We are still baffled at the direction of the Baltimore Orioles and nothing was more troubling than watching Mike Elias and Craig Albernaz make excuses without accountability (or ownership representation) at a Monday press conference at The Warehouse that their own network, social media and website didn’t air live. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the future of the franchise and the tumultuous offseason ahead for MLB as the rest of baseball watches the postseason.
The discussion assessed the Orioles’ declining trajectory, the lack of substance and accessibility in the end-of-season press conference, and the uncertainty surrounding baseball’s next labor cycle.
Press Conference
- Luke said the event offered little that inspired confidence or demonstrated accountability from Mike Elias.
- Nestor criticized the Orioles for not livestreaming the conference and for appearing disconnected from fans and local media.
Team Direction
- The Orioles’ decline from a 101-win season to consecutive disappointing seasons has eroded confidence in the organization’s current direction.
- The front office cited injuries, draft outcomes, and a small staff; Luke argued those explanations do not adequately address player underperformance or organizational responsibility.
Open Questions
- Will ownership and baseball operations make substantial roster and staffing changes rather than effectively run back the current group?
- When will the labor dispute end, and what will the economic system look like when baseball resumes?
- Can the organization rebuild fan trust through clearer communication and a meaningfully improved on-field product?
- Host the Maryland Crab Cake Tour event at Pizza John’s in Essex on Friday with Kevin Benson from Rosedale Bank. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Broadcast the Orioles end-of-season press conference on the program today. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Complete the planned health screening with GBMC. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Host interviews with John McClane, Jim Wyatt, and Teresa Walker during the week. (@Nestor Aparicio)
End Of Season Press Conference
- Luke attended the Orioles’ downtown press conference; it was not livestreamed and was posted afterward.
- The speakers viewed the messaging as insufficiently introspective, self-aware, or inspiring.
Franchise Decline
- The discussion contrasted the excitement of the 101-win season with the team’s subsequent decline.
- Injuries were acknowledged, but Luke emphasized roster underperformance, weak development, and unresolved organizational issues.
Ownership And Accountability
- Nestor criticized the organization’s distance from fans, media, and the community.
- Both speakers questioned whether ownership is showing sufficient urgency.
Roster And Baseball Operations
- Luke wants the next Orioles team to look substantially different rather than simply run back the current group.
- Potential areas discussed included pitching, player development, roster changes, and the handling of Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish.
Labor Uncertainty
- A possible work stoppage could delay free agency, spring training, and the next season.
- The timing and eventual economic structure of baseball remain unresolved.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively got the Crab Cake Tour out this week in the 28th anniversary and the end of baseball season, but really the beginning of the postseason. Only the end of the season if you’re an Orioles fan. It’s the beginning of fun if you’re sitting around watching baseball here all week. If you’re gambling on it, please do it responsibly. Speaking of that, I’ll give you a free chance. Come on out to see us on Friday. We’re going to be at Pizza Johns in Essex with our newest sponsor from Rosedale Bank. Kevin Benson’s going to be joining us. I’m looking forward to putting on the gear and having some fun. By the way, Zach Dermer from Farnham and Dermer came out last week and gave Luke and I like almost look respectable. I almost look like I should have a bank sponsor at this point. This is like this. I look like too nice to be going to AC/DC tonight. I better let my hair down and shave up. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have the Kiss Face Bird for you on Friday in Essex, as my mom would say, also our friends at GBMC keeping me healthy. I look healthier than than apparently I am, but I’m gonna get blood soon. And I mean, I keep seeing this give the the the little tush thing that they keep doing on the football thing. I’m thinking I probably need to do that thing because I’m getting I’m old and I’m I’m a dude. So I’ll be doing that with GBMC soon, and also of course Farnham and Dermer. It’ll be 85 degrees this weekend. Maritime Magic looks lovely on Friday nights with everybody living classrooms, and Wendy and Curio and everybody that supports that event. Brian Bill, like everybody, Luke Jones is here. We got a Ravens victory to talk about. We’ll continue to talk about that. We got like, who’s gonna play center? Who’s gonna play left tackle? How’s Lamar? How’s Zay? I’m doing Titan stuff this week. Jim Wyatt’s on. John Mcclane’s on. Gosh, I mean, I’m doing rock and roll. I’m doing John Mayer. I’m doing I’m doing AC/DC. I’m and then we’re going to talk about the Orioles, Luke. You started your week on Monday. Not just you didn’t have to fly back from Rio, but you had to meet Jesse Minter at 3o’clock. And and the Orioles did a downtown thing. I knew about it because you told me it’s not like Jennifer or Katie or Don or any of them or Mark Fine are going to send me an email and let me know and say come down and ask our general manager some questions. Season’s over, manager. Like come meet them, come talk to them, see if the owner’s there. You told me when we did three hours of radio Monday morning after Rio that there was a 12:30 press conference. I’m like, cool. You’re going. You went to both of them because they let you in and they don’t let me in, which is effing absurd. And I went looking for it at 12:30. Like I went to Masson. Like literally, I went to Masson, and they were replaying a Rangers Orioles game where Buck Showalter was in the dugout and JJ Hardy hit a single. So just to give you the era, I don’t know what the hell it was. It was in Texas. I don’t know, 2015. And then I went to Mass and Sports. I went to Orioles.com, dude. I went to MLB.com, but I knew, like, it’s the beginning of the playoffs. They don’t really care about an Oriole press conference. You went. I’m thinking, like, it wasn’t on BAL. It wasn’t on 98 Rock. I mean, it’s a press conference. You would want the press to promote it and to broadcast it and to get your message out. So I know everybody missed it. I’ll be running it here today, but dude, clearly I’m going to be salty with this one. And if you read my dear Michaelias, I just I feel like we’re going to move on to football, and I’m definitely going to move on to rock and roll in life. And I just it’s just I don’t know. What do you think?
Luke Jones 3:57
Well, the thing that I realized on Monday morning, a couple hours before I went there, was that was actually the three-year anniversary of the Orioles clinching the AL East. You know, on their way to a 101 win season, first 100 win season of my lifetime, mind you. My
Nestor Aparicio 4:14
wife and I were there that night. I mean, we yeah, it was a big week.
Luke Jones 4:16
It was great. I mean, and I thought back to how exciting that previous calendar year had been. You know, 2022 is when they got good, despite the fact that you know they they still sold at the trade deadline, but they finished off 22 on a high note. 23 was great. First half of 24 was great. You and I have talked about that day at Costas many many times, watching them just completely demolish the Yankees in the Bronx. But I just thought as I was driving to the press conference on Monday late morning, just thought, man, think of how each year since then has gone. Right, they clinch in 2324, They had a really good first half, not so good second half. Right, they were. 38 and 40 from july 1 on, still made the playoffs, got swept. Last year was, you know, obviously a disaster from mid-April through the third week of May, and and the season was over from that point on. They played better after that, but it didn’t matter. And then this year was, you know, didn’t get off to a horrific start, didn’t completely bury themselves, but never played so well for a prolonged stretch that you ever really bought in, right? You never really believed in them, so I just thought. I mean, man, three years ago, everyone was excited about this, and everyone thought there was such a bright future. And if you had told me three years ago, they weren’t
Nestor Aparicio 5:39
even new owners yet, right?
Luke Jones 5:41
Correct, correct. Yes, right. John Angelos
Nestor Aparicio 5:43
is hanging on to the team and popping champagne in the locker room, right? And and the massing cameras are all on him and giving him, you know, I mean, like it was. Oh, oh! By the way, Wes Moore did the who last spoke to me right around then. Did the Pappel wave with John, and they were keeping the team. So at that moment,
Luke Jones 6:05
right,
Nestor Aparicio 6:05
despite it all, there was no nobody knew who David Rubenstein was. Sure, right. Oh,
Luke Jones 6:12
and you and you think about had someone told you that night that the Orioles would have new ownership within a year, you know, at that point it was within what five, six months. I mean, it was very right around the corner, and everything else that would happen on paper, they
Nestor Aparicio 6:29
would spend money.
Luke Jones 6:30
Yeah, they’d spend money. Heck, flat out say they signed Pete Alonso in a couple years, right? You would you would have been palmed and got me
Nestor Aparicio 6:38
three home runs out of him. Right, right.
Luke Jones 6:40
You would have thought, wow, this is this is turning into yeah. I’m not gonna get ahead of myself and say a dynasty, but this feels like
Nestor Aparicio 6:48
they had Bobby Benilla,
Luke Jones 6:49
but but it feels exciting. It feels like something where they’re gonna have a heck of a chance here over the next several years, and for this thing to just decline as rapidly as it has, and to have a press conference on Monday that’s not even streamed live anywhere-they did post it after the fact. But I would also say this: if I’m calling a spade a spade, there was nothing in that press conference that inspired. Is that what you’re telling me? Yeah, I mean nothing in there. And let me be very clear: I didn’t have high expectations about it anyway, right? Most of the time with these press conferences, I mean, it’s not as though Michaelias and and in defense of him, it’s not as though you can lay out and you’re gonna everything you’re gonna do in the off season. Oh, we’re gonna sign this player. Like you can’t do that, obviously. But well, it’s also not
Nestor Aparicio 7:35
very introspective either, right?
Luke Jones 7:38
Well, and that’s and it’s
Nestor Aparicio 7:39
not very self-aware. None of it. I mean, all of it just smacks of these Ivy League, Yali, above the fray, behind the golden rope, driving the $100,000 car, working for the billionaire. Everything’s deflected. You know, they’re gone. They’re just like business is closed now, right? Like the door’s shut, and nobody gets to ask questions, and we rely on their social media now, right? Like literally, like business is closed. Other than they love to sell you sponsorship if they get together. They do they have it? Do they have a schedule next year yet? Do they? They have games yet? They don’t. So they’re like acting like there’s going to be a season.
Luke Jones 8:20
Well, I mean, you can’t act. They have not act like there’s going to be a season, right? I mean, you and I can’t act that way. We’re not going to. We’re not going to pretend. Oh, they’re like that. They’re going to play baseball again at some point. But yeah, who knows when, right? And and who knows what that’s. I’m trying to figure out what
Nestor Aparicio 8:34
their business is after lunchtime on Monday. And if they’re not shutting down song, that they don’t even put their press conference on the television network that we pay for to get their games. It is. It’s just absurd, and and you know, I wrote some really nasty stuff. Please go read it. I there used to be a point where I would do this and read these letters out loud, and I sound like such a prick year after year, and I don’t want to sound that way, especially not wearing a cardigan that’s this good looking in my foreign and derma gear. You know, I almost look like professorial, and I just 35 years into this, 43 years into this for you. You’ve been alive 43 years this week. Happy birthday! It’s it’s your birthday baseball episode. I, we, you know, sadly we don’t get together every night and just talk about the four games that are happening all week, and we just text each other a little bit and give rim shots on Friday when we do a football preview because, like, that’s what we’re gonna do with baseball. And I, dude, I’ve been doing this a long time, man, and I don’t want to geese too much about the first strike or the second strike or any of that stuff, but I have been here through all the wars, and this is so much easier than it was when we didn’t have the Ravens and I got distracted by Joe Smith in 1994. Right, that it was in the news every day that people here really cared about the streak. Angelos milked it. He was such a like. Go read it. Just go read the Peter Principles. Everything that happened during that period of time. It’s all. It’s documented as as John Eisenberg said. You can look it up. But here’s my concern, and this is my old guy concern. This is just going to go away, and we’re all going to turn our eyes to the football team. And look, you and I talk about the football team 12 days a week, and they they should be good. They’re going to be compelling, even if the Terps aren’t, even if wrestling isn’t for you, or my Rush concert’s coming later this month, or whatever distracts you. You know what I mean? Whatever the thing is that you do when you’re not watching baseball, or watching the hot stove, or planning your baseball trip, or planning your trip to Sarasota or Phoenix or whatever you’re going to do, I just feel like they’re into a modern era where this much further along. I’m one of the old guys, and I’m going to just concentrate, just wake me, wake me when you all sort it out. Let me know how much the beer prices are when the tickets go on sale, and I’ll be here to document it as a journalist. But like, I don’t know who’s going to be there to buy it and run back and how pissed off they’re going to be and how much they’re going to muck each other up. You know, during the course of this, how many how many right and left punches that the owners and the players are going to give each other to disrespect the fans, and the first disrespect to the fans is everything I said five minutes ago about them having a press conference that they’ve hid from, and that’s their last act because I don’t think there’s another act, right? I mean, I guess that’s my my point of all of this is now they go into. I don’t know. My wife knows a lot more about bugs and stuff like and bears about hibernating and you know what happens to the crickets when they shut up later this month and just go away for a while. And it’s just like the crickets. Literally, crickets make noise. This this isn’t going to make any noise. This is just going to be, hey, how the Ravens do? How is Zay’s hamstring doing okay? Because it’s going to be real easy to roll to that for you, me, and the guys over at the fan who all think they’re baseball people and whatever. And it’s just going to be something else.
Nestor Aparicio 12:15
And I, I, I don’t know what they’re going to do about that this off season because that’s not a Michaelias problem, or a fourth place problem, or a last place problem, or even for whoever wins the World Series. I just think that keeping them on people’s tongues is should be way more important to them than it is. The fact that you and I are even talking about it this morning is because we’re forcing ourselves to talk. I mean, and maybe we feel like there’s something to talk about, but like they don’t even want to talk about them. I guess is my point.
Luke Jones 12:45
Well, I mean, it for me, it just comes down to what’s it going to look like on the other side. They are going to play baseball again at some point. Like I’m not, I’m not going to like do this thing where like you know the world’s coming to an end, but what does it look like on the other side? I mean, you laid it out ’94 and 95, the difference then was the Orioles were only 11 or 12 years removed from winning their last World Series, so that was still very fresh in the minds of people of folks. I mean, the Ravens
Nestor Aparicio 13:12
season it was a brand new stadium. That’s the other thing. I mean, Kevin Yards was you still had
Luke Jones 13:18
Cal Ripken. I mean, thank goodness for their sake they have Pete Alonso now. They have at least someone who’s coming off of an amazing season, led the AL in home runs, led the AL in RBIs. Right? You have someone right there,
Nestor Aparicio 13:29
dude. Right, exactly.
Luke Jones 13:31
And and who’s someone who, at least in terms of the modern era, I don’t want to compare him to Brooks Robinson, right? But for someone who signed as an outsider, and came in here, he’s bought in. He cares, right? He was the one kind of leading the movement to, for for all the Orioles players to tip their cap after the home finale, right? There’s he gets it in a way that the other guys do not, and I don’t mean that nearly as much as a slight to them, although it could be interpreted that way. The
Nestor Aparicio 13:59
owner didn’t even come out and tip his cap at the press conference on Monday. But the
Luke Jones 14:03
point, but the point is, they they’ve got someone that, but boy, that only goes so far. And we, I mean, what is this going to look like on the other side? I mean, so much of that’s difficult to project because we don’t know what the economic system is going to look like on the other side. There’s going to be some business, right? There’s going to be 40 man roster decisions and things of that nature. They’re going to give Trevor Rogers a qualifying offer at a very at the very least, and you’re going to send a couple of texts, probably. I mean, I don’t know if it’s going to be anything. By the
Nestor Aparicio 14:33
way, terribly,
Luke Jones 14:34
but but but point is, the sport’s not going to shut down till december 1 or somewhere right around there, right? So there’s going to be some business. It’s always quiet during the postseason if you’re a team that’s not playing in the postseason, right? I mean, Major League Baseball frowns upon making too many headlines if you’re a non-playoff team. But man, it there there really is a sense of where does this thing go from here? I even asked Mike Elias during the. Press conference. I I wouldn’t classify it as a softball, but I thought it was an opportunity. I I flat out said to him, you know, given where this thing has been now for the last few years, and you’ve talked the last couple off seasons about being introspective and making changes, I flat out gave him an opportunity. I asked him, what what what have you learned in doing so the last year or two, and what evidence would you point to to justify fans having confidence in this baseball operations department, this current regime, to get this thing back on track? I thought that was a very fair question. To me, that was like a job interview question, right? Like I I I was flat out sense. Sell yourself here, and you know what he had? He had the audacity to mention. I don’t know if audacity is the right word because he didn’t really. He wasn’t like the nerve. Okay, fair enough. We’ll find the right synonym. We heard the latest rapid. Let me hear
Nestor Aparicio 15:57
it, and I’ll tell you. It might be the you know let let him
Luke Jones 16:00
put the synonym. Yeah, he wasn’t. He wasn’t like he wasn’t confrontational in how he said it. I want to be very clear about that. That wasn’t the best way to describe it. Nevertheless confrontation. He’s smarmy. He flat out mentioned the state of the franchise when he got here eight years ago, dude. That was eight
Nestor Aparicio 16:14
years ago. No one cares about that anymore. That was a billion dollars in money ago. A billion years ago. Literally at 100 million a year that they spend on baseball players, it was a billion dollars ago, bro. No one
Luke Jones 16:29
wants to hear those points. No one wants to hear that. No one wants to hear about a billion of our dollars that support this. The number of times that they’ll cite injuries and they’ll say injuries aren’t an excuse, but boy, they like to bring it up as much as they can. And I, we talked about this a lot last year. Injuries were absolutely a massive part about what went what went wrong last year. I’m not as moved to blame this season on injuries. Yeah, they missed Jordan Westberg. Yes, they had some other injuries. There’s no question about that. But I’m sorry. I’m not going to sit here and cry the blues for the Orioles too much over their level of injuries. When you see that the New York Yankees had Aaron Judge for exactly 66 games all season long, and yet they’re still in the playoffs, I can go cite six other playoff teams right now that had very meaningful absences. And yes, barely people could point out and say those are higher payroll teams. Not all of them, though. And my goodness, go back to 2014. The Orioles in 2014, they lost Matt Weiders in May. Manny Machado wasn’t healthy to start the year and got hurt again in August. And Chris Davis was suspended for PEDs early September and didn’t play in the postseason, so you’re going to sit here and say they had trauma. Yeah, they had a lot, and that team was what 96 and 66, I think their record was that year, I believe. So the point is, if if if your plan requires complete health, that’s not a plan, right? We’ve talked about that with the Ravens. Like, look, I mean, next man up, there, there is a threshold, right? And like I said, I, I, I would absolutely say that a big part of their narrative and the failure of last year, absolutely injuries were part of that. I will fully agree with that. I don’t, I’m not as moved by that this year. I’m not. I don’t think they had an extraordinary number of injuries this year. They had some injuries. There’s no question. But every team’s going to have some injuries, and for me, it’s still looking at guys that you had and the underperformance, right? So I I hear that. You know, I he he made mention at at one point during the press conference, where he said that the Orioles are 29th out of 30 teams in in terms of the size of their front office, and I felt like saying, “Well, you’ve been in charge the last eight years. You’re telling me you couldn’t hire a few more people, especially since David Rubenstein and the new ownership group arrived. You split $150 million on a player. Excuse making. I mean, it absolutely is.
Speaker 1 19:05
Insane. These are
Luke Jones 19:06
the things that no one’s inspired hearing that they’re just not. And you can keep saying you’re accountable, you’re accountable, you’re accountable. But what are you going to do about it? Now, in fairness, and this was something that I, you know, when I asked that question of him to to kind of lay it out there, a couple questions earlier he had talked about the pitching. I’ve talked about this a lot. They have made some changes, right? We’ve seen them extend players. I’ve talked about this a lot the last calendar year. Their system has become much more pitching centric than it was before. We’ve seen them draft pitchers. We’ve seen them trade for plenty of pitchers, right? So, I don’t want to sit here and say that Michaelias hasn’t made any adjustments whatsoever. I I think that would be disingenuous to suggest that. That said, is what he’s doing now is that going to is that going to fetch better results over the next three four years? I mean. I’m very skeptical of that, right? Are they going to be able to develop pitching, and and keep one keep these guys healthy, two keep them developing and not have this problem with regression that they’ve had with their position player prospects over the last three four years? So, you know, it’s not as though it’s it’s remained stagnant. You know, it’s not as though they haven’t changed anything. But man, I don’t know how you can’t be skeptical, right? That’s not to say there’s no positives. A few days ago, we I laid out six or seven positives, but I had many more concerns, right? Many more unknowns. And in fairness, again, like Elias isn’t going to be able to sit there at a press conference and just spell out everything he’s going to do to fix things because actions are going to speak louder than words, and and you can’t sit there on September 28th and proclaim players X, Y, and Z that you’re going to sign this winter, right? Again, no. Who knows what kind of off season we’re even going to have? When will we even have a chance to sign players? I mean, free agency might take place in April next year, right? I mean, it might take place in May. It might. We might not. Feels
Nestor Aparicio 21:07
like it’s closer business for a little while to me as a as a fan, as an educated fan, as a former journalist who pays attention and has smart people on every day to talk about this. It just feels like the next signing of a player to help a real player, a major league player conducting real business. That we’re a long way away from that. Yeah, I mean we are after the Super Bowl before that’s going to even be thinking about that. So we’re probably after March Madness. So as I’m thinking this through, you’re right. April is when I’m thinking, like, and I think that’s optimistic. It certainly ain’t Thanksgiving. Well, Thanksgiving’s a long way away. Well, technical terms. I mean, shutting it down for you know 30 days, 60 days, 90 days after the World Series because they’re hoping the World Series. Well, they’re hoping the World Series is in Milwaukee and Tampa, amongst other things, but whatever it is, they’re hoping it’s seven games and exciting and involves two. Well, can’t do two countries. I’m not sure they want small markets. I
Luke Jones 22:07
think the owners want. I think the owners would probably prefer the Dodgers and the Yankees, right? I mean, because if if it is the Rays and the Brewers, then the players could say, “See, mid market teams are in the world. Like you don’t need a salary cap. So no, oh
Nestor Aparicio 22:21
jeez, I didn’t even think about that. But go no, but I think about it more than I do. But you
Luke Jones 22:25
made you made mention of Thanksgiving, if I recall correctly, and I’m I’m doing this off the top of my head, and it speaks to how big of a nerd I am. But I think back to the lockout in the off season of 21, 22, and I think it was a similar timetable, right? You mentioned Thanksgiving. The sport’s not going to be shut down then. I mean, the the CBA expires what december 1, I guess it is. Well, there’s
Nestor Aparicio 22:47
going to be reshuffling. So there will be players. There will be a little bit of activity. Yeah. And
Luke Jones 22:52
the name that comes to mind for me, I can’t remember this. I’m not 100 certain on this, but I’m pretty sure the Orioles actually agreed to terms with Jordan Lyles right before the sport shutdown. Now it wasn’t finalized. They didn’t officially sign it, but they agreed to terms. And then when the you know they they came out on the other side of the lockout, they officially signed him. But the point is, with that, you’re not going to see any big time free agent signing at Thanksgiving this year. I think it’s going to be little moves, right? I think it’s going to be moves where you say whether there’s a salary cap or not, that move isn’t going to really move the needle in terms of whatever the economics are going to look like when we are on the other side of this salary cap or whatever revenue sharing, whatever it is on the other side. So, but yeah, I mean, you kind of just look at this thing, and you know, you can point to younger players. You can point to, you know, Kobe Mayo. We’ve talked about he finished the season on a high note. That was good. I mean, it’s not all bad. It’s not all doom and doom and gloom. But at the same time, there’s not nearly enough for me to feel like this is building to something special anymore. I felt that I three years ago. That’s all you thought was, man, this has a chance to be something really, really special and to last and to sustain for a number of years. And everything that’s happened since then, it’s just it’s gone in the other direction, right? I mean, they didn’t lose 100 games this year, but you know, 79 and and 82. I mean, that’s not what anyone signed up for here. That’s not what Michaelias promised several years back. And you know, another thing that that that he brought up at a few different points during Monday’s press conference that to me really came across as revisionist history in terms of how he was talking about it to the media and, by extension, the fans. He he’s been asked about his draft picks, right? Draft picks that not you know talking about these the top five picks, right? The the the tanking years draft picks, right? And he made a comment that. While it’s true in a vacuum, it it it’s not what anyone wants to hear. You know, he he laid it out and kind of said, if you look at those picks relative to other players taken right around those picks, yeah, don’t judge me so harshly. They’ll close you to C plus. And here’s the thing with that, that’s pretty much what it was. Generally, generally speaking, he’s not wrong about that. However, the whole idea of what you did when you arrived was saying, “Oh, we’re not ready to win yet. We’re not ready to win yet. Listen, it
Nestor Aparicio 25:31
tells me that this is what he tells the owners, and they’re willing to buy this because the owners are watching this too.
Luke Jones 25:38
But it’s just one of those things where you say, “Well, then, if you’re telling me these draft picks aren’t there’s no guarantee, and we all knew there were no guarantees with these guys. Like let’s let’s also act like smart baseball fans and smart baseball people. We understand that. At the same time, doesn’t that really poke holes in the idea that you have to tank? Then because if you’re telling me there’s you know well we got Gunner Henderson.
Nestor Aparicio 26:00
Well, get me five more of them. Oh, you got
Luke Jones 26:02
yeah, you got Gunner Henderson in the second round, right? I mean, like, so that’s where I just look at this thing and say, boy, that sounds like a. Well, this definitely sounds like
Nestor Aparicio 26:11
Costa could eat and say, I got Kyle Hamilton. You know, Isaac can say I got Ed Reed. I, you know, like we we we, if Venka Ywana turns out to be a Hall of Famer. They got Marshall Yonder. Was it Gunner out? And Gunner Henderson out, right? Until
Luke Jones 26:25
the last calendar year, or going back to last year, where he wasn’t as good. Although Gunner still, in a vacuum, still had a very good year last year. You know, it was it wasn’t what it was the year before, but it was still an All Star caliber year. I mean, Mike could point to Gunnar Henderson, but then okay, what’s happened to Gunnar Henderson since then? Well, Mike, you point to
Nestor Aparicio 26:43
101 wins a couple years ago. Called himself a genius, right? Like, but
Luke Jones 26:46
but but the thing with that, I mean, look how much those rosters, those playoff rosters, have turned over. There aren’t a ton of guys left from those teams, and and and that’s why for me, I also kind of just that when he brings up the state of the franchise when he arrived. Yes, we talked about this at length. I’m not. We don’t need to retry this. They had to absolutely build up an analytics department. They opened an academy in Dominican. All the different things they had. How many guys
Nestor Aparicio 27:11
did they win with when we were sitting in Texas a couple years ago? A lot of those Duke guys. That were Dukette guys. I mean, I’m thinking like, keep in mind castle. I’m just let’s go through the.
Luke Jones 27:23
But keep in mind. I mean, I want to before we do that, I do want to note Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rochman were the two best players on the team, right? So so so I want to acknowledge they powered that team. Sure. But that said, and this guy
Nestor Aparicio 27:36
too, Grayson Rodriguez was part of that.
Luke Jones 27:39
Well, Grayson Rodriguez was actually Duquette’s last draft, right? I mean that. So no,
Nestor Aparicio 27:44
I’m just trying to think of the players that were literally on the field at the point that was there. That’s
Luke Jones 27:48
but that’s where I look when when he’s eight years later is still citing the state of the franchise when he arrived, and then you actually look at that team and say there were a number of those guys were already in the system. The point is, say what you want about Dan Duquette and the and the end of the Buck Showalter era, and believe me, that was done. Like it was beyond done. The last year, how horrible they were compared to the fact that they were actually trying to win spoke to that. But the point was, it’s not as though the cupboard was entirely empty for Mike Elias in that way. So that’s where I just find, first of all, I don’t want to hear about eight years ago. Like I just like eight years ago is a lifetime. That’s an eternity in professional sports. I mean, eight years ago, Joe Flacco was still the starting quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, and think how long ago that feels now. So that’s where you where I just hear that, and I’m just like,
Nestor Aparicio 28:38
I can’t.
Luke Jones 28:39
I’m not inspired hearing this. I can’t imagine how fans and someone that forks over 1000s of dollars for a Birdland membership hears that and thinks, “Oh man, I’m really confident in the direction of the franchise right now. So I
Nestor Aparicio 28:51
just keep forgetting. Like we never say you’ve never said that outlet. Somebody that forks over 1000s of dollars for Birdland. I mean, I speak for those people, and I certainly spoke for those people back in 2006 when I did Free the Birds to say, I mean, be on the up and up, be be accountable. Don’t treat us like chumps. I was treated like a chump by the owner. I get treated. I’ve been treated like a chump by the president. I get treated like a chump every time I ask a question, I don’t go down there and rattle their cages and hold free the bird signs up and wear funny hats anymore. I mean, I go down and yell at their pitcher from the third row when Wendy gives me the seats if he’s throwing the ball into Curtis Bay, and I’ve watched it 100 nights in a row, and I just I wrote at length in my dear Michaelias piece, and I could sit and read it out loud about all the stuff and all my little rimshot jokes and all the little quips that Phil Jackman taught me. And you know, I went to the great school of Ken Rosenthal back when he was Ken knows it all. Um, I, I’m. It’s stale to me. You know what I mean? Yeah. It’s like stale. It’s like a bag of potato chips. I just want to throw away, and just say. You know, maybe I like that brand when it was fresh, but maybe I want to go get a new can of something else. This, you know, go go get a new bag or something. I just want to shop somewhere else for a while. And I’m, um, I would say to be a real prick, turn out the lights, and we’ll let you know when. You know, like a bad date. Like I’ll call it. Don’t don’t call us. We’ll call you.
Luke Jones 30:40
Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 30:41
and and I feel like that the way this thing went out, and the way that like the fact. Forget who you’re talking to, forget that I have a radio station that I’m pissed off Angela. Forget for the forget everything. At 1230 on Monday, I was a fan looking for the postseason press conference. I went to their television network that I pay for, and and when I say I, my my wife writes the check, which clears me of realizing that I’m paying for it. But I’m paying for it. It’s an option that I have massing on a television thing that my wife gets because she’s a Verizon employee and we have Verizon internet here, which is fantastic, which allows me to power everything that we do at WNST. So I’m grateful, but I do pay for it, and I I went to look and they played a baseball game on from 12 years ago, and the guy running that network is the same guy that took my press badge with the old family and met me at the door and told me I couldn’t come in in 2006, and they couldn’t get a game on the network at part of the game this year. Jim Palmer has told me that they don’t treat him well, like I go through this again and again and again and again, and all they do when it comes to dealing with me is call me a heretic, that I like I’m making this shit up, like like it’s crazy, and then I go to watch their press conference on the television network that the only the only reason they would have it is because of the Orioles. They have no other property. They have no other entity other than crappy programming at any hour of the day. And
Luke Jones 32:35
oh, and what’s funny? Just to interrupt you for a moment. What’s funny about that is I won’t have Masson again until whenever spring training starts, I I pay it I pay for it seasonally now. That and that’s the difference. I’m trying
Nestor Aparicio 32:46
to get rid of it. I’m going to ask Jen. I
Luke Jones 32:48
mean, I stream it right. So so I just have a streaming subscription. I paid I paid $99 for it, and it expired on some. I guess when the game started when are they going to get a
Nestor Aparicio 32:57
nickel from you again when they decide to play baseball? And that’s the that’s the difference. We’re now customers now. This is Luke and PA and Nestor the guy. That’s the difference
Luke Jones 33:06
now compared to even going back to 10 years ago or 15 years ago, where it was baked in because it was automatic drip satellite and cable, and like there are fewer and fewer people that fit that description anymore. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 33:20
my point is, I went looking for them, and then I went to their website, and it wasn’t there. I went to Masson’s website, where Rockabacho was smiling at me, and it’s nowhere. And where’s Katie Griggs? And where’s David Rubenstein? And where’s Michael Arrighetti? And where’s Mark Fine? And where’s Don Rovac? Except hanging out with Enoch’s kid, like to say I’m disgusted would honestly give it more oxygen than I care to give it. I mean, this is like when I’m yelling at the kid, you know what I mean, and I don’t even want to yell anymore. I’m just, I’m just sort of like, I’m not mad. I’m
Luke Jones 34:06
disappointed.
Nestor Aparicio 34:07
I, I, I’m in stern disgust as my lip quivers for real, and it’s disgusting what my name being Aparicio and what this thing has turned into, and the 66 Orioles that just down the line of all the things that they don’t get right, therefore they get it wrong, and it’s starting with. I want to quote Lenny Moore. Many years ago, Lenny was given a speech, and I think I’ve asked him about this. And if I go and find an old tape, I’m looking for. I found all my old Ernie Accorsi tapes, dude. Don’t make me cry. By the way, they did a big thing in Harrisburg on the television station up there to honor him. Like I can’t even I can’t watch it yet. That and the Neil Peart thing. I I got I got crying problems lately. But Lenny Moore gave a speech. One night at Martin’s West, and I was young, and I didn’t really know Lenny at the time. My Lenny was my dad. My dad loved Lenny. It’s Pat’s, and I got to know what a great, great man Lenny Moore is. And he told the story about growing up. He said something about his dad. This may have been when he lost his son, the Leslie Moore Foundation event, but Lenny gave a speech, and I’ll never forget it. And and you know, Billick would always say to me, sometimes Brian and I would get on the train and go to New York and listen to speeches at these symposiums and stuff. When I was trying to build the company 20 years ago, I think it’s still successful. We’re still here, so I’ll I’ll take it as a successful warning, even if Brian Brian Brian would agree. We had a good time. Brian would always say, you know, we do all this. We get on a train. We get. If you remember one thing from this day, you take with you the rest of your life, and you do 100 of these speeches, then you’re doing okay. Lenny Moore at Ed Block or at one of the Ed Block founded events said that he said I learned early on that it doesn’t cost anything to be nice. It’s absolutely free, and we all can afford that. It doesn’t matter who you are. We can all be nice, and I I just everything about them from the beginning of time began with me with Free the Birds, and I’ve done all the research on this in my heart, my soul, everything I wrote, everything was written about me, everything I remember doing, every picture, every person around me that’s working over at the fan now, or I see sitting next to Ben McDonald at Yankee Stadium in the rain. That everything I ever did to be loud about them was about them being so unkind, unfriendly, unapproachable, unreachable, Unaccountable, unwilling to hear, unwilling to even admit last place that happened in front of everyone, an empty stadium that happens in front of everyone, a death of a young pitcher that happened in front of everyone, the suicide of one of their greatest players that happened in front of everyone, all of it was. We were supposed to just not see it, any of it, and I wasn’t allowed to speak about it, any of it, because they were fascists. And I look at it now, and they’re about to walk out, and it’s about to get real quiet, and I don’t know where it’s going. They might shut down for a year. They might be stupid enough to shut down the World Series. These two billionaires don’t. They have no. So I mean, at least Angelo’s 30 years ago had some association. All, but he took the players’ side for crying out loud. I do. These guys aren’t going to do that. You know. I know that. I know that much. I’ll make. I’ll. Can I bet on that? On that bet thing that you know. I’ll bet that these billionaires aren’t going to side with Pete Alonso beginning in oh 90 days, and I just I know how ugly this gets, Luke. And I’m old enough, and I’ve been through this, and Katie Griggs hasn’t. I’ve been through this, and Don Rovac hasn’t.
Nestor Aparicio 38:12
I’ve been through this, and you know I I just been through this on the air, off the air, back rooms, in rooms, knowing these people, knowing what they talk about, knowing the players that would come out of this, and Jim Poole and Mike Messina. By the way, Mark was on this week, so like, I’ve been talking baseball all my life, and I just I I can’t imagine a more despondent thing than when I ran into Buster Olney, Ken Rosenthal, all of those cats up in Philly eight not 1010 weeks ago now, and none of them had anything good to say about any of where this was going. And now we’re about to get here, except that you and I are going to sit and watch baseball. I mean, the baseball’s going to be good the next couple weeks. I’ll say that. Like playoff baseball’s always fun, but we’re not a part of it. And I don’t know what they’re going to be doing down there. What do they do for work? You know that that would be my question. What are you guys going to really be doing here during this, and and that would be when the cameras go off. I wouldn’t need to ask them on the. I’d like to know what they think they’re. What does Katie Griggs think about a work stoppage, and what does she know about it, and who has she talked to about it? Because like, she could talk to me. I’ve been through a couple of these. I know how this goes in the community, and I know how it went back when baseball mattered. Doesn’t matter right now. People are just going to move on to Penn State or move on to whatever they’re going to move on to.
Luke Jones 39:28
Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to argue with that. For me, when I kind of look at the Orioles, and and again, you know me, I’m going to keep it on the field as much as I can because I still think that that’s really, really important. You can do all these other things, and if your on-field product that, which is what people are paying for, is not something that people want to go and consume and spend a lot of money to consume, then I’m not sure what else you’re going to have in a big picture sense. And that’s going
Nestor Aparicio 39:53
to take spending a lot of money with somebody smart making those decisions. Well,
Luke Jones 39:56
and that’s where I look at this thing and I say, boy, if. If I could really, in a very simplistic way, and this, you know, this is very simple, but if there’s something, my wish for the Orioles from an on-field standpoint is for next year to just look markedly different. I’m done with running it back, and and in fairness, Michaeliah’s traded Adley Rutschman at the trade deadline, right? So it’s not as though they’re they’re standing pat, but for me, I’m in front of it. Is I’d rather for me, I’d rather see more change rather than stay in the course with this group. And I’m I’m not sure exactly what that looks like, right? That doesn’t mean I’m not saying like a tear down and a full scale rebuild, but I’d like to see a reloading. Right, the sport’s not going to shut down till december 1. Grayson Rodriguez was traded on november 19 last year, so you can make some changes to your roster before we get to that point where things will shut down and then everything will be frozen. Right, so for me, I regardless of how long the lockout’s going to last? All the fallout from that. I want to see something that looks different next year, and I get it. They had a different manager this year. They changed coaches, right? And they won a few more games than they did the year before. Nothing meaningful, right? I’m just. I want to see evidence that they’re truly recognizing that this isn’t working, and they need to pivot. And you know whether that means trading Gunner Henderson or trading Jackson Holiday or trading whoever. I want to see evidence that they they fully understand the urgency of this is not going well, right? I mean, and in fairness to them, they did sign Pete Alonso last last winter, and that worked out beautifully, right? I mean, they they deserve credit for that. Whether it was whether it was ownership pushing Elias to do it, or however it came about, it happened and it was a positive. But man, I need to see more of that, and I don’t just necessarily mean handing out a big fat contract to somebody, but I want to see more of recognizing this young core is a bust. I mean, let’s just call it what it is at this point in time. That doesn’t mean all of them are bust. That doesn’t mean that all of them aren’t going to work out, right? I mean, I I still have plenty of hope for Samwell Basayo, right? For as just as one example, but man, I just I I want to see this thing shaken up even more than what we saw at the trade deadline when they did deal Adley Ruchman, right? I I’m not. I guess I guess that’s my way of saying I don’t feel married to any any specific player on this team in the sense of like that, there’s anyone that should be viewed as an untouchable. I mean, you know, Pete Alonzo’s four years left on his deal, right? I mean, that’s probably the closest as you get to that that you get to that. But
Nestor Aparicio 42:50
well, and Boz and Bradish are going to be, you know, I mean, they, you know, they’re your rotation. You know, they’re well, but they’re going to
Luke Jones 42:57
need more than that, right? Are they going to resign Treblinka? We’ve already
Nestor Aparicio 42:59
said there were two and a three, so you better re. Yeah, I mean, in your checkbook, if you’re thinking you’re going to check, right?
Luke Jones 43:05
If Kyle Bradish is going to be my one next year, I want him to force that issue and say, okay, well, we sign this player, whether it’s you know whoever you traded for, you know, you re-signed Rodgers, whatever, but Kyle Bradish needs to be the one that says, “Oh, look at my performance! I’m the number one. Not me planning on that, right? Not me saying he’s going to be the number one. So, I mean, that’s your one-day
Nestor Aparicio 43:30
starter right now, but you like by default, sure. But you’d like to do better. Yeah,
Luke Jones 43:34
exactly, exactly. Because as I said, even if it’s Trevor Rogers, I’d give Trevor Rogers the ball number. That’s not even
Nestor Aparicio 43:39
an insult to Bradish. No, it’s not. I mean, the truth. I’m not saying Bradish is the number five. If you can bring me Corbin Burns back right now, he takes it too.
Luke Jones 43:46
Correct. Right. So.
Nestor Aparicio 43:48
Right. Exactly. So. And that’s what it’s going to take. And you know how I know that’s what it’s going to take because I’m going to watch baseball this week and next week and the week after that. And that’s kind of what it’s going to look like. Right. It really is. Yeah. That’s what it’s going to look for the winning team. That’s what it’s going to look like at the end of all this.
Luke Jones 44:02
Fair enough. Since we did bring up Radish, I did want to note. You know, there are a couple notes from Monday. He’s going to have hernias, sports hernia surgery. So, I mean, that’s something he was dealing with apparently for at least his last few starts, according to the team. Right? Maybe he was dealing with it longer. Who knows? But you hope that might have explained why Radish didn’t just didn’t look himself over the last month that he was pitching. We learned a lot
Nestor Aparicio 44:29
of that. I mean, and Russia never admitted to his injury. Yeah, I mean, Gunnar
Luke Jones 44:33
Henderson, and it sounds and in defense of Gun, because I’ve seen a lot of fans say that oh, he’s using this as an excuse. He was pressed on the issue, and he admitted he’s dealt with a sore wrist for about half the season. Which you know the cynic would say, well, what about the other half of the season, right? Why why were you not good then either? And and I don’t think Gunnar was using as as an excuse, but the reality is all these guys are dealing with
Nestor Aparicio 44:56
Petalonza wasn’t very good the first six eight weeks. All these guys are dealing
Luke Jones 44:59
with something. Right, I mean, it’s a 162-game schedule in the way that okay, it’s not as violent, it’s not as physically crushing as the NFL season can be. There’s a different element to, especially someone like Pete Alonso or Gunner Henderson, where they’re posting up every day. They’re all dealing with something, but but you know, I Casper
Nestor Aparicio 45:20
Wells out last week when we did the show with with Zach Dermer and we were at State Fair, and I was I said to him, we sat down for breakfast. He sat down, and I’m like, “How you doing? How you feeling? They were talking about golfing, and I’m like, “So what’s an old ball player like? What screws you up on a golf course? He’s on my hip. He said, “I was right, you know, right? Because I just dug in, dug in, dug in in one direction, One direction. It’s part of, and it’s sort of like I said, yeah. If you had a shovel and you shovel the same way every day, shovel, shovel, shovel. That’s what hitting is. That’s what golfing is, and that’s why you know your body needs to take a break from that, especially if you’re throwing a frigging baseball. I don’t. I shouldn’t even say that. That should be obvious, right? Yeah, no
Luke Jones 46:00
question. So yeah, but but yeah. So you you kind of look at those things and okay, Gunnar had a sore wrist for half the year. Am I just going to chalk up his bad season to that? No. It it gives me a little bit of hope that he’ll bounce back and be better next year. Sure, but at the same time, it’s a 162 game schedule, right? Guys are going to get dinged up. Got 150 guys
Nestor Aparicio 46:21
playing baseball today in playoff games, and and half of them something really hurts bad, and the other half they got a hangnail and it’s it it stings something something that you and I would say is boo boo, you know they they took a liner off their their ankle and BP, and it just friggin’ hurts, but they’re playing through it, you know. The 200
Luke Jones 46:44
plus players that are going to take part in the Wild Card series have all been in the trainer’s room at some point in the last two weeks. I mean, that’s just reality, especially this time of year. I mean, they’re these guys are in many cases limping to the finish line, right? And now it’s like, okay, need to be revitalized. The second season starting. You know, I’m not
Nestor Aparicio 47:01
around the baseball players much, and I didn’t even go in the locker room in Philadelphia, so I didn’t see any dress undress. They wouldn’t let us in, right? So I didn’t see any of that. But I saw Alonzo after he hit the home runs in New York come out all taped up with his feet all taped, and it just reminded me of Glenn Davis 35 years ago when I was around, or Brady, or Ripken, you know, in and Messina with ice all over his arm, and Ben, same thing, and you know, poor old Rick Sutcliffe, you know, Flanigan smoking heaters, and he’s 42 trying to hang on to get, you know, get get two thirds of an inning and get some left-handers out, and I just remember all of it, and to see it, it’s like a Rocky Balboa thing this time of the year to see Pete Alonso in Game 152 when he’s played every one of them, hit a couple of home runs, meet some fans after the game. It’s very Mickey Mantleish. It’s very like it’s you know to kind of like the these guys are all they make $100 million and all that, but like you and I see them at their absence to make all of them. Yeah, I mean, you know, nobody just feel good for the loop kid when he kicks one through and it happens. Sure, sure. I mean,
Luke Jones 48:06
look, I when I was a younger man and just a fan, right? Just a fan. I use in quotes. I don’t mean that to be disparaging. How many years
Nestor Aparicio 48:15
have you been doing this? I’ve been doing this for
Luke Jones 48:17
what, 1516, years? Because you look young. A little bit, a little bit longer than that. I guess 2009 was when I started. I did training camp for the first time, but you gain such an appreciation. And and I don’t say this to mean that these guys aren’t beyond reproach, that they don’t warrant criticism at times. Of course they do, and I and I’m critical when it when it’s warranted. I don’t shy away from that, but you gain such a respect, even a baseball player, where okay, you’re not you’re not having car crashes every Sunday like an NFL player does, but you gain such a respect for what it actually takes to do that and to do that multiple years and to navigate a six month season and all of that, and you realize, I mean, the number of things that I you’ve I’ve seen in a clubhouse or a locker room, things that were never reported, things that you know weren’t a specific injury, you know, but plenty of guys just being quote hurt rather than injured, and and you just you marvel at what these guys, some of the maintenance that some of these guys have to go through with their training staff, strength coaches, all of that, and the football
Nestor Aparicio 49:22
players,
Luke Jones 49:23
just to get to the next day, or in the case of football, to get to Sunday. Yeah. So, so I say nothing, none of that to be insensitive, but man, when you just look at this team, and and again, I’ll go back to what I said. My my greatest hope for whenever the Orioles resume, whenever spring training starts, whether that’s going to be hopefully March, but most likely probably sometime later than that, you know, best case scenario might be March, might be mid March, late March, whatever it is, or if it’s much later than that, which one of
Nestor Aparicio 49:55
us is going to be the optimist? I mean, for me, I.
Luke Jones 50:00
I’d rather be the optimist because, like, it’s kind of like talking about the grass in in Brazil last week. There’s only so much we can say about it. You know what I mean? Like, it’s one of those things where there’s so much unknown, and there’s not anything I can say or write or do that’s going to have any impact on this fight between billionaires and millionaires, but as someone who cares about the sport, who’s someone who cares about the game of baseball, someone who cares about baseball in Baltimore, and and wants to see it get back on track, you know that that’s I’ll choose to be more optimistic, but doesn’t mean I’m betting my mortgage on it, right? So I’m going
Nestor Aparicio 50:39
to call it down the middle because I’ve been watching this too long to be optimistic right this year. Sure,
Luke Jones 50:44
I mean, I mean, maybe I was around
Nestor Aparicio 50:46
too many cynics in the media, but I don’t think that’s even the case. Like when I see them ideologically dug in, and I see how effed up the sport is, despite the fact that the the Rays and the Brewers are thriving, it’s not fair. Yeah, and I think when you watch college sports. Even the Terps getting waxed when they’re probably always going to get waxed because they’re probably never going to catch up. Because once you get behind, it’s going to be like AI. Once you’re a little behind, you’re going to be screwed. And I, I feel that way with baseball right now with this teetering That every part of every we’ve been talking for an hour, Luke. Every part of this is about how brain dead they are, which begins with the fact that every element of the press conference on Monday tells me that I don’t, I shouldn’t have any confidence in them.
Luke Jones 51:38
Yeah, I shouldn’t.
Nestor Aparicio 51:39
As an educated, Sophisticated baseball, not just observer, professional person that they’ve tried to take my professional badge away to say that what I’m saying now doesn’t bear professional weight when it effing does more so than anyone around there. And I would say this, you know, my concerns for them are real and tragic at this point, given their demeanor on Monday. Like literally, like just I don’t see any sign of life. I mean, the owner’s got a book out praising the general manager. How’s he going to fire him the day after this? He just put the book out,
Luke Jones 52:21
right, right. I guess for me, and I try to step out of my, you know, what I do and think about it more from a fan perspective. I think as a fan, and I’m this isn’t exclusive to the Orioles. I think this is how it is should be anywhere. You want the team to care at least as much as you do, right? And and and in terms of wanting to be great, in terms of wanting to win, in terms of wanting to be successful, in terms of being a brand that you can be proud to wear an Orioles hat or a Ravens hat or a 76 or you know whatever whatever team you want to throw out there, you know. And well, the big
Nestor Aparicio 52:59
word is respect. You want to and for me?
Luke Jones 53:02
Yeah, but for me, is the urgency there to the degree that it should be, considering what’s happened the last three years and going back to what I said, how Monday was the three-year anniversary since winning 101 games. Is that the
Nestor Aparicio 53:16
best you can do to speak and communicate to your fans? And
Luke Jones 53:19
that’s where I just kind of look at it and say, “Hey, look! At the end of the day, what Michaelias does is going to be immensely more important than what he said on Monday or what he didn’t say on Monday. But when you’re in that moment, it sure didn’t feel all that inspiring to me. I’m just going to call a spade a spade on. And you
Nestor Aparicio 53:39
drove down there, and you-you were one of the only ones that witnessed it because they didn’t really show it. They showed the tape of it.
Luke Jones 53:46
And again, again, in fairness, my expectations, generally speaking, aren’t very high for those types of. And my
Nestor Aparicio 53:52
expectations is they would let me in and let me ask a few questions. But I don’t just serve.
Luke Jones 53:57
But I don’t just mean that for the Orioles. I mean that for any team that’s going to be in that spot. Again, it’s not as though you have a crystal ball and say, okay, we’re we’re going to sign this specific there player, this specific player, this specific player. We’re going to trade this guy and this guy. We’re going to do this. We’re going to do that. Right? We know that those details one aren’t even in place yet. Two, they’re not going to reveal those because there’s a strategic element to that. So I get all that. So again, the expectations for these kind of things should be tempered, just in a general sense. But that said, even understanding that standard, I still came away from this. If if I’m a fan, not not terribly inspired, not really wondering.
Nestor Aparicio 54:39
It’s almost like they said we’re going to have a press conference. Let’s hide it and get it over with, and prepare for the storm. Prepare. Well, and
Luke Jones 54:44
and that’s the thing, and that’s where like the hurricanes come. I go back.
Nestor Aparicio 54:47
Let’s get the boards out on. Go
Luke Jones 54:48
back to what I said. How whenever we get to the other side of this thing, whenever we’re talking about spring training, whenever that might be, I said to you, “What I want this to look different. Well. When you have a lockout that’s going to shut down the sport, that complicates any effort to do that. So we’re going to see, right? They can make some moves prior to december 1. I just laid out a couple examples of things that they conceivably could do before then, but we also know that this thing’s going to shut down at least for an extended period of time, you know. The best case scenario might be that a late start for spring training, right? That would probably be the best case scenario. But I just I want this to to look and feel different whenever they’re reconvening for 2027, and I don’t know if that’s going to happen. And that’s where you kind of look at this thing and just not a whole lot of confidence, and certainly the feeling is a complete 180 of where this was three years ago, even with new ownership and signing Pete Alonso and making some changes that they have made here over the last calendar year or so.
Nestor Aparicio 55:56
How’s this thing look? How’s this half zip look? This Farnan and Thurmer G sharp. Yeah, yeah. Well, you got one. You got one. Yours has an L, mine as an M. Yeah, kind of looked. I thought it looked like Mork from Orc for a minute there. He gave me another bowling shirt, so I’m not sure. Zach Carmer joined us last week over at State Fair, underneath of. I thought we were just underneath of Joan Jett and Flea. Turned out we were underneath the David Bowie, and I had touched my 1990 review boo for Bowie flat performance right underneath the ghost of David Bowie. So I’ve been telling some rock and roll stories. It’s our 28th anniversary. All of that is brought to you by our newest sponsor, Rosedale Bank. Never Rosedale Federal. It’s $1 fine every time I do that. We’ll be over at Essex at Peach Johns with Kevin Benson from Rosedale Bank. We’re going to get to know him from Falston. I understand, and so Dundalk and Falsten getting together in Essex to promote Rosedale. So Rosedale Bank coming on. They they’ve been my bank personally and professionally for the business for about six years. It’s a long story that we’re going to make short at Pizza Johns in Essex on Friday when we do the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. Presented by our friends at the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have the Raven scratch-alls with a Kiss face bird. I have re-released number 28 because my kid hasn’t come over to tell me some John Mayer story, so I can properly write number 27. I am Luke. We’re not doing any radio on Wednesday morning, okay? There’s a. Do I need to let should I let my hair out for you? We’re going to see AC/DC in Philly on Tuesday night to honor all of your brother-in-law’s favorite teams. And and you know what? How about a little requiem for the Eagles? They’re done, right? And they stink, right? They’re not done. I mean, they’re
Luke Jones 57:44
not done. But the
Nestor Aparicio 57:45
other night,
Luke Jones 57:45
but they, yeah, they stunk on Monday night. Case Keenum was that was a good story. I don’t know if you saw his post game and talking about his kids getting to watch him playing. That was that was neat. That reminded me a little bit of Flaco a couple years ago with the Browns. Right when he fell
Nestor Aparicio 57:58
out of the tree, kicked our ass. I was in that locker room too, back down in Houston. Speaking of Houston, John McClane’s coming on this week. Talk about them allers, and and also they kicked John Mcclane off of the Hall of Fame committee. I can’t, but I hope the Astros have at least won Game One by the time I get him on because I’m just trying to get McLean in a good mood here. It’s I don’t know if you know Luke, but it’s Allers week here, where the Allers are coming off from Tennessee, and they’re gonna take on the Ravens. So I’m gonna have Mcclain on this week. We’re gonna have some fun with him. I also have Jim Wyatt on from you from Houston. Oh boy, did I did I said Houston? Did I from Tennessee? He’s gonna shoot me for that. And I’m also gonna have Teresa walk around. She’s a legend from the AP. Tell Ginsburg. Ginsburg knows her. She’s the Ginsburg of of Nashville, but she doesn’t eat at the Palm every night like like Ginsburg does. Also, our friends at GBMC trying to. I am. I keep talking about these French fries and gravy, and I’m gonna have it. And by the way, I got to give shout out. You love Pizza Johns, right? Show the hat, Luke. You get hat there, right here,
Luke Jones 59:05
right here.
Nestor Aparicio 59:07
All right, so I snuck into Pizza John’s on Sunday night. I told you this, right? Three plug for Nick Tostoni, for Keith Mills, for Kyle Yeomans. I listened to the post game show. When when the ball went through, I literally walked out, called 410 68777733. They picked up the phone. I give my order. I don’t do any of that online stuff. I mean, if you do it, good for you. But I call them because I like them. I like everybody there. All all the ladies answer the phone. I made my order. My order was small pizza, works half, cheese half, because I have some fresh basil that my wife left, so I’ve been putting that on. And I got a salad. And what else did I get? Oh, I got some rigatoni with some meat sauce. So I care. I’m about to go out of the pizza johns like eight. What time was it? Eight 815, 810. Whatever. You know, it was like that, right? The game had ended. Went over, and Patrick says to me, “Hey, hey, get back in here! You’re going the wrong way. I’m like, “What do you mean? My car’s like, “Come here, man, come here! And he he has a 16 inch giant, bigger than me, not this big, not not like the the Australian rules guy, bigger than that. 16 inch pizza, gigantic. It was piping hot, and it had on it Hawaiian veggie. He’s like, dude, somebody ordered this pizza and they’re not picking it up. They’ve like a canceled order, and I know you like Hawaiian, and I’m like, dude, my wife’s in New Hampshire this week. I’m home alone. Does it look like I need a 16-inch pizza to go with my 12-inch pizza to go with my rigatoni. That’s three meals for me easily, and a salad. And he’s like, “Just take it, just take it, just take. You’ll find some. You’ll get. And I’m thinking to myself, “I’ll call my son. So I dropped it off. So my kid got a free 16-inch. Thank you, Patrick. I just want to give you some love. But I’ll be there hazing all the ladies at the front, Michelle, everybody that refuses to come on the program this week. Thank God that Kevin Benson wants to come on. So we’ll be at Pizza Johns on Friday. There’s my Pizza Johns plug. I still have leftovers. Stop by, Luke. I’ll get you. I have some rigatoni. It’s delicious. Can’t have any salad. I already ate all that. He is Luke. I am Nestor. I swear we’re going to talk football. We’re going to talk a lot of baseball. Casper Wells stopped by last week at State Fair. He joined me with Zach Dermer from Farnham and Dermer. Also joined me with Alan McCallum. We did like an hour of baseball post. Basically, all the crud that Luke and I just talked about, except their points of view on all of it, including some points of view on music as well, which was cool. My dude Richard Abraham’s dropped by, and we talked about camping out for concert tickets 45 years ago, and our friendship, which is part of the 28th anniversary, and what we’re doing around here, and all that’s brought to you by friends at Rosedale Bank. It is my music memory bank. Some of it’s foggy. That’s why I’m getting together with John Allen on Tuesday night. I think when I hear AC/DC in a setting where they lost a football game on Monday night in Philly, where it’s the same sky as Live Aid was that night when Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and Phil Collins screwed up Led Zeppelin songs, I’m just hoping for the best. I want blood. I’ll get it. It’s AC/DC. They’re number 26. Stay with us.
