Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/21/25

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Mike Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at a busy weekend in sports, including a Whitecaps draw, a BC Lions loss, and a big Blue Jays win streak, plus they talk Seattle sports and the start of Seahawks training camp with KJR's Dave "Softy" Mahler. 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. by Nathan Lucas and the Blue Jays have swept the Giants. They have won 10 in a row here at home to tie a franchise record. You win it, you celebrate, you get to hug my family and my sisters there. It's such an amazing moment and then it's like, okay, now what are we gonna eat for dinner? They outplayed us, but I don't think we're that much, that much farther, far behind. So we, I think we beat ourselves and so, tough one, very frustrated. Obviously, we would have liked to have played better. Good morning, Vancouver 6-1 on a Monday.

Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford in his bra, featuring Jamie Dodd in his Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and bro for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for dad help with over 3,000 five star reviews. Visit them online at sans dash trustee. And we are coming to you live from the Kintex studio, Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five star

Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Got a lot to get into on the program today. It was a relatively busy weekend in the world of sports guest list. Today begins at six 30. We talked to him on Thursday, the start of the open championship. We're going to talk to him again. Adam Stanley sports net golf analyst is going to join us on the program. Scotty Scheffler, as you heard in the intro, glided eased to a four shot victory in his fourth career major at Royal

Port, Russian Northern Ireland on Sunday. He now joins a Pantheon of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas, and Gary Player, the only guys who have won the open, the Masters and the PGA before the age of 30. So we'll talk to Adam about all that. The dominance of Scottie Scheffler and how someone as dominant as Tiger came through so soon after Tiger. Adam Stanley at 6.30 for some golf talk. Seven o'clock, Rob Longley, baseball writer for the Toronto Sun is going to join us covering the Jays. You also heard that in the intro, the Red Hot Jays swept the Giants,

the Gigantes out over the weekend. 10th consecutive home win for the Jays, leading us into tonight. Four o'clock, our time, big series for the Jays as they take on the New York Yankees in a three game home set. Sean and Delta texting in at 5.55 this morning. That's how excited he is about this series coming up.

Couldn't wait, texted in early. He's directing the wife out of the house. He feels sick. It's not even until four o'clock. We also said stay out as late as you want. It's like the game starts at four. It's not going to last that long. Sean is very dialed into this series.

That begins tonight, but we'll talk to Rob Longley at seven o'clock, all things Jays. 730JC Abbott is gonna join the program. He's our BC Lions beat reporter for Three Down Nation. Another tough loss for the Leos on Saturday. 33-27, a score that was perhaps closer than what the actual game was against Saskatchewan. Nearly 30,000 fans in attendance

to smash watermelons at BC Place. We'll talk to JC about this Lions team who has now lost the season series against Saskatchewan, has also lost twice to Winnipeg and they haven't even played the 5-1 Stampeders yet. So we'll talk to JC about exactly what this Lions team is or isn't moving forward. Eight o'clock we're gonna go down to Seattle. Dave Softy-Maller, one of our favorites, is gonna join the program. KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. We'll talk Mariners in the summer of Cal Raleigh, where things are at with regards to NBA expansion

in Seattle. Talk about the Seahawks. Training camp starts this week. And then befitting of the crack. And maybe at the end, if there's time, we'll squeeze in some crack and tuck. Very crack and appropriate here. So working in reverse on the guest list. o'clock. It's softy mauler

730 JC Abbott 7 o'clock Rob Longley 630 Adam Stanley. That's what's happening on the program today Ben Let's tell everybody what happened What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how messy your life can be. What happened? 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.

We have four things to get through in what happens today. And we will begin with the local teams. Now it's always difficult here on the Haliford and Bruff show when you want to start local and your options for what to start with are a disappointing home loss and a road draw. Congratulations, Whitecaps though you win. We'll start with you. A very tense battle at Snapdragon Stadium over the weekend

on Saturday night. Two of the best teams in the West Vancouver Whitecaps and San Diego FC the expansion outfit draw 1-1 in San Diego. First match ever for the Whitecaps in San Diego. Moral of the story two of the best teams in the West who played just less than a month ago at BC Place and the match exploded for eight goals that time. Both teams decided let's not do that again and they played a much more dour affair. 1-1 draw. Nice for the Whitecaps in the sense that they finish off a five game swing away from BC Place in okay fashion. Two wins, two losses and then the draw in San Diego. They did suffer another potentially crucial

injury in San Diego. Ranko Veselinievic left early in the draw in San Diego. They did suffer another potentially crucial injury in San Diego. Ranko Veselinimic left early in the first half with no one's really sure exactly what the injury is. We didn't get an update. It was a non-contact injury and it was while he was trying to dribble up the pitch. He left, tried to come back and could not return.

If another massive injury hits this team, they are going to be in a world of trouble because they're already without, you know, Tristan Blackman, their other center back, who's having a very good year and he's off to the MLS All-Star game this week, Ali Ahmed, Ryan Gould, Sam Atakube all out. So that was kind of the story from the Whitecaps is that it was a decent home draw, decent road draw on the weekend, but the injury kind of overshadowed a lot of things. Well, and it's a matchup between the top two teams or it was a matchup between

the top two teams in the Western Conference. I think just by virtue of the caps being on the road, they have to be a lot happier with the results than San Diego. It's also interesting if they've played one fewer games. Yes. Or matches, as they say in soccer events. San Diego, classic soccer guy talk. That's right. So they have more points per game than any. I don't know if there's a Thomas Drantz of MLS Furiously pointing out to anyone that will listen

Like actually they should be in first in the Western Conference, but there you go. Please go to the percent. That's a real that's a Career lane that I think is waiting to be filled by somebody up there yeah, it is a good point to bring up because I think for those that have been paying close attention to this or even from a distance, everyone knows that the Whitecaps have been off to a fantastic start to the season. Now you're kind of reaching that, you know, sluggish midway point of the MLS campaign. We've talked about it a lot on the show where injuries have hit. The international break is hit.

The form that the Whitecaps had earlier in the year, where they were clear atop the Western Conference standings, has kind of whittled away. But that they've been able to withstand this murky point of the season. And still, as you mentioned, stay within striking distance of top spot. And really with the game in hand, they're in fantastic position. This run that they have coming up, as a matter of fact, really good chance to make, hey, maybe get back atop the standings. They don't play a lot of games over the next three weeks They've got a nice 10-day break in there

They also play like st. Louis Houston and Kansas City three of the worst teams in the West They should be able to collect points three of their next four are at home at BC place And again if this team can get healthy the real wild card with this entire season is when Ryan goes back. No one seems to have any idea when that's going to happen. I know he returned to very light training on the pitch with his teammates last week, but if they can stay in one of these top three spots in the West and then get gold back, that's going to be the old classic cliche. It's like, it's our trade deadline. That's right. It's our transfer. Is that what they say? It's like our transfer and the transfer window opens Thursday,

but that will be a huge shot in the arm for a team that's I hate saying it this way, but personnel wise, they've only had losses this year. It's only been injuries or got a little paid or VT with the sale. Yeah. And the wild thing is the MLS season is so long. It really, it creates room to have all of these different distinct phases of your season. Right. And the white cabs had the dream start phase, right, where they were just absolutely on fire winning everything. And then I think it's fair to say they had the letdown phase of the season.

I think the question now is have they put that behind them? And now what I would say, are they more into the kind of, okay, let's stabilize things, let's consolidate, get healthy, and then try to crest again for the second time this season, going into the playoffs, going into the MLS Cup playoffs. It feels like what the goal is going to be for them now. To a good point, because we had Jesper Sorensen on the show

a couple of times and he's new to North America and MLS. And he's kind of said, like, when I looked at this from afar, everyone understood this was going to be their tough part of the season, no matter what was going on with health, because they were missing so many players for international duty. And they did get through it. And now the two big things are the health of the team,

and if they're gonna do anything on the transfer market, which I believe opens Thursday, the summer transfer market, maybe the Whitecaps can get someone in the door to replace the likes of Vite for example, who's now gone. Okay, we'll now turn our attention to the local Canadian Football League team, the BC Lions and another disappointing performance from the Lions. 33-27 loss to Saskatchewan.

As I mentioned in the intro in front of nearly 30,000 people at BC Place on Saturday. The score at the end, the six point loss probably indicates it was a closer game than what played out. The Lions fell behind early. They were down 17 to one, classic football score, 17 to one right at the end of the first quarter before they finally managed to put a first quarter touchdown

on the board. First time this year, by the way. Now drops them to three and four on the season. And I don't really have a firm grasp on what this team is. I know it's a football team. Thank you. But I'm not sure how good they're going to be or how average they might already be.

Because in a small season where they still haven't played a lot of the teams in the CFL, they've had multiple opportunities against two of the better teams in the West in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. And those haven't gone well. They've now Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. And those haven't gone well. No, they've now lost the season series against Saskatchewan, which is not a good thing given it is July and the season goes a lot longer than this. And it just

seems that all the issues that you think they might've corrected, slow starts, the defense getting gouged every time that you think they've turned a page like they did against Edmonton the week prior, everything came back and kind of reared its ugly head on Saturday. Yeah. And we talked to the Moj about this on Friday going into the game. Right. And he kind of said, you know, you get that kind of crazy last second win in Montreal. That's great. You're not going to turn up your nose at it, but it was a bit of an odd one. And then you go and you take, you know, you make short work of a poor team in Edmonton. And I think there was a question and certainly it was Moja's question. How will that translate to one of the better teams in the league?

And obviously the answer is it did not. And as you say, they've already lost the season series. Now they're well back of both Calgary and Saskatchewan in the West division. Those teams both only have one game game in the lost column. The line's now four in the lost column. So that's really tough to overcome. as you said look there's still teams They haven't played in everything But also if you're not measuring up to the teams in your division in the CFL you're kind of cooked

Yeah, right like that's that's the road in the playoffs is through those teams right where you're gonna jump in there Ben I was at the game on Saturday. Did you smash a watermelon? I did not oh wow well That's probably why they lost. Let's table that for a second. Go ahead. It was very interesting to watch because it seems like this team, and as you guys kind of look, I'm a big CFL guy.

I love the CFL. So the Lions seem like the team, they're gonna beat the teams they're supposed to. When they play Ottawa, when they play Edmonton, they're gonna win. I think the crossover actually, if they can get into the crossover feels like it feels I know it's July 21st, but everyone's already kind of like a crossover team right there

And that's a dangerous thing for the rest of the league because the West seems so much better right now that the path in the Eastern Division might actually be easier for the Lions to do but as it pertains to the defense you guys are mentioning Like Trevor Harris had a great game. He threw for 375 yards Did he get touched but it's also because the running game for us to scat so a fight every time they touch the ball It was well that got four or five yards automatically and that just opened up so many options I don't know how many times Keishon Johnson got a ten yard slant pass for a first down It was unbelievable and they just didn't seem like they had any grasp on how to stop them.

Yeah, they didn't punt until the fourth quarter. Like that's a problem. That's in the CFL. That's tough. I know. That's really tough. It was actually quite remarkable. It was one of the things Farhan brought up when he

was, you know, grilling Buck Pierce after the. By the way, I don't know how much Buck Pierce audio that you parse through or that you've ever parsed through, but he's a big, uh, I'm going to have to see it on film guy. Like any time you ask him about anything, he's like, well, we're going to have to go to the tape. And it's great. It's a great out. Yeah, it is. It's like when I when a coach gets asked about an injury,

I talk to the doctor. Yeah, this is and it's a good you can't use it every time. And I do wonder at some point if he's going to have to give an actual answer. But for now, Buck is probably probably gonna be going to the tape I don't know if we're gonna get him tomorrow We're gonna get a Lions guest on tomorrow to talk about all this but another question for you What's up with Nathan Rourke? Because he's sailing it was sailing throws. It was weird. Yeah, and I noticed this and we I know we had him on a couple weeks

We talked about his new throwing style, right? His throwing style is high and inaccurate. He threw some dots and I think he was 28 for 31 against Edmonton. Like he's still very accurate. The touchdown pass in the first quarter on the run on the money. Great throw. I'm like, there's not a lot of players that can do that. He's obviously an exceptional talent, but it just seemed like there was certain

moments where he air mailed a throw that completely then stalled the drive and that stalls your momentum and it was just this domino effect so I'm not sure I wanted to say like maybe just an off game for some of the throws but there was a couple interceptions that should have been had too yeah that they just dropped and there was obviously an interception that did happen as well so it was not his best game as you know we played in the intro of the clip he knows that he can be better. So we'll table that for a bit. We're going to have JC Abbott on the show at seven 30 for more lions talk is

they now fall to three and four on the season. We got to get to the Toronto Blue Jays who really should have read the show based on form their 10th consecutive home victory over the giants eight six on Sunday. So they sweep the Giants. They are now, they have a better record than the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's wild. It's July 21st and the Toronto Blue Jays a half game better than the Los Angeles Dodgers in the overall standings. I want to play the walk off interview that Arden's dwelling sports nets very own

did with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after the game. Listen closely, Vladimir goes there. He talks World Series and will bring one back to Toronto. Here's Vladimir after an 8-6 win over the Giants on Sunday to complete the three-game sweep. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove in two of Toronto's eight runs here this afternoon. And I feel very good to say for you, this was a 10th straight win at home that ties a franchise record set in 1985. What gives you guys such an advantage playing here at Rogers Center? I mean the fans, you know, you know, feel the love they have, you know, the fans and we're playing for the fans, you know To us we're working hard to bring the world series back to the world. All right. Thanks, Vlad. Thank you

We're working hard writing the world series back to Toronto. It is an impressive impressive run there on especially at home I believe that after that there was a sweep against the Padres in May and Since then they've won 22 of 26 at home. They're 22 and four at home since May. That's pretty good. And when they are on a roll and when they are good, that building for all of its faults, and I know they've poured a lot of money in,

our employers have poured an awful lot of money into it. Thank you. Anyways, moving on. But it does get loud. The fan base gets into it, they get excited, Thank you. Anyways, moving on. But it does get loud. The fan base gets into it. They get excited. And certainly, going into August now and in September,

if they're in a playoff race, a division race with the Yankees or the Red Sox, whichever team emerges there and the Jays are able to hold on, you're going to continue to see those crowds. I think the other big thing from yesterday also is Vlady hitting the home run. You listen to almost all of the analysis of the Jays from the people on the ground covering it.

What's the, what are, what are the storylines to watch coming out of the All-Star break, going into the second half of the season? And of course it's the trade deadline and pitching death, but really it's, is Vladie going to get red hot? He's been fine, but is he going to start consistently hitting home runs and being the type of bat that they gave that contract to earlier this year and that can carry you for stretches of a season and didn't necessarily do it in the

Giants series, but it's the home runs. Like he just needs to hit for more power. If he starts to do that, then all of a sudden this team that's already first place and as you say, one of the best records in major league baseball gets that much scarier. Yeah. Like, I mean, if you look at the team right now, it's funny because if you were just to talk about straight going yard, like the home run, the idea of like who's leading the charge. It's George Springer leads the team with 17, then Addison Barger second on team with 14. If

you had told me at the beginning of the year that the Jays first two leading home run hitters were gonna be Springer and barger and that they would have the fourth best record in baseball, be like, well, something doesn't add up or the pitching must be lights out. And the pitching has been very good, but we had Dan Schulman on the show last week early and he brought it up that this team has a very uncanny

ability to have different guys step up at all kinds of different moments and The bottom of the lineup guys, I think because maybe they're younger and a little more unheralded They're okay with doing the sort of like down and dirty sacrificial stuff to get the team over I mean I talked about the bunting with Shulman because like it's my favorite thing on earth and the J's do it better than anybody In baseball right now. They know how to bunt them along. Small ball's back in a major way in Toronto. But there is an ethos and a mentality that goes into that. And it's like, maybe I'll put me aside at the play to try and help the next guy out.

And that stuff does become infectious. And it's obviously become infectious because they're on a run that we haven't seen in Toronto in at least 10 years. Yeah, the depth has been huge especially when you consider They've got basically nothing from Santander and Jimenez this year who are supposed to be there too big offseason acquisitions No, it makes any sense if we're being honest It doesn't make a lot of sense how they've got here and even though it doesn't follow the script the barger thing, right? You said he's second on the team in home runs He didn't even become a regular until a good chunk into the season

He's played like 20 fewer games than most of their regulars and he has been honestly, I think maybe the key player for the team this year because if he hadn't emerged as a legitimate middle of the order bat while also playing excellent defense at third base, I don't think any of this is happening. Like they were so desperate for another, not like, Oh, that's a nice story. This guy who's, you know, 28 and coming up from AAA and he he's got a couple home runs for us or whatever but you know it's not going to last but like this guy's a former first round pick he's a he was a legitimate prospect he always hit in the

minors and the question was could it translate to the majors and all of a sudden it does and it just makes such a difference when you can insert that into the line. No it's a good point It's like that unexpected shot in the arm of energy. Like, and again, I know we covered Barger a little bit early in the season when it kind of became apparent he was going to be a factor. I don't think, I mean, no one anticipated this level of impact where, you know, and then when you've got

Springer going and you've got Vladdy going, all of a sudden that lineup becomes a lot more dangerous. To make a, you know, a cliched Canucks comparison here. Imagine if like Atu Ratu scores 25 goals next year. That's what it is. You know what I mean? Can someone do a Canucks comp please? Yeah well it's like you're a player of your like oh that's an interesting player maybe he can help out and then you're like oh no no no he's doing way more than helping out he's like a legitimate contributor needle-moving player. Well since we now we've gone to the Canucks version, Bref and I talked

about this a lot where two years ago, when they had a fantastic season, you had nearly 40, yeah, 40 plus goals of offense from Dakota Joshua and Nils Hoaglander. And if you want to talk about guys that are giving you, not just like nice, timely scoring or chip in scoring, but you know, scoring 20 goals in the NHL isn't an easy thing.

It makes you so much more of a difficult out and a dynamic team because now teams have to account for, you know, if you want to use the parallel further down the line out there on your batting card or on your forward lines. And we'll see how this goes. This bit, this set against the Yankees is huge. I think it goes without saying, right?

And there's a lot of eagerness and anticipation. We're going to have Rob Longley on today to talk Jays and then Adog, I believe on Wednesday we're going to have Dan Schulman on the show as well. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. So we'll kind of bookend this series here. And it's a big one for the Jays, right? They could really put their foot on the throat of the AL East if they're able to get some results here. And again, it's at home, right? They've been so good at home and so deadly at home.

OK, as we go to break and we move along from the opening segment to Adam Stanley, who's going to join us on the other side, we're going to finish with the golf. And on Sunday at Royal Port Rush in Northern Ireland, Scottie Scheffler won the open by four shots to capture his fourth major overall and second of the year. I mentioned some of the stats that have already been thrown out there. He joins that group that includes Tiger, Jack, and Gary Player who won the open, the Masters,

and the PGA before the age of 30. And there's a lot of different talking points. And interestingly enough, not a lot of it has to do with what actually happened golf-wise on the weekend. In a very strange way, the tournament win became a footnote or an afterthought for Scheffler's legacy,

as it is currently being written. The way that he approaches the game, and I know there's been a lot of ink spilled over the last 72 hours about how golf doesn't fulfill him and make him what he is, even though he is the most dominant player that we've seen on the tour since Tiger, which is a wild thing because the coverage is entirely different. The approaches from the two individuals is wildly different and

we turn our attention now to basketball Ben, not just a basketball guy, not just a CFL guy. Does it all. Also a golf guy. And I don't want to do the talk about Scottie Shuffler question, but what were you left thinking after he won his second major of the year? I think that Xander Shroffofley put it fantastic when he said, he is inevitable. He's just when he's on his game, no one can touch him. Well, yeah, I read the same Shofley quote, not to cut you off,

but he said, like, you know, this is now in that pantheon of golfers where you look and you're chasing that guy and it's like, it's over. Yeah, you see him on the Luliter board. Like he said, it's just like, wow, like this is tough. You don't, in his words, you don't want to see him there. And it's because he, a couple of years ago in Scheffler was such a great ball striker, but his putting was pretty brutal. And everyone was like, if he could just put average, what would it look like?

This week he putted very well. And if he's putting well, he's going to lock the field. As average putting he's probably maybe going to lap the field. It's over. He has average putting, he's probably maybe going to win, but he was good this week with the flat stick and you can't beat him that way. He just doesn't make mistakes. I think there was 22 straight holes without a bogey. He made a double yesterday that he admits he got

greedy on trying to get out of a bunker, but the tournament was over by then. He came out yesterday, he birdied three of the first five holes after having a four shot lead. And at that point, everybody's just playing for second place. Like you're so demoralized and he's just stomping on them. And it feels like as you said the performance almost a footnote. The way I was thinking this weekend feels like the golf world as a whole. Players, media, fans, processing. What does it look like now that Scottie Scheffler is officially the face of the

sport? Right. And I think that that's where the whole conversation about his approach and his mentality and all of that. I think it's a fascinating one. I'm sure we'll get into later on in the show, but this was in a way, a very fitting coronation because it wasn't dramatic at all. No, right. Like it's just like I'm a machine. I'm the best I'm not gonna be that worked up about it. I'm not gonna be expressive about it or anything like that I hope you like it cuz I'm going to be the best for the foreseeable future and a good tidbit actually from Adam Stanley's piece So the last one he needs for the career Grand Slam is the US Open He said he hasn't turned 30 yet his 30th birthday is Sunday of the US Open next year

So he's got a chance to do it on his 30th birthday, complete the career Grand Slam. You'd be hard pressed to bet against him at this point. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. One of our favorites here, Dave, Softy Muller from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Softy, how are you? He said Jason's not there, is that right? Yeah, he's

gone. All right, thank God. Not alone in that assessment, not alone in that reception. The adults can finally have an adult conversation. And we're gonna look forward to this for a long time. We're going to start that conversation. I want to know how your summer, not just any summer, but the summer of Calrally is going for you down in Seattle. Yeah, no, man. It's been fun. You know, we were talking on the air on Friday that if this guy can get to 50 home runs or

more, you know, with a month or so left to go in the season, you know, is this going to turn into kind of a, you know, kind of frenzy type thing with, uh, you know, outfield seats going for a quadruple, what they normally go for and things like that. And I mean, look, I, I don't know if the average Mariner fan knows what the American league home run record is, or if they even really care, you know, it's 62, by the way, Aaron, Judd, you know, three years ago, broke the record from Roger Maris. And I don't know if people think of American and National League records

anymore, to be honest with you. I mean, interleague play is kind of ruined all that. There really is no novelty. There's no distinction anymore in baseball between the AL and the NL. So I don't know if that's going to get people fired up, but you know, if he would go after Barry Bonds, if he would go after the all time home run record, that would be something obviously totally different, but he would guys, he would need to average a home run like every game and a half the rest of the way, uh, to even come close to getting the Barry Bonds and did not have one this weekend, obviously against the Astros. obviously, it's something fun to follow, but they need a lot more than him just to wrap this thing up and make a playoff berth and even challenge the Astros for the division.

So yeah, it's been great to watch, but the big prize obviously is the team actually doing something that people can sink their teeth into in October. Yeah, I remember at the time when Aaron judge was chasing the AL home run record, thinking that I think we're only making a big deal of this because it's the Yankees. I feel like that way, like who has ever talked about the AL home run record until Aaron judge was on the cusp of breaking it. Yeah, that's part of it.

I also think there's just so much anti Barry bonds chatter out there that people are just desperate for the home run leader to be somebody else besides Barry Bonds, right? You know, I mean, the fact that he's got 73 home runs that you can walk down the street, I think really of any, of any major city and ask 10 people, Hey, what's the, what's the, what's the home run record? You know, what's the number, you know, growing up, everybody knew, you know, 714, 715, Babe Ruth, you know, Hank Aaron. I don't think a lot of people know that number anymore. And they've ruined it. You know, they've ruined it with steroids and they've ruined it with the way that they obviously

just destroyed the record and blew right past it, you know, in the early 2000s. So I think a lot of people are just really desperate guys to have somebody else besides Barry Bonds hold that record because there's some debate in this country about what the actual record is. Is it Aaron Judge? Is it Barry Bonds? Is it Hank Aaron? Is it Barry Bonds?

And it's Barry Bonds, whether you like it or not. I mean, I think it's kind of silly to have a conversation. It might be a record that's tainted, but it's still a record. So I think that really is the key is just having somebody else besides that guy be at the top of the mountain. Well, it's interesting that it's a guy like Cal Raleigh and like everything that he represents with the nickname and the physique and the fact that he's a catcher and he's doing this

and it's an amazing season. And, you know, the ability for him to go to the All-Star game and blow up on a national stage like that is great. Where's he right now in that pantheon of like current Seattle athletes? Because I imagine that he's got to be right near the top and not just in terms of popularity, but also the impact that he's having not just on the team, but league wide. I mean, this is one of the premier players in baseball right now. He's number one in the Seattle.

He's been number one for a while. I mean, I actually said that about a month and a half ago. I think he's the face of Seattle sports and partly because there's not a lot out there right now. I mean, the Kraken really don't have anybody that people can sink their teeth into. The Sonics aren't here. The Seahawks are going through a reset

and I mean, DK Metcalf has gone. Locket's gone. Obviously, uh, Gino Smith has gone. A lot of new names, a lot of names that we think might be good players, but guys that really have not had a chance to either pop or really kind of, you know, sink their teeth into Seattle yet. Like Cooper Komp, who just got here. So I think Cal is number one.

If you were going to do like a Mount Rushmore of the most popular Seattle athletes going today, uh, Mount Rushmore would have two Cal Raleigh faces. I mean, that's how, that's how popular he is, man. So yeah, he's a, he's number one, but you know, here's the thing with Cal, man, I mean, he's got to just, he's got a home run strikeout right now, to be totally honest with you, you know, I mean, example, I went on vacation on I think it was the 25th of June. I took off for a couple of weeks. He's got 11 hits since then and six of them are homers in his last 92 plate appearances. So they need more than Cal Raleigh. This story with Cal is great, but they need Julio, they need JP Crawford, they need Randy Arroz Arena and they got gotta make a move at the deadline,

which is next Thursday already. Do they need Eugenio Suarez? They absolutely need Eugenio Suarez. I'm worried about how much it's gonna cost to get him. I mean, he's got 35 home runs already, which leads the National League, and there's never been a player with that kind of power traded at the deadline ever.

I mean, the Diamondbacks are kind of out of it, but not really, you know, they're only four and a half out of the wild card. So they're technically kind of still in the race, but I think Arizona would be foolish to not trade him knowing what they could get for him. You know, the saving grace for people that are trying to acquire him is that his contracts up when the year's over. So the price might not be too high, but whatever it was a month ago or two months ago, it's certainly steeper than it is now. And I think the Mariners just need to be able to swallow whatever price they got to pay, you know, give up prospects for this guy. I mean, they've got plenty of prospects. They can always find more. Jerry DiPoto has proven that he can restock the farm system with the best of

them in Major League Baseball. Uh, these guys, you know, nine out of 10 of them are going to turn out to be bums for trying to outlaw them and go out and look at what the Mariners gave up for Luis Castillo four years ago. Uh, and, and none of them have really panned out, you know, Noel V. Marte was a top 15 prospect in baseball and he hasn't done a damn thing. He, he, matter of fact, he got suspended 80 games for PEDs when he went to the red. So I got no problem giving these guys up, man, because their trade value

likely will never ever be higher than it is right now before they stepped foot into the major leagues and proved that they can't hit it at that level. So I say, get rid of them all, all, make this team as good as possible today and let's make a run to the world series now. Let's not worry about next year or the payroll, you know, budget in 2030 or you know, what you have allocated to your infield in 2035. Forget that crap and let's go win a championship right now. That's the attitude this organization's got to have. Uh, softy, you mentioned obviously the Sonic's not back yet and that's, we all know that,

but that's also been in the spotlight based on some of the commentary from Adam Silver at the summer league down in Vegas. And you know, it sounded like it was maybe we were getting close to an announcement of the expansion process beginning, getting more official that the Sonics are coming back to Seattle. Now it seems like they're slow playing it a little bit here and maybe there's a little bit more uncertainty. What's been the reaction in Seattle to those comments and those latest developments? What's your reaction to what he had to say? Well, the reaction has been mostly negative to Silver's

comments. I don't want to share that same, that same take, to be honest with you. I was not surprised by what he said whatsoever. You know, I think a lot of people for whatever reason were thinking and hoping that Adam Silver would say, okay, here's the deal, we're gonna get together, we're gonna look at this, we have lots of reasons to expand,

we just need to dot the I's and cross the T's and then by this date we'll do this and blah blah blah and that was never gonna happen. I don't know why people had that expectation to be honest with you, I think a lot of us thought that he would say exactly what he said which is hey we're gonna explore it right you know we're gonna get people together and we're going to look at this. Um, and that's what Adam Silver said. I mean, there are folks that have pointed out and they're exactly right that he gave more reasons not to expand than to expand. But I just think this is part of that process.

This is the first time that the league has had formal expansion discussions and God knows how long. And if you look at the NBA expansion history, this is the longest guys they've gone 21 years now since the last expansion team in 2004. It's the longest they've gone since the league was formed in the 1940s. So they are, they're way overdue for a team. You know, the Portland thing is interesting

that he threw that out there. You know, the other day that a lot of folks think that he may be using Seattle as a pawn to get a new arena in Portland. And that maybe the Blazers, if they don't get their act together, would potentially be a team that would move up here. I would take them if there was no other option,

but a hundred times out of a hundred, I'd prefer an expansion team. So if you had to guess, what is the delay the delay because I mean I hate using a basketball pump. It felt like a layup for the longest time that this thing was going to happen and get back to Seattle and that the announcement was a formality. And I remember we had you on the show I think it was last year you thought it might even be done as soon as December. It just feels like everyone's waiting for the inevitability and the inevitability just isn't arriving as quickly as everybody wants.

Yeah, it's going to happen at some point. The league is going to expand at some point. They're not done expanding forever. I just can't imagine. The NBA is like the universe. It's always expanding. It's just a matter of how long and at what kind of rate. So, um, I, I, I have no doubt that eventually it will happen, but the frustration for me, honestly, and it kind of is a little personal, like, you know, Lenny Wilkins is going to be 88 years old in October. I mean, you know, we'd love to have a team back so he can be there to celebrate that. You know, my partner's dad is 91 years old and he wants a team back so he can go to a game with his father. I mean, there's people out there that are aging and they can't wait forever, right? And so you want to get this done as soon as possible so that most people can enjoy it. That's the holdup, you know, or that's the frustration for me. But I think the holdup was,

and you mentioned it, you know, the last time we talked about it, I thought that this would be wrapped up by the end of last year. And then the Celtics went up for sale. And then the Lakers went up for sale. And the thing with Boston is that, you know, the guy that was gonna own the Sonics or be the majority owner, David Bonderman,

he's since passed away, by the way. He's the owner of the Kraken, his daughter Samantha Holloway has now taken over his interest. He had to get rid of the Celtics, before they can start moving ahead and talking about a new franchise in Seattle. So once that was done, that was a big domino to fall.

But now you got the blazer thing hanging in the air. I think there's probably a chance that maybe this is delayed, but I can't see it delayed by maybe more than a year or so, to be honest with you. We're speaking to Dave Softy-Moller from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Haliford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to the Seahawks. Training camp begins this week, so there'll be all the stories and narratives written about going into a brand new campaign.

You brought up a good point earlier, actually, is that a lot of the familiar faces of this team, if you want to run through it, like Pete Carroll gone, obviously that's been a couple of years now, Gino gone, DK Metcalf gone, Tyler Lockett gone. There is a real new energy and new excitement around the team. How much optimism is there for year two under Mike McDonald with year one Sam Darnold behind center? I think it's kind of a wait and a see type thing. I was just thinking about that today that there really is not a lot of chatter

about Seahawk training camp. Not a lot. On Wednesday. Yeah. I mean, it's two days away for God's sake. We're gonna be out there, you know, roasting our butts off on the Lake Washington sun at three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon

under a tent that doesn't block the sun, which I don't know why we have that, but whatever. There's just not a lot of chatter about it. There's not a lot of real debate or controversy, you know, that I mean the position battles, it really is no obvious one where someone needs to work their butt off or find themselves on the street, you know, come September. The quarterback battle is obviously set with Sam Darnold being the guy. There's some intrigue about Jalen Milro, you know, the kid from Alabama who the Seahawks got in the second round or late second round. There's some intrigue with him. There's some intrigue with

the offensive line. Have they done enough to fix the offensive line? But I think the defense ended so strong a year ago under Mike McDonald that we just expect that to continue. I mean guys I got to be honest with you I think there's a chance the Seahawks are a good team but I also think there's a chance they're kind of boring to be totally honest with you. You know they could be a you know a team winning game 17 to 10, 13 to 7 like the Ravens did way back in 2000. This is going to be a defense for now dominated football team that's gonna rely on pounding the run with Kenny Walker

and guys like Zach Charbonne. The wide receiver room, I think is a little weaker on paper than it was a year ago, right? You've gone from Jackson, Smith and Zygba, DK Metcalf, and Lockett to Jackson, Smith and Zygba and A. Gene Cooper-Chup, who when he's healthy can still play. And then Marquez Valdez Scanlon who was cut last year in the middle of the year. So I just think there's a lot of reasons for optimism,

but there's also reasons to think this team is not going to be really a entertaining football team, but maybe a winning football team playing great defense and running the ball, which is ironic considering that's exactly what Pete Carroll wanted and he got fired. Yeah. And you mentioned, you know, kind of the wait and see approach from fans of the Seahawks. And I even think from the team perspective, they signed Darnold to the three year deal, but we also know they can get out of that pretty easily after one year. If it's not a fit, it almost feels like a bit of a not necessarily a wait and

see approach from the team, but like a let's see what we've got here from Sam Darnold and then we can decide on the route going forward. And I wonder if that makes it a little bit harder for the fans to get hyped before the season as well. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that his contract situation is really something that's at people's top of their mind, you know, but you're right. You know, if he, if he struggles, there's going to be a, you know, a call for Milro or a call for Drew Locke, who's the number two guy who was here a couple of years ago and then took off to the giants when the Seahawks traded for Sam Howell. So there's not a lot of intrigue for me and Drew Locke. I think Drew Locke is what he is. I think

he's a career backup and there's nothing wrong with that. You can make a lot of intrigue for me and drew lock. I think drew lock is what he is. I think he's a career backup and there's nothing wrong with that. You can make a lot of money being a career backup in the national football league, but the intrigue is really about the kid from Alabama. So if, if Darnold struggles and you know, no role puts on a show when the preseason, you know, running the ball, which is really a specialty right now, there's going to be people calling from Mill Road to play. And there's already kind of a fracture in some ways in the Seahawks fan base regarding the Gino Smith camp and the Sam Darnold camp, right? There's a lot of fans out there here that think the Seahawks made a mistake in letting Gino walk. And there's a lot of folks that think that Sam Darnold is a one hit wonder from last year. This is a guy who I think

if you were to tell people the year ago, right, before Sam had that season he had with the Vikings, if you were to tell people a year ago that Sam Darnold is your starting quarterback, they would have thrown up. I mean, he was terrible. I mean, he was just a career backup

who had bounced around the NFL and never lived up to expectations as a top 10 pick out of USC. So all of a sudden the guy has the one great year in Minneapolis kind of fell apart at the end there in the last couple of games, including the playoff game, by the way. But I think a lot of people are still very skeptical of whether or not Darlo can be the guy and whether or not the Seahawks made the right decision and letting Gino Smith walk. So if there's any intrigue, that's where it's at, right? I mean, that's where it's at to see if they,

if they did make the right move. And I'm actually very curious to see if Darnold struggles in the first couple of weeks of the year, how long will people give this guy before they start calling for his job? That to me is almost the number one curiosity. How much attention, if any, are you paying to the Raiders now that Pete and Gino are both there?

Not much. I mean, we kind of talked about it a lot during the off season. And when I say a lot, I mean, you know, more than we normally would. You know, we carried Carroll's press conference when he got hired down there, and then, you know, talked about Gino when he went down there, but not a lot.

I mean, there's going to be a little, you know, a few eyeballs on him, but this is, I don't think this is like when Griffey took off to go play for the reds. Right. When that happened in, in 99, you know, we were kind of almost following his every move and you know, there's never been a player that I've rooted for harder after he left than Griffey. And I don't know.

I mean, being a head coach and versus a player, it doesn't do a lot for me. But, you know, ask me when the season starts. I'll tell you what though, if the Hawks are struggling and the Raiders are kicking ass in Vegas and Geno Smith is slinging the rock down there in Vegas, you bet your butt it's gonna be a story up here for sure. Are the Kraken becoming a bit of a forgotten entity in what's a very crowded sports market?

A little bit, a little bit, yeah. I mean, they gotta get their act together, because what's gonna happen is if the Sonics return, when they return, there's a lot of people that are holding onto their money to spend it on the NBA versus the NHL when they return. They went out and they made a couple of moves over the off season but I mean

nothing that's going to really move the meter. I mean Mason Marshman, okay right, I mean does that really do a lot for you? Doesn't do a lot for me. Frederick Gendro, I mean there's just not a lot out there right now as far as moves that they made that really intrigued people. They got to get their goalie situation figured out and they got to stop hiring and firing head coaches. Right. I mean, it's just been a revolving door and head coach, uh, ever since they hired Dave Haxdall and it's got to stop. Uh, and the personalities of that, of the head coaches have not been great either.

And I don't know, maybe you guys can tell me, is that a, is that a hockey thing where these, these head coaches, they just have the personality of a brick. There's just nothing there with these guys. I know there's a few guys in the NHL, Torch is one of them obviously. There's a few guys in the NHL that are really kind of great with the media and great with the fans, but my God, it just kind of seems like all the coaches,

the Kraken have hired, they're just zeros in the personality department. Is that typical? I mean, okay, you had, like in large, the NHL head coach is not the most verbose or exciting. There are some for sure. We've had a couple in Vancouver, we had Tortorelli here, we had Bruce Boudreau here, very entertaining guys.

I'm trying to think of two less interesting head coaches back to back, is Dave Haxall and Dan Bilesman. Yeah. Like those are, Right. Yeah, like those are right. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you remember when HBO did the 24 seven back when Biles was coaching Pittsburgh, but they he came out of central casting is like this sort of bookish smart guy, partly because he wore glasses. And that was honestly, it was like part of his whole thing was like he was more of

a button down, very mellow, not really interesting kind of character. Pick it up. Yeah. And it's not just coaches, right? Sure. I mean, we talk about it all the time up here, like hockey culture as a whole tends towards the button down. Don't say anything that's going to get you noticed, right? Just keep it as, as kind of flat and bland as possible. Coaches, players with some exceptions, but generally that's what you're getting in the NHL. Yeah. I mean, look, look, Lane Lambert looks like the kind of guy that you don't want to cross, you know, but I don't know.

I mean, I heard some interviews with him and we have not had him on our show to be fair yet, but it just kind of feels like more of the same, but really in the end, I mean, it's the roster, right? And the roster just isn't there. And you know, Ron Francis is kind of there as a figurehead, but he's no longer in charge, you know, Jason Botterill is by the way. So we'll see what this guy can do. But yeah, I mean,

just going back to your original question, the Kraken are kind of, they're kind of, you know, the, uh, the, uh, novelty is kind of starting to wear off a little bit. It's not totally gone, but man, it's nowhere near what it was when they first showed up here four years ago and nowhere near what it was when they had the Dallas Stars in the playoffs and nowhere near what it was when that punk Tyler Myers took out Matty Bennears and knocked them out of the All-Star game. And we were kind of really forming a real hatred for the Canucks and a hatred for that guy. And that that was good that was good stuff that was great for business and

And great for enthusiasm and all that's kind of Wayne man. So if the Sonics return Yeah, I mean they're gonna be in trouble because I mean tickets are expensive and you're it's I mean It's there's there's very few people that can afford both hockey and NBA season ticket for the same time, right? And so if they don't get their act together They're gonna be number four, if not number five on the list in this town. Softie always care. Great. Getting caught up here, but thanks for taking the time to do this morning. We really appreciate it.

All right. Hey, I really, really glad that Jason wasn't here. This was actually enjoyable for the first time ever. So yeah, I'm kidding. You know that I know that. Thanks buddy. Uh, Softy Moller from KJSports Radio in Seattle here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.