Our favorite shows are the ones where we bring folks who don’t know each other together under the same Baltimore Positive umbrella. The Maryland Crab Cake Tour at Kooper’s Tavern in Fells Point convened longtime NFL player agent Chad Wiestling and Dave Sheinin of The Washington Post, who live 12 blocks apart near Patterson Park, to discuss the business of football, the Orioles and people.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
game, years, baseball, player, watch, agent, play, hagerstown, day, chad, stars, raiders, team, fells point, oriole, baltimore, oyster, grew, fan, night
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Dave Sheinin, Chad Wiestling
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are wnst tassel, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We’re positively here in Fells Point. It is a beautiful music, sports, football weekend. We are down here at Cooper’s. We’re going to be here today. We’re having oysters every single day. We’re having crab cakes. Today we’re looking for Springsteen and mills Lofgren and Mike McCready out the window, and Tommy Shaw, there’s rock stars everywhere, but I have rock stars on the set. Dave shining from the Washington Post is going to hang around fresh back from the Olympics and a lot of baseball. And Chad weaseling from I always want to call it black label, Black Rock productions, but it’s black label like, like Johnny Walker, right? Absolutely agent to the stars. He a Terp and one of the biggest Oriole. We got 25 I want to make sure it’s Tony taters. I make sure we got it, got it going on here. You got pen and fever.
Chad Wiestling 00:51
Oh yeah, oh yeah. That’s why I wore it. So NFL
Nestor Aparicio 00:55
season, he comes in, you and I are like, talking about your kids swimming or whatever. And I, when I see an agent, they’re all like Adam Schefter. They all got their head down like this, and they’re just on their phone. How many players you have in the league right now?
Chad Wiestling 01:07
Currently, well, active or hurt
Nestor Aparicio 01:12
contract I
Chad Wiestling 01:12
got right now about 899, guys playing right now. Is that a lot? It’s about, usually, what I what I carry. I mean, if I mean, it’s just me. So, you know, I’m a boutique agency, so, you know, that’s a good, good number for me. You know, 1012, is usually what I like to carry now, right?
Dave Sheinin 01:32
Yeah, you think about show me the money now, yeah, now, once
Chad Wiestling 01:35
again, you give me one of those quarterbacks. Yeah, you give me a Tom, right? Yeah, I’ll take one.
Nestor Aparicio 01:44
Joe Linda got Joe Flacco change his life? Yeah, absolutely. Do you all know each other like that? Yeah? Agent wise, yeah,
Chad Wiestling 01:50
yeah. I mean, I’ve been doing, I’ve been in this business for a few, 26 years, and plus, because I worked the Eagles and Raiders before that. So you know, 20, you know, 28 years I’ve been in this business. So if you’ve been doing it a while, you know everybody. You know. And you know how it you know. You know how it works. And well, you
Nestor Aparicio 02:07
weren’t getting a hold of Eric tacos to do any negotiating with him last night between eight and 11 because he had a beer in his hand doing a Pearl Jam thing. He was rocking out, you know. But all of those, that’s, that’s who you negotiate. That’s your job. That you call Eric da Costa, if you have a player, Josh Jacobs would have been in play for the Ravens. That that’s that’s what you do for a living.
Chad Wiestling 02:28
Oh, yeah. 100% 100% and how involved it depends on the team, how involved the GM is. I mean, usually you’re dealing with the contract negotiator,
Nestor Aparicio 02:35
sure, the Pat Moriarty, or whoever that would be, right? Yeah. So
Chad Wiestling 02:38
the big players, though, that’s when the only time, like, a cost is involved. You know, maybe you meet up with them at the Combine or whatever. But other than that, you’re dealing with contract negotiator 100% it’s
Nestor Aparicio 02:49
amazing. 33 years in this sports ecosystem, I have that have this friendship with Dave, who’s covering the Olympics, Washington Post, baseball. I can talk sports with him all night, or music, and then, like you’ve been in Canton all these years, and our relationship with Mike Collins and a friendship and and and representing play like it’s it’s an ecosystem, the sports Baltimore man, but it’s a sports ecosystem. Yeah, you know? Yeah. It takes an agent, it takes a player. It takes an Eric to cost. It takes a media member. It takes fans. It takes everybody. But for you, with Josh Jacobs, specifically, he brought him to me when he’s in Alabama, running back at the Super Bowl sit down. He became a real and you were a part of this when you did the show about a year and a half ago, with me, the running back position being sort of squeezed and screwed, right? And you represent that position. That is, I think you would say, undervalued, right? Oh yeah, 100% and the Raiders are gonna come in and play the Ravens this weekend with ravens this weekend without your guy. We’ll see how they do, because you were always saying they were a different team without
Chad Wiestling 03:47
your guy. Oh, yeah. I mean, once again, it’s early. It’s early. So, you know, you start reading on Mondays and whatever, how they did last, last week. Of course, I took a little peek, you know, see how the Raiders did, yeah, you know, now you see some rumblings like, oh, they should have kept number number eight or 2828 and eight change the number eight, but
Nestor Aparicio 04:04
that’s why I don’t recognize, yeah, no, number eight. Is that Aaron Rodgers, it’s a quarterback number what’s he
Chad Wiestling 04:09
doing? Right? Right, right? So, you know, it’s, it’s the value of, you know, I was, I did a report, called me a couple weeks ago and was asking me about this specific question. It was like, when you get a player that can do all three things, you know, that can run, can catch, can pass, protect, you know, there’s value. There is a three, you know, the three down back, you know. So there’s value there. So what the teams like to do is like, ah, we like running back by committee, or and all this. Got to keep the value down when it comes to negotiating. Sure, you know which I get it, I understand. But it just, when you have a star player, like, it’s hard, you know, you got to pay them, got to pay them. And then when you don’t have them, you’re going to find
Nestor Aparicio 04:47
out, well, the ravens are going to find x they pay Derek Henry, right? I mean, the expectations and Luke and I talk about this, like, and I was always a Derek Henry guy. I thought from the beginning, if they would have made a trade for him two and a half years ago, to trading deadline, and this that money. Me, but they didn’t want to invest in the position, right? It wasn’t their philosophy to give a running back a lot of money and then that change, and that’s where Luke just like, well, this wasn’t the way they did things forever. They wouldn’t have wanted your guy two years ago because they wouldn’t have wanted to pay him, and now they have him, and they’re trying to figure this out, and they’re running with this cheap offensive line, and now they’re going to have to have to pay and however it goes with the Raiders, and you’ll hear that next week, and we’ll but just over the balance of the season, you find out what they value by what they spend. And the admission that to spend the money on Derrick Henry was maybe we didn’t get it right. Maybe, right.
Chad Wiestling 05:35
Yeah, yeah. I mean, hey, listen, I don’t represent Derrick Henry, but I’ve always been an advocate. I mean, that guy’s a stud, stud, even when I was talking, you know, with Josh Jacobs with teams, you know, when free agency was like, you know, I’m comparing him to Barkley and all these other guys. And I always was like, you know, gotta get, you know, because
Nestor Aparicio 05:53
Derek Henry’s, yeah, absolutely. Well, see, Harb always says, We’re not in comparison. But the whole business is a
Chad Wiestling 05:59
comparison. That’s what it’s like. Comparisons like
Nestor Aparicio 06:02
real estate, yeah,
Chad Wiestling 06:03
how good is, you know, how old is your guy? How old is my guy?
Nestor Aparicio 06:08
How is his knees, right?
Chad Wiestling 06:09
How many games has he missed? How
Dave Sheinin 06:10
much mileage is on his body? Well, there’s
Nestor Aparicio 06:12
the Derek Henry argument, right? Was that an argument in Green Bay went with Josh, just mileage, even on a 20. Was 26 years old. 20
Chad Wiestling 06:21
I mean, 2626 he’s a kid. Yeah, yeah. You got to remember. I don’t know if I told a story, 5000 yards so far. How many yards he got in the league? No, over, yeah, almost 6000 yards.
Nestor Aparicio 06:31
I only looked him up, but I’m just thinking, you know, funny story, though. I
Chad Wiestling 06:34
don’t know if I told you before, when I signed him out Alabama, you know, of course, you got to go train them. And we were training in Florida, so I go every time, you know, you got to train them. You got to, you know, give them money to live for a couple months prior to the to the draft. And you got to get them, you know, get them housing apartment in the car. Why go? You know, I sign him. He would go to the car. Couldn’t get him a rental car. He’s 19. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 06:56
wow, right? Jackson holidays,
Chad Wiestling 06:58
like, hold, I’m like, How old are you? And he’s, like, 19. I turn 20 in February, so, yeah, wow. You know, I took a chance. Obviously, it worked out, but I had to put it in my name, get the extra insurance for a couple months until he was 20. And in the state of Florida, you know, you can get a car when you’re floor, when the
Nestor Aparicio 07:15
only thing worse than being a journalist and dealing with Chad Steele and Greg Bader would be being, yeah, like, I what you do knowing these kids for years and years, trying to get them out to the barn. And I even wrote my letter to Eric DeCosta. How many players showed up drunk at my shows? Didn’t show up, didn’t call like your deal, and you’re dealing with a different generation. You’ve been doing this 26 years. You’re your third generation of players. Your first group of players didn’t have an iPhone, they did, let alone Twitter and Instagram. And n, i L, you’re in the n, i L, world now, right? Oh, it’s
Chad Wiestling 07:46
a different game, different game, and it makes me think, like, like, getting too old, yeah? I mean, you know, because
Nestor Aparicio 07:53
that was our last segment, yeah, I’m not even
Dave Sheinin 07:55
getting too old. But just like, do I still like this, right? You know, like, is this? Is this
Chad Wiestling 08:00
what I signed up? Yeah, I’m such an Oriole fan. I’m such a baseball fan. Oh, yeah, I don’t work there, right? Exactly? Enjoy the game. Yeah,
Dave Sheinin 08:07
this is great. You don’t know how the sausage is made in that one.
Nestor Aparicio 08:10
I don’t know if what you know about Dave’s background, but David, I’ve noticed your 25 years he covered the Orioles in the late 90s at the Washington Post after Mark masky, so we became friends his one of the women in his life was a friend of a friend of my partner, and, like, we just, and he sang opera back in the day, kind of, he was just opera singing journalist. He’s a he’s a musician. So, but he lives in butcher’s Hill. You live on the other side of Patterson Park, like you guys live, yeah. But the baseball thing, you’re a football agent to the stars. You’re this fancy schmancy sports writer, Olympic guy, but we all gather and watching the Orioles every night. You’re not covering them anymore. They treat you didn’t not so well. They treated me, not so well, like all of that. And you like, you give them your you offer me tickets. You’re the guy that says, Hey, you want to go to the game. I’m going to go to a game with you at one point. What do you love about it, from being in the industry of sports and all of that and knowing what these kids are going through, but you love baseball?
Chad Wiestling 09:13
Yeah, you know, I’ve always been an Oriole fan, obviously, growing up and, you know, the good years and then bad years and very bad years. Why were you an Oriole fan? Where
09:21
did you grow up?
Chad Wiestling 09:22
You grow up? Grew up in Pennsylvania, but up by Hagerstown and Western Yeah, you
Nestor Aparicio 09:26
have a pet. You have a Pittsburgh accent. I
Chad Wiestling 09:28
got that South Central PA, but right on the Maryland border by hagers I’m 10 miles from Hagerstown. Yeah, so, you know, people always give me some you know, your Western Maryland.
Dave Sheinin 09:36
You used to see guys coming through there. Oh, Hagerstown single a, yeah, yes. I
Nestor Aparicio 09:40
was so Blue Jays guys, right
Chad Wiestling 09:44
way back. Yeah, that was blue jays, and it was nationals, yeah. So now they’re, now they’re an independent league with the stadium, so, so, yeah, just was always, you know, an Oriole fan growing up from, you know, when, you know, in the 70s, and, you know, with the World Series and all that stuff. And then, of course, when Cal got there, Cal, you know. Cal was my favorite player growing up, you know. So just, yeah, just love coming down,
Nestor Aparicio 10:04
you know, NFL agent, it
Chad Wiestling 10:06
was a big, you know, big trip, family trip to come down, yeah, Memorial Park, yeah, you know, where your little league team would come down to Memorial Park for one game or something, you know, as a as a special night, you know, like Little League night or something. So it was, you know, it was, the funny thing is, where I grew up, which was basically Western, Western Maryland. It was like, but I technically was in Pennsylvania, and people like, Well, are you Philly fan or Eagle fan, or you steal or fan or fire fan? I’m like, No, I’m a Baltimore Colt and Baltimore, because there was no cable back then. So yeah, the rabbit ears. We were watching the DC, Baltimore stations, yeah. So you know, that doesn’t matter, but that’s why I kind of grew up always with the what
Nestor Aparicio 10:44
is different when you grow up on the bus line going to Memorial Stadium in my town, I remember talking to Ben McDonald years ago, like he go to Louisiana. He only been to one
Dave Sheinin 10:52
major league baseball game in his life before he pitched. Yeah, he’s dad took him to the Astro. He tells you stories on the air sometimes, you know, that’s a big excursion, though, from Louisiana. I mean, you know, yeah, well,
Nestor Aparicio 11:01
yeah, and I but I think your love and passion for it. I mean, what do you go to 3040, games? I mean, you go to a lot of games. I
Chad Wiestling 11:07
got a lot. I got a lot, yeah, as much as I can. It’s just, it’s great because, you know, well, the lights
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
are on there. The last three years has been a different experience for all of us, right? Yeah. I mean, you’ve been coming on the show for 20 years. For 10 years, we couldn’t even, I mean, we couldn’t even we had to talk about Angeles and how screwed up it was, not really, whether they had a chance or not. Then we could sit here today, and I’m sure we’ll do that, but like they can win the World Series next month. I mean, forget how bad it’s been lately in the bullpen this and injuries that. I mean, baseball gives you the ability to still believe even when it’s not, and especially with all these wild card teams getting in there, right? Oh
Dave Sheinin 11:41
yeah, it’s a crap shoe, man. Crap shoe, man, yeah, yeah. It’s
Chad Wiestling 11:43
like, there’s to me, and it’s always, it’s always been, and it’s grown as I got as I’ve gotten older. There’s nothing better than October baseball. I agree, especially when you’re when your team’s in it, yeah, in the hunt, yeah. Nothing better look Super Bowls I’ve been on. We all have, like, you know, it’s like, yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 12:03
Have you been to World Series games? Yeah,
Chad Wiestling 12:05
yeah, yeah. I’ve gone a what I went to like, Houston, when they played, when they played the Dodgers one, yeah, in Houston, I went to one Boston, out to LA when the Dodgers played Boston,
Nestor Aparicio 12:19
yeah, I added it up. I’ve been to 47 World Series games. Wow. I’ve covered 42 or 43 you know, like since 93 from 93 to oh 506, I went every year, all the time. How many World Series games you cover? Oh
8Dave Sheinin 12:35
god. I mean, every single one of them, from 98 to 2011 and then again, from 2016 to 22 I live by all of them. Yeah, I don’t know how many that is. It’s probably 100 more. I don’t know. I have no idea. Does
Nestor Aparicio 12:53
that even mean anything to you anymore? Would you buy a ticket for World Series I was done, I tell you what, I spent $600 to go see the orals next. I mean, I’m not, I mean, I mean, I’m gonna watch more TV if they, if they don’t credential me professionally, I’m not going, No, I
Dave Sheinin 13:05
would pay, I would pay to go to a World Series game now, now I will say that like baseball drove me out because the product, I think, got so bad a few years ago, before they made these changes, without long the shift and increasing the size of The bags to increase stolen bases. I was really down on the product. I couldn’t watch it anymore. You know, it was no action, strikeouts, home runs, walks. They’ve started to bring it back. I think analytics did that, you know, for to a large degree, ruined the game. To some extent. They’ve started. Theo Epstein moved into that role with MLB and changed some rules, and they brought back some of the action to it their pitch clock. I can watch it again now, but there was a couple of years there where I couldn’t do it. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 13:48
amazing. I feel like I’ve watched a lot of baseball in my life as a professional time. I thought a lot about that with my declaration of time in the car, time in planes, just time dedicated to being at a ballpark, and whether I like it anymore or not. And when I go to Orio Park, I get treated like garbage by everyone except the fans. So when I’m there, I don’t feel welcome. I haven’t felt welcome in forever, and it’s what I told the Rubenstein people. And I’m like, you know, when I go, it’s not like, my wife’s like, this isn’t joyful for you. And I’m like, Well, no, because I’ve done it a million times. I mean, I love Springsteen, but I don’t want to go tonight. I saw him five days ago. Like, you know what I mean? I’ve seen Springsteen 100 times, and I love Springsteen, but I’m going to sticks tonight. And I’ve seen them 100 times, but I haven’t seen them lately. So it’s just sort of like I went to three baseball games in April. I’m good, I’m good, and football is even more because I dedicated so much of weekends life, draft combine, owners meeting, Super Bowl, like all of that. And to just be sort of like, thrown out. It’s sort of like, Okay, I’ll go see sticks tonight. I’ll go do more things. But I still love sports. I love the minute it starts to the minute it ends when the game’s on. My wife will tell you. Like, I’m a serious working professional, right? Like I sit there and I see the game differently and feel it differently, but I don’t feel like I need to participate 80 hours a week anymore in a way that, like baseball, for you was like,
Dave Sheinin 15:09
oh my god, yeah, it’s an everyday game. You
Nestor Aparicio 15:13
probably thought you’d never watch another game again.
Dave Sheinin 15:15
I know, I know. I love the games. I mean, seriously,
Chad Wiestling 15:19
you know football, there’s 18 games. I mean, weeks? Yeah, football’s
Nestor Aparicio 15:22
getting over saturated when they’re playing, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, peacock and like all of that. Like, football’s getting to the point where I miss games now and I don’t feel guilty about a
Chad Wiestling 15:32
second job to be able to watch the game. Well, the buffalo Did
Nestor Aparicio 15:36
8you have a player on Thursday in the Buffalo
Chad Wiestling 15:37
dolphins game? No, nothing last night? No, I didn’t know
Nestor Aparicio 15:41
it was happening like I was in the pit and at Pearl Jam, and a guy went by me with an aqua number one jersey. And I thought for a minute it was a Warren Moon. I looked at it because it was dark and but it was, it was a tongue of a low a jersey, and he’s wearing and I’m like, Pearl Jam doesn’t like that. Doesn’t like the way we wear it. Somebody had a Mookie Blaylock jersey on. I got that. Eddie gave him a tambourine because he had a Mookie. Wow, so, but I didn’t realize the game had happened. I didn’t really look at my phone, because it’s, you know, any better, singing alive. Why am I? Why am I looking at my phone? So I got home, and then I realized, oh, there was a game I missed it. Tonka below got hit in the head, and I’m like, that would have been on Amazon Prime. I’d had to sit here and watch it on my computer. It’s lousy. You don’t need it. Thursday night football, every agent, every player, every mother of every player, should be against Thursday night football. Oh, yeah, all
Dave Sheinin 16:41
right. You gotta go, no, no, well, but before that, look, it’s 2024, man, you got to get Amazon Prime on your Smart TV. Man, you don’t have to watch it on your smart you look you look old, like us, but, but that doesn’t mean you can’t, like find a teenager to set up your TV so you can watch Amazon Prime on your screen and not have to go to the laptop. I’m
8Nestor Aparicio 17:03
gonna let you, let it go, and I’m gonna leave you with you just said, find a 17. You ready? All right? Art, modell in, and I loved art. Everybody knows I loved art. When you would go up to art, the vaudeville and him, the red skeleton in him, you go up to art, he’s older, you know, kind of falling apart as a little Hey art, how you doing today? Feel like an 18 year old. Where are you gonna find one at this hour? Is that good?
Dave Sheinin 17:30
Wow, wow. Yeah. Color. Dirty old man jokes. No,
Nestor Aparicio 17:35
I saw Shannon sharp sack this week. Chad weaseling is here. He is the local agent to the stars. Don’t let his Tony taters jersey. I thought it might have been a Palmera. That’s why I was flipping around looking at it. I’m like, fresh, you know,
Chad Wiestling 17:48
you got to just get
Nestor Aparicio 17:49
Palmers. The only athlete that ever threatened me, yeah? He came at me with a bat. I could see that off the X circle. He has that. Yeah? Davey Johnson, well, he didn’t really want to use it. He was just trying to, yeah. Davey Johnson, why? Bravado, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s like, we could write that song power, power Maven and sports writer to the stars back from stad Olympic, and you didn’t bring me a damn Snoop Dogg pin.
Dave Sheinin 18:16
I never got one. I hit him.
Nestor Aparicio 18:17
He’s over there first I hit him. I’m like, China’s over there. Give me a Snoop Dogg pin. I thought you at least. I thought you’d be I wasn’t. You people. I
Dave Sheinin 18:23
was in the same building with him one time, and it was for that stupid break dancing with Ray Gun, the Australian break dancing review with that. I was at that and he was there. He left early. I mean, I wish I could have but I never got a chance to, like, shake his hand and try to get one of those
Chad Wiestling 18:39
pins. Was that one of the best events that you’ve ever seen in Olympics. It was so bad.
Dave Sheinin 18:43
It was maybe the worst. And I’ve seen some bad. I mean, it was terrible. I mean, it was like, laughable. Like, what are we doing?
Chad Wiestling 18:50
I couldn’t even believe. What are we doing, whether that particular performance, the whole thing in general, just break dancing. Like, seriously,
Dave Sheinin 18:57
what’s going on? They did
Nestor Aparicio 18:59
synchronize swimming. I
Dave Sheinin 19:00
mean, everything that is athletics, dancing, everything is athletic, does not need to be in the Olympic parkour. That’s Yes, right? Exactly. I’m not, I’m not disputing that they are athletes, American Ninja or athletic. And Olympic sport does not belong in the Olympics. Yeah, get him out of here. Get
Nestor Aparicio 19:16
off my lawn to shine. All right, shines. Get kids swimming. He’s got rock and roll to make. And what are you writing about these days? I just like, Oh,
Dave Sheinin 19:25
God, it’s a long project I’m involved in now. It’s, I’ll get into it next time. All
Nestor Aparicio 19:31
right, don’t be another crap. Dave shine and Chad Wiese, who’s gonna stick around. He is the agent of the stars. We talk some baseball, some football and player safety and some other crap. We’re at Cooper’s. We’re Cooper’s pub and Fells Point. So I brought you by the Maryland lottery. I have gold rush sevens doublers to give away. I have Raven scratch offs coming soon. I promise. Today’s day nine of the oyster tour. My oyster will be here at Cooper’s, and I’m having a day 10 oyster with Marvin Lewis tomorrow down here at some point as the Raiders come through, oyster. Dollars a day, every day, for the oyster recovery partnership. All that brought to you by our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions. One 800 clean water. They keep my water clean well water. They do it better than anyone. It’s why my skin’s glowing and I’m so healthy. I’m Nestor. We are wnst Back for more from Coopers and Fells Point. Stay with us. You.
