Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 10/16/25

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they chat a commanding ALCS game three win by the Blue Jays over the Mariners, as KJR Seattle's Dave "Softy" Mahler joins the show. 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.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Rodriguez back, turning, it's gone. Glad Jr. launches a Sotocher shop. Make it a dozen for the Blue Jules. on a three-run homer from Alejandro Kirk. Even though we were down, we were able to grab some momentum. And this game is so much momentum-based.

And so we didn't really look back after that. So it was awesome. It's Krush. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford, it is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to 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 one of the program. Big show ahead. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech Footwear and orthotics working together with you and step. As I mentioned, we have a big show ahead on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Four guests today, we're going to go around the sports world. As a matter of fact, at 630, we're going to go to Quebec. Canadian filmmaker and the director of the new Netflix documentary Who Killed the Montreal Expos, Jean-François-Prois is going to join the program this morning

at 630. The documentary is not out for public consumption yet. It drops on Tuesday, October 21st, so next Tuesday. Already playing two rave reviews, though. I was on one of my favorite websites, roger ebert.com this morning. Very strong reviews for who killed the Montreal Expos. So we're going to talk to the director Jean-François-Poisin at 630 this morning. Was it the butler?

It was not the butler. Oh. It was Colonel Mustard in the study. In the celebrity. With what? It was a candlestick. It's always a candlestick. You never think it's going to be a candlestick.

All right, enough clue references. Jean-Fres, while Paulson's going to join the show at 630 to talk about the new Netflix talk on the Montreal Expos. 7 o'clock, more baseball. Adnan Verk, MLB Network, is going to join the program. How about those Toronto Blue Jays? They routed the Seattle Mariners 13 to 4 last night, closing the Mariners lead to 1 in the ALCS.

No rest for either team. They're both back at it tonight. What a great Thursday night. More like a Thursday afternoon, too, of baseball. At 3 p.m. time the first game. The Dodgers host the Brewers up to nothing in their series after winning the first two in Milwaukee.

Then at 533 p.m. It's game four between the Jays and the Mariners. Mad Max. Max Scherzer going to the bump for the Jays against Luis Castillo. This is the most fascinating part of the series so far for me as the Max Scherzer start. It's incredible theater.

I have no idea what to expect. He's a lock for the Hall of Fame, right? A lock. Like three-time Cy Young winner, two-time, World series winner. Definitely in the running for the crazy Hall of Fame as well, crazy athlete Hall of Fame. He's nuts. Which I love.

Yeah, yeah. But he's wired different. He's built different as the kids would say. They call him Mad Max for a reason. He's always mad. It's true. And he has two different colored eyes. It makes him just look a little more like crazy, you know? I don't understand how this playoff baseball thing is starting to

wear on me of you guys. Night after night your heart's just getting ripped out. I don't know how people do this all the time. Like I'm glad I've been a Jay's fan for most of my life. That's why the Jays don't go that often. I know. I can't handle it. How about when the Mariners opened that game pretty much with like two run, home run?

It's like, well, good night. That's, that's it. How many TVs went off you think? There were a lot of Twitter receipts after the first ending of yesterday's game. I'll just put that out there. I'm glad I kept my thoughts private because I was like, oh my God, like, the Mariners are going to the World Series. I'm like, not so fast. I'm not ready to put that out into the ether.

Okay, so that's the 7 o'clock at Anverk. MLB Network's going to join the program. 7.30 and 8, for those of you that say this is a two Toronto-centric show and station, we're going all Seattle. 730 Brady Henderson's going to join the program. Our Seahawks Insider from ESPN. On Monday night, yeah, Monday night football, the Seahawks returned to it. Seattle is going to host Houston with a chance to rack up another win

and head into the buy with a 5-and-2 record. Seahawks are three-point favorites on Monday night football. We'll talk to Brady about that. look back on Sundays, last Sunday's big win in Jacksonville. That's all coming up at 7.30 with our Seahawks Insider. And then at 8, I am very excited for this. Dave Softie Mahler from KGR Sports Radio in Seattle

is going to join the program. If you have not been paying attention, Softie is quite literally living and dying with the Mariners during this playoff run. He was actually at Team Mobile yesterday during the 13 to 4 blowout loss to the Jays. I'm going to read a smattering of his tweets to give you an idea of where he's,

at emotionally right now. Here's one. Brutal. Just brutal. Here's another one. So cook this thing and move on to tomorrow. Here's another one. I am taking a walk around the stadium. It's hard to breathe because the air has been sucked out of the entire thing. The man is having an emotional reaction to his baseball team. I like when you can see how

Softie is like in the moment and then after the game he's like, we all would have taken up. Up to one after three. The odds of a sweep were slim. Shake this off and go get tomorrow. That's a cliche thing. I know, but he's just like he's a guest actually in the hour three of our show. So maybe don't call him cliche.

Maybe, but maybe I'll bring up this tweet from Softie where he says, in my opinion, tonight is a must win for the Mariners. Show no mercy. Give them no quarter. Allow them no hope. get a win, go to bed a game away, and then in all caps, finish them. David the city worker,

Texan, and that Mariners game felt like Game 3 Canucks in Boston in 2011. Well, what's funny, though, because I thought that game three with the Yankees and the Blue Jays felt a little bit like that. I know that was a best of five, but I was kind of like, oh, right? Like, it's just the momentum and who has the upper hand

at any moment. Remember after that one, I was like, and the jays have a bullpen game in game four. And then the bullpen game went incredible, which is why I'm looking forward to Max Scherzer because everyone's like, oh, this, I don't know, he hasn't pitched that well down the stretch. He was even left off the roster.

And now he's going to pitch this important game. Like, who knows what that is going to bring? It's been a fascinating postseason. We haven't even got through the rundown yet, have we? Well, we did because Softie's our last guest. So working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock Dave Softie Mahler 730 Brady Henderson 7 o'clock

Adnan Verk 630 Jean-Francois-Poisin I enjoy saying his name That's what's happening on the program today Greg let's tell everybody what happened Hey did you guys see the game last night No No what happened

I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by The BC Construction Safety Alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. There were a lot of offensive stars on Wednesday night, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer were two of the most prominent ones. They woke up Toronto's offense. Blue Jays hit five home runs yesterday to actually rebound from an early deficit, as we mentioned, routing the Mariners 13 to 4 on Wednesday night. And again, as I mentioned, closing the gap to now just 2-1 in the ALCS. Not that you were going out on a limb or anything, but congratulations on kind of nailing your one to watch.

Yeah. Who was Vladimir Guerrero. He was far from the only star for the Blue Jays yesterday, but he does tend to lift his team when he is on. And as we saw in games one and two, when he isn't on, it's kind of like, oh, if Vladdy's not hitting, how can we? It's almost unfair to the guy because when the bats are struggling

he gets into the spotlight and then when the bats come alive we all talk about him there's a lot of other guys that got the business done last night Right Addison Barger got off to Schneide Dalton Varsho finally started hitting the ball

There were a lot of guys that did it But let's be real here When you pay a guy half a billion dollars You're going to talk about him And this has been a remarkable postseason run For the Big fella I mean it has been Between what he did in the Yankee series

And then to come alive In a clutch moment yesterday. That's the big thing here, is that everyone was like, well, you're not out of it until you're out of it, but if you go down 03 in that series, you're cooked. So for Vladity be able to do what he did, hit his fourth home run of the postseason. He is now tied

with Jose Batista in 2015 for the most single postseason home runs in a single postseason in Jay's history. I also saw a stat that compared him to the 2004 Carlos Beltran playoff run. If you guys remember, it's like an all-time playoff run. It got him a huge contract with the

Mets. And Vladdy's apparently doing the similar thing. Second player in MLB history to have 13 hits, 10 RBI, 5 extra base hits, and 4 home runs through 7 games, the only other player to do it. There it is. 04 Carlos Beltrae. Which is legendary. Yep. Can I tell you what I thought

was the funniest moment? Oh yeah, sure. I guess it's your radio show. Yeah. The funniest moment was when they were talking about George Kirby's incredible strikeout to walk ratio. And I'm like, maybe he should consider like throwing a few more balls because

he is getting hit hard he is getting hit hard George was pounding the strike zone and the Blue Jays were pounding those pitches man and maybe that was something to do with their approach at the plate

yeah so we will ask I'll save it for Softie because there were a lot of people that were vehemently complaining and opposed to Kirby going as long as he did in that game I saw a lot of people saying you should have been out when it was 3-2 how did you let it get

to seven against. We'll leave that part of it because... Two shots to straight away center field. He got beat up. He got beat up yesterday. That is the definition of getting hit hard. Like, sometimes you're just a little bit unlucky. Man, what was the exit velocity of some of those?

One of them was 700,000 miles an hour. 11 of the 18 hits were over 100 miles an hour. Yeah. Okay, so let's pick up. Is that on the night, not just off Kirby? That was the whole night. They had 18 hits on the night. So let's pivot off that.

If you're at home and you're like, well, what went different for the Jays who couldn't muster anything hit-wise, especially after the third inning in games one and two in Toronto? What changed yesterday? I mean, if you want to look at the raw data on this, they were like, oh,

I forgot to take our steroids. That's true. That was a big part of it, right? Cruish. Such a bad mistake, guys. What a freaking boost? What a freaking boost those were. No, you know what they did yesterday?

What a freaking. boost. They started jumping on pitches early in counts. Now, here's the thing. We'll extrapolate this a little bit. Throughout the course of the year, the Jays have been lauded for their,

the battlers approach at the plate, right? They like to work counts. They like to foul off pitches. They like to get, you know, pitchers going 7, 8, 9, 10 pitches in an app bat. I like that way, by the way, that's saying. Is that a baseball saying? What's that?

We're not batters. We're battlers. Yeah. I mean, it is. It wasn't like, that's like our, that's like we don't tackle. we a tackle print the shirts we can get it done right that's okay sorry i'm interrupting you no no no it's good it's good because that is a good saying yesterday however they were kind of

the opposite of that 18 hits yesterday all came in the first three pitches of every app bat they were so like springer's done a really nice job of jumping on the first pitch never mind getting two or three pitches they're just jumping on guys early and i can't make it like again this is way too novice baseball to like try and suggest it this way but there is something to be said like you just change up your approach if the mariners and their strategy is well we're going to start grooving stuff into the strike zone because these are patient batters well also especially against kirby yeah who's the guy that hits the strike zone a lot you mentioned the you know strike out to walk ratio if he's going to throw stuff in the zone why wait right if you know he's going to deliver

jump on it early and it's there's much more nuance to this than what I'm putting out there but did they talk about it after the game yeah they talk about it after the game yeah they talked a lot about the fact that a lot of these hits came really early in that bats. And I mean, they put up 18 hits yesterday. Yeah. And when you go back, especially game two, if you go back and look at game two, they didn't get anything going, anything going past the third inning. Like I think they had one hit after the third inning in that 10-3 loss where they just couldn't muster much of anything. And I think it was the same approach. It was let's try and work these guys down. Let's try and extend this pen. Whatever. Now,

they jumped on Kirby yesterday. That was the big. difference in this game. Another huge difference in this game was the Bebes. And I'll give Beber a ton of credit. He pulled a Bryce Miller. He pulled a he did exactly what happened. The Bryce Miller who

started the game one for Seattle gave up a first pitch home run to George Springer and kind of struggled also in that in that first inning. Everyone was like, oh the Jays are the Jays are going to crush them in

this game, they've got all the momentum, they are that the Mariners are tired and then of course the Mariners come back and win that game. Yes. Not only that game but also game two. When Bieber gave up the first

home run, it was like this series is over. Right? Like it's I was very worried when this is John too, right? Of all the guys. It was really a Rodriguez. There's been a beast in this series. You know what? I was We've seen so many good bounce backs from pitchers within the game.

That's another one of my coaching sayings. Guys, I don't want you to learn how to lose, but I want you to learn how to be losing. That's an interesting one, because everyone loses. What are you going to do in the aftermath of a loss? How are you going to respond? I don't think you understand it at all. I don't think you understood that saying whatsoever.

Oh. I don't want you to learn how to lose. I want you to learn how to be losing. Like you're in a game. Things are not going well for you. You're losing the game. What are you going to do? What are you going to do when adversity hits?

That goes for the individuals and that goes for the teams. That was hilarious how you were just like, don't understand that. I thought I got it. That's like half the kids when I say it. It was like, uh-huh. It was the be-losing part that threw me off. I'm like, be losing. Yeah, you're like, you are losing.

I want you to learn how to. I want you to learn. learn how to be in that situation. And I think we've seen some awesome performances from individuals and teams, but specifically pitchers in these playoffs, like even in a losing

effort, like you can be losing in a one-on-one pitching battle, right? Remember Flaherty in game football? He was pitching for the Tigers, but he would fall behind three and one almost like every he had bat and you're like, oh, this is the one

for the Mariners. But like he just he was losing but he was comfortable with being losing so Beaver was at yeah it doesn't make sense Bieber Bieber was at yesterday and I thought that

so after Rodriguez hit the home run I was like okay that's a problem and then Polanco followed up with a ground rule double where I was like I guess it's starting to cave in and of course it was the two guys that have given the Blue Jays fifth throughout this series

the bottom of the second inning I think that entire game might have changed and that was was when Beber got back up. Now remember, the J's in the top of the second also went down without a peep. Like, they did nothing in that inning. Yeah.

The Mariners come back up, and I'm thinking, like, they're going to put the nail in the coffin right here. Now, I know it was the bottom of the order and everything. Safi's going to love this. Right? Canzon, Robles, and Crawford all go down one, two, three. But Bieber gets them swinging as well. And, like, I know the guys on the post game

we're saying, like, he discovered his splitter right then and there, and they couldn't hit his splitter. and they couldn't, sorry, it was a slider as well that he was delivering. And I'm thinking like, okay, now you've got a little bit of momentum and he looks like, there is something to be said for when guys go down swinging as opposed to

going down looking. There's a little bit more of a vibe, especially when you're a pitcher. So he comes off the mound, he's hooting and hollering, and I'm like, okay, a little bit of a spark. And then, of course, top of the third, Jays get right back in it. Huge performance from Beaver, though. I thought that was, if this series is going to turn, and I'm still not totally convinced it's going to,

but if this series is going to turn, and you could look back to the bottom of the second in that game. Before the Jays even put a run on the board, they were a huge potential turning point. You can see the Jays fans be like early on. They were like, this is the guy. They go out and get at the deadline. And then at the end, there was like,

that's the guy we went out and got at the deadline. And that's why. That's what they were saying. After that Rodriguez home run, he retired 17 of 19. Like he was really good after that. So we'll put a lid on the baseball for now because we're going to talk to Adnan Verk at 7.

and Dave Softie Mahler from KJ Air Sports Radio in Seattle at 8. So we got a lot more baseball talk to get into as well. We should probably mention the Vancouver Canucks, Jason, because the Vancouver Canucks have a fairly important game. Yeah, I know it's early in the season. Yeah, I know it's the first road game on this five-game road trip, but they're playing a very difficult Dallas team tonight. They traveled yesterday to Dallas to begin the five-game road trip.

I guess the big quote-unquote news of yesterday was that Max Sasson had officially been called up from H.L. Abbotsford. Yeah, and also Derek Foreboard placed on. I are retroactive to October 11th, so he's probably out for the road trip. He's definitely out for the first three games of the road trip. Sometimes players join their teammates on the road, but that means Mancini is into the lineup with DPD. I don't know if they're going to call up another defenseman, because by my math, they would have a roster spot open. My math is sometimes wrong, though. I thought Mancini and D.P.D. spent a lot of time in their own end against

the blues, and there were a couple ships where the blues jumped on Mancini, but look, a lot of their teammates spent a lot of time in their own end, so maybe they can bounce back. How will the Canucks line up tonight? Adam Foote suggested that it could be Cain, Pedy, and Garland, which is a line that I'm kind of like, yeah, why not? At this point, why not? Because Garland can go get the puck, and he can make some passes, and

Kane and Pedersen, even if they're not moving as well as we'd like to see them, they've still got a good shot. So maybe it's one of those lines where I'm like, all right, girls, you go do the work and give us the glory. We'll see if that works out. The second line, Adam Foote also suggested this heedel between Debrusk and Besser. So the six guys in the top six, I imagine, would just stay the same guys in the top six, which begs the question, how does that leave the bottom six?

now that Coots has been sent down we spend so much time on the bottom six like the or sorry on the top six like talking about Pedersen and how to get him going and whatever the bottom six has been not I wouldn't say equally problematic

but problematic I mean the Coots Lecker-O-Macky drew a corner line against the blues was it was a black hole now you're going to keep raw to

Baines and Sherwood together because that was the best line against the Blues right that was I think you keep them together and if you want to bring Sherwood into the occasional top six you know shift you can do that so does Max Sasson

just replace Coots on a line with O'Connor and Lechromacki and then you've still got a line where you're like oh I don't know like I like Sasson but Sassan, Lecker-Macky, and Drew O'Connor, are you going to have to hide that line a little bit? Or does Linus Carlson get a sniff soon?

You can reunite the Abbey line. You could, but then you'd have to bring Baines out of the top six, which you might, I'm not like, like, how dare they? I know, I know he's played fine. He's played fine. Like, he's been the least of their concerns, but maybe you consider that. The other thing, and I don't think this is going to happen,

but I know the guys on the station yesterday were talking about it's like, you know, if you look at the right wingers, you're kind of like, well, you're not taking Bessor out, you're not taking Garland out, you're not taking Sherwood out. If you're going to put Linus Carlson in as a right winger, would you consider taking Lecker or Mackey out? Yeah.

Which I don't think is going to happen because they need goals. And also, I don't want to see the Dunbar-Lumber text line if Adam Foote takes out Lecker-Macky. No, like, that's the thing. Everyone's already clamoring him for beyond PowerPlay 1 or moved up into the top six, like get a guy that has offensive talent. But this is one of those things where like an old school coach

would be like, actually, we're sitting the kid. There's so many different permutations right now, and a lot of it is born from the fact that the forward groups just haven't looked all that effective through the first three games. Again, you've seen the two guys that you could say were standouts, where Sherwood and Garland, that leaves a lot of forwards that are either treading water or have their heads below it.

And that leads to all these different ideas of what you want to do with your forward group, right? So we will find out not too long from now, as a matter of fact, the Canucks are going to skate this morning at 11.30 Central, that's 9.30 R time at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, and then they're going to have pregame media availability. So around 10, 30, 11 o'clock this morning,

you'll get a better sense of who's going to be in and what the lines might look like for the game tonight against Dallas. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 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. 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 Jay's uniform pants, jersey, hat backwards. The only thing he was missing was a cup and a jock strap for his little Canadian balls and eyed black, right? That's the only thing he was missing. So, do we brought you on to talk about the Cracken. No, we didn't. No, we did.

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 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 in Major League Baseball that hasn't hosted a World Series game at home, I want them to get there. It would be great for the fan base. At the same time, I'm not, like, dumb. Like, 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, Softie, 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 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. Yeah, here's the deal. First of all, there weren't new.

nearly as many Blue Jay fans in the building last night is there typically are for regular season games. That's number one. Okay. 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 the picture now, okay? Yeah, 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 absolute unfiltered sports hate for Toronto Blue J fans, even when we're not playing you guys. I cannot stand Toronto Blue J 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. 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 Canadian? You're going

down the road. We've got a very very complicated relationship with both cities, with both cities, with Seattle, too. I don't like the Cracken. I don't like the Cracken. 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 Maple Leaf fans who also happen to be Toronto Blue J fans. You can't separate it. So grow up. Enough for this fricking nonsense. At the risk of something. Just do whatever. 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, Brough, 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? Yes. And we Canadians, we like to have a few. 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... The Jays were pretty close, us here. 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 all.

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 Mariners games. You want me to go online and actually check these numbers right now?

I'll check it for you. I remember, I specifically 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 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 24th, four-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, okay? 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. drives me frickin' 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 and 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

two nothing in the series because do we already reference 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 two nothing 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 very to this very day so how much of that is in the back of your mind right now especially with the way the jays 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 two nothing lead how concerned were you when the blue jays were down two 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-basedness, 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 Rogers Center. 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 Mariner 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 drop of a hat, just like the intensity change for Mariner fans with the

snap of a finger in that how does this happen how does this happen how does that happen on such a regular basis softy had the Dunbar Lumber text line absolutely hopping 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 against. 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 and, yeah, guys, 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 of tonight's game, on both sides. Hey, Asofte, 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 really. 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 you're 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 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 Jayson. Can I ask a baseball question? 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 write the ship. You know, six two after that guy was at Springer, I forget now who had the home run to make it six to two.

I don't even remember how they scored last night, but at six two I would have gotten him out of there. At six two, I think you're saying, all right, we may still have a shot to come back and win this thing, but when they put up the eight spot, forget 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, Muno, 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 too 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 rested 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 Scherzer 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 him 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 and let me ask you yeah let me ask you yeah why are they throwing him tonight is there no other option yeah not really i mean they used bassett in relief and i 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 close-out 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. It 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. Why can we just call them mop-up guys like we used? I like calling a mob-up. Ferguson's a mop-up guy. He should come out there with a bucket. What's you over under on

Scher's 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. So I was going to say four. I'm just looking at his numbers right now, but honestly, like this game,

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 you're, 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 starting, just like we talked about the Mariners, or 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 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 softy, 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

Where 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 All right I'll send you a picture tonight If he's still sitting there

Okay sounds good stuff. That's Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet. That's got to be one of my all-time favorite rants I've ever heard. Softie's great. Softy'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, 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 would have to speak about the Cracken. even cracking fans don't want to talk about the cracking you cannot a lot of people texted in

they're like is this a bit and I was like I don't think how do people not 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 yeah well that classic softy New York accent some of the inboxes some of this text message this loud mouth American blowhard is a travesty you're giving him air time to insult our 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 insulted in Blue Jets fans. 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 going and 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

that say, and maybe rightly, whoever wins this game today wins the series. Yeah. I mean, it's, if they're able to, because they're got to be a decided underdog with Scher's around 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 Jays and their ability to come back in the series. If they're able to do it tonight, it's a very tall task, uh, the series is,

Absolutely up for grabs. And it may be that the winner of Game 4 is the one that ultimately wins a series. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.