It’s been too long since we’ve spent some quality time with ESPN legend Tim Kurkjian talking about baseball. The one-time Baltimore Sun beat writer for the Orioles joins his one-time colleague Nestor to discuss the state of Major League Baseball and the hope of Birdland as we get ready for first pitch and Opening Day at Camden Yards.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Meet Tim Kurkjian at Camden Yards two hours before Orioles home games in August and September so he can cover the team during the pennant race.
Tim Kurkjian’s Introduction and Personal Background
- Nestor Aparicio introduces Tim Kurkjian, highlighting his legendary status in baseball journalism and his ESPN podcast with his son, Jeff.
- Tim Kurkjian shares a personal anecdote about his son, Jeff, who is not as passionate about baseball as his father but excels in other areas like theater and music.
- Nestor Aparicio reminisces about his own journalistic aspirations and the evolution of the media landscape over the past four decades.
- The conversation touches on the impact of labor issues in baseball, with Nestor expressing concern about the potential for a work stoppage and its timing.
Historical Context of Baseball Labor Issues
- Tim Kurkjian reflects on his experience covering the 1981 strike, noting the ongoing debate about player salaries and the potential for a work stoppage.
- Nestor Aparicio shares his personal memories of the 1981 strike and its impact on his family, including his father’s frustration with the situation.
- The discussion highlights the historical context of baseball labor issues, referencing figures like Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr and their influence on the union.
- Tim Kurkjian expresses concern about the current state of negotiations, noting the significant divide between the players’ union and the owners.
Impact of New Ownership and Media Landscape
- Nestor Aparicio discusses the new ownership group in Baltimore and their approach to building the team, including significant investments in players like Pete Alonso.
- Tim Kurkjian acknowledges the potential for the Orioles to improve significantly, predicting they could win 90 games and potentially make the playoffs.
- The conversation shifts to the broader media landscape, with Nestor expressing concern about the future of sports journalism and the impact of new ownership on media entities.
- Tim Kurkjian shares a personal story about the challenges of finding games on TV during a playoff series, highlighting the complexity of the modern broadcast landscape.
Leadership and Team Dynamics
- Nestor Aparicio and Tim Kurkjian discuss the importance of leadership within the Orioles, mentioning figures like Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson.
- The conversation touches on the role of new manager Brandon Hyde and his potential to lead the team to success, with Nestor expressing optimism about his leadership style.
- Tim Kurkjian reflects on the impact of players like Pete Alonso and Adley Rutschman on the team’s dynamics, noting their potential to provide both on-field performance and leadership.
- The discussion includes a brief mention of the challenges faced by players like Ryan Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins, who have struggled with injuries and performance.
Hope for the Orioles and Future Prospects
- Nestor Aparicio expresses hope for the Orioles’ future, noting the significant investments made by the new ownership group and the potential for a successful season.
- Tim Kurkjian reiterates his belief that the Orioles could be a playoff contender, emphasizing the team’s improved offensive capabilities and pitching depth.
- The conversation highlights the importance of key players like Chris Bassitt, Shane Bieber, and Trevor Rogers in the team’s success.
- Nestor Aparicio and Tim Kurkjian discuss the broader implications of the Orioles’ success, including the potential impact on the team’s fan base and the broader baseball landscape.
Personal Reflections and Future Plans
- Nestor Aparicio shares his personal connection to baseball, including his father’s influence and his own long-standing passion for the game.
- Tim Kurkjian reflects on his own career and the changes he has seen in the media landscape, expressing a continued love for the game despite the challenges.
- The conversation touches on the impact of new technologies and rules in baseball, with Nestor expressing a mix of excitement and concern about the future.
- Tim Kurkjian shares his plans for the upcoming season, including his work on ESPN and his ongoing commitment to covering baseball.
Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks
- Nestor Aparicio and Tim Kurkjian wrap up the conversation, expressing mutual appreciation for their long-standing friendship and collaboration.
- Tim Kurkjian reiterates his optimism about the Orioles’ prospects, predicting a successful season and a return to playoff contention.
- Nestor Aparicio thanks Tim Kurkjian for his contributions to baseball journalism and his continued support of the Orioles.
- The conversation ends with a shared excitement for the upcoming baseball season and the potential for a memorable year for the Orioles and their fans.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
MLB labor issues, Baltimore Orioles, Tim Kurkjian, ESPN podcast, Pete Alonso, Mike Elias, Adley Rutschman, baseball ownership, work stoppage, playoff contender, baseball analytics, Frank Robinson, media landscape, baseball history, Ohtani.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Tim Kurkjian
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. And it’s a baseball month out here. All of our sports coverage is going to be brought to you by our friends at Farnham and Dermer. They’re doing Luke stuff. And of course, there’s any breaking news like there was when the the max Crosby world shaking happened a couple Friday nights ago. Late. You’ll get it all a courtesy of our friends at pole roofing and Gordian energy, and Luke is on that and we are this close to opening day. Certainly feels that way, and it’s been a long, long time since I caught up with this guy. I don’t know what it is about, like deaths that bring people together who haven’t seen each other in a long time, but we lost the late great Jim Henneman, my one time colleague at the Baltimore Evening Sun in the late 1980s and this is another former colleague of mine, although I never got my name in the morning sun. He was a morning sun guy, and it was all morning evening sun thing. He was the other guy that covered the Orioles along with Ken Rosenthal. And we always tried to crush you morning sun guys, because we had a few extra hours after deadline where Rosenthal was out there sniffing things around. Tim Kirchen has become a legend in the baseball ready circles. He is at ESPN if he, of course, does this amazing podcast with his kid. My kid doesn’t like baseball enough to do a podcast with me about baseball. Timmy, you know,
Tim Kurkjian 01:18
well, it’s okay. Nestor, my son, Jeff is not like the biggest baseball fan in the world. He grew up liking it, but not like dopey dad, who had nothing else going for him except for baseball. Jeffrey was the star of all school plays in high school. He was a good little athlete, but he was he was the star of a bunch of things. He can play the piano, he can sing, he can dance, he can do all the things that I can’t do. So we’re good team because he doesn’t pretend to know everything about baseball, and I don’t know anything about anything other than baseball, basketball and sitcoms from the 60s. That’s all I know. Jeffrey knows about pop culture and music and art and everything else where, poor pub, pub. He doesn’t even know how to turn the computer on without getting in trouble.
Nestor Aparicio 02:05
Man, I was gonna go baseball with you, but I might go like, Get Smart Gilligan’s Island. Just take a little detour, Petticoat Junction, or something like that. The baseball side of this. All I ever wanted to be was you. And I’ve told Rosenthal that. I mean, you knew that you knew me when I was a kid. I wanted to be a beat writer until they put me out to pass, or then let me be a columnist and I could go off and be Oscar Madison, or what we thought it was going to be. Obviously, things turn out differently in a media landscape from four decades ago. But here we are again with the baseball thing and the labor thing, and this off season where I’m hearing more about labor this and labor that, and how it’s hampering all sorts of things in the business of baseball. And I think that gets sort of twisted into this when we have new ownership here, when we have sort of a changing landscape about media and about salaries. But I think the one thing that’s not going to change is the ghost of Marvin Miller and Donald fear. That’s I just I see a war brewing next year, and I think that that’s a horrible place to be beginning on opening day.
Tim Kurkjian 03:02
Timmy, yeah, it’s bad. Nestor, I covered, by the way, the 81 strike that was 45 years ago, and we’re still arguing about some of the same things. Players are making too much money, and at this moment, I am discouraged about where this is headed. I had someone in kind of in the room, tell me this is as far apart with this amount of time to go before the December 1 deadline as he has ever seen it. And you’re right. Marvin Miller, even in death here, is still very much involved. There’s just no way, with the amount of fight that he put up to get salaries where they are and prevent the salary cap from coming in, that the union is just going to say, All right, yeah, we’ll accept the salary cap. It’s not going to happen, at least not as of now, and if the owners are going to hold out for that, then we’re going to have a work stoppage next year, and that would be a really bad timing for that. There’s no good timing for it. But baseball’s doing really well right now, Nestor, we’re starting to pick some things up with attendance and ratings. World Series was great. World Baseball Classic is great. You can’t mess this up with work stoppage.
Nestor Aparicio 04:17
Well, I go back to my dad in 81 and the Whitaker, Trammel and all the things that you covered back in the day, right off of Nestor Smith and Belanger was fresh into it. And, I mean, I, you know, I’m 13 years old, and I sort of had to learn it because they walked off the field, and my dad canceled the Sporting News pissed. And then I got sort of born into it. I’m working at the paper a couple years later, and we lose our football team over business. And then I’m on the radio in 1993 94 when all of this went down, and the Orioles were the princes, right? They had all the money. They had Camden Yards. They were printing money, all of it is and Angelos took the side of the players. I mean, there’s so much Lords of the Realm. History here for people like you and me, but bringing people up to modern school on stuff that I’ve used pointed out the ideology is really stuck back with Curt Flood. You know, going back to the year my birth, for crying out loud, I don’t know how they’re ever going to get out of this, right? Like I saw the NBA and the NHL lockdown lockout, the NFL sort of embrace some sort of weird socialism amongst a bunch of billionaire Republicans, even all these years later, the NFL works because it’s a fair fight. And part of this is every time the pirates get together with the Dodgers, it’s not,
Tim Kurkjian 05:36
yeah, I had someone tell me the other day, Nestor, a smart guy in the business. He said, we’re not going to have a work stoppage. He is in the vast minority on this. He said there’s way too much money to be made for the players and the owners, and they’re going to get this done, and we’re going to play next year. So there is hope that one guy that I trust said that, but a lot of other people are saying the opposite. And you’re right, Nestor. This is, you know, after the 9495 strike, which nearly killed the game, and if it wasn’t for Cal Jr, and then home run races and everything, bringing the game back. It took Tom Glavine, Hall of Fame pitcher and one of the most well respected players in the game, basically standing up with the union and everyone around him, saying, We this is, you know, five years later, 2000 right around that time, we can’t let this happen again. And that’s what we need. Is we need somebody who is as respected as Tom Glavine to stand up and say, All right, somehow, some way, we’ve got to get this done. I just don’t know who that person is and how that’s going to happen, but it’s going to take something like that to prevent this from happening. Them. Kirk, she’s here. He does podcast and baseball and little bit of basketball and a little bit 60 sitcoms, according
Nestor Aparicio 06:54
to himself, I guess the who are the leaders this time around. I mean, seeing Tony Clark get thrown out for Meyer, seeing Myers being the hard negotiator. I mean, I go back to fear and Marvin Miller and I mentioned balandra already. Who are the lead characters? Are your Scoob certainly Bryce Harper made a stink last year. Manfred is going to be representing the manfreds and but we’re in a new ownership situation here with Rubenstein and araghetti. I have no idea where they really are ideologically on this, or whether even Rubenstein knew what he was getting into. I was here in 93 when Angelos took over. He bought the team, walked out of the courthouse in New York, and I don’t he didn’t know anything about the history of baseball labor. And clearly there’s a new generation now that I’m thinking these young people, every school bowl and every rich man and every gunner Henderson’s AD, the Boris’s, they’ve all been handed a copy of Lords of the Realm. Maybe they read it. Maybe they didn’t, but to know the history of this, I keep thinking like the new owners, just maybe they don’t know better.
Tim Kurkjian 07:58
Yeah, and let’s hope they do know better. Because anyone who was around in 81 or 9495 and I was right in the middle all that stuff, the ownership thing, Nestor has really changed, as you know, I mean, Jerry hoffberger used to own the Orioles. It was like that was his business. Now, so many teams are owned by corporate entities where this is just one of many things that they do, as opposed to being Bud Selig, who, you know, own the Milwaukee Brewers, those days are pretty much over, and that that worries me, that they’re not going to have the same input on things, because this is they don’t know the history of labor, because we have so many new owners and owners who really did not grow up in baseball like some others did. Jim.
Nestor Aparicio 08:49
You know, I hate to go from one thing to another thing on the business thing, but I talked to you at Jimmy Hannemann funeral, and we’re going on almost a year now, to the calendar on that and I talked to several people that day, and everyone was in one way or another. And I already brought up our newspaper pass, and Marty Kaiser and Jack Gibbons, especially Jack was very upset with me when I didn’t care about the business of sports. Back in 1988 when I was 19, I sort of caught on that, this understanding this, but the media landscape of what and I thought about, I thought about booking you today and Sunday Night Baseball and John Miller and Joe Morgan and just sort of Buster. And you know the background the Baltimore and the sun has had, and all of you who were a part of this in Camden Yards and Cal Ripken, and I just the media side of what’s happened to mass in here, what it was supposed to be for Peter. And I’m not going to get it. Peter’s a whole other story. But the mess in yes Nesson, how it was supposed to work out, where it is Sinclair’s role in that Rob man for trying to buy these media entities back under the big umbrella of Major League Baseball in some way to repackage it and sell it. Yeah. Have you met anyone that I could talk to, or you talk to regularly, who really knows where this is going? Who’s given some sort of landscape of where the revenue is really going to be for these teams once they get off of cable TV? Yeah?
Tim Kurkjian 10:17
Again, Nestor, this is not my strength. The business of anything. I have no business acumen whatsoever, and I’ve always struggled this with my entire career. To answer your question, I don’t think anyone in the business really knows where this is going. Now, we keep hearing that Rob man from would like to control the broadcast situation for every team, and he’s on his way to doing that, but the nessons and the yeses and everything else are going to say, no, wait a second, we’re not going to you’re not having ours. So I’m not sure where this is going. I just know a couple of years ago, I did the Royals in a playoff game, playoff series against the Yankees, and we’re in Kansas City on a day off in the playoffs, and the Yankees are in our hotel, but the game that we wanted to watch, another playoff game, was not on the televisions at the hotel, which I just found ridiculous, that it’s a playoff game and you couldn’t even sit in your room and watch it, so we had to go back down to the lobby and watch the baseball game. And a bunch of the Yankees were in there because they couldn’t even watch a playoff game from their from their room. That shows where we are with all these different entities that are now televising major league games. I have like I have, I only have one TV in my house that I really know how to work. Everything else has got stuff, or I can’t even find it. That makes me a tired little old man. I understand that, but even young people are having trouble finding out where the games are, and that cannot be a healthy situation.
Nestor Aparicio 11:52
Well, I hope you know, I love baseball. I’m an Aparicio. You love baseball. We’re all in this together. I do think somebody at the top needs to understand the business better, to give a product better. Which brings me to the Orioles, which is something I know a lot about, and being here and seeing this transition that I’ve waited a long, long time to see like, all right, I know what the old, tired vision is. I sat here and bitched about it and fought with it, and I fought the law, and the law sold for $1.8 billion and is gone. I The new group coming in and your knowledge about it and certainly seeing them spend money in Alonso, and I said this three weeks ago, spent an 18 and a half million dollars in a number four starter that you bring in from Toronto and say, we’re going to put this guy here. They didn’t the Angeles family never had anything in it, in them like that. So this is a different ideology here. But I also think it’s a different time, and I do think that this work stoppage thing sort of gets in the way of normal business when the Orioles are trying to take off a little bit coming from last place. They lost a lot of fans last year, but I’m bully on them winning 94 games this year. I mean, I believe they can do that, but I also believe, like it’s a full lift to get the Orioles back to where they’re going to need to be financially to afford more Pete Alonso’s or gunner
Tim Kurkjian 13:16
Henderson’s, exactly. I think they’re going to be demonstrably better than they were last year, when they were terrible without explanation. So I think they can win 90 games. I think they can make the playoff warning. Tampa Bay is better than people think. I just saw the Yankees. I just saw the Red Sox in spring training. I saw the Blue Jays too. All three of those teams for me, right now are better than the Orioles, but the Orioles can still move in and make a playoff spot in the American League. That’s how improved they are. And Alonso, Nestor, I still don’t understand what the Mets didn’t like in Pete. Alonso look, we know he doesn’t run well and he’s not a great defensive first baseman, but he shows up and plays every game, hits 40 homers a year, and drives in 120 he’s as good a teammate as you’re going to find. And he loved playing in New York, and now he’s going to love playing in Baltimore, so he really gives them an extra bat that they absolutely positively had needed in the middle of the order. And I like what they’ve done with their rotation. You’re right. Chris Bassett doesn’t show up in this scenario, say, 10 years ago, but trust me, that guy knows exactly what he’s doing. He pitched really well in the postseason last year, and he’s going to help the Orioles, as is Shane Bob. Getting Eflin back is going to help. And if Trevor Rogers this good and Bradish makes his comeback, and Dean Kramer threw like he did in the WBC the other day that that has the makings of a better than average rotation.
Nestor Aparicio 14:46
Tim Kirchen is my guest from ESPN, and you know, I think about modern baseball and analytics and everything’s on a sheet of paper. And then I think about old schoolers like you and me that would talk about leaders. And clubhouse guys, and having a guy like Brooks around and one of our colleagues from four decades ago, Dan Rodricks, has done a new show. I actually saw it 24 hours ago, so I’ve been giving Dan a lot of love and a lot of plugs on this, but it really has to in 1966 Brooks and Frank and race and Baltimore. But then there’s the Frank Robinson, part of importing leadership and whether that’s possible or not. You mentioned Bassett, he apparently is a grown up in the way that they sort of need that and want that. They get their manager fired last year in May, it felt like it’s sort of all frayed. It felt like, to my eyes, there wasn’t great sort of straw that stirs the drink. Leadership, Albernaz, bringing in Alonso, spending a lot of money, bringing in a pitcher, bringing in a relief pitcher in ellsley, who’s done it before and has had some rough waters as well. That’s a nice mix to go with all of these one ones and young guys that were all supposed to cover off the ball, and they’ve really had struggles on and off the field with rushman, with injuries and whatever it is, holiday now injured again. Westberg can’t keep him healthy. Henderson, you know, WBC will see cows are these are all. We lost a lot of games around here. Timmy trying to get those guys. And if none of them is that natural leader, it felt like rushman was that guy. From the minute he came up, they started playing better. The Alonso thing feels to me Frank Robinson, he for our all of our old schoolers out there.
Tim Kurkjian 16:30
Yeah, well, I remember Brooks Robinson telling me that when Frank came to Baltimore, he taught us how to win. Now that is the greatest compliment that you can pay to anyone, and just wasn’t because he won the MVP in the Triple Crown in 66 he taught us how to win. Brooks already knew how to win, but Frank came in and taught the whole team how to win. Now, Pete Alonso has some of that in him, but he’s not Frank Robinson. Frank Robinson is a almost a once in a generation player, the most ferocious hitter that I’ve ever covered in my life. So let’s not count on that happening, but Pete Alonso’s really going to help with leadership on this team, and you’re right. Adley Richmond, this was his team two years ago, and it was his team in spring training last year, and now he has to take the team back, and the only way he’s going to do that is if he starts to play better and hit more, because usually the leader on the team is also the best player on the team. And Adley, Richmond hasn’t been that now for a year and a half.
Nestor Aparicio 17:37
Timmy, you lived here in the DMV for long stretches of all of the mass and Angelos nationals and like all of that, put put your orange, white panel bird hat on and pretend that you’re me selling Oriole baseball this year. Give me a best case scenario for the Orioles this year. As you see, it not anything to do with the Red Sox or the Yankees or the Blue Jays, and how they’ll do they don’t play each other and beat up on each other the way they used to. For that to be the biggest part of my conversation in the Al east. For me, it’s more about like, top end of the pitching. Where’s the bullpen? I think the defense is going to kind of stink, and I’m worried about the injuries. All that being said, you know, they might have four guys that can hit 40 home runs, right?
Tim Kurkjian 18:21
Again, they upgraded their offense. Taylor Ward is is a really good hitter, and he and Alonzo are going to add stuff to the middle of the order that they just didn’t have last year. We talk all the time about all these injured pitchers and everything else. They haven’t been a good offensive team for a year and a half, and these two guys are going to help take care of that. So I again, I think they I think they’ll be in contention the whole year. I think they can win somewhere at 90 wins, something like that. I I’m not sold that any of the teams in the division, as much as I just told you that the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Yankees are good. None of the three is so good. They’re just going to run away with things and win 100 games. 100 games. I don’t see that happening. So the Orioles are right there. They’re right there in a very strong division, and they’re a bunch of wild card teams out there in the American League. But I think the Orioles have at least an average chance to make the playoffs and win 90 games.
Nestor Aparicio 19:18
Let’s talk about Mike Elias Timmy came in, had a lot of bad teams picked these players. Has money now, has what everybody dreamed of, which was a different ownership group that would look at things differently, maybe invest differently. They’ve thrown everybody out of the Jim Henneman press box now. They’ve got club seats there. They have revenue streams that they see that I don’t see, that I haven’t been able to ask them about. Now that Washington’s gone, the only thing that Angelo’s ever said to me that really sort of panned out is, if you give Washington a team, eventually there will come a day where Baltimore’s gonna have to sing for its supper, and we’re here, and that’s cool and but all of that being said, Elias in putting. This thing together has been criticized. I mean, I’m not that guy. I feel like the Corbin burns thing that could have been bad. Santander that could have been bad. Alonzo could be bad. I mean, you and I were here for Glenn Davis, for crying out loud, and Chris Davis, all the Davises, right. Storm Davis, too, as I remember, you were here for that. But for me, I’m, I’m good with what Elias has done. Given the budget, given the signings, I didn’t love the pitching last year. It didn’t work out. Some things don’t work out, but by and large, they have as good a chance of winning as many games as the other three teams. You just mentioned all these big bad wolfs of the Al east. If rushman is one, one, if Jackson holidays is daddy’s boy, if you know if Tyler Ward is the first guy you talked about. And the Rodriguez trade, that was a little bit stunning to some degree, trading pitching for a slugger in a one year rental. But Elias has had some big stones here, including firing a manager last year, hiring Albernaz. Have been a lot of change around here, and for that, from a baseball perspective, I don’t know if Richmond’s going to bounce back, or Westberg or holiday are going to get healthy, but I can’t fault Elias. Where are you on him?
Tim Kurkjian 21:13
Yeah, I’m mostly with you on that, Nestor, keep in mind the Mets in the late 60s and the Orioles here in the last few years, are the only teams ever to go from 100 losses to 100 wins in a short in that in a three year period like that. No one’s ever done that before, except for those two themes and Michael eyes handprints are all over that. Now, what he had to do this winter, I think he did after last year’s really disappointing season. If he had just sat and done nothing, then I think we would have a different look at things, but he went out and got people that can help the team. So I’m not blaming him for what happened to the Orioles last year. This is the beauty of baseball, is that what should have been a much better team wasn’t due to injuries and just lack of production, it could easily turn this year, and this team could be significantly better than
Nestor Aparicio 22:07
last year. So in the old days, when I was you were beat guy, and I was running around doing my radio show in the 90s, I can say, Hey, man, what are you hearing about? Rushman? What do you hear? Because that is the most curious, one of the most curious things I’ve seen since maybe Joe Charbonneau or something. It’s crazy.
Tim Kurkjian 22:26
Yeah, I thought he would be a great player from the day showed up, and he would be a great player for 10 years. And I was also told that his freshman year in college, he was so good defensively that he was ready to catch in the major leagues as a freshman in college, and now he’s not even the same defensive player. But this is again, Nestor, the beauty of baseball, second half of 2024 nobody knows exactly what happened to him, but he lost his swing, and then he came come back spring training last year, I remember talking to him. He had fixed it, worked with Tim cousins all winter, got his swing back at two homers on opening day. And I said, here we go. And yet he still did not have the productive season that we expected. So I again, I’m hopelessly optimistic by nature. I refuse to believe that this guy has somehow lost his skill level and is not going to hit again. I’m sure he’s going to hit again. I’m sure he’s going to be good behind the plate, but now is the time, because they’re not going to go anywhere if he is an unproductive player, offensively and even defensively.
Nestor Aparicio 23:37
I think all these things we talk about, if any, four or five of these different little things bloom in some way, not even talking about cows or some of the other things that could happen. That’s how I’m optimistic about them. The other thing I’m sort of optimistic about is Albernaz. I haven’t met him. Don’t know Him. Watching it here in the accent, it reminds me of Eric da Costa and but sort of a beloved dude, and the Steven vote coming in here for the press conference. Just it feels like it checks a lot of boxes for me as to what a good manager could look like here.
Tim Kurkjian 24:07
Yeah, in this day and age, he looks a lot like what new managers look like. Okay, he’s learned from some really good people along the way. He’s a young guy. He’s got energy. He can relate to people, and all of that really, really matters. You know, the days of, you know, dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Jim Leland, Joe Maddon, those days, I think, are pretty much over, and the new gen, the new manager, looks like this guy, and I’m going to give him every chance in the world to show what he can do. And I’m all in favor of trying something new. It just worries me a little bit, not just with the Orioles, but with other teams. They think that a new manager is going to find something and do something that has never been done before, and I can tell you, Earl Weaver already thought of those things in the late 60s, so no one’s going. To come up with an idea that no one has ever thought about, and that’s my a bit of a worry with our new people in the game, our young people in the game, is they think they have found a new way to evaluate players, a new way to teach players, and it’s worth a try. But are we going to find something? Someone said, Hey, I’ve never seen that before. Sorry, I don’t think so,
Nestor Aparicio 25:21
you know, we talked about love of the game and your son and my son and where we are and how we grew up. And I’m an Aparicio, so I’m born into it. But really, my father, who wasn’t an Aparicio, raised me, taught me love baseball. And he played Pete gray when he was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, saw Babe Ruth played Yankee Stadium on the train going in in the 1920s when he’s a boy. So, like, I have this love of baseball about me, and I’m, I’m always trying to, like the Barry Manilow song, trying to get that feeling back again all the time, given all of the angelos, all of this and that and labor that we talked about 20 minutes ago. But then, like, Otani comes along, and I don’t know about this automatic strike system. You know, I don’t think my dad would like the leagues interacting all these years later, or the all star game, or expanded playoffs. There’d be a lot of things, but my dad would look at Otani and say, oh my god, it’s like, Babe Ruth, like, I’ve never, I haven’t seen this in a century. And I think that that for old, young, old guys like you and me, and hanging on to the game in some way. I keep thinking. I mean, Luke was born two weeks before the Orioles won the World Series in 83 it’s been 43 years here. So I sometimes wonder, what am I hanging on for? Why do I watch 158 games a year? Why do I do this every day? And then something like Ohtani comes along, and I think to myself, there, you always sort of see something that you’ve never seen before, even if you’re somebody like you, and you feel like you’ve seen it all.
Tim Kurkjian 26:48
Yeah, I’ve never seen anybody like him, and we’re never going to see anybody like him. Then again, I didn’t see Babe Ruth play. I really believe if they had had the DH in the American League in 1920 Babe Ruth would have won 20 games and hit 50 Homers. I really believe that. But Babe Ruth, for all his greatness, and he’s still the greatest player that I believe has ever lived, Ohtani will catch him sooner rather than later. But Babe Ruth didn’t throw 100 miles an hour like Ohtani does. He wasn’t routinely facing 100 mile an hour pitches like Ohtani does as a hitter, and as hard as Babe Ruth hit the ball and he hit, you know, tape measure shots with a dead ball and no technology and baseball bats in the 20s, he didn’t hit the ball as hard and as far as Otani has so that that’s the difference between the two. And Babe Ruth could run, by the way, stole 123 bases at 136 triples, but he didn’t run like Ohtani run. So the point is, he’s the most remarkable player anyone has ever seen, and it is breathtaking to watch him play every day
Nestor Aparicio 27:58
you ever attended a no hitter. I’m asking a silly question, because I’ve walked out of one and walked into one I’ve never, like seen the whole I was supposed to go to the David Cohn perfect game, and I didn’t go that day. So how many have you been to and how many games do you even go to the last 1015, years? You go to a lot of games, though, I go to as
Tim Kurkjian 28:16
many games as possible. But you know, travel budget is what it is, family, duties, grandchildren, everything. I’m not going to 162 games like I used to. Yeah, I’ve covered six no hitters, one of them, one of them a perfect game by Mike Witt on the final day of the 84 season. So I have, I’ve seen a lot of really cool stuff in my time. I was there the night that Juan the Avis pitched a no hitter in Baltimore, and Juan, I mean, Robin, Yount, made the catch in right center field on a ball hit by Eddie Murray, a diving catch to save the no hitter and end the game. So, yeah, I’ve seen six no hitters, one of them a perfect game.
Nestor Aparicio 28:55
See the knee avis. One’s the one I walked into. I left my house in the fifth inning when was a no hitter and I drove right over from gain street, and I was Jack Gibbons said, get some quotes from the avis. So I’m actually in one of the pictures by the locker where ne Avis was in the Milwaukee locker room, right off the bird feed room is in the hit and run club, as I remember it at Memorial Stadium tip Kirchen. Tell everybody what you do and how to find you. I feel like all baseball coverage and you’re the worldwide leader, evaporating a little bit, getting smaller. I I miss you. I love you. I miss everything about the coverage of baseball tonight and all the old glory days and all of that. But we still love baseball. Want to find you. Timmy, yeah,
Tim Kurkjian 29:35
well, I do baseball tonight, whenever it’s on. Now used to be on seven nights a week, and then it was on one night a week, and now it’s sporadically on so I’ll be on baseball tonight. For instance, April 15 from LA Jackie Robinson day. I’ll be there. Baseball tonight. Will be there. Of course, I write all the time. I just finished a third story from spring training. And I also, of course, do this podcast. With my son, Jeff. I do games on the radio from the booth. I’ve got the Blue Jays and the A’s the second game of the season March the 28th so I’m getting around pretty good still, it’s but it’s just not the same as being at the ballpark every day. And there’s no substitute for being at the ballpark. Tell the Oriole
Nestor Aparicio 30:19
fans they have hope here, because I’ve owned this radio thing for like, 35 years into this, we haven’t had a ton, a ton, a ton of spring trainings where there’s really, like hope. I’m here selling hope. I think they’re going to be decent.
Tim Kurkjian 30:30
Yeah, they’re going to be beyond decent. They’re going to be a playoff contender for the entire season. I really believe that. I don’t know if they make the playoffs, but I’m giving them every chance to make it in a league that has a bunch of teams. None of them is great and but there are a bunch of teams that are right around where the Orioles are. It should be a really fun season. I expect them to be way better than last year.
Nestor Aparicio 30:55
I’ll meet you fatally two hours before game time when you’re up here in August and September having to run around and cover a real pennant race in Baltimore, which we need that in the heat of this summer here, Tim, I love you. I appreciate you. Thanks for all your kindness over so so many years and coming into my living room and keep educating people about baseball and how much you love it, man.
Tim Kurkjian 31:15
Well, thank you, Nestor. Thanks for having me. I’ll see you at the ballpark. There he
Nestor Aparicio 31:18
is Tim Kirchen, E, S, P, N, I am Nestor. Luke’s got you covered. Our friends at foreign and Dermer got you covered on the W, N, S, T, tech service, as well as our audio vault out of Baltimore positive. Let’s Play two. It’s opening day. Play ball. You.
