Still shaking off that horrible Preds loss in double OT,
which was preceded by that horrible loss by the Orioles in the 12th.
All that promise last night just led to a double whammy.
Even my wife’s team nearly got no-hit! It was ugly!
Just sitting around, doing website stuff and thought I’d
pound out a little message.
I really hope all of you are enjoying WNST’s new place in
the cyberworld.
One day I’ll blog about how all of this got put together —
you really deserve to know the stuff that inspires me to build and create WNST.
It’s really a fun little company with some awesome people and awesome
supporters.
Three days into our “new” existence, I once again
want to reiterate my sincere thanks to everyone associated with our radio
station and website. We are now not just a “little” radio station,
getting continually scoffed at by our detractors. We are now a Baltimore sports
“presence” throughout the world.
Every day I get email from people from all over the country
and even in Europe, displaced Baltimoreans and Marylanders who want to keep
their finger in the pie at home.
8
We will continue to work hard, take the highest road
possible and bring you the truth and insights into Baltimore’s sports world.
We will start as a really good sports radio station website,
but this will grow organically into Baltimore’s No. 1 place for sports news,
information, conversation, commerce and — most importantly to me — fellowship
of people with a common interest.
The next project that is coming very soon will be sports
forums — and then you get to tell us what’s on YOUR mind!
In all of my efforts to run a great radio station, I gotta
admit that I had lost focus on the web and the how much the media world has
been changing — and not necessarily for the better.
You can see the sorry state of the local sports media scene
by simply looking to some of our competitors — homogenized fluff, one-way
communication, announcers/reporters who are not truly empowered to speak their
minds and the truth and a half-hearted attempt to really connect with the
“soul” of Baltimore.
We have ALWAYS attempted to find the soul and the conscience
of Baltimore sports, because we’ve provided a two-way communication forum
dating back to 1992, when all Baltimore had was Jeff Rimer, Rex Barney and Stan
Charles on the radio after dark.
Now it’s a 24/7 world…and we’re a 24/7 website and media
entity.
8You will see that the changes will be coming fast and
furiously!
Forums…and audio vault with old-school interviews with
Charley Eckman, John Steadman, Johnny Unitas — you name it…Fantasy sports
leagues…scores and news and information from high school, community
associations, recreation councils…community bloggers and tipsters…if it has
something to do with sports and Baltimore, we’re going to promote it, help fund
it, help support it and let Baltimore use this place on the web to communicate,
connect and network.
But most of all, we’re gonna have some fun, help make our
community a better place and stop allowing these major, out-of-town, media
corporate whores from coninuing to lie to the public while profiting off of and protecting the guilty.
This will be a site that follows the motto of the radio
station: of the people, by the people, for the people…I honestly believe that
in my soul.
On Tuesday I was REALLY feeling crappy about the world and the
station and the Orioles and why the hell I bother doing this after all of these
years when the original reasons I started it don’t necessarily motivate me any
more.
The hypocrisy of the media and the Orioles — combined with
a mean-spirited bunch of liars — has honestly depressed me.
And I went to my bookshelf looking for a good book to read.
8I have never read John Steadman’s From Colts To Ravens,
a book he wrote 10 years ago, right after the Ravens arrived from Cleveland.
John, who was really my godfather and mentor in this business, wrote to me in a
blue pen in the front:
To Nestor: Your success has not surprised me. Remember, I
knew you when. Only the best in life to you as a friend — loyal and true!
John S. Steadman
I thought about the Orioles being what they are…and the
Ravens being what they’ve become in all of our lives…and I started to think
about Steady would have said to Angelos on Monday after I was escorted out of
the lobby of Camden Yards, denied a press credential basically for speaking my
mind after 23 years in journalism.
Steadman would have gone trans-medieval…I mean, it would’ve
been something to see, him blowing his stack with his silver mane of hair all
stacked up!
He would’ve cursed…LOUDLY! And over and over again!
It made me smile.
8So I picked up the book and have been reading it on and off
ever since. GREAT STUFF!
I can’t believe I waited 10 years to read it!
But, I suppose there’s a time and season for everything. It
was meant to be, me reading Steadman the day after I got thrown out of Oriole
Park for telling the truth. And even more so, now that NO ONE — not ONE of
these cowards and/or phony “media sources” (radio, print and TV) I wrote about two days ago — has come to my
defense in any way. As predicted!
Which, of course, makes ME look like the liar! It’s not
“news” until it appears in The Sun, four days later, obviously!
It’s amazing if the lie gets told enough long enough and
loud enough — especially on the internet — it becomes the truth.
I’ve had a Orioles media credential since 1986. I didn’t
apply in 2005 or 2006, basically, because I didn’t want to be there anymore.
The mojo of being around liars makes me squeamish. It’s just bad energy, ya
know?
BUT…with the advent of this website and the reality of news
and information being what it is, I decided to go back to the ballpark this
year to write about baseball (my first love) and try to see if anything had
truly changed with the Orioles. Maybe things would get better, I thought
foolishly. Maybe this summer could be fun?
8I knew when they issued their media credential application
form last Friday night at 6:30 p.m. that they still clearly don’t have their act
together in The Warehouse. And when I went to bed Sunday night not knowing
whether any of us had credentials or not, I was convinced that they are still
the bunch of incompetents they’ve always been.
But, when it comes to me being denied a pass, I KNOW…and I
mean KNOW…in MY SOUL…that Steadman would’ve gone nuts defending me! He would’ve
written a gigantic front-page missive, challenging everyone to speak out for
free speech! And he’d call Angelos a coward and a bully, tell him that he should
be accountable to the fans, the media, the sponsors — the people who BUILT the
Orioles.
That is, if The News American or The Sun even allowed him to do. Because the minute he did, Angelos would make a call and the $5,000-per day ad that was on Page 3 for the rest of the summer promoting ski-cap night would be pulled and some suit upstairs at the paper would lose a couple of hundred grand.
Are they in the business of business or the business of honesty? I’m wondering that myself!
Folks, that’s just the reality of the situation. Pick up any newspaper around town, any weekly sports periodical, any website with an Oriole ad on it — any radio station or TV with MASN and/or Orioles ads and KNOW — ABSOLUTELY KNOW — that their organization is BOUGHT OFF, if not fully at least to some degree. And if a 23-year veteran citizen and journlist being the ONLY ONE who is on the “uninvited” list for a press pass isn’t telling about how the Orioles and the mass media feels about “free speech,” than nothing is.
What happened to me this week is a really “F-ed up” thing, in my mind. And I don’t think I’ve gotten five emails in either direction, taking any side or the Orioles side. It’s like standard operating procedure with Major League Baseball and the Orioles and it should be outed, but the media is too bought off to out it!
It has really soured me on the world, at least for a couple of days, until I pick myself up by my bootstraps and come barrelling back.
8So, what my “17-year-old Dundalk guy” voice is telling
me to say is: “F- all of those cowards” who have ignored one of their
“own” getting expelled and denied equal access and First Amendment
rights!
But what my experience and the “38-year-old grown
up” business owner in me is telling me to do is this: sit back, read some
Steadman this afternoon, get inspired, think about the 2007 Ravens season,
mellow out, do some yoga and make WNST.net a great community website and
company so that the truth will never be suppressed and that the flame of people
like Steadman and Charley Eckman will forever burn in Baltimore.
I’m done for now.
But clearly, there will be more…a lot more…
But I gotta go read some Steadman and mellow out!
BTW: Not that I told you so, but the Orioles ARE 3-6.
The record speaks for itself.
