The Ben Mulroney Show - Prepping for Oct. 7 anniversary / Catching the Vladdy Grand Slam!

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Guest: Tony Chapman, Host of the award winning podcast Chatter that Matters, Founding Partner of Chatter AI GUEST: BRENDAN CRAIG/Fan who caught Vlad Grand Slam ball If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've been following the news, like really following it, you know how exhausting it can be. Politics, conflict, uncertainty. It's a lot to carry. And for many men, there's this expectation to stay calm, stay in control. and not talk about how it's affecting you. But the truth is, you're allowed to feel overwhelmed. You're allowed to say, I'm not okay right now. And trust me, I have been there.

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Don't worry about it. It's payday. Payday, huh? I bet you it went straight into your bank account and you didn't even check your pay stuff. My what? Your pay stuff. Back in my day, you had to wait for a physical check. Then you had to go to the bank.

Deposit it and wait for it to clear. Your pay really meant something. Payroll was incredibly complex. It's art and the science. It literally keeps the economy moving. Parole professionals do a lot for us. You know, it's about time we do something for them. How about we ask our leaders to name a day in their honor,

a national day to recognize payroll professionals? I got it. This is perfect. Why don't we explain to people just how important the roles are the payroll professionals play in our lives? We can even ask them to sign a petition. We can even ask them to sign a petition to recognize the third Tuesday in September as the National Day to recognize payroll professionals. We'll rally support and bring the payroll party to the next day

The payroll party to the nation. A national payroll party? Precisely. Sounds like a plan. You know, just one thing. What's that? I'm choosing the music. What?

And I'm sitting in the back seat. The whole way? The whole way. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. It is Monday, October 6th. Thank you so much for starting your week with us. Today is a doozy. Today is an absolute doozy of news,

and we're going to try to get to as much of it as possible, arming you with all the information you need to go out into the world and have half-decent conversations about how, honestly, some of this news is bananas. But let's start with a little bit of humor, shall we? And the new season of Saturday Night Live has kicked off. and you would think that that Donald Trump

and his team I mean they get irritated with SNL all the time but they are just serving up serving up content for these guys they almost make it too easy I'll remember last week Secretary of Defense

some call them the Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth gave a speech before an entire crowd of military men and women where he said no more fat generals No more fat generals And if you're fat

And you don't want to lose the weight Then do the honorable thing and resign That's that I mean I'm not even I'm not even paraphrasing He pretty much said exactly those words So of course Of course S&L was going to take that

And you know If Say what you will about Pete Hegseth He looks like He was cast for the role In a Hollywood movie He's got the chiseled jaw line And the hair

So of course he can get Colin Jost To play Pete Hegseth Let's listen to Saturday Night Live's interpretation of that moment. Now, listen up, everyone, okay? I summon all of you here today to address a serious problem, okay? Our military is gay as hell. And I'm not just talking about the Navy. Thanks to failed liberal policies, our army has never been gayer,

and yet it's also never been fatter. Make that make sense Our military will now have the same rules As any good frat party No fat chicks And if you're a fat dude God damn it you better be funny as hell I think we can

We can put that in the category of When reality is wilder than satire I mean that was funny But it wasn't nearly as funny as the original It's actually not It's actually not Now let's talk about when reality is unhinged and untethered and sad and disappointing. We are on the eve of the second anniversary of the greatest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, October 7th.

And at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus at their student union, there is an actual event at 3 p.m. tomorrow. honoring our martyrs. This is real. It is not anyone trolling. It is happening. And it is, there's a poster. It says honoring our martyrs

and a Palestinian flag. The students at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus, on the day that Hamas killed more Jews than have been ever, that killed in a single day since the Holocaust, the students are honoring those who perpetrated the massacre.

And they are using the euphemism of martyrs. They are murderers. They are terrorists. They are rapists. They are baby killers. They started this war. And they are being honored by these students. And the school is letting it happen.

Make that make. sense. It seems disjointed. It seems chaotic. It seems, and, you know, it's, it also seems on brand for Canada in 2025, sadly. Okay, we've got, we've got a, we've got a few things that we're going to run through about how, how chaotic things feel today. So we've got the honoring of the martyrs on the anniversary of October 7th. You know, Greta Tunberg was a as part of her flotilla of her flotilla freak show. And in her arrest documents by the IDF, we learned a couple of things. One, despite the lies to the contrary by activists and supporters that she was somehow

mistreated, there is no proof in the arrest warrant. and she also never accused them the IDF of any misabuse abuse, but never let a lie get in the way of a good attack on the Jewish people. We wanted that her middle name is Tintin. Yeah. How did we not know that? Why? Because for the longest time, she was treated with such reverence as she was

shining a light on the ills of Western society. How dare you. How dare you. And now she's a joke. I mean, to a lot of people, she always was. But now she's let us, she's shown us who she really is. And she's a joke. And so as a joke, we get to make fun of her.

Your middle name is Tintin, girl. Yeah, explain Tintin or Tantin for people. Well, Tintin. He's the, uh, he's the, uh, the French adventurer cartoon character, um, from, from French comic books. He's a cross between, I don't know, Archie Andrews and Indiana Jones, right? Yeah, that's, that's, going around the world with his, uh, Fluffy. Well, Flewoo, right? Isn't the dog, Milu?

Wasn't it the dog, it was Milu? No, Snowball. Snowball, yeah. Snowball. And, and you got, what's the, what's a ship captain guy with the, yeah, with the mustache. But Tint, Tintin is one of the most famous, fictitious characters in the history of French literature. And because it's part of French literature, even though it's a comic, and her middle name is Tintin. And I think that's important to know. So there you go. Meanwhile, you know, you've got Benjamin Netanyahu who's expressing optimism that Hamas may accept this ceasefire deal. And he's actually publicly saying that he may get the hostages back any day now.

I don't know if you say something like that unless you truly believe it. And somebody pointed out that it's very odd that those who have been demanding an end to the genocide that they claim exists are not pushing for this deal that would end the genocide, right? The protests are still going on, but the protests in no way have morphed to a pressure campaign on Hamas to accept the deal that is before them that would, if the war ends, then by extension, this quote unquote supposed genocide would end. This starvation campaign would end. So what are your priorities, people who are taking over the streets of Toronto, people who are protest, any opportunity to besmirch the reputation of Israel and the Jewish people. Why aren't you demanding that Hamas accept this deal? Because logically, it would end the war, which would end the genocide, which would end

the starvation. But you're not saying that because it was never about that. It was never about that. It was always about isolating, marginalizing, weakening, and eventually eliminate. Israel, taking them off the board, eliminating them as a state. And unfortunately, we don't have enough members of the media who are calling this out. We do not. The moment that this deal looked like it could actually find purchase in the ground,

the moment it became a possibility, it should have become incumbent on every responsible member of the press to pay attention to the words coming out of the most vocal and strident opponents of Israel, supporters of the Palestinian cause, supporters of Hamas, and ask ourselves, why hasn't their tone changed? Why hasn't their tenor changed? Why hasn't their subject matter changed? Because it was never about peace. It was always about weakening and eliminating Israel. And it's about time. the people who claim to be responsible. Arbiters of the truth stood up and did their jobs

because otherwise it's just guys like me and God knows there's a lot of people out there who don't want to believe that I'm speaking anything remotely close to the truth but I'm going to keep doing it because there's not enough of us doing it. Not enough of us.

Oh meanwhile also, TMU students we only have 20 seconds left. Toronto Metropolitan University students are suing the university because they claim that they have been unfairly labeled as, as anti-Semites. We're going to explain it after the break because they absolutely were anti-Semites. That's coming up after the break. Don't go anywhere.

This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Before the break, I sort of teased the fact that students at Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson University began circulating a petition that called for the law school's administration to drop its neutral position. Oh no, that was before.

They're suing because this is what they did. They circulated a petition that called for the law school's administration to drop its neutral position and offer a public showing of support for Palestinians. Now here's the preamble of that petition. It used incendiary language

to make their point. Israel is not a country but a colonial and genocidal state it read. It characterized the event. events of October 7th as a war crime, however, expressed support for, quote, all forms of Palestinian resistance.

So sure, what they did was bad, but everything that they did was okay. That's what they're saying. That's what they, the students put in there. And so they believe that the university and its reaction to that defamed them and claimed

that they were anti-Semitic. I just read what they wrote. It is by any stretch of the imagination, rabidly, anti-Semitic, rabidly. You are not just anti-Semites. You are, you have, you have, you drank the Nazi Kool-Aid. You might as well, you might as well sleep with a copy, a mind conf under your, under your pillow. You are Nazis. And, and I'm the, I'm not saying it because I disagree with you. I'm saying it because the words that you've expressed are

Nazi words. You're a Nazi. You students are Nazis. Yeah, pardon? I just did. Yeah. Let me say, Israel is not a country. It's a colonial, genocidal state. And even though October 7th was a war crime, all forms, all forms of Palestinian resistance are acceptable. I guess that also includes raping women and putting babies in microwaves and beheading people and taking hostages. And while in captivity, raping women incessantly.

That's acceptable stuff. because why the victims are Jews, which makes you a Nazi. And so they're suing the school. And so a couple of things here. There are no heroes here. There are no heroes because TMU that used to be a Ryerson University, Edgerton Ryerson was a fine person whose reputation was besmirched and that school was so freaking weak, they refused to defend the honor of the namesake.

of their university because they went with the mob and the crowd and they and they decide to take the path of least resistance and not do the honorable thing and stand up for that man's reputation you're getting exactly what you serve up this is exactly exactly what you deserve right now go to court let's see what happens there are no heroes here the school is weak and the students are nazis have at it kids have at it now i want to go back to what i said before the break about the hypocrisy of the pro-Palestinian side who've been claiming a genocide for two years. And now there's a peace plan that could see the end of it. And nobody on that side is calling for the end of the war for Hamas to agree, which would then end this supposed genocide. I wish I could

take credit for that logical argument. But Dan Siener, who was the author of a couple of great books, the genius of Israel and startup nation, as well as a phenomenal voice for logic and clear-headed thought during this time of insanity. Here's what he said on Farid Zakaria over the weekend. We've heard a lot over the last two years, really over the last few months, that this is a genocide, which I obviously strongly dispute. But I think the first moral obligation for anyone who has been calling this a genocide for the last two years is there's now an opportunity to stop, to quote unquote stop the genocide. So why anyone is not rushing

to embrace the deal that would quote unquote stop the genocide to me reveals that you were never serious that this was a genocide. It was just a political argument to use against Israel. Yeah, there you go. That's an airtight argument.

It's bulletproof. Bulletproof. And anybody who's sitting around today protesting Israel as they were before this peace deal, if they are not in the same breached, demanding that Hamas end this war and accept this peace deal, they have told you that they have no desire to end the war. They have no desire to end the war unless the war ends with Israel

melting into the sea and all the Jews go along with it. That's what they're saying. There is no way around it. There is a deal in front of Hamas right now that would end this. And in their minds this supposed genocide that they've been constructing in the public sphere for years. It would end. End tomorrow. The siege of Gaza would end tomorrow. The starvation of the

people would end tomorrow. By the way, I'm saying those things, not because I'm saying they're true. I'm using the arguments of that side. All that would end tomorrow. And yet there is no public push by all these people who seem hell bent on dominating the public conversation and have been doing so

successfully for two years. Why aren't they choking the airwaves, demanding that Hamas accept the deal? Because they don't care about peace. Because they care about the end of Israel as we know it. It's up to them to prove me wrong. Meanwhile, there is a person in the United States who I think I have admired over the course of this entire struggle for his moral clarity and for his unwillingness. to give an inch to anybody with their leading questions or their, their, um, their activist agenda and they promote themselves as, as journalists. And I'm talking about the Secretary of State

Marco Rubio. Listen to, listen to his argument about, well, just listen to him on meet the press this weekend. We've always said that if there's going to be a two-state solution that has to be negotiated with Israel. It has to make sure that Israel's security is taken into account. And so I would argue that I wouldn't say this is a new policy position. What I would say is you want to be able to have in Gaza a place, Israel has no interest in governing Gaza. They want to turn it over to somebody, some organization that will govern it that will not build tunnels and sponsor terrorism and come across the line and kidnap rape and murder Israelis. That's who they want to turn it over to. And right now that doesn't exist. That has to be built. Yeah. I mean, I wish our government

saw things that way, that of course everybody wants a two-state solution. But, But until you have a responsible good faith actor on the other side of the table, it's not even a possibility. Why recognize a Palestinian state when it is currently the, whatever resembles a state is currently being governed, if you can call it governing, by a bloodthirsty death cult? Until you can show that there are actors that want to live in peaceful coexistence with Israel, it's a non-starter. The whole thing is a non-starter.

your house in order first, and then we'll recognize your house. That's what he's saying. I subscribe to that. I want a world where the Palestinian people live in peaceful coexistence with Israel. But the charter of Hamas makes that a non-starter. When your charter says that you stand for and will work for until the end of time, the death, destruction, and end of Israel, we don't have anything to talk about. We don't. Except a ceasefire.

except a ceasefire right now. That's it. And that's how I see that in our, we were going to talk about this next story for the duration of this segment. But upon further reflection, we realize our prime minister is downplaying this. He's headed to Washington for talks with Donald Trump on trade, tariffs, and security. A lot of people thought he's, he's not going to go down there unless there's something big to announce. But Ottawa is keeping expectations low.

Officials are saying it's just a, quote, working visit, not a breakthrough moment. So I guess they've already prearranged what they're going to talk about, and it doesn't seem like they're going to come out with any sort of deal. Even though a lot of us are hoping there's a deal on the table, Carney is under pressure to ease the pain from Trump's tariffs, 50% on steel, 25% on autos, a new softwood lumber tariffs. They're now topping 45%. so I don't know why

he's even going down for a visit our prime minister has traveled a lot recently and I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done in Ottawa and if there's no deal in the offing I don't know that there's anything to do down in Washington except get a photo op we will be talking about this

a lot later on the premier of Ontario is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore he's he's a stated that the second you know what we'll talk about this after the break right no no we can't talk about this later on the show just forget I said anything

there's just so much news today so much news we're trying to keep it straight we're trying to give it to you as we see it don't go anywhere because up next is Maxwell House's coffee is Maxwell House coffee downsizing to a condo or maybe an apartment that's next Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show.

We've got a lot to get to on this show today. Are we good? We're good yet. Please welcome to the show, great friend of the Ben Mulroney show. Great friend of Ben Mulroney, actually, Tony Chapman, hosted the award-winning podcast, Chatter That Matters, and founding partner of Chatter AI.

Tony, thanks so much for being here. Always a pleasure. Okay, so rebrands. They happen every now and then. Some of them good, some of them bad. We all remember the disaster of new Coke back in the day. But every now and then people get it right. Explain to me after 133 years why Maxwell House is rebranding itself.

And why don't you let the listeners know what they're calling themselves moving forward? Well, you know, the whole idea of a rebrand is if you're, it's called the adoption curve. And with the adoption curve, when you run out a runway, you've got that mass majority. They start getting bored. they start leaving you, they start going to something else. The idea for marketers is saying, well, if we put a new twist on it, if you put a little hook, maybe it'll create some interest. In this case, I don't understand the hook.

They went from Maxwell House, as you said, over a century, people of knowing it, you know, the last drip to creating this sense of Maxwell apartment. And what they're trying to imply is that more and more people now can't afford a house. So by rebranding ourselves as Maxwell apartment, we'll create a little bit of interest, we'll create an itch, and put some attention back to our brand. I honestly, Ben, my entire career, I've never seen anything so far reaching is this move by a brand. I don't get it at all. I think this is, this is the dumbest thing I've seen since the Jaguar rebrand. I think so.

This is idiotic. I mean, the Maxwell apartment. No, no, I, I, the name Maxwell House never to me symbolize somebody's home. Like it was, it's just the name, right? And so Maxwell apartment, first of all, it doesn't, it doesn't flow. It sounds, now it's, now it sounds like something it's not. Maxwell House was the name of a, of a coffee brand, you know, it was a shelf, stable, big red tub, you know, cheap, cheap and cheap and cheerful. And good to the last drop.

Good to the last job. This is change for the sake of change, and that's never a good idea. Well, what happens is when you're working with your agency and they're looking for something clever and they're going, oh, God, it's National Coffee Day. What can we do different? And they're hoping they'll get a lot of news. And they probably will get some attention to it. But I think they're going to get the same attention we're talking about.

They're not talking about the taste of coffee. Yeah. They're not talking about coffees. I mean, if you've tried to buy coffee lately, you realize it's the cost of coffee's gone up exponentially. Yeah. Coffee I buy just went from $20 to $25. And it's just, it's a mainstream coffee.

So what they should be doing is talking about affordability, talking about it's a great taste, you know. But the Maxwell apartment, as you said, house never made me think of a house. And never they have a home, right? Yeah. Yeah. And now I'm focused on the apartment thing. And it's too weird. But could this be one of those stunt advertised, like are they going to go back?

almost like International House of Pancakes. IHop changed their name to IHob, the International House of Burgers a few years ago. And it was a short-term thing just to let people know that they had burgers on the menu. And they wanted people to know that they had this additional thing. And so they did a whole rebrand, but it wasn't forever. Yeah, it was like Boston Pizza in the playoffs,

realizing they weren't going to flavor the Maples who were playing the Bruins at the time and changed their name temporarily. For sure, it's a hook this way. But again, it has to make sense. You know, if it was something to do with what's going on in the category, again, taste, affordability, having a coffee with somebody you love, get it off the screen and sit down and have something that's something that attached to coffee, I'd go, okay, maybe. But I just, I think Maxwell apartment is trying to win an award. Yeah.

But it has no merit. And if I'm sitting there in the grocery store and I saw Maxwell apartment, I'd go, I wouldn't even stop. I would just keep moving on saying that that's. obviously even in the wrong place on the shop. Okay, let's talk about Amazon. You know, it's a biggest retailer in the world by most metrics.

And they people uncovered that they were selling tank tops under the name. I mean, it's a colloquialism and for a lot of people they don't think about it twice. But some people refer

to tank tops as wife beaters. And people don't even think about what that means when they say it, but just think about it for a second, and you realize it's just a terrible name to call anything. And these things are being sold under the name wife beaters on Amazon. Now, I know that Amazon can't be responsible for all the third-party resellers on their platform, but feels to me like when they see something like this or when it's brought to their attention, they should change it lightning fast. Well, a question. And I disagree. I I think if you have a platform and you can make the argument, well, we can't possibly control all the third party.

It's your brand. It's your platform. It's your promise to the consumer. And if you can't filter that, even AI should be you should have your thousand words that we can never use on our site. I would argue wife beater would be near the top of the list. It shouldn't get through it. And it's just again, this world where we're cutting so many people and we're so relying on automation that if we have in proper, dotted the eyes and crossed the t's what we consider basic common sense falls through the cracks

but as you said i mean if they're the minute they hear this again because it's a digital change they either block the product or change the description of the product immediately yeah and if not it just says to you that you know what we really don't care yeah no we care about is driving sales but to me it's so odd that they don't have a system in place for this already that yeah we're going to do our best to find them and weed this stuff out. We're going to have a code of conduct. And then we're also going to have AI patrolling every new listing. And if it runs afoul the rules, we're going to change it immediately. Or if the person has a couple of strikes against them, we're going to ban them from the platform for a certain amount of time. And we're going to let

people know that we don't stand for this. This is, it's just, it's, it's one of those things I think everybody realizes is, is inappropriate. There's no, there's no social justification. There's no group of people who who call this, this for any sort of social reason. You know what I mean? And so there's, it's, by and large, it's, it's been rejected by everyone. And just showing people that you, that this matters to you is, I think, what you have to do. You can't get everything right all the time, but you have to say that you're striving to get everything right all the time. But without question. And right in front of it and admit it and say, you know, this one should never slipped through or taking whatever steps. But in some ways, you know, we should have another

conversation on another day, but this lack of civility in the States. We saw it with the Ryder Cup. It's almost like we accept this stuff nowadays. Yeah. You know, it's just, it's just part of what's going on in society right now. There's, well, you know, there's a target audience that we'd love to call them life beaters and probably smaller proportion would like to wear that on their t-shirt as their way of saying, you know, I'm a bubba, but it just shouldn't be allowed.

Yeah. As a society, we should just say, look, this doesn't conform. This isn't a, this is a matter of civility. Yeah. as a society that's supposed to be modern and have some element of empathy move on. And hopefully, again, it's not a big ask of technology nowadays to scan every item on Amazon a hundred times a day, a thousand times a day, and pull these things out. Exactly.

What's AI good for if it can't do this? This is the low-hanging fruit we should be using it for. We only have about a minute and a half left, and I'd love to get your take on Coca-Cola. I mean, listen, they are geniuses at marketing, and there's a reason that Coca-Cola is number one in almost every, in almost every sector that they're in, but they're changing how they market. Yeah, I think they're going to what I call a head, hard, and hands model, which is instead of just shouting out, Coke is it, open happiness, blasting it out there and hoping that you're going to sort of just get so seduced by it because we're no longer captive. So we don't, it's so hard to get that across, they're saying, you know what, we're going to go into the experiential way. We might not reach the same amount of people we would if we were on television, but by having an relationship with my brand, when you're out and about, you're on the street, we're creating an event, we're creating a concert. Is this like they did it that we talked about this a couple of weeks ago where you got, they, they had those, um, those Coke machines on college campuses during freshman week and you get one, but you couldn't open one bottle unless you found somebody else.

who had a similar bottle and you could unlock them together and it was a way to meet people. Yeah, and instead of telling you that with big rules, they let you discover that yourself. Yeah. So you get so engaged in the brand

and next thing you know, you're posting, you're talking about it. And that to me is the marketing of the future. It's planting seeds, watering and letting the consumer grow them as opposed to just saying, I'm going to hit you over the head

with a sledgehammer. And I think that it's a great lesson for anybody in marketing. Find your audience. Find out what matters to them. Be part of that journey. with an experience. And you know what?

Your brand's going to make an impression. Tony Chapman, always appreciate the insights, man. All right. Chat soon. All right. Up next, the man who caught the Grand Slam ball. That's next on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show.

Monday, October 6th. It's a day after another storied day at Rogers Center. What a beautiful day for baseball. We had back-to-back perfect days in October. You could not have, Mother Nature could not have given us a better canvas. And the Blue Jays, the Blue Jays could not have given us two better masterpieces than what we experienced as Jays fans and fans of baseball in October. And Vladimir Guerrero was one of the, one of the artists who, who, you know, the imagery's dead. We'll move on.

He exercised all of his postseason demons over the past couple of days, showing that he is a force to be reckoned with in the postseason. And let's just listen to some audio of Vladimir Guerrero doing what he's paid to do and that he delivered on, which was a grand slam against the Yankees. Strike second. Well, as is typical these days with Major League Baseball and especially in the postseason, there's always two stories, right?

There's the guy who hits the home run or hits the Grand Slam, and then there's the guy who catches that ball in the outfield. And what happens with that guy? You know, we've heard stories of people who got balls. They should have given to little kids. or guys who did give the balls away. And sometimes it's just about that moment

and the guy who caught the ball. And we're talking to the guy who caught that ball right now. Please welcome to the show. One of the luckiest guys in baseball, Brandon Craig. Congratulations, Brandon. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Thanks, Ben. Okay, so, look, I wasn't at the game.

I wasn't at either game, but I watched them both on TV. And I was really caught up in how beautiful everything and how perfect it was. It felt like a movie, right? It felt like a movie. How did it feel being at the game? Yeah, it was a picturesque day for baseball.

It was 25 degrees, sun was shining, dome is open, and the atmosphere was just like nothing else I've really ever experienced in my life. Just energy from start to finish. And have you been a lifelong Jays fan? Have you been to Jays games this year? I've been going for years. Tell me about your relationship with the Blue Jays.

Yeah, so I'm a huge baseball fan. It extends beyond the Jays, but obviously the Jays are my team. I'm happy to watch any game, any night. But been to a few games before. I was at the Batista Batflip game, too. Oh, wow. But you were there? I was there for that one, too.

A little bit different seats. I had a different angle at it, but. To be there for this one yesterday was, I would say, just as cool a moment. Yeah, before we get into that, you know, one thing, I haven't been inside this Roger Center since the full Renault. I was there for the first half of the Renault. Talk to me about what it's like to be there for a baseball game and a postseason game in a new Rogers Center designed, designed for fans and designed for baseball. Well, if you haven't been, you are missing out. it is, like, truly a unique ballpark now.

The cool thing I like is that all the seats kind of face towards the mound, so you're really, like, facing the action the whole game. And just all the amenities and things they have for fans, like, it's surreal. Yeah, it's, and so you now, you can claim to have the most unique and, like, the greatest story thus far, and until they, knock on wood, until this goes as far as we all hope it goes. You've got the story of the playoffs. You caught that ball. Now, it was clocked, Brendan, at 111 miles an hour. That's how fast it left Vladdy's bat. And you caught it clean in your left hand. Did it hurt? It did not hurt. I don't know if that was just the adrenaline

of the moment or what, but I caught it flush in my palm and it didn't really hurt. Talk to me about the moment it's coming towards you, right? You hear the crack of the bat and it's coming towards you. You've got people all around you. What were you thinking? Were you thinking, oh my God, I could catch this? Are you trying to wrestle people out of the way, elbow them out of the way? What was that moment like?

Because we've seen this in the past where people fight over a ball. It didn't seem like anybody was fighting you for it. you know, it was kind of hit towards my left, like about a seat or two over, and my wife was sitting to my left, so I just kind of stepped in front of her, and I think she knew the drill, just like maybe take a step back, and yeah, I reached up and grabbed it, and I think there was a girl and her mom sitting next to me, and I think one of them got knocked over, so I felt kind of bad for that, but the moment just kind of took over, and yeah. And was everybody, was everybody okay with the fact that you kept the ball,

because, you know, we're living in a time where there's a lot of judgment on social media over like, oh, the guy got it and there was a kid there. Was everybody cool with it when it was done? No one said a word about it. Okay. I took about 200 pictures in our section afterwards with people.

That's awesome. It was lined up between any of people would come down and have to take a picture with me and the ball. It was just all good vibes, all positive energy. That's good to hear. That's really good to hear. Sometimes a moment just has to be a moment, right? and we don't need to be judging it for what it wasn't.

It seems like it was a perfect moment for you and everybody there. But did the Blue Jays organization reach out afterwards or come to find you because maybe they would want the – maybe Vlad wanted the ball? Maybe Major League Baseball wanted the ball? No, they never did. I checked with our usher to see what the drill is because it's pretty big ball to have. I would say Vlad's signature moment so far as a Blue Jay. Yeah, I mean, he's like I said, listen, he performed great the day before and he was playing great up until of that moment.

But that was that was him letting everybody know like he's come to play in October. Yeah, exactly. But no, no one never came up to ask for it. So I got to keep the ball. Yeah. So according to MLB stat can history, it was the hardest hit ball in Major League Baseball history since 2015 was almost 123 miles an hour. and this one was 111. Are you going to go back to any more games?

I am planning on it, yes. As soon as those ALCS tickets go on sale, you can bet I will be trying to get some of those. And are you going to try to sit in about the same place? I might not. I might try and get a few points from a different spot, but maybe let someone else have a moment as well. Yeah.

What are you going to do with the ball? Well, as of right now, don't really know what to do with it, but I think I'll keep it and maybe put it in a shadow box and just cherish it forever. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I reached out and wanted it back or something. Listen, you need to, you also need to get a screen grab of you catching the ball, because

if one day you decide to part with that ball, you're going to need to prove the provenance of that ball. And having that picture is, is, so I think that's what you should do. You should put in a shadow box, but also, have the picture underneath it and maybe get a little inscription. Not on the ball. Don't touch the ball. Don't do anything to the ball.

And absolutely, man. It's been such a wonderful, so wonderful to catch up. The fact that you're such a fan, the fact that it was such a joyous moment for everybody there, and the fact that you still are in possession of it. And the fact that the Jays are continuing on their journey, so glad to have talked to you. Brendan Craig, all the best to you. Go, Jays, go. Oh, did we lose?

I guess he's gone. Nope. Oh, there. Yeah, I just want to say goodbye. Thank you very much, my friend. Cool. Thanks, man. Yeah.

Go, J's go. There we go. All right. All right. So that's one side of the coin. But there's another side of the coin, and that's the New York Yankees. And, oh, we don't have time? And we got a little bit of time.

We got a little bit. We got a little bit. Yes, I want to play this. There's nothing better than watching the Yankee fans live stream their disappointment. Let's listen to this real quick. I think there's going to be a grand slam. He's waiting for a fast. And I think he's going to get it.

Grand Slam? Oh, yeah, you called it. Yeah. That's it. Clip that. That was the most obvious Grand Slam I've ever seen coming here. I mean, your expectations of the Yankees are so low that you predicted. You predicted a grand slam and you're nonplussed by it.

Like you were expecting that. That's how low the expectation of Yankee fans are. Now, not to say it's not over. I think in 1985 against the Kansas City, Kansas City Royals, the Jay's had a tough time getting over the hump. This team feels a little different. With a Subaru, a vehicle that's built to last come standard. Heated front seats, standard.

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