The Royals life: Montgomery talks small market MLB ownership and Kansas City success and failure

Longtime Royals broadcaster and former All Star relief pitcher Jeff Montgomery helps Nestor unpack the new Orioles ownership and modern MLB money.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

baseball, game, years, players, royals, baltimore, team, kansas city, sports, people, owner, good, ballpark, orioles, station, win, side, pitcher, money, contracts

SPEAKERS

Jeff Montgomery, Nestor J. Aparicio

Nestor J. Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home we are wn S T A and 1570 tasks and Baltimore, Baltimore positive we are a positively taking the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery if 10 times the cash tickets, but I got these Pac Man tickets that are coming my way. It’s been a little while we did cup a Super Bowl for all the charities few weeks ago. I’ve been working on this 25th anniversary documentary and my guest is going to be featured at a cameo performance as well in my 25th anniversary document and I’m really looking for I wore royal blue because the Royals are in town this week. And I want to give Jeff McComber some love. But on Tuesday, we’re going to be a Costas all day having crabcakes before the Orioles Red Sox game at two o’clock, and when the Key Bridge went down last week cost the system, the peninsula that’s trapped a little bit you can’t get to it, it’s a little harder, so we’re gonna give them some extra local lovin. We’re gonna be doing that on Tuesday to kick off the Maryland crab cakes. We’re also on Friday, we’ll be at fadeless before the the afternoon game on the Tuesday evening game on the 12th. We’ll be there from 205 Live from two until three with Luke so come on down. And the all new families in the all new Lexington market, Everything’s new. But there’s the there these things in sports that I just love. And they’re these old friendships and man when I realized Jeff Montgomery and I have been known each other for 32 years. And Jeff, I’m doing this documentary and it’s really a 25th documentary for the station. But my career’s your 33 now you met me I had a little show called The sports forum. But watch sports forum. You wore my shirt shirt got in the Kansas City Star. You sent me clips, we wound up going to lunch for years, KISS concert stuff. And all these years later, you’re like an entrepreneur with an am radio station and I’m a washed up host and Dundalk with an am radio station. It is so good to hear that you’ll always make time and you’re here and you’re still a broadcaster and all that good stuff. But changes are blowing here and a Charm City money. We’re under new ownership. It sucked and I Well,

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02:09

I’ve been tracking you for a long time through LinkedIn or whatever outlet it may be. And I can I can tell the enthusiasm, the excitement. Long before it happened. You had a good feeling that there’s going to be some changes and sure enough has happened. I think it’s great for Orioles baseball, it’s good for Major League Baseball. Well, yeah, let’s

Nestor J. Aparicio  02:29

talk about that at the at the greater length of this. I mean, you’re in Kansas City, good times, bad times, at some money sign some players when you were there, you know, you were paid fairly. You stayed, didn’t happen. But I wanted it to happen. And it happened for Saberhagen and for you know your generation. And Brett it was very similar markets in that way. And I think you know of my love of George Brett, I don’t even need to tell you. You know, I have very few bobble heads or I revere very few. I wash my dishes every night without gloves. And now we sit him on while I’m like Brett, I don’t wear gloves. I just don’t do the dishes. So, um, but you know, really bad times. I mean, you and I’ve known him for 30 years, most of the years add to the baseball and both of our towns, right, like for the most part, but there’s that period where we got together now, man and going on to 10 years ago, where you were really good. We were really good. It didn’t happen for us. It happened for you. You had that moment that huge for now the Chiefs have done this again and again and again. And the baseball side here’s the Ravens have done it a couple of times. And you and I’ve been at this forever in the same business as sports media and sports radio. The when the tectonic plates shift for ownership, things really change and ownerships never change on the football side in your town. And in the baseball side. Maybe you can talk about that because there’s times when you just don’t have enough money to have the players you want. But that doesn’t mean you let the thing go to hell in a handbasket. Either

Jeff Montgomery  03:59

way, I think when you’re a small to midsize market, you have to be smart about it because you can’t just write a check and take care of the issues that you may have with regards to your your roster. So in Kansas City, we’ve had three owners we’re on our third owner now, our founding donor was you and Kauffman who the ballpark is is now named after and by the way, there’s going to be a vote coming up very soon on having new downtown ballpark and, and Camden Yards just wanted to always cited as a an example of one moving a ballpark to the downtown area can do for a city. And I’ve talked numerous times about Camden Yards and how special that was and how special that was to me even going back to the 93 All Star game. So anyway, our first owner, he was ill back in the late 90s Toward the end of my baseball career. He essentially gave the team to the to the city he didn’t sell the team he gave the team to the Kansas City foundation And then you are playing at

Nestor J. Aparicio  05:02

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this time. I want to, I want to paint the real history here because I want people to understand that we all struggle with these ownership things. And I’ve written a book on Peter and hockberger. Before that with Peter and Edward Bennett Williams is the one that saved the team, really, for Baltimore, and Larry Lucchino who went on to San Diego, Boston, and one thing, but my understanding of you and Kaufman and correct me if I’m wrong is my man, George, Brett, my all time favorite player as a child along with Sister lezcano and Tony coyness, I got a little older and you of course, Mani. But did he not shake hands with George bread every year on contracts? Or am I Am I nuts is is that a fable? Or am I remembering that wrong?

05:38

He basically gave Georgia lifetime contract, George Brett, Willie Wilson and Dan Quisenberry. All were given lifetime contracts. He basically gave them you know, long term deals. And by the end of the, you know, their contracts, they essentially were, you know, they were underpaid. But, you know, he took care of George and a lot of the players who are kind of fundamental to the real key players to the franchise. So he was a great owner.

Nestor J. Aparicio  06:07

During a time when owners fought with players famously and players left and free agency, that mostly free agency never came to Kansas City during that era, Freddy, Patek, and Buddy, Bianca lon and all that it did, but it didn’t come in the way to came the Baltimore we had the rude awakening during that era. And when you were a kid, you were the same age, you know, Don Baylor Bobby Grich, to senseis, Reggie Jackson, we had a cold shower free agency here in the 70s. And still won, despite all of that, because we had geniuses, Hank Peters on the baseball side, and our Weaver in the Oreo way and all of that, but all of that sort of that old world baseball, that’s how Kansas City was reared. There was a Royals way there was an academy, Frank White, like all of that, like, really the embryonic part of what we would know. But baseball was hostile back then amongst owners and players very, very hostile. Oh,

07:00

absolutely. And I think the difference between that area now is affected our owner, Ewing Kauffman, he didn’t care if he made money in baseball, in fact, he would write a check every year for the team’s losses. But back then the check was, you know, maybe $5 million worth of losses. Now, if you want to try to compete with today’s payrolls, and you don’t put people in the stands, that check would be devastating. regardless of your level of wealth, you would lose a whole lot of money, a lot more money than anybody would want to write a check for, to cover losses. So when when things change, and I think it really kind of started after the strike of 9495, when the payrolls really started to escalate, that’s when things change. And that was right about the time when Mr. Kauffman had passed away, he passed away in 1993. So our team was essentially held in a foundation and kind of ran by a board of directors or there’s essentially no owner. And by the end of the the decade around 1999, David glass, who’s a former CEO of the Walmart, enterprise, he, he was the the winning bidder on buying the team. So David glass, bought the Royals, around 1999 and had the team all the way up till about three years ago when he passed away. But when he came in, he tried to everyone thought he was cheap. You know, this just seems run by the guy ran Walmart. But he really was exactly the opposite. He was willing to spend money, but he wanted to do it the right way. So he went out. He got a general manager named Dayton Moore, brought them over from the Atlanta Braves. And that was in 2006. Mr. Mr. Glass had spent whatever money you need to spend to develop a winning franchise. So they weren’t spending money at the major league level, but they were spending more money than any team in baseball on the amateur draft. And on the minor leagues, to build these players in a took him when he took the job.

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Nestor J. Aparicio  09:02

The cheers every year when the Orioles would come in, oh, six or seven, I’m on the air. You come on, we’re building it. We’re seeing it. We’re trying we don’t have as much money. I mean, it was the whole thing. We will always be talking about these things because they’re so fundamental. When you own a sports radio station. You know, 100 last baseball season. It’s not good radio. It’s not good. Anything. It’s not good. It’s bad for everything. It’s off

09:25

his right. Well, when date Mark took the job, I remember his initial press conference, he basically said, Look, you’re not gonna like what I’m going to tell you. But this is going to take me about eight years to build a team. And sure enough in 2014, the world’s wanted the first postseason and 29 years since the 85 World Championship team. They go to World Series they lose a World Series on and you take the game seven, they get they go back the following year and they win the World Series so it was really transformational for the for the franchise, but then what happens like I said, you have to be very why As on how you spend your money, the key players are Lorenzo Keynes, it might move stocks as Eric Hosmer those guys all became free agents at the same time, and all landed really significant contracts, which, you know, it kind of took Kansas state out of the out of the possibility of keeping those players. So then you go through this next cycle, and that’s really kind of where the team is now. And hopefully to do what the Orioles did, I mean, I think back in 2021, orals loss, well over 100 games, last year, they won over 100 games. So with the right players, the right graphs, you can make those things happen. And that’s really what the Royals are going through right now. Do

Nestor J. Aparicio  10:37

with it with all this rain you and I might be bellied up to the bar Costas eaten crabs, Knuckles deep tonight talking about this stuff. But I want to pretend MCs, just you a meat and crabs and we’re knuckles deep talking about this stuff, because I’ve known you a long time to serendipitous that, like we’re starting the season and his ownership and all of this stuff. I don’t know as much I took my press pass. 18 years ago, I was explaining to one of David Rubenstein, the new owners why I’m not allowed in press conferences with a governor, I help elect and like all of that stuff last week. So it’s sticky for me on that side. But the one thing I know enough about having been boxed out is how much the game has changed, and how much a guy like you, who’s my age, who grew up thinking one way about baseball, and has all the same baseball memories before you were a royal. And you run around Cincinnati and the Big Red Machine. And I was just in Lakeland, Florida passed through there. And I heard the voice of Sparky Anderson over there on the bench talking to me after a game, you know, so like I have all of these baseball memories. But I have a feeling if they give me my press credential back. And I go back and I saw Mike Elias and Fort Myers two weeks ago with the I went down for spring training for a couple of games and had some fun. Because I love that I thought of you when I drove to Haines, city and baseball, I mentioned you to Luke Jones when I came up to Orlando. So I have all these great memories about all of this, but the game from an analytic standpoint, and these geniuses that Mike Elias and sigma del and what they’ve done here in the modern era, and how they can fix pitchers, and how they, the everything is measured spin rate all the science of this, guys like you that have made it through the rain to the other side here, and are still doing the broadcast and a part of this. And Palmer and Ben McDonald, hearing them talk about it. Guys I’ve known forever. Talk about the evolution of the game. If we’re having crabs tonight, what would you tell me about the evolution of the game that you’ve discovered? Because it feels like Star Trek II if my dad were resurrected right now and watch the broadcast and heard the way they launch and all of these metrics that have really changed the science of the game. And when I see the Orioles success and these players that that they’ve resurrected, I see it a lot as the genius of the measurement and that they’re doing something special here, these guys in Baltimore, they really are.

12:54

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Yeah, and I think every team has a different approach, or maybe a different philosophy regarding the analytics and the technology side of the game. I think everyone has to use it to some degree because if you don’t, you’re really you’re handicapping yourself. But I think the game is finally getting back to a good place. And, and the reason I say that I think the game went through a period of time when it was not a good game. The game was sort of long, they were boring. It was a strikeout a walk or a homerun and, you know, really good players, especially left handed batters, who were not rewarded for what we would call traditional success in baseball by hitting line drives to the right side. Hey, now you got five guys lined up over on the right side of bases to the right, right field, now’s an hour to first base. And, you know, the the games were lasting so long, because, you know, I think what the launch angle, that information technology and the shifting that was done, I think it it really changed players approaches to the game. And again, I think it took the game to a really bad place. I think the changes Major League Baseball has made over the last few years, it’s kind of put it back to work some more exciting game, we played on 11 to nothing game yesterday, it was two hours and 25 minutes. And you know, it’s just it’s refreshing to go to the to a game now and see the kind of the pace of the play. I don’t think a pitch clock I really would have never thought the pitch clock would be something that I would like. But I really like him as a broadcaster because it just keeps the thing going. And I think everyone’s adapted to it. They’ve had in the minor leagues for a long time last year, it seemed like after the first couple of weeks, everybody really adapted quite easily to that. So I just think the game is getting back to were more action, more stolen bases, more hit and run more more of the things that we grew up watching in baseball, and I think the younger generation, they will have a much better chance of growing into baseball fans than they would have say 567 years ago, but I think that launch angle, it hurt to game along a lot because player said, hey, if I can hit a ball out of the ballpark, I’m going to be rewarded. If I hit a line drive to right field, it’s probably going to be an out. So I’m just going to try to launch the baseball as a result of strikeouts had an enormous rise with regards to the numbers. You know 20 years ago if you strike out 100 times a season you’re probably out of work and no longer is a strikeout even thought it was that necessarily that bad of a thing. So it’s, it’s changed dramatically. But I like where it’s getting to now. Well,

Nestor J. Aparicio  15:33

you know, the science here in Baltimore, where back when you were a relief pitcher, now he’s famously tell the story of Messina and all the cording that went on in the late 90s. And saying, You got to get out of this ballpark. It’s 364 into the out you got to get out of this ballpark. I mean a pop ups a homerun summer nights the humidity in the ballpark. It’s just it’s not Colorado, but it’s the next best step. They move the fences out. In the same way that before you were in Kansas City in the 80s. When Willie Wilson and Brett were there, the alleys and the speed of the track and the and the carpet and the triples and triples and triples that always got hit and royal stadium. And then you play to that you you you play with Frank White and you play with Al McRae and you play with guys that slap the ball that way and you win and you win World Series that way. There there is some homefield advantage. And there are some things that these geniuses that have taken over and I’ll tell you what, John Angelo’s if I give him a parting shot on the way out the door for the $1.7 billion. His family God is Peter Angeles died last week as well. They left baseball geniuses here and these guys that that, that, that run the place have measured even the outfield wall to push it back to make it more attractive that maybe a guy like you would sign here, or being able to keep a pitcher here. I don’t know what it means for hitting. But I know that it’s going to help the pitching situation, if they move the wall back and they’ve gotten good, and they don’t play the Yankees 17 times, you know, you’re home and away every year now that it’s more, it’s more balanced across the league. There’s all sorts of things that really are going to help the Baltimore Orioles the next couple of years here that we can’t help but get excited about money.

17:15

Well, and that’s another thing that I think was really wise for baseball to do when they went back to the balanced schedule last year. And it’s more fair, I think you’re being in our division. It made things more difficult for the Royals, because now we got to play the Los Angeles Dodgers every year now we have to play. You know, there’s really good teams every season where some years you’d have that. If you’ve got to play the east or the west or the central, whatever it might be, you’ve got an advantage over some other teams because you’re playing. You’re one you’re playing teams in your division and two, you’re playing maybe some weaker teams and some of the other divisions that some of your competitors don’t have to play against. So I think the scheduling was another really good thing but I’ve kept my eye on their laurels. Like I’ve told you this before I grew up my little league team was the Orioles. And I would have I still have my my literally had my Orioles hat. And so I’ve always kept my eye on the Orioles. And it’s just been fun to watch what they’ve been able to do over the last few

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:14

years. Well, your Brooks guy or your Eddie cow. What were you?

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18:17

You know, I Jim Palmer. I was I love the I love Jim Palmer. One of my coaches in Kansas City was Pat Dobson. So

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:31

you got good stories with davara. Well, yeah,

18:34

he was he was the best. Jeff Montgomery

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:37

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is our guest. He’s still calling games. It’s called Bally’s. Now it used to be called Fox West I believe or South I’m not even sure.

18:45

City Fox Sports Kansas City now. Now we’re Valley sports Kansas City alright

Nestor J. Aparicio  18:50

regional sports now I’m just I look I want Royals blue for you my Raskind global gear here. So I’m trying to bring Tell me about your sports radio station and tell folks what they need to know about that sort of thing because people ask me about it all the time. And you know, our website and the reason I’m doing this 25th anniversary documentary, but we have 100,000 people to follow everything we do. We have millions of views on YouTube. We have millions of impressions and downloads and Twitter’s and Facebook and social media influence. But the world’s changing. I don’t know how much it changes in Kansas City where it’s a little bit more. I don’t say shelter but a little bit more like in the Midwest and you drive so far. And then there were cows were a little a little bit more like you can go all the way to Colombia and not you know, half an hour and a half. Not a whole lot going on. But for television and for the internet. And then there’s am radio which I had to chuckle I was watching the game on Sunday and on the pitcher’s mound they have an ad sometimes it’s real farms or why some of my sponsors but they had a little WPA do radio am ad on there and I’m like, Yeah, bring some people to the am Dow Won’t you come on we need more people on our side of the dial

20:00

Yeah, I got involved in radio when I was still actually a player with the Royals since 1997. And a friend of mine who was had spearheaded a group to purchase a small daytime only radio station in Kansas City, asked me if I’d be interested in being part of it. And I’m like, gosh, I’ve never really done anything outside of the basically mutual funds and stocks. And I said, you know, tell me more about I had a good friend who was in sales with on a radio side with a classic rock station, a real good friend of mine, I and I talked with him and he said, Yeah, he goes, We’re the largest market in the United States without a dedicated full time sports radio station. We had sports on an am talk station from three to six, Monday through Friday, that was the only sports that we had on the radio. So I’m like you have it. That sounds like a great opportunity. So I invested along with about a half dozen other guys, we bought this little station. Within a year, we sold out all of our inventory because it was a day timer. And we sort of over em and story and had people banging on the door wanting wanting to advertise in sports. So we bought a large 50,000 won stations who pay 8:10am. And we bought that and just grew it and grew it. It’s the largest sports radio station in the country with regards to the amount of coverage will cover 44,000 square miles. So it’s a gigantic station five states that covers and fortunately I have a lot of college works with the University of Kansas University, Missouri, Kansas State University, we have the Royals, we have the chiefs, we have soccer men and women’s soccer professional in Kansas City. So we’ve got a nice opportunity with regards to our stations. We’ve eventually expanded to Louisville, Kentucky, and also Wichita, Kansas. So we have a kind of an array of stations now. And they’ve done quite well. And you know, one thing that’s a nice boost for us, and I’m sure a lot of people in sports, radio, and even television sports was gambling is now legalized in the state of Kansas. So we have a lot of advertisers that are on board with that. Jeff

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Nestor J. Aparicio  22:20

McHenry is here. He used to pitch in the big leagues now he still broadcast about the big leagues. He’s trapped somewhere in between raindrops here in Baltimore. And I guess I want to go full circle back to glass and back to ownership and you surviving these transitions and being in a shoulder business that sometimes they throw you out. In my case, if you’re Peter angelos, could you think you’re competing, or I’m spilling dirty laundry about a team that was in last place for 14 years in a row? You know, kind of, you know, kind of hard to do. My last name is Aparicio. I love baseball, I come with this sort of Honestly, these new owners, you know, I’m feeling out what’s going on with them. This guy is a billionaire. It’s a different game for him. I met one of his partners on opening day, but we’re five days into this. People keep coming up to me, or am I getting my press pass back? I don’t know. I just met these people. I feel like if they’re good people, and they’re gonna let me back in and I also saw the empty seats on Saturday and Sunday opening day comes and it goes and then it’s a sea of forest green and MPC tickets for nine bucks. And then you have to like drum up interest for people to come downtown into a challenge community. Bad weather as we’re experiencing here the next couple of days. Do I want to go to the game tonight? No, I’m looking out the window and it’s awful and it’s wet and it’s cold. And I don’t know. But all that being said, advice. So I am in my own way getting my own thing together as I do this documentary is March Madness goes away and I watch the lady shoot, fight and do all they’re doing. We have WrestleMania this week we have the NFL draft that we draft 30th Because we choked up the AFC Championship game. Oh, yeah. Do you guys That’s right. I I should be more mad at you. We’ll get to that in a minute on the football side. But we are in an interesting place your money now. I’ll give you this. I mean, you and I are old farts at this point. We’ve never had a year like this. I’ve owned sports radio station for 25 years. I’ve been on the air 33 seasons. The first five we didn’t have a football team here. That’s how far back I’m going. So 92 345 We don’t have a team right. So all of this change and I get my gray going on in here. This is the only time ever we want 101 games in baseball 13 and four AFC Championship Game first time he hosted that game since 1971. With the Colts also blue and white and won the Division going away last year. We’ve never had this prosperity here since 1970. Ones last time that happened where both teams won. And this new owner comes in. Peter died the same week. John’s gone the checks in the mail, Madison’s delivered it’s Like, and this guy either knows what he’s doing or doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s certainly a fan. What advice do you give to a billionaire that flies into this who may or may not know is asking his elbow in regard to sports media, local business, they make their money in a different place in a different way. He’s five days into owning a team, I don’t, if it were me or you, I don’t know how we’d handle it, or what we would do first, or what we would do last. But there’s a lot to do owning a baseball team. And coming into a situation that has been, as I told his associate the other day, terrorizing and traumatizing specifically in Baltimore, because of the man who owned it before and what it represented when you came here for the all star game 30 years ago, what it looked like, and what you, you come here every year Mani, you seen the bad, the good and the ugly?

25:52

Yeah, I think the biggest thing with owning a baseball team, you have to surround yourself with good baseball people, you have to have people who understand you’re the business side of the of the sport as well as the person now and I think there’s, it’s it’s really complicated. Now. I think when I played there may have been 50 people who were employed by the Royals total 50 people. Now I think there’s like 500. So it’s just an expansion of knowledge. And we got on a plane to fly to Baltimore last night, and there were probably at least a dozen people on the plane that were not, they weren’t players. They weren’t managers and coaches, they weren’t trainers and weren’t broadcasts or they were analytics. They were nutrition. They were sports psychology, they be just your the it’s so complex. Now with regards to the game, and all the personnel involved, but I think owning a team, you’d have to certainly be willing to bring in good people to make good baseball decisions more than anything. There’s a lot of emphasis on the analytic side. And you’d have to have that. But I think from a personnel standpoint, scouting and player development, that’s where you’re going to have long term success.

Nestor J. Aparicio  27:11

I would say though, everything you just said that’s top align. And I’d say that for any friend that’s fixed, like Kennedy has got to do with Elias, and with my Dell and the baseball sides. Fine. Now it’s how do you finance to your point, Mr. daucus, Hosmer, who you keep in who you know, who’s Corbin Burns is now in here. He’s pitching for money. And Henderson, and rutschman. And holiday coming, we’re talking like generational talent coming in here. It’s a hell of a baseball team. You’re bad. See, you’re we get these games in money.

27:47

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Yeah, it’s I mean, yeah, there’s, the decisions have to be made a really difficult financial decisions. But I think if you’re going to, you’re going to win on you’re going to win by making those right decisions on who to keep. I’ll give you an example. We just signed our young shortstop Bobby with a junior, to a $288 million contract, one of the largest contracts ever given to a player in baseball. No one would have ever expected the Kansas City Royals to give a young 24 year old player over a quarter of a billion dollars, but they understand that if you’re going to win, that guy’s going to be your key franchise piece, you have to make sure you haven’t. I think rutschman is the guy here that you have to do the same thing with I think there’s just a handful guys in the game and you say I can identify this player as my franchise player, and I’m gonna make sure that he’s gonna be here for a long time.

Nestor J. Aparicio  28:44

So the money boggle your mind. I mean, you still sell am radio ads and FME like we’re we still live in the real world, you still go in and know what a gallon of milk cost, even though you made a few bucks in your day, and it sounded like a lot of money when you made it. And maybe it was you have a nice house in Kansas City. But like it’s a whole different game, when this is the kind of money we’re talking about. And certainly on the football side and everything your franchise has been through in recent years, right on up for Taylor Swift showing up becoming a chiefs fan, right? Like, like, I mean, you have seen this incredible sea change from Kansas City when you were a player being Yeah, it’s a good sports town and they love the cheese but they never win. And we’re not really getting a hockey team. We lost the basketball team but they love the baseball team and maybe we’ll have enough money one day to maybe compete or whatever, you’ve seen it all I mean you’d like literally especially the last 10 years and being in on the sports media entrepreneur side of this. You literally have seen it all in your town and how the money has changed so much that you’re talking about. You need a new stadium and I think you have one of the most beautiful complexes ever, but it is on the side of a freeway. It really is it doesn’t really stimulate much of anything.

29:53

Right and that’s that’s what’s happening. I mean, that’s why the they want to move our ballpark downtown because Currently you go to the sports complex for a game and that’s it, you’re going to you drive it out your park, you’re going to the game, you get back in your car, and you go home now during football season was a sort of schedule and becomes a long all day long tailgating event. And it’s different for those dates that they have during chiefs season. But by and large, I think when you when you look at long term, this is kind of a generational move when you when you’re thinking of moving a ballpark, out of it place. It’s been for over 50 years, into a downtown community. It’s going to be very interesting to see if it’s able to pass on on the ballot coming up here. In fact, tomorrow. Oh, wow. They gets voted on.

Nestor J. Aparicio  30:52

We listen, we lost our basketball team when I was a kid in the capital center gonna build and then we almost lost the baseball team after we lost the football team. He had the fight and claw to get football team back in where the billionaire owner runs for me now on a porch at the owners meetings. We have a new baseball owner Finally, after waiting, waiting, waiting, and I’m trying to figure out what what do you even say to a new billionaire baseball owner who flies in to this about making it better? Because to your point, gambling, you see what they’ve built in Chicago around Wrigley, you see what they built in Atlanta and the suburbs. You’ve seen with San Diego, Baltimore, these urban parks and developments of Don’s Seattle and other places. But and the promise of a two in Denver and other places where it’s promised but and even in Cincinnati, we’re you know, you put a flag down. You know, they built a bar district around that thing at the Riverside. All of these different ideas are there. But in the end like winning and what it means that the community when you win, do not never seen anything like that Royals parade. Were like the people were spilled out. And then of course this year, you have a tragedy there and at the same function.

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32:07

Yeah, it was very unfortunate what happened this year, I was actually not in town. When that happened. I was broadcasting during the Royals parade. And I think we had about 800,000 people. And it was a beautiful October day. 70 plus degrees and it couldn’t have been any better. But yeah, that’s that’s the thing. As far as, you know, when you’re sports down, you want to find ways to keep it to keep it going to keep like what the Chiefs have done. I mean, they have they’ve been they’ve been through a lot. Franchise wise over the over over their history. Back in the 90s the chiefs were, you know, they weren’t a good team. They weren’t a team it was gonna be in the postseason. They did some renovations on the stadium. They they brought in new revenues they started you know, signing players, but obviously football totally different beast with the salary cap. She’s gonna be really smart. I don’t care what sport you’re you’re you’re an owner and you have to be very smart with how you’re able to keep your key players and I always go back to the to the core of players you have to have in sports or to win football to me you have to have a head coach and a quarterback. You if you have those two that’s a good starting point. You throw in Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift that helps us Well

Nestor J. Aparicio  33:31

hey, how are the Royals give me give me give me five minutes on that because you’ll be talking about that the next couple days here. I mean, dude, we are so oranged up in like ready to roll with new owner. Like we only know who’s on the Yankees, let alone who’s on the Royals we all we care about is like whether Jackson Holliday was getting here? Not at all like you think of his mad holiday like you probably trying to get him out?

33:55

Well, the Royals have revamped their pitching staff. They had five college kids who they drafted in 2018 that give them significant opportunities to either prove or disprove their ability to pitch in the major leagues really only one of them is stuck. It’s Brady singer who picked yesterday for the Royals had a brilliant game so far. Our three starting pitchers have given them a total of two runs in about 19 or 20 innings. And we’re one winner two losses. We only scored two runs in the first two games yesterday they broke loose with a bath scored 11. I think I think the team is going to be a much improved team coming off 106 last season. You know people think there’s a chance in our division, which is not a real strong division that they can be a contending team. I don’t know that. I would say that on the air just because I think you have to compete before you can contend. And I think just becoming a contending team or a competitive team was first now if you’re 500 Did the all star break this year then, you know, maybe you can dream a little bigger during the second half, but we got to get a nice core of young players left side of the infield, two really young players that are going to be around for a long time that filled in some blanks that we needed in the outfield. Salvador Perez is still our catcher. He’ll he’ll catch and DH. But the biggest improvement was in the pitching staff. If we play baseball in Baltimore, Michael Walker will be our starter in the first game. And he was got a nice resume, so to speak with regards to what he’s done in baseball. They brought in Seth Lugo and other established pitcher from the San Diego Padres. We traded Aroldis Chapman last summer for a kid from Texas from the Texas Rangers and Cole Reagan’s is probably the best starting pitcher in the American League the second half of last season. So, you know, we’ve got we’ve got some nice arms, especially in that rotation. totally revamped the bullpen. So it’s going to be an interesting season. It’s really too early to tell you what the returns are going to be. Well, I

Nestor J. Aparicio  36:13

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have fond hopes that maybe one day I will return to Kansas City on the Kansas and the Missouri side gets a barbecue with you for meaningful October bunting baseball games with full press. Yeah, it would be fun. Mani Welcome to Baltimore. Oh, we get to baseball and if not, I have a crab cake in your name waiting for you at the bar. It is always good to catch up with you. You know, I drove with Luke through baseball city through Haines City. I drove up from Tampa because I was down there for spring training and all that. And I you know, I shed a tear for baseball city right to me, that was a hell of a concept that a dream wasn’t it that you got to play there?

36:54

Well, I don’t know how you compete with Walt Disney but they gave it a chance it just didn’t work out.

Nestor J. Aparicio  36:59

Well, you know, it was down to I don’t know they tried to compete. I thought it was more of an adjunct. And I thought to myself, it would be great to go and have spring training in baseball city and still be 10 minutes away from disney world but I guess the mouse was too much of a draw up the road. Yeah, yeah. They got cactus out there and Arizona and much less rain. We had a rain out and in Florida. You have to worry about that at Lake wherever you guys are in the good year wherever that places. Jeff Montgomery can be found anywhere. Kid city baseball was found as well as his radio station sports radio station W HP now celebrating his 26 years of I’m 25 years he must be 26 years into this our 25th anniversary documentary coming out and Mani will be in there at Kauffman Stadium waving from the outfield. I am Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. Baseball. The way we love it. It’s back in the Charm City. We are Baltimore positive stay with us.