Luke Jones and Nestor take a deep dive into current Orioles recapturing love of Baltimore citizenry
welcome home we are wnst T Baltimore Baltimore positive we are positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road I am excited about this and you know people say to me the crab cakes are they really as great as you say they are at fedley’s this week and next week we’re going to be up at Cooper’s North and I’m gon to be having the gumbo and I’m I’m not ashamed of that telling you that I’m gonna be having the gumbo uh that’s on Tuesday afternoon we’re be promoting Fleet week uh that’s going on down in Fels point and then On th Thursday morning we’re going to be at State Fair I keep thinking Getty Lee is going to show up on TV at State Fair around one o’clock as the orio’s playing at and Getty’s getting a little older uh so loves baseball so I’m thinking he’s probably an old guy like me likes the Maes I had Bill Cole admit to me that he wanted to do the matina I said well we’ll work that Braves game out two weeks from now I’m sure it’ll be 107 when I’m in my polyester Jersey I’ll have the Pac-Man scratch off to give away on Friday Luke Jones will be joining me he’s about to join me now talks some orial baseball we’re going to table the uh on Friday to walks and I do want to say thank you to Jiffy L MultiCare for being an annual sponsor being super awesome to us to blah every Everybody we’re g to get on to that as well as liberty pure and I’m gonna get Doug around here to talk about how he’s made my water clean but for you and me and this baseball thing we dream up these Fridays at fadley and we’re going to get together and I think you and I got pretty cocky in the off season despite the fact that we took the long flight home from Arlington and they didn’t do enough in the off season to make you happy at one point then Corbin Burns Happ maybe um they didn’t do a lot of people happy bringing not bringing Jackson holiday up then they brought him up there’s been a lot of bumps in the road and all this but like they just beat the Red Sox up they get a day down you and I get to get together and see the Rays come to town and we get a crab cake at faty and they’re like as good as advertised and I I don’t know like I went to the front of our website and I don’t know if you know this but my press credentials under review so I’m trying to be nice so everything up on the front of the websites about the Outfield mess and the bullpen mess and the starting rotate two guys down and that’s us talking baseball right that’s what we should be talking about that’s what unless you’re Rex Barney and not taking phone calls or taking I I was listening to meski uh on the way home Wednesday taking phone calls and I’m thinking the phone calls are always the issues but the greater good in all of this is they got a new owner who’s splashing people they’re really good and I think on a night when the star hits the grand slam my lottery folks John Martin EXC he’s got to go find the money uh I mean because they’re gonna hit these things he’s got five grand he’s got to give away um Burns pitches like a like a a guy like a dude and the Red Sox fans that were all real happy when it was eight to three on two all of a sudden that gets quiet again and you go back to the standings and say it’s a really good team man and like most nights two out of three nights they’re going to beat your ass that’s 667 ball that’s really good when you win two out of three and we ain’t had that around here for oh couple three decades yeah well and now it’s two years in a row which is where they’ve been I mean it’s they officially hit the onethird of the way through the 2024 season mark on when or Wednesday night yeah Memorial Day has me all out of whack all thing yeah my wife’s birthday you like it’s weird June’s not here it feels like it’s the middle of June already yeah yeah but for everything you just said and question marks and things haven’t gone perfectly although plenty has gone well let let’s be clear about that they’re on Pace to win 105 games they’re on Pace to do better than they did last year than advertised the first 100 win season since 1980 so we’re in pretty special territory here in that regard now long season to go the New York Yankees also continue to win are and are also playing 667 balls so there is no letup here but I’ll remind everyone the team that’s coming into town this weekend was the team the Orioles were duking it out with all summer and and into September last year in the Tampa Bay Rays so it’s a long season what’s going to happen over the final 108 games I don’t know but what I do feel confident about is it’s probably going to go well and they’re probably going to continue to be really good now is that going to be better than the Yankees we’ll find out but this is a really good baseball team and we’ve talked about it through the lens of not overlooking some of the issues or some of the potential pitfalls that they have like the bullpen or health of the starting rotation right now what’s going on in the Outfield with guys like Cedric Mullins and Austin Hayes we’ve talked about that we’ll continue to talk about that but I think it’s important to take a step back and recognize that even with that even with some of the yst you see on a nightly basis on social media that I think some of it’s just social media I think some of it’s Baltimore having such a football Strong football minded mentality for the last three decades because well there hasn’t been much of a reason to have too much of a baseball mentality save for a handful of Seasons they’re really good and yeah they’re going to go through some some bumps on the road and they have already you know and they got swept last week and and everyone thought the the world was coming to an end at that point despite the fact it was kind of a artificial record at that point in time or streak at that point in time but I’ll give you another streak that continued this week against the Red Sox the orios have now played 18 consecutive Series against the AL East the AL East the mighty AL East where for years the orios couldn’t compete and they cried poor and they couldn’t develop players and all that 18 consecutive series they’ve either won or split against the AL East not not getting swept one or split and that right there really illustrates why this team has been so good going back to last year and making the run to win the AL e last year and it’s why they’re right there with the Yankees despite the fact that the Yankees have played at such a high level so fun night on Wednesday night you know it was a strange beginning to the outing you know that second inning where they kicked the ball around a little bit I even tweeted out it kind of gave me 2019 woes for or 2019 Vibes for a second of just the defense couple errors an errant throw that wasn’t an error but gunar Henderson hits the Grand Slam Corbin burn settles in very nicely goes seven innings for the second time all year and you win six to one I mean that you kind of don’t draw it up any better than that uh especially knowing what kind of stretch the Orioles are on after this off day they have one more off day until July 1 you know they have one off day in the month of June so pretty nice that your race goes out there and says you know what I’ll seven tonight gives the most of the bullpen an extra night off then they have the Thursday day off and then you get ready for a long long stretch against some good teams coming up maybe not Tampa Bay uh with the struggles they’ve had but uh they’re going to play Atlanta they’re going to play Philadelphia who’s been the best team in baseball they have the Yankees later this month in the Bronx they play Cleveland at the end of the month they play the Rangers at the end of the month you know that’s a pretty imposing month of June that that that lies ahead so a good way to finish off this series against the Red Sox with Corbin Burns doing heavy lifting and Gunner Henderson doing what he’s done all year which is hit bombs and the Oriol win 61 here’s Luke Jones here’s Baltimore Luke you can find him out on the interwebs and uh we’re g to be together at fadley on Friday um we’re doing all these crabcake tours and we’re not going to be at Fades on the 14th we’re gonna be doing Fleet Week in the 28 so we’re going to have a chance to nerd out a little bit and I want to do something with you on walks and analytics and have Friday be your like nerd thing but on a day-by-day basis the amazing part of them winning is that I look around the league and I had John Martin from the lottery on who’s famously a Cleveland Guardians fan uh formerly known as the tribe uh and they’re winning and then I see the Phillies winning and then you know so there’s other teams Dodgers W the teams are winning and but the Yankees and what they’re doing and where the Orioles are in this race and hearkening back to Jeffrey mayor and God Reggie Jack for all you know for all of that right the watching the standings doesn’t feel the same to me right like as an old guy as a Gray beard around here that that doesn’t talk about winds anymore because you tell me I’m not allowed to we have to talk about you know war and you know all the modern stats but there is a point where the Wild Card part of this and I’m really not scoreboard watching you know what I mean like in the way that you would in an NFL season or anywhere else or saying that like does it matter if the Yankees win 118 games and we win 104 does it does it like does it matter as long as you’re in and the only scoreboard you really need to watch in the modern era is your own to get to you know whatever that magic 90 92 88 whatever the number is to get you into the tournament kind of like in in the NFL like just get me to 11 or 12 wins and we’ll take our chances you know we’ll see how we do um and take our chances against the Bengals and the Browns and the Steelers when we see them we see these teams a whole lot less now I I we’re doing the cus crabcake Tour on the 20th and I’m trying to do these around these afternoon games figuring if I’m going to be out let’s watch a ball game you know so the they’re playing the Yankees It’s the end of a three-game set uh later in the month and to your point they don’t get a day off so every day their pitching is going to get more taxed and they’re probably going to be using the north shuttle a little bit more um that’s pretty predicted I would bet on that can I bet on that can I bet on how many relievers they’re going to bring up now that I look at the schedule um but I would say for me with the Yankees or me being out at a Joe Jackson concert in your beautiful homeland of Pennsylvania uh on a Wednesday night and app watching and watching Gunner hit bombs on my Twitter and like all that I I would say that scoreboard watching is not something I do and literally when I kind of went away last week for a couple days I I’m watching the Orioles Joe Enoch got the app out I’m watching them get their ass beat in St Louis I don’t know the Yankees were playing that like like and I’m in a casino and I’m walking through Sports books it’s just not I and psychologically maybe that’s a part of being 30 years younger 30 years ago and watching sports center all night and being glued to ESPN in a way that I’m not anymore and I’m probably never going to be because I don’t think it’s very good it’s it doesn’t compel me in that way Major League Baseball Network does on an evening I could put that on and flip around and I saw that in every storefront in New York by the way Major League Baseball Network it’s how I watch the Oriol on Sunday and the no hitter or what would have been a no hitter J talk to Jim Palmer about that but I I would say for for the Yankees and whether they’re in first place or we’re in first place I don’t does that button ever get turned on do we turn that on in August and say we’re four back or three up or two down or I I love the horse race part every day that we’re to measure us against them but I don’t feel like baseball’s like that anymore and that’s just me zooming into a penet race where it used to one team in 1979 with my dad on the bus and it’s either us or the Red Sox or the Yankees and it’s not that way anymore and I I’m not disappointed by that I just think like I’m unconcerned what the Yankees are doing and I’m unconcerned with the standings to some degree and that’s a little weird um I don’t I don’t think I agree uh I I let me put it this way comparing that to the pre- wildcard era no question about it it’s not quite the same I’ll say this we just just past Memorial Day it’s not early anymore but there’s still a lot of baseball left right you still have over a 100 games to play uh I I think last year showed us very much you still watches standings I mean it was a very compelling to AL East race between the Orioles and the Rays last year I mean it really was think back to that July series at the trop the the huge series at Camden Yards in mid-september where uh ballpark was packed it you know the Rays took the first couple of that series and you’re saying oh no and then the Orioles came storman back won the last two and ended up winning the division so and get a week off and stink after that which is which is baseball problem not just an orial problem a lot of teams have having that problem I hear you on that and that yes there’s some concern with that and the Oriol endured that although give the Texas Rangers credit they ended up winning the World Series so maybe it was more just the Rangers more than the Orioles having five days off at the end of the day however you say that the division race doesn’t mean as much and look you still get into the tournament but keep in mind what that Wild Card round is the Orioles did not play in that okay it’s filthy as the top Wild Card the orol would host the Wild Card round yes all three games are at home you lose twice this happened to Tampa Bay last year at home you lose twice in a 24 to 27 hour period your season’s over like think how many times that happens I mean forget about the whole sweep thing and all all that you’re doing the sigi math on it like you walk in a casino and these are your odds you don’t like your odds it’s the same thing we’ve talked about with the Ravens as much as we have beat up the Ravens for their lack of success in January and Lamar Jackson having the wear a less than impressive postseason record that certainly doesn’t align with all the Brilliance we’ve seen from him in the regular season let’s also keep in mind Nester they didn’t have to play in the Wild Card round in 2019 they didn’t have to play in the Wild Card round this past year every time you go out there and play no matter how great you are you’re still playing someone else that’s trying to win well somebody lets a curveball loose and it gets up on uh you know Colton cowser whomever and Westberg this week and marus right like so every time you go out there to play there’s a risk of doing that but there’s also just the do you want to survive that do you want to play in that does that keep you sharp and fresh or do you want a couple of days off and Escape all of that I mean no question about it you want to escape it I I don’t not from the odds perspective but paying attention to that for May has been a little bit of an issue for me at least in the early going just to say they’re playing 667 ball doesn’t matter what the you’re like I’m just like they’re gonna be they’re gonna be fine the or are gonna and let’s be clear about this I agree with you from that standpoint in the sense of okay you don’t want to lose nine of 11 and then you look up and suddenly you’re six games out right I mean you want to be in that position but the fact that they’re a game and a half out going into Thursday’s off day hey they’re they’re tied in the Lost column the Yankees have played three more games yeah I don’t think you need to be living and dying with every result every single night for the Yankees and the oros I mean the Yankees were in Anaheim Angels actually had a nice comeback Victory against them on Tuesday night I actually caught that because uh you know I had the Extra Innings package but yeah I we’re still so far out from August and September when yeah at that point you are watching every single result every single outcome and saying okay uh the Orioles win this one what what are the Yankees doing who’s pitching for them who are they playing all that yeah there there’s still time for that in May you’re still very much focused on yourself you’re still very much focused on how you’re playing how healthy you are what your schedule is that’s why we’ve talked so much about you there was so much chatter about the six-man rotation before John means goes goes down with injury Dean on the I because of this long stretch they have where there are just so few off days I mean that’s it’s challenging and you said it the norfol shuttle as much as it can be considering they only have a couple Bullpen arms that have options unless you get into DFA someone which you know we’ve seen some of that as well you know Mike Balman being one example recently and if Viara pitches like he did on what was that Monday he won’t be here very long I think that’s the captain obvious statement but it’s going to be challenging that’s why again when you get contributions from Kyle bradish in Chicago the way he pitched how Burns pitched on Wednesday night where you get seven Innings I’ve joked about it with you and I actually saw uh one of my uh Twitter you know one of my Twitter followers actually said this after Burns’s outing said seven Innings is like the new complete game and it kind of is it kind of feels that way now just the way that the game is changing I mean I’m not happy in saying that but it’s it’s kind of reality at this point but you get seven innings and you can give your Bullpen mostly a night off I mean that that’s great going into an off day giving those guys two days of rest I mean Friday night against the Rays everyone will be available you know there there’s no question there everyone will be available in that Bullpen and you know we’ll continue to talk about the pen you know the the issues they had Tuesday night with the bullpen late in the game although they weren’t hitting the ball anyway but we’re going to continue to talk about that but you still want to keep everyone healthy you still want to be a position where you’re not overworking anyone and when you get starts like they got from burns on Wednesday night you know you’re able to do that so great win great start to the season yes they the Yankees have been a smidge better but I mean they’re in great position it’s wild and we’ve said this and this is where I’ll continue to caution everyone because there’s been so much focus on not the negative per se but the concerns about this team which by the way everyone has that you know you know that I mean the Yankees are talking about the bottom half of their lineup you know they pitched exceptionally well they have Juan stto they have Aaron judge I mean two of the very best players in baseball who are both raking uh both MVP candidates uh you have other guys in that lineup you know like Gian Carlos Stanton who has been healthy and good and all that but you get to the bottom three or four spots in that lineup and questions about their age and their health and Garrett Cole’s throwing live that practice and is he going to come back uh you know same way we’ve talked about bradish it’s like okay he looks great you’re excited about it is the elbow going to hold up so all these teams all these contenders have issues we talk about this a lot in the NFL you know with the salary cap it’s not as as apparent in baseball when you have teams like the Dodgers spending hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars on ball players but all these teams have some issues or some warts or a certain area or a certain position that are that are concerns but you still win a lot in the me time so enjoy this I mean we’re talking about a 105 win Pace am I guaranteeing that the Oriol are going to win 105 well tell me how healthy the pitching stays you know tell me how healthy their best players stay you know I mean Jordan Westberg had an injury scare the other night getting hit on the hand you know seems to be fine took a night off sounds like he’ll be back in there this weekend but yeah that’s your third best position player at this point in time behind gunar and adley Rutman and I mean he’s been fantastic so you can’t lose guys like that uh but you do know there are going to be some injuries there are going to be some more challenges probably some more challenges to their pitching staff just knowing how baseball works so that’s why it’s so important as much as I I agree with your general sentiment about not dwelling on what the Yankees or anyone else is doing right now it’s why it is important though no matter if it’s April May or getting into the summer months stack as many wins as you can because you just don’t know when you’re going to have that stretch where couple pitchers go down Gunner Henderson tweaks a hamstring and and maybe he’s not on the I but he might miss five or six games in a row and you know you don’t want to be in that kind of a position so but you know those things happen so every win you can get now is one win you don’t have to get at the very end of the season so you know it’s still to me you’re still winning the division is still Paramount because you want to try to avoid that Wild Card round uh but just the fact that we’re talking in these terms Nester in terms of it being so certain not that it’s 100% but knowing that this team’s 16 games over 500 now they’re playing 667 Ball even if the rest of the season doesn’t go as quite as well you feel very very confident that they’re going to be playing in October and let’s just take a step back and appreciate that for a moment because two years ago three years ago certainly four or five years ago I mean that felt like a dream that was so far away I mean d I’ve been 32 years okay 32 years going back to before there was a wild card right when this thing started as far as them making the playoffs on June 1 yeah thir third this is my 33rd season of doing this every day and sanctioning this and paying other people to do this every day on AM radio I can even add 10 years to that and take you back to the newspaper and say 40 years from 1984 how many years on June 1st you had some level of confidence that you better save money for playoff strips uh in World Series strips um I’m I’m gonna count it hold on 96 was not one of them 89 was not one of them 97 was one of them because they were in first place and there was a wild card at that point and the odds probably as the new math would stack I’ll give you that so I’ll give you 97’s one year that that happened I will give you and then they lost for decade I’ll give you 14 12 was was accidental stepped into it at the end 16 they weren’t very impressive 13 and 15 uhuh 14 they were really good so I’m gonna give you two seasons last year no way we weren’t sitting here June 1st saying they’re definitely this or that they go back and check it out um uh I were to be in the playoffs last year this time well with three wild card with three wild cards I I would disagree with three wild cards I think at this point last year there there was a high degree of confidence they were going to be in now winning the division was a different story because Tampa Bay got I think you’re under selling a couple of those years in there but your point is well taken in terms of a high degree of confidence I’ll actually tweak a couple of those that you mentioned for 2014 at this point in the season they still did not they hadn’t really taken off yet I would actually Challenge and say 2016 at this point in this year they were really good at that point they had the hot start that year remember they were a little more middling the rest of the year and obviously they still made made it to the wild card game and we all know remember what happened with Zach Britain and abalo Jimenez but but yeah your points well taken it’s been a handful of years you know you could count on one hand the years where you were supremely confident and then there were the other years you know 96 there were high expectations just because of the additions they had made but yeah in J those are relevant Seasons every season at campden yards the first 10 years even when after Albert they were relevant to some degree because you believed in the institution once you lost once became very very clear when they weren’t drafting players and this malevolent human was like running it that there wasn’t a lot of Hope um mcale provided that buck provided that that group of players Machado provided that for a minute but this is something really special I mean I had Alan Callum on this week I think you and I talk about it a lot amidst the we need Bullpen help and what are we doing with all these outfielders and poor Jackson holiday and well you know our heart bleeds for Austin Hayes and Cedric Mullins and like all of that but that these were the conversations we couldn’t have we didn’t have a conversation about a a picture being pulled in 20 years around here because it didn’t matter doesn’t matter when you’re it doesn’t matter and then when it matters matters a lot you know like and and the difference of you being down there every night people on every pitch and you know even late into the night Saturday they’re losing and look awful through eight Innings and then hit a couple of home runs and steal a game right um yeah they’re winning two out of three games really really consistently this whole sweep thing and the fact that they don’t get pushed around uh is um it’s not lost on me you know when I do look at the standings and look at what a couple of other teams are doing and where the Orioles have been for the last 40 years it’s not um this the these These are the good days that we’re into the good days right now this is 1969 771 Jo and I were talking about that over the weekend you know like this is what your dad told you about and you know that and I lived through the end of it from SE 79 to 83 and then reported on it the last 40 years and most of my reporting has been negative for being Baltimore positive because they’re like hasn’t been a whole lot to be positive this is as good as it gets like and it’s a pinch me thing to say Can can you fix relationships can you stop being a jerk to meat can you can you heal things can you grow things can you find a way to make the sport available to everyone all the time ubiquitously seamlessly and I mean I saw the Ravens put out their uh video of all their what they’re building and like 92% of it is targeted at people on golf courses like I was there yeah they did they did the tour and I mean first of all it’s not that far along yet it’s they’ve got a lot of work to do the next two months which it always feels that way with construction sites but two thoughts one related to the Ravens because as you were just talking I brought up the schedule I’ve looked at October’s schedule at Cincinnati October 6th all right that beginning of the postseason right there home against the commanders on October 13th okay potential conflict there and then Road games 21st and the 27th at Tampa Bay and at Cleveland so the fact that we’re looking at the Ravens schedule in October not September talking about okay when are the Ravens going to play you know week one are they home or The Orioles home that day which we’ve done that for years just because planning purposes but October and seeing where the Ravens are playing and how that might or how the baseball season might impact or the baseball schedule might impact that in October there have been very few times we’ve been talking about that in June over the history of camon yards 92 through about 99 seasons were relevant not all those seasons were great 95 they weren’t they were pretty bad with Phil Regan as manager uh and then 2012 and I’ll give them through 17 17 they were still hanging around in the Wild Card race in early September and then completely apart and that was the end of The Buck and Dan duet era I mean they crash and burned and then 18 we don’t even need to talk about and then the last two years I mean I just in a 30 plus year period I mean that’s a a short period of time there you know you’re talking about 10 11 years where just saying they were relevant just saying that they had that’s I’m saying it’s the time to grow it’s the time to get everything right for everybody to bring a 55y old guy back on and say for the next 20 years I’m going to love you long time while I hold you accountable as a media member as a citizen as a partner as an invested Birdland W like all of that like like the fact that they’re not welcoming that right now or that it’s like that they can’t see it for how special it is to be doing things I I I it’s really a time for them to own the Ravens I mean and this raven orial thing you talk about really is an issue on the country clubs because only one of the sky boxes are some of these companies going to be able to afford and certainly down to the fan and dundock to say how much how many when why I mean I saw the Ravens doing a TV commercial we’re the most exciting by the greatest experience seats available well if it’s all that then how why are the tickets available because Chad steel threw people like me out and tickets are 10 bucks and people don’t want to go and they’re Glu the NFL has gotten the media so good you don’t want to go to the game like and Bas baseball for me being locked out I see the strike zone every night and hang out with Jim Palmer and Ben McDonald it’s not right it’s not appropriate what happened to you and I in Arlington is not right but so I am going to begin to challenge them to get things right because this is as good as it gets this you gotta grow now you gotta get people in you got to get people of color in and I’ll say that out loud again and again and again because Adam Jones should be talking about that everybody should be talking about that here how do we embrace the entire community and it’s not Sky boxes and premium this and premium that goldplated this and come into my special Club it’s this is the city this is Baltimore’s team and they’re both playing that game and I see the way they’re playing it with me and it’s not going to play well with me because I’m going to be honest about it but it’s not going to stop me from talking about how great Corbin Burns is or or what an incredible uh selector of talent Mike Elias has been or how they’ve made this thing good that’s cool Monday they gave away mustard and ketchup and relish shirts and they sell 40,000 tickets Tuesday it felt like Fenway Park empty and they got their ass kicked and I’m watching it and I’m thinking to myself they’re independent I mean same game as yesterday they’re they’re not giving out freebies and they have they have a culture of that because they haven’t given out good baseball years so it’s bobbleheads it’s this it’s that it’s discounts it concerts country concerts whistling National anth I mean they whatever they’re doing it’s cool they’re trying hard I see that they this is their time to make sure this time next year that when the Red Sox are in on a Tuesday night it’s not relatively sleepy and I hear more Red Sox fans down in the bowl than than Orioles fans and I hearken back to when there were 42 th000 Red Sox fans in there and 6,000 Oreo fans and my wife’s whole family’s camped out in my place um that’s gone but I want to see that from the Orioles I want to see the Orioles fan base grow during this period of time but it is though okay it is though I mean and I’ve said this over and over I’m going to continue to say it it’s a Dio it’s not a light switch you’re not selling out the ballpark overnight I I’m taking this I I this is not my math here but Jacob Calvin Meyer from the Sun you know he’s at he covers the team on a regular basis through 28 games so this was I guess as a memorial day through 28 games the Orioles average attendance 2,971 an increase of 27% from the same point last year that’s pretty good growth man you know that you’re you understand business now is that the end point of course not not even close far from it they have to continue to do things but people are going coming back you know one thing I don’t hear as much anymore and this really speaks to Harford County and Carol County where they vote a different way and where you live up in Pennsylvania I don’t hear I ain’t going to the city no more I a well I’ll go for baseball you know if if I’m conf I mean I still hear that but you’re right not not as much that is a that that’s probably the most important thing I’ve said here in 38 minutes of talking to you about baseball because like that’s what it needs to be that’s what it needs to be it needs to be the conduit to get people back downtown who haven’t been there but the Stadium can’t be 99.8% Caucasian either it just can’t be like I I don’t think that that’s a growth point for them as a sport as an industry moving forward and I’ve talked at length about the lacrosse issue here and the conflicts that just lacrosse families bring because lacrosse families do a lot of Lacrosse and there’s a lot of Lacrosse and there’s less time for baseball baseball games watching games and I know there’s a lot of people who play lacrosse that love baseball and go to Orioles games I get that but I think there’s a timing issue on that that’s little different here and the kids are out of school right soon next week you tell me Mr school teacher so um 20 yeah 27% that that’s awesome the one thing I see that’s awesome is I’m getting offered tickets for 10 bucks 12 like movie ticket prices movie ticket prices and I’ll tell you when the Angelos group was really running this a year year and a half when the team was terrible it was still 23 bucks to walk in they like even last year when things got a little they did a throwback to clock a year and a half ago or whatever to 83 they were doing that thing like the the fact that you can get in for 10 box 12 like a movie ticket that’s very very welcoming to people and that would that’s how my dad and I got involved in baseball it’s how your dad got involved in baseball right one thing that I’ve really likeed that they’ve done and you know I’m on the orio’s email list now I don’t mean the media list I mean same list anyone else would be on as you know whether whatever but but if you notice and this this really lends itself to what you just said one thing that I’ve really liked that they’ve started to do and and this is something they started doing a few years back in fairness but they’re doing it with more frequency now is these flash sales based off of something that happens in a game so when Jordan Westberg hit the the walk-off home run uh the first home stand of the season they had a flash sale where it was I don’t know 50% off for whatever games for this period of time yeah Mount Castle knocks in seven runs against the tribe one night they’ll put a $7 ticket on for an hour I like the concept from the standpoint of yes first and foremost it makes it more affordable and you’re trying to engage and to your point trying to get more people in the ballpark and you know whether we’re talking about you know whatever demographic we all like cheap stuff right I mean that’s why giveaways are are so popular but I like that from the standpoint of you’re offering that but that also that also in and of itself is an incent to follow the team so you know when they hit a walk-off home run or and I don’t know if they did when buy that’s when you’re getting your deal right you kind of know so then there’s even more reason to watch and to be engaged on social media and to be following the team I mean that’s how you really do this look anyone can go to a baseball game or a football game or a I’m a great example of someone who would go to a hockey game and really enjoy myself am I going to start following it no so when you do more to engage with your fans uh not just hey here’s here’s a giveaway or here’s discounted ticket but hey we’re going to tie that into how the team’s doing then that’s how you get a little more buying to get people to start paying attention a little bit more No it’s it’s not the end all be all but it’s part of it so yeah they still have so much work to do uh there’s still massing TV future of TV I mean again so much of what you’re talking about including talking about uh getting more people in the city more people of color to come to ball games I mean that’s a baseball wide issue I mean that’s you know across professional sports you know that’s that that’s a challenge uh and something that you want to do because everyone spends money right everyone spends money I mean regardless of your demographic it might depends on what your level of disposable income is depending on how much money you make you know I spoke to Reverend Al halfway about this this is going to run because I did the he’s holy I’m not podcast last week in Las Vegas and both those Fells have been on my show I like them a lot and um Reverend Al’s been at you know doing the work of the people the work you want a reverend to be doing in West Baltimore trying to help people and bringing people to the ballpark and he’s a huge advocate of sports a golfer the whole deal and I ask him when you bring a 100 kids who might not even know the rules of baseball or have any you know kids aren’t playing baseball in their neighborhood they’re not watching it on their app phone behind the closed Gates of you know the accessibility of baseball in lots of places in the city you know it’s it doesn’t come to them so I said what do they like he said they like they love being a part of something that says Baltimore on it and they love doing the wave and they love and I think the massing cameras show this when groups do come to the ballpark especially the day a couple weeks ago when all the kids were there and I turned down the tickets in the rain uh and there’s 28,000 kids in the upper deck I used to be one of them uh I saw Gary Reni take the Len lro fast ball off his cheek on safety Day by the way in 1979 um so you know I was a kid once too and falling in love with it and why you fall in love with it and then your dad talks to you about it when you get home or your uncle your mother your father or your neighbors or kids at school or another kid at school or you have access to a glove a bat a ball um you know those are all huge entry points you know what I mean like and and I I’ve been doing a lot of off- the- field research um in in my uh lack of press time I have to go spend down at the Ballpark around the cage getting to know players um I’ve been calling around just talking a lot of really smart people off the air and on the air you can go watch Marty Conway Charles Steinberg Rick vau I mean I’ve had a lot of people on and saying you know what would you do to fix the team how would you fix and I’m getting just unbelievable prescriptions for stuff but they all every one of them and it’s almost Pana and I almost don’t subscribe to it even though I’m espousing it to you right now is something that is a little highbrow um getting kids involved and you like that’s number one on several of the list of people who’ve been involved in the sport not football people not soccer baseball people that is a universal issue for them is they’re not young enough they’re not hip enough they’re not fast enough they’re not cool enough they’re not colorful enough um not even to Venezuelan kids or Latin kids who now make up 70% of the neighborhood that my childhood homes in um but they’re all Central American they play soccer uh and they have no they don’t know the rules of baseball and who’s who’s taking them out to the ballpark uh who’s taking people look like Me Out to the Ball maybe I should do that go over to Colgate and and grab grab a bus like we used to and go out to 33rd Street which we did and there’s baseball fields there but who’s playing on them who’s teaching the kids the game where are the parents in the neighborhood like my dad that were Community organizers that had a clicker in their pocket and an Umpire mitt and you know a bag a bag of shinguards and a chess protector and bats and beating up balls in the bag um grass stains all over all the balls um fresh box my dad would have for the gamer you know um so I I that’s my that’s why I still love that’s why I’m still sitting here 55 years later when they treat me like trash um and still love it you know and they better every person I talk to talks about that part of it like that being the mo I don’t think of that as a 55y old guy that grew up with Jee tennis and campy camping air like you know I I’m good with B you’re good with baseball that we’re not the we’re not who they’re targeting I mean I’ve lived through all of this and still watch every night even and run a company around loving them and sending you there and paying you and asking sponsors to support us on behalf of all this to support them it’s not really about you and me you know it’s more about the baby that’s in your sister’s belly and your niece as to whether they’re ever going to love it and whether they’re going to want or whether the brother or whether the boy in their class or where that’s going to to be the next 10 or 15 years and this is the time they didn’t have anything to sell most of the last 30 years man you know what I mean they really didn’t it is at the same time and look I hear everything you’re just saying I don’t disagree with it those kids have parents those kids aren’t coming to the ballpark by themselves right I mean especially this day and age the days of taking the bus to Memorial Stadium when you’re 10 years old you know without a parental supervision I mean you don’t see that today dude the angelist family didn’t do anything for free but they did have a free kids you know free k program yeah I mean you know it’s a field field trip day um you know so I I hear what you’re saying I also and I see this in my own space and so this is more anecdotal but I also do think in this day and age and I experienced it some as a 10-year-old baseball fan who had 10-year-old friends who you know weren’t as in the baseball as I was let’s just put leave it at that I also do think inherent ly and and I say this now as a 40-year-old compared to being 30 or or 25 you you get more perspective or you like to think you have more perspective and wisdom as you get older maybe not uh but I also do think baseball just inherently because it is a little bit slower not as slow as it was pre pitch clock obviously but it is still a slower game I do think there’s probably something to the idea that it does just Trend a little bit older and I think now by the way I have 40-year-old friends who had no interest in baseball for a long time and and even when the orios were good for fleeting periods of time and they’re more into it now you know my brother-in-law who’s you know in his mid-30s now is way more into baseball than he was when I met him a decade ago and it’s not as though the Phillies have been embarrassing you know over the course of his life he’s he’s seen them win the World Series a different level of commitment you could be a Nascar fan it’s different right so I so I think it’s important to to recognize that first of all none of this is going to none of this is going to compare to the NFL you know we’ve talked about that over and over and over but yeah you do have to cast a wide net I don’t want to see the game change so much to the point where I don’t recognize it anymore I I think that’s counterproductive too but yeah you got to sell the game and certainly here in Baltimore my goodness this is such a fantastic opportunity for this organization for this baseball team to reach people in a way that they haven’t I would say since the 90s but even then you were you were drawing from such a larger Regional footprint you know with with no team in DC at that point in time this is such a huge opportunity to do every possible thing you can to attract people to the ballpark because the good thing is when they get there even if it’s because of a bobblehead or a t-shirt or a ticket deal whatever it is mo more often than not most nights two out of three nights they’re seeing this team win and I will continue to say winning Trump’s all of that at the end of the day but you want to take full advantage of that winning and getting people to come and attendance continuing to grow from where it’s been you know over the last two years where you know it’s improved but still has a long way to go to your point uh and you want to make this thing great long term and there’s a lot of heavy lifting that still needs to be done that has nothing to do with gunar Henderson or adley Rutman well maybe signing them long term uh but you know you want to make this thing not just great for three or four years you want this to become what the Ravens have been over the last quarter Century which is yeah an very occasional lean season but for the most part they’re at the the minimum they’re relevant every single year and that’s a lofty goal that’s not an easy thing to do but this is the team right now with the groundwork you know the framework they have in place the foundation that they’ve laid over the last five or six years they’ve got a chance to be able to do that but it’s going to take great ownership it’s going to take really smart people in various facets of the organization to capitalize on that and that’s where I know you and I still have a lot of wait and see how that’s going to go but in the meantime what’s happening on the field it doesn’t get much better than that and you know we’ll bring it full circle we’ll see what this summer looks like in terms of a pennant race and an AL East race with the New York Yankees but the Orioles on Pace for 105 wins just think about that how many times have the Orioles won 105 plus games in their history twice 1969 to 1970 I mean to your point you said it a little bit earlier these are the good old days in terms of someone that my age or younger has never experienced anything close to this and I say that fully appreciating what Buck Showalter and Dan duette did a decade ago but this is a different level and this has such a fantastic chance to sustain if you make good decisions you have the financial commitment from ownership and you try to capitalize in every single way that you can doing this 32 years and free plug for my 25th anniversary documentary go check it out but I bet you didn’t know this back in the uh in the 90s I mean this guy whistled the national anthem on Wednesday night I used to have a kazoo in the studio it started as like a little wooden like like wooden flute thing that that that that made noise and I got a kazoo and I could I could do the orial magic song on the kazoo I’m not kidding you so you know and I would sing the orial magic song we play the orial magic song and you’d hear the piano come in and it would be 1979 all over again so I got to do that I got to start playing the orial magic song or singing because it really is um it’s it’s fun to watch this it’s fun to talk to you I mean we get out of bed every morning you stay up late every night you cover the like this is I’ve been waiting 30 years to talk about a relevant baseball team chasing the Yankees and worried about trades and Bullpen and who was in the rotation last night are we over taxed in the bullpen and what’s wrong with our outfielders all of these awesome baseball questions Luke is answering those questions out there along with 12 thoughts here and again as the Tampa Rays come to town we’re going to be at fadley on Friday um poor John Martin is out uh Gunner Henderson’s going to break the Maryland Lottery with these grand slams and Home Run riches I’ll have the Pac-Man scratch offs to give away on Friday at fley we’re doing uh cra K Tour all month long Tuesday we’re going to be at Cooper North and Ma Chapel Timonium promoting the 14th and Fleet Week down in Fells Point also on Thursday we’re GNA be at State Fair in kensville before the Blue Jays game I like to call it the Getty Lee game uh Getty please come to the show I’m still chasing Getty Lee down I think he’s worn out from his his tour his book tour I still waiting to read his book I gotta get on a beach to do that but the Blue Jays are in town next week all they brought to you by friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare big appreciation for them as well as Liberty Pure Solutions um man it feels like summertime we got baseball in town we got crab cakes we got crabs on the grill everything’s good around here except we’re chasing the Yankees and as Luke pointed out earlier we’re still in second place we are wnst am570 talson Baltimore and we never stopped talking Baltimore positive
