Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Scott MacArthur and Richard Griffin: Toronto Mike'd #1274

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

In this 1274th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Scott MacArthur about his departure from The Fan 590, working on The Rush on NewsTalk 1010, why he left, what's next for him and how the hell he's doing. Richard Griffin co-hosts as we talk about Anthony Bass, the Expos and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.

Welcome to episode 1274 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Season 4 of Yes, We Are Open,

the award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM El Grego. RecycleMyElectronics.ca Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. The Moment Lab. Brand marketing and strategy. PR.

Advertising and production. You need The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mic'd are Scott McArthur and Richard Griffin. Welcome back, Scott and Richard. Thanks, Mike.

Good to be here, Mike. And there may be a third guest every now and then. John Gibbons may... Hey, Richard. You want me to answer a question or two about Gibby? You know, for a moment I thought you were going to tell me Macho Man Randy Savage might be showing up. Pretty close.

I have one imitation with just slight variation. Who's Macho Man sound like with a southern accent? Hey, Kenny. I was hoping I'd get some Macho Man. Maybe I want to hear Macho Man and John Gibbons chat each other up. That might be the winner. Okay. See, the problem is when you put me on the spot like that,

then I have to come up with dialogue. They could tag team with Shea Hillenbrand and Ted Lilly. Yeah, the ship is sinking, yeah. Love it, man. When the Iron Sheik died, I'm like, I need to talk to Scotty Mac about this, but I don't really want to talk to Scotty Mac. I want to talk to Scotty Mac as Macho Man Randy Savage

about the passing of the Iron Sheik. An unfortunate set of circumstances. You're one of the legends of the game, but up there now with Elizabeth. I love that so much. I love it so much. Firstly, Richard Griffin, good to see you again. Were your ears burning on Sunday night you came up

on the Toronto Mike podcast? I heard that that happened. My good friend and the of my wife's life heard that that happened. My good friend and my the bête noire of my wife's life for bringing me to Toronto.

But yeah, I heard that it came up and I'd love to hear what he said. There's a question later in this program related to these comments by Dave Perkins about you. I just asked everybody for their favourite Montreal Expos memories. And yeah, Perk, as I now call him, because he's a good friend.

He told me a little Richard Griffin story. And there's a question coming for you on that front. But now that I think of Perk, I know Perk told me, because I'm only calling him Perk now. Dave Perkins told me that he got Great Lakes beer for me during his first visit. And that since that first visit to Toronto Mike, where he got a six-pack of GLB, that's the only beer he'll drink now. Like, he'll only buy Great Lakes beer.

So now that I've shouted out Great Lakes beer, if you guys want to pop one open on the mic. All right, so Scotty Mac, you got a lager. Yep. Richard Griffin, you got a logger yep richard griffin you got a logger not really that's not really on the mic scott uh the mic's over here you gotta go that's how you go so cheers to you good to see you both all right two out of three two out of three ain't bad on the mic there, huh? It's close enough. RIP Meatloaf. And Jim Steinman, too, who passed away.

And Mike, I must say that I was looking forward to listening to you read off your list of sponsors because that funeral home always gets me. Hopefully they don't get you too soon. You're looking for a discount. Yeah, yeah. You got a business card? Pre-plan. Pre-plan. Listen, that's how you save money.

You pre-plan. Listen, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. At 5 o'clock today, Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home is going to be here to record his podcast, Life's Undertaking. I hear you guys have a podcast. So much ground to cover. Scotty Mac, two things here, because a lot of questions came in about you.

But one is, I love the flow. I saw this for the promotions for the the rush yep on 10 10 you remember that those pictures you had this flow and i'm like i was jealous i'm like look at that guy's hair and now i can see it for the first time that so what made you grow out your hair well the pandemic did so everything shut down yeah and we weren't going to salons. We weren't going to barbershops. We weren't really doing anything. And my last haircut was about a week before the pandemic shut everything down. And so it started to grow out.

March 2020. Yeah, early March 2020, night before a charity event for Casey House. I remember I dolled myself up to look really good for that or as best I could to look good. And then five or six months in, I'm thinking to myself, well, we're reaching a point here I've never really reached in my life with my hair. And I have no recollection of when salons and barbershops reopened.

But by then, I was getting near shoulder length. And I'm like why why would so they're open so i'm just gonna give up on all of this now yeah and you have a good thick head of hair let me say richard's a bit jealous over there he's a bit angry a bit you could go skull it griff well you could go shoulder length at the back the hulk hogan thing going right i remember the 2020 in march 2020 we were at spring training and three days before the pandemic hit i went and got my hair cut at the and it was a vietnam or i was an iraq war vet and um all of a sudden three days later the pandemic hits we shut down spring training

and the blue jays said oh oh, just come back on Tuesday, and we'll get it going again. This is just a momentary thing, and I haven't had my hair cut since. I actually just popped over to the live stream just to check in, make sure everything's working. That's live.torontomic.com. Moose Grumpy says,

Scott MacArthur wins the best hair in the room today and I'm actually upset. Like I always win that award. So I don't have the best hair in the room today. You've grown yours out a little bit too, haven't you? A little bit. I used to, I think it was Ron Hawkins from Lowest of the Low.

He came over during like, this is like we did a backyard episode during the pandemic and he told me, Mike, if you can grow it, you should show it. Like he said that sentence to me and it really hit, like it really struck a nerve. Like, yeah, like, no offense, Richard, please cover your ears for a moment here.

Just to be clear, he was talking about your head hair. Yeah, okay. I didn't say what he was talking about, but I took it to mean my hair. And yeah, so I basically, I got a little more like substance on top just because I can do it. Like I'm sort of showing off, I can do this. Sort of like you can do it and you're doing it. And Richard, I'm sorry because i can do it like i'm sort of showing off i can do this sort of like you can do it and you're doing it richard i'm sorry you can in a great canadian olympic tradition i'm very happy with the bronze medal here oh just bringing the heat and we're like five minutes in oh my goodness gracious and i want to shout out scotty max t-shirt we're going

to take a picture of the three of us after this recording, but I love that Quebec Nordiques t-shirt. You were a Nordiques fan? I'm a lifelong Maple Leafs fan, but there's a really good, and I should be able to remember this, but again, everything was before the pandemic. There's a really good sports shop in the distillery

and you probably, you know everywhere. Okay, pause, because 10 years ago today, this is, pause because 10 years ago today, this is June 15, 10 years ago today in the distillery district, I got married to the beautiful Monica. Yes, I saw that, I was going to say. 10th anniversary.

I love you, Monica. That was at the distillery district at the Art Gallery, which is right there, 10 years ago today. Congratulations on your 10th anniversary. Did you get photos out front of the sports shop that I got my Nordique shirt at? Yeah, yes, of course.

Actually, we did get lots of photos, though. There's like a rustic car there, and it's really photogenic, as you know. And we got lots of photos out there, but no Nordique photos. But you were saying in the distillery district, there's a store selling Nordique stuff? Well, I should know the name of it,

but it's an old school sports shop. Do they have old CBC stuff there too? Yeah, and they got a bunch of NFL stuff. My daughter works there. I'm not kidding. My daughter's working there right now. So I bought a Nordique shirt. Your daughter works there,

and neither of us know the name. I don't know the name, but she works there. There's a location in the junction, I think, and there's one in distillery district and she's there now. She's telling me they've got like CBC stuff and she, I don't know. I think Father's Day is Sunday. I think I might be getting like some CBC thing from there, but anyway, we shall see, but I love the shirt. Thank you. The next thing would be if you looked at your old wedding photos and Scotty's in the back photo bombing as he's trying on his Nordique shirt, that would be something special looked at your old wedding photos and Scotty's in the back photobombing as he's trying on his Nordique shirt. That would be something special.

I'm just doing the George Costanza at the beach there in the background of the Kruger's family photo. I love it. I love all Seinfeld references. Okay, so I'm going to just let the listenership know that if they want the deep dive of your professional lives,

which episodes they go to. So for Scotty Mac, August 2019, man, that was a good time, man. Pre-pandemic, Raptors were champs. What a good time in our lives. That was episode 499. In this 499th episode,

Mike chats with Scott MacArthur about his years at TSN 1050, his decision to join Sportsnet 590, the fan and host Blue Jays Talk, his battles with depression and his decision to live his life openly as a proud gay man.

We talked for two hours. We're going to double that today. Just kidding. But I really, what I loved from that episode was the Macho Man Randy Savage impression. Always just throwing it out there, Griff. Just begging for it every five minutes. It's going to get old by the end of this.

You have four hours. Griff, do you do any professional wrestlers? Do not. Nice and simple. Do not. How's your George the Animal steel you keep working on it okay now i want to shout out uh episode 1187 it was recorded earlier this year it was just january 2023 mike chats with richard griffin about growing up in jamaica working for the montreal expos moving to toronto and working for the toronto star his time to Toronto and working for the Toronto Star,

his time with the Toronto Blue Jays, and why he, and I'm going to put quotes on this one, but I wrote this at the time, why he retired, okay? I don't think you're retired, Richard. We're going to talk about that. You're doing a lot of stuff. But Mark Hebbshire co-hosted,

I got to say, since then, Hebbsy quit his show. Like he literally up and quit Hebsey on sports did you have anything to do with that Richard Griffin? I think he's concentrating on his golf career now I see him on Facebook and wherever and he's only on the golf course anymore so

I lost him to golf. I do not take credit for Five years so I'm ten years of Monica but I was five years with Hebsey every single Friday morning I was five years with Hebsey every single Friday morning. We went live and did Hebsey on sports. And I didn't get any advance notice. I found out during the final episode

that it was the last episode. What do you think of that? Did you get any photos in the distillery district to mark the retirement? No, but now that I'm thinking of it, I mentioned the Raptors winning the championship in 2019. Hebsey and I went to that parade together, and we have photos.

We went together. Like, that's how close we were. Let's go to the parade together. Okay, I digress. Did you get enough water that day? Did you find a port-a-potty? I'm just missing Hebsey right now. It all went well because we did the Lakeshore side.

Like, the people who had trouble were closer to Nathan Phillips Square. If you stayed on, like, the Lakeshore part of the parade route, you had a great time. Like, it's easy to escape. If you stayed on the Lakeshore part of the parade route, you had a great time. It's easy to escape. You were there for the beginning fun part. It was on time.

That's really the pro move, staying on the Lakeshore side. I moved around that time from a place on Fort York to the East End. And had the Raptors won at home in Game 5, parade day would have been my move day. Wow. Instead, my move day. Wow. Instead, my move day was the night of,

or the day of, night of game six. Right. So that would have messed things up, I think, the way that that parade went. You would have been fucked, Scotty. I don't think the moving truck would have made it across the city. All right. I have to start with you at 590, Scott MacArthur.

Firstly, good to see you. One of the very first questions that came in was quite simply from a guy named KJ. How are you doing? So maybe before we get going again, we heard from the great Richard Griffin in January, and we're going to catch up with him shortly, but we haven't talked to you since 2019, and a lot has happened with you, Scott MacArthur. How are you doing? You know what, I, I'm done answering this question

in, in the broader sense because it's up and down with me, but as we sit here right now, I'm doing well. Is that beer tasty? That beer is tasty. And, uh, in almost exactly a month from now, I'll be moving East to Nova Scotia for good. Wow. And a huge overhaul of the life. So don't ask me exactly what I have planned out there because nothing is set in stone. Uncle Shawnee, Sean Levine, who might be a name that you've heard through the radio grapevine is living out there. He and I have a couple of ideas and be a matter of putting them into practice. Could be hyperlocal, but should be a lot of fun but as i i sit here right now i am happy i am healthy and i am enjoying uh life's transition

as i get ready to leave i'm reconnecting with a lot of people from a long time ago seeing current friends uh for coffees beers lunches dinners what have you and just filling my time that way when i'm not doing the Exit Philosophy podcast with Griff. Well, I'm glad you mentioned it because before we go back, let's talk about this current project with Richard Griffin. Couldn't think of a better guy to start a podcast with. By the way, Griff, I have an opening Friday mornings if you want to slide in there because Hemsian Sports is over.

But tell me about Exit Philosophy. Well, I was looking after I retired as I announced that I wasn't on your show, that I was not retiring, but looking for another project. And I was able to track down Scotty Mac on, I guess, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean in Dartmouth.

Was it Dartmouth? Well, Dartmouth and Bedford, Halifax, bounced around. And I suggested, because when I sent him a note when he left the Blue Jays, when he left the fan, I suggested then maybe in the future we'll do a podcast. And then I caught up with him and said, well, what about the podcast? And to my surprise, he said, yeah, that sounds good. You know, that actually sounded good to him. And, you know.

How long was this conversation? Probably. Earlier this year? Yeah. March? Yeah, it was after I was on your show. So that was in January, right? Yeah, so it was probably in March.

I hadn't gone to spring training. It was my first year not going to spring training since 1978 when I presided over the Bill Lee pancake fiasco. gone to spring training. It was my first year not going to spring training since 1978 when I presided over the Bill Lee pancake fiasco. Did we get to hear what that was? You now have to tell that. You can't call something the Bill Lee pancake fiasco and just leave it hanging. Right. Well, that was my first, I was like, no, I was 23. So I'd been working with the Expos for a while, but they sent me to spring training because they trusted me.

And so the Red Sox people wanted to come over and interview Bill Lee. And so I prepped Bill Lee on these guys are coming over, including Peter Gammons and a bunch of the older guys. Right. And I took him out by the trailer, and these five guys had driven across from, I guess, Lakeland or wherever spring training was for the Red Sox, and they got him outside the trailer,

and like a good PR guy, I didn't, like, hover. I stepped back, and I let the interview take place. Right. And when it was over, I went over I went so Bill how'd it go and he was shaking he was visibly trembling because he had told them about marijuana on his pancakes and and the commissioner's office was going to get involved and they all the Red Sox guys had these big smiles as they left and he he ended up being fined, I think, a couple thousand dollars and paid it off in dimes, I think, or pennies to some...

That's amazing. To some convent in Alaska for unwed mothers or something. Paid it off in dime bags. Right. But that was my first spring training. And my last one, or my one without going was when I asked Scotty Mac to partner on Exit Philosophy. March 2023. And Scotty Mac, the timing was right.

And you guys started. So I will tell you, I subscribe to Exit Philosophy. I can show it to you in my podcast addict app. And it sounds great. You guys are doing a great job. Well, you know, we're going to peel the curtain back here a little bit. You have been a help. Thank you very much.

No, no. Thank you very much. If you're not watching right now, Toronto Mike is leaning on his hand and just sort of rubbing his forehead like there might have been a headache or two. But, I mean, this is Toronto Mike's Livelihood and we launched our first episode and

we used a particular uploading site that created both an Apple and a Spotify page. And then we used the uploading site or whatever you want to call it that we have since used since the second episode, and it created different Apple and Spotify pages.

So when you punch in our name, Exit Philosophy with Griffin Scottie Mack, you want episodes two to six, and going forward, you don't want the one that has only episode one on it. Mike, my mistake was thinking that because Scotty Mac had spent a lifetime in radio, that all I would need to do is sit down and do the podcast. He's like 40 years old, Scotty Mac.

He would take care of the rest. I'm almost 44. Really? I'll be 44 on the 26th. Still, I just think that you're of an age where you were, the internet was with you in, I'm doing the math here, in grade school. But the only podcast I'd ever done before.

And I thought that because of that, I could leave the technical stuff to Scotty Mac. Right. And he seems bright enough. It seems now historically, in hindsight, that all he ever did was go into the studio, sit down, talk, and leave. He's like a koala bear.

Ding, ding, ding. Which is where I usually come in, but I would just want to let people know, no invoice was received by Scotty Mac and Richard Griffin. I just want to make that clear. Like, I just wanted you guys to be heard. So we got that one. There are two instances of exit philosophy in these podcast apps,

but there's one that you're actively adding new episodes to, and that's the one to follow. And I don't think we need to work this out on the air, but you can be sure, Mike, before we leave today, I will be asking. So how do we delete that original page? Well, it sounds now that I learned, whoever logged into that first site that created those instances, that same login will allow you to delete. So we will talk about that afterwards.

I was out for lunch on Monday with an old buddy from TSN 1050, and he says, I really enjoyed your premiere episode but it... Yeah, they subscribe to that and they wait for updates. It hasn't updated for five or six weeks. I'll tell you this, when you subscribe to a podcast, I'm like, oh, I want to follow this. I subscribe. Kind of out of your mind until

new episodes drop. It's like you just go about your life listening to stuff and then you get a little notification. Oh, there's a new episode of Toronto Mic'd, for example. Oh, look, Scotty Mac and Richard Griffin returned to Toronto Mic'd. I'm going to press the button to download because I'm going to listen to that on my bike ride or whatever. But if you don't get updates, you're

still subscribed. It's just sort of like it's dormant. It's invisible to you until there's new episodes. But don't worry. Don't worry. As out of mind as we may have been to everybody else, we were front of mind for my panicked brain. How do we make this up? So let's go back and then we'll work our way to current day

and we'll get more questions about exit philosophy, etc. But when we last talked, Scott MacArthur, you were on the air at the Fan 590. Were you a morning show? I think you were just like doing Jay's talk or something. Yeah, there was a transition into mornings, did some late summer,

midday, worked with a bunch of different people. And that's yada, yada, yada. Yada, yada, yada. Fast forward to September 29th, 2021. Shit canned. Buh-bye. Okay. You were fired from the Fan 590. Well, I believe the kids call it laid off. Well, I don't call it that.

I call it fired. I call it fired. Sounds like fired to me. Laid off suggests like, oh, you'll be back when things improve. No, I call it fired too, but then I always get corrected. No, no, no. Fired means that you... That's not true. You know, you did something wrong or you were fired with cause. So, I was

laid off, but I consider it fired. You can be fired without cause. It happens in radio every single day. It happened to many, many people at Bell Media just this very week. It happened at The Athletic. Yep. And then today, FOTM Scott Stinson got it from Post Media. Yeah, I saw that on Twitter.

Today, and he's a good FOTM, much like you guys. But here, let me get to some specific questions, and then I have specific questions, and we'll see how Scotty Mac is feeling with sharing here. But Eric says, before Scott became the full-time host on the Fan 590's morning show, he filled in for a few mornings during the summer alongside Ashley Docking and Donovan Bennett. I really enjoyed listening to this trio.

Their young, progressive voices were refreshing. Did the PD in charge ever consider that this trio might be the full-time morning host? That's sort of the question, but I'm curious about the Donovan Bennett angle here. Why not Scotty Mac and Donovan Bennett? You two sounded great together. Well, that would be a question for Dave Cadeau,

the PD of the time, or maybe even Donovan. I'm not going to speak for Donovan because he and I never talked about this, but I'm just going to offer my insight to the extent that I understand the industry I used to work in, which is that Donovan does a lot of different things and does a lot of different things very, very well. And radio at that time, clearly, and this has continued over the last few years, but radio at that time was clearly considered to be in decline. And I'm not sure that someone of Donovan's talents would be best suited to dedicating most of

or all of his time to radio. That's a good point. He's a TV star. Maybe he doesn't want to do radio. There's an excellent writer too, right? Right. Interesting. But you did know, again, I hope you're not uncomfortable about any of these questions, but these are questions that people have been wondering for a long time here. Ashley Docking, also an FOTM, didn't like me explaining to her how you make the lasagna. I gave her a palm of pasta lasagna and I explained 45 minutes at 375 and she said I was mansplaining how to make the lasagna and I was just trying to help somebody out with a new sponsor. But you guys, by the way, you guys got lasagnas last time you were on. You're getting

lasagnas today. Richard Griffin, you're bringing home a palm of pasta lasagna. That'll be Monday's dinner because I'm going to St. Mary's for the festivities and that'll be on Exit Philosophy on Monday. We'll discuss that. i don't

think i'll take my lasagna to the golf course tomorrow morning no well depends on the temperature outside if it's if it's warm in that bunker you can heat it up 45 minutes does it get to 375 in there okay i want to ask you about palma pasta further so that's awesome i want also i want to hear about the saint mary's and then we'll get back to Ashley Dawking on the Fan 590. I hear that you're, is it your wife, Richard? Who is the big Palma Pasta fan? Is it in your family there?

It's my wife. Yeah. Yeah. It was just, I didn't have to mansplain to her or anything. It was like, boom, show up at the dinner table

and there it is. And it was delicious. I don't know how to explain anything unless man, I am a man, and therefore, I guess every time I explain something, it's mansplaining. I'm not sure how to get around that one. I've been trying to wrestle with that for a while. But I'm glad you like the Palma Pasta because it's delicious.

And 10 years ago today, this is before they were sponsored, so I paid this invoice. I want you to know that. Happily, I catered my wedding at the distillery district 10 years ago with food from Palma Pasta and everyone loved it. That is a wonderful family owned,

four different locations in Mississauga and Oakville. We love our Palma Pasta. So Scott, you get a lasagna as well. Thank you very much. And I know my mom goes there once or twice a year and loads up and we often have big family dinners.

And every now and then a poma pasta lasagna makes an appearance. And nobody, nobody is disappointed. Nobody complains about that. Okay. What happened with Ashley Dawking on the Fan 590 morning show? She didn't seem to last very long. And then she was gone. And I'm just curious what you can say about that.

gone. And I'm just curious what you can say about that. Well, you would have to ask her what happened to her on the Sportsnet 590 The Fan morning show. I can speak only for myself and the decisions I make for my life. But as an adult, the decisions I make for my life have consequences both good and bad. And I am sitting here right now moving to Halifax in a month and doing a podcast with Richard Griffin and no longer employed by Sportsnet 590, the fan, or anywhere else in the traditional media. And those are the consequences I face, and I am responsible for whatever consequences, good or bad, I have faced in my life. Did Richard write that statement for you? He's auditioning to be a foreign diplomat and doing quite a good job at it.

I think there was some PR assistance. That's well said. Okay, but it's only getting trickier from here before it gets better, Scotty. So you were teamed up with a former NHL player named Mike Zigomanis. I can speak for Toronto Mike. I'm going to speak about myself in the third person here. That's how important I am.

So Toronto Mike. You got to do it in a rock's voice, though. That's your department. Okay, I can't even hit those notes. Do you want to do the rock? Can you do a rock? Toronto Mike. No, actually, I can't. I can't even, I can't even hit those notes. Do you want to do the rock? Can you do a rock? Toronto Mike. No,

actually I can't. I'm not even going to pretend. I had a horrific experience with this person. That's all I'll say. And it was because of an innocuous tweet during the COVID-19 pandemic, the heyday of the COVID-19 pandemic, where your former colleague, Mike Zigomandis was tweeting anti-vax,

false anti-vax statements, and FOTM Damien Cox was retweeting them and arguing with him. And at some point, I tweeted at Damien to stop giving Ziggy oxygen. I was tired of the anti-vax stuff on my Twitter stream. And Mike Zigomantis a screencap that put it on his Instagram and suggested to his legion of followers that I wanted him to die by depriving him of oxygen. Oxygen being necessary to sustain human life. Meanwhile, I used

that expression stop giving him oxygen the way that you guys know that expression to mean, which is I don't literally want you to stop giving him oxygen. Regardless, horrific calls to all my sponsors. It was actually a horrific... I stayed off Instagram for about a month. The hate mail, even

Sean Avery was in my DMs threatening me. This is where we're at in this 2021 or something like that. But I had a terrible experience with him. That said, that's Mike talking. Toronto Mike to be specific. Scotty Mack, how was it working with Mike Zigglemanis? So I'm going to answer that question by bringing it back to me. I am an adult

and I am responsible for healing the trouble that I have in my life. And I am responsible for how I conduct myself and for how I treat others around me. And just because life may not be going the way that I want it to on a given day or on a given week or on a given for a very long time, that does not give me license to take it out on other people such as yourself. Did you and Ziggy get it at the same time? Meaning, uh, did you guys get your notice from the fan five 90 that your services were no longer required?

I didn't get my notice until five minutes after the show that I did ended. So I think that was a Wednesday, September the 29th, 2021. He was fetted out the door the previous Friday. Okay. Okay. Did you see it coming for you? Did you?

Yes. Okay. Was I disappointed? No. Mike Lynch writes in, what reason was he given when he was let go from the fan morning show? In my opinion, he, along with Richard Deitch, Stephen Brunt, and Jeff Blair,

were the best thing they had going at the time. That's from Mike Lynch. What did they tell you? Well, so a few things here. I mean, there is confidentiality that we need to respect, but I actually don't think there really is a secret to keep. It was literally what happens when you are fired or laid off. In this case, it was not done in person.

It was done over Zoom or one of those online... Teams? Was it Microsoft Teams? Could have been. But I pulled up Microsoft Teams, and I was expecting to see my boss's face on the screen. And instead, there was a double box. And in the other box was a human being I did not recognize and whose name I did not know. And I was very quickly introduced to a member of the HR department. And my boss gave a 25, 30-second spiel.

Your services are no longer needed, and then the HR person takes you through the legal document that sends you out the door. There was no explanation, and I haven't asked for one since. Why weren't you disappointed? You suggested that you were not upset by this. I think my time had come to an end there um and uh again the future of radio at that time seemed perilous and i was looking around and i i just wasn't feeling like i was a fit you know if i ever my autobiography, it would probably be only for me

because I don't think it's that interesting. Um, but, but from a strictly, and I have zero regrets about where I am in my life right now, zero, which is beautiful to hear. But if I were to look back and say, geez, you know, I really hope to make it to 60 or 65 as a, as a radio host. And I don't think anybody's going to do that if they're my age now, because look at the state of the industry, but let's just hypothetically say so. The worst professional decision I made was to leave TSN. So when they ask you any regrets, you'd say, yeah. No, because I wouldn't be here right now with an impending move to the East Coast. But professionally, if my professional career in the legacy or mainstream broadcasting industry

was the highest priority in my life, the decision I made in late 2018 was the turning point and not for the good. How much of a role does the pandemic play in all this? Do you think that was just an unfortunate accelerator in terms of what was wrong with your fit at that gig? no no i don't because i a part of me recognized it pretty much right away and and then i tried to make the best of it but again life lessons right i mean that that's all these things are you know griff's been in baseball for 50 years he can tell you about good moments not so good moments moments he had to pivot off of and come out a better person for and all of that. I

had a sense pretty much right away that I wasn't so sure that my personality was going to be lockstep with what was going on. So Griff, and by the way, my apologies for ignoring you the last 20 minutes, but you

can understand all the Scotty Mac questions. I was fascinated listening to the answers. Before you start, I will say that I'm delighted that it ended up with us in your studio because nobody could have co-hosted Exit Philosophy. Nobody would have teamed up in an experimental podcast that I was looking at that could have done or been a better partner than Scotty Mack. And it makes it

so easy for me to tell stories and to tap into that 50 years of baseball experience as we discuss baseball issues, the Anthony Bass thing. Which we're going to get to, by the way, because as you can imagine, questions came in, the Anthony Bass thing. I mean, there's all sorts of things. Which we're going to get to, by the way, because as you can imagine, questions came in about the Anthony Bass.

I mean, and I really appreciate Griff's kindness in saying that. And I don't even think I thought twice. I can't remember if you texted me or called me or if you texted me and said, hey, let's talk on the phone. Yeah. But how'd you track him down? I feel like, again. Well, he's got my number.

I have your number, though, and I know I texted you at least once during the... Well, maybe it was after the 1010 stuff was just to check in and see if you're okay, and you ignored my text.

Well, I did go dark for a period of time. I did go dark for a period of time. All right, we'll get there. Let's go in chronological order here. So, Mike. Yeah.

Did you... When was I on your show? January. January. Well, I had ignored you for 15 years. Why did you ignore me? Let's talk about that. Why did you, Richard Griffin, I'm sure I asked you this in January, but, you know,

Hebsey was with me, but now I'm asking you, why did you ignore me for 15 years? Well, when I was writing, I didn't want to share what I was about to write. And when I was with the Blue Jays, I didn't want to say anything truthful and get me fired. Smart. I do hear that. There's a lot of people

in mainstream media that are like, the day after I get fired, I'm coming in for my exit interview. And I'm like, oh, I can't wait two weeks. What's going on here?

Okay, I kid, I kid. I do want to ask, I have a few questions here, but your let go, actually for you, Griff, did you ever hear Scotty Mac on the Fan 590 morning show? I did. I mean, I heard him all the time. I'd text him with suggestions and critiques.

That was my, and his afternoon show when he was on TSN radio was my favorite as well. And his afternoon show when he was on TSN radio was my favorite as well. And I really didn't understand the move to be part of the Blue Jays broadcast, radio broadcast, and I guess in hindsight, neither does Scott. Well, yeah. I think it was the kid's dream, and I learned a little too late that I'm not eight years old anymore. And maybe I shouldn't chase rainbows and unicorns.

You say a dream to be on the, uh, blue Jays broadcast. Well, yeah, yeah. To be on the blue Jays radio broadcast. Number one.

Yeah. Um, cause we'll know, but number, but number two in our line of work and God knows, uh, that's been reflected this week as you alluded to 1300 people countrywide lost their jobs at bell media and a lot of them by the way i learned haven't actually got the tap yet like it's coming out in the next couple of days so well which is just so classy

right i mean who think of all the souls who aren't getting sleep when they put their head on the pillow at night right now wondering what the heck's going on. Um, so it was, it was that following the, the little boy's dream, but it was also, we are conditioned and weeks like this remind us that that conditioning is necessary to just assume that the cat and mouse game is a daily, weekly, monthly thing. We are the mice. The layoff monster is the cat. And so my feeling was my two happiest professional years in a very long time were the Scott MacArthur show years at TSN 1050 and 17 and 18. But my feeling was in that moment that that's all I was doing. And that radio of all the media is in decline even back then. And so if I'm just hosting

a mid-afternoon show, I'm not in a prime slot morning or afternoon. If numbers start to come up, could mine be in that mix? I had no reason to believe it at the time, but then I'm not going to just assume and play it safe. And so I made a move to try to keep a step or two ahead of the cat that is layoffs. But Scotty, I would say that barring your dream of going to join the Blue Jays broadcast, the best years of your reporting on Blue Jays baseball and sports were when you traveled with the team from 2013 to 16.

And to me, that was, I don't know internally whether you were the happiest at that period, but I have not enjoyed myself traveling with anyone more than those years when you were there because you made it fun. You were on top of every major issue, and you were doing a great job. Yeah, and you were a mentor. And, you know, it's funny about Exit Philosophy that this is not actually the first podcast that Griff and I have done. It's the

first podcast that we have done that's actually got an attempt behind it to, you know, promote it and, you know, let people know that it, you know, exists. But we had what was called the Baseball Podcast and Gregor Chisholm was with us on that. During my days at TSN, you were still at the Star, and Gregor, who's now at the Star, was at MLB.com covering the Blue Jays. Keegan Matheson took his gig at MLB. Yes, he did. And we would do the Baseball Podcast on road trips. We did one.

So we'd go out about five hours before the game, so an hour and a half before the clubhouse would open. And we did one from the, uh, the tall tables out in left field in Seattle, Edgar's you've probably seen Edgar's when home runs are hit to left field at T-Mobile park. Yeah.

That's named after Edgar Martinez, a little bar in there. We did an episode on top of the Fenway Monster Seats. Wow. I mean, we didn't have cameras. Right. So the visual wasn't for anybody but the three of us. I like the theater of the mind experience of a podcast.

Yeah. And we would always go in on, what was it, Griff, at home, that second level, the TD comfort area. So you had a rapport already. Absolutely. So you two liked each other, obviously, and you had a rapport.. So you two liked each other obviously and you had a rapport and then so obviously when you get the call from Richard Griffin, yeah, it sounds like a slam dunk.

Well, can I tell the Steph story? You have to now. I gotta tell the Steph story. Okay, so here's the deal. I think this was the night that Griff and I became pals because it was my first year on the beat. We were like friendly before but we truly became pals. So the Jays are in Oakland and we're both staying at the

courtyard in San Francisco on 2nd Street. And the rule was, and in your first year on the beat, you learn all the sort of written rules, but the unwritten rules the rule in oakland was always that if you were the if you are the second to last person done your work on the beat you don't leave the last person alone because the walk from the coliseum and oracle arena is next to it the walk from the coliseum to the BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit Subway Stop, is somewhat lengthy and not safe at 11 o'clock at night. So Griff and I were the last two. We go hit the subway, get off in San Francisco on Market Street near 2nd Street or 2nd Avenue, whatever it is. And we're walking back to the hotel.

And I actually had a little bit more work to do. and we're walking back to the hotel and I actually had a little bit more work to do and Griff says, Scotty, why don't we just tuck into this little hole in the wall here and have one beer to end the night.

It's a place called Steff's and I actually shot, I looked it up the other day and I sent Griff the screen cap that I took. Steff's is permanently closed but it was this nook in the wall. And we went in for a beer at about 1130 Pacific time, 2.30 a.m. Eastern. And I had some contributions to make to the morning show on TSN 1050 the next day. So not many hours away.

Right. Three hours and nine pints each later. Griff is upright and walking back to the hotel. And if I was sideways in a wheelbarrow, if I puked all the way up the street, I have no recollection. All I know is I woke up in my clothes, face down on my bed bed perfectly made i i would

that would be my that would be my normal place where i stopped because by the time the game is over and by the time you've gone downstairs and come back up nobody was left at the star's desk so the next group was coming in at 7 in the morning, which was 4 on the West Coast. So I would just stay at Steph's and finish writing and have my 4 or 9, and then send it when I got back to the room. It was beautiful.

And I introduced Scotty Mac to that. But Griff knew Steph's, of course, from his years of travel. And I think that there's a lot of your listeners, Mike, and that's what we try to do on Exit Philosophy as well when the topics aren't quite as serious as over the last couple of weeks, is just have Griff share old stories. A lot of cool bars, restaurants, the people he went to those bars and restaurants with through the years.

That's what we try to bring. So Steph's has nothing to do with Steph Curry. It's S-T-E-F-F-S. Gotcha. And it is permanently closed, according to Google. Okay. They kept looking around the corner for us. Where are those guys?

We can't stay open. We drained all their kegs. So teaser, because later there's a question for you, Scott MacArthur, about why are you moving to the Maritimes? So teaser, because we're going to ask that later, because I still have to get you to 1010 here. But Gregor Chisholm and Keegan Matheson have something in common. They're Maritimes guys, so there's a little Maritime thread.

And they're also FOTM. So shout out to Gregor and Keegan. Gregor, who's it told me Gregor is like, they loved his diet. Like he could just, he would eat like just chocolate and candy. Like he had the diet of like a six-year-old. Well, Gregor is eight foot two and 110 pounds.

Well, as we learned, you can lose weight just eating Twinkies, right? It's all about how many calories are going in there. Okay. So Scott MacArthur, you get the news from 590, but you know, it sounds like you saw it coming and you're out of work. When do conversations pick up again with you and Bell Media, which owns 1050, where you had your best years. Yeah. So I am out of the industry and I've got my feet up in October and November and I am moving on in my mind. And to the point that I had applied to Sheridan Centennial and my radio Alma mater Algonquin college up in Ottawa,

uh, to study social services, work and mental health and addictions. Okay. I was moving on. And then in the back of my mind, I said, there is one person and only one that I would work for again.

And his name is Jeff McDonald. And if he doesn't call me, I'm going back to school. You're changing industries much like somebody like a Howard Berger or a Storm and Norman Rumerack. So that should tell you right there for what's to come. For what's to come that I was done. You know, my head, my heart, whatever you want to come that I was done. You know, my head, my heart,

whatever you want to say. The game ain't in you no more. The game ain't in me no more. Shout out to Cuddy Wise. Yeah. And, but who called? Jeff,

Jeff McDonald. Yeah. And, and it was nothing, but there was, there was, if he, if he texted me or called me or I texted him or called him,

that was nothing. That could just be, hey, what's up? Yeah. And that's what got the ball rolling on my return to radio and my brief foray into News Talk 1010. Okay, so us Toronto radio historians. So Mike Bendixon was a program director at 1010. He's let go.

Jeff McDonald's the program director at 1010. He's let go. Jeff McDonald's the program director at 1050 TSN Radio. Now he gets both stations. This is how we're rolling now. And I'm sure they doubled his salary. Of course, because that's just the ethical thing to do if you're going to make him do twice the work. Okay, so Jeff McDonald's

now program director at 1010 and he calls you up. And what does he say to you? Well, he doesn't say it right away because it started a back and forth that was more frequent. And at some point in that back and forth, I was presented with the idea of a male-female afternoon drive show, and that I could be the male. As opposed to the female. Yes, if I wanted to be.

And so we continued to talk and the result obviously was that we came to an arrangement, an agreement, and the show launched. Well, it was the second Monday, whatever the date was, it was the second Monday of April. Well, first we had to get those promo shots of your flow there just to piss off me and Griff here. Like, what

the hell is this guy with that flow? Okay, so let me just set the table a bit here. The Rush, I happen to have had Ryan Doyle and Jay Mad Dog Michaels sitting in the same seats you guys are right now when they launched the Rush on 1010. They came over.

They're both FOTMs, and they talked about this new afternoon drive, the Rush, and they kind of told me all about it. Ryan Doyle gets let go. Mad Dog goes to Montreal to be on showm. Montreal will come up later. I hear Richard spent some time there. Okay, so now we have a new rush getting launched and did you get a chemistry test with rashmi nair like how does that work do they say hey let's why don't you are you guys gonna go out for dinner and see if you like each other

like i'm always curious how that works when you're paired with somebody on the radio well we didn't do a chemistry check in terms of like a trial show but but we met a couple of times and we got along great. And we got along great the entire time. Yeah. She is an FOTM as well. The most disappointing thing of this story for you, Mike, because I know that you love drama and controversy is that- Only when it exists.

Is that there quite literally is none. Okay. So Reshmi Nair, by the way, fun fact, like a couple of fact i they asked me to do it again they keep asking but they don't give me lasagna and they don't give me a speaker from and they don't give me beer but they asked me to do this debate show on ctv national news and last time i did it i was debating rush me there so there's a fun fact for you rush me and i what was the topic three different topics One about like soccer referees wearing,

I don't actually love the topics, although I did do some Seinfeld references that seemed to please the host of the show, a guy named Mike. Giddy up. Giddy up. All right. I'm out there, Jerry.

I'm loving every minute of it. Okay. So you and Reshmi Nair get along fine. You're hosting the Rush. Why, like I got to know in detail. All of a sudden, this is how it was from my perspective, because, you know, people are like, where's Scott MacArthur? Like, they still say, like, the rush,

filling in for Scott MacArthur. Like, they do a bunch of that for a long time, but you're not on the air, and you're noticeably absent. And then all of a sudden, one day, it's like, they stop saying your name, and then it's like, I don't think Scott MacArthur's coming back. Like, is scott okay you seem to just disappear what happened man okay so almost immediately now i live in the east end and the station is located at richmond and john so i had about a 40 minute walk to work 40 minute walk home from work and I'd take a powder for 15 or 20 minutes downtown after the

show meeting, over the lunch hour, go by lunch, whatever. So I was walking a lot. And for as much as I like to consider myself an expert in all areas of mental health because of the way that my life has gone, I'd never actually suffered from anxiety. So I didn't know what the symptoms were. They started almost right away with me walking to work in the morning and going for that lunchtime walk, trying to regulate my breathing because my heart wanted to jump out of my chest and my brain was spinning at a thousand miles a minute. Nobody was,

the environment was fantastic. Jeff McDonald's a wonderful human being, still is. Reshminar is a wonderful and talented human being, still is. Our producers that we worked with behind the scenes and technical producer, wonderful human beings. The environment was fine.

There was nothing I could look at now and go, what, like there's nothing causing this. That, I figured, would subside as I eased into the role and time passed. Problem, it continued to get worse. Fast forward to the summer. Now, when I was a little kid, I had some allergies. My parents put peanut butter on my toast when I was three years old and I broke out into hives. I have not eaten peanut butter since, for example. Used to get allergy shots,

allergic to some animals, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, goldenrod, I get hay fever, pop a pill, the roof of your mouth gets itchy after august 15th it's all that fun stuff right people with spring time allergies know all about it right now yeah problem is in the middle of summer i'm starting to break out and i'm like why do i have a rash on my wrist and on the top of my hand and around my waistline where my boxers sit. This is not normal. Are my allergies in middle age coming back? No, wrong again. That was anxiety-induced hives. So now we are progressing into an area, again, that I am not familiar with. And I did not know that that's what it was until I talked to a doctor about it much later. And fast forward later into the summer and when I took my

leave on doctor's orders, I was no longer eating and no longer sleeping. So we're done. We're done at that point for a period of time. I went and saw my doctor thinking I'd get a two-week doctor's note. He looked at me and he said, two months minimum. And I said, what? And he said, no, you need to go away from your job. And I was like, all right. He said, you come back and see me in six weeks he put me in touch with a website called green space which is essentially a place that you go fill out a form they read that form and pair you with the best psychotherapist possible

so I went into therapy and out of further conversations with my GP and my therapist, I, as a lifelong people pleaser who doesn't like disappointing others, was able to formulate the words, I know what's causing this. I don't want to do this anymore. And so it was at that point that we began the process of figuring out a way to extricate me from the situation. But I want to be very clear out of respect to everybody else who was affected by this. Bell Media was not only fair to me, they were more than fair to me. Jeff McDonald, Reshminar, and the producers who are more than two or three behind the scenes were all terrific and are all terrific. So I want to be clear, there was nothing external. There's no drama vis-a-vis anybody else. Well, it sounds like your body, like you already knew this when you said that the only call you'll take to discuss this

is from Jeff McDonald. Like you basically had already decided only one human being could talk you into another. Well, like Mike, I can be a flighty, flaky idiot like anybody else, but you know what it's one thing to say i'm done and then it's another thing to actually you know apply and be accepted to a bunch of colleges around the province with the intent of changing course like i was that far down the road so i I think my actions,

in hindsight, with a clearer head, my actions suggested long before that I was in fact moving on in my heart, soul, mind, whatever the hell you want to call it. I will say people who listen to The Rush with you and Reshmi, in fact, there's somebody right now,

Andrew Ward, who's on the live stream, and he says that you guys, you were awesome with Reshmi. In fact, there's somebody right now, Andrew Ward, who's on the live stream. And he says that you guys, you were awesome with Reshmi and that you're missed. So it sounds like even when, you know, you're breaking out in hives and suffering from this anxiety

on your walks, that you're still, you know, when the red light goes on, you're delivering, like you're doing your job. Did my best. Did my best. It was, you know,

there were a couple of times. And whether Reshmi realized it or not, there were a couple of times that she picked me up off the mat. I flaked in the middle of an interview and just lost my path and said goodbye to the guest with like three minutes before commercial

and we just had to backfill and then she said, is everything alright in the commercial break? And of course I said yes because we just had to backfill. And then she said, is everything all right in the commercial break? And of course I said, yes, because we got to come back in four minutes and I can't be a puddle. That's not fair to my co-host. So there were things actually happening that a listener might not have noticed that were a lot closer to disaster than they ended up being. And she, well, she's a pro like yourself,

so I'm not surprised she was able to pick you off the mat, as you said, which is another great wrestling term there. Now, Hayraft says that he felt that you had great rapport with FOTM Reshmi, and yeah, so there's multiple people. She's a terrific broadcaster, and I will say this, uh, about her having

gotten to know her to the extent that I did, she truly cares. And she is concerned about, I think the things that a lot of people are concerned about in this world right now, uh, wants a better world for, for her little guy who I think is seven years old now. Heart's in the right place, and obviously a very polished and talented broadcaster. No argument from me. Richard Griffin, did you hear any of The Rush featuring Scott MacArthur and Resh Pinar? I did. When I was driving in the car, I would tune it in because Scott's a friend of mine. And I enjoyed the show.

Not always the point of view, but that's what it's all about when you're listening to talk radio. Richard thinks I'm a socialist. What are your political... Do you live in Toronto? Who are you voting for? Oh, yeah. Who are you voting for, Richard Griffin, before you leave here? Do you want to get out of here alive?

No, you can keep that private. And I'm not even sure you're a resident of the 416. I know Scott won't be for much longer here. Okay, we got one more. But I am voting on my birthday. You know what? You and I almost have the same birthday. You ready for this?

I'm June 27. No kidding. Yeah, you're June 26. So I know three people now, including my goddaughter, who's getting married on Saturday, and I'm emceeing. Her 26th birthday will be on the 27th of June,

day after mine. My mind's blowing because I'm not going to attend that wedding. Just kidding. That would be wonderful. Hey, cancers. That's right. The moon children. We'll let the rest,

we'll let all the other Zodiac signs try to figure us the hell out because I'm done trying. That's fine. One day apart, Scott, and I knew I liked you for a reason. Okay, so you have this, I'm going to call this an epiphany,

like this kind of courageous of you to talk about it like this because you don't hear this story very often where you have an afternoon drive show on what was once the biggest am uh maybe it still is i don't know but you know am we can we can talk about the trouble am is having because they're closing shuttering a lot of stations but they haven't shuttered news talk 10 10 yet big station you're the afternoon drive host and you literally have this epiphany that you don't want to do that anymore it's bad for your health yes so where do you want me to go well basically uh is at that point

interesting that uh like i guess at that point you quit well i i needed to be sure. And so a few months went by before the wheels were put in motion for me extricating myself and, and also freeing the company from any responsibility to me. And, but I, I knew, I knew in the first month or two of this year that the likelihood of me returning, uh, was not high. So at what point in this do you, you say to, I guess it's to Jeff, I guess you say that, um, I'm not returning.

Well, by this point there are lawyers involved and, and different things. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Yeah. So, uh, we tidied all of that up and, and I was out a few months into, yeah, like probably late March, early April.

So Daryl asks a question that I'm wondering right now. Daryl wants to know what brought on the move to the East coast. And just for the record here, you're not a maritimer, right? You're a Toronto guy or a GTA guy. I'm an Oakville kid, born and raised,

worked in Ottawa for a little more than a decade. Been in Toronto back, or back in Toronto since 2011. So like where,ville kid, born and raised, worked in Ottawa for a little more than a decade, been in Toronto back, or back in Toronto since 2011. So, like, we're, I mean,

it's beautiful out there, but the winters are rough. Like, where is this, you know, I only visit there in the summer. Ask,

Stephen Brunt was just here. Newfoundland, yeah. Great story, yeah, exactly. He dropped by just on his way

to basically to Newfoundland where he's going to, normally he has to come back at Labor Day because he has to go on the air, but now he doesn't have to go on the air for the first time in a long time because he's no longer at Rogers.

But fascinating conversation. But, you know, even he, he winters in, you know, GTA. Tell me what brought on the move to the East Coast. So I think two names that you'll know uh uncle shawnee sean levine who was my producer at tsn 1050 and paul hollingsworth who is a born and raised heligonian uh you see him on tsn he typically covers world series he'll fly into toronto and do some anchoring of weekend sports center. Okay. Uh, those are my two close friends out there. And Shawnee was laid off or fired,

um, in March of 2019. And Sean, when COVID hit, moved back home to Kempville and lived on his father's farm. Cause Sean was in a horrific car wreck when he was 21 years old and still has lingering effects. This is more than 30 years ago now and felt that he needed to be isolated

because if he caught COVID, it could get him. And, um, so I get a text from him in the summer of 2020 and he goes, I'm coming down toonto to say goodbye to some people and we got to meet up and and go for a walk i'm moving east and he had a friend who had lured him out there with a job and so we naturally stayed in touch off and on.

And Sean would repeat to me in text or if we'd talk on the phone, Scott, you are always complaining about the congestion in Toronto. You are always complaining about the fast pace. You are just off the charts introverted and you, you just, this, this place and you would agree with each other. So I'm like, okay,

I'm always like, I'm always iffy on somebody having like a full religious experience. Like, but Sean, Sean was selling, Sean was selling like Nova Scotia as if it had been a religious conversion for him. Right. Um, so I, I finally went out there around the time everything was wrapping up.

And when is that? Is that like February? Yeah, like March, April. March, April. And I spent a good period of time out there, a number of weeks, and I absolutely fell in love with the place, fell in love with the people. And I thought, my God, like he actually, for all this religious conversion comparison that I've been having in the back of my mind, he actually undersold it. Wow.

And so Hollywood, Paul Hollingsworth, Hollywood is his nickname and Sean- After Hollywood Hogan. Brother. After Hollywood Hogan. Brother. And so a couple of friends who know each other but aren't close friends with each other, both encouraged me to come out there and it lived up to the hype. back here that I have told the first time I've told them I'm moving east they have all almost to a person replied yeah you've been talking about that for years except that I had almost no recollection that I'd been talking about you've been talking about that for three four five years and I'd like I just I think I just said it out of frustration I didn't I wasn't like honestly

thinking it at the time, but the number of people who were like, yeah, I'm not surprised. Well, you just declared that you're an introvert and Toronto is a pretty dense city. Like there's a lot of us, a lot of us, a lot of people here. And perhaps you, maybe you being a natural born introvert, you wanted to be in a place with fewer people? Well, yeah, I don't always say I hate people,

but like... Well, I didn't say you hated people. You don't hate Griff. Yeah. I don't hate you. I'm sitting in your basement. That's good. The second time, too. You don't come back. I always say this. You don't come back the second time unless you had a good time, right? It's in the freezer. It's in the freezer. Are you kidding me? I learned my lesson a long time ago.

I was about to abscond with the beer and the lasagna. I'm like, this box is awfully light. Well, you know, your mom in Oakville knows there's an Oakville location of Palma's pasta. Yes, she does. So anyway, so that's how it all played out. This is how it works, Griff. Is there a Palma pasta in Bedford, Nova Scotia?

I'm taking notes on advertisers and sponsors. Just drop it in, right? Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, future home of Richard Griffin. With nothing to do with it. And it has nothing to do with the Palmas or the Great Lakes. No, no, they keep you alive here.

I do have more gifts for you shortly, but I am like, this is such a wonderful story that you had a loft in Toronto, right? So you had to sell a place in Toronto. Correct. Okay. So you sell your, you can buy all of Nova Scotia with the cost that the money you get from that loft in

Toronto. No, not with the price, not with the prices in Nova Scotia now. So can you be more, and now again, no, don't worry. I'm not going to show up at your front door unless you invite me. You're invited. Like, it's not Halifax, right? Build me a studio while you're visiting, by the way. I would love something like this.

In 2019, I think it was. Was it? No, maybe 2018. We did a family road trip. My four kids, so six of us, drove to Prince Edward Island. And along the way, we had these great stops for a couple of days here and there.

And yeah, I loved my visit to Halifax. But I also visited around there. There yeah, I loved my visit to Halifax. But I also visited around there. There's, where is the Blue Nose? Lou... Where's the Blue Nose? Lunenburg. I have not been to Lunenburg yet. But the great place for photos, particularly,

is you gotta go to Peggy's Cove. I've been to Peggy's a few times. They got the lighthouse. So how close are you to Peggy's Cove? Are you living in the lighthouse, Scott? Where I stayed, yeah. Are you a lighthouse? That's where an introvert goes. Yeah.

The lighthouse at Peggy's Cove. I don't think the people who man the lighthouse would be okay with that. I don't know. Does anybody go into that lighthouse? But I've been to the Sue Wester, which is the restaurant at Peggy's Cove. Okay.

And it is fun, but it is also a tourist trap. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The $33.99 lobster burger is $33.99. But it's a great atmosphere. You need the Stephs of Peggy's Cove. Yes, we need the Stephs. That's right.

I'm calling back to the Griff story. I see Griff here, and I realize I haven't talked to him in another 30 minutes. Yeah, so I'm going to shut up for like 45 minutes. Well, no, to be honest, and Griff will understand this as a man of the media, man, a host of his own show, and he writes his own great Blue Jay stuff, which we're going to cover in a moment here. He understands that you're a bit of an enigma, Scott MacArthur, because, yeah, the 590 thing goes down.

You know, you get fucked there basically no you don't think so life happens man you move over they put you in a prime spot in the morning yeah I know there's a pandemic going on and stuff they pair you with an Ashley Dawkins you're with just Ziggy and then it's like peace out see you later

I don't I won't say fucked but that's not totally cool you did your best on the morning show they got to put you in a spot where you can succeed no you're not saying you're not better about it but it's different than 10 10 where 10 10 it sounds like it was a good spot for you you work with Jeff again you're rush me and you have get along you know and then it was like you realize that you're literally breaking out in hives and it's not good for your health to be on the radio in that position. Yeah, I mean, I...

Two different departures. Yeah, just look at it this way. Like, I'm just... Between the Exit Philosophy podcast with Griff and some fun content creation that Sean Levine and I are planning when I get back out there, I want to enjoy what I do next.

And if it makes money, that obviously helps and would enhance the enjoyment. And we're working to get things there. But I really just want to enjoy what I do because it's been a while. Well, yeah, we all want you to be happy. And if Griff makes you happy, then we wish you all the luck. Hey, Mike.

Yeah. I feel like... What voice is that? Scott? Right now, I'm just listening and enjoying finding out more about Scotty Mack. And I'm feeling like Nick Taylor's caddy at the Canadian Open. I'm in the shot, but nobody cares.

I'm feeling like Adam Hadwin. Yeah, I'm working security here. Hey, we all know how to repair ball marks on the green. How do you repair a body mark? Wow, he took them out. Okay, so I was recording with Dave Perkins and who was there? Bob Elliott and Larry Milson. I had to give them reports during that recording by the way

Mike that whenever Larry would walk into Gibby's office for a bring where so if you ever if you ever drop Larry Milson Larry Milson and you hear a in the background that's Gibby he was doing an online show with my good friend

FOTM Hall of Famer Stu Stone for a little while Stu Stone yeah he's a wrestling, Stu Stone, for a little while. Yeah, Stu Stone, yeah. He's a wrestling guy. Stu Stone is in my, well, my, Mike Wilner runs a Geek Computer Baseball League, and I'm in it, and I just played Stone, and he swept me

in three games the other night. So, Stu? Stu? Stu? How has Penn Murphy blown six saves saves griff in my 33 games he blew another one blew another one penn murphy part of that great mariners bullpen last year i'm getting stiffed i'm i'm beginning to understand now why you what's wrong with me now why you're down on some people that i think you're having a good year. Okay, okay.

So Sparky writes in, look, let's get serious, gentlemen, then we can goof off some more. But Sparky writes in, I just want to say that he was missed, and as a listener, I was concerned. I think I saw his mom in Sobeys a lot in Oakville. Okay, now we're getting reports. I don't know who Sparky is, though. Should I know who Sparky is? Because Sparky knows who my mom mom is right well so yeah right so i see i wouldn't recognize your mom

just so you know if i saw your mom i wouldn't know it's your mom so okay she's the one with the armload of pomace the one who does on sale at sobeys in oakville if i find a woman of that age who does a great macho man randy savage impression i'm going to say, oh, that's got to be Scotty Mac's mom. But he says, to finish that note from Sparky, he saw your mom at Sobeys in Oakville a couple weeks ago. I hope he finds peace down east. I think

we all share that sentiment, right, Griff? When you do in a month, it sounds like in a month you're going to... And it's, what, Halifax area? Is that as specific as we're going to get here? Well, it's as specific as I can get because I haven't bought yet. Oh, see, I thought you had bought a place. No, no. So I stayed in a short-

Did you know that Griff, he hasn't bought yet? Yeah, I knew that. And I'm wishing him peace six days a week, other than Monday when we record the podcast. What time do you guys record typically on a Monday? Oh God, it's 10.30 Monday morning. So I better know it's 11.30 when I get out there. Yeah, and sometimes, yeah.

12 o'clock in Newfoundland. Google Calendar will translate that for you. Sometimes with our technological savvy, we don't get it out till Thursday. But how do you guys connect? Can I ask, who did I have? I did every episode for the last few weeks has been in person,

but I did do an episode with the guy from McConnell Line Crush yesterday. No, the other day. And we literally just meet on Zoom, and I just record my chat with him on Zoom. Like, how do you two connect? We do it on Zoom. Okay. Yeah, we both record.

We do one of the two pages on Spotify and Apple. And then we post it. Then from the other end, we posted it on YouTube. So it's a collaboration, definitely. What's the YouTube channel called? Like if somebody's searching for it, is it called Exit Philosophy?

Yes. So if you type in Exit Philosophy with Griffin Scottie Mack in your search bar, you'll find it. Or it's youtube.com slash Exit Philosophy. And again,

to dummy prove this for people, if you are in Apple Podcasts or Spotify and you search exit philosophy and you see, cause the graph, this is the problem. The picture is the same. So visually it's like, you can't tell the difference between your,

your first one that you abandoned. Although later I'll tell you how we can get rid of that. Cause we have to kill that. But basically the one with more than one episode, right? There's only one episode. So the one that has one episode, don't subscribe to that. Cause they're not going to update that. So the one with more than one episode there's only one episode so the one that has one episode don't subscribe to that because they're not going to update that

so the one that talks about Anthony Bass for example and we'll talk about that in a minute because some questions came in that's the one to subscribe to even when Scotty Mac's in his future home on Peggy's Cove on that big rock every once in a while

we all took our photos on that big rock, but every once in a while, you read something in the news about a tourist who gets swept off into the ocean. Okay, so when you go to Peggy's Cove, do not walk on the black rocks. They're slippery. They're slippery,

and the water will just indiscriminately come up a bigger wave than expected and i won't get within 20 feet of those black rocks okay i'm yeah so that's a great pro tip there are a lot of other rocks stay on those and with photos you know what it's like with perspective right you can be 30 feet away from the black rock and it doesn't look like you're it looks like you're at the edge, right? So don't be stupid everybody because once in a while I always read that note about the tourists who get swept into the Atlantic Ocean. Scotty, that reminds

me of a Black Rock incident in Laguna Beach. So we'll talk about that on Monday on the podcast. Are you going to shout out your Toronto Mic'd appearance on Monday because I'll be listening to hear you talk about your Toronto Mic'd appearance. So because I'll be listening to hear you talk about your Toronto Mic'd appearance. So that's the plan.

Yes. Am I your special guest? You need to text me to remind me or I need to write it down because I don't remember anything anymore. He does not. He does not. And then you can vouch. And I'll just be like, oh, yeah.

What is that? Is that something you've always had, like a bad memory? No, I've had a lockstep memory. I put everything in my phone now. I don't know. I don't think I've had COVID. Are you smoking a lot of weed lately or something? No, but maybe that's catching up to me.

That was my late teens, early 20s. I think it has something to do with having a rash on your wrist. And we're not talking about Medani here, right? That's who I thought he was talking about. So Arash Medani, who's an FOTM, lives in New Toronto. That's the neighborhood you're in right now. I could throw a rock and hit the guy.

Yes, he does. And I might just do that, Arash. Okay. All right. Shout out to Arash Medani, who I saw at Steve Buffery's retirement party last month. Anyway, shout out to Arash Medani. Okay.

Two Night Owls writes in, ask Scotty Mac with all that knowledge, why isn't he on the radio? I could listen to him for hours and hours. So we've kind of addressed why you're not on the radio. I think we were clear. But we can tell him, you can hear Scotty Mac's great pipes,

not just on episode 1,274 of Toronto Mike's, but on Exit Philosophy with Richard Griffin. And I think I follow Two Night Owls. So I will shoot him or them a DM when I get home, if I remember. Yeah, we can't assume gender on Two Night Owls. There's no gender identification. They were always posting photos.

I think they're a married couple. But I think he's the one who tweets, if history is any indication because I remember them. So now I have two things I have to remember. Shout out to Toronto Mike on Monday's Exit Philosophy and DM Two Night Owls when I get back with a link to Exit Philosophy.

If I don't show up to my goddaughter's wedding on Saturday, it's because all of this has pushed the memory. Do you use Google Calendar? I do, religiously now. So my whole TMDS runs on Google Calendar, basically. But I also use Google Tasks for when it's like something like, you know, you should do this or whatever. And I realized a long time ago that if something's going to happen,

it's either a calendar entry, so there's a block like this, or it's a Google task, which is something I stay on top of. Mike, if you get a DM from him, then we'll have a shout-out to two night owls on Monday. Which is just as likely. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt.

I got some other great questions here. So now we have basically you and the lawyers and everybody get you basically divorced from 1010 so you could be happy. And part of being happy is leaving the big smoke here. By the way, my tip for you, and it's too late now, but you talk about you don't like the,

who likes the congestion in Toronto? I don't. But I solved that with a bicycle. So like a bicycle and I'm not, like there's no congestion. I'm everywhere. I'm everywhere no congestion. I'm everywhere. I'm everywhere I go. I was at 401 Richmond the other day for this museum.

I was at the Hyde Park last night for a soccer game. Bicycle. That's the secret, okay? I'm not here to mansplain to you how to get rid of congestion. I'll get one in Halley and I'll ride it all the way up to the Annapolis Valley where I'll walk on the Bay of Fundy at low tide.

Moncton? Is that Moncton? Oh, no. When I was in Moncton, I was walking on the Bay of Fundy at low tide. Moncton? Is that Moncton? Oh, no. When I was in Moncton, I was walking on the Bay of Fundy. You would have had to go down toward the water because Moncton's not right on the water, but you wouldn't have been far. Maybe I just slept in Moncton. It would have been the North Shore

on the New Brunswick side, but I'm talking the Nova Scotia side. Gotcha. Look, I'm learning my geography still here. I do want to tell you another FOTM who's famous for being a Toronto guy. He's a Scarborough guy specifically. Now lives in New Brunswick, and that is Maestro Fresh West. He lives in New Brunswick? Yeah. St. John.

Very nice. The home of Gregor Chisholm. And don't spell it S-T period J-O-H-N. S-A-I-N-T. Yeah. I would never make that mistake, Scott. Please. Don't embarrass me. Next time you're in the Press Box with Gregor, spell it S-T period J-O-H-N. S-A-I-N-T. Yeah. I would never make that mistake, Scott, please. Don't embarrass me. Next time you're in the press box with Gregor,

write S-T. Those Griff notes were legendary. That's why Perk made his trip to Montreal. I went to high school with a guy from Pugwash. Have you been there? Doesn't sound familiar to me, Pugwash. I think I've been by the street sign on the highway. Okay.

And I drove railroad spikes in Millville, New Brunswick. Wow. Do you remember Millville? The train fell off the tracks in the wintertime. Wait, Millville? Isn't that a real area where you hammered the spikes in? Millville. Yeah, yeah.

Right where we hammered the spikes in. The last spike. because of your spikes or you were the repair people no i saw i saw our foreman our track foreman and he was being called in in montreal west when i was going to school there he was being called in because the train had fallen off our track okay well you won't believe it but a popular topic to ask you guys about is anthony bass and i have a few questions, but I have just a couple more gifts real quick here. I know we shouted out Ridley Funeral Home earlier, future home of Richard Griffin, but I do want to give you guys, you pull out this white thing here.

This is a flashlight, okay? This will keep you, hey, when you're on your way to the steps. Okay, too late for that. Is this what I need when I'm looking for his tombstone? Keep you safe, okay? Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. That's a flashlight. You each get a flashlight. And this is pretty cool. This sounds great, too. I have

a wireless speaker for you. Not that you techno-ledites could ever figure this out, but I can teach you. You can listen to many a great podcast with your wireless speaker. Mineris is giving you that, so you can listen to season four of Yes, We Are Open, which is an award-winning podcast

hosted by FOTM. Al Grego. Al's been traveling the country having conversations with small business owners and entrepreneurs. He's collecting their stories. They're all on season four

of Yes, We Are Open and it inspires the heck out of me. And now that I know you two are in business for yourself, I know it'll inspire you too. Who isn't looking at this box right now and not saying, Boxing!

Everyone, everybody does that. Absolutely. Shout out to the Garys. But yeah, you got your wireless speaker. So look at the swag you get. When I come on Exit Philosophy, I hope I'm rewarded and showered with such gifts. I can't wait.

You guys talked about your birthday. Today is my brother's birthday, June the 15th. Okay. And I know he's getting one of these things. Okay, he's getting the boxed hen. Yeah, you know, it's not branded, Maneris, right? Or maybe it is. Are you going to give him a flashlight from Ridley Funeral?

Why not? One step closer. You could scour the grounds at night and pick your plot. He's my younger brother, so i'll get there before him okay so he's only turning 85 there that's great news great news oh i'm not i'm not mediating that after that comment i'm not getting well griff is second visit i feel we're buds now even though it took him 15 years to get over here okay and i was actually surprised griff said basically in a nutshell and uh if i'm misstating this you are right here to correct me, but I'm ready to come on.

Can Hebsey be there? Am I right? That's in a nutshell. Yeah, I thought you guys still worked together. Yeah, he's zooming it in too. So did Mike. But good point. That's right, five years.

I thought it was pretty secure. I was asking for Hebsey because I thought he knew more because he was in Montreal. I gave him his first gig covering Major League Baseball. And he had a lot of stories that he had. Good call on your part. Just busting your chops here. But I really sincerely recommend the good people at The Moment Lab.

They specialize in public relations and they have a team of experienced professionals who know how to craft stories that resonate with your audience and generate positive media coverage. So whether you guys are launching a new podcast like Exit Philosophy or a newsletter or building your reputation or managing a crisis,

they have you covered. And I'm happy to introduce anyone listening to Matt and Jared at The Moment Lab so you can learn how they can help you achieve your public relations goals. Say that again, Mike. Launching a podcast, managing a crisis. I got it all covered.

Any crises to manage over there. Okay. Speaking of... It's a hat trick. We got the hat trick. Well, okay. This is great segue because speaking of PR and managing a crisis,

I'm going to actually ask a few different questions and then I want to hear you both on this. Who do I give credit for this? Did I take a note on this? I'm going to read this question. I don't even have a name attached to it. Okay, so Jamie Du writes, Griff used to be a PR guy for the Blue Jays.

So I am not really a PR guy, right? You're a media guy. What was your title over there? Baseball media director like that's not pr well it's related in terms of baseball it traditionally has been going back but now when it's more corporate yeah you you bring a lot of the corporate pr people into to manage things as well as the anthony bass was man okay so jam Jamie Dew says, Griff used to be the PR guy for the Blue Jays, and I'm very curious about his thoughts

and his take, which are probably the same thing, on the Anthony Bass debacle. I used to study corporate communications, and I have a feeling this would be a case study on how not to do things for students in the future, but I would love to hear it from the horse's mouth. So hold on.

Put a pin in that, because I've got to do a bunch here in a row. Kevin writes, the bass situation could have been handled better. Part of why the Blue Jays might have hung on to him is to be able to trade for an asset. The public statements could have been better as well. What would Richard or Scotty have done as PR for the Jays? And then Steve Cole writes, would either of your guests know if Mark Shapiro is still employed of the blue Jays? Cause he hasn't been seen or heard from since the Anthony Bass, uh, became known for something other than mediocre pitching,

not a peep. If he's still around, I'd like to hear their comments or on his, or his disappearance from public view so much here. I will get to the rest later, but you start griff you were literally with the blue jays until pretty damn recently and this would have been a big part of your job handling this how did the jays handle that bass situation and how would you have handled

it differently well the suggestions because they're always suggestions you you don't assert your your will on these things you make suggestions, and the suggestion would have been when they brought Anthony Bass out to make his statement that he, at that point, should have answered questions, and then that same day, that same afternoon, been followed up by Ross Atkins or Mark Shapiro answering questions about what the team was going to do because the comparison was to the Kevin Pillar situation

in which they immediately, the same management group, immediately suspended Kevin Pillar for two games and Ross Atkins flew to Atlanta and addressed the media and answered questions and spoke to Kevin Pilar one-on-one. And so that was the blueprint for what they had done previously. And for them to say, well, circumstances have changed. Scotty and I agreed that circumstances had not regressed. They had moved forward, which made it even more important. Then the next opportunity

was when the team, after that one homestand, if they had already messed it up in terms of not following that suggestion, when they went to New York to play the Mets, would have been to DFA, designate them for assignment on that weekend, then come back. Because, you know, despite what fans are talking about with a thin pitching staff and thin minor league, you still had people that were available coming back off the IL or pitching at the minor league level. And in terms of asset, getting an asset back is not important when it's Anthony Bass. You have guys like that every winter that are free agents and they go from team to team. There are guys,

they may be good guys, but there have been with five, six, seven teams because there's so many of that type of pitcher available. So waiting for an asset was not a factor, but it could have been factors of having to deal with the union, the Players Association, having to deal with MLB. I was disappointed that Billy Bean, who was an openly gay, one of three players, former Major League players, who is now vice president for Major League Baseball, didn't come out and make a statement or take the forefront in that situation. And then the other thing would have been the agency of Anthony Bass

and whether the Blue Jays' management, and this isn't an excuse, whether they had dealings with other players that they may have wanted in the future or have had in the past or had a good relationship. But in any situation, in any case, they did not handle that well. And Scotty and I discussed it, but Scotty, what's your take on that? Well, I just, I thought, because I remember doing 20 minutes to start my old TSN 1050 show the day after the Kevin Pillar thing with Jason Mott in Atlanta. And I remember thinking and saying on the air, this does not have to be

what defines Kevin Pillar. There are certain steps that you need to take, and here's what I think they are. And my understanding, with the help of some terrific reporting by John Lott a couple of months later, because to Kevin's credit, he kept a lot of the work that he did quiet. And then when John Lott approached him, he opened up about it. But Kevin Pillar put the work in and he talked to queer adolescents and queer people and heard their stories. And has that made Kevin Pillar a better person today? Well, you'd have to ask him

that question, but there certainly haven't been any hiccups since. I think the difference here was that that was just a moment. We can talk about if you're yelling the three-letter F word off the tip of your tongue when you get frustrated, that must mean that it's a word you use more often. But this was more insidious. This was a posting, a taking down, a reposting, a taking down, a doubling and tripling down over a 10-day period when

addressing the media. This was the general manager of the team, even after DFAing Anthony Bass, insisting it was only a baseball decision, and then feigning surprise that there might have been people out there who were offended. And it's so disingenuous. And that's what killed me. And having been around those guys in their earlier days and talking to people who experienced those guys up close,

in uniform or otherwise, having worked for them their lack of authenticity which hasn't often been talked about was revealed over the 10-12 day period of the anthony bass situation the veneer the facade got torn down the The culture, values, collaboration process, HR speak, was revealed to be the nothing burger that we know it all is. And more missteps, Mike. They took Anthony Bass's side and had Shia Davidi and Canadian Press with an exclusive interview overnight, posted at 8 o'clock in the morning, and then they had scheduled Ross Atkins in the dugout to discuss what was said in that and the apology.

And it's not, Scotty and I agree, it's not up to Ross Atkins to say that it was an acceptable apology. It's up to the pride community. I know that's not a great expression for it, but it's up to the people that were offended to accept the apology or not. And when Ross Atkins came into the dugout, he believed that he was addressing or riffing off of what Anthony Bass had said in the paper and online overnight. But that's not the case because the Jays media department brought Anthony Bass back out at the request of the other writers who didn't have access. And all of a sudden he made what Ross Atkins said look stupid because he said the question was, why did you repost it? He said he took it down

because it was a distraction. And that was obviously what the PR department had told him. It's a distraction, take it down. And then he was asked why he put it back up. And he said, well, it's because it's my beliefs. And that went completely contrary to what Ross Atkins had just said. I don't believe Ross Atkins had just said. I don't believe Ross Atkins knew he was coming back out to address the rest of the media. And the whole thing snowballed into something that has made the organization look terrible.

And Mark Shapiro as, where's Waldo? Well, Steve Cole's follow-up was, do your guests, that's you guys, by the way, do your guests think Ross Atkins was outright lying with his nonsense about Bass's sincere apology, or do they think he was simply naive and played for a bungling fool? And what, if any, are the long-term ramifications

for the Blue Jays as a result of this incident, internal and external, reputation with fans and around MLB, attracting free agents, etc., etc., etc.? Well, I think the Blue Jays just wanted this to go away. And the irony of the way they handled it is that if they had gotten out front of it, it probably would have gone away. Remember what Claire we're talking about, right? It's an easy call, really, if you look at it. It could have been a star of this team. Look, I mean, this is a somewhat asinine comparison, but for the sake, I will make it.

Where would Tylenol be today if they had behaved like ostriches when a bunch of those bottles got laced with cyanide in the early 80s? Or Maple Leaf, right? When they came out in front of their Listeria stand. Right. You've got to get in front of this stuff, not necessarily to control the narrative, although from a corporate perspective, that would be part of it. that would be part of it. But it's so that there is the proper accountability and the proper steps taken going forward so that there's a best-case solution

for everybody involved, and that includes Anthony Bass, right? That train left the station, and Ross Atkins was left sort of pulling out his pockets, and he didn't have the token to get on board. What was the second part? I'm going to just quote you

in a tweet, Scott, that you wrote. It all starts at the top, remember. The very top. And then, I hope this is a shout out to the Friendly Giant. Although, are you... I'm doing the age check. You said you're 44. Well, not quite. In a few days did you watch the friendly giant like the cartoon with okay

that's a no that's a no oh no wait or wait the friendly giant the guy who sold the peas no oh but because you wrote then in your tweet you wrote green giant that's the actually you know what's gonna blow your fucking mind right now, Scott MacArthur? When I tell you that ad campaign about the Jolly Green Giant, different than the Friendly Giant, the little, I think, I

don't know what his name was, but the little kid, there's a little version of that Jolly Green Giant who was voiced by Stu Stone. No way. Yeah, that's a true

story. Okay. And by the way, Stu Stone swept me in my Nerd League series and I'm not at all angry about it. You know, Mike Wilner's tweet did an age. Also, Mike Wilner, who I quite like,

he comes here often. He's a good FOTM. But Mike Wilner was like very happy with that script that Anthony Bass read. And I'm like, someone wrote this piece of, this document that all he did was read it and then not take any questions i was unimpressed but anyway i digress shout out to mike willner but you finished that tweet this

is all to say you finished the tweet with look way up i thought look way up was a friendly giant that's the friendly giant reference yes griff knows because that show started in 1952 i believe like so i was a big no no not to age you griff started in 1952 that wasn't to age griff because i watched the friendly giant and it did last until the uh the 80s i was watching it in the late 70s early 80s so it lasted a long time i was watching it late 60s early 70s i loved it i had i was okay so i just recorded i mentioned i was at 401 richmond uh not far from 299 queen street there scotty but i was at 401 richmond to record live with retro ontario and pj fresh phil and we did we were at my zeum and there was an amazing like replica of the castle and uh where the friendly

giant would he'd put out a chair for you so i was i was a big friendly giant fan like i'm talking like five-year-old four-year-old Mike or whatever. There was no Cartoon Network. I used to tell my kids, you know, we didn't press a button and get a cartoon. This didn't exist. Okay, so the Friendly Giant would put out a chair for you and it really made me feel

special that the Friendly Giant would put out a chair for me, like a rocking chair or whatever. I was 18. It's still putting out a chair. By the way, shout out to PJ Freshfield because that's not a name I've heard in a while. And I remember him on YTV as a kid back in the day in between shows, right?

Or interstitials. That's amazing. He was a PJ, obviously, which was like a VJ on YTV. But he had, there was a few animals, like puppets that would be like co-hosting with him. I think one was called Gronk or something. I felt, I always felt, I'm older than you, so I felt a little old for YTV when it debuted

in like the early 90s. Like I was too cool for it. But PJ Freshville, I'm telling you, this guy's full value and he does great impressions. I'm not sure if I was allowed to laugh, but I did. He does a great impression of Jojo Chinto and Harold Hossain, who of course Richard might know from City TV.

The legends. There you go. So shout out to PJ Fred. That episode's in the can for you. It's a couple episodes ago, but basically back to your tweet. He goes, this is what you wrote. Anthony Bass out there making everything

his general manager said a mere 15 minutes ago prior sound completely fraudulent. Because, well, everything the general manager said was completely fraudulent. It all starts at the top. Remember, the very top. Look way up. Not the Friendly Giant reference. Well, what did I mean by that? I meant dinners at Mar-a-Lago.

Well, what did I mean by that? I meant dinners at Mar-a-Lago. And there are a lot of rungs on the ladder between Anthony Bass and dinners at Mar-a-Lago. Yes, a lot of rungs. But the people at the very top hire the people below them who hire the people below them who hire the people below them, and on and on and on it goes.

So the culture, the values, the name all the HR speak you want, the collaboration, the process, the best is yet to come. All of that stuff, all of that stuff starts at the top. The very top. And so I was at a point where I was wondering

if some things that I thought weren't tolerated a few years ago were being tolerated now. Because that tweet went up, well, Bass was still on the team, and the train had left the PR station. Right, like shortly after Atkins came out and sounded ridiculous. Mike, as for the effect it might have inside the clubhouse in terms of future free agents or whatever, I've always felt that the demographic of the clubhouse is reflective of society,

maybe a little more right, conservative, because of the amount of money being made in that clubhouse. Right. But to center it around the Anthony Bass situation, I remember over the years, players have been renewed. Their contract can be renewed, and it's what happened with Alec Manoa where you think you should be making way more money. You get renewed for just above major league minimum,

which is what happened to Alec Manoa. And everybody's going, oh, this will come back to haunt you when he becomes a free agent because he will remember this, and it never happens. Yeah, sometimes they only, yeah, sometimes they only take note of the dollar sign and the term. Well, that's exactly right. And like the fact of nobody's going to go,

they're offering me an outrageous amount of money, but I remember what they did to Anthony Bass. Right. And at the end of the day, they did, you know, DFAM or whatever. It just took too long. The other part of that question from earlier was, what ramifications might there be down the road? And look, if this team wins 25 of its last 40 games

and makes the playoffs and is exciting in October, you know, I mean, this too shall pass, regardless of whether they win games in October or not. That hasn't happened yet under this front office, has it? I'm told that there hasn't been enough Griff on this episode, so I'm going to ask a question just for Richard Griffin

here. This is from Brian Gerstein. You ready? Mm-hmm. Who's, by the way, born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. What would Griff have done had Perk not poached him from the Expos to write for the Star?

The Expos were dying at that point so the writing was on the wall. What would he have done with his career? Like sliding door wise if Perk had not taken him out for lunch. So on Sunday Perk told a story. I asked for each of the three gentlemen. I asked for their favorite

Expos memories. Also a Brian Gershwin. I noticed he's trying to make this like Montreal mic'd, which is fine. But Perk's favorite memory of Montreal was whining and dying, dining, not dying, shout out the Ridley Funeral Home. Whining and dining, you Richard

Griffin, trying to recruit you to take his, to come to the star. Yeah. And coincidentally, all of that recruiting happened before the strike, but the strike was on the horizon and the blue or the Expos needed to, the Expos needed to win that year. They had the blueprint of the new stadium for downtown 1994 by the way right 1994 and it was like august 11th of 1994 the strike hit and even at that point kevin malone who was the gm and felipe lu thought that it was going to be very short the team had just pulled away from the atlanta braves and was going to go to the playoffs,

whether they went to the World Series or not. Once you get into October, it's a crapshoot. But the belief in that clubhouse was that it was a World Series winning combination, a World Series winning team. Fantastic team. The strike hit. The World Series was canceled. Dave Perkins became the sports editor at the Star.

I had already been approached, and he originally said, who would you recommend? And Mike Farber and Jeff Blair and a couple others. But then he was interested for some reason in me, so I wrote a couple of – It's those notes. I wrote the notes. The legendary notes. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, 92, 93 World Series.

I've heard those stories a hundred times. But I wrote a column. He asked for a couple of sample columns while the team was still playing, obviously in July and August. And so I wrote one on Pedro Martinez and I wrote one on Larry Walker. That's pretty good choosing right there.

And so when the strike hit, everything was put on hold in terms of looking for a baseball columnist because, you know, there was no baseball being played. But in the meantime, Claude Brochu, who was president and part owner, majority owner, even though none of his money was involved. But he had been given so many percentages, 10% here, 10% there. Now he's the majority owner. He's president. And he laid off our traveling secretary.

And he told me I was going to be the traveling secretary and the PR guy. And then they were giving me broadcast lessons, which obviously never kicked in. And they were going to make me a radio guy and i was hosting a post-game talk show right i was hosting a post-game talk show and one time i was in the training room and larry walker said uh isn't that your intro music because i did it across the hall and i had forgotten about it and they played like 13 minutes of my intro. And he said, I think you're on the air. I went,

Oh shit. And I ran across the hall and, and the one interview in that I knew radio wasn't my main gig because one interview I did with Jim Fanning, who was the manager in 81 went to the world series or went to the, uh, blue Monday, Blue Monday. Blue Monday.

I've heard of that. Yeah. So there was, I was doing an interview. I did an hour interview with Jim Fanning, and his microphone wasn't on at all, and nobody from the station told me. Oh, my God. So they were hearing him through my microphone. Yeah, bleeding into yours, yeah.

And so I said, like, and I was going to have to continue doing that talk show and be the traveling secretary and do PR and do radio color. And so I said, well, maybe I can find something better to do with my, and I remember Perky and we continued to talk. And when baseball came back, I, uh, I went down and I met at the founders club with, uh, with some of the star people and, um, went home and then found out that they had decided that I might be that guy. So that's how it happened. The way Perk described it is, uh, once they had you, it was all about getting you for

the lowest amount of money possible. Like this is the next goal, I guess, with Perkin. I won't ask you what that dollar figure was, but it got you to Toronto. So no regrets, Mr. Griffin? No, absolutely not. Because of the situation that was going on there. Right. I had, well, I've had a great time, whatever I've done in 51 years of Major League Baseball.

51 years. And there's nothing that I would turn around and say, I wish I had never done that. So because you said that the conversation started before the strike. Correct. Expos win the World Series in 1994. It's a different world. Yeah. Do you stay or do you come to Toronto? I might have given Perky the finger. Okay, all right.

But it all came down to playing in the World Series and the ability to build that new downtown stadium. But in June and July, internally, we knew more about whether there was going to be a strike and how long that was going to be than the fans did and than Perk did. And so I was sort of looking at that and going, oh, this is going to happen.

And so I was predicating all of my negotiation on that, but I didn't like, I could have renegotiated for more is what you're saying, Mike. It sounds like you left a little money on the table there. That's my one regret. That's his one regret. And if I remember this, we'll, we have to flesh this out totally on an exit philosophy episode.

Well, you got to make a Google task to remember that. I can remember. I've got like, I Google task to remember that. I can't remember. I've got like, I don't even remember the first two things I told you earlier I was going to remember. But like, so because you knew Griff once the strike hit and the season got wiped that Walker was going to leave in free agency and all those, it happened in a trickle, I know. Yeah, it was, I remember when replacement players, I mean, I had already taken the star job.

I was sitting in the stands with Claude Brochu in West Palm Beach, and he said, unless we get the full settlement, unless we get the full revenue sharing, this will not survive and we won't be able to bring this team back. And it didn't happen. Spoiler alert. Judge Sotomayor, who's now in the Supreme Court, settled it in favor of the players.

And all of a sudden, as soon as the replacement players went home and the regular players came in, Marquise Grissom walked down to the Braves clubhouse. John Wetland went to the Yankees. Larry Walker signed as a free agent in Colorado. And yeah, the whole thing was falling apart. I'm going to quickly shout out, I want to shout out episode 1056 of Toronto Mic'd

when Danny Gallagher was my guest. And we did what I called it the deep dive into the history of the Montreal Expos from like the beginning to the end. and of course we talk about Blue Monday and play a lot of audio on this episode too so if you want to hear if you want any um hear about the Expos unlike when you're a Blue Jay fan you can point to things like oh yeah you know we went back to back world series and you can you kind of have these like these highlights but there were not as many audio highlights I noticed of the uh the Montreal Expo's franchise history,

but still fascinating. So go to episode 1056. And just quickly, I want to shout out recyclemyelectronics.ca because if you have any old electronics, old tech that you need to get rid of, don't throw it in the garbage. It ends up in the landfill.

Those chemicals are not good for the landfill, not good for Mother Earth. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca and find out where you can drop off your old tech, old electronics to be safely disposed of. Thank you to the good people at EPRA. Okay, we're almost done. You guys have been amazing. This has been amazing. Scott, you've been so open and honest about everything, and I wish you nothing but the best in Nova Scotia. When you buy something there, I mean, I've been told you can pick something up there for like 200 grand.

Is that fiction or what? What's the real estate market like there? It depends on where you end up. You could probably pick something up for 200 grand, but when a hurricane whips through, you're probably going to be the last to get your power and there's no guarantee you won't have spotty Wi-Fi all the time. And you're married to to be the last to get your power. And there's no guarantee you won't have spotty wifi all the time.

So, and you're married, you're married to Nova Scotia, right? Like I know, uh, David Schultz has a place in Prince Edward Island, for example, but, uh, you're married to Nova Scotia. Because two close friends are there. And because I've made more, uh, since I went out there, yes, I intend to, I intend to make Nova Scotia my home. Okay, and if you are looking for a new lighthouse person on Peggy's Cove,

you'd be interested in that? Absolutely. Absolutely. I love this story. If it involves thinking. And no visitors. Yeah. There's a lot of visitors at Peggy's Cove.

You can just stay in your lighthouse, though, and just hope nobody gets on the black rocks. Perfect. Okay, so thank you, Brian the Griff question about the Expo sliding. So if you don't, if Perk doesn't take you out to lunch, I mean we can't ever know what would have happened to Richard Griffin, but

I think it had more to do with his strike. Okay. But also the fact that Michael Farber turned him down. Also an FOTM, shout out to Michael Farber. He's a smart, guy okay unlike you guys just kidding glenn last question here i think last couple of questions one is uh does the blue do the blue jays sign vladdy jr to a bryce harper like contract to become the franchise player for

the next 10 plus years i would say yes i would say that they won't be able to sign Chapman because they're looking ahead to sign Vlad and Bo, and they have enough pitching to take them through the next three or four years, plus Ricky Tiedemann and a couple others coming up, so that they don't need to make the next decision for a couple more years, for three more years maybe. But in the meantime, they do need to make the next decision for a couple more years, for three more years maybe. But in the meantime, they do need to make that decision and to make it happen with Vlad and Bo.

And I think that both of them are a priority and they have enough money. Funny thing about Vlad is I think it's going to take a little longer than even six or seven weeks ago, Griff, when we launched Exit Philosophy and we talked about it. I don't know what that number is right now on a long-term contract because he's got to start hitting more home runs and he's got to start looking like his old self. Because his power numbers, he had a great year last year

by a lot of people's standards, but his power numbers came down. I know 2021 was a particularly special year, but this idea that he's just 10 and 400 or 12 and 400 at this point, I mean, that's a lot of money. You've got to be sure, and because you still have two years of team control, I don't know if that's a decision they've got to make in the next few months. I do agree it's got to get done, but I think you've got to wait and see. You've got to see this guy play a little more. the the thing about vlad is that even in the minor leagues at uh class

a double a triple a he wasn't a home run hitter he was not that was not his uh dna and that's hitting line drives of 100 plus miles an hour and he just needs to elevate them and and he did it that one year with 46 i think 48 home runs um yeah so i i think that the the power is there the ability is there and by the end of this season he will be back i mean i would say that he will hit 25 to 30 home runs i'm just i'm just with... Yeah. But they don't need to rush that deal. And what I'm thinking is he probably has an AAV, an annual average value, or a broader, bigger number over a term in mind.

And they may not be there at this point and need to see that power come back before they're willing to invest that much. Well, they don't have to compete with the Yankees because he said he'll never play. That's right. He's so perfect. That's right. His agent must have loved that. Okay. What's going on in St. Mary's, Griff?

Oh, it's going to be great. Every year I go down for the Hall of Fame ceremonies. This year, it's Denny Boucher, Rich Harden, and John and john olrud is coming in because he was a 2020 inductee and he never was able to make it right um so he's he's going to be there for that uh jacques doucette who was the voice of the expos for 50 40 years or whatever it was 35 years and uh yeah so it'll be a ceremony ferguson jenkins is having a street named after him dedicated outside the front of the Hall of Fame. And there's a golf tournament tomorrow where I go and I'm sort of a celebrity. So it's all good.

Sort of. You are absolutely a celebrity merely because of your FOTM status. Okay, you mentioned Fergie Jenkins. I want you to, this is the last thing. And by the way, we got a taste of what you get on Exit Philosophy. So if Blue Jay fans haven't subscribed yet, I don't know what to say. Write me a note. If you're struggling,

I'll tell you which one is the real one. Ignore the fake one. Okay. I will help you. I'll do the support for this podcast, even though they're not TMDS clients and I never sent them an invoice. I'll send it to them tomorrow. Okay. Fergie Jenkins. What a great player. Now YouTube, what quick answer here before I play out, Who is the greatest Canadian born baseball player in Major League Baseball history in your humble opinions? I'm always going to defer to people who play every day as opposed to pitchers. So I will say Larry Walker. I have to go because I saw him pitch, and he pitched the first game that I played, or that I played. He pitched the first game that I worked in Major League Baseball in 1973. I'll go Fergie Jenkins, then Larry Walker.

It's close, but I'll go with Fergie. Love it. Love these conversations. You guys were great. Richard Griffin, your second appearance of 2023. Wow. Thumbs up. You just came back from Orpoma Pasta to make your wife happy.

Oh, no doubt. Scotty Mac, the mystery has been solved. Where's Scotty Mac? He's up and moving to the Maritimes. And you seem happy now, and I'm happy for you. Keep in touch, man. We want to know how it goes for you after your move. Always tenuous.

Always tenuous, but today's a good day. Dig it? And that brings us to the end of our 1,274th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Scotty Mac, is it at Scotty Mac Thinks? On Twitter? Correct.

Okay. I'm asking you. No, you said that so officially that I just thought you were stating it. Oh, I do know. I wanted to bring you back in. I engaged my guest here. You did go dark, though. That wasn't in my imagination. For a period of time, you went dark.

That's right. Did you delete your Twitter or close it or something? I deactivated it for a period of time. went dark. That's right. Did you delete your Twitter or close it or something? I deactivated it for a period of time just because I didn't want to be compelled to look at it. But do you know people like me and not just me were legit concerned about

your well-being when you went so completely dark and went off the grid? Well, I thank you for your concern legitimately and I appreciate your friendship and I appreciate having had the opportunity to be here today. And I'm moving to Nova Scotia with you. Thank you for your concern legitimately. And I appreciate your friendship. And I appreciate having had the opportunity to be here today. And I'm moving to Nova Scotia with you. Thank you for bailing me out on all my podcast technical difficulties. You know, we're just launching podcasts left, right, and center, Richard.

It's Gibby. All right, Richard Griffin, how can we follow you on social media? What's your Twitter handle? At our Griff Baseball and uh griffs the pitch oh dot com is my premium content my regular content subscribers and paid subscribers we welcome them all let me bring down ron hawkins even though he told me if you can grow it you should show it so we talked a lot about exit philosophy because you guys do that together but tell me just again what is this uh we should be subscribing to of your wonderful pros it's griffsthepitch.com it uh it involves great baseball content i have a i just posted an interview with darren fletcher uh we we send out the uh the podcast at the same time I write columns every week

on current events with the Blue Jays and around baseball and power rankings there's a bunch of stuff on there for people who love their baseball and love their Blue Jays well you know your shit

and you're a good writer and for anyone who's interested in Blue Jays baseball there's a plethora of options available merely from YouTube. This is fantastic. And the best part of Griff's The Pitch, it's Griff unedited. That's the best part, Griff. Raw, we'll call it Griff Raw.

Okay, so do that everybody. Great Lakes Brewery, I got some beer for you guys to take home with you. They're at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Don't leave without your lasagnas. Mineris is at Mineris. You've got your wireless speaker. Recycle My Electronics are at EPRA underscore Canada.

The Moment Lab are at The Moment Lab. And Ridley Funeral Home are at Ridley FH. See you all tomorrow when Blair Packham drops by to kick out the jams. Bye for now. I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain. And I've kissed you in places I better not name. And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour.