Allen McCallum and Nestor reset expectations for the Orioles and the future of Baltimore baseball – and beyond – under the new ownership group of David Rubenstein.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
years, people, orioles, baseball, change, team, mccallum, baltimore orioles, good, man, city, give, alan, celebrate, bought, happen, family, month, baltimore, rubenstein
SPEAKERS
Allen McCallum, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are WNS ta a 1570, Towson Baltimore and the celebrating the new day and Baltimore baseball history around here we’ll be doing that all month long it is March is a gambling problem gambling month Awareness month to let everybody know what’s going on. So I’m giving a shout out of 100 gambler if you know someone who has a problem, this is a good time to be addressing that our friends at the Maryland lottery are giving me these for those who don’t have that problem. Want to have a little bit of fun 10 times the cash we are going to be doing and I’m wearing my favorite t shirt. We’re gonna be doing some families Friday’s live a nasty way to go back live on a radio we’re gonna do some Fridays two of the five I had a good time doing a couple of Super Bowl I had a really good time sitting for eight hours my back hurt I couldn’t pee when I wanted to in the breaks for short. But I felt loved so that was the important part so I’m gonna do live radio again from 2005 beginning in baseball season on Fridays, our friends at window nation 866 90 nation as well as Jiffy Lube multi care and liberty pure solutions are going to be making that happen. This guy here was one of the original OGS he was my original Oreo guy along with Tom cap and humping how he shares celebrated get another birthday the other day and the great Mark Messina who he and I converge in the same room in Harrisburg for two and a half hours and didn’t know we were in the same room with another 250 people and didn’t get to see each other. But Allah McCallum has been in my life so long that we were at the Jeffrey Mayer again together. Did you cover the Cal Ripken 2131. game for us from I’m not saying that.
8
Allen McCallum 01:43
We missed each other. We were talking in depth point. And I went down a couple of weeks before but not the actual day. That was the beginning.
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:52
So the beginning of our relationship really is when Cal Ripken was doing 2130. When was that month that we got to know each
Allen McCallum 02:00
other? We’re coming up on 30 years old man.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:04
8Susan Monday, who was my 10th grade English teacher. And I found the a mine and she gave me all my Catcher in the Rye paper which I’m still pissed about because it keeps those things. Sidenote, Alan? Well, I mean most of my life, it feels like since 1995, certainly before we had WASD. And we celebrated 25 years of wn St. Allen there’s a documentary coming out later on in the month about our about our history and 25 years of crazy doing this. And like all the stuff that we’re doing here. I don’t ever really think maybe since I did free the birds been 18 years that I thought I would welcome you on to a show where you and I the beginning part of our discussion would be there’s going to be new owners. And what does that mean? Dude, the night it happened, I was going out to a yoga class, the Ravens had just last week, I had done a day and a half of civic angst and grieving and purple therapy, as we call it around here. And my first tip actually came from Mike Rosenfeld, because he’s a web guy. He saw it right away, boom, boom, boom. Raskin had been telling me for months it was going on. I had some inside poker with people in December that said, the offers there, that John’s too hard headed to take it. It’s crazy that these people want to continue to fight the family. But I never thought I’d welcome you on and we would ever just like, I just thought the old man’s never gonna die. It’s kind of like I said it was a Castro’s Cuba. Like, it’s that way. It’s always been that way. It’ll always be that way, even though that way is not the right way.
Allen McCallum 03:45
I’m not sure I ever thought I’d live to see it either. It’s, it’s still sort of sinking in. I guess we have to wait for it to be ratified by the the owners, but it seems unlikely they’re gonna hold this up any longer than they have to. I was with someone who is relatively new to Baltimore over the weekend. And he was asking me to quantify what are the feelings of the public, we’re about Peter Angelos in the Angeles family. And my my exact words were I can either try to do this tell you the story in about five minutes, or I can give you the real story. And we’ll be here for three days.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:26
Well, I released the Peter principles for just for that purpose. And as you know, Tuesday of this week, and you are a part of this for many years of my life, my father’s birthday is March 5, and on March 5, we celebrated my father’s birthday made people cry and people would call in every year and talk about their fathers. It was all very raw to me back in the 90s when I lost my pop. And I began every year just to honor him to remember him every year to talk him. It’s before the Ravens were in town. I mean, we’re going back to when I knew you ravens weren’t in town when I met you 95 Right. So I mean, literally the Ravens weren’t glimmer, they were two And weeks away from happening when you when I got to know each other and that summer and you were working up at the Oregon ridges, I believe doing concerts and probably getting mosquito bites if I’m not mistaken. I would just say like this whole period of time, it’s surreal to think anybody could have made it any worse. Like, just from a civic stamp, like, just everyday played a baseball game in the middle of, you know, military endeavor in the city. Just, you know, they screwed up the celebration of the Super Bowl that was won by forcing the football team to go get their ass kicked in Denver. Like I just in addition to every they didn’t pay me money they owed me and then sent the bird to assault me like, I mean, you can’t make this up. But I wrote the book thinking, all right, I want people to never forget. Right? So I released that last month. And then I thought my my book on my father, as you knew me as you met me in 1995. This would be an interesting, tell people how much I loved baseball when you met me. Oh,
Allen McCallum 06:08
I remember our first conversation being about George Brett and Paul split hoof. And and just the the impact in the old Orioles and the impact that they had on you. And you talked about wanting to do it. Whoever went down, had to know baseball had to love baseball, had to had to love the Orioles. And because that’s who you were, and you wanted to convey that. And
8Nestor J. Aparicio 06:36
this whole thing here. Sure.
Allen McCallum 06:38
And it said something to me about about what you wanted to stand for on on there at that time on the radio and and what your brand needed to be. And I I certainly felt like I was the right person for that job. And it’s, it’s almost 30 years later. And I mean, there’s never been a question about you looking baseball, obviously, you have to
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:04
check 30 parks in 30 days, and 2015 that I love baseball so much. But I mean a decade later, I don’t want to say I was resigned to Cuba always being like the way Cuba is or even at this point. Can you imagine in our lifetime seeing Russia not be Russia, or your Putin not running Russia or like literally bad stuff continuing on forever. And then like you work in the district, right? That where they used to have the wizards be moving them as we’re talking about franchises. But, you know, you work in the district, the whole football vibe down there, and what the former football team represented RFK Stadium and what it became and how awful everything about it from nobody being there, toilets exploding, they’re just all of it. And the awfulness of that human being and no one wanting to support him. And the fact that they have a new day a new name and new the you know, like whatever. I don’t know that that deodorizes things are makes people just run back. I guess the bigger picture for me and the thing I’ve been talking so much about and Dave shine and on earlier this week, and I’ll be talking about it all month as I rereleased this book on my father and why all this got built and why I love baseball and my last name being Aparicio. Oh, I got a great Aparicio Solana coin from 1963. So I’ve been collecting, I think back on eBay, I got a Milk Duds box Aparicio. 71 with the Red Sox. So like, I’m, I, I want to love baseball again, I want it to come to me. I want to know how to get it on my phone. I want to watch games. I want to care. My wife loves baseball. Like we’re those people. I want to, like feel it change in some way. And I don’t mean like, and look, it’s very obvious, and it sounds self serving. But if they let me back in, they’re already better people. You know, like Cal Ripken is running. Like, I’m a real media member. Yeah, not the Caucasian guy. You know, but like I’m a real I own a radio station. I’m on the air every day. I shouldn’t have to send you my clips Chad steel to verify that like, I’m not a blogger or a podcast or I have a following or it’s a joke. So the notion that I should get my media credential back Well, let me know that a I’m invited be they don’t mind questions being asked that should be asked that need to be asked and have to be asked Right. Um, but I don’t know when the public notice is it you know, I mean, so much is lost on me in the baseball side. Well, if they spend money, they’re committed. No, no, no, no, no. Like to me so much of this. You spent 1,000,000,008 And you’re a billionaire billionaire, as you’re bringing Bloomberg in on this. Tell me how you’re going to transform the city. Not you’re just going to win games because Like, as I said, they want games to play, but they charge they the hotdogs are going to be better. Fine. What’s the big plan here? Because it can’t just be winning in the stadiums. 30 years old. Now they have a half a billion dollars to put back into the stadium. Like what’s the plan? Because, right? Oh, never had a plan. Do you know,
Allen McCallum 10:21
8you’re talking about a couple things that converge? Certainly, but but some of them, certainly the team and how the direction the team goes, will will be squarely under their control the city, they can certainly impact and influence but it’s, it’s not entirely up to them. So the first thing I’ll say is, I mean, you mentioned I work in the district. I’ve been in awhile, I will not tell you that. I know David Rubenstein. I’ve been in the circles with him on occasion, because of his commitment to the Kennedy Center for so long. And what I know about him, is that what he everything he does he does, or at least everything he did in the Kennedy Center he did with with commitment and passion. And those are I can’t imagine any to better things to come to the civic responsibility like the Baltimore Orioles with. And, hey, if you’re going to pay that much money for something, I would assume that you’re going to want to do it right. Now we know you know, as well as I do. The only way to be a good owner in sports is to hire good people spend a lot of money, get the hell out of the way. They’ve already got good people. I mean, Mike Elias and his crew are the best management theory has had at least in certainly in my adult lifetime. And I would be disappointed if that changed. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:43
he’s talking about a first place team. And once we get done with all of this transition conversation, we’re going to talk about seven seven outfielders it might be major league outfield, right? Like, like, like, literally, they have this, they have a roster depth problem, maybe some pitching, but we’ll talk about that. But like, they also have a lot of empty seats and a lot of empty souls and a lot of people like me that have been broken by them, you know, but by the by what they’ve done to the community, what they did to the value of my home, what they did to the ravens, what they’ve done, the fan bases, what they’ve done to their own people, what they did to Kevin Brown last summer that my last movement was I got to drink from the other water fountain in Arlington to go down there was a media member and I I got treated completely differently than anybody else. That’s I mean, that’s who those people were. So I literally if if there’s a media credential with my name on it on opening day and I walk in there, I don’t know something massive change, just because I’m they’re allowed to ask questions again and do my job that I’ve done since I was 15 years old. But like, I’m wondering when the fans feel it, see it? Know It? Maybe even the tenor of the broadcast change in some way, maybe? I don’t know. But it feels to me, like massive change needs to be made here. Much like on the Washington football side, much like, in any place that’s just bad. Like the Inner Harbor needs massive change, things that are messed up, you need to acknowledge that it’s messed up and fix it and saying, Well, we want 100 long games. We’re good. No, dude. Dude, the place is so far. They they launched spring training Allen and the centerfield camera was shaking around all over the place. And I’m like, Oh, my God Almighty. You’ve had a television network for 20 years and broadcasted spring training where the wind blows. And you don’t have it’s stable camera in the outfield like this is this is what $220 million a year of the public teat brought bought bought a television network. So
Allen McCallum 13:42
there’s a lot there first, even when it goes through what they own 40% until Peter Angelos passes away. He’s gonna have the controlling interest, but they’ll probably be some it’s going to it’s not going to be 100% overnight. So that’s the that’s the first thing. You talk about the city. I mean, like I said, harborplace downtown, those things are not exclusively under the purview of the Orioles. The city has a problem and the fact that downtown needs an overhaul that that is about the Orioles. It’s about a lot of things. metropolitan cities in America in general since the pandemic, and the advent of a lot of technology has have had issues in terms of getting people back down into the cities, right? You’re talking about the cost of parking, you’re talking about the cost of going out in the world today. It’s very different than it was just five years ago. So a lot of people are looking at money they spend at home on their television packages, or what have you. Well, you’re in
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:51
the entertainment business dude. I want to see if your bank ran it two weeks ago 1750 for a beer to see fake journey. Like you know and like that. That’s That’s what it costs when I go to Merriweather. It’s what I mean, like, I hear that, but I’m also like, I feel that and then I come home and I see it and I say, What did I get? And what did I spend? Like in any transaction? In any walk of life? What did I spend? And what did I get? And how does it make me feel? That it fill my belly? Did it you know? Did it make my muscles bigger? Did it make me feel like more a man or a better man or charitable or, you know, whatever those emotions are for people. The Orioles need to, you know, it’s Barry Manilow bro, up, down trying to get that feeling again, you know, not
8Allen McCallum 15:37
to mention that a couple of million people who used to work in the city and would, at the end of the day, stay out, walked down to the camp walk down to Camden Yards, a lot of those people don’t work in the city anymore. So it’s a much larger Trek and choice to go down at that point. So there, there are a lot of obstacles. Now. The new leadership of the Orioles can contribute to the solution to those things. I don’t know they can solve them all by themselves. I mean, we’re at a transition point in our in our history as a society about how we look at cities, how we, how we interact with them, and how city based teams like the Baltimore Orioles are how they’re going to entice people back downtown. That is about partnerships with local businesses around that is about making the cost of parking palatable for people. It’s they need to figure out how to incentivize people to come back down for the games to say, hey, it’s worth it to me to do this. Because it’s it’s something I love. And it’s something I can do with my family. I can I can feel safe when I’m going down there, which is a huge part of this. And and ultimately, as you said, what, what is it worth to me to make that outing? A part of my night? My part of my life? What, for the average family five times a seat five times during the summer, 10 times during the summer, and then you get the diehard baseball fans who I assume are going to show up anyway. But yeah, I mean, you’re talking about the difference between the casual fans, and the people that want to figure out time to bring their families down particularly and in April in May and September when school is a part of it is part of the equation and rush hour is going to be busier getting into city I mean, all of that all of that is it’s certainly not the Orioles certainly have to be part of the solution in solving that but they can’t do it by themselves. They it really does have to be a civic partnership between the leadership in Baltimore, the businesses in Baltimore, the parking garages in Baltimore. And and the the new leadership for the Baltimore Orioles.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:50
Alan McCallum has been my friend for 30 years and covering baseball for us last century as we like to say here, and his day job at Kennedy Center at strathmore other places and managing facilities and being a part of a really leadership group and commuting down into the district the last couple of years and the plague you mentioned David Rubenstein is it’s Rubenstein and Rubinstein or do you not know because i i hear everybody mashing it up. It’s kind of like John Feinstein, people mash up his name like a mash up my name.
Allen McCallum 18:19
I have never heard anyone that knows it that knows him call him anything but Rubenstein me there, you know, started thank you good initials and such as well. But David
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:28
8want to get it right. And you know, in the case of of all of this, and this is bigger picture, we’ll talk about the roster. We’ll talk about alias and all that. It’s we’ve been waiting all these years. And incidentally, the first thing that hit me the second day, and this is a real, a tribute to the Angelo’s family, but whatever it is, they get what they deserve is the first thing I thought of Alan, I can’t remember in really most of my relationship with you going down there. I don’t remember ever being treated well. You know, I mean, like, I can’t remember one time where I ever went down there. From the time Peter bought the team, and I’m talking early Joe Foss, and through Davey Johnson and just all that Ray Miller treated me well, Johnny Oates didn’t treat me well and then apologize for it and then treated me very well. Once he understood me a little bit. You know, I was treated well by Kevin Malone, who’s a man of God, who I don’t think could treat anyone any other way. But I was mistreated by lots of people, not Alan Mills, not if there were players, obviously, relationships we have with players later, guys like Brady Anderson would go on to mistreat me later on on behalf of Peter, because that was part of the jam part of the jam. It’s that way with the shoddy now. I mean, there are people that took everybody had to take Chad’s steel side to keep their job, right even though they all know he’s wrong. They all do. There’s no way Baker compliment doesn’t know he’s wrong and Roy summer off. And Eric the cost has written me and told me he’s wrong John Harbaugh. So like I get all that. But the baseball side of this and me going down there I was told to be mistreated by everyone and click book show. Walter’s wife wrote about it last year evident writing on the internet that they told her I was a bad guy to stay away from me. So I literally don’t remember any part of this where I went down there other than an occasional nice human like Fred man for being nice to me, or Dave Johnson may be seeing me and being nice to me. I haven’t had a press pass in 18 years. For a minute. I haven’t been anywhere near every time they put the cameras in. I’m like, oh, that wall used to be green. What did they create that wall and they get the birds on the wall. I know all the spaces. I know all the outcomes, but I’ve never been there in 18 years, 18 years. So I literally don’t remember the last time I walked in there and felt like that’s my team. They’re happy to see me. Greg baiters always stunk. Imy from the time he was a ball runner, or whatever he was the base runners with the bird and like all that stuff was when they were the jerseys in this 90s were eaten food up and I’m talking 30 years ago, man, like so. My first thought to my wife is like, I might go down there, and somebody might be nice to me, like, like that would just be unlike any experience that I’ve had in this century, for sure. 24 year for sure. And I thought, man, won’t that be nice to know? Like, I mean, that’s just me out loud. Like, won’t that be nice if that happens. But I also think that there’s the bigger picture of what are they going to do to fix it for everybody? And what’s the big idea? What do you do with a half a billion dollars? That’s not the baseball game. The Ravens have made their statement, right? They’re gonna build gold plated bathrooms, and they’re gonna have concerts. Sure, they will. And everybody will come sure they will. And they’re gonna have comedy. I’m sure they will. And they’ll be able to charge a premium to premium premiums behind the hotdogs in the beer man, a press conference, Allen. And then I was banned from that my Caucasian employee could attend if he wished to, but he has no interest in asking. You know, people in suits about the beer prices, they said, Well, we all know that the beer is always a little colder inside the perimeter and the hotdogs always tastes a little better when you get them in. And I’m thinking to myself, the public just gave you $600 million and that’s what you got for me okay? I mean, that’s all they have to give right when they don’t even have people like me there to even PSL owner for 25 years for suckers license guy on the radio, we help them sell three sections a PSL. Like I it’s just it’s mind numbing to me at 55. But there’s also this point. Chad steel might be here forever. They all have jobs for life and Owings Mills in the same way, that when you were Greg Bader, or name any of the names of the Oriole people that hung around stockstill hung around for ever with jobs, Masson, every, like all of it, nothing ever changed, because there was a fealty to it, that I’m interested to see how David Rubenstein and Cal Ripken and whoever is in charge. I don’t know, the cows really going to be in. I have no feeling that cows gonna go to work every day on base 60 hour a day, guy the way Yeah, it feels like he’s like going to be a figurehead like, and they need they need a grown up there to run the franchise to be a face for every business that’s been shined by this family. I have my own personal story. I’m an Aparicio. I mean, my whole life and livelihood was put to this, but so many of the people just left people just move their business, and we’re not going to have our business associated to this, we’re going to buy the football team, we’re going to put our sponsorship money, whatever they’re going to do, they need to have that back. Because if they’re gonna have rutschman, and gunner head, I hear that we’re gonna invest all this money, great. They can’t do that when the 80,000 people showing up with a ballpark, and they all want in for five bucks. And all of them are like me that don’t want to spend $18 on a beer, no matter what, I’m just not going to do that. I mean, it sickens me to think about spending $20 on a beer.
Allen McCallum 24:24
Oh, so you know, as well as I do that when there’s turnover at the top in corporations, institutions, what have you. It’s hard to change everybody overnight. That That seems unlikely. So you’re going to have a lot of the same people in place, just with a new with new marching orders for a significant amount of time, and whatever prejudices and sort of modus operandi that was in place previously,
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:53
they were petty petty people, man, let’s be honest, right? Like, I mean, that was part of the DNA of the whole thing was, I would see Greg Bader at the front door. And he looked at me like, I’ve been emboldened to mistreat you. I’ve been sent to mistreat you and I shall, and nothing will be done about it no matter what. So like, you know, no, you’re not going to be allowed to do your job. He told me to buy a ticket. I said, I’ve bought a lot of tickets around here. You know, like that. I bought a lot of tickets around here. So I just, I like to think that will smell better instantly in some way that needs to be felt. That’s all just fell in more than just a press conference that somehow some way they’re in front of this and someone’s out in front of this. I always use David Modell as an example. And you know why I use him as example? Because everywhere I went around town, I ran into him. He was actually like out doing stuff. He actually thought it was important.
Allen McCallum 25:52
looseness you notice what does it mean? If they are smart people, and all the indications are that they are they know the reputation that the Angelo’s have Angeles’s have sort of built for themselves in all the circles they’re going to be walking into. So I would like to believe as smart people, they will prioritize. changing that. That air about them. Again, probably was doesn’t happen overnight. Because the Angelus isn’t only oriels for a long time. And they’ve, they have left a significant footprint in a lot of places. But it takes it’s gonna take some time. But if they’re smart people i and knowing what they’re walking into, I would like to believe that they they have a plan and will prioritize it. But as is the case with all these situations, the only thing you can say is we’ll see. And we’ll be watching
8Nestor J. Aparicio 26:54
Well, right. I mean, that’s where I am is like nobody’s more open hearted about any of this to me. Nobody ever wanted to be mistreated, not paid, thrown out lied to forced to lie on their behalf. Like that’s a state that’s easy to set. That’s pretty good. I mean, like, literally, that that’s literally the order and then watching everyone else get mistreated and being told no, no, no, that’s a bad guy. That’s a bad guy. That’s the you know, that’s who they were. That’s it, you know, very reminiscent of a guy running for president here this year. Who should be in prison or under a prison. Alan McCallum is here. He should be knighted for his great work with rock and roll and his band and his great work here, WN St. over yours covered baseball. Let’s get on to the field, man. I mean, because it is. I think there’s nothing more important than who owns the team. And there can be no change, more important than that. But also, that it has to happen fast because the team’s here and you’re gonna get an opportunity to get people back at $12 tickets, no fees, special 29th of February, we’re selling tickets. But the things that have happened right away, that lead me to believe that this sale can happen soon. Corbin burns, right. Like Like there’s there’s real movement here, that over the next six or eight months, they can win the city in a way and the team on the field. And it’s an embarrassment of riches. I mean, as I sit here with Luke every day, we talk about cows we talk about curse that we talk about sours we talk about well, Santander and Mullins and and Hayes and what’s going to happen and holiday and are going to start the clock 91 at bat to AAA like I can give you all of this, but I know they’re gonna be pretty good baseball team this year. And like I don’t, I don’t think there’s any way they’re gonna screw that up and not be in the pennant race or a significant part of the pennant race and why it just put on major league baseball network and they talk a lot about the Orioles man the Orioles are or something everybody wants to talk about. And once you deodorize this and get John Angelo’s out of here, and all the nonsense that’s been going on, this thing could really turn around and be awesome, you know, really awesome.
Allen McCallum 29:02
So we just got finished talking about how long we’ve known each other, just shy of 30 years. And in that time, I think about year after year after year, either in the winter or in spring training or right at the start of the season, where we talked about what the Orioles were, what they what they can be. And there have certainly been years where, you know, you’re you’re pulling your hair, I’m pulling my hair out to say something something positive about the team, or you were years where you looked at it in the show Walther years and he says hey, they have a chance to be good. They have they have a chance to do something. But I don’t. I know there has never been a moment when I believed, looked at you and said all indications showed this team should be the class of the American League. Maybe not the best team in baseball, the Braves look like that on paper. Anyway, the Dodgers is certainly set up to be He’s a powerhouse for a long time. But this Baltimore Orioles, Baltimore Orioles team should be the class in the American League. And the Corbin burns trade sort of cemented that now, the Bradish injury sort of puts a little note on that. And I mean, it’s hard to expect John needs to be healthy, because that’s as good as he is. It’s just sort of been part of the story of of his time here. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:31
they are counting on him, you’re, you’re done with that.
Allen McCallum 30:35
8I wouldn’t go as far to say I don’t expect he’s not going to pitch this year. But to expect that he’s going to get you’re gonna get 30 starts out of them with 18 or 19. Quality, we’ll have to see. But when main means is healthy, he’s certainly a quality pitcher. A certainly a guy that can win some games for the Baltimore Orioles. We’ll see what what what he’s able to do.
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:58
Well, the Bradish thing was certainly less than, you know, it puts a little crinkle in the whole thing. And to think that he’s going to be normal. As you know, I know there are other cases that Luke brings them up. You know, Tanaka being the you know, other guys that have had this problem, Nola. But I, you know,
Allen McCallum 31:17
you know, last year when Batista went down, I heard a lot I saw I saw a lot on the internet, a lot of people saying, oh, maybe he’ll he’ll rest for a couple weeks, it’ll be back and I was like, you won’t see him until 25. If they’re smart, you won’t see him until 25. And he’ll get the surgery. I don’t have I know nothing about brandishes medicals, or what his condition is. But anytime you hear those words, the first thing you should be thinking about, certainly as the individual, and certainly as the team that that holds his services for years to come. What do we need to do to get long term quality out of his career. And my first thought is always if someone’s telling you, you should, you should have surgery, you should have it. Because if you try to rehab it, and it’s it falls apart, you’ve probably hurt yourself even more, and you’ve set yourself back and other two, three months, where you could have just gone ahead and had the surgery. Now, I don’t know that anyone has said surgery to Kyle Bradish yet, I don’t know that. But I just know that the majority of these situations, that’s usually the way they go. So we’ll see. I would much rather have Kyle Bradish ready for the bulk of 25 and 26 and 27 than to see him risk going out and not being ready. And then we won’t see him for until 26. He’s got tremendous talent. And he’s a tremendous talent on a tremendous team. But the Royals can win this year without Kyle Bradish. And if if the surge if the doctors are telling him that he should sit, sit it out, then they should probably go that way. We’ll see. I don’t know we’ll see.
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:07
Well, I mean are you have the mind frame that they’re going to make deals for pitchers because I am and I’m convinced that two or three of the pile divers that they’ll have around here in September, October, guys we’ve even heard of, and they’re pitching for the Rockies or the mariners right now, or they’re about to get caught, or even where Cano was last year, which was in no man’s land or even Batista a couple years ago, or even Lopez, like any of these guys, they they’ve, if you’re in the bullpen, you’re damaged by your own admission unless you’re Greg Olson and were sent there to be that guy 30 years ago, but like, there is a point in all of this where your best relief pitchers are guys like, you know, Coolum that you didn’t even see coming.
8Allen McCallum 33:52
So there are a couple things first, you know, there are one or two guys in their system. Cade Povich is the name that comes up all the time, that are probably the talent a talent that can help them. Does that mean, one of them’s ready to step in and win 15 games and throw 180 innings? I don’t know the answer to that question. But they have some talent. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that you’ve already you’ve already identified it. They have a big glutton problem with too much talent that they need to figure out how to make the roster in this year are coming up. Now, I know they’re looking at Santander and Mullins and Hayes and probably saying, hey, these guys are going to be free agent soon they’re going to cost a lot. Are we going to are they worth it to us? And that’s a question for the new week. New ownership we just got finished talking about I don’t know how they’re gonna approach that. But there’s another thing and it seemed clear, Mike Elias likes his guys. We we’ve sort of seen that. And he doesn’t like to give up on his guys, but he’s got too many. So you’ve got to do Do something with it. And we’ve talked about it a lot how the, in the previous regime it was, Oh, we’re going to grow the arms and buy the bats. And that always felt backwards to me. I think this is exactly where you want to be as a franchise, particularly one that doesn’t that has a limit on what they can spend, you want to have a ton of bats. And you want to match up with the Florida Marlins or the Seattle Mariners or the Tampa Bay Rays, teams that seem to be able to find pitching or develop pitching, and that but that need offense and make deals with them. But you have to be willing to give up you have to be willing to give something up in the process to get that and when you said the
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:41
word develop. That’s something that could have that never happened for years and years and years around your you know, I saw that athletic story last week about how coaching changed. And, you know, I remember going out to dinner with Don Wakamatsu a couple years ago, who was friends with Jack Del Rio who had been a manager in the big leagues and a longtime coach. And he just explained to me how much different the analytics and the Billy ball has changed the game Moneyball Billy Beane botched a Moneyball changed the game in regard to what you need to do. And in regard to spin rate for pitchers. I mean, when I hear the players talk about it, it’s nerded out to the point where they are taught the science, learn the signs and learn what they’re good at and what they’re not good at and try to take what they’re good at and make it special. Yeah. And like literally, this group has been really good at taking project guys. Oh, hurt. I mean, just to go through the names of people that they’re like, he’s got a hitch in this, we can fix that. He’s got a arm angle in that we can fix that. And no offense, but for years here, if you could talk about it all you want if you said Thrift, but there was no science by bought it looks a little like he’s dropping his shoulder out there. Now, you know, I talked to Luke about this last week, because it’s been 18 years since I’ve had a press credential, right? But I used to sit in Tony gwynn’s locker in San Diego and Tony had a closet. And it was literally a closet that he had tapes and video. That was science then, you know, and that’s how George Brett had 390 It’s how Cal Ripken went to the Hall of Fame’s, you know he could see the game a little bit better. Now they all see the game not as good as Cal Ripken, better than Cal Ripken better than anybody’s ever seen it because they have data science angles, cameras, to measure all of it and say, We can fix that. And so they’re good at it.
Allen McCallum 37:38
The glorious thing about the technology is that yes, there’s they’re saying, we know how to optimize what you do. And if you you throw five pitches, but only three of them are effective. Let’s do that. But the other part of it is that has made like, oh, well, you’re only going to face the lineup twice. You’re only going to throw five or six innings. I mean, it changes the game to the game of specialty. Yeah, so Jack, you know, the fact that Jack Morin is his era went up because he threw an extra 100 innings every year. Doesn’t matter to him as much anymore. So yeah, they have they have the ability to do that. They can find that kind of talent. But the Orioles have everything they need to go out and get more pitching whether that be money whether that be the talent to trade for them. They can set themselves up for very long time. Six the next six or seven years to be very good, very special. Dude,
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:32
8I love your mission. We got to go to a ballgame. I I bought a bottle of nice expensive wine and nice $50 bottle of the prisoner. I’ve got this over drug city, most expensive bottle of wine I bought. I bought it I’ve kept it I look at it every night it sits right next to where I eat with like arm’s distance. When this thing becomes official, we’re going to release the prisoner and some people celebrate with champagne. You know, I’m curio, I’m cannabis sponsor to celebrate every you need to celebrate. I’m going to have a really good red blend in a special goblet. And I’m going to celebrate with you I’m going to do it online. Like the minute it happens because I’ve waited my whole life for this change. And you know, I do hope they let me in. I hope they’re nice to me. I hope they’re competent. I hope they’re good people. I hope that for the next 20 years, I get all the feelings back that I have always wanted to have about baseball that were you know, defecate anatomy by who these people were and how indefensible and indiscriminate they’re off on this good day.
Allen McCallum 39:36
There’s a very good chance that we’re entering a really beautiful Renaissance for the Baltimore Orioles.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:41
And that will mean a beautiful Renaissance for the city. It really won’t. Because the 3 million people start coming back downtown and feel good about it. Good things will happen. Agreed. Yeah, Alan, appreciate you. Alan McCallum our longtime baseball insider, find him playing music thinking about music at the Orioles game. Find them at the Kennedy Center and Yeah at some point we’ll get together and we’ll do something fun together I swear we we used to be friends Alan when
Allen McCallum 40:06
you popped when you when you pour the wine call me on Zoom we’ll do it we’ll do it together
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:12
all right first place baby owl McCallum I’m Nestor we’re Baltimore positive stay with us
