Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rob Faulds: Toronto Mike'd #718

Episode Date: September 9, 2020

Mike chats with Sportsnet's Rob Faulds about his career in sports media doing play-by-play for the Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors, curling, the Memorial Cup, tennis, and more. There's also a wonderful tribute to John Cerutti.

Welcome to episode 718 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. Pumpkins After Dark, save 10% with the promo code. Mike, M I K E D CDN technologies. You're outsourced it department. Call Barb at 9 0 5 5 4 2 9 7 5 9 sticker. You.com create custom stickers, labels,

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I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Sportsnet's Rob Fault. Welcome Rob. It's a pleasure to be here. It took me 718 episodes to get here, but I finally found my way. Let me ask, I've always been curious. Did you ever think about maybe sending a note and just to check in and say, hey, I'd love to talk to you?

Because some have done that. I did in the 500s. I think you were in the 500s then. I thought that's a cool show. And I've seen some of your guests and some of our colleagues and some people I've worked with. And I went, hmm, that'd be a cool show to be on. And it wasn't until I just happened to flip you a note and say,

you know, no, I think I just followed you on Twitter. No, you didn't. See, I would appreciate it. I'll be honest. When somebody interesting like yourself reaches out and says, hey, I love your show. If you're ever looking for a guest, hit me up. To me, I love that because it's like, yeah, let's do it.

But I feel people don't want to make that move because they don't want to. I don't know if they're worried. I don't want them as a guest. I'm like, Rob Falls? And go, I have no idea who you are, and no thank you, please. That bozo? Forget about it. No, but if you look at the list of 700,

you're almost too famous for this show, to be honest. I feel that I'm lacking a little bit. Yesterday you had Jay Douglas. Yes. Fabulous show. Interesting. Can you sing? Because he kept breaking into songs. Poorly.

And usually late at night when I really shouldn't be singing. And then you had Romy on and Romy brings his Beatles collection with him. And I've worked with Romy before and we've had Beatles discussions. So I thought okay, I've got none of that. And then you've got other music

guys on. I'm going, I'm bringing absolutely nothing to the table. You're no Jay Ferguson from Sloan, is what you're telling me here. I have a guitar in the basement that I haven't touched in many, many years. Well, that beats me. But at some point, you were able to play this guitar. Very poorly. When I was a teenager, and then my son picked it up, and I thought, you know what?

If he's going to do this, maybe I should, you know, pick it up again. But no discernible musical talent. I played the violin when I was very young. I feel like only smart people can play the violin. And my mother thought I was very talented with it. But I had an issue reading music. I could follow you. If you were to do something on the violin, I could follow you.

I was good that way. But when they put the music in front of me, I'd go, okay, what is that? And then it would be, so my skill set was lacking there. We're not getting any musical performance today. No fiddle playing today. What did you think? Because it just dropped yesterday,

so a lot of people haven't even heard it yet, but it sounds like you gave the Jay Douglas episode a listen. Is it as good as I thought it was? Yeah. Because in the room, I don't know if it yet, but it sounds like you gave the Jay Douglas episode a listen. Like, is it as good as I thought it was? Yeah. Because in the room, I don't know if this is a room. This is not really a room. The area, yeah. In the backyard here, in the environment, I was just like, he only had an hour because he had an appointment.

And I tried to jam as much stuff in that hour. But I just was like, I was just loving every minute of it. but I just was like, I was just loving every minute of it. Well, when he started to talk about the bass line and the drums and how important they were in reggae, and you think when you listen to reggae, you don't really think of that, but then the beat is so important to that kind of music that you went, you know, it means when I flip it on again

and I'm doing some channel surfing, I'll listen a little more carefully. And I like it when you're getting a history of reggae from a guy who lives and breathes it and was there. He was performing in Montego Bay in the late 50s, I guess. He's the real deal. That's pretty special. You're the real deal.

Look, I finally got around to asking you. was probably intimidated by you for uh eight years my buddy a guy you might know named andrew stokely yes you ever heard of this guy very well yeah in fact it sounds like you listen to him you put the enhancer on for me i appreciate that it's built into the board here so it's yeah some compression here i needed it from myokes is one of the good ones. He's one of those guys that you work with, that you look forward to. I'm very fortunate because along the way, I've worked with some terrific guys. And when you know you have to do a job

and you know who's on the crew, you go, ah, this is great. And he's one of the good ones. He is. He certainly is. He'll be happy to hear that. Because he's definitely listening right now. Maybe live.

I bought his golf clubs. Okay, that's the question. he's definitely listening right now. I bought his golf clubs. Okay, that's the question. Okay, good. Thank you. I bought his golf clubs a couple of years ago because he was switching brands. He thought he was going to Callaway. You got a sponsorship deal? Well, he decided he wanted Callaway, and he had a set of tailor-made. I know he played very well and kept great care of his club. So he said, here, why don't you make this deal?

And he made it every time I said, yeah, I think I'll get your clubs. He kept throwing in an extra club. He threw in a bag. He threw in a dozen balls. He knew I'd lose the balls. That's why he threw the extra dozen. And I had nothing but love for the irons. But then when I tried to use the driver that he put in the bag, it was a nightmare.

It was a complete, it was one of those drivers, I don't know, that you have to use the little tool on to adjust the weight to the toe. You know, I have no idea. I actually have to plead ignorance. I've golfed twice in my life and didn't love it either time. And I don't know any of this stuff. So it was a nightmare for me.

And so every time I'd see him, I'd go, he'd say, how are the clubs? I'd say, they're all good except for the driver. The driver might end up in the lake. But I have finally come to some sort of peace with it. The driver and I get along a little better than we have. So other than that one, let's say, summer of discontent, it's been pretty good. Okay, because his question is, ask him if he still hates the golf

clubs i sold them not not the irons just the driver stokes just the driver and he has a bonus here and tell him i'll miss him this fall with no curling i know so tell me uh i'm not a huge curling guy uh what what has tell me what's exact what's the exact current status of curling in this country? In this country, it is on hold until they can really come to a decision. The Canadian Curling Association has put out some rules and some plans that they think should be followed if they want to get curling clubs back, but curling clubs are being a little reluctant because of the fact they have to be socially distant. My club myself, I play at the Oshawa Curling Club,

and we've got eight sheets, and the question is, how do we keep people safe? How many should be on the ice? Should it be three-person teams? Can you go with four-person teams? What do you do if you have the late draw, if you want to come into the lounge and get ready for your game because teams are coming off the ice?

How do you keep everybody apart and still maintain the integrity of the game and the quality of what a curling club is, and that's a camaraderie. So it's difficult right now. In fact, I just filled out a questionnaire from my curling club about how safe are you about not opening the locker rooms, being ready to go, coming basically in your curling gear and just holding your shoes, coming in and playing. Is there a difficulty with you being in the lounge

when the other teams come off the ice, and how do they do that? And for curling clubs across this country, lifeblood is members having the ice full and using the bar in the lounge. That's where the profits come from. Right. So there are a lot of curling clubs who are going to hurt this year if they cannot have that social aspect, make money off the bar. Yeah, because it's the beer with the guys and gals after the...

It's a major part of it. Yeah, of course, of course, of course. And the cost of running a curling club, having ice, you've got to run compressors, there's dehumidifiers, there's the ice plant. All those things combine. And if you have a building and nobody's in it, there's no revenue and that's going to cause problems, I believe, across the country. So it's a difficult situation. Some clubs are opening with strict guidelines, and some are waiting.

And it's going to be interesting to see how it all shakes down. Okay, Rob, what about televised curling that Canadians love on Sportsnet, for example? Well, both us and TSN have had to put holds on our curling coverage. We were supposed to start next month in Sarnia, our first event. It has been put on hold. We put all our events on hold until the Players' Championship in April here in Toronto. And then the next event is to be in Alberta in late April, early May. And so all these things are on hold.

A lot of major events that usually are played for the curlers to really get their points, to earn money, to earn the possibility of being in bigger events. They're not there right now. So for us, it's difficult because the Grand Slam is something we own. It's a property we own. It is an event that we've grown to love and the curlers like it. So it's really difficult from that standpoint because we don't know exactly how things are going to stack up as we get, let's say, into a season. Wow. Okay. So what the hell are you doing with your time these days? I am annoying the lovely and charming more than you can imagine.

This is the longest I have been idle in my entire career. No wonder you came on Toronto Mics. You needed something to do. I needed some stimulation. You needed a microphone. And I said to my wife, they want me to do this podcast. She said, go. She said, how many days? Yeah, in fact, if they'll let you sleep over and you can do two editions, that'd be great.

I'd pitch a tent for you. I'd pitch a tent for you out here. It's been difficult because in early March, I was in London. We were going to do a junior hockey game that weekend. I got the call that it was on hold, and then they shut everything down. So basically, since March, I have been waiting for the call and hoping something will break through. So now, again, I plead a little curling ignorance,

but who are the Sportsnet people in front of the camera that would be typically involved in televising these curling matches? We have Mike Harris. The former premier. No, not that one. The silver medalist from the Olympics. We have gold medalists, Joan McCusker and Kevin Martin. So we have a very good, tight group who know the game inside out,

who make my job incredibly easy. I'm just a club curler. And they play and they think the game at a completely different level. So are they like the analysts? Yes, they are the analysts. I make sure we get to and from commercial without mostly any interruption. Okay, Sportsnet. So here, I've got to remember who's on what team.

So the main guy, correct me if I'm wrong, but the main guy on the other channel is great FOTM, Vic Rauter. He's a wonderful friend of Toronto Mike. Yeah, and terrific broadcaster. Really one of the voices for curling for a generation. He works with Cheryl Bernard, and he works with Russ Howard. Brian Mudrick does some work, Kathy Gauthier. They have a great crew as well.

So it's nice because they're all carrying the torch for curling. They like the sport. They want to see it progress. Right. And it's, you know. Is that a rising tide floats all boats or lifts all boats maybe? So you've never considered taking a pipe and knocking out Vic Router's kneecap or anything like that? A full Kerrigan? No. Well, occasionally.

There's no animosity there. It's hard to dislike Vic Router. It is. And you get a little jealous because of the fact he does the Briars and the World Championships. We do the Provincials and we do our grand slam tour. Uh, they've got, as they call it, the season of champions. So they've got, uh, all the, you know, the national finals, the Scotties, the Briar, the world. So sometimes when you see, you know, a chance to call a Scotties or a Briar, you get a little,

you're going, Hmm, that'd be nice to do that. Like, have you ever been, uh, been uh tempted maybe uh at the end of a are they called matches that's really quick is it a match curly match or game whatever you like okay uh to just say make the final like just throw that in there and see if anyone started it started to come a couple of times so then you go no no i'll leave that's vixen because then he sends over his cousin guido and then you're in trouble yeah you don All right, dude. Don't mess with it. Well, I can't afford the money when I, if I said it, I couldn't afford the cash involved. Like when I learned, yeah, I learned Michael Buffer has the, let's get ready to rumble. Yeah, I came to say it, or I have to send him a check.

And then I, Mark Hebbshire is a good friend of mine, also a client, and people should subscribe to Hebbsy on sports. It's good. Did you ever work with Hebbsy at Sportsnet? Yes, I did. When he came over to do the show, the Supper Time show, I guess that was the sixth across the country.

He had a miserable experience. He did not have fun. And they did it differently for all around the country. Anyways, at some point, Jody Vance got that gig and the rest is history, I guess. And Jim Van Horn was there.

So I saw Mark maybe two or three times in his tenure because of the fact I'm always on the road. And when I dropped in, it was basically to do expenses and make sure they knew I still worked, make sure my pass card worked, and then I'd move along. Smart to check that out. But Mark and I are kind of contemporaries.

We both come through at the same time and done a number of things. Because he's not a, like, you know, I just made a joke and it's true that everybody likes Vic Rauter. And I will say, everybody I know in the biz who heard Rob Foltz was coming on said, what a great guy. Like, to a T. But that's not true of Hebsey. Like, sometimes I have people who are like, I effing hate

that guy. But isn't it funny though, if you're, if you have a style, and McCowan went through this too. Oh, I bet. There were two sides of the road, that you love them or you hate them. Yeah, there's some guys like that. Hebsey's in that bucket. But I like Hebsey.

I always like this stuff. Many of us have stolen versions of the Hebsey Awards to do it. At local sports levels, when I worked in Montreal, I did a version of the top 10 awards, which were, and I'm probably going to have to owe him money too, maybe a little bit of a takeoff on the Hebsey Awards. Well, I only brought up Hebsey to talk about Jim Taddy, which is, I believe, according to Hebsey, that Taddy owns Yes Guy.

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, I say Yes Guy all the time. Taddy's not sent me an invoice yet, but I'm sure he knows I'm using it. I've got a producer who says that too all the time. There's one producer. All of us guys about a certain age who were raised on a sports line on Global

say Yes Guy. But the funny thing is I'm often with Hebsey out and about or whatever and then people will say Yes Guy to Hebsey and I always think, well, that must be weird, right? Because he didn't say Yes Guy. Taddy said Yes Guy, but they kind say yes guy to Hebsey, and I always think, well, that must be weird, right? Because he didn't say yes guy. Taddy said yes guy, but they kind of say it to Hebsey because, hey, yes guy. Like, it's just part of the show.

Well, it's like Vic. People will see Vic and go, make the final. Yeah, but that's okay because that's Vic's thing. That's Vic's thing. But maybe he was looking at you as, you know, his co-host. That's what you were, you were his co-host. Right. Maybe he was just talking to you.

They weren't talking to Hebsey at all. Maybe I should start saying it. Yeah. Pretend I can't sound like Jim Taddy. Okay, so would you... This is a long... Because you're coming from Durham County. Is that a county? I should know these things. Durham County?

I feel like that's a TV show. It is a TV show. I think you're right. With Hugh Dillon from the Headstones. I saw the Headstones once and I was in Winnipeg? No, was it Winnipeg or Edmonton? I think it was Edmonton. And I ran into somebody who was sponsoring

a concert that the headstones were in. And he said, have you heard of the headstones? I said, yeah, I've heard of the headstones. Well, there's a concert going on. Do you want to come to it?? I said, yeah, I've heard of the headstones. Well, there's a concert going on. Do you want to come to it? And I went, oh, okay. I'd never been to a concert.

Well, my hair hurt. Yeah, they're loud, right? I didn't realize exactly what the headstones were. And I sat at the back of the hall, and I could feel my hair vibrate, and my hair started to hurt. And I went, all right, I won't be going near the stage.

So I apologize there, but, uh, it was an interesting experience. What kind of music do you listen to? Well, I'm a child of the sixties. So I'm a sixties,

seventies. I spent a lot of time on serious listening to the sixties and seventies. And you're a big Beatles guy. Beatles. Very much. So I'm a Kenny Loggins fan. Stones. We did a yacht, a yacht rock episode. Yeah, very much so. I'm a Kenny Loggins fan. Stones. We did a Yacht Rock episode.

Yeah, that's right. You got to listen to the Yacht Rock. Honestly, you'd love it. Kenny Loggins is all over that thing. And a lot of that stuff. And the way I grew up in radio, too. I worked at a radio station that was very middle of the road, and then adult contemporary, and then an FM. In fact, one radio station every long weekend would have what they call the music of your

lives. So it was a lot of big bands. So that's what CJCL was. So I got to know a lot of big band things and then 50, 60, 70. So it kind of runs the gamut. I kind of ran out of steam listening to rap. My son listens to songs that I can't understand the singer anymore.

Well, that's the mumble rap. That's the big, the mumble rap is tough to understand. And the ones, the guys that do music like this, and you're going, I have no idea what he's saying. And my son goes, oh, they're great lyrics. I'm going, there are no lyrics. He's just screaming. You sound like a dad. I sound like the old man, don't I?

Get off my lawn. I'm a bit like that with the rap because my 18-year-old listens to nothing but rap right now. And a lot of times I'm like, I'm listening because I grew up listening to Public Enemy and I grew up with this kind of rap. And very articulate and thought-provoking. Chuck D is a master poet. And it's

like, yeah, right. You start listening to yourself and you're like, oh, I'm sounding like a dad right now. I've got to rein it in here. i did see a documentary on the history of rap and the origin of rap oh shad did that that's uh the evolution of hip-hop it was awesome yeah and for somebody like me who really wasn't part of that scene right to watch the way the genesis of it and how it grew it was remarkable shad's an fotm like you know. Oh, there you go. No, fantastic, that series. I think it's on Netflix. People should watch that.

It's good. It is very good. The evolution of hip-hop. Okay, so you mentioned radio stations. So tell me specifically, where are these stations you started this career? My career began at CFPL Radio in London. I was going to the University of Western Ontario. That was what they called it back then instead of just Western or Western University.

And I was there taking biology and psychology. And I got, you know, I started to hang out at the campus radio station. And the campus radio station had a little affiliation with CFPL-FM. FM station gave them, the campus station, six hours from midnight to six to do whatever they wanted to do. So one day there'd be somebody doing folk music and reading poetry. One day there'd be classical. One day there'd be hard rock. So it gave these young kids playing radio a chance to be on a big radio station. And from there, I got a part-time job at CFPL. And as I started to work at CFPL, my hours at the radio station went up.

My hours at university started to slide. So I went from being a full-time student to a part-time student to an extremely part-time student to keeping my one class so I could go to the campus pubs so i had my student card and then finally somebody at the radio station says you have far too many hours to be a part-time employee so i thought i was going to be fired because i and they said i said oh i'm i'm sorry but because i would say yes would you do that yeah I'll give it a try. They said, would you join full-time? And I went, yeah. Okay. I wasn't making a lot of money, but I was enjoying what I was doing. And I was

fortunate because at the time, CFPL in London was a great market to be in. A lot of guys who had been at big markets wanted to be in a medium market, grow their family. They got paid well. It was a great community. They were willing to teach me. They were willing to take me aside and say, don't do that. Don't say that. Don't write it that way. You know, I had a news guy say, that was a great newscast,

but you don't put the guy in jail until he has actually gone. So I learned how to write there. And I can remember doing my first newscast, and I walked out and I felt pretty good about myself. And veteran guy, Dean Chevalier, said, that was pretty good. You didn't suck. And I thought, okay.

And it was enough criticism. And I had other people there, you know, Barry Smith, Bill Brady, who said, you know, why don't you try this? Let's do this. And so they gave me the opportunity to do some of everything. And in doing so kind of gave me a foundation that I could build on. I would do some news, I'd program music, I'd be a board operator, I'd go do a remote, I did some sports. You got to get your hands dirty. And in every aspect of it, and I kind of went, you know, I was always a. You got to get your hands dirty. And in every aspect of it.

And I, and I kind of went, you know, I was always a sports guy anyhow, growing up. Um, you know, I played football, I played volleyball, I played everything. I wasn't a bad, I was a very bad hockey player. So I looked at other, you know, other avenues, but I always enjoyed sports. And when the opportunity came, that's what I, it seemed I was best at. And then from CFPL, uh, I applied for a couple of jobs that I didn't get. And then finally, one of the guys I worked with, Barry Smith, knew somebody in Sudbury who was hiring, needed somebody to be sports director, radio TV, do the play-by-play of

the Sudbury Wolves. I'd done some play-by-play in London for the Knights. I sent my air check in. I got a call. Can you come up? We'll want to meet you. I went up in the middle of a driving, just a huge blizzard in December. Didn't think we were going to land. In fact, the pilot said, we're going to give this a shot. If we land, it's all good. If we don't, we're going to go back to Toronto. And I'm thinking, okay, that's not really good for your interview process. At least he's giving it a shot. And I sat next to the old veteran NHL official, Red Story.

Oh, yeah. He was going up to do an old-timers game, to referee an old-timers game. And I explained to him as I sat next to him on the plane what I was doing and he wished me all the best I had the interview it seemed to go well but the problem was it was the interview was on a Sunday morning it was the day after CKSO's Christmas party so everybody I spoke to had partied, let's say generously, the night before. And all I got was, yeah, good to meet you. Let's try this. Okay, do an on-camera.

So I did an on-camera. Yeah, that was all right. Okay, I want you to meet some guys. So we ended up going down to a bar, and they started to enjoy the Christmas beverages again. So at the end of this little meeting, I said, well, I got to go back to the airport to get on the plane. The guy says, all right, thanks for coming. I didn't hear, we'll let you know. I get back to the airport. Who do I get on the plane with again? Red Story. And he says, how did it go? I said, Red, I have

no idea. I have no idea at all. I explained everything. He said, well, they didn't, uh, did they make you pay for your own cab? I said, no, they gave me a check. Oh, then that's, that's a good sign. And then the next Tuesday I got a call offering me the job in Sudbury. And I was there for five years, four years. So what, where are we in the, uh, like, are we in the late eighties? So I started in radio in January of 1975. Okay, 75. And I was in CFPL until January of 1980,

replacing a guy in Sudbury by the name of Joe Bowen. Oh, wow. I don't know if you've heard of him. Holy mackinac. But Joe had followed the, Mike Cranston was a morning guy, and he got a job in Halifax. And Halifax had the Voyageurs, and the team said, well, we need a play-by-play guy.

Cranston says, I know the perfect guy. And Joe followed Mike to Halifax. And then when Joe went to Halifax, I got the job in Sudbury to replace Joe Bowen. It's such a small world, especially Canadian media. All the stories all kind of tie together here but okay now i have a question uh from darren shanahan he says hey mike rob folds was my favorite sports broadcaster on cfcf in montreal in the late 80s early 90s can you ask him if the legendary sports casters on cfcf and he name drops a couple, Dick Irvin, Ron Roosh,

I hope I said that right, has had any influence on his career? So maybe, how do we get you to CFCF and then talk a little bit about... I spent four years in Sudbury. Got a call to go to Winnipeg. I worked in Winnipeg for a year at CFRW, and they had the rights to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. So it gave me a chance to work in a bigger market doing a pro team. So I made the move and I also covered the Jets. But I did the broadcasts for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And

while I was there, I got a call from CFCF radio saying, we've got an opening for our evening talk show. Jeff Rimmer, who's now the play-by-play voice of the Columbus Blue Jackets, was moving to Washington to do a radio show there. And so I said, well, I'm really happy here. The Bombers had a great team. Everything was going well, like the house we'd bought, everything was very comfortable. I said, I'll tell you what, I'm going to be in Ottawa to do a bomber game on such and such a weekend. I can come in a day early and then fly down to Montreal and do the interview. So when I got down there, I did a quick little interview

with the people at CFCF, went back to Ottawa, did the game, flew back to Winnipeg. And about midway through the next week, I got a call saying, would you like to come and take the job as the host of this sports talk show? And I thought about it and I went, you know, and the money was good. But I thought, you know what? Bomber's having a great year. And that was the year they won the Great Cup. It was 84. Right.

And I went, you know what? Thank you. But we're happy here. I'm going to pass on it this time. So I didn't think about it. And about 10 days later, I got another call saying, well, there's not just radio. There's a possibility you could do some TV. And, you know, we're the station with the Canadians. There's a possibility you could do some TV.

And, you know, we're the station with the Canadians. We're the station with the Expos. And we'll give you more money. And I went, I guess I really shouldn't turn it down. It was a major market. Yeah. So I resigned and joined CFCF in November of 84. Wow. And so I did radio pretty much exclusively for about six months.

And I'm walking through the station, and our radio and TV stations were in the same building. Right. And Dick Irvin comes toddling down. I'm going, that's Dick Irvin. I had actually met him. He was sports director of the radio, but basically a radio run itself. Randy Tiemann, the late Randy Tiemann and was basically handling all the things at the radio side and

it goes uh rob stops me and i said oh my goodness dick ervin knows who i am right and he said um i might need you to do some uh noon pulses which was a noon show uh are you interested i said yeah he said well come in and ron will show you the ropes. Ron Roosh. And so I said, okay. So I went in and, you know, watched how they did it. And both Dick and Ron were terrific at making sure I did things the right way. I wrote, I wrote sharp, tight. And they both said, use your personality. right? Let it, let it come out. And you know, that'd make you make it different and people will, will recognize you. So they were instrumental there, but I also worked some great guys, as I mentioned with Randy Tiemann with Brian McGorman, uh, Ron Francis, not the hockey player, but all these guys together,

we had a very tight ship. It worked really well. Uh, we had a lot of fun. We together we had a very tight ship it worked really well uh we had a lot of fun we we took a real interest in the community uh we tried to build up local sports whether it be university college uh whatever level we went out to the community and i think that that certainly helped and it helped you develop your personality it helped the people and the viewers know who you were. And from there, you know, it gave me a chance then to show the skill set that I had developed at my stops in London, Sudbury, and Winnipeg. Oh man. Okay. So you mentioned pulses, right? So this is like, so I remember Gord Martineau came on this program and he was telling a story about how he was working in Montreal doing pulses.

And then when he came to Toronto. That was the name of the sport. The new show was called Pulse. Right. But then he, because then he tied the line between the fact that they named the City TV news program in Toronto City Pulse. Yeah. And he was connecting that. So that's the same station, obviously, that Gord Martineau came from over there. Yeah.

So we called it Noon Pulse, you know, the 6 o'clock pulse and the late pulse. And now it's all CTV News, but back then it was Pulse Sports, right? So that was the way we signed off. Rob Foulds, Pulse Sports. Wow, okay, cool. What would you describe this rain again? We talked about it before I pressed record,

but so throughout this episode, moisture is falling on me, but it's so light that I haven't even picked up the umbrella here or anything. It's like we've got like a light mist going on here. It's Ireland. It's Ireland or Halifax. I'm not sure. But it's just enough to know. You're not sure if it's annoying or not.

You can feel it. It almost feels refreshing. If it was warmer, it'd be amazing. I feel like it's not quite warm enough to be amazing. But you're it. It almost feels refreshing. If it was warmer, it'd be amazing. I feel like it's not quite warm enough to be amazing. But you're right. It's not bad. But it's not quite rain, but it's not dry. I like the fact you keep your guests

in protection. That's very nice. You mentioned the Romi episode. It wasn't that case for Romi. I had that over me, and I had Romi down there. Where it was cooler? Under the tree. Well, it was, you know, as you know, until very recently, every day was 30 degrees, right? But the reason I stopped was actually Hebsey. He's like, why do you put your guests in the sun?

Like they bake there for like, sometimes these episodes go 90 minutes and they're baking there. And I realized, yeah, like, why am I doing that? I think I felt like we needed a lot of distance. More hug, yeah. Yeah, and then I figured, like, this is, like, you know, safe. That's why you kept asking Romy if you'd applied sunscreen. Okay, I got it now. Right, because I had a, when Scott Turner came on, same thing. So at the beginning of the Backyard episodes,

down there was the table, and I'm pointing to the, like, a lower level. And I was, like, a judge, like, above them, like a lower level. And I was like a judge, like above them, like whatever. And now we're on equal footing at least. And I think this setup is so much better. And I'm like, well,

just sometimes you have to kind of like see things from different perspectives or whatever and play around and figure it out because, you know, I went to zoom. So when the, when the pandemic hit, in fact, one of my zoom episodes is somebody who wanted me to say hi.

So let me dig that up since I'm mentioning the Zoom episodes. But you know Mike Ross. Yes, very well. I've got to find it here. I know I took a note on it. I'm sure I did. How would I not do that? But regardless of whether I can find this or not, and I hope I can, he

had a great experience. He says you're one of the good guys and he had a great experience working with you. So where did you work with Mike Ross? Would have to be Sportsnet. Yeah, Sportsnet. So shout out to Mike Ross. I think he's from, I say, out east.

It's far away, but he's from Whitby, Ajax, Oshawa, one of those ones. That's right. I think he coaches out there. He coaches baseball out there. Yes, yes. Pickering? I feel like it's further. I feel like coaches out there. He coaches baseball out there. Yes, yes. Pickering? I feel like it's further.

I feel like Ajax, Whitby? Well, it could be. Well, we go Ajax, Pickering. We go Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa. Right. My guess is Ajax, but I hope I got it right, Mike, because I feel bad. But Mike Ross says hi regardless here.

Let me give you a few gifts here. So we got you at CFCF in Montreal here. You're working with Dick Irvin and the gang, doing the pulses and everything. That's a good time to stop. I have some fresh craft beer. I've noticed that, yeah. That's yours.

You can drink them all now or you can bring them home. I do have an hour drive. Yeah, don't drink them all now. But they are cold if you want to crack them. I noticed they're hour drive. Yeah, don't drink them all now. But they are cold if you want to crack them. I noticed they're very, you know, tempting. You get the nice little... Yeah, it came straight from the fridge. That's commercial sweat right there. That's what you

when you do commercials, you get the condensation slowly dripping down. Well done. That's smooth marketing right there. Thank you. Sometimes these things happen by accident. But thank you Great Lakes Beer. It's delicious. You'll love it. And they're not far from here. But you can find them in LCBOs across this fine province.

So even in the aforementioned Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa area, for sure. So thank you, Great Lakes, for that. I also have it arrived today. That's an empty box there. But in my freezer, I have a meat lasagna for you to take home with you from Palma Pasta. Wonderful. Delicious. And to a

T, every guest says, this is the best store-bought lasagna they've ever had, and I can't wait to get your review. I will check it out. You've got two of my favorites right here, beer and lasagna. See, it was worth the drive, right? Because that was a lot.

How long was the drive? With me getting lost? Oh, did you get lost? Well, I followed the GPS incorrectly. Actually, let's see. I left the house at 9.45 and rolled here. 90 minutes, maybe. No, it was just about an hour on the nose.

Okay. I did have an issue getting down your street, though. All of a sudden, a big truck, a delivery truck, stops. And your street is not very wide. Right. But he stops, and I'm going, well, what am I supposed to do here? And then finally he waves me, and he gets annoyed, and finally left me enough room that I could squeeze by.

Well, you're driving that Hummer like it's going to get. I'm just kidding, everybody. All right. Who else? I want to thank some more partners. Okay. Pumpkins After Dark. This is really cool because, you know, Halloween is going to be different this year.

I wonder when we'll all decide, because I got the four-year-old and six-year-old who are crazy about Halloween. What are the rules? Like, they got to be modified, right? Because there's a pandemic, Rob. There's a pandemic. But I can tell you for sure that the 2.5

kilometer driving route at Country Heritage Park in Milton is going to be, like I said, drive-through. So it's an 88-acre farm, and they have 150 jack-o'-lantern sculptures and over 7,000 pumpkins, and they illuminate the night skies. There's a big 40-foot tower and a 50-foot long tunnel like it's going to be amazing you

need to go to pumpkinsafterdark.com now though because you have to book your day and time and all the good day and times are filling up very quickly and this is going to sell out so to get your pumpkins after dark tickets use the promo code miked m-i-k-e-d that's like a change to the old promo code i was dropping they changed it on me so you got to use the promo code miked to save 10 when you uh buy your ticket so pumpkins after dark.com that's going to be pretty cool i know my buddy from oshawa elvis was writing me the other day he just bought his tickets to pumpkins after dark so very cool to do that for my granddaughter she's four and loves halloween yeah good for good Oshawa Elvis was writing me the other day. He just bought his tickets to Pumpkins After Dark. So very cool.

I have to do that for my granddaughter. She's four and loves Halloween. Yeah, good idea. So how many grandkids you got? Just the one. And how old? Four just started JK. I got one of those inside.

Went for the first time on Tuesday. And how did it go? Well, she didn't have any problems. She kind of went by, waltzed right by the parents. So the parents were probably more agonized. And then came out at 3, 3.15 and had already glommed on. Oh, this is my best friend, Harrison. Wow. And this is my friend here.

So she had a fabulous time. She's a social animal. Did she ever go to like a daycare or nursery school? No, but she went to what we called practice school. Oh, okay. school? No, but she went to a, what we called practice school last spring, late, I guess, late winter, early spring. There was a morning, she went three mornings a week from nine to 11 and got a chance to be in that school atmosphere. She calls it practice school. Well, some kids just call it real school. Now she's in real school. That is JK is real school. No, for sure. I asked

her if she had homework the first day did they give you homework her face screwed up like what's homework yeah i think it took me a long time to figure out what homework was she colored so i said there it is homework's done well that's awesome i hope i have the same uh scene i think i'll have an easy go with uh morgan next week in daycare because i mean uh sorry real school because she had the daycare experience like until covid she was in daycare so i feel like kids from daycare who go mean, sorry, real school. Because she had the daycare experience, like until COVID, she was in daycare. So I feel like kids from daycare who go to JK, it's the same thing. They're already

socialized. They know the atmosphere. She heard us. She's poking her through the screen. Somebody's trying to find out why is the great Rob Folds in my backyard here, in the rain of all things, although it's not really rain, whatever this is. So awesome. Good luck to all the, I would say good luck to all the kids going back to school, but especially the not really rain, whatever this is. So awesome. Uh, good luck to all the,

I would say good luck to all the kids going back to school, but especially the parents and grandparents, because the anxiety is, uh, there it's palpable due to this pandemic. Like it's doing the questions. There's just, you know, as we even started with the curling, the questions there, you want people together, you want them to socialize, um, but you don't want them to put them in danger. And that's the tough part right now and and that's the concern everywhere you go and we've been you know in our household we've had masks on almost since the start right when we've gone shopping only one of us to here to those are shopping right uh it has not been a group effort right uh we've been very careful in our bubble uh it's been a very tight bubble but that's why it's tough so many families like yours and mine have been so careful.

And then all of a sudden we release our younglings into these, you know, to be in contact with a whole bunch of different people. And then they come back home and you kiss and hug them and put them to bed and all that things, you know, you do with your kids. And it's like, it's like you went from, we went from being really careful and like, you know, I haven't been going to bars, you know, I'll do a patio do a patio right like i'll be careful on a patio although i haven't done it many times but uh i won't like i won't go into uh we haven't done that yet we haven't done the patio like i think so okay so i'm done back deck yeah well yeah and you did this you know and that's part of but that's part of our bubble that we you know right we'll be in the deck and and then even then we're still watching our sure our space. But now, like, you're going to want to,

next time you see your granddaughter, you're going to want to give her a hug and a kiss. And then, but now it seems like we've lost, you know, that control of being careful in contact. It's anyway. A lot of touching elbows now. Elbow to elbow. There we go.

Or the, you know, we're bringing back the Bash Brothers bash, you know, remember when they. Oh yeah, Jay Douglas gave me that yesterday. I have a question for you. Okay, good. Go ahead. Yes. You took your family camping.

Yeah. At the Pinery. Yes. We have our cottages in Grand Bend. Oh my God. So when I saw that you were taking beautiful sunset pictures of Lake Huron, I thought, okay, I have to ask you where you were hanging out. So when I saw that you were at the Pinery,

you're a braver man though. I'm not a camper. My wife's not either. She didn't go. Well, she made the wise choice then. No, but I was, this was, I mean, I do try to camp once a summer and I raised, you know,

I raised the teenagers on camping. So the 16 year old is actually, because I actually was taking the summer off due to COVID. Like I didn, you know, I raised the teenagers on camping. So the 16 year old is actually, cause I actually was taking the summer off due to COVID. Like I didn't book. And then I was like, whatever. And she said, dad, we have to go to Pinery. She loves Pinery. And I, I went and I was surprised you could still get like good spots with very short notice. And I thought, maybe that's due to COVID, but it felt, you know, for what it's worth, other than when you went to the washroom and you would mask up and, you know, only two people in at a time, uh, you would never know you were in a pandemic. it was a safe safest thing but i like camping but you're right not everyone i did it when i was a teenager but i haven't done it i

do bring an air mattress like that's the big change for when i was a teenager is i now bring an air mattress so i'm on a generator and a television no no no and all your electricity podcast no i saw, I saw the, I saw the bus you were driving and you had power in that bus. Um, you could have probably run the whole studio out of that bus. Yeah, that was the,

uh, yeah. Thank you Ford Canada because, uh, they put me in a Lincoln aviator and it was way too luxurious for me, but it was, I needed the space. It was amazing.

Like that was, that was amazing. I even, and then of course, uh, because I have this Lincoln aviator for 10 days after the camping trip, we did, we went on a bunch of road trips,

including Waterloo to visit my son. And it was, that's a weird experience. You've been through this, but like visiting your child at their place of residence, that's not, you know, with their mom or dad is,

that's an interesting moment. Like that's, it's interesting until you realize the squalor they live in. There were a lot. Yeah. And then I got really, you know, I saw a lot of empty alcohol containers and,

and my boy and I have always talked very honestly and I, he had just got there. So they weren't, he didn't drink it, but I was like, you know, given reminding him of all the, you know,

be, be sensible, be careful and all the different rules know, be sensible, be careful, and all the different rules. And the rules are different this year because I don't want him going to any frosh parties and exposing himself to the virus. So there's a whole bunch of extra things. I had a similar one with my son when I went to Fleming College in Peterborough.

And there was one, I'm trying to think, four guys in the, so they had four bedrooms and there was a common area. And I said, what's this closet? They said, no, no, there's nothing. It's just a storage closet. I said, what's it? I opened it and it was about halfway full of empties. And I said, oh, okay, thank you.

And then I closed the closet right up there. Well, that's it. Because, you know, my boy, who's only 18, three of his, there's five of them. There's five bedrooms and then the common area. And the three of the five are like older, like 20 or something like that. And they can go to bars. And during my 18 year old, I'm like, and then I remembered, maybe it was true for you too. Where did you go to high school?

I went to high school, well, a couple of places. My dad worked overseas. So I started my high school in Hong Kong and then was in Aldershot when we moved back to Canada and finished up at a Markham district high school. Okay. So you did five years of high school. Yeah. I was a grade 13. Yeah. Yeah. We called it OAC, but I did five years of high school too. Well, that's long gone right so

it's like now that they got a year you know some of the kids in high in university right now are actually turning 18 later this year like they're actually 17 right now and I'm like oh wow anyway so I had skipped a grade I skipped a grade when I was in public school so when I got to university you're young I didn't I was 17 17 so I didn't turn 18 until the end of September. So I really was kind of out of the loop and I lived off campus. I didn't live on campus. So it was kind of, you know. Hong Kong? Like, I didn't know the Hong Kong part of your.

My dad worked for an American electronics firm's Far East division. We were originally supposed to go to Korea, but he got a kind of a midstream promotion. Well, halfway across the ocean, they said, we want to run, you're on our Hong Kong division. And the company was Oak Electronetics. Do you remember Motorola televisions? Then the big advertisement was the works in a drawer. So you'd pull out this little drawer next to the color TV and all these

circuit boards would snap in and out. And it was supposed to make the maintenance of your television much easier. So the company made these circuit boards that snapped into the TV. So he took the four youngest of us, I'm one of six, to Hong Kong. So basically grade 9, 10, and 11, or forms 4, 5, and 6, or 3, 4, and 5, I was at a British school on the Kowloon side. Wow. You've been like Johnny Cash.

You've been everywhere, man. You've been everywhere. Okay, I've got to get you to Sportsnet. But here, I've got to thank a couple more people. I've got to thank CDN Technologies. I just talked to Barb. I'm all choked up talking about Barb. I just talked to Barb from CDN Technologies.

They're there if you have any computer or network issues or questions. I always say they're your outsourced IT department. You can call Barb at 905-542-9759, but you can also write Barb at cdntechnologies.com. And if you put in the subject line, Toronto Mic'd book, Toronto Mic'd book, she's going to send you a free copy

of her awesome book of these great free tips and tricks so send Barb an email Barb at CDN technologies dot com and put in the subject line Toronto Mike book I might have to grab one of those beers Rob here and I'll dry here

but I also want to thank Austin Keitner from the Keitner Group. If you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months, I would highly recommend you contact Austin and have a conversation with him. His birthday was yesterday. You can wish him a belated happy birthday. Just text Toronto Mike to 59559. And last but not least, StickerU.com. That's where you go for stickers and such.

Rob, I got to get you a Toronto Mike sticker. I got to remember to bring them out, but they're downstairs in the basement studio where we're not allowed to record anymore. So I have to get you one. But if you go to StickerU.com, you can upload your image and then, you know, very reasonably priced

and, you know, very safe because it's e-commerce. You can get your stickers and then, you know, very reasonably priced and, you know, very safe because it's e-commerce. You can get your stickers and decals and such. And they're a fantastic, fantastic partner of Toronto Mike. So thank you, StickerU.com. So where do we got you? We got you in Montreal right now. How do I get you to the, are you an OG, an original Sportsnet team member?

I'm a POG, pre-original. What? So when I was working in Montreal, CFCF was a CTV affiliate. And I'm just shooing a wasp away. They're lazy right now, those wasps. Yes, thankfully. Like me, haven't done much in a while. CTV would gather talent from across the network to do different sporting events.

They'd pick up Ron Rouge to do the Canada Cup and things like that. They had a number of people that they would use, depending on where the event was. depending on where the event was. Right. They asked about using me in 1990 to do the Winter National Swimming Championships. Okay. And the eye was that if they got a chance there, that it was basically an on-air edition. So I had to call Swimming Nationals with Byron McDonald,

who's a veteran of CBC and many Olympics, a terrific coach at the University of Toronto, a wonderful guy. We hit it off, and the event went very well. And from there, then they'd start to call me to do other different events, whether it be another skating event or more swimming. I think the iron addition was knowing that they had the Olympics in 92. So from 1990 onwards, I did a lot of freelance for CTV sports, as well as my duties at CFCF.

So if I had time off or I'd booked my time off, I'd say to Ron or Dick, I've got to do something for the network. Can I have Friday, Saturday, Sunday off and I'll pick up some shifts? They said, no problem. Cool. They were actually encouraging me to go do the network. We got to 92. I did the Olympics in Barcelona for them.

Right. I did swimming and a little bit of anchoring. And then 94, we did the Lillehammer Games where I did the Alpine events with Todd Brooker. But that's amazing. That's very cool that now you're on Brian Williams' turf. Yeah. Well, no, and it's one of those things. I grew up listening to people like Ted Reynolds, a fabulous broadcaster.

John Battam was a voice in my growing up in Hamilton. Purse Allen, they both did football. So voices like that I listened to and learned from. And, you know, I really loved Ted Reynolds' call, Don Whitman. Not only I got to listen to, I got to know very well when I worked in Winnipeg because he was based out of Winnipeg. It was guys like that that I grew up listening to that really kind of went, that's what I would like to do.

And when I got my chance to do my first Olympics, I was over the moon. And then 92 followed, and they basically had lined up knowing who they had available in 90 to use in 92. And then I got a call saying CTV was thinking of starting its own sports department and they were looking at an opportunity just to to have two maybe two perhaps three basic anchors who would do all their sports down the line and they looked at a number of people they hired myself and Rod Black from Winnipeg. So we came in to be the anchors, not only of whatever CTV projects they had,

but to fill in on Canada AM as the sports guy. The two of us would switch off. So this was 95 when I finally got offered the job. So it was an interesting 95 because we bought a new house in May, moved in in June. I got the offer to move to Toronto in July and moved in November. So I did a lot of planes, trains, and automobiles for the first year. So in 95, I moved officially to CTV.

Okay, so you're now basically a member of CTV Sports. And one of the reasons that they were looking at hiring Rod and I was they had got the NBA rights, knowing the Raptors and the Grizzlies were born. They had the full slate of figure skating that they did, as well as they had all their weekend stuff, and I did the auto racing and a number of other events for them throughout the, the scope of the time I was there. So when I moved, they also had mentioned to me, not only do we have the basketball and we have, we have the figure skating and you do the auto racing and you do this, this, this,

we're going to make a bid. We're making a bid for a sports network. And I thought, well, you know what? This is the opportunity. This is a chance to get on the ground level of something brand new. So I make the move, and the CRTC declines, denies their first bid. And I went, uh-oh, did I make the right move? Did I do the right thing? And I can still remember the president of the network coming up to me,

John Cassidy, and saying, don't worry, we're making another bid. Appreciate you jumping on board with us. And then they made the next bid, and it was accepted. And I can remember the call in early 98 or late 97, Doug Beforth, who was the president then, called me and said, we have a sports network. So get ready. You're going to be busier than ever. And so that was 97.

We signed on in 98. So I was predating the Sportsnet. You're a POG, as we just learned. It's interesting to look back at how CTV had Sportsnet, and then now it's flipped, and the CTV people, Bell Media has TSN now, and Rogers has Sportsnet. Well, we were an orphan for about a year, so it was CTV, Sportsnet.

Right. And I can remember I had just finished the Four Continents figure skating in Osaka, Japan, and I got on the plane to come home and on the flight home the flight attendant says I've got a Canadian newspaper for you would you like to read it and I said sure so she said it's a day late because we've been in the air. I said, okay, no problem. And on the front page, it says, um, CTV buys TSN. And I went, oh, uh, and the girl says, what's the matter? I said, um, the company I work for just bought the other sports network. And she goes, oh, what's going to happen there? Yeah, good question.

And then it became, the rule was you could not, one company could not own. Yeah, that's a CRTC thing, right? Yeah, you have to divulge yourself. Pick one. And you know what? They made the right move. They kept the one that was making money.

Oh, that's the Heritage Station. We were brand new and TSN was established. They were making money. And so they kept TSN was established. They were making money. And so they kept TSN. And then so for about a year, I think it was a year, maybe it was longer, we always referred to ourselves as orphans because we kept waiting. We kept hearing somebody was interested. And then Ted Rogers bought the Blue Jays, and then he bought us, and the rest is history.

The rest is history. But Ted Rogers, he had such a vision for broadcasting and for what could be. He was a brilliant man and he understood that if he had the Blue Jays, it's best to have a network that he could put the Blue Jays on. And so he said, you know what? This is all part of the empire. This is all part of Rogers Media and it has grown part of Rogers Media. And it has grown from there.

And it's been a remarkable ride from that first day. Indeed. Okay. So, and again, now, you know, back then when you, there were very little, you know, sports properties on Sportsnet. Now everything seems to be there. So it seems a flip. It's been a fun ride. But this is interesting.

When you think about it back then. Yeah. We got denied the license. And the CRTC was Canada is not big enough for two sports networks. Now, that was in 97. So here we are 23 years later. Right. And we have TSN, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Sportsnet, East Ontario, West Pacific. Sportsnet, 1. Right. And now we have Sportsnet Now and all these different things. So in the space of a generation, we have seen sports growth and sports broadcasting, and the growth there has just gone crazy. When you think of now and what you can get and where it's available. I mean, we literally, we have two all sports radio stations in this city. Like, yeah, it's unbelievable to think about.

And now everything online and what's available on your handheld or on your computer, all these, your tablet, what you can get access to now is, it's mind-blowing. It really is. Is Rod Black a good guy? You know, he was booked on this show, and then he had to go. He stiffed you? Maybe. Something happened with his schedule.

Yeah. But we haven't, yeah, he's a good guy? Terrific guy. Great golfer. Well, he says he's a great golfer. Yeah, he's a good golfer. You know what? He's one of those busy guys, too.

He keeps himself jumping, does's a good golfer. You know what? He's one of those busy guys, too. He keeps himself jumping, does a lot of charity work. Yeah, he's a good one. He was terrible to travel with, though. I'll tell you why. He was constantly late. Like, he was, I'm going to run through the airport and be the last guy on the plane. So you'd be there waiting and waiting, and then they'd call Mr. Black,

and then he'd come rushing through. Now, things have changed a little bit with the fact you have to be at the airport a little sooner and go through security. But when I first met him, just to travel with him, and he would empty his suitcase as if it exploded. So he'd say, knock on my door before you leave. We'll go together.

You'd knock on his door. And everything would be everywhere. And I can remember doing an event with him. He came. He said, I said, knock on my door when you're ready to go. We'll go. He comes in. He goes, where's your stuff? I said, what do you mean?

He said, didn't you get your luggage? I said, I put it away. You put it away? Yes, Rod, I put it away. He's good. He and Leo, I had such a great time working with he and Leo on the Raptors and the Grizzlies when they first signed on. Right.

You know, I got to work with John Saunders. Oh, yeah. Jay Triano out in Vancouver. It was just a great bunch of people to work with on something new. And this was new to this country. And Rod and Leo have been there since day one. And to see them, the Raptors, win the championship, you feel good for them.

And everybody who's been associated with the team for such a long time because you realize the growth and how exponentially it has become part of the Canadian fabric. It's terrific. How good was John Saunders? If you could spend a moment there. He left us far too soon. He was great.

He was easy to work with. He was knowledgeable. He was friendly. He was, you know, when I walked in, I was doing sidelines while John and Leo did it. And, you know, I was accepted right away. There was none of this, you know, I work at ESPN now and ABC.

He was just easy to work with and just a delight. And you're right, he's gone too soon. I know when Leo was over here, he had some very kind words as well to say about the late great John Saunders. Absolutely. Now, I want to talk about the Blue Jays here. So, okay, so the Raptors, and we got to win tonight. This is a must-win game.

I feel that anxiety in the air as well. And I've got it too. That was an awful, awful, awful game five. Not what I expected at all. You know, when you win two like that, they get right back in the series, he evened it up, and then all of a sudden, now everybody has stinkers.

Everybody has a bad game, but that just didn't look like they were involved right from the opening tip. Yeah. Somebody said it was like they had had a good night the night before. Like they had a good night. It looked like they had had a fun time. Yeah, but sometimes we have a good night the night before you play harder because you don't want people to know you had a good night the night before.

Right. Well, hopefully we have a different effort tonight because, yeah, I mean, it's hard to believe that Heat are in the conference final. Like, that's a shocker too. So, like, we just. Everybody thought about the Bucs, right? Everybody thought, okay, it's going to be the Bucs and the Raptors and they're going to square off again.

And now, but that's the nature of sports. That's the one thing. Here are the New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference Final. Right. Yeah. Knocking off teams like Philly. And who saw Dallas? There's a lot of.

Well, I want to make very clear that at the start of the season, somebody sent me an email and said, who do you like in the Stanley Cup Final? And I don't know why. I said, I like Dallas and Tampa. Wow. You got to get that to Vegas. The only problem was, yeah, there was no wagering done before that.

I cannot find the email to have proof that I actually said that, but I'm standing by it. Right now, it doesn't look – I think Vegas is better than Dallas. It's 1-1 over there. Yeah, and I think Tampa will prevail, but Barry Trotch is such a good coach, and he makes the right adjustments. That one could be a long one, too. Yeah, I mean, I've got to admit, since the, and I don't think,

I don't know what we're calling it, the qualifier, I guess, but since the Leafs were eliminated in that five-game, best-of-five qualifier, I haven't watched a lot of hockey. I don't know if that makes me a bad game, but it's summer. It's been wonderful weather and lots of things going on, and I'm kind of focused on the Raptors. You mean you didn't watch four hockey games a day? No, I know.

Not again. I know you work for Sportsnet, but like, I just hope, you know, for all the friends I have at Sportsnet, I hope a lot of Canadians are watching. I think they are. I think without question. They've become, they've captured the country. And to watch the development of the sport in this country is, you know, we were always a hockey country, right? We're always a hockey player country, but to watch the way basketball and the play of

Canadian players and the improvement in Canadian players, when the Raptors started, I noticed more and more, and this is when they first signed it, all of a sudden driveway basketball hoops going up. And now you're starting to see kids with tennis rackets banging the ball against schools or going to the local tennis courts because of Bianca, Milos, Dennis, Felix. So you're starting to see that again and again. It's great for the sport. So you call some tennis for that again and again. It's great for the sport. You call some

tennis for at least Davis Cup stuff. I do the Davis Cup and Rogers Cup. Right. And again, that one, not this year. Right. That's why you're here. You're going to camp in my backyard a little bit here. It is definitely this word is being tossed around

to me, but this is an unprecedented time for Canadian tennis. Like I know, well, I mean, I'm of an age where like I was excited to see, I don't know, Andrew Schneider.

Like, oh, look, he's in the top 50 or whatever. Like the fact that, you know, it starts with Milos, I guess, and that we have guys like Felix and Dennis. And I mean, you mentioned Bianca winning an US Open. Like this is the best of times for Canadian tennis.

It was a year ago when Bianca was there and captured the world and New York. So it's amazing what has happened here. And Felix will win. Like, it's, you know, some of these guys got to retire. No, but Felix will win and Dennis will win. Right. Milos looked probably the best I've seen

getting to the Cincinnati final against Novak. But I don't think he's going to, I don't, I feel like age and everything working against him. I don't think he ever wins a Grand Slam. And again, you know, what is he now? Like 30 or something like that? Yeah, 30, yeah, 31. Something like that. But the fact that, I don't know, what's his age right now, Felix?

Is he 19? 19. He can drink now. In this country. Like, so, I mean, the future's bright in Canadian tennis, that's Is he 19? 19. He can drink now in this country. So, I mean, the future's bright in Canadian tennis, that's for sure. But I want to talk about the Blue Jays. So how did you get the, because this is kind of, I mean, I'm thinking back, I've had Dan Schulman on the show, Jamie Campbell.

I'm just thinking, like, this is a kind of a, you're in rare air here, people who got to call play-by-play for the Toronto Blue Jays. That's amazing. And I'm one of the few who called both the Blue Jays and the Expos because I did the Expos on radio for two years in Montreal. And I think when I came to Toronto, they were looking for people who had done some baseball, and I had done some baseball play-by-play.

And when Rod made the move to stay with TSN, we had the opening of the Sportsnet games, and I had filled in for Rod on a couple of games where he was tied up. They knew I had done baseball before, so I had the opportunity to do baseball there. So walk me through the timelines here. So we signed on in 98. So who was it?

Was it Jim Hughes? Who was it? Well, Huey did it for TSN and Dan Schulman and Buck. And then Brian Williams did the CBC. Rod did it for us at Sportsnet until he left to join TSN full time. So I jumped in to that chair to do it. I did some with Joe Carter. I did a year with Jerry Howarth when we had a limited schedule,

and we only did about, I think we did 25, 26 games, because CBC still had their schedule of games, so they had a number of games. We had a number of games, and then TSN had the lion's share. And then we all of a sudden upped our, our, the amount we had because of owning the network and Ted saying we wanted the product on the,

on our air. So CBC still had their games. TSN, I think had a few. And then I did over a hundred, the three seasons I worked with John Cerruti. So speaking of guys gone too damn soon. One of the best.

One of the best. That was the season from hell, if I remember correctly. And that was, was that the last day of the season? Final game of the season. Oh, yeah. Tell me a little bit about John. Like, sadly, I'll never get to have him on. Well, if you look in the dictionary, look for nice.

John was there. He was one of the nicest people I've ever dealt with, was accommodating, was funny, was willing to share his knowledge, was opinionated. You could get into some pretty good arguments. Scott Carson, who's the longtime stats guy for the Blue Jays, he and John used to, they'd get onto a tangent and they'd start to argue and argue and argue.

It was the funniest thing because they both had good points, but they'd get more and more heated. I can remember we were in Arizona doing a game and we went to a commercial break and John said something to Scott about some stat. And Scott yapped back at John. John yapped back at Scott. And this had happened before.

They love to go head-to-head. They love the butthead. So the poor floor manager who's in the booth with us is thinking they're going to come to blows. And she's looking at me, and I went like this. Don't worry. This happens all the time. And so it's 5, 4, 3, four, three, two, one. Mike comes back on, you know, you wouldn't even know it happened.

And all I'm doing is smiling. I look at the floor manager and I went like, see? And she goes, okay, I got it now. And then Scott smiling and John smiling. Cause they would go at it all the time. He was just, he was a terrific guy to work with and fans loved him. He'd spend, he was late for every meeting we had because he'd stop and talk to every fan along the

third baseline. At the ballpark on the way in, he'd sign every autograph. He'd always be late leaving the hotel because there'd be somebody who wanted to talk to him and John would talk to him. I can't imagine the sadness of that day. I can't even. One of the worst days. So, John, it's the last day.

So everybody's in an interesting mood. In an awful season, if I remember correctly. It was not a good season. John always came down from the hotel. He stayed at the hotel that was connected to the ballpark. He would come down and walk down the left field line, you know, pulling his, his suitcase. Right. So, but I knew he had some family and friends in. So I said to the guys, as we were getting ready for our production meeting, John's going to be late. We knew that everybody went, yeah, yeah. But I kept

looking down the left field line, looking for him. And it was weird because I didn't see him. And I remember doing a pre-game radio interview with Mike Wilner. And I'm trying, I'm not sure who else. It was like a little round table they had. And I kept looking down the left field line, expecting him to become trotting down the line. So he doesn't come in. And I say to the producer, we better give the hotel a call. He could be in the lobby or still in the dining room talking to either a server, a baseball fan, the general manager of the hotel, let's check it out. Right. And still nothing. So we usually would rehearse the opening. I rehearsed the opening solo. Um, and then they said, well, you're going to have to do the opening solo. I said, okay, I can do that.

And just make it very quick. And then we got into the game, and they brought in J.P., came in to do a couple of innings with me, the general manager. Right. Tom Cheek came down to do a couple of innings with me, the general manager. Right. Tom Cheek came down to do a couple of innings with me, which was a thrill because it was Tom. But all this had an underlying of this is not going well, and I know that they had called the hotel security

to see if they could get the hotel open. They'd been calling his cell. They'd been calling his wife in Florida to try to get her to get in touch with him. Right. So all this is brewing underneath. So JP did a couple and then Tom did a couple. Bobby Maddock came in and did some and kept calling me Robert through the whole thing.

And yes, you know, it's like being at home. Well, Bob Elliott would do that, right? When you're in trouble, you know, Bob does that too. Hello, Robert. Robert. So we got through it, and, you know, and I had a foreboding all the way through. And Scott Carson was to my left,

and you could see him during breaks. Usually he wouldn't cover his mouth and talk into his thing because I wouldn't normally hear him. Right. But this time he covered his mouth, and I knew that this was, he was getting stuff from the truck that I wasn't getting. And I knew they were deliberately not telling me anything at the time.

Right. So my focus was to concentrate everything between the white lines. Right. So we finished the game. We say thank you for the season, sign off, and our vice president of production, Rick Brick Jude comes around the scrim in behind the broadcast booth and just his face told me everything. Oh my God.

He told me everything. And then he mentioned that John had passed away. They found him in his room. Soon went on to that. It was a heart problem. But it was, then you become otherworldly. I remember sitting in the booth for a long time by myself with Scott and just sitting there. And then I went down to the clubhouse

and it was silent. And I said goodbye to John Gibbons, Brian Butterfield, and I waved at some of the players. And I remember leaving the clubhouse, ran into Jay Stenhouse and his wife in tears. And I remember getting in my car and leaving the ballpark. And I was supposed to go to my sister's place for a barbecue. I remember leaving the ballpark, and I was supposed to go to my sister's place for a barbecue. I remember leaving the ballpark. I don't remember much about the drive until I was listening to 680 News, and they mentioned John's passing. And I just went, well, it's real.

And, you know, it's so sad because he was young, full of life. He had a young family. He was energetic. He was never out of shape. He, but it was just one of those little health issues that was, he got told once that he had a heart, like a little blip or a heart arrhythmia. And the doctor had told him, and John had said to me, he said, oh, the doctor says I got a little thing in the heart. I might need a pacemaker when I'm 65 or 70.

And that's the way he left it. Yeah, I'm sorry, man. Just hearing you tell that story, I get the... It was just... That's the saddest thing. Because, I mean, was he like late forties or something like that? Like I can, you know, I can see that from where I'm sitting and, uh, you just, yeah, it's like a ticking time bomb in your chest.

So make sure you get checked out, make sure you stay healthy. Um, it's just, yeah, it was, it was a difficult day. Um, and you know, I, I thank the people I worked around. They helped me concentrate on what I had to do. Um, but, uh, you know, you had that sensor foreboding because, uh, you know, when he doesn't show up and he. And that's one of those no news is bad news, uh, feelings of, uh, if, if he was fine, they would have let you know.

Yeah. They would have said he got on the wrong plane. He thought he was done. He thought he doesn't working today. You know, one of those little silly things is that, uh, you know. Yeah, they would have said, he got on the wrong plane. He thought he was done. He thought he wasn't working today. You know, one of those little silly things is that, you know, he twisted his ankle, he can't get here. Or he has a fever or something.

I'm so sorry. Yeah, that's terrible. And that, you're not, you don't do play-by-play in 2005. I didn't do that. Yeah, that was a season without. 99, 2001, 2003, and then I, I was, they decided to go for a change at the end of that year.

That was basically the end of John and my contract year. Okay. Even though I was going to resign, it was just a matter of, then they said, you know what? John's gone. We're going to make a complete change. I went full-time at Sportsnet. Instead of being a contract employee, I joined staff. And then Jamie Campbell jumped on.

And Jamie had a number of different analysts. He had Darren Fletcher, Rance Molnix. Right. And he had a couple more that I'm missing. I know I am. I also got a chance to work with Tom Candiotti, too. So I had Candyman. I had Candy.

He was great. He had one of the fabulous baseball card collections. So he'd bring in like a little book of all his best baseball cards. Okay. Like he had like Babe Ruth, an old Babe Ruth card that wasn't mint. So he would say, oh, this one's only worth like $5,000 or $6,000. Right, right. He had a Mickey Mantle rookie card.

He had taken pictures of them and put them in an album for like anybody, buyers could look at it and then they could say, okay, we'll make the deal. But he got offered to purchase the Onus Wagner card. Oh, the one that Bruce McNall. Yeah. Was it Gretzky on that deal too? I think Gretzky was in it too.

John Candiotti. But Tom Candiotti was offered that and he said, I didn't have the cash for that. He said, well, I'm surprised you have all these cards here. You got a fair bit of cash going on. I think he finally sold his entire collection. I think he had enough in the stress of making sure they were kept safe and hermetically sealed.

But he was terrific to work with as well. Still can't throw a knuckleball, but he was a good one. I feel like, yeah, he could be pitching today, I feel. You throw that knuckleball. Age doesn't matter. Okay, now, as I recall, when a home run was hit by the Blue Jays, I feel you throw that knuckleball. Yeah. Age doesn't matter. The, okay. Now, so the,

as I recall the, the, when a home run was hit by the blue Jays, you gave it the, what do you think about that? Do you want to do it again for old time's sake? It was just, what do you think about that?

And, and it was just one of those comments because how many times would you be in a bar or with your buddies and then you'd see something good. And the first thing you do, you just get an elbow in the ribs and your buddy would say, what do you think about that? And it just fell out of my face. And maybe like as an homage to Mel Allen, maybe a little, because he had the, how about that?

So no, it just kind of, it's like everything. You don't plan for it. Sometimes it's a bit of a happy accident. And then everybody seemed to, well, most people seemed to like it. Some didn't. Well, let's get real here. So then much respect, because I hear he's a great guy and I hope to one day have him on the show. But Buck Martinez, who right now is doing the analyst spot while Dan Schulman is doing the play-by-play. And Dan Schulman is right up there in the echelon of the greatest play-by-play guys in baseball history. So where am I going with this?

Is that when Buck was doing the play-by-play for many years, he had that whole, get out of here, ball. Get out, ball, yeah. Okay. Okay, I learned to live with it and tolerate it,

but I never liked it. And I'm not, I mean, some people maybe love it, but it just felt a little silly to me and a little like, like I don't know if the play-by-play guy should be rooting so hard.

I know that he's the Blue Jays play-by-play guy so I'm not looking for complete objectivity here. I'm not a fool. This is the Blue Jays telecast and you can root

for the Blue Jays as they do, of course, but it just felt like it was just too much, and I had that cringey feeling every time he did it. So I think the greatest thing is that he's doing the analyst role, which he's very good at.

He can't do that because Dan Schulman's doing play-by-play. So there, I had to get it off my chest. Doing play-by-play of any sport is a skill set, and you have to do the reps. You have to practice. And it's some that are good at it. Some are better than others. As you mentioned, Dan's right at have to do the reps. You have to practice. And it's some that, some are good at it. Some are better than others. As you mentioned, Dan's right at the top of the mountain.

There's really very few, you know, Jack Buck comes to mind because I grew up listening to him. Sure, maybe Vin Scully. Vin was there, but, you know, Vin would wax poetic. I mean, you know, he'd say stuff like, and the master painter has given us a glorious sunset as we watch. And you're going, wow, where would he get master? You know?

And Tom Cheek, who you mentioned. I grew up with him. I'm a little biased there, but I thought he was fantastic, too. But I would just say Buck's a better, and Buck, I think he's a great guy. His skill set is analyst. He's a better analyst than he was a play-by-play guy. And that call, the get out of here ball, I never liked it. I know you're not alone.

And there are a lot of people who didn't like, what do you think about that? I'd have people in some of the old forums would just roast me every time I'd say it. And of course, if you listen to everything that was said on Twitter or any of these forums, you'd be out of the business. Ask your old friend Romanuk about that.

Because he said the problem is when the bosses do listen to those guys on Twitter. And that's what happened to Romy. The old line, I think it was Casey Stengel, said, how do you keep your job for so many years? He says, well, it's easy. I keep the 15 guys who like me away from the 15 guys who hate me that's right you know and and you and it's and twitter ruins that and this is what you do yeah you know what you do your job you do it the best you can and there's always going to be people who like you and people who don't like you right and you're

gonna you have to have a little bit of a thick skin because sometimes it will eat away at you. And I have, like many people, have blocked people on Twitter because it's anonymous. Well, I bet you Rod Black gets a lot. I see a lot of times people don't love his CFL call, let's say. And I see on Twitter, the CFL faithful go at Rod Black pretty hard. And yeah. But it's the nature of the business now. And the nature of the business with the new social media is

you take slings and arrows left, right, and center. You just have to have good body armor. Right. Right. Well, listen, I don't think anybody will have any issues with the great Toronto Mike debut by Rod Fultz. In fact, now I'm going to start asking you questions. 7-18.

7-18, is that what it is? No, I'm getting that on my shirt. 7-18. Yeah, get a tattoo. Don't put it on your shirt. Come on, go permanent with this. All right, you ready for questions from FOTM? Yes.

Okay, you ready? Okay. Starts off with Scott M. What was his favorite city for the Memorial Cup and why? Vancouver, 07, was terrific. The weather was good. Vancouver Giants were the host team. Won the Memorial Cup that year.

It's fun when the host wins. They also had a number of different little parties that they did. They did one at the Vancouver Aquarium where I got spit on by an orca. No, it was at a beluga. I can't tell. Whale spit is all the same.

And the big blue sea. Rafi's a Vancouver guy, I believe. So Vancouver was great. The weather was very good for the most part in May. That was a very good one. Regina for the 100th was nice. I feel like you're naming all of the cities here. It was a good one because it was the 100th and they did a lot of great things to celebrate the fact that it had been 100 years of the

Memorial Cup. You know, they're all special. They all have a certain cachet to them. Halifax had the East Coast thing going on. Sherwinigan was interesting because a small community, they had their host team. They're very proud of all the renovations they'd done to their new arena. And then the host team wins it. The city went absolutely crazy.

To be in atmospheres like that, those ones probably stand out the most, but every one has a moment that you will always remember. And maybe it's the fact that there's youthful enthusiasm and reaching the pinnacle at such a young age that makes each one of them stand out. Okay, good answer here. Now on to my next FOTM question here. Where are my notes, Mike? Come on.

Okay, oh, here we are. Pete. Okay, another Memorial Cup one. My question for Rob is this. If the Memorial Cup takes place in the if you put in capitals, does COVID numbers impact it? And does hosting it in the Sioux make more sense than Oshawa in terms of how well they contained things during COVID? Also a smaller arena, easier to contain attendees,

as well as easier to maybe fill. He put that in quotes. Outside of travel for media, it makes sense when factoring safety COVID. So Pete's making a plea here. Let's have the Memorial Cup in the Sioux. He's talking about a bubble. He thinks he can bubble the Sioux

easier than bubbling Oshawa. It depends on whether or not there's a vaccine, if there's another Memorial Cup. The Quebec League is starting their season October 1st. The Ontario Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, are planning to start in the first week of December. It depends on how they control the virus, whether there are outbreaks.

Quebec is a bit of a testing ground because if they have an issue with, and I think some places are allowing limited fans, it all depends on whether or not there's a vaccine. It can be controlled. I know the Sioux and Oshawa would love to know if it's one or the other, where they're going to hold a Memorial Cup next year. I felt bad for Kelowna. It would have been a beauty in Kelowna, you know,

when you talk about the Okanagan. That would have been one to remember this past year. There's so many variables right now. I noticed the sports that have come back are those that get a lot of money from the TV deal or whatever, right? Because there's no one in the stands buying hot dogs and paying for parking and all that jazz or whatever. So you see things like the AHL won't play, but the NHL will

because there's a big TV deal or whatever. And I'm wondering, does the Memorial Cup, is it enough of a television property that they would have it without fans in the seats? I can't see it. It's a gate-driven league. The Canadian Hockey League is gate-driven. As you said, you need fannies in the seat.

You need people buying jerseys. You need the hot dogs. You've got to have everything there because that's how a lot of these franchises stay alive. And it's going to be interesting to see how the Quebec League handles the first couple of months, whether they can control it. They limited the size of their training camp. Usually they'd have a lot of players there. They only had, I think, 34 was the max they could have on their training camp roster.

Right. But you have a 16-year-old son. Yeah. Let's say he was talented. I don't have one, but I thought you had that rhetorical. You have a 16-year-old son. I'm with you. Very talented hockey player.

Right. Gets drafted by a team. Now, and I'm just going to say, let's say he's drafted by North Bay. You have to send him away to live with people you don't know in a community that you're not sure of how they're handling it. Or better yet, he's drafted by Saginaw or Erie or Flint. And nothing wrong with those communities. Great organization.

Fabulous teams. Great people. But now you've got the border issue. Right. And now you have to wonder whether or not they're going to be able to cross the border. Are they going to be able? How are they going to do this? And then when they come back, they've got to quarantine for 14 days.

How do you play if you're quarantined for 14 days? Exactly. Does the OHL decide on a bubble for the American teams? Do they bring them all to Sarnia, let's say, and have Sarnia? And again, if you can't fill up your arena, where's the casual? Where's the revenue coming from? And you've got five teams in the Western Hockey League playing in the States. Oh, man.

Okay, what a question. But how do you do that if you have a very talented hockey player? It's a dilemma you wrestle with there. You want the young man to maybe follow his hockey dream, but it's so difficult. And then, as you said, these teams have to depend on people buying tickets. And we're not there yet. No.

Well, no one were there, but we're not there yet. Yeah. So it's a lot of this is crystal ball stuff. Like, let's see what happens. You're imagining like, where is this vaccine and how is it disseminated? And what does it do? And we have so many questions.

Holy smokes, Rob, holy smokes. Speaking, you mentioned North Bay. So I have a question from Chris Ward. He says, the battalion moved to North Bay. The Ice Dogs moved to St. Catharines and St. Mike's moved to Mississauga and were rebranded as Steelheads, all since Sportsnet debuted. Is there a place in the GTA, he goes excluding Oshawa and Durham region,

see it is Durham region, oh Durham County, that was the show, not Durham, you got it, where junior hockey might thrive or is this only a Leafs town? That's the Chris Ward question. It's a good one. Well, there's so much good GTHL hockey. There's so many great organizations that play. It has been difficult for an Ontario Hockey League team to be successful. And there's a great list there of all these different franchises

that have had to move because they weren't getting attendance. You might be right. It might be a Leaf town or a pro town. Oshawa has a great history. They've got, you know, the success behind it. Small town, maybe, maybe they've got that small town feel. Maybe it's far enough away, like it's not GTA. That it's part of the fabric, okay, that it becomes fabric of the community.

Like a Hamilton thing. Yeah, and even Hamilton, you know, had to leave before it got back in again. So the Bulldogs now, and you think that they're, you know, after all the time, the things that they've been along the way to get back into the league, even Hamilton has a bit of an itch, but they're playing in a big building and they need a lot of people end up to, to, you know, cover costs again. It's you're probably right. You need a very tight, loyal community to make any franchise go. And you take a look at the small communities in the West, the team is the lifeblood of the community.

You know, they live and die for the Wheat Kings. They love, you know, the Moose Jaw Warriors, Swift Current. It's an intricate part of the fabric of the community. And even the Marlies, they really benefit from that affiliation with the Toronto Maple Leafs. So there's a whole bunch of cities. Nice, tight little arena. Right. They don't have to be jam-packed to the rafters.

But a lot of guys are there to see future Leafs. Exactly. Because they can't afford to see the Leafs because of what tickets cost. On the way up or on the way down. You want to see the names. Right. On the way up or on the way down. You want to see the names. Right, on the way up or on the way down. I used to go there.

I thought Justin Pogge was going to be a fantastic NHL goalie, and I used to go to Marley's games to see Pogge. It didn't quite work out for Justin in this league. He had a good junior career. Well, we traded to Carrasque because of Justin Pogge. Never made that next step. Never made that next step here. I know, we're almost done here.

You're doing fantastic here. Who is, okay, I'm going to ask, I'm going to tell you who asked this question after your answer, because I want to see if we can embarrass him here. Who is your favorite co-pilot on the long drives during Provincial and Grand Slam curling road trips? This is our associate producer, Daryl Macklem, who's asking.

Correct. And usually Daryl will say to me, when are you going into such and such a location? I usually rent the car. And then whoever's riding with me who sits in the front seat, I nickname the copilot. You're in charge of. Copilot. If I have an issue with directions. Right. You're the guy. Which you I have an issue with directions, you're the guy.

Which you will because you had trouble getting here. Well, one of the first times that Daryl and I, we got lost in, where was it? Was it Calgary? It was Calgary. We were trying to get to the hotel and he punches it in. I said, Daryl, I don't think we're going the right way. He says, no, no, it says right here on the GPS. Well, there are two hotels with the same name.

We went to, we're going the wrong direction. So I never let him forget it. And then whenever we'd get into a situation, I said, are we supposed to turn right or left here? I said, remember what happened the last time. And however, though, he was very helpful. We were coming back from a provincial championship in Manitoba, and it was a driving snowstorm. And my question to Daryl was, am I even on the road anymore?

He goes, well, we're not in the ditch, so I'm going to say yes. Those are the worst, the visibility is like that. This is scary. Yeah. And, you know, coming back last year during the Super Bowl, we were trying to find an American station that was blasting because we're coming back from Brandon, just north of Brandon. Okay.

And we were trying to pick up a radio station. And so you're playing with the radio dial. So the co-pilot can play with the radio dial. Right. And help with direction. But I'm trying to see the road, and you've got like half a lane, and you're trying to pick up the staticky part of an American, you know, over-the-border radio station that had the Super Bowl rights,

and you're going, should I drive faster? And I know I can get a station in Winnipeg, because I think the TSN station in Winnipeg is carrying it. So you're flipping around. Copilot is a very important role. He sometimes has fulfilled it very well. Sometimes not so much. Always fun to travel with, though.

Okay, shout out to Daryl. Thanks for listening. This is a cool question because it brings up the expos that you mentioned you called, and we didn't really talk much about it. I feel I've had somebody, you know, Elliot Price. Yeah. He would back up Dave Van Horn and he got some calls in. Okay, so I have had somebody who called Expos games.

Okay. Josh Grunberg says, ask him about Gone, Foul, I Can't See from an Expos game back when they played in the Dominican Republic. He thought Dominican Republic. No, it was Puerto Rico. It was the Jays Expos playing in Puerto Rico when they had that. Remember they used to play there? Because Carlos Delgado was on the Jays.

That was one of the reasons they went. Right. And it was, and this is one of the things still eats at me. Alex Rios had not hit a major league home run at that time. Right. We were in Puerto Rico. It was like 40 degrees and high humidity.

In fact, so we decided to close the windows in the broadcast booth. Well, as soon as you close the windows in the broadcast booth, which is air conditioned, fogs up big time. Now, this is still my, I still bear the brunt of this. Rios hits a long fly ball, and I'm watching it leave the bat, not looking at the monitor, which you do as a secondary one if you can't spot the ball. I'm looking up, and I'm going, that's really well hit.

I think that's gone. And John Cerruti points, and he was pointing to what field it was, and he gave a little flip like that, and I thought he was saying, that's gone. So I went with, that's gone, that's a home run. And then all of a sudden, John looks and goes like that and I thought he was saying that's gone. So I went with that's gone, that's a home run and then all of a sudden John looks and goes like that. I look at the monitor now and I see the outfielder camp

under it and realize I've blown it. So I said I made a mistake, it's an E-folds and I apologize. And I bear the brunt of that because I did not double-check, and it was one of those ones that just was so well-hidden, it sounded pure, and I went,

no, this is my fault. And you had that kind of fogged-up window. Well, we shouldn't, but it was funny because I talked to the Atlanta broadcasters who had done a game there too, and they had the same issue. Same issue and called a home run. Well, that makes you feel better. You're not alone.

Well, not really, but it's just one of those things. And you know what? You regret it because you pride yourself on watching the play, and I realized that I judged it on sound and on trajectory and didn't double-check to make sure there was anybody camping in it. So that's my bad, and I will always wear that. All right, final question goes to... Thanks for the question.

He remembers, he remembers. Jake the Snake, ask him if he has any Hamilton, Ontario connections. Born there. Yeah, he put a wink at the end of it. I'm a Hamiltonian. My mom and dad were born in Hamilton. They got married after the second world war and started a family and so all six of us were of the family were born in hamilton ontario we lived on the mountain and then my two older brothers graduated high school there the four youngest. Then we started to move with my dad when he started.

We went to Kitchener-Waterloo for about three years, and then we moved overseas, as I mentioned, to Hong Kong before we came back to Canada. Okay, Hamilton. I'm trying to think of others. Stephen Brunt is a Hamilton guy. Yeah. Damien Cox was a Hamilton guy, although he lives close to here now,

but he was a Hamilton guy. And Steve Paikin was a Hamilton guy, although he lives in Toronto now now, but he was a Hamilton guy. And Steve Paken was a Hamilton guy, although he lives in Toronto now as well. Pat Quinn? Pat Quinn. I'm thinking of FOTMs I was doing. The late, great Pat Quinn, of course. Tom Wilson from Junk House.

Oh, yeah. He's a big-time Hamilton guy. There's a lot of them here. Alex Pearson, who's on the radio now in this market. She's a Hamilton gal. Am I missing any obvious guys? I know Jeff Blair lives there now. I don't know if he's from Hamilton. No, no, he's a Winnipegger. He's a Manitoban.

Okay, so now he calls Hamilton home. I met Jeff when I went to Winnipeg, and then he moved to Montreal to cover the Expos while I was there. Right, yes, that's right. He's following me. He's following you, and he's blocked me on Twitter. So go figure here.

And I'm nobody to be blocked. What did you say to him? Nothing. I got, someone else said something and tagged me on it and all of us got blocked. I'm like, okay, that's fine. So my friend, you did fantastic here. The last thing I wanted to ask you about was the CTV series Power Play. The last thing I wanted to ask you about was the CTV series Power Play.

Because you, you were the play-by-play voice of the fictitious Hamilton Steelheads. Is that right? That is correct. And that has a connection with my Montreal time. When I was in Montreal, we had a couple of writers who wrote news. But they always wanted to do different things in media. And they had announced when I was at CTV that CTV had bought the rights and was going to produce this show called Power Play. So we're at a fall launch party. I think it was a fall launch party. And the producers were introduced to who were going to produce it now i apologize i

forgotten their name but uh i came up to him and we started talking about montreal times and i said so who's going to do the play-by-play of your hockey team in this series right and they went what i said are you going to have a hockey team that has no broadcast? They went, we never thought of that. I said, well, you know where I am, and I'm available. So just because of that relationship, they hired me to be the play-by-play voice for the Hamilton Steelheads. And they did win the cup in my second season doing it, and I have never received a Hamlin Steelers championship ring

and I thought you know I probably should all right I lied when I said that was the last question because I just want to ask uh did you enjoy uh when you would get the opportunity to uh fill in for some guy named Bob McCowan uh primetime sports host so remind me uh when when were you filling in? Oh, so I haven't done for about five years. So prior to that. Well, Bob hasn't done it in a while either. Yeah, he's what, a year now? So I mean, five, six years ago, I was kind of the first guy they would call if Bob was going on holiday.

Right. Yeah, yeah. I think it was pre-Jeff. on holiday. Right. Yeah, yeah. I think it was pre-Jeff. I think Jeff hadn't joined us full time in radio.

So it was before Jeff did radio. And so I did a lot of filling in for Bob when Bob went on vacation. And because my summers were usually open, I wasn't doing baseball anymore. And because the Memorial Cup was over, I had most of the summer off until tennis. So I was able to fill in for Bob. I enjoyed it because of the guests that they got, the fact that it was always something new that you were talking about. There were times where... And it's a big platform, like people are listening. There were times where you'd get a little weary of the callers complaining about baseball things that, you know, we should trade Roy Halladay and Vernon Wells and Carlos Delgado

and get so, and you go, okay. Yeah, those ones, yeah. One of my things that I was thinking about as I drove over here was one of the, I was doing sports talk in Montreal. Yeah. Opening day one year, I think it was 87. Opening day, Mets Expos. Opening day.

Yeah. Mets beat the Expos. So the game's over. Now I'm back in the studio doing the call-in show. First caller I get is, hi, Rob. I don't think the Expos are going anywhere this year. After game one. Of 162.

Game one. Game series. It was true. They didn't go anywhere. But you've got to give them a little breathing room. It's a rather small sample size in baseball. But it was so funny, and I lost it there. And I just went, okay, fine.

Those shows are tough. I always enjoyed it because of the fact that the guys there, the producers would get the contemporary guests talking about issues of the day. That's why Canada AM was fun to do. Canada AM was always fun because it was always news of the day or what was happening. And that was fun to do because you was always news of the day or what was happening. It was,

and that was fun to do because you were always kind of up on what was happening in and around the world and in the world of sports. Well, I mean, they all have replacements, but now Canada AM and Primetime Sports are in the CTV graveyard, if you will. Gone, but not forgotten.

I've killed a lot of shows, haven't I? Now, that was a long drive, but at some point, would you do that drive again to kick out the jams? Like, I want to hear these 10 60s jams that you still love. I would love to do that. Now I know where you are, and I won't trust the GPS. I will trust my own innate GPS. I would have helped you out.

If you can find your way onto this thing called the Gardner Expressway, I can get you here. Now that I know it, I think I took the long way here, but it was well worth it. And I enjoyed every minute of it. Well, thanks for it. Make sure I get you that lasagna because that's a empty box. I think I have dinner for tonight.

That's right. Yeah, this will not do. No. The full one. It's coming, I promise. I promise. And that brings us to the end of our 718th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Rob is at S and Faults. That's F-A-U-L-D-S. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta. They're at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. The Keitner Group are at The Keitner Group.

CDN Technologies are at CDN Technologies. And Pumpkins After Dark are at Pumpkins Dark. See you all tomorrow for another exciting Pandemic Friday episode. We're kicking out the FOTM jams. See you then. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls.

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