Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Roger Lajoie: Toronto Mike'd #134

Episode Date: September 16, 2015

Mike chats with Fan 590 host Roger Lajoie about his lengthy career in radio, his dozens of other gigs, the Prime Time Sports throw-down between Bob McCown and Stephen Brunt, 1050 schadenfreude and Blue Jays fever.

Welcome to episode 134 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is Roger Lajoie from The Fan 590. Roger, how was my pronunciation? Was that French enough? It was impeccable, Mike. Great job and nice to be with you. And is that true that Lejoie, that's the joy? Correct. French for the joy.

So I'm always smiling. It's a perfect name for me. It worked out well. How come that nickname never stuck? I mean, we hear Guy Lafleur, the flower. The Raj took over. I think it just, it was the Raj, for whatever reason, was the one. It was kind of the one I got stuck with when I started my career,

but I would take the joy for sure. It's a compliment to be called that. Yeah, and you only get one. Yeah, that's exactly right. You can't get greedy. So it's a pleasure. Thank you very much for doing this. It is my pleasure.

I've been a fan of your work and you've done a great job and you've had some pretty special people in here. So I hope I can live up to them. And well, yeah, it's natural to have you here because I've had a number of Fan 590 personalities kind of come by. But I've been hearing I've been hearing your voice on the fan. I'm going to guess for as long as there's been a fan.

Am I am I right? Close. The station went on the air. I don't have the exact date. In September of 1992, Mike, I did my debut on November the 30th, 1992. So the station was two months into its incarnation as an all-sports talk show radio station. And that was my first night as the guy filling in

came in did the show then they sent the schedule out and filled it in and i have done that role for 23 years that's amazing you were so close to being a day one or you get a t-shirt or something i miss the t-shirt i miss the uh opening ceremonies but i'll give you a little i'll give you a little toronto mic scoop because I haven't talked much about it on air. Let's hear it. Very shortly, as in, well, probably by the end of this calendar year, I will do my 3,000th show on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. They're going to put a banner up at the Dome for that.

Really? No, you got the scoop. Oh, come on, you spoiled it. That's amazing. Well, what's amazing to me is that I've never had my own show. So for a guy who's done 3,000 shows or will do 3,000 shows,

it's 2,971 and counting. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. That can't be true, though. It can't be true. Not even like a, I don't know, a 7 to midnight show nope not even in the mid 90s back in roger roger lejoie show back in the uh early 90s mike i i partnered with my great friend and a real a fan original and one of the most wonderful guys you're ever

going to meet storm and norman rumak but it was norm show and roge was in with norm most nights that's the closest i had to a regular uh slot but no in 23 years there has never been a roger lejoie show on the fan it's uh filling in many times weekends always i've been on weekends for a long time a lot of late nights filled in in the day but i was doing somebody else's show show. So you're like the utility infielder or whatever, the utility guy they call, just shuffle it around the infield. I think that's fair enough. I see myself as a utility guy, though, that could play every day in a lot of other teams, but I happen to be on the biggest all-sports station in the country, so I think that's

pretty cool. Okay, that is cool, except at some point, did you, did you not like desire your own show? Like, did you, did you not want the Roger Lajoie show? Honestly? Yeah. No.

Uh, and Mike, one of the reasons for that is in addition to the work I do at sports net five, nine, the fan, I, I teach,

uh, I'm a broadcaster in other venues. I've worked as a writer. I wrote Paul Henderson's autobiography, Jimmy DeVolano's autobiography. I live outside of Toronto, so it's not like, you know, it's easy for me to get to the fan five days a week. I run my own company. I do marketing, public relations. So there have been other elements and other things I've wanted to do in my career. So as great as it's been, I think the reason it's lasted 23 years, Mike, is it's worked for the station and it's worked for me.

And if you ever in any kind of business or walk of life can find a time where something works for both you and the employer, you can have a pretty long relationship. And ours is 23 years and going. You know, you touched on these other gigs. And one of the things, two things came up. I talked to some people who are mutual friends that worked with you and know you. And two things have come up as you passed me the Roger Lejoie baseball card. My business card. See, I'm a marketer. It's clever because I'm a marketer and we're a podcast. It is a card with my photo on it. It looks like a baseball card, but I use that as my business card with my background and contact information in the back.

But sorry, I... No, because two things come up. One is, everybody says, one, Roger is a great guy. I hear this over and over again. Great guy. Thank you. The second, and we'll get more on that later,

but the second thing is, Roger has a 100 jobs. I hear that you have a good dozen gigs. That's true, but I don't like the word job. Somebody asked me the other day, how many jobs do you have? My answer is none. I don't have a job. My vocation is my vacation.

That's one of my taglines, Mike, and it sounds kind of trite to put it that way, but that's the case. I'll give you the Reader's Digest. Somebody asked me, I teach at Ryerson University and at the College of Sports Media. I am on the fan. I'm one of the official scorers of the Toronto Blue Jays. I do consulting work for the Ottawa Senators. I'm an author of several books and two more on the go, so writing is a big element. I do some corporate consulting. I'm not going to get into the whole details, but it's a lot of different things, which is why, again, back to your question, did you ever watch your own show? If I ever had my own show, I wouldn't be able to do all the other things I do. And if the fan used me as their full

time guy, well, then who comes off the bench, Mike? Who's the utility guy? There's nobody else. So I think that's why it's worked for me. But how many jobs do I have? I have no jobs, actually. A bunch of things popping in my head frenetically here. One is, do you still keep in touch with Norm Umack? All the time.

All the time. He has a show on Sirius XM Radio, Monday to Fridays. I haven't been in with them recently, but during the hockey season, we still do a show once a week together on Thursdays between 11 and 1. That's another gig. And we are lifelong.

Well, yeah, I forgot about that. Geez, I didn't get their plug in. But wonderful guy. One of the best people I ever met. So yes, we're still friends and to a certain extent, still colleagues. I remember my younger days. I remember Storm and Norman doing the week,

the Midnight Vampire. Late Night Vampire. Late Night, that's it. Late Night Vampire. And there was the Hammerhead Alerts and Wendell Clark stuff and Go Leafs Go. And then all of a sudden he turned, actually on the last episode,

we called it a heel turn. Okay. Yeah, David Alter, I think it was, who you worked with as a fan. That's right, yeah, and another great guy, too. So, David, we called it a heel turn. All of a sudden, he became a Sabres fan, I believe. So, was that a shtick? Was that the real deal?

Was that just a shtick to add some spice? It was a lot of shtick. In a lot of ways, Norm was maybe ahead of his time in terms of uh the kind of guy he did he came onto the scene um with a bang he became mr leaf the big leaf fan and then ultimately changed his style a bit but a lot of it was shtick but he was all about entertainment what he understood mike is you know it's it's about the audience and being entertaining you don't take it personally you you put out a show for the audience it's not about one of the things i tell my students all the time is keep in mind when you're putting out any presentation it's not about you it's about them it's like things might interest

you but it's that's great and if the audience is also interested then talk about it but it's about them and norm understood that the audience liked the shtick they liked after a while got a little tiresome so we went on and did uh did something else but there is not a better person around than norm rumak and i can't thank him for enough for his friendship and really he's a guy really introduced me to the fan because he he had the show for a couple of months and used me as a guest when i was working for united press international and alan davis the program director called him in listened to his tape one day, and said, Norm, why are you using this Roger LeDroit guy all the time? He said, well, no, he's good.

He works for UPI. He's covering the Jays because it was a World Series year for the Jays that year. And he said, no, no, I didn't mean it as a negative thing. It was like, tell him to give me a call. Maybe we could use him as a host sometime. And I called him, and, well, I guess he liked what he heard. Would the late-night vampire come on Toronto Mike? Oh liked what he heard. Would the late night vampire come on

Toronto Mike? Oh, sure he would. I sent him a message via Facebook. And? And I haven't heard back. I don't know if he's checking that. I'm going to get on him because he will come here and especially when he knows what a fun guy you are and what a good show it is. And in all sincerity, I used to listen

to a lot. I still listen to quite a bit of the fan, but I used to listen to a lot. And during those, you mentioned the World Series years, and those years when the Leafs had the two back-to-back Final Four appearances with Gilmore and Clark. And yeah, the Hammerhead alert is like something I remember late at night, and those calls.

It was a fun time. It was a perfect storm, right? To introduce Toronto to an all-sports radio, because you had the Leafs Pat Burns, were suddenly competitive again. The Jays finally broke through. First month, the station was an all-sports station. The Leafs were 10-0 to start the season. The Blue Jays were in the World Series.

You couldn't script that. That's a perfect storm. That was when you were 14-30 still. Yes. good on you 14 no i remember the switchover we moved down the dial to 590 absolutely right cool now i have a lot more roger lejoie lejoie you fire away i got lots of time right away because uh today well this morning maybe it was last night but i got it this morning. Breaking news, okay? Dave Schultz reporting there's a feud between Bob McCowan and Stephen Brunt. Have you heard this, Roger? I did not hear that, and I'm surprised

because every indication I had with McCowan and Brunt is they were great buddies and still friends. But Bob McCowan is kind of known for being in feuds with people, is he not? Not that I'm not. No, he's earned, as they say, he's earned his curmudgeon... Status. Status. So, yeah, it's in the... I think, yeah, Global Mail's got it.

Dave Schultz got it. And it stems from, I think, Brunt appearing on Tim and Sid's show. Well, you know what? I'm not going to get into too much comment because those guys are a different level from where I am at. But I'm going going to get into too much comments because those guys are a different level from where I am at. But I'm going to say this much.

Bob McCowan, and you mentioned Norm Rumak, and you started the conversation with what he did. Bob McCowan is the industry standard. He's the gold standard. Stephen Brunt, by the way, is a gold standard of writing. And Bob McCowan continues to enjoy phenomenal popularity. His show is a certain demographic that dominates. But now you see guys, Tim and Sid, who, by the way, you talk about nice guys, are about as fine a people as you're going to meet in the business.

Both of them have come in. And maybe there's some bad feelings. That's possible, I suppose. It's a competitive business. So I can see that from time to time. But I think that's just more of an indication of what's at stake, what the business is, and how much everybody, at the end of the day, I think everybody respects each other because Bob McCowan is an industry giant. And Tim and Sid,

I think, are next in waiting to be the next Bob McCowans of the next generation. So that's all I'm going to say about that. I just wish that they could get along because primetime sports is at its best when Brunt is co-hosting. Oh, I totally agree there. Stephen Brunt is one of my all-time favorite author, writer. In fact, he does so many things, I don't even know what to call him. The only man with more jobs than Stephen Brunt is Roger LeFlois. Yeah, but he's got better jobs than I do.

Come on. On that note, the vocation is my vacation. No, yes, my vocation is my vacation. My vocation is my vacation. No, yes, my vocation is my vacation. My vocation is my vacation. Mark Twain originally said that. It's excellent, except once the powers that be and executives learn that, they pay you like it's your vacation. Well, you know what?

I've been very fortunate, Mike. The fan looks after me well, and the fan looks after me not just financially, but here's another thing they do. They respect my schedule. So I'm the fill-in guy. I'm the utility guy. Not too many utility guys can say, hey, we need you next weekend. but here's another thing they do. They respect my schedule. So I talked on the fill-in guy and the utility guy, not too many utility guys can say, Hey, we need you next weekend. Oh guys, I got a trip to Boston or I'm covering the world series for somebody else, or I'm going somewhere

else and they're good with it. Well, what's that worth? What is it worth to maintain and not be worried as a fill-in guy that there's always going to be a place for you. I'm, there is nobody who I'm sure there are a lot of guys. And I know a lot of guys who work on sports and a five, nine fan get paid more than I do, but I don't think there's anybody happier to be on the station than Roger Lajoie.

I think they've, and I hope it works both ways. In fact, it has to Mike, they wouldn't put me on the schedule 2,971 times. That's true. But have you met this new program director? Dave Cadeau?

Yes. Dave Cadeau was my producer. Is that right? He was one of the guys who produced my show. Okay, he's a Roger fan. I got to make sure we hit that big number. I hope so. I don't want you to be jinxed.

But remember, when Barb DiGiulio appeared on this show, right away she got herself a good gig. So there's something better coming for me after this? Geez, I knew there was a reason I came here. Roger, you never know who's listening. That's what they say. You never know who's listening. I'm going to say one thing before.

I've got to follow up on that. I tell my students that all the time. Regardless of the format, you never know who's listening. And I said, I told the story from my early days of the fan. I was in there on a Saturday, and I was going through and one of the students got a little snarky and i said what's so funny well it's saturday who listens to radio saturday in the fan said let me finish the story please guy came into the studio walked around and saturday morning we're back on holly street back in the day and i look over and i go to the program op after the

guy leaves i go who's that guy standing there he goes it's doug hackhurst he's the senior vice president of the company oh god i thought well i should at least meet him during the break i'd never met the man i think i'd been with the fan maybe seven months by then it's early in early stages anyway i go out and i start to walk towards the control room where he is and i'm about to put my hand out and i said uh mr ackers i'm roger i know who you are hey roger nice to meet you and i said i listen to you all the time i listen to you more often than i listen to mccowan i don't have time to listen to mccowan in the day you know when i listen to radio nights and weekends doing a good job nice to meet you and keep it up.

You never know who's listening. Maybe your next program director is listening on Saturday. Maybe your next boss is listening. Maybe the guy from the opposing radio station in town is listening. So you're damn right. You never know who's listening, Mike. No, it's absolutely right. And do you teach your students you never know who's reading your tweets? Is that one of the just spending time on social media media is massive now. There's no question about it.

The biggest change I think since I started in February of 1980, Mike, is interactivity, volume, and speed are the three words. I use three word mantras all the time with the kids, interactivity, volume, and speed. So now, as opposed to back in the day when you were a radio station, maybe you got somebody called into the program director once a month or whatever, or you're a letter to the editor at a newspaper. Now the interactions all over volume, you got to put out.

There's no limit. You can, we can talk for five hours here. We can talk for 10 minutes. It's up to you. It's web-based. It's not like it used to be in terms of definitively. So volume and speed,

everything is old 30 seconds after it happened in these days. based. It's not like it used to be in terms of definitivity. So volume and speed. Everything is old 30 seconds after it happened in these days. So now that you've got the interactivity, volume and speed of Twitter, although only 140 characters on Twitter, you better be careful what you're saying out there for sure. So is what do you remind them? And because this is something I'm trying to tell my kids, but when I click publish or when I click tweet, I just assume my future boss is reading it. You have to just assume. You wrote that for your...

You don't just write it for your grandma or for your kids. You write it for your future boss. It's a good way to phrase it. I phrase it this way. Anything you tweet, would you say it to the person if they were sitting across from you? That's it. Yes, because on that note, do you block a lot of people on Twitter?

All the time. Because I had this chat with Wilner. He does a lot of blocking. I do a lot of blocking too. Cox does too, actually. Yeah, absolutely. And the reason I block is that you can speak your mind, but not on my time. I block anyone who uses profanity.

That's all of Twitter, Roger. Well, that's why, that's why I do a lot of blocking. I block anyone who uses profanity. I block anybody who, uh, is rude or, uh, extremely disrespectful. I do not block people just because they disagree with them. In fact, I like people. That's part of the business where anyone who's been in the business understands that. But, uh, everybody has the right, uh, to self-expression and everybody has the right to self-expression,

and everybody has the right to not listen to whoever they want either. Right. I wonder where that line is. Of course, not for disagreeing with you, but if – so Willner and I recently had this chat. You might have heard it in the altar one. But if somebody said to you, get over yourself, Roger, it's okay to, I don't know, play that player another inning

or let that pitcher pitch another inning. Like, that's okay. You don't block a guy. Oh, no, I don't block a guy for an opinion. No. Oh, no, no, I would never do that. So no swearing and no calling you an idiot. Common courtesy.

Like, common courtesy, it does not give you license to, I guess the old school, especially guys who are in the media, I consider even, and sitting here with you, it is a privilege to get on the airwaves and give your opinions. It is a privilege. It isn't just people think,

well, it's God given right for me to go on there and talk. Yeah. You can go and talk all you want, but I don't have to listen. That's for sure. I don't have to listen to you. That's right. This is a big thing of me lately because I've noticed,

you know, I've been doing the, I've had the blog since 2002. Congratulations. That's a good run. It's a good run. But I've seen, so I've actually seen the, I want to see the evolution, but the devolution of commenters and how they've become more and more anonymous and more and more rude. And they're all, and these comments are things these comments are things they would never say to your face because they're anonymous and they're not just anonymous in the handle they choose but they're using proxy servers so if you know the IP address

and you know it's France or whatever because you know they're basically as anonymous as you can get and they're just I've never seen it as bad as it is right now so what are you doing? I've never seen it as bad as it is right now. So what do you do with them? I've started just to delete. Good. I've got a line.

My line's probably further than yours, but I've got a line, and then I will delete. But on Twitter, I haven't been blocking, to be honest. But with the commenters, I will delete if they cross a line.

It just does not give anyone the right to be rude or disrespectful. And I do have an understanding and a little bit of patience and understanding because anybody who's doing that, Mike, it isn't really about your comments 95% of the time. It is there's something else going on in their life that is leading to that kind of behavior. And that's the kind of behavior they probably display with everybody. So I do have a sympathy. And I know some people are just venting for no reason, but again, they can do it on somebody else's time. Very good. Very good. The, um, the notes I have

suggest you were the OH, you were hosting the OHL's, uh, St. Michael's majors home games. I'm just going to run down some more jobs you forgot about. One of my best gigs, 15 years I did that. No longer do it this year, actually. But 15 years with that franchise. Yeah, I've done. I'm a stickler for numbers, Mike. Go ahead. I like numbers. 2,971 shows on the fan.

Right. Heading into this weekend. 1,248 junior hockey broadcasts. And I have covered 207 major sporting events, including 13 World Series, 11 Super Bowls, 12 Final Fours, etc. So do you have like a wall in your home where you come home from an episode and it's another mark? No, no, no, no, I don't do that. But I do have all my credentials. How do you, because I'm just wondering, that count of shows you've hosted, it's... You know how I did it?

Tell me. I'm a freelancer and I bill. Oh, that's a bad thing. So I got... You got me. You know how I did it? I'm a freelancer and I bill. Oh, that's right. So I got... You got software. It's a report. What happened was in... Somebody asked me that in around 2006 or 2007 or something like that.

And I thought, you know, I probably can't get an exact count. But I went back through invoices or whatever. And I thought, well, you know what? This is pretty close. And I think the number then was like 1850. I don't know, whatever it was. So ever since then though, I have marked it in my,

you know, invoicing account. It's show number, show number, show number. So is it exactly two nine seven one hour? You know what? Give or take 20 or 30.

It could, but that's the number I'm going on. So no, cool. Very cool. I'm kind of a present. You'll know it's 3000. I'm a number guy too.

Like in terms, so I do it with kilometers biked. So I measure to the T and I set targets. And I'm only mentioning this because for 2015, my target was 5,000 kilometers cycled, which I hit today at lunch. So today I rolled over 5,000. I've hit my 2015 goal

and we're in like the middle of September. What gets measured gets done. That's why I counted. Yeah, and I'm also, because I'm a my 2015 goal, and we're in the middle of September. What gets measured gets done. That's why I counted. Yeah, and I'm also, because I'm a digital marketing guy, everything gets measured. Right. So everything is. How can any sports guy criticize a guy who's all about numbers?

Isn't sports all about numbers? Isn't it all about, that's how we measure greatness in sports? So why shouldn't we do that? Now, congratulations. That's a lot of cycling, man. No, thank you. It was fresh in my mind, so I had to bring it up. But yeah, you count down your shows

and your accomplishments in a similar fashion. I do the same thing. Good for you. And it's well done. And you don't get that 5,000 unless you're counting, I bet. Yeah, I think, yeah. And it's a goal.

You're shooting for it. It's something important. You got to have a goal. You got to have a goal. And you're a play-by-play voice of the Oshawa Generals. Yeah, I've done the Generals and the Majors over the years.

That's where the 1248 broadcast. I don't know the exact breakdown of the Generals versus Majors games, but I've done a lot of OHL play-by-play. I've done it on Rogers TV. I've done some games for Sportsnet. I worked with Rob Falls and Peter Labardius as a color guy there for maybe 15, 20 games a couple years ago. Again, filling in for somebody who wasn't doing it,

but it was fantastic. And yes, junior hockey has been ongoing and a great passion. And yeah, I love play-by-play. So the general games, was this recent? No, I missed the Memorial Cup here, unfortunately. Because I'm trying to- Bad timing. Like, was there any, how long, how far back did you go?

I did Tavares. I did Lindros and Tavares, actually. Very good. Lindros and Tavares in the general Very good. Lindros and Tavares in the General's. You all have some great days there. My cousin was playing OHL hockey as a goaltender in that Lindros era. And yeah, that was exciting. Bad time to be playing goal if Lindros was playing against you.

Well, I remember the guy. I always was dominant. It was the Peterborough Pete. It was... Mike Ritchie? No. Why am I... Where's my brain?

The guy who just retired. Chris Pronger. Yes, Chris Pronger. Yeah, he was amazing. Terrific player. Christy Pitts is where the Maple Leafs play. Yeah, 35 years. Yeah, you are the public address announcer.

Not anymore. I left two years ago. That's why I did not... Why are you leaving all these jobs, Roger? What's going on? Listen, when I started teaching more, Mike, it just became more and more difficult to really kind of justify going down to christy pits and christy pits is a

different one because after 35 years in the inner county four years ago which was two years before i left christy pits i was hired by major league baseball to be one of the official scorers of the toronto blue jays which meant there were a lot of sunday games there were a lot of wednesday games and i was taking too many games off from the inter-county. How did you get that gig? 35 years at the amateur level. So you can do it for 35 years at the inter-county. But how often are you the guy?

I'm one of the four. They use four. Every major league team operates differently, Mike, but in Toronto we use four, and I do 25 to 30. That's an amazing. Oh, it's great. It's so much fun. I can't even tell you, and it's the most nerve-wracking thing I do at to 30. That's an amazing... Oh, it's great. It's so much fun. I can't even tell you.

And it's the most nerve-wracking thing I do at the same time. And you can't like order a beer while you're doing this, right? Like you got to be focused. The seat is the middle seat of the press box right over the plate. I have two separate seats,

the TV on my right, the TV on my left, the Blue Jay PR department sits behind me. Mal Romanian usually, who's a terrific guy, by the way, to assist anything. And nobody is allowed to talk to me or question me throughout the ballgame. I sit there and watch the game with my hands on the desk like this because something's going to happen at least a couple of times a game that requires a tough call. And the biggest thing, people ask what's the most important thing

that you have to do is be willing to make a decision. Sure. And I had a former major league pitcher who I will not name, and don't ask me, came up to me and criticized one of my calls one day. This is in my first year. And he didn't know I was the official scorer, and he started talking about a play from the previous game and i'm not a wallflower at all mike i introduced myself i said by the way one of the scorers also worked for the fan but i'm one of the scorers but

so i you know he went on when i well don't take it personally but he explained himself and i said okay so you're saying then the play that I called a hit is an error. And he said, oh, that's just a tough call on a pitcher to call a hit on that play. And I said, I agree. It is a tough call. I sweated it. I took a good two minutes on that call. So you are saying then that the call is an error.

Well, that's a tough call hit. I totally agree. And we're getting into it pretty good here. I know it's a tough call, but somebody has to say, hit or error, and you talk about Twitter, you'll get 53 people on Twitter who say idiot, and 47 people

say, of course, that's a great call. The willingness to make a decision. What year is this? I'm going to guess who it was. Not talking. I'm just going to sit here now. Sit here and look at the Stanley Cup banner. great call yes the willingness to what year is this i'm gonna guess who it was oh i'm not talking not so i'm just gonna sit here now sit here and look at the stanley have you ever uh made a call and then later had to realize you were wrong yeah i've had a couple reversed on me there's there's an appeal process too that's a good question actually like there's an appeal question pardon me process in major league baseball, where the player or

coach or somebody can appeal to play. And then the tape goes back to Joe Torre at the major league baseball office. One of the things he does for MLB now, he will look at it. He will ask the scorer in this case, me for an explanation as to why I called it the way he did. And he has the authority to make the final call that nobody else appeals and that's done and i've had a couple of reverse calls in the four years which is not uncommon usually does and yeah there's time there was one call the only call i ever felt bad about and we're told no matter what never situational score in other words it doesn't matter if it's a no hitter it doesn't matter if there's a hitting streak it's the play is a hit or an error do your best and the ruling is in your mind if the

an average major league player could make this play then it's an error brown ball to derrick jeter during his farewell swan song you're hit by a blue j player i don't even might have been milky cabrera but it really doesn't matter hit to short jeter's playing kind of deep at short comes to him he fumbles it a little sets the throw throws to first cabrera beats it i look at it i look at it a second time i look at it a second time. I look at it a third time, and I say, face it. Nobody in the press, usually, by the way, sometimes in the press box, after you make a call, you'll get some of the reporters with the collective,

oh, you know, okay, well, somebody's probably going to appeal that one. Nope, nope. The game continues. I'm thinking about it, and I'm going, I only called that a hit because it's Derek his last year he's got to make that play I know he's deep and he'll be at all kinds of, Kipra is not that

fat he's got to make that play but I decide I never I won't change the call I won't change it I'll let the appeal process go out but afterwards I spoke to some people in the press box there were a couple of us around and I said, uh, I feel bad about that call I made on him and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it was one member of the Jays organization that said to me, well, don't worry about, you're never going to get an appeal on that one. And I said, you sure? He goes, yeah. Who's going to appeal. Cabrera's happy. He got a hit. The Yankees are going to request an error on Derek Jeter in his farewell season. And because the runner did not score, there's no earned run to the pitcher. Now, if the runner had scored, somebody hits a two-run homer, then maybe the pitcher says, you kidding me?

Right. That's the only time that maybe I let my judge. But even then, because it's Jeter's last year, that pitcher's not going to say a thing. He'll eat that. He'll eat that. He'll eat that. The pitcher might just say, you know what? I had a rookie pitcher of Baltimore Orioles. Another fast story.

Ground ball to first. One of those tough calls. I call it a hit. Eventually, the runner comes around to score. The inning's over. I get a notification from Torrey a couple of days later that play's being appealed. And I thought, I'm pretty confident on that one. So I sent the thing back. And he said, OK, your decision's upheld. No problem. notification from tory a couple of days later that plays being appealed and i thought yeah i think

that i'm pretty confident on that one so i sent the thing back and he said okay your decision's upheld no problem and then i thought geez why would he appeal that then i realized this guy was called up from the minors it was one game he played in the majors that year one earned run one inning what's his era nine if the run's unearned, it's zero. That's why I appeal. You know, take a shot at it. Pitcher would have appealed that Jeter play if it was a two-run homer. Okay, one question on scoring.

Let's say there's a routine pop fly, and it's to right field, and the right fielder loses it in the sun. Base hit. Yeah. So my question is, obviously you can't catch what you can't see, and that's the premise, I guess, for why it can never be an error. But it seems like that's a hit that should be caught by an average fielder.

Not if you can't see it. Okay. It's the calling. You're absolutely right. I understand that's the rule, of course. Well, and the logic, too, Mike, it's almost like, I can't come up with an analogy, but the best one in hockey is like, you know, when a defenseman shoots the puck over the glass it's always delay of game yeah why is

it always delay of game like you know like maybe he just was inadvertently not doing but the call is always so that's a hard call but if you always call it the same way then nobody can really say like you can't see it no i no i get it i get I get it. But that was another one that somebody would say, a pitcher would say, well, that's not fair to the pitcher. That rule, I understand that rule, and I understand why it's like that. And I always find it interesting that, you know,

a routine pop fly that he misses because he loses it in the sun is a hit. It just seems like that. I just find that one of the more interesting hit calls that you guys make. I would agree. I don't necessarily agree with it. And how do you know?

I guess you just, it's obvious because he would agree. I don't necessarily agree with it. And how do you know? I guess you just... How do you know? It's obvious because he would have caught it. He would have caught it. Yeah, exactly. Okay, cool. So that's another one of your jobs. I want you to keep track of all your jobs.

Okay, thanks a lot. And what's the home team with Roger Lajoie? I did a show on Roger's TV for several years, which was a lot of fun. And this is passion again. You know, Mike, it's the same kind of thing. Even people who do what I do for a living do it for passion. Doing junior hockey broadcast and doing a local Rogers TV show in Oshawa is the pay.

It's an honorarium. It's not much money at all, but I love it. Is there a free meal involved? Oh, yeah. Usually there's pizza or something. I would do it for that. Well, see, there you go. I would do it for the pizza.

Then why are you asking me questions like that? Exactly. It's great. I have a great relationship with Roger Stephen. You know, one of the things that I've really enjoyed is I've had the opportunity to work with people who are just starting their careers and moving up. You see their passion, what it means to them, and they keep me young and revitalized. And I love it.

So yes, I had a lot of fun doing the shows in Oshawa. I'll probably get around to doing another one next year as well, too. And you mentioned the books. You've got two on the way, but of course, one of the books you mentioned was Paul Henderson. Thrill of a lifetime. That's what I want to hear. Because to me, Paul Henderson,

I was not born when he scored the big goal in 72, but I've watched, there was a documentary that was made, I want to say like 1990 or so, but it was called summit on ice and i recorded recorded it to vhs and i watched it like a hundred times and then i found that it's on netflix right now canadian netflix too uh summit on ice and the original version there's a lot of alan eagleson in this thing and the later docs are like delete a lot of yeah well he was a big part of it.

Scrub him out. Yeah. So this has his stuff. And like I said, I've watched it so many times. I'm fascinated by this tournament. I'm fascinated by how it ended up. And I'm fascinated that this Paul Henderson,

who is by all accounts of a decent above average, but not exceptional player for the Maple Leafs, has this week where he's sort of out of body scores, these huge goals for the Maple Leafs, has this week where he sort of out of body scores these huge goals for the nation. Unbelievable. Boy, for a guy who wasn't around, you've nailed this because you've done your research. That's exactly what it was.

Seen it many times, Roger. He was a good hockey player. He was a good hockey player. There's no doubt. And I think he was coming off a 40-goal season, if memory serves as well. So he had a real career. Well, he got on a team, so he must have had a team.

Sure, so he had to have something going, right? yeah it was out of body out of mind and you know people who kind of know this but might have forgotten not only did he score the game winner in game 80 he scored the game winner in game six seven and eight right to break one goal uh to give canada one goal wins and he became the hero of the country he's a fascinating guy he's the perfect example though you know doing his life story and everything else what transpired with him and i think it was muhammad ali originally said this that the man who sees the world the same at 60 as he did at 30 has wasted 30 years of his life that's that's paul henderson paul could be a difficult guy back then i think the fame got to him a little bit i I think it was difficult for him. And of course, as well documented, most people know, he became a born again Christian and really changed his life

and his focus. And the goal of my life, which is the title of the Globe and Mail bestseller we did, is a double entendre, because the goal of his life is to preach now and to spread the word. And as he said to me, you know, in a conversation we had about it, he said, like, you know, people can say what I want, that I'm spreading my religious beliefs. But he said, if I had, if I had, if any of us knew the cure for cancer, would we keep it quiet? That's how I look at it. I that week in Russia might have been as great a clutch performance as we've seen in the history of sports. And it is an iconic story. And to have the opportunity and to be selected, really,

to do his autobiography, honest to God, what a thrill. Sometimes I've got to kick myself when I think of some of the stuff I've done. When was the last time you spoke to him? Last hockey season. He was in Osh while we saw him. We still see him travel in circles from time to time.

Naturally curious how he's doing because he was quite sick. He's battled cancer and he has successfully battled it. Praise God for that. I'm very, very happy to say that. Last I heard, he's in excellent health. There was no remission. He had a serious bout with it, but he's doing well. I believe Paul's getting

into his 70s now, and he's a health nut, which really helped him do that. And last I heard, he's doing extremely well, and God willing, he's going to be around to not just preach, but to tell the stories about 72, because even though sometimes he rolls his eyes, he still loves talking about this

week. Will he be around to see himself inducted into the hockey hall of fame great question unfortunately i don't think so it's not going to happen and it's a hard one because we we did a chapter on that and paul basically you know i think he phrased it the best mike it's especially a guy with his religious things you're about forgiveness you're not you know you don't let the little things in life stop you. I'm sure he would like it, but as he points out, correctly, and he looked at it both sides, his career numbers in the National Hockey League do not marry. He's not a Hockey Hall of Famer. It's not even close.

It really is not. He was a good player, but good players don't go in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Did that one week, was that enough to put him there? And my angle on it is, even if it wasn't, where's the harm? Where is the harm? Do you think anybody who's in the Hockey Hall of Fame would take their plaque down because they inducted Paul Henderson because he was the hero of the country in 1972?

Sometimes the rules need to be broken a little bit, eh? No? But I don't think so. It's a great debate, though. It is. And you talk radio guys must love that topic. Anything that's a good debate is great. There's got to be two sides to it.

The students always ask me, you know, what makes great sports talk radio when there's two sides? I said, when you're doing your show prep because we're at the college of sports media in particular i do roundtable classes and i said when you're doing your show prep and the host is talking with them which topic do you lead with where the center goes if everybody feels the same way you don't have a topic that's right scratch that one get the next one even if it's jays and if all you're going to say is the jays are great the jays are great the jays are great, the J's are great, the J's are great, pick something else. Talk about Gibbons managing. Find something.

Great, because that's a good example of something that's not great. So there's a good one. Oh, you don't like Gibby, do you? But yeah, first of all, you shouldn't be calling him Gibby, okay? Oh, come on. I call him Gibby. Let me guess. Everybody calls him Gibby. Hey, real quick, deep question before we move on to some more lighter stuff. So you mentioned Paul Henderson became a born-again Christian and turned his life around. And today, and I hear him a lot, he'll do radio interviews and I'll hear him,

and he's just a very positive, seems like a very happy, thoughtful, wonderful guy. This is what I get from him. Yeah, he is. Do you believe Paul Henderson could become a man like that, a forgiving, accepting, you know, a wonderful man like that without religion? Like, is this, can you be a morally proper person without religion? I think he can. I think I am. And I don't have a strong religious background.

I was raised a Roman Catholic. It's a great question. Let me phrase it then with something I tell the kids all the time, Mike. I think it's more about positivity and how you decide to live your life. And I do some corporate coaching, consulting. There's another gig for you. And I'm talking to a client one day and we were going over and it just, it's kind of life skills coaching kind of thing. I'm not going to get into much of that. But the story I told him is, you know, he said, yeah, I guess I got to face reality. And I said to him, yeah, you do have to face reality. So let's talk about reality. And I'll give you an example. It's a good example now,

I think, applies to Toronto. My God, City of Toronto's housing prices are ridiculous. And the congestion in this city is just awful, isn't it? Well, that's reality. My God, the City of Toronto is clean, is safe, it's beautiful, and the world wants to live here. And aren't there about 100 major U.S. cities crying and praying that they had our congestion? Is that reality? So let's face reality. What reality do you want to face? And I think that's what Paul Henderson does. I prefer to face the reality that we're living in the greatest city in the country. Yeah, the traffic's bad, but I'm going to focus on the good. Right, so think positive.

Exactly. Which I try to do now, too. There's no other way. No other way to live your life. And you're thinking positive not because you want to get to heaven, but because it's a better way to be. It's for the greater good, if you will. The most important thing in life is to feel good.

How do you feel good if you're a negative, cynical, bitter person? Is that the message you want to send the world? I will ask that question to Bobcat if he comes on my show. There's a lot of schtick with him too, though. So I hear. A lot of schtick there too. So I hear. All right, that was our deeper stuff.

Now let's get into some fun stuff. When you were at the fan, where you've been since 92, and if my math skills were better, I could probably tell you that, was that 23 years? 23. That's crazy. First of all, is that uninterrupted? That's an uninterrupted 23 years at the fan.

Correct. Well, for the most part, I want to say, like, as a freelancer using me, between 94 and 96, we went to National Sports Radio and the Jays, the baseball strike was on. I worked a handful of shifts in that period. But when the Olympics came back in 96 and we started doing overnight programming again, but I have never been totally discontinued from the fan. No, that's fair enough to say that. But that two-year period, I was barely injured. In 2011, I know that there was a...

I know they let Howard Berger go and they let a bunch of people go at the fan in 2011. Well, that was Landry and Stelic in the morning show and Hogan in his show. And yeah, they basically blew up the whole lineup. Well, when that happened, I have these people... I was on every day. But this is the thing. So that happened in 2011 happened, I have these people. I was on every day. But this is the thing.

So that happened in 2011. And I wrote about it because I'll write up, you know, Howard Berger's gone. I'm familiar with it. Right, okay. And then I got, and I didn't report this, but people were telling me via Twitter and via email that you were also let go that day. So this is like news delivered to me. It was confusion. It was confusion and it was understandable and justifiable confusion because

at the same time, that's a great story actually. Well, I'm glad for the, I never reported you were let go because I, but I did, I did. I was reported to me.

Totally agree. No, but you weren't let go. But here's, here's where you got to be careful when you're reporting, excuse me, you got to be careful when you're reporting. Excuse me. You got to be careful when you're reporting or even talking about it. That day, Howard was let go, and I was not even aware.

I was busy doing something else. And I tweeted because something else had happened in one of my careers regarding, just said, well, take a deep breath and get a new start, whatever. And I don't even remember what it was, to tell you the truth. But somebody interpreted that tweet as being, oh, Howard Berger got let go. I guess they let him go. Because of the timing, right. If I was going to be let go, I would have tweeted, thanks, fan, for 20 wonderful years. So for someone to take that comment shows maybe they've got to get a little bit more training as a journalist before you run with that story to me that would be the smoke but now you got to see if there's fire

you can't report the fire somebody couldn't tweet me and ask me somebody send me a message if you're all on twitter and you're all interactive you're saying you're sending messages everyone sent me messages during that period when i was doing i think i were 31 days in a row in the fan after all those guys got fired because I never say no. And the guy's going, I'm getting all kinds of messages. I can't stand that guy. Get him off. Get somebody permanent.

Maybe one of those guys could have said, hey, by the way, did you get fired? Like, if you're that anxious, Mike, people are that anxious to weigh in and do it. Nobody asked me. Nobody asked me that day. Hey, did you get fired? Or reports are it was, oh, and apparently Roger Lishwa has been let go too. And Don Collins, the program director, emailed me. He didn't tweet me.

He emailed me. He said, Roger, apparently I've let you go, LOL. What's that all about? And I read that before I was even on, and I'm going. But wait, where was this? I remember it in tweets, and I remember emails, but I don't remember it actually being published anywhere. No, it wasn't published. It wasn't published anywhere.

It was just sort of like Twitter chatter. Yeah, Twitter chatter. A couple of the online guys do it. Yeah, I definitely got it. I remember who, too. And he's a friend of the show. Don Collins is now in San Francisco. He's been one of the big Rodge fans for a lot of years.

I miss him. He was a great guy and was very good to me. I don't want to say he would never fire me. Rodger's company told him to fire me he would fire me right he had a lot of respect for my work and right back at him right back out cool and uh so the other guy who was there a long time was uh nelson millman yes just left again uh last week so where is he where did he leave to well nelson's an interesting guy and another guy who's been great to me nelson was the program director at the fan for pretty much my entire time there i think he took over his pd maybe in 95 96 that that don't hold me on that date but he'd been the assistant program director

those were the years you didn't work no no no but 92 that's different 92 to 94 there was a different program director but he came back he was there and he left to go work at sports net television he was involved with sports net and then nelson left there he also teaches at the college of sports media and just recently as in a couple of months ago when don collins got the job in san francisco and left nelson came back in as a temporary program director and now dave cadot is the his replacement and dave has been assistant. So they hired internally to fill the position. But Nelson's a veteran radio guy who's been around a lot of years and another terrific guy who's, who's been a fan and supporter of mine, which I can't thank him enough for. Cool. That's awesome. Oh, they're great. Now,

since you've been there since 92, um, pretty much uninterrupted, uh, who are the, the greats that you sort of passed in the hallway that went on to other things? Some guy was the overnight board op in my show. I'll tell you a story about this guy. He was a pain in the ass. I'm telling you, he was the overnight board op, and he would be sitting there, and this is back in the day,

and we were doing shows until 3 o'clock in the morning. And without fail, at around 2 o'clock, he'd be buzzing in going, hey, I've got to come on for a couple of minutes. I want to talk about the Habs. Is that okay? It's like, and by the way, going, come on for a couple of minutes. I want to talk about the Habs. Is that okay? And by the way, it's 2.45 on a Monday morning.

I'm kind of desperate to have somebody help me finish. Okay, sure, come on in. He came in and talked about the Habs a little bit. And then, memory serves, he used to go sleep on the couch because he had another shift doing music at the other music station that was down there so he could just get enough rest. That was George Strombolopoulos. He did okay. Sam Cooke did a wrestling show just get enough rest. That was George Strombolopoulos. He did okay.

Sam Cooke did a wrestling show. He got fired. That was Jeff Merrick. I don't know whatever happened to that guy. He was sleeping on that same bed. Yeah, I bet there. Yeah, under the same blanket, probably cuddling. They've been buddies for a long time.

That's for sure. We've had a lot of great guys that have gone on and done some fantastic. Dan Schulman, the best voice maybe in North America now was there. We've been real blessed. That's probably why we've been so successful for 23 years. Never mind me. How about the people we've had behind Jim Hunt, Pat Marsden. My goodness.

Landry and Stelic back in the day. Of course, Stelic, a very underrated guy for a great career he's had in the business. We've been really fortunate. No, I like Stelic. I would like to have him in here, but he's geographically challenged. He's not in this neck of the woods very much. Yeah, it's tough for him, and he's a busy guy. He's another guy with a lot of work and a lot of job,

but he's an interesting guy to talk to. And you talk about a guy who brings a great frame of reference, his experience and background as a general manager of a National Hockey League team. Not too many people have that experience. You know, I visited Harold Ballard's grave last summer. It was local. It was loco and local. I also, earlier in my career, Mike, worked in public relations marketing for teams.

I worked for the Toronto Marlboros Junior A team from 82 to 89 before the fan even went on the air. And Harold Ballard was running the gardens then. And rest his soul. And listen, you know, you don't want to speak ill of the dead, but that people who compare the Leafs anytime since then for being disorganized and dysfunctional or whatever, have no idea what they're talking about because that level of dysfunctionality was astronomical. That place was an absolute joke back in the day.

So absolutely. Anyway, well, what do you say? The, uh, Blue Jays have had a great year so far. Have you heard? I haven't really noticed, no. What's happening there? Yeah. Speaking of 92, uh, when you started at the fan, it's feeling, I mean, it feels a lot like that. And I could tell you, cause I started my blog in 2002 and I've been a diehard Jays fan since 83. And I always, when I started my blog in 02, I'm like, I can't wait to like track magic numbers and stuff here. Like it was like, yeah. And I mean, it took until this September for there to be any point to have a magic number to track, like for there to be any point to that. Tell me about

what this, obviously we could talk a bit about the Jays, but what I want to hear about is how does this affect the fan overall? Like the fan, they have a monopoly on radio coverage of the Jays and they, you know, they have a lot of stuff around that. Like there must be

a spillover effect where everyone's getting more ears on that station because the Jays are so hot. No question. We talked earlier about 92 and 93 and how gratuitous it was

to the fans' early existence that the Leafs were 10-0 and the Blue Jays were in the World Series, so everybody's listening to Sports Talk Radio. Now that the Jays are so hot, it has really increased the ratings. The last book was excellent. Our books have always been very consistent. Even people nitpick about certain shows and timeframes, but in the male demographic, the fan has been an outstanding sponsorship

ever since it came on the air. But the Blue Jays now have definitely taken it to another level, Mike. One thing I noticed that it's done, I'll give a specific example, is that after they made the trades and the deadline and the crazy run they got on and everything else, one of the shifts I do a lot is five to seven ish on saturday or sunday after a blue jay game and producer and i do the show and generally we do at that time of day depending what's going on it's a mixed bag all right it's weekend so we might do

little tfc a little nfl depending on the season nhl offseason news blue jay is a focus we come in the place is going nuts about it. Producer and I get together an hour before the show. Lineup gone. That's all we want to talk about. Blue Jays. They open the phone. The appetite.

The appetite. It's insatiable. It's incredible. I feel it. It is incredible, Mike. And I can't wait to see it happen. I'm not a Blue Jay fan, but I'll say this. I'm a fan of Toronto sports fans.

I'm a fan of the industry doing well. So when the home team is doing well, that's not cheerleading. That's just, it's good for my business that the Blue Jays are there. And in 1993, when Carter hit the homer, I had, I was on, you know, a regular fill-in host on the fan. But that night I was working for United Press International, and I went out, and one of the things I had to do was cover the craziness on Yonge Street.

Right. And anybody who's not 28, maybe even 30. I mean, you would have been six years old, I suppose. You could have had an idea what was going on. Anybody under 30, you just wait. If this team does happen to break through. People talk about, well, Leafs and all, or Jurassic Park was exciting for the Raptors.

Yeah, no doubt about it. You just wait. Yeah, yeah. If you thought it was exciting to have a game seven against the Bruins, you know what I mean? Oh, in the first round! You know what?

I feel like one of those old guys talking about back in the day, but it's true. They have no idea what they're in for. So it's great. I think no idea what they're in for. So it's great. I think they got a heck of a chance. I think what Alex Anthopoulos did was great. I'm glad to see the franchise acting like a major league franchise, i.e. they bring in price, they add a little to their payroll,

and the fans respond, and the park is sold out. This is all good, good, good, good, good. But all bets off in the playoffs. The playoffs are a different story. But, boy, they got as good a chance as anybody. Love that. How can you not like that team? It's amazing to me what winning does for everything. Like, you know, suddenly Buck sounds better on TV.

Suddenly, you know, suddenly Willner doesn't sound as condescending and arrogant. Oh, come on. No, really? And remember, I'm the Wilner fan. I'm the Wilner fan. Notice it's singular. But yeah, everything is just the dome. I don't hate the dome as much. Food tastes better. The beer is colder. The fact you're paying $14 doesn't seem to be that bad anymore.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I hear you. There was a day, the doubleheader was out last weekend. It's all blurred to me now. Was that last weekend? Yeah, I think it was last weekend. It was raining in Toronto, and I had a bunch of morning stuff, and then I found myself with an empty afternoon,

and I'm like, I'm going to watch this doubleheader. I sat down. Eight hours, you saw the whole thing? I saw everything. Yeah, that's awesome. Between the games, I walked to Domino's and got a pizza just to feed the family. I'm glad you didn't forget the family. Like it was like,

it was like, you didn't forget about it. And it was like, at the end of it, I was just, I was, I mean, we swept and I mean, we had the Tulo injury,

unfortunately. So it wasn't all good news, but we swept the double header. It was like, uh, nine, I think about nine hours I gave to this damn team and on a Saturday, on a weekend.

Yeah. This is the insatiable appetite. And I'm a guy, I love the Jays, but if the Jays are, you know, 12, 12 games back right now,

I tune in for an inning or two. And if I are, or I find something better to do, like, well, the TV ratings, you're not alone in that because the TV ratings have been astronomical. There's,

you know, at some point in some blue J games, there's been 3 million people watching and the average is like 1.8 million, something like that. It's ridiculous. People are familiar with the numbers, but that was in August. That was last week in September. Wait until the playoffs. How many people are going to watch baseball playoffs?

And as far as being good for the industry, I mean, I look back, and no disrespect to my friends at TSN, and I got a lot of friends at TSN i worked for a lot of them but uh and work with a lot of those people over the years but mike i mean the blue jays are on sportsnet and sportsnet has all the hockey and babcock will be coaching the leafs in his first game and hockey rules in this country so yeah it's a pretty good time to be in the sportsnet uh family let's put the ro money. Well, it's doing well. And they're putting a little back into the ball club, which they should, by the way. And I'm not afraid to say that on air, and I've said it many times. I've had enough of this young

controllable player desire. I know it's important to have a mix of both, but Toronto's not Tampa Bay or Oakland. Tampa Bay and Oakland have to operate like that. I hope we never see a day, I don't know if Price will resign with the Blue Jays or not, but I hope we never see a day, I don't know if Price will resign with the Blue Jays or not, but I hope we never see a day again where everybody knows Roy Halladay is not signing

with the Jays because it's too much money and he wants to go somewhere else to win. That's unacceptable for a market this large and a fan base this large and with a whole country cheering on a team. One thing I'll say is I have a, you know, a snobby baseball friends who, you know, have been there through thick and thin, who are pissed off at the bandwagon jumpers who don't really know the game. And suddenly they're living and dying on every pitch and they don't really get it.

And I keep telling these guys, we want the bandwagon guys. Like we need those, those guys, those, those guys that come on board and to buy tickets and to buy paraphernalia and stuff, because then Rogers sees, Oh,

look at what happens when we have a winning team. And then Rogers realizes by investing in this team, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. You need those guys to make Rogers do this. You're facing reality. This is reality. You're facing reality. The reality is there are a bunch of fans and maybe it's annoying and it's been your own little private party. Right. But the other attitude is the fact that attendance has gone up from 31,000 to 46 now puts enormous pressure on that ownership.

They're sitting down in the meetings going, all right, look, it worked. We brought the guy in. What do you think it's worth? David Price's picture on the front of the season ticket renewal form. What's that worth? And it doesn't matter what kind of business you're running. If you can show somebody, I use a marketing guy that I did some work with, always had this thing.

Take his wallet out and he'd put a $20 bill in there and he'd say, okay, anybody want to trade this $20 bill for a $10 bill? The first people looking, what the hell is that all about? Dead serious. No catches. No nothing. If you have a $10 bill in your pocket, I will give you a $20 bill. Who's going to?

So finally, although people are nervous, they think he's going to make a fool out of me. All right. All right. Here's a $10. He's just about to take it. He says, well, okay, well, there is one catch. I knew it. And he said, answer this question.

Was that $10 in your budget? Did you have that earmark today to spend on this thing? Well, no, I wasn't. Why are you so anxious to trade? Well, I got a chance at a 20. That's the thing with Rogers. There you go. Oh, price is going to want $120 million. Why are you so anxious to trade? Well, I got a chance at a 20. That's the thing with Rodgers. There you go.

Oh, Price is going to want $120 million. Why do you think Rodgers paid $5.2 billion for NHL rights? Because they expect to make nine. That's why. Same thing with the ball club. So this increase in attendance is not just great news for Rodgers. It's great news for fans of the Blue Jays because I don't see, Mike, how the ownership can go back to the let's just get non-controllable, young, controllable players and maybe Alex will figure it out.

I mean, this is great news for everybody. No, now we're hooked. You gave us the drug and now we're hooked. We're addicted. And if you want us to keep doing it, you better keep supplying the drug. Absolutely. So we'll see what happens. It'll be interesting for sure.

No, it'll be exciting, no doubt. Magic number 16, by the way. And counting. And counting. They win the division. I don't see the Yankees beating them. But I got to say, the Yankees have held on better than I thought they would. I thought we'd have like a six and a half, seven game lead by now.

I didn't expect the full impoting of the Yankees, but let's put it this way. I think the Jays finish up on September. So now, you know, we're putting our words out there. Last home game's the 26th or whenever it is, that last Sunday of the season. They have seven road games left after that. I'd say it's 50-50. They can clinch before they even have to go out on the road.

Never mind. That's how much faith I got in them. I see them as a better team than the Yankees right now. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. No doubt. We just gave them a little head start here before we got serious. Do you listen to other shows on the Fan

590? Sure. I don't listen to the morning show only because of the time. My question was, what do you think of the morning show? Well, it's not my cup of tea. You know what? I would guess it's not your cup of tea because you don't like swear words. But here's the thing. They're not talking to me. I'm a 57-year-old white guy guy who loves sports and i am a more traditional guy i'm

a bob mccowan guy they're not talking to me so if they're trying to develop the audience with someone you know what it's probably a good thing that i don't like it i'm not supposed to like it i use an example from a guy who works for the rival network cabbie cabbie's brilliant cabbie's funny but i don't get cabbie but that's no problem because Cabby's not talking to me. Cabby's talking to the young guy. I see Cabby interview Kobe Bryant and goof around and ask a bunch of dumb questions. I'm going, that's Kobe Bryant. Why the hell are you talking to him?

Asking him about his favorite DJ. But he's not talking to me. So the Blundell Show isn't talking to me. So it's not my cup of tea. We'll see where it goes. They're not targeting old guys like us. Well, they're doing a good job. But basically, for me, morning radio is just too early.

It's the same thing. I was a big fan of Pat Margin, one of my favorites. But unless I was filling in for Hogan and working at 9 o'clock, I'm early up at 6, 8 in the morning to, to listen to radio. So I'm a little, little, usually a little bit later riser than that. So teach his own,

right? What do you think of Mike Wilner? Big fan. Big fan. He's a divisive figure. And that's why he's polarizing. And that's why I'm a big fan. Yeah.

Isn't that what you're supposed to do? One of the, one of the, it's not a regret I have Mike about my career, but I'm a good, you know, one of the major reasons I'm a good regret i have mike about my career but um i'm a good you know one of the major reasons i'm a good fill-in guy is i'm not polarizing so i can come in and do anybody's show without offending anybody and do it but if i did my style if i was on the fan every day you'd hear a very different roger lejoie because then it's a matter and mike's every day baseball

talking you got to get out there. You just come in here and yeah, that guy's got a lot of good points. I remember a radio consultant back in the day told me that one of the things, Roger, that you can work on a little bit is like, you're coming across too smart. You're right too often. That's a bad thing. But if you do that and everyone agrees with you, that's a bad thing. And you know what? That's's right mike is the best at what he does he polarizes but he polarizes because he has an attitude which is good he's knowledgeable so he backs up the polarizing attitude uh with that and he's one of the best in the business in my mind and i'm not just saying that because i just he is a he has mastered the art of blue Jay Talk. Is there any scholden Freud when it comes to the ratings that TSN 1050 is not getting, I guess you could say?

But whenever I get a hold of a ratings report or whatever, a book, it's tiny, tiny ratings at 1050 compared to you guys. Yeah, it's tough. I don't want to say I feel sorry for them because I want the fan to succeed. They're in tough. Mike, it's a case of you've established a brand name. I tell the kids at school, I love stories. You've already heard a couple.

Here's another fast one. People who take the GO train in this area, if they're listening, understand what I'm talking about. There's a little stand in the middle of Union Station. It's closed now because the Bay Concourse is closed. And just a donut shop. And I take the GO train in in the morning when I teach at the College of Sports Media at Ryerson. I go in.

And for years, this is about six, seven years ago now, I would go into this place. And I would walk and across. And I'm one of the few people that went there because, honestly, it wasn't all that great. It wasn't, I forget what they called it, Joe's Donuts, whatever it was, but it was fast. I could get my coffee. All I wanted was a coffee. So for me, I don't want to go to second cup and wait in line. People get ordering lattes. I just want coffee, cream only, thanks, and get on my way. A friend of mine works for Go Transit. He comes out, he sees me coming down. He goes, hey, Roger, I got bad news for you. And I said, what?

He says, I'm getting my coffee. He says, they're closing. And I went, hey, that's too bad. He says, yeah, they're closing. I said, that's too bad. He said, yeah, it's going to be a Timmy's. And I said, well, that's not bad news. That's great.

I love Timmy's. What are you talking about? He says, OK. Wait till Monday. I didn't know what he was talking about. I come out of the Go Train Monday morning. I make my little beeline. And there's a line up to the subway.

Why? Brand name. Right. Timmy's. Right. Fan 590's brand name. TSN is Joe's Donuts. All due respect.

And I don't think they really did enough, especially in their early days. I would have come with Michael Landsberg hosting the morning show or the great content they have there. And I don't think they ever caught up. And I'll leave it at that. I don't want to be critical. I love the guys. Some of the guys are friends of mine that are there.

But I just don't think it's been much of a match so far. What's better, the 1050, TSN 1050, or the Team 1050? Well, that was a disaster. We have some interesting names came over there. Romanuk. Well, that was a disaster. We have a... They had some interesting names came over there. Romanuk and... Oh, they went the other...

Jim Van Horn. The guy teaches at College of Sports Media at the show. Did Hebsey go there? I don't think Hebsey did. Simmons? Did he go there?

Simmons, I think was... No, Simmons was at the fan at that time. It was Jim Van Horn. Paul Romanuk was there. They had some really good broadcasters and they just... Scott Ferguson went over there because that's why Wilner got the gig.

Exactly. Oh, that was a disaster. Oh, yeah, that was one of the great disasters. And then they go back to playing oldies 18 months later. The only thing they did good there, though, was when they went back playing oldies, the song they selected to come back was A Little Less Conversation by Elvis Presley. That's the only good move they made. Because you know what you think about it? What a great thing to do when you're going back to oldies again. That's the only good move they made. You know what you think about it? What a great thing to do when you're going back to oldies again. That's right. The perfect message. All right. Thanks, Roger. I see we hit

the hour. When you said you don't live in the city, which suburb? Kurdish, just outside of Oshawa. So it's about a 40 minute drive at night into Toronto. It's not far at all. It's convenient. And Go Transit is a really good heading up these ways. And so it's a nice place. nice place to raise the kids there. So wife and,

you know, two kids, we had an opportunity, a good place for schools and everything else. And I would imagine the next year or two, we'll probably get moved closer to Toronto if we win six 49 or lotto max, because it's so congested and it's so expensive to live in Toronto, but everybody wants to live here,

including me. Yeah. Go figure. I don't want to look at it. What's your reality? That's right. Go figure. Go figure. If you move in Toronto, but everybody wants to live here, including me. Yeah, go figure. So how do you want to look at it? What's your reality? That's right. Go figure. Go figure.

If you move to Toronto, I recommend by the lake in the south. I don't care if you go east or west. Oh, there's lots of great places. By the lake. There's cities. That's another thing about this place, Mike. Toronto is the best place in the world.

That's one of the fastest hours I've had. That's a good sign here. I'm enjoying the show and it was very nice of you to ask me to come in. My pleasure. The Rog, who I'm going to try to get people to change their nickname. I'm thinking it should be The Joy.

I'm going to work on it. Too late, probably. My pleasure, Mike. All the best, sir. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 134th show. You can follow me on Twitter, at TorontoMike. And Roger is at

TheRodge590. See you all next week. Thank you.