As the All Star break prepares Orioles fans for an exciting second half of pennant race baseball, Nestor tells Dennis Koulatsos that seeing happy Reds fans in Baltimore and the excitement around Elly De La Cruz in Cincinnati this month is a sign of hope for Orioles fans packing Camden Yards again sometime soon.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
reds, night, cincinnati, years, orioles, tickets, ownership, thought, love, team, sounds, baltimore, bengals, game, tuesday, put, nestor, city, john, darius
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Dennis Koulatsos
Dennis Koulatsos 00:02
Welcome back. My next guest is Nestor J aparece. You’re here to do great things all across the radio waves and beyond Nestor welcome in
8Nestor Aparicio 00:09
what’s going on Happy Fourth of July a little early. I mean, you in the holidays in the middle of the week they don’t know whether they have the heritage fair this week or next week. It’s this week so I’m gonna get all of my hotdogs, hamburgers, baseball that out of my system this weekend. Well,
Dennis Koulatsos 00:24
good stuff fun. Hey, look good, great baseball weather or it’s done. Okay. Rob ran into a very hot Cincinnati Reds team I took in the game Tuesday night, and that was it’s apparent. We need some pitching, need some better pitching to hold up in order for this team to make a run in the playoffs? We’ll get in the playoffs but how far they’ll go. I think we could all agree will depend on how that started pitching holds up.
Nestor Aparicio 00:47
Well, it’s disappointing to see Gibson get banged around early and they kind of hang around and you know, I thought they’d go to the bullpen a little earlier. And then they wind up losing the game the 10th inning. I mean, you know the reds, they caught the Reds at the wrong time. I’m wearing reds colors here with your kids or stuff like that. I mean, but the Reds like we’re selling our games last week against the Dodgers and they have this kid who’s a sensation. There were a lot of reds fans. Yeah, more yards than I’ve ever seen Bengals fans and Baltimore.
Dennis Koulatsos 01:12
Their work you know when the other night again Tuesday night. They were very loud, very boisterous. And that kid Eliot he was just lights out on the mound. Not a good night
Nestor Aparicio 01:21
from Cincinnati den. I mean, like seriously, Baltimore, right? Imagine if you’re from Cincinnati, and you’ve had the Bengals all these years and look the Bengals at the Super Bowl a year and a half ago, my final Super Bowl before they threw me out. After 28 years. I’m out in LA and they’re playing the Rams. And my hotel hotel was Bengals fans. There’s Bengals fans everywhere. And I thought to myself, I’d be coming to your city for 30 years see in football, you know, like there been two or three occasions the Carson Palmer for five minutes. You know, Marvin had some enthusiasm there. And then this this thing has happened there for their city. Not unlike our city but because we’ve had a football team it’s been competitive for 25 years for the most part. We’ve always thought we have a chance even if we don’t have a chance quite frankly, but in Cincinnati they knew the Reds have never had a chance the Bengals are poorly own right like us they’re not getting the basketball team or hockey team they have the bearkats which you know the bearkats may be the biggest deal in Cincinnati you know of all of them when their football team does well or the basketball team was doing well in Huggins and like all that stuff there. They there’s some there’s some inertia for it. I think the Bengals there are people feel like that they do about the orals about the ownership. Right? I mean, the ownership has been so bad there. And now the football team is good. I can only imagine being a chili eating Cincinnatian who has suffered the red suffered March shots suffered Pete Rose suffered bad baseball suffer really lousy football for the most part. And the football team since Marvin got there. They have been lousy. They just have been disappointing, right? I mean, they’ve been good. They’ve had a lot of good players the last 15 years. But for that city, they’ve been waiting on the baseball team. You know, they literally not this city, not here. We’re not waiting on the Orioles to fix us because the ravens are broken. But in Cincinnati, the Bengals have been so awful. And the Reds have still always been above the fray. They’re, I mean, they love the reds in Cincinnati. It’s just they stink. Now they’re good. And you see in one week, they turn around and and they’re sold out. That’s not what the Orioles have going on in Baltimore. That’s obvious. And I
Dennis Koulatsos 03:33
don’t know anything about Cincinnati ownership. You could speak Bob castleblayney
Nestor Aparicio 03:36
is the owner. He was one of the original men who put the money in that Angelo’s sort of usurped with Bill De Wit spod cast aleni and Bill De Wit were a part of the Orioles. They wanted the Orioles in 1993 they didn’t get it cast aleni wound up with the reds and to wit wound up with the Cardinals to which had a better run.
Dennis Koulatsos 03:56
Now obviously he has for sure no question about it. But there’ll be so much different at build the way they bought the tower. I mean, that’s what it sounds like unbelievable. But it’s tough. When you saddled with for ownership. It’s tough to get behind that right you might get behind it for a minute when a team flashes but that’s all you can expect from a team with poor ownership and
Nestor Aparicio 04:14
poor ownership right now. I mean, I saw that with my own eyes. January 15 when the owner stepped up I mean the owner is invisible right now while they’re winning. They have no lease. We did a whole we did hours on that over the last few weeks but I’m not fooled into thinking the Orioles have good ownership because they had a nice pride night the other night and so people are coming to the ballpark and they got a squirt thing going on that really feels kind of minor league to me honestly it doesn’t it doesn’t feel like the brand to me but add it I mean you want to squirt near everybody in the outfield people want to buy tickets for 10 bucks have added but but Cincinnati’s the real thing then I guess that’s my point. You’re gonna see 40,000 People in Cincinnati most nights the rest of the summer, because they’re good. That’s pretty much I mean, you’ll see it So the Orioles are
Dennis Koulatsos 05:00
good and not I’m not sure what the crowd look like in terms of attendance Wednesday night, but I can tell you to deny that was part I mean for it was it was a nice night.
Nestor Aparicio 05:08
It was full because not full but for them full. It was pride night, right? I mean they they sold. They have sold this. I mean, they didn’t care about pride people for a long, long time. And now they’re using it to sell for a night. I mean, it’s honestly Dennis, I am incredibly respectful of the LGBTQ community. I mean, anybody looked me up, look up my track record, but, man, you watch a game on Wednesday it I mean, it’s beyond patronizing. He Palmer sounded uncomfortable. Like just every inning, it was an infomercial for pride, which, fine, but like, don’t tell him you’re not doing it to sell tickets. Don’t tell me this comes from the heart. This is about like, this is a promotion for them. Like the floppy hat is like Shaquille O’Neal is and like, the Hawaiian shirt is on sale. I mean, they built a thing that they’re gonna have a lot of people there this weekend, I get offered tickets Friday night, I said to my wife, we’re going to heritage fair. I mean, first off its heritage for weekend. And that’s like a high holy holiday when you’re from Dundalk. It just is. And so I got offered tickets, and I said, Do I want to go down there when there’s 45,000 People all who want to get a hat and are gonna be smoked up and and Shaquille O’Neal sounds like it sounds like a fun night but it sounds like I’d rather go on a Tuesday when it’s sleepy and sparse as
Dennis Koulatsos 06:28
well. It is it is sleep it’s partisan and you know, again, we have a good team a solid team when you have a red hot team. Pun intended there with it was the Cincinnati Reds coming in. And look, it’s been exciting.
Nestor Aparicio 06:40
Good baseball a wife every night. It’s been worth watching.
Dennis Koulatsos 06:43
It has been I had to sound off I had to sound off Wednesday night. When they were down three nothing. I blinked in there with three nothing in the first inning. And
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
then they caught up and then they went up
Dennis Koulatsos 06:56
to three. Yeah, it was a seesaw game. Well, it was it was a very entertaining game. So we’re getting our money’s worth. But now, again, to me, Gibson got roughed up in that first inning. And I’m really concerned about the starting pitching. And I don’t know why you didn’t get the hook earlier.
Nestor Aparicio 07:12
We know who was concerned about the starting pitching and I don’t want to give them up because he’s too busy get fat on pizza right now that a wall would that would be our loot Jones who sat here all winter. And the only one because you’re not going to hear that on the flagship. You’re not gonna hear lock in for now that he’s taking a check from Uncle Uncle John, cousin John, that’s mean your nickname for him? You know, you’re not going to nobody in the city is talking about the lease. I mean, I don’t know that everybody’s really talking about them winning or being good. Or even their pitching. I don’t know that they’ve captured their city yet. Right? When you don’t care
Dennis Koulatsos 07:43
about ownership, why would you care about the lease, it was no different than when Bob Ursi was the owner of the Colts. Nobody cared about the Earth, a family or what they did. So the team was gone until the team was gone. Right now, we never thought we’d lose a team. I was a young man. And I saw where the city was gonna impose eminent domain or the state or whatever, to keep the culture from leaving, but probably not that was false because they packed up, as we know, and, and they left town, but it’s hard to support for ownership national. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 08:12
every time I go to reach in my pocket, I think about who owns the team. And I think, Dennis, I swear to God, I want to give John like, some rope. I mean, I had been giving John rope I’ve been writing, go back and read anything I’ve written over the last five years in regard to his father falling into you know, where he is, and who’s going to run the place who’s running the place who’s in front of the thing. And then he showed up in his cowboy boots this year, long enough for me to say? I don’t think so. I mean, they talked about Wednesday night. You know, and I’m not going to talk too much about this, but I should talk about it every day. You don’t lose on vacation, right? Yep. So you don’t work here, obviously. But you have a part of what we do here. I work here. I own the place. Right? If I wanted to go down and cover the game on Wednesday night, they wouldn’t let me in on Friday night when they want to be inclusive to everyone. But I’m not in they don’t let me in. And John’s taken over and like if you want to fix your father’s problems, I mean, feel free. But quite frankly, the issue with the Orioles that I had in 2004 where they didn’t pay the bill and then they scored me with the bird. That was John. John was the one that didn’t pay the bill. John John was running the place at the time for the for those 10 minutes. So like, you know, John, Nothing’s different with John it still says Angelo’s on the outside if you’ve watched the press conferences. Now that being said, they put Elias on with Rob long before the game to say all the right things about pride and all the right things about we’re trying to do this for the city. And he called it a project. Mike Elias called and I came here on this project. Sounds like an architect but sound like Mike Brady and the Brady Bunch. So I’m gonna project here in Baltimore. And by the way, I don’t know if he has a contract or not. Yeah,
Dennis Koulatsos 09:56
he went wrong. It was a project who he wasn’t wrong making that statement.
Nestor Aparicio 10:00
He said this project is going in the right direction. And it really is. It really is going in the right direction. Now, where’s the leadership? Who’s in front of it? Where are we? Where’s the lease? John? Where’s the lease? And to all of that, I got off of free tickets on Friday night and I really had to ask myself, do I want to be in the beer garden in Dundalk or do I want to be at the stadium with 45,000 people and Shaquille O’Neal and I thought there’ll be other game don’t be other Shaquille the games. I mean, like the Shaquille thanks sounds like fun. I like to dance. I like music. I like a Friday night out. You know, I’m down with all of that. But I just, I got offered a free ticket for the first time this year and I turned it down, because I had just had something else. That sounded like more fun. Now Tuesday night had you called me and said, Hey, I got two extra tickets, Mr. Coons with the puffer. Do you want to come down? You know, I mean, it depends. I guess what I was I was going I was on a yoga mat Tuesday night so like, that’s what I was doing. But I would I’d like to go I just want to go on my own terms and I want to go on I feel like going Tuesday was a great night because we could pitching matchup that kid Abbott Yeah, it was. It was
Dennis Koulatsos 11:05
like it was a great pitching matchup then we got hit with rain right at nine o’clock with
Nestor Aparicio 11:10
another saying, Oh my God. All the time. These these rain delays if I had to pay you more for the rain delays. Oh my god.
Dennis Koulatsos 11:17
I know that Tuesday morning. Luke got home at two o’clock from cloth from covering the game. I mean, it was late night for him. They had what an hour and 45 minute rain delay.
Nestor Aparicio 11:25
Well, this is what they asked fans to do after they pay 80 bucks for a box at 15 bucks for a beer and 30 bucks to park and like on and on and on. And I just I I get it with concerts then. Right like I go to a lot of concerts. You went to a concert that apparently you weren’t very comfortable last week. You didn’t love your experience because it wasn’t a seat. It wasn’t this you thought it was
Dennis Koulatsos 11:46
Miss Silva ticket. Of course I wasn’t happy. You were sold a ticket that
Nestor Aparicio 11:50
had a seat on it.
Dennis Koulatsos 11:51
Seat number correct. And it was no seats. Yeah, that’s something we’re we’re taking taken up with hickspicks not happy about that false advertising. Row. Row, row. Row 14 seats three and four. There wasn’t a row 14 it was a it was a mosh pit.
Nestor Aparicio 12:09
You tell me. Yeah, well, yeah. That changes your shoes. I’ll tell you that. I wish to
Dennis Koulatsos 12:14
wear tennis shoes. It was a tennis shoe. Skechers whatever you want to. It’s very soft bottom shoes, not cowboy boots that for sure.
Nestor Aparicio 12:21
Well, it was Darius rock. How was the show by the way? He put a wagon wheel that he placed a moody
Dennis Koulatsos 12:26
he did he played he closed with wagon wheel. But he played for two hours he he sang his butt off it was the performance was epic. It was really good. It was right up there with Kenny Chesney
Nestor Aparicio 12:34
He’s unbelievable. I’m so I’m tooting the blowfish about five days Two summers ago. For some reason I love hooting the blowfish I love I love dairies, you know, dairy spent a lot of time in Baltimore, his, his child, the mother of his child was here and living cockys Job did not know that 30 years ago. No, I mean, Darius Darius jumped on stage with Eddie Lauer. 30 years ago, down down. I mean, Darius was in the city a lot. And Darius you know, obviously big sports fan like all that, but I love music. And to your point it to your point, what’s the experience? How much is the beer? Do I have to sit on the lawn? Is it going to rain? My wife and I thought about Shania Twain the other night. It looked there was the same night that you went to the game. Tuesday Night was Shanaya Twain yoga. oriels I went to yoga, but Sunday night I went to the cure, and I’m out on the lawn and if the lightning comes, did you see the hailstorm and red rocks? Google the video of that red rocks has nowhere to hide Red Rocks is a hill and there was a hail storm. And not not the band. Not not Lizzie Hail, hail the real hail at Ohio Okay,
Dennis Koulatsos 13:40
right.
Nestor Aparicio 13:41
So that’s a bad experience hail storm at Red Rocks. You paid 200 bucks to be there. It’s a bad night. But to all of our points, where do you spend your money? Where do you spend your attention where your energy goes and your mind flows and where you want to be? And then you say to yourself alright, how much is it bringing me back? How do I feel about it? And the Orioles in my living room have been just fine. I mean, Palmer’s really cantankerous right Palmer is like, old and crotchety now I love I love angry Jim. Jim likes to say anything Jim is worth like putting on like in that Don Cherry you know Charles Barkley kind of way at this point Jim’s capable of saying anything
Dennis Koulatsos 14:21
Jim does age and point in time in his life I don’t think he cares so that’s we’re up against the clock I prefer your time and I know we’re gonna get you out of here so it would anybody want to say to wrap
Nestor Aparicio 14:31
up all night but yeah happy for that’s all I’m gonna say for happy force go Orioles you know and I’ll see you next week and we’re one step closer training camp
Dennis Koulatsos 14:40
than say hello to McDonald peeps. I don’t here to cheer be well stay well,
Nestor Aparicio 14:43
you come down anyway, manuals for you in a beer garden. Alright,
Dennis Koulatsos 14:46
I appreciate that. I’ll look you up there.
Nestor Aparicio 14:48
I’m in that one area of the beer garden. It’s a non smoking area. I’m the only guy
Dennis Koulatsos 14:53
if I show up you’ll have company other smoke either.
Nestor Aparicio 14:56
Hey, beginning Saturday. I don’t want to say I mean I don’t want you know, but beginning Saturday the rules change about all of that. So I have a feeling the arrow smell a little different on Sunday and
Dennis Koulatsos 15:07
I’m sure I’m sure that either
Nestor Aparicio 15:10
one years on the radio and they’ve made it legal now I’m allowed to joke about it. There you
Dennis Koulatsos 15:15
go. And there he goes, Nestor Aparicio. You’re 1570, a, W and C. We’ll take a quick break and come back right after this.
