Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Gord Stellick and Damien Cox: Toronto Mike'd #1084

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

In this 1084th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike reunites Gord Stellick and Damien Cox. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Canna Cabana, StickerYou, Ridley Funeral Home and Duer Pants and Shorts.

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Guaranteed over 100 stores across the country. Learn more at cannacabana.com. This week, reuniting on Toronto Mic'd, our Gord Stelic and Damien Cox. Welcome, boys. My wife, Lisa, said to pick up a funeral home voucher, so I don't know what she was talking about, but anyway, just good to be back here.

Tell Lisa I can get her a sweet discount. Excellent. Shout out to Brad Jones. Do the cannabis and the funeral home thing, do they work? Do you get like some of... How old do you think

Willie Nelson is? Okay. That's all you need to know. Obviously, cannabis isn't doing anything to shorten any lives. But gentlemen, good to see you again.

Off the top, Paul Hunter wrote me a note last night to say, when I said you two were going to be on together, he wrote, that'll be a fun podcast, so let's not let Paul down. I thought it was, Paul Hunter wrote last night and said, why?

Well, you obviously know, I mean, they're one of the nicest couples, him and Mary Ormsman. They've been here, they were in the backyard. In the backyard, you didn't put them on mic? No, the mics were in the backyard. Oh, I see. I see. Yeah, Damien's been back there.

So in the COVID times, nobody was allowed down. I guess we're still in the COVID times. But in those earlier times, pre-vaccination and everything, I would have backyard episodes. You missed out, but Damien, you had a backyard episode. I did. And it was pretty good back there, right? It was memorable.

No, it was very nice, but it would be too hot out there today. You know, it's funny. I doubt we've been on radio together in quite a while. When do you think that would be? Well, at least a decade. And it's been always a total pleasure. But this reminds me,

we started just like you started the show, kind of like online dating. We were unintentional. It was kind of thrown together, and then we kind of got a groove, and then we had the Gordon Damien show. So it's almost like the start, whatever was the master plan, you had the, we were, I was trying to, we were pissed we weren't originally on the fan.

And still are. Yeah, and rightly so, because all those other people left and then you got to do sunday mornings uh you know i i filled in a bit we got to do some work with showing leaving out the good part what's the good part well i i did sunday mornings with leo cahill so so they wanted to do uh uh i know you didn't ask a question but we don't know i want to hear the gordon demo We don't need any questions. Go ahead. So I had only met Gord three years earlier when he did me the, geez, it was so helpful.

I met him, and like three months later he quit his GM, so I had no contact. I had one contact, and then I went to zero contacts. And then this is what, three years later, right? Well, you ran me out of town in three months, but anyway, that's different. But you came back. That's correct, I came back.

You did come back. And then I was, they wanted to do like a, this was in the early, early days. They wanted to do like a Sunday morning football show. Now, how I got chosen to do this. Yeah, I know, it's true. How did you get chosen? How did I get chosen? Anyways, and believe me,

there were many mornings when I sat there with Leo Cahill and wondered, how did i get chosen because leo had absolutely no time for me like zero he he didn't he didn't respect me in any way shape or form and i mean he'd been in football for over a thousand years at that point and i'd been doing radio for seven minutes and so it got so so bad, I finally said to Gord, why aren't you coming? Because I love the Toronto Argonauts, and you like the personal side of it,

but it was called Football Sunday. So Leo did think it was Football Sunday with Leo Cahill. That's right. But you were the host of it all, so he kind of thought you were irrelevant. And of course, you're not a shrinking violet. I don't know if you know that, Damien. You're not a shrinking violet. No, I'm a different know that, Damien, you're not a shrinking violet.

No, I'm a different kind of violet. So as time went on, I, I came in as judge Wapner a little bit, whatever. And then, and then football season ended and we started,

we just picked up the Sunday show. Alan said, well, let's just keep doing 9am till 12 noon Sundays. That's all we did. And we really got some mojo and energy. And then the next summer we were formally put together on air. So that's why when I kind of kid about it, we used to to have we'd come in and dan shulman would be like what better

world than dan shulman hosting right you know something like that you'd for an hour on a panel so this is how we kind of got thrown together and you know approximately what year we're talking 1992 because the fan started in 1992 and it actually didn't last that long. Which is that? It's really nice to hear people make reference to when you and Gord did a show together. It was great. It was so nice. I think it was less than two years that we actually did the show.

Well, yeah. But anyway, our show started in the summer of 93. We got Alan Davis, made some changes. And good on Mike Inglis. He's been a long time host or play-by-play guy for miami heat but he had not really worked out in the morning and then not really worked out in the afternoon so there weren't a lot more spots left no no actually it was awkward because he was a good guy he was doing updates and then he would

talk on the talk back going yeah i can't put food on the table because of you guys like we didn't do anything to you right and uh anyway he moved on to the miami heat and all anyway so a lot of people did well so yeah did this happen at the same time mccowan moved to the morning show did this happen simultaneously with that i uh or did that happen later mccowan already was in the morning showman was still doing the afternoons because what happened six months later unexpectedly show showman got the tsn job so mccowan came back right the baseball job and who did the morning was that marsden those guys it was uh derringer first on his own and then they brought pat marsden in with

uh with derringer yeah he knows all this stuff that's why what a great guest for toronto mike because he can remind us i told you i am i am again as with leo i'm basically irrelevant so to fill in damien's role damien is the big part why Gordon Damien, you know, lasted as long as, I don't know, My Mother the Car or whatever legendary shows they talk about. It started out, by the way, as Damien and Gord and then got switched. So Gord and Damien. Because you got to fill me in, but whoever, because Mary Ormsby was on with Steve Simmons. Correct.

And then you had someone in the toronto star who took over decided he would not have allowed it but you were already committed so the rest of your term you had to reference the toronto star every time you talked and then and then also it got weird about leaf stuff because he signed it kind of said that that was you know their possession so you'd be big on doing like a utah jazz game or something just whatever but and mary same kind of thing and and really i think you guys left and then shortly after whoever the star flipped and they said well this is the best publicity the star could get so all of a sudden you were you were back you know i would say larger than ever initially but yeah i'd say our gordon damien only lasted about as a

show about 15 months but you were constantly a part of it after that and then when you filled in when i was on the mornings it was great as well there you go are we done thanks for coming guys here's some gifts it does show you how much in fact i was speaking about this to somebody the other day how much stuff has changed so let's just go back to that time newspapers are king huge in tor. They run the city. It's the Star, the Globe, the Sun, and the... National Post was there. Was it there by then? I don't know.

I think it came a little late. Anyways. But all the news came from the newspapers, all the breaking news, all the... Most of the biggest profile people, except for Bob McCown and a couple of TV guys, are all at the most of the of the biggest profile people except for bob mccown and a couple of tv guys are all at the newspapers and then 24-hour radio starts up and everybody has to go okay well

first of all they go where are we going to get people to go on 24-hour radio so part of the answer is newspapers uh newspapers and unemployed general general managers And then the newspapers are going, well, is this good for us? Do we really want this? And I mean, when you look back on it from now and the way things are in the city now, it's kind of extraordinary to remember. And remember, the internet had just started.

Oh, it was, but it was like zero at that point. Yeah. Like just Al Gore hadn't really polished it yet. Yes. And so, and within a pretty short period of time, actually, radio and the fan 590, or it was fan 1430. And then 1430 then became, actually when it was 1430 and switched to 590 jim richards one day drove north to find how and he would check in as he just kept driving how how strong our 590 signal was i love dumb stuff

like that it was just great so just how far did he get well a lot farther than 1430 which went to bluer and young i think you know so like he was past barry and whatever but you had the license just guys would or women would pick up and do that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I mean, and then, you know, it quickly became, oh man, I can find out what's going on much faster than waiting for tomorrow's paper or waiting for, you know,

TSN to come on with their sportscast at night. And that's how it caught fire. And I like the fact that the odd time, Damien would be, the paper wars were so big. We were so fortunate. Great sports sections, great sports writers. But then he could be a little full of himself.

I know he's really tempered down a little bit since then. So he would push a Toronto. Can we talk about me again? A Toronto star scoop. So he'd talk about, hey, scoop. And I know Toronto Sun guys would call me pissed off, like, you know, fricking Damien, whatever. Just kind of like, you know know we had that four days ago

but that's how the newspaper started to understand why this worked because you could use it to promote their brand right they were a little slow off the market it's funny that to think of a time when they would go to you and say like stop being so exposed like yes we don't need this pr well and i think now what is it almost 30 years later yeah um there is though like it's now a value to have somebody exclusively and people will pay for it so for example i think we're just hearing the news that david faraday is jumping to the new live golf thing because they will want him exclusively as the voice. And so now all these years later, instead of these guys doing like we did 27 things, right? Different things, right?

They want them to do one and they'll and they're willing to pay for it. Interesting. So when you said you last broadcast together a decade ago, what was that like? Where were you broadcasting? Well, he would have been filling in the morning show with me and and and actually and actually we did one when uh after i got rinsed um and then which time uh well i just only got rinsed from the fan once damien you've got rinsed more times but anyway i you then were uh uh you were the big star with brunt

with mccowan and so you hosted once so i did a prime time with you but then you figured out you You then were the big star with Brunt, with McCowan. And so you hosted once. So I did a prime time with you. But then you figured out you didn't want to host because you had to work three hours instead of two. I was always good with the math. I know. I did the math stuff. So we may have had the odd round.

So no, but that's not us. So I think the last time you and I were together, it was 2010 because I got canned in June 2010. So it was in the fall. Okay, 12 years ago. And it really energized. That long ago? It was like the old days. And Paul Cook, who is the morning guy for 680 News

and a great friend, he's a big sports listener. And he just sent a nice email. He goes, oh, man, you guys, just like old times. So it was just one time. So I had a dream the other night because I knew we were going to be here today. And then I had a dream we were going to come on toronto mike on the 1034 84th 84th one and we're going to do this show and we're going to sound so good and i'm going to get in my car and we're

going to get a call from someone saying we gotta have you guys back together well you know they're listening right that's the one thing i can tell you all the decision makers are listening right now so don't be nervous to which i would have then of course say there's not a chance i'm working with that guy again well it's uh name your price boy the the that's a great term waiting for a call i remember talking to people trying to break in the business i go no there's no such thing as like that's true yeah you know like even back in 92 when it started, you know, we kind of got in Alan Davis's face a little bit.

You just didn't wait for a call. Right. And you know, because it was, you know, wide open terrain and, and you just can't, I think Howard Berger brought you in once during the strike,

the hockey strike, just before it went all sports, but just to appear on. And then there was a, um, talking of sports, which became primetime sports. So,

you know, you could get a little experience. I remember going on when Dan was doing Sunday night or evenings. Yeah. And joining him and Todd Macklin was even his producer back then. So the best part was before it went all sports, they had, you know, they call a soft opening in the restaurant business. Yeah.

Well, they had this in the radio business, which now they would never do because 680 News, when it flipped like that, left 640 in the dust, right? So now, but this was a quiet, soft opening. So you had, as they called it, music of your life. Music of your life. Some people kiddingly called it

music of your dead wife is what it was. Shout out to Ridley Funeral. You know you can't say that anymore. Well, that's what some people kiddingly called it. I'm just telling you you can't. I just want you to know that. You can't even quote in context at the time.

About 30 years ago, because it was older. I was saying the same thing to him back then, Gord, you can't say that. It was older, older big band music, what have you.

So for about six months, they'd go sports at night. Yeah. So a guy like Dan Schulman was like the rookie, like he was like Connor McDavid. It was unbelievable. And we kept thinking,

wow, we're going to get a lot of these guys. We never got another one. Right? So, but so but during the day or parts of it was still music of your life format right so some of the old on-air music of your life people now were ops for those six months of sports talk they weren't very happy you know they're sitting there grumpy because rightly so and behind them is a producer like todd macklin this new virgin territory and people are you can call hotel rooms and players like the novelty of it and they'll come on like he he could have dan shulman and all of a sudden he could get on a premium baseball player hockey player like and we benefited from that as well yes that uh peter mcphee the cubby

he said believe it or not you go todd said go down to the go down to the morning skate red wings are playing the Leafs. This is back in 93. Ask Steve Eisenman if he'll come on our show. Steve Eisenman said, yeah, tell him to call me at the hotel. So yeah, I know. So one third in the afternoon. Now that ended within a year.

But we were fortunate to be in that area. Well, one of the problems was that all the producers got the same idea. And everybody started calling these guys and calling until they finally said stop calling. Here's a little trivia for you. Okay, so there's a recent Toronto Mic'd guest who claims to be, and I believe him, I believe this to be true, he's the last guy to say the call letters CKFH on the radio

and the first person to say CJCL1430 on the radio. Can either of you name this individual? Joe Cannon? Nope. Rob Cowan. Oh. Rob Cowan. Oh, Rob Cowan. Yeah. Rob Cowan makes that claim.

And of course, that's Bernard Cowan's son. Yeah. Really good guy. But he was one of those guys, like he was on air and then probably wasn't fun for him. Although he was actually, he was a very enthusiastic,

upbeat individual. Well, he would do a Foster Hewitt impersonation that would amuse Ken Daniels, for example, who would send me all these clips of him doing that. Yeah. So Rob Callen. So he was one of those guys. So there's a trivia. I don't know if you had a bar and you need to drop a trivia on somebody.

First guy he says, who said 1430 CJCL on the air. So file that under your... Because it was CKFH before Foster Hewitt. Right, it was CKFH before it was CJCL. So that was, yeah, 1430. Absolutely. All right, here's what we're going to do, guys. So there's a lot of ground to cover

and I'm going to help guide you, but mainly we'll be hearing your voices, which is how it should be and how I hope it is. But I'm just going to let the FOTMs know about previous Damien Cox and Gord Stelic episodes of Toronto Mic'd in case they want to go back and catch up.

How many times have you been on? Twice, I think. I've been on more than Gord. That's appropriate. So, okay. So episode 110, that was the debut on Toronto Mic'd of Damien Cox here. So I wrote the description at the time. Mike chats with longtime Toronto Star journalist. Always long time.

And Rogers broadcaster because remember this is wild. Damien Cox about his years at the Star on the Fan 590 and on TSN and Rogers Hockey. What year was this then? I have to check but this is a while ago. I gotta check out what year this might be. This is a stickler for accuracy.

A while ago. I will check that out in a minute. we also talk about his twitter behavior the perception he's condescending and arrogant and then i said that didn't you somebody said that somebody said that but i got the same comments about others i defend you anyway exhausting so that's the debut 110 then then you came back and we kicked out the jam so damian Damien Cox came back for episode 270. I was thinking about that recently, thinking, I wonder if I'd have the same ones now. I think I might change them.

Oh, I'm sure they would change for sure. But we got it kind of etched in stone there. You couldn't have Gord do that because they would all be Partridge family and the monkeys. Oh, I would do that. I would do that. Oh, he loves the Partridge family. So then the next time,

now we're at 324. Ruben Kincaid. Yeah, Dave Mad the Partridge. So then the next time, now we're at 324. Reuben Kincaid. Yeah, Dave Madden played him. In episode 324, that was Gord Stelic's debut. We chatted about his years working for Harold Ballard, being the youngest GM in NHL history, his transition to broadcasting, the fan 1430 and 590,

and what he's up to now. You know what, Gord? At the time, this might have been a record. Two hours and 20 minutes. I just won't shut up. Then Damien, who caught wind of the fact that the score was 2-1. He wanted to up it to 3-1. He came back for episode 403.

We talked about why he was no longer on primetime sports. Which time was this? Changes at Hockey Night in Canada and his new book about the 92-93 Leafs. Remember that team? Yes, I do. In fact, I think I stole a lot of Gord's information using that book.

That's it, yeah. You're the ghost writer. He called me with this great idea about redoing our 67 book, but except it didn't include me. But he wanted to steal all the information off my memory bank, so I made sure it wasn't all right. That's funny. And then Gord caught wind it was 3-1, so he wanted to close it up a bit,

and he came back for episode 532. It was just Mike catches up with Gord Stelic about all things Gord. I think, Gord, I loved your Harold Ballard story so much. I just wanted you back to tell me more Harold Ballard stories. And I actually made a micumentary about Harold Ballard, which both of you were featured on, but there's a lot of Gord on that episode. Okay, so that's 5.32.

We're almost done here. Sorry, 5.32. Okay. 9.45. Damien Cox, this is in the backyard. You came back. We talked about, more about Twitter. We'll get to Twitter later, but there's a lot about your Twitter persona. Why you bothered to block?

Because I got a lot of notes even in the last couple of days about can we hear this episode even if he's blocked us? And I assured them they could. Sports media in 2021. Angelo Mosca. And A League of Our Own own which was a new book by

damien cox another one i did without you and that's it so the score i think the finals i mean now you've each got one more uh notch in the belt but it was so now it's six to three after this episode uh drops uh six appearances by damien three by gord and all have been thoroughly enjoyable and by the way i am not staying for two hours and 20 minutes. Well, we'll see how it goes. Wasn't that one of those shows Damien was that much late, two hours and 20 minutes? Do I have that correct?

And he's got the shortest distance to travel, I think. I had to run some errands. Gord's here, and I'm like, Damien's down the street, I think. Okay, Elephants and Stars is a listener of Toronto Mike. Hello to Elephants and Stars. He says, I want all the John Cordick stories from that second group. Okay. I think that's you guys because I tweeted about a few people coming over.

It's the third best trade the Leafs ever made. I also want to know if Damien remembers me calling him when I was a kid, thanking him for his John Cordick reporting. I don't know if he's serious about that but what can either of you share with us about john cordick i think that you're the one who did it all so why don't you deal with it isn't that question for leo and rod does he the wrong thing so i i you talk about something that was the other group you know i was walking down young street like i remember beautiful summer day last year.

And I'm walking with someone, and all of a sudden a car goes by, and you can see the person recognize me, and then goes, Kordek for Kordel! And I kind of said, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? And my friend couldn't go, what'd they say? I said, oh, well, anyway, so. He's going to follow you to the grave.

First of all, the tragic part about john cordick was the life and his demise i one of my favorite times i got to do the hockey hall of fame induction weekend like host that for about 15 years all the inductees and they were just thrilled and you know there were fan forums and chat that kevin shea was here yesterday night yeah okay so you'd be about but anyway but then you got to talk to them behind the scenes right that's just what i mean like you got to talk like like they the scenes, right? That's just what I mean. You got to talk. They were there. They were invested.

And one of the best talks I had was Cam Neely about being John Cordick's teammate in Portland and about staying for a week or whatever at Cordick's house in Edmonton in the summer because they both went to power skating. It was Audrey Bakewell was based in Edmonton, and Portland sent some players there. And just talking about you know what he dealt with growing up so he you know was a funny guy he was a big part of the Montreal

Canadiens win in 86 he wasn't my guy I inherited John Brophy as my head coach Brophy was a great guy in over his head in many ways coaching in the NHL but he was my guy so i didn't grease the skids well he was only sort of your guy well no he was i was stuck with him as my guy you didn't get to choose him no so anyway you want to get a preeminent heavyweight he was available and russ cortnell had been a healthy scratch i forget how many games it was so i i promised russ if he minded his p's and q's we try to find a positive landing spot. So just to interrupt, it would be like akin to someone trading for Ryan Reeves today. Ryan Reeves with way more questions.

Well, actually, we didn't actually, in fairness, questions off the ice, but you really didn't know them to the full degree back then. But yes, it would be something like that. It wasn't like he was. And he had scored a few goals in Montreal. He'd been a popular player. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And you didn't know about the other stuff. No, we didn't know about the other stuff off the ice. And yeah, so thing was, I was the one who was gone next summer. When he left the Leafs, I was already gone. So I heard the next year year I'm trying to get it right so Floyd Smith is GM Doug Carpenter's the coach so he gets sent down to New Market Saints so he's got a report to the American Hockey League so he he almost gets in a fight with a team in on

the bench and then they're taking the bus somewhere and he applauds when he hears the they say the Leafs had lost their game. That's whatever. And he'd been in a fight with Alan Bester, right? Yeah. He'd given Alan Bester a black eye. So all that, and then he moved on to Washington. It's funny. He actually had a good Sunday afternoon game on T, and I was happy for him.

And then he disappeared. And I remember David Boyle just saying that, yeah, you know, and then ended up in Quebec. So my relationship with john was probably subsequent to after gord left town because i was still with no we've now gone from one contact to zero contacts on the on the beat because gord had left um i was a beat reporter and very well-known player on the team and more than willing to spill the beans on this, that, and the other. So for a young reporter, it was kind of gold, right?

He would tell you what was going on. And I wouldn't say I got close to him, but I would talk to him on the phone at night. He would talk. And at the same time, all the stuff involving Gary Lehman and Ally Afridi and all the weird stuff within that dressing room were going on. And he and Lehman did not. He hated Gary Lehman for whatever reason.

And I think he was probably a little scared of alfie because alfie was a big guy if we ever lost his temper so right um he was so i ended up talking to him a lot and boy he was a troubled troubled guy and so insecure you know despite the outer bravado and the toughness and all that um didn't like being an enforcer, even though he put on a great show about it. I mean, none of them do, right? How could anybody like that when you're wanting to be... I mean, he was like a lot of these guys, right?

He grew up wanting to be a hockey player. He went to power skating with Cam Neely. They were trying to make him a hockey player. He was on the Western League All-Star team as a defenseman. And to me, and I have a slightly harsher view of a lot of these things and my friend gourd here is it was a classic case of the nhl and hockey in general exploiting a person and then throwing them away once they they they had no more use for them and then by then the drug problems and the other problems had kicked in and uh and you know how it all ended

well and so so the interesting part is and it and uh and you know how it all ended well and so so the interesting part is and it's funny because you asked the question mike and people like damian know him better that's what i mean like the because uh uh so i keep being associated with him and i'll speak very positively on the personal side of him but you know my guys are boya soming and wendell clark and and mark osborne and ken Reggett and Ally Afraidy and on and on and on. All I know is when he came over via trade, okay. And Brofe had wanted him.

And then after about three weeks, Brofe got pissed at him once about not being tough enough. And he went out and put a stick in Keith Acton's mouth. You remember that? Yeah. And he got suspended. So he got a tent. So here I am three.

So we fly, we fly to Montreal. Keith Acton. I know. remember that? Oh, yeah, and he got suspended. So he got a tent. So here I am. So we fly to Montreal. Keith Acton. I know. And we've got a hearing in front of Brian O'Neill, who's the disciplinarian. He's pre-Brian Burke, the disciplinarian. So Bob Myers is the referee. He's there.

We all go on the same flight. John Kordick, Bob Myers, me. We fly to Air Canada in the morning, go to Montreal. And you're looking at the video. And it's kind of like it's like the perfect shot that like cortex just so mad and he puts a stick from behind right around keith acton and it's kind of like you know i'm watching my um my son or my client murder

someone now i gotta defend that he didn't and i do remember i do remember brian o'neill going to bob um bob how come you only called a minor penalty on that play and so anyway so when i walked out and brian o'neill said hey you know what i'm gonna have to give him something obviously but he said he really because brian o'neill was passionate about the montreal canadians because he you know was based there and just said this guy was a really good player like Like, he was interesting. He's kind of saying, boy, he really contributed. And so that 10-game suspension really was, because Brophy was really going to be his ally, then Broph really was the worst thing for him. And then by the time the suspension was over, John Brophy was out and George Armstrong was in as the head coach.

So tragic. By the way, this shows you how bad that assault was. Nobody got suspended in those days. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Nobody did. No, I know. That you how bad that assault was. Nobody got suspended in those days. Right. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Nobody did.

No, I know. That's how bad it was. I'm trying to think of a more tragic tale for a Toronto Maple Leaf than this story. Brian Spencer. I mean, it's not a contest, but yeah. It's not a contest. You're right. You know who has a tragic story in a different way?

And you'll remember this, although not to the same end, because I've heard of where this guy lives now, and he lives a very quiet life remember the whole paul higgins thing yeah but i thought everything became positive there you know i i found it i found it sadder hearing about greg what is this story i actually tell me about this story i'm not sure i know this which one paul higgins yes well he was what year would this have been so he was uh again the mike nicklick era because mike had coached the broad street bullies but they brought him in to basically be a goon and he wasn't qualified to play yeah he played at henry carr high school yeah and then he was playing for the kitchen arrangers and then because nickluck wanted toughness we he's a local kid we called him up but

didn't he do a couple of crazy things well yeah he got like he went on and he started trying to beat up colin campbell of all things playing for the red wings and then he fired the puck with it and oh yeah and actually ballard i know somebody who's like friends with him he lives out in oh yeah somewhere and ballard got annoyed about the whole why do we have this guy not you know and we're hardly using him and that and and yeah and that was a sign of the times that was horrible and my understanding is paul higgins really really cleaned up his act is my understanding that's right so it's so the hockey part it's a happy ending he probably shouldn't have been in the nhl in the first place you know got a bit was exploited you could say right and so at the end to his credit you know made made a great life for himself it's my

understanding yeah yeah i think that's but i'm more like greg terry and danny maloney like wonderful guys that dealt with other issues off the ice and have passed away in the last three or four years. And they were part of that core group in the 1980s. Yeah, very interesting. And quick aside, we're going to get back to the hockey talk, but I just want to tell you, Gord, that I recently Zoomed with your brother Bob

because he was on Toronto Legends, which is another show I produce. So how's Bob doing? Bob's doing great. Is Bob a legend? How come I wasn't on the Legends? I don't choose the guest list. I only choose the guests. I want to be on the Legends.

How do you get on the Legends show? Can I get on there six times to Gord Street? Would you rather be? Because I could make that happen, except I don't choose. I should just disclose. I don't choose guests for Toronto Legends. What about a show that was something like Toronto Legends in their own mind something like that I could be on that you'll be the first guest

so shout out to Bob Stelic who will one day be on Toronto Mike just to get around to it but glad to hear Bob's doing well Bob's got stories I'm gonna make that happen and you think that would be, when Gord leaves Maple Leaf,

what was the name? It wasn't MLSE, right? What was the name? Well, Maple Leaf Gardens Limited, but it was the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club that I was leaving. I mean, the other... But wouldn't Bob then become like a contact for Damien at the Toronto Star? Like he needs that name in the Rolodex. Could Bob be the name

when Gord... Well, Bob was a contact but Bob was very professional and Unlike Gord, you mean? No, Gord was very professional, just very short tenured. I was there a long time. You weren't just at the end. I was there 14 years. Actually, you're the first time I ever met Gord Stellick.

Yeah, let's hear it. So we're on a flight to the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon. So that is literally, I think, my second assignment. My first one was to go to the Final Four in Seattle. I had just moved to the sports department at the Toronto Star. So we're going to the, yeah, that would have been right, because March Madness, and then this would have been in May.

Yeah, first week. And I get on the plane. What a memory. And I'm like wide-eyed, like I don't know anything, right? I know zero of what's going on. But for some, I think you might have just introduced yourself and then we get on the plane. In those days, you'd just walk around, people are smoking.

And I walked back and talked to Gord for a while and he was sort of explaining to me, yeah, we're going, we kind of got, and we were talking about the draft and you know we've kind of got this guy on this swedish guy this sundine guy who's that like i was just the world was so different back then yeah and then uh and and then we started talking about coaches and george armstrong the great the late george arm what a wonderful man was the team. And Gord turned to me and said, yeah, but he doesn't want to be the coach,

but he doesn't want to tell Harold. And I said, what? This is my introduction to major professional sports. And George is on the flight. Yeah, well, let me finish the story. And I said, pardon me? And he said, well, yeah, he doesn't want to be the coach,

but he's afraid to tell the owner because he was worried about his pension and stuff, right? Well, yeah. And just his financial security. So Gord said, well, go and ask him. So I sat down beside the great George Armstrong and he said, yeah, I don't want to be the coach, but I don't want to tell.

And that's how I met Gord Stelter. And all this stuff backfired on me because Harold then got more entrenched about George was going to be the guy. And don't let this young whippersnapper tell you otherwise. So anyway, I knew at that point I had ceased to be the fair-haired boy,

which I knew was going to happen and what have you. But yeah, so imagine that your first... But how did Floyd weasel his way in there? Well, he was by default because I ended up leaving that summer. And anyway, and it all worked out well for george he stayed didn't have to coach floyd just happened to be the most

competent guy in our very small office to be there and then he brought doug carpenter in rather rather quickly so that kind of that kind of salvage but when we were going to saskatoon i was interviewed i interviewed danny maloney there i interviewed uh barry melrose and a few others about trying to figure out the coaching thing. So those who are listening to the podcast, go find the photo that accompanies this episode on TorontoMic.com because you can see Damien Cox's shirt,

which says Vanderlei Industries. Vanderlei. Yes, I know. Or Vanderlei, right. Vanderlei Industries, and it says, of course, from Seinfeld, and then I'm looking at Gord Stelling's wallet, which is extremely George Costanzian. Yeah.

So is that why you wore that shirt, Damien Cox? No, we don't speak Gord and I, so I had no idea. I haven't talked to Damien in a long time. And then he coveted my shirt, which is from... You want to know the last time I talked to Gord? Yeah, of course. The last time, I think, is he came to play at my golf course with him and Bruce Boudreau.

And John Shannon. And we had a great day. Haven't heard from him since. No, thank you. I said thanks. No, why don't you come over to the cricket club? I told Boudreau to say thank you. Boudreau, I haven't heard a word from since then.

Like, he's worse. Let me ask you about John Shannon real quick. So I was putting together, you know, I mentioned the Mikeumentary on Harold Ballard. Well, I did a Mikeumentary on the pen flip, Dave Hodge's pen flip. And I wanted to speak to John Shannon about it. I wasn't sure if he was there.

I think I found out subsequently he wasn't even like working the gamers. I don't know. He was in the West Coast or something. I don't know. But I wanted to talk to John Shannon on Toronto Mic. And he just flat out refused to talk to me about anything, let alone the pen flip.

That's the rival podcaster thing. But it was before. I feel like it was before. Because, you know, this has been going 10 years. Well, let alone the pen flip. It's the rival podcaster thing. But it was before. I feel like it was before. Because, you know, this has been going 10 years. Well, he's a connected guy. I think he's writing a book. He's so connected. He's better than, yeah.

So meanwhile. No stories, like knowing the behind the scenes. He's got a book coming out. Well, John Shannon, to me, would be the type of guest who would want to come on Toronto Mic and talk about things. But he simply won't. I even met him at Dave Hodge's live event. You were there.

What about Legends? Would he go on Legends? I don't know. I don't book the guests on Legends. I show up. I'm always excited to find out who's on. And then I show up and I'm like, oh, it's Bob Stelic or whatever. And then I record and then I release and produce.

So after we leave here and we get that phone call that they want us, that's what we're going to call the show, Legends in Their Own Mind. That's it, yes. What do you think? With Humble and Fred. Shout out to Humble and Fred. That was a positive shout out. Sorry, sorry. That's very much a positive shout out. Again, Gord, you can't say that. It was a positive shout out.

Fred was a former sports reporter before he was Humble and Fred, Fred Patterson. So would you see Fred Patterson in the press box at Maple Leaf Gardens back in the day? Yeah, mid-late 70s when I started there. Well, he was there for Pete and Geats. He was a sports guy. Well, I don't know who he was a sports guy for.

It just happened to be there. Pete and Geats. Yeah, but I mean, you went in the press box and to Damien's point, like I'm last year high school and there's the Toronto Star and there's Milt Dunnell, and there's Frank Orr, and there's John Iobone, and there's Trent Frayne, and there's Scott Young. I mean, like, they're huge.

There's Jim Coleman. Wow, Jim Hunt. And then Jim Hunt and Brad Diamond from CKAY, Bill Stevenson from CFRB. Right. You know, like, there's no wow in the media now. You go to the press box, you go, what a sad group. I admit it, including myself, right?

But back then, like, you know, you walked in and you went, wow. So I just remember, like, Fred Patterson. Now I know why we don't have a show anymore. It was Freddie P in his mustache. Was there for some time. He got in trouble once. I guess he was covering a great cup. And it was a great cup.

It might have been 83. I'm not sure. But it was a great cup. The might have been 83, I'm not sure, but it was a great cup the Argos won and he cheered and some old-timer sportscast, I don't remember who it was exactly, but somebody read him the riot act that you don't cheer in the press box.

It was a rule. He did it though. He was so excited to see the Argos win, he cheered. He was probably an old guy from out west. What was that guy's name? Brian Hall in Edmonton? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. He didn't like us. I know.

When I say the best Homer show going out of Edmonton, he would put you in place when you talked anything negative about the Oilers or the Eskimos. But you're right about the wow factor. And now you see who's the latest. Terry Jones has've been let go in edmonton and it's you know i i hate to talk about these things in a way because i don't want to be oh it used to be great and now it's shit it's like more it's just so different yeah it is just so different and in some ways it's fun to look back and and imagine a time when these guys these

columnists for these papers were such big stars at the same time these guys uh and it was all we did a lot of influence and could destroy careers and and sometimes cross the lines in terms of their involvement george gross at the toronto sun was very involved with alan eagleson and hockey canada and all that sort of stuff with the canada the 72 series and all that the relationships were um much different than they are now um although now a lot of the people who are quote-unquote reporters are actually working for the team or working for the league so yeah or like a like an elliot freeman who works you know where you used to work there at rogers which is the uh the rights holder doesn't he still work for

yeah i know actually yeah last time i checked absolutely the only thing about different eras and i i know doug mclean had an intro a line about talking to gms and he said they're making out a book coming yeah but yeah he said they're making a book coming yeah but yeah he said they're having a ton of fun but they're excuse me they're making a ton of money but it's no fun now I imagine it still is enjoyable but I hope what whoever's doing what we were doing 30 years ago is still having fun in some way shape or form so that's the part for us it's more of a job we did have fun well you're the environment and part of it probably no cell phones and texting and no whatever. Yeah, that's the one part.

No Twitter? No Twitter, yeah, but you were allowed to have a lot of fun, and that's just what I remember. When I started covering the Toronto Maple Leafs, Rob Ramage, who eventually wouldn't speak to me, and John Kortek had something to do with that, was he was the highest paid Maple Leaf player. He was making $500,000 a year. They weren't rich like they are now. Now, like Austin Matthews lives in the same atmosphere as Tom Cruise. It's not like the days when guys used to live down the road

or you'd see them at the – I used to see Tom Fitzgerald at Mr. Sub. or you'd see them at the, I used to see Tom Fitzgerald at Mr. Sub. You know, like, now the money has separated them, and the way the game's set up so much that it's, like, it's not even worth comparing because it's so different. I remember Doug Gilmore phoned in the fan once,

and actually, I think it was with Simmons and Mary. He would call in all the time. Yeah, but just someone wondered about his health. He got hurt. Like he's Austin Matthews. Right. And we're wondering. So all of a sudden there's a call,

Doug Gilmore's on the line because he's listening to the fan. Right. Like I'm sure Austin Matthews doesn't listen to any station like that or, you know, and just to give people an update, whatever. So all of a sudden, good,

and you play the clip all day on the fan and he has talked to the populace. Use that. That was the vehicle to get the word out. That was his Twitter twitter wasn't yeah he wasn't hurt as much as people feel a guy would get hurt and this is sounds revolutionary now you get hurt you'd go in after the dressing room after the game to the dressing room and talk to him and say what happened he's i did this to my leg and like none of this incredible wall of secrecy that exists now that everybody says this must be in place. It was never in place for decades and decades and decades.

We were giving away a pair of Leaf tickets the day of a game to the 10th caller. And Todd Gill was the 8th caller. Is that right? Yeah. He's driving home unheard. Anyone could use tickets, right? So he didn't get them. Oh, my God.

Shout out to Kevin in in alberta who says he enjoyed listening to you guys on the fan and he even called in once he says and he told you gourd that he was going as i hope i say the name right uh lonnie gleiberman right oh yeah for halloween the owner of the ottawa rough riders we had him in studio yeah you asked him some real time that's where you had more of the journalistsistic edge, because you kind of. Well, I am a journalist. Yeah. Thank you. I hope to become one one day.

But anyway, and you said to him something like, aren't you a little embarrassed that you said that to him? It sounds like something I would say. I'm kind of, geez. Anyway, then I think I softened it. So he would stay in for the full hour. But yeah, Lonnie and his dad, Bernie. And then, of course um

who was the mystery guy horn chen oh yeah yeah i remember now you know who's got the great stories about the gleber guys because it was it was lonnie and his father on the bernie yeah and um uh arash madani worked for them oh really yeah wow i think right at the tail end then with the great were they the renegades when they opened them? I think so, yeah. Sounds right. Sounds right. So in 2022, the press boxes, you said the wow factor is missing. There must be a few left, right?

Any you can shout out, any who you would consider? Newspaper people? Yeah, anybody. Well, no, there's great people there, but I don't think any, like certainly my guy, Justin, who's 19 was was when i started working in the press box i was 18 at maple leaf gardens and went wow he's got no wow people that's all i meant like he wouldn't you know wouldn't consider whomever like this and again it's not it's just they don't have that purpose anybody before they were the message deliverers

right you know so you read you devoured it every day so and they said that they set the conversation yeah um but now i don't think the globe and mail has a specific hockey writer yeah i'm not but i mean you know who's at the sun now well lance hornby you know god love lance i mean you know there's michael tracos simmons still a call you know still a columnist there there's a now the athletic has you know taken over the few but i just the star has bruce arthur dave fest jack um you know and kevin mcgrann rob and rob longley still with the sun and covering and you know but rosie domano still pops up from time to time god love probably says hi and it's not a reflection of how talented or good these people are at the jobs it's just that it's more of a reflection of the

place of newspapers in the sports conversation now that it's just different and even now we've seen in the last couple years the place of radio in the sports conversation has changed dramatically from what it was to what it is and largely because of people like you and your podcast maybe that's what we should do. We'll do a podcast. Why listen to the fan when you can get two and a half hours of Gordon Damien unedited? No, there's not going to be two and a half hours.

Aren't we almost done? Do you have any more stories? You don't have any more stories, do you? I'm done. I'm going saving it for the Legends. Look. Can we do the Legends show together too? I can ask Andrew Applebaum if he's interested

andrew books those guests i'll say look damien and gourd would love to be but he will look at you with a puzzled look and said but they're not legends see bob stelic makes the cut gourd he's he's not sure about but we'll see i think you guys are worthy listen uh before damien runs home uh i want to make sure so d, when you were here one time, maybe your first time, you smashed your head on the ceiling, right? Yeah.

Still hurts. I think your blood is still up there somewhere. Wow, that's nice. That's when stickeru.com stepped up and put up a check your head sticker.

So there is now a check your head sticker because what happened to you, Damien? What about lowering the floor? Have you thought about that? I'm going to need some more patrons for that. Patreon.com slash Toronto Mike help me lower theien. What about lowering the floor? Have you thought about that? I'm going to need some more patrons for that.

Patreon.com slash Toronto Mike help me lower the floor. We're doing a show. Is it breaking news? I want to tell you about this. Vito Tama cancelled us our fourth for tennis today, so I've got to find a fourth. I'm not available. Damien's good at tennis.

Tell a story about that. It's going to be about Los Angeles. It's good at tennis. I'll tell a story about that. Yeah, I know. It's going to be about Los Angeles, and it's the same story. So see how he's, like, we're doing a show now, and he's on texting. No, Vito's trying to make sure I got the message. When we did the afternoon show, it was from 12 to 4. And when I say it was from 12 to 4, it was from 12.01 to 3.59 with very few breaks in between because we didn't have any commercials so there would be updates and that'd be it so we talked and talked and talked and we'd get hungry so gourd

would order in food and uh and often it was like burgers from a specific place they're right licks burgers you know how messy they are right so we're doing the show and he's literally as i'm talking eating a hamburger and he's got grease coming out of his mouth and we're trying to do this quasi professional show so seeing him texting and besides his gigantic wallet is like bringing back all kinds of memories but you know how can you put that wallet in your pocket i don't what's on everybody it's it's totally like george costanza's wall so we had once alan davis is our program director he comes in we got our spread there on the table and we go what does wally lennox say about the wall and so we finally

there's a really good guy he's the head engineer and we said who's wally lennox we didn't know like you're not supposed to have like french fries and onion rings and cheeseburgers He's the head engineer. And we said, who's Wally Lennox? We didn't know. Sorry. You're not supposed to have French fries and onion rings and cheeseburgers and Cokes. We're having a four-hour picnic there. I was doing Leaf games at night. You're writing for the Stars. We had other stuff going. Tell them about the beach parties you used to do or the pool parties.

I think Mike knows that. We thought of being theater of the mind in any way. It was a fun way to have a couple of, you know, diversionary things that we get our regular guests on and create a different ambiance and atmosphere. Theater of the mind. It was fun.

Theater of the legends in our own mind. Future Toronto legends, Gord Stelic and Damien Cox. So thank you, sticker you for the sticker, and that's why Damien did not hit his head today. Lasagna. Okay.

Palma Pasta. It's good lasagna. It actually is good. We sound like real shills here. Why do you say pasta? Say that for me, Damien. What is it? Well, I say pasta. How do you say it, Gord? You say it like P-A-W-S-T-A. What's the name of this company?

Palma's Kitchen. Okay. That's what it's called. But palmapasta.com. Thank you. Lisa asked, do we get our pasta on the way out again or not? Yes, you do.

Oh, good. Okay, good. Yeah, so that's where I'm going here. Okay. So you're going to leave here with a frozen meat lasagna from Palma Pasta. I did... Oh, we're leaving?

You're kicking us out already? Not yet, not yet. But I want to shout out Anthony Petrucci. Don't we at least get to stretch? The Petrucci family owns Palma Pasta. Palma is actually the matriarch, Palma Petrucci. And I asked him once on this program, I say pasta, some people say pasta.

Which one is it? He says either is okay, but he says he likes pasta. So I'm just in honor of Anthony. Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta. So, yeah, so... And the guy from Sticker U wants it called Steaker. pasta. So I'm just in honor of Anthony. Palma pasta. Palma pasta. And the guy from StickerU wants it called Steaker. SteakerU.com. I talked to him.

Steaker. That's pretty funny. That's the kind of stuff. Alright, I'm not even done yet. Beer. Fresh craft beer from Great Lakes. They're a southern Etobicoke institution but you can get them in LCBOs across this fine province and go to

greatlakesbeer.com for free delivery in the GTA. Do you guys want some fresh craft beer? Do we have to back up? I've got to back my car up later. This is like how I used to have to put in Toronto Star after everything I said. This guy's just a walking advertisement. Somebody's got to help fuel the real

talk. These are the good people who've done it. Do either of you smoke weed? I do not. It is legal. I know that. I don't have a problem with it. Right. Okay.

Damien could have mine. Damien, do you smoke a little weed or no? It's okay. Just kidding. You're going to plead the fifth? Oh, no, no. Not really. You don't inhale.

Okay. You might not have a use for these can of cabana ash trays that you've got here in front of you here. So maybe you know, maybe you've got a neighbor or a family member. I know a guy I can give it to. Cigars. Cigars. You will not, right, right. You will not be under,

they will not be undersold on cannabis or cannabis accessories. Canna Cabana, over 100 locations across this country, and they're good people too. So take home your ash trays courtesy of Canna Cabana. And I do want to shout out Dewar Pants because they're the world's most comfortable pants and shorts. They also have great shirts. And if you go to Dewar.ca, D-U-E-R.ca,

and use the promo code Toronto Mike, you'll save 15%, but they have a retail store on Queen Street West. So go in there too, and that promo code will work. So the promo code's Toronto Mike. The company is Dewar. Oh, right, Ridley Funeral Home. We talked about them off the top,

but they have sent over some measuring tape for you guys. You never know. You've got that big wallet, right, Gord? You might want to stick measuring tape in your pocket. You never know. Look, Gord, five inches. We can measure. Okay. Okay.

Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Maybe I did smoke weed before I came in here. And by the way, I'll just remind people, you know, cannabis, you don't have to smoke it. You can drink it. You can eat it. You can get some nice edibles at Canna Cabana as well. All right.

So thank you to all the wonderful sponsors that have stepped up to fuel the real talk. Thank you. JR writes in. This is JR now. 67, the Maple Leafs, their sensational victory in the end of an empire was co-written by Damien and Gord in 2004. That was 37 years since the last Stanley Cup. It will be 56 years in 2023. Now longer, well, much longer, than the Rangers' famous drought.

What are your thoughts other than we're all old now? Any memories of writing that book together? You know what? That is something I'm very proud of. I think Damien is as well. Damien had the idea. And Damien doesn't remember that he had the idea because Sveala picked number 67, right?

That he came from Florida. And one and only one year, he understood 67 was important. He played decent that year for the Leafs anyway. How does Robert Sveala? That's what you forget about that. You call it the book idea and you, you part of it was, nobody was thinking of 67 till Svela put it on the back.

So this is not true. So it was, anyway, Damien's idea. So we started, that part's true. So we, we couldn't have divided it any better.

I got to interview all the Leafs, relatives of Horton, relatives of Sochuk. They're the only two that had passed away. We really lost some tough ones. We'll talk about in the lasts, relatives of Horton, relatives of Sochuk. They're the only two that have passed away. We really lost some tough ones we'll talk about in the last year.

Man. Well, you can talk about it now if you want. Well, he did a great interview with Jim Papin. Oh, he was. And he was so important to the book.

Can I just jump in here? Many interviews with him. So there was a reason. A, I'd never written a book. I kind of wanted to do it. But I also really looked at it and said, okay, I don't really want to go at this

and make it a hard-hitting look at this because there's so much affection about that team that I really felt that Gord would bring that to it and it would be a combination of the two things. And I think that's why it turned out so well in that way. There's some facts in there that are not flattering to the organization. What happened to the team, how punch him lack. Yeah,

he did great things, but then he did not great things about the passing over of ownership about a lot of stuff. But then there's tremendous stories that we were able to bring to light, like Jim Pappen, who was the leading scorer of that team, like Larry Hillman, Larry Hillman and,

and, and shine a spotlight on some of the guys who really hadn't been uh yeah as well known for their role on that team yeah you think nowadays you know everything about colorado tampa bay and all these past playoffs the 67 team was not anywhere close to the 62 63 64 team even though a lot of the same players were there the prominent ones were marcelo pronovo larry hillry hillman uh of course the goaltending was great but guys like brian conacher had a big role jim pappen probably should have won the pete stemkowski you know on and on and this this brought them to light and yeah so it became a labor of love and bob haggard has since passed away but he was the trainer of

that team and he was a help and when he called me and and said, man, you got it. You got it. Like, he read the book, and Susan Conacher talked about it. Yeah, that's right. Because Brian was a big help. Johnny Bauer, he really. So this is how much the book industry has changed. So back then, this was with Wiley, right? Wiley, yeah. And when we came out, we had a huge party.

Gord found this place downtown. It was the LaBatza. Oh, okay. And we had Johnny Bauer was there, and a couple of other guys were there. And it was a huge do. It was one of the great parties and signing all those books. And people still comment on that book. And I think it's one that sort of sits there because it's not going anywhere.

Although I think there's even more you could do on it now. If they win a cup, we could do the quick and dirty thing, what they call it, just that you update it, right? Because it's a great story. If they win a cup, and it... Well, then this book is never coming out, Gord. Well, I don't know, but it would behoove people to look at it, because I love this team getting

acknowledged. That's all I'm saying. I like the real story. Would you guys be able to name-check – it sounds kind of grisly to say, but name-check who's still with us from the 67s one of the funny things is red kelly yeah he's passed but he was we couldn't really talk to him at that time he was so ill and he ended up living another yeah another 15 years 15 years yeah so who's left well like i said we only had two before in the sense of satchuk and tim horton right you know, just recently we've lost Larry Hillman. We've lost Eddie Shaq.

We've lost George Armstrong. Jim Papin just recently. Armstrong was great. Like, he was phenomenal. I mean, we still have the big M and Dave Keon and Pulford Stemkowski. I don't, I mean, Larry. Brian Conacher. Brian Conacher still doing great.

Larry Jeffrey just passed away. But he had a very small role. But he was on crutches. The other goalies, too. They played five goalies, which made it for a great chapter. Bruce Gamble was gone sometime. Al Smith and Gary Smith. And Gary Smith, that's right.

And are they? I don't know. I lose track now. But we're down to about 10 or a dozen. Yeah, Marcel Pronovo passed away you know just uh so yeah at that point i love getting firsthand stories and then once terry saw chuck's son it was great to you know long chat with him so so i'm so really not with you too because you got many decades ahead of you but i'm always keen to talk to certain people to capture the stories like

in this long form just capture it for so you know the idea is that this recording will outlive the guest by hopefully you know centuries like like capture these stories while we can and it's just great to hear that you're able to get all that while they were still able to share because uh at some point they're gonna be gone it's sort of like talking to you know veterans of world wars and it's like you know get them while you can because we don't live forever and at that time i mean when i started covering the leafs it had been 22 years since they'd won the cup not very long and then when we wrote that book it had been 30 what did he say 37 years 30 came out in 2004 so 37 37 years, 30... It came out in 2004, so 37, yes. 37 years, and now we're at 50, you know, whatever. And it just kind of continued,

because that story doesn't change. All that changes is the distance between... And by the way, they've never been in a Stanley Cup final. Not in my life. Not in my life. Not a Stanley Cup. They've not been in a Stanley Cup final. In my entire life, we've never been in a Stanley Cup final.

You think this team's going to get to a Stanley Cup final? I picked them this year, but they had to beat Tampa. How'd that turn out? Well, if they beat Tampa, maybe they would have. Maybe. I'm still going to be bullish for another, as long as Austin Matthews is here, I will be bullish on this team's chances.

If I may, though, it's been 18 years since this team won a playoff round. 18 years. We got out a playoff round. 18 years. You know, we got out of the first round in 04, which was before that lockout there. And yeah, that's so, I mean. That's a long time. And that's a round, right? Like, you know, I remember, you know, we kind of, not a lot, but you talked about the 92,

93 teams and we'd win a round and we'd, I was a teenager, we'd end up on Yonge Street celebrating the round. And like, it was kind of like, hey, we won a round. And I was saying, we're doing this for a round. Like, I feel like in Edmonton, they wouldn't be like in Edmonton. It's like, no, like you got to. I don't know. They were pretty happy to win a round this year. Now they are. Now they are. I guess, I guess when you're the city of champions, they had a good run. But I'm thinking like, we haven't been able to do that since 2004. So anyway, there's a long way to go before this team.

And I'm wondering, just your thoughts quick, and then we'll get back to the nostalgia. But Matt Murray, is he our guy? It looks like we're going with Murray and Samsonov here. Is this the tandem that gets you your cup? I think if I were to take a guess, I think Ilya Samsonov will be the number one goalie by March. So they will look at the... I think they believe they can maybe get someone at the trade deadline as well, March, like things go well.

Something went south with Jack Campbell. That's not a good split. He should still be the guy. Hang on. Isn't he just too expensive? No. Let me ask you this, Mr. General Manager, Mr. Youngest General Manager, Mr. Legend, Toronto Legend.

Right. Would you have given Jack Campbell five years? Okay, so... So you don't have an answer for that? Well, I'll say... Do you want to go, do you want to take a timeout? I'll say five times five. Yeah, why not?

Because look, so Murray's got two years at 4.7. Matt Murray, they're paying 4.7. Ottawa's picking up the rest. So after two years, I think you're assuming he plays well. So then he'll want six and a quarter again. So with Jack Campbell. So, I mean, you're saying, like, oh, Matt Murray's going to fail after two years. This is actually like the radio show used to be.

So with Jack Campbell, where did the Leafs stand in league save percentage last year? He played in an all-star game. With him, where did they stand? He played well in the playoffs. He did. 22nd. I don't care. 22nd.

And he didn't win a playoff series. So I'm not saying Jack Campbell's a bad guy. He seems to be a real nice guy, although I have no idea. I'm not saying he's a bad goalie. I'm saying he's a bad bet for five years at five. And these guys that they've got are no worse than he is. Well, who knows what he would have taken term-wise to stay in Toronto. You wanted five years.

And I understand why. But first of all, I agree. When you're hurt all the time, you want term. The term is a killer. But after going through the Peter Mrazik experience last year, I think people have the heebie-jeebies about Matt Murray. And Samsonov, I know, sounds sexy, but if you watch a lot of Washington games, he was getting pulled all the time.

So hopefully he can get it together because he's a former first-round pick. What was Jack Campbell's status as an NHL goalie when he came to Toronto? He was the number one goaltender with the Toronto Maple Leafs last year. The guy was a backup goalie. No, I said what was his status when he came to Toronto in the trade? He was a backup and not even an established backup.

But who, from the word go, played well with the Maple Leafs? Surprisingly so. He had moments. But the point is, I think you have to hope, if you're a good organization, I think we'd all agree now, the Leafs are a good organization. You have to hope that you can get players from other teams and they'll play better for you.

And that's what they have to hope. I just don't see these guys are any worse of a bet than he is. You can get players from other teams, and they'll play better for you. And that's what they have to hope. I just don't see these guys are any worse of a bet than he is. Well, if it was, of course, Camper wanted too much money. Okay, but get the guy that gives me the wow factor, not the guy who's been hurt. Not Matt Murray who's been hurt more. Give me the Matt Murray of three years ago. If we know not, then who?

Vasilevsky. That's the kind of callers we used to have. How about Shester? Those are the callers we used to have. No, Georgiev was the one. I thought Georgiev, again, Joe Sackett, pulls that trade, gets him, what, three years at 3.4? We'll see.

I'm just saying. His numbers were not very good last year. Damien, you have to do the eyeball test. You can't be in PEI at your vacation homes and playing golf all the time and whatever. You've got to be like El Gordo watching it intently. It's funny. John wrote in.

I got a lot of notes like this, but John wrote in and asked if you guys were going to do a lunch bag letdown. So who can tell me the lunch bag letdown origin story? Damien never realizes things he invented because he doesn't remember stuff. I tried to get a run away from him. So he came up with that idea of lunch bag let down in the basement of our house yeah when we were getting the idea because we started at noon and we thought okay at 12 30 let's kind of do a fun segment and then just before like we went on air ian radar

cunningham who was it was our op did a sounder for it that was about the most discounted whatever sounder that was going to be changed imminently and lasted the entire time. Because it added to the corniness of it. And yeah, so it was just like threw something out, your kind of gripe of the day, and then the Calders called in and best four out of seven won it.

And if we were tied 3-3, the Calder came on the line. So that was kind of cool. And then we'd both get really sucky and come up with ones that we knew would be easy winners. Oh, yeah it and we kept a monthly tally then we start off fresh because we would never tell each other what it was no and then the other guy sometimes would have the one that you would want but the funny thing is i remember at that meeting it was literally

in the basement of my home in ancaster yeah and uh you'll you'll find this interesting uh mike because our concept really was at that point this the show we wanted the show to sound like what it would sound like if guys were sitting in the basement talking sports that was literally what we wanted it to sound like a podcast before podcast correct we were ahead of our time well and i always get it like elon musk well tim mccalliff is just such a great guy and he just said for him for him, Tim and Sid was what he viewed Gordon Damien. I took that as a real compliment because Tim's a solid guy. And he just said, and so if Tim said that, that's a real compliment to Damien and myself.

Well, they went a lot longer than we did. Well, because you quit after 14 months with the Toronto Star guy. I was at the Jays game Friday night, and Sid was throwing out the first pitch. Was he? Yeah. And then I met, well, Mike Epple's a big fan of the program, so hello to Mike Epple. But the whole breakfast television crew was- Give you some business tips, Mike.

Remember, he used to come on and do the business, and then we'd sort of make fun of him, make him laugh. Well, he's listening now, so we don't want to say anything. No, Epple was solid. No, no. No, no. I mean, he'd come on. And we'd just, so we don't want to say anything. Apple was solid. No, no. No, no. I mean, he'd come on. No, he would just start yakking at him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just wanted to deliver the news. Yeah, no, because normally if the normal co-hosts were there, he just got to deliver. Right, that's right. It's like when Barb would come on with the traffic

and then we'd start yakking at her and she just wanted to deliver the news. Be a professional. Okay, so speaking of Barb, there's a note from AG who says, during the OJ trial, when Barb DiGiulio was on, I used to like the Greta Van Susteren fashion updates.

Gord was in love with Greta Van Susteren. That is the truth. He thought she was spectacular. And he would spend hours watching her. Well, the trial, let's face it, we all learned about Court TV with that. And her and Roger Cossack were the CNN individuals that came on.

So I started, my fascination with Greta really got legs. So I played it up more. I played it up more on air, like as if I had a Greta Van Susteren poster at home and things like that. So Barb, who is very witty, very talented. So yeah. So then it became about, you know, Greta updates because we were doing all sports, but we were

doing all relevant, right? Whatever was relevant going on then again, social media is not happening then. That's what we would try to incorporate. Yeah. We'd get a little off topic. Shout out to FOTM, Barb DiGiulio. Absolutely. And Hadley Obadiak?

Hadley Obadiak. Okay. Her dad is public relations director. He's the reason I got in in the first place. So this is a short but sweet note. It just said, high gourd with an exclamation mark. So if you want to...

Yeah, and Hadley helped us with pictures for the 67. I'm here too. Had... Don't worry, you're coming up next, Dangan. I got no fear. She put pictures for the 67 book. It won't be as nice, I can guarantee. And all the best to the'm here too. Don't worry, you're coming up next, Damien. I got no fear. Cheap pictures for the 67 book. I can guarantee it.

And all the best to the Abodiacs, yes. So this is the home of real talk. I'm just going to be here. Hi, Damien. Are you still alive?

I like you both very much. I mean, come on, sixth time I've invited Damien over to my home. I got to like a guy to do that. Seven, isn't this seven? No, this is six.

This is six. Because I can't count the reporters. That was different. You weren't here. I did host the reporters reunion, if you will, from the Paradise,

which was amazing. But okay. So the... Hang on a second. Who was on this show? The reporters reunion. Oh, you weren't there? Who was...

You weren't there? Was it you? No. The reporters, Dave Hodge you weren't there. Who was it? You weren't there? Was it you? No. The reporters, Dave Hodge. Yeah. Bruce Arthur. Yeah, except he wasn't an original.

Michael Farber. Original. Steve Simmons. Oh. No. You screwed it up. Okay, I fucked it up. Now again, I don't edit this, so I will be exposed here. And Brunt was one of the originals.

Okay, so you're right. I've fucked this up. Okay, so you were not invited to be a part of this. Help me out here because I'm drowning here. I'm listening. I know, I know. Why wasn't I invited? That's what I want to know.

So you and Brunt were... It was me and Brunt because we were with John Wells. So Arthur took over for Brunt. And who took your... No, I think Arthur took over for me. Okay, then who took over for you? Was it Simmons? I think Farber might have taken over for Brunt. And who took your... No, I think Arthur took over for me. Okay, then who took over for you? Was it Simmons? I think Farber might have taken over for Brunt.

Is that because you were with Rogers? Like, help me out here. Was it that you were the enemy because you signed with Rogers? Yes. You couldn't be on the TSN show? Yes. Okay, so it's funny that in this moment,

I could picture you there, but of course you were not invited. So this is just, I'm embarrassed. So the whole thing was a big phony baloney thing. I had Ken Robinson, who's a very funny stand-up comic. You might know Kenny Robinson. Funnier than Gord? Way funnier than Gord. And I opened

the episode by congratulating his mom on turning 100. Because on Facebook, Kenny Robinson was talking about my mom just turned 100, and I thought that was Kenny Robinson, the stand-up. And it turned out it was a different Kenny Robinson and that Kenny my mom just turned 100. And I thought that was Kenny Robinson, the stand-up. And it turned out it was a different Kenny Robinson and that Kenny's mom had passed away a few years ago.

So that literally, like, so this is not nearly, like I don't feel nearly as embarrassed by this as I did when I congratulated Kenny on the 100th birthday of his dead mother. So I'm still kind of living that one down. Okay, so where am I going here? This is the post for you, Damien, but as I read it,

it's actually for Gord as well. But Craig M, but it's about you and then we're going to talk about this. Craig M writes in, ask Gordo, you know you like a guy when you give him the name Gordo.

How is this about me? It's going to be, stand by. Ask Gordo if he blocks people on Twitter like Mr. Cox does. Please. LOL. Can Damien be cured of this need to block people who disagree with him? We need to just talk about it briefly. We won't dwell on it.

So maybe we'll do 60 quick minutes here. Damien. Let me ask you. I'm going to pose Damien. First of all, anyone that works with you right now would laugh and go, El Gordo doesn't know how to block anybody. Okay, that's the first thing they would say. I haven't figured it out yet.

But I do wonder about blocking. Does that not then motivate the person to come back at you with another? And that's what I hate about Twitter, the gutlessness that you can hide behind it, have burner accounts, and then just keep coming back at you, even more so that they poke the bear. So I'm curious. Yeah, let's talk about it first of all uh i have never ever ever blocked someone for disagreeing with me right that's the number one thing i have never blocked someone let me ask you because i've had to do some blocking recently myself so if somebody came at you and said

damien cox you stupid mother effer. How could you think this? You might block them, but you're not blocking them because they disagree with you. You're blocking them because they're calling you a stupid mother effer. And I have no interest in them

following my Twitter account. Now, in more recent years, if I see something that's just whatever, I take your word and actually get great pleasure out of just muting people. The people who are out there who are blocked know theying people. The people who are out there who are blocked, know they're blocked. The people who are out there muted, they still think their shit's getting...

They're screaming into the abyss. Exactly. So I take good pleasure in that. But I have never and will never block anyone for just disagreeing with me. But let's face it. I mean, particularly these days, can we not just disagree in a respectful, reasonably polite way, as opposed to the way Gordon and I used to disagree on the air? It really is like the old Saturday Night Live with Jane Curtin

and Jane, you stupid slut. Remember that stuff? Can we not just say, and instead of attacking my ideas, you tell me what you think and that'll be fine but people want to do it the other way and they think they're all big men and they're big tough guys and and so social media as well so i'm on a show on the fan say just even a week ago and the host just said about mitch martyr and all the abuse he takes ago whoa whoa mitch martyr is

the first team all-star two years in a row okay he he took abuse on social media if you want like the leaf team deserves to take abuse for how they not abuse to decriticize of course own up about columbus and montreal not tampa bay in the but that and all of a sudden and even kyle said i'm tired of the crap mitch it's because that vehicle's out there what are you reading it for like the real knowledgeable hockey fans understand this guy is a treasure and he's a first team all-star. But so the abuse, you know, so anyway, that's why I don't, you go down that abyss.

So you don't read Twitter? I read Twitter. I don't devour. I don't live by it. You know, like it's the person, the gutless person, not putting their name or phone number or contact info to a phone message or a mail or a letter in the, quote, olden days. You know, so just anyway. No, and you're right.

Sometimes I will hear about like, oh, the abuse. And then you're like, oh, who are you following on Twitter? Because when I follow people on Twitter, I respect their opinions, et cetera. Not just because, again, like Damien, I don't block somebody because they disagree with me. I block them because they're somehow threatening me or whatever. But I will like wonder what abuse, like who are you following? Like, why are you listening to these anonymous accounts that are here to cause chaos? One of my favorite things to do is every once in a while I'll get an email from somebody or somehow they'll say, you blocked me a few years ago and I was wondering if you could unblock me.

And I'd say, sure. I think I've done that on the show with you. Absolutely. Can you tell me what you said? Oh, I don't really remember. Or I said, I feel certain that you could find it. Just tell me what you said. And then you don't hear anything anymore because they know.

Sure. But I have for people, actually, Damien, in the past, there's been people who've like, can you ask Damien to unblock me and I'll go search their handle and your handle on Twitter and I can see what caused the, and sometimes it'll be like a tweet that has like six different handles on it

and one of them's being an asshole and deserves to be blocked, but you'll block all six, like a mass. Yeah, and that's just a lack of understanding of the technology. So five people are now, why was I blocked?

Because I was mentioned, like I've been blocked by people, and it's because I was caught up in some kind of broad spray like that. So sometimes you will block somebody because they're part of a tweet where someone else is deserving of the block. Well, those people I feel bad about, but not that bad. Because my Twitter account is not that interesting. So back also in the 90s. Yeah.

So we're working together, the fan. And all of a sudden, and Brunt's the same way. Everyone, we become mercenaries. So Damien, what was the show was called? So John Wells had a show on Sunday mornings. TSN had another show Saturday mornings. And before Rogers bought the fan in 2002, you know, everyone, so, and Scott Morrison would be on it. And I forget who hosted Saturday.

Anyway, it was called, so, but the point is, I would keep answering, listening to my voicemail. Did Corey Russell call me that I'm going to be a guest on the John Wells show on Sundays? Well, the John Wells show was... Anyway, but it paid $200. And then Canada AM, are they they gonna call me monday morning sports panel yeah pays 125 yeah monday monday night on tvo with steve pagan so all of a sudden all of us

like just you know and we're going on multiple vehicles and just all of us or you go on in between periods with gordon joe and you'd get do you remember what you guys use the gift certificate from gatsby's yeah and then we had a game boy once now nobody pays you to get do you remember what you guys used to do? A gift certificate from Gatsby's. Yeah. And we had a Game Boy once. Now nobody pays you to do anything. I remember once. You are leaving a lasagna and beer. I got a pair of cowboy boots once in Dallas for doing an in-between. So when Felix

got called up, Grant Fuhrer hadn't got traded yet so Felix is called up from St. John's and he's there and he's hurt a bit and so I wanted him to be my intermission guest. He's got to go get treatment and I show him, we're giving out the Nintendo Game Boys, right?

It looks really cool. And all of a sudden, first period comes and no Felix. Then I hear, the guy limping. He's running to do... Because he wants the Game Boy.

He's running to do that. All right. So, yeah. Shout out to Steve Paikin who listens to every episode and is listening right now. He owes me a hundred bucks. He lived just down the street from me growing up.

Or was it more than $100? I don't know, but he owes you. Was it more than $100? So, Steve, you owe money, too. His brother was the punter at Mount Allison. Okay. Mike's getting overwhelmed. There's a lot to handle when you've got Gordon.

I like it. I like it. Our daughter, honestly, was Steve Pagan's babysitter. Jesse babysat for Steve Pagan. And he had a great backyard get-together when Ken Daniels was in town a few years ago at the Pagans. Okay, invite me to the next one. Well, Steve, he's got an adventure.

Yeah, well, come on. Maybe put him on the Legends. Oh, my goodness. Okay, Gear Joyce. Yes. He says, Damien Cox was on the Bobcat show that put me on the blacklist.

Do you know what Gare's... So Gare was blacklisted from Primetime Sports with Bob McCowan. And he says it was because of something he said. And he says, you were there. Do you have any memory of the... I guess it would be the last appearance of Gare Joyce. I don't even know who Gare Joyce is.

No, I don't remember that. That's a lie. Gord's memory for these things is much better than mine. And no, I don't remember. I don't know if Gord was there. You know, it would all be Bob related. I don't think, you know, I mean, Bob got funny things, whatever. I remember, I think it was probably something that Gare wrote

in the Globe and Mail that came across that Bob didn't like. I mean, did you ever blacklist someone from there? Like there's certain guests you say you don't like because they're not good guests, right? You're looking at it. But there are guests that were conspicuously absent always from the primetime sports of Bob McGowan. Jerry Howarth.

Oh, yeah. So Jerry, I mean, come on. I don't have to be a rocket surgeon to figure out something's going on. There was something between Bob and Jerry. Yeah, because Jerry's farewell tour, he was on everything. He was on this show. No, but Jerry did the interview when Cito termed some of the media racist. Oh, that's right.

Bob, you really don't need me here. He's got all the information. So that's where it goes back to. Okay, here's another one. Mike Wilner. I never heard Mike Wilner on Primetime Sports when Bob McCallum was there. Yeah, same thing.

So the same instance. Speak into the mic, Mike. You should always remember that, and Gordon and I used to joke about it, nobody can get more childish than gordon i wouldn't see so no but same thing bob bob had a whatever for a little so see mine's the opposite though mike in that because i i care i did the big show for 11 years right so about 10.9 years without damien right so it became more that i'm on from one to four because at least i got the

noon hour off so one to four because it was on my own and um quite often a story would break and i could have a lead for a guest and we had to give it to prime time that was more i think like the bigger guests would go to prime time you know when hey understood whatever not sour grapes so right more i so i certainly wasn't blacklisting anybody on the big show. They were more than welcome to come. But I think Wellner was... I don't know. I think he was... I don't know if blacklisting is too strong a term.

Well, that's Gare's term. Not mine, of course. Gare Joyce calls it the blacklist. Oh, there was definitely a list. At some point Dave Schultz got on there. Yes. And I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of obvious ones. But there seems to be a list.

And you were persona non gratis on the... There were, yeah, but only Bob had the list, and it wasn't a physical list. It was just a list. Bob, like his buddy Shannon, won't do this show, so shout out to Bob McCowan, who's not an FOTM, but you two are. Okay, here's...

Gare has a bit more here. He says, next time... This is... Okay, he wrote this. Okay, ask Damien about the round table where he introduced himself as I'm Damien Cock. I don't remember that.

It's possible. I'm Damien Cock. It's possible. But, it concerns me that you two find that, you're giggling. I just mean talk radio. You find the word cock,

does that make you giggle? What about poop? No, no, no. I had the one you know you know scott mccaff's the most professional guy going yeah right so one time he's he handled the news thing and i'm having my licks burger lunch like we did early on so i i during the commercial break i just have to belch a couple of times well it turns out the the mic on button was stuck. I didn't know that. So Scott Metcalf's just listening to, you know, like an ad for Ferryman Funeral Homes, right?

Ferryman. WKP. Ferryman. And all of a sudden you hear a cut. And of course he quickly cuts the tape so they get to hear it after. So I just mean live radio. There's lots of things. And sometimes you'd say a phrase and right away, and right away you accidentally misstepped.

I did it lots. Jamie and Cock. Okay, Johnny D. Gore, do you have a favorite New Market Saints memory or story that you could share with us? Remember Frank Anzalone? Well, no, I was gone. Frank got hired after me.

So Paul Gardner was, you know, like, so off the the top not a favorite what i love is those guys i can remember being at the christmas party and i new market saints christmas party and then the toronto maple leaf said one of these like molson was our main sponsor so just one of these fun parties not the actual skating party and i said to gunner garrett our trainer i said how come this party's so much like more fun he goes well nobody's making that much and that much and everyone's together makes they travel by bus uh they make the same money and i just remember just so many great guys so many great guys and you know uh west jarvis paul gardner was the coach alan heppel timmy armstrong timmy bernhard, on and on and on. So those are my memories.

Just like just the, yeah, it wasn't the big star and glitch, just the reality of the bus trips. That weren't fun back then, but now you look back a lot more fondly. New Market Saints. Now, John, this is a tweet. Shame on Canadian broadcasting. Our national women's team is playing for a CONCACAF championship and for a berth in the Paris Olympics, and not a single network could bother to carry it. What an embarrassment.

Do either of you have any insight into, uh, like rights holders of when it comes to our, uh, our, uh, soccer teams? Like I did see that the men's team during their trying to qualify,

I was watching them on, uh, sports net, I believe it was, but one of the main sports networks, do you know why they couldn't air this on, uh, T on uh sports net i believe it was but one of the main sports networks do you know why they couldn't air this on uh tsn or sports net is that question for another show yeah i don't know that's a generic uh generic canadian broadcasting if you had any insight if you don't i'd like to know too i know sir not being not meaning to be glib and smug that way

but just like there usually are reasons it's not like everybody's looking at and saying no one will watch it's well it has to do with numbers it has to do with how much money is being demanded sometimes by people for broadcasting their games it has to do with all kinds of stuff of which i have no idea well look at the joy of the men's soccer team and all of a sudden what's happened the last couple months wow it's great going to the olympics and now all of a sudden soccer canada and whatever and and i think part of their thing is they want to uh bring the women uh up up financially as well i believe is one of the one of the asks they are having so yeah interesting times there uh i yeah i just hope they figure it out before uh the world cup jr, I recently read Pal Howell by Dick Beddoes.

A lot of great stories about Harold Ballard. I know Gord has many as well. I was surprised that Dick passed away at Gord's ripe age of 65. Are you 65, Gord? Yeah. That's not old. This is according to JR. The last sentence.

I visualized him as a much older gentleman. Maybe it was the fedora. What are your thoughts, Colin? I'll investigate. I'll Google, yeah. I'll do it, too. So the, well, no, people,

the older look was in vogue for a lot of media types back then. Yeah, he was 64 or 65 when he died. So it's funny. Really? We're talking, you know, Wayne Gretzky when Jim Matheson went at Leon Dreisaitl about being pissy, right? Right, yes. You know, and just, and then, so we happened to be talking to Wayne Gretzky on our show after that.

And he was just talking about how well he knew the media in his day. Like he'd go for lunch with Jim Matheson and Terry Jones and Frank Orr and people like that. And then I just said, is there, you know, any media member ever get on you or get to you? Now, he answered diplomatically, no. Then he said, but Dick Beddoes never seemed to be satisfied with Wayne Gretzky. So he threw a little bit of that out about Dick Beddoes, who was quite a character. When Mike Bossy died recently, I went back and I was looking at some old interviews, and one was Dick Beddows,

maybe George Gross interviewing him, or one of those guys. And Beddows was, he was kind of relentless, but also not very good at it, like kind of just railing about it. But, I mean, there was another guy, when you mentioned all those guys before, he would have been, what was that show they did? Overtime. No, no, no, there was another guy, when you mentioned all those guys before, he would have been, what was that show they did?

Overtime. No, no, no. There was that Sunday morning. Yeah. It was like a round table thing on TV. I was on it once, too. Anyways, so he was. The CH did the Don Cherry Grape Line, and they did, anyway,

Beto's show, whatever it's called. But, I mean, really, like, Beto's, in my mind, was not up there with the likes of milt donnell and those guys because he was a showman he was the star of the show that's what's different now james duffy won't be the star of the show you know what i mean james duffy will make everyone it was about dick beddows and he was full of shit well he was but he had an audience has some good dick beddow stories so the sports connection was his uh

oh is that's okay cfrb is Oh, that's what it was. Okay, Sports Connection. It was on CFRB. CFRB? Is that the one? Well, no, it was on TV. I drove to Hamilton once and was on that show. And part of it was he just go- How old are you?

Well, no, because I was general manager then. And then he- He was still on? Yeah. And then he would hit you stuff from left field. Like he talked about a particular player and goes, and so-and-so, but that's a sad story.

I go, I don't even know what he's talking about. Just one of the players on the team. And like, you know, kind of threw a zinger. I go, I don't know what his situation is. So Dick was a Tobacco guy.

He curled in the briar. He was an alderman. I think he's in the Tobacco Sports Hall of Fame. Oh yeah, he's an alderman for Ward 2. Yeah. He won the seat in 1969.

That's my goal. Yours is to be on Toronto Legends. I've got to figure out a way to get into the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame. Bob Weeks is in. You know, you've got to talk to Buffery. Yeah, he's in. Beezer's in there. He's in. There you go. How does that work? Claude Lemieux's in. Claude Lemieux only lived in Etobicoke

for two years. He was a member at Islington. I'm going to get in to the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame before Damien. By the way, they do a great job. The Old Mill, I like the pride they have in sustaining that Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame. Yeah, that's right. Old Mill just qualifies because it's just on the side of the Humber River. If you're on the other side, you're out of Etobicoke.

So it just makes it in. Okay. on the side of the Humber River. If you're on the other side, you're out of Etobicoke, so it just makes it in. Okay, Jamal Alam says, did they think Eric Smith and George Strombolopoulos

would end up being as successful as they are, especially Eric Smith's longevity covering the Raptors? What say you about the longevity and success of Eric Smith and Strombolopoulos? I guess the question is, you caught them when they were young up-and-comers on... He can speak to Strombo better than I can.

I would say Eric Smith, you never know what somebody can do until they get the opportunity. And did I sit there and see Eric when he was doing whatever he was doing and think, boy... Produced a big show at the start. Yeah, did I think he was going to be,

you know, like, it wasn't the same as when we saw our buddy shulman so boy this guy's gonna be eric wasn't like that and then he got a chance right and since then i think the level of professionalism and uh that he brings to the broadcast he's a really good reporter uh uh broadcast so you never know until somebody gets the chance. Yeah. But was a different kind. Yeah. And, and Eric Smith played slow pitch with us a little bit.

Your co-ed slow pitch. We had a bunch of, so we, you know, uh, carried on that way. So first you look at the show, first morning show that didn't last long.

Mike Inglis is a play by play voice in Miami. Joe Bowen, the legendary voice, Stephanie Smythe running CP 24 married to the aforementioned Paul Cook, uh, Ken Daniels play by play for the Red Wings. Dan Shulman, superstar. Greg Sansoni, big guy at Rogers

now. Todd Macklin, one of his right-hand men going on. Mitch Kersner was a big guy at TSN. They were the original producers. And on and on in that direction. So I love Brian Spear, Elliot Friedman. Elliot interned when we filled in on the morning show. He remembers that as his first interning gig. Brian Spear was Elliot Friedman. Elliot interned when we filled in on the morning show that he remembers

that as his first interning gig. Brian Spear was a producer. Now he produces Hockey Night in Canada. And Eric, he found a niche in basketball, and he was able to cultivate that niche and grab that opportunity. And I, I feel bad nowadays, there aren't those same opportunities like to that degree here, I'm talking, you know, the first 10 years, you know, and let's throw Barb DiGiulio in and all these other people in, like just Stephen Brunt, you know, on and on and on. Derringer, you know, you name it, that have just were able to cultivate that for something bigger, which doesn't exist anymore to the same degree.

How's Derringer doing these days? Hey, what about Dunleavy? Yeah, play by play. Yeah, yeah, Buffalo. And a lot of these guys you're mentioning are F these days. Hey, what about Dunleavy? Yeah. Play by play. Buffalo. Yeah. And a lot of these guys you're mentioning are all FOTM. Jim Lang was a producer

who's now on air up north. The region. Yeah, love it. And what did Strombo do? Oh, so Strombo, he was an off. Sometimes I...

Okay, so remember, the program director was Bob Mackowitt Sr. Yeah. And Strombo was very close, still is, with Bob Macko Jr. Jr.

Right. Yeah. And Jeff Merrick. This is like a trifecta or whatever. And they had an overnight show called The Game. So they had like an overnight show that they could kind of do it. Once a week.

Bottom line is, you try to get that today. Oh, no, totally. Oh, yeah, yeah. But there's two parts to Strombo. One is, you understand, and they would be around all week getting ready for their Friday show. So it was a wonderful opportunity. And maybe richards had a role in this well but they

cultivated but but strombo outside of that was the board op with a larger than life personality so whenever he came to be your norman well no but whatever whenever he came in and saw you he'd walk up give you that kind of handshake right and everyone liked him the accounting people like you don't get to see that anymore like strombo had this infectious personality got the chance with those guys on the friday night show absolutely charisma and so so then went on and you know we didn't hear much about him and he of course went on and did different things and well he went to cfny because uh yeah he went to um myers uh stewmeyer so i mean because he's been over here to tell this whole story but i guess he he wanted to try we're going to 102.1

so we left 590 for 102.1 and good for him I mean you know like I said great great just a great guy went on and

got on air more frequently in the CBC talk show yeah and then yeah now he's working for Apple but those but those are the fun

fun kind of people we had around there like there's still but I mean that's kind of neat like all that even Elliot Friedman I think was like

a young guy in the yeah we said well he entered the first time he entered was when we filled in the morning and then he was around and just a valuable guy actually it's interesting when you look back uh the guys who kind of found their niche and their way in through basketball eric smith elliot friedman was about dan shulman yeah um and they all kind of went the basketball way and that gave them an avenue to do more broadcasting. If you asked Dan Schulman and Elliot Friedman early in the fan, if you could pick your dream thing, what would you want to do? To me, they'd both say NBA, right?

And here's Elliot, a kingpin in the NHL, and Dan, of course, does basketball, but a kingpin in baseball. Interesting, interesting. He had a part two, Jamal. Jamal says, did you envision the Raptors becoming as big as they are today? I didn't know. I mean, you know, back when we were sort of in 92, 93,

and people forget what it was like back then, the Blue Jays, not the Leaf leafs were the biggest team in town they were get and they were filling uh skydome with for wwf wrestling and the leafs were starting to starting to get it going after harold passed but they were not the same strength and then all of a sudden came the raptors um so did you envision well you we didn't think anybody could be as big as the blue jays the leafs of course had been around for so long the argos were still pretty big back then because candy rockish male was 91 and all that sort of stuff right so did we think they were going to be that i mean they were kind of and the nba wasn't that big back then either so i would say i mean i didn't but some did some did

i remember i remember dave perkins saying the leafs as perky would the leafs will be fourth in the city and blah blah blah but uh i didn't did you well and first of all i would disagree about the i mean the leafs are right up there with the Jays. They just were, okay? They just were. But it was great for our station because we launched in 92. And back then, yeah, the Jays were strong then, but the Leafs got that run in 93.

So all of a sudden, you had the great run. And they won the first 10 games in 94. Yeah, so anyway, but you're right. So the Raptors are kind of this anomaly about we're going to get an NBA team. And we did have expansion, you know, like ups and downs, but boy,

the NBA just after that, and Raptors are part of it. What a, what a, whatever reasons, what a monster it's become. And the Raptors, I mean,

they almost went out of business. It was not a good. Well, this case, so, you know, you guys are here being reunited, but last week I reunited.

Peaches and Herb. Yes, right. case, so you guys are here being reunited, but last week I reunited... Peaches and Herb. Yes, right. Peaches and Herb. But Leo... No, he said... Leo Roudens and Rod Black who needed to be reunited because Rod's no longer on TSN

because they parted ways because he was making too much money. But that's how it works in sports media. Is that what he told you? Yeah. Well, yeah, more or less.

I can read between the lines. By the way, Leo started on the fan and Jack Armstrong and Chuck Swirsky started on the fan. Okay, Chuck Swirsky. I was on a Zoom with Chuck yesterday. No joke. Finish your story.

Get your salami and... There's more names since we're talking. Salami and cheese. Salami and cheese. Get your salami and cheese. Are we at the two hour 20 minute? We're almost done here. Oh, so basically, yes,

that came up with Leo and Rod Black that there was no guarantee this franchise was going to make it like this was this was not a slam dunk pun intended it was really uh now it's now it's cooking all simple the bank they thought the vancouver franchise seemed like the better bet at the time anyways the the grizzlies and uh where are they now but much love to the the rap well and there was no reason that the that the grizzlies really had to leave when they left that was a that was a david stern screw-up that he allowed them to be moved to memphis and it was basically it had to do with the guy who remember the american

guy bought the team what was his name anyways and then he just decided he was moving them but i mean that franchise could have made it in Vancouver. Yeah, it's a shame. But yeah, we got to bring back the Grizzlies, bring back the Expos. Some young woman, you're on top of this, did a wonderful feature on finding big country. It was wonderful. Brian Reeves.

Yeah, no, but it was a great, she hunted him, wonder what happened. And it was just a wonder. I can't remember what it was called. I can't find it. Wonderful, wonderful, like one hour, 90-minute feature. Interesting. Yeah, what happened to Big Country?

Okay, because I remember it was Damon Stoudemire and Big Country. Those were your first picks there. I want your take. This is going to be it for me, and then it's basically you guys can just drain the swamp because Damien's going to fall asleep here. But Live Golf, I know that expression's been ruined been ruined but live golf what is your take on this damien you've been very

vocal on this on twitter but i'm just curious what you guys think of the disruptor that is live golf so gordon i have been around so long that we've seen these rival leagues from the wha to the usfl to the wfl don't forget the wfl to the end of the aba to uh what was the auto racing one irl versus yeah yeah yeah so this has always been going on and sometimes i think when i think now that i've seen it happen so many times your perspective changes because you realize it's just business people want to look at it as though there's good and bad people, this, that, and the other. With respect to the golf thing, these golfers are not under contract.

They should be able to play where they want to play because the PGA could solve all this by giving them guaranteed contracts, but instead they won't guarantee them a dime a year. Well, they're going to have to. And the thing that now all of a sudden people who want to support the pga have all become experts on human rights in saudi arabia right to which i i acknowledge um are deeply within question but a i would say the united states does 40 billion dollars of business with saudi arabia every year you want golfers to stand up and make

the difference right and does every sponsor on the pga are they all clean of any investments in saudi arabia and beyond that like the hypocrisy of it all to point at these golfers and say that they're wrong because they want to make the most money they can they should be playing for the love of the game it's a bunch of crap so i don't watch i don't watch live golf right i'm probably not going to i think those guys should be able to play where they want to play until someone else gives them a guaranteed contract well and you know you're going a little more depth about it just we're the we're the viewers and the audience and if we didn't like the aba we didn't watch it if we didn't like the wa is ha as much you just didn't

watch it and right now you know selfishly i like to watch like say the british open where it's it's more that it's set up the pairings i can follow it rather than the shotgun start and what have you but uh hey every other time it's just interesting it's the golfers that are dumping on it but it helped the athletes in every other sport like that's helping the athletes you know they nhl players from their day will say thank you world hockey association because that was a thing that maybe over corrected salaries based on revenues coming in then but yeah i so you know so be it i'm not a golf guy but i do remember that the cart indie split ruined that sport for me because i was used to seeing who was it paul tracy yeah but i I remember, I would watch every weekend,

and then suddenly with the split, it was like it wasn't the best on best anymore. But why? Because they wouldn't let guys do the same, and that is what is going to happen to golf unless they can find an accommodation. Right now, you can play on the European Tour and play on the PGA and play on the PGA

and play on the European Tour and play in the PGA and play in the PGA and play on the European tour. Why live golf is so different when we just saw the British open where I think two of the top 10 guys in the finishers were live golfers. There's no reason to do it. Let the best guys play wherever they want to play. Now the IRL, I think had something like that. They were the weaker league,

but they had the Indy 500. So it'd be like, and that killed the Indy 500. Right. So it'd be like. And that killed the Indy 500. Yeah. And it would be like, it'd be like Liv has the masters. You know what I mean? All of a sudden that would be,

so that was a bit of a different. Or like the WHA has the Stanley cup or something. The Avco. That's right. Well, the cup's a cup, but the Avco cup, where is it?

Named after an insurance company. Avco financial. That's a, that was the world hockey association trophy. That's funny. The Gordon Damien podcast I'm going to produce. We'll be searching for the Avco Financial. That was the World Hockey Association trophy. That's funny. The Gordon Damien podcast I'm going to produce will be

searching for the Avco Cup. We're going to figure this out here. We're going to have a really nice studio.

We're going to spend all kinds of money. We're going to have it. It'll be huge losses. Have a look for

the Hardee's Cup. That was for indoor football. And we'll order Licks. Is Licks still in business? Oh, I don't

think so. Is it? So we can't order licks for lunch jeez it's not there just eat palma pasta i'll take care of you

by the way because i want to put this on this episode so people know including you too especially you damien because of how close you live especially you

september 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. is the 10th tmlx event that is tmlxx have you gone to one of these listen i've been inviting you guys to these events. I don't think either of you have ever made an appearance. Kevin McGran was at the last one.

Gare Joyce comes to these. There's a lot of people you know and love who come to these. David Schultz has been on a lot of these. These cool cats. Mark Hebbs here. You come to this event, please. It is at the Great Lakes location

in Southern Etobicoke. So short drive for you, Damien. A little longer for you, Gord, but September 1st, 6 to 9 p.m. If Gord picks me up. If you pick me up. So you guys got to make an appearance. And Palma Pasta will feed you.

You get a free beer from Great Lakes. It'll be a great time. There's going to be some wonderful musicians, including one from The Hammer, but some great musicians are going to do some acoustic jams. Who's from The Hammer? Tom Wilson.

Oh, yeah? I like Tom Wilson. Listen, Tom Wilson, diehard. Who's from the Hammer? Tom Wilson. Oh, yeah? I like Tom Wilson. Listen, Tom Wilson, diehard. Did he retire from hockey? That's it. There's so many Tom Wilsons. Biff from Back to the Future is a Tom Wilson as well.

There's a whole bunch of them here. Okay, so we're going to close. Before I play lowest of the low, who have been at a TMLX event and played, before I play lowest of the low and say goodbye, I want you each get a chance to ask each other a question.

So Gord, do you have a question for Damien on our way out? Anything you've always wanted to ask him? This is the live mic. I'm not editing. What would you like to ask Damien

before we close? Okay. I don't know. So I'll do a stream of consciousness. It's funny. Being at the family cottage on the weekend and talking to Lisa's brother,

Dave, and memories about when you were up. How is Dave? He's great. He's great. Running the auto show and be back running the family cottage on the weekend and talking to Lisa's brother, Dave and memories about when you were up. I mean, like he's great. He's great. Good. Running the auto show and be back running the Canadian international auto show.

It's after a two year hiatus. So I don't, I don't know. It was just fun. Like we hung together so much at each other's weddings and things like that. So it's just sort of been a fun social part. I think part of our radio show was we asked it on air.

We didn't leave. That's part of what was fun to be on for four hours. So when you we asked it on air we didn't leave that's part of what was fun to be on for four hours so when you said this is something i didn't ask him whatever i had to ask him right was was we did it on air because we had all the all the time in the world to fill right like i you know clandestine why clandestine wise i don't everything everything was kind of wide open and it was just kind of fun i don't know what you know last little while we haven't uh professionally been together and we've all you know you get your own life's own direction so yep oh but how about you invite me to golf again and i'll thank you no yeah this time i'll thank you and tell gabby i'm not inviting him i don't

gabby bruce boudreau but you know yeah why not that's crap wait what well you know he just shows up plays drinks beer and then leaves okay well i'll get him to thank you anyway no no i anyway i appreciated that but no i i dame the whole damien experience was a pleasure for me i wish i could have a fun trash of him right now but i don't and uh and like and probably when yes again i don't know because we have i think i don't think there something. I was never afraid to ask you anything, and you were never afraid to ask me something. Gordon, I've been through a lot.

But unfortunately, Gordon, I think this is a question. I'll try to put this in the form of a question. I think you've spent an inordinate amount of time defending our friendship and me that you've had to say. I have to defend our friendship. I think Gord is, you know, and, and, but the, I think, I think this is true. I think Gord actually knows me,

which is most people don't actually know. Because Gord and I have been through a lot together. Yeah. Personally and some ups and downs. Yeah. And we talked to each other about that and that. And actually one of them was, of all people, we had a long drive through,

an enormous help for the book was Alan eagleston okay the 67 team we had and it was a great visit in 2003 with him in collingwood and that so uh you know and and yeah and what was the other one i was thinking about but but yeah we've talked about everything i am sorry about all the time he's been defending me i said you're you're like my media partnership, like Harold Ballard, defending him because he was a real, if you met him, your first thing you'd say was, what a nice guy. You really would. That would be the thing. And

Damien's kind of that version all those years later. There you go. I had a tweet when I announced you were coming on and one of the tweets was, my condolences, Gord. See? Was one of the tweets. So one of the comments. Give uh, my condolences, Gord was one of the tweets. So one of the, give a shout out to my mom.

Will you? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Rhoda. Guys, I would do this anytime. Uh,

what a thrill. And thanks so much for making the trek and, uh, coming on together. It's a long way to come for me. What time's your limo here at? Hey, why don't you shout out?

What are you guys up to these days? Like maybe, uh, Damien, what are you up to these days?o here at? Hey, why don't you shout out, what are you guys up to these days? Like maybe, Damien, what are you up to these days professionally? I still write a couple of columns a week for the Toronto Star. I'm in my fifth decade of writing for the Toronto Star. I can't believe it. Going for Milt's record. And other than that, working on golf and being a dad. Well, being a dad's phenomenal.

And brother Bob became a grandfather i meant to tell you that james a couple weeks ago little griffin griffin was born so uh yeah weekday mornings i'm on a break now but i've really enjoyed morning show on sirius xm why do you never invite me on i think you're invited on aren't you okay anyway i can't remember so and then uh i've been fortunate to carry on the fan as Leafs Nation pre- and post-game and hoping one more time that Leaf equity is a deep, deep, deep playoff run so we can have some fun like we did with the Raptors.

Or even a shallow run, but just a run. Something, something. 18 years since we had a run. So I never told you about... Do you want to hear one more story? Yeah, yeah, go ahead, yeah. We never told you about... And this actually got the Gordon Damien show off the ground

because the Leafs won Game 7 in Detroit on a Saturday night. I think I'm right. We drove back to Toronto. This was in 93. We drove back to Toronto that night, got about two hours sleep, got up and did a radio show. And the city was crazy about it. People were calling in and doing all sorts of stuff. Because we were doing our radio show. Yeah. And the city was crazy about it. And people were calling in and doing all sorts of stuff.

Because we were doing our Sunday show, yeah. And that's when it was really having, okay, we get what this could be. So I was driving with Lisa to Detroit. And you cheapskate. I picked you up somewhere in the 401. You parked your car. So the three of us, we went.

And Borshevsky scored in overtime. Yeah. And then we decided to come back. And we gave Mark Askin, the producer, a ride as well. Oh, yeah. So the four of us. How does he remember? And we're driving. And then we're to come back and we gave Mark Askin, the producer, a ride as well. So the four of us and we're driving and then we're listening to a replay of the game

like Joe Paul and myself doing play-by-play in color. And then we pull over to hear the Borshevsky goal again like at three in the morning. And you're right. And they hadn't expected us at the fan.

But we said, no, we'll be good from nine to 12. So we showed up on a Sunday morning and it was just electric. Yeah. And we were smart to do that morning, and it was just electric. Wow. Yeah, and we were smart to do that.

That was a good career move. Good career move. And that was also, that was the mullet years for Damien, because in that Passion Returns cassette, I bought that Passion Returns. Damien's got the mullet. So the Passion Returns.

I've got the David Cassidy, Keith Partridge shirt. I had to go water it right after. And that brings us to the end of our 1084th show you can follow me on twitter I'm at Toronto Mike if he doesn't block you Damien is at Damo Spin Damo Spin

pasta he does that on purpose you know he calls me Damo cause he knows Leo Cale called you Damo when you started. Leo called you Damo. That's 30 years ago. I know, I know. And Gord, you're at Gord's Stelic?

Yeah, it wasn't taken, so I'm at Gord's Stelic. And I don't know how to block you. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Dewar are at Dewar Performance. Make sure we get a great photo together outside. It'll be fantastic.

There'll be a fee. Then you don't get a lasagna. Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH and Canna Cabana are at Canna Cabana underscore. See you all Thursday night, 8pm. The Return of Toast with Stew Stone and Cam Gordon. kissed you in Spain And I've kissed you in places

I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Shakhtar Khor But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up rosy and gray.

Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms us today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine, and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy, yeah. Everything is rosy now Everything is rosy Everything is rosy and gray