Longtime Baltimore sports writer John Eisenberg returns for another season of Orioles baseball and an announcement about his continuing journey through the history of the franchise – even as he enjoys the present and opines about the future. And, of course, the venerable columnist brings out his journalism sniffer on the Justin Tucker scandal and the NFL investigation.
Nestor Aparicio and John Eisenberg discuss various sports topics, including baseball, football, and basketball. Eisenberg shares his excitement for baseball season, mentioning a recent trip to spring training. They reminisce about Eisenberg’s early baseball experiences in Dallas and his connections to the Kennedy assassination. Eisenberg talks about his new project, “Bird Tapes,” which features oral histories of Orioles legends, and plans to conduct new interviews. They also touch on the Justin Tucker scandal, with Eisenberg expressing faith in the reporting and the importance of journalistic integrity. The conversation concludes with plans for upcoming baseball events and Eisenberg’s ongoing work on “Bird Tapes.”
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Baltimore Orioles, John Eisenberg, Bird Tapes, Justin Tucker, Ravens, baseball season, spring training, Oriole history, Camden Yards, NFL investigation, media reporting, sports journalism, Oriole legends, baseball books, Baltimore sports.
SPEAKERS
John Eisenberg, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Hey, welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, for Baltimore, positive. We are positively into some madness of March, some spring training of March, some tampering of March and free agency of March, as well as some crab cakes in March, we’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the mayor on the lottery. Have the magic eight ball scratch offs. I’m hoping to get some monopoly, because I’m looking forward to a community chest. We have all sorts of things going on. We’re gonna be at Faith leaves this week. There’s rumor Mark Viviano stopping by. I’m trying to get new delegate. Sean stanette, it was my former intern. Man. My former intern. Chain grows. I got a delegate down at a state house who was a former intern. I got a former intern of mine who is running the entire empire of Jason Kelsey. I mean, that’s right this side of Taylor Swift. I mean, just one. So we got, like, good lineage here, and it’s because I was cut from such great stock at the Baltimore news, American and sports. First I met this guy and admired his work. Before I met him, when I was working at the news American, he was the gunslinger from Dallas via Philadelphia to do enterprise sports choose stories and they then became a columnist. He’s been my friend for a long, long time. He was a reporter@ravens.com he writes books on horse racing, race quarterbacks, iron horses and bird tapes. He is John Eisenberg. He is our defending champion of all things historical in Baltimore. How are you, John? Happy Day to you. I don’t know. Is it baseball, football, basketball, jurisprudence. What season is it for you these days? Well,
John Eisenberg 01:46
it’s no I would say baseball season. It is baseball season. Excited to took a trip to spring training with my wife very briefly, and soaked up a little sun, hit some tennis balls, watched an Oriole game, and you know, life was not bad. So I would say that means it’s baseball season.
Nestor Aparicio 02:03
Can I ask you this before we get into Justin Tucker and all the salacious and all you know anything we’re gonna talk I don’t know what the hell we’re gonna talk about, because I don’t you don’t hand me the notes, like some people, you grew up in Dallas, correct? Yes, your beautiful mother is, you know, almost the centurion, or, I think that’s the word, still alive and well, and you get down there, what was your pathway to baseball? I’ve now, dude, I’ve known you a million years, and I’ve never asked you, like, Were you at Arlington stadium when the day it opened?
John Eisenberg 02:34
I was my pathway to baseball? Was minor league baseball in Dallas, Texas in the 1960s my dad took me to a game at a little field near downtown Dallas, Burnett field near the on the Trinity River. What year
Nestor Aparicio 02:46
is this? John 64 so this is right after Kennedy’s assassination. Wow. Oh yeah, oh yeah. How old were you with Kennedy was assassinated seven I was how far away from it? Were you when he was shot? 10 miles, five miles, five miles. And my grandfather, I got man, dude, that’s all we’ll do. A whole day on that. You and I should do an hour on the day of your life, that day. Whoo, don’t
John Eisenberg 03:07
get me started. My grandfather was at the lunch where they were waiting for him and didn’t make it, and he was seated at that lunch. So I got all sorts of connections. You
Nestor Aparicio 03:19
were second grade in his school room in November. Yes, I
John Eisenberg 03:23
think I was in first grade, seven years old. The math done that up, so I guess it was second grade. But, yeah, I got, I got all sorts of connections to that. All right, so
Nestor Aparicio 03:33
you’re so Kennedy Dallas. We all know the black and white tapes that that period, the Dallas what? What the hell were they? What were they
John Eisenberg 03:41
called? They were there was, there was a team, the Dallas Rangers, I think it was. And then there was the Dallas Fort Worth spurs. They played in what became Arlington. It was actually an Oriole Orio minor league team at one point. And so we would, he would take me on. My dad would take me out to Arlington, and we go to these minor league games, and, you know, he would sit there, she
Nestor Aparicio 04:04
play, do you see? I mean, you saw guys that then became, what, what, Orioles? I mean, I don’t know. Did you see? Yeah, I
John Eisenberg 04:11
don’t, I don’t recall seeing anyone famous, you know, Orioles. You know, there was, it was, it was double A baseball. And I love going and listen to the games on the radio, and I think some of them were recreations. And you know that that they did. So this was in the late 60s, and then Major League Baseball showed up. We were playing little league ball in the 60s. Oh, played a ton kind of Little League
Nestor Aparicio 04:36
and watching Brooks Robinson in the 66 series. Yeah, Kofax, and that’s your, you know, I was born in 68 you were watching the World Series Detroit and St Louis. I was born that
John Eisenberg 04:45
week. Totally, I was into all that stuff. And, you know, I was actually an Oriole fan. I mean, they were good, they were on television. And so I, you know, I like played stratomatic, you know, the whole thing. So that’s what I’m talking about. Man, yes. So that my entree, you know, it was, it was totally legit, and on brand, I
Nestor Aparicio 05:04
had Slim Jim Phantom of the stray cats on the show about two years ago. He was a dude doing a hit for stratomatic, because he played it his whole life. And he’s a Long Island New Yorker. And, you know, love the Mets. And you know of the age of playing Mary Britt Eklund from the Man with the Golden Gun at one point in his life. So me, I’m talking about a serious guy here. But stratomatic, 60s baseball. I just want to give a plug to another author, because I think no offense to your books, which I’ve read two or three of them. Um, my favorite all time, baseball book. Um, Lords of the Realm. You know, I have some books that are sort of seminal, but for me, seasons in hell by Mike Shropshire, yeah, is the best baseball book I’ve ever read. And I have no connection to the 1971 Texas Rangers or Ted Williams or or Whitey Herzog or the big boy Rico cardi or or Fergie Jenkins or as Rita, any of them. But I grew up on those teams and the baseball cards when the senators became the Rangers, and the colorful tales of Billy Martin and just all of that. And like, what you’re telling me is you were a 15 year old kid when that happened.
John Eisenberg 06:15
Yeah, I was there. I was in the stands for that. And actually, you know, I know Mike dropship pretty well from those Texas press press boxes. Can you get him on my show? I don’t know. I’ve lost track of Mike a long time ago, but he’s a great writer. And I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 06:30
just if anybody wants to read a book other than John Eisenberg’s books, which I
John Eisenberg 06:35
would recommend, it seasons in hell, absolutely an amazing baseball book. I would highly, highly recommend. I
Nestor Aparicio 06:41
just was so wildly entertained by that book in a way that I can’t, you know, and I’ve read a lot of baseball books or whatever. Yes, that book always struck me. And there’s a romance about having read that book three decades ago. I read that book in the mid 90s, when it was written, that you lived, so it’s real. And I never realized all the time we’ve spent together, I never put two and two together of like those Ranger the uniforms and the and the Tin Can that they played in down there, and the heat and like all of that, and stealing the senators. You stalled the senators, you did sob. Yeah, $2.75
John Eisenberg 07:18
to sit in the left field bleachers, and the sun would go down if it was a night game and it was hot, yeah, you needed that sun to go down. But, yeah, that’s short, right? Bob. Short absolutely
Nestor Aparicio 07:32
moved him. I love having you on because you wind up talking about things. I never thought about talking about that with you, but I wanted to plug, shop, showers, book, so I didn’t pronounce his name. You pronounce it the right way. Shropshire, if you’re out there, Mike, Shropshire, you are effing genius. And I want to have you on the show, John, um, you’ve got bird tapes going on. We got baseball. Um, Look, man, I could do Trump for 100 I could do, you know, also ravens, Justin Tucker, all of that. We’re going to do all of that. But it is baseball season in your heart and mind. And I’m wearing my my curio orange here, and we got opening day. Luke and I are going up to Canada for the opener. Um, the Orioles are going to get booed off the field. Getty Lee might be there. I hope, um, I’ll be there. And for your bird tapes. And John Miller, the other John Miller, the author of The Earl Weaver book, who I know, you’ve gotten to know, and I’ve gotten to know through the Wall Street Journal, and I’ve had him on the show, and you’re visiting with him this week. And folks may hear that on the other end of this at the Enoch Pratt library, if you catch it on the front end, is my dad’s birthday, March 5, a very, very special day in my life. Wednesday night. Wednesday night. Yeah, so if you catch it or miss it, John’s got a book, but John Miller has a book on Earl Weaver. You have the bird tapes, and I want to give you the oxygen to just sort of reset it, because you’ve been on five times since you started this crazy concept. And we know some of the same people involved in trying to get these tapes and transcribed and using otter. And I’ve tried to help you as little as much as I can, because I have a whole bunch of tapes around here. It really is something, you know. I have the rock and roll thing in my background with all these old interviews with David Bowie and these people. You have these you have the Oriole history literally in a box, and you’re bringing it to life. And I’m excited that you’re having a season two. Man,
John Eisenberg 09:14
yeah, what? What happened? Yeah, for those that didn’t know, this is a sub stack and publication or newsletter that I do, I wrote a history of the team, an oral history the team published it 25 years ago, from 33rd street to Camden Yards. And to do that, I interviewed just, you know, hundreds of people, and I got some of them down on tape. And it’s all the Oriole legends, Brooks, Frank, Earl, Eddie Cal, you know, over 40 of these guys on tape, and I did nothing with them for 20 years, and then they were sitting in a shoe box in my closet, and I decided, you know, I need to bring these out so the public can hear them. So I’ve had them digitized. I’ve been, I’ve been posting them over the past year at bird tape stop dot. Stack.com and it has been successful. I got a I got a large community that’s developed, and I’ve really had a lot of fun with that. I’ve also written a lot of history and sort of some new looks at old things, and so I’ve really enjoyed it. Well, what’s happened? Inevitably, Nestor, I’m getting to the end of the tapes. I’ve sort of run out of these vintage interviews that I had. So my question was, okay, what do I do? Do I just abandon ship a
Nestor Aparicio 10:27
whole bunch over here. Do you want some? I mean, I’m serious, if you want any. I mean, if you want rich dower Scott, McGregor, Mike Flanagan, I have everybody. I have Brooks. I have a lot of cow, but I have everything but Palmer. I have nothing Palmer. Palmer, now
John Eisenberg 10:46
what I’m going to do is, because I had, I still had some interviews that I cut in the 90s, in the clubhouse with the guys from the 90s, you know, Messina and Billy Ripken and on and on Rafi, Palmyra pre pre bust, and they weren’t great because there was so much background noise. I interviewed him in the clubhouse. I didn’t think it was, there was music playing and everything. And so I decided, You know what, go back talk to these guys. I’m kind of cut a new round of interviews. I’m going to do new interviews with anybody I can find historic interview, you know, the history of the Oriole interviews, I’ve already started on this round. And, you know, I’m going to be bringing, as a matter of fact, I just did two and a half hours with John Miller about, you know, all his experiences in Baltimore and his departure that will be coming. And so anybody that that sort of Tink tinkles. My curiosity a little bit. I’m going to do, I did a voice that I haven’t heard that much talking about the Orioles. Fred Lynn, you know, in the 80s, I got him. I’ve done Greg Olson. It’s going to be a long list. I’m going to start posting. It’s Orioles history still, but I’m going to talk to new people and find out. I’m going to talk to some beat writers and and talk about their their experiences. Richard, just as my old buddy at the sun and from Texas and everything, went with the Orioles to Japan in 1984 there’s just a million stories. And I’m just going to embark on on a new journey with it a little bit, and keep writing the stuff I’ve been writing. And, you know, I have pretty good feeling there’ll be a nice reception. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 12:23
going to give you a new nickname, Mr. Fort Worth spurs guy. You’re now going to be the king of birds. For me, as I have a bird on my shirt. You’re the king of birds. You’re the keeper of the birds. I’m not the king. What was a bird keeper? What you’re the bird keeper, Keeper, Bird Keeper. Yeah, I’m working on we’re whiteboard. John Eisenberg is here. I’ve been white boarding with him since 1986 when I used to sniff around him up in the press box at Memorial Stadium. And how do I get a job at the sun? I want to cover baseball like you. All these years later, he is still covering baseball. And you know what? Man you know, you worked for the ravens and were involved in that. I think you were, you might even have a Super Bowl ring for all I know. And you did all of that, the columnist and the sun and all that you did horse racing books. I know you have other passions, but I think every time I ever think about you or know you, part of knowing you and your son and your family a little bit is that, like, you’re really kind of a baseball first cat. Like, you know what I mean, especially as you get a little, you know, this side of 60 as you are, baseball still speaks to you in some way. Does that? It’s drawing you and and the Orioles being good again, is really, I think, gotten a little bit of fire under your flame, a little bit it would, it would be different if they were still losing 110 games, and Angelos was
John Eisenberg 13:50
in his prime. Absolutely, I will fully, fully admit that publicly, I’m not sure I’d be doing this if that were the case, if the rebuild was going on with no end in sight, there’s definitely an appetite for the Orioles now, more than there was. And especially, new ownership is great. I think it just sort of cleanses everything. It just changes people’s perspectives on it. If anyone was on the fence, you know, so and I like that, yeah, it’s great. There’s nothing better than having, you know, young players, promising players, yeah, they haven’t delivered in the playoffs yet, but they, you know, it’s, it’s far more interesting than it was and promising. So, you know now, the the issue is they, they have to get good at being good, is what the oils have to do now, which is a whole nother challenge from being really bad for a long time now. They have to be got new ownership. They have to be good. Have to learn how to be good at this. And so there’s a learning curve there, too, and I think we’re watching it so, but it does make for a lot more fun. And so that is why I’m doing this. And you’re correct. I mean, somewhere deep inside. Right? I don’t know that I was a baseball first guy. I mean, I loved it all the way along. But, you know, I got here in 1984 the Colts were gone. There was no football team in town. And every day when I rolled out of bed, especially when I got a column at the sun, it was like, you know, what could I possibly write about that would attract more eyeballs other than something about the Orioles, as bad as they were, and it’s hard to take people back to that era when there was only one team in town, but, you know, that’s sort of where I was for a long time, and it put something inside me, you know, it was a lot of fun. It was great. It was just and it wasn’t the best years for the Orioles, but being around them and being at Memorial Stadium and traveling with the team a fair amount, you know, I made good friends, wrote some interesting stuff, and definitely said something inside me, those were fun years when there was nothing else going on here. And I think I reflexively go back to it now and then, and it’s just fun for me to write,
Nestor Aparicio 16:01
you know, as I can see your Raven credential hanging on the wall behind you, I can literally see it the football thing. And it’s so hard for young people here, especially the flippant jerks on the internet. You know, the under the age of 40. No offense, kids. But there is a difference in that period of time where I was in the building with you. You were grown up. I was a kid. 80 680-788-8990, good baseball, awful baseball, terrible baseball. Camden Yards, fear of losing the baseball team. Guy from DC owned, you know, crazy owners with Eli Jacobs, all, all of things that happened, and Fred Lynn and Don Ossie and Lee Lacy, and just, you know, Owen 21 bill Ripken with the bat, just everything that happened to get Camden Yards built, even in that moment when Camden Yards was built and the city got vibrant again, around baseball and Cal Ripken and this, and before Angelo’s bought it, in that period of time, was there ever a minute, a minute where you believe that Baltimore is going to get a football team again?
John Eisenberg 17:08
Boy, I’m See, I really lived that. I mean that whole ups and downs and yeah, there were minutes I was in. I was in at the meeting in Chicago, Rosemont. Yeah, where Jacksonville and Carolina got the teams involved. I was standing next to Schaefer, standing next to Schaefer, William Donald Schaeffer, who is there hoping for triumph, and with the with the notion, not knowing how the NFL worked, that having the best deal on the table didn’t necessarily matter. The NFL was going to do what it wanted to do. So, yeah, I was there and, you know, wrote a rip job, of course, of the NFL. And I do believe I wrote that day, if I go back and look, you know, okay, you know, we got kneecap, so now we got to go kneecap somebody.
Nestor Aparicio 17:55
Was it build the museum press conference? No,
John Eisenberg 17:58
that was a different one with Paul Tagliabue.
Nestor Aparicio 18:03
This was the day. This was Jacksonville. Got the second team.
John Eisenberg 18:07
Jacksonville. Yeah, got second team. Baltimore was not back. And, you know, you had to think, Okay, well, is this going to happen? That was a day where you felt, and that was, what, three or four, three years before art modell, two years, maybe, or three. It was 93 so, so, yeah, that was a bo
Nestor Aparicio 18:26
haggers with a bottle of champagne, literally ready to it was six, seven o’clock in the afternoon. It was late in the day, and it was like waiting for the plume of smoke and you were there. And, I mean, there was no thought that there was going to be a team here, which is what makes the baseball team. So I think special to people our age, who, you know, don’t just pine away about, you know, Cal and Eddie or whatever in 1983 or even 1992 and three and four and five, and saying, How good could baseball be here? It can be really, really good if it’s well done. And it hasn’t been well done in so long that, and to your point, my point in our lifetime, was only well done for five minutes anyway. You know, when the cake got baked to get Camden Yards together, it never has really been anywhere near that vibrant before or after or since, and it’s hard to imagine that, especially with DC having a team?
John Eisenberg 19:21
Yeah, that was, that was definitely a turning point. Yeah. What was great about those years was, even if the team was bad at oh and 21 even at o 21 it mattered, you know, as a writer, as a writer, you know, and you’re writing stuff. And this is, of course, the glory days of newspapers where, you know, people actually read it. And you know, you if you wrote something, people read it. And if you wrote about baseball, people read it. They cared the team was gone. There was a civic sort of like, God, we lost, you know, we got it. We got to hold on to this. And, you know, it raised some fears, irrational fears, I think, the fear of moving to Washington with ever been at one. Williams were mostly irrational. That’s not that he didn’t consider it. But, you know, I think once he got up here and figured out and saw what, saw this, saw this mentality that he wasn’t going to move the team, but
Nestor Aparicio 20:13
it also saw the mentality that they could get a state house to build and arrest this incredible stadium downtown that Steadman wanted in Port Covington. You know, there was all, I mean, it just was a massive civic debate, everything about the Orioles and making it great and making it hours and hours and civic and hours. And, you know, for all the bankers that got involved, just all the civic leaders that made it feel like a thing worth, and that was worth all of our time and our hearts and our money, yeah, and I know they’re trying to recapture that, and you’re the bird keeper of the flame with the bird tapes. John Eisenberg is here to turn it on radio. But I’m we’re at that point now. We’re like, can it be that again? I don’t know. You know. I mean, there’s a whole new Katie Griggs, Mark fine. Don Kovacs, all these new people coming in, the television network, the streaming, the team’s going to be good, I think, right? And definitely things are
John Eisenberg 21:06
changing. Things are changing in fundamental ways. They’ve already changed, already changed in fundamental ways. So we’ll see what happens. It’s just a lot easier to invest in. And yeah, if it can be, it’s never going to be like that. I mean, you know, the world has changed, and it’s, it’s different. The way people consume things and the way people follow teams, everything has changed. So but you can, you, you know, still draw. I just put up at the bird tapes and interview this week with Joe Fauci, you know, who was Angeles right hand man, and at the beginning of the interview, and I interviewed him because Angelos wouldn’t talk to me for the book, and I didn’t want to put the book out that I wrote without the ownerships point of view, because so many people had ripped him. And so Joe stepped in and did that, and then Angeles did talk to me for the book. It’s like the only time he ever talked to me. But what was interesting about Joe is, right at the beginning of the interview, and this is the summer of 2000 He says, Yeah, we’re gonna draw 3.4 million this year. And I’m like, Whoa. You know, to people, 3.4 million at Camden Yards is a very high threshold. And, you know, I don’t know if we’re getting back there,
Nestor Aparicio 22:13
and none of them were Yankees or Red Sox, right? It’s a that’s the crazy part,
John Eisenberg 22:18
3.4 million. So I know they took them years to get even back to 2 million, but you know, they’re headed in the right direction, and who knows. So you know, if you put a winning team on on the field here, you’ll you’ll have some pretty good crowds.
Nestor Aparicio 22:31
Well, I mean, I know my time with you is relatively short, and I didn’t want to not bring up the Justin Tucker thing, and certainly your time of employment with the Ravens that you’ve always portrayed as being like a great place to work, and you wrote what you wrote, and you were there for when you were there for and you’re happy you’re not there, but you’re happy you were there. Not To paraphrase, but this Tucker thing as it hits the streets, and as I get out doing accelerate events in the morning and cocktail parties and the addies, you know, this week, where I get dressed up, do my hair nice and like all that, and get out and talk to people like you and people in the media, just in a general sense, where are you on the Tucker thing? Because you know that guy. You’ve traveled on airplanes with him for a number of years. Texas thing going on, like all like, you know him. I know him. This thing happens, the Royal farms chicken thing, the whole deal, you’re out of it, as you would say, you’re not reporting on it, but your reporter, and his first inclination was to dirt the reporters, the banner yellow journalism tabloid, like all of this stuff. And meanwhile, I’ve had Julie sharper on who’s done the work that you and I have fed our families with all of our lives, in telling the truth and sourcing the truth and who, what, where, why, when and how. And there have been two press releases on their side. There’s an NFL investigation, which is always it’s own punch line at this point. If the NFL is the one investigating this, it’s from 10 years ago. It’s all really bizarre and how the reporting came together with Justin Fenton, you’re a reporter. I know you’re going to defend reporters, because it’s what we do, but I had Julie on and the story of how they found the six people as reporters on a massage message board, and then the pouring in came on the other end of the 10 women, and there have been other women they’ve identified who don’t want to speak. That was reported by me and Julie on the show this week. I’m there’s a journalism part of this that is after Ray Rice, who the ravens are. The owner runs and hides. They’ve got this reputation for getting guys on the field that are special, that need to be there, even if they punch their wives in elevators and glass elevators on video, and then lie about it and have her lie like that. All really happened. And I know you were there at that point, all of that, and then this Tucker thing that they want to run from. He’s a kicker. Uh, he’s not going to kick anymore here. I’m of that. I am just wondering, and I’m going to be writing a dear Roger Goodell letters soon, just basically saying, what kind of animal house are you sanctioning out there, where Ray Rice happens, where they bully and intimidate career reporters and throw me out of the building, and and then the minute that the Tucker thing happens, they try to dirty up the Baltimore banner and good reporting and journalism, not to mention these women who have serious allegations, serious and concerning allegations. I watch this, and I go back to the romanticism of getting a team, wanting a team, Governor Shay, for all the good things the Ravens have done in this community, including helping you feed your family and me feed my family, I’m glad they’re here again. I’m better with all that, but I do wonder what I don’t support it anymore. John, they threw me out. I bought PS. I mean, my story is well worn. It’s stuff like this that like, if I knew about it and took it to them, they would have just said, Well, that’s we don’t have choir boys here, because that’s what they always said to me when players showed up drunk at my shows, when guys showed up with madams representing them, demanding $2,500 in cash from me inside a restaurant where there clearly was no business transaction take I mean, I had horrible things done to me before they threw me out, and when I took it to them, there wasn’t a grown up around there that could solve my problem or make it better, other than just to throw me out and that I’m going to be writing a letter to Mr. Goodell. But you know, I’m a guy sitting here staring at all my 1971 NFL belt buckles and having spent the life do 27 Super Bowls like all of that, we’ve gone where, you know, I reported truths, uncomfortable truths, so did you about Peter Angelo? We all had to report uncomfortable truths about Peter Angelo, because it was a freaking mess. And people like schmuck and Rosenthal knew stuff they couldn’t report because it was just kind of tawdry, and they were telling me about it. And I, you know, like there’s legal bounds, there’s all of that, but I do wonder what they’re sanctioning out knowings Mills right now, and is there, is there a red line or a button somewhere to say what’s unacceptable, bullying and intimidating. Lifelong reporters around FCC licenses allowing kickers to get away with, you know, whatever, if they knew about it, the punching the running back thing, like just and then people reach to me and tell me other things, community wide, where they are, where the Wembley knee, all of these political things that happen, they’re making a boatload of money, but they’re the accountability part has just dried up, and it’s it makes me sad, because I invested a lot of my life in it.
John Eisenberg 27:58
Yeah, well, I was there. I was in the building for the Ray Rice stuff, which is going on 10 years ago, right, 910, years ago. And I don’t know how, you know, somehow I survived that, working inside the walls there and writing stuff that certainly was not laudatory. You know, writing sort of negatively about their handling of it. This is why they had brought me in. Was Just to comment on what was going on. And, you know, somehow, you know, they let me do that, and which I do applaud them for. Because really, you know, writing opinion in that era about that subject. I should have lost my job, you know, and I was not positive about their handling of it, but yet it made it into print. And, you know, I applaud them for
Nestor Aparicio 28:53
that. See, my wife was fighting for her life when all this went on, so I wasn’t like around right? And all it was used against me by steel when he threw me out that I wasn’t around enough. Well, my wife spent 155 nights in the hospital fighting for life. So when, when the Ray Rice, the ish, hit the fan, literally, a week and a half before her second cancer, like, literally, you know, like she got cancer Week Three Pittsburgh, week she went into the hole and almost died the next eight weeks. So I wasn’t ripping any I wasn’t doing anything other and, you know, that was three months after the press conference with the phone. I didn’t, I wasn’t a part of that. When Bucha, he showed up without socks up on the stage and all pissed off, and, you know, wondering why he was there, look, looked a little bewildered about what he would speak about. And I think it ended everything for the meet with him on that date. That was the end for him. He never was normal again after that. He was traumatized by that. It changed everything about the franchise. But you were around it. I wasn’t, you know, so what? What do you make of it 10 years later?
John Eisenberg 29:55
Well, first off, I would never, you know. I would. Never claim to know Justin Tucker at all, you know. And that is, that is the truth on, you know, someone in someone in the media, even someone in the building, you know, I’ve never had intense one on ones with him. Yeah, I’ve had conversation with him. I’ve been on a plane with him. I don’t know him. And that is the total truth of, you know, what I look at this situation is, I’ve been doing this too long, okay, this is not, this is not fallen athlete number one, okay, in my story, you know, this is an archetype of a story that I have seen before, that I have seen a lot, and so, you know, that’s how, and nothing surprises me. So I don’t know. Justin, I do, you know, I have faith in the reporting. I have faith in the reporting. You are correct to say, you know. And you know, I’m a lifelong reporter. These people that did this work, they’re good at what they do. And you know, they didn’t just pull it out of thin air. And you know, very honestly, Nestor, we’re living in a time, you know, in this country, where it’s easy just to say, I don’t believe anything the media says, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and that’s fine. And you know, if that’s the path you choose to go down, that’s fine. Good for you. Let me tell you, there’s a there’s another path to go down, and that is people who are professionals that have done the work and come up with stuff uncomfortable truths, you know, I believe them, and so, because they wouldn’t just pull it out of thin air. So we’re going to have a situation here where that’s how I feel. It’s going to come to this isn’t going to be debunked. This isn’t going to be oh, this never happened. You know, you can, you can put out press releases and do whatever you want. But you know, it would really surprise me if they just say, Oh, this is just go away. Let’s put a hose to it and wash it out into the street. Never happened. You know, that’s not going to happen. Okay? Well, they all would like that, though, right? Yeah, yeah. But it’s just not going to happen. So the question is, I mean, you know, there’s far too much corroboration, and you know, far too many people. And you know there’s not going to be a rush to judgment. There’s also, you know, from the perspective of his career, you know, I don’t know that there’s any criminal activity. I mean, you know he’s going to he there may be an investigation or a suspension, whatever, he will live to see the other side of this. And so the question becomes, you know, as an athlete, you know, where the Ravens will have to make the decision to that point, they don’t have to investigate anything, they’re going to let the NFL do it. And so, you know, let those findings live. And you
Nestor Aparicio 32:39
know what I would say about that is, if they found anything really, really heinous, they’d hide it. Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s the truth, that’s, that’s the kind of investigation it is. The kind of investigation it is, is that if it led back to Bucha, he knew about it horrible, knew about it to Costa. They all did. They moved massage in house. Everybody knew. Like, if that’s the truth, well, they would never, that will never come out, ever. So that so to say there’s an NFL investigation, we we’ve seen that before. So it’s a, it’s a fraudulent investigation. It’s a, it’s a PR job of an investigation. And I’m with you. If they find anything horrible, they’ll do something horrible to Tucker and but if he can kick 54 yards with the game on the line in Denver, he’ll get a job. He’ll kick again in the league. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, and he’ll never be proven guilty, and to your point, it’ll never be debunked. So they’re all going to have to live with whatever they do. But for me, the ravens, the question is, what are you harp What are you sanctioning out there? That’s going to be my greater question. What kind of organization do you want to be? Because I know the kind of organization you become, yeah,
John Eisenberg 33:49
well, that’s tough stuff. And, you know, go with it and, and, you know, I don’t know, I don’t know where it will go, you know, I do think someone new will be kicking for this team. And you know, that’s That’s it. And I look at, I tend to look at it more. It’s too many years and too many newsrooms. I look at it from the journalists, the you know the journalism, and you know where the story and the reporting that went into it. And, you know what? You know that is sort of that, that is my first sort of priority. And so when I see that, and I see the work went into that, and the people who did the work, you know, I tend to believe it. And so really, that’s where we are is, you know, and, and, as you said, the people online, because I’ve seen a lot of it, of, you know, oh, I don’t believe you know, a word of it, and, and all that well, you know, my attitude on that is, you be You go right ahead. But you know, I don’t know that. In the end, you’re. Gonna like how things turn out. John
Nestor Aparicio 35:02
Eisenberg is here. He is there with the bird tapes. He is the bird keeper. I have teamed you that your delta tau, kind name is bird keeper. So there you go. I’ve just made it official as Dean wormer here. I’ll be writing a letter to the dean wormer, the NFL and the Raj Goodell at some point about this, this Justin Tucker fiasco, scandal, whatever we’re going to call it at this point. But they’re going to play football. They’re going to play baseball opening day in Toronto, John, we’re going to have a little American patriotism probably going on at that point. And then opening day here against the Red Sox, I’m looking forward to a baseball season, and I can’t wait to hear you talk to Mike boddica and Gary renicky, if you can find Lowenstein, you become my new best friend if you get problem
John Eisenberg 35:41
endeavoring. Unfortunately, what I’m hearing is maybe he’s not in the best of health, which may not the worst I am hearing this, I will tell you you are person number about 927, that has said to me, can you get Lowenstein? Because he was not in my first round of bird tapes. I’m really trying to get it. So if it can be done, I will do it, if it can be done at all. So the other
Nestor Aparicio 36:05
thing I need from you, other than Shropshire, is, is Fred Lynn. Fred Lynn is at the top of my bucket list for getting him on my show at some point this year, because he was my, you know, he’s my favorite. He was on my dude so, and I’ve only met him once, but I’m a fanboy of Freddie Lynn, you know, 19 red so I know he is, man, that’s why I got to have him on so I want to talk some, some SoCal with him. All right. John Eisenberg, we talked Dallas, we’ve talked Baltimore, we talk baseball, we talk football and a little bit of politics. Go check his work out. He is bird tapes. You can find him out on social media. Find him out on sub stack, find him out everywhere. Did I get it? All right, yep, yep. Bird tape. Stop sub stack.com All right, and don’t forget, he writes a lot of books too, and they make perfect gifts for the holidays. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
