You know him as the author of the recent book on the life of Tom Matte, but Baltimore native and longtime Tampa author and sportswriter Joel Poiley knows lots about the history of Rays baseball and updates Nestor on how the stadium prospects in Florida are a lot different than in Maryland.
Nestor Aparicio discusses the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium situation with Joel Poiley, a Baltimore native and Tampa sports writer. Poiley explains that the Rays’ deal for a new stadium in St. Petersburg fell through due to funding issues, and repairs are underway at the Tropicana Field. The Rays are currently playing in a minor league stadium in Tampa, which has shown strong fan support. Poiley also mentions the potential sale of the team and the challenges of attracting a new stadium. The conversation shifts to the Baltimore Orioles, with Poiley expressing concern over the team’s current performance and the need for improvement.
Tampa author and Baltimore nat…s stadium situation and future
Tue, Jun 17, 2025 9:12AM • 52:37
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
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Rays stadium, Tampa, Baltimore, Orioles, minor league park, funding issues, St Pete, Ybor City, fan experience, baseball history, Tom Matte, Fred Lynn, crab cake tour, Maryland lottery, sports writing.
SPEAKERS
Joel Poiley, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W N st AM, 1570 Taos of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively into a week baseball week of mini camp. Luke is out in Owings Mills, all week long, sort of half of a week long. Kind of surprising that horrible doesn’t run these guys ragged this time of year, but you will hear from Lamar Jackson. All of that can be found out at Baltimore positive I can be found at the Y, at the pool at the Y, just in time for it to become 100 degrees, we’re going to be out of Randallstown this week, chatting with John Hoey from the Y, Barry Williams councilman, Julian Jones, who’s running for Baltimore County Executive. And my crab cake provided by our good friends at clean cuisine of Owings Mills. Jerry Schlichting is going to come out, and we’re gonna talk about award winning squash lasagna and all that stuff. Speaking award winning, I’m doing my 27 favorite things to eat in the area. It is our 27th anniversary in August. All of that is brought to you by the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with curio wellness as well as liberty, pure solutions. I’m excited about that. As I’m going to tell Jerry at the pool at the Y this week clean Chris, he’s probably going to be on that list at this point. I’d have a whole bunch of other great things that are going on. We’re going to be out at Costas and Timonium, where I watched the game on Monday night, which is now open. Cost us into money. Don’t go for crabs. They don’t be crabs there, but they have everything else, just no crabs at Costas and timoni, right in the racetrack. This guy here’s no stranger to the racetrack, no stranger to Baltimore. He lives in Tampa. He has worked in Tampa for three decades as a sports writer. There. I will let him give the background. He’s an author on a Tom Mattie book. You may have heard his voice here the last couple of weeks. I did a Father’s Day turn and Oreo baseball. He’s sort of an Oriole nerd, stuck in Florida, like all those trapped in our adolescence of Brooks and Boog and Eddie and Cal and all of that good stuff. But I thought it was a good time to bring Joel portley back onto the program, even though it’s been a couple of weeks, a lot of times I let guests, give them fresh air for three months, six months a year, leave them alone forever. Joel White’s coming on, and you know what? I really Joe, last time I had you on, I was driving out on the beltway, and I listened to the station just to hear how the interview sound and the audio and whatnot. And I heard your voice, and it’s such a Baltimore voice, and I thought that’s what should be on my radio station, Baltimore voices. So it’s good to have you back on I hope you had a good Father’s Day, and we talked about Tom Matties birthdays this month as well. So we can do a little Tom Matty. But I see the Orioles playing in the minor league park down there, but coming down there forever, you and I have engaged about a bunch of different things between Tom Mattie and Baltimore sports. And you have this encyclopedic knowledge of from the Jim Henneman funeral a couple of weeks ago, and you send me notes once and again, but you’re down there in the middle of this Tampa baseball thing. And you’re not just a goof down there doing, I mean, you’re like, but a sports writer you were, you know, like you’re in on the inside of all of this and covering the rays. And you know Rick Vaughn better than I know Rick Vaughn. I find it very, very curious at this point, how in the balance, it must be for the raise in the franchise, because it’s not a good look. It’s not a good time. Tickets are 15 bucks for the game. And I’m thinking like, I mean, looks like, well, they’re kind of dead in the water down there, aren’t they? And I’m like, Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. Does it feel like the razor leaving Tampa? Joel poily,
Joel Poiley 03:28
first off, how you doing? Glad to be back. Thanks for having me on. I don’t think they’re dead in the water, but there’s just a lot going on behind the scenes. Six months ago, the deal fell through that they had for the stadium in St Pete, which was going to be right next to the trop. The funding for that fell through. They have started repairs on the trop, so they think it’ll be ready for the beginning of next season, but
8Nestor Aparicio 04:02
so the plan is to play there next year. Well, let’s get this straight. I want to make sure I’m getting soup from nuts here because I didn’t have the sound up at the beginning of the game. I don’t know. I mean, I was at cost this deal, you know, like, again, I don’t know what they’ve talked about. I haven’t even done all the research on this. I was hoping to have you maybe Rick Vaughn. I was trying to chase Pete Williams. I’m sure you know Pete as well. You know about it because I’ve been coming down to Tampa before they had the team. I was down there. I was telling Luke I ran around that dome when they had a sweet 16 pairing there, Kentucky, Duke Marquette, somebody else. I don’t know who it was, but I went to those games with Mike Messina and the late great Todd fro worth and Mark Williamson, because the Orioles were training down there at Al Lang stadium, and they were practicing up the at hug and Stengel under the water tower great fish sandwiches at the joint out on the on the avenue there. I remember doing this in 1993 when I’m a kid. It on the radio now, 32 years ago, right? That they didn’t have a team, and they got a team. And I thought, what’s this going to work down here? Air conditioned baseball, it’s on the edge of the freeway. Nobody in Tampa ever wants to go to say, I didn’t realize how it’s kind of like Baltimore, Washington, but not so much. But I’ve, haven’t understood that you moved into it, right? What did you find when you were you down there before the team was there?
Joel Poiley 05:24
I got here in 86 so that was 12 before the team got there. Yeah, that was 12 years before the team got here. But I was here for all the near misses. I mean, the dome opened, the Thunderdome, or whatever they called it back then in 88 and it was always used as a wedge for all these other teams that wanted new stadiums. Remember, we thought we were getting the White Sox at one point. This is all between 88 and 98 the Giants, we thought were a done deal. When I was working at the Tampa Tribune, we had a whole big section ready. You know, Barry Bonds is coming, the twins. So we, we were always that wedge, until we got a team, but it took 10 years. The television market here is great. I mean, people watch the team, but you’re right there. There’s this disconnect, as the owners, Sternberg Stu Sternberg always says, you know, people just don’t the water is a great divide. You know, they don’t want to go across the Howard Franklin from Tampa to St Pete, but, you know, just in the overall but what’s been interesting about them playing in Tampa so far this year is that people were seeing how much Tampa really loves the team, the game, the sport. And now you know the Tampa mayor and one of the county commissioners, Ken Hagan, who’s been very big and trying to get the team over here, or trying to get that deal, remember, you probably know this, they also have
Nestor Aparicio 07:01
educate the audience here, because even if I know it, I might even know it wrong, right? Why? I’m kind of, like, giving you the floor on this, because we’re watching them play in this minor league Stadium. The lighting is minor league just, you know, like, and it’s a second time in two weeks, because we just did this out in Sacramento, right? So, and they don’t even have their act together, and Lord knows, the Oakland thing was awful. I just it doesn’t reflect well upon the sport all these years into this, where there’s billions of dollars in all of this, and here they just gifted the franchises $600 million to basically throw the media out of the press boxes and use that area as, you know, an airline Skyline or a lounge, you know what I mean. And I don’t financially, they think that there’s money for this, and there’s businesses for this and all of this, and I keep they, they don’t do much that’s friendly for the fans. And in a place like Tampa where they’re trying to keep the team, I I’m wondering what you see, because you’ve seen the same thing. I’ve seen the same thing. Joel, I’ve known Rick forever. Rick Vaughn, I mean, he left here, went down there, tried to make it work. He’d be the first one to say, it’s really hard to make it work. It’s really hard to have Brooks and Boog and and Earl Weaver and and Jim Palmer, and it’s hard to create that from nothing, and yet, in your market, the hockey team has stolen the day and has become Tampa’s team that the team that everybody identifies with, right, is the hockey team.
Joel Poiley 08:34
8Well, you always talk so much about ownership, and the first owner here that helped bring the team here. Vince nimoli was just the wrong guy at the wrong time. I mean, we were all grateful that we got a team, but he was belligerent. He was not fan friendly, he was not business friendly, and that turned a lot of people off when Stu Sternberg took over the team, I think, and maybe, oh, six. And then Joe Madden got here, things began to turn they did more to upgrade the trop to make it more fan friendly. I mean, these are the types of things the Molly did. They’d have a two week home stand this. He wouldn’t to save money. He wouldn’t clean between games. And you know how it gets sticky on the floor and the seats? He was a terrible owner. I mean, yes,
Nestor Aparicio 09:28
I met him once. I tell a fun story about him. Bob Leffler worked for him. And, you know, Bob worked for the Colts and, or say just and art modell and love Bob and the racetrack amongst those local advertising a guy, Robert Leffler. You can google him the Leffler agency. He worked from the moly because he was like a hotshot like Leffler was getting gigs with Rutgers and schools and doing marketing programs for Kansas State. In different places. And I knew Bob Well, and so, you know, he would talk about in the Moley and I believe he also worked for the Glazers, trying to bring the team to Baltimore and, like, back with Boogie wine glass and get Baltimore the ball and all that stuff. So Right? Leffler worked for him slate 90s teams in business. And I want to say this was 2000 and 123, it was in that range before I knew my wife, which was three. So it’s in that range. I got on a flight from Baltimore to Tampa. I think I was dating a girl down there. So it may have been oh one. It was after the Super Bowl, so I was just flying down to Tampa, right for something. And I get on a plane, and there’s a dude, it’s Southwest Airlines, so it’s free for all. This is southwest before, I think they, this is when they gave you the cards. It said A, B and C. They gave you little plastic blue cards. Or they had, it was 100 different colors you got. You remember that they were little, yeah, and they and they had numbers on them, 821, you know, whatever, you lined up, right? Right now, you got to think you lined up, but I think you had an A and you give us a crash, right? So after this crash, I get on the plane, and I’m in the middle of the plane, and I look over and there’s a dude who’s putting a bag up onto the up up above. And I look on the bag, and it had a Tampa Bay devil Ray’s logo on it. And it was like, like, a giveaway bag. It was like, said Albertsons on it or something, you know what? I mean, it was like, it was a, you know, a little plastic bag, right? And a guy had two women with him who were twins, so I wind up sitting next to him and his wife and one of the twins they were, they were was behind us, or next to me or whatever, had their own seats or whatever. And they were a little bit like Jaja and Eva Gabor, you know what I mean, like a little these were people, but this guy was a little, like, a little rough and tumble. And I said, Oh, Devil Rays, that’s cool bag, right? Hey, yeah, I own them. Excuse me. He said, It’s the Molly, nice to meet you, you baseball fan. And he kind of had this whole that’s exactly, I mean, I’m 25 Years Gone, you don’t forget this. And he said to me, yeah, I own the team. Fits them all, and I, I’m nationally syndicated, then, right? So, like, I knew Vince, the moyni would, and I looked at the bag, and I’m like, really talk to you. I said, I know Rick fallen. Oh, you know, you know Rick. What’s your name? Aparicio, I saw your cousin play. He’s, like, he was, like, a loud, brash New Yorker kind of guy, right, right? Yeah, and so. And, you know, I’ve never really asked Rick to give me the horror stories, the ones that would be in the book that you couldn’t publish. But like, That guy banned the USA Today, Pete Williams will probably give me the story. They wrote an anti M story. So he took, like, all like, I just remember him doing these crazy, crazy things. But I met him and flew two hours on a plane with him, talking baseball with him, and he was certifiable, no question about it, nuts, yeah. And
Joel Poiley 13:07
he was that way in the community here, and that initially turned a lot of people off, you know, just getting back to the way things are now. I mean, the hurricane skewed everything, right? So they would still be in the trop, they would still be trying to negotiate a deal, but it’s too late for 2028 that’s when they wanted to open the stadium. They wanted to break ground in April.
Nestor Aparicio 13:36
Well, you said funding fell through in Saint Pete. What happened there? All right? And that’s the closest it’s ever come, right? There was a dream of a downtown Tampa Park and all of that stuff like that was 15 years ago. Man, right,
8Joel Poiley 13:50
yeah, like six months ago. The Pinellas County leaders, you know, people from St Pete and the rays, broke off talks. The Pinellas County leaders decided to delay the financing, and then the raise decided at that point it was just too late to get involved, so they took their money out, and you know now they’re just trying to get back over there, and it’s a one year solution. There’s a lot, I think I told you the other week, when I was on there was a lot of talk that Sternberg is looking to sell. There’s a group here with the debartolos, the guy the family used to own the 40 Niners. It’s him and Joe Malloy. Used to be part of the the Yankees ownership.
Nestor Aparicio 14:40
They own the penguins at one point too, a million years ago. They
Joel Poiley 14:42
did. They did. So there’s talk, because the bartolos are very locally invested here. And then there’s also a group in Orlando that’s talked about moving the team there. So it is very much up in the air. I mean, it’s not the ray’s fault would happen, but the. It’s, it’s just a cluster. Man, I mean, I was listening to some things yesterday, making some notes. They have a $2 million allowance allotted for daily water removal from the trop, as they’re trying to fix it up, because it’s already rainy season down here. You know, the race schedule has been front loaded for all these home games in April, May and June, because the rainy season gets worse in August and September. So like, the O’s are going to be back here, like in three weeks, I think, in early July, and then the second half of the schedule, the rays are going to be on the road most of the time. I mean, they’ve done what they could with the park. I mean, it has a raised feel all the banners and the bunting. You know, they’ve covered up everything Yankees. Did
Nestor Aparicio 15:54
8you ever go there for baseball? Do you go there see minor league games or spring training games, Yankee games? I feel like, I feel like I’ve been in that stadium one time. It was a long, long time ago for spring training something, something I do. I it’s so vague to me, I don’t really remember it. But I mean, I see it all the time, when I go down to football games or hockey games or I’m just in Tampa, it’s on the Dale neighbor. It’s sitting there. It seems to me that this is Tampa’s big chance to say, we really want the team. Let’s figure this out, but get this clear, because we just piss money into the wind around here to these, these billionaire owners. We do. I 30 years ago, I stood on that side of until they started throwing journalists out and out of town ownership and Justin Tucker, I’m still waiting on that invest just on and on and on and on and on. The sleaze of the billionaire set that winds up with these teams that becomes the sleaze that runs the country, which is another story unto itself. Um, but speaking of sleaze, Florida governors, they’re not giving any money to this, right? Like there’s no money in Florida. Here in Maryland. This is one of the reasons Money Bags love this. Orioles as a financial transaction, he’s getting $600 million to fix up the house for walking into the house that that’s not normal. I mean, in in for the for the raise, that’s not especially after they built Major League Baseball, built Miami and Broward County and everybody over on the other side of the state that it’s the Miami Marlins and the Florida Marlins have been an absolute you mentioned cluster. They’ve been a real disaster for that area. In regard to getting that stadium built that no one wanted a place that no one wanted to like, just Miami baseball is horrific, but the Tampa thing is, I feel more salvageable to me, even though the Miami thing feels sunk, like they’re there, they’re not moving. Nobody goes, nobody cares, nobody knows. I feel like the Tampa things a little bit more worth a discussion as they’re playing in this minor league Park. But I don’t see any Nashville’s coming to steal them either. I don’t see them move Montreal like they don’t who wants that’s the way nobody wanted Oakland. They’ve been sitting there forever. Nobody wants them now. Yeah,
Joel Poiley 18:12
I mean, that helps the raise situation here, but you’re right. The state, as you remember, gave a lot of money for the Stadium in Miami, and that’s been a mess, and they’re really not a great franchise. I mean, the fans here have definitely gotten behind this team, and there the trop was just the place that a lot of people didn’t like to go to. I mean, they’ve sold out every game. Well, you know, 11,000 but they’re selling out every game at Steinbrenner, the fan experience isn’t bad. I mean, I’m actually going tonight, but it’s a good stadium, and the Yankees have kept it upgraded through the years. I’ve been there a lot, either watching games as a reporter. I was there about three months ago my daughter got in the lottery for the savannah bananas.
Nestor Aparicio 19:02
Oh, here we go. Go ahead. No, it was. It was a great experience. Well, here’s why I Here we go, Luke and I got into it about the bananas, really. And we got into it about the bananas because I’m, like, there people are in line to get these. They play here two days on August, 1 second, whatever. I don’t know when it is. I don’t know much about them other than, like, it’s the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. It’s goofy, it’s fan friendly. Well, I here’s what I know about it. It’s really popular, and people are willing to stand in line, pay $200 to get in, and they’re not willing to do that for Shohei Otani. I find that to be very strange.
Joel Poiley 19:39
Yeah, I kind of thought the same thing, or why was there? Because, yeah, I have two daughters and my wife, and they’re not super big sports fans, but they enjoyed the heck out of the bananas. And you know, it’s very fan friendly, kid friendly, and they are, they enjoy about it. Well, they’re like you were saying, they’re the globe. Use of baseball. You know, good looking guys who take off their shirts. There’s music, a lot of theatrics. It’s also limited. It’s two hours max, so it’s not long, so you’re not there too long. So they’ve worked that out. They don’t play nine innings they do. They just kind of rush everything up. It’s,
8Nestor Aparicio 20:26
I would recognize it as baseball. Oh yeah,
Joel Poiley 20:30
yeah. It’s like the bananas are playing the Washington generals. You know what? I mean?
Nestor Aparicio 20:34
See, I know nothing about it. And if somebody invited me, I don’t know what I would do with it, if somebody invite and if I go down there, I’m not even pissing on it, Joel, by the way, Joel pointley is here, author, journalist, my dude in Tampa, Baltimore guy, but lives down in the sunshine, which sucks for you. This week, it’s going to be 100 year. We get a little taste of what it’s like for you, watching them, you know, watching them wilt, and everybody talk about how hot it is, and all that outside and baseball and all that, but the bananas thing they’re playing here, and Luke and I got into it. It’s 200 bucks, and everybody’s waiting in line for tickets, and everybody’s into it. And I keep thinking to myself, all right, how do they get them to do that for Adley ruchman and for gunner Henderson? Because that’s the that’s the magic trick for Katie Griggs, is getting people and look the bananas thing. It’s a gateway to baseball. People like baseball, but then you say, well, this isn’t as much fun. Organized baseball is not as much fun. Nine innings of pennant races as much fun. Major League pitching isn’t as much fun. Like, I don’t know they, they’ve got a long way to go to sell. People want our age right on this and in Tampa, it always felt to me from the time I went down there. Look, man, they were training at hug and Stengel in 1993 I’m down there with Brady Anderson, Mike Messina, Sid Fernandez, Jamie Moyer is trying to make his way into the big leagues, back into the big leagues, like I remember that little clubhouse down there. Stay hugging Stengel. Stengel, like Casey Stengel, it’s in St Pete, and they played it out Lang and they didn’t even have a locker room there. The Cardinals wouldn’t let him use it. They had to get dressed. They wore their clothes. The Orioles would get their clothes on and board the bus with their uniforms on, drive a mile and a half, and get off the bus and walk into the stadium, onto the field. It was like a little league. They had their bats and balls, and so I remember all of this from back in the day, and I always thought like kids play ball. Here it’s hot. Here it’s a it’s and I know football is a thing in Florida. I get it, but they always had the doc good and Darryl Strawberry that Fred McGriff Wade, yeah, I mean, all those guys were Tampa guys, right? Like, why hasn’t it worked better there in in a way that it’s a reputable franchise and that they can’t get a stadium done 35 years later, that suits the community.
Joel Poiley 23:03
8Well, back up. A minute, about the bananas, they’re coming back here. Well, no, they came back like three weeks later. They sold out. Ray J, it’s 68,000 it’s just a fun experience. They sold 68,000 tickets. Sold out the same day. This is what I’m
Nestor Aparicio 23:21
talking about. And and they can’t give the raise away next door like I that’s when I don’t, I can’t. I’m trying to connect that, that why Shohei Otani wouldn’t be more popular than that. I don’t, or more have more value, because it wasn’t just $68,005, a throw people are paying like Madonna prices, Taylor Swift, you know what I mean, like, real money for this. You know, my like the Globetrotters, but my dad didn’t see it as $100 ticket. It was, you know, if the bullets were eight bucks, they was eight bucks. You know what I mean, it’s what it was. I
Joel Poiley 23:54
think a lot of it is just that the players have become so distant, and even the media access, as you well know, even I’ve had it as a freelancer, I tried to get an interview with Adley rut last year for a Kids magazine, when the Orioles were down here at the trop, I wanted five minutes. The O’s wouldn’t give me five minutes for a Kids magazine. They don’t do anything to put the game out in front of kids. I mean, I know they have baseball in the inner cities. I know players do appearances, but they are just not as accessible. And I’ve noticed that too, that you just can’t get close to these guys. I mean, and a lot of, I know a lot of it’s the money, you know, they, they’ve just, they’re behind an iron gate all the time. You know, literally, where they live, where they play. Some guys will sign autographs, some won’t I think it’s baseball wide Ness, like you’re saying. I mean, Otani and trout in his heyday. And yet, you know, trout didn’t attract many people when he would come down here to play. I think this is a good baseball area. Rick can tell you that, you know, better than anybody, he’s written books on the history of the area, right? Yeah, well, spring training, yeah. And, and I remember, like you were saying, when the O’s were nomads, you know, when they were trying to get out of Lauderdale and come over here, and you’re right, they were like, between three different places for the six weeks they were here. But as far as the
Nestor Aparicio 25:30
race at Twin Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota after the strike of 95 I remember being there with Kevin Brown, yeah, yeah. And they were all over. That’s before they got to Lauderdale,
8Joel Poiley 25:42
exactly, exactly. But now this area loves baseball. They do. They’re good fans, they’re knowledgeable fans. They’ve taken to the team. You know, I think that the best years were when Madden was here. But, you know, they’ve done well under cash and
Nestor Aparicio 26:00
but it’s in peril, right? It is in peril, right?
Joel Poiley 26:03
Well, yeah, funding is now too, like I’m saying the ray the Tampa mayor, came out couple weeks ago. You know, seeing the enthusiasm for the games and the team over here that they thought they had a deal before the one in St Pete came about, you know, like in November last year. Well, actually last summer that they were trying to bring them over here, down there, Ybor City, which is near Emily arena. You know, for people up there, it’s the South Tampa area. Y’all go ahead. Well, no,
Nestor Aparicio 26:38
8that area, it gets alive for hockey games and for Bruce Springsteen concerts and eagles concerts, and for Super Bowls. And, I mean, the downtown Tampa area, there’s space there that doesn’t exist, like at Camden Yards, for them to build on the footprint, or whatever. And Tampa, they could do kind of whatever they wanted. The thing that I’m quizzical about is because what happened in Atlanta, where the mayor got sort of railroaded of Atlanta when they just said, we’re moving the team to the county, right? What’s the competitive nature of the counties? And are these county bonds that, I mean, like, it’s a lot of money to be thinking about $2 billion stadia with roofs on it that won’t hold Super Bowls and any you know, and they have a football stadium there that can get Super Bowl still, but it’s going to be way out of favor now that the league has a flagship in LA and are building other flagships in other places despite the weather. I look at it and say, What? What’s the perfect scenario for the raise to remain there from somebody like you who’s been there for 40 years? Every
Joel Poiley 27:48
one of these scenarios ends up the same way each county, whether it’s Pinellas County over in St Pete or Hillsborough County here in Tampa, will put up a certain amount of money, but they want the raise to put up more than the rays are willing to put up. And that’s always where they they hit a wall, and that’s why they’re at an impasse. So it it’s in peril.
Nestor Aparicio 28:12
What’s terrible math for regular people to build stadiums, right like so they’ve, they’ve sold this ish to us for all these years of what it does for the community and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I know what it did for my property value, nothing over 30 especially poor ownership. Angelo’s cost me a fortune by wrecking the city on summer nights and making the Orioles not what the bananas are, something that people line up and want to come see what Cal Ripken used to be, right? Like an attraction, a thing, and winning is an attraction, and history is an attraction for the Detroit Tigers or the St Louis Cardinals, or even the Chicago Cubs, a lovable loser, or whatever. The rays never had any of that. You know what? I mean, the race had to go build something in the way that, like, look at what the Rockies are now. Look at what the Marlins have already urinated upon them. I mean, the A’s, there are these franchises that have not gotten up and crawled and walked. I mean, Diamondbacks twins. I mean the pirates are a joke, right? So they just have so many lesser lights. But at the lesser lesser lights, they have teams like the rays that don’t even have a stadium, or the A’s that didn’t even have a stadium and no one. No Nashville, Portland, Birmingham, buffalo, Vancouver, Charlotte, Vegas, no one. I mean, if anybody really wanted a baseball team, and said for 81 nights a year, we can bring people, employment, the battery, housing, mixed use, parking, other events, bananas, concerts, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, they’re about to die. All of but like, but whatever those things are that make a stadium revenue oriented. I don’t see. Any Tampa Sternberg, any, any of these people that want to put real money up and see when they they cash it out, how they’re going to pay Adley rutschman $50 million or gunner Henderson and still figure out how to make money doing this baseball is interesting to me, Joel all the way around with the apps and the money and the television and the sky boxes and the empty seats and the empty seats and the empty seats and the bananas being popular. And I keep saying to myself, baseball’s got to be drinking this money in and how do they attract it? And I don’t know. In a place like Tampa, they never had it, and I’m watching it on TV all week and saying, what’s going to become of that? What’s going to become of that?
Joel Poiley 30:45
Well, it kind of works to the raise advantage. Like you were saying that none of these other cities that we were hearing about, whether it was Portland Charlotte, are out there pining for a team. So I think it buys some time for the county and city leaders to try and put some more deals together. But right now, I think it’s more on the raise and Sternberg, see, that’s the thing. I don’t think Sternberg wants to put up any more than he it might have been about 60% and I think, like, I know, in Tampa, they wanted him to pony up a bit more of the funding for the deal that they were trying to put together in Ybor. But like you also mentioned too, like when Cal was signing autographs, when he was going through the streak, you just don’t see that as much. I mean, did he save baseball between the strike and 94 and, you know, 95 I think he helped quite a bit, you know, because the popularity was going down, but they’re talking about a strike at the end of next year. Joel, that’s another thing I think that has people like, at a distance, like, well, people our age know better. Do we really want to get involved with this when there’s going to be a work stoppage? So it’s all these confluence of events that are working against the rays getting a new stadium, but, but again, you know, the hurricane just threw a monkey wrench into everything. I mean, they would still be in the trop, and there would be negotiations, probably more with the St Pete deal. But now that they’re playing over here, like I said, the Tampa mayor and this county Councilman are like, trying to bring up the deal in Ybor again, because they’re saying, hey, you know, people over here are showing interest. As you know, there’s more businesses over here than St Pete. They would draw better. We’ve talked about this. They would draw more from Lakeland, maybe a little bit from Orlando, but there’s a bigger population density in Tampa. Look, I thought all along that the stadium should have been here. I wanted it out by the fairgrounds, off of I four interstate four, because you’ve got land there, they could split the parking and some of the revenues with the Seminoles, who own the hard rock out there.
8Nestor Aparicio 33:09
If the state of Florida had any money at all, they’d expand for at least not make it like the put a train between Orlando and Tampa. I mean, it’s insane that that is the busiest piece of road in the country. I mean, more than any other place. It’s nasty there, but I think, Hey, open up to Orlando. Maybe let the Orlando people come down for baseball. But look, baseball city didn’t work in Haines City, right? Like halfway between either. So I don’t know what the appetite is for baseball in Florida, which is just something that 30 years ago, you never could have convinced me of that when I went down there and felt like there was a culture for baseball in South Florida, because there were Latin people, because black people played the sport, white people played the sport. All white people went down there and supported the sport. I saw it. Canadians would go down there. I go down to Dunedin on the west side, and you would just see snow birds, but and spring training was well supported in Florida. And I just thought, Hey, man, putting a team in Tampa in my lifetime, it’s got to work. And here, teetering again, playing in a minor league Park. And I’m thinking, if there’s ever a time to get their act together, team’s pretty good. I mean, we’ll get to that in a minute. Joe poile is here tell me about your Maddie book real quick, and then I want to talk a little current Orioles
Joel Poiley 34:25
with you. Okay, well, book came out last August. Ness was good enough to have me on a couple weeks ago, and we pitched it as a great Father’s Day gift. And thank you, because, actually, I sold some copies online. Last Man Standing. That’s another book, yes, right, right, and it’s about Tom’s life and career, and you know, my relationship with him, but there’s a lot of Baltimore connections, and people up there will enjoy it, because it’ll bring back some good memories, some not so fond memories, but I still read a lot. Things online about Tom, you know, they’re all these fan groups up there. So, yeah, the book’s been selling well.
Nestor Aparicio 35:09
By the book, you know, it may make you feel better on a trip to Ocean City, and I’ll be down in Ocean City for Mako in August, then, then watching the current state of the Orioles. You’re you’re in it. You’re going to the games this week. Teams in Tampa now playing in the little stadium we’ve been talking about here for a half an hour. Joe, you you’re like, you’re a lifer Oriole guy, you’re a historian about the team and all of that. But, you know, we talked a couple of weeks ago about it teetering, and they started to play better baseball, mancellino and wherever they are, and the effluent thing on Monday aside, they have no rope here, and especially this week against the rays and the Yankees this weekend, it’s going to be 100 degrees when they get home against the Rangers next week here too, they they need to make up ground in a way that this the young players and the young hitters and what The organization over the next six weeks before the trading deadline. This is a pretty tender little period. It’s an interesting period, even if they’re going to finish in last place and stink, as to what they’re going to become and which direction they’re going to go in from a trading standpoint, and which direction the new owner is going to go in, just in regard to what his leadership is going to look like. Is he didn’t I are Mike Elias,
Joel Poiley 36:21
8right? And, you know, it’s strange to say that a seven game road trip the third week of June is, you know, so important. But if they don’t at least go four and three and kind of keep the train moving a little bit, they go two and five, one and six. This this week, I think a lot of people probably throw in the towel. Now, it doesn’t mean the season’s over, but,
Nestor Aparicio 36:46
but throwing in the towel changes there the whole dynamic trading deadline for them. You know, it changes the trajectory of the franchise in a lot of ways, and what their decision making will be.
Joel Poiley 36:56
Last night was one game, but I noticed some things that when they lose, they they play like a last place team. You know what I mean, and when they’re which probably is obvious, but when they win, they can put it all together. But like certain things I saw last night, and you know, I love when teams play small ball. So you saw when the rays bunted in the second inning last night, which the Orioles had no defensive answer for? I think it was common arrow. He steps out of the box before that pitch. He stares intently at the third base coach. You know me, I’m always going to go back to the old days, but what would happen when you and I were watching the Orioles in the 60s, 70s and 80s, Brooks or maybe even Etcher Baron would have alerted the infield. There’s probably going to be some type of play on and it’s probably going to be a bunt. And you saw what happened. I mean, the best we can do is effland diving to stop the ball. Urius did not break in for the bunt. Brooks would have come in for that bunt. Either
Nestor Aparicio 38:08
guy. I don’t know the guys are ready for the bunk, because it never happens, right?
8Joel Poiley 38:11
Well, yeah, and that goes back the fact that when a team plays small ball, it’s like, wow. You know, what an innovative thing. So they didn’t look good last night. I know right away when Eflin, like, flailed that pitch to the backstop, everywhere. Oh no, he blew out his elbow. You could tell was just sweat on his hand, because he kept wiping it off on it. He didn’t have it, but it’s one game. He’s still our ace. I still like him, and I hope they resign him. I read a couple things. It might have been from Jim Bowden. You know, on mlb.com that well, the Orioles should trade effling and Sugano. I mean, then you have nothing, then you’re waiting on three injury prone pitchers to be your staff the rest of the year. I mean, I would still sign F Lynn to two or three year deal Sugano, maybe one or two, and try and keep this thing going. But, yeah, this is a critical week, because they need to show some fight. But let’s look at it. It was one game, and the rays are good. That’s the other thing too. They have a lot of no name players that maybe people up there really don’t identify with. But, man, they can develop some pictures. I mean, I’ve got some numbers here. And you know, I’m not a big analytics or numbers guy, but I mean, their pitchers are like, I think they’re going deeper into games than any any starting staff in the majors. And now, last year, they lost about three quarters of their staff to Tommy John. They they had, like what the Orioles are having this year. This year, every one of their five stars since the
Nestor Aparicio 39:47
last time you and I got together, Corbin burns went right. So right, right.
Joel Poiley 39:51
Every one of the race starters this year has made their start. You can see, I mean, Pepe Oh, just blew them away last night. He. Couldn’t look at his record because he got no run support until last night, they’re going to face a couple other guys that can make them look silly if they don’t adjust their thinking a little bit. So let me i There’s one other stat here that was pretty interesting, like the okay race, starters have gone a minimum of five innings in almost 90% of their starts. So they keep them in the game. They have a knack for finding these cast offs from other teams in the bullpen. Their bullpen is very sharp. You know, they just sweat the Mets three games over the weekend before this series, so they’re to be taken seriously. And if we can get out of here with a split, I’d be satisfied. Now they need to take two out of three.
Nestor Aparicio 40:49
8Joe boyley is here. He is a Tampa Bay based sports writer, author, Oriole historian, still has his up Baltimore cold swag on the wall. Probably got some clipper stuff laying around there before. If I look forward to you, what do you what’s your shirt? Is that an Orioles? Sure, Baltimore. Sure. It’s the Baltimore. Thanks for the memories. Oh, okay, got Paul Blair on there. I see, I see everybody up there. Last thing for you, I will share this because you’re old school, and I haven’t shared it with anybody else this week, on Father’s Day, Phil Jackman’s daughters, not only did I have a crush on at least two thirds of them, but that, you know, they’re scattered around the world. And we lost Phil and we lost Tina last fall, and within weeks of each other, people that were like parents to me, like, you know, Tina was my realtor, you know. So, so Michelle and I are close, and Michelle shared a picture of Earl Weaver and Phil Jackman. Uh, Joel, are you familiar with this photo? By by any, by by any, any stretch of the imagination, or are you not? Do you know? Do you know the photo I’m talking about?
Joel Poiley 41:58
No, do you have a I
Nestor Aparicio 41:59
want to pull it up. I’m going to pull it up for you because I I don’t want to get the one that that was shared by her, because I don’t want to. I found one on eBay that’s autographed that I want the family to be able to buy. So I don’t really want to share the link on that. So it’s Give me one second to to get this to where it needs to be, and then I’ll pull it up for you. And so here, here’s the pick, right here. And if you’re looking at online, this is, this is Earl Weaver with a bottle of champagne about to dump it over the head of Phil Jackman in a locker room. That’s unidentifiable. Earl I said a visiting uniform. I
Joel Poiley 42:42
can tell you what locker room it is, RFK, stadium.
8Nestor Aparicio 42:48
It’s not RFK, actually, no, I looked it up. It’s actually Fenway Park. They clipped 1970 there, and it was in the regular season. And it’s a September like 18th picture. I found the actual identifier for all of it, but this picture got shared, and you know what? The worst part, it’s only the second best picture I’ve shared this month, because the RFK Stadium people’s drug Louis Aparicio on the on deck circle, and Jim Henneman as the bad boy. It’s one thing to be so you’ll appreciate this too, because you’re an old school reader of the evening sun, yeah, Jackman and and Earl Weaver and Phil would regale me of stories of Earl, you know, being drunk at parties and this and that, things that were said and and, you know, he and Earl were friend, Like Billick and I, you know very his daughter called it an unconventional relationship. So I guess I had an I still have an unconventional issue with Barry Trotz, who came on last week. I like coaches, coaches like me. I’m not going to make any Apollo, by the way, I saw Jerry narron on the bench the other day in for the angels. And I’m like, with Ron Washington and like, and I’m like, I know Jerry and Aaron. You know I knew him when he was coaching for Johnny Oates here. So I loved all I love coaches, love managers, but Earl and Phil had, like, a really special relationship, daughters, wives, everybody knew everybody and, like all of that back in the day. So I don’t know. I wish Phil were alive to tell me the whole story of the show, but I never saw this picture before, 48 hours ago, and now, like I want it for my wall in some way, that’s great. But, um, he called Earl in writing Spanky.
Joel Poiley 44:33
I know I remember Spanky. You have to know somebody well to give them a nickname like that, yes, but
Nestor Aparicio 44:45
little rascals, Spanky, yeah, Earl Weaver. I mean, like it. That’s the best nickname I’ve ever heard for Earl weave,
Joel Poiley 44:54
8right? I how much time you have. I have one Weaver
Nestor Aparicio 44:58
story I like to. Weaver stories. I got coffee here from Zeke’s. Go for it.
Joel Poiley 45:02
Okay, so I’m working for the Carroll County Times, and it’s 1986 and I’m going down the stadium to do Earl’s the manager again, right, right back. Okay, I’m doing a feature on Floyd sugar, bear Rayford. You know the the hunt, exaggeration, but you know, the next third baseman who they were going to try and get to replace Doug di Sensei, and I’m talking to Earl, and it’s like, you know, I never like to be among the pack journalists, because I don’t want to get in their way. So Rick’s the media relations guy, and he says, just stand in the side, and I’ll get you a couple minutes with Earl. So the the pack breaks up, and it’s like, I don’t know, a half hour or so before the game, and I’m on the bench with our own we’re talking, and He’s great. He’s giving me all this great insight about how valuable Rayford is. It gets to be about 15 minutes before the game, and the umpires are motioning for Earl to come out with the lineup card. He whistles to rip senior, hey, take out the card. Sure. No problem. We’re talking. We’re talking. Then I hear might have been Rex Barney come over to PA system saying, ladies and gentlemen, would you please rise for the National I said, Earl, don’t I need to get out of here. And he says, kid before, meaning, when he managed, before he retired, I would have said, You got to go. He said, Now I don’t give a shit. What do you need? And we’re sitting there, and I asked, he said, got any other questions? And we’re actually talking during the anthem, and then it’s over. You know, I walked down the runway, and I hear this whistle when I turn around. He says, Good luck kid. That’s like, you know, that was my one Weaver story, but it’s kind
Nestor Aparicio 46:49
of mean Joe Green story, sort of kind of Yeah, like a coke commercial. No, I don’t you know I was in the 1986 to Reggie Jackson did not treat me like that. I promise you that treat a lot of us like yeah, I got, I got some good stories from back in that day as well. Although, although
8Joel Poiley 47:09
I did a story with Reggie during spring training down here, years after he retired, about the three home run game, and he was pretty gracious. We were just walking around, you know, legends field as he’s reminiscing, and he was pretty good, then
Nestor Aparicio 47:23
wound up at breakfast with him, and in Houston at the Super Bowl, 2004 he was two tables away, yeah, and I wanted to go up and say something, but I’m too, too much of a gentleman, you know, to it was a long time ago, but like when you get pushed around, when you’re a young reporter, you remember that, especially when it’s a legend doing it because he wants to do it and because he liked to do it. Because all these years later, I’ve been treated so well by so many people, including Doug DeSantis. I’m going to drop the mic on this one because you’re an old school. Joe boyley is here. Go buy his Tom bat Maddie book. Last Man Standing. He’s a good man. He’s down there in Tampa, Florida. Hold the book up, Joel, say something about the book. Where can they buy
Joel Poiley 48:05
it? Amazon, Barnes and Noble books, a million. It’s out there on all the major retailers. And it’s a good, quick, easy read. And if you love colts history and you love Tom, you’ll like the book.
Nestor Aparicio 48:20
8Forward by Jack Nicklaus. I mean, you can’t only Jack Nicholson. Well, maybe that might not even be better for a sports book. I’m not sure, but Joel is down in Tampa, Florida, doing his thing here. We’re going to be out doing the Maryland crab cake tour and trying to have a little bit of fun out here. And we’ve been telling old baseball stories and stuff like that. Last night, I went to Costas in Timonium. Mixologist John mixed me up a delicious deep Eddy Orange Crush. I had this salmon Saint Michael, my wife’s watching the game. We’re having a bowl of crab soup and some seeing the for the first time. We’re at the racetrack there. Ekman had been in that space. I heard his voice leader, so I came home, I plopped down and love sack, and the game’s on. It’s about the third inning, it’s already five to one, and route to seven to one. And I plop down and look on my phone, and I got an email. I’m gonna, I’m gonna read it to you, because this, this, this is the best for me, okay? Because this will give you the era, and this will tell you a little bit about my wife too, because, and a little bit about my relationship with my wife, because I don’t know that I had any conversation with this. Email comes in from a guy named my guy named that’s a chuck Thompson from a fellow named Fred Lynn. It says, Hi, Nestor. I apologize for not getting back to you. Please reach out to my wife, Natalie. Here’s her number. We’ll set something up. Let’s do it. That’s great. Red Lynn is going to be coming on the break, so I turned to my wife, and I’m like a kid again, right? I mean, I turned to my wife, I’m dog ass tired. I was just tired, you know, yoga, planet, fitness, all the stuff I’m doing. I’m doing a show at the Y i turn her, I’m on my phone. I’m like, Hey, Fred. Lynn’s doing the show. She’s like, I didn’t know you liked Fred Lynn. And I’m like, you know who Fred Lynn is? She’s like, I’m a Red Sox fan. Of course, you know Fred Lynn is. I just didn’t know you liked Fred Lynn. I’m like, Fred Lynn was like, maybe my, you know? Like, oh, he was, there’s George Brett, Mike Schmidt, I had guys six to less, Cano, I had players I loved, you know, Kiko, Garcia, but like Fred Lynn, Fred Lynn, Fred Lynn’s Fred Lynn, if he comes on the show, it’s going to be a big deal, right? And when
Joel Poiley 50:32
you talk to him, please have him explain to cowser how to approach a fly ball at the fence without killing yourself.
Nestor Aparicio 50:39
No, because he killed himself all the time. Well, he did, but he caught
Joel Poiley 50:43
a lot of those nests. I mean, Cal as a shoulder
8Nestor Aparicio 50:48
separations too, I know, but I mean, probably cost him the Hall of Fame. Probably, Oh,
Joel Poiley 50:53
it did, because he was a great player. He really was. He just missed too much time. But man, watching cows are chase these balls near the wall. It’s, it’s painful. He loses his head, he loses his sunglasses, he loses his gloves, so he’s never going to catch the ball. I mean, somebody’s got to teach him how to approach the wall and feel the warning track under your feet, so Fred could still tell them, Well,
Nestor Aparicio 51:15
you’re, you’re indicting the Orioles coaches now, which is fine. I mean, they’re on their second Yeah. I mean, it just is because we watch him play. Joel loves the Orioles. He loves the 1986 Orioles of Fred Lynn. Fred Lynn was in that locker room when you were talking to the Spanky over there. Hey, kid, had the story turn out? Was it good story?
Joel Poiley 51:34
8Oh yeah, it’s out there. Clip, okay, fine.
Nestor Aparicio 51:37
It’s good Earl Weaver talk. I knew it would always come back to that minor league stadiums, Major League Baseball, oh and NFL, mini camp. Luke’s out in Owings Mills. I’m taking the Maryland crab cake tour on the road. We will be at readers crab house on the 26th that’s next week. First time out in righteous town. Not my first time in that space. I’m going to have the story about um Samari Rolle being there the night that the all the electricity went out in the whole plaza, out in racers down so we will have full electricity readers on the 26th Marilyn lottery is giving me the Back to the Future scratch offs to give away. We’re also going to be at Costas and Timonium in early July. We’re going to be at 1623, brewing in Eldersburg. We’re coming to deep Pasquale in Canton. And we’re also going to be at Zeke’s coffee in lauraville. So the Maryland crab cake tour, it’s getting out, it’s getting about, it’s getting loud. I’m Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, celebrating 27 years. We are Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
