Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrew Stoeten: Toronto Mike'd #1118

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

In this 1118th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is joined by Andrew Stoeten as they discuss his interesting career covering the Blue Jays, from Drunk Jays Fans to The Athletic and beyond. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1118 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals for your home and your business. local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta.

Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Electronic Products Recycling Association. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Canna Cabana.

The lowest prices on cannabis. Guaranteed over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. Today, making his toronto mic debut is andrew stoughton welcome andrew hey thanks so much for having me it looked for a while like your debut your long highly anticipated debut would be in person like i had my hopes up until yesterday, but alas, here you are joining me remotely. I'm out here in Peterborough these days

and I don't own a car, which makes some of the travel difficult. Also making the travel difficult is our lovely provincial the body that runs our intercity transport, Go Transit.

Peterborough to Oshawa used to be a pretty clean run on the bus. And now they got you going through Bowmanville. There's like a million stops. It's really a nightmare that they seem to have no solution to, which is odd because the solution is just run a Peterborough to Oshawa bus because that's where everybody's, you know, I don't know, you need an express and a local. These things exist in the world. Now, I did bump into a gentleman who has a great question for you later in this conversation,

but I bumped into him at a Jays game, of course. And he did tell me, like he explicitly said to me, he would be willing, he's a really big fan of the show and he's a big, of course. And he did tell me, like he explicitly said to me, he would be willing, he's a really big fan of the show and he's a big fan of yours. And he said he'd be willing to pick you up and drive you to my front door. But unfortunately,

that never came to be. Yes, I'm sorry. But hopefully the audio is enough. You know, I got such a presence, I'm sure. Well, okay. Well, that's the thing. You have a presence. You have a presence.

But if you were physically here, you'd be leaving with presence. That's the only catch here. So I'll do it quickly off the top that you will not be receiving a large lasagna from Palma Pasta. And it's delicious. So Andrew, maybe if you're ever in town, we get you back for round two and I can get you one. But thank you, Palma Pasta. And thank you, Great Lakes Brewery

for the fresh craft beer. You will not be leaving here with fresh craft beer because you're in Peterborough. I had a Ridley Funeral Home flashlight for you. I had sticker you stickers. I had a can of Cabana Cozy.

Anyway, these I'm just now really just torturing you by telling you all the good things you won't receive today because you're on Zoom. Yeah, and I'm not going to lie. Yeah, I'm hurt by it. It's my own fault, but that's great swag. I've listened to the show.

I knew what I was giving up by not being able to make it in, but alas. Well, listen, Andrew, I'm honored that you made time for me today. I've listened to the show. I knew what I was giving up by not being able to make it in. But alas. Well, listen, Andrew, I'm honored that you made time for me today. I'm looking forward to this. I find you just the right amount of mysterious. Actually, seriously, I'm going to find out what makes him tick. I'm going to get answered a bunch of the questions everybody's wondering. But we got to start off.

Peterborough. Okay. Are you originally from peterborough are you one of these many torontonians who have escaped the big smoke and moved out of the city like where are you from originally yeah i'm originally from peterborough it's uh there is a vortex here that just that sucks people back in i thought i would never ever ever live here uh again i moved moved as quickly as possible after high school To the city And was there for a very, very long time

And then basically just got renovicted And was like, okay, I might save some money Stay at my parents' house for a little bit And that kind of lasted longer than I was ready for Or they were ready for so i was like okay i got to do something about this and and found an apartment that i i pay way too little for um that's really walkable in downtown peterborough and uh was like well i can't not do this so i just sort of like you know as we'll probably discuss, like nothing I've ever done has been especially well planned.

And so, and so here I am. And here you are. And how is the patch these days? Like you must, you must enjoy it enough that you're willing to like put down some, you know, some, some anchors there and stick around. Like, like what's the patch up to these days? You know, it depends, it depends where you are. To be honest, there are, you know, like everywhere else, there are some problems coming out of the pandemic. There are definitely some problems.

You know, I live downtown and, you know, you see a lot of people in hard times and not enough being done to address that. But also, you know, there's lots of wonderful people and communities and where I am, I can go and have a, you know, go hang out in a bunch of cafes on Hunter Street, which is a lovely little corner of downtown where there's some really interesting people and it's kind of, you know, anchored by Trent University, which kind of keeps Peterborough weird in a sense.

And sort of, it just, it feels like a little neighborhood of the city. It just takes you like four hours to get there. Oh, yeah, no. And forgive me for like not knowing my, you know, Peterborough geography, but is that South End or North End? Like, are you a South End guy or a North end guy uh i grew up in the north end um but this i mean downtown is downtown and you know the south end you know we we look down on that obviously uh the fierce local rivalries

wow okay yeah shout out to the patch now hebsey man uh you know when he heard you were coming i got a few notes but heb, I co-host a podcast with Mark Hebsey every Friday morning called Hebsey on Sports. And he wants to, who's the best ball player? This is Hebsey's question. Who's the best ball player to ever come out of Peterborough? You know, I saw that on Twitter. I'm not a super grassroots guy.

I should be. That's shameful. I should be out there at the Diamond every day. But I don't know. I'm just making tweets and watching TV mostly. So I don't know. But there's a guy who plays for the Winnipeg Gold Knights right now. He's from Peterborough.

He was drafted, I think, in the fifth round. And they've had a couple Jays draft picks over the years. There was a guy about my age drafted, I think, at 98. You know, farther back. I don't think there's ever been a major leaguer from Peterborough, but playing out there, pitching for Winnipeg, that's pretty serious advanced ball. I mean, that's an independent league team now, but...

And what's this guy's name? Do you know? Yeah, I don't know. Google it, everybody. Google it. Yeah, just... Fucking Google it. Okay. A couple of quick hits here, and then I'm going to actually quote a tweet that you tweeted recently.

And right off the top, I'm going to find out what this tweet was about before we dive in. Oh, no. Do you know Gare Joyce? You know Gare Joyce? Not really, no. I know Dan Burke,

who Gare Joyce once got in a fistfight with, apparently, but... Well, Gare, Gare, by the way. I thought that Gare would appreciate me sharing that. Well, I think he might appreciate that, to be honest. The one time I tweeted about it, he did not. Okay. Because he kind of likes this fight an Irish persona

he's got going on. But he says you're super sharp. So Gare, that's a compliment. Super sharp. And Chris in Toronto says, finally, and I just want to pick up this this uh thread there that that we we did come close to making this happen years ago right like i feel like you're one of those guys got in the calendar maybe not quite like a specific day but we were going to do this pre-pandemic right i believe so yeah they could have been

around the time of the renovation i'm not sure uh well where were you living when this renovation happened? What neighborhood? Just north of Kensington Market. Okay, and basically the landlord kicked you out so they could renovate? Is that what happened there? Yes, but I will say this, and this is a dastardly practice, obviously,

but I will say the landlord lived in the top part of the house and was starting a family and owned the whole house and was like, we are renovatingating we need you to get out but it was sort of it wasn't as shady as uh uh some of those other sort of things yeah well usually it's kicking you out and then tripling the rent it's like yeah right this is not that not quite no uh in in that literally that it literally was not yeah it was such a boot man you went from k from Kensington Market there to Peterborough. Like that's quite the boot. So a little bit.

And, you know, I mean, I'd been in that place for like five years. And I got to tell you, rent changed over the five year period from, I mean, you could probably pick any five year period in the city and you'll find a disparity between where rents were when you moved in and when you moved out. Yeah, I don't know how, like I was renting between marriages. I was renting for a period of time and it was like fairly reasonable and i needed you know an extra room because i had a couple of kids and there was this all anyway this is this is my story but that's about 10 years ago i honestly don't know what i do today like uh i don't know

like and i i bought around nine years ago just before like i think the price of this home i'm in right now might've, might've doubled or something. It's insane. Like I really don't know how you live in this city without having like inherited some wealth from your rich parents or uncle or something. I have no idea. I think it's very difficult. Yeah.

That's and, and guess what? It's a, it's creeping here too. I mean, I think, I don't, I think it may,

it may have gone down. I think it was like 800,000 is the average of like dude that's real are you kidding me i thought i could pick something up for like 250 no yeah it's it's it's followed it's followed me here wow like where do you go then like if everything if it's like that everywhere i mean i heard the hammer was rising really uh quite a bit in hamilton like where am i supposed to go now if i can't afford to live here? Thunder Bay? Where do I go next? No insult to Thunder Bay, but it's

far away. How far north do you have to go now? It's nuts. It's a little nuts. Wow. That's the world we've built here and kind of unquestioningly went along with it. It's terrible. Also, I don't like rich people.

It's like I'm allergic to rich people. So it's like, someone will say, hey, you have a house in Toronto. You're a rich person. That offends me. This is all very offensive. But okay, one more note. Mike Lynch says he's really looking forward to this one, so don't disappoint Mike Lynch.

And now, Andrew, I'm going to read a tweet I read from you the other day and then we're gonna get into it but you wrote the best thing about being banned from both toronto sports radio stations is never having to do useless time-consuming hits on either toronto sports radio station the second best thing is lol are you is it true i'm assuming i need this story here but are you really banned from both the fan 590 and uh 1050 tsn radio as far as i understand yeah i have no idea why i i've uh i i have angered the wrong executive which you know based on my my career doesn't doesn't necessarily surprise me um but yeah i get people asking

me all the time like producers new guys coming along they're like oh hey can you come on and i'm like i would love to do it but um you better check with your bosses first because as far as i as far as i know both tsn and sportsnet on the radio side so there wasn't an incident that you know of you're not like conveniently forgetting the time that you I don't know you were you made a drunken hit and slurred a swear word or something there's no story not I mean I would like to think I would know that no I and and it's and it's both I don't know if it's someone who's flipped from one to the other I it is it's odd to me but also you know you don't get paid for those things and and sometimes they're at inconvenient times I like to you know it's it's it's decent promotion for the brand and for the website and whatever. And,

and, uh, you know, I don't want to turn my nose up at it as much as I maybe did in that tweet, but, uh, you know, uh, it's funny to me that that's the situation, especially, you know, I know, I know lots of people, uh, at those spots and, uh, they can't get me on and it's odd. And, and also I'm unbothered by it. Okay. I'm glad you're unbothered by it. But it is interesting. I think for some people that it is, there's no competent, like at least if you come on Toronto Mike,

you do leave with this delicious lasagna from Palma Pasta. And I do give you eight fresh craft beer cans from Great Lakes. And you leave with some good, like solid, like, you know, this is like some real stuff, not cash, of course, but I think it might be surprising to some people that when you hear, and I'll pick on somebody who's an FOTM, and you're now an FOTM, Andrew, so welcome. You're a friend of Toronto Mike. Hell yeah. So like, I'll pick on a guy I quite like, Keegan Matheson. I'm going to pick on, okay?

Great. He's now with MLB. He sold out. We can talk about that later. But he, I think he got Chisholm's job and Chisholm, all these East Coasters and you're not used enough there. Okay. So he gets, he does a hit on, let's say, 590

talking about, I don't know, big Blue Jay Yankee series or something. He's, like, there's no financial restitution. And like, you don't,'t know, big Blue Jay Yankee series or something. He's like, there's no financial restitution. And like, you don't, you know, he doesn't get like a wire transfer for like 50 bucks or something. Like, don't you think that there should be some nominal compensation for the, the guest, the professional guests coming on and doing analysis? What do you, like, what do you think on that?

Yeah. I mean, I don't feel that the margins are quite as wide for the radio industry right now for that to be a thing as much. I'm sure that there are American guests. You're right, because Bell and Rogers are hurting, so it's true. It's true. Excellent point.

But no, I think American, like I know Keith Law will get money, or guys like that with higher profiles. But I can't speak to Keegan either. But I know I certainly haven't been offered. And you're doing it. If you do it, if you were allowed to do it, it would simply be because maybe you could promote your sub stack.

Yeah. So do you want to do that quickly now, even though we're going to dive in deeper? But just because, like, just even right now, tell people how they can subscribe to your sub stack and what that's about. And then we'll revisit all this when we get to it chronologically. Sure. Yeah, no, it's it's the batflip.ca. It's my sub stack site. It's free for everybody to read, which is different than sort of the model that a lot of people do with sub stack. I try not to, I make a point of not putting anything behind a paywall and just ask people

who value the work to support it if they can. And it's been richly rewarding karmically, if not financially, moving to that model. But yeah, that's where you'll find me putting down my weird long form thoughts that aren't fit for Twitter. All right. Now you buckled in, you're comfy, you're feeling good.

Cause we're going to get to some, a little bit more interesting fear, although it's been interesting already, but we'll see. We'll see. Doug Fox writes in, it's a cool name, Doug Fox.

He writes in Mike, thanks in advance for having Andrew Stoughton on the podcast. I had always wanted to write about baseball, and a decade ago, Andrew and his Drunk Jays fans colleagues inspired me to start my own blog about the Blue Jays farm system. His writing is always insightful, refreshing, and irreverent.

Not irrelevant. Yeah, irreverent. I want to make sure I say it right. Traits really missing in Toronto's sports journalism landscape these days. Looking forward to listening. So that's a nice comment from Doug that you inspired him to kind of, you know, follow his own path. And the fact that he calls your writing insightful, refreshing and irreverent.

I'll have to search that word, make sure it's a compliment. I feel like Homer Simpson. But that's a common thread of the notes I've been getting. People enjoy your analysis and your insightful, refreshing content. Yeah, that's really nice. Doug's awesome. Doug does a great site, Future Blue Jays, which does keep tabs on the Blue Jays minor league system

in a way that nobody else out there is doing. And that's great to hear because that's sort of, I mean, well, one thing like the, oh, man, any idiot can do this sort of ethos was sort of what inspired us in the first place when we started doing this. Again, like I said earlier, nothing I've ever done is particularly planned. But like friends and I thought

that the coverage of the Blue Jays in the city was a little... It was not what we thought about the game and that's sort of how we ended up. Okay, so let's start there. Sure. Where are you in your life and career? What was the plan?

Did you go to post-secondary school? Give me... After high school, what did you do? Yeah, I went to York. Uh, I lived on campus at York for a year. Um, and then immediately it was like, Keelan Steeles ain't for me. Um, so moved downtown, commuted, which afforded me a lot of time to, uh, uh, to not, to not go to class. Um, but ended up, uh, I remember I had a prof, Tom Cohen, was in the humanities department there, was just like, oh, you should go into creative writing.

Your writing has voice. And that's always sort of stuck with me as something that I was like, oh, okay. And there was a program at York that, you know, you had to do submissions and it was only limited to people. They just kept taking me. They just kept accepting me into like higher levels of that program. So I ended up doing creative writing at York. During university, I worked at a company that did secret shopping, mystery shopping. in my mid-20s, running the editing department because everybody who, you know,

they were just finding people off the street to do these reports on, you know, the local pizza, pizza and stuff like that. And the grammar and spelling and the following of instructions was not necessarily up to their standards. So they had a whole department of people to basically just fudge all the reports and completely lie to the clients um most of it was most of it was was

straight but there was definitely a lot of like okay you're not like i'm not letting you say this about about your experience it was all kind of soul crushing in the way that that uh i mean if anybody knows about that industry it's just you, you know, you're sending fake customers in to gather data and be like, okay, did this person smile? Did they upsell you? Did they have their name tag on, right? Et cetera, et cetera. It's where the facility is clean.

And like all these, the jargon is coming back to me and it's giving me nightmares right at the moment. Honestly, this is soul crushing. Like even hearing you talk about it. It really, really was i mean and because because ultimately it's just it's like minimum wage frontline you know retail and restaurant workers who are getting in trouble because of this whole process uh so that was tough that was not easy but uh but yeah eventually uh and i got paid just absolute garbage to do that as well, which was a factor. But also they let me get away with a lot.

I was in a band at the time. We'd always have shows and they'd be like, okay, you can take this day off. You can come in late on Tuesday. You have to play in Kingston. You could do all this kind of stuff. What was your band's name? It was called Action Makes. There may be a handful of people out here who remember.

That's how I know Dan Burke, who booked the Silver Dollar. Okay, I was going to ask you, what venues did you play? Yeah, the Dollar was kind of our home. But yeah, we played all over the city. We had a record that came out in 2010. We didn't last much longer after that, we had a record that came out in like 2010. We didn't last much longer before that or after that,

but, but before we'd been, you know, some sort of like aspiring scene stir band. I loved, I love Toronto's aspiring scene stir bands. Like I could do 90 minutes on this. No doubt. Yeah.

And I, I mean, I heard your, your episode with Richard Traponsky who was with now and chart attack and stuff. And he was always a proponent of my band and of that silver dollar scene. And that's a weird corner to walk by now when I do get down to the city because some weird stuff happened there for a very long time.

And it's now just condo-ized, I guess, like a lot of other corners of the city. Soul crushing again. Okay. Keep crushing my soul, Andrew. So, yeah. So they let me get away like a lot of other corners of the city. Soul crushing again. Okay. Keep crushing my soul, Andrew. So yeah, so they let me get away with a lot. I mean, we never talked about it, but I seem to get away with it. The IT guy was a big Blue Jays fan,

which really helped. Shouts to Kevin. Because I think, because when you're in the tattling on retail employees industry, I don't think that there's a big leap to, to monitoring your employees, keystrokes and stuff like that. Which I don't know if they were doing that. I don't want to, I'm not here to slander. But think about your job, essentially, if I'm hearing correctly, is that the guy, and I don't remember what minimum wage was at the time, but let's, I don't know, let's make it up and say it was like 12 bucks an hour or whatever.

But the guy or gal or whomever is working, you know, frontline retail, which is a shitty job. I did it. I worked at McDonald's for 18 months and I had to get out of there. But you're making your minimum wage and you're working hard and your job is basically to to to make sure the grammar's right and this prose is uh exemplary as you shit all over the poor the poor son of a gun for his boss is that right that's pretty much right yes uh and often i mean the franchisees

didn't uh didn't escape the the criticism and it's weird. I think people really got the mindset that, oh, now I'm a food critic or I get to really pick on something. You're more of a narc than a food critic. Yeah, 100%. But a lot of people really got off on the idea that, oh, yeah, now I'm going to do this great. And they really enjoyed narking on everything they possibly could right um they you know i don't know i had some wonderful times there met some fun people who were mostly from pickering it was very strange it was like a dob mills in eglinton uh which was a place i had to take the bus to all the time um man some of those days because again they'd let me roll in late they let me

roll in late and i was just so good at the job. And so, I mean, not to brag, but like, I was so good at the job and so underpaid, so severely underpaid that when I started sort of like, like I became the head of the editing department, which means instead of editing the reports that come in from the secret shoppers, I was making the instructions and like, and detailing what actually goes into these things.

And that gave me a lot of time with word processors, you know, and, and, and that unless somebody is directly over your shoulder, if you're, if you're writing about Richard Griffin's latest column, they can't really tell. So I could kind of like got into a rhythm of being a scumbag of like, I got my work done. I maybe made it seem like it took a little bit longer for me to do things than it did. And then while doing that, I would fire off weird baseball thoughts into the internet. Okay, where would these resolve these? Because I totally get it. You basically can start a side hustle while, you know, on the clock for your, you know, primary money-making hustle,

which is actually pretty damn sweet. But where were you posting this prose on the internet? Well, mostly, I mean, because this is how, I mean, I'm old, obviously. Okay, well, you're not as old as me. So give us an idea. Like, where are we here? Because I mean, you're talking to a guy

who was blogging in 2002. So let yeah so we weren't there we weren't there yet i think the i think drunk jason fans started just at the very tail end of 2006 um and before that you know there was no social media but we did have like a bunch of friends and i uh just had like an email chain and would be and would just like during during the day would like reply all. A bunch of my friends went to like Waterloo for engineering and they're just looking at parking garages, you know, and then going to their car to fire an email off. Or maybe even then they couldn't do that. They had to drive back to the office and email.

And so we would just sort of chat in that way. And we also had like a, we've had a, like a hockey pool with a lot of the same folks for like 20 years. And, and that the message board on there also got sort of polluted with, with me and a couple guys going back and forth about, about baseball. And eventually we got told by our friends, like, just don't reply all, just keep all of this to yourselves. We don't want to, we don't are about Richard Griffin's axe to grind with J.P. Ricciardi. And so we're like, well, that's fucking dumb. Like, what? We're just going to message ourselves this stuff? And so we just literally, like, dumped it on a blog. And we're like, okay, well, didn't think of the form of the medium.

Didn't think anybody would ever read it but we're just kind of like okay well like at least that there's a chance somebody might see it no dude i firstly we're doing it not just for ourselves i'm an rss i you know i'm still an rss guy but i was in the you know this era you're referring to that was my lifeblood i would subscribe to people blogs and like you're and this is drunk jays fans right yes okay so like that was my main thing at the time i was using google reader now i use something called feedly because google reader is no more but like totally using rss to get this these updates pushed to me so i didn't have to you know go visit 25 different blogs or whatever that was my lifeblood at this

time so you're dumping it all in a blog, Drunk Jays fans, which I still love the format of blogging. I was writing a blog this past weekend. I still think that's a great format. Reverse chronological order, time-stamped blobs of thoughts and links and embed. I think it's a great format.

But as we talk more about Drunk Jays fans, I'm just going to bring in Mark Vendramramini who is a listener of toronto mike and a fan of yours and his big question you'll have to answer at some point here is what happened to drunk jays fans uh we sold it to the score and uh when they when they fired us all um they literally uh they laid us off and uh we're like hey uh 10 000 bucks and you can get the the domain back and we're like i just lost my job are you fucking kidding me um so kind of made the decision that uh i guess that's your brand now if i check

the domain at least once a year to see if they ever let it expire it's like no somebody over there is still paying to to keep that domain um well i have a lot of friends at the score love benji no i'm sorry but that's what happened uh but uh um but yeah that's i mean that was after a long ride with the score which was a which is an interesting time i'm sure you have well hey yeah so okay firstly that's amazing that you built something from scratch like i'm a guy who likes to build something on this podcast you're on i build from scratch right like so i like to build these things and then i own them and i'm like the sole proprietor of this thing and uh no one's ever offered me any money for this thing not that i would ever sell it because it really is me like it's a little different but you built this drunk jays fans blog

that the score gave you actual money. And then I guess so the score gives you money. Who owned Drunk Jays fans? Like how did you guys split up the money? No, it was just me and Dustin Parks who was my – there were sort of other characters who would come in and out. But Dustin and I were sort of the core of it for a long time. So did you split – so you got i don't and i mean honestly ideally you tell me how much the score gave you because that's the shit i'm really interested in but i would understand

if you didn't want to uh you know disclose that but do you want to share or give us an idea what kind of scratch would the score give you for drunk jays fans i think i think it was like like 20 grand um but and honestly it was really sort of a form of a bonus it was just like well we'll own this we'll we'll own this and and you'll work for them and well yeah because we were because how that came about is we were doing drunk jays fans and the score uh at the time had some ambitious folks uh who were in the in their web department which was very very small in 2007, I guess, at this point. And we're looking, you know, they had a radio studio there.

They did the satellite radio stuff. They were sort of, like, set up to produce, like, web content. And they're like, this is 2007. Why don't we have, like, in-house stuff? Like, they basically were just running, like, a news feed on their website and managed to, because, like, the TV was just a behemoth, and that's probably still the way that it is, but especially in those days, the web department there

was literally like four people. And just so people know, this is before Rogers buys it. Correct. It was originally Headline Sports, right? And then it became the score. That's right, yeah, yes um and yeah i mean yeah rogers that that that came along um there was so they almost got bought like the first month i was there like everybody was just prepared for it all to be over and i'm like just happily like this

is the greatest day of my life because they because basically they hired us to to do a podcast at first okay um and and just sort of like like freelance contract stuff they're like we think you guys have a good voice like why don't you just do a podcast like let's like sort of sight unseen um and then like after us the first season of us doing a podcast they're like okay we have like uh uh we have we have room to hire one of you um and dustin at time was, and Justin, who was the other guy, would do the podcast, but they were both like, Dustin was like a government speech writer at that point at Queens Park.

Justin had a government job and I was still doing the secret shopping stuff. And so I was like, guys, I'm taking this new job. Like, I'm sorry, but you're not. You're not leaving that and leaving me at this other place. So that's sort of how I got hired there. And Dustin eventually came on. Well, now let me ask you a question that came in from Jake S. And it quite simply is, what happened to Dustin Parks?

Do they still talk baseball? Does Parks even like baseball? That's a better question for him than for me. Now, I don't talk to dustin too much anymore to be honest with you um yeah that's uh but but i understand why people have the question dustin was at the national post for a long time i think he had a house in hamilton uh but i yeah sort of uh drifted apart as as uh as will happen with uh with friends from you know, Dustin and I went to high school together. So it was a lot for a while, you know.

So just sort of went our separate ways, despite sort of being adjacent to the same industry. But yeah, I don't know. I couldn't tell you. Dustin, I mean, yeah, I couldn't tell you. No, that's fair. You can imagine when people find out you're coming on my show, it's like this is their chance to ask all these nosy personal questions, like how much money did the score,

actually that one came from me, that was my nosy personal question, but how much money did the score, and 20,000 by the way, I was thinking in my mind, like I can, you know you're a young man, you get the job with it,

which is key, right, you're going to work for the score, which was huge, because you had a soul crushing job, like ratting out minimum wage, like retail employees. And now you're writing about sports

and getting paid to do it at the score. Like that must've been amazing. So maybe this is a good chance to tell me about your experience with the score. And then why does it come to an end for you at the score? Sure. Yeah. You're absolutely right. I mean, not just getting

paid to write about sports but also like I lived I could bike to work in 10 minutes I remember it was like the first month of uh biking to work was just like angels were singing the entire time to me because it was I mean that busted Don Mills in Eglinton sointon, so many days where I'd forget my headphones and it would just be like a class full of kids going up to the science center. And just me, like, just miserable sitting in the back corner of the bus. I mean, it's not an ideal way to start your day. And then you're sort of marooned out by Winford Drive or whatever. Not ideal.

So, yeah, so starting at the score was awesome. for drive or whatever not not ideal so that yeah so starting at the score was was awesome um and uh it uh well it's we we were sort of like we had a we had a great uh our bosses were awesome and really um this one guy john savage a gen x dude i think you'd uh uh you think you would get on with and has, and just sort of came about his job and in sort of creating web content and, you know, being the main sort of executive for that stuff and pushing for what he pushed for was, he kind of just had this little like like punk rock uh uh like wing of the building where we were just doing weird weird sports stuff with like you know and and just and kind of like uh like completely disconnected from the tv side like a lot of the tv talent you'll you'll find uh the score was in an interesting place because it was a great like sort of farm team. And a lot of people who got on to like really successful careers were coming out of the TV side. And that eventually started happening on the web as well.

But it's sort of like, you know, some people want to wear the suit and be the TSN guy. And some people want to do the crazy stuff. And it was just this mashup of, of, of all sorts of ideas. And just, and, and I, you know, I think that they, as we can see, I mean, I think everybody at the time for it has had the sense that it was sort of like, you know, this is they're, they're doing this to eventually cash in on it and to, and, and that, that it was not surprising to see that Rogers, you know,

purchased it at the time that they did. And, and that was, that was really interesting. I mean, at the time that they did. And that was really interesting. I mean, at the time, us on the website, who had really sort of been discouraged from getting too friendly with the TV folks, which is probably a shame, but sort of lent itself to our punk rock spirit and the blog jail is what we referred to it as. Because we've got Drew Ferris,

who came in who I've done a podcast with for years when when i was at the athletic and justin bourne was there scott lewis who's been all over the place a lot of like a lot of awesome folks in blog jail uh doing interesting things but we thought that when the tv side was sold to rogers we're like oh sucks for them like they're they're just going to get enveloped by the ro by the Roger side and a lot of people are probably going to lose their jobs. And I don't know that it really went that way. We were like, oh, we're on the winning team. We're going to this new startup, the app. They're taking all the digital assets.

We're going to do all this content for their new app. And that's really the wave of the future. And then they decided at some point that long form stuff was not the wave of the future. Uh, and then they decided at some point that long form stuff was not the wave of the future that, that people wanted. I think they were really, um, I forget which Olympics it was. It was like the 2012 Olympics. Oh, London. Yeah. The London Olympics. Yes. And they, they, um, like they had news alerts. They had, they put an alert feature on the app, which like people's phone buzzed every time, know the event is starting or something happens and like the traffic they got from that from just like little snippets of content was like massive was just like completely

overwhelming everything else that the that they were doing uh and so they looked at us like like you know screwing off to the bar at like four o'clock and or three o'clock and uh and i think eventually kind of got got thinking like we we could repurpose that salary and and and do better and it's uh uh it's a shame i think because they they've kind of you know as the industry does they've sort of ebbed back towards that kind of stuff um You were probably on the bleeding edge a little bit. Like you sound like digital rebels. A little. I mean, that's how we felt.

I can hear you talking. Like I would have enjoyed being a part of that team. Like I think that I'm cut from that cloth. And it sounds like a really cool, you know, place to be at the time. And then, yeah, this whole like move away from long form, that might explain, you know, that might have something to do with i didn't have anything to do with the sports net magazine getting uh shuttered or is this before that that would have been before that yeah i mean

because we weren't with rogers at all like right the digital side of the score ended up being what is the score now a score bet or whatever it is okay okay so that does an interesting uh change so it's only the tv part of the score that ended up as like whatever they call it 360 uh sports net 360 or whatever okay okay okay but at some point they decided we were just all with the devs and like the people doing coding and making the app and then there was like a small news team and then this weird you know the transported blog jail folks just doing uh longer form stuff that that didn't have the audience to justify our salaries i suppose gotcha okay now so what do you

do after uh i guess you're told by the score that your services are no longer required i suppose yeah um i kept working there for a bit frankly uh they because they did that I didn't I was kind of checked out I this is part of how I'm mysterious I feel uh because I I was you know they kind of gave me the choice to work at the office or work from home or be wherever like unless I didn't if I didn't need to be there I didn't have to be there and uh a lot of a lot of folks did had that same you know opportunity but we're happy to you to be more office type people and come into the office every day and do their work there. And I was like, you'll see me when you see me. Which was nice, which was wonderful for me, but also I wasn't there the day they fired everybody.

So I wasn't there the day they fired everybody. And so I got a call from my boss. He was just like, yeah, you better come down and talk to us. I guess you've seen what happened. And I literally, and he's like, yeah, let's go for a pint at the Birkin across the street. I'm like, oh, man, that sucks. You had to fire all those guys. And he's like, oh, no, you're fired too. Oh, okay.

This has changed. This is a bit of a different conversation. But also because at that point we sort of separated separated out into i was doing drunk jay's fans dustin was doing more general mlb stuff we had people doing all sorts of richard richard whittle is another uh soccer guy the richie football uh lovely dude uh also got canned after this after like just working his ass off for the 2014 world cup. And like, like I think was on vacation when this happened, which we didn't care for, but, but we got all of that out in a, in a lot of, a lot of beer cans in the East end there at one point, not long after the firing, but they let drunk Jays fans because it was in the middle of

the summer. They, they, they let me continue until, until the end of the blue Jays fans, because it was in the middle of the summer, they let me continue until the end of the Blue Jays season, which I suppose was nice. I didn't dislike it. It was weird. I remember them bringing in, you know, because it was, I mean, we'd been established there. We made a bit of money. Not a great amount of money, but like more than, you know, the kids coming out of J school would. And and I forget who it was. I wish I could remember. But I remember seeing like somebody not long after that, like I came into the office to grab some stuff.

And it was like kind of winding down. It's like, oh, hey, like, oh, you're part of the reason I'm here. I'm like, yeah, that fucking shit canned me, man. I'm just like getting the clearing out my desk basically. And I'm going to be gone at the end of the road. They're quite disappointed in that. And I assure you, I, I shared their disappointment because it was, it was a really fun place to work. I'm sure it still is a fun place to work.

There were a lot of great people there. So you finish up the season writing a drunk Jays fan, which fans would you no longer own own but so what is the next move for uh for andrew uh the next move was sort of into freelance and into i did a i did a year it turned out to be 2015 so that was uh so that ended up being kind of uh kind of worked well sure well for me that was a year of of some some interest in the blue jays that was a that was the hype train i still remember when whatever the what was it uh tulowitzky came to town and david price came to town and we all just hopped

on board like it was 1993 it was like let's go yeah oh it was it was crazy yeah absolutely it uh it was it was helpful for me because at the time i was just getting google ads i just ran my own website andrewstoughton.com and was just doing the same thing with a different skin basically. And that at the time Google ads were viable. I don't think that that could, I mean, obviously I don't think that I could get by that way now because I'm,

I'm on Substack. Well, okay. Well, what kind of, what kind of scratch were you pulling in through, you know, AdWords?

Well, I guess on your side, it's AdSense. I apologize apologize it's the advertiser it's that would have been adsense right it wasn't it wasn't great there was definitely diminishing returns but you know like it would pay my rent okay and and i would that's good and i would like freelance and and get everything else paid and you know i was doing stuff i did stuff for a year like with i think that was the year i worked at the national post i would do a weekly thing for them and do videos there and would okay um and vice sports were you doing something with vice sports at this time yeah that that came about at some point i think during that time as well um and so yeah i made it made it work living in the city uh living the dream still what about toronto life were you doing any freelance writing for toronto life i did do some toronto life stuff yeah i've read your stuff uh toronto

life yeah yeah there there was a great editor there who liked me and was was was willing to uh to pass me stuff i think eventually sarah stopped doing it because i was like there was too much on my plate for a while um but yeah no the freelance i mean the freelance thing's tough and uh uh as as you know uh chasing chasing payments and both the people that i work with were usually pretty reliable in that sense but it is a bit precarious um and so that's the the blue jays nation came along after that the nation network the folks out in edmonton okay i wanted to start a blue jays vertical and so i know that know that you had like a, you had Drew, you mentioned Drew earlier,

but Drew Fair Service and you. Is this Drew Fair Service and you co-hosting another, basically, a Drunk Jays Fans podcast, if you will? Yes, exactly that. We tried to call it What's the Score? And started it right after we were both gone and got a phone

call about that, which was jovial, but also like, don't make me call the lawyer. That's a common phrase. I think we could have gotten away with it, but also we weren't about to hire a lawyer,

so we're like, okay, we'll back off on that. Whatever. It weren't about to hire a lawyer so we're like okay we'll back off on that whatever it was it wasn't the greatest name anyway but we we got a chuckle out of it uh but yeah i started that at the same time as well and that was sort of uh funneled into uh how i was uh how it was making my living right we had a patreon right right right right all right i'm gonna uh let i mentioned earlier that there was a gentleman who was willing to drive to peterborough i think he did he finally at some point because he made this he looked me in the eyes and he said look i'm willing to do this i wasn't gonna make him do it but he was willing to do it which was really cool and then at some point between then and now he

went to google maps and he decided to find out and when he realized like he was like i don't know he realized it was like four hours of driving. I think he gently, you know, wanted to, you know, back out and renege on the deal, but I wasn't going to hold him to it anyway.

But that gentleman's name is Steve Cole. And here's a nice note from Steve. I first met Stoughton at a pitch talks event when I went there to apologize to him

for being a dick on Twitter. He was very gracious and forgiving and actually invited us out to join them for post event drinks. Of course, being extremely shy, I didn't go, but that's neither here nor there. Here's his question. This is Steve's question. I have run across Andrew at various pitch talks events. Oh, maybe I wasn't supposed to read that part. Okay. Anyway, maybe that was like, okay. Very nice.

Yeah, it was nice. I read it. I'm sorry, Steve. I have run across Andrew at various Pitch Talks events years ago. As a matter of fact, one of our earliest events was we went to feature Andrew and Jeremy Taggart, who's also an FOTM, Jeremy Taggart from Our Lady Peace. My most memorable Pitch Talks evening was when Shulman was on stage and Buck Martinez showed up, heckled him, and was invited up on stage to tell stories. and Buck Martinez showed up, heckled him, and was invited up on stage to tell stories. Buck had clearly been out on the town for the evening and was, let's say, fairly loose, in quotes.

Another Pitch Talks highlight was the appearance of Jesse Goldberg Strassler, at the time the Jays' double-A announcer, who nobody knew, but he ended up blowing the crowd away. I was wondering if Andrew has any interesting Pitch Talks stories or any particularly memorable Pitch Talks stories or any particularly memorable Pitch Talks memories. So I'll let you address that specific question there

and then there's a PS from Steve I'm going to read after you tell us about your Pitch Talks stories. Sure, yeah. Pitch Talks were great. I really always enjoyed those. There was a really thirst from the community of people, of Blue Jays fans,

to just go and hear people tell stories and hear people talk about the game. I don't know if I was at the Buck one or if I was maybe extremely hungover and not really functioning well. There was definitely one where I was on stage for that.

You've got to live up to the part a little bit. But no, the, the one that I really remember, or the one that is like dearest to me, they did one at the Phoenix, which is like a huge venue. For Tensure Barn Street. Yeah. And, and, you know, it was like, it was just a thrill to be like, okay, we're in the green room. We're back where all the bands hang out. And I, you know, it's, it's like terrifyingly filthy uh because that's what that's what those

places are like um but at some point like i i did i think mark mark shapiro was there or ross atkins was there um but i just i just remember at some point um there was like all the guests because it was a big line of guests. I mean, you had to have a lot of like pulling power to fill a place like that, which they did. I don't know if it's full, full, but like just even to, even to think that you can do an event like a baseball speaking series at a place like the Phoenix is wild to me. But eventually like everybody was, was up on stage or, or they invited everybody

up or, or people kind of went, came and went from the green room. Uh, and it was me and Jesse Litch just sitting there crushing beers, Jesse Litch, former Blue Jays pitcher. Uh, and we just kind of like, as the room empties out and it's just like the two of us sitting on like opposite couches, just like, well, I guess we're hanging out. like opposite couches, just like, well, I guess we're hanging out. The first thing I'm like, oh yeah, I did this, did this site called called drunk Jays fans. And he was just like, oh yeah, I remember that one. I'm like, oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Oh, that's the worst. Like when you forget, like these are real people. And sometimes you write like, you know, fair criticism, like fair criticism. And then at some point, I don't know, I'll let you finish finish except i'll get like if he's i'll meet somebody who'll be like tell me something i wrote about them in 2004 or something and i'm like okay well that's you know it's like you never realize one day these people are going to be in a room drinking with you but go ahead what are you going to say yeah well i was going to say i mean i don't know if all the criticism was fair i mean that was our our point at the at the start was to be as brash as possible, to put it mildly.

Some of it I don't mind. I was being kind. It isn't accessible on the internet anymore. But yeah, he was really good natured about it. And we ended up, you know, we sat there for like 40 minutes. I don't know what the hell happened to everybody else. But it was me and jesse litch hanging out and i think he'd been he'd been coaching like in the philippines or something like that like with the national team or so

somewhere in that part of the world um and was just i mean it was just an affable guy which is kind of like he was a guest at one point during the show and uh just kept hanging out there was another actually where where there's this bar uh there's this bar on dundas called lucky shrike that used to be the press club and i was like i was like like spinning records playing like old soul records after the show one time and like uh and somehow pat henkin ended up coming to stupid lucky strike on Dundas. Wow. And like Paul Quantrill, they were there at some pitch talks thing as well,

which had nothing to do with me, but I got to hang out with those guys for a while, took an Uber across town with them, because this was happening in the East End somewhere. Right. Which was like, you know, that was crazy, you know, for like a self-professed scumbag who sort of like fell into this whole line of work and world.

It was something else. I relate. So I relate to everything you're saying because you basically, you just did this thing. Like you just started doing this thing and then you became this guy who, you know, writes for this thing. And then fast forward, blah blah you and hankin are kind of shooting the breeze or whatever like it's sort of like how did i get here like i want to do like a talking head

song or like like strange it ever as like how did i get here but it's like you have to kind of like it's like i don't terrible analogy maybe but like the frog doesn't know it's boiling or whatever. Like it's sort of like, it's like, you know, you can't get there. We had to go through all this, you know, this tunnel of shit to come out clean on the other side or whatever.

We'll discuss how clean it is, but I want to get back to pitch talks for a minute. Cause I got more. We're just warming up here. The, uh, PS from Steve was on a related note. He writes pitch talks was killed by a few factors.

Sportsnet banning their employees was a big factor. I want to touch on that again in a minute. Then COVID plus they got, and this is Steve's opinion. Plus they got too big, et cetera. My followup question would be, does Andrew think the pitch talks format can be revived and thrive?

And is he willing to take on the project? I think it's a great format i i would hope that it can i know that they're doing uh my co-host uh on blue jays happy hour nick ashbourne uh does a pitch talks uh um podcast now with uh with the zooms uh andrew zuber who like started off him, and Jake Goldsby, who was on Degrassi. He's an FOTM. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Jake's awesome. Jake was like our intern at one point. That's how we kind of broke in. Zoobs

and Jake, the score was like, we got interns. They'll do stuff for you. I don't know. Okay, let's go to Bar Wellington and discuss this. I used to listen to his interns uh they'll do stuff for you i don't know okay let's go let's go to bar wellington okay disgusting i used to listen to his uh his podcast with blake murphy uh columbia house party right yeah yeah blake's awesome too there's uh blake's an fotm too andrew you're in good company here another score guy right well and there i mean we have so much stuff i want to talk to you about man but like the whole state of the fan 590 like i'm gonna hold on to that okay so let's let's let's

get through this pitch talks thing because i just want to share this right so i had ashley dock before ashley docking was on the fan 590 morning show by the way hebsey thinks he counted it up he thinks there's been 47 iterations of that morning show in the 30-year history of the fan which i think is wild but he says he's done the math so anyway ashley docking was there for a bit you might remember but before that she would she did a pitch talks and you mentioned you know drinking the beers at pitch talks i think the the mix of uh beer and pitch talks was a was dangerous because i am of the opinion that the reason Kelly Gruber was not invited to the 1992 World Series reunion

stems from, and you might agree with me, but stems from his appearance at a pitch talks where he might have had one too many pops and was misogynist with Ashley Docking. Do you remember this incident? I wasn't at that one, but I think you're 100% correct that that's why he wasn't uh wasn't around yeah um I certainly heard about it after the fact well actually so so I had Ashley on and of course I asked her about it and then when I was promoting

the show on Twitter you know what Twitter's like like you need people you want people to click so you're sort of like sometimes you mention things that are talked about that are uh sexy now i don't know if sexy the right way but sensational like that and uh ashley wrote me a note like upset that i was like mentioning that but at the time it was literally the biggest thing to ever happen ashley talking like it's like the uh 700 pound gorilla in the room like the whole idea like not to mention it i don't know how you it it's like when Erica M was invited on Toronto mic one time and she said that she would come on, but she didn't want to talk about much music. And I told her like, maybe we'll do it another day. Like I can't have you Erica M on Toronto mic unless we talk about much music, because that's like the biggest

thing you did for this, uh, this, this audience. Anyway, Ashley docking Kelly Gruber at pitch talks. Um, I don't know if that had much to do with sportsnet pulling their people or if it was just that sportsnet wanted to start their own version of pitch talks and this was like competition but it must have been tough i'd think to when you get rid of like most of our baseball people work for sportsnet in this market absolutely true yeah no i i think that had a huge thing to do with it i think it was i mean we haven't seen it because of covid but i i just i saw uh you know elliot and jeff merrick are doing a little tour like the same circuit the boston pizza circuit that they literally did

pitch to i did a pitch talk so here in peterborough when i before i lived here right um yeah uh i i think that had a lot to do with it too uh And yeah, the beer thing was also, you know, it was a very informal atmosphere, which I can understand why. And by the way, you're speaking to a guy who, not only is this show sponsored by a craft brewery, good family run business, they're fiercely independent. Thank you, Great Lakes.

And I enjoy very much drinking a a cold Great Lakes or two but everything in moderation the the danger comes when you're not moderating your uh you know and maybe we'll talk about I have another question about this later which we're gonna get to but anyway regardless uh Sportsnet polled their people and pitch talks not sure what the status is but you know post covid but if you and i want to if you want i have these tmlx events if you want to uh combine our events maybe together we can have a tmlx uh pitch talks variant we'll have to give it a nice shiny new name of course but i think people would come out so we can can talk about that later. I think that would be great.

I know that Ashley being there definitely was an attempt to, it was really a very male-dominated panel situation. Sausage fest. That was complained about for a very, very long time. I would hope that if someone revives it, that is that sort of topic. Did we ever learn, like what, why did Ashley, why was she removed from the Fan 590 Morning Show after such a short run? Did we ever learn what happened or was that one of those untold stories?

That's not one I have any insight into. I have no idea. All right, we'll move on. I'm asking the tough questions here today. So, and again, you mentioned Blue Jays Nation, right? This is, you worked with Nation Network to launch Blue Jays Nation. We talked about all that, I suppose.

But I guess I'm going to get you to the athletic here. So is that next in the Andrew Stojan timeline? That's after Blue Jays Nation, yeah. I left Blue Jays Nation. I was freelancing for the athletic and then the opportunity came to go there, to, to go there full time. So, uh, that was much better money than Blue Jays Nation was able to pay. So the, the decision was, was made for me essentially.

Amazing. And at that time, if I remember correctly, this is around the time when, you know, people like, I know post media killed their sports department. Like they merged with the sun and then people like John Lott were suddenly out of work or whatever. So what's your, what is your relationship like with John Lott and what role did you play in getting him to the athletic?

None, but I had him at, at Blue Jays nation. Okay. Blue Jays nation. Right. Yeah. He was working there and he left there for the athletic.

And you know, I, I know John, I'd not, I mean, I, I've certainly don't know John as much as some of the people who are you know more who've been for years around the team and

uh you know and I know John's taught courses I like have incredible respect for John and always you know loved his work and and and I you know when I was at Blue Jays Nation I had a small freelance budget and was like okay this is something is something that I, uh, that I want to, to, you know, make use of. And, and, and like I was kind of caught in that cause I was, like I said earlier, I was doing national post stuff and videos and that went, the merging of those rooms that went away. That was part of the, uh, the impetus to go to, to, to, uh, Blue Jays nation. Um, and yeah, I had Richard Lee Sam doing like, uh,

who now is one of the blue jay social folks who you can you can read a great toronto star piece about uh blue jay social media uh which is like they do they do a tremendous job that this piece just came out and had him there among among other people but yeah john was uh uh i was just like we'll pay you money to do a weekly thing um and then eventually the athletic was like we're gonna pay you full to do a weekly thing. And then eventually the athletic was like, we're going to pay you to do full-time coverage. So he left and then soon after I joined him. So this is where Birds All Day is your podcast with the athletic.

This was, well, they also bought that because that was the one that Drew and I started. Right. That was, okay. That's the name you ended up with. Right. Yeah. That was basically the one that Drew and I started. That's the name you ended up with. That was basically the Drunk Jays Fans Podcast. Birds all day. Now we've got you to The Athletic.

It only took us an hour. Here we are. What was it like working at The Athletic? I was a bit of a fish out of water. I did not. A lot of straight-laced kind of folks there, and it's serious journalism and awesome people. The Canadian side, I can't say enough good about. It was definitely different for me to be, you know, okay,

everything has to go through an editor. We're pitching stuff. You know, I was used to being like, okay, I wake up and I'm like, what am I going to say today? Which presented some difficulties at time, but yeah, it was completely fine. I had had a very nice and productive time at The Athletic. I mean, that was through the pandemic. I really, you know, yeah, it was a place to work. Who is your boss there?

Well, Myrtle obviously like ran sort of the Canadian side of things. And Mike Cormick, who's now at, I don't know what they call the bedding vertical from True North or whatever, but I think, but I believe he's there. And at first there wasn't a lot of oversight and it was, it was very much a more, a bloggier kind of spirit I felt. And then, and then they, you know, they start looking to sell it. And there was eventually a little more top down kind of management going on

there, which was less fun, I think, than the early days of it. Here's the million dollar question andrew you ready and shout out to sean fitzgerald who he and when they know when they launched the athletic he and james myrtle came over kind of to announce excitedly to talk about the new venture the athletic and i'm glad they're still around because a lot of good people are employed by the athletic but you are no longer with the athletic. So the true, well, I'll read Samuel's question and then we'll get the real talk from you. Okay.

And I can't remember if he tweeted this or not. So you might've seen it if you tweeted it, but here it is. Was Mr. Stoughton when they call you Mr. You know, it's going to be serious. Okay.

This is serious. Okay. Was Mr. Stoughton relieved of his duties at the athletic following the episode of his podcast with special guest, Steven Brunt, who's also an FOTM, but I'm adding that part, but we're back to Samuel, in which he sounded quite inebriated. That did happen in quick succession, yeah.

It's okay. Now, he used big words like inebriated, and I am an English major from U of T. I know what inebriated and i i am an english major from u of t i know what inebriated means but i am going to uh ask it differently so you you had uh you got uh you're you know you're mr drunk chase fans so to live to the to the uh the brand live up to the brand you had too much to drink and you did your podcast with step Brunt who's amazing he's no longer with Sportsnet by the way and uh which you know and uh because of your drunkenness on this episode the the athletics said goodbye to you I wouldn't exactly put it that way um the the there were

that did come up because yeah I did that that was not uh it was probably not my finest podcast um but did you know you were did you know i'm curious because i always know when i've had one too many and then i'm like okay mike oh yeah so you were aware okay okay yeah also had a you know had a producer who probably could have been like well let's not post this but uh that's neither here nor there but also i was fired uh without cause uh and they haven't replaced me um so without cause means they have to sever you right like did they did yeah so okay good that's good some of the stuff i my lawyer would probably tell me not to be talking about but uh because it's just between friends here no uh no one's listening. Yeah, and I don't know. So, yes, I guess that was the impetus for it,

which was a bit odd to me, considering that this was basically the Drunk J's podcast that they bought. And I was probably a little too drunk on that podcast. I'll admit that. But did you say something? Was it just that you had one too many pops? You were a bit giggly? I think you can probably was it just that you had one too many pops you were a bit like maybe uh i think you probably hear it i think they didn't like that i that i admitted it on twitter also um huh but yeah i don't know i never really i did not really get a straight answer about that

i didn't get uh like hey you're doing okay i didn't get a lot of stuff out of that except uh um here's this podcast that we bought from you uh to do the way that you uh you usually do it and uh i guess they didn't like that anymore and i'm getting i have not heard this podcast by the way uh but steven brunt he i mean i know him well enough he's been over here a couple of times we we exchange emails often including recently when he announced he was no longer of sports net, but I can't imagine Steven Brunt being at all offended by this. Like, so this isn't, he was like,

what the hell? Like, like that was fine. That's like his jam. I think, I think he'd be into it probably. You know? Yeah.

I've been, I've been Steven. I'll, I'll email with Steven from time to time as well. He's, he's great. He's always been a great supporter. And I mean, he had been on the Drunk Jays podcast

when it was certainly a little bit weirder than what the athletic was. Well, and that's a great point too, which is that because, you know, this is like, I know what it's like. I started a podcast. You're on it right now. So it's like, I feel like I can have one too many great lakes

and we can, you you know shoot the breeze on this but i mean i did a podcast for canada cabana guys we all got high on my back deck right like it's a more informal it's not like radio you're not making a hit that's the format yeah i mean that's not uncommon which is why i didn't really i did i you know i did like i said i did think i had a couple too many uh and maybe not one too many, maybe more than one too many, but, uh, but really didn't think anything of it.

Well, I'm sorry this happened to you. Uh, it's interesting. They haven't replaced my own dumb fault. So let's not be, uh, well,

let's not be too sorry. You can get comfy in those. I can trust me. You're doing a podcast with Steven Brunt. You can get a little relaxed and comfy. It's not quite the same as, Oh, I'm going to be jumping on a CBC news world in a minute to talk about the pennant race or whatever, where it's like, okay, maybe, you know, it's a different the same as oh i'm gonna be jumping on a cbc news world in a minute to talk

about the pennant race or whatever where it's like okay maybe you know it's a different vibe right like so i think yeah i think it's especially when it is a part of your brand like i mean let's face it you are famous for drunk jays fans like this is uh drunk in the name of the title but okay drunk jays fans you're living up to expectations here. So I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm just checking out. I have all these things coming in here. Okay, so they didn't replace you with The Athletic. So I've never subscribed to The Athletic, but Hebsey did.

And Hebsey and I, we chat once a week for an hour. We actually do it live on his YouTube channel, and we record our chats. That's how transparent we are. But one of his big bones to pick with the Athletic is how he finds their Blue Jays coverage subpar. Like a lot of people wish that you were back at the Athletic because you offered some great insight. They didn't replace you.

I'm not sure who's covering the Jays right now for the Athletic, but they're being undercovered considering the demand for the analysis about this baseball team. Like it's a damn shame. It is. I mean, I can tell you one person doesn't want to be back at the athletic and

that's, or doesn't want me back there. And that's me. I mean, I, I, I, I'm wary of burning bridges and stuff.

Cause lots of great people work there. We already banned from Rogers and bell. Okay. So there's not, those are the biggest bridges we have. True. I suppose, but also none of this, stuff because lots of great people work there we already banned from rogers and bell okay so those are the biggest bridges we have true i suppose but also none of this that happened there with uh from my understanding which i've never really talked to anybody about but just the sense that none of this was the canadian side this was all like the american side and the the top down kind of stuff that they uh they started sort of implementing um you know like there was

an algorithm that was like, okay, if you don't hit this many number of posts in a month, then you get flagged and then you have to go into a program that helps you, that they're pointing you towards how to get more subscriptions. And that kind of stuff all kind of crept into it. So I've been much, much happier away from stuff like that. Not from the colleagues or the pay, certainly. much, much happier away from stuff like that.

Not from the colleagues or the pay, certainly. But it's, you know, like I said, I never felt super comfortable there anyway. But as for right now, I know that Caitlin McGrath, a colleague of mine, she was always there. She started as an editor and then came on the Blue Jays beat. She does great work.

I know she's just gone through COVID. She had some stuff this summer so that, you know, in her life that she had to deal with beat. She does great work. I know she's just gone through COVID. She had some stuff this summer so that in her life that she had to deal with that I think has made it so that the coverage was a little bit lesser. And had they had more people covering the Blue Jays, that gap wouldn't have been as noticeable. But she does great work. Caitlin's super awesome. But yeah, I think John, like John Lott, not long after they let me go announced his retirement and neither of us have been replaced over there. It was, you know, in my mind, my exit, it was, I gave him a convenient excuse to

do some cost cutting that they were kind of interested in. And then that had been for a while, you know, that docked everyone's pay during the pandemic and they bought my podcast and paid me made us whole in terms of what we lost on the Patreon. Cause we were like, well, if we sell this to you, or if we move this over, we're we're, we're dumping this revenue stream for ourselves. And they did that for a year's worth of the patreon and then it was back to uh whatever you know then that was gone then the podcast was just theirs um which you know that's how business works sometimes but also i was like okay it feels like

it feels like my paycheck just keeps declining over time here so as inflation goes up and your paycheck goes down and you're working twice as hard here. But listen, I hope this is a, I mean, I've never, I was never my best friend there. So I don't want to like cry about it. And also, you know, I don't want to say, I mean, those, those are true facts. So there's no problem with me saying it, but yeah, had a lot of great times there and awesome people and much happier now. And I hope that talking about this is at least a little maybe therapeutic.

I don't know if it's how you're feeling here. We'll see if my mom listens or not. Well, let me know if she does. Okay. So because so many good FOTM sent in questions, I'm going to actually just start reading these questions and then we'll listen to your reply here. But Chris writes, and some of them are kind of out of order now that we've just got you leaving the athletic and we're going to find out what you're up to. Now, of course, we talked about your bat flip, the bat flip sub stack people can subscribe to. Chris writes, how big an adjustment was it going from podcasting with Drew for all those years to Nick, and then he puts in parentheses, for the record, I think Drew's and Andrew's podcasts this year have both been excellent.

Not a huge transition, really. I mean, Nick's just a sharp guy, so obviously the chemistry's a little different. Drew and I have been doing it for so, so long, and Nick and I haven't done it in person because I'm at Peterborough, and Drew and I had that. Like he would come to my house and we would crush beers or I would crush beers and he would politely drink one. You know, that's the product that was purchased. Cough, cough. But no, it's been great. Nick's been awesome. And it's been a great transition.

And, you know, the podcast space, people really seem to enjoy it, as you know. And it's been a great transition and um you know the the podcast space people really seem to enjoy it as you know um and it's it's been a uh it's been great i like nick i didn't know what i was going to do podcast wise uh because true obviously stayed on with the athletic still does great stuff on his podcast like like the questioner says uh working with ricky romero which is amazing um and also caitlin but yeah like i, yeah, just chatting with Ricky Romero about baseball every week. That's, that's pretty awesome. But, but, but yeah, Nick and I, neither of us really, cause Nick had been at Yahoo and had done podcast stuff there.

I believe with JPR and CB and, and, and, and various others. But whatever two seasons ago, 29, I don't, I don't even remember when we started it. It whatever, two seasons ago, I don't even remember when we started it. It must've been 2020 or no, it must've been 2021. Neither of us had a new podcast and he just said, it was like, I was like, what am I going to do? Like, I got to do something here. Like that's, it's money on the table. Right. Cause especially like moving to Substack and got to give people a little more incentive than I sometimes do to go and pay up for a subscription. And he approached me and I was

like, oh, that's perfect. I'd kind of called him negative Nick in pieces a little bit because I try to stay on the optimistic side of things, but sometimes hard-hitting analysis doesn't get to take sides like that. And Nick does a great job with that. He does a lot of great writing for Sportsnet and for True North or, again, whatever the hell that betting vertical from the star is. And, yeah, he just approached me. And it was just like, oh, that's a perfectly natural move. And Nick's great. And it's worked like, oh, that's a perfectly natural move. And Nick's great.

And it's worked out really nicely. He's been an awesome partner to do it with. Istanbul Leafs, this person's handle on Twitter, writes, working independently looks to be the future of sports media. Are you able to make a living with your sub stack and podcast? Yeah. Surprisingly, yes. No, your sub stack and podcast yeah i i surprisingly yes no it's uh the sub stack in the podcast uh it somehow works um amazing you know it right i wasn't sure yeah yeah i wasn't sure it was gonna i mean don't don't don't get my don't get the smile in my

voice and the surprise of my voice wrong like i still would love everybody listening to subscribe and to pay me money like it's not i'm not making the money that i was before which as i probably shouldn't have mentioned did seem like it was declining there a little bit uh in the first place but uh i mean peterborough as as expensive as the housing has become here uh still not as expensive as living in the city so that that doesn't that helps a little bit but uh but yeah no uh that's all i do that's uh the podcast the writing uh the watching of the blue jays stuff like this um we'll we'll see like i say we'll see how it goes i've never planned anything so i'm just gonna keep doing what i'm doing and hopefully uh hopefully just keeps getting bigger and better.

That's how it's felt. It's definitely felt like people's credit cards expire and sometimes they don't renew them. And it's like if everybody who started, who at one point was paying me, was continuing to pay me, then I would feel real, real good about it. But it's still a grind and I probably should be pumping out a grind and I probably should be

pumping out more content. I probably should be doing that right now, but I'm sure I'll find a way to make this into some content. And yeah, it's been great. It's a much happier existence not having to, not that I didn't love my editors and all the colleagues, but it's nice to just do

what is kind of the blogging format again. And as you've reminded us a few times there's no five-year plan for andrew stodin right like you're you're you run on uh it sounds like you run on guttural instinct like i mean i would like to think that if there was some planning involved i would have been a little bit farther ahead at this point uh yeah no it's i've never been interested in climbing or whatever. I don't know. I'm very pleased at the fact that I can just do what I do and be that guy. And I'll milk that for as long as I can.

Yeah, like if you just step back and say, hey, I watch the Toronto Blue Jays play baseball and then I write and talk about it. And that's my job. Meanwhile, there's guys working you know I talked to a rock star the other day who's working uh takes a shift in Hamilton at the uh the steel plant or whatever the steel mill there like like you you've got it man this is it this is the goal to to live writing and talking about baseball it's amazing I'm sitting here all jealous of you like because even cause even I, like I have

the podcast, sure. And it's a revenue stream, but I produce many other podcasts in order to cobble together the living I need to make. But then again, I do live in Toronto, but still, and I have two kids in university, which I should start getting my Patreon going. But anyway, enough about me. I mean, I did get my smart serve at some point just in case but i got it too i got it too i served beer for great lakes at the rib fest in centennial park just before the pandemic yeah tough though centennial park love centennial park yeah batting cages there yeah i know go karts you're right go karts batting is a golf course that's uh the place to be absolutely you can ski there i think in the winter too i believe so yeah hey this question i gotta get to because there's a guy

and i want to i never talk about him on podcast but i think i'll address it but there's a gentleman in uh edmonton alberta named matt laden and i've been getting emails and tweets from matt forever okay and i get them on almost on the daily I think I just to let people know like I've chatted with a relative of Matt about Matt and Matt Matt is a guy like I have a lot of time for some people think he's rude I don't think he's aware he's being rude I really do think based on what I've learned about Matt in my conversations with people who know and love Matt, that Matt doesn't have this necessarily the self-awareness of any rudeness sometimes when he asks questions about, you know,

replacing somebody who just stepped down because they're battling cancer or something like that. Like, so he's unintentionally rude and some people want to tell him to F off on Twitter. I've got notes from people, FOTMs are like, and I'm,

I've got all the time in the world for Matt and Matt, you can DM me every people, FOTMs, who are like, and I'm, I've got all the time in the world from Matt, and Matt, you can DM me every day, all day long if you like, and I'm always going to reply. But so I'm going to read Matt's question for you because he asked me to think 20 times

to make sure I ask you this question, okay? And every time, Matt, I promise I'm going to ask you a question. Okay, so hi there, Matt Layden in Edmonton.

I have a question for Andrew Stodin. Hi, Andrew Stodin. Any chance, since you are covering Blue Jays baseball, Sportsnet will hire some people next year to cover Blue Jays baseball? Because I think it will inject new spirit. So the spirit of what Matt's asking here is, is there any chance of you joining the Sportsnet team

next year to cover Blue Jays baseball? Because he thinks you've got a great spirit that could be injected into the Sportsnet roster. Well, that's lovely to hear. Thank you, Matt. I wouldn't rule it out, but I don't think that what I think about that matters.

I would gladly take money from Sportsnet. I work for the National Post. Clearly, I'm just a mercenary out here. Yeah, I think everybody who works at Sportsnet does a really good job. I mean, that's sort of an easy thing to say. And obviously, you know, like you said earlier, Rogers, everybody who covers baseball in the city just about is working for Rogers. And I'm sure that i know that that comes up for those folks all the time but uh but you know art and shy ben like those guys do great work dan and the the tv side uh you know can get a little curmudgeonly when it's both buck and pat i find

but uh but also those are those are gems of uh joe siddle's analysis is great um yeah i mean i think sportsnet does a really great job i i don't know that it needs a new spirit injected. I'd love to see them have Ben Wagner on the road trips, though. Yeah, agreed, 100%. Now, Vicky, this relates nicely to what you just said there about Sportsnet, but Vicky writes in, please, oh, please get, I think this is a reply to Matt's tweet, actually.

Please, oh, please get someone new in there. Tonight, September 22nd, we're back to Tabler and Martinez with no Dan Schulman to make things tolerable. And Tabler is babbling Martinez as bad as ever. Mute TV time. Now that's Vicky's opinion. I will say, as a guy who watches a lot of Blue Jays baseball, that when Dan's calling

the game and Buck is doing color, that's great. And when Buck is calling the game and Tabler is doing color, it is less great. Yeah, I mean, great. Two each their own, I suppose.

What do you say? What are your thoughts? You watch a lot of Blue Jays baseball. Yeah, I mean, Dan is incredible and I think he elevates everybody who is there in the booth with him. I've never been the hugest Tabby fan and I think that this summer he's been great and I think he elevates everybody who uh who is there in the booth with him I think him you know Tabby is I've never been the hugest Tabby fan and I think that you know this summer he's been he's been great and I think that that Dan probably has a lot to do with that not to disparage Buck and obviously everybody loves that Buck is back and and Buck is like the voice of the

team and and and you know I I think I wrote for the athletic you know he was basically like the face of the franchise for a while in that weird period between, you know, Donaldson Stroman. And like when Vlad showed up or, or, you know, the, there was a time when, when like Buck was, was what the Toronto blue Jays are and, and, and deservedly so, but they can, they can get a little old school I feel and can get on their hobby horses a little bit. I feel that this question, I don't know what the hell date it is, but like,

were they playing the rays because you hear a lot about small ball and you hear a lot about the rays. And I know that this question, I don't know how dated it is, but like, were they playing the Rays? Because you hear a lot about small ball and you hear a lot about the Rays. And I know that drives people nuts sometimes. And we probably get it with the Yankees too. But I, you know, I think that, you know, when Buck had to step away for a bit this year, we really saw what we had missed. And I think a lot of people and i myself felt like uh you know

we we tried them a little bit sometimes and and you know on twitter all you know the calling him teos Hernandez i'll tweet pretty much anytime he does that with and there are foibles there and there but but it's part of the it's part of the whole package which is really charming and really and really good and uh i i you know i would love for Buck and Pat to continue on doing for a very long time. I think that also when that's the only thing you listen to and the only broadcast you consume, you don't notice how good it is compared to a lot of the other broadcasts. I think that there are markets where it is not cared about as much.

And you never hear a bad word about either of those guys either. So yeah, kudos to them. I do love Dan. I do think he elevates everybody. But yeah, Buck and Pat, I've got time for them. I've got a lot of time for them. All right, a different Dan. I don't think this is Dan Schulman, but Dan PB writes in,

what's the biggest difference covering the Jays now compared to when you first started blogging about this team seems like the appetite for jay's coverage online has grown quite a lot since then yeah i mean it's a competition really i mean there's just so many talented people doing it i mean that's this maybe that sounds like a corny answer but like we were like the we were like the only game in town in terms of like somebody who would like say shit in a thing about the toronto Jays. And now there's, they're everywhere now, you know? Like, I mean, that was sort of what we were doing at first.

Like that was a response to the fact that we did not, did not really vibe on the the content that was being cranked because the only content that about the Blue Jays, the only coverage was, you know, the star in the globe and the sun in the post. And, and, and it was just the digital coverage was still really in the globe and the sun in the post. The digital coverage was still really in its infancy, I thought. Now there's just a ton of people who are trying to break into the business and weren't as fortunate as me to come along at such a time as to fall ass backwards into it.

A lot of talented people. It's great to watch you know there's a site blue jays aggregator that uh that sort of replaced the rss feeds for me uh because it just collects everything that's written about the team and all the podcasts and all that stuff and uh you know you can marvel at it some days like there's just a ton of stuff being cranked out maybe not as much as there should be but um you keep setting up the next question like i feel like you can see my notes here can you see my nose here confirm or deny can you see my notes here no no no i'm just insightful apparently well eric writes in if

possible i'm interested in how andrew would rate his experience using substack for aspiring baseball writers and content creators does he think this think the subscription-based newsletters are a better way to go than the traditional blog templates or applying to sites like Jay's Journal, Blue Bird Banter, et cetera? What would you say to Eric? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of great success stories like Keegan Matheson came from Jay's Journal, I believe.

You know, there's value there. A lot of that stuff is sort of content farming and you're not going to get well compensated. You're probably not going to get compensated if nobody knows who you are and you're starting a sub stack either. I'm fortunate enough to have had an audience to trade for work, basically.

That's what my career has been. And that's why it's sort of endured despite various moves for various reasons to different platforms. basically that's what my career has been and that's why it's sort of endured despite uh various moves for various reasons to uh to different platforms um substack uh i probably would go another way if i had it to uh to do all over again i think people like it's a well first of all they take 10 which is scandalous uh if you're on ghost it's a non-profit and it uh it does not do that so that's uh yeah that's that's that's a tough pill to swallow some days when it's just like i mean what what am i getting for that i don't i don't know because i'm you know i make a i make a live like a living wage

coming in off that but it's skimmed off the top by uh the fine folks at substack um but the platform is clean and it looks nice and it's really easy to use. And I hope that, yeah, that more people are going to be able to do this and this becomes more common, I guess. It is kind of like fragmentary and we see in other media where that kind of goes, like how streaming has kind of like curved back towards, you know, looking a lot like cable again. And, and so I don't, you know,

I'm not, I'm certainly not going to claim to know anything about where the industry is going and that, but I do know that it seems to be a good delivery device for my work and a good way for me to. It gets the job done. Yeah. If you could do it again,

it looks nice. You would, you would, it's interesting. You would use a ghost as your CMS. If you could do this again i think so yeah i think so i've thought about switching it i mean i don't i don't like the politics of some of the sub stack people like what what they what they seem to value like as a company but uh uh and i don't particularly like supporting that but also it's just it's it's now a comfort thing where where i don't particularly like supporting that, but also it's just, it's now a comfort thing where, where I don't feel like,

I don't know that it would be a great idea. It's too precarious right now for me to go messing about with how that income. Yeah. You can't afford to break something. And I know what you mean. Cause I was on, so Toronto mic.com, which has never been subscription based. So it's a bit of a different animal, but it forever ran on movable type forever. Okay. Like I, I delayed moving it cause it was a big, big fucking job.

And there was, you know, 10,000 entries and there was like a hundred thousand comments and I didn't want to lose anything. And the move, so it was a painful move, but I eventually, I realized I actually have to get off movable type.

Like I have to get off this. And I chose ghost like after a lot of like, I didn't want to do this again. And I'd spent a lot of time looking at all the different uh options for this and uh you know of course wordpress and all these things and i know everybody uses wordpress but i never fell in love with wordpress but ghost ended up being what i what i moved to anyway it's just interesting to see you hear you reference ghosts yeah uh i don't know see me i don't even know what uh what people value somebody because i don't know what ghosts capabilities are in terms of like the mail stuff i don't i i hate email i

don't right which is weird because i'm like the vast majority of people that are reading my stuff are doing so from from emails and signing up for the email list and that's sort of like the thing and i'm like oh man i'll i'll i'd love to go if i could i'd go weeks without looking at my stupid email box I just I don't I don't like it you can find me on Twitter that's where I live um but but uh but I think people really value that too and I that's that's part of also what I wouldn't want to break because I I think people really like that I don't really know enough about ghost but uh but yeah that 10% yeah I know that yeah yeah I'm sorry to hear that. Now this has been the dude. This is honestly,

I knew so little. I mean, I knew the thing. I knew you were here, you were there, you had this podcast and you had this podcast and then you were this and then you were at the athletic and then you weren't at the athletic. And then I was hearing rumors about why you're not at the athletic,

but I'm like, it's amazing though. You came here, you, you took all the questions, you know, you didn't tell me to fuck off once. You're like, I'm going to answer this guy's questions. Uh, Tobias Vaughn did write, uh, you came here you you took all the questions you know you didn't tell me to fuck off once you're

like i'm gonna answer this guy's questions uh tobias vaughn did right uh can you ask stoden if he still has nightmares about lucas mora oh god yeah i do this is uh i had to google him so i will admit like i got the question and i googled lucas and uh tell us maybe for those who don't know who's lucas mora lucas mora playeda maybe still plays for Tottenham Hotspur, scored the goal that Ajax, the team that I follow, Ajax Amsterdam, were minutes, seconds away from going to a Champions League final, inexplicably, improbably. Eric ten Hag was the manager, he's now at Manchester United.

Part of what has lifted him to that job was the work that he did with Ajax, who I've been a fan of since forever because my family's from the Netherlands and my dad is. And that's sort of the center of the universe there. No disrespect to Pace Van Eindhoven and Feyenoord. But yeah, Lucas Moura scored a stupid goal to send Ajax out of the Champions League. It was a tough one. It was a real tough

one. I mean, there are goals I hate more, but that's up there. I was going to ask you about this, and then we'll see if you have a thought on it, but recently, Matthew Ross, who's a Montreal guy, I actually, way

back when I was just like a little blogger or whatever, I would appear on his show on whatever team, whatever, I can't remember anymore, but whatever sports radio in Montreal, I would pop on and talk about Leafs and Habs stuff or whatever. But Matthew Ross, he made comments about Alejandro Kirk's hustle there and his body type, and maybe this wasn't a good look. And he got trounced on Twitter like it was tough to watch and then Matthew Ross deleted his account and then he issued an apology

but what say you Andrew Stoughton about Matthew Ross v. Alejandro Kirk? Yeah I mean well from what I understand and I watched some of it but not a guy that I followed I ended up wading into it because he had talked about

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s body type at one point in a similar way in a quote tweet of one of mine. So I was kind of like, well, since I'm in the receipts, here's what this guy, you know. Like he doubled down. He didn't back down until alfanoa really started like like nuking and it was which was which was delightful uh it maybe felt a little bit you know had gone a bit oh too far the other way with the way that he was getting dumped on and

then his apology was just was not great um but yeah it was you know what i read the apology and i think the first paragraph should have been the only paragraph of the apology. Everything after that, I'm like, okay, just, just, you know, you gotta, you gotta know when to hold them and know when to fold them. Well, and especially cause there's a 2009 tweet, which I saw people like replying to the, the apology, where he's quote tweeting me and being like, I hope Vlad,

if he's going to be the face of baseball, gets himself in shape. And it's like, well, so this is a long-term thing for you, which, I mean, I don't agree with any of that shit, but also, I don't know.

That's fine if it's a long-term thing for you, I guess, but also don't say it's not and don't like... All of the reaction to it did you, I guess, but also don't say it's not and don't like all, all of the reaction to, to it did not help the man. And I don't think anybody's particularly upset by it. Now I'm going to publish this episode, like about 10 minutes after we say goodbye, it's going to be in the feed and I'm going to tweet about it,

which means many people will actually hear you before Monday night's Yankees Blue Jays game. And there's a lot of eyeballs on this game, of course, because Aaron Judge sits, I guess he's at 60 right now, and he's coming to town and there's a chance to tie Marist and then break Marist's American League. And I like to call it like the un-performance-enhancing-dr drug uh single season home run record if you will and uh which is exciting actually just the first step i think his first at bat yesterday or the

second i can't remember i had my uh eight-year-old watching it just before bed and i was like please hit like you know at yankee stadium there please hit the uh 61st homer so my eight-year-old can see it because i had hyped it up so much and what you're witnessing and you're gonna see history anyways he took a walk but okay so he's at so so uh anything to say about uh aaron judge and and how you think the jays will do and then i'm gonna uh play some lowest of the low and you are again you're uh now an fotm and you you earned it buddy this was great oh thank you so thank you so much. It's been a blast. I'm still nervous about what I was saying about some other stuff.

But we'll see how that goes. I look forward to your edit requests later today. No, there won't be any edit requests. But no, Aaron Judge, I mean, it is an impressive record, right? Like the, you know, Roger Maris. That was a long, long time ago. So to break a record that old, even though it's the american league record like i kind of don't like how it's the how it's the guy who did it clean the record because that's that's you know i don't the the 60s was full of

was full of greenies people doing you know uppers to uh there have been performance enhancing drugs for a long time i think that it's kind of a weird thing that uh that baseball likes that uh they can sort of scapegoat guys like barry bonds guys like roger clements who are very very easy to scapegoat because they're kind of shitty dudes um for what was a systemic problem and a problem that the league and other media was really complicit in for that time and they kind of you know got religion on it after the fact and and and i i'll i think i'll be really should have to hold its nose like not as even as just an organization but it's a you know the sport in general needs to hold its nose and be like that's our record we let that happen and take some accountability for that and not sort of pretend

that this uh uh that this this erin judge pursuit is is the real record which is kind of like, no, people aren't saying it outright, but I think that's kind of the spirit of a lot of why this is going on. But also, I mean, how many home runs ahead of the next guy? It's an incredible season. He's been unbelievable. And just to get to watch him is pretty awesome for everybody who's going to be there this week. I hope nobody goes nuts trying to catch a ball that they think

they can sell. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. But that's, you know, there were jokes when, when,

you know, somebody was offering it, was offering like a million dollars to, to whoever caught the ball. I don't know how serious that was, but there were jokes online about, you know, Oh,

the Yankees, the bleacher creatures are going to, are going to really take that. And it's like, you know how serious that was, but there were jokes online about, you know, Oh, the Yankees, the bleacher creatures are going to, are going to really take that. And it's like, you know, that's funny, but also in the back of my mind, I'm like, they're going to be in Toronto in like a few days. And I don't know that we're going to be all that much better. I don't know. I heard 2 million.

I think I heard that someone's offering 2 million or something for that ball. The funny thing is Hebsey and I talked about this Friday and I'm like, yeah, I'm holding onto this for the highest bidder and Hebsey's like, and I don't know, I think he was serious because, you know, I don't know if he was just,

you know, trying to get a reaction or whatever, but he went on the record on a show and said like, he'd give it to Aaron Judge for like, if he got to meet Aaron Judge and got like a,

I don't know, a bat or like some souvenir or something and a photo of Aaron, I'm like, are you nuts? Like, are you nuts? Like, this is the league that canceled the 94 world

series like and and it just to me it's like no this is this is business baby strictly business 100 100 i don't know i don't have that many sub stacks i'll take i'll take the money whatever i can get off of that ball yeah absolutely ham so as i play lowest of low i'm curious like uh what are your jams? Like, what genre? Like, what's a band you love? Just give me a taste because at some point maybe you want to return to Toronto Mike and kick out the jams with me. But what does Andrew Stoughton listen to?

Kick out the jams? Like MC5. That's a great band. Stooges, that kind of stuff. Yeah. It was in my wheelhouse. That was kind of the inspiration when I was playing in my days. Varied tastes, of course. But that's what I always come back to.

Funhouse, what a record. So at some point, you might return to Toronto Mike. We can catch up and play your 10 favorite songs of all time and hear why you dig them. Does that sound good? I would love to do it, yeah, absolutely. And I know you're, it's funny here, we wrap up, but you're Mr. Drunk Jays fans who got in trouble for drinking beer during a podcast. I just want to have a beer with you're funny here. We wrap up, but you're, you know, Mr. Drunk Jays fans who got in trouble for,

you know, drinking beer during a podcast. I just want to have a beer with you here, man. Some great lakes. So hopefully we do it in person next time. Yeah, that would be great.

Absolutely. This is fun. And that brings us to the end of our 1118th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Okay, Andrew, tell us your Twitter handle and then remind us

where we can go to subscribe to your sub stack and everything. Sure. It's just my name, Andrew Stoughton. It's S-T-O-E-T-E-N. And you can find online writing at thebatflip.ca. Thebatflip.ca.

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