There is no more challenged fan base in the National Football League than the beleaguered – yet somehow still financially supportive – customers of the Cleveland Browns. Legendary sports talk king (and prince) Mark “Munch” Bishop has been visiting us for three decades. His deep-rooted love for Cleveland sports, dating back to his childhood, has gotten swept up in the disgrace of the Jimmy Haslem ownership group and the DeShaun Watson fiasco. “Immoral” is the word he uses. And the results on and off the field speak louder than anyone ever did on the radio.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Browns misery, Guardians success, Watson trade, Haslam ownership, Stefanski coaching, baseball tickets, Cleveland sports, Baltimore sports, media integrity, community asset, new ownership, player respect, fan experience, sports culture, team expectations
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Munch Bishop
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are, W, N, S T, we’re AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. At some point I’ll change over to my 26th anniversary oyster and crab. On Friday, we’re going to be celebrating 26 years. And you know, I had 56 pepperonis for my my birthday repeats John’s two weeks ago. I don’t normally do it at mama’s on the half show. I’m getting together with my friend Scotty, my late great friend, Scotty son Finn we’re going to have an oyster, probably going to have some proper crab cakes. We’re going to do it up. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery of the Raven scratch offs. We will have with us. We’re in Owings Mills at the mamas on the half shell. So we look forward to that. The kids call it foundry row. I call it painters mill, where I once saw Frankie valley in the four seasons. I missed that pretenders in that police show out there. But there were some great shows at painters mill. I will honor all that on Friday, our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care. Short week this week looks back and forth up. I’m sort of like the rock like finally, I have returned to Owings Mills. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been supposed Luke will be out there all week long, brought to our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare. Also the oyster tour up and running
Munch Bishop 01:08
to get involved in the oyster tour, bro,
Nestor Aparicio 01:11
hang on Munch, because I gotta talk about Ray Bachman battling cancer right now, and we just put out our oyster tour this week. We’re at an oyster with him down at Mike’s Liberty pure solutions, one 800 clean water is the way to make that happen. Also Liberty pure solutions, keeping our water clean, keeping the bay clean, are the oysters, which is part of the education what I’m doing around here, as well as our friends at curio wellness and far and daughter. I’m wearing my gear. You know, I wore my orange Munch Bishop just in here. He’s just like, we’re in studio. We’re old boys here. He’s only done radio 20 years longer than me in Cleveland. And you know, I see when I’ve come to Cleveland all these years. I mean, I’m going back to, like, Elway, the drive game, back when the mini Alexander and Benitez just we stole your team, bad stuff, just everything that happened. Tim couch, his name came up this week, believe it or not, one even me. It was Luke’s fault. Um, it was about one. He’s a good man, right? But so all of this, you know, that goes on when I come there and I see Brown’s fans, I think added some ugly ass orange. They look like orange Eminem’s. They’ve gone heavier in on the orange and the brown from back in the day and whatever, from the model era and all that, from when Jim Brown wore those, the fantastic brown tops and what. And I’m thinking, Oh, the Orioles are orange too, and everything in my closets orange. Why does it look different on Browns fans and it looks on Orioles fans? Why does it look regal on us?
Munch Bishop 02:38
Well, you know what? Because for the Browns fans, as I call them, the the hardcore, the rabble, okay, is that they’re usually drunk and they’re dragging their knuckles. So of course, something’s going to look different on them than on you.
Nestor Aparicio 02:50
So you’re going to, like, total K Fabe, like you’ve just stopped the Gordon soley, uh, mean, Gene act. You are just you’re fed up. I mean, fed up, but like, give everybody your background and your love of Cleveland sports, because, you know, I get it from people that, like, I don’t love the teams enough. And I’m like, I spent my first 50 years of my life just traveling around trying to examine these teams, and I know you’ve done that in Cleveland, and I don’t want to say it’s been worse for you. We had Angelo’s here, right? And when I look at your baseball team since the mid 90s, no, it’s been okay. I mean, not great, but okay. You had LeBron. You guys have had it okay. We’ve had two parades here. But there’s something about the Cleveland thing and the anger that’s built into what the Browns have really put your community through in a general sense that you’re you’ve really taken it to heart.
Munch Bishop 03:45
I certainly have, I mean, for 65 Cognizant years as a fan. Actually, a little bit longer than that, since I’m 72 is that I was a kid, and I told you this before, five years old, with my face pressed up against a single pane glass, waiting for my dad to get off the bus with my uncles after they’ve gone downtown to the Browns game, just hoping saying a little prayer. I know I wasn’t supposed to pray for things like that, but saying a prayer that he bought me back a program and the Browns used to sell this little orange drink in like a megaphone type container. Remember the old wax containers? Sure, and so you’d poke out the end. Now my mom would wash it out first because there were some spirits poured into the orange drink there during the game. But she give it to me, and I had run around the house looking at the program, you know, yelling, browns, go browns on down the line.
Nestor Aparicio 04:30
What year is that? Is it was that 60? Was that Jim?
Munch Bishop 04:34
I’m talking 57 and 58 Okay, all right,
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
so your memories are aligned with where Johnny you and art Donovan and Lenny Moore would be here
Munch Bishop 04:43
exactly. And hence, I know all those gentlemen too, because of the rivalries that we’ve had. So you know, as you go along, and in the late 80s, for four years, my Christmas present to my parents I was in Columbus at the time, was season tickets to Browns games you’ve never. Seeing a 65 year old Slovenian woman standing up, barking for her Cleveland Browns, okay, on the 40 yard line. That was my mom, and it was my dad. They went to all the games when my mom passed, I was called home in 90 used to take my dad all the time. In fact, until a few years ago, my sons and I were regulars. You know, yes, I have a press pass, but you can’t scream and y’all are take your kids up in the press box. So I would go to them. But Nestor, things changed, not just when Jimmy Haslam and the Haslam family bought the team, but the nonsense, the shenanigans, the dastardly deeds, started almost immediately. You know, here’s a guy, and from the get go, I didn’t really care for him. He had Tennessee orange on not Brown’s orange. I’m colorblind, and I can even tell the difference. Okay, so that got to me at the first press conference ever. I mentioned that to his PR guys, like, Oh, dude, you’re not going to say I said, Yeah, I’m going to say something. It’s like, not Brown’s orange. It’s Tennessee orange. It’s a big, big difference. You know, this is the Cleveland Browns. This is something that we got an oral
Nestor Aparicio 05:56
zone that was down at the, at the at the commander’s game last week, running around, and I’m like, you know, that’s not normal around here. I mean, we’re old school in that way. And, you know, I listen carpet bagging owners, right? Per Se here, right? I mean, Ursa, you talk about your team being taken from you. I got a Baltimore Colts belt buckle five feet away from me that I, you know, I look at from my childhood and say that, and my old oiler stuff, you know, I was an oiler fan, you know, these franchises their businesses, and I get that, but they can act within the framework of integrity, if they choose to. And they can choose to be a community asset, and they can choose to be a trusted community asset. But so few do anymore, and it and it’s grubs,
Munch Bishop 06:43
they’re their earnings, but it’s big boys playing with very expensive toys, and they’re my toys, not yours, and that’s how they go. But the bottom line,
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
guard rails to accountability, not that even art modell had to have in Cleveland because he was out selling tickets in his era, in the way that Bob, or say, couldn’t get that done here, quite frankly, in the way that Angeles couldn’t get that done. You’re in the way that your baseball team still struggles to sell tickets there, and everybody’s pines away over
Munch Bishop 07:11
2 million fans this year. They didn’t struggle at all to sell tickets this year, but in the past they have. There’s no doubt about that. You know, it’s interesting. Why? Because, because the Dolans are cheap. But you know what? Nestor, I can go down the stats with you. Since they have some stuck under the winning percentages, they’re embarrassing. When somebody says to me, or has me on their show in Cleveland, or writer or something, I usually keep them nearby and I go, okay, here are your winning percentages year to year. You can’t go by how many games you won. There’s a huge difference between 17 now in 162 if not more. But it’s just embarrassing. Since the day, the hassles have taken over from Johnny Manziel to Josh Gordon to Callaway. I can go on and on. And you know the trucks, the Pilot Flying J truck scandal that I know for a fact. The FBI wanted Jimmy in a bad, bad way, but he had a very, very loyal lieutenant who actually got about $50 million to to take to fall for him and spend five years in one of those Country Club prisons. It’s still a prison. But the bottom line is, though, these are not, I call them a moral and dishonest people, and that’s who’s running a once beloved French franchise. But please don’t tell me that. Well, there it’s in my jeans. No, it’s not. You know what I mean. So you want somebody to take your wife, move across the street from you and keep the curtains open in the bedroom while they go at it Okay? And you’re going to watch every night? No, absolutely not. But the topper, of course, was the Watson trade. On that day, I said, I’m done. I divorced myself from them. I don’t know if I mentioned this to you or not, but my oldest daughter, why
Nestor Aparicio 08:40
does he see you at the games all the time because I came. I was I’ve only time
Munch Bishop 08:44
I’ve been in the stadium since they said they were sunny and Watson three times. Eminem, I’m sorry. MG MGK. Eminem, Detroit guy, okay, but MGK did a stadium the stones and brought high school football game. And I’ve just divorced him, but I’ll never forget my daughter from Manhattan, president of the browns, backers of Manhattan, pretty good sized club, right? Called me and says she just resigned that she wants nothing to do with the team anymore. She was in tears. And she’s a, she’s got a powerful gig, man. She’s a, I call her the hedge fund queen of New York City. And she goes, she was done with them. I did what she did, too, except for two ball caps classics, piled all my gear up and the shelter I served dinner out on Tuesdays. I’ll see most of the people there wearing my old brown scare because I had 4050 T shirts on down the line, just like you.
Nestor Aparicio 09:32
Yeah, I mean, for me. And look, I can trudge into that as Baltimore negative versus Baltimore positive. And where we are certainly the Angelos ride here, and me being a media member that has been, you know, literally targeted to be removed and removed, yeah, like, But literally, that’s what’s happened, right? So, I mean, then that’s happened in full view of everyone, like it, hate me, love me, whatever it is, like free speech, but only like it. On your own terms, and certainly from an accountability standpoint, the things that I’ve written about here just in since my childhood, 1968 I was born, the bullets leaving Baltimore, and my father’s angst about that, and they weren’t on the bus line when they went down to be like taking the team to Richfield, right out of Cleveland, but there was no way to get there. You know, lived in Parma, you know. I mean, look at the plant, and fans live right, right? If you took public transportation, which my dad always did. My dad never drove. You know, we lived in the 23 bus line, so sort of famously in the 70s. And you know, it’s not privileged or underprivileged or anything like, my dad just didn’t drive, right? He had he was epileptic and just didn’t drive. So I didn’t know that till after he was dead, but we took busses everywhere, and so my dad shuttered at that. And then I saw my dad cry twice in his life. Today, his sister died, and the day the Colts left town. So I can tell you what morning that was, you know, Mark 29th 1984 we feel the same result. Yeah. So you know that happened, and I’ve watched all this, and now I watch Bucha and now Rubenstein and Eric Getty, it’ll be play this game that’s really no different than Donald Trump dressing up as a Ronald McDonald the clown and pretending to take orders at a shut down McDonald’s. Everything about this, these ownerships are done that way. It’s all made for TV. They now shut you out in Berea, and they have Browns television. And who’s going to be in the media, who’s going to be on my side, who’s not? Who do you work for? You know, like all of that, right? And it’s state run from within, from within, all of it that’s not just a raven thing or Browns thing or an NFL thing. That’s really where sports is going as newspapers, radio guys go away. You and me been doing this all of our lives, and I don’t know where the oversight would be, but I do know there’s a real, fundamental issue, when a year into this draft, kings and Caesar sports are presenting the Post game show with Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson
Munch Bishop 12:10
and bullpen baseball. Yeah, Ben MGM, and listen, I, and I, I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 12:14
throw it to you and let you be Munch. Munch Bishop’s our guest here from Cleveland, and we’ll lament all this, because I think it takes people like us with some wisdom and some, some some, some mileage on the tires, and my wife’s case, couple transplants, to look at this and say, What are we buying? What am I paying for? Who’s getting the money? Where is it going? As the Dodgers and Yankees play in the World Series, no less. But you know the notion that what sports meant, from a civic standpoint, has been raped several times in Baltimore, certainly in Cleveland. And then when you actually get a team, you get Jimmy Haslam, Peter Angelo’s, Daniel Snyder, these slugs, and they, in the end, you’re being nice. They bury Pete Rose and for betting one way or another, it is rich with I with irony that if you want to watch the Cincinnati Reds play baseball this year, you’re doing it on a gambling network. It’s unbelievable. It really is. And it’s happened in the blink that the media has been thrown out. The Accountability has gone away, and the magic pitch of their Pravda, right? Whatever it is, becomes gospel for how you have to feel about Deshaun Watson, when Jameis Winston’s in the locker room saying he’s a good man, well,
Munch Bishop 13:36
wins who was Winston to talk about being a good man? That’s all I’m going to say there. So we’ve gone from Deshaun, we’ve gone to another guy who is known for abusing women. And you know what, I like to be Nestor, by the way. And I want folks to know that they’re tuned in now that are, you know, on wnst, wherever they’re they’re checking this out. You’re amazing. I’m a big fan of yours, not as a human being, but what you do professionally, because you know what, after doing this for 45 years, there’s a lot of hacks out there. There’s a lot of people in this business that want to meet girls, quote, unquote, you know, I mean, or they want to get free tickets or free passes. You’re amazing, and that’s why I like doing I
Nestor Aparicio 14:09
wanted to meet girls. Don’t come on now, back we met our girl. Okay, well, now they throw you out of the locker room. That, you know, there was always the rumor that I might have been, you know, one of those got, not the Arnold Palmer guy, like the rumor Ramas and like all of that stuff. And the reasons people are around, I remember being in Cleveland, there was a pretty young lady who was doing television. Next thing, you know, she’s married to Jim Tony.
Munch Bishop 14:32
And I’m like, Andrea, yeah. I
Nestor Aparicio 14:35
mean, like, I had not seen that part of media and relationships and players and marriages. We’ve had the same thing. Trey Mancini’s wife long he battled cancer. Is a was a massive reporter. You know, they were co workers, literally portrayed as media. But the blur of the energy. Entertainment which I buy. It’s all entertainment, the the gambling and the Why am I a fan? Am I a fan of Pete Rose because he hustles, because he gambles, because he’s cute, because he ate pizza, because I like tit machines, because I like the reds, whatever it was 5060, years ago. I don’t know what the affinity would be to think that the Orioles care about you if you’re a citizen, because they don’t, and it’ll never appear or feel that way to me. But if you love baseball, you love the game, you like gambling on it, which I think is that’s their that’s their lane. Now, unfortunately, and that’s not why I’m ever going to like baseball, but I do look at your franchise in Cleveland and our franchise here, and that’s one of the reasons I wear my baseball because I’m moving a bit sitting here bitch about football all day. Guardians here for you love the baseball team, right, and you love baseball, and we’re watching
Munch Bishop 15:52
the best for you. Because
Nestor Aparicio 15:55
I really I didn’t bother you last week when the games were on. John Martin from the Maryland lottery is my Ohio and he comes on every week. And you know, his mood is set by the Guardians, never by the Browns anymore, but he’s a, you know, Clevelander, and he famously, but your baseball team and what it’s represented there. I mean, I’d like for the Orioles to make a couple ALCS is a couple more, even if they lose World Series. But like, Cleveland’s had a nice baseball run since Hargrove and Albert Bell and, you know, Ramirez and loft. And it really has, it’s been okay.
Munch Bishop 16:27
Oh, you look at the years with Tito, and then, of course, now this year. And, you know, it’s interesting too. Nestor, am I go? Do I go to my way? Like, you have Baltimore positive to be positive in Cleveland, yeah. But there’s also something called respect, and there’s also something called, okay, does he know what he’s talking about? You know, most of those in the know, in the city had the guardians of 72 wins Max. I thought they were going to win at least 86 games. But the bottom line is, is that they exceeded expectations. It was a very good year. Of course, you’re going to have someone say, well, there’s years of failure. No, it’s not. You had them winning 70 games. How could it be a failure? You had about 70 and 92 they win 92 and they go to the ALCS and, you know, game
Nestor Aparicio 17:14
four was really, you know, that’ll be a maybe we could have, because game three was epic, right? Like we have this Delman young moment here, 13 years ago, and that we have Cal Ripken the Pope. The Pope. Cal Ripken, I’m trying to think Billy Joel and McCartney played Camden Yards, and we have Delman young hitting a double in the ALDs right like and since then, 10 losses in a row in the postseason. They scored one run in 18 innings. The Zach Britton thing was on the other end of that, the sweep at the hands of the Rangers last year after winning 101 games. I mean, there’s been not a lot of moments for for our franchise, at least in the the I always want to call them the try, because that’s my old way. But still, yeah, in the in the corona, saw so many people wearing Andre Thornton jerseys. By the way, I Googled. And my wife will tell you, Oh, please tell me I Googled. I’m watching the game. And it was game, uh, you know, it’s the last game that the knockout the game five. So it’s, you know, the the shadows are down. I saw all the Indians gear, right? All the Oh, yeah, you feel Major League whatever. But the dude had the 99 Cleveland front 99 number, the Ricky Vaughn, and he kept showing up over the first base dugout. And I’m like, I’d wear that, you know? I would buy that, and I would wear that, and I wear it somewhere, and I wouldn’t wear the Indians, because I don’t want to be disrespectful in the Walu thing. I really Redskins thing. I’m trying to be like stopping that and moving like the because, on behalf of you, because you call them the Guardians,
Munch Bishop 18:53
every day, I had no problem with the name Indians. My dad was a World War Two Marine. All right, he was a factory worker. He used to like to fight when he was in high school and afterwards. But the bottom line is, as a real little kid, used to tell me, this Chief Wahoo is stupid. Alright, it’s a stupid looking thing. That’s not how Indians look. He was very he was an inner city guy also. But I had no problem with the name, no problem with the name, Redskins name. I had problem with it. I’m just telling you that, oh, because your heart is bleeding. No, I you know what? And people say you’re woke No, I’m right or wrong. Okay, that’s what I am. So I just filled you in there. So you call them Indians. It doesn’t offend me at all.
Nestor Aparicio 19:27
Well, I saw the six, I went out on the internet, and I’m like, how much you know? So you 3040, 50 bucks, you can get one. And I’m thinking that’s almost like a Bad News Bears piece. You know what? I mean. That’s a nice piece, but it says Cleveland. The white one said Cleveland on it, which was meant to be the home team with Euchre and all that stuff. Uh much. Bishop is our guest. He is out in Cleveland. He’s suffering through, uh, football and post baseball anxiety watching the Yankees the baseball money thing, because new ownership here, right? You’ve gone through new ownership out there a couple times through the course of time. Time and the level of expectation that has been set by your fan base calling the team cheap, whatever it is, whatever the beers cost, and whatever the experience of going and whatever you’re going to shell out to get your games. I’m trying to figure out the business model moving forward. As a 56 year old dude, last name Aparicio, I’m in for the next 20 years if they’re going to play baseball. What’s it going to cost me? How do I get involved? How do you want me involved? How can I be involved, not as even as a media member, but just what are you offering the fans in this experience? Because it feels to me like in Cleveland, they’ve built a little something there that all through your life, it’s gotten better, as you would see it, but you have to write a check to be involved. And that really is baseball at this point. You want to keep gunner Anderson, you want $50 million pictures. Somebody’s got to pay for it. And and places like Baltimore and Cleveland. It’s not going to be on the backs of Fortune 500 companies. It’s going to be on the backs of your dad, my dad, my kids, whoever it is to pay for it. If you want to have this team. And it is a premium thing that, and if, if you don’t believe that, put the World Series on this week, see who’s playing in it.
Munch Bishop 21:10
You know, I gotta hit you with this. There’s something Fanta you talk about the experience of Progressive Field. I have sums 31 and 24 and the two. Not this season, but last season, The Guardian started what they call the the ballpark pass, $49 a month standing room. I’ve been out with my sons, press pass, tucked in with an adult beverage or two. They got like those little standing you know, bar areas, whatever you call them, a counter. And they have one in left field, one in right field. You can go to any game. Those are packed. They sell out of these $49 passes. Now, my sons love baseball. They’re like me. Do they go to every game? How many home games are there? Usually in a month, 1413, 1415, they’ll go to all about one or two because of this pass. Now, are they getting rich on the $49 passes? No. Well, all sudden, when you have a few 1000 people snatching them up, and a few 1024 and 31 year old guys, and that’s who’s mostly in these areas. Oh, they’re having a couple of beers too. But by the way, get there an hour early. Your beers, or 12 ounce beers, are $1 before the first pitch. So they’ve done that
Nestor Aparicio 22:15
was a problem in Chicago once, and in Cleveland, as I remember, $1 beer night
Munch Bishop 22:20
now, well, that was dime beer night, bro. And that was, that was, I want to say, slits or Stros. So these, these are some reputable, light brand beers, okay, but the the bottom line is, they’re doing everything possible to make the ballpark amenable to those that want to fork it out and sit behind the dugout, those that want to sit in a club seat and have all you can eat buffet, or, like I said, my sons and their buds, who just want to stand out, get a couple of hot dogs and a couple beers and enjoy baseball, because baseball is the best. Jose
Nestor Aparicio 22:48
Ramirez, man, I wanted it for him. I really did Munch Well,
Munch Bishop 22:53
you know what? Jose struggled in the postseason. You saw the results there. I mean, he is the heart and soul, one of the best players in the game, but he had a very, very rough postseason. You know, without him, they’re not there, but it needed to perform better. And yes, I said that.
Nestor Aparicio 23:07
See, when you’re a Cleveland baseball fan or a Baltimore baseball fan, and this is no disrespect to the Yankees Dodgers, Mets, any teams that spend money, but I’m trying to figure out the model of what the offer is when you’re a second citizenship place, when there’s never going to be revenue sharing. I I saw that Rob Manford said this week he’s going to nationalize the media. I’m like, until you nationalize the payroll and the revenue, but you know, you’re going to have rich and poor, and you’re going to have this perception of the game that becomes a reality this year that isn’t, hasn’t been, but you better make sure it doesn’t become that, because you really then have Second Division team. I mean, it’s bad enough. You got the the Oakland, whatever they are, Sacramento lost it, whatever they own a baseball team. Yes, Tampa doesn’t have a stadium now, but the roof blew off, right? So bad thing for that dump? Yeah, Miami is a disgrace as of just the whole thing, it should just be blown up 30 years later. Talk about scumbags running that organization. I mean, that is a scumbaggery of scumbags, the Miami Marlins. I want you on that. Yes, you can, but, but much for me with with your situation in Cleveland and now our situation where these woke 24 and 31 year old, $49 a month beer drinkers that don’t understand anything about baseball, anything about it? No, they’re huge guys. But I’m saying here, I’m saying it’s all fresh here, it’s all new again, baseball being like decent and we compete, compete, and we gotta sign. Garner. We gotta sign. No, he’s represented by Boris. He ain’t signing, no matter what, philosophically you don’t understand, he’s not signing. So don’t put that pressure on the owner that that is an unmeasurable bar, right? So I would say for Cleveland. For Baltimore as baseball people Munch we’ve always had to shop off a different shelf. And
Munch Bishop 25:05
you see Juan Soto, we’re getting the brands. We’re not getting the name brands. We’re
Nestor Aparicio 25:09
getting the free agent, right? One? Soto, well, why can’t we have good things, right? You don’t think that, even in football, all aside with Deshaun Watson, and we’ll get to the browns in a minute with you. But all that Deshaun Watson, think it’s that they couldn’t afford him, or they couldn’t afford Amari Cooper, they couldn’t afford to keep that. You know, their their star players, miles Garrett, we’re going to draft him and and we’re gonna have to turn him over like he’s Manny Machado, because we can’t afford him, because he’s going to sign with the Yankees, the boogeyman is going to come and get him. No other sport operates this way baseball does, and Rubenstein’s into this, and arrogance into this, and they’ve created some, I don’t want to say false level of expectation based on what the Padres did for a minute before this guy died, trying to buy a winner. But Cleveland’s never been that place, and we’re trying to figure out what a responsible Oriole ownership would look like, or an irresponsible or ownership in regard to win at all costs, because I’m 75 years old and just want to win, win, win, no matter what. Cleveland had operated that way. Cleveland’s operated responsibly, but still under the framework of the best five free agents, Snell burns, whoever they are, Soto, we can’t have them. We can’t shop there. That’s really unfortunate for the sport Munch. And I think the people here are going to figure that out. When Katie Griggs calls and tells people how much it’s going to cost to keep gunner
Munch Bishop 26:30
and you know what? Not just figure that out, but the fans too will see and they see it as it is. There’s a saying it makes lot of sense. When you talk about the Cleveland baseball team, it’s that not what you spend but who you spend it on. Now, if you had the funds like some other teams, no doubt about it. I mean, you look at the Yankees, Soto was a perfect compliment. I mean, come on, when you see so and labor Torres, by the way, killed the Guardians, too. When you see Soto judge and Stanton coming up, you know what, it’s going to give you a peptic ulcer. No, no better.
Nestor Aparicio 27:01
Yeah, but nobody else can can afford to have those players exactly you’ve really created it. That’s always been there, but it feels a little faster when the Dodgers and Yankees are in the world, sirs, and it feels more festered in Baltimore, specifically for me, after 30 years of sitting here and being served salisbury steak, or dog food, in some cases, and being told it’s filet mignon that where, what’s the expectation, or boys, and if you’re only going to talk to your own media people, you’re you’re going to do $150 a night plates to get donor the donor class to come whatever that the symphony cloudy. What the hell that even needs in Baltimore anymore. And I live here. I know the I know the people who have money here, and the people that like baseball or like sports or find value and for their employees or for their business acumen, but that is what generated the ability to keep Cal Ripken here, the ability to keep Mike MC the owner, weren’t creep like they had money here at one point. I don’t know how they’re gonna make that happen again, because in Cleveland, the one thing that I know that hasn’t happened, the money hasn’t come, because the money’s never going to come because your market can’t afford it. It is what it is, and you’ve accepted that. I don’t know what we’re going to accept here in Baltimore,
Munch Bishop 28:11
after most have accepted it, you’ve got a small vocal minority, and most of them are rabid Browns fans too. The ones that don’t look good in orange, okay, because they are jealous and have a dislike for the team. I mean, I had a media guy say to me on a sports panel the other day, you know what? I can’t stand how somebody spends money. I go so you like the browns. No,
Nestor Aparicio 28:31
you they just don’t understand the sport.
Munch Bishop 28:33
No, they’re morons. I mean, I mean, yeah, they’re not. They talk, just to talk, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 28:37
yeah, they’re they’re low information sports fans. I don’t know what else to say, and I don’t have time to fight with those people on Twitter. I write what I write. I say what I say. It’s gospel, because I’ve spent 40 years doing this. But the difference between the Yankees and the Dodgers and what the Orioles are trying to become, I don’t even know what they’re trying to become. I think they’re trying to become the Indians. And I’m saying, Well, if you’re trying to become the Indians, that’s cool, but, but you’re never going to have a Machado. You’re never going to keep a gunner Henderson, you know, there, you’re just not. You’re going to shop from a different shelf of players. And if that’s the case, Be frank about that. But you can’t charge me top price either. You have to know
Munch Bishop 29:20
what shelf what the better products are for all your generic products, too. That’s something that the guardians have done in a big, big way with Mr. Antonetti, Mr. Chernoff, the guys that are making all decisions there before them. Of course, Tito was a big help with that too. I mean, Tito identified players for them, and it’d be interesting to see what he does down in Cincinnati, because they need someone like him. Is he a miracle worker? He certainly is. Are you shocked he went back to work? No, you know what? I was able to get a good relationship with him. Actually, it’s interesting because when I was in in the the summer of 21 for my open heart surgery, he was also in the Cleveland Clinic on a different floor, though, okay? He but I was actually on a pretty dang good floor too. The bottom line is, he was one of his surgeries that he had that year, and they just seemed to keep going. No, he did say right out, he is not retiring from baseball. The Indians that drive out. He has to get healthy and bang. He loves the game that much. Nestor. He’s just, he’s a baseball guy. Well, all of a sudden, being out for a year made a huge, huge difference. He had three or four nothing about that. Three or four things fixed on a yearly basis, whether it was, you know, arches at his feet or on down the line. And so he felt good enough to get back in it. And he loves the game. He lives for the game. And my golly, that fella, exudes baseball. And for all these free agents, for all the players, the young, the old, on down the line. And you can see some of the guys he’s gotten rid of, whether it be Clevenger, whether, you know, I can go on and on, he has one role. Respect the game. If you respect the game, we’ll be fine together. And the guys who don’t respect the game, they’re going going along. Munch Bishop
Nestor Aparicio 31:01
respects the game. He is out in the land of Cleve as the Browns come in here this week, we both have our nose pressed up against the baseball glass watching the Dodgers and the Yankees certain great World Series, great players. Been a great pro season. It’s been good to be involved again, to feel vested again as a Baltimore person, to think we can we can make the playoffs too. We can compete even if they had one run at 18 innings. We’ll talk about that onto the football thing for you with this Watson disaster. And listen Haslam, his indiscretions, all of that. What now happens there? I mean, and again, I wouldn’t want to be the guy out selling Brown’s tickets right now. I wouldn’t have wanted to been the guy the last three years. I mean, Haslam scumbag put his wife out in front of this with Watson and all of that. But from a franchise perspective, what happens to Stefanski? What happens on the field? What happened? They have to play nine games now. They got better. The last time they lost Deshaun Watson, my buddy Joe Flacco, came in last year. Um, you know, we play them this week and it just expect to roll in there and win by three touchdowns. I don’t, I don’t know, I and I don’t know we should live by four or five, just so, you know, four or five touchdowns. Okay, all right. Well, you can, we can wager on that now in America. Oh,
Munch Bishop 32:14
don’t worry. I wagered big time on the Bengals last Sunday for entertainment purposes only. Wink, right? Of course. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 32:18
you don’t have to worry about that anymore. It’s, it’s all brought to you on the Caesar Sports Network, so but,
Munch Bishop 32:24
but how do you feel with Tubby and the boys in Youngstown? Come on.
Nestor Aparicio 32:27
Listen, they’ve been through a lot. There are, you know, oh, and 16 before there were 17 games, and, you know, Hugh Jackson and just all they, they’ve been through a lot. But this is a whole new thing of salary cap, how, where they’re going to play with, you know, 75% of the money anybody else is going to play with the next couple of years, right? That’s, that’s what’s really going to happen, right? Next
Munch Bishop 32:47
year, to shame, as I like to call him, will not even play. And guess what? There’s the biggest cap hit for his against this team in next season. They’re already looking around the shops for more players. Amari Cooper, you know, and something that gets me. I understand that. You know, if you’re a member to browns, Watson joins the team, you don’t have a lot of say so with who’s put on the team with you? Okay? But Amari Cooper now is turning out to be or he was a detriment in the locker room. You know what? He did not bat him and did, could not stand to Sean Watson and what he has done and what he stood for the guy’s turning a blind eye. Well, that was just him, and then he went out in the biggest way. He certainly did. People will say, Well, you know, was he dropping past on purpose, running wrong routes? No, his his heart just wasn’t it when your heart’s that in a game that you need to play to that level. If your heart’s not there, then you’re not going to play to that level. But the bottom line is, they’re in a world of trouble. I’m hearing that trumpet miles may be the only two gentlemen on that inner gentleman, you know, the kind of guys I would like to root for, that may be the only two that they win trade because of mutiny, quote, unquote, by the rabble.
Nestor Aparicio 33:52
Well, I there’s also the tanking part of let’s stink bad. So we get the next Tim couch, the next Johnny Football, then they’re
Munch Bishop 34:00
gonna get it. We got right now, they’ve got the number one overall. And you know, this is a bad football team. They don’t tackle, they don’t cover. And you know what? The guys that don’t tackle and cover, they’re the ones that tell us the most that, yeah, we’re the world’s greatest defense. It’s like, you want to score some touchdowns. You know, so many guys in the purple and black tell them to throw it Greg Newsom or Mitchell, or even Emerson. Yeah, he was telling us about Emerson island before the season started, and when started. It must have got washed away in one of these tropical storms.
Nestor Aparicio 34:25
Well, and Stefanski seems like a decent enough guy. Very, very funny. Well, I think you know of my relationship with George coquinas and Phil savage and certainly Mike Patton. I mean, I have known so many people that have gone out to Cleveland trying to fumigate it, trying to be a part of it, trying to build something, putting their lives, you know, and their career into it. Stefanski, you know, was up in Minnesota doing good things.
Munch Bishop 34:50
And he’s an A one human being. And I always look at things like that too, you know, I
Nestor Aparicio 34:55
Dave astitle had an eye surgery this week, and I was going to have him on days at all. Am I Cleveland guy? I love Dave. He could do radio, but not video. I’m like Dave. I’ll have you all when you’re feeling better or whatever. But I text Dave back, and I said to him, I said, Bad ownership will get you blown up every time, like I’ve witnessed that here with the Washington football team, certainly with the Angelo situation. What happened here with her, say, prior to that, and when, when the ownership, the shock was not aligned there in the way that it needs to be, especially in regard to the community, and especially with the trauma that’s happened in Cleveland with art modell and with everything that’s going on there, there is a point. And I’ve had this conversation. Had this conversation with Jim Schwartz and Mike Tomlin one night over a beverage and at the Biltmore in Arizona, when Schwartz took the Owen 16 job in Detroit, right, he took right. And Jimmy, the Baltimore guy. Love Jimmy, and I’m like, and they both said, no, no, when you get a chance to take any of these jobs, you take the job. Sure you do. And I do remember Ozzy and Phil sitting up in the top of the Cleveland press box at one point, and this a long time ago. And I remember Ozzy saying something to me to the effect of, and I’m not paraphrasing as much as I’m I’m dead on. They both look dead to the world for whatever reason. Must have been like, oh, four of when we were bad, they were bad that, you know, whatever it was, a December game, place is empty. It’s Cleveland, was always empty, right? So it’s always filled like this. And I, you know, went up and I said, you know, you guys, you’re running things, whatever. I give them a little wisecrack or whatever, an hour and a half before the game, you know, as I do, and I think Ozzy sets up the fact that ain’t, none of these jobs any good.
Munch Bishop 36:42
I love that one that sounds like some Ozzy would say, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 36:44
yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean, that’s kind of where it was for me. But I thought to myself, you know, all of these owners are a little bit crazy. The stakes are high. The drama is high. It’s a real housewives show now, in so many ways, hard knocks, adding social media, when you sign divas, when you deal with Marlon Humphrey running around the plane, live on Instagram, and Lamar Jackson saying, Put the phone away, dude. I threw two interceptions. They put the phone away. Like, I, you know, like, there’s a whole different Antonio Brown out shilling for this creep, right? Like, just crazy, crazy medias, yes, yeah. Well, there’s all of that that buys into it. And I guess my point is full circle. Kevin Stefanski trying to win football games to keep these kids heads into like, just trying to make plays on Sunday to not embarrass themselves, because it feels like this thing could get out of control in Cleveland, where he would say, I can’t even be a part of this anymore. These guys don’t want to play football. I can’t motivate them, and it’s on my record, you know what I mean. So there’s going to be a little bit of that going on there. You already mentioned guys like Amari job.
Munch Bishop 37:52
Yeah, like you said earlier, Job is the job. You know, here’s the thing too. When you talk about the kids not playing on a few possessions on Sunday, and once my youngest son texted me, saying, Watson’s out of the game dtrs. And I said, You know what? I might flip it on there for a while, because I don’t watch her listen, and I will not watch her listen when Watson is involved on the field. I won’t watch this Sunday. Well, Winston is a starting quarterback. I have to be able to look myself in the mirror, and I don’t want to have to take a shower with a wire brush every night when these guys are out there on the field. But you don’t have just one tackle jumping Nestor. You have two tackles jumping you have touchdowns being negated left and right because of a hold or because of, you know, not being set up properly, 12 men on the field, down down the line. Yeah, there’s something more than just coaching. Very few the players are into it, and that’s a shame, and that is, the has some culture. Culture means so much. You say, Come on, watch so do the players. Of course, they do. But culture on a team means so much to success. There’s no culture on this team. This is Nero and Romberg that
Nestor Aparicio 38:55
that’s, um, that’s apparent, right? And Joe Flacco was such a I had you on during that period of time last year. And I just love and I say this when I have people like you on, especially with Joe, because I haven’t anybody on from Indy lately. Um, but Joe shows himself every single day to be the guy that I always professed him to be. And people would say, why you love Joe Flacco so much,
Munch Bishop 39:16
and I’m like, good people man
Nestor Aparicio 39:19
in an industry full of vagabonds and creepy people, and having to spend time with Terrell Suggs and Marlon Humphrey and, you know, just in a general sense, you know the Joe Flacco and Aaron Rodgers of the world, and Brett Favre and Deshaun Watson to Shane Watson, as you call it, like Joe Flacco is a breath of fresh air. And anyone that that is that Wheaties cover guy who’s a legitimate Dude, it seems like Chris Godwin, who got injured the other night, you know all of the words of him and that Walter Payton Award. There’s a lot of that that goes on in this league. There is, but on the other side of that, that Sean wants. Thing is such a tragedy for your community and for the people that that love football in Cleveland, that I know a lot of them.
Munch Bishop 40:06
It just sums it up in a baby with and Nestor. I What kind of wisdom do I have? Okay, you talk about some miles this night, by the way, just you know, I can still hear you. I can’t see you. Something happened. Alright, if you see me, I hope I’m smiling. But the bottom line is this flashback. Okay? Is that he said, I’m not going to go to Cleveland. I don’t want to go to Cleveland. Well, the egomaniac Jimmy Haslam said he’ll come here because I’ll give him more money than anybody else. You know, when you go somewhere simply for the money, your heart’s not into it. You’re not into it, you know what? And again, I’m taking away that his, you know, dastrally, off the field deeds. It’s not going to work. It’s being proven that it’s not going to work. Come on. Before this injury, he has been awful. He’s been worse than bad. And once the king leaves the throne, you know what? Brother, it’s hard for him to go back on it. Yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 40:52
think I’ve had a tweet somewhere from a couple years ago asking how many games he was actually going to win, whether he was going to win a playoff game ever for the money that was giving him and look, that was when the Ravens threw me out. I was down there watching bashati Storm around smoking his cigars about signing Lamar and what it would mean for the whole structure of quarterback contracts and guaranteed money as well. Much Bishop knows all about that. He knows sports better than anybody out in Cleveland. He is a much, you know, I’ll tell people to find you on social media and your shows and your podcast and all that stuff. But I like finding you the best. When we were there in Tremont having a proper breakfast together,
Munch Bishop 41:29
I’m looking for you. I was all
Nestor Aparicio 41:32
the fame, and I known the other night there’d be a playoff game, and, you know, things would be cool in the gang and be getting put in. I’d be a celebration. So I will be out for the next Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entryway. When they put sticks in, they put foreigner and put sticks in, all the things wrong with you people.
Munch Bishop 41:50
Tommy Sean, the boys need to be no one warns even needs to be in there too posthumously,
Nestor Aparicio 41:55
of course, the late, great. Yeah, dude, you and I did a whole Michael Stanley thing last time, so I don’t want to make you cry. Uh, munch, Bishop’s here. He’s got to go. We got to go beat the Cleveland Browns again this weekend. It almost feels unfair, but I hope things get better for you. I don’t know what else there is to say. You’re in Cleveland. You had a nice run on the baseball field. You’re probably in our way every October. I am Nestor, we are W N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We love Mitch, munch bishop, and we’re, we’re Baltimore.
Munch Bishop 42:24
Any money COVID Mitch years ago? Oh, well,
Nestor Aparicio 42:26
you know the money, man. You.
