Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Eric Smith: Toronto Mike'd #728

Episode Date: October 1, 2020

Mike is joined by Milon Talsania from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair as they catch up with Sportsnet's Eric Smith. There's Jays talk, Raptors talk, Tom Petty talk and more.

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I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and joining me this week is Sportsnet's Eric Smith. Welcome back, Eric. It's good to be here. I can't believe it's been five years. I saw your tweet the other day, and I didn't realize that it had been five years since we last spoke.

Well, I mean, at least on the show. I've spoke to you since then. Well, we do our nighttime phone calls where we wish each other good night. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I had a jam for you, but I don't have it loaded up here. So I'm going to play it a little later in the show, a jam for you. But how the heck are you doing, Eric? It's good to have you back on Toronto Mic'd. Yeah, I'm good. And good to be here. It's crazy to think that it's already now October, and this year from hell is winding down,

hopefully, the last few months here. But otherwise, I'm doing well. It's sunny, and I'm healthy, and I'm safe. So I guess I got to kind of count my blessings at this point. So all good on this end. And the family's good? Yeah, family's good. Everything's, you know, I'm literally knocking on wood right now. The family is good. Everybody's doing fine. So again, can't complain. Things could be certainly worse. And I know a lot of people have it worse. So things are good on this end.

And you might remember, speaking of family, that we're connected in that I think over, well, it was over six years ago that we both appeared in the same roots father's day ad yes yes i forgot about that too yeah that was you're right it was um i think it was seven years ago because i i want to say my kid was four at the time but either way yeah i now that now that you mentioned that yeah six and a half that was my my one and only modeling shoot i suppose well we're we're in the same boat there i was surprised it didn't like spark interest amongst agents like uh people are like you're great good and i know that it was six and a bit years ago because my boy is only six now so like he's in that ad so uh yeah it was six and a half years ago i guess so we're connected that way and just just before I introduce you to my esteemed co-host

for this very special episode of Toronto Mic'd, I am going to, well, firstly, are you familiar with the Canadian artist Colin James? Of course, yes. I know. I make no assumptions because I'm staring at Milan right now in my backyard, and he's the same age as us, same vintage. And he, he doesn't know Colin James, but you know, the great song five long years. Yes. Well,

of course you do. I know you do. Cause you're a regular normal. I could, I could, I could probably sing it, but I'm not going to, but yeah,

it's been five long years. Yes. So it has been, I'll leave you to it. Right. So that was episode 135 of Toronto Mike. And I'm going to read the description. because if someone's listening to this episode of Toronto Mic'd, they might be wondering where's that typical Toronto Mic'd A to Z bio, like

the ongoing history of Eric Smith. That was in episode 135. So in episode 135, I wrote Mike chats with Rogers Raptors guru, Eric Smith, about his two decades at the fan 590. So have you hit the 25 year mark? I'm just I'm just shy of it now. So it's I think I was going into if I if I'm thinking the numbers right, if I have my numbers right. I think when we spoke, I was going into year 20. So I was like kind of entering that

second decade. So now we're officially now in year 24. So 25 will be coming up. Wow. Okay. Congrats on that. That's amazing. Like, that's awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Do you get like a watch or something? Quite honestly, I don't know what I get. I don't know if I get anything. I'm assuming there's something, but I don't know if it's a watch or a plaque or a gift card. I have no idea. I honestly have no idea. I can't remember if it was 15 or 20. There was something where, and I honestly, make sure I'm clear here. I'm not criticizing the company by any means. I hope not criticizing the company by any means. I hope not. They don't have to do anything.

It's not necessary. Hey, staying employed, especially now, is thanks enough. But I recall, again, whether it was 10, 15, whatever year it was, there was like a little flyer or something that had gone out. And it said, you know, like, congratulations on your years of service. And I don't think it was the 20. I want to say it was 15, where it was something like, you have a choose from the following list. And it was three or four or five different things. And I remember one was a golf bag. I don't remember what the others were. But it was emblazoned with the Rogers logo, such and such and such, emblazoned with the Rogers logo.

So it was a very generous offer. And it's always nice to be recognized and give something. But I remember it sticking in my head where everything that was made specifically or it was a very generous offer and it's always nice to be recognized and give something, but it was, it was just, I remember it sticking in my head where everything it was made specifically, or it was noted specifically emblazoned with a Rogers logo emblazoned with a Rogers logo. You got to at least get the Rolex, don't you? At 25? Maybe a knockoff from like Times Square or something like that. We'll talk to Greg. I'm so in a, see what he can do. So you know why Milan heard the word watch and that's his department and we'll

get to that. Right. Let me get through this description and then we'll find out why Milan knows heard the word watch, and that's his department, and we'll get to that in a minute. Let me get through this description, and then we'll find out why Milan knows so much about watches. But, okay, so Raptors guru Eric Smith, about his two decades at the Fan 590, why he switched roles with Paul Jones. Remember, this was when you were doing play-by-play, and Paul Jones was doing color analysis. And, okay, and what you thought of Butch Carter's criticism? I guess this was right on the heels of something Butch Carter said. And Canada getting screwed in Mexico. I remember that now. Yeah, we got screwed in Mexico. And your relationship with Drake.

Because you roll with Drake. Oh yeah, all the time. In that episode, I just want to say this before I introduce Milan. That episode was an hour and 57 minutes and 53 seconds and for a very, very long time that was the longest episode in Toronto Mike's history.

And it won't be that long today only because I've got the live show myself coming up at 1 o'clock on the fan. So we won't be doing an hour and 57 or longer today but no uh i do kind of have the uh the gift of the gab or the curse of the gab so i i do tend to kind of go on sometimes so if i didn't have the show i feel like i could set records but but we'll be bound by the clock today in five years you're gonna come back uh and kick out the jams with me and we'll make sure that one clears two hours for sure here all right without further ado let me just welcome uh because you just said

clock and i think we said watch and that means we need to speak with milan telsania from uh from fast time watch and jewelry repair hello milan hey mike thanks for having me on great to be on with eric and that's great great to great to talk to him along as well i didn't realize that like i wrote mike about a half hour or so ago and i said i didn't realize that you had a co-host now so so that was news to me but uh it's it's nice to talk to you milan and uh uh nice to know i got a a watch and watch repair connection now yeah there you go hey mike's the big time now he needs a co-host so yes you got any october deals or anything at fast time always the quality uh alone is a great deal alone.

You can pimp your services right now. Yeah, absolutely. We just invite everyone to visit FastTimeWatchRepair.com. We repair all brands of watches and jewelry. And we have locations right across Ontario, including one in Richmond Hill. So I invite everyone to visit our location. And again, FastTimeWatchRepair.com

and the phone number there is 905-787-9919 in case you need to reach us. And we'll be glad to help you out. Need a watch battery? Need a watch strap? Need a jewelry repair? We're here for you. Well, Eric's going to need his watch adjusted when he gets his 25-year watch

from Rod. For sure. I'm going to jump in for a second here anytime well two two questions for you well actually no one question one quick story so is there like a i don't need it i don't want it necessarily but is there like a bio that you got to do like for each episode then is there like a five years later or is my bio and my description basically the same like how does that work uh Am I cutting you off here? No, I mean, at this point, you can deliver your own bio if you like. At this point, I'm like, go to episode 135 if you want to, like, find out what happened with Eric.

But, I mean, anything you want to spill into the microphone right now. Like, I know the big news. You mentioned you have to go leave to do this show on 590. Like, that's amazing. So, maybe, can we start with that like like like how did that show come to be and tell us about the show you're doing with paul jones yeah um uh honestly just it

kind of just started very quickly uh in if i go back i think we've been on the air now since the first or second week of june so it's been roughly what about four months now ish or or just shy four months and uh we got a call on a on a Thursday, I want to say Thursday afternoon from Dave Cadeau, program director at the fan. He sent an email out to myself and to Jonesy and just said, you know, can you guys hop on a conference call, a Zoom call, whatever, in an hour or so? And, you know, this was before the NBA season had even started and, and, uh, we were still kind of trying to figure out what exactly is happening with the NBA season and the bubble and our broadcast of our games, whether it be on radio and TV and et cetera, whatever else.

Right. So, you know, I don't think either one of us were nervous by any means. It was just sort of like, yeah, why, why does the boss want to talk? Sure. No problem. So we hopped on this call and Dave, you know, just kind of, Hey guys, uh, I got an idea and he just boom, like he was, he came out with it in about 60 seconds. And he just, the way it was sort of described to us was the hockey central guys have been doing incredible work, which they had and

still continue to do. Um, but they've been doing a two hour hockey show for the better part of, of three plus months now with no hockey. You know, we've been in this lockdown, this pandemic with no sports for, since like, you know, the second week of March, the first 10 days of March, and they've been pumping out a two hour show every single day with no games to speak about, without a draft to talk about or free agency or a trade deadline or anything.

So he said, you know, I just feel like maybe it would be a great idea to kind of put you guys to work and to utilize the bodies that we have, the staff that we have. What if we were to split Hockey Central right now, tell the guys, you know what, just give us a great solid hour instead of having to go two hours every day. We'll throw you guys on. And he was quite clear from the beginning as well. He said, this is your show. You guys do with it what you want. If it ends up being primarily basketball, that's fine, but I don't want to call it Basketball Central. I want to call it something else because I know you guys are about more than just basketball. You may be

rooted in hoops and the NBA and the Raptors and everything else. Again, if the dominant conversation ends up being basketball, I'm fine with that, but if you want to get into hockey, I'm fine with that. But if you want to get into hockey, football, baseball, anything else, golf, whatever it may be, it's up to you to kind of take this where you, I thought at least, and I think Dave would agree, it set up the fan in a nice way where you had in the middle of the day, almost like specialty program where you had an hour of hockey followed by an hour of basketball followed by an hour of baseball with Baseball Central and kind of bookended by the programming overall and the general sports talk that you get on the morning show and good show and with Tim and Sid and obviously with writer's block and whatnot as well. So it just sort of morphed into more of a basketball show for the better part of a month or so. But even just yesterday, we're talking obviously baseball with the Jays. I know we've got baseball coming up today and we don't actually have a

basketball guest on today's show. So it was just one of those things where Dave called up and said, hey, I got an idea. Are you guys willing? And and we said yeah like we we got off the call at whatever time it was one two o'clock on a thursday afternoon and we signed on the air on on monday afternoon and and have done the show every day since every weekday since so it's just kind of a kind of an idea that that happened quickly and the show just kind of went from there is there a plan er, Eric, with you and Jonesy? We're facing, obviously, with no Toronto sports teams playing until maybe as late as 2021, really, the next three months. Is there a plan for the show moving forward

on what topics? My understanding, Milan, is we're just going to continue to keep doing the show until maybe it doesn't make sense to do the show anymore. And I honestly don't intend or mean to be vague about it. There wasn't like a piece of paper signed, a contract signed saying the show will run for X amount of months or days or whatever. It was sort of like, let's do the show because it makes sense to do it now.

And I would say to your point, given the fact that there is no NHL, no NBA, no Major League Baseball for at least, as you say, that three-month span until we assume until at least January 1st-ish. Will we have the NHL back by then? Will we have the NBA back by then? I would assume that given this time without sports and the NFL maybe being really the only game in town or the only sport really to talk about with any sort of regularity, or the only sport really to talk about with any sort of regularity, I would assume that we would keep things going and not just suddenly go back to a two hour hockey central. When again, there's no hockey season. Right. So I'm planning to do the show still.

And if at some point it kind of goes away because hockey central is back to two hours, you know, Hey, so be it, whatever the bosses decide I'm fine with, but I'm, I'm enjoying it right now. It's, it's kind of fun to, to go back to you know, sports talk and just to be able to turn the mic on for an hour a day and to talk. And whether it's, as I say, talking basketball or hockey, football, baseball, tennis or otherwise, or getting a chance to rant for a minute about the pandemic or masks or social distancing and the idiocy that I'm seeing from some people in the general public and whatnot. I enjoy the chance to have the soapbox and the platform for an hour. And hopefully people have enjoyed the show as well.

Two things real quick, though. Milan, firstly, thanks for disrespecting TFC and their legion of fans. OK, you know, there's still Toronto sports happening right now because TFC is still active. And I hear they're pretty good with the disrespect right there. I apologize to all the TFC and the supporters. That's all right. I didn't,

I didn't mention them either. So my bad. Yeah. Yeah. I know, I know Eric's a big Lakers and Bills fan, but, uh,

Oh, we'll get in, we'll get into that. Uh, and Eric, again, congratulations because the, the number of like weekday slots on,

uh, all sports radio stations in this country are, it's a very small number and you've got one like congrats that's amazing i appreciate it i appreciate it and it's you know it's it's it's just fun to go back to i've been doing obviously for you know the better part of 15 years now primarily the the broadcast with the raptors and then uh you know that's morphed in the last five six years into a lot of television work and whatnot as well but i love radio like and i love i you know i think, you know, I think I said this to you, if I didn't Mike in, in our last conversation, I'm sure I said it in, in one of our, you know, private conversations at, at events or whatnot.

I love interviews. Like I love, I just love radio. I love the immediacy of radio and being able and, and, and podcasts obviously now and whatnot, especially when it's live and you're just turning on the microphone and going, and you can react to news that's happening in the moment, literally within the second, whether it's, you know, current event news, whether it's, it's, it's earth shattering, sad news, whether it's, you know, breaking trades, sports, entertainment, whatever it is, right. To be able to just be able to turn the microphone on and to have these types of conversations. I know I've talked about it in other interviews before. I love again, the long form interview especially

it may not be some people's cup of tea but I like to sit down and listen to conversations I love listening forgetting about the the TNA and the sex and the gratuity and everything else I love listening to Howard Stern when he does an interview

I mean I can appreciate the humor in all the other stuff and all of the other outside noise and distraction that comes with the show. I like all of that as well. I find it entertaining. I think he puts on a hell of a production on a daily basis and has done so for decades. But when he has an interview subject, when he has a guest, whether it's a celebrity or otherwise, and he can sit down and talk to that person for 30, 60, 90 minutes, that's the stuff that I enjoy. Some of the late night talk shows, you know,

you obviously can't get into it as much in five minutes, seven minutes, whatever the hell the time slot is. And some are clearly better than others, but I still enjoy that when it's not, when it's not totally fluff, totally goofy, when you can tell that it's not completely prepared or pre-scripted or otherwise. We didn't exchange emails about, you know, here's my list of questions, Eric, are these okay? I don't know what's coming. Just conversations that happen and just the natural conversations and topics that come up. I like listening to stuff like that. And that's why I've always loved radio. And it's fun to sort of be back in the mix as a part of that. Like,

I know even with Jonesy every day, we don't talk before the show. We talk, you know, like I just spoke to him last night on a couple of texts and he called me and we were talking with the Laker game and, and we might swap some, some trash talking back and forth in our group chat and whatever else. But we don't talk on the day of the show about, Hey, I'm going to say this. And should you say that? And I'm going to bring this up and you do that. And what do you think about this?

And Hey, have you thought about this question none of that none of that in the four months we've never once had one of those conversations because anything that happens is just sort of natural and the flow of the conversation between us let alone between you know whomever we have on as as our uh as our guests uh not to blow smoke eric but i've been a big fan of yours uh dating back many years since many years since the telemedia days when you and Barry Davis, I think you used to do the Raptors coverage together through your various incarnations, through Double Dribble and Hoops and Blue Jays Express and to now. Oh, there's your bio.

Man, Milani, I appreciate that. You're pulling out some shows that a lot of people have either forgotten or didn't even know about. And I've always seen you sort of as a radio, like a morning show type of host, you know, because I think what makes you special is that, and Dave Cadeau, I hope you're listening, is that, you know, not only do you know sports, but I think you can easily talk about pop culture topics as well. you can easily talk about pop culture topics as well. And I think with the lack of local sports, especially over the next upcoming weeks and months, maybe that's something to show. You have great chemistry, obviously, with Jonesy that the show can maybe evolve to.

I appreciate you saying that. And I will say, I've never done mornings, and I'm not necessarily in a hurry to do so by any means. And I don't mean now, I mean like ever. Because it was funny. I was just talking to my son about this this morning and driving to school. And again, I'm probably going to veer off the path here a little bit for a second. But as people probably realize if they follow on social media and whatnot, or listen to the show or whatever it may be, we could sit here and discuss or argue whether I'm being too extreme or whether I'm just being smart and following the rules. But I've been pretty cautious and safe as

it relates to the pandemic and the distancing and the masking and everything else. And I'm not going to go off on a tangent here. This isn't necessarily what this is about. If you want to bring it there, Mike, that's fine, or Milan. But I will say this. This is setting up my story a little bit. We have a neighbor across the street that both the parents are teachers, and they're out the door by 7.30 in the morning. Their daughter is in my son's class. Now, I have not had anybody in my home, my mother, my father, my family, friends, nothing. Nobody's been in my home in six months. I have people my family, friends, nothing. Nobody's been in my home in six months. I have people over in the backyard regularly. I literally have a tape measure that I pull out to make sure that the patio furniture is distanced six feet. We have run our house

almost like a restaurant. We celebrated Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, you name it. We've had barbecues. We've had drinks with people, but we've established the Smith household almost like a restaurant. We take your order. Mike, what do you want? What do you want on your burger? Milan, what do you want? And we bring the food to you. So there's no shared bowls, there's no shared plates, there's nobody coming into our house. We're not, you know, everything's outside at a safe distance. So we've been pretty stringent about that. And I think that's what most people should be doing to keep this safe approach. So my point in saying all that is these neighbors across the street, they're both teachers, their daughters in my son's class.

Well, she has had her grandmother take her to and from school every day for like the last five years. They're not on a bus route, the kids. So it's a fairly long walk. So it entails more often than not getting a drive. But this isn't an option now for my neighbors because they can't use their mother because she's immune compromised. And they also think, you know what, we don't want her at her age with her health conditions coming over, picking up our daughter, bringing her to school, because she could be compromised because she's in

a classroom now with 24 kids and spaced out less than three feet, let alone six. Plus, on top of that, we're both teachers. So anyway, I offered, I said, listen, if she puts on a mask, I'll put on a mask. My son will wear a mask. I will drive her to school. I'm taking my kid anyways. She can sit in the back seat and, and, and I'll even crack the windows. So we got fresh air flowing through. We're all in mass and whatever else. Right. So after that long set of, hopefully the story is even quasi interesting in a roundabout way, I get back to where I was starting with this. I was saying to the two of them this morning actually in the car uh she had a hockey practice this morning at 6 a.m and i said to her i'm like 6 a.m on a weekday

on a school day how in the hell do you do that and she's like oh well you know mom woke me up at 5 15 or whatever i said i don't know the last time i go to bed sometimes at well, you know, mom woke me up at 5.15 or whatever. I said, I don't know the last time. I go to bed sometimes at 5.15. You know, like wake up at 5.15. And this is an 11-year-old. So my whole point, Milan, I don't even know if I could ever do mornings. Because my life, my entire life has been evenings. And that's what I was saying to the kids.

I said, think about it. I'm covering Raptor games, NBA games for the last almost 25 years now. I've been broadcasting games and games for the last almost 25 years now. I've been broadcasting games and traveling for the last 16 years. My life is more nocturnal. I go to work at four o'clock in the afternoon. I come home at midnight. I'm hopping on airplanes at 11, 12 o'clock, one o'clock in the morning and getting off airplanes and walking through a lobby at 3 a.m. with my bag and coming in and out of hotels and everything else. My life is a complete flip from most people's normal life. So I can't even imagine what it would be like to go to bed at 8pm, 9pm to be up at 4am to be on the air at

5.30 or something. I don't even think my body would be conditioned or even able to handle it. It's an unhealthy lifestyle. And, you know, now with more people working from home, and the morning commute is not what it was even you know nine months ago and uh that it's really the morning show and i don't i'm not saying you know you know scott mcarthur and the gang need a need a pay cut or whatever i'm just saying the morning show isn't what it was like it really that whole like spending that hour on the 401 or the qew or whatever in the morning trying to get to work. It's pretty much a fraction of what it was. So I feel like you can do your morning show and not have to wait, not have to

do it in the morning. Does that make sense? You know what I mean? Well, maybe, maybe it just means starting it a little later or something. I don't know. I hear what you're saying. I tell you what, though, and maybe you, I don't know where Milan lives or drives from. It's none of my business, but I know, Mike, you're not like, you're kind of on the downtown bubble. You're not dealing with the suburbia drive that maybe some people do. Well, I bike everywhere. And on top of that, yeah, you bike everywhere. So maybe with due respect, you're not as much of an expert on this subject.

Because I'll tell you, when I've come in and out of the city over the last few months there's no denying there's no denying it's not as bad as it was six months ago let alone nine ten months ago nine ten years ago but it still annoys me that the traffic is as bad as it is from time to time especially on the Gardner and whatnot it's just you know again another subject maybe well I'm thinking of I'm thinking train wreck that is the Gardner and the DVP yeah I'm thinking of all those high rises downtown that are pretty empty. I mean, my wife, for example, she works downtown, but not since March 13th, where she's been working. She put a desk little office together in her bedroom, and she's literally there right now working away. That was the morning show listener on her commute to work and then it's

it's very different now now you know eric so much to cover and we have a limited time because you're going to be on the fan 590 uh soon but uh i want to ask you a very specific question about our toronto blue jays i know you're the raptors guy but you're a big jays fan too so very specific question which is goes back to game one of this Blink and You Miss It series we just concluded with the Tampa Bay Rays. In game one, your starter, Shoemaker, is kicking ass through three innings.

You know where I'm going, but I'm going to set up real quick here to say, you know, three solid innings, a couple of weak little hits, but he's cruising and they take him out of the game after 36 pitches or something in three innings because clearly that was the plan. They were going to have, I guess you'd call him an opener and they had a couple of pitchers who were going to split Robbie Ray. They were going

to split the first six innings and all, and I understand the algorithm might say this is a smart move and it might be a smart move. I, you know, I'm from the eighties. Okay. Uh, we didn't, you know, Jack Morris was basically going to, going to punch you in the nose if you tried to take him out, you know, in the eighth inning or whatever, when he's going. So my question to you is not whether this is a smart move or not, but whether as a fan of baseball, don't you, don't you kind of wish, uh, instead of the algorithms and computers running the bullpen, that there was a little humanity involved, if you will, like a little bit of, uh, will, like a little bit of a, Hey,

this guy's cruising through three. We know he's got his stuff today. Let's let him go one more time through the order, or at least let him pitch to the, you know, the first batter. And like, like,

like, like, don't you think this is kind of disheartening as a baseball fan that the, the, the, the algorithm is running the show. 1,000%. A million percent. I couldn't have said it better myself,

and I echo everything you said. I did not like the move. I didn't think it was the right move. I don't think you can play sports, manage sports, coach sports, whatever it may be, sports, manage sports, coach sports, whatever it may be, simply through a computer or through algorithms and analytics and equations and whatnot. I think there's a part of the game. And I think there is a part of pro sports that certainly those equations, those projections, that analysis is valid and necessary and needed. And I think it all kind of goes into the pot. You're mixing the ingredients and that's one of the ingredients. I'm cool with that, but it shouldn't be the be all end all. Because I would say this, and I said this actually to Buck Martinez on the radio show on Wednesday afternoon prior to game two. Looking back to

game one, I asked a similar question to Buck, and he could tell, and I don't mean to put words in Buck's mouth, but I could tell by the tone of his voice and the way that he answered that he didn't like the move. Oh, he said it last night. He said you can't. Well, and I was going to mention that. Yeah, I know Joe Sittle didn't like the move, and they both talked about it last night. You can't manage a game, coach a game, and I'm talking not just baseball, basketball as well, any sport. You can't do it. You have to have the gut. You have to have the eye test. Because this is what I said to Buck as well, and I would throw it out to you guys.

And I think the answer is pretty obvious. But if you're willing to say, or if we all assume based on what we saw with Shoemaker and then Ray coming in, and it didn't matter what happened, Shoemaker's coming out. OK, so what happens when Shoemaker gives up? I don't know. Like Ryu did last night in game two. What happens if he gives up two runs, five runs, six runs, seven runs in the first inning, the first two innings? What if he gives up 10 runs in the first three innings? Are you keeping him in because you said he's going to pitch three innings? No, of course you're not because he's getting lit up. You're taking him

out. You're taking him out after an inning, a half an inning, an inning and a half, whatever it is. You are not letting him go the full three innings because he's getting absolutely hammered. Well, the flip side of that is, what if he's pitching lights out? What if he's shutting everybody down? What if he's only given up two hits and one was a little bloop single and the other one was a half swing, sort of half bunt,

half hit to the opposite side that, that just sort of rolled up beside. I can't even remember if it was Biggio or Bichette. Either way, he had a two hit shutout going and he was cruising and he was mowing down, excuse me, mowing down the, the raise hitters. Like, yeah, that's where you have to go with the gut. That's where you have to go with the eyes and say, forget these three innings.

Maybe we're going to stretch it to four. Maybe it'll end up being five. Heck, maybe it'll be six or seven. You have to have that feel and you can't just go by the numbers. Don't you think, Eric, though, there are long-term ramifications to this as well? I know the Jays, I heard Mike Wollner on your program as well, and this is obviously not Blue Jays specific, but there's a glaring need to shore up the pitching staff here in the offseason. If you're any pitcher worth your salt, why would you come to this organization? We've already heard Tanner O'Rourke sort of being frustrated, and

I know Tanner O'Rourke is garbage, and he pitched like garbage this year, so I don't really take what he says with a grain of salt. If you're trying to get an attractive free agent, even if it's a second-tier type of guy, I can't, you know,

imagine Taiwan Walker's too happy with this organization right now. He was our second best pitcher and I know the algorithms and everything said that, you know, he wasn't a good matchup against the Rays. But my concern is sort of attracting free agents to this organization with what they've done, especially in the postseason here. You know, I'm not sure that I'm as concerned, Alon. I'll tell you why. And I mean, I think you guys would probably both acknowledge this and know this, but like at the end of the day, first of all, money talks. So I think that's going to play into a factor, how much money the Jays are willing to

offer player X, pitcher X, whomever it may be. But I think the other thing too is as much as I didn't like the decisions and that was clear from what I just said, I don't know if I'm going to – if I were a free agent right now, would I look at a 60-game season in the midst of a pandemic where we didn't even play half of a Major League baseball season and then look at two postseason games and say, I don't like what they did. That's setting a precedent. I'm never

going there. I think that's a bit of a leap to go from point A to point B with that. I think that's a bit of a stretch. I think that there needs to be a little bit more of a leash, a little bit more leeway in terms of maybe how did the Jays use Ryu, let's say, over the course of the season, let alone Shoemaker. This was obviously a philosophical, analytical decision in the the postseason but it's not like they were pitching shoemaker three innings during the regular season or or shutting down ryu after x amount of time uh i again i think this is a decision that happened maybe in a in a no pun intended in a bubble here where i don't know if it necessarily sets the precedent for what the blue jays stand for what the management team the coaching staff staff stance were going forward. Thus,

me as a pitcher or me as an agent with my client, I'm not going to Toronto as a result. I personally don't see it that way. I think the whole Ryu situation, I think, now looking at it, I think it was obvious he was hurt. This is my theory anyways. But they pitched him like his final start of the regular season.

Didn't he go fairly deep? Are you telling me this was Justin Verlander or someone? You're telling your ace you're not going to pitch game one of a championship or in the playoffs? There's no chance. He was hurt. He wanted the extra day. I think Ryu went to the Jays organization, is my guess, and asked for that extra day off. That's a lot of speculation, Milan.

I don't know if we haven't heard that one. But it was interesting that he had the day off to be stronger in game two. And I bought into the fact, in a three-game series, maybe that means you don't have to start your best guy game one, like we're used to or whatever, because you can only pitch one time.

Well, Montoya indicated he was sore after the seven-inning start against the Yankees last week. You know, honestly, I hear what you're saying. There's no proof yet that we know for sure or with any kind of certainty that he was hurt. I guess it's a possibility. The only other theory I heard, which I can kind of understand, I'm not sure that I'm totally on board with it,

but I can kind of understand the mentality of whomever pitches in game one, it's not like you're throwing a complete stiff out there. It's not like Shoemaker was terrible or Ray or whatever else. And clearly they end up performing very well. And as we said, you probably should have stuck with Shoemaker longer, but I guess the mentality perhaps was, and again, is this analytics? Is this out thinking, outsmarting yourself? If you happen to win game one, you now have your ace in game two, who you hope is going to shut it down and the series is over. Boom, you're done. You win. Or the flip side is if you happen to drop game one

and now you're in a best two out of three, you're in a must-win scenario in game two, we have our best pitcher on the mound hoping to keep us alive and win game two. And that's exactly how it played out. The Jays were down 0-1. They had to win. They had their best pitcher, their best chance on the mound,

and he clearly did not have his best stuff, and he got lit up early. But for an organization that's so obsessed with numbers, it's proven that I think it's out of 170 series, the team that wins game one wins 129 of them or something

like that. So isn't your best bet yeah, that's the analytics for an organization obsessed with analytics. We know that. So why won't you go with your best for game one i don't know i don't have an answer for you maybe it's different because it was two out of three not three out of five four to seven i don't know i i would assume i could be wrong a lot i would assume if this was a four out of seven series maybe even three out of five that would probably be stretching it because i don't know if you could pitch in game one and five, you might be able to rest in between. Yeah.

I just meant Mike in this format where I know that this year, at least baseball has been trying to go boom, boom, boom, playing these games as quickly, not as spaced out. So would you have had the rest? Well,

we saw this back in, sorry, Eric, we saw this back in 2015. I think John Gibbons would have, if it was up to him, would have gone with Marcus Stroman in game one, but David Price was your hit on it though, too. If it was up to him, how much have gone with Marcus Stroman in Game 1. But David Price was your ace. You might have just hit on it, though, too, if it was up to him.

How much of this was coming from Charlie Montoya versus... I don't think he had anything to do with it, Charlie. No, that's for sure. Agreed. Now, we have a pertinent Raptor. I don't know if you know this, Milan, but Eric's not just a Blue Jays guru. He's also a Raptors guy, too. Do you want to ask your first big question?

The one that everybody... Whenever I told somebody Eric Smith was my guest, they said, you got to ask him about this. So here it is. I hope you're ready, Eric. Okay. Eric, I know we can talk about Fred Van Liet and Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka. And obviously these are pressing questions. Will Kyle Lowry be traded in the off season?

All of these things, but nothing matters, I think, unless we address obviously the issue of Masai Ujiri and what his future is with the organization. In my opinion, he's the greatest sports executive in Toronto history, in my lifetime anyways, next to Pat Gillick. And, you know, my theory is sort of Masai's in the driver's seat here. You hear talks about, you know, he has not engaged yet in conversation with MLSC. I think that's more to his, and obviously you're a lot more closer to the situation, but my guess is that I think he's looking for ownership stake wherever he goes. And I go back to that Adrian Wojnowski Wojbom, I think what literally minutes after they won the championship last year and talked about

Washington. And you look at Washington, I believe his wife, Ramatu, grew up in the area or went to high school there. And you have a huge empire there in Washington. This is, of course, if Messiah wants to remain in basketball, but something more of an ownership stake. You know, the monumental sports, I think, in Washington, similar to MLSE, they own the arena, they own the Capitals, they own the

Wizards. I'm just throwing something out there. Is this something that I think Masai is holding out for ownership, which he won't get here with the Tannenbaum, Rodgers, and Bell combination here. What say you, Mr. Smith? Well, first of all, to be totally honest

with you, I have not had this conversation with messiah messiah has uh been been um you know private with his feelings his thoughts on this uh outside of whatever he said in press conferences and and and you know i haven't like sat down and pressed him on the issue or anything but any conversations i've had with messiah uh if if anything even close to this has come up, it hasn't really come up. It hasn't been a discussion because it's been quite clear that this is something that he's chosen to keep private and isn't speaking about on the record, off the record, with one reporter, let alone with a bunch of reporters or broadcasters or otherwise. So I'm just going on my gut, my feeling, not with any insider info from Masai or anybody else. on my gut, my feeling, not with any insider info from Messiah or anybody else. I think that what you said, Milan, about and everything you said, you had a quick little line you said where

if he wants the same basketball. That's my biggest question right now. And to be 1,000% clear, I am not saying that he is not committed to basketball, to the Raptors, to building this team, this organization. I think I think that's what he lives, breathes, eats, sleeps for right now. I think that when you look at Masai in his life, let alone his career, is there more for him beyond just basketball? do what he wants to do in his life in addition to still being arguably the best executive in basketball? Or does he need to leave basketball in order to pursue his other interests and to achieve his other interests and goals that he has? So whether it be his Giants of Africa Foundation, whether it be going back home to continue to build the game, to continue to build better lives for kids and young adults, whether it be building more within Canada, within North America.

Does he have political aspirations? Like, this is a guy that has gone from, I mean, even, I'm actually fast-tracking here. I was going to say he has gone from assistant general manager. But if you look at his path within the league when he started in Orlando and essentially started as an intern and just, you know, doing small jobs before getting the break and building his way up and up and up and up to become an assistant general manager, to become a general manager, to now become a president.

He has achieved now everything in this league. He has won a championship. He is nationally recognized, internationally recognized, beyond just basketball, for his charitable work, for his humanitarian work, for all of his endeavors. He rubs elbows with some of the most famous people in the world and former presidents like Barack Obama. When you think of everything that he's done, everyone he knows, everything he still wants to do, I think that's perhaps why you haven't heard MLSC announce a contract extension because of what you said, Milan. I think that it's, this is going to be done on Masai's terms.

When he's ready to have a conversation, when he's ready to decide if he wants to be back, he'll be back. There's no chance that Bell Rogers, Larry Tanabot are going to let him walk. If he wants to continue on as a executive and, and continue on in basketball, but does he have aspirations beyond that? That's I think the biggest question. I think that's why there's not a contract that in, in my opinion, now your ownership thing, again, I have no knowledge of that.

Is that part of it? Perhaps I listen, would bell would Rogers with Larry Tannenbaum give up a percent, a half a percent or otherwise? I don't know. Would the Washington wizards be willing to give up ownership sake? Perhaps. I don't know. Would, would the New York Nixon and, and, uh, uh, and, and everybody there, would they be willing to? I don't know. I don't know would would the New York Knicks and and uh uh and and everybody there

would they be willing to I don't know I don't have that answer for you is is is Masai Ujiri you know maybe perhaps a guy that could be groomed to take over for Adam Silver one day as commissioner of the NBA there are so many things because he is such a uh a mind uh outside of basketball and and such an important piece to um I think, the league, let alone this team, that I think the sky is the limit for Masai in terms of what he could do with his life, let alone with his career. I have no doubt, Eric, that Masai could do whatever he wants to do. But I know Michael Green sort of has insinuated in articles that

there was interest from Masai's part in the Knicks job. So which tells me that he still is interested in remaining with the basketball team. And if you look at ownership, maybe something along the lines of what Pat Riley had with Miami Heat. I don't know where that stands now, if he had to give up part of the ownership. But you're talking about in Washington, an organization worth up to $10 billion, according to Forbes. an organization worth up to $10 billion, according to Forbes, even a small percentage of that would be incredibly lucrative for Masai before he moves on to his next venture outside basketball down the line. And I would say this, and it's all speculative at this point.

For sure. So again, let's be clear on that. But I would say to you, and you guys again would acknowledge this, I think, we're all smart guys, I like to assume. Right. What's in New York beyond just billions of dollars and the Knicks and still being involved in basketball and working for, you know, a storied franchise and working in still, you know, the most legendary of buildings in Madison Square Garden. You're a hop, skip and a jump away from the United Nations. You're a hop, skip and a jump away from the NBA head offices. jump away from the United Nations. You're a hop scape and a jump away from the NBA head offices.

You're in the, the, the, the, you know, the, the Mecca, uh, arguably in North America, you know, you want to talk about LA or Chicago or I don't know where, what else? Houston, Toronto, it's New York city. Uh, I think the spotlight that would be on you from basketball, from politics, from news and entertainment and celebrity and otherwise, which then again, I go back to would allow you to continue to to to push and promote and work on your charitable ventures that much more. And all of the work that you want to do outside of basketball. basketball, there's a lot of reasons why New York would make sense. But I don't necessarily know from my conversations with Masai that he's looking to jump ship and just assumes that New York would be better than Toronto or otherwise. I think he has a great love for this city, for this organization, for this country. And I wouldn't be surprised to see him still here in three years, five years, 10 years. But I think as we've said a bunch of times now in the last 10 minutes here, I think it's all dictated, all predicated on what Masai wants to do if he wants to be here he'll be here and if he if he wants to move on for whatever it may be outside of basketball or still related to basketball

you know I think it's it's completely his call right now and I think that's why he's making sure that he's taking his time and not trying to not be a distraction through all of this while still running the organization in a, you know, into me in a very good way and still aligning himself with a ton of great coaches and executives and players and everybody else. So I don't know what else to say beyond that, because, again, I think a lot of it's just speculative right now because, you know, we don't know. You don't. I don't. Mike, you don't know exactly what Masai's thinking right now because he hasn't really talked about it. And that's kind of been his MO as well. You think about the leaks or lack thereof that have come out of the Raptors over the last X amount of years, whether it be trades or otherwise, this organization has been extremely tight-lipped and likes to keep things close to the vest, does not like the leaks, does not like the public opinion where things make it out into the papers or onto the websites and whatnot. They keep things tight and it's very hard to get any kind of information. And I'll tell you, if I was running a business or a sports franchise, that's the way I'd want to do it too. I wouldn't want to be having folks out there talking to broadcasters, media, podcasts or otherwise and spilling our beans to folks. So I respect him

and I respect the team that much more for the way that they've kind of, you know, held things on lockdown as much as they have. Eric, do you believe that there's a internal sort of deadline from MLSC's part to have Masai signed and sign an extension or they go their separate waves before the season starts? There are a lot of long-term ram of, you know, decisions that have to be made moving forward. And the last thing I think you want from a perception base is that you have a lame duck president of the team.

Especially entering a critical free agent season a year from now. Well, I would say this. I think that there's no denying that next year's free agent crop with Giannis Antetokounmpo at the top of the list is a very enticing one. But I think that this year, free agency is extremely important to your organization as well. You know, you hit on it 10, 15 minutes ago. Yeah, there are decisions regarding, you know, Van Vliet, Abaka, Gasol. Otherwise, that's a decision or multiple decisions that are going to impact your team specifically next year, let alone in the coming year. So I think it's an important decision now.

And I guess maybe Milan, maybe the best answer I could give to that would be if you're, I don't think, I think you're doing more harm than good by, again, this is a major hypothetical, by getting rid of or parting ways with Masai Ujiri before he maybe wants to part ways. I think the longer you have him, the better you are. So right now, does it help you or hurt you if you have Masai Ujiri running the show still as your president? It clearly helps you. Hopefully that helps you in your negotiations then with Fred Van Vliet, with Serge Ibaka, with whomever else you're attempting to sign. Now, if those agents or those players specifically bring up, well, what about,

hey, if we don't have the answer, and I'm saying we pretending to be the organization right now, if we don't have the answer, I don't know what to tell you. If that's going to impact your decision, if you won't sign a five-year deal, perhaps with us right now, because you don't know if Masai will be here in a year, well then, yeah, that's a problem. That's something that we need to address. But I don't know if it ultimately comes to that. And if we get past this coming season and Masai's got a month left, two months left, four months left, whatever it may be on his contract, I would think it could only help you

to have him at least initiate and instigate those initial conversations. But yeah, it will ultimately get to a point, well, hold on a second. You're asking me to sign on. Are you going to be here or not? Because it will eventually become a talking point. I just don't know right now, in October 2020, if it's something that I would have to worry about or I would want to worry about. I think it's

something that maybe a year from now, well, obviously, less than a year. As a Raptors fan, just from a selfish perspective, I mean, I think it'd be a shame if he goes, obviously. There's no denying, I think every Raptors fan, just from a selfish perspective, I mean, I think it'd be a shame if he goes, obviously. There's no denying, I think every Raptor fan would want him to stay for as long as possible. I have no doubt that Bobby Webster, Dan Tolsman, Teresa Wright, Nick Nurse, I have no doubt that the entire organization are full of capable people. But we've seen it with Jeff Weltman in Orlando. You can be a protege, but to do it on your own, it really takes next level skill.

And he's the closest thing to a rock star sort of president in this league. Sure, but to Eric's point, I think we're only going to be disappointed if he stays in basketball, if he's a basketball executive. I agree with Eric. I think there's a higher calling for Masai, and that might be why we haven't heard anything. Because aren't you shocked we haven't heard anything? I think it's got to be something like that,

where he's considering doing something outside of basketball. Well, yeah, it's unprecedented. To sign up your coach first, without getting your own contract situation rectified. Sorry, Eric. No, I was just saying, I think that, again, without having any knowledge of it, I think that again, without having any knowledge of it, I think that it's just, if we look at everything he's done and everything that he,

that he has clearly shown is important to him in his life beyond just basketball, whether it is a higher calling or whether it is just simply making sure that he has the ability to continue to move his charity work, his entrepreneurial work, everything that he does, continue to push that forward, continue to move that on, continue to raise funds, continue to raise the spotlight. As long as that opportunity is given, maybe there's still a role within basketball. Now, listen, I'm not sitting here saying that he's done with basketball. He very well could be still working in the NBA. As I said,

he could be the commissioner one day. And I don't know if I could say that about a lot of general managers or presidents in basketball right now that they could be, you know, the commissioner. Uh, he's, he's, I think, I think he can pretty much walk in anywhere right now and not only have the blank check, but also be, be given the blank paper to say, what do you want to do? And write it down. And he'll be given the chance to do just that. Lots of integrity there. Now, speaking of beloved members of the Raptors in this market here, can we talk about Kyle Lowry?

So, Molon, what were you pointing out there? It's obvious that Steve Ballmer is going nuts in LA. Well, it's obvious that Steve Ballmer is going nuts in L.A. You know, and I was reading an article on The Ringer, and I thought they brought up a good point. I just want to get Eric's opinion on this. Do you see, first of all, Kyle Lowry coming back to the Raptors, or would a team like the Clippers?

I don't know what they have left to give because they've mortgaged. Yeah, they've mortgaged. Yeah, I don't think they have anything else to trade to us. But do you see Kyle Lowry sort of coming back with one year left on his, with his contract? At this point I do. And for a number of reasons and not the least of which is until I know what happens with Fred VanVleet, I can't get rid of my point guard, my other point guard, because then I would have none left.

I mean, we went from a Raptor team that, uh, what about about a year, year and a half ago had three point guards, uh, a solid veteran and a hell of a piece in Kyle Lowry with two more than capable backups and guys that could be, you know, starters one day and Fred Van Vliet and Delon Wright. And then Delon Wright was traded and he went into the season with, uh, and finished last season with a hell of a one, two punch in Kyle Lowry and Fred Van Vliet.

Well now I've got a free agent in Fred Van Vliet. We hope, assume that he comes back, but I don't think there's a guarantee. He's going to be wooed by a lot of teams, and there's a lot of money out there from other clubs as well that Toronto will have to compete with. So until I know for certain that I have Fred Van Vliet, I'm definitely not getting rid of Kyle Lowry. And even if I do get Fred Van Vliet signed, I think that Kyle Lowry is still an important piece to this team, especially with just the one year left in his contract. That gives me

financial flexibility in a year to either decide if I'm bringing him back at a lower rate. Am I letting him go? And the other factor in all this, guys, that I would say is after winning a championship last year and after everything that he's done for this team now and the tenure that he's been here, we could almost transfer major portions of our Masai Ujiri conversation to Kyle Lowry. I think Kyle Lowry has now almost earned the right, in a sense, to maybe not write his own check, but to set his own ways. You tell us what you would like to do. If you want to be here, you're here. If you want to resign here, we're going to make that happen. If you would prefer to move on, if you think this is a better way to close out your career, going to a team that you deem is

a better contender or something, you've earned that right to almost set your own path in a sense, because he's going to be a Raptor for life either way. He's going to have his jersey retired one day. If he wants to work for the organization one day, I'm sure that'll be an option for him. I think he's earned that right now to kind of set his own path as he closes out his career. I think that's a great point, Eric. And you can say with Fred, assuming that Anthony Davis resigns with the Lakers, is probably the most appealing free agent on the market this offseason? Fred Van Vliet? Yeah. Based on his age and his championship pedigree?

I would think so. Yeah. Yeah. If he's not the number one guy, he's right up there. Listen, I was surprised when there wasn't more interest even going back to last year from a team like say the Phoenix Suns. And I think Phoenix will be right up in the mix again this year. Again, there's going to be a lot of competition. I think Chicago makes a lot of sense.

He's from Rockford. Yeah, he's from Rockford Files. Now, we're all the same age, so I'm curious. Can you guys remember an athlete in this market as universally beloved as Kyle Lowry is right now? I always think, compare Doug Gilmore at a couple of years where he could have been prime minister or whatever. And we all loved Vince Carter for a bit. I think Roberto Alomar in his peak. During those peak years, he was a rock star.

I remember going to the malls and when he would come for an autograph signing, it was like a boy band taking over. Yeah, I think those are probably the best names. Alomar, Gilmore, Wendell Clark, he still is a man of legend to this day in terms of what he did for the Leafs, what he meant to the Leafs, and what he stood for. I've always said Toronto fans in general, and clearly there are exceptions to the rule. We all loved Kawhi Leonard as sports fans. And throw in whether it's a Josh Donaldson or a Jose Batista, whomever it may be.

We love the stars. We love the all-stars. But Toronto sports fans really seem to have that love for the blue-collar guy even more than the star. Again, it's not to say we don't like all-stars and we don't like superstars. But you could probably come up with a longer list of the muckers and the grinders and the blue-collar and the hard workers that have had more of an impact. Or if you walk into an arena, whether it be for a Leaf game,

for a Jays game, for a Raptors game or otherwise, I'll bet you could find as many of the sort of second, third tier guys as you can. JYD, Motor City Smitty. Oh, Motor City Smitty is a great example. Absolutely. And Wendell, he's your guy. Because Wendell, you know, not a Hall of Famer,

never delivered a cup, never scored 50 in a season john mcdonald is still fondly remembered you know right you're right yeah you're right we do love our uh blue collar uh get your nose dirty and get your nose to the grindstone and plug it out but and lowry i don't know if they've started if they started on the kyle lowry statue yet at scotia bank arena because i, that should have been done yesterday. And one last thought before we leave Lowry. Eric, I'm curious. First number we retire is Toronto.

Like we always hear, number 15 eventually gets retired for Vince Carter. Like this is an inevitability. But I feel like Lowry should be the first. What are your thoughts on that one? Well, I'll tell you. I actually have said in the last couple of months that I believe Kyle Lowry, for all he has done, all he stands for, all he has won with this team, obviously with the championship last year, I think he has earned the right to be the number one guy. The number seven should hang in the rafters before anyone else.

However, for what it's worth, if you don't like my opinion or if you disagree with that, take it from a former player and a former Raptor himself uh Alvin Williams who who I've worked quite a bit with and had a ton of conversations with and and he's a Philly guy and super tight with Kyle he has said hold on a second if you're acknowledging as I have that Vince Carter should have his 15 retired and I firmly believe that he said why wouldn't Vince be first he said there might not be a toronto raptor still if not for vince carter thus there might not be a kyle lowry to have his impact on the raptors on the city on this organization without what vince carter did what he stood for the way he cultivated the fan base in this city so whether we want to talk about how he left how things went down how it unfolded whatever right you still can't take away the impact that he made in his three quarters of a decade

that he was here. So he said, if you want to talk about Kyle Lowry, you have to give Vince his due. So Alvin says, at least you still put Vince in there first, or you do them together, whatever it may be. They're both hanging there one day. So maybe it's just the semantics of who gets to be first, but there's a 15 and there's a seven hanging there one day, no matter what. I agree.

As you would say, Eric, 1,000%. I always want to correct you on the math there. I'm not sure 1,000% is any more than 100%, but I totally, totally agree with you there. And time heals all wounds. Of course, we all remember how Vince left this city and that sour taste in your mouth. But it is one of those things where I was pissed at him.

I was personally pissed at Vince Carter for a long time. And then suddenly I found myself kind of when he would come back suddenly as an older, an older Statesman, I would be sort of like, I forgive Vince. Like I remember the good times. I'm going to choose to ignore the departure there.

You guys are more forgiving than me. You know, I forgive, but I don't forget. Right. So Milan is not going to be at the ceremony when, yeah, absolutely. Do you have any more Raptors questions or can I ask some different stuff of Eric here while we still have him? Just a quick on Kyle Lowry.

I know he held a sort of a little mini strike last year when the extension was not granted. Do you see any issues with that this year, Eric? I don't believe so. As of right now, the problem, I guess, too, Milan, is when is training camp? I don't even know what to call it. So I don't anticipate that being an issue, at least as of right now.

But again, maybe ask me again in three months, but I don't anticipate that being an issue. Oh, and the news I saw yesterday on Twitter is coming out of Spain. Has it been confirmed at all? Do we have any more sources on the Gasol signing to finish up his career in Spain? The folks that I reached out to didn't have anything concrete to say, but I know that Grange sent a tweet out late last night. I saw something from Laura Ewing from Canadian Press as well today

that Grange said he talked to four different people on this side of the pond and on the other side. And nobody was confirming the news or like there was nothing to say that it was legit. And then Laurie said today that she had spoken to, I believe, somebody connected specifically with Barcelona. And they are saying, no, we have not signed a contract. We haven't even had a conversation. So the reports may be premature, to say the least, that he's going to Barcelona specifically, let alone that he's done with the NBA. So that sounds like it could be premature, or at least nobody's locked down a confirmation on that yet.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Milan is a segment. He's been lucky enough to co-host this tremendous podcast a few times now, and he has this segment called Likely or Unlikely, but because we knew you were coming on, I said I had a theme song for you, so let me just play a little of this music for Eric Smith here. Alright. Some gin and juice for Eric Smith.

Eric, what kind of music do you listen to these days when you're just chillaxing and want to hear some tunes? See, I was sitting here mouthing the words as you're playing it because I could recite, and trust me, you're not going to get it. If I wasn't going to sing Colin James, I'm sure as hell not going to start trying to rap like Snoop Dogg. This is a top five album for Eric. 100%. I could give you every word of that track.

I could probably give you almost every damn word of that entire album You know what, quite honestly When you ask me what I listen to I listen to just about everything Because Milan just said there Top 5 albums My top 3 albums have zero connection To themselves

In any way, shape or form Which speaks to, I listen to a lot of different music outside i'm not a huge country music guy and i'm not really a big classical kind of guy right but my top three albums okay i feel like it's on eric's twitter feed i know so i know so uh we want to hear them and this is i'll consider this a teaser because in five years time you're going to drop by this pandemic will be long gone kick out the jams you're going to come back and kick out the jams okay so give us a teaser what are your top three albums okay and i'm on i'm actually even forgetting the top five because i know i did it

fairly recently but i know i know you had snoop dogg and tom petty in there i forgot the other three so so number one my number one artist all time for me that i would just listen to anything at any point any time is tom Petty and or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. But I got to chime in real quick to say that your former colleague, and I'm sure you're still friendly because he's a sweetheart like yourself, but Barry Davis is like the world's biggest Tom Petty fan. He even sings in a Tom Petty tribute band. Is that a coincidence? I think it's absolute coincidence because i i'm not a musician i don't play any instruments i can't sing for a lick uh barry barry is a former musician

current musician uh and and and tapped into his high school talents and and and and uh you know adult year talents and and formed i think he's got two bands now i think he's doing a a cars cover you're absolutely right You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. So anyways, total, total coincidence. So anyways, my top three albums, number one is the Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York. Oh yeah. I think it is an incredible album.

I think the music, the songs on there are unbelievably outstanding to listen to. I can turn it on at any point, any day, any time of the year. I've listened to it late night on a flight, in a hotel room, at home, in the middle of the summer, in the dead of winter, whatever it is. I love that album. Tom Petty, Wildflowers, which is being re-released in the next couple of weeks in the middle of October with a whole bunch of new tracks that they found in Tom's archives since his passing a few years ago. But the Tom Petty Wildflowers is probably my number two.

But Snoop Dogg, Doggy Style, if it's not number two, it's number three for sure. And I honestly don't even remember what my top fives would be. But I listen to rock, classic rock. I listen to alternative rap, hip-hop, house, R&B, you name it. That runs the gamut right there. That top three, you're all over the place. You've got that grunge in there. You've got the more classic, 70s classic stuff.

But I have a question about Tom Petty real quick because we're the same age. I was introduced to Tom Petty through two projects. The Full Moon Fever, which I was listening to a lot of Q107 at the time. The singles off Full Moon Fever, like Free Fallin', just running down a dream. These things were everywhere. And, of course, the Traveling Wilburys. This is what got me into Tom Petty,

and then I went back and caught up with what I missed. But is it similar with you and Tom Petty? Yeah, I would say so again, because when you think our age and you go back to, to when, uh, full moon fever and it damned torpedoes and, and when all of those, those albums and, and just, you know, I don't know, I, maybe it's just simply because that's when we were growing up, uh, you know, born in 75 and 10 years old and 85 and 13 and 88 and whatever. I have a love for 80s music and so much of the 80s music that was coming out of the time, whether it be the pop stuff, but more specifically a lot of the rock stuff as well.

And I'll tell you, I don't know if you've stumbled upon it, but you talked about Tom Petty and then that bringing you into the Traveling Wilburys. Do yourself a favor if you haven't done so and go listen to some of the Mud Crutch stuff as well. Oh, sorry. That you will not be disappointed. If you like Petty, go listen to some of the mud crutch stuff as well. Oh, sorry. Yeah. That you,

you will not be disappointed. If you like petty, go listen to some of his stuff with mud crutch. Cause that's some, some sort of like, uh, you know, the down in the Bayou in Florida,

uh, some bluesy rock. Let me call that like, yeah. Swamp rock or swamp rock is a good way to describe it. You'll definitely like it. You probably saw that Tom Petty documentary. Like I did,

which was fantastic. I did, which was fantastic. We lost him far too soon, but speaking of people we lost far too soon, I just want to give you props on the MTV Unplugged by Nirvana because stellar, whether it be the Bowie cover or even if it's a lake of

fire and just the rearranging of all apologies. When I want to hear all apologies, I don't go to In Utero. I go to the Un know the rearranging of all apologies like when i want to hear all apologies i don't go to in utero i go to the unplugged version of all apologies no you you hit on you hit on all them lake of fire is i could go on folks go when they die oh man the whole thing is i mean oh yeah and uh some some just and it and as i understand it you know because that was a rough time for kurt but that's all one take like he just was i mean i can see him now in that ratty old cardigan and he was just spot on and it just all came together like a last hurrah of sorts well that's the that's i know you know and i speak i think for just a lot of uh fans of music and fans of those two individuals or bands specifically

it's like again i referenced you know my kid and just trying to you know impart my fatherly wisdom and whatever else in my opinions and and uh my my favorites and my beliefs and whatnot my two top albums unfortunately kurt cobain's gone tom petty's gone it was right around if i'm not mistaken it's almost damn near close to the day uh three years ago now or i believe three years ago that Tom Petty died. I want to say it was October 4th, 5th, somewhere in that range, because I was actually on a flight coming back from Raptors training camp at West. They had done training camp in Vancouver. And I had actually stopped in Edmonton for a couple of days to visit a friend of mine that lives in Edmonton. And when I got off the flight from Edmonton, uh, I, I, I got off the flight to a

message from a buddy of mine saying, I'm so sorry, man. And then I got another text from another buddy. This is like literally as I just turned the phone back on, uh, another buddy saying, really sorry about the news. Let me know if you need to talk. And I'm thinking the hell happened. And honestly, the first thing that popped in my head was something happened at Sportsnet, at the fan. Oh, yeah, sure. Something happened with my job. Because I figured if it was something related to my family, I would have heard from my wife, my parents, somebody. So I didn't think it was somebody died, per se, or at least nobody that I knew, nobody close to me.

So I immediately just sort of went to the job thinking, what the heck happened? I just got off a three, four hour flight. What's going on? And then I fired up Twitter and I'm scrolling and I'm looking. I don't see anything about the Raptors. I don't see anything about anybody being fired or traded. I don't see anything about broadcast rights or the radio station, the TV station. And then all of a sudden, boom, Tom Petty and I sunk. And I tell you, here's another thing too. Again, as I divert on a little path here. I'll tell you, here's another thing too. Again, as I divert on a little path here. I got off the flight and this maybe just speaks to how much, I swear to you, I'm not trying to sound cheesy or embellish this or whatever. I get off the flight and I had done carry on only. So I literally just could leave the airport.

I had nothing to do. It's a Canadian flight. You just walk off and walk out there. You're done. So there's no customs to deal with or anything. I was so hit by it that I sat in the airport at one of the terminals at one of the gates as if i was waiting to leave again like a departure flight and i was sitting there for just a couple of minutes i wasn't crying or anything but i was just sort of like lost in thought and just kind of staring off out

the window and as i'm sitting there there was i was at a gate where we had just landed there wasn't a flight taking off from there so there was next to nobody around in this area of the airport at Pearson. And I'm sitting there just kind of staring it off and staring off. And I'm just shaking my head. I'm thinking this, this like clearly this sucks. And, and,

and again, if I'm remembering correctly to the, either the night before two nights before, that's when there was the, the mass shootings down in Vegas. And I think that was kind of hitting me as well, where I was just, cause I remember following along in my buddy's basement in Edmonton.

He's upstairs with his wife, gone to bed. And I'm like stuck, like wide awake, scrolling through Twitter, watching this tragedy and this horrific incident in Vegas unfold. And then like a day or two later, now this thing with Tom Petty. And I'm just like staring out the window. And as I'm sitting there, about 10 seats down, there's a young woman you know maybe I don't know 25 30s or something and she's talking on the phone and all of a sudden she just starts bawling her eyes out hysterically I mean like like loud hysterical sobbing crying and I'm just kind of feeling awkward like all right I'm in a moment where I'm clearly upset about, you know, my favorite musical artist dying. But like, I'm kind of just like, do I remove myself from this?

It was like awkward sitting there. And as I'm sitting there, not trying to eavesdrop, she's just talking very loudly and bawling her eyes out. It's very easy to piece together that she's on the phone with either a family member or a close friend talking about her father having died and she's flying to to be with her family to go home to to you know to to to bury her father and i just it sort of hit me like as much as i love tom petty as much as i loved his music and this moment hit me uh you know you got to kind of check yourself a little bit to some sense and the reality of the situation and i had a I had a bag of M&Ms and a water bottle in my hand that I hadn't eaten on the flight or whatever. And I just walked up to the woman and I said, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I feel like you could use this more than I do. Do you need some water or something? And she'd look at it. She's like,

hold on. There's a guy talking and he's trying to wipe her tears away while she's still talking to whoever it was on the phone. And she, she took the water. She didn't take the snack, but she took the water. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I just kind of like, you know what? Uh, sorry for, for whatever you're going through, have a great day. And I just turned around, left the airport and that was it. Like I just, again, not to diminish the impact that maybe Tom had on me, just as a fan of his music and what his lyrics have meant to me in so many of

his songs and whatnot, but it was sort of like, okay, you know what? Again, as I'm knocking on wood, I'm lucky enough to still have both of my parents with me. I've been lucky enough to, you know, my son had five great-grandparents up until a few years ago, and unfortunately, three of them have since gone. But I've been pretty lucky in my life. So that was a moment where you're just kind of, you know, not expecting something. It's like, okay, you know what? You know, pick up yourself and and and move on life life life goes on perspective is everything but in the same in the same breath i

just want to point out that you you know you have the right to grieve you know even even if it's you can't you know tell yourself oh that's silly uh i never had a conversation with this man but in a sense when it comes to these artists especially musicians like they you are having conversations with them it's just one way like they've literally they're they're they're yeah it's just a one way and i always think like because my buddy uh he said he never cried when anyone died and then when prince died he was bawling and he wasn't sure why and it's like no that's okay like like it's okay it's Prince. It's not silly to be upset and crying because a musician you love dying. You know, they speak to you in different ways.

And I mean, Tom Petty hit you that way. And I know Barry Davis, like we mentioned, is also a big Petty fan. I wasn't aware of your Petty love at the time, but when Petty passed away, I did send a note to Barry Davis, and it really was like, I'm sorry, man, if you need to talk, if you're okay.

Like, it's as if you lost a family member because that's what these musicians are like man i remember how i felt when kurt died like i was the biggest nirvana fan and it was like wow it's like you get hit with a ton of bricks it's uh it's yeah well i see for for me as well and i don't know about you guys but for me i not only do i love i mean i i love listening to music and I love listening to songs, but I enjoy a lot of, especially when it's a song that, you know, for whatever's, you know, sending, sending little emails or notes or, or love notes or whatever else I would use lyrics like to, to send to a girl that I was dating or, or whatever it may be. I've, I've, you know, done it with my wife, even from time to time over the years where just like a line, if I can't kind of find the words, you let somebody else speak for you with the beautiful

words that they put down on paper, let alone that they were then able to put to music and i just have an appreciation for songwriting and for um for for for the the art of of writing and and poetry and whatnot so i i appreciate stuff like that too like i you know i the wildflowers album i could give you you know three or four tracks even just from that album alone where I think just the words, the lyrics from perhaps not his most famous or popular songs from that album that just kind of seemed to hit me and to resonate with me more than so many others. And then other musicians and other songs you listen to just because, hey, you know what? I like the beat. I like the chorus. I love that album too, Doggy Style.

Because that was really, I mean, other than he did the thing of Dre, right? But he was kind of a guest on like big, big, what was the big Dre song? What was the big Dre song, Milan? Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Was it part of The Chronic? Yeah, like early. Oh, The Chronic was, yeah.

Right. So then, but that album was massive and that video got such heavy airplay and much music. Like where Snoop Dogg. Nothing but a G thing. There was a lot. Oh, it's just got such heavy airplay and much music. Like, where Snoop Dogg... Nothing but a G thing. There was a lot. Oh, it's just great. I forgot about Dre, and yeah.

Like, there's tons. There's tons. Yeah, you're right. Snoop Dogg, Snoop. Yeah, yeah. Right. But anyway, I love the variety of your musical selections there. I'm similar the same way.

I like my hip-hop a lot. I love my Public Enemy, but I also love my Tragically Hip and my Pearl Jam. And I love the classic rock stuff too. Like, you know, be it the Pretenders or I guess is that classic rock? Pretenders or Tom Petty. I love this stuff.

And I love this conversation with you. And that's why I can't wait for five years time when you come back to kick out the jams of me. Well, I'll tell you, I go back to even when we were talking 80s, when I think about, you know, rap and, I mean, obviously at the top of the list for a lot of people would be Run DMC and Beastie Boys and whatnot. But listening to Cool Moe D and the Fat Boys and others like that in the early and mid 80s.

Big Daddy Kane. Big Daddy Kane and Young MC and Biz Markie. I'll tell you, Biz Markie, that was a funny one, too. And I bring in my kid back into the story back, you know, going back, I don't know, seven-ish years ago, maybe a little bit longer. And I think he still does this. I think the show is still around for, you know, kids, parents that have kids that are, you know, two, three, four years old, whatever. But Yo Gabba Gabba. I don't know if either of you know about Yo Gabba Gabba. But like I loved that show. I don't know if either of you know about Yo Gabba Gabba.

But I loved that show. Part of the reason I loved it is just a cool concept of this wacky DJ who opens up his ghetto and there's a bunch of his friends inside these characters that come out of his ghetto. And ghetto blaster I'm talking about. And I think that the cool thing for that then too was not only the DJ and the the dj and his friends but it was also biz marquee and biz marquee had a segment on almost every show where it was biz's beat of the day and you had biz marquee doing beatboxing and and and trying to do lyrics with a bunch of kids and trying to teach them and we went to a yo kava gava show in toronto this is again like seven eight years ago went to a show in toronto at i don't even know what they call it now the sony center down on uh on front street i don't think know what they call it now. The Sony Center down on Front Street.

Yeah, the Sony Center. I don't think it's the Sony Center. I think it is the Sony Center. The Sony Center or the changed name. Anyways, whatever. We went down there and it was Yo Gabba Gabba Live with DJ Lance Rock, I believe is the name, and he's got his friends. And Biz Marquis was there.

So Biz does like, he comes out on stage and he then says, any kids want to come up on stage with Biz Marquis? And so my kid goes running up there. He's three years old or whatever at the time. And he's, you know, up there on stage with Biz Marquis doing Biz's beat of the day. It was incredible. Like I just, that's, I love that stuff where you can kind of cross over your, your interests and things in life with, with kids and trying love it. And I'm a big Beastie Boys guy. So in fact, since you were last here at the Basement Studio, which has been closed since March 13th, but I have put a sticker up from stickeru.com that says Check Your Head because people were bumping their head.

Even Leo Roudens, we had to get him in there somehow. So Check Your Head. And on that album, Check Your Head, of course, there's some Biz Marquis on the Beastie Boys Check Your Head. The on that album, Check Your Head, of course, there's some Biz Marquis on the Beastie Boys' Check Your Head. The Biz versus the Nuge and all this stuff. And without further ado, though, I'm looking over at Malone. Are you a big Tom Petty fan?

Sure. Yeah, just like Colin James. He's going to Google him later. I was more of a 680 CFTR or Jesse and Gene. They played Tom Petty on the 680. Did they? Okay. Yeah, they did. He had big hits. Especially Full Moon Fever. Free Fallin' was. Did they? Okay. Yeah, they did. He had big hits, especially Full Moon Fever. Free Fallin' was a big top 40 hit. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Okay, so this segment, what's the name of this segment, Milan? Well, I'm copying a segment from John Pollock of PostWrestling.com. He has a segment called Likely or Unlikely.

Eric, I just want to ask you, you tell me if it's unlikely or I'll name you a scenario and you tell me if it's likely or unlikely and I'll give you a sort of a... So just one word answer or do I get to expand?

No, absolutely. You get to expand. We'll let Eric expand. I only get him every five years. Exactly. And we will test you in five years on your answers here. Likely or unlikely, Eric, Maasai signs an extension to remain president of the Raptors within the next six months. That's a good one, Milan. Good one.

Likely. I like that. there will be another debate between Mr. Biden and Trump that's a good one that is a good one likely I'm with Eric on that one do you want me to answer Milan?

absolutely of course I'm with Eric on both counts anything else you want to add? what I would add to that is, well, I mean, listen, I'll say... More than one word, yeah. Yeah, I'll say flat out that if I was an American voting, I'd be voting for Biden 100%. And I think that it's been a train wreck the last four years. So if anybody feels otherwise, hey, whatever, you're entitled to your opinion.

But we don't want you listening anyways. I hope like hell Trump is out of office. I thought that that first debate was an embarrassment in so many different ways because of the fact that Trump, for the most part, would not allow the conversation, the debate to be had properly. It's one thing to want to have your say, but to just continuously speak over your opponent and to, to cut the, the moderator, Chris Wallace off and whatever. I don't even want to want to criticize Wallace too much. Cause I don't think he was in a position to be able to do much of anything. He attempted to, to control things and handle things. And it was just a, it was a train wreck. It was a complete gong show. Uh, and, and I think that there will be another debate because, uh, I think the public for either the right or wrong reasons,

will want it. And I think that it needs to happen, but hopefully it can be handled a little bit better. And it might even come down to maybe the microphones have to be controlled. Maybe they need to be potted up and down when somebody's speaking, including Biden. I give Biden a ton of credit for biting his tongue and his lip as much as he did, even though he did fire back a few times, and understandably so, because I think I tweeted that night. That debate alone showed me, and I mean, there's a million other reasons why, but that debate showed me why I could never, never, never run for any kind of public office or have a life in politics, because I would not be able to contain myself if somebody was doing that to me. If even with you guys, if I went on a podcast, a show, whatever, and the host, let alone an opponent in a debate, just continuously cut me

off, stopped my sentences, spoke over me, spoke down to me, criticized me, came after me, went after my family, didn't let me have a platform, didn't share equal time, I would, in a debate, lose it. I would probably want to lunge across the stage and haul off on the guy. And if I was on a show, I'd hang up and leave. So I could not handle that. And I give Biden a ton of credit for showing the patience that he did. Robert Leonarden Mike, I've thought this for several years. It's not a new thought from this debate that you're right, it was a complete shit show.

But I'm kind of disheartening on how this individual who is now the president of the United States has, in my opinion, zero redeeming qualities. Usually you got like that kind of, you know, that kind of a bit of maybe your persona is such, but there's a little bit of a wink or a sense of humor. And maybe you can see there's some humanity there. I,

I, I cannot find any redeeming qualities in this, uh, person. There, that's as political as I'll get today. But, uh,

I know Milan's shocked at that opinion. You're a big, you're a big Trump fan. No, no, no, please, please.

All right. No, now the more Trump we, we, we talk about the, uh, my blood pressure goes up. I agree with you guys. Yeah, for sure. Uh, no, please, please. All right, no, now the more Trump we talk about, my blood pressure goes up. I agree with you guys, yeah, for sure.

Eric, Bob McCowan returns back to the fan 590 within the next year. Well, that's a controversial one. Honestly, I don't even know if I can give you a likely or unlikely on that. And Milan, I'd say this, and Mike, hopefully, you've known me long enough to back me. I'm not trying to duck any questions.

I don't even know if that's a fair one. It's not a fair one for you to answer i wouldn't have i didn't see this on sorry eric i put you on the no no it's fine like i don't mind you asking i'm just i'm being honest that i don't even know if it's fair for me to answer because i'm i'm literally an employee i'm a i'm not a boss i have zero power in that and no don't answer controlling decisions like i honestly i i have no idea i don't even know if he would want to come back i don't know if there's mutual i so i i don't even know what I don't even know if he would want to come back. I don't know if there's mutual. So I really, I don't even know what, I don't even know what to say on that.

No, no, no. Don't answer because you're, there's no, it's a lose-lose. Like either answer is, you don't say anything there. I'm going to, I'm very disappointed in Milan, to be honest. I feel like I should be muting his microphone.

So no more of those, no more of those. Why don't we let Eric, Eric, you've been amazing. And what, this is an amazing, I didn't know we'd get this much time. I'm just grateful to have you on. Can you tell us about your charity? Then we'll say goodbye to you

and then I'll finish up with Milan and we'll talk about how well that went and how amazing you were. So you do some good charity work. You want to shout it out? Yeah, I mean, and I'll be honest too. I have another 15, 20 minutes if you want to stick around.

But if we're done, like I'm fine to be done. I'm not trying to ask the question for more time. But go ahead, Mella. honest, too. I have another 15-20 minutes if you want to stick around, but if we're done, I'm fine to be done. Can I ask a question, Eric? Go ahead, Mella. Sorry. No more controversial questions. I know the Lakers are about to win the championship. Hopefully, I know. Eric's a big Lakers fan.

Obviously, I think in 15-20 years, it's safe to say we're going to see a last dance sort of special on the career of LeBron James. Documentary style thing. If there's a season that you would want them to follow LeBron's career, which one would it be? I know

my answer. I know his career's not over yet. But it's got to be that championship he brought to Cleveland. That is the year, right? Because he comes back, he delivers the championship, the fashion in which they beat the Warriors. The Miami, the first season of Miami where he turned heel. Well, let's hear Eric because Eric's the guru here.

No, because you both just gave great answers that make a hell of a lot of sense. But okay, just for the sake of being different, I would say it could be this past year as well. Because you're a Lakers fan. You went from missing the postseason last year and playing 55 games to going into the offseason uh where you went out and you shot the movie and did space jam 2 soon to be released or yet to be released or whatever right so then

going into this year with the free agent signing of anthony davis to then steamrolling through a lot of teams in the regular season to then dealing with the shutdown and the pandemic and then dealing with the restart in the bubble and then on top of that in the midst of all this we have the the social and political unrest and black lives matter and the fact that lebron to his credit not only this year but for every year in his career has been arguably more outspoken than any other nba player in history including at the top of the list, Michael Jordan, in terms of using his platform to speak out and speak up for a lot of things. The established, the school that he established in the last couple of years as well, all that stuff. Then combine all of that with,

let's talk just back on the basketball court again. Oh, you're, you know, the, the one team in the first round that could maybe pull an upset of, of the seven or eight seeds, look out for the Portland Trail Blazers. They could upset the Lakers. This is a different looking team. Dame Dollar and the rest, gone in five games. 4-1 Lakers. Second round, Lakers could be setting up for an upset here. James Harden, Russell Westbrook, former MVPs, the one-two punch,

playing small ball in Houston. That could be problems for the Lakers. Boom, 4-1 Lakers, gone in five games. Going to the conference finals, Denver's rolling. They're hot. Are the Lakers going to be able to deal with Jokic? Jamal Murray's playing better than anybody right now. Denver's primed for the taking right here. They could really pull the upset. Gone in five games. 4-1. And now a blowout in game one of the finals over the heat. And we assume, we think, I think all three of us at least, that the Lakers are going to win this thing. There has been a lot that has happened to LeBron James

and to the LA Lakers on and off the floor, injuries, games, again, social issues, movies, the world of entertainment aside from basketball. So much has happened to him. And to be bringing the Lakers back to the playoffs, let alone back to a potential championship, I think you could make a serious case for these last 12-15 months. And he will become

the very first, and again, not the first player, but he'll be the first star, if you will, if I can use that term. He will be the first star to deliver a championship to three different franchises. Because Robert Horry did it, and Smiley did

it. Smiley? Who. Smiley? Who's Smiley? Who's the piston? Former, the name's blanking. John Sally. Well, I didn't say Smiley. I won't say John as a star.

He's Smiley? I'll fix that, Eric. I'll fix that in post, okay? Spider Sally. No, I don't. Yeah, I don't know where that came from. Maybe just because he smiles a lot. I don't know where that came from.

That was worse than my Bob McCowan question. I'm trying to pull these names out of my old rusty cranium here. But, okay, so Robert Horry did it. He won three championships of three franchises, and John Sally did it. And two players on the lakers will do it because danny green's on the lakers so but uh lebron's the star of three teams that have had championships that's never happened in the history of the nba yeah i mean when you

think about danny green doing it back to back years as well with the uh raptors and lakers assuming la wins and then obviously his time with san antonio it's uh but but for for lebron to do it like listen for lebron to be in the finals 10 out of 16 years in his career, I mean, that alone is incredible, too. Forget about the win-loss record and whatever else. He's unbelievable. He's an unbelievable all-generational talent. And, you know, we can have the argument until the cows come home about LeBron versus MJ,

and I wasn't around to see bill russell but certainly he needs to be included in the conversation it's just you know i'm one of those guys that never likes to say it has to be this guy it has to be that guy and can't be this guy because this guy's better they're just all incredible let's just appreciate what they ultimately bring to the game whatever sport we're talking about and just to think that uh it was reported that they were going to leave the bubble a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. The Lakers were at the forefront. Now they're three games away from a championship.

So, Eric, if the Raptors had played the Lakers, where does your heart lie? Good question. How could it not be the Raptors? How could it not be the Raptors? It would 100% be the Raptors because at the end of the day, listen, I've never denied it or shied away from it.

You obviously know it, Milan, and so does Mike. You've brought it up multiple times. I am a Laker fan. Why? Because that was the team that was my team when I was a kid. When I grew up and first got onto basketball, I'm growing up, as we've noted a number of times now in this conversation, born in 75, growing up as a young sports fan in the early to mid 80s.

Showtime Lakers were my team. And I'll tell you what came further to that was I have a ton to this day, still a ton of relatives in Michigan. So the connection with Michigan and Michigan State, with the respective universities and obviously with with Magic coming from Michigan State. So there were a lot of reasons why I kind of gravitated to the LA Lakers. And that stayed with me, obviously, until my, my, you know, early 20s or whatever, when I was done college and got into the professional world and was lucky enough to start at the fan out of college and everything else. And when you ultimately start working with slash for the Raptors, you know, you kind of have to check yourself in terms of the quote unquote fan, because you're now in that world. It's, it's now your job to be calling games.

There has to be a certain impartiality to this and, and not waving the pom poms. And I've, I've tried to be as balanced as I can be even with the Raptors where, yeah, I'm calling games for the team and I'm trying to, to be as, as positive as I can be when it's needed. But I'm also, I like to think as critical when it's necessary and needed, and at least as fair and balanced. So I've had to kind of hang up that Laker fandom in terms of having this as a job,

as a profession. But there's no denying. I can't say that, hey, I wasn't, you know, I'm denying those 20 years previous or 25 years previous when I was a kid and I grew up on the purple and gold. Or when the Raptors are eliminated and I want to sit back on my couch and crack a beer and say, all right, here's who I'm cheering for. Yeah, I'm going to cheer for the Lakers if they're still alive because that was part of my blood when I was a kid.

And I had as many Magic Johnson posters on my wall as I did Wayne Gretzky. And that's why I grew up as this weird Canadian on loving basketball more than hockey and baseball even arguably more than hockey. Eric, is it a challenge? I was as a hockey. Eric, is it a challenge? I was as a kid. Yeah, is it a challenge, Eric? Do you and Paul travel with the team? We do, yep.

So that's a challenge because you obviously have relationships with these players, right? And then to try to be as encouraging as possible, I would imagine that's a challenge at times. You know, listen, it is and it isn't because I'll tell you, at the end of the day, I don't want to sound too – I don't even – listen, I should probably – I should have probably, as a broadcaster, have a better grasp of the English language in this moment. I'm trying to struggle with whether sanctimonious is the right word. Just like John Smiley.

Yeah, exactly. I'm trying to decide if sanctimonious is the right word or description right now. So if I'm wrong in the way I'm using it right now, I wanted to say, I don't want to sound too sanctimonious here. I don't find it that difficult if you're actually a genuine person. And if you actually have established yourself as someone who should be able to be trusted and stand for what they stand for, both pro and con. I like to think, I like to hope that I've established myself as somebody who has been honest, who isn't out there just waving the red and white pom-poms for the Raptors all the time but at the same time

who isn't just someone who's going on turn on the microphone to be obnoxious loud controversial just killing a franchise or constantly criticizing whatever I like to think I've been fair and balanced to the conversation so I think that's afforded me a certain opportunity with the audience with my co-workers and with the players and coaches to be able to still have conversations about life, let alone about the game, and yet still be able to and I will be positive when that's necessary and needed and right as well. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I think just that trust that you've built up with an athlete, a coach, with management, let alone with, as I said, your coworkers and specifically with your audience, hopefully you've built that trust over the course of whatever tenure you've had in whatever job you have. If you've built that trust over the course of whatever tenure you've

had in whatever job you have. If you've established that trust, I think that gives you that wiggle room to be able to, and that trust, to have that trust to utilize your voice and to voice your opinions properly. Mark Hapshire, Mike and I host, or guest on Mike's show with the sports media episodes every quarter. And, you know, wouldn't be an episode if we didn't talk about, you know, sort of the whole, we've talked about in the past, but the whole Mike Wilner situation with Cito Gaston in the past and, you know, being suspended from the higher ups, allegedly from Rogers. Has management ever spoken to you and to your credit, to you and Paul's credit,

I've never seen you guys, uh, being homers or I've always found you guys impartial, but has anyone from senior management ever spoken to you about sort of being more pro Raptors than, uh, you know? Yeah,

I've never, I've never had a conversation with anybody at the fan at sports net or at MLSC slash the Raptors. Not once have I ever had a conversation with anybody at the fan at Sportsnet or at MLSC slash the Raptors. Not once have I ever had a conversation with any of them saying, we want you to say this. We think you should say that you should steer away from X, Y, Z. In fact, even just yesterday for what it's worth, this is a non Raptor thing,

but I'm a Rogers employee on a Rogers station talking about a Rogers own team, the blue Jays. And I started the first five minutes of my radio show yesterday with Jonesy ranting about the shoemaker Robbie Ray decision and to Oscar Hernandez, in my opinion, not running hard out for the ball in the gap that could have stayed as a double, not turned into a triple. And I was railing and I was going off on a passionate rant.

I don't know if I was right, but I was going off and it was clearly against the Jays or against a couple of the Jays players and or Blue Jays decisions. And I got a text message from one of my bosses saying, love the passion. This sounds great. So that's just one example in a vacuum, I suppose. But that just speaks to, in my opinion, at least what I've encountered is more support or more maybe going to what I said, where if you've earned that trust and earned that leash, I think you're given or afforded the opportunity to have a voice and to know that it's not always going to be the most fluffy, positive thing if fluffy and positive things aren't happening, but can you be balanced and fair in your criticism or in your, if it's even fair to use the word negativity, there is a fine line, I think in, in, in everything and whether it's in podcasts and sports radio and in the written word, whatever it is, where you can still be, this is again, I, I probably need more time than, than I have to go into this topic, but I feel like at times, you know, we've gotten, and I'm talking just life in general, marriages, friendships, jobs,

let alone sports and sports radio. We've gotten to a point where can we still be critical without criticizing, if that makes sense? Can we still maybe not necessarily agree, but not have it turn into an argument or to still find that common ground and that common respect. I feel like I've always said this. I say this to my wife sometimes. I feel like you should be able to say anything, just about anything to anyone. It's the way you say it. It's the way you formulate your words and your sentence or your opinion. It might be couching certain things. It might be prefacing certain things. It might be being clear that, listen, I'm not

really saying, like, I want you to understand what I'm saying. But if you say it properly, if you say it in the proper tone, if you've established a trust in a relationship, then that's where I think, you know, you can be able to be as honest as you can. I think the problem is we're all waiting to be triggered. We're all waiting to take something a different way or to assume that somebody meant something in a different tone or context. And we're just waiting to jump on it. And that's the problem, I think. And again, I'm kind of diverting going off here.

waiting to jump on it. And that's the problem, I think. And again, I'm kind of diverting going off here. That's maybe the problem that has happened a lot with social media, where the hot take type thing and the ability to instantly react to what somebody says, what somebody's written, whatever else. I think we all just need to take a step back and breathe sometimes and appreciate where it's coming from, who it's said by, what the intention truly was, and just kind of let things kind of fester a little bit before we just instantly react to everything. And again, I would say that about personal lives, like about certain... Listen, would you guys not acknowledge your spouses, your friends, whatever, they can say something to you, but somebody else that maybe doesn't have that same relationship, the same trust can't. So I think that's kind of the same

in our workforce and in our lives and certainly in professional sports. Speaking of the media, Eric, have you found, I think that's well said, Eric, speaking of the media, have you found sort of the,

you know, Mike's had guests on from the basketball media in particular who have sort of voiced their opinions that the hockey media, they always felt like looked down. I don't know if that's the correct way of saying it. You've covered this team for a long time now. Have you found that's changed over the years or has it ever been an issue? It has changed over the years.

And I think that, yeah, it was an issue. And some might argue that at times it still is an issue in terms of, and I don't know if it's necessarily just the hockey media, but I think that because hockey is slash was, and I would say still is the primary sport in this country and the primary sport for broadcasting and the ratings generator and the revenue generator, et cetera, et cetera. There was kind of this certain ownership at times or, or this sort of, you know, the, the secret club appeal of like, Hey, we, we, we have this, you know, corner of the market or this section of the market cornered.

I know Jonesy has spoken about this at great length over the years, and he and I have had these conversations about going back 10 years ago, going back 20 years ago. Whether it be management, whether it be sponsors, whether it be whomever it may be, basketball is not going to last. Basketball is not going to be as important. Basketball, there's only a certain X amount of people that actually care. It's a fringe sport or it's it's it's not going to be ever as big as the Leafs or as the NHL or as hockey in general. And then you start looking 10 years later, 20 years later, look at the demographics of the fan base in this city, across this country, and look at the popularity of the sport and of the teams and of the league and whatnot, if it's not changing in terms of a changing of the hierarchy, it's changing in that there's more. Now we're talking about basketball and hockey in the same breath

and conversation, along with baseball, along with soccer, along with football, along with lacrosse and rugby and et cetera. The list goes on. There are so many opportunities for sports fans now in this city, let alone this country. And I think what the Raptors specifically have done has opened the eyes of a lot of bosses across media, across advertising, across all platforms

because they've turned into such a a generator of interest let alone of cash no absolutely i mean i had a you know humble and fred right this is a morning show you're familiar with humble and fred i had an argument with freddie p from humble and fred like about a decade ago maybe a little little bit longer, like 11, 12 years ago. And he was sincerely arguing that in this market, so forget the country, in this market, he said the Argos were more popular than the Raptors. And we would have these, and I would, I would, anyway, I won't go into the details. But, you know, I used to say like, wait, what are you talking about? I have, I have a hundred friends who all love the Raptors and I never hear anything about the Argos, and he'd be like,

just look at the TV numbers. Just look at the TV numbers. Well, he's not making this argument anymore. That's long. He's conceded, and these numbers that the Raptors deliver, especially of these playoff games over the last two years,

are enormous. There's an enormous appetite for Raptors in this country. So it's awesome. Well, and I know that one of the things Jonesy said for years, and quite honestly, I don't even know if this is still the case this speaks to maybe my ignorance of technology these days but it used to be you open up a television whether it be old school or new school or otherwise and and if it didn't come with bunny ears

clearly we're dating ourselves with this but if it didn't come with an antenna even the more recent televisions still you plug them into the wall and you flick through the channels you're still able to pick up at least one channel over just over the air and that was cbc right well that alone tells you you're going to have the ability at least the possibility of having more people watching certain cfl games when they were on cbc and certainly certain hockey games on CBC more so than any other sport, baseball, basketball, or otherwise because of the fact that CBC was broadcasting the game. So Bob and Margaret in, in, in the, you know, the depths of Saskatchewan or Northwest territories or otherwise,

they're still be able to watch the CFL or they're able to watch the NHL and hockey in Canada because they're picking up CBC on their bunny years or on their over the air satellite, whatever, whatever. But obviously that's changed a little bit now over the years. But that was something that I know was kind of a thorn in the side of a lot of basketball and baseball and other sports fans and followers and broadcasters and otherwise because it wasn't necessarily a fair comparison or a fair or level level playing field or argument all the time now eric i just checked the clock here you're going to be on the fan 590 with paul jones in 15 minutes

here so why don't you if you don't mind quickly telling telling us a little bit about your charity i'd love to hear about your charity and then uh and then we'll we'll finish up uh the business on this end yeah i think i mean i like i i stay involved in in a lot of different charity, uh, ventures and whatnot. I think the one you're specifically, I can't say it. I can't pronounce it. It's fine. Hydrocephalus Canada. So I've, uh, my, my best friend, uh, the, one of the closest friends I've had since, since grade seven, you know, best man in my wedding. And I was his best man, et cetera. Like we're, we're brothers. Uh, he, uh, I tell you, even going back to our childhood, I just remember when he was 12, 13 years old, and he said he was having some headaches.

And he went to the hospital for a bit, and he came back. He had a little scar on the back of his head and on his neck. And I swear to you, I didn't ask him about it. I didn't think about it. It was no part of our life until about, I don't know, 25, 28 years old, like almost 20 years later, when he asked me if I wanted to be on the board for, um, uh, the spina bifida and hydrocephalus association of Ontario, I said, what in the hell are you talking about? And he said, but you know, hydrocephalus, what, what I have. And I, I, it was

one of those, like, it happened as a kid. I'd forgotten about it over the years and I never paid two cents to, to the, you know, three inch scar on the back of his neck. And so he has hydrocephalus, which essentially in very, very, very blunt or, or, or bland layman's terms is just kind of, uh, something that impacts the, the flow of, uh, fluid from your, your, you know, within your brain and to your spine and whatnot. And, and, um, you know, again, that's an extremely, extremely layman's description of it. Uh, but I got involved and ultimately got on the board for the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Ontario. And we have since morphed into simply just Hydrocephalus Canada in the last couple of years. So I'm on the board.

I've been on the board for the better part of a decade. the charitable work I do now, whether it be the annual golf tournament or very speaking engagements or, or other, uh, you know, walks and runs and things like that, um, are all for hydrocephalus Canada. And it's just kind of a, uh, a venture, a tribute to my best friend who is completely healthy now, knock on wood and, and, and has been, uh, you know, very lucky to live an otherwise, uh, normal life, wife and two kids. And one of the top lawyers in Toronto at Steichman Elliott. And he's a hell of a guy. And he had a bit of a scare last year where he had to have the shunt in the back of his

neck replaced because it was malfunctioning. And there are a lot of people that have shunt malfunctions regularly. And it can be a debilitating condition. It can be a life-threatening one as well, whether it be hydrocephalus or spina bifida, but it's also something that it can be, if caught early, can be at least controlled, if not helped. And one of the main things too, I would say to any of your female listeners out there, it may not be a guarantee, but it's as damn close to a guarantee as you can get. And it's certainly going to help you or potentially help you and your baby.

When you're pregnant, take your folic acid. If you take your folic acid, you're going to cut your risk extremely as it relates to spina bifida and hydrocephalus. So that's the charity that I do a lot of work with. That's the board that I'm on. In fact, I just re-upped my two-year membership with the board just a couple of days ago. We just had our annual general meeting on this past Saturday where I emceed our AGM over Zoom for four hours. So I'm heavily involved and happy to be. And there's a link, Eric, right, that we can donate money as well, I believe, on your Twitter? Yeah, there's currently a link up in my bio, both on Twitter

and Instagram. If anybody wanted to donate, that would be greatly appreciated. Or you can always just find more. Just message me and I can put you in touch with the right people or put you in the right direction. So hit me up on direct message on Twitter or Instagram. Both my DMs are open as they have been throughout the pandemic because that's another thing too. And something that Jamie Campbell established on the baseball side.

And I kind of followed suit with Jamie's blessing where I've had my DMs open for people. They just want to talk. And I've reached out to a lot of people over the last six months, hundreds of people just making phone calls, talking to people and just kind of checking in to see how folks are doing. Cause I know there's a lot of folks out there that just kind of need to talk and need to have a conversation sometimes. So, you know, you can message me anytime. It's obviously a great cause, Eric. And I know the folic acid situation. I have a five-year-old son. And I know that was a big thing when my wife was giving birth or prior.

And Fast Time Watch and Drew, apparently, will be making a small donation to the site as well. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Wait, but only if Milan can say the word. I can say it. Do you want me to do it? Go ahead. Yeah.

Hydrocephalus. Yes. I won't even ask you to spell it. If you can say it, that's good enough. Hydrocephalus. Yes. I won't even ask you to spell it. If you can say it, that's good enough. Hydrocephalus Canada. Yeah. Great work. Great initiative.

You and Jamie Campbell keeping your DMs open and chatting up people during these difficult times. That's why you're great FOTMs, you're sweethearts, and I appreciate you, Eric. So thanks for giving us your time today. That's amazing. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me on. All right.

Take care, my friend. Thanks, Eric. All the best. Thanks. That's amazing. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me on. All right. Take care, my friend. Thanks, Eric. All the best. Thanks. Bye-bye. And Milan, what'd you think? I want some immediate post-game analysis. The aftermath. Before I hear what you thought, I will just say it from an audio

perspective. Ideally, Eric would have come into the backyard, but he's being very careful. He's doing things remotely. Can't fault fault anyone for that. I just want to say from a technical audio standpoint, sounded amazing. Like he sounded, that was a great, whatever microphone he was using. We didn't have video. We don't know, but he sounded strong and we barely missed a beat not having him here in person. Well, I want to thank you for organizing this. I'm a big Eric Smith fan and thank you for having me on the show, Mike. How did you think it went, Will?

It went great. It went great. I can reveal because of real talk. I was under the false impression that Eric only had an hour. I was thinking we'd have to wrap up by noon. He was very generous with this.

I think you've set the record with him, beating his previous best anyways. Well, what are we at here? Great point. So yeah, well, we haven't hit it yet. So we do a little vamping, but I'm going to thank some partners and just have a little chat with you

on the other side here before we say goodbye here. But let's do that. So if Eric was here and he's not, he's on Zoom, but now he can, I guess he's using a similar, I don't know how he's doing the Fan 590 show here and he's not he's uh on zoom but now he can i guess he's using the similar i don't know how he's doing the fan 590 show but he's doing it remotely so like literally

from his uh studio there in his home in his toronto home he'll be connecting to the fan 590 and doing it from home so uh if he had arrived been here i would have given him the beer that uh i have fresh craft beer from great lakes brewerwery. They have the Pumpkin Ale now. It's the best pumpkin ale you can buy. And the Hayes Mama IPA, I'm a big fan of that. And of course, they have the Canuck Pale Ale and the Blonde Lager, which is my wife's favorite. But great partner, Great Lakes Beer.

I know Eric would love that. Palma Pasta, that's the authentic Italian food. Wonderful partners as well. I had a little chat with Anthony yesterday from Palma Pasta. And they're in Mississauga and Oakville. Go to palmapasta.com. This is October. I can't believe it's October.

But that means it's time to book your drive-through time slot for Pumpkins After Dark. Now's the time. I heard from my dear friend Rosie yesterday. She bought tickets using the promo code Mike, M-I-K-E-D. It saved her money and it helps the show. So go to pumpkinsafterdark.com, buy your tickets now, tis the season, a drive-through event in Milton, Ontario, very, very safe during these, you know, pandemic times, if you will. And I want to thank Austin Keitner. I used to say, you know, text Toronto Mike to 59559. I feel like personalizing it. This is something Stu was suggesting to me,

Stu Stone, who's going to be in my backyard on Friday night. Let me introduce you. If you're looking to buy and or sell in the six months, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me introduce you to Austin. So send me an email. I'm mike at torontomike.com. And then I will put you in, I'll introduce you to Austin and you and Austin Keitner can have a conversation. And again, no obligation to do anything further. I just ask that you chat up Austin if you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months. So send me a note. I want to shout out Barb Poluskowicz from CDN Technologies. CDN Technologies is there if you have any computer or network issues or questions.

They're your outsourced IT department. They're doing these network audits. It's a smart idea whether you want to change your vendor or not. Contact Barb. She's available via phone, 905-542-9759. And last but not least, I mentioned the Check Your Head sticker that's in the TMDS studio that I hope to one day be able to have guests back inside. The Check Your Head sticker, of course, was made by StickerU.com. You can upload the image and get a variety of different things from stickers and decals. Of course, I always have decals in that studio. But they've been great partners.

They're in Liberty Village, and it's been great working with them. StickerU.com. And Milan, again, you're at Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. How are things going now that things are starting to slowly reopen and hopefully we can keep these things open? Yeah, absolutely. That's the key. Things are going well. Like we mentioned, we have stores right across Ontario. So, you know,

it's been interesting with the whole regional approach that the government's taking. But it hasn't, obviously we want customers to come into the malls, but they can also come to our Richmond Hill location. We're doing something pretty cool is that we sterilize every customer item that comes into our head office uh so that's your watch or jewelry put under a uv light before it goes to the technician then we also prior to giving it back to the customer um the item's completely sanitized

and yeah we're taking every precaution necessary look after our staff and our customers of course and can if people go to the richmond hill, they can still ask for a meet and greet with the great Milan Telsinger? Absolutely. If they want to hear your pipes in person? Yeah, yeah. You sound great. So because Eric, we didn't see him, I was just like, it's like a phone call, right? Except it sounds better.

Right. But so I'm really focused on the audio and the headphones because I can't like look at him and read body language and stuff. because I can't like look at him and read body language and stuff. So as a result of that, that meant also hearing your voice come in and I'm listening and I'm, again, I don't want to sound like a broken record here, but you should have your own radio show. Maybe Smith and Jones and Telsania. Like great pipes. Tremendous, tremendous pipes.

I appreciate it, Mike. Thanks. Jays are out. Yeah, I know. I don't know if you noticed, we didn't touch on this part, but we were all kind of, okay, we have our best pitcher on the mound for the must-win game two. And I felt like I could have hit him yesterday. I don't know what the final numbers ended up being.

That outfield assist by I think Gariel Jr. threw a guy out at second base. Really, when we escaped that outfield assist by I think Gariel Jr. threw a guy out at the second base. Really, when we escaped that first inning and won nothing, I think I tweeted like, wow, we dodged a bullet. Like that easily could have been four or five nothing. My goodness. And then the second inning, it went from bad to worse.

Do you think Ryu was fatigued? Well, that's what I mentioned earlier, I think, during the show. But you think he's hurt, but was that based on a feeling? Well, fatigued or hurt or sore, however you want to, I think, during the show. But you think he's hurt, but was that based on a feeling? Well, fatigued or hurt or sore, however you want to say it. He was less than 100%. I think there's no doubt about that. I think here's a guy you have for, what, four more years?

Three more years? But how can he be fatigued? You're not going to know him. You're not going to upset him by not starting him in game one. No chance. He's your leader. He's your ace. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't he like that extra day's rest?

Yes, he does. You don't think that if they went to him and said, hey, we'd like to start you game two to give you that extra day's rest, he'd be agreeable to that, right? I'm sure. Especially in a, again, a best of three is a little different

than we're used to, right? It's kind of a straight. You're still, the numbers are overwhelmingly, you got to win game one. Especially when you're on the quote unquote road. I know Hebsey would agree if you, we have a, this is tomorrow I know Hebsey would agree. This is tomorrow morning, Hebsey on sports,

but I already know he's going to go off on that decision. Where do they go from here now, Mike, though? This was all bonus anyways. None of us expected any playoff games from the Blue Jays this year, right? So this is all bonus anyway. You've got to get some starting pitchers, right? You've got to... Sure, up the defense but how there's no opening yeah i don't know i don't have an answer for the blue jays except to say i i i had

zero expectations to see a blue jay playoff game this year and i got two of them even though game two somebody i think they were down i can't remember now seven one well i can't remember anyways we were getting blown out and And there was this, you know, some people on Twitter saying like, I think they're going to make it close. I think they're going to make it. I would have more, I would have bet my house on the fact

that the Jays were not going to win that game after the Grand Slam. Like, I think I tweeted time of death or something like 4.53 p.m. They're simply, and I know, who had the two homers again? I can't even say his name properly.

Or our guy. Yeah. Oh, Danny Jansen. Yeah, his name properly. Or our guy. Yeah. Oh, Danny Jansen. Yeah, Danny Jansen. Their left fielder killed us. Right. But you can just see the gap, though, when you're facing a team like Tampa.

You know, the best team in the American League, there's a good chance that they're going to go right to the World Series here, potentially. And the gap, and that's what concerns me. And I know the half-glass, full person says, and I agree, it was a great ride this year. They never gave up. They were homeless for three weeks,

playing in Buffalo. It is a weird year. You know, their top player, Bobichet, was injured for three weeks. You know, they came through a lot of injuries. Full credit to the organization and the team. But let's assume, and I know it's a huge assumption, for 2021, it's 160 162 game schedule

this team is mediocre at best the way they're designed right now and pitching and defense still wins you can put all the algorithms together maybe the bullpen plays a bigger role but pitching and defense still wins and this team is really lacking obviously when it when it comes to that. And I don't see an opening from a defensive position. Most of the positions are set unless a big deal comes through. You know, I heard an interesting theory this morning about potentially Andrelton Simmons maybe signing him as a free agent, letting him play short, and moving Bowe to third base. And that, from a cost perspective,

might be the best way to improve the team internally so you can spend a lot more money on starting pitching because you have some money freed up next year. This is if Rogers wants to spend money. I don't know what the financial ramifications are after this year, but you got Troy Tulewitzki's $14 million that they're still paying him this year off the books. Right.

So there technically should be money for Rogers to spend on this team next year. That's why I was Troy Tulewitzki, your highest paid Blue Jay. I love that stat. It's like when you hear Barry Bonilla. Bonilla or Bonilla? Bobby Bonilla. Bobby Bonilla is still getting money from the Mets or whatever.

Well, so is Dave Steeb, isn't he? I don't know. Is he? Yeah, yeah. His contract was set up that way. Wow. Yeah. Dave Steeb.

Ask Hebsey about Steeb next time we get one of those roundtables. One last quick hit is a tweet I saw from Mike Wilner, which I found curious. He basically said, when we clinched the playoff spot not too long ago, it's already over, the tweet from Mike Wilner, FOTM Mike Wilner, was something

to the effect of, and that seals manager of the year for Charlie Montoyo. It was something like did he say that really so he and i i read the tweet and i mean again i didn't i want this is percentage wise this is the smallest amount of blue jays baseball i've watched right in since i turned i'm gonna get this right 1983 since i turned nine or something like that okay that's a fact so what do i know? But the,

the whole idea, like it was a slam dunk is I don't actually think Charlie Montoya was going to win manager of the year. Uh, but, but Wilner tweeted it as a de facto slam dunk now. Wow. So I don't know if your thoughts were on that.

I should ask Mike. I'll respectfully disagree with, uh, with Mr. Wilner. Mr. Wilner. You're talking about Norm, right?

Fun fact. So Mike Wilner's in this documentary that was done by my friend Stu Stone. I saw the commercial yesterday. Faking a Murderer. Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's going to be on a station called... It's part of the Shocktober special

on one of the horror networks. Yeah, there's a network here. I should know this, but we're going to talk about it Friday night. Yeah, yeah. It's coming soon. That's awesome. Yeah, and his other documentary,

Jack of All Trades, Mike Wilner's in it. And then when I had Mike and Norm Wilner on Toronto Mic, I asked, Norm says he has... Norm, who reviews movies for a living,

like literally he watches dozens of movies a week because that's his job, had not seen the movie that featured his brother. Come on, Norm, watch Jack of All Trades. Where's the brotherly love?

Jack of All Sports? Jack of All Trades is the name of this movie, not Jack of All Sports. Jack of All Sports is where my teenagers worked this summer. It's a whole different thing here.

Oh, my God. By the way, Mike, I just want to say that blog you wrote about your son going to Waterloo. Oh, yeah. I was there on the weekend. I'm not going to lie to you. I almost got a little teary-eyed there. Oh, that was the objective. I got to tell you.

That was fantastic, by the way. I thought I just want to mention that. No, thank you. When I told Eric, he had permission to grieve the death of Tom Petty. Right. Because a grieving specialist, I had a conversation with this grieving specialist who told me, even though he's only an hour away and he's at school.

Hi, James. Yeah, hi, James. I don't know, did you listen? Maybe he'll listen to Eric Smith. He loves the Raptors. I saw him. I literally on Saturday just drove over to have lunch with him. Like I got to say, I was feeling this loss

and I carried it and I kept saying, this is silly. It's silly because he's not dead. He's in university an hour away but I felt this loss

and this grieving guy, a specialist said, he gave me permission. He gave me permission to grieve it and then it was this weight off my shoulders. It's okay

to feel what I'm feeling. I felt it when my son went to grade one. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like down the line. Wow, what a way to end that. He's coming home for Thanksgiving, which is coming up. But I mean, like I said, it's actually more than an hour

because I always get stuck on the 401. There's a part that slows way down. But that was beautifully well-written. No, thank you so much. James, I love you, buddy, and I can't wait to get you back here, man. I miss James. I just miss it. It's like I have three kids

right now. I have four kids, but it's just, you know, you miss him because he's always been here and now he's in Waterloo. Every parent can relate. Eric Smith was awesome.

Yes. So thank you to the big... So were you, Mike. Well, so were you, Milan. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mutual love here. This was a great episode.

Next time we'll be with Hebsey, I think for the Toronto sports media. We got to do it before it snows. And that brings us to the end of our 728th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Eric, he's at Eric.

He's got two underscores. Eric underscore, underscore Smith Smith Milan Are you at Fast Time WJR yeah or yeah 905-787-9919 Probably the best number to reach us at or FastTimeWatchRepair.com just talk to Milan

Because you can hear this these great pipes it's A great experience our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And again, it's October.

Get your Pumpkins After Dark tickets at pumpkinsafterdark.com. They're on Twitter at Pumpkins Dark. See you all. I'm thinking, when's the next episode? Friday, Pandemic Friday. Stu Stone, Cam Gordon. We're kicking out effin' jams. Jams with swear words in them,

so viewer discretion is advised. And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green This podcast has been produced by TMDS

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