We’ve been waiting a long time for baseball of this caliber. Luke Jones and Nestor sweep away the Toronto Blue Jays north of the border and prepare for spring fling in The Bronx as the Yankees are next up for the surging Baltimore Orioles.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
orioles, game, years, talked, team, friday night, watch, ripken, people, play, sports, toronto, day, win, sweep, sunday, baltimore, pitching, give, run
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
W n s t, Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive. We’re positively into the post Preakness parade here. Congratulations to Bob Baffert and to everybody who survived Bruno Mars and the wet conditions on Saturday out. Hi ho Pimlico. You know if you’re at the races you missed the Orioles like sweeping away the Blue Jays all weekend. Hella you didn’t have to be at the race Friday night. You just had to find them on television, which was impossible to do on Friday night. Look, Jones joins us now talking all things all real baseball, we’re gonna be at the local and fallston on Tuesday from two to five. I’ve got some Maryland lottery scratch offs around here somewhere that I can hold up. I have my window nation hat. We’ll be doing that 866 90 nation order mine, everybody. This is the end of five years 0% financing at the end of the month goes away. So make sure you take advantage of that. And when donation. And of course I’ll take advantage of these scratch offs in Maryland lottery 50th anniversary had a bunch of winners last week. Luke, how are you? I know you’ve been you’re waiting for the Orioles to get back home. You’re waiting for, you know the ravens to do their thing and OTAs and mandatories and all that. But this this was an incredible weekend when you go on the road to another country sweep a team in Division, then often New York. I mean, the Orioles are the aggressors now, right like people come getting leads coming out to see them play.
Luke Jones 01:23
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And you just mentioned a sweep in Toronto. First time they’ve done that since 2005. Heard that at the end of Sunday’s telecast.
Nestor Aparicio 01:31
Been at that series, my wife and I were there and four and five like that, yeah, mighty like, that was 18 years ago.
Luke Jones 01:37
It was and I think back to that year, they got off to the Great Start that year. And everyone’s thinking, Oh, wow, they first time and what eight years they have a chance to be back in the playoffs. Well, we know how the rest of that year was the year right. There was right, Lima zili. And yeah, that July and August from Mozilla. Did
Nestor Aparicio 01:57
he really manage the Orioles? Do you have evidence of that?
Luke Jones 02:00
He did for for parts of two seasons? Right. So, uh, but yeah, I mean, an absolutely incredible weekend at Rogers Center for the Oreos. I mean, you start with Friday night, as you mentioned, Apple TV special. Unfortunately, I was at a friend’s house who had Apple TV and
Nestor Aparicio 02:15
you’re fortunate that we were unfortunate.
Luke Jones 02:19
But I mean, you look at that they get a full run when they’re Kyle Gibson pitches really well. Saturday. I mean, you’re you’re talking about being down three runs in the eighth inning and Brian Oh, hurt. Yeah, Ryan O’Hearn is up.
Nestor Aparicio 02:32
I had to google Ryan O’Hearn. I’m not gonna lie to you. I had two
Luke Jones 02:36
hits a game tying three run homer and you go to extra innings. And look, I mean, we just said that the Orioles hadn’t swept the series in Toronto in a long, long time. And even during the Buck show Walter years where things were quite fruitful for the Orioles over that five year stretch.
Nestor Aparicio 02:52
They had Edwin Encarnacion back then Right. I mean, they did great players.
Luke Jones 03:00
They did and that was not a fun place to play typically for the Orioles even when they were good. And we can all remember walk off losses and obviously, the 16 wildcard game but they went and extras on Saturday. You go into Sunday, you know there’s going to be no Felix Batista. You know, there’s no Yes or No, Brian Baker’s most likely down. I mean, you’re really going with your second tier of reliever. So what are you thinking? Better score some runs? Well, they score two runs to the first nine innings and you’re thinking, you know, on paper that does not sound like that’s going to be a victory. And lo and behold, they win eight to three. They get out of Toronto with the sweep 15 games over 500 I mean, it’s life is good if you’re an Orioles fan right now and oh yeah, saw some social media rumors late Sunday night. Sounds like John means is going to make his first start at extended spring training this week. So there’s something to put in the back of your mind as far as this team potentially getting better as the year goes on. So exciting times Nestor a great weekend for the Orioles and we talked about this. Going back to that Atlanta Tampa Bay stretch where you just hold your own. Well, the Orioles did more than hold their own against the Blue Jays. They go into Toronto and get a sweep against what I still think is a very, very talented Blue Jays club. They’re sputtering a little bit here of late but great, great series sweet for the Orioles and life is good especially on Sunday as it was the one year anniversary of Adley rutschman His major league debut.
Nestor Aparicio 04:33
I mean it’s no big picture here because they they got a day off to two days off really before they play on Tuesday night. They’re gonna hang around New York for 48 hours are gonna play some baseball this week. They’re gonna come home. I don’t know whether people are filling up the bird bath or you know what? Games midweek gains kids out of school soon when people start coming back and Marty Conway on we talked about this. I really had to think about this because I’ve been re releasing the Peter principles to show just how awful it was. And I don’t know what they’re doing down there other than the birdbath and some bobbleheads and things that they’ve done right? And obviously the city is what the city is and its challenges, but we just had a weekend where the Preakness is here. I’ve talked at length. Look, I got invited on Thursday night. And this was different during the plague, right? Because during the plague, there were no happy hours. There were no get togethers. There were no people out there was no baseball, right? I had trouble getting to an event on Thursday night, like there was massive traffic downtown at five o’clock on Thursday night to get to a five o’clock happy hour at the center club. I got invited, Steve Trevino invited me down beat a bunch of business people that were there in the Orioles nest room at the center could never do them such that they the bird’s nest room. I took a picture case they never invite me back. People are pitching about traffic. They’re like, Oh, I couldn’t get here. If they could. I live downtown for 20 years. I can’t remember there was the last time there was a ballpark related traffic fiasco. Now it’s Preakness Thursday, right? I mean, there’s some people in the hotels were full or whatever. But like we’re having problems around oral traffic on a Thursday afternoon. I thought that that is such a beautiful problem to have. Because in the first five years, I lived downtown, you couldn’t go to Little Italy and think you were getting back at five o’clock because you couldn’t traverse the city because the city is what it is. I mean, Pratt street lumber, so no widening them. Nobody’s taking the subway or the bus. Everybody’s driving in. It feels vibrant again, and I’m every event I go to when I went to three events on Thursday, I was at the Preakness all day, Saturday. The Orioles are a topic of conversation. And I know like you’re a little younger than me, you’ll always have a bucket or the they didn’t win Jack during the Bush era. So like, fair enough. They had a year when they were really good. They had a couple other years where he sort of skirted around the first time they got in they weren’t and they weren’t an effort in May, they didn’t really become an effort to like August in the wildcard year 14. So are 12 Excuse me, but 14, I’ll give it to you. But that by the time they got to 14, they had $20 million baseball players on the team. They had Davis’s and Joneses and Marcus’s guys who had been paid. Like, this is the beginning of the beginning of the beginning. I don’t even know where this goes when they’re playing this well, and you’re talking you’re flirting with John means they haven’t traded for anybody. They haven’t made any big moves other than the fact that they have drafted being an awful team they’ve drafted well, and whether it’s Jackson holiday, whether it’s waiting on TL Hall, whether it’s Grayson Rodriguez is here, but we got to get him organized. They’re not winning, because anybody and you could say Mullins is having a great year, or a great month, or whatever, but they’re not winning because of any supernatural occurrence here with players are spending money. They just have a bunch of really good young players. And I have no idea where the ceiling is for this. But I’ve been waiting 30 years on the radio to talk about, I mean, this isn’t even 96 and 97 Oreos where we were packing the place. Washington’s given money they’re buying 80% of the sky boxes, right there’s all sorts of military money involved in there where they could just by Roberto Alomar by BJ surhoff by David Wells by Jimmy key pay Mike Messina keep Cal Ripken provide the drugs and the money for Brady. And they they could do anything they wanted to do then, because they had money. Now this thing is a totally different organic experience. I think for the fans who have watched holiday play who have gone to see rutschman play down and buoy. This is like the real deal. And it’s may like I’m looking forward to June, July and August baseball around here in a way that I haven’t during your lifetime. Literally in your old. Yeah,
Luke Jones 08:58
I mean, and I’ll continue to push back on you under selling the buck era. But where I will agree is when you just mentioned the word organic, where you mentioned how young this team is where this feels. So open ended in terms of where this can go, and how long this can last. Now, there are huge questions related to ownership that we’ll continue to talk about. But when you’re just looking about the young players,
Nestor Aparicio 09:20
I’m glad you brought that up because I didn’t even bring that up. I’m not ready to pee on them yet, because I have no idea what I mean. I’m sort of assuming they, John Angelos could screw this up. Yes, he could. I mean, it’s possible. I have no idea.
Luke Jones 09:33
And I’m not even I’m not even trying to be pessimistic about that happening. I’m just saying that’s all well known until they spend money until they go out and get a frontline starting pitcher at the trade deadline which I think they’ll have every opportunity to do something like that. Whether it’s this trade deadline next trade deadline the year after that whenever it has, I don’t hear about next year I’m gonna hear about this year. Well, no, but I am about it. But this is a big picture thing. Yeah, I mean, it’s not just this Share it. So and that’s part of the beauty of this is my point is, it can be over the next five years can be over the next 10 years, it could be sustainable in the sense that you thought about the Orioles in the 6070s into the early 80s. So
Nestor Aparicio 10:12
that’s like, over the course of our lifetime where they like try every year even.
Luke Jones 10:18
Well, I mean, I’m trying to avoid football, you know, across sports, it’s, you know, it’s different. But when
Nestor Aparicio 10:24
it goes away, you stink as the people in Kansas City, it’s just sure it just really goes away. When the Ravens stick. We talked about the draft next year and drafted another quarter. You know what I mean? Baseball is wet, and we’ve stunk for so long, that this feels really magical be my word. You know, like, we’re I’m waiting for them to play and saying, but none of these guys are hitting over their weight. You could say Ryan O’Hearn it home run every night, there’s a different star. But this isn’t happening. Because of some accident or some lucky run for a couple of weeks. We’re way past the point. These guys are really good. This isn’t accidental. It really isn’t. They’re really good.
Luke Jones 11:05
I will point out, they’re still winning a lot of really close games, they’re relying on their bullpen a heck of a lot. And that was very evident over the weekend with what they did with quinoa and Batista and and then what they had to do on Sunday, you know, all Austin both and Mike Bollman and look credit those guys. I’m not being dismissive of that. But I’ll continue to look at the pitching look at the starting pitching, how deep those guys are getting into the games that we’re not getting as deep as they need to be understanding when you just play a ton of close games the way that they have. I mean, look at this series. I think what’s kind of ironic about this is you played two extra inning games yet that a four run win on Friday night. And they ended up having a five run win on Sunday. I mean, they haven’t had many of those that just speaks to how close the games have been. That’s not to be dismissive of the fact that they’re winning close games. But we also know that when you’re having to play games like that, night in and night out, week in and week out, it can take a toll on the bullpen. So that’s just something that I’ll I’ll throw out there. I’ll continue to say that doesn’t mean that I think it’s falling apart or anything like that. But it really is impressive to see what they’ve done in the month of May, after we had talked about the fast start in April, while acknowledging Hey, it was kind of the soft underbelly of the schedule. I think even the most optimistic Orioles fans acknowledge that. And the thought was, can you at least hold your own while they’re doing better than that? I mean, now they’re in a position where even if they were to get swept by the Yankees here in the Bronx over this three game set before they come home to to host the Rangers in Cleveland. It’s still a three, three and three road trip. So it just speaks to how great the weekend was. But it’s just it’s really exciting. And you know, you mentioned the point about fan interest and I’m glad you brought up last Thursday, you know, that day game against the angels, which was a frustrating loss, you know, a game where they had some opportunities and they came up short and had to settle for a four game split, but I noted this in my latest 12 Orioles thoughts going into the weekend going into the Toronto series that even though that was field trip day, and yes, the attendance was bullied a little bit by the school kids and teachers being out there. They still had an announced attendance of 27 720 7000 people at the ballpark for a Thursday afternoon game and I get it Otani and trout and there was some, there was definitely some juice for that with Otani pitching on Monday night. But that was the first real attendance figure of the year, where I was surprised pleasantly surprised where I say, Wow, there are a lot of people here for a Thursday afternoon game. It’s about a 1235 start. And to your point talking about the traffic after the fact and everything going on with it being Preakness weekend and all that. I mean, that was a pleasant surprise and look, with attendance. This is not just like a light switch, right? It’s not as though you go from empty ballparks to, to it being packed every night. I mean, it’s just it’s not going to work that way. But I think you are starting to see more and more that dial that interest dial that enthusiasm dial, really turning up
Nestor Aparicio 14:13
some of these nationals fans that have been nationals people the last 15 years that live in the corridor. If you live in Herndon, I get you and you’re all read it up and you got your Walgreens hat and you got your little you had your parade not that’s good. But if you want to see good baseball, like this summer and maybe in the next couple of years, the Orioles have a chance to obviously win back fans but all these people have an Oriole hat in their closet. They all love Cal Ripken in their own world Weaver, whatever, if they’re over the age of 40 or 45. Your age, let’s say are older, they have some affinity for the Orioles that the Orioles are in a pennant race. They’ll come for a game or two in July oh and they’ll come up and and hopefully have a good experience if the experience of downtown is important. And I’ve talked so much about this. It’s what we do at Baltimore positive when I’m not talking about the baseball team with you It’s fixing the city and lifting the city. And there’s nothing and Marty Conway and I went through this, nothing can lift the city, like 27,000 People just showing up in downtown on a Thursday afternoon or Thursday morning, really, when you consider what it is it being left behind on a Thursday afternoon. So these are all really good, sort of heartbeats about what the baseball team means to the community, which is why I lead free the birds, by the way, look, you’ll love this. I’m at the race all day, wearing my suit. Seeing people I’m out in the infield the whole day doing my thing walking around, ran into people. And it’s late in the afternoon, right? And addict you already took a picture. And it’s all a big construction zone out in the infield. There. It’s a mess, right? So we’re walking through this corridor and a guy comes by me and he yells, free the birds 508 and just keeps walking. He doesn’t say anything like this is late in the day. I think he might have been a little drunk. But he looked at me as yells that at me and I’m thinking, I said to my wife, I’m like 17 years ago, like the fact that somebody would yell that at me. Okay, good, then they know, there’s been progress. Because the reason I did that had nothing to do with Peter or the tea. It had really had to do with the city. And what’s going to move the city forward. And this is where I’ve talked so much about the baseball team, being not a catalyst. But the symphony all you want to talk about the harbor this and that the baseball team has traditionally for 30 years. The reason the stadium was built was to bring people to the city. And I feel like this is this is part of a blossoming that’s happening for them. And watching them on TV leads you back right like and you can’t find the game on Friday. I want to talk to you about that because you’re on Pennsylvania sometimes you can’t get the games. I’m not blaming this on John Angelo’s. This is a global Major League Baseball issue. But when I’m not an old guy, and my wife’s not an old lady, we can’t find the game on Friday night. That’s a real problem for them, too. It really
Luke Jones 17:00
it is. But that’s, that’s becoming more and more that’s across sports. I mean, we just found out the NFL is going to have a streaming exclusive playoff game. Why don’t peacock I mean, that just can’t sew up the Ravens game? Well, right. Well, they have to show it locally on local TV. I think that’s, you know, that still would apply as far as what we always see in
Nestor Aparicio 17:21
Burma when I could watch the game on Friday night with my wife is, but that’s not
Luke Jones 17:24
going away, unfortunately. And again, that’s not an Orioles only thing that’s not a baseball only thing that’s sports, I mean, none of these sports, you can you can’t accuse any of these owners or any of these leagues of being concerned about access. I mean, everything is I mean, there’s no shame now, in terms of any of that, you know, it’s not an impossible task to set up a free trial and then cancel something. But yeah, it’s, it’s a deterrent, especially when you’re paying so much for your regional sports network.
Nestor Aparicio 17:58
Myself, it’s seven o’clock on a Friday night, I’ve worked my ass off, I love the baseball team, I want to go, why are you putting me through this, like, like that, that’s the feeling I had and that and that. Like, I didn’t watch the game, I’m not giving Apple my credit card. I’m not screwing around with that. And having charges two months, three months from now. And like I’m just not doing that I the last time I did this, and this is my crack on the Baltimore Sun. I gave them $1 for six months. And then I had to call the Philippines and take an hour and a half of my day to try to get rid of a subscription. So like the Baltimore Sun has burned me and I will continue on that the Baltimore Sun burned me more than any company’s ever burned me on getting rid of a credit card number. I don’t do free trials, middle finger up, double middle finger up to two free trials for anybody for anything. That’s a 55 year old guy who’s had my credit card out in the cosmos. So I don’t, it wouldn’t matter whether it’s a playoff game, they’re not getting my credit card to watch a free trial. So that’s where I stand as a citizen. I didn’t watch the game. And that’s unfortunate. And I wasn’t the only one because I would think they must cut their audience way more than in half. Because I can’t be among the the only people that doesn’t have apple plus it doesn’t care to have ever had Apple plus, but I really wanted to watch the game. So that was fun.
Luke Jones 19:17
Yeah, I hear you and Major League Baseball would privately tell you well, who cares? That last audience for that one night is made up by all the money that Apple’s giving us for that Friday night game of the week situation?
Nestor Aparicio 19:28
So you don’t have to watch it. Right.
Luke Jones 19:31
Exactly, exactly. Exactly. Someone else paid us so that night we’re fine. So and look, I’m not blaming, I’m not trying to defend I’m just saying what reality is at this point when
Nestor Aparicio 19:39
the team gets in this sort of a place, and you really do watch them. It’s effed up. I mean, it’s awful. It’s terrible.
Luke Jones 19:47
It is it is and I mean, look, it’s a hint, I will still say fortunately, at least at this point now, who knows how bad it could get in the future in this terms, and I saw a number of people even mentioned that if You are an international soccer fan. This is the kind of thing you deal with. Because there’s so many different streaming options and games on this streaming network or games on this,
Nestor Aparicio 20:09
given my mother who loved Paramount Apple, I’m not getting my, you’re gonna have to,
Luke Jones 20:15
you’re gonna have to give it to somebody, though. You’re gonna have to give it to somebody, though, because stuff is less and less is going to get going to be on free to broadcast TV, unfortunately. I mean, that’s just where we are. And careful, they should be careful. Oh, that I’ve been saying that for years. No question about it. So what what’s going to be really fascinating is going to be once the regional sports network model goes kaput, for good as it as we see it today and how it’s already in crisis in so many different places. Now forget about Masson for a moment. This is literally, this is literally bankrupt situations with with what at&t and Bally and all the different ones that are just kind of taken on water this year just showing the games. But so. But with that, it’s going to be fascinating to see once they have to transition to alla carte streaming, however, that’s going to look and you know, I mentioned Apple TV. If you watch the game on Friday night there was even mentioned of you can get MLS games, you know, that’s kind of their model now is Apple TV handles it my brother in laws of Philadelphia Union fan and watches the games and it, that model seems to be working for MLS albeit it’s a smaller scale than the other major professional sports, although MLS has grown quite a bit. But it’ll be interesting to see once the other major sports are there. And we’re not talking about your traditional regional sports networks in the same way anymore. It will be interesting to see if they’ll try to keep as much of it together as possible, or will it become even more splintered? Where this package of games is on this and this package of games is on this and the Thursday games are on it, where it’ll just become that much more of a headache. I hope it’s not that case. But again, talking about major professional sports owners and access and trying to bleed every dollar they can get out of people and every dollar they can get out of every TV network or streaming network. It is something that is on my mind. Definitely from a big picture standpoint, but I was able to watch on Friday night. You made mentioned whether it’s someone at home or How about how about if you’re out somewhere going to a sports bar or something like that. Are they going to have Apple tea?
Nestor Aparicio 22:29
I thought the same thing. All I thought is I can’t even go over to Nacho Mama’s let me make no bars gonna pay Apple TV to put an Oreo game up. They’re just gonna say to the customer sorry, Mr. Angelou said Mr. and Mr. Man for destroyed you hear the game’s not on tonight? Three Yeah, my phone and give them the 499 or whatever. Like, it’s dumb. It’s dumb. Like whoever dreamed this up was not sitting in a house somewhere trying to watch the game on a Friday night?
Luke Jones 22:58
Well, and this is where I go back to owners of Major League Baseball specifically. But I think this applies to varying degrees across the different sports, where decisions like this are made where I start to wonder, are you really a big fan of your sport, and growing the sport and thinking about money and financial growth in that way? Or is it every dollar I can get right now? Consequences?
Nestor Aparicio 23:23
Do you just have a relative that wants to watch the game? You know? And will they feet whether they’re 18 or whether they’re 88. And they just feed back to you that they want to watch the game? Like right it’s been hard enough with massive one Masson to move into the peacock game a couple of weeks ago happened on that Saturday afternoon. I had to figure that out. Yeah. Yeah, they played at 11 in the morning. Sorry, it wasn’t even a win. It was. Oh my god, it’s 1245. And it’s the fifth inning. And how did I not know that? Right? Like this has all happened in two weeks. In the last two weeks. This has happened to a 55 year old sports sell it who loves sports who’s just drifting away? Because they didn’t let me watch the game Friday loop. They didn’t let me
Luke Jones 24:04
Yeah, and I mean, but I’ll also keep in mind there was a time where certain games wouldn’t be on TV at all. I mean, there would be a handful not many but a handful that would not be on it’s
Nestor Aparicio 24:16
not their model their model back in oh five was we’re gonna beat the Nationals up. We’re gonna suck 250 million Adam, we’re gonna beat because we’re gonna have a Television Network’s gonna be the greatest television network we’ve ever had. And we’re gonna have all the games. Well, yeah, once you make that promise for two decades, don’t go taking my credit card and giving it to the Apple Gods at 655 on Friday nights, I can watch a game from Toronto. I mean, it’s weak.
Luke Jones 24:39
I hear you, but it’s not going away. I’m just telling you that
Nestor Aparicio 24:43
Yankee. Let’s get on to that because we’re going to play them. They have been the Zod forever. This might be fun beaten up the Yankees for a little bit, huh? Yeah,
Luke Jones 24:53
I mean, I don’t know if you could expect another three games sweep like they did in Toronto. But you know, they’re gonna see Gerrit Cole, they’re gonna see Nestor court. tears and certainly going to be a challenge going into the Bronx. But it’s, Hey, I think at this point in time, we need to stop thinking about the Orioles as this big time underdog and yeah, they’re a young team. And look, let’s be very clear. They’re gonna go through some rough patches. Yeah, that’s just the the ebbs and flows of a baseball season. And they’re going to go through some of that at some point. And inevitably, people will start to panic. And there will be a thought, and this happened when they lost the Atlanta series, right. And then they lost the first game of the Tampa Bay series, they lost three in a row for the first time all year. And look what they’ve done since then, all they all they’ve done is win since then, including against some some tough competition, but they’re gonna go through some rough patches. But I think what is just so impressive with this team is that they just bounce back and even Sunday was such a great example of you knew going into it, you were playing with at least one hand tied behind your back with the bullpen, if not one and a half, right. It might have been your arms are tied together, and you’re just kind of flailing with your one hand. That’s really where they were. And they didn’t score a lot of runs early, which is kind of what you thought the formula would be Dean Kramer battled gave up a lot of base runners, but was able to minimize the damage and they just give themselves a chance every night. And that’s all you can ask for over these next three nights in the Bronx against the Yankees. But I think what we’re starting to see more and more in Toronto is the latest example of this is that that idea of even just going into last year, and certainly the few years before that, where teams would look at the Orioles in their schedule, and say, well, that’s two out of three at a minimum or that’s three out of four at a minimum. And we’ll get right here and we’ll have to, we will probably be able to rest our best bullpen arms. And we’ll have a couple of blowouts your team’s are thinking about the Orioles in those terms. Because my goodness, you watched it on a nightly basis. It was awful. Pitch and they could barely catch Yes, yeah. So but those days are over now teams are looking at the Orioles. And I’m not saying that everyone’s fully believing in them as a juggernaut just yet. But teams are looking at them and saying, Boy, they’ve got a lot of young talent. And I mean, everyone knows about rutschman You made mention to Cedric Mullins, and I’m working on this gonna write about this at Baltimore. positive.com I think Cedric Mullins is such a great, even though rutschman is the face of the franchise, and I don’t think anyone would argue that, you know, being one, one and the start of the alias era and everything. But you look at where Cedric Mullins when he arrived. It was the end of Adam Jones and Buck show Walter and Machado had just been traded a couple of weeks before that. And you see where he was at that point. We remember some of the trials he went through. I mean, this was a guy who was demoted to double A he struggled so badly in 19 and worked his way back away.
Nestor Aparicio 27:49
I heard Ryan Ripken speak on Thursday. I want to give a plug to Ryan Ripken because he was unbelievably good on Thursday. He talked about that. He talked about meeting Cedric Mullins at the bottom of the bottom, and how bad that was for him. And now he looks up. And this guy’s in the big leagues doing what he’s doing. And Ryan’s on a stage at a at a connects event on Thursday, talking about his career being over 29, right, that the difference in the trajectory for how Cedric Mullins easily could have been forgotten, right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 28:22
no question about it. And not just that, but he was an all star two years ago. And mind you, even though that was a bad team, he was a legit All Star he went 3032 years ago. And for him to do what he has done this year, you saw him hit for the cycle a couple Fridays ago and five hits on Sunday. I mean, he he is really he’s kind of the engine the catalyst for this team. And and and that’s kind of an easy thing to say about a guy who’s a leadoff hitter for you. But whether it’s his defense, whether it’s a speed, whether it’s what he does with the bat, I mean, it’s, he’s really, really important to their success. And I think he’s such a great symbol of what this rebuild was in luck. Not everything went perfectly. And, you know, I mean, start with COVID. And how disruptive that was to a full minor league season for a team that was rebuilding and had all these young players you wanted to get experience for. But you know, he worked his way back, didn’t just get back to the majors and stick but has become such a good player over the last few years. And it’s it’s special. And to see him to see some of these guys like in Austin Hays, who were here from the very beginning, and who are still part of this now and even if they’re not the very best players on the team, it’s pretty cool to see that and to see where they are now, compared to where they were five years ago, Sunday in Toronto was a great reminder of just how fun this thing has become and how good this ballclub is becoming.
Nestor Aparicio 29:49
Luke Jones is here on choking to death, but it’s okay. We’ll be back. We’ll talk some football around here all week. We’re going to be at the local on Tuesday in fallston. Doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery kitchen Watch with our friends at Goodwill and window nation remind everybody when donation 866 90 nation so last week of 0% financing for five years just a reminder by to get to free it’s the best deal going if you’re gonna get Windows. You’ve been putting it off column this week column before Memorial Day. Take care of that local be easy to call all week long. He’s at Luke at wn St. dotnet. Also at Baltimore Luke Dennis will be here on Thursday. Any breaking news you get first on the wn S T tech service provided by our friends at coons Baltimore Ford I got some ROFO coffee and my coal roofing mug I am ready for summer I’m ready for Memorial Day I’m ready for the Orioles to go to New York. I’m ready for the Orioles to get home this weekend. And of course OTAs ahead we are wn st am 1570 Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive
