Halford & Brough in the Morning - This One Will Sting For A Long Time

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at an epic sports weekend including the Blue Jays losing an extra innings heart breaker to the Dodgers at game seven of the World Series (3:00), plus they chat with Jays television commentator Dan Shulman (26:41) about one of the most unforgettable World Series of all time, for better or for worse. 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 Halford and Brough. From backs against the wall to back to back to back, the Dodgers cement their dynasty. Touchdown! Seahawks! Are you kidding me? Everybody scored but Dave Wyman tonight.

Drew O'Connor had both Vancouver goals with the final score tonight. It's the wild five and the Kedox 2. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, at SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios

in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Addo, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie. Good morning to you, brother. Hello, hello.

Halford and breath in the morning is brought to you by Sands. I'm fine. I'm fine. Scorre Depreedom Hat Trick, one, no more interest, too much lower payments and three financial peace of mind.

Visit them on mine at Sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling.

They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics working together with you in step. So it's not very often we get to do a show

like this coming off one of the more amazing and disappointing at the same time kind of sports events that quite frankly we've ever covered since we started working in the industry. Are you talking about the Knox Loss in Minnesota? Unbelievably, forgettable, that one.

No, obviously, and that's why I wanted to kind of throw it to Laddie at the start, because I don't look here I don't want to revel in like sadness like I feel genuinely bad that as the most ardent Blue Jays fan that I know you and your family also by extension that is an all-timer in terms of disappointing losses and good on you for showing up with a big smile and grin on your face this morning I applaud and no firearms right this is the worst day of my life that's going to set the stage for what we're talking about today everyone looks awful except Lattie It's great. If you tuned in to, as Jason's mentioned, hear about the Canucks 5-2 loss in Minnesota on Saturday, you might want to fast forward to hour two of the program

or maybe even hour three because we're going to spend a lot of time talking about what happened in Toronto over the weekend. We have a very full guest list today, three guests, and at 6.30, I couldn't think of a more fitting guest, to be honest. Dan Shulman, the play-by-play voice, so the Blue Jays is going to join us. We're now 36 or some odd hours removed.

from Toronto's crushing defeat to the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series. We're going to talk to Dan about what went down. We're going to ask him if he's even had time to process exactly what he just witnessed and called. What is it like to be on the call of what was concurrently one of the greatest game sevens in Major League Baseball history? And also, at the same time, one of the biggest, maybe the biggest sporting disappointments in Toronto's history. That is a lot. That's a lot to process. that's a lot to take in.

We'll talk to Dan about it at 6.30. Other sports we will discuss today. 7 o'clock, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider. Another good Sunday in the National Football League. Amazing performance from Sam Darnold, the Seahawks last night, only tempered by an absolutely gruesome injury to Jaden Daniels in that game. We'll get into all that and more with Mike at 7 o'clock.

And then at 8, yes, your home of the Canucks, Sportsnet, 650. We will go over the game on the weekend. And tonight's game against Nashville with Satyar Shah from Canucks Central, host. He'll be joining us this morning at 8. He'll also be working the game tonight. 5.30 puck drop from Nashville. The Canucks take on the Preds after losing 5-2 to the wild on Saturday night. So working in reverse very quickly on that guest list. 8 o'clock Satyar Shah, 7 o'clock Mike

Tanier, 630, Dan Shalman. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how What happened is that? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca.ca.ca.

So, Halford, you kind of hinted at this already, but sometimes there are shows where we have to perform the sports radio version of triage, where we have to perform. where we have so many possible stories to discuss and we can't discuss them all. So we have to assess the urgency of the stories and make the difficult decision that some stories have to hang out in the waiting room for a while. So with that in mind, apologies to the Vancouver Whitecaps

and the BC Lions. Even the Vancouver Canucks are going to have to take a seat. Seattle Seahawks will be with you as soon as we can. you all deserve some attention and you'll get it eventually but you're going to have to wait because there was a major sports disaster in Toronto this weekend. Fair and valid. I don't know if I've ever witnessed a more cruel ending to a championship series than that. The Blue Jays, let's just go through this.

Let's go through this. What just happened and we'll talk ourselves through it. The Blue Jays went into the weekend with two chances to win the World Series. They lost Game 6 on Friday, and that was a pretty tough loss with some of the things, the weird things that happened in that one. But no worries, the Jays are, were a resilient group. They still had Game 7 to get it done, and for most of Game 7, they had the World Series right in their hand. Bo Bichette hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the third and the Jays and the Rogers Center

rode the vibes of that home run for most of the game but just as the fans at the Rogers Center started counting down the outs until glory and really one of the great upsets in World Series history it all started to slip away so let's go let's let's you know we mentioned the beau Bichette home run we don't even need to like talk about a

near bench clearing brawl I mean the benches did clear right I mean and it's a footnote it's a footnote but let's go let's go to the eighth inning the jays had a four two lead and they needed just five more outs and that's when Max Muncie homered off Trey you Savage yeah he was in there to make it four to three but the eighth ended without

out any additional damage and we went to the ninth. Jeff Hoffman, the closer, was in for the Jays. And what were you thinking at that point, Halford? What did you text me? Oh no, it's the Jeff Hoffman moment. I just threw it out there. And you know what? I later retroactively I put it out to a larger audience,

but I only texted it to you because I can't remember the amount of times that we had said on this show. Throughout this playoff run, man, there's never really been one of those high leverage Hoffman situations yet. The guy that got touched up so much in August and early September. It was the main story for a good chunk of the Blue Jays season. The amount of time that this show, traditionally not a baseball show, spent about talking about the Blue Jays clothes or woes in the summer, was a lot. And it didn't happen all postseason until game seven of the world series.

series. So he gets the first guy, two outs to go. Two outs and the Jays would win the World Series. Miguel Rojas was up with Shohei Otani waiting on deck. And I remember, I think Dan might have even mentioned on the broadcast, like I guess they got no other options. They can't, they're not going to pinch hit for Rojas, right? Like he's the guy. Like it wasn't a great matchup for them but at that point we all figured that Hoffman would get Rojas out and it would come down to Hoffman and Otani that would be that would be the final battle the much maligned closer versus the greatest baseball player on the planet maybe ever and then Rojas with a full count and I understand Hoffman didn't want to didn't want to walk him right sure and then Otani has a

chance to give the Dodgers the lead. But Rojas does the unthinkable and hits a home run himself. Okay, so pause at this point. At this point, according to multiple stat websites and baseball reference, when Rojas got to the plate, Jay's win probability is 92%. This is the number nine hitter with one out in an inning where the didn't look like there was a lot of danger except for Otani being on deck

92% was the win probability. Rojas I thought it had them at two strikes. Yeah. They were full count. They were four strikes away. Right. It's because O'Tonni was waiting on deck that the percentage wasn't higher. To be honest, that was it. Yeah, yeah. Rojas, not a heavy hitter. One

extra base hit in his postseason career. He joins Bill Mazurowski, one of the most famous home runs in MLB history. game tying or go ahead home run in the ninth inning of a winner take all world series game that's the magnitude of that home run

and that wasn't even the biggest story of them all I have seen stunned crowds before I've been part of stunned crowds many I'm not sure I've ever seen a stunned crowd like that the Jays did get out of the inning

and they still had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth but it wasn't supposed to get that far at that point it was kind of like oh we're in uncharted waters here the idea that the Jays could actually lose this thing had officially entered the chat but those resilient Jays looked like they were going to do it again

in the bottom of the ninth they loaded the basis with one out and by the way Vladdy I thought he'd hit a walk off there but that's that's almost a footnote too right you go back in never when Vladdy nearly walked it off another footnote in a series of footnotes but they loaded the basis with one out All they needed was a measly sack fly

or hit or an error or a slow roller. Wild pitch? Anything. Get that and they'd win the World Series. The Dodgers brought the infield in and Dalton Varsho proceeded to ground one a little too sharply for everyone's liking to second. The throw came home and barely beat ICF at the plate.

it looked for a second like Will Smith's the catcher his foot might have come off the plate and IKF was actually safe but upon review we all saw that Smith's foot did come off the plate but he put it back down just in time avoiding one of the great like do you think he was just like I came so close to being

like my that's a that's a life changer you're in a very, very bad way. And by the way, remember that name, Will Smith. That, anyway, that brought Ernie Clement to the plate with the chance to win it as well. And he hit one deep to left. And the outfield was playing pretty shallow.

And it required a brilliant body checking his teammate out of the way. Out of the way, KK. Catch by Andy Pahez, who was in their defense. defensively, right? Like he'd been in there for defensive reasons. The only reason that Rojas was in the lineup was because Pahez was hitting like 044 over the course of the postseason. And Dave Roberts finally said, enough's enough. We're dropping them from the starting lineup. We're going to put Rojas in and we're going to move call to center field. Pahaz was in there as a defensive replacement. And he actually body checked the guy, Kiki Hernandez, who made the brilliant defensive outfield play in game six to end the game. You want to talk about a team that itself in the biggest clutch moments. The Dodgers absolutely did it.

Every time they needed to make a play in a very big moment, they came up with plays time and time again both at the plate end in the field. So to recap where we are right now, the Jays had loaded the bases with one out. All they needed was one run to win the World Series.

They couldn't do it. They very nearly did, but they didn't. So we went to extra innings. The Jays got out of a jam on the top of the 10th, but it was the catcher Will Smith. Remember that guy? Foot on the plate, foot off the plate, then foot back on the plate. It was Will Smith, who homered in the top of the 11th off Shane Bieber.

With two outs. For the first time in the game, the Dodgers had the lead. But these Jays would not go quietly in the bottom of the inning. Even with their kryptonite, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, on the mound for the Dodgers. They managed to put runners on first and third with one out. and Alejandro Kirk at the plate. The only thing Kirk could absolutely not afford to do was exactly what he did. He grounded into a game ending, series ending, double play.

The Dodgers had won the World Series and the Jays had not. And more history. That's the first time since 1947 that a World Series has ended on a double play. The amount of history and the amount of things that you saw in one game, one game alone like I said off the top would have made this an easy contender for the greatest game seven in major league baseball history but that almost that entire narrative kind of takes a backseat because of where we are and how profound a loss this was for the city of Toronto and the blue jays organization this is an all timer I know I know you want to keep going here I'll just say right now there are people texting in right now they're like why are we talking about this when the lions of one and the white caps of one and there's the Canucks on and I will tell you this you are not going to see a more profound sports moment than what you saw on the weekend you just not it comes around once in a lifetime yeah that kind of crushing soul crushing massive level sports disaster right and it affected the

country like it's not a Toronto story it's a Canada story this is like you know it was it was It was, Canada was rooting for the Jays. Whether you, whether, you know, like, I was a Mariners fan. I wasn't. Well, most of Canada was. But without trying to justify talking about it, because I just want to put that out there. It is, and I mean, Lattie, jump in here because, again.

You guys aren't making me feel any. I know we're not. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, buddy. But that was a hell of a recap by Broughtford also. I'm very depressed. I mean, that is beyond a gut punch. The Js had it in the palm of their hands on most.

multiple occasions. We're not talking about getting the wheels beat off in game six and seven. We're talking about a team that had enough chances over the course of those two games to bring this thing home

and they did not do it. And I did well enough to not really believe that it was going to happen until the moment when Ernie hit the ball. And there was like a half a second moment when Kiki did that

kind of look back over his shoulder and look back to the wall. I know exactly. He's lost. You said to yourself, that's it. Yeah, yeah. And he's done it.

There was no centerfielder even in the frame. And for that half a second was the first time I was thinking that this is over, Blue Jays have won the World Series. And then out of nowhere, that happened. Andy Pages, out of nowhere. And then even while he's making the catch, you're thinking, oh, man, he's going to bungle this. They're going to collide. Drop it or something.

And it never happened. So, hey, I'm sorry, buddy. I'm sorry. That was the moment. I'm genuinely sorry. It sucks. I know in sports radio that we're kind of tempted to power rank everything. like, you know, best players, best teams, you know, like on Fridays, it's like best cheeses.

I don't know. I don't really have any interest in power ranking crushing losses today. We all know, we all know the candidates, right? We're intimately familiar with the Canucks in 2011 and the Seahawks against the Patriots. We know about the Falcons versus the Patriots and the Red Sox versus the Mets. All I know is that without pushing the limits of reality, I'm not sure I could, have drawn up a more painful way for the Blue Jays to lose that series. There are games and series that fundamentally change the relationship you have with your team.

I know that after 2011, things were different between me and the Canucks. I can't explain exactly how, but they've just been different. It's fair. I felt like I had suffered sports trauma in 2011. And I think I'm kind of over it, but I don't think. think I'll ever be 100% over what happened in 2011. And for Jay's fans, I think, you know, unless they come back and win this thing next year, it's, it's going to stay with them forever. Yeah. And it's always, Lattie, like I congratulate you. I think you're, you're handling this very

well. It's always fascinating to see how people react to crushing losses. Some will lash out with anger, blaming players or managers or even suggesting there was a lack of justice in the law. as if justice has anything to do with it. Others immediately, and I mean immediately, force themselves to look at the positives, saying it was a great season and we'll always have the fun memories of the run. It's weak.

It's avoidance. The only honest way to deal with a loss like that is to sit in it and feel it. And, you know, You know, like, you can sit there and just be like, great season. We had a great run, you know, didn't expect to get that far. Like, you're lying to yourself. Yep.

Like, you, the whole idea of the run. Like, yeah, you had those great memories, right? I'd think back to 2011. I was like, yeah, we had some fun times, right? We went to San Jose for the conference final. That was fun. Had a lot of laughs along the way. But, you know, I wanted to win a Stanley Cup in 2011.

You can downplay it all you want. But like you said, bro, it's, it's. there's no way to sum it up and I think if you're... I don't even have words to... I don't think you could be physically and literally closer to winning a World Series

and then not winning it than the Blue Jays were. Like the Canucks were close in 2011 but in game seven, they weren't. No, they weren't. In game seven, the Jays were an inch away from Kiner Folefa being home and winning...

You know what I want to play? Can we play the audio from the Oilers game? To give you an idea of how close that they were. Do we have to? Yes. On the big screen, Saturday night, the big screen, I sound like I'm in the 80s. On the Jumbotron, it Rogers Center, is Rogers Place, Roger's Center in, in, uh, Rogers Place in Evanston, right? Rogers Place in Evanston. They're playing the Jay's game while the Oilers game is going on on the screen. No volume, obviously. So they're just reacting in real time to Varsho smack one up the middle and IKF running home. Jack Michaels, God bless him. I think it's

is a very difficult task to try and call one game while calling another game. This is a very brief snippet of what it sounded like, had the Jays won the World Series? Let's play it now. This is from the Euler's game on Saturday night. A call you heard right here on Sportsnet. Drive back behind the Blue Jays have just won the World Series. Or no, they're calling them out at home. So the roar from the crowd is.

Middle of the play. ICF sliding across home. And Jack is also trying to call the play. It will also be also the Blue J just won the World Series. Then the pause and the realization that he's been out at home. They's like, no, wait, they have not won the World Series. He is out at home. And that is how close that they were.

That's by far the worst part, just the fact that they were so close multiple times. Like, I think at least three different times I yell at my TV. I was like, there it is. They won. Oh, nope, they didn't. And everyone's saying that you should take the positives away. Oh, they weren't expected to be here. It doesn't mean anything.

They were there. They had it. At the end of every season in baseball, there are 29 teams left with the same bitter taste in their mouth. It doesn't matter if you made it to extra innings of Game 7 of the World Series, or if you didn't make the playoffs at all, we're all left with that feeling. And that's what makes winning so special. When you do win it, it's special because you're the one team left at the end of the year with that feeling. And to downplay it as a Jay's fan, just because you got to Game 7, I can't do that.

I know. I'm glad you're saying it that way. You've actually got some courage. Seriously, there's people. You're a Viking. No, no, no. But there are people that. just like immediately jump to that.

It's because they don't want to sit in the loss. They don't want to admit that it meant something to them. It's like great. They'll say congratulations. You're looking at the positives. Like then then you didn't really take a risk. Then you didn't really, you didn't really take a risk with your emotions if you're just going to be like, well, we had a great time along the way.

Yeah, sure. We all had fun. You know, like what are the stakes in that? I just want to add one more thing. Yes. Just as there were many, many individuals that contributed to the success of the Jay's, there were many that had a hand in game seven slipping away. Now, that's a great point.

Man, like, they, like the way they got. The next man up mentality, but in a bad way. Seriously. That was, I mean, you can, I'm laughing at some of the things that we can now do in the modern baseball era. Like, you know, I never thought that after a game, I'd be like, where did ICFs secondary lead-off rank in terms of lead-offs in the postseason, right? The statistical breakdown of that one sequence was amazing.

Amazing. There are about eight different metrics and arguments, and that's one of the plays. I mean, yeah, but you want to talk about it, like, you know, the base running thing, that's one component of it. Hoffman, that's another component of it. How about the fact that the Jays, who all year, all year, their bread and butter was get guys on, get them around. get them home.

They left 14 runners on base after Bichette made it 3-0 in that game. It was like everything that they did all year, their identity, their persona, their ability to get guys on and move them around. It all went away in the one moment where they just needed to do the thing that they had done

all year long. It was maddening to watch. Unbelievable. And I hate the micro-analysation of everything too, because as you guys know, I'm probably the biggest big picture baseball fan that you guys know, right? That's baseball. And I hate, you know, just the minutia and the individual moments.

Because it doesn't really matter over the course of 162 game season. But in game seven of the World Series, it matters. And you talked about his leadoff at Third Brough. You can make an argument about why did he slide into home? You could have just run through like it was first base. His toe probably would have been down a lot quicker than it was when he slid into home. So you can break down every single detail. And I hate every second of it.

The Enfield was in. I hate every second of this. It just never should have gotten to this point, and that's all I can think about. Dan Shalman is going to join us next. He was on the call with Buck for that game. This whole first hour is going to be baseball talk, and then we'll get into the local teams. If you're texting in and complaining that we're not talking enough about the white caps, you need to realize what just happened, and I don't think you do.

But we will talk about the white caps later on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R. Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. And the pitch. And a broken. Groundward is short. The Dodgers turn it and win it.

The Dodgers have won the World Series. They have beaten the Blue Jays 5 to 4 here in 11 innings. They have repeated as World Series champions. 633 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how.

This is Sands dash trustee. We are in hour one of the program. Dan Shulman, the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of hour one. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Our next guest, you just heard his call from an unforgettable game seven of the world series. Dan Shulman joins us now in the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Dan. How are you?

I'm doing pretty well, guys. How about you? We're good. First, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. The listeners often joke that this is all Halford ever says is thank you for taking the time. And sometimes I come across as insincere. So I want to make sure right now that this is, I genuinely appreciate and very sincerely want to thank you for doing this today because this is a once-in-a-lifetime or this is a once-in-a-lifetime

or kind of game kind of moment. And we're only 36 hours removed from it. So I guess my first question is, is like, have you really processed all of this yet? Or is it still a little too soon? I don't know. It's funny. I just before you called, I started opening out my backpack, which I hadn't looked at since Saturday night. I start basketball in a few days.

So I call it winterizing my work backpack now. And I took out my scorebook. Excuse me. So I took out my scorebook and opened it up. and I hadn't, like, completed the box score from the game, you know what I mean? Like the couple of the pitching lines and the runs hits errors and all that. I hadn't finished it, and because I'm a baseball announcer, like, you kind of have to reconcile your scorebook. So I was just doing that five minutes ago, and that kind of made it seem like in the moment again,

if you know what I mean. I kind of reared the last little bit of it again. I mean, I'm of two minds. This was an incredible, incredible season. absolutely incredible. Every player on that team deserves nothing but respect and whatever word you want to use, admiration for what they put into the season. This season will be remembered by Blue Jays fans for years and years and years. At the same time, obviously, when you're that close, that many times, it's painful. And I really, I feel for the players a great deal.

You know, obviously I get to know them fairly well over the course of 162 games and then all of October and there's a lot of good guys in there as you heard me and buck and Joe and everybody say umpting times on the air and I feel for the fans a ton because it was so again so close and I wonder if the fans will actually get over it quicker than the players will and that's not usually the way usually players move on quicker than fans do but um you know for for some of these guys who had that moment you know to to hit a fly ball to get a ball in the air, to make one more good pitch to whatever the case may be. But I guess I don't know if I'm a big processor, to be honest with you, to go back to your

question. But I have been thinking about it a lot over the last couple of days. And I wish they'd have been able to find a way. I echo what Caleb Joseph said, maybe in a milder terms than Caleb said it. But I think the baseball God should have chosen them because they played better. for most of the World Series than the Dodgers did. I don't think there's any question about that. The three so-called easiest games, easiest wins, were their wins.

And the closer games were the Dodger wins. But, you know, in the big moment, they didn't hit the fly ball or, you know, IKF didn't get to home plate in time, whatever the case may be. And you've got to give the Dodgers some credit, too. Like Yamamoto came out and did what Yamamoto did, and three guys hit home runs in the last four innings like you it's not just what the blue jays did or didn't do it's what the dodgers did as well so you know they deserve a lot of credit here too but yeah i totally understand that this one's going to hurt for a long long time but i hope on opening day next year a banner's going up um an

important banner america league champions is not nothing it's not like wild card series 2020 you know this is a this is way removed from that and i hope by that point everybody can really appreciate what that means um i want to I want to just ask you what you were thinking as a broadcaster when Rojas comes up to the plate you've got Otani

on deck and you've also got to think about hey the Jays might win the World Series so I got to think about what I'm going to say and then Rojas hits home run I mean the

like a wildly probable I've never I've never I've been watching sports my whole life life and my life is getting longer now. And I don't think I've ever seen such a stunned crowd. What were you thinking as a broadcaster? So it's funny, when you're calling the game, you're in the mechanics of the moment, right?

You're like you have to stay locked in. And yes, I was kind of thinking about what I wanted to say. I had a couple of little catch lines, but rough, like not word for word, because you don't know how it's going to end. You know, it can end in the top half on a strikeout. It can end in the bottom half on a walkoff. It can be a 10 to 2 game. You don't know.

So I'm feeling everything that people at home are feeling, but I also have to keep calling the game in the moment. But mentally, if I try to transport myself back to that moment, I'm guessing I was thinking, well, he's going to get Rojas. Yeah. And then how about this? It's going to come down to Otani as maybe the last batter in the World Series. And then the Rojas, Homer, and you're just stunned.

and I feel terrible for Jeff, terribly for Jeff Hoffman. Jeff Hoffman is a good closer and a great person, and he made a bad pitch. And not all bad pitches get hit out of the ballpark, and certainly not all bad pitches get hit out of the ballpark by number nine hitters, but this one did. He had thrown a couple of really good sliders. He had gotten ahead, and he decided to stay with it, and he hung one, and Rojas hit it out. So, I mean, I was stunned. But then again, in the moment, you know, now all of a sudden it's Otani is a

up and now the Blue Jays have to come up and who's going to be pitching and who's coming up and if I'm remembering correctly I don't know if it was the first pitch it might have been the first pitch like Altoni hit one basically to the warning track and left yes right yes he did he put a big swing on that right and and that almost got that's one of like a hundred things that got overlooked because a hundred other things happened in that game it was the first pitch, I think. I'm looking at my scorecard right now. Like, he came within 10 feet of giving them the lead in the ninth inning. So, you know, your emotions are part of it, but I think when you're in the moment, and I think players would tell you the same thing, like you're working,

you're in the moment. So it's a little bit different. But I was either on the edge of my seat or standing, I don't remember which, but of all the improbable moments in the game, I think the Rojas moment was the most improbable to me. Dan Shulman, play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Let's go to another moment, right back into the moment here. Bottom of the 9th, bases are loaded. Varshow hit up the middle.

What are you thinking in that moment? Don't screw out the call. Again, I'm working. So if you do nothing else as a play-by-play announcer, just say what you see. And I don't remember my call for that. don't know what I said. I haven't watched any of the back. You know, so it's probably, it was probably something like ground ball at a second, runner coming home, play at the plate. Like, it was probably very basic and short,

not wanting to get too wordy. And then all I say is whatever the umpire does. If the umpire says safe, I say safe. If the umpire says out, I say out. And he was out, as we know. So, um, I will, you know, I know there's been a lot of discourse about his lead and all that. And I've seen back and forth between players and analysts and all kinds of things. And I didn't say anything about it in the moment. So I'm certainly not going to hindsight it now. But so I'm just trying to call the play and saying what I see. And then as soon as the Blue Jays challenge, the realization, well, the first realization, I think, is, are you kidding me? Is there a chance the World Series is going to end on a challenge? And I would have been more than happy for that to happen. Like baseball, all's worst nightmare would have been a joyful moment for everybody in Canada, right, if it had ended on the challenge.

And then, you know, obviously the Blue Jays would challenge, but in live time, I didn't see Will Smith's foot come off the plate. I don't think anybody did. So now it's, oh man, his foot came off the plate. Did he get it back down in time? So again, 99% of me is just do my job and tell people what I think they need to know in the moment. But at the same time, I'm feeling the emotions that everybody is feeling, too.

And, you know, so close, right? If he hits it two more feet to the right of Rojas, it's through. If he hits a fly ball, it's over. And if you look at, sorry, I'm still a little horse guys. I did a lot of baseball games. But, you know, again, not to flip it to the other side, but Yamamoto came in and made great pitches. Like, go look at his pitches. He didn't hang anything.

The pitches that he threw to Varsho and to Kirk, the Varshow in the 9th, and Kirk in the 11th, the guy was incredible. And so it's not just about what the Jays did or didn't do. It's about what the Dodgers did as well. But I just wish Varsho had been able to find a way. You know, you almost think, too, like if the order had just been a little bit different, if maybe it had been Clement up there, maybe, you know, maybe they win it in that moment because the next batter was Ernie, right? And he hit that fly ball.

Maybe that's the next moment you're going to ask me about the Paias one. But, you know, who knows? It's just baseball, right? And they just couldn't find a way, unfortunately. Well, I am going to ask you about that. It's funny. I don't know if you've heard this or not yet, but Jack Michaels, SportsAid, does the calls for the Oilers game.

I did see this. Yeah, like that kind of is, it's the great sort of like anecdotal evidence to how close this thing was is that in the building, they thought the Js had won the World Series. And that's part of the heartbreak, not part of it, but a big part of it, but also it's this weird juxtaposition where this is also one of the greatest game sevens

in Major League Baseball history. It didn't end well for Jay's fans, but that can't really take away from the fact that, I mean, we were joking about it earlier. It was like, oh yeah, there was a bench clearer in this game that we totally forgot to mention because it's a footnote now. I mean, Vlad didn't really walked it off

in the bottom of the ninth. In another world, similar to the Otani swing. In another World Series, these are all major talking points, and we're just brushing them aside. Because now, you're right, we have to get to the next. Sorry, if you want to jump in, but the next one is the command. So, first of all, it's game seven of a World Series. Secondly, it's a compelling matchup, I think. Like just the two teams, it's a compelling matchup.

And it had been a compelling first six games. Now it goes extra innings. So now you're talking only one of six times ever. Right. It's happened. It goes 11 innings. And I think it's only the third or fourth time that it happened. happened. But even before that, and I want to talk about pahas in a second, too, but

like there were, like, remember the Varshell catch in center field, but like nobody talks about that. I mean, it was an incredible. Oh, yeah. That was a great. A good catch. Remember all of Guerrero's defensive points in that game. He put on a clinic. And I'm, I like Ty France a lot and he was a blue jay for part of the year, but I wish Vladie had won the gold glove. In the top of the 10th, the Dodgers had the bases loaded with one out and didn't score, right? Like, there's, we could talk about 10 unbelievable things, and there would be 10 other pretty unbelievable things

that happened in that game that don't even get talked about. But, all right, well, if you're going to ask me what I was thinking in the Pahas moment, in the Pahas moment, I thought the game was over. When the ball was in the air, I thought the game was over. So my first thing, I see the ball go in the air, and I look up, and the first person I find is Kike Hernandez. Because it was actually hit much more. to left than it was to center, right? It was left center, but the closest guy to the ball was

Kike Hernandez. And in the moment, I don't say it, but in the moment, I'm like, oh, my goodness, he's like, he's not, he's shallow. Like, he's, he's really got to get back there. And he can't tell right, you know, is it going to get to the wall or not? Obviously, if it hit off the wall, game's over. But Pahez is later on into my brain or into my vision. And then as you guys saw, like he just ran him over. I mean, he'd have run, he literally would have run through. wall to catch that ball. And that's an incredible, incredible play by Pahez, who remember checked into the game like 30 seconds earlier for his arm in case there was a flyball to shallow center before the Varshow at bat. That's when he'd get checked in, right? Because the outfield

had come in. Edmund's got a weak arm. Give Dave Roberts some credit too. There was some really good moves that he made that helps him win the game. If Edmund is in center still, games over. Blue Jay's the World Series champs. He doesn't run as fast as Pahez and he's got a bad ankle. And I don't think Kiki was catching that ball. I think it would have been too tough of a play for him. But again, if Bernie had hit it four feet further, it doesn't matter. It's the wall and it's game over. It's just an encrope, you know, or if Bernie's up ahead of our show and does that game over, but it's just, again, it's baseball. But in that half a second or something when that ball was going towards left center and I was looking at Kiki, that is the one. That is the

one moment where I said to myself, this game is over. Well, let's get to the part where the game actually was over. And that was the double play by Kirk. I think we were probably all thinking like, don't hit a grounder to the infielder, don't hit a grounder to the infielder first and third. And then he does it. So maybe just take us through that moment.

And what you were thinking. That one I remembered. If you go back and listen to it, I said it on the air beforehand. And I've said it a lot this year because, and again, people should remember, and I tried to say this a couple of times, but instead of broadcasting for one million people, most of whom watch a lot of baseball, we were broadcasting for 8 million people, most of whom have not watched as much baseball as that core one million have watched.

So, you know, there was, there were times where I was saying things I wouldn't normally say, like keep in mind, hear this or that, or, you know, even something like, remember, There's no runner at second base and extra innings, you know, rules and stuff like that. So I know 100% I said, if the ball's on the ground, it's a double play and it's going to be over. Like he's got to do everything you can to get the pitch in the air. So the ironic thing, and I don't know if that's the right word to describe it, so Guerrero doubles off a good pitch, by the way. Like, did you see that Yamamoto hat tip to Lattie? Yeah.

Really cool stuff, right? Really cool stuff. And then you've got IKF up. Obviously, with IKF, you're going to bunt. He gets it down. Gladdy comes to third. Barger's up. And he walks, which is great.

It's the World Series winning run. Right. But, right. Like, if he had thrown barger strikes, and I don't think he pitched around him deliberately, although I'd have to go back and look at the pitches. But if he throws barger strikes, does Barger manage to hit a fly ball? We'll never know.

that would have tied the game. But now you've got the winning run on, which is great. And all of us can agree, Alejandro Kirk had a fantastic season, great season. The one downside is if he hits the ball on the ground, it's over. I do know I went back. It was probably Saturday night, like at two in the morning or whatever, before I went to sleep, and looked at the pitches of that at that. And they are great pitches, absolutely great pitches that he made to Kirk.

And again, Yamamoto deserves credit. He made great pitches to Bar Show. And he made great pitches to Kirk. In the two biggest at bat's, the two biggest moments, he threw him an O2 splitter on the outside corner, and Kurt shatters his bat because he had to reach for it, and it was right off the end of the bat, and it broke the bat. And that's always going to be a ground ball to short for a right-hand bat.

It wouldn't you have to kind of reach, and it's right off the end of the bat? Kirk is as good as anybody that we know at hitting line drives to right-center field, and just Yamamoto made pitches that were just too tough, too good. so it's unfortunate and I didn't think of this in the moment somebody asked me about an after game the only thing they could have done is send barger

like try to steal second but holy cow can you imagine if he gets thrown out and now it's two outs flattie at third there's there's risk in the do there's risk in the don't right so again I'm not hindsighting that at all didn't think of it in the moment

I believed I did feel in the moment Kirk would find a way to hit a fly or hit a line drive to right field and deep enough because he's Kirk and he's done it so many times but Yamamoto won MVP for a reason right yeah um so talk to us about the team that's going to come back next year um because you know jays fans immediately the one I know is like well what are our chance can we can we get back to this and you know I'm looking at the I'm on a sports book page right now and the futures are plus 2,000 for the Js to win the World Series

and there's many teams with shorter odds than that. You know, the Dodgers are going to be a powerhouse again. You think about the Yankee starting rotation potentially for next year and that's going to be incredible and then, you know, like the Mariners have a pretty good chance

and their odds are actually better than the Jays to win the World Series next year. It obviously starts with Bichette and whether he's going to extend but man, there's a lot of other guys that you wonder like, okay, are they going to be with the team? So they've got six free agents, I believe.

I don't think Scherzer will be back. I don't think Heiner Falafa will be back. I don't think France will be back. I don't think Sir Anthony Dominguez will be back. Just, you know, nothing against anybody, obviously. I just don't think they will be back with the team. The two that interests me the most, one obviously is Bichette. As you mentioned, the other is Bacet.

I don't know if Bo will be back. So one, are they at a point? now where they would say, Bo, we really want you back. But you've got to play second base. I don't know. Jimenez is a better shortstop than Bichette is. Bichet, I think, has a chance to be a much better

second baseman than he is a shortstop. Like I think that would be their best alignment. But I don't know if Bo wants to do that. And then there's always, you know, contract, right? That's huge. So do they see his value at the same level that he sees his value? Does he get another offer?

I think they're going to take a run at it. really good run at it. I don't know that I felt that way during the season, but I think they're going to take a really good run at it. If they bring him back, like you've got, and they could always make trades and jumble it up, but let's just count for a second really quickly. Kirk and Heimanneman is two. Guerrero, Bichette, Jimenez, Ernie is six. Left to right in the outfield, let's say Lucas Varsho Barger is nine. Springer Santander, which is complicated, is 11. And I haven't said Miles Straw or Davis Schneider yet. That's 13. That's a team. Now, they got to go out and get more because they're injuries. You need reinforcements. What's in the farm system. But if they

bring the Shet back, I could see it being a remarkably similar position player group with the exception of you got to figure out a way how to make Santander work in this, which is a little bit tricky, but they'll try. Bassett. I think they'll try to bring him back and I think they should and probably a one-year deal. He's turning 37, but he was a capable major league starter this year, and do they want him as a back-end starter or a hybrid guy or a

multi-inning reliever? The good news about him is he's flexible about the role. He'll do what he wants to come back. He just flat out said it. He loves it here, and I want to really emphasize this point. You guys heard me talk all year long about what a special group it is in the

chemistry and all that. He is a big, big, big part of that. and they know it. And if I were them, I would try to bring him back on a one-year deal or a one-plus-one or something like that. But again, if they want him to be, you know, kind of a sixth starter swingman kind of guy, but he wants to start, or if they offer him $8 million, somebody else offers him 13, you know, who knows, right?

So, but I'd love to see him back because they've got Gosman, they've got Burrios, assuming there's no surgery coming or anything for whatever it is, they've got you savage. And then after that, it's kind of open. Is it Bassett? Is it Lauer? Is it Bowden Francis? I think they're signing a starting pitcher or trading for a starting pitcher.

That's not in the organization. Maybe they, I didn't mention Bieber. I'm sorry, we didn't talk about Bieber who has an option to become a free agent. He can opt out of the last year of his contract. So to me, either they retain Bieber, like sign him to a new deal, or they go out and sign somebody else or trade for somebody else. They need, in my opinion, one more established arm. And then you kind of figure it out at the back end, the 5, 6, 7.

Bullpen, I think they're in pretty good shape. I don't think Sir Anthony's back. But if Jimmy Garcia is healthy, which hopefully he is, what a big loss he was, slot him in. I might like them to go out and get another left-handed reliever, I think, like a lead lefty. I don't know what Brendan Little's future is going to be with the team. But it wouldn't surprise me if of the 26 guys,

guys who were on the World Series roster if, you know, 19, 20, 21 of them. Maybe you're back next year. This was some of the most fun I've had watching baseball and not just the postseason either. During the regular season as well, it's been great. And Dan, you did an awesome job all year long. And both of us want to thank you a lot for always being gracious with your time and coming on the show and breaking it all down for us. It's always awesome to talk baseball with you.

I'm sad that the season is over, but I'm a big college basketball guy. I'm excited for what's ahead, but again, on behalf of Jason and Andy and Greg in the whole show, thank you very, very much for doing this repeatedly throughout the season and the postseason. You got it, guys. Have a great winter, and it'll be pitchers and catchers reporting, hopefully, before we know it. Thanks, Dan. Appreciate it, man. That's Dan Shulman, the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. Okay, so the first hour was entirely baseball. We got two hours to go. We're going to get into all the other stuff that happened. this weekend. Canucks, Whitecaps, Lions, Seahawks. Mike Tannier is our Monday regular to recap the NFL and we're going to start with the Seahawks because, man, I think a lot of people watch that

game last night and they're like, oh, maybe these guys aren't just good. Maybe they're a legitimate Super Bowl contender with Sam Darnold at quarterback. So we'll talk to Mike about that. Love to hear any of your thoughts on the Vancouver Canucks. The BC lines or the Vancouver Whitecaps into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-6-50. You're listening to the Halford and Rough Show on Sportsnet, 650.