Recently, we lost Baltimore Skipjacks superfan Jeff Amdur. In the spirit of the good ole’ hockey game, Nestor gathered his best puck pal Howard Scher at Mama’s On The Half Shell in Owings Mills to recount the tales of exciting 1980s AHL action at the Baltimore Civic Center.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Maryland crab cake tour, Jiffy Lube, air duct cleaning, indoor air quality, COVID impact, hockey background, Jeff Amdur, Skip Jacks, Baltimore Civic Center, Orioles attendance, Birdland membership, season tickets, sports fandom, media rights, baseball revival
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Howard Scher
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We are positively out on the road. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. Got Raven scratch offs giveaway hopping. Howie here is going to get one. Howard shares my longtime friend, DJ partner. Also our friends at Jiffy Lube send us to Owings Mills all the time. They get Luke and Jones back and forth out here to owing smells. I don’t come to Owings Mills as often as I used to you do not. I do. I but I do. Now I’m at mama’s on the half shell. We’re here having some lunch on a beautiful day here at Foundry row. I call it painters mill because I saw Frankie Valley into four seasons right over here. I saw crack the sky many years ago. Come on out and enjoy some great food. You are a customer here, Howard, I
Howard Scher 00:50
am a customer here, absolutely.
Nestor Aparicio 00:51
I’m a promote duck doctors, because Howard, Howard and I are old hockey goons. We met. We met down a civic center. That’s correct. Back in 1984 8586 we became friends. My son was born in 84 and vividly, Howard remembers my son sitting on his lap at hockey games when he was 456, years old. He’s 40 now. How it’s okay, that’s crazy. And Howie and I had a DJ business together in the 90s, doing music and lugging equipment and Tom Gavin’s DJ delights, and Tom’s still a great friend of mine, like you do duck doctors now, so plug away first, and then we’re gonna go backwards through Oriole history, rock and roll history, and how you do eat here at mama’s on the half show. But more than that, like we have a hockey background, and we’re gonna talk about Jeff amder today. Okay,
Howard Scher 01:38
I’m down with it. You’re down with it. Duck Doctor,
01:42
what do you do?
Howard Scher 01:43
We’re an air duct cleaner and dryer vent cleaning company based right in the area here, whatever French story office is located, knowings Mills here, but we service all of Maryland, DC, Virginia, including Towson, right including Towson and very competitive pricing, probably the
Nestor Aparicio 02:01
what do you do? You have this thing that goes in and sucks ducks. So
Howard Scher 02:06
we have a truck mounted vacuum, which is different than a lot of our competition. Pull up with the truck. When I saw you, yes, a lot of our competition, what do you say that my place was, I
Nestor Aparicio 02:15
mean, it was like, Whoa. You know, it’s a process. It’s, it’s, it was, like scientific. It gave me like, surgery. You gave me like, readouts that my wife got when she was, like, battling cancer with all these little particles, literally, right?
Howard Scher 02:30
Yeah. So we, we pull up with her vacuum truck, we hook up to the supply and the return, and we go to each vent with a tool called a whip, which is basically it looks like an octopus, but it’s connected to an airline, right? And it goes into the ductwork. It frees up all the dirt and debris gets sucked outside to the vacuum when a lot of our competition is wheeling like something similar to a carpet cleaner in your house, that’s just a glorified vacuum. So we have the top cleaning system out there, and that’s what sets us apart. Really well. My
Nestor Aparicio 03:06
wife was battling with leukemia, you know, the air and air quality. And I think anybody during COVID, right? COVID kind of changed. I’ve had Martin not on a million times talking about this, just particles in air, and how germs spread and how ventilation works. You always think about it when you’re on an airplane. You might think about it at Mama’s half shell, and there’s high ceilings here, yes, right? I mean, you go down to Mama’s own a half shell in Canton, it’s a row house, right? So, you know? So I think I think differently about it, like you’ve been here. I haven’t touched you. I don’t I would have hugged you 100 times over 15 years ago. I think differently about all of this, but the air we breathe, very, very important, dude. Yeah, it is. And it’s funny, duck Doctor sucks dogs, but important it is, especially if it’s dirty, like when you clean mine, at issue, been there a long time, correct? I You’re like, when’s the last time you had your ducks? I’m like, in 2010 maybe 11, you know, like, probably longer than that. But, well, I that’s what I could recall, right? You know,
Howard Scher 04:06
I mean, indoor air quality is a huge thing now. School systems are, you know, rotating schools and having it done. We did a couple schools in Virginia earlier in the year. A lot of businesses, retail stores. You know, it’s people are much more cognizant of it now, since COVID, so you know, and you wouldn’t believe the stuff we find,
Nestor Aparicio 04:29
we find you, you find, give the number, how we come on. Promote, 800-955-1275,
Howard Scher 04:35
or you can email us at Baltimore, at duct, duct doctor.com, both. Of them wind up with me,
Nestor Aparicio 04:44
so we’re like such good friends. And I don’t have a lot of pictures with you over the years, but I remember like you be I have pictures of you in the studio in 1993 at the Radisson Lord Baltimore. Or Stan Charles in those pictures, Eddie lauers in those pictures, Vince viducia, bunch of different people, but like, you were, like, in my radio thing, doing radio stuff. You were my ballpark reporter, and I completely forgot about that. You should be able to promote something here. You know,
05:19
I appreciate that. Thank
Nestor Aparicio 05:20
you. Should be able to give a good read. I know I appreciate that. Tell them where they could find you again. Howie, 800-955-1275
Howard Scher 05:29
or Baltimore at duct doctor.com,
Nestor Aparicio 05:34
all right. All right. Howard, shares, my dude, I was gonna let you just go on, man,
Howard Scher 05:38
you know, okay, I’ll talk all day. I know you remember the time you called me up and said you need to get to get to the studio at like, one o’clock today, or whatever time it was, and you’re like, I wouldn’t tell you why. You wouldn’t tell me why. Yeah, as a Stanley Cup day, the Stanley Cup was, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 05:50
I remember that’s a good day. Yeah,
Howard Scher 05:51
it was pretty cool. We’ve
Nestor Aparicio 05:52
had a lot of good days, right? Like, last time you came on, like, we were state fair, you came over the documentary, just come out. You’re busting my chops a little bit about how you’re not in the documentary. It’s true. I don’t have a lot of pictures of us together. I like, literally, because I’m thinking about this, and I feel terrible about it. Like, if you know what’s I really feel terrible about and I cried about this last week. So I really did feel terrible about it. Phil Jackman died two weeks ago, and I didn’t reference him in the documentary. And now you and I are, you’re like, talk about to talk hockey, which was, dude, I don’t have a capitals Express. I didn’t have a capitals girlfriend. There was that beautiful blonde girl that wound up working in the press box that I always had the worst crush on, that I was, like, afraid to talk to. I didn’t go to capitals games with girls. I didn’t go with dudes. I don’t think I ever went to a capitals game with you. You and I went in a snowstorm one night. Am I nuts? No, wasn’t you? I went to a Florida Panthers game in a snowstorm. We were driving on the side of the road. I don’t have a lot of hockey friends, right? Like, I mean, I don’t know. I
Howard Scher 06:59
think we went to Hershey together
Nestor Aparicio 07:04
in the car together to you and me. I did that with Bill yegi Many times. He was, you know, one of the off ice officials with the skip jacks, right? But like in that era, the people that I knew that liked, I mean, I would see Jimmy Jackson, and I saw his son couple weeks ago down at the Baltimore Sun reunion. I would see George Taylor. I would see Gary Fisher up in the press box. He would bring sandwiches, usually from admins. There would be death dogs there. But there were usually, and then there were a couple like, you know, Gord Lane local hockey people that might show up to watch a game on the roof or whatever, and then you happened because, like, it was a little boring up on the roof, right? There was no replay, right, right? I mean, I had the capital center guys at the Capitol center, guys, yeah, talking about the book that they did. It’s unbelievable. Like, everybody who ever went to the Capitol center, please go watch my capital center piece from Costas, because it was just, you love it the most, right? Like you’ll love it, because it’s just all these stories about the capital center you never knew. Right? You know how the video board got there? The video board got there because a Poland made a deal with the Pentagon. It was like the biggest screen in the world when it happened. And the machines they have were quarter million dollar cameras to make it work. And then bands came and said, You’re not videoing us. Seriously. Now, that’s all they do, right, right, right, right. So like, now it’s just a thing, right? Yeah.
08:27
But in
Nestor Aparicio 08:28
1984 8586 A, I was a kid, right? I was 15, 1617, right? B, so I’m coming from being a fan to being don’t root for the team, right? And you’re writing about it, and you clearly, I’m not gonna write like from a fan idiot. I mean, they didn’t hire me to do that. I was a professional. Still. Am still M Chad, Greg, Miss Griggs, Mrs. Griggs, Katie, Mrs. G I don’t know, you know, whatever. I don’t know. I’ve met her yet, but I’m a real journalist, and as a kid, I’m up in the press box and I’m it’s really far away, yes, and there’s no replay. And you know Jimmy Jackson saying, Why don’t they pick the numbers and why don’t they put the serifs on the Jersey so we can see what that why don’t they have their names on the Hershey bears, put your name on your jersey. Tim Tukey, so anyway, no, it’s true, though. What do you think you’re the Yankees? You don’t need your name, your Penn State, you know, like, right? All that. Right. So that’s not a very good Jimmy Jackson. It’s probably a combination of Jimmy and George. I apologize. I can do both of them pretty well when I’m thinking about it. And I don’t have oyster stew from Finn and mamas, anyway. So the whole 300 section, as you remember, for skip Jack, is pretty much empty. Some people come up there, smoke, pot, make out, do so, yeah, I don’t know play. I mean, I think most of the time it was just closed, most time it was closed, right? So the upper deck was closed. So. Now I’m I have a sea of seats in front of me. Before Kenny Alber was there, Terry ficarelli and Jerry ficarelli Left right on your radio dial. So, Tim, Tim, Tim, give me his name that Tim, Tim, Tim was the play by play before, Terry, come on. Give me his name. Oh, come on, Tim, there’s
10:20
no shot. Tim,
Nestor Aparicio 10:21
come on, Tim. Tim, I love you. Tim, 8182 83 either way, it’s not that I knew anything about am radio and listening to hockey games or any Phil wood or anything like that, right? But the little well, where they broadcast from, was like the bird’s nest seat over the ice, right? It’s a great seat, it was, but you had to climb down on the rails to get to that little box right? And I’m up there a season covering the team, and I wasn’t on deadline. I’m writing for evening. I wasn’t like writing running copy for the morning paper. I was just there covering the game, and I’d go back to the office and write my story. I would take my notebook and go down and sit in the back of the 200 section, the back of the mezzoline section, the middle concourse, as we would call it, the Baltimore Civic Center. And you all were in that area. And the reason I went down there is because that’s where all the fun was.
Howard Scher 11:22
It was, it was a lot of fun. It’s like
Nestor Aparicio 11:24
blinded by the light, right? It’s like the Bruce Springsteen song, right? Like mama never told me. Always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun, but mama, that’s where the fun is. You know what I mean? True. So I went down and they had those parlor doors, yep, those ratcheted parlor doors, right? So funny. You remember that, but it’s and I pull on that door, and I’m in the back of Section middle, concourse, 10. It was 10. Middle, it probably went to 10, yet it was 210,
Howard Scher 11:52
212, right? All the way right between, and
Nestor Aparicio 11:55
you were there. Your dad was there, Joe defonzo was there. But more than that, not only were you flipping and you all knew hockey, and you all read my work, I made sure you were spending a quarter on the evening sun, you know, make sure you’re reading by Nestor Aparicio, evening sun correspondent, you know. So you there, but it was really about Jeff Amber, wasn’t it? I mean, really, like, if he wasn’t there, you were might have sat on the other side of the ring, possibly.
Howard Scher 12:25
I mean, we developed a friendship with everybody we sat with. I mean, that was part of the fun. Was like, but
Nestor Aparicio 12:31
he was the fun. He was the show. He was the show.
Howard Scher 12:35
But it got to the point where, like, once I was driving, and if my father didn’t go, and I couldn’t find anybody on a random Tuesday to go to a skip check game with me. Did we just go
Nestor Aparicio 12:44
through this and we don’t have hockey friends, right? Yeah, exactly. Phil Jacqueline was my hockey Friday,
Howard Scher 12:48
so I would drive down there and I would be with 20 of my other friends that I sat with every single game to watch the game, and I’d have a seat and just watch hockey and laugh and have a good time. Enjoy the game. You might be there working, and come sit with us. I mean, it was
Nestor Aparicio 13:04
the good old days for the great Jeff amder Here at mama’s on the half shell, on behalf of scunny and his family and Finn, I give you skippers on a war path. Go. Go.
Howard Scher 13:17
There are a lot of people in this town that know that. They may deny it, but they know skippers on a war
Nestor Aparicio 13:21
pack. Go, go. I literally ran around my place today thinking, if Do I have a fireman’s hat, do I with a red light? Could I stop it? And I even thought about like, Burger King, nah, that’s a crown. You know, I’m like, Where can I get a little fireman’s hat to wear today to honor Jeff? But this was the beginning of our friendship. It was 40 years ago now, and, you know, I’m still wearing my gear. I am clearly this thing. Well, let’s talk about this for a minute, because I don’t collect a lot of stuff anymore, right? I only collect small stuff, belt buckles. I wore my Baltimore Colts belt buckle today to honor a scunny, because everything get Nacho mamas, you know, was stolen from Memorial Stadium, basically. And the minute I showed this to Finn, he’s like, my dad would have stolen that for the bar, you know, right, right? Of course he would have, right. I was, the reason you’re here is because I ran into Finn at oyster recovery. And you’re always like, what are you doing the show in Owings Mills? Man, right. Well,
Howard Scher 14:23
you call me, or you text me, and then it’s an hour drive sometimes, baby down an hour cost.
Nestor Aparicio 14:29
This is worth
Howard Scher 14:30
it. Cocos is worth saying. It’s not worth this is worth it, but in the middle of a rare is worth in the middle of a random work day. Yes, I agree. I’ve been to those places, all
Nestor Aparicio 14:40
right, so I would just say, so I decided to do this crazy oyster tour because of Damien with the fried oyster a couple years ago. I finally get around to doing it, and I said to Jen, she’s like, Dude, that’s a lot of oysters. Rule, 2626 and I’m like, we did crab cakes. She’s like, Yeah, well, they’re all different. I’m like, No, every oyster is gonna be different. We can do stew. Can do. Shocked can do I had three different kind just here at mama’s on the half shell today, right? So I put together a list with the oyster recovery partnership, and i Mama was on the list like I was gonna come here. And then I ran into fit anyway, and I was trying to figure out what day to do, and I was trying to find his mother, Jackie, like and I hadn’t been to this location, I’m blown away by how beautiful. So, I mean, I’ll get to that in a minute. But the oyster tour on day like four or five, I said to Jen, look, there’s a couple of places that do Gucci brunchie in Hamden, that do great true Chesapeake and the urban oyster. Should urban oyster that state do the Farmers Market? I’m like, Yeah, say it’s black female. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Let’s so look, we’ll do a Sunday brunch the day the Ravens played it buffalo. But whatever, they played a night game, or they played, no, it was the first weekend of the year. It was the Kansas they played on Thursday night, right? So it was Sunday afternoon. I said there were, dress up, nice. Put a hat on. Look this Sunday, we’ll go out. It was a beautiful day. We’re gonna go to Hampton, like shopping in Hamden. I like shopping in Hamden, right? So we’re out on the street in front of the local oyster, or urban oyster. I confused you, urban oyster. And there’s dude selling stuff, sports, stuff, jerseys, NASCAR, like, just stuff, memorabilia. This is sitting there with, look at price tag. Was a 30 bar when I pay 35 but whatever it was, something like that, $10 less 30, I think. And I don’t think I had a 10am I had the bar for my wife, and it’s sitting there, and I swear to God, I walk by and my hair is out and I’m looking nice. I got my little pair of sweater on, and, you know, it’s beautiful. Brunch with my wife. Got a mimosa, and I got this dude, I got a French toast. Oyster fritter. Well, I never had an oyster fruit of my life to long fried oyster thing, okay, and a poached egg on top with Hollandaise. Dude, crazy sounds, and they only have it on the brunch menu. So that’s why I went for brunch, to do something different. And this thing was there, and I said to me, my wife saw it. She’s like, Dude, you’re gonna get just get it. You’re like, she’s like, because you’re gonna regret it, because you just you saw it, and you you have to have you lit up. So I put a status up on that day. I got pictures of my phone. Now I’m gonna wind up crying so but I put this picture, put this picture up, and I said, Should I buy it? What should I offer? What’s it worth? Walking in the avenue in Hamden on the oyster B September 8, and found this pearl of my past, little oyster reference there, because I’m smart. Dude wants 30 bucks. Should I buy it? Where are my Puck heads and skip Jack fans of the past, and I sat down and had this delicious oyster thing right on the oyster tour. 23 comments, 41 likes. Everybody’s like, dude, buy that thing. Don’t if you don’t buy it, if I somebody else will, right? And you can see the dude had all this stuff on the racks and stuff. But this thing was here, and we ate, and I didn’t have like, cash, and I had literally, a $20 bill my pie. It was my emergency 20s. All I had, you know. And I’m like, All right, I’m gonna go buy and I’m like, I offered him, like, 20, and I think I had a five or something. And he’s like, Nah, man, I gotta get 30 for that. I’m like, dude, let me just find let me Ven let me let me get you. I’ll get you to $5 just give me the thing. You know, I don’t know if it works. I mean, isn’t this the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your
Howard Scher 18:48
life? It is nice. Gosh, you got to find a home for it.
Nestor Aparicio 18:53
Skippers on a more path. Go. Go. All right. There you go. So, Howard chairs, here we’re at Mama’s own a half shell, paying tribute to Jeff Amber. I’m not even drinking anything. I don’t think he really drank or any. He was like a French and Spanish teacher, right? Yes. He
Howard Scher 19:05
was, like our county schools, I
Nestor Aparicio 19:06
believe, yeah. And, you know, I would see him at Oriole Fan Fest and stuff like that. But when, I mean, when I would say, with the rest of my life, when I think of the skeptics I’ve been 40 years, I You can’t there. They are, one I think more of him than I think of you, or Tim Tukey or Mitch Lamoureux, right, or barrel trots or Tyler larder, or anybody else from PE Island and Doug McLean like to me the skip jacks. When I see that, when I see this, I think is Steve seftel, of course, yes. And Jeff amder. Steve seftel and
Howard Scher 19:45
Jeff Ander. That’s a pair. Do you
Nestor Aparicio 19:47
know what happened to my Steve seftel jersey? Did I ever tell you?
Howard Scher 19:51
Maybe I remember the jersey, though. Well, this is you were the only one that had one. This is
Nestor Aparicio 19:54
my skip Jack’s jersey that fits. Okay? This is not a real jersey. This is a little bit of a. It’s a terry I think it may have been like more of a kids to put over gear. I mean, it doesn’t fit like a kids. It fits me nice because I’m I’m svelte, right? So thank you Planet Fitness. I appreciate you. So I found this somewhere along life’s Highway. It wasn’t mine in our era, I was the reporter. I didn’t wear gear. I didn’t know Right, right? So I found it and it fit me, and I got it. I’ve told you to Steve seftel Jersey, right? The 14 that I was in Portland, Maine, nationally syndicated, when I was doing Sporting News in one on one, I was doing an appearance there, they put me up in this place to Queen and state and Bill Cosby, like the Ravens had just won the Super Bowls, like, two weeks before Mike Flynn was supposed to come and, like, live large with me in Portland, but he had to have a scope and a neat thing, because he was, like, the center on the Super Bowl winning team. So I’m at this. They put me in an estate. They put me in this old main inn, and they sent me like, like, Finn sent me this, this soft shell crab thing. They sent me a lobster. It had, they’ve been three, four pounds. I mean, it was like I was just a schmuck doing afternoon, nasty night nationwide, right, right. And I’m up in Portland Maine, and they had me in a very aggressive schedule the main the Portland at that point, trots was long gone. At that point, they were the caps farm team. I played bubble hockey in a bar with a number one draft pick of that era that failed. Okay, he was a late 20s Pickler, 20s pick but he for the cap, for the caps. Okay, he was playing, but he was injured, but we played beer bubble hockey in a bar, and then they took me to a pizza joint in Yarmouth, main yard, Bert yard or something, okay? And when I’m in a pizza joint, and a dude comes in, and I recognize him a little bit. And he’s like, Nestor, I’m here to see you. I listen to you every day. I’m like, Thanks, man. He’s like, no, no. Man, I’m from Laurel, Maryland. I He said I was the equipment manager for the skip checks. That’s why you recognize me. And I’m like, he said, I came to Portland with the team, with trots, with, with everybody, okay? And I’m like, he’s like, I have a whole trunk of red and white skip Jack’s jerseys. Wow. Okay, he said I have Tyler larder. I have, let’s see Steve maltay, okay, I have Robin bawa. I have Chris Felix. I know, yeah, Chris Felix, so I said to him, do you have I have Sean Simpson, I have Jim rivnack, right? So I’m just going through these names, right? I said to him, Dear Steve Seth, he’s like, I don’t know. He said, I’m gonna go home. He said, Where are you tonight? I said, I’m playing bubble hockey with the kid from the caps. And I’m I dropped the puck. I dropped the puck in this in it skip Jack’s jersey. I dropped the puck in this, I’m sure Tom ebrang In this jersey at center ice in Portland. This was the one I was wearing, literally, okay, like that. So I dropped the puck and I had this sky, but my seat was, like, next to the penalty box, okay? It was like a lounge chair, like, like, these nice lounge chairs at mamas because of, like, the Lazy Boy company bought the sponsorship. Was like the, you know, so, and it was like, you won the contest to sit with me at the game because of the radio. It was a big thing. Okay, so it’s Portland. It was big in Portland, right? He gave me a little respect there. So I love you, and I’ve never told you these stories. This is what I invited Mike Flynn to come do, like he would have been a part of all this, and he would have been the Super Bowl champion, like getting his ass kissed too. He probably would have been with me dropping the puck. And he said he went the main he’s a black bear, okay, right? He’s, he’s the main event,
Howard Scher 24:10
right? So they would have all known him,
Nestor Aparicio 24:12
right? So this is why I was trying to do all this, right? So I only got to be half a hero, but I’m in the bubble hockey place, and the guy called me earlier in the day and said, which one do you want? He literally is on the phone with me. I’m on my cell, one block phone, 2001 big gray thing, the shoe phone, Maxwell Smart. And I said, I want to Steve Seth was like, I got it in red or white. Which one do you want? And I’m like, you know, I want the red one. You know, like the red will just pop a little bit. I always like the road. Then we warm on the road so we watch them play. Mostly you had to go to Hershey or Rochester to see the road jersey. Right, right. Obviously, I love it enough to spend 30 bucks on a fully functioning clock. So, so I’m losing my. Track of my story here. So he brings me the Steve sefto jersey and gifts it to me. And I’m like, dude, let me give you 100 No, no, no, no, no, dude, it means something to you. That’s why we give it to you. So this dude gives me Steve sefton’s Jersey, but it’s, I swam in it, right? Yeah. Like, it was made for he was a bigger guy, six, two, Guy number 14, but it was, I swim in it. So I wore it for fun. I have pictures with you in it. I know we I think I wore it the night that the trots brought the predators into the arena, okay, oil farms arena, right? I
25:33
remember that, right.
Nestor Aparicio 25:35
So, about two, three years ago, I’m cleaning stuff. And when I move from downtown to Towson, I actually right sized. I got bigger. I mean, I was trying to get rid of stuff. I was just like, getting sentimental. I’m 56 now, right? So it’s probably 5253 Steve sefler was written a book on mental health challenges. Dougie McLean was like a real Guiding Light. Speaking of Pei, brought Dougie McLean up, get some Pei oysters out here. Mamas still didn’t go over the bridge. Crazy, you know, crazy too, and it was a day, Sunny dive, even crazier. All this stuff kind of comes together. So this Jersey has been in my property since February of 2001 okay, that’s when I got it. You know, the night I got it? It was the night he hate me played for the XFL. Was that? That was, that was that night, okay? I was in all the Portland bars, and people were watching the XFL. It was the launch of Vince McMahon’s the he hate me League, right? So I got that jersey. Then I wore it for 20 years. And Adam, I got mileage out of that jersey. You saw it, you know, I had it, right? And every time I would wear it to a CAPS game or whatever, I wear it on the bus. I wore it on a lot of puck busses, right? So, I mean, I got my my wear out of this. I was wearing it with trots when we kissed the cup. I was wearing it. I was wearing it with trots when trots lifted the cup at, at the Mandarin bay or Mandarin Oriental, yeah, Mandarin orient place in the strip when I kiss trots, I’m wearing ceftria Mandalay Bay. Or no, no, no. Mandarin Orient, trust me. Okay, yeah. Okay. So, so that jersey septal saw the picture Facebook friends, so he saw the jersey. So I haven’t seen Steve since then. I haven’t seen Steven 35 years but Steve and I have. He’s been on the show, okay, right, talking about, you know, his career and whatnot. And he, the reason that he was special to me is the first time that the franchise is transferred. We had, well, tell everybody the story. You know better than me, from from penguins to capitals, we’re talking 80, 567, tell everybody how bad the hockey was during the independent year. It was as bad as bad as it gets. And we were in the stands watching, and I was covered. We were there just about every game, if not every beyond expansion. Murray Bannerman, right? Yeah. I
Howard Scher 28:08
mean, it was, you can’t even describe how bad. Well, the
Nestor Aparicio 28:12
penguins were funding the skip jacks with players, right? Gene, Uber ACO, the gene went coach the penguins and the skip Jacks had fallen without a team. There were 23 teams in the league at the time. They didn’t they didn’t have a team, right?
Howard Scher 28:28
And they were struggling to get players. So teams were randomly loaning either a grizzled veteran or somebody that couldn’t make their HL team, or even their ECHL team. He
Nestor Aparicio 28:39
talks about that team, it’s like, it’s totally like a bad slap shot, yeah?
Howard Scher 28:45
And then guys would get hurt, and then somebody else would have to loan him a player that no longer look like
Nestor Aparicio 28:51
the penguins they had, like a red thing, and it kind of maybe like a Baltimore flag kind of thing going on, yeah? That one independent, yeah, it was a little weird. There’s a little, there was a little red and then David poil came in after telling me, we don’t want our farm team in Baltimore, because our players won’t feel penalized enough if they can live in Columbia, right?
29:13
I remember you telling me that, like, literally, that’s the truth, right?
Nestor Aparicio 29:16
So the red thing at the first practice I went to and I knew Brian Murray and Terry. I mean, I knew Jack I knew I knew the people from the caps, because I covered the caps with Phil Jackman. There’s another Phil reference for you right at that time, because we’re talking 85, 678, the capitals took over. And when I went to the first practice, that first day before piney orchard, I don’t think, I think was probably at the arena. I just like, got the, you know, the numbers and the roster, and he was the first kid off the ice, and he was just a nice, sweet, yeah, you know, pin up Canadian boy. Look like he was in a boy band. And he was just big. Dude, you know. And he was just a nice kid, you know. And like, covering hockey was always sort of not you wrestling, but, but usually nice kids, right? Nice Canadian kids, for the most part, right? And so he wasn’t my favorite, but he was amongst my favorites. And he was just a guy I knew we weren’t, we didn’t chase girls or drink or anything, you know. But he was that guy, right? And so I had his jersey all these years, and at some point, when I pulled it off the rack, it was, it was definitely two and a half years he was, when I moved, because I was, I put it in a box in my where I live downtown, my back was hurt, and I was all like, I didn’t want to carry it, and I’m gonna die anyway. I want to give my stuff away, you know what I mean. So I text him, and I’m like, send me your address. And he sends me his address. He’s up in Canada, outside Toronto, Hamilton area, and I put his thing, and I put the box, and I took the jersey, put in a box,
Howard Scher 30:54
sent it to him like he didn’t have one.
Nestor Aparicio 30:57
No, he didn’t have one. So, yeah, he got it in the mail, like, a real one, and his kids wearing it. Oh, that’s cool. Oh, my God, he lost. He like, called me, emailed me, sent me pictures, like all this stuff. He was beyond thrilled because he didn’t
Howard Scher 31:15
have it. Wow, that’s surprising. I figured he would have had a jersey. Saved their stuff,
Nestor Aparicio 31:19
man, they all thought they were going to the Hall of Fame, right? True, right? And now we’re in a different culture. Howard shares my guess where the mama’s on a half shell. We’re in a different culture where, when Lamar plays Jalen Daniels,
31:32
they swap jerseys. They
Nestor Aparicio 31:34
don’t just swap jerseys. He talks on the first thing he says after the game when whatever pretty girls out with whatever might stick she’s got out on the field, he’s like, I gotta get his jersey. It’s the first thing they think like. So it is important, you know, to them, right? Yeah, if you don’t have your stuff, or if you have too much stuff, or your stuff’s too big, what do you do with it? I mean, this other stuff winds up in these auctions. I see Robbie’s auctioning off this and auctioning off that. I mean, for me, Steve SEPTA’s Jersey probably would have brought, what, two, 300 bucks on a eBay or something like that. Probably, you know, legitimate patch game used, maybe more than that might be six. I mean, kind of a weird item to get, because there aren’t many of them, for sure. I mean, Hershey bears jerseys, right? But Rochester amirch That, you know, the teams that have been around there aren’t this only existed for such a limited period of time. And dude, it was stunning to me. I’m out having that oyster, and this thing’s there, and I’m like, when do you see this? Anywhere you don’t
Howard Scher 32:36
I have a T shirt of The Black and Gold skip jacks. You have a jersey. If you have a black and gold jersey, I do somewhere. Yes, it’s sure of you. Yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 32:45
have you to wear.
Howard Scher 32:46
I think I wore it to that same game you were talking about when, dude,
Nestor Aparicio 32:50
this is like Halloween, where I told him to wear to Jersey. And you stiff me. You come to, you come to the costume. Part of it, I wore a costume. Some
Howard Scher 32:59
of us have to do business during the day. You didn’t even bring a damn
Nestor Aparicio 33:03
ambulance hat or a fireman hat for Jeff. You know, I mean, Howard was my my ballpark reporter wins. Tell everybody I don’t even
Howard Scher 33:10
know 19, I know. Wait, let me think for a minute. Probably, yeah, 94 maybe three. Who
Nestor Aparicio 33:18
are the players? You remember? Were you? Sherman, a bando era?
Howard Scher 33:23
Probably better. I mean, Palmeiro was on those teams. Okay, all right. Ripken, obviously,
Nestor Aparicio 33:28
right. Messina, right. You watching the World Series or no,
Howard Scher 33:33
if there’s nothing else on TV, maybe, wow. What
Nestor Aparicio 33:35
was that mean? Tell me what that even means. I don’t even understand. I
Howard Scher 33:39
don’t know. I mean, I don’t have a tremendous amount of interest. I’m not a fan of either team. I obviously would like. I hate the Yankees. So I
Nestor Aparicio 33:48
keep saying, This is not a trick. This isn’t hard. This is I know it’s easy, man, still
Howard Scher 33:51
doesn’t mean I’m gonna sit down
Nestor Aparicio 33:53
and watch it. Janet Marie Smith is, you know, as an executive VP the Dodgers, and I love her. I love Dodger Stadium. Tommy Lasorda was always really
34:05
cool to me, Fernando. Oh, man.
Nestor Aparicio 34:06
Fernando is on your teams. Yes, you didn’t even think about that when you covered the team for me. Fernando was on that team. Wow, I
Howard Scher 34:15
did not, I did not think of that. You know what I remembered
Nestor Aparicio 34:18
when he died the other day. First off. I remember seeing him. I was at Camelback Ranch in in Phoenix for spring training, and I think the NFL owners meetings were there at the Biltmore that March, okay? And I was, you know what? I was working on the book I never finished on Baltimore leadership, Frank Robinson was last time I saw him alive. Was that day, and Camelback Ranch is like this is pointed like this, too. Beautiful, dark, elegant. Doesn’t look like a ballpark thing at all. But the Dodgers facilities, you know, the Dodgers, right? My buddy was running the Dodgers. Dennis Manningham was the president, and Jamie McCourt. Uh, Owings Mills very own McCourt family, right? They own the Dodgers at that point, before the Poopoo hit the fan. Um, and I was there, and Dennis was in meetings and this and that, and I was waiting around. I saw Frank Robinson, and I wanted to maybe, maybe have him contribute to the book. And he said, I got no time for you, Nestor. So that was the last thing I think Frank ever said, wow. So, yeah, you know, Frank was rough with me, but, but I, five minutes after that happened, I walked out into the parking lot, and Fernando was standing there, and I said, Fernando, and he looked at me like he recognized me. Give me a little bit of that. I’m like, you know, Nestor uppers. Oh, he lit up. And he’s like, how are you? How is your boy? I remember you had a little boy, you know, like, so I said, Jen, take a pinch. Didn’t know, really know a lot about Fernando. You know, she’s more like, if it was Robert Paris, she would have known Larry Bird. She was more Celtics as a kid than baseball, so she wasn’t Wade balls. She wouldn’t know will Bill Buckner, even I don’t think it was him, you know, she knows who Bill Bucha is, but wouldn’t know him by sight. So this is Fernando. We’re in a he wasn’t getting fanned at all. It was kind of like in a lot player, lot kind of thing, right? And I got to, like, hang out with him and have this moment take a picture. Jen took the picture, and she’s like, man, you really, like, worked up. You never, like, want pictures with people or whatever, so much. And I’m like, Fernando Valenzuela. I mean, like, Stop, you know, like, dude, that line score the other day, the first nine games he pitched, have you seen that? I don’t. I shared it. Oh, did you okay, dude, it is the most unbelievable thing. And I remember it. My dad subscribed his 40 I was a box score kid, right, especially that time in my life, right? But this was shared, I believe it was who’s to do with the funny hair that Fox and morocy, one of the guys shared it. One of those cats, Fernando Valens, whale is first starts of the if I could just get my fingers right on the glass, I’d be able to look this up. His first starts in the in the major leagues are by any account. No, it’ll never be done again. It looks like a little league line score. So he pitched every fifth day in the month of April and May. Every game was a complete game. So every game you went nine innings? Yeah, okay, every game, five hits, four hits, five hits, seven hits, seven hits, five hits, seven hits, three hits, strikeouts, 510, 1011, seven, 711, era, 0.50, through eight starts, he was eight and Oh, with a 050, and eight complete games. In the worst game, the worst game, he gave up seven hits
Howard Scher 37:53
and never walked more than four. And how many runs did he give up
Nestor Aparicio 37:57
for? Four runs total, four runs total and eight star
Howard Scher 38:01
seven hit game. We give up no runs, 11
Nestor Aparicio 38:03
strikeouts, and only give two home runs in the whole stretch. These are first eight starts of his career. He was 20 years old. He was 20 years old. So it’s about Fernando, right? So that’s why I wanted to go. I’m going Dodgers here. Okay, fine. I’m
38:17
with you now. Where
Nestor Aparicio 38:18
are you with the Orioles? Because I said something to you, we’re here at mama’s on the half shell. Howard shares my longtime partner, old friend, hockey buddy. We’re here to honor Jeff. Couple dudes came in and said, over table nine over there, grabbed me for some Maryland lottery tickets, as everybody should do on the Maryland crab cake tour. And dude said, Hey, dude, I was in your 2008 sports guy competition and whatnot, you know, and we got to talk in baseball. And he’s like, Hey, dude, the Orioles are gonna give you press pass back, right? And I’m like, I don’t ever leave the house without having that question, you know, anymore, like, literally, I never leave the house. And I literally was with you 30 seconds on opening day, before or after, I ran into Mr. Rubenstein’s appointed representative on the club level, because I’m always on the club level, right? I seen people, right? So this guy asked me, and I’m like, please read the letter, because, like, I don’t. I can’t go through my last eight months, but if you want to know I wrote about it in length, hopefully to keep your attention to do it, the Orioles for me, like they’re going through this transition period here, and I don’t know what to expect. No promises have been made, really, right? I mean, this guy’s coy enough to show up and do not really dissimilar to what Donald Trump’s done at the McDonald’s drive through, which is sort of stage little videos. I’m gonna give free beer out. We’re gonna take a video of it. I’m gonna give hats out. We’re gonna take I’m gonna squirt the fans. I’m gonna dance on the dugout. At some point when I see the Dodgers in the Yankees, when I come in here, everybody’s wearing gear and TV and whatnot, I’m thinking the Yankees fans have waited all this time and they haven’t won, right? Right, correct. Messina still had a nude ring finger when he left, right, yep. And the Dodgers, they’re famous for, like, not winning right, and where the giants are famous for getting over winning right through all of this. And you see what the Otani trout thing look like in Anaheim. You see what these franchises like Kansas City that get up and walk for a minute and then just say, Now we’d rather just pocket the money, or Pittsburgh where they just pocket the money. And I don’t know what kind of owner this guy’s gonna I really don’t. I know he’s not gonna be the kind of guy that’s gonna meet me on the crab cake tour and sit here and be an honest to god guy that I’m gonna feel comfortable sitting with and getting information from that, I feel like, I feel like this is going to be run like a billionaire thing. It’s gonna be run like a corporate thing, and whatever that corporate thing feels like, that’s what it’s gonna feel like. But I don’t think it’s gonna feel like Corbin burns at two 15 million, you know, I and I don’t know that we should have to do that, any of that, watching this particular World Series, but they’re gonna have to spend a lot of money, and then they’re gonna have to make a lot of money, and that’s where you come in. Customer share has that credit card burning up down there, right? Well, ready to get those Birdland points? I
Howard Scher 41:09
had to prepay my season tickets. I think it was before the playoffs even. What
Nestor Aparicio 41:14
kind of fan are you? What level get? Give everybody you really are season ticket
Howard Scher 41:19
holder. I am. I did not know that I do the Birdland membership. Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 41:22
how long and what? Orange levels, silver, whatever are you You know what? I
Howard Scher 41:26
don’t even know, because they changed it all this year. Okay, what do you buy? But they’re basically, you throw money, no, you throw money into a debit account, and you get a discounted. It’s gonna sound like I’m doing a promotion for them, but you put money into a into a debit 100
Nestor Aparicio 41:38
duck doctors get your Orioles tickets right? Designated hitter Howard share, right?
Howard Scher 41:43
Remember them? I
Nestor Aparicio 41:44
guess they still have those. So you’re doing it right now.
Howard Scher 41:47
I am. Yeah, go ahead. You put your so you put your money in account, and then you can buy as many tickets to any game you want. They’re all discounted. But so, you know, this past season, I didn’t make it to as many games as I did the year before. But it was fine. I spent my money, took some friends, took some customers, so you put 400 bucks, 500 bucks? No, I think the minimum now is like 1200 1200s the
Nestor Aparicio 42:10
number Okay, I
Howard Scher 42:10
think it used to be 600 and then this year they changed it so it might be 1000 but whatever it is, it went up significantly this year. Did
Nestor Aparicio 42:19
you take advantage of the cheap beer and the hot dogs and the Yeah, because,
Howard Scher 42:23
you know, you have the ballpark app on your phone and you get, I think, 25% off at the concession stands. So that’s the part. Is like, I’ll take a group of guys with me, and we’ll be there watching a game, and I’ll just get
Nestor Aparicio 42:34
money off beer. Basically, he appears to 12 bucks instead of 14 bucks like that, right? But
Howard Scher 42:38
I’m sitting there scanning my phone the whole game, because we’re getting a discount on everything we buy. So at the end, I’m out, you know, and I’m not complaining, really, but I’m out hundreds of dollars in concessions. How
Nestor Aparicio 42:48
many games did you go to this year? Then
Howard Scher 42:51
five? Oh, she
42:52
didn’t go to. What? Okay, okay, yeah. I
Howard Scher 42:56
mean, but you know, you go with four people, five tickets, 20 tickets, right? Okay, all right, right. I mean, it adds up quick, and you spend the money
Nestor Aparicio 43:04
so happily when they’re winning, correct? Dude, I met you at a hockey game cheering for half assed minor league Yeah, thing that because we love Baltimore, we love sports, right? So, I mean, like, you know, you’re
Howard Scher 43:14
putting your money in an account that they’re earning interest on. Because they got my money early this year, they’re gonna earn interest year round, till I spend the money. In theory, it works for me. It obviously works for them. It gets people.
Nestor Aparicio 43:28
You need to see them do I mean, you don’t really. You’re sophisticated. You were in the media with me for a minute. You own a business. You’re a big boy. You don’t think about them as, you know, Christmas ornaments and their family member. You think of it as a business. You You were here when the Colts left. I’m wearing my Baltimore Colts belt Bucha. I’ll remind you, you know, right, like you saw the 10,000 empty seats. I mean, you have a business. Maybe you couldn’t go down there on that Tuesday, but I it was alarming to me, and it should be alarming to them. It hurt bothers me, and it reminds me of the damage that’s been done, of how grand it was when you were had a press pass in 9394 95 to where it is now. And then the Washington part of that part’s not coming back, that they’re really gonna have to build this in Owings Mills, and they’re gonna have to build this with people of color. They’re gonna have to build this with young people, young people, young people, and they’re just going to have to get people that have don’t care about baseball, who are adults, to care about baseball for the first time. And that’s that’s going to be hard to do. There’s
Howard Scher 44:31
two parts to that answer. I put some of the blame on major league baseball, of course, because they waited to the very last minute to announce when the games were going to be. So I had to go online for the pre sale as a season ticket order. You get presale tickets. Buy games randomly, not knowing it’s not it’s bad enough, not knowing if you’re going to win the division.
Nestor Aparicio 44:52
You have three kids at three different ages and two jobs and a wife and a vital job. You know? You know, I want to say it was what’s called. The COVID era. We call them essential, essential, essential. So 72
Howard Scher 45:03
hours before the first game is when they announced the game time. So you’re rearranging your life at the last minute to get down there, and it was a day game.
Nestor Aparicio 45:11
So much easier. 24 and drunken united. I think
Howard Scher 45:16
that that has a lot to do with it. I also think in general, across sports, not as many people are going to the games. So I would imagine that part of the Camden Yards renovations, I think that whole left field Upper Deck is going to be
Nestor Aparicio 45:30
gone. Yeah, I don’t know somebody like Janet Marie’s gonna rethink that. I hope the candidate people get that money. I mean, it’s our tax money. I want it to be put to work for something better than the black bird wing, where they downsize the Kevin Byrne press box into a little house up in the corner, right, and then throw me out of it in an area where nobody’s ever, you know, ever gonna go for less than 250 bucks to get in, right? It’s cover charge. The baseball thing for me, has a chance in our community, right? Because it once worked like Brooks and Boog and people named their kids after Cal and like I get all of that, and then I go to a place here in Owings Mills today, where I see people of color in here. I go to an oral game. That’s not the way it looks. I’m here. I drive around if I went home tonight, I have 10 times the chance of seeing someone throwing a lacrosse stick out of season right now on a side field anywhere between Owings Mills and Towson, then I have any chance of seeing a kid in the catcher’s mitt like period, right? So they’re not to mention Soccer Ball Coach off,
Howard Scher 46:35
but that’s a baseball bat, right? That’s not the Orioles. So
Nestor Aparicio 46:39
you’re no longer just mark. It’s kind of like when hockey came to Nashville, right, right. Like we would say, hockey will never work in Baltimore, hockey you’ll never you know why it’s not indigenous to be in here. Horse Racing was and died because it wasn’t fed right now, indoor soccer never meant anything here, and this British guy came in with an American flag and guys in shorts, sure, shorts. You know, you and your dad never caught on to the blast. You thought it was kind of, you thought it was kind of cheese ball, right? Right? Like, literally, you liked hockey, right? Yeah, so, but in your seat, all those empty seats, they were full of blast. Fans who loved it. They didn’t love soccer, the entertainment value. They didn’t love soccer, right? They love cute boys and orange and black and stance the Mankiewicz was amazing. They love the music. They love Celebrate good times. And you know what they loved about it? At that time, it said Baltimore on it, yes, you know, like the reason I love this. This says Baltimore. This is a but this means Baltimore, means only one thing. And I had civic pride that when I see if there’s a bunch of 24 year old kids in here, all they’re doing is gambling on the game and picking players, picking colors, code colors, what, you know, whatever. That’s whatever. Well, whatever, that tribal thing that in our vernacular was, screw you New York, screw you Boston, screw you Pittsburgh, right? That’s kind of gone, you know what? I mean, like, that’s not the reason people are into it. It young people, I’m talking about right, older,
Howard Scher 48:13
into it for the gambling. But I still think they they dislike those teams. I think it doesn’t stop them from betting on Gerrit Cole, fair enough, right? But I think they still dislike the team. But yes, they’re gonna root for Gerri COVID, kind
Nestor Aparicio 48:27
of fan than Jeff amder, of course, who was doing real civic advocates, advocacy work of while Bill Hagey of you know, real fan Dan, you know, he’s in cahoots with the team, and they put the camera on him, right? I mean, that’s a that, that’s that’s what it is, that’s what we are. That’s the modern, real fan.
Howard Scher 48:46
Damn. Wasn’t the first person to do it in that stadium. He’s just the one that they caught on to right.
Nestor Aparicio 48:51
And the chain gangs gone now, right? The defense chants are gone. I see the games on TV now. They had Redskins colors up on the board saying visiting fans want quiet or like, right?
Howard Scher 49:07
Yeah, that’s normal. They do that every
Nestor Aparicio 49:11
year. I heard people in Tampa last week cheering on offense when Tampa was on offense and we weren’t Raven fans, like, I’m like, people don’t even know. Oh yeah. We had a couple How to Be a fan.
Howard Scher 49:22
We had some commanders fans sitting next nearest at the game, and Jaden Daniels was under center, and they’re allowed, and part of the they know nothing about football, right, right?
Nestor Aparicio 49:34
Or if you, if you want a seat at the 50 yard line behind the bench, you don’t realize you can’t see the game, right, right?
Howard Scher 49:41
But it’s status to sit there.
Nestor Aparicio 49:45
Yeah, okay, so sports is status. Now I would agree with I think there’s no status to this for anybody but you and me skip jacks. And
Howard Scher 49:51
I think it’s just the experience, you know, like, one of the nice things with the season tickets is, or the Birdland membership, is that I. Have an option of buying a parking pass for cheap. So, you know they’re like 10 bucks. You might have to walk from M and T over, it’s not bad. But if you go towards cfg, you’re spending 40 or 50 bucks to park and you still have to walk to the stadium. So there’s little advantages to that, not getting back to selling season tickets again. But it matters. Want
Nestor Aparicio 50:20
you. No, no, no, you don’t. I want you to sell it. I want you because you’re giving me a deeper explanation than most people have given me. Most people in my life are not Birdland membership members. I mean literally, like most people. And what I’m trying to get at is, all right, Greg Bader is going to go run massing, and we can insert whatever joke we want into that and say, All right, what is massing going to be? Somebody asked me the other day, who owns it? I’m like, it’s got to be Rubenstein. I mean, like talking about it, but Major League Baseball, the problem they have with the Nationals, the Nationals aren’t for sale anymore, right? Rubenstein would have bought them. So the notion that not just here, but in San Diego, that the number one thing the commissioner talked to my buddy John Durant about last week is about this media package and yes, how Luke is going to get Oreo games in southern Pennsylvania, how I’m going to get it on my phone. My buddy hells came in two weeks ago, pizza Johnson, Arkansas, like he’s an Oreo fan, if you’re going to make him subscribe to apple plus and Disney this, and paramount that. And then you get what you get. You get what, what the NFL has gotten from me, which I didn’t watch the game Thursday night because I don’t think the boot up my computer after sitting in front of it all day, right? I just sit there and watch Amazon plus. It’s kind of half assed. The games are half assed. The Vikings lost, whatever, but those Apple TV Orio games like
Howard Scher 51:45
forget about it. I maybe watched one or two early in the season, and if I happen to be eating dinner somewhere and somebody working there had Apple TV, you’re restricting
Nestor Aparicio 51:53
the game. I know people that get you, but they should be getting their game in front of as many people as they can, especially people like you that are already giving them a grand, right? Like for me, there’s gonna come a point where, when you give them that grand, or that 1200 bucks for tickets in the game, dude, you gotta give me these games on TV. I just gave you a grand fair. I have to be a subscriber. Roll that in. Make it 1350 to get your 300 bucks or whatever. But 300 bucks a season, that’s $2 a game, you know, just to watch it on TV. And you’re not gonna watch them all. And if the team stinks and, you know, well,
Howard Scher 52:27
I mean, the massive situation all falls on the Angelo’s hands. I mean, they were the reason these games weren’t being streamed locally, you know. I mean, it was the way they set up the network, and they wanted it. This
Nestor Aparicio 52:38
is where, like, If Katie Griggs called me off the record. I would never give you up, Katie it and I sat for two hours in a room without my phone. I’m a man of honor. I stay off the record to like, they try to intimidate me off the record, and then that’s really not off the record anymore, right? Right? That’s just kind of the way it is. But if I had two hour, I’m writing a letter to her right now, like, really serious, like talking to people I know who run franchises, and, yeah, turned around franchises and been successful, and people that have worked in B markets and different things. I think she’s, if she’s a hill charger, she sees those empty seats and says, why? I can at least get those filled for the playoff games next year, and I look like a hero. She’s the attendance going up and saying, all right, it’s going in the right direction, you know?
Howard Scher 53:25
I mean, it’s possible. I mean, how many times this can be glorious if they do it, right? I’ll go back to the skip jacks. There was always a couple games a year where there were 10,000 people. That was like, their big thing a Friday night. You give away a tanker, give away something, right? But I can also guarantee you that there were probably 3000 tickets. They stood on Baltimore street or on Fayette Street and gave into people walking to their offices, you know. Or they came to you and said, Nestor, here’s 10 tickets to give to your friend, you know, your friends, your listeners, whatever year it was at that point. And yes, you could put people in those stands, but you might have to give away some tickets to do that. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 54:01
not even the measurement. Isn’t even the optics of it. The measurement is the affinity and the avidity and the rapidity. I should tape that affinity rapidity, yeah, I got all of that in the team. You should that. You should feel like the team loves you, even if it doesn’t, I know the team doesn’t love me. I know that on a first hand basis. And I mean, I gave them money for a quarter of a century, and they still threw me out. So I know how little the football team thinks of me and how the NFL thinks and I know the ice like dude I was, you were a part of this, the arrogance of this Angelo saying for 30 years, that has to just absolutely end. And it has to be really noticeable and abrupt. And I mean, like every spring training game should be on next year, those players should be in this community, at every raving game, at every state, like they should be doing stuff to not having all. Season. That’s right, because they’ve never done anything. They don’t put their they haven’t used their television network to market
Howard Scher 55:07
no their television networks a joke. I mean, there’s nothing on it when there’s no games, but you got to give it a chance to Rubenstein. You got to see what’s going to happen. And I’ll tell you the TV thing. In 10 years, it’s going to be like the NFL. MLB is going to control all the networks. I guarantee you, Madison is going to be gone. It’s going to be absorbed by Major League Baseball. They saw what happened with the Bally sports networks that went away. They took over those what is, I think folks lost a fortune too, right? I think Major League Baseball now is going to own the broadcast rights to six teams. I think this season or control the broadcast rights to six teams, and I think it’s gonna be all of eventually. I can’t even
Nestor Aparicio 55:47
figure out what to do with the age, dude, you know, I mean, the mass and unraveling is because they effed up the expos. That’s really the truth. I mean, that’s the demon seed of all, of course, and they went in the business with Angelo’s on that, and regretted it to the end, still regretting. It’s still not untangled. We’re still sitting here talking about Greg Bader running mass, and what is mass, and where is it going to be, and we know it’s not going to be that, but it’s going to be something else. And I keep thinking, like, how are they going to spin this to get me to write them a check just to watch the games on TV directly, and then if I don’t, I’m gone forever like that. That’s really like, you’re gonna give me a $300 $100 whatever the ultimatum is gonna be, you’re gonna make me buy it, or I’m gonna just at 62 just say, Okay, I’ll pick up golf. You know, I’ll go do some you know, I’ll go do something else with my life. I’ll start
Howard Scher 56:37
kayaking. I just read that one team has decided they’re going to broadcast all their games on public broadcast TV, non pay TV.
Nestor Aparicio 56:49
They need to bring the game to where people, these people owing smell. Where do they get the game? They get lacrosse. They get soccer. They’re in the football and the bass. And if you’re going to restrict baseball when it’s on every night for six months and you still have 10,000 MP seats for the biggest games of the year in good weather and tickets for 15 bucks. They can’t do enough. I mean, listen, I’m not It’s not nasty now, they just can’t do enough to try to get because, you know why you want gunner Henderson here, you don’t necessarily need $300 million payroll like Yankees and Dodgers. You they need to generate revenue, or Rubenstein’s gonna be the Seidler guy in San Diego just writing 100 million dollars sweetheart checks because he wants to win maybe, maybe Steinbrenner. Maybe he wants to win so bad that he’s he’s got deep pockets. I mean, he doesn’t want to be a bum. He wants to be hero. He wants to be a hero. I know that. Yeah, so maybe he’ll be that. But at a 74 year old guy, that the issue really is, what are they gonna build? We built foundry row here. There’s people, there’s commerce, there’s people making money. Bartenders tip them. Well, there’s all that going on, right? But there’s, there’s not that around a baseball stadium right now. And they can talk about what they did in Atlanta and all that, but we don’t have that. They have what they have. They need to make it measurably better. And I don’t mean the team on the field, because that comes and goes. I mean it. I mean all
Howard Scher 58:16
of I think the experience will get better. But as we know, money is the root of all evil and that, and you could tie money to TV, and that’s why the NFL has been so successful, too. Is because they keep getting fed money by the networks to keep adding a game, putting it on this network, putting it on that network. And I hockey, I pretty much, yeah, I mean, K, I have direct TV, so I watch the capsule monumental sports or NHL network if I want to see a game, but now they’re on TNT, you know, TBS, all those networks as well.
Nestor Aparicio 58:51
Are you a big enough caps fan to write them a direct check for monumental down the line? And what’s that going to be for you? How much would you mean you’re big caps fan, right,
59:00
right? I mean, and how many of you are there to
Nestor Aparicio 59:05
fund the next Alex Ovechkin at 28 million a year, right?
Howard Scher 59:10
I don’t know, but I will tell you this like you, there’s a lot of places. We’ll go out to dinner, and I’ll say, can you put on the caps game? And they’ll look at me like I have three heads. They don’t know what to find. We were at a place recently. I had a friend in from out of town. We went to a local place, I won’t say its name. I asked for the caps game. The response I got was, Are you from Canada? And the waitress was kidding. She was joking. She was being funny. She’s like, but nobody ever asked for hockey. And I said, Okay, well, I’m sitting right in front of this giant TV. I would love the hockey game one. She said, Yeah, no problem. They had the local news on, so she changed it, put the hockey game on then, and I’m gonna strike a chord with you. But they had the USA Panama soccer game was the same night, so somebody asked for that, and without batting an eye, they could care less that I was watching the caps and USA and Panama went up on the TV, which was fine. I’m. It the caps game wasn’t a great game. And I remember
Nestor Aparicio 1:00:02
the first time I walked into a bar, and it’s the famous place in Indianapolis, next to the mike tyson thing, st Elmos. And I went in there some point in the 90s. I was there for, was there for the Ravens game, which had his bachelor party. It’s amazing how many times I mentioned scunny and Phil Jackman today, huh? Yeah, I was literally, that was my birthday weekend in Indianapolis, and I went into this world famous place, and I think it was the mike tyson place then, even it was, like, right before then, and they had TVs on. Was a Saturday afternoon, like, put the baseball game on Indianapolis. They, like, they don’t care. No, they had college football, college, you know, whatever, whatever was on, was on. And I’m like, you don’t care about baseball. What’s wrong with you? You know, that’s how I thought 30 years ago. Now, 30 years later, I see places where it matters, like St Louis, and I see places where it’s never going to matter, like Tampa, and Tampa, that hockey team down there owns Tampa. That’s, that’s a great example of where the Orioles could revive themselves is looking at the Tampa Bay bolts the lightning. Who owned own it way more than the Buccaneers, way more like the I’m telling you, if you go to Tampa, and it sounds odd, especially two hockey guys, I would have told you 1985 right, that Tampa would be a hockey place, and baseball will never work there, and baseball will never work in Miami. If I could have told you that baseball has done an awful job in a lot of places, including here, they’ve done an awful job here by allowing him to destroy it, and now they have to figure out how to build it. And part of building it is you’re still here. How much money do you have? How much money does the businesses here have to fund making it really good? And what are they going to do to make it really good, to make me want to throw all this orange money on a car at $14 beer, right? You know what I mean. And how are they gonna get the people they don’t have? Well, they have what they have. You saw that three weeks at 10,000 that’s what they have on their Zenith. It’s as good as it’s ever been. Dude, you will admit that. It’s me saying this. What they have right now is as good as it’s ever been,
Howard Scher 1:02:13
very, very long time. Yes, strong farm system, good young players for your daughter
Nestor Aparicio 1:02:18
and for the next generation. The next eight to 10 years, baseball could be a thing here. Yes, a big thing. I mean, there’s other way it’s become in Philly, I’ve
Howard Scher 1:02:26
sat in pickles before a game and it’s packed. It’s a lot of fun. Random playoff game opening day, maybe a Friday night. They draw a crowd on a Tuesday or Wednesday. But why aren’t the Orioles promoting tailgating? Why aren’t they partnering with people like pickles, or, I can’t think of the name, they’re not
Nestor Aparicio 1:02:44
partnering with anybody. They’re looking to try to get you out of pickles into their place on your orange card to give you a discount. Yes,
Howard Scher 1:02:50
and let me tell you something. I’m going to digress for a minute, but the team right down the walkway, those stadium lots are going to be no tailgating within five years.
Nestor Aparicio 1:03:02
You believe that? Take,
Howard Scher 1:03:04
take, my word for it, the writing is on the wall.
Nestor Aparicio 1:03:07
Well, they’re trying to monetize that. They’re eight, 910, days a year. That’s all. I mean, that’s it, right?
Howard Scher 1:03:13
So they’re gonna wind up creating the Orioles, bringing
Nestor Aparicio 1:03:16
people together 80 times a year. The Ravens only have those 10 opportunities in a couple little practices, basically, right? I mean, everything else they do, purple night, all of those promotional things, they are the revenue general, along with the media, along with keeping the players away people like me, like literally, right?
Howard Scher 1:03:35
So, you know, this year, supposedly they haven’t enforced it, but supposedly you have to have a game ticket to get onto the H lot. So you can’t go tailgate anymore by the rules and then go home. Okay, so they’re trying to say you have to have a ticket to get onto the lot. They’re also saying you can’t play any music louder than your car stereo, which they haven’t enforced that either, but I could foresee it going, you know how it is in New Orleans, coaching
Nestor Aparicio 1:04:03
the fun out of the tail, right? By the way, Cleveland’s having big issues. You can go, Yeah, watch that all week. I mean, with the stadium and with tailgate lots and cops and just really bad things going on. Have you ever
Howard Scher 1:04:15
seen the tailgate at the Superdome, or whatever they call now, sure. Okay, so you have to have your game ticket, and you get into that big area there where they have a big stage at a band playing, and you have to buy all your booze, and that’s pretty much where everybody goes into order. Have a
Nestor Aparicio 1:04:29
word for that. It’s the perimeter. Okay, inside the perimeter, inside the perimeter, inside the perimeter, inside the perimeter. And when the douchey dude that from the people that took all the money from the state build the Ravens eight months ago, when they had their press conference. He said the beers colder and the hot dogs always taste a little better inside the perimeter, right? So, so I have to, you know, yeah, when you’re like, that big fence is sort of the fence in the bit at the Super Bowl, they call it the perimeter. Yeah. They also call. That war zones, by the way, too. So Howard chair is here. I am Nestor. We’re at the mamas on the half shell. We’ve been friends forever. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. We have Raven scratch offs to give away. I’ve been doing that out here at mamas on the half shell. We’re in Owings Mills. You love this place, right? Yeah,
Howard Scher 1:05:15
it’s great. I the seafood club is amazing. I had the seafood chowder, seafood chowder and the crushed soft shell sandwich. But the I’m telling you, got to try the seafood club, crab cake, shrimp salad on I think it’s like Texas Toast. It’s it’s great. They do
Nestor Aparicio 1:05:32
lunch here, French chips. I mean, all sorts of seafood stuff. Delicious raw bar. And a partner with the oyster recovery partnership did a long segment with Finn McCusker about his infamous father, skullny, who we lost now going 13 years now. So I want to honor Scotty here today. We’ve honored Phil Jackman, and most importantly, we honored my dear friend Jeff Amber, who we lost last month, by wearing my skip Jacks gear out here in Owings Mills how he’s always been an Owings Mills guy. I found this on the oyster tour down in Hamden for 30 bucks. That’s a bargain at any price. That’s like kissing the fonts. 30 bucks for this, right? It is you want this stone. Maybe
Howard Scher 1:06:10
you know what? I don’t know. What do I do with it if I had it?
Nestor Aparicio 1:06:14
Well, that’s where I’m really getting, like, creative with this is I’m trying to figure out the stuff that’s really going to go on the wall or not. And I found this item. I’ll leave the show with this, because I’ve gone into oiler fandom since the Ravens threw me out, because the owners can’t win or lose this week. They were Jackass franchise in general. But they look good, right? You know, so it’s kind of like this show, jackass host, but we look good. So I found this item, and I hope nobody bought it yet, because I put a bit in on it to try to get it on a cheap but I don’t know that I’m actually going to get it or not. But it’s this wall plaque. It’s this Houston Oiler wall plaque that was just one of the most beautiful look at this. It’s still up so I can still buy it. Here we go. Look at this thing. Look at how good looking this, this Houston Oiler wall plaque is, I can’t, I can’t even get it to show up on the screen, because it’s showing the Panera. But it’s the blue Euler helmet. Look how good looking that is. And I’m thinking, 25 bucks maybe next to my skip jacks, so I could have a wall of my childhood. You know what I mean, legacy, put my sixth LS condo Philly’s bubble P Jersey up. You know what I mean? Yeah, maybe Steve seftel sent me. Maybe get the Chris Felix skip Jack Straw, you know,
Howard Scher 1:07:23
skip Jackson, text Steve and tell him you want him to send back to Jersey. But I have all sorts of crap,
Nestor Aparicio 1:07:28
right, thinking like if I had one room to display my crap, this the kind of crap I want to have. You got
Howard Scher 1:07:38
to talk to Jen about that
Nestor Aparicio 1:07:40
when you Baltimore skip jacks, when you skip Jacks from Baltimore, fight you Baltimore skip jacks, chaplains running up and down the face of fight for a Baltimore score defenseman for words and goals. I
Howard Scher 1:07:56
bet you of the songs without
Nestor Aparicio 1:07:58
a doubt for Baltimore and Maryland. Every skip Jack’s fam will shout,
Howard Scher 1:08:07
fight, fight, fight. There
Nestor Aparicio 1:08:08
you go. All right, good, good, good. All right. All right. Skipper, zone of war, pack, go, go. All right. Howard chair, that’s for Jeff amder, for anybody all 12 of you left who love the Baltimore skip X, my thanks to the Maryland lottery, our friends at Jiffy Lu for putting up with me. Luke Jones for not joining me in Owings Mills, but for jiffy. Luput putting him back and forth. And our friends at the Oyster recovery partnership and a curio wellness, foreign daughter, as well as liberty, pure solutions. One, 800 clean water. Give him a plug for duck Doctor Howie, come on now. Duck Doctor
Howard Scher 1:08:36
USA for your air duct cleaning and your dry event cleaning. 800-955-1275 or Baltimore at duck doctor.com and he’ll
Nestor Aparicio 1:08:45
talk hockey with you too. And if you’re a client, he’ll take you to the Orioles game and get you the expensive drinks with the Birdland club membership. I am Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive from mama’s on the half shell. But I’ll be over at Nacho mom is getting that pariah quesadilla.
