The first time Nestor Aparicio attended an NFL game in Buffalo with Mike Ricigliano in the late 1980s, he met then-Buffalo Bisons baseball general manager Mike Billoni at the Anchor Bar for wings and pizza and heard the enthusiasm for Jim Kelly and The K Gun offense. All these years later, the Bills still haven’t given their hometown a Super Bowl parade but these Buffalonians are sure that Josh Allen is going to be the one that delivers. First up: King Henry and Lamar on Sunday night in Orchard Park.
Nestor Aparicio and his guests discuss the upcoming Ravens-Bills game, reminiscing about their experiences with Buffalo sports. Nestor recalls attending a Bills game in 1988 and meeting Mike Billoni, a Buffalo sports legend. Billoni shares his near-fatal bicycle accident and recovery inspired by Jim Kelly. They debate the importance of running backs in quarterbacks’ success, highlighting Lamar Jackson’s performance and the Bills’ need for a consistent running back. The conversation also touches on the unique tailgating culture in Buffalo and their mutual love for sports. They conclude with a friendly bet on the game’s outcome.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Buffalo Bills, Derek Henry, Lamar Jackson, Ravens game, Super Bowl, tailgate parties, Jim Kelly, positive thoughts, Bisons promotions, Buffalo legend, football history, playoff excitement, game strategy, running back, cold weather
SPEAKERS
Mike Ricigliano, Nestor Aparicio, Mike Billoni
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive celebrating 26 years of fun and festivities. It goes back even longer than that. Have you been following our career and you’ve seen no one listens. Everyone hears. I am wearing a throwback Houston Oiler jersey. It is a Derek Henry jersey. I’m doing this A to support Derek Henry and to be the smartest guy in the room that said for years that if the Ravens just got Derek Henry, they could win a cold game in Buffalo in January. Well, they’re going to have their opportunity on Sunday night. My dearest PAL and oldest pal, whose children once dubbed the nasty Nestor doesn’t hail from Buffalo. He actually hails from Long Island. He just adopted buffalo because he went to school there, what he likes to say, Buff State, and met his wife there, but made a life here in Baltimore. Michael cigliano, only five letters, only one name. His wife doesn’t even call him Mike or Michael. He is rasig. What is going on? Look at how good will you look in this bills thing that you got going on? Rashi, yeah.
Mike Ricigliano 01:04
Bill’s, bills graphics, I think, are really cool. Like just seeing the different type of graphics and different type of looks that buffalo fans have at some of the bills bars we go to. It’s, it’s a it’s a great look. And well, they’re fired up here. Speaking
Nestor Aparicio 01:19
of Bills fans. I’m going to tell the whole story. And I literally looked through a whole bunch of ticket stubs, because I was trying to find the ticket stub from the game we went to was the championship game back in 1988 it was beating, you know, beating the pants off of they weren’t even the Oakland Raiders. Then they were the Los Angeles Raiders of Jay Schrader in our shell. RACI and I got in the car. My my seventh grade English teacher’s name was Judy Haig, Judy Edgar. She married another teacher. She they were Buffalonians. We all got in the car, and we went up to Depew. We went up to chick the wild. We went up to Amherst. And rasig says, I’ve got a really special friend that you need to meet. So we’re seeing I’m going to allow you to tell your story of Buffalo. Now, at this point, by this point, you’d already made the earth say, dummy. You and I had known each other five years, which felt like a lifetime to a guy who was only 21 years old, and we were going to Buffalo. It was exotic for me, as you know, to go to a buffalo for the very first time. OJ Simpson, the rock pile, all of that stuff. And you told me you had a special friend. And I met this guy. I met this guy in the middle of Frank and Teresa’s anchor bear right there getting wings. Were six arts all over the wall. You’re like a celebrity. I swear to God. Ahmad Rashad walked in that night and went into the phone booth. There were no cell phones. 1988 and I met this towering figure who, all these years later, four decades later, is a a bit of a buffalo legend, and we’re seeing I want you to tell the story of Mike Balani, who’s about to join us. Well,
Mike Ricigliano 02:53
Mike and we’ve known each other since courier Express days, of course, and Mike was the general manager of the bisons. And Bisons are what in Buffalo. The Bisons are the minor league the triple A team in Buffalo. You know, so and Mike was the GM for it. His nickname is Barnum and Bailey Balani because he is famous for many of the promotions that went on there that were pretty wild and crazy. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 03:20
minor league promotions in the 80s, 70s and 80s. This is the, I mean, they made movies about this, Balani, I think, right, milking cows. What else do we do? We do things. I don’t know if he did that. Bring the San Diego chicken. And that’s the most important question, the very
Mike Ricigliano 03:35
famous car giveaway incident that is too long to tell on here. But it always cracks me up when Mike and I talk about it. But no, he is an incredible buffalo loving guy, a huge Bills fan, and my dear friend and we, you know, we go back a long way with many, many, many, many stories. So, you know, you, I was always interested in hooking you two up together because you had, you seem to have a similar psyche about things. It was 40
Nestor Aparicio 04:06
years ago that this happened to me, 38 years however, long ago. Balani, how are you? I always thought it was interesting. I thought your name was made up because I thought bill, and Bill’s that they named the team after you. I wasn’t sure. You know, well, you
Mike Billoni 04:18
know, really that that is the first receipt. You’re right. I love this guy, and we’ve always tried to get to there, but we will this summer. We’re saying, look at the O’s schedule and let me know when you’re in town. I will get there when Nestor could be there. We’ll go to a Baltimore O’s game. Yeah, we’ll
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
go to faith leaves and get a proper crab cake before the game, especially if the bills win this week, then, yeah, I’ll pay for it.
Mike Billoni 04:43
So let’s start this thing on a correct pace here. When I was I was in my career with the bison ended. I was in a near fatal bicycle accident 32 years ago, luckily, by the Gracie guy, I was wearing a bike helmet. I. So that saved my life. But I’m in, I’m in a hospital for 44 days, after 17 hours of trauma surgery, no phones and no guests other than family, all of a sudden, third or fourth day, hear all this commotion in the hall. In walk towering. Jim Kelly, number 12 is Buffalo Bills, and he looked, he said, Well, honey, what’s going on here? I said, Jim, look, I’m done, looking tubes everywhere. I mean, I was a mess. I said, Jim, I’m done. I can’t and he comes over to me, and he says, positive thoughts equal positive results. And I said, they’re brilliant. Nine, no phone. I said, call my mother. Gets my mother on the phone. I said, Mom, make a sign I want at the end of my bed. Positive thoughts equal positive results. And a sign on the door, anyone coming in here, don’t ask, Oh, why did this happen to you? So I’m going to give you, positive thoughts equal positive results. So don’t say if the bills went Sunday, when the bills were
Nestor Aparicio 05:57
See, we’re Baltimore positive, as you can see here. So,
Mike Billoni 06:01
oh, I see it, but wow, you got the positive. All right, let’s not argue. So
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
that’s buffalo positive. This is Baltimore positive. Is what this is here
Mike Billoni 06:12
to lose, and unfortunately, you’ll have a tough Monday. Listen,
Nestor Aparicio 06:15
I’m old school, right?
Mike Billoni 06:20
Find when my Yankees are coming to Baltimore. My
Nestor Aparicio 06:27
Yankees, listen, let me know who’s pitching for us. Right here? Wants to come back on there with you that night. Oh,
Mike Ricigliano 06:44
this here, this is, this is a photo of French merlis, the the great nose guard for the bills, who has been on my show. By the way, Fred Smith, on your show. He’s great. He’s one of my favorites. And Mike threw my bachelor party right before Terry and I got married. And there was a great video of of smallest and Haslet and all these, all these bills were on the video, tearing up my my cartoons and and I have this poster that I still have
Nestor Aparicio 07:15
treasure, obviously, I treasure you treasure that the way I treasure the the picture of me and Michael Damian, the pop star from hammer jacks that Robbie had blown up over Robbie’s first base everybody laughed at me when he went in. So listen, I just want to set this straight You. I went up and saw the bills go to the Super Bowl. The following year, I went up with you, and I fell in love in Buffalo, if you remember, and the Oilers lost like sort of a normal game. And then the following year was very un normal game with the comeback and all of that, and the oiler blue and all of that. But all these years later, the weirdest thing is, we didn’t have a football team then. And you know, what an old historian AM. I collect these old belt buckles Baltimore Colts like San Diego. These belt buckles are from 1971 and the bills one’s beautiful, like, I can’t find it, if anybody, if you ever see the Buffalo Bills 71 belt buckle, I want to buy it because it has the old OJ Buffalo Bill on it, right from 71 I would just say, like, the nostalgia part of all of this for me is that I grew up into the Colts. My dad took me to Burt Jones. I fell in love with the Oilers. But like, I’ve written two championship books on the Ravens. When I went to Buffalo with you, we didn’t have a team, you know. So like, I’ve lived a dream here, the Super Bowl, ring, the parades, all of that stuff. And then all this week I had Vic Carucci on. I’ve had Sal capaccio on. This week, I’ve had a whole bunch of people from Buffalo on, including you. Balani, Buffalo’s never won, right? And I see that stadium now. I see the stadium coming in all of that. And I just, I want you guys to win. I just want, I’ve begun every segment this week from the day I was up there. The bills made me want to shout and mighty taco and all that fun that I had there 40 years ago. It blows my mind that you didn’t make the playoffs for 17 years. And I just want you to express to my audience, the Baltimore positive audience, what the bills mean to Buffalo. Mike Balani,
Mike Ricigliano 09:14
you got that, Mike,
Mike Billoni 09:16
you mind if I think,
Nestor Aparicio 09:17
yeah, go ahead. What do the bills mean?
Mike Billoni 09:22
Um, I have been around professional athletes, professional sports, either as a sports writer or an executive, for over 50 years. I’ve been in a lot of cities, a lot of places. There has been nothing like fandemonium that began here around the start of the four Super Bowl run. But it really goes back to 1960 when the bills began here at Old War Memorial Stadium. And if your listeners and viewers want to see that, just go rent the move. Be the natural that stadium was all War Memorial Stadium. War Memorial Stadium was in the in the heart of quote, unquote, ghetto. I don’t like calling it a ghetto, but it was in the inner city of Buffalo, and it was wonderful. And then they, you know, moved from there to made a huge mistake. He went to Orchard Park. Should have been downtown, but the fans follow them, but I don’t believe, and, you know, fans are fans, but I don’t believe the pandemonium thing happened with zuba pants and all that, until Kelly and Marv and they started going to four straight Super Bowls that created this whole momentum thing that really has stayed there, tailgate parties, you know, Pinto Ron, who is from Rochester, comes in every game in a special parking lot that they won’t knock down because it will be right next to this year, and they squirt them with ketchup and mustard. You know, lots of it. I wonder how,
Nestor Aparicio 11:01
how does he get does he clean up before he goes
Mike Billoni 11:05
a little area there, you know, behind one of the cars, they’ve got an old panel that they open up, and it’s a grill. You know what? Here’s what I’m going to do for you, Nestor, you’ll be my guest. Um, after Sunday’s game, the following Sunday, you could wear that jersey. I will bring you to Buffalo as our guest to see the bills play Houston, and you could then get the real feel of Bills fans. But the fandemonium now is at a level I have never, ever seen it.
Nestor Aparicio 11:37
Well, listen, if you get me a warm seat on Sunday night. I’m coming up. You know what? I mean? No, not this Sunday. No, not this Sunday. I’m talking
Mike Billoni 11:45
the AFC Championship buffalo. He’s got a lot of
Mike Ricigliano 11:50
faith in the Texans. Yeah, Buffalo versus
Mike Billoni 11:52
and the bills, apparently, yes, Buffalo versus Houston at high mark stadium, with the winner going in New Orleans. And I’m not going to talk about New Orleans until the 28th is completed, because I’m following Josh’s motto of next game up. We want to be one to know this week.
Nestor Aparicio 12:09
Well, I mean, the Ravens beat the salt out of the bills in week four, and I’ve been talking about it all week, but Bill’s got three defenders back. They’re playing great football right now. Offenses on also we’re seeing, where are you on this? Because you’re in the middle. You’ve got all these buffalo friends, but I’ve seen you, and by the way, I get a shout out to Thomas Rhodes over at Zeke’s car. I am literally drinking the tail, as you can see. This is decaf, because that’s what I need to go decaf. You know that we’re seeing, right? So I went over and I bought a pound super decaf. If that’s decaf, this is decaf. This is what I’m doing right now. So you’re amongst nothing but Ravens fans. They all know that. I mean, you wear buffalo stuff 363, days of the year, but you really are a Ravens fan. I wear
Mike Ricigliano 12:54
Raven stuff all the time. I love the Ravens equally. You know, I just I because the This is tough for you. Was really tough for me. It’s easy for my wife. She’s all in on the bills. I’m a very split guy here, but I’m rooting for the bills in this game, because the bills have never won a Super Bowl. So this is I’m rooting for that opportunity. I’ve been to those two ravens parades too, and I sat there thinking this would be the greatest thing for Buffalo just one time. Let let my buffalonian friends and relatives experience you know, you are,
Nestor Aparicio 13:26
you’re, you’re going to literally be rooting against Lamar on Sunday, just because, like, this would be like if the Houston Oilers came back to life in Pastor Renee and Earl Campbell will run it. It’d be really hard for me to root
Mike Billoni 13:38
against them. Let me get reci off the hook here. Go ahead, this thing’s going to watch the game as an interested party. No ruling involved. He’s going to accept the results. Whichever way they go. You can’t
Mike Ricigliano 13:49
win the game for whoever wins, beat the beat Kansas City or Houston as Mike, well,
Nestor Aparicio 13:57
we’re all in on that Saturday buddy. Tell me go to bed Saturday night. We’ll know the outcome on that right
Mike Billoni 14:02
now. Let’s Nestor before we continue. Do you have that coffee and and I’ll take a package of that in our bet that we’ll get to later. But do you have that in a K cup?
Nestor Aparicio 14:12
Uh, listen, uh, Thomas has everything over at Zeke. So reci This is received. Relationship has coffee every Friday at Zeke’s right there on Harford road. Stop by trip the street from Coco’s. I Coco is my crab cake joint too. So when you’re in, we’re going to go to Cocos because it’s right over six house. It’s three blocks from six hours. But if you’re going to the ballpark, we’re going to go to fade lease because it’s two blocks in the ballpark. So we’ll just have to do both. I
Mike Billoni 14:36
just got a new Keurig, and the president of our rotary club introduce me to this. Have you ever seen
Nestor Aparicio 14:43
guy? Crime? I have a whole I’m virtually
Mike Ricigliano 14:47
know that. I’m like about coffee. Now you got to be talking about
Mike Billoni 14:52
the game. Let’s talk about the game. Here’s why I’m so confident. As I said, I’ve seen a lot of. It I put at the top of focused on winning, and he shows by how many rings he has. MJ, no one better than Michael Jordan of being focused and carrying a team to a championship. Obviously, you gotta put Brady in that category. Derek Jeter won my all time favorites. The captain carry the Yankees to him diving into the stands that fires up the front of the team. Man, if he’s going to do that, what am I going to do to go a little extra So Josh, when I saw his eyes last year after the missed field goal, and that put a dagger in our heart, you know, from another missed field goal, and every player said, Oh, wait till next year. Well, he said it with a conviction that I said to my wife, next year could be the year. Then next year comes in the offseason. They get rid of digs, they get rid of it. And she looks at me and says, yeah, right, you know how Who’s he going to go to now, when jet, when McDermott came in and came up with that term, the process, we’re going to follow the process. Media laughed at him every Yeah, right, the Pro, what’s the process? Well, then Josh and the coach came up with, everyone eats.
Mike Ricigliano 16:11
We like that. Yeah, we like that. Everyone
Mike Billoni 16:13
eats what he did. And then this past Sunday, there was an article in the news that I didn’t ever even knew after every Friday practice, before a game this year, Josh goes around the room, 115 115 they meet inside the auditorium, in the meeting room, and he’s got all the offensive starters, backups and the offensive players on the practice squad, and he has his third string quarterback takes notes. He has one of the AV guys running all the plays they’re going to do on first down, second down, inside the 20 that they’ve made up all week. This is our game. Well, all of a sudden he’ll go over and say, What do you think? Do we change it? You like it offensively? You know, what if we ran this guy that way? They make changes, and then Josh and the quarterbacks after that get the feedback, go in front of the OC and the coach and say, Here, we feel we should do XYZ. And they do it.
Mike Ricigliano 17:15
They had the same they had the same thing going when they came here to Baltimore and and the Ravens destroyed them. Mike, yeah,
Mike Billoni 17:22
but that was because of defense. Look at the running back. You got a great running back. I love that running back. Now we have three running backs. We now have a defense that’s fired up. You have von, who got 1,000,005 just for what do you do? A tackle, which is great. That’s good? Well, he’s got a bigger bonus if he wins his third Super Bowl with a third different team. So he’s firing these guys up. You got coupe that’s been in a Super Bowl their focus, and as Nestor said earlier, they’ve got a couple more guys. You’ve got Milano, who now is coming in fresher than ever. Do you don’t think they’re in the defense room this week saying, How do we stop this running back?
Nestor Aparicio 18:05
Well, I mean, they’ve been doing that the whole time. And you know, for me, the that was the part of the bills beating Lamar and eliminating him back at that game nobody was at it’s all part of San Diego before. I guess they were considered la by then on the chargers, beating him. And let’s be honest, when the Ravens got eliminated, the worst elimination the Ravens faced back in 19 it was Derrick Henry was the one doing all the punishment. So to me, the Derek Henry thing cannot be underrated. Mike polani is our guest. He’s up in Buffalo. Uh, rasig is also our guest. We’re talking to Bill’s football here this week. Um, I’ve talked about this this week, and from historical perspective, we’re saying, I like to get your thoughts. Is that fit Carucci on earlier, started thinking, um, about whether it’s disrespectful to Lamar to talk about he needed a running back. He needed a running back when I think about, all right, Roger Staubach had Tony Dorsett, Terry Bradshaw had Franco Harris, Troy Aikman had Emmitt Smith. Now I know Brady had a bunch of different guy, and Brady was just so the game was different. Everything was different. But when I think of accomplished quarterbacks, even if it’s Kurt Warner with Marshall Fauci or even if it’s Peyton Manning with bedroom James, right, I think like that was a missing ingredient that they have with Mark Ingram that I have been saying the loop forever. Dobbins ripped his knee up. It wasn’t good enough. I mean, they were winning games with Latavius Murray in the regular season. But what they have now, what they get off the bus with in this game, is what’s made them a one point favorite on the road on a 15 degree night when they began the week as a one point dog. It’s that the question of stopping them both, and the weirdness of running Lamar 10 times into the Steelers line and to begin the game was weird. I don’t think that’s going to be the K I hope they’re not that dumb, but like for me, that’s what you when Parcells would say, that’s why you lift all them weights. That’s why you say. Derek Henry, that’s why you built the offense around this is to give him the ball 28 times on Sunday night and run and run and run him until they could figure out how to stop it. And I think this game is specifically really weird and different. You mentioned playoff baseball. Balani, I’ll say this playoff baseball with the way pitching is done, the way at bats are done in these weird three game series. It’s, it’s not even like baseball. It’s different. This game on Sunday is a four down game. And I don’t mean like Ray Lewis, 40, no. I mean like fourth and 2345, from almost anywhere on the field. Nobody’s going to want to punt, nobody’s going to want to kick a field goal, and nobody’s going to want to give up the ball, and they’re going to think, like, I’ve got to play. Josh Allen’s like, fourth and four from our own 45 I’ve got to play. Let’s keep the ball. Let’s keep the ball. Let’s keep the momentum going. Let’s quiet the crowd. Let’s Let’s beat their ass four and a half yards. Because that’s going to be the game, to me, is going to be who’s winning on third down and fourth down, after winning or losing on first down, because this is back to 19 and 18 when the Ravens were road grading teams. The running part of their offense is a first down offense that puts you in second and one, second and two, second and three, and then they’re just going to beat your ass, you know, then they’re just going to move chains on you, and Josh is going to be over there with the heaters, waiting to get the football back, and that vice versa, if the bills can chew up brown with Alan’s legs, this, that chicanery, you know, dumb penalties that the Ravens have put themselves behind the chains, that that’s the game to me. The game to me is third and fourth down, slobber knocker. Are you going to get to the change. And that really is about defense. And I don’t know that the bill’s defense physically is built to tackle Derek. And
Mike Billoni 21:49
that’s spot on, spot on. And I’ll tell you, the missing piece of all that, the that scares the heck out of me until right up to the final seconds in New Orleans, is the 13 second coach, will he emerge again? Mistake. You cannot afford a dumb mistake at the end of the game, time outs, bad call from the coach. You can’t afford turnovers, and you certainly can’t afford hiccups on your special teams like they had the last two games
Mike Ricigliano 22:25
well. And the Raven, the Ravens too. You know, both teams have had issues with their kicking game.
Nestor Aparicio 22:29
Neither team wants to bring their kicker out to get 48 yard field goal in this game for the 31 yard line, for the 31 yard line, it’s fourth and six. I just, I’m assuming, like they’re gonna go for it, and if they make it great, they keep the ball. If not, it’s literally a turnover. You know, it’s just here, take the ball and we’ll bring the defense on. Here comes rope one, and let’s go play. I mean, that’s that’s gonna happen five times in this game. Somebody’s gonna make a fourth down stop because and you better make sure it’s you’re you win four out of those five. You better, you better be converting and and you better be doing it, I don’t say on the ground, because short passing game, if zay flowers gets the ball in space, if the wrong player gets the ball in space, it becomes that 70 yard free for all and it’s a seven point. And also turnovers to your point, I mean, and, um, I’ll say this about Lamar because, and I’ve said this a couple times, and I’ll let you guys react to this both. Mike Balan is here with SIG is here as well. We’re talking about the game that I was not down on Lamar. Lamar was there as a 32nd pick because he was, you know, didn’t throw the ball as well as they wanted him to throw it. Didn’t read defenses as well as they wanted in the read defenses. They all believed in his athleticism, but I think my thought was he’s going to run into the wrong linebacker and he’s going to get broken in half. That was always my thought on him. It wasn’t like he couldn’t get better or I didn’t trust him. I thought seven years ago that this mesh point, playing Hokey Pokey with the football, you take it, no, I’ve got it, was going to turn into more turnovers than it has. And I’ve said this several times this week, that if art modell called me and said, How’s the team look? And I’d say art they got a quarterback that’s thrown 41 touchdown passes. He’s only had four interceptions, and he ran for 900 yards. He’s a two time defending NVP, and he’d say, Well, tell me about the running back. What kind of running back Do they have? And I’d say art is only comparable. Is Jim Brown, not OJ, not Earl Campbell, not Well, Jim Brown is how he runs the football. I don’t know. Man, I mean, that’s what the bills have to stop. That’s what the chief the Chiefs have to stop, or the Ravens can stop themselves by getting seven penalties and 78 yards and being in first and 25 or having two picks or putting the ball in the ground. But I’m telling you what this is formidable. This is really formidable. This is as good as it gets from the Ravens perspective, to try to go win a championship with Lamar. Just,
Mike Ricigliano 25:00
just to say this, if the Ravens had Derrick Henry last year when they played Kansas City, they would not have run the ball seven times or whatever it was in that game. They would have committed to the run if they had Derrick Henry then. So, you know, I, I’m agreeing this is the this is the part that the bills have to solve. And maybe is unsolvable, unsolvable. I, you know, I don’t know. Well, it’s solvable.
Nestor Aparicio 25:26
If you, if you, you strip Lamar once, and you stripped Eric Emery once, and you make 2/4 down stops after giving up 60 yards, and you get the ball back. I mean, there, there’s your prescription, you know, for how the bills win, to me, but slobber knockering up, I I am more convinced the ravens, and I’ve seen it, can stop the bills offensively. Ken, then I am convinced that the bills get stopped. So if I had to bet $1 I mean, I guess I bet the dollar on the ravens, a thing I don’t like. And Mike, you can speak to this because you’ve been watching games up in Buffalo all of your life. 15 degrees is 15 degrees, and Lamar doesn’t like the cold. And Lamar wears the jackets and the heaters and all of that and blowing on it, Lamar will wear the jacket out onto the field and play in it. I think if he could, you know, like it’s, it’s very, very unpleasantly cold, you’ll admit that. Mike, right, I mean, and you’ll admit that teams can wilt under that in Buffalo. They really can. There’s no comparing. Well, here’s, here’s.
Mike Billoni 26:22
The other factor of that is it’s a 6:30pm dirt, which means the tailgaters will be getting there 9:10am so they’ll be well oiled by the time you get into the stadium. And I’ll tell you what I as received. Point out with the bisons, we did a lot. We had our motto was, every game is an event. There used to be bills games where, under mister Wilson, great, great guy, they just won the game. There was no ambiance in there. The the current administration has the game day presentation is outstanding. The song they now play at the end. You know, Mr. Bridgewater, what is it?
Nestor Aparicio 27:11
Mr. Brightside,
Mike Billoni 27:13
yes, yeah, it’s, I mean, they
Nestor Aparicio 27:15
want to come up. I’m coming.
Mike Billoni 27:19
Nestor, you are my guest a week from Sunday, AFC champion. Go on. I’ve got a full tour of tailgates, including we’ll get you a I’ll get you as an honorary member of the water buffalo club. Oh, in the water buffalo club, I’ve got
Mike Ricigliano 27:36
my hat there. SIG,
Nestor Aparicio 27:38
I want to see you in that. You know, this reminds me of a Flintstones episode, oh, where there was a special handshake, the acadac Handshake here, yep, I’m more like, I’m more like Barney Rubble, no, no, no, than Fred Yes, yes, yes. Mike bolani is our guest. You gave me
Mike Billoni 27:56
a segue. Go ahead. You said, If you could bet $1 we could be arguing here, not arguing. We could be talking forever. They play the game 630, around 910, o’clock that night. We’ll see the results, and we’ll cherish whatever. But let’s put a little let’s put a little meat on the bone. You and I will have, by the way.
Nestor Aparicio 28:19
You know, in 33 years, I have never taken an on air bet ever, just because it’s not what I do. But go ahead, I’ll play along, and I’ll get you the crab cakes. Here’s another thing, Nestor, I’m going to get you the crab cakes. Whether the bills win or lose. You what
Mike Billoni 28:33
you are going to get them, that’s for sure. But Nestor, here’s another life lesson I’ll teach you. Okay, I got rid of my rear view mirror a long time ago. Okay? What happened in the past? That’s the past. What happened in the future is your future. I live one day at a time today, so in the present, I’m going to bet you, I’m going to send you, if Baltimore wins a order of buffalo wings from the anchor bar, you’ll have them that Monday or Tuesday, and you can have them on your show. We’ll get back on. You can eat your wings and then. So what comes my way? If the bill, when the bills won,
Nestor Aparicio 29:09
uh, crab cakes. I mean, you know, pick your sponsor. Try, you know, listen when you come to town. When you come to town, give me a little thing that coffee. Well, listen, when you come to town. I’ll take you from Dundalk over to Costas. I’ll take you down. And so you have to leave. We’re sick. We can just walk from her six ass. He’s three blocks from Cocos. And then I’ll take you down to faith Lee’s. And then you can just decide which crab cake you like the best. You know what? I mean, I’ll take you up to Cooper’s up here blow your mind with some seafood gumbo, you know? I’ll take you over to Beaumont and get you the the fried lobster tail. I mean, I want
Mike Billoni 29:41
to go back to that Italian restaurant now I was looking in here. Sadly, my wife passed nearly five months ago. My heart to you, Michael, thank you. And she was a wonderful lady, and she I haven’t been to a bills game since last week, and she said, Go. You know, I’ll see you in New Orleans. So in any event, and. He doesn’t lie, and you know, but we’ll get to that later. I’m clearing out clutter, and RACI knows that I had a camera attached to my hand. I’ve got retention boxes of photos, so I’m going through all these photos and of people, and I’ve sent some to receive in the path, and for the life when we were sick. I can’t find them here, but I will. I’ve got them a collection going out to you and somebody. Eric, the ones to you are from my last trip to Baltimore, where we sat in the conference room of the Orioles. Right? Big and Sid,
Nestor Aparicio 30:38
yeah, oh, Sid. You. You were a pirate guy, Pirate farm man back in the day.
Mike Billoni 30:45
Yep. How about this line? We’re he’s the he’s the GM now the pirates, we’re the triple A team. We’re on a nine game losing stand. And I would go in and tell the team, look at just win the home games. I don’t care what you’re doing, and especially the Friday nights. We have what you call a Friday night bash. So this one Friday night, we’re going, we’re getting killed. It’s like 11 to one, and I’m I always walk the crowd, and they’re yelling at get rid of empire. This sucks. And thrift head Jim Bowden, who now is like mister baseball on the MLB Network. So I am so pissed. I get my guy, Kenny, who’s our baseball guy’s guy, and I said, Here, come in here. And I call Sid’s office involved in Pittsburgh, get his voicemail. And I said, I said, Sid, you gotta do this is absolutely embarrassing. What’s going on here?
Nestor Aparicio 31:44
You gotta get me some players. Is what you’re saying. Oh,
Mike Billoni 31:46
man, he called back like the next day, or whenever I got a tasting. I never that. Bob rich had to remind me, Mike, we signed up for this. We have control over everything outside the white lines. Everything between the white lines is Pittsburgh. Listen to
Nestor Aparicio 32:06
one game in your stadium. I think you were the you were running the place. It was 1989 because I had fallen in love with a girl in Buffalo on New Year’s Eve at the Euler game. Right? She she lived, she was a Geneseo State student at the time. We lived together for about a year and a half. Um, and I, go ahead, I was visiting her and took her to a Bisons game in the new ball pilot field at the time. And, um, you know, I’ve seen a lot of baseball games. Mike, I mean, I’ve, I’ve walked out of the no hitter that bud Smith threw at Jack Murphy stadium because I had a flight. I literally walked out of a no hitter. But I’ve only attended two or three, single, double, triple and home run games. You know, in my lifetime, Junior nabola hit for the cycle. The day I went to the game Junior nabola. Oh, I’m taller than Junior NABO, and I’m five nine that junior nabola was a legend for the bisons, and it for the cycle. So I attended a legendary Bisons game, the only time I ever saw bison’s baseball game. So they’re at,
Mike Billoni 33:17
we’re even, I’m only bringing for a bills game. We’re going to bring you back this spring and summer with receive. But here I’m going to send you receive, get me his address. I’m going to send you this
Nestor Aparicio 33:27
book, my seasons in Buffalo baseball. Yeah, the seasons
Mike Billoni 33:31
of buffalo baseball, 1857, to 2020, and look at the inside, front and
Nestor Aparicio 33:37
inside, I see, I see the bison. It looks like a moose. Hey, how many games get snowed out? Do you have to count for that in Buffalo in like, April?
Mike Billoni 33:48
Yeah, they have to come for it. It’s but I think in the that many years I, I don’t think they’ve, we’ve definitely had a snow out. In fact, I was we had a game. We had a game one time with, I think it was when we had Cleve, yeah, we had this preseason game Cleveland and Toronto, and I got basted in the press because I we had a press camera. We’re trying to get a Major League franchise. And I call it, you know, come down an unprecedented announcement the history of buffalo baseball. They’re thinking, hey, breakthrough, hey, it’s a, it’s a spring training game in Buffalo in April at War Memorial Stadium with Pittsburgh and Cleveland. I think it was, you know, the media didn’t take it that great. We call the bed all the lakes. And then it snowed, and we’re gonna play the next day, the field was so wet, I brought in helicopters.
Nestor Aparicio 34:51
Yes, alright, man, listen, the next time we meet, we’re going to exchange Sid thrift stories, because Sid loved me, you know. Like when I when he came here, you know, and I do a pretty good sit if I’m not laughing. But let me, let me see if I can do this now, Michael, I ever tell you about the time I discovered Bara bonds, you know? I never, I’m now, I’m never going to get credit proper for it, but, but I saw Barrett bonds when he was a young ball player. I never seen nothing like now. Listen, I trained him up. I got Barrett bonds. So is that pretty good?
Mike Billoni 35:34
Oh, but then you gotta go. We go deeper. Oh, I
Nestor Aparicio 35:38
go deeper. Hold on. Listen, next. I got it. I got it sitting at Ponce, sitting upon song. Luis, Matos, it’s a five tool ball player. Balani, he’s going to come up. I’m giving you a quality ball player. I can keep him in double A but and the weather, you know, the weather’s no good in Buffalo. Let me bring let me, let listen. Let me bring him over to you and June, let let me let him play down in the salad for for a couple weeks. Is that good? Is that
Mike Billoni 36:07
good? Mister Thrift, can you tell me about the the baseball Academy you created with Ewing Kauffman in Kansas City?
Nestor Aparicio 36:16
Let me tell you I discovered Frank White and Frank White. Willie Wilson, you know, we listen Junior naboor. We had UL Washington. We had him play with a with a toothpick. He took Freddie pop tech. You know, Freddie was a slot ball player. You know, after Freddie cried and dug out, we couldn’t have, I couldn’t take him back to Kansas City like that. John Sherwood, never have nothing to do. Mike Balani is here. Is here on my next I’ll give you my Peter Angelo and talk about being a very available individual. I love you, Balani, but I don’t love you. Sunday at 630 we’re seeing I’m going to love you no matter what. I’m going to love Terry, no matter what. Whoever
Mike Ricigliano 36:54
wins, be Kansas City or Houston, but be Kansas City,
Mike Billoni 36:58
get Kansas City. Can’t go three in a row, Houston will take care
Mike Ricigliano 37:04
of the Texans. You’re you got your jersey. There’s a symmetry to that man, like there,
Mike Billoni 37:09
hey racing. When I come to Baltimore, though, we gotta find that Italian place that we went to without a
Mike Ricigliano 37:16
doubt, and that’s a great story too. So, you know, we’ll do it another time. Well, you’re
Nestor Aparicio 37:20
Italian, so that’s fine. I hope it’s a me cheese. If you know what’s good for you, meatballs. You go with me. You go to me cheese. That’s sort of like my Arnold Mike Balani is a buffalo legend. He’s got Bill in his name, um, Microsoft. Before.
Mike Billoni 37:33
Can you do a cartoon for me with quickly, before we do our thing in New Orleans, with the bill in the name, with the
Nestor Aparicio 37:41
bill. Let me tell you how crazy I am, and because I have her SIG here, I’m going to digress for a moment. My name is Nestor, right? It says so on the zoom over here on this side, on the Zoom, right? Weirdest name ever other than Shylock. Nobody wants anything to do with it. My friends always called me nest nest, you know, whatever. So I’ve like as an adult, most people call me nest my wife calls me Nestor, right? So like Ness rhymes with Wes less. It’s easier to explain to people say my name is Nestor, like less with an N, especially with Chinese or you’re getting a Starbucks, they put your name on it the right way. So I didn’t realize that my name is a suffix Ness, right? So like thankfulness, gratefulness, appreciativeness, all of that nasty net like all of that, but here’s where I screwed up and resig, I swear to you, I know I have your artwork on the back of my infield Preakness shirts. We had infield parties. Remember that? How in the world did I not start calling it freak Ness? Yeah, did I not
Mike Ricigliano 38:48
do that? The boat man?
Nestor Aparicio 38:52
I mean, and here’s the other thing, when I named the radio station in 1998 we got control wkdb Because of my ego, outsized personality, my narcissistic traits, nasty Nestor. We called the station nasty 1570 sports because I was branding nasty at the time. Get nasty the van and all that. I should have been branding the nest nest, because we have the Orioles and the Ravens and the birds, and if I had done anything in my life differently in regard to branding, I would have called the radio station the nest, the nest, instead of w, N, S, T, oh,
Mike Billoni 39:31
Nestor, don’t beat yourself up. What did I just tell you? You’re not listening? Get rid of the rear view mirror. Bring it out today. Start it again. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 39:39
now I’m having you start that, Balani. I’m starting the rumor right now. And let’s get the pinto guy in and everybody that the team was named after Balani. I mean, oh,
Mike Billoni 39:49
man, right,
Nestor Aparicio 39:50
the Buffalo Bills are short. It’s like,
Mike Ricigliano 39:55
yeah, it was named after Mike. Now, I’m now at my because
Nestor Aparicio 39:58
the Cleveland Browns were on. Mail will be named after Mark Brown. That’s
Mike Ricigliano 40:01
correct. That’s correct.
Mike Billoni 40:03
Let me just leave you with this. Alright, the last time the bills in football won a ultimate championship was in the 60s, right? The American Football League. And you’re right. You need a running back. Jack Kemp was a quarterback Nestor who was the running back. I do
Nestor Aparicio 40:25
not know. I don’t know before, wasn’t OJ lucky here.
Mike Billoni 40:31
OJ came at 73 OJ came 34 when OJ first came here, his number with 34
Mike Ricigliano 40:39
I did not know that. Then they change
Mike Billoni 40:40
it to 32 I got a picture of that, but, yeah, it was but Rose, who was 34 lucky,
Mike Ricigliano 40:46
lucky. Looky. Here comes cookie Gilchrist. Cookie
Nestor Aparicio 40:51
Gilchrist. Thank you for that. See, I kept thinking about the Baltimore, Colton Tom Maddie at number 41 running you over back in those days at the run, when
Mike Billoni 40:59
you also come here, like I’m going to take you on a tour of the tailgate parties. We’re going to take you over. And we’re saying you can look up this thing. John, Google, this Nestor later. John booty, B, O, U, T, E, T, he has a museum, a buffalo stuff in his basement. He should have that belt. It is unbelievable. What he has there. Alright.
Nestor Aparicio 41:24
Well, looking, I’m looking for the 71 Buffalo Bills belt, just, you know, B, O, U,
Mike Billoni 41:28
T, E, T, alright. Well, you better link so I can put this on my own social. I’ll get
Nestor Aparicio 41:35
in Monday. But in the meantime, the only boutique you better be worried about, it’s number 22 running you over on Sunday night at 630 bills in the Ravens Luke and Owings Mills received was my guest. Mike Balani, Buffalo legend, we’re getting the crab cake tour back out on the road. We’re doing a cup of soup or bowl for local food pantries. That begins on Monday.
Mike Billoni 41:54
Great move. I’ll donate to that food I worked at the food bank Western New York.
Nestor Aparicio 41:58
Just get to get get those anchor bar wings in my belly on Monday
Mike Billoni 42:02
morning email, I’m going to send them the give to the Saint Luke,
Nestor Aparicio 42:08
listen, blue cheese, never ranch. Nestor 15.
Mike Ricigliano 42:15
Let’s go buffalo. Let’s go Raymond. I love them both. Oh,
Mike Billoni 42:19
8here’s the key, the legend of the game, Sunday, Ryan Fitzpatrick,
Nestor Aparicio 42:27
he’ll make me smarter and colder.
