Mark Viviano finally tells Nestor the whole back story of his scoop of Browns coming to Baltimore in 1995
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
baltimore, crab cake, browns, oyster, team, years, kevin, story, cleveland browns, cleveland, nestor, move, hagerstown, world, people, game, remember, cocos, st louis, donut
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Marcella Knight, Mark Viviano
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, Jost, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We got logos all over the place. Our friends at Liberty, pure solutions are putting us out on the road. They take care of my water, my well water, keeping me safe, keep my showers nice. But the oysters are the ones who take care of the Chesapeake Bay. So weโre gonna honor the oysters all month by eating them. More of them in various ways. Weโre gonna start today, Cocos. You can follow on the internet. The hashtag is MD, oyster tour onto a crab cake tours, which Iโm in the middle of right here at Cocos. I have to go and rush seven stumblers from the Maryland lottery. I will have the Raven scratch offs once I give this handsome stack out and I have my little app. Viv, you caught me like checking peopleโs apps, right? Poor ladies thought they wanted and win.
Mark Viviano 00:44
Delivered the bad news, but you did it gracefully. That was nice. You like my game show.
Nestor Aparicio 00:51
Mark Viviano was here. He used to be on the television. You look like the guy on the television. So I yeah, I want to do that. This is your life. Because I really do want to go back like your family and like all have all that fun, but your most famous in my media world, as Iโve been on the radio four years. At the time, nasty Nestor, I was on Wlg didnโt have a station. It was 1995 and this whole notion for any of these kids, and certainly for Chad Steele as well, the notion of what a miracle the Ravens were for this community and how unbelievable, like the notion that I could go out tonight and see the northern lights here in Baltimore feels impossible to me, right? Like it feels like that was just could never happen. It just felt like we werenโt getting a team. And Mark, Iโm not some like guy from Dundalk on you know, I was at the newspaper every day, every night, doing the scoreboard page with almost 15 years old by the time the team left. And by the way, weโre doing a sports first reunion two weeks from now, because itโs the 40th anniversary of it failing, which is September 21 1984 my son was born the next day. So itโs a 40th anniversary. Lots of recigs gonna be here later to talk about it. But so, you know, I guess in all of this, the notion that we would get a team, I saw Vito stellino. I you know, all the reporters, John Steadman, these were all people. They would go to these owners meetings and get yanked off by Leonard toast and Rankin Smith and ursay had the voters say, had to vote for Baltimore to get back into the league. That was part of the deal. So every year, HERBIE Bell grab would take his crab cakes to this ownerโs meeting that and he would come back and Vito would write something thatโs a pretty good veto. Veto and write something really good about, you know, whoa, I donโt really think the chances are good. You know, that would be veto telling me that in 1989 when little Nestor is in his Oilers gear, sitting in Sandy McKees cube at the sun, thinking Charlie Ekman dairy, no way weโre getting the team back leader, and you stumble upon this, and it was such a hot thing that I think of Steadman, if any reporter had it to think, to go with it, that the Browns are moving to Baltimore. As insane as that sounds even say it 30 years later, the Browns are moving to Baltimore. Give me the story, Viv because I literally donโt know it. So
Mark Viviano 03:26
I covered the Cleveland Browns while in Dayton, Ohio. I covered the browns and the bangles. I was there for some bad Browns teams and some pretty good teams. You went up to Cleveland from Dayton that that that part of the state thatโs Ohio, yes, right. Okay. Remember, the Bengals were relatively new. They they joined the league, and I think 6869 the Browns had been there since the 50s, 40s. So they were statewide the bank. The Bengals, although closer to Dayton, there were still a lot of holdouts, like the Nationals would be new to, right, similar, right? So I would drive. It was good three hour drive to Cleveland for their home games cover their teams. Kevin Byrne was the PR, absolutely.
Nestor Aparicio 04:08
Dino was there then. Did you know? Did you know there was a whole staff of people, tons
Mark Viviano 04:12
of Yeah, I was there. Iโll never forget a conversation I had with Bill Belichick on the field. This is his first head coaching job in the NFL. Heโs head coach of the Cleveland Browns at the community college there, where they had training camp back then. And Iโm doing stand ups on an empty field. Bill Belichick comes running out. He comes running out. He goes, Hey, whatโs up? He just wanted to meet people. And we ended up talking about everything other than football, and he was really a good guy. He was a nice guy. What you see otherwise, youโll hear a lot of stories about how Belichick, when you get him away from the media and football, heโs perfectly good human being. Itโs when heโs immersed in the world of competition that he becomes this, this, this very. Difficult guy to deal with. Anyway, I covered the browns, so Iโm now. Now Iโm in Baltimore, and Iโm aware of the Colts and the scab thatโs still in Baltimore over the loss of the Colts. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 05:12
youโre St Louis guy, right?
Mark Viviano 05:15
St Louis are gone the Cardinals. Theyโve lost, theyโve left. Lost two teams in my lifetime, they lost the Cardinals, and then they lost the Rams who came and left. Well, you werenโt there for that, but you my family was,
Nestor Aparicio 05:27
yeah, you had Jim. You saw Jim Hart stuff in sports bars, you know, literally, right? I mean, absolutely, very Metcalf And so anyway,
Mark Viviano 05:35
how the story comes about. So Iโve only been in town. Iโve only been in Baltimore for a year and a few months, Iโm doing a fill in for Ken Rosenthal on W Bal radio. Rosenthal would do a show
Nestor Aparicio 05:50
Jackman used to do him sometimes too. Iโm
Mark Viviano 05:53
just filling in. Iโm filling in and the guy, the producer of the show during a break, goes, Hey, Mark, thereโs a guy that wants to talk to you. He doesnโt want to be on the air. He just wants to talk to you off the air. Iโm like, okay, Patch me through so weโre on. He goes, Hey, I know youโre pretty new to town. Iโve been watching you. Youโre good. We needed we need good we need good talent like you in this town. Iโve got some information. Iโm in on the deal that is on the financial end of the deal to bring the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore. Iโd like to show you some of the documentation that I have about this. Are you game? Iโm like, am I game? Yeah, Iโm game. So I meet him the next day, and this is, like, youโre in Baltimore, Iโm in Baltimore. Okay, all right. So he tells me his name is Chris, and he tells me to meet him down by the airport at this one bar. He still knows the name of the bar. This guy, by the way, is a good friend of mine. Now, I pull up into the in the parking lot of this restaurant bar, and the parking lotโs empty, except for one black SUV, and he pulls his over next to me. He goes, Hey, Iโm Chris. This place is closed. I got another place at this point. Iโm like, Okay, what? This guyโs gonna kill me? Heโs going to murder me. I donโt know him. Iโm there to follow him. And he and he leads me down kind of this back road to this other bar. It was kind of like it was really
Nestor Aparicio 07:20
sketchy Sopranos episode.
Mark Viviano 07:24
So we go in, and itโs, like, it is. Itโs like, Hollywood. Thereโs a guy with the apron on,
Nestor Aparicio 07:29
Bernie, dude, itโs Ferndale.
Mark Viviano 07:31
Heโs got an apron on. Heโs behind the bar, and thereโs nobody in there. And this is, like, itโs, itโs like, two oโclock, three oโclock in the afternoon, we sit at this corner table, he pulls out all these papers, and heโs showing me the paperwork of Iโm glad I asked this question. I donโt know how this deal is going down, all right. And Iโm looking at this going, this is this is unbelievable. I said I covered the Cleveland Browns. I know who they are. I know art mode I know who art modell is, and
Nestor Aparicio 08:01
I know his place is a dump, and I know the baseball I mean, you knew the circumstances, but there hadnโt been a whisper of this, none. Not a whisper, not
Mark Viviano 08:09
a whisper. So anyway, he goes, there you go. And Iโm like, okay, so I go straight back to Bal, to my news director, Dave Roberts, and explain to him what I got. And he says, What? Yeah, pretty much says, What. What are you talking about here? So anyway, remember I told you so the Cleveland Indians are in the World Series. Or, Yes, this is 9094 Iโm sorry, 95 this is 95 the year after baseball. Iโm
Nestor Aparicio 08:40
going to give you my story now, because I want to hear the rest of this, because this happened within 48 hours. Okay, so Kevin Eck was my best friend in the world. You know, Kevin, right? Kevin worked at the sun at the time and at the News America before that. And Kevin and I grew up met 1979 standing in line to get Billy Smithโs autograph at games at East Point Mall. Wow, in the summer, August of 79 three weeks later, we met in seventh grade, and heโs like, Oh, youโre the loud guy that was at the mall getting autographs. And Iโm like, Yeah, thatโs me. So Iโm 10 at the time, right? So flash forward, 1617, years later, 1995, you know what a baseball hat I am, Ryan me and Aparicio, right? So when a team came to Baltimore, I realized the players had access to World Series tickets, and like I could get them and go. So in 1992 when the SID Breen thing happened, I was sitting on strips in Pittsburgh to go to actually go to the World Series, and I had to give the tickets back to David sege, and he got my $80 back, or whatever. So the next year, 93 I went to the World Series. I went to Philadelphia, Curt Schilling. He married my best friend, growing up from across the street, like all that. I went to Toronto. I was there when Carter hit the home run. All that. 94 thereโs no World Series. 95 thereโs gonna be a World Series, right? And you know itโs gonna be and Iโm on the radio four years now. Iโm, you know, doing things. Iโm nasty. I got spa. Answers, Bubba St Louis, my sponsor. So I got tickets for the World Series. And I got two tickets up on the roof, probably from the Orioles, probably from Evelyn Hellers or something, you know, at that time, or whatever, right? And or maybe from a player I donโt even remember, Chris hoyles Or somebody, or Ben McDonald somebody told me to strip it tickets, Brady somebody, and I said to Kevin, you want to go out to go out to Cleveland for some games. They got a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now, and weโll go out. Weโll chase some girls. Weโre both 26 that was the week that Gary Miller had the incident the basement. You can Google that. That was that week. So that World Series games three, four and five were in Cleveland. It was cold as hell. I broadcast from the field. I got pictures of me with Chris Berman and like, all this stuff going on. And Kevin just was like a regular guy. Kevin landed to go to two of the games he flew, and he was working the paper, and was just $29 on Southwest Airlines at the time. Remember that $19 so he flew out to Cleveland, came up, and Kevin didnโt travel a whole lot, or whatever. He got in cabs, and which were always expensive for Dundalk guy, right? And he got in the cab to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Trust me, thereโs a point to the story. He goes over to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and itโs closed because they had a gala there, because the World Series game five was going on, sure. So they shut it down. He couldnโt get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and now heโs in cleaving. I know where he is. Thereโs no Google, man. He gets in a cab, and the cab ride he got in. I wrote about this in Purple Rain one as well. Probably wrote about it better than Iโll tell you the story, because he told me about this later in an adult establishment that we were in later in the evening down in Brook Park. I didnโt go to the game with him. I was on the field broadcast, and it was cold as hell. He showed up. We sat together up in the stands, even though I had a press box seat, but I had a ticket. Weโre up in the right field stands, and weโre up there, and weโre freezing and watching the game. And he says to me, I did this and went there, and I had to get in a cab, and I had to take a cab over here. It was a cluster. I barely got here in time for the national anthem, whatever it was, right? And he said, I had a crazy cab ride, dude. Iโm like, what he said? Cabbie asked me where I was from, and I said, Baltimore. And he said he looked into the rear view mirror in the back seat, and he said, youโre getting to Cleveland Browns. The Browns are coming to Baltimore, and Kevinโs a reporter, and the son in the backseat, and heโs like, Who is this Kook? You know, I mean, and the cab, he said to Kevin, Iโm neighbors with one of the banker guys for art modell. And he turns around and Kevin in a cab, and he says, Youโre gonna remember me, pal, because the Cleveland Browns are coming to Baltimore. Kevin, that tells me this at game five of the World Series, up at the Jake we went out that night, and we were literally in a bar. Some people might have been dancing there, and weโre having some drinks, and we watched the post game with Chris Berman, ESPN, you know all that weโre in there watching the highlights, and we flew out the next morning. That was the day the deal was signed. Was that the morning we went to the airport, because we were staying right outside the airport, the deal got signed. And you broke that story within four days, five it was within that week. It was the World Series, right? Because, oh yeah, because I called, I call october 25, 678, somewhere in there, right at that point,
Mark Viviano 13:25
like, what happens oftentimes in local television news, if youโve got a story and thereโs another end to it, which would be Cleveland, you kind of try to pull resources and say, Hey, what are you hearing? So I yeah, what are you hearing? So I call Jim Donovan. Is a legislator, right? Heโs the voice of the browns, so he picks up the phone. I said, Jim Mark Viviano, Iโm at the NBC affiliate in Baltimore. Listen, Iโve gotten some real credible tips about some movement of a deal to move the Browns to Baltimore, and I donโt blame Jim for this. I just this was a common reaction even among Baltimore media. Jim Donovan, Hey, man, weโve heard that song and dance quite a bit around here. The Indians are in the world series right now. Good luck with the story. Ah,
Nestor Aparicio 14:19
you remember it exactly that way, exactly that
Mark Viviano 14:21
way. So there were, there were some, a few Cleveland radio stations would have me on, and one of them called me up. I said, Yeah, Iโll go on. Iโll tell you what I know, unbeknownst to me, it was kind of a setup. Mayor Michael White was in studio with them, Cleveland, Mayor Michael White, and theyโre saying, okay, Mark Viviano joins us from Cleveland. Heโs the one whoโs been reporting that the Browns are actually in conversations with state officials in Maryland about moving, you know, the team, this and that. And I said, Well, this is, this is what Iโve learned at this point. Weโve at this point, Sandusky and me and our news director had built. Uh, you know, some corroborating evidence to the the information that I had. And then, well, Mark, uh, Mayor Michael White is here with us, here in studio, and this guy just, he just, he denounced everything. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 15:13
they were trying to get it on the ballot right, to get the stadium renovations that that that was the plan in 95 was the renovate the the mistake on
Mark Viviano 15:21
the and it was all too late for art. Art went. Art needed a lifeline, just to save himself, because he was going bankrupt for paying guys like Andre risen, and he needed the money that Baltimore was holding. They had it so,
Nestor Aparicio 15:33
and John knew that. Yeah, so the John Moog, the final,
Mark Viviano 15:38
the final confirmation that we got came from Mayor Schmoke. Mayor Schmoke said, you guys got it. Youโre on it. Thereโs a press conference in the parking lot scheduled for, I think it was November, 4 or fifth, whatever it was. I
Nestor Aparicio 15:50
met Peter King that day. So what I did parking lot D, letโs
Mark Viviano 15:54
so we rewind 30 years. This is, this is what I did. I go get some W, b, a, l, letterhead, sit down at a typewriter, type the story. W Bal TV Baltimore is reporting. The Cleveland Browns have a deal in place and will announce on november 5 that they are relocating to Baltimore. Faxed it to ESPN Bob Lee read it on the air. Now youโll know this as a media guy. If you have that story in 2024 that story, you tweet one bit about it. Itโs over. Itโs over. Youโll never own it. Itโs not yours. At that time, there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter. Well, you
Nestor Aparicio 16:38
know my W NST breaking news thing. That was a thing 15 years ago. Now, itโs just, itโs just information. It just goes and it doesnโt get credited to the Los Angeles Times or to the reporters name you donโt certainly, yeah, itโs just
Mark Viviano 16:51
nobody had it, nobody if anybody had it, nobody put it out there. Nobody went with it. Nobody. So it was, it was our story. It was, it was entirely our story. Now that was a huge thing to be at that press conference, because even the local TV stations, and Scott, Scott Garza is a dear friend of mine, John burin, who I eventually replaced, but they were like those stations were running ads denouncing my reports. Donโt believe the hype. Whistling past the grave. I remember whistling past the grave, yeah, itโs like, well, it happened. It actually happened. And it was, it was nuts. I mean, it was, it was a huge story, and it was saying
Nestor Aparicio 17:35
there were going to be northern lights here tonight. And it actually happened, like, they, like, I canโt, as a person that was here, itโs itโs still, for younger people, theyโll never appreciate what John did, what William Donald, what the community did. I mean, even the PSL talk about trying to sell a PSL right now for the football you know what? I mean, like if they had to do that again, if they had to get a legislature to hold money for a decade, if they had to get William Donald Schaefer to get in the way of Jack Kent Cooke moving the Redskins to Laurel, all of the things that could happen that and art had to be going broke. They had to find the right candidate. Because I donโt know that bud Adams would ever move the teammate. You know, like it didnโt feel like it always just felt like we were going to get used. Like, I donโt know, Portland, Birmingham, Memphis, name these places that are never gonna get a team. San Antonio, you know, they have a dome down there. 40 years theyโre not getting a team, right? It just felt like we were we they werenโt gonna let us play. I mean, maybe you didnโt feel that we could do to town exactly. You saw it as well. The Oilers can. Everybody else can move
Mark Viviano 18:40
Jacksonville and Carolina. Got the team that you guys thought you were going to get here before I got here.
Nestor Aparicio 18:45
It was every reason Angelos believes he had the Buccaneers. He died with believing that they screwed him. I
Mark Viviano 18:50
remember going down to to RFK for for then Redskins game, and Angelos was on the field interviewing Peter Angeloโs because they were playing the Buccaneers. He was down there because he was, he was, you called her house. Was dying. He was out there. He was out there for this. You guys went through a Mike Brownโs in town, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Bengals might move here. Georgia frontier.
Nestor Aparicio 19:13
Al Davis, oh, oh, my God, that 98 rock guy, the maybes, Bob rivers had a song, Mr. Bidwell, bring us your team, and that we were trying to steal your
Mark Viviano 19:26
team. Thatโs right, St Louis and they moved to Arizona in 97 I think, ended up No,
Nestor Aparicio 19:31
no. 8787 I was at the sun. Then they were selling Baltimore Cardinals shirts. Stan Rappaport wore one at the Baltimore Sun in 1987 there was Balti Google, Baltimore Cardinals gear.
Mark Viviano 19:43
Thereโs also Baltimore Brownโs gear,
Nestor Aparicio 19:45
yeah, but that really happened. Mark vivianos here, so that you had a deep throat named Chris, not his real name, not his
Mark Viviano 19:54
real name, yeah. In fact, you might know him. I might know the real person. You might know the right I may have already made because. Youโre well, I know this. Steve Hennessy knew him. Oh, wow, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 20:05
did Martin mole bring the browns? Thatโs good.
Mark Viviano 20:12
I can tell you his name. He was in my wedding. Heโs a dear
Nestor Aparicio 20:15
friend of this. Go ahead. Go ahead. I donโt know, shocked me. Go ahead.
Mark Viviano 20:18
Kevin Butler, Kevin, okay.
Nestor Aparicio 20:22
Bay Area mortgage Sure. Long time. Listener, mom, yeah, he owns the hammer jacks. He
Mark Viviano 20:27
does. He owns, he owns the the guy, is it my wedding? I just saw Christ. He doesnโt brag more about this. Heโs cool. Weโre just dear friends. Have been ever since. Now
Nestor Aparicio 20:41
I know why it was such a seedy bar in Glen Burnie. Weโre one of the best bars in Baltimore, maybe in the world. Weโre Cocoโs pub. Weโre Laravel. Have you been here before? No, and you insisted on coming here.
Mark Viviano 20:54
I saw, I saw that. I saw them making these arenโt baseball size 11 ounces Theyโre like mini football.
Nestor Aparicio 21:02
Marcellus, right behind. Sheโs in the shot, right this? Marcella, her mother, Marcella, come tell him about this 11 ounce crab cake. Oh, my goodness. So her motherโs hands. This is only way she knew how to make the crab cake. So her mother made it like this, and they didnโt even know how big it was, because thatโs, thatโs phenomenal. They donโt, you know, I mean, they weigh them now, but like, theyโre, theyโre huge rant here. He wanted to know, like, why this weather? So why theyโre not Viviano, um, retired and retired?
Mark Viviano 21:35
No, I want you to know I saw your guy making those and putting them in the cooler over here. Iโve never seen a crab cake that big. Iโve seen watermelons that, yeah, thatโs
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
unbelievable. Tell them why theyโre that big.
Marcella Knight 21:49
Theyโre that big because of my momโs hands. That was the size of my momโs hands when she used to make the crab cakes. She never weighed them. She just molded them. And thatโs the size of the crab cake. And
Nestor Aparicio 21:59
then once people would hear start, there used to be pool tables, right? We are right now. I mean, this was like a real corner, like little place, yeah, and Iโve known her since the Emerald tavern. Tell them about me wearing my oiler helmet on game days at the Emerald tavern, everybody thereโs betting, you know? And by the way, itโs Gambling Awareness Month. I did a whole piece on that with John Martin this morning. Not that that pay phone out in front of the Emerald tavern. Was something back in the day, but her and her mom on Sundays, I guess this place was closed, maybe, yeah, and they would come and watch football. This is it was the Browns backers bar in 1993 9495
Mark Viviano 22:36
until if I had a known that this would have been the place to come to get the reaction if I went to close. Do you remember
Nestor Aparicio 22:42
on the opening day when they had a sign that circled that said, Jump art, David land on it, or whatever? Was that from? That was the Browns packers paid for that. They paid the 300 bucks or whatever to have the plane fly around. So Iโve known her that long, and her mom and she would always say, we own Coco pub. Come by and get a crab cake. And I know I come in here a couple times 20 years ago, and all of these years sheโs this place is one of the gems in Baltimore. Itโs just one of the great so he wanted to come here because he hadnโt been here yet, and heโs heard about crab cakes. So heโs
Marcella Knight 23:13
taken one of the his wife, my husband is so upset that he canโt be here today to be a real sports celebrity. He said everything that you did, and he used to watch you all the time.
Mark Viviano 23:27
I will arrange that I come back just to have dinner with him.
Marcella Knight 23:30
Letโs do that. Oh, that would be wonderful. I
Mark Viviano 23:32
mean, youโre having me here, and Iโm sorry Iโm missing him, but I would love to come back. Yeah, heโs
Marcella Knight 23:35
out in Hagerstown visiting with his dad today. Gotcha so he couldnโt make it, but he was like, Oh my gosh, I canโt believe so
Nestor Aparicio 23:42
is he coming back tonight from Hagerstown? Yes. If he leaves after seven oโclock, tell him to bring you donuts from krumpies. They donโt open those seven at night. Itโs in an alley.
Mark Viviano 23:52
Go get donuts in an alley. Itโs all good,
Nestor Aparicio 23:55
dude. You stole the browns in a bar in Ferndale with a guy named Chris. Yeah. Itโs not really Chris, yeah, krumpies Donuts. Itโs a I had the former mayor of Hager, standout. Sheโs now the the drugs are for the for the state, the opioid special response for Westmore. Sheโs the former mayor of hey, reminds me you, quite frankly, sheโs, sheโs spunky and awesome. So she thereโs a donut place two blocks where she lives. Itโs the most famous donut place in Hagerstown. And when I did the crab cake tour a couple years ago, I looked it up and it opened. It said, 7pm What a weird and Iโm like, no no. Google did this wrong. I mean, donut place in an alley in Hagerstown Open 7pm Iโm like, and theyโre like, no, no, no. Itโs kind of open to seven tonight. Thatโs really the way they do donuts here. And if you go at 710 Donโt be a line of 10 cars in the alley with brake lights. And itโs in a neighbor. Itโs called donut alley. Weโll have to so it is literally like a cocoa, quirky little St Louis guy. And I mentioned the hill, and heโs little, Venerable family. Oh, yeah, business, thatโs what this is. Her and her mother made this thing happen. 30 years
Marcella Knight 25:13
old. I was a baby when they opened it. We had 39 year anniversary. August 17. We just passed. Weโre getting ready to plan a 40th nice.
Nestor Aparicio 25:24
I didnโt want to pull you crab cakes table. Can you give him some lottery tickets for me, because I pulled your way. Weโre six gonna come on like I want you to come back in about an hour. Weโre doing the oyster thing. VIBs gonna be gone that sample
Marcella Knight 25:35
the oyster appetizer for tonight. I think youโre gonna love it. Itโs delicious. Well, what
Nestor Aparicio 25:39
Iโm trying to do is educate people about the bay on behalf of the oyster recovery partnership, Marilyn lottery, sending me out of friends at Liberty, pure solutions. Theyโre a water company, and they they do my well water. Theyโve been doing it for years. And this oyster thing, they do this, this trick where they put an oyster in an aquarium and we have a cocktail party four hours later, the waterโs clear. They put it in the river, because oysters clean the bay, and thatโs how you get these crab cakes stay so delicious because we donโt have crabs if we donโt have oysters. So Iโm going to be educating people every day, having an oyster day every month. Donโt be bringing me 15 oysters, because John shields is going to do that tomorrow, and then Friday, Iโm going to the pepper mill. And youโre
Marcella Knight 26:17
roasted. Theyโre not, theyโre not like, you know, all right, well,
Nestor Aparicio 26:20
weโre going to do that in four oโclock hour. And I want to talk about your thing with one with the old Jay Z folks, and 100.7 you won the competition last year the crab cake. And itโs coming up again. Youโre doing it again, right? Yes, I want to make sure I knew that. So hey, also doing
Marcella Knight 26:34
the Susquehanna Wine Festival, I
Nestor Aparicio 26:36
saw that. Yes, thatโs, thatโs
Marcella Knight 26:38
in September.
Nestor Aparicio 26:39
Thereโs an oyster related thing to that, I think, too, thereโs an oyster recovery piece to that. I think, I think because I saw your logo up on the website, yeah, all right, well, weโre Cocos. Viv is here. Iโm gonna get resig in. Can I bring her SIG in? Because heโs from New York via buffalo. His wife is here. Itโs the by Cleveland. Itโs a 40th anniversary of sports first demise. Weโre sick and I met 40 years ago this summer, working together. We were colleagues. I was 15 years old, and yeah, so weโre gonna weโre doing a reunion in two weeks on on the show. Weโre doing a zoom reunion. Bernie miklas, Jeff Gordon, the the sports editor, longtime sports editor, longtime sports editor, the St Louis Post Dispatch. Bob Paston was my boss. Was the late great Bob Paston, my first ever boss, first person ever give me a chance in life to do this for a living. So weโre gonna do that and six, letโs sit down, and youโre gonna come back and bring me some oysters. Right? Absolutely. And weโre gonna bring other staff members here. We got soccer players. Crab cake maker, are you gonna
Marcella Knight 27:40
stay for a while? Mark,
Mark Viviano 27:41
I have baseball practice my sonโs team that we have practice retired so he didnโt have to wear a headset down in savory Park. But I would love I and if I could bring my wife a crab cake,
Marcella Knight 27:52
sheโll be Iโll send some home with you today. They
Mark Viviano 27:56
donโt have to be multiples. Just do
Nestor Aparicio 27:58
you eat trip? Of course. All right, Coke. One order, coconuts for the next, for the next, and we didnโt bring her SIG in. Terryโs here as well. Sheโs gonna laugh at my jokes. Thanks, Terry. Appreciate that. And little known fact, and you, do you know why Iโm nasty? Nestor? Do you know the the genesis of how
Marcella Knight 28:16
I always thought it was because he was nasty? I would have thought right
Nestor Aparicio 28:20
when I was a boy, I was meatball Doughboy, Nestor, the long ear Christmas donkey. Took a lot of jokes for the finger missing and all that. So I didnโt really love my name, right? And I was at the paper and my name was there, right? Itโs my dadโs name is Nestor. And all during the, you know, 90s, I started doing this radio thing about a year and a half, two years before I did radio, I made a bet with Mike resignliano at the Baltimore Sun after going to see Eddie Murray at two home runs against the dot against the Phillies as a Dodger, summer 89 came in, and I offered to babysit with six kids if he could name all The relief pitchers first names for the Phillies, wow. And the name that won the bet was fro worth, who later became an Oriole and a friend the late Blake, great friend of mine, Todd. He said, Todd free played a lot of rotisserie baseball. Weโre sick dead. So he won the bet, and I had to go to his house two blocks from here, and babysit his children in the summer of 1989 How old were your kids in 89 Terry, when you were they born, six and seven, five and six, six. These kids were beautiful, beautiful adults, but they were so I sent them to bed early because I didnโt come to Cocos and get your I made chicken on the grill and it all burned, and I blamed it on them, and I sent him the bed, wink, wink. They had to go to bed. I had a date that night, so I sent him the bed, and they got mad at me. And instead of calling me uncle Nestor, they started calling me nasty Nestor. Thatโs perfect. So were six kids named me nasty. Six and seven year old kids ainโt. Know what theyโre doing, and theyโre 40 something now. They got little twins that are making grandpa and grandma. Weโre seeing all happy out here in laraville Eating Cocoโs crackers. Weโre gonna get some cocoa shrimp. Rasig is my co host with a K because he lives in the neighborhood, so I have all the old retired people out now, yeah, yeah, Iโm retired and old. Heโs wearing his Orio cap. Weโre gonna come back and doing some more. Marilyn lottery, liberty, pure solutions, Jiffy Lube. Our friends at curiowell is putting us out on this 26th anniversary tour, 27 oysters, because Iโm starting a day early with the Gruyere in Parmesan, garlic roasted oysters, and theyโre broiled just like New Orleans back for more Cocos with VIV and rasig right after this.