With our crew in Florida for Orioles spring training and a new beginning for the baseball franchise, Luke Jones and Nestor wonder aloud where and why the Ravens’ owner might be seeking quiet shelter while the rest of his billionaire partners convene at the NFL Owners Meetings in Orlando this week to count their money. (We’ll be there, too! Like we always are…)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, team, day, week, talk, games, point, baseball, owners, sarasota, orioles, baltimore, win, ravens, playoffs, work, handle, watch, fans, good
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Look at home we are W N S T A and 1570 tasks in Baltimore and Baltimore positive you’re watching out on the YouTube make sure you’re subscribing to us clicking on us and all that stuff. I’m the guy in the Mr. Rogers a sweater because it’s chilly here but I am getting my Latin blood ready for a little Florida. I don’t know vacation staycation I’ve been to Florida a million times. I don’t know how many times Luke’s been I know I’ve been to Sarasota with Luke. I know I’ve been to Miami with Luke. But I never been to Disneyworld with Luke. So this might be kind of fun. We’re gonna be going to Sarasota later on this week. We’re heading on down to Orlando. They let Luke in they don’t let me in i Maybe it’s my long hair. Maybe it’s my Venezuelan heritage. I’m really not sure but I will not be on the inside but I’ll have my Oriole jersey on which I may sport for the segment’s over with as well as at the NFL owners media just wait you can follow Luke you can follow us at wn St. One of us will be acting like a reporter the other one of us will be acting like Lou from Back to School driving. Driving Mr. Luke through Florida. Woke up. We’re going down this week and March Madness used to be such a big thing with the players right we we lost the late great Jim pool. Recently one of my favorite people when Mark Messina comes on he and I will talk about Jim pool. I know that Rick Vaughn and I talked about Jim pool a couple of weeks ago as well. But Jim pool was famous along with Mike Messina for handling the pool, the March Madness pool of the Orioles players. Boy March Madness is like, thumbs down this year for all of us, you and I used to get out of Sarasota and watch the Terps play. We’d make time on an evening and watch you to watch up Superman or whoever it was, you know, dribble for the Terps or maybe even dribble Duke at some point. But we’re going down to Sarasota and it’s a contending baseball team that you’re going to be on the clubhouse with every day with new ownership that I’m crossing my fingers that they’re nice, sane decent people who understand I want to cover the baseball team and I’m tired of writing Peter principles and releasing 18 year old books on my dad and his love of baseball. You and I are going to love some baseball this weekend. I’m gonna put a ball cap on I’m not going to cut my hair, but I will put it up under my ball cap and be proper. I’m getting to go to Jet Blue Park. You know I’ve I’ve been to Fort Myers but I’ve really never been to Fort Myers. I mean, we were gonna spend the night we’re gonna go drinking in Fort Myers we’re gonna see what Fort Myers is made up on Thursday night, Luke.
Luke Jones 02:36
There you go. And you know, you mentioned we’ve been to Sarasota but it’s been nine years I went back and
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:44
it’s been nine years since you and I worked Sarasota.
Luke Jones 02:47
It was 2015 when we went and it was early. It was very early in spring training before the games had started, which is obviously that’s probably all things being equal, that might be the most ideal time to go and obviously that’s right up against the end of the Superbowl and to the football I
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:06
can tell you that me as a solo artist and also as a radio station probably did about 16 or 17 straight years of going to spring training. We always went February right you get down there everybody’s loose. There’s no bosses here and there. It’s a pain in the ass to shop now in the middle of it. It’s really gruesome to show up at the end for for veteran, you know when we’ll Clark’s there. And when Roberto Alomar is, it’s different than I think it is for this bunch. i I wish I had a press pass this week. I know you do. You know some of these cats, I can’t wait to fly into this thing at some point. hopefully fingers crossed, media paths crossed to like fly into this because this is an exciting, exciting, exciting thing for the city for fans for any guy named aparece. You for anybody who loves baseball, this is exciting, man. No question about
Luke Jones 03:58
it. And you’ve got a young group that potentially could get a little bit younger in terms of some of the prospects that you and I’ve talked about in some of our previous discussions. But no, I think it’s fun, you know, in seeing the end of spring training, kind of just sniff things out a little bit, see where they stand. I mean, obviously guys are optimistic. I think players at this point in time, you know, having talked to guys over the years where, you know, I’m there for a workout the day before opening day at the ballpark, whatever. And you guys already know that guys are ready at this point in time, you know, assuming, aside from guys that are dealing with a little bit of a health issue here or there. I mean, you know, mountcastle is a little banged up right now, Mullins was a little banged up. Obviously we’ve talked about the pitchers who are dealing with arm issues that are going to delay the start of their season, but for the most part I think guys have been down there for what five weeks now. The lights at the end of the tunnel in terms of hey, it’s go time It’s time to back to Baltimore. It’s time to play the angels on opening day. And to get this thing going and but
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:02
there’s also a lot of uncertainty too, right? I mean, there’s sure amongst players trades almost, you know, there’s 15 guys here that they could trade on this roster, and none of it would shock me for the right bag of baseball. So you know, for the right. starting pitcher for the right relief pitcher, if it’s out there, Elias is going to be on it. I have no doubt about that. I mean, there. He’s fine tuning this thing to be better in October? Not to be I hope we’re in in the race in August.
Luke Jones 05:29
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s fair. I mean, I think he’s methodical. And however he does it, he tends to be methodical. So that’s where I’ve said, and we’ve talked about it. And the idea of I’m not necessarily expecting a trade by opening day, but who knows, you know, Corbin burns, that move came out of nowhere, right? In one of the most exciting weeks in the history of the franchise, back in late end of January, beginning of February. So you never really know from that standpoint. But yeah, there’s that anxiousness. Certainly guys that are on the proverbial roster bubble. You know, whether they’re going to start, you know, you have guys who want to be in Baltimore, they don’t want to go to Norfolk, for the start of the triple A season, they want to be in Baltimore. And you
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:12
know, there’s 30 guys that hope they’re going to be here and fine and dandy and fold to get this point. And I mean, and to your point, somebody’s getting traded this week, I’m convinced to that. I’m convinced that WNS detects coming before the end. No, I
Luke Jones 06:24
mean, I’m no convinced of it. No. convinced of that, I mean, I think if Mike Elias feels that the best thing they can do is to hold on to guys that they’re not going to bring up to Baltimore right now, but fortify their offensive depth, or, you know, their outfield depth or whatever it might be, and thinks that they can get more value for a guy in a trade a month from now, then, no, he’s not. He’s not gonna. Not gonna force anything. I think we’ve seen that over and over at this point. So I’m saying I wouldn’t be shocked by that. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:56
don’t think I’m blockbuster. I don’t think they’re getting another burns. But I don’t get open help. And I And to your point, it might not be in a trade, it might be off the edge of a roster. But that creates even more of like the guys we’ve talked about for the last three weeks that there’s one less guy you thought, you know, march 15, do you think that he probably coming north, and then two guys get in the way because some guys falls off the side of a roster and they deal for another Coulomb?
Luke Jones 07:24
Right, right. And let’s be clear, when you said send out the wn St. Text, it might be some guy that no one that we haven’t even heard of before. I mean, I don’t send out a text alert when it’s someone that no one has ever heard from before. At the same time, they’ve acquired some guys that fit that description, and that end up contributing for the hurry heard him later. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So. So from that standpoint, yeah. I mean, you’d have to think there’s a pretty good chance that, you know, some team that places a guy on waivers or DFAS, on whatever, maybe there’s some small trade that’s made. But in terms of something big, I wouldn’t necessarily assume that’s happening. But they have they had the capital to do it. I mean, there’s no question about that. But I think Mike Elias will be the first to say, look, when the penet April 5, you know, we don’t need to have our bullpen finalized or fortified by April 30th. You know, we want to have that for the stretch, certainly want to have it by October. So, you know, and we talked about that a lot last year. And, you know, they ended up not really being able to do that, you know, of Fuji was not it didn’t work out, you know, it was worth taking the swing, but it didn’t work out. So same with Jack Flaherty. So, you know, you’re not gonna bet 1000 on those on those attempts. But yeah, you look at this team right now. You were gonna, I’m gonna be in the clubhouse this week, looking around and wondering if some of the young guys you know, are they going to be there opening day? If not, when will they be? There will be many will be June, you know, so, you know, I think I think Jackson holiday is going to be on the opening day. German, I think he’s done everything you can possibly ask. At the same time, I’ll remind everyone. He had 91 plate appearances that trip away last year, it’s 20 years old. He’s learning a new position, although, you know, the early reviews have been that he’s looked good at second base. But if they’re if they deem them, it’d been better for him to, I don’t know spend three or four weeks in Norfolk. You know, who am I to argue with that? I mean, but because we don’t know for sure, you know, in the same way that Gunnar Henderson struggled some early on last year and he was Rookie of the Year so Jackson Holliday could get here, may 1 and still win rookie of the year. So it’s not as though opening day is the beginning. It’s not a you know, it’s not a culmination. It’s the beginning of 2024. And what the roster looks like on opening day, surely is not what it’s going to look like July 31, or October 1. So you know that that’s what Are you looking at this thing? You know, Mike Elias is deliberate. He’s very deliberate in what he does. I think we know that by now if there’s anything we know about him as a general manager, it’s that he’s going to be methodical and deliberate. And, yeah, homemaker move when it makes sense, but he’s not going to make a move just for the sake of making the move. So I think through that lens, you know, what, being down there this week, and looking at the guys that are going to play that, okay, we know the veteran players, I mean, that’s that there’s nothing that terribly exciting about that. But it’s looking at a Kobe male and saying, you know, when is he going to be in Baltimore? You know, could it be May, could it be June, you know, looking at you know, we’ve already talked about Jackson holiday, but looking at some of the young pitchers, you know, they’ve got some guys that are going to be in the triple A Norfolk rotation that could help them at some point, whether you’re talking about a Povich or whether you’re talking about a chase McDermott, you know, guys like that, that aren’t going to be in the opening day rotation, but could factor in at some point down the line, or it could be traded for something else. So you know, it’s, it’s really a time period to kind of one just see some baseball, live and live in color and the excitement of knowing that opening days right around the corner. But also, you have to kind of feel out what some of these guys what they look like on the field, you know, how they handle themselves in the clubhouse, all of that. And, you know, I’ll get an idea of that this week. Nope. No sweeping conclusions by any stretch of the imagination, but very much looking forward to kind of seeing what the proverbial vibe is around the club has opening days just about here. Well, you
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:35
gotta it’s a crowded bag, right? I mean, much like with the ravens, every time Marlon Humphrey and Ronnie Stanley and Lamar Jackson come back from getting their ass kicked in the postseason. It gets saltier, it gets more tired, you know, they’ve only got one, right. And there’s all of this optimism and for the young players, they got kicked in the teeth in Arlington. And it’s a long shot. But that’s all over with now. Now. It’s just here we are. We’re a new group, there’s a lot of hope. There’s a lot of optimism but also due to boatload of confidence that this team’s really good. And showed it not just over the balance of last year, but over the balance of the last year and a half. And the expectations through the roof that I don’t know a quiet confidence. I don’t know what it would be called but quiet competence as well. Because they, they look to be up to the part that right from the get go this year. They should come out of the gate and be above 500 team in the early weeks. And they shouldn’t be seven and 14 and limping through the end of April. Right. I mean, there’s there’s zero chance of that happening in my mind, especially now that the fortified some of the pitching and they got a real starter. And they’re coming north with all of this. I just a different level of expectation, but to see the young guys and dealing with that disappointment, and shouldering that on to say, all right, 101 last year, 103 this year, and I know you’re not going to say that you’ll say 100 ones really high bar, like 13 wins. We set a lot of bars here last year. And then we set a lot of bars for how disappointing it can be when it doesn’t go well. And you hope the guys respond well to that. Yeah,
Luke Jones 13:18
I mean, look, I’m not even gonna, I’ll disagree with you and saying there’s no chance that they start 714 It’s baseball over the course of a 162 game season. Even really good teams go through stretches, where they might go seven and 14 over a 21 game stretch. Now do I am I predicting that? Of course not. Uh, but I think it lends itself well to something that I’m going to be looking for not this week, specifically, but just in a general standpoint, I think is a fair question for this team is they are in a better a different position now, in terms of, they’re not going to sneak up on anyone anymore. I mean, last year, look, they were coming off of the really good set half and 2022. Right. You know, they were in the wildcard race all the way until about the last 10 days of the regular season. I mean, it was really impressive season, but there was still at that point of, okay, that was good. But what about A, B and C? You know, what about these issues? You’re still really young. What about the pitching going through the list? And then 101 win wins later, they were the top team in the American League and had the number one seed in the playoffs before being swept by the Rangers. I think what’s going to be key for this team now is how do you handle expectations? Not so much from the media or fans, but for themselves? You know very well that this team had a lot to think about over the offseason in terms of being swept by the rangers and having the five day layoff and how that impacted them and having all these dreams of making a deep playoff run or going to the World Series and it didn’t work out that way. Hey, it happens right as the Dodgers about that as the Braves about that the last couple years where they’ve been, you know, arguably the two The best teams in baseball over the last four or five years, and we’ve seen how the postseason is gone for them at times. So you know, it’s it happens. But how does this team compartmentalize and get back in a mindset of handling their business? Understanding that you can’t make the playoffs in April, you know, you can’t make the playoffs and may you have nothing you can do to change anything about how you play in October, in June or July, right, you have to focus at the on the task at hand. And that’s a challenge for any club. And I remember famous famously talking about the Orioles of the Buck show Walter era, which was a much more veteran laden club, we talked about it all the time about what their ability to compartmentalize, you know, to not get too high, or to get too low. They did a great job with this last year, for a young team, especially. But it is different when you have expectations, you know, when you’re in a position where and I get it, you know, you look at Vegas, I mean, the Yankees are the favorite to be in the to win the Al east, I get that. But it’s a team that’s clearly not being picked to finish last right, you know, there’s that territory that they’ve graduated well beyond that. So, you know, it is a challenge for younger players, and really, for everyone, but especially younger players to just handle expectations. And I think it’s just going to be important for these guys to, to handle that, to manage that to be in a position of knowing that, hey, if we do get off to a rocky start, and we’re seven and 10, after 17 games, that’s not the end of the world. That’s not any reason for panic. Now, you don’t want that to happen. But over the course of a full season, yeah, anyone in baseball is gonna lose 10 of 17 at some point in time, I mean, that’s, that’s not even that bad of a slump in the big picture. But if it happens in April, it’s more magnified. Right? Everyone’s overreacted, because we overreact in April. So it’s just, you know, it’s just about the the maturity of the club. And look, I’m not questioning that, but it’s just what any team has to deal with. You know, we talked about this some last year, and I think it’s gonna it’s irrelevant just because of Mike Elias and sigma del, but you look back at the Astros 2015 was the year they broken as a wildcard. Now they didn’t win 101 games like the Orioles did this past year. But what happened the following year, it was a bumpy ride for them go back and look, they missed the playoffs. And it wasn’t this linear improvement where you say, Okay, well, we want 87 games, and then we’re gonna win 92 And then we’re gonna win 98. And then we’re gonna win the World Series and win 103 games, it doesn’t go like that. And that’s why I’ve made the point in terms of saying, you know, if you’re asking me to bet against the, you know, 101 wins over under, I’m gonna bet the honor. And that’s not to say that I don’t like this club a whole lot. But it’s really difficult to win 101 plus games, and, you know, you’ve got to stay really healthy. And they did stay really healthy last year, since Felix Batista at the end of August, you know, losing him for the final month. So you know, that this team, easily could be, you know, I don’t know, a 93 win team. And maybe that’s good enough to win the division, or maybe they’re the top wildcard, but you know, what, they might be better equipped, even if they only win 93 games, they might be better positioned from a talent level standpoint, from a confidence level standpoint, from a health standpoint, they might be better equipped at that point to make a playoff run, you know, better equipped than they were last October. So, you know, you just don’t know, you’ve got to be able to roll with the punches in a long season. I mean, you know, that Nestor, I mean, anyone who’s a baseball fan understands that things aren’t gonna go your way. I mean, just like we were talking about a month and a half ago, we were talking about, oh, my gosh, this team has Corbin burns, and Kyle Bradish as a one two punch. And then we find out the first day of spring training, what Kyle Bradish is dealing with elbow soreness, so
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:49
not allowed to have good things around here, you know,
Luke Jones 18:52
I mean, you know, things, things aren’t gonna go perfectly, you know, it’s just, it’s the nature of the beast. But the good news is even understanding that providing that caveat, they’ve got so much going for them that they have the ability to adjust. And one they’re really talented. I mean, they’ve got so many good young players, and to, they’ve got a general manager who has resources in terms of prospects. And again, like I said, hoping that they have some payroll flexibility, if the right move presents itself that they can add an Augment, you know, whether it’s a signing, whether it’s a trade later in the year, whatever it is, that they can improve that they are in a position that if they have a need, that they can go out and address that needs. So, you know, it’s this time of year I, you know, for me the big question that no one can answer because you have to just go out and do it, right. I mean, guys are gonna say, Yeah, we’re not focusing on October, but your play has to reflect that. And I think for these guys, it’s going to get back. They have to get back in a mindset of where they were last April through September. Right because that’s where you are not playing postseason games in April. So they’ve got to get back to that. And if they do, and I think they will, then they’ll be fine. And they’re gonna win a lot of baseball games this year. And whether it’s 101, again, or whether it’s 95. Well, I fully expect them to be in the playoff race and making the playoffs and being back in the postseason and having another shot at it after the disappointment of last year. But you’ve got to handle your business, you got a whole long, long way to go until we’re talking about playoff seeding and all that. So, again, that’s the challenge, I think, for a young club, that privately branded item Mike Elias and the coaching staff, you know, they’re they’re just they’re, they’re curious, you know, they’re intrigued to see how these guys are going to handle the fact that now you have all these expectations, there’s no longer going to be questions about Oh, Wow, isn’t this fun? I mean, you guys were in last place two years ago, and now you’re winning 101 games, that’s not going to be the line of questioning anymore. The line of questioning now is had you blog the moment you know, yeah, I mean, it’s gonna be much more on the present and where your head not, hey, this is way better than it was a year or two ago, you know, now it’s more so hey, you’re a big boy now. And by the way, these guys should embrace that. That’s, that’s a compliment to them. You know, it’s, they’re not going to be graded on a curve anymore. And that’s a credit to all the work they put in. But until you see a team handle that, it’s at least a fair question. And it’s not a concern. It’s a question, and we’ll see how they start handling it come next week and getting into the meat of the season.
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:37
We are going down to Sarasota we’re doing a little baseball, Luke Jones joining us here. We’re also gonna be doing some football the owners meetings are going on. Will there’ll be a papel sighting? Will it be purple plumes of smoke flying over the four seasons that does deep shoddy will appear or answer questions. You know, and this is where the unseemliness of having a wide receiver getting checked out for offseason shenanigans and not nearly the problems the average three kill right now down in Miami. Only again. But you know, this is where owners kind of hide and you’re going to the owners meetings for the first time. Just some thoughts on all that horrible is gonna have his breakfast before it’s all over with next week as well. We’re going down for double duty. I used to do this for like professionally, the owners meetings for the NFL. It’s just there’s never an off minute, right. There’s never a nanosecond words down. And I don’t know what the biggest questions for them are. I think part of it is the business of streaming and the business for baseball to Bill Cole and I talked about my Rubinstein fixing the team and all that baseball’s got fundamental issues with how the game’s being presented that the new Orioles ownerships going to inherit, but meanwhile, we get these 32 fat cats that just money flying everywhere for the football owners. And I don’t know what their big questions are, what were mean was how to Guy guy on the field last year, right? So last owners meetings was a different, there were different tones and all of that. I don’t know what’s important to them anymore. Obviously, these international games, you could play game in Brazil this year, and making money and money and more money. But really the presentation of the games, the thing I’m interested in, because this is where all that sort of gets hashed out. And Amazon comes over the hill and says we’re going to start putting Saturday night playoff games on peacock.
Luke Jones 23:36
Yeah, well, I mean, that’s definitely a topic of discussion and will remain a topic of discussion. I don’t think you are many people are going to like the answers that you’re going to hear. Because there’s probably gonna be more of that, right. I mean, streaming is not going away. And that’s reality, I think, you know, the NFL is different because it’s, you know, a much more exclusive product in terms of it’s a much smaller number of games, right? I mean, the exclusivity of it the the you know, once a week, rather than a sport like baseball or even hockey or the or the NBA. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:09
why they’ve thrown all this out and make everything a television show, right? I mean, there’s you’re out there at a press conference to bang pots and pans. So everybody runs the ravens.com and watches Derrick Henry on the lounge, right? Like, that’s their television show. Now, you know that that that’s the they’re a complete dude on doing this 25th documentary on us. I released this thing on my dad and the book and like how things used to be. This is a great example of their off seasons are a television circus now for them, where even they have outtakes now, where when Sam Cooke walks into the hallway, in the middle of the shoot where they’re lining up the shot, they have to stop the tape. Tell everybody to go back into their room and reshoot the reality series. It’s insane. Hey,
Luke Jones 25:00
although I did, I did find that clip funny just because it’s Sam Cooke. And we know Sam but
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:06
I think I think it’s very, very indicative of it’s a television show now to cost is like an actor. I mean, literally, the cost used to be a real human. He was a human being in my life for 30 years. I now see him on television, mixing drinks with his wife on Facebook, and performatively performing for television cameras behind the scenes that we see. That is no longer i in the sky, Hard Knocks it’s performative television. They’re doing reality they’re doing real housewives out there. They really are. Yeah, I mean, it’s that’s where it’s calling the last five years since the plague. Oh,
Luke Jones 25:46
yeah. And and it was even trending that way before that. I mean it for you know, when you talk about teen websites, state run media, so to speak.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:54
You know, as far as just reading the social media, just the, the nonstop, Ban up eree of it all, like the self congrat every day, there’s five platitudes for how great they are and the best and we’re, it’s just, it’s sophomore ik from, from my tastes, from my media taste. And for my fan taste, it’s even over the top for nasty Nester dressed in purple and camo in the front row of the upper deck. And, yeah, with the defense sign, it’s a little new 365 that it’s a lot, man, it’s a lot.
Luke Jones 26:29
Wow. Yeah. I mean, I, but they also have plenty of social media numbers that would tell you that that works for them. You know, I mean, look, I agree. I don’t disagree with what you just said. But there are lots of people that eat it up. And the numbers kind of reflect that and support that. So I mean, it’s, you know, it, I hate to say it is what it is because it you know, it’s disappointing in some ways, but let’s face it, I mean, the reality of where the ravens are, where the NFL is, and this is true of the other sports, but to lesser degrees, because they’re every other sport is a little more niche, a little more niche of compared to the NFL, that continues to, you know, we talk about ratings going down down with just about any TV show or any other sporting event other than the NFL that continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger. It or at the very least stays the same, you know, not not, they might conflate the numbers or you know, streaming versus actual television, Nielsen ratings, but, you know, people are watching it right, everyone watches it. The biggest sport in America is is the NFL. Second biggest is the NFL offseason. I mean, it’s, it’s really, it’s just the truth, whether whether we like it or not. I mean, it’s salad is and, you know, the owners meetings, I mean, you know, I have not gotten a sense that Steve Bashaud is going to talk, you know, and,
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:53
man, we’ve really lowered the bar, you know what I mean? Like I like this isn’t about me getting thrown out, or Chad steel being charged steel. This is really, they have really purposely lowered the bar at every level for how fans are treated. And I really hope David Rubenstein comes in and sees this and if I ever made real contact with him if I get an hour or two a lunch or this or that, man I tell him you know what my eyes have seen mine eyes have seen and I’ve written about and I talk about on a daily basis. I mean locking for is off the reservation over there, right? Like, I mean, a legitimate journalist who did his whole life doing this work. Not only Cowtown to working for Angelo’s last summer but being misled by the by the by the team on purpose, to make an ass of him throwing me out to make an ass of me having me drive you around like Lou from back to school. So we can have a rep a Chad steel approved representative inside the owners meetings. I mean, it’s trash and it should be below their, their their dignity to to behave in this fashion. But this is cool. And this is a week they all get together to pull billionaires and multimillionaires and 100 millionaires like hardball and they all sit around the pool when we talk about Ronnie Stanley’s made $100 million. What Why don’t any of these people need anything other than their own internal brava you know, which is where it’s gone. And I don’t think it’s that were way everywhere. I think they wish it were that way everywhere. I think there’s places where they’re trying to build the Los Angeles chargers. Nobody cares. You know what I mean? They have franchises that are so off the radar, that they can’t get oxygen. Same thing with baseball, we’re going out of Tampa. There’s 15 teams running around down there and nobody cares about the home team. You know, so they’re there. There really is. You know, a We talk to me, dude. It’s March Madness week. You get a bracket? Neither is anybody else. You right? I mean, like,
Luke Jones 30:08
Well, I mean, if we’re gonna transition and look, I didn’t have a whole lot
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:12
bet on it. Now if you want,
Luke Jones 30:14
you know, like little you always you always could. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:16
what’s changed, dude? I mean, he’s about nine years since you and I’ve been to Sarasota. It’s going to be two years since I went to an owners meetings that I’ve been through for 20 years. The owners used to like try to be getting fans. Now they just put up a rope and put Chad steel in front and surround themselves with security and, you know, rolling underneath the stadium and roll out and give a PAP a wave. And it’s like, they don’t own the team anymore. It’s they don’t live here. It’s, you know, I’ll, I’ll be writing about that. But Rubenstein coming in that there’s a real lane here for the Orioles to do things differently. And to treat people the way the Ravens thought about things 25 years ago when they were trying to sell you a poor suckers license? Well,
Luke Jones 30:56
I mean, I mean, it comes down to it. And I’ve just pulled it up. I mean, the Ravens have 1.9 million followers on Twitter slash x, go look at how many followers they have on Instagram. I mean, through their, how they view it through their lens. And I’m not picking on the Ravens. I’m using them as an example. Because I think this is becoming more and more prevalent. I think anyone who consumes any sports teams on social media see it, they view it as they don’t need, they don’t need anyone. I mean, they can do it on their own. And they’ve got enough of a following that they can do that. Now we certainly get into the dangers of that. The drawbacks of that, you know, and this, this transcends what happens
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:34
is hardball stands up lies often, and no one’s there to call them out on and they have 1.9 million people say no, no, no, this is the truth. This is it. That guy’s only got 12,000 followers. He’s uh, he can’t be telling the truth, even though it’s obviously true, right. So I, the one thing about the offseason, when they cut players and all that we never hear who they’re lying to with agents, as he was kind of famous for pissing off kind of everybody, they make friends with nobody loyalty to no one in that industry. You don’t hear so much about that part of the offseason. Because as I said earlier, the decisions they make you learn what, who they love and who they don’t, and how they feel about Morgan, Moses and Ronnie Stanley and how they felt about Eric Emery and how they felt about Kevin Zeitler. And just you learn all of that on that. But in season, who’s starting who’s playing who’s running the ball, who’s playing the nickel back edge, you know, who’s actually coming in from the bullpen, like we learn all of that. But there used to be a give and take about legitimate questioning from legitimate experts that I deemed you one of the 2008 That’ll be in the documentary, too, that qualifies you to go in and earn the respect of Johnny Oates, and then Davey Johnson, and then Mike Hargrove, and through the Ray Miller and through the years of Cal Ripken, that you’re someone they want to converse with in the media that is going to present them fairly. There’s no more presenting fairly. you present yourself on Twitter and Facebook, social media, your agent handles you even when you tell a guy in Pennsylvania to perform fellatio. You’re like, yeah, and and then the team handles you and then chats deal blocks me at the door. And Bashar he doesn’t show up. I mean, it’s it’s almost farcical. I mean, it really is like your you’ll you’ll sense my sense of humor going down to cover all of this as reporters, but to your point, there is no more reporting there is just they’re going to call us liars when we report the truth. And they’re gonna have a video from prob, the headquarters and dispute whatever the dispute is, and handle it pretty much the way Trump’s handled thanks, quite frankly, that it’s just okay to handle things that way these days? Well, I
Luke Jones 33:50
mean, the one thing I did, there’s still reporting. I mean, there’s still lots of great reporters out there. But I think in a general sense, yeah, teams are much more guarded, much more secretive, a bit more secretive than ever. And, frankly, again, it goes back to why are we going to give that space when we can give people the news and reporting on our own website through our own media channel.
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:19
They don’t want to guide the press conference and ask why Lamar runs the ball 23 times again, they prove that I mean, like they don’t even want a tough question, let alone Oh, but they spray they still get, but they still get tough questions. I
Luke Jones 34:31
mean, I’m there every day, they get tough questions now, are they willing to answer it? You know, that’s a different story, right? I mean, you can ask the question, if they’re not going, if they don’t want to answer it, they’re not going to ask the toughest question. You
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:42
might you ain’t give you the real pitch of the question. Where’s your owner? Where’s the guy who runs it once a year? Sure. That’s not much to ask. And where is he in Baltimore? With Baltimore media, where Jane Miller can calm and the banner folks can come? And anybody that has a question about the 600 million He in dollars, we gave the organization and the gold plated bathrooms and the the beer being colder. Steve’s the pier really colder inside the perimeter of the hotdogs really tastier inside the perimeter. Really? I mean, your organization came out in front of that, after we gave you $600 million, and you’re hiding in Bimini. I mean, it’s insane. I mean, really, from where I came from trying to get a team here 30 years ago, and from the beginning of, I’m buying the team on here, we’re accountable. We’re community or like all of that to Chad Steel’s behavior. i i just, i I can only come in on it with facts. I have nothing else the facts history, words, deeds, pictures, video evidence. That’s all I come at it with. No,
Luke Jones 35:51
I mean, I don’t know what you want me to say. I mean, I, I don’t disagree. I think, you know, there’s a middle ground between what Jerry Jones is in Dallas, which is having press conferences after every game, you know, that’s it’s way too far in the other direction.
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:09
That we played the Rangers in the playoffs and saw that. Yeah. Oh, I mean, literally, you and I went to the star when a full tour with a Insider. And can’t I still can’t get over it. And I thought the scuffle a couple of weeks ago. Was it on the t shirt guy show? What’s at the ESPN guy McAfee? With it did was it not like a topic amongst cowboys players saying they’re in Houston. They’re soft over there, or whatever. And I thought to myself, these guys have so much money and so much that they can build that for football team. I mean, and I tell anybody that’s never been there. You have to be a Cowboy fan to go there to see what a circus it is. And maybe why they don’t win this decree may not hardball would come and look at that and say I can’t win like that. So some football people would look at that and literally say, that’s not a great. So it’s not an ideal situation in the way that hardball said, running around with water coolers in a gym out in Westminster is not really getting us ready for the football season, sleeping on bad beds, not not really preparing us. Right, right.
Luke Jones 37:14
But to go back to the point I was trying to make, you know, there’s Jerry Jones, who’s talking after every single football game and calling into a station in Dallas every week luck. Does the best shot he needs to do that. Should he do that? I would say no. And I think there’s too much of a good thing on that front. That is detrimental to your own organization and your own operation. But at the same time, I’m not gonna sit here and say that I think it’s a good thing that Steve is shot. He doesn’t hold an annual State of the Ravens press conference anymore. I think it’s it’s not just talking to the media, it’s talking to the fans, you know, that forget about the media guys talk to the fans in your face. So you know, and look, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to talk at the owners meetings from what I hear. And I think there’s probably and look, I don’t know this for certain, there’s probably a thought to you think about the last few times that he’s spoken. You know, a couple years ago, it was calling out the haslums. And, you know, comments that were made about Lamar, his contract situation at that point that did not necessarily probably did not go over well, certainly probably didn’t go over well with the browns and the league didn’t go over well with Lamar and his camp in terms of trying to get a contract. Go back to what six years ago when he was asked about Joe Flacco was the heir apparent drafting a replacement for him as successor. And his comment was famously we have bigger fish to fry. And then they drafted Lamar two months later. So he would probably tell you why. And I’m not excusing this, but this is the thinking that I would guess is he would probably tell you, when I talk, I either get myself in trouble with some of those things, or things get twisted around or taken out of context, whatever. Now, do I think that that’s valid? No. Personally, I would say that that’s a really lame excuse. But I’m guessing that’s probably what the mindset is. And they would say, you may be the last
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:12
time you were I mean, come on, dude. Come on, man. I’ve been doing this my whole life. Stop that ish. Stop with that,
Luke Jones 39:21
you know, defending that. I’m just saying that’s probably what the mindset is there. So book. At the end of the day, the 32 owners run the league. You know, Roger Goodell is not going to make
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:35
my point like Steve as admire Jerry from afar, and thinks Jerry’s off the reservation with a lot of things Jerry does in regard to the media and opening his mouth and larger than life, but that’s what’s made the Cowboys, the Cowboys, and that’s what’s made. Honestly, the Ravens shrink in our community, while still throwing off so much money. This is where it got sideways with Angelo’s and when I write to Steve Maybe soon, maybe I’ll have a little little extra time on my hands this week under a palm tree while you’re inside the locker room and I’m outside give me a little time to write. I would just say for Steve. He’s made so much money off this. This has been the greatest investment of his life, right? Like he made the first couple 100 million. And then this thing has been the thing that’s just been money falling off the tree. He doesn’t have to do anything well or anything poorly. It’s got Chad steel as his brand manager Chad skills, the one he listens to that says, Stay in Bimini we don’t need you can’t count your money. We don’t we don’t need you. We don’t need you around here. Go go play golf. Steve, go have some wine. You can afford it. You know, like, there’s no problem here. Can’t look at. Look at the bank account. There’s no problem here. Look at the seat, Steve. Look at the potentiality of this. Well, you don’t care about potentiality I could see Steve blow in a cigar after the third Miller Lite saying to me made $5 billion on this franchise. $5 billion. I’ve done anything wrong. Okay. I mean, who might argue? I mean, like how could anybody argue because he doesn’t have to do anything and the things on autopilot. Whether tickets are $10 on game day, whether they’re given seats away, whether there’s a bunch of people out and Owings Mills sending me emails every day trying to get me to rebuy. PSLs to get seats I got thrown out of by their brand manager. So I don’t I would just say this is the point where they won 13 games Lamar is the quarterback hocus pocus. They got the Derrick Henry hocus pocus they have the 30th draft pick Hocus Pocus, there was no say flowers. The cop said muffin app in their hocus pocus. Hey, you know, let’s let’s go to ravens.com we have a feature on Rashad Bateman. The team really loves him. Let’s get him on the lounge. Like if you don’t put pressure on him this week during the owners meetings when he’s supposed to speak and supposed to show up and they’re supposed to let real reporters in that they let in for 20 years. Then there then there is no pressure but the pressure comes when there’s a new owner coming on the baseball side who’s not might not be a jackass, you might be right guy might be in front of this thing. He might be out shaking hands and saying I want you to come back to the team. And I want you to forgive the sins of the creek but on the team the last day and the creepier kid that I bought the team from after 30 years of not caring about the fans at all football team don’t care about you. The owner doesn’t show up. Like so. There is a point where the tectonic plates shifted and David Modell call, dude, how did it begin on their helmet I was around for all of that. I mean, David Modell walked the streets of Baltimore 9697 98 and smelled the arrogance of the Angelo’s family. So did David Koepp who worked inside of their soda Baker Koppelman, who used to be my friend, so did Roy summer, all these people worked in the Orioles, they came, they worked for the ravens, and they went out on the streets and won over the community with roost and fans and corrals and angered NFL people, a lot of really pissed off, people didn’t want to come back to the NFL at all. And the baseball team has a chant. I mean, this is a real tectonic plate shift. And the difference is, this particular football owner is an art modell didn’t come here broke, trying to figure out things for the next generation and sell purple Barney outfits. The football owner is so fat on his own arrogance and wealth hanging out in Florida, that he can just do whatever he wants to do. And it doesn’t matter whether people come or not, we just gave him $600 million to build gold plated bathrooms that most of the great unwashed will never use or see. And they still can’t sell tickets in a year when they have the greatest player in the sport, MVP, best team on the planet. And there was no fury to run to the ballpark this year. And I don’t see any fury to run back. There’s no waiting list on season tickets. Not that that’s an old school way of thinking about things. But I would think Rubenstein is coming and saying what’s our season ticket list? How do we get more people in here all the time? How do we make it a festival? How do we make it a club? How do we make it a place you can’t not come? Because they’re going to start thinking about things differently with the baseball team. They are like new stuffs coming down the line and the football team owner just a meatballs line from Bill Murray. It just doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter whether he shows up Monday or not. That doesn’t it doesn’t matter.
Luke Jones 44:41
But part of that and look, I don’t disagree with
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:44
the arrogance. Yeah. But
Luke Jones 44:47
they’ve also been very successful and have continued to be very successful. They come
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:52
to off your cap and take take some time. But but he did
Luke Jones 44:56
but this goes back to what I was saying a few minutes ago. I mean there’s no incident I have to do that. Not from his perspective, I’m just I’m, I’m trying to give you what I believe, would be their line of thinking on that. And I’m not saying it’s right. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:11
disagree when you manage your whole life, when how much money can I make on that? Is there any money in it for me? Is there any sunshine in it for me? You know, is there only can only bad come up and I risk management of like, what’s the upside? What’s the downside? Well, what’s the obligation? Sure. What’s the obligation? I hear you talk about God, and you talk about, you know, respect for people, and you talk about helping other people and you talk about, like all of that they love to hide behind all of that. But then when I come in, you know, quote, near their good book. And when I come and say, What is your obligation and all of this? What was the promise that you gave 20 years ago? What, what? What changed the law in that way? Oh, the part where you lied about the a woman getting punched in the mouth in a glass elevator. And you wonder why we have questions about, say flowers, we should have questions, and you should have answers and evidence. Because that’s what that was, what the expectation was, when you bought a team for 400 million, $500 million. And the teams were 5 billion now. And the money’s and you’re making me go to peacock to watch games. You keep reaching into my credit card. As the stadium empties out, it’s I don’t You gotta be kidding. Come and speak to the stadium empty. Your little hyperbole there. Let’s
Luke Jones 46:37
I’m covering every game. Look, is it packed to the gills the way it used to be? No, is there a long list for PSL? But let’s not let’s not characterize it like there’s 10,000 People go on either. Their attendance, there’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 46:48
10,000 People not go in most weeks, relative to
Luke Jones 46:51
the rest of the league. I don’t think that they’re in a crisis mode. should
Nestor J. Aparicio 46:55
answer to that. Everybody. When we were down there this week, you can make smaller standard answer, which is smaller stadiums, right? Literally, we’ll get our revenue elsewhere. Sure, sure. But,
Luke Jones 47:05
but there, you just said it, they’re getting the revenue. I mean, they’re getting the revenue. And yeah, the whole point of this, you know, everything you just said and look, I certain elements of it. You know, like I said, I wouldn’t characterize it in some ways that you did, but yeah, the overall points, I’m not going to sit here and dispute you. But people, they put a game on peak. Flood, people watched it. They put Thursday night football on Amazon. It’s a terrible product. Thursday Night Football stinks. It stinks. Guess what? People watch it. What we’re telling you, when I say we I don’t mean you and me as football fans. Were telling them it’s okay. That’s why I tell people all the time. If you don’t like something, stop watching it. If you hate Thursday night football, don’t have an Amazon.
Nestor J. Aparicio 47:54
This is where if they made me commissioner just get together and go to 18 games kill these preseason games start the season in the middle of August. Give everybody two bye weeks. I mean, make the thing sensible.
Luke Jones 48:04
And they will what that’s going to be the next CBA I
Nestor J. Aparicio 48:07
mean, put your four teams in Europe and just do it all at once and figure it all out. And let’s go put the team in Mexico City that you’re going to you know, move the Jaguars they’re the probably the Chargers right? I keep saying the Chargers are gonna wind up and and you’re gonna wind up in Mexico City, you know, they’re gonna wind up someplace where they get I still
Luke Jones 48:26
think that Europe things more complicated than you make it out to be. But we’ll see. We’ll see. But but the point, the overall point is Thursday,
Nestor J. Aparicio 48:33
Thursday, football is real complicated. Go out there and ask our ball, I get some, you know, Thursday football, nothing more complicated and getting humans ready to go to war for days after they just did so that they can they can sell a flight
Luke Jones 48:47
across the water. That’s not the same thing as flying across the country or flying across the Atlantic Ocean constantly. I mean, but the point that I was trying to make is they get away with it, but they act like they can get away with it because they do. And then they get away with everything. There’s not some people watch it. And that’s why I said like, okay, Dan Snyder, he’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 49:06
off living. he cashed his bag, he went to jail. And, you know, all of his sins and crimes and awful stuff that he did to humans awful stuff that he did to people the way he did, literally. You know, I mean, he just counting his money. It’s like, John, think about John Angelos. He’s just when this is all over with he’s just gonna go to Nashville and be a billionaire. That’s amazing. Yeah.
Luke Jones 49:30
I mean, it’s, he’d be
Nestor J. Aparicio 49:31
a lot happier that he I don’t know that there’s miserable people can’t be happy. You know? I mean, you’re already a billionaire. His kid. I’ve never seen him smile. So I don’t know that the money might be like having a day. Well, I did when the champagne was getting dumped on his head. He was happy in on his television network that we all paid for. You know? Yeah, three $3 billion worth of television network that went through the hands of the Orioles. You listen, I’m gonna have my sandals on. We’re going to Florida. Before training, but I mean, these are, you know, they need a foot up their ass out knowings mills. That’s not locking. For us that should be mine. So we’ll see how it goes. But a lot of expectation, I’ll just say this from you and me. And for the work I’ve done and I’m doing this 25 year doc and all this stuff, there has never been a better time for Baltimore sports than right now, that doesn’t mean it’s more crowded, or there’s more passion for it, or that they’re more Oriole fans and less and less lacrosse fans, or that every Ravens fans running out to buy a PSL the way we did 25 years ago, and tailgating and making family plans and waiting for the calendar to fly to Green Bay or whatever. But from a local fan, what we do talking about winning championships, and good sports teams on the field, there’s never been a better month year to be on the radio. At am 1570 than than right now the future has never been brighter, because we’ve never had a future to even look at what baseball that we can look at, even if we’re wrong, and it all falls apart and they don’t win anything. And Rubenstein is terrible. And he’s an awful guy and awful if all that happens. I’ll still take it over what we’ve had the last 30 years and certainly take the position they’re in where John Angelo’s when I write my goodbye to him, he left a lie as he left the organization in good shape. So for that, I’ll send him a Christmas card for that. Yeah,
Luke Jones 51:21
I mean, it’s they’re in a great spot. Is everything perfect? No, of course not. And it’s not anywhere, to be clear. But you have a Orioles team that’s entering what should be a sizable window to have a chance to win a World Series or to you hope at some point over the next five, six years. And on the Ravens side. Yeah, they’ve they’ve endured some attrition this offseason. And it’s gonna be tough to look at their roster on paper and say it’s as formidable as it was a year ago. But that doesn’t mean it still won’t still be very, very good. And I think back to like, 2012 All right, Ravens won the Super Bowl that year Oreos made the playoffs, you know, that was still kind of two ships passing in the night that you weren’t expecting, right? This is different, where you look at it on paper. And if you could make the prediction today and say each of these franchises will win a world championship over the next five years. And I don’t think anyone would call you a crazy person saying that and the fact that you could say that, that’s pretty exciting, right? whether it happens or not, we’ll see. But you’re right. I mean, it’s very, very much uncharted territory that frankly for the city when you have to go back to what the late 60s You know, with a with the Colts and the Orioles just in talking about the two big league teams in town. So you know, this is this is fun, even with some of the things that that we just talked about for the last 20 minutes. That could be better should be better on the field as it pertains to players and coaches and all that things are in really good shape on both fronts. There’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 52:54
think about this fully right had the Orioles won the World Series in Aachen went down to Houston kicked their ass and then next thing you know, we win the World Series. And had the Ravens survived the AFC Championship Game came back Well Mark gets in the phone booth. Something happens we win the game, pick a field goal Tucker kicks 82 yard field goal, we win and we you know, go to the Super Bowl. And when would the team owners have had press conferences that they have taken questions that maybe? Maybe probably Yeah, so well? Yeah, yeah, probably. Yeah, that’s what I was saying. So
Luke Jones 53:27
but I don’t know for sure. Who knows, but probably so just
Nestor J. Aparicio 53:31
think about what that implies. We’re all good winners. He is Baltimore. Luke, I am Nestor. We are both out on social media. We’re both going to be well one of us is going to be at the pool. The other person is going to be working with a working media credential. Listen man, I love sunshine. I love Mickey Mouse. I love nice hotels. I like pools I like football coaches. So this is gonna be a nice little getaway. We’re gonna be down in Sarasota all week follow us on social media. Follow him at Baltimore. Luke follow us at wn st and certainly a follow us anywhere you do as we prepare for opening day. And the best year of sports ever. We are wn SDA and 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stopped talking Lancelot link secret chimp and Baltimore positive. You can Google that
