We’re not the only ones who loved the late, great Ernie Accorsi. His roots in Hershey and love of Baltimore sports and his journey through Art Modell’s Browns in Cleveland to the Giants of New York and George Young led him to New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro, who joins Nestor to share stories of their mutual sports passion and friendship with one of the greatest guys we ever met…
Nestor and Mike Vaccaro reflected on Ernie Accorsi’s career, relationships, and lasting influence across Baltimore, Cleveland, New York, and the sports media community.
Accorsi Legacy
- Mike described Ernie Accorsi as an unusually accessible, thoughtful source and friend who loved sports history, baseball, and conversation.
- Nestor shared how Accorsi provided him a ticket to the 1987 AFC Championship Game and remained a trusted personal connection.
- Both emphasized that Accorsi combined strong football expertise with broad relationships and genuine interest in people.
Sports Concerns
- They discussed baseball’s labor uncertainty, franchise valuations, potential fan disengagement, and the Orioles’ difficult season.
- Mike argued that baseball risks losing younger and less patient fans if labor disputes damage the sport’s momentum.
- They also examined the Giants’ embrace of Jackson Dart, expectations surrounding John Harbaugh, and the changing relationship between coaches and media.
- Will baseball preserve the urgency and value of its postseason without expanding the playoff field further?
- Host the Maryland Crab Cake Tour at State Fair next Friday the second, with the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and Farnan and Dermer. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Track down Mel Kiper for a conversation about his stories and relationship with Ernie Accorsi. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Ernie Accorsi
- Nestor and Mike Vaccaro shared memories of Accorsi’s accessibility, warmth, sports knowledge, and Baltimore connections.
- Nestor recounted Accorsi arranging his ticket to the 1987 AFC Championship Game.
- Mike connected Accorsi’s career as a sports writer, public relations executive, scout, and general manager to his broader influence.
Baseball Outlook
- Discussion covered the Orioles’ poor season, the Yankees’ postseason prospects, and baseball’s uncertain labor environment.
- They questioned whether owners’ focus on franchise valuations and cost certainty is weakening the fan relationship.
- Mike warned that another playoff expansion could guarantee a weak team a postseason berth.
Media And Football
- They discussed restricted media access and the treatment of longtime sports journalists.
- Mike described the Giants’ reception of Jackson Dart as a premature coronation driven by fans’ desire for relevance.
- They compared expectations for John Harbaugh in New York with the changing power balance between coaches and media.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. We are positively into the NFL season as we speak. The Ravens are headed to Rio de Janeiro, so we’ll have some football action. Luke will be out in in Owings Mills. I’m going to be at State Fair doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by the Maryland Lottery. I will have the Kiss Face Bird. It is our 28th anniversary, so we’re celebrating Kiss and Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, amongst other things, as well as football season itself. Our friends at GBMC, as well as Farnan and Dermer, they are the comfort guys sending us out on the road. We’ll be at Pizza John’s, eating probably French fries and gravy because I’m just vibing it, want to make my my doctors angry at GBMC. That’ll be next Friday the second. So we’re gonna be doing some baseball this week, some rock and roll, and I don’t know, man. I’m getting old. It’s it’s our 28th anniversary. It’ll be my 35th year on the radio on December 13th when Kenny Albert and I started this thing together here. And there’s always some pathway through New York for all of us, whether it was me being syndicated 25 years ago and broadcasting from the window at Mickey Mantles. So I know all of these New York people, and Ernie, of course, he died this week. And this happened in the middle of the football game for me on Sunday, and I literally did something I never do. I paused a Ravens game in progress because I lost my mind. I just like got up. I’m like, I got to find a picture. I got to make a memory. I got. I’m not gonna let this stand. And lo and behold, because of the algorithm, other people who loved Ernie Acossi as much as I did showed up on my Facebook. And one of them is the very decorated, legendary New York columnist from the New York Post, Mike Ficaro, joins us. Last time you were pimping a book, dude. But anytime I touch someone and someone touches me, and they and we lose them, and I go looking for the old conversations, the tapes, the pictures, and Ernie has suspected. I mean, I’m gonna cry during this one because Ernie and I were were we had some moments over the course of time, but I always forget that I didn’t own him. Everybody owned Ernie. The Browns owned Ernie. The Colts owned Ernie. You know, old Colt Baltimore Colt people. Bert Linhardt, whose dad Tony Linhart. You know, anybody in that family of those places, and certainly the New York Football Giants at the zenith and losing the Super Bowl in 35. I’ll get my ring out in a minute, Mike. How are you, man? I I saw you love up Ernie, and I thought old heads like you and me had real relationships with these people, and they weren’t just guys that picked football players. They were people we liked, and they liked us. And in Ernie’s case, he was an old sports writer. He was one of us, right,
Mike Vaccaro 2:39
Nestor? It’s great talking to you as always, and yeah, you know, I guess that’s part of it. Like, I mean, I don’t want to minimize losing somebody that we both considered a friend and a sounding board. I know for a lot of a lot of years is somebody who would just just was great, good company. But you’re right, there is something to be mourned about a time when guys like you and I can actually make lasting relationships with the people we cover, and that’s just not something that’s possible anymore. And in a in a world where access is limited and people are are very careful about who they talk to and how they say things, and Ernie was the exact opposite of that. Ernie was a guy who just got on the phone like with anybody else you would in this world. You know, a regular guy who happened to have about a million interests that he was conversant in, and if he happened to share any of those interests, he could keep you on the phone for a couple of hours because he wanted to talk about them, and he loved talking to people. He loved people with similar interests. He loved people with divergent interests too. I mean, he just liked being around people, and you know he’s a dying breed, and you know I mourn as much for that as for the man himself. Although I’m, I’m still you know mourning heavily for the man himself because he was such a such a good man and he lived such an amazing life.
Nestor Aparicio 3:55
Let’s talk about your relationship with him because I’ll have an opportunity, and I’m going to try to track down Mel Kiper, who you know jumped in a car with him and went to Hershey and became Mel Kiper. And Mel’s told me that story because I know Mel. And off the air, and and I don’t think Mel’s been on my show in 30 years. He had an exclusive with BAL for years. ESPN. I mean, Mel and I don’t do this what you and I are doing publicly. But I want to try to find Mel because I think Mel’s stories for Ernie will make me cry more. When’d you meet Ernie? I mean, I guess let me let me guess here: assistant GM Giants, or maybe even GM Browns. Maybe maybe even before that. I don’t know. But your job would be that he became George Young, another Baltimorean, the the great curmudgeon schoolteacher George Young, who loved me and scolded me every time he saw me. So I smile when I think of George. I hear both of their voices too, their accents, you know, the way they spoke, their cadence, the the richness and the the tonality of their voices. And and Ernie, I would think, became the assistant. The Giants sometime I don’t know man 95 six when he got sick of Angelos he came work for Angelos for five minutes he tries
8
Mike Vaccaro 5:06
I know that that that had to be something special well he loved baseball he
Nestor Aparicio 5:10
loved baseball right like
Mike Vaccaro 5:11
yeah of course his dream was always to own a minor league team and you know his dog’s name was Mantle and you know all that stuff he was a baseball guy
Nestor Aparicio 5:20
don’t give me all that stuff because my audience-I don’t even know this ish. I didn’t know his dog was named Mantle. I just knew he loved baseball. And I know when I got together with Ernie, we talked about John Stebman. You know what I mean? We we didn’t talk about Jason Sehorn much. Although the tapes I found are all football stuff. But like when we got together, it was never how the Ravens look, how the Giants look. It just never was. It was, hey, what’s going on with the Orioles down there? You know, place is emptying out. Angelo’s wrecking that place. You know, it would be more that kind of stuff. You know, because he loved baseball. That’s what I know about him. You know stuff I don’t know about him.
Mike Vaccaro 5:54
You know, it’s interesting, Nestor, because my relationship with him, I can trace back to another man of his ilk, and another guy who’s no longer with us, and his kind is very rarely with us anymore. Marty Schottenheimer, who I covered for the the year I was in Kansas City, Marty and I became very, you know, close, and I had a close working relationship. I won’t say we were friends, but we had a very good working relationship. And so when I came back home to New York, and then I got the general column around 9899. Marty was nice enough to call Ernie, who he of course was very close with, and vouched for me and said, you know, if this guy calls you, you should you should trust him. He’s a pretty he’s a pretty good guy. He’s one of us, as Marty was fond of saying, and and so with that kind of stamp of approval, I kind of had an entree into Ernie’s world, and of course, it takes about you know 15 minutes of your first phone call with Ernie before you realize, oh yeah, this is a guy that I want to not only use as a source and as a as somebody I can put in the story, but somebody that I want to be able to talk to and get information from, and such so began a long relationship that you know that you know extended long after he was actually the GM of the Giants. I mean, whenever there was a football question or a baseball question or a history question or any kind of question that I really wanted somebody with knowledge, I would call Ernie and say, “What do you think about this? And you know, he knew that I wasn’t calling to quote him. He just wanted, you know, there are guys like him. You know this Nestor. There are people you’ll call in sports. You just want to hear what their opinion is to know if the opinion you have, you know, can hold water. You don’t necessarily want to steal their opinions, but you want to say, “Look, only I feel this way. What do you think? Well, the wisdom
Nestor Aparicio 7:38
of any columnist is formed from great judgment, great sources, impeccable information, and then some sense of history and future to put it together for listeners and readers to say this is why something’s leaning in that direction, right? Like that’s what makes any of us who are good at what we do good at what we do.
Mike Vaccaro 8:00
And the thing of it is, you know, he and I had one absolute shared love, and that was history. And he loved all things history, sports, out of sports, just everything. I mean, he was obsessed with history, everybody as much as I was. I wanted, I think that was the one who turned to mind at newspapers.com, and I think I lost him for a couple of months because I think he just went into the kind of you know deep dive of what were you know rabbit holes that I always go onto with archive sites like that, and but but we had that shared love of history, and so whenever I wanted perspective on something, I used to joke, and I’m like I said, you know you’ve been around a little longer than I have, so I know about things, but you lived through things, so tell me what this was like, and of course, and it wasn’t just the Johnny Unitas stories, and it wasn’t just the the stories of being just this remarkable gadfly in sports where he was around everything. He was kind of the zealot of football, but it was just an understanding and appreciation for all things history, with a smart opinion about things. I mean, he would he would tell you first he wasn’t always right with his opinions, but they were always smart and well thought out, and so those are the kind of voices that you look that that you seek out when you’re a radio commentator or a newspaper columnist, and you want to make sure that your opinions are are at the very least well thought out and reasonable. And you know, Ernie really taught me a lot about that.
8Nestor Aparicio 9:20
Mike Vacaro is our guest. He is a decorated columnist in New York, New York Post. I didn’t know you were Kansas City. Where else did you work? I had Kravitz on a couple weeks ago. I forgot he was in Denver. Like you know, you guys are a little bit in that industry. Like Eisenberg wrote here from Dallas, went to school in Philly, thought of as Baltimore. Rosenthal was our guy until he wasn’t anymore. You know, so guys move around. This has just always been my place, and that’s just weirdly unique to me. But where else did you write?
Mike Vaccaro 9:46
So I started in a place called Olean, New York, which is where I went to college at St. Bonaventure. Then I spent a couple of years at Fayetteville, Arkansas, writing college about the University of Arkansas. That was fun for two years. A fish out of water. I sent all of those. Resumes,
Nestor Aparicio 10:00
dude. I found all the rejection letters when I was at the Sun in the ’80s. I I got offered jobs in Appleton, Wisconsin, Anchorage, a lot places I could have gone and had a whole different adventure in life for $14,000 a year, and you know what I mean, like in 1988. But I stayed here. But many of you went, and just the journalism side of this, and all of the sports writers, and how the golden age is crumbling in front of us as the Bills ban John Murphy from the press box in Buffalo. It’s insane. I haven’t had a press pass in five years, and I’m doing okay, Mike. I’m going to Brazil to see Teddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, not to see Lamar Jackson this week. So
Mike Vaccaro 10:37
I’ll sing all
Nestor Aparicio 10:38
the words to YYZ. I know them all. So anyway, you know, for me, the sports thing’s interesting. But like people like you that get around the relationships you carry, people like me are like, “How do you know Barry Trots? I’m like, “Dude, he coached here. Doug Mcclain coached here. Hockey. They’re like, “There was hockey in Baltimore. I’m like, “Yeah, there was hockey in Baltimore. Like it, but people don’t even realize all of these moving parts of sports. And you being in New York, dude. I like the Ernie thing doesn’t shock me, and it doesn’t shock me that Ernie had a great friend who was a sports writer in New York of your era. I bet you know Lupica would have some. Everybody had a go at him, right? Because he was there every day during an era that was different. I mean, I knew Jim Fossil really well because Jim came and worked for Brian and Jim, obviously with Ernie. So it became, oh, you’re Ernie’s guy, you’re my guy, and Ernie became my guy through John Steadman, which speaks to sports writers, right, right, and the venerable John Steadman. But Ernie wanted to be a sports. Ernie might had a job with John at the News American at some point. Then Ernie was with the Colts as the PR guy. Then Ursay shows up drunk, moves the franchise, and in 1986, I’m 17 years old. I have been working in the industry two years, Mike. I bit the News American and closed it down, and I’m now at the Evening Sun. You knew Phil Jackman, of course, right?
Mike Vaccaro 11:58
Sure.
Nestor Aparicio 11:59
Phil was my crazy ass uncle, his daughters are crazy ass Seahawks fans, and we have a great time. Hi, Michelle, who runs the National Kidney Foundation of all things. So Phil was a crazy uncle to me, and I’ve mourned losing him the last couple of years as well. As we talk about all these cool people, but this is how it ties together. I left the News American and went to the Sun. John followed. News America went out of business six months later. The Cleveland Browns were playing the Denver Broncos in an AFC Championship game. I had scored Redskins tickets in Soldier Field and sold them on the Washington Post in the classified section for a couple 100 bucks. Got some money. I didn’t want. I wasn’t a ticket scalper. I wanted to get the money, and I got a ticket on United Airlines on a six a.m. flight on a Sunday morning with Phil Jackman to fly to Cleveland, Ohio, where was was effing exotic to me, Mike. I’m 17 years old, and I’m flying to Cleveland to go to the AFC Championship game with John Elway and Bernie Kosar, and we had lost our football team, so I’m at the paper. I’m going with the columnist from the Evening Sun. I’m the agate clerk, but the hockey writer, but the rock and roll guy by day. So on that day, that Sunday morning of what became known as the drive, I flew with Phil. Phil sat with Kevin Byrne and probably you and everybody else on the top of the the Cleveland Municipal Stadium press box in the top, and that week I wanted to go to the game, but I just needed to get a ticket. And Steadman says, “Call a Corey, I’ll call a Courcy for you. I’m like, “Just call Ernie. Call Ernie. I’m like, “John, you want me to call the general manager of the Cleveland Browns the week of the AFC Championship game and ask him for a ticket, he’s like, “Call a secretary, Sheila. Tell him you’re John’s guy, and he’ll put she’ll put you right through. God is my witness. Fifth floor, Baltimore Sun. Pick up the phone. Ernie answers the phone. Hey, Nestor, hey, you’re John’s guy. Yeah, yeah, Aparicio, yeah, Louis, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’ll leave you. I’ll leave you a ticket. It’s yeah. It’s it’s $23. Give the credit card to Sheila. I fly out with Phil. It’s 742 in the morning. We’re in the RTA taking the subway in from from from Hopkins to see the team we were going to steal eventually and become my team, Right, and the first thing we do is we land in Tower City, right, with Ralphie and the Christmas Story, and we come up, right. It’s beyond Christmas; it’s january 6 or whatever the date. You can look the date up. I mean, you can you can find the date of the drive pretty easily. And Jack, when we walk out, and I know you know this because I know you’ve traveled the world. The first thing you see when you get to Tower City, is that giant church that looks like it’s been imported from like Munich? Right. And Jackman says, “Ye heeven, we’re gonna go to church. Hey, Phil, we’re going to church, dude. 8 a.m. mass. We got this. I got this figured out. We’re gonna go to the mass. We’re gonna go down the hill, and then the stadium’s right, right over here. And like, I had a ram. Cleveland was the most exotic place on earth to me in 1987, and to be there for an AFC Championship game between the Browns and the Bronx, and it turned out to be the drive game. And Ernie, of course, he left me a ticket on the 50-yard line. Now it was in right field in the stadium. I was 15 rows up. I still have the ticket stub with the brown helmet on, no logo, and we stole their football team. And I have this memory of watching Elway in front of me as a 17-year-old kid who wanted. I wound up going to 27 Super Bowls, so bless me. But like on that day, it was the greatest, the greatest thing I’d ever seen in my life. And Ernie made it happen, and then from that moment forward, I became the radio guy, and the bah bah bah bah.
8Nestor Aparicio 15:47
And then he’s at Super Bowl. Sit down. We’ll talk for an hour. Call me anytime. You need you need perspective on something. Call me a rule change, turf. I you know the conversations I had with him publicly, Mike. But I just needed to tell that story to somebody, and that’s probably why I brought John because Ernie was just a special, special man, and you know. And then after that, I remember I had lunch with him. I would call him when he worked for the Orioles, the five minutes. Hey, come on down, we’ll get some lunch. We went had Chinese food down to just talking about things because that’s the way Ernie was, man. And to lose a guy like that, that’s we’re not going to replace that, Mike.
Mike Vaccaro 16:22
It leaves a vacuum, and it makes you wonder. You know, just hearing that story, Nestor, and you know we’re two guys of the of the 1000s who knew him and called him a friend, and people that he was in contact with. You wonder how he was able to survive on only 24 hours a day, because you know he had hundreds of people in his life who wanted to talk to him once a week, or once a month, or you know that that that’s and then he wanted to talk to them. You wonder how he ever slept because I mean he probably used all of his waking hours, you know, talking to people, influencing people, and of course, oh by the way, and the thing of it is, it’s one thing to be a good guy, but he was also really good at his job, you know. I mean, brought the he brought the the Browns to within the doorstep of the Super Bowl, but the Browns had never been, and he and he he left the Giants ready to go to to the Super Bowl the year after he retired. I mean, this is a guy who was very good at his job. I’ve read some of his old stories for the Philadelphia Choir and other places. He was a very good sports writer, you know. In fact, he got a kick out of it because what’s I told you about Newtickers.com. One of one of the things I did when I was on there one day was I collected like 15 bylines from Ernie Acorny at his various stops through the years, and I sent it to him, and he was like, “This is great. So, so it’s like, and that’s the and that’s the thing. I mean, you know, there when when you lose somebody you care about, obviously it’s going to leave a void. But this guy was the center of a lot of people’s, you know, enjoyment of sports and understanding of sports, and that leaves a vacuum that’s almost impossible to calculate.
Nestor Aparicio 17:54
Mike Caro’s here. I don’t know if we got more on Ernie. I mean, I could tell you about how he pulled me up at Stedman’s funeral and pulled me outside and got me collected because he was just, you know, he was the good. I I’m thinking, did anybody ever have a crossword with Ernie? I’m sure he screwed somebody on a trade someday or something like that in sports. But, but I mean, I’m sure he won some some sporting bets, and you know, I I got that player, I picked that player in that draft over that guy, you know, I’m sure it was a little bit of that, but I mean, I can’t think of a guy that would walk through Radio Row that just everybody liked, like Ernie Accorsi in the sport of football, from broadcasters, owners, players, former players, just in every town, he knew people everywhere because, like you said, he took Marty Schottenheimer took him to Kansas City and found you because that’s the way the web worked back then.
Mike Vaccaro 18:46
That’s the way the web works, and yeah, there’s no there’s there’s nobody comparable to him in any aspect of sports anymore. He was unique because, like you said, you know he was a football guy, but he wasn’t limited to football. And in fact, as much as he was was immersed in football, I mean, he still preferred baseball. Baseball was still his favorite sport. He’d be the first guy
Nestor Aparicio 19:05
reading your Steinberger book, right?
Mike Vaccaro 19:06
Well, and I made sure he got a copy in his hands, and I was actually looking at this. It’s very poignant. I mean, one of the last texts I received from him was him telling me how much he enjoyed that book. So yeah, he actually came to to a book launch I had about you know 15 years ago, just to hear you hear you know it wasn’t even like I invited him. I just there was there was a he was out there and he showed up and I said Ernie, what are you doing here? I was like, well, you know we got a sports week I got to read it so I might as well pick it up. I knew I could come see it, and you know of course he was the best part about that night is that you know I was I was the so-called you know star focus of attention, and all anybody wanted to do was talk to Ernie Forsy because that’s where all the good stories were. So he was he was something else, and he was you know it was a privilege to be his friend. But it was really it’s really wonderful to see just how many people he touched, and you talk about people that he had that whoever had a bad word to say about. I never met one, and if any of them exist, I guarantee you they’ve been quiet the last couple of days because it’s it’s it’s a real loss for a lot of people.
Nestor Aparicio 20:08
We’re celebrating Ernie Acossi, who was there in Owings Mills when Ursay packed up everything and took it away. He was there when the Elway Drive happened and made me there. He was there when Byner fumbled. He was banging around. You know, when Art Modell was about to move to Browns, and Belichick came in, and then he came back and worked for the Orioles. Then he worked for the Giants with a Baltimore guy and George Young through all of that. So I mean, there’s just, I mean, Hershey, Pennsylvania. I just feel like Baltimore. You know, Ernie felt like a Baltimore guy to Baltimore people. I promise you that. If you ask me or Mel Kiper, and we’ve done okay for ourselves around here for 40 years of doing this, we feel like Ernie’s a Baltimore guy, right? I mean, and and any Giants fan would say he’s ours, kind of sort of, right?
8Mike Vaccaro 20:52
Yeah. Well, Ernie would say he’s a Baltimore guy too because he grew up worshiping the Colts. I mean, yeah, my favorite the favorite melding of my world, Nestor, is that you know I I not only love the movie but I’ve written you know extensively about Diner. I know that’s a that’s a and and you know Ernie was the guy who who helped Barry Levinson create the Colts quiz that Ada gave his fiance. I mean, and the larry’s part about that was you know Ernie told me that one time and he was like, and oh by the way he’s like yeah yeah I did that but then we begin to myself like rewind. Talk more about the Colts quiz, and you know it’s been a great it’s been a great privilege of mine to also become friendly with Barry Levinson. And so I tell I call with him. He’s like, oh yeah, his Colts quiz was a lot harder than the one that Eddie gave that Eddie gave Elise because it was just there was like 100 it was like 100 different questions I could pick from, and I picked the ones that that I think I thought it might might translate better to a movie quiz. So I mean, you know, this this is the kind of life we’re talking about. And you know, I was always that that was always one of the great things for me is that you know probably one of my two or three favorite movies of all time was aided along by one of my two or three favorite professional people of all time.
Nestor Aparicio 22:00
Yeah, I get together with Ernie. Of course, I couldn’t talk about the drive and thank him for the ticket because he didn’t want to talk about that. Certainly did not want to talk about Super Bowl 35. He
Mike Vaccaro 22:10
could talk. He could talk eloquently about Super Bowl five.
Nestor Aparicio 22:14
Oh yeah,
Mike Vaccaro 22:15
and you know the best part about those days in the NFL is he would talk about you know he was the PR director, but it was a very small shop. So you know he was also asked to be a scout. That’s how he. That’s how. That’s how Heming Young became so close, because you know everybody was asked. The ticket guy would go out and scout, and would be offer his opinion. I’m not saying that that that McCormick and the rest of the guys who ran the Colts necessarily listened to everything they said, but these guys were all in. They weren’t just you know writing press releases. I mean, they were being involved in in in trying to figure out how to get the the Colts to win the Super Bowl. So, you know, he was a real part of that. And that’s of course, you know, people wonder how in the world do you make the transition from sports writer slash PR director to being an actual guy who runs a team. Well, that’s how it happens in those years. It could happen because that was part of the thing. You know, you were all part of the game when you were part of the organization, and Ernie was the PR director. And yeah, that meant he was publicizing the team, but he was also helping to improve the product for which he was publicizing.
Nestor Aparicio 23:16
Ernie told the story about John Elway, and that you know, if Bob, if Ursay weren’t so drunk that Elway would have come and saved the Colts, and the Colts never would like, like you know, Ernie would speak to me in that way. But then I, if Ernie were here right now, and I could, you know, give him a little bit of ish, give, I’d say, who’s responsible for Schleister? Let’s be honest here. How the hell did that happen? Mike Vacaro is here. All of our Baltimore people together. He is the venerable New York Post columnist and your Steinbrenner book still available. Obviously, it’s baseball season. Let’s transition into baseball, and I think Ernie would appreciate not appreciate the fact that the Orioles are in last place again on a complete ish show, and that the Yankees might still win the World Series. Baseball for for my town, as I’m gonna set sail on the orange and move to the purple soon, you know, because this is the last week. The Orioles are actually playing against week, so I guess there’s a little bit of topicality in that. Although this isn’t much of a team that that they’ve put on the field this week. the The labor situation when I talk about my baseball team is I wear my orange Farnan and Dermer, looking like I’m going to Orange, Hawaii with Elvis at this point. They’re about to go into hell again, and you and I’ve been at this a long time. When my dad canceled the sporting news in 1981, I was on the radio ’94. I’ve been on the radio in 35 years. I was in a baseball-only city, no football here. We did have Joe Smith for him in the Terps, but like that strike and was a mess, and then the three or four other times where they banged around spring training and screwed Florida and Arizona and all that. We’re about to go into a dark spot here, and for this franchise here being in last place, Alonzo’s been great. I know I got together with you last year when you had the book, and we’re talking about 39 home runs and trying to get to the Big 4-0. But this has been moribund, dude. I mean, the place is empty. Confidence level zero. The one of the New Yorker, one of your people up there, Araguetti’s involved, but is not involved. And I saw Cohen and Howie Rose and everything going on with the Mets up there. We’re at the end of the thing here, and they don’t even know if there’s going to be a season next year. So when I see buy season tickets, buy club packages. I’m thinking if I work there, I’m. I know executives are just like, I don’t want to be in baseball right now. They’re really, really walking on eggshells as you and I get older, and we’ve lost Ernie now to even talk about this to say what the hell are they doing. Maybe in New York it plays differently, but I’m telling you, dude, they got a real uphill battle trying to sell this thing to people here if they’re going to walk off and bring the season back in June, you know what I mean. Which is the way it feels to me right now.
Mike Vaccaro 25:46
I think that’s very optimistic. They think it’s coming back in June, Nestor. But then I tend to be a little more cynical. Are you going
8Nestor Aparicio 25:52
to be a cynical sports writer on here, Vacaro? Is that your role today?
Mike Vaccaro 25:55
I see. What worries me about this is a different labor labor situation than in the past, because you have you actually have to do two. You have to have two different negotiations. You have to get the the small markets and the large markets to to actually become unified. And once that happens, which has to happen because there’s more small markets than big markets, then they feel like they’re going to have it’s going to be just a brick wall in a way, it’s never been once they once they go against the players because it seems like the salary cap is more of a of a of a of a must-have than it’s ever been before. Maybe I’m wrong. I mean, I hope I’m and it is for franchise
Nestor Aparicio 26:33
values. That’s the part that sits as I get the really smart people. This isn’t about media or selling cable television, or all the club boxes. This is about valuations of our franchises. When we go to sell them to other billionaires, that we have cost certainty.
Mike Vaccaro 26:50
That’s exactly right. And you know, when when when you have people dug in as deeply as they are, it’s different than it’s been in the past. And they have no sense for
Nestor Aparicio 27:00
fans, you know what I mean. Like Charlie Finley and George Steinbrenner, at least had to see a fan. You know, none of these people; these are entities. You know what I mean. And how the Dodgers feel as an entity is different than how the Steinbrenner family would feel for the Yankees, right? I mean,
Mike Vaccaro 27:16
that’s that’s definitely true. And look, I mean, the the the thing about the fans that really bothers me. Baseball had such momentum coming off of last year, an incredible postseason that people actually watched for a change
Nestor Aparicio 27:30
in two countries.
8Mike Vaccaro 27:31
In two countries, and you know, there have been a lot of you know the the Mets and the Orioles are two glaring examples of this year not being a great year. But there’s been a lot of great stuff that’s happened in baseball throughout this year. It’s been remarkable to watch, and you know it’s it’s it’s it’s incredible that they that they’re on the on the precipice of forfeiting all of that in the interest of making sure that billionaires become you know bigger billionaires, and That’s just-it’s disconcerting because you know the sport has always been able to outlast the idiots who run it. And oh, right,
Nestor Aparicio 28:11
scandal, war, you know, let’s go through all of it, right? Literally, right?
Mike Vaccaro 28:15
The alleged caretakers. The sport has always been better than the people who have cared for it, and therefore has been able to survive on its own. And you wonder how long that can last. I don’t mean to be sky is falling with any of this, because I know ’94. I thought it’s gonna be hard for anybody to come back. Listen, look, ultimately people came back. We had Cal Ripken. He had a lot of reasons why people were able to come back and and feel good about baseball, even when they didn’t necessarily want to. But I mean, it’s just it’s it’s hard because we’ve also reached the point I think officially where it’s hard to reach for anybody, even people like myself who have just been always been on the side of the players, always been on the side of the players. That’s like a you know if you grew up in a union family like I did, I mean it was never a question of what side you were going to take. And look, fundamentally, if you if you if you put a gun to my helmet, I’m just looking to back the players, but you know these guys are making $750 million contracts now. That’s a that’s a hard labor fight to to to wage, and you know there’s not exactly a lot of moral high ground to to be able to seize anywhere. I don’t know how much more money
Nestor Aparicio 29:15
they could charge people either. Like I mean, Major League Baseball credentials me, and I respect that, and they gave me credentials in Philly. I went to my first credentialed game. I think maybe since like the 17, all whenever the All Star game was in was in D.C. Whenever that was, I was last time I was at a game with a credential, and I walked around, talked to players, did all you know that you know the circus out on the outfield in Ashburn Alley is 150 degrees and Japanese and you know, and and Hispanic, and five languages, just all of that going on. And then I watched the proceeding there and thought, well, they want to bring that to my town, the Baltimore. And I’m thinking, at what price point? You know, like how much more can they charge people to say we signed Pete Alonso here to have an empty stadium? And this notion that like they’re just going to roll the ball out and be arrogant, and look, the Ravens are playing in Rio this week, and they fall out of bed making money, and I guess they they their arrogance speaks for itself when Steve Bashati’s franchise is worth $10 billion all of a sudden, and Angelos gave his away after death at 1.8 billion, and by far the Orioles were the bigger banana 30 years ago. The whole thing revolved around them, and it was running to the ground that way. And the football thing went the other way, but the baseball people behaved like the football people. Like they still have this mentality that, like, oh, next year we’re going to win the World Series, and you’ll all be begging us for tickets. And that was 1995. That’s the way it really was back then, for sure. My God, they have so much work to do with young and just in a general sense. And I think, to your point, the game. If I had a grandchild right now, and I was trying to teach my grandchild baseball, I might have a prayer on television with the box and like a little bit of thinking, and the fact that the game’s moving along a little bit better. But like all they sell when you go to the ballpark is the guy screaming, shooting shirts, and the pickle game, and the hot dog game, and the crab races, and the like it’s everything. But like what you and me and our old men were like the game, and then beyond that, it’s Big Poppy with the hose. Let’s bet on it. Let’s bet on it. Let’s bet on it, Bryce. Let’s understand it first. Let’s get interested in it. Let’s like it first before we bet on
Mike Vaccaro 31:27
it. Well, here’s the thing. I think I think that that what baseball’s going to find out, and I hope I’ll purpose all of this thing. I hope I’m dead wrong with all of this, but I think what baseball’s going to find out is that Nestor, you and I and those of our age group, I think, might be the last of the era. Where, look, I mean, as angry as I ever get at baseball, and I’m not just saying this because I’m talking to to the King of Baltimore. I mean, I’ve written before how I feel about Camden Yards. However, no matter how angry I am about baseball and everything that that that’s wrong with baseball, all I have to do is walk into Camden Yard and spend 10 minutes there, and suddenly I’m a 10-year-old kid, and I’m like, you know, I’m just I just want these ball in love all over again. I don’t know that there’s a preponderance of people who are like that who came after us, and they’re they’re going to test that market, and I’m not even talking about the kids who. I mean, I think you’re really going to put in be in danger of losing. I’m talking about like the like the generations just like between us and the kids that they aren’t necessarily as patient with baseball, aren’t necessarily as willing to give baseball a pass as guys like you and I have been our whole lives, and we have been, you know, and and now they’re about to
Nestor Aparicio 32:39
stir it up and have the ugliest thing they’ve ever done, right? In front of in front of all the people that are still alive to see it, basically.
Mike Vaccaro 32:44
Exactly, and and that’s that that that that’s why it’s it’s so sad. Look, look at the early debates about you. Look, if I if I was an Orioles fan, I’d be very disappointed about the about the the season. I mean, Alonzo has done what he’s supposed to do. I mean, the the thing about poor Pete, you know, it’s you. It’s it’s another it’s another year. We had a really good really good year for a lousy team, and he’s had a lot of those years with the Mets and now with the Orioles. And you know, it’s one of the weird things about baseball. Sometimes even a great player can’t hands like he can’t rescue you from the morass around you.
8Nestor Aparicio 33:17
Mike Vacaro is here. He writes in New York for all things at the New York Post. He has a beautiful book on how many books have he done now?
Mike Vaccaro 33:23
That was my fourth. Bosses of the Bronx was my fourth, and so yeah, yeah, I got my own little miniature book deal now, so that’s good.
Nestor Aparicio 33:31
Well, maybe you get one on John Harbaugh if he’s not getting beat 28 to six and getting his quarterback rammed up in the beginning. How is that going? My affinity for John is well worn because he’s the antithesis of Ernie, of course, in regard to integrity, in regard to being the right kind of guy and not a fraud, not like all of kicking me out of the media after 35 years. John Harbaugh was a part of that, and the purple blood can be in his hands. I’ll say that out loud for to him. He’s running for me, but he’s up there, and I see the presser two weeks ago telling the New York media what they can and can’t add. Now I’ve seen this, I’ve seen that act for a long time here. I saw him get chippy with a guy in Cincinnati real early on. Yo, who are you? Where are you from? I’m our ball. Like I sat in the front row for that act for for 14 and a half years, and his brother and I were friends. You know, so I mean, I watch his brother struggling right now too. I don’t, I get that the Tishmara thing and the Epstein thing and like and bringing in Captain America and like all that, dude. He’s leaning into his 100 million and his power, as I predicted with you and and and Ian six months ago, seven months ago, whenever it happened, I’m I want popcorn for this, even though I didn’t stay up late watching him get beat Monday because I didn’t care that much.
Mike Vaccaro 34:53
It’s interesting because, like, I mean, and I know it’s talking about the the gravy train for the New Yorkers. Interesting to watch. A lot of people, you know, spent a lot of time as hard-bitten journalists in New York have really, you know, fallen in love with with the notion of what he could be here. And I’ve called it a coronation.
Nestor Aparicio 35:14
It feels like a coronation to me on the outside.
Mike Vaccaro 35:17
And I feel like an outsider because I’ve been I’ve been I’ve been I’ve been slow to embrace that. Like, I mean, I think that it’s fair to think that even now you can see the Giants are a little more professional operation than they’ve been on the field just through two games. But you’re talking about an extraordinarily low bar. I mean, we’re talking about people like Joe Judge and and Brian Dable and just how awful they were at their job. So you know, relative to that, sure, it’s a it’s a huge improvement. I also looked. I also watched with with interest the way the Ravens played the last 10 or 12 years, and look, they were fine. And you know, I think Lamar Jackson probably saved Parvath from from a fate that he got last year. Wouldn’t happen sooner without him. I also saw them blow a lot of big leads, and I saw them not really perform to to what their record and their roster said they should have been. So, and it’s interesting just by just just by pointing that out. I mean, I think I’ve been painting in some kind of negative deli. I just I just want to see it first, you know. I mean, and look, I mean, I’ve got I’ve got I’ve really got no opinion on on his job performance so far. But it’s been two games. We’ll see what happens, and we’ll certainly see what happens now. If he’s got to you know go through life a couple of weeks without his franchise quarterback, but it’s a yeah, it’s it’s been interesting to watch because I think and here’s the thing: the the Giants matter so much here, and when they when they’re dormant as long as they’ve been, and they’ve been dormant, you know it’s one thing for the Jets to be bad because I think there’s like an expectation that there will be large periods of bad of bad times for the Jets anyway, no matter who’s in charge. The Giants are different. The Giants aren’t quite the Yankees in this town, but they they were afforded a similar level of of reverence by a lot of people, and that includes like you know Jets fans who say you know who acknowledge they’re Jets fans, but not all the Giants. If I’d only pick the Giants, you’re a lot of that between Mets fans and Yankees fans too around here, which is interesting. So as a result, I think his you know the the the the thirst for the Giants to be relevant again has been so extraordinary that you know I think every every welcome mat that could be that could have been laid out has been laid out, and now it’s not including no
Nestor Aparicio 37:26
questions for him.
8Mike Vaccaro 37:28
Yeah, it’s that’s his
Nestor Aparicio 37:29
expect, dude. I know him. I know him intimately. That’s his expectation. His expectation is you shouldn’t have like the Bills throwing John Murphy out of their press box for like after 40 years of being their voice, like that’d be like throwing Vince Bagley out of Baltimore, Scott Garceau. It’s insane, or me, quite frankly, even though I’m prickly. It’s fine. I’m insignificant. I ask anybody, but but I know. But I mean,
Mike Vaccaro 37:52
the Murphy the Murphy thing is even worse though, because not only was was he a faithful employee, but the man was sick for God’s sake, and he actually got sick while he was doing the job for you. I mean, I can’t believe that this is the way it started out. They’re
Nestor Aparicio 38:05
little small town bills. That guy’s a prick. That Pegula guy. I mean, I saw what he did back at Wembley in 17. I’ve read about it in Belson’s book because I’m a book reader like you and Ernie Accorsi, and I, I just, I’m appalled at where it’s gone. That John Harbaugh would stand there two weeks ago before the season said said you guys are going to have to rework questions or we’re going to make it awkward and I wrote awkward for whom the guy making $100 million
Mike Vaccaro 38:29
yeah it’s it’s going to be interesting a lot of people come to New York thinking that they can rewrite the rules and look I mean for for decades and almost a century they haven’t they found out that you can’t do that. It’s a lot different time now, Nestor. A lot different period. People are are willing to accept things now they never able they were never willing before out of self preservation. So it’s going to be interesting to see. You know, I mean, guys like you and me are. I think it’s fair to say we’re at least approaching the back nine if we’re not on the back nine of our careers. So maybe we can look at things a little differently than people who are just trying, still trying to make a foothold in this business. And I think that’s not necessarily to the benefit of our readers or our listeners, but certainly could be to the benefit of of dominant personality coaches and bosses who have always thought they could change the narrative when they came to New York and and just found very quickly that you couldn’t do that here. So I hope that’s still the case. We’ll see. I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 39:28
just last thing I’ll say on Harbaugh and on the Giants thing is I’ve gone up to New York several times to see Rush. You know, take the bus up 25 bucks in White Marsh to go go see Getty. I love the Garden. I love your town. We’ve talked about that. I didn’t always love New York. I love New York, and how many billboards would Jackson Dart’s face just on on the on the just literally just going up the turnpike? I’m seeing him everywhere, and I’m thinking I’m in a different era. And in Baltimore, where like Lamar’s not on billboards here, and and Flacco really Flacco took a bank deal at one point, hardball. A deal late in his career here for a car dealership. Billick never wanted a deal, but and I was partners with Brian. He never wanted a deal because he never wanted to be comp. He just didn’t feel like it was necessary. To given his salary was all a $5 million. You know, he didn’t need any more money. He just didn’t need 50 grand or 100 grand in a free car. He didn’t feel like it was what he wanted to do. The Jackson Dart thing in New York’s just amazing because I I went in I’m like my God the kid sees his face on every billboard on the way to work and to me he’s not even a player he were my quarterback involved I’d say we have a thing we don’t we we could have Art Schleister we could have Sam Darnold I don’t know what we have and especially in New York of all places and maybe that’s common I don’t know, but it would seem to me like, dude, you know, why don’t you like win a little bit? I mean, it’s one thing to fly into Buffalo and see Josh Allen everywhere, which I haven’t do, especially now that you’re paying for it, living on the other end of the state. But I, I just was shocked by that a little bit, and I thought, man, temp temp dad, let let him win 11 games, get to a playoff game. It didn’t feel that way to me. It feels like, to your point, Giants fans are kind of desperate. They’re going to coronate anything, right? Like literally.
Mike Vaccaro 41:09
This way, it took Jalen Brunson winning a championship and ending a 53 year drought for him to become the kind of ubiquitous presence in New York culture that Jackson Dart has after six games and a two and four record, which I find curious. Now I, you know, I’m not going to get deep into the reasons for that. I’ll just say I think it does reflect the fact the Giants are a team that people desperately want to do well. You know, the the Giants and the Yankees are the team that define New York’s moves for better or for worse. They’re you know, it’s not to take a shot at any other team. The Knicks are very popular. The Rangers, the Mets, the Jets, but those are the teams that that that that set everybody’s moods. And it’s clear that New York wrapped its arms around Jackson Dart on spec. You know, and he may well turn out to be worse. He’s so
8Nestor Aparicio 41:58
handsome, isn’t he handsome?
Mike Vaccaro 41:59
Well, I mean, look at me. He’s he’s he’s he’s got a lot of assets. Put it that way, and you know, it’s-it’s-but mostly it’s done on spec now because you know, it’s-he may well turn out to be that quarterback. You know, Giants fans have been have been eager for Eli from the moment Eli was benched a couple of years ago. Eli also, you know, played I think 210 consecutive games. I’m 30
Nestor Aparicio 42:22
years into this. We had Stony Case here, and we had Trentil for here, and we had Tony Banks here, and we had Scott Mitchell. You know, I mean, we had Chris Redman here, and we had Kyle Bowler of all people. We had Kyle Bowler here. So like, I and I like almost all of those men immensely, but like they wouldn’t have it wouldn’t have behooved any of them to have been on a billboard on ’83, let alone up and down until you you know I mean I think of the Matt Leinarts and I just think of all of those quarterbacks that have gone to the quarterback graveyard. Jackson Dart feels like more of a candidate for that to me than leading John Harbaugh to the promised land. Like just on the outside looking at it as a semi-educated football fan,
Mike Vaccaro 43:03
at the very least, I don’t think you can make a call one way or the other yet. I think it’s definitely up in the air. And look, I mean, the hilarious part. Sorry, hang on a second. Sorry. Now, if forgot what I was saying.
Nestor Aparicio 43:27
Mike Vacaro is here. Listen, Yankees. Last thing for you, World Series. We’re doing the show at State Fair, by the way. Mike Vacaro is our guest, the New York Post. Go buy his book on Steiner. When you write books on Steinbrenner, I got at least hit a Yankee shot, as they have a chance to win the World Series, and my team doesn’t.
Mike Vaccaro 43:42
Sure. Look, I mean, they have they have the best starting pitching, and when you go into a short series, that’s a very nice asset to have. The other aspects of the team you’re a little worried about because the lineup look has been very inconsistent. It’s probably going to be without Judge at least for the first couple of rounds of the playoffs. So we’ve seen they can be very very inconsistent without judge, and the bullpen, while it’s been terrific all year, seems to be leaking oil right now at the worst possible time from overuse. Now it’s interesting they have they still have an opportunity to to pass the Rays means basically winning all their games and the Rays losing all their games, including the four they play against each other the next couple days, it would almost be fooling them to to just bow out soon, so they can get healthy. I’ve been making this comparison all year, Nestor. That what the Yankees want to do or need to do is exactly what the Knicks did last year. The only thing that mattered to the Knicks last year, it didn’t matter if they won 50 games, 60, or 45. They wanted to be, in the playoffs, day one of the playoffs, they wanted to be the healthiest they’ve been all year. They were, and look what happened. And I think what happened was was a huge benefit from the fact that they were they were whole. The Yankees aren’t going to be whole, but they have to be at. As sharp as they can be on day one of the playoffs, even if that’s game one against the Red Sox in the wild card series, that’s the only thing that has to be their priority right now, and I think that’s within their grasp. But it’s more within their grasp if they’re able to take a couple of days off, give that bull pan a breather, and just allow everybody to get healthy and be able to ramp up again once the playoff starts. So I think that’s the big thing. Look, they have four guys. You know, Schlitwater is going to be a great, you know, a great guy to throw at anybody in a playoff series. That’s that. That’s a huge benefit on your side. But you know, it also is it minimizes the benefit if he goes seven strong and when he leaves the games, it’s one and one. So that’s the that that’s the dichotomy the Yankees are facing right now.
Nestor Aparicio 45:46
Mike Garris here. Go buy his book on George Time, Brenner, and read the fun, fun tales of how much fun baseball used to be. A baseball’s gonna be fun next week. I mean, you’re in the Red Sox are in, Rays are in, Philly. I mean, there’s plenty. As I said to Luke, we’re all gonna beat the hell out of baseball this week. I’m about to do an hour-long requiem with him. I have Casper Wells coming out on Thursday at State Fair to tell some old Towson stories and old big league ball stories. So we’re we’re gonna bitch about the strike and bitch about the Orioles and all that stuff. But next week there’s gonna be wall-to-wall baseball and there’s gonna be a lot of drama. To your point, right? Like names get made the next couple of weeks, and certainly it is an interesting tournament. It always is because it’s base playoff baseball’s weird pitching matchups, the urgency of all of it, the weather, the you know the timing. I got tickets for the game. When’s the game tomorrow? I don’t know TBA. So next week’s a free for all if if you love baseball, right?
8Mike Vaccaro 46:41
It sure is. You know, I know hockey poets love to rhapsodize about how there’s nothing like the hockey playoffs, and I love the hockey playoffs, but there’s really nothing to be like the baseball playoffs because, you know, you go, we do the whole 162 to get to a four-month sprint. You know, what I love about the baseball playoffs is it’s contained to a month. You know, is that a two and a half month marathon like it is with the other sports? I mean, you’re you’re you’re you’re in and you’re and you’re into it, and all of a sudden you have a champion. I love that part of it.
Nestor Aparicio 47:10
Luke is convinced they’re about to wreck it for you, not just with labor and all that, but he’s convinced when they come out of this, it’ll give one more chance to get a 79 win team into the playoffs. You know they’re they’re going to get 16. You mentioned hockey, be like 16 teams in the playoffs, like it used to be. 16 out of 21 make it. You know,
Mike Vaccaro 47:27
I mean, and you know, I I don’t mind where expansion has is now. I do think they’re literally at the precipice. I think one more team, it’s a problem because one more team in both leagues, all of a sudden you’re guaranteed to get one bad team in the playoffs, and you know that’s that that that there’s a real difference there. It’s already
Nestor Aparicio 47:45
stupid that they give teams to buy. It certainly didn’t help us a couple of years ago, and you know, just yeah, you know, in a general sense, go play baseball because that’s what baseball players do. Hey, thank you, and I didn’t cry talking about Ernie, which is a shocker. I mean, you would I would have lost money on that bet, to be really honest with you, so
Mike Vaccaro 48:02
maybe both. But yeah, I mean, condolences for your loss, for our loss, for everybody’s loss with Ernie. He was a he was very cathartic for me to be able to talk about him with you, Nestor, and I appreciate that.
Nestor Aparicio 48:13
I will, you know, he’s one of those guys. He had such a resonance in his voice and his his Baltimorees mixed with sort of a Pennsylvania Dutch weirdness that then morphed into sort of Park Avenue, you know. Once he got to New York, but either way, Ernie, we loved you and love talking about Ernie. And if I track down Mel Kiper, any Venturi, any of yous out there who knew and loved Ernie, and anybody out in the community that knew weren’t here from back in the day, I find me, help me, help you. We’re going to be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by our friends at the Maryland Lottery, in conjunction with GBMC and Farnham Dermer, the Comfort Guys, comfortably for breakfast at State Fair. We’re going to be telling some old rock and roll stories. Last week it was Kiss and my late night dinner with Paul Stanley, and my sit downs with Ace Philly talking about sobriety. Next up, John Mayer, and then after that, AC/DC, just in time for, you know, Angus and the boys to roll into Philly. I am Nestor. We are WNST, AM 1570, Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking. Rock and roll, football, last place baseball. That’s what we do around here. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
