The genius of Ricig and getting inside the mind of a sports cartoonist (and journalist)

It is no secret that lifer sports cartoonist Mike Ricigliano is Nestor’s oldest friend in Baltimore media. They discuss the 40th anniversary of their friendship and the folding of Sportsf1rst and The News American and how the sports scene in Baltimore has inspired them both for a lifetime at Koco’s Pub as the Orioles and Ravens threaten another championship parade down Pratt Street.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sports, years, cartoon, ravens, orioles, game, cartoonist, baltimore, win, cocos, oyster, left, team, talked, love, man, gave, baseball, buffalo, lived

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Mike Ricigliano

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

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Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, Johnson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. I’m putting my water on the floor, so I’m knocking all over the I got water all over the place. Vivianos left the place a mess. Water all over the place. Just like liberty, pure solutions, they do my water well, water sick. Doesn’t have a well. He lives in the city. He’s got, well, they’ll turn the water on. Hey, we have, well, we need liberty, pure solutions. Make sure, you know, the water in the county sometimes can be a little funky, like a monkey, and you need to have professionals. These are my professionals keep me feeling good, feeling hydrated, and good showers and all something more than that. We’re doing the oyster tour. We’re gonna have some oysters a little later on. Marcella is gonna be here. Resig is my coast with a K, I don’t know, how do we top Viviana? He’s like a real broadcaster.

Mike Ricigliano  00:44

Oh, he was, he lectured star. He’s a star. You know, you retire and you drop down to me, but yeah, I’m happy to be here. There’s

Nestor Aparicio  00:54

nobody I love more than you. You know, this, we’ve talked about this many, many times. How are you feeling on the sports side of things is, we’re taping this the day before the Ravens play the chiefs. So it’s gonna be a whole different temperature on Friday, one way or another, right? So we do a little bit of football. I want to do more baseball with you anyway, because football will play itself out. We’ll be there. But if you’re drawing cartoons right now for the old sports first, 40 years later, if you had to do a cartoon here to start the Ravens season. What would it look like for you? What? What are the Ravens in the mind of the greatest sports cartoonist I’ve ever known,

Mike Ricigliano  01:27

I mean, I’m very, I’m, I was known for doing very busy cartoons. I would, I would do a very busy cartoon of the ravens, a very kind of

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Nestor Aparicio  01:39

safe flowers, who would have, would have lines to be really fast,

Mike Ricigliano  01:42

right? Scatter shot, no, I think, I think the story on the Ravens going in is, what do we have, you know, like, there’s a very question mark, question mark, a lot of, a lot of coaches gone, some by leaving, some by tragedy. You know, it’s, it’s a very it’s going to be a very interesting beginning, and, of course, a beginning of the season that’s very difficult, Team wise, for the ravens, They play for their first five games or against four of the top quarterbacks in the league,

Nestor Aparicio  02:15

I keep and just good teams too, and good teams and road games In Dallas, and, you know, just and big time, you know, we have arrived AFC Championship Game, bright lights. I mean, first game, first it doesn’t get any bigger than Kansas City. But then the buffalo gave me the Joe burrow thing. I mean, the borough Lamar thing. And Luke alluded to this earlier in the week. It isn’t really gotten any oxygen the way Roethlisberger Flacco did, because they haven’t played each other enough. They haven’t played key games. They both have had injuries in opposite years. Brian, that has to become a thing, right? I think we have to hate Joe burrow here. We don’t do that yet.

Mike Ricigliano  02:55

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You know, I hate him for the way he just drills every time he not really.

Nestor Aparicio  03:00

He’s like Elway. I love him. He’s swashbuckling.

Mike Ricigliano  03:04

I do appreciate him. I do appreciate him, but I root hard against him because he does. He’s done a number on our second I would say that

Nestor Aparicio  03:10

about Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, that they’re my kind of guy. Like borough. I’m a borough. No, I

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Mike Ricigliano  03:16

do also like him too. I had him on my fantasy team, so, I mean, that’s another aspect of this that I don’t know if you’ve talked about that at all, but it’s fantasy. This is all season now too. And I know I run a big neighborhood knockout pool. I don’t know if you’ve been all these there. It’s It’s Gonzo, and so there’s all of that, and then there’s real gambling, and then there’s real gambling on top of all of that. So it’s just a crazy time. I was telling someone the other day that, you know people, a lot of people, just watch, they’ll watch any football game. It doesn’t matter if it’s their home, if they can find it, if you can find on Friday night, we get right exactly Friday night football.

Nestor Aparicio  03:58

We gotta get your peacock. Where the hell we gotta get your peacock? Where am I going to watch a game? Right? They got peacock Cocos. I don’t think so. You know, I

Mike Ricigliano  04:05

don’t know. I watched some of my Olympics on Peacock, so I appreciated having access to peacock during the Olympics. But no, it’s, it’s a crazy time of year. And then you’ve got the Orioles, who are, you know, in the thick of things, it’s a heck of a pennant race. It’s been a bumpy ride lately, but you know, maybe they’re gonna come together, and maybe they’re gonna get hot at the end, like the Rangers did last year, and surprise some people. So I’m

Nestor Aparicio  04:31

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40 years in the knowing you and well, 33 years into having you on the radio show. I mean, I’m, I don’t know the first time he did my radio show, but I’m sure it was 9293 wi th, I sure was, Oh, yeah. It was very, very big. You were listener. Before anybody listened. You were my mother. Were the only ones listening back. So do you remember summer in the garage? You remember the garage summer when I had to do the show? I do remember that you did so in the garage, that was summer 92 summer 92 okay, yeah. So, um, it was 32 years ago now. Wow, I’ve never thought when I have you on like you’re my pal. We’ve talked sports and we’ve traveled, we’ve been in planes and trains and all this stuff together, but like, I never think to ask you draw me a cartoon in your mind, out loud with words, because you’re well, no offense. I know you’re a genius, but I don’t spend time with you kissing your ass and calling you a genius, but once Robbie called you a genius last night, after 40 years, I thought to myself, I loved you first because of your cartoon work, right? Like I loved your cartoons and your sense of humor, and you were such a it was very obvious how much you knew about sports by the busyness of your cartoons. And I think that that’s part of the sports radio, part of you that I probably don’t tap into, to say, if you’re going to draw a cartoon of the Orioles right now, what does it look like? Well, it’s a bullpen with a rain cloud over top of it, right? Everybody’s got bandages on, you know, like, I’m trying to think like you as to how you would portray the Orioles right now, because they are troubled, but the sun is still shining. They win the World Series. Of

Mike Ricigliano  06:08

course, they can win the World Series. I mean, I mean, and I feel like they’re going to be there at the end. That’s just my Baltimore Ness. Now, you know, I feel like they’re going to be in the World Series with the Phillies. You’re having confidence that, like, that’s my that’s my predict. They’re gonna figure Suarez are gonna figure the same here in 83 you know, the Orioles fun, the World Series over the Phillies. I like that rematch and that symmetry for this year. So, so it’ll be, it’s buckle up, you know, like this. This should be fun.

Nestor Aparicio  06:37

I’ve had you out, like, once a year, every year here, maybe twice a year, Coco’s. But I remember sitting with Ron Cassie maybe two years ago, right? Yeah. And it was just sort of coming to love. Now, maybe Cassie was last year, two years ago. It was Dave shining. It was just sort of coming to life. And I said, Who’s going to win the World Series? First? The Orioles of the Ravens shine? And said, Neither, yeah,

06:59

it’s too hard to do, right?

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Nestor Aparicio  07:00

This is very hard to do to do to win either one, right? And to think of two years later you got your ball caps, looks like it had been lost years. I love it, the cap guy, right? Yes, that’s not what I’m not far off, right? I mean, it really has played out that the baseball team, despite the injuries and whatever first place here we are, right? The football team didn’t win last year, but had an AFC champion game, and Lamar one, you know, like we’re riding around on that carousel. Catcher in the ride, we can feel that brass ring you’re reaching for it, right? And that’s different, I think, than being a prick sports cartoonist writing about a carpet bagging owner, stealing the team, right, or Angelo’s, or, you know, whatever. I mean, did the cartoon part of prosperity and hope amidst clouds of the offensive line, clouds of the bullpen? You know, that’s a different kind of cloud. When you’re you’re a great team. I mean, you’re too great.

Mike Ricigliano  08:01

I would say this as a cartoonist, you know, you can do funnier cartoons about, you know, negative type things. That’s just like

Nestor Aparicio  08:10

South Side Chicago cartoonist, right? Sure,

Mike Ricigliano  08:12

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of course, the South Side Chicago cartoonist. There is no more sports cartoonist, but, but if there was one, you know, he would be having a ball with the with the White Sox me, you know, as a fan now, you know, I would enjoy the prosperity part of the cartooning. You know, I would find creative ways to have fun with the success that both the Would

Nestor Aparicio  08:36

you talk Jackson holiday is a little eager. You’re a year and over. Ah, I

Mike Ricigliano  08:44

think he would be fun to draw. Yeah, he does look like a little leaguer. There’s no question about it, you know. So, oh, sure, I think

Nestor Aparicio  08:50

he looks like he’s in the bad news bears. He looks like doesn’t fit. He really does

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Mike Ricigliano  08:54

does. The first time I saw him, I was saying, wait a minute, this is our guy, you know, like, but I think, you know, give him a year or two, and he’s gonna be, you know, a heck of a player. He’s turning into a good

Nestor Aparicio  09:08

names, Gunner, Gunner, holiday watchman, rush in the clutch,

Mike Ricigliano  09:13

right? Exactly. No. This is a slim Povich.

Nestor Aparicio  09:17

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You know, they have this names, Tony taters, right?

09:21

Taters, of course. What

Nestor Aparicio  09:23

more do you want from these

Mike Ricigliano  09:24

guys? Like, it’s like the way the Phillies were in 83 they had a bunch of James

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Nestor Aparicio  09:28

McCann, his face, all right, from the you know, that’s right. This is this team has some characters and character. This

Mike Ricigliano  09:36

team has a lot of character, young character, that hopefully will be with us for a while. I think I would have a lot of fun with with this, with this Orioles team. I wish I was still drawing, you know, Oriole cartoons in a publication right now. I just, it just hasn’t worked out that way. Um,

Nestor Aparicio  09:52

we’re gonna do the sports first thing all these years later, yeah, we get too Misty about this because we talked about the neighborhood in your life you’ve lived to. Almost all the 40 years you’ve been here in this neighborhood. I love coming. It’s one of my favorite places in the city. I mean, anytime my son’s like, go to Cocos. Let’s go to Cocos. We meet halfway, you know, and, and I know affiliate, know everybody here, but sports first brought you to Baltimore, and I think we’re gonna do this thing three weeks from now, on the 40th anniversary of the demise of the news American and sports, first with some old friends, but you stayed. You mentioned in the last thing with vivid I was the guys from here. I’m still here. I never left. All ever wanted to do is leave. You saw his resumes I tried sending out in the 80s to get a newspaper job. I never left. You never left. You came here and Eisenberg never so many of you never left. Right.

Mike Ricigliano  10:40

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I mean, for me, I still had, I was a freelancer, so I could live wherever I wanted. We were already here. We, you know, had our kids in schools here. I did crack magazine at the time too. So I made my living as a freelance cartoonist, including with the newspapers. So and it went from sports first, then I stayed on to the news American did cartoons for them. Then when it folded, you know, Molly and Molly Dunham and Jack called me up and said, we’d like you to

Nestor Aparicio  11:12

do replace the first, like the paper folded may 30, the first, or whatever you were in the newsroom, like June 3, I think like you became a you never left me. I was in five months after I left.

Mike Ricigliano  11:25

So great to do stuff for the evening sun. I

11:27

love to drive it down every night.

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Nestor Aparicio  11:29

I used to meet you sized getting it every night. I

Mike Ricigliano  11:33

actually got to know people at on that staff, because I had to drive it down and present the cartoon. It didn’t

Nestor Aparicio  11:39

sometimes your cartoon would wind up on my agate page. It would be a hole on my agate page. But that we did page two. We had page two was where all the column this world, and you had the Big Cartoon there three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, right?

11:52

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Friday. And they gave me a lot of five years, and I can remember this. I can’t remember what I have for lunch. I’ve got a giant

Mike Ricigliano  11:59

bin of these cartoons somewhere in my house. So, you know, Oh,

Nestor Aparicio  12:03

I gotta, I got bad news. Do you know our former morgue member at the news American Library was his name, pencil Oh, Tom penkillo. He passed away this week.

Mike Ricigliano  12:16

Is that right? Yeah, I have an image of who he was glasses too. Yeah, right, yeah.

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Nestor Aparicio  12:22

He was the library. Yes. The library passed away this week, and I saw this, and I was asked by Robbie, the guy who gave me my first job with news American, he wanted to know if they’re the microfiche exists from the News America. And I told him, I mean, my God, the man who would have been in charge all that died this week, but the microfiche and the news, American and sports verse, other than you having some random copies,

Mike Ricigliano  12:50

right? I have some copies of it that said, um, try to wear my T shirt for yellow, yeah, the yellow

Nestor Aparicio  12:58

man, come on. I

Mike Ricigliano  12:59

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have to dig it up, but I know I have it, so, yeah, if

Nestor Aparicio  13:01

it fits me, I’ll wear it for like a week on the air. Okay, I’ll wear it if doesn’t smell bad,

Mike Ricigliano  13:06

I might smell Come

13:09

on, man, come on.

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Mike Ricigliano  13:12

Mike, remember it had the one in the in the love, the first one, RST, and remember that the, remember the, the whole idea behind it was they were going to put, that’s why they call it sports first. They put sports cover and the weather map.

Nestor Aparicio  13:28

It was a new News, New York, post Philadelphia. It was a tabloid sports first, but it had the weather in the back and three pages of like, the news in the back right, and it had, socks in the

Mike Ricigliano  13:41

back. It was color, because it was, you know, USA Today, at the time was hot, so there was, there was, you know, color, a color cover, a color, weather map, a color. Well, those were the two things that were color. And then I think not many color photos beyond that, no, but I have great stories that I’ll tell. I want

Nestor Aparicio  13:59

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you. I’m gonna come and grab them all from you, because I want to hold them up. Okay, get done here. I’ll stop over and try to get them from you, right? I can, we gotta find them. I gotta fight. I have a couple. I have one or two. I’ll find my very first byline was a story I wrote about Warren Spahn, not called

Mike Ricigliano  14:15

one buffalo, by the way, originally from Buffalo. Really, he’s one of Buffalo’s finest, you know, I,

Nestor Aparicio  14:21

I’ll tell, I mean, I’ll probably tell this story in the piece. But Tom Robinson said we, we can give your first byline. And he said, I want you, if you can get any of these people in the phone, and do a story I want to let you write. Was like a college assignment, you know. So I literally, he gave me a list of Hall of Fame player Enid slaughter was one of the odds. I interviewed, interviewed Harvey keen, okay, so, but nonetheless, he gave me a list of players, and they told me that Mickey Mantle lived in Oklahoma. So I went down to the newsroom and I dialed 1555, Oklahoma information, please. Hello, Oklahoma information. Do you have a spawn? SP, no, excuse me, I was 15. Do you have a spawn? SP, spawn. SP, a agent, Warren, oh, yes, yes. Here’s the number. Would you like? They didn’t have the little thing where you hit it, it says 615555, so I wrote the number down and I called Hello, hi. I’m trying to reach Mr. Warren Spahn. My name is Nestor Aparicio. I’m a sports writer with sports first in Baltimore. Well, this is Warren Spahn, how are you young man, you know so and I did a story and, man,

Mike Ricigliano  15:41

that’s and that began my career. Wow. I mean, he is one of the, I think he is. He the winningest left handed picture of all time. I think he why three games, because

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Nestor Aparicio  15:51

in the bad news bears, the second Bad News Bears are the third Bad News Bears. One of the kids said he was spawn on the mound, all right. And in 1978 I had to, like, say to my dad, who was spawned, you know, my dad’s like, we’re gonna get your baseball card, you know, spawn, and saying to pray for

Mike Ricigliano  16:08

rain, exactly, right? Yeah. I mean, great, a great picture, really, really. And, like I said, a buffalo guy. So can I

Nestor Aparicio  16:15

just, I want to kiss your butt a little more, because you are a sports cartoonist genius. Do you realize how much about sports, you know? I mean, maybe you might even underestimate your own true expertise. I mean, like in my own way, when I talk to other people about sports, it’s always different. And I’m not trying to be disrespectful or like a jerk. I know more about this because it’s all I’ve ever done, it’s all I’ve ever studied, it’s all I’ve ever I talked to Leonard Raskin about him with money, managing money, and he’s like this, all I’ve ever done is manage money. That’s why I’m better at it than you. And I’m thinking, well, that’s probably why you listen to my radio station 40 years into this. And I think of that when I think of you and the people I met at the paper, sure, they all were so smart about so many things, and it was such a gift to me. And I told this to Dan Rodricks, I said, such a gift to me to be a young, smart ass, but wanted to learn and wanted to know things, and didn’t know it all knew a lot. Wanted to know more, and having people like you around all of you, it was just such a gift projects

Mike Ricigliano  17:20

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himself is another like treasure trove of sports. He knows I’ve had discussions with him about sports, and he he brings out all kinds of old names. A lot of it is baseball card collecting. A lot of it is growing up in a family where my dad loves sports. And you know, you probably had a similar city my father loves sports, yeah. And so that was my connection with my dad. Was talking sports with him. So if you you know, in my family, if you wanted to connect with my dad, you had to talk sports. And my me, my myself and my youngest brother were the two sports real sports fans in the in the family. The other two brothers, not as much you know, and I think my passion for sports was there that my sports, it’s never

Nestor Aparicio  18:04

Wayne, though you’re watching tonight, you’re what you I will watch eight football games all weekend. You’re building your Sunday around a

Mike Ricigliano  18:10

game, right? And I do, and I do get into the fantasy football and baseball stuff like I have done it for many, many years. How

Nestor Aparicio  18:17

I babysat your kids? You knew Todd furworth, so you, you do

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Mike Ricigliano  18:21

get a knowledge of of a breath of all of the sports teams when you play these kind of game, fantasy games, you get it a weird perspective on games, because you’re sitting at a game and your pitcher is pitching against the Orioles, and you don’t want him to get clobbered if you’re if he’s on your fantasy baseball team, but you’re really rooting for the Orioles. So you’re really rooting it there for a two to one game.

Nestor Aparicio  18:47

Never play fantasy sports.

Mike Ricigliano  18:49

Very good reason why you, I’m

Nestor Aparicio  18:52

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sure you invited me in your fantasy leagues automatically, 33 years into this, right? Everybody’s invited me to their fantasy league, and I’ve never, ever, ever, ever, I played stratomatic With you 35 years ago. I’ve never played fantasy sports. I don’t bet on sports. I don’t think it’s like it’s I don’t think I’m smart enough. I don’t think anybody’s smart enough bet on sport. But I think the fantasy thing for me was always, well, I have a fantasy team. They’re the Ravens. When they win on Sunday, I win when they I don’t want to Ben Roethlisberger to be my fantasy quarterback. That’s

Mike Ricigliano  19:23

such a good that’s the way I didn’t look at it on fantasy sports. I

Nestor Aparicio  19:28

like, I watch sports all the time. I never bet on I. I like talking about it. I like the strategy of it. I’ve liked the people I’ve met over 40 years of doing it. But like wanting to, like, build my own team and think that I’m smarter than everybody else. What do you win? Do you get some trophies and a mystical relic?

Mike Ricigliano  19:48

We have an amazing trophy in our one league in New York, and I’ve won it a few times, and we have a full day of activities. There’s all kinds of goofy awards that I make my brothers. Things at the at at the event. So it’s a full day activity. What

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Nestor Aparicio  20:03

does he sing? He does spoofs. He

Mike Ricigliano  20:05

makes spoofs about our league. And he is dressed up like Elvis and like Johnny Cash and Billy Joel and whatever. He does a fantastic job at it. And it’s very it’s very

Nestor Aparicio  20:15

fun. Lived a better life than me, because you’re just freaking happy. You’re just always happy. You’re Oh, you

Mike Ricigliano  20:21

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have traveled. You. We are envious of the way you guys travel with it’s real. We strive for your kind of travel.

Nestor Aparicio  20:27

I saw you running around Argentina, and I see you running around these grandkids. I love you, man. I will let you get back to Terry. I know you guys a beautiful day. You got baseball tonight. We’re gonna enjoy it, you know, I’ll come back in a couple months, and I’ll have you back. Okay, we’re gonna win a World Series, right? I

Mike Ricigliano  20:44

think we’re gonna win the World Series. That’s just, that’s my vibe, man. Like, that’s I’m going with it. Let’s go. Let’s go. If you have the early 70s or get hot at the end, like the Rangers did last year, when I

Nestor Aparicio  20:56

see that hat, I think Tommy Davis and Merv Redman is rapping, oh, I think Tom show pay.

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Mike Ricigliano  21:01

Okay, all right. Well, we’re gonna win it. That’s, that’s, that’s no with no ball pen. We’re gonna win this. I’m gonna tend to

Nestor Aparicio  21:08

parade with you. Michael singlianos here. He is the greatest sports cartoonist of our generation. He lives here in the neighborhood. He is semi retired and managing it to get it here. One for you. Thank you. And I get a gift? Terry one as well. Marilyn, lottery sends these out, these gold rush seven stumblers. I’ve got the last batch. I will not have these next Friday, Cooper’s Fells Point for the oyster festival, I will have the Raven scratch offs oyster a day, every day, the first oyster of the oyster tour is about to happen. Serve oysters. I purposely came here today thinking like I was kicking the oysters off tomorrow because she didn’t have an oyster. Marcella brought oyster. She’s making me fried oysters today. So next segment, fried oysters. Wow, maybe a crab cake to go. Cream of crab soup. We’re Cocos. Don’t get any better this Baltimore positive. Stay with us. It’s the Maryland crab cake

21:58

tour. You.