After yet another walk-off home run win, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the special magic and growth mindset brewing on a team when every night produces a different star for the first-place – and still not swept – Baltimore Orioles, who welcome the Seattle Mariners to Camden Yards this weekend.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
talking, swept, northern lights, orioles, team, baseball, streak, player, game, play, week, luke, hope, hit, point, catcher, growth mindset, sat, runs, preakness
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are W n s. T, Towson, Baltimore. Baltimore positive. We are positively into just a glorious week here, right like I hope, weather Preakness all this going on. I mean, the PGA championships after people are watching that NBA NHL, Orioles baseball, NFL schedule, even the lesson the market crab races had been moved because of the weather to Friday afternoon, Luke and I instead of doing a Baltimore positive, they decided to have the crab Derby like right in the middle of when I was gonna do the show. So I’m just gonna do the crab derby. We’re not I’m gonna give a lot of retail, I’m gonna have PacMan scratch offs to get, it’s going to be like, it’s going to be the best of everything. Except I don’t get to do my show, which might be better for some people. But I’m the MC, which might be a lot worse for a lot of other people, including BJ surhoff. So come on down. It’s always good time. You’re I have see but if I hold up the crab Derby, it’s hit the wrong date on it’s not Wednesday, the 15th It’s Friday the 17th. So well come on down. Luke and I will be there. I don’t know around lunchtime, and he’ll be the one stuffing his face with crab cakes and getting cucumber salad and mac and cheese and I might have an ice cold beer because that’s what I do because I’m you’re working and I’m just emceeing and having fun. How are you? We got an NFL schedule, right we got a big big horse race this week, half of my contents. It’s not dead. I’m gonna run it on the radio because that Bob Baffert on he had two horses now he has one. I’m not going to be that guy because we talked about all sorts of history Pimlico and all that, but I apologize in advance for anyone that hears Don Edwards talking about Muth when in the race or whatever. But I get the you know, the Preakness is holy to me, right, Luke, in a way that it’s not for you. Your dad didn’t get my dad didn’t get it, but I always I had it in me and I’ve had magical conversations we the Larry call Miss Pease, Chris Pike, his ears are buzzin Schwartz, his brothers and cousins and nieces are like the Columbus thing was unbelievably good. It’s it. This is a special week in Baltimore, for people who love horse racing. I
8
Luke Jones 02:05
was just gonna say, I mean, it’s a big week for Baltimore anyway, and I think we’ll see what happens in the future in terms of making it bigger, making it even more special. Uh, but even if you’re not a horse racing person, like me, I’ve been the Preakness before, but it’s not something I do every
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:21
year. But do you remember your drinking shoe rat or no? Yeah, it was
Luke Jones 02:25
2011 I think it was. I feel like I’m you’re too
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:29
8old or you didn’t drink enough. You don’t have a Preakness? I’m gonna say this publicly. And you know, and I hope, you know, the walls have ears. It’d be used against me. But you know, if you don’t have a Preakness you don’t remember. You didn’t do it. Right. I mean, I’m just saying, if you’re my age, and you know, I’ve admitted that this week freely. There are witnesses to this. Gotta hope there are pictures. But yeah, you know, pregnancy is. It has been called by people. My age is a rite of passage this week. And I think that that’s, that’s a glorious thing to talk about, and talk about what the future could be. But Luke, dude, three pregnancies ago, we all have masks on and we’re here and shutting the race down. They’re like, and the Orioles were owned by John Angelos and Peter was in failing, like, and there’s no baseball and there’s no, say there’s no hope. I think we all looked at allies, but like to see the blossoming of the Orioles at this point. And that remains to be seen with fans and investment and signing players and what they’re doing with television and digital and like, oh, you know, all of those. Especially as the NFL schedule comes in. I’m like, What the hell’s paramount? That’s not even three letters. Like why do you why anyway, nets, Christmas? Baseball. The baseball team this this week rain? Not a lot of play. Not a lot of bats. Right. But this is, um, this is a blossoming for this baseball team, that when everything goes wrong, they still win games. And I know you don’t want to talk about the streak. I know how you feel about the story.
Luke Jones 04:14
Hey, if people want to ignore what happened in October, that’s what’s most important, then God bless.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:22
I want to point out that you are the optimist here here, the nice guy of the two of us.
Luke Jones 04:26
And I, my whole point with this streak and this obsession with it is there is so much to love about this team that we don’t need to prop up something that if we want to be totally honest, feels a little more hollow. When you get swept in the postseason. I’ll say this. However, when you look at what they’ve done against the American League East, which is now they have not lost a series against another als team and 17 straight sets. That’s impressive, right that shows you what they’ve done in terms of taking care Our business in this division and we talked about it with the Yankees series a couple of weeks ago. This is a Toronto team that’s been scuffling for me easily the most disappointing team in the division to date. You know, obviously we’re only a quarter of the way through the season, but we’re a quarter of the way through the season now. And the Blue Jays have not played very good baseball. Blue Jays get a win on Monday night. You even heard Schneider, their manager and some of the players in the clubhouse after the game talking about this being a big win in their eyes, you know, that they got on Monday night thinking that? Yeah, that was the kind of game that they haven’t been winning. And lo and behold, they had a great opportunity on Wednesday, on a day when the Orioles leave a Lebanon based. Oh for 10 with runners in scoring position. They get a leadoff home run from Jordan Westberg. And then nothing in terms of putting any runs across the board. And Adley rutschman does what he does, which was hitting the clutch again, and every
8Nestor J. Aparicio 05:58
minute we mentioned I mean, I go back through our YouTube here and through Baltimore positive. I think in 45 days, they’ve been playing baseball, right? Maybe about that long, maybe, you know, six weeks, we have at various points, talked about six of their guys being their best player for that minute. Right? Cows your best player, Gunnar Henderson got assigned him. Oh my god, this Westberg guy, Bobby Grich. And by the way, Palmer compared to the bobby Grich. And I don’t want it to say the Palmer smarter than me because he is and you could ask him ask anybody. But he compared to the bobby Grich and I have been saying Richard our and it is funny. Like he’s right. It’s Bobby Grich. But rutschman always has been the apple of your eye, right? Like, you know of all of all. He was the first guy that came up and I think that first summer you’re like, Oh my God, he’s good. And then you don’t sit around say oh my god, he’s good anymore. Right? Like, literally and and oh my god, he’s good, right?
Luke Jones 06:55
I mean, he’s look, Gunnar Henderson has become the guy when you’re talking about someone who’s on pace to hit 40 home runs and maybe be a 10 wins above replacement kind of guy which Cal Ripken is the only guy who’s done that in Orioles history to give you a nerdier stat just to show you what kind of great player cow was in his prime. You know when when peep whenever you hear the stray person that tries to be dismissive about that cow and say, Oh, he’s about all about the streak. He wasn’t that no, he was a phenomenal baseball player for a long, long time. But Gunnar Henderson is doing things that conjure memories of that, you know, playing shortstop and being that kind of an offensive player. I wrote at Baltimore positive.com Just a couple days ago that it’s come to the forefront a little bit here recently because obviously Richmond homers in three straight games hits the walk off home run on Wednesday afternoon, but look at his stats. And early on he didn’t hit for a ton of power. I think we mentioned that at the very least. But you look at him 300 seat, you know, at 300 average, he’s now on pace to hit over 30 home runs. He’s on pace to drive and right around 100 runs for a catcher. That is remarkable. I mean, it’s absolutely remarkable. And it really reinforces why Brandon Hyde is so reluctant to give him full days off. You want his bat in the lineup because it is that good. It’s not just a good bat for a catcher, which is what you typically say about even the best catchers in baseball on an annual basis. It is a really good bat period. So we see that once again on Wednesday where he hits a ball that just a towering drive off the bat. I’ll be honest with you I thought it has a chance to baby bounce off the wall.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:43
Right right. Yeah, he didn’t hit it square. I
Luke Jones 08:46
8mean he hit it. I don’t even know if I’d say he didn’t hit it square. He just he hit it so high. The launch angle was so high that you just wondered Is that going to carry out? Yeah, was it the warmest day it was It wasn’t cold on Wednesday, but it wasn’t. Wasn’t 85 degrees and humid. So it gets over the fence. It gets over the out of town scoreboard and just one of those games especially on the heels of that bottom of the eighth inning which was one of those What the heck did I just see kind of innings Adley rutschman gets the job done for the Orioles they have a way to sweep yes, they keep the regular season streak alive. What it was a two year anniversary, I guess of the last time they actually had been swept you know right before he made his major league debut. So just a wild game one of those games that we’ve talked about on a number of occasions, going back to last year one of those games where it feels like you didn’t deserve to win I mean point blank when you do what the Orioles did offensively on Wednesday which was they got guys on base you know it’s not as though they didn’t get any hits but Uriah sit back get me started right. I mean I’m not shocked by that. The the James McCann, safety squeeze and Brandon I considered pinch hitting O’Hearn for him in that spot. But they knew he knew they’d go to a lefty, they initially put on a safety squeeze there, which, on the first pitch, I don’t, I don’t mind that, you know me, I’m not a big bump guy in general. But I don’t mind that on the first pitch, but they took it off at McCann, on his own decided to do it and McCann to, to be fair is a good bunch of probably, you know, if not the best butter on the team, certainly one of the best butters on the team, which I know doesn’t say much in this day and age. But it was just bizarre. You know, play at the plate, it’s reviewed, it looked like maybe was safe, but they didn’t overturn it. We kind of know what the threshold is for overturning calls in New York at this point. But just so much weirdness in that inning, and so much second guessing of hide or pinch hitting this guy or not pinch hitting someone. And then Adley rutschman makes everything go away. Right? He makes everything okay, they don’t get swept the offensive struggles which we’ve talked about it the last couple of weeks, they have not swung the bat nearly as well as they had been. It’s real. And you know, we could certainly get into some of the guys specifically that are really really struggling. But Adley rutschman makes it all elementary makes it all less concerning when he does what he did in the ninth inning and enhance Romano and the Blue Jays a loss. So just a wild baseball game. And we’ve talked about it we started talking about this the second half of 2022. I mean, they’re not blossoming they blossomed now now it’s just a matter of how long the Bloom is going to stay and it feels like it’s going to be a really long time. You know, certainly they can get better in ways but you know, you’re talking about a team that’s, you know, they in the Yankees have duking it out for the Al East right now. So just a huge win. as huge as it can be in mid May. Again, you don’t want to make too much of it, but well, they need it. Yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:48
I mean, this streak thing over@orioles.com Yeah, I mean, and the fans eat it up and mass and eats. I mean, like I listen, I’m not the guy pissing on it. You’re the one mean like, I think it’s remarkable. But I was in Arlington. Yeah. I mean, like, so I it’s just not so it’s it to me, it’s a little it’d be like, some weird like talking about John, Harbaugh’s preseason thing or something. Dude, you lost the AFC Championship game, you ran the ball, you know, less than I have toes and pinkies. And, you know, that’s gonna be what you are until you go to Kansas City, and have to figure it out again. And as an underdog and like all you know, on the road, like all of that stuff, I the street thing to me is it is fascinating. I love that they bring it up. I love pinching you on it. And I hope it never ends. I hope it never ends. But I hope it doesn’t end with the illusion of series in October again. And we’re sitting here talking about 219 series. And you know, as Dave euro would always say, and a nude ring finger.
Luke Jones 12:51
Yeah. And let me be clear. I mean, I don’t want to say I’m feigning outrage about it, because it does, there is something about it that annoys me from the standpoint of all we ever want to talk about in terms of legacy is postseason, not just in baseball, and sports in general. We talk about legacy. But it feels like this is one of those situations where we don’t want to talk about about it when it’s not convenient to some other talking point that we like, right? It’s way more important and always was more important than the preseason streak. These games matter. The series matter. They do. There’s no question about it. It was remarkable over the course of last year, dating back to the Adly Richmond’s debut the year before that, but when you do get swept, whether it’s the regular season or the postseason, I can’t ignore it and just keep going on my merry way talking about the streak so I get it, it’s regular season.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:43
The best part is if they string the seven or six, eight weeks, I’m gonna get a kick out of this with you. I hope that they doesn’t get lost in a week but we’re not working like next week or your week, you’re on vacation in July, but like, I hope it lasts forever. So a couple things, um, because I write down these notes when you and I really take a deep dive and the team takes a day off we were gonna do a segment of families and we’re not I couldn’t really every Friday it families you and I could just take on a topic like bunting, or you know just like sick my Dell did 15 minutes with Jim Palmer and other than Him being relatively socially awkward, and it not being his thing is when he testified he would say and my 25th anniversary documentary sitting and talking about things you know all of it’s remarkable to me and honestly being thrown out and you being in our press seat me sitting you’re watching on TV, I get a vantage point you don’t even get you know, you didn’t get to watch it so I get to hear what the organization is saying and what’s important to them. And the growth mindset hits me right because and I’m you know, full disclosure, I know of sigma Dell, because Eric, the cost, pronounced his name for me and he and Michael Is it’s now sort of known when they’re hanging out in draft rooms. But there was a long standing relationship there where Eric loves baseball, and was trying to learn analytics. And he, he’d are flying somewhere together. And we often did. We all he often would fly in away from the team. And he and I would wind up on a flight and hang out together. And I’d see what book he’s reading. And we talk about life, kids things. Never who was draft picks were like, I just like never came to that. It just wasn’t the basis of what we did. But sigma Dell, its name came to me and I went down to the Barnes and Noble he gave his speech when he first came in. And I’m fascinated by part of it, not as nerdy as you are. But my dad was you like you, my dad would love you, my dad would love your part of the show. He’d hate other parts, he would love your part. And he if my dad were alive, and you guys were hanging out, you’d be nerding it all up and I see the nerdier part calm, and I’m nerdy enough that I want to learn and be better at it when I see smart people, sigma Dell the other day trying to explain math children, and have people out. I mean, this is the stuff that I would love the praise them about and talk about, but they’re so good at it. And the growth mindset, and Astro ball, and Evan drellich, who’s been on this program many times and all of that came to me. The middle Elias got hired, I wanted to go read all of this stuff, right? So did you and the growth mindset and the emerging baseball player and for you to even say rutschman early on. You wondered about his pouch still wondered about Matt weeders. Right. Like, I mean, we would compare them and say Mauer was power, Johnny bent, you know, whatever they’re supposed to be, but one one, and we could talk to BJ about that as well who, you know, he’s going to be catcher shortstop, and he could play anywhere. He’s great baseball, great athlete, right. But the emerging part of these players, all of them get better. And that’s the part of it for me. And I don’t mean this to be mean. But I’m going to pick on a player because you know, I haven’t watched as much baseball the last 10 years. And I’m watching more now the vocal Bach guy comes up and he’s got an interesting Terry Forster body and I always loved Matt stairs, and I love bootpack You know, I love the big guys, right? I love you know, I love the catcher in the bad news bears better than even Tanner Boyle. So I started just Googling stats, I’m like this guy, I’ve seen this guy other places. And I look at his career. And it’s like, sort of weirdly and I’ll make fun of Dave Kingman or or mark Reynolds or Borman you know, guys that can hit home runs adult do like a whole lot of other things. And our glove guys, which is where through testing curse that’s going down an angle that, you know, really limits your career at that point, right. But I’m looking at what other teams are putting out onto the field and saying we got a guy that we know can’t hit 280 We got a guy we know might get on babe, you got a guy that we know has. All of these guys are like if they’re not five tool, they’re sixth sense that even if you don’t run well you think well and to see every day we’re talking about how good all these guys are. I keep saying to my wife doesn’t matter but this Rubinstein guy goes Rubin splash doesn’t matter whether I get it doesn’t matter what they do with their television, no matter how bad their digital. They have a great, great, great baseball team. And if you love baseball, and you’ve been waiting your whole life for the players to be good and not to be jerks. How can you not love Adley rutschman He was your first love. How can you not love Gunnar Henderson coming up even if you weren’t paying attention, more sleep when Hasan Mullins were playing and mountcastle and these guys and Santander even when you pronounce that Santander This is a beautiful thing, dude, I they’re emerging baseball players. And every day we’re talking about all of them making all of them better. And in games when they’re supposed to lose and they all stink. Captain America steps up and hits a bomb and says, top that take a day off. Let’s get down to Fells Point. We’ll get back after it on Friday. And I mean like this. This is the team we’ve all dreamed of Luke. I mean, I just want to say that out loud. I don’t say it a lot. But it’s true.
8Luke Jones 19:10
Yeah, I mean, and look, I mean, the the idea of a growth mindset isn’t anything brand new by any stretch of the imagination. But when it’s an all encompassing philosophy that goes through so many different things, you know, in terms of traits and a profile of what you want and player’s character, just being having one message throughout the minor league system using technology using all the data, but also understanding that there’s a human being behind that data and really trying to make sure you identify quality human beings and luck. We don’t know all these players intimately. And we that’s always the caveat. Whenever we’re talking about players and what they’re doing on the field. We don’t know who they are truly off the field but the point is all have that stuff matters to them. And I think even with some of the veteran signings they’ve made over the last few years when you talk about Ruth Neto door and Robinson Marino’s and last year, Adam Frazier and Kyle Gibson last year, Jordan Lyles, a couple years ago, you go through that list of guys, and some of those signings didn’t really align necessarily with where they were in terms of a statistical profile, or whether they were the best player for the job in the case of Adam Frazier let you know, two off seasons ago where I think a lot of people, myself included, really shrugged at that. But they were looking at that, looking at some of those guys, from an intangible standpoint, where you think of analytics, you think of all the different ways that we think about the game now that are far different than we did for a really long time, that would almost be counterintuitive, but that’s that was getting into some of the qualitative, qual qualitative aspects of a player and you know what they mean to a clubhouse, you know, what they mean, from a character standpoint, what they mean from a mentoring standpoint, and, you know, they’ve just looked they haven’t made, they haven’t batted 1000, but they have batted at such a high clip, when you look at it across the board, other than going out and spending a bunch of money. And obviously, David Rubenstein is gonna be a big part of that, in the coming years, whether that’s going to happen or not. But they’ve just, they’ve done so well. And look, is Adley rutschman, the best example of it? No, because there are 30 teams that would have drafted Adley rutschman One one or you know, let’s say okay, there may have been a few would have taken Bobby wit and Bobby which worked out really well for the Royals. So let’s be fair there. But point is Adley rutschman was very close to being a finished product when he was at Oregon State and was this star baseball player that said he still fit the mold of what they were looking for. With a growth mindset with the traits and the baseline talent with all of that and they honed them they tweaked him. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:02
am smiling at you because you said he was a finished product. My whole point is he’s not a finished product. You know what I
Luke Jones 22:09
mean? Is he was already a guy that you but he was already a guy that you viewed as okay, this guy’s gonna be he’s the next big thing right? He’s a can’t miss. So why isn’t next
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:19
8Miss next can’t miss next guy because he’s never gonna stop getting better. Like, literally What you see isn’t what you’re gonna get. It’s gonna even be better than that. I mean, that’s what Cal Ripken was. But I guess. Sure,
Luke Jones 22:32
sure, no question about it. But But I guess my point is, and this is where I want to give them credit beyond just the fact that okay, well, they picked Adley rutschman. Because the 2018 team was just so horrendous, you know, the worst team in franchise history. But that’s where you look at Gunnar Henderson, who was a second round pick. That’s where you look at Jordan Westberg, who’s now blossoming into what looks like an all star caliber player. He you know, he was a end of the first round, you know that that next, you know, competitive balance, whatever it was, a bullet point was just about every team in baseball could have drafted those guys and develop those guys. And not only did the Orioles draft them and identify them as talented players, not only did they sign them, not only did they develop them into major leaguers, but they’re now in the case of Gunnar Henderson and MVP candidate in the case of Jordan Westberg. guy who has been their second or third best player and looks like he could be an all star caliber player. So when you’re not yet, not just when you’re hitting it out of the park drafting in the top five as the Orioles did for a few years there. But you’re also drafting guys later on, and you’re developing them and they’re blossoming into major leaguers that are either above average or winning awards. Man, it just, it speaks so favorably to your process. But that’s why I mentioned the odours and the torinos type players that they’ve also brought in and said, You know what? This, this guy isn’t the best player at his position by any stretch of the imagination, but we think that that guy’s going to help us in some way.
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:03
He brought in six weeks ago for five minutes in the ace. Oh, Tony camp.
Luke Jones 24:08
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I mean, he wasn’t here long enough to really make
8Nestor J. Aparicio 24:12
go, but I’m saying they brought him in because he fit. He fit the suit of like, he’ll be good for us for a week or two. And he said beautiful. Thanks. I mean, I’m just saying. I mean,
Luke Jones 24:22
he was he’s a he’s a high character person. But the point is they brought in some guys, where you would just say, okay, that’s alright, that’s fine, I guess. And, you know, not all those guys played at at a very high level. I mean, rubato Dora had some clutch moments, but he had a lot of moments where you’re wondering why he’s playing because he wasn’t that good. But you listen to some of those younger guys who’ve now matured over the last couple years. Not that not that Gunnar Henderson at age 23 is a full blown grown up right but you hear some of those guys talk and they say yeah, oh door and Torino son, Adam Frazier. Like those guys helped me you know that doesn’t mean that they were everything to their development, but they helped them along the way. And that, again, that’s part of a growth mindset that’s part of wanting to fully develop these guys and recognizing that there are intangibles, there are elements beyond analytics that you can’t quantify team chemistry is a great, you know, we hear that all the time. You know, what, what breeds? You know, does this chemistry breed winning or does winning breed chemistry? Point is, that’s, that’s a factor that is there. You can’t quantify it, but you know, it’s there. So you do have to try to account for that. And that’s why they’ve elected to bring in some veteran players like that. Now, you know, now it’s a little bit different, because you have homegrown guys top to bottom. You know, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Ryan O’Hearn throughout this because we see what kind of player he’s become. I mean, he’s better this year than he was last year. I’ll give you this Nestor. I guarantee you don’t you don’t know this, because I didn’t know this until a few days ago, looking at the numbers. In this day and age where we think about swing and miss right? strikeouts, I mean, strikeouts have been on the rise for a long time now. And you think about someone like Gunnar Henderson, he’s one of the best players in the American League. Look how many times he struck out, you know, he’s gonna strike out 160 times 170 times whatever it ends up being, you know, if not a little more than that. Ryan O’Hearn has walked more than he has struck out so far this year. Think about that. I mean, that is such a rare profile in the modern game. And even the Orioles this year, we haven’t talked about it a lot. And it’s coming to the forefront a little bit more in the last couple of weeks, their walk rate is down, you know, they they have slugged at a higher rate. But they have walked at a lower rate. And I think that will normalize some as the year goes on. But even someone like Adley rutschman, who drew walks through walks through walks his first couple of years. Go look at his walk rate. It’s really down. But he’s slugging 509. So I think and this is the Orioles would view this as proprietary. So they certainly would not get into it even if you try and people have tried and you know, you kind of just get a non answer about it.
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:12
Why questions were couched every question was said was, well, we don’t want you to give anything like like, but anyway, right? Like, it’s very clear how secretive they are. And he told me the first thing he said is why worked at NASA. I’m like, You ain’t getting anything out of this guy. Exactly. But but the point is,
Luke Jones 27:27
8I really do think this aggressive approach, more aggressive approach that we’ve seen has been deliberate. Now. People will say, Okay, the last couple of weeks, they’ve tailed off offensively. So maybe there’s a sweet spot that you have to find here. And I think, you know, I think you’ll see guys draw walks over the course of the year, I think Adley rutschman Zwack rate will go up as pitchers tried to adjust to how the Orioles are trying to attack the opposition. But it’s been noticeable that their walk rate has dropped. Their slugging is up. And I will say in fairness to them, even though their walk rate has dropped in, they’ve been a little more aggressive. You know, in that way. It’s not as though their strikeouts have gone way up either. So it’s just they’ve been more aggressive within the strike zone. I think they’re hunting their pitch more. And look, when you’ve led up American League in home runs and runs for a good portion most of the season to the state. It’s, you know, it’s tough to argue with it. So I’m fascinated to see how it evolves and how it regresses one way or the other, perhaps as we get deeper into the summer, but, but there’s an example of a team that’s evolving and to your point, whether it’s getting better or attempting to get better. And that’s not to say that everything you do is going to work out all the time, but they’re clearly continuing to look for an edge and they’re clearly looking for ways to get better and they’ll adjust if they need to. And they again, maybe they need to adjust and become a little more patient. Because the last couple of weeks, they haven’t gotten on base enough and haven’t scored enough runs. But it’s just it’s fascinating to watch this. And when you get a game like Wednesday where so much goes wrong. You leave so many men on base you fail so much with runners in scoring position, you have a bottom of the eighth inning that made my head hurt from a strategic standpoint
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:15
and an execution standpoint.
Luke Jones 29:18
Right and then your All Star catcher comes up in the bottom of the night that makes it all okay you know and he’s not the first to be Jordan Westberg has walked knock it off. Let’s all feel good about each other. Yeah, we didn’t get swept Luke didn’t bring that up. Exactly. They did not get swept. Right. So I mean, it’s just it but again, even with my ranting about that streak of we are talking to two calendar years now that they have not been swept in the regular season. As much as I’m over the mental gymnastics to completely ignore what happened in Arlington. It is still wildly impressive, you know, even if you just want to say okay, they’re at think the streets up to 105 consecutive regular seasons. So let’s say it, let’s say it including the postseason. They have only been swept once in 106. Series postseason or regular season. That’s still unbelievable. When you think about it, knowing what baseball is. It’s not football where you might go 14 into every year. Yes. Every team been swept already in baseball.
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:19
I don’t know that. But I guarantee you, you Mr. Nerd. You will. Come on. For me.
8Luke Jones 30:27
I mean, I have the Yankees been swept? Well, my question would be, it
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:31
would be like when my dad brought those pool cards home I never understood or what? What’s the football Knockout Game where you pick every week until you know, like your survivor pool. Right? Okay. Yeah. So like that would be the survivor thing of saying, how important is the streak while the orals is going 100 Again, and most you know, every team has been swept by the all star game every year since 99. You know, whatever. I there’s got to be some stat for that for you. I’ll call Chris pike up put him on it.
Luke Jones 30:59
I mean, I’m looking at their postgame notes right now. It’s they’re currently tied with the 1903 through the 1905 New York Giants for the third longest streak regular season. Of course, in Major League history. I mean, John McGraw, Christy Mathewson. You start throwing out names like that over
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:18
8the years back at the at the Yankees team, or even like the mariners team that won 100, whatever. 18 Whatever it was, and say, they went the whole year without getting swept. I mean, that that just making it one season, I wonder how many teams make it season without getting to work or make it to the All Star game or for I mean, right now, I would think that way, more than half the league has been swept, at least, they play through game series, easily.
Luke Jones 31:43
And that’s the thing. I mean, I was just gonna say any. And obviously back in the day, you didn’t see as many two games series but and they’re not that common, but they happen enough. And I mean, this week was a perfect example you get a rain out, then suddenly three game series becomes a two game series. I mean, it’s how easy it was going to happen to the Orioles. Right? I mean, they were going to be swept and look there were going to be a lot of people that were going to make a big deal
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:06
about it. And watchmen also as the strange I’ve never been swept thing to write. Yeah,
Luke Jones 32:10
yeah, I mean, it’s gone ever since never been swept and Jordan Westbrook’s never been swept, right. I mean, it’s, it’s wild. And let me be clear for everyone that I’m being, you know, old man yells at Cloud, you know, get off my lawn kind of deal. You’re too young to be an old man. If they had been swept on Wednesday, you know what else I would have said, thank goodness, we’re talking, we’re not talking about this streak. That’s not really a streak anymore to that magnitude. But you know what else I would have said, It’s okay, they, they’ve lost three in a row, the world’s not ending, I would have said that as well. So there is the flip side of that, that they are going to get swept at some point. I hope the next time is not in October, again, let me be very clear about that. But again, in all seriousness, it is remarkable it is a testament to one, just how darn good this team is. And to that they get into these spots, and like Wednesday afternoon, where so much had gone wrong. And then one of their best players comes up and makes an entire afternoon of a lot of stink, a lot of stench go away with one swing of the bat. So really, you know, hats off to Adley rutschman. And this team is just No, I, you said what’s funny, I don’t know if you noticed it on social media, you made a comment, you made a reference to this team, dot dot dot. Moments later, I said the same thing without even seeing that this team, you know, it’s just, there is something about this team that, you know, the long way to go very long waiting,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 33:42
I turned down eight, three box seats in the fifth row for Thursday’s game or Wednesday’s game. Because like I looked at the window was like 1130, it was raining it was 58 degrees. And I’m like, I got work to do. And honestly, Palmer was calling the game, which is cool. And Garcelle was doing the pre game and, you know, I was Garcia’s intern. I should have put that in the video. I didn’t put that in the video. I was Corsos into did you know I was Corsos intern?
Luke Jones 34:11
I feel like you’ve mentioned it to me before But would that be in the forefront of my memory if I was reeling off things about you know? Yeah, that rings a bell that
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:20
you’ve done a documentary? Maybe I should do a book. Ah, now I got other things to do right now. But I’m writing my Northern Lights piece. Do you even know what I did with the Northern Lights this weekend?
Luke Jones 34:30
8I know. You went to you went out to Washington, right?
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:33
Do you know if I saw the northern lights or not?
Luke Jones 34:38
I feel like you said you didn’t. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:40
if I did do you think you would know about it by now?
8Luke Jones 34:44
So you didn’t. You went all the way out there and you still didn’t see it? Well, there
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:48
is the shame of that. Stop shaming me. All right for that. You
Luke Jones 34:52
asked me you brought it up.
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:55
8I actually did a really long segment with Wendy brown fine from curio well This about it. First off, it’s the inside joke of you know, there’s a flower string called Northern Lights right. But more than that, it’s the back thing that the backbone the move that because I sat, I said, We chased the Northern Lights and like, we sat in a plane, we sat in the car, we slept in a hotel. We sat in the restaurant we had Huckleberry pancakes. The honor my father was delicious. We CableCARD around, we flew home, I sat, sat, I sat some more, you know, this from back in the era when I used to have a press pass, like sitting was really hard for me. Well, my back was killing me. So like all it did was sit so I had this move product, and I told her the story on the air and I am 80% of the way through writing a relatively humorous and Dude, it was one of those things took a couple days for me to my back to organize, get back on the yoga mat. Thank you Planet Fitness. Get me in shape. Dr. Steve, working me out. crabbed I gotta get ready for the crab Derby on Friday, Dan have families and this move product like it’s you know, so my dad used to use adsorbing Jr. He smelled like Bo was awful. This sudden, and it feels nice. And I said it wore me out going into the Northern Lights. But the whole story is, I hope you read it. I’m going to finish writing it I’m going to put it up this weekend. Because you don’t know it’s it’s like the question of my life. Right so my bucket list thing. I don’t talk to you in terms of any other bucket. I don’t even know what my second bucket list. Oh tulips in Amsterdam. I want to do that. And there’s places I want to go again things that but you know, Northern Lights is number one, which is why we were I used all the playoff airline points that you and I would usually use in October. I used them in Spokane the other night. So like you know, all my all my points are gone. But it was a wild experience. And I will write about it and you will laugh at it. Hopefully, I know I laughed writing it. Because you know what I’ve thought just off the cuff when my wife and I are upside down in an airport hotel room. Checking in at 530 in the morning, having spent the whole night looking at the dashboard over loon Lake Google loon Lake Washington outside of Spokane 45 minutes from the Canadian border. Nothing but beautiful. I mean, it was like the most beautiful, romantic and then the Northern Lights didn’t come. So at five in the morning we’re checking this hotel and all I could think about Luke was my career and to some degree chats to Greg Bader, Kevin Byrne, you former employees have we played a night game in Bemidji and Monday Night Football and the game ended at one and we were in the locker room till two and we did radioed all five and they got their ass kicked. Right which happens a lot on the road with the Ravens. I didn’t and I went in and out to Denver to see them get their ass kicked. Or I went out to San Diego and leverage bad more fun in San Diego so I don’t want to I don’t want to implicate San Diego freaking Cleveland, Cincinnati. How about an ass kicking in the rain on a Thursday night where I flew into Louisville up all night. Marvin wants me to come over drink champagne at one o’clock in the morning. And Marvel’s gonna be making a cameo this week. By the way around here. We lost and I’m upside down on piste, we’re six and for something really awful. And somebody got her and I gotta go to Radio and my employees is my sponsors are mad and and I didn’t feel the least bit bad about it. And I thought that her I’m like, this is just like we went to Spokane and lost the football game. If the Terps played in Washington State. You know what I mean? Like you get an apple, you ride the cablecar you enjoy the sunshine, you go get some pancakes, and you lick your wounds. And you know what John Harbaugh would say, No one cares. Work harder. So that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna work harder to find the Northern Lights loop. Is that good that again, but that’s not the full the full story is way more comical than that. I look forward to reading it. And you know what’s going to be interesting for you seek Jones, Luke McDowell. Let’s pick your new nickname here, the scientists here. And if I ever if I ever get my press credential back, and I’m welcomed with open arms, and I meet sigma del in a formal manner other than having them tell him that I’m a bad guy. I would mention this incredible science of this that I’ve learned in and I you know, like even for my friends like Marty bass and I are very close in the real world. He always read the weather and he’s really he’s really nerdy and all that stuff. And this the forecasting model for the northern lights to be able to see it is only for castable for 30 minutes, it can’t be forecasted a day out a week out tomorrow, like the weather can be right? You can look at the weather and so you got it wrong. It’s supposed to, you know, whatever. But we have models and there’s science as we all voted this week, hopefully for science. I did the science on this right? I follow the science. You know what I mean? So like, literally, when you read it, I want you or anybody that hears this because you like baseball and you’re a nerd about Northern Light. I followed the science and that’s what led me to Spokane. So the reason that I this would be like betting on the favorite and getting beat. You know what I mean? Like that’s what happened there was a 90% chance Luke of seeing the Northern Lights. That’s all I’m gonna say. Science told me there was a 90% chance
Luke Jones 41:05
90% is not 100% so
Nestor J. Aparicio 41:07
this is why they go to Hollywood. Series Baltimore, Luke, he’s tired of my Northern Lights story. We’re gonna talk about something even more irrelevant Raven scheduling and how they’re strolling us. Especially around Christmas time. Netflix, I got your Netflix. You know what I do got your Netflix right here. My wife actually has Netflix. I’m Nestor. We are wn st we hope to see a fade these on Friday. Stick around. It’ll only get worse.
