Halford & Brough in the Morning - Softy Goes Off On Blue Jays Fans

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with KJR Seattle's Dave "Softy" Mahler (1:17) ahead of Game 4 of the ALCS, as the Mariners still hold a 2-1 series lead over the Blue Jays, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Are you kidding me? Two games to none? Are you kidding? We got to finish this, guys. We got to finish this, man. This has got to be it. This has got to be it. Done.

No more. No more waiting. No more talking. No more dreaming. No more thinking. This has got to be finished. Finish this. Finish.

8.4 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday. Alfred Brough, SportsNet 650. That voice you heard, that was Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. He's going to join us to just a moment here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Before we get to Softie, a little business to take care of. Halford in Brough in the morning is brought you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick, no more interest, much lower payments, and financial peace of mind.

Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Hour 3 is brought to by Campbell & Pound, Real Estate Appraisers. trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-dashpound.com today. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics. We're going to gather with you in Step. To the phone lines we go.

Our next guest is from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. Dave Softie Mahler here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Softie? How are you? Let me ask you a question. Is every Canadian dipstick up there rooting for Toronto in this series or do we have any Mariner fans north of the border? I knew this question was coming. And it is...

Well, let's just get to it already because I'm in no mood. I know you're in no mood. I get it. I get it. After last night, I don't want to hear your nonsense. I don't want to hear your Blue J BS, okay? I just sit next to some douchebag last night.

Literally in the stands, grown man, grown man. And I will send you the picture to prove it. Wearing full Blue Jays uniform, pants, jersey, hat backwards. The only thing he was missing was a cup. and a jock strap for his little Canadian balls and eyblacks, right? That's the only thing he was missing. So, Softie, we brought you on to talk about the Cracken. No, we didn't.

No, we did. No, we did. Right, what are we doing? What are we doing? Tell me. So this market specifically, and it's actually been the most annoying part of the series for me, is that there's a lot of Blue Jays fans and there's a lot of Mariners fans. And, like, I understand that the two don't like each other specifically when the two are playing.

That's kind of like sports fandom. 101. There's been this weird level of gatekeeping, which I hate, which is one fan base trying to explain to the other one why they're wrong about who they're cheering for. I'm like, there's both fan bases here. Let them do their thing, get after one another, and enjoy

the series because this is great on a personal level. Like, I love this series. I know that you're swinging one way, and rightly so, for the Mariners to be in that direction. Like, here's the thing. If the Mariners win and get through to the World Series, I think that's awesome, right? They've never been there before. The only team of

Major League Baseball that has a host a World Series game at home. I want them together. It would be great for the fan base. At the same time, I'm not like dumb. I work for a company that also owns the Blue Jays, and we're inundated with Blue Jays coverage here, and I've watched more Blue Jays baseball this summer than I have in the last

10 years probably, right? There's more Blue Jays fans in Vancouver than Mariners fans, but there is a there is a proud loyal contingent of Mariners fans in this city, and they will let you know. But it is a

softy, it is a really interesting dynamic. There was actually an article in the Globe and Mail, which is a newspaper out of Toronto, but kind of serves Canada. It's our Wall Street Journal if you want to put it that way. And they were talking, it was an article about Vancouver being in

this weird position where you've got a lot of Blue Jays fans and a lot of Mariners fans and a lot of the Blue Jays fans are going down to Seattle to watch these games to do set, sit next to you, wearing their baseball uniforms. Did you do a cup check?

I wanted to. I wanted to walk up and kick the guy right in the crotch. Just for walking out of the house, wearing something like that. And this is before the Mariners started to get their ass kick last night. The minute this moron walked into the stadium, I wanted to punch him right in his freaking franks and beans. Are you kidding me, man? Andy, I just sent you a picture of the guy.

You can show the boys when the show's over. It's on your phone. look guys here's the deal okay here's the deal first of all there weren't nearly as many blue jay fans in the building last night as there typically are for regular season games that's number one

I would say I would say it was probably about 20% of what it normally is for a regular season game the problem with me is that every single one of them was sitting in my section every single one last night including this moron

that was sitting next to me and Andy I just you should have to picture now. Okay. I just said it to literally walk in there. Yeah, show it to the guys. Okay. So that was my problem last night. And you know what? Honestly, if you would have told me, first of all, you talk about, you know, we're supposed to hate each other because we're playing each other right now. No, I hate you guys even when we're not playing you. Okay? Like I have, I have absolute unfiltered sports hate for Toronto Blue Jay fans, even when we're not playing you guys. I cannot stand Toronto Blue Jay fans. Honestly, I mean, Canuck fans, I don't really have a

giant problem with. There's something about Blue Jay fans and I don't know what it is that just irritates the hell out of me. And maybe it's impossible for me to understand the context. Maybe if I was a fan of a sport and my country only had one team and that sport, maybe I'd feel a lot differently than I do now, but I just think it's gross and disgusting that somebody from Vancouver would be rooting for anybody in Toronto. Let me ask you a question. Do Canuck fans root for the Maple Leafs? You guys root for the Canadians? You're going down the road. We've got a very complicated relationship with both cities, with both cities, with Seattle, too.

I don't like the cracking. I don't like the crack and I don't like the sounders, but I want the sonics back. It's very, very confusing. They're the same people. They're the same people. You are allowing yourself to wake up and encourage joy and celebration in the homes of Toronto Mapley fans. who also happen to be Toronto Blue Jays fans. You can't separate it.

So grow up enough. Softy. Enough for this freaking nonsense. At the risk of something. Just do what... How much of this? How much of this? Because I feel like there's going to be Blue Jays fans listening and they're going to be like

breath, push back on this guy. How much of the hate of the probably obnoxious Blue Jays fans that go down to Seattle on a regular basis and they're on vacation and we Canadians, we like to have a few beers and chant let's go Blue Jays. How much of that frustration stems from the fact that you allow it as Mariners fans to

let thousands of these Blue Jays fans into your stadium because you don't fill it out yourself. Yeah. Okay, first of all, nobody fills out every baseball game, smart guy. Nobody sells out every baseball game number one. Yeah, but pretty close

is not a sellout. Okay. And then number two. Number two, first of all, I'd like to go back and check those numbers. They were pretty close to what? Selling out every game you played this year, a Rogers Center. They're pretty close. They're pretty close. You're telling me? At one point. I'm not buying that for a second. It was better than the Mariners' attendance. Here and over there. Well, that's because we The Mariners had a bunch of empty seats down the stretch when they were trying to win the division. It was embarrassing. Which games were empty? Which game? One's down the stretch. Check the attendance down the stretch of the meritor's games down the stretch you want me to go online and actually check

these numbers right now you're i'll check it for you i remember i i remember going wow there's a lot of empty seats in seattle in like it wasn't the final two games or anything but it was like the final month when you guys were very much in the mix well let me let me go just digress for a second because first of all i think i think the idea that meritor fans allow this to happen. It's not the fan base that has allowed this to happen, it's the franchise. When you don't make the playoffs but once over a

24 year period, when you're the only team in baseball that's never been to a World Series, the fact that the Mariners are still middle of the road in attendance at minimum every single year in Major League Baseball is pretty freaking impressive. I mean, I could name any

Canadian team, basketball, hockey, baseball, wherever, or if they were this bad for this long and this miserable for that long. Eventually the fan base is going to say enough is enough. Okay, so we can't really have it both ways. We can't rip the Mariner fans for being soft and not criticizing the baseball team when things aren't going well and then rip them for not showing up when things aren't going well. The only way that fans can respond for the most part is with their pocketbooks. You guys know that. That's the only real power that the fans have is to not spend money on a team. So I don't blame

Mariner fans for not being there consistently for this baseball team. And actually, I actually, in context, think that the fan base has been pretty freaking solid, considering how terrible this baseball team has been for the better part of a quarter century. And then number two, going back to your point about, you know, well, hey, you should buy these tickets yourself. Well, first of all, no kidding, number one. And then number two, fans can't control what happens on the secondary market, right?

And on top of that, you've also got a baseball team in Seattle that markets these games in Vancouver. they market these games in Canada like they're Canada's second team and that irritates the piss out of me. That drives me freaking nuts when the Mariners' ownership does things like that. So look again,

I thought last night was actually phenomenal as far as the lack of Blue Jay fans in attendance yesterday. I'm just irritated that almost every single one of them was sitting next to me. How much of this emotion that I'm hearing from you is based in

worry that the Mariners might not get to the World Series despite the fact that they were up to nothing in the series because they already referenced the fact like I think you threw it out there on social media like don't give the Blue Jays any life like it's a must the game three is a must win

and I know you didn't mean that literally but it's kind of like you don't want to you don't want to give the other team life and Softie we know in Vancouver what happens when you give another team life. You know, we have a Canucks team that the last time they made the Stanley Cup final, they went up 2-0 in the series and the other team, Boston, got a lot of life and they came

back to win four of the next five and they won the Stanley Cup and we still talk about it to this very day. So how much of that is in the back of your mind right now, especially with the way the Js were on the bats yesterday? Well, first of all, let me ask you this. You're asking me how concerned am I about the Mariners blowing a 2-0 lead? How concerned were you when the Blue Jays were down to nothing? Very concerned. Yes. Of course you were, right?

Like, you'd be an idiot to not be concerned down to nothing. So I think when you've come this far, and you guys have been waiting 34 years for a World Series or 33 years, whatever it is, we've been waiting 50 years, our entire existence for a World Series. We're talking to combine over 80 years that these two fan bases have been waiting To get back to the World Series, I don't think there's any middle ground now for anybody. Either you're elated or you're freaking crushed at the end of this thing, right?

So worry, dread, all of that is going to be a factor for both fan bases. Just like you guys were concerned dramatically when you're down 2-0. I think Mariner fans look at tonight's game absolutely is a must-wing. You lose this game and you're going to have to go win it in Toronto. If you do win it, you're tied at two. The three-game series and the home field advantage is going back to Rodgers, Of course there's dread. Of course there's nerves. Of course there's worry. I mean, you're not a fan. You don't have a freaking heart in your body if you're not concerned right now if you're a mayor of fan. I think both fan bases should be concerned. I think you've got to be an idiot if you're walking around cocky about what's going on right now. Well, you know, no matter what side of the ball, you're on Toronto or Seattle. So look, these games are so freaking big. Every pitch is so freaking big. You guys know that, man. Anything could change at the day.

drop of a hat, just like the intensity change for Mariner fans with the snap of the finger and that... Oh, man. Come on. How does this happen? How does that happen on such a regular basis? It's unbelievable. Softie had the Dunbar-Lumber text line absolutely hopping.

Yep. Some people were like, I hate this guy. other people were like, I love this guy. This is amazing. One guy actually texted in and said, I thought you guys got this guy on to do a crack in interview. I'm like, my man, that is a joke. Yeah, that is what's called a joke.

That was a joke. Do we got it back on the line now? We'll try this again. Softie, we dropped you mid-call. I'm here. I'm here. Sorry about that. Sorry about that.

So where was that? We were talking about the nerves. Yes. I mean, look, I just think that both fan bases have got to be extremely nervous right now. I mean, for the Mariners, they lose this game tonight, and this is obviously a brand new series. And for the Blue Jays,

if you guys lose this game tonight, you've got to feel like you've got one foot in the gray down three games to one, right? So this is everything tonight, and if you're not a fan, or if you don't have a nervous bone in your body, then I think you're missing a soul. You're missing a heart as

a sports fan if you're not completely on edge about tonight's game, on both sides. Hey, I'll have to you. I want to let you in on a little secret. I'm quietly cheering for the Mariners. Yeah, baby. I want to see them get, I want to, I realized it yesterday and Laddie's going to hate me and, you know,

I might get fired, but I want to see the Mariners get to a World Series. I went through my Jay's fandom in the 90s. They got over the hump. They won the World Series. They won it twice. And I was kind of like, all right, I've seen that now. You know what I haven't seen? The Mariners in the World Series, and I think it would be awesome.

And it's a great time to be a sports fan in Seattle right now. The Seahawks look pretty good. The Huskies are not getting enough respect. They should be a top 25 team, but maybe they will be soon. They've got a big game against Michigan this weekend. You must be loving life right now. I know you're stressed out.

You don't sound like your loving life, but this must be fun for you. This is why you do the thing you do. Well, no, no, no, there's nothing fun about this, man. This is not fun. My wife said the same thing to me. Isn't this fun? No, there's nothing fun about this. Are you kidding me?

I haven't had my voice in a week and a half. I haven't slept for a week and a half. I'm breaking out like I'm 12 years old in the high school. This is just, there's nothing fun at all about going through all of this. You know what's going to be fun? Winning the American League and going to the World Series and the party that night. That's what's going to be fun. So I hope it happens.

And honestly, man, look, I don't really give a damn how fans, fan. You do whatever you want. The only thing that I ask for is absolute. unfiltered loyalty, meaning you pick a team and you stick with them through thick and thin, you don't jump on somebody else's wagon, you don't hop on another bus when things are going bad, you don't find two or three teams to root for, like there's always that joke about the clown that roots for the Cowboys and Duke and the Knicks and, you know, he's a Laker fan and all that stuff. So if you're a Blue Jay fan, then stay a Blue Jay fan. Honestly, like I don't want you rooting for the

Mariners. If you're a Blue Jay fan, I want you to be a Blue Jay fan for your entire life. And if you're a Mariner fan, I want you to stay a Mariner fan. So I just think there's almost too much of that now in sports where people have these, you know, just multiple teams that they're loyal to and it drives me freaking crazy.

All right, fine, I'll cheer for the Jay's on. Can I ask a baseball question? One to one baseball question. I just want one baseball question. We can go as long as you want. I got nothing to do until about 538 tonight, so let's go. I wanted to ask how pissed off you were that Dan Wilson left George Kirby in that game yesterday?

I wasn't as pissed off as I probably would have been in a normal situation because I still thought down five to two that he may have been their best shot to right the ship. You know, 6-2 after that guy was at Springer, I forget now who had the home run to make at 6-2. I don't even remember how they scored last night, but at 6-2 I would have gotten him out of there. At 6-2, I think you're saying, all right, we may stop. still have a shot to come back and win this thing. But when they put up the eight spot, forget it.

It was over. And guys, honestly, I'm looking back at last night's game, and I'm kind of wondering if that may have been the better way to go down. If you're going to lose, because let's face it, who cares how you win and how you lose now in the playoffs, right? Like, do we really care if it's a 2-1 win or a 14 to 13 win? No, of course you don't. So if you're going to lose, you may as well get your ass kicked

and not have to burn any of your big arms for the game tonight. I mean, you went through Luke Jackson. You went through Carlos Vargas and you went through Caleb Ferguson, who's been terrible ever since he showed up from Pittsburgh at the deadline, meaning Brash, Munoz, Spire, Bizarro, all those guys are available tonight, every single one of them. So what would have been a disaster, I think, is if they pulled Kirby up, maybe an inning or two early, and they went through some of those arms that we talked about,

and they still lost the game, right? So I think if you're going to lose, last night was almost best case scenario, you're fully arrested for tonight with Luis Castillo on the mound who's been phenomenal at home so far against the guy in Max Scherzer who, look, I think if you just look at the numbers

and you're looking on paper at this game, this is a game the Mariners should win with that pitching matchup. It's a crazy matchup because Scher hasn't pitched in forever by his standards anyway, because he's old and it's been on ice for a while here, but it's like come hell or high water. You knew he was going to get trotted out at some point

during these playoffs. That's kind of why they signed them. It just feels like tonight's like a huge spot to throw him in without a lot of evidence that he's going to be able to get the job done, other than reputation. Like, reputation's great, but it doesn't really stack up to, like, what you got. Let me ask you. Let me ask you, why are they throwing him tonight?

Is there no other option? Yeah, not really. I mean, they used Bassett in relief, and he hadn't been good down the stretch. I think it's going to be a hybrid bullpen game. Maybe. They did that against the Yankees. in the closeout game and it worked to perfection

but that was almost an anomaly because otherwise the pen is it's kind of stunk like the ERA's high that hasn't been great I mean I know they like using Varland in those like they call them high leverage situations

by the way someone called it a low leverage situation yesterday I like that we just call them mopup guys like we used I like calling a garbage time Ferguson's a mopup guy he should come out there with a bucket what's you over under on Scher total innings pitch tonight

man I like if you put it at two Three of his last four games, he's gone four or more. And two of the last five, he's gone five or more. I was going to say four. I'm just looking at his numbers right now. But honestly, like, I don't want to sound, well, it should be for both these guys. I mean, that's the thing about tonight's game.

Like, you've got Brian Wu guys sitting in the bullpen ready to go to either start game five or come in relief of Luis Castillo tonight. If Castillo doesn't have it, he's out. He's out of the game. And Brian Wu is going to come in, I would assume, in relief tonight. But again, you know, there's no need for anyone to sound cocky because that's just stupidity. But if I told you the Mariners were playing a game and it was Luis Castillo at home, where his home road splits, his ERA at home is over two runs lower per game than it is on the road.

Luis Castillo versus Max Scherzer, you would give the advantage in that game to the Mariners. Of course you would. And it's insane to not give the advantage to the Mariners. So I agree with you. If the Blue Jays can win this game tonight with Max Scherzer. are starting, just like we talked about the Mariners stealing game one, it would kind of feel like the Blue Jay stealing game four. And I think from a confidence perspective and from a psyche perspective, losing this game tonight to that guy with Luis Castillo on the mound would

be a massive, massive blow for Seattle. Massive. Shorty, or sort of softy, you're the best, buddy. That's fine. You can call me that. My grandpa used to call me that. That's fine. But you're Softie, and we love you, and thank you very much for doing this today, but this was awesome. I won't say have fun at the game tonight, but embrace the game tonight. Well, I just, listen, man, I just hope that the clown sitting next to me last night, comes back tonight and just finishes the entire uniform. Wear the jock strap, wear the cup, put some eye black on, put the cleats on, and just go all in. Just be the douchebag that you were born to be and just go all in tonight.

We got the picture. It is hilarious. Thanks for doing this, buddy. I'll send you a picture tonight if he's still sitting there Okay, sounds good Thanks, Seth. Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet

650. That's got to be one of my all-time favorite rants I've ever heard Softy's great. Absolutely amazing. Softie's great, man. Can I just say, and I don't even mean to pick on this guy but the one guy who actually thought we brought him on for a Cracken interview? He's like, you have allowed this to happen. You brought this man on to talk about the Cracken

and he is now on a rant Sir, I want to speak about the Cracken. Even Cracken fans don't want to talk about the Cracken. You cannot. A lot of people texted in there like, is this a bit? I was like, I don't think you can't know about Softie. We've had them on like a hundred times. It's not that. I think it's that some people don't, like you can't fake that level of passion.

I thought this was AJ too. Like that classic Softie New York accent. Some of the inboxes. Some of this text message. This loudmouth American blowhard is a travesty. You're giving him air time to insult our country. country and people. I call for a complete ban on this moron. His line cutting out was the best part of this quote unquote interview. Non-stop insults. Have you ever like kind of like

talk smack with your friends ever one time? It can be kind of fun. Just give it a go. Also he wasn't insulting Canada. He was. He was. Some Canada insults in there for sure. Iron Blair, Texan. I'm glad Bruff is cheering for the Mariners gives us a chance. It must be a Jay's guy. You know what? I have to say, I realized it last night.

I'm like, I think I'm going for the Mariners. Hey man, I'm all in. And yeah, like, I know we're not supposed to do that, but whatever, I mean, it makes it interesting. We're just supposed to make this compelling, and this has been a compelling series. And, you know, the Jay's winning in the fashion that they did yesterday makes today

must watch because there are going to be a lot of people that say, and maybe rightly, whoever wins this game today wins this series. Yeah, I mean, it's, if they're able to, because there's got to be a decided

underdog with Shurs are on the bump, if they're able to get out of this game winning two straight in Seattle after losing the first two at home in Toronto, where after, that game on Sunday, the vibes were so low, solo, solo for the Js

and their ability to come back in the series. If they're able to do it, tonight. It's a very tall task. The series is absolutely up for grabs, and it may be that the winner of Game 4 is the one that ultimately wins the series. We're way up against it for time. We've got to go to break. When we come back, it's what we learn time. Get them in. Dunbar Lumber, text

message in basket, 650, 650. Hashtaget at WW. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R. Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen,

4 to 6 p.m. weekdays, and On Demand through your favorite podcast app. Now for my favorite part of the show, what I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

on the show. 836 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a license and solvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. To learn how, visit sands dash trustee.com. We are in our three of the program.

It is what we learn time. Hour three is brats by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Camel and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Bound. today I'll do a quick quote we learned to start oh my this one's for softy I learned that on Thursday September 11th just 19,129 showed up to watch the Mariners in Seattle against the LA Angels the mariners were in the midst of a huge winning streak I think they went 10 in a row

Just 19,000 at the park that year. What date was that again? September 11th. Oh. Right down the stretch, you know. A couple days before, they only had 22,000 for their series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Sad. The cars are a pretty bad team.

I'll give the Mariners fans some credit on that one. Oh, I thought they were showing up to watch the Mariners in the thick of a postseason race. They don't do that. Okay. They don't do that. Just quick move, cow. Very quick. 19,000 though, that's not very much for a stadium with a capacity of 45,000.

It's half empty, I would say. I wonder what people were doing on that day. I used to say. So I learned that there's a young, intriguing forward prospect that's available for trade out of the New York area. Elliot Friedman noted NHL Insider right here for Sportsnet. Just a few minutes ago, it's reporting that the news. York Rangers are open to trading Brennan Othman. The 16th overall pick in

2021 hasn't really materialized on the wings for the Rangers in part because they are pretty stacked at the wing position, but also because Othman really hasn't shown much at the NHL level. 22 games last year for the Rangers, zero goals just to assist. 22 years old, it just turned 22 this year. That was the Owen Power draft year, by the way, if you were trying to remember which one that was. It was also the year in which it connects traded away their first round pick.

and the Arizona Coyotes took Dylan Gunther with the ninth overall selection. I only mention this because there are a handful of teams that are, you know, bereft of talent up front and might have an open spot for a young yet to achieve, not underachieving, but yet to achieve forward that's looking for a fresh start somewhere else. And I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not,

but the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers, they do have a history of trading with one another. They know each other's phone numbers. They've got them on speed dial. think. Maybe. Who's to say? But I'm just, you know, I'm not really connecting the dots, but I am sort of, but I just wanted to throw it out there that Friege is reporting that

after failing to make the team out of training camp and going down to H.L. Hartford. Brennan-Othman is apparently up for grabs for the right taker on the NHL trade market. Mookaumee. Please don't send me to Hartford. Yeah, really. I don't want to go back. I'll go anywhere. Even Vancouver.

See, Lucas Reichel had a good day for the Blackhawks yesterday? He had a goal and two goals. Two goals? We didn't imagine. Conor Badard had three assists last night. He looks better. You're so focused on Jimmy Snuggaroo. You didn't even pay attention to Connor Badard.

And Baddard's old news. Baddard doesn't have a nickname now. Like Jimmy Snipes. Jimmy Snipes, they call him. Can I do what we learn? Yeah. Quick. You guys are familiar with the What Chaos show

featuring our friend Pete Blackburn, right? DJ Bean. They had a big expose yesterday. I don't know if you guys caught this on the timeline. I saw this. They think they've cracked some sort of conspiracy involving ESPN Plus, the streaming service. Yeah.

So what apparently has been happening is people have been watching games to start the hockey season. And then they notice by the end of the game, they're like 15 minutes behind everybody on the live. You know, people have cable are about 15 minutes ahead. And they didn't know what was going on. And they figured out that apparently ESPN has been inserting ads that are longer than the NHL ad breaks. And instead of just coming back, kind of joining it in progress, they push back your stream by a little bit. That's why it's happening. And then you end up, you know, it's only a minuscule amount each time, five or six seconds.

But by the end of the game, you're like five, six minutes behind actual live play. How can I live bet on a game if I'm watching five minutes behind? Or people that post clips of the game and stuff like that, they've been noticing. So. I just want to say that, again, anti, I don't want to be anti-Rogers again, but like streaming has fundamentally changed the way we watch sports now. In a good and bad way. In a good, like, I love the fact that I am able to watch on my phone. I was out watching the boy play hockey, and I had my phone up against the glass, and I was watching it.

It's great. And actually, I got knocked off the glass once because there was like a collision. I don't know why you put it there, but that's secondary. Well, because I was, I wanted to watch it. I was watching, I was watching. And, and, but in the bar behind me, the game was 10 seconds behind my stream because they were probably like everything is streaming now

yeah yeah right like you get even on your TV you're you're kind of streaming like there's there's some cable left but it's mostly streaming yes when we're on our chats

like you are way behind offer's always behind you're always way behind I don't know does the stream not get to Burnaby fast enough or something like it is just changed it has changed the way we watch the game

because I was I was listening to a radio feed the other day And I was like, this has got to be the quickest one imaginable. Like, there's no lag when it's audio. But that was behind. Were you streaming on radio? Yeah, it was.

It's streaming. That's what I'm saying. Once you add the internet to the equation. I know, but I was thinking like the theoretically, an audio stream should feed faster than a video stream. No, Batch is actually just calling the third period of the Canucks Blues game. He's like, he's very disappointed in the performance. I'm not going to spoil this for you, Batch. It doesn't get a lot better.

So back to my original, what we learned. This ESPN whole thing. They seem to think it's a big conspiracy. ESPN's trying to sneak in some extra ad time. Sure. I think it's... He's been waiting for like 10 minutes to press the time. Good job, Edoch.

I think it's just incompetence. I think they just put in the wrong length of commercial and the stream is automatically adjusting and this is the result we get. Isn't that the sort of usual response to any sort of conspiracy? It's like probably less conspiracy and more like just the inadequacy

of the people doing their jobs. That's probably about it. Yeah. But that's what they want you to think. and moo cow I cannot wait to read one of the what we learns

oh I cannot okay we're going to start with you just settle down now Beavis oh this is going to be so good fired the dot matrix What we learned humanoid edition is brought to you by AJ's pizza on East Broadway

go visit them tonight you've got two baseball games you have a Canucks game and you have a Thursday night football game. 325 and 327 East Broadway. It is not just a place for pizza. It is not just a place for beer. It's a place to watch sports with the sound on

and someone making sure that the volume is brought up and down during the commercials. Go to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Unsigned what we learned. Okay. What we learned. Lately, I stumbled across this thing called Canucks Reddit. Adog, listen up.

A dog's always on Canucks Reddit. Okay. And he says, this texter says, J.C. And he didn't say that. It's just as crazy as Canucks Twitter. It is like a group of 16-year-old fan girls who are in denial of EP40 and everything is Talkett's fault. Fan people. My favorite, so I'm going to, this part is particularly mean, so I'm actually going to not read this part.

My favorite was yesterday an upvoted post where. a user was laying into Brough and Donnie Taylor saying they hate AP 40 only because he doesn't do interviews with them. Somehow it was upvoted. Brough and Donnie are quote

out of touch boomers apparently. Sorry for the long-winded text message. I am sick from work today. Have a great day. All four of you and thanks for the last. Okay, so sometimes people send me a discussion from Canucks Reddit and they're like, these guys hate you. And I

I just want Canucks Reddit to know that I know you hate me I know what you say about me and you guys are all in denial watch the games okay and let's see what they talk about now I bet they got some material

Headline, rough calls out and hey who's been right I actually have a burner account I don't know when it starts all the posts who's been right which again is the most important thing who's been right

It is, because they're wrong and they're in denial. Now, you keep bringing out the underlying numbers that say PD has actually been really good through the first three games, and hopefully you sleep at night. I call it like it is. When that guy starts playing better, I will say so. Kinex Redd actually refers to you and Donnie as hollow notes, because you're both out of touch. You're out of touch. Good poll. Thank you.

That was not too bad. I did a Q&A on Canucks Redd at one time. It went well. Did they were like, once I like working with prof, you're so negative. Yeah, I was like, it's the worst. Yeah.

But he's always right. Yeah, I didn't add that part. You didn't have that part? Austin and Langley with what we learned, hashtag WWO what we learned. Demko, Besser, and Lane Hudson have all been added to Team USA's expanded Olympic roster submission.

Who has a better chance of making it, Garland or Besser? Is the answer? neither. I think Garland has a better chance to make it, but neither of them have a good chance to make it. I think Demko's got a chance. So I think that this is a...

Wouldn't you want to have him there if he keeps playing like this? Wouldn't you want to have him on that roster? Yeah, maybe. They've got good goalies. Here's the question. I'd rather peak Demko than peak Ottinger. It's not Peak Ottinger, friend. It's Hellebuck. I'd rather peak Demko than peak Hellebuck. Wow.

I don't know about that. I don't know. If you were to say who could you have on your team right now? Canucks Reddit is so confused. He's saying something nice about a Canucks guy. I would say I would take Hellebuck in just like a draft. Do you think they did this for Demko? Just stop. Stop calling us, Thatcher.

Like, we're just stop. Like, honestly, you're in consideration. That's all we can tell you. You know what? I don't like that this happened because Demko was like the Michael Jordan meme. Like, I took that personally when they didn't invite him. And he was fired up. Don't satiate things.

Exactly. You know, starve that dog. Keep that starved dog starving. Like, don't feed him. Alvin's seen his news. He's like, ah, man. Keep that dog in them. You don't want him to be happy.

Robin and Imo, what we learned. I learned my wife is not a fan of thrash Thursdays. The Bluetooth randomly disconnected on my headphones at the exact moment in intro played, blaring near full volume through our surround sound. Needless to say, she isn't sleeping anymore. Rob, that's me like, good morning, honey. Sorry about that. Happy Thursday.

Mike, the urologist from. Brockville, what we learned, the Jays will be relying on their bullpen tonight more than Scherzer because as soon as he looks a little shaky, which is inevitable, he's out. So this game isn't Scherzer versus Castillo. It's Scher plus the pen versus Castillo. I kind of agree with that. What's that? I think this is a, well, I said it already, I say it's that this could be a hybrid bullpen game. Yeah. The only issue with that is that more, I know that everyone's like, Remember that great bullpen game in game four against the Yankees? I'm like, I do.

I also remember all the other bullpen appearances. Like, their ERA stinks. Varlane's been touched up more than he's been good. Lattie, the Jay's Penn, would you not say that more often than not it's been, it's maybe more of a weakness than a strength of this team? Well, it's been a weakness all year. Right. I think even Hoffman at times.

I'm not super, by the way, we were talking about that at the break. Bring this up. I think this is very interesting because it's going to happen at some point. Has to. Is it going to happen when does Jeff Hoffman make a legitimate appearance in this series?

I don't mean coming on a high leverage. Yeah. When's it going to no low leverage no mop-up duty. Did mop-up,

by the way, is that term politically incorrect now? Is that why people stop using it? I think the pitchers themselves don't like being referred to as mop-up

pitch. It's better. Right. Stop mopping. Aspire for better cleaning. Mop-up pitcher is like one step

away from position player pitching. It's true. It's like being called a backup as a goalie. Yeah. You never want to have that

label on. You don't be a mop-up guy. I would embrace it. They've got to end the game somehow, right? That would be my bit. When I came out of the dugger, I'd have a bucket. I'd walk to the hill. I'd be like, all right, time to clean this mess up. Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, Hoffman. Hoffman.

So, for all the consternation that we had during the regular season about Hoffman's inability to close, total non-factor. And we're deep into the playoffs right now. And he has not made a significant contribution, good, bad, or Otherwise, to this series, it's just sort of been there.

The times that he's come in, there's been no risk of blowing the game. Now, I've watched the playoffs pretty closely. There's only been a handful of really hairy, like, oh, God, this is going to go bad closing moments. Sasaki had one for the Dodgers the other night, and Trenton had to come in and clean it up against the brewers. But other than that, we haven't really seen it. But I remember thinking going into these playoffs, like, what happens? how many collective stomachs are going to be in throats

when Hoffman's got to come in to close at a game all the Jay's wins have been comfortable he hasn't had to come in and close down. And I think bullpen pitcher usage in general just changes in the playoffs, right? Like it's just a totally different beast and I think we've seen it

all throughout. And you see what the Dodgers are doing now? They're like, what if? What if we just didn't use our bullpen? What if we just let our starters go? And some games that's like... Yovato got the... He finished the job the other day.

Well, you know what you need to do that. Good starters, that helps. Yeah. And that hasn't happened since 20. 17 so you don't expect that from your pitcher but but I mean old school I'd be like hey man you're doing great and I don't like my bullpen so guess who's going back out to be eight who's the best pitcher still around like who like his snow snow snow yeah yeah right snell's been deadly yeah and um some guy on the brewers is probably doing pretty well but

I don't know his name it's probably pretty good pretty good they're good ball team yeah uh Steve and North Sanich uh I wonder if the new arena in Milan will have a practice facility finished in time for the Olympics. Colin the math guy, what we learned, McKayev has three goals this season. And then Colin says, throws log on the fire.

Jason Dickinson's hurt, though. So we won that one. Multi-point night for McAev. They, I mean, everybody scored last night. They've won two in a row. I don't, again, I watch that game last night, mostly to like jump all over Jimmy Snuggerwood every time he made a mistake.

And boy, did he make a lot of them. Call him Jimmy mistakes. It's a tough nickname. He's embracing it though. Chicago looked good. Yeah. I know St. Louis didn't play very well, but Chicago looked good.

And my biggest concern was going to be that they would figure it out. And Bidar would be like, yeah, let's see how this thing goes, right? Instead of being an unmitigated tire fire. They're young, they're fast. Nasar is really good. and they're starting to do the Nazar Bedard thing, like what they're doing

with Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini in San Jose, like they're like the good the cool hip young duo their interview with TNT yesterday they did it together on the bench yeah right and it was like ah man like the last thing you need is a cool another cool young guy to hang out with

that'll make you want to stay there longer but now they've got it is Kinex Reddit found the no no no no no no I'm I'm just really enjoying this time in sports. It's great. There was one guy that texted in and, oh, here it is. Norm from Richmond.

I want to end on this. This is a really good one. What we learned, what I learned is game four of the Canucks season may just be as important as game four of the Mariners Js series. It kind of feels like that, doesn't it? Wow, I haven't think about it like that. Yeah, it's a good one. Norm from Richmond.

Whoever wins tonight's Canucks game will win the World Series. I don't. Wait, what? It doesn't work that. I'm going to be back tomorrow. We're going to end it with this. Hold on. Love you, Canucks, Reddit. Love you. So much. I read you every day. I don't. Canucks Game Day is brought to you by Panago. Game Day, the Panago way.

Buy two medium pizzas and score free cheesy bread. Use code Canucks deal of Panago.com. Panago for it. Restrictions apply. We got to get out of here. We will be back tomorrow. Signing off. I have been Mike Alford. I was right. I have been right the whole time. I will continue to be right. I know more about the game than you do.

That, of course, was Jason Broff. He's been A-Dog and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.