As the baseball season winds down and the Orioles continue to flop at the bottom end of a weak AL Wild Card chase, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss all of the pending baseball issues in Birdland and question why in the world Mike Elias would be allowed to continue to run the operation.

The discussion assessed the Orioles’ poor finish, roster flaws, ownership decisions, and weakening connection with Baltimore fans.

On-Field Decline

The Orioles were 70–76 and six games under .500, with only a 2–3% postseason probability discussed.

Injuries and inconsistent play have compounded problems in pitching, defense, and the outfield; Gunnar Henderson, Blaze Alexander, and Samuel Basallo were among the players discussed.

Leody Taveras was cited as a roster concern, batting .202 with a .266 on-base percentage and .326 slugging percentage since May 1.

Ownership Questions

Luke and Nestor questioned whether ownership will hold Mike Elias accountable or attribute the failure primarily to injuries.

They said the team’s empty stadium reflects both losing baseball and operational shortcomings, including limited ticket and MASN discounts and weak community engagement.

What conversations are ownership and Elias having about fixing the organization? Will ownership make meaningful leadership or structural changes before the next season?

Business Outlook

The Orioles face a difficult offseason, with the collective bargaining agreement not expiring until December 1 but major baseball decisions still unresolved.

Luke emphasized that winning must come first, while Nestor argued that ownership also lacks the local relationships and business strategy needed to rebuild trust.

Write and publish a Dear Mike Elias letter addressing the Orioles’ leadership, roster decisions, and organizational performance this week. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Write and publish a Dear Lamar Jackson letter this weekend. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Host or attend the Maryland Crab Cake Tour appearance at Costas in Dundalk on Friday. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Team Performance

Late-season attendance and fan engagement have declined as the Orioles remain under .500.

The team’s pitching, defense, injuries, and outfield production were identified as major weaknesses.

The postseason path was described as unlikely, with difficult remaining opponents including Toronto, Milwaukee, and the Yankees.

Baseball Leadership

Luke questioned whether Mike Elias should remain responsible for baseball operations.

Nestor focused on ownership accountability, arguing that David Rubenstein and partners have not shown enough understanding of the team or Baltimore.

The discussion highlighted uncertainty about future leadership, roster decisions, and offseason planning.

Business Operations

Ticket pricing, September attendance offers, and MASN subscription promotions were criticized as insufficient.

The hosts discussed the lack of community engagement, local relationships, and visible ownership involvement.

Winning was identified as essential to restoring attendance, but operational decisions were also viewed as contributing to the brand problem.

Historical Context

Nestor compared the current ownership group with Peter Angelos’s early tenure and the Orioles’ past attendance cycles.

Luke emphasized that organizational and farm-system problems predated the current ownership.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call it Baltimore positive. It is um tick tock tick tock. We’re getting to the end of baseball season, and football will be exploding this weekend. I will be exploding with all sorts of musical memories, starting with I think we’re going to start with yeah, kiss. We’re gonna start with kiss. We’re gonna give a kiss to everybody down at Costasin on behalf of Uncle Mike, who they lost, and it’s just been a tragic time down there. But we’re gonna go down there, celebrate his life and honor him appropriately. I might even eat some Let Your Booty Grow, but I’ll have some Maryland Lottery scratch offs. Add the Kiss Face Bird, kind of appropriate, but I don’t even do that on purpose. Hey, it’s just working out. We’ll be there on Friday. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and Farnin and Derma. I’m wearing my Planet Fitness gear. Somebody told me online that I look fit, and I’m like, well, it’s because Planet Fitness is a sponsor. It’s also because I sweat a lot and I don’t eat much, although ice cream and I’m gonna have I’m gonna have a fried crab cake on Friday. Luke Jones. It’s not to celebrate the beginning of football season, but it might be just to celebrate that this ish show is winding down with Gunnar Henderson fouling balls off himself. Blaze Alexander, like you were at the game Tuesday, and you go this time of year every year not to see the quality playoff activity. It’s because, like, for God’s sake, you really like baseball. You’re willing to drive down at two in the afternoon on RBS some days because, like, you’re gonna miss it in two weeks when it’s gone, right? Like, you will not right this minute, but like when it doesn’t come back in April, you’re going to be the first guy. Like when they start playing on june 6 of next year, that’s my over/under. When you go out to Camden Yards and everybody’s pissed off, nobody be pissed off. I’m writing about Free the Birds, right? Nobody cares. So whenever they decide to play next year, you’ll care, and the people who will want to care. But at this point, dude, it is friends and family out there. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Luke Jones 2:04
Yeah, I mean, I think all you needed to see was a couple of the even just partial camera shots, and you see not many people were there. It’s it’s we’re approaching mid September. You’re talking about a team that’s been extraordinarily frustrating to watch, has been under 500, but for all but one day since the beginning of May, yeah, not a lot of people engaged right now. And the one I went into state

Nestor Aparicio 2:29
fair last night. I was picking my wife up. I went into state fair. They had tennis on, U.S. Open was on. Nobody cared that the baseball game wasn’t on, and we put it on. And dude, it was five to nothing when it went on, and it was six to nothing as I sat there, and I was going to order an orange crush. I had to drive, and I just like, it’s just over, dude. Right? Yeah.

Luke Jones 2:51
Well, and I was just going to say, when Brandon Young has lost his last two starts, meaning the club has lost his last two starts, and we know how that’s gone this year? I mean, Brandon Young, first of all, has been a really good story. That doesn’t change just because he pitched poorly on on Tuesday night. Oh wait, I thought he looked

Nestor Aparicio 3:09
really good in that white paneled hat. I think their jerseys last night. If I’m doing a grading on that, when I sat in Stay Fair and they got the game on, I looked at him. I’m like, got my hair sort of, you know, the beard and the waiter. But I’m like good-looking kit the the Orioles have. I just wanted to say that because they wreck it sometimes. I don’t think the green thing’s ugly, but this they look good. I just wanted to play good. That’s all.

Luke Jones 3:32
Yeah, but they were 18 and five in his starts prior to September, and now they’ve lost his two starts in September. Right. So, fuck. You look at it not just in terms of Cleveland, with Cleveland even winning the second game of the series, they clinched the the series the season series, right, and and even if you’re looking in terms of tiebreakers and all that, right, because you’re desperate when you fall four back when you’re now multiple games back with multiple teams ahead of you for that final wild card spot, you start to look at all the tiebreakers even, and that doesn’t fall your way, right? So feel

Nestor Aparicio 4:09
feel felt a little toasted in the post game, like yeah. Well,

Luke Jones 4:12
I mean, I think some of that is also as you alluded to, Gunner Henderson fouls one off his knee. Doesn’t sound like it’s anything serious, but had to leave the game, right? Right, because it was one of those two week

Nestor Aparicio 4:21
DL. It’s over for him. Well, I

Luke Jones 4:23
mean, I’m not even saying it’s that. I, I just think that was one of those situations. I think it was what Blaze Alexander had that happen in Anaheim, and that’s when Leodi Taveras had to play third base. I think that was a similar thing that happened with Gunner. I don’t think it’s necessarily like season ending or on IL or anything, but in the moment, in the in the moment, he was taken out of the game. Blaze Alexander’s back locked up on him, so he was already coming out of the game. And then, oh yeah, if you watch Samuel Basayo multiple times, his shoulders still bothering him because you can just tell that he’s wincing. I mean, they’re limping to the finish line, right? Figuratively and literally, in some cases, where well, they’re all

Nestor Aparicio 5:04
franchises at this point with the with the labor thing that’s bigger than them, and that’s what I feel, and that’s what I want to portray because that is really the next thing coming down the line when people wake up. Other than the Ravens are going to grab our attention, right? Like, I mean, you and I are really getting to the end of the road, where the middle of next week, if there’s nothing to talk about, what are we going to talk about? But like when this season ends, I mean, I guess the postseason will be fun, right? Like you know what I mean. Like it won’t be so dour. But from a Baltimore perspective, this thing’s going to thud hard, and if Gunnar Henderson is only going to play six more games because he’s going to miss five or whatever you know, whatever’s going to happen here at the the back of the bubblegum card is not going to look good for any of these cats. And and I do feel bad that I yelled at Brandon Young, by the way. So I was just wanted to say I I was sitting at State Fair and I’m like I I lost my mind two weeks ago when he three weeks ago when he well especially when he’s been one of the bright spots right I mean he’s the good guy you know but I’m just saying

Luke Jones 6:00
he’s been a good story. I mean, I’m not going to hold

Nestor Aparicio 6:01
in response. Maybe I’ll come out on Hispanic Heritage Night next week.

Luke Jones 6:05
I mean, think about it. They’re 18 and seven when he starts when he pitches. Without him, I mean, we’re not even talking. Like this is over three weeks ago. So

Nestor Aparicio 6:17
Steve Carlton on a 72 Philly.

Luke Jones 6:19
Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s not quite that. Like, okay, let’s not get nuts, dude. I

Nestor Aparicio 6:24
got to do some baseball history with you here, you know. But

Luke Jones 6:27
I’ll tell you a stat that I came across the other day that that kind of blew my mind. It shouldn’t have, but it speaks to how extraordinarily flawed this roster is, and why I just I can’t make a compelling argument for being confident in this organization with Michaelias in charge. Fourth in plate appearances this year. Take a guess who that is. Two of them are easy, right? Gunner Henderson, Pete Alonso, right? Who is fourth on the team? Who’s fourth? Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 7:02
probably Taveras. Maybe no. I’m I’m right.

Luke Jones 7:06
Leodi Taveras.

Nestor Aparicio 7:07
See, that’s not bad, dude.

Luke Jones 7:09
Well,

Nestor Aparicio 7:10
I’m only guessing. It’s

Luke Jones 7:11
not bad for you. That’s bad for this team. Is my point. Leodi Taveras had a nice April. He did. In fact, if you wanted to rank their best players in April. He would have been right up.

Nestor Aparicio 7:22
Blaze Alexander would have led the team in at bats had he not gotten it. You know, I mean, yeah. Well, I mean, sure. And you’d look at that and say, “Dude, you brought a utility player in, and he’s you’re. I mean, I mean, it really. I’m. I’d like him, and and but when he’s not starting fights, but but Leodi

Luke Jones 7:37
Taveras since may 1 is batting 202 with a 266 on base percentage and a 326 slugging percentage. He has a sub, not a sub 700, a sub 600 OPS since the beginning of May, and he played. Well, and you saw on Tuesday night,

Nestor Aparicio 7:55
dude. That’s on Tuesday night.

Luke Jones 7:57
Misplayed a couple balls in right field. I mean, he’s not doing it with the glove, right? I mean, he was brought in with the idea that he was a good defensive outfielder. He’s not anymore, and he barely hits. Okay, I’ll throw the bone and say that yes, when runners are in scoring position, that he has been good in that department. But there are a lot of other at-bats beyond that that he’s just absolutely do nothing for you, and I’m not trying to pick on him, but it’s it it’s a greater reflection of this roster. The idea that they drafted not just college hitters, but a lot of outfielders for years, and this is what their outfield has been, right? And and it’s not just him. I mean, Colton Kowser being what he’s been right. Colton Kozler profiles much better as a fourth outfielder, right? Dylan Beavers was hurt. I I still have hope for Dylan Beavers, but he missed time. Tyler O’Neill’s out for the year, right? I mean, so you Luis Robert, they they they commit $5 million and they get three games out of him, and he gets hurt. And you know what? His history was getting hurt, right? So it’s just it’s just one of those many things that you can point to, but it’s just it’s just not good enough. And the defense stunk again on Tuesday night, right? I mean, this goes back to what I yeah I wrote about it at the end of the Boston series, but everything that this team had had been doing at a higher level during that road trip, and you know, even just the month of all, you know, July and August in general, they had done things better. Not that it had been perfect, because they had their their lapses and some lower times in those two months, but collectively, it had been better to start September one and seven, and for it to look the way that it’s looked in terms of not hitting, well, they did hit on Tuesday night. I mean, they they made a six nothing deficit turn into a six five game, and then the the pitching, you know, Hoppy’s not very good, right? Alonso makes an error. I mean, it’s just. They they just do everything it takes to lose games when it really matters. Now they’re not a horrendous outfit, right? They’re not a 9500 loss team, but they’re not winners, right? Collectively, they’re not a winning baseball club, and they don’t play like a winning baseball club nearly consistently enough. I mean, you know the Brandon Young’s outing. I mean, what five of the six he gave up? I think we’re with two outs, right? Cleveland tacks on more runs with two outs, and you look at some of the defensive plays that factored into that as well. I mean, it just just speaks to something that we’ve been saying for a long time. But now we’re at the end, right? There’s this series with Cleveland, if there was a path for them to make one last semi-run, you had to sweep them, right? You’re not in a position now where two out of three is good enough. Like you look at it, just do it with strictly with them from a math perspective. You win two out of three in each series the rest of the way. You’re still finishing this, the year what 80 and 82 something like that, right? Which I don’t think is going to get it done when you now have multiple teams ahead of you by multiple games. So

Nestor Aparicio 11:09
well, the Red Sox sweep over the weekend. Yeah, I mean

Luke Jones 11:12
obviously, right? So, but but yeah, I mean you just look at this thing and yeah, they won Monday. You you hear some of the post-game comments, and I get it. These guys aren’t going to throw in the towel, like even if they know deep down in their in their hearts that it’s coming towards the end, and barring a miracle, they’re going to be on the outside looking in. I mean, I think ESPN and FanGraphs has them down to like two or 3% now to to make the postseason. These guys know, but at the same time, okay, they won Monday. I didn’t think they were going to lose out, right? They’re going to win a few more games. Like the, I don’t, I don’t think they’re going to go over the rest of the the season. But you know, they’re six games under 500 now. When you know, it’s it’s down to just a couple weeks, right? You’re down to a couple weeks, and you’re about to go on the road, and Toronto’s playing better baseball, and has for a few weeks now. And you’re playing a Mets team that has been a headache for some other teams, quite frankly, since the All Star break. And then you come home, and you’ve got Milwaukee and Toronto, and you’ll go finish up with the Yankees, who, by the way, have Aaron Judge back now. So you know, I mean, it’s mathematically, is it over? It’s getting very close, right? Even even the math at this point is now saying, look, barring a a long winning streak and and these other teams really stubbing their toes, that’s it. And it feels like it should be right. They’re 70 and 76. Like this isn’t a team that you don’t sit there and say, “Oh man, they everything about this has been dependent on it being a lousy American league, and they’re still looking from the outside at this point in time. I mean, the bar was so so so low this year, and it’s still not good enough. And that’s where I continue to come back to. It’s not good enough across the board. Is ownership going to see it that way? I’m not holding my breath. I mean, David Rubenstein went on the record six weeks ago saying he couldn’t be more pleased with Michael Live. Well, of course, but

Nestor Aparicio 13:17
you know, but but I still

Luke Jones 13:18
have to I still have to listen to what he says because he’s the owner, right? I mean, no.

Nestor Aparicio 13:21
You’re reporting what he says, but believing what he says is what. No, listening and believing, listening and

Luke Jones 13:26
believing aren’t the same thing. But I, I also have nothing else to go off of, other than what’s happened to this point, and there’s no evidence that suggests that they’re going. You and I have to

Nestor Aparicio 13:38
take in the deeper dive on that and talking about that, there’ll be no business for this team beginning in three weeks anyway, so it won’t matter. And if you weren’t going to fire him before the draft anyway, and you were going to allow him to liquidate Ruchman and Taylor Ward and whatever other mistakes or not mistakes, or let him make more mistakes, or let him make more Trevor Rogers, you know, like I don’t know, like I can beat him up for a million things and praise him for other things, but the body of work. And I’m writing a dear Michaelias this week because I’ve got. I don’t know if you saw my dear Jesse Minter. I’m a man of letters here. I want to promote the fact that we’re doing our 28th anniversary as well on behalf of all of our sponsors, and we’re about to onboard some new sponsors here in the football season. But I’m doing all this music stuff, and I’m doing some letters because I haven’t written a whole lot this summer, and I want to write a little bit more. Doing a dear Lamar Jackson this weekend. I want to write about BAL going right wing nonsense out of town, and I want to write about I wrote some about OJ. But the Elias thing for me is front and center because like nobody’s going to care about this in two weeks, right? If I don’t write about it before the weekend, free the birds. By the way, anniversary coming up next Monday, the 21st, 20th anniversary. I’ve already written some stuff on that, as you can well imagine, as to where the whole thing is: the city, the stadium, ownership, Cal Ripken, just all the why I did it 20 years ago, how I can’t get 1000 people. To walk in now, let alone to walk out. But Elias Rubinstein Griggs-I’ll throw her in, even though you know you don’t give a bag of rocks about her. Neither does anybody else, really. But like they’re running the money, the decisions when Louis Aparicio isn’t a part of the World Series 66 team and no none of his family members are and when they they got National Hispanic Night coming up next week and want me they’re sending me ads because I’m Hispanic I bet you’re not getting them because you’re not of Latino heritage it says Jones or like well it’s not in the algorithm you know Josada maybe you know but not but I just look at it all the way top to bottom, and it really when it comes back for me, you’re going to say Elias. Somebody else is going to say Albernaz over at 105. You know the platoon advantage you speak of for the nerds. What? Who’s really managing the team? I don’t know, but like I do know who owns the team, right? I mean, we are clear on that. Like, we really are clear on that. Whatever else happens after Rubinstein and Araghetti, and everybody tells me Araghetti’s got a lot more opinions and a lot more thumb on the scale. They put Ripken in front of it somehow. These other guys that really own it, the real billionaires, never to be heard from. They haven’t even done a cocktail party for real people in this city, and there’s video of that guy buying people beer like he was going to be like a dude. It’s a jackass. I mean, three years into this, the team’s in last place. They’re they’re nowhere to be found. They’re jackasses. Like really, really. Steve Jeppe’s still in the front row. I wanted to point that out the other day too. By the way, I mean like we’re still here. They’re gone. That might be the theme of my free the bird. There’s nobody in the stadium. There’s nobody answering questions. Elias is desperate enough to bring in a $5 million outfielder a week ago. He’s now hurt again. The manager looks like bereaved. You know, I mean, I I don’t. And they’re about to go sell tickets off season, signing players, reupping Gunner Henderson, signing. I don’t know Rogers going out into the marketplace. There’s none of that’s going to exist. They’re going to have no winter carnival, no caravans, no players. It’s going to be World War Six, is what it’s going to be for them in the off season.

Nestor Aparicio 17:32
And we can talk about that, and we will, you and I. And this isn’t me getting personal, putting words in your mouth. We can talk about that. We can talk about the shitty game from last night, or we can talk about the boujourd wall card race, so that they can go 80 and 82, and we can make the numbers up and do all that. But I don’t know what else left there is to talk about over this carcass, bro. Right? I mean, literally. Other than they got the wrong guy running it, they might know that. They might not. We can’t ask them questions. The game’s about to shut down. They’re not even going to try to sell us tickets. There is no all-star game for Katie to go out and take to the community. All the accelerant events and all the ComX events that I run into them, where they’re selling tickets in little orange bird suits, they got nothing to sell. I mean, dude, I’ve been through this. All the Katie Griggs didn’t know what the hell she’s up against. I do. I did radio here in 1994. Like I remember, and and in ’01, every other time they’ve tried to walk out, and I had to cancel my Fort Lauderdale plans or my Sarasota plans. My mother-in-law lives in Sarasota. My wife was there yesterday. My wife literally went by the stadium yesterday. I sent her to that great Asian place where we had food, you and me down in Sarasota. I mean, I love spring training. I love, I love baseball. They just had a celebration for the 66 Orioles there that left my cousin out. To be like, like I don’t know what to say, dude. But like talking about last night’s game or tomorrow’s game, you and I will do that, I guess. But I don’t. That’s going to end real, real soon, and you and I are going to talk football or whatever this disaster is. And they can’t even clean it up. Is my point. My point is they can’t even say, “All right, we’re going to get to work. We’re going to fire him, fire him, hire her, blow that up, move this around. We’re we’re here. We’re gonna make it bet, dude. None of that feels like it’s coming. It can’t come because of the sport. So they don’t really have the ability to fix it. But it’s very apparent that these two guys running the team, and I keep wanting to go back to that because they’re gonna make every decision, and I have no idea what golf club they’re on today, or what book they’re writing, or what Magna Carta they’re buying, or what bouja they’re selling, because that’s what they’re selling right now. That’s why the stadium’s empty.

Luke Jones 19:53
Well, and they

Nestor Aparicio 19:54
just think they’re going to clap, and Boog and Brooks are going to show up, and people are going to come back one day when they win 10 in a row, like. I like this is a real brand issue, man.

Luke Jones 20:04
But you have to win 10 in a row to get people back. Like, do you have to be in position to do that? You can do all these things you’re talking about, and I I don’t disagree. But you have to

Nestor Aparicio 20:12
have good people in. This product, but the product has but the

Luke Jones 20:15
product has failed. The product is winning baseball games. Now you need all the other stuff to augment that. You need to make sure you have everything in place to take full advantage of that to sell tickets, right? To sell season ticket packages, to to do all of those things, to to have business partners. But it it also like you’ve got to win, and they’ve been a sub 500 product for over two years now. It’s that simple, and for me, couple things. First of all, the CBA doesn’t expire till December 1st, so some business will be conducted. Now, will it be a complete normal off season? Of course, it won’t be right. And you and I’ve laid out the challenges of making a change, as far as your president of baseball ops, GM, whatever, whatever you want to give titles to various individuals. But for me, what are the conversations like between ownership and Michaelias right now? What is he telling them in terms of this thing being fixed, because if it’s just oh well we had injuries again for the second straight year, if that’s what it is, then holy cow there there’s no hope whatsoever. If Michaelias is just allowed to talk his way through this, I’m hoping there are very at at a minimum, even if we’re going to give Michaelias the benefit of the doubt and give him another year, hypothetically, at a minimum, there better be some really, really uncomfortable conversations going on right now with how this thing has failed to the degree that it has going back to July of 2024, when these guys were still throwing out hats because they thought they inherited a Ferrari, right? A team coming off 101 wins and an AL East title. And you know the juxtaposition

Nestor Aparicio 22:08
of that is I get up on Free the Birds because I’m probably not going to talk a whole lot about it because you you don’t want to talk. And who wants to talk to me about Free the Birds? Maybe the guys that squirted me want to come out. I found the cartoon bird of all that, but when Peter bought the team, it was all that. It was full. It was vibrant. The stadium was full. The All Star Game had just happened. Cal Ripken was in his prime, and then he came in, and they, you know, they had to strike, and then he wrote checks. Right, Alomar Palmer, you know, like all of that happened, Right, nothing was good about that. Like, I mean, I’ve written the Peter Principles about how he stabbed Lucino in the back. Just all of the awfulness of Peter. But the first three years of Peter, everybody kissed. He was the man of the year in the Baltimore Sun in like 1994 for standing up for Cal Ripke. You know, whatever, because he had such bombast about him in the the early days that it was sort of like Trump in 2016. If you’re not a racist, if you’re not a clown, if you have any education, if you knew what a bullshitter he was, like all of that, Trump got away with it for a minute, even with some smart people. Angelo’s got away with it. 90, you know, 90. He he had a real honeymoon, dude. And the booing they won earlier five. Well, the booing that happened in 95 that chased him on the Cal Ripken night. He was never seen again because he got his feelings hurt. But that led to them winning in 96 and 97. But him being completely the reason they stopped winning.

Luke Jones 23:44
He destroyed the franchise, dude. One guy, the owner. I’ve witnessed this. Talk about Davy Johnson, all you want. Cal Ripken, Albert. But pick any player, anybody that ever made money. Oh, I will point out. Peter wrecked the franchise. I will point out that the eight or nine years even before he bought the franchise put them in a terrible spot as well. The farm system, everything about the Oriole Way started going away.

Nestor Aparicio 24:07
Fixed in ’96, if they wanted it to be, they had Pat Gillick and Davy Johnson, and he couldn’t like. And Pat Gillick went on to go to the Hall of Fame and run three. I just want to say because

Luke Jones 24:16
as someone who missed all of the glory years, because I was born in ’83, right? I wasn’t born in ’73 or or ’63 or ’53. I didn’t get to live any of that. I I was just wanted to point out things really started. I mean, the when the farm system dried up in the early ’80s for the Orioles, that was the beginning of the end. But yes, you and I can see

Nestor Aparicio 24:36
it differently because I see the business and you see the baseball, and that’s great. It’s a great juxtaposition, but I’m telling you, in 1993, the reason the baseball players got good is there were 3 million people in the stadium, and you think that the Oriole Way had gone its wrong way? They had. They built a stadium, and they recruited. They didn’t have a farm stadium, and they had a television network that bought Raphael Palmeiro. Kept Ripken here. I brought Jim Palmer back. Can we

Luke Jones 25:02
talk about the modern team, though? No,

Nestor Aparicio 25:04
no, no, no, no. This is go ahead.

Speaker 1 25:07
No, go ahead. Stay with

Nestor Aparicio 25:08
me here,

Luke Jones 25:08
okay?

Nestor Aparicio 25:08
Because you’ve indicted Rubenstein and Araghetti, and you said they bought a Ferrari. I said they looking around them. They thought they did. There’s no question. I didn’t say they did. I said. But the other thing they thought was they’re going to clap their hands, and every rich person with a boat in Annapolis and Ruxton, they they just think there’s money here. They think that they were going to go mine Rockville and Potomac, and people were just going to show up and pay premium prices for all of this stuff. And they haven’t met anybody at a bar at Costas. They don’t know the business. They don’t know the city. They don’t have. They haven’t had any time to know the city. They don’t care to know the city. And they’re three years into this. And I agree with you. They think they bought a Ferrari, baseball. They got players. They got dude. They have no infrastructure, no backbone, no no friends here because they’ve offended everybody. And the first thing I did was go to the man’s synagogue when he’s giving a speech to shake his hand, and he turned his back on me and pretended that I was disposable, like without knowing my reputation. He didn’t know anything about me. I just walked up and said hello to him, and he had no interest. It feels like they have no interest. Peter had a lot of interest. Peter was really interested in it. Peter thought he was an expert in a minute. Got in, rolled his sleeve, did a lot of crazy stuff, wrecked it eventually. But Peter really did have a Ferrari. These guys, even if you have a couple of good baseball players, you got to figure out how to pay them and keep them anyway and keep them happy. You know, I mean, they run that whole building out there. You go into four days a week around the 65 million-dollar quarterback. If he’s not happy, the whole thing’s an issue. He’s the wife of the operation. So, like Rubenstein and Araghetti, this is their time, and they’re not up to the challenge. Like I, I just witnessed the first three years, three years in, people thought Peter might be up to it because Peter was punching.

Luke Jones 27:11
Right.

Nestor Aparicio 27:12
These guys, I have no hope that they know anything about anything other than real estate and you know how to run

Luke Jones 27:20
private nursing

Nestor Aparicio 27:21
homes and like they have no idea how to be nice to people. Both of these guys have pissed in my eye. A million people are going to see my stuff in the next three weeks, and they just pissed in my eye. Not even knowing that I’m a radio guy, nasty. Didn’t know any of that. It’s just who they were as people. They were people I didn’t ever care to meet again. Seriously, I’m 58 years old. Why would I? I mean, seriously. So those are the guys that are making the decision that now you care about. Let’s talk about baseball. We’ll we’ll get to the modern era, which is they’re going to hire a baseball guy. Where do these two guys go? Because they are the guys, and what are they going to do? They’re going to hire a consortium, or they’re going to bring in Cal Ripken’s people, and Cal’s going to bring in Leo Mazzoni. I’m making that up, but I mean, I don’t buck Showalter. I Leo Joe Joe Madden, Theo Epstein. I don’t whatever. They’re going to bake something up here, but they don’t even have an off season to bake it up, and I guess that’s my point. Is my point is this is going to end with a thud, and they’re going to be so ashamed of all of it, and there’s really nowhere to turn because the sport’s going to shut down, and that’s going to make this for you and me. We’re going to be at odds because you’re going to want to talk about the baseball team on the field. There ain’t no team. I mean, there there there ain’t going to be much to talk about other than the stuff you don’t want to talk about, which is how much per diem they’re getting and whether they get their own hotel rooms or whether they fly private or not. I mean, to be clear, I’m capable of talking about. I know you have no interest in doing that on week 12 when the cousins are eight and three. Hopefully, right?

Luke Jones 28:58
Right, and and there you can’t talk about that every day. I I I I would challenge a listener out there right now that wants to hear about that every single day if it comes to once this is

Nestor Aparicio 29:08
over with. They don’t have a television network. They have no idea how to use. You can’t figure out their app in Pennsylvania. Like they just have all of that. But you got to pick the base. The fact that the baseball team sticks. No,

Luke Jones 29:19
but the base they’re a baseball team first and foremost, right? It’s an entertainment company, right? Would we agree on that? It’s an entertainment-driven business wrestling.

Nestor Aparicio 29:28
They can make the wrestlers whatever they want to make them. It’s fixed here. They don’t get a fix in when they Red Sox come. You’re not going to

Luke Jones 29:35
win, or you’re not going to make money and make this successful without winning first. Like,

Nestor Aparicio 29:41
but you have to identify what that even means at this point. If you’re Aaron Getty and Rubinstein, when you’re already saying they’re going to keep Elias, and Elias has talked them into it, I don’t disagree with that. That they like it, real comfortable with the Yale guy, and they’re real comfortable because they don’t know what they don’t know, and they don’t know much. Clearly, well, and that’s

Luke Jones 29:58
the and and that’s part of the problem too, right? I mean, when we talked, whether we were talking about Peter Angelos or we talk about ownership in sports in general, right? We always talk about the idea of you want ownership that’s going to write checks and get out of the way. Plain and simple, right? I mean, it’s obviously more complicated than that, but that’s generally what sports fans want to hear. But we also know that there needs to be some level of discernment. There needs to be some level of recognizing whether something is working or not. Right in terms of do we the the individual that we have in place who, by the way, we didn’t hire, who preceded us six years before the last place in the empty stadium are clues, right? But but you have to be able to look at this thing and say, is this working or not? And if the answer is no, and clearly, I mean, I think they would recognize that much at least that it’s not working. But how much of that? I don’t know,

Nestor Aparicio 30:52
Luke. I’m I’m very very happy with with the work. But how much of that is? I wouldn’t say that. I I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I mean, I I can just hear like that. That’s how they push back on. It’s insane.

Luke Jones 31:03
Yeah, I think they recognize it’s not working. But do they? Is Michaelias able and others in place? Are they able to convince them that it’s because of injuries, this, that, and that, and and it’s not because I’m not good at my job, right? And that’s-are you even

Nestor Aparicio 31:20
allowed to say that on WBAL? I mean, you know what I mean. Like, are you even inside of their silo? You’re not allowed to say that out loud. That’s not going to be on the mat. Ben McDonald can’t say that. That it’s time for change. You know. So if you and I aren’t saying it, nobody’s reading the Banner of the Sun. Certainly nobody should be reading that thing. Maybe the Washington Sun, not the Baltimore Sun. But like, who’s saying it? The internet? I mean, really?

Luke Jones 31:43
I mean, plenty of fans are saying it at the Sure. I mean, that’s their customers on a nightly basis. Not that they listen to their customers. Well, and and the fact that they, I I talked about this with the Red Sox series. I mean, the first couple games of that Red Sox series. It’s Labor Day weekend. Weather was beautiful. I get it. Kids are back in school, so maybe Thursday. But both of those, the first two games of a massive series against the Red Sox, not even 20,000 people. Tuesday night, 13,000 people at the ballpark, and I get it. Kids are back in school, but if this team were playing any kind of meaningful, inspiring baseball, winning baseball, this was you could get 30,000 people there. I don’t know if it’s 30, but it’s at least you’re at least over 20,000. Let’s say, right? I mean, knowing this is the penultimate homestand of the season, you’d like keeping in mind

Nestor Aparicio 32:34
the things they do for attendance, and this is where I’ll be interruptive of you because, like, what they’re going to have to do moving forward is what they’ve done in the past, which is, dude, it’s 150 bucks this month. Come all you want, right? Sure. And you know, and that’s kind of how my friends Ken and Meg downtown, when we lived downtown, we were young and sexy back when we did Free the Birds, and we’re just dying to have a playoff game, which we didn’t have for 14 years around here. That at any price, remember, I found the picture of me taking Barry to Philadelphia. He was so young, like he was like 19 or something. But I was just trying to take him to a baseball playoff game because it was my destiny in life at that point. Now I could care less, but and which is half the problem. But the the notion that getting people out to the ballpark in September to be in on the movie, remember when Major League at the end when they started winning, and the fans started coming, and it wasn’t just Chief Wahoo beating on the TEEPEE at left field anymore, and that’s a real thing, right? In a town where you haven’t had a pennant race, it’s not a real thing at Yankee Stadium. It’s not like a real thing in Philly, places where they make the playoffs every year or whatever. But like you’d like to think, here, Katie Griggs’s dream, Don Roback’s dream, the ownership’s dream would be that you wouldn’t even see Cal Ripke behind home plate because there’d be 29,000 people and you’d be focused on the Tigers being in town in a two game lead and like, but they’ve kind of taken that part of pennant race baseball away, right? In in in a unless you’re this ishy, if you you’re this lousy, you’re not scuffling to get in. You’re just in. So they’re they’re they’ve taken a little bit of that September. Do I want to go to the ballpark three times this week and get excited about it? Away, but once they do, what my point is, the place is so empty. They’re gonna have to ga and paper the place to you know at a cheaper so they’re not going to get rich on September. I’m just thinking the business side of this. They’re not getting $75 a throw to go out there in September. They’re going to get hey I’ll come out and cheer, pub me part of the extras. You know

Luke Jones 34:33
I’m gonna I’m gonna pose something to you. The Orioles have done this in the past, but this is not the Orioles. Now this this this offer has sold out, but there was a major league baseball team that offered 13 September home games for 110. Now standing room only.

Nestor Aparicio 34:53
It’s a get in, yeah.

Luke Jones 34:54
But who do you take one guess who it was? You should be able to figure this out. St. Louis

Nestor Aparicio 35:00
Cardinals. I’m making that up. The

Luke Jones 35:01
Philadelphia Phillies, who are on their way to being in the playoffs again, who sell out their ballpark not every night, but close to it. If they’re offering that, where in the world is that offer for Orioles fans for the month of September?

Nestor Aparicio 35:18
They don’t discount. They’ve done it, but they’ve done it very clear. This new group is-they have a philosophical business line. There have been no eight-dollar. Where was where was the?

Luke Jones 35:30
I mean, they-they-they do have a couple discs. Like during the week, there there is some of them. No, but

Nestor Aparicio 35:34
I go up on CK. This cheapest, some twelves and elevens and fourteens at various points. But they have they have the week,

Luke Jones 35:40
the Monday night through Thursday night. What it, whatever. I know there’s, there are some things like that in place. However, I mean, if the Philadelphia Phillies can offer a September ballpark pass, and I get it, standing room only. Figure it out, right? For the Orioles, it’d be upper left, upper reserve, whatever it is, right? Something along those lines. You can sit in sections, you know. You you have four different sections in the upper deck. I know what they can do.

Nestor Aparicio 36:06
They’re going to sit exactly where they put me for the All Star game.

Luke Jones 36:09
And and here’s the other one. Where was the offer to subscribe to Masson for X price for the rest of the season in mid August, or right after the All Star break, I I didn’t know it’s

Nestor Aparicio 36:28
Monday when we thought they might win again. No, but I’m but I’m saying like

Luke Jones 36:31
where is that? They they they offered the season price at the beginning of the season where you did get a discount $99 for the full season, which is what I did and lots of people do, but from that point on, from the time they stopped offering that, which is probably what mid-May, something like that, there hasn’t been a single offer for any kind of buy the red a month is what it is, right? Yeah. So like, and that’s insane. MLB TV, which is the same as

Nestor Aparicio 36:57
they won’t have anybody from their organization on to discuss it with me. That’s insane. The

Luke Jones 37:01
full MLB TV package, I bought it. I’m pretty sure they had a rest of season price for Mother’s Day. I know they had one for Father’s Day because that’s when I bought. It was $60 then for the rest of the season that I could watch every single game in Major League Baseball, other than Apple TV games, right? Basically, so it. if if Major League Baseball as a collective entity can sell MLB TV packages at at various rest of season rates to give you a discount at Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the All Star break, the trade deadline, where in the world is that kind of thinking for the Orioles to try to get a few more people to sell, buy a few more mass and subscriptions, where you know you can get a little more cost certainty that way, right? They love selling the season pass, even though it’s not going to net as much money, but they know they’re going to get $100 from me rather than maybe only 40 or or 60, right? If if the season goes, you know, stands on its head after a while, so I look at just and those are just a couple things from some dummy who who never took a marketing class in college or anything like that. But like, where are those things, right? Where is that? Where my pentagon was

Nestor Aparicio 38:16
only 20 bucks and missing bad baseball, I would go 20 bucks a month, or just get rid of it in June or July, and come back in September if it matters. Sure, that’s what if that’s what kids will do if it’s 20. But if you incentivize

Luke Jones 38:28
someone who has that thinking in at the All Star break and say, “Hey, here’s the price for the rest of the year. You can save an extra 10 bucks compared to doing 2020, 20 the last three months. If I give it to you for 4849, 99, you might have gotten a few people to do that, right? I mean, like I don’t know. Where’s the imagination? 3499.

Nestor Aparicio 38:50
You’re not getting anybody to do it, but I hear you, and that’s where we are. But you have to. We’re at a point, right? We’re at a point now where there is a price point for everyone, and they’re mine zero because of the way I’ve been treated by these people, not Angelos, these people, and so, but I’m watching all of it, including the National Hispanic Night that they’re doing next week. They’re doing Hispanic Jersey next week. Maybe I’m going to put Aparicio or Alomar or something like Palmeiro. Pay him some money to come in and do it. I don’t know. You done? I feel I’m done for a minute. Yeah, I’ll drop my sword. I mean,

Luke Jones 39:22
but but those are just a couple little things where it’s like, where where’s the the thinking like that? Just where are

Nestor Aparicio 39:29
they in an empty stadium to have the arrogance to think that coming on my show and talking to me would somehow demean them? It’s insane. If the insane, if the

Luke Jones 39:40
Philadelphia Phillies can can provide an incentive package to get people to the ballpark, I mean, 13 September games for 110 bucks. I get it. It’s standing room. That’s a heck of a deal to go watch a team that’s duking it out for the NL East and is going to be in the playoffs. That’s a great. Now, I’m guessing they didn’t sell very many packages like that, and it sold out like that. But they still did it. The Orioles aren’t doing things like that, really, man. I mean, on top of the product being bad, operational

Nestor Aparicio 40:13
failures where we started with Michaelias, and I think this landed in the cheap seats, right? I mean, in a general sense, they have this beautiful ballpark. They sunk all this money into it. They have a television that doesn’t show the replays. They have a team that’s so bad you don’t want to see the replays. Just that

Luke Jones 40:28
is true.

Nestor Aparicio 40:29
He is Luke. I’m Nestor. I’ll be acosta’s in Dundalk on Friday doing the Maryland Crab Cake tour. The Kiss Face Bird is out. The 28th anniversary is here. Kiss. You wanted the best. You got the best. The hottest band in the world, Kiss, number 28 on our list. GBMC also taking us out. I’m gonna have a fried crab cake, make my doctor angry. Somebody told me I looked fit on the internet, so I got to do something to wreck it. You know what it is, dude? French fries. I mean, I just stopped. God, I love French fries. I saw a meme of Trump eating French fries out of his hair, with blood out of his ear. That was like ketchup. It’s kind of weird and gross in some sort of Ronald McDonald way, but it made me want French fries, bowling alley fries, Pizza John fries, maybe Costa’s fries. I’m not getting. I’ll get a baked potato, no butter. That’s how I’m staying nice and lean. Planet Fitness also sponsoring us as well. We’ll be there on Friday. We’ll be at State Fair having breakfast. That’s probably going to be like oatmeal and fresh fruit. Nah, man, I want like some chicken and waffles when I get to State Fair on the 24th. Now I’m getting hungry. I’m hungry for football season. Luke is here. I’m here. I swear we’re done talking baseball for now, but we’ll be back. It’s Baltimore positive.