Our friend and longtime sponsor of the WNST Text Service Dennis Koulatsos of Koons Ford returns to discuss the Orioles’ offseason needs and the balance of the Ravens and coaching decisions of John Harbaugh. And the history of Washington at Baltimore in the annals of NFL history.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Baltimore vs Washington, Ravens coaching, Orioles ticket sales, Lamar Jackson, Justin Tucker, Joe Burrow, Commanders offense, Empty seats, fan engagement, AFC Central, Jaden Daniels, playoff game, marketing department, community engagement, buyer’s market
SPEAKERS
Dennis Koulatsos, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, A, M, 15, 70,000 Baltimore and Baltimore positive. We are positively into Baltimore versus Washington Week. I you know, I really had to think who I want on the air this week to properly set the perspective for the young ones out there that this used to have some significance beyond we’re all together in the DMV and and I’m a capitals fan from old line back. I don’t know why I’m not anymore, but I was for a long, long time. We did this great segment over cost this last week with Leonard Raskin as well as the fellow that wrote the capital center retrospective book. So I guess the Baltimore, Washington thing meets somewhere there. I have a handful of people that used to root for John Riggins and Joe Theismann, the Chief Wahoo and Joe Gibbs and all of that. But for the most part, most of the people I know are offended to Joe Flacco is wearing a colts jersey at this point, let alone that the commanders come in under different ownership with this all world quarterback. So I reach all the way to the back to a guy probably done more radio with anybody this sided. Luke Jones, that is Colossus, joins us now from dealerships and parts on the west side of the city now doing several things with coons Baltimore Ford and make it so busy. Can only come on for once a month now, and can’t even do the Thursday show anymore because he’s too busy, but not too busy, to talk about miracle when oral elimination Baltimore, Washington. Dennis, how are you? I miss you.
Dennis Koulatsos 01:35
I miss you too. Nestor, a lot of things to unpack. I went fishing Sunday, of course. I taped the game and stayed off of my cell phone, so I was able to
Nestor Aparicio 01:43
watch that. And why did you do that? Well, because I wouldn’t enjoy
Dennis Koulatsos 01:47
myself. But it’s a beautiful day, 74 degrees, the breeze, the sunlight, the water, the fish. Control freak,
Nestor Aparicio 01:54
you need to be in control of your time at all to say it’s my time, it’s my day, and I’m going to do what I want to do, and that football game can wait for me. You’re really unique in that dude, like, I don’t know any. My mother used to screw things up for me when she’s alive. She called me and give me the score when I tell her 10 times not to do it, she’d still do it. Yeah,
Dennis Koulatsos 02:13
a lot of our kids, they paid attention. They didn’t tell us. They didn’t play the role, role of a spoiler. So when we got home, we had a nice dinner. We were able to watch the game and fast forward to their commercials. So we had a really good time, and had no idea what the outcome would be. And it was just a fantastic game. And I still my throat, still a little bit sore because I was screaming sold out at the TV stats. It was from a fan standpoint, it was a phenomenal, phenomenal game that the Ravens coaching staff try to give away, but the players came through for them. Let’s talk
Nestor Aparicio 02:46
about coaching, because I don’t have, you know, I’ve talked, we did segments like Luke and I, this is what happens then, is I write a letter to Dear David Rubenstein, and people think that that’s all I do. No, no. We talk pitching, strategy, roster, bullpen, hitting, offense offseason, empty seats. They won’t talk about that at massen. Um, like, revenue, they won’t talk about that at massen, you know, like, how they’re going to build it and but I talked about the offense, which was came to life. I talked about the defense, which is questionable. We talked about the special teams, which has been a mixed bag, and what happens when Cincinnati can’t spin a ball, and when we had a thing here called the wolf pack that operated for 15 years, that is going to put Justin Tucker in the Hall of Fame. Just Tucker’s in the Hall of Fame because Sam Cooke spun the ball in Denver. It, you know, in Detroit a couple of years ago, whatever is a part of all of that that creates this, the coaching gives teams a chance to win. And at the other level, you run operations, and you know when things go wrong at the top, the hardball thing, I can talk about how screwed up they are on the front office, and it’s clear they’re allowing Luke to cover practice Wednesday, and I can there’s something very wrong going on there when I’ve been treated the way I’ve been treated on a global sense. Then there’s the coaching part. And we watch this, and we witness this, and we see things that are happening in the course of the game, like the red flag, and he’s looking up at the screen 15 years into this is what we’re doing. This is your strategy. This is this is your system. And I don’t know i It feels to me like they’re good at football and they’re good at Ball Coach, and they’re good at Bible passages and slogans, and they’re good at all of that. But then when it comes time to manage time out, they he’s not good at that.
Dennis Koulatsos 04:40
Oh, the end of the towards the end of the first half, that was a real head scratcher taking the time out there. Third and 10, you’re going to give the Bengals the ball back, right? So they stopped the clock and not paying attention that at that point and throughout the game, really, the they were playing pitch and catch. Joe burrow was with Jamar Chase and T Higgins. Yes, and not only did they give up a field goal, they give up a freaking touchdown to close to actually take the lead. And the penalty on Mata BK, which took the conversion there at the two point conversion. I mean, this team should have been leading at the half 14 and seven. The fact that we’re down 17 to 14 was maddening, and we just thought this was going to be a long, long day for the ravens, with the with the them coming down on the short end of the stick. Fortunately, they they pulled it back together. Lamar did. Lamar things I’d remiss if I didn’t comment on the plate where he dropped the ball, got up and scrambled and throw a touchdown to Isaiah. Likely
Nestor Aparicio 05:39
it was top fiver in his list. You know what? I mean, like, and I’m thinking, like, he’s had a lot of plays, but, yeah, it’s hard for him to have a top fiver. I mean, the number one for me will always be in Cincinnati. I told Luke when he broke the ankles and crazy, and I’m in the press box, and everybody in the press box, like it was, like, they saw something in a theater, was like, and then they laughed. And, I mean, there was just this uproarious sound in the Cincinnati press box. That’s the same press box where the press box announcer called on the bungles. The bungles exactly I, I’ve experienced things in Cincinnati, but that was very special. It really was
Dennis Koulatsos 06:16
I it really was Nestor, a snatched the victory from the jaws of defeat. It was classic. You thought the game was over with when he lined up for the game winning field goal and overtime. As you mentioned, they didn’t spin the ball well, they didn’t get the snap down. It was a poor snap by the long snapper. And of course, Justin Tucker, he gets a chance to redeem himself. 56 yarder and the chip shop for the win, for the walk off win. There amazing game, and running out of supertoliths to describe the players. Hopefully Marlon Humphrey will not be out too long that they said he was in the boot after the game. He came up really big with interception. They needed a turnover. That was the only way they were stopping at the Bengals offense.
Nestor Aparicio 06:57
That is kalatosis, argasty, familiar tones. What are you? Give me a little sell me a car. Do something for me. Sell me some service. We we
Dennis Koulatsos 07:05
have a ton of inventory. Man, I tell you what the the worm has turned. We couple years ago, we had no vehicles to sell. Now we have a surplus. We have 500 new vehicles at Baltimore, four to 175 youth and 250 at the Kia store, with another 100 years, so we have a lot of inventory, and right now it’s a buyer’s market. If anybody needs a car, now’s a great time to come out and get one.
Nestor Aparicio 07:27
You’re selling keys too. Good value there. Great value, great car underpriced
Dennis Koulatsos 07:31
with the with the great value. It’s a wonderful automobile, but great value for the dollar. So we have, we have the products to sell for sure. Alright,
Nestor Aparicio 07:39
well, I want to go back to coaching here and not just beating up our ball. I mean, they had the ball after the Lamar fumble at home with a crowd that’s ready to just go nuts with a defense it couldn’t stop a nosebleed to to quote my my one time partner, buddy Ryan, and they sat on the ball and attempted a field goal that’s way longer than you want to attempt in that circumstance. And I think if Zach or would have drawn up what I want them to do, run the ball into the gut on first half, ass it on second, and give up on third, and then come out here and try 56 yard field goal like it’s a chip shot. And then the operation didn’t work, and they lost the football game to fall to the seller, after blowing a 10 point lead twice at home with Joe burrow and in an operation that they they were never stopped by the Ravens defense. I and they, you know, they had two major mistakes with Lamar, and they didn’t capitalize on and burrow through that terrible picked. He mentioned Lamar to uh, Marlon Humphrey, and we saw two completely different styles with how to run an offense. We’re going to see the Lamar copycat this week, the new way of doing it with Jayden Daniels. But I’m always a proponent of the Joe burrow style of offense, which is, you can’t touch him, drop back to pass, timing plays, great receivers, mismatches, reading the line of scrimmage, getting into the best play, and the Ravens couldn’t stop it. And it’s astonishing. We beat our ball up, you want, or the defense, what, how, however you feel about Marcus Williams or play call, whatever it would be, timeouts, boy, the Bengals. You? Yeah.
Dennis Koulatsos 09:22
They went to bed, and right now, the Ravens found themselves at the top of the AFC Central, tied with the Steelers who lost the Cowboys, both teams three and two. Ravens are surprisingly a six and a half point favorite heading to the game against the commanders. I would think the spread would be much closer than that. Jaden Daniels, great quarterback, I watch his career at LSU. He to me he’s a taller, lengthier Lamar Jackson. I worry about him running because of his length, but he definitely has the the DC fan base charged up. I have a lot of colleagues in the DMV area, but boy, they love their commanders right now because of Jaden Daniels.
Nestor Aparicio 09:59
You know, maybe this is a good time to talk to you about this, because I love having you want to talk business and money and and how all this works. You went to the Oriole game last Tuesday. You offered that to me off the air the empty seats and people get you know, it’s amazing. I went out letter Raskin at his birthday party. We’re gonna be celebrating over bunny in Essex. Come over have some pizza and some grab gigs with us. On Friday, we’re going to be pizza Johns in your homeland. Um, I
Dennis Koulatsos 10:27
was there in Betty. I was there about two weeks ago.
Nestor Aparicio 10:29
I will come on by and I’m going to be there on Friday afternoon, my birthday, Luke’s birthday, Leonard’s birthday, Jim Palmer’s birthday, you know, Stacey keebler’s birthday. So, you know, all the, all the legends. What time would you be there? All afternoon. I’ll be there from noon until you make me leave stop. Feed me pizza. So we’ll be over there Friday with our friends at the Maryland lottery. Have scratch also all of our sponsors. We’re doing the oyster tour with Liberty, pure solutions and curio wellness. It’s our 26th anniversary. The 26th oysters as well as Jiffy Lube MultiCare, powering up the crab cake tour. But they got the crinkle cut fries over there with the gravy. I mean, come on. So Luke and I last week touched on the empty seats, and it’s amazing in the aftermath that the Oreo fans are way meaner even than the Ravens fans, when people want to be mean about just stupid stuff, right? And I see the empty seats and people think I’m being a jerk. They need to build their brand. And the optics of 10,000 empty seats when you’re trying to sell season tickets in the off season, when you’re trying to get Mr. Coons or whomever owns whatever company to buy whatever thing to buy in again, and this is where I wrote this very heartfelt, very honest. I’m tired of being treated like garbage. I’m 56, years old this week. I don’t have to come back. I don’t have to buy cable television. I don’t have to come down and be a part of tickets for 10 bucks on Tuesday, Wednesday. And my wife even said to me, why aren’t you going? And I’ll let you in. Dennis, Wednesday, my wife had a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment at 430 game time, literally five blocks in the stadium, because we live down there in Federalist, Dr Lebo. I had Mark Viviano on still art dentist. My wife had his long standing dentist appointment. I said, Man, it’s me. A lot of people down there 430 on game day, you might not be able to park. So she left the house at three, whatever, 35 for this appointment, and Alan McAllen hit me five minutes later and said, Do you want to go to the game? And I said, Allen, if you hit me 20 minutes ago, I had a free ride. I would have gone with Alan. I would have gone with you. I would have gone with anybody who loves me that I love. The weather was fine. I just and I had worked a little bit, and I got comfy watching the strike zone. I see the game better on TV. I see the strike zone. Now, if I had a press credential, I could see that in the press box and see the game and talk to them afterward, but like, to me, I’m not prissy about baseball, but I don’t need to go sit in left field and pay 10 bucks and it like, I don’t where the Wi Fi may or may not work. I don’t know I’ve been in the stadium left stadium of the but, like, I opted to stay home, but then Alan hit me, and I had some regret about, like, right? And they were in these games, one run games, one hit games, like all of that. But there’s something about the optics of the emptiness that breaks my heart. Peter’s dead. His kids are in the dugout counting their money hitting the walk off Grand Slam, as I wrote to Dear David Rubenstein. Now it’s like, who’s going to lift this thing? I’m watching the Padres with Mr. Seidler. They have his PS on their jerseys. Manny Machado hacking that ballpark. My cousin’s paying 150 bucks to throw to go to the games in San Diego, where an all or ish Philadelphia selling the Mets this week. They’re all engaged. Their fans are engaged. Our fans weren’t even engaged enough to come out for 10 bucks and fill up the ballpark when the whole message was, be the noise and it’s game time. The boogeyman is going to shoot me in the city. It’s too far. It’s it was 10 bucks, and I said to Luke, it’s like Ali’s bargain giveaway at a buck and a quarter. I wasn’t going when the tickets were 12 bucks. I might have given Mr. Rubenstein 12 bucks if his guy didn’t treat me like garbage and blow me off for five months as though I’m unimportant, as though I’m not a human, as though I’m not a fan. And as I said, every one of those seats is somebody that stayed away. And I don’t, I’m just investigating it. I know why I stayed away, but it’s, it’s heartbreaking to me, and I don’t know this is the bottom when they can’t sell out playoff games. I mean, right? I mean, seriously, seriously, could sell out playoff games for 10 bucks. That’s not good. That’s not good. It’s not a good look. No,
Dennis Koulatsos 14:39
it’s not. I wasn’t going to go Nestor because we’re where I wanted to say that, and I’m getting little picky at my advancing age. Here they were $300 a seat, so I wasn’t paying that. But somebody called me the morning oven said, Hey, I’ve got these great tickets. I can’t go. Would you like four? So I took them, and that’s why I was there. But like you, I was surprised at the at the absence. I. The FTC, that’s a stadium. I mean, the entire left field, the upper deck was just it was empty. And for a playoff game, you gotta be kidding me, the place was loud, but it would have been louder, obviously, with another 10,000 fans there. So it was amazing to me, as a casual Oriole fan, that this thing was a competing, total sellout. Did
Nestor Aparicio 15:18
it kind of blow you away, or did you expected? No, it blew me away. I mean, there was no chance on Sunday like Joe Enoch hit me. He’s like, they’re gonna be 10,000 NPCs, because we looked at the inventory, and they faked the inventory, and they pull like I’d see it. I saw the prices drop like a rock. I saw the desperation. I saw the ads all over my social media to try to buy a ticket. Hey, the ravens are running by a ticket ads in the middle of Octavian we’re in a different economic space. You sell cars. I sell media, I sell everything. I sell crab cakes. I sell crab soup. I sell insurance, I sell everything. Here I talk to the people in the economy. I talk to the Biden haters. I talk to the Trump lovers. I talk to I see everything that’s going on, $10 baseball tickets, you know, what, um, what’s, what’s that? That book that the women were reading years ago, she’s just not into you. He’s just not into you. Whatever, you know, whatever it is, like, I mean, like I am, I am broken. I I am online every day, looking at old baseball pictures, buying stuff. I bought something online the other day that you’ll appreciate. Even my wife saw this. She’s like, that’s kind of beautiful. Can I show it to you to stub, just show you what it is. I bought this for a couple bucks on the internet. Nice. So I’ve been collecting old things and Aparicio widgets. Now that he’s the work the planet’s oldest living Hall of Famer. And by the way, I looked this up, and I was really wrong, because all this Chris Ullman stuff I’ve been writing about being Venezuelan, I have to, you need to prove that you’re Greek. He’s the only Hall of Famer who’s Venezuelan. And I didn’t really, I thought, okay, yes, I thought these other guys were in already Cabrera. They’re not Galarraga. So I was like, okay, so I’ll go with that. I love baseball, but in order for baseball to be whole again, here they sell tickets. They need to get money. They need to get your car dealership and your other car dealership, and me and everybody I know they need to have Costas doing busses. They need they need the community to engage with the team. And I don’t know how that’s going to happen Dennis, but I’ve seen Katie Griggs his first act. She can bring her Dartmouth thing here, whatever ban me, or she can get together nicely with me and say, How can we help? I had three former oral employees over the weekend, literally, huge. Cool people write to me, and they’re like, dude, if he reads that letter, he should hire you, not ban you. He should hire you to help him sell tickets. Because that’s just not it’s unacceptable to me that the upper deck was empty. It should be unacceptable to that look. Really should be.
Dennis Koulatsos 17:58
It’s a bad look Nestor, a bad look for the organization. I mean, come on now you gotta they won 191
Nestor Aparicio 18:03
how do you fix it? I’m asking you, How do you fix it?
Dennis Koulatsos 18:07
191 game in two years, you can’t pack the stadium for a playoff game. You gotta be kidding me. So there’s delphy, something wrong? You said, community engagement, getting the players out, having Meet Greets with the fans again, there’s got to be the marketing department needs to step it up for sure. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 18:24
in my letter, I’m like, don’t blame the weather, don’t blame the star time, don’t blame the price point. I mean, the price point was priced for me, and I don’t want to give them money based on how they treated me, but I think I would have had a $15 experience with Alan McCallum on Wednesday, even when they didn’t hit the ball, I would have preferred to been with him, because I love him. Yeah. I mean, that’s what baseball is. I if you would have called me Tuesday and said, I got four behind the dugout. You want one? My wife was flying in that afternoon. Was weird. I would have gone because I was I had to pick my wife up the airport at seven o’clock. I was already halfway. If anybody would offer me a ticket, I would have gone on Tuesday, Wednesday, not say I don’t have listeners, friends, whatever. Nobody else wanted to go either, you know, and it’s yeah,
Dennis Koulatsos 19:07
if my tickets weren’t free, I wouldn’t have gone. I mean, again, it’s as simple as that, whatever. Call me fair weather, but
Nestor Aparicio 19:13
it’s not like you can’t afford the 12 bucks. No, I
Dennis Koulatsos 19:16
can afford a 12 bucks, barely, but I can afford it. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 19:18
think you just said a lot without saying a lot at all. Where are you on the Baltimore, Washington thing? Does it break your heart that it’s not like a thing the way it used to be? It was a lot more fun with Sarah goose was out on the nasty van Drake and beer like the last scene in The Shining with me and T bone out in the rain when we beat them down at the IKEA stadium. But we’ve come a long way. I mean, the fact that we ever hated them and felt the way we felt, because we felt like we were the little brother in that relationship, and we’re, we’ve been the daddy over 25 years. Big time. Well,
Dennis Koulatsos 19:44
I will let you know Sunday, because I’m not going fishing Sunday, I’m going to go, God willing, to the game in real time, in real time. So I will let you know. How many how’s your heart going to handle that down there? We’ll find out. So we’ll, we’ll see how many Washington fans are there to counter the. Ravens fans. We’ll see how many Ravens fans sell their tickets for this game this weekend. That’s, that’s really one of the the subplots. I’m trying to take a look at Nestor a home game for the for the commanders, is it gonna be 5050, 6040, 7030, the
Nestor Aparicio 20:13
commanders are a dead brand. I don’t think that. I don’t think they’re activated.
Dennis Koulatsos 20:16
I think they are. I think I’ll be surprised. They’re they’re they’re jacked up, and they’re averaging about 38 points a game. This kid’s got them playing some good ball.
Nestor Aparicio 20:26
Now you’re worrying me that there’s gonna be a Washington takeover, and this is what happens when Chad steals chased me out of the seats. I mean, like I’m not. That’s just a that’s just a fact me and my wife’s asses would have been down there at a buck 50th throw, in our seats, wearing our pom pom wearing a purple underwear being mistreated by Marlon Humphrey and a boot after the game. Didn’t matter. We went to the games. We supported the team, financially, spiritually, in every way, and I was thrown out. So, like, my seats are open, and that’s kind of like how this happens. You know what? I mean, the seats are open, they’re available. That’s insane to me, that we’re not more activated. And I’ll say this out loud. I mean, the Ravens can win the Super Bowl, man like they have enough good they got to get the defense together, but staying healthy as a healthy unit, and that’s always knock on wood. This version of Ronnie Stanley, this version of Lamar, this version of the offense with Derek Henry. You and I haven’t even talked since Derek Henry’s been here. Do you have any years I pined away for Derrick
Dennis Koulatsos 21:19
Henry to be here? You and everybody else in Baltimore, what a great fit he is, and he was fresh. You have fresh legs. In the overtime period, they couldn’t stop him. It was just wonderful to
Nestor Aparicio 21:28
watch. Well, we’re winning in all sorts of ways. You’re still winning, Dennis,
Dennis Koulatsos 21:32
I’m sorry, you’re still winning like we’re all winning, right? Look above ground is a win for me. So everybody where to find you?
Nestor Aparicio 21:39
Selling some cars. Come on, hey. 410-218-0337,
Dennis Koulatsos 21:44
my cell number. You all know it. You know, you know, I’ve been here for a long time, 38 years in the business. Come see me. You’ll be happy that you did do the cars drive themselves. Yet, we’re close. We’re close, not quite close. I just want to say, I just
Nestor Aparicio 21:56
want to sound like it’s Jetson, you know, close, like the cars even drive themselves. I had Tom stoolby on telling me how that works, because he had the steering system and all that stuff. So alright, I miss you. See you soon. Come on by, get some pizza. You stay well, alright, I’ll drag you to Dundalk or Essex before it’s all over. With that is Cavazos is still here, still over Coons, Baltimore, Ford. I still my friend for two decades. I still love talking football, and he’s one of the few people that might call me for a baseball game with tickets for 10 bucks and go to the ballpark together. I’m hoping to do that beginning in April, but though we’ll see how the off season is, and if you see Katie Griggs, tell her her letters on the way, I am Nestor. We are wnst am 15, 70,000 Baltimore. Real journalism or so. Some people think we’re Baltimore positive.com. Stay with us.
