Dave Preston of WTOP tells Nestor about the temperature for an Orioles rebirth and resurgence in Washington suburbs and previews Nats series in The District.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
orioles, team, baltimore, years, rubenstein, maryland, bridge, happened, nats, build, talk, good, sports, part, james bond, fact, ted, people, players, play
SPEAKERS
Dave Preston, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are wn sta and 5070 Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively getting into the crabcake season here the crab season as it were, we’re gonna be out of faith leads on Fridays especially when the Orioles are home with their two to five this Friday. Luke Jones is joining me I’ve already booked some like celebrities and stuff Thomas Dolby is gonna come down and he’s a vegetarian so I’m gonna feed him the you know the the mac and cheese, but we’re gonna be doing this each and every Friday that the Oreos are home the Oreos are irrelevant. The Oreos are first place team all this good stuff is happening. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery I will have the Pac Man scratch offs to give away on Friday. Next couple of Fridays are Luke and I will be together also our friends at Liberty pure solutions and shippi lube multi care the Orioles taking on the Washington Nationals in a mini set of just a couple of games. We got a couple of days off. Boy how things have changed. I you know I this guy and I were getting together back when the capitals were doing them. The Stanley Cup drunken in the fountain dance you read this guy and I got together when the Nationals won a World Series and they did not really get a chance to celebrate that because I mean it’s set off a plague I mean I’m winning a World Series and and we never really talked about the wizards except when they’re taking their district jerseys and maybe moving them into Virginia. He wants served a hell of a vegetarian meal but a big fat steak and his day as well. He’s one of the really important voters in all things. Polling with college football and basketball. We welcome our defending champion from W T O. P. It sounds all newsy and stuff but he’s a sports guy. We welcomed a president back on Dav presto, just in time for Orioles V nets. Yes, this is right. I mean, like, I tell my wife every night, this the best Oriole team I’ve ever seen in my life, like and I’ve seen them all just because of the possibilities of the youth. This is an amazing thing that’s going on here, man.
8
Dave Preston 02:04
Well what we do down in Washington because there’s still a sizable audience of people who live in Northern Virginia who for 30 years, their only way of seeing major league baseball was to drive up to Memorial Stadium and then Camden Yards. And the Washington Post covered the Orioles as though they played in Bethesda as opposed to Baltimore. So there’s still even though there’s been a major league team here for almost 20 years, and now I guess this is the 20th anniversary of the NATs being the X expos. There’s still a poll people who still are interested in the Orioles and the fact that you know Cal Ripken his entire career occurred when this was the major league team for Washington DC and Northern Virginia. You could you could go maybe all the way down to Richmond even as far as people who love the birds and we’re into the Orioles. There were network there were Orioles network affiliates in Washington there was an Orioles team shop a couple blocks away from the White House. This This was an Orioles part of Orioles nation if you want to extend the net as so so we still cover the Orioles a little bit and each week for my nats notebook on wt op.com. I used to title it owes woes now let’s break up the birds because they’re so darn good. And each week it’s amazing how many good young players we read about it we hear about whether it’s Colton Couser whether it’s Gunnar Henderson being al Player of the Month, whether it’s the pitching staff that the guys that you tried out there, this is it a few years ago, I compared the Oriole season to 1989 where it’s like you know what, if years from now you’re going to be saying that was the year that I got locked into following the Orioles because all of a sudden they were having an incredible season magical season. And this year just I watched a I didn’t watch the entire series with the Yankees last week. But I caught enough of the series to what they are really built for October and this is gonna be a fun team to watch all season long.
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:59
Well the way they’ve been pitching to I mean leading me Bradish means weren’t a thing two weeks ago Rodriguez gets hurt. Kimball has been no good. But you know the Nationals had that that era right. I saw one soda running around here. You know last week as well. Strasburg, no moss. I saw Jason worth Kentucky Derby Day looking like he’s in the Oak Ridge Boys. You know,
Dave Preston 04:23
he owned Yeah, he owned 10% of the horse. I think it was Dornoch which was starting on the rail, which is like the worst place you want to start nowadays there hasn’t been a Derby winner since 1986 from the number one post position and that extended this past week. By the way the derby picks for Presto his picks on x at Dav Presto and at WT Opie I got the second place horse right the third place horse right the team I picked to win it all finished dead last. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:49
8you know I had Gerardi on last week and I’m back on next week because he’s been my guy all my life but we talked about betting horses to finish last which is like the Something like Proposition bets and stuff like that. And he talked about Andy buyer doing this in 1989 and the Sunday silence race. He was watching the 16th and 17th Horses and told this crazy story, but I guess in the gambling era, and I know you know, you don’t come from a gambling background, as I know are needed. Why? And we certainly didn’t talk about it like that. It really is amazing. Horse racing was the only place you could gamble when this party started here. 32 years ago, me doing radio. And now it is just it’s a ubiquitous thing that we it’s part of the broadcast it’s a different terminology than I think you and I are used to discussing sports. Well,
Dave Preston 05:36
it’s amazing how it used to be coded where it’s like oh, I think the wind by a field goal Jimmy the Greek couldn’t give specific points, but he could kind of lead you there. Whereas now there’s let
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:46
me tell you about the intangible she got to have to get to and I love the
Dave Preston 05:51
checkmarks oh gosh, the world was better when we had 30 minutes we got I think we got more from 30 minute network football pregame shows, than we do from the two hour shenanigans that
8Nestor J. Aparicio 06:02
they have now. And let’s George Where have you gone? Yes.
Dave Preston 06:04
Well oh and a world without checkmarks and going through the big board. That was that was a powerful time. Day
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:12
Preston is our guest he is at W T O P look. I want to talk some Oreos and I want to talk some bad to get like all that. But your news organization and before we even began your first thought to me and we’re Facebook friends and this and that and I see your fun Derby ad and your March Madness cops and your fascination with Dewey green March milkshake. I mean, I’ve seen it all James Bond. Technically,
Dave Preston 06:36
8there’s no milk nor shake in the shamrock shake. I could be resented. Ah, it’s minty goodness. It’s a peppermint milkshake basically.
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:47
All right, well have that anytime you’re I don’t need to get that out of the freezer section. No, you mentioned to me that I’m from Dundalk. And the Key Bridge and I had my Costa shirt on, I would have put it on and I’ll certainly meet you there. You cannot access it by bridge, you have to use the tunnels now. But we need to cause this. And you know, I’m concerned about my friends over the peninsula. And it being sort of shut down. And we’re talking four and a half years to build the bridge. And Larry Hogan says this. And other than that, you know, we got an election next week to figure out who’s going to be doing what but where were you that morning because you brought it up with me as it being a story that well well ripples beyond Dundalk, Baltimore or even Maryland where you are W tip serving people that in DC it’s something that’s been on your mind as a news person.
Dave Preston 07:32
And it is a story that ripples, you know, all the way down here to Washington DC. And I think it’s not, yes, there’s an election. There’s an election this year. But it is it is the story of the year, at least in the mid Atlantic region. And I think for Baltimore, it’s the story of the decade. And it just and how do they build back this bridge? What what do they do to keep the Port of Baltimore witches, you know, if you buy a car or farm equipment, it’s coming from out of the country. Odds are it’s going through Baltimore, so it is a seismic story that has legs far beyond the next six weeks, six months, six years, you know, when they when this is finally built. I was working that morning at WT Opie and I first I wake up at 330 Nestor and I each morning to get in for the 525 sports cast WT o p.com. If listeners are out there, and you want to take a tiny tiny one minute break from you know wn s t.com. Check us out. No, no more than two minutes because we’re limited now and in time. But driving in, I turn on traffic and weather which we play every you know, 10 minutes on the eights. And somebody mentioned the Key Bridge being out. Now we have a key bridge here in Washington that goes over the Potomac goes from where the Marriott used to be that’s now shutting down, used to be called Lee Highway. Now it’s 29. And it goes over to M Street which leads you to Georgetown. And that is not my primary route to get into Washington. I take the Chain Bridge, which is a little further north. But I often take if I have to go through different parts of town, I often use the Key Bridge and that was my first thought and then I heard Oh, it’s the Francis Scott Key Bridge Baltimore. Okay, that’s not me. But the entire day that that was all we were focused on. We had a couple of people up there. We’ve had people up there for press conferences, Zoom calls, things of that vein, and because I think even though you know Baltimore is a different city than Washington, and you know, Washington is in a different district, you know, what have you then then the state of Maryland and Northern Virginia where a lot of our listeners are completely different state even though it’s called a Commonwealth. It’s still such a huge story for us and to see. You know that to see the bridge collapse, to hear about the rescue and being a
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:56
newsman at 330 in the morning, right first thing when I anybody who sees my documentary will know that I grew up in a newsroom. Like I grew up as a 15 year old kid in a legitimate newsroom cutting through what is bullshit. And what is news? What is fake news, and what can we report what is confirmed and what is verified? What is a rumor and what is a fact right, did this happen? Or did this not happen? And I was awakened by Jessica vallas who built my website, her husband was on one of the very, very, very first responder teams at 2am. And she had sent me a couple of texts that I did not see because my Ringer was off because we were out. Steep Ashanti and Eric d’acosta were hiding from me on a balcony in Orlando that night, at one o’clock in the morning, I went I think go to bed, the one when I got up. And the first thing I think is verify, right? Like it’s the newsman and me it’s the journalist in me, whether it could be whether I would report it on wn st or not, or whether I’d put it on my Facebook, but it’s just a fact. I take that very, very seriously in the modern era of fake news and getting fake presidents, you know, like, voted in just crazy stuff that’s happened, the news industry, this was one of those moments where like, I saw it, it was a personal text from someone who was in on it, who told me so I knew it was true. But I looked at the video and it looked like an AI fake, like, Oh, my phone at 542 in the morning. And I got my glasses on and I’m in a hotel room, and Luke is in the other bed. And we just went to bed four hours ago, and he had to do the NFC coach’s breakfast. So we were getting up early. I mean, our alarms were separate by 45. Because he had a seven o’clock curtain time to we were going to get up and get moving. Thankfully, we don’t drink as much as we used to Dave. But the amazing thing is just verifying whether it had actually happened at three 34 in the morning, she sent me a link to the guardian in you know, a UK site that would be awake at nine in the morning there three in the morning here to be able to put a story up, but I saw it and the thing that verified it for me. It was three minutes of me fumbling with my phone. And then like, Oh, I’m in a hotel room, where’s my remote control? And we’re CNN. And CNN comes on. And Johnny owes at the podium, like doing his thing and the fire chief was brilliant early in the morning in just show Friday. What we want is immediate right? Just the facts. Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t know. I can’t answer that. I’m not going to guess first things. Let’s save lives, you know, like all of that. And untangling a forehand they’ll never be a story your point. At the paper we always had a fire drill. I probably shouldn’t say this but it’s true. A fire drill about a plane going down at BWI. Right That would be the ultimate fire drill other than a bomb or something crazy. You know we had every standoff situation all you know all sorts of SWAT this and you know thanks probably all sorts of terrorist type things that would happen areas but but but the scenario from a news team have all hands on deck of something happening. The President’s been shot, you know, something that’s just crazy. Was BWI in a plane crash? Right? That would be the ultimate because we had I worked at the paper when the Amtrak crash happened in Chase, Maryland. Oh, 1986 This was an unbelievable all hands on deck, tragedy. Code 911. You know, type thing, this bridge going down? Was that sort of moment at two in the morning, right? Nobody’s awake. I even I even said to a few of the electeds. Like having your phones on and having everyone in your staff have their phone on? In case there’s been some a boat ran into the bridge and knocked it over? Yeah, sure. I mean, stuff that we you can’t even fathom. But I think from a news perspective, you’re driving into work. That’s morning for anybody in the business of reporting news. It was a little bit of a freaky, like, is this real? There was that moment that I worried about for you, you know,
8Dave Preston 14:06
and the thing is, too, it’s like we you. You don’t grasp it initially. Because you the magnitude of the bridge, because you’re thinking okay, oh, gosh, that’s horrible. What are they going to have it back up again? And then you realize, no, it’s going to be years before it’s up again. It’s gonna be months before they can even they get rid of all of the debris. And it’s my nephew plays with Legos and build stuff. And it’s like, well, it’s not you know, it’s just like everything smashes down but to build it up. You need like little tiny Lego guys to build it up. And it’s so it’s so like, I’ve seen I forget who it is, but I see some of the equipment posted online that they’re they brought in to Baltimore to remove some of the debris
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:53
the world’s greatest project. I mean, their engineers are here and right here we go. I mean, it’s Okay, and I say this in the electeds have said this and we’ll get back to baseball. They Preston’s here for WT RP. You know, the right side left side he said she said you’re a Democrat, you’re an elephant. You’re right you whatever you are like that I that hasn’t been the early going on this. It’s been more like, Hey, man, we’re all set a Democrat bridge Republican bridge is an American Bridge, not even a Maryland bridge or Baltimore bridge. I would have told you it was a Dundalk bridge over Pasadena they would have called it theirs. They would you know, they would have said that was and we’re cannabis. But I would just say for everybody here it’s it’s amazing. It’s been for four and a half weeks. And it’s the first thing you mentioned me because I’m from Baltimore. And you’re not and you think, like Yeah, I mean, we all cried. It was it’s been a crazy emotional thing around here. You know what else we’re gonna cry? pretty crafty. Orioles have a parade and give me it’s been six months I’ve had you on maybe I think agile football season. Peters dead right. It’s gone. Right. Rubenstein is putting on the floaty outfit and he’s gonna score it everybody Friday night. Yeah, got a new dude cow can’t make commercials now all this. What does the business you know, journalists guy not the fan that maybe some people down in the DC suburbs will come back. And the thing you make about cow is true cat was everybody’s favorite player, every girl every boy from Reston, Virginia for 25 years, like those people would have. Oh, the Oreos are good. And that jerk that on them’s gone. I’ll go back to a gay, you know, maybe I’ll go out there twice a year, this year and go on fireworks night or whatever. And give me your DC take on that because things have changed so dramatically. Even though I have my press credential yet. I’m under review, which, okay, I don’t know how to get right. I’m under review. But I would say things have changed very radically dramatically. And then boom, the team’s the best team in the sport. It’s kind of wacky, and I don’t know how we take to that. If I had given up the Oriole hat hated Peter had a red Walgreens had had a parade had my own eight years of sort of fun. I mean, the nationalists have their own little thing. They don’t need to be an Oreo fan for it to be cool. But I am thinking this is an open door with ownership cow great baseball all of that going on at a time when national. Good right? Well, you
Dave Preston 17:21
know what’s, what’s interesting is that the nationals are 500. Right now they would make the playoffs if the plants were to begin today. Granted, it’s May they don’t, but the playoffs won’t begin for other what Gosh, what is it five months. But this is a young team that when you think of the Orioles, the NATs are probably two or three years behind the Orioles pace where they are because the OS began they there rebuild it. What after 2017 2018 In reality, and the NATs began, there’s in effect 2021 or so the only
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:53
8way to get Strasburg is if you stink, right? Yeah, the way you get, you know, Adley rutschman Is the stink, bad?
Dave Preston 18:00
Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so I think I think there is a window of opportunity for the O’s to block some fans who used to love to go to Camden Yards, I think they got to sell the city, and the fun stuff to do around the ballpark just as much. And I think what hurts the O’s is the fact that the new major league baseball schedule, everybody plays everyone. So if you live in Washington, you’re going you have the opportunity to see every American League team within two years. Whereas previously, if say, You’re solely from Southie, and you’re down here, and you’re an ALS guy, and you want to see your Sox, you know what you might see Boston play in Washington once every six years or so. But you know that you can see them every year in Baltimore. And I think they’re so I think there’s the there’ll be, I think there’ll be more fans going up to Baltimore, if you still have the tighter schedules where you just played another division, as opposed to you’re playing everybody in baseball with the you know, at home within a two year stretch, but I think it’s a great I think with the o’s playing as well as they are. I think if they do enjoy some postseason success, when a series maybe, you know, get to the ALCS, I think they’ll definitely be a team on fire next year because this nats team is still maybe a year or two away from being a contender, although right now they’re a scrappy, pesky team that has a shot at finishing 500
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:28
I am always inclined to talk James Bond with you. I mean, I’m always pulled toward that I’m not going to do that right now. But I know I want to while I have you on because I don’t have a lot of like I would say college sports experts on as much as maybe I used to in the past or whatever. And I can reach the Jimmy passos or other people to talk about this, but I want you to talk nio with me as Sally from Southie and an old school guy and a guy who cut your teeth human you were you’re a waiter trying to get into the industry. You are a sports guy. You’re now like one of the voters on polls. In all of this stuff, you’ve been through it all like as a fan, you know, up through what attracted you to college basketball and college sports to begin with. And if you’re a college football person from Alabama or Auburn, you’re your New Hampshire guy. You know, you don’t you don’t have college football honestly. And you you’re like a true sportsman and a sports guy. And a sports journalist, as I remember sports journalist to be back when I used to be one. Explain that part of the NFL to me because it is so drifted me and so many people. And dude, I saw your picture one night at a Maryland game. And it looked like there were 3000 people there and they’re playing like I won’t Valentine’s night. Kids don’t want to be there. Girls don’t want to be there. Boys don’t want to be there. Nobody wants to be there. Nobody wants to pay to be there. And I’m thinking to myself, Man, the air comes out of the tire and college sports, right? It’s gone. And I’m not being a dick. I don’t miss it. I don’t feel like I need to sit and watch Georgetown play Villanova basketball, or Providence play Syracuse or any of that anymore. And I don’t understand what’s happened to it. But I worry for the whole bottom of it. Because it was always this illicit thing where they were renting these players to make money and it was always dirty, hideous, LSAT, faking scores and money and bad. I mean, all of it was greasy. All the handlers, AAU, all of that. Where is it now? And where was it going from someone like you that literally loves it? Well, I
Dave Preston 21:32
think a lot of the a lot of what we don’t like is now just up front, you know, players were always getting paid on, you know, a lot of players were getting paid on some level. Now they’re getting paid legally through the NFL. And unfortunately, with the by combining if they if it had just been nisl. If it had just been transfer portal without having to sit a year out. I think it would be fine. But the fact that those two converge at the same time, now guys and girls are leaving going elsewhere after a year, and it takes it erodes your feelings for these players in these schools. Because back in the day, you knew that you’d see one Dixon for three or four years. You knew you’d see Chris Wilcox. Oh, we only got to see him for two years now. A player who stays two years that’s more the rule than the exception. And you see guys now on their second, maybe even third team. Same with the women there was a player Destiny Slocum played for Maryland. She was Freshman of the Year. She wanted transferring to Oregon State I think and then I’m transferring to Arkansas. So and that was before the safeguards. If you couldn’t you had to sit out a year unless you were a graduate student. So what
8Nestor J. Aparicio 22:40
do you do with six to $8 million a year from state governments to coach team you know, state you and Ron the best this the current coach and the recruiter knows all the reasons I guess Gary got out of it years ago and haven’t heard what his claim would be about all of that. But what you’re trying to build and you’re saying what my value is, you know, I just released a document. And my value is I didn’t move to a different city every three years trying to build a brand around that for 40 years, I plop that in one place at one time so that you can build something that has meaning and all the things that you try to put behind that the greasy part of the university using a kid to win a championship and a coach to get the next job, which is what I’ve seen for 35 years. I just don’t know where it’s going I don’t know how it’s appealing to based on what they were selling me as a Maryland sports fan as a as a terrapins fan and
Dave Preston 23:40
you don’t you don’t get as much of a chance to see these players grow up in front of your eyes. That’s what was always so cool about, you know, the you with the Maryland women. You know, you’d see Christie winters I remember when she was a player. You see those players grow up in front of your eyes. Now at least half of those players are going somewhere else and they’re playing you know, at least one other spot. You know Brenda Frese has had a lot of challenges dealing with a lot of departing players, she’s restocked well enough over the last year and she’s got a she should have a strong nucleus this year. But unfortunately, instead of coaching a program, you’re coaching a team and it happens the same in football with the guys that Mike Locksley has had to replace you. And the shame too is if you’re a small school like say a Richmond and you find a diamond in the rough, you develop them and they become a good player who’s to say they don’t go elsewhere. And so you don’t get all the hard work you have done as Chris Mooney as a head coach to work these players into you know, solid parts of your rotation you don’t get to enjoy the fruits of that labor.
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:48
Well the psychology the kid is I’m gonna go rent this for a year and see how it works out if I don’t like it. It’s like a job at the mall at this right and I
Dave Preston 24:55
8think literally I think to the players view the colleges now is As a way to get paid professionals, they want to, they want to make money now, but they also want to find their way. Okay, this is a precursor to what I’m going to be doing. If I can get, you know, a look in the NFL or if I can play overseas or if I can do this or that. And what it really does what it hurts to is some of these guys and women who have been they they played for two or three teams over a four or five are with COVID. Now a six year span. When they’re done and their pro careers done, where do they go home to. And that’s why I really appreciate a kid like Dante Scott, who stayed at Maryland, all the way through, he probably could have gone somewhere else. But he stayed at Maryland, and he knows where his home is. He’s, even though he grew up in Philly, he knows that. Maryland is where he went to, you know that that’s his alma mater, and he’s a Maryland guy, as opposed to having two or three schools that you can call as your own. But do they call you as their own? Probably not so. And I think alumni and fan bases gravitate towards the players in any sport football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball, lacrosse that were there for four years and and shine.
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:07
Like the kids playing on your team. We went through this with Steve Francis here 25 years ago, right? Yeah, he’s here five minutes. And that’s not what Gary has a banner.
Dave Preston 26:17
He has a jersey hanging in the rafters. Remember
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:20
shattered he wouldn’t let you wouldn’t let you even near anything if you weren’t staying for years. But we’re, you know, that’s an image from being old. Right? Like, and that’s why I brought it up with you, Dave. Found that w t o p.com. Dat presto, out on the All Things Twitter, he covers the college game as well as me. Did I cover all the bases on all this Baltimore Washington thing? I mean, there really is no, there’s no rivalry between the cities. And that’s really, all 20 years into this. It’s kind of like all we have to do is figure out the mass and thing and how Ted gets his piece down there and and then they’re staying right I mean, I haven’t talked to said since this kid got fresh with me. About five years ago, after the Cavs won the company fire Barry trots yet and won a playoff series since then. But that whole thing that drama, must have eaten you up the last five months, right? Well,
8Dave Preston 27:06
it was one of those. It was one of those things that when they announced it, and this is after the wizards had done this whole district jerseys and stuff like that. And then they bail than they do. And, you know, the capitals and wizards a poll and you know, for whatever you want to say about him as an owner as far as putting a consistent winner out there or what have you. He did the city right by putting sticking some of his own money into it as well, Capital One arena really helped revitalize the Chinatown area in a way that you can only do when you’ve got 82 Guaranteed dates. And then you bring in other stuff here and there. I think when they announced that they were looking to move, it was presented as fait accompli. And unfortunately, even though TED is so Ted has forgotten more than I will ever learn on this earth smart, one of the smartest people and he’s done very well as a businessman. But for him not to read Virginia politics correctly. When you’re dealing with a term limited governor who has no legislative experience. It’s not like Glenn young can, you know, God made his political bones going up through the house of delegates of the Senate. Here’s a guy who his whole thing was I’m not a politician. So doesn’t know how to grease the wheels of the Senate and the House of Delegates to for TED to hitch his star with him and not to have I could have been Ted’s flunky and just hire me, I will send me down to Richmond and I will take delegates to lunch Monday through Friday, find the right people to kiss up to to make things easier for me to get a team for him not to do that, I think was the biggest mistake. I think he thought that he’d be welcomed as somebody who would provide a small part of Virginia and economic engine not realizing that well, the state of Virginia has no pro sports, right? Literally. No, no, no. I mean, I mean, there’s I mean, there’s I mean, there’s the Richmond
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:56
Braves was always going to the Expos were always going to be in Reston or out by dollars. Like that was the common thought that that would have been better for the Orioles as well to some degree. But like the way it’s gone down here, I’ve been on the air 32 years your day. So I’ve run through it all, like literally all of it, you know, arenas in Columbia and Camden Yards and was going to be in Columbia. We’re going to put the tee like I’ve heard every idea that there is, but the one thing I haven’t heard is Virginia actually getting a pro team and I thought, well, maybe this is their way to do that in the way that jersey sort of stole everything from New York a period of time other than the Yankees. And the fact that it’s not palatable, it’s not palatable in Kansas City for the chiefs on Missouri or Kansas. It’s not palatable in California for Oakland, right like or Sacramento. There’s so many places that aren’t getting money for this and things aren’t happening, including for the creeper on the football team down there for a period of time. And now the new group strike to figure out where they’re going to put they’re saying, there’s just not a whole bunch of money lying around in Maryland, just 600 million for you, Steve 600 million for you, John or Mr. Angelo, sir, Mr. or Mr. Rubenstein. Like, that’s not happening down there. And I do wonder about where the Mojo is for the district to think that the Capitals in the wizards and a new arena or something is going to revitalize an area because if it was going to do that it would already be doing it where it is. And that’s the unfortunate part of this. It’s sort of exposes behind the wizard that the issue isn’t the team being there. The issue is Do do you make it something people want to come and see. And that’s true for the Orioles and Mr. Rubenstein here to?
Dave Preston 30:44
Well, and I think that if it’s not the areas and getting a boost by the captain wizard staying in Washington, but the fact that they’re not leaving that is keeping the Chinatown district from just falling apart because either there’s if you don’t have those magnets to go to from people from Virginia, people from Maryland, and what have you, people from Northwest and other parts of the district. There’s no reason to go down there. I mean, the Spy Museum even moved to Lafond Plaza, so you can’t even do that. recently got the Portrait Gallery, though. Yeah. See,
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:16
8I’ll be honest with you, you know, once Ted son got fresh with me, and they won their cup, and you know, I was insulted in many ways. I have not in any way. I reached a TED once but I’m angry enough. You don’t want to hear from me at this point. But I haven’t been in the building. I think I may have seen a concert of some denomination there maybe two or three plague era. But I haven’t been down to the building in yours. And the last time I went it was it was post COVID. I did go for something. But it was definitely not a hockey game. It definitely wasn’t a basketball game. It was a concert of some kind. I just don’t know which one it was. But it was maybe two years ago, I went to see something there. And, and I was sort of taken aback by the neighborhood and what it’s sort of like, wow, you know, it, it it definitely gotten to be a threatening place where things were out of business very quickly. I’m from Baltimore. I recognize all this. I lived in downtown Baltimore for 20 years. And I thought to myself, and then it felt like a minute later, he’s trying to move the team out of China. And I’m like, dude, like, you’re the mayor of that town, too. It’s your it’s your part of town. Yeah, like the notion and his son when I had a relationship talk to them. They talked about doing things and the weight of the roof, not supporting certain lights and certain things because it’s built in a different time. And also the fact that it’s hollow underneath, and there’s like trains going underneath of it. And that’s always affected the ice temperature, you know that they’ve had rougher ice because of the heat coming up underneath the subway system. I mean, it’s, it’s complex. I get all of that. And all of us have been down there for hockey game, a concert, something, whatever. And I’ll be honest, I never thought of it as like an awful experience. Once I moved downtown. I came up sort of the hatred of they moved out of Largo, and I’ve got to go further. You sold me a million caps games that dude i i made that drive. I parked on New York Avenue. I didn’t even hate it. I paid it more than I live in, you know Timonium, right. So it’s it’s different for me now, right. But I I warmed up to all of it. I was a customer. I was a fan. I was a supporter. I was the guy that took buses down there for that. But it was astonishing to me. How can I quickly after the parade, the last hockey game I went to was the Stanley Cup final there. I haven’t been to a game since the parade was the end for me that day was the end of the end. Oh, wow. Okay, no, that was the I haven’t been near the leonsis family since then. I’ll write about. I’ll bring that up when I have Ted on. I’ll tell him what happened. I’ll be glad to tell him what happened. But that neighborhood has, is there anything about it? That sounds appealing in regard to we’re going to keep the teams here now. We’re going to find a way to make it work like what does making it work me because I’m asking the same thing for Rubenstein here about you. So you got to make Baltimore appealing for people to come to see if that will be true for those hockey team, the hockey team the basketball team, right?
Dave Preston 34:20
I think he’s going to get more space for practice courts and stuff like that and more often, you know, more office space because some businesses have closed down so he’ll be able to get some more of that. I mean, the portrait galleries a block away there are some nice restaurant venues Clyde’s is still next door and that’s a fantastic place to pre and post game. I think I
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:42
saw like Vallejo you know, I saw the famous chef Jose Andres like saying what are you doing? I’m your I’m your you know, we were partners in this like, like tech took on some serious? You can I talk bad about him? I mean that it hasn’t been a good six months. sartet
Dave Preston 35:00
No. And I think the fact that he had to come back to DC, after things did not work out in Virginia, he had to eat some crow. I mean, granted, he’s eating a very expensive crow on a very expensive plate with a gold fork, and a knife, so he’s gonna be fun, he’s gonna be fine. On the on the other end of this and he’s getting money from the city to stay is it as much as he won’t get to create, they were calling it Ted town, you know, a complex that would be, you know, built for the caps in the Wiz. And they’d be able to, you know, have a lot more space and turn it into, I think what he really wanted to do is have and we see this in some cities where it’s just an entertainment mall with a stadium slash arena alongside that, because that as an owner, you’re able to score major bucks off of, but it’s also it’s also a monument to your vision of, you know, entertainment vision that you can make money, so many different ways.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 36:00
You don’t just go to for a game. And there it has to be something outside of the framework of the three hours, we play baseball or hockey or basketball. There has to be it has to be more robust than that. And I say for the billion two, we’re spending given the shoddy all this money, building a gold plated bar that is behind the perimeter with $18 beers that people want to get. I don’t. I’m from Baltimore, who’s doing that it ain’t me. And anybody I know. And that’s the part that really worries me about your city, Washington and has federal money and all that. And my town where Rubenstein went with Cal Ripken, and said, Please, Please support my my junior town of Baltimore. But it is problem because we don’t have the front of 500 companies. We don’t have the sky box group. We don’t have the wine and cheeses and all of that. And
Dave Preston 36:51
so you got a bridge that’s down. Yeah, but with the limit
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:55
limitations for the Orioles and what their ceilings gonna be from a payrolls? Are they really going to be like, the Red Sox? Or like the Cardinals or the like the reds? Or like the raise? Or like, like, what? What’s that structure of the business going to look like? Because to your point and my point, it’s going to take more people, it’s going to take more people coming to revive Chinatown. It’s going to take more people coming in a different way to revive our downtown and our Camden Yards and our inner Arbor and all that. And I these two cities. I remember Peter sit with me at the bar. Let me tell you why we all think DC should add a baseball team. And you can go listen to all that because let me tell you, Jay, the same thing that happened in the Bay Area. It’s gonna you’re gonna have to depress Jean. Meanwhile, Oakland still out there hanging on life support, right? Yeah, you guys have had a parade, right? Get a stadium built in DC, like all of the Northern Virginia thing, it all went away. And the only thing that really happened was Mr. Angelo says entitlements off the television network made his boys fabulously wealthy so they can fight amongst themselves. Because that’s really the upshot was a lot of lousy baseball, a lot of low payrolls and a legacy of making a lot of money in the end off the television network that never served anyone. It’s been, it’s been a messy thing the last 20 years, this baseball thing between Baltimore
Dave Preston 38:19
8and watch, thank goodness, you’re on the other side of it, because nothing, nothing determines the rise or the fall of a franchise like an owner. It’s almost as though we’re a fan base is your 18th century peasants or 19th century peasants and you have a good king. Hey, Louie the 14th were awesome. Louis the 16th Not so much. Georgia third. Victoria, we roll the world you know,
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:43
Edward Rubenstein down there showing off counts? Like he’s a diamond ring. Right? Like, hey, cows here come bring the money back and one thing I am right that’s that’s exactly what he should be doing. That’s off the David Rubenstein for doing that.
Dave Preston 38:57
The one thing that I am glad about is that because he does have cattle in the ownership structure, we Cal doesn’t get asked every time a job opens. Hey, will you be the new Orioles? Manager? Hey, well are the GM opening is there will you take that, hey, the job of the hot dog vendor at boobs barbecue is open are in which I’m sure like the first couple times the first 20 times he was mentioned and he was asked by everyone in the media. Hey, there’s an opening. Do you want it? Do you think you’ll get it? He’s like, Oh, that’s very nice. But after a while he’s like, oh, gosh, no, I’m I’m Cal Ripken. I’m doing what I want to do. And if I wanted to, he can’t very he can’t very well say No, I don’t want to work for Peter Angelos. You know, he can’t, you know, be brutally honest, if that’s his opinion, but he’s he has to gracefully say, oh, no, I haven’t thought about it when he probably has, but I’m sure he is happy that he’s no longer being asked every five minutes. If he’s going to take the next job that’s open in baseball.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:54
I just hope it completes his legacy that he’s as involved as he wants to be. No one likes cow more than me. I mean, cows always been great to me 3030 going on 35 years of no cow so I do this re welcoming and all of this. That’s why I wanted to reach to you I’m going to be reaching so many people but this is really a time of the tectonic plates have shifted, underneath the Baltimore for sports, for the economy, for the federal money for the leadership just for for everything for the awareness that we can and will do better. And I love all of that and I love it when our baseball teams good and your stinks they even though
8Dave Preston 40:35
they’re 500 they’re 500 they’re gonna still they haven’t been over 500 Since July 2021 So they got but if you’re at the ballpark tomorrow night or if you’re watching the game on mass and or what have you if you’re listening on the radio up there, couple players to keep your eyes on CJ Abrams, shortstop for the NATs absolutely fantastic. He’s their best player. Also Luis Garcia Jr. has yet to he was a rookie in 2020 He’s bounced up and down. He’s had some growing pains as a young Major Leaguer, but he’s been on quite a tear hit 563 Last week, he has 19 RBI to lead the team. I know that’s chicken feed for the report goes right there. But you you so there are some interesting pieces. And that’s pitching is actually a little bit better than it was the last couple of years. starters are actually getting into the fifth and sixth inning although Patrick Corbin is still winless on the season but it the NATs this year are a plucky fun team to watch their the hope for this team is that they make other teams nervous in September and late August and you know they they can play a little bit of a spoiler much like I think the Orioles were two years ago or so. When they when they were overachieving before everybody got up there. The the bulk of the next nucleus for this match team is still at the minor league level Dylan crews the number two pick last year also James Wood the top prospect still in the minors. So this team will get better in the coming years but right now we’re enjoying the ride of 17 and 17 for a team that’s net that hasn’t started good since the days of dusty Baker.
Nestor J. Aparicio 42:13
I better be 17 and 19 on Thursday day Preston is here he is staff Presto out on the Twitter thing you could find him adding social media and at W T O P and I get that right you for basketball and football correct or no just one or the other. You’re both Yes, I
Dave Preston 42:28
vote for both basketball and football in the AP poll. I also wear the straw boater hat.
Nestor J. Aparicio 42:32
8Anybody watching right now out there? Exactly. So yeah, we were gonna run a race here next week, man, we get this action here. And hey, I’ve done a lot of education and I know you’ll do that in the district as well as what’s going on with Laurel Laurel is going to host the Preakness for a couple years. And then everything comes to Baltimore into perpetuity. So big big changes in the racing industry for people to understand over the next week or two. You can follow Dave out on the interwebs you can follow me and Luke Luke will be around all week covering Orioles and nationals baseball as well as ravens sort of have their little camp going
Dave Preston 43:08
on. Will Luke be at the ballpark? Tuesday and Wednesday I am
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:12
hoping you will be there he had like a rental car car thing going on coolest
Dave Preston 43:15
thing. There are new batting practice helmets for cups for ice cream. So you can take them with See here’s the
8Nestor J. Aparicio 43:24
weird thing this is where I get to be like ice cream yet now you’re so here’s the deal. If Luke can’t be there, they wouldn’t let me sit in the sea because I’m sort of banned by the Orioles but not by Major League Baseball I don’t know. So I would like to get a little coffee thing with what kind of ice cream is that? Is that? Is that a Dutch chocolate or is it
Dave Preston 43:45
it’s it’s a it’s soft serve vanilla chocolate or swirl.
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:49
Chocolate doesn’t say anything because it could be any kind of chocolate. It could be that dark chocolate of like a Wendy’s frosty or it could be a nice deep dark, rich chocolate like a mousse or it could just be like great chocolate.
Dave Preston 44:02
8I think it’s I don’t think they’re I know great reading the press too high level chocolate this is in the media. You can’t afford
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:09
some Hershey’s or secure deli or something. What’s wrong with these folks?
Dave Preston 44:13
It’s for schlubs in the meeting was
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:16
for sale now. It’s not for sale now to be worth more. I will say this the next time you and I get together we can only hope that Mr. Rubenstein has untangled the twisted web of the Masson digital streaming issue. All I hear up here is great baseball. Let’s get a deal where we stream the games were old. Like Hispanic folks like myself I was gonna call myself Caucasian but I’m really not all white folks like myself who had the cable plug in the cable unplug wife works in the telecom business. Just give me the games for reason. It’s like Springsteen, cold beer at a reasonable price. Just give me the games at a reasonable price in a reasonable way. That’s what I want and I know every I speak for all of your people, nationals people, that’s all they want. Like after 20 years, all of you were hoodwinked and hostage ized by Mr. Angelo’s as well so, you know, just as bad for you as it was for us. True. I hope Mr. Learner finally gets his money they Preston can be found at WT O P. I with a great hat. Great.
8Dave Preston 45:18
What is that hat is that it’s called a straw hat. It’s called a straw boater 100% straw. It’s called a boater hat. So as opposed to the breathable Fedora or the other Fedora, so there’s water
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:30
or like if the sun’s beating, I went to the Oriole game. Thursday it was 95 degrees Yankees. I saw a guy in a hat like that he had more of a I call oh man fishing hat. It wasn’t quite the You look like you’re running for Congress in that hat. Honestly,
Dave Preston 45:46
this Fedora now this breathable fedora. It’s good because it covers you know a little more from the sun. Okay, but as you see there’s holes in it so you’re not going to over perspire. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:57
8needed my Crocodile Dundee that day I needed like and I’m going to tell Wendy Bronfman from curio wellness and foreign daughter gave me the tickets right down on the dugout where I could Hayes Juan Soto, I could talk Aaron Judge, I could tell Anthony Rizzo the ball was over his head on strike three. That I was there and I really felt like I needed the hat that you wear when you’re on the camel in the desert. Like the helmet like the that whole big thing that the guys in in Men at Work had when they were going to land down under Yes. On a hippie trail and head full of zombie. Yeah. Oh, you’re talking about with zombies. That’s highly underrated band. Yeah, well, absolutely. Can you be alright, good. Good. Good kill. Yeah. Ah,
Dave Preston 46:44
that was a good one.
Nestor J. Aparicio 46:45
Especially at night. Yeah. Ah, all right, man. You and I could go all day. We same language. I will just say this to you as a little easter egg for you. There is a James Bond worthy frame in the 25th anniversary document. It’s toward the end. Oh, no. When you see it, it actually comes and I’m just gonna leave it. I’m gonna drop the mic on this. I was at Terrell Suggs is he threw a party for himself because that’s where he was. And somehow I got invited because a client had bought a table and got stuck with tickets. And it was a James Bond party. It was at the Hyatt. It was on a Saturday night when the when the Ravens played like on Monday night or maybe by weekend. It was in season it was insane. If hardball nobody would have lost his mind. Navy Billick was the coach. Right 5678 I don’t somewhere in there. But I went to a James Bond themed party that didn’t begin until 11 on the ticket but really didn’t start to one in the morning because it was it was a throwdown you know it wasn’t it was a house party. But but you’ll love the picture because it was a good bond.
47:55
Good stuff.
Nestor J. Aparicio 47:56
Let me let me show you how I post more Roger more than Sean Connery. But you know, we’ve been through that before. Dave Preston is the one of the ultimate historians of all things James Bond, which is why I love him. He also covers college basketball and football really well for WT op. I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. I’ve held him too long now long enough to the series will be over it’ll be a sweep for the Orioles because that’s it
