After some time in Ocean City – and we all have plenty of memories there – we catch up with our money man Leonard Raskin to discuss the ideology of $600 million of free money not being enough to get the Angelos family to sign a lease to keep the Orioles at Camden Yards.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, money, beach, raskin, city, ocean, good, team, plinth, secrets, baltimore, crabs, lived, angelo, friends, scope, work, weekend, orioles, john
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Leonard Raskin
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
W N S, T, Towson, Baltimore, and Baltimore positive. I’ve got the new logo up on the screen the 25th anniversary, I’m tinkering with our slogan whether it’s still alive at 25 alive and 25 alive despite a lot of things at 25. But either way, Baltimore positive is alive and well. We’re back from the beach. We were at Mako and Ocean City. You’ll be hearing lots and lots of that stuff this week as I sat with, I mean, everybody from the governor down to the mayor and senators and delegates and council people and Republicans and Democrats and friends and foes all brought to you by the Maryland lottery where they report a whole bunch of money and earnings for the state. I John Martin and Seth all going on about that as well. We’re gonna be at Pappas next Tuesday the 29th with our friends from window nation, 866 90 nation, as well as this guy and I don’t know what I did with the crab melon. I think I left it in my bag. Let it Raskin is here he is Raskin global. You know, I mentioned you a couple times because you have beach property and Delaware and the tax thing And Ocean City and I had Carl Anderton on who’s definitely on your side of the political fence from why comico county had a long conversation about him driving across the bridge for ravens games, Orioles games, big Baltimore sports guy and a friend of mine as well. And, you know, the whole strip of land and ocean city, and how fit it is and where it is and go in there and the bridges that get things there. I still marvel at it after spending four days down there. And I was just in therapy with bars Billy Cole and you know other people. I’m like it’s Emmerich. Well, I think you know, as well. We’re running around all these parties and doing all this stuff like your friend Michelle, President walls from there goes my hero. And I just think to myself how many memories I have at the beach. And there’s nothing better and it’s almost like a Jimmy Buffett stolen, right? Like the beach is winding down. Kids go back to school, but like a good good time and I’m ready for football. Let it Raskin.
Leonard Raskin 01:50
I hear you so quick, quick beach story a few weeks ago now. I was at a two day conference. It’s a mastermind conference with a group of about a dozen folks that I work with. Once a quarter we get together we we kind of help each other out in business. You got some other entrepreneurs to bounce your ideas off of and hear hear what they think about what’s going on for you and
Nestor Aparicio 02:15
the way I’ve been doing that kind of work for 20 years. Yeah. To every person whoever helped me. Shout out to Jason Pappas,
Leonard Raskin 02:25
you get that great, that great opportunity to hear other people’s ideas. So, so talk at beach after this conference was in Annapolis. Oddly enough, it was in Annapolis and post the conference. There was a couple there. from Wisconsin, they were in from Wisconsin for the meeting. And they were going to do a two night down the ocean Han beach weekend. Get some crabs cracks and Maryland crabs for the first time in their lives. And this is what was studying
Nestor Aparicio 02:55
these they had never been to Maryland like Ocean City’s just never been. Ocean City might as well be Pensacola or
Leonard Raskin 03:02
anywhere or America. And they were these are business owners and they were going to stay at the plinth Plaza. Oh how awesome. And I said to them, I said oh my god, you do I have stories of the plinth Plaza. My mother that was my mother’s place my my it was the spot back in the day when we would jet off during high school college. We’d go to the beach, we’d hang out at the plein Plaza on the patio with the rocking chairs with Paul Revere smorgasbord, down below and the mug and mallet and 99 all you can eat your parents couldn’t afford there you go and eatin and having a ball and watching the people go by and
Nestor Aparicio 03:49
there’s little hallways in the plinth Plaza prove to you that I’ve been busy like you go down underneath it’s like a bitch like Churchill’s bunker down
Leonard Raskin 03:58
and the last and the last piece is you know the I don’t know his name you probably know his name because you know everybody Mr. Jesus sand sculpture man sand sculpture
Nestor Aparicio 04:08
but but that is right there. I pay tribute to boardwalk Elvis. Hey, go on the internet. I found a picture of him July with the boombox up to his
Leonard Raskin 04:18
right hat. Right. Right. And, and and the sand sculpture with hundreds of people that don’t know You know, never been blue, purple, red light. Just utterly amazing. The Last Supper The Last Supper made out of sand is there and I tell
Nestor Aparicio 04:33
you a story. It’s going to cost you my sponsorship with you. Okay? Fully and every other sponsor. So you know, you can’t go down there without remembering every girl every five salutely things I’ve done with my kid things I’ve done with my parents things I did with my father things I did with my cousins. Like I told my friend that and I said if you and I were to go down the in right now we were just to drive slow or take a bus. Let’s see because you It’s storytel that if I had that 40 minutes from the inlet up to 100 and 130 You have to go past Jamestown road. Right? Right. I come to me the other day looking for the castle off of Jamestown road that my friends built for Mr. Copeland just in Dundalk. GP 66 Greek power 66 We’re trying to find the map and the Google Map of the of the castle off Jamestown road. I’m like it’s there. I promise you. There it is right there. You can go up to Jamestown road right now and see it. So I have all of these maps. I was at the Princess Royal or the princess. I was at the bayside 45th And I was saying and like there were electeds there there were people with guns or cars and like all that going on. Yeah, I said I remember when this was built, and the Princess Royal was built in the 80s. And that was going to be that was going to transform Ocean City and it was the four C’s and now I go through there and I just I marvel at how they get enough melt beer ice water electricity. Then it goes secrets and I walk around and I’ve been I’ve toured secrets on the backside with Brian Billick with Layton like, like serious like they have a generator at secrets that powers the whole island of Ocean City that if if a like a storm hits on eight o’clock on a Saturday night, and they’ve got 3000 people in there that they keep their bar tab running.
Leonard Raskin 06:31
Absolutely. I’m talking about business and on the water in a canoe getting a drink delivered delivered to you. Does it get better?
Nestor Aparicio 06:41
Yeah, I didn’t have that. 98 All I have are the sand sculptures. Your block Elvis, right? Yeah. Always the scope piece, right? The little scores shocker
Leonard Raskin 06:49
for of course, do they even don’t do that anymore? They
Nestor Aparicio 06:53
do that? Of course they do that they still do. Listen, my son, I haven’t been living for three summers back in the aughts. He in His now his wife was then his girlfriend. They lived above shenanigans in the shore motel, saying oh tell the Tommy come well admitted that he lived in and a lot of students have lived in and Sapiens family. You my local lawyer here dear friend of mine. Ocean City has all of this incredible, like rich, rich history. Talk to people about it. You know, it’s well and I thought a Batman and I didn’t. Here’s the weird thing. Leonard, I spent 72 hours in Ocean City. I never was on the beach. And I was only on the beach side of the coastal highway one time for a cocktail party for an hour holiday. And every other minute I spent was on the was on the bass side. And not at the bikini. I mean, I just worked. And then I drank it and I left and that was the end. So I’ll tell
Leonard Raskin 07:51
you I have a client who’s lived there their whole lives not in Ocean City with Delaware but but forever. And he and his wife were this is my God. He’s 70. So this would have been 50 years ago ish. renting the umbrellas and chairs on the beach. And he put himself through law school. By doing that in the summer. Well, my son he ended up scoping, secrets and chairs
Nestor Aparicio 08:24
like its secrets, pretty girls and I was going to take a picture that one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen in my life, coming up for scope ease at Secrets at a bar at 10 o’clock at night. And my son did that 15 years ago at Secrets worked at Secrets every night and I thought about my son like the loud music My son doesn’t drink much my son doesn’t really tell you made money humored by drunks made money selling SCOBYs at 1am too drunk bachelorettes wearing it’s all Barbie now it’s all play. So you did 15 Barbies in various pink, lavender make cream dresses with hair.
Leonard Raskin 09:04
I’m all set up. I’m ready.
Nestor Aparicio 09:06
It looks like something out of Scooby Doo. But so did this. It secrets and made a living doing this prettiest girl and I was gonna take a picture of her and send it to my son and be like, I don’t know how you ever had this gig? Right? How did anybody ever buy anything from you? And you were kind of a good lucky 28 year old guy with some rap with you know bachelorettes. But like I should just do an Hour segment with my kid on selling scope he’s it’s secret, because I’ve never talked to him about I’ve never talked to him about the business of it or bad things that happen or fights he saw or crappy saw or any of that, but I I spent three days in Ocean City and I love it and I love the memories and I love being a part of it. Give me the beach thing for you and we’ll get on the politics of baseball. Okay, yeah. Did you do the plinth plaza with your fit because I did.
Leonard Raskin 09:58
You never with family for Emily was too poor. This was during high school late high school college. This was with friends. We so I work. I worked at Murphy Mart, Liberty Road, Murphy Mart and the electronics department I was selling Commodore 60 fours and Atari game systems. The first of the ever computers back in the day with a fine Pong on the cartridge did that Murphy’s have a cafeteria? It did a pretzel, you could get the best soft pretzels in the world there. And so I worked there and Friday night, the place closed at nine 930 and a bunch of us would jump in the car at 1011 Get to the beach to hang out on the inlet. Till everything closed we were hanging out and we’d sleep in the car on the beach.
Nestor Aparicio 10:52
Guilty we hang out Vega There you go. Literally on the 1987 on Fitch shines the light note and says you can’t sleep in your car only fine to sleep in my car we’re supposed to sleep by car What
Leonard Raskin 11:09
do you mean I can’t sleep in my car we’d go down. We just tilt the seat back sleep and then we’d sleep during the day on the beach. And then we’d hang out all night all story absolutely never with the family always with the friends hanging out then we go back Sunday night we drive home. So I
Nestor Aparicio 11:31
was gonna tell you the story was gonna cost me my sponsorship then we’ll get onto the orals of the Ravens because it’ll be fun. Let her ask you this you’re asking global he handles money the American Dream sports fun all that politics. We do it all around here but so John RAF Elite is is a dear friend of mine and shout out to John John’s, you know, making his way through life with his daughter and his wife. And he’s one of my favorite people was my roommate for years at Kane Street. We used to throw parties that certainly would cost me every trip I’ve ever had in my life. If we had tick tock back then, as Lionel Richie pointed out on Saturday, we had tick tock, we’re all in jail as he working, not working. So we went down and I know you appreciate this because this is 1986 Seven age Okay, sure. I got out of high school 8588 8990 I went every year with my friends to chase girls Senior Week. All that right. And we’d always try to figure out a situation we get a condo somebody knew somebody that would let let us rent their condo or they weren’t gonna steal our money for the $100 you weren’t gonna steal their stuff. Right? Right. And we were cool. We weren’t gonna we might have girls in a room. We weren’t gonna throw parties in the room. You know what I mean? So we went down to the airbrush stand right next to Alaska, Stan, dozers, candy, like all that right. And the person would airbrush. You know, whatever you want. Fair. Sure, Nike later, right? She’s fresh. She’s exciting. That was the big song. Cool. Again, let’s see in your week, right. So we got this idea to have boobs. spray painted on our white t shirts. And all of us had six of us walked down the boardwalk Saturday night with airbrush. Boobs. So this got the this everybody’s smiling. Right? So it was just an entree to meet people. You know, of course, no. Shirt. And my buddy John Rath. My wife thinks it’s hilarious, but scary. Right? Right. So I’m like, was the 80s man was like teenage girls, you wanted to make people laugh. I guess it was more of like a comedy thing than it was anything at all. But of course, you know, the dudes from Philly would come down and like try to squeeze you know, like, you always do a defense. So we might not do that. But that’s my story. It’s gonna cost me six years ago, I
Leonard Raskin 13:57
have remind me Remind me next time we’re getting together to bring my scope ease. I still got some scope I have my scope is too. So So I have some scopes. And I guess it was two years ago ish now. My birthday week. One of the guys that I was at the beach in a scope with I guess he took it apart. Shot the picture of the scope. Put it on Facebook.
Nestor Aparicio 14:24
You I did the same thing I have from the summer. If I can if I can find. I mean what do you do you Google the word scopey? I mean, is that what I don’t find your
Leonard Raskin 14:36
Yeah, I have no idea what you’re asking
Nestor Aparicio 14:38
is here. So I sat with all sorts of politicians all sorts things. I tell you what letter that the one common denominator just on federal money and fixing the city and all this stuff? Was the Baltimore part of the Baltimore Orioles? Right? Yeah. I’m sitting with Ben Carson, whether I’m sitting with Wes Moore and I did and the stadium and everybody’s talking about the lease. Everybody’s Welcome my team. Johnny Angelo’s isn’t hiding anymore. Right. And certainly not with a first place team. Does he want to hide or when he’s on ESPN on his phone and drinking a beer and he but when it comes to Kevin Brown he wants to hide. That’s not the accountability that I think we’re seeking here. And on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the Bay Bridge. There’s, you know, palpable conversation about the Orioles on and off the field.
Leonard Raskin 15:25
Yeah, well, it’s good to get healthy against the Oakland A’s. And you look at their situation with 8000 fans last place. And you think, a couple few years ago, there we were. And now we’ve had this turnaround, and 38 40,000 in the in the sands, and a first place team going to hopefully the playoffs and well beyond. And great kids play great ball. And all I can think is I hope they stay. And I’ve hoped this even when they weren’t good. But But playing like this, you think Oh my goodness, they’re playing the best ball they’ve played in years. And it’s the perfect time to up and move the boys. And you want to hear something that made me thoroughly sick, same time. And this is pure happenstance. I think it was Friday night. Saturday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, I think I don’t know what it was. But whenever the Colts played this weekend, I happen on NFL Network, just kind of flipping through the dial and there were the Colts and God knows who play in preseason football. And in the booth was an interview with the local indie broadcasters was ever showing on NFL Network and or say, and they were about to celebrate an anniversary of the Mayflower move to Indy. And he was talking about how he walked into the room and these guys were in there and he told him the deal was done. And in the middle of the night, the trucks were coming. And they were moving the team to Indianapolis and how great the support is, and that they were going to have a big celebration of that event coming up.
Nestor Aparicio 17:10
They did that with Cleveland. I mean, no, I get it. I get it. But that’s what the league that that that’s what the business of the league. I got it.
Leonard Raskin 17:19
Absolutely. Absolutely. And well, theirs was a little more hidden and sudden than Cleveland was, I think. And then then all I could think while I was watching the O’s batter, the A’s was, you know, they want to be Vegas, and fifth inning, fifth inning of the game, the whole crowd 8000 Strong is screaming, you know, Oakland A’s stay in Oakland stay in Oakland. And they’re looking to move to Vegas.
Nestor Aparicio 17:49
And it’s amazing how Masson presents that over the weekend. And there’s no mention of any of that there wasn’t mentioned in the lease. No mention of the lease also wasn’t a mention of the Oakland A’s FACING ELIMINATION on August 28. To write. It was literally their elimination game. It didn’t happen till the eighth
Leonard Raskin 18:05
inning. Oh, Kevin Brown wasn’t going to talk about it because he’d be suspended for another two weeks. Yeah, I mean, it’s just you gotta say that was us two years ago, three years ago, really? 10 years when
Nestor Aparicio 18:15
you peel back the broadcasts it really Yes. It’s weird.
Leonard Raskin 18:18
I mean, you’re not saying anything wrong. You’re talking honesty. You know, look where we’ve come. Look how far we’ve come with the team that’s now running the group that’s running a team that’s in charge. That’s picking the players that’s making things happen. And look where we are from where we were, we were this team in the not too distant past. And look at where we are, and now they’re looking at moving and look at where we are. And let’s hope that that doesn’t befall us. And that’s an easy conversation on the air that just isn’t allowed to be had. Well, it can be had
Nestor Aparicio 18:55
here and it was had on and off the air in Ocean City last weekend.
Leonard Raskin 19:00
He had on the Orioles broadcast,
Nestor Aparicio 19:02
I learned a lot. I learned a lot over the weekend. So I’ll share a few things I learned in Nashville, right? Yeah. Several people came to me to the Nashville thing like, if that’s John’s dream, that’s his dream. That’s Major League Baseball’s dream. That’s their dream. That’s great. They have a little minor league park there, etc. Right. The difference here is there’s $600 million on the table. There’s no state, there’s no group in any other state. And the reason it works in Maryland is because Baltimore is so centric, and you can get David Trone and Carl Anderton and people in Crisfield and people on the Eastern Shore and people even in silver spring in montgomery county to understand like the Orioles are important to Baltimore, right. And like we have, we have to do this mafia thing where we give $600 million of public money to a billionaire just for like to keep the sacred ground here, right. So keep their business here and We’ve already done that with the football owner, the baseball owners waiting in line. In places like Tennessee, they don’t work that way. People in Memphis don’t want to do anything to help people in Nashville, people in Knoxville don’t want to do anything to help people in Nashville. And there’s a whole, like, as much as it might be black, white, East West, you know, Republican Democrat, in some places. It’s, it’s a non starter. It’s a non starter, every California decision, anybody’s gonna step up and save the Oakland A’s, or the Oakland Raiders, or the San Diego Chargers are on and on and on and on and on, right, like all of this quasi public money, and what these creeps do to people like me when they want to report truth and what the creeps do to people like Kevin Brown, you know, much like I wrote in my letter to John Angelos things they control and things, they don’t control, the abuse all of it. But in Tennessee, they just gave the football team $2 billion to build a stadium, that they’re gonna host country music events that that they’re gonna use in a lot of different civic ways. And it’s a county bond there. It’s not even a state thing. It’s $2 billion to Cumberland County’s taking on because of tourism. And because Nashville has become the Las Vegas of the East.
Leonard Raskin 21:12
Right? So be there Thursday.
Nestor Aparicio 21:14
So you’re gonna be in Nashville. Stadium, that there’s any $600 million to give to cowboy John Angelo’s. That that doesn’t exist in other places. So this was made very, very clear to me from the governor down saying, like, Dude, you just think we go to Annapolis and defecate out $600 million for billionaires. You think that that just happens in Massachusetts or New York now you could talk about the bills and trying to keep the bills there. But there comes a point where like, there’s only Mississippi and Alabama don’t have this money. South Carolina doesn’t have this money. North Carolina could never agree to bring a team to Charlotte to get people in Asheville and Nags Head in Greensboro. Together Again, there’s Mr. Angelo’s a billion dollars of free money to move his baseball team. So there is a little bit of what I’ve written about which is Dude, you’re one greedy sob.
Leonard Raskin 22:13
Right, right. I mean, right now, not only that, but you’re on top of the world. You’ve made it all these years, via TV, via gate via merch via hotdogs, whatever. And now that stuff is really flying off the shelf. I don’t know the numbers, but I’m guessing Mr. rutschman and Mr. Henderson’s jerseys are are selling like hotcakes, and not only in Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 22:40
Well, let’s start this right here. You and Dennis have given him money this year. I’m watching every night I’m thinking I mean, I’m gonna go to a playoff game or free one way or another whether they whether the Major League Baseball credentials me, which is Major League Baseball has never said no to credentialing me, for any event ever. Major baseball has never denied me going back three years ago to an all star game. So I think I’m going to be there. But we’re all there psychologically. Right? Every hat that I saw on coastal highway, going into parties, it’s Oriole gear, did you know that this is a bad time to screw this up? To your point? Right, like, right, a bad time, right, bad negotiator or to be a bad human? Well, you
Leonard Raskin 23:17
know, one of the things we talk about with clients all the time, is this notion of portfolio envy, portfolio envy, we call it and your mother taught you this when you were three years old, that the grass is not greener, on the other side of the fence, it just looks greener, till you get over there and realize what kind of work it takes to make it green. Or what you could do to yours to make it greener. And people want to compare how their money is performing to all their friends, neighbors, colleagues, you name it. And they have no idea because nobody tells the truth about how their portfolio is performing to anybody else. They may talk about some winners, they may talk about some losers, they may talk about average average, but nobody, a 95% of the people don’t know how their portfolio is performing because they’ve never measured and tested the real numbers and be if they did, they’re not sharing that with your neighbors and friends unless they want them to work with the person that they’re working with. So we know it doesn’t exist. So when people compare and want to know how this did versus the market, how it did versus their neighbor, their friend doesn’t exist. So So Angelo’s has got $600 million in the bag to walk away with and enjoy. And we’ve talked about this with pachadi over the last year, money is money in business is fungible. When the when the PPP money came out, you can only use it for certain things. The eidl money you can only use for certain things. Great. So you use that money for those certain things and you document it 100 million dollars to make other money, right but then the other money that you earn earn, you can use for the things you would have used that money for that you couldn’t use that money for, to make your business better to expand, to grow to sign Lamar, to sign Adly to sign gunner, and and to paint the warehouse white. I mean, who cares? Whatever it is, you can you can use $600 million for whatever you want. And you say, Well, I can’t use it to buy my next mansion. Well, of course you can because you just take money out of the team that you weren’t going to use for stadium improvements because you got 600 million from the state. How hard is this to have a good place? It’s free money. And if 600 million doesn’t buy you enough, shame on you, my goodness, come on, man. This is ridiculous. sign the deal. Get on with it. Walk into the playoffs with your head reasonably high in and out in public, acknowledging the joy that you created, rather than the strife and concern that people are feeling about whether some other City’s portfolio is better when you’ve never been there never seen that. Never done that. And it’s not going to be better. Come on. That’s ridiculous.
Nestor Aparicio 26:06
Chop the mic. That’s pretty good. Let it Raskin I wish I had your crab Mal and after that, but I had the shirt Rascon global you find them out in front of Baltimore positive sometimes you can find them on the beach in Delaware. Sometimes you can find a crack and crabs in me over Costas with his family. kids back to school. Last thing for you just quickly on this. Marlon Humphrey. You concerned about the Ravens? I think you were concerned about the Ravens secondary we’re in crabs and Humphrey was standing up right at that point. Yeah, he
Leonard Raskin 26:30
was standing up and playing, playing with a hurt foot. I don’t know what it is about his foot. Jonathan Ogden had a foot problem kept him out for quite a while that was a toe. We’ve got. I think we got what two or three corners hurt. That’s not good out of 470 5% down is not a good portfolio return. Not a good time. So they brought in a guy and they got a chance. You know, look, Eric’s gonna go out and get another guy. They’re gonna get the guy for the $20 million guy. No, no, no, but you gotta you gotta have backup till the $20 million guy comes back and you hope they’re telling the truth? That it’s a couple few weeks, and he’ll miss the beginning of the season and won’t miss the season.
Nestor Aparicio 27:12
I’m quoting you that you hope they’re telling the truth.
Leonard Raskin 27:15
Yeah. Hey, that’s all you can ever do. Right? That’s all you can ever do. Because when you know they’re lying. Right? Well, then, you know, but here you don’t know unless you’re his doctor. Right? I don’t think his doctors talk. Oh, if time will
Nestor Aparicio 27:27
tell and I you know, the fact that they’re hopeful. Good. That makes me hopeful if that’s what they want us to be as hopeful right? Bless us. We’ll see. We’ll see if he’s back on the field middle of September into September. Because that’s really, if he’s not, you know that and if he is even then you’re like, you know, how tender how quick you’re rushing back. Right. All those questions will be there as well as for Lamar, and we learn nothing from this fake football letter. Raskin is here. He learns a lot about money and can help you live your American dream, maybe teach you a little bit more. You can learn more Rascon global.com. You can also find out at Baltimore positive and maybe even next week at Pappus your favorite crabcake we’re gonna be Danek Glenburnie with Anna Rhonda county executive Steuart Pittman, who I did not sit with but I did run into over the weekend. I’m looking forward to a visit with him down in Glen Burnie let it rest up. We got a long homestand here we got football right in the right area headlamps here. We’re two weeks out on the Houston Texas good thing is starting to get Houston and get get off to a good start. That’s
Leonard Raskin 28:24
it. That’s it get that Ohio State quarterback in their sights and sack the rookie. He was he was great in Ohio State but it’s time to sack the rookie as we always do.
Nestor Aparicio 28:34
You’re only a Buckeye for a limited time. We will be datapath brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have these to give away in the bar right oh Ritchie highway, the 50th anniversary of the wishbone and I pick pick appreciation and Mayor lottery and our friends at window nation for sponsoring us back out on the road. The Maryland crab cake tour rolling into September will be fadeless on the 15th of September to kick off football season as well. I am Nestor we are W NSTA in 1570, Towson Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
