Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Keegan Matheson KOTJ: Toronto Mike'd #306

Episode Date: February 12, 2018

Mike chats with Keegan Matheson about his new venture Baseball Toronto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette before they play and discuss his ten favourite songs.

And right now, right now, right now it's time to... Take out the jams, motherfuckers! I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm a Toronto Mike, you wanna get the city love My city love me back, for my city love Welcome to episode 306 of Toronto Miked A weekly podcast about anything and everything Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery A fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke.

Did you know that 99.9% of all Great Lakes beer remains right here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Blue Jays writer Keegan Matheson. Welcome, Keegan. Hey, Mike. How you doing? I almost introduced you as New Glasgow Keegan.

That would have been a great honor. Not Nova Scotia, because somebody on Twitter pointed out, yeah, city name, you can't do province name. Yeah, I went a bit too large. I was trying to close the population gap. Oh, yeah. I'm a big believer in the town of Nova Scotia anyways. Well, it's like the California Angels, right?

Come on. Colorado Avalanche. It's the Denver Avalanche, but you're trying to get a bunch of guys in there. Nice to meet you, man. You're a guy on twitter that i consider like must follow for blue jays fans oh it's high praise thank you thank you and you have a great beard i didn't notice that on the twitter avatar thank you yeah it's it's come out a bit i guess since

the twitter uh avatar i mostly keep that twitter avatar because that was a several pounds ago full disclosure but but you're a big guy. I should point out, you're a tall dude. Yeah, I guess so. But yeah, it's definitely off-season beard mode. Maybe I'll have to tame it a little bit when I go down to spring training. May I bring it back into the professional realm? When do you leave for spring training?

I leave this coming weekend, the 19th. I have a wedding to go to on the 17th. I thought about leaving on the 18th, but I thought, no, that's probably not good. Not after a wedding, after one of my best friend's weddings. So I will give it a day, drink lots of orange juice that day, and I'll leave the next morning.

I'm going to drive down. So maybe I'll stop along the way. I might go the full way. We'll see. That's exciting. So I got a lot of questions about this. Like, for example, maybe we'll ask this quick one and then we'll get into, I want to get into baseball Toronto, of course. I got a lot of questions about this. Like, for example, maybe we'll ask this quick one and then we'll get into, I want to get into Baseball Toronto, of course. I have a lot of questions. But who foots the bill for the trip to Florida? Like, is that on your own dime or is somebody picking up this tab?

That's me. Yep. Yep. Since it's for Baseball Toronto, that's me. Now, as we get subscribers, that will become a bit of a budget, but our startup and early in spring budget is my bank account. So, no, that's on me. All right. That's why I'm not staying at the nice hotels. You're going to sleep in your car, is what you're telling me. I'm not above that. If it were just me going down,

I would stay in my car. I like to live simply. Who's the Blue Jays pitcher who lived in the van? Daniel Norris. I always thought that. Another great beard. Yes, and I thought that was the coolest thing. Exactly.

If you have no kids and you're only looking out for yourself, live in a van. I would totally do that. That would be fantastic. I would do that here now. I'm telling you, I'm considering it. I'm considering it. I got a jam for you before we even get into the Baseball Toronto stuff. Oh.

Yo, let's take it back to the Maritimes, man. Can't take yourself too serious. I love it. Do that of the very few rap songs I've ever heard with a shout out to the Donair do you know all the words to this jam? I know the majority of them it's definitely one of those songs that will come on at the majority of the general big city house parties you'll go to back in Nova Scotia, I guess, between Halifax. You're right. It's a rare East Coast maritime rap song.

Yeah. And I always like to classify it. Like from minute one, this is my, this is, oh crap. What's the name of this album? It's got Fifth Element on it, and it'll come back to me. Some boycott in the industry, I think it's called. This is always my favorite, and the Maritimes, great jam. Yeah, I mean, he shouts out bagpipes.

I think he shouts out the Mooseheads, the Halifax Mooseheads, the QMJHL team in town. He's the real deal. It's just incredibly, incredibly local. Moosehead, the QMJHL team in town. He's the real deal. It's just incredibly, incredibly local. Now, where is New Glasgow?

Help me out. I recently spent a couple of nights in Dartmouth, which is essentially Halifax. It was cheaper there. And I did the Cabot Trail. Oh, beautiful. And I did the two places I stayed at on Cape Redden. Yep.

Port Hood and Inganish. These are the two places. And it was all so freaking gorgeous. It's unbelievable. I've got to get back there. It's the most beautiful place in the world. Whereabouts is New Glasgow compared to a bigger city like Halifax? So, New Glasgow is about an hour and a half drive from Halifax like Halifax? So New Glasgow is about an hour and a half drive from Halifax.

Halifax is on the eastern coast, and New Glasgow is in a bit more inland on the west. And then from New Glasgow to get up to Cape Breton, it's probably an hour or so more northeast. But a good amount of my family is from Cape Breton, so I spend a lot of time up there. I have some friends that live up there now who work as fishermen, so I go up there and kind of live the Cape Breton life as much as I can when I'm home.

But there's nowhere in the world like it. It's an amazing, beautiful, quiet place. No tall buildings. Do you fiddle? Do you know how to fiddle? I wish. I don't have a musical talent in the world. I wish I did. I think my stereoty a musical talent in the world. I wish I did.

I think my stereotypical Nova Scotian activities stop at fishing, lobster fishing maybe. That's funny. Did you hear the great Toronto Mic'd episode of Ron James? I didn't hear that one, no. Even if you just listen to the first 20 minutes, I bring up a whole bunch of maritime expressions. Oh, yeah. And then he adds a whole bunch and a bunch of backstory, and it's pretty good. Ron James, he's from that neck of the woods. I'll have to listen to that one. It's pretty good. Tell

me about baseball here. When do you first fall in love with baseball? Baseball was the first sport I played when I was younger that I remember. Now, where I am from, at least when I was growing up, you kind of play baseball up until you're 12 or 14, but then the elite athletes stay in hockey, and maybe there's one town league left around. It's very much the land of Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon. And by the time I was growing up, you had these summer hockey schools everywhere. So in the summer, you played hockey too, and that really stripped the baseball away. But it was always my first love playing that. I played hockey.

I was a goaltender in hockey. Very bad. Mostly just took penalties and tried to fill the net. But baseball was always it for me. And from a watching standpoint as well, even when I was younger, maybe it was weird when I was younger, but I liked the slow nature.

I liked that you had to think about it because I'm someone, I could watch the Super Bowl and not make a noise. I'm not sitting there going, yeah, whatever you say at a TV screen. I like to sit completely silent. And my friends will say, are you having an okay time? Are you in a bad mood? I'll like, no, I just like to sit. Baseball is almost a meditative thing now when I watch it. So it always has been. Never in a million years did I think I'd have the opportunity to live in the big city and write about it.

I mean, where I'm from, Halifax is the big city. When I went to school there, and when I'd go back home, it would be, how's the big city? Now when I go home, it's like I'm coming from Mars, I think. But no, it's been incredible. But baseball has always been my thing. Were you always a Blue Jays fan? I watched the Blue Jays growing up, of course, definitely. When I was growing up, that was right when they were getting started in the World Series years. Well, I was going to say, you're a younger dude. Do you remember 92, 93?

No, just barely not. But that at least really sparked baseball and that picked up interest a lot. And kind of like it's done the last couple of years with the Blue Jays playoff runs. When I speak to youth baseball people around the country, it's picked up again. That kind of happened when I was young. So maybe I rode that wave.

While we chat about Blue Jays here, I got some... You're too young for this, but this was a big deal in the late 80s, early 90s. These retro Jays tracks. And this guy, this is the Lloyd Mosby's Shakers rap. This sounds fascinating. Wasn't there

a Chicago Bears rap? Yeah, the Super Bowl Shuffles. What would happen today if a team came out with a rap? Yeah, this is, I mean, Shaq did, though. Like, I'm trying to think not too far back.

So Shaq had a rap and there's occasionally you get it. We need to bring that back. This is Lloyd Mosby rapping on a single. We don't need to bring back. I mean, I'm not even talking

about like an athlete making a serious musical album. I'm talking full on cheesy, funky sports rap. Right, like Super Bowl shuffle. You're right, that was a heyday. That was 86, I think. Yeah, it would have been.

So this is one of my favorites. So I've loaded up a few, and I'll play a few of these before we get to your jam. But tell me, so when did you first start getting paid to write about the Blue Jays? Who does that kick in with? Well, I started out initially, I guess like a lot of younger people coming along now, I started out blogging, doing my own thing, writing for some blogging networks, and writing too much, and learning how to write, and writing bad articles, and getting rid of them, and so on. learning how to write and writing bad articles and getting rid of them and so on.

After I moved here, I spent a little time at Sportsnet in an internship role on their web desk. So I was able to learn a lot there, meet a lot of people. Then I moved into MLB.com most recently. Okay, so tell us, anybody at Sportsnet particularly nice and helpful to a young guy kind of climbing the ranks? It was very good for me working on I call it the web desk. That means updating the site with news articles and just controlling the website. I don't want to use too much lingo.

Being there, the team on the web desk was incredible. That was during the off season that I was there. I worked a lot with Ben Nicholson-Smith, who's one of the nicest people you'll meet in the industry. You won't find someone with a bad word to say about him. And it wasn't the busiest spot because it was the baseball offseason for my interests. But no, it was a positive place for me.

So I've been in Sportsnet. I have many friends at TSN and do a lot of work for them on the radio side. So I like to stay friendly with people. I think not in a fake way, but I like to keep good relationships around. You're from Nova Scotia. That means you're genuinely a nice guy, right? I hope so. Are there any assholes from Nova Scotia?

Well, I mean, I suppose there are. I'd probably love them, but what we would need to do was take a big city person and bring them back and let them be the judge. But I have this built-in thing where if i'm if i were walking down the street and someone came up and said hey i'm i'm from nova scotia i need a ride to the airport okay hop in you know it's this it's this assumed automatic love and community that i have i gotta give a shout out to a uh nova scotian who's been on this show and was like ridiculously nice and generous with his time.

Jonathan Torrens. Oh yeah. Jonathan Torrens and he's from don't even tell me, Truro maybe? Am I right? I believe. I know that's where Arash Madani is from. Yeah, Arash is. Yeah, Arash is Nova Scotian and Who are these? I need to know. Who are these Nova Scotians walking amongst

us trying to pass us Torontonians? Give me the list. Arash Madani. I mean, Jonathan Torrens is still living out there so he's not even trying to pass us, Torontonians? Give me the list. Arash Madani. I mean, Jonathan Torrance is still living out there, so he's not even trying to pass. But Arash Madani, he's from out there. Is there anyone else I should know in this Toronto sports media? Ken Reid is from my home county. Okay. Yeah, he's from, I'm from New Glasgow.

He's from Pictou, in Pictou County. There's two towns next to each other. But it's funny when you find one another. Even Gregor Chisholm is from New Brunswick, who I work with on MLB. And when you meet someone, it's kind of this sense of, oh, and you relax a bit. I remember one of the first games this year. It was funny when I met Arash. I don't think he knew I was from New Glasgow or Nova Scotia.

But he heard me talking to someone and probably caught a bit of an accent or something. He came over and looked at me. He said, Nova Scotia? I said, absolutely. And all of a sudden it was, ah, my brother, here you are. All right, we're good. And it connects to you right away. It really, really does.

And I didn't have a sense of that until I moved here. I truly didn't have a sense of what it felt for me to be Nova Scotian until I moved to Toronto and left it because it was all I knew, you know, not to sound like too much of a, you know, a small town or, but I,

I didn't have context. And once I moved here, I really, I learned how much it meant. And that's why I don't shut up about it, I guess, but it's, I actually,

I find it charming. Like, uh, everything I know. And I, I've only had the one trip. Like I took a road trip in like August, 2016.

Okay. I took the whole family and we went to prince edward island and we everywhere we got out there everywhere but newfoundland i didn't have time to get newfoundland but uh it's just it was just soaking it in and drinking it in and meeting the people like these were like uh the nicest people you'd ever want to meet and every time i meet somebody in the big smoke here in toronto who's from the maritimes instantly like you just know this is a salt of the earth genuinely-earth, genuinely good guy. Like, it just makes you feel the warm presence.

Exactly. Even when I meet people on Twitter, meet people on Twitter, that's a weird thing to say. But if someone will tweet me and just say, I'm from Nova Scotia, instantly, like, let's talk, let's whatever. And it's amazing how people gravitate towards one another so often. I mean, if you're in Nova Scotia and two people from Toronto run into each other, it's kind of like, yeah, there's three million of us, this is probably going to happen. Right. Whereas here, it's an exciting thing.

You know, it's like, let's say you're in Paris, France, okay, and you're mucking around and then you meet that person. There's a guy, let's say a guy wearing a Blue Jays cap and you go up and you're like, Joey Batts! And he's like, yeah! And then you're like, you from Toronto? Yeah, I'm from, I don't know, I'm from, whatever, I'm from East York. He goes, yeah, I'm

in, like, South Etobicoke. And it's like, here you are in Paris, and this guy's from, and it's all, like, that's your best friend in the world right there. Exactly. You just light up. You launch into it, and within five seconds, you're like, have you ever been to Anaganish? You haven't been to New Glasgow? Do you know Mike? His last name is McLeod. And they'll say, I know seven Mike McLeods. Is he the Mike McLeod related to Jim? And whenever I can, I love to run down. Or if I, a couple of times this year, I was up in the press box and I would see a flag of Nova Scotia in the crowd.

And I'd say, guys, I'm out of here. I got to go see my people. And you know, where are you from? And I just met some incredible people. It's one of my favorite parts of the job is just, you know, that I get a little easier access to find out where everyone's from because a lot of people tell me, you know,

I'm from here and it's a great feeling. Do you own a Matt Stairs jersey? Because he's from New Brunswick, right? He is. In the Maritimes, we kind of cross the borders in terms of claiming one. For example, if Matt Stairs was from Nova Scotia, I'd say he's Nova Scotian.

Since he's from New Brunswick, I say, oh yeah, he's from the Maritimes. We try to claim as much as we can, I think. But yeah, he's from the Maritimes. We try to claim as much as we can, I think. But yeah, he's the big East Coast hero. Maritime Keegan. That's your new handle. So when you're in the press box at the Dome, you get in there because you have some affiliation

with Sportsnet, or they know you? How do you get the press pass? Well, this past year, it would have been through Major League Baseball. This year, it will be going through Baseball Toronto. So we're going to get there because this is a big day for you. But you can get a press pass because you create something. Like this didn't exist until you invented it, Baseball Toronto.

Like this is a Keegan Matheson. That's right. Yeah. So wait, I got Toronto Mike. Like, can I just say I'm Toronto Mike from Toronto Mike on the Toronto Mike podcast. Can I turn that into a press pass? That's a good question. A lot of it, I think, is because, and I may even have to do it through another network, but because I do a lot of the TSN radio or the Sportsnet radio, I do all the stations in the country and have some affiliations with those. And it is a question

I get a lot, how that process works, because it's very shrouded in mystery. But are they vouching for you? Like, is Wilner putting up his hand and going, yeah, Keegan's okay? Some would. I hope the ones that like me would. Here's a fun fact for you, and this ties in nicely to this little PR discussion.

Bob Elliott just put out the list of the most influential Canadians in baseball. He put this out, I want to say, until Friday. What a list. It had to be 20,000 words. Do you know I'm on this I'm in the honourable mentions? I saw that. I got an honourable mention from Bob Elliott. I saw that.

If that doesn't get you a press pass at the door. That's a high honour. Right. Bob's as good as it gets, too. I haven't known him long, but he'll sit down next to you in the press box, and he'll have his fifth Diet Coke of the game. Is he double fisting? Here he was double fisting the Diet Cokes. Loves the Diet Cokes, and he'll look over at you,

and he'll look you up and down and say, Hey there, babe. It's always babe. How you doing, babe? He's just a great guy with great stories, and he's very supportive of writers. He's one of the best. You stories and he's very supportive of writers. He's one of the best.

You're not going to bump me up next year when you're on this list. You're not going to bump me. I'm not going to fall off the list because Keegan Matheson took over. I bet you you're on this list next year. I'll have to start a campaign. Like one of those joke campaigns for an oddball NHL player. Like when John Scott got into the All-Star game. Right, exactly. All right, everybody. This is a big day. So what day is this? What day is today?

This is the 12th. February 12th. Okay, February 12th, 2018. It's the only time I've known the date all winter. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. That's why, you know, you've been growing the beard and like a hermit. So let's, today is the launch. You launched Baseball Toronto today. I did. Tell everyone exactly what is Baseball Toronto. Baseball Toronto is a website covering the Toronto Blue Jays. It's going to be covering the major league level. I also do a lot of work in terms of prospects in the minor league level. So I'm going to have a lot of coverage in that aspect as well. Just launched the website this morning after announcing it a couple weeks ago.

But it's extremely exciting. It's nerve-wracking, but it's going to be running on a subscription-based model. So there are monthly and annual subscriptions available because it's important for me to build this as a professional outlet, not just a side hobby. When it comes to my work, I like things to be professional and accurate and to honor the subject and really to go in depth. So it's a venture into a new world for me, trying to build it from a business standpoint and especially from a technical standpoint, building a website. The baseball writing, that's my language. That's okay. Right. But the other aspects have been a learning curve and a challenge for me.

But it launched this morning. The reaction has been extremely positive. It's surprised me. Not that I expected bad reactions, but I just didn't believe it would be like this, especially going back to the day I announced it, February 2nd. I remember that.

Honestly, Mike, that was one of the more emotional days of my life. Just the feedback I got beyond anything. It's been a long time since I've been that touched and humbled and heard from so many people at once. It's been overwhelming is the word. And I'm rarely overwhelmed, but I've been overwhelmed. So, okay, not to take in you. First of all, this is right up my alley,

but you're just an independent guy, right? There's no mainstream media behind you or a big conglomerate or corporation. You're just Keegan Matheson from Nova Scotia who is a great baseball writer and covers the Blue Jays. And you have a website that, I guess right now, everything's free, is that right? For a couple of weeks, everything's free? That's right, yeah. For the first few days, I guess right now everything's free, is that right, for a couple weeks everything's free?

That's right, yeah. For the first few days I'm going to keep everything free and open because I want people to look around and know what they're dealing with. And a few days from now the subscription wall will go into place. And you've tested this technology, right? So you have to log in to see stuff in a couple of weeks. You've tested all this. Oh, too much.

The last week of my life, just getting this technology set up and making sure it's working. This weekend, I don't know if I slept or when I slept. There was a couple points. I would say bordering on a full mental breakdown. I think I crossed the border. I think I went in and spread my arms and just had the full breakdown. But it was very challenging. And it's not perfect yet. It's not as good as it's going to be. Tomorrow will be

version 1.1 of Baseball Toronto and so on. But I'm happy with it because I know how much work went into it. And I know how much work went into getting to the point where I even felt comfortable doing this because it's risky, not just from a professional standpoint, but financially. You know, financial success isn't something I ever will aspire to, but I realize the risks I'm taking. And there's a bit of a rush. There's a thrill involved. And that's what kept drawing me to this idea because I had other opportunities, but every time I'd think about it, I would say, man, I can't get Baseball Toronto off my mind. It's stuck.

How long ago did you buy the domain name BaseballToronto.com? Because that's a pretty good domain name that was available. I couldn't believe it was available. I bought it. I don't know if I've told anyone this. I bought it over a year ago, even before the season started when I was with Major League Baseball. Never as a plan. I honestly think I just sat down at the computer one day. Maybe I was feeling particularly anxious about the state of journalism. Maybe there had been some layoffs somewhere that

day. So maybe I sat down and said, I better set myself up with a parachute here. So I bought the domain name. Did nothing with it, frankly, forgot about it until the middle of the summer, I think. And I probably got an email from my domain provider. And I said, oh yeah, I did that. And it stayed on my mind. It was never my plan. But as I got into the off season and I was looking for a new opportunity, everyone I spoke to, the outlets I spoke to, and extremely honored to have been spoken to by some outlets, but just couldn't get it off my mind. Because it appealed to me from not just a thrill standpoint, but from an editorial standpoint, from what I can do independently. And I mean, the word independent, I'm not here to shake up the industry, change the world. You're disrupting things.

Yeah, I'm not here to just let anarchy run free, but there is a real appeal to being independent and setting your own editorial course and your own editorial appetite. There's nothing better than owning your own shit. I mean, this lucrative enterprise that you're here, the Toronto Mic'd Enterprise, at know, like at least at the end of the day, I own every stitch of this. This is mine. Yeah. And I love that. I'm like that a lot of ways in my life. I prefer to build my own furniture instead of buying it, even if it costs a bit more.

I cut my own hair. I'm not going to spend 20 bucks to have a conversation with someone at really close range who I don't know. That sounds terrifying. I like to build and do my own things, but I've never let that creep into my professional life. I've always stayed... I don't know if normal is the word anymore in media, but I've been... Typical.

Typical, yeah. So I've never let that creep in, but now that I am, it's really exhilarating, and there's a sense of pride, I think, with it. want to know pricing like for how much are you charging for access uh each month the the pricing model right now it's 4.99 monthly and then 39.99 for a year and so it's a one-time payment but for a year and it shaves a bit off sure um by the time i left my the time i left my apartment this morning a i was shocked at how many people had subscribed. B, the vast majority were buying the annual subscription, which shocked me. Because I,

maybe that's a confidence thing or something. But in my mind, I'm thinking, oh, you know, people look at this and say, okay, I don't know about this guy. I'll buy it for one month. We'll see. People committing to an annual subscription, it was amazing. It was unexpected. And that was probably three quarters of the subscriptions already sold today, people just diving in. So that's a big vote of confidence from people. And I take a lot of responsibility in that.

I don't look at that and say, oh, sweet. I look at that and I say, okay, I owe this person something. If you're going to pay me five bucks a month, I think I owe you 20 bucks a month in value. If I'm just giving you five bucks a month in value, I feel like I've failed. It's a real honor for people to invest in my work and care about what I do. So I feel a real responsibility to honor that, to honor someone's dollar, because I'm cheap. I grew up cheap. My people are cheap. So when someone... Thrifty is the word we use.

Thrifty. Oh, yes. Yes, that's it. Yes. I'm thrifty too, by the way. You're preaching to the choir. I get my wife to make clothes now, and she can cut my hair. And it you know, it's not about being cheap. It's actually just about, like, why would you pay someone to do something you can do yourself? I drive a 1999 automobile. I noticed you had,

I knew subscriptions were going okay for you when you pulled up in the Rolls Royce. Like, I knew that this can't be so bad for Keegan. I had to get rid of my first ever car this summer. I got it, oh, seven years ago, and it was a rusty, ugly Honda Civic, and I loved it. Civics don't die, right?

They don't. I had so much heart. My new car doesn't have heart. It's a little trendy for me, but it doesn't have that heart of a rusty Civic. I like how you say heart. That's one of the gives, I think. Arash Madani heard you say a word like that.

That's what gets me, the R words, when I say I'm going to the bar, and people laugh at me. I don't know how to say it. Yeah, what gets me, the R words when I say I'm going to the bar. Right. And people laugh at me. I don't know how to say it. I got to start the car and it comes off like care. So I try to say it normally. I feel like I'm a bird calling

or something. I don't know. Start the car. Let's be a devil's advocate here. What happens to the guys? First of all, we just had a launch and I had the guys here. I had James Myrtle here and Sean Fitzgerald here, and they're from The Athletic. And The Athletic has a similar model. Of course, they have a lot more authors.

So what do you say to the guys who are like, hey, I'm already paying for The Athletic. Why do I need Baseball Toronto? Oh, no, that's the easy question, definitely. My response to that is that my approach is what I call it is one foot wide and 10 feet deep. So I believe in The Athletic. I hope that you subscribe to Baseball Toronto, then immediately subscribe to The Athletic, because John Lott's as good as it gets. At Baseball Toronto, I think that my editorial version is going to differ. What I write about is going to be different. It's not going to be two versions of the same story. I think that's the simplest way

to say it. I'm going to be doing a lot of daily minor league coverage, prospect writing, trying to do some feature writing, and even trying to mix in some more general baseball Canada, baseball history writing that people might not know they're looking for, but hopefully will interest them. Baseball Canada, baseball history writing that people might not know they're looking for, but hopefully will interest them. So while some of our coverage will overlap, the things that I do and the things that The Athletic does will be different in terms of their vision, their direction. And, you know, it's not a, I know it is, I don't know if I use the word competition or what it is. I wish any other venture success. And I loved the work John did at The Athletic this past year. Israel Fair, who's now with The Athletic in Vancouver, was here. He

did tremendous work, some really interesting articles. And I think there's room for everyone to be at the table. Yeah, because you got the cheap bastards out there who are like, you know, the Sportsnet guys put their stuff up for free. And then I got a Toronto Stars writing article still. And The Sun has articles that I don't have to pay. Those cheap bastards, what do you say to guys put their stuff up for free and then I got a Toronto Stars writing article still and the Sun has articles and I don't have to pay those cheap bastards. What do you say to them? And I understand that because until a few years ago, I was the same way. Whatever I can do for free, let's do it. And then I did start to pay because I started to become friends with people in the industry and I've gotten text messages at 10 a.m. saying,

I just got laid off. Let's go for a beer. And I hate that. So now I try to pay when I can. And even if you give a buck a month to a podcast, what's the podcast? Canada Land, the podcast that I like to listen to. I think I give a buck a month to them on Patreon, which isn't enough. I should give more. But when it shows up on my phone, I think, okay, like I at least kind of supported this. You know, there is a good feeling with supporting, but it has to be more than just good feelings, of course. Some people will never pay for content, and I understand that. The interesting thing for me has been comparing my Twitter feedback with kind of the secondary feedback.

If people are following me on Twitter, I at least hope they don't hate me. So a lot of that feedback has been positive. Whereas people have relayed conversations to me or sent me a screenshot from Reddit or something saying, and a lot of the comments are along the lines of, Keegan's okay, but I'm not going to pay five bucks. And at first I thought, man, that sucks. I need to convert everybody.

I need to be just this vision of the correct way to do it. But how many Blue Jays fans are there? A million in this country? There are a lot. And it's not my job. I don't have the time to convert everyone. I hope everyone does support content, not just mine. But it's at the same time, I need to do better at focusing my appreciation on those who do

than getting frustrated over people who just probably never will because a lot of people never will. That's the unfortunate reality that the free content world has built. Let me ask you this. We booked this appearance for you to come and kick out the jams.

We booked this well before I knew Baseball Toronto existed, okay? So we have this booked for today. What's the date again? February 12th. I should know that. You know that. And then I learned just last week or whatever,

no, I guess 10 days ago or whatever, I learned from you on Twitter that Baseball Toronto is launching today. So is that a coincidence? It is a coincidence. I was thinking of that on the way here, actually. I announced it on the 2nd, and then my plan was we'll launch in about a week, maybe 10 days.

And I was thinking about launching on Friday, but I wasn't 100% certain with the site. I was 99.5. I wanted to test it more. Right. So I saved it until today. But no, it lined up well. The day I announced it, I didn't have that plan at all. But it was, yeah, quite a day.

I haven't been this excited since Lowest of the Low were here, and they told me that it was the day they were releasing their new album, Do The Right Now, and I'm like, I love it. It all lines up. I got a question for you. All right. It's not for me, but it might as well be. It says, Mike, I'm really excited about the upcoming Keegan Matheson episode.

Can you please ask him how he thinks the Blue Jays should will manage rebuilding the team for the future while still trying to keep the 2015 bandwagon running with the dome packed every night? But this is the big question everyone must ask you, which is like, we know there's some prospects coming. Like we need to kind of bridge there. We don't want to like, I don't think they have the appetite to to do what the leads did which is like uh torch the earth as you wait for the young guys to come up so uh and i wish i wrote down the name of the guy oh i don't have uru uruj islam i think that's that's his question okay he goes on by the way i'm sorry uh he has a long question i see there's more i'm sure sure Rodgers are loving the attendance numbers of the last two plus years

and don't want Shapiro to do anything drastic to hurt them. Also, please just geek out about Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Beau Bichette for 30 minutes. So let's talk about this current Blue Jays and what Rodgers should do and then geek out about Vlad and Beau, if you don't mind. I dig it. They're in the middle.

The Blue Jays are in the middle, which is a tough place to be in any sport, especially in baseball. Now, if they were a young, young team right now in the middle, then that's fine because you have some trajectory. But they're not a very young team. They're getting there. And they certainly aren't a team like the Marlins, which is a disaster. But they're not a team like the Yankees or the Astros or the Dodgers or Cleveland.

They're not on that echelon either. They're in a big group in the middle, and that's very hard. So if you told me today they'll finish 500, I'd say, yeah, sure, good enough. It's probably where it's going to be. And how do you make the jump to being competitive without losing 2019 and beyond? I don't know how you do unless everything goes perfectly right. And maintaining attendance, maintaining fan interest is really important. The business part matters, even though we don't like talking about it because it's not that fun.

And you do see a lot of teams now in the bottom of the league who really aren't going for it. You know, a team like Pittsburgh is selling off. A team like Miami has no intention of winning a baseball game this year. Now, the Jays aren't at that level, but it's becoming a bit of a problem in baseball. You know, teams chasing profits over chasing wins. Now, the Jays can still chase wins, thankfully, but it's really tough. I don't think there is a perfect answer. There's not a silver bullet for this. And a lot of it is kind of just about staying afloat until

next year. You mentioned the Leafs. I think they did it so well because fan expectations were set very well. Houston did that as well. They were awful for years. That's a great example. But people knew that something was coming. Now, some of that happens automatically. It's not that the Leafs put out a beautiful marketing release. It was Austin Matthews. That's easy. Maybe Vlad

Guerrero is the Austin Matthews, and Boba Shett's the Mitch Marner, and Anthony Alford is the William Nylander, and that's all I know about hockey, so I'll stop. But maybe that's the case, but you need to get there, and you need to remind people that that's coming, because for a hardcore fan, they know that.

They know the system is coming up. But for someone who just likes to go to the ballpark and have a beer and watch the game, which is 90% of fans, they don't really know or care about that. They want to see a win today or a reason to cheer today. So there's really not a good answer. They're in the middle. There's wiggle room if everything goes right. And the second wild card makes things much more possible,

but they're in the middle. Why am I soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard? Vlad Guerrero Jr. Now, I'm going to just slow this down, okay? I'm not trying to... If I had that 70s porno music playing right now, talk really slow here. Put on Pony by Genuine. Because, you know,

tell me what we should expect from Vlad Guerrero Jr. Or maybe even tell... I'm sure this is not a podcast where everybody's a diehard Jays fan and they know exactly who Guerrero Jr. is. Maybe even step back and tell us who is this kid and why should we be excited about him?

Yeah, totally. Well, he is the son of Vladimir Guerrero, who is being inducted into the Hall of Fame now, one of the all-time Expos greats and an Angels great, one of the most entertaining players probably that we've seen the last couple of generations. And Vladimir Guerrero Jr., you started hearing buzz about him when he was 13 or 14, A, because of his name, B, because he's massive.

And the Blue Jays eventually signed him when he was 16 years old out of the Dominican Republic. Born in Montreal, actually, so he can claim the Canadian, but signed him out of the Dominican Republic. And honestly, through the first year or so that he was in the Blue Jays system, there was some pessimism or some wonder among scouts and people like me too.

You know, what would we be saying about him if his name was Ben Smith? You know, if he didn't have that name, would it still be this high? But since then, he's emerged as probably the top offensive prospect in all of baseball. He is thick and strong. And if you could sit down and draw a power hitter, he's what he would look like. The story I love telling is that I was, was I in Dunedin or I was in Buffalo? I was at a minor league stadium somewhere. And I was talking to this old scout and kind of like a stereotypical baseball scout you'd cast in a movie if you were really trying to overdo it.

Like the natural or something. Yeah, yeah. He was just, you know, disheveled and grumpy. And I said, I asked him, I said, have you seen Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in person? Because I hadn't seen him yet in person at that point. He said, yeah, he's going to be good. I said, thank you. I said, so like, what do you think about his power potential?

He goes, I'll tell you what. For a power hitter, I like a power hitter that has a hard time buying pants. And I looked at him, and I was just trying to play it cool. I said, sure, I'm sure that makes sense. But eventually, it did to me, because Vladimir Guerrero Jr., big waist, thick upper legs, and that's where so much power comes from. You can have a guy like Jose Bautista, who's just a proportioned, normal-looking guy who produces it in their swing, but Vlad Guerrero, because of that strong base, he can just flip

his arms and it's gone. So right now, if you're forecasting the league five years from now, he's a guy that has the potential to be one of the best hitters in baseball. Almost a generational talent in terms of his overall approach. We're talking Mike Trout. Yeah, you're talking prime Albert Pujols. You're talking Miguel Cabrera, Manny Ramirez, Joey Votto. You're talking that type of thing. And I really hesitate to say anything like that.

As a practice, I hate being optimistic with prospects because very few of them work. And I like to keep myself safe by being a bit of a pessimist or by holding off a little bit because it's been lesson learned over and over again. But Vladimir Guerrero Jr., I look at his game, there's not that but in it. So many prospects, you know, he's got a great swing, but there's this little hole, we'll see. And when you get to the majors, smart people find that hole and you're done. You're out of the league in five years. He doesn't have that. It's just all-around incredible offensive talent.

And on top of that, even though this doesn't matter to the scoreboard, he's a likable kid. He has a big smile. He will market well. Same with Bo Bichette. They're guys that will market well and people will attach themselves to. Now, how old is Vlad Guerrero Jr. right now? He is 18.

He's going to turn 19 in spring training. I'm telling you, I'm excited. I'm trying to suppress the big smile because I'm a guy I'm okay with a couple of lean years. If I know this is on the horizon yeah exactly and it's I mean you tweeted some scouting report or something that what it's just like at this point in his career he's projected to be better than some of these these just amazing hitters you referred and and it's like I'm I'm at that point where I have the same thing like when Austin Matthews scores a beauty he picks the corner'm like, Auston Matthews is a Toronto Maple Leaf.

Vlad Guerrero Jr. is a Toronto Blue Jay. And so where will he play this summer? He will probably start the year in AA New Hampshire. Maybe in Dunedin, but probably AA New Hampshire, which is two stops away from the major leagues. And by the end of the year, I would expect him to be in Buffalo. Even without Vlad Guerrero, the Buffalo trip to see a Bisons game is awesome. I recommend people do it. And I love the city of Buffalo too. It's kind of, it's on the ups. I really like hanging out

around Buffalo down there around the stadium. But there's a chance, call it 1% or 2%, that he creeps onto the roster at the end of the year. A lot of that depends on factors beyond his control, but I think realistically, you see him very early next year, even opening day when he's just turned 20, and that's still incredibly rare. So, 2019, we could potentially have him on

the opening day roster. You could. You could have he and Beau Bichette. So, there's Vlad. Is he third base? Where's his position? Third baseman. So what does that mean for that guy on third base right now?

Like, does that mean he's probably not part of the... Like, you got two, you know, amazing offensive specimens clogging up third base for the Blue Jays there.

Yeah, I don't think it can be as much of an X equals Y type of thing. Vlad Guerrero, you know, he's not Josh Donaldson defensively at all. He's still kind of learning third base, and he's a bigger guy. If he was standing at third base, you would look at him and say, that's a pretty thick third baseman. Maybe he ends up in left field or first base down the line. For now, I think he can stick at third, but it's tough. You have to factor that in with Donaldson,

but at the same time, you don't want to say, Vlad Jr.'s our guy because there's been examples. You remember Travis Snyder? Of course. He was going to be the next big thing. Hit 50 home runs.

No, didn't happen. There's a lot of guys. I mean, I go back where Zosky, I think it was. We had the shortstop of the future was, what was his first name? Alex Zosky? Zosky was his last name.

Like, you know, I've been a Jays fan since 83, and there are these examples of the future is coming. This is the guy, and then it doesn't quite work out that way. I can't wait. After this episode, I've got to Google. Maybe I'll do it during our jam kicking, but the Zosky name just popped in my head. I've got to find out his first name.

All right, so Bo Bichette, you mentioned, also the son of a former major leaguer, which is a nice pedigree there. So what position does Beau Bichette play? He's a shortstop right now. Maybe he ends up at second base. We'll see. It's kind of every good player coming out of high school

is a shortstop, because that's where your good kid plays. You know, it's like in hockey, your good kid plays center or whatever. So he's a shortstop for now, and coming up in the minor leagues, it's been he and, your good kid plays center or whatever. So he's a shortstop for now. And coming up in the minor leagues, it's been he and Vlad on the left side of the field. And they are friends. They get along with each other.

They hit everything. It's been this amazing duo. The best in minor league baseball playing together. And he is just a bit older than Vlad. He was drafted 66th overall. And just in 2016. So he wasn't supposed to be the next big thing. He had some pedigree, but he has a big swing, a huge leg kick. Everything is moving all over the place, but he makes it work. And already he's considered by some to be a top 10

prospect in all of baseball. And it's rare for teams to have that, especially positionally. The Blue Jays have developed some pitchers, Strowman and Sanchez among them. Positionally, it has been dry for a long, long time, especially in terms of impact positional guys. It's been nothing. No, absolutely.

It's fantastic. These two guys coming up together, it's a great story if it pans out. I know a lot of things have to work out and stay injury-free. And if it all works out, though, man, that'll be fun. It will be. Can't wait. All right.

I think anything. So you're going to spring training now. You're covering that for Baseball Toronto. That's right. People can go to baseballtoronto.com right now to subscribe. That's right. Yeah, it's live now. And it will all be open for, you know, we're talking on Monday here. It'll all be open for the next couple of days to look around, and then it'll be for my beloved subscribers only.

And, see, I mentioned to kick out the jams here, but this is, and you're going to be, you know, reporting back from Dunedin. Yep. Man, exciting times. I love baseball. I always loved baseball, but to me, baseball is summer. So I'm out there and it's cold and I'm wet and I'm like, I'm so tired of this now.

And it's like baseball's coming. It's just like a sign of hope. It's like rejuvenation. That's right. I hate the winter. I'm not a hockey guy. I just kind of sit around and stew and grump and it's finally here. It's relieving,

I think. You mentioned you spent a dollar a month on the Patreon for Jesse Brown. You can also spend a dollar a month on the Patreon for Toronto Mike. I recommend people do. Patreon.com slash Toronto Mike.

Give what you can and help keep this passion project going Toronto Mike so we can have interesting people it came to my attention that during the last episode with Colleen Rusholm I called you Keenan Matheson apparently that's what Hedsy told me I saw that on Twitter Keenan Matheson

that's okay there's not many Keegans we are the few and the proud I can't think of many Keegan Michael Key the the actor and comedian. He's probably our leader. Keegan Bradley, the golfer. I like the name. To me, it's a name I would strongly consider for one of my offspring. That's how much I like the word Keegan.

And very few names I'd put on the short list. I think there's a figure skater, a male figure skater in the Olympics named Keegan. So maybe he's going to springboard me too. I'm really tumbling in the rankings now that I think of it. Yeah, well, you weren't raised with a name like Mike, which 33% of guys born in the 70s and 80s, I think, are named Mike.

So better to be Keegan than Mike, I'd say. So give what you can at patreon.com slash Toronto Mike. What is your favorite beer from home? Like, what would be the home beer? The home beer is Alexander Keith's. And it's, is it the greatest beer ever? I don't know.

But it is kind of the... But it does the job. Yeah, it's the beer in Nova Scotia. Halifax has turned into such a craft beer place now, and it's really exploded. But yeah, Keith's is kind of the the typical um default nova scotia beer i guess you'd say you know off the top i read that little script off the very top and in it it talks about how 99 it says 99 of beer uh brewed by great lakes brewery stays in

ontario which is true so naturally i asked the guy you know like okay why isn't it 100 like where's that other beer going yeah there's two independent pubs in Halifax. Doesn't surprise me. That they truck it over to. So it's all in Ontario or Halifax. I could probably guess the ones. But yeah, it's really turned into a huge thing in Halifax now. And it kind of started when I was doing my undergrad at Dow from 08 to 2012 when I was at Dalhousie.

And you'd see it popping up a bit. And now it's the big thing. Every corner there is a craft beer bar and beers I've never heard of. It's really amazing. Yeah, it's really exploded. Now these guys, Great Lakes Brewery, proud sponsors of Toronto Mic'd, they've been around for 30 years, so they were kind of

there before the boom, if you will. I watched some of the documentary that you tweeted about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was so cool. I saw the premiere of that documentary at the Kingsway Theater a couple of months ago. But yeah, they got a whole doc about it. It's great. And the owner, you're kicking out the jams in a few minutes here, but the owner of Great Lakes Beer, he's been here to kick out the jams, Peter Bullitt. Okay.

Let's see how you do. His first jam that we kicked out was a Pitbull song. Oh, man. We'll see how you do. I love it. Dale, Mr. 305. That's do. I love it. Dale, Mr. 305. That's right. That's right.

That's right. So enjoy this. I don't know if I've said it, but there's a six-pack in front of you that is all yours. I love it. Thank you, Great Lakes Brewery. This is after the weekend

and after today, I will happily enjoy one of these. You know, yeah, right. Get down that and celebrate the launch. I, you know, baseball is summer. I can't wait for spring. But another reason I can't wait for spring is they got this kick-ass patio

at the Great Lakes Brewery, which is 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard. And I just can't wait to go back there and bum around and have a pint. Like, just be on a patio again in the sun. You know what I mean? Yeah, I love the patios in the summer. There's so many great ones in Halifax,

just right along the boardwalk and right along the harbor down there, right on the water. And I know you can go sit on a patio in Toronto, but it's not really my scene, surrounded by 50-story glass buildings in tight quarters next to trendy folks. It's not my scene.

But I actually, I think I saw the patio in that video that I watched. I thought, that looks more my speed. I think I'll have to check it out. No, and maybe I'll buy you a pint there on a Friday where the meat trucks show up. Oh, deal. You do the whole thing. I'm sold. Let's do that for sure.

For sure. Now, you're going to need a pint glass. Okay, so you got your six-pack and you need a pint glass. That is yours, courtesy of Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com. Thank you, Brian. And I need you to prick up your ears here because Brian has a message for you. Oh. Here's, he's a die, I think he might even mention it, but he's a diehard Expos fan.

Oh, yeah. But let's hear from Brian. from Brian. of interest. 1181 Queen West at Gladstone will be located near the site of the new Queen West Transit Hub. I have renderings, floor plans, and pricing. Call or text me at 416-873-0292 to get access, as it will sell out quickly with only 112 condos available. Keegan, I am a huge Montreal Expos fan and saw and followed Vlad Jr.'s dad's career. I hear his kid has some potential to do some damage in the show with the Jays. I mentioned to Mike that I see him as a Joey Votto type, as unlike his dad, Jr. knows what a strike zone is and is a very

patient hitter at his young age. I heard you on Tip of the Tower podcast last week with David Morisudi a week ago, partly agree with my assessment, so I thought that was pretty cool. You also said he could end up like a Cabrera or Ramirez if he goes full power. So my question is, since you sat on the fence, which way do you think he will end up? Look into that crystal ball. I'm consistent at least. I'm saying the same names. That's good that I've not totally lost it yet.

In my book about the Blue Jays prospects, Joey Votto is the comparison I used because I think Vladimir Guerrero Jr., if he just wanted to hit home runs, might be able to hit 50. But there's a trade-off. I think when he is at his best, like he is in the minor leagues this year,

he took more walks than he did strikeouts. Kind of like Joey Votto. Joey Votto will have an elite, incredible season, but have 29 or 33 home runs. So you might not look at that and say, wow, but he's got 114 walks and an on-base percentage of 400 and provides value in so many other ways. So that's why I almost hesitate to call Vlad Jr. a power prospect. He has power, but there's so much more. So I think Votto is still that comp I'd lean on with him.

Can you believe Joey Votto beat me out on that list of influential Canadians? It's unacceptable. How many podcasts has he done? Not 306. He's also a Tobacco guy. Oh, that's right. When was the first Toronto Mike podcast? How old is this?

August 2012. Wow. Let me do the math on that. 18 now. Yep. August 2012 was the first Toronto Mike podcast. So what is this now? 306.

Yeah. This is episode 306. Yeah. So six years old soon, I suppose. I'll come back for episode 902. That's the Nova Scotia area code. Oh, it's yours, man. Hey, 902. Book the nova scotia area code so it's yours man hey 902 book it you just sparked i gotta realize who's gonna get episode 416 i gotta start planning that's

gonna come oh wow let's see if drake's drake i was just gonna say he's the he's the mayor so that'll be it that's right keegan i gotta tell you about paytm a free online bill payment service that helps manage all of your bills in one place the reason i like it is because i i literally i pay everything through paytm now i pay property taxes utility bills i pay my uh rogers bill i'll pay uh my credit card I'll pay my credit card. I'll pay everything, everything, insurance. Everything's going through Paytm because I'm using my credit card. So I'm paying everything via Paytm and I'm slapping it all on my President's Choice MasterCard. So I'm getting the points. So I go off, I bike over to No Frills and I buy like 31 bucks worth of groceries and I give them a dollar and it's not stealing because I have those points. It's amazing.

Yeah. And Paytm is giving me cash back too. So it's like literally like when I paid my first bill, it was a $74 Enbridge hydro thing. No, Toronto hydro, like 74 bucks. But because I use my own promo code when I I use my own promo code, Toronto Mike, I got 10 bucks off that bill. And that $74 bill cost me 64 bucks. Like little things like this get me really excited.

You know what I mean? Like me too. As a cheap man, that would excite the hell out of me. Thrifty. We talked about this Keegan. Come on, we're thrifty.

So I urge everybody to use the promo code, Toronto Mike, go to paytm.ca, download the app. And if you have any questions hit me up because I'm using this thing

this is not a script I'm reading I'm really using this thing for every single bill and I'm loving it so paytm.ca Keegan

I have a question for you alright are you ready to kick out the jam I'm very ready I'm excited oh the year was 1778 for you. All right. Are you ready to kick out the jam? I'm very ready. I'm excited.

Oh, the year was 1778 How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now A letter of mark came from the king To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen God damn them all I was told we'd cruise

The seas for American gold We'd fire no guns, shed no tears. Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of Barrett's privateers. Oh, well, said Barrett, cried the town, how I wish I was in Sherbrooke now. For twenty brave men, all fishermen, who would make for him the Antelope's crew. God damn them all, I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold. We'd fire no guns, shed no tears. Now I'm a broken man on Halifax Pier, the last of Barrett's privateers.

The Antelope's sloop was a sickening sight sight How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now She'd a list to the port and her sails in rags And the cook in the scuppers with the staggers and jags God damn them all I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold We'd fire no guns, shed no tears Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier The last of Barrett's

privateers. On the king's birthday... Dan Rogers, Barrett's privateers. I had to stay true to my people with our national anthem off of the top. I think this is the one song that when I hear it, I feel very much

at home. I think of being in a broken wooden chair in a Halifax pub, and it is the song that you will hear the most by every cover band, every dude with a guitar. And what I love about this song, beyond just the memories I have with this song, it's as a piece of audio itself, I'm not going to sit home and put this on a jam. What I love about it is how the structure of it really represents my home and how I feel. It's sung in the form of a sea shanty. So something you would sing on a fishing boat with the men working with you. And what's great about that is that it demands cooperation. And if someone stood up on stage and just sang

Barrett Privateers alone, I'd say, shut up, this is terrible. What makes it great is that someone sings the first words, oh, the year was 1778, and then every person in the bar screams the next line back. And so many great memories of being in so many great divey Halifax pubs and the band starts the song and you just scream back at them.

This is a, this would be like my metal detector for finding a Nova Scotian. Yeah. If I'm ever downtown and just like really feeling like

I need to get out of here, I'll just stand up on a bench and I'll scream oh the year was 1778 and someone in the crowd will turn back and I'll see them

and I'll say you're at least from the Maritimes. You're probably from Nova Scotia. I love it. I mean, when I hear this, I think I'm from Nova Scotia. That's just great. And I love it.

There's geography in it. I've been a broken man on a Halifax pier. It's great. And I grew up listening to Northwest Passage from Stan Rogers. And that jam, I always, in fact, if you search TorontoMic.com from Stan Rogers. And that jam, I always, in fact, if you search torontomic.com

for Stan Rogers, I'm sure I've written about, it's one of my, like, the quintessential Canadian jams if I ever put together a list or whatever.

He's just such a great artist to put on in the background. When I was home over Christmas, I was actually up in Cape Breton visiting a couple of my friends.

And I got there at one in the afternoon and you know it's it's the reason that I I don't like going out socially in Toronto because when I got up to my friend's house in Cape Breton he said yeah there's a case of beer out in the barn let's go sit in the barn and we go out he put on a Stan Rogers playlist on his phone set it down on the tool bench and we just kind of sat there and quietly grunted at each other for 10 hours and listened to Stan Rogers and, you know, talked. It was great, and I really associate it with home. Fantastic.

He died too young, right? What's the Stan Rogers story? Did something happen? Plane accident maybe? Plane crash? What was it? They have Stan Fest now in Cape Breton actually every year. How did he die?

Yeah, it was an accident. I feel like, and I'm trying to remember now. I should have done this homework before I started recording. But I feel like he maybe was taken in a, maybe a plane accident or a plane crash or something like that. Early 80s maybe, I want to say. But Stan Rogers, Barrett's Privateers, that's a great way to start these jams.

Yeah, it was on a plane. Yeah, I just looked it up here. It was a plane accident, but yeah. Man, it's a shame. But let's kick out another jam. I've cursed on a Sunday I've cheated and I've lied I've fallen down from grace A few too many times

But I find holy redemption When I put this car in drive Roll the windows down And turn up the dial Can I get a hallelujah? Can I get an amen? Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya When I play the highway FM

I find my soul revival Singing every single verse Yeah, I guess that's my church When Hank brings the sun My church, Maren Morris. That's right. Two things I love about this song. Number one, I'll probably rant about this song for a while,

but number one, it's a country music song. And I need to use this platform to tell the good people of Toronto that country music is a viable and enjoyable form of music. I'm even trying to speak without an accent so that I can get through to the city of Toronto. But I love country music and I have such a love for it and it drives me nuts when you ask someone what music they like and they'll say everything but country. Yep, yep. Come on. And my theory on this, my big hot take theory on country music is that it requires effort. And people don't like to put an effort to listening to music.

Because a lot of country music, if you're listening to Hank Williams or even Radio Country with a Garth Brooks song or Brad Paisley song or whoever you're listening to, there's a progression. There's a narrative involved. So chorus number uh it there's a progression there's a narrative involved so chorus number one there's a breakup chorus number two guy wants girl back chorus number three girl shows up on the doorstep it's not just a bunch of excuses to get back to the same chorus over and over with some nice noises in the middle and don't get me wrong i'll turn on top 40 jams and drive and whatever that's fine but country requires active listening and a lot of people just want to turn on their music and zone out a bit but uh i i'm a country believer a lot of modern country kind of the modern radio country might not be my jam necessarily but i think the writing's incredible and i think it

parallels rap music a lot in that sense it's's narrative-based, it's lyric and writing-based, and there's a progression. There's a story happening over the course of four minutes, not one story told five times in a row, over and over and over. I would argue that you mentioned the modern, radio-friendly country music. I think that's tainted good jams like this. It has. Because I like this. Something like a Florida Georgia line or something.

It's just not for me. Not that it's bad, but I hear that and I think, ugh. But the other reason I like this song, the concept of it, she says that her version of a church is when she is driving and she's got on a Hank Williams song or a Johnny Cash song in her car.

I love that because my happiest moments are when I'm on the road, preferably the highway pointed back at Nova Scotia, but when I'm on the road. And my father back home is a minister, so the idea of a church being something other than a brick building with windows is really interesting to me. I grew up, he's a Presbyterian minister at the big church in town, and I grew up, I haven't been regularly to church in 15 years. He never pushed it or forced it on me, and I have so much respect for him for that. But as I've grown up and as I've gotten older, I've started to have a much different appreciation for the work that he does. It's 10% of his job was preaching on Sunday type of thing.

The rest was community work and working with people in the congregation and community. So the idea of this song, that a church can be something else. I mean, sometimes the church was my living room. Something bad would happen and someone would show up. Or sometimes the church would be the side of the road when my dad was the person there who had to tell a family that someone had died, and okay, here we are on the gravel shoulder of the road, this is church for five minutes. And it gave me a much greater appreciation for the work that he did, and it helped me understand what the word meant, that it's more flexible than I think I thought when I was younger. That's great.

And I think there might be a line in Bull Durham, I hope I'm not misremembering, something about a baseball diamond being church or something about baseball being religion. Yeah, I believe in the church of baseball. Yeah, and it can be flexible. It can be a place, it can be a thing. So that's been a big part of my life. When I do go home,

and maybe I'll go to the church for the Christmas Eve service and make an appearance, but it's instilled in me that it can be just a community. It can be a big group of people that just cares about you. If you're not there for every aspect of it,

that's okay, because it can still be something. And I've learned that as I've gotten older. Amen, brother. Hey. Kick out another jam. There was a decorated general with a heart of gold That likened him to all the stories he told Of past battles won and lost and legends of old A seasoned veteran in his own time

On the battlefield he gained respectful fame With many medals of bravery and stripes to his name He grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face And always urged his men on But on the eve of a great battle with the infantry in dream The old general tossed in his sleep And blessed with its meaning he awoke from the night To tell what he had seen

And walked slowly out of his tent All the men held tall with their chests in the air, with the courage in their blood and a fire in their stare. And it was a great morning and they all wondered how they would fare, till the old general told them to go home. He said, I have seen the others and I have discovered that this fight is not worth fighting

And I've seen them others and I will no other To follow me where I'm going So, take a shower and shine your shoes You got no time to lose You are young men, you must be living. Take a shower and shine your shoes. You got no time to lose. You are young, man, you must be living.

Go now, you are forgiven. The General Dispatch. This song for me, I wanted to include one song that I just associate very specifically with a time and a group and a people. And part of me wanted to make that a really angsty, like, 90s rock song or a Blink-182 song. But this song for me is the song that, when I hear it, I think of my undergrad, my university years. The second I hear the intro, boop, boop, I'm smiling. My group of friends, like most groups, had a couple of guys that could figure their way around a guitar. And for whatever reason, this was one of the songs they would always play.

And one song that would always come on at 1.15 a.m. in the morning after we'd been up too late and drank too much. And the end of it is so great. We would scream along and sing along, but I'm not even a huge Dispatch fan. I don't dislike them either. I couldn't name 100 songs. I know they have this incredible following.

Their big concert, the final Dispatch, was huge, but it's this one song that kind of came out of nowhere for me because a friend liked it. But if my university friends and I were to get together today and make a playlist of a few songs, this would probably be number one. And when it came on, we'd look at each other and say,

ah, you know, remember that crappy dorm room that was no bigger than this desk that we're podcasting at and we felt like we were the kings and queens of the world because we had 50 bucks and we were living by ourselves. Music does that, man. It's like a time machine. Yeah. Takes you right back.

I love this idea. Go now, you are forgiven Go now, you are forgiven Go now, you are forgiven Go now, you are forgiven Go now, you got to be, got to be, got to be, got to be, got to be Yeah Nice. Keegan, you ready to kick out another jam? Let's roll. It's my bumpy booty jam. I need to keep it sound. It's a table of love and I'm walking with spiders It's a table of love and I'm walking in Squirrel company

Squirrel company It's a tale of love and I'm walking with spiders It's a tale of love and I'm walking in Terrible Love, The National. You listen to The National at all? Do you like them or have you ever listened to them? They're critical darlings, so I always dive in because because literally people say, like, this is the greatest album, this is the greatest band, and it never took on a level I feel it should be taking. Yeah, and I have a few friends who are real music guys.

I mean, this is from that album, track nine, this is the bass player. I've never been at that level. And one of those friends was a real fan of The National, and I kind of got it at first. I think I'd hear him play a song or he'd put on one song, and maybe they're not the greatest first-listen band in the world. Maybe when I listened to it the first time, I thought,

well, this is a bunch of mopey, sad men. I can produce enough of that myself. But as I began to listen to it more and more i think i began to uh came to a place where i appreciated that it was flawed and ugly sounding and even the recorded studio versions kind of sound like a live version recorded in a bad room for audio and it's um it's become uh one of my one of my favorite bands to listen to more recently. And it's kind of the vulnerability and the music that's not always coming from a place of love or hate or joy, but from a place of like, oh, shit, not my day type of thing.

Because anyone who's stuck being one of my friends will tell you that I'm very much like that. I have my days where I'm just kind of cranky, leave me alone. And a lot of these songs are more on that level. And I think they have a great pulse behind them. And they made terrible... Oh, did that truncate? Okay. Okay.

Is that a longer song? It truncated. It was a bit long. That's okay. Okay. No that a longer song? I truncated it. It was a bit long. That's okay. Okay, okay. No. Yeah, I don't know what happened there. I apologize.

But I was about to say, they've made terrible, he's made terrible a two-syllable word, which I like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You want to kick?

This one's a little bit different. And I hope, by the way, there's multiple versions of this jam, and I hope I have the right one. Oh, it's quite okay. So you'll forget me regardless. No, it's more about the story with it, I guess.

Okay, great. Let's hear your next jam. Get it on the ground Yeah, stay on sale Y'all saying that lingerie on that Chardonnay It's going touchdowns on your runway I'm Texas forever like Boba And I'm Rambo in the old I'm Billy and Rick like John Jack I'm Camo in the old These thots can't clock me nowadays You wish I was your pound cake

Boy, you know I look good at four Wish I was your baby mama Want me to come around and give you good karma But no, we escalating Up in this bitch like elevators. Of course, sometimes shit go down when it's a billion dollars on the elevator. Of course, sometimes shit go down when it's a billion dollars on the elevator. Goddamn, goddamn, goddamn.

Mama taught me good home training. My daddy taught me how to love my haters. My sister told me I should speak my mind. My man made me feel so goddamn fine. You wake up, post up Run around in it, flossin' on that There's diamond, my diamond There's rock, my rock

I woke up like this I woke up like this We flawless Ladies, tell them I woke up like this I woke up like this. We're flawless. Ladies, tell them I woke up like this. I woke up like this. We're flawless. Ladies, tell them say I look so good.

This is Flawless Beyonce. I'm wondering, do I wait for Nikki? I know she's coming in soon, but talk to us both flawless. We can go just with Beyonce. It's fine. I actually have a mug that that says i woke up like this a friend bought it for me i uh i think i keep my toothbrushes in it um i think i woke up like this works more as an insult for me where it would work as a compliment for miss beyonce knolls yes it

would when i look at it i'm just kind of like yeah wow this is i look down at the mug i look at the mirror i think wow this is real but um no, in university, out of university, actually, friends and I lived in one of these big, old, chopped up into a million apartment houses in Halifax with a bunch of roommates. And one of the roommates there is this great, loud, boisterous, extremely passionate woman. And she was a big Beyonce fan.

There was always Beyonce blaring in my apartment. So I grew in appreciation for it. I am the Nova Scotian Beyonce fan, I guess, on this podcast, as you would expect. This song specifically, I mean, it's a jam. I like it if it's on in the car. Fantastic. This song specifically, in the middle of it, there is a part of spoken word audio. I'm not sure if it will be this version, but I think it's in the middle of it there is a part of spoken word audio i'm not sure if it'll be this version but it was i think it's in the studio version and i remember a couple of years ago i was listening

to the song and there's a you know the song kind of goes into a lull and there's a spoken word as beyonce has in some of her songs and it's uh you know we we teach girls to shrink themselves to make themselves smaller and it goes on from there and it obviously wasn't Beyonce's voice so I, for whatever reason I googled it and I looked it up and it's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the writer and it's from a speech that she gave

that was later turned into an essay a small book called We Should All Be Feminists and I'm more of a reader than a listener so I bought the book and I subsequently bought, I think, everything she's written. She's become one of the more important writers, more important literary voices in my life. But from this very unexpected, I guess, jumping off point, it led me to Adichie, which led me to more actively reading feminist writers or people who were

writing actively about feminism. And it was a very important thing to happen in my life because, yes, I'd been exposed to the conversation when I was younger living in Nova Scotia, sorry, but I'd never actively thought about what I'm doing. I think I had been passive and sitting still and thinking, okay, I have the ideas. I agree in the equality, socially, politically, economically, I'm good. I'm on the right side of history. And I kind of subconsciously had those ideas. Through reading Adichie, especially, and that great little essay, We Should All Be Feminists, it's probably a 70-page book, it made me think of how I approach it, how I can be more active, how I can be a better ally, whether it's doing something bigger and having a conversation with someone in my life, or whether

it's just changing my language a bit, changing how I approach different things, whether it's hearing a buddy say something really gross and saying, there's a better word. So it really made me be a bit more introspective by reading her writing. And I'm surprised I got to it this way. Well, I was going to say, that's amazing that this happens because of Beyonce Jam. Exactly. But it's impacted my life. And it's really, I think, helped some relationships I have with friends. It helps the conversations I have.

Thinking about that has taught me the value of just asking a friend a question and shutting up for a bit. Instead of being more passive, what I was doing earlier and just saying, okay, everything's good. I didn't think about it enough to realize that I should be getting involved and should be a better ally and should be trying to change things. And that came from the middle of Flawless by Beyonce Knowles. That's awesome. And you'll be interested to know you're not the first person to kick out this jam,

Flawless by Beyonce. Oh, who else kicked it out? So her name, I know you won't know her program that she stars in because it's, I hope not. I don't know. It's aimed at preteens.

I thought you were going to say something worse. No, no, no. Alexandra Beaton. Okay. No, I'm not sure. Whose mother is Kate Wheeler, who you might know from CTV News and stuff like that.

But she kicked out the Flawless remix, Beyonce featuring Nicki Minaj. It's a good one. No, it's, I mean. Even as a standalone jam, it is a good jam. And Beyonce is one of those artists that, I'm not sure,

I'm saying this from a place of relative youth and complete ignorance, but I'm not sure we have those large, transcendent, larger than life type of artists or figures anymore, because we're exposed to so much all the time. I have these conversations in baseball a lot. We don't have a Babe Ruth. We don't have a Mickey Mantle right now. We don't have a Joe DiMaggio, who was way more than a baseball player. He was this cultural figure outside of everything. So I

think she's as close as you come to capturing this huge essence. Well, I have a 13-year-old daughter, so I hear a lot of Beyonce. The Lemonade album, I heard so much about it, and I did like most of it, actually. I quite liked it, but I can't... I've got lots of spins in this home. A lot of Lemonade.

A lot of Lemonade. Let's kick out another jam. All the night that Patty Murphy died Is a night I'll never forget Some of the boys got a load of drunk And they ain't got sober yet As long as the bottle was passed around Every man was feeling gay

Oh, Leary came with a bagpipe Some music for to play That's how they showed their respect for Patty Murphy that's how they showed their respect for patty burby that's how they showed their honor and their pride they said it was a sin and a shame and they winked at one another and every drink in the place was for the night pat murphy died as mrs murphy sat in the corner pouring out her grief Kelly and his gang came tearing down the street They went into an empty room and a bottle of whiskey stole

They put the bottle with the corpse to keep that whiskey cold That's how they showed their respect for Patty Murphy That's how they showed their honor and their pride They said it was a sin and shame when they winked at one another. And every drink in the place was full the night Pat Murphy died. The night that Pat Murphy died. Great Big C. I needed to include a Great Big C jam.

That's another example. Remember we were talking earlier about how we claim Matt's stairs? Right, right. I think Nova Scotia kind of claims Great Big C from Newfoundland as well. It's open borders but um this is uh i mean if you're looking for a good song to drink seven alexander keats and stand in the kitchen and then eventually stomp around in a circle too may i recommend the night that patty murphy died but it's uh i great big c is another one of those great soundtracks of the Maritimes, whereas Stan Rogers might be one that you sit around and hang out with. This is more

of the kitchen party jam. And let me tell you what, how much I miss kitchen parties when I've moved to Toronto. I'm just going to completely come undone now and start issuing all my gripes. Tell me. I want to know. Let me tell you what I hate about this. What are we missing here? I need to know. Well, the idea of a kitchen party in the Maritimes is that if you and I and a few other people

are going over to Fred's house for a party, you bring a case of beer, and you pretty much just stand in the kitchen and talk to each other and play loud music and drink your beer. And I'd even extend that just to the idea of having beer together at a friend's house. Whereas since I've been here, you want to meet up for beers and spend 60 bucks to have three?

I think, are you out of your mind? I'll spend $11 and come over to your kitchen and I'll stand there. I'm with you, man. And I might stay there too long and make too much noise, but it filled me with so much joy when I went home over the holidays and went to some Christmas parties, and I would walk in, and there would be nobody on the couches. That's a killer.

Once you sit on a couch, you're sucked in, you're down. I'd walk into the kitchen, everyone would just be leaning on the counter, yelling at each other. There'd be cans everywhere, but the idea of a kitchen party is something that's lost. Maybe I need to rebrand it. Toronto likes rebranded things. Maybe if I put the word boutique in it or something.

That might work. It's as much fun as you can have, a good kitchen party. I'm with you, man. I think I was born in the wrong place. I think maybe at my heart, I'm a Maritimer. I think so. We'll make you an honorary one. On that note, by the way, Ron James,

because I always thought Newfoundland and Labrador was part of the Maritimes. Okay, this is what I thought. Ron James tells me, no, it's not part of the Maritimes. No, that's the difference between Maritimes and Atlantic Canada. Atlantic Canada does include Newfoundland, but when I say Maritimes, I mean Newfoundland as well because I like the word Maritimes. Atlantic Canada sounds like I'm looking at a map and I'm learning geography. In the word Maritimes,

there's some romance and there's an edge, the Maritimes. Because it's a word that represents the region and I think we're kind of splitting hairs. It's pedantic, I suppose. Leave out Newfoundland. I mean the idea of it, not your question. I think you're kind of splitting hairs pedantic i suppose newfoundland i think we i i mean the the the idea of it not your question right i think you're splitting hairs here but yeah when when people when people say the maritimes i totally include we can throw newfoundland

and and can you call it newfoundland or do you got to throw in labrador right is it insensitive if i ignore the labradorian i just say newfoundland i i think we need to ask a labradorian do they identify as how many areers? How many are there? Can they all fit in this home? Yeah, they can fit in this right around this home, I think. I think the whole Atlantic Canada Maritime nomenclature

discussion is similar to the whole United Kingdom versus Great Britain. You got a whole Russian doll thing going on. Fascinating. Look look you're my uh token maritimer here to answer all these questions uh and i love great big c that's a that's a fun brand they'd always play so many of the kind of like canada day free downtown concerts in halifax and just so many other great songs like the old black rum and the the more popular songs

it's just you know alan doyle their singer is so incredible and's just, you know, Alan Doyle, their singer, is so incredible. Yeah? Yeah. Are you a little bit teased that we sort of stole Sloan? I mean, Sloan is here now. We did. We stole Sloan.

You okay? It's okay? I was actually on, what was I on? TSN 1150 in Hamilton the other day and they played me in with Sloan and I said,

yes, you're my people. But yeah, no, you did steal Sloan away and that's okay. But they wanted to be stolen. So I don't know if that's still saying. And I have to name drop because I have to do this. But we just played the night that Patty Murphy died.

And we just talked about Sloan. So I must tell you that Chris Murphy has been on this podcast. Chris Murphy from Sloan. There you go. So I feel I'm obliged. And if I remember correctly, I believe Sarah McLachlan is from Halifax before she goes out west. She is. So they stole her a long time ago. She is from Halifax before she goes out west. She is. So they stole her a long time ago.

She is from Halifax. Yeah, that's right. Wow. Somebody should put together a book of people who are actually from Nova Scotia because I feel like I learn one every day and I think, what? I know Joel Plaskett's from there, right?

Because Thrush Hermit's a Halifax guy, right? He is. Nobody has stolen him from us. He's fantastic. He shows up. Sticking around. The great Dave Hodge came, you know, not to outdo you. We're stolen him from us. He's fantastic. He shows up. Sticking around. The great Dave Hodge came, and not to outdo you, we're doing

10 jams and it's fantastic. That's all I ask. Dave Hodge came out 100 jams. Oh my goodness. I would have been weeks thinking of that. I would have had a meltdown around I would have had about 700 on a list. I think he did spend weeks. Not Thrush Hermit. Joel Plaskett did show up as one of his top 10

jams. Oh, wow. Let's play another Keegan Matheson jam. Let's go. There ain't no use Free me, darling Don't hang me up Let me go from your love now Just like a prisoner You've got me chaining back

Unlock them, let me go, let me go Get them from around me Turn me loose There'll be no use Free me, baby Let me go Turn me loose From your love now

You know that I love you Free me, Otis Redding I'm realizing now this continues my theme of great musicians who died on planes, which I did not intend to bring through this podcast. But I love Otis Redding. If you, gun to my head, want an artist to listen to for the rest of my life, I think Otis Redding would be in there. My morning alarm is Hard to Handle by Otis Redding.

Who covered that in the 90s? Black Crowes. Black Crowes. It is not a Black Crows song. If you take this from anything from my appearance today, listeners of Toronto White. That's a fun game we could play at some point. You can come back and we get songs that people don't know are covers.

Oh, man, yeah. I wish I could list some off now, but I love listening to a lot of old soul and old funk songs. You come across so many of them in the 60s and 70s, songs just like this that have been remastered and turned around. You think, what? But Otis Redding is just

such a great soul voice in a slower song like this. But you can also pick it up with a song like Tramp. Just a complete jam with horns and the energy that he has. There's still a few videos you can find around YouTube online

of live Otis Redding shows. And he is just this vibrating, stomping, screaming, soaked in sweat miracle of a performer. And he is, if I could time travel to a concert, I think it would be... Who would be your time travel to one dead musician's concert? Oh think it would be... Who would be your time travel to one dead musician's concert? Oh, wow.

I could see Buddy Holly. So many I could see. You could go see Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix would be right up there. I would love to see Hendrix live. That's a great question. You could time travel. I think Otis Redding would be mine. Can I say, because we did reference songs people don't know our covers.

Respect is an Otis Redding jam. Yeah. Aretha Franklin took that and made it her own and people don't even realize. And it was amazing back then as well how quickly it happened sometimes. One of my favorite Otis Redding songs, Tramp, it was released like three months before that by somebody else. Since there wasn't internet sharing, I guess, you just grab that and say, ah, I like that. I'll put my own voice on it. It's amazing. But yeah,

Otis Redding, I mean, I think Dock of the Bay is one of the best songs ever written. Posthumously released, too. Oh, man, that's right. Yeah, yeah, not long after his death. And it was, yeah, I'm a sad man. He is, that he died so young because some of the music he could have made. It's just an incredible voice.

So young, right? 24, he might have been. 23 or 24, something ridiculous. You're right. You said it all. I couldn't say it better than that. He was flying the plane, I think. No.

I think so. I don't think so. I need to know this now. I don't think so. I don't think so. I'm one of those people that needs to know something immediately. Did I say Bob? John Denver.

Bob Denver was Gilligan. Okay. John Denver flew his own plane in that needs to know something immediately. Did I say Bob? John Denver. Bob Denver was Gilligan. John Denver flew his own plane in that crash. I think he passed away. I do not think Otis Redding was flying his own plane. I know that they announced today in this terrible segue because it's so tragic, but they're going to retire 32 on opening day. That's right. That's right. Speaking of flying your own plane.

All right. Otis Redding, by the way, drenched in talent. Who knows what he would have done? Died so young and absolutely great,

great, great choice. I don't know who I was thinking of that was flying their own plane. John Denver, you're thinking of Rocky Mountain Way or

whatever, Rocky Mountain High. Such a terrible little game here. Yeah, this is a bad game. But JFK Jr. JFK Jr. JFK Jr.

Was flying his own plane. So the darkest game in the history of Toronto, Mike, I finally cast my cloud over this city. 10 people who passed away flying their own plane. There's that golfer, I think, but okay,

we'll move on now. Happier things. Oh, my favorite band of all time is up next. Oh, there we go. Let's kick out a jam. It was so hard to pick one song.

This was the one that I liked the most that day. It's the middle of the night You're all alone And the dummies might be right You feel like a jerk My music at work My music at work Voices and cliches Don't try to get the date And when the sunlight Hits the olive oil Don't hesitate

The night's so long it hurts My music at work The tragically hip My music at work This, for me, I picked up this song because I Oh, hey, I love the hip, surprise I'm shock-bunched It's kind of like how American sports writers all like Bruce Springsteen. And the Canadian sports writers, too. Yeah, them, too.

But I feel like this is our sports writer, Springsteen, that just like every sports writer who kind of looks like me anyways likes the same band type of deal. But I had that last concert, the CBC concert. I have the video of it, and I had it up on my TV a couple weeks ago. Every few months, I'll put it up in the background. I mean, if Netflix had a concert section, it's all I'd watch. I love watching and putting a concert up on the screen, whether I'm cleaning the house

or if I'm going to sit down and have a couple beer and watch it. But of course I like The Hip. Of course I like everything they do. They are one of the few groups who can really I think there's a lot of my friends back home who

are not poetic people they have not read many novels they do not immerse themselves in art much but the hip gets through to them and it kind of tricks them into listening to something that's very lyrically done just a lot of my wrench in the pocket, let's go fix a truck friends get tricked into listening to some poetry every once in a while. Well said.

It's like when my wife always sneaks pumpkin and stuff into pancakes and stuff so the kids will eat it. It's kale instead of lettuce, you know. But my favorite thing about The hip was that last concert night. Where did you watch that? It's going to blow your mind. I watched because it was August 20, 2016, and I was in Inganish, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Oh, I love it. So you watched it in the best place in the world.

Did you watch it in a hotel there? No, we did a BRB. So I was in a home, and i watched it with my 13 year old daughter so there were six of us in that but my 13 year old daughter and we just watched and wept that entire night like it was amazing that night i was at a wedding party the couple had gotten married in the morning and and gone without the large ceremony, bless them. And so there was just a big wedding party at the end of the night. Over in the East End, my end of town,

life was great. And one of the women getting married was another woman I'd lived with, actually, in school. Just this incredible, quirky, artistic, fantastic woman who really had a great impact on my life. And the woman she was marrying,

I had not met her until that point, but I met her and quickly found that she was just as great. But it was one of these social events that I fear because I do not like crowds. And I'm not a naturally social outgoing person. If I have an excuse to be in a conversation, once I'm in it, great. But put me in a backyard full of strangers, I just want to run. I'm with you, bud. I feel like you're my brother here. Keep going. And eventually, I was kind of standing around the backyard.

Perfect night. Not too hot, not too cold. And I knew that the concert was on that night. But this is my friend. I'm going to be quiet. But of course, a couple murmurs I said around. Is anybody going to watch that hip concert tonight? that night, but this is my friend. I'm going to be quiet. But, you know, of course, a couple of murmurs I sent around. Is anybody going to watch that hip concert tonight? You know, hey, nice to meet you.

Are you going to watch that hip concert tonight? And eventually it was her brother. He said, don't worry. Eight o'clock, we're going downstairs. So eight o'clock came. There was a tug on my arm. And we went over to, there was a literal kiddie pool just filled with beer, perhaps some Great Lakes beer. But we all grabbed as many as we could and went down to the basement. I don't know anyone that

was in the room. I don't remember any of their names. One of them was her brother, the other 10 or 12. I have no idea who they were. We barely even talked. We just sang the songs together and enjoyed it. And people came and went and people ran for beer. But it was just this incredible moment. I was at this wedding of two great women in a basement full of strangers, all brought together by this hip concert. It was one of those special memories I'll always have.

I'm catching myself now because I want to cry. That's where we're at when I think about that hip concert. Yeah, it's amazing. Even just hearing you talk about that experience and just how some of the lyrics rang out that night when Gord sang them. And that scream he let out.

That scream, the bellow, like, yes, and it was just like, we all felt it. Oh, man. Like, talk about something that, you know, you can say,

I'm wearing the T-shirt, Joey Bat's bat flip, and the country was united in that moment. Yeah, it was. But in this tragically hip, English-speaking Canada united. And think of how crazy that was from a broadcast standpoint. Wasn't that right during the Olympics? Oh, during the Olympics.

Yeah. CBC shuts down their channel. Oh, I mean, it makes sense because however many million people watch it. But for a national broadcaster to just shut a channel down and play a full concert, I don't even think there were advertisers. No, there was zero advertising.

It was just this cultural service. And we needed it. As a nation, we needed it. I needed it. You needed it. It's like we needed to have this opportunity. And I saw him when he was here.

I don't know if you caught one of those three Toronto shows. I caught the middle one, the Sunday night show. No, I saw him when he was here. I don't know if you caught one of those three Toronto shows. I caught the middle one, the Sunday night show. No, I saw them in Halifax in, I think, 2012. The Arkells opened for them, actually.

It was a great concert. But I went to that concert with a friend who was a hip fanatic. And I love the hip, but there are some people who are just like, whoa, you know? And that's one of my favorite things to do in the world.

I'm not a huge concert goer, aforementioned crowd issue. But to go to concerts with people who it's their favorite band, that's a really cool thing, I think. Man, I mean, it's all kind of surreal now. You know, we were saying goodbye to Gord. And he passed away. And I'm still kind of grappling with it all.

Like, it's just... Behind you, you'll see the print I got from the Jenny Wenjack. Oh, I love that. Yeah, of Gord on the railway tracks. But man, great. I need to tell you, though, you share that jam with another jam kicker.

Yeah. And it's funny, it all ties together to baseball, but the brother, the brother of Mike Wilner, Norm Wilner, who writes at Now Magazine, film, yeah, he chose my writes at Now Magazine. Film? Yeah. He chose my music at work by the Tragically Hip. Ready for your second last jam? Let's go.

Let's go. We are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. Electric word life, it means forever and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here to tell you, there's something else. The afterworld. A world of never ending happiness. You can always see the sun, day or night. So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, doctor, everything will be all right.

Instead of asking how much of your time is left, ask how much of your mind, baby. Because in this life, things are much harder than in the afterworld. This life, you're on your own And if the elevator tries to break the down Go crazy Punch a head blow If you don't lie The world you're living in Thank you. Let's go crazy.

Prince. This is as good as a pop song gets, I think. Prince. Now I'm realizing a lot of these tie back to my old university memories or friends or mostly people in my life. When I moved to Halifax, to the big city, God, I still remember driving across the bridge into Halifax with my heart racing, thinking that I was landing on the moon that day. But I was randomly paired with a roommate first year university, which can go terribly for a lot of people. And coming out of New Glasgow when I was young, I wasn't the most cultured person in the world. I hadn't had a lot of worldly experiences. I didn't like many diverse foods or musics or anything like that just because I hadn't experienced much.

My roommate I think literally dances through the door from San Francisco. His name is Jeremy and became one of the best friends I've ever had in my life. Just one of the most beautiful people I could have ever hoped to meet. So I'm one of the lucky ones.

But he was an acting major. Came there from San Francisco because his family was Canadian and also it's cheaper. So when I moved there, I just liked to watch sports and listen to generic rock music and drink my Alexander Coups and keep to myself. He comes in dancing and singing a show tune and just full of stories and life and love. So we lived together all four years. We moved to a couple of different places together.

And by the end of it, he was the one asking me to watch the football game. And I was the one asking him to go to the theater. We had an incredible, well, at least he had an incredible impact on me. I probably shortened his life, but he loved Prince. Loved Prince. And Prince came to Halifax in November of 2011, I believe. So the classic example of seeing a concert with your friend's favorite musician. So we got nosebleed tickets.

We were so broke. End of a semester, we walked down to the Metro Center and bought tickets. We were so poor. I might have even had to buy his. I don't know. Nosebleed tickets we were so broke end of a semester we walked down to the metro center and bought tickets we were so poor i might have even had to buy his i don't know uh nosebleed tickets prince comes out love sign stage uh and just incredible and i kept leaning into my friend and saying you know what song is this he'd say it's not even a song he's just kind of going right now and i mean his his worst backup singer is someone I would spend $100 to see in concert. The talent, he had this saxophonist, and I love the saxophone. His saxophonist was a guy I think who used to play with Parliament and some of these great bands. So the talent was unreal.

Where it went from great concert to one of the best nights of my life was when the encore started. So he finishes. Of course, Prince is going to do an encore. I mean, come on. Encore number one. Cool. I'm happy. Prince goes off.

Lights stay off. So you're thinking, okay, there's going to be a second encore. Encore number two comes on. And by this point, my friend is just beside himself. He's trying to stand up. And Prince goes off again. Encore number three. He comes back out, and I'm thinking,

this is extremely excessive, but it is the Purple King himself. Do whatever the hell you want, Prince. So the lights start to come up. We're talking, oh, my goodness, that was the best concert ever. Encore four. So the lights came on, and then encore? They started up again. Okay, okay, okay. Encore four. So the lights came on? They started up again. Okay, okay, okay.

Encore number four. Wow. And so it finishes, and the lights are on. We're kind of shuffling out to the aisle. You'd be afraid to leave at that point. Encore five. Get out of here. A fifth encore.

The stage opens up. It's a new record. He rises up through the stage, and he didn't even play a song. He just kind of jammed for 10 minutes and i'll never forget it you can look up set lists online and i've looked for this one and it shows four encores but every time me and my friends get together we tell this like it's a ghost story it's like there was a fifth encore right but the person must have left or something but it's it's one of the great stories that we always share the five encore prince night and i

i'll still remember the sound of the lights, kind of that, what you hear in a show when a field light goes off, that... I just remember shouting, No! Could he possibly do it? But I could see a concert at night for the rest of my life. I'll never see something half that amazing.

And much like Otis Redding, this guy drenched in talent, unbelievable, but such a, I mean, as a guitarist, just purely as a guitarist, like, uh,

I was just listening to the, you know, the guitar work and let's go crazy. And he's like, you can almost, he's so good at so many things. Uh, he was so good at so many things.

You could almost like forget that he's one of the world's greatest guitarists. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. The, the variety of music he put together and it all just blends so well together. At one point in the concert, it might have been an encore, it just all seemed like the same, but he was just dragging people out of the audience.

You dance, I'll play the guitar. Nothing was planned. It was just, I am a master at music. Everyone watch. And he had the swagger to pull that off. Pardon my ignorance. Is Halifax such a large market that people like Prince would naturally go there

on their tour? No, it's kind of surprising. Halifax gets a lot of like Tuesday stopovers. You know what I mean? And it's weird because the metro center there holds about 10,000.

So like a hip concert, for example, but you're not exactly going to get, you know, Beyonce is not going to go to Halifax. Well, that's where I'm going. So sometimes you hear like a big name, okay, they're you're not exactly going to get, Beyonce is not going to go to Halifax. Well, that's where I'm going. So sometimes you hear like a big name,

okay, they're going to hit, maybe they'll hit Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, and that's it for Canada. Sometimes you'll get lucky if it works out with going over the East Coast type of thing. But Prince was a big get, I think, for Halifax. You kind of get more of the mid-ranges, but it draws from a big area at the same time too.

Everyone always fills it up from all big area at the same time too. You know, everyone always fills it up from, from all over the Maritimes. Cool. Let's hear your final jam. You ready? I'm ready. Picture this ladies and gentlemen. As good as it gets.

It's 50 years ago on a small country farm. It's fifty years ago on a small country farm Johnny McMaster's place And it's Friday night You've just finished ten hot days of back-breaking labour and the hay the hay is finally in You're sitting around the kitchen table under the dim light of a kerosene lantern

and everyone's laughing under the dim light of a kerosene lantern. And everyone's laughing and joking and telling stories about their neighbors. You're halfway through a bottle of... moonshine And you're getting all Fired up I said you're getting up For the dance Ladies and gentlemen

The Mall River Shuffle Fall Lots of room in the aisles Come on you guys upstairs Let's go Let's shake some ground in Vancouver Well here comes Mr. McD Oh the fine shape that he's in There is no telling which way he'll feel After his twister around the bend

Raising the jar and raising hell There's plenty of stories that they will tell Some are poor, too detailed And some are purely fiction This is the Mole River Shuffle by the Rankin Family. And I see that it's almost out of time, but there's no way this song ends in five seconds, so I think I've screwed this up because I couldn't find this song,

and you sent me a link to a YouTube clip, and I ripped it from YouTube, but I didn't test it to make sure. I feel terrible because I'm so in that moment of the Mole River Shuffle and damn it, I... Live in it. Do you want me to go to YouTube?

I can play it from YouTube. Oh, don't worry about it. Are you sure? Yeah, if you want to, sure, but it's the... Tell us about the song while I do some work here. It's the Nova Scotia jam of jams.

It is my favorite Nova Scotia song. The Rankins are Nova Scotian. And it's another one of those classic songs you'll hear at a party. And right from the start with the long story, Nova Scotians don't just like telling stories. They like telling uncomfortably long stories, especially ones that involve moonshine like that did. That's one of my favorite moments.

Moonshine. It's a great moment. We were probably two-thirds of the way through. We'd almost be probably another minute even past that. It's just this great family band, the Celtic, fiddles, everything, and it's got an edge to it.

I love this song. It's got the fiddles. I'm looking for the fiddles, everything. And it's got an edge to it. I love this song. It's got the fiddles. I'm looking for the fiddles. It does. It's right in there. You're right. This is an almost eight-minute song. And I started, I don't know if you noticed my face, but I got it in a soundboard and I can see there's like 49 seconds left. And I'm like, we're just starting this song.

Yeah, they're really jamming here. I'm like, they're going to burn through this. What are they going to do in 49 seconds? They're just starting. I'm like, I don't think I have the full MP3 here. So the Rankin family, they're monsters of the East Coast, right? They are.

This is a big deal. No, they definitely are. They're our Drake. That's great. They really are but um so many great songs but this is kind of the i mean at least for my friends people that i've lived my life with this is always our our favorite and i i love this because it's got that you know cheery relatable storytelling and the jumpy fiddles and everything's happy but there also is that edge of it which i I think is very Nova Scotian, where someone is super polite.

They'll invite you in, they'll make you dinner, but they'll also offer you moonshine from a jar under the kitchen counter type of thing. There is that edge that makes people interesting. People that are just nice and jolly and pleasant have never really been my people. It's saccharine. The term saccharine is too sweet almost. Like you need a little bit

of like a yin and yang. Yeah, you need something to offset it. Some sandpaper. I think that's really kind of captures what I mean when I say how much I love people of Nova Scotia

because they'll be the nicest people you'll ever meet, but then they will drag you into a bar and they won't leave until you are forced to leave. There's that,

I don't know if edge is the right word, but I think this captures it. And this is the greatest moonshine song since Copperhead Road, I think. Oh, that's right. That's right. No, it's a good land of moonshine.

I have made and enjoyed and witnessed many a moonshine runs. That's great. I suppose that's not legal. Retract. Retract. We'll have to chop that out. I love the end of this song, too.

It's a great one. This part here, I'll go home, I'll go home, full of the devil and full of the rum. I love that. I'll go home, full of the devil and full of the run I'll go home, I'll go in the morning I'll go home, I'll go home Full of the devil and full of the run I'll go home, I'll go in the morning I'll go home, I'll go home Full of the devil and full of the run I'll go home, I'll go in the morning

I'll go home, I'll go home Full of the devil and full of the run I'll go home, I'll go in the morning I'll go home, I'll go home Now that you have listened to, there's a couple of versions online of the song. That is the best for people looking for it because I know everyone's rushing out. All of these Torontonians are rushing out. It's a lengthy version.

But now that you've listened to it in full mic, you have achieved your honorary Nova Scotian status. That is the last test put at the end. But that's jam number one. I loved your jams. I'm just sorry. One's missing, and maybe it's because I'm transposing. Because if I truly were from Nova Scotia, this would be one of my jams.

Okay. Sleepy Maggie by Ashley McKenzie. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. That's got a good modern twist to it, too. Kind of like that Rankin song, you know? Right. And it's a jam.

I mean, they used to play it. I used to see it on Much Music, and they'd play it on our local alt-rock station. That might even be the jam that brings Toronto and Nova Scotia together. Is that kind of the halfway point? Because there's a bit of that poof in the background. Because she's doing Gaelic. I think it's Gaelic.

The woman on that song, Sleepy Maggie, dun-da-dun-da-dun-da-dun-da-dun. And it's not... I won't even try to embarrass myself by doing it, but it's not English. You'll say something terrible by accident. I think it's Gaelic. It likely would be if it's from there.

And I just loved it. That is such a great song. And I should say I love that jam, Ashley MacIsaac, and that's why I always love the fiddles. Yeah. And we opened with Stan Rogers, and we closed with the Rankin family i had to bookend it that was consciously done i had them at 10 5 and 1 my nova scotia jams i uh that's uh that's

really the strategy of my life in toronto you put some stuff in the middle to fool people but feature nova scotia and dare i say now baseball toronto is uh the written word this is the you know we get you right but you have a fantastic voice. Oh, thank you. You could add a podcast for subscribers. Maybe in the future. I do love radio. Radio is, other than writing, it's my favorite medium to work in. I love doing it, but yeah,

that's probably going to have to come down the line. I don't think you have a choice on this. I think you've got to introduce the podcast at some point, but thanks for coming by. Thanks for doing this and kicking out the jams with me. And good luck with Baseball Toronto. Thank you. This has been the best part of my day.

I don't even feel stressed anymore. Because you've been listening to great jams in my basement with some beer. So come on. That's so much different than what I do most other days, listen to Nova Scotian music with beer. This is very different. That's funny. And that brings us to the end of our 306th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Keegan is at Keegan Matheson. And what's the handle for the Baseball Toronto? I just started following today. At Baseball TOR. At Baseball TOR. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer.

Propertyinthe6.com is at Brian Gerstein and Paytm is at Paytm Canada. See you all next week. for more than eight years. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears. And I don't know what the future can hold or do.