Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Whitecaps Are Canadian Champions

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk some baseball with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (2:05), plus the boys discuss the Whitecaps winning the Canadian Championship for the third straight year (35:38). 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.

It's time to chat with Adnan, it's Adnan Berkey's on the show We're gonna talk some baseball and take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Redman. Yes, and then Berkey joins us now. We'll head out to the ballgame and talk about all the films he's seen.

7.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales,

financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Adnan Virg from MLB Network and Amazon going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 2 of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuck at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving your banks more of your money, then definitely don't let Jason shop around

to find the perfect mortgage for you. Going to need more sarcasm there. More sarcasm. If you love giving the banks your money, and who doesn't, then definitely don't let Jason Hominuck find you the perfect mortgage. Don't do that. No, it's like, Then definitely don't let Jason Hominick find you the perfect mortgage. Don't do that.

No, it's like, then definitely don't let you. I see we have a couple of sarcasm experts. You really got to lean into the definitely don't let him help you. You know what I'm saying? Like really hit the... Why don't you do the read? Yeah.

I'm just trying to coach him here. It sounds sassier. Why don't you... You got to sass it.. It sounds sassier. Why don't you? You gotta sass it. You gotta sass it. You can visit him at jason.mortgage for all the sass that I am lacking. We are not being sarcastic here because we are actually coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star

Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. To the phone lines we go. Adnan Virk joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adnan. How are you? Mike, Jason, always a pleasure with you guys.

I like the fact you mentioned experts because I find sarcasm when you're younger, particularly in high school, is a valuable asset. And virtually every teenager is sarcastic and funny. But as you get older, sarcasm becomes less funny and more grating. Thoughts? You are correct. Yeah.

I don't know. That's our show. Yeah. I always go back to that Simpsons bit at Homer Palooza. I was like, are you being sarcastic? He's like, I don't even know anymore. Like, that's where I'm at. I feel bad.

We used to have exchange students growing up in the house. They'd come here and they'd take English classes for the summer. Right. And they always said sarcasm was the toughest thing to try and figure out. Because if you're learning the language and you're like, someone seems genuine and authentic when they're saying this. And I'm like, no, no, no. I mean the exact opposite. That's it.

So, yeah, sarcasm can be a difficult thing. Although it is, as Jason said. Why are you being sarcastic with your exchange students? No. That's it. So yeah, sarcasm can be a difficult thing, although it is, as Jason said, why are you being sarcastic with your exchange students? No! I wasn't. We were all very literal. Oh, sure. Hey, great job cutting the lawn. First of all, why are they cutting your lawn?

They're exchange students. It's like, now, when you said you loved that dinner, did that mean you loved that dinner? Did that mean you loved that dinner? Anyway, I'm getting off topic here. Before we get into the baseball, let's talk about your new gig. First, congrats on being one of the inaugural voices for Amazon NHL coverage. Tell the listeners about it and what they can expect. Yeah, it's great, man.

I'm so happy. It's like a family reunion because Amina, who's saying this, who reached out to me. By the way, since we're Emmy winners, you can appreciate it. It was the night of the Emmys. She reached out to me. She's an old friend from ESPN., you can appreciate it. It was the night of the Emmys. She reached out to me. She's an old friend from ESPN. She's now at Amazon. And she goes, I got something for you.

And I go, okay, whatever. And she calls me the next day and goes, yeah, Amazon Canada. I was like, what? She's like, hockey games, Monday night, national in Canada. And I said, I mean, I'm rarely this brash. You know this.

So I have the Canadian humility we all have. But I'm actually the perfect guy for the job. I said, I'm Canadian. I love hockey. But I've lived in America 14 years, so I know what your Amazon American sensibility will be like, and this will be great. So, it's been a home run for me,

and Mark Askin, legendary hockey and Canada producer. I knew Marco from 15 years ago when I worked at MLSC for a year. He's awesome. He'll be producing in the truck. Andy Petrillo is an old friend. Of course, I know Jody Shelley and Thomas Hickey from NHL Network, not to mention we have John Forslund doing play-by-play, who's as good as it gets. So I think it's going to be a great broadcast.

The three of us are all football fans. We all watch NFL, Amazon Thursdays. I think we're going to do more of that. Gen X stats, interactive stuff. The one thing Askin told me is, hey, listen, it's not just going to be your intermission report, and then you go out for a smoke break. I want to make sure that it's a collaborative process. So I don't know if that means we'll be chiming in more on the intermissions

or how it'll be, but it sounds like it's going to be a rotating cast as well. You know, in the past, normally it's, you know, host, analyst, studio people, et cetera. He's like, no, we're going to rotate all throughout. So hopefully that doesn't mean I'll be doing play-by-play, but it does mean Mark Massey will be with me for the first couple of weeks. So can't wait to have Moose with me, Pittsburgh, Montreal, October 14th, and then Toronto after that.

The only blemish, fellas, I swear to God, I looked and I said, how many trips to the great city of Vancouver? I can meet Howard and Brough, I can meet Andy Camp. One trip to Vancouver, December 23rd, and they get to Petrillo. I'm getting screwed over the one trip to Vancouver. Terrible. Well, is Messier allowed to come to Vancouver? Somebody sent me the headline,

something like, Mark Messier will ruin Amazon broadcast. Something along those lines. It was much more clever than that, but I did get a good laugh out of it. So, no Messier in Vancouver. He's with me in Montreal, Toronto, and I believe he's with me in Edmonton.

I've never been to Edmonton. If either of you have a scouting report for me, please let me know. Try them all. Try the water slides. They're scary. How about this? Edmonton in December, that could be a little dicey. I don't know how I get there from Newark and the airport in New Jersey.

How about this? Four trips to Winnipeg. Zero trips to Vancouver, but I get four to Winnipeg, including one in February. That's got to be a flight to Minnesota, Minnesota to Winnipeg including one in February that's going to be a flight to Minnesota Minnesota to Winnipeg Manitoba I can't wait man from Newark to Edmonton that's out of the frying pan and into the fire isn't it I'm not a great flyer like I got on there I'm okay like I'm watching we read a book but I think oh and's going to be a three-hour delay, I'm like, oh, God. Get me off this plane. I can't do it.

Adnan, let's talk a little baseball here. Bo Bichette is going to have I believe it's on his finger he's going to have surgery. It sounds like his regular season is mercifully over for the Blue Jays. What are the chances

that Bo Bichette has played his last game for the Blue Jays, what are the chances that Bo Bichette has played his last game for the Jays? That's a terrific question. I'm going to say greater than 50%, because I think if you have to look at this Blue Jays roster next year, and it's all right, we've got to re-sign Vlad. I mean, this doesn't take a mince of person

to figure it out. This guy is electric. He's had an incredible second half. He's hit like 330, 30-plus or 100-plus RBI. Even if you argue, okay, it was the second half and the Jays weren't good, hey, the numbers are there. Regardless, Vlad put up monster numbers.

And the number one mandate for the Blue Jays, I believe this offseason, is get Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed long-term. You do not want this thing to linger, pass the winter meetings into next season, God forbid. And what happens if he has another monster first half and you still can't sign him and the team stinks? Now you're really

screwed. You're going to trade him for what? Two or three months as a renter? You're not going to get full value for him. So make every concerted effort to sign Vlad Jr. and get it done. The second biggest question is Boba Shett. Now, let's get Vlad done first. Let's suppose he signs for um, I looked the other day,

somebody mentioned the Raphael Devers contract as a potential comp. Devers with the Red Sox signed 10 for 313. Let's give Vlad a little more. So 10 years, 325. If you can then go to Bo and say, okay, we can figure this out at a rate of five years for,

let's say $100 million, which sounds high as I say it, but sure, whatever we can do. And Bo agrees to it, and you can figure things out. Okay, then you have your two superstars, and I use that in quotations, for years to come, and you feel like that's your nucleus. But I think you have to be honest with Bo and say, listen, if you're not going to sign, it makes more sense for us to trade you now.

I don't think I would, if I was Blue Jays' man in it, re-sign Vlad Jr., not re-sign Bo, take my chances with both going into the season. Because very quickly this can go sideways. Let's go worst-case scenario. Let's suppose you sign Vlad to long-term deal. He has another lackluster first half that he just had. Bo has a bad first half and gets hurt. The Jays are out of contention.

Now you're trading Bo for $0.10 on the dollar at the trade deadline. You're getting virtually nothing for it. Whereas, if you try to work out the extension, and for some reason it doesn't work out, you can tell teams, hey, man, this guy's led the league in hits twice. He plays decent defense. Yes, this was an awful year, sub-600 OPS, and he only played 81 games, but he's still a good player.

Everybody has a bad year. This is one bad year. You should trade for him. Give us all your top prospects. Give us all your money, and away we go. So I think it's greater than 50%, Jason, that he doesn't resign, has a bad year. This is one bad year. You should trade for him. Give us all your top prospects. Give us all your money, and away we go. So I think it's greater than 50%, Jason, that he doesn't re-sign, because I don't think they can afford

to sign both guys at the dollars the players want, and thus, if you're smart, you trade Bo now. Adnan, we're going to drop the call real quick and try to reconnect. We're getting some cracking and popping sounds on the line here.

We're speaking with Adnan Virk from MLB Network and Amazon's NHL coverage now here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. And I know that you've been on Bo Bichette watch since April, feels like. Jason asks me daily what the odds are that he's going to leave.

I'm sorry I'm taking interest in your hobbies. You just want to see Bo fail. That's the only reason you're asking me, though. Kind of. Potentially. I see through. This whole year of Blue Jays baseball

has been almost like intriguing by how dull and boring it's been because it hasn't been good baseball. But it hasn't been terrible baseball. But there's never been

big games or anything like that. And the entire thing has sort of been will they or won't they punt and will they or won't they punt? And will they or won't they do this? But no real, like the day-to-day has become just sort of blah. So I'll be very curious to see.

The offseason might end up being 10 times more exciting than the regular season. What about the Mariners? Well, we got Adnan back on the line now. Okay, we are joined now by Adnan Virk yet again from MLB Network here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Adnan, okay, so we covered the Jays there. Let's dive in to the Mariners.

It's almost over for the Seattle Mariners, another disappointing regular season that ends with no playoffs. 1.7% chance of making the playoffs, according to Fangraph. So I don't know why you're giving up so quickly. So you're saying there's a chance. What does the future have in store for the Mariners, assuming that this 1.7% doesn't come to fruition? Well, it's incredibly disappointing, fellas.

I watched that game yesterday. I was at work, and George Kirby is so much fun to watch. Love that kid. Six innings, one run, six Ks, as usual. Great starting pitching, and the Mariners can't win. Stop me if you heard that story before. Julio was on fire, but it was a little too late. He's the

rating American League player of the week, but he needed more from me, buddy, rather than the second-to-last week of the season. So he caught fire, but too late. But obviously, it's not all on Julio. Collectively, this offense was a real disappointment. And two and a half games back, the Wildcats with only days left in the regular season, it ain't gonna happen. I would have said, if you'd

asked me a month ago, well, Scott Service will be in trouble, but they already got rid of Scott Service. What does that mean? Is Jerry DiPoto now in trouble? I think no. I think generally the GM gets one chance, right? You get to fire the manager and say it was his fault. Don't worry.

Once they put somebody else in here, my plan will come to fruition, i.e. what the Giants were able to do. Farhan Zayi last year makes Gabe Kapler walk the plank. This year he brings in Bob Melvin. By the way, the Giants are still a 500 team, so who knows how much more time Farhan has before he can keep running out the clock. But point being, they have to get some bats.

I mean, it's so basic with regards to Seattle, and I'm sure DiPoto is just imploring ownership to say, please give me the wherewithal to go spend, spend, spend, and go get these bats where I can. Whether that's Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, who will hit 35 home runs no matter where he is, even if he's in Seattle, where the batters go to die, like Adrian Belichick, Richie Sexton, and so many others.

Alonso will hit home runs. You know, please give me the money to get $500 million to want some of them. Okay, that's not going to happen. Fine. Give me the money to get Anthony Santander. 44 home runs with the Orioles. Had a monster season going into his walk year. There's going to be bats available. And honestly, I get the fact some of these guys will be skittish about going to Seattle

because it's such a tough place to play. But guess what? It's not 162 in Seattle. It's 81 games in Seattle. You can still play in other places and get your numbers. And wouldn't you want to be part of a winning franchise? I still think if I'm a coveted bat and I see that starting rotation and there's a lot to love about living in Seattle and it's a beautiful ballpark, et cetera, I still think if I'm a coveted bat, and I see that starting rotation, and there's a lot to love about living in

Seattle, and it's a beautiful ballpark, etc., I still think I'd sign it. And don't forget, if they pay more than anybody else, I'll take it. So go get some bats, Jerry. Get some offense. If I'm the Mariners' fan base, I'm incredibly frustrated, because I would have thought after last season they would make the playoffs, if not win the division.

And of course, we'd all be reminded of the fact, on June 19th, the Mariners had a 10-game lead on the Astros, and the Astros evaporated that, vanquished it. Amazing work for the Astros, but a big comedown from Seattle. You know, one of the things that we've seen over recent playoffs and postseasons is, you know, a team that's one of the last ones to qualify for the postseason going on a run.

I think about the Arizona Diamondbacks. I think about the Texas Rangers. You can be the sort of fifth or sixth best team in your respective league and still get into the dance and then make some noise. Is there a candidate for that kind of run that you see this year? Yeah, I look at the Mets a bit, Mike, and go, okay, could this team make a deep run? Now, I don't think they can quite win a World Series.

I don't think they can quite get to a World Series, but can they pull off an upset or two? Yeah. Like, could I see them beating the Dodgers or the Phillies, the Brewers? Absolutely, I do. And those are all division champions because they've had this mojo going for a while now, and it may not be the biggest, sexiest names, but it's Shamanai, David Peterson, Luis Severino pitching really well.

But Francisco Lindor, everyone knows. And he's coming back, and he's going to be the runner-up to Otani for MVP. That's how good he's been. Luis on Halacuña, Ronald Acuña's brother, has been filling in for Frank. He has been unbelievable. Mark Vientas is a good young player. Francisco Alvarez is a catcher, and I mentioned Alonso's power as well. So I do think the

Mets have a little bit of mojo going right now, and they could surprise a few teams. And as for the other wild cards, I don't think the Braves can do that. They've been slumping down the stretch. The D-backs could fall out of the race and not make it, so no there. As far as the American League is concerned, the team everyone's looking at is the Tigers. They were three games out a couple weeks ago, and now

there's no way they don't make the playoffs. They've got the White Sox for the final three. Tarek Scouble's going to win the Cy Young. But again, I don't think it's sustainable what Detroit's doing. I looked at their numbers. They have 60 more innings pitched by their bullpen than any other team in the majors. So what they're doing is they got Scoble, who's a stud.

He's going to win the Cy Young, like I said. And then they just got a bunch of dudes. Like, it's so atypical, and I don't think it's sustainable. You can get hot for a few weeks, which is exactly what they have done, and those guys have an ability to throw in whatever situation they want. But I don't think over the course of a playoff season, they've got the requisite talent. You know, their offense, Riley Green, Parker Meadows, Cole Keith.

Again, I give full credit to these guys. I thought they were dead and buried. And they're going to make the playoffs, first time in 10 years, which is great news for the Tigers. But I don't think the way we saw, let's say, the Rockies in 07 and Rocktober making a deep run like that. But I do think the Mets could do it. And the American League is interesting, fellas. I already

mentioned the Mariners are done. How about the Twins? All year long, a playoff team. Now they're two games up. They've completely collapsed. The Royals caught the Guardians for first place, then had a seven-game losing streak. I was like, okay, well, they're probably done. They'll be bounced back. But they had another seven-game losing streak, and the Royals are still in the playoff mix.

So I know in the past, fellas, we've said, hey, the wild card, as long as you get in, you can make some noise. But I'd be hard-pressed to imagine any one of Royals, Twins, Braves, those teams making a run. If you want a non-favorite, if you want to say, okay, don't give me Yankees, Dodgers, I can sell you on Guardians,

Padres. Like, those two teams, I think, have a little bit of mojo. Again, the Guardians are the number two seed, so they're not an underdog. And the Padres might end up beating the Dodgers, I can sell you on Guardians Padres. Those two teams I think have a little bit of mojo. Again, the Guardians are the number two seed, so they're not an underdog. The Padres might end up beating the Dodgers when it's all said and done. That triple play San Diego pulled the other day with Machado starting it to win that game against LA and clinch a playoff spot, that was amazing.

Right. Okay, so on that note, everyone's looking at it and they're like, Judge, Otani, Machado, Tati, all the big stars in october i'm going to throw you in the spot a little bit here who's a guy because there's always one or two players that you know quite frankly brough and i have never heard of they come out of nowhere at least on our radar and all of a sudden there are other october heroes and their fall classic heroes who are some of the under the radar guys that maybe a lot of fans don't know that you could

see being a breakout guy in these playoffs so if the brewers ever are going to make some noise and they haven't won a playoff round since 2018 but they are the number three seed they're division champions willie adames is the best player nobody knows about this guy is 32 home runs he might lead the league in rbi with 110 right now and he's got 20 steals and nobody even knows who he is outside of milwaukee and even w, I'm sure he's not nearly as beloved as Jordan Love. So, I think Willie Adamas, if the Brewers do anything, is going to have a breakout party in the breakout

scene. The other one who you and Brough know is Jose Ramirez, but he still doesn't get enough pubs. He's three home runs away from 40-40. Like, for all the talk around Otani's 50-50, and for good reason. I mean, 56 stolen bases. He just pulled off a 56 last night, 53 home runs. But Ramirez could be 40-40.

This guy's like top five MVP every year. He never wins, but he's always in the mix. And he's carried this team, again, to a number two spot as far as the division leaders are concerned and the best in the American League. So I think if Cleveland makes some noise, and I do like them because I love their bullpen, and you guys know playoff baseball is different than regular season baseball.

Because there's so many days off in the playoffs built in, you can just honestly ride a bullpen to great success. You can just have two or three starters, and you can figure this thing out. And Cleveland has that with Bobby at the head of their rotation. So Willie Adamas would be my pick for the Brewers, and Jose Ramirez for the Guardians. But you're right. If somebody wants the star power, there's a reason why the Fox executives want to see Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, Padres.

Those are the teams with the biggest stars, no doubt. There's some pretty good storylines heading into this postseason, aren't there, with the Yankees kind of being back, if you want to put it that way, but there are also a lot of long-suffering fan bases that could, in theory, see their droughts end. For sure, brother. Some of the Yankees, I don't think people realize they are the favorite.

It's funny, living in the New York-New Jersey area, the amount of hang-wringing around this team and disappointment. Like, hey, they were 82 wins a year ago. They're going to win 95 games. That's a sizable improvement. And so did 41st home run last night. Judge, I think, is number 57 last night. It's crazy how good those guys have been, how top-heavy they are,

and how talented they are. So you're right. The Yankees could be back, and they haven't won a World Series, by their count, an interminable 15 years going back to 2009. But again, to go back to the Guardians, I do think they have a legitimate chance of winning the World Series. They haven't won since 1948. I know we all lost our minds for the Cubs and the Red Sox,

but Cleveland has the longest World Series run of any team, and if they can finally get it done, what a story that'd be. Terry Francona leaves, Stephen Boat, his first year as manager, helps guide them to a World Series. The story that I think is the least interesting, Brock, is Houston. Because everyone goes, oh God, don't do the Astros. Get them out of there early.

Let's hope they just get bounced, right? Because fourth straight division title, seven straight LCSs. Everyone who is not in Houston is saying, please, I don't want to see these guys anymore, right? No more L2, but you're on Alvarez, Berliner. I got it. See ya. Bye. So that one is definitely not interesting.

And then, as you said, the Royals a year ago, 106 losses. Yes, they're falling apart, but think about that. 106 losses a year ago, and they're over 500 per team. That's pretty insane to think you had a plus 25 win turnaround year to year is bananas again i already mentioned the twins are falling apart mariner as we discussed tigers again if they get in the playoffs that's the longest playoff drought and then the angels haven't made the playoffs since 2014 that's been a long 10 years for detroit and on the national league side again to go back to padres how about this story you lose soto and blake snell to repeat

top five hitter in soto, Blake Snell won the sign a year ago, and yet this year, probably a better team. You make a great trade with Soto for Michael King, who's had a sub-three ERA for the Padres. They also got in that trade Drew Thorpe, but they flipped for Dylan Cease, who's been an electric starter. Add in you, Darvish, Joe Musgrove. Machado's

about to be 30-100 again. Tatis is back, looking good. Jackson Merrill could be rookie of the year. Sander Bogarts is hitting well. And San Diego has never won a World Series. I talk to everybody at MLB Network, and they're a trendy pick. If you go, okay, non-Dodgers, Phillies, to the Stars, who do you like? And everyone says, watch out for the Padres.

What did you think about the end of the Oakland Coliseum era? Well, it was amazing because it's like, I'm 46 now, so I think of early baseball memories. Having been born in the 70s, I think of the Bash Brothers in the late 80s. That was a really incredible time where Oakland was the place to be. And again, not knowing any better, growing up in eastern Ontario and Kingston, I assumed Oakland was the spot. Like, oh, man, Oakland.

That must be the happening place in America because they got Canseco and McGuire and Carney Lansford and Mike Ford and Antonio La Russa and Bob Welshman in 27 games. Pitchers with names like Storm Davis. And who doesn't love Dennis Eckersley and that hair and that mustache and pointing at guys when he strikes them out? How cocky is this guy? So I love those A's teams.

Again, in some ways they were a disappointment because they only won the one-world series in 89, which was marred by the earthquake, but 88, I mean, seeing Conseco, the 42-40 was amazing, first of a 40-40 guy, 1990 swept by the Reds, but I thought it was great. And I'll be honest, this is such an odd opinion, I admit, but

the first time I went to the Oakland Coliseum, which wasn't that long ago, maybe 06-07, I don't remember going there and thinking to myself, this is the worst park in baseball. Like, yes, the foul territory is insane, and it's ridiculous how far away you are. And, yes, it feels old. I'm like, yeah, this park was definitely built late 60s,

but it wasn't awful. I mean, it was just a good day. It was there. The sun was shining. Fans were out. Romper, Stomper, what the hell his name is, that elephant to the mascot was in a good mood. I'm like, is it a dump, relatively speaking?

Yes, compared to all these amenities and all these great parks they have and the sewage, the issues they've had. But honestly, it's just a total game in Oakland. Not as horrific as people may think it is. And I think it's just a shame because when you go back and think of A's teams in the 70s and Catfish Hunter and Reggie and the rivalry with the Giants, it really is a shame there will be no more baseball in Oakland. It was also the site of one of the great Leonard Skinner performances

of all time, and you should go Google that. Seriously, it was unbelievable. It was also where I— You know Alabama. No, it was the Freebird performance at Oakland Coliseum. If you like that kind of music, Google it. It was incredible. Also the site of my first ever ball game because I was like you.

I'm just a couple years older than you. So when I was growing up, the A's were it. And we went on a family vacation to the Bay Area. My parents don't care about sports. My sister doesn't care about sports. I dragged them to a ball game in Oakland it was McGuire's rookie year Canseco's second year in the league Reggie Jackson was on the team and it was a nice ballpark like Al Davis hadn't ruined it at that point and it was Jim

Presley for the Mariners who hit a three run home run to win the game for the Mariners like that those are the types of those are the types of, those are the types of memories that like people can't believe that, Oh, you had a nice pleasant day in Oakland. I have since been back to Oakland a number of times to watch games and Halford's we went on a, on a great sports trip down to Oakland and saw a Raiders game there. And now it's like going into a maximum security prison.

Like, it is crazy how bad it looks. But I do feel bad for A's fans that they weren't able to get a stadium built because I think Oakland and the A's belong together. Right. And what upsets me, Jay, is that people think – you just know anything, right? Like, your parents are my parents. I don't follow sports.

I go, oh, they lost a team. I guess nobody showed up, so it's their fault. If you looked at what happened, and I'm like, it's not that Oakland isn't a good baseball city, they don't support it. It's just the stadium is so outdated and so inconvenient. As you said, it's such a rough area of town now, it was a necessity to get it done.

And for whatever reason, you want to blame ownership, you want to blame city officials, who cares? The point is, the fans got screwed. There's no question about it. I don't think it's fair to say, well, the fans just didn't support them. I'm like, yeah, I get the fact there's only 18,000 showing up. Would you want to go to the Oakland Coliseum 81 times a

year? No. They needed to update it along with the times it wasn't able to happen. That shouldn't be incriminating towards the fan base. It's a knowledgeable fan base. They love their baseball. I know when the Giants showed up, that final series couple weeks ago, you still had 35, 38,000 showing up. But I'm glad that you had a similar experience to me

because you at least got to see them. You see McGuire and Kinseka. It was for fun times. That was good baseball back then. We're up against it for time, but I got two more I want to ask. One, this is non-sports related, but it is kind of sports related.

Yeah, okay. So I've been watching, there's tons of sports on right now. Every commercial is for The Penguin. I don't know what's going on. They must have had the world's biggest advertising budget. Every commercial. Yeah, I was like, this show better be good. Yeah, and so you watched, you saw

episode one? I loved it. Honestly, I watched it twice. Now that makes it sound like I loved it, but really the reason was, I watched it because I was so excited to watch it that night. I did really enjoy it. And the next morning, my wife hadn't seen it. And rather than lie to her and say, was I watched it, so I was so excited to watch it that night. I didn't really enjoy it. And the next morning, my wife hadn't seen it. And rather than lie to her and say, oh, I haven't seen it yet, let's watch it together, I just said, I already saw it, but I will watch it with you because otherwise she gets mad at me. So I saw it twice, and I loved it.

And what a surprise. A show about a pudgy Italian-American gangster with mommy issues would do well on HBO. It's like, let's just steal from the best, all right? Does he have a psychiatrist? Exactly! I'm waiting for Dr. Milfrey to show up. Then I know, like, oh my god, it is the Sopranos Redux 2024. Let's just steal from the best. This is what it's

come to. We'll take Batman, who's very popular, and the Penguin, and Oswald Cobblepot, and we'll just mix it with the Sopranos. All right, home run! I'm in! I thought it was dark and grimy as you'd expect. Colin Farrell is unbelievable, fellas. I mean, you've got to watch it just to see his transformation. I'm thinking

about roles and performances. Think of like Gary Oldman in True Romance, right? Unrecognizable. Think of Christian Bale in The Machinist or Vice, for an example. When you watch this movie, there's no way you're seeing Colin Farrell. He's just drowning in latex and bad hair and bad makeup, and his foot is

disgusting, and the way he walks and waddles like a penguin, and his voice, it's a hell of a performance, because he's somewhere in there as a very handsome Irishman, but you can't find him, because you're looking at Oz Cobblepot, this gangster. But despite the fact that they're very cribbing heavily from the Sopranos, I did enjoy it.

I thought it was dark, it was violent, and you're right, Mike, about the fact that they're very cribbing heavily from the Sopranos, I did enjoy it. I thought it was dark, it was violent. And you're right, Mike, the fact that everywhere, God. Like, again, my parents don't follow these things. Like, oh, but there's Penguin Show. There's just commercials and advertisements everywhere. So HBO is going all out for it. Eight-episode limited series. And finally, do I have this right, this sad news,

that this is the end of the Cinephile podcast? It is, fellas. So my buddy Dan Levitard called me way back in March post-Oscars to say I got bad news. I said, all right, because we can't renew your contract May 1st. I said, okay, I understand. Well, what's the issue? He said, well, DraftKings, which is who bankrolls us,

is only looking for daily podcasts, right? That's what they want. Since yours is a weekly podcast, you're therefore expendable. I said, okay, I totally get it. Podcasts are going the way of radio, daily content, blah, blah, blah. So I said, thanks for giving me the heads up. You gave me six weeks notice. Hopefully we can find a new place.

And then in the meantime, my agent couldn't find a new home. And they said, well, if you want to keep it going, obviously we're not going to pay you. But if you want to keep it going, it's better than to have that break and unemployment. So I did it for another five months. And then I said to myself, the moment that you wake up and go, okay, you know when people say, hey, Mike, Jay, wouldn't you guys do this job for free wake up and go, okay, you know, when people say,

Hey, Mike, Jay, wouldn't you guys do this job for free? And he goes, yeah, I would for a little while. But after five months,

you go, no, I think it's better when I got paid. That was the moment that I said, I can still talk movies with you guys. I was still watch movies and consume them, but I don't need to do this podcast if I'm just doing it for free. So it was a great run fellas.

I appreciate you guys always supporting it, mentioning it. 333 episodes, two trips to the Oscars, one interview with Robert De Niro. I will always love and talk movies, but if there's no Moolah, there's no point. I'm not going to waste anyone's time. So that's it. You will always have a platform

here, Adnan. You will always have a platform on the Halford & Brough Show. Just remember that. I appreciate that, fellas. Someone said to me, where are you going to get your movie content? I said, don't worry. I'm on every week in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. They always ask me at least one or two movie questions, so we'll get it out there. Beautiful.

Okay, thanks for doing this today, bud. As always, we really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Thursday. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Jay. Leonard Skinner. I'll go look it up right now, bro.

Freebird. Yeah. That's the best performance. All right. Thanks, Adnan. See you, buddy. Thanks, boys. Adnan Virk from MLB Network and Amazon's NHL coverage here on the Halford and Brough.

I get older every day of the show because I'm referencing things that weren't happening when I was alive now. 72? Actually, I think it was when I was just born. 76 or 77. You were born in like 38, right? Yes. Some dark times in the world then. Okay. We need a quick. A hard. Some dark times in the world then. Okay.

We need a quick. A hard. There's a gathering storm in Europe. We need a hard reset here on the Alfred and Brough show. We need to centralize the show. We are at the midway point. Coming up, we've got an open segment. We will finally get to that white caps talk that tens of you are clamoring for.

And then fireworks factory. Yeah. And then at eight. Well, how are you going to get to the fireworks factory? And then at 8 o'clock, Drance is going to join the program, and then at 8.30, we're going to do what we learned, and we're going to do the giveaway for the four-packet tickets to the Monster Jam on Saturday. Right now,

though, I need to do the Canadian Football Report, brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Anytime that the Lions have a game, the CFL report basically turns into a Lions preview. They give me editorial direction over this. This is the way I chose to go.

The Lions return to action this weekend when they host the Hamilton Tiger Cats, Laddie. That's tomorrow, Friday, at BC Place. Kickoff is set for 7.30. Lions come into this one as seven-point favorites and already have a win over the Ticats this season, thumping them 44-28 in Hamilton back in July. Arguably the best game of the year for Vernon Adams Jr.,

the now backup quarterback who threw for four touchdowns and nearly 400 passing yards. A lot has changed since then. The Lions have a new starting quarterback, Nathan Rourke, who has confirmed as the starter on Friday. And the last time that the Lions played any game in the CFL, they laid an egg, losing 33-17

to the Argos at home. One final note for the BC Lions. Nathan Rourke will be without all-star wide receiver Alexander Hollins on Friday night. He is out with a shoulder injury. That was the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Coming up,

open segment. We'll do some Whitecaps talk. We'll dive into the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 737 on a Thursday. Clock management is what we do best. You know, back in the, when we first started in radio,

we just blatantly ignored clock management. And then we'd come back from break and we're like, we're like Andy Reid. We don't know how to manage the clock. And then Andy Reid won a couple of Super Bowls. So who is it now?

It's nobody. Yeah. There's not like a real egregious clock management guy. I think Vic Fangio was really bad at it too. You guys have the title now. Weirdly enough, we got better at it. One of the rare things that we got better at,

we became mindful of things like advertisers and commercials. And then it was 725 in the last segment. And Alfred's like, I've got two more questions for you, Adnan. Plus, I have to do the CFL report. And I was like, we got to be quick. Adnan notoriously long on all of his answers. Adnan, since time has no meaning, I have two more questions here. It's very important that I get in this question about the penguin.

And then the second question was actually a two-part question. No, I, yeah. Hey, man, the penguin was very relevant. We don't do enough pop culture references from this century on this show. Is that my fault? I feel like that's my fault. It is 100% your fault. The only penguin that matters on this show

is Crosby when he gets treated to the Canucks. That's true. I don't know. I mean, the crossover. Good. What show are you watching right now? What show? What non-sports related show

are you watching right now? I am. Is there one? Yeah. I am just about out on the bear. I have watched. You know what? I didn't care for the bear.

Seasons one and season two were good. I still haven't seen it yet. You know when they say a show, it insists upon itself? Remember when we used to make the joke about the family guy bit? This one got full of itself. Have you watched Slow Horses? No. It's a good show.

Is that a family show? No, we're fast horses. Slow Horses is a very good show. Horses, bears. Gary Oldman is incredible in it. And Adam mentioned Gary Oldman. You like Slow Horses, bruv? I already made the joke.

You can't make another one. Yeah, you can't just pile in there with horse jokes. I don't, but other than that, I don't know. It's a good show. Other than that. I bet Halford's never even heard of it. The Vince McMahon doc is out now, and apparently it's really good. I haven't seen it yet either.

Social media inundated with clips from that. It's apparently very, very good. Vince apparently didn't like it. No. You know it's going to be a good job. It doesn't come out so good in the doc. He signed on. But here's the thing.

He signed off on it. Yeah. That was, okay, so I off. But here's the thing. He signed off on it. Yeah. That was... Okay, so I remember... I mean, surely he must have known. Do you think he has trouble sometimes wrecking... Like, who am I? Am I Vince McMahon the person,

or am I Vince McMahon the promoter of WWE? Okay. He... Okay, so you bring up... When he's doing some awful things behind the scenes, it's like, it's all just part of the storyline. Well, where are the cameras then? Okay, so you bring when he's doing some awful things behind the scenes it's like it's all just part of the storyline well where are the cameras then okay so you bring up a really good point because he does i've seen enough of the documentary so far he does lean into that because he's part of

the documentary like he signed off on it he gave it the green light and that was actually the issue right when it first got released was everyone was like is this just going to be a puff piece because mcmahon is an integral part of it he's on camera a lot while they were filming it while they were producing it is when all of the sexual assault allegations came out so all of a sudden the entire thing takes this huge turn but not on camera because they already had a lot of the footage in the bank right um so it it's got this really weird haunting tone over all of it when he does something sort of like villainous as an act yeah it kind of is like well is that even an act because he's got a great excuse to have it's all these villainous acts that he's done irl like you know

it's very strange right are you suggesting that wrestling is scripted? You know, it's a very, very odd dynamic. It's not a perfect documentary by any stretch. And I think partly is because of the involvement that they had with WWE. Okay, we just got a text in. This is very funny. Yes. Said, we're going to talk about the Whitecaps is becoming Jimmy Kimmel's.

We'll have Matt Damon out tonight. Oh, sorry. We ran out of time. I was just joking with Laddie. It's the Lindsey Buckingham. There will be a minute left in the segment and you'll be like, oh, we got to talk Whitecaps. They won. It is now an hour and 42 minutes into the show

and the Whitecaps won their third straight Canadian championship last night. Why did you not come into the show bouncing around waiting to talk about the whitecaps victory over tfc last night in front of 12 12 000 maybe 12 12 516 okay um i don't know if it's um that it became old hat that they won their third in a row. So maybe people got used to it or if it because this year's Canadian championship was much later in the season than previous ones when it was in the middle of the summer or at least earlier in August.

I don't know. I don't know. But the vibes were off right from the get go yesterday. And really, the vibes were off from the moment that they punched their ticket to the final. There wasn't the same amount of hype there was around it. Remember two years ago when we went and they beat TFC in a shootout? And there's 24,000 people in attendance on a hot summer's night at BC Place. That was a good one.

Last year's, not as good, but still 20,000 in attendance in a very fun game, and they beat Montreal in the final. 12,000 people, and I know, and we're in the beginning of the first few weeks of school, and it was a rainy Wednesday night, a midweek match, and maybe there was a sense of old hat because they had already won two and it was the third, but for that to happen, very sparse crowd, and then the the game what was the performance like not good not good was it

was it uh dour it was a bit dour it wasn't for a lack of trying because there was energy but it was almost like unfocused skittish energy everything was all over the place the referee was poor um i'll let a lot of physical play go in the first 15 or 20 minutes and then you could see it starting to get out of hand so then the sort of um like makeup whistles started happening there were shouts for a penalty that went unfounded and they didn't have varAR because the tournament didn't have VAR. So that's a problem, right, when you're used to it. Then there was a penalty called. Now, all of this, I will carve out a few moments here on the Halford & Brough Show for the best story of the night.

And that was 22-year-old Penticton native Isaac Bomer, who, part because he needed a shot at playing and part because he's Canadian, you have to have some Canadian content in this Canadian championship, played all the matches for the Whitecaps on the road to the final, and then in the final yesterday.

He was unbelievable. He stopped a penalty during regulation against Bernadeschi, which is a huge... If you want to think about it bernadeschi you know uh played it euro and scored decisive penalties in the most pivotal moments in the biggest stage in the world do you think he was when he was taking that penalty do you think he was thinking this is just like one player this is yeah is that pickford um you know what like for a moment the energy the

electricity in this place for a barely like a kid in his early twenties from the Okanagan to stand in there. It's awesome. And face a guy that, again, it played at the biggest stages and scored some of the biggest penalties in the biggest moments. What,

like what a great, great advert for grassroots local soccer product. Amazing story. And, you know know bomer was full value for it bernadeschi tried to wait him out and he waited out this like iconic player and stopped the penalty and then he stopped another one in the shootout and he won young player of the tournament and he won mvp and it was a great thing it was great great. I wish more than 12,000 people were in attendance for it and I wish that it was on not one soccer so that people could have watched it last night.

It was actually kind of a frustrating last night to be a sports fan because I did want to watch the Whitecaps game, but didn't want to pay for it. And the Canucks game was streaming on Canucks.com, but the audio was a little off oh was it yeah I see I I will freely you were at the Whitecaps game I had I had the Canucks yeah I had the Canucks assignment you had the Whitecaps assignment yeah and that's how we split

up duties um yeah it was weird though we're just so used to now having everything we want to watch be on TV. Yeah. It's like, yeah. How is this? It's actually shocking when it's not on regular TV. You know, we grew up in a time when there was, you know, maybe what? 20 games? 20 Canucks games on TV?

Maybe? Yep. The Whitecaps television being divvied up between one soccer, which you can get, I think, on TELUS and then via FUBO, or behind the Apple TV paywall, it's tough, right? Which means you have to make your way to BC Place. And yesterday, people didn't. There was 12,516 people there.

It was hard not to notice that. When you go from 24,000 for a Canadian championship to $20,000 to $12,000. Like something's up. And it's not in a good way. And I'll tell you what's not up is attendance. And that's not good. Well, do you think it's the lack of competition?

Because I know nothing about soccer. I was asking Bruff before the show. I know there's a bunch of, I guess, CPL teams there. But there's only like three MLS teams, right? So really it's just a tournament between who is the best of these three teams. The Whitecaps have won three straight Canadian championships.

How many MLS teams did they beat? Three, right? All in the final. They didn't beat any on the way to their titles. Nope. Right? Yeah. I mean, that's a good point to make.

Is that part of why it isn't as compelling though? Because there's just not that level of competition? I mean, I guess it's a great story if a CPL team does this incredible run or something like that. I also don't think we have a huge rivalry with TFC or Montreal. Maybe in our minds we do. You always want to beat the team from Toronto. I don't know about Montreal.

But the rivalries, if there are any, are with Seattle and Portland. So I'll push back a little bit on that because the proof was in the pudding that it mattered like two years ago. Like what changed in two years for a 10,000 person decrease in attendance? Because it's happened three times now. A lot of people texting in about it being a school night. Sure. There's a lot that goes into it.

The tournament this year was kind of a joke. They had 47 days between legs where they played Pacific in Langford and then here. Yeah. Like, what tournament

has 47 days between? They were trying to build up the anticipation. Yeah, they built it up. All right. And then it fell off a cliff. Is there a reason it started later this year?

Like, why it can't be like on a hot summer night on the weekend or something like that? Why does it have to be scheduled this way? Sounds like kind of a sexy night you got planned on a hot summer night on the weekend or something like that? Why does it have to be scheduled this way? Sounds like a kind of a sexy night you got

planned there. Hot summer night at the MLS. Hot summer night. Hot summer Canadian championship. I love a hot summer night in the dome.

Nice cool BC place there. So there's lots of people texting in. But is there like could they schedule it differently is what I'm asking you.

Probably. But they've got that leagues cup thing. The MLS schedule is very complicated. This summer was I mean let's Cup thing. MLS schedule is very complicated. This summer was, I mean, let's not forget, there was a European Championship that messed with a lot of the scheduling. Can we talk about it?

There was a Copa America. There is the League's Cup. There is the regular season. There's a lot going on. Can we talk about how complicated it's going to get for the local tenants at BC Place over the, not just in 2026 when the World Cup is here, but now we've got possibly some Gold Cup games? Not possibly. It's going to happen, right?

They're coming, yeah. And that's in the summer, right? July? Yep. 2025, CONCACAF announced yesterday that BC Place, for for the first time ever will be one of the hosts of their gold cup now the gold cup is conca calf's equivalent of the euro or cope america and south america right it is there happen every what three years yeah they're not consistent they're not consistent and this one is going to be interesting because it is being played, not mirroring exactly,

but it overlaps with the World Cup Club Championship, which is a massively expanded field and is going to be played on the Eastern Seaboard in the US. So if you'll notice the map. By the time the World Cup comes to the United States and Canada in 2026, I wonder if some Americans are going to be like, I'm actually sick of the game now. We've had too much of it.

America is going to turn into Andrew from Victoria who's like, this is too much soccer. It's a lot. Alright? It's a lot. North America, and that's why we're getting ahead of it, in 2025 and 2026, folks, you are going to be inundated with football are you ready for some

soccer yeah of the european variety right that is i mean that's just the reality so so do you think they'll have grass for the gold cup i hope so that's gonna be interesting to see how they how they roll out the grass and how protective of the grass they have to be. They did it for Wrexham in a one-off. I don't know how many matches they're going to play here for the Gold Cup. That hasn't been announced yet, but Wrexham was, in a way, a sort of blueprint, like the slap hazard.

Like, let's just get this done. If we need to get grass, we can do it. The grass wasn't great. It probably wasn't up to the standards of, certainly not the World Cup, maybe not even the Gold Cup. But it's better than artificial turf. And now I've gotten sort of – I reached out to a couple people. Shockingly, there are people that cover CONCACAF professionally

to try and figure out how this tournament is going to work. And some people are saying CONCACAF wants to make it a little bit of a more glamorous tournament and they might invite some countries outside of conca okay um there's other people that have kind of pushed back on that and said no it's going to be very regional because they want it to be a tune-up for world cup qualifying so you want to get competitive matches against teams that you're going to have to go up against to get to the world cup but canada the united states and mexico the big three of conca don't need to qualify for the world cup so they will probably want the invitees which is why

there's a conflicting back and forth like well who's pulling the strings i heard england and united states might play a friendly in 2025 yes um. Like I said, there's a lot. It would be nice if Canada could organize some of those. There's a lot on the horizon. And you got to understand, like, the reason that MLS, I think, is going to have this incredible growth potential in terms of the amount of clubs, one, they're adding teams like crazy. And the two is that, like, everyone is very determined to infiltrate the North American market even further than they have. Like Champions League has long talked about playing Champions League matches on the East Coast because the time difference wouldn't be that great.

And they're like, we should play a really real meaningful, not an exhibition, but like one of the Champions League group stage matches or league matches. Is it just the American owners that are pushing that? Yeah. Just though? Are there any European owners that see opportunity, see money in coming to the United States? Yeah, they see the money, but they also see the pitfalls of it, right? Some American owners go over there

and they're very cautious not to be too American. Right. And then some aren't. Some aren't. Some are very American. Yeah. So it's a curious thing because it's going to, like, I just, I know for a fact that it's going to explode. And you're going to see the type of, like, it's not infiltration.

It's going to be like a saturation like we've never seen before, which is volume. There's just going to be so much between MLS, internationals, Gold Cup, World Club Cup, and then, of course, the World Cup. The World Club Cup is kind of bleh, isn't it? But they've rejigged the entire format. Oh, they have? Yeah.

So it's not like Man City playing some team from New Zealand? Yeah, and then Flamengo. No, it is. I think it's not like Man City playing some team from New Zealand? No, and then Flamengo. No, it is. I think there's 32 teams going. Okay. Yeah, it's huge now. But are they good teams? Because that's the problem with it, right?

There are a lot of, well, there's a handful of good teams, but then there's a handful of teams that are club champs. Like the Whitecaps are Canadian champs. Right. This is a much larger expanded field with a lot more prize clubs. Look, the clubs understand why. They're throwing a lot of looks at us. But look.

Oh, two more there. Got a counter going. Look. Ding. The clubs, whether they're owned by Americans or not, they realize that they can't just do preseason tours and trot out a couple of stars anymore, that they need to start doing games of consequence in America.

That's what it comes down to. So that's why you get things like the Club World Cup. What are those games of consequences, though? There's a big money, big prize at the end of it. Yeah, they're trying to make it. It's not a friendly and it's not a tour. It's the FedEx Cup of soccer. Kind of it. Yeah. They're trying to make it. It's not a friendly and it's not a tour. It's the FedEx cup of soccer. Kinda.

Kinda. All right. Thomas Drance is going to join us next. And we'll talk about what happened last night in Abbotsford. Drance was there, I think. Pretty sure. So we'll talk to him.

He was there. He was there. So we'll talk to him about the game, what he saw. And I know one of the things we're going to talk about with Drance is the challenge of the Canucks progression from structure, structure, structure into a team that also has an attacking mindset. And how there might be some wobbles along the way, although it is a good thing and it's a good target, it's a good goal. It might not come super easily. So we'll talk to Drance about that and what he saw last night in Abbotsford

and what's still to come for the Vancouver Canucks. Four preseason games remaining for the Canucks, so lots of decisions and debates to be had over the next little while. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.