He helped lift the Baltimore Orioles during the 1980s and left almost 30 years ago for Tampa trying to build a legacy for the Devils Ray in St. Petersburg. Rick Vaughn now heads the Respect 90 Foundation for longtime MLB manager Joe Maddon and returned “home” to discuss sports franchises building community trust for sustainability.
Nestor Aparicio and Rick Vaughn discussed the Orioles’ current struggles, the potential impact of new ownership, and the challenges faced by the Tampa Bay Rays. Vaughn highlighted the Rays’ success in player development and the need for a new ballpark in Tampa due to the current location’s accessibility issues. He praised the Lightning’s Jeff Vinick for building community trust and emphasized the importance of relationships in sports ownership. They also touched on the Orioles’ roster issues, the need for better pitching, and the potential for trades. Vaughn expressed optimism for the Rays’ future under new ownership, while expressing concern for the Orioles’ current state.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, Rays, Tampa Bay, new ownership, community trust, baseball facility, Jim Henneman, Rick Vaughn, St. Petersburg, Tampa, ballpark location, player injuries, pitching staff, trading deadline, Fred Lynn.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, Rick Vaughn
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 task Baltimore or Baltimore, positive it is a going out there this week, and the Orioles are home this weekend. Finally, taking on the Tampa, raising a professional facility, a big league facility. At this point, we’re going to be out doing the Maryland crab cake tour at the Back to the Future scratch. We’re gonna be readers crab ass this Thursday, taking a little bye week for Fourth of July, but I am going to be over to heritage Farrell next weekend. And done dog. We’ll be talking about that the eighth of July. We’re at deepest squales, at the new location, and Canton for breakfast. Dan Rodricks, Pete, Karen Gee, Joe Giordano, it’s gonna be an all star cast for an all star week. And then on the 10th of July, we moved the program to, for our first time ever, Costas in Timonium, up at the racetrack. Johnny osheski, our congressman, is going to be there. Going to have a bunch of guests up there as well, plenty of air conditioning for summertime. This guy, you know, this guy left here 30 years ago, had him on a month ago, we lost Jim Henneman. It happened around the same time we had a Tampa Bay Rays series. He is the longtime PR Director of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when they first went down to Tampa. He still makes his home down there somewhere where the sun is shining, the mosquitoes are big and it’s hot as Hades right now, because it’s Florida and in June and Rick Vaughn, the wild thing, the longtime Oriole PR man here in the 80s and in the 90s. First things first, Varner, it’s was great to see you under awful conditions. Jim Henry’s funeral, you were the voice of all reason and expertise. In regard to Jim Henneman, batboy stance with a cousin Louie in 1963 at it down in DC, DC stadium, at that time before RFK. And I would say that it was an unbelievable gathering of baseball love for Jimmy and more than that, Jim Palmer’s in this corner. Bill Steck is over there. You’re over here, I’m over just, did you’re with Kirk shin? I mean, just it was, it was a real come together. If I could have sucked all the baseball knowledge out of that room, I’d be AI for Major League Baseball, wouldn’t I? Yeah, it
Rick Vaughn 02:11
was a great group. And it was Baltimore too, you know, Michael olester was there. There were other people that were not always, you know, sports guys. And it was, you know, seeing Scott gar so there and and tippy Martinez was there. So, you know, I don’t know if you saw him or not, but he was there early. So that was pretty cool. It was a great, yeah, situation really sucked, but I loved seeing everybody. It really was a step back in time for me.
Nestor Aparicio 02:38
Well, it reconnects people. Reconnected me to Jim Palmer, reconnected me. I saw lesker. I saw a bunch of people there. So one of my old editors, Mike Reed, was there talking Bob Dylan from the old Sunday so, um, it was a it was a delightful visit. I always say to all of you, we should get together a little more often, so we’re not getting together at funerals. So this we’re doing here, and we’re getting together because the rays are coming to town, and I just want to give you some oxygen for the Orioles in the race situation right now, because I think you flew in and saw another last place Oriole team, a new ownership, just all of this. And we lamented a month ago about how weird this is with all these young players. And I think you came in right around the time high got fired through all this period of time, and now the rays come in here. And I had Pete Williams on the other day. I had Joe poorly on two weeks. I mean, I feel like, if I can’t be in Tampa, I’m bringing Tampa people in, including you. But since the last time we got together and you battled on me last week, I tried to get you on early last week we were down there. Since then, the team looks like it’s going to get sold. So it turns out, perfect timing, because I want your observations on third ownership group, and Pete and I got together and talked about this, and he’s like, Well, you know, Sternberg, it’s been what it’s been for 20 years, and I know you worked there for a period of time as well. Joe Maddon, all that, and World Series and new ownership comes in, and I’m thinking that can be a blessing. It can be a curse, you know. And be careful what you wish for, because I wish for new ownership for like, 30 years, and I’m not feeling the love here last place, Varner. And you know, I hope things get better down there, because it feels like that thing’s always been and I know you left your life to go down there and make it something. It’s always had potential. The Tampa, Tampa baseball has always had potential.
8Rick Vaughn 04:20
It has, I mean, it really starts with, you know, the location of the ballpark. Look, they got a ballpark built, and they didn’t even have a team, but the location there was always the one fact that was really hard to get around about playing at the chop was that, if you drew a circle, about a 15 mile circle, around the ballpark, about half of that is water. So you’re already, you know, not as accessible to people as you should be. I think that’s one thing that we have to do when you’re building stadiums. Now, you know, accessible has to be a word that’s up there pretty high when you’re describing what you’re building. You know, people don’t want to sit in traffic. They don’t want to, you know, go through a gridlock of. Downtown, as much as they you know, downtown ballparks are cool. They still want to be able to get there and get out at least. That’s how it is down here. You do have a lot of retirees, and they came down here because they wanted to get rid of that traffic stuff. So I don’t think the trop has never is, is ever been a good location. It’s that city has changed like you wouldn’t believe over the last 25 years, St Pete has it’s grown unbelievable, but it’s still getting in and out of there now is going to be worse than it ever has been. And I just don’t think it’s the right location. You know, it is. It never has really changed. When I moved down here, everybody said, Hey, that Tampa Bay, that might as well be the Atlantic Ocean, because that’s how different Tampa is to St Pete. And as much as we want to feel like we’re growing together, it’s still a pretty good divide. You know, I hate to say it, but
Nestor Aparicio 05:53
why is that? I mean, is it just distance? Is it ideology? Is it politics? Is it it’s gotta be more than water. Because when I try to explain it to people here. And honestly, vaulter, I landed, you know, at Tampa airport, and I feel like I’m down there in 2030 minutes. And, you know, it’s not, I mean, you want bad traffic. I mean, talk about traversing from Jersey to New York, or you’re trying to drive out, you know, like, really awful stuff, or even just the DC beltway, which I know you’re familiar with. Like, that’s awful stuff. I’ve never I sense between Tampa and Orlando. It’s a Hellstorm. Like, the thought that people in Orlando would ever come to baseball games in Tampa feels very like that is the last that’s the worst piece of road in America. It really is.
Rick Vaughn 06:37
Yeah, we have our youngest daughter and our grandchildren live up there, and it’s brutal, yeah, you just don’t want to do it. You have to do it late at night, and then keep your fingers crossed that there’s no construction going on. But I don’t know what it is. The provincial nature of this community really has never faded. I i wish i could have a better explanation for
Nestor Aparicio 06:56
8it, and you’re an outsider trying to investigate it for 30 years,
Rick Vaughn 07:00
right? Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. We tried as much as we could to make sure that we were integrated over there. It just, and I still think we drew a pretty good amount of people from there, but I guess going back to the location in St Pete, I just don’t think it’s a great spot, and I think it’s time for a change. You know, I’m one of the people that I hate to see say that, because I love St Pete, but for the good of the franchise, I think it needs to, probably the ballpark needs to be over in Tampa.
Nestor Aparicio 07:30
Does it feel like and Pete was dreaming like the rays could win the World Series in Steinbrenner field this year in front of 10,005 and it’s possible, certainly possible. Do you feel like the inertia? People are used to going to hockey games over there they go in droves. We talked about that at length about how the lightning owned Tampa. The Buccaneers have been bringing people since they built, you know, knocked the Sombrero down, and people know where it is. It’s right next to the airport. It’s right next to all the bridges. It’s right next to downtown. I don’t know that helps or hurts. The fact that the lightning were downtown and that and that the bucks are out by the airport on the Dale Mabry, but putting the baseball team there for a minute or two, or a year or two, or whatever it’s going to be, has that vibed out differently or different people going to the ballpark. Are the people that used to go in the like saying I’m not going up there. I mean, I’m trying to understand how this could launch something, and how the Orioles could come down there in five years, and maybe I’m a part of it again, and I come down and sit in the press box, and I’m sure they’ll put out in right field in the new ballpark in Tampa. But like that, the experience of coming down there as an Oriole fan would be like new ballpark dome thing, because I’ve always felt like and even when you work there, I felt like this franchise is in trouble when in Nashville or Charlotte or in Austin or Portland grow they tried to play him in Montreal for a minute again. So I I’ve always felt like it’s in peril. I talked to Pete this week. He’s like, No, I think it’s safe now. I think if a guy brings 1,000,000,008 in here, they’re going to figure it out. And yet, you’ve been there for 30 year, boots on the ground, rolling your sleeves up, as big a part of it as anybody. And I don’t know, I mean, they still don’t have studs in the ground, they don’t have a plan, they don’t have money,
Rick Vaughn 09:12
they don’t have anything, do they not in terms of a ballpark? No, I think I agree with Pete. I think it could work here. I just think you have to do it perfectly. You have to do it really well. The lightning have done it perfectly. Jeff Vinick might be the best owner in all of sports. People trust him, and that’s a huge thing, and it’s something that this ownership group that I worked for for 10 years of the 21 years I was here, they’ve really never developed any trust. They’ve never built relationships. And now, if you look at the current group, Sternberg, they’re on an island. They don’t have anybody coming to their rescue to help them with, you know, funding, and they’ve burned a lot of bridges, and I think you’ve got to have somebody come in here that understands how important as. As Jeff bennick did. I mean, Jeff Bennett had no connection to Tampa Bay. He’s from Boston. He comes in, and he has just completely won over the community here, you know, and it’s because he’s him, and his people are out. They spend money. They give away $50,000 every game to a Community Hero, every single game, that’s 40 games a year, and they’ve been doing that now for like, eight or nine years. So that’s the kind of mentality I think you have to have down here. I mean, it’s this, especially with Tampa. It’s a big town, but it’s a pretty small town. People talk, word gets around. Relationships are really important. I think they people in it looked like for a while the rays were going to go to Tampa, you know, about five or six years ago, four or five years ago, and the thing never got off the ground. But Stu had been did not live here at the time. He didn’t. I mean, he’s owned the club for 20 years, and he just moved here a couple of years ago. And people implore Him, even if you don’t want to live here, go out once a month and have dinner and get seen that you’re in the community. And I don’t think that he ever did that. I don’t think he ever developed the relationships that you need to have to make this all work. And like I said, I just go back to Jeff Bennett every time I think the Bucks have done a much better job than what they used to. You know, if having the owner as the persona of the team is not usually a good thing, you know, which is why I was still amazed that the Orioles did the bobblehead thing. I think people don’t want a bobble head of the owner. They want a bobble head of the players. But that’s another story. But Jeff Bennett is the exception of that. He’s sort of the persona of the lightning, but he’s done such a great job here in the community, you want to talk about somebody who should have a bobble head after him, and everybody would want one, is Jeff Bennett, but most of the time that doesn’t work. The box is sort of, they were the glaziers for the longest time here, but they they’ve smart. They gotten smart, and that’s kind of gone away. Now. You don’t see a lot of the glaciers here. You see their team president, Brian Ford, and you see their players, and they’ve done, I think they’ve done a really good job. So I think you have to do it. It can it can work here, if the ballpark’s in the right spot, you play up on the history that we have of baseball here. Baseball started here in in 1913 with spring training. I think it’s definitely doable. And I think you just have to have the right people involved that don’t think they know everything, that they’re open, they know that they know what they don’t know. You know that kind of an attitude going in. I think it can work here. I agree with Pete.
8Nestor Aparicio 12:32
Let’s get on to the Orioles, just sort of the cleansing of the roster and the baseball side of this. Because you and I’ve talked to ownership, we’ve talked all of that. It’s a mess. Nobody’s going to the games. Like, I can recap that, and I talk about that all the time, but we’re now into the point where, like, how do you make the baseball team better? You’re an old baseball player. You worked in the sport for 30 some odd years. Um, this trading deadline, buying, selling. Um, your organization in Tampa has been, you know, sort of the hallmark organization for not having to rip it apart. I said to Pete Williams, if the Orioles on the field have been Tampa on the field with genius baseball people over the last 15 years, and add a little bit of money to it, it could really be special. They’ve gotten so many parts of that right in Tampa that everybody’s trying to emulate on the outside. It felt like it was going well here, and now it’s not well. And the franchise doesn’t feel well again, because they don’t feel funded. I’m I live here. They have failed miserably on this honeymoon period. We bobblehead aside and all of that just they’re not selling tickets, they’re not selling momentum, they’re not winning, they’re not serving the community. They’re not doing all the things that you and Larry the keynote did 40 years ago, and Charles Steinberg will add on, they’re not doing any of that. And if they feel a little frozen by how bad this has been and now, literally, Elias is the only guy who can fix it right. He’s the baseball guy. Nobody else around there pretends to know baseball. He might get fired at the end, who knows me? He wasn’t employed by Rubenstein. He’s John Angelo. Says guy, for better or worse, this would be the time to find out he’s going to make draft picks in a couple of weeks and their last place baseball team again. And I don’t think anybody from top down was prepared for how to deal with this, how to get an equilibrium and start thinking about opening day next year if the train’s not going to happen this year.
Rick Vaughn 14:27
Yeah. I mean, I think one thing that has to be you definitely have to mention, I mean, the injuries they’ve had to their pitching staff are really hard to overcome. I mean, you know, they’ve lost some really big arms. You know, unfortunately, they they weren’t very aggressive at all in free agency, which I thought I was a little surprised that they didn’t, because the window looked like it was really wide open. You know, with all the they did such a great job with so many of those young players that they have that I love to watch play, and I still love to watch play, but I think they missed a big opportunity by nine. Uh, capitalizing on, I mean, again, injuries happen to everybody,
Nestor Aparicio 15:05
and they could have given burns two 30 million, and they’d be in it right now, right?
Rick Vaughn 15:09
8Yeah, I think so, you know, although I think he’s hurt, I think he’s hurt out in Arizona,
Nestor Aparicio 15:14
but no, that’s what I’m saying. They could have given him that money, and they’d be out that
Rick Vaughn 15:18
money. Wow, yes, that’s right, it’s pitching nowadays is ridiculous. I mean, we’re throwing so much less than we ever did, and yet we’re much more injured than we ever were. Why is that? Why is that happening? Why don’t we have any pitchers throwing 28 complete games, which is like five times what the whole league has in a year, and yet we have all these guys getting hurt? I don’t know. I think it’s really hard to overcome that. I’m really I feel bad for the organization, that maybe this window that was open is not, you know, is not going to be what we thought it was, you know, unless you got a supplement. I mean, look, the rays do a great job of finding underutilized assets and turning them around and making them into something. It’s amazing. If you go and look that how many players they’ve had come and gone already that had their best years in Tampa Bay. You know, why is that? What are they doing? I think part of it is they have a great chemistry between the coaching staff and the front office. You know, a lot of times I remember many years where if a guy didn’t work out, the coaches were blaming the scouts, and the scouts were blaming the coaches, you know, and I don’t see any of that in Tampa Bay. They have a great, great working relationship. You know. The only negative to what the rays do is that they really don’t commit to anyone long time. You know, they’re they’re constantly tinkering and changing. And the guy comes in and he’s not here very long. It’s pretty hard to market your team when guys are only here for a couple of years. You know, they must they my first three or four years after I left the rays, I figured it out they had 35 players come join the organization and leave in three years, the first three years I was gone, that’s pretty hard to market that I think that hurts their marketing efforts, because their players are here and gone as soon as their value comes up, then they trade them and get prospects, and they keep repeating it. It keeps them competitive, and they’ve been competitive now for a while. But guess what? They’re one of five teams that hasn’t won a World Series. So we all we dress out every day to try to win a World Series. So it’s been, it’s kept them a compelling story. It’s been a lot of wild card banners hanging from the trop. But they haven’t won. You know, they still haven’t won the World Series yet. So it’s not a perfect system, but they, they seem to really get the best out of guys, and then when their value goes up, and they, you know, then they trade them and get, you know, some prospects that they turn into good players. It’s a factory. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 17:51
we’re always evaluating, by the way, Rick Vaughn is here, former PR Director of the Tampa Bay Rays as well as the Baltimore Orioles. He is now in semi retirement, but actually doing a lot of good community work down in the Tampa. I in the Tampa area, and working with Joe Maddon and Joe Maddon Foundation, which we always talk about. You can Google all of that with Rick Vaughn, but the talent evaluation and we evaluate these thumbs up, thumbs down, did they win the trade that they lose? The Trade day one, the Trevor Rogers thing this week created an interesting circumstance, obviously, blowing the eight to nothing lead last week down at your place, and then coming back and pitching eight strong innings. You know, you the Stowers Norby thing. These are all like rising stocks. It was like watching Ortiz last year and the burns trade. And it’s like saying, you know, where is the value and all this. But it felt like the Orioles have all these untouchable guys, right? Rushman, Henderson, cowser, westburg holiday, and you can’t touch any of those guys. And if you want to get pitching, and if you want to deal out thinking you’re going to deal out pasaya Or thinking that damaged goods, Mayo, curse, that guys, that rushman’s damaged goods, right, not just injured, but just the value you might get in a deal would be a lot different. It is amazing on the stock part of this, like Zach Eflin, stinks right now and Sugano they’re trying to stretch him out a little bit. Those would be two nice pieces to deal out to try to get other pieces. But how this next five or six weeks plays out for are the Orioles four games under 500 or 14 under 500 Yeah, at the trading deadline and at the All Star break. And our guys on the right side of getting veteran guys, I’m talking dealable Guys, Mullins guys, you might be able to get something for, because it feels to me like Mike Elias, much like your guy in Tampa. He had no allegiance to any of these guys, I feel like there’s going to be a little bit of a sell off in a couple of weeks here, and we’re going to be right back to, you know, trying to piece together who’s going to be in the rotation next year. And they’re going to have another off season like last year, where you’re going to say, are you guys going to spend some money on some pitching? Because I can tell you right now, Rick, opening day next year might be down with. You might be anywhere they get the schedule a couple weeks. I know who’s in the lineup, right? I mean, rushman, hender, I did all the guys I made. I give you six, seven guys that are going to be in the lineup, opening Dana. I have no idea who their pitchers are, none, zero. And I’m not setting sailing off this year yet, but we’re getting there. I mean, we’re we’re getting real close to, like you You probably should be thinking about next year already.
8Rick Vaughn 20:24
Well, yeah, I mean, they’re really trying to just hold it together with the pitching, and it’s pretty tough to compete when you’ve got a team like the rays that you’re going up against coming up here. I mean, the rays have, they’ve got five starters everyone each, each time they go out, they feel like they’re going to win the game. That’s how good their pitching is right now. And they’ve been able to stay healthy, and they don’t even have, you know, their number one daddy’s not even there. So think about it. They that’s where it really needs to start, and that’s why I was so disappointed that they didn’t try to, you know, fortify their pitching in the off season. Yes, again, we talked about injuries, but still, you can never have enough. You have to. Sometimes you have to make tough trades. Sometimes you got to trade somebody you really don’t want to, but at the end of the day, are you going to be better a team for it? Yes. So make the trade. I wish they had done some of that. I think Mike Elias has done a great job in so many ways. There I was, you know, wondering for after a while, if it was ever going to see something. And then, of course, we have, and it’s been, it was really good, but that’s only part of it. You know, you have to be able to weigh what’s best, you know, how you can maintain. And then I was really disappointed they didn’t do more like everybody else in the off season.
Nestor Aparicio 21:35
Can you speak to 35 years of doing this? You’re like, yes, Hank Peters and Rolly HeMan and Frank Rob. You go through all these people you worked with down in Tampa as well. Joe Maddon, obviously to that job, the michaelias job, what kind of job that is, and that if Mr. Rubenstein, or whomever, I guess it’s him making the decision he doesn’t know anything about baseball. You sat in that chair as well. You had them all that you thought he meant to baseball. So, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s all of that, and Peter would just bullshit his way through all of it. Um, I don’t know the Rubenstein can portray himself as knowing baseball. I don’t know who makes hiring firms and search decisions. To say we like Joe Madden. We can get Theo Epstein in here to run the Orioles and come home again. And you know, whatever it would be, that’s a huge decision. I’ve just given you. The whole tree. There’s Rubenstein and Elias, as is portrayed, manzalino feels like short term to me. Doesn’t feel like the guy and I remember knowing his father when he was a coach for the White Sox and all that. But, um, it feels to me like a last place finish here in a 71 win, 75 win, whatever it’s going to be is going to be going to fans are going to want change to some degree, not just Elias, but like but that job is so big. And if you as the PR guy, had to explain it to David Rubenstein and say, Well, our next baseball guy, here’s what I know about it, from knowing Joe Maddon, from doing it, I don’t think fans have any appreciation for the largeness of that job. In the modern era with analytics and stats, it’s changed a lot since Hank Peters wouldn’t recognize it,
Rick Vaughn 23:12
right? Nobody would. Nobody from five years ago would recognize it. You know, you can’t, you can’t have conversations. I talked to some of the other day, and I won’t tell you who told me, and I will tell you the team, but was talking to a hitting coach from a major league club, and really couldn’t have a conversation with this person without the guy looking at his iPad the entire time they were talking about the hitting side of this ball club, nothing. Everything was already written. It was already in the computer, and everything was driven by what was on the computer. You know, this spring training, again, I won’t tell you the team, but it was a kid that was pitching in bullpen during spring training got done. One of the pitching coaches went over to him and said, How’d you feel? And he goes, I’m really not going to be able to tell you, how’d you do? I’m not going to be able to give you a good answer till I look at my iPad, till he looks at the video. I mean, that’s how much it’s changed. I can’t imagine the enormity of what somebody like Mr. Elias has to go through. I mean, it’s ridiculous. There is no more heartbeat. You know that’s why you love to see someone like Joe Maddon get back into it. Now, Joe’s not anti analytics. He believes in it, but he also believes in the heartbeat, and that’s where we’re losing. I think I don’t know. I love baseball. I score minor league baseball games during the heat of the summer. I love it so much, but I watch it on TV at night. It’s to me, it’s starting to lose a little bit because everybody’s singing from the same page. Everybody’s singing from the same sheet of music. You watch the Yankees play, they’re only a game up now. They if they don’t hit the ball to right field over the wall at Yankee Stadium, they’re going to lose. They. Can’t play they don’t play the game very well. They don’t play the game fundamentally. Get a bunk down. Forget it. Get behind a runner. Are you kidding me? It’s lost, and I would have such a hard time even trying to evaluate what these guys go through now, because it’s all driven. It’s all driven by percentages and and it makes the game, everybody’s doing the same thing, you know, does that? That doesn’t sound to me like a real compelling sport to watch, you know? I think maybe, maybe people are, you know, the I know, the attendance numbers are up again this year, which is great, but maybe I’m just an old guy, you know, get off my lawn guy, you know. But I just wish the game, you know, have brought back some of the stuff that makes it an interesting game. I don’t really see much of that anymore. I’ve been watching the Yankees quite a bit, and they’re in the textbook example of it. They they do one thing, well, they all try to, you know, jerk the ball out of the ballpark no matter what the count is. You know, it doesn’t matter what the count is. I’m swinging the same way every time. Nobody has like a B hack where they’re trying to hit the ball the other way, or a two strike hack where they’re trying to put the ball in play. How about Felix? Me on choking up? Yeah, I don’t see very little of that. Maybe some, but I haven’t seen much of it. So I guess that’s the way the game is. And I think I would, I wouldn’t even be able to begin to describe the enormity of what you’re talking about. But you’re exactly right. It’s changed. I mean, somebody that was GM five years ago would look at this and it would be unrecognizable for them. I would think, get the
Nestor Aparicio 26:33
8Andrew kettle on the show and find that Rick volunteer. Last thing for you, the outdoor Tampa baseball experience. For you, the new ownership, your role in all of it, and being one of the godfathers of being a part of bringing it down there. Do you feel some sense of momentum and hope and and obviously, this is much like when San Diego got saved 30 years ago. It happened to Tony Gwynn was good, the team was good, the Bruce Bucha, you know, era out there and all that. It feels like this is a good time for Tampa to be good. In the same way it’s a really lousy time for the Orioles to be bad. There’s no good time to be bad unless you want draft picks. But if you’re trying to save the franchise, a new guy’s going to come in and be money bags from upstate. They’re not going to move the team to Jacksonville. Um, they’re going to try to put their head down to make an experience, to build a battery in Tampa That must make you at least feel hopeful, because it feels like you’re going to live and die there. You ain’t coming back here. You’re going to be there the rest of your life. You want something could to happen. And I would even think for you to get in the car and go over to the minor league Park and smell and taste something different than what you knew makes it feel a little fresh. Maybe, am I wrong?
Rick Vaughn 27:39
Oh yeah, I think, I think, I think this is a time for optimism, you know, I think, you know, give Stu Sternberg credit for having a competitive team for the last 1213, years. They’ve been in the playoffs probably eight of those years. So give them some credit for that. But, but in terms of a lot of other things. You know, as I said, they didn’t really build a whole lot of community support. I think this new ownership group coming in here will whichever group it is, there’s no way they can’t see the mistakes that this group has made in terms of developing that chemistry within the community. I would think that would be a priority for them. The only question, I think, is, you know, Tampa doesn’t have a huge sum of money to get a ballpark bill. You know, Pinellas County has much larger tax base for the tourism than Tampa has. So I don’t know exactly how it would work in Tampa financially, but I think that’s where it needs to go. I think what any ownership group that comes in here and wants to keep it here. It could be a really exciting time here. I think it’s time to try the ballpark over in Tampa. Somehow. We have to figure out how that works financially and where it works. And I think if people are interested in buying the team and wanting to keep it here, and it sounds like everybody involved in these ownership groups that are buying for the team want to do that. I think the needle is pointing up. I think it could be terrific. I really do. I think you have to have some kind of a dome stadium. I know retractable domes are, you know, enormously expensive, but you can’t play outdoors here all year and expect a lot of people to come. It just can’t. So hopefully, I’m optimistic. I am. I am very optimistic about it. I think we need to have an ownership change. We’re going to get it, and that’s step one, right there. So yes, I’m, I’m really optimistic about it.
Nestor Aparicio 29:30
Go back to the beginning of the phone call. I felt that way about 16 months ago when new owners got here and I thought, there’s no way they can’t recognize how effed up this is. I don’t know I’ve seen no I looked the owner in the eye, David Rubenstein, in the 30 seconds I had, and I had his hand, and I said, there’s been a lot of trauma. And he looked at me like, like, What are you talking about? And I’m like, Okay, if we’re going to be denials of river in Egypt, my friend, you know what I’m saying? Like, I don’t know what to say, but we’re in the middle of last place here. I never could have predicted in February, you know, you and I get together spring training, I’m down in Sarasota, that that’s where this would be, and that’s what we’re talking about, general managers and leadership and all of that, because it feels a little rudderless here for the next couple of minutes. And I’d like to see it paddle, and I’d like to see Tampa be great too. You know, I’m I’m all for pure potentiality, right? I mean, I’m all for maximizing whatever it is. And I’ve I felt like your franchise can really be maximized down
Rick Vaughn 30:26
there. I think so. Hey, you got Fred Lynn coming on your show, right? Yes, tell me a
8Nestor Aparicio 30:30
Fred Lynn story. Give me a question for Freddie Lynn, my one of my favorite.
Rick Vaughn 30:35
I mean, I just want to one thing that happened when he was there. You know, he was like, the first player we added when I got the job as assistant PR director, and I always loved Fred Lynn, so I was like, I’m calling my friends going, Hey, I’m driving to the airport right now, and I’m picking up Fred Lynn. He’s going to be sitting in my front seat of my car, you know. And all my friends are like, what? Anyway, I’ll never forget. I don’t know if you remember this or not, but he, I mean, we didn’t win when he was there, obviously,
Nestor Aparicio 31:01
but he came in 85 I was gonna say he came in 86 but it was 85 Nope.
Rick Vaughn 31:06
8Was 85 and then I don’t know if you remember this, but in May of 85 the twins came in for a three game series in Memorial Stadium. Friday night, he hits a walk off home run in the ninth inning, and we win. Saturday night, he gets a walk off home run in the ninth inning, and we win. There were 49,000 people there. Saturday night was a giveaway of some sort, and I gotta tell you, I worked in Memorial Stadium from 85 to 91 never heard the stadium as loud as it was that Saturday night when he hit that wall the second walk off. And then on Sunday, believe it or not, he had another ninth inning home run. It wasn’t a walk off, and we lost to the twins, but he had home runs in the ninth inning in three straight games. Ask him if he remembers that, because it was, like, so exciting. And, you know, we got off to a great start that year. We were like, 17 and nine, or 17 and 10, and then, you know, we went down, you know, went in the tank, and they fired Altobelli, and everything kind of fell apart that first year. But, um, but I love Fred Lynn. I loved him as a player. He is a he was a consummate pro man. He was, he was a guy that you would watch how you do your business. And I loved, I loved being able to learn from him just by watching him
Nestor Aparicio 32:20
I was walking through the convention center at the Houston Convention Center at the Super Bowl in 2004 and it’s a football thing, right? But I’m walking through and there’s Fred Lynn, like, I’m just walking through conventional I’m like, That’s Fred Lynn. And I went over and I introduced myself, and he said, I’ll come on a show anytime. So it’s taking me 21 years to find his phone number, I had to ferret it. You know how I found him? I went on the Internet and I found him, and he emailed me, and he said, call my wife and set it up. Let’s go so Fred Lynn, you know this is what you do in your last place. I mean, if you could find cesto lescano For me, please, let’s get him back on the program. I’ll see if I get George Brett, I can’t get Tony Gwynn. I can’t get the dearly departed, but we can at least get my Can you my can. You can find Kiko Garcia for me. If you could do that, you know, we’ll be doing something. So Rick Vaughn is here. He is there in Tampa. The rays will be here this weekend, sweating it out and much higher in the standings. Vaughn, it was great seeing you. Let’s make sure it’s not funerals. Okay, let’s make sure next time I see you, there’s a beach hat and a beer and the ball game involved in some way. All right. All right. Brother, good talking to you. Brother, Rick, fun, long time man of the Baltimore Orioles. And if I hired the team, you and a dozen other people like you, would have been the first people in here trying to fix this thing. So I you bring Joe Madden with you. If we hire Joe Madden, I’ll know that they got their act together down at the warehouse. I’m back for more. We’re W N, S T, we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
