Ryan Ripken

And they needed that.

But you needed the guy that understood playing with pressure, understood, you know, playing the big market in New York and constantly year in and year out the last few years.

It was, well, Pete's going to fall off.

No, he doesn't have a position long term.

It was all these negatives around what he couldn't do.

And all he did was go out there and prove what he can do.

And what he proved is he was the best right-handed bat in this free agent market, and he got picked up.

And he wants the team to embrace the challenges ahead, but he wants to do it together.

He wants people to feel comfortable.

You mentioned Chris Bassett.

Buck Showalter, a friend of ours and...

Buck loves Bassett.

He can't sing his praises enough.

And Bassett's another guy where if you talk to people around, they said, really intellectual, but if you're going to talk to him about baseball, you're going to talk about the game, you also better be doing what you're supposed to do, and he will be in your corner, but you've got to be doing it right.

And he's not afraid to say, that was awful.

He's going to tell you that was awful, but let's figure out what we need to do

And so when you mention all these other teams, yeah, that matters to have that.

And with the Orioles, yes, of course, you'd be great to see one of these younger players take that leap of being the quote unquote leader of the squad.

But man, does it help when you have guys that have walked the walk, who've done it in a round.

And that's why the Orioles, in my mind, they could win the AL East and go to the World Series, or they could be stuck in the middle somewhere, could finish fourth in the AL East, because there are some variables that are still yet to be determined.