Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Sports Jams: Toronto Mike'd #356

Episode Date: July 9, 2018

Mike and special guest Mark Hebscher play and discuss their favourite sports jams.

Welcome to episode 356 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.99% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Census Design and Build, providing architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA.

I'm Mike from torontomike.com. from torontomike.com. And joining me this week to kick out the sports jams is host of Hebcy on Sports, Mark Hebcher. Thank you, Mike. Great to be here. I got flack from a TJ in Winnipeg because on the Greg Brady episode, he hated the way I announced Greg Brady's name. Apparently, I got excited and I went something like a boxing announcer.

I went, Greg Brady. And this guy was really unhappy with my delivery. Yeah, you were a little over the top, but I think because I was there as well and you wanted to give it a little... I was excited. Yeah, you wanted to give it a little Michael Buffer. And I think that's okay. I think it's okay. I think it's okay.

Right. As long as, you know, when I have some serious news person in here, I might not deliver it the same way. But Greg Brady and Mark Hemsher, by the way, the feedback. So you were part of the Greg Brady kicking out the jams episode last week, and people loved it. They really loved having your perspective on things and you chiming in. People responded positively to your involvement. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad it could help. So when I got these notes, obviously the guy didn't tell me to change

the way I announced the names. That's fine. That's what happens when you read letters and you ask for responses. Who asks for responses? You get comments from people. You've got the good with the bad. I'm sure there's lots of people that had nice things to say,

but you've got to include the people that give you a hard time. Well, the same TJ in Winnipeg said I had a weird voice. Well, now he's just nitpicking. And also, I don't know how to change that. I can stop saying Greg Brady, but I don't know how to change the voice. Is there a TJ on the Winnipeg Jets or Winnipeg Blue Bombers maybe that, you know,

had listened and just... Maybe, but you know what? I was thinking, you know, Scruff Connors? Yeah. The late, great Scruff Connors from... Jeff Neufeld. Q107, right. His son's name is TJ.

TJ Connors, yeah, he's great. Wasn't he from Winnipeg? No, TJ's down in Niagara now. Well, no, now he is, but wasn't he in Winnipeg before he came down here? Yes, he was. Yes, he was. So that's what I was thinking.

Maybe this is TJ Connors from Hits FM. Why don't you get TJ Connors on the show? Oh, yeah, and get him to just... He's a great guy, and I bet you he's got some great stories to tell, too. So there you go, a future episode maybe of Toronto Mike, TJ Connors. Yeah, I think you're right. But here's my fear. Not my fear, but my thing is I don't't want to put T.J. on the show.

Let's say he does 90 minutes, and I spend 80 minutes talking about his dad. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry that I didn't want to talk to you, T.J. I just wanted you to talk about your dad. I think the son or daughter of a famous person is used to the

comparisons from an early age, and it's something that they have to deal with whether the parent says listen you're going to be asked a lot about me because i'm famous and but you're still your own person so it's what the parent would have said to the kid when they were young and the kid has got to be prepared for that and in a lot of in most cases the child is more than happy to be referred to as the son or daughter of, until a certain point where they've established their own career. But even then, it's inevitable.

We had Devin Cuddy on the show. How could you not say you're the son of Jim Cuddy? But he loves that because that helped him get in. I mean, his dad's success and popularity helped open the door for him, provided opportunities he would have never had if his name was Oris Demalfichuk. I just realized, you know this guy. I think you know him personally. Are you friendly with Elliot Cowan?

Of course. And he goes by Ellie, right, with his friends? You call him Ellie? Yeah, the griper. Right. Well, the reason I bring him up is because I had him on, and we just talked about his dad, Bernard Cowan. I remember the show very well.

His father was the voice of Rocket Robin Hood. His father was the voice of Front Page Challenge, Bunny Cowan. I know Ellie and I know his brother, Rob Cowan, very, very well. Rob and I were very good friends. And you're talking about one of the great voices. He was in the...

He was made for radio. I mean, his voice, let's put it that way. Even though his voice was on television and radio and film and such, that's a voice that's made to be listened to. You know, what's that company that made the Claymation specials? Based here in Toronto. And they made the famous Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special. And what's that company called?

You can't remember. I can't remember. I can't remember. I got to Google it. But yeah, they're based here. And in fact, I can see their logo shows up at the end of all these claymation specials that we used to, from the 60s. You're getting old, you know.

I'm getting old and I can't remember these names. But he's a voice in that. Like he's involved with that company. He was involved with the company, but he was also a voice in that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I think he was the abominable snowman. Right. As well, he started the, he was

extremely successful in starting the Actra Union and really getting the proper rates for performers from, you know, these recordings and such that were on CBC or wherever. He was instrumental. He was the guy that ensured that Canadian actors, Canadian performers were paid. Rankin-Bass. That's the name of the company?

That's the name of the company. Good for you. You got it. Thank you. And tell the people at home, did I use a Google device? It was all from my head. I just want to say I searched my brain and I found it. Rankin-Bass is the name of the app.

Does that matter at this point here? Yeah. I mean, when I go to trivia night at the local bar and I see people, you know, looking at their phones and getting the answers and then shouting it out, I said, do you really feel good about yourself that you could look something up on your device, read what the answer was, and then say it with such conviction that people are going to go, wow, you knew that? You can't allow that. You knew that? Wait a second. How did you know that? Because back in the day when I used to do trivia on radio and there was no Google, you had to know it. You had to know it in your head. There was no looking it up. Here's the question. You got three seconds to answer. Now, in three seconds, I could get it from Google. It might take four seconds, but I could be ready for it. In fact, I could have Google all loaded with

questions. Google here, Siri there, be all set to go. And then what happens is, Mike, when you ask the question, I have Siri right there. She hears you asking the question. She spits out the answer to me within 3.7 seconds i've got the answer you go holy cow you are really smart how did you know that doesn't happen these days man you know it because someone told you it because you read it on google right in in trivia competition not allowed no yeah no devices allowed in some place but there are some where even though they pat you down someone has it's like having an extra weapon. I pat you down and you've got like, you know, a knife

taped to your leg. It's like that. People, I've seen that. People give up their phone and then they have another one. They got another phone strapped somewhere or you know, hidden in their underwear. I mean really. So they can go, someone says, oh look at that guy over there. He's so smart. I want to date him. He doesn't even use Google.

He knows it off the top of his head. That's a great nerd. Yeah. Now, Hebsey, I know one wants to date the nerd. He's so smart. But you're not a nerd.

You're a nerd or a jock. On this note, you are, of course, a legendary sports broadcaster, right? Like Sportsline. All you tell a guy my age,

Sportsline, and they're like, yes, guy, Taddy and Hebsey. They were the best. So you, we already know, and you have

a podcast called Hebsey on Sports. We already know you love sports. This is true, right? You love sports. I do. I love all sports. It doesn't matter. All of them? Even cricket? I do. Because I've seen, first of all, I saw one of the greatest catches ever. I don't care what the

sport was. I don't care if it was a one-handed catch in football. I don't care if it was an over-the-fence catch in baseball. I saw a catch in cricket that was remarkable. What about polo with the horses? Yeah, polo. You like that too? I do. I used to play a lot of polo.

Steve Schutt and Larry Robinson introduced me to polo years ago. They had enough money they could buy polo ponies and play that sport. And when you see them going full speed, it's quite something. And in fact, I saw on 60 Minutes not long ago the story of the greatest polo player in the world. He's from Argentina. I can't remember his name. But it was a fabulous story about the sport and about this particular guy. And look, it's competition.

I mean, man, you've got to be a great rider, but you've got to have a great horse. What about darts? You enjoy darts? I have trouble watching darts because it just doesn't have the kind of... So not all sports. I just want to clarify. You don't love all sports. Well, here's the thing.

Is darts a sport? Now we're getting into something different. It's like archery. You got to target... It's not like archery. It's not like... Is shuffleboard a sport? Yes.

Okay. Wait, shuffleboard... What about... There's two kinds of shuffleboard. There's the type the old people play with those long things. Still a sport. And then there's the one in the bars where you kind of roll that.

That's still a sport. Bowling's a sport, right? I didn't say bowling wasn't a sport. No. But I'm just saying that they're a sport versus an activity. Yeah, you're right. Darts, it's a sport because the competitors and the audience has to know who's leading, who's winning, that kind of thing.

There's defined rules. Defined rules. There's a winner at the end of it. Winner at the end of it, right. And it's a physical thing. It's not like a plain monopoly. Auto racing? Auto racing a sport?

Yes. Is an auto racing driver an athlete? Yes. Okay. Is a bowler an athlete? Yes. Okay, so now we're getting into semantics here. But yeah, sports, anything...

The famous question I think is... Are you watching sports again? Are you watching sports again? Again? Is ice dancing sports again? Again? Is ice dancing a sport because there's a human judging component there? Anything with judging. Diving is not a sport at the highest level when you're judged to be first, second, or third place. Diving is an activity if you like to dive, but once it's being judged, like gymnastics,

being judged like gymnastics there's an objectivity where the audience and the performer are unsure as to who's leading or winning right and that means it's not a sport it's a competition a human judgment is involved it's not yes whereas in everything else it's like what's the score who's leading okay the performer goes i'm losing one nothing i have to score in ice dancing the performer doesn't go i'm down by 0.7 points. And this judge here I have to impress. So they don't know that. They don't know. And I think I told the story.

I don't know if I did or not, but I will now. I was at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. We saw the greatest floor exercises ever by Nadia Komanić. She was the first to gain a perfect 10, a perfect 10 score. And then, and the crowd went wild. There had never been a perfect 10. And then the next performer was Nellie Kim of the USSR, the Soviet Union. And her routine was better than Nadia Komanić.

It was right that she was the next performer. She only got a 9.95. Wow. And right then and there, and I was fairly young, I said, this is bogus. This is not a sport. How could it be? First of all, how do you give a perfect score out? There is no perfection. So right then and there,

it can't be done. That was it. Young Hepsi was out. He tapped out. No, but I say, make it out, instead of making it out of six, or, you know, make it out of a hundred, but nobody gets a hundred. You know, nobody. Maybe your next-door neighbor in chemistry in grade 11 got a hundred. Right. Math, you nobody gets a hundred. You know, nobody, maybe, maybe your, your next door neighbor in chemistry in grade 11 got a hundred. Right.

Math, you can get a hundred. That's right. In math, you can get a hundred, but you don't, in English, for example, you can't get it. There's no such thing as perfection. But you can't get a hundred, even if your degree of, make the degree of difficulty more difficult or whatever it is. You cannot come up with a hundred.

There's no perfection. So when they gave a perfect 10 score, and then they said, no one will ever, they basically said nobody could ever do better than that. And then the next performer went, they went, holy Jesus, I guess they're not perfect.

I guess Nadia Komanić wasn't perfect because this next girl did an even better job. Okay. So we both love sports. Maybe not darts, but we all, we both love, generally speaking,

we both love sports. Yes. darts, but we both love, generally speaking, we both love sports. Yes. Yes. Now, we also both love music because you are a huge fan of music. Well, I started as a disc jockey. I couldn't get a job as a sportscaster when I first started in radio, right? There weren't, there were like a couple of jobs, but there were disc jockey, wow, that's a good one, disc jockey jobs.

Because you're rusty. You haven't done it in a while. Right. So yeah, I learned, and I learned to love lots of different types of music. Not love different types, but found out about them. Like Steely Dan, for example. I'm thinking of bands you really like.

Oh yeah. The Los Lobos, the Tragically Hip, of course. You're a massive fan of the Tragically Hip, but you know, you love your music, and you were the first person to kick out the jams on this show. This week alone, I'm going to Boston later in the week. We're going to see Beck, Los Lobos, Alan Doyle. Wow, in Boston?

In Boston. I think we might see the Foo Fighters. We might. And maybe, if I have the money, but probably not, the Eagles. That's a big ticket. That's an expensive ticket in U.S. funds. Even without Glenn Frey. Yeah, man.

That's big, big, big money. I mean, they command a huge amount of money. I think it's $350 U.S. That's a ton of dough. And I've seen them before, and they're great. But yeah, so that's a maybe. It depends on how things go. That's a massive week of music for you.

If we make money, oh, we're also going to go see the New Hampshire Fisher Cats play. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. What instrument does he play? He doesn't. He plays third bass. But is he healthy?

He will be. Believe me, I'm not going... We're not going... No, he is because he was supposed to... He went on the 30-day DL, and he's going to come off... He'll be fine. Trust me.

So we both love sports. We both love music. And today what we're going to come off, he'll be fine. Trust me. So we both love sports. We both love music. And today what we're going to do is we're going to mash these two together in the best possible way. We're going to kick out five each. We're going to kick out what I call sports jams. And once we get rolling on this,

people will kind of catch on. But these are songs about sport. They might be about a particular team or a particular player or a particular sport, but they are songs about sport. They might be about a particular team or a particular player or a particular sport, but they're all sports songs. And I'm not talking about like Cotton Eye Joe or anything like that. These are not arena

anthems or whatever. Or Danube? What's that one? First of all, you should never even know the name of an artist that did a strictly stadium type of sports song. It's a one-off if there ever was one. Oh, like Gary Glitter? No, he didn't do that for sports. See, that's just it. Gary Glitter didn't say, I think I'm going to write a song

that they're going to play at hockey arenas. Queen did not write We Are the Champions because they said, I think the New York Islanders of the early 80s might like this song and play it after they win four straight Stanley Cups. No, that's different.

They took a song. Right. Right. And they said, let's play this at the arena. Or like White Stripes and Seven Nation Army, which is everywhere now. But that's a great jam from a wonderful band that just happened to be picked up. And also, too, it's also a song that you would play if you were a runner or a cyclist. And this was the music you played when you're, it's workout music or whatever you want to call it.

This is music that's tailored to something. Right. And of course, these songs, like Too Unlimited, I'm thinking, what's the big Too Unlimited song? Are You Ready For This? Or No Limits, I think is a big one too. Those are played in arenas still, but those were not necessarily written to be like anthems in arenas. All it is is a disc jockey kind of goes, what's going to sound good here with the guys

skating around the ice? looks for like a jump by Van Halen is always played with organs. I miss organists at all. I think sporting events should have organists.

I just think the idea of like this walk-up song. When did this start? When did the walk-up? When like, now abouting for the Red Sox, number eight, Carl Jastrumski. and then they played Pink Floyd,

you know? No, they don't, no, no, they didn't do that. Now it's what's your walk-up song? Look, when the teams come out for the warm-up for hockey, we're like, okay, I get it. Now music is such an integral part of sports, especially the in-arena experience,

that there can't be one moment where there isn't music playing. It's like someone's going to go, how come there's no music? Well, go to a Raptors game. It's all throughout the Raptors game. And the other one is, should they be playing music while the game is actually... When I hear... When Kyle Lowry's dribbling the ball off the court, do I need to hear...

No, I'm with you. I'm with you. It's weird, right? No, stop the music once the game is going on. Right. Let us hear the squeaks. So, for example, this is not one of our jams. I checked your list. I'm with you. It's weird, right? No, stop the music once the game is going on. Right. Let us hear the squeaks. So, for example, this is not one of our jams. I checked your list. I checked my list. So this is Leafs Are the Best. But this is an example.

If we listen for a moment here, this could have been one of our jams. No. It could have been. No. It was on the cutting room floor. It almost made it. No. No. Is this the Glenn Anderson put this together, I think?

It's awful. That's terrible. All right. At least for the best, better than all the rest. No, no. To me, I'm sorry. It's got to be a song that was not recorded strictly for, you know, to be played in an arena. The song was to be a standalone song

and then if it was adopted for example not specifically written where the guy said or the woman said this would sound great playing it at the games man. And then you take it to the guy who runs the PA and say

here's a tape here. Play this. Okay, so we're going to kick out five each. We'll start with you, then I'll go whatever. And you go to bat, so to speak. No pun intended. You go to bat for your jam and why it's one of your five essentials. You're going to start with mine?

Yeah, but first, before I start, I want to just talk about the World Cup really briefly here to say that we're in the Final Four and I'm loving it, Hebsey. I can't wait for these matches. They're 2 p.m. tomorrow and then 2 p.m. the day after. But I'm all up.

Like, this is exciting. I'm excited. Are you excited? I am. I'm terribly excited. And like we had said before, Canada's not in it. So a lot of people would say, well, why would I bother if Canada's not in it?

I don't have skin in the game. I don't have a horse in the race. But it's great soccer. It's exciting. And we're used to Canada not being in it? I don't have skin in the game. I don't have a horse in the race. But it's great soccer. It's exciting. And we're used to Canada not being in it. Yeah, it's true. So we all go to our bloodlines and we go back to ancestry.ca or something

and we say, like for me, whenever they're there and they haven't been there in a while, but I always go back, oh, well, you know, my grandparents came from Ireland. I'm going to root for Ireland, like for my ancestors

because there's never a Canada. They're not there. And then I have nowhere to go. So I just sort of kind of like feel it. I watch for a good match. I look for a close match. And like I watched, it's very exciting when Croatia won against Russia.

Like that was great theater. That was so dramatic. Yeah. I just like, I want to see great soccer. I don't want to see a guy scoring his own goal. I don't want to see a game decided by that. I find that to be very distasteful. The only goal. Right? The ball goes in

off you, and like, you know, the Escobar story from 94, where he got murdered, you know, the Colombian player who put the ball in his own net, and then, you know, Pablo Escobar had him, I don't know if it was actually him, but he made him kill. Did you watch the 30 for 30 tale of two Escobars? I did. It was excellent. Two Escobars was very, very good.

But anyway, I hate to see that. I don't like to see someone win because someone else screwed up. Right? It's like when Nick Faldo won the Masters that year, nobody said, Nick Faldo shot a final round 65 to win. They all said Greg Norman choked and gagged and blew a nine-shot lead or whatever it was. And that's why the shootout is in some ways distasteful,

but I understand. But the thing with the shootout in soccer, you know, the penalties is the pressure is never on the goalie. Never. No one has ever said you couldn't stop that penalty. Never to a goaltender. He's not expected to stop a penalty.

The pressure is on the guy booting it. And that to me is, that's the human drama. You look at that guy's face and go, oh my God, what's he thinking right now? Top right, lower left, right in the middle, I think the goalie will move. That move I saw,

I think it was in that Russia-Croatia penalty kick situation, where there was a couple almost like change-ups where I noticed one of the Russian kickers almost does a stutter to kind of get the goalie moving, and then there's almost like a change-ups. I noticed one of the Russian kickers almost does a stutter to kind of get the goalie moving, and then there's almost like a change-up up the middle, which was easily saved.

The Croatian guy kind of just moved his arm and knocked it out. And I'm like, that's the worst penalty. Well, because it looks awful because he's trying to get too cute and whatever,

when really with a penalty, you should just drill it. Drill it in the upper corner because they can't get there if they want. Right, they can't get there, but the thing is, that's the one if you miss. Yeah, exactly to be pinpointed the divine pigtail i remember for

italy roberto baggio that was a big penalty kick he missed you don't want to miss the the net yeah and that's the other thing is is that you don't want to be remembered for missing a penalty you could have a sensational career fabulous career and be defined by the miss on a penalty in the world cup but i tell you this when the goalie makes the save it's it's better than when someone scores because it's unexpected yeah right and when a guy like when a guy gets too cute i remember years ago there was a guy for um brazil socrates he was the captain of the brazilian team this would have been i think in the 80s and i think in the 86 world cup but anyway socrates had this thing

where he would stride towards the ball and he would delay. As he was swinging his leg back, he would almost stop, like a pitcher coming to a full stop, to see if the goalie would commit or whatever else type of thing, right? Osuna would do that, remember?

Yeah, exactly. So he'd have this big pause as he swung his leg back for a split second. You go, what's he doing? And then he would maybe look at the goalie's eyes or the goalie would twitch or whatever and then he would calmly flick it the other way. And it was calm. It was like, oh, I knew

that all the way. And it looks great when you do that. It looks fast. But if you screw up and the goalie guesses correctly, you look like an idiot. Like, why didn't you just drill it? Now, spoiler alert, one of my five sports jams is soccer related. There's a little teaser. That's okay.

Also, you made a comment earlier. We recorded an episode of Hebsey on Sports. I think, what is it, number 17 we recorded? Yeah. Wow. Everybody should subscribe to Hebsey on Sports for much more Hebsey. I got two new subscribers. Two new subscribers in a weekend. You count them that closely? Well, no, because I said,

you know, a guy I was playing golf with, he's like, hey, what's the name of your podcast? Again, I said, give me your device. And you subscribed. Give me your device. Hand me the device. I'll subscribe for you. I don't trust you.

I'll do it later on. It's tough to spell that word Hebsey. Well, you'll never remember. I don't know, Mark Hebsey or something like that. So I was giving you a device, so I signed up two people. Okay, good for you. Sign them up for Toronto Mike too

while you're at it. Get them on both. So you mentioned to me that Jay and Dan on TSN, which is owned by Bell Media, they don't refer to the Rogers Centre as the Rogers Centre. They refer to it as Skydome. Yeah, Jay on rate does. I'm trying to think if Dan does or doesn't.

I know that neither one of them would dare utter the word Rogers. In fact, I think at TSN, if you say the word Rogers, like even if it's a player's name, like any guy named Roger or whatever, you can't. They got a ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. He just said Rogers. So Jay calls it Sky Dome. Not the Dome, Sky Dome, which to me is kind of like a, oh.

It's like two years from now, someone's going to call the arena where the Leafs play the Air Canada Center. Hey, you can't call it that anymore. It's now the Scotiabank whatever. So I think that's a shot. It's a little shot against the competitor. Because of course. Because TSN is Bell and Rogers is Sportsnet.

And that to me is a great bet. That's a Yankees, Red Sox, Habs, Nordiques, Flames, Oilers, Rams, 49ers from the early days. That's a rivalry. That's a built-in because one was there first, and then the upstart came. And the upstart bought all the content

for billions of dollars. That's right. We're going to spend all this money and we're going to spend all this money, and we're going to make big offers to Bob McKenzie and James Duthian, and none of them are going to go over there. Well, you know, I've had them on Toronto, Mike. They never got offers. Bob McKenzie never got an offer.

He didn't? No, not even a phone call. These are some myths out there that I'm working to dispel. Well, I'm glad that you dispelled it, because my thought was this. They said, we're going to spend $7 billion on hockey, right? We're bringing in George Strombolopoulos. We're going to get all

these TSN guys, right? I think they got one guy, Dave Randolph. And he was the only one, I think, that left for TSN. No, I think Duffy did get a call. No, no, I don't mean that. I'm saying when all was said and done, there was really only one. I think Randolph was the only guy who was a TSN guy that accepted an offer from Sportsnet to go over and do some of their hockey.

I could be wrong. There could be some other ones. But for the most part, every guy and girl at TSN, whether they got an offer or not, stayed. Right. They stayed in the face of, you're not going to have NHL hockey for whatever it is, seven years.

And they stayed. So now the battle lines were drawn, right? And if anything, first of all, TSN Sports Desk, is it Sports Desk? Sports Center. Sorry, Sports Center. TSN Sports Center does not, rarely do they ever lead with,

or even their second or third or fourth story is about the Blue Jays because the Blue Jays are owned by the competitor. And that's the only big team left in the city that's not owned partly by Bell Media. Like that's the last one standing. Right, so it's like, let's lead with darts. And you're going, wait a minute, didn't the Jays play the Yankees today?

And there were 40,000. Yes, but let's lead with darts. Because we know that if you want your baseball, you'll go over to the competitor. So we won't even broach the subject of baseball or the Rogers Center for a while. Well, they must be ecstatic. 20 minutes into the show, and today at the Dome,

the Blue Jays, owned by the competitor, played the New York Yankees, owned by another media conglomerate. Now, I will say, though, of course, TSN could not ignore the Blue Jays during the hype train that was 2015 and then 2016. So they must be pretty happy over there that the Jays have become, like, I mean, the attendance is way down.

My personal interest is way down this season. We're not going to be in the playoffs. We're selling off assets. Yes, we are. This is a team kind of easy to shuffle to third or fourth in the order, if you will, but where you couldn't do that if this was 2016. I think it's great for business. I think the viewer gets the most out of this.

I think viewers are the beneficiaries of the war between the two sports networks in Canada. We're getting more sports. We're getting more in-depth sports. We're getting better interviews, better features, because there's competition. Competition is good. When it was just TSN. And, you know, when I was at Sportsline, uh, and we had Sportsline, it started at Global before TSN,

um, you know, um, was born. Right. So there was an establishment, not the same because Sportsline was not as global as not at all sports network,, you know, we did highlights and, you know, we were on top of all these. And then, you know, TSN came along and, you know, you got to up your game now because there's another, someone else talking sports besides you. And you can't just say, you know, this and have people go, oh, we love him because they don't know any better.

Now they see the competitor is doing some stuff and you're going, you know, you better get your act together here. Well, that's what happened with TSN. When Sportsnet came along at first, it was like, oh, you don't have to worry about it. We've been here longer than them. And then as time went on, Sportsnet realized that the only way

they were going to compete with TSN was to go and get NHL hockey. Right. Right? The big stuff. Right. And they did. And it's interesting because, you know,

Rogers has all the hockey and Rogers has all the Blue Jays baseball. TSN has all the CFL. And then they kind of share the Raptors. I noticed they flip back and forth. But wait, with the TSN, doesn't TSN have all the tennis, the major tennis, and the major golf, and the World Cup? Wait, World Cup, auto racing, tennis, golf.

So the guys at TSN are pretty smart. They're like, okay, we don't have baseball. And the juniors, of course. Right? We don't have baseball. And the juniors, of course. Right? We don't have baseball, and we don't have NHL hockey. We've got some regional Leaf games or whatever. So we had better go and get all those other sports so that people know to flip to us.

And you know that when you go to bars and restaurants, and a lot of them, the default channel is TSN. It's not always Sportsnet. Maybe when the Jays game is on, they flip it over, sure. Or Hockey Day in Canada. Or Hockey Day in Canada. But usually the default channel during the day or whatever, it's TSN. It's been always Sportsnet. Maybe when the Jays game is on, they flip it over, sure. Or Hockey Night in Canada. But usually the default channel during the day or whatever, it's TSN. It's been like that for years. Well, I can tell you, because I've been watching so much World Cup,

that, for example, unlike you, I've kind of tuned out for the Jays, which I know you're still in, you're going to the games, and I love it. I'm all in, because I'm a huge baseball fan. But also because it's a daily thing. Because in February, I say, oh, man, I can hardly wait till April because every day from April until October or whatever, I know that there's going to be baseball to talk about.

There's going to be another game. Right. The development. And even if the Jays aren't playing, like they're not today, you've got the All-Star game coming up. There's other good teams. There's really good players. And there's Jays fans that only care about the Jays

and don't know anything else about baseball. And that's fine. But a lot of people like the sport of baseball, like a well-played ball game, appreciate a good player. But I thought I was that guy. But I've been so busy lately that I simply... Wah! But I think if this was 2016, for example,

I remember... And I took a break between the World Series in 93 and then, of course, I remember, and I took a break between the World Series in 93 and then, of course, the hype train of 2015 where I didn't watch every night. But in at least the second half of 2015

and then most of 2016, it was appointment viewing. Like, I was going to watch Blue Jays baseball at 7 p.m. And now I find I'm, you're the guy who's giving me most of my Jays updates, which I really appreciate,

by the way. But you see, your son, if your son was a baseball fan, he'd be saying, Dad, Jays tonight. Jays are playing tonight. Yes, you're right. That's a big part. My kids were kind of like that.

They were like, hey, are we watching the Jays game? So it becomes a part of your routine if the family's involved or whatever. Now, if one of your children or all of your children were Jays fans, you would be in hook, line, and sink. I'm going to make Jarvis a Jays fan if it kills me. But also, you're going to say, we're going to the game going to the game guys come on we're all gonna sit in the bleachers together and uh you know we're gonna have ice cream and we're gonna watch our team and that's

where you develop fans many of the fans of the blue jays today were kids when they were winning the world series or whatever and and like we talked about the cfl there could be a generation of jays fans that were lost in those years where they weren't competitive. Where your kid wasn't interested in the Jays because you weren't interested because they weren't that good a team. They weren't that exciting in the early 2000s or

after they'd won their championships in the 90s. So maybe there's a gap there of 15 or 20 years where you didn't develop a lot of Jays fans. Well, I hated that logo so much. I hated that logo. And even when I see it now, I get angry. But develop a lot of kids fans. Well, I hated that logo so much. I hated that logo. And even when I see it now, I get angry. But imagine parents now of kids that experienced the 2015 and 2016 days. Yeah, the bat flip kids.

The bat flip kids. Yeah. Eight-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 20-year-olds, let's say. Hey, bat flip. You just grab those fans. You've got to keep those fans. And you've got to get those fans to tell their kids and their friends and be part of this Blue Jay

surge again. And that's hard to do when guys like you are tuning out. Because you're a Fairweather fan. And now you're going to say to your son, Jarvis, you want to be a Blue Jay fan? He's going, Blue Jay sucked, Dad. You said so yourself. I'm here to tell you, and with great shame, that apparently I am a Fairweather

fan because I haven't watched an entire inning in weeks, which I never thought I'd say, but it's very true. And I know I'd be watching if they were competitive and going to contend for a playoff spot. I have to say, when push comes to shove, there's a lot. You know, that's what I gave up, which was tuning into these games. You're going to have to listen more to Hebsey on Sports because I tell you all the days.

I never miss an episode. Because I'll tell you about the innings that you're not watching. I'm watching them. You told me about the interpreter on the mound and on that whole story. I didn't know that. And I heard it from you.

And I'm like, oh, there's interpreters on the mound and they're in uniform. Isn't that the funniest thing? I mean, you see a conference on the mound, you're going, well, how come there's nine guys there? And who's that little guy? Is that the shortstop? Or wait, no, how come there's nine guys there? And who's that little guy? Is that the shortstop? He's the interpreter.

He's the guy that has to say, here's what he said. One is a fastball, two for a curve. And he says it in Korean to the pitcher, oh, and the pitcher nods his head. Whereas the pitcher should know. He doesn't need an interpreter. He shouldn't need an interpreter to tell him.

One is fastball, two is fastball. Is he Korean or Japanese? No, he's Korean. He's Korean need an interpreter. He shouldn't need an interpreter to tell him. One is fastball. Is he Korean or Japanese? No, he's Korean. Okay. He's Korean. South Korean. That was another one. Buck Martinez says,

I guess he doesn't speak South Korean. Well, it's Korean. It's called Korean. Although they probably sound a little different in the South than they do. That'll be exciting when there's a North Korean in Major League Baseball. Then we know there's been successful talks over there. That's exciting.

This is not one of our sports jams either, by the way, but sports jams are coming up next. I want to give a special thank you and shout out to Census Design and Build. And I'm looking at my basement studio here and I realize it needs work. Like, I need to invest some dollars

in this. So everyone, go put your dollars at patreon.com slash Toronto Mike so I can contact Census Design and Build and get them to come over. They do this zoning and cost project feasibility study, which is a mouthful, but it's very effective. If you

need architectural design, interior design, and turnkey construction services across the GTA, you just contact Census Design and Build, and you call them at 416-931-1422, or go to Census Design and Build. No, sorry, don't put the end in there.

Go to censusdesignbuild.ca and schedule that zoning and cost project feasibility study. And if you, because you know, if you're not going to move and we'll talk about who you contact if you're thinking about moving,

if you're going to fix up the house you're in, that's what census is there for. Just looking at what song I'm going to play when I talk about census and I'm going to mix it up all the time.

But this here, of course, Trini Lopez and it's If I Had a Hammer. That's Trini Lopez? Yeah. Isn't it? here, of course, Trini Lopez and it's If I Had a Hammer. That's Trini Lopez? Yeah. Isn't it? No. Who is it?

That's not Trini Lopez's version because his is the original. This is not him? No. No. That's why you're here. You're the music man, aren't you? No, the original If I Had a Hammer by Trini Lopez. But wasn't it Peter, Paul, and Mary that did that version? Probably.

I don't know who wrote the song, but I mean, Trini Lopez's version was the hit back in the 60s, and that's not it. I will do some homework. Hey, I don't remember the 60s as well as you do, but I'm going to go do some homework and find out what the hell I'm playing. That's no Trini Lopez, no. And by the way, what movie was Trini Lopez in? No idea.

He was in The Dirty Dozen. Okay. With Jim Brown and John Cassavetes and Lee Marvin and all that. Yeah, he parachuted out of the thing and ended up breaking his neck because the parachute got caught in the tree. And the only reason I mention it

is kind of like he just had a hit single and I guess someone said, hey, Trini Lopez, have you ever been in the movies before? Right. Because Jim Brown was in the movie too. Yeah. Hey, you're a football player.

Hey, you're a singer. Hey, come on. Do you want to be actors? We'll put you in The movies before. Right. Because Jim Brown was in the movie too. Yeah. Hey, you're a football player. Hey, you're a singer. Hey, come on. Do you want to be actors? We'll put you in the Dirty Dozen. Well, Jim Brown is the football player who became an actor and did not murder anybody. So that's unlike another guy. Listen, Jimmy Brown was, with all due respect to Walter Payton and O.J. Simpson and the great running backs.

And Barry Sanders. And Barry Sanders and all the great running backs and Emmett Smith, Jimmy Brown was the best. I saw him play. I was a kid. In only 10 years, right? Nine years. He won the rushing title eight out of the nine years. He was very difficult to bring down.

And he was a fantastic ball player who at the age of 30 said, I've about had it with this pro football stuff. I think I'm going to be a dad. Well, that was before the $25 million contracts, probably. Oh, yeah. But Barry Sanders is the other guy. Fabulous.

Barry Sanders, I believe he retired at his peak, if you will. Jim Brown retired at his peak. Sandy Koufax. Sandy Koufax. There's three guys right there who retired basically at the age of 30 and could have played at an extremely high level for another five years or so and retired at the peak as champions,

as the best in the game. And really, that's the way to go out. Well, when Michael Jordan left to go play baseball, he had come off three in a row in his prime. But he didn't retire. He didn't say, I'll never play basketball. None of these guys went back to playing. See, that's another thing.

The word retire, if you look it up, means to no longer continue at what you have been doing. You are retiring. I'm retiring. So you can't retire and then un-retire. It shouldn't be allowed. I know when Mario Lemieux had the cancer scare and retired, and they went, oh, let's put him in the Hall of Fame now.

Let's rush him right through. They should have gone, no, no, no, Mario. What if you beat cancer and you're feeling good and you want to come back? You can't because you're retired. But I just remember when Mario Lemieux announced his retirement, I remember crying and I remember that announcement was so gut-wrenching right him i'll never play again and just crying and then the accolades the the oh just the universal love and outpouring of emotion that will never see this great hockey player ever again

and then what two years later okay i'm back now we were thrilled that he'd be cancer of course yeah but i kind of went can i have my tears and emotions back oh may i have them it's sort of like it's like giving someone a wedding present a really nice you thoughtful wedding present and then like three months later oh we're divorced no no no no it's not like that it cost me this for the day it's exactly what it is you can't you can say, I'm stepping down, and if my health gets better, I'm going to come back. But when you say, I'm retired, you cannot come back. Retirement means- You're reminding me of-

Retirement, there's a permanency to retirement, or use another word. You're reminding me of my dear friend, Ann Romer, who I never understood the permanency of retirement. It's not retirement. You're stepping away for something, right? Right. You mentioned you're going away next week to see all these bands and the Fisher Cats and all these things.

Can I talk you into postponing or cancelling the trip so that you're in town for July 19th from 6pm to 9pm when the Toronto Mike... That's a Thursday. It's a Thursday, yes. In fact, it's a week this Thursday. Wait, 6pm to 9pm?

I might be back from Boston by then. Is that right? Could you make an appearance? I might be driving from that route. I could be. 9pm. Maybe you leave early because 6pm to 9pm wem. to 9 p.m., we need you to make an appearance at the Toronto Mic'd Listener Experience. Oh, man.

And everyone listening, anyone who's in the GTA, of course. I know TJ in Winnipeg probably can't make it to the Great Lakes Brewery. No, but TJ Connors might. TJ Connors might. He'd come up for that. But if you are listening, and Dale Cadeau, who I met at GLB, he's a great guy, great listener. He's a patron.

I want to say hi to him, but he's in Vancouver. But if you can make the Toronto Mic'd listener experience at Great Lakes Brewery, July 19 from 6 to 9, please do so. Come say hi to me. I want to talk to you. I want to see your handsome face. Al, who's a listener of the program, his band is going to be covering 90s jams at the event.

So we have some live music. Splat, not Splash, Boots from Splash and Boots says she's coming. We'll see. But I want to have as many guests as possible showing up too. I'll do my best. Just speed.

Right. New York State Trooper. Where are you going, son? Great Lakes Brewery. I got to get there. So thank you, Great Lakes Brewery, for years of sponsorship and being a proud sponsor of this show. Now, of course, Brian Gerstein is also a proud sponsor of this show. And he has a question for you, Hebsey.

Are you ready for Brian's question? You bet. Propertyinthe6.com Hey, Toronto Mic listeners. Steve Fall here, guitarist with Acid Test. Just want to put in a good word for my buddy, Brian Gerstein, who is totally helping me out with my own real estate needs. And he is really taking good care of me.

You should give Brian a call for Toronto Real Estate done right. Thanks, Steve. The number to call or text me is 416-873-0292. Hey, Hepsi. Wimbledon's entering the second week and Milos is playing a cream puff in the fourth round. We have a tough but winnable match in the quarterfinals against Isner likely and then Roger in the semis who he can beat if he is serving well should Milos go on and win Wimbledon how would you rank it against Mike Weir winning the Masters

I would say and thank you Brian for the Comparables are difficult when you're comparing two different sports, two different eras. Mike Weir was not expected to win the Masters, and the way he won it was fabulous. No one remembers who he beat in the playoff, right, down the stretch. No one remembers. It was Len Matias that was the runner-up that year. And no one will remember the runner-up if Milos wins.

I would say if Milos wins Wimbledon, it would be bigger than Mike Weir winning the Masters. Wow. Very exciting that this could happen because he's been knocking at the door to borrow a line from the Arkells. Yeah, he has and he hasn't. I mean, he's been injured and he missed a French and that,

but grass is his surface. Yeah. he has and he hasn't. I mean, he's been injured and he missed a French and that, but grass is his surface. Yeah. And Brian is right. Raptor's devotee is right that when his serve is on, man! But if it's not, he won't win because he has to win by absolute dominant. He's got to be Roger too in the semis, which is no

good. No, no, no, no. No, it's not. That's true. So it'll be very fun. So thank you, Brian, for that. And everybody listening, if you're going to buy or sell, so we know what you're going to do if you're going to fix up your home. You're going to call Census Design and Build. But if you're going to buy and or sell in the next six months, you're going to call Brian, 416-873-0292.

Talk to Brian. He's a sales representative. Sales, I always say sales representative. He's a real representative. Sales, I always say sales representative. He's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. We're almost ready to kick out the sports jams. This is not one of our sports jams. Money.

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Or you can pay with cash. And, your MasterCard. You can pay by your bank account, or you can pay with cash, and you can watch your points grow. So here's how you can get $10 right now. Install the app at paytmcanada.ca. Install the Paytm app on your smartphone. Then when you make your first bill payment, use the code TORONOMIKE. That's all one word.

And you're going to get $10. Immediately, you'll get $10 towards a future bill payment. Use the code Toronto Mike. That's all one word. And you're going to get $10. Immediately, you'll get $10 towards a future bill payment or a reward purchase. I'm telling you, they've gamified bill payment. I love it. I pay all my bills with Paytm. It's so easy, so convenient. You get alerts. Just fantastic. You can even send and receive money with others using the app. It's a great way to do that in Canada. So paytmcanada.ca. Get your 10 bucks right now. Do you pay for that music? Let's move on, shall we? Sorry.

I thought that was an original Ill Vibe composition. That's Ill Vibe, right? Don't give me that do-goody-good bullshit. Your go-to music is, you ill vibe, right? Don't give me that do-goody-good bullshit. Now, your go-to music is, you own it, right? The Lost Lobos song that you use is like, you have permission,

I should say, by the artist. Yeah, the artist granted permission. Which is amazing. I mean, my theme song, of course, was specially made. Yeah, custom made, yeah. That particular piece,

I think we're still negotiating the rates, I think, whether I should use that or not. Now, Hebsey, before we begin, do you need a glass of water? I could use a Great Lakes beer, but no. Do you want a Great Lakes beer? Not right now.

Enjoy the beer. Just trying to get another shot for your sponsor in there. They love it. We're going to start with your sports jam, and then we're going to do mine, and we're going to go back and forth, and you then we're going to do mine, and we're going to go back and forth. Good.

And you can kind of plead your case. All right. So let's do this. Yeah, baby. Cheer, cheer for Notre Dame. It's a terrible version of this. Well, you should have sent me the version you wanted. I wasn't anywhere where I could.

I just, what I did is I googled Notre Dame fight song. Is it? No, it's terrible. Okay, well, do you want me to go to YouTube and find another version? Do you have a specific version you're looking for? No, no, but the song is called Wake Up the Echoes. It's a Notre Dame fight song, right? Oh, Notre Dame, wake up the echoes calling her name.

Anyway, it's a great, it's a fight song. We never stagger, we never fall. We're always out for wood alcohol. Send somebody out for gin. Don't let a sober person in. We never stagger. Win-win for the Gipper.

That's the Notre Dame fight song. It started off a little slow. I wasn't quite sure. And there are many versions of this. I don't believe this is the Notre Dame marching band doing it. It might be. There's many are many versions of this. I don't believe this is the Notre Dame marching band doing it. But anyway. It might be.

But anyway, there's many, many versions. And if it doesn't get you up out of your seat going, and even if you're not a Notre Dame football fan, it's come on. But what if you're a Wolverines fan? The Michigan fight song. You know that one. Hail, hail to Michigan. Ohio State, every college it

seems has some kind of a fight song right yeah there's a fight song that was written by an alumnus years ago probably you know half drunk or we gotta have a fight song for when the band comes on and so that notre dame fight song wake up the echoes is like you say win one for the gipper it's notre dame football the fight in ir Irish. Canute Rockne. And let's face it, Notre Dame is the number one followed university football team in the world next to Michigan. Wow. Michigan's number one.

Michigan has more alumnus than any other university. Is that right? Yeah, than even Notre Dame. But Notre Dame is famous, right? I mean, like I said, Canute Rockne, George Gipp, you know, the Four Horsemen, right? The Seven Blocks of Granite. No, that was Fordham. But anyway, yeah, Notre Dame, right?

Touchdown, Jesus. I mean, it's just, you know, the Golden Dome of Notre Dame. And Rudy did not play for Michigan. Rudy, Rudiger played for Notre Dame. Damn it. Right. Oh, that's a great movie. All right, so there's my number five.

I know we're off to a rousing start here because that's the fight song. Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame. Yeah. Wake up the echoes calling her name. Anyway. Love it. So that's great.

We're off to a rousing start. You made a good case there for that being one of the great sports jams. Now, here's mine. Let's let this brew before we talk. I've played this. This is the third episode in a row I've played this song, so I'm going to start with it. That's unbelievable. Your subscribers are going to be saying, come on, Mike, enough with this. This will be maybe the last time. We'll see.

All right. I get chills at this part. Doesn't sound like British soccer to me. We're at Southgate. Did you hear that? Oh, it's safe! Safe! We still believe. We still believe. We still believe.

We still believe. It's coming home. It's coming home. It's coming home. It's coming home. It's coming home. Yeah, because this is what I've learned. And I came late to this song because I didn't care for England football and suddenly I find myself caring about England football. This song

was released in 96. The band, the English band that's performing is called the Lightning Seeds and the lyrics are by a couple of British comedians David, I want to get the names right David Badell and Frank Skinner by a couple of British comedians, David, I want to get the names right, David Baddell

and Frank Skinner. And they're presenters of a football-themed comedy show called the Fantasy Football League. At the time, at least, they were. So they wrote the lyrics, and they performed the lyrics, and the band behind it is the Lightning Seeds. Because in 96, England was hosting

the Euro, European Championship. Yes. I mean, when I was watching England versus Sweden on the weekend, at some point in that game, the crowd started singing the football song, the song, and they were all singing it. And then after the game, there's footage on YouTube of English hooligans roughing up

an Ikea. They went into an Ikea and they just totaled an Ikea. Beautiful football by England. Gaza! Oh, that is majestic! And they were singing this song. So, it's everywhere right now.

I'm sure. So if you hated English football, you'd hate this song. And if you were indifferent like me, because I'm indifferent, I like this part here. So, Hedgy, what do you think of this song? I'm indifferent. I get it. And if I were a diehard British football fan, which I'm not, and I may never be diehard.

I'm rooting for England. I think they deserve it. But this sort of reminds me of when I listened to Pink Floyd in the 70s and on the album Metal, that's M-E-D-T-L-E. They played the You'll Never Walk Alone, which is the Liverpool soccer. That's great, too. We should have had that on our list.

That's great. And that's in the Pink Floyd album. So that's when I remember listening going, wow, man, that's a British soccer cheer. That's a Liverpool. That's what they sing at Anfield for Liverpool, right? And it was in a Pink Floyd song. So it just goes to show you,

if it wasn't for Pink Floyd, I may not have ever been interested in soccer before. Thank you very much. Roger Waters and David Gilmour and Richard Wright and Nick Mason. Thank you for that. But yeah, that's the football. It is a lot like that. The football chant is great. If they had it in other sports, it would be

Can you imagine at, where do the Maple Leafs play again? Scotiabank Center is going to be? Can you imagine if all the Leaf fans got up and started a chant like that? Like, you know, just everybody singing the Leaf song, the you'll never skate alone. I don't know, but that would be great. That's what I'm hoping for.

Maybe that's how you get Argo fans out to Argo games. You say, you know, everybody sings the Argo fight song. You'll never score a touchdown alone. Or I don't know. But anyway, yeah, I think that's pretty cool. Three Lions is the name of that song. Right. I didn't say that.

Three Lions. All right, Hebsey, here's your second sports jam. Okay, let's go. This is a song for runners. If you're a runner, you would like this song. Running along the beach, you know, your teammates running with you, training for the Olympic Games. Of course, you're running in slow motion. games.

Of course you're running in slow motion along the beach because it's a film. It's a cinematic experience. And then coming into view all the runners from the British Olympic team striding along the beach,

the white cliffs of Dover in the background. Is this a sports song or is this a sports song, Mike? This is a great choice. I would run over a wall if I had this song in my, on my, my phone. It's from the movie Chariots of Fire. It's Vangelis,

who is a spectacular musician. And I just watched the movie recently and man, I got the chills. I just got the chills and this song is epic. Another good selection. Are you not getting the chills? Yeah, this is right up there with the music from 2001, A Space Odyssey. Are you kidding me? If you don't get the chills from this or the inspiration from this, A Space Odyssey. Are you kidding me?

If you don't get the chills from this or the inspiration from this, you're not human. And you know, I've written a book about an athlete, a runner, a hurdler, a steeplechaser. George Orton is his name. The first Canadian to win a golddler, a steeplechaser. George Horton was his name. The first Canadian to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

And I thought about this song. Even though this takes place, you know, in the 20s, it's sort of the early, you know, days of competitive sport. There weren't a lot of them, you know. They didn't have the popularity of sports. But distance running, Olympic competition was huge. Horse racing, there was boxing and running, you know. Sprinting, distances, hurtling, whatever was huge.

Very, very big. For sure. Remember they ran around the courtyard? I can read you. They run around the courtyard at the school. It's great. Anyway, this was on the beach. And of course, SCTV did a parody of this called Chariots of Eggs,

where the runners ran along the beach with a spoon in their mouth and an egg on the spoon. Right? Chariots of Eggs. So, yeah, that was in the early... This was from, I think, around 81 or 80 or 81. And then within a year, SCTV was like, oh, we got to do a parody of that. It's just too good.

And this song. So I went to scout out, you know, there's multiple versions of this song, but there's like a 20 minute version. There's a 20 minute version. Oh, yeah. So I've got the I got the nice radio edit. We'll call it the three and a half minute version. Yes, that's right. That's the radio editor.

He could never play. Right. But yeah. Anyway, so Vangelis, a brilliant musician. And if you were unaware, for example, he played with John Anderson of Yes, the Friends of Mr. Cairo. That's John and Vangelis. But also he wrote the theme song to like Miami Vice. And if you really go deep and you look at what Vangelis is responsible for, he really spans several generations, a musical genius, and probably one of the better collaborators. You could put him with anybody and you could come up with some

fantastic music. All right. You ready for my second sports jam? This version's only a mono here. You hear it in your right ear? No? Okay, well, we'll talk over here. I'll bring it down a bit. My apologies to the weaker dance. So this is the Tournament of Hearts, which is a song about curling.

And it's a great song. Yeah. And I should have tested my mp3 file before i played it i think we get the gist of it i think when you hear the word draw at the very beginning you're like draw curling yeah i know if it's uh if you can you know there's a few songs about curling like there's a tragically hip Sarah Harmer one, Silver Road. I think that's about... They use that in that curling movie.

Men Without Brooms. Men Without Brooms, yeah. Not a good movie. I think, yeah, it's Paul Gross, right? And Leslie Nielsen, right? Not a good film. Tough to make a good curling movie. Wait, tough to make a good curling film?

Is that what you said? Is there a good curling film? Is there what you said? Is there a good curling film? Is there a curling film other than men with boobs? I don't think so. But the Week of Vans are a great band anyway, regardless, and this is a great song, and I think one time Vic Router was

on this program, and I think I played it for him at first visit because there's not a lot of free songs. Make the final. Make the final. But until, yeah, hopefully I played a better version for him, but I'll bring it down because I don't like the fact it's not in stereo. So we'll take that down.

Oh, I like your next jam to a point where it was on my list, and then you picked it, and then I said, I'm giving it to Hebsey, and I'm going to pick something else. I could have picked something else, but this particular one has been one of my favorites for years. Okay, let's hear it. guitar solo Well, I beat the drum And hold the phone

The sun came out today We're born again There's new grass on the hill Around the third and headed for home It's a brown-eyed handsome man Anyone can understand the way I feel John Fogerty. By the way, that Weaker Than song was playing on both sides, but my cable's screwing up, and I had to jostle it.

That's why you heard the crackle. But yeah, that... Heck, I feel I didn't do the Weaker Than's justice. But this is a great choice, John Fogarty's Centerfield. This is a great song about baseball. If you wanted this song, Mike, I would have given you this song, and I would have taken instead Willie, Mickey, and the Duke by Terry Cashman, which was a really good song,

around the same time, something about in the early 80s. Baseball had gone on strike in 1981, and there was this sort of resurgence of, hey, come on, we love baseball. Let's not let baseball deteriorate to the point where people walk away from the national pastime. So this song was around that time. And John Fogerty, if you don't know, was the leader, lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival. This is the guy that sang Keep on Chuglin' and Proud Mary and Suzy Q and Fortunate Son

and on and on. I mean, this is John frickin' Fogarty. Lots of hits from that band, CCR. Yeah. And he got sued by himself, right, before copying himself. That's right. Run through the jungle and, yeah, I can't remember now, but, yeah, it's funny.

But I love this song. Great song. And you're right. That era, I think that song was covered on... The Simpsons did a song called Talkin' Softball. That's right. And they did the Talkin' Baseball one. And this was also featured in the movie Bull Durham.

One of the most popular movies, not just about baseball, but it's a very popular film. And the soundtrack to Bull Durham, go get it. It's one of the best movie soundtracks. All the songs in that movie are great tunes. You know what we should do at a later date? We should kick out the sports movies. Oh, man.

Let's do the top ten sports movies. You're living on the edge now, Mike. Living on the edge. Because Bull Durham's a great freaking movie. It is. Who doesn't know this song? Come on. Great jam.

And even better in stereo. Yeah. I'm ready to play today. Look at me. Gotta be Santa Fe. Yeah. Yeah. I think we should be hearing that song at all ballparks.

That should be part of the music. I bet you it's played at a lot of ballparks, though. I think it's played at a lot of minor all ballparks. That should be part of the music. I bet you it's played at a lot of ballparks, though. I think it's played at a lot of minor league ballparks. I find that the minor league games are much more traditional. Once they get to the majors, give me the walk-up song, and there's all, you know. But I think at minor league games, you know, it's like a dollar for a hot dog,

and admission's like five or six bucks, and we're playing music from john fogarty and and uh john cougar mellencamp and you know billy joel and i i don't know i just sort of get that americana kind of yeah yeah give me a chili dog or yeah like it's not urban it's you know you go to minor league ball it's not the same urban thread to it it's's their minor league ball is obviously played in smaller towns. Midwest stuff. More traditionally kind of. So anyway, yeah,

that to me illustrates more minor league ball. And Bull Durham was, what were they? They were a double A team? Yeah. Durham Bulls. Triple A.

In the movie, what were they? Triple A because he was, I remember he had the record for most home runs. In the minors. In the minors. I'm sure it was AAA.

Well, it didn't have to be, but let's assume because when he got called up, right? Yeah, he wanted to get called up to the show. What's his name that got called up? Tim Robbins. Yeah, but he could have been called up from AA. I mean, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., if he gets called up, it'll be from AA. It's happened. Guys get called up from AA.

But yeah, you're right. Because of the Crash Davis, right? Crash Davis was a... I think they call those guys the... Lifers. The AAA guys. Yeah, he's a lifer. They're too good for AAA,

but not good enough for MLB, and then that was AAA. We're going to do 30 seconds of that Weaker Thans track in stereo here. 30 seconds. Do it. Well, that sounds so much better. I know.

I need a new cable. That's not good. True. We don't condone that. Where are they from, weaker than? They're from the prairies, I believe.

So a beer up brings my bottle. Hold it up and let it bend. I really like this sound. The figures of two rings battling an extra hand. I really like this sound. Curly methods. Hurry, hurry hard. And my popcorn squeaks of question

wonders why I'm not at home. Where you wait beside a silent telephone. Doodle circles within circles all alone. Have to stop myself from climbing on the table full of empties to yell why, why can't I draw right up to what I want to say?

Why can't I ever stop where I want to stay? I'm always throwing. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, Now the senior Bonspiel winners Circa 1963 Are all staring, glaring, disapproving Bonspiel winners From their framing that old photograph of me And I know you're out there waiting For an answer I can't give So tell me Why?

Why can't I draw right up to what I wanna say? Why can't I ever stop when I wanna stay? I roll right through our years I'll drift right through our months I'll slide right through our days I'm always throwing hack weight Right off, no, never, never, ever, ever Right off, no, never, never, ever, never

Right off, no, never, ever, never, ever write off no never never ever never write off no never ever never ever write off The Belverill Coat disappeared That summer He was on a fishing trip The last gold he ever scored Won the least enough They didn't win another To 1962 The year he was discovered

I stole this from a hockey card I can't talk up under I stole this from a hospital car I keep tucked up under My fifth dimension car I worked it in I worked it in to look like that It's my fifth dimension car's just a different, different life And I worked it in I worked it in

And I worked it in To look like that And I worked it in To look like that Oh, I want to be at the show. Oh, my God. When they play this at the ACC. At Maple Leaf Gardens.

At Maple Leaf Gardens. When they first played it at Maple Leaf Gardens. Fantastic. I couldn't put together a list of sports jams without 50 Mission Cap. And the whole story is in the song. I couldn't put together a list of sports jams without 50 Mission Cap. And the whole story is in the song. Like, this song tells you where he learned it. The whole story, I have that.

I bought it on eBay. I have it actually somewhere. I thought it was in that jar. It's not. But somewhere I have that card. What a story. Leaf legend, Bill Barocco. You want to be a legend? Score a goal to win the Stanley Cup and then disappear that summer. The whole story, it's there in the song. It's an amazing story. He's our buddy, Holly, this Bill Barocco. talked about the you know yes and Kevin was very close with Bill's sister who sadly has recently

passed away but she was like uh carrying the torch and now her son I think is carrying the torch but what a story I um I actually have a I have two great stories about this song. Let's hear them. The first one is when Road Apples was released by The Hip in 1991, I hosted the press conference at the Hot Stove Lounge in Toronto,

which is part of Maple Leaf Gardens. And Jake Gold, my very good friend who was the manager of The Hip at the time, said, hey, can you kind of host a press conference? You know sports. You're a sports guy. The hip. And so anyway, I did. And at the time, they were writing music from Fully Completely, which was their next album.

And one of the songs they were, and I don't know at what point they were in the writing process, but Gord Downie said to me, we're having a conversation, and he says to me, the songs they were and i don't know at what point they were in the writing process but gordon he said to me we're having conversation and he says to me do you know who bill barilko is to which i went of course i know who bill barilko is do you know the story of bill barilko and i said well yeah of course i know the story of bill barilko and then he and then he proceeded i don't recall exactly he proceeded to sort of say yeah i just sort of found out about it myself, and then he, I don't recall exactly, but he proceeded to sort of say, yeah, I just sort of found out about it myself. And, and then before I knew it, you know, the song had come out and he had explained that he didn't know anything about Bill Barocco until he had a hockey card.

And as you say, explains it in the, um, in the song fully and completely explains it in the song. But, but the conversation was kind of like, you ever heard of Bill Barocco? Because I think he had hoped that I might say, no, tell me about Bill. But it was hanging in the rafters of Maple Leaf Gardens, right? We only retired two numbers, five and six. Right. Well, six came out of retirement for Ron Ellis.

Okay, okay. So on the rafters, though, even at Maple Leaf Gardens, you had five and six. Correct. Those are retired numbers. They will never be worn again by a Maple Leaf player. Those are the only two numbers. And Barocco was five, of course. And six was Ace

Bailey. Ace Bailey, who had an injury that ended his career, because he did not die from this injury. No, no, no. He got hit over the head by Eddie Shore and suffered a fractured skull. Right. Right? And then that year, 1934, they had a benefit all-star game for Ace Bailey, because he needed the money for

his medical bills. Sure. So they had a benefit game for him. And the Bill Barocco one. So anyway, the other part of the story is great hit record, fabulous song. And I don't know if I should give too much away because I, well, mind you, this is your podcast. But I think for the Hebzion Sports Podcast, I have some audio of Alan Stanley

who is Bill Barocco's very, very good friend and actually led a search party when he went missing in the reconnaissance planes to try to find, you know, the wreckage, which wasn't found for 11 years. But Alan Stanley told me a chilling story, chilling story about Borilko, about that weekend when he went fishing and never returned, but everything around it, which I'm going to kind of save and tell you that if you want in the next couple episodes of Hebsey on Sports,

I'm going to play the audio of an interview I did with Alan Stanley who reveals some wild stuff about this particular story. Wild, wild stuff about his very, very good friend. They were tight. They were like Bill would loan Alan his car, his convertible to go on dates. I mean, stuff, anyway, stuff from from the late alan stanley about his late great friend bill bro one thing i will tell you this is alan stanley said had bill broco not been on that plane he would have won 11 stanley cups for the maple leafs whoa he would have been he would have been

old enough he would have stayed around long enough from 1949 to 1967. He would have played as long as Tim Horton would have played into his 40s and might have won at least nine and possibly 11 Stanley Cups. Wow. Think about that as a Maple Leaf fan. Yeah. 11 Stanley Cups.

It's possible, if he would have not died in that crash, that he could have been the stalwart defenseman for that team for many years. Anyway. Let's kick out your second last sports jam. Now, if you know this song... is looking in We're the sports fans and we always win We're the winners the common man

No losers Hey sports fans Hey sports fans The whole nation is watching you Sports fans what you gotta do. Offense, defense, your favorite team.

We're right behind you to victory. I know he's just a superstar. But he's no different. He's just like you are. The whole nation is looking on. We're the sports fans and we're number one. We're the winners, the common man, no losers. Hey, all the...

Hey, sports fans. Sports fans. Hey, sports fans. Sports fans. The whole nation is watching you. Watching you. Sports fans, what you gonna do? Everybody in the neighborhood

Sports fans, you're looking good The tubes. Do you like this? Yeah. Have you ever heard it before? No. I don't know this song. You've never heard this song before?

I heard it for the first time yesterday when I sourced it out for this podcast. Isn't it great? It's a song about sports and sports fans. Tell me everything you can about this song. I don't know. When is this from? It's from the early 80s. I saw them perform live at Maple Leaf Gardens.

The Tubes. This is the Tubes. Fee Wayville. Fabulous. And if you've heard their music before, yeah, they got some great stuff. But if you ever saw them live, the performance was always interesting. They were great stage performers. They would come out, for example, all wearing business suits, fake glasses, and carrying briefcases and sing a song.

In this particular one, hey, sports fans, they all come out in cheerleaders uniforms. And a couple of them are like football players with black under the eye and helmets on and uniforms. And they do this song. Like the band plays it and they jump up and cheer and get the crowd going. It's called Hey Sports Fans. And when I saw it, I went, this is fantastic. And I wanted to put this song on Sportsline when I was doing Sportsline music and they wouldn't let me.

Because there was too much vocal. They wanted to just have the instruments in the background and this would have been distracting. But listen to this, man. Give me your ass! What's that sound? What's that sound? I can't hear you! That's right!

The Tubes are not a band you hear much about these days. No, you don't, but they were fantastic. Pretty good, eh? Thank you very much for the tubes! Woo! The tubes! White punks on dope. Young and rich. The tubes. Fee Waybill from Phoenix, Arizona. White punks on dope. Young and rich. The Tubes.

Fee Waybill from Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah. Now, it was either that song, right, which is the ultimate, I mean, it's about sports fans. Right. There was another song, it was between that and another one, which is about a sport, if you want to call it a sport. The lyrics to the ones that I wanted to do that we didn't play

have to do with the sport of chess oh I know what this is One Night in Bangkok no not One Night in Bangkok it's I've Seen All Good People by Yes that's about chess? Move Me On to Any Black Square

right Make the White queen run so fast she hasn't got time to make you a wife because it's time, it's time. With your time and his news is captured for the queen to use. Move beyond any black square, use me anytime you want.

Just remember that the goal is for all of us to capture what we want. So anyway, yeah, that's about chess. That's pretty sublime, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I've seen all good people. It's about chess. It's sublime right yeah yes i've seen all good people it's about chess it's about it's a great jam queen of course can move in any direction anywhere and whatever so but i figured hey sports fans was better but so no great now i'm gonna preface my second last sports jam to say that uh i'm a sucker for these kind of songs like so three

lions i'm digging right now because that team hasn't won since 66 and then they seem they've had some shit luck and and some stuff has gone against them and they're trying to kind of break that curse if you will or break that streak of futility so in the similar vein i like this jam and not just because he's one of my favorite singers of all time but let's listen to my second last sports jam. Don't let anyone say that it's just a game. For I've seen other teams and it's never the same. When you're born in Chicago You're blessed and you're healed

The first time you walk into Wrigley Field Our heroes wear pinstripes, heroes in blue Give us the chance to feel like heroes too Forever we'll win and if we should lose

we know someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way We are one with the Cubs, with the Cubs we're in love Yeah, hold our head high as the underdogs We are not fair weather but far weather fans Like brothers in arms in the streets and the stands There's magic in the ivy in the old scoreboard The same one I stared at as a kid keeping score

In a world full of greed I could never want more And someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way And someday we'll go all the way Fabulous. And here's to the men and the legends we've known

Teaching us faith and giving us hope United we stand and united we'll fall Down to our knees today we win it all Her name ain't said Oh, let's play too Did it mean 200 years

In the same ballpark, a diamond hour jewel The home of our joy and our tears Keeping traditions and wishes made new The place where our grandfathers, fathers, they grew A spiritual feeling if I ever knew And if you ain't been feeling I am sorry for you When the day comes for that last winning run And I'm crying and covered in fear

I look to the sky and know I was right to think Someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Oh, someday we'll go all the way Yeah, someday we'll go all the way Eddie Vedder.

Someday we'll go all the way. So here's the interesting thing, Hebsey. That song, he put that together in 2008 when the Cubs made the playoffs. And they got swept in the first round. So they didn't make any noise in 2008. And of course, they were like 100 years removed from their last World Series or something like that.

So that sentiment, you think we have it bad in Leafs Nation in the biblical sphere here, imagine that, 100 years now that was 2008 so the Cubs of course went on to eventually the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 and then the they put out an official video so that was actually from the official video

so you get some audio from their actual 2016 win so the song's from 2008. They adopted it as their theme song, which was played throughout the playoff run of 2016. They win the World Series. Ernie Banks was

very encouraging. He encouraged Eddie Vedder, as Eddie Vedder wrote that. So you get a shout-out to Ernie Banks in that song. Let's Play Two. Did he mean 200 years? I like that line. But yeah, I get chills when I hear that. I mean, I'm not even a Cubs guy,

but I get chills because I just transfer it all to winning that Stanley Cup. The Leafs finally winning that Stanley Cup. So I love that sports jam. I agree. And I think that any, I mean, Eddie Vedder is a pretty big name, right? But anytime you get someone of that magnitude

singing a song about not a person but about a team especially a team like the cubs i mean you got the whole city you got i mean like you and me we're not necessarily we didn't grow up cubs fans necessarily but i mean how could you not love that And I'm trying to think of a parallel. I'm trying to think of a parallel somewhere where you got a musician of that magnitude singing a song about a local sports team. Has Drake done a song about the Raptors yet? And even then, you couldn't have that kind of a moment. No, Eddie's...

I'm super biased on this, because we've already played 50 Mission Cap for my favorite band of all time. My second favorite band of all time is Pearl Jam. Yeah, you're great. I just love his tenor. I love his voice. I love how he writes.

And that song, I mean, it made me want the Cubs to win the World Series. Yeah, yeah. And the way I understand it is he's quite a guy, apparently quite a guy. I think when you show the emotion of a sports fan, the pain of being a Cubs fan and the growing up and the wishing and hoping, the longer it goes without a championship, the more legendary it is. It tells me that Eddie Vedder was probably as big a sports fan

as he was a fan of music, not unlike you and I and our listeners, Mike. We love music. But man, we love sports too. The passion of calling it your own. I love this band. That's my band. I love this team.

That's my team. Yep. Eddie Vedder and Bill Murray are a couple of those big, big diehard Cubs fans. Oh, there's time. Most people from Chicago. In fact, last time I was in Chicago, there was a building. Well, it depends what side of Chicago, right?

No, it doesn't. South side is White Sox. No, but that's just it. It doesn't because Ryan Borecki of the Blue Jays grew up around the North Shore in one of the northern suburbs and should have been a Cubs fan but became a White Sox fan and a Mark Burley fan.

Right. And I have other friends of mine, another buddy of mine who's also from the north side of Chicago, but he likes the White Sox for this one reason only. You could never get tickets to a Cubs game, but you could always get tickets to a White Sox game. Interesting. So imagine if Toronto had two NHL teams and you couldn't get a ticket to a Leaf, you just couldn't.

And now this other upstart team, the Toronto whatever's. NHL teams. And you couldn't get a ticket to a Leaf. You just couldn't. And now this other upstart team, the Toronto whatever's. And when you see a team live, that's how kids fall in love with teams. So now you've got another team and plenty of tickets available for the Toronto Tornadoes. Well, let's go watch them play. Because they're going to take on, guess who's coming to town? The Kings, the Habs. And that's

the difference. If you put another team in Toronto, all the visiting teams would still be the same teams that are coming into the Scotiabank Center or whatever. So why couldn't you have two teams here? Why? Wouldn't it be great? I would love it.

I would love it. Especially if one of them beat the Leafs out and won a Stanley Cup before the Leafs. Oh, that would be like Belgium winning a World Cup before the Netherlands. Holy smokes. Hebsey, are you ready for your last sports chat? You bet I am. Your sports team is absolutely inferior.

That simple fact is plainly obvious to see. We're going to kick your culling up posterior. Of course you realize we're speaking figuratively. Our stats are thoroughly impressive. Our coach really has the might of Sash Our players are fast and strong and brave And your guys, not so much In fact, we've played teams across the nation

And you're the worst one we've come across. Try to assimilate that information, and a chance might help you cope with your impending loss. Oh, and if somehow we are still failing to effectively articulate the points at hand, allow us now to summarize them in a manner that your feeble brains can understand We're great and you suck We're great and you suck We're great and you suck You see there's us and then there's you, you suck We're really, really great In contrast, you really suck Okay, full disclosure, we're not that great

But nevertheless, you suck Full disclosure, we're not that great But nevertheless, you suck Your sports team will soon suffer swift defeat The disclosure went out that day. But nevertheless, you suck. the use of even going through the motions when you know that you're gonna lose anyhow so why don't you save us all some time and give up now weird al yankovic oh come on that is a fantastic first of all the lyrics and that that's brilliantly written weird al yankovic is brilliant anyway he is i've met him many times we've interviewed him the guy is brilliant but the time it takes to write a song

like that empirical who uses lyrics like that figured it's brilliantly done it's called it's called sports fans you know it's called um sports song hey yeah sports song the tube song is called sports fan hey sports fan yeah sports fan and al yankovic here it's sports song yeah it's just Sports Song. Hey, Sports Song. The tube song is called Sports Fan. Hey, Sports Fan. Sports Fan. And El Yankovic here is Sports Song. It's just called Sports Song. Just Sports Song. And it could be for any team.

Listen, you suck. In full disclosure, we're not that great. But you suck. Regardless, you suck. So it's sort of the, you could have a horrible team, and this could be your cheer, and you're just basically, instead of saying, we're great, it's easier to to say you guys suck. It's sort of one of those chants that you wish every team had.

Especially when your team is losing. You want to be able to go, you guys suck. Right? Leafs suck. Sabres suck. Habs suck. It's just sort of a natural way to... Yankees suck. Yankees suck. That's the Red Sox cheer forever before they finally won a couple of World Series. Exactly. So here's Weird Al basically

saying what most sports fans want to say about their arch rival team. You suck. It's great. No, that's great. Okay. That's my favorite of them all. That's great.

Now, so we heard Someday We'll Go All the Way, which was Eddie Vedder's song for the Cubs. And he talks about, you know, as a kid being in Wrigley Field. And my, believe it or not, as a kid, my Wrigley Field, believe it or not, was the Mistake by the Lake, as they called it, charmingly call it, Exhibition Stadium. Like I would catch games at Exhibition Stadium, often in the general admission seats, and watch

my Blue Jays, like early 80s Blue Jays. And I loved it. A dollar, a dollar for seats at the bleachers, right? Yeah, going to Dominion. Yeah, Dominion stores had dollar bleachers. And if you'd never been to Exhibition Stadium, it was a football stadium. So the center field bleachers would go away from the field.

So if you sat closer to the left field line, you know, you had a reasonable view. But the further you went towards center field, the further and further and further away. And the seats were not facing home plate. The seats faced like the right field corner. So you had to turn your body 45 degrees to the right in order to watch the baseball game. That's why you wanted to get there early to get as close to the third baseline as possible.

Right. And the same thing, in fact, except for the seats behind home plate fans had to really like literally had to uh twist their bodies a fair amount of degrees in order to watch the game it was not made for bay i remember sitting down the right field line right and the same thing you're not facing home plate the seat is 90 degrees from facing home plate so everybody if you looked everyone would be craning their necks, not sitting in a natural, like it would be like watching the television

if it was on your extreme left. Yeah, your neck will hurt after a while. Yeah, you're sitting facing this way, but the television is way over there. It just was weird. But like you said, Mike, that's all people knew. That was their home stadium. That's where they went and watched the home team play.

So it had its charm and it had its problems and when the Seagulls would come in. Like it might have been a piece of shit, but it was our piece of shit. Right, thank you. And the Mistake by the Lake was the original name for the Cleveland's municipal stadium on the shores of Lake Erie with the wind whipping

and stuff like that. Nobody in the ballpark. And then in Toronto, naturally, they sort of took that and said, here, let's call it a mistake by the lake and someone should have said no you can't call it that you can't write it it's been taken right it bothers me when someone comes up someone said hey that's great and then someone else goes hey let's call it a mistake and the guy in cleveland should be going hey you can't do that i didn't patent it but that's what we call ours it's like when they called yvonne rodriguez the catcher pudge and i said no pudge is carlton fisk pudge fisk came along way before yvonne rodriguez

why couldn't they have come up with another nickname besides pudge pudge was taken right it's not like red or slim or lefty. You know, it's Pudge. There's one guy named Pudge. One guy named Pudge. It would be like calling a football player Pinball Jones. Pinball's taken. It's Mike Clemens. No one else can have that nickname.

So the mistake by the lake was the Cleveland Municipal Stadium. And Exhibition Stadium was just called Excrement Stadium. Excrement Stadium. Well, when I would go to Excrement Stadium I would hear this song which I fell in love with. Oh yeah! You got a diamond

You got nine men You got a hat And a bat And that's not all You got nine men You got a hat and a bat And that's not all You got the bleachers Got them from spring till fall You got a dog and a drink And that's not all

What do you want? Let's play ball Is that a fly ball? Or is it a seagull? Coming in from the lake Just to catch the game It's the last inning Our boys are winning

Dave's put down a smoker, a strike And you got no doubt What do you want? Let's play ball OK! OK! Blue Jays! Blue Jays! Let's! Let's play ball. Okay. Okay. Blue Jays. Blue Jays.

Let's play ball. It's a beautiful evening, fans. At the ballpark, the game starts. Warm summer breezes, sun's going down. It's all dark at the ballpark. That's okay. Best line ever. It's a night game.

What a lyric. Okay. Okay. Blue Jays. Blue Jays. Let's play. Play ball. Okay.

Okay. Blue Jays. Blue Jays. Let's play, play ball. OK, OK. Blue Jays, Blue Jays. Let's play, play ball. Bring on the White Sox. Bring on the Red Sox. Bring on the Brewers, the Rangers, and the Yankees too. We'll beat the Indians.

We'll beat the Tigers. We'll beat the A's so bad. gonna make Billy blue. What do you want? Let's play, let's play ball. OK, OK, Blue Jays, Blue Jays. Let's play, let's play ball. Now, of course, that was Keith Hampshire of First Cut is the Deepest fame singing that song with the Bat Boys. That was what they called the backing singers and band, I guess. But it was written by

Jack Lenz and Tony Kosinek. Tony Kosinek had a hit called All Things Come From God. It was a CanCon song, which you had to play 35% Canadian music in Canada on Canadian radio stations. So he had a minor hit.

But yeah, Keith Hampshire told me the story that he recorded it. That's the long version. The one they play during the games now is like a minute and 30 seconds or whatever. Because they also do now, they do Take Me Out to the Ballgame. But they never used to do that.

I don't like that. I don't like that. Take Me Out to the Ballgame's got to be done live with like a Harry Carrier or somebody up in the booth leading it. But anyway, but that song there has been around since, I'm thinking around 1980

was when they started that. Because he's mentioning Billy Martin, you know. Yeah, but he mentions Dave Steve. And Dave Steve. Well, Dave Steve was around for a number of years. But Dave started around 79, 80. So it might be a couple years after that. But it was Fitness Ontario that started.

And in fact, the guy who invented that was a guy named Len Bramson, who was the president of the Blue Jays radio network. a guy named Len Bramson, who was the president of the Blue Jays radio network. And he had made a suggestion, I think, to Fitness Ontario to say, why don't we get, instead of the seventh inning stretch, let's get them up and instead of just stretching, let's get them stretching. Which I love to do. And they had these young people would get up on the dugout. BJ Birdie would be up there.

Yeah, and they would start doing this thing. And pretty soon people got into it. It's not that hard to do. And it's your seventh inning stretch in Toronto. And let me tell you, a lot of other baseball teams thought it was such a great idea, but none of them tried it because for the same reason, it's like, that was a blue Jays thing.

No, like Cleveland didn't steal it or whatever. It was like, that was a unique Toronto thing. They would get up for the seventh inning stretch. They didn't play, take me out to the ball game. They, they did their was a unique Toronto thing. They would get up for the seventh inning stretch. They didn't play, take me out to the ball game. They did their own thing.

The OK Blue Jays seventh inning stretch song. Fabulous. By 1986, the single had sold over, sorry, 50,000 copies. Did you know that? I didn't know that.

On what, on what format? I'm guessing these were 45 inch, 40, sorry, 45 singles. That would be my guess. I don't know. That wasn't the big format for singles back then.

I used to buy a bunch. I was buying singles up until like 87 or so. I would buy the 45s. How much would they cost you? Do you remember? Yeah. 99 cents. No, these were like, I want to say $350.

No. Not for a single. Yeah. No. Yeah. When I bought like George Michael's Faith, for example, at Sam's at Jane and Bloor, it was like almost $4, I think. I think.

So how much were albums? $12. $10, $12. Yeah. $10 to $12, something like that. Wow. That's a ripoff for a single. I mean, you get two songs for like $3.50 and you bought the album, you'd get like 12 songs

for like $12. I know, Hebsey. You're right. I had to 12 songs for like $12. I know, Hebsey. You're right. I had to save my allowance for those singles. I know. I know. Hebsey, that was so much fun. It was.

We mashed sports and music. Sorry for a little bit of audio difficulty in the middle there. I'm going to fix this because I want this to sound great every single time. So I will fix this issue. Stokely, you're going to get a call from me because you're going to help me fix it. And that brings us to the end of our 356th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at TorontoMike.

Hebsey is at HebseyMan. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. PayTM is at PayTM Canada. And our new friends are not on Twitter, so I won't be dropping their Twitter handle. But of course, they are on the web. What was it again?

CensusDesignBuild.ca See you all next week. But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Won't stay today And your smile is fine

And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green.