The season isn’t over but it isn’t going well. Luke Jones and Nestor get mad at the Orioles for stinking this badly this far into this new regime.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ poor performance, criticizing their defense and overall play. They highlighted the team’s inconsistency, noting a 74-win pace and recent series losses. Nestor mentioned Alan McCallum’s frustration, labeling the team a “joke.” They compared the Orioles’ defensive skills to historical standards, noting few solid defenders. Luke pointed out the team’s sub-30,000 attendance over the weekend, despite giveaways and a local rivalry. They concluded that the team’s issues extend beyond baseball, into ownership and business management.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Finalize and execute the updated Crab Cake Tour schedule for July and August, including confirmed stops at Coco’s, Costas and Timonium, Dundalk, and Pizza John’s later in the month.
Orioles’ Poor Performance and Fan Frustration
- Nestor Aparicio discusses the Orioles’ poor performance, describing them as a “joke” and criticizing their defense.
- Luke Jones agrees, highlighting the team’s consistent mistakes and the impact of poor defense on game outcomes.
- Nestor mentions Alan McCallum’s in-game text calling the team a joke, emphasizing the glaring issues with defense.
- Luke points out that even though the team has some good defensive moments, they are often outweighed by mistakes.
Defensive Issues and Historical Context
- Nestor and Luke discuss the historical importance of defense in baseball, referencing Earl Weaver’s philosophy.
- Nestor mentions the grading system of defense in the past, comparing current players to historical standards.
- Luke highlights the lack of solid defensive players on the current roster, using examples like Taylor Ward and Kobe Mayo.
- Nestor emphasizes the need for fundamental catching skills, contrasting modern baseball with past strategies.
Team’s Talent and Managerial Decisions
- Nestor and Luke discuss the team’s talent, noting that they should not be performing as poorly as they are.
- Luke mentions Mike Elias’s recent comments about the team’s potential to play better, questioning the basis for his confidence.
- Nestor expresses frustration with the team’s management, including the hiring of Craig Albernaz and the handling of player development.
- Luke defends Elias slightly, acknowledging the challenges of managing a team with inconsistent performance.
Ownership and Business Strategy
- Nestor criticizes the ownership, describing them as out of touch and failing to address the team’s issues.
- Luke points out the low attendance at recent games, suggesting it reflects a lack of fan enthusiasm.
- Nestor mentions the team’s poor brand and reputation, comparing it to a bad restaurant experience.
- Luke discusses the challenges of running a business with wealthy owners who are tone-deaf to fan frustrations.
Future Outlook and Fan Disengagement
- Nestor and Luke discuss the team’s future prospects, expressing doubt that the current management can turn things around.
- Luke highlights the team’s poor performance in recent months, noting their inability to win series consistently.
- Nestor mentions the team’s lack of excitement and the impact on fan engagement, including the decision to unplug from MASN.
- Luke concludes by emphasizing the need for significant changes in both management and player performance to improve the team’s fortunes.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore Positive Positively getting new the Fourth of July week. Happy 250 to America. I was in Washington, DC, saluting the Orange Leader myself in front of the Capitol Building that got raided five years ago over the weekend. So, please, if you went to the Heritage Fair, thank you for supporting my homeland of Dundalk, but it is the Fourth of July week. The Orioles are home for a couple days, and we shall begin our own red, white, and blue and orange proceedings right now. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. We got the crab cake tour, getting back out on the road after the fourth. We’re gonna have a whole fresh schedule into July and August. I already know where we’re going to Coco’s. We’re definitely going to Costa’s. We’re going to do Costas and Timonium this time. We’re going to go back to Dundalk and football season. We’ll be at Pizza John’s later in the month. I do have that date, so all brought to you by GBMC and our partners at Farnham and Dermer. And we had Zach on over the weekend. We were at Green Mount Station last week. I would encourage all of you to check that out at Baltimore Positive, or you’ll hear it here at AM 1570 during this truncated holiday week, Orioles played the Nationals over the weekend. I was with Sammy Hagar and the Ghost of Neil Diamond, and there was all sorts of things going on over the weekend. Luke was at the ballpark most of the weekend, and a happy Fourth of July week to you, Lucas. I know you’re heading for vacation soon, and next pizza, and Wildwood, and you’ll come back with, you know, suntan lotion on your nose, and all that stuff, but I don’t know that this baseball team’s going, man, I don’t know, we’re going to have meaningful conversations about them in August, and you will then say to me, well, American League, they’re only three back, five back, four back, you know, whatever, it would be a weekend away from doing something, something, something, because it stinks, but Alan McCallum, who you know, and I know, and the listener’s no longer than you know, because Alan’s been my guy since 1995 He sent me a very, very rare in-game text, and Alan is not profane, wow, sometimes, but not very profane, and he sent me a text in the middle of the game, this team is a joke. It’s literally this team is a joke. I’ve known Alan 32 years. I don’t think he’s come up with that before, but I just, the kicking the ball around, dude, it’s so obvious and glaring to my baseball eyes that I started on it on april 1, and I haven’t let go of it. And there was a week or two where they didn’t kick it around where they won a little bit two weeks ago, I don’t know, dude, they just, they don’t care about defense, and that’s why Michael Ice needs to be fired, I mean, they’re just, they’re, they’re bad, they’re a bad defensive club, and we’ve talked about it’s not just the defense, but that’s very glaring, but you play yourself into a close game and then you give it away, you know what I mean. Even if you’re in a close game, you’re going to be the one that gives it away, not the other team.
Luke Jones 2:45
Or you have a situation like you had on Saturday night, where you kick it around early on, and it costs you a couple runs, and then you do have a comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning, but you still like you play the whole game right, and when you make mistakes at the rate that they make mistakes, it catches up to you, and it catches up to you, and it catches up to you, and I’ve said this, I mean, you don’t, you don’t need to have elite defense, but you can’t have a defense that lets down constantly at some of the biggest moments, and it’s not just that, but that’s that’s the part that really feels bad news, bad news bears like, right? I mean, they have other elements of the game where they’re weak, right. We’ve talked about it. I mean, the pitching’s up and down, situational
Nestor Aparicio 3:34
hitting, situational hitting, right? I mean, catching the ball is really fundamental, that that should be teams that couldn’t hit the ball that stunk that won back in the day, not modern era, but defense was always almost Earl Weaver’s game. Any smart, any great manager, it started with I know Belanger’s not going to hit a lick, but he plays shortstop, and that’s going to get us four or five outs in a game that one of them’s gonna get booted, literally. He’s gonna, he’s gonna take five hits away from the other team, so I don’t care if he hits 199 You know what I mean? Like, there was a philosophy about that, but I think once Chick started digging the long ball and the home run, and and launch angle, and you know, just all of those things that went into that, that is much sexier than can he just feel the ball cleanly.
Luke Jones 4:25
Oh yeah, let’s also keep in mind Mark Bolander was a Hall of Fame caliber defensive player, right? Even he was exception to those kind of people don’t exist
Nestor Aparicio 4:36
anymore because they don’t make it. If all you did was play defense and hit 220 through the minors, you’re not a major league, you just won’t, you could be Aparicio, Aussie sweet, you could be anybody you want, but you can’t hit like that and make the big leagues, and there’s not a spot for that in the national league for the number eight hitter anymore, I mean, there
Luke Jones 4:53
might be a, you know, from a reserve role standpoint, but your point’s well taken, and I mean, just go, you don’t get you the
Nestor Aparicio 4:59
big. Weeks by playing defense, right? Just go literally,
Luke Jones 5:02
just go position by position with this club right now. I mean, you have a few guys on the entire roster that you would say are solid to good defensive players. I mean, Holden Kowsler had a great day in the outfield on Sunday, you know. I want to give him his flowers defensively on Sunday. He was terrific, but I mean, you look at Saturday night, Taylor Ward misplays the ball into a double, and it cost him an early lead. I mean, we’ve talked about Kobe Mayo Blaze, Alexander’s made some, some miscues at third base of latest, as well as he’s hit, we’ve seen him have some issues defensively, but you just go around the diamond and there aren’t that many guys that you view as solid to good defensive players, and even guys that might raid out metric-wise okay, have lapses, right? Like Gunner Henderson, we’ll see Gunner Henderson make some great plays, but you’ll also see him boot some at the worst possible time, right? Play
Nestor Aparicio 5:56
Stratomatic, he didn’t play Stratomatic, that was, I mean, before your time, right? It was
Luke Jones 6:00
before my time. Stratamatic,
Nestor Aparicio 6:01
the grading system of defense was 123, or four. Were you one? One was, you know, Manny Machado, right? Like, or you pick anybody that’s great. One is great. Four is Reggie Jackson, or just anybody who’s awful. I look at this team, and if Tom Cap were here, who was my original ballpark reporter, and my partner at WNSD, we spoke in a language in 1992 when I started this thing, 9192 93 about he’s a four, he’s Chairman of Bando four, Cheeto Martinez four, Ripken one, maybe two on a bad day, but a one, like on those teams, Alomar one, sir, off maybe a two at third base, maybe a two at left field, but, but ones and twos, you would not want to, you certainly wouldn’t want to put a four anywhere on your stratamatic field. Threes were like, what, Gunner had Gunner Anderson’s a three, he’s a three, he’s not a four, he’s a three, but he ain’t a two or one, and he may never be. And so I’m speaking stratamatic, like I’m talking, like you sort of understand what I’m talking about, but if in 30 seconds you’re a baseball fan, you’d pick it up, and my God, I mean, Blaze Alexander, you’re on, he’s the three on his best day, because he’s a utility player, like he, that the thing that that’s one of your better defenders, I’m thinking about it, this worst or automatic team, they’d have nine defensive players, Rochman would be a one or a two, I think. Alonso would be a probably a two, maybe a three. In the old days, I think we think he’s a two, he’s a little better, but like I go around the field and it’s just all fours, like, and every, and the replacements of four, and I wouldn’t run a stratamatic team like that in 1993 because I know it would get my ass kicked. It would take my Greg Maddux pitching and just destroy it literally in the game, but I look at it and I’m like, you scratch your head and you’re like, what are these guys and how do you put them in the field? And then you say, oh well, they just don’t care. And you and Alan been trying to convince me that for two years, but I couldn’t see it when Cedric Mullins was here. You know what I mean? I couldn’t see it when I thought Gunner Henderson might be a one somewhere, you know, that any of these.. I think Jackson Holiday on his drafting, and on his, his father’s last name, you would think he’s gonna be a really good defensive player just because of his name. I don’t know, I fine, okay, I mean, but he’s not Roto Alomar, you know what I mean, and I to think that he’s got to be because he’s a one one, that’s the other thing with these cats, we stunk for so long here, Luke. These were supposed to be the guys Elias told us these were the guys, and now he’s going to deal into the pennant race, according to him on Saturday, right? That was a big deal, like Orange Smoke, he spoke in the dugout, right?
Luke Jones 8:37
He did, and look, I mean, I don’t think there was anything earth shattering. I mean, he’s not going to throw in the towel when you’re talking about an American League wild card race being what it is, even after another series loss over the weekend, even considering the fact that since they had that 10 four stretch that we talked about, where they were two games under 500 and playing well, and all of that, you know that that was back on june 5, you know, when, when that stretch finished, you know, they’ve gone eight and 13 since then, they’ve won one series since then at Dodger Stadium, they’ve lost four different series since then, where they won the opener, like that to me is a really interesting, and who did they
Nestor Aparicio 9:16
lose them to, Nationals, Angel, you know, like you go through the list and you’re like these are the teams are supposed to be winning the two or three from, if they’re going to be a 90 win team. I mean, they’re like that,
Luke Jones 9:25
they’ve played some good teams too, good, relatively good, whatever. I mean, come in here right now,
Nestor Aparicio 9:31
that’s better
Luke Jones 9:32
than them. I mean, yeah, I mean, it’s not, not that the White Sox are a complete juggernaut, but they’ve been a big surprise, and obviously they’ve exceeded expectations, so I mean it’s just not good enough. We can dwell on this or that, or something else, or I can throw out some stat. You get mad
Nestor Aparicio 9:50
at the bullpen if you want. I mean, it’s
Luke Jones 9:52
just none of it’s good enough. And I said this a week or two ago when we were passing that two year mark. York, since that stretch that they had, where they beat the Phillies two out of three, they beat the Yankees two out of three at Yankees. Last time the Blue Angels came through here, right? I mean, it was that at that point in time. I mean, that was two calendar years, and you know, Mike Elias or Craig Albernaz, or any player on this team, I mean, they love to try to convince themselves, and anyone who will listen, that they’re a good team, or they’re getting better, or they have a lot of belief in everyone in the organization. And look, I’m not doubting effort or how hard people work or anything like that. I just don’t see a team that’s capable, and when I say that, I don’t mean, oh, you know, someone will say, well, they won a game or won a series at Dodger Stadium, but that that still falls into the realm of baseball, right? I mean, like, in the sense of it’s 162 games, no one goes 15 in 147 right? I mean, every team wins games, really, about the body of work, especially when there is a body of work, right? We couldn’t talk about it in April, and we’re like, well, let Holiday come back, and Westberg will be no, he won’t. Well, Eph, gone, but we’ll figure it out. And you know, how’s Brandon Young gonna work out? And where’s Dean Cramer yet? He touched the mound, right? Like, so, like, for the body of work, the Brandon Young thing is, you want to do sunshine in this second week. You know, there’s a couple of things that have gone right, as they always do, and it’s like, I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 11:20
Alonzo’s hitting the ball enough to make it look like he’s worth his money on the back of the bubble gum card, you know?
Luke Jones 11:25
I mean, they’re not an absolutely horrendous team in the way that they – we watched horrendous baseball from 2018 through 2021 right?
Nestor Aparicio 11:34
But they have enough talent, they shouldn’t be this bad.
Luke Jones 11:37
Agree, or just.. yeah, yeah, but at some point in time,
Nestor Aparicio 11:42
oh, I sound like them now, mentioning their talent, right, but I’m just,
Luke Jones 11:44
but I’m just saying, I hear what you’re saying, and look, I picked them to win 90 games, I’m just as wrong as anyone out there, but that’s where we get into, and this is where I push back a little bit on Mike Elias on Saturday, you know, it wasn’t being combative about it, but he was talking about, you know, the expressing confidence that they’re going to play better, and all that, and I said, I just plain said, what makes you confident about that? I mean, we’re confident about that, I mean, we’re going on two calendar years that this franchise has played like this, and yes, variables have changed, they have a different manager, they have a different coaching staff, by and large, you know, Drew French, and the pitching coaches are still have been in place for a couple years now, but you have different players, yet it all looks the same, and when I say that it’s not good enough, so, and you know, he, he talks about working hard and the talent that this team has, and all that, and the belief he has in Craig Albert. As, and look, this is where I’ll defend Michaelias a little bit. In that moment, I don’t know what you really expect him to say, other than, you know, if he’s just going to go rogue and just tear into everybody, he’d have to tear into himself as well, and maybe there’s a little more of that that fans would want to hear, but everyone’s just mad, right? And everyone’s frustrated, and well, I’m not paying
Nestor Aparicio 13:13
for it. A lot of these people are paying a lot of money, sure, when I see the Birdland Insider Selfie Day, and the stuff that they’re doing, and I don’t know, man, it’s just not a very good brand, it’s not a very good business, it’s not a very good ownership, it’s not a very like it’s just lacking, it’s like going to a restaurant and getting bad soup, man, it’s just, it’s just, it’s just plain, it’s just not good, and I don’t, and the team that’s necessary, I’m not sure that the people that run the place, even I mean, in Eric Gettys, the guy who’s running the team, forget, forget mr. Magoo, I mean, he’s, he, he clearly has gotten his ice cream and he’s gone, he clearly wants to stand in front of this right now, at this moment, he got married two weeks ago, whatever, but like this should be a crisis thing for these people, you know what I mean, like when things got really bad, and when did they get really bad? When they got.. when I wrote The Allies Should Be Fire, whenever a month ago, the sweep after with the Yankees, one of the sweeps when things hit the bottom.
Luke Jones 14:18
I was gonna say, which time are you talking about this year, last year? Well, they went eight under,
Nestor Aparicio 14:22
maybe you know, whatever the bottom of,
Luke Jones 14:25
yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 14:25
yeah, whatever the bottom was. When a month ago, when I wrote the Michaeliah Should Be Fired piece, that I’ve seen enough. Someone in the game who comes on this show often wrote to me, Marty Conway, they have their first ownership crisis. This is an ownership crisis now. This isn’t a baseball crisis. This isn’t in the manager who pulled the wrong pitcher. This is a, do we have the right people running the place? And in order to know that, and I’m a.. I was a neophyte radio station owner of 30. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I still don’t ask anybody. But like, when you come into a business and you allow Greg Bader to hang out and Jennifer Grand Doll to hang out and reassign people, and nobody, and it’s an awful organization, and you don’t perceive it as such, you perceive it as a philanthropy, not as a my God, this thing’s been a shit show for 30 years, these these people were awful. They mistreated everyone. Everyone hates us in Baltimore, except for the few people that love us. And how are we going to change that perception of business and of our reputation and our brand? And there are a couple years into this, and it feels to me, and I’m sitting here on the fourth of July weekend, and here they are circling the drain. Literally, you just made fun of them, saying they’re eight games under 500 Like, how are they gonna get five over? How they gonna.. how’s that gonna happen? How are they gonna have a 17 and eight month in August or July as we come up on July? How? Look at this team and tell me how that’s possible. They even when they’re playing the Nationals and the Angels, they’re not, they’re not excelling, but I would just say this, the crisis part of this is on the ownership at this point. This is an ownership problem. This is a, it’s a billionaire problem for two Jack Wagons that are from out of town. One thinks he knows baseball, Araghetti, one knows he knows it doesn’t know baseball, but loves himself. David Rubenstein loves some David Rubenstein, and I don’t see them coming in. Elias’s thing on Saturday, you call it a perfunctory, or whatever the word you use, sort of like, yeah, he showed up, didn’t say much, didn’t you know, whatever, but the thing he said, or at least the headlines that I grabbed from the fascist over at the Baltimore Sun, as well as whatever else shows up on my timeline, was they’re going to deal in right this. This isn’t going to be the month that they trade Ruchoman or Henderson to get CB Scoble’s right.
Luke Jones 16:54
I think that’s TBD. Go
Nestor Aparicio 16:55
ahead, I’m dominating this. I, I’m, I mean, I just angry, you know what I mean? Like, somebody needs to be angry around here, lock and four off the radio. I mean, like, it’s just somebody’s got to run the flag and say this sucks, this is terrible. And who’s in charge? And I know who’s in charge, it’s Araghetti, it’s not Rubenstein, and Eric Getty, he didn’t even breathe the same oxygen as the rest of us. Like, I don’t expect this to go well, like that’s the worst part. I had two years ago, I had hope. There was hope when the whistler shook my hand and lied to me and pretended like, like I was a real human being, a real citizen, and he was an outsider coming in looking for information. These people have been horrible. Everything about the new ownership has been horrible, so therefore I look at it and say, Who’s going to save it? I, Michaelias, that’s what they’re going to say. Who’s our baseball guy? And what you and I are already like, no, we’ve seen him play defense, no, philosophically, no. I just, I don’t think they can win like this, Luke.
Luke Jones 17:57
I’m not going to sit here and disagree, they haven’t won playing like this for two years now, right? I mean, it’s, it’s that simple. I mean, look, we can talk. I didn’t expect to be this
Nestor Aparicio 18:06
mad today. I’m sorry. I woke up Monday morning the wrong side of the bed. I’m sorry.
Luke Jones 18:09
No need to apologize. I mean, it was another disappointing weekend, right? They start out and win Friday night, and you’re wasting
Nestor Aparicio 18:16
my time on them. You know what I mean? Like, literally giving them four hours of my day, you know, like it sucks,
Luke Jones 18:22
but, but I mean, we’re gonna have plenty of time to talk about this, because they’re not firing Michaelias today or tomorrow,
Nestor Aparicio 18:27
correct?
Luke Jones 18:28
But to me, you know, when you speak to the crisis port and the ownership part, I look at nothing, say nothing more than 26,900 29,600 27,600 27,600 Did it feel they had full? They had the order. That’s not my point. Even if it were that full, I don’t think it was like
Nestor Aparicio 18:49
those felt like decent numbers, but they’re playing the local team, the sale thing.
Luke Jones 18:54
But that’s my point. Yeah, it’s the last weekend in June. I mean, school’s out for everyone now, right, and it’s a weekend anyway. The weather was nice overall. I mean, like, I know the forecast had some spotty showers in it, and everything, but they ended up playing baseball without a hitch all weekend. And you have the Orioles, who are supposed to be a playoff contender. You have a Nats team that isn’t ready to be a playoff team, but is playing better than what expectations were. I would say maybe bullpen aside, if you, if you saw what happened to them against the Phillies last week, but all of that, you had giveaways Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and you didn’t even draw 30,000 people to the ballpark for any of those games, I’m not saying they needed to be sellouts. I’m going to take Yankees Mets game for this
Nestor Aparicio 19:44
community,
Luke Jones 19:45
though. It is right, but for that to be sub 30,000 for each game, that should tell them a lot as far as what the temperature is for this. They don’t
Nestor Aparicio 19:53
hear it, though.
Luke Jones 19:54
So, wow, they’re
Nestor Aparicio 19:55
tone deaf. That’s part of being a billionaire, I think, and that’s part of work. Working for a billionaire that enables the Chad Steels of the world to never hear it, like literally it. There is a tone deafness about wealth that I have learned in my 50s that I did not certainly I didn’t understand it when I was doing Free the Birds 20 years ago against the other prick, you know me, just thinking I was going to fix him like I was Charles Dickens, and we were going to run a Dickens pattern on him, and he would see the errors of his Ebenezer Scrooge ways, like that was so 35 for me. I mean, I’m much more pragmatic about it at this point to say, like, to your point, they’re trying to run a business, they would like to have some people there. I thought that when they turned their back on me two years ago and treated me like a piece of dirt, and that I would be reporting that, because, like, I was stunned. I was stunned at how poorly I was treated two years ago by these people, stunned, literally stunned, when they came in here, and they have an empty stadium and an empty brand, and think their manure smells like petunias, and because they’re in first place for a week or two, which they were, they were in first place for two months, and then that now they’re in, they have a crisis. Luke, I guess that I’ll leave it at that. This isn’t, this is not a baseball crisis. This is, and the sport’s about to have a crisis, right? The whole entity is about to have a crisis that they’re not in control of. They just get a vote, you know. And this is, it feels like it’s, it’s like the car headed toward the wall, and I’m like, no, no, no, because the whole sport’s a mess, and to your point, the emptiness of the stadium is that’s what got my bowels moving 20 years ago was living and looking out the window, and literally in the first five years of living downtown, watching it go from 29,000 to 16,000 quickly, and this is the kind of year that even if they get through the strike and they do all that, and they money bags throw some money at a pitcher in the off season, whatever they got to go sell again, and even if there’s not a strike or any of that, what’s going to pick this thing up and get people motivated to give them the money they want to come back down there, because I think that that’s the real, you’re right, the crisis is look at your truest club window and see what your bowl of your stadium looks like, and if that doesn’t motivate you, then you’re in the wrong business.
Luke Jones 22:16
Yeah, I mean, it’s just there’s not a whole lot of enthusiasm, to put it kindly, there’s there’s very little enthusiasm for this, and when you see the Orioles and the Nats facing off in late June on a weekend series, when you have giveaways all three nights and you can’t even draw 30,000 people to the ballpark, I think that says a lot, and you know the Ads
Nestor Aparicio 22:39
people there, where there are a lot in that. I mean, I’ve been to these games,
Luke Jones 22:43
there it was, no, like, there was no sense of any kind of like takeover or anything like that. I mean, there were Nats fans in the same way that when the Orioles play down in DC, there are plenty of Orioles fans, right? But I never, and it is a little more difficult to gage now, because we’re we’re in a press box that’s not as wide open as it used to be. I mean, we can hear it, because the windows are open most games, right? I mean, fortunately, this week, with it getting so hot, I’ll actually be appreciative of an air-conditioned, closed-in press box, but I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 23:15
understand the Nats thing. Like, I don’t know anyone who’s passionate about that franchise in that way. And when I put their games on, and they’re people there all the time, and you know, I was in DC on Friday night for Sammy Hagar, and you go by, and it’s, I mean, they’ve won a World Series. I mean, I think of them as a bit of a joke, but they’ve been there 21 years now, and they’re not, and they have fans who spend money, will they want to come to Camden Yards, or they want to come up to Friday? I don’t know, but it would seem to me that if I’m, if I own the Orioles, I’d be kind of counting on, hey, we’ll get some of their fans, and we hope to have their fans. I mean, Angelos used to welcome the Red Sox and Yankees fans, and the Nats fans. That should be an automatic, the one weekend a year that you see them, that at least their fans want to come. You know what I mean? Well, you
Luke Jones 23:55
just said right now, Washington’s 23rd in attendance, the Orioles are 24th exactly what Peter Angelo’s told me, was I could run the tape in Washington. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 24:05
going to cancel us out. It’s going to be like the Bay Area teams, and nobody’s going to draw. Okay, the
Luke Jones 24:10
Nats fired their general manager last year, right? I mean, so it speaks where they’ve been the last couple years, even though they’ve exceeded expectations this year, not, you know, to a modest degree, right? I mean, they’re, they’re, they’ve got some good young players. We saw that, I mean, we saw that firsthand. I mean, you look at what Garcia did all weekend against them, my goodness. But
Nestor Aparicio 24:30
well, their best player got out, Soto. I mean, they, you know, Bryce Harper, I mean, they didn’t players,
Luke Jones 24:35
but they’ve, but they’ve got good young players. Well, they
Nestor Aparicio 24:37
got something we didn’t have. They had a parade, you know. Sure,
Luke Jones 24:40
sure. I mean, it was seven years ago at this point in time, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 24:45
yeah, it’s past the five year rule, I would agree, but still, like, but,
Luke Jones 24:48
but sure, I’m not, I’m not making this about Nats, Orioles, like Nats versus Orioles, I’m making this, but I wonder why
Nestor Aparicio 24:54
there would be Nats fans, well, they made the playoffs six, seven years in a row, and they were really disappointing, and then they won, then there was. Plague, and then, and their ownership sucks, and never really cared, so there’s all of that for their fan base to say, why would they get in the car and give.. I was going to say Pete, almost said Pietrangelo’s money, why would they get in the car and want to spend their 150 bucks going to an Oriole game, and I like Canton Yard, you know, I mean, like, you know, but in
Luke Jones 25:19
a general sense, it’s also going back to the 90s, like, oh, why didn’t, why didn’t old Colts fans become Redskins fans? You know what it’s like, there’s still a prevent of provincial element to that, that certainly applies
Nestor Aparicio 25:31
kind of neat when they get together, and you would think this far in that it could have some juice for somebody, for one of the fan bases, for it just, well,
Luke Jones 25:40
I think it just speaks to where both these teams are right now. I, you know, while the Nats are exceeding some expectations, they’re certainly not, you know, they’re not going to win the, they’re not going to win the NL East, right? They’re, I don’t think they’re going to be a playoff team, and the Orioles being where they are, right, where the heaviest lifting continues to be done by the rest of the mediocrity of the Al, as it pertains to their chances, right, and the
Nestor Aparicio 26:03
owners were expected to be a playoff team, we still in baseball, I think, right, or I mean
Luke Jones 26:08
they were certainly put it this way, in a vacuum, if you told, if you told someone right now that back in February or March that they would be two or three games out of a wild card spot, you might say all right, but then when you would see the full context of sub 500 and how bad that race is, then you would say all right, yeah, they’re not remotely fulfilling expectations, so, but, but, no, I mean, just, you know, and again, I don’t want to belabor too much, because we’re gonna have a lot of time to talk about that, especially if this team continues on the path that it is, which they’re now on a pace to win one less than last year, right? I mean, they’re 75 and 87 they’re on a 74 win pace right now, so but I thought the attendance to me that was, and again, it’s not even, oh, was it actually that number? Even if it was that number, even if that number was completely accurate, that says a lot to me about where this is. That even with the other local team in town, you’re not drawing 30,000 people at the ballpark. That, that says plenty about the temperature. And look, I’m not blaming anyone, right? I mean, I’ve said it, I’ve, I’ve said this numerous times, as I’ve talked to friends of mine, or lifelong Orioles fans, who’ve made the comment that this isn’t the worst Orioles team they’ve seen, but there are people saying that this might be their least favorite, and I think it has to do with how they play, it has to do with not meeting expectations now for two calendar years. I think it’s everything right, and that’s just.. it’s not a good place to be. It’s just not.. I mean, it’s a Captain Obvious statement, but it’s just.. there’s.. there is a frustration, there is a disdain. I think that some people have, you know, to your point. You made the point. I don’t want to pay
Nestor Aparicio 28:01
in the bill, I got you know, getting bills from them every month, but you are
Luke Jones 28:06
though. You pay for Massen, right? But I’m not paying a
Nestor Aparicio 28:09
real bill, I mean, you know, sure. No, of course, yeah, of
Luke Jones 28:11
course. But,
Nestor Aparicio 28:12
but I would unplug it in August if I, if, if I were, even if I weren’t doing this for a living. I’m
Luke Jones 28:17
not even talking about the financial, and you’re right, I’m not disagreeing with that, I’m just talking in terms of just the element of the investment that you make as a fan, from an emotional standpoint, from a time standpoint, all of that. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 28:31
you know, this is my better stopping caring about the capitals, what we’re worrying about, what night they’re on, like when you drop something, whatever it is, a person, a hobby, a thing we’ve all quit doing, playing the French horn, or whatever, you know, like there is a point where, like, oh,
Speaker 1 28:46
you only, there’s another life out there,
Nestor Aparicio 28:47
you know, I can go hiking, I can go take, be a lacrosse fan, I can take, you know, go do something else, watch soccer all day long, I mean, if I want to this month, right,
Luke Jones 28:55
I mean, you only have so many hours, right, I mean, especially those of us who work and have responsibilities, right? I mean, like, you know, if you’re someone that is insanely wealthy, or whatever, that that’s one thing, but you know, there are a lot of people out there who only have a couple hours to spare, and or the best they can do is listen to it on the radio, but it’s still supposed to be something that’s leisure, right? it’s supposed to bring enjoyment, this is not bringing much enjoyment at this point in time. I mean, and I’m, I’m not even saying that to be mean. I think that’s just an honest assessment. Look, we love baseball, right? Baseball fans love baseball. That’s what we’re
Nestor Aparicio 29:32
sitting, you’re talking about. There’s the rhythmic,
Luke Jones 29:34
there’s the rhythmic, you know, it’s just the element of the year, right? You know, from late March, and even if you want to include spring training in there through the end of September, and you hope October, there’s a game every single day. I mean, it’s why I always laugh about people that you know, hand-wringing over national baseball TV numbers, you know, like what ESPN games or whatever. It’s because your team, your team plays. Every single day, so the idea that you’re going to have time then to watch other games is, you know, that’s why it’s a regional game. It’s a regional game, so bringing it back to that point when you have two teams in the same region playing each other on a weekend where it’s late June and school’s out and the weather’s pretty nice compared to how hot it’s going to get here in the coming days, and you’re not even drawing 30,000 people, man. That should be a big alarm going off that this is not in a good place, and not that anyone really needs that when you just see where what the record has been since late June of 2024 but man, just another frustrating weekend, another missed opportunity, another series where they won an opener, and then they lose the next two. I mean, it’s just, where do you go from here? It doesn’t feel like anything’s going to change. I mean, that’s that, and I don’t mean I don’t mean the big picture, I just mean this team on the field right now, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to change, they’re going to win some series here or there, they’ll have some decent stretches here or there. I don’t think they’re going to be 25 or 30 games under 500 at the end of the year, like this isn’t that level of gloom and doom, but it’s just not good enough, it’s not consistent enough, and most importantly, for from their perspective, none of this is inspiring anyone to go and want to spend money to go out to the ballpark, or if you’re on the fence about subscribing to Mass, and because you, you do only have so many days a week, or so many hours a week to watch any TV, that would be amazing, because they
Nestor Aparicio 31:36
get the real numbers, how many people have really signed up for it in the last 45 days, signups a day, one a week, three a week, 10, because I
Luke Jones 31:44
think most people,
Nestor Aparicio 31:45
you’re in or you’re out a long time ago in on the series, right? Like,
Luke Jones 31:49
kind of feel like most people that are the, you know, your baseline, they’re the people that spent $99 back in March to like me,
Nestor Aparicio 31:58
I got a cable television, I might go away,
Luke Jones 32:00
but you’re right, they’re getting my back and
Nestor Aparicio 32:02
running, whether I wanted them to have it or not.
Luke Jones 32:03
Other than someone that did what I did a year and a half ago, which was cancel up my satellite service, you know, other than people doing something like
Nestor Aparicio 32:11
that,
Luke Jones 32:12
who are you attracting right now to sign up? I love that you’re the shopper
Nestor Aparicio 32:16
holding them all accountable and unplugging them and doing you..
Luke Jones 32:19
I, I’ve. we’ve had this discussion before. The amount of jumping I do from TV subscription to TV subscription at this point in time. I should send you over my password,
Nestor Aparicio 32:28
so you can unhook all of mine. Luke Jones is here. We have discussed the Orioles vibe and ethos. Gabriel, I’ve talked about what’s going on with the old. We’ll do that. White Sox are in town. Fourth of July is here. Birds are headed to the Great American Ball Park for the Great American Holiday, like the Great American State Fair, which I was one of the.. I was the only Democrat that was there, but I was one of the only people that were there down on the mall on Saturday. So, at the Cincinnati this weekend, White Sox around, Luke’s at the ballpark. I’m wearing purple today for my Planet Fitness peeps, but we’re still four weeks. Luke, you take a nap, you do the sparklers this weekend with the nieces, and get your hot dogs, and then you get down to the beach every.. and then it’ll be football season. Just, just look, it’s coming soon. I swear, we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us,
