Thom Loverro of Washington Times tells Nestor about the cleansing of burgundy and gold football soul in Landover on Sunday for all D.C. football fans who have suffered. Of course, it begged the question of what the Orioles would look like the day after the Angelos family is gone in Baltimore.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
camden yards, tom, baseball, team, washington, game, dan snyder, baltimore, john, old school, good, orioles, josh harris, years, family, postseason, happen, money, nationals, week
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Thom Loverro
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
What about W and S T Castle Baltimore and Baltimore positive we’re positively into the football season here the baseball playoff season, the biggest series in the history of Camden Yards regular season upcoming we’re gonna be down at the NES this week. You can find it at the top of the convention center, or as I say, right above the cupcake on the logo right at the convention center overlooking Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And I’m wearing my old school for those of you out on the Zoomer today. I’ve got my 69 white socks throwback my Aparicio throwback on and it worked for this guy, because whenever he puts his stuff out on Facebook, and I’m a religious reader in Devo, Tae to all things Tom Libero of The Washington Times, but you always have some cigars and curveballs and old school and you got Spanky. Or that you know, the alfalfa you put all sorts of funny little old school things on so I figured like this once in a lifetime. Aparicio, Jersey was perfect for me to wear for you. Because it’s baseball season here, Tom and you love Baltimore?
Thom Loverro 01:03
Yes, it really is baseball season there. It actually is, as opposed to Washington, where they’re an afterthought these days.
Nestor Aparicio 01:12
Well, look, your background is Baltimore and you’ve sort of the last couple three decades been like Washington with the times or whatever. Where do you sit on this thing, because you’ve seen it all your, your eyes are even a little older than mine. And I’ve written books on all of this and the changes and where we are, but it is kind of wild Peters alive. Jimmy Buffett’s dead, right? Let you know, let’s start with that.
Thom Loverro 01:35
You know, John’s running the team, there’s no leash, the team’s the best team in the American League, if not the best team in baseball, and they can prove that next next month that your team is sort of fealty to the Angelo’s family can’t pay their guys, Strasburg, Angelou shows them 150 million or whatever the math is on that at this point. And you know it, the whole structure of all of this has changed so dramatically since your days at the Baltimore Sun. Yes. It really is amazing how these two franchises are joined at the hip now. I mean, the learner family who owned the Nationals, announced about a year and a half ago that they were putting the team on the market for consideration for sale. Well, that’s that’s a futile gesture, as long as the new owner doesn’t have control of their television rights, and that’s still been, you know, a major source of dispute between the Orioles and the National. So I know, they reached an agreement recently, finally on their initial dispute for the money between 2012 and 2017. But they haven’t agreed on the amount yet. That’s still being negotiated. And then they have to negotiate all over again, the five years after that 2017 to 22. So the nationals are in limbo, because no one’s gonna bite a team, as long as their TV rights are, are being held hostage, so to speak, right. Now, I think all this goes away. When Peter Angelos moves on to the pearly gates. He’s been reportedly incapacitated for years. But he’s still you know, hanging in there. And for My sources tell me that when he passes on, it’s in his will, that the team will be sold, that it won’t stay within the family. And there are biters already lining up, you know, anticipating that moment when it does happen. And baseball is not going to let anyone own the Orioles unless the massive deal just disappears and everyone is in charge and are on TV rights. So it’s a very complicated baseball situation. But at least in Baltimore, you get to enjoy the baseball and Washington that’s not the case right now.
Nestor Aparicio 04:11
Tom you know you and I’ve been down this river I mean I’ve written tombs and books and researching your work The Washington Post’s work the sun when they used to do that kind of work. Now the band are trying to pick up the pieces and I I saw Pam wood a couple of weeks ago down and it’s summertime with Westmore. It’s sort of like what’s going on with Elise what I mean Steve took his money he hides me he doesn’t he doesn’t meet with the media doesn’t take questions. There’s no big vision from Sashi brown about what they’re going to do with their $600 million. Meanwhile, John’s like chasing the federal government with with with lobbyists holding up Wes Moore wanting $300 million blowing up the parking lot that they can’t build on because it has a tunnel underneath of it. And more than that sort of even going after Steve to some degree to say well if I get through under million more, they’ll have to give you 300 million more to like it. It’s sticky. But from the fans perspective, Adel, it’s not a story that people follow. But it’s like, man, it’s a lot of money. And it’s an incredible thing. And you’ve been down to Atlanta, you’ve been to these places where they, San Diego, these places where they really built the stadium after Camden Yards, where they thought of the whole community were Camden Yards was linked to the Inner Harbor in the Inner Harbor died. And I know I lost the real estate in between there, right? Like, I lost my ass, right? Because I’m invested there, because there is no mixed use, as they would say, I know John comes along with this idea, but it’s just ain’t really an idea. Because there’s no blueprint. Nobody knows who’s paying for it. He, like it’s sloppy. And at this point, the team brings such light to the games themselves. Tom, there’s not a lease. I mean, it’s, I don’t say unprecedented. But it’s, it’s not good. I mean, it’s not good. It’s not good for Adley rutschman, or for the future Gunnar Henderson that he’s popping off about not having money. fans aren’t really going into the game. They’ll be there for Adam Jones this week. But like, you know, buying five and $10 tickets is nice. But that’s not the business model. The Yankees have, you know,
Thom Loverro 06:19
John Angelos couldn’t develop a Lego neighborhood. And the people who are serious about this, this in the city know that that was just a ridiculous pipe dream, that he was going to develop some kind of mini city around the around Camden Yards, there’s no land, where there’s no parks, they’ll sign a lease. I mean, you know, the Angelo’s way of doing things, you don’t make the deal until you have to make the deal. That’s what they do. So you’re
Nestor Aparicio 06:50
saying December 31, at three in the afternoon, we’ll find out that there’s been a one year extension because that’s really what this it’s gonna happen, right? Like,
Thom Loverro 06:59
that’s probably what’s they’re not going anywhere. Okay, they end up moving. Okay, they’re not gonna put baseball. It’s not gonna let, I mean, he wasn’t, you know, Rob Manfred may may wind up letting the athletics owner move. But there’s a big difference between that, and the tenants at Camden Yards. That’s never gonna happen. But a chunk could hoodwink anything out of this, it really would add value when Daddy passes to whatever he would get in the other world, right? So stealing some money from the people and putting it in at 600 million, that already adds that value to the next group that comes along and buys it. And I mean, that’s what all this was about when his dad bought the team, right? Like the team doubled in price because it had $50 million in cash sitting around because there’s a brand new stadium, they had an all star game, they were selling three and a half. I mean, like, Peter bought it at its peak crushed it, but it’s just siphon money off of this television deal. And nobody knows where the money is, Tom. I mean, everybody I talked to appear says that they’re not just crying poor, nobody can find the money, which is why they’re selling off all this property and stuff. Oh, yeah. And you know what’s funny? And I was really disappointed in the New York Times with their profile of John Angelo’s a couple of weeks ago. I had her on I had Tyler on. Yeah, I mean, that was embarrassing. I mean, for one thing, you know, John Angelos is quoted in there saying, I wish I could show you the books to show you, you know, to show you our losses, and you don’t call him on that, since he promised a couple months ago, to open the books to the media. You don’t you don’t include that in your questions in your story. The fact that he promised open those books and then never did that, you know, I mean, it gave him credibility that he doesn’t have frilly. Again, he sees me, he’s, he’s, he’s the Fredo of the family. They’re all but both brothers are afraid of us, for that matter. Tom Libero is here. He calls it the way he sees it right down the middle at the Washington Times has a podcast. He’s a good man and a longtime journalist with the capital J, and reporter with the capital R and all that good stuff. So that you know, for me, the thing that rocked me this week, not just you know, I wrote this letter to Shadi and horrible and as a reporter, and as a business person, as a civic leader, like all the things that I’ve done here for 30 years doing this, getting thrown out. And thinking about both of these ownership groups here in the parking lot and the playoff games and clearing my calendar for maybe flying off the World Series games in a couple of weeks and all this stuff that’s going on. You had a real awakening epiphany. Like whatever happens the day after Peter dies and the next person comes in, and maybe I get a press pass back or maybe I feel better about going or maybe I buy a 13 game book with my wife or maybe I don’t know, you know, like, I don’t know what you’re I’m 54 I’ll be 55 next month. I feel like I got some life left in me. And I feel like I’m about to outlive this the way Steve Miles told me it was 17 years ago that at some point, there’s gonna be somebody else that owns it. Somebody else didn’t runs it. I’m gonna go back. I’m gonna put my orange Aparicio. 79 It looks like the sun stays or Glen golf, but it says Aparicio on it. And I get to wear in Camden Yards, and like, feel good about having survived it. And you went to the Washington commander’s game on Sunday, Tom, I’m lit up, because that’s why I called you. I’m like, tell me how it feels my heart. My heart needs to know how it feels. Tell me please. It wouldn’t be like George Michael and Elvis coming back to life and performing for me. Well, it really was like, and I don’t want to diminish the real life suffering that print that. That, you know, people who have been held hostage feel, you know, but it really was like you had a mass group of people that had suddenly been freed from a hostage situation. It was like a euphoric atmosphere of people who got me it wasn’t just the change of ownership. It was the idea that they thought there was no chance of this ever happening. I Dan Schneider is a relatively young man, he’s in his he sees his own car, okay. And there was no indication up until the past year so that he was ever going to go anywhere. And that, you know, he’s got, he’s got a son, who’s a football player and Appalachian State, who, you know, you would think might wind up being in the business and might wind up owning it. And nobody knows what the sun would be like, from all counts. He’s a pretty decent kid. But again, this seemed like a forever nightmare situation. And for it to have turned, I mean, to force out an NFL owner is literally like a supernova. It happens. I mean, it happens very rarely. I mean, Jerry, Jerry Richardson was forced out after the investigation into his charges of, you know, sexual harassment, and charges that he used racial slurs, and things like but he was 79 years old. Okay. Dan Snyder, who, who has made a history of litigating, you know, folded up his TED, he got paid a lot of money to fold up his TED. But Dan Snyder’s personality was wrapped up in being the owner of the Washington commander’s. And Sunday was like, like, all of a sudden, they opened up the gates, and everybody felt free. It was a good thing. They won the game. I think that was a nice bow on the package, in the scheme of things that wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. But it would have been a little bit of disappointment. If they hadn’t won the game, taking advantage of a packed house and packed house these days. It’s not the old FedEx field, you know, FedEx field, one point had 90,000 capacity. Well, they’ve closed down seats, they’ve torn seats out. Now it’s more like 64,000. Okay, which is still, which is semi in today’s NFL and a longer than ours K was right, by by 1000. Yeah. So they filled it up, you know, they the league set them up with a patsy opponent and the Cardinals that are looking to lose without fans that are going to travel. So it was an ideal situation. And it was a great day. It was a great day for the city. Everything went right. You know, the fans were so excited to see Josh Harris, the new owner on the field. They were excited to see Magic Johnson there. So it was a great day. And for one, you know, for a while, all Josh Harris has to accomplish is not being Dan Snyder. And that and that puts him ahead of the game. Tom was everyone was here. He is an old school are a one time colleague at the Baltimore Sun for 37 years ago. He’s been at the Washington Times for a long time, chronically Washington sports, but just sports in general and ownership and the kinds of issues and the kinds of depth that I like when I when I read a columnist, which is why I became columnists sort of stealing from you guys and all of your thoughts about all of this but you know, the poignancy of it I guess is what I was looking to, to say like I have friends that were old school Joe Gibbs, Reagan’s fun bunch hogs all of that stuff that went down there were a part of all of that were the head dress off stuff. They don’t want to internet 35 years later, but I the notion for anybody there that there’s promise. I mean, what is that franchise? is now after George Preston Marshall, after, you know a name, a nickname that was is a racial slur for most of its existence. But with this rich history of football and at one point, the only game in town even when the bullets and caps were there, it was still the only game in town. Now you’ve had capitals parade, right, and Hall of Fame players, you’ve had nationals parade and players that matter. And I guess the wizards are still the wizards, but what can they be? What What can the commanders be? And in your mind, like, they’re gonna change the name, right? I mean, they’re not going to keep this thing. Now they’re not going to keep commander. So I’m not gonna go back to the Redskins. That’s an absolute. There’s a segment of the population that wants them to do that. That’s not happening that’s dead and buried. I’ll be honest with you, I really believe that if Jack Kent Cooke rose from the grave, and he found out that the team wasn’t named the Redskins anymore, he’d be elated, because that meant that the bad deal, the wounds had been, had been open, and you were moving on. So they’re moving on, but they’re not going to keep commanders. They’re going to try to distance themselves from everything related to the Dan Snyder era. It’s just going to take some time to do that. I believe baseball on steroids in the Hall of Fame, just wash it away. Yeah, I don’t think Ron Rivera is a very good coach. I don’t think he’s going to be there after this year. I think the front office will be a turnover. I think the business side will be turnover. Major turnover, Josh Harris, old partner to Pittsburgh Steelers. So he’s not unfamiliar with the NFL. He has contacts in the league, I’m sure he has an idea of who he would want to coach this team, who he would want to be the general manager of this team. He took the team over. It’s such a late date this summer, though, that he really could make those kinds of changes. But yeah, the names not gonna stay. And eventually they’re gonna wipe everything related to Dan Snyder as much as they can off the books. So what do you make of this? This baseball team here on the field? Tom, I mean, you know, like, you fall in nationals a little bit more, you saw these guys come up from Houston, you saw how bad it was, and how good it can be. This is really you’ve watched a lot of baseball man, this is this has been something. It’s, it’s, it caught me by surprise to how good they really are. I mean, they’re the best team in the league. And arguably, like you said, maybe the best team in all baseball them in the breaks. You know. And what’s interesting is I for the month of April, I was in Spain for the whole month of April. My wife has family there. And we went over there. We had a great time. But when I got back, my editor said to me, what about covering the postseason in Baltimore? And that hadn’t occurred to me. Because when the Orioles were in the postseason in the heat, like in 2014 2013, those years, the nationals were in postseason the same exact years. So I never came up to Baltimore, because I was covering nationals postseason. So I never got to experience any of that last run would fuck show Walter. That was sitting on a bus coming back from New York from losing to the Yankees watching that game where they were beaten the Cardinals and everything was perfect. Like, I remember watching that on, you know, literally on the phone on the on the bus, and I’m like, oh, man, they’re never going to I mean, the nationals were really snake bitten as a as a postseason team. That was very, very good. Yes, they weren’t. Yes, they were, they finally thankfully, overcame that for them. But this has got to be a new experience for me, and I’m looking forward to it. I mean, you know, and I know how great Camden Yards can be when it’s filled up and rockin. And I would think for postseason baseball. It would be exactly that. So I’m looking forward to it. And I think this team can be out. I know in a lot of sports. The teams that have been to the playoffs before I think have a leg up on a new team like the Orioles but they might have so much talent that they may not know they don’t belong yet. Well, Tom, I always appreciate visiting with you. Where are you podcasting? What are you doing? We gotta get you a little better. I know you’ve been you’ve been a little under the weather here. I appreciate you making hours here. What are you working on right now? Any books anything like that? No, no, I’m not doing it right. Books is hard. That’s your you know that. That’s hard work. That’s heavy lifting. Yeah, so excuse me. I told my wife when I do a book it’s very Jack Torrance. It’s very method acting it’s very all in you know it’s very nothing I don’t watch anything hear anything. Yeah, it’s it for being an extrovert. It’s tough being an author. So it’s it’s too hard work for me at At this stage, I, my own radio partner, Kevin shade has a podcast every day, called the Kevin sheen show. And I co host with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I’m also writing twice a week for The Washington Times as well. And that’s pretty much what I’m doing. Well, I’ll tell you what, for you and me it’s going back a long way. Did you leave the sun 1992 January of 92. So we were colleagues all six years I was there then I guess. So that’s, we were and we left at the same time. I left January 15 1992. I picked up my my buyout check. I literally picked it up. I don’t know if I put it in the bank. Maybe I put it in the bank and I got in the car and I drove to Minneapolis for the Super Bowl. Stedman got me tickets for that Super Bowl, obviously was the Washington, the Thurman Thomas Super Bowl at the Metrodome. And I drove out there with my best friend of my roommate, John RAF elitist. We saw Prince we saw Guns and Roses. We saw Gretzky play. We saw Jordan play Larry Nance at the stadium. I mean, like, it was the greatest week of my life, but that was my buy out week. And then I started doing radio Kenny Albert. Amen, man 32 I’ll be 32 years on December 13. So it’s it’s been a long strange trip. Tom Libero hasn’t it? Yeah, it has. But I admire what you’ve done with that Nestor. You were I mean, you started a sports talk radio show. And that took so so much radio pro radio station. And that took so much guts and I admire what you’ve done over the years. Well, what it looks really stupid if it crashed and burned like everybody predicted back in 98. But it’s my 25th anniversary Tom they got me a cupcake and fireworks and everything here so Hey, man, crabcakes for you and you’re feeling better. And it sounds like I mean there’s the magic number six down here. You and I will be in the same room together again at some point in October doing the baseball thing so please come on up. Have a beverage like the old days my brother All right. Okay boss, Tom of Arrow. I love to read him you’d love to read him to find them out of the Washington Times old school one of my oh geez out there doing the podcast thing and talking about sports in the intelligent way, right like knowing what’s going on. So I appreciate everybody out there. Who was reached to me this week. In regard to our column this stuff. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake toward families on Friday the 15th going to be there with the compensate folks. Dr. Anthony Jenkins as well as basketball coach Larry Stewart, all are brought to you by the Maryland lottery our friends at window nation, 866 90 nation, and of course the newest sponsor Jiffy Lube for our Maryland crabcake to our 25th anniversary brought to you by curio, I’m gonna be telling you more about that next week as well. And we’re Coco’s next Thursday, eating crab cakes with Marcela and having a good time in laurelville. I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking. Baltimore positive
