As the Washington Capitals spin toward out of the playoffs, it appears that The Great Eight is skating his last shifts in a legendary NHL career. Leonard Raskin and Nestor discuss balls and strikes and the end of the Alex Ovechkin Era in D.C. as April 15th looms for your taxes.
[ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host and produce the Baltimore Positive / Maryland Lottery Maryland Crab Cake Tour event at Faidley’s next Friday together with partners GBMC, Farnand & Dermer.
[ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Obtain and prepare a limited quantity of Harlem Globetrotters scratch-off tickets for use on the show and related promotions.
[ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Talk with John Martin this week about the new scratch-off game featuring Maryland images and the art contest.
[ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Talk with Alan Mink about the ABS system and balls-and-strikes challenge rules following Sunday’s games.
[ ] Try to attend the Washington Capitals versus Pittsburgh Penguins game on April 12 at Capital One Arena to see Alex Ovechkin play at home one last time.
Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Upcoming Events
Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland crab cake tour, sponsored by the Maryland lottery, GBMC, and Farnand and Dermer, which will take place at Faidley’s next Friday.
The San Francisco Giants are coming to town, marking the start of the second home stand of the season, and Nestor hopes for perfect weather.
Nestor mentions the opening of the fishmonger’s daughter at Lexington market and plans to talk about it in a few weeks.
Nestor talks about the preparation required for his absence, including crab cake tours and interviews with various guests.
Tax Preparation and Umpire Challenges
Nestor mentions his wife’s illness from his South American adventures and his preparation for taxes, with a tip of the cap to Leonard Raskin for his expertise.
Leonard Raskin and Nestor discuss the challenges faced by umpires, including the ABS system and its impact on the game.
Leonard expresses frustration with the inconsistency of umpire calls and suggests a system with multiple umpires for better consistency.
Nestor reflects on the cultural differences in arguing with umpires, sharing his experiences in Latin America.
The Evolution of Umpiring and Replay Systems
Leonard Raskin questions the difficulty of being behind home plate compared to other positions on the field.
Nestor and Leonard discuss the historical context of umpiring and the introduction of replay systems in baseball.
Leonard suggests a system with multiple umpires to ensure consistency and reduce the pressure on individual umpires.
Nestor emphasizes the importance of the conflict and argument in baseball, which adds to the game’s excitement.
Challenge System in Baseball and Football
Nestor and Leonard discuss the impact of the challenge system on baseball, noting its introduction in the last few years.
Leonard criticizes the rule in football that prevents coaches from challenging plays in the last two minutes of the game.
Nestor and Leonard agree that the challenge system makes the game more interesting and fair.
Leonard compares the challenge system in baseball to other sports like tennis and hockey, where replay systems are more established.
Ovechkin’s Career and the Caps’ Future
Leonard Raskin and Nestor discuss Ovechkin’s career, his recent milestones, and the possibility of his retirement.
Leonard highlights Ovechkin’s achievements, including his recent hat trick and his place in the all-time goal-scoring list.
Nestor and Leonard speculate on Ovechkin’s future, with Leonard predicting that Tom Wilson will likely become the next captain of the Caps.
Leonard reflects on Ovechkin’s impact on the game and his potential legacy.
Tax Tips and Financial Planning
Leonard Raskin provides tax tips for listeners, including the importance of filing an extension if necessary.
Leonard explains the benefits of contributing to an IRA and an HSA, emphasizing their tax advantages.
Leonard discusses the long-term benefits of HSAs, including their ability to grow tax-deferred and be used for future medical expenses.
Nestor and Leonard talk about the importance of financial planning and making money work for you.
Personal Reflections and Travel Experiences
Nestor shares his experiences traveling in South America, including his interactions with locals and the cultural differences he observed.
Leonard and Nestor discuss the cost of living in South America and the value of traveling on a budget.
Nestor reflects on the beauty of Machu Picchu and his visits to Argentina and Uruguay.
Leonard and Nestor talk about the importance of disconnecting from work and social media while traveling.
The Impact of Lobbying and Government Policies
Leonard Raskin discusses the influence of lobbying on government policies, using the example of Ben Carson’s proposal for catastrophic health insurance.
Leonard explains how the HSA system could have changed the healthcare landscape if implemented.
Nestor and Leonard discuss the challenges of navigating the healthcare system and the importance of financial planning.
Leonard emphasizes the need for individuals to take control of their financial future and make informed decisions.
The Role of Financial Advisors and Raskin Global
Leonard Raskin explains the role of financial advisors in helping individuals protect, save, grow, and transfer their wealth.
Leonard highlights the importance of working with an independent financial advisor who can provide unbiased advice.
Nestor and Leonard discuss the benefits of working with Raskin Global and their approach to financial planning.
Leonard emphasizes the importance of living the American dream and enjoying life while managing finances effectively.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Maryland crab cake tour, San Francisco Giants, umpire challenges, ABS system, baseball rules, Ovechkin, tax planning, HSA, IRA, financial advice, Raskin global, baseball history, World Baseball Classic, Machu Picchu, South American adventures.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Leonard Raskin
Nestor Aparicio  00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positive. It is good to be back. It’s good to be feeling healthy, even though I got my wife sick as a dog from my South American adventures. We’re back up and running. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery, junction with our partners at GBMC and farnand and Dermer, be doing that at faidley’s Next Friday. The San Francisco Giants come to town. It is the start of the second home stand of the season. Hopefully we get perfect weather. And Lexington market, they are getting the fishmonger’s daughter open over right next to State Fair, across Mel guapo and Catonsville. In a few weeks, we’re going to be talking about that, I’m going to have some limited Harlem Globetrotters scratch offs. We also have the new scratch offs with all the cool Maryland images and the art contest. And I’m gonna be talking to John Martin about that this week. It’s not often that I I feel derelict as a as a radio station owner or host, but and when I do go away for two weeks, I have to do a lot of preparation, get a lot of crab cake tours in, get a lot of Marty Conways and a lot of Tim curtins and a lot of Bill Koco’s, and Miss Sony’s and all the stuff that y’all have been hearing the last couple weeks. But it’s good to be back on the beat. It was planned around opening day and the start of opening day, I did not realize all of the frosty nonsense and the Hendricks and stuff was going to happen along the way to Machu Picchu, but opening day has happened, and it is always good to catch back up, especially as we get up on the really important day of April 15. Later, Raskin, I might say that I’ve known you a handful of years, and this is the first year in a little while where my wife is going away to Europa and enjoying her family in Italy for a couple of weeks this week, once I get her healthy, and I think I have my act together for my taxes this year. So I’m going to tip the cap to you, since you are Raskin global, and you’re sort of in charge such things around me that I’m on the ball this year even, you know, I mean, I’m on the ball like the ABS system is. I’m seeing the balls and
Leonard Raskin  01:59
strikes, that has been something, huh? I tell you what, it’s tough. It’s tough day to be an umpire. They you’re wrong. You’re wrong. They’re getting theirs. They are getting theirs. I mean, what? What did I see? I don’t know if this was true or one of them was oh, over nine over the weekend. Over nine,
Nestor Aparicio  02:19
that dude had a rough day.
Leonard Raskin  02:21
He had a rough day. I mean, even the guy home plate, Oriole Sunday, he got checked by catchers. He got checked by hitters. He got checked by a pitcher,
Nestor Aparicio  02:32
even when the other manager didn’t see the pitcher check right, didn’t
Leonard Raskin  02:35
see him check it. We got the first manager thrown out because he was trying to fight with the computer, with the machine? Yeah, soon these guys are just gonna be irrelevant. What’s he doing?
Nestor Aparicio  02:49
You know what? Leonard, I thought that, and I have rethought this, because I, I can’t say that. I’ve given a lot of thought to I wasn’t thinking about the ABS system when I was at the top of Machu Picchu.
Leonard Raskin  03:01
It’s been fun to watch. And these guys have have it’s it’s been and I got to give them credit, most of them are right, but the ones that are like a sliver of the of the box is just unbelievable. Well, these hitters and these catchers, my goodness, a sliver of the box, and they’re challenging, and a lot of them are getting them
Nestor Aparicio  03:23
right well, but the two challenges, I think that’s going to turn to three, because I think it makes the game so much more interesting when you have one in the eighth or ninth inning. I think the challenge system alone is interesting. I never I thought long and hard about what Sparky Anderson and Earl Weaver a Luke and I talked about, what would they make of this? What would Casey single make of this? Right, right? And to your point, because you’re a Republican and you’re efficient, and you save money, and we’re going to get rid of the umpires, and they might not be playing a year from now, with the with the business dealings of Major League Baseball, if they got rid of the umpire, there would be no challenge system. So I love the fact now I get it that they’re there. They have umpires for life. Now the umpires thought this was going to be the worst thing. We always say, the unintended consequences of things. They’re never going to get rid of the umpires because it now, look, I’m Latin. I just came from South America. I remember going to you only. I’ve been to a couple games in Venezuela. I went to a like a championship, the World Series of Cuba in 1999 they played the championship game. I saw the team win the World Series, right? Pub, I don’t remember what the name Leonis, whatever they were. I remember a a confrontation between the umpire and the manager and the dugout. And, you know, in Latin culture, we whistle, okay, you so when the call’s bad, you don’t boo, you whistle right? The manager came out and whatever you make of Earl Weaver and. Bill Howler or whatever, Lou Pinella and wiping his ass with the rule book and sweeping home plate and throwing the bases and just all of that. I was at a at a Cuba game where all of that went down and the fans are, I mean, it was insane. Well, here’s but it’s all about arguing balls and strikes. My dad used to get thrown out of Colgate Little League for arguing balls and strikes, and he was the umpire the next night. Arguing is part of the fundamental beauty.
Leonard Raskin  05:31
Get it this? Though, let me ask you a question here. You’ve been tracking this, and you get this? I think I get it, but I’m not sure, so I want to ask you a question here, is it demonstrably harder to be behind home plate than anywhere else on the field for an umpire? Well, yeah, so let’s say it is okay. Okay? I watch football. I watch hockey, football. We have a referee, we have linesman, we have an umpire, we have the field, Judge hockey back. Judge hockey. We have two referees, two linesmen, correct? Now it’s two and two. Why don’t we have of a team of four umpires, two guys that are the home plate umpire, a first base and a second base, and the home plate guy rotates maybe third base, because that’s where the least calls happen, right third base. So why don’t we have the home and third guy be the home guys and and you get consistency when you have two guys on an umpire squad calling balls and strikes instead of four. Now, I don’t know if they get paid differently, because they’re the umpire versus the first base guy, the second base guy, whatever, but wouldn’t it make sense that the guy at first base is always at first base and knows what goes on at first base?
Nestor Aparicio  06:59
Well, it’s like chorus said, you only have one job when you’re behind the home plate ball. Home Plate ball, strike ball, right? That’s your job, right?
Leonard Raskin  07:05
So, so if you had a team of four ups and you had two that were home plate guys, a first base guy and a second base guy, what I don’t understand why they rotate four bases and you get different calls, different days from different guys. I guess I get it. You got to learn a strike zone. As a pitcher, you got to know what that umpire is about. But in hockey, the referee is the referee. In football, the referee is the referee. Umpires. The umpire, no back. Judge is the back. Judge, yeah, one only change. The only change when a dude gets hurt. Well, I mean, it’s
Nestor Aparicio  07:39
150 years of baseball nonsense of building it. But to your point, in a perfect look, your tennis guy, I’m a tennis guy they employ. It’s either on the line or not. John McEnroe can’t yell about it anymore. Throw his route anymore. He wants to do not anymore. That’s why, just the fact that we’re 10 minutes into this in tax season, though, talking about it is the conflict of it is part of and I speak to Cuban in my Latin I’ve been at South America for two weeks speaking Espanol. My Spanish got better. But I think there is a part of the conflict of that of the manager yelling at the umpire and all of that that you don’t want to take out of baseball. And now I’m a weekend into abs, and I thought the same thing as you is, like tennis, they just have a machine call it, and nobody argues with it. It’s good. That wouldn’t be good in baseball. I think this challenge system is completely changed. The entire in three games. I’ve watched three games letter, and it is a completely my wife was watching. She’s like, Oh my God, it’s like something completely different that.
Leonard Raskin  08:47
But what if the guy that was calling the balls and strikes is the guy that calls him and three, three challenges matter. You got to choose when to use them, and he’s the guy to
Nestor Aparicio  08:57
remember when we had outside chest protector, inside strike zone, low strike zone, all of that. Well, you know, when Frank Robinson, when Frank Robinson rung me up, when Peter Schmuck, we were playing in the media all star game in 1992 Frank Robinson was calling balls and strikes, but he was doing it from the mound. Oh, there you go, you know? So I’m thinking, Well, you can’t do that in baseball, but we get to watch the baseball game, especially those of us, like me, who were banned by Katie Griggs and Mark fine. And I don’t get to sit in the gym in him and press box. I watch it on TV in the box, with the box. So I like the minute it happens and the player challenges. I’m like, well, that he’s gonna lose that one or he’s gonna that
Leonard Raskin  09:38
ain’t happening. You can tell that.
Nestor Aparicio  09:41
So we get on television, the box and the view now we get the umpire who’s on it, the manager who really can’t see it and can’t call it anyway, right? Picture the catcher in the hitter that are in on it. You’ve given them unbelievable power for with these two very value two. Oh, absolutely. Come back at a dugout. You’re gonna get side eyed
Leonard Raskin  10:04
by everybody. That’s right. Well, let’s talk. Let’s shift for just a second here. One of the rules. Let’s talk football for a second. Okay, one of the rules absolutely irks me. I don’t understand why. I understand why it irks me. I don’t understand why it’s a rule. The last two minutes, you can’t the coach can’t challenge a play. Dumbest thing in the world. That’s what it come out of the most last two minutes. I can’t make a challenge. That’s That’s stupid.
Nestor Aparicio  10:28
Well, you pitch at the ref and they and they’ll,
Leonard Raskin  10:31
they’ll, you should be pitching at them the whole time. A challenge should last two minutes is no different than the rest of the game. It’s dumb. It takes away that, that sense of I see something, I can make a call about it. Just that’s
Nestor Aparicio  10:45
why this challenge thing so great that there’s gonna be three of
Leonard Raskin  10:48
them, right? Well, you can’t challenge in the ninth inning. That’s crazy. You can’t challenge in the fourth inning. Why? It’s ridiculous. Should be able to challenge the whole game, which they do. I like it in football, should be a challenge the whole game. I never understood why they made the last two minutes booth. If the booth was so good, they wouldn’t need challenges at all well.
Nestor Aparicio  11:09
And part of this to your point, going back to the very, very beginning of what we had to say, by the way, Leonard Raskin, to your Raskin global, get the money and your money. And April 15, and we got football. We got Crosby. We got all this going on. To your point, I didn’t spend a lot of time around umpires. Man, I had a press pass for almost 25 years, right? I didn’t talk to umpire see them. I never knew an umpire. I met Nestor Shylock when I was a little boy. I met about 100 nesters, by the way, in South America, which was weird. Literally, guy sold me ticket. Brian ebb said, What’s your name? I said, Nestor. You said, Oh, that’s my name too. I’m like, oh, you know, how about that? But I only met one umpire in my whole life that I had a conversation with, like, a real conversation with, yeah, I’ve had a few on the air with Richie. Garcia came on the show a few years ago, but I rode in a shuttle after the Roberto Alomar spitting incident, oh, geez, with one of the umpires, it wasn’t the guy that got spit on, right, but I was in an airport shuttle. It was one of it, like a rental car shuttle. And this guy was an umpire, and I started talking to him, and he had such a really rough he was a rough personality, yeah, like in the eight minutes that I was on the shuttle, or 10 minutes I told him I was a media member, and I remember how that kid spit out, you know, it was, whatever it was. And I’m thinking, oh, man, all you guys getting yelled at all night by Pinellas, right? Anderson and Earl wheat, and you have skin like an armadillo, and guys come out and they’re going to show you their ass, and you got to break up fights, and you’re dealing with billionaire baseball players have been arrogant from the beginning of time. And I thought to myself, Man, this is ego. And you know, when the umpires have walked off the sport, when the umpires needed more money, when the umpires wanted to stay at the Ritz Carlton and not the Hyatt or the Mario, right, I mean, it was, it’s all of that, that part of being an umpire is kind of being a surly, self assured prick, right, right, like, and having that ego. And I’m never wrong, and even if I’m wrong, I’m never wrong, and you’re not gonna you, I’m the umpire. Get back in the Doug, right? Well, not anymore, not anymore.
Leonard Raskin  13:20
So they get seen and outed. And you got you got Replay at every base. You got balls and strikes. You got it all. Now that’s
Nestor Aparicio  13:28
modern, that all of that’s been modern. What’s not modern is tapping your hat and saying you’re wrong, dude. And say, haha, it ain’t three one, babe. It’s two
Leonard Raskin  13:39
strikeout on the last pitch, right?
Nestor Aparicio  13:41
But that’s a part of it. And we will get to the tax thing, because I haven’t talked a lot with Luke about this, and I’m going to be talking to Alan machine. Yeah, yeah, come on. Because I was literally texting my friends who love baseball on Sunday saying, Oh, my God, yep, the game has completely changed. Absolutely it’s a whole new diet in my life. And choose not enough, because threes, threes are going to be get it right. You get it right. It doesn’t slow the game down. And I agree, burn it before the ninth inning. It makes it a lot less interesting. I mean, the twins were in a real pickle
Leonard Raskin  14:19
late when they burned the second one, yeah, they were a real pickle. Yeah, they thought they picked it right, and then they needed it. Didn’t have it. I’m with you. They should have they should have been a little more judicious. It’s not like a
Nestor Aparicio  14:30
timeout that slowed, you know, you wouldn’t want to give five timeouts to the NFL after, oh, you know, I agree in this particular case, getting the strikes and balls right and getting counts right. And interestingly enough, when that phantom tag happened between second and third base, where he had the ball in one hand, the glove in the other, he didn’t even tag him with the glove, right? And he wasn’t out of the baseline, they called him out. Jim Palmer’s like, can you challenge it? Jim Palmer didn’t even know, right? Like, what
Leonard Raskin  14:58
I don’t know? No, they didn’t.
Nestor Aparicio  15:01
Well, Jim Palmer’s of an era you couldn’t challenge anything. So we are really Leonard. I’ll be honest with you, man, I know we were going to talk some football, and I know you want to talk about a veteran and all that we’re good. Baseball’s gotten more interesting. Oh, just over the weekend, not just because, like, we have new owners who spend money and bought a pitcher over the weekend, and and we like baseball’s getting more interesting. For me. Here’s quickly after it went to sleep for a long,
Leonard Raskin  15:29
long time open. I mean, it can make it can make it all more interesting. The other thing I know you hate that doesn’t make it more interesting is trying to find Sunday Night Baseball. Where? Where is this baseball opening night, Yankees. Where was this? That Netflix
Nestor Aparicio  15:44
thing was a destroyer, just a disaster last That’s what I heard.
Leonard Raskin  15:48
I didn’t even try to watch it. If it would have been the O’s, I’d have found it, but, but since it wasn’t, that’s the thing. You know, I’m going to watch opening night. I’m going to watch Sunday Night Baseball, because it’s a thing but, but I’m not going to go hunting for it, right? I’m not going to go hunting for it. Sunday night the O’s were over. So my sports day Sunday because, you know, I do these things like you, my Sunday Sports Day was a little IndyCar the O’s a little NASCAR, a little March Madness and March Madness, yeah, all flipping back and forth. My thumbs are worn out, you know, all flipping back and forth to see what was going on. How about that Duke Yukon game? Oh, my goodness, that kid should have never thrown that ball. Just hold the ball. You win the game anyway. And then Sunday night comes, and I’m thinking, ESPN, Sunday Night Baseball, not there. Okay, is it on NBC? Not there. Some basketball, which I don’t watch on. I’m like, okay, Where’s, where’s baseball? Is it on? Is it on Turner TBS, not there. So I get my iPhone out, handy dandy iPhone, I go to ESPN, and it says the games on peacock or apple plus or something. I’m like, I ain’t finding that.
Nestor Aparicio  17:08
Well, I mean, and that’s what baseball, I mean, we’ll get into the business of baseball. I talk plenty about that, but there have been so many things baseball’s done to shoot itself in the foot. Yeah, and be, be awful. This, this challenge thing, for any of us who love waking up, could wake it up. I started texting friends on Sunday night. I’m like, we got to talk about this. This is fun. Like it’s making every game more interesting every day.
Leonard Raskin  17:33
Well, the pitch, every pitch is more interesting when it matters. When it matters. I mean, a two one count in the second inning with nobody on. It’s like you’re challenging that but, but with two men on and an out and a two two count?
Nestor Aparicio  17:47
Well, it does speak the ego and arrogance in a lot of ways, and I see you’re gonna go back in that dugout and get one hell of a stink eye. You better get it right if you get it wrong in the third
Leonard Raskin  17:57
right at a bad time, exactly right
Nestor Aparicio  18:00
with one out nobody on
Leonard Raskin  18:03
the NHL. You can challenge offsides, you can challenge high sticks, you can challenge hand pass, you know, things like that. If you get it wrong. Now, different than obviously, in baseball now, but you get it wrong, you take a delay a game penalty, you put that man in the box, in the box. So, so you’ll get it wrong, but the challenges are all by the coach. So Coach has got to be bailed out by his players. If he stinks here, the player, you know, you just hurt your team. That’s a bad day.
Nestor Aparicio  18:33
All right. So look, I know you want to talk some hockey, and I want to talk some hockey too, because I was in South America for two weeks, I can’t really be honest with you that I cared or followed anything other than what I was doing, I kind of stayed off the grid, purpose. Sure I don’t get such
Leonard Raskin  18:47
an application is all about the modern
Nestor Aparicio  18:49
world’s a lot different, too. With politics and social media,
Leonard Raskin  18:54
when you go away, you got to cleanse that mind. You should be away. When you’re away, should be away
Nestor Aparicio  19:01
when I was on the top of Machu Picchu, worried about Zach Crosby. No, no, I was not. So I literally on, I’ve been sick all weekend, my wife sick as a dog, and I was just like, finger through my phone over the weekend. And I’m like, you know, I somehow some hockey happened in my world, and it just showed up. And I’m like, All right, I know the caps are kind of on the outside looking in. Yeah. I was wondering about the predators, and I looked and I’m like, they got a chance. I was gonna throw trots a note. Where are you in the caps spectrum of things as to where they are? Because I think we are at the end of the end on a veteran, right? So it’s like, Dumb and
Leonard Raskin  19:39
Dumber, right? So you’re saying we got a chance. They’re they’re hanging on by a dental floss, by a hair.
Nestor Aparicio  19:47
They’re 12th right now, as I’m adding the math, yeah, well, they got
Leonard Raskin  19:50
to get better than 12th. They got to jump a few teams. So they got to win. And they need help. The thing that to me. Thing is seeing Ovechkin at the age of 100 would see 4140 41 now scoring, and he just passed regular season and playoffs 1000 goals, which, as always, he and Gretzky, the only two he threw in a hat trick the other night against the Kraken. I think it was the Kraken and only the third player history, 40 and over to have a two hat trick season at 40 plus, some ridiculous
Nestor Aparicio  20:37
57 points this year, 2928 right?
Leonard Raskin  20:40
Every every goal he scores now, breaks another record. Every game he plays breaks another record, climbing up on the all time list of games, games with one team.
Nestor Aparicio  20:51
But he is done, right? This is
Leonard Raskin  20:53
the I can’t I can’t believe he comes back. I really think this is it. I think he goes. I think
Nestor Aparicio  21:01
they, are you gonna get on see him play one more time? Or is
Leonard Raskin  21:04
that like, I’m gonna see, I’m gonna see if I can get there. There’s not a lot penguins
Nestor Aparicio  21:09
on the 12th. It looks like it’s the last game, right?
Leonard Raskin  21:11
Yep, yep. That’s about it. So I think it’ll be the last I really do. They hasn’t announced anything. He hasn’t said anything, but it would be like him to to do it in the offseason and just be done. I don’t think he wants to. He doesn’t want a world tour ending. I think he’s just gonna say that’s it, playoffs or not. Tickets are
Nestor Aparicio  21:33
200 bucks. That 970 bucks last night.
Leonard Raskin  21:36
Yeah, he’s not gonna come back. So, I mean, that’s an
Nestor Aparicio  21:41
amazing thing. He’s the greatest hockey player that’s ever lived,
Leonard Raskin  21:43
right greatest goal scorer in the history of the league. And I don’t know the number right now, but he also is second, I think, second in history. And hits given or taken, given, given. He doesn’t take many and what he does. I mean, he deals them out. I think he’s second in history in hits given so you got, you got the greatest goal scorer ever. I mean, let’s face it, Gretzky has every record and deserves it, and was incredible to watch. I’m only sad that being in Edmonton, we only saw him once every back then year or so based on the schedule here, it was incredible to watch, but Ovechkin, I mean, Gretzky, skated like a fiend and hit out in the corners. Nobody hit Gretzky. You couldn’t hit him. He didn’t hit anybody. I think he might have gotten two penalties for roughing in his career. I remember, I remember watching him, it wasn’t during a game. It was now that he’s doing the On Air stuff. He’s like on TBS every now and then, talking about the one fight he got in in his career, and he said, remember him saying, guy came around the net. He came around the net. They both said something to each other. They dropped their sticks, they dropped their gloves, and he said, Oh my god, what am I doing? Ovechkins put guys down with a shot, one one punch, and laid guys out. I mean, he, he is indeed the Russian bull. Well, I don’t think he plays after this, they’ve gotten younger. They’re going to get faster, I think next year, to the chagrin of everybody except the caps, I think Tom Wilson will be your capital captain. Well deserved has come a long way. Started as a bully, now as a great player, and I think he’ll be the next captain. They’ll get younger, to get faster and get back on the on the winning side, to see
Nestor Aparicio  23:42
him do stupid stuff when he was young, like Scott Stevens and he, yeah, he’s a Hall of Fame player. He’s blocked, he’s matured
Leonard Raskin  23:49
into some amazing things. So I think he’d be the next captain. I’d be shocked, just to say I would be shocked if Ovi comes back, it would be it’s been a hell
Nestor Aparicio  23:57
of an error for us.
Leonard Raskin  23:58
God, it’s been phenomenal. And if they make the playoffs, they’ll get a last hurrah if they don’t go out as the greatest goal scorer ever. I think he’s got, I don’t know, what is it? 20. Maybe he’ll never get it to reach Gretzky, when you combine regular season and playoffs, unless they win the Cup this year, he ain’t getting it.
Nestor Aparicio  24:18
Leonard Raskin is here. He is Raskin global. That’s April 12. Is the last game that Ovechkin would play at home. Yes, sir. And then there’s April 15, which is April 5, your time of the year. So go
Leonard Raskin  24:29
for it. Well, it’s time of year for everybody. Taxes are due. Tax returns are due. Important things. Number one, a lot of people are afraid of are afraid of filing an extension, nothing to be afraid of. You’re allowed to file an extension of your tax return, and you don’t have to file the paper the reconciliation until October the 15th. See that. And I’ve
Nestor Aparicio  24:53
done that last couple years. It feels so much better to be where I am this year, which
Leonard Raskin  24:56
is I’m done. Yeah. But the thing is, as long as you. Pay the tax it’s due. That’s that’s all you have to do. By law. The government only cares about getting their money. They don’t care about seeing your paper. As long as they have the money they’re expecting, the paper can come a year later, two years later, no big deal. If you owe it, don’t pay very ugly, big penalties, Big fines. I’m not saying don’t file. All I’m saying is paying is what’s important. Filing a secondary filing reconciles. You can do that later, before April 15, couple things you can still do. Number one, depending upon your income and your circumstances at work relative to a retirement plan, you can still put money in an IRA up till April 15 or the date you file whichever is first and take a deduction, if that’s a deductible, IRA for the 2025, year. So that’s still available to you. Another thing is still available that most people don’t use as they should and don’t understand how to use is an H S, A, HSA is a health savings account. If you have a high deductible health insurance plan for your employer, you could put money in an HSA health savings account. This is the greatest thing the government’s ever given financially. The money you put in goes in pre tax. Okay, now all the growth, you can invest that money, you can use it for healthcare. So when you take the money out and you use it to pay a medical bill, it comes out tax free. So I put it in pre tax and it comes out tax free. That’s the best thing the government gives us. But here’s the little niche in there that nobody really pays attention to. I don’t have to use the HSA that I put the money in this year for expenses this year. So what does that mean? Let’s say I’m 40 years old. 50 years old. I can put my money in the HSA this year, and up till April 15, I can put in for 25 and then I could fund right after that my 26 contribution, almost all HSAs. Now let you invest that money. This is not a use it or lose it. If you don’t use it this year, you get to invest it. So let’s suppose I’m that 4050, year old, and I let that money grow and grow and grow and grow. So now I put it in pre tax. It grows tax deferred. And here’s what I do, ness I have medical bills this year that I can afford, that I don’t need to use the HSA for. I can pay those bills out of pocket, another credit card checking account, whatever. Pay those bills. Accumulate. Those bills. Let them accumulate. It’s fine when I’m 6065, 70, hopefully that money’s been in the market for a long time. It’s grown to be a big pile of money. Now I can pull the money out and pay those bills that I had when I was 40. Well, I already paid those bills, so I get to reimburse myself for all the medical bills I’ve paid over my lifetime, tax free, with growth on that money. There’s nothing like that elsewhere in the tax code. It is just trying to
Nestor Aparicio  28:14
wrap my arms around this concept, because I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of this.
Leonard Raskin  28:18
Leonard, yeah, so, so put the money
Nestor Aparicio  28:21
in. We never talked about this. No,
Leonard Raskin  28:23
no. Well, you got to have a high deductible health care plan first of all. So that means a 2500 or $5,000 deductible. Not a lot of people take that because they want to go to the doctor and not have to pay out of pocket. They want to get prescription drugs, and I have to pay out of pocket. So they take a lower deductible health plan. What that means is, your premiums are higher. If you take a higher deductible plan, your premiums are less because you eat the first chunk of medical costs. Now that’s okay if you don’t have a lot of medical costs and you can afford that deductible. Now the HSA allows us to let that money grow. The other thing is, it can be used for long term care. It can be used to pay Medicare premiums, because most of us have a lot more health expenses later in life than we do younger in life. Some absolutely have them. And if you have them and you got to spend that money. Okay, that’s there. It’s there. You put it away. It never gets taken away. It grows. It’s yours. But the beauty is, all that growth can come out tax free, which means you’re being subsidized in your medical costs by appreciation of your account. It’s magnificent. It’s the only thing that exists like that. Now you may remember, probably not I do, because this is what I do. Ben Carson, when he was running for president, back when, one of the things in his platform was that, relative to the Affordable Care Act, that instead of everybody having health insurance that was subsidized for cost, he wanted to have everybody get catastrophic. Profit care 10,000 and up, you had health insurance. Under 10,000 you had to pay. But the HSA limit would be $10,000 so you could put this money in, pre tax, take the money out, tax, free to pay the medical bills, and that would change the whole way insurance is looked at same way that challenging balls and strikes could change the way baseball’s looked at. Because if you went to the doctor and and you had to know how much things cost, because it come out of your pocket, not Oh, I pay $10 and I go get my knee replaced. Hey, right. Yeah, right. I mean, people don’t know what medicine what medical expenses are, because it’s all buried in the insurance world. So this would have changed the entire face of insurance and health insurance and expenses, but it never got there because the claims were made that people couldn’t afford the 10,000 well, they can afford it, because what they’re doing is they’re paying $25,000 a year in health insurance premiums. What would happen is they would pay 10 for health insurance, put 10 in the HSA, and have five left over, probably. But it never got anywhere. The traction the lobby, I would dare say, of the doctors, lawyers and health insurance, said, we’re not going to let that happen.
Nestor Aparicio  31:20
The lobbies in the country are getting all sorts of things that are designed to sometimes screw us, which is why Leonard Raskin is here. He’s Raskin work.
Leonard Raskin  31:29
Make your money work for you these kinds of things. My job is to take a look at everything going on with the way you protect your wealth, the way you save your wealth, the way you grow your wealth the way you enjoy the wealth, and then ultimately, how you transfer it to those you care about. We make sure that’s done as efficiently and as effectively as it can be. We sit outside of the financial institutions. So we’re not doing things that they say to do. We sit outside the government. So we’re not doing things they say to do. And we tell people what they should do with their money to have the kind of life the American dream so they can do the things they want to do, whether that was go to opening day or go to a veterans last game, or go to South America for a couple weeks and eat and drink across the across the continent. That’s all good stuff, and that’s what people are about. Ultimately, none of us are getting out of here alive, and so what do you do while you’re here to give yourself the life you want, for you, your family, those you care about, causes, you care about charities, whatever it is, and don’t get tied up and all the rest of the nonsense going on in our world. You can pay attention to that, but don’t let it be you. Go out and be what you want to be. Have a great life, and we help people handle their money so they can do that. He is led a Raskin
Nestor Aparicio  32:49
he is Raskin global. I’m wearing the shirt. You can find them out at Baltimore positive. You can also find them at Raskin global calm right here in the Hunt Valley area. And are you too busy to take a phone call next to are you? Does it next?
Leonard Raskin  33:01
It’s not crazy for us. So what we end up doing this time of year is we talk about things like this. It’s crazy
Nestor Aparicio  33:07
for accountants, though, right? It’s crazy for
Leonard Raskin  33:08
account, right? Okay, but what we’re doing a lot of is we’re meeting with people, we advise and their accountant. We’re talking to the accountants. We’re making sure all the eyes are dotted, t’s are crossed, things are done, right? Catching mistakes, I dare say. But, you know, it is busy. It’s just not as crazy as being a tax accountant right now and having to do all the returns and filings. That’s crazy time. Well, I am back
Nestor Aparicio  33:31
on the beat after a couple of weeks in South America, living the America dream. By the way, South America very inexpensive, you know, like what I did, it was, you know, it was a way for me to go and do something sort of grand without it costing 10 grand, you know? So it was a couple of grand, honestly, for all the stuff that I did, I came home and looked at the billing. I said to my wife, I was getting in Ubers in Colombia, and you have to figure out their money. Because, sure, you order an Uber and it’s 9200 right, whatever, and it was, it’s a quarter and some juice, so like a $10,000 Uber ride was about $2.80 right? So when you get done with Uber, you know what happens? You get done Uber, little thing pops up. So you want to tip your drive, right? So when you take a $10 No, no, no, I went to my I looked at my credit card, right? So I’m taking these, these cab rides in Medellin and in Cartagena, that literally are between 10 and $20,000 which is between three and $6 somewhere in there. And then they say, Do you want to tip your driver? I had some of the most beautiful $10,000 so, so no, but I, but I knew the conversion or whatever, right? But now, when you see it on your thing, and you realize when it offered, do you want to tip this guy 1000 or 2000 or 3000 and you realize that 60 cents, right? I go up on I have all of these charges on my credit card where the ride was $3.28 and the tip was 84 cents. Right? So it’s like, I don’t it’s not all that cheap, but it was a great trip. Machu Picchu is beautiful, right? Argentina, Uruguay. I fell in love with Uruguay because there’s a lot of liberals there.
Leonard Raskin  35:13
You’ll like that. Now, were you there during the World Baseball Classic?
Nestor Aparicio  35:17
Um, I got a better story than that. I flew. I was trying to go to Miami for the Venezuela Dominican game, right, right? I didn’t do that. I went up fully flying Copa through Panama City, okay? And I had a two hour layover in Panama on that night, the 11th of March, and in the Panama City Airport, Panama plays baseball Dennis Martinez, right? Sure you know el presidente. So baseball was on in the airport in Panama City and and then that was it. I didn’t see anything. I’ll put a soccer match after that now, now that the it shows up my timeline. I mean, I was on my phone, so, I mean, I knew everything was going USA, but when Venezuela won, right? Was flying into Peru that night, okay? And but I did. I didn’t watch it on
Leonard Raskin  36:04
my phone, but I monitor. I was gonna say it must have been nuts in Venezuela.
Nestor Aparicio  36:09
I wasn’t in Venezuela, no, but I’m
Leonard Raskin  36:10
saying it must have been crazy. Must have been crazy. They beat the US. It was all football.
Nestor Aparicio  36:14
Where I was football. That’s all the minute you land in Argentina, everything’s Messy, messy, messy, right? And I think, go have a big slice of pizza with Maradona or the ghost of Maradona did that in Buenos Aires. He is Leonard Raskin. He manages my money so I can go have fun. I got my wife sick. I’m sick. She’s going to Italy. Manage your money. Well, if you need some advice, Leonard’s there for you. He’s a Raskin global he will take good care of you. I am Nestor. We are W, NSD am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, back from South America, by the way, they just call in America. There we’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.