In the aftermath of a second no-so-great start by 41-year old Orioles pitcher Charlie Morton, Luke Jones and Nestor talked about the importance of getting Gunnar Henderson back in the lineup in Kansas City and then veered into the John Harbaugh and Steve Bisciotti lovefest on the team website and the buzz of new leadership for Terps basketball in College Park.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ pitching struggles, particularly Charlie Morton’s 9.00 ERA in two starts. They noted Morton’s better performance against the Red Sox, with 16 swinging strikes, but emphasized the need for better results. They also highlighted the importance of Gunner Henderson’s return to bolster the offense. Additionally, they touched on the Baltimore Ravens’ ownership dynamics, criticizing the lack of real media interaction and transparency. Lastly, they expressed hope for Buzz Williams’ impact on the Maryland Terrapins’ basketball program, despite recent disappointments.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Charlie Morton, pitching performance, Orioles rotation, Gunner Henderson, Kansas City series, Baltimore Ravens, ownership issues, Buzz Williams, Terps basketball, media interaction, baseball strategy, player injuries, team expectations, spring training, bullpen consistency.
SPEAKERS
Speaker 1, Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 towns of Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. Happy weekend. Everyone celebrating. Hopefully we get some spring around here before it’s all over with the birds, off to Kansas City and then off to Arizona. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour next Friday at Costas Inn in Dundalk, honoring the great, late, great Costas triantophilus. And we’re also going to be doing the show at Beaumont on the 17th. We’re going to be up at Cooper’s north on the 23rd and then at Coco’s pub on the 30th. All of it brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. You have the magic eight balls. Luke and I had the magic eight balls out at faintlys on Wednesday, we had a lovely, lengthy conversation with Mark Viviano about doing good deeds and baseball and life and media and all sorts things, and we talked about the pitching. Luke, I’m just going to wind you up, and let’s talk about the pitching in Charlie Morton, and one day it’s the bats. One day, it’s the pitching. Kind of reminds me of when things weren’t going well middle of last year, and certainly not the start they want. But good news, Gunner Henderson going to join him in Kansas City, right? Yeah, no
Luke Jones 01:12
question. I mean, you’ll get an early season jolt there. And look, I mean, he’s your best, best player. And for as much as we can talk about Charlie Morton, who I think was better than he was in Toronto, where I took very little positive whatsoever from what happened in Toronto with him. When he missed bats, he struck out 10, had lots of swing and miss, but when he missed on a couple occasions, they were bad misses, and it led to two, two run Homers. So an era over nine speaks for itself through two starts. But I’ll also point out Nestor, they scored a total of four runs over the two losses in this series. This team is not built to win two to one, three to two kind of games, and I don’t think they’re going to win a ton of games like that over the course of the year. You know, even if the pitching gets to a place where it’s good enough. You know, across the board, you know, you’ll have games like that, but you’re expecting this team to score, you know, close to five runs a game. I mean, that’s where they were last year. I mean, it’s the best offenses in baseball kind of hover around that point, at least they did last year. So, you know, I mean, Charlie Morton, you’re in a four one hole. What? Not even before he even retires, gets four outs on the day. I mean, he finished up on a positive note, striking out the side against the middle of the Boston order. But you know, this is just the reality of when you’re talking about a 41 year old pitcher and a 41 year old pitcher, that you’re paying $15 million you’re going to be under the microscope a little bit more than a 35 year old pitcher, or a 30 year old pitcher. I mean, it’s just kind of the name of the game. You know, we talked about this, even though he ended up having a 1900 yard rushing season. You know, we talked about this with Derrick Henry. You know, the fact that he was on the wrong side of 30, which is ancient for a running back, but certainly it didn’t matter with him. I mean, he was terrific, but yeah. I mean Charlie Morton, yeah, you have to see better. There’s no question again, did I like what I saw from him in this start more so than the Toronto start, which, you know, he tossed three scoreless innings to start his night, but if you watched it, I mean, there was just so much loud contact all over the place. You know, this was better than that. And I’m trying to look for the positives there. And I’m not saying that he can’t pitch well this year, but certainly you can’t miss as badly as he missed on a couple of those. I mean, Bregman crushed that ball. I mean a fastball right down the pike, and then the second home run he gave up. It’s a three two pitch. I didn’t think it was a horrendous pitch, but it wasn’t where it needed to be. You know, he was looking for that to be away, and it caught way too much to the plate. The curveball, which he did have, a better curveball than he had in Toronto. And that’s, that’s his money pitch. That’s been the money pitch over the second half of his career. So yeah, has to be better. You know, not going to panic over a three and four start the rotation is a question. There are a lot of ifs, maybes and buts, other than Zach Eflin, who has given you exactly what you kind of expect reliability from him, but the rest of the guys, they need to pick it up, and they know that. And the challenge will begin this weekend in Kansas City, as they’re back on the road.
Nestor Aparicio 04:24
Well, I mean, we talk about fixing the hitting with Gunner Henderson. He he’s coming back. There’s no Calvary for the pitching at this point, right? And the Calvary better be Brian Baker, better be good. The Calvary better be younger Cano, better be good, right? And the Morton thing, I don’t it doesn’t smack of Kimbrel yet, but when it’s over, it’s over for all pitchers, you know, especially guys that throw 95 miles an hour, you’re out there throwing Charlie huff and you’re you know, you’re out there Wilbur Wooding it, and Phil Negro ing it. That’s one thing. Or if you have some level of craft about you, the way some. Sort of Greg Maddox or Scott McGregor, soft toss guys do. There’s no such thing as soft toss anymore in the big leagues, we talked about, I had a long chat about Jamie Moyer, believe it or not, with Ron Cassie after you left, and trying to find that in modern baseball. Again, I would just say for them, with with Morton, I don’t you said the alarms up after 30. You know, I don’t know where the alarm is over 40, I didn’t want to believe Kimbrel was done and you were throwing sand on him pretty early on. Saying this isn’t good, yeah, and there’s so many measurables in pitching now, you know, just there is um, every sigma. Idell is looking at everything. Ben McDonald talks spin rate, spin rate, spin rate with with Charlie Morton, but you know, when it’s five nothing, or five two, or whatever it was, that’s not good enough. Spin rates, not good enough at this point. And Charlie Morton, dude, that guy’s got so much experience doing this. He knows what He’s done wrong. He’s very emotional about it. Obviously, you know what I mean. You see, you see the want in him, and we’ll get to the want and Steve Bucha and John Harbaugh after their little pow wow with Garrett Downing, but you see the want in him. And I like all of that, and I like how they’re spinning it on mass. And now I know you haven’t watched because you’ve been at the Games. I’ve been watching the TV broadcast, because that’s what US non media guys do. They’re calling this a veteran rotation. I It is, if it’s good, you know, if it’s veteran, if it’s good, I don’t know what you call it. If it’s not over the hill, if it’s not and that’s not good, is eras 10 dude. I mean, it just is what it is, and it i, i I’m not envisioning that he’s going to be dominant at any point. He just needs to be way better along the edges, in the margins of giving up big flies, right? Yeah.
Luke Jones 06:45
And like I said, I’m not talking about this strictly looking at the era and looking at the numbers, because anyone can look at the numbers in the box score and say he’s got a plus nine era. I mean, that’s not good enough. That’s why I am trying to bring some nuance here and say, I do think he had better stuff against the Red Sox, he had 16 swings and misses on 48 swings. That tells you that there’s stuff that is playing. But again, when you miss, you can’t miss middle, middle fastball against Alex Bregman, who hit the ball over the old wall in left field. You know, something that I thought that was ironic, and I pointed this out in my 12 or real thoughts. You know, following the series loss, the Red Sox had four home runs of left field. Three of those would not have cleared the old dimensions, just the I know you’re keeping the man, if you’re not, everybody’s not. It’s not even about that. It’s just all the conjecture in the off season was Ryan mountcastle is going to love this, and Jordan westburg is going to love this, and Adley rutschman is going to love this, and gunner Henderson hitting the other way is going to love this. And guess what? That’s all true. I’m not I’m not disputing that, but there was always the other side to this, especially when you’re talking about a pitching staff that you have some concerns about, you have some questions about, and that’s where I’m just pointing it out. And some of it’s being facetious, and looking we’re talking about three games, right? I mean, they’re three and four. They’re not, oh, and seven. You know, if you want to talk about a team that has problems, we can talk about the Atlanta Braves for a moment, a team that had higher expectations, you know, in the eyes of many but you know, they they have to pitch better. There’s no question about that. You know, if you’re looking for a positive I do think the bullpen. I think Brian Baker actually has looked good. And he’s another guy, the movement on his pitches has looked better than than it has in the past. I mean, he always threw hard, but, you know, he’s shown some good movement. I think that there’s been a lot written about the kick, change up. You know that you’re seeing some pitchers around the league, you know, it’s a different grip, and you get a little bit different movement on it. He’s thrown that it’s look good. Now, the question for him, or for anyone in the bullpen, for the Orioles, consistency, all right? I mean, you got to be able to do that, not just for a week, but you got to do that over many weeks. You have to do that over six months. So. But you know, I again with Morton. You want to give a guy the benefit of the doubt. He’s 41 now, but he’s still pitched effectively in age 3839 and 40 now. He wasn’t the all star version of Charlie Morton the last couple years, but he was still good enough that he was a legitimate Major League starter. So anyone can have you can take two starts from just about any pitcher in baseball, or, you know, back to back starts at some point in the season, and you’ll get an era that doesn’t look great. I mean, we remember how bad Corbin Burns was in August last year, so you don’t want to overreact. But again, when you are talking about someone who’s 41 you have questions. That’s why I was at least encouraged enough that the stuff, the curveball, played much better against the Red Sox. And there wasn’t much of anything I liked from what I saw with him in Toronto. I mean, he missed some bats very early, but everything they hit, they hit hard. You know the fact that the. If you’re completely washed up, I don’t think you can strike out 10 batters, right? I don’t think you can get 16 pitches swing and miss. Fair enough. I mean, that’s very good, that’s what, and that’s what I mean by that. So now that said, the results are still like, you can’t give up two long balls like that. I mean, I mean, of course, and, and what was frustrating about it that in each case, they came after a walk, right? I mean, it was a walk and then a home run right after that, so he has to be better, but at the same time, that’s where you look at someone like him, as opposed to say, Kade povidge, who, as as we talked about earlier this week, I look at Cade Povich, and I do see the makings of a guy that I think can figure it out and be a good major league starter. Now, what that ceiling is, I have no idea at this point. Well, you like to call him emerging, right? Yeah, we know Sagano Morton gives him they’re not going to emerge, they’re going to exist. Yeah. I mean, I mean Sagano emerge in the sense that there’s a lack of familiarity, but he’s 35 right? I mean, the book is out that he’s not going to overpower people. He’s going to try to try to make six pitches and get you out. But, yeah, but that’s where, when you’re talking about veteran pitchers, they have a track record where they’ve gone through laws. Go look at Charlie Morton’s career. He I said this to you earlier in the off season, and we never really got into it that much, but he’s had a fascinating career. When you kind of look at the where he was his first few years in the majors. I mean, he was a guy who, think through his three, first three or four seasons, had a career era over five, you know, he he was trending to be an out of baseball, you know, barely, you know, before the age of 30, let’s say, you know, he went to Pittsburgh. That was kind of the era of infield shifting, brown balls, two seam fastballs. I mean, the Orioles did that circa 2012 1314, and that same time, lots of teams were doing that. And then he, he got to Houston, and they said, Why are you throwing your sinker so much? Why are you throwing your fastball so much? You know your sinkers your worst pitch. We like your curveball. Throw your curveball more and throw a four seam fastball that will be on a higher plane, that’ll make your curveball even tougher to hit. And that’s where he kind of had the second act, where he had some a couple good years in Pittsburgh, and then became the guy that he became over the second half of his career, which was at his best, the guy that was an all star caliber pitcher. So guy that
Nestor Aparicio 12:16
made himself a nice 100 $50 million Sure,
Luke Jones 12:19
I mean, made money and survived, to your point, survived and also thrived. So on the flip side, when when someone like Kade povid struggles, he’s young, he doesn’t have much of a track record at all of you know, maybe in the minor leagues, and that’s it. Of leaning on some some success in the past to give you confidence that you can overcome it, that’s where you’re hoping someone like Charlie Morton looks at these first two games and say, hey, you know, I stunk in Toronto. The two home runs ruined my outing against Boston. Even if I struck out guys and missed bats and all that, I still didn’t get the results. So you’re hoping that he can go back to the drawing board and be a little more precise in those spots that he needs to be precise. I mean, one thing, and you know, this Nestor, having watched baseball, right? I mean, there’s a difference between just looking at Box Scores and really watching what you see. And one thing that I’ve can, I’ve realized, and become much more keenly aware as I get older, watching this and trying to do justice covering this for a living, is, yeah, the margin for error between a good start and a bad start, you know, or what you perceive to be a bad start. It’s not much in the same way that you can have a guy that gets great results, you know, six, six innings will scatter 10 hits and give up two runs. And you say how he pitched well, but if you had actually watched it and you saw how many times the ball was squared up and how many times his defense bailed him out, you’d say, okay, he got good results, but I wouldn’t say that he was dominant. Yeah, there’s a lot of nuance that goes into it that way. So you know what you’re hoping for? It if you’re the Orioles and if you’re Charlie Morton, you’re looking at this and saying, Okay, it’s better second start than the first got deeper into the game finished on a higher note. You know, with the striking out the side in the fifth inning, he did get strikeouts. He did miss bats. His curveball was way better, and that’s his best pitch. I mean, that’s been his bread and butter for, like I said, from the time he got to Houston. I mean, that he became a totally different pitcher than he was earlier in his career, and you’re hoping that he can continue to lean into that and be better. If not, then you got a problem. Because, like you said, I mean, Kyle Gibson still, at least, you know, a couple weeks away. I mean, Grayson Rodriguez is just at the point where he’s throwing shorter side sessions. I mean, you know, we know Bradish and Tyler wells, it’s like, Who knows if you’ll get anything from them in August and September? I mean, you can’t count on that. So, you know, this is kind of what it is right now. And even guys like Trevor Rogers and chase McDermott are still working their way back from from their springtime injuries. So yeah, this is just kind of what it isn’t. You’re not going to bail on it after two or three starts, especially for a guy you’re given $15 million but you want to see progress, like I said, if you want to say it. It was a step in the right direction. It’s because the bar was as low as it could possibly be against Toronto. But he knows he needs to be better. They they know he needs to be better. I mean, it’s not going to cut it. You can’t give up five runs in five innings and expect to win. But I again, I’ll also point out over the last two nights, and you know, easier said than done, going up against crochet. And, you know, on on Thursday, I mean, they scored four, you know, they’ve managed a fourth run, but they had three runs through eight innings. It’s not how this team’s built to win. They got to swing the bats, and that’s where you hope gunner Henderson being back in in the lineup. And, you know, it’s not like they have a bunch of guys that aren’t hitting. It’s just it’s kind of been feast or famine, right? They put up 12 runs, nine runs, and what, eight runs in their victories. And you know that, but it’s been very, you know, very scarce in their losses, in terms of being able to score. So, you know, well, good
Nestor Aparicio 15:55
pitching too. Four hits off crochets is what it is. Yeah. I mean, crochet was,
Luke Jones 15:59
but Toronto, the Sunday game, they had traffic all over the bases. They just didn’t come through with runners in scoring position. On Thursday, they scored a couple runs early on. But, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s tough when, when your starting pitcher gives up a pair of two run homers in the first two innings, you’re in a hole, I mean, and they weren’t able to climb out. So nothing to panic about. You know what? My as I’m talking about this and the any angst that you anyone can sense from my voice, it’s not because of what I’ve seen this week. It’s because of our priors, right? I mean, what we thought about this pitching staff all off season, the spring, the fact that Grayson Rodriguez is hurt now, you know, it’s, it’s tough, and, you know, in the meantime, they’re not going to see Corbin burns when they go to Arizona, because it, you know, he’s scheduled to start, I think, Sunday in DC, ironically. But you know, they’ll get a reminder looking at, you know, next week when they’re in Arizona, they’ll look at the other dugout, and they’ll see the guy that was their ace last year, and they don’t have that guy right now. I mean, Zach Eflin is dependable. Thank goodness they have him, because he’s been very reliable. He’s he has their only two quality starts so far, but they need more, and they understand that it’s just going to be a matter of, can they get that? And it’s going to start with Dean Kramer on Friday night. And hopefully you get better from Sagano his second time around, which hopefully will involve staying hydrated so you’re not dealing with cramping as they’re playing in Kansas City, which I haven’t seen the weather forecast, but I don’t know, early April in Kansas City, I’m usually not expecting it to be too warm. So, you know, we’ll see how he handles
Speaker 1 17:40
that. Are they gonna see burns in Arizona, yes, right? No, no.
Luke Jones 17:44
I just, I just made mention of it in passing, but looking at it, barring something, you know, that gets flipped around, looks like he’s going to start the finale. They’re actually in DC this weekend. Oh, he’s got pitches, and that’s got pitch locally, yeah, yeah. So it looks like they’ll miss him. I mean, who knows? You know, you can always get a weather thing, but it’s kind of a weird situation. You know, we didn’t mention it because it wasn’t that constant. I mean, it’s not consequential to the Orioles anymore. But it was funny to hear that the Diamondbacks and lavallo their, you know, their manager kind of messed up his schedule. So burns actually started the season technically, as the fifth starter in their rotation, which I just thought was funny. It won’t matter in the big picture, but I thought that was kind of weird, but it also speaks to what kind of routine he has. I mean, he is very steadfast in how he does things, and that’s why the we, you and I probably, you know, we kind of opined, and, you know, speculated about times where they could skip other guys and move burns up and have him pitch every five days. And no way he’s not really that guy, like he’s very routine oriented. And look, unlike so many of these other pitchers who pitched at that level for that length of time, he’s been able to stay healthy, so it’s tough to argue with him on that point so, but I thought it was interesting how, yeah, they kind of messed up his schedule the last few weeks of spring training, and it kind of put him into the fifth spot in their starting rotation, which it’s kind of funny. What do you think about it? But, but yeah, it’s not looking like, you know, barring a rain issues in DC this weekend, not looking like the Orioles will see burns, but I’ll see him in the other dugout, and they’ll wish he was on their side. That’s for sure. They’re
Nestor Aparicio 19:27
going to see some rain in Kansas City on Friday night too. So not going to be great weather there, at least. To start to think Luke Jones is here, Gunner Henderson, is going to start the thing in Kansas City. Anything you want to put a bow on the hitting or on the offense, just in a general sense that the obvious is they can’t be worse with Gunner Henderson back. They need him back. I mean, there’s only so much Mateo and urea as you can do.
Luke Jones 19:47
Yeah. And look, I mean, I thought Jackson holiday played a solid shortstop. You know, I remember talking to you three, four weeks ago, when, you know when, when it was kind of trending in the direction that you knew gunner brought. Probably, or at least possibly, was going to miss the start of the season. And you know, I had my reservations. I thought, you know, don’t mess with the kid. Just let him focus on second base. I thought he acquitted himself well at shortstop. And I think he’s doing a nice had an opposite field hit on Thursday. I think he’s done a nice job. I mean, yeah, the star of the offense so far has been Cedric Mullins. I mean, he hit lead off for the first time since the end of 2023 on Thursday, hit a leadoff home run, had a walk hit by pitch. I mean, I even posed the question, do you keep Mullins in the leadoff spot against right handed pitching, at least for the time being, and you can change it whenever you want, and put gunner in the number three spot. I mean, I’m just spitballing at the time, you know, for the time being. But, you know, Mullins has swung it well. And again, you look at their look at the averages, you look at the ops. You know, just because they the last two games against Boston didn’t go so well. I mean, most of these guys are swinging the bat pretty well, so, you know, you’re hoping that translates against the better, against the Royals this time around than the last time they faced the Royals. You know, to put it mildly, you know, as they’re going to see Lugo, they’ll see waco on Saturday, they’ll see a left deal on Sunday that they will miss. You know, they won’t have to face Cole Reagan, so that’s a good thing. But you know, they’ve got it well, if they miss
Nestor Aparicio 21:15
Reagan’s and burns, that helps them immensely, because they didn’t miss crochet and they didn’t hate crochet either. Yeah,
Luke Jones 21:20
no question. So look, I mean, they’ve got to hit the ball, and they know that. And having gunner Henderson back, your best player, should help a lot in that regard. You know, he got five games under his belt, hit a couple home runs for Norfolk. You know, Brandon Hyde sounded very confident and positive about how he was feeling. And, you know, I could see a scenario where they give gunner up maybe these first couple weeks, give him a game or two at DH here or there, or something like that. You know, you want to be careful make sure he’s fully healthy. But they were very careful. I mean, this, what that that intercostal strain, which is, you know, it’s a rib cage muscle basically, you know, it’s in the same family as the oblique, you know, the dreaded oblique injury. But he, he had that injury. What was it? February 27 and you never got the sense that it was like this, oh my gosh, like a really serious injury, but they wanted to be careful, because, you know, you can’t baby it in the middle of the season without him missing a month, so, and you don’t want to force him, you don’t want to rush him back, because if he has a setback, you know, March 17, if they had done that, then suddenly, now you’re talking about a missing six weeks, you know. So this was, you know, this is the way you wanted to handle it. You wanted to slow play it. And, well, it’s not football, it’s baseball. This is a week, you know, working hard on this. Yeah, it’s no big deal. I mean, you know, there’s nothing about it. I made the joke, not that Baltimore needs to hear any more about MVP races after Lamar and Josh Allen this past year, but go look at what Aaron judges numbers were the first three weeks of last season, and go look at the season he had. So it’s a reminder. I mean, seven games is nothing in baseball, and that’s why. Yeah, the Orioles are three and four. They haven’t pitched particularly well, you know. And you know, other than E and you know, the bull pens been mostly good. You know, I can’t, can’t be too concerned with the bullpen at this point. But you know, the rest of the rotation got to step it up. You know, Dean framers got to be the best version of himself. Friday night. They need Sagano to not cramp up and, you know, quit himself well in his second major league start. And then Kade povidge On Sunday, yeah, I liked some of the stuff that he showed against the Red Sox, but you have to be more efficient with your pitches. So, you know, not, not sitting here saying that I expect these three guys to go seven and give up two runs. I mean, not holding my breath for that, but you need better. And they know that, and that’s going to be the challenge. And you know, Kansas City is interesting team. I mean, after what they did the run they made last year. And I mean, I mean, obviously you have one of the best, they have one, one of the best players in the game, and Bobby Witt and you saw what their pitching did against the Orioles in the wild card series. But they’re also a team that, you know, they struggled to hit the ball last year, even making the playoffs. So you’re hoping that this is a lineup that, unlike the Red Sox and even Toronto, who have names in there that you have to be weary of. I mean, I mean, we saw Alex Bregman do what He did on Thursday, but, and
Nestor Aparicio 24:23
he’s being paid handsomely to do that, but, oh,
Luke Jones 24:25
no question, no. I mean, look, I mean, they say what you want about some of the other moves that other teams in the division made, but when you talk about the one two punch of trading for crochet and then signing Bregman, I mean, that’s, that’s the best one two punch as far as moves made in the Division of anyone. So, you know, I, my biggest takeaway is probably not even anything about the Orioles in this series. It’s probably more so, yeah, the Red Sox looked a part of a team that’s really closed the gap with the Orioles and with the Yankees. You know, they were third place last year, but they were 500 Yeah. Yeah, they look better, you know, they certainly do. So they’re certainly, I’m not ready to say that they’re the favorite in the division just yet, as some people have indicated, but they’ve got a nice mix of veterans and exciting young players. You know, even giving one of their young players an extension this week, which, you know, hits a close to home for the Orioles and their lack of extensions right now, but, but, you know, with Kansas, Katie Griggs came
Nestor Aparicio 25:25
on and did the Birdland menu the other day. That’s all. You know. That’s
Luke Jones 25:29
a good thing too. But you don’t have to pick one or the other, right? Let’s, let’s see these things in concert, just like in market streaming, which, you know, I’ve been banging the drum about for three years now, but, but, you know, Kansas City, not a not a lineup that’s going to strike fear in your hearts, other than talking about wit of course. So you’re hoping that this weekend, the starting pitching can acquit itself a little bit better, because, let’s face it, other than Eflin, you know it’s to say it’s been rough, is the, probably the kindest way that I could describe it. At this point,
Nestor Aparicio 26:00
you bummed that I took you to Toronto instead of Kansas City. Now that we’re Kansas City, I’m thinking about the barbecue, you know,
Luke Jones 26:07
barbecue, yes, but also another cold weather environment for early April, the outdoor
Nestor Aparicio 26:11
baseball. Yeah, dude, I cut your break in Toronto last year. Maybe it was last week. It was, it was inside, yeah?
Luke Jones 26:18
So that’s where I’d look at it and say, you know, probably not devastated, although, hey, I will say this. And I know you and I talked about this. I mean, it’s hard to believe that was 11 years ago at this point in time, when we made that trip. And, you know, long time ago, Adam Jones and 11 years ago, yeah, right. I mean, Delmon young, all of that, but I remember, you know, we kind of talked about it at the time, and that’s that. I think that’s an underrated ballpark, you know, with, you know now that I would say new renovations, or not new renovations, or renovations that were probably done 25 years ago at this point in time. But, I mean, that’s it. Considering its age, I like that ballpark. I do so, you know, that’s one I would for anyone who hasn’t been there. I would recommend going sometime, but yeah, maybe not this weekend, considering it’s early April, and in
Nestor Aparicio 27:05
Kansas City, it was better back in 83 when I want my mom and dad and the carpet, the fountains and the carpet and all that stuff out there, the carpet that killed everybody, by the way, he is Luke Jones. He is killing it out there with Orioles and ravens coverage. We’re so busy we haven’t even bitched about the Terps. Um, did you have you seen the hardball? Uh, bashati, uh, love in Did you check it out? Yeah, I
Luke Jones 27:26
listened to it on my way to the ballpark. What was that Wednesday? There’s
Nestor Aparicio 27:30
something about watching it, though, and seeing how they chum up and interact. That’s a little bonus. I you’ve seen it before. I
Luke Jones 27:39
I mean, that part of its doesn’t move me. I just found it to be dull. I mean, like, if I’m and look and look, I’m, I do this for a living, so I should, I should know, a lot of I thought there’d be more anecdotes or something like, it just wasn’t very captivating to me. But I agree with
Nestor Aparicio 27:57
you. You know that they want it to be captivating. Well,
Luke Jones 28:01
there’s a way to be captivating, though, without revealing anything you know inside seek trade secrets or anything caught
Nestor Aparicio 28:09
on. The last couple weeks, all these teams are doing reality TV. I mean, Rubenstein in the locker room afterwards, I was just, it’s Real Housewives of Orioles and like, and that’s kind of, it’s like the Hulk Hogan show was years ago, or Aziz
Luke Jones 28:24
reality TV, and air quotes you can
Nestor Aparicio 28:26
see, like, where horrible and Bucha, like there was an edit, and I don’t know whether that’s the good of water or horrible. Says, no, no, I want to say that differently, because they can, you know what I mean, live. So, yeah, yeah. Like I get and it’s just not. It’s not accountability. It’s fake accountability. I
Luke Jones 28:46
mean, it’s not. It’s fake journalism. I mean, yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s just not. It’s an
Nestor Aparicio 28:50
intimidated employee talking to two, one guy with $150 million in the bank and the other guy who’s a billionaire. There’s a whole different level of up and down when it comes to that, that I eliminate when I sit with those cats, but they don’t eliminate it by throwing me out. So, you know, it’s an economic issue. As much as we can send that down to Washington, DC as well, but it’s, it’s very much of being asked questions by someone who’s intimidated for their job because he is, and that’s just the way it is. That’s reality. And I like Garrett a lot, but he’s not qualified to ask tough questions because he it’s not his job. Yeah,
Luke Jones 29:30
I mean, it’s not, I mean, it’s just not his job. Look, teams, all these teams, and this has been done a long time. They have their own websites. I mean, my goodness, we’re getting to the end of the era of the regional sports network as we know it, certainly. But, I mean, teams have owned networks, right? I mean, seen it here in Baltimore with Madison, but and
Nestor Aparicio 29:52
newspapers are gone, and local and let’s and let’s be clear, markiano is gone. Every you know they’re all gone. I don’t have
Luke Jones 29:59
a. Problem with teams doing that, as long as it’s not being served, peddled as some kind of replacement for talking to actual media and answering real questions, when, when it’s, you know, when it’s peddled as that then, then, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 30:22
it’s a terrible look. I’ll call it trash, is what I’ll call it. Yeah. Oh, and, you know, you mentioned, and it’s a sleazy way. It’s sliding in that we talk to our website, we we talk to an intimidated employee, basically on camera, yes, but, but,
Luke Jones 30:39
you know, you know, to go back to what you said as far as, like, the reality TV thing. It’s funny. I saw a headline on Thursday talking about, I guess the NFL and HBO kind of changed the parameters for teams that are eligible for hard knocks. I don’t know how much you actually caught of the AFC North Hard Knocks that they did. You know, the second half of I did not. I’ll be totally honest with you. And look full disclosure, it had probably been six or seven years since I had watched Hard Knocks to any meaningful degree, because, frankly, I didn’t have HBO. It
Nestor Aparicio 31:09
got all closure. It got it got like, once it went to Texas, it’s so
Luke Jones 31:14
dull. And you can just, you know, I laugh when, when they, when they bill it as inside access, because it’s anything but that. I mean, it’s so whitewashed that, no, it’s just not and now some teams might be a little more revealing than others, might give a little more access than others, but, you know, I think back to what it was in 2001 and obviously the Ravens were the first team to do that, and it’s a great show. No, I wasn’t in the media then. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t remember your feelings. I was captured
Nestor Aparicio 31:47
briefly and hard, okay, fair enough, in the in the in the hotel, when rod Woodson checked in and goosed, there’s a hug team where I’m in the background. So, oh, okay, I don’t remember that, yeah, but I just, you
Luke Jones 32:00
know, that was a much more raw version compared to what you saw from what the Ravens portrayed. And look, the Ravens aren’t alone in this, lots of teams. It’s just so Ryan and
Nestor Aparicio 32:10
David in art would have looked, by the way, we had an hour. I did almost two hours with Viviano. The last thing he said to me, before I even turn the mic on he quoted art modell in the exact same quote that I have quoted him in my books and that I quote him out loud. He said, Art modell told me that if I didn’t criticize him, that no one would ever believe a word. I said, Viviano said that to me, it faints. I’m like, Alright, dude, we’re starting now. And I grabbed my stuff and went on. I never mentioned it to him, but he did say that, and that’s part of the way Brian was. That’s the point. You know, that’s the part that Katie Griggs and doing all of this Johnny Bravo stuff, that the mass and thing and God mass is awful, like, it’s just awful. Oh, it’s Ben McDonald’s great, Palmer’s Great. Kevin Brown is is fine. He’s good. He’s him. He’s very good. The rest of it. Oh my god. And I’m subjected to it every night, and it’s so Pollyanna, it’s so I’m wearing the bird hat. And it’s unfortunate. You know, rock cobaco was a reporter at one point, a very good one at one point, and it’s not the same as what you and I do. And I’m glad that Viviano pointed that out, because, like, he can’t get higher praise. I mean, you call it what did you call? You called him royalty or something, right? I thought just about me, but you were talking about him. I know, yeah, but I’ve been doing it longer, and he’s been doing you have it in. You have if that matters. I don’t know if it matters or not. When
Luke Jones 33:42
did VIB start? I mean, not in Baltimore, you’re right. I’m trying to think when he started his career, but he
Nestor Aparicio 33:47
was like, Dayton, Ohio or something. But he’s a couple years older than me, but I still started in 84 at the papers. I don’t know when he’s professional. Yeah, he got his first internship
Luke Jones 33:57
similar, yeah, it’s similar, but no, and you mentioned art modell. I mean, that’s where I look, you know, I see Steve Bucha do that video with the website, and it’s a reminder that the last time he took questions from the media in Owings Mills was, what, three months before, the Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson, which were going on seven years now, since that has happened. And I think also, you know, not that there were a ton of Baltimore reporters at the owners meetings, but there were Baltimore reporters there, and he didn’t do a bit interview with them. So you know, to me, it just kind of rings hollow, and it is what it is. I mean, again, they have their team website. It’s their prerogative to do that, but I’m certainly not going to pat you on the back if you’re not doing anything with with real independent media that that’s going to ask some questions and about your
Nestor Aparicio 34:49
money and about your team and about Justin Tucker, and by the way, not
Luke Jones 34:53
all bad questions, plenty of just fair and illuminating and interesting questions. And yeah, there’s some bad stuff, but you. They also, you know, good stuff. And asking them about powerballs, talking
Nestor Aparicio 35:03
about how much their money they each making, yuck, yuckin and stuff. It’s just like it smacks of and I, and I gave the recommendation of Viviano yesterday, and I’ll give it to my whole audience. I came really close to getting Mark levovich on the program, l, e, i, B, O, V, I, C, H, long time New York Times reporter and author now at the Atlantic and very, very close with Jeffrey Goldberg, who was in on the Trump war thing two weeks ago in Yemen Leibovich was trying to get to fadelies on Wednesday. He’s a Red Sox fan. He lives in DC, lives in North Virginia with his family, and was trying to get him up for the game. It didn’t happen or whatever, but his book on the insights of ownership and ideology and billionaires and yuck, yuck, yuck and all of that, and the boys club, I saw it, man up close, up, up, up, up, way close when Bucha is screaming at me at one o’clock in the morning of my wife to stay away from the hard ball family out like I’ve witnessed it and it’s gross. I mean, I said earlier this week I am profoundly disappointed as a fan, and a guy was in the parking lot when art brought the team, or sitting next to Peter King asking about the Browns name, I’m profoundly disappointed, not just in my treatment in all of it. Ben Cleveland, Justin Tucker, the lies, the lies, the more lies, the lack of accountability, the big transparency. Yeah, it’s disappointing. But you know, it’s the National Football League. You know, rare, very rare. He is Luke Jones. He’s Baltimore, Luke. You can find him. Leave him the hell alone this weekend. Don’t find Luke this weekend. He’s busy. Leave him alone. Let him go watch the Kansas City thing. We got the trade watching. I’ll be watching. We got money. We have a Final Four, right? One versus one? Yeah, right. It’s the everybody thought was going to win one, right?
Luke Jones 37:03
Yeah, which. I don’t want that to become the norm, but it is kind of cool in a way, though, that it is the four best teams. But I also like Cinderella, so I don’t want that to just disappear. And you know me, I’ve already said
Nestor Aparicio 37:17
this, well, you gotta go to Villanova if you want to move for the underdog. You
Luke Jones 37:20
and I, you know, you and I can get into Buzz Williams at some point, you know, I’ve warmed up to it a little bit. He seems like a decent guy. Seems excited about the job. Why don’t you
Nestor Aparicio 37:31
get a guy that wants to be here? Yeah, but there’s just so much, there’s just
Luke Jones 37:36
so much to it that, you know, I hope it works. I hope he succeeds. He’s he’s been successful everywhere he’s been. It’s not a terrible hire or anything like that, but I want to be inspired by the program again. And I just feel like what we what should have been so fun the last two weeks ended up being a nightmare in so many ways. The
Nestor Aparicio 37:58
bus right now, you can’t even fade these on Wednesday, said, you’re done with him.
Luke Jones 38:01
I mean, I I’m not done with them in the in the in the sense that I’m swearing them all from not going to watch them or anything. But you love the Terps, though
Nestor Aparicio 38:11
I used to Glen Elmore on next, to be honest. Like, forward to that. Look, I’m going
Luke Jones 38:16
to sound like an old guy here. I mean, you know when, Gary retired and they went to the Big 10, you know, like it’s kind of been since then, that it’s just kind of been a gradual decline for my passion for it,
Nestor Aparicio 38:30
it’s not as much fun, yeah,
Luke Jones 38:33
so it’s just not, but I’m but I’m gonna watch. And I want Buzz Williams to do well. I want the school to do everything they need to do that. Some of the fair points that Kevin Willard pointed out, I hope they address, you know, for Buzz Williams, or whoever’s coaching in the, you know, it sounds like Buzz Williams, you know, I saw Jeff Ehrman reported Juan Dixon could be part of the staff, which I think that would go a long way to appease some of the Terps alumni that have said, hey, you know, let’s, by the
Nestor Aparicio 39:00
way, I ran into Beano the other night. Yeah, beno, me and be No, and Brian COVID. So I have that’s a crew, a kid that I coached who has been a big time basketball player as well as a coach, and Brian COVID, who won a World Series with the Braves in 95 so you know, you never knew who you run into on the club level on opening day, but a peanut walk, I’m a Pino, you know. So I love that kid. I call him a kid, but, you know, he’s out of work, and, you know, like, really wants to go back and coach Marilyn. His heart’s in Maryland. It really is. His love is for
Luke Jones 39:35
Meryl, yeah. And, I mean, there’s a great example, I mean, and I’m not saying it has to be him, but I want to be inspired by the program again. And look, a lot of that’s not it’s just not what college basketball is anymore, in the sense of freshmen growing in the way that Juan Dixon and Lonnie Baxter did. But, you know, I just I wanted to still have a chance to be great, not that I think they’re ever going to become Duke and I never really thought that 20. Five years ago, necessarily. But I well, you
Nestor Aparicio 40:03
know, Luke, I’m old enough to remember when they’re going to be the UCLA, UCLA of
Luke Jones 40:07
these. Yeah, but, but I just the fact that they got back to the Sweet 16, and I think back to their peak with Gary, where they made what, seven sweet sixteens in 10 years. I think it was. I want to think that kind of success is possible again, and if the stars align, and you capture Lightning in a Bottle perfectly, that you’ve got a chance to maybe get back to a Final Four at some point in time. If you can do that, if BUZZ WILLIAMS can do that, or what, whoever’s coaching in the next 20 years, then I’ll, you know, you’ll still have me. But I just, again, it’s not even like Maryland, specifically. It’s just what it’s become without they need guardrails. They do. And I’m not saying I know how to do all that perfectly. I know it’s complicated. And again, I’m not opposed to I want these kids to get paid like they deserve that. But I still I want it to be something that I can love. And man, the last two weeks have been really, really difficult on that front big time. Alright,
Nestor Aparicio 41:04
we did it all. He is Luke Jones, happy weekend. Everybody out there, drive safely, eat liberally, Drink responsibly, gamble extra responsibly, and we’ll see you here on the internet. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We are wnst and 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stopped talking Baltimore positive you.
