Three decades ago, Mark Mussina did sports radio here in Baltimore when his brother pitched for the Orioles and always returns to Nestor with wisdom from Montoursville, Pennsylvania, where baseball runs in the family and the real business of sports is always clarified.
Nestor Aparicio and Mark Mussina discuss the return of baseball to Baltimore and the Orioles’ prospects. Mark, a former basketball coach and current county commissioner, shares insights on the challenges of modern baseball, including the decline of star pitchers and the impact of injuries. They also touch on the financial aspects of team ownership, noting the importance of drafting and developing homegrown talent. Additionally, they discuss the role of gambling in baseball and the need for a comprehensive strategy to revitalize the Orioles. The conversation concludes with reflections on the dynamics of rock bands and the importance of maintaining positive relationships.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, baseball season, Mark Mussina, Hall of Fame, political career, coaching basketball, Pennsylvania, sports engagement, player development, injury concerns, baseball finances, fan engagement, gambling in baseball, team ownership, community involvement.
SPEAKERS
Mark Mussina, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 task Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. This one’s going to be a real good one. It’s been a while since I’ve had my guest on but before I do that, I need to let you know we’re doing the Maryland grab gate tour beginning on Friday at Costas. I will have the last batch of the magic eight balls to give away. I think we’re gonna have some Back to the Future scratch offs, if not some monopoly scratch offs when we fire things back up at the Beaumont next Wednesday, we will be at Cooper’s pub on the 23rd and then we will be at Coco’s pub on the 30th of this month. Lots of guests, lots of cool people coming out. We have Mark Viviano last week. Jamie Costello is coming out later on in the month, and it’s sort of old home week, because it is baseball season. The Orioles have only really played a handful of meaningful seasons since the last time I departed with this gentleman. I think his brother left here 24 years ago. We walk him in one of our defending champions. He’s now some sort of weird elected official up in Pennsylvania. I mean, it feels like you’re 100 states away, but I feel like I can reach out and touch you. And you know, Luke shares the same driver’s license as you do. Mark Messina returns to us and dude, I tried to get you on a football season. I tried to get you on before the Dallas game, after the Dallas game, during the Dallas game, I even bought, I’m collecting 1971 belt buckles. I have a Dallas Cowboys belt buckle for you that I’ve gotten into my weird belt buckle collection. Are you running things? I mean, you’re like, busy, right? You’re, like, a dually elected official of some kind.
Mark Mussina 01:35
I yeah, I am busy. I’m busier than I should be. I just got less busy because I was coaching basketball too, and now I’m, I’m not the basketball coach anymore. So that’s so life has settled down a little bit. But, yeah, busy is good, though. You know that busy is good? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 01:49
yeah. Well, update everyone on you and your brother. I you know, I mean, your brother shows up from time to time. He was here in Baltimore doing a cow thing, like, two weeks ago. I got the pictures the day after and I’m like, I haven’t been in a room with your brother. Last time I talked to your brother was doing the World Series on the field sometime in the aughts. I don’t even know when it was a playoff game sometime like that. It’s been 20 years since I talked to your brother, but you and I, you know, we catch up. But your brother does get into Baltimore. He is a Hall of Famer.
Mark Mussina 02:20
Well, he Yeah, some our old friend Louie Bernie, sent me a message, and he said, Are you going to be there? And I said, for what? And he’s, you know, and that’s, those are the circles, I tell you. You’ve probably never heard this story, but, you know, we live right here where the League World Series is. And I was there one day as a as a working media credential. This is before my political career and and this other guy, who’s a media guy who with local television, and he’s, he’s the camera interview guy and all that great guy. And he says, Hey, and this is the summer that might got into the Hall of Fame. So Mike got inducted in July. This is Little League World Series of August, and he says, Hey, do you think I could get five minutes with your brother? And I was like, Yeah, probably. I said, When do you want to do it? And he goes, Well, I’d like to do it right after he throws out the first pitch. And I just looked at him and said, Is Mike here today? Is he throwing out the first pitch? And he just turned and walked away. And that was, I didn’t even know he was there. So, you know, like, events come and go. You know, We’re old now. We, you know, you just don’t, you don’t know everything that everybody’s doing anymore. You’re
Nestor Aparicio 03:28
not coaching college, high school basketball together anymore, right?
Mark Mussina 03:32
No, no. Well, actually, what’s happening is, I, I’m, I’m not doing it anymore. My son was, was senior, and so he’s heading off to college, and now I’m an empty Nestor. And, you know, I’ve got this. I got some political things I want to do. I don’t have any grand political but locally, I’m really involved now, and there’s some things I want to do. I have another book I’m almost finished with, so I’ve got another so now that Mike is bored and bored, and you can’t play golf in January in Pennsylvania, so he’s going to come back and coach again next year. So it’s kind of like, so it’s good for all you’re handing
Nestor Aparicio 04:11
things off back to your brother. It is, it is, it is. He’s coming in for for relief, I guess Mark Messina is here. He is. What are you? Your, your,
Mark Mussina 04:24
okay, what is that? News froze? Am I froze on your
Nestor Aparicio 04:27
Yeah, you freeze it. You’re you got Wi Fi. You got mentors, the Wi Fi. I guess
Mark Mussina 04:31
at this I am sitting right by the server too. I thought this was the best place. Can you hear me?
Nestor Aparicio 04:36
I can hear you. You’re just not moving. But that’s okay, you’re moving.
Mark Mussina 04:40
So the way it works in Pennsylvania is each county has three commissioners, and you can’t have all three of one party, so there’s always two. So like in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, there’s two Democrats and Republican, and in the central part of the state, where it’s all rural, there’s two Republicans and Democrat, and that’s what and we are kind. Kind of like the the the the board of that county, we oversee the budgets, basically, of everything, the Sheriff’s Department, the 911, center, the court system, the jails. You know, there we have, I think we have 28 different departments and seven elected officials. So, and this
Nestor Aparicio 05:17
is your home area, Williamsport, Hall of Fame and torresville, that area and that county, is like coming, like home, like, like coming. You say it that you went to, like coming. I would say like homing. I’m pronouncing it wrong. Well,
Mark Mussina 05:31
I tell people that, and people do, but I tell if you take the L y off the word C, O, M, I, N, G is coming, right? So it’s just like coming, but either way. But yeah, then and up here, unlike down there, we’re like, 75% red. So, you know, I’m a Democrat. I’ve always been a Democrat. So when it came, when the last guy retired and he didn’t want to run again, and then they’re like, well, there aren’t really that many Democrats here to run. So I ran and I won
Nestor Aparicio 06:01
high paying position, I’m sure, no obligations, no responsibilities at all for the county, right? No, none. That’s why it’s been six months having him on Mark Messina is here, you know, I I just bring you in to talk sports, man and baseball and football. You’re one of my favorite people to talk rock and roll with. We have this whole Tommy Conwell thing coming up here in Lancaster, not Lancaster, it’s Lancaster in Buffalo. It’s Lancaster in Pennsylvania. I
Mark Mussina 06:28
was the PA announcer in college, and when I was in college for the basketball team, I introduced the starting lines and Ambassador, you know, that’s where they’re from. And I was verbally reprimanded for calling it Lancaster, because when we were young, there was a basketball player named Lancaster Gordon, sure, and that’s how, and no, I the mom came over to me at halftime and like, it is Lancaster. And I said, oh, so there you go. You never
Nestor Aparicio 06:53
forget that, never forgot that. Never forget that. No, once you get it’s like Bowie and Tosin and all the things that go on here. Um, where is your sports Mojo at this point? I mean, I am full disclosure for you, you grew up a Yankees fan. You were always a little bit weird and demented, but your area, in that part of Pennsylvania wasn’t really Phillies or pirates, certainly not Orioles. And my dad was from Scranton. My dad grew up a Yankees fan. Saw Babe Ruth and Garrigan, all those guys play on the train taking it into the city back in the last century, but your brother winds up pitching for the Yankees and all this. Like, I don’t know where your attention would be for baseball this far in with the brother in the Hall of Fame and all that, you’re not on radio and you, I mean, are you watching 100 games a year? You watch baseball every night of your life? Are you a little more divorce from it. Oh
Mark Mussina 07:41
no, I’m I’m way more divorced. And here, like, I grew up a Yankee fan because they were good in the 70s and they were on TV, like they were the game. We got Yankees, man, we got Philly sometimes, um, we get you got the
Nestor Aparicio 07:53
scooter? Did you get the scooter? Oh, my god, yeah, yeah. Frank Messer,
Mark Mussina 07:57
Bill White, and Phil Rizzuto, and so I’m a box score reader every night. Still, I love, like, the stories of I follow McCutchen every night to see how he’s doing. I love Jose Ramirez. He’s one of my favorite I like Lindor. And then I have these, like, I follow Christian Yelich because he was destined for everything, and then he kind of fell off the face of the earth. I still follow Verlander, because he’s, he’s eight wins behind mike on the all time win list. So I am, I am curious. I don’t live and die with anyone. Obviously, I follow the Orioles and the Yankees the most. My son is an Orioles fan. We get to an Oriole game every year. So, and I just ordered him an Oriole pullover, but he’s not home right now. So is
Nestor Aparicio 08:43
that big? Is that mom and or what? Why would your kid be the Oriole Adams when we were young,
Mark Mussina 08:49
or when he was young, and we wanted to start going to baseball games we came to Baltimore as opposed to going to New York, because it was easier. It was I was more familiar with it. And back then the Orioles stunk. And you could get really easy. You get cheap seats for nice and it was, and it’s just from where we are, it’s an easy drive in, easy drive out. And then, you know, you walk around the Inner Harbor, and you just, it was just a better trip. So we started going to Oriole games, and he liked the Orioles. So, you know, that was it? How old is he now? He is 18.
Nestor Aparicio 09:22
Oh, he’s in, he’s he’s birdley. He’s drinking the Kool Aid. Is he? Oh,
Mark Mussina 09:27
yeah, I’m giving him updates. Like, you know, right? They played the other night. They played on opening day, and I was giving him updates and like, Hey, this is what, you know. So, yeah, he, he is a fan. He is a fan. All
Nestor Aparicio 09:38
right? What keeps you engaged? And I mean, I’ve had long form conversations recently with Dave shine and people you know well, people you shared the locker room and media through your brother and through your own work with me and and what just your interest in baseball and your expertise in baseball, shining talks about pace to play and moving the game back has made. Made him more interested. Um, I’m more interested because the team’s good, right? Like on a day by day basis of what dog food we’ve been fed here for much of my 34 years on radio, a handful of years where they’ve been relevant. I’m really interested in new ownership, $600 million and what it’s supposed to do for the Inner Harbor. I saw what the Ravens did with theirs. They socked, they moved the press box out to the, you know, the upper deck, and they put in a club level that they’re not going to use, that they used to welcome Katie Griggs two weeks ago. So, you know, I don’t have a press pass. I’m never getting a press pass back. That’s over with the notion that they’re going to have real media and answer questions, and it was the way it was 30 years ago, like that’s never going to happen again. I’m trying to figure out the level set of baseball and its money and the media, and the part where your brother was on the front lines as as a player rep early on with the late great Jim Poole and other players during the work stoppage. Your brother was a part of that, and I was a part of that as a media member trying to learn 31 years later, dude, crazy. 31 years later. Um, we’re still here with it, and I don’t understand their money, and I don’t understand the future of their money outside of being Yankees, Dodgers and wherever, because I’ve seen the Red Sox thing kind of fall apart a little bit from, uh, how much I’m going to give, how much I’m going to spend, what my level of engagement is going to be. And I, I worry a little bit about baseball for the first time in my life, because I feel like it’s, it’s, it’s rudderless. I, you know, and I don’t think the game is so great that it’s going to transcend rudderless.
Mark Mussina 11:36
Well, I, I mean, we’ve always been worried about baseball, you know, you keep hearing this, and the strike of 94 was going to kill it, and it certainly didn’t. And that, my thought, is the lack of stars. And you know, when we were younger, not that we’re old now, but when we were younger, and you know, you could pick up, you picked up the newspaper. And this is the first thing I did for six every day for six months, you picked up the newspaper and you looked at the pitching matchups, because the star of the day was the starting pitcher. And now, because of the way the game has evolved, there are very, very few star starting pitchers anymore, to the point of when we pull up the the game, the the docket of games. On our phone, it doesn’t even list the starting pitchers. And I know that’s a lot of spatial because your phone is different than the newspaper was but, but it’s
Nestor Aparicio 12:32
sort of All you cared about on any given night. I mean, as a kid putting the newspaper out, it was always starting pitchers and splits and match ups, because that’s the game that in the strike zone, who’s pitching? Yeah, yep,
Mark Mussina 12:43
who’s pitching tonight, and, and now it’s not as much. And it is, I think that is because you’re right. It is star driven. Everything is star driven. And, you know, you look at at the Caitlin Clark numbers at women’s college basketball, and they can talk about, oh, it’s turning a corner and all this stuff. When you look at the numbers when Caitlyn played last year, and the numbers when Caitlyn didn’t play this year, and they were night and day, and I think it was 14 million to 4 million. So, well, it’s golf
Nestor Aparicio 13:14
with Tiger golf without time. You know, it’s, it’s Van Halen with David Lee Rother with, you know, Gary Sharon, you know what I mean? Like,
Mark Mussina 13:22
I knew you weren’t going to Sammy, because you and I are on the van Hagar is a very good band. We we believe that wholeheartedly. I thought you were,
Nestor Aparicio 13:31
Sammy is gonna shake his ass the next couple weeks in Vegas, and I make him shake it with him. So we’re working on that. You know, we have
Mark Mussina 13:38
always been kindred spirits on the greatness of Van Hagar. Now, I love Van Halen too. I do, don’t get me wrong,
Nestor Aparicio 13:44
that’s a different conversation. Let’s do that at the end of this one, because we’ll do some Tommy too, guys. We’ll keep you on baseball here, because I get knowledge out of you. I And I don’t. You don’t do a lot of media. You’re evicted, official and all that. Brothers, all the favorite my cousin’s a Hall of Famer, so it’s an Aparicio Messina thing, but we’ve been doing this for 30 years, and we don’t get together much, and once a year, I really want to, I want to learn something from you about what you’re seeing or not seeing in the game. I’m here in Baltimore, and they’re trying to resurrect it moose. You know what I mean? Like, I know you were here during the Halcyon and the glory and the 3.6 million people, and I know for lots of reasons, Peter lied to me about almost everything. The one thing he was dead on about was the Baltimore, Washington split baseball thing that would be detrimental, because of the money, because of the fans, all of that, they’ve won a World Series and blown it up and Strasberg arm fell off, and like all of that happens, but for the Orioles and for this market and how it succeeds again here, really succeeds again here, in that way that Luke dreams of St Louis or I see what the Tampa lightning are in Tampa Bay, and the Tampa rays are not where things succeed as opposed to fail. You saw the Ravens come in here. And. Wildly succeed where I don’t know that you would have been on that when they came in here wearing the Barney uniforms in 96 and we’re going to go four and 12 every year, where it couldn’t have gone off the rails and been Jacksonville, right? So I for the Orioles, it feels like there’s a rebirth here. But it feels to me like there’s a lot of issues with the game, the money, the the fact that their Orioles fan base is gonna have to sing for its supper like you want gunner Anderson, you got to be a mid to large market team to do that. And I don’t know where that money’s coming from Moose, I really don’t. I think the teams
Mark Mussina 15:30
have kind of figured it out are, yeah, there are some teams that can afford $100 million player, and there’s some teams that can afford a, you know, a $700 million player. So when you get a gunner Henderson, you have to sign him young, you have to sign him to an eight year contract for $120 million and it’s, it’s hard for those people, for anyone, to turn down $120 million guaranteed, even though you say, Well, if I played it out and I don’t get hurt, and things go, right? And, well, yeah, but it’s, that’s what you’ve got to do. And Cleveland’s done a little bit, Seattle’s done a little bit, Atlanta’s done a little bit,
Nestor Aparicio 16:08
and Scott Boris has to do a little bit too, and the kid has to want to be there, right? I mean, I don’t know why Bobby Witt really wanted to be in Kansas City, but his dad played the game. And I don’t know what advice you’d give to your kid or your brother would give to a kid, you know, yeah, and it’s,
Mark Mussina 16:21
I mean, there’s a level of fear, of injury, there’s a level of fear, you know, we’ve seen players that kind of got hot and then dropped off, and so, but that’s, that’s your your your shot, because the Yankees at the back, and the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Red Sox and at the back end will be able to buy players, you know, once they go to free agency, there’s only so many teams out there. And, and you know, how many people can afford one Soto so you’ve got to get them young and try to sign them young. And, and the thing about it that I keep reminding people is when you look at the success of the rays, even though they want a World Series, but when you look the Kansas City Royals have won a World Series more recently than the Yankees have. And I know the Yankees just got back there last year, but it is different. The thing that I think, and I’ve been saying this for 10 years now, so maybe I’ll shut up, because I apparently I’m wrong, but the next money ball aspect of it is bringing back the the left handed pitcher, and it doesn’t have to be Tom Glavine. Doesn’t have to be a Hall of Famer, but the Mark burleys, the Jamie Moyers, the Jimmy keys, the guys who can give you affordable and consistent depth and who can make 32 starts a year, that that back when, again, in when we were in our baseball heyday, every team had one, every good the Denny nagles, every team had one that was the left handed change up cutter. I’m going to go six and two thirds. My era is going to be 375, but every five days you don’t have to worry about me. I’m going to give you a chance. And I was at a my son was playing in a in a summer league tournament, and this is when he was young. But baseball scouting, they start young. I think my kid was going into an eighth grade or whatever, but he was playing in an older division and and I’m sitting with a scout, not a scout, an assistant coach from one of these big east schools, one of these basketball schools, like Seton Hall or UConn, or one of those. And I can’t remember which one it was, but he was a base he was on a baseball coach at this school, and we’re talking about pitchers, and my son’s left hand, and he’s talking about lefties, and he said, you know, we have a guy who’s right handed, who is a radar gun guy, and everybody loves his radar gun, but he’s not our best pitcher. And we have a lefty, and he controls both sides of the plate. He changes speeds. And when you look at every baseball number he has, you know, innings, pitch, strikeouts, whip, you know, walks per inning, every baseball number he has is better than this hard thrown righty and this lefty that we any threes like, he throws hard enough, but he’s our best pitcher by a lot, but no one will look at him, because the one number he doesn’t have is the radar gun and the guys like I don’t Get it, because I see him pitch every day, and his job is not to light up the radar gun. His job is to get hitters out, and he gets them out way better than this other guy. But there’s this arrogance of, you know, if he has it, if he has the radar gun, you know, we can. We can teach him and it it it when you you know, for all of us who are sports fans of all over the world, if you just measured wide receivers by their their 40 time, you know, the the Heinz wards and the Anquan boldins And these guys can’t play. But as we’ve we watched them play, and they’re Hall of Famers, even though they’re not in the hall, they’re they’re in. Elite players, because they get it Steve Largent, and I know now it’s old, Steve Largent wasn’t a stopwatch guy, but Steve Largent was a great player. And, you know, would Greg Max have even got a look nowadays, and would Mike messine have even got a look because they don’t and, and it’s, I don’t know how that’s for the better. And I think sooner or later, there comes along a guy who, who the next, the next Moneyball guy might not be in Oakland, might be in Pittsburgh. It might be in, you know, any mid market, in Minnesota, any mid market. And he’s like, listen, we could, we will gobble up these pictures, these pitchers that nobody else likes because they don’t throw hard enough, but we think that we can compete with them economically. And I think that’s the next evolution.
Nestor Aparicio 20:53
Well, I think the games changed so much the Scott McGregor’s would make it right. I mean, especially left handed soft toss finesse left handers, and the notion that everything’s max effort, and the notion that getting Tommy John serger in your 17 is not a thing, and you mentioned the star power of the game, that really is. The issue is that your brother took the ball, Randy Johnson. All those guys took the ball for 1015, 20 years at a clip. I mean, we got Palmer and Ben McDonald calling the games, and that’s kind of the, you know, the opposite, because Ben didn’t turn out to be a Hall of Fame player, but also had arm problems. And, you know, like all of those things that modern science is supposed to fix, to some degree, that Leo Mazzoni, having those guys throw every day and swearing by it, and keeping an arsenal of Hall of Famers healthy for a generation that that, somehow that goes out the window with modern science. I I just don’t know who a young Mike Messina would be listening to. You know who dad, the ball coach, the doctors, the scout that wants you, the coach that wants you, who do you listen to? And Corbin Burns is a great example of this dude, right? Like he pitches every fifth day, and that’s what he does, and you can’t talk to him and give me my 230 and I throw when I throw, and I throw the same way and I eat the same way. He’s one of those cats. I don’t know they know such thing in baseball was that because guys don’t go every fifth day, they don’t take the ball seven eight innings, they don’t they’re not thinking the way your brother thought. And look, man, you and me, your brother, are all gray. I mean, it’s really a general two generations ago, a baseball player that that has been long since gone, but the game’s a little broken when these guys arms are all falling off. I mean, the Orioles right now, as we sit here, we’re talking about effling, we’re talking about Suarez on 60. We’re talking about Kittredge out. We’re talking about Rodriguez maybe never making it. We’re talking about Bradish maybe never coming back again. We’re, you know, John means Tyler wells, those are just the Orioles I can name off the top of my head, not to mention Rogers and a couple other guys, McDermott that they got, who can’t pitch right now because they’re injured. So that’s the Orioles Arsenal right now. And we’re a week into the season. Moose, well, and
Mark Mussina 23:11
yes, and when you you know my brother growing up, you know he was the best player in our little town, and he threw smoke, and he threw smoke in the Little League, and all the way. But when you get up and then he gets, you know, to college, and gets to the big leagues. And now he just throws like hard, and he throws hard enough. But at the end, you know, he’s throwing 8990 on a good day. He kind of lived at 8889 and and when you watch these guys evolve for these for as long time baseball fans, and at the end, I saw a lot of CC Sabathia, because, you know, we got the Yankee games here, and Sabathia, who’s this big, dominant, 672, 60, whatever. And as a kid, he just threw by it. And at the end of his career, Sabathia became really, really good at pitching to contact. And you’re right, you can’t, you know, Mike has a line. He helps with the high school team. And Mike has a line. He’s like, you know, we get these kids who are trying to strike the kid out with the first pitch, and you can’t if I think there’s those guys of the Maddox the glavins, that that they don’t try to try to strike the guy out until they have two strikes, and up until then, they’re just worried about him keeping the ball off the barrel. Let’s put it in if they put in play, they’ll put in place softly, and if they put in place softly, I’m going to win more often than not. And you’re right, Matt, max effort. You can’t. I mean, even
Nestor Aparicio 24:30
could your brother have ever thrown the ball 100 miles an hour one time? No, no, I don’t. If they said the moose, you got to throw 9697 or you can’t cut this here, his arm would have fallen off trying when he was a kid. He could have done it.
Mark Mussina 24:46
Yeah? I don’t think so. But that is the and, well,
Nestor Aparicio 24:49
you hurt your arm pitching Right,
Mark Mussina 24:51
yeah, but that was just because I was bad mechanics and I was stupid. But there’s also a level two. When I talk to kids, I’m like, Listen, you wanna? You. Want to kind of live at 90% like every pitch. Can’t be 100% because you can’t, you know, you watch golfers, you’re not a golf guy. They’re, they’re not trying to hit the ball 100% most of the time. You know, they’re, they’re trying to hit it well, but they’re trying to hit it. You know, it’s more important to hit it where you want than it is to just hit it as hard as hard as you can.
Nestor Aparicio 25:22
Well, golf, you’re using the club, right? The club is will dictate what what you’re trying to do, right? Yeah, you should be swinging the club the same way most of the time. And the club indicates that it’s a different thing with pitching, right? I mean, Grip Ball. What are we throwing? We off speed. You know, who am I facing, like all of that, and then the precision to do what your brother could do. As Eddie Van Halen once said to your brother and my witness, how do you do that? Man, how do you it’s pretty much like that, right? Is that pretty good? It was close
Mark Mussina 26:00
on reels, which are going to be the death of me? I just watched an Eddie Van Halen. He talked about when he played on beat it.
Nestor Aparicio 26:08
Oh, man, I could go all night with that ish. I, you know, when I’m done, I thought it was going to read like Shakespeare Hemingway. I’m just going to watch old rock and roll interviews. I mean, you know, I just, I got a whole career at Gina shock. I got to catch up on let alone Tommy Conwell and Bon Jovi and everything else on there. I did see the zeppelin doc was pretty good a couple months ago. So wait, who say that again? Zeppelin doc was very, very good.
Mark Mussina 26:31
I just had a movie. Did you post the picture of Gina with
Nestor Aparicio 26:35
slash? I did. I did. And Gina lost one of her best friends in life, and Clem Burke from Blondie, within hours of me texting her, Clem Burke’s the only one that ever sat in with the Go Go’s when Gina was physically unable, because Gina said heart surgery, like all sorts of Gina is a survivor and but Clem Burke from Blondie was was real special to the band. So it’s been a weird week, man in rock and roll, but I’m gonna go back to pitching again and max effort guys arms falling off, because you talk about things that are really losing the game in that way. It’s a very on. There’s a lot of things conspiring about the game moose, and that’s that’s the thing that in a lacrosse town here where kids have that choice, and Mark Viviano came out last week. It tells me that 160 little Leaguers he’s got down in Severna Park, playing baseball. And I’ve heard about the Under Armor thing going on down at the Ford Avenue baseball. And like I get that, I drive around the suburbs every time the lights are on there, playing lacrosse and soccer here, trust me. I mean, I drive around, I see it well,
Mark Mussina 27:38
Baltimore has a chance right now with, you know, with Gunner, with holiday like they have a chance because they have legitimate they have legitimate superstars. And you know, the catcher who, who seemed destined for the Hall of Fame had, you know, had a mediocre season last year. Now you wonder, because you see catchers wear out like Mauer ended up wearing, and now mauer’s In the Hall of Fame. I’m not really sure how, but he caught for a while, and then he ended up at first base, and it was not nearly as long lived as
Nestor Aparicio 28:16
as well. Matt wiers, you know? I mean, that was, there’s
Mark Mussina 28:18
another, yeah, exactly so, um, so we’ll see. But they they certainly have some guys who, you know, you get the youngsters you’re like, I hope he makes and then you get these guys like, whoa, this guy really could end up in Cooperstown. Now, there’s so much between being 23 years old and getting to Cooperstown, but you know, you gotta be great when you’re young. And they’re great, and, and they or they have a chance to be great, and, and that makes it fun. It makes it fun to tune in every day. I remember, you know, our old friend Paul capelke Once toys like the RE because we’re just talking about, why would anyone, you know, why? Why do radio stations want the Oriole rights, and why do and he’s like, because, you know, it’s, it’s a daily TV show starring Cal Ripken, and he’s like, and every day people will tune in to see Cal Ripken and, or to listen, in this case, and, and I remember, I never forgot that And then, and that’s why, when you get through here, you know that the, and I know starting pitchers are on once every five days, but the it becomes an event. You know, when gunner plays, it’s every day, so gunners that, but then you get that, that all star pitcher, or that, that guy who could, who could, you know, you believe he could throw a shutout today. He could throw no hitter today. He’s and and if you have both of those now, you have compelling you have a compelling story for six months. And assuming you have both of those, I assume you have enough parts around it that you have a good team, and baseball did a very good job of EXP. Banning the playoffs because it keeps interest more and and that’s another thing I learned from my time in Pennsylvania, my time in Baltimore, baseball is not the NFL, the the national game of the week no one cares about because when you live in a baseball market, your your national game of the day is your team, day after day after day after day. I don’t need to watch Sunday afternoon to see the Cardinals and the Cubs. I don’t because I am hyper focused on it’s not like the NFL where, okay, my team plays Sunday afternoon. Who’s the Thursday night game? Who’s the Sunday night game? Because all these things matter in baseball, you’re just hyper focused. And when your team leaves the playoffs, a lot of the fans leave with it because their story has come to an end.
Nestor Aparicio 30:47
So that’s a hockey truth, too. I mean, yes, you know, yeah. So, so that’s,
Mark Mussina 30:54
you know, it’s just, it’s different, you know, bat, we just finished March Madness. March Madness has a national appeal to it, because most people don’t have that college basketball team in their neighborhood that they follow. They might have, you know, they’re a Duke fan or their North Carolina fan or whatever, but, or in your case, you guys are Marilyn fans, but it’s just different. And and for, I think for a while, baseball saw football going where it was going and and they’re like, We need to, we need to bring back. Because when I was a kid in the in the 60s, the game of the week was, well, because the game of the week was the only game you can get. And now, with all the other stuff, and we can get our own, our own favorite team, night after night after night after night, the national game of the week isn’t what what baseball really learned later is to put the betting lines on the screen with the way football does and and that’s one of the next evolutions, to embrace it instead of running away from it. Because, you know, the the short term investor really made, really helped the NFL in college football take off
Nestor Aparicio 32:01
well, I you know, and I said this three, four years ago, when gambling came on here, I said, I’ve been doing radio 30 years, and even the most degenerate, degenerate gamblers I’ve ever known, and I’ve known a few. So have you never been on baseball? I mean, I didn’t even know how to bet seven and a half on pitchers and this and that. I mean, it’s like throwing darts. It did, and it was not a part of the conversation. In the way that the ravens are favored by four this weekend would be in the same way that basketball spreads were never maybe in March Madness, you’d have a little bit of 28 point favorites of 15 and a two seed or whatever. But baseball gambling now they see that as you know, Katie Griggs is writing down what you know, that that’s a money pit for them in some way, because there are so many diverse ways to bet on a baseball game that I guess, will become interesting to gamblers in the same way that degenerates I knew set in left field and all put $1 in the bucket, and they found 18 people, whoever hit the home run first, got 18 bucks to keep the game interesting, or whatever that’s going on every minute of every game. Now I’m not a gambler in that way, but baseball sure hopes you are about to become one, because I would see that as a level of engagement for them that they’re not going to find any other way once our generation starts to die off, you know, well, and
Mark Mussina 33:27
you get, yes, the different aspect where it’s not just about point tolls and over unders. You know, how many rushing yards does someone have? How many touchdown passes does someone throw? And in baseball, it’s just the same way. You know, total bases for a hitter, RBIs for hitter, strikeouts for a pitcher. And there are all these little nuances that people it allows the the baseball nerds to really get into it. And I had heard someone had told me, once upon a time, the handle on baseball in Vegas is way higher than you think it is, just because there’s so many games every day and and
Nestor Aparicio 34:07
if you’re there, if you’re there, right? You know, if you’re if you’re in the moment. Now, you don’t have to be in Vegas. You’re there every minute with your phone, which is, you know, I do commercials about, you know, watching that and being careful of that three years ago, and it said nobody’s ever going to bet on baseball. I don’t believe that anymore. You know, I mean, and from a revenue standpoint, that’s a place that they’re going to see revenue when they’re shutting down the upper deck and making the stadium smaller, and they have in lots of these markets now where come to all the games and just walk around and be a part of it and take advantage of the $5 Birdland menu. That’s great. That’s awesome. I don’t know how that that finance is gunner Henderson, you know, and that’s my concern for it, as to where the real revenue is coming from to pay for all of it. That’s all and I’ll continue to ask that question in a market like this, until, um, I see the. Kind of money following baseball that’s going to need to follow it in order to compete well.
Mark Mussina 35:05
But don’t you think, and I get your point if you look at it on a basic level, but I think in the in society, I think I’ve seen it post COVID Now this goes political, that the difference between the haves and the have nots just keeps getting wider in our society. And you know, you take the owner of the Mets who has so much money that he just doesn’t care and you don’t need it’s not as much about fan bases. It’s not as much about how much can you charge per ticket. And what the bottom line is, it’s, do you have 30 owners that are so rich that they’ll lose $50 million and don’t care? And I think
Nestor Aparicio 35:52
the they didn’t get rich not caring, just as as an example, I get that, but now that you know Peter went over his skis for one of your brother left is exactly when Peter went in over his skis. I’ve written about this, oh 20304, he went in 25 million large with the Sagi deal and CO nine and those deals, um, Sydney, ponson, after Albert Bell, all of that. And then it was no more after that. Then McPhail took over, and they ran it not on, not even in 14 and 15, when they put some more money in, they weren’t he learned his lesson on it. Now the kids all hit the walk off Grand Slam with the billion eight at the end. Um, after making a million dollars a day every day, they own the team. I did the math on that, a million a day every day, they own the team. Is what they walk with after all the prophet, but I’m with you. I don’t know whether David Rubenstein’s a sugar daddy or not, but I did go out and hear his speech in November, and he said in front of the congregation, or this industry tends to spend what you have. And I’m thinking, Well, that won’t be good enough here long term. That’s why. Long term.
Mark Mussina 36:59
Yeah, so, so let, and I don’t know David Rubenstein from Adam, and I never heard of him before he he took the team. But so there, if you’re this rich guy, and how did David Rubenstein
Nestor Aparicio 37:10
get rich? Carlisle group, money, money, money management, yep, yep. Okay,
Mark Mussina 37:16
so he has a very anonymous rich, like obviously, rich beyond his wildest he doesn’t
Nestor Aparicio 37:23
want to be anonymous. He’s got a podcast. He thinks of himself as a bon vivant. He here’s how famous he is. You ready? He’s got a bobble head next Saturday night. Okay, so I’m just saying so when you, when you being out in front of this, so when
Mark Mussina 37:39
you talk about the guys that are being you know, they didn’t get rich by wasting money. I get it, but it now there’s a they, they did all these intelligent things to get rich, and now they have the look at money. And anyone
Nestor Aparicio 37:54
before, by the way, yeah. So anyone
Mark Mussina 37:57
who wants to own a professional sports franchise wants attention. They want people to look at me, because I could make better investment and not me, but they could make better investments,
Nestor Aparicio 38:08
and certainly make more quiet, happier investments, yes, and
Mark Mussina 38:12
live anonymously and live but if you have the look at me, you gotta make a splash, and if it if they lose money and pay for the attention. Then there, there are always going to be guys like that. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 38:28
I’m worried that we have one of those guys. You know what? I mean, I don’t know what kind of guy we have here, um, but I do know this, and Mark Messina is our guest here, and we’ll get on the rock and roll in one minute. Obviously, I don’t even go down the Lamar lane with you. I miss you, you know, I I like you more than your brother does, and he knows that, and you know that, so that’s not hard, yeah, yeah. Well, there you go. You return my text. So there we go, you know, I mean, I’m more in touch with you than he is, apparently, being across town, I would just say this on on the money side for Mr. Rubenstein, and what this is going to be evaluating Peter, seeing the differences between model and Bucha, and then Bucha after Ray Rice, after the tragedy, you know, I mean, after things go wrong and all of that. And it has been interesting to watch this guy operate and wonder, because you’re a baseball guy, I can line up. I can tell you how many people I’ve had. Barry bloom this week, Eric Fisher last week, just go through the list. Doug the senses. I’ve had Dave shining. Luke says it again and again and again. And I’m the guy without the press pass that they thinks too hard on them and intimidates them. Everyone this off season is underwhelmed by their pitching of the off season. This isn’t just the morning after Zach Eflin might be heard or all the other arms we’ve gone through here, but like he’s on the team, it’s a splash thing. He’s got a bobble head. He’s in on it. He wants to win. He’s on the commercials. And I haven’t met anybody that thought they had a good. Off season with their money. I’m just saying,
Mark Mussina 40:02
No, I get it. And in every aspect, you know, like with whether it’s with coaches, whether it’s with new coach, there’s always the honeymoon. And you knew the next owner coming in after the angelos, there was going to be ticker tape parades and fanfare, and this guy’s going to be great. And this guy, it is when you are constantly told, Hey, you would be great. You would be great. You would do this. You would everyone’s and people are usually, and then criticism starts. And, you know, it starts everywhere. It starts with new coaches. It starts with quarterbacks. It’s, you know, I read after the Super Bowl that Andy Reid should be fired. And you’re like, really, and when it’s different, because, because, again, so many of these people have had nothing but success in their life. And when you are the CEO of the company, and when you’re when you’re rich enough that you can own and you can buy, and you can hire and you can fire. You don’t have a lot of of criticism,
Nestor Aparicio 41:06
and your failures are very quiet, because you like it that way. And you then you demand it that way. You demand that all criticism halts. And that’s who this guy is. This guy’s not up to sitting and talking to me. You know what I mean, like, and it’s not even about criticism, it’s just about being real. He’s not going to sit and talk to anybody where the questions aren’t handed to them ahead of time. That’s very obvious to me, and it’s obvious in the state, you know, like this guy’s polished and rehearsed to a point, but to your point, what happens when the dam breaks? Right?
Mark Mussina 41:41
And the other aspect too is, I mean, there’s the fair criticisms that they take, and you’re right. They can insulate it. They can they can determine who they talking but you know, being anyone that’s a public figure that, and now with the keyboard warriors that you’re taking criticism from people who don’t have any idea what they’re talking about, who don’t know facts, who have facts wrong and and you know how frustrating that is when you’re like, No, that’s not
Nestor Aparicio 42:06
the no I see who runs the country every day. So I, you know, I see What? What? Bad facts, bad information, dumb science, ignorant folks who you know ignorant at the core, not ignorant like in Dundalk, well, you’re just ignorant, ignorant of facts, of things that sit in front of them. I’ve lived that with the Oriole fan basement. I mean literally, the vileness toward me as an Oriole fan has been holding a bright light up or a mirror for that organization for 30 years that I’ll continue to hold up, but it is. They can come back and say, we spent $170 million on baseball players this year, right? Like there is that, and I’ll hear all of that, but I don’t think they’re any closer to winning. And I and I think that’s the concern here, to your point, they need to win, that you know they need. And even when you’re winning Kansas City, you need to keep winning, or they go away, because that’s the modern world we live in. And I don’t, you know, I don’t know what the plan is here. The guys owned it for a year. Got other people. I don’t. Nobody’s coming out with any grand plan. And you know what Luke says, Well, none of the other teams do that, so that, well, well then your upper decks empty on Game Two, and it’ll be up, you know, give away bobble heads. They they don’t have a strategy. And that’s the part that really concerns me, because I I see other people asking questions I’m trying to glean the information to say, Oh, you spent 2 billion on this. You have a real plan to resurrect the city and with the train station underneath, and all the same problems that John Angelo said about developing the land, what’s the plan, dude? You know what I mean, and that’s from a civic standpoint. That’s not just on the field. That’s when you spend $2 billion and you’re 74 years old, I would think you want to get things done right? I would think
Mark Mussina 43:58
it is, and that’s the thing, it’s hard. And there’s, there’s such a naivety to you know that winning is easy. I remember when, back when the Angelos is took over, and it was the whole thing of their kids playing rotisserie baseball, and they, they were good rotisserie players, so they thought they could own the team and and it’s it just winning is hard and everything. And the difference I mentioned Kansas City before, the difference between Kansas City and Baltimore is Kansas City doesn’t have a Yankees and a Red Sox in their division, and your hope springs way more eternal every year, because you’re not looking at what they have now again, when you look at all the, I shouldn’t say all these, but the successes of these teams. You know, Aaron judge was not a free agent. The only they they drafted them and and when you can, it’s still in any sport, when you can draft your own players and produce your own players. You know, we talk about, you talked about the Ravens earlier. What changed the Ravens franchise? Was the draft of John Ogden and Ray Lewis, and when you hit Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer in the first round, you know, that changes things. And the teams who produce from their own organization, as the Orioles has seemed to have done lately, you know, it certainly gives you a chance, but their margin of error, unfortunately, because they’re in the Yankees Red Sox division is is way smaller.
Nestor Aparicio 45:29
Mark machine is here. You know, I was going to get on the Lamar with you a little bit, because I was just going to say, in the NFL, the Ravens never had the risk that Lamar would just go take the big check like the golfers did with live. You know what I mean? Like, just go and run off to the gypsies. The NFL has contained that. The NHL has contained that. That’s why vets can stay with the capitals, right? Like, you know, leagues have managed to try to get a grip the NBA out of control, but it’s player owned and driven and run at this point, the exact opposite of the way baseball used to be. But alright, let’s get the Rock and Roll dude. Tommy Conwell, I want to give you the floor on this because you and I have been in the same room together once in the last decade, and I realized that at like, six in the morning the next day, when I scrolled through my text and I’m like, we were in the same room in Harrisburg for three hours, one night, five feet apart, and didn’t say hello to each other, and it was in a Tommy Conwell concert. So
Mark Mussina 46:27
the funny story is, and that I should have I texted you while I was there, I know, and I Yes, why I didn’t text you before? I don’t know, but this is what happened. So I it is one of the bands that I have. I love Tommy Conwell. I, if I remember once you said, if I could burn a hole through this disc, I probably would have and it rumble. I have two copies of it, just in case. And, and, and I had come to grips with the fact that I was never going to see him live. I saw him in Fells Point in the eight by 10 with the little kings back in the day you were there. You don’t remember this, but I
Nestor Aparicio 47:06
remember it well. I He had a three piece. Darrell was his his sax player just passed away in recent years. Yeah.
Mark Mussina 47:13
So, so I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’m never going to see Tommy Conwell live and on my you know crap that you know because your phone keeps sending you stuff you care about and and he was playing in Harrisburg, and I bought two tickets right then I didn’t know who the other person was going to go. I was going to eat the other one if I didn’t, but I was going to drag someone with me, and an old friend of mine just happened to be in town, who’s a rock and roll guy. I said, What are you doing Saturday night? We’re going I have your ticket. You don’t even have to pay me back. So we go. So I’m like, I just, I had a blast, and he was great, and he was so fun. And and I love, I love the old bands who get it, who are just happy to be there. I have trouble sometimes with the old bands who grit and they’re boy, and they’re just like, like, they’re pretending that this in you. I’m like, Dude, you’re playing in front of a hundreds. You’re not playing in Madison Square Garden. Like, enjoy the moment. We’re happy. You’re here. You should be happy you’re here. Don’t give me this. Like, Game face. So anyway, and Tommy was a blast. So then fast forward six months, a buddy of mine from college, one of my longtime friends, he says, Hey, I got tickets to see motley crew at the Hard Rock in AC in Atlantic City, and you’re coming, and you don’t have to pay for anything. You have to chip in for the room. But I have the tickets. Okay, so I’m there, so of course, I’m going back and forth. Who’s opening? I don’t know. Okay, so then find out who’s opening, and he text me back, and he says, it’s some band called Tommy Conwell. So I was like, you have so in six months I see him both, and I’m sitting there, and my buddy has done very well for himself, and we’re in the VIP section, so we are right at the stage, and I am pumped to see like we’re getting
Nestor Aparicio 49:02
there. I don’t really want to be that close to Vince Neil at this point. Do you well? He
Mark Mussina 49:07
said to me, he said our we are so close, we’re going to be able to see Vince lip sync. That’s that was his fair enough. Yeah. So, so we’re there, and I’m like, Dude, I need to be there for the opening band. We’re not showing up late because I love and I’m there, and I’m singing along with every song, and there’s this, there are these motley crew couple next to me, and the blonde chick reaches over and taps me on the shoulder. She goes, You clearly know who these guys? Who are they? They’re really good. And I’ve so I’m I’m on my phone, I’m pulling up, I’m showing her and her boyfriend, or whoever they are. I’m like, this is the album you need to get. So I was jet, if
Nestor Aparicio 49:45
the album really gets walking on water, which is the EP that came before that, on the cornerstone. Do you know about this walking?
Mark Mussina 49:52
I know walking on water was the EP. I don’t own it. Oh, well,
Nestor Aparicio 49:57
I should ship that over to you. I have some. Conwell K rock live from that era that was broadcast on radio. K rock used to take a concert in New York, and I’m trying to think of what room it was in the empire room, or stuff like, but either way, it was a live concert. I have some good mp three stuff. But you know, Tommy’s come on the show in recent years and visited. He actually visited my home for a whole different story. It had to do with forgotten equipment at the record theater two years ago, and we’ve had some but he’s playing in Lancaster this week. So I will pass along your love of Tommy Conwell and the young Rumblers, and I would agree with you that they were one of those bands that like when they come and play, you should go see them play. And they they only do this a couple, four times a year these days, but when they play, go see him play, because they’re great.
Mark Mussina 50:48
I just, I appreciate the guys that are that are having fun. They’re happy that they can play. And like when we saw him in Harrisburg, when he came up and he says, um, we played this song at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1989 and then everyone’s like, Oh, okay. And I So, but, and I tell people this too, because you’ve seen, you know, 10,000 shows, but you know, when I go see, you know, Brett Michaels in the summer, or when, when I go, I’m trying to think of, I always I see Tom Keifer whenever I get a chance, because I love Tom Kiefer and Cinderella and and people I gotta why you go see these on 80s bands? I said because, if they’re still together, they’re sober now, and they they sound usually really good, and you’re in a small place, it not all. You know, there’s the Vince Neils. They don’t always sound good, but a lot of these bands that are still out there, if you’ve seen winger lately, have you seen winger
Nestor Aparicio 51:51
lately? I saw him at m3 two years ago. I saw
Mark Mussina 51:55
him in in Jim Thorpe PA, and they ripped it like so
Nestor Aparicio 52:00
well, Tesla is still great. I saw the black crows last year, you know, like I, you know, the m3 thing happens every year. My buddy John Allen has put Child’s Play kind of back together in Brian’s absence, to be able to play once or twice a year to go out and do it for the people like us who love it, and reunion shows. And hey, I have Rick Emmett from triumph on a couple of weeks ago. Not that they’re getting their band together, but all of the hairspray, Sebastian Bach, the night Ranger guys, they’re all doing a tribute to triumph. It’s an album. It’s coming out next month.
Mark Mussina 52:39
Is finally doing it. Apparently,
Nestor Aparicio 52:40
they’re going to play. They’re good. Sebastian. Sebastian.
Mark Mussina 52:43
They all hate each other, but they’re going to do it anyway. Well, I saw Warren Martin
Nestor Aparicio 52:47
de Martini got together with Steven Piercy from rat last week. So look, you know, one last go. And if I could do anything in this lifetime, other than maybe have your brother on the show and have a beer with him, you know, if I got together with your brother, we’d have to have a Zima for old times sake, uh, because it’s been that long. But, um, you, for me, it would be getting Kevin Cronin back on good terms with our ears. I can’t get sticks back together. But this REO Speedwagon breakup here at the end is just, it’s, it’s like a who shot Jr in the in the soap opera that I’m not willing to to withstand some of the pain of these, these artists hating each other at the end of their lives. You know, it
Mark Mussina 53:27
does seem, yes, it does seem weird I remember, and I’m not a big fan of Gene Simmons, but when the whole, when the when the kiss going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they didn’t have Peter, and they didn’t have ace and, and I remember Gene said, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s like a divorce. You know, we’re in a marriage. We had our good times, we had our bad times. We were, we were now we’re divorced now. We have a new wife, and there’s an aspect where I I’m happy with the new wife, and I don’t want to go back to the first wife as much as everyone else wants us in the first wife, because those are their memories. Me and the first wife don’t get along very well and and I when you take the the personalities, I can understand why we’re financially if you don’t need to. I can understand why Eddie and Alex were flying on different planes than Michael and Sammy were, and it’s too bad for the fans, and now Eddie’s gone and will never have it again. But when you look at the bands like Skid Row, I’m sure they could use a buck or two. And it was, it was, it’s shocking to me. And again, like with rat, it was shocking to me that they just couldn’t, like, just go play now, like. Like, hauling oats. Oh, my God, right, like, but they don’t need the money so well,
Nestor Aparicio 55:07
the guys in journey, I, you know, I, I’ll give you a rock and roll story. You want one that’ll break your heart. This will break your heart. But, well, because your journey guy like me, right? I mean, I camped out for tickets in the escape tour and the, you know, back in frontiers and all that. Um, the band manager of Journey is a long time friend of mine. He actually managed Van Halen back in the era when you and I were backstage. He probably was involved in that. That night we were backstage at Merryweather with our incredible pictures that we have are just some of the greatest pictures of our lives. And your brother did a lot of things, but he only took one picture with all the Van Halen you and I are in it. Um, so but, but that era, um, I ran into and that was a trip I shouldn’t have been on at all. My wife was in the hospital the second time, and I was working. Even though Chad Steele doesn’t think I worked for a living. I flew out to Arizona for a Ravens, Cardinals game on a Monday night in 2015 It was right before Flacco was going to get injured. The team was terrible. They lost 37 to 13. It was it was bad all the way around after the Super Bowl, and I went out there miserable time, my wife was fighting. Her father came to sort of sit in sister. So I wasn’t feeling like guilty. I just felt like, I don’t want to be in Arizona. Game ends, I get in the elevator, and Jonathan Kane’s in the elevator because journey played the pre game Monday night thing. So the band manager recognizes me from 30 years ago and rock and roll. I shake Jonathan Kane’s hand. I’m a little forlorn looking. I want to get the hell home. And he gives me a card says, when we come through, your wife’s going to be okay. When we come through, we’re going to take care of come see say hello to the band. So two years later, journey comes through with whatever the acts were, Toto, a bunch of bands, they were doing whatever the thing was when Brian Adams, but it was like that, and we get the backstage passes and all that. This happened the week that Jonathan Cain and Neil shown went at. It was the first time Trump was one in the country. And remember, the wife is now involved with reaching the Trump, whatever’s going on. But this was when all the wacky stuff was happening with the band. We got backstage passes. They were Baltimore. Nobody was speaking to anybody. So I had a backstage with journey where the singer, the younger singer, give me his name. Come on, help me out. I can’t think of his name, the kid from the Philippines, yeah. Jim from Philippines. Yeah, he’s like, I heard him say out loud, do we really have to meet these people backstage? There’s 200 fans, man, we’re gonna meet journey. Where’s Neil? Well, he and John really don’t talk, so we can’t bring him out for the backstage, for the thing, for the pictures, for the whatever, and they get on stage and they they’re still playing like I would have told this is 2017 maybe 18, that this happened. I would have told you, there’s no way that band can continue. They’ve played 100 shows since then, and it made $150 million since then. And I’m telling you that I don’t think they talk in your point. You
Mark Mussina 58:24
know, it’s crazy. It is crazy. And, and again, you think with like, former relations, especially people that are married and have kids and that they would just be able to sit down and and, and, like, just be
Nestor Aparicio 58:37
nice at church. Just be nice during the when the kids are singing at the show, right? Again, it’s hard though, dude,
Mark Mussina 58:43
societally, like, you look at politics, and it’s just, Hey, can’t we just be nice to the P and and, no, can’t we just focus on the things we agree on? I mean, that’s what I do with with my colleagues, because, again, I’m the only Democrat, and there’s two Republicans. Like, let’s just focus on what we need to work on. Like, what’s our budget? Someone retired? Do we need to replace that person? And like, let’s focus on the stuff that we can and we get along great. But when you, if you so quickly, go to the to the differences, and when you think back of the like, Oh, this is a person I don’t like, and this is why I don’t like them, as opposed to, Hey, why did we used to like each other? Why did we get along? What so? But again, what when you get to a point in life where you can afford to not pretend, and I wonder how much of that is, too you know, how many marriages pretend to be happy because they’re financially dependent, or how many, you know, how many, how many marriages, if each person was independently wealthy, would they just go their separate ways and say, I don’t like this. And how many rock bands, when they get to the point where they’re independently wealthy, they’re just like, Listen, I’m not pretending anymore. But
Nestor Aparicio 59:52
sting did not want to be in a band with Stuart Copeland. Those just, he just did not. Yeah, and,
Mark Mussina 59:57
and, but the the one that. It hurts everyone in America. Well, Simon and Garfunkel and Hall and Oates are the two that you’re just like, please just like each other. And apparently they don’t.
Nestor Aparicio 1:00:10
Well, I like you and you like me. Sometimes, once a year over rock and roll, Mark Messina has been my guest the last hour. He is the tell me what you don’t want to get your I’m a county commissioner. Count. I was going to say court commissioner, but it’s not in court. I told people, if I won, I was going to legally change my name to Gordon, so I could be Commissioner Gordon, but I never went around and did, well, get you on the bat phone and get you out of here and let you go run the lie coming a county government. Um, you know, I hope your brothers, well, give him my love. I hope your kids family, you know all the I hope we get a baseball game in one day, or it may be a concert one one day. You and may Hershey might get
Mark Mussina 1:00:50
Saturday night, um, we will. We will get to
Nestor Aparicio 1:00:53
rent a car and get your ass to Lancaster on Saturday night. And I’ll buy you proper I only eat two things. I remember pizza and cheeseburgers, french fries.
Mark Mussina 1:01:04
That’s three things. What was the last one? French fries? What else do you need? Pizza,
Nestor Aparicio 1:01:09
cheeseburgers, french fries as your one time roommate for, I don’t know, year, year and a half hour long it was. That’s all. I remember you eat, mainly pizza.
Mark Mussina 1:01:19
What else? What else do you need with nothing
Nestor Aparicio 1:01:22
on it? Right? You just like pepperoni. Is it, right? I like playing
Mark Mussina 1:01:26
pizza. I mean, I’ll get it done. The people who load the pizza with toppings, I don’t get that,
Nestor Aparicio 1:01:30
see, I invited you out. This is, I don’t even know you. Mark Messina, I invited you out on Saturday night for pizza, and you’re gonna get nothing on it. I’m not taking you out for pizza. I’ve changed my mind. We’re going to do something else with you on Saturday night. Martin messine has been my friend and enduring me for I’m at 3233 years. I guess it goes back to 9293 somewhere in there. We’re not young, we are not young, but we’re still beautiful. And I miss you. I love having you on make some more time for me in football season, I’ll come back and beat up on the Cowboys for
Mark Mussina 1:02:03
you. Alright, this is our year, buddy
Nestor Aparicio 1:02:06
Kip. You know, whose year it is. This is what I’ve done since the Ravens have thrown me out. I’ve readopted my past. I’ve gone back to a team. It’s almost like being a fan of like the Washington generals, or, you know, the Harford whalers, the Oilers can never win, and they can never lose. So therefore I’m happy every day of the year. I am Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
