Getting a shot in the arm of baseball knowledge from Kansas City

Three decades of baseball and sports radio friendship with former Royals reliever Jeff Montgomery comes full circle as Nestor checks in with his Kansas City broadcast pal on the eve of another Lamar Jackson visit and talks pitching, young arms and the never-ending MLB labor wars that will be surfacing again next season.

Nestor Aparicio and former Kansas City Royals reliever Jeff Montgomery discussed various topics, including Montgomery’s memories of the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore, his experiences with KISS, and his career highlights. They also touched on the current state of baseball, particularly the challenges faced by the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, including injuries to key players and the impact of starting pitching. Montgomery shared insights on the evolution of baseball, the importance of player development, and the potential labor issues in Major League Baseball. They also briefly mentioned the upcoming Kansas City Chiefs game and the challenges faced by the Baltimore Ravens.

Kansas City Week and Memories of the 1993 All-Star Game

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the show and mentions the upcoming Maryland crab cake tour.
• Nestor reminisces about the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore, where Jeff Montgomery pitched.
• Jeff Montgomery shares memories of the 1993 All-Star Game, including singing “O Canada” with Geddy Lee and spending time with his family.
• Jeff recalls a KISS concert he attended after the game, where he had too many drinks and gave up a home run the next day.

Baseball Memories and All-Star Game Experiences

• Nestor and Jeff discuss the 1993 All-Star Game, highlighting memorable moments like Griffey hitting the wall and Randy Johnson’s performance.
• Jeff talks about his other All-Star Game experiences in San Diego and Philadelphia.
• Nestor mentions the lack of a parade in Baltimore compared to Kansas City’s parades for their World Series wins.
• Jeff and Nestor discuss the current state of the Orioles and Royals, including the challenges of being mediocre in baseball.

Challenges of Mediocrity and Team Dynamics

• Jeff Montgomery discusses the challenges of being relevant during the last month of the season and the impact of managerial changes.
• Nestor and Jeff talk about the Orioles’ recent success and the impact of players like Adley Rutschman and Trevor Rogers.
• Jeff explains the importance of starting pitching and the impact of injuries on a team’s performance.
• Nestor shares his experience attending an opening day game at Dodger Stadium and the differences between various baseball markets.

Player Development and Team Strategy

• Jeff Montgomery discusses the challenges of player development and the impact of injuries on young players.
• Nestor and Jeff talk about the Orioles’ drafting and development of players like Bobby Witt Jr. and Adley Rutschman.
• Jeff explains the importance of player loyalty and the challenges of managing a team’s payroll.
• Nestor and Jeff discuss the impact of new ownership on the Orioles and the importance of making the right player decisions.

The Evolution of Baseball and Player Health

• Jeff Montgomery discusses the changes in baseball over the years, including the impact of analytics and the pitch clock.
• Nestor and Jeff talk about the challenges of player health and the impact of overuse on young players.
• Jeff explains the importance of learning how to pitch and the impact of modern training methods on player development.
• Nestor shares his experiences with players and coaches, highlighting the importance of understanding the game and player health.

Labor Issues and the Future of Baseball

• Nestor and Jeff discuss the potential labor issues and the imbalance of revenues in Major League Baseball.
• Jeff explains the challenges of collective bargaining and the potential for a salary cap in baseball.
• Nestor shares his perspective on the importance of player solidarity and the impact of past labor disputes.
• Jeff highlights the importance of a partnership between players and owners to ensure the future of the game.

The Role of Media and Community Involvement

• Nestor and Jeff discuss the role of media in covering baseball and the importance of community involvement.
• Jeff shares his experience as a media mogul and the challenges of running a sports radio station.
• Nestor talks about his involvement in community projects and the importance of giving back.
• Jeff and Nestor discuss the impact of new ownership on the Orioles and the importance of supporting local talent.

The Impact of Analytics and Modern Training

• Jeff Montgomery discusses the impact of analytics on player development and the challenges of modern training methods.
• Nestor and Jeff talk about the importance of understanding the game and the impact of overuse on young players.
• Jeff explains the importance of learning how to pitch and the impact of modern training methods on player development.
• Nestor shares his experiences with players and coaches, highlighting the importance of understanding the game and player health.

The Future of Baseball and Player Development

• Jeff Montgomery discusses the challenges of player development and the impact of injuries on young players.
• Nestor and Jeff talk about the importance of player loyalty and the challenges of managing a team’s payroll.
• Jeff explains the importance of a partnership between players and owners to ensure the future of the game.
• Nestor shares his perspective on the importance of player solidarity and the impact of past labor disputes.

The Role of Media and Community Involvement

• Nestor and Jeff discuss the role of media in covering baseball and the importance of community involvement.
• Jeff shares his experience as a media mogul and the challenges of running a sports radio station.
• Nestor talks about his involvement in community projects and the importance of giving back.
• Jeff and Nestor discuss the impact of new ownership on the Orioles and the importance of supporting local talent.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Kansas City Royals, Jeff Montgomery, MLB labor issues, pitching, baseball collection, All-Star Game, Bobby Witt Jr, player injuries, starting pitching, revenue sharing, salary cap, player development, analytics, baseball history, media ownership.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Jeff Montgomery, Speaker 1

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively, getting you through this Kansas City week and purple therapy that we’ve been doing here. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery soon. I don’t have any dates for next week, but it’s coming up. They’re waiting for me over Costas. I got to get back down to fade. Leaves. No playoff baseball down at fade leads at Lexington market. If there were, maybe I’d be inviting this guy. He hails from Cincinnati, but has made his life in Kansas City. Ow. HP, radio out there. He is a former All Star reliever, kiss, makeup, fan and rocker, I wore my Getty Lee major league baseball shirt. Can you believe that the all star game you pitched in here, Jeff Montgomery, 1993 32, years ago. Now you me and Getty Lee had a little campfire down there over Oh, Canada. How you doing?

Jeff Montgomery  01:00

Man, doing great. That shirt brings back so many memories. I’ve talked so many times about that all star game, and it was interesting because of Getty Lee Sang a Canadian anthem, and we were opening up in Toronto after the all star game. So Getty being there, and having known Getty, invited me to fly back up when this flight up to Toronto together. So it’s pretty cool spending some time with him and his family. My wife, Tina, was with me, so it was really cool experience. And gosh, that that really brings back so many memories you talk about the kiss photos. And I remember as after opening day when you’re in Baltimore, we had that we went to the KISS concert. But what I remember about that is I had a few too many I don’t know if it was budweisers or Bud Lights at the time, but I had a few too many cocktails at that concert. The next day, I gave up a home run to someone in the Orioles, and end up blowing the save. There so good memories and bad memories from both Russia.

Nestor Aparicio  02:01

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Show I saw you with the kiss. If it were the modern era, we’d have pictures, because we would have had phones together, but they were spray painting faces, like you and goop is on a bunch of the guys, like, dressed up, like kiss, right? Literally, we did it, yeah. Well, you know old rock and roll hearts. And I’ll just say this, when we get into baseball and football, and I’m having you on because it’s Kansas City week, but like, you’ve been embedded with the baseball team. So we’re gonna talk Bobby Witt we’re gonna talk different things like that. But, um, the the Getty Lee thing, he did a sit down with, um, with Dan, rather, on, you know, Dan sat with all the rock stars, and he went to get his house. You know, Getty has an incredible baseball collection, the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame, museum in Kansas City. All the baseballs that are there, the Getty has presidential autographs, all that, but, but, but I noticed on the video, Getty’s there, and, you know, he’s got his thing going on. He’s talking about, you know, baseball and, and I looked on the floor the 1993 All Star Game bag that all the players got the gift bag. It’s sitting there. I saw the logo. It’s right in his room. He keeps the 1993 All Star Game close. And I know you do too. You don’t get to pitch many all star games, right?

Jeff Montgomery  03:11

Well, that’s, that was my favorite memory from all star games, because my first All Star game was in San Diego. Second one was there in Baltimore, and that was the year, I think after the stadium had opened up. Then in 96 my All Star parents was in Philadelphia, and I got a pitch in the Baltimore game, and did well. I think I had three or three down. I remember striking out Darren Dalton. So that was something that was always memorable. But the all star game in San Diego, it was a blowout. Al won big. And in the 96 All Star game in Philly, it was a blow out the National League. One big that was a mike Piasa Showcase event there for him. But yeah, the great members in that 93 All Star game, I remember how hot it was too. Remember how hot it was that week during

Nestor Aparicio  03:56

all of it, I mean, all of it, it’s still legendary 32 years later, with Griffey hitting the wall, Gonzalez with the home run John Kruk and Randy Johnson, like they just had a lot of Free Willy out on the outfield. Had a lot of memories, and even for Messina here and Seto Gaston. But, you know, I think back, man, it’s been 32 years. How crazy is that? And here’s the difference, you’re in Kansas City, you’ve had a parade, a rather large one. We have not had a parade here yet. And I don’t know if franchises do parades over 500 finishes, or wherever you are in Kansas City, because you’re in that sort of never, never land of but you’re in a different division there. Man, the baseball thing here, money, it got good again, right? We’re bad. We’re so bad, we’re good. We’re drafting Richmond, we’re drafting all these guys. Henderson’s coming on, and this year has been such an incredible thud for the fan base. Here for the off season, it’s been nice having Trevor Rogers and getting Kyle Bradish back the last couple of weeks. But there’s nothing worse than being sort of mediocre in baseball, right?

Speaker 1  04:59

Well, you want.

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Jeff Montgomery  05:00

Be relevant during the last month of the season, and then things end early. Obviously, you you have to let your manager go, you make some changes, and that’s a dramatic change. And I think that there’s a ripple down effect whenever that occurs, and it’s just hard for team to get the traction they need. Because, I mean, you can really kind of be seemingly out of things, and, you know, going into, say, the All Star break. If you’re around 500 around the all star break, you still have some life left in you. You know saying you still have the ability to turn around. But I mean, I use Baltimore as an example numerous times, how they turn things around three or four years ago, 100 plus last season, and turn things around. And I think rushman had so much to do with that. What he was able to do, not just with his bat, but what he was able to do with that pitching staff, really made a huge difference. And, you know, this thing goes in such cycles, and we see the ups and the downs, and, you know, unless you’re, say, an LA, or a New York or, you know, or maybe even the cubbies, and you just have to look at the the markets and what the

Jeff Montgomery  05:57

abilities are to put together that payroll, that you have to have the to really be relevant and have a chance of going deep into a postseason.

Nestor Aparicio  06:04

Well, so you mentioned that because I’ve been to one baseball game this year. There was an opening day last week. Janet Marie Smith made me her guest at Dodger Stadium. I was there the day that Kershaw announced his retirement. I saw him play the Giants. Also saw ya moto pitch at Chavez Ravine, which is a lovely my favorite place. Chavez made second favorites your stadium, but I haven’t been there since, been completely remodeled, but I’ve, I’ve always loved royal Stadium as well. Um, you know, I guess for being in a place where you smell the money, you smell Dodger bigness. When I go to Yankee Stadium, I don’t smell that in Kansas City. I don’t smell that in Pittsburgh. I don’t smell in Cleveland. I don’t smell in Baltimore. A lot of these places have to get things so right. And Richmond felt right when they’re winning 101 games this time two years ago, and everybody was sort of coming along, and they had all these prospects in the wings. Now, cows are up and he’s hitting Mendoza now Kobe Mayo looks like Kingman without the power. You know, Westberg has been injured a lot. Gunner Anderson looks like a star, but me, you know, I don’t know where all of this is, and ruchman has really withered, along with injuries and some other things. And the bobby Witt ruchman thing here seems to be eternal, and it will be a measurement here that the Orioles may have gotten that one wrong.

Jeff Montgomery  07:22

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Yeah, I’d say it’s really hard to say. I mean, Bobby Jr is an outstanding talent. I mean, if I’m going to start a baseball team, he may be the one guy that I’d say, give me him as my first pick, just because of all the things he can do. And he’s 25 years old, and they can go out and do a lot of things to help you win a baseball game. But we saw Bobby Witt Jr in 2024 have an MVP type season. Judge won the MVP. Bobby Jr was not the same player this season. He was last year still put up really, really good numbers. I mean, he, he would be, you put up, you know, well above average numbers for any player, any position. But his defense is incredible. I just felt he didn’t expect players to go, you know, say, 15 to 20 years of a career and not have some little blips on the radar where you say, Gosh, how long can we count on this? But I think the great players find ways to rebound, find ways to recover, get back to where they need to be at some point. I think

Nestor Aparicio  08:17

restaurant will do that. Well. It’s been a decade now since the Kansas City, Baltimore baseball wars, it’s kind of crazy how fast time goes. Perez still a part of this. And I go back to Hosmer, and you know, at that point in time, that inflection point mustache, where, who are you keeping? Who are you not keeping? The Dodgers don’t have to worry about that. Certain places they don’t worry about that, certainly for the Orioles, it was, give Richmond 500 but no, no, no, give Henderson. Well, the Boris is the agent we can’t give. Well, well, maybe messiah will take our money eight at bats into his career. Will take $80 million like and we have new owners here that are really, you know, that’s an amici lunch for you and me off the air to talk about the new ownership here on how my Caucasian employee has a fresh credential in the Hispanic guy named Aparicio doesn’t, but in a general sense, picking the right players. And I look all these years later and look up at Perez and say, well, somebody you chose wisely in certain ways there, but that was the hardest thing to do after you won, was knowing there wasn’t necessarily going to be the kind of money necessary to support, you know, $200 million payroll in Kansas City.

Jeff Montgomery  09:27

Yeah. And the big thing that happened was the Royals went 29 years from the 1985 World Series to getting into the wild card. And they made it in that wild card, 2014 they go to the World Series. They lose in the seventh game of the World Series. They go back in 15 to really kind of go wire to wire that whole year. And they had some great players. And players like the Lorenzo Keynes and the alcitus Escobar and Mark Eric Hosmer says, Alex wardens, you had so many of those players that really kind of hit free agency all at one time. And the royal. Was front office day more who’s the general manager at that time? Said, Look, this, this organization, this fan base, has waited 29 years for postseason. We finally got there. We finally got to the top of the hill. We won the World Series. And I know these players have value. We can trade, and we can just say, Hey, we’re done. We won a World Series. We’re finished, and we can get some nice prospects for these players who are going to be hitting free agency all about the same time. We had four guys in one season they were going to hit free agency. He elected to try to go for it one more time. For the fans of of the Kansas City Royals, it did not work out. They kind of ran out of gas at the end of that 2016 season. Just didn’t get there, and that was really the time that you could have traded and got some tremendous value from those, from those players who were all going to be hitting free agency. They didn’t do it. They were highly criticized, uh, unfortunately, Dayton Moore probably lost his job over something similar to that situation, because our new owner decided, hey, we want more transactional. We want we want to see. We love loyalty. We love it when we buy into our players. But we need some, some we need more transactional type of a general manager, general JJ piccolo took over to General mentor, and he’s been exactly that. He’s been much more transactional, and still has that attachment to the players, but they, I think everybody understands you can’t just kind of stay with the same group of players beyond their prime once they hit it and you have a chance to move them, it might be time to do it, because of the dollars involved in most markets don’t have the ability to write a whole bunch of several 100 million dollar checks at one time.

Nestor Aparicio  11:38

Jeff Montgomery is our guest. He was a great relief pitcher major league baseball for the Kansas City Royals. He has been involved in their broadcast, been involved in Kansas City media since the day he took me out and said, I’m thinking, I’m getting a radio stations before I had my radio station, I’m 27 years how long you had the

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Jeff Montgomery  11:53

station? Gosh, I think it was 1997 is when we

Nestor Aparicio  11:57

I was 98 you were before we

Jeff Montgomery  11:59

did our first station in 97 I’m still playing and I made the decision to invest in sports radio because Kansas City was a larger, largest market in the United States that did not have a full time sports radio station. We had sports on an am station from three in the afternoon to six. That was the only sports on the radio in Kansas City. And that was my reasoning for making that investment and still going strong after all this year.

Nestor Aparicio  12:24

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Yes, me too. And, you know, I’ve moved to Baltimore positive. I do all sorts of community things and food things and community just get out because I can’t do sports all day, every day at 57 and and I think it got mean and it got ridiculous. I mean, in a general sense, I was never as, you know, as our friendship of three and a half decades goes back. I was never a fire the coach, Barry, the player, kind of guy. I think being around it gave me a different kind of respect for injuries and tough times and mental challenges and how hard the game is, certainly the game of baseball on a daily basis. And then football came here, you know, right around that 9697 and I saw what injuries look real. Injuries look like gruesome. Injuries look like head trauma, you know, having Tony Sarah goose to tell me he loved me because he got hit in the head during the game, you know. So I’ve seen the the other part of athletics, but I’ve also seen the challenges baseball’s had. And, you know, I’ve waited decades for Mr. Angelos to either move on or move the team. We have a new owner here. They have a nice base of young talent. They have a general manager who is at least capable of identifying talent. What would you say from the outside of whatever this implosion was here this year, money where they went from, I think the over under was like 9091, and a half on them in the beginning of the year, to 89 to their 18 games out of first place. I mean, like you know there, it really happened fast and furious, and in April and May, and they never got their footing here. And it’s I’ve been at this 57 years. I go back to like 72 as a Oriole fan. We’re talking about big Earl, the big cat, Williams and deals, and we lost Davey Johnson. I remember when he was in Oriole That’s how far back I go as a player, when he was dealt to the Atlanta Braves. I don’t remember a year like this money. And I’ve been on the air here for 35 years. I’ve been in media 41 years. I don’t remember a year with promise like they had here and just seen it just go away. And it’s been a devastating thing financially for the franchise. First time buyers this year who bought into new ownership because they wanted nothing to do with the old ownership. Now there’s a queasiness in the marketplace here, and I don’t mean one and two for the football team, everybody’s been that makes the football team even worse, because there’s such hope getting to this Kansas City Chiefs game to speak with you, but I don’t know where the hope is in the offset. Season here, that they’re going to spend money by pitching make good decisions, or that any of their young players really look like they’re ascending right now?

Jeff Montgomery  15:09

Yeah, I think I mean, to put it in a nutshell, to me, it all boils down to starting pitching. I mean, if you’ve got a rotation that can give you a chance to win every time you go out there, then you’re going to have a good season. And if you lose players due to injury, you lose players due to free agency that maybe were factored in, maybe from a year ago or a few years back, that are you’re going to count on for those 30 plus starts, for those quality starts, are going to give you a great chance to win a baseball game. I mean, Baltimore has always been a great place for hitters. Now it’s changed dramatically once they move that left field wall back. I mean, it really did change things dramatically for the hitters, in my opinion, because I just remember shagging fly balls during batting practice and in Camden Yards and how just how far those balls would get out of the ballpark, and it was just such a hitter friendly venue. But I think starting pitching really is the key. I’ll use an example here in Kansas City. This year, we had our opening day pitcher go down. We had our all star pitcher and Chris pubic go down. We lost our American League Cy Young runner up from last year, Seth Lugo. So you lose Reagan’s bubage and Lugo. And last year, our starting rotation started 93% of the games, okay? 151 games they started last year, the five that started the season in rotation this year wasn’t even close to that. So it just so difficult when you don’t have that deep system in order to cover those injuries, and you can bring guys in from outside, or you can bring guys up from the system, but when you’re losing Cy Young caliber pitchers, then you’ve lost a lot. And I think Orioles, with regards to the injuries, losing in Corbin burns players like that, it certainly is impactful when you don’t have those guys to count

Nestor Aparicio  17:01

on. Jeff Montgomery is our guest. He’s out in Kansas City. I actually called him to talk football. He’s like, I’m watching football. Yet we don’t watch chiefs till the Royals are over around here, and they’re one and two, and there might be one and three. Can be one and three by the end of the day. I got to talk arms with you. Man, I don’t know that. And sometimes they get you in the middle of the season and you’re all frenetic, and you’re getting off a plane from Chicago coming into Baltimore, and we’re trying to talk about gays. And when a team stinks, I don’t even bother you in the middle of the year, because there was no ongoing conversation about anything pennant related here this year. And for five years from 17 through 23 really, you know, I mean, when you’re out of it, you’re out of it. And the baseball thing here’s been a mess, but once you start to sniff where it is. You get back into, well, the the shifts have changed, and the clock has changed, you know, all of this stuff that didn’t exist, even in 1415, when we’re battling you in American League Championship Series. Um, I look at the game now and I see the pitchers, and I see the arms falling off, and I’ve been with Bradish now long enough to see his arm fall off twice. Surgery. This that back. Now he’s back now. He’s going to be an opening day starter and a Cy Young candidate. Again. I need to know I had Leo Mazzoni on this summer. He had a more old fashioned thought about it than you, I’m sure even, but like you’re the way you became a major league pitcher, the way you became an all star reliever, the way you fed your family, the way you stayed healthy was feeding your family. It wasn’t max effort. Max effort. I’m going to throw my arm out when I’m 26 and not be able to pitch when I’m 32 or 33 make some money, um, the advice these kids get the year round, all of that. And I talked to many of you. I keep contact with pitchers and even guys like Dave Johnson, whose kid, Steve, pitched in the modern era. And people I know who Palmer came up to me this summer and talk pitching with me and talked about injuries and all this stuff, and he’s on the broadcast every night. There’s so many ways of looking at this, but whatever they’re doing now is the wrong way. I mean, when everybody’s getting hurt, I I just, I’m wondering who’s keeping an eye on these kids? Man, well,

Jeff Montgomery  19:03

unfortunately, I think it’s starts with the kids. I think it starts when kids are in their teens, and parents are running them to baseball academies, trying to get them velocity. They’re trying to, trying to learn velocity at too young of an age. I mean, when you’re 14 or 15 years old and you’re trying to throw a baseball 82 miles an hour because you want to get a scholarship or you want to have a chance to be drafted. To me, it’s just too much. And I think I had a doctor describe it to me this one time he goes he goes money. There’s so much tread on the tire. The harder you run your tire, the faster it’s going to wear out. And that’s what they’re doing with these kids at a young age. Your own baseball. Very rarely do you see a tremendous athlete who plays three sports anymore, where it’s a football, basketball, baseball. You know thing that a lot of athletes like myself did, where you’re you’re allowing that arm to rest for six or seven months out of the year, and then you’re playing baseball. Offer. You know the balance at a time, but then you get to the professional level, and even at the college level, before players are drafted, you’ve got so many ways to measure pitches, whether it be velocity or be spin angles, so many different ways to measure and I think the kind of the intricacies of that have created an environment which players expose the health of their arm, and it’s all about spin, it’s all about max effort. It’s all about velocity. And when, when you’re doing that, you know, a big part of the year, you’re just going to wear yourself down. You’re going to wear yourself out. And that’s the thing that I think has happened, starting at a younger age with the amateur players all the way through, you know, the professional ranks. And I saw a study once that Tom Verducci from Sports Illustrated put together tremendous article about the players who were having Tommy John. And this article goes back a number of years. So it’s even worse now, I’m sure, but the amount of players has had Tommy John surgery, the lion’s share of those players were American born players, and his reasoning, after doing a tremendous amount of research, was this, that the Latin American players are allowed to kind of grow into their velocity. In other words, they’re not on a radar gun, or they’re not on a HawkEye system. You know, when they’re 14 years old, because no one were you

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Nestor Aparicio  21:26

right in your era? Right? Not at all. You’ve seen this come this century, really, in the last 1520, years, 20 where it’s a medical experiment for every kid who’s got readouts and science, where what you had was, Hey, Jeff fun today, how’d you throw? Right? Right? Literally, right. Well.

Jeff Montgomery  21:46

And the other thing is, like you people say, How many games you play with a kid? Well, I said, you know, I probably played 15 to 20 in the summer in a uniform with a umpire, but I probably played 70 games a month in The Sandlot. You know, I played, I played a whole lot more baseball than the kids do now today, but it wasn’t the big focus on how hard can you throw, how many guys can strike out, how many bats can you miss? As I I felt like learning how to pitch, truly learning how to pitch, not throw, but pitch was the key to me having success in baseball,

Nestor Aparicio  22:19

and that was what part of the artistry it wasn’t doing it too much, too hard, too often, right?

Jeff Montgomery  22:27

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No, that’s ability to command the baseball down in the strike zone, changing speeds, identifying hitters strengths and weaknesses, reading the swing when a player makes a swing during the course of an at bat, was he on that pitch? Was he not on that pitch? Maybe I need to change speeds. Maybe I need to change location. All those things that come into play to me nowadays, unfortunately, are not on the player himself. They’re on the analytics. They’re on all of the preparation, or on all the reports and the scouting and things that they get with regards to the weakness of the hitter. Okay, so now as a pitcher, I’m now trying to pitch that hitter’s weakness, which is fine, but that may not be my strength. And I think players get too they get too plugged into the game plan and not able to adjust on the fly in the middle of a count during and at bat. I think the pitchers just in fact, this was interesting. We were playing a couple of years ago, playing to Toronto Blue Jays, and a pitcher came in from the bullpen, and he looks, he takes his hat off, and it looks down in a little scout report in his hat, and, oh, he he calls a pitching coach out, right? He had the wrong scouting report in his hat. He couldn’t pitch because he had the wrong Scout report in his hat. They had to call out the Bat Boy to bring him the right scouting report for him to put that into his hat and be able to make the pitches. He just didn’t have the ability, on his own, to stand on the middle of a major league bound and pitch to a hitter. And I was like, this is where we’ve gotten to. You know where the hitters are, where the pitchers are so reliant on someone else telling them how to do their job. And so there’s just so many things that have changed a lot of it for good. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I think a lot of the stuff is really good. They’ve done in baseball. I think the game so much more interesting to the pitch clock has been tremendous, in my opinion, as far as house improve, the pace of the game, the interest of the game, but there are a lot of things, in my opinion, too, that the analytics have driven the game in a bad direction. You know,

Nestor Aparicio  24:32

every old guy like you and me looks at it and says, analytics, Grammy, great, but have they improved the game? And I’m going to last thing for you, because I know you because I know you’re a player rep, and I think it’s really important to talk about this, because I’m not the boogeyman, and I am Baltimore positive, not negative. But I sat through your strict your strike, you know, and and Camden Yards empty, and the streak and all of that stuff. I my dad canceled the Sporting News in 81 from the first strike. He was so pissed at baseball he didn’t know what the. Do. So he’s like, no box scores, no Sporting News. So 44 years later, I still bring that one up next year, the labor situation and the imbalance of revenues and haves and have nots in the game. And as you know, as a media mogul that you are, hey, by the way, two FCC licensees here together today, two guys, two regular guys. You’re less regular than me, but I would say like, you know, that’s very unusual, that we’re not named Clear Channel or Odyssey, or any of that stuff, and we actually own FCC licenses. But you know, from a media perspective, and you understand this as well as anyone. You made a lot of money playing baseball, and follow it where regional sports is and where streaming is, and where all white people are or are not watching baseball, or how young people haven’t really caught on to it in so many ways, and who’s going to pay for it and how we’re going to access it. Streaming wise, here, there’s a lot of questions about revenue in baseball, where it’s going, where the future is, not to mention arms and pitching, but just finding what the new business model is for Major League Baseball. Because I bring it up with lots of people, and no one’s really good at explaining it to me, and I know smart people,

Jeff Montgomery  26:18

yeah, I unfortunately, I would not want to be the one that has to figure out that Rubik’s Cube once the basic agreement expired after next season, and what’s going to happen with regards to the collective bargaining where is that going to go or not go? Who knows what that’s going to lead to. But there’s already a lot of maybe hints or indications that the owners, once again, are going to fight pretty hard to get a salary cap in baseball, which, yes, it works dramatically different in other sports with regards to the cap and the revenue sharing with regards to media. The NFL, they are fortunate. They’ve got it right the NFL with how NFL runs all of the television rights through Central and everyone is treated somewhat equally. With regards to that baseball will, to me, it’d be very difficult to get to that. And I think with regards to the negotiation with the collective bargaining players and owners. And one thing I remember vividly from the 9495 strike, when I was our player rep here in Kansas, city, is that we asked for, you know, the owners were asking for a cap, essentially, is what they were asking for, and we were asking for numbers. And Major League Baseball owners are protected from by antitrust laws. They don’t have to disclose their their numbers. Only industry in America that is protected from from sharing, you know, their their their true numbers, their books, and we couldn’t get any cooperation on owner sharing books. And when you start talking about a partnership, I mean, I think that’s one thing that is going to have to happen at some point if there’s ever going to be a partnership between the players and the owners to where they will share revenues or do whatever it’s going to be in caps, that there has to be a feeling that we’re on the same page and we’re working together, and it’s not us against you. It’s some kind of a unified motion. But I think it’s going to be a really, really complicated situation coming up into the next season.

Nestor Aparicio  28:18

As an old time player you are, and you’re not even old time. Old time. Old time player. That would be the Brooks, Robinsons and the people that you know, Brian mccray’s Father, you know reserve clause people. You had it pretty good during your day, but I dug in, and you guys were in it together, and a flying middle finger to the to then multi millionaires, not billionaires, and corporations that were involved that Charlie finley’s daughter on a couple weeks ago. So, yeah, I go back to that era, and remember those fights. It was a dug in, unified thing that started with Curt Flood and everyone black and white and Hispanic and right handed and left handed, and pitcher and catcher, and, you know, just all the way through what Marvin Miller and then Don fear in your era, brought people together to fight. I don’t know what the fight is in baseball, when I see empty stadiums, I see these regional sports networks, I don’t know where that fight for revenue is. I just know it’s 20 bucks for a beer when I go to the stadium. And I’m wondering whether you know where the value proposition is for Mr. Rubenstein, Katie Griggs, the people that are running the Orioles. I can’t blame anything on Peter John Angelos anymore. I don’t have any of that. I just Where are you now? And am I invited? I’m 50. Am I in? Do I want to participate in this or not as an Aparicio Getty Lee, friend of those all star pitchers, medium member, FCC, Owner, all of that, tell me where, where I’m supposed to stand Major League Baseball and the Orioles, and I think this time next year, I remember the wars from your era. I don’t know how dug in the players are to stick together. I think that’s going to be for you and guys of your era to say, Hey, don’t roll over. These guys are really rich. Don’t roll over. Yeah.

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Jeff Montgomery  30:00

It’s going to be very interesting, because I don’t think there are any players active today who are going to be going through this experience, such as the we essentially went through this every time there was collective bargaining. They did have that small lockout a couple of years ago, but, you know, it was, it was not a thing where you’re digging in and fighting over something, you know, more critical, like, are you? Are you trying to preserve the system as you have it now that players like myself, you know, Miss part of 94 a World Series at 95 for and by the way, I had a chance to be together with Johnny Bench a few years ago. And Johnny Bench is one of my favorite players of all time growing up, and as a cisny reds fan. And I was at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Johnny was speaking there, and I was there for an event as well. And I went up to Johnny, and I shook his hand. I looked him in the eye, and I shook his hand. I said, Johnny. I said, I want to thank you for all that you and your players went through for the system that I had the opportunity to enjoy. And he stood up out of his chair, and he looked at me and said, Monty, he goes. No one has ever said that to me. Thank you very much. I just don’t know that there’s an appreciation, you know, from especially today’s players who are really, really doing well financially. I don’t know if there’s appreciation for what guys like Johnny Bench did and Brooks Robinson did back in the day when they had to dig in their claws and fight for the system.

Nestor Aparicio  31:24

I want you to know that I was in El Segundo last week, and it wasn’t to visit Jim Harbaugh or Ortiz or even Herbert. I went to George Brett’s field in El Segundo because I’m old school, I would get my bobble head out, but I got to put away. You know what it’s for, George Bragg, but I mean, it’s people of your era that would be able to stand up and say, Hey, Gunner Henderson, hey Adley rushman. Or, you know, don’t roll over for these billions. These guys are even richer than the error that you had, you know, in regard to how much money the actual owners have, and what their level of interest in investment when we put $600 million into the stadium as taxpayers, to basically take the Jim Henneman press box and put it in left field. So I get, I mean literally, I’ve watched all of this happen now on my watch over all these years. Jeff Montgomery, I’m gonna get back to doing what he does, owning whp, monitoring all things was and by the way, watch your football team. You understood radios. We’re coming out. Start watching this week.

Jeff Montgomery  32:24

You know, it’s interesting. I was looking at the Lamar Jackson’s numbers like 11 T days, no interceptions, but the defense can’t stop anybody, right? The defense is having some trouble.

Nestor Aparicio  32:34

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There’s a lot of Mada BK, namdi. Mada BK, big defensive tackle gets after the quarterback, sacking defensive tackle. Neck problem. It sounds not real good in a lot of ways. It’s been a little quiet. Earlier in the week, didn’t play, probably going to play this week. Huge, huge problems and stopping the run, huge problems without a pass rush and Kyle van Noy. And I think that that’s what really did him in against Jared Goff on Monday night, short week, dude, I know you got paid. I know you got a tee time. I know you well enough to know you’re gonna be out of the Golf I feel like such a jerk, you know, with this whole ravens thing and me, I used to be a media member. Now I’m not, because these people say I’m not. I missed the barbecue. I missed just coming out and hanging out with you guys and eating some barbecue this week. But I’ll be watching from here as arrowhead rains down on Lamar and we see mahomes and Lamar do their thing. I’ll see you next year. We’ll get some barbecue out of Kansas City.

Jeff Montgomery  33:28

All right. Sounds great. Take care of yourself. Love Jeff Montgomery, I wore my

Nestor Aparicio  33:31

special major league baseball shirt from I still have the clipping of money, wearing my get nasty shirt in the Kansas City Star on some treadmill and some story that he sent me from 1996 I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. I still want to go to Kansas City this week, don’t you know? And I start talking to guys like you, it makes me want the barbecue. Baltimore positive. Hang in there. Game times at four o’clock. You.