Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Paul Hendrick: Toronto Mike'd #574

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

Mike chats with Maple Leafs sideline reporter and broadcaster Paul Hendrick about his years at CHCH, covering Leafs hockey, calling a game with Jim Ralph, cheering for Real Madrid and so much more.

Welcome to episode 574 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Thank you. find their dream home. And Banjo Dunk from Whiskey Jack, one of the most celebrated roots country bluegrass bands in Canadian music history. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Leafs host and reporter, Paul Hendrick. I'm exhausted.

Paul, you have to take it from here. I can't do anymore. It's interesting being on this side of the mic. The best part of what I get to do is meeting people and storytelling. And I remember Dale Weiss, well, then with the Montreal Canadiens, we didn't get the player we wanted to talk to that day. The relief PR staff just said, hey, can you take someone else? Because I forget who we wanted. He'd been requested several times. But he said, we'll give you Dale Weiss. And I just said, everybody's got a story. And Dale was absolutely wonderful.

A guy who grew up in North Winnipeg near Colton Ore. And just growing up in that tough part of Winnipeg and how it developed him for what was later going to be a journeyman role in the National Hockey League, but a role in the National Hockey League. But everybody's got a story, and here we go. And we're going to find out your story here today. There's a couple.

I have to start with a question about the cadence of your voice. Have you been told? It's distinctive. I quite like it, but it almost sounds not old-timey, but it seems almost like, where does it come from? You know what? I have no idea. It must be 41 years of doing this business,

and I guess you develop over time. Not that I intentionally developed that way. Somebody says, is this the way you talk to your kids? And no, but I've been in grocery stores, and I've been in Canadian Tires. It's distinctive. I've been in Palma Pastas in Mississauga, and I'm not just dropping that.

They've got the best lasagna going. You're good, man. You're good. Hey, I speak from the heart. And people saying, hey, they didn't recognize the face, but they recognize the voice. There's only one voice like that. And you're right.

You don't have to see Paul Hendrick to know, hey, that's Paul Hendrick. Do you often get confused? Like, do people call you Paul Hendricks? Yeah. Does that happen a lot? You know, I had a few trophies growing up. Not very many, but they, you know,

most gentlemanly player up in Naranda, Quebec, in Pee Wee House League Hockey, they invented a trophy just to get me something. But it had an S on it. They all had S's on it. And I think it goes back maybe to Jimmy Hendricks. Certainly a different spelling, but there's always an S on the end of it.

Well, I got a buddy, Robbie J, Rob Johnston. and every time someone refers to him i hear them say rob johnson like there's no t in there it's johnston right yeah you gotta nail that t so for you it's like no s none paul hendrick here uh i'm gonna uh just let everybody know first of all that you're an accommodating classy guy because we were booked for 11 o'clock. And then I'm like, Paul, can we do 12? And I'm here to reveal why. It's because I just finished recording with Kathleen Wynne. So I know. That must have been great.

It was great, but I was producing the show. It was for Ralph Ben-Murgy's podcast. And then I saw Looskies, FOTM Looskies. FOTM means Friend of Toronto Mike. So you're now an FOTM. Thank you. FOTM Looskies. FOTM means Friend of Toronto Mike. So you're now an FOTM. Thank you. FOTM Looskies is that, oh, what? Your basement isn't good enough for Kathleen Wynne?

And I'm like, Kathleen Wynne was only invited to do Ralph Van Mergie's show. And she very nicely said yes. I would love to sit down with Kathleen Wynne, but I have a very strict no active politician rule. So Kathleen has to retire from politics. Before. And then she can come on.

Hey, you know what? That's kind of cool. She's a pretty bright, sharp woman. Might not always agree with her politics. Right. But full on her for what she has accomplished. Well, I just thought, so I basically, I'm in the room and Ralph is talking to her for an hour.

And she seemed really genuine and thoughtful and introspective. And i really enjoyed listening in like so you're right politics aside and you know nowadays politics is like sports like you seem to pick a team oh a blunt sport maybe yeah it's i you know i know going back to my days at chch and ham, on three different occasions, I got asked to run politically for both Liberals and the Conservative Party. And you've really have got to make a sacrifice to make that happen. I mean, not only financially is it important, but you're really involved.

I'm on our board of directors of our current condominium. That's an everyday situation for 101 units. Could you imagine you have an entire constituency? I can't imagine, but Donna Skelly moved to politics from CHCH. Yes, she did. She started with us in the mid-1980s and worked weekends and then eventually on to an anchor desk. And, you know, yeah, she's with the Conservatives and is doing well.

I know they've had a rough, rough time in terms of what the Conservative government have pulled in terms of late rapid transit in Hamilton recently. That's not going to look good on her, but it's not. She's just part of a process. Don't you think that's part of the problem now? And we won't get political because this is never a political podcast, but it seems like you have to align yourself with the leader now. It used to be you would elect somebody to represent your…

Your riding. Yeah. Nowadays, the person you elect to represent your riding parrots what stance they're ordered to take from the premier. Yeah. And I mean, inevitably, I guess what it comes down to, and in the recent federal election, three of the representatives, NDP, liberal and conservative, all knocked on our door. And I was very impressed with that.

And I made a point of telling each of them how grateful I was for their sacrifice, their input. It can't be forgotten. I've knocked on a lot of doors for a lot of people who have run, you know, in terms of, uh, counselor seats in Toronto and all that goes in with it. And a lot of doors get slammed in your face. It's, it's, it's a rewarding profession in many ways. People see Paul Hendrick at the door and they slam the door. Uh, yeah. And we're in, uh, Gordon Perks district, a friend of mine, uh,

ran against Gord and, and didn't win, but it wasn't easy. And these were issues talking about Roncesville and all the construction going on and the businesses that were being compromised. And anyway, she didn't run again, but it was a very invasive process. And knocking door to door is not easy to do. I can imagine.

I can imagine. So thank you for doing a 12 o'clock start so I could do the Kathleen thing and still get here for Paul Hendrick. I can't, I'm more excited about meeting you than I was about meeting Kathleen, although she was wonderful. What a privilege to ask me to come on.

If it entertains anyone and so be it. I should have asked you years ago is what I'm learning now. I waited, I should have, I should have had you on years ago, but better late than never. I waited. I should have had you on years ago. But better late than never. I want to say this is the first recording since my oldest turned 18. His birthday was Monday.

So I want to say happy 18th birthday to my James. I can't believe I have a child who is like could vote now. Incredible. My daughter today is Caroline. She turned 26. Happy birthday. Fantastic. And you realize just how quickly time has gone. My daughter today is Caroline. She turned 26. Happy birthday. It's fantastic. And you realize just how quickly time has gone.

You bring them up as best you can. Provide them with as much structure as you can. Get them educated. You know, there's going to be pratfalls along the way. But all of a sudden, you're able to stand back. She's now working out west in vancouver my lawyer uh we're so proud of her it hasn't been easy uh and you try to help as much as you can but inevitably they've got to do the heavy lifting themselves and and here we are she's 26 years old sounds

like you did a great job and and i always because i got four kids and i always think my job is to make them independent so they don't need me like essentially my whole purpose in life is so that to make it so they don't need me. Like essentially my whole purpose in life is to make it so they don't need me anymore. Well, by the time they turn 18, they're effectively gone. Caroline was gone at 18. Michael, same thing. Both kids have spent summers working in Switzerland. My wife's family's from Spain. So those kids have European passports.

They've been gone. And now Caroline's gone, gone. She's gone, gone. Yeah, West Coast. And Michael's a year and change from graduating from teacher's college. And he's Caroline's gone gone. She's gone gone, yeah, west coast. And Michael's a year and changed from graduating from Teachers College and he's gone gone too. So, you know, you enjoy it while you have them. We don't get them for very

long. Yeah, you're right. It's a blink of an eye. And I get sad, I think, oh, because he's off to university. He's going away to university in September and okay, he's 18 now. But then I realize, like I just dropped my three-year-old off at daycare. Three to 18, wow. It's not quite empty nest syndrome yet.

I got a few years to go. But the three-year-old's going to get off well. You know, those days of a Friday night where they're leaving with a backpack on, what's in the backpack? And, you know, inevitably there's some clink clinking and all these other things going on. And the three-year-old, by the time, go ahead, see you later. Just don't take too much of my Great Lakes Brewery stash. Because, Paul, since you mentioned the clink-clink,

I have a six-pack of fresh craft beer that you can take home with you today. Oh, wonderful. Courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. It will be tasted well. Enjoy, enjoy. They're not too far from here. They're at, well, the retail store is like,

you know, the Costco near Royal York and Queensway? Down the street from the Costco. So right on Queen Elizabeth Boulevard there. You can see it from the Gardner, actually. So thank you for the great support. They just renewed for 2020. I have a lot of gifts for you. I'm going to do it off the top,

but I'm going to first play something from the one sponsor who isn't giving you a gift. We need to fix this. Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group has been taking questions from Toronto Mike Lissers about real estate. We had a great real estate chat before I pressed record actually. So let's hear a Q&A with Austin Keitner. Welcome to another Real Estate Minute with Austin Keitner at the Keitner Group with Keller Williams. Cheryl asks, if I'm selling my house,

do you really need to have an open house? Are they effective at selling properties? Cheryl, that's a great question. We get it all the time. It really depends, but it turns out that there's a lot of buyers in the market who do want to go see properties, but they don't want to bug an agent

or they want to shop for it on their own because they don't necessarily want to have an agent represent them on their purchase. So those people are going to have a hard time getting into your house without any representation. So those are the people who are scouting out open houses. And statistically, 5% of people who bought a house successfully last year found it through an open house. So if it makes sense for your, it doesn't make sense for every property and some properties, depending on the category, are attracting more buyers to their open houses. So depending on your specific property,

we can give an assessment and let you know if that would make sense for your particular property. Just text Toronto Mike to 59559, and we can let you know if it does make sense or not for you. You know, we talked about politics being a blood sport. Real estate's a blood sport. It's kind of just sort of leapt in there, I'd say, in the last four years. My wife and I went down to Florida in 2006 looking to invest in a condominium down there as an investment property.

The Florida market was red hot. We almost bought a place just outside of Bradenton en route to Sarasota. We backed out. It just didn't feel right. There were hurricanes previous. It was just a lot of management that we didn't want to have to deal with. So we came back here, identified an area that maybe we can identify as a good growing area and just a good real estate proponent. It happened to be in the lower west. Which is a fantastic neighborhood. it's it's

outstanding you can walk down the street you've got English you've got Ukrainian you've got Italian you've got Russian you've got Polish I love the mosaic it's just so vibrant and and it's you just north of Bloor is such great family areas just south you've got Swansea you've got High Park and we ended up buying a place there which we still have so that's going on 14 years now and we never thought well the subways across the street never thought we just thought this is a nice area right and then we four years ago moved into the area bought across the street from it and again uh this was before things it was a pre-build and before things took off. Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America.

So if you think maybe it's going to plateau or hit a bubble, knock on wood, I don't think that's going to happen. Not in the long term anyway. We may be in Manhattan. We may be something along those areas. But you can only go so far to the south because there's that body of water called Lake Ontario. And then you've got to grow north. And you've got all these immigrants coming to Canada, all to Toronto, and many of them are highly skilled people. They're going to make our country better.

They're not necessarily going to live in Toronto, but they're going to live around Toronto. Yeah, for sure. Because that's where everything is. That's where the resources are. They are. And remember, you walk around Vancouver on a Saturday when the Leafs are playing a 4 o'clock start out in Vancouver and you hear people cursing and upset that Toronto is, they're telling Vancouver as to when they can start their game.

And I just simply explain that within a three and a half hour drive of Scotiabank Arena or then air canada center you've got almost 10 million people i mean we got a third of the country living right here it's it's a numbers game yes it's not it's the yes it's it's eyeballs yeah so so you identify areas in in bluer west to me is just outstanding you can see the, but you're not in the city. That's what I like about my new neighborhood is that I can literally walk, well, I typically bike, but a couple of minutes south

and I'm staring at the skyline. I'm looking at the CN Tower. I'm looking at the skyline. But, you know, you can park on my street till midnight. There's a lot of those niceties. You've got the waterfront trail not far from here.

When we lived in Mississauga, we used to do it into Toronto and back with the kids all the time. Yes. Maybe a bit of a political statement. We're getting better at it. I'm not comfortable cycling in Toronto in a lot of parts.

Not yet. We're not even close to cities like Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona. These cities have got it right. And the cyclist role is established, as are the cars. And I'm maybe a bit of a Jennifer Kiesmaat fan here. I am pro-cycle. I see less vehicles in Toronto.

You're singing my song here, you know. I had a gig recording at King & Young yesterday, and I was just telling Ralph actually this morning that I didn't even consider driving or taking transit because I have a bicycle and I have snow tires on one of my bikes and it was it was just a great 15k to young and king and look at you you're you know you're thin you're fit I mean it just goes with with everything we want to do uh and you I mean we're my wife and I were in Berlin this past summer I'm a real real World War II historian and Cold War.

And we spent a week there and it was just outstanding. But while we got there, we had to get off the bike lanes. You keep forgetting those are for bikes. And you hear the ring, ring, ring, get off the track. Because they're coming through. Rush hour in Berlin in the morning. Very few cars. A lot of bikes.

Families, kids, everything. My first ever trip to europe was to berlin for a week uh for business but i had a lot of time to wander around and you're right but then the next trip i took was to amsterdam you ain't seen nothing yet yeah that that was like i was in amsterdam i'm like okay wow like it's just that is just the way you get around in amsterdam it's that is the number one way you get around. And there's no animosity between cars and cyclists. Everyone knows their role and there's a respect but they've been at it longer than we have. If we're going to be a world-class city

and we are a world-class city, but I mean a real world-class city, I think this is part of our evolution that we've got to get cyclist-friendly and I know a lot of people aren't going to be happy with that, but that's the way it is. And that's the way it is yes I like it I like it you're singing my song here uh when you said we're the fourth biggest uh city what do you have as the top three uh I'm not we're talking USA Canada okay because I was going to ask you if you have as a head of Chicago and then

you put Mexico City no no Mexico City's not but LA Chicago New York gotcha okay and then you can throw Houston coming in. There are a few places, but our metropolitan area, we're fourth. Gotcha, okay. Very good. Now, there was a death I just want to acknowledge, so I'm just going to play a nine-second clip here. Now, you listen here.

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy. Now, go away. Okay. Terry Jones died, a founding member of Monty Python, and that was, of course, Life of Brian. And yeah, he passed away at the age of 77.

So just wanted to, you know, I don't know if you were into Life of Brian. I'm 63 years old. At the 70s, we went to a few movies and had all the albums. Man. So that's, I think I saw a tweet from John Cleese. He said two down, four to go, I think he tweeted,

which is, yeah, sad but true. And on a brighter note, Larry Walker's in the Hall of Fame, second Canadian. It's about time. You know, it was interesting listening to hear Larry talk about his time playing in Montreal and in Colorado. And in Montreal, any, you know, in terms of Major League Baseball, you're off the radar a little bit.

In Colorado, they said all his hitting exploits were because of the lighter air. Well, truth be known, he's just an outstanding player, should have been in previously. I'm just so happy for him. I'm happy for Canada. Yeah, and when he retired, I have a blog I've been maintaining since 2002, so way before Twitter in 2005, I guess he played his last game, and I was writing about how far and away

he's the greatest position player this country has ever produced at the time. So, and still true probably because Joey Votto's not there yet. So yeah, he's still, in my opinion, the greatest position player this country has ever produced. But all the tools,

I still remember all those plays where he would throw a guy out at first base, like on a single. Boom, what a rocker. I remember growing up in Naranda, quebec my dad was a geologist and i remember when the expos came in in 1969 and mike it was the most exciting time and this is when you played afternoon baseball right running home because the expos were opening up that afternoon an opening day at shea stadium new york and still getting home to see a lot of baseball.

And I think the Expos won that day 13-10. A week later, running home to watch them open up at Jerry Park against the St. Louis Cardinals. They won that game too. So close in 94. So close. Yeah. It's heartbreaking, right?

Totally heartbreaking. And those were days where often, wherever I was, I timed car rides if i was driving to see family in ottawa uh it was so i could listen the expos and then specifically the blue jays where i knew i could hit radio out of toronto belleville smith falls into ottawa my wife she used to she didn't she used to despise tom cheek and j Jerry Howarth. Not them, but their voices. Because I said, we're not leaving until this time so we can listen to the game the entire way.

And the kids just got used to it in the backseat. Well, one of my thrills was having Jerry here on the program. Just because the soundtrack of my youth. Not only soundtrack, what a gentleman. Oh, yeah. And that's genuine class personified. One of the good ones. Absolutely here. So I've got to finish giving you your gift.

This is a very exciting thing for me. So stickeru.com here. Hold it up. I'm still playing with my camera angle, so I don't know what can be seen here. But that's a Toronto Mike sticker for you, Paul, from stickeru.com. There is a very cool event happening on January 30th, and I'm having a contest. So

hear me out, listeners. Hear me out, FOTMs. If you go to my Twitter feed, I tweeted a photo of a wall. It's a StickerU wall, and there's stickers on the wall. If you reply to that tweet guessing how many stickers you see on the wall, I have four tickets I can give away to this event. Dr. Draw, he's apparently a great electronic violinist. Violinist? As I say the word, I don't know. Paul, you're the broadcaster. You have to help me out. Could have been a curler

for all I know with Dr. Draw. Dr. Draw. So enter the contest and give away tickets. I'll be there. Dr. Draw will be there. I know Humble Howard will be there. So yeah, that'll be cool. So that's will be there. I know Humble Howard will be there. So yeah, that'll be cool. So that's for sticker you. Thank you, sticker you.

I also have a lasagna in my freezer, courtesy of, you said you like Palma Pasta. So you're- Yeah, like I know people, I know I'm paid to say they're good. Okay, I realize- But they are good. Right. We just, I just bought some pasta.

I had a procedure done yesterday. I was in Palma Pasta yesterday on the some pasta. I had a procedure done yesterday. I was in Palma Pasta yesterday on the way home. And I was, I had a colonoscopy. I was hungry. I didn't have the, but you know, driving by, pulled in, corner of Highway 10 and Queensway and, and. Well, you're going to love this because I've got a large meat. Do you want meat or veggie lasagna?

Meat preferably. I've got one for you. Thank you. So make sure you don't leave without it. Don't be a polite Canadian who doesn't want to bother me. It's in my freezer. It's yours, courtesy of Palma's Kitchen. Palma's Kitchen is a new location from Palma Pasta,

and you're like Mavis and Bernthorpe area there. So fantastic. Thank you, Palma Pasta. I have a book for you too. Stomp and Tom. Did you ever see Stomp and Tom, Connors? I'll tell you my Stomp and Tom story. First one uh we lived in fredericton for a couple years my dad had been transferred from niranda and he was opening up a mining office in atlanta canada we we lived in fredericton anyway

that summer taking my kids my kids my daughter and my sisters i've got three sisters two of them to ymca camp from our home and you had to cut through the fairgrounds and i see a pickup truck and the side doors open and a pair of feet whoever was in there was falling was asleep and it was stomping tom connors and he had skinner's pond pei stomping tom connors he had performed at the fairgrounds the night before i knew he was a big deal but not as he got bigger this was 1973 so he got bigger is this during the uh the horseshoe tavern days when he would uh because he had that run at horseshoe tavern in the like about that time i might have been no i was 16 at the time so i i wasn't familiar

with that nor had we moved to toronto yet we moved to toronto a year later so but just seeing stomping oh but yeah that's the the guy who sings this song and that song I mean obviously so the book is uh My Good Times of Stompin' Tom from Banjo Dunk whose you know full name is Duncan Fremlin and he's got a brand new message for everybody so let's listen listen to Banjo Dunk this is Banjo Dunk and for the last few weeks you've been hearing my ads on Toronto Mic'd about the Big Stompin' Tom show coming up on April 16th, 2020. But, there's another Banjo Dunk production that's happening very soon. My music buddy Douglas John Cameron and I, known internationally as Doogie and Dunn, are going to be performing in Oakville at the Moonshine Cafe on February 27th,

not too far from Toronto Mike head office. So if you live in Toronto, Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington, Milton and surrounding areas, you'll find all the information you need at the moonshinecafe.com. We look forward to seeing you on February 27th.

Nice. Dougie and Dunn. I love those. What a great read. Yeah. Seriously. You know, he's got Douglas helping him out with the production, and Douglas Cameron, quite the musician. So, yeah, they do a good job there.

Now, it all begins for you, Paul, in Sault Ste. Marie. You know, let's just go even before that okay noranda quebec where i was born in sudbury my dad's a geologist we ended up moving to noranda where we lived for 11 years and the seeds of maybe what i was going to eventually get to do start there and in a case in point it was may 1967 i believe it was 10 days after the Leafs had won the Stanley Cup. We had a strong hockey presence up there. And my mother's Ramoli club was Kent Douglas' mother. Hughette Hillman, whose brother-in-law is Dave Keon.

I can go on and on. Pitt Martin was from there. Ray Jean Houle, Dale Tallon. But anyway, Hughette calls my mother one day and says, tell Paul to get over here. Davey's coming over for a visit. And if he wants an autograph, this is the time to get it. And I was in Miranda. You're not far from anything. They were just a couple blocks away, the Hillmans. And off I went in my bicycle, get there, get a chance to wait in the backyard. And then around the corner comes Dave Keon. Wow.

And I had an autograph. It was to Paul Bestwishes, Dave Keon. I had that until maybe fourth year university when it had finally disintegrated. The other thing that made it special was I served mass at Blessed Sacrament Parish up there from grade five through to grade nine. And I think it was grade seven when,

on a cold January day, Monsignor Caulfield comes in and says, Hendrick and Brewer, I need you down at the church in an hour. And it was Dave Keon's dad's funeral. The church was packed. The Leafs had chartered an aircraft up. They brought everyone. I think Harold Ballard was in the crowd that day, Stafford Smythe, the entire hockey team, Howard was in the crowd that day, Stafford Smythe, the entire hockey team, going down with the incense to bless the congregation. I got to do that. And the other thing I remember is serving Monday to Friday mass at 8 o'clock in Noranda. The Keons were there and the Wiwas.

This was a Polish family. The only four people, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. mass. But I did those. And because of that, I got the right to do this funeral. We got $5 to do the funeral. How do you equate $5 back then? Well, hockey cards were $0.05 a pack. I bought 100 packs of hockey cards.

And I remember telling Dave about it. It was the most lucrative event I got to do as an altar boy. And he smiled and laughed. You normally get $1 for a funeral, a wedding, $0.50 for a funeral. But that was a memorable time. So the love of Maple Leaf hockey, it began there. You either cheered for Montreal if you were French-Canadian, Leafs if you were English,

and then there was a hybridization, some people cheering for either or. But then the chance to go to Sault Ste. Marie, I went to U of T, graduated, thought I wanted to go to law school, wrote a brutal LSAT, and it wasn't for me. Got into Ryerson after graduating from U of T, graduated, thought I wanted to go to law school, wrote a brutal LSAT, and it wasn't for me. Got into Ryerson after graduating from U of T, but the interviewer said, what are you doing here? You don't need to waste four more years.

Go get some experience somewhere. So I joined a college course called Career Canada right across from St. Mike's Hospital. I was there for four weeks of a six-month program. A truck driver who was in the program with me, Steve Boyce, had a tremendous voice. He ended up getting a job in Sault Ste. Marie. He was up there a week and a half. He calls me and said, hey, the sports director's trying to fire this person. I'm going to say his name, Randy Russen, who's still a friend of mine. And he would like maybe to hire you. I've told him. So anyway, I flew up the next day.

Scott Matthews, the sports director, on the way in from the airport, said, you're hired. It's about a 25-minute drive in. I did a few things for them, a sound check, on-air check, and then flew back, North Air, back to Toronto, got my suit. The one suit, borrowed $100 from my dad, and I stayed on Steve's rug for two weeks before I got an apartment. So that was then, and they didn't fire Randy for over a year,

so I was in news for a year and then finally got into sports, and the Greyhounds had just taken off with Ronnie Francis. I can go on and on, Terry Crisp. And then eventually CHCH. But it was just a wonderful, wonderful place to work. Yeah, and you got to get some reps in, right? And improve your craft. You do everything. Did you sound like this when you were in Sault Ste. Marie?

No, no. And I spoke too quickly. And I may be speaking too quickly here because you get excited reminding, just thinking of those days. But Monday night was City Hall. Tuesday night was School Board. Wednesday night, Public Utilities Commission. I had to cover all three of those days, but Monday night was city hall. Tuesday night was school board. Wednesday night, public utilities commission. I had to cover all three of those. And that was

for radio and TV. Thursday, Friday off, Saturday, Sunday, weekend news on radio and then anchoring six o'clock news on television. I was jealous of some of the gang that go out Friday. Bob McKenzie and his wife lived up there. Bob was a sports writer for the Sault Ste. Marie Star. His brother-in-law, John Goodwin, was the Ontario Hockey League scoring champion. By the way, Bob's been here, but Bob's son was just here. Yeah, Sean.

Sean, yeah. And I work with Sean. And it's really different to start working with friends, the guys and colleagues that you work with, their kids, and also interviewing kids who've grown up around our house who are now in the National Hockey League. You know, Dylan Strom, Nick Paul in Ottawa. These guys have been around our house a lot,

and I get a chance to sit down. But they're very professional in how they go about it they know their role um they also know there's going to be a modicum of respect coming from my side i think it's important regardless of the age of the individual respect i'm with you yeah even regardless of whether you necessarily i was thinking about you know kathleen win today and then i was thinking you know okay what if you know, Kathleen Wynne today, and then I was thinking, you know, okay, what if, you know, what if it's Doug Ford, right? Complete opposites into the spectrum.

Still, the core is you still respect your guests. Yes. Regardless of whether you agree with their politics and policies, et cetera. Yeah. As long as they're, you know, good people. Well, I mean, you know. I'm not saying you should respect the Nazis or anything.

It's exactly what I was thinking of. You know, we have Goebbels here and Goering and everyone else. Right, but you know, obviously Doug Ford's a very polarizing politician, but you know what? He's sacrificing for his province. He's doing what he thinks is best. You know, this is a democratic process. Right. People voted him in, gave

him a majority. No question. You know, you can't question that part of the process. So how do you end up at CHCH? I think most people listening first see Paul Hendrick. Yeah. A friend of mine, Clark Steele, was married in Belleville. I was his best man. I had to bring back all the tuxedos to his dad's place in Mississauga before I headed back to the Sioux.

And Danny, we're sitting out having a beer in his balcony, front porch, and he said, so do you like the Sioux? And I said, I really like the Sioux. And he said, are you comfortable? And I said, I'm totally comfortable. And he paused. He said, it's time to get out. Yes, that's good advice.

It's totally good advice. I didn't think I was ready to move on. But you know what? You get into a groove. The Greyhounds are fun to follow, all of these things. But he said, you're from here. Your goal is not to stay up there. But had I stayed up there?

Yeah, no judgment on those who stay. No. Funny, he said, you've got to go. And that was June of 80? Okay. Or 81, 81. Anyway, yeah, so that August, I fired out tapes all over the place,

but I stopped in for an interview at Windsor, stopped into Hamilton where Dick Beto's interviewed me, stopped into City. Peter Gross talked to me. I spent hours with him yesterday. Peter's been here. And then I went to Peterborough, talked with John Battam at Chex, I think,

and then into Ottawa, CJOH, with the late Brian Smith. And I remember Brian just saying, I just hired a guy named Dan Seagate from a Ryerson grad yesterday. I wanted to talk to you, but had this been reversed, I would have easily hired you. You're both very good people. Dan still works in Ottawa as a videographer. He was for CBC.

And we still talk about how our careers went in different directions. Anyway, the following November, I get a call at 1230. It's Dick Beddows, 1230 at night. I'm watching The Three Stooges in my studio apartment in the Sioux. And Paul, yes, it's Dick Beddows. And I remember yelling out an expletive. I thought it was a colleague of mine, Randy Ravich, who was playing a gig, a prank on me.

He said, listen, if you don't want the job, I don't have to give it to you. And I said, oh, I'm sorry, Dick, I didn't realize it. Anyway, $35 a week. I could live at home in Mississauga. I would work Wednesday nights for Dick when he did overtime on our CHCH game of the week. And Monday, I mean, week. And, um, Monday,

I mean, rather Saturday, Sunday, five broadcasts. So I moved down. So I had the chance to come down to Hamilton and Danny Steele. Anyway, it comes back to it.

Once, once he knew I was comfortable time to get out. Great advice. Uh, and you mentioned the Peter Gross reference there. You're the second guest in a row to go have a, a Peter Gross story from back in the day because peter howell from the toronto star was my last guest and peter tried out for a band they were

putting together back in the early 70s so and then peter again yes he's been a guest on toronto mike but he's also a client like we produced two podcasts together in fact i'll let everybody listening know we recorded five new episodes of gallagher and Gross Save the World. That was just yesterday afternoon. So still drop any time now. I just have to finish editing. That's a dynamic duo. Tell me about it. So I'm here.

We do five episodes. You know, John sits there. Yeah. Peter sits there. And it's just, it's the most, you know, the most fun you're going to have though. It just, just, you know, John's John. Throw in Jim McKinney right between the two, and then you've just accelerated that process. Oh, my God.

When I had McKinney on, Peter came with him, and he was just so honest and interesting and fantastic. He's been through a lot in so many ways, and he's just a genuine good guy. John Whaley, who's a former colleague of his at Channel 11, and a guy I knew in high school. They went to T.L. Kennedy. I went to Lorne Park.

But one thing led to another. We got to know each other, and he worked for my dad a couple of summers in mining. When John got his TV job, I brought him into Channel 11. After the news was done, set him up in front of a camera. I ran teleprompter, taped it, and edited his demo tapes. Wow. So it really is six

degrees i'll tell you as i was born and raised in toronto so i watched a lot of chch and you're there so you're there from 81 to 98 wow okay so what i think of the first things that come to mind i'll tell you right now uh the hilarious house of freidenstein. Freidenstein. Freidenstein, yeah. Right, with Billy Vann. So that's like, I think of that right away when I think of CHH. And the Don't You Dare Miss It with Red Lions. Billy Red Lions. Billy Red Lions.

Right. Billy Red Lions. Billy Red Lions. Who was the commissioner? Frank Tunney. Frank Tunney. And I'll tell you, they would come in to tape a lot of voiceovers and stuff.

Billy Red was a superstar, but he's the most genuine guy. He'd always stop by the sports department to say, you know, hello. I'll tell you, we knew where we stood on the CHCH program map when our OUAA game of the week, which normally went live at 2 o'clock, got pushed by an hour and was actually taped away, meaning I could be back home watching the fourth quarter at home because of wrestling. We never jimmied with the wrestling time slot.

Well, I mean, you can't see it. I guess it's behind this computer, so hold on. So this, okay. So I bought this in 1985, and I kept it with me, okay? This is my Andre the Giant mug. So this is sort of this 1980s WWF era that I was just enthralled by as a youngster. We all were.

I was watching Maple Leaf Wrestling on CHCH, that's for sure. And what else? I guess there was also, what's the show? They brought it back actually with Bill Lawrence. Tiny Talent. Tiny Talent, right. My sister Lynn and cousin Diane. Diane played, she's from Etobicoke, played Turkey and the Straw on the Piano. And Lynn tap danced. And I remember Bill asking Lynn about people. And Lynn just goes, she liked Fredericton better because people had time to talk to you which was a big load of crap i don't know where she got that so we're talking 1970 more toronto hate 74 and lynn was born in 64 she was 10

years old yeah wow but it was bill lawrence and it was just a great show we watched it hey hill street blues on thursday nights all in the family, even before that. It was special event television, and CHCH was called a superstation. Times evolve and things change, and it's not what it once was. And when I got to work there in 1981, when Dick hired me, December 5th, 81, my first broadcast, working the weekend with Norm Marshall, before I got a chance a few years later to move midweek uh there were so many great people tom charrington i i can go on dan mclean okay well dan mclean okay let me

uh find the question so andrew sheehy is a listener of toronto mic and submitted a question what's his favorite dan mclean story from his tenure at chch do you have a dan mclean story well i've got a couple dan still still owes me $140 from a poker game that he'd forgotten to pay me. We had a bit of a good night. There was a bunch of us. But the famous story was, I used to live at my parents' house in Mississauga.

It was a bit of a drive back and forth. Nothing too challenging, but it was still a drive. And Dan was going away for a weekend. He said, hey, why don't you stay at my place and look after my exotic fish well i over i overfed these fish and i killed them all and we're talking all of them all of them i you know it's like a salt shaker oh my god and i overfed them and they gorged themselves and they're too fragile these fish so i know so that's that's what comes to mind immediately.

Oh, that's, that's hilarious. How did you break it to him? Like, uh. I, I didn't know. Oh, you didn't know. He comes in, he comes into work Monday and he goes, thanks a lot. I go, what are you talking about? You killed my entire aquarium. Oh my God.

And I went, oh Dan. Oh my God. Okay. I was never asked back to house sit. Peter Stapleton wrote in and said, how was it working with the late great Norm Marshall at CHCH in the 80s? Norm was at our wedding, he and his wife Helen. I only had so many people.

We had 144 people at our wedding, and my mother-in-law took up most of that with their guests. We laugh about it now, but Norm and his wife Helen were special guests. And Norm was an incredible broadcaster. I mean, he did the voiceover, or not voiceover, he did play-by-play for the first televised Grey Cup game on CBC. This is 1954. To get a chance to have worked with him,

he talked about his battles with alcoholism. I remember Sunday nights where we've got time between broadcasts. And I said, when did you know when to quit? And he said, you've got to hit rock bottom. And he worked a shift late at CHML on a Sunday night, woke up eight days later in a motel room in Chatham, Ontario. And he said, I knew then. It was soon afterwards where he met his wife, Helen, a former Miss Hamilton, Miss something of the other, beautiful, beautiful woman. And Helen got him back in the straight and narrow.

But Norm had to do it himself and how he got his life turned around. So working with Norm, you learned just so much. He was just a tremendous broadcaster as well. Now, this morning I was chatting with Fred Patterson of the Humble and Fred show. And he was telling me, I said, you're coming on. And he said, I guess there was a period of time when did Chorus have some relationship with CHCH?

Probably, yeah. And you would come on Humble and Fred maybe? Yes. Do you have any memories of this? Yeah, going on. And those guys, it's the unpredictability, right? You don't know where they're going to go

and where they're going to take you. And when you're doing something live like this, you've got to be aware uh especially with those two and ironically we lived on meadowwood road in mississauga howard had already moved he lived their house was just down and across the street right by rat ray marsh and uh but i i didn't know him then uh but to work with those two guys and i can't remember a specific story it's just that sure go on well i was i didn't even know this like i was just mentioning in passing paul hendrick is coming on and he and fred said you know and then i i i got the idea like from the quick convo with

fred that maybe chorus had some ownership stake in the chch i think they owned us uh okay that would do it we were yeah we were bought i think by Chorus. And then I left in September of 98. I don't know who we were owned by, because we were owned by three or four different... It was a very tumultuous time. It got worse after you left. Or avoided it ever. Well, you know who's a client

and I spent a lot of time with? Mark Hebbs here. Yeah. And he tells a story about the day, the bloodletting day not too long ago when they said, you know, you were ordered to go to a room and some people in one room

were basically said, leave the premises, you're fired. And then the other room, they were like, you're fired, but in this envelope is a new job offer because this part, I never sat right with me. I don't know how they got away with this,

but we're, I want to get the terminology right. We're declaring bankruptcy and we're forming a new shell company that's going to do the same thing. And you could work for that company now for a smaller rate. And you've got people with families. And all those people who put money, they had a pretty decent union. A pension plan. I don't know what became of it.

Matt Hayes is still working in radio in hamilton um dan mclean's no longer where connie smith uh is still doing a few things in around the hamilton area um scott urquhart he's there's a bunch selling bicycles scott's doing something else. There's just a bunch of people not doing what they once did. And I guess this is the nature of the business. I talked to a graduating class this past summer, Seneca. And I said, these might seem like dark times in the industry, what we're doing, but the news still has to be delivered in some way, some fashion. And I said, if you truly want to do it, do it, because it's been the most outstanding career.

The people I have been able to run into, talk with, famous and non-famous, just the people part of it. And if you truly want to do it, do it. Don't let anyone talk you out of it. Or you could do what I'm doing. Because I get to talk with you and, yeah. Look what you've done here. And look at the guests you've had in here.

And in a very informal, we're in your basement. That is true. Yeah, it's like Wayne's World Mimico. In fact, I just put up these curtains here because I realized when I did, now they introduced these webcams, I'm like, oh, in the background, you can see my washer and dryer. I'm like, I don't know if that's. I read that. So it's like, I think my wife started,

she's like, okay, we'll fix that. And it's like, all these things are changing so rapidly. But yes, you're still in my basement, and my 18-year-old still sleeps around the corner. Perfect. And four kids, you need a washer and dryer. You sure do. Let me see if I have any more questions.

Actually, okay, so let me ask you why, because I'll save Mike's Leaf question in a bit here. But like you end up, like nowadays we know you as the Leaf guy. So how did you, like were you always a Leaf guy on CHCH? No. Two years,

Gord Stelic and I split the hosting duties on CHCH. And then CHCH got out of the hockey business. And that was it.'ve and I didn't I mean I was just going to continue to do what I wanted to do but I'd also thought I'd run the gamut at CHCH and remember telling my wife maybe I've got to do something else maybe there's something else that I've got to do I just don't know what it is. And lo and behold, I'm at the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey. It's the first open for Tiger Woods. And I get a call from Ron Harrison Sr., former executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, and now in charge of Molson Sports

and Entertainment. And it was an opportunity. He said, how committed to Hamilton are you? And I said, I'm committed to my family, nothing else. Of course, I'm excited because I'm going, oh, here might be a chance. He said, what would you think about hosting Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey? I said, you're kidding. And I said, I would love to do that. So this is September, early September 98, and I'd done two years with CHCH. September, uh, 98. And I'd done two years with CHCH. So he goes, he, he said, well,

come on in tomorrow. We'll talk, we'll talk salary. And I said, well, throw, throw out an offer. He threw out an offer and I said, I'll take it. He goes, Oh my God, it was a decent offer. And, and so I went in there. I still think that's a bad move though, Paul. It is. It is. My wife said the exact same thing. But anyway, I go in there and sign the papers. And you know, you look back on it. If you're not the first choice for something, don't take it harshly. Just take the opportunity and run with it. Scott Russell and Scott Oak were their first two choices.

Both decided to stay with what they wanted to do. Scott Oak was going, or Russell was going to go into the amateur sports side of CBC, and Scott Oak, tremendous broadcaster as well, stayed with Hockey Night in Canada. And because of that, I had an opportunity, but I do recall telling my wife, if I've still got this job by December,

you're not quite confident, but you're going into different arenas. You're doing live television. I'd done a lot of it with the OUAA Game of the Week, but live TV for that, live TV for a hockey game in front of 750-odd thousand people. It's just the number of eyeballs that's different. Yeah, but you're not thinking, but you know there's a lot at stake. You've got two young children at home, but you've got to go for it.

So here we are, lo and behold, all these years later, and still getting an opportunity to do it, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity. And I thank the two Scots for turning down the job initially. The two Scots. I realize I did go out of order here because there's a late-breaking question from Steve Clark that I just saw before you came over. And he said, Gotta ask Henny about calling play-by-play for OUAA football and basketball on the game of the week on CHCH.

Wish they brought that back. Same here. Steve is a school teacher who cut his teeth and still does doing play-by-play for McMaster University sports. So we got to run onto all these people. Dan Schulman, got to run into him. Elliot Friedman, a lot of people along the way. They worked out of CFRW Radio Western. Steve is out of McMaster.

Those days were tremendous. They were Saturday afternoon sports. And what made it tremendous, your 18-year-old son could be watching us. You could be watching us. And we would talk about so-and-so from Victoria Park High School or Brother Andre High School or Brampton Centennial. watching us and we would talk about so and so from victoria park high school or brother andre high school or brampton centennial we always made a point i always made a point of mentioning where

these kids graduated from because it was reflective of the coaches and the people in that area and nothing pleased anyone more is to hear their high school localize it you know we we talked about peter gross earlier and john gallagher and local sports yes you know exactly where i'm going because anyone more is to hear their high school. Localize it. You know, we talked about Peter Gross earlier and John Gallagher. Local sports. Yes, you know exactly where I'm going because we talk a lot. And they talk about,

Moses loved them covering local sports, like high school sports. Because he said, you know, let's say John Smith, make up a name. John Smith was playing baseball for this high school or whatever, and then you're going to cover that

on City TV that night. Like John Smith, his parents, the neighbors, everyone tunes in to watch. Right, and you never forget your moment of spotlight on you on television. That's a big deal.

So Moses was a big proponent of having them cover the local sports. And so in Hamilton, yes, we had Leaf Hockey, but we were going to cover Cathedral St. Thomas More football. We were going to cover that game, and we were going to give it high billing if it deserved high billing. We were going to give local university sports a real kick. And I remember doing Yates Cup Championships at Sky Dome,

and we had audiences pushing 100,000 people, but this was a 10-week odyssey of building that game. Basketball, great games with Waterloo, McMaster, Guelph, Western, and, you know, John Steffelmeyer from Niagara Falls, Tim Mao from Ottawa, Eric Hammond, Toronto. These were all prime basketball names. You know, you mentioned, I'll talk to somebody and they'll say, hey, where'd you go to high school? And they go, why do you ask that? Because there's a good chance I would have mentioned a name.

Like, you know, just thinking, a player like Tyrone Williams, who was an outstanding wide receiver for the Western Mustangs in the late 80s. As far as I know, he's the only player to have won a Vanier Cup. He won two Super Bowls and he won a Grey Cup. And then retired 26, 27 years of age. But he went to Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax. Right, right. I remember, where did you go to high school? Michael Power. You went to Power. Yeah. Quick Michael Power story. The Cornelius Relays in Hamilton, 1975. I got to run in a 400 meter heat in that heat was a guy named Glenn Bogue who was a

Canadian 400 meter champion George Kennedy I think was the other guy they represented Canada in the Olympics a year later in Montreal and I got to run a 57 second 400, which doesn't seem like much, but it's an awful lot when you've got a skinny leg guy like him. Those guys were running it in 46, 47. I was like, I was full 10 seconds behind them. Wow. Which is like. Yeah, Power had a great track program. I got to meet Father Redmond.

Right, Father John Redmond. He was their track coach. Well, not too far from here is the high school. Yeah, I've got a niece who goes there. And I said, I met Father Redman. These are key building blocks of a community. But, you know, Glenn Boga, he went to Villanova the next year and ran for Canada in the Olympics.

Anyway, that's why Michael Power and getting to run against, could you imagine getting on the ice to play against Gretzky and a bunch of those guys? No, I can't imagine it. In their prime. I can't imagine it. I keep telling you know brendan shanahan went to michael power yes you never played with him though now uh don't you think we why why do you why is local sports evaporating like disappearing like i had on uh joe tilly for example you know we all know what happened with the cfto sports guy they're all gone you know senil josh he was in cfto sports guy they're all gone you

know senil josh he was in here recently and we talked about that but what basically is it a money thing i think it's a money thing i think everything's being centralized with with big networks i i started at ckcy and sault ste marie it's no longer there uh everything's sort of out of sudbury and then really everything out of sudbury is really out of Toronto. It's just, you know, you talk about younger kids. I said, hey, go north, get a job, cut your teeth there. Those jobs aren't there anymore. So you got to try to get a job in Toronto. But not only have those jobs disappeared,

but I've noticed the, you hear a lot of, I talk to a lot of media people and they'll say, yo, I had overnights, like Strombo will say, yeah, you know, he was buds of Mackle Jr. and then Mackle Sr. would be, was a program director at the Fan

and it would be like, yeah, we had these hours and Merrick's a part of this, Jeff Merrick, and we had these hours when no one's listening in the middle of the night

where we could just be creative and try different things. Like, look at the careers that launched, right? But that's gone now because now it's syndicated

at night or re-rolls. Like, I don't know where you go. I guess you'd start a podcast i guess you start a podcast and it is local and and and no and it's cheaper for these stations to do it um yeah it's it's i you know and also in terms of television sorry where it's going i remember chris heb former vp of broadcasting with us and part of leafs tv and and he was saying you know in x number of years while the you know leafs tv was brought into place to to compete with the networks in terms of making sure they were honest about bids and we were very close to getting those games all those midweek games uh until tsn and sportsnet came in and and and that was just part of the business but he was telling me

everything is digital everything's off the phone um it's today's generation your kids they don't want to sit down to watch three hours of an event i mean certain events you're going to watch you know the raptors run to an nba championship and certainly if the leafs get that chance too as well but everything is like the game in six or the game in one 30 second clips here there's not enough storytelling anymore this they the attention span isn't there because it's coming off a telephone and this is really hurting baseball and again i have a small sample size myyear-old son is my very small sample size, but I can't pay him to watch a baseball game.

And I grew up loving, yeah, he just, he loves basketball, he loves hockey, but I can't get him. Even in that playoff run of 2015 and 2016,

I'm like, join your old man. Like, I was enthralled with hanging on every pitch, but I grew up with the game. Like, I don't know,

I don't know. He's a sports fan who doesn't care at all about baseball i played little league ball he played for my dad my dad he scored every game kept all those games in a file he passed away too it'll be three years the end of june and uh we would go he and i uh talk talk you know you talk about dad son things mom this that sisters and then we'd watch the game and then it drift back into other stuff and he'd be just scoring right it's just something methodical about very cerebral spiritual almost totally that's why you get a movie like field of dreams right it's spiritual

so anyway just a couple years ago when they were going through their run, the amount of young people going to games, my kids included, it was great to see that new vibe in that building because I think Blue Jay Baseball is a predominantly mature audience, but you've got to get successful again. We tasted it again. You're right, 2015, 2016. That dome is only an awful structure when it's empty. When it's full, it's fine.

I don't mind it. Yeah. You fill that place up and it's great. I mean, that flip, I've watched that seventh inning how many times? And, you know, there's nothing to be embarrassed of there. It's fantastic. I remember the first game, June 5th, 89, Toronto, Milwaukee. I was sitting in the fifth deck watching that.

Paul Molitor,iter right got the first uh hit yeah Robin Yount was in on stuff it was it was just wow we've got a big league stadium in our city it was great and then I mean the big game you know the touch them all Joe game I did a Guelph U of T football game at Varsity Stadium we had tickets that day and I met a friend of mine we had a couple of beers up at uh Yorkville and then we worked our way down to the ballpark and by the time we got to the ballpark we were fairly into it and and i'll tell you where i was when joe carter hit the home run we were third base side fifth tier had a game gone seven i would have had seats on the lower deck and i would have given those to my parents but i remember

we were some philadelphia fans and i go we're winning and i thought it was the eighth inning i didn't realize for the time being it was yeah you were deep in it man yeah yeah walk off dave graham and i were at the game and it was a walk-off home run you idiot you've just won the world series that was a fun fun day and guelph beat u of t that day too, for the record. Oh, okay. Yeah. What's football? What sport were we talking about? Is this football? That was football that day. Okay.

So that was Mario Storino, right? Am I right? Yes, he was. He went to Humber West. No, he went to Humberside Hawks. I only remember that because I was at U of T that year. And if I'm correct, 93, yeah, Mario Storino led us to the

what, varsity cup? What's it called? I should know this stuff, right? Well, Vanier Cup. Vanier Cup. That's what I'm trying to say. And that was U of T's program just a couple years previous was on the verge of falling through. But Bob Laco and his staff and a good group of people, the friends of football at U of T

kept it alive and won a championship. And look what happened. Storino, what an arm. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Meg Rogotsky wants to know, in your pre-Leafs Nation working days,

what was your favorite sport to cover? I'd have to say it was either OUAA football, OUAA basketball. And just to get the people you get to meet and knowing that every Saturday you come into a gymnasium or a stadium and they're so thrilled to see you there. And the passion from the fans, the passion that they saw we had for the sport. It's just really rewarding.

And I run into these football and basketball players so many years later. And they come at a Leaf game. And I forget his name. He's from Brampton. But he played on one of the Mustang teams. He was the third string quarterback. Indeed, very good athlete. His son was 12 years of age. And he said, Paul, I want you to tell my son how great an athlete I was.

And I said, your dad was the best. But, you know, they used to tape those games on VHS and watch them Sunday. They used to have a chugging game. We have one group of guys, and every time they heard their name mentioned, to have a chugging game. I forget one group of guys. And every time they heard their name mentioned, they had to chug a beer. Yeah, drinking games. Now, that 1998 OUAA football, that's the last time.

And with an exception, we'll talk about here. That was the last time that you did play-by-play, right? Oh, yeah. Because I have a story. Okay, so I'll introduce it and then we'll get to hear it in your timber there. But FOTM Kevin McGran, he wrote a piece on this with a star that I read in it. This is a night where Joe Bowen's laryngitis meant he couldn't call the game for the Fan 590. And you got the call.

Can you tell us that story? Dave Cadeau is the program director. The fan called and just said said would you be able to do this and i said of course it's the other thing i tell young people just say yes just say yes is that like fake it till you make it fake it till you make it and uh but i was i was good with i've done enough games and i'm working with jim ralph who ironically the first time i got asked to do a sue greyhound game when they in 80 80 no 80 when harry wolf the voice of the team got flu that day and i had to do ottawa toronto well jim ralph was the goalie for the ottawa 67s

and then all these years later doing a hockey game with jim ralph uh in new york city madison square garden right and it was just but were you nervous I wasn't. I wish I was a little more nervous, but I wasn't nervous. And just being able, and the Leafs lost 4-1. This is, you know, Alexander Georgiev made 56 saves, but at least I got Kasperi Kapanen's goal call right. And I got the New York Ranger calls right. But I'll tell you what, you realize how good Joe Bowen is. When your voice isn't up to doing, you're talking three straight hours of high energy talking. Right.

It really puts a strain on the vocal cords. So you've got to work your stomach. And that's a process. And when you haven't done it in a long while. Like, were you exhausted? I was exhausted. I was absolutely exhausted. And as you know,

now the 401 game, maybe not so, but in many games, it builds up, right? It builds up, so you kind of need most of your strength for the end of the game when maybe there's even overtime or there's a late comeback or whatever. But yeah, Bowen's fantastic. He's the voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And I remember driving back from a telethon at McMaster Children's Hospital, and it was Toronto in Ottawa needing to win to stay alive. And this is the game where Domi's head was rammed into the dasher boards. What's his name? Stephon Ricard-Person. Anyway, he was given five-minute penalty. The Leafs scored two power play goals. They get back into it.

And I remember at the end of the game, and the leafs are blocking everything in sight and joe's gone god bless you boys i remember this call very well the hair on the back of my neck it was just on high and that's joe's ability to raise the level of a game now that's an exciting game but joe can do it in any game he loves the maple you Leafs. He loves the Panthers. He can also do it for hamburgers. He does it for hamburgers as well. He's a great salesman, but for me, he's the premier play-by-play man going, and there's so many great play-by-play people.

And it's interesting. This will tie into, we're going to find out exactly what you're up to these days. We see you all the time, but Sportsnet, hockey, et cetera. But there's a lot of people who want Joe Bowen to be calling regional Leaf games. Well, I guess he doesn't work for Sportsnet, right? He's like a Matt Devlin. He works for MLSC. Right.

And so he's not there. And there are people in a higher pay bracket who make those decisions that I don't, and they've decided to go in a different direction. There may be a variety of reasons, which I don't want to even get into and even speculate, because I don't know. But regardless of where Joe is, radio or television, he's the voice of the hockey club. He's 67 years of age. He's into his fourth decade calling this team

he loves this team and uh it's it's a privilege to have worked alongside him and and and watch him do what he did or does and then to get the opportunity at madison square garden beautiful building renovated now uh and call that game. It was a privilege. I mean, it's just sort of nice to say, hey, I got to do an NHL game, and I think back to the first game, Sue Greyhound's Ottawa 67s, Tim Swiejak scores the overtime winner

against Jim Ralph, and how exciting it was. So, a moment, because I've had email interactions with Jim Ralph, and he seems like a really cool guy. Like, he just seems like a nice guy. I know he listens to this program on occasion and he enjoys what's happening here. He's a comedic genius. And, and I say that I'm not overwhelming in any of my praise. He's a

comedic genius. And we've worked together for almost 25 years. You would pay to put a microphone in our vehicle when we finish a game in tampa at about 10 30 at night and we're heading cross state to go to how much i'll pay i'm telling you mike and listen to jim just listen to him and now we've heard most of his stuff over and over again but it's like watching the godfather you know it's a great movie and you'll watch it another time it's like listening to ralphie and and and what i like is when we get a new person on board who's making that trip or we're out for dinner and you know he's going to do his stuff again.

Who scored the Leaf goal that you called? Because it was 4-1, right? Yeah, Kasperi Kapanen. Oh yes, yes, yes, you mentioned that. Now do you still have an audio recording of your play-by-play for the Toronto Maple Leafs? I don't. I never even thought of getting that.

Because this would be a moment now where I would play some of it but I don't have any of it so I'm hoping you can score it. I never even thought of asking for it i would have the other cool to have it like not everyone gets a call in nhl game no and you know i i think back 67 stanley cup playoffs my parents let me have a 14 inch viking portable tv in my bedroom where i could watch the games in there and uh game three when Bobby Pulford scored in double overtime to defeat the Montreal Canadiens

and I think we've got a chance to win a Stanley Cup against this great Montreal team. And I was 11 years old. Just how exciting it was. So the seeds get planted back then and now you get a chance to know these people. See, I want to feel that feeling. I've never

witnessed my Maple Leafs make a Stanley Cup final. Yeah, it will be fantastic. I'm not getting any younger here. Can we do something? It'll be interesting to compare if and when it happens. And I say when it happens to compare what we saw with the Raptors' success. And it will be different. I mean, it was the first championship in Toronto, I mean, major of that.

Since 93. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, baseball. And the Leafs were pretty good that year in 93, 94. But what it would be like, but I know from an MLSC perspective, they and the city, how to prepare for a parade of that magnitude. Because when the Leafs win that Stanley Cup, boy, oh boy, it's going to blow things out of the water.

I often wonder, like, could it get any bigger than that Raptors? And also, there's a lot of other things here, like to think, for example, diversity of fan base and stuff. Like, Toronto is an extremely diverse city. As I said, walk up Bloor Street West, there's a sample of that mosaic. Right. And the Raptors, if you just look at a parade, look at the parade.

Everybody was there. And I just, I don't know, it seems the Leafs, the fan base might not be as diverse as the Raptors. It'll be interesting to see. We go through buildings right across North America, and the fan support. I remember we were in Winnipeg, early 90s. Matt Sundin is injured, and I grab him.

He's in the Leaf room. Hey, can you come on? We're going to get a camera to shoot us. A couple of questions Joe Bone and Harry Neal throw down to me, and I interview Matt. But we're under the stands, and we're walking out to that corner area, and there's a big, loud cheer. couple of questions you know joe bone and harry neal throw down to me and i interview matt but we're under the stands and we're walking out to that corner area and there's a big loud cheer and i remember matt's going damn we're down to one i said no we're up to one we turned the corner sure

enough the leafs had scored this was in winnipeg you go to any of these buildings the leaf support especially in the alberta cities where there's so much fan support from the Maritimes who work out in the oil patch and all around those areas. I think it will be crowded. No, don't get me wrong. It'll be enormous. But it's almost hard to imagine topping what we had in June there. There's only so much room, right? And I think you'd have to have that celebration either at BMO

or even more so maybe at you know Rogers place in terms of facility I don't think I think it was booked for a trade show at that point I you know for the Raptors I there's something going on but I think you would need a stadium of 50 odd thousand people to accommodate well that's what the Jays did right they did it they did the parade and they ended up at the uh Skyome. I think they'd have to do that with Toronto or move it up to Downsview. See, don't tease me like this, Paul. Now I'm thinking about the Leafs parade.

And to get back, you know, the Leaf audience is more diverse than maybe people want to give them credit for. And Toronto's evolving. And these people come, you know, they come from different countries and they settle in Toronto and they become sports fans. I didn't

know anything about Real Madrid soccer until I married into a Spanish family. Now I'm a rabid fan. They're playing today. I'm going to watch that game. Hold on, Paul, because I knew about this and I wondered if this... Because you're a real fan. You're not just and I wondered if this...

Because you're a real fan. You're not just a casual Real Madrid fan. I can see you're beaming here. And is this because of your wife? No. My wife and I are eight years apart. Both October birthdays. She's the eldest with three brothers.

I'm the eldest with three sisters. We were both born in Sudbury General. Her father emigrated from Spain, a doctor, came to Shapo, eventually into Sudbury. Anyway, long story short, we end up in Miss long story short we end up in Mississauga they end up in Mississauga my youngest sister's best friend was Alicia and we got married and here we are all these years later but you get a chance to go over there to see a game you know Bobcat Bob McCowan we're talking about how boring soccer is well not when you see it played at that level in person boring soccer is well not when you see it played at that level in person and to hear that song that anthem sung and you know estadio bernabeu and there's 92 000 fans it grabs you like it's grabbing

me and i have no connection to this team and it's the history it's it's like our maple leaves it's the history we go back so far we're ingrained within not only the sports fabric but the fabric of a nation and and same same with with madrid when spain won the world cup in 2010 i i had tears coming down my eyes because finally this country had put it together a premier football nation but given the different regionalities and that that country always never seemed to pull together. You talk about separation and central governments, and Spain is so divided, and they put it all together.

When they put on that Spanish uniform, they played, and not only they won a Euro, they won a World, and they won a Euro. It was just an outstanding time to be a Spanish soccer fan. And of course, Spain and Real Madrid in terms of European cups, it's not easy to do. They spend an awful lot of money, but it's not easy to do. As long as I'll be reading, because I don't follow it closely like you at all, but I'll be reading and I'll see, oh, there was an $80 million transfer payment.

And I'll be reading, holy smokes. It blows. The money is just incredible. And it really has not much in terms of North American professional sport in terms of the money we're dealing with. But it's a global brand. But I'll tell you, Maple Leafs,

we were in South Africa three or four summers ago and I'm walking through the airport in Johannesburg and a gentleman from Australia comes up to me and introduces himself. He said, Paul, I'm a big fan of the Maple Leaf, and a gentleman from Australia comes up to me and introduces himself. He said, Paul, I'm a big fan of the Maple Leafs. I've never been to North America, but I follow the Leafs. I follow you on Twitter. Wow.

And we had a long conversation. He's a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, and he'd never been to a game. Well, maybe he knows this song. So basically, I pulled that Real Madrid anthem. Wow, good for you. And I said, okay, what's the Leaf equivalent? And there's a lot anthem. Wow, good for you. And I said, okay, what's the leaf equivalent? And there's a lot I could go with, for example. Which one? Are you ready? This will take you back. Okay, are you ready?

Get in the time machine with me here. Have you heard this before? Yeah. But this is going back. 93 maybe? Yeah. Like this is Dougie, Pete Zezel. Yeah, Dougie, Pete. Yes, absolutely.

That whole Jamie McCowan, Dave Ellett. You've got probably, yeah, Wendell's still on this team. But, yeah, so this is in Pat Burns' coaching. That was a team. I think the seven players on that team are now in the Hall of Fame. But it had its role players. First of all, it had its goaltender in Felix Potvin. And Chuck Fletcher.

Chuck Fletcher. Chuck Fletcher. Cliff. Cliff rolls the dice in making a trade with Buffalo to send Grant Feuer there and going with this young 22-year-old kid. But they get Dave Andrichuk as well

in the midst of a 50-goal season. And a good backup too in Darren Pupa. Yeah, yeah. Pupa eventually went to Tampa, right? But it all came together. They had a checking line. They had six to three defense pairings who wouldn't necessarily jump out at you, but they were solid. Like a Bob Rouse.

One of the toughest guys. Wendell doesn't talk about it much, but he fought Bob Rouse. And Bob handled himself quite well because Wendell's a tough, tough character. Bobby, obviously, older. But when Bob was, I guess he was playing with Washington, he and Wendell, they tangled. And Bob gave a very good account of himself. Sylvain Lefebvre, Dave Ellett, Jamie McCowan.

I mean, they weren't necessarily number ones, but they were all solid two threes. Todd Gill. Todd Gill. He'd never backed down from anyone. That's a good five. That five, I'm thinking back, that's a solid five I'm hearing. So all three pairings, one in the same.

There was no let up when that third pairing went out. They're just as good as that top pairing because they were all one in the same. And then you've got Doug Gilmore. Can you imagine playing between Glenn Anderson and Dave Anderchuk? Yeah. And you've got Wendell on the next line. 127 points is what you get out of that. Yeah. What a defensive,

as a defensive forward. So this was on a, I can't remember if it was on this, there was a DVD I bought called The Passion Returns. Yeah, Mark Askin produced that. Brilliant. This video might have been on that. I could be conflating my Leaf nostalgia.

Yeah. But this would be the closest I could come up with it. There is actually, as you know, because you're at the Scotiabank Arena, Tim Thompson, who's an FOTM, he put together a great video for a song by Ron Hawkins of The List of the Low. It's really the modern day

Leafs anthem. Like Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins? No, same name but different guy. In fact, we will close this episode of Toronto Mic'd with a song by The List of the Low, Ron Hawkins on vocals, of course. I may get back some questions. So many questions came in for you so uh and let's just establish though if we haven't said yet let's see so you now work for sports net no okay who do you work for right now i work for

maple leaf sports and entertainment uh i remember john pole we were flying back this is when we flew on the charter and we're back at the plane and he said who signs your checks and i said the same guy who signs your checks and he said is that difficult and i said yes because we got to write a line of credibility yet we've got to represent the hockey club right but i think you can do it and i think you can get the question and the story out it's a way you phrase the question i remember a game i'm going to be quick here luke shen is our guest mark asking our producer books him that day he's our first intermission guest they're playing florida it's a monday night it's a flat night toronto gives up a goal in the opening 40 seconds they give up a goal in the last 30 seconds luke a giveaway on that

first goal and he was beaten for the last goal so mark says and we're live he said i think he's going to blow you off and i said luke is too classy to do that he will not blow me off and sure enough he didn't so in the 40 sorry and they were 40 odd seconds i remember i've got to come up i've got to come up with something but i've got to maintain credibility and there's no way i'm going to avoid the elephant in the room right and so maybe it's experience maybe not but i said luke what's happened has happened How do you and your teammates rectify things over the course of the next 40 minutes to get this game back on your side of the ledger? And he just said, Paul, what happened out there is on me.

I've got to go in that room and apologize to each and every one of my teammates. There's just no excuse for what happened, and it's on me. So Luke took it on him. But I was able to phrase the question we acknowledge the situation i net you know you get a lot of keyboard warriors who love to crap on people oh yeah but they're not in that room talking to those guys monday to saturday uh over the course of eight months so it's a it's a fine balancing act in terms of working for a company you can still get the proper answers it's the way you phrase the question with respect.

The clue that you work for MLSC is that the use of the hashtag, right? It lives forever. Right. Where that would be something you probably, in fact, I'm pretty sure if you were covering for Sportsnet or TSN, you would not use the hashtag. Yes. And that's like a clue. Well, Mike Zeisberger has been on, right?

So Zeisberger forever writes for the sun. Now he works for NHL.com and he, you know, it's different. Yeah. No, and he's in a position, they're in positions. If you're, you know, Terry Koshin, who you've had in this program and Chris Johnson, any of those, you're in a position to ask. I remember we were in St. Louis two years ago and the Leafs didn't challenge a certain call,

which really was a key call as the game went on. What we found out later was that there was a miscommunication from the video coaches in the dressing room to the bench. They couldn't get the message through in time. And I said to the people I was with, I said, it's on you to bring this up and mike will bring it up babcock he will bring it up but he didn't that night and we didn't get the answer

until the following tuesday and steve simmons asked him about it i said i can't ask him about it but if i'm them i'm going to ask him about it right i'm just going to ask him about it that's a great example we're all big people right anyway now So you work with MLSC. Brian Carstairs wants to know, does Henny get to fly on the plane charter? So that's the first. I'll ask that one first. Do you get to fly on the plane charter? No longer. So we haven't for five years. We did, I know

I did for 17 years and it was a real privilege. It was not a right. It was a privilege and eventually that privilege went away when Lou Lamarillo joined the hockey club. Lou does not believe in any media, team media included, should be on the plane. Lou's a fair person.

That's his prerogative. Thank you for the last 17 years. It's been outstanding. Now we're going to fly. But Lou's gone. They can't reverse that? Mike, that's a great follow-up question. So in the meantime, from what it was like flying on that plane to now, the LEAF support staff is so much larger. Back then, they had a

massagist, they had two equipment guys, maybe a third depending on the length of the trip, and that's it. So the seats were empty at the back of the airplane. There aren't now. Right. And they've just continued it. You know what? It was fun. It was great when my kids were young and they had hockey games at Saturday morning, say at 7 a.m. And poor credit.

And I could get home from Boston at 1 that morning. Now they're 26 and almost 23. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter as much. And thanks for the opportunity. Like I said, privilege, not a right. Well, I mean, privilege, not a right. Well, I mean, I remember Paul Romanuk telling me about when he would be on the Raptors charter, and he was explaining the differences,

like different, he would say, you know, he would finish up in, let's say, Boston, for example, like game would end, he'd be in his bed by midnight. Yeah, he would. And I would pull in. So people would see me at, Michael played paperweight hockey. Max Domi, they were on the Little Leafs together. Yeah, it was kind And I would pull in. So people would see me at Portland. Michael played paperweight hockey. Max Domi, they were on the Little Leafs together.

Yeah, it was kind of, I'd see Leanne Domi the next morning. And, you know, I'd have been with Ty coming in the night before. So here's the game in, 7 o'clock start game in at 9.35. They're basically, the bus is basically pulling out at 10.30. We get to Logan for, this is Bostonoston at 11 load the plane up we're in the air at 11 30 murray our pilot in a hurry fly with murray he would just get that air canada jets plane back that charter back so we'd be back in an hour i remember flying to atl Atlanta in an hour 48, but very convenient. Wow.

And another quick question from Brian was, favorite city to visit. Do you have a favorite city? Montreal, right off the bat, just because it's such a great city. The fans are outstanding. There's a respect for Toronto Maple Leaf hockey fans, and I think it goes both ways. It goes back so far. Another great city

city of chicago for architecture for food um and the passion of the fans there but i think montreal and chicago are my two favorite cities okay sean o'rourke has a question i don't fully understand so i'm hoping you understand it but uh where and slash when did the term medicinal rouge is the term what does this term mean i i enjoy red wine. Oh, this is a wine? Yeah. I should have known. But you've got to give it a classy sort of title, and it's always medicinal, right?

There's nothing better than a good glass of red wine. I think it was something cultivated when I met my wife, and I started going to Spain and touring the Rioja area. So that's it. So instead of saying, you know, glass of wine, no, it's Medicinal Rouge. Medicinal Rouge. Thank you, Brian. That's funny. And he wants to know do you have a recommendation for a bottle

$25 and under at the LCBO? You know, my favorite LCBO is Royal York and Bloor and they've got a wall dedicated to nothing but Spanish wines and in all price levels. Listen, when you're that close to Great Lakes,

you've got to get some wine and some craft beer. So there you go. So I'd recommend any Spanish wine. We travel a lot, my wife and I. Tuscan wine, Tuscany is outstanding too, to come up with a specific bottle. But I'd say go to the Royal York. Their vintages section is excellent,

but they've got a wall, strictly Spanish wines. Wow. And all pretty strange. I think I got wine questions for Bob's son too there. Sean McKenzie got some wine. He's a big wine guy. He's a huge wine guy. Oh, wow.

Medicinal too, for Sean. Right, medicinal rouge. Okay. Now I'm just going to pick up a couple more of the questions. Do you have a, I understand you have an interesting Darcy Tucker ghost ghost story can you that's great so we're uh i think it's 2002 2003 we're traveling from anaheim to los angeles back

to back games we're on the team bus and we're headed north after the loss in anaheim this is when going through california those three games it was death row and Darcy is not a big ghost fan Pat Quinn is a huge fan of old hotels so we're staying at the famous Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles the first six or seven academy awards were in its ballroom I would recommend anyone just going into that hotel to walk around you can walk into all these things. You know, the Betty Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Cooper. I can go on and on. They were all fetid in these rooms during Academy Awards. But it's a haunted hotel.

The first two floors are shut off. There's an elevator. But you believe they're haunted? Like, you're not just... I'm not. It's not just lore. You believe they're haunted. I do.

But I'm not as frightened of it as Darcy is. There's an elevator in there that's welded shut because a worker back in the early 40s went in and fell to his death, so they've just welded it shut. You can see it. It's there. Anyway, guys knew on the team, like even throughout the game, Darcy's fretting about going to this hotel.

His roommate then was Brian McCabe. So Caber had worked with Eddie Belfort and Tom Fitzgerald about what they were going to do. Tom was off early, the bus, Belfort was off early, McCabe held Tucker back in some way or form on the back of the bus. So they get in, lo and behold, lights go off and in the closet is Tom Fitzgerald. Underneath, no, Belfort and in the closet is uh tom fitzgerald underneath no belfort's in the

closet fitzy's underneath the underneath darcy's bed okay and the lights are off and it's about 15 20 minutes and then all of a sudden there's a scratching on the closet door and fitzy's underneath just lightly pulling wow and darcy literally jumped out of his bed and into bed with Brian and he was just beside himself. So I heard this going down the elevator the next day and it was just like Darcy Tucker. This is a guy who dove into the bench in Ottawa and took a Chris Neal punch to the face.

Of course, yeah. This is Darcy Tucker. He's afraid of nothing. So go to the Biltmore Hotel. It's outstanding. You haven't witnessed any supernatural activity there yourself? No, but I've walked around it. I was on the sixth floor of that particular trip.

But Pat loves staying in those old hotels. Whether it be the Palliser in Calgary and the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, he loved the old hotels. Other coaches, it's like Randy Carlisle. We always stayed at the Westin. Why? Because he won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks staying at the Westin. Oh, superstitious.

Normally they stay out at the Brooks Street in Kanata, which is close to the arena, but Randy just stuck to what worked for him. Very interesting. Tell me a little story about you and, was it Bob McGill? Who got hit by the baseball? I got hit by the head in a baseball. So this is the 2016 draft,

the Austin Matthews draft, and we went, they usually take players to a baseball venue to hit. And so Buffalo, you know, Toronto's farm team is there, the Bisons, yeah. Yeah, Buffalo Bisons. Bisons, yeah. Anyway, so we're there early, the guys, you know, doing their hits team is there. The Bisons, yeah. Yeah, Buffalo Bisons. Bisons, yeah. Anyway, so we're there early.

The guys, you know, doing their hits and whatnot. And Bob and I are doing our stand-up right off the coach's box, you know, on the first baseline. A bunch of the Blue Jay prospects are out hitting foul tips and whatnot out deep in right field. Well, Bob's to my right, and I'm talking with him, and I could see his eyes in the last moment open right up and I get hit. I turned ever so slightly.

Otherwise it would have hit me square, but it hit me on the back corner of the head and it was fairly solid. And whoa. And our producer, Nicole Byrne said, okay, well, we'll start that from the top. And I just said, no, let's keep going. Okay. We're going to keep going anyway it made fox sports uh top so you went you went viral as they say yeah but it could have been it could have been nasty you know what not one of those guys came over to ask me how i was and i

was fine but i gotta admit if somebody takes a baseball off the head i'm gonna head over just to check in to see how they work no we were we were in there. We were where they were working. And it's like you sign up for a car race or any of these things. Beware. But anyway, it happened. And that was 2016, the next night the Leafs drafted Austin Matthews. Absolutely. Now, I'm going to ask you my final question,

unless, of course, you wanted to share anything else with us, which would be fantastic. But you're a big candy fan, like a fan of candy i like twizzlers red twizzlers i think they're the only kind and jolly ranchers are another so what i'll do i'll head to the dollar store and i'll load up in this stuff and i'll i'm at c32 in our press box and i'll just leave it there i don't get into much of it but i'll some of it, but it's sort of a watering hole for everybody stopping by and it's comfort food. And in these, these arenas, Jolly Ranchers, they're so good because they last for so long. They're terrible for your teeth. The dentists don't like it. Maybe they do like it. Right. Right. Right. But that's,

that's where that started. I worked with a guy named Phil Lashapel, who's a very prominent CBC sports producer. Phil used to do our university games games i worked with me at chch and he'd always bring in a pile of candy and he would nest he would get into a bit of it but not necessarily all of it and i've sort of picked up that tradition and carried it on see i don't care for candy because my 15 year old daughter loves candy you're describing but i it. I like chocolate. I love chocolate. So chocolate is like, especially if I have a glass of milk with the chocolate. I love that.

Chocolate's got to come out of the fridge, Mike. I just don't like room temperature chocolate. I'll even put chocolate in the freezer. My wife hates that, though. Now, as an employee of MLSC, did you get a Raptors ring? No, I didn't. Did they, not even like a replica?

No, and I'm a contract employee, but contract employees who did work for the Raptors, they all received rings. It's a really nice touch. They're so big. Yeah. Like they're absolutely huge. I remember Chicago's ring, Dale Tallon,

he was gone, I think down to Florida, and they gave him a ring because of all the work he put in with that franchise. And it's just like, they're huge. I got a rock ring. Joe, myself, and Brian Shanahan all got Toronto rock rings when they won their first championship in 98. That was the year they played out of Maple Leaf Gardens. And I still have it.

It's a much smaller trophy, but it's a really nice-looking trophy. And since then, the rings have just gotten bigger that's just the evolution of that type of jewelry so um no great on the raptors that was outstanding and and really nice touch with their employees to to offer them with their names on it and they all it's it's a team situation we all play a role in the success either indirectly or not, and they rewarded their employees such. So you're biased because you work for MLSC, but do you have a prediction regardless for the Toronto Maple Leafs in this season?

Oh, I'd like to stay from that. I remember four years ago, I remember Ben Ennis asked me about Toronto making the playoffs. I said, Ben, this was in October. We'll see where we are at the end of January and go from there. And then they weren't there yet. It's going to be a tough 33 games to play. But this team has a lot of talent

and I think we haven't seen the best of Freddie Anderson. We have. He's sort of stepped out of the tracks a little bit, but I think he's going to get back in there. Well, if he doesn't, we're done. I'll say it. But you know what? This is just a process.

You've got to look at the big plan. And all these teams who have won Stanley Cups have gone through challenges to get to that point in time. And maybe this Toronto team is in the midst of that growth as well. To answer your question, I think they're going to make the playoffs. It's funny. This was totally random and a coincidence that you dropped the name Ben Ennis just as we close.

My next guest on Toronto Mic'd is... No way. Ben Ennis. There you go. Monday. Oh, fantastic. It's almost like I had fed you. Look at the wavelength we're on here.

The guy lives out in Oakville. I met his dad at an establishment in Mississauga. He's a dad. He's got kids. It's just neat to see this next generation coming through. Well, yeah, they had to get... At some point, you have to get, at some point you have to get younger for the, yeah, and

he's got a great time slot on 590 and we're going to dive deep with him on Monday. Oh, that's great. What a privilege for him to get, because he's so young in his career. And what a privilege it was for me to spend this time with you, Paul. Thank you for doing this, man. Thanks to all your sponsors. Looking

forward to taking some of these prizes back, especially Palma Pasta. Again, I'm a big, big fan, and Great Lakes Breweries and everything else in the book. Stomp and Tom, thanks very much, Mike. This has been awesome. And that brings us to the end of our

574th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike Paul is at Henny tweets and again who do we who we give credit to John John Sinden who gave me the

name he just came up with Henny tweets and and this was September of 2011 so it's a good one it's a good one our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer

Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta sticker you is at sticker you the Keitner Group are at keitnergroup.com and Banjo Dunk is at Banjo Dunk See you all Monday with Ben Ennis Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day

But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started.