For the love of Dan Rodricks and real Baltimore history

Local local producer Will Schwarz joins Nestor to discuss his role in the television and stage work of venerable columnist Dan Rodricks, whose latest sold-out production “No Mean City: Baltimore 1966” is playing this week at The Baltimore Museum of Art.

Nestor Aparicio and Will Schwarz discuss their long-standing friendship and professional history, including their work with Dan Rodricks on various television shows. They reminisce about their time at Sheffield Studios and the unique nature of their show, “Rodricks for Breakfast.” Will highlights Dan’s deep connection with Baltimore and his ability to engage audiences with offbeat yet meaningful stories. They also delve into the upcoming Dan Rodricks play, “66,” which explores the 1966 Orioles and Baltimore’s racial politics during that time. Nestor shares personal anecdotes about his cousin, Louie Aparicio, and the lasting impact of the 1966 Orioles on Baltimore.

Nestor Aparicio’s Introduction and Upcoming Events

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning their upcoming events at Gertrude’s, Costas in Dundalk, and Missoney’s in Perry Hall.
• He thanks sponsors like the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and Farnan and Dermer for their support.
• Nestor reminisces about the Harlem Globetrotters and the Harlem Globetrotters logo.
• He mentions his long-time friendship with Will Schwarz, who was his boss at Sheffield Studios 29 years ago.

Nestor and Will’s History and Dan Rodricks’ Influence

• Nestor recalls how he met Will and their involvement in a show with Buddy Ryan and Lawrence Taylor.
• Will describes his role as a friend and producer, not just for Dan Rodricks but also for Nestor.
• Nestor talks about Dan Rodricks’ acting ambitions and their discussions about Eric Bogosian and sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
• Will shares memories of their fun and unconventional television show, “Rodricks for Breakfast,” which aired on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The Unique Nature of “Rodricks for Breakfast”

• Nestor and Will discuss the unique nature of their show, which was a stream of consciousness, wacky weekend morning show.
• Will mentions the live shots they did, including one from Paper Moon and another from backstage at the BSO.
• They talk about the freedom they had on the show, which allowed them to do things they wouldn’t have been able to do on other shows.
• Nestor praises the show’s creativity and its Baltimore-centric approach.

Dan Rodricks’ Impact on Baltimore and His Relationship with Will

• Nestor expresses his admiration for Dan Rodricks, describing him as a special human and an iconic Baltimore brand.
• Will describes Dan as someone who is “not from Baltimore but of Baltimore,” and how he has been embraced by the city.
• They discuss Dan’s early days at Channel 11 and his unique approach to storytelling.
• Nestor shares his personal connection to Dan and his admiration for Dan’s talent and complexity.

The Evolution of Dan Rodricks’ Shows

• Will talks about the evolution of Dan’s shows, from “You Have No Idea” to “The Courtroom” and “66.”
• Nestor shares his experience attending Dan’s shows and the impact they had on him.
• They discuss the upcoming show, “66,” which focuses on the 1966 Orioles and the racial politics in Baltimore at the time.
• Will explains how the show uses the Orioles’ story to tell a broader narrative about Baltimore and its history.

The Significance of the 1966 Orioles and Baltimore’s History

• Nestor and Will discuss the significance of the 1966 Orioles and how they helped lift the city.
• Will explains the racial politics in Baltimore at the time and how Frank Robinson’s arrival impacted the team and the city.
• They talk about the challenges and changes Baltimore faced during that period, including the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
• Nestor shares his personal connection to the 1966 Orioles and how they have defined his life.

Will’s Role in Dan Rodricks’ Shows and Their Collaboration

• Will describes his role in producing Dan’s shows, including the use of visuals and the screen in the back.
• They discuss the importance of visuals in enhancing the narrative of the shows.
• Will shares his fond memories of working with Dan and the fun they had creating the shows.
• Nestor expresses his gratitude for Will’s involvement and his contributions to Dan’s shows.

Nestor’s Personal Stories and Connections to Baltimore

• Nestor shares personal stories about his interactions with Buddy Ryan, Lawrence Taylor, and Mike Warren.
• He recounts his experience of being on television for the first time and how Buddy Ryan boosted his confidence.
• Nestor talks about his long-term relationship with Mike Warren and their shared love for sports.
• He shares a story about meeting Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon, who was a fan of his cousin, Louie Aparicio.

The Popularity of the 1966 Orioles and Their Legacy

• Nestor discusses the lasting impact of the 1966 Orioles and how they are remembered by fans.
• He shares a story about David Rubenstein, the new owner of the Orioles, who mentioned Louie Aparicio as his favorite Oriole.
• They talk about the significance of Louie Aparicio and his role in the team’s success.
• Nestor expresses his fascination with Dan Rodricks’ upcoming show and his eagerness to see it.

The Success of Dan Rodricks’ Shows and Future Plans

• Will mentions the success of Dan’s previous shows at the BMA and the high demand for tickets.
• They discuss the upcoming show, “66,” and its focus on the Orioles and Baltimore’s history.
• Nestor shares his excitement about the show and his plans to attend with his family and friends.
• Will and Nestor conclude the conversation with mutual appreciation and plans for future collaborations.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Dan Rodricks, Baltimore theater, Buddy Ryan, Lawrence Taylor, 1966 Orioles, Frank Robinson, racial politics, Mayor McKeldin, television show, Gertrude’s, BMA, Maryland Lottery, GBMC, Will Schwarz, Nestor Aparicio.

SPEAKERS

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Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio, Will Schwarz, Speaker 2

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 to Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively, taking the show out on the road all week long. We’re at gertrude’s on Wednesday, Friday at Costas in Dundalk, and then on the Tuesday next week, we’ll be at missoney’s in Perry Hall. All the brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery, they’ve given me the when I hold the Harlem Globetrotters logo up, I just want to whistle sweet George Brown, but I know they’re coming to town as well, and we will have some winning tickets as well. All of it brought to you by friends at GBMC as well as Farnan and Dermer, the comfort guys, getting us on the road here, making my HVAC work for winter and summer and spring and there was a fall. It was almost 30 years ago now. It was 29 years ago when this guy was my boss on Wednesday nights at Sheffield studios. Will Schwartz is a three decade friend of mine. I don’t know that I’ve ever had him on the show. I think I’ve threatened to have him on several times, including back with Dan Rodricks was doing his first show, which was controversial, Dan columnist, guy doing thespian things. And I sort of knew Dan had his acting Jones about him, and he and I have discussed Eric Bogosian and sex drugs and rock and roll and all sorts of things. But Will has been I don’t want to do. I call you a conslia for Don of Dan Rodricks, or are you just an executive

Will Schwarz  01:27

producer, just a friend, mostly a friend. Well, give

Nestor Aparicio  01:31

me your story, because my story with you is I got a call from maybe you, saying that I was going to do this show with Buddy Ryan and Lawrence Taylor. I don’t know that I’ve run into you five times in the last 29 years since then, but I think we’ve been in touch in some ways on social media. And I knew of your affection with Dan and you guys had me on your show, your kitchen at Channel Two with Rodricks for breakfast. I wish I had the mug. I tell Dan that all the time I still

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Will Schwarz  01:58

had one. Yeah, that was actually the most fun I think I’ve ever had in television. It was like they gave us, they gave the keys to the asylum, you know, to the inmates. They let it was, it was Saturday morning, and then Sunday morning. No one was caring what we were doing. And so we were able to really get away with a lot of stuff that we probably wouldn’t it

Nestor Aparicio  02:15

was great. That show was great. I tell Dan that all the time. Was it, yeah, because it was, like a stream of consciousness, kind of crazy, wacky weekend morning show that wasn’t like the Today Show, and it wasn’t like Good morning, and it wasn’t like late night television, a little bit too. We had a little bit of Letterman, but maybe not so much, right?

Will Schwarz  02:33

But it was very Baltimore, right? I mean, it was, it was all it was, we were, we could do one live shot a week. This was before all the, all the technology, the microwave technology that exists now. But so the very first show we did, we had a live shot from Paper Moon, you know, which is a wacky kind of a place, all the toys, all over the place and stuff. It was fun. We did another one from backstage at the BSO before we were highlighting one of the musicians there who’s still playing with it, with the BSO and Ellen Pendleton, she’s in the violins, and she had just joined the orchestra, and we did a little feature on her. And then right as we were going off the air, she was going on to onto the stage to perform. So that was pretty cool.

Nestor Aparicio  03:15

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Well, I remember coming out, I called it the kitchen, and I mean, you’re back, or you’ve been involved in television and stage and all of this, all of these years. And I want to bring full color to why you’re here, because we’ll have a little bit of fun with Buddy Ryan Lawrence Taylor and our old television show from 30 years ago. And now I know you, but I’ve known Dan. I’ve known of Dan on television, probably in the early 80s. I was Dan’s colleague beginning in 1986 and and I tell Dan this, and it embarrasses him, because it’s 40 years ago, he was larger than life to me as the columnist, the young columnist who had something, who you wanted to read, and who was irreverent in such a way. And I think over the 40 years, his caring and love of Baltimore. It’s one thing for a guy from Dundalk to love Baltimore. It’s different for someone to be transplanted. And I don’t know of your relationship with him. I have asked him about you before, and he knew that you and I had done a thing together years ago, and I knew you had done the Kitchen Kitchen. But I don’t know of your relationship with him, because I think it Dan is special. He’s a special human, and I think he’s collected so many people in our community after coming here and not knowing anybody 50 years ago that he is an iconic Baltimore brand unto himself. And I never know how people came at him to become co conspirators and doing all this Baltimore theater that you guys do that I love.

Will Schwarz  04:43

So, you know what I say about Dan is, is he’s, he’s not from Baltimore, but he’s of Baltimore. He is clearly embraced, and has been embraced by the city, and that’s because, I think, well, a lot of reasons. I first knew Dan. I met him at Channel 11. Actually, I was. Producer there, and I was the sports producer there for a while when Chris Thomas and Vince Bagley were on the air. And that’s how I knew him. He was doing features once a week, I think, at that time, and then he

Nestor Aparicio  05:14

would walk the streets and do wacky things and interview empty boxes into he just was a wild it was a wild thing. It was just, it was an actor kind of thing, and Marty bastard catching like that was a thing in the 80s to put the man on the street to talk to the people who had fun. I mean, Rob Roblin, nobody was better at the world than Roblin, right? Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Ron Matt’s in the mornings. I mean, there’s a long tradition of that, but a lot of that was born out of the early 80s in television and local television, and Dan and I’ll put Marty in there with that, and just saying that, that’s what the shtick was, right? Was go find a story, right?

Will Schwarz  05:50

It was, but Dan, Dan was really, I think he is more tuned into, you know, more meaningful kinds of it. It wasn’t so much a stick as he was looking for interesting stories, offbeat often, but it wasn’t random. You know, it was. It was deliberate. He chose

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Nestor Aparicio  06:06

off beat mayor at the time that he did, he right? I mean, yeah, yeah, that played into all of the chicanery that the the mayor had rubber duckies in suits at the aquarium. And, I mean, it was a glorious time for Baltimore, too. I mean, as I sit here with the harbor behind me, you know, Dan came in the age of all of that, and I guess that’s where will that first show he did the you have no idea show, yeah, I had Dan on, and Dan thinks I kiss his ass too much, and I embarrass him. And he doesn’t like to do long segments with me. It’s always a little more shorter and political and this and that, but he came on and we, I got into his head about Bogosian and where he was going. And he used to do this Don dinaldo act at Jack Lemmons house in the backyard at Jack Lemmons Oktoberfest every year when I was 19 years old. And again, I was taken by Dan, just in a general sense of how talented he was, what a great writer he was, how the television thing worked, but also his complexities, as I’ve gotten to know him over a lifetime, that how deep he can be. And I went to that first show after having him on and wondering, I knew it would be good because I had trust in Dan. I just knew, like, I’m going to buy tickets and I don’t know what I’m getting, but I know it’s gonna be good. That night, I laughed, I cried, I sobbed, I left the building, and I’ve no Dan my whole life, and I said, and I told people that I knew how extraordinary it was. And the next year, I bought 50 tickets, and I took every one of my clients and their spouses, and every extraordinary friend in my life who loves Baltimore and the good folks at the BMA and and everybody at the gertrudes, John shields just turns out to be my cousin. My son married into his family, so we put an event together at Christmas that year that became my family friends, radio station. It was my holiday event, and fatales catered it inside the BMA. And I brought 50 people down and just took them in there and said, you want to understand Baltimore, what Baltimore is about. Mike down, like watch this show. And they all watched it. They all sent me letters the day after. They all wanted to reach to Dan and thank him. And then out of that came the courtroom, which I didn’t see. I was on vacation when he did that show. I wasn’t physically here. I hope he said he’s bringing it back. And then this 66 thing, which my last name is Aparicio, right? I got here because of 1966 and that Oriole team in this city. I’m very Hispanic, although I thought I was white for a long time. Will, I was the Hispanic host back on beat the pros, and I am fascinated to see what he’s come up with, because he didn’t lead on too much about what it’s going to be. But I can’t wait to see the show.

Will Schwarz  08:59

Will, it’s different. It’s different than the other two. Shows it’s not. It’s not really so much about Dan’s experience as it is about Baltimore at that time, which was a, you know, looking at the harbor. Just that. When this takes place, Mayor McKeldin, the once and once mayor and once governor, at that time, uses his second term as mayor, he was actually lobbying LBJ was president in the 60 in 66 to get money to develop the harbor. You know, at that point a harbor place, it was still a place you go to dump a body and and so a lot of this show is really about what racial politics and politics in general, in Baltimore at that crossroads, you know, it was, it was an interesting time. I mean, I think we, we think about it in Baltimore, we think, well, oh, that’s the first world, you know, the Brooks World Series, he leaps, that kind of thing. But there was a lot of stuff going on at that time. And I think

Nestor Aparicio  09:58

that’s when Kennedy had been shot. And. I mean, just a lot of things were going on at that time.

Will Schwarz  10:03

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Next had been shot the year before Martin Luther King was alive, Martin Luther King was alive, but that was yet to come. So we’re kind of in that, you know, in that cradle of violence, really, at that time. So it was really, it’s really interesting in that it kind of reflects the racial politics and how and uses the story of the Orioles as a way to tell that that narrative.

Nestor Aparicio  10:32

Well, my cousin came here and found that from Chicago, and Frank Robinson came here and found a very, I mean, my my cousin couldn’t speak, barely speak English. To this day, his English isn’t great, and he’s 90. So yeah, I would just say I grew up in the late 70s, the Hispanic part of my family story and what I lived here in the 70s and 80s, where nobody spoke Spanish. My dad had drive to DC to get a plantain. I hadn’t thought much about Frank Robinson’s experience until I became a man, until I became an adult, until I started to realize what redlining was all about and what Martin Luther King was all about, and what the city looked like and felt like. And I grew up in Dundalk and Turner Station, and there’s a long history there that I’ve taken on with black teachers of mine, friends, people I’ve grown up with about there were two different worlds in Baltimore, 1966 and I’m sure that this show shows the real side of that, right? Yeah, it

Will Schwarz  11:30

really brings that out. And it shows how the two narratives, you know, with the Orioles and then the city, they kind of support, they’ve made each other possible, right? Frank, you know, at the time, the Orioles had the fewest black players in the major leagues, which is stunning to me. Before he came here, in 1966 there were three black players on the team. I would have thought for sure the Red Sox would have been fewer. But actually, the Red Sox had six, even though the Red Sox were the last team to integrate when that was in 1959 with pub C green. Think about that, by the way, 12 years after Jackie Robinson, that’s how long it took for the Red Sox to get a black player. But in 1966 they had six, and the Orioles only had three, including Frank Robinson, Sam Bowens, Paul Blair. So in many ways, Frank made Baltimore success possible.

Nestor Aparicio  12:24

Well, Frank’s experience at Cincinnati was a whole other thing too, right? I mean, Frank in Cincinnati was a real mess at that point for and I guess Baltimore probably wasn’t much better, well, against the lore, and that’s one of the reasons I want to see Dan show in his portrayal of Yeah, yeah.

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Will Schwarz  12:40

Well, you know, they had a pretty good team in 65 but they won over 90 games. They just didn’t make, you know, they didn’t. They were third place, even winning 90 over 90 games, 94 games, something like that.

Nestor Aparicio  12:51

Will Schwarz is my guest. Um, what spirit or what are you with Rogers here? What are you gonna call yourself?

Will Schwarz  12:57

I’m a, I’m a producer on the show. I’m mostly, I’m working on helping with a lot of the visuals. You know that one of the conceits of the of the Rodricks, you know, productions, are that we have that screen in the back, so it kind of adds to since the stage is so small and such a limited cast of characters, we kind of augment the narrative with with visuals in the back, so that you’ll see, you know, people that we’re talking about, a lot of newspaper headlines, especially in this time, when there were a lot of there was a lot of racial tension in the city. You had guy like George Mahoney, who was running for governor, who was, you know, an abject racist.

Nestor Aparicio  13:40

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I mentioned George Wallace in the conversation with Dan Rodricks as a Republican, and he reminded me, No dude, he was a Democrat. And I’m like, oh yeah for the dixies, I forgot about that. Like, you know, like, yeah. And it even my conflation of history can be twisted all these years later with Trumpism, right? I mean, it just kind of twisted

Will Schwarz  14:00

the world, right? Yeah. Well, one of the interesting thing, another interesting thing about this, is that McKeldin, it was a Republican, and he was, yet he was very, he was a champion of civil rights. He was, you know, he’s what, as Dan calls, I think, in the show, you know, very, it’s a species that’s, that’s extinct, a liberal Republican. There are no more, you know, in the mold of Rockefeller or George Romney or others. You know they were, they don’t exist anymore. And yet, he was able to get elected governor and Mayor twice in Maryland, in Baltimore, and as a Republican, he was the last Republican to be elected mayor in Baltimore, interestingly enough, well, the

Nestor Aparicio  14:42

history lesson is here, and you and I have a little history together. So what would like if my wife were here, and I told her, this is the guy that produced the buddy Ryan Lawrence Taylor thing back in the day. And you know, I saw Lawrence in Miami five years ago. We said hello, and it’s the first time I had seen him since the night we depart. Literally, I had never been in a room with Lawrence to grab him and say hello. So I had my 10 minutes in Miami at the convention. I was at Radio row right before the plague. It was like January of 2020, so I remember we took a picture together. And I tell that story because a I haven’t done a lot of television, although I don’t know what this is, but back in the day, you were the first one to ever put me on TV, it was a, it was a,

Will Schwarz  15:31

oh, really, do not regret it.

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Nestor Aparicio  15:33

You were the first one to put me on TV. And I will tell you my story, because if we were doing a cocktail party, and I don’t know if you even know this, I remember it vividly. Everything we did, we did 15 shows together. We did them up at the Sheffield studios. Lawrence Taylor had a major drug problem, and there was trouble getting him in and out on a weekly basis. There were planes, trains, cars, automobiles. There was literally limos. There was everything to get Lawrence there. Buddy, meanwhile, would just fly up from Louisville and new Southwest Airlines. And buddy just fell in love with me. From the minute he saw me like literally, I remember being in the lounge area. There were bagels, there was enough food to feed 50 people, because that’s the way Warren rolled it out. Lasky. And there were four of us and three producers and a couple of camera people that all got to know each other. And from the minute I met buddy Ryan, it led me to Rex and Rob in this relationship, that football happened and buddy’s long gone. And I saw buddy many times after that, because he was always at the Cincinnati ravens game, because Rex was coaching for the Ravens. So I saw buddy a dozen more times before he died in life, and would text, you know, write to him and back and forth. Lawrence went away. Mike Warren came back into my life about two years ago, and we said hello, and caught up a little bit. But you’ve been this recurring character, and you’re the only cast of characters from this television show from all of these years ago that had these pictures and these images. And we went to the barn one night, did all that stuff. It is one of the weird thrills of my life that I actually weirdly got to do it and do a real television show, because I’ve never done anything like it since before. And I was one and done in the industry.

Will Schwarz  17:13

Well, it was fun, yeah, well, I, you know, I was as well. I didn’t, you know, I’m not quite sure how many, I don’t remember how many seasons we actually did with that show. Maybe I was only involved in three at most. I think I can’t remember to tell you the truth. How is Mike? Though I haven’t seen him in ages, good.

Nestor Aparicio  17:28

We were gonna get a beverage together up at the coopers, and we just fell out. But we we talked on the phone for a good half an hour. And Michael Warren, of course, was involved. Mike Warren sports and gambling before it was a thing, and also owned the pier five and bought the Eddie Murray ball and, like all of that kind of he loves sports. So yeah, Mike, so that show for me, when I tell my wife and show people pictures are like, well, that’s peculiar. Did you did a gambling show with Buddy Ryan and Lawrence Taylor back in the day? And I will just say this, I had never done it before. And I told buddy how nervous I was, and I know you knew how nervous I was. They put makeup on my face and shave it. It was like, I felt like I was Scott Garcia. That’s I felt like Chris Thomas. I felt like a big deal. And I went on that day. And buddy, this is what made him such an incredible man and a coach. He gave me confidence. He was like, That guy, yeah, he was like, even like, after the first show, he’s like, you feel like you’ve been doing this 20 years, man, you’re gonna do this. You’re gonna be doing this rest of your life. You’re a natural dish. And so he just pumped me up. And I just, you know, that’s a nice feeling to feel like that when

Will Schwarz  18:37

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you’re Yeah, he was a wonderful man. I mean, I I love Mike to tell you the truth. I mean, I think I know he had this image right, connected with the, you know, with the the gambling thing, but think of the the difference that between then and now with regard to gambling. But Mike was a sweet man, and please give him my best if you if and when you ever run into him, he actually, in the midst of all of that, I had produced a documentary, a little documentary on the history of baseball in Baltimore. And Mike financed it, you know, and dedicated to his brother, who is late, brother at the time. So anyway, he’s, I have fond memories of of that time. It was fun, right? It’s, that’s the idea, have fun. Oh, I would do it

Nestor Aparicio  19:21

again if somebody called me tomorrow and said we’re gonna have Joe Flacco and somebody like, yeah, man, my bagels always, and I sit around and talk football pickets. The part about the show that I do want to say it was called beat the pros. You can find it out on YouTube. There’s some clips you guys made fun of me. Mike put together this whole thing that made fun of me at the last thing. We wore tuxedos the last show, because there’s New Year’s Eve. But yeah, it was sort of like Rogers for breakfast. It’s just Warren shtick. And if you ever came to me with a budget a television show, we’d have a hell of a show. We’d have fun together. You know, if we could waste some money and get some guests, you think, Letterman, I don’t do Fallon. I don’t need any of that. We can do our thing. But I would say from that. Era and doing that show and making those picks. The thing that I think about when I laugh is that Warren had this thing with a movie with Eddie the mush, who was a gambling guy, and he would get somebody in New York to get Eddie the mush to make his picks. And it was part of the show. And it was from the Bronx Tale. A Bronx Tale, it was the movie that Mike liked, and he would have Eddie the mush from A Bronx Tale do picks every week. And he and the guy, the actor, apparently, was camped out at a bar somewhere in like, Queens, like, literally, this is the man’s life. And I think Mike wanted to slide him 100 bucks, you know, to as an actor, to put him on the show. And every week I

Speaker 1  20:45

am adding the most. You take the bucket easily. The points you later, points will Schwaz.

Will Schwarz  20:52

So the Road Dog, you go for the Road Dog, yeah, yeah.

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Nestor Aparicio  20:54

It was, yeah. It was so anyway, it was a long time ago. I love you. I miss you, and I’m so thrilled that you put this thing together with Dan, and I would look, if Dan were hurting and we didn’t sell no tickets, and we had, he sold the show, sold out. And that’s what Dan keeps saying to me, and that’s what I’m going to say to Chris and Vanessa and and Nick this week, is like, you can’t even buy tickets, but like, tell me a little bit about the show in a way that if it’s going to happen again, that you would try to sell me a ticket, because there are no tickets to sell, which makes it, yeah?

Will Schwarz  21:25

Well, it’s interesting, because Dan, I’m think this is like the third or fifth, this is the fifth show that he we’ve produced at the BMA, and every seat has been gone for every one of those, for every performance.

Nestor Aparicio  21:36

He’s trying to find me too this weekend because I was going to do the dress.

Will Schwarz  21:39

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Yeah. So the show really, it’s about 1966 it’s about the Orioles and the racial politics in the city, and how they intersected in interesting and poignant ways, and how Frank Robinson’s arrival at Baltimore helped lift the Orioles, and how the city itself was lifted in that time. The city was, it was a very troubled place. It was very, you know, as a what are the you know, Maryland is, is it a southern state? It’s a northern state. You know, with this is the state that where there was slavery in Maryland. People don’t realize that it was a slave state, and yet it was not a Confederate state, which is one of the reasons why the Emancipation Proclamation, what did not apply to people in Maryland. It was, it was because we didn’t join the Confederacy. But I digress anyway. It’s, it’s really all about that. And you know how Baltimore struggled to kind of come of age in this very troubled time in the country with, you know, the Civil Rights battles, the assassinations. So it’s, it’s an interesting story, and it uses the kind of the Orioles story as a vehicle for telling this story about Baltimore and and Mayor McKeldin, who’s an extraordinary, extraordinary man.

Nestor Aparicio  23:02

Well, it’s a beautiful piece for me, because I was born in 68 I was born in this city because Louie came here from Chicago and brought two cousins. I’m the son of one of the cousins, and people always ask me about that. But 68 I was born in October of 68 so this happened two years before my birth, but it has defined my life like everywhere I’ve ever been. I’m an Aparicio. My father would tell me about the 66 World Series, and then anyone that would ever see me, and to this day, Ron Cassie and I are going to get into this on the show, by the way, will Schwartz is my guest if you’re listening out in radio land at wnsd. He is one of the producers with Dan Rodricks. Of all of the Dan Rodricks series of plays, he was one time my producer for beat the pros, 30 years ago on television. But I want to show you one thing before Sure, yeah, yeah, you want to talk

Will Schwarz  23:52

baseball with me. So here is, this is my glove that I got when I was 10 years then,

Nestor Aparicio  23:56

an Aparicio glove. What is that? No, it’s Nelson Fox. Close enough,

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Will Schwarz  24:01

is it? Well, he was second base, right at close enough with the White Sox. I played with this glove. I don’t know, 50 years, 40 years, something like that, something like that. Yeah. So I’ve had, I’ve had two baseball gloves in my life, and I have them both still.

Nestor Aparicio  24:19

Well, that’s the defining thing for me that, like, you know, the Orioles are locking me out of having a press pass and all that. This is more like if I sat with Katie Griggs or mark fine, or these Oriole people that are nouveau. David Rubenstein, Michael arroghetti, I’d say, you know, my life’s defined by the Aparicio thing, because of baseball, how big it was in that era in this city, the 66 Orioles and Palmer still being a part of that, and Brooks and what he meant to this city, and what the Orioles mean to this city. But even in Chicago, the 59 Go Go Sox, and you mentioned Nelly Fox, that I worked in Chicago at the turn of the century after you and I did television together, and whenever I would pull my ID out. Midway Airport, or O’Hare, the person checking it would say, oh, yeah, you know. Or in a bar in Chicago, I give ID, you know, whatever it would be, yeah. But I told Ron Cassie this here, and he asked me about this because he called me to write for his story. So he and I are going to talk about this at Gertrude as we continue to promote Dan Rogers play that sold out, unfortunately. But Cassie called me two weeks ago when I invited him on a show. He’s like, Hey, I’m doing a story. I need to talk to you. I’m like, Oh, I’m a source, man, you must think I’m, I must be like, a real media member or something. So he talked to me about it, and I’m going to talk to him on the show. Because he asked me what it’s like, like and like Louie and the thing. And I said, here’s the thing about Louie and the 66 Orioles as someone who’s married to it, for better or worse, when people come up to me, and a lot of it was women, women men too, but women said to me, I love the Orioles. Your cousin was my favorite, like Louie was my favorite, and he was little and fast and swashbuckling in a way that like Muggsy Bogues was as a basketball player, right? Just this, you know, like someone, people didn’t forget, and I would always say to him that that’s my thing, is that how popular my cousin was and I, and people would come up to me, and they weren’t BS in me. And this comes down to two years ago, opening day, when David Rubenstein bought the team, he went in and sat in because this is his ego and who he is. He sat in with the broadcast team. And I was at opening day, glad hand and drinking beer. My wife texts me, she’s watching the game on TV. She said David Rubenstein just sat in. He said that Louis Aparicio was his favorite Oriole. So I told Cassie that, and I said, and it wasn’t like guys wouldn’t come up to me because they would. They’d say, Louie, but Brooks pub, you know, they were frank. They’re, you know, like everybody had a player. But there was something about Louie that anybody who saw them play, yeah, he was memorable and a hall of fame player. I’ll give all that, but just some there was something about Louie that treat me differently. When did he

Will Schwarz  27:05

come to the Orioles? Because I know 6364

Nestor Aparicio  27:09

8

and left in 68 went back to Chicago and then ended his career in Boston. Yeah, but I found the story, and I’ve told this one a handful of times, but the day that Frank Robinson died and Louis still alive. Louis is the oldest living Hall of Fame player. When Willie Mays passed, Louis became the oldest living player. Yeah, he’s the and his baseball cards have escalated because of that, because he’s the oldest living player, and he’s also the only Venezuelan in the Hall of Fame. I say that during World Baseball Classic books. So he’s the only Venezuelan in the bay. And that that will change, or don’t that’s going to change. So I

Will Schwarz  27:43

remember him in, I mean, well, I am old, but in 1959 when they played the Dodgers, and the Dodgers won four of six, I think they won 42

Nestor Aparicio  27:54

Larry Steinberg tells me about that every time he does the show, because he was a Dodgers fan, and, and, and this is the weird part of my journey life. I was in LA I’ve interviewed Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon, you know, wrote, keep on loving you. Rockstar guy. He grew up Chicago and JY from Styx, ditto, same guys. They both grew up Chicago, one north side, one south side, but they both go so Kevin Cronin met me backstage at a sticks concert 20 years ago, early in my marriage, and I got introduced to him by the guys in sticks, and JY said, Hey, this is cousin of Louie Aparicio, Kevin cronin’s eyes got biggest saucers, and he remembered talking to me as a kid at the paper. I had interviewed him and met him one time. He said, Come with me right now. And I’m like, okay, dude, he grabs me and my wife from the backstage lounge area, leads us back to the trailers that they were playing at, into his backstage trailer, into his dressing room, and he opens up the giant you know how the traveling carnies and rock bands have have the trunks, the actor, Trunks with all their gear in it, right? With their with their wardrobe, right? He opened his wardrobe, and there was a picture of Louis Aparicio and the 59 White Sox in his traveling case, he said, I never go anywhere without the 59 socks. They were my team. They were the team of my childhood. I loved your cousin. Come on, man. I mean, you know, that’s what baseball does for people, you know. And Dan, building a show around the glue that was the 66 Orioles makes me even more fascinated by it, because I didn’t live it. I only get to hear the story, you know.

Will Schwarz  29:38

I’m sure you will like it, and I know you’ll get in. But you know, as I said, back to the cast, I remember before the first, you know, show that we did that you have no idea, people in Baltimore, they love it before they even sit down, because it’s about Baltimore. People in Baltimore are, it’s a very provincial town in that way, which I think is a good thing. I. Um, but people love Baltimore. People in Baltimore love people, but love Baltimore. And, you know, it reminds me of Dan, in some ways, is his allure. His reminds me a little bit of Chris Thomas. Chris wasn’t from Baltimore either, but he was, you know, you

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Speaker 2  30:15

wouldn’t was Chris and Nestor Sure? Where was he from? He was from New Jersey.

Nestor Aparicio  30:21

I yeah, I just learned something about South Carolina. Now, you know He was my idol, right?

Will Schwarz  30:28

Well, I didn’t know that, but I can see why. So in

Nestor Aparicio  30:31

8

night, you know, you know Don Mueller, former Baltimore County Executive, was my, my partner here. Don was my high school guidance counselor in 1982 Okay, so I went to high school as a as a sophomore, because we had Junior High in Dundalk, and I didn’t get in to journal my journalism class in 10th grade. They when I put the elective in, they put me in gardening or something. They put me in something else, right? My parents drove me down to the school before I entered high school, and I walked into the front door, and I met Don Moeller, who met me at the front door, and I said, I’m going to be the next Chris Thomas. I need to be in a journalism program. Yeah. And Don Moller would always say, you’re going to be the next Chris Thomas. He but he said that to me when I was 13 years old. Yeah, yeah. So Chris Thomas. When I got to know Chris as as a as a teenager, and he was a man at press conferences and stuff like that, I was just always a fan of Chris, and I got to tell him that during his life, he sat with me at the Super Bowl and, oh, one when he was working in Tampa and and I know what a legend he wasn’t in Tampa, but I never knew he wasn’t from Baltimore. Yeah, to this minute,

Will Schwarz  31:41

that’s the most people would think Dan is from Baltimore in the same way.

Nestor Aparicio  31:45

Well, I mean, I It’s the power of television. I think it’s the power of authenticity that that when you’re the real thing and Dan’s the real thing, and 1966 is the real thing too, it’s a show. Will Schwarz is my guest. He’s involved with Dan, and has been for longer than I have. I’m involved with Dan. If you’re involved with Baltimore, you want to be a part of these shows. And if I’m drumming up extra business for a spring or summer or a winter production for Dan shows, then good for me. Get down to the BMA, because it’s free. Get down and eat it gertrudes before, during or after the well, not during before or after the show, and enjoy yourself. Well, I’m so grateful for your time today. I’ve been wanting to have you on forever. Please come back and

Will Schwarz  32:23

visit. All right. Anytime. My pleasure.

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Speaker 1  32:25

Thank you. Share some Baltimore stories. Will Schwarz such a great producer that he

Nestor Aparicio  32:31

once employed me as a host. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Baltimore positive.