The Orioles get outta town on first business trip to Pittsburgh and South Side of Chicago

It was the mediocre start that a 3-3 opening home stand would indicate and with Zach Eflin on the shelf and the bullpen uncertainly, Luke Jones and Nestor get Baltimore Orioles fans ready for the road in Pittsburgh and Chicago and talk some April Fools’ hijinks and Sidd Finch amidst the early spring weather reports.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ first homestand, highlighting Trevor Rogers’ strong performance and the need for improvement from the rest of the rotation. They noted the team’s 3-3 record, emphasizing the importance of Rogers’ consistency. The conversation also covered the impact of the new Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, its positive reception, and potential long-term effects on umpires. Additionally, they touched on the upcoming series against the Pirates and Cubs, the importance of managing the bullpen, and the challenges posed by varying weather conditions.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Bring and distribute Maryland Lottery–branded Maryland Treasures scratch-off tickets at the Maryland Crab Cake Tour event at Faidley’s in Lexington Market on Friday.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Plan and record ongoing discussions with Luke Jones about Major League Baseball labor issues leading up to the end of the season.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Schedule and host Ken Singleton and Dave Shilling as guests on the show this week to talk baseball.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Participate in and promote GBMC’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event in two weeks, including talking about the event on air.

Outline

Orioles’ First Homestand Recap and Upcoming Games

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to the show and mentions upcoming games against the Pirates and Cubs.
• Nestor discusses the Maryland crab cake tour and Maryland treasures scratch offs.
• Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the Orioles’ victorious finale against the Rangers and the performance of Trevor Rogers.
• Luke highlights Trevor Rogers’ consistent performance and the need for the rest of the rotation to improve.

Offensive Performance and Young Players

• Nestor and Luke discuss the ups and downs of the Orioles’ offense in the first six games.
• Luke mentions the contributions of young players like Dylan Beavers and Gunnar Henderson.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the potential of the lineup and the confidence boost from the win against Nathan Eovaldi.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of good at-bats and the need for better outfield defense.

Rotation and Bullpen Concerns

• Luke discusses the underwhelming performance of the rotation, with only Trevor Rogers standing out.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the bullpen’s overworked state and the need for better pitching from the starters.
• Luke mentions the potential of Kyle Bradish and the challenges faced by the bullpen.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of managing the bullpen and the potential impact of weather on pitching.

ABS System and Its Impact

• Nestor and Luke discuss the new Automated Ball-Strike system (ABS) and its impact on the game.
• Luke highlights the drama and engagement created by the ABS system.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the potential delay in full automation due to the ABS system’s popularity.
• Luke mentions the strategic element of managing challenges and the potential for umpires to be exposed.

Historical References and Baseball Culture

• Nestor and Luke reminisce about historical baseball references and their impact on baseball culture.
• Luke shares a story about Jason Kendall and Brian Giles throwing out the first pitch in Pittsburgh.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the differences in baseball consumption between pre-internet and modern times.
• Luke mentions the importance of baseball cards and the baseball almanac in learning about the game.

Future Plans and Upcoming Events

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ upcoming games in Pittsburgh and Chicago.
• Nestor mentions upcoming guests and events, including Ken Singleton and the Maryland crab cake tour.
• Nestor thanks sponsors and listeners for their support.
• Nestor and Luke wrap up the show, wishing listeners a happy Easter weekend.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles, Trevor Rogers, bullpen, Zach Eflin, Kyle Bradish, offense, defense, Pittsburgh, Chicago, ABS system, pitch clock, strike zone, baseball history, fan engagement, weather impact.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 task Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively getting into a weekend where the Orioles be playing in Pittsburgh. It always brings up sour memories for a man of my age, we’re going to be having better memories. Next Friday, the San Francisco Giants are in town. Will be at faidleys doing the Maryland crab cake tour. It’s all presented by the Maryland lottery. I will have the Maryland treasures scratch offs to give away by then. Roz has them waiting for me, so I’m looking forward to that. We also had John Martin on the show earlier this week, a little baseball. We did a lot of ABS here this week, and the ups, the downs, and obviously the loss of Zach Eflin. Luke Jones joins us now after a victorious finale against the Rangers day Texas. And I don’t know, Luke, we got, we got a stopper. We got, we got a dude looks that way.

Luke Jones  00:55

Yeah. I mean, we talked about it last year. I mean, albeit they were playing out the string in the second half of the season, but Trevor Rogers was excellent. It’s why Craig Albernaz tabbed him as the opening day starter. It’s why he was one of the best pitchers in baseball over the second half of last year. I mean, there’s always the questions of, can you back that up? Can you do it again? We’ve talked a lot about the peripherals, right? He’s not a guy that strikes out a ton of people. It’s not the dominant ace in the traditional sense, in that way, but at a time when even in the first home stand of the season, the Orioles had a need, right? The bullpen was overworked. Zach eflin’s Going to the IL Albert Suarez is coming in from Norfolk, but I think he had a 6am flight. I mean, you know, you’re not sure how that day is going to go, and you need Trevor Rogers at a minimum, to give you six innings. And he was able to do that, and he pitched well, gave his team a chance to win, gave his team a chance to rest the bullpen. You know, Suarez comes in and gets the old fashioned three innings saved. But you know, Trevor Rogers just did what he did the second half of last year. It went unnoticed, because the Orioles were not in a position where they were competitive. But now you need him

02:09

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every fifth day, right? Yeah, you’re

Luke Jones  02:10

looking at them now where you say, hey, we’ll see about the rest of the rotation. And certainly the rest of the rotation needs to be better. And I have, I still have high hopes for Kyle Bradish. I’m not writing him off or down on him after one start.

Nestor Aparicio  02:22

I don’t think bass is washed up or anything either.

Luke Jones  02:25

Yeah. I mean, like, let’s, let’s keep level heads about it. But at the same time, every time Trevor Rogers takes the mound since last June, even last year, the Orioles have a heck of a chance to win that day. And that’s what you’re looking at when you’re talking about a number one, a number two and number three. Those are the guys that you they take the bump, and you feel great about your chances. And certainly on a day when the Orioles were able to knock around, Nathan evaldi, which was good to see for the offensive side, but Trevor Rogers takes the hill, you feel great about your chances. And he’s two and oh, there are two legitimate wins that he earned and has pitched well, and it allowed the Orioles to finish. Let’s face it, let’s call it what it was. It was an underwhelming first home stand. You know, I’m not going to sit here and say it was awful or disaster or anything crazy like that, but it wasn’t terribly impressive. But it allowed them to finish up at three and three rather than two and four. That allowed them to salvage a game of this series and avoid a sweep. So you regroup and you move forward, going to Pittsburgh, but yeah, Trevor Rogers doing, what a stopper doing what an ace needs to do in that situation. Dare I

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Nestor Aparicio  03:34

say every night, it’s a different star. That’s the magic of Oreo baseball, but bottom of the order. I mean, cows are hitting the ball, right? Like Jeremiah Jackson, you know? But waiting on gunner Henderson so far.

Luke Jones  03:49

Yeah. I mean, it’s, look, it’s six games. I mean, if we’re you, and I don’t talk it, talk in these terms, about six games in June or in August, but when it’s the first six games, it’s more magnified, right? So we know it’s kind of been an up and down start for this offense. I mean, there’s there’s some guys that are swinging the bats Well, I mean, Dylan beavers was a guy would have said, hasn’t swung the bat very well, and he had three hits and hit a home run on Wednesday afternoon. Bisayo hit a hit one almost to the batter’s eye. Interestingly enough, I was watching him in batting practice the day before he hit a home run just like that in BP, except it was, oh, nine feet up on the batter’s eye. I mean, you just see what kind of power that kid has. I mean, still has a ways to go in terms of pitch selection and all that. But same thing

Nestor Aparicio  04:33

with mayo, he can hit, he can hit that 100 feet.

Luke Jones  04:35

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But, I mean, you know, they’re young, right? I mean, especially those guys, you know, I don’t say that as much about you know, Adley rocheman, who’s 28 right. Gunner Henderson, who’s been around for several years now. Cows are in year three. You go down the list of those guys where I say, Okay, those guys aren’t as young anymore. But when you’re looking at Mayo, when you’re looking at beside when you’re looking at beavers, I mean, bicycle and beavers still have rookie eligibility. I mean. It was the big talking point last August, why they hadn’t brought him up until mid August to preserve that rookie status. But you’ve got a lineup that certainly has added a couple dudes, with Pete Alonso and Taylor, Ward has really started to swing the bat after he didn’t look very good his first four games. So you see the lineup, you see the potential. You see one through one through nine, least one through seven, let’s say one through eight, but I think the potential is there for one through nine. And like I said, I think it was a nice confidence boost for them to do what they did against avaldi. I mean, they knocked him around after three years too late, by the way, sure. Yeah, no, I absolutely so. But that was good to see. Especially, I think, you know, we make too much of, you know, the narratives of the chemistry and vibes and all that kind of stuff, right? It’s a thing, but I think a lot of times we talk about it in not so sincere terms, or we tend to be too hasty, or we tend to run with it in a positive direction, way too fast. But I do think Wednesday afternoon was one of those times where, all right, you already know you’ve lost the series. It’s the last game of the home stand. You know you can’t have a winning home stand. Efflin is going to the i l, everyone’s feeling bad for him, because everyone likes the guy, and they know his story from working his butt off all off season. So that was a situation where, if you’re Craig Albernaz, I think you were looking to see, okay, how did these guys come out and play on Wednesday? Right? How did they come out? How’s the energy level? Is it a lot? Are these guys peeking ahead to the off day on Thursday? And there’s a lot of first pitch swinging, and it kind of kind of feels like getaway day, but they had good at bats. I like the approach that you saw. You know, they went the other way at times. You know that they, they really, you know, they took it to a volde, and that was good to see. And then, as we said on the pitching side, I mean, Trevor Rogers did exactly what you wanted them to do. I mean, really, the first few innings. It’s funny, his pitch count ended up not looking like anything special, because he went six innings, but the first few innings, I mean, I think it was like 30 some pitches to get through the first three innings. And that had to be music to Craig Albernaz his ears, because of just where the bullpen was and knowing where your pitching staff was just five games into the season.

Nestor Aparicio  07:16

So Thursday off helps too.

Luke Jones  07:18

Oh, no doubt, no doubt. I mean, and, and Suarez, like I said, he took a 6am flight out of Norfolk to get to Baltimore. He he walked into the clubhouse as open clubhouse that was ending for the media, and he goes out there and he tosses three innings. I mean, he did what Albert Suarez has done for them that he was hurt last year.

Nestor Aparicio  07:37

We Venezuelan businessman is

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Luke Jones  07:39

what he is. But he comes in and what do you need? I still remember vividly. Remember the day that Grayson Rodriguez, we thought was going to be making a start in Toronto two years ago. It was right after the trade deadline. If you remember, he got scratched, had the lad issue. Albert Suarez on no notice ended up I think he tossed five or six innings that day. I mean, he just whatever they need. He gives it to him. And what do they need on on Wednesday afternoon? Well, Rogers gives him six you know, you don’t want to push Rogers too hard in his second start of the year, Suarez comes in and gives the bullpen the day off, right? Allows them to reset their pitching staff as much as, as much as you can right? So that was good to see, but I just think collectively, it was, you know, wasn’t a perfect performance. They still, still seeing issues with the outfield defense, which is something that has been disappointing to me. It’s funny, for all the talk about the defense, so much of it was centered around Kobe mayo. He’s been one of the bright spots defensively, but it’s been choppy otherwise. But they just, you know, other other than that Wednesday, they just, they had their cleanest Performance of the Year overall, right? They hit the ball, and they pitched well. And you know, the defensive lapses were at a minimum, not you know, Tavares through to the wrong base at one point and allowed the the runner to advance the second. You know, when it’s trying to get a guy out at third, it just, you know, wasn’t, wasn’t a good baseball play. That’s, that’s the those are the kind of things that bug me more than you know, if someone bobbles a ball, or misses a ball, something like that, throw to the right base, nowhere to throw. Know where you’re going with it. That was something I didn’t like seeing. But I would also say, I mean, that was Tavares first start of the year, right? I mean, he hasn’t been out there like the other guys, so not excusing it, but I understand it, I suppose, a little bit more in that instance, but Henderson

Nestor Aparicio  09:31

threw the wrong base.

Luke Jones  09:32

I mean, yeah, they’ve had, they’ve had a little, they’ve had some of that. And, like I said, I’m not expecting this defense to be Gold Glove caliber. I mean, they don’t really have anyone who fits that mold, but I do want to see it be better. I want to see rushman maybe, yeah. I mean, and I just

Nestor Aparicio  09:50

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think if you’re asking me to give me a guy that’s more the most reliable defender they have that I know of, I don’t know enough about warden and, yeah, and, and Alonzo. I mean. Other than looking at their stats, and that doesn’t, that doesn’t mean anything to me. I mean, decision making, it’s like speed and stealing bases are two different

Luke Jones  10:06

things too. Sure, sure. Yeah. I mean, Alonzo is known for being really good scooping balls at first base, but it doesn’t have great range, so he’s a polar bear. Yeah, right, right, exactly. But in rochman’s case, I think from a from a standpoint of handling the pitching staff, I’d agree with you, but he doesn’t throw great, right? I mean, certainly doesn’t remind you. I mean, I wouldn’t even put him in Matt weeders category, weeders pre elbow surgery, weeders who had a candy weeders had a cannon. And then obviously, you know, after he had the Tommy John surgery, not so much, but, but yeah. I mean, I think that’s I’m not surprised by what I’ve seen from the defense, but I have been disappointed because, you know, it’s been a little bit too much of the throw into the wrong base, not knowing where to go with the ball. Again, I get it. Someone just makes a bad throw, or someone boots a ball, those things are going to happen. Okay, and I understand this isn’t going to be an elite defense, but it needs to be better than it’s been the last couple years. There’s no question about that. And the thing that I’ll continue to say, and this is where, you know, I’m not, it’s not a commentary on Craig Albernaz, at least not yet. But one thing the organization likes to talk about so much is how, how great an athlete all these guys are. Well, if that’s the case, and I don’t even necessarily disagree with that overall sentiment, let me see, let me see a little bit crisper defense. Then, you know, I mean, get, get me to get me to a place where that can say this defense is average, right, just middle of the pack, right? Because I think that’ll end up playing to a degree where you say, all right, they can still win a lot of games, right? It’s not going to be their biggest strength. It’s not going to be their calling card, but it’s not going to cost them games either. So that’s, that’s an area, you know, if there’s a couple things that I take away from the first home stand, you know, that’s something that has been underwhelming, even though I’m not shocked that it’s been something that hasn’t looked great. You know, the rotation has to be better, right? The first time through the rotation. I mean Rogers, and that’s kind of sort of it. I mean, Boz, if you take away the one inning, pitch pretty well. But you know, Bradish wasn’t great, Bassett was bad, and effluents hurt, right? So, so I guess there’s only one way to go, but up for the rest of these guys after Rogers, who pitched well his second start. So but at the same time, I’ll go back to what I said to you the other day, as we’re kind of assessing this first week of Orioles baseball, really nothing other than the efflin injury right where now your depth has already taken a hit. There’s nothing here that warrants panic, or anything that I was overly concerned about, that I wasn’t already concerned about, right? I was already talking about the bullpen. I was already talking about the defense that said it wasn’t a terribly impressive opening home stand either, right? I mean three and three. I mean the rate, the, you know, the Rangers, they can pitch, I’ll say that, but they’re certainly not a team that’s viewed as the favorite in the Al West. The twins, from where they were a couple years ago are perceived to have taken a couple steps back. So, you know, you’re not really, they took two out of three. But that’s not something like you’re, oh, wow. That’s really impressive. So you know, it is what it is. It was a three and three homestand. It feels about right with the way they played. There was some good, there were some bad, there was indifferent. There’s some things that need to get better. But it’s baseball. And, you know, I look around, I mean, right in the Al east, look at the start, the Red Sox have gotten off too, right? I mean, you don’t, you don’t want to be in that territory. So yeah, would have been nice to have a winning homestand against two teams that you’re not necessarily expecting to be playoff teams in 2026 but it’s three and three. You’re going to have lots of lots and lots and lots of three and three stretches throughout the season. So again, not anything I’m overreacting to, just kind of seeing some of the things that I already had some concerns about looked concerning. And like I said, rotation, I definitely am looking for more from the rest of the rotation, not named Trevor Rogers, as we get the second

Nestor Aparicio  14:13

time through, Happy Easter. Everybody out there celebrating this weekend and Good Friday and all of that good stuff, Easter, Monday, Orioles in Pittsburgh, and then Chicago on the south side to start next week. All of it brought to you by our friends at Farnan and Dermer. I’m wearing the gear because my wife had the windows open around here and it’s freezing. And Luke’s wearing the gear because we sponsor all things sports. And tell you what Luke I had I was in Minnesota with spring scene and my wife five minutes where we were going to do radio. Six in the morning, my wife called me called and the phone rings. My wife’s, you know, 1000 miles away, hey, we’ve got a flood. What? So I hit Zach. It was seven o’clock East Coast time. Within an hour, literally within an hour, Sean was out. He. Were fixing things up and patching it up. My pipes are 42 years old, so I had a little I had a real need for comfort, and the comfort guys, and I’ll get my little hoodie string out of the way. Thornton and Dermot, they are the comfort guys. They made my wife a lot more comfortable on Wednesday. That happened for real this week. And we’re really, really this is exactly why we have sponsors, and we have friends and people take care of us. When things like this happen, they really do come to your rescue. So thank you, Zach. Appreciate you. Zach was actually on the show the other day talking baseball. We talked so much ABS this week and talking about getting into things for me the first week, if I’m going to helicopter 25,000 feet, not 50,000 feet, because I’m not going to beat the team up at three and three in a weekend and home games the starting pitching that led to the bullpen, right? Like, yeah, we know the bullpens not, at least for now, not what we want to be featuring in the franchise. You want to feature your 18 and a half million dollar number four starter. You want to feature Zach Eflin, and now I guess Kramer will get the start in Chicago, I guess on the back end of all of this. And the good news is for Pittsburgh, Skeens pitched on Wednesday, got his five innings in, got his era under 10. You know, it’s funny, I get served ads on now that I’m saying it, and we’re playing the pirates all week, and I’ll they’ll think, I’m I want to fill Garner jersey with the pinstripes in it, but I get served ads for Major League Baseball. Watch schemes all year long. Watch all schemes all the time. And I’m thinking they think it’s Fernando mania, I guess, but he’s one of the good things they have to promote and but that being said, when you go to Pittsburgh, you don’t want to see him, and that’s good. The oils already get a super duper, duper break by not having to see him.

Luke Jones  16:46

Yeah, I mean, they’re still going to face some guys that. I mean, Mitch Keller obviously has been around a long time. You know, it’s kind of been, he was kind of their de facto ace before Paul Skeens arrived. So it’s not as though they won’t be challenged this weekend, but, yeah, it’s, it’s always a good thing when you avoid the opposition’s ace. There’s no doubt about that. So you mentioned Dean Kramer. It’ll actually be interesting to see what they do, because they made the move. Obviously, they put efflin on the i l Kramer was optioned, right? So he’s not allowed to return before 15 days, unless he’s replacing an injured player. Well, they replaced Evelyn with Albert Suarez. So point is, Kramer is still in Norfolk for the time being. So and if I’m doing the math correctly, unless they have another il situation, he’s actually not going to be eligible till the end of next week.

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Nestor Aparicio  17:36

So final option, right? Once he’s up, he’s got to stay right? Well, it’s

Luke Jones  17:40

an option year, right? I mean, right. So they hypothetically, you can do it more than once, right? I mean, it, you can be optioned. What? They changed the rules a few years back to to kind of prevent the Norfolk shuttling, right? I mean, I mean, whatever franchise we’re talking about, yeah, face Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter made a living out of doing this. But so, so he has an option year, and you can option a player up to five times within a season. I believe it is. So I’m I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. But point is, they are going to need a fifth starter in Chicago, and if I’m doing the math correctly, unless I’m missing something. I don’t think Kramer is going to be eligible until I think it’s Thursday or Friday of next week. They have an off day,

Nestor Aparicio  18:27

and then maybe Suarez would take them

Luke Jones  18:28

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so and that’s the thing. I think, all things being equal, if you’re asking Craig Albernaz how they’re kind of filling out their plans in pencil right now, the idea would be, maybe Suarez goes that day, you know, you’re going into an off day. Can he give you four or five? You know, give you at least four, let’s say, and you have a little bit of a bullpen game. Obviously, they could make a move. I mean, let’s face it, yaromil Geraldo, for example, is on very shaky footing right now. In terms of, if you need a fresh arm, you option him, and you don’t think twice about it, right? So, and you’re also not

Nestor Aparicio  19:04

playing in Seattle this week either, right, right?

Luke Jones  19:06

So, so I So, I think all things being equal. First of all, you know, you’re hoping that Bradish baz and Bassett pitch well over the weekend, to have yourself in a position where the bullpen is not, I mean, not throwing 100 pitches like they did on, what was it Sunday? I think it was or 80 some pitches like they did on Monday night. So you don’t want to have those types of days, but I think if you kind of look at it, Suarez is the kind of guy that can go out there and give you a competitive four or five innings and give you a chance to win that day. So that said they’re also, you know, if you’re desperate, there’s probably another scenario where, you know, someone goes on the on the shelf with some kind of arm issue, because they’re pitchers, and they’re always, you know, you can always find something, but it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Nestor Aparicio  19:57

But weather’s weird this time of year, dude, like so. Cold as it was Thursday in Baltimore, and as warm as it was on Wednesday. And then we get into the weekend, Pittsburgh, 76 Friday, 80 Saturday, 66 Sunday, 49 on Monday. So get the hell out of there. I mean, it might be a little I mean, Chicago might be a mess by the time they get there, but the hot and cold part of this really like even Bradish taking the ball in the shadows last week when it was 40 degrees less than it was the day before the cold. Thing’s a real factor for pitching and hitting, and the fact that these dudes have been in Florida for eight weeks and Wednesdays, what you’re looking for is very, very ideal day to go play baseball on Wednesday afternoon.

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Luke Jones  20:39

It was beautiful. Yeah, no question. I mean, it’s, it’s something you have to deal with. I mean, it’s, I it’s not quite as as drastic as when you talk about the NFL, where teams, you know, when you talk about teams that play in warm weather, or teams that have a dome, and then they’re playing a a January playoff game in 20 degree temperature, but the elements are can be an issue this time of year. I mean, it’s funny.

Nestor Aparicio  21:01

You mentioned that hang on a second Tuesday night, 37 degrees in Chicago, yeah. I mean, so that’s going to be the night that Rogers gets the ball. Yeah, yeah. I’m saying, like, if you’re looking ahead, it’s gonna be cold as hell on Tuesday in Chicago. It is. It’s gonna feel like winter baseball. Well, I left Minnesota. I saw Springsteen the other day. Was 72 the day before I got there. It was in the 50s that they always there. It’s not bad. Minnesota. They got six inches of snow overnight, you know. And I’m thinking they had their opener. I mean, they’re gonna get snowed on it Target

Luke Jones  21:31

Field, yeah, yeah, well, but Rogers will go Monday, right? Because they only have four starters right now. And, you know, they have the they have the off day Thursday, so that would keep him on regular 47

Nestor Aparicio  21:41

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in Chicago on Monday. Oh yeah, a ball

Luke Jones  21:43

me right there. I mean, there you go. But no, I mean, it’s a challenge, like the point I was making. I mean, it’s not, it’s not something you talk about to the degree where you’re talking about dome teams or warm weather teams in the NFL when they have to play in 30 degree weather in December or January. But it can be a factor. It can be a challenge. There’s no question about that. So it’s funny, you mentioned the forecast in Pittsburgh this weekend, where I remember when the Orioles went there two years ago, and it was almost the exact tapes, exact same time in the schedule, and it was in the 40s. I mean, I think Grayson Rodriguez made a start, and it was, I

Nestor Aparicio  22:19

had friends that went up there for those games. It’s like, man, dude, that was brutal.

Luke Jones  22:23

I mean, it’s whether you’re thinking it’s going to be Raven Steelers. I also take you to Pittsburgh

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Nestor Aparicio  22:27

this weekend. You already sent me been once this year, so I need to go again. That’s right,

Luke Jones  22:31

Easter weekend and have a family wedding on good pizza.

Nestor Aparicio  22:34

We had at the amarinos place in the press. We had a good time in Pitts. Good time.

Luke Jones  22:39

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Everything about it was fine until Tyler.

Nestor Aparicio  22:41

You know what I mean? So, I mean, somebody put a meme up that they corrected the kick. Did you see that? I did. I assume

Luke Jones  22:49

there was some AI or just

Nestor Aparicio  22:50

some very John Harbaugh, still the coach, if that happens.

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Luke Jones  22:54

Or, according to Steve Basti, for a week, right? But, but yeah. I mean, it right down to having a horrible like Pat Randy Brown on the back or whatever. It was funny to see. In fact, my pastor said that to me, of all people,

Nestor Aparicio  23:07

but he’s a Steelers fan. He is, he is, he’s good. Happy Easter pastor.

Luke Jones  23:13

Good man, though, absolutely so. But yeah, I mean, it’s this time of year is very interesting in that way, and that’s why it is fascinating, from a standpoint of, you know, what the stats look like. You know, how guys handle the cold, all of that, you know, in I mean, my goodness, they just played five games in March, right? I mean, these schedules start earlier and earlier. It feels like, but yeah, if you’re playing in Pittsburgh or Chicago or wherever it might be, you don’t know what it’s going to look like and and it could be that way for the most of April, right? I mean, we’re not talking about being out of the woods just yet, so it’s a challenge, and teams have to be there is some mental toughness that has to absolutely be a factor, right? I mean, you can’t just throw your hands up and say, Oh, well, well, it’s cold, right? I mean, it’s cold for the other team too. I mean, you know the thing, I’d say you mentioned Brad ish just as an example on Saturday. Well, Taj Bradley threw 100 miles per hour on Saturday in that weather. So, you know? I mean, it’s, you never quite know, but every player is different. And, yeah, it is an adjustment when you’re talking about these teams that you know for the most part, it’s cozy in Florida and Arizona and spring training, and you come out of the gate and no matter what you try to do from a scheduling standpoint, I’ve, I’ve heard people say it for years, and I’m not even saying that I disagree with the sentiment, but you hear people say, Well, why is this team opening up at home? Shouldn’t they be on the road? You don’t really know, right? I mean, Baltimore was perfectly pleasant on opening day, and it was beautiful on Wednesday, but was bitterly cold on Saturday, so you just don’t know. But that is that extra wrinkle you throw into this time of year where you don’t know exactly. What it’s going to look like. So other than these climate controlled, you know, like, for example, the Orioles opening in Toronto last year when we were up there. I mean, it was cool. It’s interesting.

Nestor Aparicio  25:09

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I talked to my wife about that this week, and I said to her, you know, they always give the day after opening day off. And my wife’s like, yeah, I guess I sort of knew that. And I’m like, and then I’m like, Well, they didn’t in Toronto last year. I’m like, Oh, they had a dome. Yeah, yeah. So, like, it just didn’t. It didn’t register to me even last year that they played two days in a row and we were there because of that reason. But you want to get into some symbol to playing ball, right? But this is, this a good little breather for them before they get to Pittsburgh, because of the offense, because of the weather because of the home stand and all of that. I mean, we’re into the season. You’re into the heartbeat of baseball. And I guess the observations still are about the strike zone in the abs, because it’s been an adjustment, and it’s not going away. I ran into Paul Molitor at the at the Springsteen show. And, you know, I’ve known Paul 35 years, and BJ, sir Hoff and Polly. I’m sending them pictures from their teammate, you know, friendship and all that stuff, and catching up. And he and I got to talking about the abs. And he loves baseball, man, you know, so like we were talking about it, and I mentioned to him, I think they need three and two. So here I am having a baseball conversation with a Hall of Famer in the Bruce Springsteen East Street lounge the other night, and the only thing we were talking about how the twins are going to do, or how the Orioles look, or any of that stuff, it was the game itself, and how much has changed in a week.

Luke Jones  26:33

Yeah. I mean, we talked about it a few days ago, and we’ll continue to talk about it. I mean, be remiss. We’ve gotten this deep into the conversation. I mean, the Orioles technically had an ABS walk off win on Wednesday, right? I mean, which was just kind of weird to see those dynamics. But I think for me, the biggest takeaway, I expected this to impact the game. I didn’t necessarily think that the entertainment element, and again, I want to pump the brakes on being too hasty in assessing that, because there is still very much a honeymoon novelty kind of feeling to the ABS right now that won’t necessarily be there to the same degree in June or July, but when you have the challenge system. Because my thought on this, if you would ask me, and in fact, think I did a, I did an Orioles podcast at some point, seven weeks ago, eight weeks ago, something like that. You know, spring training was going on, but it wasn’t real close to the start of the season just yet. And I made the, made the assumption at that point that, okay, this is just grease in the runway for we’re going to go to full automation, and that still could be the end game, that still could be the end goal,

Nestor Aparicio  27:42

but I hope not.

Luke Jones  27:44

But I wonder, I wonder, and by the way, I think I agree with you in saying I hope not, because there’s still very much a skill set for catchers, even though we didn’t call it pitch framing 40 or 50 years ago, there’s always been that element to how you catch the ball, how you present the target. Are you stealing strikes? Are you eliminating balls for your pitcher? You know, and called balls and, you know, two inches off the off the plate, where you frame it, and suddenly, hey, the umpire thinks it’s a strike, right?

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Nestor Aparicio  28:19

That’s but you don’t have to correct the umpire anymore and say, Hey, that was a ball. You just say, you tap your hat and say, That was a ball and you and right?

Luke Jones  28:27

But my point is, if you go full automation that now disappears, right? It doesn’t matter how you catch the ball anymore, because it’s just going to be automated wherever it crosses the plate. You know, is it a strike or it’s a ball cut and dried, no questions asked. But so I would have had that reservation to a to a point, but I do wonder now, because of the drama that’s created here with tapping your cap. You know, if you’re Ryan Helsley with two outs in the ninth inning, as we saw on Sunday afternoon, not as dramatic on Wednesday, because the Orioles had a five run lead. But point is, you’ve got these moments where, again, the esthetic is wild to me, where every single person in the ballpark is suddenly on equal footing, looking up at the video board, waiting to see what the

Nestor Aparicio  29:14

call is going to be. I told John Martin, it’s like Kino. It’s like when the little ball comes out

Luke Jones  29:18

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to see what it is. So I do wonder if that element, and again, the novelty will will the novelty will subside, but it’s still going to be dramatic when, when there’s a challenge in a big moment in a game, in the eighth or ninth inning, there’s

Nestor Aparicio  29:33

no doubt about that, about three two pitches. I mean, just in general. Yeah, right.

Luke Jones  29:37

So I do wonder if that element, that entertainment element will actually delay what I had assumed would be the inevitable of full automation. So again, we’re gonna have to see how this plays out. Right? I mean, I I still want to want it to breathe, but it’s hard not to look at it and say, Man, this is getting people talking, and it’s getting people talking in a way that I find to be not. 98% positive. I mean, you know, we might have a scenario pop up where you’d say, Oh, I don’t know if we like that. You know, the esthetics of a, you know, you have a dramatic called strike three, and suddenly, now you have a challenge and like, it’s, it’s kind of awkward, but we’ve had a few of those, even with just the replay system in general over the last decade plus. So it’s interesting. It really is. Jim Palmer loves it.

Nestor Aparicio  30:27

Paul Motley loves it. I can two for two on that. You and I love it. I’ve had a half a dozen of my best baseball people. Joe poily came in from Tampa. Talk some Orioles with me this week. Alan Mark Messina came on. Mark said he hadn’t talked to Mike. So there’s a Hall of Famer I haven’t checked in with, but he said, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to my brother all weekend, but we went at it. And just about it’s just so rare when they can take any sport and make something really better. I mean, look, look, SAS Brown’s out there making up all this bull shy out in Phoenix, and the owners are out there, and they’re all running around and changing rules and doing this on kickoffs and that on flags and whatever. How often do they really make it better? I mean, not like I’m going to get along with shittler, but like the kickoffs. It’s not a better part of the game. It’s a safer part of the game, but it hasn’t made the game better. And I think to myself, the three point shot in the NBA, I remember my dad freaked him out, or the designated hitter in baseball, which came when I was a kid, these monumental interleague play did it really make it better? I, you know, I don’t these big, big changes in sports, the NHL with a puck with a tail on it, or moving the red lines and the blue lines, which did make the game better the neutral zone in hockey, it opened the game up a little bit more, make it more like Olympic style through the years. And when you watch games like this, I mean, soccer has an offside problem, because they’re going to argue about that in Argentina and Brazil. Speaking of Brazil, we’ll talk about that in a minute too. In a minute too. But um, these, these changes. A lot of times it’s made to make you and me bitch at each other. Me to get Jason lock and fora join us and talk about these things. And how often are they really better? I mean, I’ve been doing sports radio all of my life. I’m 35 years into this. I take calls, I put on experts, I put on Hall of Famers, and I put on Zach Dermer, who fixes fans. You know, like people. It’s very, very rare of anything I could think about in 35 years where five minutes into this, a week into this, that we can we’re at 98% I don’t, I haven’t met anybody that’s wrecking a game. It’s starting a game. I do think that your point, and my point, which is, they’re getting rid of the umpires. It’s like I told Mollard, and I said, Dude, this would be like taking the judges off of American Idol. They’re not going to do that. Like the entertainment part of this, the people who run baseball, who want to sell tickets to own teams, they’re going to say this, this is made. It’s just, it’s a better bar debate. It’s a better conversation. It’s better when you’re watching the game with your wife to say, was that a ball or a strike? And they put the box up. I just think it’s been revolutionary, and I a long time coming, I guess, on the technology side, like chipping the football in the NFL, like whatever, whatever point they stop screwing around with the with the polls, and where the poll is and where the little fake yellow line is on Fox, getting that right when people are betting money on it, as to whether it is a first down or it’s fourth down, or it’s a Change of possession, I can’t imagine that they can’t be inspired by this, because I think we all saw it with tennis when tennis started doing it that way. And we don’t care about the line judges as much as tennis. Maybe John McEnroe did, but like none of us really care, we don’t watch tennis and say who’s the line judge today, or who’s the net judge today, or, like baseball’s always been about who’s the umpire, and am I getting the high strike, the low strike, the inside strike, the outside strike. They’ve always been scouting reports on baseball umpires behind the dish, yeah.

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Luke Jones  34:11

And this is actually, this can be the happy medium in terms of not eliminating the human element, because you still have umpires. And look, you’re still going to have umpires that have certain strike zones. It’s just, if you manage your challenges, well, you’ll be able to get some of those back right. And if you don’t manage them, well, it could be the eighth or ninth inning, and suddenly you get a call. That’s a complete you know what? Terrible. And if you’re out of challenges, well, sorry, you needed to manage that better. So there’s, there’s a strategic element to this big time with how you handle this. You won’t be challenging pitches in the second inning with bases empty and two outs, unless it’s so egregious, and you trust that hitter or you trust that catcher. So so to such a high degree. Where you say, yeah, that go ahead, but I don’t that’s a short list, probably when you look at catchers around the league, hitters around the league. So I would venture to say that

Luke Jones  35:13

it’d be interesting to know right now, like, if you had truth serum for the 30 teams, how much time, what kind of resources these teams have put into scrimmaging the challenge system, right in terms of telling their guys, like, here’s when we want to do it, here’s when we don’t, here’s when it’s worth it. I mean, it was funny late in the game, Albernaz even talked about this after the game on Wednesday, where I guess there had been and my apologies, because I wasn’t, I wasn’t watching every pitch with bated breath in the ninth inning with Albert suare. You know, I was getting ready for post game all that, but Albernaz kind of yelled over to besayo because they had two challenges left. He’s just like, hey, like, give it a shot, if you you know, like, we don’t need to be too judicious about this. Like we have two and we’re up by five runs. Like, there’s no need to leave it in the holster. So you get to a point where if you do have too late in the game, like, then it’s like, Hey, you can be more aggressive with it, right? And you might steal one that you didn’t even necessarily think was a strike or a ball, and suddenly it’s going your way. So it’s fascinating, and this is where you and I spend plenty of time over the years criticizing Major League Baseball right? Things that the game needs to do better, things that the game has made worse, all these different things. But the two major changes to the game over these last few years the pitch clock, which hasn’t changed the game as much in terms of, like, consciously watching it, because, my goodness, they barely even show the pitch clock up on the score bug anymore, right? No one, no one looks at that clock. It’s just, you know, it’s implied that the pitcher needs to deliver the ball, the batter needs to be in the batter’s box. All that, right? But it’s shaved, what, 2530, minutes off the average time, whatever, whatever the most recent data is that’s about, about what it’s been, and now you have this strategic element that’s added drama, that’s added discussion about strategy, that has everyone when there’s a challenge at the ballpark. Everyone, you know, half the crowd, is on their phone, but ever suddenly, everyone’s looking up to the scoreboard, right? So it’s an engagement type thing, even, I mean, it’s, it’s really, it’s hard not to look at it and say, Wow, this is something that feels like a major, major positive for the game and and, you know what? So there might be some umpires right now that are saying, Man, I This isn’t fun for us. But you know what? The absolute best umpires are looking at this and saying, oh, everyone’s going to see how good I actually am. Because if you look at the data in the minor leagues, and you look at the data in spring training, you know it’s it’s hovered around a 50% rate, right? But the umpires that are worse than that, and you know, my apologies and no disrespect, but CB Buckner and some others that we tend to talk about in terms of not so flattering, terms of what with their work, they’re going to be exposed. But on the flip side, the umpires that are actually really good at the job, and there are plenty of guys that are much better than they get credit for. We’re going to see how good they are, too. I mean, you see some of these challenges, and you see some of these calls, and we’re talking about a 10th of an inch, you know, half of an inch, right? I mean, just that little. And when you see that, and when you see these calls confirmed in in many cases, that’s where, you know, I’m not saying anyone’s going to throw a parade for them, nor should they, but that’s where you’ll look at it and say, you know, that guy’s actually called a pretty good game. I mean, there’s been five challenges in this game, and there’s only been one or two overturned, right? And it was by two tenths of an inch. So there’s just, it’s hard to view it as anything but a positive. And like I said, I still want to see it play out. There could be some scenario that that pops up. I mean, you know, there’s already been a little bit of, you know, what do you do in a case where there’s a called Third Strike and, you know, the batter’s trying to or the base on our first base is trying to steal. And then, you know, so like you do have some, you know, placement of runners type situations where there could be some controversy that that pops up based on a a ball four or a strike three call. But man, for every scenario that you might come up with where there could be something awkward or choppy or, you know, doesn’t feel necessarily the most fair outcome. You’re going to see plenty of scenarios where we’re getting the call right, and it’s interesting, and there’s some drama to it, and there’s an engagement piece to it. And everyone, as I said, people at the ballpark, are on their phone. Suddenly, everyone, everyone’s looking at the video screen like they. Is it going to be a strike or a ball, right? I mean, and we’ve already seen it, the win probability flips with some of these outcomes, with some of these calls. I mean, we saw it to such a dramatic degree in that finale against the twins on Sunday. But, I mean, it’s just you made the point. All these games have changed over the years, and

Luke Jones  40:21

there’s different. There’s making the game different, and there’s making the game better. These two changes that Major League Baseball have made, has made over the last few years, with the pitch timer first and now with the ABS system. Man, these are game changers. You know, one in terms of time of game and pace of play, and this one in terms of the strategic and the entertainment factor that’s built in. And, oh yeah, we’re getting more calls right, which is really what the objective was. You know, the unintended consequences are the entertainment that we’re getting out of it. So it’s good. And for as much as we criticize the game, and as much as you and I are gonna be talking about labor as we get closer and closer to the end of the year, and hopefully we’re not talking about labor still at this time next year, but we very well could be right where they’re missing games, and we don’t know what’s going to happen with a lockout and all that. In the meantime, however, this has been nothing but a good idea. And to your point, young and old, right? You look at the demographics of baseball fans, it’s hard to find too many people who don’t like it. And I think it’s been one week in, it looks like it’s been a smashing success.

Nestor Aparicio  41:32

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Here’s Luke Jones on Nestor. It’s all brought to you by friends at Farnan and Dermer. They are the comfort guys. They brought us a lot of comfort on April 1. I’m 57 Luke. I have this radio station was once involved in an April Fool’s prank that I was not in on. So I will make that clear over when you own a station, 28 years, things happen, but I was not involved in it. I’m not a prankster. I am not a jokester. You know this from in a general sense, I think I’m funny, but I don’t think I play pranks. Did it get you? No, all right, no, I got a lot of people for one, lot of people for one.

Luke Jones  42:12

I would like to think if you were making a move like that, you would have at least given me a tiny heads up so, but I looked at the calendar right away. Yeah, so although, man, I can only imagine some of the spirited discussions you two would have had.

Nestor Aparicio  42:32

The thing is, I always think of you as being my age, and you’re not. And our experiences of the 70s and the 80s are very you have no angst for Omar Moreno or Willie star Jill or any of

Luke Jones  42:46

that, right? So reminds me, go ahead. But I have something I want to share with you that I thought will make you feel old, because it made me feel old, but go ahead.

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Nestor Aparicio  42:54

Sorry, yeah, I like the SID Finch thing, like that image where I that I have on the front of my Facebook recently with me in the Oriole jersey. Do you? I don’t know when Sid Finch came to you, but I know when it came to me. I was working at the news American, and I was a kid, and I, you know, working in the newsroom as a 16 year old kid, and when the story came out, there was no internet. The Mets went along with it. ESPN went along with it, like on the you know, Chris Berman and Tom Mees were doing television at the time. People went along with that for like, a couple of days, as I remember it, in regard to, is this real or not? Or like, 168 miles an hour, it was a little out there, and Plimpton clearly being a little out there with the paper line and all that. It’s the greatest prank in the history of American sports, I think. But you weren’t old enough to, like, embrace it and immerse in it. And I had, you know, a lot of people my age and above. They even got the fact that. And I don’t know if you got it or not, if you got it or not, if you go to the front of the site, you can see it. I’m a writer. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I take my stuff seriously. There are two different anagrams that I involved with Happy April Fool’s Day with first words of sentences, and then, of course, first words of paragraphs as well. So if you go look at it there, I I worked real hard on letting you in on it, but I don’t know that was a chef’s kiss for me so well. And if lock and floor is pissed, don’t be mad at me. JLC, you know, but I haven’t talked to Jason in a long time. I’ve all everything I wrote in there is true. You know, my feelings you and I’ve talked privately, publicly, in bars, in hotel rooms, on airplanes, about how I feel about him. He’s the one guy over there I have respect for, or had respect for, or thought he’s the guy over there. That’s the real journalists out of all of them, and that includes all of them that that’s police officers, the people that I discovered that were delivering subs like he’s the real thing. And for that, I you know. I’ve always been a fan of his. So that’s that, that is true.

Luke Jones  45:04

Yeah, Sid Sid Finch was, what, 1985 I mean, I wasn’t quite two years old yet. So you know of

Nestor Aparicio  45:11

the legend? Oh, yeah, that picture. You know what it represents? Yes, absolutely.

Luke Jones  45:14

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I remember, I think, when I learned of Sid Finch, there was some here’s a big surprise. Being a kid who grew up in the late 80s and the 90s, I was a big sports tape guy, right? I mean, all every sports blooper tape and baseball highlights and all that, you know, VHS tapes, right? That was

Nestor Aparicio  45:32

your history lesson. Yes, there was a,

Luke Jones  45:35

I think Tim McCarver did a not so great moments in sports VHS and Sid Finch was featured in that. So yeah, that was my exposure to that. And I was probably seven years old at the time, so this would have been five years later, something like that. And, yeah, this is a pretty clever prank, but you met, you made mention of Pittsburgh. So on Friday, the Jason Kendall and Brian Giles are throwing out the first pitch for the home opener. Here’s where you will feel old. And I’m not going to out these guys. And like both of those guys have done

Nestor Aparicio  46:07

my show, by the way, and I knew Kendall a little

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Luke Jones  46:08

bit, so a couple reporters on the Orioles beat who are younger. I’m not going to name names. And look, neither of these guys played for the Orioles, so it doesn’t really matter all that much they did not who know who Brian Giles and Jason Kendall were, which just but then I started thinking about him like, yeah, their wheelhouse was a quarter century ago. That’s that’s plausible.

Nestor Aparicio  46:31

That’s why you cover baseball for me, and they don’t, because that’s the kind of arrogance I have when I was doing my own American Idol will say, you can’t fill a lineup out. You shouldn’t be covering baseball. You don’t know the history of baseball, but I don’t know that you need to know the history of anything. And I don’t know that the current players know much about the history of baseball. I don’t know if they know who Brady

Luke Jones  46:49

Anderson is, but I would also like Brian Giles and Jason Kendall, like they’re not Hall of Famers. They’re not players that you would say you can’t tell the history of baseball without those guys, right? So it was more so a point of just like, man I’m old.

Nestor Aparicio  47:01

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Well, there’s no chance of them knowing who Manny sanguine is. Right, right,

Luke Jones  47:05

exactly, right. But, yeah, but I just thought I’d be nice, but it was funny. We ended up talking about those guys. We would have

Nestor Aparicio  47:10

so much less fun. You and I, we would like each other so much less over the last 20 years. If I can’t drop silly baseball references of things from the 70s and 80s that at least you know what I’m talking about when I say Manny Sandy, and you know what he looks like like. You know what I mean when I say Phil Garner. You know what he looks like. So there really is a basis of all of that when I say Jack McDowell. You know what I’m talking about. Like when they’re playing the White Sox this week, like, good luck with the Aparicio references, or me putting a picture up. I put the picture of Paul model up. Someone said, That’s Robin. You out? And I’m like, No, it’s Jim Gantner. It might be Don money, you know? Like, I like, I can play that game all day, because I love baseball. Katie Mark well and, and, you

Luke Jones  47:54

know what some of that is, we’ve talked we’ve talked about this too, and I don’t want to get too far in the weeds here, because I know we’ve gone on a long time in our segment here. But I think so much of that just comes back to pre internet, right? I mean, you read the back of baseball cards. You read, I mean, in my case, I would read the baseball almanac every year, right? I mean, not read it front to back. But point is, I would look through that, I would consume that, you know, it was something I was fascinated with. You know, I could tell you what Cal Ripken hit in 1991 I couldn’t tell you what gunner Henderson hit last year, because I look it up on my phone. I mean, I knew

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Nestor Aparicio  48:28

Mike Schmidt’s lifetime stats. Like, you know what? I mean,

Luke Jones  48:30

like, like, it’s so different in that way. And it’s not even like, oh, well, things were better back then. It was just different, right? So, so there is some of that that goes on that, you know, if you were a baseball card collector, man, you knew all the players for all the teams. Because, I mean, I I still remember, I mean, for whatever reason, and maybe it was just my age at the time, and it was something with my dad, but for whatever reason, the 1991 tops, which I think that might have been their 40th anniversary season. I can’t remember, but anyway, I mean, that was at a point when packs were still 50 cents, and you got the hard as a rock stick a gum, and it was 15 cards for whatever reason. I kid you not. I probably collected and have that whole set that I just got from packs that my dad would pick up from work, probably two or three times a week for me. But it’s just funny, because you just, you learned all the players in the league, because you just use their their names were right in your hand when you’re looking at your cards, or, you know, sorting through them, or trying to trade them, or, you know, I got into, like, I even got the plastic sleeves, and I put them in the sleeves, and, you know, I’d sort it out that I’d have each team like, you know, there you don’t have that, you know, at least not in a mainstream way anymore. I mean, cards are still a thing, but not, not for the same purpose. I’m glad I had

Nestor Aparicio  49:49

baseball cards as a kid. Oh, I love that.

Luke Jones  49:51

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I mean, I still have my baseball cards. I don’t have too much that’s of any real value other than sentimentality, right? So, I mean, I have probably. They have 80 different Cal Ripken cards, and three of them are probably worth money, and the rest are, you know, a couple bucks here or there, or whatever, so, but that was, that’s how you learned that those are the ways you learn the history of the game, right? Another, while we’re on it baseball, I know major league baseball on their Twitter account, put out they’re bringing back this week in baseball, I don’t know in what capacity, but there’s an email Allen. And I just think, I mean, it’s funny, because, you know, 20 somethings or even even someone in their early 30s. I mean, this week in baseball was basically gone by the time Mel Allen passed away, right with mid 90s, you’re talking so but like these were the things because you didn’t have a smartphone. In many cases, people didn’t have cable TV to even watch, like baseball tonight on ESPN. So you got the Orioles highlights, or whatever your local market where you live, you got those local highlights this week in baseball was your chance to to learn some guys. Every Saturday

Nestor Aparicio  51:00

afternoon, I would watch the baseball bunch with Tommy lesorta and the San Diego chicken, who’s done my show, and Johnny Bench and and then this week in baseball will come on after that, and then they would have the game of the week with Tony kubek and Joe Garagiola. Yeah. I mean, that was 15 years of my childhood every Saturday afternoon, from spring through summer, in

Luke Jones  51:21

the fall, and it’s just wild to kind of think about that, compared to what we have today, which look, you can bring up even for you know, even if you just don’t even spend money, but you’re just like, registered on the MLB app, like you can watch a condensed game of every single game that happened yesterday, and there Are 10 to 12 minutes of highlights for each game. I mean, you can, if you have three hours, you could sit there and consume the entire leagues, you know, the entire slate of league action in a given day in a matter of a couple hours. And we don’t really do it, right? I mean, you can do it, but how often do people actually

Nestor Aparicio  52:01

do it? I mean, you care about the pirates when we’re playing them?

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Luke Jones  52:03

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, then, like, Look, I I keep, obviously, the Orioles I cover. I keep tabs on the Phillies, because I, you know, some family interest and all that. But it is wild to kind of think about the way we consume sports, and specifically baseball, 30 or 40 years ago compared to today, and again, just different doesn’t mean it’s worse or anything like that. It’s just different. But I haven’t watched the

Nestor Aparicio  52:26

dribble in the NCAA Tournament. I’m not bragging about that. It’s just not where my head is. Yeah. I mean, it’s consumed my life for

Luke Jones  52:34

50 years. Well, pub, we’ve also talked about that. I mean, the NFL was really the last and the Olympics, right? But the Olympics, it’s every four years, right? I mean, it’s not, you know, you get that men’s and women’s hockey was, was amazing, and the ratings were good for that

Nestor Aparicio  52:51

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helicopters in, yeah, but, but

Luke Jones  52:53

there are very few shared experiences in the sports world to the degree like what the NFL is still holding on to be, right? I mean, everything else is that’s niche, you know? I mean, we’ve talked about it like, you know me, I’ve covered sports now for a large portion of my adulthood. Hockey, man, if you had a conversation with me about hockey, you’d be wildly unimpressed. For any people

Nestor Aparicio  53:17

trying to get me into lacrosse for almost 60 years, and it’s just not, interested, but,

Luke Jones  53:21

but that’s fine, you know, there’s enough out there, but it is still, you know, that’s where, like, something like this, this new ABS system, where you have different generations of baseball fans kind of saying, hey, you know, I kind of dig this. This is, this is fun. So next week

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Nestor Aparicio  53:34

people be in the golf because it’s masters, right? Like, yeah. So think things happen. Luke’s here. I’ll let you go. Happy Easter weekend to you. Happy April fools and April Fool’s Day joke for anybody that was a part of it, birds are off in Pittsburgh, then Chicago. I got Ken singleton coming on this week. My pal Dave shining is going to stop by. We’ll talk some baseball with him as well. We’ve had great guests all week long. Alan McCallum, Mark Messina has been here. Joel portley stopped by, a lot of baseball stuff. And we’re into April, and it’s fun around here. All are brought to you by our friends at the comfort guys barn and Dermer next Friday at faidley’s at Lexington market. I invited John Miller. He couldn’t make it, but it did give me a chance to interact with John Miller, which is always a good day to do that. So I hope everybody has a great weekend out there. Our friends at GBMC also have Walk a Mile in Her Shoes coming up in two weeks on Friday. I’ll be a part of that as well be talking about that. They do sponsor our Maryland crab cake tour as well, and I’ll have those Maryland treasures scratch offs to give away. We’re also at Koco’s on the 23rd I skip a week on the crab cake tour. We’ll be there on Thursday the 23rd which is actually an off day for the Orioles later on in the month. So the month. So the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road presented by the Maryland lottery, GBMC and Farnan and Dermer. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop eating Easter candy and celebrating Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.