Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Edward Keenan: Toronto Mike'd #1466

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

In this 1466th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with The Toronto Star's Ed Keenan about what's happening in Toronto. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes, We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1466 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 and beyond! Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, the best baseball in the city, outside the dome, with Rod Black's mustache returning for the home opener at Christie Pitts on May 12th. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

The Advantage to Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. Season six of Yes We Are Open, a Menaris podcast hosted by FOTM Al Greggo and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today returning for his Toronto mic'd quarterly is the Toronto Stars Ed Keenan. 1466 episodes hundred and sixty six episodes in Mike.

How are you feeling? Oh I feel like I'm just getting started. I think I know I can't have appeared on more than three or four hundred of them. So you have had some other guests. I've had other guests. They're just Mark Weisblad and you. Yeah. Good to see you.

It's really good to see you. And you've made some improvements since the last time I was here. Is there enhancements? Including the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club is now one of your partners, your sponsors. Absolutely, and that book you're holding in your hand right now, Ed Keenan, that is the history

of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, that is yours. Established in 1969. I love, I actually haven't gone to see them in Christie Pitts in a couple of years. I know they've recently sold. Well can I get a commitment for you? What if you join me on May 12th at 2 p.m. What day of the week is that?

That is Mother's Day. I am running in a race that day, although that will be earlier in the day. Because I'm gonna have a little section. My wife, the mother of my children, might have something to say about it. Although, so there's a possibility that it will be a great Mother's Day gift for her if I take the kids out for the afternoon. Yeah, okay. Because if she did come, though, there would be like a pink flower. Like they would make a big deal for the moms. I understand they have a new concessions at the Toronto Maple Leafs Christie Pitts baseball

complex. Yeah it's called Jack Domenico Field. Right after the long time owner of the team. And he's all over that history book of course. But I would love to see you on May 12th. I got some really interesting people coming out, like yourself, and I just committed you. Steve Paikin. Well, that's always a draw for me. Well, you and Paikin together, that's enough to draw everybody.

But we got, like I mentioned Rod Black, he's going on the mustache. Rod Black is gonna be there. Of course, Rob Butler's the manager, by the way, 1993 World Series champion. But Rick- This is, it's been a while, the last time I went, is he a player manager or is he just a manager now?

He's like older than me. The last, I think pretty sure the last time I saw the Blue Jays, Rob Butler was playing for them. And it was after his Blue Jays came in. Him and his brother, Rich and Rob played and yeah, he hit the cover off the ball for that team. But I can tell you Rick Vive, Rick Emmett, all the Ricks are gonna be there.

Steven Brunt. Rick Vive of the Toronto Maple Leafs is gonna be there. Is there another Rick Vive? Come on, Mr. The longtime goal scoring leader until very recently. Until Austin Matthews, yeah, who hit like 63 last night. I think he's at 63 now. And we were all like enamored by Rick Vive and his 50 goals.

He did it three years. Yeah, I think he got 54 once. Yeah, he got 54. That was the record for a long time. And I remember Gary Lehman got 51, and then Dave Andrchuk. Yeah. Who did it, well, he did one season,

he split and he hit 50, but half the games were with Buffalo. Yeah. And then with just the Leafs, he hit 50 again. That's like the trivia. This is just your 50 goal scores for the Leafs. Yeah, again. That's like the trivia. This is your 50 goal scores. That was yeah and that was all for history for Toronto Maple Leafs history until now Austin Matthews has hit 60. Yeah he's hit 60 twice. I guess we're out

of time for him to hit 70. How many games left do you know? No no it's possible if he scores a goal a game he gets to seven. Okay. That's exciting. Which I learned on the broadcast last night. If you break the season down into eight game segments, there are three such segments where he scored more than a goal a game. Two segments where he scored more than 15. So, you know, he goes on a bender. So it's possible, entirely possible he scores 70. But but he's at 63 now, which is a Toronto Maple Leafs record. And, you know, I, I was thinking on the way here, actually, about all the playoffs are around the corner. And like every Leafs fan, I am like really looking forward to the playoffs. And also I have a lifelong, like apprehension about the playoffs like is

like there's a nervousness and and yet I have just had so much fun watching this season just like other seasons in a way for entertainment value this year's Toronto Maple Leafs really defensively leaky like the last couple years despite whatever happened in the playoffs and a heartbreak in that right they were one of the tightest defensive teams in the league. Everybody kept saying like oh they need a number one defenseman and all of that but like team defense they were they were really tight and they're trying to play responsible. This year they're kind of like explosive offensively they had weak goal tending at

the start of the year they and and so in terms of like the entertainment value of games like Austin Matthews is even money to get a hat trick on any given night. Right. They can come back from a five goal deficit in the third period but they can also blow a five goal deficit of a five goal lead in the third period. It's like it's been a fun season. I watch. And now I get to like get all wound up for the playoffs that like gnawing in the pit of my stomach but yeah. If the season ended today who's our first round opponent? Florida Panthers. Yeah that's a tough series. Yeah it's good. Boston's a tough series too. No I know and Boston feels like the curse runs deeper and

longer with Boston too so you know my 15 year old daughter who watches almost every Leafs game with me, but she she has this kind of philosophical approach or like you know she's telling me I've been her baseball coach all her life and so she has this kind of baseball coachy wisdom or the coachy wisdom and she'll just say things like nobody wants to play Boston or Florida but you probably got to go through both of them to win the Stanley Cup, right? Wise words from a young one. There's no avoiding it.

And if by chance you don't have to play Boston, it'd be because you have to play somebody who smoked them in the first round, right? So, yeah, anyhow. Well, I'm looking forward to it as well. And later in this conversation, I'm gonna talk to you about Toronto Blue Jays baseball. I wanna talk to you about the Jays a little bit. Later in the conversation, I'm going to talk to you about Toronto, Toronto Blue Jays baseball. I want to talk to you about the Jays a little bit later in the conversation. There was a

great moment before we came inside to record where you met Troy Burch from Great Lakes Brewery and I was like, there's my friend, my friend, my friend, Ed Keenan from the Toronto Star and there's Troy Burch from Great Lakes. And these people are just sort of like these they're going around your like in your life and people are just sort of like these they're Going around you're like in your life And they're just kind of like like all of a sudden they collided in the driveway. It was a big moment for me Yeah, well it was good to see him there. I wait when I pulled up I was a few minutes early right and so I was always sort of checking my email at you know in the car and stuff And yeah, and because I could see the Great Lakes Brewery car

in the driveway and I thought, well, obviously that's, that's, that's why I got bumped to three o'clock. And, and so, so suddenly I looked up and you guys were standing out there, but yeah, nice to meet Troy. He emailed me, wants to say some nice things about my book, which he read. And what's that book again?

I think that's some great idea. It is, it, it needs an update kind of like, I don't know that I want to write the update, but it was sort of written as a cliffhanger when Rob Ford was still the mayor. There was like a lot of drama happening as the book went to press. And so if you read it now,

I think there's a lot of good stuff in there about Toronto's history and some personal stuff and about Toronto's political situation that still holds true but it kind of like ends suddenly right before the crack scandal actually. Okay you do need to update this book come on we need a sequel but did I hear in the driveway that you wrote a kids book? I did I wrote a book called The Art of the Possible, which is an everyday guide to politics written with like children say like grade five to eight in mind, like I had about that. But when did you write this?

Is this recent? No, it was probably six years ago now. And it has been like a middle school curriculum book in parts of the United States. There was a school in Nashville that did an all-school read of it and they like taught it for the entire middle school like grades five, six, seven, for the whole or eight for the whole year. Like read it together, did classes around it and all of that. So that is, you know, it remains available in finer bookstores everywhere.

The Art of the Possible and Everyday Guide to Politics, it's got illustrations. Well, watch out Judy Blume, because Ed Kenan's here to eat your lunch. This is exciting to me. Are you there, God? Yeah. And Beverly Cleary's dead, right?

I feel like she lived to be like 110 years old, maybe, but I think we can shout out Ridley Funeral Home with her. Was maybe one of my favorites as a kid like those Ramona books and she had a I think it was her. Now I don't know if it's her. There's this book called Skinny Bones which I might have laughed more reading that book and it it was sort of like, certainly in the style of Beverly Cleary, but now that I'm thinking about it, it might not have been her. I'm now going in to tell you that the Skinny Bone series, which is available from Penguin Random House,

is by Barbara Park. There you go, Barbara Park. So that's not your Beverly Cleary. And I do, like I have, I could Google it, but I think Beverly had a very long life. I'm gonna say 104 years old or something like that, which is pretty good. Like imagine I told you, Ed,

you're not halfway done your life yet, okay? Yeah. Like what are you gonna do with all that time? It's like you've lived a long life, you're gonna do that again? Ah, well, drink this Great Lakes Brewery hop pop. Am I allowed to open this now? Do I have to wait? No, do it now. No, I mean we talked about how you met Troy Birch

I feel like that was the In front of that mic this is so that's a Troy left behind this non alcoholic drink for me I have actually sampled the Great Lakes Brewery hop pop before I like it. It's kind of a Rather than a I'm a big fan of like de-alcoholized beers that new Guinness one is amazing Actually, it's it tastes quite a lot like Guinness feels like Guinness They don't have this a great lakes like this does not exist yet But but the the what this hop pop doesn't know the de-alcoholized. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah No, so this is this is hop water, right? Which is kind of like a

Beer flavored sparkling water, but it's very refreshing. Okay, I'm cracking one too. Okay, cheers to you, Ed Keenan. Lot of ground we're going to cover here. I'm not sure which part of my face and neck I'm supposed to put in front of the mic if I want to get that gulping sound on, but I I don't know if it came through but I had a very refreshing gulp of it. You know I'm big on the gulping sounds like it's like important to me. So a lot of ground I want to cover where do I start I maybe since we talked

about Great Lakes I just want to let the listenership know that we recorded the fifth episode of Between Two Ferment, which is the official Great Lakes brewery podcast. And Troy was interviewing the, uh, the owner of the Island cafe. And since you were here, great, you know, just terrible. I got all the details. I can tell you because I just today listened to the owner update, Troy and I on everything, but the Island Cafe and the Ward's Island Clubhouse of which it was part of were destroyed by fire.

Yeah and I went late last fall just before the sort of islands closed for the year with my kids who hadn't been to the islands in you know four or five years because we had gone and lived in the United States and just hadn't been to the islands in you know four or five years because we had gone and lived in the United States and just hadn't gotten around to it. We had a pandemic. So we walked the whole length and we ate at the island cafe and it was just like magical out on the patio there. It was just so good. And as it happens, my wife was going to do a like a artist residency self-guided retreat there at the Artscape space, the former Artscape space on the islands. They have like little apartments that you can rent to work on art projects or like a novel if you're a writer, which in the

or whatever projects. But at this time of year there's only you know one ferry an hour from wards or whatever and there's no food available on the island. There are no restaurants open, there's no grocery stores there, so you have to bring all your own food. Except that the Island Cafe open on the weekends, year-round. And so she had sort of built her whole menu around this plan that she would eat at the Island Cafe every opportunity she got while it was open while she was there sure and then the day before she went it burned down which is actually like the least of the distressing things about it

I mean they that whole community there and the owners it's it's a much more significant tragedy for them but it was a minor tragedy in my life. So I was especially aware of it having happened because of that. So here's what I learned today. I learned that the structure, the Wards Island Clubhouse, as it was known, was built in the 30s. This is what it completely burned. I learned that.

I learned that the sign, I guess there was a local artist and the gentleman who we spoke to today Zora his father who made the sign in the 80s for the Island Cafe the sign has survived the fire so if you're looking for a silver lining like it survived the fire and the gardens they have these great gardens and then they donate a lot of the kale and a lot of the vegetables to food banks I believe a Parkdale food bank and various food banks in the city of Toronto. The gardens are left intact.

Apparently the way the wind was blowing the gardens, but the structure itself is completely destroyed and there's like a- So both the club and the restaurant, the building is gone. Yep, the building's toast literally. And there's a, I guess Fire does an investigation. And there's a investigate, I guess, fires does an investigation and then there's a, he expressed, you know, so they leased it from,

they leased it, but the province owns, there's three layers involved. So there's going to be a bureaucratic nightmare in terms of like cleaning it up. And then they'll have the, you know, consultations on how to rebuild. So that, that won't be, you know, rebuilt for years. And in terms of the Island Cafe, they're exploring temporary pop-up measures so that they can have a presence on Wards Island

in 2024 this summer. I did learn that Great Lakes Brewery actually made a special logger for the Island Cafe logger, came from Great Lakes Brewery, and they the the Sunnyside session IPA and they served the the Canuck Pale Ale and these were big sellers at the Island Cafe and it does sound like an oasis and it's a shame that that it's burnt down and hopefully you know they find temporary dwellings so that they can open up for at least on weekends in the summer and They find temporary dwellings so that they can open up for at least on weekends in the summer.

And in a few years when they rebuild the structure better than ever that there's a presence for the Island Cafe again, because I want to go with you. I sincerely hope so. I mean, it's the thing about the island is that, you know, when it's open and it's tourist season there, it's a magical place.

But a lot of the food options are like pizza pizza and Subway and whatever. And that's fine. They have the concessions there and all that, but they're also like the crowded touristy version of those fast food places, right? And then there's a sit-down restaurant on the lake that's on Centre Island, and that's fine. And there's another one over near Handlers Point Beach. But it's like when you walk around, it's kind of like, in my mind I think of it almost like

amusement park food or something. Like it's like, this is not, you can't really have a meal there. There's like some snack options, there's an ice cream cart. And then when you walk over to these magical residential communities that are there, and you encounter like just across the way from the baseball diamond and the boards Island Beach you encounter the island

cafe it's just this kind of like enchanting kind of bohemian casual like but a restaurant where you can sit down and have a meal in it It's nice to have that on the island right I sure hope and I I you know yeah, so I hope Good things happen for them, but I hope that sooner rather than later They're able to figure out a solution because I think especially for the people who live over there Or the people who spend a lot of time over there It would be a deeply felt absence. It's like your one real restaurant. I think there's another one that I haven't been to. There's another club like restaurant. It's a downy restaurant. But licensed because the nice thing the Island Cafe was licensed. You could have

some Ontario wine. Oh yeah, it's your local bar too if you live on Ward's Island. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so that's terrible, but I did get an update on that. And again, between two fermenters is dropping next Tuesday, the fifth episode and that full conversation is there. Somebody passed away this week and I thought we'd just take a moment and talk about him. Oh.

I'm Guy Lafleur. I'm Daryl Sutherland. I use a Daryl Sutherland hockey stick. I use Daryl Sutherland hockey stick. Cut! Take two. Oh These are good, huh? Oh yeah. Real malt flavor. Smells good too. Mmm. Oh. Okay, two you see. All right. Cut! I'm sorry. They're right in my gums.

You lose your plate, Darrell? Yeah, I lost my plate in Boston. Ah, you lost your dentures in Boston. Why don't you push it down with some milk and mush it into your putz? That's right. Cornerbecks take three. I'm Guy LaFleur.

I'm Darrell Sutlen. And I use a Darrell Sutlen hockey stick. I use a Darrell Settler hockey stick. I use a Gila Fleur hockey stick. Hey, how about some corn of eggs? An excellent idea. All righty. Let's try some of this. Oh, it looks yumbo.

Sure is. Mmm. Smells so good, too. Let's see what's going on. It's got pour de char. I can't speak some French. Cut! I don't speak French.

I'm sorry. What's your problem? Huh, look at it in English. It's on English. What the hell? You've got two languages on a profound allow. I only speak English because it's a bilingual country. It's not bulls**t, my friend. More language, one goddamn song.

God said, **** please. Take four. Hi, I'm Guy Lafleur. I'm Gerald Siddler. And I use a Darryl Siddler hockey stick. A Guy Lafleur hockey stick. Guy wants to play with it? Yeah, sure thing, Darryl.

Hey, this stuff looks A-OK, huh? Yeah, sure does. Well, I could try some mouth flavor and everything. Want some Pepsi Cola? Yeah, I'll have some Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola.

I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. I'm not a fan of Pepsi Cola. Yeah sure thing Darrell. Hey this stuff looks a-okay huh? Yeah sure does. Well I could try some mouth flavour and everything. Want some Pepsi Cola with it? That's what that's about to be Darrell. Okay. Come on! Alright!

So that was the late great John Candy with Joe Flair, who just passed away this week. I felt like Joe was like an honorary Canadian. He's one of those guys you find, oh he's a Pittsburgh guy, like he's American. But growing up, it just seemed like they were all Canadian on SCTV. And a great loss. A lot of great SCTV skits and beyond from Joe yeah yeah like just a really funny guy I wasn't able to and I kept peeking over your computer but you didn't have the video on either you know but one thing I

love about those old SC CTV sketches like that one is like there's no attempt to actually impersonate the voices of the people I mean Joe Joe Flaherty was doing that French Canadian accent a little bit, but but it's not like John Candy was not doing a Daryl Sittler there. He's just he says the words, I'm Daryl Sittler. Oh, and that's that's it. And then it's a bit of a hoser accent. But right. Anyhow, that was. Yeah, I mean.

Goodbye. The Beaverton had a great headline for this one, which was, you know, in honor of Joe Flaherty's death, there's a ceremonial like 21 TVs thrown off balcony salute with that old, you know, the the the opening sequence of people throwing their TV off their balcony that was from SCTV, which seemed like as fitting a farewell as I could imagine. Absolutely, so Joe Flaherty, gone, will be missed. And now that I'm thinking of SCTV, FOTM Dave Thomas did do a pretty good Bob Hope.

So, thanks to him, and he did nail the Bob Hope, but you're right, otherwise. Dave Thomas, also not Canadian, right? No, he's Canadian. Oh, is he? I'm a Hamilton. Although I told him he was from Hamilton and then he corrected me and said,

nope, I'm from Dundas. Yeah, yeah. People in Dundas and Ancaster and Stony Creek get a real uppity about that, especially if they were there from before, right? If they grew up there. When they were independent cities. Right. Now they've been amalgamated in but but yeah I know they have that local pride the Americans I can tell you Harold Ramis

was American and Andrea Martin was American the only reason I admit I don't know a ton about Dave Thomas I just thought I had heard at one point that one of the McKenzie brothers was actually an American. But it turns out that's not the case. That is incorrect. That is incorrect. But there were Americans were walking amongst the SCTV cast. But Joe was one of them from Pittsburgh. And sorry to hear about his loss. And there's a song I loaded up for you, Ed,

just as we get warmed up here, before we talk into the issues of the last quarter. Get very serious on this program. Turn around. Every now and then I'll get the music You wanna sing it with me just for me? And you're never coming around. Turn around.

Every now and then I get a little time. You know, the reason this song is so epic is it's a Jim Steinman jam, right? Yeah. It's got that meatloaf theatrics to it. Big time. Very dramatic. It's like, Jim Steinman is like musical theatre without the musical. Right. Yeah. is like musical theater without the musical. Right. Yeah. Like a rock opera. Without the production, like the soundtrack for a rock opera.

["Ride On Me"] Every night when I fall apart and I need you now tonight and I need you all the time. I'm just in anticipation of trying to find out why you queued this up for me. You haven't figured it out yet. I thought you were brighter than that. I thought you were bright as the sun. I thought you were as bright as the sun, Ed Keenan. The song is called, what's the name of this song?

Total Eclipse of the Heart. Oh, it's because I have these glasses. Not the ones I'm wearing, the ones at home that I'm saving up for a quick stay. It's because we have a freaking eclipse coming on Monday. We do, we do. Do you not read the news? You don't read your newspaper? Oh yeah, the kids are gonna day off school and everything. So I wanted to ask you what, like,

what are your plans for April 8th, 2024, which we're expecting a total eclipse of the sun. Yeah, so I have, my family has a whole complete suite of eclipse glasses that we have ordered in anticipation of this. I think we're gonna go out and take a look at it. I'm not traveling to Niagara or anything, at least not the plan now. It's a workday for me and I'm not sure exactly where I'll be in the city on that day, but I plan to take my chance to look at it. I mean, I grew up.

I remember a partial eclipse in the eighties when I was there. And the amount of warnings we got, the amount it was like right up there with quicksand with like immediate threats to your life that you desperately needed to be aware of is like don't even look at it don't even glance at it we watched a movie about a guy i think a character played by dan acroyd actually um in the movie it's at least according to my childhood

memories who had who was a blind character who there's a big monologue in the movie about how he went blind by staring at a solar eclipse. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life, but it was the last thing he ever saw, which I don't even know if that's how it happens. Like I don't, I don't know if you instantly lose your sight, but I don't want to find out. I have recently another thing I've been advising my children of is that like, on my social media there's been a lot of like, sponsored editorial posts from like, I don't know, Scientific America or wherever, but like really advising you to not take pictures of it with

your phone camera unless you've got a special lens filter because it will burn out your camera lenses the same way it will burn out your eyes, which I would not have thought of. Yeah, you'd think that would be safe. Like, okay, I'm not gonna, you know. Apparently professional photographers too, they need a special kind of like filter that goes over the lens because the intensity

of the rays from the sun. What did you think of the decision to move the PD day to April 8th just to ensure? I don't know. Out of an abundance of caution. There's a lot of people that I've come in contact with who are like, it seems to me disproportionately angry about that.

Like they're so disgusted with the school board for doing it. But it's not like they made a new PD day, they just moved one. But it's sort of like, part of me thinks, you know how they used to be a statutory holiday or there was a movement? They were gonna, they used to give kids

Remembrance Day off so that they could attend Remembrance Day ceremonies with their parents. Okay. And then, the reason they stopped doing that, like in my childhood or slut just before because Adults were talking about a lot when I was a kid right which is what I remember I don't ever remember actually I don't think I ever had that day off school

No, we're the same reason I didn't we didn't have it off school was because they realized kids would be going and playing pinball games all day or whatever they take treat it like a long weekend or just a day off and all day or whatever, they treat it like a long weekend or just a day off. And they thought, oh, it's better if people are at work or at school, they can learn about it, they can talk about it, they can have an actual observance of it. And in the same way, I almost feel like

if kids were in school that day, the teachers could be hyping them up on like, don't look at it, whatever you do. Like, you could base your educational curriculum around both what's happening and the dangers it poses and potentially you could have the schools hand out to everybody a pair of eclipse glasses they could wear on the way home or something like that. But instead, I mean, I guess they're just worried from from what I understand the kids are gonna be walking home

right as the eclipse is happening or the danger zone is starting right and the fear was that It's just too much of a chance that these kindergarten or accident home or whatever will be or Or no matter what you tell them Right. It's like don't think of a pink elephant Well, you know you're making a good point just like, don't think of a pink elephant. Well, you know, you're making a good point there. Like, I've been so warned not to stare at this thing. I think I'm gonna stare at it.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, I think- Like, what's the worst that could happen? I'm so curious about like, yeah, what happens, like, do I, like, at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Bellic or whatever, his face starts melting or whatever, like, I'm so, it's like, when someone tells you not to do something, it's like,

I think I'm gonna do that. Or can you imagine like some bully holding a kid's head up like, open your eyes punk, open. Or like a prank would be like to trick somebody into looking or like, oh my God, oh my God, is that plane crashing or whatever? Like, yeah.

I mean, the reason people get so upset about these days off school, there's a lot of talk about like oh these you know We we treat our kids like fragile snowflakes and all of that It seems to me like a lot of the complaining has wound up in that from what I can tell from my Social media circles and stuff right but I mean the big inconvenience to parents whenever their kids have a day off school Is you got to figure out your child care? You You gotta take a day off work or work from home or you know, hire babysitter or whatever.

But yeah, it was gonna have to be, it was gonna be a Friday at some point or whatever anyway. Now it's gonna be a Monday. See I think it's a no brainer to just move it to the Monday and at least then it just, I guess it's some liability thing. Like now the school board doesn't have to, it's not our fucking problem.

But then the teachers unions were arguing that they should also, for their own safety, the teachers should have the day off. Because of course, on these PDP a days or PD days or whatever they are, teachers actually have to attend school and do their professional development activities. And so the teachers unions were arguing that it's a workplace safety issue that they should also get the day off. And I thought, you know, good try.

Like full marks. Half day off for the teachers. Full marks. I had a, as my teachers used to say, like valid attempt, but you still get zero marks on that one. Now I'm curious, okay, so this is on the eighth. What time is it at? Is it three something, right?

Do you know offhand? Okay, well we'll dig it up. I'm just gonna look at my Is it three something, right? Do you know offhand? Okay. I'm just going to look at my calendar. Where will I be? I will be wrapping up a conversation with the great Biff naked. Oh, and then the two of you can go and experience. I got to get glad. Yeah, let's go.

Have you got the glasses? No, because I don't know. How have you left it this long? I know. You had Jim Steinman write you a whole song so you wouldn't forget. Jim Steinman, the late great Jim Steinman shout out to Ridley Funeral Home.

By the way, there's a measuring tape for you. Did I give it to you? Do you have it? Oh, you got it already, okay. Did you get one every time? Mentioned Jim Flaherty dying. Joe Flaherty. Sorry, Jim Steinman.

I immediately reflexively picked up my tape measure. The thing is I actually have two of these but I'll tell you I am happy to receive another one because I find these little tape measures. This has nothing to do with Ridley Funeral Home. I know they are sponsoring them but I actually have found like they're so useful around the house. Like I got one in my bed bedside table I got one in my kitchen drawer I got one in my living room I got one and it's like whenever like Rebecca's like can you measure the mirror there and tell me and it's like wait a second I

got one of these and of course I have like the full-on handyman construction measuring tapes but now right I live in a house with a garage and they're in my toolbox in the garage and I don't have to go out there because I got this little retractable mini guy. And every quarter, for those who don't know, Ed Keenan visits every quarter. It's a recurring event in our calendars. I did move in an hour today for Great Lakes. We had more pre podcast conversation than usual because of the rescheduling. And I feel like it took the

wind out of my sails. Like I had my Kenan chat. By the way, my guest yesterday was a Keegan and I mildly amused that there was a Keegan and now there's a Kenan. Yeah, no relation that I know of. Well, that would be wild because possibly his first name is Keegan and your last name is spelled differently. It's Keenan. Imagine you were fucking related. Different names. That's wild.

One not even a family name. Which Keegan was that that you had on? Keegan Matheson. Ah. Who came over with your colleague. And it is interesting to me that in 2024, like you can work and write at the, like for the same paper with somebody and maybe never encounter them. Like, like how often have you met Gregor Chisholm who covers the Toronto Blue Jays? He writes a column about the Blue Jays. Like, would you ever like, would there be a Christmas party or something?

We don't really interact. Yeah. Things like Christmas parties, uh, staff meetings would be the places where we would meet. And I may have and Gregor if we he's tall if we've had long Heartfelt conversations I forgive me, but I I don't Like I may have met him in passing at some point shaking hands and most of the sports team. I've like You know met here and there Kevin McGran, yeah. Yeah, and we've done podcasts together at the star some of those guys. Oh Mark Zolinski did he retired? Zolinski retired. He's coming over here for his exit interview. Oh Great. I tried to have him

He he was one of the driving forces for like a year-long research project where they did like the whole sports team or at least Yeah, most of the sports team multiple most of the sports team, multiple members of the sports team contributed. It was a giant, like the best, who wore it best? Every number from zero zero to 99, which is the iconic person to wear the number, which with numbers like 27, worn by Frank Mahovlich,

Daryl Sittler, and Vladie Guerrero Jr. There's like some legit debate. Yeah. And it depends like across sports too, right? Right. Number seven. No, like there was a bunch of them where it's like. Well, that's gotta be Damis O'Garcia, right?

Greg Tarian. So, so he had retired like a week before and we were gonna do a podcast about it and then you know the my producer at the star podcast reached out to him and was like you know everybody's saying you're gonna really want to be on this even though you're retired you're gonna want to come and talk about it because it was such a passion project you and he was like no way like not a chance I am out of. I am done. That's what retirement means. So congratulations to him on his retirement.

And more about this when he visits shortly for his exit interview. I got hard-hitting questions here. Okay, I'm not done with the eclipse yet, okay? It was more than just Jim Steinman. By the way, where's Bonnie Tyler from? You get one guess and we'll see if you nail it. It's like trivia time.

Bonnie Tyler, who sings Total Eclipse of the Heart. Whales. Yeah, you know what? You fucking nailed it. How'd you know that? I must have heard it at some point, but I didn't actually know it for sure. But when you asked me about a weird place is,

the first thing I thought of was New Zealand. And like I was thinking English speaking exotic places. And then I thought, that video is so weird and theatrical and like Englishy and it's like it just had a Welsh vibe to me. That's amazing. But I must have heard it at some point. I didn't know I knew it. But it was in there somewhere and you dug it out and I wasn't going to fix it in post

like I did the first time you visited okay so I this is interesting to me that there there's a state of emergency in Niagara Falls because they're expecting a million people or something I know this you know here we are in Toronto they have the better view I guess like yeah I'm trying to like we're 99 point something percent but we're not I don't know you get a like there's gonna be a small sliver of Sun still visible don't know you get a like there's gonna be a small sliver of Sun still visible in Toronto whereas you get the complete blackout and then the aura effect that comes with it. I think In Niagara Falls because they're right directly in the path of the eclipse and do we have any weather reports yet?

I know it's early but like I'm just I'm just I can see like a million people spending a fortune to see this thing and it's a cloudy freaking day and nobody sees a damn thing. So the vague is is a cloudy and between three and twelve degrees. That's what I got on my head. But like Mike Willner from the Toronto Star says it's early. There is some chance of precipitation. Yeah. I mean that'd be really something if it was like completely grayed out. Although I guess it would still get dark on the other side of the clouds. We just wouldn't be able to see the source of that darkness. Yeah, but if a tree falls in the forest and no one's gonna hear it, did it make a sound? Andrew Ward is a big

fan of the Ed Keenan episodes of Toronto Miked. I think he likes other episodes of Toronto Miked as well, but he really likes the Ed Keenan episodes and he says, we need some Randy Macho Man. He says they're the best. Like the some reading this verbatim, they're the best. I, I get, I don't know if it's because I come on here and talk about it and my phone is, um, spying on me, but like Facebook, which I hate now because of its attempts to destroy the Canadian media industry.

You can't link to H1N1. But I, still my Facebook, you know like how like two thirds of your feed is not people you are friends with. It's just like weirdo content. I get like Seinfeld stuff. So I get now a tremendous amount of like classic wrestling groups posting them. I'm not a member of any.

As far as I know, I've never sought out any of these articles. So where do you think it comes from? But they're all about like how when Macho Man Randy Savage won the belt and him and Miss Elizabeth were celebrating and Hulk Hogan was in the ring celebrating with them it was like Hulk Hogan was disrespecting them and it was a like stealing their thunder the big the big red and yellow elephant in the room and and then all these

people are debating about it and I keep getting sucked into reading the stories like how can you? history I need to know Wait like all 80s wrestling Advertorial but it's actually just fans like saying like, okay, remember that time But then let's come up with a divisive question. We can debate about that that match or that whatever so maybe it is because that match or that whatever. So maybe it is because you do the impression. I thought you were going to tell me you were getting ads in on Facebook or Slim Jim or something because I figured you're in that demo there. Now, you know,

we will later, later if we have time. Uh, and again, I'm finally, I pressed the timer. We're going to do a two hour episode. We're going to see if we can nail the two hour mark. That would be quite impressive, but I can tell you that the Randy Macho Man Savage, whose name is Randy Poffo, was a prospect like he was a baseball prospect. Wow. I think I believe he was drafted. Like he was a high touted. I don't know how highly touted.

I don't want to exaggerate this, but he was definitely a prospect to play in Major League Baseball. Well, there you go. So there you go. OK. Well, I mean, but he was definitely a prospect to play in Major League Baseball. Well, there you go So there you go. Okay. Anyway, well, I mean I guess he's a professional athlete Entertaining yeah sports entertainer now I'm gonna now it's time to begin the episode I would have loved it if it was like a Like a miss Elizabeth was the manager of his baseball team You know because he brings her with.

What's the what was the movie with about the Cleveland Indians? They were trying to tank the team. Oh, Major League. How did I not remember? It's called freaking Major League. But the owner looked a bit like Miss Elizabeth, like picture in your head right now, remember they had that cutout of her or whatever and they were, yeah, when they were trying to make the pennant there. Okay.

So there you go, Major League. I want to hear from you, Ed, about the Black Bull Tavern closing after nearly 200 years. Yeah. I mean, it's just like an iconic Queen Street place, right? And if you had asked me, I wouldn't have necessarily known off the top of my head that had been there 200 years. I would have just known it had been there as long as I could remember. And certainly in our lifetimes, our Toronto lifetimes, the Black Bull patio was a defining

feature of Queen Street West in the summertime. The sort of the anchor patio of that whole strip you've got like. In the you can burp into my Mike Queen Street through the through the. Ages of our life, right, you've got like the horseshoe is like the live music rock and roll headquarters. The Cameron House is like such a like both the artists who live upstairs but also like the video cabaret, the front room like big band music or swing music that in a country that's played throughout the years. There are like

places on Queen Street even Peter Pan the restaurant is like not gonna ever be on the list of the 10 best restaurants in the city, but is like dining defining the Queen mum, right? Like from the 80s all the way through to now or certainly all my life at the Bovine Sex Club for like punk scene, right? Or the, you know, the Black Bull patio is just that spot for the whole strip, right? Like the outdoor patio there, they're just giant. And I remember like when I worked there and when I spent a lot of time there,

just the sound of the motorcycle pipes, because there's so many bikers that would drink there there and they would have their pipes modified to you know, as they do and that obnoxious loud rattling roaring sound I worked in tarot grill, which I think lapal at is in the same space now tarot grill at Queen just west of Bathurst, east sorry of Bathurst just east of Bathurst west east sorry of Bathurst, just east of Bathurst, west of Spadina. And while we were working, just like the windows would rattle and the floor would shake and just car alarms all down the street would be going off. And it was then you'd go and you'd see two dozen bikes, the Harleys all lined up outside the Black Bull. And yet it was like not a biker bar, right?

It was owned by, since the late 70s, it was owned by a former CFL and professional hockey icon, like one of the toughest guys. And so there would be all these- But don't bury that lead though, like a professional hockey player and CFL player. Yeah, so like he was not an NHL player but he played in the East Coast and West Coast professional hockey leagues and the age L for a while

as a professional hockey player one of his big claims to fame he was a like an enforcer he was a fighter a tough guy but he got into a fight that that devolved into stick swinging with John Brophy future Toronto Maple Leafs NHL coach John Brophy and gave him 30 stitches across his forehead. It's like slap shot stuff. Another professional fighter I'm getting this from I got this from from a obituary of of him that ran in the Globe and Mail when he died last year. But it was another professional hockey player who played with him and said,

that was the most violent hockey fight he'd ever seen. That was the worst thing he'd ever seen. As a CFL football player, he was once kicked off of his team for punching his own quarterback in the face. He was famous as a tough guy on the football field as well. So anyway, he bought this bar and all these retired CFL players would come wearing their various jerseys and watch CFL football every Sunday like all day and they would all sit around talking about it and then from the 70s all through the 80s because

the Ontario College of Art was there and then because Queen West became the center of this sort of like the punk and new wave music scenes the comedy scene like all these different demographics would drink together at the Black Bull and all these bankers would come over from the financial district and So it was the kind of place and I admit I didn't spend a lot of time there But I knew people who had really fond memories of it I read up on and I looked into it when I found out it was closing. And it's just like, the beer never really got expensive there.

They never really served a lot of fancy drinks. It was like a beer or shots kind of place. And a kind of place where people would get into shouting matches and all of that, but then buy each other shots afterwards. But you could be watching a CFL football game or you could be talking about like avant-garde music or you could be making bets against the bankers, right? Like it is like they're all lined up there together. And the interesting

thing to me when I was thinking about how like this is a signal has the the granddaughter of the owner after he died the family basically just decided You know Queen West has changed things have changed he's gone now. It's time to just shut it down and Part of what they said is like, you know We used to have one of the sunniest patios in the city now It's in the shadow of condo towers and you know we used to have bikers and bankers and what and you know artists and now we have a lot of people who live in the condos and we've appreciated their business as well but Queen West

is changing and things are changing and I thinking so I have and the people I know in my circles have like multiple decades of memories of the Black Bull and yet it was there before there was a Queen Street West. It was there before there was a Toronto, right? 1833 it opened. That was then called Lot Street. It was on the far western fringe of the boundaries of muddy York or the city of York as it was then.

And it was, they had a trough out front and there were like farmers markets, farmers would travel into the city and at the edge of the city there the western edge of the city there would be Marketplaces where they would auction off their pigs or their produce or whatever Right, and so they would stop at the black bull and have a few pints and stuff, right? That's how long it has been there In the conversation with the wheat chief, there's some debates about continuously operating and all of that. So for the oldest bar in the city.

Wow. And so, the owner's granddaughter in her post said, it's the end of an era, but it's the end of a whole series of eras like that bar not that there's anybody passing down the oral history from bartender to bartender like I I think there's been some wholesale changes of management over the years it went by a different name for much of the 20th

century like from the I can't remember off the top of my head but from like the early 1900s until the 1970s, it had a Clifton House or something like that. And it was a very famously rough place. And I think for stretches of the 1900s, that was a rough part of town as well. You know, often like Jamie Bradburn is a history journalist, a Toronto history journalist who used to write for Torontoist.

He's done columns and stuff for the Toronto Star. He did a history of the Black Bull where he like all the clippings from those those years are all just police blotter items about fights there and all of that. But yeah, so it's just like I I can't claim that I I Can't claim that I Like if sneaky DS closes, I will have a lot of personal stories because I spent miss spent a lot of my youth at sneaky DS right

And you know, there are a bunch of other places like that. We're like, but that's already relocated like things. Yeah. Yeah Where the personal stuff for me is overwhelmed but whelming but but I just think I wrote a column about the closing of the black Bull not because I ever Was a regular there? but just because it's like how many places in the city have seen as much history as that place and have defined the neighborhood they're in to the extent that they did and and Then it just passed away and it was supposed to be my plan Finally had been to go they announced that Wednesday night April 3 it was supposed to be my plan. Finally, had been to go.

They announced that Wednesday night, April 3rd was going to be there last night. And so my plan was to go and see the last last call and write a column about that. Right. And, you know, presumably there'd be some people there, you know, pouring one out, drinking one down to say goodbye. People who'd been there for years, people who, you know, hadn't out, drinking one down to say goodbye, people who'd been there for years, people who, you know, hadn't been there for years but used to be there. And I, you know, I get to talk to those people or at least see them. I've heard John Tory used to go in quite a bit, possibly because of his CFL connections, I don't know. One beer, Tory. But,

but then they ran out of beer on Monday night. They ran out of booze. They like they sold right out. So like when people heard it was closing here in in late March early, well, it was all late March then, like filled that patio, filled the bar, drank them completely dry. So they just shut up. The announced farewell was like, no, sorry, we're out. So what does this mean for the Queen Street scene?

I know you write about this in the Toronto Star, but is this the last nail in the coffin? I don't know what it means. The thing is, somebody put a headline on it that said that it means something. Death of Queen Street scene. Part of me thinks that like Queen Street has always been dying. I worked at Tarot Grill in the 1990s and all the musicians and artists and whatnot who would come into the sit at the bar. It was like a casual fine dining sit down restaurant with a big raucous bar in the front. And that bar was right across from the kitchen where I would work. Right.

And it was an open kitchen. So you would sit and talk to these guys and get to know them. But they all thought, you know, it's not been the same since the squeeze club closed. Right. It's not been the same since like the chateau opened and you know ruined the whole credibility all these right corporate fast fashion places like so in the 90s people were already complaining that Queen Street wasn't what it used to be and then presumably in the 80s they did the same thing and and I I mean what I wonder about though, too, is that like So it has changed a lot is it's going to continue to change. I don't know that it occupies, at a certain point, the nightlife first moved down to clubland, but Queen Street was still there adjacent to it.

And then the nightlife kind of moved west to Queen West West, like near the Gladstone and the Drake hotels and that whole strip, and then, Ossington a bit and all of that and then you know But but I just don't know so I don't think Queen West for a while has played the central role in the city's like Scene stir life like music scene art scene that it that it did in the 70s and 80s and 90s for quite a while. But I don't know what place plays that role now, if there is any place. And I mean, there's still quite a lot of the old

Queen Street charm is still there. And quite a lot of the old places are still there. The cabin is still there, the horseshoe is still there. I don't know that this marks the death of anything in particular on the scene, but it certainly is one of those changes that that will be noticeable by its absence like Where where's the patio now well it marks the death of the black bull tavern for sure without a doubt 292

98 Queen Street West that's right by a very famous address, 299 Queen Street West. So yeah, it was 1833 is when that first opened. Hey, I need a quick up. I have a question from Hey ref. I'm going to read verbatim in a moment. But last time you were over, you were explaining to me what Sankofa means. OK, because the young Dundas Square was going to be Sankofa Square. But then I feel like I read something like, oh oh maybe that's not as positive as it wasn't. We were chatting about it and maybe,

is there an update on the St. Kofa Square name? Any update? I have not given it a moment's thought since the last time you and I talked about it. So my understanding and if the question you're about to read me is from somebody who has a lot me is so this is I know this question is unrelated Oh, okay, thank you for square. So here here was my understanding that it comes from a word in African language that That means I I explained it to you last time and it's something to do with like understanding and reinterpreting your history. It sounded all good what you said to me last time.

The objections to it that I had heard, which seemed faux-woke because of where they were coming from. The people making these objections were all right-wing cultural warriors. but was that the people who spoke that language that this word comes from were slave traders or like had sold fellow Africans into slavery and so that was my understanding of the controversialness of it but but I mean the information I got and like I don't I don't pretend to be any authority on this at all But not only that I don't know necessarily who the authorities on these things should be right, but the Reading about it that I was hearing about where the history of this word came from and what it means

I was hearing about where the history of this word came from and what it means were like people who are like African-American studies professors and in their field of study this term has has come to occupy a certain place that that seemed appropriate for if you wanted to commemorate this troublesome history and acknowledge black Canadians but there may be Further dimensions to it than that that I'm unaware of I don't know. Okay. Well, you know, you're back in another quarter here So enough to see if there's a if it comes back up at City Hall or something. I will Become acutely aware of it again Hey ref who's a good listener and I think is on the live stream right now.

So hello to hey ref at live.torontomike.com. Please ask Ed Keenan his opinion on the way the city has, this is a hey ref's word, okay? Has fucked up, my goodness we're working blue here today, has fucked up the vacancy tax. I think the tax, I think the tax is stupid. I happen to know. I have some inside information that Hayref is a by,

by day as an accountant and by night is a referee, a hockey referee. But well, I don't know. Let me finish it here real quick and then we can hear from you, but I think the tax is stupid, but even worse is the messaging or lack thereof that has come from the city in terms of making compliance easy on this. What do you think of what Hayref is saying about the vacancy tax? All right, well first of all, if I understand the people who've received media training that I

talked to or whatever, I was supposed to... Hayref, thank you so much for the question. I appreciate a very great question. Great question, Hey ref But okay, so I don't want to say I don't think the concept of vacancy Tax is stupid. I think actually in the midst of a housing crisis If you were leaving land vacant, you should have to pay for that, right? There should be some incentive for people who have a house that is sitting empty to either sell it to somebody who will use it or to rent it out to somebody themselves or otherwise put it to use, right? There used to be, and there are property taxes

for like vacant commercial buildings that operate the same way where they, it used to be that you could save money by basically leaving it vacant and waiting for the rents to go up. And so then they try to Create incentives because it ruins a commercial strip when a when a property sits vacant in the same way empty houses in the city the people are just trying to appreciate that's that's not helping when

We have a shortage of people places for people to live. I have started hearing from a lot of people that Okay, first of all the the method of determining that a house is vacant is that every property owner in the city has to affirmatively tell the city my house is not vacant right and so I think first of all that's that's kind of a problem. That's a difficulty. And especially given the difficulty the city has in clearly communicating these kinds of things to people. So I've started to hear recently, and no doubt, Heyraf, an accountant, has heard from a lot of clients and whatnot. I've been hearing from just general people saying, we returned from our three-month sojourn overseas to receive this tax assessment that says our house is vacant we didn't even know we were supposed to tell them we live there we live there that's all we you

know and of the city would say we have bought advertising in all the major media we have put advertising on social media we have sent repeated letters to everybody's house we have put a notice in your water bill, we put a notice in your property tax bill, we told you this deadline was coming, we extended the deadline twice, we we kept making announcements at City Hall for any press that would listen and saying look we're extending the deadline one more time but it's gonna be next Friday, you got to tell us by next Friday if you live in your house or not, and at the same time like many people in this

city are just absolutely oblivious to that kind of stuff. That information does not permeate. And so there's gonna be a lot of people in a state of shock right now. I hope there's an easy appeals process that helps them overturn that. It does seem like maybe measuring like water usage or utilities or something like that would have been an easier way to or you know, used to be when there was an election coming, enumerators would come door to door literally knock on every door They used to do this for the census too, right? Literally knock on every door talk to the people who are there, you know come back a second time leave notices there It seems like if you're gonna have something where every home in the city needs to be on

The list of either occupied or unoccupied That there could have been a way to deal with that better I mean I imagine this is a permanent thing so I imagine that once you've got this master list ah it should be that every year when you pay your water maybe maybe you can't pay your property tax bill unless you tick the box this house is currently occupied or this house is currently occupied, right? Or maybe like when you pay your water tax every year, right? Like there must be some mandatory communication

people are already doing with the city where they could add this on to make sure that everybody has the chance because it does seem like a lot of people are being blindsided but by a vacant home bill for a home they live in. Now I have also heard anecdotally from people or people's parents and stuff who missed all the messaging on this one and I think that's what Hayref is referring to but I will say personally as a homeowner in the city of Toronto I sure didn didn't miss it. Like I, I, maybe I'm more dialed in than your, your, your, your average, uh, your average bear, but it did seem, I think I got something in the mail. I think I heard about it on the radio. I think, uh, I think it just, it was in the, uh,

the atmosphere. I feel like, uh, through osmosis, I soaked it in, like I, I was well aware of the vacancy tax deadline, uh deadline for what that's worth. But I do hear from people who missed it completely. The thing is, I think, like, like you certainly are more dialed in the average pair. And so am I. Like, it's my job to cover some of this stuff for a living. But you also like are constantly talking about stuff to people. And it's not always about politics. You over one to quarter the stuff you are named after the city.

That's true. I am Toronto, my podcast is. That's true. And and I just think what here's what happens, though, is that you is that like, I think a lot of these homeowners, like I get so much in the mail from the city that's like, oh, here's your recycling schedule. And then I'm always like, oh, I'm going to put this calendar in my fridge. And I realize it's not even a calendar.

It's just like telling me in some neighborhoods of the city on alternate days and blah, blah, blah. And then it's like, what goes in your recycle bin and what goes in your compost bin? It's like, I just throw that stuff out. And then there's like filming location notices, and there's like construction updates, and like some newsletter from my city council, and whatever else. And then I think like to like on the newscast or whatever

there's like vacant home tax and people are like immediately like I don't own a vacant home this doesn't apply to me and they stop listening immediately right right and so so I I have some sympathy I mean I also this is tied in have you and I talked about the Centennial Park batting cages on here before? Because I've written it a few times. So let me just, I won't get into that batting cages, except to say that when they finally announced

they were closing and the people who own the place were saying, please try and help us save it. Last minute appeal to the city to renew our lease rather than forcing us to shut down, right? Lots of people in the neighborhood use those batting cages all the time, but also visit that park, play at the arena that's in the park, like live in the neighborhood.

We're all like, how come there was no notice about this? How, why is this the first time ever hearing about this? Right. And then the city will point out like, we did five years of consultations and we came back and held public meetings all these times. And we had an online consultation and like, this is what the community told us they want more baseball diamonds, not more batting cages or whatever.

Right. And it's like, while that was happening, I went to the park next to George Bell Arena, which through my life, I have, uh, I continue to have children who play hockey at George Bell Arena. I occasionally play men's league there. Um, I have coached a lot of baseball on the little T doll diamond or T ball running me park, yeah, yeah. And so while this was all happening,

I could see there were big signs in Runnymede Park that said like, changes are proposed for this park, tell us what you want. And I had missed the point, but it's like, I'm at that, I'm in that location multiple times a day, I'm very invested in that space. Yep. And yet, I had never noticed those signs and I like I scanned

over them as if it's like there's a development application here. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like it would never occur to me as a very engaged person who actually cares about that space that I should look into this city consultation process and tell them what I want for the park. It's like, right. It's like now if they announced they were paving the whole entire park to I don't know, you know, make it a like to to gambling den like like they're we're going to remove the little t-ball diamond in the soccer field and we're going to put a bed a pit of snakes a pit of deadly Vipers here Like then I would say why didn't anybody ask me what I wanted?

How is this just coming out now and it's like oh cuz the the the pit of snakes people are the only people who showed Up to the consultation right so I feel like there's something similar at work in these like How come I was never told about the vacant home tax? It's like, well, people were trying to tell you, but somehow it was not made clear to you that this actually applied to you. It especially applies to you if you do not have a vacant home. Maybe there's a naming problem. Maybe it should be the occupied

home discount. You get a discount on your property tax if you occupy your own home or rent it to someone. You should be in the marketing there for the city. Now the Centennial Park batting cages, what's going on there exactly? We did talk, I think last time you were on we talked about Rob Ford Stadium, which is in the same area. So Rob Ford Stadium, I think there's no more to be said. No, no, I just wanted the titles. But the geographic, because I am an Etobicoke guy. I know where we're going. For years, Centennial Park, if you don't live in Etobicoke

and if you haven't been there a lot, is a giant, giant park in the very north, the far west corner of the city. Yeah, it goes to like Eglinton. Yeah, yeah, it goes to, it's not so very north The far west corner of the sea it goes like Eglinton. Yeah. Yeah, it goes It's not so very north, but it's the extreme west right like you drive a block past it and you're in, Mississauga Yeah, and so It's it's an epic size a park in the middle of the park There's a hockey arena. There's Rob Ford Stadium there, there's a giant swimming, Etobicoke Olympium swimming and gymnastics complex, there are multiple

different parts of that park. And they've been talking, and so for a long time there and They've been talking and so for a long time there have been near the golf course and near the mini golf course Across the road from those inside the park there has been both a go-kart track and a bunch of coin operated or token operated batting cages and so operated or token operated batting cages. And so if people have ever played baseball or as a kid you'd like did this stuff like it's like there used to be a

lot of warehouses in the city and some outdoor places you could go to where you just like walk up and you feed coins into a machine and it gives you 10 pitches for two bucks or whatever right and you stand there with your bat and you take swings and it you can go to the one that pitches 80 miles per hour, the one that pitches 50 miles per hour. There's like a slow pitch one. There are no more places like that in the city now at all. There was one left.

It was at Centennial Park. It was outdoors, surrounded by netting, but the Diamond Beach batting cages were like the last place inside the city limits where you could go up without an appointment like just with your kid right and you know you you get ten bucks in tokens and you feed them in there and you can you can take you know 20 30 40 swings if you're still one more you buy a few more tokens. It's like, whatever, you're just passing an hour

or you're training. What there are are a lot of indoor professionalized baseball facilities where you can rent a batting cage with a machine for $100 an hour or $150 an hour or $200 an hour, depending on the time of day and whatnot. Or you can buy a membership for your kid or whatever to go train there certain number of times a week under professional supervision or you can take clinics and classes or if you're a team you can rent the facility for a certain

number of hours and and stuff there are a bunch of places like that in the GTA but but there's not any coin-operated batting cages. So the city decided that as part of its specifically part of its expanded baseball facility at Centennial Park they're eliminating they they evicted the go-kart track and that's just gone and there's no real movement to save it. Sadly enough, it was a fun go-kart track, but there are, you can go in the suburbs of Toronto and drive go-karts, right?

Like, it's not a, but there were a lot of people, especially in the West End of Toronto, but I even talked to some like select baseball player, friend, parents from the East End, like who live near like Greenwood, who would like drive to Centennial Park specifically because it's the only place where you're like, it's Saturday afternoon, let's go kid.

Let's just go. I used to frequent these batting cages myself. Yeah, and like your kid could take a few swings and then you can get in there and take a few swings. It's fine, it's not like my brother and I, one point he he called me and he was like what are you doing I was thinking we should go to the batting cages for an hour so we just went and we caught up and like took swings together right like it's like the most casual kind of thing and it just such an asset I think to the city to have that kind of space where it's like not planned because

the city was what they heard in their where it's like not planned because the city was what they heard in their consultation and probably if they're talking about expanded baseball facilities and stuff they're talking to the organized baseball leagues and teams and whatnot to ask them what do you need out of city parks and they are saying we need more regulation diamonds right because they're like you can't get a permit on need more regulation diamonds, right? Because they're like, you can't get a permit on all these regulation diamonds, and we need them to be well maintained,

and we need them to be up to the standards. So they're like, good, we're gonna do that. But, and that's true that we do need more of that, and the city also needs more cricket pitches. The city also needs more regulation soccer fields, right? But the problem right now with city parkland when it comes to facilities like baseball diamonds and stuff, is that it's all permitted out the wazoo.

Which means the parks, there's one at Rovina Park, there's one at High Park, there's one all over the city. You can see there's little batting enclosures in the parks next to the baseball diamond. But if you ever go there, you'll find there's padlocked, and like there's a fence around them and they're padlocked because, you know, High Park Little League or Royal York Baseball or Toronto Greenwood Baseball or whatever park has the permits on that diamond has the exclusive right to use that, right?

So we've got all these, the public facilities that we do have and we should have more of them, but they're also like reserved for the exclusive use of these organizations. Now those are nonprofit community groups. I'm not accusing them of anything untoward, right? But it's also just means like a neighborhood kid

has to like get involved in the institutional sport in order to use City Parks facilities to just do it. You can't just go with your buddy. And that's one thing I noticed when I lived in the Washington DC area is that they're really high-end high school baseball sports facilities. Their batting enclosures were, when they're not in use, they just have mesh nets around them. And they don't have automatic pitching machines built into them or anything like that. Like you can go throw batting practice to your kid there.

And then if the high school team or somebody else who has a permit shows up, they kick you out, like right but it's open for public use the rest of the time it's not locked up it's like we just don't even have that in Toronto in a lot of cases in in some of the nicer public parks the actual baseball diamonds themselves are locked when they're not in use so that the public can't just go and play a casual pickup game when they're not being used and that now there's reasons for that it's because like I Park Little League for instance which I have a history of being involved with but I no longer have any kids of

that age but I know they fundraise and spend like tens of thousands of dollars on a like clay infield there to maintain the grass, to like put the scoreboard in the outfield, to like like they have the community group has invested in that facility and if people go after it's rained and run on that mud they just completely wreck it right and it like you know so I understand why but it also just means like I'm philosophically opposed to having like more and more of our parkland be reserved for the exclusive use of fee paying members right and and this seems like part of that but I'm also to circle back around I'm such a like rambler I to circle back around to your initial question is just that I think that

that places like things like This was not a free use you had to do the coin up But it was so casual and was such a useful little thing and a fun thing for people like so if you're a baseball Player who wants to train it's it's a useful facility to have if you're a couple neighborhood kids who want to kill an hour It's a fun facility to have. If you're a couple neighborhood kids who wanna kill an hour, it's a fun thing to have, right? And it doesn't take up that much space in the context of the size of Centennial Park. Like surely there's a way to incorporate it in.

So, Councilor Stephen Holliday, who I so rarely find myself on the same side of an issue with, and so rarely find occasion to to applaud like and don't get me wrong like I actually think he's one of the more principled city councillors in terms of like you know what he stands for he's clear about it he's able to articulate it it's consistent we just disagree on a lot. Right. But in this case, he came back to say, okay, can we at least have a study here? Can we at least get a staff to look into how hard would it be to add something like this back into the new plan?

Right. Like is, can we find vendors who will, who will bid on this, who will run it as a revenue source for the city, like the old Diamond Beach was, and that it will somehow fit in. I don't know that there's high hopes that that's going to come back with a positive resolution. Those batting cages are gone. At a minimum, they're not coming back in the next few years while all these renovations and rebuilding are taking place But maybe in the longer term, there's something like that that could come back

Speaking of coming back Hey ref on the live stream just back to the vacancy tax He says the cost of administration will be more than the tax collected. So I wanted to get out here on the record Well, that's self-defeating if that turns out to be the case for sure. Oh, and Jesse Hirsch, FOTM Jesse Hirsch, says he loves that you, when you do your Randy Macho Man, Randy Savage impression, he says, he's watching,

he says, you flex. Yes, absolutely. You can't just, you gotta flex. Well, it's just, oh yeah, oh yeah. I don't think even the macho man himself could really channel that voice without, it's a physical. Cup of coffee. It goes beyond the vocal cords.

It starts in the biceps and like squeezes in through your chest. And that's how it comes out. I don't, I don't actually think I do very good. Man, you're much more you know, but it's certainly Andrew Ward as I remembered and honed it in my childhood. I appreciated very much. He was the intercontinental heavyweight champion. Was it honky-tonk man if I recall, I'm trying to remember now it's all, it's all coming back to me. But do you remember when the macho man,

Randy Savage pulled a foreign object out of his shorts. I remember that. To hit Ricky the steamboat. Ricky the dragon. Yeah. Yeah. Ricky the dragon steamboat. I still remember the foreign object and like a, like a weight or something right like a

Like I don't know how that he was hiding that in his shorts like old up in his shorts or something Yeah, yeah, like it is like yeah, I mean he's here. Is that a foreign object in your tunic? What is it not? It's not called a tunic. What are those wrestlers thing the sling? I know that's like like King Kong Bundy. Yeah. Yeah. Singlet. Yeah. These are more like, it was more of just like Spandex bikini. It was like a little banana. It was like, how could that thing be in there? Yeah. Love it. Uh, I loved how he has promos with Mean Gene, Okerlin, like whatever's lying around.

If he's like, Oh, I need something. I'll get a creamer, right? It would be a creamer. And you go, cream of the crop. The cream always rises, mean gene. It was amazing. Okay. I realize now I'm like, okay, we're gonna do two hours. I'm like, I feel like we just finished the intro. Like we should start the episode now.

We're now 18 minutes. So, okay, let me, let me, Ed Keenan from the Toronto Star. If people want to read. Are you gonna have any promos that you gotta do in a minute? Okay. Do you want to do in a minute? Okay. Do you want to go pee? Yes.

Okay. Okay. I'll be back in a moment. And I will talk about a great podcast. Actually, I'm going to talk about, wait, don't trip over my cables here, Ed Keenan. You'll be lying on the floor, pool of blood. It'll be a terrible scene down here. I want to urge all listeners to subscribe to the Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James,

Canada, hosted by Chris Cooksey, who just shaved his head. So Cooksey, if you're listening, you got a beautiful skull, you shaved your head in solidarity with your wife who's undergoing chemo treatments. And I think that's a beautiful thing. So it warmed the cockles of my heart, but that's not why you should listen to the advantaged investor. It's the the experts, the best practices, the good advice you'll learn. Subscribe today when Ed Keenan gets back, I'm going to give him a wireless speaker from Maneras. He may have one. In fact, I remember now hearing one in the backyard of his home during his fiftieth birthday party, but season six of yes, we are open is dropping now and

there's a great episode with the staff at the River Cafe on Prince's Island in downtown Calgary. That's right. Al Gregor went to Calgary to cuddle with every Calgarian he could find, and this great story is a story of resilience that you won't believe so check it out subscribe to yes we are open I was just telling the listeners Ed that I heard music in your backyard 50th birthday party played on a Monaris box and speaker I got a new one for you all right you don't need a new one because it's such a high quality speaker not that many areas made no no but I have multiple floors and you have many

children in multiple floors. So, and now this is how far they've come. You can now, there's a QR code there and you can just simply subscribe very easily on your smartphone and recycle my electronics when your Menere wireless speaker does bite the dust. Don't throw it in the garbage. Uh, go to recycle my electronics dot CA and put in your address and then it'll be a ed, drop it off here and we'll properly recycle that and you will do that. So thank you to recycle my electronics dot C a, Oh, less we forget, I want to invite you, I want to invite you to a TML X 15 at

Keenan. I don't know what you're doing on June 27th. I don't know. It's a Thursday night either. It's an important today in the history of the world really. But from six to nine PM we're all going to collect at Great Lakes Brewery in Southern Etobicoke, and Palma Pasta is going to feed us. So come hungry, darling, because Palma Pasta's got you covered. And because- Now you are speaking my language, because it's an accepted fact of the Toronto Mike universe.

It's Toronto Mike canon that it is the pasta that keeps me coming back. Right, and you're getting a lasagna, because June 27th is still a little ways away. So to tide you over, I've got a lasagna in my freezer for you from Palma Pasta. I may well, as of right now, be able to make it on the 27th. Because that is my 50th birthday.

Oh, hey, hey, all right, well, that is it. But I know you're going to be there. There you go. I can tell you that just to make sure you show up. Okay, all right, so where do I wanna, this place I wanna go, but I don't wanna lose any questions from people. Mark Richardson, I'm gonna read it

and hopefully you know exactly what we're talking about. He writes, he wants me to bring up with you the long and questionable history of Green Pea parking lots, policy pricing, and land acquisition practices at Toronto City Hall. Do you have any idea what Mr. Richardson's referring to? You've written about this in the past possibly? I probably have some idea what what Mark Richardson is talking about. Now you know this is maybe something where he's asking a question because he'd like me to talk

about it not because Mark Richardson likely knows more about it than I do but basically the Green Peas are like subsidized parking. Like the city runs Green Pea parking lots as an amenity to people and they price them traditionally almost like they're a social service. Like they're subsidized in the same way that transit fares are subsidized. And so there's been a lot of argument over the many years

that maybe they should be pricing that parking And and so there's been a lot of argument over the many years that Maybe they should be pricing that parking to generate more revenue for the city But part of their mandate is to provide affordable parking for the people And so their rates are closely monitored but also this becomes an issue that really overlaps with Mark Richardson's interest because they continue or have until very recently continued to buy up property to turn into surface parking lots, like often, you know, to demolish a building that's on a site and put a surface parking lot there so that the neighborhood will have enough parking for its retailers, according their estimates and what not, enough affordable parking when a lot of people are saying, well, we should actually be taking those parking lots and turning them into housing. And recently the city has made some movement towards doing that under the current mayor

at the most recent City Council meeting there was a proposal to turn a certain number of Green pea lots into housing I think that's a positive thing. I have long thought that the city should at least during peak hours when parking is scarce like More appropriate market price like I think if we're gonna own a massive chain of parking lots, it should be a revenue source, not a cost. Especially downtown where we're trying to encourage

more people to build transit, and we need money to raise transit. So, I don't know exactly what Mark was hoping I would touch on, but I imagine those are some of the things he was hoping that we would at least alert your listeners to the like existence. Sure no I appreciate that. Mark he's back next quarter so collect your questions and comments for Ed Keenan. He'll be here in three more months. Now I read a headline and I'm hoping you're up to speed on this but it said the group fighting Ontario Place Spa scored a legal victory over Doug Ford. Do you know anything about this?

Here I like the blind side. No no I mean and I should I feel like I should know what that's about but I don't actually. Okay well for next visit I need to know everything that's going on. I'll have to get back up to speed. I mean, the most recent things I've heard about Ontario Place, but I haven't checked in on purpose recently, but they were not positive things. It seems like it's kind of a freight train now, this spa. Well my updated, which is not fresh news, but I, you know, I tweet this stuff in real time. So I try to be the first one to get these stories. But of course, because I'm I bike by on our two Trillium Park anyways, by Ontario Place there. And it was kind of

the world's longest blackboard for a while. Right. Like it was just this big black wall that we can't see what's going on the other side, but people would take their chalk and they would put these messages like, save the wildlife and take your private spa elsewhere and all that kind of stuff. And the blackboard's gone, they put up like a provincial propaganda of pictures of like people enjoying. Excellent.

They don't reference the private spa though, but it's like, oh, this is gonna be the, we're making this for you, Ontario. It's gonna be wonderful. And they kind of- I think the people at Thermay too, to be fair to them, do like it if you say like a spa and water park. No, they-

There will be water slides there and stuff too. I think a spa, and I realized, cause I'm one of the people who's constantly talking about it as a spa. And I realized, because I'm one of the people who's constantly talking about it as a spa, and I realized, well, it does raise the image in your mind of people with like having cucumbers placed on their heads and being massaged, whereas also kids having fun on water slides. There's that too. Which is what we remember at Ontario Place, water stuff going on there. That's my memories. Anyways, so okay. The water

slide tower is one of the stairway for it is one of the things that's still there on the abandoned, but no slides attached to no slides attached to that would have been if they, when they had abandoned that park, if they had just left those slides up there for people to use or a skateboard on, right? If you're going to have an abandoned park, it should be dangerous. Do you have any memory of the really long slides that were in High Park when we were growing up?

Yeah, they made of metal. Yeah. And they were super long, made of metal. And it's like now when I think back, it's like they've been gone a long time. I think that's where the like the pirate park is or whatever that is. The adventure playground.

I mean, I think they're on the hills that lead into that. And when you look at them now, they are not as super long hills as you remember those slides being from your childhood. They're not nearly as dangerous as I remember. They were just like suicide missions. Yeah, yeah. And I did not grow up near High Park. It was, we would go there for school regional cross-country meets they no longer hold

cross-country meets in High Park because people trampled of probably a centennial park now by Rob Ford Stadium I mean even our West End kids go out to Woodbine Beach for their cross-country and it's all really because my kids not up and down hills at all my kids go to Centennial Park ah okay but we're on the other side the Humber right so maybe you're in the Etobicoke. Yeah, maybe Etobicoke goes to Centennial Park. But, but like, so we would only visit Hyde Park like once or twice a year, always for these races or for whatever other school thing. Right. And yet I so vividly remember those slides because they were like, pow, blowing your mind when you were a kid.

They were so long and so ridiculous and dangerous. And if you're wearing little shorty short shorts, they were like so burn your legs. Just searing your legs. No, third degree burns for sure. Absolutely. We survived the 80s. My kid is like, oh you're gonna go? We changed we change smoked our way through it drinking 50 out of stubbies, right? We got like a skate park and you know the 10 He's almost 10 my third born and where he wants a skateboard and everything and it's like, okay your elbow pads your knee pads

Your helmet or whatever like you should I was skateboarding down like you shouldn't wearing nothing like forget knee pads and elbow pads and helmet like it's like nothing like I never thought twice about it and that explains all the brain damage at Keenan because we were not taking precautions the proper precautions. Okay, we talked earlier about the housing and I was just wanted to get clarification on what Doug Ford has against fourplexes. Like maybe if you don't mind before I do something fun on the way out. There was like so Doug Ford, like every politician in Canada has tried to make housing his signature issue, right? Getting it built, getting her done.

At one point, he's like, raise the green belt, we're putting housing on it. And then he's like, he had to backtrack from that. There's a bunch of things where he had to backtrack. But he's like changing the laws for how things get approved. There was this suggestion that fourplexes, which is like a duplex except instead of two units, there's four in it.

Right. And so he reassured the people of Richmond Hill and elsewhere in the 905, all these suburban municipalities, that he would not force local governments to permit fourplexes as of right right which was kind of like a lot of people are thinking that's kind of your minimum like not not quite minimum but close to the minimum of signaling you're making a real change in how the zoning

applies like so that if I buy a monster home and I want to turn it into a fourplex on the same footprint where it's gonna have four apartments in it that that would just be allowed and I don't have to fight my neighbors and I don't have to fight the zoning and I don't have to whatever well he's not in favor of that and his quote and I don't have it in front of me so I like from memory though it was something like don't worry folks we're not gonna have the fourplexes, we're going to have homes. Which is like the most revealing thing. And then he said like, single family homes and townhouses. Right? But it's, the revealing thing about that is that it indicates, and

now, then he started talking about how we couldn't have them four stories or six stories in your subdivision, right? Like, we're not going crazy here. But first of all, most fourplexes are not four stories tall. They're usually the same size as a house, right? Like, four apartments doesn't necessarily mean four floors. They're often like a split. There are a bunch of them all over the city

that are two or three stories tall and have four apartments in them. But I think what I found revealing about that kind of particular comment, and you see this with Doug Ford sometimes, where sometimes the guy just misspeaks but sometimes the way he mystiques seems to indicate the way he thinks about things where he doesn't think an Apartment is a real house or is a real home, right? Right. He thinks when he says homes he means

Single family homes and then he sort of qualifies with also a townhouse. I guess right if it's attached on both sides They could still be a whole it It can also be semi's maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like townhouses. But like if it's not a house, it's not a home. And that's not the kind of thing we want to encourage building. And the interesting thing, or like one of the troubling things to me about that is first of all like lots of people live in apartments, right? Like I have spent much of my life living in an apartment Then I lots of people I love live in apartments They lots of people I know consider those apartments to be their homes, right? But also if you look at

How how given the price of real estate here we may need to change, like the up and coming generation, and generations may need to sort of, like if they're gonna love Toronto, if they're gonna be able to afford to live here, change their thinking about what a home looks like, right? And so we do have some models

in like the condos that have been going up. But I think if we look at other cities where they really have a bigger history of higher density than here, like New York and Montreal are two examples where I've spent a lot of time. I took my kids over the March break to Montreal, just me and the three kids. And it had been long enough that like, they couldn't really remember it very clearly from before because the last time we had gone was before we moved to Washington DC.

So they'd all been there multiple times, but like not recently. And they're young enough that those four or five years, six years since they've been there is like a big chunk of their life, right? My kids loved about Montreal when they're walking around. Like all these swooping beautiful staircases that go up to the second floor. It's like the one and a half floor. And it's like this standard feature of Montreal streetscapes

is these staircases leading up. And now part of that is how their building codes have required or allowed these external staircases rather than internal ones. And it creates this unique kind of visual feature. But part of it is actually that it is standard in many parts of Montreal that people will live in flats, that these houses will be duplexes or triplexes. Almost every single one on the block. live in flats, that these houses will be duplexes or triplexes.

Almost every single one on the block. And this is in a lot of them desirable parts, so not out in Westmount, but like in all the parts of downtown Montreal, and in all the parts of like Central, the hipper parts of town. Like these neighborhoods would be built that way. And generations of French Canadians, generations of Jewish Canadians, Anglo Montrealers grew up in a place where yes okay there were rich bankers out in Westmont, right? There are suburbs of Montreal that look like suburbs of everywhere else but in the city lots of

families live in apartments. They live in a flat, essentially. They live on one floor. Those are purpose-built that way and they're spacious. They're large. They have balconies on them. They have... and they're a reasonable place where a fat person might live, right? They're not sandwiched in. And those are homes, right? And in New York City, the richest people often rent an apartment, right? They rent an apartment that might, they might be beautiful. It might be, uh, it often is still small. Even if you're rich, um, there was a whole joke. I'm trying to remember who it was, some celebrity or somebody who had said at one point that

like when they were watching uh a Woody Allen movie like Hannah and her sisters they were like I just want an apartment I just want to be able to afford an apartment like the one she has in that movie right right and then they realized oh that's actually Mia Farrow's apartment like that's that's being able to afford that means being an internationally famous movie star, right? Like, like, but, but so like rich people in New York City and in a lot of these world cities, like live in apartments and in Paris, like people live in apartments and those are homes, they make homes there and they build them as homes. They build them to be homes, right? And I think the mentality that somehow

you're not building a home if it's not a full house is like both dismissive of a lot of people who live in homes that don't fit that deficiently now, but also it's like if we're ever gonna get to a point where we like are building housing in a way that that gives people a shot at be able to live in the city on a average like workers salary, we're going to have to change your idea of what a proper home looks like.

And so Doug Ford is not there yet. Doug Ford is not there yet. There's your headline. Okay. I would like to spend a little time on like a sports cast here. We'll call it a sports talk here. I would love an update from you on our Toronto PWHL team.

That is just about my favorite topic these days. Yeah. Okay, talk to me. Their winning streak did come to an end. Oh, okay. I missed that up. But it was 11 games no 10 games amazing though because they've only played like a dozen at the beginning of the season everybody kept saying quietly especially like they were really hyped up about it and um they would be

sailing but why do they have to suck why do tor Toronto sports teams... Yeah, rough start. You know, it's like they lost most of their first four or five games. I think they got one win squeezed in there but they lost the first two in a row or three in a row and then it was like just a rough start. Right. And then they just started winning and for a while it's like, sure, is he like, you know, I never want to lose again. You like, you just think this team is never going to lose again. And I, I think the last time I was here, the season had just started, right? Like, but, and I had seasons, my whole family had fallen in love with Emma

Malta who we still love and we sit in a section of, uh, Badami arena where that's called Emma nation. There are big banners that identify in an emmination. There are some super fans in the front that being all, all these Emma posters and hand them out. They have made Emma Maltes mini sticks, uh, that they hand out to anyone who will wants them in the area. Um, we still love her, but also I went in with, um,

warm feelings about Natalie Spooner, both because I had seen her play on the old Toronto Furies at George Bell Arena, the one or two seasons when they were, that was their home rink. She's a Scarborough girl. She went to high school a block from where I lived in Scarborough. It would have been the high school I had gone to if I hadn't gone to a Catholic high school. But and so she's younger than me, but she's from the hood, right? She's my homegirl. So and then I found out or I had been following and I'd seen the commercials and stuff from her Olympic

team that like she has had a child like she has a toddler like she gave birth like in last year, right? Like or it was late 2022, I think, but so, and then so she had a kid less than a year old when the season launched, right? And yet she's, she's back in saddle suited up. So I already had all this warm feelings for and then she just became the most dominant player just like she's got I think I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I think after 20 games, she's got 16 I think, I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I think after 20 games, she's got 16 goals, which if you look at the point per game pace, it's like if she was

playing a whole NHL season, that would project out to be like 62, 63 goals, something like that on the season, which is Austin Matthews-esque. But then you look and see that like second on that list of scoring leaders is like nine goals, right? Like it falls way off, right? Like Marie Fouli-Poulet, these these people who are famous for being just like greatest of all time, the greatest in the world, maybe maybe more hyped than Natalie Spooner, have like like not even two-thirds as many goals as her. Like at one point it's like she was going to lap them. Right. And so if you look at it compared to the,

the average goals in that league, like there's fewer goals per game in the PWL. Like it, it's all the more impressive. She's just having such a dominant season. But when you see her in person playing there too, or if you see her on TV, she just takes over games. She puts that team on her back and just goes and does what she wants she she has skills that I think will see sharpened and more common in the women's game as this league evolves and players are playing together as teams and they're

drilling stuff in practice and they're drilling stuff in practice and they're professionals who are able to practice every day and not work full-time side jobs, right? But like the way she parks in front of the net, the way she scores from in the paint, the way she controls the puck from behind the net and drives through traffic in a fairly physical league is something you see more often in the NHL

but you don't like not a lot of PWHL goals are scored that way there's a lot more on the rush there's a lot more shots from out at the top of the hash marks there's a lot more of that and and it's impressive to me how how well she does those things in this league and I'm so excited about her and so I'm so looking forward to that going into the playoffs they are okay so there's like a three-week break in the PWHL schedule right now roughly while the women's World Cup or the World Championship is taking place in Utica New York Canada opens tonight.

I'm planning to watch that game at 7 because they have like a whole line's worth of PWHL players there or more. Or PWHL Toronto players. Like in the rivalry series recently, Team Canada was running out a full Toronto PWHL line, right, with Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse, Emma Maltes, and then Renata Fast and Jocelyn LaRocque on defense. That is a Toronto PWHL line and it was dominating against the Americans. It scored all kinds of points in the last two games of that rivalry series. So I'm hyped about that. But there's towards the end of April.

Yeah. The PWL season resumes, they've got each team has, I think, four games left. And then the playoffs start in early May. Exciting in 2015 when the Pan Am games were here in Toronto and they had the the relay the torch relay my local park the the torch was carried by Natalie Spooner there you go there you go 2015 okay and speaking of women's athletics I'm just curious if you're watching any NCAA action and particularly Caitlin Clark Iowa State I have been um Reading about it more than I've been watching it I didn't see the the LSU the rematch against L. I and I watched some highlights of it

I didn't actually watch the game itself, but I did I did seek out Online some highlights and I've read a lot about it. And like I said, I have never been a big March Madness guy, but usually I see some of the men's games and this year I have seen a bit of the women's games. I turned it on one night too and I was trying to, it's kind of like I turned it on and whatever game's on, I'll watch a little bit of. Well those first two days,

what are the first four days of March Madness, particularly on the men's side, it's just frenetic, right? It's just one game after another. I'll watch a little bit of first two days the first four days of March Madness on Particularly on the men's side. It's just frenetic, right? It's just one game after another I just got through to the final four. Yes. Yes. Okay, so it was like I think ten threes for Caitlin Clark amazing Yeah, now I did a performance against LSU. Yeah, it seemed like just statistically like a Superstar individual game and she is like kind of an amazing player as a well I mean you should see you should see the the viewership for this game Like I watched it live and the viewership was off the charts higher than any NBA game last year except one Higher than any NHL game last season. Yep, the highest rated

Women's basketball game of all time and I was tuned in like I for the rematch, I could I watched the finals last year with the LSU and I was eight and I want to shout out Bruce Dobegin who was just here and gave me a toque an Iowa State toque. So go Caitlin and on the men's side though I do want to show Zack Edie Toronto guy seven foot four you know plays for the Purdue Boilermakers who are in the final four. Oh yeah. So I'm rooting for Toronto. Zach Eady.

Go, Zach. Now, now I've got a team in the final four. Yeah. Now that I know he's there. Now that you know he's there and you know, they don't make a lot of seven foot four guys. And I, it's, it's something else to watch this guy. Like Babcock used to say, he's seven foot four every day. Right.

Right. Well, you can't teach height is what I heard here. All right. This is a fun thing we're going to do on the way out here. I think the timing is perfect here. So are you watching Toronto Blue Jays? I have been watching them. Yeah. They, whoo. Okay. So if you take, in that case, I mentioned Keegan Matheson and Greg Orchism were here the other day and we set up the the season and we talked and you know We talked in great detail too about the the Phantom Otani flight and how that I believe was Greg Orr who called it journalistic What was his term but basically a misconduct of some nature right like because of how

Poor the journalism was on that anyway. So, so this is a great episode. I highly recommend it. But this series in Houston, which was a three gamer, uh, we, we were no hit. Okay. So we're no hit. And then we were basically, I don't know what, I can't remember, but it was two outs in the ninth when we got our own. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, um, yeah. Davis Schneider hits a two run home run. We were down to our last out and then a two run homer. So you kind of, you did get a win. So, you know, and then, and then we were one hit or

something. Like, so if you don't, I was thinking if you don't hit that two run homer with two outs in the ninth, it's like a cumulative score of, I don't know, 19 to nothing or something. And you get like, you know, three hits or something, the whole series. Yeah. But so tough times with the bad. The first series with the Tampa Ray Tampa with the race. Yeah. Was Swing was also like a feast or famine.

Right. Absolutely. To five one the first game. And then I'm trying to remember. But but yeah, they kind of got shut down. You want big you lose big. But then they want to big. So so but I mean, the big you and I talked at the end of last year's They kind of got shut down. You won big, you lose big. But then they won too big.

But I mean, the big... You and I talked at the end of last year's Blue Jays season. I was just saying, kind of like, I miss the old fun Blue Jays, right? It wasn't just that this team lost. It was like, where's the identity? Where's the fun? Where's the spirit? Where were their bats?

You know, they put great efforts into removing a lot of the fun. And I had, through spring training this this year and I still have hope. It's like early in the year. Oh, it's super early. But if the fear was that this team wasn't going to find its way back on offense again and with like tools like, tools, like guys like Vladdy Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette and and now Justin Turner who's getting old but still he can still mash and maybe maybe you know there's the hint of the possibility of Vato coming in here and like but it's just like

there's this team should be able to hit a bit. And if that, these no hitters and one hitters at the beginning of the year is like, well, this doesn't seem like it's gonna be fun. But I also, this is a long season and I don't think, what have they played now? Is six games? Yep.

Yeah, that's too early. Well, you know, I had seven games. Seven, yeah, we're three and four. There's four against three and four, right? Yeah. And we got today off,. You know, I had seven games. Seven. Yeah, we're three and four against three. I tell you, right. Yeah. And we got today off. Yeah. No, no doubt about 162 games. You don't judge anything on the first six games. But last year we did struggle at the plate. Yeah.

And we didn't do anything in my opinion. You know, you lose a Chappie, you bring in a Turner. Like there's not, there's no significant upgrade on offense. And just, you mentioned a couple of guys. One guy I'm all in on, Bo Bichette, I think he's the team. I think he's a superstar. And in Vladie Guerrero, we had this chat the other day and I urged people to check it out,

but you ask a Keegan Matheson or a Gregor Chisholm, they don't know who he is. We still don't know who he is. Well, and I think a lot of people are like that. And it's like, was it just one season? Except that that was the season that was foretold, right the whole time He was coming up. He was the next one. He was oh, yeah and then he had

A couple good years, but that one mvp caliber year in particular Where it was like, okay This is the player we were told he was going to be right and then it something happened, right? He dropped off and it's not like his numbers are terrible. But like like the whole thing is that he's not the superstar he's not the the Record-breaker and I mean, I think he still may turn into none to be that Disagree with that that I mean they know they follow this team a lot closer from me but my own sense is like kind of like

He's got a he's got to find his way back into that. And I think there's got to be a way, but it's, it's not a coincidence. It doesn't feel like a coincidence to me. And it may well be a coincidence. It doesn't feel like a coincidence to me that when they got rid of all his best friends on the team, because they thought they were all having too much fun and not taking it seriously enough that suddenly he forgot how to hit. Like I think Vladdy seems like the kind of guy who needs to be having fun out there to

play his best, right? I don't know. Yeah, you're talking about Lourdes Gouriel Jr. and you're talking about Teosca Hernandez and we gave up bat for defense and of course that Gabriel Moreno is going to haunt us for the next decade. Right. But we can go on Jay's talk. Love it. Love talking it. But I want to revisit a song. So do you remember the early 90s when we had the variety village compilations? And I can't remember who you talked about. Maybe we have.

OK, so here I have them here. This is how organizing them. So you can take a glance at these. There's a couple. I don't remember these. I was a big fan of these. They were like parody songs and Blue J's songs. Love them very much. I actually have them all digitized. I'm a big fan of them all. But there's one I want to kind of, maybe you and I are going to listen to this and kind of react to this.

We fought them all and J's won. I'm just, I don't remember any of these, but I can tell by reading the titles how some of them go. Good guess on that one. So a lot of, I think, you know, Aaron Davis would appear on one. I'm just, I don't remember any of these, but I can tell by reading the titles how some of them go. Well, good guess on that one. So a lot of, think you know, Aaron Davis would appear on one or brother Jake Edwards or humble Howard Glassman and I'm going to play a song that's kind of too good to be true. This recently got played on an FOTM KOTJ. By the way, if you want to be a part of the next FOTM KOTJ where I put compilations of listeners submissions, okay? Just record yourself talking about a song you love about

money. Okay? We're doing money jams for taxis in here. 30 to 90 seconds, you talking about a song you love that's about money and send that audio file to mike at torontomike.com and you're going to be on the episode here. So Ed, are you ready to listen to a song called do it again? Blue Jays, you ready to listen to this and we can react? Oh yeah. Okay. So just, you can talk over it. I'll bring it down. It's like a fever dream. Are you ready? Here we go. Yeah. He's got a good groove, right? Do it again, Blue Jays. Do it again, Blue Jays. Do it again, Blue Jays.

Hello everybody, this is Tom Cheek and with me is Jerry Howard. And fans, we'd like to send you some musical Blue Jays inspiration to help cheer the team on to victory. So get your toes a-tappin' and your fingers a-snappin'. You do the singin' and we'll do the rappin'. Alright, you do the singin' and we'll do the rappin'. I was you do the singing, we'll do the rapping. I was wondering if they were gonna start breaking to singing. Well, it won't be so singing, it'll be more rapping. But was that an example of their rapping there? Well, here it is.

It's another great night, as our beloved J's get ready for flight. That's right, Tom, the stage is set. What you hear is what you get. Leading off for the J's tonight, Mr. Lightning, Devon White. Devo Strokes won through the gap. And Robbie follows with a two-base rep.

The Jays score first to start the show. Here comes more, because here comes Joe. He hits one deep, he got it all. Way back, way back, it's off the wall. Okay, so here we have- Tom Cheeke has a bit more like natural flow I mean, it's Jerry's radio delivery is more staccato like more to end it but Top of the third, count is full. On the mound is Mr. Cool.

Hey, this big guy will win a few. Count remains three and two. Guzman sets and fires one in. Kirby Puckett strikes out again. This is 1992. All they need. Yeah, Juan Guzmín, yeah, I think you're in 92. One, two, three. Break it up a beat.

Start a new game. Which, in fairness to these guys, I mean, or recognition of them, that style of rap was much more of the time. What do you think? It's like a Big Daddy Kane? What are we looking at? The sky swings, we're talking sweet. The style of rap was much more of the time. What do you think? It's like a big daddy Kane? Yeah. But that's sort of like bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop Three-run deal. Crank it up a... Crank it up. Unbelievable, this was an era where everybody was rapping. Right?

Right? Like Rodney Dangerfield had a rap song. Yeah. Jay's a put on quite a show. Chart-topping rap song. Here comes Gruber to keep things right. Kelly swings on the first pitchy bases. A two-out single to load the bases.

Now this one surely worth the wait. Big Dave Winfield takes the plate. Winfield swinging a misstrap one. So 92 is the only year that Winfield played the boot. I'm looking at these collections. And so was there a, I noticed at first like, oh, this cross collaboration, all these different radio stations represented.

And then I guess they would get like, every radio station would contribute a song cause then that station would play it on their own morning show and stuff right? Yeah possibly yeah very possible that you know so that's 92 which means you get a Fred Patterson and a Humble entry from different stations because Humble and Fred form in 89 and then they're together for a couple years and then Howard quits for a job at Mix 99.9

and they were separated for like 18 months or something and that's when so I'll play a little of that though. Are these diss tracks? Do they like take shots at each other? No they're pretty kind and gentle actually. Okay, so I mentioned Humble Howard and I do produce the Humble and Fred show today. So it is with great interest that just before I play some Lois and Lo to take us home. I just, I just got to say it was nice to hear Tom Cheeks voice. And he's good. He's good at that. You know, it's the voice of my son. And Jerry too. I miss Jerry too, but Jerry still emails me now and again.

Yeah. So I still hear from him again. Yeah, okay. So... I still hear from him too. Yeah, so... He's a big Facebook messenger for me, Jerry Howard. So this is Humble Howard singing here. This is from 92, but this has a very 1987 kind of sound to it. Yes it does. Now, is Howard providing the background vocals as well as the lead vocals? Because that does sound like him saying,

Blue Jays, Blue Jays, as well as... He might, he might. That's clearly him doing the let's go all the way thing too. That's him for sure going, uh? Yeah. Making a reality Dominate the majors That was his Mix99 show called The Breakfast Club? Oh, I don't think so. Because this is attributed to Humble Howard and the Breakfast Club band. It must have been.

Yeah. He tells me, and I believe, of course it must be true, But he's the first person to say mix 99.9 on the radio because it was just called CK FM Until the morning I don't know what it is the morning after Labor Day or whatever when the humble Howard is the morning show and he says mix 99.9 is the first time oh there you go, and it's been a while I guess because it's been virgin radio for a while, okay, one more here loaded up for you. We'll bring down Humble Howard here. This is the one I think is so good. Like, this is not from those CDs, okay? So this was like a Chum FM or something.

I think this is a great song. So this song is called We Got the Blue Jays and it is known as the RBI single version and what do you think? So there are multiple versions. RBI single version implies that there's like an album version and maybe a dance remix. Yeah, possibly. But I do have memories now. I do love it.

Just perfect. It's going through all the things that he loves. And then he's just like, I'd buy a hot dog because I love to eat and watch the Blue Jays. Very specific. Who among us is that not truly? because I love to eat and watch the Blue Jays. Very specific. Who among us is that not true of? This is definitely from Exhibition Stadium. Hey, do you remember the longest, like the most inning game that you've ever attended

for the Toronto Blue Jays? Do you know? In person? Yeah, in person. I think probably nine. I'm just trying to remember if I've ever been there for an extra innings game or not. So I was at a 18 innings game.

Oh wow. I believe it was 2013, I believe. But yeah, so I've attended an 18 innings game, which at the time I think was the longest game in Blue Jay history and I think the record was broken at some point shortly thereafter. But so yeah, I have- I've watched a lot of extra innings games,

but I have not I mean, I've watched a lot of extra innings games, but I have not watched them in person. So it, as always, Oh, you know, I missed, I was going to try to nail two hours and I see him at like two hours and one minute. So I blew. So we blew right by, this is an extended play version. It always a pleasure, man. You know, the day after your visit, then I start my Google document for your next visit. And I see here the first thing on the Google document I decided not to bring up,

because I was too, I just didn't want to talk about it. Budget day happens since your last visit. And I'm like, I don't really feel like doing it I mean you know you know I just don't feel like it so I was a while ago then it was like early in you yeah shortly after your last visit but I can't wait for next quarter when you drop by I love it very much yeah well it's always fun to come by it's just a just ramble on and I am Oh, you do are my joy. Impressions. I am intimidated by Ed Kenan's flex over here.

Holy shit. I gotta share this video. I gotta share this video. And that brings us to our 1,466th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky and Matt Toronto Mike. I don't know what you're updating or wherever. I know you're still on Twitter. I'm not doing a lot of social media right now.

I mean, I still check in for messages and stuff and I check in. So buy a newspaper, is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, well, there's also the, thestar.com and I host a podcast there. I am one of a couple hosts of the This Matters podcast over at The Star as well. So you can subscribe to that on all your favorite platforms.

Absolutely. You know, you're my second Toronto Star guest. You can always email me, ekeenanatthestar.ca. Send all those hot tips to ekeenanatthestar.ca and make sure you copy Mike at torontomike.com. I want to know what's going on in this city. Okay. It's important to me. Let me know if there's a vacancy tax. I need to know about. Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery. By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed my hop pop. Super good. Very good. Palma Pasta. There's a lasagna in my freezer for you, Ed Keenan.

Recycle my electronics.ca. Raymond James Canada. Their podcast is called The Advantage to Investor. The Toronto Maple East baseball team will be in touch because May 12 is the home opener and I would love to see you there. And there's other games too. So it's like, we're going to hook up at Christie Pips. Are you going to be podcasting from there? There's like, I have like a section, I don't know if it's on the hill or whatever. So there's a section there and I'm gonna have my mic open, my mics and my stuff set up.

Oh wow. Okay. So that's a whole thing here. It'll be Ed Keenan, Rick Edmonds. Is that just for opening day or are you like the on scene broadcaster for the whole season? I have said I'll do one game in May, one game in June, one game in July and one game in August.

So four games in total that I will be recording there. I'll probably attend more games but yeah May 12 I'll be there and then later I'll announce what game in June I'll be there but we'll get you there Ed Keenan it's gonna be a good time. So shout out to the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team and Monaris they're back for season six of Yes We Are Open that's awesome and Ridley Funeral Home pillars of this community and the official funeral home of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team that's not a joke that is true is that exciting it is super exciting and I like

I can't imagine being the official partner of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team I'm just like the official spectator. Like, I can always get season tickets. I'm there on the lawn. See you all tomorrow. Making his Toronto Mike debut, this is exciting, is Steve Patterson from the debaters on CBC. And I've never had him over here,

so he's going to come over here and see what all the fuss is about. So tune in for tomorrow's episode with Steve Patterson. See you then. because everything is coming out rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow.