Baseball legend Fred Lynn checks off a bucket list interview with Nestor, whose inner 1970s fanboy sets off a Fantasy Island of questions from Fenway Park to Memorial Stadium. If you remember that May 1985 weekend on 33rd Street right after he joined the Baltimore Orioles, this one is for you…
Nestor Aparicio interviews baseball legend Fred Lynn, discussing his career highlights and experiences. Lynn recalls his walk-off home runs in 1985 with the Orioles and his time in Baltimore, praising the fan base. He reflects on the impact of free agency and the union on players’ careers. Lynn also shares his involvement with the Face Foundation, a charity saving animals in San Diego, and his ongoing passion for golf. Aparicio reminisces about Lynn’s impact on his youth and the broader baseball community, emphasizing the importance of legacy and community engagement.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Fred Lynn, Baltimore Orioles, Maryland crab cake tour, Memorial Stadium, walk-off home runs, San Diego Padres, baseball legacy, Fantasy Island, union disputes, charity work, Face Foundation, animal rescue, Baltimore memories, Red Sox, Orioles.
SPEAKERS
8
Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio, Fred Lynn
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive and positively. This is going to be my favorite segment of the summer. I’m predicting this now, even though I’ve had some rock stars on, there’s still some opportunities to maybe improve. I don’t know. Maybe George Brett will come on. I can’t bring Tony Gwynn back, but sister lescanos already been on the show. But this one’s going to be fun. You all know I’m doing the Maryland crab cake tour all summer long. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I’ll have the Back to the Future scratch off. We’re going to be at deepest squales On the eighth. I got some great guests coming that day, Dan Rodricks, Pete, cringy, some of my favorite people, first time there. And we’re also going to be a Costas and Timonium on the 10th at the new racetrack location. Come on out. Get out of the heat. Get into the cold. Watch some baseball. And maybe we’ll reminisce. Maybe if you hear this piece and you come out and see me, we’ll talk about Fred Lynn. And you know, I think of you as a Red Sox. You got your red sock hat on. But, man, you came to Austin 85 man, I was 16 years old. You’re one of my favorite players, and next thing I know, you’re out at Memorial Stadium. So having you on is a big deal, even for a guy been doing this 35 years. So my wife says, I don’t get star struck too much. Only Paul Rogers from Bad Company, star struck me, other than you. Fred Lynn, so welcome aboard. Thanks for making time for me, man.
Fred Lynn 01:19
Well, thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it. Well, I you
Nestor Aparicio 01:23
wonder, why is the guy from Baltimore having you on? So I ran into you in Houston at the Super Bowl, like 2004 and I shook your hand, and you said, I’ll come on anytime. So it’s taking me 21 years to track you down, but you have been tip of the tongue in a couple of ways. First off, I’m on this crazy device, and I think your Aqua Velva commercial popped up about a year, year and a half ago. And my wife grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and when I said Fred Lynn to her, she knew who you were. I mean, there’s no, you know, she’s a Red Sox fan, right? So, um, I saw the Aqua Velva thing, but then I had John Eisenberg going about six weeks ago, and, um, he mentioned he had had you on for his bird tapes. And I thought, Man, I’m I felt jealous when you know he’s getting guests I can’t get. So I feel like John I’m getting even I got Fred Lynn, this is awesome, but, um, Jim Henneman passed away a couple weeks ago, and it just brought so many people together to talk about baseball. Tim Kirchen and Jim Palmer, just a whole bunch of people. And I said, Now the Orioles are in last place. We were coming to Anaheim, and I had dog the senses on, and I thought about you, and I tried to find you, and here we are on the internet, and I’m just blessed that you take a little time and talk some Baltimore memories. But Rick Vaughn gave me the greatest story about you, and I don’t remember this, but he swears you will. He said, Fred Lynn came. Fred Lynn was a big deal for me, and I got to pick him up at the airport, and I was calling my friends. It’s all about picking Fred Lynn up, then you came in, and in the first month, you had walk off home runs in 85 on a weekend in May, in front of a sell out crowd. And Rick Vaughn said, Tell Fred Lynn, I never heard Memorial Stadium ever louder than it was that night. Ask him if he remembers hitting walk offs in 85
8Speaker 1 03:00
you know what? That’s a pretty unique situation. You know, they talk about walk offs now they that didn’t that term wasn’t invented yet. When I did it, it was a game winning Homer. Yeah, that’s right. That’s exactly right. Game winning hit, right? So we’re playing the twins, and I was always a twin killer, no matter what team I played for and what’s the bottom of the night, and they bring in Ron Davis, their closer, and we got a guy on. We’re down by a run, and I hit a slider over the fence for a home run. This is Friday night, and the place was going crazy. We always grew well, but Friday and Saturdays were our best draw nights, so I hit the game winner that night. Now the next night, we’re in the same situation, but we’re down by two, and Eddie and Cal are on first and third. We got one out, so now I’m not going to bring in Ron Davis to face me again. So they bring in this left hander. I don’t even know who he was. I was watching a warm up, and I said to myself, Okay, he’s going to try to pitch me away, because I just hit one to right the night before. So he threw a fastball away, and I crushed it to the left center for another walk off. So we won that game, and that place was absolutely rocking. And it was, it was so electric. So now we play today game right next day and Sunday. Frankie Viola’s pitcher for those guys now he’s shutting us out. It’s like seven nothing going into the bottom of the ninth, I come up with two guys on and I hit one out to dead center. Now it wasn’t a game winner, but it broke up the shutout. And that’s three consecutive nights or at games that I hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth.
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
He remember that he swore you’d remember it too. It’s only been 40 years. I don’t want to go back too far. You in all this. Fred Lynn is our guest. I’m blessed to have him on. Talk a little bit about you watching a lot of ball. I mean, I know you sort of reside in San Diego, Southern California area. When I’m in that area in modern times, it feels very baseball juggernaut. I mean, what Tony Gwynn left behind? The new stadium and Petco when I’m out there, obviously Otani and trout and all that in your former organization, as well as just what the Dodgers are. I don’t want to say it never felt like a hotbed. You played your college ball at USC, all that you’ve been out there forever, went back out there after Boston, but I remember going out there at various points when they’re playing at Jack Murphy, and it was friends and family at various points, the angels had problems at various points, but, but it feels like it’s just and especially for Hispanic people. My name is Aparicio. It is, um, it is especially a hotbed. As you’ve gotten older in life, baseball’s picked up momentum where you live, right?
Speaker 1 05:37
Absolutely, when Larry Lucchino was the Juggernaut behind the San Diego Padres and helped to get the new stadium built downtown. That’s when things really changed, because you mentioned Jack Murphy, that’s a football stadium that they played baseball in. It wasn’t a great place to play baseball, to be honest with I played there, but this stadium downtown is very unique. Kind of has vibes of Wrigley to it, because there’s a warehouse building part of left field, and it’s very intimate, you know, then they pack it every night. And so baseball is fun to go to because it’s right downtown, and they’re good. They have a good team, and that’s been the case for quite a few years now. And obviously the relationship with the LA Dodgers help. So they’re just up the street, and so it’s kind of like Red Sox Yankees. Now it’s Dodgers, padres, and there’s a real rivalry there. And, you know, it’s, it’s pretty, pretty prevalent here, because we don’t have a football team. There’s no basketball team here. It’s Baseball, baseball and surfing. So, you know, during the summertime, you know, they pack them in. Do you love
Nestor Aparicio 06:45
8that you have this legacy in different play. You live in San Diego, but you’re really an angel, but you’re really a Red Sox, and today you’re an Oriole. I mean, I believe remember the Oriole part. I couldn’t even win a lot when you were here, but I certainly remember the years you came and you and Don Ossie and and, you know that period of time, Eddie and Cal and the post 83 thing, and you found the real hot place in Baltimore, and a place that, I think the time you were here, there were some lost the Colts. There was a question about, like, whether the Orioles might be going to DC, that DC ownership. I mean, the Orioles were really resurrected in that period of time, I think, by Cal Ripken and by the departure of the Colts, but it was kind of a unique time to be in Baltimore for the couple of years. You were here as well. Earl coming back, you were part of all that,
Speaker 1 07:29
too. Yeah, yes, I was, and it was the Orioles were kind of in transition. Listen, I was a free agent, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere, and the Orioles were always a pain in our side when I was with the Red Sox, because they had such good pitching and they had timely hitting. And I said, I’m going to go to a place where pitching is forefront. And because everywhere I played prior to that, we hit our way to championships, if we if we got there, we hit our way there. We didn’t pitch our way there. So I’m going to Baltimore, and they need a center fielder, and I thought it would be a perfect fit. Well, the pitching just kind of was in transit and transition as well, so we didn’t pitch as well as I’d hoped, but I gotta give props to the Baltimore fan base, because they they supported us no matter what. Now we have some star power with Eddie and Cal and we had, we had some pretty good players on our team, and we were fun to watch. We didn’t win a lot, but we were fun to watch, and the fans showed up. And I really, really enjoyed playing there. I enjoyed the atmosphere, I enjoyed the fan base. I enjoyed my teammates. There was the only thing missing was winning. And I thought that would happen, and it didn’t work out that way. But my time in Baltimore is very special to me. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 08:50
I didn’t even realize this till 30 seconds ago. I mean, I’m a pretty good oral historian. I’ve been at this a long time. I was born into it as an Aparicio in East Baltimore in 68 but the you were here for the own 21 I wouldn’t have guessed that. And I’m looking at the wiki, and I know I was at fantastic fans night right when y’all came back after after the game out in Chicago. Talk about that period of time for the kids out there, because we’re talking now 37 years ago, that we’re last place here in Baltimore, Fred and we’re not supposed to be. And it’s really dis disappointing, so much so that I’m finding my baseball heroes to chat with them and talk about their golf charities and all that kind of stuff as well. But you know, for for that period, I’ve lived through all of this, and I sense even in the broadcast Jim Palmer’s disappointment of 42 years of not winning and Camden Yards not being a place where we really want, you know, it’s, it’s been a little bit of, not a little bit a lot of the downer here, and the 88 thing being a part of that, and you being a player. And I sat in left field that night. I sat in left field a lot, and Memorial Stadium with my pop back in 88 we all went out there that night to give you love. And I don’t think I. Yeah, that’s like, postcards. That’s Hallmark stuff. Like, like, if I tell somebody that happened, they’d be like, Oh, but that can’t happen in America. 2025 I mean, who would come out and support that, right? I mean, and when you tell people the story, it’s a unique story in the history of baseball, maybe in the history of sports, if it were told in the way that it really happened, and maybe through your eyes, just come home and see the ballpark packed. I mean, I don’t even know if you knew to even expect that at that point,
Speaker 1 10:28
right? Well, probably not, to be honest with it, it was, it was a very, very taxing, demoralizing, whatever kind of adjective you want to say, experience for the players, not only players, our families, the fan base. I mean, everybody was just just like, When are they going to win a game? And we kept inventing ways to lose games. It was some, sometimes it was comical, although not from the players perspective. I i remember, we were in Minnesota, we had nine guys starting, we do drew names out of a hat for the hitting order, right? And so Frank’s idea by now, right? Yeah. I mean, I let off, and it was against Frankie Varela, and I let off the game with a home run and said, All right, we’re in there. Nat, we lost. And so after Eddie, I think, drove in like nine runs in a game, in in in Chicago, if we finally won a game, and then we come home and the place looked like we won the World Series. It was really heartwarming for us as players, because, you know, we felt like we just let Baltimore down in the far fan base, but they said, Nope, we’re still here. And they really supported us all summer. And I’m sure we were tough to watch. Was it for lack of trying? But it’s the fan base never gave up on us. And you know, so props to them. And talk about this year’s team. You know, I thought they were top dog in the league, to be honest, after last couple of years, I said, Well, these guys are younger. They’ve been together now, you know that this is the this is going to be their year, you know, to start it off kind of wanky, but it’s still not over, because the division, in my estimation, is up for grabs. There’s weaknesses in every team there. Tampa’s kind of come out of nowhere for me, but the Orioles still are not out of it. I’m telling you, they could get hot. It’s not that difficult to go 25 and five in a month. It’s not I’ve seen it done. So you do that, start spending some games your way and get some momentum, because the rest of the division is just not that good. You know, they’re all around 500 and the Yankees have some issues, and Tampa is a team I just can’t figure out. But Orioles, you know, keep your heads up. You know, you’re still not, you’re still not out of
8Nestor Aparicio 12:55
it. Well, I need to tell you, you already told me you gotta get pitching. I mean, if you’re going to be an excellent team, you have to have really good pitching, mediocre pitching, and bang and hitting that that doesn’t really win championships in our lifetime. I don’t think.
Speaker 1 13:10
No, it certainly doesn’t. You look at teams that win consistently, and here’s the team, I’ll say, Detroit. They’ve won 50 games faster than anybody else right now. I didn’t see those guys, but pitching is, you know what they do well, and they’re they’re getting some timely hitting, but pitching is the name of the game. And that was for years and years and years. That’s the Baltimore way. You know, pitch Well, score runs into the bottom in the eighth, and win the game. That’s how they did it in and so if you don’t have arms, especially in a place like Camden, where it’s a smaller ballpark, plays small sometimes, you know, maybe the pitching philosophy has to change. Instead of power, let’s throw strikes, keep the ball down in the zone, keep the ball in the park, and play that way. You know, with the pendulum has swung so much on the other side for power, we forgot how to throw strikes, quality strikes. Let’s take more guys like Greg Maddux, even Jim Palmer, threw strikes. You know what? Guys so in their whole Baltimore staff back in the day, let’s maybe start doing that. And there has to be one organization that’s going to say, Alright, we’re done with throwing 100 miles an hour. That’s not working for us. Let’s get guys and throw strikes. Don’t walk. Anybody can go seven or eight innings, maybe nine. Imagine that, and start going back the other way. It’s going to take somebody to do it might as well be Baltimore,
Nestor Aparicio 14:36
if you are watching out on the webcam. He’s got a hat with a B on it, and he knows better than to think that that’s Baltimore, but he’s wearing a Boston Red Sox at Fred Lynn is here. You’re my favorite player in 1975 so I’ll give you my story. You know, Louis came to Baltimore in 63 and brought two cousins from Venezuela. I am the son of one of the cousins. I’m the only one that’s left behind. And in 1973 I was five years old, and Louie was playing for the Red Sox. And I went after Memorial Stadium, I got my little picture. I have the the ball that was signed by tion Fiske, go down the line. Subpoena, you know, like just that was a 73 you were sort of pawtucketing at that point, and kind of us seeing and making your way through. Did you and Louie ever walk on the same field together, playing a spring training game together. I’m trying to piece that together, because beniquez came bursting came and then rice and limb was one word in 75 right? Like you guys together, but it all happened in the blink of an eye to a little boy who had a Red Sox bobble head, because my cousin was heading to the Hall of Fame and played for the Red Sox in 1973 and I was at Memorial Stadium. Now, I love the Orioles and like all of that, but it my uncle was five and wearing a red sox Jersey a minute and a half later, you and rice are in first place. And I just sort of like I loved Butch Hobson because I liked the red, I liked all of you guys. So, um, you know that that that period of time, that that thing came on fast, the Red Sox 75 thing. I mean, my cousin might have hung on a little while longer if you knew what you were going to do with 75
Speaker 1 16:11
8right? Well, here’s the story, yeah, 73 I was doing a lot of stuff, you know, win a national title for SC and then coming to play pro ball in double A in July, and won the Little World Series in 73 for triple A. But 74 I got called up in September. Well, Louis was on the team of 74 and we were teammates for a month. And I have to tell you, I was born in Chicago, so when I was a kid, I I was raised in Southern California, but would go back to see my relatives and my aunt on my mom’s side, Luis was her favorite player. She used to call him little Louie. Now I didn’t say, Hey, nice to meet you, little Louie. I said, Mister Aparicio, but yeah, for a month, we were teammates. And you know, I was a giant fan as a kid, so Juan Marshall and Orlando Cepeda were on that 74 team in September. So I’m like a kid in a candy store. You got Luis Aparicio got Orlando Cepeda and Juan Mari show. These are my teammates. So I was pretty happy, dude. All I
Nestor Aparicio 17:20
remember is, you guys came into town 74 and I went to my my uncle, uh, my uncle’s house, and at the kitchen table in Cockeysville, right up on padonia above Ordell, Bracey, flaming pit. Rico, Petrocelli, Cepeda, Aparicio, Tiant, arms up in crabs, listening to merengue music, about to play poker all night. Right? You know what I’m saying? Like it was literally you guys were in town, and he had everybody to the house for crabs. So I’m sitting in the house a little five year old kid, and all these legends are gathered eating crabs because the Red Sox were in town. So, you know, I would think at that point in your life, it all came pretty fast, right? I mean, everybody wants to talk to you about 75 and I’ll even say to honor your hat. I met my wife in 2003 and when we got engaged, where we had an island wedding, I said to her, I want you to have a Red Sox hat, and I want it to be the Fred Lynn that hat, the blue and red the 75 they don’t wear it often. I mean, it feels throwback ish, but that’s the most beautiful hat, and the red brim is also great too. But that’s 75 thing. People ask you about it all the time, and I always feel bad asking any of the Orioles about 79 you know, the year you don’t win. But the 75 thing, I don’t want to say it’s been 50 years. Between 50 years. But, I mean, you can ask about 50 years. You’ve been asked about it. It’s a wonderful thing for you, even though it didn’t end the way you wanted it to end, right?
Speaker 1 18:51
Yeah, 75 was pretty magical. It kind of reminiscent of this Oriole team that was like last year, a lot of young guys. You look at our starting out field. You got Jim rice and left and man center and Dwight Evans in right. We’re all 2223 years old. Our shortstop, Rick Burleson is 23 years old. We’ve got lots of guys under 25 years old on the team. We still have Yaz and Rico from the 67 team. And our pitching staff is veterans, but we had so many young guys that were starters, starters, that nothing, I don’t, nobody really thought we were going to do anything. Nobody predicted, or could even think of predicting, how well we would play. And I tell people all the time that team is so popular because the fact that our fan base is high school kids and college kids. I don’t know how many colleges there are in Boston, but there’s a lot. And when June came around and all the kids got out of school, all the bleachers were were kids, and we, they identified with us, because we’re the same age, we’re the same age, so. So and then we played well, we’re pretty good, and you can’t predict that kind of stuff, right? You just can’t, like you said, it didn’t end the way I had hoped that it would, but looking back on it, it was just a magical time, and just doesn’t happen. You get Jimmy rice and I are rookies, and to have two rookies on a pennant contending club, hit three, four in the lineup, and do the things that we were doing that just doesn’t happen. Just doesn’t you might get one, but you don’t get two. And then we played side by side. So it was on a lot of different levels. It was so much fun and back then, and I have to tell you that being a rookie was a lot different than it is today’s rookies, because we didn’t have any video. All we did was we talked to our teammates. What’s this guy throw? You know? What’s this guy going to do? How do you play this guy defensively? I mean, every day was a learning experience for the whole season, and so it it went by in a blur, because every day is a new day. You could go three for four, one day the next day you’re facing Jim Palmer. What’s he got? Oh, high fastball, big curveball. And so the learning experience was crazy. It was just crazy. Um, but it was so much fun, because we’re so good.
Nestor Aparicio 21:18
Could you imagine playing in the modern era with your skill set of me, I remember crowding into Jack Murphy stadium. I got to know Tony Gwynn pretty well during his career. My aunt lived out in San Diego. So I know the, you know, I know how wonderful San Diego can be in PB and like all that I I’ve spent in La Jolla the whole deal. But I remember him having the little video he had a closet, you literally with tapes, you know, and he was the only dude doing it. He’s only dude hitting 394 too, you know, at that time. And then in the modern era, remember, they had a video department, and they’d have a few nerds with tapes and whatnot. I’m not, you know, privy to all of that in the modern era, since Angelo so in the team here, but the analytics part of this, and coaches and people in the game that I’ve known of your era, that are still in the game, the transition of the game, and someone like you that just had an unbelievable natural ability that you own, you probably would have taken to this stuff like a duck to water with the way that you would have made you even a better player. I think, I think, I think would make you and Rod crew and people of your ERA even better if you played in this era, to have this sort of information at your disposal. I
8Speaker 1 22:28
believe that a guy like me would use it periodically. I would, you know, I would if I’m having an issue at the plate, Sam, I’m hitting too many ground balls this second, I know what’s happening, but to see it on a video, you know, that would just reconfirm what my mind was telling me I’m doing wrong. And so that would help a little bit, but I wouldn’t. I guarantee I wouldn’t spend too much time there. I don’t want to know. Okay, you’re in a situation of game time. This guy’s got a two, three, a two, one slider, but Okay, what if he doesn’t? You know, that’s why you see today, and I watched some baseball. You see today’s game, guys strike out looking a lot because they are convinced the pitcher’s going to throw this particular pitch, and they don’t, especially when it’s a fastball down the middle, and they take it, you go, what’s going on? Well, that’s just too much information, too much thinking going on. You know, you can, you can have all that information, but when you get that box and you’re hidden, you just need to focus on what’s happening right then, right now. If this guy is dominant with his fastball, that’s what you have to look for and adjust to everything else after that, but to be sitting on one pitch can also be dangerous. If I’m facing Randy Johnson from the left side throwing 100 miles an hour with fastball, he’s got a big sweeper. If I’m looking for that sweeper only, and he throws a fastball in and misses, I could be dead. So you literally have to figure out how to protect yourself against that kind of thing, protect your face and your hands, and then still be able to hit that ball away. So you don’t want a ton of info. You want like information, but you have to hone it down. You have to narrow it down when you’re when you’re in the box, because it’s, you just have a split second to react. And it’s, it’s these guys saw as hard as they say they do, that’s what you should be looking for.
Nestor Aparicio 24:24
Fred Lynn is here visiting with us from Southern California for no good reason other than he was Baltimore oriole, my favorite player in 1975 and I tracked him down. All right, so a couple things have happened the internet. Obviously, if I would have had you on a 2004 I never wouldn’t have been this good, because I found that they’re not just the Aqua Velva commercial, but about 20 minutes for you came on. I got rid of Rick Vaughn, and he’s giving me all this Minnesota. Frank Viola, Ron Davis, Kurt Wardle was the other one. Kurt Wardle was a Saturday night walk off. I looked at 49,000 people. Must have been tanker night out at the ballpark. I. Um, but I found that you were on fantasy island. And I know you talked on opening day up at Fenway with a you people can find the video. Give me the long form version. I mean, I told my wife, did you know Fred Lim was on the Fantasy Island? She said, It’s a plane. It’s a plane. And I’m thinking, you know, um, there were some benefits to being a good looking ball player, handsome man out in Southern California playing for the angels. I would think, you know, a lot of the Rams players in Merlin Olsen and Fred drier went into acting or whatnot, but you got
Speaker 1 25:30
a gig. I didn’t know it well. Here’s the story. The backstory to that. Remember the show mash? Well, radar was on mash radar O’Reilly, and it was his fantasy to pitch against major leaguers and strike out Steve Garvey, George Brett and yours truly. So that’s how I got on the show. And to be honest with you, it was, it was very comical to watch non baseball people direct baseball baseball players. I remember they got Steve Garvey hitting, and the cameraman put his camera like at his feet, right in front of the plate, and he says, okay, Garvey, I want you to hit one over my head. And I’m going, What could possibly go wrong here? They think that we can do anything we want with a ball. He could have drooled the guy, but, you know, Garvey, just it went over the guy’s head. He goes, good, that’s we’ll take it. We’ll take that one. I’m going, Oh my god. So during the show, they have to make radar look good on the Mount, right? So what they did is they drilled a hole in a baseball, and they ran a wire through it, and they connected the wire to the catcher’s glove, and then they took a ball on the mound and they threw it, and then they shook the wire, and the ball did a loop de loop thing on camera, on the show, and it’s so very difficult to hit right and on the show, you can’t see the wire, but it looked really cool when they did it. And the director told me, he says, Okay, he’s going to strike you out on this loop to loop to pitch. I want you to swing and miss and fall down in a heap. And that’s it. I didn’t know how to do that. That’s not what I do. I I had to think about it. So I need to swing and fall down. How’s that going to work? Could never done that before. Reggie would always go to the ground, you know, on a swing, right? Yeah, on one knee, and but I’m going to fall down, you know, and look up to the camera. And I kind of did it, sort of, and then my line was, and I thought, Nolan Ryan was tough, you know. So it was, it took two days to film it, but got to see a lot of my friends, George bread, and of course, it was one of my good friends, and Steve Garvey and Ellis Valentine, Ken Brett was there too. So it was, it was a fun, fun experience. And when I watched the show back as I said, wow, it’s a lot of work for just one little shot, but it was fun. You get your union card. I did. I was gonna say you gotta get your sag card for that. I was gonna bring up the union and all that. I get royalties from that. Every once in a while, it’s like $2.20
Nestor Aparicio 28:07
8Well, is it, you know, we’re I talk baseball, modern baseball, every day here about all this and Rubenstein buying the Orioles and all that, the labor discord that you had in that era. You know, it’s just, it really was the War of the Worlds for all of you, and ownership with Marvin Miller in the middle of it. I mean, really, you were in the middle Messersmith, that whole era of free agency that you benefited from, that, you know, my my cousin did benefit from, right? I mean, the guys that you know of that era, um, the union’s a big part of the baseball story, you know, as I think of it, that’s why I brought up the union card. I’m like, Yeah, you were a part of a much bigger much bigger union.
Speaker 1 28:44
Yeah. You know, it was very adversarial the relationship between players and owners at that point, because in, in after, in 75 the Messiah, Smith, McNally, those two guys were going into court, and we knew, we knew that they were going to win that case, and free agency, free agency was going to happen. And so there were a lot of things going on. And you know, we we didn’t talk to the owners, didn’t talk to us, didn’t like what was happening, because they had complete control over us for, well, forever, and then they didn’t. And so there were lockouts and there were strikes. It was my whole career was adversarial with with with the owners. It just was, um, and now I’m not quite sure it’s quite that way. You know, the money is so much bigger, and everybody’s making so much money that I think it’s abated somewhat. But the guys right before me and my group of guys, you know, we basically paved the way. We took some lumps along the way. And I, I kind of figured out, I think I lost like, almost a half a year of playing time because of lockouts and strikes during my the course of my career. So I. It was tough sometimes, but, you know, well worth it, you know, and today’s players, I I hope they appreciate what the guys before them have done
Nestor Aparicio 30:08
well. I think I certainly mean speaking for my family and my cousin, who didn’t make life altering money ever, you know, made money, made good money by regular standards, when you came in at 75 life altering money happened right at the beginning of the Reggie, Nolan, Ryan, your period of time where guys were getting lottery ticket kind of money, where it could be really life altering before that, all the money, even for Mickey Mantle, right? And for any of any of those guys, it was always a fight. And you know now it just feels like it rolls off. And having come from your era, to come to here to see how much money is involved in it and how much beers are at the ballpark, it’s the sport has come a long way. I just hope they don’t shut it down next year, because it’s so much fun. It’s defined your life. It’s certainly helped my life to be an Aparicio and to do sports radio for 35 years. It’s really it was fun. It was an honor. I’m gonna hit the gavel and say you can be dismissed, but thank you for coming on. And before you go, I want you to talk about your animals and and your golf. How’s your golf game? Let’s start with that, because I know that’s what you guys do out there in Southern California.
Speaker 1 31:12
Yeah, you know what? That’s one thing I could still do, is play golf. You know is, you get older, you start dropping sports. I played, I played full card basketball till, you know, my late 40s, and I played tennis pretty well until my 60s, and I had a double knee replacement a couple years ago. And, you know, I can get out there and hit if I want to, but golf is the thing that, you know, we all could still do because of handicaps. And I can, I can move it around for an old guy, you know, so I play pretty well. But as far as charity work goes, my wife and I kind of champion this charity called the face foundation in San Diego. And it’s a, it’s a local charity that strictly is for saving animals. You know, when you have euthanasia at your front door, and you are a family, so there’s a lot of military down here in San Diego, and circumstances are beyond your control, and it’s either, you know, euthanize your animal, or you have to give them up, or somebody steps in. Will face steps in this organization, if you have a say, your dog is hit by a car or something like that, and you can’t pay for it. Well, we have a deal with a lot of that’s in San Diego area, and we take care of it. And thus far, since we’ve been involved, my wife and I probably about 12 years now, I think we saved about 5000 animals.
8Nestor Aparicio 32:38
That’s beautiful, man. If you know how much I love my cat, you’d know,
Speaker 1 32:42
well, yeah, it’s, it’s so it’s a, it’s a wonderful organization there that the benefits of championing this is that it’s right now, you know, we’re not trying to find a cure for something other than the fact that we’re going to save an animal for somebody. And you can you imagine two little kids at home, and there are animals, you know, it’s, it’s going to be real dicey whether or not they, you save this animal and then that animal comes home. It’s like Christmas. So it’s, if anybody wants to get involved or take a look at their website, it’s face four, number four pets.org, I’m on it right now. Yeah, you want to take a look at it and see what we’re all about. It’s just, and 100% of anything that’s donated goes right to the animals. It’s just a wonderful organization. And I’ve seen a lot of charities in my lifetime, but this is the most rewarding for my wife and I. Boy, they got
Nestor Aparicio 33:36
this beautiful Labrador Retriever out in the Pacific Ocean. I hope that you know one of the good beaches up there. Solana, he’s one of the by the belly up. That’s right, yeah, that’s where I need to be, Fred. Fred Lynn is here. Fred Lynn’s hitting the road. Thank you very much, and I’m glad that you made a little time, and it just it was always fun to watch you play baseball and to have heroes that, 50 years later, can come on and talk about good charities and tell some old stories about the old glories of Memorial Stadium. As I drove by there, the Memorial Stadium ground is now why that serves the community there. It’s an incredible, you know, community thing. And obviously Camden Yards been with so the baseball legacy of everything here in Baltimore is just a beautiful thing all these years later, Fred, I’m
Speaker 1 34:18
8going to say one more shout out to 33rd Street. You know, that’s where Memorial Stadium was. And, yeah, it was, it was for the Baltimore Colts, you know, in the play baseball too. And that’s when the the Baltimore Colts left town at midnight. Remember that?
Nestor Aparicio 34:32
I do remember that
Speaker 1 34:35
I was a big colts fan. I was a John dynas guy, number 19, right? So, I was a big colts fan, and it was hated to see that happen. But to reiterate, I just love my time there. I really did. My wife, Natalie and I, we made a lot of friends, and we had nothing but fond memories about Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 34:55
Did you wear 19 because of Johnny Unitas? Are you making that up? I. Oh
8Speaker 1 35:01
no. I mean number 19. And we’ve just had was quinos. Alright, I was number eight in college, so when I got to the big leagues, well, some guy named stremski had eight, and I think he was going to give it up. So I said, Well, see, how can it work? This out? How 19? See, one from nine is eight, so 19, that’s it. Alright, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 35:20
a math equation. That’s fine. All right. Good, good, good, Fred. Thank you very much. Fred Lynn’s out in Southern California. Help him by helping face for pets.org. I love when everybody has a cause out there. We should all have a cause as beautiful as this golden retriever out in the surf. Makes me want to get out to San Diego and see some baseball at some point, I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T am 15 70,000 Baltimore, and if we’re going to be last place all summer, I’m gonna go find some cool baseball people to talk to. So stick around. I’m.
