After a quarter of a century calling New York Yankees games on Yes! Network, our forever resident outfielder Ken Singleton tells Nestor what he loves about the new world of Orioles baseball and the budding rivalry in the American League East. And why he never left Baltimore after all of these years.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
years, games, yankees, day, baltimore, people, team, baseball, players, families, part, playing, good, spring training, kids, oriole, league, live, clubhouse, rubenstein
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Ken Singleton
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:00
To welcome home we are wn st am 1570 tastic Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively taking the Maryland crabcakes. Right back out on the road. I have a whole list of places we’re gonna be. We’re gonna be at Pappas in late May. We’re going to be at State Fair in Catonsville in June, early June. We’re going to be a Coco’s and Costas as well. But we are facing these every Friday that the Orioles are home so that’s a couple times this month we’re gonna have the Maryland lottery scratch offs from Pac Man to give away until I get the new ones and have the new cash pop game as well our friends at Liberty pure solutions keeping my water clean. I will be sipping some water in this room because I’m gonna let the other guy the guests do the talking on this one also our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care it is it’s always good morning to wake up and I always pray for rain on days when I book can singleton because Goffs and I know like this is between Listen, Billy pick golf up and we’ve lost our friendship. I mean, he’s golfing eight days a week now and I know it was always your passion when you weren’t hitting it in the bullpen. How are you i i hear your retire but I don’t think if he was old singing
8
Ken Singleton 01:07
Well, I appreciate that Nestor because you know I tell my friends I might be getting older but I’m not all you know there’s there’s a difference there. Yeah, I am retired. I stopped doing games a couple years ago. And I have a lot more free time now so I can hang out with my former teammates, like Bumbry and tippy Martinez and Tim Northbrook and Ross Grimsley and Mike Torres. And we can hit the golf courses at the links at both here in Maryland, and down in Florida in the wintertime. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:38
I mean, he just named a whole bunch people made me smile, you know, old names in the past, you know, I’ve taken to collect and Louis Aparicio baseball cards. He just celebrated a birthday a couple weeks ago and being born with my last crazy last name. I did the 25th anniversary documentary. You know, I don’t have a picture with you that I know of. I think we took one on a golf cart one day somewhere, but I couldn’t find it to stick it into the stupid movie. And you know, you were never out at the barn. tippy was like a lot of the guys that lived here. I saw Terry Crowley recently. I was with BJ surhoff Last night at the grand reopening of fadeless. He’s going to be crab doing the crab races with us next week at Lexington market. I did the crab races but Pj is so competitive. He won last year. I’m just going to emcee it. I mean, I don’t even want to pretend it’s like rock, you know, rematch for me. But the alumni network that we have here and the incredible resources that Mr. Rubinstein inherits that Mr. Angeles didn’t take advantage of and we’ll talk about that good, bad, ugly and all. I mean, there’s a reason you weren’t calling the games here the last 30 years, but this is a fresh thing going on here. I’m assuming you still live here. I bumped into you in on Valley recently. Or spend enough time here to know that this is um, we’ve all waited for this right? You’ve wait we you know, alumni, people that care community people, media people, you’re one of those two. This is a beautiful thing to see. The next thing? Yeah,
Ken Singleton 03:03
it is necessarily I will say this. You know, when you have a bond with people that you’ve worked with over the years, whether it be in the playing baseball or or doing television for 37 years, it lasts forever. And I am fortunate enough to have played on Baltimore oriole teams that were very, very good. And you know, I was here for 10 years, we had a winning record every year. We got to a couple of World Series. As you know, we were one in one in the World Series, but we won one. We got it done against Philadelphia.
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:35
8I tried to forget about that Pittsburgh thing, but every time I ran into grant Jackson Blyleven, any of those guys, they would always rub it in, you know.
Ken Singleton 03:43
That’s okay. They came back. But the problem for Pittsburgh is they haven’t been to a World Series since
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:49
I like to talk that too. That’s good. football and baseball season saying you know, yeah,
Ken Singleton 03:54
we got back to one and we actually won against Philadelphia. So yeah, we have a bond for life now extended to the golf course. And we play as much as we can. Now you’re right about the fact that I’m here in Baltimore most of the year. I live here but when it starts getting too cold, I hit for Florida. And my wife and I stay there about three three and a half months a year. It cuts the winter short we come back when it starts to warm up and we’re back now.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 04:25
I could have had you on at any point I think I reached you when we’re playing the Yankees and you come at this point we’re a month into this ownership thing the owners splashing people in left field like all of this stuff that’s happened. Cow is now involved we’ve seen this singing I’ll be honest man the day he died and the transfer all of this has happened so fast. And I’ve been on the air 32 and a half years now 25 years at the radio station. So this crazy documentary came up but I I said when he died I and the team was sold all within you know a minute really Our collective experience is evolving. I never talked about what would happen next. I never talked to my son, my wife, I never talked on the air like, it felt like and I said this, like, it felt like Cuba or Russia, like she’s never gonna change. And we have to accept this or not accept whatever it is. But there has been a change, and you’re watching this, and we’re waiting for it to unfold. But it could not happen for a better time at the city. There’s fresh money for the stadium. The team is good, good, good, good. Good. You know, obviously, Elias knows what he’s doing. I mean, John didn’t do a lot of things well, but he left my alias behind right and certainly left some players on the field that this is the best possible circumstance for new ownership. Here. It
Ken Singleton 05:43
is. Well, Mr. Winslow’s did hire Mike Elias. So that was a good thing back, you know, several years ago, and he rebuilt the farm system. A one thing that Mike Elias has done, I think you’ll agree with me that they’d hit on all their big draft draft picks over the years. And that’s kind of hard to do, you know, teams. They put a lot of money into these young kids and some of them don’t work at the Orioles seem to have had just about every single one of them work at and create this team that they have now, which is young, vibrant. They’re probably the best bass running team in the league, as far as going first to third and first the home on a double. They all can run they play defense solidly, the pitching is good. And they can hit the they in the Yankees had the two best offenses in the league, and maybe I’ll throw Texas in there as well. But it’s certainly an American League game they do have the two best most balanced lineups in the league
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:43
like the Yankees always had resources including you you know for all the years and at best broadcast top line best airlines best everything right and highest payroll and best players and to be bad to brag about how many one ones you have really speaks to how many last seasons I mean completely last season’s you have to have to have one ones and one twos and one fives and one fours. I mean, all of these counters all of these curse dads and not to mention, you know rutschman And, and there’s some gunners in there, too. That weren’t one ones. What do you attribute you’ve been watching this a long time, man, Hank Peters, the Cal Ripken, your your way. Your expos experiences, they probably weren’t the greatest in that period of time. And then these Yankees experiences where you’re staying at the Four Seasons. And everybody’s in prime rib, right? I mean, like literally, but even the Yankees with resources. Now Kevin Jeter and again, Bernie ways best 35 years ago. I mean, it’s not easy to do what, what is the genius of Mike Elias and doing this?
Ken Singleton 07:50
8I think Elias first of all, he has a keen eye for talent. And the people that he is surrounded himself with the scouts that go out and find these players and the analytical and the people who would do the number work. Do the numbers work on all these young players. They they hit they combine it all to come up with some very good players. You know, Henderson I feel eventually he’s going to be an MVP in this league if not this year. If the Orioles gonna win the division had the best record and leak like they did last year. He has a chance to pull a cow if you remember back in the day cow was Rookie of the year and the next year he was MVP. So you know
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:30
we want to we want a World Series here to let don’t let’s not forget that part. You know
Ken Singleton 08:36
Yeah, we did we have a very good team.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:39
Wow. That is the confluence of when an Eddie Murray has been hanging around and a singleton has been hanging around longer than that. And and a Flanagan and a McGregor and you all went through this thing and 79 that was devastating for you and then strikes we’re fighting with everybody and and then switch seasons and the Yankees and like all that happened that led to that. That band of brothers you speak of to this day that Masson made the nice thing and Brett Hollander I’ve watched it. Yeah, and I’ve seen so I want to watch it and get all weepy because I I did pull out my World Series tickets from my 83 I still have my game five or my dad and I sitting up in the 700 level, the vet, but for for all of that this group, I was down in Arlington when they got their feelings hurt, and their pitching wasn’t good enough and they didn’t hit the ball when they needed to. And they weren’t they didn’t answer the bell and we hear all of this not much stirs up my Luke Jones. He got real stirred up on this streak thing about sweeps. He’s like 122 They got swept into playoffs. Like they think it really got swept but but it counts too. And they got their feelings hurt and boy have they? The organization’s really answered the bell right? I mean, from the passing of Peter and John and the torch and the family the Rubinstein to Corbin burns to you know, whatever they’re going to do to answer the bowl but to Bradish where he could have taken a knife. Now he’s pitching now we’re holding our breath right and all of us yeah But I mean even it cambrils failures in recent days and give that a week or a month but and the money they spent, they really been they’re trying harder than we’ve seen them trying 30 years. They’re doing things differently the owners in the outfield skirting people in a tutu. I mean, like, this is a completely new world. I mean, it’s almost unrecognizable to some degree, and the amount of prosperity and man you go get coffee and on Valley and you’re Ken Singleton, man, people come up to you every day. And talking baseball in a way. Same thing with me everywhere I go. People are coming up to me and talking to me about this time of year they picked up at the Ravens draft picks around here are about the last race that’s going on next week. I mean, there’s lots of lacrosse, right? I mean, there’s all of that you’ve lived here 35 years to they’re talking baseball again. And I am it’s a pinch me I’m I’m really trying to come to grips with what this can be. Because it can be boots, barbecue, and all of you alums and all of that this can be a beautiful thing that’s about to happen. And it’s off of losing and getting disappointed in this group of guys that we’re we’re getting sucked into gunner Henderson and the way that we got sucked into Cal Ripken. You
8Ken Singleton 11:11
know, I agree with you Nestor. And I think one thing you have to remember that last year, this is a very young team. And but they did get that playoff experience last year, they went in last year’s playoffs without any experience at all, and very limited experience as big league ballplayers. So now, you know, now there’s a feeling in the clubhouse, I’m sure of unfinished business that last year, you know, we got we got, we got swept. So next year, if we get in again this year with them talking about the they probably have a better performance. I think they have better pitching. So that would help for sure. But I just feel like it’s like let me say it’s like a building blocks, if you will, you know, you get that little bit of experience next time you’re not, you know, you’re not the deer in the headlights the next time. So I would hope that the Orioles get ahead, and they’re gonna get to the playoffs this year. But I think they’ll play a little bit better for sure.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:09
Now, you know, come on, man, you’ve called a billion baseball games. How many times in makes sense? Have you said they’re gonna get to the playoffs this year? I mean, like, literally, like, let’s not normalize this thing, you
Ken Singleton 12:23
know, there’ll be ups and downs along the way. There’s, there’s no doubt about that. But overall, I think a team that wins 101 games a year before, they’re not gonna drop off that much that they’re going to drop completely out of the playoffs. That’s something that the Red Sox do the orange. The Orioles don’t do that. And the Yankees don’t do that either. One thing I will say the Yankees address their needs, too. So you’ve got two teams that I feel the two best offense is in the league. And it’s just a matter of who’s pitching a little bit better. Who’s going to win the division? A both of them got to make the playoffs. So it’s the you know, speaking of that, you know, we were talking about days gone by I wish they had wildcard back in the day when I was playing we would have been in how many more times
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:07
8cost me and my dad a lot more money in 8081 and 82. Because we’d have been I mean that first weekend would have meant nothing nada.
Ken Singleton 13:14
Yeah, we would have been in anyway Did you know and we when I was your 10 years we you got to the World Series twice, but we finished second six times you finished second now you got a good chance of making the playoffs you know, so you’re still in there a chance to win the world title. So I
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:31
the other part of that would have been you guys would have seen rice and linen 79 to Antion. I mean, like if the third and fourth best teams in those American leagues, you were one of them six times would have been held to pay him that’s the reason they invented the wall like because we missed out on more fun playing seven eight and meaningful games in October, you know after buckling, right?
Ken Singleton 13:56
Absolutely right that you know what the tendons probably would have been better to and all that sort of thing you know, because people know you’re still in it. I just I just think that the baseball has made some good strides as far as promoting the game. Trying to make it better speeding the games up. The bigger bases create more action on the basis more stolen bases. I think you’re gonna find more athletic players coming into the game. Speed is becoming more more and more prevalent in the game. It’s not sit there and try and hit three run homers are trying to hit homeruns everybody’s swinging for the fences. I think it’s slowly coming back to the point no homeruns upon power is when people will pay to see power but it’s you got to have guys who can hit to all the strikeouts they just there’s I was doing games a Yankee games where they would win a game because they hit three home runs but they would strike out 15 times. And to me that’s a lot of nothing happened at the plate. I want to see action on the Bodensee guys still basis we’re getting Back to that now.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 15:01
I love having you on let you preach me man, if you get a chance to do this, we are at the the gospel and sermon of the great Ken Singleton. He has returned to us he he’s here in Baltimore, you’ll always be an Oriole to me, but this Yankee thing in recent times, you are a part of an incredible transition in baseball now, I’ve been thrown out for 18 years. So I haven’t been allowed to be around people like you, there have been alumni who aren’t allowed to come on and like all of that. So in talking baseball, and being around baseball, I’ve had the privilege of having a handful of people who through the course of years would try to express to me the difference on the inside that analytics made. And it didn’t come here during the buck era. It came here when Elias happened in the Yankees think Cashman sort of survived at all, and been there but you go in and out of all of these airports, cities, teams, knowing old friends, new friends, young people, who’s that lady who’s that guy who’s running that, you know, Where did it hit a guy who in your generation older than me, I mean, I, I stood in the batter’s box with a wiffle ball bat, you know, emulating you and pulling the rocks out and moving the, you know, moving the line in the back so I could get back further in a box, my dad would step up in the box. For for you the analytics part of this, I always think about what my dad would make that who loved the Ted Williams science of baseball and the numbers of the game. How did you take to it? And how would you express it to me being the village idiot, or my dad, if he came back to life to say, this is how it’s really changed the game on the inside? Because I really do feel like if I ever sat with Mike Elias, that would be the genius of all of this to you to say we identify as talent, but they’re doing something that’s getting that talent to the big leagues and producing. Yeah,
Ken Singleton 16:47
that’s a it’s a good question. The fact is, when I was playing, it was like, what was your batting average? How many home runs? Do you hit? How many runs? Are you driving? How many runs? Did you score?
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:58
Wins and losses for pitchers? Right, exactly. Now,
Ken Singleton 17:02
8they do over spin rates and all this sort of thing for pitchers. Also, you know, the radar guns have kind of taken over. And for hitters. I remember when I was playing for Montreal, I led the league and on base percentage, it wasn’t even a negotiating ploy. But on either side, you just the owners didn’t think about it. And my my agent, singleton
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:25
in here Well, bad and flip out and lead off. He’s gonna have, yeah, that’s exactly what happened. That year, too. But that’s exactly, you
Ken Singleton 17:35
know, Earl Weaver was kind of ahead of his time, you know, he got me in here. And he’s, I remember my first year in spring training, he says to me, you’re gonna lead off, I said, I’ve never done that before. And he said, Well, you work a lot and you’re gonna get on base. And that’s what we want here. We want people on base. You know, he knew not only just just being on base creates havoc for the other team, you know, just because you’re there. They have to work harder to keep you from moving around the bases, and that’s harder on the pitchers. So URL led me off that one year. I got on base 40% of the time. My first time up in the season, Nestor were in Detroit I walked opening day walk leading off the game leading off the season. Go to third on a base hit and scoring a three run homer walk into the lead man hits a three run homers, first home, run the American League, and I come into the dugout, sticks his finger in my chest and says that’s what the hell I’m talking about. Just get on base. And basically that was my job. I walked 118 times that year. That is still the oil single season record for bass on balls. I remember what Lee Mae said when he came back to the dugout, it was his first American League at bat, he hits a three run homer in the upper deck of Detroit. And he comes in he stands by Earl says I think I’m gonna like this league.
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:58
Well, the other part is she was trying to kick girls, Aston 70 World Series suits. So there was all of that. So him coming over playing for the Orioles. Can you know I like once I get you on all of this. John Miller not that John Miller, another John Miller from the Wall Street Journal’s doing a book on or a weaver on URL and I channeled URL and you’re talking about URL. And let’s talk about that. And analytics. Because John’s book is basically that URL was the genius behind all of this and URL was the guy talking about it. Speak to me about being a kid in the Mets organization. I mean, you know, then going to Montreal, then you obviously we’re here the restaurant. But philosophically, did Earl say things like that to you about you like the Greek god of walks that we would look at now after Moneyball? And did he speak about the game differently than you had heard it spoken about when you got here?
8Ken Singleton 19:52
But well, you know, having been with the Mets and being tutored in the minor leagues and in instructionally by Whitey Herzog, another Hall of Fame manager, then go into Montreal, playing for Jean Marc on a team that was basically an expansion team at the time. We had a lot of older guys, and a lot of very young guys like myself, but we didn’t have the guys in the middle that kind of carried the team, you know, the guys with just enough experience, but they’re not over the hill yet. And then to come to Baltimore, and play for Earl Nestor. The first day I walked into spring training. The first person I walked in, when I came in the door was Brooks Robinson. And Brooks put his arm around me and said, Ken, welcome to the Baltimore Orioles. We have a good team here. You don’t have to do it all by yourself. I walked in the clubhouse, and I looked around the clubhouse. And it was Paul Blair and Bobby grit and Mark Ballinger and Jim Palmer and Mike Quayle yard, Elrod Hendricks grant Jackson did then various other guys who were very good players, were, of course, Brooksie, of course. And in Li meI was there, he just been traded over there. And I looked around, I said, Brooks is right, there’s a lot of good players in here. And then neuro would come in, and they give a speech, opening speech and spring training, talking about, look, we’re like a family here, we got to stick together. You know, if you have any problems, my doors always open. Nobody would ever go in the door. But the fact is they they didn’t want to deal with or all that much. But I remember another thing about the Orioles. And this is more just as important. About a weekend as spring training Mark Blanche and his wife D threw a party for the team in spring training. And they invited you know, all the players and the wives and the kids. And my mom was down there at the time. And my mom said, I asked Mark, can I bring my mom to the party? He said, Sure, you know, she’s part of the family, bring your mom. So my mom came to the party. She struck up a conversation with Brooks Robinson and the Blazers. And, you know, it was it was like, my wife and I weren’t even there. She’s she’s talking to them. So on the way home, my my mom says, you know, this is this is not only a good team, they’re very tight team. And my mom was a great judge of character. And she said, you might want to stay here for a while. Hear you are Yeah, and I did pretend years. And my mom and dad at that time, they were still living in New York where I grew up. But once they both retired, they moved down to Maryland to be close to their grandkids. And to me, they were such an influence on my kids, if you didn’t have grandparents or with children, but maybe they maybe you don’t yet. But the fact is that they’re fantastic. I miss them greatly. They mean, oh, my kids are all grown up now. But I can still see the influence my mom and dad had on them in the ad on me and my brother too, for that matter. And the fact is that my mom was a good judge of character. And she was right about the Baltimore it was you. You wanted to stay here and play for this team. Play for that man or weaver as tough as he was. And his profane as he could be, then all that sort of thing. He was the winner. And that’s what you want to do. That’s when you go out to for to win games. During my time in Baltimore, 10 years, we won more games than any other team, we won over 900 games. If you figure that out, that’s over 90 wins a year. So that’s the type of team you want to play for. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:38
I’m still here four decades later, loving the team because of my childhood and going out there every night and feeling a part of that. And and that conveyed to the fans. When you went to senseis and Dempsey, you’re out with towels, and Sammy Stewart and getting fans doing Oh, and while Bill and yeah, that is the and I keep saying this. I ran into Deepak Chopra on the streets in New York two summers ago. And one of my favorite, you know, is pure potentiality pure potentiality. That’s what I feel like Mr. Rubenstein has inherited here in regard to Hey, smaller market. The money’s not coming from DC they have their own team there everything Mr. Angelo’s ever said about two teams in the market and all that we’re going to be a smaller market, but there’s no reason this can’t be the St. Louis Cardinals or this can’t be something we wouldn’t even recognize as being like a Green Bay Packers kind of place for baseball. And part of that would be people like you and him reaching to you and saying you’re an alum who’s lived here who’s been wearing Yankee gear last 30 years like live here. What what tell my world and even me because I don’t know, why did you stay here? I mean, I like all of these years. Yeah, you’re Mr. Yankee. And yes, net when you’re in New York and you’re going to work and like, but you never left here man. I’ve never not run into you in hot Valley or seeing you at a golf tournament, or known an offseason where you you haven’t spent a lot of time in Baltimore, Maryland man.
Ken Singleton 25:10
Well, you know, my, my second wife is from here. So that’s, that’s one big reason. And she has a lot of relatives in the area. And having played here and had so much fun and just the friends that I’ve made over the years, there was no reason to leave it. And you know, that even though I grew up in New York, there’s a certain electricity up there and all that sort of thing. My kids all went to school here, you know, one of my sons went to Loyola, one of my sons went to St. Paul’s My daughter went to Maryvale I mean, all very good schools are all educated now and they’re off doing their things. But this is the reason why you stay here. It’s beautiful. That’s just
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:55
8about it. And I never forgotten like originally like, New York, you calling games? You know, let me like your work was there and you didn’t even go there. Yeah, that’s the amazing part really? Well,
Ken Singleton 26:05
I took the I took a lot of Amtrak’s believe me up in back. I go up there maybe on a Monday morning with
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:14
a job just when they fixed the train station up there.
Ken Singleton 26:17
You know what I saw that? I figured that helped pay for and help pay for it for sure. Or do Yes. Network paid for it? Get me up and back to New York on the Amtrak? You know, it’s funny, because when I was going up north, right up north of New York, on the train, people would ask about the Yankees, you know, what do you think the Yankees and then Sunday after an afternoon game, and I’m taking the train back to Baltimore, if I didn’t have to continue on with the Yankees for a few days, then coming back south on the train, and people would say, What do you think the Orioles are gonna do? It was it was, you know, I can’t say enough about covering the Yankees for 25 years. They had a winning record every single year I was there. You talked about the resources, they definitely have them. They treat their players? Well, they pay them well. They treat everybody else pretty well, too. So I have no complaints about covering them. There was a great experience covering the New York Yankees. But I do have a lot of orange and black it running through my veins. And it was I think I’m one of the few people that could walk a fine line between these two franchises. I
8Nestor J. Aparicio 27:31
would say man, I don’t know. They let you in to loonies pub or some places around here that are very anti Yankee, you know?
Ken Singleton 27:38
That’s okay. You know, they can say what they want to Yankee,
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:40
or we’re not anti Yankee. Nice to you. All, I
Ken Singleton 27:44
8gotta wait to the Yankee. They’ll point to the Orioles press guy and say, Look, my name’s in there a lot.
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:53
How many rings Do you have from the Yankees?
Ken Singleton 27:58
Let’s see, I’ve got that’s a good question. And I’ll give you a story about it. I’ve got four from them, three from them. And one, my Oriole ring.
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:08
So Yankees only one three. Since you’ve been there, they
8Ken Singleton 28:10
won more than that. One year, we didn’t get one because one of my colleagues spoke up about in something that George Steinbrenner didn’t like to hear. So nobody on the rings that none of the broadcast is in here. But I did get three of them. And I have one Oriole ring, I have four children. So when the time comes, each of them is going to get a ring. But they all know that the oil ring is the most special. So I’m not going to designate who gets what. They’re going to have to pick names and we’ll have to see who gets who gets eventually gets that money. You know, you know, love all my kids, the three boys and a girl. These are tough decisions. Wow, it isn’t tough that that’s why they’re gonna have to it’s gonna be the luck of the draw. It’s not going to be what dad handed out. So I just think that they all know the Oriole ring is the most special one because I was playing that so I just yeah, that’s the way it’s gonna be
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:17
good. Singleton’s our guest here. We always love him. So before I let you go, I mean you’re always generous with your time and we have a good time together and GIS and you know we use and tell old stories and we things in the media part of this. You made your living getting a nice salary from Yes. And like all of this stuff. Yes. Was what the guiding light for the Angelo’s family always was for maths and even though they couldn’t figure it out, they didn’t have shoulder programming and all that. This thing is falling apart, right like you got out of a good time for that part of it. Certainly not to be a media mogul, in the part of where RS ns are going and where media and streaming are going. And for all of that, I think that’s going to define the Rubinstein era and this coming era of baseball the way stadiums and sky boxes in trying to figure out whether they’re going to sell patches on Yankees jerseys and look like NASCAR dry. I don’t know what it’s going to be naming rights to this casinos that all of that. But the media part of it. Do you have any thing to say about any part of that? Because like I, when I look at it, I think like, how are we going to pay Adley? rutschman? How are we going to pay God? How do you become that thing? It has to be easy for me to get the games affordable after want them, they have to be good. They have to be like you and Ben McDonald calling games that keep me engaged with the games every day, and the ads and all of that, that builds a business. That’s the biggest question facing major league baseball as I see it, because I think they fix the game in a lot of ways. To your point, right?
Ken Singleton 30:44
Yeah, Nestor, I agree with you, because I think they’re already thinking about alternatives to these cable networks. I think that the streaming is the next way they’re gonna go you already see some games being streamed, I know, some fans are unhappy about it, because the you know, to sort of new technology for older people like me, but you know, having young kids, they can always tell me how to stream these games. So I think that’s exactly where they’re headed. I think you’re gonna see teams, whatever is going to happen in New York, is that you’re gonna have a streaming service with all the New York teams on it. So and then, that way, you can go to one place, and you know, strength of the, you know, the schedule there and pick who you want to watch. But you don’t have to go to different channels to do it, you just go to that one streaming service. That’s, that’s what I heard is going to happen in New York. Now around here, I’m not so sure what’s going to happen. But that’s what they’re thinking of in New York, streaming is the next big wave, you know, after these cables, the RSN is gonna leave, which now maybe it’s not going to happen, you know, right around the corner, but eventually, they’re going to figure out a way, it’s all about making more money. So that’s, that’s the way it’s gonna go. But baseball
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:02
8has to get that part of it. Right. And certainly, Mr. Rubenstein has a lot of things to get right, including a lot of relationships with broken alums that need to be welcome back in and media people and fans and businesses. And you live here too. And you know, all that, you know, you know, where all the bones are buried. But what do you wish for Mr. Rubinstein? I mean, have you met him? If you talk to him? And if you did, what would what would you say to him if he said, What? What do you think I should do around here?
Ken Singleton 32:29
I have not met Mr. Rubenstein. I haven’t had the pleasure as of yet. I like what he has done so far. Anybody who on opening day, tells the people of pickles pub that all the beer is free for them that day. I think that’s that’s a good way to get off to a good start with the fans. I like the fact that he’s doing these commercials, that I think it’s cool that he seems to be genuine. I think number one, the fact that he grew up in Baltimore, and he grew up with the Baltimore Orioles and being a fan. Now he’d made he’s made his fortune. And now he’s got the team. And he usually in baseball, when a new owner takes over a team, he makes a big splash. And he tries to make sure that the team is successful, or at least show that he’s trying, I think number one priority is trying to get Corbin Burnside that, you know, an ace type pitcher. And then if he can, if he can get it done. Extensions for the younger stars, you know it over the over the long haul. It works out for both the player and the owners. If he can do that, that’s what the the Atlanta Braves do all the time. You’re all young players, all the players have signed up for eight to 10 years. And they know what their costs are going to be down the road. So I think if they can do that with these younger guys like rushman and Henderson and some of the others, you know, mountcastle Maybe that these are all good young players. I mean, this team’s gonna be good for quite a while. That’s that’s they’re gonna be fun to watch. I think the stadium is going to be bursting with fans again. And I just I can see this happening. You get a winning two. If you win, they will come you know that’s what they say. And that’s true.
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:13
We haven’t talked a lot and I’ve had you on the show for 30 years now singing and we haven’t had a whole lot of like, they’re winning they’re in first place here we are and it really is. It’s been beautiful. It’s been a beautiful couple of months here to see that’s why I have the sun coming up over Camden Yards in my shot. Ken singleton what do you what do you do and they tell me you’re always playing golf and charities and promote something that that you’re doing that’s good in the community let people know well, how they can find you and whatnot. I I know where Al is I find him over Robbie’s first base but I don’t see you around as much but this at three movies out and I really do hope that whatever bonds in that you all have as alumni that Mr. Rubenstein in the new group and cow that they share in that because I think it’s it’s it’s so important for every for for all All the healing we all need to do in different ways, the winnings is going to be great. But then there’s the part of it where everybody comes to your point that when the place is packed, we’re all gonna feel great. And we’re all in it. That’s, that’s what it’s about.
Ken Singleton 35:12
Yeah, it’s true. For me. I think I’ve mentioned this to before about the cool kids campaign. We deal with the kids, youngsters, children and their families who are dealing with cancer. My golf tournaments coming up in June, end of June, June 24. As you know
8Nestor J. Aparicio 35:34
why he came on the show, okay. I gave you a plug here. I mean, you already go plug this there?
Ken Singleton 35:40
Well, June 22, to the 24th. And, you know, my my teammates. So my former teammates play we have, you know, we have people coming in from all over the countries, actors and actresses, and singers, and they come in and play and we raise money to help these kids and their families, all the services that cool kids provide to the families, and the children are free. Things like tutoring, if they need rides to and from their treatments. We have student teachers and retired teachers come because children when they’re getting treatments for cancer, they have a tendency to fall behind in their studies. And these volunteers come in and help them we have a clubhouse in Towson that we throw parties for the kids Halloween parties, Christmas parties, in the families. If the parents want to drop the kids off at the clubhouse they can while the parents go out on a date. You know, once it’s not only the kids are dealing with the cancer, it’s the families as well. So we wonder we have vacation homes that families can use for free, we have one in Myrtle Beach, one in Delaware, near the beach, lose the Delaware near the beach, they can use totally free, they can get down there, they can use it. And that’s the sort of thing that the cool kids provides for these families. And it’s I’ve been involved for 16 years now. And the reason being a both my parents died from cancer and this is my way of honoring my folks. I told you before I miss them a lot. The other day I was playing golf out in Fox hollow and my parents are in the cemetery near there. And I went over there to have a little talk with them. Just to let them know that their great grandkids are doing great. So that’s that’s that’s what the cool kids calves mean. That means to me,
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:37
Well, I’ll tell you what, I got the website up here. Cool Kids campaign.org. If anybody wants to learn about it, I got it up here and the golf tournament coming up in June. Hey, let me do more for that with you. I mean, any of the alums, people, the guests, come on, want to come on, talk a little baseball and talk more about it. And certainly the folks that directed as well along with you. You’re right on the front page here, August 11, August of 2011. The quality of life of families dealing with childhood cancer and you know, my wife’s a two time survivor as well. So anything I could do to muscle up and help you out I’m always there for you can’t singleton always here for us here in Baltimore has been here for us ever since he was on the channel 13 news on weekends and back in the day, singing on this 25th anniversary documentary that just got released two weeks ago back in 8688. Spring of 88. Because remember the girl I was dating, when you left? I think they were auditioning. Maybe it was you left. Chris Ely got the gig. It was He was the winner. He was the winner. But they had a contest. And I went over to channel 13 as a 19 year old kid and a suit. And I impure and sat down I wet my pants and the monitor came on. And I did my audition and it’s in the documentary. Bebo’s already seen appearance already sent me a note saying, you know, it’s gold. I here’s the doc because it was leaked. It’s right to Baltimore. positive.com It’s the making of so it’s a little bit of an inside joke. No one listens. everyone hears because the biggest criticism of me for 25 years was Arbitron would always say no one’s ever listened to my show. Because they’re a little bit of a mafia I had to pay him 10 grand a month for them to give you numbers. So I always had a zero rating. So no one ever listened to me. But everywhere I go, people would hear what I’d say. So no one listens. everyone hears and that’s gonna be going on for 32 years now, but it has some old 13 footage in it that I want to see your old 13 footage. I want to see your first day doing sports on 13 Because I remember it right you were playing you were active, right? Yeah,
Ken Singleton 39:39
8well, you know, yeah, I was active but I was hoping that those tapes were burned long.
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:49
Hi, um, can I play the outfield? Let’s get the labor score. Hey, man, inspirational all these years up in New York. Always back here to it. Thanks for the cool kid. It’s campaign.org I will leave with that instead of close with that next time can’t say go to number 29 in your program number one in your hearts if you see him out he’s not number one that’s al Bumbry next to him I am Nestor we are wn SDA and 1570 Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
