Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Jamie Campbell and Brad Fay: Toronto Mike'd #1333

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

In this 1333rd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Jamie Campbell and Brad Fay before talking about 25 years of Sportsnet. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1333. That's one, three, three, three. Welcome to episode 1333. That's one, three, three, three. I think that's a lucky number. Of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. enjoy the taste of fresh homemade italian pasta and entrees from palma pasta in mississauga and oakville

pumpkins after dark use the promo code t o mike one five and save 15 this month at pumpkins after dark.com recycle mycyclemyelectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage Investor Podcast from Raymond James Canada. Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mic'd are Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell and Brad Fay.

Welcome back, Jamie and Brad. Nice to see you. Yes. It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long time, because I actually decided I'd go in and find out exactly when you guys last appeared on the show. You ready for this flashback here? Okay. Brad, we start with you.

It was November 2017. Wow. I knew it was before the Raptor run, but that's a couple of years. Well, before. Okay. Kawhi was just like a thought in our mind's eye there at that point. Okay. So that was episode 279.

So if people want to go back and hear like the history of Brad Fay, episode 279, Mike in Sportsnet's Brad Fay chat about his career in sports media, whether he'll take over for Bob McCowan hosting primetime sports. Did that ever happen? Yeah. No. As we know, definitely not. That was all, you know we know definitely not that was all you know what quickly that was all because he said it one night he said uh in in jest oh uh yeah brad's damien

said brad's on hold here waiting down in uh oakland may as well get to him he goes i know who he is he goes he's gonna take over this chair one day just said it throwing away and then all of a sudden people were like you're gonna take guys like i have no desire i'm not good enough to do that job no one's can take over from bob and then it became a thing because he said it that's the power of mccowan you're too nice to take over yeah yeah good good call that is very true because you are a sweetheart uh brad absolutely and that episode was like we almost went two hours so we did kick out your favorite songs and i'll put a song in the background as we uh talk about jamie's first appearance but and I'll put a song in the background as we, uh, talk about Jamie's first appearance, but I'm going to put this on in the background because whenever I hear this

song now in the wild, I think of Brad Faye. Yeah. Still my favorite song of all time. How many, I mean, in 2017 you disclosed you had seen Bruce Springsteen live. I think you said you were about to be like number 100.

No, no, that just happened. I just went over triple digits. So yeah, 2017 probably would have been around 60 or 70 at that point. The show in Germany, was that number 100? Vienna. Oh my. Yeah, just got back from Europe. Vienna was the triple digit one.

Is Bruce okay? I heard he had to postpone some gigs. Yeah, we're hoping that the next one's up or Canada early November. So it was something with an ulcer. And I think they're just, he's 74 now. And I think the band's old and I think they just, if he was not feeling comfortable,

let's just take a little extra time off. So they postponed shows. But as far as I know, I don't have a direct line to him. Unfortunately. I thought maybe you had, you did actually. So,

okay. So as we speak, you're at 100 on the nose? 102. Amazing. That's amazing. But that goes back to 84. Jamie, do you have a band? I mean, I don't expect 102, but is there a band that you've seen, like double digits?

No. No. Not remotely close to Brad's commitment to Bruce. Is he obsessed? Does he need help? No, it's not an obsession. It's a healthy passion. I'm going to blow your mind, Brad.

I'm going to see Bruce Springsteen for the very first time in November. Ah. That'll be my debut. Beautiful. So it'll be your 103rd time or whatever, and it'll be my first time. But I got to see what all the fuss is about.

So it'll be your favorite song. But are you a big Bruce Springsteen fan, Jamie? You can take him or leave him good question in 1986 i believe it was he played maple leaf gardens as part of what was called an amnesty tour with sting i remember this and i had free access to maple leaf gardens for all events back in those days and decided to go and see Sting. And it just so happened Bruce appeared as well. And I wasn't much of a fan, as Brad knows, at that time, but I instantly became one, not to his obsession, but I have a healthy respect for Bruce Springsteen based on one

show at Maple Leaf Gardens in the mid-80s. And Jamie's brother and best friend growing up were huge fans, so he repelled a little bit going in, you said, right? And then you're like, okay, I'll go see him. I grew up with a brother who wore a bandana around his head to sort of try and emulate sort of a Bruce Springsteen, Bryant Adams look. And so I had no choice but to hear it in my house when I was a young person.

And I always have to say, the sentence after the 102 is I've still never seen the same set list twice. And that's why, and they're not the only, Pearl Jam is like that. Fish and all the jam bands, people follow them around

because you're never going to get the same show. So you're curious to see what they're doing next too. On this very program, I did have Jake Clemons on this show. Yes, I remember that. Yeah, that's awesome. That's the closest I've come to getting Bruce on John O'Malley.

Yeah. I'm still working on it. Is Jake Clemens related to Clarence Clemens? Yeah, he took over. When Clarence passed away, he took over the saxophone. And this is the song with the greatest sax solo

in rock and roll history. Maybe he'll turn it up when we get there. I'll keep it brewing in the background. But I want to let people know if they want to hear, this is like the A to Z of Jamie Campbell's career, which has been amazing uh february see i add the rue in

there because i'm practically a professional bugger february 2020 no i can't be right february no it was before that because it wasn't we didn't do a covid show i have to go check my source on this but i'll read the description then i'll go back and find out when the heck it really was. Episode 584, Mike chats with Sportsnet Blue Jays Central host, Jamie Campbell, about his love of baseball, calling Jays games, working with Greg Zahn and Joe Siddle,

and how close he came to keeping the seagull killed by Dave Winfield. Oh, yes. We went 159. Oh, here's the sax solo. We're going to come back to this and I'm going to find out the real Dave.

Hold on. Right, how do you feel when you hear this in the phones? Like, are you getting goosebumps? It's absolutely, it's still got another three minutes to go. We don't have to play the whole thing, but it's a very dramatic moment, and it's the first time for me experiencing, when I began to listen, where instrumental can tell a story. I've always been a lyric guy, always was,

and this one just takes you through that. You know what's going on. It's like the piano coda at the end of Layla. Yeah, and there's so many more, but this is one of them for me for sure. Or Jimmy Page at the end of Stairway to Heaven. Right. Let's kick out our favorite instrumental parts of rock. I would do that, by the way.

Yeah. We'll be here until 5 o'clock if we do. Feels so good. Chuck Mangione. He's all over King of the Hill. Do you ever watch King of the Hill? Oh, is he? I don't.

I didn't know that. Because I'm revisiting that with my kids. But I'm also revisiting The Sopranos with my wife because she's never seen it. I'm like, oh, we've got to watch this. And, of course, Little Stevie's all over The Sopranos with my wife because she's never seen it. I'm like, oh, we got to watch this. And of course, little Stevie's all over The Sopranos. Sylvia. Okay.

By the way, it was February 2020, Jamie, that you came over. Okay. Why did I think it was pre-pandemic? But here we are in the snow. It was pre-pandemic. That's the pandemic. Pandemic's what it started probably right after. It was late March.

Oh, you know what? You know what? February, March. Yeah. Mike, come on. Pandemic. I remember it was March 13th was the day I picked up the kids.

It was. It was one month before the pandemic. We might have caused it, Jamie. I don't know. Okay, amazing photo there. Lots of ground I want to cover with you because you guys are Sportsnet guys. I don't think there's any guys I associate more,

any people I associate more of Sportsnet than you two. And Sportsnet has a milestone anniversary. But Mike Hannafin just wrote in a note for you, Jamie. Mike Hannafin's an FOTM. He goes, I knew him from when I was still working in Toronto four to five years ago. Jamie, unannounced, showed up at Nat Bailey Stadium for a Vancouver Canadiens game

and was mobbed by Canadiens fans as he sat in the third base seats. Not sure if he expected to be recognized. I'm going to put it aside to say, how can you not be recognized? Like you're on national, you know what I mean? How can you not be recognized? Okay, but he sure was.

Signed autographs, talked with fans and maybe had a beer or two. Maybe a few bought for him too. I came down from the press box, which I'm not supposed to do, but it was Jamie Campbell and I dropped by to say hi and we chatted for a few bought for him too. I came down from the press box, which I'm not supposed to do, but it was Jamie Campbell, and I dropped by to say hi, and we chatted for a few minutes

before I rushed back upstairs. And when I'm at the dome for a game, I always make a point of waving hi to Jamie while he's on set. Nice to hear from Mike. Isn't that kind? I remember that day. It was a beautiful sunny day,

a spectacular venue. What a spot, Nat Bailey. Oh, my God. Well, Brad knows Vancouver. Yeah, yeah. Went to a lot of games there. I mean, it was at one point they considered it the nicest minor league stadium in North America, right? You're looking up over the park.

Still among them. Yeah, it's great. And people talk about how they like to follow the Blue Jays. And this year we're going to go see them in Minnesota. Next year, maybe Seattle. And I would highly encourage anybody, you know what? Jump on a plane, go to Vancouver and see a series at Nat Bailey. It's quite something.

I got to do that. Brad, how old were you when you left Vancouver? Well, like to come here or I had gone. Stop living there. Yeah, I guess when I, it's sort of a roundabout thing, but very quickly, I went away to school when I was 20. And then I only lived there from that point forward for about a year and a half when I went back and started TV in Vancouver before I came to Sportsnet. So essentially I haven't technically lived there since, since I was 20, but with the brief stop in between and my entire family lives there.

So I'm there all the time, two or three times a year that I'm back there. So I still consider it a second hometown. But I'm a Toronto guy. My wife's from Toronto. My kid's obviously from Toronto. So it took about 10 years that I was here that this became my home and I love it. The song still has two minutes left, by the way.

This is the song that will never end. And you picked it up about three minutes in. So I should know this, but what is the title of this song? Jungle Land. Oh, yes. I'm getting in there before Brad can to show you. I'm catching up. You know what?

Because I'm an age where my first Bruce Springsteen hit was Born in the USA. So I miss Born to Run. I was just too young. Yeah. So when you dive into Born in the USA, you have a different Bruce than those of who have been like raised with born to run. It's just a different Bruce. Like I'm listening to this.

It's like a, it's like a Jim Steinman meatloaf opera for sure. So that, that album was my introduction to Bruce too. And I think a lot of people was technically it was mine. I've got the back catalog afterwards, but I mean, you and I were driving here talking about the Bee Gees, about how so many people only knew the Bee Gees

from the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever and didn't realize they had quite an extensive career and success. Like before he discovers the falsetto. Yeah. Right. Just remember, I don't want to forget this. You guys saw the picture of Brian Linehan here, and then you guys, I think you had a story there,

but if I could get the, what did Brian Linehan's photos spark for you guys? Well, because Brad and I have absurd phone conversations from time to time where we drop all kinds of skits from the past that we've seen on usually television shows, SCTV among them. And Brock Linehan is an occasional visitor to our conversations based on the way he was portrayed. There was Marty Short. You mentioned Marty Short. I had a picture of Rick Moranis in my head for some reason, but it's Marty Short.

Definitely Marty Short. And always with the questions where it'd be like someone's sitting there, he's got someone, Dean Martin, whatever. And it's like Paris paris 1968 sinatra yeah you know whoever you were there and he goes no i wasn't okay so that yes you were yes you were no i wasn't i wasn't there he knew brian linehan knew more about his guests than his guests yeah that's right yeah so this is sort of why it's here on my, why is it in my studio here? Because Sammy Cohn, the drummer for the Watchmen, a great Winnipeg band, by the way,

he gifted it to me because he knows I was a big Brian Linehan fan. And I'm trying to do that too. Like I'm trying to do the homework and have the research done where I know more about my guests than they know about themselves. Ah, so he's your inspiration. Hold hold on i got a request to show brad i got because he reminds me a little bit of uh

dick cavett and brian lana and that style right like very understated and very you know but that that's i mean being a good interviewer is a completely uh unique skill like to to anything right you're showing your age in this room and you may have actually watched dick cabot i don't think i did he's still alive right i read his book i read his book and i do you know that's the era that i'm fascinated by the late 60s to to mid 70s where i go back and watch a lot of that stuff and uh you know i was i'm old enough to remember when johnny was you know in his in his prime johnny carson and uh you know in in his, in his prime, Johnny Carson. And, uh, you know, in, in the seventies as a kid, stand up to watch, but Dick Cavett was kind of like, but now you see back, he had all the rock stars on, like he'd had after the day after Woodstock, they all went by there.

I think Grace, Janice Joplin, all them. And then he had John Lennon was a regular guest who was impossible to get, but, but Cavett understood his cause. That's what Dick Cavett was smart and and you know muhammad ali he knew what was going on with those guys he wasn't gonna you know he knew why they were taking the stance they were and joni mitchell didn't perform at woodstock because she had been booked right on dick cavett but she wrote the definitive song yeah yeah because her boyfriend was stephen stills right who was performing performing. Stills or Crosby?

I'm going to say Stills. Okay. They all love Joni. Everybody loves Joni. Anything you read about back then, they all wanted and loved. And Graham Nash was the one who had his heart broken by her. Our House was written, yeah. I was just back with Joni from shopping. So it's, yeah, what a...

Love Joni Mitchell. We can just talk music, but I do want to get to Sportsnet. But I got to wrap up, put a bow on the bruce springsteen because i see on the live stream that uh raptor's devotee he says he's uh got a buddy who's seen bruce 73 times well that's not 102 times okay brian but uh he says his first show he saw i want to get this right uh bruce's last show in new jersey on my birthday was easily the best show of his tour okay this is not brian so we'll move on from brian because i have a question from tim he wants to know what was your very first bruce springsteen concert mr fay yeah it was uh

in october of 84 it's a born in the usa tour and i went in honestly, basically the same as Jamie. I was, I was more interested. I wasn't going, you know, uh, sort of, uh, unwillingly in a sense.

Okay. I'll see what it's about. I was excited because I was a big concert guy and everybody said, you got to see this guy. I went in knowing three songs. I came out there, literally changed life, you know,

almost, uh, three and a half, three 45 show. Um, and I went the next day where this is going to date you where the the a and b sound of vancouver whenever a band would come to town they the next day everything would be on sale and they had the rack of cassette tips the tapes which will uh date me as well but i went in and bought every album at that point there was

five previous to or six previous to Born in the USA. Bought them all, and within about two weeks, I was done. And then that started the whole thing. So it was really organic in a way. It was just, I'd never seen anything like that. And I think people that saw him for the first time, even now in his 70s, if people see him,

people are like, wow, that's different. He attacks the crowd. It's not like, okay, playing a couple songs. So that was, you know, that's 30 or 40 years next year so 102 doesn't sound like a lot if you're a baseball season ticket holder 102 is uh a season and a half of home games right right but you know that's on average three a year yeah it is a lot brad because almost three years bruce is moving city to city like he's not doing all this 81 shows at the Dome. He's not Billy Joel.

I'm going to park at Madison Square Garden. Hit the road for three shows, and in between, you play golf, or you go to a football game. And now with our access with passes, you can do that kind of stuff. Here's a quick fun fact for you, Brad. I think you'll know the answer. But Bruce Springsteen has never had a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit. He's gone to number two. He's never had a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit. He's gone to number two.

He's never gone to number one. But he has written a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit. Can you name the song? Yes. And I like the cover version better. Blinded by the Light, Manford Man. Correct. Okay.

Too easy. He wrote that? He wrote that. And I like their version better, which would get me kicked out of a lot of Bruce clubs if I was in any. But he wrote it. He wrote it. version better which would get me kicked out of a lot of uh bruce clubs if i was in any but uh he wrote yeah wrote and just in case uh listeners of this episode do not see the photo that will accompany it on torontomic.com and on social media i just want to ask jamie about his uh his t-shirt

so you got a fleetwood mac rumor shirt i do i do um i had tickets to see Fleetwood Mac, and I think it was during the pandemic. And if memory serves, was unable to get there because everything got canceled. But I have a real soft spot for a lot of bands, Fleetwood Mac among them. But that's not necessarily the reason I wore this t-shirt.

It just happened to be the first one I pulled out of the drawer. Yeah, that's usually what I say, but it's a cool shirt regardless. You know that photo is going to follow you around for a very long time. You want to look good. Well, thank you. I went plain black. What am I thinking? If I had a honeymoon suite or something like

that, I would have worn that too. Shout out to Rob Pruce. Okay. Big question from Matt in Edmonton. Matt wants to know, will the Toronto Rapt raptors this came on twitter last night this is i guess for you brad but uh will the raptors win another nba championship this season oh well if this damian lillard uh oh yeah that's my question will damian lillard be a toronto yeah i then i think they're in the mix i'm not saying they'd be a be a favorite but we

all saw what happened when you brought in Kawhi Leonard and changed the mix of the team. But what a supporting team around Kawhi. This is not the same depth. Well, I'd say that not quite, but there is the depth in the starting lineup. If it's OG Ananobi that has to go, then you've still got Pascal Siakam, Scotty Barnes,

and Damian Lillard as your big three, plus pieces around Gary Trent, Yacob Pirtle. And they're not quite at that level, but I don't think anybody is anymore. That's the difference where, you know, back then LeBron ended up in the West, which helped, but there was always that guy to get by. I don't think there's that team anymore, especially in the East. So I think they'd be in the mix if they get Damian Lillard. Exciting. Jamie, this is a personal question, but I'm wondering if you'd share with us a health update.

We'd love to hear how you're doing. Yeah, so I am now almost three years into a battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and I am thankfully dealing with a treatable form of leukemia, and all is good right now. I'm on a treatment that has been a resounding success. It won't be a success forever. In the next four to five years, my leukemia will come back with a surge, and I'll have to treat it again at that time. For now, things are great.

and I'll have to treat it again at that time. So for now, things are great. I'm glad to hear that things are great right now, and we're all hoping for the best in four to five years. Are you afraid? Nope. No, not afraid. You know, when I got my diagnosis, I had to reflect a little bit on where I've been, what I've done.

I think that's common for people that get the kind of phone call that I got. And it occurred to me over a stretch of time that I'm not really that afraid of things going in a different direction um you know my my my sort of sole hope from here on in is to see my kids uh off into adulthood right i think that is again something people think about first when they're parents and they get a diagnosis like mine um but ultimately they'll they'll be in good hands even if i don't make it and i'm and again you know i need to stress this this is a very treatable it's an uncurable form of leukemia for now for now yeah um but what i know is that there is the research is, is, is so, um, so good, so deep and so ever changing that in five years when it does come back, there could be a cure at that point. But what I also know is that there are already treatments in place for that moment. So essentially I'm going to live

with this thing until I'm an old man that's the intention and then likely as my um my doctor tells me die of something entirely different you know i might get hit by a bus or something like that here's hoping right you get hit by a bus or a foul ball that's that's actually that's a great jamie campbell way to go i would think 98 it goes out from a 98-mile-per-hour. On the field wearing a really nice suit during batting practice. Yes. That old buzzard got hit by a foul ball and died on the field.

Well, getting hit by a ball and dying. I hope people, when they heard me describe your debut on Toronto Mic'd, which was episode 584, that they go back and listen. Well, there's many nuggets of gold in that episode, which went 159.59. Like I'm now upset that I didn't just leave a second of blank space at the end of that episode. We would have been too, like, what was I thinking? Like if 159.59 is driving me crazy in retrospect.

That was pre-cancer too. I mean, imagine the scope of conversation then if I'd had that. My diagnosis came less than a year later. But it's, right, right. And then I know I had, you weren't on my show, but you were on Hebsey on Sports since then. And I was on that Zoom with you for the Hebsey on Sports. I'm not sure, Hebsey had this bad habit of like,

he'd invite somebody on Hebsey on Sports, a show I co-hosted with him for five years. But I wouldn't get a chance to talk to the guest. Like it's like Rob Baker from Tragically Hip was one. Hebsey knows my favorite band of all time, the Tragically Hip. And it's like, can I ask Rob Baker a question? But no, no.

You worked with Hebsey long enough to know that in any conversation, recorded or not, it's highly unlikely you're going to get a chance to talk anyway. So you just need to accept that from the outset. And I love Hebsey, trust me. Well, we all love Hebsey. I'm saying that with a lot in my heart. We just talked about him on the way out here

because you were mentioning local TV and how Don Taylor out West was the guy. And I said, probably like Hebsey and Taddy were out here, which I never lived with. Yes, guy. But they were they were yeah like in complete control of the sports landscape that was a different time well the only reason i ended up producing and hosting hebsey on sports for five years is that i adored sportsline and watched it every night and then once i started a podcast so i said mr mark hebsey i invited both hebsey. Taddy declined, and Hebsey said, yeah, when do you want me?

And we hit it off, and that's how that all came to be. But there is no more Hebsey on sports. But to finish this thought, people, I hope they've gone back, and maybe we'll get a little taste of it right now before we dive into Sportsnet here. But that seagull killed by Dave Winfield, especially for guys my age, we remember this.

I think he was initially charged, I think. He was, yep, with cruelty to animals. Right. Because this is a ball he threw that hit a seagull.

He was throwing it back to the Yankee dugout, as they always do in between innings after they've played catch in the outfield. And it just so happened that it struck a seagull. Right. And as anybody who went to games.

He wasn't aiming for a seagull. He wasn't trying to hit it. He might've been. He probably did try and throw it in that direction, but he never knew he was going to beam the darn thing. Randy Johnson and the dove, you know. So the, to, to just finish up the, my participation in that was that the ball boy went out, put a towel

around the seagull and happened to place it on the bench of the yankee dugout directly in front of where i was sitting and at the time i was an enterprising young man who collected things um you know mostly bats and autographed baseball cards and stuff and i looked down and i had a knapsack with me and i looked down and i thought to myself for a fleeting second that seagull is available for me to take. And it's covered in a towel. And if I wrap it in a towel, put it in my backpack, take it home to Oakville,

I could probably find a taxidermist somewhere who could stuff it and mount it. And maybe it becomes a value at some point in the world of baseball collectibles. Or serve it for dinner with an amusing Chablis. But if you had, you know, got your hands on that dead seagull that was killed by Dave Winfield

at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, and you had, you know, got a taxidermist to preserve it or whatever, and you still, I think that would absolutely be a high-valued piece of memory. But how do you verify it?

I don't have the ticket stuff. Yeah, no, good point. Right? You can't, it hasn't been authenticated by Major League Baseball. Well, you're Jamie fucking Campbell. Wow. The part that I would have loved is setting it down on the dining room table at my parents' house in Oakville and then my mom

waking to raise her children to get to school, right? And there's a, could someone please explain why there's a seagull on the dining room table? That's Jonathan Livingston, mom. He's okay. But that is, like Brad, you'll agree. That's one of the great stories.

Like that this, then, because Jamie Campbell, I don't know if you know this, Brad, he'd grow up and become a fixture on Sportsnet for like the last 25 years. Who had a deceased seagull in his basement. Yeah, I knew, I know all about his collection, but that takes it over the top. Okay okay now matt wants to know how buck martinez is doing jamie maybe this is a question for you uh he sounds great yes he's doing really well he uh

he had a diagnosis around the same time as i did his seemed to be a little more aggressive, which required then aggressive treatment. And, you know, he's taken, I think people have probably noticed, he takes stretches of time off now, and he richly deserves that time too. He's earned it. But he just loves being around the ballpark. I think he appreciates these days more now than maybe in the past when he was maybe a little bit younger and maybe took them as just

routine. And Joe and I, Joe Siddle and I look at each other frequently during broadcast because, you know, Buck can get on his soapbox now and he doesn't care. No. He's not afraid. He's not afraid to tell you how much he cannot stand a catcher who's one knee down, for example,

right? And I love it. Yeah. And I'm waving his flag. You say what you want to say. Well, that's the sweet spot for a broadcast. As far as I'm concerned as a consumer, that sweet spot where it says you're going to tell it like it is, and that's what we're looking for.

Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Yep. I love it so much and sometimes you got to wait for a broadcaster to hit a certain age before you get to that sweet spot though or they're like i'm out of f's to give no and you say about him appreciating it's funny you hear all the athletes when they retire and they retire much younger than we do in broadcasting but what's the first thing they say i just miss being around it being around the guys being around the guys,

being around the locker room, the stuff that leads up to the game. And as we've gone through it too, and Jamie and I have talked about this, that I call it the backstage pass, like for you at the Rogers Centre and me at the Scotiabank Arena, where you're there about two and a half hours before doors open. We know, you know, the ushers, the people the same uh arena and stadium staff you see the people that you're working with you're gathering your information you're getting ready and there's a build and then the door is open and then you're on the air and that stuff is is so incredible

being there's something that's that's unreal about being in an empty stadium or arena when you're the only ones there and as much as that sounds like oh nothing going on no that's when everything's going on and it's and it's it's your you've got that access and that's never been lost on us but i can imagine if we're fortunate enough to do it as long as buck has that it gets even more valuable to you and he's such a joy to watch and listen to now on a personal level um to see him and regardless of what team has come into the city go into the clubhouse or visiting dugout he knows everybody everybody there isn't i have not seen a single player walk into toronto from an opposing team and not at some point be cornered and it doesn't matter what their name is. Trout, you know, judge, managers, coaches. He always seems to be able to take them aside for a few minutes.

And I think everybody sees him and automatically respects him. It's funny when he took over the play-by-play duties from me, I remember somebody saying, how do you feel about this? And I said, how do I feel about it? He was playing professional baseball the year I was born. That's how I feel about it. He has every right to take over my position. Oh, that was my question, by the way, Jamie,

that you're remembering there. I asked you that question. But you know what? I trotted out because it's true. I said, how can I be upset at being replaced by a guy who was literally playing professional baseball the year I was born yeah it's pretty difficult legend one of that one of the very few you can call legitimate legend in our business in this country for sure has he ever hinted on how long he wants to do

this at some point he's probably going to want to put up his feet and uh retire he has not not to me he might have to i'm gonna get this i gotta get on, would you two vouch for me? My tie to Buck Martinez is that his son attended the same primary school as me for a period of time in the 1980s. Oh, well there's your in. Casey. Right, and this is, and the other fun fact, at the same time

Rance Malinick's son was attending my primary school. So this was very exciting to me. Which one? Do you remember the name? Ryan. Oh, okay. Was he attending at half the time and then Garth Orge's kid was platooning? Love it.

Oh man, you're bringing me back. The drive of 85. I think I peaked too young. That was the highlight of my sports enjoyment. I miss Rance. Rance and I worked in the booth together a few years. Oh, that's right. We had the time of our lives.

You're rotating color guys. You had about four different guys. He's got a. Oh, that's right, yeah. We had the time of our lives. The rotating color guys. You had about four different guys. He's got a sense of humor that is off the charts. Awesome. Can you remember the rotation there? You mentioned the color guys. That worked with me? Yeah.

There were several of them. Yeah. So it was mostly either Pat Tabler or Rance Mullenix, and usually it was divided geographically. So Tabler would be sort of mid Midwestern America and east and anytime we were out west it was Rance and then sometimes Darren Fletcher would fly up from the compound in Illinois and I would work with him there were some early years where Tom Candiotti would oh yeah I was trying to think before Tom Candiotti. And the very, very first game I did

was with the late John Cerruti back in 2002. So I had a few. Man, that was a terrible day when we learned John had passed away. Wow. I think I'm older than John was when he passed. Actually, that was, wow, far too soon.

Okay, Brian wants to know if you guys agree that the pitch clock has knocked it out of the park. Along with killing the shift, the game is so much better to watch. Yes. He goes next. Automated strike zones. What are your thoughts? Well, on the pitch clock, there's no question it's improved the pace of the game.

There's no question. I think the attention span of people who thought baseball was too long and too boring has fixed to a degree those opinions a little bit. It's so noticeable how quickly things move. And I say that from a personal perspective and that during a broadcast, I knew how much time I had to breathe and prepare for whatever was next. And now I turn around and it's the fourth inning. Yeah. As soon as first pitch is thrown, it feels like it's the fourth inning. And I just believe that when change is made, as radical as it might seem, you can always tell how it's received by people's reaction to it.

And I have heard nothing but good things. You're right. Nothing but good with respect to the pitch clock. I've heard nobody mention the bigger bases. I've heard nobody complain

about the shift. Every now and then I see a manager challenge the fact that a shortstop might have been on the wrong side of second base. That was the first time it's happened all year.

And it's like the extra inning rule. Remember, we all grumbled about the extra inning rule. Well, nobody's grumbling about it anymore because it's actually kind of exciting. Yeah, without a doubt. As long as they keep it out of the playoffs, I think we'd all be fine with it. Neil has an interesting question after watching last night's game.

So he says, this is for you again, Jamie. You know what? It's baseball season. We're going to make the play. Yeah, I know. Don't worry about it. And then I do want to dive into the 25th anniversary of Sportsnet. So that is coming very soon.

I'm going to just tease it for like three hours and then never get to it. Neil says, often pitching matchups are promoted as they are competing against each other. Alternatively, how much should we be looking at the pitcher umpire matchup? If Gosman looks for low strikes with a splitter, would he not be better to match up with an umpire more likely to call low strikes? And this,

when you answer this, this will give you a chance to comment on that PS that Brian had. He wants robo umps. And I'm curious what you guys think of robo-umps. But what do you think about this, matching your pitcher to the umpire as opposed to the opposing pitcher? Well, I would want to pay no mind to who the opposing, pardon me, the umpire is that particular day behind home plate. Look, they all have their

imperfections we know that and we saw quite a few of them uh last night um but i i like to caution people because when when a call goes against the blue Jays and who comment about them normally on social media tend not to notice. No, exactly. Everything, and I mean everything, balances out at the end of the year. Right. So where automated strike zones are concerned, fine, bring it in. What I want is the continuation of the imperfection of the umpire, believe it or not. There are so many people out there who have this, let's get it right.

And I love that instant replay has allowed for that. But man, there is just something about a call not going your way. You turn, you beak off to the home plate umpire the manager might come out because it's time to get tossed you know we may never see the days of earl weaver and billy martin and guys you know guys who are running out there and stealing the bags and and throwing them around like hand grenades and stuff like that like i missed the human aspect how about john mackinrow tennis is half his career is remembered for his uh you know yeah jock flew up here you know the answer the question jerk now there's it's all the lines are done they get it right every time and i was

thinking what's the 85 the famous kansas city st louis world series where the guy oh yeah the first base call right and we still talk about it still He just passed away in that umpire. Still talk about it. And that would never have been. An egregious mistake. Yeah. Or Galarraga's near perfect game in Detroit. Oh, man. Right? Poor umpire in tears after.

But would we be talking about Galarraga, for example, or Don Dechinger if those things didn't happen? And again, it comes back to how much of you, how many of you who watch the game want everything perfect, everything by the book? If that's what you want, then bring on automation. I'm not against it. It's just that, boy, I love a good back and forth between a manager and an employee.

I'm with you, but there is something to getting it right. Because it's an objective. There's no human emotion. There's nothing. It's just, this is an objective. There's no human emotion. There's nothing. It's just this is an objective. This is a ball. This is a strike. Everybody's got the same rules.

But can you guarantee that with automation, right? That's a whole, yeah. Because anybody that watches our broadcast, for example, thinks that if a ball inside that strikeout square is a strike, well, it depends on how the technology is placed, right? It's when it crosses the plate, right?

Angle, like, yeah, there's for sure. It may not actually be a strike. They must hate, the umpires must absolutely hate that. Listen, I'm going to plan a, here's my, we're going to get you two back for a three-hour discussion on Robo-Ump. I'll get Mike Wilner in on that. I think he wants to be

a part of that. So we'll do do that. Now we're going to dive into Sportsnet's 25th anniversary. I can't believe it's been 25 years. I want all the details from you guys. You were there. As you know, I have gifts for you since you came here. Who on this episode enjoys a can of Fresh Craft

beer? Not me. Nobody. Nobody. Now, I used to to but funny thing is when they tell you your blood has cancer yeah you cut back so drastically no i hear you i'm on i'm on a pill right now for a blood situation and they told me not to drink so now i still do i will tell you but i have i stopped myself at one unit of fresh craft beer, usually a Sunnyside IPA from Great Lakes. And yeah, it does kind of damper those evenings

when you might, you know, pound back a few. So I know what you're talking about. My situation, not as serious as yours, but I do have the similar orders. But Brad, are you still drinking alcohol? Is anyone on this episode still drinking beer? Oh yeah, yeah. I'm not as much of a beer guy. I enjoy

a beer like after golf and stuff like that, but I'd still partake. Okay, I'm sending you home with some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Beautiful. And everyone listening in Ontario, you can pick it up at LCBO's and even some grocery stores, or you can order it from the HQ

here in Southern Etobicoke. In fact, they hosted us for TMLX 13. I want to shout out Palma's Kitchen. Palma Pasta has four locations in Mississauga and Oakville, and they're going to host us for TMLX 14. Jamie, you're invited. Brad, you're invited. Can I interject here?

Oh my God, yeah. I've become a Palma pasta customer since appearing on this program because it just so happens that their Mississauga location is very close to my family physician. And almost every time I go to see her for a checkup, I then celebrate with a lasagna. Well, I'm going to send you home with a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta, but that's great.

It's amazing when I hear from people making their return visit and they're like, I never heard of Palma Pasta. You sent me home with a lasagna. The family loved it. And now I'm buying a lasagna every week. And lasagna coming your way from Palma Pasta. They're going to host us at TMLX 14. So everyone listening is invited noon on December 9th, 2023.

That's a Saturday. We're going to have an event at Palmas Kitchen, and that's in Mississauga. And you're all invited, and you guys are invited too. Brad, if there's no Raptor game that day, I expect to see you at Palmas Kitchen. I was going to say, I got a Johnny Canuck, one of the Johnny Canuck cans you gave me.

Yeah, Canuck Pale Ale. Up on the shelf in my office, and I see it over here because Johnny Canuck was the original Canuck logo when they were in the Western League, but in Vancouver. And Mississauga is in Ontario for those Toronto mic listeners who aren't in the greater Toronto area. Great question. Is there anyone listening

who doesn't know that? Remember, you're talking to two Sportsnet guys who were raised on regional broadcasting. No, you're right. Here's a fun fact for you. Tristan Pompey, brother of Dalton Pompey, works at Great Lakes Brewery. Does he?

When he's not patrolling right field for the Guelph Royals. I saw him play this summer, in fact. Okay. Well, that must be true as well. Yes. But he, yeah. So Dalton's now a cop in Hamilton. We all read that news.

But the father of these two individuals is the cowboy dancer from Electric Circus. I don't know if we have any Electric Circus fans here. But Electric Circus had a cowboy dancer in the early days who was Kay Pompei, who went on to father Dalton. And he even released a 12-inch single called Summertime, Summertime, which is unbelievable. And he's also an FOTM.

He's been on the program. But here's an interesting mind blow is that on Friday, which is two days from now, I have been invited to a electric circus reunion, downtown Toronto. And shout out to Joel Goldberg. He has promised to introduce me to Moses Snymer so I can pitch him on making his Toronto Mike debut. This is all happening in two days time. So shout out to the cowboy dancer. One more tie in with Dalton Pompei, strangely. Yes.

That Jamie was off last weekend, out visiting family out east, and I filled in on Blue Jay Central. And one of the things we showed, because who's the, in this case of my mind, the kid, the fastest speedster that they just brought up. Oh, Cam Eden. Cam Eden.

We're talking about the importance of that, of a base runner. And I mentioned Dave Roberts still getting beers bought for him in Boston for that one stolen base. It led to another when they come back against the Yankees for the Red Sox. But Dalton Pompey almost changed the fate of the Blue Jays. Is it 2015 against Kc when he stole second and third and then was stranded so it's interesting that you mentioned because i hadn't thought of dalton pompeii in a baseball sense i remember the cop story but we just showed how important that

is and uh that was the baseball that i was raised on was the ricky anderson the vince colman when they would get on and the show would start r Rick Anderson, and getting off topic, but 89, completely destroyed the Blue Jays single-handedly. Every time he walked, he'd be on second base, a pitch later, and third, standing there doing his little thing, and they couldn't control him, right? And then they had to go get him eventually. So speed can be a big difference at this time of year.

Well, it reminded me of Dalton on third base. It almost, like, I had this sensation when you were talking about it. Like it was kind of like, not quite like 87, but it just like, we were so close. Like, oh my goodness. How did we not cash in Dalton Pompey from third base in that game? Well, an interesting AB, Ben Revere, right? Where we're talking about automated strike

zones where, you know, what could have been a 2-2 turned into a, what was it? Could have been a 3-1 count turned into a 2-2 and changed the complexion of a very, very important at-bat. You know what? I'm getting upset here. So here, let me give you one more gift here, and then we're going to get into Sportsnet.

But this is a measuring tape. You each have one. This is courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of this community. Isn't that nice? You never know if you have to measure something, Jamie. Nope, that's right. Insert Joe here.

Measure the strike zone. Measure the strike zone. Absolutely. I can't believe it. Okay. So we're speaking now in September, 2023. And if my math skills are correct, 25 years ago was 1998. You two, who joined Sportsnet first?

Jamie, aren't you a day one guy at Sportsnet? Well, we both are. Yeah, okay. We both are. One of us joined on the eastern side of the country and one of us joined on the western side of the country. Jamie was an original anchor and I was hired at what Dan Murphy does now.

I was the Vancouver reporter for about four months and then they brought me on the desk. You were like the Terry David Mulligan of the operation. TDM, baby much remember how we'd say one word if it was brian adams uh with the summer of 69 on much west he'd go adams 69 west i'm mulligan everything was shortened uh but i i was hired there for yeah in on basically jamie and I were hired almost the same day. Have you had yours yet? I did, yes. September 19th. Mine is any day now that I'll get the 25th notice.

They're very nice about that at Rogers. Do you get like a ring or what do you get? They go and get something. You get a notification on the day that you signed. Yeah. In my case, it was September the 19th, 1998. So I think I might have, I might have any day now, like it literally could be today.

And then four months in, they brought me out It was September the 19th, 1998. So I think I might have, I might have any day now, like it literally could be today. And then four months in, they brought me out and Jamie and I worked together on the desk when I moved out, which is, yeah, that's, you know, February of 99. I moved out the week that Mel Lastman brought the army in. Right. But then we did our first show, yeah, about a week later. So both of us are day one.

What do you guys remember about the early days? And lest we forget, now we talk about this as like Rogers Sportsnet, but this was CTV Sportsnet, right? So that's also an interesting part of the, so was Bell Media the owner? Remind me, is it just, what do you remember about the ownership in 98? So owned by CTV, I can't recall. It was so long ago.

Maybe no bell was involved at that time. Um, and they constructed a beautiful at that time, state-of-the-art facility North, just North in the same lot of what is now the CTV tsn compound which if you're driving along in the greater toronto area if you're driving along the 401 in scarborough and you pass by sort of that intersection of the 401 and mccowan road it's hard not to see the ctv tsn compound well the sportsnet the original ctv sportsnet compound was a separate building that was connected by an overpass walkway at the back end of that parking lot.

And in the early days when we were all part of the same company, we would share a makeup room. And the cafeteria. With people like Lloyd Robertson and Lisa LaFlemme. It was kind of fascinating to walk in and, oh, Lloyd's in the chair. I guess I better sit here and wait for a second. So I just did a little quick little Google and CTV was owned by Bell Globe

Media. Right. And then, of course, Bell Globe Media, a few years later, would buy TSN and that's when they had to divest their stake. Very interesting. And then Rogers becomes a sole owner of Sportsnet in 2004

because I guess Fox had a minority stake for a period of time. Okay, very interesting. And they got Rod Black and Sunil Joshi in the trade. Remember when we split? Rod went the bell side with Sunil and everybody else stayed with us.

It was pretty wild. There's a show right now just dropped Friday on Crave and it is called I Have Nothing. And Carolyn Taylor created the show. She was on my show yesterday. So this is all very top of mind. So I'm watching the show

and figure skating plays a role in this series. Very interesting series. But you hear Rod Black, he's uncredited. Even the closed caption, he just says announcer. But excuse me, I'm all choked up talking Rod Black. But Rod Black is in this series uncredited as a voice of figure skating. Just a fun, useless fact. So Brad, take me back.

So you take me back. I just want to hear from both of you. You know, joining this upstart, but, you know, TSN is already well established. Like, so what are the thoughts about what Sportsnet will be when TSN seems to have a stranglehold on Canada's, you know,

sports specialty channel lane there? Yeah, well, Jamie and I were talking about that on the way out here. It's amazing that the network not only thriving, but I believe right now that we are the leader.'s quite close with uh ratings obviously this time of year the blue jays with their big numbers or you know it used to be the cfl and the blue jays were kind of a hit or miss battle back and forth and i think the blue jays have taken over that uh which helps so the fact that the network is still on the air 25 years later, nobody thought that was a possibility.

Nobody thought there was a need for a second sports network. There was eventually three with the score headline sports for a while. But I don't know if I thought that enough big picture. My initial thought, not only in moving your career along, I was newspaper and then I was only been in TV for a year and a bit. And Jamie can speak to this too and you did local sports you were at the end of the news hour and they'd start you'd have 10 minutes and you'd be producing everything writing everything producing everything and then they'd come and say okay you got eight now it's because something would happen in news now you got seven

you'd always get you know pushed off and when I had the chance to work at an all sports network the first thing I thought of was wait a second second, where the show we do an hour. And back then, all you thought about was doing the desk show, which is now Sportsnet Central. And it was like, this is amazing. Get to be on the whole time. No one's going to come and take time away from you because sports is the show. And then all the resources that we were one man shows doing local.

So when I got to that point, I, I, I never had that time to go. I've made the big time and you're young and you're advancing. You think maybe it's one step. You don't know what the next step is going to be, but it's, it was unbelievably exciting because for the most part, we were all, all young, late twenties, early thirties. And, uh, everybody was, I think what they wanted was people with a little bit of experience,

but people who weren't recognized as being attached to anybody else instead of just going and raiding TSN, taking Darren to Titian and taking the people that were established. Right. So it was there. And there was internal battles too, which I think served as well because everybody wanted to be, not so much to be the boss come by and pat you on the back we did have a boss that told every one of us that we were the best which is good on you know but you didn't want necessarily the other person to fail but you wanted to make sure you weren't left behind

because there was a lot with darren millard with mike tote with jamie there was a lot of young talent you're like it immediately raised the level of your game don't you think jamie that you felt like okay i think I've been working hard and now I watch what these guys do. The first time I did a show with Millard, it's like his research is way deeper than mine. So that to me was the most exciting thing, just being part of something like that.

And then having the chip on his shoulder, can we beat TSN? It's more fun to be the ones coming from behind. And the reason we thought we had a chance is because what we were offering was going to be different. And you took one look around at the stable of young anchors in that original year, whether it was me or Darren Dreger or Darren Millard or you, everybody was from a different part of the country. And if they weren't from a different part of the country, they had lived in a different part of the country and understood the value and the importance

of sports on a regional level. And I think with no disrespect intended, the perception of TSN at the time was, and you hear this often, the Torontoonto sports network and that was a bunch of very talented people who were predominantly gta centered and knew nothing of what was going on elsewhere and what we thought about who we were was well we're going to show people in these various regions that we are part of who they are right and we support and understand their teams whether it was the canucks the oilers the senators whoever it may

have been so you know i think us coming into play in 1998 probably improved tsn in a way right where where suddenly they had some competition where they had no competition prior and it might've made them long-term a better network. Yeah, no competition always helps, makes you raise your game, which is why competition is so good. Now, Jamie, you and Darren Millard,

you host the very first, now today we call it Sportsnet Central, but I always knew it as Sportsnet Connected, but it was called Sports Central when it started. Yes. Sports Central. So you and Darren Millard hosted the first Sports Central. The first night.

And that was an accidental combination of two. Because, and I guess 25 years later, we're allowed to be. You got to tell all the stories today, Jim. Perfectly frank. The partnerships that were formed then did not involve me and darren millard but it was based on the evening and i think it was a thursday evening based on schedule it was my night to be a late night host it just happened to be opening

night um but my broadcast partner at the time had just been brought in days prior, hadn't had too many rehearsals and was, shall we say, not exactly up to speed. So a decision was made at the very last minute. It's not talking about me, by the way. No, it's not Brad.

It sounds a lot like Brad Faye. No, it wasn't Brad. I wasn't there yet. And I don't want to embarrass the person in any way but he just wasn't Brad. I wasn't there yet. And I don't want to embarrass the person in any way, but he just wasn't ready for opening night. Now we have a gender, we can narrow it down. Okay.

He wasn't ready for opening night. And that's, you know, it was well known at that time that we needed to put on a good front on opening night. So they took Darren aside and said, hey, listen, because Darren was very much up to speed after rehearsals. You're not going to be working with Campbell, but on opening night,

you're going to be working with Campbell just this one time. So that's how he and I ended up sort of accidentally. It's funny. Cause I think to be honest with you, I think it may have been the only show I ever hosted with Darren Millard. Oh yeah. I never again, did I sit with Darren Millard. Really? Oh yeah. I never again did I sit with Darren Millard. And yet Brad and Darren had a longstanding partnership.

And yet that was the only night I ever worked with him. Brad, you still tight with Darren? I don't talk to Darren very much. When we went, you know, he went to hockey. Very separate. Hockey always is his own island. Oh goodness, yeah. It's not quite as bad anymore. But I say that bad meaning own island. Oh, it's not quite as bad anymore,

but I say that bad, meaning that, you know, it's not quite as separate. Okay. I have a little music because I want to talk hockey, obviously, but here's a little.

Is that our theme? National? Yeah. This is like the, um, 1998, uh, sports net theme. Wow. If you were to watch a, a regional broadcast, Is that our theme? National? Yeah. This is like the 1998 Sportsnet theme for if you were to watch a regional broadcast of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Unbelievable. And so, yeah, so Darren now is thriving in Vegas with the Stanley Cup champion, Golden Knights. But yeah, he's been out of Sportsnet for probably seven or eight years maybe. And, um, and by that time we, uh, we hadn't worked together for probably seven or eight years anyway. Uh, but we had, yeah, three or four that we were worked together, um, on the weeknight

edition of, uh, uh, of again, sports central. They change it from sports central because when uh tsn went uh got espn got involved in the ownership with them and they change it to sports center they were sports desk so sports center and sports central sound too much the same so that's when we went to i think sports net news and then you know it's had a few connections yeah yeah i i opened up almost all of them when i was doing the six o'clock show even when we had to wear the speedos and leather chaps or whatever it was we had for connected not quite that's what i always use people know what i'm talking about when i say that

hey to this day and and i'll admit this and maybe it's just that i'm getting older and my memory isn't quite as strong to this day i sometimes have to ask what's the name of the show i'm throwing back to it's true it's true i always know it's okay there's i see ken and ivanka sitting there i'll just throw back to ken and ivanka but there are some days back to you old age where i'll say and what's the name of the show i'm throwing back to again and sports net central doesn't roll off the tongue real easy if you don't say it on a regular basis right right? So, yeah, so that, there's, yeah, another, like a lot of guys, all of us original desk guys moved on to live events,

which is the, you know, I didn't know it at the time when I got there because at that point, the desk was still the thing for the first three or four years, right? And then things changed with the internet and everything else, but all of us have moved on to different,

Draeger was one of the original anchors. And he, of course, is now. Well, let me ask you about Darren Draeger, who was also a good FOTM, a sweetheart like you guys. Oops, as Draeger would say. He's one of those rare cases where a guy, like we used to say, cross the parking lot. But there's not a lot of examples in the history

of Sportsnet where TSN and Sportsnet, one of you plucks or coaches, if you will, talent from the other. Like there's very few examples of this, but Draeger's an example. Like what was the vibe at Sportsnet when Darren Draeger said, I'm going to the, uh, the, the enemy? Well, yeah, I'll tell Jamie to tell you. So I'll tell Mike quick. Cause what happened was it was almost like a, um, good on you because there was a change in management and a very strange one. And all of Drager's, uh, cohorts and the people that he trusted that inner circle that were

running it were all let go. He had been approached by TSN. From what I understand, it was Bob McKenzie said, I need to scale back. I'm the only insider. And the only guy that is on my level right now that takes scoops from me is Darren Dreger, who was our host. It was weird. So Dreger would get these. He had these connections and he'd sometimes give them to the analysts to share.

So anyway, they had come at him and he said, no, I'm staying at Sportsnet. And then when they got rid of thing, he phoned back and said, if the offer still stands, I'll come. So when he left, it was not like not like nope you're taking off on us it was like i think my memory is that everybody understood you were happy for him yeah we were we were happy for him but at the same time on a personal level i was just very much upset by his departure because dregs was not your average host he was almost like an executive producer in a weird kind of way he was he was like our agent and i can't even tell you if he's older than i am but he felt almost like a father i'm gonna say he's older than you okay he felt like a father figure he looks older than you and that he was i think he's young we we were all of these

young anchors that had come in from different parts of the country. Wow. And he felt like our leader in some kind of way. Totally, he did. I, oddly enough, to this day, I have disability insurance because of him. Because he rallied us around. Great West Life, I still have it.

We were all on contract. None of us were on staff. Yeah. And he basically dictated, here's what you should do to protect yourself since you're a contract employee and it was i just i was crushed when he left i i just i just thought well he's he's part of the original face here yeah and now he's going to you know the sworn enemy so to speak and it was it was it's kind of like jack jack armstrong's departure in the same kind of way yeah and it was and jack was again let go because we didn't have

basketball then, which was the strangest decision of all time. And then he TSN scoops him up. Smart move right away. The other thing with Draeger, like I said, he was kind of our leader and he was sort of the, he set the tone for the thing. He didn't put up with stuff that we didn't know that we're not supposed to put up with and he

rallied us. And I'll say another thing, the last time, Jamie and I are both both staff now so don't give too many negotiations but the last contract negotiation that i had before i went staff which is probably 10 years ago uh i've i called dreger and uh he had been long been at tsn and i hadn't talked to him for a long time but i knew he was the guy i needed to get the feel of the landscape and what I should be thinking about. And sure enough, he was, you know, then classic drag cleared the throat. I'll tell you this much, my friend.

He would not hesitate. Yeah, he's the best. To take a young anchor who thought they were hot stuff aside in front of everybody and put them in their place. There was one time, and I won't tell you who it was, in front of everybody and put them in their place there was one time and i won't tell you who it was in front of all of us he took this person aside and he said young man i have underwear that's been in this business longer than you right and just leveled because the guy

wouldn't take his advice oh yeah and so he said yeah you might want to listen to uh to me so yeah he's he's classic no no nonsense and i honestly not to make this a darren dreger tribute episode but i it's unbelievable to me that he has he was a hockey host he was a host and what we do and going from that to be in the mix it's he and elliot and then bob when he jumps back in the the the top insiders in a sport and it's elliot's the same story that elliot was uh you know a reporter and for those guys to do that the amount of work that goes into it and uh so yeah it's all the respect in the world and this speaks speaks to, you talked about, you know, TSN, Toronto Sports Network, but you guys, I mean, other than Jamie from Oakville, Ontario,

which is, I believe, GTA, but Brad, you're from Vancouver and Dreger's a Manitoba guy right now. Yes, but I was trained in Edmonton. So I was born and raised in Oakville, but to get my training, I had to move out to Alberta and then actually to Ottawa after, after I spent four years in Edmonton. Okay.

That's why I consider myself more of a regional guy. Yeah. Same as Duffy. In fact, I, I followed James, James left CJOH in Ottawa and I was recruited to replace him. So I literally took his spot there before we all moved on to these numbers. Now I'm thinking of the tragic story of who James, whose spot James took. Yes, Brian Smith. Right.

Yeah. So yes, which for people who don't know, Brian Smith was a former NHL player, long time, very popular sportscaster in Ottawa for CJOH, the CTV affiliate. And he tutored James, as far as I know, James Duthie. Yep.

And then there was a deranged man who sat in the parking lot at the studio one day looking for someone to shoot. And it just so happened that Brian was the first person to walk out. And he killed him right there in front of the entrance to CJOH, an entrance that I got to know very, very well, um, less than a year later. And, um, you know, James Duthie became sort of his successor in a way, um, ended up leaving to go out to Vancouver, if I'm not mistaken. And then they immediately phoned me and said, well, will you come over and take over his position? And I was looking to get closer to home. So I moved west to east. From Edmonton to Ottawa. Okay.

Yeah. Tragic story there. And I will shout out James Duthie, who's been on the show many times. Another sweetheart. Like maybe only sweethearts will come on the program. Maybe that's the ass hats to say no. But James Duthie, very, very kind man to the show at least.

As are you two gentlemen. James is a great dude. So James, James, James, where are you? My firstborn's name is James. That's why it pops up in my head.

But Brad, when my wife built the loft beds for our two little ones that are now seven and nine, but they had loft beds. Brad, I got a note from you, I think,

that you would pay her to build one for you. I remember telling my wife that Brad Fay wants you to go make a loft bed. That's a few years ago now. We kind of name-checked. Can you name-check as many of the on-air, and you don't have to just stick to on-air, except those are the names I'll probably know,

but who was at Sportsnet in 1998 other than Jamie Campbell and Brad Fay? There's only one other on air person. Darren? No. Rob Foltz. In terms of still there. In terms of still there. Who was there?

Christine Simpson although Christine left for a while but continues but yeah I think I could name almost everybody. Are we the only three left? The only three original on air. And Rob, he's doing a lot of tennis. Yeah. And curling.

I think he's got a place in Grand Bend, Ontario. I feel like, because I camp at Pinery, which is kind of down a couple of kilometers down the road, but I think he's enjoying the sunsets on Lake Huron. But Rob Fold's another sweetheart. I'll just shut him out. on Lake Huron, but, uh, Rob folds another sweetheart. I'll just shut him out. So who was there 98, uh,

beyond you three who are still there. And yeah, you mentioned Christine Simpson left and came back, but, uh, so my first, uh, co-host was a guy named Richard Provence.

Um, and then before Brad came in, uh, the other partnership was, um, Darren Millard and Kevin Quinn, who later became the television voice of the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah. So Neil Joshi was the supper hour host. Yeah.

And I believe on weekends. Drager. Darren Drager would host the weekend edition of Sports Central. And he was the lead on the hockey, right? Right. So that was kind of the original, you know, six faces of the network. And then the reporters, Trevor Thompson and Christine Simpson were the Toronto reporters. Right.

And then you had affiliates. So the way I got in in was it's interesting because then they hired their own people in all the cities but i was working for the ctv station in vancouver so they used all the local and their randy team and the sports yeah so basically the whole concept was because it was a ctv owned network instead of hiring staff reporters for each city they would just essentially demand at no additional pay i guess yeah that the ctv affiliated sportscasters in vancouver calgary edmonton winnipeg and so on would simply file their stories into sportsnet for airing on Sports Central. And most of them did and did so reliably.

But I remember one guy in particular, and unfortunately, I think he might have passed away not long ago, Randy Tiemann in Montreal, who I guess had no interest in doing this free work for this network and he would always end his reports by saying randy team and in montreal for the sport net right he would he would if i remember he would intentionally butcher the name of the network because i think he was just generally ticked off that he had to do all this additional work for a network that wasn't paying him anything additionally. And you know what? Honestly, I remember how that felt because years prior, I had worked for CBC in Edmonton as part of their sports department.

We did a syndication service to CBC affiliated stations across the country, including Red Deer TV. And what they would do in Red Deer is they would literally take a story that I had gone shot, written and produced, and they would carve out other than my voice, carve out any mention of me. Like literally,

I had literally put this entire story together fed it to the affiliates and one day i'm in red deer tuning in watching barry delay yes do the sportscast and he says with more let's go to edmonton and the next thing you know edmonton yeah i never heard of a reporter named edmonton and up comes my story on some local you know whatever right and and there's no stand up in it so you don't actually see me you hear me yeah and at the end when i was expecting to hear jamie campbell for cbc in edmonton they cut it out and no and on the back end of it absolutely no acknowledgement of who you just heard wow so i was a little ticked. I kind of understand where Randy Tiemann was coming from. Yeah, I know. The sport net. When does Nick Kiprios enter the fold at Sportsnet?

He was day one, and he was doing mostly junior hockey initially, right? And Nick's great because he admits that he was still really dealing with the concussions, and he had just recently retired, recently retired and he has he was quite open about it where he said do you remember i could you know i had trouble i get lost sometimes just sitting but he what nick had right away there was a star quality right because the way he looked in that little sneer that he had and he looked like a hockey player and uh and so he he got a lot longer runway and then he became to me, to me, when he left Hocken and Canada, I thought he was the face of the broadcast.

And that was just, I think, a financial decision. He is back this year, though, on Leaf Games. Yes, he is. On regional Leaf Games on TV. Because he's back in the family, for sure. Which is awesome. You can hear him on the Fan 590. Yeah.

And he had what, Don Cherry is the ultimate example, but Nick had that piece that you want as an analyst where half the people hated what he said. It's like, well, it doesn't matter if you're listening. I hear what Kip real sad, I can't stand it.

Well, you're watching. Right. And it's like, they didn't like that. He, if he picked on the leafs or he said something, wasn't afraid.

Yeah. And to his credit learned quickly, he might've, he might've been uncomfortable to watch and listen to for the first six months to a year, but boy, did he keep his ears open. Yeah. And he learned quickly. He was humble for sure. And then he developed contacts that were otherworldly after a while.

Yeah. Right. So we talked about, you know, FOTM Joe Siddle, who's a sweetheart as well, loved my chat with Joe. But yeah, Joe, you got in Buck Martinez. We talked last time, Jamie, about Greg Zahn. And now we're talking Nick Kiprios. But you two, you never played the game

on a professional level. Like, did you ever, is there any, do you ever get flack from people who are like, here you are, you're analyzing a game that you actually never played

at the same level as those aforementioned people? Well, okay. So, yeah, I used to hear that on occasion like what do you know you never played but that's not why we're here yeah we're not and we're not here because we're analysts we're here because we're hosts and i think sometimes people see you know whether it's it's me sitting up there with joe siddle or caleb joseph or or Brad's there with Alvin Williams or,

you know, or Sherm used to be there with Leo, right? It's the, if you don't understand how television works, you might be thinking, well, why is that guy talking?

They never played. Well, of course we didn't. We're broadcasters. We're there. And I take this to heart. My job is not to sit there and tell you how I think the game should be played because I didn't stand in a Major League Batters box.

My job is to ask Caleb or Joe why it's being played the way it's being played. But if I may, as a diehard Jays fan since the 1983 season, my favorite play-by-play duo in the booth, Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth,

neither of whom played professional baseball as far as I know. No, they did not but but tom and jerry didn't spend a whole lot of time telling you why that particular at bat didn't work and why that pitch sequence was ineffective and why they were their defensive alignment wasn't the way it probably should have been yeah no replays on radio they're telling stories. They were great describers and they were both exceptional storytellers. And that's what they should have been, right? That's what

Vin Scully was. Right. That's what Tom and Jerry were. And that's the role of the broadcaster straight up. You're right. And that's why we have Dan Schulman, one of the great play-by-play voices of all time. We're lucky to have him here, but he'll always have beside him if it's not. It used to be maybe Pat Tabler, now it might be Buck Martinez,

or it'll be Joe Siddle, but it's typically going to be somebody who played the game at a professional level. Okay, cool. By the way, Nick Kiprios, here's a fun fact for you. He cut his on-air teeth by appearing on the Humble and Fred show on 102.1. So that's sort of when he was transitioning from a player to broadcaster. He gives a lot of credit to his appearances on Humble and Fred for helping him. You know, he did have some more teeth to cut, so to speak, when he was on the air at Sportsnet.

But that sort of helped him segue over to a media career and i think if i'm not mistaken i don't know the story to be true that he got he was discovered because he happened to be working out in the same gym as scott moore who was the executive producer at sportsnet yeah i believe that could be and that would make association first took given a little bit of history at sportsnet i would believe that sorry speaking of scott moore. FOTM Scott Moore, by the way. Hebsey, Hebsey was at Sportsnet.

When abouts does Hebsey show up at Sportsnet? I, I know exactly, it was either, either year two or at the very latest year three, he replaced Sunil

on that early show. And they, it was a, I remember it was a departure and he was only there for a year, but it was a departure because Hebsey had been the late night highlight guy and then he was doing the early show. And he took, came in and tried to change everything around,

do it his way, brought his own producer and everything else. And not in a bully way, just say, he said, this is how we do it. He's got strong opinions he did he was on the highest rated show and in canada for a long time so he had that right to to do it but then he was only there for a year and i think there was a contract uh don't want to speak for hebsey but i think there was a contract issue for him that he wasn't happy and then that's when they turned it over to to jody well we're gonna ask let's talk about

jody vance and that became that's when i remember scott telling me he phoned me i was on vacation up in the interior bc and he said i'm just letting you know that this and this and he said and he goes i don't know if you were interested but we did talk about you perhaps doing the six o'clock show but we don't want to mess with what we're doing and he said and jody's gonna do it and i said well you know what you're doing scott you're turning it all over we're all young now like there was no there always had ben senile hebsey that always been a veteran and then all of a sudden so yeah so then that's when when jody came into the and then jim van horn came it came later later yeah right jansen van horn yeah yeah right talking about that cross pollination right you don't often see that but he had gone

to radio in between and then then they brought him back. Oh, the Chum Station. Yes. Right. The team. There's a micumentary about 10.50, the team. And yeah, I mean, yeah, Paul Romanek still gets mad if you bring it up. Does he?

Well, they were promised more time. They killed it, I think, 18 months into its run or whatever. And a lot of people left a lot of interesting opportunities to go to, because it was CHUM, right? So you could actually, it was a time when you can actually speak to the owner. I don't know if you've tried to speak to the owner of Sportsnet. It's not possible anymore, but you could do it back then.

It was beneficial for us. So tell me. Well, because there was no affiliation with either TSN or Sportsnet, and they needed programming. So they would frequently call those of us at Sportsnet, and I'm sure many of the people at TSN, to say, come on in and sit with Romanuk or whoever for an hour, and we'll pay you $300. Yeah. Right? And you just go in, and I think they were on Yonge Street. You'd go into the studio, sit down and chat sports for an hour and and walk out with a paycheck and i wonderful i was on with

van horn and i remember that because i'd never met him and he was a hero you know mine he was one of the guys and sitting there coming in nice meet you brad and we'll be on in a second he's in commercial put the headphones back on and just like that's jim van horn cool cool a hero to you brad from tsn but if you talk to somebody similar vintage maybe a little older who grew up in That's Jim Van Horn. A hero to you, Brad, from TSN. But if you talk to somebody similar vintage, maybe a little older who grew up in Toronto, Jim Van Horn was the 1050 chum guy. Okay.

He was a top 40, big popular top 40 jock. He had his 1050. This is back when 1050 chum was the station. And then he was at Calgary. He was on TV, I think, at 2 and 7. I think a lot of the guys went. Romanek went through there. A lot of guys went through where Toth worked and Longsborough and those guys.

I'm pretty sure he was out there. And then he was an original TSN guy. But yeah, my favorite. The West was a breeding ground. I literally worked at a CBC station in Edmonton that at one point had Gord Miller, Chris Cuthbert, Wow.

a guy by the name of Al Nagy, who later became the voice of the Edmonton Oilers, and John Wells. John Wells, yeah. Like, you know, three iconic figures. And Ernie Afghanis, for goodness sakes. John Wells. Well before all of us.

Scott Carson, the stat guy, does a good goodness sakes. John Wells. Scott Carson, the stat guy, does a good impression of him. John Wells does classic rock. I want to rock and roll all night and party every day. Hey, baby. Don't fear the reaper. Gotta have

Mark Cowbell in there. Okay. Mike Toth, though, we talked a little bit about Mike before I pressed record, but has anyone had any contact of Mike Toth? F-O-T-M. Mike Toth, though, we talked a little bit about Mike before I pressed record, but has anyone had any contact of Mike Toth, F-O-T-M, Mike Toth, recently? Yes. Yeah.

Everybody wants to know how Mike is doing. We have lunch about once a year. We have semi-frequent contact. Yeah. And he's still the same and still, you know,

here's, you know, maybe when it comes to that kind of show, the late night highlight show, which was the be all end all for so many years, I don't know if anybody was ever more suited or more talented in that role. No. And he was like a prototype for Jay and Dan.

totally. I, and particularly Jay. I think, I think Jay will tell you that he was raised on. And he worked, I think Jay was working on the row, cutting highlights when Mike was at TSN.

Remember Mike was at TSN before he went back to Calgary and then came out and saw us. In fact, Jay, if I may, when I was working at CBC in Edmonton, came in as a student from, I believe, Athabasca, Alberta, to just watch me do my work over the course of a weekend. So he was. Big, big fan of him. And, but, but Mike was when, and perfect example, again, when the lights go on, everybody's that little bit different, but Mike was, you know, Mike is quiet and it feels dark.

And then when those lights go on and he, he was the most supportive guy on air because whatever was working, if you were talking about something, he would go with it and he would, you know, he'd laugh. When we do those shows four times and you'd make a good joke and everybody laughs naturally and the fourth time you're doing it,

he'd be right in there. He still did. But he could go. Very funny guy. Yeah, really, really, really funny. I mean, that's why I had him over. I was a big fan actually. And I just wanted to make sure he was okay

because I would reach out to him occasionally just to see how he's doing, quite literally. Like, how are you doing? Yeah. And he kind of started to ghost me. Like, I stopped getting replies. Yeah. I'm just glad to hear he's doing all right.

I think that's Mike. Even with us, sometimes you don't hear from him. But he's, yeah, he's the same and happy family man. Two boys that are now in high school, and it's quite something. He was an absolute joy to work with because i i sat beside him for years you guys had a great gig and i just played exactly who i am to a degree the straight man and just let him fly and the stuff he would come up with was just magnificent one day and i can say this now i felt like i wasn't pulling my weight from a levity perspective

i thought that why is it always mike that has to be the funny guy why can't i be and the lesson learned was that unless you're naturally funny don't participate right so i can tell you this now i tried one night to match him, and I said something on the air that should have got me fired. But it was the first year that Sportsnet had been on the air. There was no such thing as Twitter. If you wanted to complain, you had to write a letter or phone somebody. And we were doing these regional broadcasts.

We'd start in the east ontario and then we do another one at midnight eastern just to the prairie provinces and then we do another one at 1 a.m eastern just to vent to bc right and in the middle of that western prairie province show i said something that should have gotten me, should have ended my career. And it was all because I was trying to be as funny as Mike. And Mike turns to me on the air and looks at me and says, you know what? You and I are finished.

I'm going to have to call Calgary back and get my old job back because you and I are now done. And years later, I asked Scott Moore at a going away party for him. I said, if you had known I had said this, would you have fired me? And he said, in a heartbeat. Obviously, you're not telling us what you said, but everyone listening right now is trying to guess. But can you give us a clue?

No, I won't give you a clue. Because I wanted to bring it back to Jody for a minute. And as I do that, I remember chatting with Mike Toad. It was reasonably obscene. Yeah. So, okay. Obscene.

Okay. Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't racist. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't any of that. It was a misogynist.

It was, no goodness. Only because Mike Toad did drop a few things about women hosting these desk shows. I was going to ask you about Jody Vance. It was an obscenity. It was accidental. And I regretted to ask you about Jody Vance. It was an obscenity. It was accidental. And I regretted it instantly. You got away with it.

And I literally thought my career was over. I've got to dig up those archives, find them. Oh, they don't exist. They don't exist. You delete it. It's like it never happened. And yeah, I think you can talk about it now, 25 years later.

But Jody Vance, a woman in a position that we were kind of used to, you know, dudes being in, and she was kind of like a breath of fresh air, kind of a big deal at Sportsnet, I remember, for a period of time, Jody Vance. Yeah, a trailblazer for sure, because the first woman to host her own show, and there had been some on late night shows of partners, and, you know, it really seems in hindsight now, um, kind of goofy. When you think of the, in this country now, like Jennifer Hedgers is as big and as good as anybody on TV.

We've got Martine Geyer has been doing it forever. Carolyn Cameron hosting hockey, Danielle Michaud. We've got a lot of Ivanka is a long, long run on that desk. Right. So it's, it's, it's funny to think that that was a big deal but it was different then and uh i remember the the phenomena i knew jody uh from vancouver a bit we overlapped at um at that station ctv vancouver station before i came out as perry sulkowski jody and i were the sports department and she was very raw very new um she was a fan i knew that and but i remember the the phenomenon like for about a year where she just was it was it was something different and the

glasses and she had a she has still has a great voice she has a great uh you know a bit of a raspy, strong voice. And she had the look that just worked. And it was, she was like the first, I think the first celebrity that we had at Sportsnet where everybody else was finding their way and recognition was coming here and there that she was somebody that for a while was almost like a mini rockstar. If you went to an event, everybody knew who she was.

And then, you know, it wasn't that much longer from that that she was and then you know it wasn't that much longer from that that she was gone and gone to maple leaf tv or raptor tv whatever it was then and then end up out west now she's she's reinvented herself which she always does but yeah to answer your question phenomenal is a word for me it was just like over the top their popularity right off the right off the bat well hebsey tells me that he was essentially replaced by Jody Vance. Like Jody Vance, so Hebsey wasn't there very

long at Sportsnet, but Jody might be. She followed, yep. She definitely followed him in. And that probably, if it was a negotiation, they had her waiting in the wings. I don't think they were prepared yet to put her on, but then when Hebsey held firm, they thought, may as well, let's make the move

right now, sink or swim. Well, I had Jim McKinney on this program who was the, you know, in addition to being a popular, may believe, blue liner, he was the City TV sports during the Moses-Nimer. So it all comes back to Moses there. But he told me a story on this program about how he knew his days were numbered when

Catherine Humphreys showed up and how good she was at doing the sports. Super tell. Yeah. So Catherine Humphreys is to Jim McKinney as Jody Vance was to. Catherine Humphreys, if I'm not mistaken, again, my, my memory is not quite as sharp as yours, but I believe the burgeoning sports net, CTV sports net offered her essentially a blank check in 1998 and said put whatever number

you want in there and come and join us and she said no she said i don't take it seriously enough this is like because she was doing she was doing her little five minutes and and so she did it so well with the flippant stuff you know and she'd bug guys and that she says i don't want to do an hour like i remember but a blank check about that right did you guys ever get a blank no not quite yeah i i can yeah well no not a blank check but i'll say this i refused when i when scott moore flew to ottawa to recruit me and we sat down for lunch at a place called local heroes he said to me here's what i want you to do i want you to come to Toronto, help us launch this network, and you'll be one of the late night anchors.

And I said, thank you, no. I'm staying here. And he said, oh. And he said, well, here. He pushes a napkin across the table with a pen. It says, write down what you're making. So I did. I pushed it back to him.

He crosses it out, triples it, pushes the napkin back toward me. And I took one look at the number. And for some reason, about two or three months earlier, I'd been driving with my father. And I said to my dad, dad, what's the most money you ever made? And he gave me a figure. And suddenly I'm looking down at this napkin and it has a figure that is far greater than my father ever made. And in 30 seconds, I went from,

no thank you, I'm staying in Ottawa, to, okay, well, you got me. Did you wish you had fudged that initial number? I absolutely do. We all have a moment like that. Seriously, I should have. They ask you what you're making. He's not going to go to the trouble to find out he has a number. I absolutely do. And we all have a moment like that. Like seriously I should have. They ask you what you're making you know. He's not going to go to the

trouble to find out. I should have crossed his number out right and added a significant portion and said well maybe for this. That's a wild story too though. You did tell that last time but I'm glad you told again because you know what even on these podcasts you're going to play the hits. No that's right. That's why I want the seagull story again. My only one is not quite

like that like a blank check one, but it makes me think of a Seinfeld reference, and you'll get it when I get to it, but it was, I was here for about three years. I was telling Jamie this on the way out. It's funny that we were just chatting because we're getting in the mode for this show, and

I had been offered to go back to Vancouver. They were going to do a redux of sports page, which was like the sports line out there. And that was a show I grew up on. I thought, okay, it's interesting. I'd been Toronto two or three years and I was feeling, still feeling the pull to Vancouver,

whether I wanted to live there. So they made the offer and I said, I just have to go talk to sports that Scott Moore had just left. So Rick Briggs, Jude had taken over and i hadn't met him yet so the first my first meeting with the new president is uh basically to tell him that uh you gotta you gotta come up with something or i'm leaving so i walked in and you're nervous about it the you know because you're you have to be someone i remember someone saying just as long as you are willing to go and you have nothing to worry about but a lot of people want to bluff and then it's sort of like oh they're actually saying no go you don't know what they think of you you don't find out till you get in there

so i went in i said here's what uh and someone jamie will attest to this someone who worked with us had left their pay stubs around the old days of pay stubs and he loved it because he knew he was making more than us and the fact that's an intentional move totally power move but it actually worked in all of our favor because we're like wait a second so i went in and i said here's you know i said i didn't tell them what they're offering me but i said they're offering me more than i'm making now which may or may have not been true at that point it would have been right around the same number but i said there's someone doing the same job as the rest of us and making a lot more and i know it's your first day look it up

and i said if you you need to get me closer to that number or i'm gonna go and i wasn't talking like this like i was nervous as hell i wasn't like no you need i just said i really feel like i want to do this so he said give me a 24 hours i'll have an offer for you tomorrow at noon. And he said, it will not be negotiable. This will be it. This is where we're going. And so I went back in and I thought, and I had in my head the numbers, you know,

what I'm going to, you feel if it's this much, I'll stay if it's not that much ago. And then I was worried it was going to be right on the number and you have to make that, you know, all that. So, but first thing he does, he turns, he has a piece of paper, he turns it around. And so, so I'm reading it and he's reading it upside down

and he's covering the bottom, which is where the, the compensation was. The first thing he says, he goes, you like golf, right? I said, yeah. And he says, we'd like to make you our major, major golf, you know, correspondent. So you'll go to all the majors. First thing in my head, I'm going to the Masters. I just about did the Kramer with the coffee.

You like to give your free coffee? I'll take it before I even look at the money. And I was like, right away, I'm like, oh, and then thankfully when he took his hand off, it was over the number that I had in my head. But that was the first thing I thought, and the money became secondary. It's like, you know i'm

going to the masters i'm going to the pga us open the british never happened it was supposed to but i guess they wanted they wanted 10 grand to get a camera on the grounds of the british open so they said they sent me to the rider cup that year instead which was great but i did the golf for four years which is some of my favorite memories and then when we weren't affiliated with fox we didn't have the credentials anymore but just just so funny that, uh, completely unexpected. And like, as Jamie says, yeah, I'll take it. Whereas if Scott had doubled it, he probably would have Scott went higher. And then you realize later I could have gone even more. So, you know, it's very, uh, very interesting. And when you're faced with that decision,

it becomes pretty easy. And in this case, it wasn't all about the money, but certain times it makes it worthwhile if you're on the fence. Loving these stories. Remembering the last 25 years at Sportsnet. I have a couple more questions for you, but I just want to tell the listenership that it's the Halloween season. Here we are in late September, and there's an award-winning Halloween event in Milton, Ontario. It's called Pumpkins After Dark.

This is amazing. Go to pumpkinsafterdark.com and see what I'm talking about. But if you buy your tickets now for Pumpkins After Dark, you can save 15% with the promo code TOMIKE15. So shout out to Pumpkins After Dark. Get your tickets now. And you're subscribed to Toronto Mic'd already. I know that because you're listening. I also recommend you subscribe to the Advantaged Investor Podcast from Raymond James, Canada. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor or currently manage your own investment plans, the Advantaged Investor Podcast provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals.

Also, real quick here, shout out to recyclemyelectronics.ca. That's where you go. Brad, I know you've got an old 8-track player or something in your garage. Okay, don't throw that in the garbage, even if it's broken. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca. Find out where you can drop that off so it can be properly recycled and the chemicals don't end up in our landfill. You guys have your marching orders now.

Good. I'm going to actually do that. I'm going to log onto that website. I have lots of things that need to be dropped off. What's the oldest thing you've got? You got your old Sony Walkman that hasn't worked since 1989? No, it works. It's battery powered and I have old baseball play-by-play tapes

that I can actually listen to on a Walkman. Amazing. I loved my a Walkman. Amazing. I loved my, my Sony Walkman never left me for many, many, many years. It was just an extension of my body. The yellow sport one. Do you have the yellow shell? I had that for a period of time. I had the yellow.

No, no, no. It's not waterproof. That are metal or whatever. Yeah. Those sports Walkmans were the best. They were great. Yeah. They're great.

It's, I mean, it changed, it literally changed. It's hard again to the kids these days would never know. You just get your music all the time. But the fact you couldn't take it portably other than taking the big boom box on your shoulder and having everybody else share the music with you, but personalized headphones with the thing that went on your little belt clip and everything.

It was for running. Did you guys make mixtapes? Of course. Of course. I still have a VCR too. Okay. Okay. No, listen, we're all from the analog era here.

Not that I'm using it, but I do have one. Listen, if I have a VHS tape I need to play, I know where I'm going now, to Jamie's place, and I can watch it on your VCR here. By the way, Jay Onright, who we mentioned, not a Sportsnet person, he's a TSN person, but he, when we were talking about him, I remembered we bonded over the fact that he loved, does he loved the watchmen growing up because you mentioned athabasca

and watchmen were huge out west that's a winnipeg band and they're the guys who brought me the the brian linehan photos so i just wanted to shout out jay on right and athabasca you were there no i wasn't no i'm doing the doing Brock Lina and the SCTV version. You were there. No, I wasn't. I had trouble with that word when Jamie first visited, but I practiced. It's how we work. We just, on sequiturs, we drop in.

Jamie, when I see Brad Faye in the hat, and I haven't seen him in person, I see him on my television quite a bit, watching Raptors, et cetera, but do you get a Michael Keaton vibe from him? Like, just like in the hat just a little bit of a michael keaton vibe or is it just me uh i'm batman yeah i mean there's worse things to be compared to i can see that now yeah i get a lot remember i'm looking at him and yeah i've known brad since 1998 i get a lot of vibes yeah right not all he's good i've got a lot of photographs of brad as a much younger man So the vibes change from year to year.

We did some crazy stuff together, he and I. Well, maybe in a minute, I'm going to ask you guys for your personal highlights in the past 25 years. Maybe I get one of those stories. But are you still buds with Damien Cox? Yes. Yep. And we play a little golf together.

His daughter was very, very successful with us in media relations. And she just left. I know. I've had a correspondence with us in media relations. And she just left. I know, I've had a correspondence with Megan Cox. Yeah, she just left. Exactly, exactly. She just left. But Damien is great.

And I always say very quickly, but Damien, of all the newspaper guys that came over, Brunt was the other one that Damien was seamless. And a lot of newspaper guys struggle. It's a different, what I liked when the newspaper guys started coming on is they got more of an appreciation for us because i think they all looked at okay it's the the hair and the makeup and the smile these guys go on and talk sports

like and then they realize no there's a lot there's two and damien was always very natural we had a great time because we're both from that era where you and i would have been greeted less than enthusiastically in a lot of press boxes by the stodgy old writers. Yeah, and there's not many left now, unfortunately, on that side. But a lot of the good ones that have played it right are now, like Michael Grange, doing everything. They cross over and they're on, and that's been boon for them. Okay, no pun intended. By the way, Michael Grange, listen to his jam kicking.

He kicked out the jams on this program this past summer, and check that out. One name from Sportsnet I just want to mention before I ask you for your highlights here is Hazel May, because Hazel May was a fixture on Sportsnet, then she went to Massachusetts, and then came back, and now we

see her again nightly when we watch our Blue Jay games. We see Jamie Campbell and Hazel May, but what was it when Hazel May's star was on the rise at Sportsnet? It was, I think, a similar thing to Jody. And that's a classic back then where guys weren't used to, the audience was primarily male back then. It's definitely changed as we see in the demographics. And they didn't have a lot of

women on tv let alone you know attractive young vibrant women that knew what they were talking about and that was a huge deal but everybody wanted to you know wanted to to approach them and it's funny because they i think they literally either had security or Jody had to get a parking spot. You just didn't know. It was different. We weren't going to get people clamoring to get near us back then. And we were talking about Hazel came on 20 years ago as well. It's all settled in now, as I say, thankfully,

because people are used to it's probably close to being split across the board now, right? 50-50, men and women on the air. And so, yeah, I think there's a similar thing. Hazel had a different energy than Jody, where Hazel was like full blast and full speed ahead, which is completely different to her style now. She's as calm as anybody. She's as good as anybody in my mind doing what she does her comfort level with the players is incredible and uh so it's it's to see the metamorphosis of her career go away to the states and really get polished where she comes back and you know she's

on on that very very upper echelon she has a wonderful charm that is well suited to baseball in a way that uh you know she presents herself on camera is is much like if you showed up at the front door of the average blue jay fans home she would easily be welcomed in and welcomed as part of the family. She's got that way about her that is very endearing to a baseball crowd, which is a crowd that tends to be a little different from other sports. So I think it served her very well. Last question from the peanut gallery. And then I'm just going to ask you each for your personal highlights from your last 25 years at Sportsnet.

You guys are day one-ers at Sportsnet, celebrating 25 years. The question that came in on the live stream, thoughts on how TSN locked up their personalities long-term once Rodgers got the NHL contract. Was that the right thing for them to do? So this kind of ties into Draeger again, but this is a famous story told many times on Toronto Mic from James Douthy and Bob McKenzie and Darren Draeger.

But basically, yeah, so you guys at Rodgers Sportsnet, you guys got the NHL contract. This is a well-documented story. We could spend probably several hours talking about this. Was it the right thing? Was it not? But it definitely, the reaction post that was the TSN, the big names at TSN hockey got locked up basically so that they couldn't be poached, I guess, by Rogers Sportsnet. What did you guys think of that? Yeah, more power to them. Good on them.

I've asked all the questions from all these people involved. Only one TSN personality was actually offered a job at Sportsnet when Sportsnet got the James Duthie. So I guess Strombo ended up, yeah.

So James Duthie was going to be the host. The Ron McLean went out. But yeah, he decided to stay loyal to TSN and these chaps were rewarded. But they also, yeah, they made it worth the while to be loyal. And in my mind it was it was James, Bob, Draeger,

and probably Jen Hedger and Dutchie and Rod Smith. That's the six I could think of, but I don't know if it's that many. But those were their principal, the three main anchors on their show, and then the three main hockey people. It could have been others as well, but that's sort of what I understood

without following up on it. I wish I had a voice like Rod Smith. I would never shut up if I had a voice like Rod Smith. You know, the whole hockey contract episode in our network's existence is fascinating for both Brad and I, given that we were in completely separate departments, right? It did not impact us in any way other than

that suddenly we were part of a network that had the national rights. Yeah. And it impacts what you say on the air and what you're promoting most definitely, but we could sit back and watch it unaffected, which was, is never a bad thing, right? No.

Sure, but there would be, I would think there would quickly be budgetary ramifications due to the dollar value. There probably are. I'm sure that the basketball and the baseball budget were in some ways reduced. They didn't ask you to stop staying at the five-star hotels? Can you guys find that?

We never traveled anyway unless you were actually on the broadcast team that traveled with the club. It didn't impact baseball in any way. I know that, at least not to my knowledge. It's the only way it impacted basketball. And at that point, I wasn't yet on basketball. I was floating.

I did a little bit of hockey early on when they got it. And then I went full-time to basketball in the second year of hockey. But it did impact us sometimes in terms of studio space and stuff like that because there was so much hockey on. Right. And we didn't have the space in the building. So the odd time we got bumped out or had to, you know,

something had to change in terms of crews and things like that. But otherwise, it didn't really change our budget. And let's not forget the makeup budget. I heard Damien Cox took up most of the makeup budget when honking tail. I got to burn this audio because I loaded it up. What is this? CCD Sportsnet's coverage of the GMC World Curling Tour

is brought to you by GMC, makers of the totally redesigned Sierra and proud sponsor of the GMC World Curling Tour. That's hardcore music for curling, isn't it? It seems pretty upbeat. I went on a hunt for music from 1998. There's very little you can find on YouTube but I found that Sportsnet curling music

from 1998 okay so as we say goodbye here this has been amazing you guys have to come back actually there's so much so many rocks left unturned but maybe we start with you Brad personal highlights from the last 25 years at Sportsnet well yeah so personal or business wise. You can do both.

Yeah. I mean, you know, there's no rules around here. Yeah. I mean, personal, this guy here is, you know, like a long-term friendship. He said to me, boy, like 10 or 15 years ago, you said, Jamie, is you don't meet many lifelong friends after the age of 30, which I think is true. And especially when you're in, you know, you're, you're, you're having your college friends and your high school friends. And then when you're working, it's usually just that, that relationship. And, uh, you know,

obviously I met my wife there, which is as big as anything. And that's, there's a lot of people that met at sports that ended up being married. And it's because we worked so long there. People say, don't do that. Don't date someone or, you know, be with someone that you work with, but we never worked together directly, Julie and i so those kind of things are you know the legacy for me because i've i've loved almost every minute of the 25 years and professionally it was i always thought when the first time i went to the masters as i mentioned that was a cool thing first time i went there then when the olympics of vancouver olympics that jamie and i both i was on the desk jamie called the first gold medal on home soil in the history of canada

i thought nothing would ever touch that but the raptor run in 2019 uh 65 straight days i worked and i said to jamie earlier i wouldn't trade any of it and being there and being part of a championship team in your city is so rare and uh you know we're hoping that this guy gets one of those this year in the next couple years um he was as a fan but in working it and being the backstage pass those are pretty clearly the markers for me professionally yes i echo a lot of what brad said in that the friendship that he and I have established is, is easily, um, my most cherished that emanated from our time at Sportsnet and Brad and I do things well beyond, uh, working together. Cause essentially we don't, right. We, we are on at opposite times. He's

basketball. I'm baseball. When I get a little bit of time off he fills in for me we hardly ever see each other in a work environment but we do so many things together beyond the network we go and our kids are brought up together yeah our uh his wife my ex-wife our best friends to this day our kids were almost born um together in the weirdest kind of way four boys separated by four years we we have plans to take them one last time before they all go to college to a very particular place that we love to go together annually and the and the friendship is cherished because in brad's case you know i've been through some things in in recent years whether it was the demise of my marriage or the diagnosis and he's been you know literally steps away from from a geographical standpoint but also at the end of a phone whenever i've needed him and and i cherish that uh more than he he could ever possibly know

and it's funny how you look at the olympics the same way i do the Vancouver Olympics specifically, and that I had just been dismissed as the play by play man of the blue Jays. And I wasn't exactly sure what my purpose was anymore. Other than that, I knew I had to spend three and a half weeks in Vancouver calling sports there, calling Olympic events there. And the beauty of being part of that consortium is that it reminded me that I was reasonably good at what I was doing for a living. And it gave me hope that, that I was going to survive the dismissal as a Blue Jays play by play man. And what that turned into the moment

I walked home from the Vancouver games was, um, the creation of what we now know as Blue Jays central. Um, and that's been going on now for, I believe, 16 years. So, um, that was a very low point in my career getting taken off play by play, but almost instantly with the, uh, the coming of the games in Vancouver and subsequently the creation of a, of a show that surrounds Blue Jays broadcasts, uh, you know, I was able to recover. Any, uh, you know, we talked about the, uh, 2019 NBA championship, which by the way, I know now we can say that's four years ago, but it feels like four weeks ago to me. Like it just, it's so, like,

I'm just, I think I can, you know, live off that for a couple of decades. Yes. So it was pretty amazing. But what would be the professional moment? Is it calling that first gold medal on Canadian soil? For you, Jamie? You know, it would be easy to say that is true. But to be honest with you, every single day,

and I know this sounds a little hokey, but every day that I get to sit and broadcast a Blue Jays game for a kid who literally grew up at Exhibition Stadium and thought thought that there was a possibility I could spend my life working with the Blue Jays somehow in Major League Baseball as much as calling the very first gold medal on Canadian soil was lovely and wonderful and memorable. Every day that I get to sit there and do what I do is one that's cherished. Jamie Campbell, Brad Faye, two sweetheart FOTMs. I love this very much.

Jamie, you got to come back and kick out the jams at some point. Because I know Brad's kicked out the jams, but you got to come back and kick out the jams at some point. Because I know Brad's kicked out the jams, but you've got to come back and kick out the jams. I will. I think I should probably prioritize some bands before I get to that point, right? I know Evil Woman by ELO will be in that. Oh, that'll be in that 10. Okay, we're going to make this happen. After the Blue Jays win the 2023 World Series, we're going to get you back here.

How do you think they're going to do this year? If I don't ask that question. I'm not answering. You should know me by now. I don't like answering questions like that. They'll do as well as they can. Not like anyone will remember it and follow up with you. So thank you guys both for returning to Toronto, Mike.

I hope it's not as long before I get to see you guys here again. This was fantastic. Thanks for having us. And that brings us to the end of our 1,333rd show. Lots of threes in there. Three threes. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Jamie is at S. Net. Campbell. Guess what S. Net stands for. And Brad's at, he's at S. N. Brad Faye, just's at SNBradFay,

just to keep us on our toes. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada. Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. And Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. See you tomorrow when Cam Gordon returns

for the first time in 11 months. And then Friday, there's a big episode with Ben Mulrooney. See you all then. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or will do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because