Up late and watching last place baseball from Seattle? Leonard Raskin and Nestor discuss the traditions and memories of Orioles baseball and the thud of a very unexpected last place standing from a disappointing team in disarray.
Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discuss the current state of the Baltimore Orioles, noting their struggles and the impact of the team’s performance on fans. They reflect on the historical significance of baseball in Baltimore, mentioning the influence of figures like Jim Henneman and the impact of the Expos’ decline on the Orioles. They also touch on the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals, expressing mixed feelings about the format and location. Additionally, they share personal anecdotes, including Nestor’s experiences with the Washington Capitals and his interactions with team management. The conversation concludes with a discussion about the future of hockey and the potential impact of Ovechkin’s continued play.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles baseball, traditions, memories, last place, Maryland crab cake tour, baseball season, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, Rubenstein, Coppin State, MLB Network, A’s move, Las Vegas, Jim Henneman, Barry Trotz.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, Leonard Raskin
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, AM, 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively into what was supposed to be like baseball season and Triple Crown, maybe Stanley Cup if you’re a CAPS fan, it’s not happening unless you’re in Edmonton or in Florida. And of course, the NBA Finals, which never happened around here, Leonard Raskin is going to join us now. We talked last week about money and insurance and whoops and all sorts of fun issues and stuff like that. But I want to give you some oxygen here this week before I get myself up to Hampstead with the Maryland crab cake tour in the Back to the Future scratch offs presented by the Maryland lottery green mount station. I got to get a crab cake with you this summer and all that stuff. But sir, you and I are the lost souls of baseball, right? Like I do this professionally. I do this for a living. I watch them every night. Honestly, at this point, because it’s my job, I literally don’t know that if I, you know, went to work for you and selling financial information, or did or, you know, by the way, Costas and Timonium opening this week. So I took a job with Pete over there, working as, I don’t know Mater D to crab cakes or something like that. I did something else with my life. I don’t know how I would be up at 10 o’clock at night, watching the last place baseball team and missing work, and like, taking that time in my life, 1011, 12 o’clock at night on a Tuesday or Wednesday. This is a week where, like, even the people who are a little bit into it can say, You know what, nothing’s going to happen there that I can’t read about in the morning, or I can’t DVR, I can’t check the highlights or whatever. Like, this is really a weird sports time because we had all the Angelo shares, but there really was promise from that moment that you whispered to me, I think this Rubenstein guy is going to buy the team. I’m hearing.
Leonard Raskin 01:55
How are you? I’m great. I’m great. It’s the beginning of June. I think summer will finally arrive, perhaps this week it’s going to be nice and hot as I’m wearing
Nestor Aparicio 02:05
my Coppin State sweatshirt. It’s been unbelievably it’s
8Leonard Raskin 02:09
crazy. It’s been crazy, but I think think summer will spring. Spring will summer will spring. This week, I
Nestor Aparicio 02:17
asked you if you went to your beach house, you’re like, Dude, it’s 51 degrees. 51 degree. Everything was 51 no good
Leonard Raskin 02:25
sand time right now, it’s but. But the pool is ready. We’re ready to get the pool and the grill is cleaned, so we’re ready to barbecue. And so what better little barbecue? I was thinking Italian the other day, a couple crabs swimming pool last week. That was great. 90 degree day coming, supposedly this week, that’ll be good and Late Night Baseball. So we got the O’s, what? West Coast there? Seattle, Seattle, right? Sacramento, Sacramento. You know, it’s funny. I saw I was flipping the dial, the dial, flipping the dial. How old are we? Right? I was clicking on the clicker, going through some channels. Got to the baseball channel, MLB Network, whatever it is, they were showing highlights. I don’t know who it was, somebody playing the A’s. And they had the team city, you know, they put the city up sack, and it was sac. And I’m thinking, Who the heck is sac? I had no idea who sac was. I had to go look, had to google baseball sac. And they said the A’s. I’m like, oh, that’s where they moved to see
Nestor Aparicio 03:36
8they have our hearts as sports fans, and they’ve had us all of our lifetime. And it’s not like I’m a Get off my lawn guy, or that I needed to see them make the ACE thing deteriorate any more than the Expos thing deteriorated decades ago. That cost us Camden Yards in the Washington market, and like all of the things that have because the Expos fell apart, it greatly affected the Baltimore Orioles experience. I will tell you that Sure, Oakland, Sacramento, yes, has been Vegas on well, they’re
Leonard Raskin 04:07
going to be Vegas ever you’ve seen the place they’re they’re building right?
Nestor Aparicio 04:12
And they’re building this, I don’t know who’s going to come watch this here. Which is what I’m as concerned about. O’s
Leonard Raskin 04:19
and the A’s when the A’s come to Baltimore, is that what you mean? Well,
8Nestor Aparicio 04:23
Leonard, I just want a couple things for you, man, not a big crowd out at the ballpark. This is going to be going to be good today, because you brought up the SEC on the baseball. Yeah, I still have not seen that and been sort of weirded by it, right, like on mass. And they might just put A’s right? Yes, probably right. Probably so because they’re trying to be nice to their partners who don’t know their ass from their elbow, it’s like we’re fans. We’re not paying attention to anything else. I had the same exact experience seven, eight weeks ago. I was in Toronto with Luke. Luke went to the second game. I cut my heel open. It was all bloody, and I didn’t have a press pass, and it’s March. Pyro’s fault, and I’m blaming him, but so I stayed in my room in Canada, and the only it’s like a Jimmy Buffett song, 20 degrees in the hockey games, right? One thing always hockey, right, right, the oils game wasn’t on because it was an apple. No, yeah, got it like i No one in Toronto could watch the Orioles in the Blue Jays. And you wonder why people don’t watch baseball. So hockey games on, and it says, Utah, Utah. FL, F LA, in Utah. And I’m like, Yeah, Florida in Utah, playing hockey. Is this the International League? What is
Leonard Raskin 05:28
this something? It’s something like soccer. Utah. Are these two? And I’m like, Who
Nestor Aparicio 05:31
is this? So you’ll appreciate this. Mr. Hockey final, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Trots and I caught up for the first time in since he was the head coach of the New York Islander. So it’s two and a half years, right? Since the last time Barry and I, so we caught up for like 15 as friends last week, just like BS and he’s doing the show this week. We caught up to say, hey, let’s set a zoom time next week the show, right? Let’s wait for the conference finals to be now. He’s now Mr. Nashville. He’s working his tail off. I’m gonna talk about that. But I told him the Utah story, this sort of old guy, get off my lawn thing. Here’s where you and I are. We’re older than we’ve ever been, hopefully wiser than we’ve ever and hopefully more to come. You have managed successfully and six unsuccessfully, many, many different things. You failed, you’ve succeeded, you’ve down, you’ve gotten up. So have I right? We’ve all done all of that. Yep, this Orioles thing right now as a business, yep, and you know, we’re it’s evolving. They have a temporary manager. They have a new owner who’s now got a new you know, his the woman, the beautiful woman that’s always with Rubenstein. That’s Jeff Zucker. Ex Wife. I don’t know if you like, I did the math on this, like there’s a whole thing going on here about his new love and wife and life and all that. And I’m thinking, is that his girlfriend billionaire? Is that his girlfriend bill? I don’t know. He’s a billionaire, right? Who has a last place baseball team? I don’t think this bothers him nearly. You and I are going to talk about it more in the next 30 minutes than he’s going to talk about it today. I just think guys like him, it’s hard for fans and for regular people. They see him. He’s got a bobble head. He wants to be in front of all this. He wants to be famous.
Leonard Raskin 07:16
8He was at the game this weekend. Great. What’s when
Nestor Aparicio 07:20
he comes and sits and wants to talk to me about the business and about our city and about his intentions, and not preach to me about his father being a poster. Like, let’s get down to this, dude. Where you that? Where this isn’t a dress rehearsal. The team’s in last place. No one’s going to the games. You fired your manager, your hitters aren’t hitting, your pitchers aren’t pitching, and you’re about to become irrelevant. So like and and there were empty seats last year. Playable. What’s being done? Well, where’s the passion, energy and network? Where’s the action? Has he
Leonard Raskin 07:51
brought in? Did I see he brought in two new people? Didn’t he bring in two new people recently?
Nestor Aparicio 07:57
Well, they brought in John Mabry, in the pitching of a hitting coach.
8Leonard Raskin 08:00
Okay, no, no. I mean, there’s some new guy that’s supposed to become, is that who it is? Tony mancellino is the man? No, I know that. No, there’s some new important bench coach or assistant, something just Tom neighbor, yes, okay, I saw that. And then they brought some new guy into the headquarters building, right? Okay. I mean, they’re doing, he’s doing something I got to give. I mean, look, half the teams hurt so, so you say, Okay, let’s give them. Let’s give them June. Well, cows
Nestor Aparicio 08:31
just coming back this week. Let’s give them June. Morton’s taking the ball every fifth day, right, right.
Leonard Raskin 08:37
Let’s give him June. Let’s get a pitcher back. Let’s get some hitters back and let’s give them June. I’m willing to say. I’m willing. You may not be I’m willing to give them June. I’ve been giving them my whole life. No, I’m not saying quitting on them. No, no, no. I’m saying no, no,
Nestor Aparicio 08:55
8they’d love for me to quit on this.
Leonard Raskin 08:59
No, I’m not going away. I’m talking about beating him up. I would have gone away a long time ago. I’ll give him June to come around. I don’t know that I’ll be up till one in the morning. That’s just because I’m old, you or anybody else. That’s just because I’m old, not because I
Nestor Aparicio 09:14
would be if there were three games over 505 games off the pace, and for me,
Leonard Raskin 09:19
it wouldn’t make a whole lot of difference. It’s a matter, can I stay awake? Gotcha, if I can stay awake, I’ll be watching there is this thing called real life. I mean, teachers have to teach workers after work bread delivery, delivers breaded for in the morning. Like, that’s right, you know, here’s my brain awake with this, my barometer. My barometer, for me, looks like this, and we’ve talked about it. It hasn’t happened for a lot of years, and then it happened, and it’s happened in the last year. So the boy, the boy, is interested in the O’s. It’s kind of stunning, after not being for a long time, he’s he’s interested. He we talk about your games 20
8Nestor Aparicio 09:55
years old, and he’s never smelled winning, right? I get it. I
Leonard Raskin 09:58
get it, right? I get. It, but at the same time he’s, he’s in Ireland, it’s five hours ahead, and he’s paying attention. So something about it has his attention. I don’t know what it is, but I guess I’ll give tomorrow.
Nestor Aparicio 10:11
It makes him think of you and feel like that’s right, really what it is for anybody that looks like looks 40 years old, he’s like, what have they ever done for me. I love them because my father loved them. That’s right, that’s I learned this. You know that should bring this up to you, because I know we talked briefly last week before I cried all day on Thursday and made a mess of myself. Jim Henneman passed last yes and yes, and then my dear friend Mike Peters from the alarm, which is the most stunning funeral I have ever that I will ever I’m 56 years old. I’ve done a lot of funerals. Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like the funeral of Michael Leslie Peters. I mean, it’s on YouTube. You don’t even have to know him, like him, like them. Just I would tell you go to Mike Peters funeral and watch it, and if you are not inspired to live your life in a different way. I mean, it was so I did that. But the Henneman thing was, wasn’t that in that way, obviously, for his family and a lot there, yeah, sure, grieving, which was a celebration of his love of baseball, yeah, of his love of baseball. And it made how
Leonard Raskin 11:17
8long wasn’t he the he was the official,
Nestor Aparicio 11:20
he he was everything. I mean, he did every he was the Baltimore bullets PR director in 1971 70. So here the Henneman story, and I’m gonna get his brother, one of his brothers, look just like him, like I walked in and there’s Jim Henneman, except it’s his funeral, except his brother’s 20 years younger and looks just like Jim did when he was 60. Like, it’s unbelievable, yeah. And he said to me, we all kind of look alike. And I’m like, Oh my God. It’s like, I’m talking to Jim, but I don’t know you and his brother actually coached Seaton girls basketball teams in the 80s, and said to me, you wrote a story on on my basketball team back in the late 80s. And I’m like, so I mean, and every the boss who gave me my place in life, Jack Gibbons, who was completely, completely and totally responsible and Bob Nestor for anything that’s ever happened in my life. Bob Nestor and Jack Gibbons, Jack was there, saw him, but from that point forward, walking into that kind of a funeral. There’s Tim Curtin, there’s Peter schmock, there’s Steve moleski, there’s Stan Charles, there’s down the line, old editors of mine, old bosses of mine. Tom Davis, I mean, just down the line. It was Baltimore media royalty. And he I’m going to give you this story because I haven’t told it on the air yet. I did a little Facebook thing on this. Um, I didn’t even tell Luke this. I told Luke knows, but it not on the air. I walked into the funerals at Rock funeral on parlor, where I’ve been going way too frequently. Yeah, love you, Vicky brick, and I was there. I I walked in, and I lost it all over again before I walked in with Vicky. Um, so I went upstairs and it was all familiar faces and friendly faces and people. Jim Palmer was in the corner. I mean, like it was just people I knew, um, and Rick Vaughn came in. He did the show, by the way, if you haven’t listened to the Rick Vaughn piece or the Charles Steinberg piece, and you love the Baltimore Orioles of the 70s, 80s, 90s. You just must listen to them, because they’re they are what Jim Henneman was, which was the authoritative historian of Oriole history. He’s now gone. Yeah. Bob Brown is gone. Bob Brown, son, Scotty, who’s going to be doing the show, is in the baseball business, is going to come on, because Bob was really the historian back to Bob loved me because he loved Louie, so Bob always loved me. Bob was the Kevin Byrne, the PR man of the 60s, 70s, then Rick Vaughn and Charles Steinberg, then John Maroon. Now it’s been Greg Bader, right? Like, so big step down. So Vaughn’s there. We’re all there at this funeral. And Tim Kirk Shin comes up to me and runs up to me, and everybody knows Timmy voice, yeah, hey, come here, come here, come here, come here, takes me up to the front. And it wasn’t really like a casket. It was a memorial, sure area, and there’s pictures everywhere, and all of them are orange, yeah. I mean, there’s so much Oriole going on at this funeral. It just was unbelievable. Now, Jim anneman was my colleague from 1986 to 1992 at the evening sun. He was the lead baseball writer, the national baseball writer, a columnist on the only beat that met. We didn’t have a bit football team. We liked the cold, right? So that tender pier where baseball was everything that wasn’t the blast, and the Terps and, um, so Jim and I were colleagues. I mean, he was like a old Frankie uncle for me, who was always, you know, like, like the nuns smacking my knuckles, making sure that I didn’t do anything stupid at the ballpark, that I wasn’t out there Hawking autographs. But, like, being a jackass. And I was, wasn’t being a 17 year old kid, that I was being a professional, and he taught Ken Rosenthal and everybody else. I mean, we went through all this talking Tim Curtin, yeah, that’s why Tim Christian is here at his funeral, right? So Timmy comes up to me and points out this picture, and you’re an old baseball head, so let me, let me pull the picture up for you. I’m going to pull it up for you on my Facebook, and we’re going to have fun with this, because I haven’t shared this on the air at all. By the way, Leonard Raskin is here. He may tell anybody what you do, Leonard. If I was going to do a 32nd commercial and say, Leonard, do a commercial for Leonard Raskin and Raskin global, what would you say? I
Leonard Raskin 15:37
would say we are the preeminent Baltimore firm helping people have their American dream, understanding how their money works and using it to achieve whatever it is that they want, making sure they’re protected, making sure they have great cash flow, making sure they enjoy their wealth to the fullest, whatever it is that you Want to do with it. That’s what Raskin global is all about. There
Nestor Aparicio 16:03
it is, right there in a nutshell, raskin.com you can also find them out at the front of Baltimore positive.com All right, to reset, I am at Rock funeral home, at the funeral Jim Henneman, I just walked in and spent 10 minutes talking to my old editor, Mike Reeb, about Bob Dylan, yeah, so, I mean, the conversations are just, these are old friends. It’s old Baltimore. Yeah, it was just the kind of celebration of Jimmy’s life that was just, he was, he was an honorable reporter, baseball man the press box is named after, yes, yeah. He’s written at press box for once a week, for 20 years, wherever long it’s been, he’s been the official scorer and the authoritative voice of is it fair foul? Even Luke said about Jimmy. Luke said, I will hear His voice the rest of my life, probably the way I hear Rex Barney’s voice, right, right. You know, at Memorial Stadium, he said any play that was either a hit or an error. Jimmy was the official score, absolutely, yeah. He would say, That’s a hit, that’s an error and and Luke would say it was so definitive that, like, you wouldn’t say, no, no, I’m going to go down there and say to Jimmy, Nah, it might have been an
8Leonard Raskin 17:14
error, right? You’re not going to change his mind. That’s a base change in his game. That’s a two base hit with
Nestor Aparicio 17:19
an error that that’s an error on that’s an e9 you know, like you, you’ll just hear Jimmy’s voice. So Christian runs up to me and says, come here. And it isn’t Hey, Tim, how you been? What’s going on? Hey, come here. And he takes me straight up to the front, yeah, and he shows me this picture. And I don’t know what he expects me to say, but he shows me this picture. Can you see this picture? Absolutely, I saw, when you see this picture, what identified this picture in whatever way that Tim kirkson would grab me and pull me up at Jim Henneman funeral,
Leonard Raskin 17:54
I don’t know. He’s got to tell you who that man is standing there, right? That’s Luis Appleton. He’s got to tell you that’s Uncle Louie.
Nestor Aparicio 18:01
8So he looks at me, and I’m like, Okay, so that’s Aparicio on deck circle. I saw the people’s drug sign immediately. This is Washington. This is RFK Stadium. This is the early 60s. Now, I look at the uniform on the Bat Boy, and I see the cartoon bird on the shoulder, and I’m like, that’s, this isn’t 66 or 67 this is earlier than that, based on the uniform and the stitching, and no last name. And, and I look and, and I grabbed Rick Vaughn, and I grabbed Vaughn and pulled him over, because Vaughn’s like a true historian. And Vaughn and I didn’t realize this. Grew up a senator’s fan. Vaughn looked at he’s like, Oh man, that’s definitely RFK. And he’s like, that’s definitely opening day, because there was never anybody in that stadium other than opening day. He’s like, nobody ever sat in those seats in the outfield. They didn’t have enough fans, right? It’s why they left twice. And he looked and he looked and he’s like, that’s definitely opening day. And then I looked in the direct center, and I saw the bunting right above the foul pole. There’s bunting. So we’re like, okay, that’s opening day. And I walked away from it for a minute, and I’m like, What is Aparicio picture doing at Jim henneman’s funeral? And I walked back over, and I looked at the Bat Boy, and I looked at the 10 other pictures around was all baseball pictures, and it was all sandlot schoolboy Loyola College pictures of this guy. That’s Jim Adam, and Jim had him in was the bad boy. Oh my goodness, and we’re trying to figure out what day it was. So Bill steca comes over, Jim, I grab Palmer. I’m like, Jim, you got to come over here. Palmer looks up, and Palmer comes over with a whole dissertation. Yeah, that’s before, that’s before my time. Yeah, that’s not the uniform. So now Christians got me googling the 6465 66 this is opening day. 1963 April 8. This is before the first at bat of Luis Aparicio as a Baltimore oriole he had just been dealt over. The story goes like this, Hanneman was with Steadman and Eskridge going down to cover opening day the Orioles open the season against the Minnesota Twins version. Not even the Texas Rangers. There’s the 1963 version, right? Of the of the senators, right, right. So he’s down there covering the game, and when he gets there, he’s doing the manager strum. He’s 25 years old. Henneman is he’s a reporter, yeah, at the news post, not even the news American, the news post, okay, he’s a 25 year old reporter, and he finds out that they don’t have a Bat Boy and John F Steadman, his boss, is a gimmick guy, step that’s why Stedman loved me, because he loved the circus. He loved st Edmund. Loved the circus. Steadman says to Henneman, you should be the Bat Boy and do a story on it. It should be the story. And Henneman said he had been a Bat Boy many, many times in his life. He knew to stay out of the way. He knew he wasn’t a story. He and Steve barber were old friends, old baseball neighborhood friends, and Barbara was on the team, and Barbara said to him, everything’s off the record today. So Hanneman did a Plimpton story as the bad boy by accident, and it’s the best Henneman could tell it, and he wrote about it in Baltimore magazine, and I shared that on my Facebook. Henneman was the Bat Boy on opening day in 1963 at the be heist of John Stedman, who then later went to the evening sun to work with him after he left the news post the news American and I found that through all of this that Tim Kirk, she worked at the news American for two months, met lefty driselle, and never covered a game as a news American reporter, went to Dallas and came back to Baltimore, so I learned all this. But that is Jim Henneman. And Jim money was the Bat Boy on opening day 1963 and that picture only exists. Are you ready for this letter? Yeah, 1963 opening day. Who was the president United States of
Leonard Raskin 22:16
America? Oh, my God, opening day 63 was that still Kennedy?
Nestor Aparicio 22:21
That’s John F Kennedy. Yeah. John F, Kennedy loved baseball. He did opening day all three years of his presidency. 62 All Star game was at RFK Stadium because it was a new stadium, and there’s a picture of Louis in a White Sox jersey, shaking hands with Kennedy, but it’s from the all star game. Yeah, turns out that picture that I showed you is in the public domain. That picture was shot by the Presidential archive. John Kennedy had just thrown out the first pitch in that area. All John Kennedy is sitting next to the photographer who took that picture, John Kennedy is 10 feet from Louis 10 feet from Henneman, right and Bucha Powell after the Bucha hit a home run. Gentleman, Jim Gentile hit a home run. Oh, for four, but the Orioles won three to one. That day, Kennedy went into the locker room after the game and congratulated Boog on his home run. Crazy. So there’s a little storytelling, right? This is crazy time. I’m now eight minutes into Henneman funeral, and I’ve just taken eight minutes of your time today and tell this is how deep baseball cuts and how much we love baseball. Here absolutely death of someone like Jim Henneman, just bringing together generations, to my cousin, to Jim Palmer, who played with my cousin standing there at Henneman staying, to Bill steca, the Rick Vaughn, to all of these people that are Oriole magic. Are really our Oriole magic?
Leonard Raskin 23:56
Yeah, the the origins, the origins of exactly, and now let’s hope we get the month of June, we get healthy, start playing some ball, and somebody gets to record this for our grandchildren.
8Nestor Aparicio 24:11
I hear you, man, I mean, this West Coast baseball late night. This is Rusta. So you can do about that. You’re okay with the Stanley Cup being the way it is, right?
Leonard Raskin 24:20
What do you mean being the way it is? Well, I mean Edmonton, Florida, or or like I just starting at the beginning of June.
Nestor Aparicio 24:28
If you’re a hardcore hockey person, you’ll watch, but this grow the sport
Leonard Raskin 24:31
8I’ll be watching. It’s a it’s a repeat. It won’t grow the sport because it’s going to be on TNT. That’s the other down. Terrible nobody
Nestor Aparicio 24:40
worries about growing their sport until ESPN kicks baseball off the network. Right,
Leonard Raskin 24:45
right, right. I mean, these these games, aren’t on the network, not on ABC. They’re going to be on TNT, which I guess now is a major network, considering they show basketball in the tournament for college. In The Now the Stanley Cup, what they’re known for, but they’re showing movies the rest of the day, right, right? But they’ll, they’ll have this, and it’ll be a replay and and people want to see Connor McDavid win, or Florida beat him again, Canada win. That’s what I mean. Canada hasn’t won a cup in in forever. So it’ll be, it’ll be great TV. The problem for me with all of this is it starts June the third or fourth. I mean, June the fourth. Stanley Cup playoffs are going to go to the middle of June. It’s ridiculous already. They need to do something to shorten this season. They need to cut something. They need to make the playoffs a little shorter, three out of five instead of four out of seven. I know that it’s just all about money. Never do that. It’s going to be 110 degrees in Florida, and they’re going to be coming to play hockey. It’s, I mean, they’re going to keep that ice cold somehow. But can you imagine skating
Nestor Aparicio 25:53
on that? They’ve done this in Florida several six, six
8Leonard Raskin 25:57
years, my friend, the last six years the Eastern Conference champion has been Florida. Tampa said Florida. Said hockey would never work in Florida, right? You got Tampa and Lauderdale, basically, or wherever the Florida Panthers are. That little look. I
Nestor Aparicio 26:15
don’t need that much, or Boston, or original six, or any of that in every year, but I do think it suffers a little bit. It gets absolutely but
Leonard Raskin 26:24
I don’t know the Florida, Florida contingents big and a whole Canadian country is going to be watching Edmonton, so I think it’ll be well watched. You know, just a great story. The guy’s a hell of a hell of a hockey player. He’s got a great team. If their goal tending can keep up, they can win. If not, babrovski will take another cup for his legacy. So I think it’ll be a great series. I’m looking forward to it last year, seven games. We’ll see. I think Edmonton and six, that’s my prediction. Edmonton in six, we shall see. Which means Connor McDavid may skate the cup. That’d be pretty amazing.
Nestor Aparicio 27:03
8Yeah, you say this about about finals and hockey and stuff like that. I’ll be honest with you, my buddies and I, and I had crabs with my dear friend John Rafa ladies who attended a few senior weeks with me back in the late by the way, today’s the 40th anniversary of my graduation day, June five I graduate. So 40 years ago today, I graduated high school, so we get out of Senior Week and chase girls and do all stuff. But I remember all during that era, what late 80s, Jordan, bad boys, pissed? Yeah, sure, all of that Showtime Lakers and and all that, even chasing girls Senior Week NBA Finals were always on in June. I mean, like, so, right? And they were kind of concurrent. I do remember the night that I got thrown off the field and they got let back in by Trent Dilfer and Mike Flynn, when the 2001 Super Bowl Game one, yeah, that night that David Modell flew the rings in on a he landed in helicopter. I was at that event and thrown out at various points, but let back in at various points by the model family. Um, I don’t think David wanted me thrown out, but I think there was some level of upper management that thought, you can’t be here. And they threw me out, and Mike Flynn said he’s got a seat at my table. I gave him like a real ticket. So, um, but that night I missed game seven. You know, game seven of the Stanley Cup final. Yeah, I think it was Colorado in Detroit. I don’t know whatever it was, whatever was 2001 but that was game seven, and that was June. It’s crazy. This isn’t new that they’ve been doing. No, it’s not news that it’s 98 degrees in Florida, right? Hey, how about this? The night the caps won the cup in Vegas. It was hot. June 17, it was hot. I walked that it was 86 degrees outside. My wife, I remember being at the pool at the luxur. Was 102 degrees that day. During the
Leonard Raskin 28:54
day, yes, and they had that ice all shaped up and ready to go, and they skated it on it.
Nestor Aparicio 28:58
I told Josie last week, and I’m having him on this week. I said, Dude, I can’t talk hockey with you. I haven’t watched hockey since I walked out of the building with you. He’s like, You serious? I’m like, trots. I haven’t watched a pure I can’t watch Washington Capitals. Friendly owns is his kid spoke to me like a chump. I’m done. I told you I’ve done bosses. Game I love Wednesday night.
Leonard Raskin 29:29
Wednesday night. Watch Game One of the final. It’ll be good. I love hockey, I know. So watch game one. That’s what I say. So watch game one.
8Nestor Aparicio 29:40
Yeah, there is a point for me, and this isn’t even a point of like, and you can Dr Mel for me, if you want, or whatever, I met my wife at a hockey game, right, right? Like, I mean, like, I’ve dedicated enough of my life to hockey where, when I walked out of the building that I did in Las Vegas with my lifelong friend who was about to get fired. I went to the party and saw he was mistreated at the Stanley Cup celebration party. I witnessed it. I was there like I witnessed it. Then I got mistreated by Zach Lee owns this spoken to like a chump about his Arena Football League nonsense. I just decided, You know what, dude, I’m not getting the car and going down there anymore. I’ve, you know, plus the Ovechkin Putin thing has always sort of weirded me out in a lot of ways. But by the way, is he gonna play ever? Are you done?
Leonard Raskin 30:27
He’s playing next year. He’s playing this coming year. Sure, absolutely his contracts through this season. He’ll definitely play this year. Might even play longer, might even play he’s definitely playing this year. I can’t see, man, I can’t see him stopping before this season with his contract after this year. You know, not only you’ll know this well, there was a perception this time last year that they couldn’t win the Cup this year, right? But sure enough, but sure like, they were put together some great players come back, because the teams absolutely, absolutely Ted Leone just crushed 900 plus goals. He get another 30 or so, and he’ll be at nine and a quarter. Nobody will ever catch that, no matter what they say. Well, maybe someday, but I don’t know if I’ll be here to see how many McDavid have already not close. Nowhere close. They say the closest guy is Matthews Toronto, but, but I don’t think he he’ll play long enough. Gotta Do It 20 years. Man, yeah, I don’t think he’ll play long enough. I don’t think anybody will play long enough anymore. It’s just insane. It’s hard to imagine guys 40. He’s knocking down goals and he’s knocking down players. I think he wants to lead the league in hits, which he’ll do. He could lead the league in goals and hits if he stays around two years. I’m glad
Nestor Aparicio 31:40
to talk to you about this, because I’m not close to it, and I haven’t done a piece with, I think anyone oriented other than trots this week, yeah, by the way, um, here’s a little, uh, Jeopardy question for you. Leonard Raskin, sure, because I had trots. I mean, I’ve known Barry since we were kids. I mean, you know, just like forever and ever and ever freaking Western League, scouting the press box, and we started watching games together. We liked each other because there was nobody else to sit with, right? And we were the same
Leonard Raskin 32:06
8age, and now he’s running Nashville, he’s
Nestor Aparicio 32:10
going to the Hall of Fame, right? Everybody says that, sure, he’s going to the Hall of Sure. So I’m thinking like, you know, I just, I don’t, it’s hard for me, in 45 years of relationship that think about it like that 40 years relationship. So I I looked up how many wins he has, because I’ve just trying to get a perspective. Do you know where he is in wins? Because we’re talking about a vet. Can be a number
Leonard Raskin 32:33
one, five, top five, number four, I say top five. Yeah, yeah. As a coach, I don’t know everybody
Nestor Aparicio 32:40
in our audience. Think about that, or whatever, number four in the history of the sport, and as a coach, yeah, and step down. Step down. Right? He could have played that game where he coached another five Absolutely. He’s running the organization. He’s in charge of the show. He’s gonna tell me how hard it is, because he told me how hard it was last week, and that’s one of the reasons we haven’t spent time together, it’s just
8Leonard Raskin 33:01
it’s been hard. Oh, he’s got to be wrapped up crazy. I mean, he
Nestor Aparicio 33:05
and I dream of spending a long weekend together in his lake house in good luck Columbia. He said he spent seven days there in the last I was
Leonard Raskin 33:12
gonna say, good luck with that, especially now that he’s running the whole show. Yeah, no, not till he’s done. You got any questions for him? Yeah, I’ll come up with one or two. When it when do you
Nestor Aparicio 33:23
8get three hours? Okay,
Leonard Raskin 33:26
I’ll see if I can make it happen. Let her ask
Nestor Aparicio 33:29
it. Is your handles monies, Raskin global. You can find him on our website, on his website, are we done with sports? Are we good? Is good? It’s gonna be 85 this week. Ask
Leonard Raskin 33:38
Barry. Ask Barry. If, if after next season, free agent Ovechkin is going to play his final year in Nashville.
Nestor Aparicio 33:48
Stop with that. I am Nestor W N, S T am 1570 towns in Baltimore. We never stopped talking hall of famers and Baltimore positive. That was a fun one.
