The new rules of engagement if you’re picking up baseball again

Now that the Baltimore Orioles are “cool” again, Bill Cole and Nestor discuss the (new) rules and engagement of baseball as pennant fever comes to the Charm City for the first time in a long time.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

baseball, orioles, game, people, play, sports, good, lacrosse, years, run, day, players, talked, peter, oriole, understand, ticket, baltimore, buy, built

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Bill Cole

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

W N, S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we’re positively into the crabcakes season you’ll all be happy to know that I have promised this tour and I’m going to deliver this tour. We’re going all over the place. I’m setting up dates through June through July. We’re taking this week down. But when I come back, it’s gonna be rip roaring with oyster. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I had these exit lottery scratch offs. We had some winners at the local up and fallston last week I was the real winner because I Clancy Haskett come by we talked about fancy Clancy I left with this delicious cheese steak egg roll thing that I enjoyed over the weekend delicious crabcake get up to the local support them our friends and whether they should 866 90 nation you buy two you get two free going into June. Can you hear me talking about that as I’m out on the crabcake tour and this guy sends me out with the coal roofing a coffee mug with the Royal forms poured directly in it that is powered us up dude, sports is alive like I we did a plague where you and I talked about mask and social issues and Trump this and Biden and Brandon Scott this and Westmore that and Larry Hogan this and all that I have found myself for and Chad steel to be really heartened by this, that I really am a sports guy at heart. I have found myself to let just in this last couple of weeks for a little while other than being at the Preakness and, you know, running into politicians and seeing business leaders and that sort of thing. But even when I’m with business leaders now they’re talking sports with me again, I guess we talked couple weeks ago, Bill Cole about the circle of sports sort of coming back and when it would be significant again, and whether it’s lacrosse, or whether it’s the NBA or the NHL, this time of year, the Preakness was two weeks ago, but the Orioles and the heartbeat of me bringing food home and my wife saying let’s go watch the game. Been a little while since that happened. Right?

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Bill Cole  01:55

Yeah, no, I mean, it seems pretty good. Like, watch Lala cross over the weekend. That was fun. Yeah, I don’t watch the cross on TV. Until Memorial Day weekend. Notre Dame Why come on with that? Anybody but Duke? Anybody but Duke, right. Come on.

Nestor Aparicio  02:13

Right. You still got the chance to hate them.

Bill Cole  02:15

Right. So I think we’re usually somewhere at a youth soccer tournament over Memorial Day weekend, too. So we didn’t magically have one of them. So we found ourselves with a three day weekend and no real plans. So yeah, I mean, I watched two semifinal games. I watched championship, I watched the Women’s Championship on Sunday. You could live stream, the club, girls lacrosse, where like, you know, the seventh and eighth graders are playing for a national championship down in Cary, North Carolina, the same place that the women’s were playing their championship. It was, you know, I imagine that lacrosse doesn’t have the same fervor that it does. Here elsewhere, which is fine, but

Nestor Aparicio  03:03

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Well, after COVID It’s come roaring back who sports right? I mean, yeah, I just had a 14 year old kid or a grandkid. You know, like, that’s what if they were in the sports, it would be a serious endeavor or not at all really? Right. There’s, you know, the notion you go up the street and play ball anymore. That’s not really the way it is. Right? It’s, it’s way more organized, and I would recognize it.

Bill Cole  03:23

Yeah, I just like lacrosse are all of them that they’ve gotten to a point now where they understand this concept of like, very quickly telling me a story about a handful of players, in hopes that you know, now I have a rooting interest. And, you know, if all if the stars align, those players do something magical, which makes this deeper connection point, and I continue to watch throughout the game, whether it’s a blowout or not. And they all get that right. That’s the

Nestor Aparicio  03:53

storyline. It’s not just a game. It’s a story. Right? Correct. Otherwise, why would I watch these horses run around at the derby? If I didn’t meet the connections? Right? They even have a name for connection. Because the horses don’t talk, you know, so, right.

Bill Cole  04:06

We don’t know that they do the cars

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Nestor Aparicio  04:08

and f1 Right, right.

Bill Cole  04:10

So you know, I mean, there’s a freshman at Duke and the brothers at North at Notre Dame and you know, I mean, you get enough of it, right? They they understand how to produce it now it’s so much better and

Nestor Aparicio  04:21

so it doesn’t need to be Maryland or Loyola for and the other part of it there’s always local kids and 100% So there’s always a kid from Delaney in the finals. Oh, well,

Bill Cole  04:32

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you’re sitting there watching it and I’m pulling up on my phone the rosters to see who’s from from Long Island. There’s a Calvert Hall guy or do there yeah, there’s Yeah, absolutely. There’s they’re all over the place and, and that that makes it fun, too. So, you know, and even with all that said, I did manage to mix in a couple innings of Oreos. So I’m, I’ve begun my 2023 Oriole season now. So you’re watching

Nestor Aparicio  05:00

with Cedric Mullins pulled up and you’re like, Oh, thanks are allowed to go wrong. We’re Orioles fans, everything’s gone wrong for 30 years we can’t have this go wrong. And and you know, I was talking to Dennis this weekend Luke as well, just the fact that things went so well for them and now they’re like, where’s the bullpen? These are like, conversations that built my career. They built my radio station in 1992 and 93. Why is Johnny Oates going to Williamson there when he could have had fro worth? Like, these kinds of debates that are baseball debates that I see all of these people kept fighting on Twitter, it’s because I don’t want any part of that. I don’t want any part of a high level conversation about whether Aaron Hicks is a good signing for the Orioles or not, he’s free. He’s gonna hit a buck 80 or whatever. He’s gonna run around for two weeks, but like to do that all day over the fan. I don’t want to do that. But it is fascinating to see how vested in how quickly people can be vested in Oh my God, what’s going on with the bullpen? Wait till Cano starts giving up like runs it’s gonna be crazy. But from a baseball perspective, these kinds of conversations we haven’t had here on a dare I say generation. I mean, the Buck show Walter era produced that and Luke will talk about that. But I don’t think the Delmon young double if that’s what you’re hanging your hat on is a lifer Oriole fan. You ain’t got much to hang your hat on.

Bill Cole  06:21

Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to remember it. Yes. When was the playoffs was like 1212 1416. Okay.

Nestor Aparicio  06:30

12 They did well, they should have beaten the Yankees. Marcus was hurt with the injury. 14 was the year they were really good. They went to Kansas City they got beat that was the Delmon young year 16 was the year that show Walter left Britton down. So pulling the pine out of his butt at the Skydome. And they lost to the Blue Jays just to give you a little refresher. And that was 16, which was seven years ago.

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Bill Cole  06:52

Right. And I’m assuming I remember just taking my son to a playoff game at Oriole Park and it rained and we had like a two hour rain. That was the Yankee

Nestor Aparicio  07:02

game, right? Correct. That was the Yankee playoff and 12.

Bill Cole  07:06

And, I mean, he was a little dude, you know, he’s 20 now and like, that was the pinnacle of potentially grabbing.

Nestor Aparicio  07:19

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Well, that was 11 years ago. So he was he was nine. Does that sound? Right? Okay.

Bill Cole  07:24

And like, that was their opportunity to capture him and they blew it. So he is not since you know what I mean? Like after that, you can be disappointed. But then there’s this like grumblings and it pops back up on your radar.

Nestor Aparicio  07:38

Now the one thing that I’ve said about the empty seats, and they’ve been selling more tickets, the one thing I said about the empty seats is the ownership has been so poor, and this family’s done such an awful job in every measurable way. Like I if that offends people, then I’ll Sinatra that I send the record over the all I have to do people say why did you do free the birds and I send them to 1998 through 2006, where they destroyed the franchise. It went from drawing three and a half million people to 1,000,008. I was on the radio every day living through the lies, the awfulness, the Peter principles, all of that. They’ve done an awful job at everything, literally every measurable way. They’ve done an awful job. And now they found a general manager, they were so bad. And they found the guy that can pick Adley rutschman, when he could pick all the other players and he picks the best one. And then they have nurtured they’ve created this system. But the one thing they didn’t do from 12 to 16. And you pointed out you don’t need me to point it out. I’m just reiterating that. My opinion is a strong one and a well founded one, that when they fell off the cliff, they didn’t build their business. They didn’t have any sponsors. They didn’t get any of the people they offended back when Peter offended everybody in the 90s most most of the people are gone are dead. Most of those banks are gone. There is no more Provident Bank or First National Bank, or 31st Mariner, but then they’re all gone. The people that crown gasolines I mean, the people that supported Oriole baseball and bought in Legg Mason, like all of these Brant, Budweiser, all of these brands that bought into it, none of them came back in 2018 1920 2122. And then they served baseball the last six years that was even offered by Peter standards. I mean, Peters eaten putting Peter. I mean, when when Peter burned it down, he’s still saying David Ziggy and gave Jeff conine money. So it really is amazing that what they have left is so passionate, like Don Mohler, it’s a family member, you can’t you can’t offend the Orioles like all of that. But they really are building from scratch, right? I mean, like when I see it, we haven’t been back like my wife and I haven’t bought a ticket. I went opening day guy handed me a ticket. I walked in. I haven’t given them any money this year. I’ve given him my time, my attention, which is more valuable than my money, quite frankly, this Sunday. They’re playing a four o’clock game in San Francisco. Oh, I’m building my day around it and you’re invited. I’m having some crabs over cost this for four o’clock Orioles Giants game. I’m just gonna sit down and order crabs on a Sunday with friends. We’re gonna watch the game while we eat crabs and drink beer. And I haven’t done that. And that sounds delightful. Yeah, Mama says My mother was alive, right? Like literally right. And these are all things that were taken away from us bill. And I guess that’s my point is, it’s coming back. But if your kid is 20 and didn’t catch on, and they didn’t capture him when they had five years where they really played good baseball, like I’m convinced they didn’t capture a lot of people. And then they bring out these jerseys and say it’s about, it’s about the city and and then I look at the games, and it’s still 99.8% Caucasian.

Bill Cole  10:45

I, so there’s a overarching theme that involves a lot of stuff. And I have this conversation with people a lot around, because so, so much of our lives now ends up being like this contested argument, right? Because of social media, or politics or whatever, like, so. Take, right? And yeah, and everyone, like plant their flag and digs in and, you know, clearly knows more than everyone and has the right opinion always right can be wrong. So one of the things and I, I want to just preface it with, I’m sure running the Orioles is a complicated business. And there’s a lot of stuff to it that I really could have no idea how hard it is to do that, right. But there was a lot of stuff that went on between the years that you were talking about, where if you didn’t make a conscious decision to lean in, then you were by default, like sort of hiding in the closet or behind the trees or whatever you

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Nestor Aparicio  12:00

ain’t a real fan is that’s No,

Bill Cole  12:04

I’m speaking more to like public safety issues, and Freddie Gray and like all this stuff that was going on that that didn’t, didn’t have to do with baseball, it didn’t have to do with the players on the field,

Nestor Aparicio  12:16

but it affected everything about their business. It did, and and again made bad decisions. Well, like playing a game with no one there. I mean, I also think just an awful decision. And then they go get Kevin Cowherd, the write some book about Wow, it was a great decision. It was an all it was awful. I live downtown it was all of it was awful. Every so often, we try not to talk about it. Right.

Bill Cole  12:41

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And I just again, I don’t want to, you know, be a little the idea that it’s complicated. And there’s a lot of things that are sort of affecting a decision. But at that point in time, the city was looking for leaders and leadership and a direction and people to help us through difficult times. And that organization for as long as they were the owner of everyone’s hearts growing up was nowhere to be found in those discussions in that time of void of leadership. By the

Nestor Aparicio  13:18

way, neither was shoddy other than sending a video of saying black lives matter. You know, being like, there, there were no, I tell you what the Ravens though Ray Lewis came in and put feet on the street. I mean, I’m talking about like, the Ravens did things as players did things, I saw it dude, I saw, I saw people

Bill Cole  13:38

trying to always try and years but trying

Nestor Aparicio  13:41

to keep the peace. Literally when I say keep the peace, I lived in the city and was told by people I was I shouldn’t go home. Like I was, to your point leadership at that point, people did step up, there were people that stepped up.

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Bill Cole  13:55

And again, I can’t say it enough times, I don’t know everything. I don’t have like crystal clear, like tracking on people or conversations that went on in the background or, you know, influence or decisions that were made, that we don’t that are not public knowledge. So we don’t know any of that. I just know that the city needed leadership, we needed strong, influential people to stand up and help show us the way and there just wasn’t really much of anything and, and you can serve like it’s almost the decision to not participate by not making a decision, right? Like, if you just don’t make a decision, you’re still making a decision you’re making

Nestor Aparicio  14:41

sense to peers on by the way, choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Correct. Okay,

Bill Cole  14:47

so I, you know, I look back and that is ultimately I don’t know if it ends up being a lost decade or a loss, you know, five years, the last seven years, whatever, but there was a golden opportunity there. You You know, where everybody knows what the Orioles are, and to try and compassionately recognize that you’re just a baseball team, but that you have the best interest of all the citizens and all your stakeholders, and they’re all your customers and we’re, we just really want to help everybody and let’s let’s get

Nestor Aparicio  15:24

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who they are though. Come on. I mean, that’s fine. That’s that’s the oil spill call investor owner. You know what I mean? Like, come on. That’s not, that’s not who these people have ever been. I mean, to they feign they were in 1993. I mean, I’ve gone back and again, I’ve read I’ve rereleased Peter principles. The initial promise was a local guys buying the team, and everything’s going to be made in the best interest of local we’re not a branch town, like so. I mean, that’s it’s a broken trust from the beginning. It’s, uh, you know what I mean, it’s it literally. And they’re not a front facing organization that, you know, the kids running it now. And his his idea of PR is to hold a press conference on Martin Luther King Day, to hide behind race, to not have questions about his team, and then pop out uniforms that Nike pop out to get a local African American poet to write something about the team in the city that has no correlation to clipping wings or anything. The truth is, having lived here and seeing what the baseball team has done and hasn’t done, and now they’re winning again. And I guess my point is, they’ve always said, when we win, you’ll all will come back and winning. There was an arrogance about Peter, that once we win, you’ll all be calling me for playoff tickets, right. And now they’re winning. And there’s plenty of seats out there. And I still think it’s a little overpriced. By my taste. Jen and I looked at tickets on Friday night to go down for the grace and Ron Reagan would have been an awful night. But like we were around, and we were and she’s like, how much would it really cost? And I got on the stub it was $57 for two tickets in the outfield. Like it wasn’t a movie ticket. It wasn’t a Oh, it’s a box and we’ll go down 25 bucks. We get in. We’ll just walk around and have a beer for 16 bucks. Like I was. I was willing to give the Angelo’s family some money, just not 60 bucks on a Friday night. 60 bucks, I’ll get out or meet us and have dinner and watch the game on TV. I mean, literally, I mean, like I’m, I’m just being pragmatic that I’ve seen SEO three times at $200 A ticket I’m not in at 60 bucks I’m in. And that’s the same for John Mellencamp on Friday night. It’s the same for Kansas on Saturday night at the Lyric. It’s a price point issue. There’s Taylor Swift, and I would go see Taylor Swift for 200 bucks, maybe 300 bucks. 800 bucks. I’m out on Taylor Swift. And I want to see Taylor Swift. So but the Orioles what? You’re gonna go right? You haven’t been to a game yet. I really. I am. My life because of sports. Like we were sports guys. And now all of a sudden, it feels really relevant again to me. And then I’m in a good space where everybody wants to talk to me about it. I put one status on my Facebook about the Orioles. People go nuts. People really watching the games again. And they they want something that’s been missing. They want that feeling that of their mom beer crabs, Chuck Thompson, whatever it is. I’m searching for it as an Aparicio. I’m here because of the baseball team. I exist because of the baseball team.

Bill Cole  18:26

No, I totally agree with that. I and I’m closely I actually almost was going today but couldn’t because of kids sports. But I guess we’re where I go back to that leadership is you know, there’s a there’s a whole bunch of people in the because economists city correcting you know, like stuff we’ve talked about in the past to talk about the mistakes made around stadium building and transportation. Like, every city, every city thinks that it’s going to save the day, if they just build the stadium and you know, it’s going to improve everything. And you listen to these guys, and the data is just not there. Like, I think there’s more to it than just maybe the data they’re able to collect but

Nestor Aparicio  19:14

after 31 years, I’m gonna call it bullshit. I’m just gonna like when I see like was what Oaklands going through with Las Vegas right now trying to justify all that and economic this in Nevada is going to build that it’s going to be worth this and and then they get my buddy JT the brick to like, put stuff out on Twitter because the Raiders say oh my god, we’ve had enormous impact, even though we haven’t won, look at all the money we’ve generated. I don’t buy a word of that. I mean, I’m a guy who’s going to run for office against stuff like that, because like, the whole notion that Camden Yards, redid downtown, it didn’t do what I was supposed to do, because of poor ownership and would have done that, but the Nationals wouldn’t have existed. There’s a million things that could have gone a different direction. But it was all about Peter making as much money as Peter could make every minute. And I don’t think any of us saw that when he bought it, and that none of us saw that when we built it.

Bill Cole  20:09

Yeah. And I think that’s, I guess maybe what I’m trying to advocate for is this idea that in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium renovations, or whatever we we do as a municipality, like this agreement between those businesses and those owners, that, that now they, whether they want to or not, are a pillar of the community, and a stakeholder and have to speak and have to help provide the proper leadership when it’s needed and ongoing throughout the entire time. Like, like, that should be some kind of trade off barometer thing of like,

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Nestor Aparicio  20:57

civic trust,

Bill Cole  20:58

yeah, you want it, we’re gonna give you $600 million. Like, hey, why don’t you come down here and be a nice guy and like, help us, you know, do answer questions,

Nestor Aparicio  21:09

honestly, and not band media members, you don’t like to drag them? How about that?

Bill Cole  21:14

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I just don’t understand. Like, it’s one thing for capitalism, and for that to be what it is, and for an owner to drive profitability, and like, they have a responsibility to their shareholders and all that stuff. But the minute you start taking public funds, right, and your fan base, your customer is this large, geographically centric group of people. Allowed Oh, man, like, I think that’s where a lot of the rug comes from. That’s where a lot of the frustration is. So when you win or lose, if you’re there, and you’re present, and you’re doing good stuff, and you’re and the Ravens have done this for a long time, win or lose, you see him in the community, you see him doing good work, you you see their their superstars, not just the 53rd guy on the on the roster, right? You see their superstars out in public doing good work, triangle,

Nestor Aparicio  22:17

Mullins and mountcastle Or is it Henderson? Now it was Henderson, Henderson and and Mullins were in Patterson Park last Saturday morning, taking pictures with people, Bill, my buddy Ed Lauer was there and took a picture and like, and I knew they were there. I was in I was at Chaucer having breakfast in Highland town. And we were kind of we were on a schedule, we had a thing we had to do on Saturday. And so we had to kind of like be out. But I was going to go and people went and I saw pictures on Facebook. And it looked to me for a minute, because they were posing the same way. It looks like one of those hologram things. You know what I mean? Like it looked like because they were in uniform. They had the Baltimore thing, and I’m like, they’re not really impacted their planet three at four o’clock, you know, like, why would they be in Patterson park at 1130? Like, but they were really there. And I like I don’t want to be a dick. They’ve never been there before. Not those two humans, but they’ve never done anything like that. Right? Like it’s so like, I go back to Rick Dempsey and Billy Smith and and Tippi Martinez in meeting Scott McGregor. Mike Flanagan met them at the games that he’s point mall on Saturday afternoon games must have paid 500 bucks to come over last skins would pay booth pal 500 bucks to combine sign on. I met Brooks Robinson in the Brooks Robinson store at OSHA Cohn, we signed third bases, my home, I still have it, he signed it left handed because Brooks was left handed. Nobody knows that everybody knows that. But I met Bruce Robinson enough to know that he signed autographs left handed by the time I was seven years old. Right? And you wonder why I’m an Oreo fan. Right? So

Bill Cole  23:53

that’s the stuff and when when it when it’s missing. And you combine it with losing

Nestor Aparicio  24:01

any any of that’s not just missing. It’s not just missing. But it’s an owner sitting up in a tree acting like a jerk for 30 years. Like literally, to everybody on and off the field. I have never had a human being come up to me and say, You got Peter really wrong unless they work for him. And he funded them in some way. I’ve never met anybody that’s come up to me and said, Man, you really you know, I’ll get you together with Pete. He’s a good guy.

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Bill Cole  24:31

I I don’t know that. I’ve heard that. I don’t know that. I’ve heard that. But I think they’re I do believe that they have participated and have done a lot of philanthropically. And, you know, they wrote, understand and you know, whether the participation level matches the wealth that they’ve been able to get accrue with the Orioles and so on. So I don’t know. But the I will tell you that

Nestor Aparicio  25:05

they have as well. Because they did what he did back on January 15. And saying I’m going to open my books and he had no intention of doing it. Like I I keep going back. Do you want to pretend that didn’t happen? It was 10 weeks ago, like it at a press conference.

Bill Cole  25:24

Somebody’s doing but somebody somebody’s doing the right stuff. Somebody’s making right decisions now. Mike lysis the fact that those two, but it’s not just that, right. Like I think I said a couple of weeks ago that I saw, like an Oriole van driving on the highway, like I haven’t seen an Oreo van and forever. And you’re telling me that there’s two players hanging out in Patterson Park taking pictures with it. I mean, those are the right things. They are somebody over there’s figuring out a way to navigate it and to do the right things. So that’s, that’s, that’s a positive. You know, let’s give him credit for that.

Nestor Aparicio  25:57

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I’m giving him credit for all of it. I’m just saying At what point are you and I are gonna give him money back and go back again. It wasn’t today. I wanted to go with you today. You want yeah, like, like, at some point? We’re gonna go I’m already building the weekend around watching them play late at night on Saturday night. And I mean, I’m in the UK. And one thing I’ll say and I haven’t really talked to Luke much about this because Luke, they allow my Caucasian employee in imagine that don’t allow me in, but looks down there. And I only know these players from television, right? And when they’re losing 110 games, I’m not sitting there watching Rob long ask Gunnar Henderson a question last year like I’m just not, I don’t know the sounds or their voices so much. I haven’t heard Adly rushman speak that much. But when I see these postgame interviews now, where Jim Palmer has to figure out how to speak Spanish to Anthony Santander, they seem like good guys. And I’ve covered a lot of sports. And I’ve been around a lot of players. And you can sort of sense the arrogance of certain players or their spirit and how they conduct themselves when they have a headset on and they’re getting a pie in their face or whatever is going on. That’s the only avenue I have. And I’m different than some people I’ve worked for humans I don’t root for jerseys or statistics or skin color or color, the hat or name on the back. I sort of liked good people. And I like everything you talked about at the beginning, which is like oh the brothers and Notre Dame and Duke and give me aside the route for whatever. I feel the same way about all of that. And when it comes to the baseball players and the football players, it was very very easy for me to root for Todd heap. It was very very easy for me to root for Peter bowl where it was very, very easy for me to look at Terrell Suggs and say, oh, you know, like and but I can be a raving fan and he could sack the quarterback and I’d say good for our team. But you know, with the baseball team, I’ve watched it for a generation good guys bad guys arrogance, liars, louts Rafeal palmiero Like all of that, they seem like good humans and there’s a part for me that when I see these players at this point in their lives, none of them totally rich yet none of them jaded none of them have won anything a lot of them have lost a lot like Cedric Mullins He’s John means These poor guys have been a part of a lot of bad baseball right kicking your kicking mountcastle A couple these guys have been here a little while pace and they all seem like good dudes and that’s that’s something they should want a guy like me in there doing interviews with them and having them on Baltimore positive because it does feel like this isn’t that I want to give them money I want to give them time I want to go back I haven’t made the leap yet but I’m watching others do it it’s and I keep saying to everybody really feels like the city is having fun with this and that’s that’s all I ever wanted that’s that’s why I fought with Peter that’s why I did free the birds to I did all of it was so that we could that this could be great again and it might be able to I see this glimmer that it’s getting good again. Now what can make it great. And I’m rooting for him bill. I really am I’m rooting for I’m rooting for the day where you and me and Dennis and Lennar all get together and go out and get a game. You get a game and it sit and laugh and have a beer and don’t care how much we’re paying for it and everybody around us is having fun. Like that’s the

Bill Cole  29:22

yeah nobody even nobody even knows who they’re playing today. Well, they don’t really they are poorly robot like

Nestor Aparicio  29:30

they’re poorly run they really poorly run for a long time.

Bill Cole  29:35

That was a bad delivery of a joke. Like who are the guardians? Like Like, who is that? I don’t even know who that is.

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Nestor Aparicio  29:42

Somebody told me this week that they saw their plane the guardians and they’re like, did Oklahoma City get a team or like a play Nash?

Bill Cole  29:51

And that’s like, like, I can appreciate what what went on. But like it’s so baseball is so Oh, it competes. There’s so much noise and you don’t even know like, like, if if a baseball team changed their name in 1995 Like everyone would know that.

Nestor Aparicio  30:14

But the Devil Rays are no longer the Devil Rays, the Florida Marlins or the Miami Marlins, like there have been the Phoenix Cardinals became the Arizona like they’ve there have been name changes all sorts of things. Baseball, the one thing that baseball has right now that’s massive. And don’t think that John Boyle is not watching this, right? Don’t think that he’s not that the Oakland A’s are slinking out of Oakland. It’s the first time that franchises moved in baseball since 1970, through 7273, right, like when the senators left somebody wants me to. So like,

Bill Cole  30:51

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I’m just saying that there’s, there’s so much competition for our attention span. And, you know, when the team loses, then it doesn’t show up on people’s Facebook feeds or their Instagram or whatever. And then and all of a sudden, that, that it’s the same Death Loop that the politics is, you know, like, your feed becomes like a self fulfilling prophecy of all the people who are saying, I believe exactly right. Yeah. So, and baseball now has to compete with all these other things. That I don’t know. I mean, I just, you know, again, I, I was never, like a super lover of baseball, the game by itself, it’s just too slow for me. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  31:41

they fix that.

Bill Cole  31:42

They did. Allegedly, I still think it’s going to be too boring for me like, like, it is not okay to play a sport, where you go out into right field, and you play an entire game and get no action. Right, and you get like three at bats. You’re

Nestor Aparicio  32:01

speaking like a parent that tend to sell this to your kids. Just, it’s just, I remember how much I loved baseball, and I dated this Swedish girl back in like 1999 2000. And I took her to Yankee Stadium, they’re playing the Red Sox, Pedro’s pick the whole deal. We’re there and there’s all this energy. And I just for the first time in my life, I looked at the game through her eyes, and thought, why are we doing something else? We’re in New York,

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Bill Cole  32:27

right? Like, don’t don’t miss, like trying

Nestor Aparicio  32:31

to learn it, though. I’m trying to get it somebody don’t understand it. And they don’t care to understand it. And I’m wondering, with all of the posturing that John has done with the African American community in Baltimore, and try I wonder how many 12 year old young people in our community even though the rules of baseball, even though three strikes four balls, nine innings, like what a ball what a strike is what an out is these words, it didn’t mean anything to my Swedish girlfriend 25 years ago, because she’s like ball, what’s ball? That’s a ball what’s a ball ball does strike strike. Somebody hit somebody, you struck somebody, but so like, just the words and the terminology to get ramped up. We just assume everybody must. Everybody played baseball? I don’t know. I don’t know anymore. I don’t know, if you will. It’s just a 15 year old kid that they really even know the rules, or they don’t know the rules at 15 that you could teach them quickly.

Bill Cole  33:23

Right? No, you definitely can’t do that. Because like I have done a poor job as a father of explaining baseball to my daughters, their daughters don’t know the rules. They have no idea. I mean, they they really, they I am right. I am

Nestor Aparicio  33:36

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right. No, they

Bill Cole  33:37

understand enough to be able to play like if I

Nestor Aparicio  33:41

took them to the game. They would know their nine players they would know that’s right field that’s left field. They would know those things are called innings. They would know that four balls get your first base they would they wouldn’t know any of that. They know you run to first to first base. They know that yes, they know that. Literally I’m thinking like if I went to a game with great example Neil’s the guy that saved my wife’s life is German. He loves sports. I mean, he watches basketball. He will loves them American football. He really understands the NFL. He knows that’s a tight end. That’s a safety. He knows what a three four defense is. He knows football. And he speaks English better than most people in Dundalk do. But he doesn’t understand anything about baseball. Nothing. I took him to Dodger Stadium and I had this conversation with him. We’re out on the field at Dodger Stadium taking pictures with Janet Murray. To take Trump got elected back in 16. I took a German man who loves sports and I I literally don’t even know where I would start if I took him to a baseball game to try to teach him baseball.

Bill Cole  34:43

Well look baseball. So I think football is very complicated sport too. And, you know, my girls kind of get football right like they totally understand plays 10 yard downs, the 10 yards, you know they get a little confused Just around why we’re kicking Are you know was that a field goal? Was that a punt? Like you know there’s some kicking game stuff that they you don’t see it a lot so they don’t know but but they definitely know that better than baseball but but like baseball but football you can you can line up and watch and like this this group is going that way and that group is trying to stop them and now that we’re trying to go that way and this group is trying to stop there’s also

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Nestor Aparicio  35:25

when the plays over there’s what happened. Yeah, like I tried to teach my wife football when I met her and I mean she knew football but she didn’t really like she wanted to know more and I taught her watching Monday Night Football was stopping and starting and saying they’re gonna run you see the the frontline guys they pull Oh, I never looked at that before you know so and I said the edge matchup and those kinds of shows were always great at being a teaching the game. Right. the Orioles they’re arrogant enough to just believe you rolled to the stadium and you know what’s going on? There’s not a teaching part of going to a game. Where if the guy next to you isn’t teaching you what if he’s teaching you wrong? It does. i My dad and I used to do that go to the ballpark. And we’d hear people telling their kids wrong stuff about baseball. My dad was like an umpire to me, you know, like, so I was like, No, don’t tell him that. No, you’re giving them bad information. But I don’t know how many people aren’t? We know we know.

Bill Cole  36:25

Right? Right. We know they don’t keep the score in this in this world. We know that so that’s really interesting Ness that

Nestor Aparicio  36:34

you can learn the game really well was keeping score. It was

Bill Cole  36:37

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but But it’s interesting.

Nestor Aparicio  36:42

Voters can’t get into the Orioles because they don’t even understand how they would have to learn the game. Just other than being an idiot out there with an orange hat yelling right when it’s a home run. But like really learning the game there would be an investment needed to be made by your teenage daughter.

Bill Cole  36:55

Yeah, there. You know, there’s only so much room in your brain for stuff that that I don’t believe that’s ever gonna happen. I mean,

Nestor Aparicio  37:02

understood. I’m never gonna listen to kpop

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Bill Cole  37:06

right? Women’s Lacrosse is hard enough if they can. They can learn those rules that might fill their brains. I don’t know.

Nestor Aparicio  37:15

Oh, you know, you just You just stole my whole theory, right? You’re either lacrosse or baseball. Immersive, immersive. In this in Baltimore. You either play one or the other. And if you play one, you’re playing lacrosse all day, to your point learning the rules of baseball and sitting around and watching Gunnar Anderson and isn’t all that appealing to your daughter. She’s more on the table.

Bill Cole  37:34

But the problem with the problem was and this the little of the rules that my kids understand is because not a lot. But there is this little bit of hope. Hope is the wrong word. But like kickball, is baseball right? Like wiffle ball and like softball and like like there are these instances where that game still pops up in school you know gym class recess, so you have to you know, that’s why they understand a run the first base that’s why they understand three strikes you know, there’s probably not balls in kickball or whatever, you know, so it but so that still does kind of like pop up. And that will always happen. Because what do I need? One ball? Right? One ball and a little bit of space. Lacrosse is not a recess sport. Right like there is no way to replicate that at recess. Ice hockey, not a recess sport. Basketball, recess sport, right football recess sport. Like there’s there’s something to the longevity of those sports that when you can simply I mean the probably the ball out and play. Yeah, I mean, the problem with the baseball is you need a you need a bunch of people like basketball you need to have you

Nestor Aparicio  38:58

8

baseball, we played pitchers hand out the whole deal. We had to make up rules. We had to put a box against a wall with a rubber. I mean, we played baseball was a it was an effort in my neighborhood, but it was an effort. We all loved baseball. I loved baseball, we

Bill Cole  39:12

spent an entire summer playing wiffle ball, we built a backstop and then kept our stats on the backstop. She did home runs and strikeouts and

Nestor Aparicio  39:24

Oriole game today because your daughters don’t understand baseball don’t call was here he is cool roofing Gordy ENERGY STAR but he got the roofing industry. are we catching up to like parts and money in? Oh,

Bill Cole  39:34

yeah, I mean, it’s I would I would consider it relatively stable. You know, like, we haven’t seen any pricing pullback but the increases have definitely slowed down and stopped. The lead times have pulled in. Maybe not the way they used to be but probably more like everybody loves that term, the new normal whatever so I’m sure that’s probably what it is. Death Definitely looking at a lot of stuff, still a lot of activity, I think, like now’s a really good time to, like start thinking about what sort of maintenance slash, you know, life extending work can be done, you know, this fall that will get you through winter and maybe, you know, buy another four or five years on your roof. I mean, there’s there are products out there now that can do that. So that’s always a good thing that we look to push. And solar is just completely going gangbusters. You know, I mean, it’s,

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Nestor Aparicio  40:35

I love to hear that. And I love to hear that. That’s good. It’s really interesting.

Bill Cole  40:39

I tried to explain to somebody the other day, they saw what they described as a fairly negative article in Wall Street Journal about solar. And I was like, Yeah, okay, negative article, challenging some of the assumptions. And it’s like, Look, man, if there’s an article in the Wall Street Journal, every two or three weeks about solar, then it’s a real business and a real industry, if we’re arguing over, you know, where the right place to what what the right credits are, or how we should structure this or how we should structure that. If we’ve got, you know, the National conscience trying to navigate that stuff, then it’s like, that’s really actually great. I mean, yeah, we should be having those discussions, right, like we’re trying to adopt. So the

Nestor Aparicio  41:30

naysayers are gonna come, they’ve been there from the beginning. That’s why it’s taking so long.

Bill Cole  41:34

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And look, the naysayers are as important to the process as the people who are over the hills for solar, right, because if if nobody pushes back, then we’ll make mistakes. We’ll put it in bad places, we’ll use bad products. Well, they will just be chasing this dream and nobody will keep the guardrails on. So there’s a place for all of that to actually find. That’s, that’s what I love about America, not to really go crazy on your here. But yeah, arguing that, you know, for as far left as people are as far right as they are, none of that really gets to work, because we all have to come together and meet somewhere in the middle, which is really what keeps us from driving off the cliff in the end, because either either extreme and too much would cause chaos. So I don’t have any problem with people challenging. You know, the concept of solar because yeah, there there have been some not smart solar deployments, there’s been bad places to put it the wrong type of products. Just people trying to chase the right stuff. Right, but without guardrails, you know, it just gets wonky. So I think it’s

Nestor Aparicio  42:48

like the NFL and college sports.

Bill Cole  42:50

Right. I think it’s a healthy debate. And yeah, I mean, that’s what we love to really have with everyone. And so we’re still at this point where people are buying it for the first time. So it should be a really good conversation. You really need to get educated, you really need to understand it to be able to buy it because it’s like buying your first house, right? You don’t just decide one day to go do it. You. You’ve done a lot of investigation. You’ve saved some money, you figure out interest rates, you figure out where you want to live, you figure out all these things, and then you do so it’s good stuff.

Nestor Aparicio  43:21

It’s fun. The coffee cup is empty, rural farms. I gotta go get a refill in my coal roofing mug. Bill Cole is here you can find him out on the front of Baltimore positive. Some point you’ll find the memorial game with me teaching me the rules. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour out and about all throughout the community. giving these away I’m gonna get some updates on the sevens I believe I’m gonna get some fresh tickets. By the time we get to June spirits West Wilkins Avenue, we’re coming to the Barstow restaurant Hollywood casino on the 28th We’re gonna be Lexington market and fade these on the 29th will be at the Beaumont and Catonsville July 20. And we’re kicking off the 25th anniversary of wn S T on August the third cast this in we’re going to be there all day on Thursday, the third of August and then the fourth of August. We’re going to be drug city. I’m going to be inviting people like you bill Cole to come out and sit in and celebrate 25 years of wn S T and of me at least paying the bills and getting it done. I can’t say there’s gonna be 25 more years of this. That’s up to whether it checks the allows me to do it or not. I say that just it’s all brought to you by our friends at a window they should 866 90 They should make sure you’re checking them out as well. Big week around here. Oreos heading west crabs are in season I put the crab cake tour together we’re going to be no oysters all summer and continuing this little journey with Baltimore Orioles baseball and sports and relevance. We are wn st I am 1570 Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive