Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rob Longley: Toronto Mike'd #486

Episode Date: July 11, 2019

Mike chats with The Toronto Sun's Rob Longley about his career covering sports in Toronto.

Welcome to episode 486 of Toronto Mike, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, StickerU.com, and Capadia LLP CPAs. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is Toronto Sun sports writer Rob Longley. Welcome, Rob.

Hey, nice to be here, Mike. Right in the heart of Etobicoke. If you went any further south, you'd be in the lake. That's the, yeah, keep going till you get wet. That's what I always say. But yeah, you're an Etobicoke guy, right? Like born and raised in Etobicoke? Born and raised, yes.

By the Centennial Park area. So well familiar with most of Etobicoke. They moved my high school there because I went to the original location of michael power which is an etobicoke high school and then they moved it to like vincent massey which is where i went okay same see and i never went there but yeah it's uh close enough i think we can bond on that one so uh yeah i told a lot of famous uh etobicokeans uh you join uh ste Steve Buffery for example yes my friend and colleague and uh former Vincent Massey alumni was he there too he was yeah are you guys did you guys uh go to there

at the same time he was a few years older than me so back when there was a grade 13 he would have been in grade 13 when I was grade 10 I think three or four years separate us I'm because I have my oldest is now going into grade 12 i'm still adjusting to this no grade 13 like we didn't call i didn't it was called oac so we didn't call it grade 13 i don't know why we renamed it or rebranded it but it was the same thing yeah like we did five years of high school so but now it's like he's going to grade 12 so it's like okay and then you got oac and it's like oh no like that's it and then my wife always laughs at us, like for me, for like even having that extra year because she's like, she's from Edmonton and there's, they just did 12 and out like every,

like, like we do now. So it's like we needed that extra year, you know, in Ontario, I think. For some reason. Yeah. Crazy. And you're wearing the Nova Scotia shirt because your parents are from Nova Scotia. Both of them. Yeah. I'm almost raised, born and raised in cape breton island lovely cape breton and my father is from the annapolis valley which is about an hour down the island or down the down the province from halifax does your mom play a fiddle no but i have uncles and aunts that did

and certainly uncles that are very much into the music scene down there. It's very much part of the culture in Cape Breton, obviously. Yeah, I talk like I go there all the time. I've been there once, okay? It was amazing. We were doing a road trip to PEI, and we did the Cabot Trail, and it was amazing. But I talk now like, oh, you're from Nova Scotia,

as if I'm from Nova Scotia, you know? Like I have my one- experience but uh beautiful speaking of beautiful places Rob how was Cleveland? Cleveland well Cleveland hasn't changed a whole lot over the years first time I was in Cleveland was a couple decades ago at the old municipal stadium which was a real experience because it was one of those old school stadiums it was was both football and baseball and it was kind of a fun spot. The new stadium is quite nice actually. But, you know, Cleveland is what you would expect it to be, a Rust Belt city that has seen better days.

Now, they put on a good show for the All-Star game and it was a pretty good vibe around the city, I will say that. And they did it upright, so. Talk to me, maybe off the top, because I don't think I've talked about this yet on Toronto Mic'd, but what was it like, you know, you covered the Home Run Derby, right? So you were there for Vladdy's performance.

We have to remind listeners that Vladdy didn't actually win that competition. I think Toronto has decided Vladdy won. Have you noticed that? Yeah, certainly. Well, as I think I wrote, he didn't win it, but he owned it. And that was pretty much the way it went down he was i mean a lot of people were skeptical about why he was invited and there's certainly some controversy in a sense in that i mean it's an entertainment show it's not a competition so yeah mlb it's not the olympics yeah mlb knew what they had in vlad guerrero jr and espn and espn de porces knew what they had in Vlad Guerrero Jr. And ESPN and ESPN Deportes knew what they had in Vlad Guerrero Jr.

They had a Spanish-speaking star. So, of course, they invited him. And, yeah, he just put on a show. It was unbelievable what he did. Now, you know, there was never hype like that when a Blue Jay prospect made his debut. Like, I've never, I've been following this team since 83, I'd say. I've never seen hype like that when a prospect made

made his debut you know he's had that you know typical kind of i want to say underwhelming start well it wasn't you know he didn't come out of the gates like he's got eight career homers and i think we all projected he might have a few more than that but can you as a guy who's you know covers the jays and remind me again please how good can vty be like give me a little flatty hype here well i can only base it on what people who know a lot more about baseball than i do say and and what you see with your eyes and i think you know he's every bit about him suggested he's going to be a superstar he's got the pedigree obviously his father's a hall of famer his father won the home run derby his father was a legend in the sport. So basically since he was, I won't say born,

but since he started to pick up a baseball bat and swing it with any degree of seriousness, he was sort of destined for this. Kind of like reminds me of like, you know, Prince Fielder hitting one out of the dome or whatever as a kid. Like, yeah, you got the genes, you got to stay healthy

and you got to have some discipline, obviously. But the package is all there. Will Vladdy, does it matter if Vladdy ever learns to speak English? Like, should we care about this at all? and you gotta have some discipline obviously but uh the package is all there will vladdy does it matter if vladdy ever learns to speak english like does this should we care about this at all i think it matters and i think the blue jays think it matters and and i've spoke to some of the executives about it and it's sort of a work in progress um they they you know they give him every every tool they can to help him learn the language and that's with tutors and stuff like that obviously they care more about if he hits a baseball and play some third base but i had a

little bit of fun with him in um i think was in san francisco earlier this year prior to the game probably four hours before the game he was just sitting in by himself in the dugout and then his translator was nearby so i said hey vladdy let's talk for a bit so we spoke through the translator and then i said okay vladdy recorder off let's do for a bit. So we spoke through the translator. And then I said, okay, Vladi, recorder off. Let's do an interview, a fun interview in English. And he could carry himself not too badly.

I was curious because I wondered if it was a confidence issue. Like sometimes it's just, he's only 20 years old. We forget that, right? Yeah. He's 20 years old. Remember what you were like

when you were 20. But maybe he just doesn't trust his command of the English language enough yet to lose the interpreter i think that's part of it mike i think he you know i think he understands most of what's said to him and he understands how he can get a point across to an english-speaking teammate but in terms of talking to the media he doesn't want to make himself look silly or his teammates yeah i can appreciate that actually i'm trying to think edwin edwin never did interviews in english

right incarnation now i've only been doing the jays for three years so i came along late and I appreciate that, actually. I'm trying to think. Edwin never did interviews in English, right? Incarnacion. Now, I've only been doing the J's for three years, so I came along late in the Edwin experience. But Steve Simmons, my colleague, tells me. Never heard of him. Never heard of him. I'm sure we'll get to him later, I'm sure.

But what Steve liked to do was go to his locker on his own. Like Edwin, in his scrum, Edwin would do it through a translator. But if you went to him one-on-one and he trusted you a little bit well edwin could speak english enough to get his point across and was at times almost eloquent i think the way simmons described it yeah no and for the record people know this already but i'm a i'm a simmons fan i uh and we'll get to this later we'll do we'll have a steve simmons segment but uh i always i find myself it's kind of a tough job to be the steve simmons defender like uh you know there's there's more of them than you think there's you know and i'm certainly in that category too steve's been nothing but yeah but they will tell you that you're biased yeah of course you work with the

man but uh yeah i mean i even had steve's son on this show who i also quite liked uh talking that was a good episode i I listened to that. Yeah. Jeffrey. I had this at the last, yesterday I did an episode with a gentleman named Connor McCreary and he's multi-talented. Like he writes about the Raptors for Raptors HQ,

but he also, he writes like a graphic art comic book stuff, this series called Kill Shakespeare, which you're forgiven for not knowing. Cause I didn't know it either. But it's popular amongst people who like, you know, enjoy that kind of stuff. Right.

And we were talking about what happened the day before yesterday, which is Gord Martineau came over. Legend. Yeah, you're lucky you didn't have to follow Gord. That was Connor. I saw that on your list for this week. I said said oh man

a toronto legend and then me well he so we stuck uh someone else between you two just as a little favor to you but like by the way gordon fell out of the sky i i mean we had corresponded back in 2016 but all my phone rang before i was going to the blue jays game on friday night my phone rings it says private name private number which i answer because know, I run my own show and you never know who's calling. Right. And he's like, Mike, it's Gord Martineau. And you know, right away, like this really is Gord Martineau. Yeah. The voice would be the dead giveaway. Right. Right. And he's like, he goes, how's Tuesday at noon? I think he says. And like, I'm literally in a bar. I've been a drink or whatever. And I'm like, I don't have my calendar, but I'm going to make that work.

Like if it's Longley's time, I'm going to tell Longley you're bummed. Fair enough. I thought I was going to bum. Anyway, where I'm going with this is like when you have a guest who knows what this is about, it's always a lot, I find it a lot easier for me. Like I could tell from the get-go that Gord Martineau had never heard a minute of Toronto Mike and really just very nice of him to show up here. Yeah.

Right? He's here. But he didn't know what it was. And he did great. Like he rolled with it and was great. But I knew right away he didn't know what he was in for. Conversely, Connor yesterday, I knew he listened. I could tell right away that he got it or whatever and uh it's

good to hear that you you listen so do you just listen to uh like toronto sun people or i'm just naturally curious mostly sports media people i would say and a couple of the music ones too but mostly sports sports media guys and it's it's natural because you want to hear what others think of the of the business and of their colleagues but more i think i find that on a lot of the episodes mike you sort of get to a different side of people and and then a different side of the business and i find that i find that interesting oh cool good answer i'm gonna give you some some gifts for that but uh first what kind of music do you listen to because you you mentioned listening to some of the music

episodes but what like what's your kind of jam when you're listening to music on a Sunday or whatever? Man, I'm all over the map. I can go from old-time rock and roll. I was a big Bob Seger fan when I was a kid. At the All-Star Game, Joan Jett played. And I was like, wow, Joan Jett. But I mean, Dropkick Murphys is probably my favorite band right now. So I mean, and anything in between, you know,

it's like I'm all over the map. All right, before we, we have lots to cover, but I did this, like, I'm setting up the episode this morning and I realized, okay, I don't actually have any music for Raw, but then I'm like, what if I just played a little bit

of five songs with long in the title okay just the word long in the title okay all right this will be good this could be I'm curious but I thought I didn't this is gonna I don't know is this stereotyping you're Toronto Sun guy so I figured you're I already assumed even though Ryan Walstat is a hip-hop head yeah he's crazy hip-hop head yeah so I'm already contradicting myself but for some reason i thought oh rob i don't know i didn't know you at all in terms of your musical taste or whatever but i'm like i think he's a rock guy like i just jumped to this conclusion fair enough yeah yeah maybe it's an age thing too although i was told uh richard griffin was a hip-hop head oh he is crazy

yeah i've been in and speaking of cleveland it wasn't this week but it was two seasons ago we're in this like dive bar right in the heart of cleveland a place that he's been going to for years yeah and then all of a sudden he marches over to the uh to the jukebox with a fistful of singles and all this like amazing hip-hop stuff comes out and i say griff when are they getting to your tunes and he's like no no this is me yeah ryan told me this and at first I had to kind of read his face. Like, is he joking? Because you wouldn't... I don't know. That's the terrible that we bring these assumptions to the table, right?

It's a good lesson for all of us. You never know. When I find out Mr. Elliot's a hip-hop head, then... Yeah, then we can talk for sure. We'll talk more about him later. Okay. So, here are... And I won't play the whole thing because I don't want to take too much time with it.

But here are some songs from my personal collection that have the word long in the title. Can't go wrong with ACDC. That's what I figured. And also, while I play just a little bit, I just want to hear whether it's like you give it thumbs up or thumbs down or you're indifferent to it. Thumbs up, it's on my workout tape here. I'm a workout thing. Shook me all night longly.

There we go. I should market that. Alright, I'll let them kick in here. And then I'll... There we go. It's amazing how this song and almost anything ACDC sort of stands the test of time. Like even kids today don't mind this, right?

It's like an anthem. I was going to say, I'm shocked. I'm not sick of this song yet. No. Because how many times have you heard this song? Oh, gosh. Thousands probably, right? But it's still kind of cool, right? I know it's weird. yet like because how many times have you heard this song oh gosh thousands probably right but it's still kind of kind of cool right like you know it's weird eh and uh yeah same of like back

in black or thunderstruck that's the other one like kind of anthems okay so we're bringing down acdc you shook me all night long here is another long jam. Wow. Old school. I'm trying to... Trooper. Yeah, Trooper. One of the first concerts I ever saw, and it was at, believe it or not, Trooper was big enough probably in the late 70s,

and I'm dating myself here, but to play Maple Leaf Gardens. I think I still have the ticket stuff. Wow. They were there for a good time. It was a good show. They really were here for a good time

and not a long time. I don't know what Trooper's up to. I haven't heard much of them in a long time. So this is we're here for a good time not a long lead time.

That's all I'm listening to here. All right. Thank you Trooper. Excellent. By the way, at a further date, if you wanted to return and kick out the jams, it's a lot of fun. That's what Walstat did. I'll send you my playlist.

Yeah. So you know who's doing it tomorrow? Do you have kids? I do. I have one daughter. How old? 20. Okay.

Yeah. This might be right in her wheelhouse. Maybe missed it. I got to see. You'll tell me. Fred Penner? No, your daughter's too young for Fred. Probably a little too young, yeah.

I feel I'm a bit old for Fred Penner, but my wife is younger than me, and she's right in the Fred Penner wheelhouse, so to speak. All right, here's another long song. And I love this build-up here. Oh, man, I don't have it yet. It'll come to you. Maybe the radio edit doesn't use this part.

It sounds familiar. Oh, of course, yeah. Well, you had in Cleveland, I'm sure you had some Breakfast in America. Yeah. Super Tramp. I mean, these are all, I mean, these are hidden songs that I grew up with

and albums that I grew up with. I haven't listened to this in a long, long time. For some reason, I found myself, like, revisiting Breakfast in America recently. And it's great. Like, and I was, again, I was really revisiting Breakfast in America recently. And it's great. And I was really young when this... But it's great. It's amazing to start to finish that album.

There's, I mean, hit after hit after hit. Yeah, the Logical song is on that thing. And yeah, it's a big album. Yeah. What year would that have been, Mike? Probably 73? 79? 79, okay.

80? I don't know. I don't know because I always think in my head of what I was doing at the time, but I don't remember it in real time. I only know it going back. But I can tell you this song is called Take the Longly Way Home. All right, just a couple more. Just trying to have a good time here.

I got to have a little Beatles. Or is it just McCartney? I guess it's McCartney. No, this is the Beatles. The Beatles. Yeah, some of these jams you got to remember. Was that Paul or was that the Wings? Especially when it's just Paul.

When it's Paul soliloquying. Right. So the long and winding road by the Beatles alright and I thought what do I close with there's actually a lot of great songs

with long in the title this is a very interesting way to put a playlist playlist together I'm surprised you haven't you don't have a long a longly playlist

on that phone over there yeah here we're gonna close with this one here surprisingly the most recent of the Yeah. Here, we're going to close with this one here. Surprisingly, the most recent of the five jams I did. This was my wedding song. Yeah, my wedding song.

Which album was this from? Road Apple. Road Apple, that's right. See, I'm like most Canadians who like music. I'm a huge hip guy, but I leaned towards their earlier stuff. So Road Apples was one of

the big ones. And Blow on High Dough, of course, was. Yeah, that's Up to Here, which was the first full album. I had an EP before that. Yeah.

First full album was a major release was Up to Here and then wrote Apples and then Fully Completely. Yeah, so those are my like my three favorite hip albums believe it or not.

Well, actually if you look at the sales numbers that's every that's the majority of Canadians big three for sure because then the sales drop off after

Fully Completely. Right. Gord one of the great Canadian Gords as I told Gord Marneau yeah I know can you believe he's been gone almost two years now

it's hard to believe yeah really I mean and his legacy it's not going to go anywhere it almost gets stronger yeah I got it right behind you there you don't have to turn if you don't want to but there's a I have the portrait of Gord very cool

foundation okay so those are long You don't have to turn if you don't want to, but I have the portrait of Gord. Very cool. And we have the Cheney Wenjack Foundation. Okay, so that was longly time running by the tragically hip, of course. The longly and short of it. Very good. It's a sign headline. I like it when, like, what is it? Tell me, how does it feel when the longly story is the front page of the sun like is that does that make you feel good like or you become numb to it like it happens so often oh no i don't think you become numb to it i think you like it and i think you aspire to it if

you if you if you have if you care about your job i mean you're always trying to do the best job that you can of course but you're always trying to write a story or get a story that has impact and it's uh when our guys especially in the tabloid format when they get a good story and they and they play it accordingly it's it it's good it's you know you feel it it motivates you well i saw that of course i mean sometimes the stories find you i guess but uh the vladdy story like i think i could have written about the vladdy story and got front page of the sun but uh yeah the whole that was i guess your most recent uh front page long the front page yeah and you know uh that story had a bit of a we there's still interaction of course with editors not nearly as much as there used to be but i

i made a pitch for it in the morning i said you know here's what i've got and they kind of said well maybe just do vladdy as topping the notebook somebody said and i said well i i have a feeling this is going to be much bigger than that and even if it isn't it's vlad guerrero jr let's let's get ready to really pump this up in case something special special happens i had a hunch that it was going to be a big show and then they sort of planned accordingly and then of course tvs are on all through the newsroom and they see what's going on there and then not only was it the front of sports it became the front of the paper itself and i feel that the city is still kind of reeling from kawai leaving and i feel like this vladi is like sort of the medicine or whatever like we need something just the city needs something so we'll take the home run derby because we need a pick me up yeah

rosie domano a good friend of mine and a great colleague to be around she wrote an excellent call on the other day basically saying bye-bye kawaii or bye-bye board man and hello uh a home run guy so that's right right we all take down our like kawaii number 27 blue jay jerseys right that's right that's right uh it's funny though that somebody i can't remember who i give to give credit to this for this but like the the jays highlights last the highlight last year might be the walk-off in the exhibition game in montreal and then the highlight this year is definitely the home run derby so vladdy's got the highlights but never in a real game like it's all exhibition stuff so yeah the only one i mean the only highlight that he really had was that

day in san francisco i was speaking about earlier that he hit his first two home runs. But of course, that game started at 10 o'clock Eastern and most of Canada didn't see it. So it was just a highlight the next morning. And that's when they came back. That was when they came back from that road trip. That's the Victoria Day game that they didn't play, Vladdy. Right.

Can I ask you straight up now, real talk, tone deaf of the organization, right? Like, tell me your honestly like uh how do they give him like a scheduled day of rest on victoria day it was it was definitely tone deaf i mean it was fine for them to schedule the day off they could have done it sunday they could have done it tuesday but i don't think that there was anybody in a senior enough position in the in that company that realized what Memorial Day. What about Griffin?

Doesn't he pass on word a FYI? This is a holiday Monday and families are coming out to see Vladdy. He can have a say and he tries to advise on such things. And I'm not sure how pervy he was to that. But Ross Atkins told me afterwards he was a little bit, I think he was a little bit taken aback by the blowback he said you know we haven't had a we haven't had a home game on victoria day in the last few years and i'm like well maybe you should maybe you should be talking to mlb and saying we should have one every year right and he says it's is it really that big of a deal and i said well and i tried to explain it to him and it's not that ross is ignorant like

he's he's very understanding of the the appeal can't uh the jays have coast to coast in canada but i tried to explain to him that man we call it the may 2 4 weekend it's the start of our summer we get the beer we it's like it's a celebration it's like winter is finally over and people want to go to the ballpark people want to go to the patio and do anything all of the above you're absolutely right but also we we were all waiting for vladdy to catch fire and he goes on the road he catches fire yeah imagine the the hey let's go i mean i i can tell you as a father that taking your kids to see somebody that you think they should be able to tell their kids they saw like it's kind of a it was always important to me like i'll get him out him out and see Steve Nash. They can say, oh, they saw Steve Nash. Charlie Montoyo took it hard.

And I don't blame Charlie because Charlie is very new to Canada. Now he was here as an Ottawa Lynx player when he was just a kid. So I don't count that. But he wore that one a little bit and it rattled him. It was kind of funny. Just before the Canada Day game, in his pre-game session in his office with the media, I won't say who said it, but somebody jokingly said,

so Vladi is playing today, he's in the lab, so I can assume that you'll be rusting him on Monday. And to his credit, Charlie laughed. He thought that was pretty good. Man, it's things like that. In fact, let's start with a question from Milan. So Milan, you're like, who the hell is Milan? Milan is at Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair.

If anybody needs jewelry repaired or a new watch battery installed or a new band for their watch or a new watch, anything of that nature, go to Fast Time. They've been doing it for 40 years and they just opened up a bunch of new locations. So go to FastTimeWatchRepair.com to find out exactly where they're at or go to TorontoMic.com and click the logo. But, oh, by the way, you get 15% off any regular priced watch battery installation if you mention that you heard about FastTime on Toronto Mic. So do that up. But

this great voice here belongs to Milan from FastTime. Hey Toronto Mike, it's Milan from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair. Hello Mr. Longley, I want to commend you as one of the last remaining unbiased members of the media covering the Jays on the excellent work you do with the Toronto Sun. The articles you did covering the sordid Josh Donaldson saga last summer was, in my opinion, Pulitzer Prize worthy. Two-part question. With Major League Baseball attendance sagging, news of the most recent All-Star Game ratings being the lowest in years, and the NBA completely overshadowing MLB during its most recent free agency period. If you were commissioner Rob Manford, what would be the two or three ideas you would incorporate to get baseball

back to prominence again? And two is Ross Atkins, the most boring interview in Toronto Blue Jays history. Thanks Rob in Toronto, Mike. Wow. Milan, we need you in our business.

He brings the heat. He brings the heat he brings the heat awesome he loves the real talk okay hopefully you don't you haven't forgotten the first part one thing malan does is he does the two parts and you know sometimes we forget to go back to get the first part so the first thing is what should mlb do there there's are they in crisis mode what's going on here i think crisis mode would be a little harsh. I think people still love the game and I think people still recognize that it's not the NBA,

it's not the NFL, it's not the NHL. It moves at its own pace. But having said that, the length of baseball games, in my opinion, is just getting ridiculous. We went through a stretch just two weeks ago

and I wrote them down in a notebook, but it was three hours and 48, 328, I mean, I've only had only had i think two or three games all year that have been less than three hours wow and since moving over from from the hockey beat that's the most frustrating thing because i'll be watching a hockey game in the winter and it'll be ending 2 30 2 hours and 30 minutes after it started and i'm like well if i'm at the roger center covering the jays i'm probably in the sixth inning right now right and that's not much of an exaggeration so that's one thing that they have to do i mean the controversy about the baseballs and that kind of stuff i mean and also the way that the game is played it's i mean i don't know what you can do to

legislate ball and play kind of stuff to keep keep the keep the game moving in a different direction in terms of runs scored and players on bases because coaches are coaches and all professional sport follows trends and I don't know how you can reverse that with any sort of legislation. It's tough with baseball, right? Because part of the romantic allure of this sport

is the lack of clock. That's kind of like, I don't want to do a little no uh what was the who wrote shoeless joe uh why am i having a mental block on who wrote shoeless joe anyway uh yeah uh cancella yes right right i drop a little poetry like wp cancella poetry but like that timeless nature of a game is the beauty of the game if you appreciate that what i think is happening is, because I have a 17-year-old and an almost 15-year-old, what's happening is that they don't appreciate it.

Like, I can't tell you how hard I tried to make my oldest son a baseball fan because I grew up loving baseball. It never took, like, he'll watch an Exhibition Leaf game before he'll watch a Jays game in grew up loving baseball. It never took like he he'll watch a exhibition leaf game before he'll watch a, uh, Jay's game in a pennant race. Like that's what, that's where we're at.

Yeah. And that's part of that. It's a generation generational thing too, obviously with attention spans and, and so many other quick things on their phone and their, on whatever devices that baseball is not really, it doesn't really lend itself to devices, you know?

And that, that turns off a good chunk of devices, you know? Right. And that, that turns off a good chunk of the younger population, I think. And that, you know, even that, I mean, I think Milan alluded to it,

but, or maybe he didn't, but the, the Raptors like kind of, I think the pace of basketball, it's, it's just tough to compare like a exciting basketball game with, with a baseball game.

You have to kind of appreciate the nuances in baseball. It's like's like a chess kind of it's like a thinking man i don't know it's it's different it's you have to appreciate it you know it's and you make a good point mike because people were sort of turned off by the all-star game on tuesday because in the shadow of vladdy and all that excitement there weren't a whole lot of runs scored um there wasn't a whole lot of flash but if you look at it a little bit deeper there was a heck of a lot of good pitching and some really good defense and really there was some good baseball played just when people people don't necessarily appreciate that as much maybe as they used to now he he called you malone called you uh one of the last

unbiased reporters so tell me like, like you're a Toronto Sun guy, Toronto Sun, they're not owned by Rogers, right? Not yet. Are you guys, are you truly unbiased? Like,

I mean, just take a moment to like spell that out for everybody. Cause I think there's a sense that if you cover the J's and you work for Rogers, this is the sense anyways, that even if you're not being told what to say, there's self, there might be self censorship going on for job preservation purposes. This is the sense. That would be difficult. You know, I don't, I don't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to put myself in the shoes of my colleagues that work at Rogers. And, you know, um, there are several of them that,

that do things that the way that the way they, they trust as journalists, but, you know, I don't know if there's any unspoken thing from above. All I know is how I approach it, and my approach is to be unbiased, which I think I do a reasonable job of doing it, but also in doing that, I think you try to be the voice of the fan. So what is the fan thinking?

What does the fan want to know? What answers does the fan need to have? Whether you come up with that on your own, whether you come up with it through sources, through officials like the GM, through players, you try to paint a balanced picture at least. And you would run with any story. You have no worries about,

you would never worry about losing media credential or something if you were to dig too deep into, and I'm, this is all spec, you know, this is, I'm not saying this exists, but no story is out of bounds for you at the Toronto Sun.

Pretty much. I mean, I think you stay away from personal issues with players unless it was, unless it was something that was in violation of the law. I mean, I don't think. Oh yeah. Like the Asuna thing, of course,

you should report on that, but you're referring to like just, I don't know, marital difficulties and things like that. Probably thing like... I mean, I think there's a bit of a line that you sort of, you don't cross, but certainly when it comes to performance and there's certainly been a lot to write about the Jays

in that regard this year, yeah, you want to get to the bottom of it and you want to performance and, and there's certainly been a lot of, a lot to write about the Jays in that regard this year. Yeah. You want to get to the bottom of it and you want to be honest, but at the same time, you don't want to write six columns in a week saying how crappy they are. Right. You know, today there are 34 games below 500 and tomorrow they're 37.

I mean, you have to point that out fairly regularly, but you can't, I mean, you can't, you can't pull out the thesaurus and find 15 ways to say crappy

and just use a different one each day is there anything the Jays should be doing to to get bodies back in the seats what I noticed

at that because I've only been to one game this year but it was you know last Friday but I noticed that it's a Friday night

in July and unfortunately the dome was closed I don't know what that I think there's a storm brewing night in july and unfortunately the dome was closed i don't know what that i think there's a storm brewing somewhere but it never actually came but it was and i never did get the official attendance i think it might have been close to 20 000 but it didn't look like that like it looks very sparse in there is what should the jays be doing to get bodies back in because i know winning draws a crowd we saw it in 2015 and 2016 that was fantastic

but what do we do with this current incarnation which is not going to win a lot of games you know i give i give the toronto fan base a fair bit of credit i think i mean people can say it's as simple as their bandwagon fans but i don't believe that i think the blue jays fans the way they developed from say 2015 through to 2018 became a loyal and a smart fan base and discriminating. And I think what happened was, yeah, you want to support a winner, but you certainly want to support a team that's committed to winning. And I think the perception is that management is not committed to that right now. They're committed to winning eventually, but they're essentially saying, stay away from the ballpark for three years because we're not going to be that good unless you want to come and watch the kids and there's there's some worthwhile parts

about that but when you don't have a pitching staff that can can get through a game i mean you don't want to watch the kids you might want to come and watch the kids five times a year you don't want to come and watch them 25 times a year right and really that that's what you'd come now for is there are some players on the roster that should be part of this core and three four years come watch cavendish play second base it's really quite a thing to watch and come watch the way that lourdes guriel has learned how to play out in left field and of course every time vladi i mean our the press box is crappy at the rogers center now it's way out in left field yeah they moved it on you. Yeah, but every time Vlade comes to the plate,

I pull out my binoculars and focus in on him. I mean, I want to see what he does. Yeah. I only saw him live for the first time on Friday, so every time he was at the plate, actually, my wife took video, like, okay, we're going to witness a moonshot or whatever. It was a walk and three weak ground balls to Mayfield.

But still, it's exciting to kind of, you never know what's coming next. All right, so Milan's from Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, which is a small business that they run. And when they need accounting help, they go to Capadia LLP CPAs. Capadia, Rupesh Capadia, who's actually coming over here Sunday, I think,

to record some more fun facts for me. But he's the rock star accountant, not your father's accountant. This guy sees beyond the numbers. And if anybody listening, including you, Rob, has anything they want to, any business ventures or ideas or accounting questions that you want to run by Rupesh, it's a complimentary 15-minute consultation. I'll hook it up for you. Write me an email or a DM. I'll hook it up for you. But let's hear from Rupesh Kapadia at Kapadia LLP CPAs. Hey, hey, hey, this is Rupesh here. And today I wanted to call you up and let you know that we are all going to die. But there is a silver lining.

The silver lining is if you are a corporation, you can ask your company to pay the life insurance on your behalf and still get all the money out to your family on a tax-free basis. If you would like to know more, please contact Kapadia LLP, myself, Rupesh, or any of my associates, and we'll be happy to guide you through the process. Thank you. Thank you, Rupesh. And there's gifts for you as well, Rob.

So I know this is why you made the trek from near Centennial Park there. Great Lakes Brewery. This is a Tobacco brewed. Oh, I've been there. It's good stuff, isn't it? Yeah, I know. It's a great little tasting room they have there too. Oh, yeah, and that patio on a nice day like we've had lately.

Well, that's where TMLX3 is. You know, I don't have a date for TMLX4, but when I do, I'm going to pester you to come. I was actually looking for Beezer in the crowd. I didn't see him there. But, yeah, we always have our events at Great Lakes. This is a six pack for you nice uh just a variety pack if you will probably a few i've sampled yeah there's the

sunny side uh session ipa so take that home with you thank you great lakes brewery again tasty local craft great spot fiercely independent and you can also pick them up in lcbo's and actually i believe they're now in some grocery stores. Like you can pick up an octopus wants to fight in a grocery store, which sounds like crazy talk. But apparently that's where we're at now. So that's great news. So thank you, Great Lakes Brewery.

You told me you're a carnivore, right? That's okay. I don't think I phrased it quite like that, but yeah. But that's okay. It's okay. I'm not saying you're a cannibal. that, but yeah. But that's okay. It's okay. I'm not saying you're a cannibal. I'm saying you're a carnivore. There's a big difference, Rob.

Okay. That's actually an empty box. Don't take that home. All right. But in my freezer upstairs, I have a large meat lasagna from Palma Pasta. You're going to love it, man. Nice.

I've heard you rave about it before. It's everybody who, you know, takes one home, ends up sending me a note that it's the best lasagna they've ever, you can ever buy in a store. So if you want to go to Palma Pasta, they're in Mississauga and Oakville.

And you go to palmapasta.com to find out where. Palma's Kitchen is the new location with the hot table and 10,000 square feet of retail space. And that's near like, I'm going to say Burnham, Thorpe and Mavis. It's like, it's around there. So go to, yeah, go to palmapasta.com. They're also on Skip the Dishes, great partners of the show.

So that's yours. I have stickers for you from stickeru.com. Wow. So stickeru.com, you can go there, you upload your image, you can order one or as many of you as you like of decals like I have on the wall here.

Stickers. Here's a Toronto Mike sticker for you. I know you wanted one. Simmons wants one too. What are we going to call my long music podcast? Take the long way home. Yeah, you just get a nice... I can see your stickers everywhere.

By the way, Lowest of the Low, who played TMLX3, they have a new album called agit pop and the sticker you people put together some nice stickers for that so you got one of those as well they've hung around for a while haven't they yeah they're still they still sound great yeah they put it out great new music too which is uh which is pretty cool actually i have in my calendar it's funny uh when you leave and there's no rush don't worry but when you leave i'm supposed to bike east because that's Sugar Beach today. So people hearing, unless you're on Periscope, if you hear this, it's probably too late.

But they're playing like Sugar Beach for free like this afternoon. So, yeah. So that's my plan anyway. But, okay. And that, I'm just kidding. All right. So you got your gifts. Everything's good here.

Now, remind me, like, did you at one point, like, of course, you're covering baseball now, and we'll talk about some of the other sports you've covered, but you used to cover, like, sports media or something. Did you at some point? Yeah, I did. I mean, I started with the Sun, believe it or not, in the late 1988,

and was hired to work on the desk, writing headlines, laying out pages, editing copy. The goal was always to be a writer. I came from the London Free Press, where that's what I did. But my first sort of vehicle off of the desk was to do a sports media column, which I did twice a week. I wrote a review column Sunday for Monday. I basically spent my weekend watching TV

and wrote about what I saw, and then a preview of the weekend and tackling issues sort of Thursday through Friday. right like sort of like sports on tv yeah yeah airwaves we called it airwaves and so this is a very timely question for you but um what do you think of what went down all of a sudden at primetime sports with bob mccowan like do you have any uh oh man i wish i was doing that column because there's been so much that's... Well, somebody should be doing that column, you know what I mean?

Like, why have the mainstream media seems to have dropped this whole... Well, I think it's just personnel, really, right? I mean, with layoffs hitting our business so drastically, it's like, okay, you go with one leaf writer and have the other guy do airwaves or do a media column.

No, it's just not the luxury anymore. But no, I mean, that whole Rogers thing is fascinating. Everyone sort of knew in the industry that the cuts were coming, but Bob McCowan, like, I mean. Yeah, he seemed to be the, definitely the biggest sports radio personality in the country. Like, I don't think that's a debate. Not even close, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I mean mean it's since wally crowder left cfrb i mean right you know but he it's i mean obviously he's a big ticket um but man uh drive uh drive radio and a guy who who basically owned the city for decades now i you know i think overdrive is a great program and and it's you know they've made they've made huge leaps and bounds both quality wise and ratings wise so it's it's a competition but i think when you get rid of bob mccowan you're but you're essentially giving it up you're saying overdrive you win wave the white flag which is strange because although we did see like great

inroads made by overdrive it it's it seemed like uh prime time sports was still the winner you know with still yeah you know more ears on it or whatever uh it's kind of it's all fascinating to me because i know they're in cost cutting mode which a lot of people speculate is because of the big nhl deal like people seem to be drawing those parallels which so i take out a calculator okay so you spent i don't know five and a half billion dollars or whatever it ends up being on the NHL deal. But you know, and I'm making up these numbers cause I have no idea, but we can save half a million with McCowan.

Like it just seems like, and I, again, I don't know what McCowan was making. I know it was real money, but you know, he, if he,

it's just kind of an interesting time where people like McCowan can suddenly be off the air Fridayiday and uh no longer you know he was there a long time it's decades you know it'd be amazing if you could get uh get scott moore back in this chair again which you had fairly recently which was a very i thought a very revealing interview i've known scott for years because i knew him from back when i did that column and i mean he's one of the most respected guys in the media business in Canada and obviously has done some amazing things with sports and television and radio.

But when he was sort of pushed out, I think that was the first sign that these sorts of things were coming. You know, that word you used, so he came on and spun it as like he was going to go on and do other things but i mean i just had gordon martin on and it was and i mean kevin frankish i mean this is a story that we get told but you know he he says that and then you know i i didn't call him out as a liar or

anything but uh you just said pushed out but which i've heard from many many good sources that he was pushed out but i don't think that's ever been like uh said on the record like do we know he was pushed out well i guess just probably varying degrees of pushed out i mean i you know it could be as simple as they told him to leave or we don't want you around anymore or it could have been we're going in this direction do you want to be a part of it and he said no that's i so i don't really know officially how it went down but knowing scott more like i do and knowing how he how proud he was of a getting the hockey rights to to the network and b building that empire around it um he would have probably gone grudging he could have been

burnt out too he could have gone on his own but you hear rumblings that there was well pushed out maybe have been a little bit strong there was certainly some other see this is the real talk rob here you go you're delivering the real time here it's like when the l joins came on and gave up andy frost uh i knew frost was being pushed out but i'm like let the man announce it on his own time or whatever and l joins was like nah he got it too he's gone okay okay so uh breaking news on toronto mic that's what i'm here for i think that Gord Marno had a lot of what I call real talk, but like the no BS take away the PR filter and like what really happened and kind of interesting.

But with McCowan, who I understand they had to buy out his car. He had a, I don't know, I think a three year contract. He was like halfway through it or something like they had to buy him out and tell him to stop coming to work. It's all fascinating because us non-accountants,

and if you need an accountant, I know a guy, but us non-accountants think, okay, you just spent, you gave them 18 months of money to go away. And we all think like, why don't you give them that 18 months of money to work 18 months? And then- Get something for it at least, right? Right.

And then do your whatever, Tim and Sid or whatever. I'm not going to pretend to try to figure that one out. It's an accounting thing. I've been told that I'm not smart Sid or whatever. I'm not going to pretend to try to figure that one out. It's an accounting thing. I've been told that I'm not smart enough to understand. I'm definitely not smart enough. So a dollar is not a dollar.

It depends where the dollar, what bucket the dollar is in. What book it's on, what book it's not on. Which budget it draws from, I think. So no more McCowan. And here's news I only got.

I got it right after the Gord episode, actually. So two days ago, I learned from Gene Valaitis, of all people. You remember Jesse and Gene? Yeah, of course. You're a Q guy, right? Q107, yeah.

Gene tells me two days ago that Peter Gross was pushed out of... We're just picking on Rogers today. Rogers owned 680 News. I mean, the whole media is not... I mean, we've had it bad at our place with post media the tour star has it's not just rogers rogers and bell has to rogers is going through right now that's the and you feel for for all these people colleagues and people that are behind the scenes and really good hard-working people that have done amazing work over the years and

all of a sudden boom it's gone now you covered uh horse you cover horse racing do you still cover horse racing or no not really no i covered it i covered it when early in my career i mean i still follow it i have an interest in it but did you uh come across peter gross oh many times yeah oh yeah he was a legend around the race he once got banned from the racetrack the ontario jockey club which was what woodbine was once known as right they banned him there for something that he wrote or he was he got upset about i think it was some sort of scandal about how about a payoff in a race and he he got all fired up about it and they they temporarily banned him and then they they sort of made amends over the years and peter was a fixture around that place well i'm not talking out of school because

he talked about it on toronto night but he's got a serious gambling problem and he knows it and it's it's it's got him good like uh oh yeah i would see him at the problem and he knows it and it's, it's, it's got him good. Like, uh, Oh yeah. I would see him at the windows and he'd have like seven or eight tickets in his hand. I like the four horse. I like the six horse. So no way. I think the first step is to acknowledge you have a problem.

Right. So he's got that one covered now. Yeah. But it's tough. I mean, we, we talk about addiction, like it's a drugs or alcohol and whatever,

but gambling isn't a, that's a, that's a, that's an addiction. It can be. Yeah, for sure but uh not one i luckily i avoided that one okay so but peter gross is no longer on 680 news and

he was there covering doing sports updates for a very very long time so i'm sorry to hear peter is uh no longer there yeah he'll be missed too because i mean obviously peter is a character and a personality and he had his sort of unique delivery. And I think people got used to that. Like if you're listening to 680 News and you're driving in, you want the traffic and the weather, and you want the update at 15, and you're not just getting the scores,

you're getting Peter's spin on it. And he, you know, in this day and age of it, like quick instant updates, he was by far the most colorful, I think. And he understood that he wasn't delivered, unlike a sports update on 590 or 1050. don't even know if they do them anymore but they might not do it anymore but those guys are talking to a sports savvy audience right yeah but on 680 you're you might be talking to somebody who doesn't understand or speak sports and you peter knew how to make it

uh interesting to that audience without dumbing it down right right he found that blend for sure that's right i was uh this raptor run we just had uh so many people i know so many people who never watched a basketball game in their life who suddenly were glued to that tv every two or three nights or whatever. So that's amazing how a winner can draw in the casuals. Yeah, and the ratings were phenomenal, really. I mean, I wouldn't have expected anything less, but when they were starting to hit 4 million for some of those games in the final, it was pretty amazing.

And Rodgers, who's suffering, I think a great deal of their suffering is due to the fact that the Leafs haven't escaped the first round since that deal started. It's amazing what a long, deep Toronto Maple Leaf playoff run will do for your ad revenue on a product like that. Right in the middle of the Raptors final run, talking to my sports editor, Bill Pearson, he was saying, you know, it could have happened. And what if it would have happened that the Leafs were in the final at the same time like can you imagine what the city would be going through I mean it was crazy enough with the Raptors I can't imagine and it's I'm what I'm having trouble imagining is uh like anything bigger than that so like I don't know I don't

have an answer because Toronto has changed a great deal in the last 30 years. Like, and, and there's still, I mean, you might recognize this, but there's still, uh, and I'm,

I should preface this by saying, I, I know a little bit about my, my wife is a woman of color. So I feel like, uh, she gives me some perspective and hockey is still regarded by many people of color as a,

like a white person game for, for better or worse it just seems to have evolved that way yeah and toronto is very uh is at least i mean it's it's very diverse i just wonder can can i and i'm sure the answer is yes because people embrace a winner but would a long leaf run could it be bigger than what we just experienced you know it's a fascinating debate and i i get amused by how how people are as adamant about one side as the other. I really don't know how it would unfold. I mean, for people to say, and okay, I'm an old white man talking here,

but for people to say that the Leafs would not be as big as the Raptors, I think it's ridiculous to assume that. I'm not saying that the Leafs would be bigger, but you can't say that they wouldn't be. I mean, this is 50 years. And here's the advantage the Leafs have. This is the advantage, yeah. The Raptors were around 24 years, okay? Which means people like me,

and I don't think I'm that old a guy, but people like me grew up with, you know, we were the Bulls and stuff. Like, we didn't have a team. Right. So, but we all, I mean, people like me were, you know, watching the Leafs and loving watching their Leafs as a kid.

Like, there's a value to that, too. So, so like it's almost like it might be a bit generational like the the kids who grew up with the raptors probably have them either equal or maybe even maybe even prefer basketball because it's uh pretty exciting but the uh people like uh my age and older which is still a lot of people in canada uh didn't grow up with the raptors so yeah they're excited for the raptors that they adopted in their 20s or 30s or 40s or whatever but the leafs were their team when they were a kid like there's a great value in that and what's happened with the raptors too um part of it's organically i think just because of the magic of that run and part of its marketing wise but they really are a coast to coast entity in this country right right the leafs are popular in every

corner of the country too, but not exclusively in every city. The Raptors, the country really did embrace them, much like the country embraced the Blue Jays in 15 and 16. No, that's a good point. I mean, there's an inherent rivalry. They're not going to love the Leafs in Ottawa no matter what. A portion of them will, but not exclusively.

Only the transplanted Torontonians who work for the government or whatever. But you're right. In basketball, they don't have anything to compete. So you might as well adopt the Canadian franchise. And basketball has been popular in this country more so than people realize. I mean, I have relatives all over the Maritimes and the line of Canada.

And basketball is huge out there. And I have aunts and uncles and even my mother, who's a pretty solid sports fan but she was captivated by it and i mean my uncle when i went and visited him last november up in cape breton he was like what what's going to happen with the raptors this year like he was and they don't miss a game like and and he's not alone it's a very popular sport coast to coast and one thing we should we should just give mention to is that the the the uh the barrier of entry to play basketball

even just pick up basketball right you know a bunch of kids there's hoops everywhere get one ball and go right not a 250 pair of skates to start and then all the other stuff well the stick too like uh and yeah uh there's i mean i i know i've been and i just do house league i hear the horror stories like i always thank my oldest. I'm worried now that my five-year-old might be good. That's my great fear. But I thank my- Don't be a goalie. Right.

Well, don't be a goalie for sure. But I thank my oldest for being mediocre enough to stick with house league. You know what I mean? Like love playing, but don't be so good that I'm, you know, all over the city and costing me hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars. All right. But yeah, it is expensive. Ice is expensive. It's all expensive, but it's a and hundreds and thousands of dollars. All right. But yeah, it is expensive. Ice is expensive.

It's all expensive, but it's a great sport. I love it. And I hope the Leafs can make it out of the first round at some point. Yeah, that would be, you know, that would be, we would start to get an indication of where their popularity is. I mean, how it compares with the Raptors. Everybody knows they're popular, but. Right.

All right, my friend. So I did skim over over some stuff so let's shine a little light on it but you you started your career in london is that what i heard yeah i went to carlton university studied journalism there something i kind of always wanted to do actually when i was in high school i wrote a column a golf column of all things for the etobicoke guardian the weekly newspaper here so that kind of sort of fueled my desire. And I went to Carleton, was lucky enough to get a job right out of school at what was then a really, really good newspaper. The London Free Press was hardcore. It was family-owned and it was committed to journalism.

Tons of older journalists and editors there that couldn't have been more helpful in my career, not only learning how to write but learning how to report and um i was there for three i think it was almost three years and then had an opportunity the ottawa sun was starting at that time actually applied for a job at the ottawa sun and george gross who was the executive sports editor at the time said well keto as you still, as he used to call people, keto, there's nothing in Ottawa about how would you like to come to Toronto? So that got my attention and had an interview with Wayne Parrish, who was a writer I grew up reading as a kid and had great respect for.

And they took a shot on me, and I've been there ever since. Okay, so at the beginning you mentioned you were covering the TV on, sorry, sports on TV, sports media kind of, which is great. I did love that stuff. That stuff's great. But then what did you cover after that? Like run down some of the stuff you've covered over the years. I moved into some horse racing right away.

Scott Morrison was the sports editor at the time and he knew that I wanted to move off the desk more and he was just let go right he was just let go as well yeah i gotta get him in here are you friends with him still yeah i saw him i saw scott last week we were golfing and you gotta hook me up with an email address or something he's he was he's a good guy and a good journalist and very very much a part of the uh of the sun you know he was yeah he was a good hockey writer for years and years and uh and a good thorough sports editor. I mean, he was, he gave me a lot of my, my first real opportunities to do some interesting things and because he knew I wanted to write and he needed somebody to cover

horse racing. I think it was 96. I moved over to cover horse racing and we treated that beat a little more seriously then. So, I mean, obviously covering the queen's plate and such in toronto but i went to i think it was my i think 17 kentucky derbies i went to wow which was you know there's nothing like covering big events regardless of the sport and then the kentucky derby is certainly certainly that and then eventually that trans transitioned to the next the next uh big opportunity was we covered the nfl at the sun of course and And I moved into the NFL beat in 99. So I think I covered the NFL for eight years. And back then we were spending a lot of money. I'd go to a game a week just about.

And that was pretty cool. Is this the good old days? Yeah, it was the good old days. There's still some good stuff about our place right now. We're still committed to sports. But yeah, they were definitely the good old days but you're you are you make a good point there because we read for example the star said something i think it was they were weren't sending reporters on the road except for playoff games i hope i don't butcher that detail but yeah they haven't like

that yeah they haven't covered the jays this year at all i think maybe one series i think uh one road series and usually it's something they can like drive to like if it's cleveland or detroit or whatever yeah i know and i hope that changes i mean it sounds crazy it's kind of nice to have it to yourself but it's not competition okay so tell me this when you're at uh a road game a jay's road game what toronto-based uh people are there is it all sportsnet guys or like you have there? Yeah, a lot of times it is. So there'll be Sportsnet, to their credit, they have their on-air people, which is sort of separate from their reporter person. Like a Shai Davidi would be like a reporter.

Yeah, so it'll either be Shai Davidi or Ben Nicholson-Smith or Arden Zwolling. And they're all good writers. All good writers and all good journalists. So they approach it a little bit differently. But there's times when it's just the two of us, you know, like working in a clubhouse, which is great in one sense because you can get more time with people.

It's easier. You know, there's not a, it's not like crazy like it is at the Rogers Center. But on the other hand, it's like there's a sadness to it because it wouldn't have been more than five or six years ago where there probably have been six or seven people, you know? Right.

Well, Buffery told a story about he went to Philadelphia to cover TFC and he said he was the only person from, you know, Toronto that was covering that game. Yeah, it's crazy to think that baseball is close to that right now. Now, part of that's a function of how the team is, but I mean mean i disagree with that if you're going to cover a beat you cover it properly yeah it's a shame what's happening to your industry yeah okay so sorry so um you're doing a bit of horse racing and then what was

after that oh nfl nfl yeah and then they were they decided to shuffle the beat uh i i had done a couple of my first olympics was 2004 in athens so i was able to sort of to get onto that olympic train which was kind of fun but in 2008 um and actually i can remember when it happened i was in beijing for the olympics and i got a middle of the night phone uh email from dave fuller who was our sports editor at the time, asking me if I wanted to move to the Leaf beat. And I'm like, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow with the nine stories I'm going to write at the Olympics, and you're asking me about this.

But, you know, obviously you think about it, and you think, well, of course, it's the main beat at the newspapers. So, yeah, I started covering the Leafs in 2008 and did so for up until 2017, I guess. Who took over for you in 2017 doing the Leafs? Basically nobody because what happened was at one point we had four guys essentially covering the Leafs full-time. Zaisberger, myself, Terry Cochran, and Lance Hornby.

And we had three baseball writers, Bob Elliott, Ken Fidlin, and Mike Rutzi. Now, the problem was, by the end of the 2016 season, all three of those baseball guys were gone. So Bill Pierce, my sports editor, said, listen, do you have any interest in taking one for the team and trying baseball? He said, I'll give you a one-year option, your option, and just do it and see if you like it, and we'll go from there. And I thought about it.

I mean, obviously you don't want to leave the most important beat in the city, but sometimes a new beat and a new challenge is a good thing, and I said, yeah, let's give it a go. And you're a team player. Like, sometimes you take one for the team, and you're a decent guy. I totally get that. Yeah, but does the Sun, when you write about the jays uh does the sun because i who was it kevin mcgrann from the star came over and he was talking about how uh clicks are everything right now so page loads or clicks or whatever i guess they're pretty much the same thing but uh you

know they don't want a piece on freddie anderson they they want uh you can guess where i'm going yeah write about austin matthews or mitch marner or john tavaris and who oh and maybe nylander and that's pretty much it like possibly morgan riley maybe but that's it like i do you have any of that like hey write more about vladdy like find something more about vladdy any of that i had no i get zero pressure on that i i mean i i do it um only because i know that the readers want to know about it right um so i don't i won't go talk to vladdy every day but i mean when he does something yeah he's news and it's sort of an interesting development with him this year every city that he went to for the first time the visiting media always wanted to have a scrum with him so even if i wasn't writing about him that day i would go and listen to that scrum on the unlikely chance that he would say something interesting vlad he doesn't

say a whole lot yet and he may never it's just the way he is right he's somewhat humble um but yeah i mean vlad guerrero jr let's face it people want to know about the kid you know like they can't get enough of it. At our place, it isn't necessarily clicks-driven, but it's news judgment-driven. But are you aware? Do you have an awareness of, for example, which story gets more digital eyeballs? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. There's metrics out there that we have. You're a human being, so if you start to see, and not that you need to be a rocket surgeon to figure this one out, but if you start to see that every time Vladdy's's in the headline look it's got twice as many eyeballs as if i write about like biggio for example like then then you're going to start naturally you will start writing more about vladdy in order to kind of this is like a we're all wired for this it's like i agree and you know i that certainly plays into it but as i suggested i would i would think i

would do that anyway because I know... It's like I don't need the clicks to tell me what people are interested in. I sort of trust my own news judgment, what readers want to hear. Right. If that makes any sense. No, it makes sense, but I think they start to feed each other. They do. Yeah, definitely.

I guess I'm saying we need a Vladdy article every day, I think, for the rest of the season. Can you do that for us? Well, it it may come to that you know i may you know and there's there's ways around it i mean i've been i pitched a story last summer that um we did a couple of features last summer one was i did with steve simmons and one i did on my own but i pitched and this is why i still love working at post medias but there's there's still an opportunity to do these kind of stories i said listen let me go to manchester new hampshire and spend a week i said i don't know what i'm going to come back with i'll come back with something right but let me go spend a

week with the kid because i'm going to get to know him i'm going to get to know the people around him and it's it's only going to serve us well down the road and as it turned out i mean i got a couple of i was there when he got hurt so that was a news story that I didn't intend to have but but I got some feature stuff that some of it that I wrote right away some of it that I banked for the future and it was just kind of it was a good opportunity to get to know John Schneider who's with the team now Kevin Biggio was there Beau Bichette was there and just to sort of hang around those guys for a few days yeah and, and they didn't ask you to sleep in your car or anything. No.

You can go, Rob, yeah, but you've got to sleep in your car. Yeah, and that's the way this business always used to be, that you take a chance on those kind of things and do feature stories properly. Right. The way it's going now, it's a tougher sell, and in some places it's an impossible sell, but that's the proper way to do stories.

Okay, I have questions from the audience, if you will, but first I have a couple of, like, sun questions. One is, I should preface this by saying that in certain circles, the sun is not... In certain circles, I guess by that I mean people of a certain political slant don't like your paper very much. Are you aware of that? I've heard tale i'm here to to talk to those people because i've been accused

of being can you believe it i've been accused of being in that group myself oh my goodness gracious i didn't wear my left wing pinko shirt today so it's upstairs but um what's i feel like uh i should to say to those people that you may have some issues with the way the sun covers the news especially of the canadaland memo that came out regarding uh almost being a pr piece for the pc party for example and doug ford so this is not about that don't worry this is not about politics here this is about the fact that we should be grateful that the sun sports department is still out there doing doing work like this like i, okay, it's okay to dislike this part of the Toronto Sun, but what they're doing in the sports world, to me, is very commendable. There's great reporting going on, I think, because you're not Rogers or Bell.

Even though there might be a slight affiliation somewhere with Bell, I don't even know how it works. Maybe you just appear on some of their programs or whatnot. But you're not Rogers or Bell, and you still provide an unbiased, and you're still sending people on the road and you're one of the last bastions of free sports press in this marketplace. So I'm here to say that I hope people don't

throw away the baby with the bathwater. Yeah, it's obviously a sell that we have. It's a tough sell sometimes because people will get offended by the political style of reporting and political bent. But if they want sports coverage, and I hate to toot our own horn, but I think it's still the best product in Canada and amongst the best in North America.

Are we what we once were? No. But we've been able to maintain a commitment to sports, a commitment to spend to get good sports coverage, and a commitment to be wide ranging in it. And I think and honest and opinionated. And I think readers and sports fans want and deserve that. Agreed, agreed. How did things change? When because you've been referring to post media, like, so, first of all, do you remember what year you became post media oh man it all blends together because before that i should know this off the top of my head but it

was uh before that it was of course quebec or and you know there were some issues with quebec okay so let's go back then so what was that transition like in terms of how you guys were used to working like as being like a writer for the sun this seemed to be a little bit more volatility then um pierre carl peledeau who ran and runs quebec or was certainly had that volatile side to his personality and the way he ran his businesses and you know we'd get a memo one week where we need 50 videos from sports and then you do videos and they'd throw that on the web and then people just sort of fade away video i remember this yeah it would just sort of disappear and then you know six months later the same sort of thing

would happen um and they cut back travel they certainly cut back a lot of the uh it was sort of the first wave huge wave of layoffs around there that really decimated things at the sun papers um and essentially essentially made it lean enough to sell the post-media. I think, you know, Quebec Or did a lot of the dirty work before the layoffs came. Right.

Yeah, so. But that was, you know, and it wasn't just Quebec Or and us. That was sort of the first signs of this business being a regular. I mean, the Globe and Mail is going through this right now. I know David Schultz came on to say goodbye

because he's done now after how many decades of good service. Before, I think, Schultz, yeah. Yeah, well, he was at the Calgary Sun, wasn't he? He was at the Calgary Sun with Simmons. Simmons, yeah. Or the Herald. It might have been the Herald. Eric DeHatchick.

Okay. I think they were roommates, the three of them out there. Well, I've had them all on to talk about the, and you get to go back to hear this. I won't repeat the wholeerald, Eric DeHatchett. I think they were roommates, the three of them out there. I've had them all on to talk about the, and you get to go back to hear this, I won't repeat the whole story, but how Simmons inadvertently gets Howard Berger fired from his gig over there. That's a great story.

It's really good. I think I got it from Schultz and I got it from Simmons. It's worth going back. And I think maybe even we played it for Berger, which was kind of an interesting moment. So, okay. By the way, if you ever die, Berger can take care of you. He's your guy.

So good for him to rock on. Another former Etobicoke Guardian person. Oh, I want the whole list. Anyone else? Bufry Joel Columbia, who's a desk guy at our place, has been there longer than I have. He's been there almost 40 years. Trying to think if there's any.

Steve McAllister, who was the Globe and Mail sports editor for a while and worked at CP. Look at all this great Etobicoke. He graduated from the Etobicoke Guardian, yeah. Yeah, I'm not actually from Etobicoke. I've been here six years now. I do quite like it, South Etobicoke anyways. I don't know what it's up like where you are,

but it's all right down here. All right, now when when post media buys you any changes at that point or had kind of the changes happened like you said with quebec core and then uh oh there were some changes because it's just personnel changes and then who sort of ran the department and how um how it transitioned from originally the the concept was keep the broadsheets separate from the tabloids. In other words, a Steve Simmons would not appear in the National Post and a Cam Cole would not appear in the Toronto Sun. Right.

And I think part of that might have been based on the way the unions were set up. And I think part of that was just on let's keep the brand separate. I mean, they're separate and distinct. Now, people surmised at the time that how long can this really last? And of course, over time, it changed. And so now, I mean, if you buy the Edmonton Sun, you're going to read a lot of the same stuff that you're going to read in the Edmonton Journal.

That was inevitable. But it took some time for that to sort of all shake down and fall into place. What about physically moving your office? Was that an adjustment? Now where are you? Where's the office now? We're in the national post office which is bluer and sherburne right so any was that i mean first of all how often are you in that office like you probably not very often right have you ever been there every month and a

half when i file my expenses basically because you can't do that digitally yet i feel like no we should tell rob where the office is i don't's there. Our Winnipeg accounting office isn't quite keen on the electronic filing. No, I mean, it was, well, you know, you sort of love that old, the original Toronto Sun building. It changed over the years, of course, because there was a time when we essentially filled up six floors of that building with advertising and circulation and all these departments. And by the end, we were, they had sold the building these departments and by the end we were

but they had sold the building and leased a floor and we were like a half of a floor is all we took up same story at the star right like it's awesome i mean yeah you're not yeah immune to that that's for sure it's a shrinking industry unfortunately but here's something that's not shrinking is like like podcasting how come there's no like there should be a a rob longley vladdy watch podcast well you know it's interesting i think we're gonna i think we're starting to move into the in that direction in fact we just launched one sports department just launched one this week it's called the forecast oh which is a golf it's a golfing one with we have our new national golf writer and good golfer john mccarthy and uh one of our desk guys who's a whoing one. We have our new national golf writer and good golfer, John McCarthy, and one of our desk guys who does some golf writing, Dave Hilson.

And it looks, I mean, I haven't really talked to anybody about it, but it sounds to me like they're really going to push it and promote it. And I suspect that it'll be a bit of a trial balloon. And if it has some success, maybe there will be a Vladdy podcast before the end of the season or when they next make the playoffs in 2023. It's kind of smart to start with the golf one because although I'm not in this club, I don't like playing golf,

but those who play are crazy passionate lunatics about it and typically have a high income. Like this is not a poor man's sport. I think you got income, which means advertisers would be interested. I think they already have some advertisers on board too, which is probably good. Rob, I'm just sorry. I couldn't bid on this at TMDS. I produce a podcast.

I could have been your podcast guy. Go tell them when the Vladdy Watch podcast of Rob Longley starts. I want to be in on it. All right. First baseball question comes from Brian Gerstein. Brian is a real estate sales representative with psr brokerage he weighs in on twitter twitter with me every once in a while too devotee yeah and baseball he follows baseball well let's let's i think he's going to talk about baseball here here's brian

is it good that i know this jingle brian Rob, Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mike. Lately, I've been doing lots of leases. Got two clients' condos at Yonge and Eglinton, one in Richmond Hill, and I'm listing one for brand new Minto Westside at Bafferson Front. Contact me for any rental or buy and sell needs you have, including new developments. 416-873-0292. Rob, it appears that Tampa Bay is on the way out.

A question of if and not when. And I don't buy the split-season nonsense with Montreal, which is a pipe dream, but as an Expos fan, would take it if it brought Major League Baseball back to Montreal, even for half a season. What do you see happening and when? The Tampa Bay lease is till 20 2027 but that ain't happening you know i gotta give brian credit though that he's he's passionate about his expos yeah

evidently i didn't realize that was his roots i know he follows the jays too but he if he follows that he probably follows vladi because of the connection with the Expos. Yeah. The legendary picture of young Vladi and old man Vladi from way back when. All right. Tell Brian what he wants to hear. Tell him there will be Major League Baseball in Montreal.

I don't think that that's an impossibility, Brian. I don't think it's going to be a half-raised, half-Expos situation. I think that was maybe a political move more than anything on the part of baseball and and tampa to get a new stadium built or to do something with the problem that that that is tampa i mean i was there for a series this year with the jays and they set a record for the lowest attendance in the history of what is a terrible stadium less than 5 000 people wow um and it is really it's really a terrible place to go to uh there's more than that at the wolfpack match i'm going to on saturday maybe even at the maple

leaves at christy pitts i exaggerate but um but i do i do get the sense and it's hard to really decide what what a straight answer is from people in baseball but i i get a sense that montreal is on the radar of mlb i think they they look at the success that um the blue jays have had coast to coast and certainly the the appeal of baseball in this country obviously they need they need a new stadium to do it right i think uh i mean i think baseball now recognizes that the departure of the expos from montreal probably shouldn't have happened and there was a bunch of circumstances that led to it including a bad stadium and and you know ownership that was maybe not and not moving in the right direction so i think they see it as a viable market i think they recognize the significance

of being an international brand and and we'll seriously look at it. Whether that's moving a team like Tampa there full-time or whether it's doing it the expansion route, let's just see how it all unfolds. And they also have the Bronfen family very seriously involved in Montreal and that's something that would appeal to any sports league. That can't hurt their cause there. Okay, now here, that was Brian's question.

Now here's some listeners of Toronto Mike. So there's a guy named Flippy. I don't know. I said guy. Like I assume if his name is Flippy Dog, I think that's got to be a guy, but I have no idea if it's a guy or a gal or what. So Flippy Dog says,

how did Jay's management not know what position Gurriel could and could not play coming out of spring training? Thanks, Toronto Mike. So thank you, Flippy Dog. He wants to know like, so all of a sudden, you mentioned this earlier, but he's playing a great left field right yeah it's it's a fascinating

sort of development with him I think they they thought that he could be a decent infielder and he'd actually shown some some signs of it but it became a weird set of circumstances it was almost like it was mental with him like he he'd feel the ball and then all of a sudden he couldn't throw it and then kept making errors and it kept compounding so they sent him down to buffalo and said okay just get your head together we're going to dh you for a while they love his bat they've always loved his bat that's the thing they like about them having the most so get your head together and we're going to throw you out in field and see how you do there and then you, he started to hit down there

and then they said, okay, let's bring him up. They don't really care. I mean, they've got a glut of infielders anyway with Bichette coming up and with Biggio, obviously, and then Vladi at third. Let's find a place for him. We don't want to waste a DH on him. But if he can play some outfield, all the better. He goes out there and he starts looking like he's been doing it all his life it's been it's been one of the one of the few really positive

developments with this team this year interesting uh speaking of the glut of infielders uh brent wants to know uh where do you see devon devon devon travis in uh 2020 yeah you know it's i found myself thinking about devon just the other day when they gave a one of their like weekly uh injury updates and he's apparently he's progressing to some sort of throwing activity and stuff but you know i i think he might have one more chance with this team and maybe not even that um a lot of it's been bad luck of course with with him not being able to stay healthy but the issue now, with all those other infielders, where would Devin Travis fit?

I don't think we'll see him play this year unless we see him in September, perhaps. And then at that point, do you develop him and give him an opportunity as maybe trade bait in the offseason or for next year? I don't think they're going to be, unless Devin Travis comes back like he showing more promise or as much promise as he did a few years back I don't think they're

going to give up uh Cabin Biggio or Bo Bichette time for Devin Travis at this point and it's it's too bad because he's generally one of the better Jays to be around that in my short experience with the team and a guy with a lot of talent but but just can't stay healthy. Uh, speaking of that type of player, what's going on? Is there any hope at all for my guy, uh, Dalton Pompey? I don't think so. No, I think I, and again, I wasn't around for his full time in Toronto, but it was almost as if he started to he's had injury issues and he had some confidence issues and I think they just sort of moved on from him and I don't think they know

what to do with him as well. I suspect he'll come back and maybe get some time in Buffalo at the end of the season but I don't think he'll have an impact with the Jays. Might be my last opportunity to play just a little bit of this is Summertime Summertime by Dalton Pompey's father.

Oh, yeah. Who was a... There's some great stuff about him on the internet. You'll see some great videos of him. Oh, yeah. He was a dancer on Electric Circus. Wow. Are you okay for time?

Yeah, I'm good. Okay, just making sure. If that watch breaks, take it to Milan at Fast Time. That's right. Yeah, Pompeii's dad was a great musician, great dancer back in the day on Electric Circus. I was afraid you were doing extra music there, but you're just...

No, that's always the same song. I thought, come on, I thought you listened to this show. I did. You like the... Mike, speak English. You like the jingle for Brian, Property in the Six, right? Yeah, I can almost sing it. I can't sing, so I won't sing it.

It's not even, it's more like a talking thing. It is, yeah. Property in the Six dot com. So the guy doing that, Property in the Six dot com, is the same guy who raps the introductory music to Toronto Mike, Ill Vibe. Wow. Same guy.

So map those voices. It's the same gentleman. So that's a fun Toronto Mike fact Ill Vibe. Wow. Same guy. So map those voices. It's the same gentleman. So that's a fun Toronto Mike fact for you there. All right. So yeah, Devin, Travis, we did. Okay. Chris wants to know, how hard is it to sit through that every night?

Is it difficult, more difficult, I'm guessing, to cover a bad team versus a good team? Sure it is. Yeah. And a couple of factors at play here that i've alluded to earlier one the three hour and 40 minute game just drives me bonkers uh the pitching changes and some of the sloppy play that i mean you understand you really get a feel this year about a deep understanding about how important pitching is to the game of baseball because i mean i suppose

it should be obvious but the troubles that the jays have had with both their starters and and their bullpen it's just it just makes a lot of tedious nights and i know the public doesn't want to hear people complaining about where the media watches a baseball game from but when we're way out in left field and there's literally thousands of empty seats between us and home plate it's atmosphere wise it's uh it's it's not always a pleasant experience the dome which has been around since 89 so we're all kind of used to it but what a difference it makes when you have like you know 45 000 in there versus like 18 000 what a difference yeah and you know even 25 000 with the roof closed and 25 000 with the roof open oh roof

open completely different experience. Yeah, you give me 40,000 people, 40 plus thousand people in that dome and the roof open. And actually I have no complaints about that. I have no, I know it's a hunk of concrete and it was just before it was cool to do like the Camden Yards thing or whatever. But it's great when it's full in the dome.

When it's like on that Friday game i went to when the dome was closed and it was like it was like oh man i felt like i could you know hear people you know talking and like across the uh yeah they announced 20 000 like you said but it was probably more like 14 or 15 i almost did a head i was gonna do a head count because you could kind of do that and it wasn't 20 000 but okay i guess they all play that game but uh mike lynch wants to know speaking of starters uh he says when the blue jays make it back uh to contention who are the starting pitchers are some of them in the organization already and wouldn't it make sense to sign stroman to have some stability going forward yeah you know it's it's interesting because i think the fact that they're going to

trade stroman i think it's basically a signal that we're not going to be good for at least another two years are not going to be contenders for another two years because why wouldn't you keep a guy like that like a quote unquote ace why wouldn't you just keep them around right they feel and we'll see what happens over the next two or three weeks they feel that they're going to get enough in return for a guy like that, that it's worthwhile. Now, there's so many people around that team that hope that at least part of that return is pitching help. And boy, do they ever need it.

And I think they need, you know, part of the return has to be somebody that's maybe a high prospect, even AAA, that's almost ready to at least come in and give them some innings. Who's going to form the rotation? Well, you know, Ryan Barucki, the left-hander, the young left-hander that's almost ready to at least come in and give them some innings. Who's going to form the rotation? Well, you know, Ryan Barucki, the left-hander, the young left-hander who showed some signs last year and has been injured all of this year. He's a guy who could.

I saw Nate Pearson, the young guy who was a draft pick, first round pick in 2017. He pitched in the Futures game down as part of All-Star Week in Cleveland. And Mike, he threw like 12 pitches and seven of them were fastballs and five of those were over 100 miles an hour i followed his tweets about this it was riveting yeah he's i mean he's the real deal and they're committed to making him a starter like he's a guy who throws out hard like there's to be a tendency just to throw him in the bullpen and be a closer but like they're getting five and six innings out of this guy and he's developing a curveball and he's developing a really good slider and you know he's i think we'll see him in triple a this year and maybe with a big with a big team next september but i think he's he is like he's legit the real

deal if he's good as good as he could be they could name the airport after him. There you go. That's what they could do. Okay. Now, before we get to some of the guys you work with at the Sun, when you're at a home game, a Blue Jays home game, can you tell me, maybe I'm the only one who is curious about this, but who exactly would you typically see in the Jays press area covering the game?

Would you be able to run down some of the, would you typically see in the Jays press area covering the game? Like, could you, could you, would you be able to run down some of the, I mean, I'm talking about Toronto based guys, not the visiting team people, obviously, but like,

who would you see covering the game at a home game? Well, I can almost, I can almost visualize the media row there. And unfortunately it's not nearly what it would have been back when newspapers and TV, TV and radio stations were better staffed. But at one end, Scott Mitchell is there from TSN.

Usually sitting near him is Keegan Matheson, who's... Friend of the show. He's a good... Keegan's a great guy, maritimer, but also he had that Baseball Toronto website that he developed, but has since been hired by MLB.com right replacing gregor chisholm who left mlb.com for for the toronto star replacing richard griffin as a columnist there which is a great story in itself gregor's a great guy actually got his start at the uh at the toronto sun where he worked as an editor um but you don't see too many guys going from dot com

the newspapers and it's kind of like hey way to go g Gregor. It's a great job and he's off to a really strong start with the Toronto Stars. So what happened with Laura Armstrong? She was there, I guess, to a stopgap between Griffin and Chisholm. Laura's still there and Laura's still a very big and very important part of their...

Because she looks like Pam from The Office. I don't know about that. Pam's good looking. It's a compliment, right? I mean it as a compliment. She's their main beat. She's sort of like their main beat person. And Gregor's the columnist.

Gotcha. Laura started on the beat the same time as I did in the 2017 season. So she's a very, very important part of their coverage going forward. And she's on our row. So the sun is sort of like a newspaper row the sun and there's there's two sun seats and there's two globe and mail seats which unfortunately are not going to be filled the rest of this year because rob mcleod has left maybe we'll see see kahl kelly drop by a couple times right then the star seats which you will often

see you'll see usually that the star sends two people to every game which is which which is good on every home game that don't cover the road games but they send two to the home games so you'll see usually that the star sends two people to every game which is which which is good on every home game that don't cover the road games but they send two to the home games so you'll see a combination of either rosie or gregor and laura and sometimes marks walensky who comes in and fills in and knows baseball very well then the pr staff is there then you get into the ml.com people which is uh alexis brinicki and gregor um the athletic people uh john lodd and caitlin mcgrather at every game and then uh sort of like a sports net row it could be sometimes it's just one or two sometimes it's five or six you'll see jeff blair there sometimes always one of shy ben or arden and then uh that's pretty much it okay so now speaking of the athletic do you have any thoughts on uh the athletic coming in and trying to like uh i guess through digital

channels kind of fill in a a gap that's been left by shrinking newspapers etc it's certainly a fascinating development and and an intriguing one to see where it where it all ends i mean they've come in and done an amazing job and part of that is through bold and innovative management and approach and part of it was with the money they've spent to hire some of the best sports writers in north america including in this market so um you know there's some skepticism, I guess, in the business that the business model is going to sustain. Like sustainability might be a concern.

Because you're right, they didn't cheap out on this. Like there's a lot of big, I'm assuming these big name talents, they're not working for peanuts. No, I wouldn't think so. But so, you know, yeah, there's skeptics about it, but we haven't seen any signs of them cutting back yet. So whether there's still venture capital it but we haven't seen any signs of them cutting back yet so um whether there's there's still venture capital coming in to sustain that whether the subscriptions have

been high enough or whether it's just a good workable business model i don't know but um one of the best things about the the athletic quality aside was that it was able to keep a lot of good talented journalists in the business like john lot's a good example right because he got it was uh the post or he was at The Post, right? Yeah. And they did that whole wave, actually, where a bunch of good sports writers got let go. And he, yeah, it's just good.

For you as a sports writer, it's good to have another option out there, right? Definitely, yeah. I mean, a full press box is much better than a half empty one. Definitely. Both for the collegial aspect of it, of your colleagues, but also just for the competition

and for the profession itself, the development of the profession. Okay, let's talk about some of your former and current colleagues. And we've done a little bit of this already. I'm just checking the clock. Okay, good. Now, I guess you've already kind of,

so Steve Buffery, we can start with him, but he's a fellow Etobicokean. And you know, he should warn you. I don't know if I need to warn you, but he might be listening right now. I'd be surprised if he wasn't listening. What do you want to say to Steve?

Oh, well, the Beezer, as we call him, we go back, we go way back. And he's been a great colleague from the start. In fact, he was a sports editor at the Etobicoke Guardian

and I worked for him one summer. And I think he told the story when he was on with you that all he did was write boxing, and all I wrote was golf. He's in the Boxing Hall of Fame somewhere. Ontario, maybe? I don't know. But, you know, Beezer, in so many ways, is what Sun Sports writing has been.

And this is a compliment. He's a character, he's a personality, and he's opinionated. And when Beezer tackles an issue, when Steve Buffery tackles an issue, And this is a compliment. He's a character, he's a personality, and he's opinionated. And when Beezer tackles an issue and Steve Buffery tackles an issue, he does it like nobody else. And you want more of that. I mean, that's what made the Toronto Sun. That's what makes good tabloid journalism.

And tabloid journalism doesn't have to be a negative thing. It can be a positive thing. And it's part personality, it's part opinion, and it's part journalistic integrity. And Steve has all of that. We already kind of talked about him being a hip-hop aficionado, but what about Ryan Wolstat? Woz, the only person,

he refers to himself in the third person. Oh, like that episode of Seinfeld. Was it Jimmy? Was it Jimmy or Steve? Was it Jimmy? Yeah, he had the shoes right yeah but he calls himself the waz so i got an email from him the from the other day he said i'm here in waz vegas do you have any tips for the crops crops table and i'm like okay was no

was just you know he's uh i mean he's been a he's a basketball junkie too right so he knows he knows the sport very well and obviously a huge part of our Raptors coverage and a good analytical part of it. He wrote a great piece just today on the Uncle Dennis role in the Kawhi saga, which I thought was quite strong. I haven't, I only saw a little bit about it on Twitter because I plan to dive in,

but is this essentially like the Clippers finding a way to kind of circumvent whatever, tampering or... I got to read it to do it full justice, but it sounds like this is something that the league should look into. But let me read the article. Yeah, and his point being as well

that Uncle Dennis was pulling some of the strings behind the curtains. Right,is whatever all right now uh how about uh koshan uh yeah terry koshan terry's great terry's terry and i worked on the hockey beat together for i don't know all says most of the seven years that i did the leafs and he's to me he's one of the most knowledgeable hockey guys in this market and one of the more underrated guys. He really knows the game. He knows the nuances of the game. He knows how to work the contacts.

And, like, I think he can hit most of those guys up in that Leaf locker room and get a good, honest answer because they respect him, they respect his knowledge, and they respect his questions. And, you know, he's, you know, I love the way that he came along. There's not the luxury of doing this anymore. But Scott Morrison saw some potential in him when he was a sports editor and made him a junior hockey guy. So back then you covered junior hockey.

And if you did a good job on it, you started to do a little bit of the Leafs, sort of work as a sidebar guy on home games. Right. And then move into the beat. And he's, you know, he's, again, I think one of the more valuable guys. I think he's my most recent Toronto Sun guy prior to you. So yeah, he was great. Now, a couple of guys I've never met, but Lance Hornby.

Lance is a legend. He's been in the Sun since almost, he's not a day one-er as we call them, but he's pretty darn close. I got to get him over here. I can't, you know, I got to spread you out a little bit, but I think he's pretty darn close i gotta get him over here i gotta i can't you know i gotta spread you out a little bit but i think he's got to come in yeah lance's uh big uh birthday bash is tomorrow he's turning 60 and i think he's been working at the sun since he was like 20 so i mean literally he started covering high school sports and but where lance has made his his his mark on on the

market and on Leafs coverage. Not only does he cover the Leafs by what happens on the ice, he's known as probably the unofficial historian of the team, certainly in today's current newspaper market. So anytime a story of historical relevance comes up, he's all over that. He has a good pedigree that way i'm sold the i'm gonna announce it now i haven't even talked to lance yet but i'm announcing now lance hornby

coming to toronto mic'd look for that come yeah um get him in here mike gantner mike gumby gantner remember the baseball player his nickname is gumby oh mike gartner i was thinking of yeah but his nickname his nickname was gumby so mike Mike Ganter's nickname became Gumby as well. It was a logical, silly little thing put upon him by our desk many, many years ago. If it works. Yeah, but Mike's been, obviously, he was sort of, him and Wads were our lead guys on the Raptors coverage this year. But he covered the Blue Jays for a number of years as well.

So one of our versatile guys and just a a guy who's been around like it's it's it's weird to think of it we all sort of came up together many of us started there in the late 80s like between 87 and 90 like i think mike was just right behind me seniority so we know this because of the union seniority i think i got mike by about three months right but uh he um yeah he's he's he's been a versatile guy and and big on the jays and then and and a huge part of our raptors coverage like i said now a couple of guys who aren't there anymore uh zeisberger zeis just got back from a golf trip with zeis last week he's uh he's he's been a he was a great guest. Yeah.

Really enjoyed my... I'm trying to remember if we had to be upstairs. He came the same week as Moberg and... Oh, wow. Yeah, but I was getting this... Chris Brown was... Chrisbrownpainting.com, by the way, painted the studio, and I rebuilt it upstairs,

but I think maybe Zyzeberger, we did it down here. I just can't remember. We might have done it on my kitchen table. We might have done it on my kitchen table. He'll have to tell my kitchen table he'll have to tell me but uh yeah he was fantastic yeah mike again another one of those guys him and i started within months of each other and and uh he started more as a writer than i did and he worked his way through the blue jays beat and then a long time on the nhl hockey beat and saw a great opportunity at NHL.com.

I mean, you know, the writing was on the wall in the newspaper business. Yeah, he's no dummy, right? Yeah, but you know what? He went through a lot. It was very difficult to him because, and I consider myself a little bit of this mindset too. He's very loyal to the sun. And we're not talking the ownership of the sun necessarily

and the business part of the sun necessarily in the business part of the sun but to that that masthead still means something to us you know we as we discussed earlier it's still committed to covering sports and it's we believe we're we were part of a pretty valuable and pretty good team and even though he knew it was the right decision to go to nhl.com for him it was a difficult call also now he he's no longer journalist now right like because if you work for nhl.com there's no expectation of uh true unbiased journalism yeah it's like richard griffin like he's no longer you know now he's he has an inherent bias it's not quite that way i mean they're i mean they're still expected to cover things and and uh and write uh

somewhat critically on what happens on the ice. But I think if it came to issues that were critical... Well, let's talk about concussions, for example. There's going to be certain... I would think there's third rail stuff, if you were trying to chill that out. Yeah, there's probably...

And I don't know how it works specifically, but I'm sure there's limitations on how far you can go on those types of issues. But hockey's hockey, and he can cover that straight up, of course. Yeah, and he loves it, and he's done a great job over there. Mike's always been a guy who sensed a good feature story, tackled a good feature story, and did a good job on it.

And that's where he was valuable for us, and is very, very valuable for NHL.com. What about the man who came to the door with two Diet Cokes in his hand? There was one in each hand. And I was thinking, I said, oh, how nice is it that Bob Elliott brought me a drink? Like one for him and one for me. And he sits down. And I realized very quickly, oh, they're both for him.

No, Mr. Diet Coke, Mr. Hall of Famer, you know, and a Sun legend. Yeah. Bob Elliott, of of course we're talking about and he it you know i always knew what bob was i mean i could tell i mean i added his copy and you know breaking story after breaking news after breaking news he essentially was the was the godfather that of the jays beat since since he came to toronto he mean he owned it he owned all the big stories or most of them anyway. And, you know, a big loss when we lost him.

And, and I think I've even gained a, a much further appreciation of Bob Elliott in my two and a half years covering the team by seeing how revered he is in other press boxes. Random questions from Joe Blow from Kansas City. Like how's Bob doing? Right. How's the boxer? You know? Right. How's the boxer?

You know. Yeah. An icon in our industry and a legend in the sport. And, you know, one of the great reporters that the Sun has ever had. I mean, it's important to note that he also, like Zeisberger, he quit. This wasn't a package out type deal, but he just decided to leave, to leave right yeah i'm not sure exactly what it was prompting that i know go listen to the bob elliott episode of trying to mike he explains it all there no he does okay i know that he just missed i guess he quit and then like shortly thereafter there was this uh package offered yeah yeah yeah that was not a that was not

a pleasant way for him to go well like schultzz is interesting because, you know, Schultz, I think they announced like, okay, we're going to have some voluntary packages followed by involuntary packages. And I think he had difficulty hiding the smile on his face. Like he's going to put up his hand in the meeting. Like I want the package. Yeah.

So some people are just, the timing's just right. Yeah, he was ready. Schultz, he's a great guy and very funny as I'm sure you appreciate. He is because he does stand up. But Yeah, he was right. Schultz is a great guy and very funny, as I'm sure you appreciate. Well, he thinks he is because he does stand-up. But yeah, he's funny. He performed at a Toronto Mike listener experience once, and he is very funny. His best stand-up is in a bar after a game.

Let me tell you. You've got to start recording then. Yeah. Although he's not going, well, he's not working any games anymore anyways. Good for Schultz. So one more guy left. He's actually still at the Sun, I understand. But I need to do a little chat about, you'd call him Cy?

Is that what you'd call him? We'd call him Cy, yeah. Steve Simmons. Friends get to call him Cy. Steve Simmons. Okay. So what, because you've been working with him since the late 80s. What's it like working with Steve Simmons?

because you've been working with him since the late 80s. What's it like working with Steve Simmons? It's probably, Steve is probably the most misunderstood person in our business from outside of our newsroom. For people, people just read him and they just get the wrong impression of Steve. You couldn't have a better teammate. You couldn't have a more professional journalist.

And I mean that sincerely. I've watched him work. Well, I have follow-up questions but yeah because again and i feel i need to apologize for uh being a simmons fan i don't know maybe maybe and maybe you don't you have to apologize for being a fan and one of the best sports journalists in this country and that's i like reading his stuff yeah but i've had interactions with him uh oneon-one, and he's a sweetheart. It's a lot of work for Steve. He's going to have to meet all his readers now. But if you met Steve Simmons,

I think you'd like him more, if that makes sense. Definitely, yeah. And I think what gets Steve in trouble, and his son even admitted, but let's go to the infamous Phil Kessel kessel story about the hot dog okay all right i've i've that lead i guess that's a lead it's in the lead yep l-e-d-e by the way that's how we that's how we type it for some reason but yeah so in the lead he refers to uh the hot dog that uh uh phil kessel would get every day at a certain intersection or whatever.

That lead to this date, maybe it's a vocal minority, I don't know, but people passionately hate Steve Simmons for writing that lead. And it doesn't, I know he's a responsible journalist, like you said, he's a good journalist, but that lead doesn't seem responsible,

like in my opinion i and i i'm just a reader i i feel like so he does things that give ammunition to his critics yeah and when you're as when you're as harsh a critic of things as steve is i guess that sets you up for those critics but you know he could have it was just a simple way that that whole thing could have been diffused very simply if he would have just said a downtown hotdog cart, he happened to mention a specific location, which wasn't accurate because it was five or six blocks from where Phil actually lived.

And of course the people that wanted to discredit Steve discredited this entire premise of the column because of that, which is, which is based on a conversation he had on the phone with his son's friend. Yeah. And is that enough, like, for you? Is that enough for you? Your son's daughter, right?

So your daughter is a daughter, right? Yeah, a daughter. Your daughter's friend references something on the phone, and it's the lead of your big Phil Kessel leaves Toronto story? Yeah, I think that... I don't think Steve stopped there. I think he talked to people that he knows

within Leafs management that confirmed that essentially, yeah, those habits were very much a part of the way Phil lived his life, but he didn't necessarily just check that it was at King & John or Wellington & John or whatever he said in the lead of that story. Again, if he says downtown hot dog cart that Phil visits five times a week, I don't think that there's nearly the uproar because what happened was i think i believe it was pension plan

pension plan puppets those guys they uh you know they they they did the research with showed where castle lived showed where said hot they did the journalism they did the work yeah you're right it was them it was but man it's it's crazy how like everything that everything he writes now gets a hot dog response oh i know he'll never shake that it probably should be on his tombstone i feel like he should uh lean in and own this like i think i said this to his son like okay you're gonna be like it's like in wrestling when you uh turn heel or whatever like just be that guy like yeah you know people as long as they read yeah but like again he'll steve does the work though.

That's the thing. He just doesn't, he just doesn't fly off the cuff. I've, I've seen him in action. I mean, I've seen him at several Olympics. I've seen him one year. I covered the Stanley Cup final with him and it was in Boston. And we were sitting up in our seats in the press box. And every year during the finals, game three or game four,

there's a GM's meeting in that city. And there must have been 15 general managers that walked by us and at least 10 stopped to say hello to Steve Simmons. Now, I don't know how many newspaper writers in North America that would happen to. And to do that, that shows the kind of respect that Steve has from people in the game. If Steve,

if you're listening, uh, you've, you've been over twice. He kicked out the jams. Did he? Which you'll do at some point. Yeah.

You should go back and listen to Steve Simmons. I missed that one. You got to catch up on that, but he's, we've been trying to schedule him to come in with Cash Palmer. Oh yeah. Uh, they're going to come in together and let's just,

Steve, let's just make it happen this summer. Yeah. That's a great story. Cash is, And let's just, Steve, let's just make it happen this summer. Yeah, it's a great story. Cash is, you know, colorful, interesting, tragic. That's a great story. Steve's been a very kind and gentle friend to him throughout a lot of stuff.

Right. So let's do that episode, Steve. So you know my email address. Let's schedule this thing. Just as recently as last weekend, though, speaking of giving your critics ammunition, Simmons does his notes, Sunday notes, and then there was a piece,

a reference to the... He didn't say definitively it was happening, but it was heavily suggested that Don Cherry might be done on Hockey Night in Canada. I guess part of these aforementioned cost-cutting moves at Rogers. That thing kind of took off into a thing of its own.

And then I think Don Cherry had to come out in Warmington. So speaking of the Toronto Sun. Yes. What's he like, by the way? Joe's interesting. Joe does things his own way. Obviously, he's a bulldog. As a reporter, Joe's a bulldog like as a reporter joe is joe is a bulldog um sometimes

he gets a little crazy in his in his in his uh approach to certain stories but but again he's a he's a personality and a character and a good son guy that way i guess but he got i guess he talked to don on the phone and then he broke this news that don was like why didn't steve why didn't steve phone why didn't my friend Steve phone me? Which is a good point though, that if you have somebody's number, like if I had a Rob Longley story, I would, now that I have a relationship with you, I'll reach out

to you first. Like I literally do this. I reached out to Damien Cox first when I heard he was no longer at Sportsnet because I have a relationship with Cox. So Steve does things like that, that sort of shoot himself in the foot i think give the ammunition anyways that's an easy one for his critics i think yeah and again i'm not sure how much the critics sort of took over the the narrative of that story because nowhere in there as you say did he actually no confirm that

don cherry is leaving also in the in the follow-up, Rogers will not give an answer. All Rogers is saying is no comment. Now, they say that's the way that they run their business, but I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they were considering getting rid of Don Cherry this year, if this actually works in their favor

as a bit of a trial balloon to public reaction. Right. Yeah, which politicians do all the time right but yeah now i do you're right about rogers like why couldn't why don't they just make a statement that you know don is part of our next season yeah what did end up happening is the uh the verified hockey night in canada twitter account did eventually send so that's like now that's at least that you'd think that has to be approved by some rogers pr person you would think yeah some some intern has it he's like i'm gonna stand up for

don or whatever but yeah so it does appear i mean i'd be kind of stupid for them not to bring him back if they had the official twitter account say he'd be back so yeah yeah no it's at least one year of don coming up but that sunday notes column that's you know part of what he does and you know he doesn't again he doesn't just throw stuff out there and see if it sticks against the wall. He generally bases it. I don't know who he talked to for the story, but he would have talked to people that,

and more than one person, I'm sure, that would have suggested that that was a possibility. And I think that's all he was doing, was suggesting that it was a possibility, not saying definitively that it was going to happen. Now, I can look at the state of the space or the industry and say, okay, they just did this to Bob McCowan and a bunch of others like Scott Morrison

and a whole bunch of Rogers guys like go cost-cutting. I mean, there's a big ticket price to Don. He's not working for 60K a year, you know what I mean? So he's making real money. And he is 85 or something like that. you could sort of connect dots and say he they hadn't apparently they hadn't renewed his contract yet like you could connect dots and say like maybe Don's in trouble here I think well maybe and you know what what I would be doing if I was talking to Don Cherry and interviewing him I would say Don, Don, how do you feel? You're 85 years old.

Is this a grind? Would you rather work less? I mean, I'd heard stories that like they were on location for the final and I heard that it was a little bit of a, it was a little bit of an ordeal for him and how could it not be right? Yeah. I mean, just, just traveling at that age, but also, I mean, going from a hotel to a crazy arena in St. Louis and a crazy arena in Boston. Yeah, it's tough for like a, it's got to be tough for a 65-year-old person, let alone an 85-year-old. And on that note, though, I'm not going to say ageism,

but they did retire, they just retired Bob Cole. Like he did not want to, he was very clear. He went kicking and screaming. Yeah. And they said, no, you're done. And that's that's well for their rights and maybe and you can make an argument it's time or whatever and sometimes people don't know when when to end it and maybe this is for the best i have no idea but i do know that uh i miss hearing i'll miss hearing bob cole call hockey games because i felt even last season he was very good yeah i agreed 100 there's not a

better voice we had i'll tell you a quick bob cole story oh yeah sure as everybody loves bob cole um we were in uh pyongyang at the olympics and each night we just a bunch of the canadian media would gather we called it the big tent it was just essentially a tent where you went and drank beer but there was at least two nights where the entire table told bob bob cole stories and like we're talking about an hour of bob cole stories it was just amazing the the reverence that people have for him and bob if you're listening i'll fly to newfoundland to get uh get you on toronto mike uh oh it's a business expense he's such a nice man i mean i i knew him and did a couple feature stories on him when i was uh when i was doing that Sports on Media beat,

including I spent an entire game in the press box with him. Oh, baby. Yeah, it was something else. Rob, this was something else, man. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Would you believe that was almost two hours? Wow. I know, it flies by.

It's a sign of a good conversation. Yeah, it was great. And we will get you back to kick out the jams uh maybe we'll get some more acdc in the mix there so for 1486 we'll do it sooner than that i'm thinking early 500s maybe if uh who knows it's a short drive for you we'll make it happen get some dropkick Murphys and away we go. And maybe some Jay-Z for Ryan. For the Waz. For the Waz. The Waz.

I think his Jimmy was his name. The guy, Jimmy, Jimmy, remember in the Seinfeld episode with the shoes?

And then that's when Kramer got his tooth work done and his mouth was frozen and Mel Torme thought he was challenged. Remember this?

Yeah, I do. That's one of my favorite eps. That's a great ep, man. Yep. Thanks, buddy. That was great. Hey, thank you.

Thanks for the beer and for the lasagna. Stickers, pasta. We take care of you. We take care of our guests. And that brings us to our 486th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Rob, are you at Longley Sun Sports?

That's it. Longley Sun Sports. What is it? At Longley Sun Sport. Longley Sun Sports. What is it? Longley Sun Sport. Longley Sun Sport. No S at the end. And Longley is like L-O-N-G-L-E-Y. Don't forget the E.

Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthesix.com is at Raptor's Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. Sticker U is at Stickma pasta fast time watch and jewelry repair is at fast time wjr sticker you is at sticker you capadilla llp is at capadilla llp and join me tomorrow when fred penner kicks out the jams i wonder if there'll be any acdc on his list uh we'll find out tomorrow thanks it's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears Thanks. Everything is coming up Rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold

But the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray