Crab Cake Row: Our pal Robbie Davis Jr. from Robbie’s First Base talks memorabilia & charity events

There is no way we were broadcasting from Pappas in Cockeysville without inviting our Timonium pals from Robbie’s First Base by for a sports chat. Our pal Robbie Davis Jr. joins our CTO Mike Rosenfeld to discuss the fervor for Baltimore sports and memorabilia and ways your charity could benefit from a partnership for auctions.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

super bowl, robbie, john, years, people, memorabilia, auction, pappas, kids, bat, autograph, charity, burns, called, steadman, hour, money, game, sell, ticket

SPEAKERS

Nestor J. Aparicio, Robbie Davis, Mike Rosenfeld

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:00

Welcome back to Pappas in Cockeysville. We’re doing a crab cake row cup of Super Bowl. Mike Rosenfeld’s ride shotgun from web connection. He’s our chief digital officer. The I apologize jump brothers in the car from T Rowe. I apologize. I’ve had guests lined up here. I’ve got Leila Skiff coming by next hour Andrews laughing gas as well and the UMC as food pantry. We stuck to sports last hour, Mike Rosenfeld. I’m going to stick to sports here momentarily. Robbie Jr’s here from Robbie’s first base and postal USA. I stopped by and gave them some love last week just said hello, how you doing? And then they invited themselves on to the program. And then rob senior said he was going to come and didn’t come. He told me all along, you would be the guy here. So why is he talking me your old man? Well, number

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Robbie Davis  00:47

one, it’s hard to get Robbie senior out of 21093. And we’re in a different zip codes. It’s always tough to get them and you know, I’m a very available and I know

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:54

you are I know you were Why should you get for that Angelo’s bad. While we’re on this thing here.

Robbie Davis  00:59

I want to say we got 750.

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:03

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For me, I have you know, you get that from me. Tell him what you had because you had we had one of a kind item,

Robbie Davis  01:08

we had a Peter Angelos autograph bat that was inscribed the boss so he’s not only was the bat signed by Angelo’s, but he inscribed the boss on it. And it was a Louisville Slugger, game model bat. You know, like

Nestor J. Aparicio  01:21

a player we must assign did 9095 or something. But I tell you what, you

Robbie Davis  01:25

know, people walk past that back, they made jokes about you know, Peter angelos, just figure on those angels that you can’t get an autographed bat of an owner of a major league baseball team. That bat was one of the most rare bats that we’ve ever had in our store. And I’m talking we’ve had Mickey Mantle bats and Ted Williams bats and all these other guys, bats that Peter Angelos bat, I’ve had one in the 35 years we’ve been in business. So you can people people can say what they want about Peter angelos, but that bat was a hell of a collectible.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  01:50

I’m a man who’s in demand Rami, you know, create supply, let me tell you how business works. You have supply and demand and you know, you, you didn’t have supply and demand and then I sell it for 1,000,000,008 Dude, like the amazing part of this. I think the other day, I wrote Peter principles, and Jen got sick. And I stopped writing it when he got massive, right? Because that was the real home run, right? The Home Run was I’m going to get 75% of this television money and it’s what makes the thing worth 1,000,000,008 At this point, right? I stopped writing it in in 14 because she got sick they had already been to the playoffs and 12 not 13 And I thought for sure when she was five she had a transplant I thought they’re gonna win the World Series. I thought the book I thought the Peter principles was going to end with after all of this awful he wins a world he’s not gonna win a World Series you know, they’re not going to win you know? Sure. So for me it’s kind of sad ending for them and for the fans for all we’ve been through 30 years that all this often this you know what it’s going to amount to to rich kids. Wow. Really that’s that’s going to be the object all the money all the awfulness to rich kids. And actually,

Robbie Davis  02:59

I have to totally disagree. You know, even though we’ve had the lack of winning, you know, we’ve got one of the best ballparks in the country. You know, we’re in the right division. You know, like all that talk that they were saying about the Orioles maybe moving to Nashville moving somewhere who would possibly move this franchise we’re in the best part of the country you can possibly be in. We’re in the best division you can possibly be in. We’ve got the richest history. What do you got move the Nashville Ford. They don’t have nothing. We’ve got Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Brooks, Rob Cleveland.

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:24

They had Jim Brown and like all that

Mike Rosenfeld  03:27

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are the Colts Johnny Unitas we’ve got this right to saying I disagree with we’ve got

Robbie Davis  03:33

this right now. You know what I’m saying? And there’s no reason for them. We’ve got something that other people don’t have other cities can’t replicate. We’ve got history. And, look, this year, this opening day is going to be the biggest opening day the Orioles have had since the first opening day Camden Yards. It’s gonna be the biggest opening day since 92. There hasn’t been there hasn’t been this much excitement about the team I agree with since 92. There’s no doubt. And it’s and that’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  03:58

because it’s under new ownership. Sure. Part of it could never be like that with Peter.

04:02

Well, no, because it was excitement last year to you know,

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Nestor J. Aparicio  04:06

not for the community. Not for real buy it? Well. I think that not for the kind of growth. They need real money.

Robbie Davis  04:11

I agree with that. But you know, for for the everyday person that just thinks that okay, Angeles is gone. Everything’s going to change. Yes. The new ownership coming in. Yeah, it’s going to be it’s going to be a brighter day. But the last two years, you’ve seen a different side. You’ve seen ever since Elias has taken over and run this club. You’ve seen

Nestor J. Aparicio  04:28

those weren’t selling the team corporate burns wouldn’t be in an Oreo uniform.

Robbie Davis  04:31

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I would agree with that. I totally agree with this. John wasn’t about $17 million more 100% of grants, not a decision you ever would have no doubt about it. I 100% agree with that. So we’re already bearing the fruit of the freedom. Yep. Yeah. Yep. And, you know, for as miserable as that ravens loss was, you know, to be able to bounce back the next week and get the news about the team being bought. And then following up with burns being signed. I mean, you know, it can’t get any better. I’m

Mike Rosenfeld  04:57

gonna tell you my my son One of my sons lives in Detroit. And when we are communicating, we just randomly do Corbin. You know, it’s just one word, you know, all’s good. You know, it’s just what it’s, you know. And I’ll also tell you because he and I, we talked in the previous segment about my kids not liking baseball for a while, but my youngest, was home a little bit longer. And through this process, we just wanted to grasp onto something. Sure. So we caught a bright spots, when when we were losing 100 games. There’s a bright spot there, there’s a bright spot, there’s a bright spot, and I remembered what a more positive it is. But last year, we didn’t we just had brightspot left arm because it was here. And it was time and it was fruit, you know? Yeah. Worth the weight. So So I mean, I hear you and I’m with you. And I think for sure, this is going to be the biggest opening day and and

Robbie Davis  05:51

now we have guys that, you know, we don’t just have, you know, Adam Jones or Chris Davis or you know, somebody that only local people get excited about. We’ve got national names. Gunnar Henderson, as a star ally Russia as a star Jackson holiday is going to is going to be a star, Grayson Rodriguez, we think is going to be a star Corbin burns as a star. We’ve got eyes we’ve got guys that people know we got household names on our team. And we got guys in the minor leagues that are ready to step up and be the same thing. We’ve got guys knocking on the door. We got more guys that can play the positions on the field. You don’t I’m saying there’s only nine positions on the field. We got guys ready to play in all those spots plus some. So we’re in a great position because look, we’ve got the right owners now we think because they got the money to spend. And then we’ve got currency and prospects because we can go we can afford to get rid of a deal Hall and get rid of a Ortiz who both those guys are gonna be in the big leagues this year. But they’re expendable. We can get rid of those guys who get a Corbin Burns who look I think the Oreos are probably resigned. Corbin burns, but they might not. But it’s worth it. And look, I like to have I like having a guy that says you know what? I’m gonna pitch my behind

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:00

the wall back and the money that they could sign him in the old days. You’d be like, yeah, he wouldn’t want to be he would want to be here wouldn’t want to be here.

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Robbie Davis  07:06

We want to be here for a number of reasons. Yeah, you know, like, the wall is major. I said for 10 years the best free agent signing the Orioles could ever do is move the wall back. That’d be the best free agent sign they could ever do to go get some pitching is move that wall back and they did it and it’s helped. It’s gonna help again, it’s gonna help again, it’s going to it’s going to continue to help.

Nestor J. Aparicio  07:24

Robbie Jr. is here for Robbie’s first base. We were talking charity and latest gifts gonna be here in Andrews laughing yes gonna be crying the four o’clock hour. Mike Rosenfeld’s riding shotgun. We get an hour left before five o’clock. Drop Off canned goods on behalf of the Maryland food bank right here at Pappas will give you a cup of Super Bowl. It is our 3839 39 our 39 right now. Our 40 Wow. This is fun. I think we have a charity and we’ll get the football and the Baltimore sports and all that. Your Business and Your dad’s but I don’t even know the answer to this. Was your dad start collecting memorabilia and decide because he was a car dealer? You know I think Dennis closers Robbie senior dealt cars and knew Eddie Murray and Fred Lynn was commercial over this. So Chrysler is on the west side of town right.

Robbie Davis  08:14

So here’s the deal. My dad he owned a dealership called All Star Chevrolet right. Back in the mid 80s. The pitchman for the dealership were Brooks Robinson, Fred land and Eddie Murray. So we always had those guys around and access to those guys for memorabilia, autographs, just close access to the players. We opened up this business as a postal business and 1989 antimonium. All we had those guys there to do when he got out of the car business and open up his business was just marketing, you know, just getting to getting the business off the ground and having them in there signing some autographs, things like that. But at the time, baseball cards were popular, and memorabilia became popular, and we already had access to the players. So it just became a natural business that we stepped right into. He

Nestor J. Aparicio  08:57

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wasn’t a collector, you as a kid.

Robbie Davis  08:59

I was a kid I was I was a collector. So naturally, you know I was son so I collected stuff. He bought stuff for me. I knew the players that my whole life as a little kid beautiful father, so so that was like our had known

Nestor J. Aparicio  09:11

him since he’s a kid. I still think of you as being 17 And you’re like, 50

09:14

I’m getting there. You’re older. You are How old are you? 45. See,

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Nestor J. Aparicio  09:18

I mean, I’m getting there to Luke’s 4041 Berries. 39. And like I just started berries. 39 man, right. So you know Steve Trevino. Right? You don’t see? Yeah, CCA. He came over the show that day. And I think he was being a grown up, but he’s like, like, 37 Yeah, I mean, like, he’s younger than my son, but I think grown up and I think son young, you will always be young because it’s like, Danny growl my special Olympian here. I’ve known him for 25 years. 37 years old. Wow. And I think of him as a little boy and he’s got specialty, but he’s He’s a big man. You know what I mean? Yeah. And like you, you and your dad have done this thing. Television ball boys. The goal Holden thing like that. And then let’s talk about your philanthropy. Because they’ve been using this stuff for philanthropy at, you know, big Week events. It’s 25 years forever. Never

Robbie Davis  10:10

ever, right? Yep. So right now we’re on a TV show called Kane collectibles. It’s on Netflix. It basically follows us buying and selling sports memorabilia, but what it really shows us doing is going to people’s houses, accessing their collections, and taking their things on consignment to take to auction. We’ve been doing this for years. But now it’s actually showing us do this. And you’d be surprised the things that people have in their collection. A lot of times people have things they don’t even realize what they have necessary. You’ve got things that could go to auction and get serious money. You just won’t get rid of anything. You want to keep it all. You want to keep all that high end stuff that you got, don’t you? Yeah. You don’t want to talk about

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:50

No, no, no, man, I got rid of a whole you know, this. I had all these autographed Rockstar stuff and old school stuff. And I just, I was afraid of it burning down. You know, I don’t have a restaurant to put my mike bordick Jersey in. And I had a house on Kane street that I had all my autograph 30 years ago. And like, it’s in a box, you know, and it was 30 years, you can appreciate that Billy Joel interviews and David Bowie, Billy Joel autographs, and David bow. Like, all this stuff’s in a box. And I’m like, Yeah, I let somebody buy it pay a lot of money to reap the reward of like, I get paid $25 A review at the bottom or something like that. I mean, it cost me $40 in gas to make $25 so that I can meet David Bowie that so all these years later, like I don’t, I have this stuff. And I was I wanted it to be loved and displayed somewhere in some sports, barn to peak or whatever. And I just wanted it not to go down on a fire. I mean, I had some wreck stuff, too. I had floods I had stuff happen that I had good stuff that got wrecked.

Robbie Davis  11:53

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One of the biggest things we’ve done over the years is we will sell memorabilia for athletes because athletes never want to represent themselves that represent the items themselves because people first thing they asked when athletes so something is why do they need the money? Are they harder for the money? Are they broken it whatever the question may be on the show, we go to Utah and we get Karl Malone’s Dream Team collection, and 92 for the first dream team, Karl Malone’s wife went and got all the jerseys, the shorts and the shoes from every player of the Dream Team. Everything. She got them all. And then Carl went and got them all autograph, and he had them displayed at his car dealership in Salt Lake City for the last 20 some years. Well, now it came time that he wanted to sell them. But Karl Malone didn’t want to represent that stuff himself. And he wanted to give it to his kids, but his kids don’t really appreciate sports memorabilia. And you see that a lot. My kid doesn’t. Your kid doesn’t want that he

Nestor J. Aparicio  12:45

does. He doesn’t want my Super Bowl. He doesn’t want anything. Exactly. So

Robbie Davis  12:47

what Karl Malone’s kids did want was money. So we you know, we took that stuff to auction. I think this stuff brought 5 million in auction, and he divvied the money up and gave it to his kids. And you see that a lot. You see it a lot this weekend. united family is selling most not most, but a lot of the John Unitas is treasure memorabilia that has never been up for auction at the Superbowl auction this weekend in Las Vegas. Same type of deal. You know, the things mean something to them, but they’d rather have the money. You know, they have the moments they had they cherish the memories at the moment and all that stuff. So you know, that’s what Kane collectibles on Netflix is about. That’s what we do. Locally what we do as far as charity business. Case in point, here we go. This is a Super Bowl helmet. It’s Jamal Lewis Jamal Lewis. Yeah, you know your signatures. So this one’s going out for auction this weekend that we’re doing a big fundraiser in town this weekend, it’s going to be kind of geared around a Super Bowl. And you know, we give you the items on reserve. So I’ll say this. Let me hold that up, for sure. But then on this item, it’s beautiful that Jamal Lewis helmets a $300 helmet for the reserve, the group is probably going to get about $1,000 for that helmet. So we’ll get our $300 back and the group will get 700. And that’s how we donate our money to charity. If it doesn’t sell, they just simply give it back to us. And that’s how our program works. It’s it’s simple, because you know, people want to be able to walk away with something they want to donate

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:04

program. I own that at one point we said Which one is that? Is that a new one?

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Robbie Davis  14:07

This was last year, two years ago Superbowl that’s the Rams in the bangles. And simple five ticket stuff. What is that? Yep, that’s true. Oh, five ticket. That’s a replica ticket, though. Oh, it’s a replica. Okay. And then you got the 58 championship game replica ticket on the other side. It’s all right. It’s

Mike Rosenfeld  14:22

it’s a replica. That’s why I’m dropping millions of dollars worth of stuff here.

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:26

This is probably a fifth four or $500 ticket, right? If it’s the original ticket. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And this is a rams, but Ellison. This was two years ago. It’s just the last Super Bowl. They let me you do. Well.

Robbie Davis  14:38

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You know what? I’m gonna give that to you.

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:40

I’m gonna try next time.

Robbie Davis  14:41

I’m gonna I’m gonna leave you with that. Since that’s the last year will you ever be I’m gonna leave you with that. That’s gonna be my parting gift for you today. I don’t want that. Come on. Do

Nestor J. Aparicio  14:51

you’ve been in my place? Well, I have enough ish. You do? Yeah.

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Robbie Davis  14:54

I’ll tell you what you should tell people. You have the Super Bowl program.

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:00

Do you know about this right? So John Steadman back in 1984 85 said to me, because we the News America was going out of business and it was a mess. It was a bunch of seeing your I want you to clean that out anything you find in there, you know, he wanted a few things that you find this and that. And I put it I got it all together and I sorted it out. He’s like, this is my stuff that you love sports. You take that stuff for doing it for me. I appreciate it. Systemic gives me immediate guide from the first AFL NFL championship game, which we now call Super Bowl one. It’s but you know, it was not called the Super Bowl.

Mike Rosenfeld  15:41

At the time. The ticket says

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:43

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AFC like that. That’s Super Bowl tickets from five. If you have a ticket from one, two or three it says AFL NFL championship game, right? That’s what the game was called. Right? Even Super Bowl three was the AFL and if the first one was called the Super Bowl was four I believe, or five, seven year 71. The Chiefs Vikings one of those. I have a media guide from the LA Coliseum with everything in it. All the game notes. The xerophytic the purple, what do they call that? That when we were kids, we would smell the purple. The scratches? No, no, no, no, we did. We did oh, paper. Yeah, that would have the purple ink. Yeah, that

Mike Rosenfeld  16:24

the Xerox

Nestor J. Aparicio  16:28

dittos good O’s, right. And it’s all the game notes. It’s it’s John’s handwriting. It’s his quote, it looks like this sheet of paper. It’s just a bunch of writing like, but it’s thick. And it has all the postgame notes. And it says on it. The first Super Bowl, but it has the AFL. And it’s a media guy that was in the press box that was given to the media. It is the media kit for the AFL NFL championship game. But Pete Roselle and I wish he were alive or somebody that was alive. P result always wanted it to be called the Super Bowl. That was his idea. But you won’t find anything from Super Bowl one that I think it is the first ever printed item by the league that use the term Super Bowl. Then when you consider

Mike Rosenfeld  17:17

how much you’re gonna get for that I’m sure it’s in a safe deposit been offered

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Nestor J. Aparicio  17:20

1520. You know, I’ve been told to get 15 or 20 grand and often I’m like when it gets 4 million we’ll talk because it’s the first thing that ever had the word Super Bowl on it. And it’s in pristine. And it’s it’s got one of those plastic spines on it white plastic because it was put together by one of those little machines. And it’s a 28 page treatment. You know what it really is? It it has the up with people who did the halftime, it has all of the marching band orders and stuff in it. It was a true media cure, you know,

Robbie Davis  17:51

and that’s the good thing and bad thing about it is that there’s nothing to compare it to. Right. But because there’s nothing to compare it to if that thing ever did went to auction, there’s no telling what, you know, realistically, nobody can really put a number on that, you know, somebody’s offering you so it

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:03

can golden to tell me that it is the first thing that ever had the word unique. That’s what they’re I promise the first game and there’s nothing else from the game that uses the term Super Bowl on it, other than this media kit, because Pete was trying to get trying to get the writers to call it that. Right, right. And then they then obviously now we’re a couple of Super Bowl, but that Pete was trying to push that along all along. And this guy like John Steadman saw Super Bowl, and flew back to Baltimore. By four years from now we’ll call it that, right? So the word Super Bowl was coined there. Yep.

Robbie Davis  18:39

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Well, season three, I’m going to trick you into doing that. We’ve been trying to talk you into that for a while. So season three, we’re gonna get that on there.

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:46

All right, what is it? What is season three?

Robbie Davis  18:48

We don’t know yet. Season two is gonna start.

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:50

I don’t want to do it. I just didn’t I want to do it in the right restaurant. There’s a time there’s a time years ago, it was more like add respect to John. Now it’s more like, this is a real time a real piece. And I’m not just gonna give I mean, I believe in what it is. And when someone validates that I have what I think I have.

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Robbie Davis  19:08

Yeah, you’ve had it for this long as a reason to give it away. I’m not gonna give it away by House buys anything. I totally understand. You know, I

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:15

mean, if I get rid it’s either going to do that, or it’s gonna sit. Yeah, hold it. I mean, because Season

Robbie Davis  19:20

Two of the show, though. That’ll debut sometime between now and opening day.

Nestor J. Aparicio  19:24

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And my God, if I ever got a house from it, I mean, I would build a wing to John, everybody knew how much I loved. But I have this thing and I don’t know. I mean, I honestly was willing to lend it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You’re gonna mean, I thought it should be there. Yeah, you can tell the history of the Super Bowl. I have the only piece known to mankind that has it on it. And who else would have it? Maybe cherry Greenwood. Some of the guys that went to those first games Jerry Eisenberg. I don’t know how much of a PAC rack those guys were to keep stuff. John wasn’t. John wasn’t. That’s why I wanted to we didn’t want that as part of the problems. doesn’t lead again from George Hollis. To John Steadman that I have in my possession. Jonathan wanted. I saw him like, John, is that real Georgia? Yeah, that’s Georgia. See, I don’t want that. It’s bears letterhead. I mean, like, John just gave me this stuff because he just didn’t want and

Robbie Davis  20:16

what you just described right there is the perfect example of things that members of the media athletes the things that they have in their collections that really quite honestly don’t mean any of them. But the next person would die for right and spend gobs of money for it.

Nestor J. Aparicio  20:33

Now I have so many ticket stubs from back in the day, and they become a thing now. Yeah,

Robbie Davis  20:38

even more so now because everything’s electronic. It’s

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Nestor J. Aparicio  20:43

telling you how to get in touch with you because I want to take a break and I want to bring share, you’re here to this Lagos gift. And yep, you can get back to the real charities. admitted I promise, you know, we’re located

Robbie Davis  20:52

in Lutherville, Maryland, Nine West originally road. We’re open Monday through Friday, nine to six Saturdays nine to four. You find us on the web, Robbie squarespace.com. We’re also on social media. Same thing, Robbie’s first base of Facebook and Instagram. And give us a call at the shop for 10 560 3200

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:08

Thanks for waiting patiently. Robbie, Jr. Mike Roosevelt’s right. Are you gonna stay for the 14th hour and get me to the end? You gotta gotta do it. You’re out of here.

Mike Rosenfeld  21:17

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I’d like to say with something more important than a happy hour with my wife and friends, but I have managed

Nestor J. Aparicio  21:23

to survive and it’s all charity aspect here. Duty area. I’ve done three breast cancers today. So it’s your day to go enjoy your wife. So love her up. I will do it and I’m taking crabcake home soon for my wife for Pappas. Hickok he’s one hour left 39 hours. I feel 39 years old, but I’m not anymore. I am Mr. Pappas, come on by and do some good things right after this.