Can the Baltimore Orioles push for a Wild Card spot?

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast. Brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at CapitalFinancialUSA.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. Alright, it is time for the Wall of Sound and a 12-year-old blast.

The Wall of Sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. Alright, so Dennis Cox, I will ask you for a ruling here. Should we begin with the Panthers or go right to the Little League World Series kid? Oh, right to the kid.

Alright, so you're going to have to give me some background information. Maybe it doesn't even matter who the player is or what team, what region he represents. Washington was up 6-3 late. I think it was in the bottom of the 6th inning and a runner had just got on base because of a walk. So that put runners on 1st and 2nd, therefore bringing up the tying run. Tying run up to the plate. And this is a coach goes out to the mound to talk to his team and obviously the coaches are mic'd up. Right, yes.

So that mic picks up a kid. Okay. With the walk, it brings up Braden Rudolph as the tying run. Yeah, he's right there.

Yeah, it's hot. Whoever's pitching it, if for ESPN, they can come back. Okay. That's for ESPN. Okay. Hey, nothing we can do about that strike call, okay? See, yeah.

Get a little hot mic. It's all ESPN. That's the reason why they up blew that strike call.

It's all because of ESPN. Was it a bad call? Did we know if it was a bad call or not? I think it may have been a bad call.

Alright, it's fine. But still, it's just... ESPN fixing Little League World Series games? Yeah, the ESPN wants drama. It's all ESPN.

Gosh, that's phenomenal. Is that kid going to state? I said that out loud, didn't I? I apologize.

He might. I apologize. Gosh, ESPN's fixing games? Yep. Man, bless that kid's heart.

Fixing games. That's tremendous. I love it. I got no problem with that. That's great.

I was like, first of all... Kids are kids. Clearly, you've heard someone say this. Oh, no. You have heard someone say this.

You didn't just come up with that on your own. One of his parents is screaming at the TV. Oh, yeah. Watching other games. Yeah, just so you know, ESPN's going to tell those umpires, keep them close. They want some drama. Major League Baseball doesn't want the Mariners to win.

I'm telling you, that's what it's about. Good for the kid to finally call ESPN out. If he dropped, man, Swofford.

Swofford's umpiring back here. That is tremendous. That's great.

Absolutely tremendous. All right, to the Carolina Panthers. This was not a difficult decision. Baker Mayfield is now the starter. Obviously, Sam and I knew this day was going to eventually come, but we weren't counting down the days.

We didn't know when it was going to happen or anything like that. Just this morning, I was made aware that I was going to be starting and saw Sam shortly after. He made it very clear that anything I needed in support or in terms of that aspect, he was going to be there. That just shows what kind of team guy he is. Honestly, just an unfortunate circumstance that we're both here in the same year fighting for a job, but that's the kind of guy he is. He said, whatever you need in support, he's just trying to win games, and that's the mentality we've had the whole time. So I truly, truly appreciate that, and he's a great guy. Sam is going to be a good teammate here, but it stings, I'm sure.

I'm also sure that deep down he understood that this was always going to be the decision. But here's Sam on the move. For me personally, it sucks, to be quite honest. It's just tough whenever you go into camp battling for a starting job, putting everything out there to be the starter, and it doesn't go your way.

There's no sense of relief or anything like that for me. I'm just going to continue to come in here every single day, get better, and like I said before, help Baker, give him everything he needs to go out there and perform. Look, again, Sam is going to be a good teammate, and I believe that Darnold will probably remain in the NFL for another 8 to 10 years, make a couple million bucks a year as a backup quarterback. He's going to bank almost $19 million to be a backup quarterback this year. But Darnold is a very, like, what's the difference between him and, I mean, I'm not trying to disparage him, Mike Glennon. Glennon was a backup quarterback for a long time, right? You could be a back, I mean, Chase Daniel, Blaine Gabbard.

Nathan Peterman. I wish, I wish I could have been a backup quarterback in the NFL. Yeah. What a great gig that is.

Seriously. So, first of all, everybody loves the backup. In this case, we've already seen Sam play. Charlie Bach. But Charlie Bach actually showed something as a starter for a bit.

He did, and then he backed up in Pittsburgh for about a dozen years. Gosh, what a great gig. What a great gig.

Yeah. O to be a backup quarterback. That should be a song.

That should be a country song. O to be a backup quarterback. So, good for Darnold being a good teammate. Keyshawn Johnson from Keyshawn, J.

Will, and Max this morning on many of these stations on the decision. I think both of these quarterbacks, whichever one was going to be the starter, was going to be on thin ice anyway. The coach right now, seat, has flames on it that it's just so ridiculous that he'll burn like in two seconds if he sit down. And that's where it's at with him. He had to make the right choice for them right now before he can move on to the second guy if it's not working out. Because he doesn't have another quarterback in him. I mean, he'll be fired if they don't make the playoffs or make major improvements this year. All right, first of all, a hot seat over thin ice is a terrible combination.

Yeah. There's no way that works out. Hot seat over thin ice, it's doomed. It might be doomed anyway.

Aneesh Sharaf is the new radio voice of the Panthers on his head coach's future. At the end of the day, I think it comes down to progress. And I know the NFL is driven by the raw numbers, the wins, the losses. But this is a team that's got a young core. And this is a team being around them essentially throughout training camp in Wofford. They are together. The guys genuinely like each other. There's really not a bad apple there.

The culture that you often hear, you get thrown about from coaches, culture, culture, culture. Yeah, you can see it starting to take root. And I would argue it's there. And I think that's going to manifest itself out on the field.

So look, I said this before. I think it would be too simplistic to say Panthers have to make the playoffs. They can be significantly better and not make the playoffs. I mean, they only won five times last year. I mean, I'm not saying they're going to go 10 and 7.

I'm not saying that because I don't think they are. But they can go 10 and 7 and miss the playoffs. So, I just think they have to look better. And if they look better, it will generally be because the head coach stopped screwing things up. Game plans will be better. Adjustments at halftime will be better. Managing the game will be better. Being better in the two-minute offense will be better.

Pre-snap penalties will dissipate. They won't waste timeouts to give them a chance at a two-minute offense. My gosh, how many times do we get to the end of the first half and like, well, the Panthers are out of timeouts. Wait, there's two minutes left.

Yep, yeah, Panthers are out of timeouts. My gosh, they've been so bad in those little areas. And they're not even little areas.

They're big areas. They've been so bad in those areas that if they don't get better, they'll make a difference if the personnel is better. They'll win five games anyway because the margins are so slim in any professional sport. They're all pros.

They all get paid. So you've got to be good in all phases. And I'm not talking about offense, defense, special teams. I'm talking about players, management, and in all situations. Adam Gold here from my man, Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement.

All right, Coach, simple. When do we start tax planning in retirement? We should start as soon as possible because here's one thing, Adam, taxes are not going away.

Right. And so the game here is we know the rules. A lot of people want to ignore the rules or act like they are familiar with them, but the IRS knows the rules. And so when we get to retirement, they're going to reach in and start taking some of their money out of your accounts. So the secret here is to put a force field around as much as possible by strategically moving some of our money to Roth IRA or some of the other vehicles that aren't taxed, like special life insurance policies.

You can borrow against your money there and never have to pay tax on your money that you build up inside your cash value. So there are a lot of strategies here. The one strategy that does not work is ignoring it. So let's make sure to not ignore it.

The next 10 people will do for you your very own tax and retirement plan that will help you minimize taxation all the way through retirement. Eight hundred six six one seventy three eighty three. All you got is call or you can text Adam to two one zero zero zero for Coach Pete DeRuta. Quick break from the Carolina Panthers who named Baker Mayfield their starting quarterback yesterday. And frankly, we've known that that was going to be the case for a long time. My old stomping grounds, the city of Baltimore and my old friend Mark Viviano, who is with Channel 13 at Mark W. Jay-Z multiple time Maryland sportscaster of the year.

He joins us on the Adam Gold show. Things are good up in Charm City. Mr. Viviano suddenly good, unexpectedly good on the baseball side for sure. And there's always optimism around the football team.

And I don't think it's blind. I think the organization, as it's been run, has set a high bar of expectation just by the way they in general do business and always put a competitive team on the field. And they've won two Super Bowls in their twenty six seasons of existence. And John Harbaugh has kind of fashioned a Hall of Fame caliber coaching resume. And they've got a quarterback. I heard you just, you know, mentioning Baker Mayfield. You know, when you've got a quarterback in the NFL, you got a chance.

And that's what everybody's looking for. And at some point, everybody has to pay for it, which is kind of the issue here right now, as Lamar has yet to sign his contract. But to your point, that's a that's that's a good problem to have in this city that could use some good news. So let me ask you about Lamar Jackson. I'm glad we started there anyway. And I do want to get to the Orioles because, you know, even though a Mets fan, my three years going to ball games at Camden Yards, going to playoff games in that era were was just absolutely awesome.

In the late the late 90s, the end of the Cal Ripken era just was tremendous to be there. But I want to ask you about Lamar Jackson, who seems and I'm just looking at this from the outside. He looks very comfortable playing on the franchise tag, not just one year, but even two years. And if he's willing to do that, then the salary cap number goes so high. Because if that's forty five and a half million one year and fifty four and a half million the next, the Orioles, the Ravens don't want that.

Why is this so difficult right now? Well, I think I'll start with your your initial condition and that you're looking at it from the outside. Adam, everyone's looking at Lamar from the outside. There's no inside there because he doesn't have an agent. He has a very close knit family. His mother basically runs his business and there are no insights into that business.

It's very closely guarded. So many of the questions that we have can only be answered by those within that circle. And they're not common. Now, the Ravens have tipped their hand at times in terms of what they believe or hope for. The owner, Steve Bishati, has said directly how much he does not like the fact that Cleveland played paid Deshaun Watson, a fully guaranteed contract. Right.

Many believe that's the hold up that has become the standard. And Lamar is not going to sign for anything but a fully guaranteed contract in that two hundred plus million dollar range. And the owners on record is saying that's an awful contract. You may have to change his mind if he wants that quarterback. But no, there's it's what you laid out, too, in terms of the salary cap and its ramifications make a second year for sure.

It's untenable like that just can't happen. You would trade him before you would sink that much of your salary cap into one player. And if there's no deal at that point, I think you've pretty much decided that's not your quarterback, certainly not at that price.

So that all being said, Adam, you know, we continue to hear from John Harbaugh that he believes it's going to get done. And Lamar has set a strong well, he at least he has said that the start of the season is the deadline after which there'll be no negotiations this year. You know, and but what if they come to him with a guaranteed contract? I can't believe he would say, well, no, because you missed the deadline.

Do it on a Tuesday to, you know, during the season of Tuesdays and off they negotiate with mom is the is the issue Mark Viviano from Baltimore. WJZ TV is joining us here is the issue really that, OK, maybe it's not going to be entirely guaranteed, but make the deal eight years tack on some dummy years or seven years tack on some dummy years and just guarantee him more than Deshaun Watson is guaranteed that we don't need all the years guaranteed, but we need to get the cap number down. Yeah, I think something like that. You've got to believe they're working on any number of avenues to get to where they want to get. And they they got a price, too.

You know, they you still have to have a price as to, you know, your best way to do business. I mean, they recently handed out one hundred million dollar contracts to Ronnie Stanley, their left tackle and to Marlon Humphrey, their corner, and that Stanley contract. Unfortunately, he was hurt two days after signing it. He has played one and a half games in the two years since he signed it because he had ankle surgery and then he had to get it done again because it didn't take.

So that's been a that's been a hindrance, to say the least. And then Humphrey got hurt at the end of last year. But he's he's OK and good to go. And both those guys, I should add, signed their deals in the middle of the season. So there are negotiations that can take place usually that, you know, an agent helps get that done.

But yeah, this is this is what they're dealing with here. And, you know, you can go back to Joe Flacco 2012 when he was, you know, in his contract status and basically, you know, the word was you bet on himself. He did. He didn't take the deal they offered. He said, just watch what I do in the postseason. He had one of the best postseason in history.

Won the Super Bowl, holds up to Lombardi, then walks into Bashadi's office and puts his feet on his desk and says, wow, let's do business. There's Lamar. You know, is that kind of Lamar's thinking at this point?

Who knows? But that's an easier said than done way of doing negotiations, for sure. All right, Mark Viviano, let's transition to the Baltimore Orioles, who right now, in terms of their active roster, have a payroll, I believe, south of twenty five million dollars. And yet two and a half games out of a wild card spot. They host the White Sox, another team in that wild card mix. They weren't trying to win at any point during this year. They weren't even trying to win at the trade deadline.

How is this happening? Well, let me say this. Your point is well taken. But as someone who covers this team on a regular basis was in spring training with them and I'm headed to the ballpark as we speak. They're trying to win.

The guys in uniform are trying. Right. Of course, the players always do.

Yeah. The point being that the front office had a long term plan and a global picture of rebuilding an entire franchise that needed it. And it kind of snuck up on them that this year they're better than they expected to be. So not only better than expected, but as you mentioned, contending for a wild card playoff spot with the lowest payroll in baseball.

It's amazing. I've covered the Orioles for twenty five years. This, you know, assuming they make the playoffs and I don't you can't assume that. But even if they don't, this may be the most remarkable season of Oriole baseball I've ever covered in those twenty five years. Now, in 2012, when Buck Showalter was in his first full season at the end of 2011, they looked like everything was changing with Buck. And then 2012, they they won, I think, thirty four games more than they did the year before. Got a wild card. And that was a magic ride.

That was pretty cool. But I think this supersedes that for all the reasons we've talked about. They weren't trying to win. They have the lowest payroll in baseball. But I think among the things we've seen is you can build a bullpen out of nothing. You can build a bullpen out of a bunch of relief guys, a bunch of rejects from other teams.

And and you you put them in the right positions and you put your training on them. Look what they've done. It's unbelievable. And when you get a starting rotation, when you're talking about Jordan Lyles and Spencer Watkins and Austin votes, I mean, you know, Kyle Bradish, it's like these guys were all with other teams. They even even started bringing up their own guys yet.

And they've got some pretty good guys. Definitely got some hitters coming up. And then on top of it all, Adley Rutchman is one of the best baseball players in the major leagues now. And he's only played what, 60 games, 50 games. He's he's a one one that's looking like it. And he's carrying this team and with his defense, his offense, his leadership, everything.

It's it's been a magic carpet ride. There's no doubt. I hope that we have playoff baseball at Camden Yards because it is a great, great place for playoff baseball. I still remember screaming. I love you to Darryl Strawberry, even as I was rooting against the Yankees in the nineteen ninety eight playoffs.

Whereas in the probably ninety seven playoffs. Mark Viviano, WJZ in Baltimore at Mark WJZ. I appreciate your time, my friend. Go O's. Go to go to Boogs barbecue for us and I'll talk to you again soon. Anytime, Adam. Good to chat with you. You got it. Mark Viviano from Baltimore.

WJZ. Look, I know we got a lot of Oriole fans out there. Good for you, man. Good for you.

Love to see these types of stories. We are. Where are we headed? We're going to Arlington. Yes, we're going to Arlington, Texas, for NFL stop NFL cities tour. We did Baltimore the other day. Yesterday, as a matter of fact, we did Baltimore, right? Yesterday was not Baltimore's on Friday. Last Friday. Yesterday was Denver, Colorado.

I don't all the days run together. Arlington tomorrow. I'll think Arlington was last week.

Arlington, Texas, next. June 19th, 2006. But it all started May 6, 1997, with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner. Look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina.

Listen, now find James 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast. Before we get into the rewind every day until we get to the start of the NFL season, actually, when we get to the start of the NFL season, it will be the final day that we will go through our NFL cities tour. We haven't even done Charlotte yet. No, we haven't.

My gosh. I kind of hope we get them last. Sure. Why not? We could just set it up. We could just do Charlotte last. Right? I mean, it's our bit.

It is, right? We could do Charlotte last. I mean, it's not like anybody's wagering on these, right?

Nobody's wagering on, whoa, what city's coming up next? So we could just say, hey, we'll close it out on whatever the day of the opener is. Monday is the 6th, Tuesday is the 7th, 8th, 9th.

Right? Well, we're stopping on the 8th because that's when the NFL kicks off, is Thursday the 8th. Oh, the 8th is Thursday?

Yeah. I thought the 8th was... No, that's Thursday. That's when the season kicks off with the Bills. Well, there you go. And the Rams.

The 8th is Thursday. Well, I'm going to go ahead and pull the Panthers out. All right, get the Panthers out of there.

Get them out of the Dunkin' Donuts cup. We will do that on the day of the NFL opener between the Bills and Rams. All right, we're headed to Arlington. Take me to Arlington. Yeah, Arlington, Texas, not Arlington, Virginia.

Two very different places. Yes, I have been to both. I have been to Arlington, Virginia. You have not been to Arlington, Texas?

No, I never actually have been to Texas. Like most Cowboys fans. Oh, wow. What a shot.

What a shot. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Good. So, yes, we're going to talk about Arlington, Texas, this little patch of land between Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas.

Well, here's something you can do. There's a Costco. There's a Costco in Arlington. Is there? Yeah.

All right. There's a Costco there. You can watch a Rangers game as well while you're at it.

That's right. The new ballpark. The Rangers ballpark's right there. Actually, the Rangers have always been in Arlington.

They have. The other was called the Ballpark at Arlington. Yes, I believe that is what it was called. But I don't think this one is called that.

I have no idea what this one is called. But there's this is during the pandemic year. This is where they had the World Series.

Yes, that is true. And we're Clayton Kershaw. Dodgers won that World Series. Clayton Kershaw was able to pitch home games at home. Yeah, he's from the area and may or may not have had a drunk Rob Manfred.

Maybe that's off. That's all fine. I'd be drunk, too. Also, while you're out there, go bowling at Alley Cats Entertainment. Go bowling. There's a lot of bowling going on in Arlington. Exactly. But you do that after you visit the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame.

Amazing. It was at one point in St. Louis. Oh, which actually seems like themselves down, right? It seems St. Louis seems like a much better place for the bowling museum. Actually, Peoria, Peoria, Illinois, seems like a much better place for a bowling museum. But I was thinking Beloit, Wisconsin. It could be Kenosha. I've lived in Kenosha.

Have you? Yeah. That just seems also like a very bowling area. I don't know if there's a bowling alley. There's got to be a bowling alley in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I don't think there was one.

Gosh, not that I remember. How does a city like Kenosha not have a bowling alley? I think you're 30 minutes from Milwaukee. You just go up there. Hold on. I'm doing a search. You tell us what else is in Kenosha. My laptop's just pulled up. I typed in, it said Kenosha bowling.

It's a green bed. Well, no, that looks like they have multiple options. Really? Yeah. I never went.

Yes. I never went. Surfside Bowl on Sheridan Road in Kenosha? Oh, okay. I actually know where Sheridan Road is.

The Gutter, I get it. Yeah, there you go. Recreation Center on Green Bay Road. Okay. And Sheridan Lanes, which is closed now. Oh, that's unfortunate.

It's always closed on Tuesdays for cleaning. Of course. Also, while you're out there, you can play golf at Tierra Verde Golf Club. Sounds lovely.

Yeah, because why not? Also, you can head to Six Flags. There's a Six Flags in Arlington.

We got all sorts of stuff in Arlington. But that's it. What do you mean that's it? That's it. You can go bowling.

Wait a second. What more do you need? Go to Six Flags and Costco.

Congratulations. First of all, Costco's good. You can go to Cowboys games. Great lunch spot, by the way.

Yeah. You can go to Cowboys games. You can go to Rangers games. You can bowl.

You can go to the bowling hall of fame. You can go to Six Flags and you can play golf. Yeah. What else more? What more do you need?

What are you doing? There's nothing historical about Arlington. Exactly. I mean, it's it's a made up city. Place stinks. It's sort of like historic Cary. No offense.

I don't I'm not trying to disparage the people who live in Cary, North Carolina. There's sort of a historic it's nothing historical about it. No. Okay.

It's where it started. That's the historic right? Yeah.

So I got no problem. Yeah, it's that's it. There's no like culture. I think your standards are too high.

There's no culture. Oh, I'm supposed to lower my standards to fit Arlington, Texas. I'm just saying I think your standards are too high if we're complaining that there's nothing to do.

Like there's things I could just ride a roller coaster five days a week. Well, we're not staying. We're not moving there. Are we?

No, we're just going there for a game. Still, I need something to do for an afternoon. Hey, I think we can ride this, you know, I need something to do for an afternoon.

I think we can ride this roller coaster. I don't understand why you're picking on Arlington, Texas. Well, I'm not arguing.

I'm not being an advocate for it. You know, yesterday we talked about with with Denver. There's a lot of these different local places and stuff to go.

Yeah, there's nothing that are they don't have because there's no exist, no soul. Arlington, Texas. Exactly. How far is Arlington from Frisco? Doesn't matter. Well, Frisco, I know Frisco, Texas, though. It's not an NFL city yet.

That's become just a sports town USA. PGA America just moved their headquarters to Frisco. Seems like they have the FCS championship game in Frisco. They play soccer in Frisco, minor league baseball in Frisco. Frisco is like everything.

It's just sports. We should we should move. Do we have a donut shop?

We do. Campus Donuts. Campus Donuts. Campus Donuts. You actually one reviewer actually Campus Donuts actually said this one. This is actually what gives Campus Donuts, in my opinion, a lot of credibility.

Okay. Very soft, very soft donuts. Krispy Kreme-esque soft donuts. Airy.

Light. Really good Krispy Kreme style donuts. Very cotton candy-ish. And it's delicious, I bet. Apparently they also have a very fantastic blueberry cake donut. Oh, that would be good. See, there you go. A cake donut is good.

A cake donut is superior. They have collages, I believe. I don't even know what that is. I don't know either. Okay. They don't even have a website. Oh, they also have pigs in a blanket.

All good. Yeah, I'm down for pigs in a blanket. 99 cent pigs in a blanket? I like it. Let's go.

And they don't even have a website, which you know makes it great. All right. By the way, tomorrow we're going to Atlanta. Oh, man, we got stuff to do. There's a lot of stuff to do. You'll rip Atlanta, will you?

No. Other than it's hot down there and the traffic sucks. It's hot here, too. Don't drive in Atlanta. Just ride Marta. I hear Marta's not even that great. I mean, I ride Marta when I go to Atlanta. We park and then just ride Marta.

I don't go to Atlanta a lot, but when I have been, just ride Marta. I'm going to go ahead and draw for Wednesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. I'm going to draw for Thursday.

Right. It'll be a Josh Graham experience on Thursday. Thursday and Friday. Let's see where Josh Graham first day. Oh, the Bills.

Oh, man. I'm missing Buffalo. No, you're not missing Buffalo. I think it's Orchard Park, isn't it? Ah, you got to do Buffalo. No, no. We're going to where the stadium is. Oh, man.

Which is Orchard Park, New York. Have we already done Landover? I don't think we have. I don't think we've done Landover yet. We haven't done Landover yet. I'm going to go ahead and draw for Friday for you.

Nothing in Landover. No, I don't care. I'm not going to be here. I know. We're going to go and draw for you. Just so you know what you're missing. All right. Draw.

See what you're missing here. Oh, Santa Clara, California. The 49ers. Very nice. I actually know a donut shop in Santa Clara.

Do you really? All right, good. I've never been to Santa Clara. When we covered the Panthers in the Super Bowl, I never left San Francisco. By the way, when we talked about San Francisco last week, I had a good friend of mine. One of the only Cardinals fans I like actually was we were trying to hash out the place that we went to for the pan fried calamari.

OK. He thinks it's in the waterfront, not the wharf, but the waterfront, which are different. This is the Adam Gold show. June 19th, 2006. But it all started May 6th, 1997, with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Cane's Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now. Find Cane's 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.