Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Live From Christie Pits: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1487

Episode Date: May 12, 2024

In this 1487th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike is live from Christie Pits during the Toronto Maple Leafs IBL home opener. Guests include Wendel Clark, Stephen Brunt, Rod Black, Mark Hebscher, Steve Paikin, Rick Vaive, Rik Emmett, Peter Gross, Cam Gordon, Keith Stein, MF, and others! Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes, We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Music Welcome to Episode 1487 of Toronto Miked,ly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. The best baseball in the city outside the dome. We're live at Christie Pitts.

RecycleMyElectronics.ca committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Advantage to Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Valuable perspective for Canadian investors who want to remain knowledgeable, informed, and focused on long-term success. Season 6 of Yes We Are Open, an award-winning Monaris podcast hosted by FOTM Al Gregor. And Ridley Funeral Home, the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. We're live from Christie Pitts for the Toronto Maple Leafs home. We're live from Christie Pitts

for the Toronto Maple Leafs home opener. Joining me to kick things off. The legend that is Stephen Brunt. Accept that compliment, Stephen. Thank you, Mike. That's that's delightful. Thank you for putting on the with the pipe band and everything for me. I appreciate that.

I appreciate the ceremony. Describe what just happened, what you see here, because we are staring into the outfield and then later we'll talk about that scene when the great Peter Gross was walking across the field I got goosebumps but what do we see here? That's the one yeah that's the one that should have the Chariots of Fire music behind it. Yeah no this is what we've just had the the the opening ceremonies the multiple first pitches the singing of the anthem we have a pipe band we have dignitaries and some beautiful summer afternoons.

My kids are on the field, they were part of the ceremony. Your kids are waving at you, that's great. Hi Jarvis, hi Morgan, there they are. And Peter, say hello. Hello. Peter, have we been arrested yet for the last episode of Toronto Mic'd? No, we pushed the envelope, didn't we? Okay, so anyway Stevens like what are we talking about but we recorded an illegal episode of

Toronto Mike then I had to edit that significantly in order to keep myself out of the pen here but Peter Steven and I were watching you walk across the field and we had goosebumps like that moment when you're walking across the fields here at Christie Pitts that was something special I've got a very special physicality don don't I think? Honestly. The way I walk. I hope they have video of that.

Yeah, coming out of the cornfield. If we make a documentary about this day, I want Stephen Brunton narrated. But Stephen, thanks for coming here. It's just amazing to see you. We haven't seen each other since Tom Wilson's awesome musical. Beautiful Scars. It's been a weird opening.

I loved it. I loved it. I'm musical. Beautiful scars. What did you think? I loved it. I loved it. I'm biased. I do. I love Tom's music. And it is an amazing story. And I thought they captured Tom as well as you. Tom's a character from fiction, right?

It's kind of hard to play Tom because Tom's larger than life. But I really enjoyed it. Are you a Triumph fan? Yeah. Yeah. Good answer. Yeah. I was worried for a moment there. OK fan? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good answer. I was worried for a moment there. Okay, so Peter, I'll get back to you. I want to see if Rick Emmett will pop on this mic and we're working on a chair for the guy.

But don't go too far and you see the cables. It took a long time to get electricity here. If you step on those cables and unplug us, I'm gonna shake my fist at you like this. Will that be the end of my FOTM career? Well, you just don't even, you don't want to find out what's gonna happen. But I don't have a chair for the legendary Rick Emmett right now. That's alright. Okay, so, give me your headphones, and then Steven, we're gonna talk to Rick Emmett for a moment. I got a bump for Rick Emmett. I have questions for you Rick, so no one's gonna unplug me, right?

I've been unplugged many times myself. And Rick, I feel awful. I'm working on getting another chair. Do you know where there's a chair by any chance? No, no, I was not on the chair committee. You want my chair and I'll stand? No, that's fine. I can crouch Blair Packham, would you let him sit on your lap and you crouch down? I'm in the ready position For a ground ball here at the ballgame Okay, so thank you to Blair Packham. Did Blair Packham pick you up and deliver you to the field today?

Thank you to Blair Packham. Did Blair Packham pick you up and deliver you to the field today? Yes, and thank him for that. Yes, I thank him for that. But I thank no one for the fact that I got hijacked by this whole singing the anthem thing. Wait, did you sing the anthem? Yeah. Really? Well, I sang the first couple of words and then I dropped the mic and I kept singing, but I was panicking because I go I told them I'm a little upset right now I'm gonna have to bring this up of ownership

because I asked you let's let's tell the listenership I said Rick Emmett would you sing the anthem and you said no I did and I went back to the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs I said Rick Emmett will be there to be honored as you should be and make sure you're taking care of if you're gonna get some swag. No well I'll make sure you do. I got the ball I threw and I felt like maybe I was supposed to autograph it and give it to the catcher but then I went no I'm taking it. I want to make sure you're taking care of. So when you dropped the mic though it wasn't like we're not talking about drop the mic you actually dropped the mic right? it wasn't like, we're not talking about drop the mic. You actually dropped the mic, right? No, I just-

Cause it kind of got quiet over here. Yeah, I put it behind my back and down to the side because I couldn't remember the French. And I thought this will be an international incident. I feel terrible that you were put in that position because I was assured you were not going to be singing the national anthem. Like this is not on me.

I want our relationship to be okay. I heard you on the phone tell Blair and Blair told me okay but I'm doing it I did it amazing so Wendell Clark is here Rick that's almost like I have wish I had more microphones I know because I do need to do a little doesn't crouch for anybody though we're gonna get a third chair and we got you on as well Rick Emma did the anthem yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You are a good sport. Rod Black.

So Rod's the guy to blame. He owes me a few now. It wasn't in the script, but thank you. OK, that's amazing that you did that. You want somebody else on the mic now? Well, I don't want you to disappear. I got to make sure you take care of it. I want you to come back.

I need to take, I need Wendell Clark for a moment. Yes. Introduce me so I can say hi in black. Oh, yeah, OK, so lots of people gonna share these mics. But nobody unplugged me, that's the only thing Mr. Emmett, the legend that is Rick Emmett from Triumph. So this is an owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, this is Keith Stein.

Keith, you're making your Toronto mic debut, how you doing? You gotta get much closer. Lean in Keith. I'm so excited to be here. Do you know that, I don't know how long I've known Toronto Mike, but this is my first time on air with you guys.

And I was looking forward to meeting the great Peter Gross. I haven't met Peter yet. Where is he? He's right there. He's warming up. He's in the bullpen. Peter Gross is here, Mr. Stein. But Mike, let's get Wendell on too.

Yeah, put Wendell on now. I couldn't find a third chair. So Keith, if you have any pull, you can get us a chair. Wendell's got it coming. But nobody can unplug. No, we gotta be really careful. I'm talking about a chair. So Keith, if you have any pull, you can get us a chair. Wendell's got it coming. But nobody can unplug. No, we got to be really careful. I'm talking about a chair. Lean in.

There you go. OK. I feel like if the Captain Clark is here, I need to give up my chair. Wendell, you want my chair? Yeah. Oh, no. Here we go.

Is that mean I'm older? Yeah. Go get in there, buddy. All right. Mr. Brunch, you're going to help me out here. I'm a little intimidated here. I'm going to be down on old floors here. This looks like all hard.

Do you want him? You've got to planning this thing like, you know, it's just kind of loosen up a bit Yeah, I'm getting green grass stain will never come out Wendell welcome to Toronto Mike good to meet you man Stain will never come out Wendell welcome to Toronto Mike good to meet you man Wendell what did you do did they honor you what did you do? Did you throw in a pitch? No, they they said I get to throw a baseball. I said come on down. I'm coming to throw a baseball Did you throw a strike? I know it's low low outside. I Got a question when the deep did you play baseball in sask when you were kidding? I played baseball until there was no it's almost like like in our era in Saskatchewan, in small towns, as soon as you run out of the pitchers, the game changed.

So then I went from baseball to really high end fastball. So we had a lot of fastball. Rob Scheller from the Toronto area came out. Those were the paid guys that come out and play in Saskatoon. Joey Kosher and I played on the Rempel brothers in Saskatoon. And so yeah, they love baseball. My dad loved baseball. And so that was, you grew up in Saskatchewan.

It's hockey in the winter, baseball in the summer. And then when you retire, everybody curls. Gordy Howe is a good baseball player. Gordy was, yeah. Yep. Could we take a moment, gentlemen? I think I have the ideal two people on the microphone for this. Wendell, I got Stephen Brunt on the mic.

Ron Ellis passed away. Yeah. I got Steve Payken dropping by later in this recording Ron Ellis's favorite maple leaf of all time Wendell I'm giving you that honor for me my friend I miss Ron Ellis's crew but would you guys mind saying a word or two about the late great Ron Ellis? Well Ron one of the first guys I had met and then Ron being with the Hall for when I retired and then when I basically retired from the game Ron was still playing the alumni game So I got to skate with Ron and I think when I started skating so I'd have been mid-30s skate

I think Ron was a better skater when I went out there I said he was late 50s early 60s that he could Ron and other than being the nicest guy in the world He was one of the best skaters I don't a lot of people don't realize how good a skater Ron Ellis was back in the early days. Wow, okay, we lost a great one there. Again, Paken later is gonna pay some more respect. As Wendell said, like, nicest guy in the world. Man, and you're gonna hear that over and over again

when I talk about Ron Ellis. Is this crowd for me, Steven? I'm just looking here. They're all for Toronto Mike, I think. It's quite a crowd. They seem to be. You seem to have attracted them. But why do they all have number 17 leaf jerseys with them?

I don't know. Wendell, I have a question because I've only got you for a couple minutes. Everybody else needs your time. But are you aware of the YouTube compilation called All Heart set to Hero of the Day by Metallica? Yeah. Rick, you want a mic? Yeah, no, I've seen it.

How aware are you of this? I don't know who did it, but it gets a lot of playtime, I guess. I wake up every morning, I brush my teeth, I watch All Heart. I just wanted to let you know that All Heart, to Hero of the Day by Metallica, that's daily viewing for me. Basically the greatest moments of Wendell's career. Man, amazing. Wendell, I hope I get a photo with you later,

but you just made your Toronto Mic debut, so I'm now gonna call you an FOTM that's friend of mine this was an absolute honour man thanks so much okay watch don't unplug us mr. Clark okay captain Clark here and we got a guy here now now Rick you got to be right on that mic and Stephen I do have questions you don't disappear okay all right this is exciting here so you're gonna be right on that mic and I want to say hello To Captain Rick Vibe. How you doing Rick? I'm fantastic. Rick, do you have any memory of being on my show via zoom? Do you remember being on Toronto mic to this was a zoom we had I'm dying to know if you remember this at all I believe I have I do You can fake it because it'll make me feel better. No, no, I remember

How you doing? I'm good. me feel better. No, no, I remember. OK. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I a little bit of a trek in here from Niagara Falls today with all the traffic and all the construction that's going on. But other than that, are you a triumph fan? It's OK if you're not, but I'm a country music fan. Country music. I like country. Okay, because Rick Emmett was coming in from Burlington and I sent Blair Packham to Burlington

to drive him in here. I should have sent him to pick you up as well. Yeah, well, no, I was okay. I got here a little bit late, later than I was supposed to, but I mean, I left at 11 o'clock, got here at 1 so what did they have you take two hours 20 minutes it's not good right you came from the hammer right Steven yeah it wasn't it wasn't that great it's a mess right now should I feel guilty about all of this I don't know I'm just excited I have electricity here Steven

you got so you have right now you have Rick vibe the first man to leave to score 50 goals in this season you know I was funny, there's a Great Lakes beer for Joe Bowen called Holy Mackinaw Lager that was at this event and it was just before the final game I think and he was all excited to call goal number 70 for Austin Matthews but what questions would you have any questions for Rick Vibe here? Well Rick, what's it I was gonna you know I there's a lot of, I don't know, how deep you want to go leaf-wise here Mike? Do we want to actually talk about this stuff? It's a nice summer day, like it's over right? It's fine. But did you watch the press conference this week and you know with

Peli the new boss there and talking about what you know what they're gonna do, what they're not gonna do? Did you kind of take any of that in? I saw that and I kind of liked it. I did you kind of take that in I saw that and I I kind of liked it I think kind of went from where we believe in our core four or whatever you want to call them to anything we're open to anything and and I kind of like that because sometimes you got to make tough decisions in order to win. And you know we haven't seen that a whole lot in the last 15 years or so. And I thought that was excellent. I thought that you know they care, they want to win, and they're going to do whatever they need to do to win. If that means

moving a couple of the big guys that might happen. Yeah, it kind of feels like that's the only way you can unblock things right? I'm not sure they've got any choice on that. Yeah, I'm not sure what they're gonna do but I like the fact that they said nothing is off the table. Now may I spend a moment here, maybe a word or two, some real talk about Bob Cole? Well, yeah, I love Bob. I had the great privilege of doing a book with him, got to know him really well, went fishing with him. To me, with a nod to Danny Gallivan, who was pretty damn good, to say the least, Bob's the guy, you know, and I've never, what Bob brought to the game, his ability to anticipate stuff,

to build the excitement, I think he was a master of his craft. He's a funny guy, crusty, didn't like everybody, had a lot of weird quirks and habits, and I bet, I guarantee you to his dying breath he thought he should still be calling those games on hockey night instead of somebody else you know he didn't surrender easily and that's one of the things I love about Bob. Did you ever cross paths with him? Oh I've met Bob many many times and of course I'm from PEI he's a Newfoundlander so he always had time to stop and talk to me and you know we'd talk about different things. But Bob was a, well to me anyway, he was a great guy who loved the game and one of the

best broadcasters probably ever. He's my favorite, my old time favorite. Yeah, well I mean I didn't listen to the guys way, but Bob Cole, I'm sure he called quite a few of my goals, so that's good. Oh darn right. Darn right he did. Rick, tell us what you did here today at this home opener for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team here.

We should paint a better picture, right, Stephen Brunch? You're the man who does that best, but this is a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day and this is such an amazing place. You know, Christie Pitts is a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day, and this is such an amazing place. Christie Pitts is a real jewel in this city. And the fact that you can come up and sit on a hillside for free and watch a really good ball game and eat a hot dog. It's been going on for a long, long time.

It's amazing that this exists. And we should just point out where we are. We're in the outfield, and we're basically staring at the game as it takes place here and I feel like we might have a home run hit our tent here. It'd be a pretty good shot if one hits this tent. It's true. But Rick, what did you do this morning? For this ceremony? Well, we had to throw a pitch.

Did you throw a strike? I think I did, yeah. Good for you. But I mean, I'm looking at this place and it's unbelievable. I mean, you look at the hills behind the diamond and I mean, it probably couldn't get any better than this. Uh, in the city of Toronto, this is, this is an awesome venue. Yeah, it's a, it's, it is unique, you know, and this, and this neighbor,

I used to live in this neighborhood once upon a time. And the idea that you could just kind of wander over here on a weekend afternoon and park yourself, and somebody come up with a coffee can and ask for a donation every once in a while. But that was the only mandatory investment, right? And the baseball's good.

Inter County baseball's, you know, some really good guys come through this league. Absolutely. And Rob Butler, who manages the team now, he played many good years in this league and his brother Rich was a member of the team as well. Rob, of course, I think he's the only Canadian to win a World Series for a Canadian team. Like I think that's a fact. I think that's true, yes. I think that's true. By the way, I want to say thanks to Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral

Home, the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. He found me a chair, so I don't know how he did that, if this that's true. By the way, I want to say thanks to Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home, the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. He found me a chair, so I don't know how he did that. If this was a guy. They got a lot of chairs in funeral homes. They always have chairs. But I have a chair. Amazing. Okay, Rick, I feel like I've hogged a lot of your time here, but I'm gonna take a selfie with you and you're gonna do a big smile there because you've been on Toronto Mike but we've never met till right now. This is a big moment for me. You can do play by play Stephen.

Okay this is yeah Mike is very good at these selfies. They're always very flattering I find. Rick amazing thanks so much. Come by later but when you do leave though don't unplug me. It was very difficult to secure electricity for this. I won't unplug you but I enjoyed it thank you. Anytime come by now that we've got a chair for you I can't believe it Wendell Clark and the great Steve Pagan in a moment my friend don't go too far here thank you Rick amazing Rick Vive first 50 goal scorer in Toronto Maple Leaf City yeah come on in tell us us who you are. So my friend, you are Jeremy Diamond. That name is perfect for a, perfect name for a baseball guy.

So right on that mic though. Yeah, get you right in on that thing, sorry. Jeremy, so tell me, you're the chair of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum? Yeah, excited to be here. This is pure Canadian baseball out here at Christie Pitt. So excited to celebrate, have a booth here, showing some of our artifacts and telling stories about the 150 year

plus history of baseball in Canada. Can you confirm the fun fact I just dropped about Rob Butler being the first Canadian to win a World Series ring with a Canadian team? That's correct yeah and we're we're always happy to see Rob and I know I've had more than two or three people around today saying when's Rob getting into the Hall of Fame? So Yeah, well we have a selection process we've had a nominations process he's been nominated he's on the ballot and he gets votes so He has a number of more years still on the ballot. So hopefully this will help his candidacy over the next number of years. So Jeremy have you met the great Stephen Brunt? I have yeah we've worked, Steve and I have worked together talking about

sports connection to the First World War and he's done a great job helping out the Hall of Fame with some of our promotion and promo videos over the year so it's always good to see about it. We have newly minted the Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Godfrey here today too. We do the class of 24 well overdue. I think we can all agree on that So we're so happy to have him and then Rob coming up on June 15th for induction day up in St. Mary's Amazing St. Mary's beautiful now is Stephen Brunt in this Hall of Fame Stephen you in the Hall of Fame. I'm not no I'm not Now that is an oversight. You've given me more work to do. I've got to get Rob in. I've got to get Stephen in. Well, Stephen first.

Yeah. He's older. Yeah, well. Thanks, yeah. That's on the clock, right? Chair of the board, I have power. I don't know if I have that much power, but we'll see. Amazing.

That's amazing that, so Paul Godfrey, we had to somehow get him on these mics very shortly. So Jeremy. He's very shy, Mike. I'm not sure you get him. And then I'm just gonna have Stephen Brunn ask him all the questions. There you go.

Since he's ready to go here. So tell me a little bit, just a little bit about the highlights here. I had a gentleman named Adam Bunch on the show. Yeah, I know Adam well. You know Adam, okay. Yeah, of course. We were running down some of the interesting characters who played for the Toronto May Beliefs through the years.

Of course, the famous story we always talk about is when they played at Hanlin's Point and some guy named George Herman something. Yeah, Herman Ruth. They called him babe. I have read about him in these books. He hits his first professional home run against the Leafs and that ball lands in Lake Ontario and we're still looking for it. Still looking for it.

Yeah, I don't know what condition it would be and now if they ever found it, but I believe, and Adam may have told you this, but I believe that there was a diving crew down there trying to find it a number of years ago. And I don't think that they did. Well, when they make the documentary about finding the ball, it better be narrated by Stephen Brun.

Yeah, I can make that happen. Me and Adam can make that happen. Dad, you can make that happen. I can make that happen. So the Hall of Fame in St. Mary's about an hour and a bit outside of Toronto, close to Stratford. Our induction ceremonies every year on Father's Day weekend. I know we're Mother's Day today. But Father's Day weekend, Russell Martin, Paul Godfrey, a number of others going to be coming up for induction on Saturday, June 15th. Free event, a thousand people under a tent, and we celebrate the great game in Canada

and all that it has to offer. So, love for everybody to come up. Father's Day weekend, you said? Father's Day weekend, so June 15th, the Saturday of Father's Day weekend. That's amazing. That's amazing. And let me know if there's anything like what wheels I need to grease or whatever to get Brunt in there.

Like, I want to go to St. Mary's and watch Stephen Brunt inducted into the Canadian baseball hall of fame. Beautiful town. Beautiful town. Hope of Milton L. Hope of Milton L. That's right. See that's a fun fact. Yeah and it's about 10 minutes away from the first recorded game of baseball in Canada, which was in Beachville, Ontario. So that's why it's... Are we still arguing that that's the first recorded game?

Oh how much time do we have? Sure we'll get Bill Humber on this podcast and we'll keep talking about it. Big beef about that. I heard Mil Donnell. He covered that game. Right. It might well. And so, yeah, so we're here at Christie Pitts. We have a booth. So anybody that's that's here has had a great time over in the left field corner. So artifacts, Rob Butler artifacts, old gloves that you can

try on and play catch with and learn a bit more about the Hall of Fame. Are you going to be at all Sunday home games? We'll try and be here as much as we can. We're in St. Mary's and we have a good group here as well. Because nobody hears us during this game so it's not like we can tell people to go there but I'm looking at it now and I'm going to be back here for several Sunday afternoon games because of that terrible dry. Hey, Brent, when do you go to Newfoundland? Very soon, a couple of weeks. here for several Sunday afternoon games. Yeah. Because of that terrible dry... Hey

Brett, when do you go to Newfoundland? Very soon. A couple weeks. Oh we caught you just in time. Okay. I think I'm here for like the first Sunday of June. Okay. There's a game here and I'm gonna record live from there too. You think Wendell will come to that game? You never gonna ask. He lives downtown these days I think. He's not that far away. Jeremy, did you meet Wendell Clark? I did, and I met Rick Vibe, who is my absolute hero growing up. So I'm of that vintage to remember Rick Vibe's 50 goals. You kidding me? That was my time, man.

I was a big Rick Vibe guy. That's like 50 goals, like a leaf, three times, as I recall. Rick Vibe and Rick Emmett in the same day? I mean, this is a pretty memorable Sunday. I'm taking full credit for Emmett being here because I invited him. I asked him to sing the national anthem.

He said, I'm happy to come, but I will not sing the national anthem. And then I actually did. Didn't you though? Well, that's where I'm going here, OK? Yeah. Then I go, Blair Packham. I said, Blair, I called it a favor

from the jitters own Blair Packham. I said, can you go to Burlington? Because he didn't want to drive here, Rick Emmett, who does, right? Go pick up Rick Emmett and bring him to the diamond. And Blair did that. Like this is a sweetheart. I'm gonna talk to him in a moment. But I just want to say my apologies to Rick Emmett,

who apparently Rod Black in the moment asked Rick Emmett to sing the anthem and Rick did it? Is that the story, right? Yeah, there was a mic drop involved. Not like, not that. Well, we heard that, right? We were here. It just stopped. I didn't even know who was singing the anthem.

That may have been intentional. I don't know. Oh, he's no fool. Did the guy, the Rick Emma, did the guy with the stack of Triumph vinyl find him? I hope so. He was right here. It was wild. More than a few back there. It was wild.

All right, Jeremy, thanks for telling us about the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. And I hope I'm going to drop by a Sunday when I'm not recording here I'm gonna drop by and try out one of those old mitts. Great. I won't get any like communicable disease. No no no. It's living in those mitts. You'll learn how to catch a ball when the sort of the mitt was maybe about a quarter of an inch thick so I throw you a ball that hurts your hand that's for sure. Amazing. Thanks so much Mike.

Appreciate it. Give your seat up to Peter Gross for a moment and then I'm gonna get Hebs in here but don't unplug me this is what I'm telling all my guests today don't unplug me. Peter sit down for a moment here then I gotta get the great Mark Hebscher on. I smell hot dogs. What does a guy have to do to get a hot dog around here right Peter? Peter Gross can you hear yourself? I can hear myself. Did you know when Clark was here? I just took a selfie with him. Amazing do you think Brunt has any insights into how to get you insurance to deliver food for Uber? You should hear what's going on Steven. It's uh. That's not waste time here at the baseball. No they can go back to the. We killed enough time the other day. Okay right in front of of that thing, my friend. Uh, did you find out?

Are you and Mark Hepsher calling an inning? Did you find out what's going on there? Cause I could talk to the owner right now. I was asked to call do play by play for an inning, whatever that means. Have you communicated to Mark Hepsher who is right there? Like, like, I'm going to put him on that. Is that going to happen here? Are we to call an inning or what? Okay here you're the best Peter we did just talk last episode take give Hebsi your spot This is important mark. I'm sure shit. Don't unplug us though. That's more important even

You're amazing Peter gross everybody FOTM Hall of Famer here comes mark Hebscher Host of the formerly beloved Hebsi on sports he's getting comfy ladies and gentlemen now Stephen Brunt you haven't had any fisticuffs of Mark have you know no I'm just checking that part of that club you never know we elbowed me out at 14 ohs one time I went to get some baked goods yeah we, we're Hamiltonians. How you doing, Mark Hepsher? I'm doing great, Mike. Thanks for having me. I feel like a lucky man that I have to my right. I have Stephen Brunt to my left is Mark Hepsher.

And I feel like I can ask you guys anything. Where do we begin? But do you think the Leafs made the right move? They fired Sheldon Keefe. Do you even care anymore? What's going on? You just care about golf now? What's going on, Mark?

I guess it was inevitable that they had to fire Sheldon Keefe. I thought Sheldon Keefe was an okay coach. I really, I mean, if you look at his record, it's tremendous. Over 200 wins, less than 100 losses. I mean, any coach, I don't care if Maple Leaf or otherwise, that has a record like that, shouldn't be unemployed for too long.

I'm happy for him that he's got two more years with the Leafs, because he doesn't have to go back to coaching if he doesn't want to. And if he wants to spend time with his family family I think that's very noble and necessary. I didn't spend enough time with my family around that time and I kind of regret it so go for it Sheldon. Go for it Sheldon. Now should Shanahan have taken a walk off the plank? That's like 10 years now with one playoff victory. I've mentioned this to you before I don't like anybody running the plank that's like 10 years now with one playoff victory. Mike, I've mentioned this to you before. I don't like anybody running the organization that doesn't have ties to the organization and I'm sorry Ken Dryden had no ties to the

Toronto Maple Leafs organization. Brendan Shannon, even though he grew up here, had no ties to the organization. Are you telling me that you can't find someone that has, I don't know, some kind of tie to the organization? Is it necessary? What do you think about that, Stephen? Trying to think who the last one was. I know. You know, Berkey didn't have a big... No, Berkey had none.

And it's been, yeah, it's... So if you want to keep the tradition going, you know, the tradition that we'd all like to think of, the one before Harold Ballard ruined all of it, then you got to find some way to bring back the past. David Keon's not going to be your guy. I'm not sure there's anyone qualified, but I would still like to cast a wide net and find someone with some Maple Leaf Blue

in their blood to be in charge of this organization. Speaking of Maple Leaf Blue, I want to thank you, Mark Hepsher, because you delivered, signed my 93 Gilmar jersey. Okay, this is a moment, Stephen. You're waiting to see a moment. So I bought this in 92 when he was the alternate captain and Wendell was the captain who's somewhere behind me, believe it or not. Oh, man. There you go. Okay. Right. How's that, eh? Look at that. Oh my God. Yeah. So Wendell, but I think Wendell, I think there was a captain before Vive and Wendell. I think Rob Rammage was the captain in between there. in between there. 100% yeah yeah he's not he's not here today I'm told okay but we got to get the killer out to one of these games but how was that meeting

with the killer you left my place last time you're on Toronto Mike you went straight to hang out with Doug Gilmore. Not to hang out with him I had we I had some business to do with him I'm gonna I'm trying to get him to write the forward for my upcoming book. The owner Keith Stein is here I'm gonna question for you. Sorry. Oh, that's Mark. Okay, good. It's Mark Hebscher. The owner, Keith Stein, is here. I'm gonna get him back. He's trying to, trying to. I'm sorry. So I gotta step out here.

Okay, you gotta go. Who's coming in? I gotta, you gotta change the line. Okay, bring in Payken then. Okay, I'll do that. Take off your helmet. Thank you, Steven Bryant. See you in a bit.

What a great FOTM, Steven Bryant. I might get a hot dog in my home. Okay. Bring him in. Mic with you, Steve. I like lots of mustard on my hot dog. Okay. Steve Payken, please.

Safe trip back to Hamilton there, right Steve? You want me to give? Yeah. Excuse me. Excuse me. Get in there, get in there. Thank you. All right, it's pretty good when you can like substitute,

you know, you're losing to Steven Brunt, but you can bring in to Steve Paikin. Now I'm adding. Okay, we're gonna get you right in there. Okay, hi. Mark Hepsher, what's your relationship like with Steve Paikin? Very good. I totally agree.

We're pals. Glad to hear this. Both Hamilton boys. Well, not really. Well, sort of. I'm not. My family was all born in Hamilton. But you worked at CHCH. I worked at CHCH when it was a television station, yes. No. It's don't talk about CHCH. It's triggering. Do you know what happened? Sorry. They've, can I say it? I know what happened. They fucked over Mark Hemsworth and many others. Not just me. Michael, language, language. Not just me, no, they, listen, what can I tell you? That's the way, I think the writing was on the wall then. I realized that, hmm, this is not the same business that, you know, when you got into it, it was like, I'll be with the same company for years and it'll all be great.

So I'm way past that and good for them. Mark, I gotta say, can I say this? Anything. I miss you too. Thank you. I miss you too. Thank you. I miss you too. I was a faithful listener of the podcast. I even bought some of Nate's soap.

Hebsy on sports. Oh, you did. I bought some of Nate's soap. You know what, I like that soap. I liked it. Nate's soap in order to support your podcast. It was hard, Stephen. It was hard, Stephen, because I felt that I had a big responsibility.

I had to keep up with all the sports, And there's so much now to keep up with. Every game is on television. Every game is televised. Or streamed in some way. And it's more work than I had hoped. It used to be a passion project. And then it became like a job. Like, oh no, I gotta watch the Raptor game right now.

I know what happened there. And so, I'd rather not do it. So now I can do it at my own leisure. And it's very enjoyable. I miss it in some ways. There's some days where at the end of the day I'm like I think I'd like to do a live broadcast right now and tell people what I think of John we can do that you know material moves and what I think of the second period of the Leaf game and you know that kind of thing

like instantaneous because it's got to be it has to happen like right after the game as soon as the game is over it's like give me something live give me some comment from the coach or something about that play or something to keep it going Conversation going well call me up next time you have that That needs scratching and we can literally do that. You know we can in fact I was thinking if the Leafs had won that game seven Spoiler alert we didn't win that game seven, but if we had I was gonna do a live like open zoom thing We're done. Yeah sure and they you know what happened in overtime right mr. Paykin. I heard all about it So tell me I want to talk a little maple leaves baseball

You know we talked our hockey we get a baseball here. It's beautiful day, but first can we just pay respect to a legend I know Mr.. Steve Paykin's favorite Hockey player of all time was Ron Ellis. Is that right? That is true. Would you mind talking to us a little bit? I texted you condolences. I thought of you first when I read the news. I was sad. Do you know, it's funny how many people have actually texted me or sent me emails over the

last couple of days since the news of Ron Ellis's death has become public because I guess, I guess there's some people out there who know that I love this man. You said it on Toronto Mike. Well, I love this man. So everyone knows. I love this man. I have no embarrassment or hesitation in saying it.

I loved Ron Ellis. I met him for the first time when I was 10 years old, through a long story which we don't need to go into. My brother and I ended up in the Leaf dressing room after the game. He was my favourite player. We got a picture taken together. We, as strange as this sounds, he was my, he was my hero and then I got to know him and we actually became friends. Wow. And you know, I'd email him on his birthday every year. We'd see each other once a year at... January 8th? Correct. 1945 in Lindsay, Ontario? Correct. Same day as Dave Hodge.

Wow. Same day, same year. Wow. That's a good one. Yeah. And we stayed in touch over the years and we really, I kept all his emails and we had a lovely, lovely friendship. And so I'm thinking of him today and I'm very sad. I'll tell you, it hit me harder than I thought it would. But it was all very sudden. It was very sudden. Can I interject something here about Ron Ellis? Anything.

So my favourite player was Ron Ellis and the reason he was is because when I was 8 years old, my aunt, my brother's sister-in-law, my aunt Christine Hepsher, who's passed away, was his teacher, his English teacher, at Downsview Secondary School. Wow. And she told me about a young man who at the time was playing for the Marlies, who I loved, and would go every Sunday afternoon to watch Marlies, Neil McNeil, Kitchener Rangers, you know, Hamlin and Redwings. I mean, I love that. At the gardens, two bucks for blue seats. Two bucks. Wow.

And so Ron Ellis was one of my favorite players with the Marlies, and now my aunt says to me, oh yes, Ron Ellis is in my class. And I and I was like whoa could you get me an autograph? The first autograph I ever got was well I first was Foster Hewitt but the first she got me an autograph of Ron Ellis. Wow. I loved him and then when I first met him too, Steve and he was so nice. A lovely man. So nice and same thing here's my number if you need anything and just absolutely and he was playing for the Leafs at the time so he gave me his home phone number so like I could call Ron Ellis to get a clip from him or say Ron can I meet you at the gardens tomorrow morning at 10? Wonderful.

Mike I'll tell you another story. Yes please. 25 years ago or so our friend Kevin Shea is writing a book about Ron Ellis. It's called Over the Boards and in the writing of the book he decides to call me because he knows I'm a big Ron Ellis fan and he gets wants to get some stories from me and in the writing of the book he decides to call me because he knows i'm a big run else and and he gets is once again some stories from me and in the course of talking to kevin shane i mentioned to him that i'm so upset because

my car recently got broken into and my wallet got stolen and i don't care about the credit cards of the money but my run elissa autographed hockey card which i kept in my wallet is now gone and i had that thing for years and years well wouldn't you know what mark a month later i'm opening the mail at home and i open an envelope and inside is a letter from ron saying i hear my previous one meant went missing here's a new one for you that's what a great story and okay hang on i'm gonna i get you guys okay okay, so guys mark do play-by-play for this here. Mr. Bacon's going into his pocket here now. He's getting out his wallet. This is old school

So he's pulling out the wallet and there's the card There is the Ron Ellis card Wow Wow and from someone who kept an Elrod Hendrix card in his wallet for 15 years from the age Of 14 to 20. I like you guys That is, it's close to your heart, it's close to your bum too. But it's like you keep that with you. You have your wallet, you've got that identification. That is luck right there. Always with me. Thank you for sharing those memories.

Again, my condolences. Ron Ellis, great Maple Leaf. And a great person it sounds like. Just sounds like a tremendous person. You know he retired, you know he retired for a full season. Two seasons. Oh it was two seasons. That's right.

75-76 and 76-77. Wow. He retired and he was like 30 years old. He had his depression was so severe that he could not concentrate. He was an excellent player. I think he was coming off a 29-goal season or something. And he just couldn't concentrate. So he quit.

He quit. For two years. For two seasons at his prime. But then he came back, he came back, he came back for... I think he got three more seasons. I think you're right, 77, 78, 78, 79, 79, 80. And you know what, I'll tell you, oh boy, Mike you got us going here. You got us going, but I've got to mention this too. I wrote two letters to brendan shanahan saying

yet that would you really need to do something nice for ron ellis the guy at the time when i wrote the letters ron was the fourth all-time leading goal scorer may believe history austin matthews had not yet passed in right so he was number four all-time it was number of fighting five all-time in games played for the lease it you know he's up there on the pantheon yes

number never retired he was never in legend under appreciated under appreciated i agree uh... number actually retired those people around about way because he took i mean ace bailey wanted ron ellis that number six away on right there tells you something about the man yes and then what he was the only other player besides a spinoff war that once Ron retired, they re-retired that number. Exactly right. Exactly right. But if you look up in the rafters at Scotiabank

Arena, it says six for Bailey, not for Ellis, and it should be for both. I agree. Wow. Well, thank you for sharing those memories. Now, do you have any time to share some Toronto Maple Leafs baseball memories? I know when I would record Hebsie on sports, I'd often see Mark Hebser donning his Toronto Maple Leafs hat. I told Keith Stein, owner of this team, I said, biggest Toronto Maple Leafs baseball fan. Since 1969. Wow.

Their first year, and they were horrible. They were so bad that my uncle, who was not a bad ball player, volunteered, went to Jack Dominic and said, look, I'll play. I'll play for you. That's how bad they were that first season. Then they became my favorite team because the Jays were many years away and a guy named Jim Ridley who was an outfielder on this team who became a scout for the Jays their head scout was a won the league

batting title I think he hit over 400 it was great so we used to come here every Sunday my grandmother lived up the street and we came every Sunday and watched the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hemsley you're not old enough to have seen them play at the foot of Bathurst Street. Of course I am yeah yeah you did for sure they left in 66. Dick Williams was their last manager. Okay okay. I saw Reggie Smith play. Reggie Smith was the best ball player I ever saw in person. Wow. He was a switch hitter ended up going up to the Red Sox the following year.

Fabulous player. What is it like maybe paint a picture Steve Paagan, what you're seeing here today, what kind of day we're having here at the Christmas. It's a bit of a field of dreams day here isn't it, it's a little overcast but there are more people here today than I have ever seen at a Maple Leafs baseball game because when my kids were little I did used to bring them here and we did go to the odd game here but they were always very sparsely populated and whenever I would see Jack Dominico He would always say you got to help me out man

We need to get some more people down here and I know this seems to be a pretty good buzz here today Yeah, well, they heard you were gonna be here. I don't think that was it lots of people on the hit I think they heard rumors that you and Hebsi were gonna put the podcast back together Anyway, lots of any chance of that happening cash back together. Anyway, any chance of that happening? No, Mike. Start the rumors. You would have to pay me a lot of money and even then and even then and I said this before sometimes you're in the middle of something going on why did I agree to that for it wouldn't matter the amount. How do I get out of this? Can we use the name Hebsi on sports and it could be Steve Paikin and I? Sure go ahead.

That would not work. That would not work. We'll get Bruce Dobe. That's why I'm writing a book about it. I'm writing a book about me. Tell us about the book. It's coming along. I know you teased it last time. 40,000 words in. I just finished an entire chapter on what it was like covering the Maple Leafs my first couple years. So Peter Gross was, I just went over with Peter because in 77-78, we're looking at him right now. That's when I first started covering the Leafs. And so who was part of the Toronto sports media scene? Oh my god the legends of sports writing, sports casting were all covering those Ballard year Roger Nielsen season Maple Leafs and that was my first taste of what it was like to

cover the great what I thought was the great Toronto Maple Leafs they weren't so great. My first sports my first job Mike was in sports at a radio station in Hamilton called CJJD. 1280. You got it and part of my job was to cover the Hamilton Cardinals which is the same league as these Toronto Maple Leafs. IBL. They played up at... No, Inter County Arbor Stadium. Inter County Baseball. They played at Burnie Arbor Stadium. That is correct. Up on the mountain. Beat Hebsy at like sports trivia. And oh now here is where sports and politics come together. Hebsy, do you remember who the former commissioner of Inter County Baseball was with a Queens

Park connection? Oh jeez, I should know this. Shouldn't I? You should! So wait, he was the commissioner of the IBL? He was, and he was a former MPP at Queens Park. In fact he was a former Ontario liberal leader as well. Wait a minute. David Peterson. No, before him. Before David Peterson. From Hamilton.

John Monroe. No. Wait a minute. From Hamilton. I'm talking Queens Park. Queens Park. Okay, so I got to know my Hamilton provincial politicians from the seven well hang on cops originally look up Bob Morrow Originally a psychiatrist from Montreal. Oh my god actually stood down in the 68 election right or no see he stood down the the liberal nomination race in Mount Royal riding in 1965 I think was between this guy and Pierre Trudeau and this guy stood down so Trudeau could have an unobstructed path in the nomination and his name was Stuart Smith. Oh Stuart Smith of course! Yes there you go. Dr. Stuart Smith. Correct. Wonderful man. He was a good guy. He stumped Hepsey.

By the way, the game is happening literally right in front of us. Like I've been watching the game. It's a good caliber of baseball. Yeah. Tough place to watch a game from where we are. We're in deep center field. We're just behind the fence in center field. We cannot see the hitter because the pitcher and the pitcher's mound is obstructing our view.

We have to wait for the pitcher to complete his windup and delivery and... Strike! That was a strike. That was not a strike. Look, that was not a strike and we're 450 feet away. Not in this man's Ontario. That was not called strike. That was a strike. That was not a strike. Look, that was not a strike and we're 450 feet away. Not in this man's Ontario. That was not a strike. So we're in the second inning.

It's a 0-0 game. I'm hoping somebody goes long because we're right in the outfield. If they change the fences, you see the fence here, the right field fence here is much taller than it used to be. Yeah. Okay. Balls would fly out of here. Oh yeah, because kids are playing baseball there.

Yeah. Well, let me tell you, years ago there was a guy named Bob McKillop who played for the Kitchener Panthers. And he was a left handed hitter and he hit a fastball one day. We watched it. It took one bounce and hit the pitcher in the ass. The pitcher on the adjoining field. So it took a hop right where the dirt cutout was and it hit the pitcher right in the ass. And I think at that point they said, okay, maybe we should do something with defenses here. Wow. Amazing. And so Steve, any other Christy Pitts memories here? I saw Paul Spaljerich pitch here. Yeah, I remember that.

Now, it's funnily enough, I buggered up my shoulder playing hockey a few months ago, and I'm doing some physio right now and my the doctor who diagnosed me is a guy named Jonathan Lockwood who was a pitcher who pitched for the Toronto Maple Leafs all those years ago and he pitched with Spaljaric I just saw him about five minutes before talking to you here Mike that's funny so he's here today and he pitched he went I think he went 10 and 0 for those Toronto Maple Leafs when he pitched for them and he was a draft choice of Mariners. He didn't quite have the goods to go to the majors but good enough to get drafted. So people should go to the website and see

the schedule because there's a you know they play on many a Sunday afternoon. Yeah they do they play Sunday afternoon. But they also play is it Wednesdays? Thursday nights is it? There's another night like a weeknight they plan. Again there's no ticket you show up you find a spot on the hill here, you enjoy a... You buy a 50-50, sorry, a raffle ticket. You can't say 50-50 because it has to be registered. But yeah, the other thing too is you have to understand is that this is the type of league where you're going to get guys in your 30s. You're also going to get some young guys, some very young guys that maybe haven't even started in any kind of pro ball. And I saw a young Chris Spire play for the Stratford Craven Nits. He was 17

or 18. I'm sure what happened was he was signed out of high school and they said, okay, for the summer go up and play in Canada. And then, and then when the fall came or whatever, you know, he went back to school or whatever it was. So I saw him and I also saw a picture named Jesse Orozco. Oh my goodness. Who was 18 years old as well at the time. And boy, could he throw hard, but he didn't know where the ball was going. Future med, right? This can be a development, oh yeah, this can be a development league. Jesse was a world champion. Yeah, yeah, world champion with the Mets.

86 Mets. And I think he pitched till he was probably 47 years old. Oh I think you're exactly right, very long. So these were guys, there was another guy named Bo Rather, he was a wide receiver for University of Michigan football team and he played one summer for London majors and man, he could, he caught some fly balls that I didn't think could be caught so you might catch a you know lightning in a bottle you might catch a youngster who's kind of on his way up maybe in a league like this so there's a lot of talent.

Hebsy do you remember this Jack Dominico was I mean he was a really good promoter and there were years when he would bring guys like Bob Feller and Warren Spahn up here. Big name, name billie yes to do opening ceremony and sign autographs for the people and bigger than rick emmett well at the time no but here's the other thing is jack would have a big banquet prior to opening day I think it used to be the night before and it was at one of those hotels on the 427 there Stephen you'll or Mike you'll probably help me with the Bristol or something like that but anyway he would have he would have a banquet with Bob Gibson Bob

Feller you know these big big names Sam McDowell every year it was and it was a must attend event if you were a baseball fan this is even before the Jays if you were a baseball fan you had to go to that event that was you'd get some great autographs and great stories. How did he get them? How did he get those names? That I don't know. Maybe he paid their fee. That's probably what he did there. But I trust you gentlemen. I don't know. Hard to say.

Hard to say. Who knows? I love those stories. I trust you two gentlemen. I have to go set up a couple people and leave my own podcast. But we're still recording. If you see squiggly lines here, you're still on. Please continue without me. I'll be back. Keep going.

You must trust us big time in order to walk away and leave us on the microphone. So it's gotta be about Toronto sports. So yeah, that shouldn't be too much difficult. So what year did you start when you were at CJJD? Oh, that would have been 1979 nine so who was on the air at that time so in hamilton you would have been those would have been at c h c h right

yeah yeah who's that all my gosh you okay phil vigiani was the news director and he was the afternoon news reader as well sending ring a bell at all no phil vigiani with us on okay steve howe was doing sports not out not the cars for yes not the guitars yes not the picture for the l a dodgers right a different guys to you know so so this is not seven nine so cj howard

just howard of course jeff howard was there k o would have started around right around that time yes yes but they had the leaf rights i remember because he might have rights away from foster hewitt right through his in is uh... gondola in the incinerator, took down all the Stanley Cup banners so he could build private boxes, and awarded the rights to CKO, which had a signal where the ratings were all dashes. There was nobody, Bill Cameron told me, Simon Dingley, the worst, it was like the Vietnam of newsrooms.

It was a terrible place. And Ballard had a lot to do with really screwing up the media that time to take the rights away from foster you it station well that would be him that would be him that brian fisher was our morning news i don't know if i have a sure for a much c h five okay yeah yeah okay okay uh... yeah cautious with the days and i covered hamilton cardinals baseball i covered uh... hamilton tiger cat football and uh... everything else in between.

You know, I was sort of, I guess the summer fill-in sports reporter on CJJD and it was called that because Keith Dancy who owned the station named it after his wife, Jeanine J. Dancy. So CJJD. Okay, so if that's the case, he owned CJRN when I worked there. No, no, the O'Brien brothers owned it then. Anyway, you always try to figure out with call letters, like CKFH was easy, the FH was Foster Hewitt. But I didn't know this, that CFCA, which was the precursor to CFRB, which was owned by the Toronto Star, CFCA, where Foster Hewitt broadcast those first hockey games, stood for Canada's something, I can't think of what it is

now like every call letter had some kind of a story behind yeah and now if you ask young people about call letters what does that mean well my first full-time job in radio was for CHFI and CFTR I was City Hall reporter in Toronto and CHFI was stood for hi-fi that's all in high fidelity, because it was the first FM station I think in Toronto, and CFTR was, TR was Ted Rogers, and Ted owned both stations. So that was that. CFRB, which Ted Rogers' father had started, was Canada's first Rogers batteryless. First Rogers batteryless.

Batteryless, right, FRB, good. That was that one. That's a good one. So there we go. Rodgers, yeah, first Rodgers batteryless. Batteryless, FRB, good. That was that one. So there we go. Because I was talking with Peter Gross earlier and I said, look, I started in Toronto in 78, right in the spring of 78, as the Leafs were making their way to the Stanley Cup playoffs for under first-year coach Roger Nielsen.

And people were excited because there was a good time and they had a good young team. Right, think of that team that Lanny McDonnell was like 26 years old, Darrell Settler, these were a team in their prime, ready to move up, they weren't as good as the Montreal Canadiens, nobody was, but they were sort of that step, them and the Islanders were just like a step away. And then of course, you know, they made it to the semi-finals. They got swept by Montreal Well, two games into overtime. Yeah, that's true and one game in double overtime So it was closer than than a four game sweep. What have you believed Steve? I think we might be thinking of the following year when cam connor scored as the one yeah

That was the second sweep. No, the first year. Okay was not the first year 77 78 was not although I think Montreal shut them out in three of those four games Okay, or two of the four so So the trivia question was this, Harold Ballard was the last owner to put names on the back of his team's jerseys. He wouldn't do it. He said that it would affect program sales. So John Ziegler, when he came in as the Commissioner of the NHL, the president, that first year, he mandated that by the end of the season, every team have players names on the back of the jerseys. Ballard is like, nope, not going to do it.

It's going to affect program sales. So what happened was he put their names on the back of the jerseys, but he put them in blue letters on the back of the blue jerseys. You know, you couldn't read the names from there. You just couldn't read them. Just to get around the Ziegler, who he called a no nothing shrimp among other things. Yeah. Yeah.

And so at the end, finally, at the end of the season, the only team left that did not have their names on the back of their jerseys, and it was just the home jersey, was the Maple Leafs. So the question is this, who is the last Maple Leaf to score a goal wearing a nameless jersey? Oh boy, no idea. Give me a hint. Well, I mean, he played for the Leafs in 77-78 because in those 78 playoffs, they were the only team without their names on their home jerseys. So it would have been a home game obviously. And who was on the Leafs in 77-78? Well Ian Turnbull. Turnbull is not the right answer. Nor is Darryl Sittler or Mally McDonough. It was George Ferguson. But I think it was in game three. I

think they were shot out in game four. I think they lost 2-0 in game four that year and Ferguson had a goal. So those kind of things. But when I started, think about this Steve, when I began in 77-78, the Toronto media core, sports media core covering the Leafs was John Iaboni, Jim Hunt, George Gross, Frank Orr, of course, Milt Donald, Jim Proudfoot. You can go into now Donald Ramsey, Al Strachan wasn't there yet, Jim Christie, Larry Milson would have been doing baseball at the time, you would have Jim Coleman, I mean Jim Hunt, you had so many... Scott Young was probably there. Scott Young of course, Scott Young was there, of course he was. Just so many great reporters and then in TV you

got Pat Marsden, Oliver Dan Matheson, you had Brian Williams, you had you had a lot of... Dick Beddow's uh... you know from c h c h was there and peter gross worked with dave reynolds in the sports the way that city tv global at mike and schoolman bill bird these are the type of him account bob mccall was my boss at ckf h john mcgillvray so we had sold there were so many really good media people

i would make over your terms cj jd jd jJD. He was the sports director there for a while. So you know when I came into the business there were all these people to look up to that I had read and listened to Bill Stevenson and Fred Locking and Dave Ollage on CFRB. So it was just a plethora of great media people to follow. And I wonder now if you're coming into for example the Toronto sports media, what's it like? How different is it now because you've got two all sports networks that are owned by corporations it has to be different and I don't think we're saying that just because we're in our 60s I think it actually is different I won't say better or worse but different I think we were lucky to come up when we did have Z I

agree because I think journalism meant a lot more like meant something more now we're not sure whoever's delivering the sports, if they're journalists or just presenters, or they work for the team, or there's an ulterior motive, or they're an extension of the public relations department. So my thing is always, if someone says, I wanna get into the business, I say, what do you wanna do?

Do you wanna be a journalist? Or do you wanna work for a team? Do you wanna be a promotional type? Work for the league, let's say. And that's where when people get their information say, oh I just read this on the Leafs website. I'm like hold on a second. If you read it on the Leafs website it's gonna be pro Leafs. Sure. So you might want to go back. Oh Mike is back. You know what I'm excited about? Like I can listen back to my own podcast and have and hear stuff I

haven't heard. I can get you guys a beer. Do you want a beer? No, I just want to sit here. Payken, do you want a beer? I'm okay. Oh yeah. All right. It's funny how it's not my sponsor's beer, but it's the Toronto Maple Leaf sponsor's beer.

So are the Great Lakes beer people going to be okay with this? We won't show it. Well, they're going to have to be. I did actually try to get Great Lakes to become the official beer. It almost happened. I think they were in second place. Did you know Ridley Funeral Home is the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball? And apparently I can't see it because we're behind it.

But one of these banners is for Ridley Funeral Home on this fence. I've got to get a picture of it, Mike. I've got to get a picture. And I see over here on my corner, I see Raymond James too, another, so we share that too. So that's kind of awesome. I was just chatting up. When I close off this podcast, I'm going to have Rod Black and Keith Stein on and I'm going to find out, Oh, why the heck did he buy this team? Like I, I, you know, he paid

an exorbitant amount in my humble opinion. I was talking to Dave Badini about this because he was part of a group that tried to buy this team for $200,000. Yeah. Don't you think you could buy the whole league for a million dollars? I don't know, but what comes with the $1 million? Like I don't know. Do you get the park? Well, I don't know what comes could buy the whole league for a million dollars? I don't know, but what comes with the one million dollars? Like I don't know. Do you get the park? Well, I don't know what comes with it. I mean, if you've got the name Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club, that's worth something and you can really leverage that. Right.

I mean, we're looking at the crowd here now and I don't know, there may be seven, eight hundred people here. Okay, I'll bet you they're... If you look all around and I can't... At least a thousand people. People up top too. Yes, so there's a lot of people here you know and what they do is they walk around you know they used to Jack Dominic used to have a coffee can and he'd be shaking it when it had money in it and you can pay whatever you could. Round ball to the shortstop. Over the second for one.

On to first and that one's in the dirt. They called him. They called him out. I think he was out. He scooped it. There's no replay but that was a heck of a scoop by the first freshman. I got a question before we say goodbye. I was told by the owner of this team that you and Peter Gross are calling an inning. Do you have any information about that? I don't know. I'll be honest with you. Do you want to do it? No. I'll tell you why. I wouldn't feel comfortable with it. I would need to have some stats. If I was going to an inning, I'd have to know who was playing what position, and a little background on the players, because it wouldn't be fair to the audience to go, oh, he hits it to the shortstop, whose name I don't know,

he throws it to first, whose name I don't know. Number 17. I think he was batting 225, but it could have been 450 last year, and so I wouldn't feel comfortable that way. And also the guy who does the play-by-player, and I can't think of his name,

he knows the team, he knows. Right. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that we were making all these dreams come true I don't think you know I think what are some of the now I'm trying to remember now some of the names of the other teams in in this I could tell you what they are go ahead please you got the well you have the Guelph Royals London majors Kitchener Panthers Hamilton Cardinals Welland Jackfish the defending IBL champions Wow what's a fish I'm not sure but Elliot Price used to do the play-by-play Hamilton Cardinals, Welland Jackfish, the defending IBL champions.

Wow, what's a Jackfish? I'm not sure, but Elliot Price used to do the play-by-play for that team. Oh, right. Former X-Box player. Are Stratford still the Hillers? Stratford doesn't have a team. Oh, okay. There's a team in Chatham-Kent.

Okay. All right? And I'm missing one, I'm missing one, Barry Baycats. Barry? Very good squad. Okay. And have been for many, many years. Okay. I think that's all of them there. London, Kitchener. Mike, who's the greatest baseball player ever to come out of Chatham, Ontario? Baycats. Very good squad and have been for many many years. Okay very good.

That's all of them there. London, Kitchener. Mike who's the greatest baseball player ever to come out of Chatham Ontario? Ferguson Jenkins. There you go Mike. The second biggest. Oh I didn't know there was one. Yeah Billy Atkinson. Okay. Pitched for the X-Ball. Okay second biggest from Chatham. Very good. Very cool. I didn't know there was a second. I know listen I knew this league like I said when I didn't know there was this thing. Listen, I knew this league, like I said, when I was a teenager, this was the only baseball that I could watch in person. And it was fabulous. No, for a while you were living at College in Clinton. Yeah, right down the street.

But now you're in Markham? I'm in Markham right now. Okay, so how often can we get you out to the ballpark? I'm going to be here one game every month, I'm going to be recording here Like could we get you here once a month? They drop by? Sure, man, I guess. I thought you were the one in Markham. Well, I mean, let me put it this way to you, Mike.

I don't know if I would specifically come all the way from Markham just for the game. But my son does a comedy show every other Thursday right here at Bloor and Dufferin at a place called Winona. And I might be able to combine the two because his show doesn't go till around nine o'clock at night. So if they play play Thursdays I would come for a

Thursday game okay and then I go so down the street and see my son do a comedy show. We'll discuss that further I want to just let the listenership who is to my left here because we as you might know Hepsey and Paykin I don't know if Paykin would care but Randy Backman was on Toronto Mite okay. Randy you don't know if Paykin would care. You're a cooner man. I interviewed Randy Backman was on Toronto Mite. What do you mean you don't know if Paken would care? You're a cooner man. I interviewed Randy Backman for 55 minutes on the agenda one time. We had the best conversation. Steve Paken, can you name two songs from the Guess Who?

I can do better than that, Mike. Come on. How about all the songs on So Long Bannentime? You want me to sing them all or just name them all? Sour Sweet. How about Sour Sweet? Please Eyes. I should never have doubted you, man. You want me to sing them all or just name them all? How about Sour Sweet? Please I... Oh wait, how about Albert Flasher? I should never have doubted you, man. How about Albert Flasher? Albert Flasher's a good one.

No Time is a good one. No Time's a good one, right? No Sugar Tonight. Undone? Undone, there's millions of them. Not spelled U-N-D-O-N-E, but U-N-D-U-N. U-N-D-U-N. Absolutely.

But Sour Sweet to me is the best of all of them. It's just so... And BTO as well. Yeah, fabulous. Well, you're going to love this. OK, the man to your left right now, Robert Lawson, he's written the definitive book on the guest. What's it called? Wheatfield Empire?

He's got a shirt on. You got to pull it out there. OK, so. Beautiful. When Randy Backman was on, this gentleman, Robert Lawson, came over to fact check Randy and his appearance on Toronto Mike. And it was quite something. It was quite something.

So I'm glad to see you here. Was he being the sort of Daniel Dale to President Trump for Randy Backman? Something like that. I'm a huge fan. Okay. I think I saw the guests who I think probably eight or nine times. Nice. Nice.

And they every time they were great. And I saw Burton Cummings on his own too and he was MacArthur. Would you? Would you? Would you like to say hi? You're not on mic, no one can hear you. Somebody's trying to yell at us, Mike,

but they're not on mic so we can't hear. That's Brian Gerstein, PropertyInThe6.com. Hepsey knows Brian Gerstein. I know Brian very well. There we go. I saw the guest who played the halftime show at the Grey Cup in Calgary in, oh gosh I forget the year, no 2000, later, later, later. Oh wait a second, didn't the guess who do, I'm thinking of another event because I saw

them in the 80's in a football game. He would know, too bad we don't have another mic open for Robert Moss in here. 2002. 2002, that's when they, yeah. I was Burton Cummings and it was Burton Cummings on his own then because he was awesome and he did the national anthem and he blew the place away. He sang Oh Canada and he had a little keyboard with him. Yeah. And it was unbelievable. Guy can still sing. Alright gentlemen I gotta get

these mics to somebody else here. Mike good to see you pal. Hebsy I hope if you're around when I come up for air I want to get a selfie with you and you too Mr. Bacon. You better hurry there, pal. I got time. It's only the third inning. It's only the third inning. We're in a zero to zero game. I'm like, it's three and two on the batter.

Nobody out. Thanks, Hepsey. This is a big moment in Toronto Mike's history because just say hi. You don't have to give your birth date. Okay. I can't give her real name and I won't say any further details

because she looks like she'll hurt me, but MF is making her on-mic debut, so we'll tilt that. So. Hi, Mike. So MF, what are we allowed to say? Just that you're married to Cam Gordon? Yeah, you can say that. That's it, okay, so get right on that bad boy there, okay?

This isn't the, oh, I almost said it, I almost slipped right there. This isn't the XXX. Okay, what's life like being married to FOTM Hall of Famer Cam Gordon? Fabulous. Is that the real answer? Is it because he's two feet away eating some Pringles? Oh, I love this guy, Cam Gordon, because he's drinking and... Get on the other mic. Get on the mic. Okay. So I'm getting the newlywed couple. They're in their first year of marriage.

I don't know where he went, but I told him to come on this mic. Yeah tell Cam to come on the open mic for a second here just say hi. We're gonna close the show with Todd Black. This is my first time watching this baseball game. Okay so MF. I didn't know that the Maple Leafs existed. Until you guys told me about this. Well that means my work is done. Keith did a smart job sponsoring Toronto Mike so we can spread awareness. So Cam Gordon you're drinking a octopus wants to fight. I will say this. I've shared mics with the Stu Stones and the Tyler Campbells. I never thought I would be on hot mics with MF here with a Toronto Mike.

Who would have thought? I thought you're going to point out the fact Wendell Clark was on that very microphone. No. Isn't that a big deal? Oh, that out the fact Wendell Clark was on that very microphone. No. Oh, did you? Oh, that's fun. Oh yeah, Wendell Clark, Rick Vibe. Cute. What did you talk about with Wendell Clark?

The All Heart video. Gang Gang Sips. To Metallica's Hero of the Day. We just chatted a little bit about this. You know, he's not a chatty guy. Oh, okay. I don't know if you knew this. He was friendly when I took a chatty guy. Oh, okay. I don't know if you knew this. He was friendly when I took a selfie with him.

Oh, he's friendly. I didn't say he wasn't friendly. He's super nice. He's super nice, but he's just not a, he's not a, you know, not a Hep Z or whatever. He can chat it up. But I really enjoyed having him on the mic and now I'm enjoying having you two on the mic.

So what's, do you want to, like marriage is going well? You still like each other? Yeah, I think so. Well, how's it going here? Let's talk a little bit about the senior study again. Well, MF like each other? Yeah, I think so. Well, how's it going here? Let's talk a little bit about the scene here. I know exactly what this score is. Well, MF said she was totally unaware that this team even existed up until recently.

And I grew up in Toronto, and I was not aware of this team. It's our best kept secret. Yes, totally. And what did you pay for your ticket to come out today? Zero. Get out of here. That's what campaign.

It's amazing. So, paint the scene. You might be somebody who could do that. I don't know I'm not allowed to say who you are, which is weird, but okay Just paint the scene for us like you were on the radio. Let's say Like I was on the radio. Okay. Well, we're at beautiful Christie Pitts Park. This is a beautiful Setting for a beautiful Sunday afternoon baseball game. There's lots of people here, some on lawn chairs, others spread out on blankets, enjoying some adult beverages, enjoying some snacks. I'll say it was a nice touch with the pink flowers being

handed out to some of the ladies in the crowd for Mother's Day. Thank Brad Jones for that? Actually that was a Keith Stein thing because when he was telling me to invite certain people I was like, you know It's Mother's Day, right? He said we're gonna take care of the mothers, but I just want to take a moment Okay, I got a moment. Okay, cuz I had a car. This is coming from Boots from splashing boots. Okay, right. Do you know Juno award-winning according? They did know they did win the Juno. It's the Broccoli and sunshine didn't win the Junau. Wait, there's about this ball. It's hitting the gap.

There you go. Oh, he caught that. What a catch. He just witnessed that. That's right there. We just witnessed a great catch in the left field. Kevin Keirmeyer caliber of defense there. I was going to say Kevin Pilar, but I guess you're right.

Him too. Actually, he's a problem now. I think he's canceled. Is he canceled? Oh, we can't. We can't sign all these greats here. Anyway. OK Well, actually he's a problem now. I think he's canceled. Is he canceled? We can't, we can't sign all these grades here. He said some bad stuff. Anyway.

Okay, but I wanted to take a moment. So of course, if you are a mother, happy Mother's Day. This is Mother's Day. But I want to take a moment to just, just, you know, I was with Mark Hebbscher and this is his first Mother's Day since his mother passed away. And many of us listening right now have lost their mothers. And I can only imagine it's a tough day

for some people thinking back, not only on their mothers who can't be with them on this lovely Sunday, but also many women out there who wanted to be mothers and never became mothers. And there's many women out there, I'm thinking of Aaron Davis, who were mothers and their child passed away.

And I just wanna say, I'm thinking about everybody. And this is not always a fun day for all people listening. This is a tough day for a lot of people. But if you're a mother, happy Mother's Day. Do you think my kids are running the bases right now? So I was just wondering, speaking of Mother's Day, what do you see here?

Describe the scene if you were on the radio. Where's little Jarvis? Well, he's wearing the, he's wearing the Ronaldo. Oh, no, that's a different Ronaldo. Cause my kids hair isn't that long. Okay, hold on. So he's wearing a Ronaldo jersey. I hope he's out there running the bases.

All these kids are running the bases. This is chaos. This is wild. It's also adorable. Look at that little girl in the pink skirt. Oh yeah. But where's Morgan would be a daughter. Where's Morgan?

Is she part of this? Where's the mother of your children? I've been looking for her. She's in a white cap. Oh wait, there's Ben Johnson just right. Oh my God. Excuse me, Cam, that's F-O-T-M Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson, right. Oh my God. Excuse me, Cam, that's FOTM Ben Johnson. Of course.

That was a good episode, Mike. Okay, can we talk about that for a moment here? We can talk about the Maple Leafs baseball. It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful game. It's free. People should come out. I'm going to be out to many games. How about Charlie Francis? Charlie Francis, who Ben cried when Charlie passed away. It was the Jamie Astafan who I think was the, he was the doctor who was just kind of injecting them with different types of steroids.

I'm not sure everybody knew they were taking what and when and I think he's the problem here. But anyway, Cam, FOTM cast. So MF, did you listen to FOTM cast? I don't think she did again, for the real. Did you listen to, okayM cast? I don't think she did again for the real. Did you listen to? Okay, well we had an episode where your husband came over with Tyler Campbell, who's here somewhere.

Is that the one where you're doing review of all the lingo? Yes, yes. No, no, no, no, no. That's the lexicon episode. This is different. We reviewed the first quarter of 2024 in the TMU, the Toronto Mikes universe.

So episodes, updates to Wiki, any, you know, FOTM adjacent deaths. But we covered everything that happened in the Toronto Mikes Universe for the first quarter of 2024. Your husband and Tyler Campbell came over and we did it and it was awesome. I missed that one. Sorry, I'll have to catch up on it later. Toronto Mike, can I proposition you? Uh oh. Excuse me. No, no, no. Excuse me. No, this is serious. Cause I just listened to the FOTM cast inspired by

IndieCast podcast. You've been open about that. The name, yes. They just did a great tribute episode to the late Steve Albini we lost. I think we need cause he worked with so many Canadian bands. Can we do like a standalone Steve Albini Canadian episode? 100% some of the Canadian

Planet the Sadie's yeah Ken mode Thrush Herman or no thrush Herman at the great Pacific Ocean EP flight camp went to my high school No, it's important to know if you would work with anybody who would pay his fee. He considered himself an engineer. Like his role was to capture the best audio he could, but he wasn't there to produce you. Absolutely.

He did the Sadie's album at Greg Keeler's farm. I know Greg Keeler, not in FOTM, but his bandmate is Jim Cuddy. And we did pass each other at Roy Thompson Hall after the 299 Queen Street documentary. Absolutely. That's almost an FOTM. Maybe we'll save that for the FOTM cast.

You know what? Tyler's here. We could literally give him this mic. I could vacate this seat. Okay, well, MF, now that you've made your try-mic debut, will you reveal your true identity? No. This is part of the whole shtick, Mike. Oh my goodness.

What's your shtick, Doc? I'm not going to dox you or anything. Just MF. Okay,. Well keep up the good work Okay, look at how close we are to the center fielder. Absolutely reach out and grab them. Okay Since you're not actually willing to say anything Get off my microphone I want I want Tyler Campbell To come on just because I want to talk about FOTM cast for a moment here It's zero zero in the fourth inning, by the way.

And MF, if you see Monica, send her my way. I wanted to say hi to her on the mic. So we got Tyler Campbell, the VP of sales. Okay. There's those pipes. Okay. So, oh, Cam's ordering his wife. I'm requesting, MF just made her, I think this is her Toronto

my view. That's exciting. Yeah. Okay so Tyler, do we have a date yet for the next FOTN? I don't think it's in the calendar. We're not talking because we're posing for a photo. So Tyler, thanks for coming out. Oh my pleasure. This is a fantastic effort. Describe the scene. How's it going for you here today? It's been a fantastic day. The crowd is lively. There's children, there's activity, the beer line and the food line is extremely long. It's off the hook. And that's the goal, right? Yeah, I think so. I think that's what you want. I'm very excited because I brought my Leafs jersey from when I was eight years old. Oh my God. Okay. I got Rick vibe. That's amazing. That's amazing. So I'm not eight. I was actually so hebsi finally returned

Oh, I was 18. Okay, so I had ten years to use it Not quite as nice as are you when you were eight years old you had a Rick vibe Jersey And you just got a sign by Rick five sure did that's amazing. That's worth a trip to Tyler so we're talking about that trade like else. Okay was again Al C cord I'll see Gordon it'll check to the leaf. Yeah for Thomas Rick five and Bob McGill oh my god blockbuster that is a block but that's pre Gilmore that was the big one right yeah so I just want to say speaking of Gilmore I have my 93 Gilmore jersey I bought when I was 18 oh wow only ten years after you bought yours because we're both 74 babies that's

right and here I have it in my hand signed by Doug Gilmore. The killer. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. That's huge. Yeah. Yeah. Bigger than you. Has Rod Black been on the mic today? So we're closing with Rod Black and Keith Stein and I'm because you know Keith Stein bought this team for a million dollars. I will say like that this is a great experience. I really like what they've done here. I think this could be a big deal. You know as the price of everything goes up. Absolutely What did you pay for your ticket Tyler? Not a thing. Not a damn thing. The value can't be beat Did you know Robert Lawson is here? I saw him. I was very excited

Yeah, and Brian Gerstein's right behind me talking to Hep C after record that chat after Rick Vibe and Wendell Clark Robert Lawson was my big celebrity deciding for the day chat. After Rick Vibe and Wendell Clark, Robert Lawson was my big celebrity sighting for the day. Payken was on the mic a minute ago and asked, I was like, can you name two Guess Who songs? He was like, he was offended, but don't you think that's a fair question for a guy like- It's a fair question. Who worships Frank Sinatra? Whoa, where's that going? Is that foul? Yes. What songs did he name? He actually, he actually, little slippery little devil got away without naming any, but he was like so offended I thought, oh he can probably name every song.

Who was taken second favorite artist? Oh crap. He's still here. It was like Mel Tormey. Go ask him. It's probably Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett. Yeah, that checks out. It's probably Tony Bennett, you know. Anyways, gentlemen. So are you guys like actively taking notes on what to because this, this today, must be discussed on the next FOTN. Absolutely, yeah. I have a running sheet that I update. I make little notes of where I need to pull clips. Do you know the catchers right,

like he just took a piss, I guess, or something. The catcher's right there, right? Like this is such a... It's like in the beer line. He's gotta be the backup catcher, because the Blue Jays are in on defense. Blue Jays, sorry. I'll edit that in post.

Yeah, I think so. Maple Leafs are here. But Cam, how did you sneak the Great Lakes beer here? Well, we went to the new LCBO at Bloor and Bathurst. But yeah, MF did want me to point out, actually, I don't want to like talk to ourselves, like saying where we live. You can say East York.

Yeah, we do frequent the left field brewery in the East end of Toronto. I'll say that. Do you think that's doxing to say you live in East York? We got a lot of people gunning for us. I got a lot of hold over from the Twitter. I'll entertain MFs ridiculous, keep my true identity anonymous. Oh come on. But I think East York is safe. Okay. It's like saying I live in Etobicoke. Anyway, we did bring some we're both enjoying some GLB bank Oh MF Scott the the Hayes mama. I've got the octopus What is MF favorite Great Lakes beer?

Hayes mama, she likes that high alcohol. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. There's a base hit for the opposition Oh, there you go. It's a fourth inning. It's still zero. This is like this is like watching a Jays game They got a guy Similar offense to the major league baseball team in this city, but this is the best baseball because I've been watching This is the best baseball outside of the dome outside the outside the dome. Oh, nobody's trying to tell you Vladimir Oh is out there right? Okay, Mike. I've got a question. So when Wendell jumped on the mic to tell you, Vladdy Guerrero's out there. Right. Mike, I've got a question.

So Wendell jumped on the mics. So as an NHL player, how many NHL players have you had on? Jim McKenney. Let's do it. Jim McKenney, Wendell Clark now. I can say that. Yeah. Rick Vibe.

Rick Vibe. Rick Vibe. Help me out, Tyler. It's in the book, buddy. It's in the book, dude. Oh my god. Nick Kiprios. I can play that clip.

You want to do you guys want to hear it? I do. I always want to hear it. Yeah. OK, I kept the lexicon. Here we go, everybody. This is going to be is this the whole supercut of your group? Get all of those stories and more in a book that I wrote that will play over Simon and Schuster.

We're trying to, a book deal, put that in the book. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the book too. He agrees. There you go. We're just warming up. Well documented in my book coming up. He, yeah. Yeah. And that's in the book too. So it's a good, it's a good read in my book coming up on how I was able to turn it around. It's a pretty good ride in my book.

I think readers will enjoy it. Well that's another one in my book buddy. That's another one in my book. Okay, so while we were listening to the Nick Kiprio supercut from Tyler Campbell, as we heard on the Lexicon episode of Toronto Mike, they did score a run though. So they had bases loaded and the ball hit up the middle.

Great defensive play to get a four set second base. So they did score one run, but he prevented like two, maybe three runs. It could have been a beginning. On a related note, who wasn't Nick Kiprio's dated? Was Joan London? That is it. And that's one of the many questions I got. It's in the beginning on a related note. Who was it? Nick Kipros dated was Joan London That is it. That's one of the many questions that I got the it's in the book I told my dad like hey, here's a fun fact. Well, that is a fun fact

Yeah, did you guys listen to the the Toronto Symphony Orchestra tribute to sir Andrew Davis? I it's in my queue Yeah, I I listened to it. I thought it was interesting. I like the guy who did the stand up. He was like belching into the microphone. Right. The guy who called me Ted. Who was the guy he he called multiple times. The guy who did the piano jokes. This was like an infomercial in the Victor Borg. Yeah, like it seemed like he sort of wanted to be like the violin version of that guy Sitting here before I get Rod black over here. Oh, there's a hot dog lady here. She's dressed as a Race, okay. Well, we'll get the details Brian Gerstein has the info Don't unplug me to camp Well Brian get on the mic and tell us this important info.

How is Brian Dunn not involved in this? It's all... I saw Brian Dunn the other day. Yeah, there's about to be a hot dog sausage race, Mike. I saw Brian Dunn at the other baseball team's game Friday night. Was he wearing his hot dog costume? No. Okay, so welcome to the program, a former sponsor but still a valued FOTM, Brian Gerstein. Brian, say hello to everybody. Hello everybody. Hello Brian. Are you and Leslie Taylor discussing Expos baseball together? Not really. We were on the Manoa watch and I was updating her. Unfortunately he gave him a free run homer to Santana but he had an amazing outing. He went into the 7th inning. That's unusual. Low pitch count and he had amazing control.

I think the stats I saw until the seventh inning, he had maybe gave up a couple of hits. He had five Ks. He's back, baby. Yeah, he hopefully is back. I saw something very rare. It's like I saw the Haley's Comet or something. I saw a pitcher pitch into the eighth inning the other day. Oh yeah.

I thought I was like in high school again or something. I remember the days when they pitched till their arms fell off. Let's go 11 here, Jack Morris. It's funny because in baseball, there's certain keywords that I hear all the time that like high leverage situation. If I hear that again, I'm gonna scream.

I'm just tired of that word. I don't know what it is, but it just bugs me. But you were telling me there's gonna be a hot dog race? Is that what you were telling me? Yeah, hot dog sausage. I asked the guy who's about to have them race for 20 innings, what the odds, but it just bugs me. But you were telling me there's gonna be a hot dog race? Is that what you were telling me? Yeah, yeah, hot dog sausage. I asked the guy who's about to have them race for 20 innings what the odds are if he plays them. He gave the girl who's a hot dog minus 150,

so I guess it's plus money, maybe plus 120 or plus 125 on the kid. I love this guy. Are you still making lots of money on the sports gambling? What's going on? No, I just do it for entertainment. I'm gonna probably pay a sec. For shits and giggles.

Have you talked to, give some tips to Peter Gross. He did, he did. No, no, I don't have pits,its but the French Open's coming up I did take a look today for a future bet and I saw Zveru 16 to 1 to get him at 15 to 1 at the OLG and that's not a bad bet because of all the injuries to the top players right now heading to the French and Djokovic got absolutely annihilated today by nobody. Brian did put five grand down on the hot dog though I saw him do that. I'll bet. Will you two be at TMLX 15 on June 27? Absolutely. I wouldn't miss it for the world, Mike. That means a lot to me. Okay. Because you know, Palma Posse is going to feed us. They are. I don't know if Raymond James will be handing out money, but they should because

the advantaged investor helps me make money. I've got to put an asterisk on that. That doesn't mean you're going to make money. Just have Cooksy come and hand out like ten bucks every day. Cooksy better be there man that guy's a sweetheart. I also want to shout out of course season six of Yes We Are Open. I hope Al Grego's there he rarely misses a TMLX and Al Grego has been he went out west to Alberta and I have notes I actually did like homework on like who was the last episode about? It was about Heritage Park Historical Village. Have you been there? I have not. You know your shit man. Brian Gerstein, you ever been to Calgary? Actually I went for a trade show once,

not a trade show, it was actually an event when I worked at Yamaha Motor Canada at an accessory tour across the country. Wow, wow. the right questions. Actually, you're sick. Yeah, so actually, no, sorry, that was a mistake. That was Edmonton. I went to an oiler game. Don't confuse him. Where's Monica? We were off the air in Alberta.

She's here somewhere at Chris and Pitts. I went to an oiler game and I went to all the provinces. And in Alberta, I hit Edmonton. I went to an oiler game. And I remember they were singing a BTO song in between. It was amazing. Oh, it all comes back to back then. You know, Lawson's here. He'll fact check that, which BTO song in between. It was amazing. It all comes back to back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, Lawson's here. He'll fact check that if it was a BTO song. All right, so if you listen to Yes We Are Open and you should subscribe right now, because it wins awards. Unlike Toronto Mic, it wins awards. Award-winning podcast. I'm going to do it right now. Okay, it's Yes We Are Open.

It's happening live. And you'll learn about Heritage Park Historical Village village because Al Grego talked to Dominic Terry a spokesperson at the park and Dominic talked about that unlike the Dominico Park we're at right now Dominic talked about the park's origins and how it evolved in the past 60 years bringing history lessons to life through immersive storytelling and fun attractions for everyone. I'll should talk to that Dominic Primucci from Pizzanova. Peter Gross would like to leave. He's asking Mike if he can leave. And Peter is talking to people. Oh Brian has asked me to subscribe to Yes We Are Open so I'm

doing that live. Do that and I actually have to boot you guys because the man paying the bill here today is gonna jump on. This is very exciting. Brian good to talk to you. You too. Is that Kurt? You're always a sweetheart.

I'm out of here. Well you're both sweethearts actually. I value you both very much. You know that don't unplug me because I've been holding on to this juice. Alright ladies and gentlemen I am now summoning to the microphones by the way recycle my electronics dot CA that's where you go if you have old tech old devices old electronics all right Keith have a seat whoops stick those on your head this is Keith Stein okay well they're gonna share a mic oh we got one

more here don't go too far all right cuz I want to get Keith, I'm going to get Rod Black on with you. I'm standing because when I get low, I can't be on the mic. Rod! So, okay. Say hi to you got to find out which one you are. Hold on, you want to lower your volume?

I want to preserve my hearing. How's that Keith? Is that okay? Yeah. Okay. Does CRTC come in? So I'm retired. I'm interested in hearing what Rod thinks.

Okay, we're gonna have to get... We're gonna talk to Peter Gross, Mr. Keith Stein. If you... Keith, if you're on this, you're gonna be right on this mic right here. But Mike, first let's talk about this crowd. I'm thinking we're well over 2,000 people. What do you think? I think it's between 1500 and 2000, but I'm not very good at estimating crowd

sizes, but there is a lot of people at the top too. Well, let's talk about this. Okay. Okay. Get right on this. Tell me how the day's going for you. So last year opening day, we didn't own the team then, but I heard they had like three or 400 people. Well, Paikin says he's been to many of Maple Leafs game here and he's never seen a crowd like this. No Rod you're happy aren't you? Oh look Rod what do you think of the crowd? I'm absolutely ecstatic to have 30,000 people here today. Wait a second that's a reasonable number. A Celsius.

Six thousand maybe. No it's Sunshine, opening day, brand new ownership, led by Keith Stein. Toronto Miked is here. We've given away 1,000 yard darts. That's the new term for hot dog. And you know what I love? More than anything, all the kids that are here. All the kids that are here that are going to come come back and they become lovers of Toronto Maple Leaf baseball but I want

to point out a couple things one Mike yeah I'm not seeing a mustache oh yeah I gotta tell you about that. You forgot. I did forget. I know. Where's your freaking mustache? So I had it going and then something happened last week I got I got called up to the big leagues like or my kid did. Okay talk to us about this moment we all watched the video but your son when he had a hits at his first two at bats. Yeah yeah yeah we've crazy week. And the video was so touching. Yeah it was insane but I had actually started growing a beard and mustache because I was in Cancun for about 36 hours before I got this call from Tyler that he was getting called up and we had

to find a way to get their planes, trains and automobiles. We made it. I think I called Keith that morning too because I honestly thought that he might get called up this weekend and I didn't want to miss this. I said, kids, sorry. Could you imagine? The Maple Leafs are playing. But what would you choose if that had happened? I love love Key Stein I love the Maple Leafs I'm here forever but I you know what but you know I was said to somebody if somebody gave me a lottery ticket for like three million dollars or I get to see my kid do what he did on that game I got the lottery ticket for that no is it your dad so yeah so I started growing it and yes, okay, can I have a reprieve? How about the next time we do

Toronto Mike or the next game? The first Sunday of June. It takes me 24 hours. I'm going to be set up doing this again. Oh, okay. June 2nd then. Yes. Will you have a mustache? I'm going to start promoting this. Dude, I'm going to have a mustache for the rest of my life just because of Stein. Can we make a toast with Leaf's Law Girl? Rod how cool is it? Oh my gosh. That we have our own beer. By the way the beers beers are flowing here. Mike have you talked about the beer on the podcast? We have been drinking heavily. Not yet but tell us about the beer. So you know when we bought this team we bought it because of its importance to community

its historical importance but it wasn't lost on us that we're also buying a very important trademark. The Toronto Maple Leaf trademark, which is on our jerseys, it's on our merchandise, but now we also have a beer called Leaf Lager. It's going to be in the LCBO next year. If you want to get it now, you've got to come down to... The hockey team doesn't even have this. We have it. Stein, you have it. It's a great looking can. I love it. Right, it's a great looking can. By the way, it tastes great. So lethiel makes this beer. Rod, something you know I never asked you about. I remember when we first

started talking about this like eight months ago, you actually actually I don't know if you remember this you were thinking maybe we should change the name of the team no remember that no no no pleading no I didn't insanity no I just thought if the maple leafs hockey team came to us and said hey we want you to change the name of the team and they were offering us maybe 30 million dollars. Yes, I think we might take that that's what I meant Well, I made a joke on Toronto Mike. That's why you bought the team Can I tell you another thing now that I see the logo and I see it on the jerseys and and you know the significance of this team and the history

This is gonna be the Toronto Maple Leafs forever Maple isn't that a song Maple Leafs forever the Maple Leaf forever a song? Maple Leafs forever. The Maple Leaf forever. Let me ask a few pointed questions here. First of all, Keith Stein, one question everybody wants to know is, why did you decide to buy the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team? Rod and I talked about it a lot of the time. And how did you meet Rod Black?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, there's a pointed frickin' question. But first, why did we want to buy this team? There were many groups interested in buying this team, including a group that I just talked to last week that included one of the owners of the New York Yankees, the comedian actor Bill Murray. They put in a bid to buy this team. Wow.

This is a, this team? I didn't even know that. Bill Murray? I just found out last week. Bill Murray almost up this team. I didn't even know that Bill Murray I just found out last week Bill Murray almost bought this team Cinderella story. Here's the Cinderella story It's really Billy Cinderella story. Can you do your Charles Barkley now? You know, you know for y'all I'm telling you right now, you know, here I am in Canada Canada I tell it guaranteed to Maple Leafs win man. Rob Black is here. I love Rob Black. So this is Canada's oldest baseball team.

One of the oldest sports teams in North America period. 1896. The history of this team, Babe Ruth, everything. I can't believe we own it. I can't believe MLS even buy this. I just think it's such an important asset it's so important to the City of Toronto but what we're gonna do now is shine a spotlight on this thing. You know Jack Dom Nico did a fantastic job yes but I think there are

opportunities to create a larger platform here and you see you're seeing the start of that today right. It's really I think a new era as Rod and I always talk about. Whole new ballgame. You got mother nature on your side. This was a beautiful day. We're in the fourth inning by the way, down to nothing, but I can see the crowd still very thick. The lineups for the left field beer and the dogs and all. What are we calling dogs now Mr. Rod Black? The yard darts. I thought that was something else. But you got a great turnout you got a beautiful day we're gonna keep the momentum going I know every time I have

a guest on Toronto Mike then I give them that book their their eyes get big like saucers like there's so much history you heard the Adam Bunch episode right Keith? I did I loved it. It's like just amazing the stories about this team and we had the the gentleman here Jeremy Diamond was just on the microphone he's from the Canadian baseball. He knows more about baseball than anybody. Are you into the Canadian baseball Hall of Fame? No but I'm gonna host the induction ceremony in June 15th. I got 15th? No yeah June 15th. Okay I hosted it a few times. I've been to the Canadian baseball hall of fame. I paid admission.

I paid admission. I had Stephen Brunt on this very microphone to start this podcast and we got to get him in the baseball. We got some work to do. Rob Butler too. Rob Butler. Rob Butler is who I work for. How can he not be in the hall?

So I have nominated Rob a couple of times and we have had conversations. And Rob Butler, I mean there are a lot of Canadian players and and nothing against Rob's playing ability because Rob was a great player and so I believe that Rob and Rich should go together not only because they both played as brothers, Rob was the first Canadian to win a World Series like in forever. But he's the only Canadian to win a World Series for a Canadian team. But here's the here's the the rub, is that they should go in as also as builders because of what they have done for amateur sport and continue to to grow see all these these kids you're watching here today and I call

them kids even though they're in there they're sorry I'm you know I think you get nervous and you started turning this person I don't know what I do you have I'll just hold it there we go my goodness anyway wow terrible so Rob black has dismantled my expensive I have to send an invoice to I'll just hold it. There we go. My goodness. Anyway, wow terrible So Rob Black has dismantled my expensive. I have to send an invoice to you now so I Rob and Rich a Lot of these players on this field they have helped develop from a young age from seven to like 16

What about your son? My son as well Tyler was Tyler and Brody both They went to see Rob and Rich, help them along the path. I will tell you a good chance that Tyler's not a big league or professional baseball player without Rob and Rich's influence. So yeah, I do believe they should be in. And have you been to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame? No. It's in St. Mary's Ontario. I'm waiting to be inducted. Indicted? You know, you know. That's for Peter Gross. But I... have you been, Keith? No.

Keith and I will go together. I will tell everybody, baseball fans out there, the induction weekend is absolutely magic. Paul Godfrey's going in this year. Russ Martin's going in. Jimmy Keane. Russell, Russell, Russell. And so, it's a special special place it's where one of the

first ever games was played in Canada. Beautiful diamonds great people and it's it's kind of Cooperstown North. You said beautiful diamond well enough about Jeremy. Well perfect name for the guy too. Keith I got a question about Rick Emmett so did you meet Rick Emmett from Triumph? Keith Stein was in Triumph did you know that? He's a roadie. Keith Stein was in Triumph. He's a roadie. By the way, we're about to witness the...

By the way, he was a little bit, and this is all Rod's fault, but I think, Rod, kudos, because Rick didn't want to sing in the air. Well, this is, Kate, this is exactly where I'm going. I got a phone call, I'll tell you, so Blair Packham from the Jitters, who I hope to get him on the mic before I shut this down, but Blair Packham literally did a

like an FOTM favor he said I'm gonna drive to Burlington to pick up Rick Emmett because Rick didn't want to drive to Christian Bluer I don't know why yeah but he did he went and picked up Rick Emmett. He's a rock star. Okay so Blair gets Rick Rick who's a huge you know I saw the guys here lining up with their records their triumph albums like Rick Emmett is coming to be honored before this home opener of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And Rick on the phone on his way here says, Blair says I might be singing the anthem. I don't want to sing the anthem. And I said, Rick, I said, I asked you if you could sing the anthem and you said no thank you. And I passed that on to Keith Stein, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I said, you won't be singing the

national anthem. Pick up the story from there. It was very organic, and I don't really think he felt like he was put on the spot. Because- He's a singer. It was a bunch of us. It was Wendell, it was Rick Vibe, it was Rod. So he passed the mic along to all of us, and you know something, Emmett was at the end of the line,

so he just got the mic, it was like a hot potato he sang a few words and then gets the fuck away from me. It sounded a lot like Lay It On The Line though. Yes. Lay It On The Line, great triumph song. It wasn't but Mike did he have a good time? He had a great time. He had a great time. What a nice guy. No blowback. Well I'm gonna find out later right like in the moment cuz he was on the mics and here he was fine. Later when I get the call. Mike you promised me no anthem. I hope we got him a swag but we owe him a ton of stuff. I told him I said did you get your stuff. Tell him to send the check to Stein. $10,000 anthem. I told him we'd take care of him so we're gonna take care of Rick Emmett that is for sure. But Rod I'm glad I could connect you with Keith Stein, you could be a part of his ownership group. Keith, so this day met your expectations? I need to know.

Look, look behind you, there's a lineup at the concession stand. Do you know why? We have great food this year, provided by Left Hill Brewing. Fantastic food. Look over there, we have a place where you can buy beer. We have people going across the hill hocking beer. We have beer in Christy Pitch. You realize it's not an easy thing to get done. We only bought the team six months ago. We had to do a city hall. There were many many hoops we went through. So we've changed the experience already in a short time. I saw signs around the perimeter like basically you could only drink alcohol in this part and it's amazing that you can you

know without having to worry about the fuzz right Rod you can actually sit on the well I think there's some people who are imbibing in something else who aren't worried about the fun well and again it's leader unsanctioned okay you know what I love what those guys I'm gonna go out there and hang for a couple innings with the Bushmen. The Bushmen epitomize what the Maple Leafs are about. I listened to them earlier. They are unbelievable.

They got the best shirts. Tell us a little more about the Bushmen. You know, I got the chance, Keith and I both got a chance to meet them over the last few months as the ownership group started to take formation. And they are passionate. They keep coming out here. they hang in the bush, you can see, and all they do is chirp the other team. They have got the greatest, cleanest chirps.

They're not rude, there's no profanity, and they are vicious, and I love it. And so they're really good people. I mean, everybody here, I'll just, again, I say back to Keith and the ownership group, they've done a fantastic job that everybody did today putting this together the volunteers Sherry Butler can't say enough about what she has done the opening ceremony the game is fantastic and let's just say Keith let's do it for another 20 games

and here here's my other thing I didn't get in it to become a part-time owner or help with you know we want to grow baseball in the in urban Toronto we want to win we want to win a championship. Absolutely Rod. Yeah we want to win and we got the manager we got the team we're behind right now but and two nothing cool uniforms out the jersey how Rod you love them don't you? I tell you what I like the baby blue ones yeah the players I was in the the locker room earlier when the Clark and I went in talking to some of the players they were really impressed to see Clarky there. Wow. So many of them look barely old enough to shave but they were so jacked about the uniforms and

the way they fit and they love drip. That's the age they love the drip and so it's a great day it's a great day for baseball it's a great day for the Maple Leafs it's a great day for Toronto. And it's a great day it's a great day for baseball it's a great day for the Maple Leafs it's a great day for Toronto and it's a great day for the Toronto Mike podcast. Keith, Rod, would you mind just teasing like what we can expect in the future is there any I know Rod when you're on the program which people love your appearances on Toronto Mike by the way future FOTM Hall of Famer. Oh there's one Hall of Fame I'll get to. Good. There's the one too. I don't have to pay in to get into. But like enhancements to, I don't know, upgrading scoreboards and things like that, like is

there anything we can tease to look forward to in Toronto Maple Leafs baseball at Chrissy Bits? Well, I think we've talked about it. I mean, again, the scoreboard, listen, hear that? That's the Bushmen. That's the Bushmen. I love them. Listen to that. We're in the fifth inning by the way.

I think there are more enhancements. I think, you know, we're saying goodbye to Jeremy Diamond. See ya. Why Jeremy? Baseball Diamond. Did you change your name when you got involved with baseball? Let me see your birth certificate. Jeremy, once again, Butler in the Hall of Fame soon, please. Come on.

Yes, it's better than Jeremy home base, but it's okay. He says, can we get off Butler in the Hall of Fame already? Yeah. Enhancements, I think, you know we as an ownership group we've talked about the number one thing that we talked about was the audio fixed. And? Fixed. $30,000 later. Yeah. So that's how much we invested in a new sound system. So we're gonna do more and I think more entertainment. I think we'd like to bring some jumpy castles get the more kids here, maybe do again some kids games after camps, clinics, Very, very, very, very kid-focused and friendly.

So my two little kids are here, they were part of that ceremony, in fact I was going to close with them, but I can't actually find them. Okay, they're going to be here in five minutes, so you two are dismissed in five minutes when I put my cousin in the mic. But they had a great time. But let me add, going forward, Mike, so count on the best food in baseball. And you go to a J game, you can come here for 20 bucks, you can have a great afternoon. No comparison. No charge for high quality baseball. Better parking. Better food, better parking, better beer, I think. But there's beer now, there's great food, and look it,

Rod's gonna be here almost every game. He brought out Rick Vibe, we brought out Wendell Clark. Every single game you're gonna see special people, celebrity guests, this is just the start. We wanna bring Fergie Jenkins. We wanna have days to celebrate Canada Day. I want Cisco to come. Can we do this? I'll tell you the days, Rod and Keith,

the days I'll be here recording, now that we figured out the electricity I'll be here. So one day at least every month of the IBL season. I'm gonna be here recording Those are the days I want for a key Jenkins and see and Rod Cito. We know Gaston will be here I think you know, we'll get Cito and Fergie on a date. We want to honor The great baseball players and the former and Fergie on a date. We want to honour the great baseball players and the former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey players. And by the way, Jackie, a lot of people also don't know, Jackie Robinson once wore a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

I didn't know that. I saw the photo. In an all-star game he had finished, he was retired, but he came back and he wore a Maple Leafs jersey in an all-star game. You're bringing out Ernie Witt to which game? Ernie Witt, we're not still quite sure. It'll be probably, I think it's gonna be around Hall of Fame weekend. But Mike, not that we're elitist, but we do have a special tent here. And this tent I think is gonna be sort of the place to hang out. If we get a hot tub, I'm in every game. We should get a hot tub. He'll never leave the damn park. Him and the raccoons here. And I see Hepsey standing here. We want Hep raccoons here. And I see Hebsy standing here. We want Hebsy and Peter Gross. And there's Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home. Looking great. Brad Jones, a member of the team.

Oh there, is that, he's from Ridley? Ridley Funeral Home. He owns Ridley Funeral Home. Rod Black. Hey, can I pre-book a casket? All right, so thanks, Keith. thanks for this. You're the man behind this whole thing here, man. Well, thanks for hooking me up with Keith Stein. Look, we'll talk later about my cut of that connection, okay? Thank you for coming, Mike. Rod, congrats to your son. That's amazing you got to be there for that moment. It's really cool.

And you know what? Second only to this. Being with you at Centrefield at a Maple Leafs home opener. Can we win this game though? It's three nothing. Yeah, go Leafs, go. Go Leafs, go. Thank you. this game though? It's 3-0. Go Leafs Go. Thank you Rod Black. Brad you know these microphones. Get right on that because Keith was more interested in staring into Rod Black's beautiful

eyes than he was directing himself towards the microphone there. But Brad how's it going? How is your Sunday going? You're at Christy Pitts. How's it going bud? It's fantastic. It's nice to be at the ballpark and you know get a VIP treatment get to get on the mic next to you what does that mean do they give you back rubs between innings like what is the VIP treatment I want that I got a couple you know brown pops no charge okay I got printed on the field with all the the ownership and the other sponsors which was pretty nice it was a you know up up close and

personal with Wendell Clark and Rick Vive. What did you think because I put them on these mics what was it like meeting Wendell Clark and Rick Vive? You know for me Rick Vive was the the player I used to watch when I was a kid like he was he was such an amazing player you know you know Mike Palmitier was my my favorite and Ian Turnbull was you know I used to play defense before I went to goalie. So that's who I used to follow. But, you know, Rick Vi was the heart of the Leafs and he was, you know, the captain. Right. So it meant a lot to meet him and, you know, Wendell Clark, it was,

you know, watching him play all the way through the 90s. And such a such a great player. Yeah, I know. I was sitting, he was right there on the mic. At the time, you gave me my chair, okay? So I don't know where you found that chair. Nobody could find a chair for me. I was on my knees here and then Wendell was to my left

and I was like, is this moment happening? Like I'm in center field here at Christie Pitts. Wendell Clark is chatting me up. I'm on my knees, like talking to our captain, Wendell Clark is chatting me up. I'm on my knees like talking to our captain Wendell Clark. What a moment. And then I see this, my savior, Brad Jones comes in. He's got a chair for me. So thanks for that, buddy. Yeah, that was easy. I was just sitting over there empty and Monica and I was talking and she's like, who do I have to have a chair? She says, there's one right there. I'm like, so I just walk over and I took it. I don't know who it was.

No, you did the right thing there. I mean, come on, Wendell Clark, well, there's one right there. I'm like, so I just walk over and I took it. I don't know whose it was. No, you did the right thing there. I mean, come on, Wendell Clark, well, I did give Wendell my, that was my seat. Cause I was, Peter Gross is the perfect height to stand and be on the mic here. I think we've lost Peter here. I like, it's all a blur. I've been recording now.

I'm going to wrap up in a moment, but I've been recording for an hour. Whoa, here's a, okay. I want a ball over the fence. Like I want a ball to land right there. So Brad, we need some offense here. They're starting to look like that other Toronto baseball team, although they did score double-digit runs last night, so maybe I should stop. Well, they're losing today. They're losing today. Back, they were down 7-1 yesterday too, so, but they came

back yesterday. But this is all about Toronto Maple Leafs baseball, so it's awesome. Your part, it's amazing, because you were on Toronto Mike last week kicking out the 10 most requested funeral songs. The biggest fan of My Way by Frank Sinatra was just here. It was Steve Pagan. Bass hit for the Leafs. This is gonna be the inning. Maybe we'll call it with a big inning here for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But it's amazing that you're a part of this whole thing. Like you're the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. this whole thing. Like you're the official funeral home of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Yeah, you know, and the whole idea is that when the Toronto Maple Leafs win, we're going to help bury the competition. But, you know, they got a ways to go the next few innings

to pull this game out. Let's hope they do. Yeah. Here we are in the fifth inning. It's a three nothing for the guests. We'll call them because I'm not 100% sure who we're playing today. Who are we playing? We're playing London. London I should know these things but I've been I've been busy here. Okay so Brad you know this person here this young lady this is my eight-year-old Morgan there's my ten-year-old Jarvis. Okay here's how we're gonna close this thing so I'm gonna wrap it up. So shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Almost as old as the Toronto Police Baseball team.

Okay, good to see you. Pass your headphones to Monica who's behind you. I want Monica on the mic and Jarvis you go here. Put this on. This will be brave. We're gonna do a prop. And Morgan, you can go beside Jarvis right here. So sit here for a second. This will be harmless. Don't worry babe. Okay. Don't worry, babe. Okay. Don't worry. So get right in front of the mic.

Happy Mother's Day to my wife, Monica. Monica, you having a good day at the ballpark? Yes. It's beautiful weather. It's actually nice for me. Yeah, because you like it really hot, right? Like if it's 15 degrees, you're gonna put on a jacket, right? Yeah.

Or thereabouts. So your children are here. By the way, you have gorgeous children. Jarvis and Morgan, can you give us just a quick summary of what you guys did? I saw you on the field, but maybe take that out of your mouth because you got a...

Just tell us what you did, Jarvis. So we did... Can you take it out of your mouth? No, okay, fine. Thank you. Now say it on the mic, what you did Jarvis. So we did, we went to the... Can you take it out of your mouth? No, okay fine. He went into the field and we tried to get the players to sign our balls. Did you get any autograph? No, the person that was leading us to the players didn't know who was going to sign it.

So it wasn't really working out for us. We got a fist bump. In front of the mic though Morgan. We got fist bumps. You got fist bumps? I got a special fist bump for having a Ronaldo jersey on. Oh my goodness so you had a good time being part of that ceremony. Yeah but we didn't get our balls signed. Yeah so sad.

But you're having a fun time? Yeah. Okay are the Maple Leafs gonna come back and win this game? Hopefully right? Yeah. I love the Maple Leafs. Okay do you want to say anything special to your mommy on this very special day? Happy Mother's Day.

I have something special to say. What? Happy Mother's Day. Thank you. I love you, mommy. I love you. Thank you, Monica. Thanks for being here.

I hope you're having a wonderful day. I was just with Keith. Happy Mother's Day, everybody. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. I was just with Keith Stein, the owner, and he wanted to make sure you were taken care of because they were taking care of the mothers. Were you taken care of? We actually stepped away for a bit. So okay, because it's happening in this tent to my right and it's not too late. I'm going

to wind this down and we'll make sure that you are taken care of. What? You say to the mic. You know the manager? Yeah, Rob Butler. Where is he? I want him to sign the ball. He's literally managing the game right now. So when the game is over, if we're still here, we can absolutely introduce you to Rob Butler. Where is he in the game?

You know, he won the World Series in 1993. Is he playing the game? No, he's managing the game, so he's in the dugout. I'm playing the game. You see the dugout with all the Maple Leafs in it? He's in there managing the team. He's managing the game. He's coaching the game? Yeah. Oh, why'd you say manager when he's the coach? Well, in hockey it's manager, okay? He's the manager. He's the head manager. There's no such thing as a hockey coach? This is baseball, okay? Back to Monica just here, but we say goodbye on this Mother's Day.

Okay, we got two on. They're sending them, they're going home. They're sending them on the three. Okay, the Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs are on the board. Woo! The crowd, there's a good crowd here. Monica, what do you think? We're destroying them.

Over a thousand people here today, what would you guesstimate? Yeah, looks like it. Looks like it? It's the perfect day for it. And you're having a good time. Will you be back to see any other Maple Leaf action this season?

Most likely. It's only going to get warmer from here. So probably. It looks like it's going to rain behind us. Isn't that right? It looks like it's going to rain. All right. I love this music.

We're going to wrap up here because when I look around, I got Hep C on. I'm going to see I got Paken on, I'm gonna say I got Paken on, I got Gross on, I got Monica on, I got Wendell Clark on, I got Rick Vive on, I got Rick Emmett on, didn't get Blair Packham on, my apologies to Blair, he disappeared, I got Jarvis on, I got Morgan on, I got Keith Stein on, I got Rod Black on, this was a very, got the Jeremy from the baseball, Canadian baseball Hall of Fame. This was an absolutely successful first recording at Christie Pitts. Just to let everybody know, I will return on June 2nd. So come on out. I'd like to set up by 2 p.m. Looks like I'll be in the outfield and I will be recording at 2 p.m. June 2nd 2024 at

Christie Pitts. No ticket required. Everybody is welcome. Great food, great beer, great atmosphere. We're gonna go all the way this year. Drop by, say hi, and that brings us to the end of our 1487th show you can follow me on Twitter and blue sky I'm all over the place at Toronto Mike much love to those who made this possible that is Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Recycle My Electronics.ca, Raymond James Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, Monaris and Ridley Funeral Home. We just had Brad Jones on. Did you say hi to Brad? Yeah? I did. See you all next week.

Yeah, see you next week. Bye everybody! Hey! Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray Oh, let me agree I've been told that there's a sucker for every day But I wonder who

Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of gray