Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #124 - Mike Wilson "Ultimate Leafs Fan"

Episode Date: October 21, 2020

Originally Scarborough ON  He is well known for his former 1000 square foot basement, known as "The Room" looked more like the Hockey Hall of Fame than a “man cave”, hosting a lifetime’s collection of  artifacts. He used this unique collection to host fundraising events for years, raising over $2 million dollars for various charities. The collection was the backdrop for events that saw legends like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Chris Hatfield, Brendan Shanahan,  Johnny Bower and many more. Over 80 Maple Leafs past and present toured“The Room”. He has since written 2 books & watched live every Toronto Maple Leafs game in the 2018-19 season.   Let me know what you think   Text me! 587-217-8500

This is Corey Cross. This is Wade Redden. Hi, this is Braden Holby. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell. My name is Jim Patterson. Hello, everyone. I'm Carlyagro from SportsNet Central. Hey, it's Ron McLean, Hockey Net in Canada, and Rogers' hometown hockey.

Hello, Lloyd Minster. This is Keith Morrison. And welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Hump Day. We got a great one on tap for you today. Before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. Clinton team over at trophy gallery.

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And he does just like the rest of Reading, right. They do such a great job, and they make everything look so professional and sharp. I've gotten so many compliments on the SMP billboard, so a huge tip of the hat to you, folks. If you're heading into any of these businesses, make sure you let them know you heard about them on the podcast. If you're interested in advertising on the show, visit shawninghamapodcast.com in the top right corner, hit the contact button and send me your information. We've got lots of different options, and I want to find something that can work for the both of us. Now, let's get on to your T-Bar-1, Tale of the Tape.

Originally from Scarborough, Ontario. He's been popularized by his private Toronto Maple Leafs collection of memorabilia in his basement. He used this collection to host fundraising events for years, raising over $2 million for various charities. The collection was the backdrop for events that saw legends like Wayne Grexky, Bobby Orr, Chris Hatfield, Brendan Shanahan, Johnny Bauer, and many more. Over 80 Maple Leafs passed and present toured what he dubbed The Room. He's been dubbed the Ultimate Leafs.

fan by ESPN. He's went to every Leafs game in the 2018-19 season, and he's written two books, inside the room and the ultimate road trip. I'm talking about Mike Wilson. So buckle up. Here we go. Hi, I'm Mike Wilson, the ultimate lease fan. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Mike Wilson, or he's probably, you know, his alter ego, the ultimate Leafs fan. So first off, thanks for hopping on. Great. Thanks for having it. I should clarify right off the that I did not give myself that name, the ultimate Lee's fan. That came from ESPN magazine who did a story and called me that.

And I just used it for the branding. There's lots of ultimately fans out there. What was when ESPN did the story and they called you that, were you like, all right. Yeah, sure. I guess. Yeah,

kind of like that because they're doing this thing in all crazy fans. And this is about 10 years ago. And they did a story in one of the magazines, and then they sent a guy from Buffalo and all this. And they wanted me to, you know, a lot of the fans that were doing had their faces painted, wearing crazy get-ups. And I don't do that. I just, it's just not in me to do that. I take it. Not that they don't take it serious, but I take it very serious.

And I don't go as, I don't clown myself up to go to games, even though I love when I go to rank and there's 12,000 Maple Leaf fans dress like that in sharing. So it's perfect. But, you know, so they were trying to. So if you see the picture of me with my hands like this pointing at the, I said, that's the craziest thing I'll do. I was pointing at the sign above my head and they use that as that. So then they labeled me that right after. Well, I got to go.

I got to know. I mean, for most guys, becoming a fan of a team starts very young. You're in your 60s. So you would have grown up in the heyday of hockey when there was nothing else on. Kids today, I can't even fathom what you guys probably grew up through. I read, you said in life, there was hockey, watching the Leafs, and school. That was it. So let's go back to the beginning, Mike, and let's talk about this ultimate Leafs fan

and the origin story, so to speak, of how this all began. Well, I'm 66. And when I grew up in the late 50s and early 60s, you're absolutely right, Sean. There was nothing to do. There was four channels on TV, and I'm not going to tell you, I walked through 10 feet of snow, my bare feet and all that kind of stuff, you know. But it was winters were cold, you know, I grew up in Toronto, and snow was high, and there'd be frozen rinks at the schoolyards or around the neighborhoods from late November till March. And if you weren't playing on the streets, and we would even skate on the streets at time, you started playing hockey outside. And first of foremost, I fell in the game, loved with the game of hockey.

That was it. And it became an obsession to play it. I would play it 12 months of the year, but we weren't allowed to play in the summer because nobody did. You played baseball and started playing it. And then the natural progression was to watch the pros on TV. So hockey night in Canada, Saturday night as a family, would sit around and watch it. And they made beliefs were the team of choice. And they became my obsession after that because like any little kid,

you just start collecting hockey cards and there'd be the jello coins and the marbles and clipping articles of the newspaper. The papers would come up in the afternoon in those days, not in the morning like today. And you'd get the newspaper and clip pictures out, and sometimes instead there'd be a color picture, and I'd always look for that. And as that progressed, a relative of ours was very good friends of Carl Brewer who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So he showed up one day with an autograph, team stick, game used from Carl Brewer as my gift. And this was my pride and choice. That was the real first, real collectible that I got. And that was about six or seven.

And that just became my possession. And then my uncle got me a Lippe Beans promotional poster of Frank Mahavlidge in color. And I never had a color poster before. And I had two of them. And he actually got me two. And he said, my dad said, so Frank Mahavich's dad, I guess I should back up with the skate sharpener at a suburban rink in Leaside, Ontario, which is just a part of Toronto. And my dad played hockey there.

Worked at IBM for 40 years. And he played hockey there every Sunday morning. So I'd hang around Frank Mahavich's dad's skate booth as the skate sharpener every Sunday morning looking at him and look at the couple pictures he had in there. And my dad actually said to him or said to me, maybe we should give Mr. Mahavich one of the posters. And of course, I said no. But the idea was to give him one of these posters. So I remember we went to Lise that arena, reaching up and he was a big man and he had his work overalls on. And he knew who I was from hanging around the rink.

And I had him that poster. He patted me in the head. He turned around and he hung that in his booth. and it stayed there until the day he retired. And to go around of what, this is what any collector will get to us, when Frank Mahavich eventually came and saw my room, and I relate, I have that post, I have one of those posters,

and I had the display article and advertisement from Libby's. And I told Frank that story. He had tears in his eyes as he was recounting his father and thinking of the memories of his father. And he actually said to me, he says, you know, Mike, I got $500 for doing that ad. Now, punch him, knock, and the trunk. One of Maple Leafs got a lot more, but I know how much those buggers got.

And that was, that just started from there. And it almost, well, became addicting a bet. Well, it does because, like, in every kindergarten neighborhood was doing the same thing. You were collecting cards. Some guys were collecting a comic. I remember a guy just collecting four comic books, and he wouldn't have anybody even touched them. And they never even heard of that before. And this guy was just, everything was so delicate.

You couldn't even, you could just look at the pile, not even touched them. And then we started doing that with our hockey cards, you know, and you're flipping them against the walls and not, we play knockdowns and flips and all that for the cards. And I'd open a pack and look at, you know, Gordy Howard, Bobby Hong, go, they weren't a Maple Leaf and get rid of them. And I remember I came home when I was a kid. I was riding a bike pants in my pocket. They'd be digging into my leg and I'd have cuts in my mom. I'd be, what did you do, Michael? And I'd like it.

I'll be bruce in the cards. That's how sharp they were in those days. Like to have those all back today. But, you know, that's what we, we all did that. You know, the Coke bottles with the caps came out and collected those. And, you know, I just took a little bit further than other guys. That's all. Well, I was going to say, I remember being a kid in collecting hockey cards and

got three older brothers. So we used to trade them all the time. And there were certain collectibles you had for sure. But you took it to like the next level. And most people, I would say, they grow. of the collector's stage and they just become the fan and they go to a few games and they cheer for them and they talk about them religiously and you know and that's what they do. What was it about collecting that drew you in and made you go after all these pieces with all these stories

and hold on to them for as long as you did? Well, I think it's, Sean, I think collectors have this gene that, you know, that's, I don't know about it's a possessive gene or it's an addiction or or it's just, it's something that just grabs you. But at any collector, I'll tell you like this, there was a guy who watched a story on one time. They have a lot of collector shows on. And this guy collected yo-yo's. And anybody listens to that story.

They go, what? Yo-yo's. Now, this guy was extremely wealthy, extremely wealthy. Lived in a massive mansion. And they went to go do the story on him. They drive up the big, huge gateway. He meets and there's all these big cars at the front. This guy's got the cowboy hunt.

And he wants to show them his yo-yo collection. He had 15,000 yo-yo's. And they were immacally displayed in this beautiful cabin tree in this room. It was all beautifully decorated. And he's showing them all these yo-yo's and, you know, what he was looking for going forward. And the guy said, you do realize this vase here. I don't know where it's the Ming Dynasty. This va, how much is your collection worth?

Oh, $75,000. This vase right here is worth more than the whole collection. He goes, yeah, yeah, my wife put that in here, just decorate. But look at this yo-yo I picked up in Sweden in the night. it was just obsessive. And you could see that I got it. Like you get it, right? Because it's just this thing where, you know, becomes obsessive with some guys. But what I looked at it is, I looked at myself as a preserver of history. And what I was is I was the gatekeeper to the pieces. And what really excites me is finding a piece and then doing the research on it and finding out the story about every

piece. Because see, you wouldn't buy, you wouldn't buy a car without knowing the history. You wouldn't buy a pair of without knowing something about. So why should you have a collectible and not know anything about it? So I like to think every story has tentacles and off of those tentacles come stories and that one story can lead to another. I can tell you one, Wayne Gretzky came, was at our place. We did a lot of cherry work at our place and that was one of the things. We had, you know, numerous, numerous athletes there on hockey players are obviously the best. And he had a picture of him breaking Gordy Hell's record. It was done by Leroy Neiman. It's a serial graph. And he looked at it and he said, you know, Mike, And I was showing him on Team Canada, the 78 sweater was underneath.

It was actually Rick Vives, but he thought it was his. I said that looked familiar. And I pointed the sweater to him. And he goes, oh, yeah, I remember that. And that was his breakout year as a 16-year-old playing for the world juniors for Canada. But he pointed at the picture above it, which was that serial graph of his record breaker. And he goes, I got a funny story for on that lithograph. And I said, do tell.

He said, well, L.R. Neiman used to come to a lot of our games in L.A. And, you know, when that happened, that happened, one of the greatest beats in sports. He was in our green room talking Luke Robatai. And he said, the Lockie, listen, is there something he liked me to do for you guys to commemorate tonight with Wayne in this special occasion? I'll, you know, I'd like to do something for you guys. And Lucky said, yeah, that'd be fantastically away. Awesome.

Love to see that from you. So off he goes. Six, seven, eight months later, Leroy calls me. he's got it. So they have a special dinner. They give Wayne the original copy, then they did at this dinner with the whole team. And each member of the team got a copy of the serial graph. And then each member of the team got a bill to pay for it. Charge them. And they're all looking at it. And Gregski could barely get through the story without starting to laugh. And so a few years later after he told me that story,

I had a guy by the name of Eric Bloom, who is the guy who is the sculptor who did Legends Roe at Scotia Bank with all the Maple Leafs. And I told him that story. And he goes, Well, it's funny, I know Leroy, because I was teasing by, I said, one of your comrades, he got one of our hockey players out, like with that story on me. And if you look that picture up, by the way, you'll see that it says the L.A. King's commissioning L.A. Neiman to do the picture when he actually sold it to them himself. He said, well, I know L.R.R. Yer always do that all the time. And he says, matter of fact, he tried to do that to Mohamed.

After one of his fights in Zaire, he called L.E.R. and said, and Leroy called Muhammad and said, Muhammad, would you like me to do something to commemorate the event? He goes, why you call him Eliy? And he said, no, no, no, no. Do you want me to do something to commemorate the evening? I'll do a special thing for it. You don't need to call me. Anyway, he went on and on.

Muhammad knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to get him and suck him in to buy a painting up him or a lithograph of some sort, right? They get him to do the job. And he wouldn't bite. He goes, you don't need my permission to do a picture. You go ahead. And he went, and then Eric's to see how the story.

That went from a lithograph or a syrograph. A lithograph that I bought in a syrograph. A stereograph that I bought in Las Vegas that I didn't even know existed when I bought it. And I was there with my wife. We saw it and I bought it because I didn't realize he did two Wayne Gretzky let the graphs. And that went from that to Wayne telling the story, to Robitai, to Eric Bloom, telling the story about Hamid Ali, and on it went. And so that's what I like to think of.

And all my maple leaf collection is the same way. So every piece has a story and every piece leads to something else. And I can tell you, any person as a collector will tell you, you walk into somebody's house that has like I see the sweaters in the background. I've got 10 questions ask you already, but the two sweaters in the background already. Any place you go into, they would come down to the bottom steps of my place and by the bottom step, once they finish listening to me for 10 minutes, they immediately relay a story themselves about collecting something or something that's important to them or precious to them or that they have in their possession or they got given to them. And I don't

care who they are. Somebody will tell you some sort of story. Well, I'm curious as to who the first notable person, notable, walked into that room and you're like, I can't, you know, you just drop Wayne Grexie. That's a pretty big name walking into somebody's basement. Very few people, very few fans get that opportunity. But was he the first or had there been many by that time? And who was the first that walked in? And I'm assuming it might have been somebody from Leaf's history that walked down those stairs. Well, it's actually really funny because when we did the room, it again, it's a little bit of a long story again, but when I was doing the collecting those just to tell you how people were, I was doing my thing and my friends started

having babies and stuff like that. So I'd go over and I remember I gave my buddy one time and Dave showed you how far back it was when Dave Winfield was to start for the Jays, I gave a rookie card of Dave Winfield, the San Diego Padres, rookie card and was in the glass case and they gave him a box of hockey cards from that year. I'm proud, I'd give it this, there you go, there's a collectible for your son to get involved in the, and he just kind of looked at me like, geez, Will's, uh, That's really nice, but you know, can you got him a Fisher Price toy maybe or here? Let's see it all.

But so that shows you where, you know, people's mindset when I thought, you know what, people I guess don't really care. So I'm just going to have this little room down basement here, screen TV, put the bar in and my buddies come over and watch sports. And somebody came over and said, no, you should be doing charity stuff. No, who want to come and see this? I honestly, to God, I thought that. Who'd want to come to see this? This is my private thing. And, you know, just watch sports.

Anyway, one thing led to another, and we got a cause, I guess some people took some pictures, a couple of friends. The Leaves got contacted me and came and did a special on it. And it was supposed to be one part that did two parts between periods of exhibition game for Leaks Nation Network, or at least TV at the time it was called. And then it just sort of blossomed from there. Then we started getting calls when people wanted to do charity things. So people then want to come home and start seeing it and people I knew. So a buddy on mine who, Gary Roberts had his gym called Station 7. It was in Toronto.

So something like I worked out there, not because Gary. Roberts were there. One of the guys in my office was a real fitness freak took me there. I didn't realize Roberts owned it and the way they were trained. So we started training there. So one of the guys that trained all the hockey players said, I want to bring some of the guys over. And this part is the first. So Brad Boys was with the was not with the Leafs at the time, but had been drafted by the leaves, came in. He was kind of last to arrive and he was kind of one of the bigger names that were there. And he said, well, it was one of those things that was, you know, my coach, geez, I'm so sorry about, you know, I got to run. I got hockey game at E 30 and runner and all this kind of stuff.

And I went, yeah, yeah, that's fine. Brad, just come in and have a spin around, just take off and you got to go. Well, at 8.30, he's standing there looking at stuff. And I said, Brad, oh, you had a game at 830. He's all screw to that. I'll miss it tonight to stay in here. And Ron Ellis. So there was Brad and a bunch of the guys. He was one of the first. And Ron Ellis came. And so what happened at night was his, well, you know what? You sacrificed, going to your hockey game night to stay here and enjoy this with you. That's what I'm going to do. I do something special for you. Let's see. So I looked around and I had the dress door from Maple Leaf Gardens, the original one from 1931. And I looked at, I said, you know what? Sign the door. You can be the first Maple Leaf to sign

the door and we'll get Maple Leafs to sign it from here on the end. He went, no, no, no, you don't want me. Oh, yeah, you were a first-round draft pick, sign it. By the time we were finished on, 80 Maple Leafs signed it. Only Maple Leafs could sign it. I had over 80 on that door, and it's now in Ottawa. It's probably, I think, one of the most iconic pieces of leaf memorabilities in existence. But when Ryan Ellis came over, He was probably the next big name to come. He was at an event and the guy said, you got to come and see this. They called me and said, you know, Ron wants to come over.

He liked to see a picture of your place first before he comes. And I said, well, I don't want to do that. And he said, you know what, tell him this. Tell him, and I was being cocky. He comes over here and he doesn't like it or appreciate it. I'll buy him and his wife dinner at any restaurant in the city of Toronto. My choice, his choice. He went, well, I guess that's convincing enough.

So Ron, the same thing. He comes over. And, you know, he's late. And he goes, every guy that came up. over is always the business guy in Canada. Mike, oh, small, media, oh, meeting, oh, me, oh, oh, my, geez, that's right. Oh, I got to run. I got no one up this. And it's run, not a problem. Come in, do what you have to do? We'll see. Well, 11 o'clock that night, as he's drinking another beer with me at the bar, he's asked me, can I bring some guys over from the alumni to come and see this?

And he brought eight guys over to watch a playoff game in Pittsburgh, actually play off game during the Stanley Cup finals. You know what's funny about those stories you say the busiest guys in Canada. I find being, I'm just Sean Newman, right? I say that all the time. The listeners probably laugh at me every time I say it. But realistically, nobody knows me from a hole in the ground, right? And when you talk to people that probably get harassed all the time by media and fans and everything,

is that's like their protection method, right? I got things to get to. I'm busy. I can only give you so much time, always. and then if they like what you're doing, you can just see them kind of relax. And that's when the fun happens. That's the cool part of sitting down with, well, all the people you're talking about, all the people I've ever got, you know, the opportunity to sit across from is when you can get them to just let their guard down a little bit.

I'm not here to, you know, make you uncomfortable, ask you to do some things you don't want to do. Man, if you enjoy it, great. And if you don't, that's cool too, right? I hear that in you. And just from seeing the videos of your place, I don't. know any hockey player fan, coach, alumni, superstar, who wouldn't walk down there and be like, wow, this is something. Well, you see, the thing, Sean, about it is what everybody's got to remember.

So, like, just a couple of things for me, because I used to get asked by people at the time. You know, we've had, you know, Bobby Orr down there, Phyllisbizito, you know, Gratsk, as I mentioned, Paul Coffey. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. And, I mean, it's just unbelievable that guys we've had there. Chris Hadfield, the astronaut contacted this one time to come. and see it. And he, because he'd heard his grandfather was the training with Maple Leaf back in the 30s and I wonder if I could do some research. So I did. And a friend of mine,

Paul Patska, who is the ultimate Maple Leaf historian. We did a little presentation for him. And I did it. I gave a presentation to Chris and there's a couple of family members. And he came up for one day and he was just in heaven. And I mean, it was just he had in heaven. He's probably been close to it going in space. But the way I looked at it was these guys, you got to remember, they're all kids too. They all had their heroes. They all pretended that there was somebody on driveway. You know, a funny story, and he'll probably kill me if I ever, if he ever hears the story. He was a great, great surprise. He wrote the forward in my book, by the way. And if you read the forward in the book, I'm given a shameless self-promotion here, Sean. It's absolutely outstanding.

And it's worth buying the book just to read that. Shanahan came over and he supported a number of our charity events and was fantastic. So my son won to the events when we had a big slew of people there. And this was, you know, we had all the guys. My son was watching the Blue Jay game. We're outside. It was during the summer. And he's watching the Jay's game. And he knew the guys.

Up to send he heard somebody coming down the stairs behind him kind of slow. And slow and he kind of looked back. And it was Brennan with his phone out filming the room to show his son. And he'd been there a few number of times and he's filming it. And so he got to the bottom of stairs and he saw Ryan. And he thought, okay, it's fine. It's just Ryan. So he's filming more.

Some people come down the stairs, put his phone away and went over to the bar and pretend he was getting a drink. like off the bar, just, I talked to people a few minutes, then they'd have to you brought his phone back, because, you know, he's present in Maple Leafs. He kept you looking like he's a fan. So, but he is. And they're all like that.

And the way I used to look at it, I used to make a joke. I said, well, how do you guys, when you got these stars all come into your place all the time? First off, it's for charity, so it's for the right reason. I'm raising money. And I always say, look, I got to look at these guys on the same level. You played matter hockey. I'm much similar to you.

I played in Europe, and I played, you know, for the realitarianism. And I played a little of that. type of hockey and stuff like that. I said, look, the way I look at it is, I played the game that they played. They're just way better than I am. But I'll tell you what, come on down to Bay Street. I worked on Bay Street for 40 years, sit in a trading desk for a wake and we'll see who

the star is. So let's do that comparative. And I always thought, I tell us, well, I got that story. Now I'm going to be a name dropper here from Wayne Gretzky. Because we played golf with them one time. And it was during the Tiger shootout at Sherwood in California. So what's Tiger like? Did he give you a hard time about playing golf?

He'd go, yeah, he tried to bust my chops a few times down. But I just looked at kind of said, put a skate, let's put a pair of skates on you and let's do what you do. He said that shut him up pretty quickly. You never said another word. You know, probably the coolest thing you've said thus far in my eyes is you became so good at your craft that Chris Hatfield, of all people, is going, hey, can you look up something like that? That's a pretty cool story, Mike. Oh, I mean, Sean, it was so funny because Debbie, my wife. she had gone to a, she worked on Bay Street too.

So she went to a luncheon put on by Association on the Street of the IDA. And she went into Hatfield was one of the speakers. So her son, older son was really into space and a lot of kinds of, he was selling his book. She went and got it signed. So coincidentally, about a week later, we'd get a contact from him. And she'd made a joke about the, not about the Leaves, but about her son to being a big fan.

And that's what the book was for. We get the contact from him. Could he come over and see the room? She's looking, I just saw this guy a week ago. How would he know? Like, where's all that coming from? And sure enough, it was just a coincidence. And because when he came over, he hadn't even clued in because he signed some.

But he was a major league league fan. Now, he teased me because he said, now, Mike, which he would like, so he was telling us all the stories about dropping the puck from space. And they taped all the games for him, and they would send him to him. And they have to work out every day in the day of a gym on the capsule. And he had to ride the treadmill. He wrote that he was a really good shape. So he ran on the treadmill for two hours every day.

But he'd watch the leaf games. They'd send him to him. And he would never know the score. So he said that one of the things he had on there, he had it. It was registered as a NASA piece was he brought a maple leaf crest on a plaque. And he looked at him. He goes, how about that look down here? And I said, my eyes must have been as big as like, you know, like, like, like,

Gene Wilder or one of those, but like that. And he went, didn't mean to teach him, like, I gave it to Larry Tannenbaum and his wife last night. They're going to put it in the leaf. They're going to put it in the hall with the leaves. But he said that he was listening to every game in game seven against Boston, 2013, the disaster game seven. He was listening to the game and watching it. And they were landing.

And they hit the water. He couldn't watch the rest of the game. Like he's got to worry about landing and get off the spacecraft and be, you know, get home. And he gets off. They get him on the boat, and they bring the family to him to talk to his wife. First thing he said, what was this growing leaf game? First thing he said to his wife after coming from space. So he shared that story with us, and it was a pretty cool experience.

It was pretty awesome. But you know, you're right. The people that come down there, we've had politicians, billionaires, musicians. I don't know if a guy Tom Hicks, the singer, the country in the West. A big guy from Nashville. he came over and played at our event and he was more, he wanted to tour the basement, you know, and more than anything and look at all the leaf stuff. So it's, you know, it's, it's the fan and everybody that comes out. So I guess what I, the pleasure I had or the, I guess the privilege

I got was to see this from then, that other side of the people, because you're in somebody's home, you know, it's not like you go to the rural York and, you know, Wayne Gretzky gets out of a cab or gets out of a car. And by the time he's got to the elevator, you know, 200 people ready to follow him because the guys are on the phone, telling on the buddies, Wayne's here and come on down. And by the time he gets upstairs, there's, you know, hundreds of people trying to talk to him. You know, and then he's looking for the X to get out of there. Whereas you come to a home and there's 100 people there, there's nobody else there. So it's a much more relaxing atmosphere.

So we had that luxury to be able to do that. So that gave us a little bit of an edge up. And plus it was very topical stuff and all. And most people have stories. I mean, even Derek Sanders said he was a lead fan growing up. And he was getting in and he goes, I hope that's not. going on TV. Is that going on TV? Nobody know that. Ah, how it's fine. But it's, you know, it's just a way to Danny Garrett told me we have him on our podcast last week, Squid and I. And he said, I was a lead fan growing up.

I cheered for all those guys. I love Dave Keon and Dick Duff because they're little guys like me. And, you know, I use those guys as inspiration, but I watched every leaf game. So, you know, it's just this, you know, a bonding thing that people have. And I, I guess just why you're giving me the moment here. The thing that people don't understand about the Toronto Maple Leafs that makes them separate. I know all other fans out there that my trail fans are going to be cringing and clawing at the screen ready to poke my eyes out. But this is what Toronto is so much different than any other sports franchise probably in the world. The Yankees, the Pittsburgh pirates and all these baseball teams, yes, they're big dynasties and been around for a long, long, long, Cincinnati,

but they all have their radio networks, but they were all, there were options. In the 30s, The games were started to be broadcast across the nation by Foster Hewitt. We're in the middle of the Great Depression. The country was crippled until 1939. Radio was in its infancy stages. It was going exponentially through every year, but slow because content was an issue. So the biggest entertainment for people in those days was because they couldn't afford to do anything, was listen to the radio. And what was the form of entertainment?

The hockey game, Saturday nights. So anything west of Ontario, Saturday nights, the only game they would get because it was in English was the, leaf game. And east, it would be a combination of the Leafs and Montreal, mostly Montreal. So families grew up sitting around the radio back in the 30s and 40s listening to those leave games as a family. And that would be passed down from generation to generation. And the other part of the story is that Fostery, who has broadcasts were soon sent overseas to the troops during the war to entertain them and keep these guys motivated and keep these guys alive. I've spoke at Sunnybrook Hospital, which is a Veterans Hospital. And those guys,

there's some of them who were around and they it kept them alive they said that was so important to them some of the guys are 100 years old and that's the kind of stuff that kept them alive was those fostery who have broadcast so they would tell those stories to their children to their grandchildren to their grandchildren to their grandchildren to their grandchildren so it was more about the bonding of the team not the wins and losses it's what that team meant to each family and when i did my tour of pharma maple leaves that came through loud and clear particularly in western canada Yeah, they may be a Calgary Flames fan, but below that, Maple Leafs are next. Winnipeg, same thing, Vancouver, anywhere you went, you would see that.

And I think that history, if you understand it, but that's what makes the Leafs so much more special than, say, other teams. Because they just had the demographic and they had the country basically, it was like the Raptors winning the NBA title. You know, everybody in Canada's cheering from because they were it. They were the only team. If Vancouver is still a team, would have probably been a split audience. But, you know, that's, that was the one thing that Toronto had. And that's remain. And that is what's so unique about the team.

I mean, and everybody likes to look at them as the lovable losers like the Boston Midstocks and Chicago Cubs. But think about this. Chicago Cubs and Boston Mids stocks didn't win for 100 years. Both had the two most iconic buildings or parks and probably all of sports. Yet they both won finally. Now people look at them. They're no longer lovable losers and all that kind of stuff anymore.

And now they're just two good ball teams with great ballparks with history. Whereas Toronto, it means so much more. Those were about the wins and loss. Was Toronto, yeah, they haven't won. But it means so much more to the families. So I would suspect that if the Leafs, if they're ever win in my lifetime, hopefully, if they do win one, I think what it would do, it will bring a whole new generation of fans on side. And this thing will probably even get greater.

And sorry to say that, Tim, I'm for all fans on all Vancouver. fans and all the rest of you guys, but that's the think what will happen. First off, I'm an Oilers fan. And so, Born and Bread, Oilers fan. And the worst games ever to go to, ever are when the Maple Leafs come to town because they outnumber us in our home building, like, I don't know, 6040, 70, 30, something like that. Like, it, it sucks. And, you know, rough riders, I was thinking there's two fans in my brain. that when you travel the world and go to different sports venues, that you'll see all the time are Toronto Maple Leafs and Saskatchewan Rough Riders.

And they both have very similar things in common. What you're saying about back in the day when there wasn't all these teams, anybody in Western Canada listened to the English broadcast because that makes most sense. And Saskatchewan has the same thing in Saskatchewan, the Rough Riders, because there's no other protein. I mean, now there is lacrosse coming and they've been very good. but there's a reason why growing up as a kid in Saskatchewan you are a diehard, Rough Rider CFL fan because we literally had nothing else.

And so that spreads across. Everybody's proud to wear those jerseys. Where doesn't matter, you know, I married girl from Minneapolis. And we go to Vikings games and you'll be walking through the crowd and like clockwork, you'll see a Rough Rider jersey. And you're like, what the heck is that doing here? And then you stop and talk to them because it's easy and they're proud of it. and their good old Saskatchewan boys.

Now, for people who don't realize, Mike, we got to talk about this touring for a full year going to every single Maple Leaf game in the 2018-2019 season. Because not every home game, not every away game, every game. Yep. Where did the idea come from? Not even where did the idea come from.

When did you think the idea was plausible? So I got this, I got the idea from a guy. I'm a big Notre Dame football fan. So I used to go to games and I met a guy down there and I, I collect Notre Dame stuff too. So I got a few things off of him over the years. Anyway, this guy, when he graduated in 1977, he was not missed a game at Notre Dame on the road or at home. That's over 400 and change now, whatever it is. But, you know, and I thought, what a cool idea that is.

I should do something like that for the least when I retire one day. So I kicked it. So, but because what Deb and I were always thinking about. was because we started getting fairly well known in the charity world and in the hockey world and because of stuff we're doing and I'm getting notes every day of the week from people. I still do emails from people daily on their collections, trying to sell me things, offer me things, asking my opinion to just telling a story because I'm all about the stories. And I thought, how do we extend that?

Like we've got this and this leave network. It went beyond my reaches where I thought it would go because I get emails from everywhere. So I thought, what better way than to go out maybe and find out what it is about what? Why do people cheer for this team so passionately when this team hasn't won since 1967? And there's generations of kids that never even seen them win anything. So what better way than to go out and see right to their face? Like, why are there six guys from Winnipeg sitting in Minnesota on a Monday night in the middle of January and it's 30 below zero outside? The Leafs are six games out of a playoff spot.

These guys are all decked head to tone leaf stuff. They've just driven seven hours to go to the game. like four and a half hours, why are they doing that? You know, and I think that's the story. And so we thought about doing it for the centennial year for the 100th anniversary. I was still working, so I kind of got in the way. We actually talked to the least about it, and they loved the idea. And we were talking about me doing a caravan with my collection and going from city to city,

talking about the 100th anniversary. And that didn't really pan out. So in the winter of 2018, I was tired now. Deb and I were in Florida, walking on and say, you know what, I really want to do this, follow the lease. I think there's no better year than this year. And I was expecting a little pushback.

She, ah, wait a year. Let's plan it. And she said, no, I agree. We walked back to the condo, started planning,

like thinking about who I could stay with in different cities and stuff like that. The schedule came out June 24th. And within two weeks, it was all planning the whole thing. Every trick was booked, hotel room, everything was all booked.

And then they signed John DeVarris within that about a week, week before we finished it, but, and then it just went bananas after that. Okay, I got a couple questions now. A, what did you do for a daytime job? What were you doing before this? 40 years. So I played hockey for a few years and stuff like that, and I was in my 20s,

and I started a brokered business back then in summer working, and I stayed in the business for 40 years. Where did you play hockey? I played in Europe. played in Europe, but played here in Toronto, played in Sweden. Playing in Sweden. I played in Finland for a little bit.

Way back. I played a long time about it, Sean, way before you. Back in the 70s. So I'm an old man. And so when I came back, yes, and I worked, it's funny because I was trying to go to play,

I was in the Division 2, and I tried to move up with Division 1, they wouldn't really, you know, your card you had? They wouldn't release me with my card. So I had to come back to Toronto. Because you've got to sit out here. The cards only cost like 100 bucks.

but they held that card and they can transfer it. And they wanted to charge the team for the card, which is what they do. And I was going to cut them out of my salary though. So I said, oh, I'll come back home. So I came home and played for the real you terriers for a year, but I never ended up going back because I kind of got this job. And I stayed in the business. I think I made the right decision.

And so I stayed. And, you know, it's really funny. So, you know, we've always had the opportunity to go to games. I've had season tickets for years and stuff like that. And I worked on a very hockey-oriented firm, so really sports. But, you know, this was just, I wanted to do something special. And I thought, you know, how to be extended. So we thought, we'll go out there.

I'll go to every city. I'll talk to fans. I want to get their stories. Tell me why they're Maple Leaf fans, why they cheer for this team. I was going to document it all, record it. I didn't even know, I didn't even know how to use a camera. And I'm going to be interviewing newspaper and I'm going to be on my own. So what we did was I would be on the road.

documented this. I then spoke to Toronto Sun got involved. They let me, they wanted me to do a story weekly. I worked with Lance Hornby, who's a well-known journalist and one of the best in the country. He would, you know, fix it for me and we put a weekly column in the sun about my travels. And so what I did, I would travel around. I would take pictures, do interviews. They have got me eight lessons at Black's camera. No, what's it called? Oh God, the name of Henry's. Henry's in Toronto. I didn't even know how to turn the camera on. I remember the first day. The guy's, she buys me this camera, like an idiot proof of him. You just take pictures and you can do videos. And the guy says, okay, everybody, you're used to your 35 millimeter, blah, blah, blah, and all this kind of stuff, right, film? And so there's like 10 people in his class. And they all go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy at the back ear, Mike, Mike, you didn't.

I don't know, what is that? Is that, that's the film, right? Oh, God. And then he said, okay, everybody turned your camera on. Mike, you have another problem. How do I do that? So that's why I started in the camera. Okay, shut so they all thought I was a moron, which I was.

And then all of a sudden, they realized, they found out what I was doing. Because they're kind of like, okay, what's this stiff doing in this class? Like, why are you here? And finally, because I thought, I'm sorry, I'm holding you guys up. And then I told them and all of a sudden, they all helped me. So I learned how to take pictures. So I would take the pictures, do the interviews, send them back to Debbie. And then she would, we had somebody who was working with us, a friend of ours who does

marketing. So they would do the social media stuff. And we'd pick a meeting spot every game. I get to ACC at the time, Scotia Bank, it became, we third floor, third level in the draft deck, the most in draft deck. We'd meet there every second intermission. The first intermission, I'd go on the NHL alumni back, the leaf box, and go see players and talk to those guys and get their stories. Then I would meet people in the second period. And on the road, I'd pick a spot to get that section, blah, blah, blah, second intermission. Right here, I'll meet them here. and we pick a good spot there was room. So the crowd started getting bigger and bigger as the season went on and people were coming by

and I'd try to interview them and get pictures and, you know, it got a little hectic at times. And then we'd just send them all back. And then I'd go back to the seats when the game would start and I'd be sending all the stuff back to her. And then she was answering Instagram and doing this. It was a whole process. So it was a job. And I never drank at any of the games. I got offered 10 beers, I'd probably a game.

But, you know, I didn't want to be talking to fans or if a confrontation happened with the drunk or something. I didn't want booze in my breath. We're talking to a young family or something like that. And besides, if I got a glass in my hand and somebody comes along, I got to take a picture of a crazy guy. I don't want to, I got nowhere to do anything. So I couldn't eat either. So a lot of times, it wasn't glamorous. I'd be back at the hotel with a subway sandwich and a chalk of milk or a water and eating that and typing away all my notes at 11, 30, 12 o'clock at night and getting up at 4 in the morning and go catch a flight to the next place. That was my life. I loved every minute of it.

Loved every minute of it? Every minute of it. Wouldn't trade it for anything in a row. The biggest thing I hope people can take away from this and everybody read my book is the fact that you can do it too. I want other people to do the same thing because I ran into so many families, guys, you know, groups that were doing similar type things. They would pick one destination every year and go to a leaf game, but tie it around a football game and a baseball game or something. Or they would go to the three California. games and the Leafs played out there or the three Western games in the Leafs played out there

or do a couple of the New York type games that they played there you'd run into this everywhere you know fathers and sons doing this and it was just awesome seeing this type of stuff and they're all out there and they're all out there doing this and I encourage her I met a girl in Winnipeg that she's just going to do slowly do every rink that the Leafs play in and see them play over the next five or six years all kinds of people doing things like this you know it's fine I get all these young goes, well, man, you're some rich guy doing this. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How old are you?

I'm 24. Okay. Well, I'm 64 at the time. I got you by 40 years. Why don't you save $100 a week? That means have two less drinks. Okay, when you're drinking every night with your buddies, two less drinks, maybe, okay? Or drink something stronger.

And put a hundred bucks away a month, okay? For the next 40 years, guess what? You can do what I did in my retirement after 40 years working. right man, I never thought of that. Great idea. You know, so I mean, that's, it can be done. You know, I slept on people's couches with stupid friends of ours. You know, I took trains, planes.

That's probably, I could be wrong, but that's probably where a lot of the fun came was from rolling into somebody's place, sleeping on the couch, and having a beer with them instead of being alone in a hotel. Yeah, I bet that's, and they were all friends of mine. Like, you know, everybody, like, you know, I'd call these guys and they, and by the end, if they're all volunteering to come and pick up, They'd pick me up, take me around. But what I'd also do is I would go,

and every sit I went in, I'd go and try and find somewhere, some historical site sports-wise to relate to Toronto. Like in Pittsburgh, I heard Mick Kern on the NHTS network talking to, by the way, that bugger, I sent him a no, he didn't send me nope. He went to where Mazurovsky was the 60th anniversary of the home run that won the World Series for Pittsburgh in 1960. Well, I went and looked at that spot.

The wall is still there, part of the wall is still there. You know, the spot where he hit the home run, hit his mark and home plate is across the street in the building in the floor. So I went, took pictures of all that and sent those stories back. You know, Hunting, like Fenway Park is not the first place the Boston Red Sox won the World Series is Huntington Avenue grounds. And it's inside the university now. And it's all marked. So I went in there and found that and learned a little bit of the history of that. I didn't see it. Matthews Arena was Boston Arena, which were the Bruins play a little bit and the Celtics play a little bit there. It's called Matthews Arena, of course,

with the Boston Matthews saying, but the, but it's one of the oldest rinks. It's the oldest rink in existence. There was owned by an NHL team, original home to original team that's still used today. Wow. And that's to end up to choose by the university. And, you know, in, in Columbus, Taft Coliseum, 1918 that was built, one of the oldest ranks in existence. This has the high ceiling that ever seen in my life, Sean. It's got to be 100 feet high and it holds 6,000 people in the Columbus Chill played there. And this is the success they had at that rink that led to the Columbus Blue Jackets coming into existence.

So I would do this in every city I went to, you know, just from going to see the fabulous forum, which I'd been there before. And I remember going there during the crazy days with McNaul taking the team and all the movie stars. I remember I got, because we were friends with John Tebelli through a buddy of mine, and we got into the form lounge, like underneath where the restaurant was. The forum covers the hottest spot in the city at the time. And every celebrity in the world was there in L.A.

and the bar was loaded with like I'm looking over there is Jason Bateman and Greg Norman and all these guys all in the bar and I'm going what are he doing in here like and so I went back and looked at that now it's still used for concerts and the new football stadium which is built across the street in the Staples Center Christ so I would go and look at all stuff like that in every city so I made it you know sort of like a a traveling journey also like for you know people to look at and say there's more than just going to hockey games too even though that's the best part and then looking at all the rings. What was, well, wait, you say anyone can do it. How much it cost you to pull that off? Well, by the time I was probably done, we haven't done the exact number,

but we did do roughly probably around 40,000 by the time it was all done. So a good chunk, a good chunk of change then. Yeah, but you know what? If you, if you, okay, so if you go to, if you went to a place like Hawaii or you went to LA for two weeks or something like that, and you weren't doing everything discounted. Think about what it cost you. You know, you're looking at 10, 15, like these trips aren't cheap anymore to go anywhere. But don't forget, I've booked these six, seven months in advance.

We use points. We used the cheapest fares. If I had to go two spots, I did, I sat in the cheapest seats. I sat in second last row of every building, right at the top. And that's another cool moment. I remember I walked out, and every time I walk out,

I would get down the steps and I'd do this to make sure my, my phone was right there in my top of my coat where I had a pocket there no sorry backpot and I do this to make sure my glasses are there my phone in back pocket I didn't do it in Columbus and I get to the bottom and I'm walking I oh no glasses no foam so I go back right up to the top foam was under the seat and I had everything on it I get back down no glasses when I bend over they felt oh god I never told you I was smart by the way anybody watching this never But I come out a back door and I'm walking up nationwide boulevard around the side of the rink. And all of a sudden, it was a cold night and it was in December. And I'm talking to

Deb on the phone about the next stage trip from Morgoma just bought the game and she watches all the game. All of a sudden I heard a trumpet player. And this guy's playing O Canada. You know those cold nights. You're from out west. Those crisp, cool nights when you can hear every sound. It's just so perfect. And I mean, I don't want to make this emotional and get everybody crying, you know, because that's not the idea. But the, all of a sudden I stop at Deb, I got to go look at at this. Hang on a second. So I go over to the front of the rink and nearest this guy playing the trumpet, playing on Canada, and around it, all Canadian fans stand in that site singing old Canada. There isn't a cooler moment in the world than that. Outside of a Minnesota, when the Leaves

played that outdoor game at the rink right across from the XL Center, the little outdoor rink. They played the, the Jeep Gardner's dad started us a couple years ago and they played for the Gardner classic. They called me. They played three. on three in this little outdoor. So I walked over to see it. And I'd done an event with Connor Brown two nights before. And I forgot about it. And he said, we got the skate that come to that.

So I went, it was outside. And there was a couple people standing around watching these guys. But there, you could come around a corner and you heard that sound of skates cutting into the ice outside. You know that echoing sound. Oh, beautiful sound. Maybe one of the best sounds in the world. It's absolutely awesome.

And then if we could hear the voice is carrying and the guys chirping each other. and then all of a sudden, pucks bounced their banging off the boards, and he just think, I come around and you see the players in their breath that you can see in the air. And I'm telling you, I had a tear in my eye.

I'm not ashamed to say it. It was so Canadian, it should have been wrapped in a strip of bacon and a big Canadian flag around it. And then the best part of the story is after the players leaving the rink. There's a little kiosk. There's no dressing room or anything.

You put your skates on and go on the rink. There's a little kiosk selling hot dogs, and there's the players with drinks in their hands. hot dogs, skates over their shoulders, carrying their sticks, and full equipment, go back to the bus, eating hot dogs like they were six years old again. It was the most awesome experience. So those are the type of things that you just, the normal fan or people don't get to see. And these are the type of things that come along with things like this.

Just the expect the unexpected. And that is what I went, I wide open eyes. And I'm telling you, I got tons of stories like that. It was so cool. And the way I looked out with the money, we just tried to keep everything on the cheap. You know, as I said, I'm meeting Subway sandwiches. You know, on Thanksgiving Day, I didn't think about my plan, my traveling well that day. I arrived in Columbus, and there was no, that was in November.

They played there twice. I arrived there, not a store, nothing open, nothing. There was a CVS open, so I had to go to CVS. I walk up there and I'm coming back with chips, milk, and I'm trying to buy some cereal, and that's my night out. And Deb was coming the next morning. I said, geez, I really, she showed up later that night. Sorry.

I said, really, I'll show a guy, good girl, good time. No drinks, nothing. And I guess I'm meeting all these, that was my dinner that night. And for both of us, next day we had a good breakfast on week. We went out and had fun. But it was, you know, these are the type of things you should do. And if you do it right, when you think about it, you got lots of friends. Tell all the guys now, just get friendly with all your buddies in all the NHL cities.

And to tell them you'll be coming out to visit them. Well, you've been then to all the stadiums. Yeah. You got to, if you're, well, you're not going to go against the Leafs. So Leif's got the best fans in the world. In the NHL, though, in all the other buildings you visited, first off, who's got the second best fans that you saw? Well, there's lots.

See, where you get a surprise is, and I'm not skating around in this question, Sean, but you're going to New Jersey. rink is you know half full maybe three quarters full but the fans that are there are into it like they're and they know their stuff and they're screaming they're yelling they're cheering they know the players it's really funny because one guy there's a minute left in the period and this guy gets up he's got the hat the sweater big guy and he's got the beer in his hand he goes not stick it around here it's never any guy don't like this anytime i hear something all bad always happens at the last minute and he leaves the leaves the leaves came down bang bang bang and scored a goal to put them up

four one i think it was so i go out in the hall news this guy standing he's just shaking his head i tell you guys like this and he's like i walked up to him and i said to him look not to rub this in but come for i come from i know exactly your pain and he said i can't even go out because i know exactly what you're going through and you know normally i could punch you in the head for walking up but this guy looked at me he gives me he puts his arm around and hugs me and he calls thanks brother and he at that. So, you know, you get that and, you know, guys, but then you go into places like Montreal where it's pretty crazy and the atmosphere is so electric. I found that because there's so many leaf fans at a lot of these places, it's kind of a mixed crowd. Like all the Western

Canadian cities, it's tough because when Toronto's in, it's a different, it's a special night. Well, I've already said when the Leafs come to town, you're right. You might as well go to those when the Leafs aren't playing because the Leafs pack in on probably every single building. Better question then, Mike, is what building did you go to where there was hardly any Leafs fans at? Well, you just walked right into my answer. My answer is going to be now. The one one which wasn't fair was the night that Tavares went back to Long Island. That was disgusting.

And that's Long Island. And that's the, that's a NASA Coliseum, a little tiny little rink, low ceiling. You get 13,000 people in there and it's loud. it started in the parking lot because they now they and filled it off in carolina tailgate and the tailgating went on there so i ride droves like a football night and the tailgating was starting smoke and everything but these like these guys were just they knew it was going to be rough for taveris going back so i go i walk up and the merriot is there and it was the only thing in the area there's nothing around and this makes ottawa canada look like midtown manhattan

okay so the fans got to walk across the parking lot from the main marry it. And there's all these Yahoo's, there's one couple, they're older couple. They got Tavares sweaters on there walking across, holding hands. These guys, like every obscenity you can think they were throwing at them. They can loud and screaming, every name he can think of. So there's guy beside me, and this guy just rips into them. And I looked at the guy. We catch eyes. I look, and I go, like, really, then? Like, okay, the Yahoo's guy's yelling, okay, but then, and he goes, whatever. So I go inside. And every leaf game. probably year at least like places like Columbus 15 rows deep from the red line right around the

end to the other side the horseshoe leaf fans in a pregame warmup buffalo automatic Montreal you would see that but all the obvious places Detroit but when you see that in Columbus you go to LA and you see that you start thinking holy jeez but then I go to long island not one they started screaming calling him every name in the book it started in the warm up and it didn't stop. They were winning. They were winning at the end of the game. They smoked the Leafs that night.

They're still chanting and jeering him at the end of the game. I never stopped. The second game, they tried to do it again, but he scored the winner, so I kind of shut them up. So that was the only game where I saw no Leaf Sweeters at all. And I would say Boston hated that. I spent there six times.

I guess as I told people, I know probably take this as a badge of honor because I would say every male Bruins fan that came to the first. front gate with a brun sweater on in a hat. If it didn't blow over the legal limit three times, they weren't allowed in the building. Okay. So that's the way I sort of sum that one out. And that they are so loud there. And like it's the first time there is a good group of leave fans. The second time, regular season game, a little less. And as the season progressed,

less and less and less to the end. So Boston's pretty staunch on their guys. And most of the most of the original six teams are like that. Chicago, because it was different there, because with Stan McKee, they were honoring him that night, so it was mostly all hawks. That was a little bit light. But,

you know, I didn't really find it because, again, the thing that people don't realize is that, you know, Toronto fans here, it's funny,

the Leafs lose a game, and I'm walking to someone is to love listen to the comments. Oh, they're no good. They're no good. Matthews is not good. Martin's, they're over,

they lose by goal. And this goes on every game. Whereas out west, if they lost, and actually they had a pretty good, they've had a stinker against Vancouver. But if they have a bad game, you know what? The fans don't even care about the score. They're just there because here's their team coming in. Again, the connection they have at that hockey club, they get to see them live once. That's all that matters to them.

There's a bar in Vancouver called the Regal Beagle, and it's a Maple Leaf Bar. A guy from Oakville moved out there would be 11 years now. He had nowhere to watch this Maple Leaf Fly because nobody's carrying the game. So then he sat light and all that. He started watching the game when Edgall Network came. He was the manager of this bar. He asked the owner if he could make it a bit of a leaf hangout. Guy said, fine, as long as you don't go too crazy.

So they decorate it up a little bit. They got about a dozen people. Now they have hundreds. Many started nine years ago, 11 years ago. They had a dozen people. Now they have hundreds and it's lined up to get in for playoff games when they make the playoffs. And they all meet there on game day when Leaks coming to town. They have some juice all afternoon.

Then they go en masse to the game that night. And if the Leafs win, they head back. So the Leafs, and I went there and visited the night before I met a bunch of them. And of course, the Leafs lost to Vancouver, so there was nobody going back after. So, I mean, there's all those type of things that happen in every city that take away from it. There's George County expat group in Anaheim where there's 2,500 people that all ex-Canadians. Or Canadians as their expats. They all go to all the Canadian games, but the Leaf one is the biggest one.

In LA, they had like 8,000. And in San Jose, there was 2,500, 3,000 of them. They all go en masse. So it's hard to pin the fans, you know. But New York was the worst Boston, I would say. But New York was an anomaly because of the one time. So Boston, I would say, Montreal, all the good teams, you can tell. Like the good teams now, at least had a pretty good road record that year.

So, you know, the home teams were losing a little bit. So the crowd was taken out of the game sometimes. So that kind of helped. The best rink, by the way, three best rinks. A little Caesars from Detroit. Rogers Place in Evanton, phenomenal. And my third one in Las Vegas was T-Mobile. So what was it about the three rinks that stood out to you as a fan experience?

Wow, because they're all brand new first off. Now, as a fan experience, the thing about me, though, is I get asked this all the time. Every time I go through the gate and I hear that buzzer go ask, number one, that was me getting in. I know I'm officially in the game. So that took a burden off of pressure. Every time I step through that turnstall and I go out and I always check the pregame warmup to have a quick look to see what the Leafs are kind of doing and how they look. I get excited right away.

Every rink is good. I don't care. And Long Island, even though it's probably the worst rank in the league, I loved it because with low ceiling, it was loud. And I mean, do you know who fireman Ed is? You know the guy from the Jets? The jet, he's the guy who's famous. The old fireman, he would get up and get the chance of the fans going. and he'd go, J-E-T-S, and they'd go, Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets.

Well, they did that for the Islanders, only with the goal. They would go, the islanders, they'd go, yes, yes, yes, yes. And the whole crowd would chant it, and it was take off on this guy. And it was so loud. And they would do four chants against the Leafs. And then all of a sudden, somebody would, the chant would come out, and the Rangers suck. Every fourth or fifth chant would be going.

I mean, it was an awesome atmosphere. And even though it was bad, the diverse one, the second time was a little more balanced. It was, you had to sit and laugh in Nashville. Nashville would probably be right up there too because they've got chance for everything, for the power of play, for the penalty keel. They're introducing the players.

They, you know, starting a left wing from the front of Maple Leafs, Mike Wilson, boo, you suck! And then all of a sudden, playing center, Austin Matthews, You suck too. And it would just be everybody. Is that the fan base then or is that the ownership of the team

kind of marketing that help builds and instills that? Because those buildings are fun to go to. Like when you walk into some of them, you're like, wow. Now this is something spectacular. Vegas always sticks out because in recent memory,

they have like this pregame routine that you're like, it's over the top. It's almost too much. but it's so Vegas and it's awesome. Yeah, that's right. I mean, and Nashville is the same. I think it's a combination of both, Sean. I think the fans and the management kind of encourage it.

It's in Vegas, yeah, you've got a band playing up in the corner. You've got the dancing girls with all the thing on the skates. And I mean, even the 50-50, the 50-50 draws 51-49 in their favors because the house never loses in Vegas. You get all these type of things and all this stuff. going on throughout the leagues. At Edmonton, it's just a spectacular sight lines is what I liked about it. And just the entrance to the building, they have that Hall of Fame kind of wing on the

side. Well, when I saw your room, I went, geez, that's like straight out of what they did in Edmonton. I mean, except yours is Leafs and yours has got what looks to be about a thousand more pieces than what they got in that room. It was pretty, I mean, that was awesome. And Little Caesars, they tried to make it, would use the same sort of brickwork. in the same kind of hue.

There's a word I don't use too often, I guess, kind of the color summit to the Olympia, from the old original range, not the original sign in the inside. It's spectacular. But, you know, there's so many fun ranks. Nashville is the best place in the whole stop, the whole circuit. And I tell you, you're a Westerner,

so you're probably a country and Western guy, but you know what? I'm not a country and Western guy. I had the time I liked it. It was the best place by far, most fun. everything. You got one end, you got the Tennessee Titan Stadium at this end, nationwide arena in between is all the bars and all the, you know, the honky tonk places and all that. It's nuts. It's just a party city. Every fan should go there once and watch a game. You just go to the, you party all day, going to the rink,

come out, take 10 steps, and you're back in and then again. It's nothing like it. And Vegas is crazy, but Vegas is too corporate now and too expensive. It's crazy. So it has been 53 years now since the least one to come. Seven, yeah. So are they going to win in your time? I hope so. I hope so.

They've got the, I mean, they definitely have the ability. They got the talent. A lot of things got to go right, as you know, to win any kind of championship. I don't care in what sport it is. Everything has to go right. Everything. And is it going to happen? I like some of the moves they've made this year so far in the off season.

It was the free agency and the draft. I was just sitting the guy today. What site was he from? Scout. And they pick the kid. Actually, the guys, I was listening to Spit and Chicklets and the guys were talking to him. And he said that they asked, who's the pick in the first round that's going to be a surprise pick? Like they went, it should have been higher.

It was the Russian kid. The Leafs kid, the Leafs pick. They went, oh, no, the Leaf fans are going to go nuts, everything goes, nope, he's the pick. Anyway, anyway, but who the hell knows? I mean, you don't, you know, I mean, it's a prospect. He has no idea what's going to happen, but do I think they're going to win one? Yes, I do. I have confidence in management, and I think they've, you know, they're doing the right things,

but at some point the players have to be accountable and they've got to step up. I mean, it's no different than what's going on in Edmonton with the ability they have there in the town. It's only one winner every year. A lot of teams want to win, right? There's going to be 31 teams, 32 soon chasing that, and only one wins. Isn't that the truth? Well, you've had the room, had the trip now.

You have two books out, one just very recently. Yes. What are you going to do now? What's the next thing you're going to knock off the bucket list? That's a very good question, Sean. very good question. Well, I hope the milk does book for a little while, hopefully, and talk to get some speaking engagements to go and talk about it. I have a podcast with Ricky Vibe called, that's his nickname Squid, Squid and the Ultimate Lease Van that's on the hockey news site. We've got

some interesting guests coming up. So that takes a lot of time. I'm going to be working. I hopefully when we can get back doing again, hopefully do some speaking, work on the book. There's talk about us doing a second book on, because what we did was the original book I did was on the part of the collection. And the plan was to do a second volume of that on, like we did 50 or 60 pieces of the collection, the first book. And the second one, we're talking about maybe doing it again. So that would be another project possibly down the road.

But right now I'm just enjoying, I'm supposed to be tired. But I'm working, I'm working hard on that. So I got the book, love talking about the book, talk about the leaves, the, you know, a lot of kind of stuff. So just hopefully I can keep doing that. Before we get to the final segment, which is the crude master final five, can you toss out if you're on social media, that kind of thing. I'm sure if people want to track you down, they can find you.

Ultimatelysfan.com. You, oh, geez, squid in the ULF, I believe is our Twitter handle. Ultimately, Finn is my Instagram, and at ULeafs fan is my Twitter handle. Okay, cool. Reach out and, yeah, send us. and out. And actually, if you got any questions for the podcast, ask me. Okay. Well, I'll ask our guests.

Okay. Well, I got five questions for you before I'll let you go. Go as long or short as you want. Okay. I don't know if I asked this at the start, but now I've been thinking about it as I'm going, oh crap, I forgot to ask this. But along the way, and I'm sure you got to ask this a ton. But the whole point of going on this road trip, the 89 game seeing every Leafs game, was to interact with the fans and hear the stories. what was one of the most memorable stories you had from the trip? Oh, there's many, many dozens.

People, the thing about it is the Leaf Nation is they're very proud and they're very, they're very forthcoming in expressing the love they have for this hockey club and what it means to them. And again, as I say, I want to stress the point. It's not about the wins and loss. It's about what it means, this hockey club means to them as a family. There's a guy I met opening night. This guy was 41 years old. It never been able to afford to go to a Maple Leaf game ever before.

He grew up watching games with his father and sometimes his grandma, mostly his father. And what happened is they'd watch every game together. And if they missed the game, they'd phone each other next morning. The opening line would be, what was the score? So here's this guy going to his first game with his best friend ever, opening night, 2018. And he said his father's dying words to him were, what was the score? So here's this big guy, bear in his hand, tears. you're streaming down his face and he's telling me this story. And so I looked at Devon to my home

that night and DeVarre scored a goal that night. And Matthews had two and scored the win in overtime. And I said, okay, how do we top this? Like 81 games to go at the time. And I went to, I was in Calgary and Cowboys and a guy came up and introduced himself to me. This guy was 61 years a while. He'd be 63 now. At the time he was 61. For 55 years, he'd cheered for Leafs. Never ever seen him play live. Never. Never seen him play live. afford it, time he didn't work out, all those types of things, but watched them on TV religiously. That day, his father, brother, flew in from Toronto with surprise tickets for him, his wife, and this guy, his brother and his wife. So here's this guy, husky-looking guy,

rugged-looking guy, telling me this story, tears streaming down his face to see his team play for the first time. I look over in there's his wife crying, his sister-in-law crying, and his brother sitting like this, nodding, and just emotional. You go from that to Pittsburgh. I go in and a buddy of mine has hockey team. And I get invited into suites all the time to come and see kids and talk to hockey teams and stuff like that. So he invited me in to see his team. They were down for hockey.

Pittsburgh always does that. They always want the Leafs to show up. They always make sure there's like four or five buses of teams at the front of every, it's smart marking on their part to have tournaments weekends that the teams are in. They all want to go see the pens. But this was a big night with Toronto. So I went into a couple of suites. So I went into a couple of suites.

So I go into see my buddy. And I see some guy standing there with the cast down. He goes, well, this guy wants to meet you because we're telling him about you. Brings over. And this guy's name is Dan Mead. He was a Pittsburgh policeman. He was the guy. I know if people remember back in 2018 early in the season, the synagogue shooting and massacre in Pittsburgh where all the people were killed.

This idiot went in and shot everybody. This was the officer, first responder that apprehended the guy and got shot in the line of duty. He had this big, huge cast. There's a picture in the book of him. big cast and he was in the box beside the kids and the kids had brought a sign from Toronto saying Toronto strong Pittsburgh strong and he and he had dropped the opening puck and so they were showing the sign and he gave him the thumbs up and then he came over into the box and I met him and got a pitcher to take him with them you know buddy mine jim

Thompson owns the o're tigers he brought the humble Broncos the remaining survivors from the horrific crash into Toronto last year to see a game and he finally got them a suite so he said, come in and say hi to the kids. So Chris Joseph, who played Nashville in Nashville league for 15 years, his loss of son in the crash. I'm sure you're very well aware. And anyway, I went in and that was so surreal, Sean. I went in. I'm trying to keep a straight face. I'm looking at the pain in every person's face. There's a kid in a wheelchair. One kid can't really speak. It's just, it's heartbreaking to watch this. And they're trying to be upbeat. They're all upbeat. They had smiles in their faces. I tried to joke with

them a little bit, told them a few little stories. And I'm telling you, and you just look at the pain. And when I left that room, and I was going back to where I was sitting, I had to stop and get my composure because, you know, you start thinking, I'm going back to, that's a horrific thing I just witnessed. But my life goes on. They got to carry that pain for the rest of their lives, all of them. Every time they look at each other, they think of this,

and they see a hockey game or something, that's got to register with them. I mean, Chris Joseph is just an absolute champion, showing me around the box and introduce me to the kids and the families and stuff like that. So that was really emotional. And so that was probably, that was probably the one. And I had, you know, just people relaying their stories, you know, one guy, family in Edmonton, in Evanton, Medoff. Madoff, Mattif, they, their family, the father won the Maple Leaf Crest on his tombstone. And his favorite player is Ty Dombey said, number 28 on it, too, on his tombstone.

You know, I heard that a few times. And, you know, people's weddings were canceled because at least were in the playoffs, so they would postpone it for another. day. I met a guy in Minnesota that his buddies gave him for his birthday or when he's getting married, Leaf sweater, his age on the back, the date of his wedding on each arm. He buys his sweater the identical sweater, he buys his wife the identical sweater for her. They have not missed a leaf game in Minnesota for 25 years. That night they had their grandson who was attending his first game and he had a Marner sweater around who was his favorite player coming to his first game, drove from Thunder Bay. So they drive from Thunder Bay, which is seven and a half hours. So the same night

I meet these guys, a bunch of Yahoo standing up at the corner of them, they look like they've had a bunch of beers. They've got leaf stuff on. It's like, I go over to see the boys. And I always go over and talk to these guys. So they didn't really know who I was. Not that I suspect everybody know, you know, down east, they know, they know this idiot following the leaves around. They all know that who's this leaf gun. I had a crest on with ultimately Phanamoa hat so people can identify me and you were looking for me. And so I got up to these guys and they're kind of looking at me little quiz. And then they go, oh, I heard about you. Yeah, you're the guy. You're the guy. And they're off from Thunder Bay. And so I said to the one guy, who's the leader? And they point this one guy.

And these guys are all in their 50s. And he said, well, I want to ask a couple questions. Well, let me ask you. You're going to be taking pictures and write my name down. I go, well, of course, I'm going to make you a star. You're going to be a star. And he goes, no, no, no, no, no, no me, and he walks away. So that was all that about it. And so I talked to the other guys. And so at the end of it, I said, I got to talk to your buddy here. What did he, what did I do to him? And I said, and he looked at me and I go, what did you do, violate your parole or something, come across the border?

What are you worried? I'm not a cop. And he went, well, not really. But, you know, if my wife finds out I'm here, I might as well be in jail. She's going to kill me. So then I go, what are you talking about? What happened? He goes, well, I thought you were reporting going to put my name a picture in the paper.

And he said, this morning, I didn't want to tell her, because she would say, no, I snuck out of the house my sweater under his coat and I jumped in his buddy's car and he drove to seven hours to Minnesota to the game. I said, well, where are you going to tell you the bin for the last 15 hours and you go home or whatever it is, 20 hours? He goes, oh, I worry about that when I get there. The 50-year-old man. So then I started howl it and he comes over and hugs me then and he goes, so I go to go leash. So I mean, he's at a type of, you know, that's the passion, you know, and by the way, and I met some guy that night and I met all kinds of drunks and the crazy guys and met some guys that night they said and by the way Mike let me tell you

something thunder bay not there's just not 50 people here there's a couple of hundred we come in droves we look forward to this and guys he was six or seven deep and drinks but he said we make this a circling on the calendar for us every every game we're here and they're proud of it and we go to winnipeg too and that's seven hours you know six and a half hours to thunder but not seven aps and seven to winnipeg and they make the trip So you hear that all the time. And every little city, there's these little things going on. You know, L.A., one guy, his firm, he had to get a box.

He makes sure he gets the box relief game every year. And he gets it as soon as Toronto comes, books it. And he gets it and brings his buddies and makes it a big night. You know, then they're really all their stories. You know, where they were when they watched them win a playoff series. They watch a special game or it's just, you know, tailgate. One guy moved to Carolina. He was, before he went to Carolina, he went to a playoff game.

and the Leafs played them way back, another disappointing time. And when he came into the parking lot, the guard said to him, you go to the right up there and go right, you'll be happier over there. He went around the cornet and was just kind of like a sea of blue and white people all tailgating on an afternoon for an afternoon game of Carolina. He said it was the most awesome sight he'd ever seen. He lives there full time now, not because of that, but he ended up going and he lives down there there. And he goes to the games and they're tailgating all the time.

And I went around different tailgate spots and saw these people. So it's just stories like that that, you know, that just these people were sharing these thoughts and these feelings and these special moments. And it was just phenomenal. And I got that every city. Yeah, you're going to get drunks and idiots. But, you know, it's a lot. And that's just all part of it. That's part of the fun part of it.

You know, you can have fun with those guys too. Those are cool stories. It's, it brings a smile to a guy's face hearing those stories. It doesn't matter what fan or what sport you support. Just hearing that, it's something that translates to all the different teams. It truthfully does. No, and it doesn't matter who you cheer for. This is not about the Maple Leafs.

And I said, I don't want this to come across as a gushy Maple Leaf story. What I want this is this is a sports story. This is somebody that I don't care if you follow basketball, baseball, football, you can relate to this. It's the same way. And in your own special way, you would find the same type of fans, maybe not the same motive or maybe the same understanding what they're what they're cheering for or why they're cheering for the team but same passion yeah wouldn't be different it's no different than generation of generation the families going to certain schools and and you know the the father proud because the

son went to michigan and so did his grandfather and so did he and so did you know so on and down the line and they have this string of family members there and that and they go to every game together and they wear their michigan blue and all that stuff and i don't want to pick michigan because i can't stand him because they're arched rival Notre Dame. But that's the whole, but that's the whole premise, you know, or Yankee games. Or pick anybody, you know, and, you know, the Yankee people, you know, people, you know, myself, I know the Cleveland Browns. I mean, I don't know why I don't, because they were the only game used to be on TV when

I was a kid because that was the game that came in. But my dad used to watch them. And that's Notre Dame probably how we used to. I mean, we're a good Irish Catholic family, I guess you could say. But the, you know, the Notre Dame games run Saturday afternoons. Got to watch them. So the love affair begins. The Yankee games were on every, the only game on at one time,

and Cleveland Brown football NFL games were on. So those were what we got in the Toronto area at one time. So you can see how people all kind of go to those teams. And that's how it starts. If I'd grown up somewhere else, I'd have been a different fan, possibly. More than likely. So it's more about the sports part of the story.

That's what I want, hopefully everybody gets through this. And they can relate to themselves, and they can put themselves in my shoes only cheering for a different team. And I get it. I would totally get where they're coming from on it. Jay Beerschelle wrote a story, by the way. Do you know Jay is? He wrote, he wrote Goon and he said, wrote, yeah. See, he wrote the book about the Habs growing up a Hadsplan. And his book's a little sad, a bit of a sad story because his father,

he had some issues with his father and kind of a rough upbringing, but the one thing his father loved is Montreal Canadiens. So that became his team, and it's become his team. And it's a very funny book. It's worth reading. And Jay and I had a conversation. Jay, he doesn't go anywhere without watching Montreal King, but even he said to me, said the thing is,

if he'd grown up in Toronto, he would have been a Lee fan. He lives in Toronto now, but he's not a Lee fan. But he grew up in Montreal, and it was the Canadian. So we both had that same type of passion for the teams, and it became about it different ways, but it was the same end result, if you know where I'm going with that. And he's got that feeling today, you know, his buddies, you know, his buddies all come up, you know,

you order the food, you know, they got the joints ready and the beer ready to party and watch. You know, it's the same stories. And they do all this. And a couple of the guys don't even like hockey. They're just there for the party. They're just there for the socializing.

That's the thing. But he's there and he follows the team religiously. And they break his heart, but he loves him. So, you know, this is, that's a book worth reading,

by the way. So. If you could sit down with one guy like I'm doing, to pick his, who would you want to sit across from that you haven't? yet. As a player? Oh, boy, that's a good question. You know, could be living or dead? Sure. Con Smyth. Because I think Kahn Smyth, it was an absolute genius and he didn't get, he doesn't get the recognition he should for what he, I mean, he was a guy way back that

saved the Maple Leafs, kept them in Toronto. A lot of people would be booing that probably. but the he saved the team kept them in Toronto and just his initiative in the way he thought is the ingenuity came up with in foresight to have farm teams uh it's stockpiling players and just his whole approach to way the game should be played and selecting talent and I mean just love to pick his brain plus he was a war hero fought two wars and he um just just just just I'd just love to pick his brain and just see what made him tick because you know one thing One thing I enjoy doing is reading biographies of athletes mostly, because what you're looking for is what it is that makes them so much more special than us.

Why is that guy on a Friday night high school dancing all his buddies who's out chasing girls and drinking? He's at the schoolyard throwing a Indian rubber ball against the wall feeling a thousand throws because he's a second basement or he's a shortstop instead of outpartying with his buddy. Like what gives him that drive to continue to do that? I mean, it could do it Saturday morning, but he's going to do it Saturday morning and Friday night. You know, stuff like that. And what motivates these guys to think that way and think as they do?

You know, have you seen a common thread when you read those books? I try to, no, in me? No, and in the, you said you were looking for what drives them. Have you found? Yeah, yeah, because it's that the, that's a good question. Because the common theme I see from these guys is the fact that they're willing to do, once they get like once they're on that they it's almost like tunnel vision because they see the one thing in the finish line only is at the end of playing in the national hockey league or major league baseball of the NFL like their goal is when they get there then once they get there how do I stay here so they're always trying to keep themselves like one step ahead of the process because you know the first day well it's like a coach first day you get hired as a coach the one day you're closer to getting fired and the same as a player one day they're they're your contracts is the first day or one day closer to getting cut. So they're always trying to stay

that one level ahead. And what is it they do? How they train harder? Are they eat harder? We're like, you know, all these type of things. And they all kind of have that common threat. Yes, they do things a little differently. You mentioned in your collection, your former collection, you had the original Maple Leaf's door. What piece in that original collection was maybe your most obscure thing. Like this is a puck that was whatever or this was the original contract or this was, I don't know, what was the most obscure thing you ever picked up? Well, see, I see it's shots at that. I mean, I always look for the oddball type things like that, like the door. I knew when I got it. I knew this was going to be special. I didn't know it was going to be a special was.

I have the 1962 banner that hung in Maple Leaf Gardens and they thought the band had all been destroyed. And I got contacted by a guy one time. who said, you know, you call yourself the ultimate leaf fan, you know, I've got this and that, and I got that all the time. I said, no, I don't call myself that. I got called that by somebody else, and I just used the name. And then when he found out, you know, he read about me and knew about me. Anyway, long and short of it, his father was the upholster at the gardens for 42 years. And he came to work one day. And Harold Butter had taken all the banners, the Stanley Cup champion banners, out of the roof of the gardens because he didn't want to look at

all the winning teams and his teams weren't winning. So they were stuck in a shop in the gardens. And he came in one day to check on the workers, see what the guys were doing. They're painting and doing all that summer maintenance. And he went over and there's all the banners being used as paint tarps covering seats. And they're all ripped and torn and paint covered and they're ruined. And these are all these relics. You went back to shop and the 1962 banner was still there. So you put it away.

He met Harold and he said, Harold and all the banners got thrown out. One was saved here. Do you mind if I take it home get to my son? I don't care. Get out. I don't want that crap. Get it out of here. So he took it on, gave his son, his son saved it all these years,

then decided he wanted to do something with it. Thought about talking to the leaves, the Hockey Hall of Fame, he didn't want to put it in an auction. He contacted me. I have it. So to take the story one step further, you know, we had it at our place. And, you know, you got all the players coming over night. Johnny Bauer, before he passed, he came and visited the room,

having him hold that Stanley Cup that was his first win, 62, standing near the tears. Bring a lot of tears out of people sometimes. And the tears coming down his face with his wife, to be side of Nets and the two of them are standing or holding it. It meant so much to him. And there he is holding this banner. You'd never probably seen it since was hanging up there after they first won.

And what it meant to him. And all the other players I said to came home with George Armstrong and these guys coming. Look, their eyes were fixated on it. And they just, you could see that proud moment. So the point of the story I'd like to tell everybody is that, you know, Bill Baroque on 1951, scored the winning goal for the Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup and died tragically in the plane crash. the least didn't win again until

1962 and his body was discovered a couple months later. So if all the banners that got destroyed, why did the 62 banner be the only one that was survived? The Bill Broco ghost lives on. That's why I tell everybody. That is a great story. A great story.

So I've got Pucks. I had Pucks, trophies, contracts. I know I'm taking a lazy way out and a chicken way out. No, you just gave me that. You kidding me? The banner story was fantastic. You don't need to say anymore in that.

The only thing I'm saddened about is that I don't get to actually come to Toronto walk in your basement and see this. Well, actually, I still have the banner because the banner is sitting in my room in here. I have an office. I still have about 25% of the collection. We've moved into a condo. I've done a good portion of the condo my wing of the office. You must be married to a great woman because I can't imagine having any fan.

It's an office, so I turned a closet into a showcase and the, there was a whole... Can you twist the camera so we can see? Can you? Actually, you can't. There's the banner there. Holy man. If you're listening to us, get on YouTube and see, Wowser. And there it is there.

Well, here I can show you. I can do it. So here is a cool piece right here. There is the original blueprint for the gardens for the seats. The original blueprint? The original blueprint? Yep. From 1931.

and it's stamped on the back, July 31. How did you come across that? Somebody, and I've got another step they're under the carpet over here. Somebody, somebody family was probably related to one of the construction workers and probably got stuffed away somewhere and it just showed up.

There's a couple original seats from the gardens. Those are the ones from 1931, not the last ones. These are those original seats. Yeah, okay. Well, I got two more for you. Yep, sure. Who is the best player you've ever seen play live? Dave Keown.

Dave Kean. Yeah, Dave Kean. I was a little kid when I saw him play, but I remembered him. He stood out. Small guy, I'm not a big guy. I'm only 5'4 8. He was a small guy and just the way he'd play. But it's more not just he was small because I didn't even know what size was met in those days, you know, watch.

And it's just that he just was such a good skating. He just seemed to always have the puck. Okay, your final one for Leafs fans. Who is the best Leaf line of all time? Geez, that's a really good question. Boy, oh, boy. There's been some good ones, you know, the, you know, Keon. Oh, boy, that'd be really, that'd be really tough.

Probably the kid line, I would say. It'd be Conacher, Primo, and Jackson. We'd probably have to pick them because they played to get so long, and that's back in the 30s. And just dominated. And then a good, good line. in the modern era would be, you know, Sittler McDonald and Errol Thompson when you

play with them. That was a good line that played well together. But I'd say the kid line is probably the one. Well, I've really appreciated you hopping on with me today. This has been a lot of fun. You got some stories that are just like unbelievable, right? Like, unbelievable. Any

fan would love to have heard half of those firsthand. So really appreciate you hopping on Mike today and look forward to getting your books and reading them. I'm sure they'll be fantastic. A little look inside sports and the Leafs. That's great. Great, Sean. Hey folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show

and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next

time.