Skating into May and flying high, the Washington Capitals have some momentum as our Leonard Raskin rides the daily Stanley Cup wave of Game 7 thrills and home ice Game 1 spills as Nestor pimps the puck with our financial insights team captain. It’s been more fun than watching the Orioles this month…
Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ disappointing season, noting their 192 wins and poor pitching performance. Leonard highlighted the Orioles’ 7-0 loss to the Royals, where they gave up seven home runs. They contrasted this with the Baltimore Ravens’ drafting of Mike Green and Justin Tucker, emphasizing the Ravens’ success despite player controversies. Leonard also praised the Washington Capitals’ playoff performance, predicting a potential Stanley Cup run. They concluded with Leonard’s financial advice on insurance and investment, stressing the importance of proper financial planning for achieving the American dream.
Leonard Raskin and Nestor skat… threatening a Stanley Cup run
Tue, May 06, 2025 7:49AM • 26:27
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, pitching, baseball disappointment, Ravens, Mike Green, Justin Tucker, NHL playoffs, Capitals, Stanley Cup, financial success, American dream, life insurance, Baltimore positive, sports management.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Leonard Raskin
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Happy Spring hockey season. We got all sorts of things going on. Leonard Raskin handles money. He is the handler of the American dream here at Baltimore positive. It’s been a been a minute since we got together. But I mean, the caps have moved along. The Orioles pitching still stinks, and Justin Tucker still on the Ravens team, and they’ve drafted Mike Green and and they drafted a kicker. This is such a weird time, like if I were taking calls all day and I had my old life back, which I don’t want that old life back, I sort of like my new life, but this baseball disappointment, and I was at the new Costa since ammonium the other day did the show at Cocos the other day, I’ll around the city. Last couple days, my wife and I’ve been out. We were down. We drank beer with Dave shining at the what’s the with the church, they turned into the the bid the brewery down in so we we, we went to little Donnas and had pierogies over the weekend. That’s how cool we are. So we got out a little bit. But everywhere I went the the Orioles, and it’s at night time and the games on, people are kicking them in the nuts. People are telling me how I’m not going to go back to the games until they get better. Pitching just crazy stuff. They’ve won 192 games. And this is a different kind of disappointment. I
Leonard Raskin 01:23
think, yes, yes, I don’t know what’s going on. Same, same manager. Now, obviously not the same pitchers, same lineup, pretty much when they score, they can’t pitch. When they pitch, they can’t score. A very strange time in Birdland, very disappointing. I would agree it’s I didn’t think Kansas City was that good. They beat the Yankees two out of three. Lose two out of three to the Royals. The scores are obscene. It’s a very weird time in Birdland. Very weird.
Nestor Aparicio 01:59
Well, from my perspective, to look at it and say, we either have a season or we don’t, right? I mean, I’ve owned a radio station, 26 it
Leonard Raskin 02:06
is only a month in what but, but different than football a month in it even
Nestor Aparicio 02:13
more so because it’s really glaring how bad their pitching is, right? That hitting four home runs and still losing by five runs. They did that, they gave up and they
Leonard Raskin 02:23
lost by five runs. They gave up seven home runs in
Nestor Aparicio 02:27
the history of the game. If you had four home runs in a baseball game, you you probably win that baseball game 92 Yeah, at a time, right?
Leonard Raskin 02:35
But if you give up seven, you probably lose every time. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 02:39
no. I mean, that was a Royals record. I talked to Luke about that I’m like
Leonard Raskin 02:43
the Royals, if I’m if I’m remembering correctly what I heard, the Royals had not hit seven home runs in a week yet. This season, they’ve never hit seven in a game in the history of the franchise. Yes, yes, but they hadn’t hit seven in a week. This year, five weeks in, hadn’t hit seven in a week, hit seven
Nestor Aparicio 03:04
on any nights. A lot man like home runs
Leonard Raskin 03:07
and everybody gave him up. Everybody gave him up. Cano gave up two. Morton gave up one. Morton, I would expect to give up one, Cano gave up two. I don’t know whoever else, but they gave up. It seemed like every every time a bat hit the ball, it was in the splash zone, in the bullpen.
Nestor Aparicio 03:27
Figured all that Leonard, you’re a businessman. You handle people’s money for a living. The stadium’s empty. They’re giving away bobble heads. The new owner hasn’t really done much except put himself out in front of it. In some way, the pitching is no good. The pitching is no good. But the part for me, and this is 27 years of owning a radio station here, of how many years we’ve had a February and a march and or an off season, because the Ravens dominate everything until they get eliminated or whatever, right? So, like, it’s not like we have to talk about them in November, December, but come January, February, March. They haven’t really most seasons, most years of Angelos. I mean, the overwhelming majority, there was no season. There was no thought. They could even be 500 they come out of the gate, they stumble, they stink. They always stunk. They were going to stink. You knew they were going to stink in February. This is different. This is like they’re building something. This is
Leonard Raskin 04:20
two years of playoffs. This was expectation year.
Nestor Aparicio 04:23
But not only that, new ownership, Angelos is dead and gone. They have money bags. They have all of these young one one picks, the rebuilding which is over. Tanking supposed to
Leonard Raskin 04:33
be over. The rebuilding supposed to be over. This is supposed to be a winning season. The good news look. The good news is they’re five and a half out. Yes, not good news. No, no. It relatively the way they’re playing. They could be Well, the good news is great that no way the division has grabbed the lead, the the reins and said we’re going to dominate this division. Nobody has. Well, they’re
Nestor Aparicio 04:56
not playing against the division Leonard, they’re playing against the wall. Are. They’re playing against 8889 90 wins, loosely. Two, they can’t this season. Two,
Leonard Raskin 05:08
no, I know that’s what I’m saying this season, it’s already horribly disappointing the fact that they’re not playing like that, I don’t know
Nestor Aparicio 05:16
Well, it’s the individual part of the hitting, so I take on the pitching with Luke. Luke always comes back to they’re not hitting like we knew the pitching was kind of going to be like bad, but we thought the hitting could overcome that on certain nights. Then there’s the defense, then there’s the running the bases, then there’s just the general overall, like you said, Morton gave up a home run. He came into a two run game that was still in the balance with a couple of home runs. Yeah, I you know the Morton thing is going to stand as bad choice as Elias is Waterloo for him, and it’s a bad choice. And this really does go back to Rubenstein, who knows nothing about baseball, literally knows nothing about baseball, but he’s going to have to be the one who’s doing the hiring, I guess, along with Eric Getty or whomever you know, their think the think tank is to find the next baseball man, if there is such a thing. Because they didn’t hire this guy. They didn’t hire any of these people. They came in. He’s got a bobble head before Mike Elias got one, or before Brandon I got one. Maybe Brandon I got one. I’m not sure, his manager, but, but nonetheless, these guys don’t know what they’re doing. They really don’t. And it
Leonard Raskin 06:19
amazes me. It amazes me. You know, you talked earlier for first about hockey season. It It amazes me. The the rapid nature of manager, General Manager, firings in sports really does well. This speaks to Tomlin and and hardball, exactly. That’s what I was gonna say. And Greg Popovich, by the way, throw him in, right? Well, he just, he just retired. He said, Yeah, but there’s reason he’s been there 40 years. Yeah, right, right, right, but, but you look at General Manager, coach, head coach, consistency in in sports, and it is foreign. It is foreign, and
Nestor Aparicio 07:04
whether because the impatience of the fans, then comes the impatience of a bad the owner, right of a bad
Leonard Raskin 07:11
owner. Now we can say whatever we want about the Ravens. They have had consistency. What second longest tenured in the league behind, as you said, Pittsburgh. Now, Pittsburgh is kind of unbelievable, because, let’s face it, they haven’t won a playoff, a playoff game in a long time. Yet they’re, they’re keeping their man and the Ravens the same, and
Nestor Aparicio 07:33
Philadelphia’s changed management like SOX and now won two Super Bowls, right?
Leonard Raskin 07:37
Right? You got to wonder what, what’s the right prescription is, is Brandon Hyde the right guy for the going forward is, is Mike Elias the right guy for going forward. If the Phillies
Nestor Aparicio 07:51
have been really good the last 20 years, what have they had? They had three or four different managers, maybe five different managers, right?
Leonard Raskin 07:56
I just say, and if Rubenstein decides that Elias is his baseball guy, then he’s going to put money behind him and let him make the decisions, which he has said he intends to do. If he does, then I guess it’s up to Elias to decide and make the decisions around what it is he wants to do to make this team better and and like you said, maybe a couple of those choices aren’t so great. I’m not going to blame them in one season. I just think it’s disappointing. I’m one that says, okay, you know, we had a bad season. Let’s let’s figure out what’s going on. Let’s turn the tide. Let’s get back on top next year. I’m not adverse to hanging in there. My goodness, the NHL talk about managers playoffs, head coaches, they flip like a coin. They move like the season. Guys go from one team to another team to another team so fast you can’t keep your head around not only whose names on the Jersey, but who’s behind the bench.
Nestor Aparicio 08:55
The NHL has the least amount of that after Scotty Bowman, right? I mean, right. Fans here wanted that with Barry Trotz in Washington, I think you wanted everybody. I mean, everybody should have wanted that, because correct man should have
Leonard Raskin 09:08
stayed. But three coaches removed, yeah, now they finally got a guy that that can coach, and they got a guy who’s also the general manager, brought in some good talent to let him coach, and the combination takes them into the second round. It’s interesting. You know, of course, I love hockey. You know that I watch it all right now? And what’s really amazing is nobody’s given them a chance the caps. Nobody thinks the caps can win this thing in the east. Everybody’s talking the two, the other series, the Florida, Toronto, the winner, that’s the winner of the East. Like, really, I don’t know about that. And then the cats feel
Nestor Aparicio 09:52
like they have an easier path with Carolina, right?
Leonard Raskin 09:54
Yes, I think it’s a great path of Carolina. And I don’t care who wins the other one, i. Their second best team in the league, for a reason. They play a hard brand of hockey. They score. They got decent defense. They got when Logan Thompson’s hot, a great goaltender, which is what you need in the playoffs. And you look around, my goodness, the last couple days there have been some amazing game sevens. There is nothing finer in sports than game seven in the Stanley Cup. Nothing and holy cow, we had two amazing third period comebacks over the weekend. I don’t know if you saw it, but if not, it was not to be missed. Must watch TV. Minnesota, Minnesota, yeah, Dallas. Sorry. Dallas against Colorado, down two in the third period, and a guy that played his whole career at Colorado that was let go because he was old and slow got traded twice, ended up with Dallas and destroyed them hat trick in the third period and won the game. And then the Jets, the New York Winnipeg Jets, the Winnipeg Jets, the most cool fan base with the white out in the stadium, it’s the greatest thing to watch. We’re down two, down two with two minutes to go, two minutes to go against St Louis, pulled the goalie, scored twice, one with three seconds in the game, and won it in double overtime, double overtime. Game seven, double game seven, double overtime. And Winnipeg wins. Winnipeg wins double overtime after being down two with two minutes to go. Just I
Nestor Aparicio 11:47
appreciate you bringing because, I mean, you know how much I’ve loved hockey all of my life, all of my playoffs are as good as it gets. And, you know, back in the 90s, I would go on and say it was better than sex. I said that for 15 years. I’d say game seven or the best faucet. Watch game seven.
Leonard Raskin 12:03
You know the best and the craziest thing, both teams, jets and St Louis, brand new coaches, both coaches that were fired from other clubs because of a bad season, come in and just ruckus hockey, fabulous hockey
Nestor Aparicio 12:22
never came about the time that I got stuck going to Dallas for a game seven, and I got stuck in the sky over Texas, and the plane went down in San Antonio, and I missed game seven, game the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars crazy in the Western Conference Final. It wasn’t. It was, yes, it was. It was the big game. It was the big game seven, and I wound up at the Alamo in the river walk during a Texas thunderstorm in late May, and I wound up six hours away the folks at United Airlines, and we’ll give them this they offered to put us on a bus from San Antonio, bus us to Dallas six hours. And I’m like, now I’ll fly tomorrow. That’s fine, so, right? I’ll go home see a Don Henley show in Dallas. How about that? Huh? There you go. There you go. That was 24 years ago. Letter, 24 years ago.
Leonard Raskin 13:12
It’s funny. Nestor, the games go on these overtime game sevens go on. They say this is not the longest game in NHL,
Nestor Aparicio 13:19
by the way. I will say this, 25 years ago, I watched that game in the airport in San Antonio, where I had no ghosts being and it was like a terrible game. It’s like a five to one. It wasn’t even so I wasn’t a good game. I missed game seven, double overtime and all of that. But these two
Leonard Raskin 13:35
were, were phenomenal. So now we’re under the second round of the NHL playoff switch is a marathon to win the cup. The hardest, hardest thing to win. Have
Nestor Aparicio 13:47
you ever seen the cup get skated? Were you at what Detroit skated?
Leonard Raskin 13:52
Yes, yes, I’m just the worst swept. Swept. Not only was it horrible, but at the time, there was a gal that worked at the firm who was a Detroit Red Wings lover, hockey town. Yeah, oh, hockey town. We made a bet, and I had to wear a Detroit Red Wings baseball cap the next day.
Nestor Aparicio 14:15
Oh, oh, it was, I thought she was gonna make you wear a Steve eiserman sweater or
Leonard Raskin 14:20
something. I would, you know, I would, I would have paid off. But either way, it was terrible. I’ve
Nestor Aparicio 14:25
seen the cup skated three times. I fourth one. I gave my tickets when the cup got skated in Carolina, when Carolina played Calgary, I was at two of those games. My cousin lives in Raleigh, and his son, he and his son watched the cup get skated. They’re not even hockey fans, but that’s just a
Leonard Raskin 14:43
thing to do regardless. I was hoping, I hate to say it, I was hoping the blues could pull out the win. I was really hoping because the capitals second best record in the league, which would have meant they had home ice all the way through Winnipeg out one. Right
Nestor Aparicio 15:01
out. If you’re in the fine, if you’re in the Stanley Cup Finals, you won’t win a peg in the West.
Leonard Raskin 15:07
The West is wide open. I would love, I hate to say it. I would love to see the caps Edmonton. I’d love to see McDavid on a seven game series against the caps. I think that would be great. They lit him up. They lit him up when
Nestor Aparicio 15:21
they go back to Edmonton with you for that. Because I do it. I do it. I haven’t been to a hockey game since vechkin handed me the cup and say, Good night. That was it. That was the end. So it’s been seven years for me, right? I’ve seen the cup skated three times, not just that night in Vegas. My dearest friends at the time downtown, loved hockey, yeah, and we got a limo with six of us, yep, and we jumped in it for game seven because we knew the cup was going to get scared. Yeah, sure. My ticket broker got his tickets for, like, it was like 202 50 bucks a person to do it, yeah. And we had a limo and we went to the Brendan Byrne Coliseum to see the Anaheim Ducks play game seven against the New Jersey Devils. The Devils won the cup that night. They skate right. It wasn’t a good game, though. It was another one of those, like, three to nothing. Third anti climatic, yeah. And then they skated the cup in a parking lot in New Jersey. And you know, this was back when Claude Lemieux pooping in the cup and back, you know, Howard Stern at all. Do you remember all that? Right?
Leonard Raskin 16:21
Yep, yep, yep, yeah, you
Nestor Aparicio 16:24
know. I hope you, at some point get to see your team skate the cup
Leonard Raskin 16:27
for you. I’m hoping I didn’t go to Vegas. I had tickets for the next game, and they, they took it a game early. It’s too early for you. They wanted the game early. I’ll take it look. I’ll take the win versus coming home and having to win it
Nestor Aparicio 16:42
again. My dad always tells me about the story of him and his neighbor, Danny Moran, who had tickets in 1966 for the World Series, and they at that time, you should line in the post I don’t understand it all, but I’m telling you the story you had to go to the post office to put in for your tickets to have the postmark right, like it wasn’t stand in line at Memorial State. So my dad got tickets and, like, they divvied them up, and somehow my dad wound up with the game four, not the game five. And he’s like, you know, Danny never got to go. It was game five. They wanted four. I was happy. They wanted four. You know, all of that, but it is amazing, like poor Eddie Frank of it, chased the caps longer than you’ve been chasing the caps. Like Eddie frankovic, a lifer, and he flew out to Vegas with me for games. Was it one and two or three? Whatever? Yeah, one and two and then didn’t come back for five, but was ready for seven. The only game he missed was
Leonard Raskin 17:37
five, and then missed the cup. After 40 years of covering the cabs, he missed the cup. Well, you know, going back to that it this is dirty about that’s a funny one. I remember that year game four, at the game, and a couple sitting in the stadium, in the arena, Cap one. I don’t know what it was called back seven years ago, it might have been cap one. What? One, whatever. It doesn’t matter. Bought capitals season tickets for the following year. They were from Vegas, which got them Cup final tickets. So they flew from Vegas for game three and four
Nestor Aparicio 18:22
with sell the tickets on the internet for the rest for the
Leonard Raskin 18:25
next year, but that got them tickets to the finals game three and four from Vegas. That’s Die Hard, right
Nestor Aparicio 18:32
there. But no, that’s just moving money around, right?
Leonard Raskin 18:36
That’s good. That’s good. Good move, because how else are you going to get in the building? That’s a good move. I was, I was appreciative of their effort to to enjoy the game. It was
Nestor Aparicio 18:47
really, you know, and that speaks to and listen, I want to make this your homework, because we’re going to break it off with the Orioles. But this goes back to Rubenstein and the oils, and what their value proposition is, and what the capital’s Value Proposition would be for someone from Las Vegas to buy, this is the oldest scam in the book, right? Buy the playoff tickets now, if you if you get season tickets for next year, the capitals have been running that promotion since my forever. That’s my Gartner, right? Like, absolutely, I Well, I mean the Orioles the value proposition of their giveaway.
Leonard Raskin 19:23
May the Fourth be with you.
Nestor Aparicio 19:24
Yeah, I, I’m really trying to figure out how baseball could get baseball people like Aparicio and Raskin you know, we’re, we’re baseball people. We really are, yeah, and we’re watching it. We’re talking about it. We’re stewed about who their pitchers are and all of that. But like, I don’t see you calling me to go down there two weeks from from Monday, right? I mean, like, that’s a problem for the Orioles and getting people in. And I’m looking at it as a business discussion for the community, for everybody, everybody in your space who’s wealthy, who supports it, or doesn’t, or would, or. Wouldn’t based on how it made him feel, or based on who the players are, based on whether their grandkids like it, in some cases, right? Or your son’s over in Ireland, getting smarter, and you know, if he likes well,
Leonard Raskin 20:11
he wants to go there. He does want to go when he’s home, we’re going to definitely take in a game or two, win or lose. He, he’s watching. He’s paying attention. He likes the birds and whatever’s happening when he’s in town. Next we will take in a game or two. There’s no question. I’m trying to figure
Nestor Aparicio 20:29
out how the baseball team gets the city infected with baseball again. Gotta
Leonard Raskin 20:33
win. You gotta win. You gotta win. And right now, they’re they’re not winning. Look, this is a fair weather town when it comes to the O’s has been for how long, but they gotta win, and this year they’re supposed to win, and they’re not winning. I hate they
Nestor Aparicio 20:49
say that we’re fair weather town. That’s we are. That’s just offensive to me. It is we are, but it’s it comes
Leonard Raskin 20:54
to the Orioles, we are a lot less so from the ravens, but they generally are winning. But
Nestor Aparicio 21:00
two segments this week with Luke and with rasig on drafting Mike Green, Justin Tucker being on the team, zero tolerance, whether it matters, it doesn’t, and they know it doesn’t know that’s, that’s the edge rusher. Oh, that’s the edge rusher. Yeah, sexual allegation, yes, yes, yes, thrown out of Virginia on a zero Yes, I was gonna say because they got drafted in Baltimore under the same zero tolerance policy, yes,
Leonard Raskin 21:25
yes, yes, yes. Well, can you tackle? There you go. Can you kick?
Nestor Aparicio 21:30
And you are the one that funds that big league yes and hundreds of dollars every Sunday yes on tickets to go, and you haven’t spent 20 cents going to a baseball game that that is, I see that with my eyes when the games come on, right? I mean, I see right? And I absolutely as I walk through the city and, and I’ve been, you know, I actually went to that little Donna’s place down in my old stomping grounds on Bank Street, and had dinner. I went to the ministry with Dave China and had some booze. Moved around the town a little bit. I was at Coco’s last week with people and, you know, talking Justin Tucker, talking Orio baseball, talking pitching. Yep, people wants
Leonard Raskin 22:07
way here. I think anybody knows about green yet. I don’t think that’s a big, big topic yet. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 22:14
I don’t know how it can’t be if Justin Tucker’s a topic. Well, it’s either
Leonard Raskin 22:20
they don’t care about has it been as, if you
Nestor Aparicio 22:22
watch the draft, at any point, that kid dropped for a day and a half because of this, and the Ravens were the ones that took him. I didn’t know they talked about it. Well, go ahead, Google it. I don’t want to sell you a will that weekend, but check it out. No, but it doesn’t matter. They could have took Son of Sam to play middle linebacker, and you know, as long as he can tackle, you know what I mean. So that’s everybody. What you do in the
Leonard Raskin 22:49
money? Yep. What do you do? Everything money, make sure that you are properly protected, that your cash flow is intact, that you’re saving money, growing money, efficiently, effectively, that you have financial success, that you’re moving towards your version of the American dream. I’ll wrap up with a sad story and and hopefully there’s a you know silver lining. I got a call from a client of mine over the weekend his one of his best friends, dear best friend’s son, 55 years old, had a medical condition while he was driving, ran off the road, hit a tree and was killed. 55 dude, married children, and you know, I expressed my condolences. Obviously, I know the family, I’ll reach out to them, and then my my brain goes to, did he have appropriate life insurance to protect his family? Because what I see too often, sadly, in that situation, from people that I don’t work with, is Go Fund Me. Comes up after this person passes away, not in this case, I’m not saying this guy, but people that don’t provide for their families properly end up with gofundmes, which is not insurance. And so we make sure people are protected properly, saving, efficiently, investing, properly, understand what they’re doing and achieving their American dream, whether that’s going to a game seven, whether that’s taking the kids to Disney, whether that’s you know, whatever that is for you, buying a home, educating your kids, paying for some college, whatever that looks like. We are here to help you produce that result financially in your life, and we have no investment minimums. We don’t discriminate against who we meet. We have clients from 22 to 92 years of age. We work with people that want help with their money, and we help them with their money. That’s what we’re about.
Nestor Aparicio 24:57
Let her ask it. He is Rasc in a global four. Follow the American dream. You can find him out at the front of Baltimore positive also at Raskin global com, where there’s all sorts of sort of wisdom and stories and blogs and information and ways and resources to better take care of your resources. Speaking of resources, we got national resources coming to town this week. Sovereignty in as the Kentucky Derby winner. Preakness around the corner. I’ll be doing some Preakness coverage next week. Also going to be broadcasting from the Maryland party. We had our Perlow by last week, as well as Jamie Costello at Cocos. Also Senator Cory McRae. Great conversation with him about budgets, Annapolis, Kerwin, where the money’s coming from, where it’s going from. Also had a great chat with John Martin this week about the money that the lottery raises. We’re going to be doing a little lottery raising on Wednesday in the old stomping grounds of White Marsh. We’ll be at the avenue. We’ll be at red brick station on Wednesday afternoon, doing the Maryland crab cake tour. Been a long time since I’ve had a crab cake in White Marsh. Even della roses is gone now. It’s a Jamaican joint, which was delicious. We have the Back to the Future scratch offs to give away on Wednesday, Wednesday in in White Marsh. Come on out and say hello as well. My thanks to Leonard Raskin and all of our sponsors here, including curio wellness, liberty, pure solutions, putting this out on the road this week, and of course, Luke monitoring all things ravens as well as Oriole baseball as they go west coast this weekend. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T, A M, 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stopped talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
