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Some of us are getting old and tired and cranky but not longtime Boston sports columnist and ESPN Sports Reporters panelist Bob Ryan, who shares his enduring love of sports and tells Nestor he still attends games and awaits seeing more greatness from Mahomes.

Bob Ryan, a legendary sports columnist for the Boston Globe, discusses his enduring love for sports and his motivation to attend games. He highlights his interest in new talent and teams, such as the Houston Rockets and Boston College basketball. Ryan reflects on the historic achievements of Patrick Mahomes and the cyclical nature of sports success, noting the importance of great coaching and quarterbacking. He also touches on the challenges and potential of the Baltimore Orioles, emphasizing the importance of young talent and the need for strategic investments. Ryan concludes by expressing his continued passion for writing and analyzing sports.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Boston Globe, sports columnist, Patrick Mahomes, Houston Rockets, new talent, Boston College, sports fandom, football competition, playoff games, Patriots rebuild, Andy Reid, Mahomes partnership, Red Sox ownership, Orioles playoffs, young players

SPEAKERS

Bob Ryan, Nestor Aparicio

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Nestor Aparicio  00:02

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 tassel, Baltimore. We are doing Baltimore positive. We usually do radio row at the Super Bowl. Instead, we’re doing our Charity Week, a cup of Super Bowl for local food pantries and the food bank here. So in lieu of that, we are going around the country to bring in some of my favorite people, my greatest hits, as it were, as Patrick mahomes goes for three in a row. I always love getting the feedback. If you are familiar with the ESPN Sports porters, as everybody has been, and the long time sage voice of the Boston Globe, we welcome the youngest old timer, I know, but always great to have Bob Ryan back on the program. Bob, how are you every time I see a game at Boston College or something? I’m thinking, I bet Ryan’s courtside for that watching college basketball right now up there.

Bob Ryan  00:50

Well, I did go to the Cooper flag game, that’s for sure, and I’ve been there twice this year, but Cooper, I had to get that belt notch, you know? Well,

Nestor Aparicio  01:00

what still gets you out to games at this point? What motivates you to say, I’m gonna go to a ball game at this point because I’m getting to be as old as you, and some days it’s harder than others for me to say, don’t want to go to the game. Or am I just good here with my wife and my cat watching it on TV?

Bob Ryan  01:16

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Well, one of the reasons I like to go to games, particularly the Celtics games, is that I had, I do two podcasts a week. And, you know, I can’t always rely on talking about 1986 you know, and which I’m happy to do, but you can’t live on that. And so, okay, for example, I will be present tonight when the rockets come in town. And I am very intrigued by the rockets. I like the way the young talent. I just read a story this morning in the athletic about Sigurd and that the Turkish young, big man and interesting young fellow, and I want to see him play in person. I haven’t seen him in person. And they’re an intriguing team, really. I think they’re definitely a growth stock in the Western Conference, and so I’m anxious to see them. I like to see new new people, new teams, new players. So that’s that’s an obvious motivation with regard to BC, who are an average media Well, mediocre team at best this year. That’s the alma mater. The sense of loyalty. I like to go just because I’m it’s my 61st year of Boston college basketball, and going back to my freshman year at BC. And so I like to least go once a year to keep that string intact, right? So that’s, that’s for sure. And of course, Cooper flag came a week ago Saturday. That was a no brainer. I made sure I got tickets for that in July when the schedule was posted.

Nestor Aparicio  02:39

Well, I the fact that you still love sports, and you’re, you know, not writing it in the Oscar Madison way that you did for half a century, and training down the New York and doing all the things that you were doing sort of at that point. Still having a player from the Houston Rockets come to town probably reminds you they got this Elijah on this Drexler kid. I gotta go see play. The fact that there’s still things that make you, you know, I haven’t seen Otani play yet as an example, right? He came in all this time with the angels running around, and I’m thinking like seeing Lamar Jackson play is something that even five, six years ago, they played a game at the LA Memorial Coliseum. They played one game there that year that the Rams played there. But when they were building the blimp out in Inglewood, and the Ravens just freight trained them in these purple uniforms that night. And when I was out there, I was on the street corners, and they were selling Lamar Jackson T shirts and jerseys in Los Angeles. And I’m thinking people are coming here to see something they feel like they’ve never seen, seeing greatness, whatever that would be that you still seek that in some way.

Bob Ryan  03:44

Well, well, first of all, the whole motivation for my career is, I’m a sports fan. I never denied, you know, I’m not one of these writers that would pompously go around saying, I don’t care who wins or loses. I just worry about people. You know. Well, that’s a lot of boo BS, because first of all, writing about people is the layup drill of writing. If you have any kind of compassion, command of the language, you know, etc, feel for people. Writing about people is the easiest thing in the world. The point is, we wouldn’t care about these people if they weren’t playing the games. The whole root of my fandom is the fact that I love the fact that I love the games in the competition and the esthetics of various games. And that’s never changed, and so that’s always been my motivation. I know denied that I rooted for the Celtics when I covered them, but when the game was over, I put on my journalistic hat and wrote the game I just saw. And that’s No, I don’t see a contradiction. You can you can be a fan and you can be a writer. Some writers think there is a contradiction, but not for me. Maybe you have to be true to your personality. That’s who I am. I still am interested in games. I’m interested in competition. I had a like, for example, yesterday. I thought yesterday afternoon and evening. Was a great way to spend a day. I’m not the biggest football fan. Okay, football is is third on the list for me. Okay, baseball, basketball, clearly superior to football for me in general terms. However, these are the most important games of the year. How could any football fan not be pleased with what he or she saw yesterday? Even the first game, which I thought was a wonderful game to watch as a neutral even though the final score was 55 to 23 because there was a lot of great stuff going on in that game. The losing team successfully executed a beautiful fake punt. Remember that and things like that? At part of the fun of sports, you don’t see that every day. It was worked beautifully. There were a lot of good stuff in that game. No, it was more and it was more competitive than that final score were ever revealed if you saw it as you know that. And then, of course, every Kansas City game that the fact that they did it again, that they want a one score game, and that run that they’re on is unprecedented in football history. You know that, so you if you’re unplugged into that too. So I had a wonderful day of joy watching football yesterday, and I’m still a fan. That’s all.

Nestor Aparicio  06:12

It is amazing at these times of the year before the game. If I had had you on last week, we’d be talking about this execution of that, and whether this defense is going to do this, and they’re in the end, these playoff games are about mistakes, big mistakes, right? Like and to some degree, fake punts and some chicanery, to some degree, but it’s rarely the well, the ravens are just going to dominate by running the ball. Now they’re going to fumble, and the other team’s going to fumble too, and it’s going to be cold and wet and icy, and Mark Andrews is going to drop a ball that he’s caught 99 and a half times out of 100 and it’s always going to be drama and tragedy right to something. It’s never a cleanly played game and change. Yeah,

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Bob Ryan  06:56

seldom, no, seldom, you’re right and and there was great examples of that, with the three turnovers yesterday, of course, and also the failed fourth down, which how it was most indecisive call, no way anyone could tell. Will ever know whether he made it or not, because of that piled up, and they do it with no definitive video for anybody to go on. It’s tricky a guess and and and that changed the game, and that dropped, and then that great drop on the what’s his name? I forget his name that dropped the catchable pass in the last minute and a half for, for the bills, the guy who dropped that remember to pass. He dropped. Move on. Okay, anyway. Oh yeah, to gain tension, a lot of stuff. But how about the fact that the first game starts, here go, here go. The commanders down the field, 18 plays, longest drive of the year, and they can’t score. They get the field goal, and then sake one, and then to get a good return up to the 40, and saquon goes 60 yards on the first play to scrimmage. I mean, wait that in there. How could you not enjoy that as a neutral, I’m a neutral in that game, okay? And oh my god, this is gonna be great. Well, it was great. I don’t care if the final score was 55 to 23 it was a very entertaining game of football.

Nestor Aparicio  08:15

Bob Ryan is here. He spent most of his life thinking like maybe the Red Sox would never win, or the Patriots would never win, or even get a stadium, or even hang around or be moved to some place like Baltimore. Back in the day, he is the longtime voice of the Boston Globe. You can find his podcast out there, and obviously lots of old sage film from sports reporters and John Saunders, who once worked here in Baltimore, late, great John Saunders, Bob for you, with the Patriots and for, I guess, even the Red Sox. In the modern era, there was a point where, like, you were wondering if they were ever going to get up that mountain. And now, 25 years later, into this century, we’d look at it and say, Man, you had a lot of your city and your town through your tenure, and Shaughnessy and all of that era. And I’ll throw you know Sean McDonough into that was my co host 25 years ago for Bostonians and Boston media, and having those four franchises, well as all these great college teams in BC and all that basketball up there, you’ve really squeezed it out. And now here comes rebel into this thing to sort of try to continue the Belichick thing, this craft things teetering a little bit here in the aftermath of Brady and Belichick to try to put it back together, and it feels to all the rest of us like whatever you’re feeling about the chiefs in my homes right now, y’all have won enough that the Patriots can go away, maybe as long as the Packers did. You know for a while,

Bob Ryan  09:34

I was never greedy about in my mind, I was never greedy. I knew these were the good old days with the Patriots while it was going on, because I see too much. I mean, I know that. I knew in 1985 86 the Celtics, those were the good old days. It was, and still holds up 40 years, almost 40 years later, it’s still the best team in history at NBA, pre three point mania. That’s a whole we’re in a different game now, the warriors. No, it you can divide the. Finding line in NBA histories. There’s two or three of them. The 24 second clock, of course, changed the NBA 1954 and take the hostile takeover of the three has has in the 21st century, has taken change the game completely. Anyway, anyway, anyway. The Patriots, I was never greedy. I was grateful for what they were doing. And I’m aware things are cyclical. There’s an ebb and flow. I’m not shocked that they couldn’t make that was going to end. Sooner or later it ended, and they’re having a very, very tedious, painful rebuild as they get get away from the Brady Belichick era, the first good sign of any possible revival is they have a quarterback. They have the one, the first thing that you need, and obviously, then they have that. So that’s the first baby step they’ve taken on road back to respectability. Is that they, they appear to have a quarterback you can, you can rely on, and you can win with Bob.

Nestor Aparicio  10:58

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Ryan is here. We talked some little football, in the mahomes thing and thinking how hard this is to do. And you talked about it being historic if there’s three, right? It feels like Brady won 12 in a row. I mean, didn’t we? We were in the middle of that. Roethlisberger, a lot of people, Eli Peyton, they all had something to say about it, but it did feel like they won every year. The Chiefs really are winning every year. And this is for Andy Reid, for spagnolo to be a failed head coach and go back and then put the band back together there. And for Andy Reid, all key and Jordan, Philadelphia, losing championship games, losing Super Bowls Donovan, there has been this incredible second life for him. And to your point, having the quarterback and the coach sort of be the Batman and the Robin and all of this, what Andy Reid has done out there is it’s this is incredible, what they’ve done

Bob Ryan  11:46

well, yes, and yeah, but he’s certainly benefited by having the quarterback. You know, it’s no question. It’s just as Belichick benefited by having the quarterback, but I did in both cases that it was a partnership and an important partnership, and Grady wouldn’t have developed the way he did under other coaches. I’m not saying no other coach, that’s, that’s, but other other coaches, he wouldn’t have developed the way he did, and I’m sure that mahomes wouldn’t develop the way he did without the proper backing of from his coach. So, I mean, that’s, that’s a appropriate partnership. Yeah, I’m happy for Andy Reid in that regard, because he took a lot of crap in Philadelphia. Wasn’t always, you know. And coaches, you know, the coach doesn’t play the game. Ultimately, the players play. But regardless, coaching is very important. In the NFL, it’s clear it’s very important. And, and he’s, he’s, you know, on his way to Hall of Fame now, and he’s no ubiquitous presence and off the, you know, on commercials, even you know Bucha, you know. So who knew that was in him, but he, he’s a natural ham. Turns out he loves performing. You know, obviously, who knew that? Well, we know it now, and so that’s, that’s good. It’s cool. It’s very nice. Baseball

Nestor Aparicio  12:58

has been your passion as well, and I called you last summer. We connected early in the year, we didn’t connect later in the year, and the Orioles blew it in the end. But it’s different here. Now there is new ownership. There’s sort of new hope. There’s no more Angelos around anymore. Now, you know, they had the indignity here, playing two playoff games with 10,000 empty seats out in the outfield here. They didn’t win the games. It didn’t the eight season ended with a little bit of thought here in Lamar, Lamar, Lamar, and it’s easy to move on now that Lamar and Mark Andrews and that’s over with, we move back to baseball, signing 41 year old pitchers, 35 year old Japanese pitchers, and trying to get by with this lineup of all of these one one and these lottery picks, whether it’s cows or West Berg have turned into great players, or whether they’re waiting on rushman, hoping holiday gets here and gunner Henderson, they’re going to hit the ball. And despite the fact that they didn’t like go all in on Corbin burns and they signed some some relief pitching, here they’re they’re over, under in Vegas is 89 and a half. Most people think this is still a playoff team, and I don’t know how they’re going to pitch and put it all together, and they have some resources in the minor leagues to deal out for some pitching during the season, if they can get a Dylan cease, or get that sort of top of the rotation guy. But give me a little baseball perspective for you, because we haven’t had a lot of baseball to talk around about around here the last 30 years, where we the day the Ravens get eliminated, all that sadness is, well, we have a chance to win. We have a good baseball team here. We haven’t had much of that, Bob,

Bob Ryan  14:27

well, I know you do, and I respect it, and I or also the least you can say, is they’re very respectable. It’s not a, you know, the Yankees are always a colossus and paper but, but there’s, there’s flaws there, you would have to favor the Yankees, and after that, the rest of the division is wide open, really. And certainly the Orioles are in that cluster. They are a playoff team. Do you have to think of? I mean, they are a team that has every right to expect to make the playoffs. I think no question you have the right to expect. Fact that, and I think they’re relatively good, you know position in that regard. But there’s nothing to fear in Activision. You the you know, you the Yankees will see sometimes, you know this, with all the resources at their command, all the financial resources and at the command, the fact that a matter is that they last one in 2009 and everybody haven’t had a particularly fruitful 21st century, despite all the money that they’ve had to spend. And they have spent with a B, you know, billions and dollars, a billion dollars in recent times and and on all that. But they’re not nobody. They’re not to be feared, or else, have every right to feel that they can be competitive and and you know, so good luck to them. And I’ve always been partial to to to the Orioles, and in that regard, I’m

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Nestor Aparicio  15:50

married to Red Sox fans, so when they come in here, we don’t see each other as much as we used to back in the day, but certainly for your city and for baseball and for how much will my ownership really invest in this? We don’t talk about that in football with the salary cap in baseball, no matter, even in Boston, where they spend a lot of money, well, they’re not spending as much as they used to. And look at what they did to Mookie, right? Like so there’s always that when it comes to spending, and if the orals don’t win this year and Corbin burns, is a reason for that, it’ll be pointed to because it just cost a lot of money to keep baseball players in every market, even when you’re perceived to be wealthy, like the mass or the Nesson and and the Boston market

Bob Ryan  16:29

right now, the Mets are the and, of course, the Dodgers have resources. And they they’ve they use them up. And you know, the Dodgers are what happens when, I remember when to Andrew Friedman went there, I said, oh, boy, it’s going to be interesting, because now you’ve got, he’s got money, and he did what he did in Tampa Bay, which was remarkable job without money, and now he’s doing it, showing it. You know, he’s got the judgment, and they’ve got the money, and they, they look like they’re an unstoppable force right now, the Mets, of course, have unlimited resources as well, and but look at Eric’s race matter. They still haven’t resolved the Alonzo thing. Now, people are coming to dignity. There’s no way they’re going to keep them, but I don’t know who’s going to take them. We’ll see anyway, the Red Sox are very much under scrutiny here for their unwillingness to spend money the way they once did. And we posed this question to John Henry, what are your priorities in your business life, your sports business life? When he bought the team over 20 years ago, that was all he had. He was a Yankee minority owner. He sold. He became the owner of the Red Sox. Now it’s Fenway Sports Group. Fenway Sports Group. They’ve got Liverpool, they’ve got the penguins, they’ve got golf, they’ve got DraftKings, whatever it is, they’ve got one of them, you know, they’ve got lots of stuff in their portfolio, and Red Sox are just a part of that portfolio. And whereas once they were his only interest in sports, now they’re only one of as many interests. And we wonder, what is the primary interest? You know, Liverpool’s top the premiership again this year, and so that’s been a that’s the big issue here. They they, they are not the players for the the talent that they once were. Now, having said that, what we’re looking forward to seeing here is the development of what all the baseball insiders think is a very good crop of young players. Of, you know, their their farm system is producing some guys. Got him. You got to hear about Roman Anthony. You gotta hear about Christian Campbell. You’re going to hear about, they are one more I forget, and they, we’re going to see if, if they’re going to be able to, you know, mature, mature now, when these things come along, the rule of thumb, generally is in sports that they all don’t make it. Somebody’s going to flop and somebody’s going to make it, and we don’t know who’s going to be who, but there is interest in that. That’s going to be my interest as a fan this year, is to see about the development of these young players with this team and how far they can take them. Well, let’s move the

Nestor Aparicio  18:59

money around. You know, Santander goes to Toronto. We take Tyler O’Neill, and we’re going to compare their stats. Bob Ryan, compare stats to no one. He’s at the Boston Globe. You know, I remember when you called me a couple years ago when you told me you’re getting old, you needed to retire, and all you retire and all that, I’m thinking to myself, you are, you’re in it forever, right? Like you, I had Jerry Eisenberg on recently. You’re gonna, you still have a couple books left in you. I think, Bob, am I wrong?

Bob Ryan  19:25

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It’s possible. Yeah, it’s true. It’s true. We’ve had a, you know, last book out with Bill chuck on, on my score books, my 44 years of of score books and and just did the stuff, the great treasures that you find inside, you know, these, this, these score books, you know, you know, it could, it could be I still feel good. I can still write. I still write for the globe every other Sunday, and I do two podcasts, one with Jeff Goodman and Gary tangway, and one just with Gary, because Jeff gobbles around a lot and he’s still active. I did retire officially in 2012 after the London Olympics. I do not have a. Full time job. And so how does that

Nestor Aparicio  20:03

feel to not have a gig? To say, is it feel good?

Bob Ryan  20:09

Oh, yeah. But, I mean, I know it’s the right decision, and it was the right decision. Every once in a while, there’ll be a game that will come along, as I would have loved to have written that one, you know, that’s but not, you know that that’s still there, you know? And I, I see things that, frankly, sometimes other people don’t see in the game, and I want to, I think that ought to be preserved now, of course, what I did and made a living out of for, you know, a long time, writing classic game stories. They barely exist anymore, and even my own paper has discouraged. Uh, well, we’ve got, frankly, we’ve got some people that write game stories on their teams and other teams that went with, you know, these observations, you know, that’s, I mean, you don’t have to be a little not honestly literate. You don’t have to be a cohesive writer, a coherent writer with a beginning, a middle and an end of a story, if you’re just going to write observations, you know. And I, I find it myself inviting, you know, really complete game stories for past people could consult later on for post 30,

Nestor Aparicio  21:07

who, what, where, why, when, now, all on AI, the one thing they’ll never AI is your insights or mine. For that matter, I call my My name’s Ness, and I didn’t realize that Nestor was such a great suffix. So I call mine columnists because, like, I grew up reading columnists, great ones like Bob Ryan and John Steadman. My my mentor around here, and have John Eisenberg, and I try to have all of you on because I’m a kid that read your work that wanted to grow up to be you. So anytime you spend time with me, it’s time well spent. Bob Ryan, take care of yourself. Keep writing, keep opining. I guess ray will get it together up there, and we’ll see you against the Red Sox at some point here this spring. Alright, check back in anytime. I love having you on. Bob Ryan, always says yes to us. Has always said yes to the people of New England and doing the right thing and covering sports and and also with ESPN. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking, Baltimore, positive, you.

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