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Let’s discuss the power of cold beer at a reasonable price at Oriole Park at Camden Yards

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The offseason “improvement” of the Baltimore Orioles on the field has certainly been nothing to crow about but Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the first signs of the end of The Angelos Error in the stands as Catie Griggs brings cold beer at a reasonable price at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and a new Birdland Value Menu.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the upcoming Orioles baseball season, expressing excitement for the return to baseball after the disappointing Ravens season. They highlight the Orioles’ new business initiatives, including $4 hot dogs and $5 beers, aimed at making the ballpark experience more affordable and fan-friendly. They emphasize the importance of removing “pain points” like high concession prices to attract and retain fans. They also discuss the need for the team to focus on winning to drive attendance and the potential impact of social spaces and affordable concessions on fan engagement.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

baseball season, Orioles tickets, affordable concessions, fan recruitment, social spaces, younger fans, ticket prices, media credential, new ownership, ballpark initiatives, fan experience, sports fandom, concession costs, game attendance, sports marketing

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. I know you all are glad the football season that bad taste in our mouth, or whatever we’re going to be watching with Patrick mahomes or Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift and Jalen Hurts. Or if you hate the Eagles, or you love the chiefs, or you hate the chiefs, fine, I remember we like the chiefs. We don’t like them anymore. It is officially baseball season here. Luke Jones is joining us now. We’re going to be doing our cup of soup or bowl next week. I’m wearing my Costa shirt right now because it was established in 1971 we’re going to establish year two of a cup of Super Bowl right in my homeland, at Dundalk on Monday, but try to talk my kid in the come out. Co host with me. We’re going to be there from noon until five on Monday, on Tuesday. We’re at Faith leagues on Wednesday, we’re at Cocos on Thursday, we’re at State Fair in Catonsville, and then on Friday, we’re gonna wrap things up at Cooper’s north with my pal Terry up there. We talk about cancer and lots of community chats, lots charity chats next week, but obviously the mark Andrew thing aside, the Ravens aside, how Steve Bucha is press conferences, I’m sure will be any minute now, it’s baseball season, and the Ravens can’t do anything on the field again until August, into September. We’ll get into all of that free agency and all of that. You know, the the little merry go round, that is the off season for all of that. But I am heartened that it’s baseball season. I’m starting to think about it. I see it’s going to be 60 degrees one day next week, so at least got that going on. Um, I’m hoping that the new regime, Katie Griggs and Don Kovac and Mark fine, will welcome me back as a media member. If that happens, you and I will be in Sarasota, if it doesn’t you, and I still might be in Sarasota because I know a great hot yoga studio down there, and I know where to get good fried chicken. So Have at it, Luke. It’s spring training. No more thoughts market. I don’t want to hear anything more about the Ravens. I don’t even want to hear about Bumble roosky or Bucha or anything like that.

Luke Jones  02:00

You forgot the really good Thai place we found last year too. That was good down in Sarah set up right now.

Nestor Aparicio  02:05

So you get me working. Don’t get me started. Don’t get me excited. You’re gonna give me my media credential back. I was just like, because I might.

Luke Jones  02:13

I was just thinking, though, as you were kind of making the transition with, obviously the disappointment of the ravens and the long off season you just said it. I mean, they’re not going to play another game, even a fake game, until August. But let’s face it, they’re not going to play a game that truly, truly, truly matters in the context of what the Baltimore Ravens need to do as an organization until next January, right? So, and that’s assuming they make it. But anyway, long, long time to talk about that and Orioles, and I was just thinking, Boy, if there’s a Corbin burns, move to be made, this would be the week to do it. If there, you know, last year there was also the news of new ownership. You know that that came in, what, 48 hours after the Ravens lost to the chiefs. So but it is getting to be baseball season. We’re about two weeks out, you know, as you and I talk a little over two weeks in real time in terms of pitchers and catchers reporting. And the countdown is on, and you made mention of some of the changes made from on the business side, the non baseball front office side, and will certainly be interesting to see how that plays out. We saw the news a few days ago about the Affordable ballpark fair, what $4 hot dogs and $5 beers and

Nestor Aparicio  03:34

$5 be? See, this is where, like, if these people were civil and nice to me, and I really hope they are, I would be kidding around with them, like, what kind of beer we talk you know what I mean? Like, fill me in on this. Show me. I’m guessing it’s

Luke Jones  03:46

domestic. I’m guessing it’s domestic. And, you know, I don’t want to give anyone free advertising who doesn’t advertise with us. The best

Nestor Aparicio  03:52

beers in the world are domestic. We’re making everything

Luke Jones  03:54

Sure, and that’s fine, well, but I’m no but I’m saying some domestic beers are fine. But point is, they have a menu that is a little more palatable for those that are on a budget. Are you

Nestor Aparicio  04:07

taking Scarlet down? Being honest with me, well, I mean, yeah, we’ve talked about it. Is she a Phillies fan? I mean, seriously. I mean, my

Luke Jones  04:16

sister and my brother in law are very good about giving equal time. They have Raven stuff, they have Oreo stuff. They have Eagle stuff. They have Philly’s stuff, uh, 70 Sixers. They’re

Nestor Aparicio  04:27

going to let these children decide on their own, or they can adopt them both. Sure. And what? Well, what’s funny is, like these kids are doing now with Katie, Danielson, Mark Jackson, well, the big, big

Luke Jones  04:36

thing for for my niece is now, you know, Scarlet going to be four in May, and she’s already now going to have seen the Eagles in the Super Bowl twice. Evelyn isn’t even one, and the Eagles are that. So the Ravens have some work to do on that front, although certainly their memory is not going to be, you know, these aren’t going to be the most vivid of sports memories for them, but, but no, like you look at the menu the. Good, right? Good to see that applaud them for that, that they’re that they have something like that, especially on the heels of having you, and I haven’t talked to so many of the Birdland membership types that were really ticked off about how last August was kind of botched, and how prices went up, benefits went down, right? I mean, a lot of hardcore Orioles fans in my life who had bird Birdland membership plans that were unhappy and absolutely had an impact on their playoff ticket sales and all that. So good to see this. You know, these are the kind of initiatives that we’ve talked about. It if you want to recruit, people if you want to grow your brand, if you want to actively get people to come out to watch your product. Beyond just saying, hey, Gunner Anderson, give us money come watch them play, right? These are the kind of things that you need to do. We talked about it with the giveaway schedule. You know the I know you made mention, they’re doing two Hawaiian shirt giveaways, rather than one, one game of it. I mean, Star

Nestor Aparicio  06:05

Wars isn’t May the fourth now, it’s all weekend, right? Sure. Look,

Luke Jones  06:09

these are the kind of things you’ve got to cast a wide net, right? You’ve talked about it a lot in terms of thinking, how many young kids are playing lacrosse now, right? And that’s nothing new. I mean, that’s that’s been an ongoing thing. I mean, I can tell you where I live in Southern York County, Pennsylvania. It when, when my family moved here in 1990 you would cross the Mason Dixon Line, and people in southern Pennsylvania would look at you like you had two heads if you mentioned the sport lacrosse. Now everyone in York County plays. I remember when I graduated high school, they were starting up a club team, a club lacrosse team. Now it’s a varsity sport.

Nestor Aparicio  06:48

Every one of those kids doesn’t play baseball,

Luke Jones  06:52

not everyone, but a lot of, plenty of them, right? I mean, it deserves but the point is, you’ve gotta recruit, right? I mean, it’s, we’ve talked about it with the Ravens. You know, 25 years ago, they didn’t have to lift a finger to sell a ticket. You know, it just happened because that the enthusiasm was just there. The machine ran itself. Times change, and you have to work harder, depending on what the circumstances are, for your sport, for your city, for your population, your brand, the history of of success or lack thereof on the field. All of those things have to are taken into account. And I know you’ve talked about this at length, we’ve talked about it together at length that, you know, for Katie Griggs and the new individuals coming into this situation, there’s a lot to like about where the organization is on the field. You know, last October and last second half aside with the disappointment, but good young core players, certainly in a better place than they’ve been in a long time, from a competitive standpoint, but on the business side, on the fan recruitment side, they’ve got work to do. There’s no question about that. And you know, you see something like this, where you might say, Okay, well, how much does it really matter to have cheaper concessions around the ballpark? I think it matters to people like and that’s not the end all, be all, but it’s one of what you hope will be a multi pronged attack of recruiting people. And

Nestor Aparicio  08:15

again, by the way, one of my smartest people in my life gave me this term for that. And it’s not an industry term, although it sounds like something out of a out of a economics debate, but it’s take away that pain point, the pain point of a $12 beer versus a $5 beer. And the theory of that is the difference between me a maybe showing up at all, and when I show up, whether I’m going to have two or three beers or 00, not. It’s nine and it’s a little pricey, and I can handle it, but dude, you’re ripping me off. Your gouging me. I’m giving you nothing. I’m giving you nothing. And that’s happened a lot to me, and I’m a concert guy. You know this, when the beers are 18 bucks, you’ve made the decision for me, I’m not that thirsty. You’re getting zero for me. So if you make it eight, I might buy three if I’m not driving. But if you make it 12, I’m probably might buy one, but I’d better be the Rolling Stones, and I better be thirsty, but I’m not buying two. And I, you know, I remember going through this with you when I went to see Springsteen at Syracuse. I had a beer. I’m not driving. I was being chauffeured around. I, you know, like, Thank you, Marty Conway, so I could have gotten ripped if I want me, I wasn’t driving anywhere, and it’s a night out. It was Syracuse. What the hell else you got to do at Syracuse? I’m telling you this, you you laugh. But I went back to concession halfway through the show, and the beer was like, 1650 and I’m just like, you know, like, where in the universe would I pay that? And. The pain point, that economic thing that like, Oh, you’re not ripping me off and telling me you’re my friend and that I need to love you and I love the Orioles. They’re my family. My family wouldn’t charge me 18 bucks on a beer, you know what I mean, like? So there is a point where it just feels

Speaker 1  10:17

nice, sure, and and remember, there’s the collaborative, you know, it becomes exhausting to the point where, what is the ticket price, what’s the convenient charge that where, you know, Ticketmaster, whatever, wherever I’m buying it from, how many subscriptions do I have to have to watch Friday baseball? Sure? How much is parking, how much it’s in concession, like all of those things, right? It adds up. I There are people in my life that I know, and I this isn’t Orioles, this is in general, right? Talking, sporting events, concerts, whatever it might be, who used to attend things regularly. And obviously, you get older, you have kids, you have circumstances in your life. You might not have as much disposable income, depending on where you are in your life. But when you get beaten over the head with how much the ticket is, how much a convenience charge is on top of whatever the ticket costs, how much parking is, and then, oh, you finally get me there, and yeah, it’s $18 for a beer, or it’s $11 for a lousy hot dog. Like, what

Nestor Aparicio  11:19

Billy Joel. I love Billy Joel. And Billy Joel in a buck and a buck and a half, maybe Billy Joel at 250 300 no bueno. And that’s across the board for like, name anything. If you see me at a concert, rest assured, I probably paid less than 80 bucks, because that’s kind of where, unless it’s something really special at the sphere with the Eagles, and I’m in Vegas, maybe I do two 200 bucks. But like, I mean, you saw me in my Derrick Henry jersey. It’s $175 ticket. I would never, if it had Tony Quinn on it, I would, I mean, I just did, like, I just it was worth 40 bucks to me. That’s what it’s worth. And when something hits my value, that’s when I go. And that’s true for a lot of people in a lot of ways, and a lot of economics and that pain point of whatever the pricing is that even when I beat the Ravens up about their tickets falling, man, it says a lot that the tickets 35 bucks and people don’t want it. That tells you exactly where your stock is, if that’s where it is, or the Orioles having 10, $12 playoff tickets in the middle of the day where it’s safe to go downtown, and people didn’t, didn’t bite on it. And look, man, I’m Baltimore positive. I love the city, I love sports. I love these teams. I hope they love me back. They haven’t loved me back in a long time. As you know, the horse racing industry is trying to fix itself, right? There’s, I talk about gambling all the time, and I’m doing charity stuff next week to feed people that don’t have any food. You know, we have a lot of issues here, but there’s a lot of arrogance amongst the sports thing, in a general sense of the country club, part of who’s paying for it and who’s a good fan and who’s a bad fan. And if you’re not there and paying $18 they’re trying to bring some of that barrier down. And I tip my cap to Katie Griggs on this. You know why? Because she comes at it from soccer business in Atlanta, where they can’t sell anything to anybody except SEC football and cars that go through. You know what I mean? So and politics they’re they sell that in Georgia, for sure, because they need to. But from her perspective, and going to Seattle and doing I would love to sit down with her and have the kind of grown up conversations that I have with all sorts of people here on these airwaves. You can click all her like, I like smart conversations, and I like, tell me what you’re doing, so I can tell the public what they’re doing. That’s what I do as a journalist. You teach me, and then I try to make it more chunkable for people to understand what’s going on and give them the why behind why is their $5 beer? Explain it to me and everybody smart, you know why they explain it to me this way. It doesn’t ring the bell enough to piss everybody off. You’re ripping off every one of your fans every time they come to the concession stand. And the thing that bothered me about it, and this isn’t for your lane, but my lane is for all of the vendors that go down there, not the other guy in Dundalk, but the people like Costas that then in the stadium, and their prices are still going to be 22 bucks for a boobs. You know what I mean. So, like, you’re gonna get undercut to some degree on cheaper items, but if you want the Crabby tot that bit, you know, whatever it is, by the way, I’m gonna we’ll get back onto the field. This is gonna be my entree to you. And you could say whatever you want on the business, but I thought my best Tweet of the year, and we’re not a month in, was Tony poutine. You either get that or you do not get that. Speaking of food, speaking of tots, it was

Luke Jones  14:45

funny. It was funny. But, I mean, look, all of this is about casting a wider net and trying to it’s you’re going fishing, right? I mean, for the people who already are, you. Uh, I’m not going to say 81 game plan holders, because those are generally groups businesses, right? But, but for the people who have a 13 game plan or a 26 game plan, or whatever, you know, something that is a financial commitment, right? A major financial commitment, you know, on that front those people they have now, you need to do things to keep them happy. And that was part of the issue of what happened last August, and I think that really bled into what happened in October. As a result. I think he ticked off a lot of people on top of the inconvenience factor. But, but I live

Nestor Aparicio  15:32

two blocks away, so the thought that tickets might be 1215, bucks, or I get that plan where I can go up there, it’s a cover charge, right? Like is, you know, it’s a cover charge to get in, and once I’m in, if the beers really are five bucks or, you know, even, like I said, if they were nine or 10, they’re never that. I mean, they just aren’t that, you would come a little more often. And the affinity part of what my dad and I experienced in 1979 of going out to the ballpark 41 times in a summer, and my dad was a senior citizen, and I was a kid, and we got in and we got our hot dogs at GNA because he couldn’t afford the concessions. My Dad, this is really a beautiful conversation you and I are having, because my dad, that would be the pressure point for my father. In 1979 the pressure point was the hot dogs were 50 cents at GNA and they were $2 in the ballpark. And the drinks were 25 cents at GNA and at Coney Island, hot dog and they were $1 and a quarter for a soda was unheard of in 1979 you know. So like the the notion that my dad could pull a $10 bill out, which was a lot of money. Then for my father, you know, a $10 bill and we could go to the ballpark. My dad would love to do that three times a week and take his 11 year old boy who loved baseball out to the game 40 times that year, whereas that one Sunday, my mom took me out to see Dennis Martinez during that two at shutout, I talked her into the box seats, and that was a different you know, that was like going five times for my dad and I, and the same could be said for any you could take that, extrapolate that along any walk of life, with what you do with your money, take a walk in the woods for free, or you can pay a cover charge to stay in the outfield, no or watch it on TV, but they need to get people traversing the stadium and trying it at a price that’s palatable to them. And that would be Katie Griggs, soccer background, I would think that would say, we need to get people in that don’t like soccer,

Luke Jones  17:35

sure. And I will say this because this just came to mind, and I haven’t seen anyone mention this. And look, I’m still with end of the end of the season Raven stuff. I can’t sit here and say that I dug Doug, you know, sunk my teeth into this new ballpark fair menu that they’ve put out that’s more economical. I like it assuming that means they’re going to continue to allow people to bring food and beverages into the ballpark, if they’re doing this, and then they cut that out. Then, I think, for someone like me, that that’s off putting, then don’t bring Spaghettios in a plastic bag and try that. But I’ve, I was, I was very much the guy that, you know, especially when I was out of, you know, in college, you know, and my first couple years out of college, so we’re talking, you know, kind of oh five through oh eight, basically, before I started, you know, working at NSD, you know that those were the days of $5 student nights, you know. So I had my student ID, and I go sit in the left field upper deck and, you know, go out to, you know, one of the establishments right outside the ballpark, you know, before heading in and have a a beverage or two, but I would buy a couple hot dogs and bring them into the ballpark. I could do the whole night. I knew I had a good place to park that probably wouldn’t park there. Now, in terms, well,

Nestor Aparicio  18:53

no legitimate report of mine is going to wind up not smuggling faithless crab cakes in after visiting.

Luke Jones  18:59

There you go. There you go exactly, exactly. I do that now, so but, but the point is, I could go to the ballpark and do it on a very limited budget. As a college kid, or right out of college, barely having any money, right? I could do that. And you know what? I generally speaking, I’d buy a beer or two in the ballpark, you know, over the course of the night. Now, I wasn’t gonna go nuts, but I’d buy one or two, but all of that together made for a good experience, despite the team not being any good at that point in time. But it was fun. I could do it without going broke. I would go with with friends, and it would be a social a social thing we do and and, you know, we’d make a Friday night of it. So, but, but that’s you’re trying to cast the widest net possible and look different things appeal to different people. I think, you know, this is something that I think everyone can have some common ground on. In terms of, everyone likes cheaper beer, cheaper hot dogs, cheaper sodas, right? Cheaper pop. Corn, cheaper pretzels. There’s no downside to that, like I said, other than if you get rid of what’s been a fan friendly policy my entire life, which is being able to bring food and drink into the ballpark

Nestor Aparicio  20:10

well, your time while Bill threw the cooler off the top of the show or die. You know, famously and I, I was all a part of that, me and my buddies in the 80s and I was underage, clearly, do the math, um, but my buddies were of age. You could take igloo coolers, yeah, you know, we would dump the beer. Or you could, you could get the beer Raider to tap beer into, you know, 128 you know, whatever, and take that in and fill your beer sitting in the stands. That was kind of a, it’s kind of like being in the Latin ballpark. You know what I mean? It’s kind of a baseball thing, you know, back in the 70s and eight I’m talking there,

Luke Jones  20:48

in the same way what Preakness used to be compared to, you know, compared to what it is. And

Nestor Aparicio  20:52

obviously that

Luke Jones  20:54

there are guard there are much more, much more rigid guard rails to those things. And rightfully so. I understand that, but when you look at something like that, there’s really no downside to it unless you get rid of that policy, which I hope they don’t. I still see it as a policy on the Orioles website, so hopefully that’s still the case. But hey, you can bring in dinner, you know, you pick up a sub or something like that, bring it into the ballpark. That’s not the that doesn’t prohibit you from saying, hey, I’ll get a beer. Or, you know, that soda that I brought in, that I that I’ve had in the car, it’s not cold anymore. I’ll get a nice ice cold fountain soda, and I’ll be happy about that. So, so those are the kind of things that appeal to everyone. But, you know, I think what’s interesting, and we’re seeing this now with the Ravens already, with the first phase of their renovations being complete, the Orioles are getting closer to starting that, you know this idea of social space in a ballpark, right? You know the idea of, you know, bars, right? Yeah, we’re going to see I get I I’d be stunned Nestor if when it’s all said and done in 10 years from now, when we’re talking about whatever the new Camden Yards looks like, if left field upper reserve has not turned into whether it’s a bar restaurant, something like that, where there are going to be fewer traditional seats and there’s going to be more space for people to gather, I think the left field area now, where the wall has been moved back, and now moved back, not to where it was originally, but that will turn into some kind of social space like that might be the new standing room only area that might, maybe that replaces what we see beyond the bullpens, right, which is standing room there. So point is me as a early 40s baseball fan and under saying, If I weren’t in the media, you know, just speaking as a baseball fan, the idea of a social gathering place in a ballpark sounds weird to me, because it’s like, I then I’ll just go to a bar right

Nestor Aparicio  22:49

driving from Shrewsbury to watch the game. I do. I’m up in that bar in right field. I’ve been in that thing dozens of times. I mean center, center field, Park. Yeah. I mean, I bet every time I’m up there, I’m astonished that everyone’s watching the TVs with their back to home plate. Like, it’s, it’s, I mean, there’s a little bit of space there where you actually can’t, you know, if you’re closer to the front there, which obviously they have those seats up there, and that’s very limited. If you have something like that, then it’s cool. It’s a little bit like the warehouse that’s allowed it the same thing’s going on. I get that sort of baseball is one of the things. You walk around and watch an inning here and then go back to my seats. There’s a i It’s apparent that my dad saying, Yeah, you don’t sit in your seat and watch the game. I’m not bringing you out same, right?

Luke Jones  23:37

I mean, that I’d be the same way with my niece. Like, don’t get me wrong. Like, like, for example, we went to a York revolution game, you know, back in August. I think it was, you know, my brother in law got three tickets. Like, you know, it was something with his company, and it was a fun time, right? It was, it was spitting like, it was kind of a light rain mist. Wasn’t a great night. But they have a carousel out in left center field there. I think it is, whatever it is. It’s a good idea for kids. And not saying I would never take my niece out there, if, like, if we would go to a half dozen York revolution games a year at the same time, if, as she’s getting older, if we’re not making any kind of a transition here to her actually becoming a baseball fan and watching the game and and wanting to do that, we’re probably going to find something else to do that,

Nestor Aparicio  24:24

keeping score, really right, using the scoreboard to keep score, to keep

Luke Jones  24:29

you into the game. I mean, I can, I can sit here and you have to

Nestor Aparicio  24:32

learn the rules first, sure, like how what happens here? And that’s not easy. I told you. I had a Swedish girlfriend who was a grown up, and I took her to Yankee Stadium and tried to teach her. I just couldn’t. She just, she liked hockey, soccer, she wasn’t, but she’s just like baseball, like, you know, like you and me learning rugby or cricket, it’d be a little weird. Well,

Luke Jones  24:52

think, but, but so much of this, I mean, this is why, if you’re baseball and I’m just. You any sport applies here, but baseball obviously has trended older in terms of its fan base. And you know, there’s been some data that said that it’s gotten a little bit better, but it’s still older, right? But that said there’s still something to be said of not wanting to alienate your older fans entirely because of what you just said. Generally speaking, when you’re when you’re a fan of a sport, it there’s a generational element to it, right? We’ve talked about this. You’re a big time hockey guy, or used to be, anyway, hockey, I have zero, I have zero interest in hockey. I It’s not that I don’t appreciate or respect the sport, but I have zero interest. My dad wasn’t a hockey guy, right? I didn’t have anyone in my family who took me to games when I was a kid, or watched it regularly, that I watched it with them and got heavily invested in it, right? It’s a fun sport to watch live, like

Nestor Aparicio  26:00

if my brother in law said, Hey, I have tickets to the Hershey bears tonight, would you want to go? Say, sure. Why not? It’ll be fine. I think it’s also really easy game to understand. It is, it is, but, but again, so much of that groundwork is thinking as a four year old girl like your niece, right? Like, yeah, but, but so much of that groundwork is laid when you’re younger, right? I mean, I’m not. And look, that’s a general. That’s a generalization. There are people that adopt sports later on in life, but for the most, it’s almost like being bilingual. If you learn when you’re five years old about the rules of baseball, you’ll have it the rest of your life. And if you don’t, I don’t know where you get it. I know because I got it at birth, right? Like, literally, it came to me like, you know, from my Creator with my last name and the family I wound up in, or whatever. I don’t know a life. I’ve been collecting these 1971 NFL belt buckles because I don’t really know a life of not knowing football rules or offensive defense or four downs or 10 like and trying to explain that even though my wife, we got married, watching Monday Night Football, to give her a little bit more nuance of football to really understand the game, I don’t know where you learn that unless you learn it from your brother, your dad, your mother, your friend, the whoever’s in your life, that would make you interested enough to sit and watch it. And I do wonder all the time, dude, when I’m in a crowded room, and I used to think this on my bus trips, because I would see it and hear it, because up in my seats, there were people that thought they knew football, and they would yell all sorts of stuff behind my ear. Some of it made sense. Some of it didn’t. I hosted sports radio where people kind of came to it to learn more, even if they would call and shout at me that they knew more. But when I’m in a real mixed crowd, where people love football and everybody’s watching the game, when you look at people’s faces, as to what they really understand about anything that’s going on, positionally, functionally, getting 10 yards. Like knowing the rules baseball is one of those things that like, it’s unwatchable if you don’t know enough about it. You know what I mean? Like coming in from the outside, it’s a very hard game to train as an adult. I guess that’s my long way of saying you and I’ve never had to worry about that, but I took an adult once and tried to teach her baseball. It was hard. And, like, somebody that just doesn’t know it, like it, and a lot of people just have that same feeling that people used to have in our neighborhood, soccer, it’s boring, you know? So like, once you have that and you don’t have that gateway to baseball, so their gateway is, come have a beer. It’s nice out whatever team’s good, he’s cute, right? Whatever the thing is. Then there’s the, if I’m going to watch it every night, I don’t need to know who’s at Norfolk, or, you know what a bulk is, but at least need to, like, add some rudimentary knowledge of wanting to want to be more into the game. And the thing I noticed about the football fans, these, you know, the idiots that the barstool drunks and like all of that, they don’t care about Lenny more than we care about Ray Lewis. You know what I mean? They don’t the younger generation of football. It’s gambling bragging rights beaten on their chest. The violence of football is really much more attractive to people that are the UFC wrestling set or whatever, and baseball feels genteel to some of those folks, the young people, that it’s just sort of like they might be more into soccer than baseball or lacrosse if they’re playing and they want that action, but finding baseball fans, I find that to be like and I would say this to Katie Griggs, who never spent five minutes in Baltimore, from what I understand is saying, finding base, you’re going to create baseball fans out of adults. Good luck with that. You know? I mean, I that’s what they’re going to say, they’re going to do, but I don’t, I don’t know that you do that, you better service the people you have that Peter ran away, that would be my prescription. Well,

Luke Jones  29:45

I mean, I certainly agree with that last point. I mean, I I don’t know though. I mean, I also think some of what you just mentioned lends itself to as you get older, that it does maybe become a little more appealing, right? And the fact that it is not. Not the hardcore. And I don’t even think it’s so much the violence, because the violence in football, for what you see today, compared to 10 years ago, let alone 25 years ago. I mean, it’s almost jarring watching the old 2000 ravens highlight, yeah, if you don’t

Nestor Aparicio  30:13

get enough violence, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, so, but, but I almost even though every week somebody almost dies on the field, it looked like he was gonna lose all of his lucidity the other day. Shouldn’t have been on the field. Oh yeah, a little brain injury last week, but we brought him back this week because it was a big game. I just need to say that because, you know, I just need to say that. But, but

Luke Jones  30:32

I think when you have, and I brought up the social space thing, when you have a sport that is a little bit slower, that is, you know, has a more leisurely pace. I mean, we don’t call it the national sport. It’s the national pastime, right? Whether it actually is anymore or not, is not the point. The fact that it was, that was the nickname, you know, all along, speaks to its pace compared to, and I don’t mean the pace in terms of what necessitated the pitch clock, just generally speaking, baseball’s pace, right? Not, not what it became that, that that forced us to take the action that we did with the pitch timers and whatnot. But, you know, it does. It’s more conversational, right? Whereas football, like, if you’re at a social space, at a football game, you know, like, you’re gonna miss everything, right? Or you’re gonna look up and and

Nestor Aparicio  31:22

one team. Nobody gets out of their seat at a hockey game. You sit there like it’s theater, and you pee at the end of the period. You know what I mean, like? So it’s, it’s a little different, yeah, but,

Luke Jones  31:30

but I mean, so much of this just, and, you know, we’ve kind of rambled

Nestor Aparicio  31:35

here, and that’s fine, because we’re two weeks for the next eight months. Man, exactly. That was my point. But

Luke Jones  31:41

you know, so much of this, it’s just about, I just about you’re fishing, right? You’re trying to figure out what works. I mean, Bill VEC did that famously for for decades, right? Trying to figure out, you know. I mean, what he you know, you think of Charles Finley with with the A’s and neon colors and white, white shoes, and, you know, you’re trying to figure out what works, and a lot of it’s going to be okay. Well, that didn’t work. And then certain things, you’ll say, hey, that that, that we might have something here.

Nestor Aparicio  32:07

They got this splash guy that I have, I still have no idea.

Speaker 1  32:11

I have friends who sat there a dozen times last year, and they had a good time. So again, all the matters, they’re trying to cast as wide a net as possible. You’re seeing it. I mean, movie theater. I just got a thing from my sister yesterday. It was a movie theater they’re doing, they’re running a promo in a couple weeks. They’re calling it pajama Saturday. If you show up at the movie theater for in your pajamas, it’s a cheaper ticket and free popcorn. Now, you know, I think it’s a one off, but we’re probably gonna go to the movies on a 10am on a Saturday, which I’d never do, but so, you know, everyone’s trying to figure out how to get people to take out their wallet and spend some money. And you know, baseball, it’s no different. The NFL was kind of the one thing

Luke Jones  32:55

across sports and entertainment, really, that doesn’t really have to do that now they will at some point, because I just think inevitably that’s going to be the case. But yeah, whether it’s cheaper concessions or a bar in center field, or gambling is a big part of it. Obviously, you know all those things you’re you’re trying to figure out how to bring as many people in as you possibly can, and winning is still at the top of the list. For me. You’re, you’re not going to get people to come religiously if the team the product stinks, but if you get the winning product, and then you have to go to work after that, I mean, it’s, you know, we’ll see. But it was a good start for what they did last week with the concessions. We’ll see what else they have to do. But you know, it’s, it’s that season now, I guess because football is in the books, and you know, we’ll, we’ll be talking about pitchers and catchers here right around the corner, and we’ll see if, you know, if there’s another Corbin burns move to be made, like we saw last year around this time. But certainly not holding my breath expecting that to happen at this point. They got a good team

Nestor Aparicio  34:01

to sell. And I hope you have good pajamas to wear, and I hope you put the pictures up on your social media. Lou Johnson being his pajamas on Instagram. Next week, I will be doing a cup of Super Bowl starting at Costas on Monday. We talking plenty about the team on the field, pitching, hitting. They’re certainly good enough. And the 89 and a half to make you laugh. The over under says that the world thinks the Orioles are playoff team. So we should say they should be a playoff team. I am Nestor. He is Luke. Plenty ahead. We are wnst, a of 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive, cheap beer. Hmm? Summertime, you.

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