Sure, some of you will simply say that Nestor Aparicio (finally) lost his mind on the radio on Thursday morning after the Baltimore Orioles lost an 8-0 lead in Tampa in losing 12-8 in a minor league ballpark in Tampa. There’s been a lot of trauma over the years but even Jim Palmer called it the worst loss of the year for a team mired in last place in American League East and headed to The Bronx this weekend.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Baltimore Orioles’ dismal performance in 2025, highlighting their recent loss to Tampa Bay after holding an 8-0 lead. They criticize the team’s poor pitching, particularly Trevor Rogers, and the bullpen’s ineffectiveness. Nestor expresses frustration over the team’s lack of fan engagement and the new ownership’s failure to address fan concerns. They also discuss the broader issues of the team’s branding, streaming services, and the impact of playing in a minor league ballpark. Nestor emphasizes the need for accountability and better communication from the team’s management.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Baltimore Orioles, poor performance, Trevor Rogers, bullpen issues, fan engagement, social media, new ownership, Katie Griggs, streaming, press box, community outreach, baseball strategy, fan frustration, team management.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, taking the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road all summer long. We have a huge list of places, lots of new places we’ve never been, including readers crab House next week out in Reisterstown on Thursday the 26th we’re going to be going to Costas and timoni, which is actually a place we used to go when it was Nick’s grandstand place I went with my father when I was a little boy at the Timonium fairgrounds on York Road, right around the corner from curio wellness. And foreign daughter will be there on July 10. We’ll have Johnny, oh, our sitting congressman, if you’re from the north side of town as well. And we’re also going to be moving out to 1623, brewing in Eldersburg. I’ve got Scott all sorts of places. We’re going to be taking the crab cake tours. I’m excited about it. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I had the Back to the Future scratch offs, which I had this past week at the Y in Randallstown. If you’re listening, why? Because we care. And there’s one in every community, and there’s pools, and there’s all sorts of learning programs and educational stuff. And when I went out to Randallstown earlier in the week, I don’t want to leave, so it was good, good time. So stick around for that. In the meantime, we’re going to talk about really, really lousy baseball. I’m going to welcome Luke Jones in. I’m going to pull him. This is going to kill both of us, right? This team, right? Eight to nothing lead, and they gave up 12 consecutive runs to lose in a minor league ballpark.
01:31
I I’m
Nestor Aparicio 01:32
a man of a lot of words. People know this. I don’t have much to say. I feel a little speechless. So you start the party with this. You can start the Brian Roberts excuse parade. Go ahead, please.
8Luke Jones 01:42
Well, I was just gonna say, I don’t really want to talk about this. I mean, my goodness. I mean, the Orioles had scored eight runs in a game once from April, 20 through June, 8, they score eight runs in the second inning. You’re thinking, wow, this is fun. Couple home runs. It looked like fun, too. They were having fun for really, no question, there hasn’t been a lot of fun this year. It was fun for five minutes. It really, it’s been fun the last three weeks or so relative to what the first seven or eight weeks had been. But you know, you have Trevor Rogers on the mound, who, he’s the one who kind of started the stretch, when you go back to when they started their stretch of winning, you know, what was it? 14 of 20. Whatever it was, he was on the Hill at Fenway for the night cap of that double header. He pitched really well. He had been sent back down. He’s back up because Cade Povich is on the i L, and you’re thinking, okay, like you take this guy to an eight run lead, you had a scoreless first inning. Look good. And, boy, it fell apart quickly. And, you know, the foreshadowing was there in the second inning where, you know, he walks eight, nine hitter, he was able to get out of it, but, I mean, he was up over 50 pitches through two innings and just the third inning starts. You know, probably squeezed a couple times that that would be my closest thing to a Brian Roberts excuse. And I do think he was squeezed a couple times, but that can’t happen. I mean, you can’t let the thing completely snowball to the point where, you know, you’ve thrown 70 plus pitches and you’ve gotten seven outs, and now you have to hand it over to the bullpen. And the bullpen wasn’t good. I mean, Cano had been much better and good of late, but he was really bad. And, you know, they bring in Kittredge, Kittredge gets two quick outs. I mean, I think the worst part about it Nestor, I mean, and it’s kind of silly to say that, because there were so many bad parts about this, is Tampa Bay scores 12 runs. The last nine of those runs they scored with two outs in an inning. I mean, so it speaks to just stop the damage, stop the bleeding, get out of the inning, right? And they just couldn’t do it. They couldn’t do it, they couldn’t do it, they couldn’t do it. And, oh yeah. And let me be clear, the pitching wears this overwhelmingly. But to add insult to injury, they didn’t have a single hit after the second inning when they scored their eight runs. So so even as things start to tighten up, and you and I texted just a couple times during the game of one of my research, which
Nestor Aparicio 04:05
is unusual, by the way, I usually do that too often, but I said it, I have to really have something on my mind to send it to you and not send it to the internet. You know what I mean? I like, I like. You can read what I think on the internet is kind of how I usually think. But this was, this was personal, as they say, right with you on Wednesday night, and I said to you, I think it was eight to three at that point, or maybe eight to four. And I said to you, at that point, I’m like, they better score a couple more runs. Oh, and they didn’t. I’m gonna pull the thread up, because I know when I looked at it later. I’m like, I should have tweeted this, because I would have looked really smart at 910 I said the Orioles are just bad enough to be living on the edge. They still might lose. I think it was eight to six at the time. You’re maybe eight to four, you know, it’s an eight to four, eight to six, whatever it was, um, and that was at 910, and you text me back, oh, I talked about the bullpen. Yeah, we’ll see if all our. Recent praise for their bullpens ends up being the kiss of death, yeah, and it was, and it was, and it was Yeah.
Luke Jones 05:07
It was Yeah. And, I mean, all of it, it’s all of it. And again, I’m not as much as I’ve taken the stance of being much harder on their offense over the totality of this season. Yeah, it would have been nice if they scored a couple more runs. And like the fact that fact that they didn’t get a hit after the second inning. I mean, come on. But that said you had an eight nothing lead in the second inning. Trevor Rogers, what are you doing? Yeah, pitch to the scoreboard. He said that. And mancellino said that after the game, pitch to the scoreboard a little bit more. You’re nibbling and you’re walking guys, and you know, you’re trying to be fine on the outside portion of the strike zone, and you just start putting guys on your pitch counts elevated. I mean, when you have an eight nothing lead in the second inning, for me, the idea isn’t, oh, you should go six shut out innings. It’s not, no, I’m not saying that, but you should go five or six innings and maintain the lead, right? I don’t even mind if you give up two three, heck, you could give up four runs or three runs, like he ended up doing before he got pedal throw strikes, but just get, get into the fifth or sixth inning at least, and then you can turn it over to the bullpen in a much more advantageous way. I mean, the when you have the second inning that he had in terms of the pitch count, and then the third inning, of course, he only got one out, and he was chased at that point in time because he, I mean, he’s at 71 pitches, and he got seven outs. I mean, that’s, you can’t do that, that. That’s a ticket back to Norfolk. I don’t know if it’ll happen, because, you know, Povich is on the i l, but you know, the worst part about this, on top of the loss, is your bullpens fried and Okay, Charlie Morton, you better. Hopefully it’s a good Charlie Morton for the finale, but yeah, we need six and two thirds tonight. Sure he’s gonna have to wear it. I mean, if he gets shelled early on, he’s just gonna have to wear it, because their bullpen, you know, is pretty tapped out at this point. I mean, they had to use Baker in the eighth inning in a game where they were down by four runs at that point. I mean, you didn’t want to do that so well.
Nestor Aparicio 07:01
8I mean, they might bring somebody else up to have innings. I mean, because they Charlie Morton’s not going seven tonight,
Luke Jones 07:06
but they’ve got, they’ve done a lot, a couple they’ve already done that a couple times here over the last couple days. So it’s just just bad. It’s a disaster. It’s I saw Jim Palmer on social media. I saw other fans on social media calling it the worst loss of the season. And when you think about it, called it
Nestor Aparicio 07:22
that high. I didn’t see that. Bomber blocked me on Twitter. He didn’t apologize to me two weeks ago, but we did chat, but, but
Luke Jones 07:27
you look at it and you say, you know, they had the Easter embarrassment against Cincinnati, where they lost 24 to two. They had the game at Fenway right before they started playing better that where they lost 19 to five. This was worse than both of those. I mean, those two games, the score got so silly because they got to the point where the loss was a loss. This was a win that became a loss. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Winning eight to nothing in the third inning, you win the game. Yeah. I mean, it’s embarrassing, it’s deflating, it’s it’s everything. I went back and looked this is the first time they’ve blown an eight run lead in a game since 2017 it was Dr I remembered this. It was draft weekend. They were in the Bronx. They had a nine to one lead against the Yankees going into the bottom of the sixth inning. So that one was worse in that, in that regard, but I mean, eight nothing in the second inning, and you just, you didn’t, I would say you pitched like that. No, you didn’t pitch. That was the problem. And your offense on top of that goes to sleep entirely. I mean, you know, add a couple runs on, you know, especially when that, when it got to eight to four, if your offense can storm back and get a couple runs there, then you’re feeling way better, and you’re saying, Okay, we’re putting the silliness aside. We’re still going to win this game. It was frustrating, not impressive, but we still get a win. But for for them collectively, to go to sleep the way they did entirely, it’s just,
8Nestor Aparicio 08:55
I want to have a programming moment with you right now, because I noticed something this week. Go to opening day. You go to opening day. We’re all on social media. You have your followers, by the way. Facebook consolidated me this week. I don’t know if I look differently to you in some way. I now have, like, a professional insight thing on my personal page. So anybody out there, which is 11,000 of you, apparently, who interact with me and follow our work on Facebook. I hope nothing weird changes there, because something weird changed on my end. But that being said, I’m in the middle of most games five nights a week. I’ll put something up about the game just to let people know I’m watching it, to let people know it exists, which like once I stopped following the caps and Ed frankovic Got off of Facebook and Howard shares not texting. I don’t get caps updates in the middle of my game. I don’t even know that they’ve played until three days later, because I don’t follow the caps anymore, right? When it comes to the Orioles, though they’re an every night concern, they had all of these years where they were just God awful, right? Right? And I out on social media. Things come to you a night. You’re out to dinner with your wife, and you’re not watching the game, you go to the bathroom, you look down on your phone, you’ll see somebody status. People are talking about it. You and I talk about the Baltimore Orioles every day of our lives, and we have, for a long, long time. We do this professionally. You’re there, I’m here, I’m banned. You’re not whatever, but we talk about them. We on the front of our website. I feel like we’re almost too baseball centric. We’re almost too Oriole centric for what I want our business to be and what our business really has become, which is this thing started 33 years ago because everybody loved baseball. Everybody was in the Cal Ripken. Every girl I dated could name the five starters in their rotation like it was just it was ubiquitous to the culture in 1995 with Cal Ripken in 96 and 97 and Peter Angelos in the warehouse, and we didn’t have a football team. That was a long time ago. The modern part of my baseball coverage is that I’ll put something up people, I have been a little taken aback in the last week by how little action there is about the Orioles like like you and I. They’re the Orioles, and we’re watching them every night, and we’re into it, and we’re evaluating really, how not very good Brian Roberts is at doing this, how very bad Greg Bader is at all of it and running it and watching it, because I only my whole consumption of Oriole baseball is Madison. That’s it. That’s the only thing I have. I don’t go to the games I have you. I don’t listen to 1057, or sometimes I’m in the car, I’ll put Bal on and hear Hollander for an inning or something like that. Um, interest is down, dude, they got their ass kicked, and they blew an eight to nothing lead. And like I other, you’re different. You got the hard cores and the people that were watching when they lost 120 games, I’m talking about regular people, so that people like my wife that would watch them, that likes baseball, that when it’s eight to nothing. She’ll leave the room because the game doesn’t matter. And I go in, and she’s in the other room doing something that’s important to her. And I go, and I’m like, it’s eight to four, it’s eight to six, it’s eight to eight, it’s 12 to eight. And she’s laughing about it, but she’s not engaged, and she’s a lifelong baseball fan. She’s somebody will buy tickets from them, this last place thing, and this, this the word that Bob Haney always used here, forever was relevant when they become relevant again, relevant again. Now, of course, Bob Haney was sitting here, watching it every day, taking phone calls. I was here. This is 2005 6789, 10, um, I just feel like they’re very easy to go away from, if it’s not you or me or somebody that’s shut in who has nothing but Christmas tree ornaments in their house that are Orioles, I’m just saying, like the general population of sports fans who can give their time to Keith Urban tonight, or or or the Orioles game when they’re in last place, last place, all they have left, don’t tell Katie Griggs is it’s just us. It’s just a few of us, just just the people that have put up with this shit for 30 years and are still willing, in the middle of June, on a 90 degree night, to stop everything. Worry about what time the game starts, 730 worry about what time it starts on Sunday, 11 in the morning. Schlep over to the Guinness house and meet Mr. Splash, whoever the f that is, like the teams in last place, and they blew an eight to nothing lead in the third inning on Wednesday night, and nobody’s watching it. No one cares. No one’s hurt, no one’s angry. It’s just there in last place, and my wife’s in the other room laughing at them, you and I aren’t and the handful of people that are here in hand ringing and talking about the Rogers deal and still lamenting Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers and like we can talk that language. You and I can. I don’t know whether your mother can, or your sister can, or your brother or the outskirt, the people around us, my son certainly can’t. But the people that go to sleep on it and have been to sleep on it for a long time, they are like cicadas. They are dormant. They’re gone. Because when I put statuses up now I’m not getting outraged. I’m not getting I’m just getting, oh, wasn’t watching their last place. I’m done. It’s June. I’m done. I’m done, I’m done. And that should be their real concern. And that’s a long soliloquy of me dealing with this ish for 35 years, and just saying, you’ve lost the crowd. They’ve lost the crowd, and they’ve lost everybody else that was coming back and looking for the lights and wanting a Mr. Ruben said, Oh, he’s so cute. He’s an owner. He’s doing funny, funny, funny commercials. Dude. Own the team. Run the team. Katie Griggs, be a professional. Bring him. Media around. Let us ask questions. You’re throwing. You’re kicking the press box out. It’s just, it’s like Angelos has been exhumed and nothing’s changed, and fans are just not buying their masks and not buying their tickets. I mean, I guess they’ll go. My wife watched the Cal Ripken commercial in the second inning when she was still watching the game, and she’s like, well, I guess people will go and get that thing. You are excited about it, like you’re a Marvel guy, so you’re a little different to me. You got bobble heads behind you in the shot, so I but I’m just wondering, they chase people, and I don’t know that people are going to come back to the soap opera. That’s all I’m saying. And I feel that on social media, I feel like we have the hard course, man, last place. Last place is just a terrible thing. I think. You know, I don’t NES, I don’t disagree with your big picture point that you’re making. But like, if the Yankees, if the Yankees started 16 and 34 their social media engagement would be way, way down. People would be ticked. But do you think Yankee Stadium would look the same if they were 16 and 34 through their first it’s not even social media engagement. It’s just time spent with the Pro. It just I am just gone, like you’ll go 356, days without knowing whether they win or lose soon, if you’re if you’re that fan, not you and me, because we sit here and do it every day, I it’s our job to do it, believe it or not, whether Katie Griggs acknowledges that or not, or Greg Bader acknowledges that we try to help them. We try we create energy and enthusiasm around their team, for better or worse, we really do. I’m telling you right now I can’t get anybody. They’re gone. They’re just gone. I’m watching them piss this game away and thinking and thinking other people are watching. And it just, it’s, it’s, it’s, whatever that small group is that that, and they’re going to know that number soon. You don’t want to know that number next June when they find out how many real subscribers they have on their mass and titty you know that because now they’re going to be able to have a head count. It’s not going to be how many subs we have, or how many ant Myrtles have cable television out in Western Maryland or paying us money, and we don’t, they don’t know it. This is going to be a pay for play. And that’s like these Sunday games where they played 11 in the morning and nobody has the channel. And you know, like, nobody’s gonna watch that, including me. So I just, they’re really in a slippery place here. Just shut down then, by the way, well, in the last week or two. I mean, now you’re taking that Now you sound like you’re an Orlando I’m not talking serious business with you. I know because, like, they are really screwing this up. They are screwing this up dramatically in how bad this season is going
Luke Jones 17:38
like a profound thing that when they’re in last place, in like pissing away to nothing games on Wednesday. Should piss people off it should I hear you, but they’re already in last place. Nestor, I mean, I mean, I’m angered
Nestor Aparicio 17:50
that I spent three hours with it on Wednesday night. So can I be angry when they piss them away and the new ownership is dog meat? I mean, it’s terrible. It’s just terrible. All over again, the broadcaster terror, it’s just terrible. That’s it. I want to say that because I on Monday,
Luke Jones 18:14
8I just, you know, I don’t know. I don’t disagree with most of what you’re saying, but like, I don’t know. Like, there’s nothing profound to take away from the fact that they blew an eight run lead, and people aren’t paying attention. They’re in last place. They played well for three weeks and they’re still in last place. They’ve, they’ve played really well for the last three and a half weeks in its totality.
Nestor Aparicio 18:33
I guess I feel stupid for paying attention then, because I sort of got back in the boat on Monday and said there’s six games out there this. They’re that. They’re Trevor Rogers, dude, you know they, they’re, they’re, what, yeah,
Luke Jones 18:44
but, I mean, again, I hear everything you’re saying. But, like, it’s not that, it is that deep, but their current, like, where they stand on June 18 and 19th, 2025
Nestor Aparicio 18:54
isn’t that deep? If I’m not pissed after Wednesday night, I just don’t care anymore. You know what? I mean, like, seriously, no, but there’s a lot of people that are pissed because they don’t care anymore. That’s my point. That’s my point. I mean, this was my point back when I did the walkout in 2006 and said, You’re gonna keep nerds who like baseball me and you, you’re gonna lose every they’ve lost everybody else, and they did it again. They did it again. They’ve lost everybody else again, and I just,
8Luke Jones 19:23
I, I’m, that’s why this season was
Nestor Aparicio 19:26
sad, really sad Wednesday night, sad playing in that minor league ball. It just the whole thing is shit. It’s just terrible. All of it really is, and it’s, it speaks to them being arrogant, rich or wealthy, and not really having any awareness of what this is, as Katie Griggs is hiding, and Mike Elias hides, and money bags is hiding now, and cows cutting commercials and hanging out with John Harbaugh, it’s just what. Lousy. It’s just lousy. They don’t even have a Billy Joel concert this summer down there. You know what?
Luke Jones 20:04
I mean, they’ve got the savannah bananas though. I mean, look, I real baseball.
Nestor Aparicio 20:09
8Baseball. Just want to say, for the
Luke Jones 20:12
sake of my blood pressure. I mean, look, I’m not going to sit here and disagree with you at the same time. I I don’t think there’s anything profound about the lack of social media reaction to the fact that they blew an eight run leap when they’re already in last place, right? I mean, nobody’s watching it, so nobody got their feelings hurt. It’s just the truth like and they’re just me by that line. Now, although you know, what are the actual measurements on social media, I don’t know my social media. I’m constantly muting people on Facebook because the only thing that shows up or updates about the Orioles, good or bad. And I don’t do that because I dislike them. It’s because I don’t get on social. On Facebook, x or Twitter is a different story. But on Facebook, I don’t necessarily log on just to see what everyone’s saying about the Orioles that
Nestor Aparicio 20:54
you know that just has to do with I prefer the pictures of your nieces, right? So,
Luke Jones 20:58
so like my anecdotal evidence. Would say there a lot of people that are still engaged with it now, but looking at it pragmatically, stepping back from what my own personal Facebook page is, of course, interest is going to be down, and that’s why I said, you know, if the Yankees or the Dodgers or whoever, you might not notice it as much, because they might be bigger markets. They might have a bigger pool of baseball quote, nerds, to use your term, that are still engaged. But engagement is always going to be down when your team stinks, right, when you’re when you get off to the awful, awful start that they got off to. How much of that could they anticipate? I don’t know. I mean you and I weren’t picking them to be in last place, so we were wrong about it. Well, that’s why
8Nestor Aparicio 21:42
I’m watching them on Wednesday night, when they’re coming to life, and they’ve won some games, and they’re getting better. And you sort of come back to it. My wife even grabbed her meal at 730 we made dinner. She grabbed her meal and brought it in because she wanted to watch the game. You know what I mean, like? And then my wife’s not a barometer, but it but everything’s a barometer for when I’m out on barstools, whether people are watching the game, whether they know who’s pitching tonight, whether they’re into the movie or not, and they need to get more people into the movie. That’s sort of we have a whole radio station and a whole company that’s dedicated to getting their people into the movie, and they don’t even understand that. That’s how dumb they are about branding. But you can do
Luke Jones 22:25
all the branding you want. If you’re in last place people aren’t watching your product, and if
Nestor Aparicio 22:28
they’re in first place and they’re playing at 1130 on a Sunday morning and making me subscribe to channels in order to have access to get the game, I may or may not do it. You gotta, may or may not do it. You’ve got to get on board with streaming, because it’s it’s only going to get worse. I’m just like, we’re not going back to
Luke Jones 22:44
8what TV was.
Nestor Aparicio 22:45
They have to get me on to streaming and get me No, but I want to give my credit card and care enough
Luke Jones 22:53
five times. Roku is free. Like, literally, it’s, it’s a free game to stream. Now, do they need to mark do they need to educate people? How
Nestor Aparicio 23:04
far am I going to go to stream a free game for a last place team at 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning?
8Luke Jones 23:08
When those are two different questions?
Nestor Aparicio 23:11
This is just speaks that Dumb and Dumber. How about that dumb to play games at 11 o’clock in the morning, Dumber To chase people away and and, and whatever ish is for last place, and awful on top of it, I’ve got a bad product that I’m charging you too much for or making you go around dark corners to find it, and then when I get There, it’s
Luke Jones 23:35
lousy. Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 23:40
8that’s what they’re offering non nerds, and I use nerd in the highest esteem with you and I, because we’re freaking baseball encyclopedias, we’ve dedicated our lives to this. I sat here with Joe pulley arguing about whether bulletproof Reynolds was on the second so, so a lifetime of that means that they should be providing better everything for the fans, and not just the pissed off. When named Aparicio that’s been thrown out, who was the asshole from free the birds and like, whatever they names they want to call me, call me whatever they want to call me. Fix this. This is awful for everybody. It’s terrible. You gotta you got a quad A manager. You got a general manager hiding. You got an owner that doesn’t know what he’s doing. You’re playing in a minor league ballpark with minor league broadcasts just at 11 in the morning on Roku. I mean,
Luke Jones 24:29
we could just play this. We should just record this and play this every day like because this is what
Nestor Aparicio 24:37
I don’t disagree, right? It’s a mess. It’s a mess. I like. I don’t know what you want me to say, but, but that said you can talk all you want about branding and being clever and putting the games, you know, put the games away. Nothing needs in the third inning. You can put the games on broadcast TV the rest of the year. Put put them on for free, you know, like, give it away. People aren’t going to watch it when you’re in last place. I mean, they’re just not so. So they’ve got to fix the baseball team. They’re back to to that. Now, do I think they need to fix it to the degree that they were in in 2018 where it’s going to take multiple years to do that? Boy, I hope not. I don’t think so. Then again, I didn’t think they’re going to be this bad this year, right? We were not as angry as I am. Then Shame on them. I mean, I’m not even fainting being angry. I’m wondering why I’ve wasted 30 years of my life watching this. I really am starting like that, you laugh, but I’m no, I’m older than you, and I’m like, and I’m watching people die everywhere. Jim Henneman died, and they couldn’t even get his body in the ground before they pulled it. I mean, I knocked off the wall, and they’re gonna do away with the press box. So it’s sort of like, you know, it’s not even they don’t have respect for much of anything, really, of the fan base, of anything.
Luke Jones 25:51
Well, I, I’d rather not go in that direction.
8Nestor Aparicio 25:55
My direction is this, my direction is this. They’re taking $600 million of our money. I was out at the Y the other day. The Y would love to have $600 million to really do things, to help people in the community. You know what I mean, like people that are really doing things, not looking to pay Adley ruchman More money, or sign gunner Henderson, or charge $17 beers and call themselves a philanthropy while they make bobble heads of themselves and players who are around 25 years ago, like I just, I can’t. I’m trying to think of what I can get on board with with all of this, other than we’ve got new ownership and we’ve got new things, I don’t know what else to get on board with. I’m not on board with the quad A manager. I’m not on board with the pitching staff. I’m not on board with Katie Griggs. I could be on board with Mike Elias, I guess. I mean, I don’t, I don’t know where you’re going to turn, where he’s going to turn when he fires this guy, because he doesn’t know anything about baseball, and he then baseball people around him, they’re going to trust Cal Rifkin, I guess. But does Cal want the responsibility of saying that I picked the general manager, or I’m really involved? Is Cal really involved, or is he making commercials? I think he’s making commercials. That’s what I’ve been led to believe. That’s what I’ve been told, that he’s making commercials. But the fan base doesn’t think that. Luke, I’ve been out on the bar stools. So what I’m asking is the same question, and there was no answer to this. This was rhetorical. When that old creep owned the team, right? Who’s going to fix it? Who’s going to fix it, and I’m
Luke Jones 27:23
really and else to fix it. I mean, it’s Mike Elias until it’s not like Cal’s not running the team. I disagree with you, man, I think the people that are really engaged with the product still know that Cal Ripken is not running the team, or isn’t going to run the team. I think, I think those are the casuals who have tuned it out at this point, and look, it’s fine, like if you’ve tuned it out, I don’t blame people. Let me be clear. I don’t think anyone that is actually closely following this thinks Cal Ripken is going to run the team, or that Cal Ripken has that much in I
Nestor Aparicio 27:53
had a lot of questions and no answers and no accountability. Literally, they don’t have they don’t want to answer my questions because I ask real questions and there, there’s no information about much of this, other than they drop a press release in and say the Henneman press box is gone and it’s going to be, always going to move the press box. And that’s happening everywhere. Man, you know, that’s prime real estate. You’ve talked a lot about how they have to make money. That’s how they’re going to make money. I want to hear and I want to sit and talk to them about how they’re going to make money, and how they’re going to ask my community and my listeners and the people that have supported me for 35 years, and they want me. They want me dead first. They want me not on a microphone say, speaking truth. I’m here speaking truth. I mean I and if I’m a little more pissed off or performatively pissed off this morning, you should be when they blow an eight to nothing lead in the third inning, in your last place, in your head, in the Yankee Stadium this weekend, and nobody’s watching the games, and every part of the I’d like Katie Griggs to sit in front of me and tell me what they’re doing right. Tell me what you’re doing. Well, what are you doing? Well, what have you added? Any of you? Rubenstein Griggs, any of you, COVID? Any of you what? What have you done besides fire the manager and put his head on a platter and it
Luke Jones 29:07
8didn’t mass in streaming, which they were well behind the ball on that, you know, they were one of the last teams in baseball to to offer direct to consumer streaming. I don’t have much else for you, I mean, and they’re going to blow the press box up and turn it into a club 11. Club. They’re gonna do a bit. It’s not about the press box. It’s not what they’re using their money, just saying, like, they’re using their money to fish I think really wealthy people or businesses that don’t exist here. And I think we also need to, we need to have some self awareness. Let’s take care of the fans. Let’s take care of the people that really support this. I agree with that, but I also think we need to have self awareness as media that like, we don’t have to have the best view in the entire house either. I am excited that thing. It’s four years exactly, but I’m just saying that’s something that I have tried to have more self awareness about that as media. Yes, there’s an important job to do, to ask questions, be accountable, all those different things I’m not allowed to do, by the way, but go ahead, Chris. Correct? I’m not, yeah, I’m saying, in a general sense here, they have no respect for the media. And I also, but I also acknowledge it’s not our God given right as media that to have the best seat in the house to watch the game either, right? I always wonder why they gave me the ones down on the court at the Bulls game. I’ve kind of always, I you know that honestly, as someone who sat in the nosebleeds most of my life before getting into the media, it’s honestly something I kind of not, not never with us, of resentment or anything like that, let’s be clear. But it was also, but it was one of those things that I always kind of wondered, I’m like, kind of surprised, like we had the absolute best seats here, like understanding at the end of the day, it’s a business for them. You know, with the ravens, the Orioles and everywhere else, right? I mean, this is happening everywhere in Toronto. I was sitting in the left field corner by the foul pole for opening day, right? I mean, this is not something unique to what like the ravens and the Orioles are doing something out of line with the rest
Nestor Aparicio 30:58
of see, when I see these things, even you seem to take it as like it’s an affront to the media. The media are the people who ask the questions, who convey facts and accountability to the fans. All of that has been taken away when they do the things they do to people like me and to the Associated Press and the Gulf of America and all this stuff that leads down from who Chad Steele’s sister adores. So I would just say, I don’t care that you have a good seat or a bad seat. I just I care that they’re taking $600 million of our money to take the Jim Henneman plaque off the wall and turn it into something that they believe they’re going to get a billion dollars for, and they’re going to charge this premium, premium, premium thing for this thing that I don’t even understand the model for what they’re doing while they’re in last place, and they’re doing really nothing for the fans, really nothing for the people that have supported the thing. It’s just one giant corporate ATM toilet, is really what it is. And they, they just think of the fans. I mean, I remember being taken for granted the first time around. You know, back when Peter took my side, back in 1994 he was going to be a man of the people, and, like all of that stuff that there, really, you know, this was a different kind of market for that, with Brooks Robinson and and Cal Ripken and Cal sign and autographs all night for fans, this was, that’s what built this, then the Colts before that, and already Donovan and Lenny Moore and Johnny and I just, I mean, we were a different kind of market in that way. And Rick Vaughn acknowledges that, and I hope to have him on next week. He couldn’t come this week. And by the way, Tampa looks like they sold, right? They looks like they got a buyer for their baseball team down there. But people that leave here and have to go build a baseball team in Tampa, or try to build a baseball team even in Washington for the nationals, and say that what the Orioles did here was really special, and it’s nice to Katie Griggs think she can eat off of it, and they’re going to sell things off of it and all that. But they’re not. And that’s kind of the sad part, is that the bobblehead nights and stuff like that. They can do a Boog pal bobble head, and they’ll people come and get it and whatever. But like, that’s not get that’s not going to ring the bell to pay gunner Henderson $50 million a year and to raise the boats of the franchise. What’s going to raise the boat to the franchise is accountability, front facing. Can I trust you? Are you doing the right, are you? Like, where are you? Are you of us? Or is this a Baltimore team? I mean, they did 25 years where they took the name off the franchise. You know, I remember, I fought with them for years just to put Baltimore back on the name. So I’ve got a different kind of history with all of it. And I’ve watched all the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m just literally judging it today, Thursday, June 19, last place, 30 years of awful, new owner, bobbleheads, empty stadium, high prices, tough access on massen and this and that streaming. They’re here. They’re there. They’re everywhere, availability. And what I feel coming back from the community is they’re not building their, their their franchise in the way that it felt on opening day last year, like they had this real opening after 101 wins. They were a playoff team last year despite the empty seats. It felt like those empty seats when I went to Money Bags added Beth to fill up three weeks after that night before Trump got elected November and said that’s trauma. Mr. Rubenstein, those empty seats are trauma. And that somebody should recognize my words. Somebody should recognize that for what it was, and somebody should have been working a lot harder the last seven or eight months so on her new job from Seattle, her new million dollar a year assignment to come here and run the team, and I haven’t seen any of that and that when you’re in last place, there is a tendency to just put your head in the sand because you want to hide. You want to hide from blowing an eight to nothing lead in the first in the third inning. You know, like you do want to hide, but the games on again tonight. Kevin Brown can’t hide. Brian Roberts, can. The players can’t hide, but they’re just. Just, they’re just, it’s just poor. Their communication is poor, their PR is poor, their broadcasts are poor. The team on the field is poor. Everything about the way they treat Jim Palmer is poor. Everything about it is poor. And I just want to give a report card today, because I have been sunshine. I haven’t. I’ve only had one of these rants since. You’ve had
Luke Jones 35:19
quite a few of these rants recently, man, I mean, and it’s fine, like, but this, most of our conversations at the night after they lose are this, but go ahead, it’s fine. Like, I It’s fine. I don’t I’m not going to sit here and argue with you, because not saying you’re wrong, just saying, I mean, it’s who’s pitching tonight. Charlie Morton, but, but everything you said about Katie Griggs, if this team was in last place, they they, if you’re not going to win, all that other stuff isn’t going to matter either.
Nestor Aparicio 35:50
Well, none of that matter because I didn’t see any of it. I don’t know any. I mean, all I saw was I was at Jim Edwards one day, and the next announcement is a, literally, a press release that doesn’t even say they’re moving the press box. It’s just this new, exciting thing that they’re doing in this space that everybody knew they were doing. And it’s just, it’s just awkward. Did they start taking the $100,000 deposits on that the day they announced it? You know who’s excited about this? Let’s go do $300,000 club memberships behind own plates.
8Luke Jones 36:22
Everything about the Ravens stadium renovations, and my point about the press box is, when you lead with moving with the press box as media, we sound out of touch. Because if I’m a fan and I’m hearing that, I’m rolling my eyes the press box I’m not even in, so I don’t even care. But no, but I just, I mean, in general, I don’t think that’s the best argument. I think the best argument is just that everything they do, and the Ravens with the same thing with their renovations, it’s why I take zero interest in that everything they’re doing is catering to the top 1% of fans, right? The top 1% not even fans, just the top 1% of I want. I don’t know if I’d call them fans. I’d say clientele. Right? Clientele, right? But because how many of them are ones who cheer on offense? How many millionaires out there that are going to really be the most hardcore that that’s even a silly way of putting it, the ones that will take advantage of those spaces the most? How many of them are really about the baseball, and how many of that is it’s just a social space that you’re going to use for clients? You know, think and look that luxury suites have been part of baseball stadium for stadia for decades. I’m this is the next step with that. But, you know, my better hope there’s a customer. Sure, I’d say the same thing about the, you know, the Raven same way, right? I mean, I know where they have
Nestor Aparicio 37:37
10s of 1000s of potential customers in Baltimore on the streets of the city, and they’ve done a really lousy job sitting in the upper deck, especially when people look like me, or look like, look like Alan McCallum, or look like Rob long like they’ve done a really poor job with just of young people, just all of it just, it’s just poor and I just, but I would also say, and I think people are, by the
Luke Jones 38:00
way, here’s a word of advice, though, you keep moaning about the streaming stuff. That’s how young people watch TV. Okay, I’m just telling you some of these things that you think are terrible. I think some of it is also they’re trying to grow things long term. Baseball in general, doesn’t mean it’s going to work? No. Does it mean it’s going to be executed properly? No, but you just said about reaching young people, but then at the same time, you’re talking out the other side of your mouth saying this Roku thing, stupid, whereas, like, it’s a it’s a free stream of a game. That’s how a lot of 20 year olds are watching. Tell a lot of 20 year olds don’t, you know, Direct TV, Xfinity, things like that. Like, they’re not doing
Nestor Aparicio 38:44
8anything. They’re not attracting those people on that day. And they’re telling people like me, take the day off. Just take the day off. Just take the day off. I’m going to take the day off on Sunday. I am, you know. So, you know,
Luke Jones 38:56
what should they do then? I mean, I don’t know. Like, everything’s so terrible when they when, when they try something different, you don’t like it. I mean, like, what should they do? That’s that. That’s, that’s my question.
Nestor Aparicio 39:09
You thought they should sign Bueller? I thought they should sign smell, you know? So, yeah, somebody else thought they should decide burns. I mean, there’s baseball issues, and
Luke Jones 39:16
then there’s and that also speaks to just how much of a disaster this season has been because, as as I’ve said to you over and over and over, I’ve wracked my brain on why it’s been this bad, this bad, you know, why they not, why they got off to a slow start. I mean, of course, with some of the injuries that they had, they’re not very good at what they do, but, like, really, the truth on top of that, just why it’s been so bad, why? Why it was like the bottom 1% scenario that played out here? On top of all the other things that you rightly have pointed out that they haven’t done well enough or needed to do
8Nestor Aparicio 39:51
better, this was their time to do something. Everything should have been done better. Now they’re locked down. They should have gone and found Larry Latinos former. Lloyd said, how do we really fix this? How do we get cowardly and involved in a way that aren’t dumb commercials? You know what I mean, like, like, how can we really earn back the trust? Let’s start with the Aparicio guy and Terry Crowley and sur Hoff and bordick and all of the people Brooks, Robinson’s family, let let’s start with people that are a part of this who could help us build this, the people that that Peter hated. Let’s really get him right with them and get them back because they love baseball. Let’s find the people who are the most offended and fix them. We don’t need to fix the people that are already coming. We just need to give them cheaper beer and more points on their Birdland membership, and bigger better bobbleheads and gold medallions and trinkets and mental jewelry. You know, I don’t the winning part is so important. They’ve been doing that the last two years. That’s my point. My point is they’ve won. They’ve gotten rid of Peter Cal still alive and well and upright Palmer wants to do all the games, and they don’t know how not to. I mean Luke, but they left their shoot interview here. The most offensive thing they did to me, the most offensive thing they did to me was put that whistling clown on the phone with me to insult me. After that, it was like, all right for me. For me personally, it happened last May 15 that I’m like, Oh, these people aren’t going to be any different. But then I prayed that like they’re going to treat me like shit, but everybody, oh, they’re going to be great with everybody else. It’s just going to be about me, because they hate me that much. Because Peter hated me, and Greg Bader hates me, and Jennifer Grun, whatever her name is, has never met me, but hates me. I thought, well, if they fix it and I get treated like shit, I’ll laugh about it. Because, like, I’ve been laughing about it for 20 years at this point, because it’s so petty, it’s so it’s absurd. But then I see how they treat other people, and I run into Terry Crowley and see how he got treated. I run into Jim Palmer and hear from Jim Palmer how Jim Palmer got treated. And then and I think, what prayer do I have? I mean, nothing’s changed there. That’s my experience. That’s not my opinion. It’s my experience that nothing has changed there, and it’s not getting better under the new ownership. It’s actually getting worse. It’s actually getting worse because they’re not even acknowledging this. I mean, dude Andy McPhail put on a coochie sweater, at least, came on and put the lights on and said something, yeah, I don’t know if I’d say it’s getting worse, but, but the cumulative impact of decades of it is what makes it Bucha Showalter manage this team, or away from it. Tony Manziel is their manager right now, but he’s not going to be their manager long term. I mean, well, yes, tonight.
Luke Jones 43:02
Okay. I mean, I just, what
Nestor Aparicio 43:04
are they going to do to fix it? That’s I’m going to keep at. What are they going to do to fix it? What are they going to do to fix it? They’re not going to talk to me, they’re not going to answer real questions, they’re not going to take any accountability.
Luke Jones 43:17
8Then they’re not going to fix it. Well, if they’re not going to fix it, then,
Nestor Aparicio 43:20
why am I talking about this that there we go. I’ll drop the ball on that. I’ll go eat some
Luke Jones 43:24
crab cakes and enjoy the nice weather tonight, and we can reconvene and have the same conversation tomorrow, after Charlie Morton gets lit up,
Nestor Aparicio 43:32
Will they still be in last place tomorrow?
8Speaker 1 43:34
They will be, yeah. So well, I don’t. I’m not doing
Nestor Aparicio 43:37
this to make it funny or interesting. It’s just I’ve laid my soul out I did if I did a walk out 20 years ago, in the hopes that it wouldn’t be empty and it wouldn’t be despair, and that they could grow the thing, and that my last name and my cousin’s work, who’s still alive, would mean something, and that baseball would grow again and be a vibrant part of all of the crap they Talk about. Bring people downtown, black people, white people, Latin people, men, women, real moms, everyone’s family. It’s affordable, it’s family fun, it’s we’re gonna pack casinos, we’re gonna we’re gonna build towers, we’re gonna have wings, we’re gonna drink beer, we’re gonna parade around the harbor. We’re gonna build downtown. We’re gonna be a philanthropy. Okay? You know, they’re going to take $600 million and take Jim Henneman plaque off the wall and build something for rich people that may or may not come, and they’re not coming. Now, anyway, people are not coming because the seats aren’t good enough, or the stadium is not good enough, or the beer’s not cold enough, or the club levels gross, you know, old Cleveland stadium or something. There’s nothing to do with any of that. So, I mean, if I were to sit them say, are you going to spend all this tax money and throw the press box out, and what are you selling in there, and who’s going to buy it that’s not already buying it? And where are these new people, where they’re going to give you $100,000 to go sit there? Where are they? Where. Was that customer. I again, deep breaths, Nestor. Press you.
Luke Jones 45:07
Okay. I mean, look, they’ve got to fix.
Nestor Aparicio 45:11
8I wish I were going to Yankee Stadium pissing away grandest play baseball. That’s how much I love
Luke Jones 45:15
everything, everything you say applies. And look, I’m, I’m, I’m not impressed with the new ownership group. I, you know, I was starting to wonder last season, but all those things acknowledged got a last place product right now that no one was anticipating. And that’s a
Nestor Aparicio 45:31
disaster that everyone’s hiding from too. Which tells me all I need to know. That’s all I everybody’s a hell of a winner. He’s Luke Jones. I’m Nestor, I’m I’ve had a really good week. I mean, I’ve had Mark Bryant from hooting the blowfish on Jack Hughes is coming up from Wang Chung. I hung out at the Y with Barry Williams, with John Hoey, doing great things in the community. Tawanda was the lovely woman who runs the Y, who had all of this information for me. So I’ve done good stuff this week. We’re going to do good stuff next week. We got Fourth of July coming up. I’m having the folks in the heritage fair on from Dundalk, because the heritage fair is coming back. I’m having Evan brown on because I don’t know if you know this, Luke, maybe it’s not a Pennsylvania thing, but over in Catonsville, they put chairs out on Frederick road like it’s June 19. There’s already chairs everywhere at Frederick road for the parade, because that’s how important the parade is on the Fourth of July. I’m worried more about democracy in the Constitution than I am the parades at this point. But I did that last weekend. I’ll continue to do that. Next week, we’re going to be talking to all sorts of people. We’re going to be a Costas in Timonium, the new Timonium with Congressman Johnny Olszewski. I’m looking forward to talking to him. I have been chasing Wes Moore around, but he has been hard to find. He’s running for president, if you haven’t heard, he’s out raising money in Colorado and other places so, and doing other streams so, but I am focusing on democracy, what’s going on in our country, what’s happening in Israel, what’s happening in Iran. So we’re talking about other things as well, which might be a little bit more important than blowing an eight to nothing lead in Tampa. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We are wnsd. Am 1570 TAs in Baltimore, and we never stop talking last place baseball, even when we don’t want to. We’re Baltimore positive. We’re.
