Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Arash Madani: Toronto Mike'd #148

Episode Date: December 3, 2015

Mike chats with Sportsnet reporter Arash Madani about the many sporting events he's covered, including the Olympics, Superbowl, World Series, Masters, US Open tennis, Stanley Cup, NBA finals, Grey Cup and one night in Honduras. We also talk about the waning popularity of the CFL in Toronto, perceived bias by Rogers reporters covering the Blue Jays, Stephen Brunt and the future of Bobcat.

Welcome to episode 148 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is Sportnet reporter Arash Madani. Welcome. Good to be here, Mike. You know, the first thing out of... Damien Cox did episode 110, and I stopped recording, and the first thing out of his mouth is, you should get a rash by Danny on this podcast. That was the first thing he said to me. Is that what he said?

Yeah. No kidding. So I took it to heart. I did my best to make it happen, and here you are. Well, I appreciate Damien thinking of me, and I appreciate you thinking of me and inviting me on. Another, I was going to say another mutual friend, but I don't know if Damien's a friend of mine. I don't think, we're not meeting for beers or anything, but my friend Andrew Stokely, audio guru.

He really is. Well, I know he's listening, so I have to say that. Yes. And you have to say that, too. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Andrew and I have worked on some Blue Jay games over the years. some Blue Jay games over the years. And I'll tell you where Andrew's work really shown was during the postseason

when Rogers Center went bananas. And to make sure that all works well and comes through on television, Andrew did a terrific job. And he actually sent me a couple of pictures of the meters going bananas after the Bautista home run. Yeah, but, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I'm almost certain he did not work the postseason.

Right, right. There was a Navarro. There are big hits so late down the stretch, like a walk-off home run. You know what it might have been? There are a few examples, but the Russell Martin hit a big homer down the stretch. I think there was a Navarro home run along the way, too.

And Josh Donaldson hit a walk-off on the last day. Was that at the Dome? Yeah, of course. That was a Sunday. Yeah. So there were, yeah, I'm with you. He did take pictures of, like, the meter going nuts on some big hits.

But the sad thing is those guys do great work for all the home games. And then when the postseason arrives, the best part of the season. They got to hand it over. They got to hand it over. And they don't, they go to, I know Andrew went and covered curling, for example. Right.

Because ESPN has, I guess they have their own crew and stuff. Yeah, Fox and TBS come in too. So yeah. So let's not give them too much credit for that, for those Batista bombs at the game five, Batista bomb. Let's not give them too much credit for that. There you go. But I was going to say, said to me almost an exact quote,

but essentially that you're one of the great people in the industry. Oh, that's nice of him to say. So no pressure. I'm going to be the judge of this. You're going to be grilling me? Is that the deal now? We'll see, because I don't know. I'm not so sure about you yet. Okay. It's early on. Terrific. So thanks

for coming on to episode 148. Congratulations on 148 episodes, by the way. I'm exhausted. Right. So it's been, what, three years then? Yeah, it's been about three years. Now, you know, some episodes are actually me and my buddies shooting the shit, as they say.

Oh, okay. Some of them are. Like the last, I recorded yesterday one like that. But more often than not, it's people like yourself, like yourself like interesting media people not necessarily sometimes they're radio people sometimes they're uh like yourself uh and damian cox there's some television people and sometimes it's like i've had the our lady peace drummer and i had ash from uss just interesting people coming in and we just chat nice we just happen to record the chat all right well it's nice to meet you and let just chat. Nice. We just happen to record the chat. All right. Well, it's nice to meet you and let's chat. Let's chat.

So, you know, Toronto Mike, as a handle, kind of rolls off the tongue. And that second T, it's optional. I do Toronto because I feel like that's proper,

but a lot of people say Toronto Mike. But you know, it does not roll off the tongue and it's very, very difficult to say because I tried it a couple of times today. Is Truro Arash. Say it. Truro Arash. See how slow you have to go? it's very very difficult to say because i tried it a couple times today is truro a rash say it

truro a rash see how slow you have to go yeah it's difficult you got to make sure you nail the truro part of it right truro is tough on its own and then following it up with like a vowel like a rash i find it's difficult to come out of the truro and then back into it like the oa doesn't always uh doesn't always resonate. Truro or rash. But Truro's where I grew up. Truro's where I got my start. You are Truro or rash, even though I can't say it.

That's right. A rash from Truro. Yeah. Might be a little easier. That word, that name for a city is just torturous. Truro. It's very difficult.

Right. They should change it. But that's where I got my start. I grew up there. So tell me about, I would say you're the first guest from Truro, but actually Jonathan Torrens, I believe, I believe he lives there now. Does he really?

I believe so. No kidding. So you'd be the second guy. Well, what's crazy about Truro now is when I grew up, there was a real separation between Truro and Halifax. It's about an hour down the highway on Highway 102. in Halifax. It's about an hour down the highway on Highway 102. But now there are so many people that I hear just talking to buddies back home and whatever that are commuting from Truro to Halifax. I mean, Halifax has just spread out. Housing has gotten crazy. You know, there was a distinct difference between Halifax and say, you know, Bedford and Sackville and Bayers Lake.

And, you know, I'm boring people with nova scotia geography but they like it so yeah and and now you know it's still a stretch to say trill is a suburb because it's not but there are still some people making that commute every day so i don't know how much jonathan's doing in halifax or if he's just kicking it and putting the feet up in trill these days. But yeah. So what's it like? I've never been, this is one of my great regrets, and I'm going to rectify this at some point,

but I've never been east of Quebec, essentially. Oh, come on, Mike. I know. Dude. I've been to the west. I've been to the BC and I've done Alberta, although I skipped over a couple, like Manitoba, Saskatchewan, but never been out east. Okay, so I skipped over a couple, like Manitoba, Saskatchewan, but never been out east.

Okay, so I'm biased. Yeah. Because I'm a Maritimer, and I grew up in Truro, and my entire childhood and adolescence was there. Right. But I went to school at Bishop's University outside of Montreal. I lived in Montreal, and then Ottawa, and then Calgary, and then I spent seven months in Winnipeg as the Bombers PR guy before coming to Toronto.

So I've lived and seen a lot of Canada and spent a lot of time in Vancouver. My sister's there and just on work and personal travel. And again, I'm biased. But between Victoria Day and Labor Day, I challenge anyone to tell me a more beautiful place in this country than the Maritimes, than Atlantic Canada. I'm going to get over there and see for myself.

Check it out. I've only heard good things. Yeah, it's great. Prince Edward Island's beautiful. Nova Scotia's rocking. The Halifax waterfront, there's always stuff going on. And I was back for a friend's wedding a couple years ago. I was just actually in Antigonish, a small college town about two hours north of Halifax, to do a CIS bowl game.

And every time I land in Halifax, yeah, I guess for anybody, when you get back home, it's just like, I'm back. It's great. Cool. And you were mistaken there for Shai Davidi. Shai Davidi. I've been called Shai Davidi, Farhan, Mendez. My favorite one is Ahmad Rashad. Really?

Yeah. We were at a Fight Network Christmas party a couple of years ago, and someone just looks at me, a wide-eyed, points right at me, and is like, Ahmad Rashad. Oh, come on. You don't look anything like Ahmad Rashad. So then I Googled Ahmad Rashad. Like, I'm 35 years old. I Goog like Ahmad Rashad. So then I Googled Ahmad Rashad. Like, I'm 35 years old.

I Googled Ahmad Rashad. Ahmad Rashad was born in the 40s. Yeah, yeah. Ahmad Rashad played for my Vikings. Yeah. Dude, I'm not Ahmad Rashad. He married the mom on the Cosby show. Right.

That made her a Rashad. That's Felicia Rashad or something like that. Yeah, Felicia Ayers-Allen, if I remember, is her maiden name. Yeah. Claire Huxtable. Claire Huxtable, we'll call her. Yeah, that's a good name for her. But yeah, that's too funny that people get you confused. Yeah. People.

These people gotta, come on, I would never confuse you because there's only one only one shy Davidian. He's here with me today. Come on, I would never do that. One Truro Arash. Oh, crap, I can't say that. Hey, so one of your first big breaks, I guess, is in Ottawa at A Channel News. Yeah.

So what was that like? Well, it was a great opportunity for me. I had done a bunch of work for Rogers Community Cable in Ottawa, and I had been the PR guy for the now defunct Ottawa Renegades. So in the off season, I was doing play by play for Carlton and Ottawa U basketball in season. We had a show on the football team that I hosted and the assistant news director. She was a news producer at the time, Joanne Wu. She, she and I had a great relationship and she's like, you know what? You would, you would be great here.

And there was a gentleman by the name of Ken Reed who was working at A Channel Sports, A Channel News. And Ken decided to go off to CTV Edmonton. And so there was a vacancy. And he gave me the heads up. So I talked to Joanne. And they brought me in for an audition. And lo and behold, I was anchoring the 11 o'clock sportscast on the news Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then 6 and 11 on weekends. It was great.

It was a great learning ground. One of the biggest things I tell, I got a chance to go talk to college students and whatever, is everyone just wants to right away work at Sportsnet. They want to right away work at a major network. I'm like well go to a small market and learn you know and um and ottawa's but not you know i started in truro i worked in sherbrooke quebec which is a french city and i worked for an anglophone newspaper there i worked in campus radio i worked for the team 990 when sports radio first got off the ground in Montreal.

And then, you know, Ed Rogers is a volunteer. But A Channel was the first one in a real live news environment, you know. And A Channel at the time, I think it's now CTV2, be the equivalent of City TV. Well, we had it in Barrie. Right. CKVR. And London maybe too. I'm not sure.

Yeah, maybe. But the one I could actually see on my TV for sure, CKVR, the new VR. By the way, it was the new VR for like 100 years, okay? The statute of limitations on calling your station the new anything should be like about maybe a year. Right, because... You don't get to be the new VR for 20 years. Yeah. This really upset me. So it had just rebranded itself

from the new RO to A Channel. It's all coming together full circle. So all the, yeah, the new stuff became A Channel,

I guess. Right. Okay. Right. So I was there for about a year and a half and then the score.

Yes. Is this at the, like the Peter Street and King Street? King and Peter. Yeah. I this at the Peter Street and King Street? King and Peter. Yeah, I know it well. The bureau reporter in Ottawa, Montreal, was a woman by the name of Patricia Bull,

who, ironically enough, is now the news anchor, a news anchor at that same building that, you know, A Channel once was. And Trish was the reporter, and she went on a mat leave, and I knew some of the people at the score, and they brought me in to fill a mat leave for them. And so that's where I went for May Channel. In Toronto's the big smoke.

That's a good move. Yeah, but I wasn't in Toronto. I was the Ontario Bureau person. And then Deb Matty-Itchkin in Calgary got pregnant. Thank goodness for these pregnancies. Right. I became the babysitter. So then I moved to Calgary, got a chance to cover the Stamps and the Flames, and it was fun.

Cool. So basically, I'm wondering how you end up at Rogers. Well, it's crazy from my standpoint how it worked because I moved out to do that mat leave in Calgary. I left Ottawa in August of 07 to cover the 07-08 hockey season. And I was also doing some CIS broadcast, football, whatever. And in 2007, if you remember, the Grey Cup and the Vanier Cup was being played in Toronto. So the score had the Vanier on Friday night. And then CBC did the Grey Cup, their last Grey and then cbc did the great cup their last great cup sunday both at

the same venue and that weekend my bosses at the time had kind of given me the heads up they said hey sarah orleski at the time was vancouver's bureau person they said sarah's going to tsn we appreciate what you've been doing we like your work um when the flame season ends if you want you know you've done two mat leaves for us if you want the full-time gig in vancouver it's yours i'm like great you know my sister lives there canucks are there the lions are there at the time i still think i mean the sonics may have still been around they may not have and the seahawks were there i'm like great opportunity so then the new year rolls around and both of those bosses are

gone they get blown out new management comes in a few weeks later they closed down all the bureaus across the country and i'm out of a job wow so just like that i went from being full-time thinking to myself i'm full-time i'm moving to a great city whatever yeah to out right and it's february and i'm like what am i going to do i'm living in calgary i mean i just moved here for the gig and uh i like i mentioned i'd previously been the pr guy for the auto or renegades the winnipeg blue bombers were looking for somebody i relocated to winnipeg and while i was there i still stayed in touch with everybody that i knew and i got lucky i got real lucky glenn mcdonald had been a senior producer at the score.

He'd gone over to Sportsnet. Glenn and I had worked on CIS together, a number of different projects together, and Glenn had talked to the people in charge at the time. He's like, man, you've got to give Medani a chance. You've got to bring him in for an audition. So in 2000, December of 08, after the Grey Cup in 08, I came by Sportsnet Studios, had an audition. The next thing I knew, a month later, I was moving December of 08 after the great cup in 08. I, uh, came by sports and at studios had no audition.

The next thing I knew a month later, I was moving to Toronto. And you took a Glenn McDonald out for, for dinner. Well, steak. When, when Glenn,

when Glenn got the tap on the shoulder and they said, coach wants to see you bring your playbook. Uh, I got, I got the heads up from, uh, I got the heads up from somebody at the office at like 10 in the morning. So I jumped in the shower and I jumped in the car and I stopped at an LCBO. And I called his wife on the drive over. I said, hey, is it cool if I just show up at your place? And she's like, yeah, sure. I'm

at work. So I knocked on Glenn's door and he opened it. I said, well, pick a hand. And behind my left hand was a bottle of wine and behind my right hand was a bottle of scotch. And by the end of the night, both of them were empty. That's funny. And that's what you brought over for our little recording here. Right, right, right. So you're at now, yeah.

So basically, when I think about Arash Madani, this is not meant as an insult, but some people, you know, they only focus on like one sport. You know what I mean? You're almost the jack of all trades. Like you're all over the place. You're covering major events everywhere. So how are you utilized? Do you like how it's utilized?

Like what is your role exactly at Rogers? It's a little bit of everything, which is what I love. I love the variety. I think that, you know, these days, Mike, I mean, when we think back to when we were in college or when we were growing up, you were either a print reporter or a radio host or a radio reporter or a tele. Now you have to be everything. You have to, you know know you have to evolve and adapt but you know i love co-hosting primetime uh sports with with mccown it's a blast it's a hoot it's real smart radio and we also you know have a lot of fun together i love the live events i mean you know the tennis gig has really turned into a cool thing that with the davis cup and the rogers

cup and and the fed cup that we do i love the rush of a live event doing play-by-play especially and then you know ultimately mike loves telling stories you know just got back from gray cup and there were some real cool stories to tell there go to a super bowl go go to the baseball postseason to me one of the great storytelling opportunities is the baseball postseason. To me, one of the great storytelling opportunities is the baseball postseason. And, you know, beyond just the Jays, I did the NLCS, for instance, and I did the World Series. There was some great stuff there. And to be able to do some of that is cool, too. So I really like the variety and being able to do different sports

and then different things within the sport in which you cover. So like, okay, so here's a little list of some like major assignments that you've had. So the 2012 Summer Olympics, let me know if I get any of these wrong, but yeah, so Summer Olympics, like which is massive and amazing.

Yeah, so it was, it was. And it was interesting because London, we were part of the consortium. And the way the Olympics work is they either open all doors for you and you're in there as a rights holder or all doors are closed and you're on the outside ropes and the red carpet was there. In 2014 in Sochi, it was wait outside and we might bring you somebody. Yeah, there's no middle ground there. There's no middle ground with the IOC. So London was real fun. It was a great work environment. And, I mean, the games were terrific.

And Team GB, you know, early, they had a bad start just like Canada did in Vancouver 2010. Right. And then they just won medal after medal and gold after gold. And so the whole city and the whole country was into it. And then, um, and I'm a huge hoops guy. And on the last day of the Olympics, um, Patricia Sidoli, who was one of the logistics people there, who was just wonderful, she knew what a big basketball fan I was. And she handed me two tickets to the gold medal basketball game. So I got to go watch the dream team play Spain. Not so bad. Beats working for a living.

And you got to actually go there as a fan, right? You're not coming. Yeah, I was all done. Okay, that's even, that's the best. I think we finished wrestling or something that morning and then the afternoon went and checked out. Wow. So Summer Olympics, it doesn't get any bigger than that, but maybe it does because you've covered the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I've done a few Super Bowls now. And what's that like? Because it's so American. It's so polished and stylized and like, you know, big. You know what I mean? What's that like covering a Super Bowl? The first one is awesome, right? Because, I mean, football is my number one.

Okay, like I'm a football guy first. And tennis and basketball are kind of my 1A and 1B. But the greatest feeling as a football fan and as a reporter is, you know, as a kid, I always thought, man, wouldn't it be awesome to be at the Super Bowl? And then you're there. And, I mean, the week is surreal. You're walking around Radio Row and everybody who's been in anybody in the football world is just walking around. You're like, oh, there's Jerry Rice. There's Ahmad Rashad. There's Ahmad Rashad. Oh, sorry. It's just a mirror. My bad. Right. My bad. But then you're there on Sunday and you're in your seat. And the two minutes, Mike, the three minutes leading into kickoff,

that energy in the building and all the flashbulbs popping, it's damn cool. I can imagine. So Super Bowl. World Series. You mentioned World Series. So actually, you were originally going to come in. I think you were going to cover the NLCS and then you were going to come in. But you did the World Series too this year.

I did the World Series as well. I know you covered the NLCS. then you were going to come in. But you did the World Series too this year. I did the World Series as well. I know you covered the NLCS. Yeah. And how many World Series have you covered? How many has this been? I did 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15. So is that five? Yeah.

So you're always rooting for like San Diego or whatever, right? You're always definitely afraid like the tigers or whatever. I've done two San Frans. That's not bad at all. We did actually in 2012 with the Giants and the Tigers. Yeah. And the Giants swept Detroit and we were all rooting. It was a Sunday night game four.

I still remember this. Right. And we were all rooting for the Giants to sweep them because, and I'm going to get the name of the hurricane wrong. I think it was Hurricane Sandy was coming through. Yeah. That's when it hit New Jersey, right? Right.

Yeah. And it hit Detroit the next day. Oh, right, right. So we all had flights, and Greg Zahn comes walking around into the press room, and he looks at myself, and Jamie Campbell was with him, and one of our audio guys was there, and our producer, Paul Campbell, and he said, hey, let's cancel the flights. Let's take a cab tomorrow to Windsor, and he said hey let's cancel the flights let's

take a cab tomorrow to windsor and we'll take the train home and that's what we did and we had a couple of soda pops on the way on the way home and told old stories and had a million laughs and the next thing you knew you're at union station so i i remember two things from the 2012 world series i remember getting a one-on-one with Prince Fielder after they lost. And I remember the train ride home with Zahn Campbell and the rest of our crew, which was super fun. I suspect Zahn and Campbell are really tight because I went to the Canada-Russia World Junior Hockey Championship at the ACC earlier this year. And just in that, I don't know what they call it, the foyer? What's it called?

Whatever. Before you get into the ACC, it's really crowded. There's a big buzz. And I could see Zahn and Campbell buying tickets. They got the ticket window together to go see that game. So these guys have got to be tight off air even. Oh, they're totally tight off air. They're great friends.

And you can see that resonate on television the trust there the chemistry there they can just kind of look at each other and know you know finish the other guy's sentence in 2013 the gray cup was in zon loves the cfl he loves gray cup 2013 he actually threw a Grey Cup party in Regina. And so he flipped me a text. He said, hey, it's at whatever place. Come on over. And he's got a green Saskatchewan Rough Riders jersey

with his name on the back. And he is beloved there. You know, the year prior in Toronto at Grey Cup 2012, the 100th Grey Cup, they had a sweet you know, the rider marching band kind of came in and there's jamie and greg you know jamie and greg on stage jamie and greg in the room kind of the leader of the orchestra they're they're super tight they're great teammates they're super fun to hang out with

and uh it's amazing the respect and the admiration they both actually have for one another um you know when the lights are on and when the lights are off uh you know zon i always remember he hit a walk-off grand slam so it's the only walk-off grand slam i've seen live and i was there uh with my kids for father's day i don't know how we got to go back because i was hitting a walk-off grand slam right so a few years ago but i always remember like bases loaded it was, ninth or tenth inning, and he hits it out. And I'll never forget that. And Zonnie hit me a walk-off grand slam. Happy Father's Day.

That was the best. But I will say this. When I watched Campbell and Zon, and actually Mike Toth was on last week, and he referred to this too. Zon, the ex-athlete, he's allowed to be super opinionated. Right. And he is. He's super opinionated. Right. And he is. He's super opinionated.

But Campbell, it seems, he's sort of like a straight man who just kind of sets up Zahn, who then has the opinion. Right. Like the way they have it arranged. And Toth thinks only those from the games are entitled now. This is Toth's opinion here. But he says guys like Zahnon who played the game and are from the game they're the only ones who are actually allowed to have opinions uh controversial

potentially controversial opinions so campbell just serves up uh zon and then zon can kind of say you know whatever gibbons blew it when he didn't pull this picture whatever whatever whatever so what do you think as an insider? Do you think that's like, so Campbell has basically just got to set up Zahn so Zahn can then kind of zing with the controversial statement? I don't know about that. We were actually having this conversation last week.

I was having this conversation with some print guys. And the way the industry has now gone with fewer print jobs for sure and definitely just fewer jobs across the board is that there was a distinct difference there was a distinct gap between being a reporter a beat reporter and a columnist with opinion now it's changed so much that maybe as a host it can be a little different, maybe. But you, in any kind of thing you do outside of maybe a feature, but even there, there requires some analysis and opinion.

And it's probably required because you have to give context in a hurry and because if it's if it's print, you don't have an eight page section anymore. It's now down to two and a half or three. Right. It's, you know, your crews are smaller and just the way we present it as is different. The way we present it has to be different because before you were getting informed. Now, anybody can find that information anywhere. Now it's about presenting the access in which you have. So I just think if you have a credential, your obligation to your viewer or your listener or your reader or whatever is to give them a little bit of insight and a little bit of information into what they wouldn't otherwise be able to find on their own on their device or online or whatever sure so you know for instance um i'll give you an example of the world series we're doing i was doing a feature on noah cinder guard and i i was standing in the in the mets

dugout and i was charging my phone and Terry Collins comes out and he's just kind of looks at my credential. He's like MLB international, Roger sports net. Where is that? What is that? So, you know, Toronto, Oh, I love Toronto, et cetera. And I said, I'm doing a feature on Cinder guard today, skip. I'm like, I forget the numbers, forget whatever. When, when did did he really when did you say to yourself man this kid's legit he said i'll tell you i'll tell you we're getting on the plane coming back from chicago and i sat down and i looked at my guys and i said can can we really go with no one game one and and not matt and so you know so I'm about to throw to the feature and I'm thinking, how am I going to throw to this thing?

And Cindergarten Media Day, while I had my mic in there and I'd ask him a couple of questions, he said that at spring training, he was just hoping to get guys out. He was hoping guys wouldn't swing at his pitches. That's February. Right. So I set up the piece by saying in February, this is what Noah Syndergaard thought. By October, on the team plane on the way home from the NLCS, there's the manager talking to a staff saying, can we really start this guy in game one or not? I mean, they went with Harvey. So what I wanted to do was for the viewer was take take them into noah's thought process and mindset in february

then take them onto the team plane in the staff meeting in october and show the difference in how far he'd come right so i think you know we could show a million stats but you could bring that up on baseball reference or whatever okay but i wanted to take somebody onto the plane into the kids thought process you know when he's down there in Florida in February when, you know, everything's relaxed and easy. And I think that's now our job with our credential is to give something that somebody otherwise wouldn't know. Right. And how did I go? Yeah, you mentioned to you.

It's your fault for mentioning Campbell and Zahn. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you mentioned you. It's your fault for mentioning Campbell and Zahn. And I just had that thought in my head that Zahn seems to be one of the few guys sort of with license to bite the hand that feeds, so to speak. And he does, but very few do. So in that relationship, the and and it's from what standpoint well okay so uh toth toth's opinion is that in the old days back in the day they were you were supposed to be

opinionated and have these we now call them kind of hot takes or whatever but have these these opinions right and uh pro or con on the team and whatever. And nowadays, that's less acceptable. That's like rocking the boat and not acceptable, except for those chosen few, usually former athletes, who are sort of like the designated opinion guy, like a Greg Zahn. Yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, I just think it depends on the person.

And I think if you're an analyst, you have a job and a responsibility to do. Greg's earned his chops. Greg is a true baseball man. Greg believes in what he believes. I look at a color analyst like Gary Gally. I think Gary's as good as they come. And he will point out, this player did this well, and this player did not do this well, and this is why.

And he will show you with the telestrator or whatever sure and it's something it's one thing for me to say um miloš raonic is struggling with his backhand today his backhand's not up to par it's another thing if a former tour pro says it but it's another thing if i say i talk to three different coaches or three different players and they believe this is what people are – if you talk to people in the industry, this is what they say. Right. You know, for instance, and I just use this as an example because I just got back from Grey Cup, Pat Watkins is a veteran corner, former Cowboy. He's now a cornerback in Edmonton, whatever. in Edmonton, whatever.

You know, a number of people said, this is what Ottawa should do against Watkins because Watkins really is struggling moving laterally at this stage of his career. So instead of me just tweeting, Patrick Watkins can't move laterally anymore, my thing was, if you talk to people, if you talk to football people around the league, they'll tell you that Watkins' lateral movement

isn't what it used to be. Right. And I think the guy who does that the best from a non-former hockey non-former athlete standpoint is Elliot Friedman you know when you read 30 thoughts he'll tell you the best yeah he'll say if you talk to people this is what they say right so who cares what my opinion is nobody cares my opinion but this is what other people are saying you have access to the people who again use your credential right to to access some some information now when you're you know you're covering a team like when you're covering like i don't know the nlcs that's fine but

is it more difficult to cover the team owned by the same company that signs your checks like is that more difficult than covering other teams? It's not. What's difficult in covering a team every day is covering a team every day, is seeing the same people every day who get sick of you and you get sick of them. And sometimes when a new fresh face comes, especially from a bigger network, they may want to share some things. But at the same time, if you develop a rapport and you develop a trust, they may feed you some stuff, or you may get a little more insight and access into things.

So it's not, it really doesn't matter who owns them on a day-to-day basis. It wouldn't even, if you had something on the J's, you would treat it the same as if you had something on the Padres. It wouldn't come into your mind like, maybe I should be careful how I present this since Rodgers owns the Blue Jays and Rodgers owns me,

so to speak. Does that ever factor in at all? I'd say in 2014, I did the Blue Jays after the trade deadline, a few weeks after, when Bautista and Casey Jansen came out and said what they said in Houston about how disappointed they were they didn't make a move. I did the road series in Chicago and Milwaukee back to back. And they struggled, you know, on the south side of Chicago.

Then they come in in Milwaukee and they had a bad first game. And I'm standing there in the dugout. And one of the players, you know, they're hitting BP. And one of the players you know they're hitting BP and one of the players just kind of watching the batting cage and he looks at me and this guy I've known he said now do you see why referring to Bautista now do you see

why he said what he said now do you see and I went with that I tweeted it I used it as my you know on cam I didn't identify the player because there's a trust there. But you treated it the same as if this was another team not owned by Rodgers. You treated it the same as you would if it was the Yankees, for example. Oh, sure. But A-Rod's not coming up to me and telling me that. That's the difference.

You never know. Hey, I don't know who you are, but I really think our management screwed up here. And I want to get back to all the great assignments that you've covered. I'm only halfway through my list. And then I do want to actually talk a little more in depth about CFL, actually, since you're the guy I follow on Twitter that brings me my CFL information. Oh, there you go. I appreciate that. There you go. But I'm very interested in this topic because, for example,

David Price signs with Red Sox, okay? Yeah. You might have heard this. Did you hear that? David Price signed with the Red Sox? $31 million a year times seven? Yeah, something like that. So now, right away,

people have a lot of opinions, very passionate opinions on many different sides. There's a perception out there, and I speak on behalf of the social media world of Toronto, but there's a perception out there that Rogers analysts and reporters are more likely to say, it's a good thing we didn't spend overpay for this guy seven years. It seems like a lot of people will be like i'm gonna make up i'll use real names

like a greg brady for example might say something or andrew walker and they're we both know they host shows on 590 a fan-owned station they might say you know good thing we didn't sign david price at that those terms and then people be like roger shill and all this uh that perception exists do you think that it must make it more difficult to report on the Jays, considering you're now damned if you do damned if you don't, right off from the get-go? But it doesn't for me because I just don't care. I just do my own thing, you know?

And listen, we mentioned the 2012 World Series. I was around that Tigers team when Justin Verlander was lights out. And the question was, are they going to re-up him? Right. And they give him that money and they give him that deal. I'd covered the Verlander no hitter in Toronto. And you're like,

well, yeah, you have to give him the money. And then you look at kind of what's happened to Verlander since. And, and that was kind of my first warning. sign long before David Price in 2013, 2014. I'm like, man. So I started kind of following veteran pitchers who are up and the contracts they get.

And you kind of study what they do. Sure. And I just, you know, I look at the number of bullets that David Price has fired from that arm. I look at the number of bullets that David Price has fired from that arm, and does $200 million make sense when you have an internal budget? But it's an internal budget. There's no salary cap. Fans, I understand fans.

And I understand fans too. But you and me and fans can't control the internal budget. No, we can't. And the budget is not really going to fluctuate all that much. And I guess, you know, I try and remember things with context. It wasn't that long ago people were livid with the vernon wells contract right with the bj ryan contract and they're like what you know what a dumb what a dumb deal like what what are we doing hanging on and how celebrated it was that they just got themselves out of the vernon wells right right right now i'm not comparing vernon and david price right now sure and david price may have a

terrific 2015 and 16 and you wish the best for him but i just look at it i'm like it just doesn't fiscally make sense to throw 217 million dollars at a 29 year old who's had this kind of wear and tear on his arm now maybe it may i mean he was runner up for cy young award last season right and he is i meanatably, debatably, because I know Granke's out there, but this debatably, he's the best starting pitcher available on the open market. Without a doubt. Right. So from a fan standpoint, when there is no salary cap, because it's completely different with the Leafs, for example, but for the Blue Jays, a fan recognizes that this ace, this ace, this great starting pitcher is available. You might have to over, you will have to overpay to get him, but there's no salary cap.

It's, you know, not our money. So for a fan, from a fan's perspective, they don't really care that this might be over an overpriced asset. I know what you're saying. There's an internal budget and it hurts us in the long run, but fans don't want to hear about internal budgets. Just spend more. Right. budget and it hurts us in the long run but fans don't want to hear about internal budgets just spend more right and so then you have the new york yankees who spend more on sabathia and to share a right and then we're you know how did that kind of end up and like i mean a rod hit lightning in a bottle this year right sure i mean we're basically talking about almost 70 million dollars and three guys right there that would have been, you know, you just can't.

And I really believe this. You can't just keep throwing money at the problem to try and fix it. Because if that was the case, the Dodgers and Yankees would be playing in the World Series every year. Sure. And the Yankees haven't won one since 09, haven't been to one since 09.

And when was the last time the Dodgers were even in one? You know? No, I hear you. I hear you. I just represent the fans. I just... I hear where you're coming from. By the way, I actually never thought we would

ever make a bid, a competitive bid for David Price because of the terms and i wrote this on my site um when we signed j.a. happ my headline was can we stop talking about price now he said it was clear we weren't going to land david price was very clear and i wasn't even surprised when they announced he was with the red socks but i see the reaction from the fans and i see the roger i follow a lot ofgers. There's a lot of Rodgers people covering baseball, etc. And I can see the perception that the Rodgers are going to assume

this line of thought to sort of like to soften the blow, if you will. Like, this is a good thing that we did not sign David Price. Because you're essentially saying it's a good thing we didn't offer for seven years

and like 217 million bucks for David Price. I am. I really believe that and i believe you believe that and i i believe you would say that even if bell owned the baseball team uh but the this perception and i always mentioned damned if you do damned if you don't people are gonna think you know of course you're saying that you work for rogers like that's a pr move more than a reporting move so you're damned if you do you damned're damned if you don't. That's why I wondered if it was more difficult

to cover this team than any other. It really isn't. I don't know how else to say it. No, that's good. That's it. I know one thing I always point to, just really briefly, then we'll move on, but it's Mike Wilner's been on the show a couple of times.

Sure. And the famous episode we all talk about is his, he was suspended following some criticism of Cito Gaston. Right. And that, the optics on that were lousy. Like the optics sucked. Yeah. And I asked Mike about it and he said,

well, they actually, they don't, they said, go home. Don't work for a while. They said, go home. We'll pay you, but don't work. But they don't actually say, this is because of what you said about Cito. The Rogers doesn't't say we're suspending you they just say we're suspending you we're not telling you why and this will knock on wood editorially that that's never happened to me so no so i have to ask i have to ask all the rogers guys no no i totally under and you know

um if you ever get any bell guys in here, I'd love to hear their thoughts on the CFL because I find a lot of those guys just gloss over. You know, you're right. You're right, though. So I'm not denying it. Absolutely. It goes both ways. But the fact that it's happening to me as a fan and a guy who likes, you know, following sports and loves sports. To me, it's unfortunate that this has to exist that you know media bodies and teams are

all in the same ownership bucket like it just presents this inherent bias that's just i miss the good old days when things were clean cut the good old days like world war ii and there was a clear bad guy and a clear good guy and we wrecked war with countries those are the days i miss good old days i don't remember those days. You're a young man. Right. So, okay. So the World Series, see how we got there? That was the World Series chat. So NBA Finals, you've covered NBA Finals.

Yeah, I was there for LeBron's first one, which was cool. And you just, you got the sense that night in Miami that Oklahoma City would be back and they would be the next ones. Right. And they haven would be the next ones. Right. And they haven't been the next ones. So you just wonder if their window is kind of closing now too. Yeah. With, you know, Durant and Westbrook are there, of course, and Ibaka's in the mix, but.

What are they, 20-0? Are they 20-0? Golden State? Yeah. Some of that. They're just, they're hilarious. I mean, I grew up as a kid a Laker fan, and I loved Showtime so much. It was, I mean, especially at that stage of my life,

they were larger than life, whatever. But man, Golden State's fun to watch. They're just so entertaining, and they're just chucking and they're hitting. And Curry hit a 28-point quarter. Yeah, sure. Which is insane. Right.

He went to Davidson, right? Yeah. I love the deal where Curry's reading his draft scouting report, all the things he couldn't do and how small he was and how he wasn't good enough. Oh, yeah? You know what? One day he'll be as good as his dad.

That's how good good enough. Right. Oh, yeah? You know what? One day he'll be as good as his dad. That's how good he is. Maybe. I actually, I had a situation with my hair for a while. I have hair. Don't worry. But I had like a white, like it looks, the front had a white patch. Yeah. Looks like I leaned my head into like wet paint or something.

And I always, Del Curry was like, he had that too. And I can always say, yeah, Del and I had the same like patch of white in the front. There you go. Now I've got more than just the patch, but I he had that too. And I can always say Adele and I had the same patch of white in the front. There you go. Now I've got more than just the patch, but I think he does too. I just watched an HBO documentary on Kareem. And I thought about the Golden State Warriors watching the doc

just because of how in the 80s the importance of a center was just so pivotal. Right. And just how different it is now. You know, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Ahmad Rashad are both examples of professional athletes who changed their name after they had success in university. I don't know Ahmad's birth name. I do.

You know what? I do. It's in my head. I just had Adam Grove from Cash Cab in here and he was grilling me and I actually did very well. So I'm good at this. Bobby Morrison? And you can tell

everyone I didn't Google anything. I believe it's something like a name like Bobby Morrison. And of course, Kareem is Lou Elcindor. Ferdinand Louis Elcindor. This guy knows. I love the Lakers, man. Irvin and Kareem were my guys.

But you can put those guys in with like Muhammad Ali as examples of... They all three, I believe, changed their name because they converted to the Nation of Islam. And they all changed their name. It's a little time altogether there. There you go. Yeah, so is LeBron...

Is it going to be another, do you think it could be another Cavaliers, Warriors NBA final? Why not? Why not? And if, if, if,

you know, if LeBron has a little help this time and the healthy bodies could be interesting. I think LeBron, I mean, let's not forget LeBron is still the greatest player in this game. I know everyone's a sexy pick now is Curry, but I'm still picking LeBron. If I have to have one guy on my team tonight.

And I'll tell you, there's something to be said because a lot of LeBron's supporting cast, not a lot, but some of it's banged up. There's something to be said, especially with the grind of an 82-game schedule or football, just the physicality of it. If you can tread water and just kind of be there mid-season and get guys back then.

Right. And if LeBron gets some of these, you know, if he gets Kitten play back, then 40 games, they may be better off in the playoffs. I mean, it's a long, grueling physical battle. Yep. better off in the playoffs. I mean, it's a long, grueling, physical battle. Yep. And

it's going to be real tough for them to unseat Golden State. But, you know, the West is no joke. Put me on the record and we're recording this. So it is actually literally on the record here that Golden State's first loss comes at the hands of the Toronto Raptors. It's Thursday, December 3rd. They're here on

Sunday. Saturday. Does everybody take note? I'm going to my fourth Raptor game as a fan on Saturday. Oh, nice. Ever. I just got to check out the Warriors. You know, Andrew's still going back to himself. He's covered a lot of events

but he never gets to go as a fan. You realize, you think it's cool because you're there all the time but you got to be on. You're working. It's a whole different vibe. You go as a fan and you realize like you think it's cool because you're there all the time but you're you got to be on right you're working it's a whole different vibe different vibe but you go as a fan you can lean back have a beer kind of take it all in right totally different and it's rare that happens yeah cool so i'm looking for what we're watching right now with golden state is one of the real neat times in sport history you know yeah well Yeah. Well, it's unprecedented. And you want to appreciate it a little bit. If you get a chance to go check

them out. One of my favorite sporting events to watch on the calendar is the SEC Championship game. I just always have loved that game. And I'm going to give up the second half of Florida, Alabama to go watch the Warriors. Yay, it's worth it because you're going to see the first

loss there. Raptors are going to take them out. Alright, so NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals. How many of those have you covered? The first one was the Senators and the Ducks in 07 when I was with the score. The last one I did was the Rangers

and the Kings. Was that two years ago? Yeah. LA won that one. Yeah, because Chicago and LA take turns. So that two years ago? Yeah. LA won that one. Yeah, because Chicago and LA take turns. That's how I remember it. This year it's the Kings. Yeah, so what I remember most

from that one was Henrik Lundqvist's face when it was all over. They'd come so close, you know, and it's the whole, you never know when you're going to be back here again. I waited my whole career to get here. He's a good-looking man, too.

Loves playing the guitar. I'm told he's like the Bradley Cooper of the NHL. Yeah, that'd be about right. That'd be about right. Him and Patrick Sharp, maybe. Yeah? You know? As a heterosexual man,

I can still appreciate it. I'm going through the Rolodex here. You're comparing the face. Of who else? well, Toronto, uh, Puck Bunnies in Toronto will tell you,

Lupo's a handsome man. He's got a bit of a Superman type thing going on. So are you using your credential there based on the conversations you've had? Yeah. Uh, females, uh, tell me,

Puck Bunnies tell me. Um, yeah. So the Stanley Cup finals, that's, that's fantastic. The Masters. Yeah. Puck bunnies tell me. Yeah, so the Stanley Cup Finals, that's fantastic. The Masters. I read a great piece today in Time Magazine with Tiger Woods. I read that this morning too. It's like the most honest Tiger thing ever.

The most revealing for sure. I wonder what motivated him to do that. But the first Masters I did was 2010 was his return. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we did the next one the following year, the Charles Schwartzel one. But yeah, that was a wild one. And the coolest part of the 2010 Masters from my standpoint was that because they still have their archaic television rules

only certain holes and certain hours can actually be shown especially on the thursday so i just followed tiger for his first round and uh there's certain guys there's certain athletes that have just this aura around them and about them. Believe it or not, T.O. had that. You know, Jeter definitely had that. But Tiger's one who has it. And you don't know about Augusta National watching on television, just how hilly it is. Okay, yeah.

But you walk through those gates, Mike, and you don't know if it's 1915 or 2015. You know, it's a pretty spectacular spot. Well, it's 2015. They let you on the ground, so it's... Right. Right. They let Ahmad Rashad on the ground.

Ahmad Rashad can actually play there now. Yeah. So I guess that's the biggest difference. Cool. Yeah. It's one of those made-for-TV things, the masters. Like, it just looks good on TV. But I hear people like, oh, the town's like a suburban, like, it's just a bunch of chain restaurants and stuff, like Augusta, Georgia, the Masters. It just looks good on TV, but I hear people like, oh, the town's like a suburban,

it's just a bunch of chain restaurants and stuff like Augusta, Georgia, whatever. Augusta National is one of the happiest places on earth, outside the gates. Yeah, not so much. All right, I'm going to do this one last, actually. But US Open, so you mentioned you're a big tennis guy, so you do US Open

and Davis Cup. Cool. And you're a big Reignage fan. I US Open and Davis Cup. Yeah. Cool. And you're a big Reignage fan. I have a tweet. Hold on. Let me see what the tweet says. No, I cover him. I mean, you know,

you root for Canadian tennis to succeed. I root like hell for this guy. Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The tweet says,

at Toronto Brent on Twitter wants to know, why are you so obsessed with Milos? But I honestly think you don't have to answer that. It's because he's a rising, young,

talented Canadian phenom in the tennis world. How could he not be? And Fasik Pospisil is the same deal. Covering these guys, for now, there's only really two of them. But there's a couple that are coming up down the pipe. We've never had a male

singles threat to win a Grand Slam in tennis. I mean, my lifetime. Anyway, Andrew Schneider was like our best guy. Having a guy who's a legitimate threat to get into a Grand Slam final is unprecedented in Canada, right? I was in Wimbledon for the final weekend of 2014. It was wild.

Just landing there and Raonic was about to play Fed on center court in the semifinal. The next, the next day was, uh, Eugenie Bouchard, Petra Kvitova in the ladies final. And out of nowhere,

Vasek Pospisil and his partner, Jack Sock win the men's doubles. Yeah, it's crazy. It was, um, it was probably the best 48 to 72 hours of, uh, Canadian tennis ever. Yeah, absolutely. It was probably the best 48 to 72 hours of Canadian tennis ever.

Yeah, absolutely. It was just unprecedented for this country to have that. Hey, can I have you for a little longer than an hour? Yeah, sure. I'm just chilling, man. All right, cool. Because I saved the best for last here because I want to talk a little more in depth about this. But you just came back from covering the Grey Cup in Winterpeg.

Mm-hmm. And the actual game, it looked like it wasn't too cold. It actually looked... It wasn't. The week was early in the week, midweek was quite cold, but then Sunday was fine. It was just like 2013 in Regina.

Some of the Tiger Cats players actually got frostbite at practice, but by Sunday it was pleasant and really weather wasn't a factor in the game. In the game, and admittedly, I was watching the Raptor game. And then I watched an episode of Ray Donovan because I didn't care for the halftime show. I know people like that band, but I just didn't care for them. I didn't watch the halftime show either.

I never got into Fall Out Boy. I just didn't do it for me. Sure. I was there to watch a football game sure you know i was there to watch football game yeah you're there but then i then i saw on twitter that there was a close game so i went i went and i i watched the end of the great cup and it was a good game and the great cup is usually a pretty darn good football game except this year it wasn't the first half was terrific okay the second half i think the the second half score was nine to four uh i just remember i think

okay yeah it just the offenses you know look both defenses balled out and i love defense The second half score was nine to four. I just think. Okay. Yeah. It just the offenses, you know, look, both defenses balled out and I love defense. But Edmonton's defense basically suffocated the Red Blacks. And outside of two plays, Ottawa's defense did the same. You're supposed to yell Red Blacks. It's all caps. Yeah, I don't do that. No, I just capitalize the R and the B.

Now, you are paid to cover the CFL. And like I said, you're... I'm paid to cover sports. You're paid to cover sports, and you were sent to cover the Grey Cup. And you do a good job tweeting about the CFL. Most of my CFL knowledge does come from your tweets, actually. Because I have complete apathy towards the CFL. Well, you live in Toronto.

But I'm not... Yes, okay, I you live in Toronto. But I'm not. Yes. OK, I do live in Toronto. I'm not one of those guys, though, who spends his Sundays watching NFL. So it's not like I'm choosing. I've actually dropped both NFL and CFL as I got older. I just decided I didn't care for the sport as much as I used to for a variety of reasons. But I'm wondering, the CFL,

and I have a very small sample size here, but in my small sample size, I have a couple of younger brothers and they're friends and everything. No one cares about the CFL at all. Like no one knows. And I think that a lot of people will treat the Grey Cup like an event. And so like myself, I like events.

It's an event. So I will tune in, oh, there's Grey Cup. But I just wonder if you notice, and particularly with young people under the age of 40, the CFL seems to have lost. It's a major problem. Yeah. It's a massive problem that the league thinks.

The league's really... Anytime it's brought up, you're the negative guy, and they now have a new logo and a new slogan, a new tagline and a new website. And they think that's going to fix the problem. It's not Mike. Now they're going to move into BMO field and you hope that's going to work. You hope that's going to kind of revive something.

And their new president has come out and said, we want to sell out every game at BMO next year. But listen, I'll tell you this. First weekend of the playoffs, east uh semi-final toronto was playing hamilton and my old man's a big football fan i'm a big football fan he was in town we said all right well let's go somewhere to watch the games because he wants to watch the nfl and i want to watch both and we went into three different spots in downtown toronto and not one of them had the argo tycats game on i'm like well best of luck to the league and to the new

argo's ownership group and whatever um but this is a this is a big the relevance couldn't be lower that's how i feel yeah and it's almost you're right that's a good example i actually did not watch a minute of that game. Cause I think I had other stuff going on, but even, even 10 years ago, I think if I knew the grade, well,

maybe if it was an Eastern final, this was the, okay. There's only eight. I always get confused. There's only eight teams in this damn league. So you know, nine with Ottawa,

nine with Ottawa. Okay. So six, six teams make the playoffs. Am I, so you get, someone gets a buy and then the other two play each other to see who plays the bye team in the Eastern Final.

Okay, so this was an Eastern Semi-Final. Correct. The winner went to Ottawa. Tycats won. That's part of the problem. So nine teams now because they added Ottawa. But you have teams like Ottawa and Edmonton who can have lousy seasons and rebound quickly it just seems like that

because it's such a small league everyone's going to get a turn it just seems like eventually you're going to find yourself in a great cup just numbers game I don't think that's why the interest is low no so why is the interest low because people believe the NFL has the

elite football talent? I don't know what it is here. I don't know what it is here. And I should say interest is low here in Toronto. I go on CKRM radio in Regina twice a week. And I'm going to tell you this, Mike, and I'm being dead serious. The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a bigger deal in that province than the Toronto Maple Leafs are in this city by a long shot.

Wow. So you're saying relative to everything else. Yeah. Like I'll go on for 12 minutes in April and exclusively talk Canadian Football League with them. Like that's how it is there. But that's because the next thing they'd have, I guess, would be the Saskatoon Blades or something.

Again, I don't know what... So in 2013 at the Grey Cup, I went out to a former colleague when I was in Ottawa, one of our O-linemen, Mike Abou-Meshrik, who now works for an investors group in Regina. He goes on the radio once or twice a week.

So Mike's like, hey, when you come to town, hit me up. We'll go grab a soda pop. So we meet up. We go to a place off the beaten path. And you hear the whispers. You're like, oh, man, that's Mike Abu from the 2017. Right. You're just like, I'm looking around.

Am I in Tuscaloosa alabama right now like am i sitting here next to aj mccarron like what is going on right now right that's that's just how it is i spent a year in winnipeg as the pr guy in winnipeg i was used to ottawa where you're just trying to get coverage right there you have to manage the coverage gotcha now it may be a little different now that the jets are around but at that time it was a one horse town you know um it's huge it matters it's significant now in vancouver they're number four the bc lions the seahawks have surpassed them right you know the white caps have surpassed them and of course they have the the Canucks. So it's really regionally where the relevant significance interest is.

Gotcha. And they continue to point at ratings numbers, but the ratings numbers are not shown geographically. They're shown nationally. And my belief is there are the same 300,000, 400,000 fans who really watch the majority of the games, and the rest is gravy. And if Saskatchewan and Winnipeg are doing well, I think those ratings across the board are going to be higher. But when you have two teams that do woefully bad, like those two did this year, you see the ratings take the kind of hit that they did.

I'm glad you brought up TB ratings because I had a lady on Twitter named at CFL lady. She clearly likes the CFL a lot. And during the great cup, I think I was asking, is anyone under 40 watching this game? Because all my followers watching the Raptors are, I just didn't notice anyone really following it who didn't get paid to follow it.

I, we had a debate. She, it's her opinion that the Argos are more popular in Toronto than the Toronto Raptors. Okay. Which I, I, I just crazy. I thought it was crazy. Argos are more popular in Toronto than the Toronto Raptors. Okay, which I... That's just crazy.

I thought it was crazy. And then my friend Freddie P from the Humble and Fred show said, yes, this is exactly... He agreed. And what they all point to is TV ratings. But they're not divided geographically. So once we know what the breakdown is in the 416-905-647,

that would give us a lot more of an idea. But I'll tell you, I went to a Tuesday Raptors-Knicks game and there were 20,000 people in there and I shudder to think what the turnstile count was for a couple of those Argo games

at Rogers Center this year. And then whenever I bring up that, because they bring up the TV ratings, and yes, I go look into the TV ratings, and they're right. The CFL ratings are always higher. Right. They're always higher than the Raptor ratings in the regular season. But then I bring up Gates and obvious things like that, and they're always like,

well, it's because it's in the Dome. And when they're in BMO next year, it'll be $25,000 a game. And so I just wanted somebody who would be closer to this stuff, like yourself, to tell me I'm not going crazy. Because in my mind, in my perception, it's not even close, Raptors versus Argos. Correct.

Good. I'm going to cut this out and send it to Freddie P. You are an authority. Well, listen, Freddie P, tell you what. You grab Ricky Ray and Chad Owens and take him into real sports and then grab Kyle Lowry and DeMar and take

him into real sports and see what the difference is. Or even Bruno and Bebby. Bebby, you don't have to even go to DeMar and Kyle. Patrick Patterson, put him in real sports. Yeah. Quick aside, because the TV thing even go to damar and uh kyle uh patrick patterson put him in real sport here yeah and i and i quick aside because the tv thing got me going now you mentioned the regional thing which makes sense

actually but i talked to somebody who carries a ppm device oh you did yes i somebody i won't reveal their name but i finally found somebody i couldn't find anybody right i had questions one of my questions is because raptor fans are younger than argos fans argos fans they turn on the tv and they go to tsn and they watch or whatever and if they're wearing a ppm device the encoding gets picked up or whatever but a lot of raptor fans that are younger they don't watch tv that way they stream it and there's they stream it for example and legally or illegally whatever they stream it on their computer and my source who has the PPM says, you actually have to put like an adapter type device into the headphone jack of your computer

to pick up streaming. Audio? Yeah. Like it's not the same as when you just pick it up from the encoding on the TV or whatever. And I'm just thinking,

if any young people have a PPM device, they ain't doing that. You know what I mean? Like this is just, I think it's heavily favoring the older CFL traditional TV watching type crowd these tv ratings listen there's nobody who would like for professional football to succeed in this city more than a guy who likes football more than

anything else but the reality is you know i'm not playing you off here, by the way. And I have to talk over it for a bit because this song has a long instrumental opening. So we'll wait until it gets to the words. But Argos, you mentioned ownership changes. So is this Bell that's going to own this team next year?

Bell and Larry Tannenbaum. So you can be sure they're going to force feed on radio, on television, throughout a lot of their platforms, massive marketing campaigns to try

and make this thing cool and hip and young. Do they still play this at the Argo games? I don't know. No. This is the old Argo fight song. Have you ever heard this before? I don't know. No. This is the old Argo fight song.

Have you ever heard this before? I haven't. Yeah, I thought I'd just resurrect that relic. Yeah, it's an old-time Argos fight song. I tell you, Regina, they still play Green is the Color. That's their deal. And with the mighty Minnesota Vikings,

they still play Skull Vikings after a touchdown. Yeah, you've got to hold on to these old traditions sometimes. Well, the Blue Jays are still playing their early 80s OK Blue Jays. Sure. That's in the early 80s. Sure. And sometimes somebody threatens to update it, and I stop it. I stop it, and I put my foot down and stop it, and it's tracked.

You don't get to update OK Blue Jays. But this one does need a little updating. Yeah. All right. So I just wondered, is the way Rogers covers the Argos, does that change at all when Bell owns it? No. Do you cover it less by any chance?

Do you get the vibe? I can't prove this, but do you think when they can help it, obviously they can't help it when Batista's flipping his bat in the ALDS, but do you think the Rodgers properties like TSN cover the Blue Jays less than they used to because the Bell properties, yeah. So Bell properties like TSN, do you think they cover the Blue Jays less because Rogers owns it? Well, I mean, they were forced into having to go big with it this year.

Yeah, this year being the exception. But, you know, I just, I look at the Vanier Cup and I'm biased. I mean, I grew up, like we talked about from the beginning, I grew up in Nova Scotia. TSN was huge covering CIAU football. I grew up thinking Chris Flynn, the St. Mary's quarterback,

was larger than life. The Vanier was always on TSN. It was a big deal. And now since SportsCenter has taken it over the last two or three years, the CIS product, you know, it's completely ignored. It's the fight in the boardrooms, right? Yeah. It's amazing you guys got together for the Raptors and Leafs.

It's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing. It's the unholy alliance. What is it? Billions? Billion with a B? Yeah.

Those dollars work. Yeah. And I always found it interesting as an observer that Bell and Rogers kind of go in together on Leafs. as like an observer that, you know, Bell and Rogers kind of go in together on Leafs. And then next thing you know, Rogers has this complete like monopoly massive deal with NHL on broadcast rights for hockey.

I always just find that an interesting dynamic kind of thrown in the mix there. And then they also got the World Cup of Hockey, which, you know. Right, because it's like an NHL thing. It's not like an Olympics where it's like an IIHF or whatever they call it.

Yeah. But TSN still has the World Juniors. World Juniors. Hey, I realize now I actually want you for three hours. Is that okay? Just kidding. Dwayne on Twitter

wants me to ask you about Honduras. It's soccer, but I'm sure general audience would enjoy. I don't even know what he's talking about. Honduras, soccer? So in October of 2012, Canada was trying to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, and

they were... I think it was the second or third round of World Cup qualifying, and they had to go into Honduras on a Tuesday. And if they won or drew against the Hondurans, and they drew them at BMO Field,

the game they should have won, didn't, which, you know, had they won, they'd be off to the hex, which is the final round of World Cup qualifying. Again, a one or tied, they would advance to the hex. So Sportsnet had the rights, and I'd been covering that whole run as the sideline reporter. And so myself and cameraman Mario Fontana who I've traveled the world with doing tennis and Olympics and soccer our producer Chris Black and a technical producer Blair Tetro we rode on the Polair Air private charter with the team and the coaches to San

Pedro Sula Honduras okay which at the time per capita was the murder capital of the world and the canadians had to go in there on a tuesday we arrived sunday and just kind of hung out at the hotel because the opponent before had been panama and there had been kind of you know not riots but they're banging the drums and keeping the team up all night and people kind of just told us hey you don't really want to be out and about here murder capital the world after all and so the next day we went to the stadium which was about 15 20 years old and there's barbed wire all over the place it's starting to crumble there's this dungeon of a tunnel on the walk from the locker room onto the field where it's completely dark

except for one narrow little opening when all you can see there is barbed wire and the fans would bang on this thing you know we were told that the fans were going to have you know as duane de rosario called them piss bags bags of urine that they're going to throw. And we arrived at the stadium on game day three hours before, and there were 35,000 people in a 31,000-seat stadium, and the place was shaking. And all you heard was Honduras, Honduras. And it's 39 degrees Celsius, and riot police are walking the track around the stadium,

and you're like oh my god you know there's not max right the cell phone's not working the there's no clock in the stadium you know you're dealing with 1950s technology and it's one nil then two nil and three nil and four nil at the half honduras wow and i grabbed Kevin McKenna, the captain at the time, because De Rosario was out, and I said, you know, and he said at this point it's just about damage control. And after an 8-1 loss on the hottest day of my life, with the place going nuts, we jumped to get back to the airport, jumped in the van

to get back to the airport and flew back home. And that was the end. Wow. No, I'm glad I heard that. I had no idea. The riot police was a touch. On the drive in, we had a van with a driver and a translator. And the ride in, you're just kind of looking around. And I felt like and it was scary i mean it felt like you were in a national geographic documentary

meets um a world vision ad and at no time in those 72 hours did you feel safe so you never felt that way like uh when you're at like a riders game in regina not quite no a little different but the only like and it wasn't until we got home when you kind of decompress you're like what just happened the last couple of days you know and what was crazy about that was that was during the nhl lockout there was nothing else going on we'd sat down the night before the game um julian de guzman was a veteran player the question was what's his brother jonathan gonna do is he gonna play for the dutch national team which he did in the 2014 world cup or not what about you know

david hoylet was jr hoylet gonna do and julian on camera said we win tomorrow those guys are gonna come for the hex those guys are gonna play for canada so that was kind of the backdrop it had full billing full attention you know no other competition and more people mike yeah outside of this blue jay run more people stopped me to talk about that eight one loss and honduras and the scene than anything else I've ever covered. It was crazy. It's probably safer to get blown out at a game like that than to win that game. Well, it would have been a scene if Canada had advanced

at Honduras' expense and wouldn't you know it, Honduras got into the World Cup. Wow, wow, wow. Last question here I want to ask you really briefly about primetime sports. I love primetime sports. Last question here. I want to ask you really briefly about primetime sports. Yeah. I love primetime sports. So do I.

And so a couple of questions. Primetime sports, you're great on primetime sports. Thank you. I appreciate that. But, see, there's always a but here. Primetime sports, I think, is probably at its best when it's Brunt and McCowan. I totally agree. Good.

Now I don't feel so bad for saying that, no. But there's been a falling out. Dave Schultz tells me there's been a falling out. Schultz, does he know what he's talking about? I don't know exactly what happened there. I don't, truthfully. But they're going to kiss and make up. Are they?

Because that's my question sure they will of course they will because the way schultz writes it it sounds like uh bob's upset because uh brunt wasn't available enough and then went and did tim and sid and there sounds like bob's a little ticked off at the promotion of tim and sid because they actually go against each other one on tv and then one on both mainly mainly radio, I guess, and TV. So I just, I wanted to know whether we'll ever have Brunt back on Primetime Sports. I'm sure at some point we will. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but.

Is Brunt a bit of like a, I want to say a mentor, but just somebody you kind of look towards? Could you talk about telling stories? Brunt's a great storyteller. I tell you, Mike. Yeah. The ALDS, the Texas series, I sat next to Steve for every home game in the press box. It was awesome.

He's been great. We've become friends. We socialized together after work. We worked radio together. We worked television together. We worked Super Bowls together. I'll tell you this about Steve Brunt. When you're on the road with Steve Brunt, you're going to eat some great meals and go to some great restaurants and drink some great wine.

The dude knows how to live. We did spring training together in Florida. And he had the best gig because he showed up to the ballpark around 3 o'clock, you know, because he was doing primetime from 4 to 7. Well, I had to be there at 8.30 every morning. because he was doing primetime from 4 to 7. Well, I had to be there at 8.30 every morning. So at 6.40, every night at 6.40, the subject line would be, tonight's dinner is dot, dot, dot.

It would be a great spot. And then inevitably, you know, after dinner, we'd go for a nightcap, and there was a cigar spot that he really likes down on Clearwater Beach. So we'd pop by there for a glass of wine and uh one one day i just said i said steve i just need a night off man like you know i'm at the ballpark every morning at 8 30 whatever he just kind of looked at me 6 40 that night tonight's dinner will be at so he's he's terrific and i mean look yeah the best the best writer the best yeah he's a dude um and he's been uh he's been a terrific teammate and he transitioned you mentioned like nobody you know back in the old days you were you

were a writer or you were a radio guy or you were a tv guy and now it's all converged and it's like you have to be like a do multiple different platforms and stuff like like yourself i might see on tv or i might hear you on the radio or read you on whatever, rogers.sportsnet.com or whatever. .ca. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. Come on, Mike.

I should know that, right? I just link through Twitter, so I never look at the address. Come on. But Brunt, he transitioned seamlessly. Like he was forever. I just knew him as a print guy growing up. And then it's like he's great on the radio. While he was doing print, he did radio also.

Yeah, but not till, was he the team? Was he part of the team or was he? I'm not sure. But I tell you, when it comes to sit down interviews, when it comes to understanding the temperature of a feature or a story, Steve gets it, man. He's top shelf. And the best is when he and Bob would have like a Burt Sugar on.

Yeah. My favorites of all time. When Burt Sugar came on Primetime Sports to talk boxing. Right. I did the fight with Brunt. Mayweather Pacquiao. We went down to Vegas together. What a week.

Yeah, the week was great. The fight not so great. Sure. Whatever. Whatever. They all to Vegas together. What a week. Yeah, the week was great. The fight, not so great. Sure. Whatever. Whatever. They all made a lot of cash on that. You know, I married a Filipino, so I can tell you in the community, which I now could represent as having married into it, Pacquiao is God.

Right. Everything revolves around Pacquiao in that community. That's everything. We jump in cabs to get from here to there, press conferences, whatever. And there were a number of cabbies who told us. One guy told me, he's like, I've been 27 years in this city. He said there's been nothing like Mayweather Pacquiao. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, over a million people showing up to the Strip for a fight that seats 15,000 people. Yep. Madness. Madness. Madness. That was cool, too. And back to Bobcat again.

So Bobcat, again dave schultz is i think this bobcat what do you think bobcat talks to schultz and kind of gives him some inside stuff and then schultz runs with it in the globe and mail is that how that relationship probably i don't know how that works but i'll tell you this about bob is everything he does is calculated. Right? I mean, from a guess. It might be like a Howard Stern type thing where he would kind of,

Howard Stern would kind of plant news things that he's unhappy, it's serious, and he's leaving, but he never actually intends to leave and he ends up re-upping or whatever. And Brunt seems to do that too. There's always, he's always leaving. Brunt. Not Brunt.

Not Brunt. McCowan. Yeah, I mean, I just, I don't know that side of it, but I can tell you in the studio, if it's the roundtable, he'll be calculated to turn a conversation this way. If it's with a guest, if it's with a topic, if it's with a, everything is calculated. So when I, a lot of people ask me, right? They're like, wow, I read this in the Globe. And I'm like, that's the first time I'm hearing about a lot of this stuff, too. You know?

There's the idea that just because you're in it, you kind of know everything that's going on. Sure. Well, that's what you think. You're dining with Brunt. I'm sure you're asking him when you get a kiss and make up with McCowan. Do you ever ask him that? Well, I haven't really dined with him since, but Bob, in the breaks, we're talking blue chase you know like we're not

we're not really talking shop all that much yeah you'll throw the odd barb in there at tim and say oh look there's another ad for tim and sid whatever but he he doesn't sit there after we hang up the phone with bob r and say, I'm done. Like, not at all. So you don't, in your perception, having spent time with him, you don't think he's bored of primetime sports. I think that's the exact word Schultz used, that he was quoting McCowan as saying he's bored.

Yeah, I don't. I think Bob would love to have more projects. Bob loves projects. He loves ideas. He's gotten into the wine business himself. He loved, you know loved doing the documentary stuff. The business of sports show he used to... I think he'd love to do more things,

but I think he really enjoys the show. And I know for a fact he loves the Friday Roundtable. Do you think maybe, I'm guessing that... I'm not guessing here, but Tim has said Skew younger than Bobcat and his show. The skew's a little older.

Do you think Rogers is thinking beyond Bobcat and how to get the younger ears? See, and maybe I'm completely off on this. I don't think they're really competing against one another. I really don't. I still think fundamentally Bob's show is the commuter who is stuck in traffic, who's got 590 on his radio. Okay, I understand the show is also on television. It's simulcast on 360. But how many people are sitting there with 360 on from 5 to 7?

I don't know. So I think Tim and Sid is a television show and bob's a radio show right and there is some you know overlap there because it's a radio show on television but tim and sid is a television produced show they have a television crew they have a set they have camera they're not even on the radio. Right. So I just, I don't, I don't believe that they're necessarily competing against one another. They're just in the same time slot, you know?

So that's my thought on it. And Bob would never do that. Bob would never do that. And his audience would not like that. Except for the... I don't know if his audience wouldn't like that. I think the host wouldn't like that. No, he wouldn't do that. Okay his audience would not like that. Except for the... I don't know if his audience would like that. I think the host wouldn't like that. No, he wouldn't do that. Okay, so let's hope it's not the end of Bobcat

because... I don't think it is. I don't think it will be. I mean, the show's popular. The show does well. The show has a big following. The show has great guests. Why would it be? And you're going to talk... Next time you chat with Stephen Brunt, you're going to tell him about this great experience and you're going to talk next time you chat with steven brunt you're going to tell him about this great experience and you're going to say you steven brunt need to do chrono

mike absolutely and just like when damien cox said i got you got to get the rash madani you're going to say you got to get steven you got to get steven brunt so i'm uh making my final conclusion you're ready to hear my final let's do it i it. I think Stokely's right. You're a good guy. Hey, I appreciate that, brother. Exploding fist bump just happened here in the Toronto Mike Studios. And that brings us to the end of our 148th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike,

and Arash is at Arash Madani. That's just his name. That's easy to do. It's not at Truro Arash. Don't follow that account. That's somebody else. See you all next week. Thank you.