On the eve of a huge home game for the Ravens against the undefeated Buffalo Bills and giddy with excitement for Game 1 of the MLB playoffs at Camden Yards for the Orioles, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Birds’ playoff rotation, the city of Oakland losing baseball and the Ravens’ readiness for the Bills on both sides of the ball. Big week here in the Charm City. No one does it better…
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pitches, team, play, bullpen, burns, orioles, oakland, stadium, talking, years, win, clinch, game, thursday night, canoe, baltimore, corbin, weekend, big, baseball
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We are. Am 1570 we hope you set a spot on your radio dial when you’re driving around. We’re also out on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and all those cool places. Luke is going to be around all weekend, waiting for a really busy week next week, the Sunday night football match up, we have the Buffalo Bills and the Ravens doing national television, and then, of course, the Orioles playing all weekend, but really in waiting and prepping for, you know, we’ll get some we’ll get some time and some dates over the weekend as these things get settled in. Luke, Jo joins us now. He is Baltimore, Luke. He can be found anywhere the internet travels. He’ll be back and forth from Owings, most of Camden Yards, all of next week, and certainly the ballpark on Sunday night. We’ll get to football in a minute, Luke, let’s stick to baseball and talk about whatever that was on Thursday night against the Yankees, it was not a sweep. Sort of felt like it could have been, really it felt like I called it fall training for baseball this week. It felt like sort of a weird prequel from a pitching matchup that would look like a playoff matchup, two big dogs, Cy Young guys facing off five innings, maybe seven or eight next week, if you had to, if you had to, but an interesting game until it wasn’t interesting anymore, right?
Luke Jones 01:23
Yeah. And I think you saw the Orioles here hedging their bets a little bit in terms of obviously still needing a win, because the Tigers won again on Thursday afternoon to clinch that top wild card spot. Magic numbers won. In that regard, they need one win or the White Sox to beat the Tigers once. So that’s what we’re talking about here, to have the home game, right? Sure, sure. I mean, of course, yeah, we’re talking top wild card Yeah, the top wild card spots. So I think part of this equation. And you and I talked about this and debated this a little bit, and I agree in the direction the Orioles are going now, especially on the heels of Zach Eflin not looking all that good his last time out, five walks, but they’re clearly what they did Thursday night was done with designs of Corbyn burns pitching Tuesday. And some people will say, well, what’s the big thing here? I mean, Tuesday would be regular rest, in terms of four days of rest. If you look at the second half of the season, he’s typically pitched on five days rest. I mean, they have not skipped a fifth starter when they’ve had off days. They’ve taken advantage of that to give Corbin burns and everyone else in the bullpen a fifth day. In fact, you have to go back to, I think, early September. He pitched August 28 at the Dodgers, and then he came back on September 2 against the White Sox, and then in late July into early August, those were the last times that he pitched on just four days of rest. So he’s going to be doing that on Tuesday for game one, whoever they’re playing, whether it’s the Tigers or the Royals at this point in time. So that’s why he was lifted after 69 pitches. Now, I think it’s certainly debatable that could you have left him in for another inning? They clearly weren’t punting completely, because they brought yen your canoe in in the sixth inning. If Cano pitches like Cano, right? I mean, the good version of Cano, then you’re still down one nothing, you’re still in the game. But he struggled. They didn’t score a run until the ninth inning anyway. I mean burns, as dominant as he was, gives up the solo home run to Stanton, so ultimately, they didn’t swing the bats, but the bullpen did not do a good job. So clearly, their opportunity to clinch the top wild card spot and home field on Thursday night was, you know, that hopes for that was, was were dashed, but they got burns in a nice final tune up 69 pitches. They got him out of there early. He looked great. The cutter looks so much better than it’s looked all year. And we’re seeing a more dominant swing and miss version of Corbin burns that, frankly, you’re going to need we’ve talked about this, especially now with without any of the designs of upside from Grayson Rodriguez joining this rotation at some point in time, it’s Corbin burns and Zach effin. And I don’t say that with any disrespect to Dean Kramer and Albert Suarez, because they’re going to have to start games too at some point, if this team pitches or plays deep enough into October. But you know, you need burns and effluent to be the veteran stalwarts, right? You need those guys to be your studs if you’re going to make a deep run. So I understood what they did, that what they were doing there. I don’t really have a problem with it, even though, you know, it was certainly a winnable game when burns left, but again, they didn’t score any runs until the ninth inning, so they were going to need to score at least two to win, even when burns left. And they didn’t do that so but you know, you come away from it a little unnerving to see canoe struggle again. We talked about the fact that he had forearm tightness and had what, eight. Days that he didn’t pitch. Until recently, he pitched for the fifth time in eight days, on Thursday night and walks. You know, the the sinker hasn’t looked as crisp. Gives up three runs. So, you know, that’s something I’m a little concerned about. You know, me, I’m not high on this bullpen. I haven’t been high on this bullpen since the winter, but after
Nestor Aparicio 05:23
seeing a one to nothing game turn into a nine to nothing game kind of quickly, it does conjure up your worst. You know, when I got into a nice little fight earlier in the week about baseball and pitching, and do you believe? And do I believe, and who believes, and are we believing, and who’s buying tickets and who’s going there. Is there really a belief they can win the World Series? I do, but the bullpen better look better than that?
Luke Jones 05:46
Well, yeah, and look again. This isn’t about they can’t do it. But if you’re looking for reasons to feel confident about their ability to do it 30 days with the Orioles bullpen, it certainly needs to include the best version of yen your canoe and for him to look like he’s looked over the last week or so, that’s a little unsettling, because, okay, from the left side, Danny coulombs back, although coulomb can obviously pitch against right handed batters too successfully. You have a better version of Gregory Soto in recent outings than we’ve seen. So that’s good. CNL, Perez is another one, right? I mean, he’s been in the circle of trust for most of the second half. You know, with with kuloman Webb sidelined, it was basically, if you got to the seventh inning with the lead, it was CNL, Perez yen your canoe, Sir Anthony Dominguez, that’s kind of what we were seeing until kuloman and Webb came back. Perez wasn’t good on Thursday nights. So you know you’re going to need this. I mean, as I’ve said, You’re not going to survive if you only have a couple bullpen arms. You can trust you need four or five, maybe six, especially considering the back half of the postseason rotation. I mean, Dean Kramer, would
Nestor Aparicio 06:58
you expect them to baby the bullpen on Tuesday, if burns isn’t going 5872, pitches on looking like Thursday night, he could have gone seven, seven, you know, like, if it’s Tuesday or Wednesday, they won’t be going to canal, right? I mean, and the argument in the bullpen or in the dugout, and I want to pitch, you want to, you know, dude, you’re on four days rest. I you know, I’ll hear all of that in a regular season game, and I’ll also hear the people are like, we haven’t clinched anything yet. Why are you taking him out? You know, I’m not as worried about the weekend. I don’t think Detroit’s going to lose Chicago. Detroit’s going to come in here on a huge winning streak, because they’re probably not going to lose Chicago, but, but Minnesota, I don’t know, they better win this weekend, right? I mean, there’s a little part of that that the fan base is, come on, man, we haven’t clinched anything. But then there’s the other part of, well, if he looks like that on Tuesday, let him pitch. You know, the season’s on the line. I mean, that’s going to be the difference Tuesday is that we’re all going to feel that season is on the line, feeling that you can only feel when the season’s on the line. You know, there’s no test tube for that. I don’t think Right,
Luke Jones 08:06
right? I mean, of course he’s going to pitch longer than 69 pitches, but, I mean, you just said canoes not going to pitch. Well, then, who is going to pitch? I mean, cordon burns not going to sit here and say he’s going to go nine innings
Nestor Aparicio 08:17
inning, I’m saying, but if that matter, comes in the eighth and gives up four. But that’s
Luke Jones 08:20
my point. It’s it’s not about the sixth, seventh or eighth. It’s about whenever he’s pitching. If it’s the one run game you need the best version of yen your canoe, because who do you trust more? I mean, okay, Dominguez, cool, long. That’s what I’m saying. I mean, this bullpen, whatever questions or confidence level you have in it, it must include the right version of yen your canoe. So I’m in agreement with you. And Corbin Burns will unless he gets shelled, unless he’s really struggling, and we see more of the August version of Corbin burns and, heaven forbid, that’s what they see. But it’s baseball. You never know. Yeah, he’s going to go more than 69 pitches. So again on Thursday night. If it were me, I probably would have had him at least start the sixth inning and see if he could get a quick inning. And you pull him after 80 pitches, you know, 85 pitches. I don’t think that would have been that big of a problem, but they decided to go in the direction they did. Brandon Hyde said that they talked about it that was premeditated. It’s not like it was a surprise to burns. I’m guessing Mike Elias and the brain trust and the coaching staff all talked about this going into Thursday night, but, but yeah, there is that little bit of an element of you won the first two games of this series. You still had the the home field advantage in the first round to clinch. I mean, they’re still in great shape there. I mean, if you’re going to sit here and say that, suddenly you have no confidence that the Orioles can win one game in Minnesota and and, you know, I think Detroit will probably sweep the White Sox, because the White Sox are the White Sox, right? Although they played for relative to themselves, let’s say, let’s be very clear. About that. They played a little bit better the last few weeks, but the whites two games this month, maybe Exactly. But the Tigers have just, I mean, the Tigers were trailing late that game against Tampa on Thursday afternoon, and they score a couple runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. So it’s just where they are. So yeah, there is a little bit of an element there of you know, did you mess with the Mojo that you slowly but surely was starting to get. But then in in response to that, I would say, Well, why were you beat? Why were you shut out into the knife in again, if the Mojo was so good, right? I mean, Garret Cole shut him down, and the Yankees bullpen behind him shut them down. So ultimately, again, they had to score at least a couple runs. Even when Burns was lifted, they were trailing one nothing, and they didn’t do that. So all I could think about was Garrett Coles, like, he looks great. He’s making all the money, he’s the guy and all that, and now he’s gonna, like, sit around for 10 days, like, literally, right? And, and that’s why he threw 101 pitches rather than 69 and being left lifted after five innings. So,
Nestor Aparicio 10:59
I mean, it’s look, all things being equal, you’d much rather be in the Yankees position, right? But that, but we’ve talked about the next time we see Garrett Cole, fingers crossed, is next Saturday in game one, he’s rested nine days out. 101 pitches through on the side, on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we’re up there and it’s on, like, Donkey Kong, right? Like, literally, that’s what you hope, you hope you see Gerri Cole next weekend, yeah. But
Luke Jones 11:22
keep, I will say this. Keep in mind, Cleveland’s only a game behind the Yankees for that number one spot. And you know, they don’t do receding like the bracket is set the way that it is. So the winner of the Orioles, you’ll notice whoever will play the number one seed. So we assume the Yankees. I’m an I’m in agreement with you, that’s my assumption. But these teams still have a little bit of work. That’s why it’s such an odd time, right? I mean, you know, going back to what the Orioles did Thursday night with with burns, I think if Burns had another day of rest, and you know, was was more into that five days rest that he’s typically gotten in the second half, I’m sure he would have at least thrown 85 or 90 pitches. Now, I’m guessing you would have done that, but since he is coming back a little bit more quickly than he has been accustomed to in the second half and and that’s the right move, because if anything, I’d like to get Zach Eflin a couple days extra rest after, you know, not looking so good himself on Wednesday. But you know, you have to have some confidence here that even without one of your top guys starting over the weekend, you know, I mean, I would think they’re not going to just completely, completely shut it down. I mean, capovich is starting Friday night. We’ll see other than that, but you have to have to have confidence they’re going to win one game, you know, if the Tigers don’t lose. And you know, at that point, then you’ve, you’ve sewn up the top wildcard spot, you’ve sewn up home field advantage, and then you can kind of use the rest of the weekend for whatever. But, and let’s be clear, this is a twins team that they won Thursday, but they’ve been circling the drain. I mean, they’re, they’re three back. They’re all but mathematically out of this thing at this point in time. So, you know, we’ll see. But the Tigers,
Nestor Aparicio 13:12
all of a sudden, they’re they. We were wondering all year, well, the oral is going to make the playoffs. Are going to make the playoffs? And I kept saying, they better win game one. They better win game one. They better get they’re going to get the best picture in the sport. The sport. Yeah,
Luke Jones 13:23
look, I mean, you can keep saying the better win game one thing, but it’s the postseason, right? And look, even if they don’t get the Tigers, go, look at the Kansas City rotation. I mean, Cole Reagan’s is going to be a probably, off the top of my head. I don’t know if he’s gonna be second or third in Cy Young voting, but he’s gonna be up there. I mean, he’s at a heck of a year. They’ve got Lugo. I mean, the Royals have the guy that in a in a world where Aaron judge doesn’t exist, you know, Bobby Witt would be MVP of the American League. He’s been that great. So, you know, I’ve had a few people ask me, would you rather face the Tigers or the Royals? The Tigers are the hotter team, obviously. And they’ve got royals have the weird thing with the storm going on, right? They’re down in Atlanta, right, right? So they have some weirdness going on there, but the Royals have been the better team over the bulk of the season than the Tigers. And you know, you kind of look at their rotation, okay, they don’t have scuba but like I said, Reagan’s and Lugo, I mean, they’ve, they’ve got some good pitching, so whoever they play, this is not gonna be a layup for the Orioles. I mean, like, as much as everyone’s warm and fuzzy about the fact that West birds back, and arias is back, and they got cool on back, and Jacob Webb and mount Castle, you still have to go out there and play and, well, wasn’t
Nestor Aparicio 14:36
I seen Corbin burns? Look like Corbin burns. Corbin burns
Luke Jones 14:39
just look great the last three starts. I mean, this is, this has been the best version of Corbin burns we’ve seen as an Oriole in terms of swing and miss, in addition to getting the results. I mean, we saw him get results, but he hadn’t been the Milwaukee dominant Cy Young version of Corbin burns, and we’re seeing much more of that. I mean, the cutter looks off. Awesome. It’s almost unhittable. It drops off the table, right? And it makes his it makes his other pitches that much better than too when you have a dominant pitch like that, it just makes your other pitches play that much better, because now you’re looking for that more and then whatever else you’re throwing. I mean, even through a sinker at one point, which is a pitch he throws, I don’t know, 10% of the time. I mean, you see a few of them a game, really, he even threw a sinker, you know, kind of working off of what he’s done with the cutter that just looked great. And I forget which hitter it was, but they were clueless on it. So, yeah, I mean, that’s, well,
Nestor Aparicio 15:34
they don’t have to be all be strikes for him to be dominant. They will swing at balls if he’s doing it right. Sure.
Luke Jones 15:39
Sure, exactly. I mean, there’s, you know, there’s, there are throwing balls that are, you know, it’s not a strike out of your hand that that’s not a competitive pitch, but the best pitchers will throw something that starts out looking like a strike on the outside corner, and then before you know it, it’s five, five inches off the plate. And but your
Nestor Aparicio 15:57
best pitch is always, oh, two, not two, one, sure, sure, exactly. So,
Luke Jones 16:01
so, yeah, I mean, Thursday night, it was disappointing. And again, I’ll, I’ll hear leaving them in there a little bit longer, but at the same time, they didn’t score any runs. I mean, if they had scored, if they were leading three to one and they pulled him, and then the bullpen gave it up, then, then you’d be even, you know, you’d be angry, right? You you’d say, Wow, they really squandered an opportunity. They had to score some runs, and they didn’t. And obviously Thursday night’s
Nestor Aparicio 16:24
game doesn’t matter in this in, you know, Detroit, they pissed themselves all weekend. Oh man, on Tuesday, wherever the game is, whoever you’re playing, you got to win on Tuesday, and you better be at home. I mean, at this point, it better be at home when we talking about Thursday night. But I don’t think that that was in Brandon Hyde’s mind when he was negotiating with with burns in the dugout. I think it was, dude, you’re coming back and pitching in four days in the biggest game of all of our lives around here, and we gotta win Tuesday.
Luke Jones 16:51
Yeah? And again, I the conversation we saw in the dugout that who knows what that was? Yeah, that was no. My point is that wasn’t the first conversation that that topic had come up in terms of, hey, Corbin, you’re coming back on Tuesday. We’re flipping you and elynn, you’re not going to throw 100 pitches on Thursday night. I mean, you’re just not, because we want you to be fresh. We want you to be as sharp as possible. We don’t want you to have we don’t want a scenario where you’re a little slow to bounce back when, when you’re throwing your bullpen in a couple days and and all that. So, so again, I get that element of it. Just would have liked to see the bullpen give the Orioles a chance, and the Orioles offense give them a chance, because again, they did not score until the ninth inning. So you I know the butterfly effect changes everything in terms of one event in a game, but they were still trailing one nothing, even if the bullpen doesn’t do what it what it does. So, you know, I think again, for me, the biggest concern coming out of Thursday night was seeing canoe not look sharp once again. Is the forearm bothering him? Who knows? But he was in such a role, you know, in such a groove. He was on such a role in August, into the beginning of September. I mean, best we’d seen him look all year, and we’ve talked about this, he was kind of up and down in the first half. But, you know, he started to issue a few more walks than you’d like again, which he had kind of eliminated that and, you know, just not looking quite as sharp. So you’re hoping, over the next four or five days, I don’t know if we’ll see him pitch at all, but whatever you want to do, you want to do you want to try to get him right. Because any any semblance of a deep October run for this team, they need a strong bullpen. And to me, I mean yen, your canoe has to be a big part of that. I I struggle to see where they’re going to get enough innings from right handed pitching, if canoes not. You know, right at the top of the list with Dominguez, in terms of getting that done for them.
Nestor Aparicio 18:43
Dominguez will be in the back of the list because he’ll be the last choice, not the sixth inning choice. Luke Jones, a series Baltimore, Luca Phil and Facebook playoff games and knockout games. This thing gets the next Thursday. Who knows how it’s going to go? The storms down Atlanta. Weird things are going on. Luke will be not only monitoring the Orioles all weekend, but also down at the football stadium on Sunday night, anything on the ravens, just the offensive line. I mean, we’ve done long segments, Vic Carucci of talking about the bills, where, you know, we’ve written about our ball this week, we’ve written about the offense this week, and Lamar and their role, and where all this is the offensive line again, and injuries and Linder bomb and Voorhees and and Rosengarten and what the rotation will look like. It feels like they they liked what they saw against the Cowboys to some degree, because there wasn’t a lot of substitution going on. And now we find out that Voorhees, as you pointed out earlier in a week, might not be able to get the post on Sunday night. Yeah. I mean,
Luke Jones 19:39
on Thursday, linderbaum came back. He was limited. But Tyler linderbaum, if he’s on the practice field, he’s going to play. I mean, he’s he’s kind of graduated to a Marshall yonda type guy, where it’s like, even if he misses some time, if he’s logging a limited practice or two, he’s going to play. So I don’t have too much concern about you want him under center. If there’s anything, of course, that changes everything. McCary would be the backup, though, right? Yeah, yeah, he’s
Nestor Aparicio 20:03
gonna play.
Luke Jones 20:04
But Right, exactly. I mean, McCary, you could see McCarey at left guard, because I think Voorhees, you know, the ankle, which, you know, I went back and watched it. It was on the very last drive. It was that first down on the last drive. What? Two plays before Lamar hits a flowers on third down to basically seal it. And I know Lamar is run a couple plays later, officially sealed it and put him in victory formation. But we saw it like his foot Lamar. It was the keeper that Lamar had, and they kind of just clipped each other a little bit. And I think that’s the play it happened on for Voorhees. He was slow to get up. I remember seeing it during the game broadcast, and thought, are they going to blow the whistle? But then he got up, and he made two
Nestor Aparicio 20:48
more plays, three more plays, terrible. Yeah, yeah. I
Luke Jones 20:53
mean, and it wasn’t like he was limping around looking awful or anything like that, but I noticed that I took, like, a mental, you know, a mental note of that at the time, but, you know, still wasn’t practicing as of Thursday. You know, we’ll see. I mean, if he’s out there Friday and is able to log a full practice, that changes things a little bit. But you’re talking about a young guy here, inexperienced starter, not the kind of guy that they’re generally going to have confidence in if he misses the whole practice week. So if he’s out and to me, he’s the one that’s in the most danger at this point in time. And, you know, I don’t think they’re going to rule them out. They’ll probably list them questionable, but it’ll be a legit, questionable, um, you know, it could be mysterious. We
Nestor Aparicio 21:31
haven’t had a really big injury report, like, in, in real terms for the team, the team’s been pretty healthy the first month. Like, we haven’t, we haven’t spent time talking, is this guy gonna play, or is that guy gonna play? It’s been Fingers crossed. They they’ve managed to keep their bodies on the field.
Luke Jones 21:49
They have and everyone listening right now is hating you for for bringing that up because you just jinxed it. But now, I mean, it’s, I don’t believe that Jinx that’s been one element of this that has been it’s one, one element of this that has been fortunate for them, and you hope that continues. But you know, could we see shuffling? You know, I don’t know if it’ll be McCarry at left guard, but it certainly could be. And if that’s the case, then rose and gardens at right tackle, Ben Cleveland still your backup guard. If anything happens to linderbomb, presumably McCary goes in, that might also, if Voorhees is out, that could also lead this Nick Samak being active. So you would have another backup option at center under that circumstance.
Nestor Aparicio 22:29
Here’s the name we have, interesting because Nick Samak, yeah, well,
Luke Jones 22:33
I mean, he’s a seventh round rookie. I mean, you know, he’s going to be a healthy scratch every week if everyone else is, you know, healthy. I mean, that’s just kind of what you expect out of a seventh round rookie. But I think it’s going to be interesting because, you know, one thing we talked about in passing, and I’ll just leave you with this, though, because it’s pertains to the offensive line. You look at how the Ravens approached the Dallas game, and it was just very much go out there and Maul them. It’s an undersized group buffalo. It’s interesting, because they have a really talented defensive line, but you kind of look at the state of their linebackers and their safeties, you know, they’re undersized. They’ve got some new starters there. They’ve had some injuries with Milano and Bernard at the linebacker level. So I don’t think the game plan is necessarily just have Derek Henry run it 25 times again. I’m not suggesting that, but they’re certainly going to plan to try to run as much as they can. And I think what you’re also going to see is them try to exploit the middle of the field. I feel like this could be an awakening game for Mark Andrews and Isaiah, likely over the middle of the field, because I think they’re going to try to test those linebackers and those safeties, in a way that Buffalo’s first three opponents really didn’t do that nearly as much for whatever reason. So it’ll be interesting to see that. It’s gonna be interesting to see how the offensive line fares. I’d be remiss if I know I completely whiffed on this the other day, I was talking about Buffalo’s offensive line. I didn’t even mention von Miller’s looking like Von Miller again all of a sudden, you know, after coming back from the injury last year and just not looking right, not looking like the guy that was Defensive Player of the Year, candidate perennially. So he looks better. So that’s another test for Roger Rosengarten, if he’s lining up at right tackle. So you
Nestor Aparicio 24:18
know, we’ll see Roger Rosengarten was in middle school watching Von Miller when we’re when with Super Bowls,
Luke Jones 24:24
right? He was, he was exactly. So it’s going to be a big test for him, if, and even if, McCary stays at right tackle. It’s a massive test for Patrick McCarry. So it’s not something exclusive to the rookie. So step in the right direction last week with the O line. But hey, we talk about it all the times and all the time in terms of results. It’s a week to week League. So anytime you’re feeling good about something, okay, here’s the next challenge, and this is a good buffalo front and it’s gonna be interesting from Buffalo’s perspective. They love to stay in nickel. They they generally have six guys in the box, and they they rely on their nickel or one of their safeties to come up and run some. Important, and they do a good job for that, considering that they play with lighter boxes typically, but that’s a different story when you’re talking about doing that against the Ravens. So I think that’s a match up there that is going to be so pivotal, either side, you know, whoever can really kind of exploit that match up. Or maybe we do see buffalo play a little more bass than normal, but that’s typically not the way they like to play. So it’s going to be fascinating, but I’m looking forward to this matchup. We talked about this at length the other day, but it really is a two kindred spirit, so to speak, in terms of two AFC teams, two teams with great quarterbacks, two teams that have had all kinds of regular season success over the last five or six years, and two teams that are, yes, still trying to get by the Kansas City Chiefs in January. So it’s gonna be a big match up, and the Ravens are the more desperate team. So we’ll see if that ends up being a factor in who ultimately prevails Sunday night.
Nestor Aparicio 25:54
He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore. Luke, um, he had nothing to do with the athletics leaving Oakland. I didn’t even give you anything you want to say about that, because once it’s all over with, we’ll play them next. With, we’ll play them next year at Sacramento, or whatever. That ought to be interesting. That was, um, of all the ones that have played out Cleveland, leaving the Colts, leaving the Oilers League. Just go through and see Supersonics. Pick any of these teams that have left baseball teams haven’t left much. I’m 56 I’ve got baseball cards where the Padres were going to be in Washington and the A’s were going to be in Denver. Charlie Finley was going to move the A’s to Denver in the late 70s. So there’s all of these white sox were going to move to St Peter’s, but everybody’s going to move everywhere. The only one who moved was the expos, you know, after the rangers and the senators, and that was almost before my time in 71 I have some of those baseball cards too, with Hondo, Howard, Ted Williams too, the ACE thing for me. I’ve been in that ballpark a million times for football, baseball, like all of that. And that part, I know that part of the world real well. It’s just such a tragedy for the sport and for baseball and for Major League Baseball to allow this stuff in the modern era. And we can go back to Al Davis and you know, everything that goes on with laws and courts and lawyers and leagues and stadia and politicians, municipalities and politicians and all, all that goes into it, that guy’s a piece of trash dude. They never I mean, that team doesn’t even have a home. It’s one thing to move a team and say, we’re going to Oklahoma City. They have a building. It’s one thing for Bob Earth say to say, I’m taking my team to Indianapolis, because they have a brand new stadium, and it’s new and it’s fresh, and they don’t hate me, and I’m going to go there and even a plan here. And so, so how Major League Baseball has allowed this to happen when there is no plan shame. My first shame for you. David Rubenstein, stand up. Stand up for the sports. Somebody should stand up. But nobody stood up for the people in Oakland. The same way. Nobody stood up for the people of Baltimore. Nobody stood up for the people of Cleveland. Nobody stands up for anybody. I get big time sports. They should be managing their business better. And I say this across the board, as a guy who’s banned as Hispanic members banned from attending baseball games in this city after 40 years of doing my work, these people do any shit that they want and people cry and they complete like but they should be self policed to a point. And the same thing for hardball writing me last week and giving me godly strains while he’s locking me out. Police your building, police your people, do the right thing in front of everyone, and everyone will say you’ve done the right thing when you continually do the wrong thing. And you look the other way and see me getting hit with the brass knuckles, and you don’t see it. See the city of Oakland twist for 15 years, and Manford had no role in it. The other owners had no role. I mean, it, it’d be one thing if they had a stadium in Vegas, and it was done, and they were going, I’d say, all right, but this has just been, this is one of the uglier moves of my adulthood, and I’ve been an adult a long time well,
Luke Jones 28:57
and it’s still going to play out in the way that they’re going to be playing in a minor league Stadium in Sacramento. I mean, you know
Nestor Aparicio 29:02
the Expos playing in San Juan for cry, you know what I mean? Yeah.
Luke Jones 29:07
I mean, look, I’m not gonna pretend to be intimate to say I’m intimately familiar with all the details that have played out in Oakland over the last I mean, this has been talked about since the early part of the millennium, right? I mean, but they’ve also lost their basketball team and their foot when Oakland was, yeah, oh, sure. And look, I’m not going to sit here and say that others don’t take some percentage of blame. I certainly don’t have a lot of time for most politicians, if you want my personal opinion for five seconds. But ultimately, this comes back to for ownership, for Major League Baseball, for the other owners. If you really, really want to make something work, you can make it happen now. It might take years. It might take a long time to get that done, but if you really, truly, in your heart of hearts. Want to make something work, you can come up with a solution that will be viable, meaning you’re not, it’s not going to ruin your business. You can. You’re not going to, yeah, for you know, you’re not going to go bankrupt anything like that. But ultimately, ultimately, if you don’t, at the end of the day, if that’s not your objective, if you don’t want to make it work, if you’re truly about just trying to get every last penny that you can get, look, that’s your right, I suppose. But is it the right thing to do? No, does it end up breaking the hearts of a bunch of people who have no blame whatsoever? You know, the Oakland ace fans that actually went out there and had season tickets, even if it was only, you know, 5000 of them on a nightly basis, or whatever it was, it’s just, it’s sad. And I just, you know, look, there are always, there’s always a here in Baltimore, we experience this, right? I mean, losing the Colts, but the Browns coming to Baltimore, the city’s been on both sides of that. Hey, I want to say something else is always someone you left behind
Nestor Aparicio 31:06
with, with my situation and me holding Chad Steele and Greg Bader accountable from here while they allow you in to do your job and not me to do my job, our job. For the people, it’s all born of the fact that the Colts were stolen from us. We had to steal a team. While I was on the radio, I had to go out and say, give, give the stadium people 1000s of dollars for the right for a seat, right, like I did all of that, and still, they hire an executive like Chad Steele who has no ability to do the right thing, no conscience about what is right and wrong, and certainly no conscience about what’s happened to the city. I mean, I’m 1212, months, 12 months out on the governor of the state standing and doing a Papa wave with the creeps kid who’s creepier, who lied to all of them. This all happened 12 months ago, like here in our city, about stadium renovations. It’s $600 million that we just gave to John Angelos that he could then push on and charge Mr. Rubenstein more and say, Hey, I left you $600 million renovation for for the stadium there I’m out. Just pay me to do it. Give me, give me extra, because I I got that deal done for you, like I’ve watched it here, which is one of the reasons having Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun be the only one that has access to David Rubenstein and to these people to write about all the money that’s flushing back and forth, because we would be the team losing our baseball team if John Angelos really wanted to go to Nashville and to press this thing into the point where nobody wanted to come here, and everybody hated him more than his old man, because Nashville be worth 4 billion, not 2 billion. And the idea of this whole, this whole A’s place to get the team to Las Vegas, have it be a shit show, and then sell it for 3 billion, because it’s not worth anything in Oakland, because of the stadium, the same way that art and David came here, got the stadium built, and still went broke and had and had to sell the team, um, but at least Michelle modell and her the grandkids are doing okay, but and John modell, but when you’re talking about heirs and family, this Fisher thing, I followed it from the beginning, because I’ve, I know a lot of people in the Bay Area. I’ve seen them lose the basketball team, the football team all I was there when they lost the football team. I was literally at the press conference at the Biltmore watching Goodell and Mark Davis move the team so and check Del Rio at the pool coaching the team. So I’ve been a part of all of this. I just think in the modern era, this is all the more reason why journalists like me need to be keeping an eye on people like Chad Steele and Steve ad David Rubenstein and the whistler that somebody needs to be holding them accountable. That’s all every day, every minute, to say, what are you doing, and is it right or wrong? And what are you doing with our money? The black wing, you know, no wonder they box me out, because that’s a joke. What they spent the money on moving you into the corner of the press box, into the kitty seats, the Kevin burn press box that I’m banned from, that’s what they did with their money, with our money. So I don’t know what the baseball team’s going to do, but somebody has to hold them accountable, because we’ve had our franchise stolen, because our baseball franchise has been threatened several times, really going to DC before Camden Yards got built. I’m old. I remember all this. So from a journalism standpoint, from an investigation standpoint, from a speaking out loud standpoint, we are the abused city I’ve been. I have my Baltimore cult stuff on the wall. I know what that’s like. I know that feeling. And as Tom Marr wrote on my Facebook, then you grow up and you realize it’s business, okay, I grew up really. I’m not waving pom poms. I’m holding them accountable. And I think the Oakland thing, they’ll be held accountable when they show up in Sacramento and Las Vegas and there is no money. I mean, finding the money is the issue. And the raiders in the and the the gold, the Golden Knights, have found a lot. Money in Las Vegas. You know, I don’t know where the baseball team’s going to find money, but the Orioles are going to go and play there next year and the year after that. So it’ll, it’ll be a continuing conversation for us, but it’s disgraceful. And I just wanted to take five minutes and talk about How disgraceful it was. That’s all.
Luke Jones 35:19
I don’t disagree. And you can talk all you want about wanting to hold accountable, and I, I don’t disagree with that. Ultimately, I mean, people have been talking about this Oakland situation in years. It didn’t stop anything. And that’s what that’s what’s unfortunate about this, because city or teams, sports franchises, hold cities and local governments hostage, state governments hostage. And if you put your foot down and say No, someone else is going to give, give them what they want. I mean, that’s how this plays out. This is how it’s played out for for decades. Now, in these scenarios, it’s sad. That’s the weird thing.
Nestor Aparicio 35:52
He doesn’t even have anything, but they’re, they’re gonna get
Luke Jones 35:55
but they’re gonna it’ll be a better situation than what it’s been with the Coliseum. Now that doesn’t mean it’s going to be it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be lucrative. That doesn’t mean that they’re gonna thrive in Las Vegas, but they’ll get a stadium and, I mean, they’ll it’ll be better than it was in Oakland, but only because they allowed it to deteriorate to the degree that it did. Right? I mean, it’s the same thing with Bob urssay, what he did to the Colts in their latter years, right? I mean, say what you want about what attendance was at the end, it’s because he’d completely decimated what was once a proud franchise with lousy decision after lousy decision and holding everyone hostage and all that so but ultimately, it comes down to this, and I’ll leave you with this, and this is my last thought on it. The night before the last game, there was a video clip, members of the grounds crew actually scooping up some of the dirt from the warning track with the shovel. And there were A’s fans, you know, right along the warning track, down the right field line, wanting some dirt from the Coliseum. And these grounds crew members, who may, for all I know may have gotten in trouble for doing it, but I thought that was a really heartwarming but also very sad moment, seeing that where grounds crew members are giving some of these fans a, you know, a small little shovel worth of dirt to take home from the Coliseum. Because you think about, you know what that’s meant. I mean, they won championships there. I mean, the Raiders played there, you know, I think back to being a kid. I mean, the Oakland A’s in the late 80s were, they were the IT team, you know, with Conseco and McGuire and Ricky Henderson coming back and all of that, I mean. And I watched the AFC Championship Game
Nestor Aparicio 37:34
there when they won. I was there when they lost, and I was there when they beat Jimmy Schwartz in the Titans with Rod Woodson and and when Ray Bachman and I sat, we sat in Al Davis’s seats up in Mount Davis at the 20 yard line for the I mean, the best, the best baseball game I ever saw in my life. I’m never talking about this, the best baseball game I ever saw in my life. My wife and I went to the game five of the playoff knockout Zito and Pedro Martinez Twilight. It was the Johnny Damon stretcher game. It was as good a baseball game as I’ve ever seen. There were 30,000 people in a 60,000 seat stadium for a playoff Knockout Game, and I was with Julio and his father was alive. Then we I walked up to the box office and I bought seats, eight rows off at third base, 15 minutes before the game started for a playoff game, I think I spent $18 or $20 or whatever it was, because they begging people. This is 20 years ago now, right? This is 2004 I think that was so, um, yeah, how am I’m getting old, aren’t I? I mean, really, I’m getting really old, yeah? I
Luke Jones 38:39
mean, and what you just said, Look, that’s why I said I’m not putting 100% of it on ownership, because there are lots of challenges there. And there, I’m surely there were politicians along the way who dropped the ball to some degree or another, and you can talk about a fan base. But again, I’ll go back to my central point. If you really, truly in your heart, want to make it work, you’ll find a way to make it work and that, and ultimately, that that’s not what ownership wanted. And they’re going to go to Vegas, well, they’ll go to Sacramento for the next couple years, and eventually they’ll be in Vegas, and they’ll have a new stadium. And, you know, it, it might be, kind of, might feel kind of like what the Chargers are in LA, which is a team that doesn’t feel like it has much of a footprint. And maybe they’ll have a little bit more of one now with Jim Harbaugh, but, you know, they’ve, they’re, they’re there profitable, because all these teams are profitable at the end of the day. But is it going to be great? Is it truly going to be something that you can hang your hat on in terms of a legacy and being proud of something I’m guessing, probably not. But hey, if it means they’re, they’re gonna add money to, you know, they’re, they’re gonna add billions to their estate, you know, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, then they’ll say it’s worth it, even if it means you broke the heart of a city that’s left behind. And again, it’s always just sad the fans that are left behind, whether it was five or 10,000 fans. Whatever the Oakland A’s core base was at this point in time, people still cared about that team, and there are people left behind. And it’s always sad. And I’ll always think back to, you know, I was only a baby, so I don’t remember it, but you know, my dad, like so many others in Baltimore, cried that morning, you know, with the Colts leaving in the middle of the night and sobbed and weeped. And, you know, that’s sad now, because those are the people who had nothing to do with everything that goes on with stadium BS and all all the different, you know, fight, you know, back and forth fighting and politicians and owners and all of that. And you know, it’s just, it’s really, really sad, because you’re talking about a team that between the 70s and the late 80s. I mean, quite a legacy in Oakland. That’s lousy
Nestor Aparicio 40:46
ownership. Charlie Finley was the worst owner in baseball in the 70s. So look, man, I’ll cut it off. You got baseball to watch football to watch we got home field the clinch. We got a huge football game on Sunday night, which, 28 years later, no one will ever mention that we stole the Browns team. You know, it does get forgotten, even by me when I write books about it. He is Luke. He is Baltimore, Luke. You can find him anywhere the internet travels this weekend. I’m going to be Acosta on Friday, and then we’re going to be at Pizza John’s two weeks from Friday, and hoping the Orioles are still alive and the Ravens aren’t one in five. Big weekend ahead, by the way, that commanders game might get flexed on our on my birthday weekend. So we that looks like a tougher game in October than we thought it was going to be. I am Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Oakland A’s baseball and Oriole baseball.
