The Mayne Event serves up Wiffle Ball legend and lore in his new Fubo flick

Did you ever dream of beating Ken Griffey Jr. at Wiffle Ball? Well, it turns out that ESPN legend Kenny Mayne had a whole Seattle story of 20th Century glory to re-live and re-learn about his prowess in the only game that ever mattered in the neighborhood. His new, offbeat film “Wiffle Ball” debuts on Thursday on Fubo. Of course, Nestor presses Mayne on his Pearl Jam and Preakness presence.

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Kenny Mayne

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, AM, 1570 Taos in Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. We’re taking the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. Crab cakes, oysters, oysters and beer. 26 oysters in 26 days. Curtis mayor, friends at curio wellness and foreign daughter. I have my I’m a blunt shirt person. Shirt on. We’re gonna have some fun with this. We have the Raven scratch also be giving these away throughout the holidays. Cocos, faith, these had a crab cake from fates today, if you’re shipping during the holidays, even if you live in Seattle or you got friends in Vegas or Bristol, Connecticut, crab cake ship. Cocos, Costas faith leaves all of our partners here that ship crab cakes do a great, great job. We’re gonna be promoting all of them into December, all of that Curtis reference at Jiffy Lube, multi care. I love reaching out to old friends. And when I do it, I get, like, on a on a bender, like September, baseball, football, stuff’s going October, Lamar election. And then, like, I just reached the people through serendipity. We had Ross Greenberg on earlier this week. We have some other old friends joining us this week. Steelers are around. Charlie batch is checking it, and then I just check in with Kenny Maine. But we disconnected earlier this year, and there was a Pearl Jam this, and a triple crown that, and a Preakness here. And this wiffle ball thing has popped up a couple of times in my world, and I’m like, Alright, trying to get the main event back on here and create a little comedy here during some tough electional times. Kenny, how are you? Man? I mean, I miss you, love you. We don’t do Super Bowls. I hope you come in for a break, just for a real crab cake or or whatnot. But how’s life? Thanks, good. I’m I’m happy. Generally, our daughters are all coming back for Thanksgiving. They’re all over the country. We got one in Atlanta, la Seattle and New York City, and we’re in Connecticut. Mostly it’s like an old NFL division, or like the Norris division or something not going there, you know, yeah, but no, we’re alright. And I’m excited for this thing that you already mentioned. I’m also excited for crab because when I would come to the Preakness, year after year after year, where we’d always see each other. Dick Girardi, famous columnist, oh my god, one of my dearest friends in life, and a good guy, and Jay pridman and Jay hovdy and Randy Moss and all these guys. And after the Preakness, we would always go have a huge feast of Maryland Blue crab, and you had to pull the tab, and you had the whole thing, right? And it’s not like that Dungeness stuff, where you wash it all out, just that’s terrible. Where your people are from, Dungeness, but, but this stuff was good, and they got the Old Bay sauce so Gretchen, my wife comes one year, and we weren’t married yet, and I bring her with me, and it’s all the guys in her, and she’s, you know, enjoying the company and the crab meat. But she’s kind of like, is that? Is that she’s looking around, like, where’s the complimentary dishes? And so the next year, eat corn. Usually it’s corn on the cob, like, and beer, beer is the complimentary she goes crabs. I mean, really, you know. But back to wiffle ball. So, okay, so wiffle ball, what is it? What? I played a lot of wiffle ball like. So I made a movie called wiffle ball. I would classify it as a comedy documentary, because the truth is, I wanted to do this like a real thing. I didn’t want to, like give people their lines and make it a fictitious story, like I used to do with the football stories. I wanted to go out and find out the truth of what happened in 1989

Kenny Mayne  03:24

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I was maybe in my second year on TV in Seattle, and I got Harold Reynolds and Ken Griffey to show up at the Seattle Center, and we ended up throwing wiffle balls on a speed pitch at the Science Center. And ran that as a story. And, you know, kind of forgot about it, but I bring it up from time to time, telling people that I beat Griffey thrown wiffle balls, and nobody would believe it. And it came to be that the tape was, you know, I moved several times since then, it’s been in garages and basements and on shelving, and I still had this one broadcast beta SP tape for those in the business, there used to be film. Then there was three quarter inch tape. And then this was the new thing. In the late 80s, this new thing came out. It was fancy. Now, a little bit

Nestor Aparicio  04:08

smaller, right? Because when I worked at WMAR with Scott Garcia’s, they were the big Johnsons,

04:13

right? This is half inch tape. And, you know, by now, everybody’s using digital cards. And, you know, you got the whole world, you know, in one inch of space, right? But I had this tape. And my friend Jason jobs, after I left ESPN, he kept saying, why don’t we just go do something for fun, not care if we get paid. Do it for the art of it, for the fun of it. We did a children’s miniature golf bit that had a little bit of success, and then this was kind of like our next thing, and we put some time into it. I put a lot of time into the edit. Ken Burns is in it. We got the president of wiffle ball in it. We got a professor from the University of Washington to analyze the tape. We go to the Seattle Science Center to go back and.

Kenny Mayne  05:00

Is it the scene where it all happened and all told? It’s like a little 30 minute story about, essentially, my love of wiffle ball, and the fact that I got the blessing of getting to throw wiffle balls with, you know, the Willie Mays of our generation, right? Like one of the greatest to ever play the game. And I got to tell this silly little story about what happened that one day in Seattle in 1989 did Griffey and Harry come back a part of it? Or no? No, they’re only pictured from the original day. We have a few other supplemental characters. And, I mean, it’s, it’s honestly not to be vain about. You know, story about me, my love of wiffle ball. You see my childhood friends, you see the house where I grew up. You see so you’re telling your child the wiffle ball story, like we all have one. We played around the business yard. There was a green wall. We called it the Green Monster. Once we got to be like 12, it was too easy to hit it over. We had separate rules. And the rules were, you had to hit the fence for it to be home run. But it went over the fence. It was an out, automatic out. So you had to really learn back control. We had, we had a pool in the backyard. We had a basketball net that if you hit it in the net, it was automatic Grand Slam. And then we had rules catching off anything. We had a log cabin in right field, and if you caught it off anything, it was an out, but very rules. I did 30 seconds. That’s my the first 15 years of my life, right there, Kenny, 100% very similar in my neighborhood. We had two fields at my house. One was this kind of skinny field that we played most of the games on. My dad built us a fence. We found signage to have the outfield advertisements, uh, somebody stole a stop sign in a neighborhood that was being under construction, and that was home plate. Had medium pitch because, like you said, you had to adapt to the surroundings. So you couldn’t just fire, you know, nobody would get a hit. So it was a gentleman’s agreement. Medium level fastball. You could throw junk otherwise. Mark Sansar broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in one summer. He had 840 home runs. We later discounted some of them because my sister wasn’t home to take us to value mart to buy the skinny yellow bat, which, as you know, is the only official wiffle ball bat, and we were using one of those fat bats taped up. So we threw those home runs out Mark still surpassed Babe Ruth before Henry Aaron did. And it’s just like, I think, a love letter to everybody’s childhood, if, if most of us kind of had similar childhoods, where some were playing stick ball, that was their version of it. We were playing wiffle ball, and the Seattle pilots were a team in Seattle. They left to become the Milwaukee Brewers. How old? How old were you give me like the Okay, so you’re, I know you’re a little older than me, even though you’re cool and we go to Pearl Jam together and whatnot, and they’re even younger than both of us, right from from the wheelhouse of our rock and roll. But I would just say, like, I knew you were a little older, and I know the Seattle connection in the UNLV and the Randall, I know all of that, but like, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to you about that part of having a baseball team and then not having one, because, dude, I grew up a I’m an Aparicio. It’s the reason I’m here. 60s. Google it all up, but 73 through life, I was on the 22 bus line the Memorial Stadium. And I I take that for granted, that I saw the end of Brooks, Robinson, all of Jim Palmer, you know, into Cal Ripken, Eddie, like all we’ve all of that stuff as a kid, and how different it was to be from other places, and you lost it and got it back, kind of, maybe in the modern way, because franchises move, but baseball franchises don’t move. And the pilots were are, like the sexiest thing ever to me, because they and they were gone, right? I have, I have a couple of Seattle pilots wool shirts, you know, the remake, because I used to play in the so called celebrity softball games at the baseball all star games, you were a representative of the pilots, where you want to represent what team, and I would say, the pilots. And so I ended up with a couple of those shirts. I still remember distinctly going to like 30 of their home games they played at a place called Six Stadium, which is now a Lowe’s home improvement center. Looks like a ship was made to be a Lowe’s I’ve seen the burial shots of it. I’m like, I got one for you. Looks like an ector set right, like Jerry Park looked that way. That’s what it looked like in 1968 right? Here’s a true story that I brought up 1969 here’s a true story that I brought up many times on SportsCenter. Boob Powell hit an inside the park home run at Seattle. How did that happen? Was the fence backed up like, what was the circumstance? He hit it over the center fielder’s head. Who charged it? Missed it. It goes behind him, and it stuck at the wall, like in highlight, the Chula that rolls out, and the help didn’t come on time, and boob Powell just kept running around. You can look it up. Boo Powell inside the park home run, Seattle, Washington. You know, who will remember that? Jim Palmer remembers everything. Yeah. Kenny Maine is here. He’s the main event. The film is wiffle ball. And I the first thing I saw, like I saw the little thing on it, the little trailer, and I watched it. And.

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Nestor Aparicio  10:00

And I’m like, wiffle ball. I’m like, I hope he has the rights to use it, because I’m just thinking, like, do you going to give me a history wiffle ball? Or did you use this in the film, like, wear wiffle ball kick? Because I don’t really know, other than the yellow back a little cardboard thing in the ball that was there, and you could get it at the beach anywhere. And I’m still at the and if I see a wiffle ball or bat I want to play right

Kenny Mayne  10:20

now? Yeah. Well, we went to wiffle ball headquarters to talk to the president of wiffle ball, because after I, after I viewed the tape as the movie goes along, there’s a point at which we reveal what really happened that day. The tape says, you know, here’s what happened based on on the evidence. I’m not satisfied with that, so I hire a professor to analyze the tape, then I go to the headquarters, which is in Connecticut. By the way, there’s a great story behind how wiffle ball even came to be. Their grandfather, the family that runs it now, he, at a certain point in his life, was trying to figure out something, not a get rich scheme, but something that he was passionate about, right? And he would just kind of run off every day and pretend to be going to some job, when, in fact, he was refining and developing this amazing piece of equipment that is now a, you know, worldwide seller. They they have a factory in Connecticut that just churns out balls. They got a machine, and it just pumps them out, pumps them out, and they come in two pieces. Then they got to get them stuck together and they got the yellow

Nestor Aparicio  11:22

has that seam, like little seam in it. Yeah, exactly.

11:25

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They they copyrighted or trademarked, I should say the color yellow of that batch, wiffle ball, yellow. Yes, there’s no other yellow but that yellow. Yeah, exactly. And it’s still, if you drove by it, you wouldn’t think, you know, it’s not a Boeing factory. It’s just a small couple little buildings, but that’s enough for them to keep shipping out. I mean, everywhere you go in the spring in particular, you could go to a drug store, you could go to a grocery store, you could go to a sports store. There’s always a couple wiffle balls they have the the bat, the one ball, right? With the cardboard on top Absolutely. You can buy the backup balls if you need more, which we do, because, you know, we’re going to break them or hit them in the woods. Don’t

Nestor Aparicio  12:10

hit it into old man Turner’s yard back. It was always, you always had to get off my it was the original, get off my lawn. We was yelling about kids playing with football, right?

Kenny Mayne  12:20

My favorite thing was how, everywhere you went, like I said, I had two fields at my house. The other one, you hit the Homer into the lake. We lived on this tiny, little lake outside of Seattle, but you go to Mark sansour house and hitting the top of the house on the roof, that was the home run. Just like your home run had to hit the fence. You go, sometimes street ball, you just play. And if it hits a car. It’s a foul ball. Yeah, we have all people, but we play with

Nestor Aparicio  12:43

pinkies. You ever play with pinkies and hard bats? Like, you know what? I mean, the little, the little pinky balls? No,

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Kenny Mayne  12:48

I did not. Oh, I know. But yeah, those are, like, Super Bowls. They go forever. You could,

Nestor Aparicio  12:52

yeah? I mean, right, you could write, yeah. So like, with you with wiffle ball, I want to ask this, where this piece you’re doing? Tell anybody how to find it first

13:01

too. On fubo and all its other disseminators, you can get it through Roku and other sources this Thursday. I don’t know when this is running, but Thursday the 14th is either happening or has happened. But there’ll be some other times on fubo where they’re going to broadcast it out right eight o’clock on Thursday the 14th. So it’s

Nestor Aparicio  13:19

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not a download yet. It’s a catch it now, but you’re it will be that way. The

13:23

way it’s going to be is fubo subscribers will be able to click on demand, just like if you go to Roku and there’s a fubo sports page, and you can click on things. So it’ll be available for quite a while, where people will have the chance just to pick it out, like you pick out a movie on any other platform. Well, the premise

Nestor Aparicio  13:41

of this, and maybe this is a deeper dive, because you and I have done so much on horse racing, and I mean, I’ve known you a long time about a lot of issues, but like this particular piece, leads to your comedy, and the comedy part of you just not being an anchor, and at a time where ESPN was trying to do different things, and now it’s personality driven, and you’ve moved on to a different kind of life. And I’ve moved on to a different kind of life than taking phone calls from angry sports fans, which is what I did for 20 years, primarily the comedy part of your piece. Did you ever do stand up when you were quarterback in UNLV? Like, where did that come in and Who allowed you to do that? And, dude, we’re going back. This is 89 you did this piece, right? I mean, just a very like, this is an early edgy we’re trying to be Johnny Carson, maybe at that point, right? Or David Letterman, or

Kenny Mayne  14:33

whatever you were trying to be, it would have been Carson. He, for sure, was my model growing up to stay up and watch his monolog. You really thought you were doing something, obviously, Letterman later, but you know, I was just around funny people, my dad, his friends, my uncle, my good friends. And originally, I think we’ve talked about this before, when I went to college at UNLV, was for broadcasting, but I took a lot of journalism and political science. I wanted to be like. A serious, you know, documentary maker, or hard news or international news. It just happened that I fell into sports in Seattle. The station I worked for had news on Monday through Friday five days a week. They had no weekend show. We always used to joke, if there’s news on the weekends, it’s news to us. That was our company motto. So one year. I’ve only been on TV for maybe a year at this point, doing mostly news, only news, actually. And the news director said, Hey, we’re adding a weekend show. I want you to do sports. You played football. And it wasn’t like I was resistant, but I also wasn’t that enthused. I was like, I guess I kind of shrugged, like, Sure, I’ll do two days of sports and three days of news. That would be my job. And then as I started doing it, I just started kind of doing it my own way. I just it wasn’t a standard, well, you’re an irreverent

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Nestor Aparicio  15:50

kind of human like to know you is just to know you. You’re a little you have an Off Peak sense of humor and and that is interjected in everything I’ve ever seen you when you’re trying to play it straight, doing sports center, it’s still little bit with a wink and a smile, right? Like, that’s your gimmick, right? Yeah, and, and

16:08

obviously, you’re always better at something the more you do it. I was, heck, I was nervous out there. I was like, welcome to the show, you know? Like, I the first little while, I was like, What the hell am I doing? And then you get comfortable, and then you like, oh, I can say this line over this highlight, or I can think up this other silly story. Or, you know, so with time, I think I just improved my presentation, but I don’t think I’m a hell of a lot different than I was in fifth grade. You know, spent most of fifth grade in the hall, actually, but for Berman

Nestor Aparicio  16:38

to do nicknames, or for George Michael to do sports machine. Let’s go to the videotape. And you know that what was going on in that era Warren, well, the you know what sportscasters were doing for ESPN to allow you to go out and do vignette, semi offbeat comedy, celebrity driven, theme driven, way before reality tv. Or, Hey, I’ve got a bit. You know what? I mean, like, even before Howard Stern was the bit. I mean, this is a pretty early on thing, that part of it, and you tapping into some comedic thing that you dreamed of beating Ken Griffey at wiffle ball, right?

Kenny Mayne  17:14

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I mean, it all kind of goes together in different phases, and maybe it’s a little more polished now than it might have been back then. It’s very funny. We didn’t put this in the show. I wish we had now. We had part of that day where I shot the wiffle ball throwing. We also did a couple interviews, and my questions were so dumb, so bad, so amateurish, it would be embarrassing to even but wings world cable access tape was not good. We we did put in one bit where I did a promo. You know, how you do the local news promos, like coming up tonight at 10 o’clock, we’ll have new sports and weather, all that. And mine was as bad as bad can be, but we put that in the movie just to make fun of me, like I was just breaking into TV. And then here’s this clip, you know? So I’m glad we did it because, because it gave me a chance to do something real, because I really did want to find out the truth of what happened. But as I do it, you know, there’s little callback jokes, and obviously we’re not taking ourselves too seriously. But ultimately, I don’t know if you learned anything from it. In fact, I wrote the credit song, and there’s a band called the head and the heart. You know those guys from Seattle, indie rock kind of guys. Oh, indie folk rock. I know you term them, but they’re very good. And I asked them, if I wrote a song, would you make it sound like a real song? And they knocked it out. They did the the end of the show. Credit. Song is their voice, but my words making fun of the thing that you just saw for 30 minutes. Kenny main

Nestor Aparicio  18:42

is the main event. Still, wiffle ball is the film. You can find it out on fubo. I just like saying that fubo. And so what is real life for you at this point, right? You know, because I guess we don’t see you. And, you know, I’m watching ESPN sometimes on Sunday. Rex, Ryan, the wheel does churn for all of us in various ways. You don’t see me in locker rooms anymore. It’s Super Bowls. I’m doing a cup of soup or bowl during the traditional week that the big game is played for charity and for the Maryland Food Bank. Here a cup of soup or bowl. Get it so you come out and you bring canned goods, we give you a free cup of soup or bowl Marilyn crab or cream of crab, tell Gretchen, she’d have to crack anything. There’s no cuts to pull out, just a spoon and some, some, some, some, some crackers, some saltines. But um, you’re doing a ton of charity work. I know that you’re always doing that. I’m always seeing your Pearl Jam shows here. And again, we got to get together and do that again soon. But um, what keeps you active? Kenny, what? What wakes you up in the morning? Man, well,

19:43

I, like my wife and we, we’re getting to spend more time together. I think she’s happy that I have a golf passion, because then that lets her do her own thing for a while. And we got our kids all over the place. We’re still raising them, even though they’re not in the house right now, they’re all over the place. You. We got four pets. One of them just had to have a toe amputation, but he’s okay. Jeds Moving on. The kitchen. Show

Nestor Aparicio  20:06

me I lost my finger and life goes on.

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20:08

Show me that before. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  20:10

everything’s good, yeah, okay, we

Kenny Mayne  20:12

got that. I’m working on a different project that hasn’t we haven’t exactly signed paperwork on it yet, but I think it’s about to happen, a new podcast, and the wickleball thing is going to take up November for promoting it and trying to get people to click on it. And other than that, we’re looking forward to having the kids home for Thanksgiving. And I’m still working. I you started to work or talk about the charity event. I still have our run freely. Dot O, R, G, it’s our veterans Foundation, and we raise money, and then we buy these devices from this guy in Gig Harbor Washington who fits them exactly to the person who needs it. So basically, I wrecked my ankle playing football, and I needed something to go out and do things athletically. Otherwise my ankle just kind of blows up. I can’t do much without the device, right? So

Nestor Aparicio  21:01

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I think I’ve seen you in that, didn’t you play wounded warriors with me? High School, we play flags soup, dogs game, right? Exactly. Kurt Warner was out there. It was unbelievable day.

Kenny Mayne  21:12

Yeah, no, we I’ve done that a few times, and then one by one, every time we raise enough money, I call the guy in charge, guy named Ryan. I say, Hey, who’s on the list? Who’s next? And we try to determine who’s been waiting the longest, who has the greatest need for it. And we call them up, the guy or the girl, and say, Hey, go to Tacoma. You know, you need to go get outfitted. So they have to make like, a special mold, so that it fits just you, right? It’s not like our off the shelf type of device, and then once you use it, I just played golf today, my ankle feels great. If I had worn regular golf shoes and tried to walk around the course, I’d be limping for two days. So the thing really is amazing. I have nothing to do with the company. I just raise money and get the next veteran outfitted. But I think we’re I’d have to add it up. We got to be around 50. We’ve helped over the years. So we’re making progress. We did a really cool thing at the Super Bowl in Vegas. This past Super Bowl, Joe Montana threw passes to people who paid $1,500 to say they caught up all from Joe. They got a picture of it and a video of it autographed, got to meet him, and in 10 minutes, we were able to call the next veteran. Hey, we just raised enough for you. So we’re just doing little one off projects similar to that. Kenny

Nestor Aparicio  22:27

Maine is always doing something good, even if it’s giving me a free ride home from the former side of Lake colise in Quebec City. I, you know, I said to my wife the other day, because I went to New York last week after the election, I needed 48 hours somewhere where there were sane people. So I went to Manhattan and I walked around, did my usual pizza, you know, I mean, you and me in Manhattan, we read rage. Because, like, I mean, I love New York, and walk, I do 25 miles running around. Came back, I said to my wife, like, All right, so like, if you could go anywhere again on this continent? Where would you go to explore again? She said, Quebec City. And I’m like, and maybe it’s serendipity that you’re on the show and I ran into you there. But the Pearl Jam thing, it’s in our blood as well. And by the way, man in the Quebec City show, they shouted you out, Ava, shouting you out on stage, he played a song for you that night. Oh, sorry, Eddie, I’m sorry. What I stand corrected. Um, but like, they play here. A couple months ago, I was trying to get amen on the show, because I’m thinking, if there’s any chance of me ever having them on, it’s when they’re coming to Baltimore do some charity stuff. But I saw him in LA at the forum that’s been completely redone. We redid our Baltimore Civic Center, arena, Royal farms arena, and it’s Iron Maidens playing there tonight, Kenny, but seeing Pearl Jam out and seeing what I would say to anybody, and you know, I’m a bigger fan of some other bands, in some small way, I would just say Pearl Jam is still in very much in their prime. They’re the greatest band in the world that still does what they do.

24:00

I told Jeff after the which show, was it New York or Boston? I can’t remember which one. I told I think you guys it was Boston. I said, I think you’re getting better. Like they’re so tight the new album’s amazing. They love playing the old stuff they like. Sometimes play the stuff that I don’t like quite as much, because they like to go hard. We know what they do. But the second night in Boston that it was like I wrote the list. I mean, they they sang Untitled, which was when Gretchen, I got married, that was our first dance. Song is Untitled. You have to look it up. And then they sang present tense, probably my favorite. And it was just that kind of night. It was they played

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Nestor Aparicio  24:37

for you in Quebec City, present tense. Okay, that’s what it was, okay, because it was encore, like a little early on. And anybody knows anything about Pearl Jam, and, you know, I go way back to I saw them the night that that Kurt Cobain died, they played, they played Fairfax Patriot center, George Mason. They played, like a candlelit show that night. Oh, wow. Rivalries of the bands, and I saw them in Missoula back in the you know, like in the Harry Adams Field House with the Grizzlies and, like, way back in the day. And I love seeing them. And it was a treat to see you and spend a little time with you. But it is amazing as I get older, for my 40th anniversary of doing sports media in the city, how much more joyous music is for me than sports. And maybe it’s vocational. Maybe it’s at the Orioles suck for 30 years and have been rotten. Maybe it’s the Chad steel sage deal Raven. I don’t know what it is, but music still brings me this joy where sports I don’t see, it feels like work. It’s not work when Ole Miss is winning a big college game and kids are storming the field when Lamar is the best player on Earth. I mean, I but I would say that there’s a point for me where music is my release. There you go. There’s your Pearl Jam line, Agree,

Kenny Mayne  25:53

Agree. It’s more healing. Like, I mean, certain if you love your team when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl or the or the play where Richard Sherman, you know, knocked it away from Crabtree. Like there’s an emotional rush, because you care about your city and you have this pride and all that, but you don’t get the same, you know, spiritual connection, at least. I don’t that you would at a concert with your band. I just saw Stevie Wonder in Atlanta. I mean, that was something by itself. Played

Nestor Aparicio  26:21

here a couple weeks ago too. It was amazing. Yeah, we saw sting a couple weeks ago. I’m in a concert once a week. I mean, I, you know, I went, I went to New York to see, to see the Pink Floyd show. And I went, you know, I went up, just getting tired, and went to bed. I The only guy that goes to the city that stays up all night and goes to bed at 9pm you know, that’s my story,

Kenny Mayne  26:40

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going to bed slightly earlier, but she wakes up six, 630 all the time for no reason, just I’m awake. The cats and the dogs want their food. You know, the day starts when Walter jumps on the bed. But you know, you were touching on old Pearl Jam. I met Jeff before I was really deep. I knew they were and, you know, heard some of their songs, but this is early 90s. They’re just on the rise. And I was freelancing in TV at the time, before I got on to ESPN and the NBA entertainment. Remember, remember was Ahmad Rashad and Willow Bay on inside stuff. Remember that show on Saturday absolutely

Nestor Aparicio  27:18

every Saturday afternoon, sure. And they would occasion summer Sanders do that for a minute, or might not be right. Alright, go ahead.

27:26

They would call me occasionally and say, Hey, go interview. You know, Gary Payton, do whatever, you know, something that they’d ship back for their show. And this one day, they were like, we need you to go to the Coliseum. Now the Key Arena, no, now the climate pledge arena, I’m sorry. And Jeff Ament, this guy from Pearl Jam, is going to be making a poster with Sean Kemp. So there’s this famous Group in Seattle called the castakos brothers, and they make these iconic posters. There’s a large poster. And Jim Zorn, all the greats from beautiful, yeah, I know about that. Really cool. And the poster shoot was going to be Jeff with his base, and Sean just jumping and dunking. And the you can Google it, Google Jeff amont, Sean Kemp poster, you’ll see what I’m talking about. So I got to interview them and send the material for them to package it. And I just got to know him in a different way. His love of basketball, right? He played. He probably still plays, but he was playing fairly competitively for years. He played at the gym and joined a rec league or whatever. Played in college a little bit, and kind of had that be the basis of the friendship more than Wow, you’re a rock star. You know, I’m saying, like, able to kind of separate the two things. And he’s a pretty genuine guy. So he’s doing good stuff. He makes these skate parks around the country, sort of like how people build gyms or whatever, you know, give kids some stuff to do. But he loves skating. He’s always had that in his blood, and he’s made these really cool skate parks give kids another thing to do that’s healthy and outdoors. So he goes around the country and builds those

Nestor Aparicio  28:59

not that you’re not already my hero for giving me a ride home from Quebec City that night, although it’s perfectly safe to walk, but it’s a little chilly that night, as I remember the long walk by five miles back to the city. Um amock Put on a Baltimore bullets Oh sweater for for the encore, for the three four songs they did here in Baltimore, in the arena where Gus Johnson played, like the whole deal. It was the old school orange. It was, it wasn’t Wes Unseld, Phil shanier, we’re going to become the capital. And then the Washington Bullets. This was the 60s sweater. And Earl, you know, Earl, like, Earl probably like that sort of thing. So I would say, if there’s any way to ever have him on my show, and you can make it happen as a sports guy, Baltimore guy, maybe he’s got an Aparicio card. I don’t know what it is, but he did a cool thing here. And the other thing I remember about him is that the Harry Adams Field House in Missoula in 95 I saw them early verses. They were they were still a big band, but they were still playing. Like college gyms. He called his parents out in the gym because they were there, and he was from there. And I’ll never forget they were by far the oldest, like we were all 18 at the show, hair down, mullet it all out. We all look like Eddie and his you know, they were the only 50 year old, old people, really old people. They were like 50 then at the show. So I’ve always wanted to like and I know you have to think so. If there’s a charitable angle, let me know. But wiffle ball for you, available with fubo? Anything else happening? You coming in for Preakness? You still triple crowned up, right?

8

30:33

I mean, we went to the Belmont up at Saratoga because, you know, they’re rebuilding Belmont. Yeah. I mean, I still love it. I watched Breeders Cup last weekend. Was amazing, like it’s, that’s my favorite sports thing of the year, over the Super Bowl. Even, you know, you got the best people and horses in the world all showing up in one place, different divisions, different ages. It’s and, you know, they’re trying, not that others aren’t trying at many other track, but it’s just not the same. You know, there’s a six horse field at fauna Park. It’s just not the Breeders Cup, no offense. Fauci Park,

Nestor Aparicio  31:08

well, I mean, the best are the best. I mean, that’s just where it’s at. You’ve always been one of the best. I appreciate you, brother. Uh, with a ball is the film. It is a childhood exploration of adulthood and dreams of Ken Griffey and and glory, literally, wiffle ball. Glory is what it

Kenny Mayne  31:24

is, correct things that encapsulated it pretty well. Alright,

Nestor Aparicio  31:27

8

maybe I’ll get my name on the box when it comes out on VHS. Thanks for having me. Kenny Maine, a good man out a golfing if you see a guy at that looks like Kenny May with a go, it’s probably him absolutely and I hope to see you here in Baltimore sometime soon. We’ll see you when the Orioles are in the World Series next time. Um, we can all pray a little bit.

Kenny Mayne  31:45

Don’t forget about the boob pal. Trivia note,

Nestor Aparicio  31:48

a boob pal inside the park. Home runs Seattle pilots. He brought

31:52

up the old bullets. So I’m in junior college, 78 spring. That’s when the bullets beat the Sonics. They come back in 79 and we then beat the bullets

8

Nestor Aparicio  32:03

right? Gus Johnson came clean. He came on to our side after that, right from us. Williams, Fred

32:08

brown Johnson, Jack six showed up at my charity event in Seattle about a month ago. You know that was Wally Walker, John Johnson, Lenny Wilkens, the coach. He just turned 87 years old last week. Bill shanier

Nestor Aparicio  32:25

on our side, and Wes on sell and oh. Melvin Hayes, come on now we’re talking you get me, you get me fired up to get a Seattle SuperSonics Pearl Jam logo thing, because those things are awesome too. I know they do. Kenny, take care of yourself. You’re always gracious. Appreciate you. Next time up, it’s Pearl Jam. I’m Nestor. We are W NSD. Am 1570 ta Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive and rock and roll because it’s more fun. You.