Getting defensive about playoff baseball and Orioles deficiencies with the glove this summer

It’s always fun to talk baseball in October with folks who live and love the game. Former MLB outfielder Casper Wells and our trusted sponsor with The Comfort Guys, Zach Dermer join Nestor for a state of baseball and the Orioles offseason from State Fare in Catonsville on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. We promise not to drop the ball…

The discussion assessed the Orioles’ shortcomings, baseball’s competitive and labor issues, and related local business topics.

Orioles Performance

• Casper said the Orioles need stronger defense, more fundamental execution, and better support for pitching; offensive inconsistency and injuries also remain concerns.
• The group questioned whether players such as Kobe Mayo can develop adequately at a new position during the season rather than through extensive off-season repetition.
• Open question: Can the Orioles improve defensively and develop young players without sacrificing near-term performance?

Baseball Economics

• The participants criticized MLB’s lack of competitive balance, inconsistent access to games, and low attendance at Camden Yards.
• The upcoming labor dispute may delay or limit offseason improvements, with salary-floor and revenue-sharing issues unresolved.
• Open question: Can owners and players reach a model that makes smaller-market teams meaningfully competitive and keeps fans engaged?

• Schedule a meeting with Casper Wells to review commercial insurance coverage and address identified policy gaps and inefficiencies. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Orioles and Defense

• Casper emphasized defensive fundamentals, hustle, positioning, and limiting extra outs.
• The group discussed errors, poor throws, outfield development, and the risks of moving strong hitters to unfamiliar positions.
• Leadership from veteran players such as Pete Alonso was viewed as valuable for younger Orioles.

State of Baseball

• The conversation covered the appeal of playoff baseball and concern that labor negotiations could overshadow the postseason and offseason.
• Participants debated the absence of a salary cap, competitive balance, revenue distribution, and small-market viability.
• Attendance, fragmented broadcast access, and the Orioles’ split-admission doubleheader were cited as fan-engagement problems.

Local Business

• Casper described his commercial property-and-casualty insurance work with Heller Kowitz.
• Zach promoted Farnham and Dermer, including heating-system safety checks before colder weather.
• The discussion also highlighted local relationships among former baseball players, businesses, and community partners.

Nestor Aparicio 0:00
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. We are positively back in Catonsville. We’re in the Vill 21228. Life is great. It is all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I have the Raven scratch offs, the Kiss Face Bird, Casper Wells gets one, Zach Dermer gets one, Alan McCallum’s going to get one when he gets up here. Keith’s going to get one. We’re out here at State Fair, beautiful Catonsville, across from the basement and El Guapo, and around the corner from Beaumont and our our partners over at the Fishmonger’s Daughter. Get on out here, support these businesses in Catonsville. What’d you get? Eggs? You got some? You got the Rick Rick Rick Rick. What’s the thing? The rickshaw omelet? Was that

Casper Wells 0:38
rickshaw? Yeah. Rick’s. What was yours? What’d you get?

Zach Dermer 0:40
I got the Stevo, Steve, French toast, made salted. I got chicken and waffles

Nestor Aparicio 0:44
because it’s state fair. Casper Wells is our guest, and my dude from Farnin and Derma, Zach Dermer’s here. Our friends at GBMC also putting us out on the road here. I’ve had this plan for a little while. Casper stepped up about three weeks ago for some reason. Guys from Schenectady like me, former big league ball players, and Towson State Tigers. Now Towson Tigers, you weren’t a Towson Stater, were you? Was it still State then? It was long gone by then, right? Yeah. And I said, Hey, dude, baseball. You know, Orioles are doing good. This is right after Cowser kissed the wall, right? You know, right? And I said, man, 24th, man. I didn’t even plan shows next week because I thought like there might be a 1o’clock game, a 4o’clock. You know, yeah, baseball’s. So I moved my Pizza Johns from tomorrow to next Friday. So we’re gonna be Pizza Johns next next Friday because there’s there’s no crying in baseball, but there’s not gonna be a World Series here this year. I don’t know. I mean, you played a long time. You played on some good teams, bad teams. What do you make of where the Orioles are right now? As a guy who spent your life in the game,

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Casper Wells 1:48
and again, not as much of a fan where I’m watching games every day. As just just to preface that, so I’m not as involved as you guys are, right? But obviously, free kids. I got some kids at home. Yeah, so got things going on. Needless to say, baseball’s not on usually like Bluey or or something Disney related. That’s occupying the television. But I mean, look, Pete Alonso is going to bring a lot of veteran leadership. He even did it yesterday with his send off to the crowd when he was at Camden Yards, right? So that is going to be so huge for some of the younger players that are coming up. They obviously need to step up, and and I think this is MLB as a whole. Just some of the the the lack of defensive, you know, defense and small ball is just it’s just mind blowing to me. And you hear a bunch of veteran, you know, MLB guys talking about it all the time about just the game and the state of baseball, and I think that just trickles down to all teams. And the Orioles are definitely, you know, have fallen into that trap where they’re not playing small ball baseball. They’re letting runs. They’re giving up. I think I don’t know what the numbers are. I heard something on the radio, except 98 Rock sometimes playing. They talk about the Orioles, and they were mentioning how how many runs are given up through through errors, and just some of their you know bad defensive play has just cost them in the negative column as far as just their ability to to plus minus with the runs they’re scoring. Obviously, they’re not hitting, you know, offense is a component, but you shouldn’t lack defensively. I always took pride in defense, and it’s like, man, like you know, you’re a major leaguer. That’s something you can get

Nestor Aparicio 3:25
better at.

Casper Wells 3:26
Absolutely, like so, it’s just something that should be there, like hustle, defense, things that should be there every day. Offense is tough, right? I mean, hitting you’re hitting a round ball, round bat. I mean, you never know. Someday you could be a best hitter, hit four lasers at someone, have an O for O for day on the and the you know, on the scorecard, but be like, man, I smoke I smoke the ball all day long, you know. So it’s just really deceiving in that sense. But defense should be there, and I think the Orioles need to step up defensively, and that’ll kind of help take some pressure off the pitching, off everything else, and then offense will probably show up. But you know, you have some injuries, young guys. I feel like some guys will kind of grow into their role a little bit, and then you know you have the guidance of P. Then you get get some get some pitchers in there too as well, and I think I think next year’s be a little better shape. If you’re a

Nestor Aparicio 4:12
player on the team, a guy like Pete Alonso, what you say leaders brings leadership. You were mentioning like Verlander, Scherzer. You play with. I mean, name five guys you played with that are in the Hall of Fame. You got you got that in your in your scorecard. You enough organizations. You moved around. You you were the young guy trying to hang on, come in, see people, and you’re looking for that leader. And in every room you walked into, you probably figured out pretty quickly who the real leader is, not the one that maybe on television or whatever. When you get inside, say, “Well, that guy’s making the most money, but that guy over there is the leader, right?

Casper Wells 4:44
Right, and the leader doesn’t have to be outspoken leader. You know, P can do that so sense, but I mean, I play with guys like Ichiro, who just led by example, obviously with his way he conducted himself in pregame preparation. You know, so when he spoke, everyone listened. It was just a respect thing. Obviously, it’s Ichiro, right? You

Nestor Aparicio 4:59
see that thing. He did last week,

Casper Wells 5:01
where he pitched 192

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Nestor Aparicio 5:02
pitches.

Casper Wells 5:04
Guy’s unbelievable, keeping his body in shape, just unbelievable.

Zach Dermer 5:09
He’s different. He’s way different. Very

Casper Wells 5:11
different. But like Miguel Guerrero wasn’t outward spoken to anyone, you know, as far. But he obviously led by example, coming up and playing with him, and it’s just you know, guys kind of lead by example, and and just it just raises the bar. You know, and I think Pete does that, which is a great thing. You know, poor Mets for letting him go. They’re like, oh man, you know, that they’re banking a year four and five for him not to pan out. But yeah, but you know, he just raises the bar of everyone else, and that just ultimately just raises raises the team, just their ability overall. Just

Nestor Aparicio 5:42
just joining us. We’re at State Fair. We’re doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. Zach Dermer’s here from Farnham Derma. There, the Comfort Guys, keeping me comfortable. It’s too nice out, right? Weather-wise, business-wise, right?

Zach Dermer 5:51
It’s a little cool outside this morning. Yeah. Well,

Nestor Aparicio 5:54
maybe the heat doesn’t turn

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Zach Dermer 5:55
on. Yeah. It’s uh. I haven’t turned the heat on, but

Nestor Aparicio 5:58
I did. It was 67 degrees in my place this morning. Oh, and I said to my wife and I went, “I’m like, how long you gonna wait?

Zach Dermer 6:03
Yeah, at

Nestor Aparicio 6:04
what point you gonna hit the button? And then they hit the button, and maybe maybe they gotta call you, yeah. Well, so maybe you do get some calls today, right? On that. Yeah.

Zach Dermer 6:10
Oh, it’s it’s gonna come soon. And years ago, before kids, and I don’t know about you, Casper, we would hold out to see how long we could go without turning the heat on. Not out of being cheap, just out of just yeah, just for fun.

Nestor Aparicio 6:21
6463, Just

Zach Dermer 6:23
watch that temperature drop in your house. And my wife opened the windows

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Nestor Aparicio 6:25
two nights ago, and it’s still cold in the house. I mean, when you get damp out and all that. You mentioned defense. Zach and I did a piece a couple weeks ago. We’re at Acosta’s, and the defense was so horrible right around that. But it was maybe early August. I think you and I got together, and they were just really kicking it around at that point, and it’s not the errors to me that even on the scorecard to say, all right, guy feels the ball, throws it into the dugout. It’s an error. That’s fine. It’s guy feels the ball, pulls the first baseman way the hell off the bag, and they get the out anyway. There’s a lot of that that’s gone on this year. You’ve thrown to the wrong base. The stuff that’s not an error, but you look at it and you’re like, that’s not crisp. That’s not you know that’s just not not the way you want, and that’s gone on 162. The errors sometimes you field it, you just yf up. Sometimes you you drop sometimes the ball. I’ll give you all of that. That’s an error. It’s there were five or six things every other game where I’m like kicking the ball around outfielders that can’t find home plate and just launch the ball. Yeah, it’s going to be a sac fly anyway. They’re

Zach Dermer 7:32
not making God

Nestor Aparicio 7:33
get the ball on target. You know, I mean, this is the fundamental thing that I see. Right, and and Zach and I were talking because you got little kids like you. It’s like you can’t watch the Orioles and teach your kids how to play ball. When in the ’70s with me, my dad would say, “Look at Belanger, look at Rich, look at Boog. That’s the first thing I

Casper Wells 7:49
think about with kids. Like I can’t look at them and say like that’s that’s how you play out catch the ball because it’s they’re not doing they’re doing the fundamental basics. You know, keeping that runner from advancing in a scoring position by overthrowing it home. You know, trying to get a guy at home. I don’t know if it’s it’s a coaching issue or just you know. I think I think overall there’s just so much emphasis on the offensive part of the game, just getting guys in there that can hit, and we’ll just throw them out in the outfield. I mean, you saw it in the first game of season, right? Well, I mean, what the Pittsburgh Pirates, you know, the big pitcher there, they had some guy they move out center field and they blew the game. You know, blew the game for him, and his ERA just ballooned. Obviously, it went down, right? But you know, you can’t just throw guys out there in the outfield. It’s major league hitters. You know, the ball’s different. I mean, the flight’s different. You know, it’s definitely still a challenge. Not like little league where he’s like, oh, let’s throw him out in right field. Well, Luke’s on a rampage right

Nestor Aparicio 8:37
now about getting Kobe Mayo to right field.

Zach Dermer 8:40
Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 8:40
because he can hit, and let’s get him out there and feel. This is what I would say to you. And I covered, and Alan McCallum is here. What do you What do you eat now? What do you got there? Chicken and waffles. Good, good call. Eat the leftovers of mine if you want. Alan covered the game for a long time, and I covered the game for a long time, and I got thrown out 20 years ago proudly. By the way, 20th anniversary of that coming up here this week. When I was around players in the ’90s, whether it was Messina Williamson pitchers and stuff, they said, “Yeah, we’re just going to go out in the outfield and shag during BP. We’re going to shag like shag shag fly balls. And I’m thinking, “All right, well, if you’re BJ Suroff at that time and you might play left field, but you’re really kind of a catcher or third baseman, play some shortstop or whatever, shagging and then learning the position, or learning the position in the off season in this Kobe Mayo thing, send them to the California Penal League, the Arizona Fall League, Caracas, wherever you to go. How do you get better? Because you don’t get better standing out in June in BP, standing out in the outfield. How do you become a better right fielder if you’re just not physically out there having 1000 balls hit, that’s

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Zach Dermer 9:43
repetition, literally,

Nestor Aparicio 9:44
right? Because you can’t in the middle of the season. This is not the time to be learning how to play right field, right? Like shagging in BP is not playing right field.

Casper Wells 9:52
No, I mean, you know, for the footwork and everything else. I mean, look, there’s PFP. There’s like you know infield that you can do where you’re working on. Those throws and getting those long hops into the bases, as opposed to short hopping infielders, gives you more of an opportunity for the ball to kind of land in this area where they can glove it and tag someone real quick. You know, I had the fortunate ability to either fortunate or or not, but I DH a lot and pitched in in college when I got drafted. I was very raw skill set outfield wise, so I was working diligently, and my whole mindset is I don’t want to be embarrassed out there when I’m out in the field, you know, in pro ball when a ball hit to me and I’m fumbling it around. I want to I want to have to take pride in there. Well,

Nestor Aparicio 10:30
you also thought it was cost you a chance to get to the big leagues, right? If you couldn’t play defense, if you were kicking the ball around, even if you were raking, there you would be less desired. Well, that’s my first opportunity. Is I was filling

Casper Wells 10:42
in defensively for Maglio Ordóñez when I was with the Tigers, so I would go into right field in the seventh, eighth, and sometimes I get in that bat. But that that afforded me more opportunities to get out there in the field. So Jim Leland had enough confidence in me over Maglio late in the game, given you know my outfield ability, and he also put me in the center field too. So I mean, just you’re bragging about

Nestor Aparicio 10:59
it years later because like you took pride in it, you took pride that you were a defensive replacement, not a late dude. I’m a really good defender. That’s important. That’s important. I’m gonna help you win a game. I’m gonna I’m gonna catch a ball out here. Like I don’t know that that’s a mindset of anybody in the game today, other than if I hit 30 home runs, I’ll get paid, like literally. And and if Kobe Mayo’s there and that’s great, and they’re willing to play him at third base and let him make 36 here, I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel like winning baseball. That’s why. And the first thing you brought up, being a big league ball player, is how frustrating it is for a pitcher or for anyone that when you’re given a fourth out in any inning, it’s unacceptable.

Casper Wells 11:37
Absolutely, definitely. I’m sure the pitchers are super frustrated with the fact that they have to extend the innings because of you know obviously routine you know outs that should be made.

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Nestor Aparicio 11:47
Well, we can talk about the Orioles in general, but I love these general baseball conversations because next week it won’t be about the Orioles. And look, the strike thing we’ll get to. I’ll get to that later on. We’ll have all after. Alan’s going to join us for that one too because he went through the first ones. But next week the best part of baseball happens, which is playoffs, underdogs, stars that aren’t stars, bit players that hit three home runs in a game or make a game, make the big play in game three or game five or game seven or whatever it is. I this is the time where if you love baseball, baseball should be shining the next four weeks, right? For any of us who love it, it should be on here at State Fair. I should want to watch it. I should want to get engaged in it. Maybe adopt the Brewers or take on some sort of small market Tampa thing or whatever. I I hope it’s not overshadowed by the labor, dude. You know what I mean? Because you lived in it in the soup with the players. You still play sousation guy. This is going to be a war, and I think it’s going to get it’s going to overshadow the baseball at some point. At some point.

Zach Dermer 12:48
At some point, but hopefully in the coming weeks, you know we can enjoy it and without the Orioles, of course.

Nestor Aparicio 12:55
But we’re going to ask, what are the Orioles doing to get better? And we’re going to say nothing because of the because of the labor. I think the labor is going to. It’s already sort of altered the way that we’re talking about this. Not sort of. I mean, it is. It’s completely altered. How can the ORs get better next year? I don’t know. Let’s wait through the strike. I mean, that’s literally going to be part of the conversation. Sure.

Casper Wells 13:16
There’s a lot of teams going through that as well. Obviously, raising the. I’m bigger opponent of raising the you know the salary floor you you know about the ceiling you’re not going to have that

Nestor Aparicio 13:29
as a player you’re just such a strong now it’s not going to happen

Casper Wells 13:33
I don’t think you think David Rubenstein understands

Nestor Aparicio 13:35
that you think Eric I mean do you think these billionaires understand that you sell insurance for a living

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Casper Wells 13:39
no they don’t. But you know, we have the strongest union in in all sports, so it’s it’s it’s

Nestor Aparicio 13:47
about to get tested.

Casper Wells 13:48
Yeah, it is. I’m not as involved, you know, in the in direct conversations, but yeah, I mean, they spoke in length about it. Some of the things I can’t really bring up, but when I was up in Philly for the All Star, they you know they came and discussed it. The attorney for you know the Players Association, who’s who’s stepping in for Tony Clark. The

Nestor Aparicio 14:09
young guys understand the gravity of this situation because of the Bryce Harpers and because of the Chris Bassetts and the leadership.

Casper Wells 14:15
Do they understand?

Nestor Aparicio 14:16
Yeah. Do you think? Do you think a generation later for you, right? Yeah. I mean, you know who fought for you. I mean, all the my cousin, all those guys back in the day fought for you, right? No, right. But like, this is the question for Jackson Holiday. We should understand it because it was old man, right? The Gunner Hendersons, the guys that have the Scott Borrowses around. I would think this is going to get really ugly, and I would think these billionaire pricks that now run the thing way different than the Steinbrenners and the Angeloses. We’re at a different level of billionaire at this point. Of them, just not caring about whether it happens or not. Like, right? I mean, there’s

Casper Wells 14:49
good. So, I mean, to your to your question, there’s very strong. It’s a very strong fraternity, you know, within the baseball community, the professional ranks, and we do understand the concept of God. That paved the way for us, and why the union’s so strong. And a lot of veteran guys, they do on any team will be do a good job of of reiterating that to some of the younger players, or having they may have a discussion with them in private if they don’t understand the magnitude. But it’s very much again, I haven’t haven’t played in 10 years in a big league, so some of the younger guys, I don’t know. I feel like you know with NIL money and everything, everyone’s mindset kind of changes a little. But luckily, like baseball’s not really not to football’s level of NIL where they can kind of you know hold themselves. I don’t expect the players to cave,

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Nestor Aparicio 15:32
but I also, as a fan, and this is where I’ll jump into it. And Zach, you could speak to this. Being a guy who’s never seen a World Series game, right? Literally, right? I would say that, and I’ve been saying this on the air for 35 years, and I don’t want to piss off a player, and I’m not on the side of the billionaires at all, but like it’s wrecked the game that there hasn’t been a salary cap. It’s it’s it’s it’s made the game. It’s why the place is empty. It’s why teams don’t try to win. Dodgers, Yankees are never going to give in. I call it the original sin. I call it the Garden of Eden for baseball. That I have watched basketball go to war so that the San Antonio Spurs can win and the Milwaukee Bucks can win. I’ve watched hockey take a year off so that the Capitals would be able to compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs or the New York Rangers or bigger brands, Carolina Panthers or you know Tampa Lightning and hockey, and I’ve seen how you already mentioned NIL. I mean, college sports is f f u bar. Like I don’t know that I’m ever going to love the Terps the way I did 30 years ago because it’s just nothing for me to love. There’s nothing. Baseball’s getting there, and if they they decide to take a nap for a year, year and a half,

Zach Dermer 16:44
oh, it’s gonna. I see how

Nestor Aparicio 16:45
old and how white and how all of it is at this point. It can’t afford to go away, but I also look at it and say, can it afford to come back where my effing team can’t win? Like they just can’t. I mean, we’re we’re with the Yankees, the Blue Jays, and the Red Sox. What they couldn’t even win 82 games and sneak in this year, you know, and they’re trying hard, and they’re they’re spend they spend money on Alonzo, they spend money, but and then I go down there and I’m like, place is empty. I’m like, who’s gonna pay for this in the end? Like at the end of the day, this it feels really upside down financially to me. And when I talk to the smartest people I know in baseball and business. I say, is there anybody from Rob Manfred to Rubinstein to Katie Griggs to pick any team you want that can really explain the model five years from now for business, for tickets, for media, for how the games get on the bar at State Fair and make it? A lot of times in this town, you go to in the bars and you have to ask them to put the Oriole game on now, and if it’s on an Apple night or an Amazon night or a Fire Stick night, or it’s the 11 a.m. game or it’s the Fox Sports game, dude, I don’t know what to say. Like it’s poorly run, and I I fear the arrogance of these billionaire pricks, Manford who’s out to lunch most of the time, and players who, quite frankly, are dug in on fu, yeah, just you know, like we’re we’re not budging, and it’s not our job to fix the sport. Get the Dodgers and the Rays to get together, and you guys figure out how to share your money. And and I I’ll speak for you on that and say that’s what I’ve been here for 35 years. This isn’t players versus owners. This is rich owners and small market owners not being able to figure out how to make a system where they don’t have to move teams to Sacramento and San Juan and screw around with these franchises, and that’s I love baseball, so that’s that’s yeah they got to figure it

Zach Dermer 18:37
out. I mean, and more kind of on the organizational level for the Orioles, and this is kind of related. But yesterday, last games of the year, doubleheader. Why was it a split admission, and why was it not a single admission doubleheader for the last game of the year when they can’t even get 10,000? I asked Luke that. I

Nestor Aparicio 18:56
asked Luke that. I said there must be a bean counter reason for that, right? And I

Zach Dermer 18:59
understand it’s logistically it’s probably challenging. People buy tickets for a certain game, but I mean, they may have had to give refunds or

Nestor Aparicio 19:05
something if they didn’t play it. Yeah, that may have been part of it. I guess they had to refund 8000, $10,000 because they didn’t play the 81st game or whatever it was.

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Zach Dermer 19:14
But just, I mean, they should be doing everything possible to bring more fans in. It shouldn’t. It’s a pretty simple concept. You do that at Farnham and

Nestor Aparicio 19:21
Dermer, and you do that in Helico. It’s right. You have

Zach Dermer 19:22
to make it worthwhile for for people to come and see your product,

Speaker 1 19:26
yeah, or

Zach Dermer 19:27
use your service, whatever it may be. You got to be your best.

Casper Wells 19:30
Luckily, they have a beautiful stadium there.

Zach Dermer 19:32
They do, but it’s you know more than a quarter, yeah more than three quarters empty, yeah, 95% of the time. See, you

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Nestor Aparicio 19:38
think it’s beautiful because you’re like a dude from Schenectady, from out of town, and you live here, and it’s still, it’s been sitting there 34 years for me, and I’ve been there 1000 times. Put something in it I want to see beyond Billy Joel. You know what I mean? Like literally. I mean, for us, and it’s it’s it’s no like I’m going to pay a premium to go to Camden Yards because I’m not a tourist. You know what I mean? It’s great for tourists. I do that. When I go to places that you know feel touristy to me, I’ll give you that. But for the people of Baltimore, it’s just the place we go and watch baseball now. It is. It’s no. It’s you give me Memorial Stadium back, I pay a premium right now for that. You know the Capitol Center for that. We’ll talk concerts later. Casper Wells is here. He sells insurance for Heller Koew’s. Zach Dermer’s here. He is Farnham and Dermer. We love bringing local business people together. Look, I bring Coets out here in Heller, but they’re you know too busy and you know consolidation and recruit. And and he came in first today, and he’s like, I get my insurance through Heller Coates. Cass was my insurance guy now, and I’m like, man, I’m putting really. No wonder I’m winning this reinvention award. I’m putting people together here. Tell us about bringing

Zach Dermer 20:41
people together. Tell us about your

Nestor Aparicio 20:42
business a little bit, because I know you, and and even your background, because not everybody knows Casper Wells, Towson, Schenectady lives here, sells insurance, played in the big leagues. But people say, “Why? What are you doing here? And you’re like, “Married a Baltimore girl. You know, this is my home now, and and you know, can’t hit baseball forever, even if you have a good hip.

Casper Wells 20:58
No, yeah. So I got linked up. I knew Brian Koew’s for a while. You know, we kind of touched on this earlier. Through

Nestor Aparicio 21:04
Players Association, yeah.

Casper Wells 21:05
Through some local events here. When I came back after I got done playing, I went back to Towson to get my degree. You know, graduated in 2016 would be oh six, but 10 years removed playing baseball. You know that that chapter of my life. 10

Nestor Aparicio 21:17
years, dude. It’s a good 10 years. Yeah, three other guys here would have loved to play 10 years in the big leagues. 100% Don’t

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Casper Wells 21:22
don’t regret. It was it was great. But coming back, you know, I worked down Fed Hill. Dos Spear House was a place I met my wife, and then I kind of just stayed put here for a little bit until we got married, moved out to Arizona, came back. But when I was getting my after I got my degree, you know, I went to medical sales for a little bit. Then you know once we went out to Arizona, COVID happened. You know medical sales, couple things, kind of fell through. So I got in an insurance game once we’re on the backside of COVID. Brian was pretty upset about it because he’s been recruiting me for quite a bit. You know to go go over to Heller Ko’s back in the day, and then he’s like, oh man, you know you’re in the insurance game, and I was like, well, you know we’ll see. You know, down the road, maybe we could work together, and then it so happened that, you know, in light of our you know third kid that was on the way, when I found out my wife was pregnant, we’re missing family. I’m from New York, you know, my wife’s from Bel Air, so, and we have ties obviously here, and we saw that Maryland was the best spot for us to kind of stay put. So I told Brian I was coming back and got linked up with Heller Koew’s, and right now I’m kind of working on new business in the commercial sector, property and casualty. So, working with business owners, local business owners,

Nestor Aparicio 22:26
just like foreign and Durham. Yeah, absolutely.

Casper Wells 22:28
In their situation, we just saw some inefficiencies with their current policy. Just some some gaps in some areas. I’ve been

Nestor Aparicio 22:34
telling Koic and Heller that I have had inefficiencies. Say that again. Inefficiencies and

Casper Wells 22:40
yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 22:40
I have that. I have that right now. Well, so you have. I need some help. They had

Casper Wells 22:44
this booklet of paper, right? And you think it’s going to protect you in the case that you have a claim? And there’s just some instances where we could just make it a little more foolproof for them and protect them in the event they do have a claim. And it was enough for us to partner together. Get your calendar

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Nestor Aparicio 22:58
out. I need to meet with you here. Figure that out.

Casper Wells 23:00
No, I appreciate it. So, huh?

Nestor Aparicio 23:02
Tell everybody how to find you.

Casper Wells 23:04
How to find?

Nestor Aparicio 23:04
Yeah, how to find you if they if they have commercial casualty insurance. Well,

Casper Wells 23:07
HellerCoet’s.com. I mean, I have my yeah.

Zach Dermer 23:09
All right,

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Casper Wells 23:11
HellerCoC’S. I’ll get you in

Nestor Aparicio 23:12
touch with him. I and I and I won’t send him to Nick. All right, not for now. Maybe Nick doesn’t. Nick, sorry,

Casper Wells 23:17
he does business development. He’ll bring all the commercial business to me. I was trying

Nestor Aparicio 23:20
to explain to Zach Dermer exactly who Nick Schultz is, not just you know the the blood cancer thing we’ve had Nick on, but Nick’s dad was my high school gym teacher, mr. Ron Schultz. Yeah, I mean Coach Schultz, everybody knows the coach, and then of course his older brother being the great Curtis Schultz of Maryland Terps fame. So I mean this Heller Koch thing, we got ball players. Klesko’s involved in this too, right? Dan and

Casper Wells 23:44
yeah, we partner with Ryan Klesko down in through Brian’s connection with the Braves when he was won World Series. He played with Klesko, so I got a Klesko. We have some of his team. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 23:53
my whole life as a child, Alan, you’ll appreciate this. My whole life as a child, I watched the baseball playoffs. Freddie Potek crying in the dugout, right? You know, big home runs, John Mayberry. I’m going back in the ’70s. Reggie, all you know, all that stuff, right? And when it was over with, they would always dump champagne all over each other, right? And as a 10 year old kid, that’s like the sexiest thing ever. Like to be in a World Series clubhouse. We didn’t get to do it in ’79, as you remember. We we didn’t win. So when I got on the radio in 1991, and I you know I covered in the ’80s, I was a sports writer. So I’ve been around hockey teams, and I don’t know that I was ever in a hockey champagne thing or whatever. Football doesn’t have that tradition. Baseball had it. So in 1991, ’92, ’93, I’m on the air, and I had wanted to do that. And I covered the 95 World Series in Atlanta at Fulton County Stadium. I had the newspaper for Koets. I was in that locker room, and I knew Klesko from the Padres.

Casper Wells 24:57
Yeah,

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Nestor Aparicio 24:57
and I said, dude. I want champagne thumped over my head, and Klesko, and I walked out of the clubhouse in Atlanta, and we were parked out in Fulton County. I was with Kevin Eck, and our room was in Birmingham that Alabama that night because our flight Southwest didn’t fly in in Atlanta in ’95. I drove two hours and 20 minutes, and I smelled like Bourbon Street. I smelled like a sewer.

Zach Dermer 25:29
Better hope you didn’t get pulled over there. So

Nestor Aparicio 25:30
Klesko dumped the champagne. He gave me the bottle, so I have the cork. I think still, and so Klesko’s the only guy in my life, because you see now the reporters, like when they when Melanie Newman, they got goggles, they scuba gear, you know all of that, dude. I just had a Ravens jacket on that probably still smells like you know, Asti Spumante or you know whatever brute whatever the hell it was. But you had some champagne, did you? Yeah, you you you you made a couple champagne baths in your day-that’s such a baseball tradition, right? Yeah, just

Casper Wells 26:03
in the minors. I unfortunately didn’t have it as many as I would have liked, but it was-it’s fun. It’s a great feeling, yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 26:08
Yeah,

Casper Wells 26:08
knowing the excitement, and then the game’s over. You go into a clubhouse, and they get everything kind of the garbage bags out, the plastic bags covering the lockers, and you just strain champagne.

Nestor Aparicio 26:16
I was in one of those in ’97 with the Orioles. We’ll have some pictures in that, and I went in, but I didn’t get, I didn’t get, I stayed out of the fray. Once you had it done to you, you don’t want it done to you again. Like that’s why when you see Oriole people with like it’s, it was something that looked like a lot of fun in the 70s, and then it happened to me in night, all of that, and I smelled like I’m driving on Route 75, eight, whatever the hell it is, 20 over to Birmingham, and I’m thinking, please don’t pull me over. I mean, I’m gonna have to. I’m showing you my. I’ll show you that I was in the Braves locker room, and that’s why I smell like

8

Casper Wells 26:50
yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 26:51
I smelled like liquor. The whole car smelled like cheap wine. I mean, the whole. I think you

Casper Wells 26:56
did get pulled over. That would be a good story to kind of tell them. You know. Yeah, that must be very believable. I think

Nestor Aparicio 27:00
Kevin said that too. Kevin said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but we can prove we were there, you know. But anyway, I I didn’t want it to have happen again. It was something that felt very sexy to me, but really, nah, did it once. I wouldn’t want to do it again. But if I was a player, I’d want to do it every year, three times. Absolutely,

Casper Wells 27:15
I got to witness, or recently, Richie Palacio’s former Towson Lum, he’s he’s doing really well with the Tampa Bay Rays, and they’re you know they’re kind of lighting it up. You got a rooting

Nestor Aparicio 27:25
interest. Oh, 100% Oh, okay, that’s your guy. All right. Oh yeah, that’s my guy. I saw him. I saw Harry’s here

Casper Wells 27:30
twice this year. I came and saw him.

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Nestor Aparicio 27:32
I don’t have a team. You have a team? No,

Zach Dermer 27:34
not impartial.

Nestor Aparicio 27:35
I mean, I’d like the Brewers to win just because, like, not they have it right now. Not the Dodgers. Yeah, not not not not the Yankees. Certainly not the Red Sox. You can’t

Casper Wells 27:43
root for a Rays, right?

Nestor Aparicio 27:44
I can. Yeah, I can root for a Rays.

Zach Dermer 27:46
Yeah, they’re fine.

Casper Wells 27:47
We’ll root for Richie. Yeah, Towson alum, you know.

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Nestor Aparicio 27:49
All we need is a Rays Brewers World Series to really inspire America, right? Teams,

Zach Dermer 27:54
yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 27:55
That would that would make Rob happy, wouldn’t

Casper Wells 27:57
it? I mean, it’s not that far off. That’s that’s definitely a possibility.

Zach Dermer 28:00
Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 28:00
Well, this is my point about the off season and about the labor thing. The fact that we would make fun of the Brewers and the Rays and say that they don’t have a big chance to win-that’s shame on the sport. Shame on the sport for that, because we don’t say that about any NFL team.

Zach Dermer 28:14
No,

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Nestor Aparicio 28:15
not even the Browns, even though we could.

Zach Dermer 28:17
I mean, part of the issue with sports in general. How long has

Casper Wells 28:19
Pittsburgh been down four though. I mean, they’re the

Nestor Aparicio 28:21
Pirates.

Casper Wells 28:22
Yeah, I mean, they weren’t far. I mean, they they, I mean, they’re still above 500 like for the first.

Nestor Aparicio 28:26
Well, their owner’s not trying.

Zach Dermer 28:27
Yeah, and guess where else

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Nestor Aparicio 28:28
he’s not going to try in the off season when they’re on strike. No, he he’s not losing any money. He’s not making they they they. That’s my point. They don’t care, and I think the owners don’t care, and the players are going to dig in, and we’re gonna be sitting here next June, and they’re gonna be doing a lot of damage to themselves. I really believe that that collectively, because we’re last, the fans are last. Now you’re one of us. We’re all last.

Casper Wells 28:52
Sure.

Zach Dermer 28:52
Did you guys see the clip though? I think it was yesterday, the day before Vlad Guerrero, Vladdy. I

Casper Wells 28:56
did. I

Nestor Aparicio 28:57
did not see it.

Zach Dermer 28:58
You know that. So he’s basically, he’s obviously had an off year. Yeah, he’s making whatever. He’s making 30, 40 million, which he’s obviously done extremely well. Even a Canadian, that’s good. Yeah,

Casper Wells 29:09
yeah. But

8

Zach Dermer 29:10
he he basically is saying he was paid for his past results, not for future performance. Like just because he hit 40 home runs, that’s what he was paid for. The fact that he’s in a slump for so long, yeah, it doesn’t really matter. He basically said,

Casper Wells 29:22
he basically said, I’m not, I’m not getting paid to hit 40 home runs every year now because I’ve already, I got paid for what I did, and like, it’s a bad. You could internalize that. I mean, some of it’s true, right? You’re obviously getting paid for some of your success, but at the end of the day, with that kind of contract you have, you’re getting paid for you know sustaining your that high level of excellence over extended period of time, eventually, you know, hopefully win a World Series, right? Yeah, it doesn’t play

Nestor Aparicio 29:46
well in Canada. Canadians don’t want to hear that.

Zach Dermer 29:48
Oh yeah, people are don’t want to hear. Oh, they

Casper Wells 29:50
got a whole. Yeah, I know. That’s just a bad look on his part. I saw the quote and I was like, oh man, cringy. That’s was hoping it was translated

Nestor Aparicio 29:57
incorrectly, but I think the consensus was that. Yeah. I’m gonna let you get back to air conditions and heating. Tell everybody we do. Zach Dermer’s here. He supports us. Please support him. They are the comfort guys. Give us the word because you’re gonna have to click on your heater at some point. Some point.

Zach Dermer 30:10
No, I mean probably this week. Probably this week was 45 degrees this morning. You want to turn the heat on before, even though I used to go without kids till it was 50 degrees in the house. Yeah, don’t do that.

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Nestor Aparicio 30:21
Give me some new swag. Give me that bag. Let me see what you got. Grab the bag. Let me see what you got over there.

Zach Dermer 30:24
Funniest swag there, my man. All right, turn on the heat before you think you need to. That way, if there’s an issue, give us a call 410-367-7777. We’ll check out your system. It’s for you. No, no, hold on. All the mediums

Nestor Aparicio 30:38
are mine. All the larges are just trying to see what you got me. I’m not interested in what Zach got for Christmas.

Zach Dermer 30:43
I know you’ll like. You got me

Nestor Aparicio 30:44
another bowling shirt. Damn you! You like bowling shirts. Oh God! All right. I like the red though. The red’s kind of nice. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not not not capital season, but I’m into that. Oh, this is see. You’re the comfort guy, right?

Zach Dermer 30:57
Yes, sir.

Nestor Aparicio 30:58
This morning I was freezing my ass off in my in my condo, and I I went and I think I just dropped my chicken, and I went and got this. You got me this sweatshirt last year, so people are gonna be seeing a lot of this on the air because it was cold in my studio this morning. And then we got what’s this here? This

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Zach Dermer 31:13
yeah, Christmas came early. It’s what I’m wearing. What?

Casper Wells 31:15
Yeah,

Zach Dermer 31:16
little cortisol.

Nestor Aparicio 31:17
Oh, look at that! It’s some

Zach Dermer 31:19
church attire. Hold on,

Nestor Aparicio 31:20
hold on here. Medium. This is mine. All right, Luke, you’re in good shape, buddy. You’re gonna get hooked up here. Our friends in foreign and Derma they will make you comfortable as well. You can give a call 410-367-7777. Make sure you find Casper Wells. Fine. I’m gonna hold on to you. Alan’s gonna come back. We’re gonna do some more baseball. I’m gonna get you back out. And is there any winter thing I need to tell people about, like

Zach Dermer 31:41
no, I mean just checking something. Is there is

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Nestor Aparicio 31:43
there antifreeze in my HVAC? I don’t know,

Zach Dermer 31:46
no, no. But I don’t know. You want to check your system? I mean, really from you know heating standpoint, safety is a big issue come this time of year, especially with a gas furnace or an oil furnace. Yeah, they do produce carbon monoxide. We just want to make sure that everything is safe and operating the way it’s supposed to, and you want to find that out before the heat. Yeah, just test it

Casper Wells 32:05
out now because it’s be hot next week, right? So being pro being proactive, making sure.

Nestor Aparicio 32:10
Do you want to give a plug to Heller Koew’s about how how great they’ve done for your insurance? They

Zach Dermer 32:14
helped us out. I mean, they just filled some gaps, no pressure at all. I mean, Steve and Casper came in. I know Nick would pressure me. That’s

Nestor Aparicio 32:21
why I’m going to deal with you. I mean, there’s going to be Nick would give me that hard sell

Zach Dermer 32:24
enough. We have a somewhat of a tie with Steve. Just give him a hard time. He had been on

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Nestor Aparicio 32:28
the show in a year, Dad. Just because you’ve been playing the big leagues, I mean, you’re not involved. Invited, Nick. Come on, man. You know.

Zach Dermer 32:33
But no, I would think it’s going to be a long, nice relationship with them, and they’re going to look out after us, and that’s all we can ask for.

Nestor Aparicio 32:40
All these ball players and athletes, everybody knows that everybody loves Heller Koch because of Steve. I mean, that’s the truth, right? He’s the nice guy. The whole pack. The rest of y’all ball players. Steve Heller, yeah, yeah.

Zach Dermer 32:49
Steve’s a nice guy. I’ve had it. Yeah,

Casper Wells 32:50
I’ve had a couple people say like he is just the nicest guy. I’m like, yeah, no, it’s good reputation. Obviously, when I go around here, I’ve been for a little over a year. I’ve been here, but every time I say Heller Koch, like, oh yeah, Brian, Steve, love those guys. Nick, you know, I liked Accelerant

Nestor Aparicio 33:04
last month where I learned how they met. That was the best part. I got I got a full story out of that. So hello to Brian, hello to Steve, our friends at Heller Coates. They are good buddies of ours. We appreciate them, and I can still have that 1995 Braves won the World Series, Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I’ve been keeping that for Co-Wits. Like it’s amongst all of my crud, I have some old newspapers here for Richard Abrahams. He’s going to be joining us. It’s our 28th anniversary here at WNST. We’re going to be doing some rock and roll. And my buddy who went to Live Aid in London and was my original Camp Out for Concerts buddy. He’s going to be here at 11 o’clock. Alan McCallum is here. He’s going to join us with Casper. We’ll talk some baseball, some playoff baseball, and some Oriole residue. No more defensive talk. I want to get on to other. We’re going to talk about the 30th anniversary of Alan and I being together at the old Yankee Stadium, where we watched Jeffrey Mayer go over the fence like this. We’re back from our work State Fair. It is the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by our friends at GBMC, the Maryland Lottery, and that guy Zach Dermer, Farnham and Dermer-they’re the comfort guys. Back for more on the Crab Cake Tour at State Fair.