"He says, 'I'm really not that fond of this Johnny Oates guy,'" Palmer recalled during an interview Wednesday on the "Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney" podcast, during which he promoted "Nine Innings to Success: A Hall of Famer's Approach to Achieving Excellence," his new book. "And I said, 'Well, why is that?' And he said, 'Well, you know, he's not very good with the press.'" This was a time before the Washington Nationals, when the region was the Orioles' to own.