tony tarasco In that moment. And I tell that story Alan all the time, because you me and Scott Garceau, who’s a real media guy, unlike you and me, because, you know, why would you and the Venezuelan guy have a press pass? You know, why would that ever happen? Um, but we are the our vantage point of that where you and I sat. I tell people about that. Now, dude, it’s been 28 years. It’s been 28 years, but you and I and Garcia had a a sight line to that, because the alternate press box was in the right field corner underneath what we would used to call the mezzanine, or the lower reserve in Memorial Stadium terrace box. Low is more lower reserve. We were if it we could have rained all day and we wouldn’t have gotten wet at Yankee Stadium. We were undercover and but we had a perfect vantage point of the foul pole, and I’ll never forget it as long as I live, that that kid’s arms were over and we saw it diagonally. We had a vantage point that the umpire didn’t have, or that no camera that I’ve ever seen, where my eyes saw it. There was no camera from that angle. And I know you were on my right shoulder. I remembered vividly. I
8Allen McCallum 44:04
must have looked like an idiot as I’m pointing and I’m saying to you, did you see that? Because it was, it was so clear, and tereska was losing his mind. And let’s just remember, I mean, the New York Yankees, the Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, the, you know, the core four, all that started with that series. And just think, just imagine for a second, the Orioles go home to O in that series, and the Yankees don’t go to the World Series. Is the is the legend of Derek Jeter the same? I mean, does he go on to be that guy? I mean, there’s certainly nothing to say. He wouldn’t but that one moment in history really might have turned a corner for some for both the Orioles and the Yankees. In a way that, as a Baltimore Orioles fan, I will wonder about that the rest of my life, because it was a very significant moment. And you look back now with with instant replay in the sport, how different that might have gone in that situation as well. It’s a it’s one of those, if you ever watch the show Quantum Leap, and I’m a nerd, so I did. And, you know, they talk about how one moment in time can change the course of history, and you just really feel like that was a linchpin moment that that we witnessed. I
Nestor Aparicio 45:33
feel that way about John Harbaugh’s Hall of Fame candidacy, that Jacoby Jones didn’t have that one moment there were there would be none. And Joe still playing, by the way, Joe still throwing the ball. Joe’s still throwing touchdowns, and I’ve lived long enough to see him in a colts helmet. It’s just some really, really strange stuff going on in the world today. And I hope that I’m back at Yankee Stadium and thinking about Tony tarasco and and Jeffrey mayor. I’ll go to the game with Jeffrey. I’m gonna invite Jeffrey Merrill on Saturday night, if I can find him, to sit with him, and I’m gonna invite you up too. We gotta win a couple games here this week. All right, Royals, just
Allen McCallum 46:10
make sure you’re not behind an outfield wall in fair territory. Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 46:14
8I’m busy as hell this week, and I am just thrilled that I spent some time with you, and Messina is ducking me, and I wanted to point this out, and I want to say this before I go. And I hope you do have a minute, because I want to pay tribute to someone’s very important to me. Because I wanted to get this on the radio this week, because I this, I talked about my kid in the rain, and I was thinking I had another thought. Reason I talked about my son in the rain is because Howard Sher was there in the rain. Howard Sher, if you’ve listened to me or know me, Howard and I became friends when I was the skip Jack’s beat writer in 1980 480-586-8788, you couldn’t see the games great upstairs. And I was 1516, years old, I wanted to be with the fans, even though Jack Gibbons, who I saw on Saturday, and all my bosses we got to go, said, You need to be you have to be objective. You can’t be a fan, which is amazing when the Orioles took my press pass, the things they said to me about objectivity, which was disgraceful. Uh, still 20 years later, still disgraceful. Now it’s been 18 years, but So Howard chair was invited on today to talk some baseball, some football or whatever. But we lost a really, really iconic man and a really a wonderful man, a teacher from Howard County, guy named Jeff amder, who’s been a lifelong friend of mine. And Alan, I don’t know you’re old enough that you probably went to a skipjack game once, just because you got dragged right? He was the guy who sat in Section 12 lower, 1012, lower, and he had a fireman’s hat, and he was built a little bit like Danny DeVito and sort of short squat, and he was a he was a school teacher, and he would run up and down. And I’m only telling this story people that don’t know, because I’m figuring anybody’s old enough fart that knows me knows he did this. Skippers on a war pack, go, go. Skippers on a war pack, go, go. So there’s a video up now that I don’t know it was before Jamie Costello, but it felt like something Jamie Costello would do to profile Jeff amdor in 1985 doing this thing, running around. And I was fresh to the beat. I was still the news American when that video was made. Wow. And Howard is definitely in that video. Somebody said they saw me up there. I’ll be really frank with you, I don’t know that I sat there in 85 I don’t know that I knew Howard until 86 or 87 when I got to the evening sun, because I just don’t know. I don’t I don’t think I’m in the video. I know Howard’s in it because I saw it. Somebody said they saw me, but I it might have been a figment of their imagination, quite frankly. But Jeff Amber was a hardcore Oriole Raven, Holtz Skipjacks, clippers, blades fan, and he was just the best kind of fan. And, you know, real fan Dan and the big wheel and the late great bill Hagee, my friend, and whatever cheers I led, or whatever the chain gang ever led, or Ozzy, who I featured a couple weeks ago. They had him, Ozzy Hazel, who’s a super fan, wonderful guy. Last games for 50 years, these great, great, great bands of Baltimore. Sports iconic John Steadman used to do this thing called the character bowl, and it had nothing to do with your character. Had you to do with you being a character. And my eighth grade English teacher, who recently reunited with me, actually this morning, literally this morning, 4am after the Ravens game, put a post up about bud Paul Leno’s beer garden in Highland town. That’s where they hosted the character bowl, and it was for the biggest characters the I didn’t know any of these guys, but I always heard about jizz, the great DIS and there, there were just all of these characters who were. Part of my radio show, Joe fan and Broadway Joe and all of these whack pack Howard Stern characters that I had, you were one of them. And we had, you know, Bob, Bob from Parkville, whose real name was not Bob, it was rolling, and we helped him find housing later in his life as a single gentleman. Ray Bachman was a part of that who’s fighting cancer right now. And I want everybody to give some love to Ray, but just old school and with people like you and people like Howard chair and my son’s now 40, but we lost Jeff Amber over the weekend, and I hope the Orioles got won a World Series in his honor, because I know how much he appreciated 83 and he was a good man. And that video that I shared is important to me, as is and Alan, maybe this will play right into the oyster tour. The oyster tour on day four led me down to Hamden, and my wife’s like, dude, how are you gonna eat 26 oysters in 26 days? And I’m like, Well, I’m not eating them all raw. I’m gonna eat them different ways, and they’re gonna be delicious. And I said to her, and I always tell her this, and I don’t know if she buys off on all, but I think she does this far into our relationship, it’s I’m gonna meet new people, and something cool is going to happen, and you’re going to get to pet a dog, and I’m going to see a pretty girl, and I’m going to meet a new fan, or meet an old fan, or I’m going to have a take a selfie with somebody that’s going to mean something to them, or somebody’s going to come up and say, Hey, Nestor, remember the time? Well, we got out to Hamden at 11 o’clock in the morning three Sundays ago, and we were having the most delicious oyster place called a black female owned business next to the royal farms headquarters in Hampton, right on the avenue, on the urban oyster. I had a had a heads Benedict oyster fritter. Not the best thing I had this month, but the second best thing I had this month really, really good. And on the way in, they were having a sale at in the middle of the avenue Sunday morning. People just got stuff out there. And a guy has a whole bunch of sports stuff, and it’s very jerseys, jackets, stuff, not the cards, but out there was this amazing Baltimore skip Jack’s clock, red, white and blue caps, era functioning clock, two double A batteries. I don’t know how long keep time with two double A batteries. My wife, my wife’s MacGyver, she’ll figure out a rig it and have it the electric, you know, she will, or create some eternal battery that works on solar. I don’t know, but I have a 10 o’clock of the Baltimore Skipjacks, and there’s some reason that I got that the same month that we lost Jeff Amber, I’m going to tell you. And there’s some reason that you’re on right now. Some reason we’re talking about going to the it’s this weekend, and like, was it Anakin, or who was the slayer of dragons in the Star Wars. Thing to to they are the evil empire, right?
Allen McCallum 52:47
They most certainly are. Let’s say Skywalker. Let’s go with Skywalker.
Nestor Aparicio 52:53
I got a guy named Luke I’m going with. Think about it. Just think about it. That’s all I’m saying. He’s Alan McCallum. I love you, Alan. I don’t care who knows it. Right back at you, man. All right, I want to be your favorite non tendered Venezuelan, uh, reporter. All right, so let me know when we can do a Venezuelan wing out in the Owings Mills, a library for Venezuelan players. Maybe we could do that. It’s just little section, just me me honoring Luis Suarez and Melvin Mora, we can bring Melvin out, we think,
Allen McCallum 53:23
or one of his, his many children to represent him
8Nestor Aparicio 53:27
well, when Suarez comes out of the bullpen on Thursday and saves our asses innings, you know you watch, I think he’s
Allen McCallum 53:37
slated to pit Start Game one of the of the second series. So unless
Nestor Aparicio 53:42
he saves your ass on Thursday, right? So let’s figure that out. All right, I sing the Venezuela national anthem, but I don’t know it. He is Alan. I am Nestor Aparicio. Letter to David Rubenstein. None of that’s tongue in cheek, I assure you, but some of this has been and I do hope we get together next I have to be talking baseball with you a little longer, right? I mean, I hope I’ll drop the mic on this to say, I said to Luke, I hope we have some moments. Just hope we have some moments. You know, they don’t, they don’t. It doesn’t need to be a parade, but it needs to be better than Delmon Young. That’s all we need. We need to upgrade from that. That’s all. It
Allen McCallum 54:17
8has never been harder in this, in the history of baseball, to win the World Series, because there are so many hoops you have to have to get through. So nothing is assured. But hey, let’s give it a ride and see where we go. Something
Nestor Aparicio 54:28
magic happens. I even talked about Kiko Garcia. I’ve shown off my 83 World Series pictures. I want to be the noise. I’m ready to go. We are Baltimore positive. He’s Alan McCallum. Stay with us. We got a lot of we have baseball ahead. I hope it’s a lot. Stay with us.
