Luke Jones and Nestor recap a glorious Opening Day for Adley Rutschman and Orioles at Fenway Park. And then owner John Angelos started the year on FM radio with more lies, deflections and bile for the fan base he’s somehow trying to re-engage in Baltimore. The more things change…
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
orioles, year, opening, talking, ravens, baseball, people, baltimore sun, player, baltimore, couple, thought, struggles, point, plays, season, throwing, bullpen, angelo, lamar jackson
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
What about W and S t test Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively at the baseball season it’s here. Wednesday we’re going to be a Costas in Dundalk giving these away the Maryland lottery instant scratch offs. We we had a package and he’s up in Hollywood casino up with the Barstool Sports restaurant on Thursday for opening day as well. We’re gonna be accosted from two until five. It’s also brought to you by our friends at window nation 866 90 nation. I’ll be wearing the bucket hat on Wednesday in Dundalk celebrating 50 years of the Maryland lottery 52 years at Costas and then on Wednesday, she’s going Friday. We’re going to be fadeless in Lexington market the old Lexington market celebrating the opening of the new arena. Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles, and of course, the other opening day, the one where we do it here at home, we all get drunk and leave in the fifth inning and have a good time and see old friends and take selfies. Luke Johnson will be with us on Thursday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He was also with the Orioles in spirit as they were at Fenway Park on a chilly day to start the season. Look at a good time up in Hollywood casino what first thing I need to talk to you about is because you’re not from around here, right? You’re Pennsylvania. I took a picture a selfie or whatever drugs city in the morning because I was just in Dundalk and they got booze and it is what it is. Shout out to Brett Katz and, and the drug city. The name drugs city apparently conjures up to not so positive thoughts for people who are not familiar with the east side of Baltimore. So George foetus had his drug city Oriole shirt on, and I took a selfie. And someone thought that they were calling our city drugs city. So I just want to make sure that when I give a shout out to the drug city, and I were by the way, this is a pill. I thought it was Mr. Peanut, but George tells me it’s a pill that that drug city is not a productive, you know, thought it’s a it’s a magical place and Dundalk so I and by the way my my daughter lost her 33rd birthday is this weekend, she is celebrating a drug City at the fountain. So what’s going on man Oreos wanna know? Adly rushman as he couldn’t like, how many times in a row? Was he gonna get on base? Three more on next. Right three, next three at bats he’s getting on right.
Luke Jones 02:15
He certainly didn’t waste any time reminding why even in his rookie year, he was the most valuable Oreo last year I voted for him. We talked about this. He made his debut. What was it in late May. And there was some early struggles. I think we all recall the first three and a half weeks or so where he did scuffle a little bit and people were already starting to call him a bust. I remember people posing the question of should the Orioles send them down? And since then, he’s been their best player. And he’s been their best player by a pretty wide margin. And that’s that’s a compliment because this ballclub has other good players, as we’ve seen over the last calendar year or so. Oh, I
Nestor Aparicio 02:54
think you said that 30 times last year between July and October. And we didn’t talk a lot of baseball. But every time we talk baseball, you made sure that you were like, This guy’s the real deal. And we all know he’s the real deal. He’s a one one, he looks like the real deal in every way. But then you get the hairs on the back of your neck when he leads off with home runs start the season, and he can’t stay off base and your official scores like him and
Luke Jones 03:21
yeah, yeah, let’s be honest, that five for five was very, that fifth hit Come on.
Nestor Aparicio 03:29
Play six times in a row. That’s all I’m gonna say. He did. And that aside,
Luke Jones 03:34
what a terrific historic opening day performance for Adly rushman. Had a chance to catch him on MLB Network. They have their MLB Central show, or their morning show. And he joined them from Fenway Park. And you can just see, and it’s a reminder of how young how inexperienced some of these guys are as much as they’re rapidly becoming household names. I mean, at the retro has been in the big leagues for less than a year now. And first opening day. Yeah, yeah. He just had a smile on his face that you could just tell that we’ve been hearing his name
Nestor Aparicio 04:03
for five years. So it’s like he played last opening day. Right? And the one before that, because he because once they get here, it feels like they’re part of the furniture. It really does.
Luke Jones 04:10
It does. It doesn’t take long because baseball is that night in and night out sport, right? I mean, it’s not once a week, like it isn’t in football. It’s every day. So he really has. But I think what’s so exciting. We talked about this, as you alluded to, we talked about this a lot over the last two months or so of last season, that it was so inevitable that rutschman was going to draw the comparisons to Matt weeders. And we remember how hyped he was? You know, from the moment he was drafted until making his debut what a little less than two years later. But with weeders there was always that sense of he didn’t live up to the hype and you’re still talking about a multi time all star that Matt weeders was behind the plate but he was not. Johnny bent the next Johnny Bench he was not Joe Mauer with power he was merely a good catcher. but not a transcendent kind of ballplayer, he was better
Nestor Aparicio 05:02
than EARL WILLIAMS. And that’s I’m gonna say that, from a trade perspective of my father’s expectations of EARL WILLIAMS,
Luke Jones 05:11
no doubt. And to be clear, Matt Wieters was not the bus that some tried to make him out to be. Again, he just didn’t live up to the immense expectations. We all remember what the website, Matt weeders, fax and all the different stuff from 2009 2010. But to see Adley rutschman come up. And again, after those first three weeks or so last year, he was everything is advertised. And look, we’ll see ultimately where his career goes in terms of not just being second in rookie of the year last year, but how quickly he becomes, in my mind the best Catcher in the American League, he might already be that, but certainly he’s got to go out there and do it. Now he’s got to do it consistently. And also, when you look at his entire skill set from the defense to plate discipline, the ability to draw walks, the power that he shows, you know, especially especially with the doubles, last year, we’ll see if those doubles a few more of those turned into homeruns in his first full season in the major leagues. But you know, this is the kind of guy that can be an MVP candidate, if he continues to ascend, and if he stays healthy. And if the Orioles find that right balance between giving him enough days off behind the plate, but also wanting to keep his bat in the lineup. That’s why I thought all the talk during the spring about backup first base was kind of silly to me, put at least rutschman there for a day, you know, every once in a while if you want to get mountcastle off first base, so you have a chance to, to really see something special with him. And for him to be the face of this rebuild, as you mentioned. I mean, he was drafted in 2019. That was that was four years ago at this point. So he is a household name. But to see him live up to the hype and to do it on opening day. There’s always that extra symbolic feeling of doing it on opening day. We know it’s one of 162 but for him to do it on opening day at Fenway Park, as cold as it was and all the other elements at work in that ballgame. It’s pretty special and getting a chance to watch this guy already. You really you understand certainly why he had been talked about as the first overall pick in the draft for a couple of years leading up to that 2019 draft. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 07:19
we got to football draft here in a couple of weeks and football draft in the baseball draft very, very differently. For historically I mean for all of the mark Smith’s and all of the Jeffrey Hammonds and I mean I’ve been doing this 31 years when guys work out we’ve been waiting for that player Machado was that player right? I mean, Matt weeders on the cusp of that player Mark cake is really nice player. I’m just thinking of other but I mean they’re more first round busts if you go through the Orioles, last 40 years of guys who didn’t make it didn’t make it here didn’t make it anywhere. barely made it anywhere. The Brian Taylor collection right, the Todd Van Poppel collection, you know, at any point this can happen. But when they stink as bad as they stunk, and they they were following this Astro thing except for the cheating in the Trash Trash Trash campaign. But when you stink this much, and I saw them bragging about having one once okay, but then what are they John Ogden and Ray Lewis? Or are they Travis Taylor and Mark Clayton, you know, to use to mix our sports up here. And for Richmond to be this good this quickly? I’m worried about their pitching. I mean, I look I don’t want to throw a wet blanket, but they almost lost the game. Not sure. Like that. Almost that makes one game it is what it is. But it certainly would have smelled better had they won 11 to four.
Luke Jones 08:45
Yeah, no question about that. And certainly we can get into and look, I would say this. You look at a 10 Nine ballgame and you say wow, they didn’t pitch? Well. I don’t think the pitching was as bad as nine runs allowed would indicate. I think it was their defense was an issue and specifically their outfield defense. I think that hurt Kyle Gibson in his final inning where Boston added a couple more runs and made his final line look not so good. Certainly that was an issue. Later in the game Santander miss playing a couple balls. I get why Brandon Hyde and lots of teams do this flip Santander and Hayes knowing how expensive the right field is at Fenway. But you do run the risk in that situation that you have outfielders who are looking at the ball off the bat from a different angle that if you’re going from left field to right field and vice versa so so that was that work a little bit but yeah, there’s there are questions about this ballclub. There’s no question and I you know, I wrote on a couple of occasions, even here recently at Baltimore positive.com. Especially with Dylan Tate being on the aisle to start the year dealing with the elbow issue. I mean, he’s on the mend he’s throwing as started bullpens, but he’s not going to be back until probably sometime in May. And that’s the best case scenario right now. and you have Michael Gibbons, who came up with a sore knee at the end of spring training. So you have those two on the aisle. And I mean, you can make an argument not to say that CNL Perez and Baker wouldn’t be mixed in there a little bit more. But you can make an argument those of your seventh and eighth inning guys to bridge the gap to Batista. And if you recall, as fun as the end of last season was from the moment that they traded away, Jorge Lopez, okay Batista stepped into the ninth and did a phenomenal job, but they did have some issues bridging the gap from starter to closer with some you know, Joe Crable struggle down the stretch. You know, some other guys weren’t quite as effective as they had been earlier in the season. So the bullpen is a concern of mine, especially with Tate and Gibbons being sidelined right now. So it wasn’t wasn’t encouraging to see Baker struggle the way he did. I did think it was it was encouraging to see Logan Glasby come in and get the strikeout that he did that was in a big spot for a guy who picked some last year but certainly didn’t pitch in many high leverage situations for them. So you know, that’s that’s definitely a question mark. The starting rotation, while certainly Gibson and we’re gonna see Cole Irvin in the finale of this series at Fenway elevates their floor because they are innings eater type starting pitchers, they’re still looking at Dean Kramer, and Kyle radish. And whenever Grayson Rodriguez does arrive, as we found out he would be option to start the year. And people talk about service time there. He’s struggled to Yeah, he had some struggles in the spring. And keep in mind, he missed three months last year with an injury. So I didn’t have nearly the negative reaction to that. But my overall point is, well, you always want to see the
Nestor Aparicio 11:39
Savior. Right? I mean that we see that. But then the kick comes up as an ADR and gets his head beaten in. And then we’re like, oh, we asked him up the way we did. Ariana, yeah. I mean, I already long line of other pitchers. Right. Yeah.
Luke Jones 11:54
And not even just an Orioles thing. But when you are talking about a young pitcher who went through what Rodriguez did last year, I mean, he, when he got hurt, he injured his lat on I think was June 1, at a start at Norfolk, you want to hear about the all star break? Oh, it was gonna be before that I think it was going to be within two or three weeks you were going to see him it was going to be sometime in June. I know a few different people who had said that, you know, there was nothing official. But he missed three months then. And when he came back in early September, he did pitch you know, he had a handful of outings at the minor league level a couple rehab starts. And then he finished at Norfolk, he wasn’t quite as sharp wasn’t quite as precise and dominant as we had seen him be before the injury. So
Nestor Aparicio 12:35
that’d be devastating to a young man to be that. Sure you don’t I mean, sure, psychologically, I’m just thinking about being that age being on that beat, knowing what those guys go through. That’s the one thing being around the guys, I have incredible respect for what it takes to get there, you know, and for a guy like Gibson even to be kind of just okay, the sinker ball thing, the Scott Erickson sort of 30 years later, the notion that this guy’s been doing it 15 I mean, I’m impressed by any guy that can keep himself healthy enough to do this into his mid 30s pitching wise.
Luke Jones 13:08
Oh, no doubt. That’s why the Orioles that’s why they valued him. That’s why they brought Kyle Gibson in to essentially be, and I don’t think it’s a dramatic up on paper. And although, you know, he was he was he was signed to replace Jordan Lyles, you know what lions did for them. And the Orioles feel that he might be slightly better than that, you know, so we’ll see how it plays out. And they added Corbin who logged a lot of innings for the A’s the last couple years. So but you’re still counting on those young guys. I mean so much about this ballclub and we talked about this last year, in terms of how they overachieved expectations are higher now. And that’s a good thing. But you’re still counting on a lot of young guys to not just match what they did last year, but to see if they can take the next step. And that’s the big question that I have with some of these bullpen arms. You know, guys that really came out of nowhere last year, and not even so much Batista. You know, his ninth inning struggles aside. I mean, he was so good, so dominant last year, but again, how do you get to him? And certainly with the starting rotation? Do you have enough upside? And does Dean Kramer match what he did a year ago? Can Kyle Bradish match what he did in the second half last season? When does Grayson Rodriguez get here? When does DL Hall get here? So Oh, yeah, John means who? A July return, I think is where the target is. And he’s throwing bullpens at this point. So now there there’s there’s upside to be had as the year goes on, as it pertains to the pitching. But yeah, as we saw on Thursday, on opening day with what was a very comfortable lead that, as we should always remember, at Fenway Park, there’s no such thing as a truly comfortable lead.
Nestor Aparicio 14:46
My dad told me that your dad told you that. And I told everybody at the bar that when it was nine to three or whatever it was
Luke Jones 14:53
no doubt and especially if you’re going to kick the ball around a little bit as the Orioles did, which I don’t think that’s something that’s going to be part of their MO because they defended very well last year, and they have really good defensive players. But yeah, if Jorge Mateo is going to make a bad throw on what should be a double play ball to wrap it up? Yeah, you’re gonna you’re gonna be nervous about that. So we’ll see how the rest of the series plays out. And whenever you win the opener, it’s always great, right? You get a chance to win the series if you if you win one of the next two. But certainly the story of the day on Thursday was Adley rutschman at the plate. And let’s also make mention of the walks that the Orioles drew at the plate. Lots of good at bats, you know, even if you want to say lousy pitching from the Red Sox, Orioles were accounts. And also we saw quite a few stolen bases, which one of the rule changes that we haven’t talked about quite as much. I mean, so much has been on the pitch clock and the elimination of the shift, but bigger bases. And when you can consider and you say okay, well, it’s just a few inches, right. But so between the bases when you have bigger bases in baseball a few inches. That’s a lot. So especially when you have Jorge Mateo and Cedric Mullins, potentially stealing bases for you. So we’ll be interesting to see how that part of it plays out.
Nestor Aparicio 16:07
I ran the bases like the bad news bears. I mean, they really did. It was insane.
Luke Jones 16:12
Well, I’m talking about the stolen bases, but I’m talking about not
Nestor Aparicio 16:15
holding guys on. I’m talking about the reds. Oh, sure. Yeah,
Luke Jones 16:19
no question. Yeah, I mean, you can talk about the catcher. And certainly his name came up a few times, but whether you’re not holding runners or you know, not block blocking balls in the dirt, whatever it is, yeah, that was bad.
Nestor Aparicio 16:33
I said out loud. Wait, Winterhaven anymore, son, you gotta hold. You know, I mean, like, working out the kinks in the beginning of the year. I’ll just say this. I’m an old schooler. You know, this is where you get to who’s your daddy Pedro Martinez game.
Luke Jones 16:50
You’re talking What the oh four. Was that 204 opener? Yeah, I was not I
Nestor Aparicio 16:55
mean, I baseball who’s your daddy? Orioles? Fans. It was cold as hell. Martinez got shocked. I mean, that to me was pinnacle. Oriole magic period of time because it was still the halo in 96 and 97. Still there. They still had all of these great players, the Red Sox, the Yankees the rivalry, Clemens Jeter all that stuff was banking Schilling all of that. But 20 years later, like Red Sox Orioles, and think of where these franchises have been. And whatever the Heat Is On opening day, I thought to myself, yeah, or has got even now. I mean, you know, it does work in cycles. Eventually, we stink bad enough to get Adley rutschman. You know what I mean? Like, literally, and now they have to cash in. That’s all I could think about and what many days I’m like, oh my god, they may have one of the best players in baseball, they may have a couple of them. I hope we’re not where we are with Lamar Jackson, five years from now, where this creep who owns the baseball team who ran off the lock and four and the guys over at the fan and lied to them? I mean, dude, that guy’s lost. I mean, like, he’s lost. And the management of this team I saw they even had TJ Brightman running around on pa yell. I mean, the games on mass and to bars can’t even find the game. Sometimes different packages, all sorts of things that go into baseball. They have this bright shining light in a struggling City. I was downtown the other day downtown still feels like it needs work. It needs people it needs love. It needs all of that. And we’re gonna have opening day next week CFG bank, I’m doing the show down and fade these will be down there. Like this is such a golden opportunity. You know what I mean? Seeing the Red Sox think on a cold day seeing them put up a washed up two time Cy Young Award winner can’t find home plate and his 85 pitches deep in the fourth inning. Like I see this and I’m like, they got a chance to like be relevant. People hate the football team. They’re mad at the owner. They’re mad at Eric they’re mad at John. They’re mad at Lamar. They’re mad at me. They’re mad at you that you know, like I the baseball team has everyone’s focus. The Ravens aren’t going to throw a football until the Orioles are either well into a pennant race into the playoffs. What’s going to happen between now and September 10 When the the Ravens play football for this baseball team. They have the stage. They have a canvas. They’ve had a canvas for 30 years with his family. And then I see this creep sit next to Mike and Mike Elias. They all have headsets on they’re doing the game but they’re not doing the game. Then he does the post game. He’s lying about opening books. pissing on the Baltimore Sun like it’s it’s just such a what is he doing? It’s opening day. Rally watchmen six for six. He’s a clown. He is a clown that much is clear from an eye. I don’t need to know him. I mean, I’m watching it from afar and I’m thinking you wonder who’s giving them Mr. Jackson advice, who’s given John Angelo’s advice? Who is he listening to?
Luke Jones 20:05
Yeah, I mean, I just, look, let’s be very clear about this. He’s the one who offered that he’s the one who initiated talk about opening the books. We talked about this with
Nestor Aparicio 20:16
Dan Connolly. Right? Got anything to them except cover shitty baseball for two decades. But But we talked
Luke Jones 20:23
about this with so many different ownership groups in so many different markets, right? In multiple sports, opening books, and the lack of that happening, except for the rare occasion where you’re talking about a team that’s publicly owned. The brands have to do it right after this after we talked about what the Packers right. But again, so it isn’t that he won’t do it. It’s that he said he would do it. And he said it multiple times now and he still then doesn’t deliver. So it’s, it really is
Nestor Aparicio 20:51
such a small board on third thinks he hit a triple human. I mean, it’s so obvious, like the fact that he doesn’t talk to me fine. Lots of people don’t like me, I appreciate that you like me, Luke and others, all you listeners like, but like the fact that you can’t sit man to man and sit down and have a conversation with me after 30 years. Shame on you. I mean, I like it’s not changing my life to listen to him lie to Jason lock and for other than to say, Jason, you’re a journalist. You gotta push back on this this creep. I mean, seriously, you’re doing this publicly, Jay? I mean, don’t don’t let him like you’re the only one he talks to. Nobody else is getting a crack at him. So don’t let it bullshit you. You’re supposed to be a journalist, Mr. Washington Post guy, Mr. Baltimore, like somebody should hold these people accountable. Meanwhile, the shot he’s off running somewhere, like so. It is weird that the baseball owners talking and the football owners running and the football teams under siege and the baseball teams undefeated with this phenom. i It’s weird. It’s dogs and cats there. That’s that’s all that came to my mind is I’m sitting in Hollywood casino, watching John Angelo sit down there and do the Pappa wave like he owns the team because he doesn’t have the team now. It’s crazy.
Luke Jones 22:07
Yeah, I want to go back to something you said just a couple minutes ago, when you look at where the ravens are, I’m looking at not not even getting into who’s at fault, Who’s mad at whom you know, who’s most responsible? There’s a lot of frustration, right? Even if you are very balanced and measured, and you understand how complicated this contract situation has been with Lamar Jackson, and the ramifications it has for the salary cap for the roster building, if you’re
Nestor Aparicio 22:32
convinced if they sign him and have Kumbaya, that they’re really gonna win the Super Bowl. I’m not convinced he’s winning a Super Bowl with this franchise. So I don’t know that they are. So even if he’s in you got to say, Can we really win? Maybe, maybe
Luke Jones 22:46
that’s a discussion for another day. But the point is, there is a very unusual level of frustration as it pertains to the Baltimore Ravens, as we’ve seen for the better part of the last two decades, right, because they’ve been as successful as they been. We know the NFL was King, not just in Baltimore, but every market that has an NFL team. That’s just how it is. Right? I mean, the NFL look at the ratings for anything the NFL does compared to anything any other pro sport does. But with that being acknowledged the frustration, the lack of activity in the offseason, for the ravens, I mean, they’ve added one player outside the organization now two plus weeks into the new league year. It’s just it’s a very unusual set of circumstances for the Ravens. This is such a golden opportunity for the Orioles to really gain some traction here. And no one’s saying the Orioles are going to overtake the Ravens. And I hate this idea that one you know that you can’t be excited. I was equal I you know, I write them both. Exactly, exactly. But my point is, let’s face it, and we’ve seen it through attendance ratings, whatever you want to talk about, there hasn’t been a lot of juice for Oreos, baseball since the end of the book show Walter era that stating the obvious, right and that’s by been by design, they were that bad. And then they didn’t try to get any better at the major league level for stuff a few years in a row. So now you do have this team coming off of a 31 game improvement and 2022 which was a lot of fun, but still not a lot of people were really paying that close attention. So now you go into a new season. You have the Ravens in this very odd position. This is such a golden opportunity for the Orioles to really gain some traction, really generate some buzz, really generate some enthusiasm. Adley rutschman goes five for five on opening day they win and they have a chance to to win their opening series and win a couple series and come back home for next week’s home opener. And then you have John Angelo’s just throwing cold water all over this and no one told him to go on and and start pushing back at the Baltimore Sun. He’s the one who on on two different occasions talked about it once opening the books and then when he had his interview in Sarasota talked about maybe not opening the books but At least a bit of business presentation and then you that’s the message you deliver on the heels of winning on
Nestor Aparicio 25:05
opening thing is pissing on the Baltimore Sun in this town it’s like you know he doesn’t live here because the Baltimore suns barely like an entity anymore in the way that it once was to be worthy of yelling at them after he took the sign down off the scoreboard which freaked people out old people I guess but like the Baltimore Sun has not had their ass at all if the Baltimore Sun talk about me I’m the one who’s held them accountable the Baltimore Sun has not held the Baltimore Orioles accountable. Who was Peter schmuck he’s been gone five years like who is written He thinks that stick Holly works at the sun like it’s I it just blows my mind how sheltered these billionaires are and how out to lunch they are and how our fans our listeners all live here work here support local by crabcakes local go to drug city for more than just the drugs and these guys don’t even live here and they get like a hall how does the shoddy ABA Hall Pass for not talking to people how and throwing people like me out how does he just get a hall pass and meanwhile it Jr. is now running the Orioles and popping off on opening day and sitting behind home plate. And daddy’s not there to say sit down and, and never will be again. So we’re into a new world where, you know, John is gonna be a public figure I apparently apparently. And for me with John. There’s no better time for them to do it if you’re doing it right. But if you’re gonna step out in front of the team, and prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that you’re a jackass, which he’s done on to your point on multiple occasions. That’s not good either. I’m not saying the owner needs to be out in front of it at all. I’m saying the owner once or twice a year needs to show up do a pap, a wave show up around town and a couple of key charity events and look like he’s engaged as opposed to flying in a private jet, getting police escort, you know, walking onto the field and in the jeans. And then back on his yacht at 6pm. In Bimini like that’s we’ve come a long way here. We really have like I’ve been doing this 30 years and seeing the moving parts and seeing the opening for the Orioles on opening day. It’s sitting there for the franchise. I just hope they’re making better decisions than some of the decisions I saw the owner making on opening day, which is lying to the fan lying to the fans. brushing off journalist, I’ve already been thrown out 17 years let like I apply for my press credentials. They’ll let you in, not me in what does that say about them? I mean, they need to sell tickets. They need to create enthusiasm. They have good players, they have some great players. This is an opportunity for them. I hope they don’t eff it up. I really do. Yeah,
Luke Jones 28:08
no question about it. And I mean, even how about the being wishy washy about it? You know, when the topic of an extension for an Adley rutschman Or a gunner Henderson is both gonna weaning back on this small market crutch, which, by the way, Tampa and some of these teams that are small market, Dave extended young players, you know, wonder Franco got a huge extension from the Tampa Bay Rays. Now whether he plays there that his entire career. That’s another point, but they extended him. So the one comment I thought was really rich that hasn’t necessarily gotten quite as much attention was we should be judged on our win loss record. It’s like wait a second here. Okay. Now, not saying Mike Elias. And technically John Angelos was not in charge, as far as the Angelo’s family’s entire tenure as ownership. But if we’re going to really go there, so, so Peter, I
Nestor Aparicio 28:59
judge them on their record, it’s trash, it’s garbage. Well, let’s
Luke Jones 29:03
just do this very simple exercise here. And you know, as we wake up in the wee hours after opening day, it’s not, it’s not mentally taxing to do this, since Peter Angelos bought the team in the late 1993. How many winning seasons of the Orioles had 1994 1996 1997 2012 2013 2014 2016. And then last season, that’s eight.
Nestor Aparicio 29:33
I count eight, eight and 30 or 31. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s a lot of bad days. A lot of bad baseball. So as Luke Jones says, Nestor Aparicio says everybody,
Luke Jones 29:45
right? So so now, as we bring it to the present, if you want to talk about this current era, and this Mike Elias era, then fine, I’ll hear that 83 and 79 last year 31 game improvement. Great, excellent. That’s a good To start, but that is not the expectation that is not the culmination of anything there. The idea is not to just be decent enough that you’re kind of hanging around to be the third wildcards. So the point is, this franchise still has a lot of work to do, even on the field, let alone talking about what you’re alluding to so much work off the field to do. So, again, the message delivered on the heels of so much excitement and there is genuine excitement about this club and the young players led by Adley rutschman. But to deliver that kind of message. Boy, that’s not saying it turns people off entirely, because ultimately, it’s still about what happens on the field. But if you want to maximize that, if you want to maximize that juice, that energy, that buzz for the Orioles, and there’s a genuine great chance to do that if this team starts on the heels of what we’ve seen with the Ravens in the offseason and this Lamar impasse that looks like it has no end in sight. As things stand at the end of March. Maybe we’ll see something change as we get to the draft and after that, but at this point, I’m not counting on it. I mean, if the Ravens can or if the Orioles can start off, they get off to a 14 and seven start, which isn’t extraordinary, but it’s very good. Boy, you’re talking about people being excited and probably having an ability to sell and sell more tickets as you’re getting into May and June in the summer months and all that so there is a great opportunity for the Orioles. But to your point, are they going to be able to maximize that from a strategic business standpoint, and that’s where I think anyone who’s paid attention for a long long time around here certainly have their doubts.
Nestor Aparicio 31:40
Here’s Luke Jones. We will continue to monitor all things Angelo’s and Bushati I’ll be the guy paying attention to what the owners are doing. I’ll be writing some colonists next week on that. We’re doing a Maryland crab cake tour and I’m excited about it. We got out a little bit over the weekend. I’m going to be drug city on Saturday over the weekend. We did Hollywood casino and Barstool Sports we’re gonna be doing that they have bands coming up there Doc Martin eclipsed a whole bunch of stuff. I’m gonna be giving these away. The old schooler instant lottery scratch off tickets on Wednesday. At Costas and Dundalk. We’re kicking off 50 years at the Maryland lottery and the 50th anniversary tour and on Friday we’re going to be fatally celebrating the opening of CFG bank and Springsteen the Eagles opening day man it’s good thing I’m not 24 anymore my liver would be able to take a weekend like this but it’s gonna be a big week around here it’s spring is sprung and the hope springs eternal for the Orioles and oh, I don’t know what the hell’s going on with Lamar Jackson. We’ll worry about that later. Our friends and window nation have an April deal as well. 866 90 nation we talking about them on the Maryland crabcake tour now I put together some more dates on the 13th of April and Thursday we’re going to be at Pappas in Bellaire so I stopped up there I saw the bar said hello to small friends up there. We’ll be there two weeks from now. Then on the 27th Thursday the 27th are gonna be captain Larry’s which is a great corner bar down in Federal Hill. It’s Chris pike his favorite places neighborhood place. We’re gonna have a near crabcake during the month of April and I’m stocking out all sorts of places man I got the MC falls people are working on the crabcake tour in May. I’ll be heading around to I have another vegan crab cake happening in May as well. Don’t frown it’s better than it sounds. I am Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. Baseball little football. Little Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
