Watching Cal Ripken go back to Seattle and pining away for another All Star Game in Baltimore again, Bill Cole and Nestor wist hopeful and realistically in discussing the 30th Anniversary of the Camden Yards classic and the future of our downtown and the next time the Midsummer Classic comes to Charm City.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, city, baltimore, game, star, roofing, built, good, mayor, seattle, signs, stadium, big, teams, thrown, point, bill, lease, inner harbor, rains
SPEAKERS
Bill Cole, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back W and S T, Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively in the post all star game looks gonna be at the ballpark all weekend we got the Miami Marlins in town. There I call them the Florida Marlins. That would be so, you know, 30 years ago, the Dodgers coming down, theyโre still the LA Dodgers, not the Brooklyn Dodgers. So Luke will be out there. You can follow him at Baltimore. Look, weโre gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tours several times in the coming weeks. Cocoโs on Thursday of this week. Iโll have scratch offs in the Maryland lottery, instant lottery scratch offs that had been very, very good luck, our friends and window nation somewhere around here, my bucket hat, Iโve worn my bucket hat during many pieces here this week. So far. As we get into summer season, you gotta protect yourself from the sun. Also, next Thursday, back to Catonsville, weโre going to be at the Beaumont in the afternoon. Iโve already got some Hall of Fame guests lined up for that. So Iโm excited about that. And those are August 3 and fourth, weโre gonna be back in Dundalk to celebrate 25 years of W NSD. Weโll start at a Costas on the third. Weโre going to be a drug city on the fourth. Iโve already started the line people up man. Andy Muller, my original producer come in a drug city, Johnny Oh, come in a drug city, John Allen. Come into Costas so Iโve got all sorts of people that are like lining up fitting it all in I donโt know where Bill Cole is gonna be. All I know is he had never had a fadeless crabcake in his life until I showed him the way and the means and Lex in the market. He now joins us after the off Did you watch the all star game? Did you I mean, youโre enough of an Oreo guy that you would be Austin hazed up, right. Wait, is
Bill Cole 01:33
that that already happened? Oh, you
Nestor Aparicio 01:36
missed the all star game. God. Come on.
Bill Cole 01:39
Iโve been. Iโve been busy. But I did watch a little bit of whatever they are calling the Home Run Derby now although itโs
Nestor Aparicio 01:46
Adley rutschman stad. Pitching on. Itโs sort of
Bill Cole 01:50
bizarre.
Nestor Aparicio 01:50
Did your dad ever pitch to you? Now? My dad pitch to me. Yeah. My dadโs arm was no good. By the time I got. By the time my dad was 50 years older may still like wiffle ball was tough for him at 62. But he could shoot jump shots. My dad?
Bill Cole 02:04
Well, yes. And my certainly played one on one with my father. Plenty that right?
Nestor Aparicio 02:08
Yeah. So you were 12? And you started beating him?
Bill Cole 02:13
I donโt know. 12. If I did, but correct. It does correlate with when I started beating him that that stopped happening. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 02:19
Look, man, I talked to Luke about this. And I talked to Rosenfeld a little bit about it. Let it
Bill Cole 02:25
hold on before I want to get back to the Feedly crabcake thing. Oh, sure. So I have been asking because you made me feel extremely guilty that I didnโt know and hadnโt experienced. Iโm not the only one. So the good news.
Nestor Aparicio 02:40
The new Lexington market.
Bill Cole 02:42
Yes, thatโs what I was gonna say. The good news is Iโve been out there like pushing that crabcake in its original nature to as many people that you know, itโs now a fascinating thing. So I hope it actually translates thatโll be fun.
Nestor Aparicio 03:00
Look, anybody can come to any of these places and people say youโre nondenominational. Everybody comes up now. Their newest thing isnโt even asking about chat steal anymore. They just want to know my favorite crabcakes especially in the summer, you know, they want to and theyโve all seen the video of me opening the crab the you know, the lollipop way with damy. So I you know, I have a little bit of a crab motif about uh, you know what Iโm doing around here, but, yeah, itโs crab cakes season. I am. Iโm delighted to get back Cocoโs is because I love Marcel Iโve known Marcela forever and ever and ever from the Emerald tavern, one of my first sponsors back in 9393. So itโs gonna be a great day with her on Thursday. So come on down below I wanted to bring this up and Iโll take my my fun window nation hat off here 866 90 nation. And by the way, thank you for helping us with our NST roofing and guttering and messing and raining and like because theyโll call us by the way, rural farms coffee in my coal roofing mug since 1990 Theyโve been helping chumps like me clean up messes on the roof that they donโt understand. All Star game and you know, the rutschman thing weโre talking about Batista being the goat in the game Tuesday night looking I got into this a little bit and itโs not Lukeโs thing on the business side. You and I have talked lease, you know Angeloโs at some point on Monday Rob Manford mentioned Baltimore this place Camden Yards as an all star game home in the future. Atlanta Toronto I know somebody else is in the way Atlanta is gonna get it because they have all city built right and the all star game has now come and gone and John Angelo set by the all star break weโll have something what I had was a leak from Politico the other day that heโs looking for federal money. Federal money okay, so I donโt know what that even entails because like the only thing federal I can see here is where all the money is the Depository right that sits at the at the foot of the street where I used to live. And I donโt know about the parking lot. Thereโs a freeway that goes I mean, I I donโt But everything else is sort of privately held. I donโt know what theyโre trying what John wants to build down there. But do you support this program because the Baltimore positive in the city and sports and blubbed nasty nasty blah, blah, blah ravens and all that. And the ravens are set their lease and maybe one day, Steve will put his big boy pants on and lobby for us to get a draft here. Maybe weโll have the draft party once Green Bay gets it la everybodyโs gonna get it before we get it. Right. Indianapolis is all set up because theyโre set up to do so thereโs sunshine places, thereโs just a lot of places for them to go that arenโt Baltimore, right? Theyโll kiss the acid the new owner in DC and put it on the Mall in DC long before theyโre gonna bring it here are time to get the all star game came in when Mr. Angeloโs decided to sue the league, all of his business partners hold it to the point where heโs in Dementieva now and his kid has to pick it up. No lease thereโs no lease so talking about the all star game is crazy, but thereโs no lease. But when all if they had professionals here they had grownups all this would be wrapped together in some bow that in the end would be a lease the new city that John wants the new casino that he wants to build into the heavens, because everybodyโs gonna bet on baseball right? We did that last week you and me. The All Star game and Baltimore we get it we donโt get it like they were these goofy orange and black uniforms they would wear here whenever it pajamas when they were put on I just the all star game 30 years ago, where were you? Because thatโs really the question for me is I want to way back for anybody that remembers this was a big, big deal. It wasnโt the stadium. We got the all star Larry Lucchino had his ish together. And I donโt know the PJ Brightman or Johnny, I donโt, I donโt know that Steve shotty. And Sasha, I know Sashi brown doesnโt have his dish together, because I havenโt met him. And he hasnโt been nice to me. And Iโm a fan and Iโm a customer and I reach out to 1000 people every day, so shame on him. But I TJ Brightman, thatโs another story altogether. He ran my competitor for years. And at some point, maybe weโll have a covert lunch. But I would just say, the leadership, we talked so much about the mayor and the governor and politicians and business leaders and all the banks and, and and crown gasoline and everybody getting together when we were kids and bringing this all star game, youโre there was a big deal. I just the all star game would be a big lift here. You know what I mean? It would be a thing. But I donโt know that. Anybody that Dan at the baseball stadium has the wherewithal to try to reel that in or make that happen. And weโre gonna find out.
Bill Cole 07:33
Yeah, I donโt I mean, what is there like 30 some odd teams? I donโt even I canโt, because they were talking expansion
Nestor Aparicio 07:41
the other day to which is so when they say they donโt have a home for Oakland and Tampa has been there for general? Yeah, the the old vice president of the Tampa rays, my dear friend, Rick Vaughn came on the program and said, I donโt know that baseball is going to work in Tampa and he lives there. Heโs lived there. 25 years. That said,
Bill Cole 07:57
with 30 teams, you kind of almost always have someone creating a new stadium or right. So like, is this really just a product that follows the new stadiums three or four years after theyโre built? I mean, itโs designed to do that. Yeah, I mean, that kind of seems to be like hey, come check out my new house and letโs show it off. And weโll bring people in from around the country and you make it easy for them to get there and they get they experience it and then then they want to come back for like when their team travels to that city so so I get all
Nestor Aparicio 08:34
the whole world watching the all star game and you know if the top 25% of people who love baseball, who go to game spend money wait line for bobbleheads wait in line for autographs, fake fans, just fans if they are even people like I donโt do any of that, but Iโm a fan. I watch the game every night. And I love the history of the game. My last name is Aparicio but you put it on the one thing you saw Tuesday and Monday, if you watch any of the abutting stuff, like I watched the MLB Network during the day Tuesday, thereโs a red carpet. Thereโs a gala they did in front of pike place with a fish overlooking their building this big thing, because you could never get up the hill down to the urban to Seattle. Nope. Iโve been to Seattle many many times. And this is giant hill. Itโs a cliff. And there was never any way to get down there. Thereโs a freeway built through it. Itโs so it looks like theyโre doing a lot of things from the overhead. And I remember I was at the All Star game in 2001 with each row and I put all my pictures up on social media Tuesday night with Tony Gwynn and Bruce Bochy and Sammy Sosa like Ken Rosenthal is my co host, right? So Seattle got shown off, like in a big way in whatever way that is that I looked at it the weather looked at they all just were bragging how beautiful it was. And it was beautiful, because it can be really crappy in Seattle, it can be raining. Iโve been there. You saw Fraser, you know, you can see what it would be. But it was beautiful. And I mean this in the best way. I looked at it and Iโm like, I want to get back Seattle Iโm looking for, you know, like, I need a reason. Now the Jets, the Austro Miata canโt wait for Seahawks game every eight years. But I like I like Seattle. And when you see it, youโre like, I want to go there and that thatโs the mission supposed to be the benefit of yes, that is
Bill Cole 10:15
that is 100% the mission? I think what? So the preceding decisions to that. So before you build that monstrosity that, you know, is the Seattle ballpark? I donโt even remember, I donโt even know what itโs called, but Safeco Field is what it Yes. Okay, has a retractable roof. I mean, itโs pretty, you know, pretty amazing feat of engineering. But anyway, before you commit to that, the city has to reconcile what I think the question that everyone is having is, you know, in the in the 80s, and 90s. Everyone decided that this was city invigorating, right? Well, yeah, like, spend all this tax dollars, bring these teams in, make this part of the experience overseeing the Colts
Nestor Aparicio 11:05
was the reality, the cleat of reality, right, like losing the Colts was, oh, we canโt keep the Oreos if in this dump, like, so we have to
Bill Cole 11:17
write it well, in the absence of a decision. So, you know, 83 I wasnโt my I did not have an adult brain.
Nestor Aparicio 11:25
I did I worked on paper, which is what makes me such a prick on the radio for all these, which is why they thrown me out. Because like, Iโd really do No, I donโt make this up. I you know, Iโve really been at this in the important way for 25 years on the radio 32 years on, you know, doing this. And I was at I was at the news American then like that the Mayflower advanced team,
Bill Cole 11:49
my assumption is that there was a lack of direction and a lack of commitment. And, you know, the inability to have productive discussions, and then the trustee barber say, and then well, but he didnโt
Nestor Aparicio 12:01
really have a plan for him. They didnโt really he had a brand new stadium in Indianapolis. And they
Bill Cole 12:06
did. Right. Right, he went and found another solution. And thatโs, you know, history. So, in our city, I donโt know that we have a committed verbalized, like, direction, or an opinion about these teams, we certainly seem committed, and weโre spending money to update the Raven stadium. And, you know, but you would have planned what we have to do. I mean, thatโs the biggest investment that you make. If it isnโt producing the economic prosperity to the city, in proportion to the amount of money you spend, you know, what are your other options? What are the you know, like, we have a really old Convention Center, like, rather than fixed the baseball stadium, would you rather have a state of the art three times the size convention center and dump all your money
Nestor Aparicio 13:03
adventures are gonna be saying, youโre in a business, by the way, Bill, cold call roofing here. Do you? Do you think events are still a thing? Yeah.
Bill Cole 13:12
Because I think that people donโt do the one off trips now. Right? Because I can zoom with you. But like, you canโt take away the fact that
Nestor Aparicio 13:21
I canโt drink with you here. I canโt. Everyone
Bill Cole 13:25
agrees that personal is better. Right? But but not, itโs not so bad. Now, like weโre on the phone, we can actually see. So youโll interconnect this way. And then the one time a year, hey, weโll all go to this town. I have my dinners. I can shake hands, like you know, so
Nestor Aparicio 13:41
Iโm the mayor of the city. And Iโm not and you know, I put a little effort into maybe one day being the mayor of the city. I wonโt be the mayor of the city though ever. But if if I were the mayor of the city and Iโm sitting in your My constantly err, and weโre sitting here and say, Okay, tell me why Convention Center is really important. bring that into me. You know, bring that in, tell me the future, not the past, not what we built. 1988 Tell me what the next 10 years and how somebodyโs going to have a convention here. When San Diego Nashville have all of these things that were released. Weโre not going to have weโre just not now what do we have? What can we have? We can have a baseball team thatโs good. We can have a stadium thatโs good. We can have a Ripleyโs Believe It or Not. We can have a science center we can have a meat cheese we can have. I donโt know what the harbor is going to be. We can have a roller coaster that goes across the harbour. We can have a glass bridge that signifies peace and black and white and rainbows and like we can thereโs a million things you can do. But then I would say to you as the mayor, how important is an all star game weekend? How important is the baseball team? How many rooms are we filling up? Like whatโs the real plan? Whatโs the real strategic vision? Not what can we do to put a bandaid on it today? And I donโt know This is part of my pitching with John Angelos. And at some point Wes Moore and I will sit together. People are running from me, literally, in regard to the stadium and the only reporter making calls. Maybe Pam would call it two people I donโt know. But Iโm the only reporter whoโs calling real people and say, We donโt have least, like how can that not be the lead story in every sports section, because if Jack Gibbons were running the place, or Marty, the my bosses, theyโd be like, the teams nice and Richmondโs Nice. Get your ass out to Seattle and pull the commissioner up and ask him where the leases? Thatโs the question. These are the questions that should be asked, because itโs really about the city. To your point. To your point, when you go back to the mayor, the mayor is like, should we fix the convention center? Should we fix the hole where the mechanic was? Should we fix the 30 people that were shot last week in the south part of my city? Or should we get an all star game so we can have blimp shots overtop of urban blight? And if we donโt have the we donโt have the harbor fixed where we have in the gala? Right? You know what I mean? Have you?
Bill Cole 16:03
Well, you know, the other bill Cole told you a story not too long ago, though it didnโt come to fruition, but it had to do with, you know, the World Cup and all that other good stuff. And then the race track, by the way, all these things, you know, coming together all at the same time. And this, this, political leaders
Nestor Aparicio 16:23
say to me, I had a political leader say to me, Bill, one that you know, and I know and Iโll leave his name out, because he would appreciate that. When I was thinking about running for mayor of Baltimore, I remember you and I had lots of conversations. I was thinking, what if Iโm the mayor and the Preakness leaves? What does that mean? You know, I mean, I know they said, We own the prequel like all that, and Iโm thinking to myself, what would it mean? The Preakness is the most valued thing we have in the community. Itโs the thing over the last port, other than the Orioles have been running to the ground by the owner, right. But things weโve run into the ground, whether itโs the Inner Harbor, sort of getting past a the convention center, not being up to date, potholes, whatever it is, the Orioles are this private concern that have done nothing, but just print money, like a stripper in Vegas, theyโve just done nothing but make money. And they canโt do anything but make money. So weโre talking about the Orioles and the Ravens in a way that theyโre the other than Hopkins. Theyโre the biggest thing that we have, we canโt lose them, we have to keep them. And now I donโt know even know what the hostage situation is with John Angelos. I donโt even know what heโs asking for or what his vision is. And he has no communication skills, or people or PR people to even come to detractors like me pricks like me and sell it. Come and sit next to me and tell me your big plan. And why I should be on the microphone, telling my business associates my audience, my community, why itโs a good idea. Because you might get an all star game download great we might get it might help fix the harbor Great. Come on and have a frank conversation and honest, transparent conversation about why our cityโs gonna give you a billion dollars to make 5 billion.
Bill Cole 18:10
Yeah, it is a little peculiar to your point that like there is no plan or communicated plan or, or like you said, Iโd like to release the hostages. Iโm literally willing to do whatever you ask, but youโre not asking for anything yet. So but I and youโre comparing it to CFG arena, and the experience that you went through there, right.
Nestor Aparicio 18:34
Think about that done that? Well, and they were very
Bill Cole 18:37
communicative. And they told you what it was going to be. And this was why it was going to be great. And now theyโre working really hard to execute on that plan. And I mean, most of the people Iโve talked to have had wonderful experiences and it seems to be headed in the right direction.
Nestor Aparicio 18:52
I have the french fries yet. Iโm looking forward to that up on the second floor in the corner. Have you
Bill Cole 18:56
have you had a chance to sit with Mark Thomas, the new CEO of the GBC?
Nestor Aparicio 19:03
I have not, I did throw up a note on LinkedIn.
Bill Cole 19:06
Alright, so Iโll make sure to poke him and say, Hey, respond to Nestor, because heโs a big thinker, man. And he he has the chops like like heโs built this career and experienced a lot of different stuff. And he has come to Baltimore to try his hand at this in a much more significant way. Heโs coming out of Pittsburgh, so heโs, you know, thereโs some
Nestor Aparicio 19:38
Iโve been to Pittsburgh, like I was in Pittsburgh for the game, you know, back into spin I had been to Pittsburgh where Iโve stayed for three or four days since like 2017. I went up for I went up for hockey. I stayed up there Tomlin and I went out and I went to a couple of hockey games as well my wife and I sort of famously went to Game Six up there with the Tom with us. out on the glass but I, I saw this I walked around the city and stuff like that. Thatโs one benefit. Thatโs one thing that Chad steals taken away from me in regard to being in Cincinnati, Cleveland, these places that I go, and I spend a day or two and I see them I donโt just go from the airport to the Grand Hyatt and in find my, you know, like, like the CBS announcers do and find myself there with an earpiece in the stadium and then Iโm right to the airport. I mean, I like seeing places and our city. Some days it shows better than others, right? I mean, I had a dear friend of mine in town. On Tuesday, one of my gundog friends, I took him in his daughter and wife, Fells Point me cheese, we got some acrobat. And we walked through this beautiful day was fine showed them stuff they had never seen. In regards to the Four Seasons and promenade area, and everything thatโs being built up there. My wifeโs like, Hey, weโre the new Whole Foods, thereโs two towers going up where the sandlot was, and I was like, I mean, thereโs stuff happening here. I mean, all you got to do. So I drove down 83. And I want to make a joke here, because when you get out 83, everybodyโs 80 miles an hour till they get the TV Hill, they stop. And then they get past that. Iโm going to bring this up with the mayor. They make it through the cameras. I was on at three in front of the Baltimore Sun on where the prison is, and like all of that, and I looked at the Baltimore Sun in this giant abandoned building, and I was going in to have lunch with my friend. And I thought, Oh, my God, theyโve abandoned the other building. Now. The one is, I mean, thereโs two buildings, the Baltimore Sun is abandoned. But that whole area where the sun was the there was the sun and a cruise ship. That was the only thing that was down there for 20 years, right? Like when you go by there, if youโre a friend of mine who lives in Chicago had been here a while. Youโre like, Holy hell they built like a city here. It looks like they built a a Buckhead, you know, if youโre in Atlanta, you see this whole sphere that just pops up outside of downtown. Itโs like another city. And thatโs something you know, we make
Bill Cole 22:04
our city our city shows really well, like we had some roofer friends out of Indiana come in, and obviously, we want to show him a good time. So I mean, they they left blown away and how cool Our town is, no one argues about our bones. Weโve had this conversation a million times, right, like transportation, the harbor, I mean, we have all the bones. And what Mark argued with me about is like, Okay, I see it the similarly, like, we have a lot of problems. Everybody has a lot of problems. But I still see tower cranes, like weโre making progress just in spite of ourselves. And heโs like, Yeah, weโre, weโre flat. Like, like, weโre flat. Like, economically, as a city, we basically just tread water. And he, you know, heโs like, we need to grow. We want we want economic growth here. And, you know, I mean, he has a wonderful presentation, and he has really thought out, sort of like, the plan of future. You know, I have
Nestor Aparicio 23:11
magic foam on next Thursday for grandkids. Iโm ready to go. Iโm ready to talk about the future. My reason, my reason for planning a football and baseball, Star game coming back here, what are we going to find weโre gonna find in a city,
Bill Cole 23:24
my reason for bringing that up is that a guy like him, he almost has to chase the big projects, right? Like, he doesnโt have the capacity to deal with like little one off stuff. So heโs chasing these big, little game changing deals? Well, what youโre talking about is what cities perceive as a big game changing type of deal. You know, youโre gonna change the stadium, knock it down, build a new one, build one next to it, put a roof on it, you know, increase the warehouse, seven store, you know, whatever crazy ideas they come up with. You have to commit that professional sports in your town is an economic improver, then you will invest. And then through that investment comes that commitment to well, if we believe this, then we need to get the all star game because thatโs what shows people thatโs what shows it off, gets tourism going gets people coming in, you know, so itโs sort of like that big cycle. You said, Iโm the mayor, bring me all the ideas of how we can invest to make things better. Letโs evaluate them all though. Thereโs, thereโs not an endless amount of money to put to work, although, it seems like there might be I donโt know.
Nestor Aparicio 24:42
Well, this is where the federal money where Johnโs like, well, theyโre gonna spend money here anyway. Maybe I can annex the Inner Harbor. Yeah. I mean, maybe they can build something that I donโt. But whereโs the idea? I mean, I havenโt seen John Angeloโs with one bright idea. Like literally, I mean, Iโve been watching this for 30 years, and if Heโs the guy whoโs the leader. I need to see more than Iโve seen. Iโm not sold.
Bill Cole 25:04
Who has it? In San Francisco that you can hit balls into the, into the water
Nestor Aparicio 25:10
into the water. Yeah.
Bill Cole 25:11
But isnโt that like not allowed? Like, isnโt that like me? If you and I went down, and we just started throwing baseballs into the harbor? Do you think someone would come and say, Hey, youโre not allowed to do that? Like, you canโt just dump your crap in the water because youโre the local baseball team. Like, like, thatโs a great idea. I love it. Itโs wonderfully fascinating. And thereโs guys who
Nestor Aparicio 25:39
take it out. I mean, people come with the balls donโt go, well, they theyโve unused the balls. I donโt know if you know that. So then, you know, since Barry Bonds, the water anymore. Bill Cohen was here. Heโs co roofing and Gordion energy. I never know where these conversations are going, which always makes it interesting. It was kind of like miking up baseball players during the all star game the other night. I would just say this from a sports perspective. Iโm getting thrown out and or my 25th anniversary is coming up. Some think Iโm being wistful about all of this and writing about all this is sort of getting thrown out at an interesting time where my focus is on more important things anyway, at this point in moving to thank for it, but I I am sort of shocked at how this has gone for sports here. Over 25 years of me pimping for it right being out in the front saying itโs so important. Itโs so important, give these billionaires anything they want, given the state of cake, give them all of that. And then I see the inside of this. And I see an all star game happened in Seattle the other night, Iโve really just scratched my head. And theyโre talking about Baltimore. And I just, itโs amazing, the rhetoric like weโre gonna get the all star game and we donโt even have a lease like and I just try to bring that down to the people in some way they can understand that or maybe digested aside from flying the flag for Austin Hays and Adley rutschman Poor Felix Batista, and in the great story of yesteryear can Oh, and the Marlins kids coming in here that I love baseball, and that thereโs a time and place for all that. But then thereโs the meaning behind all of this is what what are we doing as a community and what it was supposed to be. And I saw that shining part of the all star game the other night in Seattle, when the over heads are there and the show in the city off and the jerseys or even like about the team and the city and the history and they had an all star game 22 years ago. And I thought, I bet you donโt realize this bill, but itโs 30 years ago, literally today and tomorrow that the all star game was here. It was 30 years ago today, as we sit here want to know that the Home Run Derby happened. Juan Gonzalez Ken Griffey, it was 30 years ago today that that happened.
Bill Cole 27:47
And makes me feel thatโs fine. I think love that is strictly a really big commercial, right? Thatโs a really big commercial. You throw that thing out there to try and improve other things around your town. More interesting to me is, you know, Nashville, is Music City, right? Made a made a committed effort to get everyone on the same page about being this music town. The airport, you know, thereโs a guy playing when you get off the airplane, you go everywhere you go, thereโs guy playing live, God, woman guy, whatever. So itโs committed effort. And everyone experiences it, and they all leave with the same impression. You know, like, they remember the music. I donโt know what Baltimoreโs mission is. But it canโt be baseball. Right? Because an or football, right? Like they have shortened seasons, like, like, if you want to be a foodie town, which we are kind of like one of those under the radar foodie counts. That is sustainable. Thatโs 365 thatโs every weekend. Thatโs every entrepreneur, every guy who wanted to try to, you know, make a restaurant. Go do it in Baltimore, because you know, like, itโs a foodie town. And if youโre, if youโre good, theyโll support you and they love you. And theyโre loyal and bola like thatโs a mission worth taking. I you know, I donโt know what other things are on the list. Like we have a lot of history we have, you know, weโre going to be on the cyber so
Nestor Aparicio 29:29
we had the Civil War trail in the battle. This is shot tower and the Star Spangled Banner and Fort McHenry. Like weโre near DC weโre right off in 95 for the buses that go from back and forth. To have a lunch at the Inner Harbor. I lived I experienced this. I watched the buses come in every day and fill up fill ups and fill up like you know, Hooters filling up all those places when those places were vibrant and there was something there. And the next vision is the most important thing I can talk about in am 1570 or Baltimore. Positive, much more so than the next ravens parade that will come or go. That will enrich Chad Steele and Sashi Brown and John Harbaugh and Eric de Costa, and maybe even Jacoby Jones and Joe Flacco. But what does it leave behind the next time they go five at 12? You know, and as
Bill Cole 30:15
the Orioles are, right, Iโm okay with it being part of the ecosystem, right? Itโs additive when itโs when theyโre all on the same page. And theyโre all working towards, you know, the same kind of goals and greed isnโt like just
Nestor Aparicio 30:29
well Peters on the team for 30 years. So itโs just been an act of Avarice thatโs been on and I just donโt such display. I mean, to anybody whoโs had their eyes open. Even the people love the Orioles understand they saw, right, I mean,
Bill Cole 30:44
it can be additive, I just donโt think it can be the thing. Like youโre never going to be sports town, USA. You know what I mean? Like, put all your eggs in
Nestor Aparicio 30:56
just looking at an Oriole game and see that 98% And say that doesnโt even look like the city.
Bill Cole 31:02
I want it to work. I want it to be additive. I want it to to help the surrounding neighborhoods and the communities and its jobs and its civic pride, and itโs all these good things and then attracts investment and it can be really good but it needs to be additive. And it canโt over consume the available dollars.
Nestor Aparicio 31:21
Crime, school, transportation, public health, all of
Bill Cole 31:26
that. Right. It needs to be proportionate.
Nestor Aparicio 31:29
Well, weโre proportionate here in what weโre doing here. Just the right amounts. Bill Cole is a coal roofing and Gordian energy. He joins us to have intelligent we call them wise conversations here all summer long. The merrily crabcake tour is going to be a Cocoโs this week presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery. Iโll be giving away these lucky scratch offs also, our friends will win the nation 866 90 nation letter asking I got my crab call around yโall put that in activity on August the third, our 25th anniversary at costus. And then on August 4, the hangover itโs drug city, going to a liquor store for a hangover least they have milkshakes, and delicious food at the fountain. And weโll have a good time. Itโs gonna be a great, great celebration. I am imploring folks, and including you bill Cole, who was one time an intern here at wn St. On the Bob Haney show on Sunday mornings in 1998 1999. Iโm asking people if you have old pictures, old hats. If you sat on my face on a seat cushion. If you gotta get nasty shirt from the Preakness. If you have a picture of me with, I donโt know, Tim goad at the barn or Ed Sutter. Please feel free to send these along. Iโm going to try to reward folks by giving away everything I have. On the third fourth, the cost isnโt drug city. I have shirts have all sorts of stuff. Iโm just booked someone to bring them. Please come by. Grab a sandwich. Grab a bowl of soup. Itโs a peach cake. I canโt see it yet. What? Tell me talk to me. What is it? You have to hold it down to your body because you have a green screen? Itโs like Bob Turk guy talk to me.
Bill Cole 33:01
Can you see the whiskey juice and the purpose?
Nestor Aparicio 33:04
You got Festivus Maximus signs. I have a few of those. Iโm gonna read you, buddy. Thank you. This is I just want to say this because Iโm probably going to make an ad about this in the next two weeks in social media. I have all of the signs. So like somebody last week when we beat the Yankees 14 to one. Like theyโre like I remember your spank the Yank signs. Iโm like, yeah, 50 up. You want one? So Iโve kept a bunch of signs. I have the wacko for Flacco is I have defense for cat defense. We need some fresh sides. I have clobber Clevelandโs I have a couple of dump Trump ease.
Bill Cole 33:39
Let those in the stadium these days. If we did another rewrite
Nestor Aparicio 33:42
or set the police to take our signs away at clobber Cleveland spank the Yank so I never did an Oriole sign after 1996 97 Because Hennessy was down on the walk and the cops were there. And I mean, thatโs Peter, you know, like, so Peter sent the cops in 1996 to have all of us thrown out. So anything that said clobber Cleveland, they were taking him at the door. Yeah, yeah. I have some Bruce Springsteenโs when that really pissed off Frank Ramage. I think itโs the reason Frank hates me. I had Bruce it said hungry hard on one side it said Bruce, a Baltimore loves Bruce on the other side. They look like our Defense Science. Not one of them got into the facility that night, the first Mariner arena. They all got taken at the door thrown in the trash can, but I have. I have like 500 of those. I have a brick of those. I gave them out at the Bruce show when he opened the arena. Bill yurman had them you know who loved it. Carl science ran into me with his brother at what used to be the old KFC and Genoโs right on board, they parked the car in the front door at the CFG Bank Arena. And I had the science and science and Kurt gave me $500 to sponsor it. So this he said for 15 years. Iโm like, Oh man, it wrecked my relationship with the uranium because we gave these stupid signs out and like, but the signs are iconic to what we do you tell the top 25 moments. I mean, come on. I agree. I have some zoo signs, I have some not a chance signs, Iโm trying to
Bill Cole 35:16
think weโll have to figure out what the Forgot something we can do with that. We can make some kind of video out of them. You know, like kind of turns real, you know like
Nestor Aparicio 35:26
to do is if somebody still has it in their man cave in their basement, send me a picture of what you have next to your Chuck Thompson bobblehead or God bless you know, whatever you have, right, whatever your thing is, but we gave I donโt say we gave a million signs out. But we gave a half a million signs out. You know what I mean? We gave 30,000 signs out just in New Orleans. You know, I mean, so Bill Cole was here if you have memories, and it sparked something in your 25 years of listening to WSD Iโd love to have it next to Baltimore positive.com Appreciate your bail you want to do your roofing speech about auto weโre nation guys donโt have the right spouting and you have to itโs
Bill Cole 36:05
itโs summertime weโre trying to do as much roofing as we can although Iโm feels like we live in Florida. Like it it gets hot and it rains every day around one or two oโclock. So we need to get out of that weather pattern.
Nestor Aparicio 36:18
I swear to God, youโre an ambulance chaser like the guys when it snows who bring the plows you just wait for it to rain when it rains. You know whatโs gonna happen to me?
Bill Cole 36:27
Yeah, but I donโt need the rain right now. I need the sun so I can get everything that we already know has a problem. Yeah, so
Nestor Aparicio 36:35
I gotta cut my lawn. I donโt know it. Cut my lawn on days it rains right. I
Bill Cole 36:41
mean, everythingโs good. Yeah. I suggest you know, if you want to extend the life of your roof, call us. Let us take a look. We can fix stuff now before it becomes too big of a problem.
Nestor Aparicio 36:50
I feel bad. You didnโt take a lottery ticket down if at least you left in the ticket was still sitting there and Iโm like, You didnโt get the play first chance, let alone second chance. Bilko was here. That was a wise conversation with one of our friends and sponsors. Itโs summertime around here. Weโre getting ready for all sorts of things. Oreos are home. Lukeโs getting ready for a training camp. Iโm getting ready for our 25th anniversary. Iโm getting ready for crabcake towards Cocoโs this week. Beaumont next week cost this and then drug city and then throughout August weโre going to be at Pappas and Glenburnie with Anna Rondo county executive Steuart Pittman. Weโre going back up to Harford County very, very soon as well and around the beltway with 25 Oysters, as we celebrate 25 years I am Nestor we are wn St. am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive