The ghosts (and drink glasses) of Derby past and Preakness future

Essex attorney and recovering politician Todd Schuler joins Nestor at Captain Larry’s in Federal Hill on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour to discuss his passion for horse racing, the Kenturky Derby and his weird Cajun spin on Preakness Saturday at his place.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

year, preakness, people, derby, horse, week, day, run, crawfish, win, new orleans, maryland, point, narragansett, field, oyster, kid, horse racing, absolutely, gulfstream

SPEAKERS

Todd Schuler, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

America w n s t Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively in the midst of the Maryland crabcake tour. We are a captain Larry’s. We are in in the heart of South Ballmer and we’re down here on Fourth Avenue. I’ve driven past his place 10,000 times back and forth over the 20 years I live downtown. Put in here a few times. I’ve never had a Narragansett beer in here. I always thought of sort of the house beer because he had this great Narragansett sign out in front from a New England beer all it’s brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery have instant lottery scratch offs to give away we’ll be at fate Lee’s on Friday we’ll be I don’t want to tell this guy this because I dragged him downtown to eat the legendary capital areas crabcake today, but I’m going to be a Middle River next week. We’re going to be MC falls at the new MC falls location down the back river neck road corridor where my guests does things over. They also need to promote window nation 866 90 nation if you’re in a market for Windows, I took care of that last summer. It’s that time of the year. Mark Miller and Todd Schuler were sponsors of this program for a long long time. Blonde Dell Miller Schuler is the law firm. I like to think of you is one of my cast of characters in my recurring like we had a bears skit. You could be on my panel of those kinds of guys being on East North Baltimore as you are how are you?

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Todd Schuler  01:18

I’m great. I’m great. I’m having a good time.

Nestor Aparicio  01:21

When you like because they have natty bow here right

Todd Schuler  01:25

away. Maddie bow in South Baltimore on a beautiful sunny Thursday. Spring is spring and right.

Nestor Aparicio  01:31

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Why when you came on the show, we would talk law law we would talk politics, former Councilman recovering politician as well as an attorney. But like your background really in listening to me or notes on me isn’t even even though your music guy sports. It’s all racing, baseball, football, and this is sort of the confluence for that right the draft Lamar Oreos are playing good. And we are literally a week out on the Kentucky Derby. We’re literally inside of a month now on the Preakness being run

Todd Schuler  02:02

the absolute best time of the year. Absolute Best time of the year. I love it. As you know I have my big Preakness party every year. Everything’s ready everything’s paid for place you to fish we do crawfish because I went to law school down in New Orleans. So good crawfish boil was always the thing in New Orleans. So we’ve brought a little bit of New Orleans. We’ve applied it to our bar there any

Nestor Aparicio  02:22

crabs at this event are is long

Todd Schuler  02:25

as they’re not outlaw just not to crabs on Preakness day, I do my crawfish on Preakness day and it’s become kind of a thing we’ve got some some kids who grew up coming to my party that are crawfish fiends out there and they have a real good this bubbles

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Nestor Aparicio  02:37

up with the Cajun you do it like legit. Yeah, we do it legitimately spicy.

Todd Schuler  02:41

We get it boiled. If I’m allowed to build seafood out in Perry Hall. And

Nestor Aparicio  02:47

you have an oyster I want to do oyster stop over his plate. Crab cakes. I guarantee

Todd Schuler  02:50

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he’s got some oysters.

Nestor Aparicio  02:53

Oyster tour, first 25 days of September, we’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of wn st on August 3. So beginning September one I’m going to do 25 oysters. 25 different ways, not just raw, you know, I’m going to do different. I’m going to soups, you know fried, all that kind of stuff. But I want to try some new places. So if he’s in line, maybe I’ll make some crawfish in their craw that might

Todd Schuler  03:18

be able to he’s not a big fan himself. But he doesn’t for me every year.

Nestor Aparicio  03:22

Did you fall into the crawfish name when you went to to lane or no?

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Todd Schuler  03:25

Absolutely. I went to college in Mobile, Alabama, and that’s really adjacent to the whole New Orleans scene. And then that got big and we started having the party every year when I got married school in New Orleans if you sent New Orleans for New Orleans for law school and mobila and undergrad I went to a little school called Spring Hill College and mobiel for undergrad really and then two lakes where the Senior Bowl when it happened down there. I was absolutely it was a big deal. It was it was right when

Nestor Aparicio  03:51

I went to the Senior Bowl after was the year that um, that haven’t seen from Damascus was drafted by the Rams. And it was the year that Aaron Donald was drafted. Right. He was the star

Todd Schuler  04:05

little after I was there but when I was there a T Martin so I would have graduated with T Martin who was the Tennessee quarterback. Championship, right? Yeah, Peyton never won.

Nestor Aparicio  04:18

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I saw T Martin play. I saw I saw T Martin play for the volunteers at Knoxville. He was the quarterback when I went What was it? 98 or 99? He’s involved with the RE spin. Yeah number here. I’ve never met him because I’m not a real I don’t know if you heard that

Todd Schuler  04:37

or not. You’ve said so yeah, I but yeah, mobiel boy, so he did well by the time

Nestor Aparicio  04:45

CJ Mosley also Mobio connections and Hank Aaron as well. Baseball community mobiel

Todd Schuler  04:52

very big baseball community. I thought we had some kind of like the oldest college baseball stadium or something like we had some distinction and I apologize to the Springhill baseball players for not knowing exactly what that was. But But yeah, we had something to do with that.

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Nestor Aparicio  05:08

Feels great place to eat food. Great little New Orleans.

Todd Schuler  05:12

It’s a little nuanced.

Nestor Aparicio  05:13

I immobile,

Todd Schuler  05:15

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it did see. Yeah, you’re absolutely right the Sunday before. Before Fat Tuesday is still Joe Kane day and still probably the biggest day of mobile Mardi Gras, I think mostly everybody then clears out and goes to New Orleans for a couple of days. King Cake. Absolutely. I don’t like to hear I don’t like concat it’s a little too sweet. But you got to celebrate Mardi Gras, even here in Baltimore. And the way to do that is get your playlist ready. And you get King Cake ordered and you teach the kids a little bit about their their New Orleans heritage which which they have despite me being a Baltimore boy all these years.

Nestor Aparicio  05:48

I’m an ice cream guy, you know, this pack of you know, during Mardi Gras time, my dear friend Chris Pike, who lived in New Orleans worked for the saints, he lives two blocks from capillaries. He’s really the inspiration for being here. This is his crabcake place and he can’t be here because he working for the NFL right now. But he loves King Cake. And I was out shopping like at a Walmart or something. And I went through the ice cream to see what they had. They were friendly, this little different kinds of ice creams and when I get a wise and I looked up and there was a king cake ice cream. Yeah. Oh yeah. There’s a special seasonal made. I’d like that more than the cake. I think. Maybe so I don’t know. I’ve never I’ve never had the cake. It’s overrated is what I would say crawfish

Todd Schuler  06:27

underrated, though. Come on out pregnant stayed say hi. All right.

Nestor Aparicio  06:31

So you want to give me a little Kentucky Derby preview. I had a picture already on the show about four weeks ago. Right around the time Penn State was in the March Madness because he’s the voice of Penn State. Rogers Ford’s been a local guy, right? Even running the ponies forever. He brought me up to date because the horse racing is like out in the abyss you have to go look for horse racing news, right and backwards in my phone. And I didn’t realize like Baffert can’t run in the Derby, but African run in the Preakness you get in

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Todd Schuler  06:59

Baffert this year. Did you get Baffert last year? I thought you got better.

Nestor Aparicio  07:03

I got that for two years ago. All right. Well, this is a great cost to story because Baffert wins the derby two years ago, what was the horse? You know? I can’t Okay, either. The 21 No, the 2220 wonder because last year was banned, right. Last year, Ban 21. Derby. He wins the derby. And I texted Medina spirit and Adina spirit. There you go. So I texted him the day after the Derby, which is pretty common, you know, we’ve known each other 30 years. He texts me back. He’s like, I want to come on earlier. So because I get distracted next week, he said, so if you want me on, I’ll come on anytime you want. Just let’s do it earlier, and then knock it out. I said, feels like you’d be busy after there was none. And I’m good. Let’s let’s not get out. Let’s do it. So I think we did the piece. Maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. Right? Right, right. Two weeks, right. So we did the piece. It’s 40 minutes to him going on about this and that and we’re like we’re carrying on. And then that weekend, on Sunday morning, I went over to cost this thing like get a crab cake. I was just like, there, and I walked in, and Mr. Costas is there and he’s like, do you hear what happened to Baffert? I’m like, I haven’t been on my phone. I looked at him he got suspended and the horses dirty. I’m like, why? Like so I got, you know, I have a real horseman over cost is telling me that Baffert was dirty. And I said, I just had him on the show, which is the lead. That’s the lead story on my website. Right now. It’s Bob Baffert, in an interview with him. And I think I got the last one. I will hit Bob in a couple of weeks. But, but this is unique in that he can run here but can’t run the derby. And I wasn’t aware of that. Yeah. And

Todd Schuler  08:39

a lot of the horses now had to make the decision. I think that gave them to some date in February or January when they had to actually train, train or run them next week. Right, right. Yeah. Brett. I think it’s Brad Cox. Don’t hold me to it that kind of inherited the Baffert horses but they had to like actually make the call. Is this

Nestor Aparicio  08:58

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kind of like when Trump gave all of his businesses to the kid or No, no, no.

Todd Schuler  09:04

You said I’m a recovering

Nestor Aparicio  09:07

Saint concept of signing over. You know, the paperwork you know, is fingerprints are still on the derby horse like Mrs. Angelo’s owning the Oreos exact sort of little bit like fat shoulders here. He’s drinking natty bow. At some point, I’m going to have a Narragansett since 18. I’ve never had a Narragansett and I’m gonna say it right. My wife will always correct me when I say things wrong that are New England ish, right, right, say the pronunciation. So I just got back from Maui. I got away we have an NFL Draft. We have a relevant baseball team. And I guess the Preakness things sort of in the balance in a couple of weeks. We’re going to be talking again about where’s the Preakness can be run, but we’re gonna have a Derby winner give me a little Derby field here because I know you really love horse racing in this way.

Todd Schuler  09:49

Yeah, what? What people don’t realize I’ll tell you who’s gonna win. Right in the course. His name is forte, and the jockeys name is IRAD Ortiz, Jr. and the various tracks the Miami track Gulfstream aqueduct up in Queens, Santa Anita fairgrounds down in New Orleans. They all have these feeder races right they Jianlin to Kaitlyn has a couple in Tampa has a couple but a lot of them have their own little Triple Crown their own little three that were on in there. And really IRAD was the the jockey coming up in aqueduct and then later Belmont as the summer wears on. He was the New York jockey and kind of commonly considered growing the best jockey in the sport. And he won the Belmont last year on a horse named mo Donegal who had won the woods Memorial, which is wood Memorial is sort of the culmination of everything that happens at Aqua duck. So he’s on the New York horse. He’s in the New York race and he wins the Belmont. Flash forward a year now he is the name and forte won the Breeders Cup juvenile back when he was a two year old back in October. And he’s come in in the Miami circuit. And he won the Fountain of Youth and then he won the Florida Derby and i i reds got that mount. I believe that they have given I read his Triple Crown winner right he got his triple crown race in the Belmont last year. Now he’s got his Kentucky Derby horse. And if if they can get past the Derby, of course, he’s really going to give him a hard time in the Preakness. I don’t. I mean there are others that we can talk about. Flavien prat is on a horse that won the Arkansas Derby the TAPit trice is the one that won and Keeneland the other day Louisa he’s probably won more Derby prep races than any jockey. So he’s a guy to look out for. And then of course, the Santa nega a Santa Anita circuit, the the horses that come out of California in the last 15 years or so have really kind of dominated on the Triple Crown like that’s kind of become the anchor out there. So what’s in practical move is the name of that horse, a jockey named Vasquez. But I believe I believe that for tail go off is the betting favorite. I don’t think anybody’s going to make any money on forte

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Nestor Aparicio  12:03

it’d be five to two two to one like that. It

Todd Schuler  12:05

feels that way. The other the other three mentioned or probably, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  12:09

the four to six to eight, the one I mean, a huge field though always right, so

Todd Schuler  12:13

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20 horse field. And so, you know, I’m telling you, Forte’s can win. But anything could happen because the horses are bumping into each other. The horses are running in the dark. It can be miserable and wet and weather, but more the derby than anything. I mean, just the crowd of the field favors the chances something crazy happening. So it’s a it’s an eight horse field. I think Forte’s winning that race all day. Anything can happen. And, and I don’t know if you know, but I’m betting that rocket can is a horse that won the early races in Miami before, before forte started running down there as a great Colt. That might be the kind of horse that gets you like a 1515 120 to one that could actually win the thing.

Nestor Aparicio  12:59

Have you been a Gulfstream since he fixed it? I don’t know. I’ve

Todd Schuler  13:01

never been paid for him. I don’t go anywhere except for ethics. I could go from

Nestor Aparicio  13:05

off stream like what that used to be and what it is now. When you go there and see it, you feel for what the Preakness could be and you also feel that like, they’re gonna steal the Preakness and take the Florida and like all of that stuff that we talked about with the Maryland legislature and getting the you know, getting getting this thing built over, you know, by sign on hospital, right. Like, at some point, the race has to take on that sort of thing. And when you go and see Del Mar when you go and see what they’ve done to sanity when you see what they’ve done a Gulfstream. What do you if you see what they’ve done to Churchill

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Todd Schuler  13:41

and the expansions that they’re making in Dubai and Japan, like if you write the epitaph for horse racing, and then decide not to invest in Pimlico, then you’ve you’ve you’ve created a self fulfilling prophecy, right? Like, why not recognize that horse racing is actually viable, it was the dirty sport, right? boxing’s back, right. That was the dirty sport because gambling was involved. And now we’re champions, especially gambling partners of Major League Baseball and the NFL and the NBA. So that’s all done now. Right? We can micro gamble, you know, the in, in game sports. So

Nestor Aparicio  14:16

when I when I have guests on who are journalist and they tell me that it’s the 30 a sport and Baffert is walking away from this and doping horses and the things are running horses into the ground. The notion that this triple crown and we talked about this every year, two weeks and three weeks, it’s unnatural for the animals. It’s very unnatural for the owners and the error of money and all these people investing millions of dollars into these foals that they would want to beat these horses up. But there comes a point, much like draft night in the NFL. If you’re Joe Douglas and you don’t get Aaron Rodgers you ain’t going to draft next year. Right. Right. So, you know, it’s it’s like the song says Dan Fogelberg. You know On for the rows, you get one chance, one one chance Saturday it’s in May it’s happened and this is the week

Todd Schuler  15:05

and everybody else is there to beat.

Nestor Aparicio  15:08

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You know, for Baffert to get caught cheating, and to be the Lance Armstrong of the sport, right? It hurts. It hurts. But we talk at your quarterly cheating at 45. He was to clear the cream, whatever. But if the NFL would outed him and said, Tom Brady has been cheating to play the way Roger Clemens did the work. We’re

Todd Schuler  15:29

not going to let that happen to baseball.

Nestor Aparicio  15:33

But horse racing, it’s built in,

Todd Schuler  15:35

it’s built, it’s built and the gambling aspect of it and everybody you know, the guy that’s in the horse racing is you know, your, your old uncle in the in the wife beater t shirt with a spaghetti stain down the front of it, right. Like that’s, that’s the look of the people hanging out at Timonium. But But to your point like a Gulfstream and and Saratoga you know,

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Nestor Aparicio  15:58

last time we talked, did you

Todd Schuler  16:00

you do everything you know,

Nestor Aparicio  16:01

I went to Saratoga before the plague. This is like, three, four years ago. It wasn’t. It wasn’t the weekend of the traverse it was after that. I went see hooting the blowfish place back there and no offense to rural farms chicken which is delicious, best piece of chicken I’ve ever had in my life. Hattie’s fried chicken and Saratoga if you ever go up. It’s it’s huge. It’s thing. It’s a real thing. craving it right now I’m gonna go to ROFO got one right down here Fourth Avenue. The Saratoga thing is another experience that and you can go see my pictures and videos. I made one that day, when you go up and see that you see the possibility for how great this could be.

Todd Schuler  16:39

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I’ve been a Churchill I mean, the same thing like wow, what is this? Like? How come we don’t have that? How come we have to? I met the Black Eyed Susan last year. And there are boarded off seats, you know, right. Yeah. And again, I think it’s that self fulfilling prophecy that this is never gonna work. This is never gonna work, right? Where’s the money? Where’s the Maryland money? where’s the where’s the city money? You know, like, let’s, let’s save this. We have something special. We have Preakness in the Schuler house is the high holiday of the year. When we when the Christmas lights come down. We start playing in Preakness party. And when we’re mopping up that Sunday, you know, cleaning up the beer cans or whatever, and the crawfish shells and everything we start playing in Christmas. So

Nestor Aparicio  17:20

I found that Preakness glass up in Shrewsbury that day that yeah, said that to you, right? What would you did you already have that one.

Todd Schuler  17:27

You got to come by the office. I

Nestor Aparicio  17:28

took a picture for you. This was the 75 and the 76 Preakness cups, and they were, this was 40 bucks right ticket right on there. So I didn’t know if that’s a good looking glass and 75 glasses. That’s that. That’s a Woodlawn VAs right? Well, they didn’t do

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Todd Schuler  17:44

them until 74. So that’s really the second year they did them. And so

Nestor Aparicio  17:49

how much that one is looks like it’s a little bit more. I don’t know. But another

Todd Schuler  17:52

thing like, why can’t we? Yeah, we actually in the office we have displayed like 73 through 2000. You have every one? Yeah, I got to pick up the last 20 That’s

Nestor Aparicio  18:03

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why when I saw these, I thought maybe you didn’t have them. So that’s why

Todd Schuler  18:07

I couldn’t but um, why can’t I get those I love those glasses and my buddy slinky when we grew up. We go to Slinkys house and we drink our milk out there. His parents always want the Preakness I was one

Nestor Aparicio  18:17

of them slinky How did you get the man?

Todd Schuler  18:19

I don’t know. I don’t know where Yeah, it’s like give me a call mostly but um, but you go to Slinkys house, get the glasses. So now my kids they know to drink out of Preakness glasses like, you know, they,

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Nestor Aparicio  18:29

they’re very careful.

Todd Schuler  18:31

I saw great stuff. You gotta go to eBay. But my point is you go into Churchill, there’s a gift store with every year have you know that they’ve been doing the Kentucky Derby glasses. If you go into royal farms, whatever the equivalent is out there in Louis Speedway there you buy a four pack from like February on, you can just get a four pack of the glasses for 12 bucks or whatever it is. We have to go to Pimlico on the day of the race to hopefully get some crappy whatever they’re calling the the black guide Susan drink, which has been like a whiskey sour but it’s also been purple. And it’s also been pink and it’s it’s always a different recipe. And they slap that crap in there. And that’s how you got to get your class. Why can’t we go to quite a place like Captain Larry’s right here, you know, get them in advance and either have a promotion where you celebrate pregnancy, drink a mint julep and event.

Nestor Aparicio  19:24

I mean, over 31 years doing radio. There’s nothing to sit well, I mean, the Orioles have been pretty screwed up. I mean, you know, we’re not talking about taking something that was great and completely effing it all up. The Preakness is one of those things. It’s coming here again. And I just like I just want to breathe life into it in some way

Todd Schuler  19:44

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Where where is like the decision making class of the town? I mean, not just the politicians at the state level or city level. The Influencers, you know, like I remember, I’m just saying we all need to get behind this thing or we lose it.

Nestor Aparicio  19:58

Well, there’s no doubt about that. Todd Schuler’s here he gets behind things he gets behind people at Blondo Miller Schuler, give me a typical urine Essex, typical thing. I always think about this at some point, I’m gonna get rear ended, I’m gonna get hit, right. I mean, we all drive. I want to be macabre but like at some point, there’s going to be an accident and I’ve already got a back issue and like whatever people call you because the man’s trying to screw him and I’m familiar with this because I have I have a billionaire sitting on my chest as a media member. So people with money insurance companies, I mean, you battle for Essex and East Side people who have something awful happened to them and sometimes it’s a work related issue right

Todd Schuler  20:40

folks are hurt at work for folks who are hurt by other people’s negligence and invariably on the other end of them, I

Nestor Aparicio  20:49

gotta be your head. Let me talk about this hold on. Go ahead. I guess it’s a real Narragansett Hi neighbor have a dance. So I’m going to have you teach me about ethics law. It says made on honor the famous the official beer of the clam. I think you should official beer of the claim.

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Todd Schuler  21:04

It says Can we have a pair of scissors back there? No, no,

Nestor Aparicio  21:07

no, I’m not gonna be like that chick down in Maryland. I’m not gonna do that. Too old for that. Alright, to honor the Preakness beer you and I never had in the infield when I was wearing grave smugglers back in the 80s on Narragansett to a natty bow here calculators. So what do you do?

Todd Schuler  21:21

So, you know, the insurance company in that situation has lawyers really good lawyers, lawyers that are friends of mine lawyers that I know right? But most people don’t file a claim, they try and handle it themselves. They get bought off on the cheap, they get swept under the rug. And then most people that hire lawyers might get a lawyer that doesn’t particularly do workers comp that frequently doesn’t particularly do auto that or they churn on and they churn out

Nestor Aparicio  21:48

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they’re gonna get you 50 grand that sounds like a lot, except you’re never gonna walk right the rest of your life, right? or what have

Todd Schuler  21:53

you, you have to have philosophy and it comes from your old buddy Mark, we believe we get the best results when we go to court. And when I when we prepare from day one for the fact that we’re going to be in court, it’s going to settle great, but it’s gonna settle on our terms, because we’re going to be ready for court. You’re playing offense, we’re playing offense. Right. Excellent with but Right. And so we get we

Nestor Aparicio  22:15

want my lawyer to be no offense, a prick. I mean, like, no, no offense, that’s

Todd Schuler  22:20

nice. I’m very sweet. I like you, I’m gonna get what I’m gonna get right. And I’ve seen Mark walk out of mediations and five minutes, because we’re not going to talk about things on on, on the terms that the insurance lawyers want to talk about him, you know, he sets his number, I set my number. If we don’t get our number, we’re going to court and not a lot of our colleagues respectfully. Go into it with that mindset. Not a lot of them are approaching it with we’re going to court. And if we happen to settle great, you know, a lot of them hope to get them settled on some

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Nestor Aparicio  22:52

pain in your butt to go to court. No, it’s what we do. And

Todd Schuler  22:54

it’s and it’s it can be fun. You know, we lose we go and lose. I mean, it happens but you got to be ready to get bloody right No, no, nobody can fight unless they’re willing to take take an ass weapon, right? Like, so we can fight because we’ve taken us weapons, and we’ve given us weapons, you know, and we’re not really afraid of the guy on the other side, no matter how big he is, you know, if he’s gonna whip my ass great, but I’m not taking his crappy settlement offer. And so that’s that’s the approach we take. We believe we give a superior product because of that philosophy. We also answer the phone ourselves. We don’t have paralegals managing cases, you know, the paralegals handle stuff. But we’re the guy you talk to, and, and that sets us again apart. You know, we’re, we’re a little Essex law firm that’s been there for 4050 years. We have folks that work in our office, we have one that just celebrated our 40th anniversary in August, we’re celebrating a 50th anniversary. Mark’s been there 30 years. And he’s I think the fourth or fifth most tenured member of our of our nine or 10 person staff. So we get with the institutional knowledge to handle these things. We have the lawyers that aren’t afraid to go get results. And we’re proud of what we do.

Nestor Aparicio  24:11

All right. Well, I would have I’m in Middle River next week and Nick Foles. And I want to get the name right. Oyster in real that’s if you’ve been to the new location down. It’s the

Todd Schuler  24:19

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old Sioux island I in there since then, but I’ll try and pop down. All right, well,

Nestor Aparicio  24:24

we’re gonna be there next Thursday. That’s your side of town. But I’m so pleased you came out before the derby. To do all this. Give me a little sports primer on you for Orioles, ravens, you’re in a mixed marriage with a Cleveland wife. I’m in mixed marriage with a Boston, you know, wife as well. This baseball season and this kind of start. And at heart. We’re all baseball people. I mean, at heart, any guy that has your color of hair and where I am in my life, we didn’t have the Ravens. In the beginning. This is what we had. We had we had the baseball team to see this sort of resurgence on the field. And I’ve been in Maui 10 days watching it and I did To show with Luke on Monday from Maui Sunday, there were all the kids out there that look great and and I just wanted to say this and I’m not being a prick I but I don’t have pictures of me out there as a kid that they did a signature day when I was a kid. Were like Doug, the senseis would send a third base, or you know, and you would you like the

Todd Schuler  25:22

Hendrix was always in the bullpen.

Nestor Aparicio  25:25

An autograph or whatever. But I’m talking about running the bases was something I never did Memorial Stadium I want pitch it and run up a notch toward it which field in Patterson park when I was 10 or 11 years seven, eight, that’s 10 years old. I want to pitch it Ron, I got to go to Memorial Stadium and hit from the bat and I didn’t win there. I mean, somebody good one. But I got to do God, I got to do it. The only time other than being a reporter that I was like involved on the field wasn’t in the Brooks Robinson game or the crown gasoline game, are you that stuff. But these kids, my friend, Greg spandex run around with his kids, lots of people. And I’m in Maui looking at this, and they’re like, everybody’s happy. And there are 30,000 people there. And then they want it was exciting, and they were gonna know it and like all that. And I think that is something to build upon. Right for the organization. And I know there weren’t a lot of people there Friday, Saturday, there were people there and they’re playing lesser competition picking, but they’re winning, and the winning gets people, they sniff it they radar. They know when the game’s on, they know the players they want to root for Mateo, they want to find the favorite Oreo. For your kids, for any. For anybody who hasn’t experienced books in booth or let alone Cal unnati. Or maybe even Delmon young. You know what I mean? Over the course of years, this is a fresh thing for young people. But for old people were like, I want something. I’m a sports fan, I want to grab on to something. This is one I’m missing. But this kid that owns a team on third base who thinks he hit a triple and mathan off and like they’re still rudderless from an ownership standpoint for me to say for what they can sell tickets and make the community love them. Buying baseball players. Okay, they’ve done that so far, but getting it right with people. I don’t know. I’m waiting on that. I’m waiting on that part.

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Todd Schuler  27:14

The fear is that they may be maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing because he’s got no stadium lease and he’s got no, no payroll, right. Like he’s he’s sellable as it is right. And he’s movable as it is. So well, that’s terrible that he’s got

Nestor Aparicio  27:29

that’s terrible. And we should all talk about that.

Todd Schuler  27:31

We should all talk about that. Because realistically, it’s a possibility. And it might come down to a 10 you might come down to the buyer is

Nestor Aparicio  27:40

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going to open his books he said so right. So once he opens his books, well, that’s no you don’t think he’s gonna open transportation

Todd Schuler  27:46

day if you want to go back to the air transportation week in the Trump administration? Yeah, I mean, that’s coming next week, speaks to

Nestor Aparicio  27:53

the at the soul of who this guy is. This guy has a press conference on Martin Luther King Day doesn’t even live here and pretends that it’s something it’s not, and then says I’m going to open my books, and then doesn’t open them and you want me to support your baseball team. You want me to come down there. But as a sentient thinking person who has watched candy yards get built, watch us lose a football team watch us lose a basketball team who’s covered this professionally. I’m still very Missouri on their capabilities as a business to do this the right way.

Todd Schuler  28:28

Well, his dad gave me a job in law school. And if you didn’t see my grades in law school, you have to at least be great grateful for that. So I won’t badmouth the Angeles’s. But there is so much potential like you say it’s goes back to the Pimlico right and and what they are talking about, you know, utilizing all that parking lot space and you know, building the lots up and maybe putting a music venue maybe even residents like like they can use that area between the stadiums, really make something magical happen. And more, you know, update the ballpark, obviously, to include more common space. I would love to see just maybe three feet forward home plate. Why don’t we tag in that warehouse yet. It’s been too long. It’s been 30 years. Nobody say

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Nestor Aparicio  29:10

move the fence back to stop.

Todd Schuler  29:12

I want to get closer. They started winning. I want to get closer.

Nestor Aparicio  29:15

I saw Mike Elias do David Ortiz never hit that warehouse. Come on. I saw Mike Elias do the CEO luncheon about two weeks ago before I left family. And it’s the only time I’ve been in a room with him. He was very magnanimous, gave copies of my book. He wrote me a note. He said thank you, you know, great looks the part but heels. He said from the room. He was very impressive in us very, very impressive. He was I mean, I’ve been around sports executives my whole life. I know bullshitters from not right. He’s up there doing his thing. And he was so honest in front of this group in a way that like they move the fence back. Well, I’m a smart guy. I mean, I might be seen as a friend, right? No one would sign here. Pitchers didn’t want to sign here. And he just was honest about They’re all that BS about architecture and this and that. And yeah, we’re moving the fence back. We don’t really want to talk about what, no, we can’t sign pictures. I mean, like, and he said it out loud even

Todd Schuler  30:10

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in Mount castles face, you know, like, what that

Nestor Aparicio  30:14

there’s a point here when they need pitching and they’re going to need better pitching than what they current they’re gonna need, they’re gonna need better pitching that not just growing them, like the the Ravens in this crazy offense they’ve been running where they can only draft a wide receiver because they couldn’t get anybody to sign up for it. Right? Right. And, and Odell Beckham, they paid him a little bit of a premium. Not knowing who the quarterback is. But the circumstances where the the team moves the fences back has the the citizens pay for it. And let’s be honest, we’re trying to get premium or free agent pitchers. Absolutely. And this, this would make it more tricky. Okay, that’s a great reason to sell it to me that way. Don’t be asked me. Yeah. But finally, a year and a half after they moved the field, the fence back, I saw the general manager literally come clean and say, hell yeah, this is why we did it. And that’s, that’s great. That’s strategic, that’s smart. Doing things that are a little outside the box and explain to me how it works without bsme around having to pull the wool over my eyes. That’s, that’s good business. Right. That’s what they should be doing more of. I’m locking up some young guys for God’s not signing, pitching in the offseason, not getting the team better. And now the team’s here and good. So far. So maybe you go out and deal for a pitcher. Later in the summer, maybe you deal some of these young guys. We hear about Norfolk and whatever. And all of that would take a sour guy like me and make me believe again, but it doesn’t make me believe again, when the owner comes out of the closet born on third hit the triple yelling at the media, often opening line that he’s going to open his mouth. I mean, that’s not a good look. That’s not a fresh look for John, it really isn’t. And, and that worries me now that they’re winning that how are they going to be good at winning?

Todd Schuler  32:01

I sure hope so. Right? I mean, people are

Nestor Aparicio  32:03

good at winning the last time they didn’t sell tickets and sweets. They didn’t help their business dramatically, having been in the playoffs three to five years. And they were really good from 12 to 17. Oh,

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Todd Schuler  32:13

you let your stars walk to in that right? And the chotto. They signed Davis and

Nestor Aparicio  32:19

Jonathan scope is here last week. So it

Todd Schuler  32:21

was it looked great. And he didn’t really look great, but it was good to have I was the

Nestor Aparicio  32:25

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guy on the radio say give me an email you’d get me.

Todd Schuler  32:29

Right I cheered on the Davis signing because it was a sign that they were spending money at least you know, and it turned out to be an anchor around them that probably cost us Machado but but it felt good that

Nestor Aparicio  32:39

Moeller on record saying if they don’t sign Chris Davis, I’m done or whatever, whatever all that you know, and I’m like, Yeah, you know, I mean, they say, people that are Oreo fans that are that have been in the last five years, they’re never going away. That’s fine. That’s fine for the people that are never going away at Lowry goes down there. I have friends that have been engaged through all this process. Now the time and I’ve been engaged enough to pay attention, but engaged in going down there is different.

Todd Schuler  33:06

Well, another thing that hurts is Madison’s contract with the cable companies, some brilliant lawyer right it’s the bobby Binya have contracts right of TV contracts because they’re exclusive to the cable companies. And how many people even in their 40s Especially in their 20s and 30s don’t have cable and don’t have variety, you know, like and so I have cable and I don’t want it there would have had you too. I have it because of Masson and I dare say, as soon as mass and can I have an app that I could buy for 15 bucks a month 25 bucks a month I might ditch cable you know like, but but they’re locked in

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Nestor Aparicio  33:42

and we’re back to Super TV are we

Todd Schuler  33:44

we are taking everything ala carte, and it’ll all come back full circle and there’ll be a bundling package called Comcast and you’ll be able to get it all back again. But how many people have we lost? Not forget, forget the experience of going to the game but they can’t watch it on TV. And that’s that’s just a lucky decision on the part of Comcast and

Nestor Aparicio  34:05

this makes it even more important that they they’re not pandering to Ed Lauer and Don Mohler and they’re finding people like me who want to go who want to be a part of it and not treat them poorly. You I mean, not as a media member, as a citizen as an influencer and former media member. Like, I will smell it when I see it. When I see people who haven’t been going go right and go back and have and have a good time and are okay with the $17 beers and are okay with the ticket with whatever the experience is. But it’s it was painful for me to sit in Hawaii and watch them win and see nobody at the ballpark and saying and saying basically Oh, I told you so because TJ Brightman is running and he didn’t. He didn’t there was astral Zobo and John, John Angelos comes in in life. Who’s making it better off the field. That’s that’s a live online DJ wasn’t when right I gave him all the props in the world because you and I don’t have pictures of us doing that there because they they were so arrogant at that point in the world that they didn’t need us,

Todd Schuler  35:11

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right. But they got us. I mean, when I was a kid, like you said, Cal hip third, Eddie hit fourth, you could pencil that, but I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  35:19

have any pictures of my kid on the field even in 1993 45678 My kid was born in 84. Right Kim was eight years old when Camden Yards open. My kid would love to run the bases and 93 456780 Cal Ripken he’s too good for this is too good for you get there was always once Camden Yards open, and then Angelo’s bought the team it’s awesome them we’re the elite you are the fans stand in line. Buy a ticket for the autograph. You know, there’s a lot of that that’s going on. And players that don’t live here. I mean, Mike border coming out next week. Oh, by the way, next Saturday, I want to give a shout out on Derby Day. We’re going to be up at Adam sheep in the morning for Chesapeake feline Association adopting beautiful cats and missed our cat so much she loved me all up before in the morning we got home today. So we’re gonna be doing that up at Adams cheap and Mike borders can be signed some autographs up there. And I want to give some love the board and I know he does the FM thing and he and I are like friends in the real world. There haven’t been enough Mike bordick Over the last 30 years people to play here. settled here. Live here. A party here. Yeah, Ambassador for here. I mean, Ben McDonald is great to win a baseball game Adam

Todd Schuler  36:25

Jones was a big Oreo guy.

Nestor Aparicio  36:29

And he doesn’t live here. But there isn’t cake

8

Todd Schuler  36:31

is Marcus live might still live not very far from me. Well, I’m AJ Burnett Burnett’s right around the corner. We couldn’t get him.

Nestor Aparicio  36:41

Because we moved to Samsung. I

Todd Schuler  36:43

could I could carpool with Burnett. But yeah, we couldn’t get

Nestor Aparicio  36:47

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that’s AJ Burnett walked in here right now. Nobody would know him. Literally. Right. I’m talking about the ambassador ship. You mentioned L Ron, my God. He was right. Rick Dempsey, right like board is becoming an L rod kind of a character at this point. And he’s the only guy that keep a BJ sir, off married, but came and

Todd Schuler  37:10

needed Hopkins and loved Hopkins. And was was an angel that one course?

Nestor Aparicio  37:13

No, no, but I’m saying they don’t Adley rutschman is not going to live here. I know that right away gunner had none of these guys are ever going to be a real part of the community. So they’re really selling smoke and mirrors in that way.

Todd Schuler  37:26

And that way, if Hadley plays here for the next 10 years, I don’t care where you live. I’m hearing you loud and clear. But

8

Nestor Aparicio  37:31

these teams that used to it used to say Baltimore on it and it meant something. It’ll never be that way again. Therefore they need to be even better at getting you to buy the Orioles Christmas ornament. And have them be a part of your family in the way that we felt that gee, this is their opportunity

Todd Schuler  37:49

to you was another Baldwin Maryland to 1013 guy if I could? Yeah, well, in his latter years. Yeah, absolutely. I drive by

Nestor Aparicio  37:57

showing up at Towson game showing being the present.

Todd Schuler  38:01

8

Calvert hall when I was at Kavanagh

Nestor Aparicio  38:03

is another guy that’s more present. Right. So just being present is something none of us expect that from the baseball. Tonight live here right did for why Hunt Valley golf? Absolutely. When he left the Oakland A’s and he was doing all that. Finding people that settle here. I’m not expecting that. So that’s all the more reason that TJ Brightman has to work harder, right? That’s why I’m saying God I have with the baseball team right now.

Todd Schuler  38:27

Send the bird to schools. Let’s go you know,

Nestor Aparicio  38:30

what, what are they? What are they going to do other than will win and y’all will just come back? Because that that’s not really true.

8

Todd Schuler  38:37

It’s not a little now. It’ll help winning will help. We got to bring people back from the winning well, they’re willing to shake people out of their COVID funk. Like I say, I’m up there. You know, in the north county. I’m just glad to be down in South Baltimore and locus point right and having a natty bow like I parked my car and I was like, Look at this. What am I do and you know young kids love it. I love it.

Nestor Aparicio  38:59

I know you do.

Todd Schuler  39:00

I love this kind of love this neighborhood. I love the feel of it. I love the electric version

Nestor Aparicio  39:04

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or open springtime Draft Day oils. Almost in first place would be Tampa Bay Rays damn Tampa Bay ray goes back to there’s nothing better than a strong storm. There’s no matter no matter what Tampa does the rest of the way that start we’ll get them through the roof and there’ll be rough times to baseball season. Every day.

Todd Schuler  39:24

No. But but it feels good. Again, from the artists perspective to stack a couple of to be able to endure, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  39:32

beat the bad teams, you’re gonna play the good teams now. I think that the pitching is a problem for them. And

Todd Schuler  39:39

it’ll catch up that needs to get better. They need a horse you know, they have good pitching but they need a horse horse and maybe the bullpen picks up with some of these guys coming back

8

Nestor Aparicio  39:48

to the better it’s been been great

Todd Schuler  39:51

Yeah, but now they’re going to add guys with a little little more proven track record like ability and because the other guy I’m missing they used to close game Seems it’s still a few weeks out. I don’t know you got the pressure move along go hey, yeah, but I think they’ll pick that up and, and they have the pieces to deal. I mean, there are like you said, Guys in AAA,

Nestor Aparicio  40:12

I have a farm system they could deal from if they’re, if they’re galvanized to win this year if they feel like they can’t,

Todd Schuler  40:17

8

or even major league players, you know, like, what’s a guy like? What’s the shortstop? It looks great. Mateo Mateo looks fantastic. Like you could package Mattel. And that’s my guy. I love watching them. I’m a Ramon ureas guy, you know, but he’s a guy potentially block and you know, a Jordan Westbrook or somebody like that, that they might say, Hey, here’s a major league guy. That’s electric and doing great stuff.

Nestor Aparicio  40:41

But then we have as we enter Derby week in the Preakness, and even post draft. This is a competitive, this is a compelling baseball team because that’s the whole conversation. It’s compelling, how compelling it is, will be viewed in the city for the city in the stadium for downtown, with people coming to support it. It could be that’s the most important thing.

Todd Schuler  41:06

Right here we’re at the precipice of the greatest summer of our lives, right? We don’t know it yet. And we have to make it happen. The

Nestor Aparicio  41:11

CFG Bank Arena has got Janet Jackson next week and Anita Baker and just had Adam Sandler and Bryan Adams is coming and kiss

8

Todd Schuler  41:19

happened to the arena I didn’t even know it was undergoing a transformation that they put like Earth Wind and Fire Bruce in the Eagles all through the back to back like we’re gonna

Nestor Aparicio  41:27

be down yet you haven’t seen yet.

Todd Schuler  41:29

I haven’t. I haven’t been in

Nestor Aparicio  41:30

8

it. Take it out on the show. sort of interesting thing because it’s sort of lipstick on a pig. I’ve heard that great. They’ve done if you’ve never been there before. It’s very, it’s very respectable. I mean, it really is and I go to a lot of venues, but it is different when you walk in and see how dark it is. And the alcoves I see ever I feel everything about the old place and I’m like what did they do to my my pig? They don’t but I always love the arena so going through it that I went to the Eagles event and I did you know I’m I’m I’m apparently on a frank relishes poopoo list. I didn’t get invited to any of the media events. I didn’t I didn’t walk into the arena until I bought the tickets for the Eagles. And that’s okay. And I get to walk around and but here’s the weird thing that happened. My wife and I buy tickets for the Eagles or wind up sitting down next to the stage in what used to be lower three. Okay, got it. We’re right next to the stage. We’re 20 feet from Joe Walsh. I’m looking at the Eagles setlist and I’m thinking Why can’t pee Dern Life’s been good I can’t Peter Rocky Mountain way. Don’t really want to peed on funk 49 But I gotta pay and it’s fun. 49 So from 49 comes into play, and I’m like, I gotta pee and I run down to go pee and I went down, down. I went down not up right. There was no down there. Right? It was just the floor. The floor. That’s when I went into what used to be function room 102104106 Same function room, that Bon Jovi gave me a hug in the same function room that Jean Aubrey Jaco used to do postgame interviews in with me when I was 18 years old. The seats underneath there was a function room that you probably been under there.

Todd Schuler  43:15

I’ve def been under, but I know what you’re talking about. Right, right. Just a little function

Nestor Aparicio  43:18

rooms under the stands. I went to pee and I went in there and I was like, Oh my God. It’s like a scene out of The Shining. It is this giant, beautiful, modern bar. Oh, yeah. Beautiful pictures. They have Led Zeppelin posters from the 70s and Elvis posters and the Beatles up from when they all played the arena. And they it’s like a lounge area for high rollers. Right. But if you’re, you’re under there, it’s a giant, beautiful club bar. See

Todd Schuler  43:51

if we can before we can rip the tube TVs down at Pimlico and put some flat screens up and put lips. Yeah, laurels. No Castle, right. But it’s great. You feel awesome. You feel like you’re important when you’re there. The big Timonium guy these days too. And they’re doing better and better. We you know, we’ve been into the next grandstands gets rolled over there. Absolutely. But Tommy needs a bigger footprint in that place. Right? That whole grand fan level, right.

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Nestor Aparicio  44:20

But what they’ve done down there is what you could expect a big league organization to do and they’re they’re backing it up. This is what I mean with John Angeles, right? It’s what they say when we’re winning. That’s not good enough, because it used to be more about the community and used to be a lot more than just we win. That’s an arrogant, I mean, that’s arrogant, but the CFG Bank Arena, they put all this money into it and then they say okay, now we’re gonna back it up by booking, Janet Jackson, John Mayer kiss like on and on and on all the bands. There’s Springsteen all that. Now it’s incumbent upon us to go down there. Again, that’s a price point issue, right. Whether I don’t know what Janet Jackson is going to cost me. I’m going to try to go next week. Anita, I love Anita Baker, too. Mother’s Day I’m assuming it’s gonna be a tough ticket you now see it get better but you have to pay for that premium right yeah I mean like you want John Mayer to come John Mayer is not going to be $45 right it’s not it’s nice to have John Mayer and Dan but John Mayer is 200 bucks and that’s what John Mayer is

Todd Schuler  45:16

it’s also yeah price point but also for me like again 12 year old 10 year old like it’s a scary and down pass a little league fields and you know, doing something other than you know, the

Nestor Aparicio  45:28

the Orioles is all you’re trying to do dragging an Oreo games. Yeah.

Todd Schuler  45:31

8

Those are an easier sell than a concert for sure. But you know, well,

Nestor Aparicio  45:35

Todd shoulders here planned out Miller Schuler, if you get in an auto accident you get hurt at work. This is a guy who can help you along with my life a friend Mark Miller, who he’s in cahoots with down here and ASICs as they say, Amen. Anything in essence, you got an ethics love for me anything.

Todd Schuler  45:51

Man ethics, I tell you what, you know, just like the city ethics is it’s fantastic. Boy, it’s coming up a couple of weeks. Yeah. All right. But it’s a cool little town. I mean, our renovation alone on Eastern Avenue you know, we just got a word from the Chamber of Commerce Richard money into our building and like, yeah, then the Navy guys

Nestor Aparicio  46:10

were so miserable when they were doing that, weren’t you? We were great.

8

Todd Schuler  46:13

It was so thrilling. It was such a good thing to be a part of because, again, the neighborhood behind us is lovely. The neighborhood on the other side of the Eastern Avenue is lovely. And Eastern Avenue like to have the look and

Nestor Aparicio  46:26

the blocks from you on the other side Eastern Yeah, across the street behind Jennings. Oh yeah.

Todd Schuler  46:32

By what he’s talking about.

Nestor Aparicio  46:34

8

She shared Sunday steak night at Woody’s I know this because I’m friends with brandy. So yes, sir.

Todd Schuler  46:40

Just there another like business in our area that is taking the time to renovate and put a good practice time

Nestor Aparicio  46:46

we get together. We’ll go to Woody’s All right. All right. Once you get into a lot of things, awardees, you probably get a natty bow but you can’t get a Narragansett we’re down here. Captain Larry’s Mar is going to be our final guest. There’s a rumor that you’re getting some crab cakes for your family. As a rumor. I’m getting some crab cakes. Chris Pike is not here. Vicki August is not here. They’re my two dear friends who love this bar invited me down here on St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve come by many times. I’ve been in here maybe five or six times over the years and the Narragansett sign out in front is so unique to it that I always thought maybe Red Sox fans gathered but no, they’re real Baltimore people here, even though I’m drinking the official beer of the clam. That’s hilarious. Lot of ways you could go you could go with that. She was gonna be having his Preakness party at his house if you want to go up on top on by they’ll have crawfish there doesn’t make any sense. But but he went to school in New Orleans so I guess it makes sense to you. Nothing crab related. Linda Raskin I could not bring this this crab mallet I could open beers with it. Right. But I I would not have any crabs at a shoulder Preakness and we’ll have out

Todd Schuler  47:49

of towners always come in. So maybe like Black Eyed Susan night. You know, you’ve

8

Nestor Aparicio  47:53

ever had a problem crawfish and like a boil. I’ve never done that. You’ve got an invite. It’s legit. It’s really good. Like, it’s good as if I went to New Orleans. It’s

Todd Schuler  48:01

fun. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Nestor Aparicio  48:02

You boil on the right the

Todd Schuler  48:03

8

way that absolutely Billy doesn’t believe. I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  48:07

know anything about this. Yeah.

Todd Schuler  48:10

You suck the head. You break it apart. It’s a twisting motion. And then you can kind of push the tail out. You can feel like a lobster like a mini. I feel

Nestor Aparicio  48:18

like when the suck the seal people come down from Pennsylvania. And we shown crabs and they look at it or like, I’m not touching that.

8

Todd Schuler  48:26

You feel like one of them. Yeah, I

Nestor Aparicio  48:27

feel a little bit that feel. You live a little I feel intimidated in the way when I see people walk into families where I’m gonna be tomorrow, and they see a crab and they don’t know what to do with it. Right. I feel that way about a crawfish a little bit. I really don’t know what to do. I’ll walk you through it. I know how to do oysters though. We’re gonna be doing a Maryland crab cake tour, an oyster tour. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. This guy here despite his great means as an attorney in Essex has an opportunity right now to win up to $10,000 right now. So there’s your lottery ticket. also brought to you by our friends at Windows nation. 866 90 nation buy to get two free five years 0% financing. We’re running into May right now. I got my Windows last August and we just got them. We’re opening them again. The windows are open down here. Captain Larry’s spring is sprung the derby this week, we had a great Derby preview with Todd and of course two weeks from now. The Preakness Stakes we running in Maryland and he’ll be getting a glass with a subpar beverage a beverage that’s not of the same quality as national behavior, right? Absolutely. Alright man. Love you. Appreciate you. Todd shoulder, my dude. Recovering politician practicing attorney and beer drinker philosopher. Is that fair? Fair enough. All right, there it goes. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery window nation. We’re gonna be tomorrow and fade Lee’s Friday morning and then next Thursday in his side of town, Middle River. We’re going to be at the is oyster in Rio. I want to get that right. MC falls oyster I’m just getting used to MC falls iron sights near up near my radio station. We’re going to be Middle River down back river neck road next Thursday. I Mr Weir wn st am 1570 Towson Baltimore Eaton crabcakes one at a time we’re capillaries down a Federal Hill stay with us