Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ken Daniels: Toronto Mike'd #837

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

Mike catches up with Ken Daniels and collects more Harold Ballard stories before they stroll down memory lane with some extremely rare audio nuggets from CJCL. Then, they remember Jamie with a song.

Welcome to episode 837 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. CDN Technologies, your outsourced IT department. Contact Barb. She's Barb at cdntechnologies.com. Ridley Funeral Home,

pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majeski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. Iico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is the voice of the Detroit Red Wings, Ken Daniels. And I remember, oh my God, when I first started listening to you, you had like one sponsor for beer. Look how far you've come. You need a separate show just for all your damn sponsors.

Good job. No, thank you. Like that is one of the, you know, you're like kind of shy about it. But at the same time, that was the point, right? Like, so it's like, don't be, you know, that's the idea. But thanks, man. And it's awesome to hear that you've been listening for that long, because your episode, when you drop by, is one of my favorite episodes of Toronto Mic'd of all time.

Well, thank you. And it was a pleasure to be there, having listened to you for so long. And living in Detroit now and growing up in Toronto and being there until 1997 and working there for so long, hearing the people that I admire, who are still very much in the business, and I still love listening to Hebsey, and you on with Mark. So it keeps me in touch with the past. And I love that. And even I'm such a numbers guy. And when you had me on the first episode, I remember it was episode 318, which is my birthday, March the 18th. And it wasn't planned. It's just the way it worked. And now you're on 837, I heard you say.

And that adds up to 18. Wow. Good job. So well done by a total fluke again. So it's awesome you listen to Toronto Mike and Hebsey on sports. But you also listen to Humble and Fred, right? Yeah. I don't know when they started, either 09 or 10.

And I always loved Fred and Humble and just listened to wherever they were. When was it? 2010? 2011. 2011. Yeah. Okay. Because I don't know how even I found them.

Somewhere on the internet. And that was probably one of the first podcasts I listened to because they were one of the originals. You know, I produced that program. I know. This is all... I know. And we did, okay, prior to October 2011 when we went daily with Humble and Fred,

we did these one-offs. So like in the first one was December 2006. So we did our first podcast in December 2006. And I'm telling you, because I'm the... After Dan Duran gave, he created the MP3 file and handed it over and said, okay, now make this a podcast. So I can tell you that's the bleeding edge of podcasting. Like that's way back in the podcast timeline. For sure.

And I could have sworn it was like 2009. I heard them do something and it it was maybe like a 10 10 maybe they did something like a 10 10 round table or maybe they jumped on mccowan show or something like that possibly i can't remember i know i know that bob was promoting them and they were into this new world and now they've quit radio and that's what they're doing so very proud of them and always have been i I remember applying to Fred Patterson when he was at NY for a sports job. And as he remembers, I sent this, I didn't. But now after he said it, I remember that I sent this big glossy photo to him.

Like it mattered. I was on radio. Like he wouldn't have known what I looked like. But anyway, I was on TV too. You saw the future there. I think you knew at some point you weren't going to just be a radio guy. You had to be like a social media, television, radio. I feel like, are they even hiring radio-only people like Rogers, for example?

I'm just thinking out loud. Would they hire somebody for the Fan 590 to be radio-only at this point? I think they would. They would, sure. I know how it's so mixed now, right? But point? I think they would. They would, sure. I know how it's so mixed now, right? But no, I think it would be better. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they'd have to.

And so many changes there, and I feel so badly for the people, and I've heard you talk about it on your show all across Canada, and with just the shuddering of radio stations across the country, and especially out in Vancouver, and just horrible what's gone on and all the layoffs. And that's, you know,

I go speaking here in Detroit and people ask me about getting into the radio industry. It's a great background for what we do. It's a great background to get into TV, but I'm talking more about podcasting now as the way to start rather than radio, you know, it's the way it's gone. Well, let me tease the listenership here and let them know that I have a whole bunch of like very rare clips of Ken Daniels. So you can't just find these on like, you can't just go to YouTube and find these things. So Ken, is it right that you had these, these audio files, they weren't

files, I guess, but the audio was on cassette tapes and you literally like played a cassette deck to your iPhone, I guess. Or is that how you captured the audio? Pretty much. When you went into the recording on my phone and then sending it to you because you said, do you have any old clips of you calling Maple Leaf Games? And I do, but they're on cassette. And then I remember saying to you, if I could find some D batteries now to put in my cassette recorder, you know, I saw Howard Berger online who said he just purchased something from Amazon

to play some cassette recordings that he had of Bob McCowan show because he used to produce the show. And I thought, yeah, there aren't many cassette recorders around anymore, nor CD players in cars for the most part, when you get a new one, how do you get them?

So I put them into the recorder which i think i stole it's the statute of limitations now i must have stolen it when i left the city hall beat from cjcl in the early 80s and i still have that recorder i stuck the cassette into it and recorded for you wow well i can't wait i'm gonna play a whole bunch of clips there's some that go back yeah to cjcl uh, Music of Your Life. It's going to be fantastic. Music of Your Grandmother's Life, my friend. That's right.

That's what that was. I got to thank you because, I mean, I mentioned I loved your first appearance and it really meant a lot and then,

like, I don't know, months later, I checked the mail and I have a package from Ken Daniels in Michigan and you sent me,

and I'm sure you remember, of course, but I just want to let you know, and I'm holding up for those who can't see us, I'm holding up a couple of like 45 singles. One is called The Whole Town's Talking About the Blue Jays. That's by the Toronto Sun. And there's one called The 10th Anniversary of the Blue Jays. It's called Talking Baseball, 10 Years with the Jays.

And Ken, I don't know if you listen to every episode of Toronto Mic'd, but I want you to know that very recently we kicked out the baseball jams on our Pandemic Friday of Toronto Mic'd, and I actually played Talkin' Baseball 10 Years with the Jays and told the story of you sending me your copy. So that was played in

April 2021 on Toronto Mic'd. Well, thank you. That's nice. And I know you're a big baseball fan, a bigger fan than I am. I, I covered the Jays obviously in the two world series championships in 92 and 93 and worked for CBC. I was host on blue Jays baseball with Don Chevrier, Brian Williams, Tommy Hutton. I did that for a bit, but I was never the biggest baseball fan. And

unfortunately it probably goes back to the players because they were so unwelcoming, at least as a reporter. And I wasn't the only one who felt that way when you deal in the hockey world, Mike, it just wasn't the same cover in baseball. And I lost some of the luster for it. Do you think that's because most of the hockey players were Canadian? Either Canadian or those that I've here in the U.S. And I've covered a lot of college hockey games on Valley Sports. It used to be Fox Sports. Now it's called Valley Sports across the U.S.

And I just think they are a small fish in a very big pond. So when you're going to U.S. colleges and you've got baseball and football and all of a sudden, oh, yeah, there's a hockey team that won a national championship, let's say. And they just don't have that notoriety. And I think it's the parents getting up at five in the morning and six in the morning and the cost of the game. And if you really want to be involved in the game, you appreciate where you came from for the parents who paid the freight. And I just think it's ingrained in them, not that there aren't great baseball players or football players who can be appreciative or basketball players. I just think the hockey world is different. And I never, the one baseball player, and you might find this amusing, who I really took a shine to, and he took a shine to me was George Bell. Oh, my favorite,

my favorite. Yeah. Because George Jesse Barfield was great too and you know there were some really good ones but uh george bell because i was um not of a great vertical status that george would always say to me he'd call me the the effing whatever and he liked me because i was smaller than him but you know what whenever i needed anything george he'd grant an interview all the time so i took it for what it was worth amazing like we mentioned hebsey earlier so you know what? Whenever I needed anything from George, he'd grant an interview all the time. So I took it for what it was worth. Amazing. We mentioned Hebsey earlier. So you know, every week I have a good long chat with Mark Hebsey. And one thing that's come up frequently is what a dick Dave Steeb was. I agree. 100%.

Okay, spill some tea. Yeah, spill some tea. Like what? He just wouldn't give you, like he thought his shit didn't stink and he wasn't going to give you the time of day? Why was he so difficult? He thought he had the perfume of all shits, to tell you the truth. I remember being at spring training in Dunedin. We had sent up an interview with Dave Steeb,

and I can't remember who, in the morning, and he basically ghosted us. And we were there early because you had to get there early. And I know if you were late, even when Jimmy Williams was the manager, you didn't want to be late or hold anything up. One day we did that with Tony Fernandez. Jimmy Williams read us the riot act. But Dave Steeb ghosted us. And then in the afternoon, I was supposed to do somebody else.

And we did. And Dave was running on the track in the outfield. So, so the day's two sessions had finished. Dave was running on the track in the outfield and we had done someone else that day and our camera, we were just packing up and Dave, Steve, I guess feeling somewhat guilty came over and said, would you like to do this now? And I said, no, I'm good. Thanks. And we left. I didn't care. I wasn't at that point in time that that guy couldn't give a crap about anybody. And, you know, obviously Mark felt that way. I felt that way. We weren't the only ones who felt that way. And

that turned me, the Dave Steves of the world, those guys turned me off baseball. My brother imagine. My brother, Mike, still lives in Toronto, loves the Blue Jays, season tickets for Blue Jays for years. I used to love going to Blue Jay games, and I rooted for them big time. And then when I left, and now I will go down to some Tiger games, but I don't even envy the guys who have to cover the Tigers. I just find the game so slow now. I know they're trying to pick up the pace. I just can't get into it.

I can't get into it well you're uh you're still a big hockey fan and you work in hockey so uh a quick hockey question and then we'll move on to that the actual interesting stuff but i was going to ask you uh how about those red wings uh well what would you like to know that we're going to miss the playoffs for a fifth straight year now i got very spoiled here here. I came in 97 when the Red Wings were at one, the first of two back-to-back cups. So I was here for the second one in 98 and a 25 year run of the playoffs, which had to end at some point because you just can't stockpile. You don't have those high draft picks. I think in all the years that I was here in that,

think about this in the-year playoff run, the average, because so many deals were made to keep the team together and move the picks and trade for now and, you know, surround Eisenman and Federoff and Shanahan with better players so you could keep winning. And then you're going into a new building. So you want to try to keep the streak alive. And they probably did it for two years longer than they should have. So the rebuild should have started not just two or three years ago, maybe five years ago, but they didn't. And now they're paying the price.

But in that 25 year run, think about this. If the Maple Leafs had to go through that and think of what they haven't been able to do, despite having pretty good draft picks, although some of them lately like partner and Matthews have been great. The Red Wings average first pick on the draft was 36. because they had like a datsuk and zetterberg these were really late picks right these were deep yeah datsuk datsuk the year he was taken and when he finally came over he was 24

and so was zetterberg uh because they stayed over in europe so they weren't kids when they came over datsuk was taken in the sixth round henrik zetterberg in the seventh round thomas holmstrom i think when he was taken was the ninth round those thingsrik Zetterberg in the seventh round, Thomas Holmstrom, I think when he was taken was the ninth round. Those things just don't happen. And until I believe when the Red Wings took Michael Rasmussen, maybe ninth overall three or four years ago now, that was the highest pick in the draft ninth overall since the Red Wings took Marty LaPointe 10th overall in 1991. Wow. Okay. So you don't have any top 10 picks and people can say, yeah, the Red Wings stink.

Yeah. Right now the kids are coming from Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, the big defenseman who's going to be with the team next year. Lucas Raymond could make the team next year. Their fourth overall pick, who knows where they're going to draft this year. Philip Zedina is coming, Michael Rasmussen. So they've got players coming in, Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi.

They just traded Anthony Mantha. It's a rebuild. And we have faith in Steve Eisenman. We did in Ken Holland. He started it, moved on to Edmonton. And now Steve's preaching patience, just like he did in Tampa. It takes a while. It takes some time.

It's funny how the Red Wings and the Leafs are both being run by members of those Stanley Cup Red Wings teams, right? We got Shani here. I love Shani. Love him. Great dude. I guess if you listen to Toronto Mike, you might have heard that he went to my high school.

I don't know if you caught that. In Mimico? Yeah, well, he went to Michael Power, and that's where I went. It was like Islington and, yeah, right? Yeah, he's a Mimico boy, that's for sure. So hopefully brighter days ahead for the Red Wings, but before I remind people about episode 318, I just want to ask you, how are you guys holding up? You know, we're in a pandemic, but I mean, I hear half of the Americans have been vaccinated at this point, But have you got your shot yet? Yes, I had both Pfizer shots and they do them here.

I know. I don't know why in Toronto and Canada, they're waiting three to four months in between. I have the answer. So here's the here's this. And Quebec's doing the same thing. But here's the spirit behind that. There's something like 75 to 80 percent effectiveness with one shot. there's something like 75 to 80 percent effectiveness with one shot so the rationale here is since we don't have the uh inventory that you have in the united states that get as many people as possible get them one shot to get mostly covered before you start doing the second shot because there's some some some method there's some method there that would help to have more people with the one shot instead of less people with one shot, more people with two shots. Makes sense.

Yeah. So that's the approach here. I'm just hoping that by the time the second shot comes around, it hasn't run off the first shot. But here, it was three weeks to the day pretty much they wanted you. At the outset, it would be six weeks so i had the pfizer vaccine uh through our foundation through the jamie daniels foundation and children's foundation so we got the vaccine probably two months ago now was my second one um i think a lot of the a lot of our players have been vaccinated too not that i'm around them in this world we We're calling games from a studio and at home, we're not even allowed near the dressing room.

So like everybody else in the league. And my wife just got vaccinated her first shot because she had COVID. My daughter had COVID. My ex-wife had COVID and her husband didn't get it. I didn't get it. I've never had it. Although when I think my wife in 2020, early February, she was really sick and couldn't get off the couch for four or five days.

We didn't know what it was, not nauseated, sick, just ill and had a little bit of a fever. We didn't know anything then. She didn't say about taste or smell, right? We didn't know. But then when you start hearing about COVID and months later, she said, you know what? Maybe I had it. Well, then she ended up getting it again. Now got the shot.

And off her first shot, and this is something maybe, you know, in Canada, I'm just telling people it happened. And then we called our doctor. She got her first shot about two weeks ago. And she lymph node up on her high shoulder and lymph nodes. It was really swollen. and then she couldn't swallow and we for like about an hour very difficult we thought this is weird and we called our doctor and he said yes we have heard mostly in women that lymph nodes will swell up

so just something to watch for you can get which shot is this i'm curious which one did your wife get uh she got pfizer Pfizer. Okay. Good to know. She had the Pfizer. That's a terrible feeling, right? That feeling where you can't, because that's a terrible feeling that you can't. Yeah. And we didn't know what it was. And it was a day or two later. And so this is really, this is starting to hurt. Like the lymph nodes were actually hurting. And now I'm getting scared. I'm ready to call 911. I called my doctor, luckily I have a cell phone. And he said, no, we've heard about that happening in women with the vaccines. It will go away. If it doesn't in two weeks, then we'll put her on steroids, but call me in a couple of days and let me know. So sort of the panic died down and it was okay. And it started dissipating three or four days.

So just to let you know. No, glad to hear that. My exciting announcement that this is the first episode of Toronto Mic'd since I booked my first jab. So my first shot is scheduled for tomorrow, like at 5.40 p.m. Good. And, you know, and give yourself 12 hours for, listen, we've heard from everybody. The first shot I got, Mike, whacked me out. I was exhausted the next day. No fever or anything.

I was just really tired. Some people have had high fevers and nothing from the first shot. out. I was exhausted the next day, no fever, anything. I was just really tired. Uh, some people have had high fevers and nothing from the first shot. And then they had really bad, um, symptoms from the second shot. I had nothing from the second shot. I'll just tell you though, what anyone says, it starts about 12 hours after not a big deal. It will go away. There may be, you may be uncomfortable for a couple of days. So i wouldn't plan anything too strenuous the next few days i even spoke to our red wing team doctor he said if you're getting the shot don't work out the next day just because i try to go to the gym five days a week he said just take it easy the next day and some people have had no symptoms

but they will say to have a symptom is not the worst thing after a shot not so bad and this is why i understand, it makes sense that teams are staggering the vaccinations of their players because you don't want to, you know, you don't want all your, especially if it's, you know, game day, you don't want, and that would be more of a baseball thing, I suppose, because in hockey, you don't play every day. But for baseball teams, you don't want your whole team

feeling sick on the same day. You want to stagger that a little bit. For sure. Yeah, you have to be careful with that. And I don't know how many of our players have had it. I know some have. I know some I've spoken to on other teams who had. And, you know, listen, if you've had COVID,

you're not supposed to get a shot for upwards of 90 days. You have the antibodies. But if you have COVID, you're supposed to wait at least 90 days before you actually get a shot. So that will prevent some from within teams or anywhere getting one right now. Interesting. Okay, so I'm glad actually get a shot. So that will prevent some from within teams or anywhere getting one right now. Interesting. Okay. So I'm glad you got your shot. I'm glad that everybody seems to have recovered from their bouts of COVID and

hopefully nothing too serious with the effects there. And what I want to remind people that this is your second appearance. You're not physically here, of course, because you're in Michigan and we're in pandemic times. But this is the description I wrote for the first appearance of Ken Daniels in case somebody wants to go back and listen to the A to Z, the original appearance.

So this is what I wrote at the time. In this 318th episode, Mike chats with Ken Daniels about his years at the fan, calling Leaf Games, working for CBC Sports, working at Hockey Night in Canada, joining Mickey Redmond in the booth, calling Detroit Red Wings games,

and his son Jamie. This episode is exactly one hour and 57 minutes and two seconds. So we actually, yeah, that was quite a deep dive. So there's two hours of content there and I urge people to, if they haven't heard it yet, pause Actually, yeah, that was quite a deep dive. So there's two hours of content there. And I urge people to, if they haven't heard it yet, pause this appearance and go listen to the first one and then come back.

Because we will touch on a lot of these topics again. But that's your A to Z. You know, your A to Z in the life and career of Ken Daniels. I enjoyed our chat. Very much. Glad. I'm glad. Well, you must have because you sent me your Blue Jays 45s. Like, our chat very much. Glad. I'm glad. Well,

you must have because you sent me your blue Jays 45. It's like, you wouldn't do that guy sucks. I'm not sending him my valuable. Yeah. I was clean. I thought of you when I see baseball stuff, you know,

I was just moving some stuff out of the basement, going through boxes. And I thought, what am I going to do with this stuff? You know, originally, as you said, and you know,

we touched on a lot in the 318 episode about Jamie, I would have kept a lot of stuff for him down the road. It's not like my daughter's a baseball fan or everything. So what am I going to do with it? I'm going to send it to you. So there you go.

And then my job is to share it with the masses. So this is good. So I mentioned all those clips we're going to play and we are. And then if it's OK with you, I'm going to play something regarding your son, Jamie. Uh, I know you do enjoy, I will,

you've been very clear that you like to talk about Jamie. So I have no hesitancy in, uh, speaking of your son, Jamie Daniels, uh, in the Jamie Daniels foundation. Thank you. But again, we did a lot last time. People want to hear a story. We, you know, that that's your call. Oh no, no, the whole story. Yes. You're right. You were very, you know, that's your call. Oh, no, no. The whole story, yes, you're right. You were very,

very detailed story. Yeah. Please go back to the first episode, but I have a piece of audio I'll play shortly. But let's, let's go back a bit to Maple Leafs time,

if you will, when you were covering them for CJCL. And you might have heard I did a, like I did a Harold Ballard episode of Toronto Mic'd. I heard it. Okay.

So you're on this thing. Did you notice? And who else is on this thing? Rick Vive, Gord Stelic, who we're going to hear of in your clips that you pulled from your cassettes, Mary Ormsby, Paul Hunter,

Sunil Joshi, and of course yourself. And I might be missing somebody. I hope not. But any Harold Ballard stories that you didn't share, that you didn't hear in that Harold Ballard retrospective that you can share now? Well, what I really should have done was sent you the clip. Did we talk about that one with the the women not being allowed in the

in the dressing room well let's uh let's assume we didn't here and uh well it's a little profane so i don't know where you want to go with it you know well that's your call like uh you i like real talk here like let's let's like like what went down what did our pal hal say here like give me the straight goods here i'll tell you what while i while we're talking about other things why don't i find it on my phone and i will send you can do that and if you you you would you like to do that oh my god yeah yeah okay and then you can play it and i don't have to say it because quite frankly um i'd rather not okay and and hopefully me turning my phone on won't

screw up the audio that I'm listening to through you but anyway carry on where you're going and in the midst of what we're talking about you can always backtrack to Harold Ballard and women not being allowed in the dressing room I'll find the clip and send it to you okay okay so but are there any other

anything else you can share about covering Harold Ballard since it seems to become a mild fascination of mine? We talked about the story and Gordy confirmed where Harold lived above the hot stove and being a young reporter. I got him to talk about the Moscow Circus being cancelled and he answered the phone and seeing him in his jockeys answering with a T-shirt on, was a little bit unnerving. But still, I wish that at the time you had cell phones, that you could have taken pictures. I mean, as a guy working over on, you know, just off Wood Street to where CKFHCJCL used to be to walk over,

you wouldn't think, you know, take a camera. I had my recorder that I still have that I sent you the clips on. To this day, Harold, he was just, you know, take a camera. I had my recorder that I still have that I sent you the clips on to this day. Harold, he was just, you know, he was, he was one of a kind and the right day, you know, whether you'd walk down the corridor and you'd come with a camera to him and he'd be yelling, shut that effing camera off, shut that effing camera off. And then you'd talk to him for a second and then he'd go into a diatribe and you'd leave the camera on and he didn't care.

So any day you didn't know what you were getting out of Harold but having said that I mean he was in the bunker right by the glass so he was there for anyone to say anything to him he didn't care about that he was very approachable you just didn't know what day you're going to get or if you're going to get a lucid Harold Ballard or not, or Yolanda. I do remember the story when T.C. Puck was running around and Harold Ballard, I think Gord might be able to confirm it, I think fell down a manhole that was open in Maple Leaf Gardens and T.C. Puck was barking like crazy and Harold was down there and slipped down there and the dog went nuts.

Maybe Gordy can confirm that one. But I think T.C. Puck may have saved his life, that dog, that white bouvier or whatever it was harold's dog if i remember correctly well then if you heard that episode searching down on my phone well you heard rick vive talking about that dog uh just and i i oh yes hang on hang on i do remember and i don't know if i told you this one with harold and rick's story with harold with with the baby powder was awesome. I do remember picture day and Harold, of course,

wanted TC puck in the picture. I do remember at center ice, T C parks balls being frozen to the ice and, and they had to bring out hot water to get his nuts removed from the frozen ice at center ice at maple leaf gardens. I do remember being there for that one and we had the footage of that too never did air it on cblt and i don't know where the footage went as much as i do have the footage of what i'm going to send you hopefully if i can find harold

i wish i had the footage of that one of them removing with hot water tc puck from the ice at maple leaf gardens i will never forget that moment there's a good harold ballard story with the dog no fantastic and i know you're you're looking there but um yeah i guess i wonder like if you're covering maple leaves at the in this time period in this this like constant chaos it's almost like when you're covering city hall in toronto and rob ford is the mayor like you get sort of you adapt to this constant chaos and you almost forget how it's supposed to be. And I wonder like,

like, did you guys ever like, did you guys ever, you beat reporters or whatever, kind of say like, this is fucking crazy. Like how long does this go on? Like,

like you must've had a sense that you were in the midst of, of ridiculous. I would think very much, although I didn't do it on a daily basis, but living here in the U S you felt it. Donald Trump. Yeah. Good,

good, good. Uh, compare. Absolutely. It was every day. And funny, they're both sort of orange in a way.

You never knew what color Harold's hair was going to be. They're both orange guys. Yes. You live that every day. And I, you know, I, I'm not really Republican or Democrat. I don't care. I just wanted sanity.

And I think with being a Maple Leaf fan at the time and working for the team and growing up wanting to win a cup, I didn't care who ran the team. You just wanted some sort of sanity. But every day you went down there and you knew you could probably get a story from Harold Ballard. So it made it interesting. every day you went down there and you knew you could probably get a story uh from harold ballard so it made it interesting it made it worth covering coming back with stuff because every day would be an adventure so i love that part of it hang on here i think i found it wow so well i'm gonna i'm gonna send it to you all right do you want to play it okay you could also play

it and then we'd pick it up on the microphone like if you just wanted to play it. You could also play it and then we'd pick it up on the microphone, like if you just wanted to play it out loud or would that mess up the... You can send it. I don't know if... I'm going to send it to you and you'll get there. You can backtrack on this one or you could even play it on the episode. I'm sure this won't be your last Harold Ballard bit of trivia. Well, here, before we

leave... Okay, send that over. I'm going to... Go into your email? I think I've got your cell, but I'm going to... Go into your email? I think I've got your cell, but I'm trying to think what you're under here. Okay. Because you... I mean, one quick address is mike at torontomike.com. That's one way you could...

Oh, you want to do it by email? Oh, okay. Well, you can do it. Whatever's easier for you. Yeah. Let's do it by email. I was going to send it to your cell, but let's go this way. Okay.

Hang on. All right. You got it. You got it. And then I'm just going to your cell, but let's go this way. Hang on. All right. You got it. I'm just going to do Harold in the header. It's on its way. Do you want a mail drop or attachment? Attachment, if you can, because it shouldn't be very big. This is exciting. I think this is

what I like about what I'm doing here, which is that I'm not even going to edit this. This is exciting. I'm now in my inbox and coming to Toronto here from Michigan. Whereabouts in Michigan are you? I am in Birmingham. It's still in my outbox though. So you may...

Yeah, we got to get it out of there. Is that because it's taking a bit of time because it's a larger's taking a bit of time because it's a larger file maybe maybe i i think i should probably send that to you you can always text it to me see back in the day this was the stuff the program director would go crazy about but now this is the stuff i like this is the real stuff right because you're doing it on the i'm sending it as a mail drop and you should get it quicker yes wouldn't they they'd be saying edit this whole thing and anyone now is driving going come on you two buffoons but

once you play this they'll go oh that was worth waiting for right i think i hope so i hope so uh while i wait for this while i wait for this to drop uh we were chatting before i press record uh about dick smith because you had a book there about dick smith what memories do you have as a toronto media uh connoisseur uh like i know myself i only i don't remember the 1050 dick smith i'm too young i knew dick smith from 680 cft. And then he was also a part of the all news because he was there when it was top 40. He was there when it was all news. And then I would see him on CFMT because 680 news would have like Evelyn Macko and Dick Smythe would appear on CFMT television. Like this is so I loved the takes by Dick Smythe.

But let's hear from you, Ken. What are your memories of Dick Smythe, but let's hear from you, Ken. What are your memories of Dick Smythe? Well, I loved Brian Henderson and just the way he delivered sports. And Henny used to do one of those split shifts. So he'd do the morning sports, come back in the afternoon. I think he had way too many drinks during the day. I never got to meet Brian Henderson and he passed away all too early but it was a rough life for him not where he enjoyed life but obviously the living that he did got the best of him but I remember uh

Henny and that's how my love of sports Dave Wright Dave Wright chum sports and Leo Cahill and Brian Henderson doing the sports on chum that's who I grew up wanting to be guys like that and on the radio and the way they delivered it and Brian Henderson would be doing the sports on chum. That's who I grew up wanting to be guys like that and on the radio and the way they delivered it. And Brian Henderson would be doing the sports and Dick would be doing the news. And Dick would also go over to the chum FN side, I believe on occasion, but Brian Henderson, I guess would smoke his cigarettes as would Dick. And I remember one morning they were on the air and something caught fire and Dick was panicking on the air that some of the papers caught fire. And all I remember hearing was Brian Henderson bellowing, damn it, Dick, if you can't smoke them, don't bum them.

Like Dick was bumming cigarettes off of Brian and something caught on fire. And the other one I remember about Dick Smythe was, I guess, before he'd throw to music on Chum, he'd finish off his weather and he'd say, it's 16 Celsius downtown. And now here's, and they give him a piece of paper on the music to throw to. And he said, and now here's Tutu Top on Chum. And I said, Tutu Top? Who the hell is Tutu Top? Oh, someone wrote ZZZ and he read it as Tutu, having no idea who ZZ Top was. The little things that you remember listening to Dick Smythe.

But the book that I have, here's how things look to Dick Smythe. As I read this book years ago, I think it came out in 1984. And you just hear him reading his commentaries in his voice. I know people have said, you know, in my book, if these walls could talk, you know, when you hear someone whose voice you are familiar with, you have a tendency to read it and hear their voice, which is wonderful. When I hear Dick Smythe's commentaries, I can hear him reading it. And that's great. And I never got to meet Dick. I wish that I could have. But he was marvelous growing up listening to him and just his writing style and get to a point where people could talk for three minutes and he could make his point in a minute, in a minute 20.

And that was brilliant. It really is. Okay, here's an update. What happened was I received a couple of like HTML files from you. But here as I open them, I see inside these files, there's actually download links. So I've downloaded a link. It looks like an MOV file and I'm going to open this up.

This is all happening live. And Oh, I can see, I can see Harold Ballard now. So is this the right one? Ken, this is 34 seconds. Okay.

So I'm going to play it. So let's all listen. This is Harold. This is Harold. When he was asked during that whole kerfuffle where women were banned from the Red Wing dressing room. OK, and he said this to a group of reporters and I was one of them with our CDLT camera. The only thing I can say is that they're a gutless bunch of fools. They come in there, get players half-dressed, want to bring a broad in, that's the worst thing. If the broad comes in naked,

I'm going to tell you, it'll take you a lot longer to get out than it does to get in, and I told her those were the conditions. Take your clothes off and go on in. Because we got guys there with cocks as long as your arm. We got to do some bleepin' here, guys. Can't use that, Harold. Why? What's the matter with it?

Harold, I'm telling the truth. Maybe it'll give him a little more ass somewhere. Wow. This is incredible because, so now I'll have to boost that audio

before I share it, I think, but were you able to hear that? Yeah, I heard it. So Ann Romer, I've memorized it.

I've heard it so many times well Anne you know it's interesting because Anne Romer came on and made a reference to a certain defenseman from Sweden who wore number 21 that was similar didn't call him king for nothing yep

or as I like to call him Borg as I like to call him but this is great footage because Harold Ballard it's a visual image. I got to crop this and let people see. But that's wild. So I guess, did that ever air or was it even censored? No. No.

That was... I don't think it ever aired. I'll send you privately another one later with him by the dressing room door trying to get his key to work and i was the only one there with him and uh uh i'll send you that one after we're done okay and there's a few others with harold that i found just going through old videos and again these were off of bhs tapes which i had transferred over to dvds and just going through boxes from my cblt days and you find these you go holy crap you forget like interviews that i've done with john mackinrow and others and you know and paul morris that may have been my first tv interview i ever

did was with paul morris at maple leaf gardens because we're gonna impressions together we're gonna hear some paul morris in one of these clips so there's a little teaser because I'm going to jump into these clips in a moment here uh and then so I'm going to play these clips and then you're going to basically tell us because you don't know which ones I pulled because you sent me a bunch and I have pulled a bunch but I'm just going to play them and then you can tell us afterwards like what we were listening to is that cool sure and are you can tell us afterwards what we're listening to. Is that cool? Sure. And are you editing this show later before you actually...

No. No. Okay. I have no plans to edit a stitch of this, Ken. This is the way I like it, live on the floor here. Okay. All right.

So I will say that this first clip is 1983 and it's from the CJCL, and that would be 1430, the CJCL News Noon Report. Let's listen, and then we can talk about it. It's 14 Celsius at 12 o'clock. Good afternoon. I'm Ken Daniels.

Cloud for the most part today with warm southerly winds to 40 kilometers an hour. Scattered showers tonight with a low near 14. Showers forecast for tomorrow. In the news this afternoon, will there be a tentative agreement or not? That's the question on the minds of a lot of people today after a marathon all-night bargaining session in Toronto between the United Auto Workers and General Motors of Canada. The negotiators have reached tentative agreement on a series of local PACs,

and now they're working on a master agreement. A news conference was to have already been held, but has been delayed twice. Still, one union spokesman says that although there isn't an agreement yet, it's looking better and he hopes to have one today. Well, hard-hitting news, Ken. I guess that's what I started doing. And in Oshawa, prior to that, where I worked at CKAR, CKQT, Music on the Quiet Side. That's where I began my radio career doing news. I'd cover City Hall, Pickering, and in Oshawa, Durham. And that was my beat.

And then I'd do news on the weekends. And then I got hired to do overnights and then filling in wherever I could. It was all about versatility. When Larry Silver hired me at CJCL, and as he said, all I can promise you is two tickets on the TTC and an overnight shift. And I don't even think he gave me two tickets on the TTC. But in 1980, I think I was making $9,000. I started and then went to $11,000, maybe an $81,000 or so,

and then would fill in. And Scott Metcalf was working with me there and became news director and still is, you know, all news in Toronto. And there will be one of these clips. We'll have some Scott. And, you know, I remember reaching out. Scott announced he was going to retire, I believe, in early 2021. And I reached out to have him. Really? Yeah, I believe so. And then I reached out to have him on Toronto Mike, of course, because he, if I got, he was working with Bob Weeks and Bob Weeks became a good FOTM

and made an appearance in the backyard last year. Anyway, Scott Metcalf said, yeah, once he does his last shift or whatever, he was going to drop by. And I think he said it was going to be like March 2021, but I have to follow up. Like, did it get delayed? Did it happen and i missed it like he's got to come by for the exit interview so please do i scott metcalf such a wonderful guy and when he was working queens park when i started in the news department he was just

so helpful and i had an office city hall so before i got into sports and it was all about versatility and you know call ken oh he can fill in for a sports shift call ken he can do this i didn't do anything great but i can do everything okay and that was the main thing just don't let him really you know think that you're crap but scott metcalf was such a wonderful guy and so nurturing and we had probably had lunch together maybe a couple of years ago when i was in toronto just to sit with him and we were were very tight back then. And I learned so much from Scott. And it's no wonder that he went on to help so many people and do such a great job at the fan and then all news. So if that's 1983, CJCL, when abouts do you become like a sports cast guy?

I think probably and because of Scott and after Larry Silver left, I remember I left November 22nd of, uh, 86, I want to say 85 and then I kept filling in and I'd come back to the radio station and then it became all sports. So I ended up being rehired there again. So Scott just had me doing everything. I think I was all sports. And then I went over to CBLT, just auditioned for a weekend job on television and with another guy and got hired there. And I'd stay doing weekends on TV, doing four or five days a week, doing radio, working for Scott. And then I decided to

go to television when a full-time job opened up five days a week there and then i'd fill in whenever they needed me on radio when you were on cblt did you work with uh fellow fotm steve pakin oh yes yes steve pakin for many years yes before he became the voice of tv ontario and still to this day yeah steve and i uh were very close in his Hamilton ties. And we just knew a lot of the same people together. And it had to be maybe 10 years ago now, Steve had a nice party at his house with Fraser Kelly and Howard Bernstein, who hired me. He was executive producer at CBC. He hired me, Howard, and was close and worked with Steve. And yeah, I had a lovely party at his house. Gord Stella came with Lisa. So we got together in the summertime. It was such a great night. Great night.

Steve will be listening to this. So hello to Steve. For sure. All right, let's play November 85 of Sportscast with Ken Daniels. Finally, golfers are known for making excuses if they have a bad game, usually blaming the course or the weather, but Lee Trevino has one to top them all. The veteran golfer says a baboon cost him sole possession of the first-round lead at the Million Dollar Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa.

Supermax is tied with Bernard Langer of West Germany for top spot at 369, but Trevino says a baboon grunted while he was in the top of his back swing on the 16th tee, causing him to hook it into the gallery. Marco Mira, Lanny Watkins, one shot back at 70. That's CJCL Sports. I'm Ken Davis.

Have you ever used that excuse? You try to finish with a kicker, right? Try to hit him with something funny. I don't know how funny that was no it's uh have you ever tried to have you ever used the baboon grunting excuse when you're on the golf course no I can come up with lots of excuses but never that one

maybe I just should practice more might be better so but you know I usually shoot anywhere between 87 to 93 anywhere in that range. So I'm okay. I can get around, but I can also have two or three bad holes, but get it back on the rails after that.

So I don't, I've never broken 85 in my life. 87 is my best ever, but I also should get out there and practice a lot more than I do. But, you know, summertime now, unlike in Ontario, we can still golf here. So I try to get out a couple of times a week anyway. I was going to say, I'm sure your brother has let you know that it's illegal. It's like it's an illegal activity in this province to golf. So you can't do that here. You're outside.

That's what I don't get. And you can have partitions in golf carts. I don't understand it. Leave your logic out of this conversation. It makes zero sense. I don't even like to golf, but it makes zero sense to me. But you mentioned November 22nd and you said 86.

And then I thought you might mean 85 only because I have this. Okay. So this clip here I'm going to play is November 22nd, 1985. I'll play it. And I'm wondering like, if it's your final, like, is it your final sportscast at CJCL?

Yes. Yeah, because it was the day, and I know Scott Metcalf wrote my, wrote the letter to the staff that I had resigned, and he wrote something about, as if there's any analogy here, to the Kennedy assassination on November 22nd as a day.

That'll be remembered. But at our radio station we'll remember this too like it really mattered but at any rate I think he was being funny and uh yeah that was November 22nd of that year okay here it is it is zero celsius 32 fahrenheit at 10 minutes after 12 o'clock and now with sports for British Airways the world's favorite airline here is Ken Daniels thank you Scott good afternoon. If the Maple Leafs ever need a reminder of what hard work can do for you, they need look no further than last night's 6-3 victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia. It was their first two-pointer there since October 12, 1985 years ago. Last night,

they got the win without top shooters Rick Vive and Wendell Clark and defenseman Boreas Salming. Coach Dan Maloney said the club had talked about the game during a morning meeting and added, we just had to go out and play some basic hockey. Why, even Pal Howell got into the act. The press box is situated close to the fans at the Spectrum, and you could hear Ballard bellow, why are you watching the Flyers, those bums? Next time, just mail us the two points and save us the trip. Well, it's not often that Harold gets to be that chipper, so let him have his say if this game was a confidence builder then the leafs certainly needed it they'll

meet montreal at the gardens tomorrow night a 745 start on cjcl don edwards who was superb in goal last night will get the start again you know it's it's great to hear those old voices, the old players, I mean, the names. And I think where maybe tape wasn't readily available then, I think I would quote what someone had said, and we all used the newspapers then, whether it be the Toronto Sun or the Toronto Star, and probably glean stuff from that. But that's what Brian Henderson would have done. He would use a quote, or Rick Hodge, you know,

the guys that I would grow up listening to and try to incorporate it into the sports cast. And that's probably that style that I'd use then. And not only that, obviously that was just a portion of the sports cast. And now it's updates because everything's on your phone and it's so quick now and there really isn't a spot for it anymore. But what a great training ground that was for someone like me and all those in the business then to have not just 30 seconds or 90 seconds, but to have six minutes, because they were looking to fill time

and you wouldn't get the sports and the sports news on your phone. You could actually tell people because the internet wasn't around on what happened and you wouldn't get the newspaper while there were morning papers in, but you'd wait until later in the day sometimes to get the paper so that's why you try to incorporate that way you know at around the same time uh you had on 102.1 cfny for the pete and geet show you had fred patterson from humble and fred was doing sports and i was once chatting with him about like who his idols were like and he told me the guy he tried to copy because he was such a good writer and he made it nice and tight and he was so

effective at this was Peter Gross at City TV and it's funny I was on the phone with Peter last night uh I I produce a show sometimes two depending on what's going on with John Gallagher but I produce a show for Peter Gross and I'm never like it never ceases to amaze me like how he writes it and puts it together in that that crisp package that you know freddie p and and and others uh love so there's another guy from the era who did a great job of that you see and that's that's why i say you know for people who want to get in tv and that's where those in the day and the chopping of radio and terrestrial radio and what it has become is that you don't have that training ground that we all had and you're right peter gross who

uh maybe i don't know how old is peter uh 70 i think he's, he's turning 71 this year. Okay. So he's a decade older than I am. And I remember my mom was one of her best friends was Sylvia Gross, who was Peter's aunt. So I used to say, can you help me or get in here? Or can you make a call to Peter, even as a teenager before I wrote a letter to Brian Williams at CBC television when I was 17 to get into the business. So I always wanted to go that way. But when you grew up listening to John Hinnon,

and it was through Jeff Ansell, who just passed away, and did the Chum FM report, and I love Jeff. And Jeff was the brother-in-law of my friend Sharon. And I would go down and watch Jeff do the on Chum FM do the noon report. I go down and watch Jeff, who introduced me to John Hinnan, who introduced me to Rayfield White and Aurelia, who gave me the name of Mark Horton in Oshawa. And that's where I started because Mark hired me in Oshawa to work out there. So it's all who you know, and then bug enough people, and then one person's going to give you the chance. And that's where I always say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I think I woke up in the morning listening to the Dick Smyth and the Brian Henderson and the Dave Wright and the John Hinnon and the Rick Hodge.

And you just take it all in and you try to make it your own. But for anyone to say, no matter who's in TV today or whatever they do or the greats and Al Michaels had to grow up listening or those who listen to Vin Scully and remember dan shulman listened to i think we all listen to someone you want to be yourself but that takes time to evolve right it takes time until you find who you are and um and and i think a lot of the kids today are going to miss those opportunities from those that grew up on on radio it's just a different world today. Now, at this time that you're at 1430, is this at this time, this is the music of your life? Yeah, when I started there, I think it was all news first. Telemedia had become all news, I think 1980 when I got there, it was an all news station. And then I don't know when John Donabee came on.

Is that Metro? Is that Metro? Yeah, Metro 1430, CJCL. Yes, with Barry. Came over from CFRB. The big news guy. I'm trying to remember his name now. Barry was either first or last name, and I shouldn't.

I wish I could help you. You know, Evelyn Macko. They brought, oh, my goodness. And Robert Holliday was the general manager of the station then. And Larry Silver was there. Bob Holliday was huge in the business. Was Paul Soles involved? Leslie Soles.

Leslie Soles. Leslie Soles, one of the top sales guys or general manager, sure, of the station then with Telemedia. So it was Metro 1430 when I started there. That's right. It was Metro 1430. Okay, and Hepsey was there too, right? I think Hepsey was at Metro 1430, if I'm right. Not sure whether he was gone at the time. I do remember within a couple of years, Joe Bowen had started as the least play-by-play guy coming down from Sudbury,

and then Jerry Howarth came on board. And, yeah, Jerry would do sports. So I got to be around Jerry Howarth when, what a wonderful man, when Jerry was doing the sports cast and Joe Bowen and Scott Ferguson had been there forever. So it was like I was learning from all these guys. So not only did I grow up listening to the Hendersons

and Dave Wrights and John Hinnons of the world and Rick Hodge. Then I got to work with Scott Ferguson and Joe Bowen and Jerry Haworth. I mean, people I could learn from. Unbelievable. It was great. Unbelievable. So Music of Your Life, this clip, it's been titled Music of Your Life Extra. So I can't wait to play it.

Is it just you? Well, it's just basically, I don't know, it's just basically saying the music of your life. I don't think there's any music. I thought there might be a jingle or something. But here, I'll play it anyway. It's only 18 seconds. Currently, the wind is from the southeast at 7 kilometers an hour.

The barometer is steady. It's 14 Celsius, 57 Fahrenheit. It's coming up to 12 minutes after 12 o'clock. You've been listening to the CJCL Midday Report. News next at 1 o'clock. I'm Ken Daniels. Now, more music of your life on CJCL. When abouts did they stop giving us the Fahrenheit? Because I heard you gave the Fahrenheit. I just, I don't remember any of that. So I feel like that was about to end, I guess, in the mid 80s, maybe.

Yeah, I guess. And I didn't even remember Celsius.. So I feel like that was about to end, I guess, in the mid 80s, maybe. Yeah, I guess. And I didn't even remember Celsius. I thought Fahrenheit was always around. Even by the time I left in 97. No, no, no, my friend. Because I'm like, I'm born in the mid 70s. And I have no memory of being taught Fahrenheit in my life. Like I was, I always learned Celsius.

So it's interesting that you go ahead. Yeah. I think the only way I know Celsius, even to this day and people in the U S here, because they don't use Celsius. So I never would. Uh, I tell people when they hear a Celsius and they go, what is it? And I said, all I know is reverse 16 and 61 and go from there. So if it's 16 Celsius, it's 61 Fahrenheit. I think I learned that when I was at CJCL. So I tell people that here, say, so if it's 18, I go, yeah, it's like mid 60s. You're okay. Right? If it's 20, yeah, you're up around 70. I don't know. But go 16 and 61 and you'll know. And that's all I know. That's all I know. Who's doing the foster hewitt impression at cjcl at this time oh now this is wonderful

this is rob cowan who is one of the djs uh at ckfh rob was a great radio voice and some of the old time did you never heard the name rob cowan yes i have heard this name yes right well he does the foster hewitt and these bits that i sent you, I don't know where I found them, but again, on the cassette reporters, you can't suppress your laughter. No. It's fun to listen to you listening to the Foster Hewitt bank robbery. So it's about 40 seconds. Here we go. What kind of distraction a superstar of Foster Hewitt's magnitude could have provided in bank robbery?

If he all of a sudden, from the holdup, three men have come in. They're in through the door now. They're coming in over the line. men have come in. They're in through the door now. They're coming in over the line. They're not waiting. They're in over the counter. Now they're fanning out, and they're there. And now one of them pulls out a gun. He shoots.

He scores! $3,000 in cash. And if he leaves his name, he'll be eligible for the Planters Power Play, which will be coming up since there'll be penalties here, probably major penalties to all of them for high sting. Hello. It's funny. You can hear you laughing.

I just loved it. Do you have the tennis match? Do you have the one with Foster calling the tennis match? Okay, standby. I'm going into my email. This is exciting. It's a classic. Okay.

I mean, Rob Cowan did such a great Foster Hewitt, and I know Hebsey can do it. Even Bob McCowan can do Foster. But I think Rob Cowan, I could always do Bill Hewitt, and I know Bill and Foster would also sound alike many times. And if you listen to those old games, it's sometimes tough to tell which one I can. But Foster called in a tennis match.

Okay, I have it. It's long, but it's wonderful. Here we go. Let's go to the Coliseum for a special tennis report. Hello, everyone. We're here downtown in Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition in the Coliseum for the Rotman International Tennis Tournament. Here it's a good match and we're just getting set for another game. Connors, the number one seed here against Ili Nastassi of Romania. Nastassi is kind of a tough name, not as tough as Ivan Knoyer, but we'll have to make do. So they're getting

set, they're just volleying now, getting ready and warmed up, their rackets are in their heads, and now, here we go, it's Connors, he's got the ball, he winds up and he shoots, oh, it's right in the net! So that's going to be a fault, although it wasn't his fault, he had to think it was the first time ever that a fly got on the ball and took a little something off it and it hit the net right in the center. So they'll do it all over again. Now Connors gets that again. He takes the ball, he throws it up in the air and there's the shot. It's over the net. Now Nassi's got it He shoots it back That was a good shot Right on

And Connors sends it right back over the net again Now Nassi's got it again He shoots it over the net And Connors again with an overhand smash It's right on the baseline Oh, he scores! Connors with a great winning shot Right on the baseline

And it went out right over the wall and into the crowd. So Connors now leads one to nothing. Oh, it's 15? He gets 15 points for one score? Oh, boy, it's a high-scoring game. Wonderful. Well, we'll have to come back later. Bob McCown will have the results of this match on his report tonight at seven o'clock. I don't recall the name, but that voice is familiar. And that was Rob Cowan doing that. Wonderful.

The best foster hood impression I've heard anyone do. I think it's just great. Excellent. Excellent. And I feel like this is extremely rare audio. Like I'm anyone do I think it's just great excellent excellent and I feel like this is extremely rare audio like I'm very

excited like it's like when they broke into the vault of Al Capone like well from a Toronto

Mike standpoint I can see the analogy yeah right okay so when I listen to this intro music and the

sponsors for the, is it telemedia? Like who's bringing us the hockey games at this point? Yeah, it was a telemedia radio network and it would have been on CJCL in Toronto. And I would fill in for Joe Bowen about 15 games a year when Joe would go over to global television. I think it was global at the time. I'd fill in with Joee with either uh bill waters or mostly that you hear here gordon stelic was my uh my analyst just breaking into play by play as you

know the story i was moving and alan davis called me and we need to fill in for for joe can you do the game tomorrow night and i said alan i'm moving i just bought my first house it was like 1989 and he said get someone else to move the effing Ottoman. I'm asking you to do Toronto Maple Leafs hockey. And I'd never done a game before. I'd only done play-by-play in the Olympics in 88 in Seoul of many different sports, summer Olympics. And I'd never done play-by-play before, but Alan said, you can do it. And I did. And this was maybe a year after or so. Okay. So we're going to start with some intro music and sponsors, and then I'm going to play. I've got a few here. I really enjoyed these clips because I love hearing the names.

You did one earlier where you shouted out Don Edwards on the sportscast. And I remember Don Edwards in it for the Leafs, and it's just good nostalgia. So here's the music. This is good shot of Nostalgia for everybody. Tonight's game on the Telemedia Sports Network in association with Molestar Communications is brought to you in part by Molson Canadian. What beer is all about by speedy muffler king for mufflers brakes tires and more at speedy you're a somebody by blacks because every picture tells a story blacks is photography

by your local mcdonald's restaurants what you want is what you get at mcdonald's today by national trust helping you secure your future by Pure Later Courier, who will go to any length to deliver your package and by the club, Canada's frontline defense against Carthage. I remember the club. OK, I like that because that's kind of like my intro to Toronto Mike, except where I'm talking to the fiercely independent local places like Palma Pasta and Great Lakes Brewery and Mimico Mike and CDN Technologies and StickerU.com. You've got some big-time brands there. I think I heard McDonald's and Speedy and some big-time national brands there. But let's get to the hockey here. So here's a clip from the Leafs versus St. Louis Blues in 1992. Here comes Deblois across the line.

Deblois in the slot. Wide drop it there. He did, but didn't work. And look back the other way. Nelson Emerson, coast to coast, in on goal, shoots. What a save by Grant Buehrer. Oh, he got the right cut out to stone. Nelson Emerson on the dig.

Now it's Bullard the other way. Paul Cavallini gets it to center. Glenn Anderson knocks it back to the St. Louis line. Then Glenn Anderson knocks it down at center. Here he goes. Bouncing puck in across the line. Drops to Allen. Slot shoots. Yes! 8.5 seconds left in overtime.

The Leafs win 3-2. Just what the doctor ordered. That's Gordo at the end? That's Gord. That's Gord. Yes, it is. Gord Stelic.

That sounded good. We had a lot of fun together. That sounded amazing. So that's just you playing it off a cassette and then you just have your iPhone picking it up. That's amazing. Yep. Sounded really good.

Okay, and again, if you have any more, anything you want to say about any of these, but I got a few more I'm going to burn through because we heard Gord Stelic there. By the way, great call. We missed out. You're great at calling these Leaf games. The Red Wings are very lucky. They're very lucky in Detroit.

Let's listen to you call a fight with Gord Stelic here. Here we go. Gets one into the hot zone. Hot fans save this game from being 2-0 Chicago. Peluso's pass ahead to Graham. gets one into the hot zone pot fans save this game from being two nothing chicago peluso's pass ahead to graham here he is across the line hit hard by gadunyuk and peluso wants alexander gadunyuk peluso and gadunyuk in an apparent mismatch and gadunyuk floors peluso

peluso on the ice comes back with the left and gadunyuk is there with the right oh gadunyuk just floored him over. What a feisty play by Alexander to Gdyniak. First, he lined the Blackhawk player up at the blue line. Play was offside, so the Blackhawks, that's what Peluso took exception to. But no one heard the whistle. Alexander thought the play was still going. Leveled the perfect head, and Peluso jumped in there.

Like you said, a mismatch. Peluso a heavyweight. Alexander was willing and got him down. Wow. That's an upset victory. It shocked me hearing that Gdyn mismatch. Peluso a heavyweight. Alexander was willing and got him down. Wow. That's an upset victory. Yeah, that shocked me hearing that Gdyniak and Peluso. My goodness, you wouldn't think that. No, I'm shocked.

And I remember Gdyniak best because he wore number 93 before he was in the trade for Gilmore. But he was wearing 93 before Gilmore came over. And I can tell you the Doug Gilmore story, actually. Yes, please. The day I was filling in, again, one of those radio games for Joe Bowen at Joe Lewis Arena, where I spent so many years later. And on that trade, just after New Year's of that year,

when Doug Gilmore was traded to Detroit, he had worn number 39 in Calgary. And Tom Watt was the Maple Leafs coach. And I remember vividly standing and Gilmore was arriving that morning for the morning skate at Joe Lewis Arena we were waiting for him I had not met Doug before so I was waiting in the hallway to meet him and I'm standing there with Tom Watt and I knew Tom Watt hated high numbers he didn't like them and I knew Doug wore 39 in Calgary so I was talking to Tom about it. He said, well,

he's not wearing 39 here. So Gilmore about maybe five or 10 minutes later comes down the hall and Tom introduces, you know, they knew each other, but, but says hello. And then I introduced myself to Doug and I, Tom was still standing there. I said, Doug, what number are you going to wear? And Tom immediately says 39 is not available. So Doug said, okay, I'll take 93. And that's how we wound up with 93. And at that point, there was nothing Tom Watt could say. And that's how Doug Gilmore said, okay, I'll take 93 because 39 wasn't available because of Tom Watt.

And that's a great story. That is fantastic. Wow, that's fantastic. Okay, earlier you mentioned Paul Morris. Now, Paul Morris is still with us, by the way. You don't happen to know him. Can I get him on Toronto Mic? It's not too late, is it? I wanted to, you know, try to find a way into CBC to do something that was a little bit offbeat. Maybe the likes of what Peter Gross is doing at City TV and try to lighten it up a little bit. And I went into Paul's booth where as a kid, we had a friend who had N mezzanine blues and we would be right beneath the window where Paul Morris watched the games from and get on that telephone, get a call from the penalty bench and get the goals that he

would then announce them and turn his microphone on. We would sit right up there in the end blues. I looked right in all those years going to Maple Leaf games, watching Paul Morris. So to me to actually meet the man and he was terrific. And we went up, did the story, shot it in there and did a walk around Maple Leaf gardens. So I did the piece for, for CBLT with Paul calling a goal and, and me calling a goal with him. It was pretty cool. Paul was a great guy. I had on recently

Brian McFarlane. I have not listened to that one yet, but I am going to. He spills a lot of tea and he sounds as sharp as a tack. 89 years young. So he's turning 90 in August. You should check that out i was i was emailing with brian a couple of months ago about uh oh about peter puck of course and because for

our foundation roast and he said sure if you can incorporate peter in there we're going to do it for tv we didn't but maybe we will um this year we're roasting brett hall so uh hopefully this year we can incorporate peter that way okay now you really do need to listen to the Brian McFarland episode because the opening segment is him going off on Bobby Hull. Oh, well, many have gone off on Bobby. Yeah, that's not surprising. So look forward to that. But let's listen to this call that you made calling Leaf Games

because there's some Paul Morris at the end. And I know people love to hear this. Here we go. Detroit shoots it back to center. Sylvain Lefebvre and Jamie McCowan on defense, and I'm sure Burns wants those two out there whenever the Federoff, Eisenman, and Shepard are out there for the Red Wings.

It's into the Detroit zone. Wendell Clark with Gilmore to Andrew, and it's a touchdown! What a pretty play, and it's 1-0 Leeds. Dave Anachuk is very quickly extended his consecutive point scoring streak to 16 games. Wendell Clark makes his return after missing a couple

for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ken, tell you something right now, Paul Coffey put up a lot of snow when he saw Wendell Clark coming in the corner, and those are the subtle little things that a Wendell Clark is able to do to make the difference he gets Pothie away from the puck Doug Gilmore comes in passes it to a wide open Dave Andrichuk who hammers at home one nothing Maple Leafs Wendell Clark and Gilmore will get the assists Toronto Bulls scored by number 14 Dave Andrichuk assist number 93 Doug Gilmore and number 17 Wendell Clark time 1 42. And that's amazing.

I would purposely doing when I did play by play would wait to hear Paul Morrison to me on radio. It was the sound of Maple Leaf gardens. And I wanted that to come out. So we always pause. And it was, you know, nowadays you wait so long for the call and they go back on replay and maybe money's changed all that. The scores in the buildings, they want to be sure they get it right to announce it.

And who gets what in the stats. Back then, just the speediness of which the call from Paul Morris came, you knew you could lay out at that moment, just waiting and the timing was always there. Yeah, he was my guy the same way that Murray Eldon was my guy at the C&E, the exhibition. You mean it wasn't Bob McCowan from the early days calling at Excretiation Stadium? No.

Missed out that first year. I'm one of the few who missed out in the first season there. But it's funny because I would love to get Paul Morris on. And by the way, there's another Paul Morris out there, in case anyone's confused. So Paul Morris, who helped build the White House of Rock in St. Catharines that we call Hits 97.7. That Paul Morris, not the same Paul Morris, of course,

as the guy we heard there called a goal. That was fantastic. I think Andrew Chuck from Gilmore and Clark. What an iconic call by Paul Morris. But since Paul Morris, he left when Maple Leaf Gardens left. So I think Andy Frost was there for the beginning of the Air Canada Centre. I've had Andy Frost on the program. That was great. And I've had the new, well, new, I don't know how new it is anymore but Mike Ross does it now and he's been on the program he was on the program last year I met Mike many times from his time at SiriusXM

and yeah when Paul Morris right then he left then Paul Morris got the job and I think maybe Gord told the story I remember Paul telling me the story when he was standing down near Stafford Smythe and Harold Ballard and whoever was doing the announcing before him. And Paul was the electrician and his dad was involved in Maple Leaf Gardens.

And Paul was standing down there and whoever was making the introduction was saying, talking about Prime Minister Lester Boo Person instead of Lester B. Pearson. And I think as Paul told me at the time, although, you know, stories get changed, either Stafford or Harold turned to him and said, what the hell can you do? Announce you go do it. He's gone. And that's how they wound up changing to Paul Morris. Do you know what year that was? Because I've, I've heard, I believe I've heard games like the Canada summit series from 1972, where I can hear Paul Morris announcing goals at Maple Leaf Gardens.

So that's 72. Do you know what year Paul Morris takes over at the Maple Leaf Gardens? Well, I'm pretty sure he was in the 60s. Was he not in 67 when they won the Cup? I don't know. I think it was. Gord Stelic would know better than I, but I thought it was. He'd been around a long time.

How old is Paul Morris? Is this man pushing 100 here? I got to find out how old Paul Morris is here. There was a story. Was it in the Toronto Star not long ago? I think there was a feature on Paul Morris and what he was up to today. Yeah, I got to reach out to him. Yeah, I think it's there.

I remember Paul, and when I interviewed him in 85, I remember asking him, you know, does he get excited? And he said, to me, I am excited. It doesn't come across that way, but there is that level of excitement and i you know i never found it all but it was just it was maple leaf gardens it was what i grew up listening to when i fell asleep listening to foster hewitt on the radio and the goals would be called it was paul morris so to me it was great didn't matter excitement or not it was just authoritative and it was hockey and he's only 82

years old i just looked it up so he's a spring chicken here we got to get paul morris on toronto mike that's my neck i gotta if you know any contacts we got to make this happen here all right ken so you've been fantastic and i don't know what time sometimes i tell people an hour and it's a little longer and then i feel bad but i don't feel bad about this at all but i'm going to just thank a few sponsors and then i'm going to play something uh and then we're gonna have a quick chat before we say goodbye but i want to thank the sponsors of the program because without them there is no toronto mic'd in particular great lakes brewery so great lakes beer have been you know you mentioned back in the olden days when there was one sponsor that was great lakes so they've been here for years and

they're fantastic palma pasta authentic ital Italian food in Mississauga and Oakville love the Petrucci family much love to Palma Pasta I want to thank Mimico Mike. Mimico Mike said he'd try it for three months. The word I got this week is that he enjoyed this experience it was so rewarding that he wants to do it another three months. So Mimico Mike, if anyone's looking to buy and or sell in the Mimico area in the next few months, give a shout to Mimico Mike.

That's Mike Majewski. And it's called realestatelove.ca is where you can reach out to Mike. I want to thank CDN Technologies. If you're looking to outsource your IT department, Barb Poluskiewicz at CDN Technologies is there for you. StickerU.com. They're in Liberty Village. If you need to make decals.

I actually today, a listener DM'd me because any listener that, if I can bike to you, I will literally take some Toronto Mike to StickerU stickers and drop them off in your mailbox. And a gentleman named Neil, Neil Lewis, I think he said he gave me his address and I just at lunch today brought him

some Toronto Mike sticker, use stickers. That was today. So reach out to me, like DM me on Twitter, or you can write me Mike at Toronto, Mike.com and Ridley funeral home. These are fantastic supporters and they're pillars of the community.

Like I said, every time there's some community fundraiser going on or some, something for a good cause in my neighborhood, Ridley Funeral Home, the people there are involved and I want to thank them for their tremendous support. And Ken, I want to say thanks to you because not only you're a listener, this is your second appearance, but you're a tremendous, tremendous supporter of this program. And I want you to know I really appreciate that.

Thank you. I appreciate you having me on and all you do. And it's important that we remember the past and you're doing it marvelously. So thank you. I enjoy it. It's a great lesson. There is a song I discovered. Actually, I had you booked on Humble and Fred

because I book people on Humble and Fred. And then I was on the website for the Jamie Daniels Foundation, which I'm going to ask you about in a couple of minutes here. And I found this song and I played it. So this is me alone playing the song. And I started to cry

and I remembered our first discussion. And then I sent this song over to Humble Howard with the show notes and I said you should hear this and then I think I'm sure he did play it for you that day when you were on Humble and Fred and then you guys talked about it. A month ago, yeah.

I'm just going to play a bit of this and then we're going to talk. This is called Jamie's Song and it's for the Jamie Daniels Foundation. When one life lost is one too many You can't change the past but you can make it better now Better now You're a beautiful soul And when you're up there, out there Watching over us Just know the love Just know We are now at Upper Session Road No, it's not goodbye No, you can't change the past

But you can change the future I'll remember all the good The laughs we had But your beautiful sense of humor And this goes out to all the beautiful souls Dealing with the problem nobody really knows This goes out for all the beautiful times we've had And this goes out to all the beautiful times that we had when we didn't realize just how precious life is.

You're a beautiful soul, one day without help is one too many. You can't change the past but you can make it better, na na better nah, nah. I could cry for the rest of my life, but it's not goodbye. I could try to bring the dark to light. No, it's not goodbye. No, you can't change the past, but you can change the future I'll remember all the good, the laughs we had, and your beautiful sense of humor And this goes out to all the beautiful souls dealing with the problem nobody really knows.

This goes out for all the beautiful times we had. This goes out to all the beautiful times that we had when we didn't realize. Just how precious life is. Now, Ken, I wasn't actually planning to play that entire thing, and then I realized I can't fade it down, so I played the whole thing. But there's actually, on the website I mentioned, there's a montage of photos of your son, Jamie, that are to this song,

and if that doesn't get you. You're not, you're not, you're not, you're not alive. You're not a human being. I just want to say again, I'm so sorry for your loss,

but the fact that this Jamie's Jamie Daniels foundation has come out of this terrible tragedy that you suffered is at least there's a positive there and you're doing great work to make sure other families don't suffer the same. Well, thank you. I guess I needed a cry today. Those who've lost often ask me, you know, and I say, cry, just lean into it. Whether you've lost a mother, father, whatever, we all lose and you have to just lean in and it's okay to cry. And I can have my Jamie moments and I do, but that song, how precious life is. It's so true.

That song was written by Landon, Jamie's cousin. And we'd only met a couple of times. It's my brother's second wife, Alana. They live in Calgary and her son, Landon wrote it, did the music for it.

He's a music producer out there and does some wonderful things. And you can't change the past, but you can change the future. And as he said in there, your beautiful sense of humor. And that's why we do the Jamie Daniels Foundation Celebrity Roast each year.

We roasted Mickey live in 2019. We roasted Scotty Bowman virtually last year. And this year, Brett Hull in November. I think we're at the virtual again, although do a sponsored dinner before. So, so far we've raised for the foundation. We're approaching probably since 2018, the foundation started. So we've raised close to a million dollars and we're going to build long-term safe recovery housing here in Oakland County, Michigan, an 80 unit facility for those who have struggled. And as I always say, Mike, and, you know, we go through cancer, and there's

valiant struggles, and people lose those to cancer or any type of disease. And yet, when you're struggling with mental illness, and that's what it is, if you're addicted, they don't wake up one morning and say, Hey, great, let's be an addict today. And it can be just from an opioid pill from too much medication, you could have surgery, wisdom teeth, anything like that. And within five days, you can be hooked. And then you get into bad ways. And those opioid pills could be laced with heroin with fentanyl. And then you die. And that's the problem the kids are facing today. And two and a half million Americans are addicted. So anyone getting your wisdom teeth out, please. Ibuprofen, Tylenol will do just as well. Don't go with something you

don't need just because a doctor prescribed it. Then it sits in a medicine cabinet or parents have surgery and kids who are in their teens come over and they find it, they have it and they can be addicted. So that's what we're trying to end here. And Jamie had been clean until the seedy side of the recovery business got him. And I think there's a movie out now. Well, I know there's a movie out now. And I believe the name is, I think it's Body Brokers. And that's what happened to Jamie.

It was patient brokered. And the movie's on Amazon Prime. I hear it's a great movie. It's basically telling Jamie's story. Although, you know, he had been in recovery, clean working at a law firm and then wound up in a house because he was

patient brokered that he shouldn't have been in enticed by free rent. And then he was given something he shouldn't have taken for sure, but a doctor put him on something he shouldn't have been on and it made him feel good. And then what he took was laced with fentanyl and there was nothing in that house to revive him because it was a house filled with drugs because he was patient brokered and living there. Didn't know what he was getting into. So the movie Body Brokers will explain that side of the story. It's on Amazon Prime. I don't have the heart to watch it. I don't have the mind to watch it. I

probably have the heart to watch it, but I don't have the mind to watch it. But that would tell. So anyway, thank you for that. And if you go to jamiedanielsfoundation.org, you'll see the work we're doing. And wherever you are, if you know someone who's struggling, find out where you're going first. And we have lots of places on there which are vetted. And I know the problems in Canada, not just in the US, where you can get safe help. Well said. And I'll just add that that song, Jamie's song, which is so beautiful and so perfect that you mentioned Jamie's cousin wrote that and composed that. He's billed as Wilder. So you can buy this song. So I guess that's what I'm trying to say is that I think it's 99 cents. You can have the song uh if you go to amazon music or places like that so you can you you tell me because if you can i i

didn't know it was on spotify music by wilder and i tried looking for myself i couldn't find it okay i'm looking at it i'm looking at it right now so it's on uh it's on uh if you search amazon has a music section of amazon.com, Amazon music, it's called, and you can, uh, buy the, uh, the MP3 for 99 cents.

It's called Jamie song. And then parentheses, it says for the Jamie Daniels foundation, but the artist, if you're looking for the artist, uh, it's billed as wilder. I guess that's the,

uh, the pen name. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, uh, yeah.

Uh, wow. I don't know what more to say, except I'm glad you're not here only because whenever you talk about Jamie and remind us how how old was Jamie when he passed? birthday too. She always said that was the best birthday present she could ask for ever. And she was born in 1901. She'd be 101 right now. She was still alive. And Jamie would be 28. His sister Arlen is 25 now in a nursing school in Chicago. So, you know, she wants to work when we get this recovery housing built. She'd like to work with us and helping in that chemical addiction. So that'll be great. Well, every time you talk about Jamie, all I can see in my head is my boy James.

Like I just see my boy James, who's 19 now. Hug him every day, will you? And extra hard. And again, life is precious. So know how precious life is and be thankful for what we got, for sure. And that brings us to the end

of our 837th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Ken is hiding. He's not going to tell us his burner account on Twitter. Oh no, hang on. Instagram though.

Ken Daniels TV. Okay. Instagram, Ken Daniels TV, just not on Twitter. Gotcha. Okay. Instagram,

Ken Daniels TV. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U, KenDanielsTV. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. Mimico Mike, he's also on Instagram with Ken Daniels.

And Mimico Mike is Majeski Group Homes on Instagram. See you all next week. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.