Serving post High Heat baseball life, rock music and fiction with author Tim Wendel

After knowing author and longtime baseball insider Tim Wendel over four decades, Nestor finds out that before all of the fiction there were the facts about being a rock music critic in the early 1980s in Buffalo. The newspaper reporter journey to a sequel to Rebel Falls, our favorite Writer in Residence returns from Virginia to rock some music talk and baseball lore with Nestor as the seasons change and the game changes even more than we realize.

Nestor Aparicio and Tim Wendel discuss their shared love for baseball and music. Wendel, a former USA Today baseball writer and current Writer in Residence at Johns Hopkins University, recounts his experiences covering Springsteen’s 1978 Darkness Tour and his recent involvement in a rock marathon fundraiser. They reminisce about their journalism days, including Wendel’s interviews with Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen. Wendel also shares his new book, “Irish Falls,” based on the Fenian Brotherhood’s 19th-century invasions of British Canada. Aparicio reflects on his own transition from baseball to music fandom and their mutual appreciation for the evolving landscape of sports and music journalism.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Run the Maryland Crab Cake Tour stop at Planet Fitness in Timonium on the 7th and coordinate giveaways (scratch-offs and Maryland-themed items) and guest Mark Viviana’s appearance
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Reach out to and attempt to book Nils Lofgren as a guest on the show
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Reach out to and attempt to book Geddy Lee as a guest on the show
• [ ] Proceed with production of the standalone sequel Irish Falls and continue cover design work (production and cover started)
• [ ] Travel to Baltimore to attend a ballgame with Nestor (accept the invitation to come up for the game)

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Health Updates

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland Crab Cake Tour and upcoming events, including a visit to Planet Fitness in Timonium.
• Nestor mentions his health, including a recent doctor’s appointment and a COVID-19 vaccine from GBMC.
• He thanks GBMC and Farnon and Dermer for their support.
• Nestor introduces Tim Wendel, a former USA Today writer and current Writer in Residence at Johns Hopkins University.

Tim Wendel’s Career and Recent Projects

• Nestor and Tim discuss Tim’s transition from baseball journalism to writing fiction and non-fiction books.
• Tim shares his recent involvement in a rock and roll fundraiser in Charlottesville, where he hosted a two-hour show called “Backstage at the Last Waltz.”
• They reminisce about Tim’s early days as a music critic and his experiences covering rock and roll legends.
• Tim talks about his research on the Last Waltz and his discovery of new details about the concert and its participants.

Musical Memories and Influences

• Nestor and Tim share their experiences attending concerts and interviewing musicians, including Springsteen and Van Morrison.
• Tim recounts his first Springsteen concert in 1978 and the unique experience of attending a show with no warm-up act.
• They discuss the challenges and rewards of backstage access and the dynamic between journalists and musicians.
• Tim shares a memorable interview with Johnny Cash and the lessons he learned from the music icon.

Baseball and Music Parallels

• Nestor and Tim discuss their shared love for music and how it has influenced their lives and careers.
• Tim talks about his son’s interest in hockey and college basketball, and how it has impacted his interest in baseball.
• They reflect on the changes in baseball, including the rise of analytics and the shift in fan engagement.
• Tim shares his thoughts on the importance of storytelling in both baseball and music, and how it has evolved over the years.

Personal Reflections and Future Plans

• Nestor and Tim discuss their personal experiences with baseball and music, including their favorite concerts and games.
• Tim talks about his upcoming book, “Irish Falls,” which is a sequel to his novel “Rebel Falls.”
• They share their thoughts on the future of baseball and music, and how they plan to stay involved in both fields.
• Tim expresses his gratitude for the opportunities he has had and the people he has met along the way.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

baseball season, Maryland crab cake tour, GBMC, Tim Wendel, Johns Hopkins University, rock marathon fundraiser, Last Waltz, Springsteen concert, music criticism, Fenian Brotherhood, Irish Falls, baseball analytics, playoffs, music journalism, Bruce Springsteen

SPEAKERS

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Tim Wendel, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W n s t, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive and positively into the baseball season right now. Any breaking news happens first on w n s t tech service. That’s all brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy. I’m getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road. We’re going to be at Planet Fitness next week, on the seventh in Timonium, Mark Viviana, is going to come by and hang out with us. We’re going to, I’m going to get to wear my funny hat, my planet fitness New Year’s hat. I will have scratch offs in the Maryland lottery. I have the I have an arsenal. I have an array of Maryland treasures, arts to give away, also our friends at GBMC keeping me healthy. If I could pull my sleeve up. I got my shot. I had my first doctor’s appointment in this century. I’m not making that up, but it is 2026 there’s there’s my needle, GBMC. I don’t want to scare anybody, but I did make it through. I am, I think I’m healthy. I’m good. My thanks to GBMC. Also our friends at Farnon and Dermer. They’re the comfort guys, 410, 367776, 10, 367777, I got to say that number all over now that I know the number, and I get to do old school stuff. Speaking of old school stuff, this guy, I think he, wrote for the USA Today, back when it was like, remember Fred Flintstone had the had the chisel Yaba dabba doo on the Yeah, right. And you’ve made it all the way through Writer in Residence at Johns Hopkins University, but I knew him just back when he was a lowly baseball beat writer and columnist at the USA baseball weekly, which begat My dearest friend, Mike rosiano, Paul white, many others, Pete Williams, some of my alums that get together From the early 90s, back when Camden Yards was full. Tim Wendell is here. He has authored books in the summer 68 he has written books about leukemia and his brother’s journey and doctors. So we have discussed, dude, you and I have done journalism, writing authors. We’ve done rebel halls. We’ve done fiction versus non fiction. And you know, I’m a nonfiction guy all the way, and you’re like an old school baseball sage. So if all I wanted to do was talk to you about the Big Red Machine, you and I could go at it. But like when we get together, it’s usually because I see you signing your book somewhere far flung, giving some speech or some Writer in Residence at Johns Hopkins University and and I, we make time a couple times a year, and every time I bring you on, you’re like, Well, I don’t watch baseball as much as I used to, so let’s not talk about last links, Dodgers game or whatever. But you’ve moved on to, like, fun things, and you’re moving around, and you’re making books, and I know you’re working on another book right now, but there is life after being a baseball writers, you and me and Mitch album are all trying to figure out, right?

Tim Wendel  02:42

Well, very much. And, and it’s funny, because, you know, we were talking just earlier for coming on, what should we talk about? And I realized one thing I didn’t alert you about is I’ve been behind the I was behind the mic Sunday down here in Charlottesville for the rock marathon fundraiser, and I did a two hour show on. We called it backstage at the Last Waltz. So we’re playing

Nestor Aparicio  03:04

the band. That’s why I even invited you on. I saw you doing this. You’re doing lock and roll, much fun.

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Tim Wendel  03:11

And, you know, we that’s a fundraiser, you know, because, like a lot of stations, the funding from DC has just been knocked out from underneath them. We raised, that’s a 2200 bucks in two hours. People were digging it, and we were having so much fun because we set it up. So we were, in a sense, reporting from backstage. We even had a little ticker tape thing, like typing music and such going and all the stuff that happened. And it’s amazing. Like Dylan almost didn’t go on, and then he did after Bill Graham, the concert promoter, promoter Premier, said, you’re going on, or I’m gonna beat the tar out of you. I was gonna say your

Nestor Aparicio  03:49

backstage thing reminded me, like Bill Graham backstage at Live Aid or something. Yeah, we

Tim Wendel  03:53

had, we had a lot of fun with it. And and the thing is, you know, when you start doing research, you know this, when you start doing research on something like that, I’m going, Oh, Last Waltz. I’ve been listening to that for a long time. Blah, blah, blah. I got the vinyl, etc, and I was going down to DC to speak at the Spy Museum. I was down there two, two Wednesdays ago, and I got the CD, Deluxe disc stuff of a of the Last Waltz, and I’m playing it in the car, because that’s the only CD player I still have, I don’t have anything in the house.

Nestor Aparicio  04:23

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And they go, did you okay with the bumps?

Tim Wendel  04:26

I was good, okay, it was good. And but they hit. Here comes Dylan. And I’m going, Okay, I kind of know this. And also he’s playing songs. I’m going, hang on. I don’t remember that on vinyl. I sure don’t remember that on the documentary this Scorsese did, and he did five songs, three of them can only be found on the CD, and there was all this back and forth between him and Graham and Scorsese, because he didn’t realize when he showed up on Thanksgiving night 1976 at the old winterland Ballroom in San Francisco that Scorsese was. There, and he was filming the documentary, and Dylan had his own movie coming out, Clara Ronaldo, and Clara, which, of course, did nothing, but he suddenly said, I’m not going out. So that was the compromise. And I never would have known that if I hadn’t played the CD hustling down to Washington the other day. And we’re able to tell people that, and they had so much fun with it. And Van Morrison, how Van Morrison just upped that whole show. You know, you’re a rock and roll guy. I mean, I saw you went to the Springsteen concert, which I’m thinking I probably should go to. And I love all that backstory stuff.

Nestor Aparicio  05:33

Well, I’m trying to get Nils Lofgren on. I’m trying to get Getty Lee on. So I’m trying to get the, you know, the one thing of our journalism and our writing side of this, I chased Cameron Crowe around back in October when he and I still haven’t read his book, and I just finished Getty Lee’s book. Finally, three years later, the Cameron Crowe thing was amazing, because I had been compared to him so much when I was backstage at hammer Jackson. I was 1718, I didn’t really know who he was, but I didn’t know what Fast Times at Ridgemont High was, but I wasn’t a Rolling Stone like reader, you know what I mean at that time. And so I was a different kind of I was more of a fan journalist in the way that I was taught how to ask hockey players questions after games. I was probably very aggressive with with rock and rollers as a journalist, asking about like I pissed Pat dinizzio off, asking him about publishing. So when I go back and listen to the interviews of me with David Bowie, when I ripped David Bowie the summer before at Merriweather, and he knew it, and he was coming on to do an interview with me, knowing that he read my bad review of him, and it’s, it’s memorialized on the tape, you know, so the journalist part of rock and roll, far more contentious than even Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin being covered in the in the 70s with The Yankees, whatever like I like and rock and roll needed journalists, but hated journalists. And I mean, to this day, Rush Getty Lee, in his book, wrote how much he hated Bill Graham because they were always mistreated by Bill Graham when they were in the Bay Area, and how much power the promoters had. And I mean, Springsteen’s book, he writes a lot about the mob in New Jersey and playing those clubs in the 70s that were all owned by the mob, and when he didn’t get paid, something, you know, like all sorts of things that we think of. Springsteen is being a business guy because of all of that. But you’re mentioning business, and Dylan’s saying, that’s my likeness. That’s my image in 1976 like, Dude, you’re not filming me, you know? Like, no, no, no, I own the rights to me, right, right? And that’s 50 years later. This is where selling your music off, or who owns Paul McCartney’s catalog. I saw, we went to the Michael Jackson movie the other day because my wife, well, I don’t go to the movies ever. I bought into it, thinking it was a concert that was brought to life.

Tim Wendel  08:06

Oh no, no, it was a biopic. Yeah? Well, I went to it, yeah, unknown, with the Dylan thing and

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Nestor Aparicio  08:11

all that stuff, yeah? I mean, but like, I love music, and I’m so snookered in much more so than, like, four tickets at a box seat for a baseball game as an example, and the Michael Jackson thing happened, because two years ago, remember talking heads re released the film right from the Pantages Theater in LA stopped making sense. They released it in D box, and I didn’t even know what the hell D box was. I’ve interviewed three fourths of talking heads over I’ve never talked to Tina, but I’ve talked to those three members in my career of doing being a journalist. I’m not the biggest Talking Heads fan. I like that more now than I did then, and but the movie was playing. I’d never seen the movie. And this D box thing is a chair that has two and a half million haptics that moves you around in it, right? And I like, love the chair so much with the talking heads movie, I’ve been telling my wife, we’re gonna go do it. So I got snookered into a Michael Jackson biopic, which was a perfectly benign, fine. I mean, there was no Janet jacks is missing all sorts of elements, but we did enjoy it. But like, I enjoy music, or the experience in music, or talking to you about Springsteen more than I do as to like, how long Trevor Rogers is going to be on the

Tim Wendel  09:24

IL Sure, sure. And I think there’s a parallel there that I think we share, because I first started as a rock and roll music critic in Buffalo. That’s back where I met rag and those guys. That’s where I started. You know, in 79 that type of

Nestor Aparicio  09:38

deal, you’re right about music.

Tim Wendel  09:40

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Then I was right about music. See, I don’t even know this.

Nestor Aparicio  09:43

I don’t know you at all. Tim Wendel, how can I not know you? I saw

Tim Wendel  09:46

Springsteen first in 78 the darkness tour, which was wild, I mean, because he hadn’t been able to tour for a while, and he opened that tour at Shea’s theater in Buffalo, which only see. It’s maybe 3000 small place, and I’ll still never remember. I’ll never forget that they had just a spotlight, no warm up. In fact, the promoter who was telling me, you know, you got to get to this concert. And I’m going, What time does it start? And it goes, eight o’clock. I’m going, well, I’ll show up at 830 No, don’t show up at 830 you’re going to miss the show. And I’m going, I’ll miss a warm up. Who cares? He goes, there is no warm up. He’s going, you know, he just starts. He gets rocking, and I’m going, okay. And I’m kind of, you know, skeptical of that. But anyway, one spotlight shining on the stage, and you’re going, what is going on out there? You know, the band somewhat there, and springs, and kind of leaned his head in and just said, I’m back. And he played for like, three and a half, almost four hours, and just pranked it. And the thing is, you’re right, because backstage at some place like Shays or the Last Waltz or something, is a lot different than being in the clubhouse at, you know, Camden Yards or something. I had a lot of

Nestor Aparicio  10:58

musicians invite me in sweaty after show. Some bands insisted CZ top would not talk to me on the phone. They insisted that I go down the capital center. They insisted on inviting me into the dressing room after the show. I mean, I saw him after their sunglasses gave me

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Tim Wendel  11:13

money one time. That’s the only way I got the interview. Is he said, You’ve got to come down and do it, and I’m there. And he said, Well, you’re going to introduce us to and I’m going, what? And so I’m this schmo who’s out there. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Eddie money. Just go crazy on that. But you’re it’s a whole different dynamic. And I think if you can survive that, if you can make that work, you know, I don’t want to say sports is easier, but sports is a little bit more mundane. You ever

Nestor Aparicio  11:39

see Cameron Crowe’s monolog for his live tour was him with Greg Allman stoned out of his mind. And Greg Allman, after his brother died, giving him tapes full of heartfelt things that he was going to use. And then Greg Allman made him bring the tapes back, and thought he was a narc and thought the cops were chasing him. And like, like, this is the beginning of his book. He’s 17 years old at a pool in LA on this rock and roll drug tour in 1971 with the with the almond. Like, literally, I mean, and I was backstage with all these rock stars when I was a kid, and, like, maybe I should turn it into something like almost famous, or something like that.

Tim Wendel  12:27

Almost Famous is just a great movie. And, you know, because of that, because you see how somebody like Cameron Crowe kind of rises up, and all these shenanigans that happen, and it, no, it’s, it’s a lot of fun, and I think it’s a it toughens you up in a weirder way for life, being backstage, because I was backstage at a lot of shows, many similar shows to what you saw. I mean, I remember seeing rush. You have any

Nestor Aparicio  12:50

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bad experience you saw rush back

Tim Wendel  12:52

in the day? Rush, yeah, back in the day.

Nestor Aparicio  12:55

You still have your reviews? Do you still have the writing you did? Oh, geez, somewhere.

Tim Wendel  12:59

See now that,

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Nestor Aparicio  13:00

Tim, that’s what you want to digitize and put out on your Facebook and let people read that and see that. Like, find 30 of them and put them all up one day. And like, let me go read what you wrote about Russia in 1981 please come on, man.

Tim Wendel  13:15

And some of them, you’re right. Often they wanted to talk down at the show. But who was it? The Moody Blues are coming in the Buffalo, okay, and that’s when they’re, you know, kind of the height. That’s when knights in

Nestor Aparicio  13:26

white Saturn, yes, but 8081, that was more like Gemini, Gemini dream. And like dream, but they were like a number one

Tim Wendel  13:34

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band right then, yes. But, you know, and Justin Hayward was about ready to do driftwood, you know, from, you know, the War of the Worlds movie a little bit further. But anyway, they they had just gotten in the town, and they said, No, you know, we’re zonked, and meet us at the hotel. And they could not remember the name of the hotel. And finally, watch them looked out the window and said, I’m still not sure what the name is, but it’s the one with the dopey bear, you know, the bear, like good looking like this. It’s a travel Lodge, you know, and buffalo, that’s where I met him, and we had a great conversation, but it was interesting, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  14:14

or no, just notebook. No, no,

Tim Wendel  14:17

just notebook. I wasn’t like you. I should have

Nestor Aparicio  14:19

taped everything I have was taped because they were all phoners, man, they were phoners, and I had a little Radio Shack duel. It had two little cassettes, but they’re little like the little courtroom cassettes, yeah, and so, yeah, one

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Tim Wendel  14:30

of my favorite interviews got no you got me going, Johnny Cash.

Nestor Aparicio  14:34

Whoa. You interviewed Johnny Cash,

Tim Wendel  14:37

and he was so gracious. He was so kind, and I didn’t really know his music that well. I was just, it was like, go down to whatever I was old. It was an old theater where they had one of those revolving stages that went around right, like,

Nestor Aparicio  14:52

8

like, painter’s mill, yeah and yeah.

Tim Wendel  14:55

And that was up in Buffalo and, and I remember cash looking out on and he goes and. He, you know, he again, was answering all my questions, very gracious. And he finally said, I got a question for you. And I said, what he said, Am I going to get really dizzy out there? And I’m going, No, you’re going to be fine. But I wouldn’t focus on any particular people in the crowd, because there will be be by by the time you’re out there. The next song, I went

Nestor Aparicio  15:19

to painters mill to see Frankie valley in the four seasons, and I saw my ticket stub here, and I also saw crack the sky there, but that the circle theater still exists in two places. There’s a place in upstate New York that’s been rebuilt. The only original one that I know of is the Celebrity Theater right next to Sky Harbor Airport in old Phoenix, right in the middle of Phoenix, and it’s this, it looks like the LA Forum, but in miniature, it’s a little circle. It’s almost like a carousel. And my wife and I went last year and saw a meatloaf tribute there, and it was just but the stage didn’t revolve the night we were there, it said the stage isn’t going to revolve, and it didn’t, but it does, and if you would have gone the next night to see Tom Keifer Cinderella, would have revolved. But like people here, remember painters, but people my age, and painters mill was the ish. I mean, every Tony, Orlando and Dawn, every Liberace, like every, you know, Lucille Ball, everybody played painter’s mill. Painters mill was the place, and it was dying around your era. So like the last big bands to play there, the police, Pretenders, golden earring, you know that era of 8182 and then they had an unfortunate fire at the theater. The theater flooded a lot. I mean, it’s literally where the Wegmans is at painters mill Boulevard and sweetheart cup and Owens Mills, I know, like, like, right, not far from the Ravens facility at all. But that was, um, yeah, painters mill. Now that I said it out loud, all of it will show up on my Facebook, because I’m in this group that every time somebody finds an old week at painters mill where Paul Anka played one night, Engelbert Humperdinck played the next night. And, yeah, it was, it was that kind of joint, you know? Yeah, those are,

Tim Wendel  17:08

those joints are few and far between. You say, when I was out in California, they had one down the peninsula, kind of near where we when we lived on our sailboat near San Mateo bridge, and they had one there. And I remember going down to interview Peter Gabriel there and seeing his show, and he was just said, I’m never doing anything.

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Nestor Aparicio  17:27

I didn’t know you ever had a life before baseball? I mean, I had no idea Tim Wendell is here. He is. This is why he’s the writer in residence. You want to promote rebel falls and talk a little fiction or not, feel like I’ll do some baseball with you, and I swear, like, that’s what you and I but we have, yeah, you just want to talk about Springsteen. I think too, you know, yeah, I’d love to talk about Springsteen.

Tim Wendel  17:51

I hope he keeps touring, because I’m going to miss him in DC. But rebel Falls is going to town, and we have a standalone sequel coming out to rebel falls called Irish falls. And I’ve got a question for you. You ever heard of the Fenian brotherhood? Probably not. No, I

Nestor Aparicio  18:07

don’t think I have Fenian brotherhood.

Tim Wendel  18:08

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Irish American. So we’re rebel. Falls ends roughly at the end of the Civil War, Rory Chase has helped save the day from Confederate spies along the border with Canada. All everything I do, pretty much in fiction, is based upon true events. And then I stumbled across less than a year later, again, along back in my old part of the world, Western New York, Niagara River, Niagara Falls. You had these guys, the Fenians showed up. Fenians had fought in the Civil War, mostly on the north side, somewhat on the south, and they were mostly Irish American who had come over their family’s head, at least during the great hunger. And I did some research over in Ireland on that actually went to a lot of great pubs there and saw some great music with my friend Larry Kerwin, who used to be front man for black 47 he’s the guy got me over to Ireland. So anyway,

Nestor Aparicio  18:57

I like to see you too, but that’s the only time I went to Park and saw you too.

Tim Wendel  19:01

So it was great. Oh, YouTube’s awesome. But anyway, Fenian brotherhood invaded British Canada three times, from 1866 to 1870 why? And they they were lean, mean fighting machine, because they were. They had fought at Antietam. They had fought at Gettysburg. There used to be an Irish brigade with the Union army. But they invaded British Canada because they were trying to get land in British Canada and exchange it. Where would

Nestor Aparicio  19:28

British Canada be? Would that be Ontario? At that point?

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Tim Wendel  19:31

Ontario? Yeah, below Toronto, welling canal, Hamilton area. And they were looking to get land there, exchange that land in British Canada. And the keyword there is British for land in their homeland of Ireland, British

Nestor Aparicio  19:46

Canada, as opposed to French Canada, which would

Tim Wendel  19:49

be Quebec, yes, yeah, yeah. But the thing is, what they were doing is Britain is calling the shots. So can we get some land there and then exchange it for some free land in Ireland, which was under British rule? At that point too.

Nestor Aparicio  20:01

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So we could go home,

Tim Wendel  20:02

go home, or save the ones who we were left back on the beloved Emerald Isle.

Nestor Aparicio  20:09

When is this launch? When’s your book come?

Tim Wendel  20:10

Happen in here? Maybe early next year. We’re just, we just went to production. We just started doing covers. The cover look somewhat, you know, to be akin to that. So okay, that’s what kind of keeps me going. Once I heard about the Fenians, suddenly I’m off to Canada. I’m off to Ireland. And it’s been that’s been a lot that book’s been a lot of fun

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Nestor Aparicio  20:29

to do so for you baseball and just to bring this full circle, because I had no idea you were a music critic. A lot of people didn’t know that I was a music critic till they, you know, find me later in life, and they wonder why these rock stars show up all the time, but I, the baseball side of me is I don’t know a life without it. And I can say this to Don rovax and Katie Griggs, who’ve continued to treat me the way the angel is family treated me. But I came at it honest. I mean, I don’t really have a life that I remember not having a wiffle ball bat, not being an Oriole fan in 1972 7374 Tommy Davis, dH Al, bumry, rich, Coggins, like just going to the ballpark seeing Louie play in this last year. In September, 73 I have a picture at the ballpark. I have the ball. I get Louie, oldest living Hall of Famer, whose birthday was Wednesday. So in nine now, 92 Luis, so for me, I don’t know that there’s going to be a life after baseball. You mentioned me you still love hockey, and you know your buffalo roots and the flyers, people are all up in arms. I text with Barry trots the other day. My dude, Kenny Albert, has now crossed the threshold of more broadcast than anyone in the history of he passed Dick Stockton for national broadcaster.

Tim Wendel  21:45

Yeah. I mean, the Olympics was amazing.

Nestor Aparicio  21:47

So he was my original partner here in doing radio. He’s the reason I’m on radio. Hey, Nestor, you want to do a New York style sports radio show? So, so you know, trots was his roommate at one point. So with hockey, my hockey background is my dad took me to a clippers game in 1973 and I liked it a lot more than he did. My dad was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. More boxing, baseball, basketball, hockey didn’t really understand it. Soccer didn’t really get it, but I loved hockey, so I dragged him to a minor league hockey games, which were basically fights in the mid 70s. You know, blades, clippers, ECHL, Ahl, Erie Blaze,

Tim Wendel  22:23

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like slap shot, totally.

Nestor Aparicio  22:24

A lot of those guys were skip jacks, one of the goon brothers, the Carlson I knew, knew Stevie Carlson like he was a skip Jack. He played for Gene Nubian. So like my hockey background and all of this hockey, hockey, hockey, and people, people think of me as in hockey ways, we haven’t had a team here in 40 years, right? 35 years, wherever it’s been, and the capitals and Barry winning and all that, I walked off the ice that night in Las Vegas, went out with trots on he wanted me to go to the Bellagio at 4am and I my wife’s like, go. I’m like, Oh, I’m done. Don’t, Don’t encourage him. I’m going home. I’m not going to Bellagio. I just ate Caesar salad out of the Stanley Cup with Alex Ovechkin. I’m going home. So we went back to, I think we’re staying at the luxury or whatever. And that night, I haven’t watched five minutes of hockey since that night. I just ended it because I got misspoken to by the Leon’s family and the freighto sun, and I’m 60 miles away. And they promised to bring the cup to Baltimore, and they, they reneged on, like many radio promises about Baltimore’s involvement. So I just stopped right like, and I like the cold turkey part. I don’t know when I really stopped watching the NBA, probably right around the time Leone just bought the team. But, like, I don’t watch the NBA, basketball, college basketball. Tim, I used to fly around every March wherever. If the Terps were going to Austin, I was going to Austin, the Terps were going to Knoxville. I mean, I’ve been I’ve been to Oakland. I’ve been all over the place with Steve Francis and Gary Williams frowning at me and like just all of that. But as I’m getting older now, music’s the place I continue to go back to. It’s the thing on my calendar that circled the bodines are playing at ramstead Next week. Springsteen is playing two weeks from now in Pittsburgh. I’m going to that like they’re concerts. For me, it used to be my calendar, if you go back in the 90s, when we knew each other, everything was about the baseball All Star game and spring training, and before the Ravens even got here, it was all baseball owners meetings and trade deadlines and Winter Carnival the Camden Yards and and like, I’m not done with baseball. I’m not I’m still in it. I’m gonna watch two baseball games today, but I have cold turkey things in my life that old girlfriends, old hobbies, old habits. You know what I mean? Pay phones. There’s a lot of things I used to do that I don’t do anymore. And I don’t know, you know, I want to talk to you about baseball, because they’re going to have a labor thing again for you and me. That’s old hat. You covered it. I covered it. I’m only using my story because people know how much I loved hockey. They like the blast. I just want. Years ago, I got misspoken to by the guy running the team, and I just that was that. And I’m like, okay, you don’t want me in your games. I won’t come to your games. Now, with the baseball and football teams, they’ve told me they don’t want me at their games. I mean, the baseball people have said, Don’t come. We don’t want you. Stop talking about us, which is kind of dangerous when they only have 7000 people at the ballpark last night. But the baseball thing to me, I don’t know if there’s going to come a point for me where I’m like, you to some degree, where someone’s going to call me from a radio station say, Hey, you want to come on talk Orioles, and I’m like, Well, I really don’t watch them anymore, you know, like,

Tim Wendel  25:30

or have even take it up to speed on it some.

Nestor Aparicio  25:33

I’m not prideful about not watching hockey anymore. I just decided I wanted more of my life back that after lifting the Stanley Cup that night with one of my best friends in the sport, that that was enough, and then they treated him like garbage a week later and treated me like garbage a month later. I’m just like, I haven’t I haven’t even walked in that building. I haven’t even gone down there to see a concert. Like, literally, I just, it’s not on purpose. It’s just sort of like, I don’t need to drive down to DC ever again, after doing it 10,000 times for hockey games, I’m just done baseball. What if I had, let’s say I had four box seats for a double header today against the Astros, and I invited you. What would preclude you from going or not going to a baseball game, and What stopped you from immersing in it, other than your real life and you becoming a grown up.

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Tim Wendel  26:23

Well, I would probably go, if I could go with you. I think that would be fun. And actually, I was at a baseball game just a couple Saturdays ago, Citi Field. I finally made it to Citi Field. We were at New York. A friend said, Hey, let’s go. And you hadn’t been

Nestor Aparicio  26:38

to the ballpark, so there was some allure there?

Tim Wendel  26:40

Yeah, you can see, you know, some, some of the glimmers of Camden Yards and the way the seats are done and such. But it was funny walking up there and, and my friend is, you know, he’s, he’s excited. We’re going, we’re with a bunch of other people, and I’m going, who they playing? And he goes the athletics. And I go, okay, that’s one of the teams I broke in with when they were in Oakland. That’s one of the first teams I ever covered. And they’re playing the Mets

Nestor Aparicio  27:08

8

you and Susan Ford off.

Tim Wendel  27:10

Oh yeah, nice

Nestor Aparicio  27:11

Baltimore. Yeah, Baltimore girl.

Tim Wendel  27:13

And as we’re walking to the stadium or walking to Citi Field, I’m going, I think I know maybe two guys total on both these teams. That’s how much it’s like falling off at times for me. Now, I love the playoffs. I watch the playoffs, but you’re asking, what’s the motivation? Why? Some of it has to do with my son. My son really doesn’t watch baseball anymore. I mean, we talk hockey, we talk college basketball, you know, he’s a Michigan guy, so he just had a great year, you know, with them winning the championship, and my son was a very good baseball player. He was a really good catcher. He pitched a little bit

8

Nestor Aparicio  27:52

passionate about the game, obviously very and the history of the game, and his relationship with you and you guys, you’re in locker rooms covering all this for 25 years like right? My kid could care less. My kid loved Mike Messina and still has his baseball card collection. But other than that, I couldn’t beg my kid to come sit at a ball game with me for for for two hours, let alone for five. He just he has no interest. He went to one of the Royals ALCS games with me in 14, that’s the last baseball game I went to with him. I went to, does he keep score? Yeah. I mean, my son played ball and like, like, yeah. I mean, my son was pretty athletic in that way, but not team sport orient as much. But he played football, Perry Hall and like, but no interest at all in modern professional sports that he and his wife did, like the Capitals 810, years ago, when they were on their run. But they don’t even they don’t. Why? As far as I know, he can’t name five current capitals like nor can I, by the way, but I’m just saying this sports thing, 35 years into carrying this all the way with people like you, I do still know, I mean, I have Barry bloom on, who’s in the baseball as he’s ever been. And I right, you know, like, I have Eric, I have my old baseball mafia people on a little bit. But then there’s people like you that when even Pete Williams, when I call him, when the Orioles are in Tampa or whatever, and he’s like, Yeah, it’ll follow it the way I once did. I went to the ballpark once this year, you know what I mean. And I’m thinking to myself, My God, how could baseball lose us in that way that we’re not as interested? And I don’t mean me as the public figure in doing what I do and talking with Luke every day. I just mean like, if I didn’t do this for a living anymore and somebody were paying me to write fiction books, I’m wondering whether what I would still watch and what I wouldn’t watch in regard to professional football, professional baseball at this point, because I have parachuted from things in the way that you’ve parachuted from baseball. And I would think you, probably 20 years ago, would have thought that to be a very unlikely

Tim Wendel  29:55

outcome for you. Oh, I think totally. I mean, I will go to one may two. May three games a year. And it kind of depends where I am, like, if I’m gonna see my son in San Francisco, I’ll probably drag him to a game guy like the ballpark. I’m not quite sure you know the players on the field, but you know the time, time gets finite, and you start picking your spots a little bit. And I think, and like you, I used to go to 80 100 games a year. In fact, I told my wife that the other day where, you know, we were at that city Field game, because she was one of the folks that went, I’m going, Wow. I used to go to like, 80 plus games a year, and this is my first game this season. It might be my last. You know, I might make a nats game. I might not. And I

Nestor Aparicio  30:39

find myself having a hard time watching the game at the game, because I don’t see the strike zone as well, because I watch 145 on TV, and now the TV and the ABS and Ben McDonald’s, very good, Jim Palmer’s outstanding. So on nights when they’re on, which is 80% of the time, I feel like I know more than Luke does, who’s sitting in our press box seat, in the Jim Henneman press box. It’s been moved that I feel like going. I even said, Listen, I got offered tickets as we speak today, and I said to my wife, there’s two games. I can get work done. I can see the strike zone better. I can get replays. I mean, here’s the goofiest thing about going to the game, Tim. Well, by the way, Tim Wendell is here, long time author. Look him up. Johns Hopkins, longtime baseball rider. I went to one game two weeks ago. They played the Diamondbacks. I was BS ing with a client, with my back to the field, which you can now do because there’s netting everywhere. You can’t get hit in the back of the head with line drive. And I missed the ball going up. It was a hot day. It was 90 degrees with daylight, ball went up in the plate, and when I turned around, some left fielder wearing number 42 they were all wearing number 42 and the Orioles had three guys they just called up from Norfolk, and had no i Weston wells and Rodriguez, Jonathan Rodriguez, and they had a catcher named Sam Huff, spelled the same way, same way as the cranky football player was me when I had to help stem In with his book. So on the 58 giants. So, so this guy’s running around left field, chasing the ball, and, you know, Diamondbacks are running around like it’s, like it, you know, like it’s the 82 Cardinals. And I look up guys stand on third base and like, what the hell happened? And all they could do on opening day, you know, State gave him $600 million they kicked the press out of the press box to create this lounge, that airport hanger lounge nobody wants to go to, and all these empty seats that used to be the terrace box underneath. And they built a bigger television in center field, and they are, they are proud of the girth and the largeness of their huge television screen, and that’s all they could talk about on opening day when I’m sitting here sick as a dog watching the pregame. Oh, get a new TV. You got to come see it. It’s big. It’s big TV. It’s a large TV. It’s, it’s, it’s the 13th biggest the Major League Baseball now, after being the 30th, you know, like, it was, like, all of this shit, basically. And I turn around, I look up on the scoreboard, and I just missed the play. And guess what? They refused to show me the left fielder boot in the ball. Oh, because it would hurt his feelings, and it would be a replay of a failure or an error. God forbid we make errors in baseball. Like, and I’m thinking to myself, This is absurd. Like, the game’s better at home. Like, like, literally, the game is better at home. She has made it better at home in a lot of ways. And that’s, that’s one of the reasons I don’t go other thing. I did 30 ballparks in 30 days. I dealt with Angelos for 30 years. I get treated like, like, I deserve a second water fountain out next to an outhouse in order to be involved with them while they welcome my Caucasian employee into a press boxing so, like, I have all of these other issues of angst, but the biggest issue of angst is just sort of like, I still like baseball more than maybe I did even 10 years ago with the shift and all of that. And I like it better when we’re competitive. Baseball’s a lot more fun. In Baltimore, we have a chance to win. And I’ve had the station 28 years, and we’ve had about six years where I could sit here in May and say, yeah, they have a chance of being a playoff team, right? Like so. But for me, I still like it enough that I could be snookered back in but Friday night, the games are on Apple TV. I don’t, I ain’t getting no Apple TV, you know? I mean, I don’t love going to the ballpark anymore. I certainly when I’m on the road, I’m going to be in San Diego in a few weeks. The Padres are home against the Mets. I mean, if Freddy Ullman leaves me tickets, I’ll go. If not, I’ll look and say, 42 bucks. Do I really? Let’s go get dinner? I’ll go get a pizza. Yeah, watch the game in the bar down the street. You know, it’s like,

Tim Wendel  34:35

8

it’s often the company you keep to who you’re going to go with. And that’s what gets me into the game, not into the game, but that’s why I’ll go now. It’s like, who am I going with? Oh, that sounds like fun, but if not, you’re right. It’s better on TV, and we get to be a dog of a game. I can switch the channel and go to something else and but you become a

Nestor Aparicio  34:53

nerd in October, though, that you’re more like a hockey fan, like playoff Start Here I am, right. Like you, you at least base. All playoff time. It becomes a soap opera you can get involved in, and I think they’ve done a decent job with that part of the short series. I don’t think it’s fair, but, you know, it’s not fair, but it’s more interesting, right?

Tim Wendel  35:13

Yeah, I get roped into it. I like the story. And also that was also my favorite part, even though about killed me sometimes. Of when I was covering ball I’d liked, I loved covering the playoffs, even though, at one point I remember, good God, when my kids were young. What series was that? I don’t know. I think it ended up with Atlanta and Toronto in the World Series.

Nestor Aparicio  35:32

9192 somewhere near,

8

Tim Wendel  35:33

yeah, before the work stoppage. And I think out of 3537 days, I was away from home for all but one or two. And I’m just going, Hmm, how old was your kid? Then my kids? 1991 four, no, five and

Nestor Aparicio  35:50

one, oh, man, you were missing like baby time with them, right for long stretches. I mean, I did 30 ball parks in 30 days 12 years ago, and like you couldn’t get me to drive up the Citizens Bank Park right now, even to see the fanatic, or even gritty, you know, I mean, and there is a point for me where the oversaturation of sports just all the way through and, you know, journalists sleeping with football coaches, and that’s yesterday’s news and tomorrow, you know, and I can’t keep up with the drama part of it. I think one of the reasons the NFL is so successful is that they only play once a week, and they only play four months a year.

Tim Wendel  36:24

Builds to this one, yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  36:26

8

and the rest of the year is just Hollywood Gossip trash for the most part, and Draft Day and schedule night and marketing, and how many mock drafts can you do? Yeah, reality TV, and who did this, and who said that, and who’s coming here, and, like all of that, baseball has to, like, baseball’s hard man, right? Like, just, that’s the part I always I had Casper wells on last week over Koco’s played and, you know, and he was a guy played five organizations. He had that sort of, and I don’t not being disrespectful, he was the prospect that kept trying and getting through and never had that. Ryan O’Hearn year or whatever, and, I said to him, it’s so hard to do, and now you’re bouncing around from team to team. You’re getting this hitting coach thinks you should do that. And we got into the head of all of that, and I’m like, that’s where they are right now, with the Orioles, at least with Kobe mayo and holiday whose dad knows how to do it now he’s got to go out and do it that it, it’s such an incredible grind to do it six and a half days a week, and the FANBOY in me never really appreciated that until I stood next to Jamie Moyer, who did the show this week for 45 minutes, and we talked about his book and his like, I’m thinking old baseball, just me. Wendell Come on now, you’re my top baseball guest this week. I Jamie Moyer

37:43

on this week. You know, the great interview.

Nestor Aparicio  37:44

Oh my so, you know Jamie came on and did, and I know Jamie from back with digger Phelps and Karen, his ex wife and all that. Like, I love, love talking baseball with Casper wells and with Jamie Moyer and picking their brain about baseball, because baseball leads so much time to be cerebral. If you’re a bullpen pitcher, you pitch three nights a week, and you sit there and watch it the rest of the week. You know, if you’re a DH, you just watch it. You know, if you’re the weekend catcher, you’re, you know, and you’re called upon, but to travel the stadium. And now the modern part, and this is where I talked to Casper wells about the analytics. It’s a whole different game than showing up with a cup of coffee Davey Johnson at five o’clock on game night and penciling in the lineup like, what’s going on with managers, management analytics, who’s making the lineups? It is a completely different sport than it was when we covered it.

Tim Wendel  38:35

Oh, very much. Analytics has taken over it, but it’s I. I love the lessons that I learned from baseball, and one of them I still remember. You know, lot of managers have said this. I think Weaver said it at one point too, but one of the teams I broke in with was the Giants in San Francisco. I was a swing guy. I covered the Giants sometimes. And you know what

8

Nestor Aparicio  38:56

paper, Mercury News.

Tim Wendel  38:58

No, my wife was at the Mercury News, I was at the examiner, okay, San Francisco, back before the Chronicle bought him.

Nestor Aparicio  39:05

You know, I sent resumes to every sports editor in America between 1988

Tim Wendel  39:09

8

you probably said when the Charles

Nestor Aparicio  39:10

Cooper, I came in. Charles Cooper, absolutely, I sent him. I I can find his rejection letter.

Tim Wendel  39:15

God, trust me. He he trusted me with so much stuff. He hired me off the street because my wife was interviewing for a job at the Chronicle. I ended up, you know, and they had the same building. They hit, they were in the same building on market, and fifth, and somebody said, told me, you know, sports may be looking for somebody part time. And so I got on the phone. Coop, ended up answering the phone. He said, where are you? And I said, I’m over the Chronicle. My wife’s interviewing for something here, which he didn’t get. She ended up working at the merc and he said, Well, come on over. Find your way over. And I went over, talked to him for like a half hour. He offered me a job where I started on Fridays and Saturday nights, pretty much helping with those main

Nestor Aparicio  39:55

buffalo guy going out to San Francisco. That’s big toots. They’re in the early 80s, right?

8

Tim Wendel  40:00

Yeah, without a job, neither one of us had jobs. Wow, that was after the courier folded, but in Buffalo so

Nestor Aparicio  40:06

old journalist, you were back

Tim Wendel  40:08

then, you know, but coop hired me, and then I became full time and and then become the swing guy, and the Giants had Roger Craig, who lost so many games as a pitcher in the major leagues, but great manager, very laconic kind of Southerner, and I was driving people crazy on the beat because I was doing it too fast. Will Clark? All those guys are just going, Who is this new guy? He’s driving his bonkers. And Craig had to pull me aside and just pretty much say, slow down. In a sense, I’ve got one thing I need to tell you, we play this game almost every day. So in a sense, chill, you know, see how it’s unfolding. You don’t have to do it like football, where it’s going to be one thing a day, you know, one thing a week, and everything

Nestor Aparicio  40:53

8

builds to it. That’s what I love about spring training. You show up at Spring Training and it was chill. It’s like you flew into chill in late February, usually, Tim Wendell is here. He flew into a lot of things, including baseball journalism and a life of that. He is a writer in residence at Johns Hopkins University here in Baltimore. You live, you live in Northern Virginia, though, correct? No, actually, I’m down

Tim Wendel  41:14

in Charlottesville now, Charlottesville. Yeah, down in beautiful Charlottesville. I saw

Nestor Aparicio  41:19

Bruce down there. I saw Bruce play that John Paul Jones Arena

Tim Wendel  41:24

there, absolutely. Who was it? Billy? What you heard about the Billy strings incident, right?

8

Nestor Aparicio  41:29

Did you know what happened there?

Tim Wendel  41:31

Billy strings just played last Friday and Saturday here packed. I did not go to the concert, but he did two shows, and he was in such a fork mood after two encores on the Saturday show, the second show, he started skateboarding backstage, completely wiped out, destroyed his foot and broke some of his leg, and he went to emergency. Oh, who runs emergency down here? My daughter does my my daughter is head of UVA

Nestor Aparicio  42:02

emergency two o’clock in the morning. She got Billy strings in there, and it’s got him in an air cast. Is that what you’re telling me?

Tim Wendel  42:09

8

That’s right. And then Billy strings put up something on Instagram, pretty much saying, Thanks all the good folks at UVA. They, you know, I shouldn’t be skateboarding. I know that, but they, they got

Nestor Aparicio  42:19

me on the road. I do things I shouldn’t do. You know, for Taurus, I’m like going to a baseball game, like running around South America alone for 17 days. Tim Wendell is here. He writes more fiction than nonfiction these days, although I missed, I missed the real stuff back in the day. For you so Springsteen, I need to ask you, yeah, I did not know all of this background. If you just joined us on the radio. Tim was telling me how he was a music critic back before I was a music critic in the early 80s, and seeing Springsteen on the darkest tour and all that. So the Springsteen thing for me, Tunnel of Love, was kind of where I came in on it and after the live albums. But, I mean, I was in on board in the USA. I mean, we when I worked at the sound waves East Point, East Point mall, that was the number one album in the world. And you’re Bobby Jean, and songs that I love Darlington County, and I’m on fire and just all of those things. I’m a Bruce guy. But if there’s something about sports writers and baseball writers and Bruce Springsteen fans, and I’ll say that, I’m gonna throw Rosenthal under the bus. My original relationship with Ken Rosenthal began when he started at the evening sun in 1987 and that’s when Bruce was, like, going from born and born in the US to getting rid of the band right, to doing Tunnel of Love, to then doing lucky town and the solo kind of albums, and Rosenthal’s in Jersey. So, like, he had like, a whole, like, New York, New Jersey thing going on. And and he gave me Thunder Road on this on 45 and be true was on the flip side, because back then, the only way I could hear the song be true would have been to have the B side, because we didn’t have mixed tapes. Even then, for crying out, well, we maybe had mixed tapes, but we didn’t have much. 1987 we didn’t have much, you know. So these kids today with the Napster and the and the Spotify is and all of that. So I have these relationships with writers. And you know, every time I have Seth Wickersham on, we have to do some Springsteen. And most of you, but you brought it up with me before I even brought it up with you, because you saw me. I went to Minneapolis and I went to the Newark show. And you know why I went to the Newark show? Peter King. I text Peter King because he loves Bruce and and part of Don banks, and I kind of fatefully went to a Bruce show in Brooklyn, the night that Bruce played Purple Rain back in 16 we lost Don bank. Was last time I saw Don a lot alive, was at that show. And so don banks loved Bruce. Peter loves Bruce. I text Peter because he lives in New York. I’m like, Hey, I’m thinking about coming up. And he texts me back, and this is what a writer can do to you. You know, it’s with.so Peter King writes to me. He’s like, there’s nothing like seeing Bruce in Jersey, Nestor, there you go. And he writes me back, and he sold it. So I went and saw Bruce, and. Yeah, the thing, I mean, I’m friends with Nils for 40 years, so, you know, I’m going to get Nils on at some point. But the amazing part to me through all of this is ticket prices and Ticketmaster and traveling, and how old he is and all of that, but just how the music he put a set list on this tour together that is the most powerful, driving, political, angry, you know, I it was like a freight train man, like, I sat at a bar in Minneapolis after the show with my friend Maggie. And this dude’s there, and he’s a little older to me. He’s like, I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted. He exhausted me. And I’m like, it really is that. And he’s doing it every night, and I’m checking the set list every night, and, you know, there it is, Youngstown and 41 shots and American skin, and just on and on and on. And I’m like, Wow, man, like this. He’s built for this at this point in America and where he is, and the

Tim Wendel  45:59

band certainly built for it too. I mean, it’s great, great band issue. Now, huge band this time, you know? And well, I hope to keep going. I’m going to miss him in DC, because I’ve got to go to Denver for a wedding, so I want to go to the

Nestor Aparicio  46:10

garden on the 11th. I’m here. Here’s my arm twisted. Come on, twist it.

8

Tim Wendel  46:16

Maybe, maybe I was just up there. If we get

Nestor Aparicio  46:19

on the ball, listen, we get on the Peter Pan bus. It’s like 24 bucks right now. All you gotta do is get here, dude, you know?

Tim Wendel  46:24

I mean, just gotta get to Baltimore. Get on the Peter Pan bus. Well, I hope he keeps going with it.

Nestor Aparicio  46:29

8

It’s funny. Grab your ticket in your suitcase. Thunders rolling down these tracks.

Tim Wendel  46:33

Come on. I was talking about my son with baseball. I took, I’ve taken both my kids to spring scene concerts, and

Nestor Aparicio  46:40

because you’re a good parent.

Tim Wendel  46:41

And my son was what God, and he used to play piano. And my son did, I think he was only 1718, something like that. And I think he was still in high school. May have just started college, anyway, the show starts, and he’s just watching. My son gets kind of intense and just kind of locks in. And that was when they were playing the whole, it had to be, yeah, the, you know, Thunder Road, you know more, the albums, the albums. So it started with night, and which I think is a totally overlooked song. I think it’s a beautiful song. And they’re, they’re into it. And my son is listening. He’s listening tently. He’s not really saying anything. And then after a little while, he kind of turns to me and goes, Dad, this is a really good band. No kidding, kid.

8

Nestor Aparicio  47:33

Nils, thanks you for that. As the band leader. Tim Wendell, can lead my band anytime. Give everybody how to find your books and all that. And rebel falls, you’ve been out signing, you’ve been out symposiuming and talking and all of that.

Tim Wendel  47:46

And Amazon, of course, so they can just, if they got any questions, they reach me on my website, just Tim wendell.com so it’s, it’s there. It’s weird. Professoring. You teaching these days. I’m not teaching that much. That’s kind of winding down so, and that’s, you know, that’s kind of okay. Some of my old students still reach out to me and tell me how they how I changed their lives. And I go,

Nestor Aparicio  48:09

this AI thing, Tim, for anybody that writes,

Tim Wendel  48:12

8

it’s the most I gotta start paying better.

Nestor Aparicio  48:15

Incredible thing I’ve ever seen. And if you were my professor, I would have cheated on my term paper. Matt, promise you, I would have you know Tim Wendell is here. He will. He will grade me accordingly, on the on the Nestor curve, hopefully on the baseball curve. He’s my old baseball pal. He’s written books on baseball summer 68 look him up. Wendell w e n, d e l, Tim. He’s down in Charlottesville, Virginia. His daughter is helping save the life of Billy strings, and we’re trying to save democracy around here one fiction at a time. I think here, and there’s plenty of non fiction going on. I hope that we do get to a ball game at some point, because you’re exactly the kind of person I would go to

Tim Wendel  48:51

a ball Oh, I would enjoy that. I’d come up for that. That would be great. We make sure it’s

Nestor Aparicio  48:55

not 98 and we’re

8

48:57

time with resig, and

Nestor Aparicio  48:58

we got to do a shade a little bit. I got to have a ball cap on. Guy thought I cut my hair because I had my ball cap on. I’m glad to see you cut your I’m like, I’m sorry that I deserve you know, the last thing for the rock and roll thing is, I went to see the black crows with Gina shock about a year and a half ago. Oh, and we wound up in the front row. It wasn’t anything rock stars. I literally bought the tickets online, and we bought them, and I’ll pick you up. I’m driving. Get in the car. So she I went over to her house in Dundalk, and next thing you know, we’re down at the black crows, and we’re about three songs in, and my hair was out. And I did confide in her. I said, you know, I love my long hair at a rock show. You know, that’s why I don’t, I don’t love it at a 98 degree game, or your game. I don’t you know,

Tim Wendel  49:40

it’s like the David Crosby song. Almost cut my hair. He can’t do that. Come on.

Nestor Aparicio  49:44

So I took off my hat. I said, Imagine that Tim Wendell was here, dude. I could do that all night with with those song layers, um, he is still revisiting the The Last Waltz in the band, if you need to know anything about that. Or Bob Dylan and Bill Graham. Backstage at the winterland at 76 he’s your man. I’m Nestor. We’re W N st Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.