Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Stephen Brunt: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1567

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

In this 1567th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Stephen Brunt as they discuss sports and music. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1567 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

The Advantage Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada. Learn how to plan, invest, and live smarter. Season 7 of Yes We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Monaris, hosted by FOTM Al Gregor. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mike Mike is Stephen brunt. Stephen, how you doing buddy? How are you? How was Newfoundland?

How long you've been back for one one here. I've been back a month, I guess almost exactly a month. Um, Newfoundland was fantastic. I w I just the longest stretch I've ever spent out there. So I was there, I crossed on the fair in June 1st and crossed back on September 15th. So with a little bit of driving on either side. So what brings you back though mid September?

Just kind of the cycle of life, you know, like it's not a place I'm not going to overwinter out there. It's things do slow down a bit and it gets pretty dark. The sun starts going down at three o'clock in the afternoon. It's a fair way north. And yeah, that's not, it's different. I always used to have to come back at a certain point to- Well, that's kind of where I'm going here.

Yeah. Like what's going on professionally for Stephen Brunt? This is the question I get the most often is that, and I'll read specific questions as we go. And this is not, it's a catch up with Stephen Brunt. I'm going to ask you some sports questions, but there's going to be a lot of music too. It's kind of my two favorite things, music and sports. Uh, and we're going to catch up.

But the most frequently asked question when Stephen Brunt is visiting Toronto, Mike is he's too damn good to be on the sidelines. Like why, like I, I agree. I think you're a, you're a gem. Mr. Brunt, a big fan here, big brunt head here. Oh, thank you, Mike. What's going on professionally? Is that none of our damn business? No, no, no. It's, I'm happy to, there's, it's I I'm actually getting to the point where there's probably stuff to talk about. I'm kind of easing back into it. So yeah, there's a podcast coming. Starting it'd probably be unveiled in the, within the next month, whereas we

started working on it. Who's we, uh, nation I'm working with the nation network with Amal Delich, who, um, I worked with at sports netted. He was the podcast guy there, right? Just a quick pause there is that I recently dropped in the Toronto mic to feed this, uh, it was called the fall of 87. It was a doc audio documentary by gear Joyce and Emil. Emil am I pronouncing that right?

Yeah, that's a meal. I believe he was the producer of this show. And we were wondering like, can I just drop it? Cause you know, Rogers probably owns this thing. And I decided to poke the bear and see what happens, but yeah, that's a great producer to have. He's an amazing producer. So when, when Blair and I briefly did a podcast,

the lead that's he, he produced that and he, he was the guy behind 32 thoughts. Um, and did a lot of great work there. And then he's moved on to, uh, to the, they were the full time into the world of independent. Well, within the nation networks, which keeps getting swallowed up by greater, larger and larger fish. You know, I like, I think what I, we started talking about this, like we were like three takeovers ago, but. Do you have a co-host on this show? No, this is going to be me just doing,

it's going to be one-on-ones interviews, people I want to talk to. You know, I'm just going to tell you. I'm jealous that you're not doing it with me. Like, I think this is going to be a great podcast and I can't wait to subscribe. Thank you. Yeah. I'm it's, it's, it's a new,

it's kind of a new venture for me, obviously. Goods. I've done a lot of one on one interviews obviously over the years, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, we'll see, you know, like we'll see how much, one of the things I've been kind of debating over the last year is kind of how hard I want to work and how committed I want to be. I like, I have enjoyed, you know, goofing off for like the last while now, part of that time I was goofing off, I was being paid. So that's the best kind of goofing off is, you know, being paid not to, not to work. I really enjoyed that.

That's probably my favorite phase of my career so far. So I, but, uh, alas, all good things come to an end. So I'm trying, yeah, I'm trying to kind of figure out the balance and uh, where this will do, like we're doing six episodes to start. So we'll see where. So is it an interview podcast? Yes. Okay. So you'll have a guest and are these famous people? Yeah, they'll be, yeah, there'll be people who, you know, yeah, for sure. And you know, can you tease one name? I don't know if you're allowed to,

no, I can't do that yet, but it's, but it's a kind of, it'd be a mixed bag, right? It's people, um, it, it won't be one sport. It'll be multiple sports. They won't all be a mixed bag, right? It's people, it won't be one sport. It'll be multiple sports. They won't all be, you know, some of them will be athletes. Some of them will be other. Okay. And yeah, folks with whom I can have a good conversation. That's kind of the...

And I would assume that, you know, if you get a message that Steven Brunt wants to talk to you, you're gonna say yes. Like I have a feeling you won't get what I occasionally get, which is like the polite decline. I will see. You know, I've been, I've been kind of out of circulation for a while. But people recognize me and talk to me less than they used to. I can get groceries now in Hamilton without anybody coming up to me. So it fades fast, man. Well, that's until they hear your voice. I've heard that voice.

That's true. Yeah. It, uh, that gets me in trouble sometimes. All right. Right out of the hopper, we have a big breaking news. You'll be having a podcast soon. So it will this drop in 2024. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I would say Before the end of the year for sure Yeah, cuz what I learned cuz I you know, I'm a fiercely independent guy who answers to me myself and I so I'll have an idea On a Monday for a show and you'll be able to hear it, you know Tuesday afternoon, right? Maybe earlier if I have the time but I've learned with some of these bigger operations, like we have an idea for a podcast and then one year later, maybe longer, you'll actually get to hear this thing. No, no, this is a,

we are on the clock. So I believe it, I believe it has to happen before the end of the year. All right. We're on the clock too. So I'm going to set the table here by just saying that this is not Steven Brunt's first appearance on Toronto Mike. So this will take a minute so you can, you can have a nap or something, but September, you know what Mike next? Okay.

I see September nine, sorry, 19 nine, the 1980s. Now September 2017 was your first visit here. That was episode two 69 and here's the description I wrote at the time. So I'm just going to read what I wrote at the time. So hopefully nothing too cringy here, but Mike chats with sports journalist Stephen Brunt about his years at the Globe and Mail, his video essay at the 2010 Olympics, his fallout with Bob McCowan, his work with Jeff Blair and much, much more this episode.

It was like, we went over two hours. So that was your first Toronto Mike experience. But you came back like about a year later. So June 2018, you came back to kick out the jams because you love music and we'll have some music in this show and we're going to talk music in this program. But that was episode 345. So if you want to hear Stephen Brunt play and discuss his 10 favorite songs of all time, that's 345. Then you took a break from me. We needed a break. And then you came back in May, 2023.

There's a pandemic in there, wasn't it? There is a pandemic in there. I would have zoomed with you. I would have let you do it from the hammer. That's how kind I am to you. But May, 2023, it was episode 1261. Mike chats with Steven Bronte about what happened with him in Sportsnet.

Did you know you used to work at Sportsnet? Yeah. So, so I'm told, yeah. And then they gave you money to go away. Now that some time has passed, can you tell us the truth? I don't know what you said on that episode, but were you just being paid too much money? It's probably that would have been, I believe that's a factor. I believe the, I believe accountants rule the world. Um, yeah, I think sometimes I think sometimes you're a line item, right? Right. Okay.

I don't remember what you said on that episode. Maybe something similar, but uh, what you've done since, and then basically what's next for you. We talked about that, but then you returned, this was exciting. You were the first guest for TML X 14, which was last December at Palmer's kitchen. I'm excited to announce that we're actually going to be back there around the same. I'm going to get the right date. Oh, November 30th, November 30th, which is a Saturday from noon to three.

We're returning to Palmer's kitchen for TMLX 17, but you were the first guest for TMLX 14. You were there. Tom Wilson was there. That was amazing. Uh, Dana Levinson, Mike Richards, Lauren Honickman, Larry Fedorik, Bill Brio, Peter Gross, Brad Bradford, Dave Charles, Ivor Hamilton. That was a, that was a great day at, uh, and I was like excited to have you there because that was the day after the Phantom flight with Shohei Otani on his way to Toronto. Yes.

Yeah, he did. How'd that work out? Yeah. And I think during that recording, we got the Instagram posts saying he's going to be a Dodger. I think that that happened during the recording. So, and then we did get you back. And again, I feel bad I make you drive from Hamilton for all of this.

I feel I'm going to give you some Great Lakes beer to take home with you today. And I'm going to give you a lasagna and more, but you were at opening day at Christie Pitts for Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Yes, that was fun and chaotic as I recall. You know what though, would you have it any other way? Like I don't know where you're at and maybe at this point in your career,

you're feeling it too, but when things run smoothly, it's kind of boring. And when you have like things, you don't know what chaotic activities like we had opening day at Christie Pitts. That was kind of the, that's the juice, right? That was, I know I've talked to, I've mentioned that Starrick cause I loved, um, well I think I showed up before you did and they, and I said, where,

where's Mike? And they, I think there was not a table or a chair or. Right. Um, and I iron that out by the way. Yeah. And that's, and Rick Rick Emmett got hauled into singing Oh Canada, I believe. Correct. Rod Black did that on his own. Like, okay. So the fun story there is I got a call so Blair Packham from the jitters was picking up Rick Emmett to bring him to Christie. But this was a chaotic day now that I'm trying to move all these parts. I got brunt here and I remember I had Peter gross, all this stuff going on, but I got a phone call. So part of the problem was not a problem,

but that was mother's day. And my wife part of her mother's day thing was a spa, and she was doing a spa treatment thing in Etobicoke. And then I had to wait for that to finish before I could get to Christie Pitt. So I'm not blaming anything, but it was just bad timing. But okay, it sounds like I'm blaming her for that spa thing there. But I got a call from Rick Emmett just saying, I don't want to do the anthem. I'm just confirming I'm not doing the anthem. I don't want to do the anthem. I'm just confirming I'm not doing

the anthem. I don't want to have to think about it. And it makes me nervous. And I said, I said to Rick Emmett, cause I cleared this with the owner of the Toronto Maple Leaf. So I went straight to the top. I said, Rick's not doing the anthem. And I said, Rick, you have my word. You're not doing the anthem. This is what happened. And then on the field and going rogue rod black legendary broadcaster rod black asks rick emmett to do the anthem so that happened and yeah, I don't think I made a lot of I don't think Rick was very happy with me that day. Well, it was a memorable day and a great to be a I love Chris Pitz. I love everything about that place and then I think I told

Jack Dominico stories because I remember Jack Dominico vividly at the Globe and Mail coming in and harassing us. No, you were, you were great that day. And I am honored you did that. And I'm glad you're here today. So we're going to, I'm going to read you questions from listeners, I'm going to have questions. But I promise you early and often we will pivot to music because you're a big music fan.

I am. Yeah. And I've got lots of time to do it now. So that's a good thing. Would you rather take in a good concert or a exciting sporting event? Like do you have a preference? A concert in general. Like it'd have to be a heck of a sporting event.

Like there are sporting events that still kind of get my heart pounding for sure. Like I was at the Canada Panama match the other night, right, in the cold with my son. And it was a horrible, pretty horrible match. Uh, this is not a, not a pretty one. And the pitch was in horrible shape and nice finish though. Great, great winning goal. But I love that. Like that, that was, that was, you know, I love, but you're with your boy. Yeah. And I love wearing the colors. I love cheering for Canada. Like that's,

that's a, it's a great feeling, right? There's no, it's cheering for a team is kind of, you know, I have all those years in the press box where you don't, don't cheer, right? There's your neutral it's cheering for a team is kind of, you know, I have all those years in the press box where you don't, don't cheer. Right. There's your neutral cheering in the press box, but you can cheer for your country. So I like that. And I love this, the current configuration of the men's national team. I think it's really good and fun to watch. Generally you say not so much that. I saw something like that. Yeah. But, um, you know,

go to a leaf game or something. No, no, I wouldn't do that. I went to a fair number of baseball games this year. Okay. So baseball still in the blood there. Yeah, I like baseball. Do you, what do you think about the fact that I got to ask this obvious question, but Shapiro and Atkins are kind of running a back of Schneider. What are your thoughts on the 2025 Blue Jays? Are you optimistic? Well, we'll see what they do. Um, you know, they're, they're, they're kind of, there's, I don't know that there's any other way to go right now rather than to kind of

go forward. Um, we'll see if they can lock up Vladdy cause that seems to be, although a year ago you would have been going, geez, I wonder which, which of these guys should they commit to? Cause I'm not totally sure what he is. Uh, but now, you know, he comes off a great year and he's the face of the franchise and he's so, I, you know, I think from a bunch of, on a bunch of levels, they have to try and make that work, although it's up to him, you know, he comes off a great year and he's the face of the franchise and he's so, I think from a bunch of, on a bunch of levels, they have to try and make that work. Although it's up to him, you know, like people tend to forget that sometimes that you know, free,

the free part of free agency is the, the player has the option. Right. Um, you know, like, yeah, a lot of stuff didn't go, go well for them this year. Uh, you know, and some of it is bad luck and some of its injuries, but you know, wasn't, you know, I think you saw flaws in the roster construction, but I'm just not, I'm, I don't know that there's any other direction. And you know, people who go say, tear it down, tear it down. Well, the thing you just said, there's flaws in the, you know, the roster construction, but the man responsible for that is Ross Atkins, right? Yeah. You know, and they could have, you know, and again, I think he's got this

year. Um, and now, now it could have, you know, and again, I think he's got this year. And now, now it's he's responsible for it. But any modern baseball organization, like there's a whole ton of people who have their fingers in the, you know, on the switch. So it's not just him. He's, you know, Ross's biggest problem is he's terrible at the front facing part of the job. He just is.

He's not good at that. And that is part of the gig. But I do understand. So I just learned, so I saw him at a movie premiere last week. So I'm at this, my buddy, Stu Stone has a new movie and Stu Stone, Stu Stone and Jamie Kennedy blowing up. I'm showing a Steven, the CD, but Stu Stone made a movie and a Stu Stone's brother in law is the neighbor of Ross Atkins and Stu became friends of Ross.

And he was at this movie premiere. Like I saw him, I saw him there and by all accounts, he's a lovely guy. He is, he's a really, I've had dinner with him. I've had a couple of beers with him. I really like him, but you know, that's, you know, that whether that's- But front facing, you're right. Some disconnect there where you just,

a lot of corporate speak. Sometimes I wonder if it's AI talking to me, like that human that I hear about from Stu and Adam doesn't come across when he's facing. I know I would agree with that. And you know, like I will, people have short memories, like, you know, everybody loves Alex now, you know, who's predecessor, but, uh, they loved him for the last year, basically. They all before that,

they were trying to run him out of town and Alex used to, you know, the thing with Alex, he would come on and talk endlessly in interviews and not say anything. Right. And people, it was like a joke that Alex, we give you this seven or eight minute answer to a question. You go, what did he just say? And he said, well, actually nothing. It's like Bill Davis used to be when he was a politician. Right. Right. There's a reference for old folks, but, uh remember Bill David. But, you know, but Alex was, you know,

he had a certain kind of charm about him. And, yeah, Ross is not, look, being a decent guy or not a good guy to have a beer with doesn't necessarily, you know, factor in whether you're a good general manager, but it's, yeah, he, I think he has trouble with it. Plus there's a lot of hostility. You know, I think that the whole relationship, not that the, you know, MSM

means as much as it used to, but those press conferences are, you know, like it's battleground, right? Like people are out there, they're gunning for him and he knows it. Is this a Rosie de Mano observation? Well, she's yeah, she's one, but like it's kind of Steve Simmons. It's kind of pointless, right? Like what's, what's that all about? I, um, I don't, I'm not sure. You know, I, I don't think, I think, you know, both sides of the of the table don't like each other very much and it, and it comes through and it kind of gets in the way sometimes I would say,

well, stay tuned. Um, again, last time, not last time, but two times ago was the day after the phantom flight. I remember we talked about it then and we won't revisit it. Well, I would revisit it, but you'd have to stay an extra hour, I think, Mr. Brunt. But I can tell you I bit because someone I trusted on Twitter was saying he's on that flight. And then that kind of, I know, Morosi, I believe. And then Adam Seaborn said there was a press conference

scheduled for 5 PM. And I trusted Adam. Don't forget the sushi dinner. Oh yeah. The sushi was a rumor, but then you add on the, and then the flight tracking. So all this going on with the stuff you, that you felt was trustworthy that I sort of bit like,

and I feel so, I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football that I believed showy Otani was on his way to Toronto to have a press conference with Rogers to announce he's going to be a blue jade. I was hopeful, you know, like, and you look, I, you know, I pay attention to the, some of the same people you're talking about. And I thought, boy, if that's not true, you're way out on a limb here. Yeah, right. Right. He's exposed.

But you know, the thing I don't understand is that people kind of after that fact go, wow, they were just being used and why would they, well, I would rather as a fan, rather think that they took a real shot here, right? And they had to go to the, you know, the big Rogers people and say, you know, we're going to make a historic investment in a player. You can monetize them because you know, you can monetize Ohtani in a way you can't monetize anybody else.

So you get some of your money back, but you know, they put the money on the table. He went to Dunedin. He went to look at the facilities. They, they took their shot. And you know, and then after that, it's not like there was another one of him. But okay, this is, I'm glad you're here. So I can ask this one more question. I did bring this up. I had Roger Lajoie in here cause he was celebrating his like six millionth shift at the fan five 90, which is a, I think it was six million. I can ask this one more question. I did bring this up. I had Roger Lajois in here because he was celebrating his like six millionth shift at the fan five ninety, which is a, I think it was six million. I can forget, but, but so Roger's here and I was asking him, but you know, he's got to be a bit careful

because he still draws money from he invoices Rogers on the reg as we know. So he's got to be a bit careful. But when that day that we believed it was happening, the Phantom flight, which was like a dragon, or I guess what do they call them? Shark Tank. It was Robert. It was that guy. Persevec or whatever. So when Rogers Sportsnet, your former employers at 590,

decided we're gonna have an unscheduled Blue Jay show, I believe Jeff Blair and Barker, and so Blair and Barker were unscheduled. Okay. Wasn't, we weren't going to do this, but there's a lot of, we're going to do it now. And they kind of stoke the fire there by having the show at all. Like what do they know at that point? Don't you think Shapiro or Atkins or somebody who is well aware that showy Otani is not

on that flight could let them know that that is not Otani on that flight? Well that stuff happened pretty quickly I guess they could have you know it is there they're not you know those two things are not as closely connected as people believe like the Blue Jays and Sportsnet it's not like that you know they're they kind of walk in lockstep on forget the fact they're both owned by Rogers just fact that there's a now a show a baseball show you know in the fact that they're the official broad Rogers. Just fact that there's a now a show, a baseball show, you know, and the fact that they're the official broadcasters should be reason enough

that maybe, Hey, just FYI for the fans that you're going to be very disappointed when a dragon comes out of that plane and not, yeah, you know that that's, although, you know, that's one of those things where it's a relationship. If you're a reporter, and to get the heads up from like, they're not going to have a press conference to announce they're not signing Sorry, right. They're not gonna put out a release saying by the way, the guy's not on the plane We just like you to know right but that is a relationship thing where you know, you have trust relationships

That's that's how you find that now Bob Elliott would have got that tip Well, he would have got it from a previous Blue Jays administration, you know, yeah, I'm not sure you would have got it from these guys But that's one of the ones where, yeah, if you hope that you have somebody who trusts you enough where you have a trust relationship, you can go say, hey, look, is this happening? And they go, and they probably wouldn't say, even in that case, they wouldn't say no. They would just say, no, I wouldn't get in an Uber

and go out to the private airport out at, I wouldn't waste your time on that. Give you just a little nudge. So, but it's almost to me as just a fan, uh, I've never even worked for Rogers. Okay. And at some point I was a customer. So maybe that's enough to give me some bias actually. But to me, it's like they intentionally let the fan base believe in this dream for a while, as if maybe that buzz would somehow result in more tickets.

No, I don't think it's cause you can't wait. No, cause you can't. Well, cause it doesn't work because it, cause they know he's not there. Right. And again, I don't know at what point they knew they weren't in, but I think it was reasonably close to the end. I think they, but, and I, and look, one thing I do know is that they were like, they were realistic, right? Like they, they knew they, they got Rogers to approve the money. So they were right there with the money. And again, because you could monetize it because as an investment,

you could make back a lot of that salary because of Tony's a unicorn and he's got a whole other. It's like Taylor Swift to play for your baseball. Yeah. Okay. There's stuff you could do, right? But I think they always knew, um, you know, again, I saw somebody told me, you know, who knew what was going on? You know, pretty directly said, you know, we're right there. And he's probably going to sign with the Dodgers because they knew, right? They just knew he was probably going to stay on the west coast.

He's probably assigned with the Dodgers. The Dodgers are the Dodgers. It's hard to get around that, but they took their shot. Yeah, I am too. And I, you know, I'd rather have an organization that takes that shot than that doesn't. And then after that, you know, people say, well, why didn't they do something else? Well, there wasn't really a something else out there, you know, Soto, it was, that was a trade and they didn't have the assets, you know,

they would have had to strip their entire farm system barren to have a shot. And then, you know, free agency, you know, who was out there in free agency? Well, Justin Turner, JD Martinez, you know, a bunch of guys who on that level that's, they ended up signing one of those guys. There were, there wasn't, there wasn't another place to throw that money. And I don't know that that money was available for anybody, but the guy, I think you're right about that one. That was a unicorn pursuit there.

So they kind of got penalized for, you know, in the public mind for the disappointment. Um, but I'm not sure that was their fault. You know, other things that you like, look, they, you know, there's, there's not like don't have responsibility for anything, but that one, I don't think they actually did anything wrong. To change the channel here, Steve Patterson. Yes. From the debaters. Also in FOTM, he says, uh, ask Steven for tips on lobster preparation.

Host of comedy at Woody point, our comedy festival in the infant land, Steve Patterson, the great Steve Patterson, our 10th comedy festival. How is that going at what he's point? Like give me a, because we're going to play a little music here before we get back to sports in question. No, no, it's all good. We had a great season.

We actually just, they just wrapped up some, some fall stuff there in October, which I wasn't around for, but yeah, we had the ninth year of comedy, which Steve hosts. Fantastic. And Steve is a, is a great guy. And I do cook lobsters for comedians. Like I did, I don't know, 15 of them, I think this year.

So. You ever had Ron James out? We have, yes. Yeah. I think he'd love that. It was pretty intense. Yeah, he's amazing But like one of the great Performers I've ever seen yeah live just and he does it so he's got he does this thing

But what I've here's what I've noticed I feel like this is the home of real talk Stevens I could tell you so he's been over multiple times and you sort of trigger a rant if you will call it a rant Right, you'll trigger the rant and he'll deliver the rant. No, he's not reading this. Like he's, I can, he's sitting right there. I'm watching him. He's doing it off the top and it's brilliant. And it's so well written, but it is verbatim, the exact same rant you got last time. Like, so, so he's, he memorizes these, I'll pull back the curtain a little bit. Cause so he came out the year, the first year we had after the first pandemic year. So we,

we had to go virtual in 2020 and then 2021 we did kind of, we didn't know until like the middle of the summer that we were going to be able to go ahead with people. Um, and we kind of did a hybrid. So normally the comedy festivals in July writers, the writers at Woody point, the literary music festivals in August. So we combined them in August. And Ron came out and did two shows as kind of w w which would normally be opening concerts. Right. So he did, you know, as a kind of a headliner. So we kind of combined the thing and Steve hosted that and Ron.

So we had to, we, we had to find him a space and again, he hadn't performed live because of the pandemic. Right. So he has, and so we found him another space was it's in an old restored, beautiful old church. And for hours before his performance, he had all of that stuff written out on these big cards, all of that, his entire set. And he went and worked it and worked on memorizing it. And you don't just, so it's all there, you're right.

He's got a, yeah, he just calls it up in that part of his brain where it's all there. And he delivers it like in just exactly the same way, but it's effective as heck. But in a while that he's got it just he can recall it and so I and after the thought improvised so after the first show which I which was amazing like the first show was it was kind of stunning just to hear all that come out yeah I talked to him I said how would you think that went because you haven't done in a while and you know Ron he doesn't work blue right

but he drops he'll drop an f-bomb very selectively at certain points in his set. Right. And, uh, and he was going over, it was like a guy doing an air check of a broadcast cause he in his head, he said, yeah, no, I thought it was okay, but I think I dropped the F bomb a little early in the set. Oh yeah. Yeah. So just, you know, just cause he knew that he's like precision crafted. Yeah. It was crafted as anything I've seen in the, you know, like comedians amaze me. I, I, I'm, I'm kind of, uh, talk about a high wire thing.

I can't believe anybody does it. Would you ever consider, uh, doing an open mic night? Hmm. An open mic comedy night. Yeah. Comedy. Boy, I don't know. That's not, that sounds awful. I'll do it if you do it. No one will be in the crowd. Yeah, no. I, uh, again, the people who do it well you do it. I don't know when we'll be in the crowds. Yeah, no, I Again, the people who do it. Well, I Did my cap boy it is but it's it's a tough one

Yeah, Stephen Robert wants to know if you're gonna see drive-by truckers at Danforth, you know, I saw that coming up I don't think I can't cuz I think I've got a conflict but that'll be obviously a killer killer show That'll be great. So a lot of these killer shows that you love are in Toronto and you live in Hamilton. Like is that a, is that a pain in the ass? I, you know, although, well, Hamilton's pretty good. Like we get a lot of, we get a lot of stuff that comes to like the kind of those kind of like shows that would be at the Danforth for instance, or at the great hall or something.

We get a lot of those at Bridgeworks or at Mills Hardware in Hamilton. And the other, there's a great little venue in Paris, Ontario. Tim Desolais runs down there. I was down there. I saw Kathleen Edwards there last week. Wow. And they have a cool concert series in, in, in Paris. And tonight I'm going to London to see Ashley McKyzec. It's easier for me to drive to London than it is to drive into the city. That's what I was thinking, especially the Dan, where you got to get across the city.

Yeah, no, it's such a pain in the ass. I'm not going to whine about traffic, but it's not fun getting in and out of the city. So sometimes it's better to go west than to go east for me. No, I hear you. Okay. Ashley McKyzeeck, who I do one day want to get him in the basement and talk to him. Very interested to speak with him, but, uh, Andy, so again, I'm going to both play a song, but these are kind of already addressed, but I feel like when people send in questions, I should read them. But Andy Broadbent wants to know what your next big thing might be. And it sounds like it's, is it going to be called the Steven Brunt podcast?

What is the name of it? It's a, it's a, it's a, it has a kind of a working title, but I'm not sure if it's going to stick. So we'll, I'll wait till see. Yeah. But I've got that. I might, you know, I've got another kind of, I've got a book project that I might do. I'm, can you give us a clue? Uh, is it, uh, what's it about? It's a, it's, it's, it's a hockey related book. It's, uh, not somebody's book. It's my, it would be my own book. So I haven't done, you can't put that out till Christmas 2025 because you can't do a hockey book

and put it out. It'd be Christmas 2026. I'm like the Christmas 25 would be a bit of a reach. Okay. The way the pub, the way those schedules work. No, that ain't having it. Okay. See, I don't know. I'm still, I'm still having an odd. Yeah. So I have to decide again. That's a, that's a, it's a big commitment. Good. Good. Happen. Now speak just cause Corey wrote in, I'm surprised we haven't seen Steven Brunt on the Bob McCowan podcast yet.

Any chance of Brunt being a regular on any podcast, Brunt still has a lot of fans out there. So we've already addressed that there is a podcast coming and it's, you've only committed to six episodes. Is that what I heard? Yeah. Six. Okay. Why only six? It's I think for a bunch of it just kind of feels like the right number to see, to get in and we'll see how it goes. Like on both sides. Is one of your guests going to be a return conversation with a Mark Shapiro?

Is that in the, that's not, that's not there right now. Okay. That'll be the next season. Okay. Do you want to address the fact? So Bob McCowan had a podcast and John Shannon was his cohost and John Shannon, uh, he retired, I guess. I don't think you would use that word, but he left the show. Yeah. And I can't pretend. I know exactly what's going on with Bob show, but I, uh, will ask you what Corey's asking you. Uh, just Stephen brunt, uh, has, has Bob McKellen ever invited you to be a guest on, uh, no,

we'll leave that one there. All right, a little music just to change things up and then we'll get back to these questions and let's listen together. This is just enough music to get this episode pulled from spotify. That's what I like to do. Yeah, he went yeah, we don't I am

I am Yani gwedona, Yani gwedona, Yani gwedona. Yá ni góedóline, yá ni góedóna. God in heaven, give me life I will be there. me Nadi gweddhu aadhi me te Nadi gweddhu aadhi me te Nadi gweddhu aadhi me te Nadi gweddhu aadhi me te La te cuero ali I think we're done I remember the day when I was

in love with you Oh Oh, I'm in it. I'm in it. I'm in it. I'm in it. I'm in it. I'm going to the I hear that one man. I hear that one man. We are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate,

we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate,

we are back here on the gate, we are back here on the gate, Isn't it? Yeah, he's amazing. And especially if the headphones on, highly recommend. I literally forgot I was sitting with Stephen Brunt recording a podcast, I just got lost. The great Jeremy Dutcher. So you know the story, I know people know the story. So those are wax recording, the other voice you hear is from a wax recording made 100 plus years ago, field recordings, these kind of ancient melodies that he kind of riffed on those ancient, you know, like, these kind of ancient melodies that, you know,

he, he kind of riffed on those ancient, you know, the, like the core of that song is that melody from the, from the wax recording. And the first time I heard him, I said when he won his first Polaris prize. So he just won this, he just won his second, he's the first person to win two. Wow. And we were, I was at the, at the show actually with my daughter sitting and he, it was at the Carlou in Toronto, that's where the great room and, and the first time, it was at the, at the show, actually with my daughter sitting and he, it was at the Carlou and you know, then Toronto, that's really great room. And, and the first time it was the first time I'd heard him. And I just, it's like nothing I've ever heard in my life.

Um, I remember talking to my, and I said, you know, my daughter, you know, we should, man, if we could get him out to the Fest, out to Woody point, that would be, and the guy sitting next to me was his manager. So, um, said, yeah, I'm his manager. So we kind of cut the deal right there at the table to get him out the first time and, uh, it's, and then he came out this year at the second time. So that's why it's very fresh in my memory right now. He's an amazing guy too. Like I gotta say, like I may say this more than once today,

but he's such a cool guy. And, um, you know, it's a little tiny room and we're 200 seat room we have out there. He brought a trio this time. He had a amazing drummer and bass player with him more of it. And this, this new record has got a kind of a more jazz feel to it, I think than the first record. Um, but just, yeah, it, it, the, if, if that doesn't move you, I don't know what will, um, and he's kind of, you know, he's,

he's kind of got a goofy sense of humor. He's up for anything. He came, he came to the karaoke at the Legion in Woody Point. We have a karaoke on the Wednesday night of the festival. He came in and sang karaoke too, but he's pretty good at that. Unbelievable. Yeah. So if you haven't checked them out, like, and his live show is actually, there's a show that they recorded, CBC recorded.

So it's on Jim that they recorded at Massey hall last year. We, my wife and I were there and it was him with like a string section and a horn section and like an insane number of people. Like they really, you know, uh, pulled out all the stops and it's, it's, it's really worth it. It's really worth checking out. Well, thanks for sharing. You didn't actually tell me what song to play, right? Like your email kind of just listed some artists. Yeah. And I just sort of did my own thing. That was pretty good.

To surprise. They're all pretty great. And he's, you know, he's kind of venturing beyond that thing. The, you know, the wax recording stuff, he's doing some other stuff that's not related to it now, but you hear the voice, you know, he's got, he's got a trained voice, right? A classically trained voice, but.

Steven, I have a note from former colleague of yours, Brad Wheeler. Yes. Great music writer. One of the last men standing, people, sorry, there's not many left of the Brad Wheeler. I knew him when he was a mere lad at the Globe and Mail. Well, he, you know, I never did get him on this show,

but I've invited him on this show, but he did agree to go on Hepsey's show when I co-hosted that for five years. So Brad picked his battles there, picked his interesting choice. His thoughts, your thoughts, Stephen on legendary globe and mail copy messenger Dan driver. And this is pretty inside baseball here. So explain this one. Well, Dan was so they had, you know,

I think what they were called were copy boys originally, but copy messengers and was a more dignified term. Right. And, you know, I think what they were called were copy boys originally, but copy messengers in ways of more dignified term, right? And you know, back in the days when people actually ran, you know, pieces of copy, like stuff on paper, you know, from one place in the newsroom to another, you know, old school news. And that, you know, that was kind of on the out, even when I was starting way million years ago, right?

The, it wasn't quite, you know, the days of hot type or anything. It was weird. We had computers pretty much from the beginning of my time, but Dan was a guy. He was kind of the glue that held, like an old school newsroom, right? So there's all these people,

and again, you remember that room's actually full of actual people working together in real time, not virtually, not from home. A lot of chatter, a lot of characters. Like we saw in the movies. Yeah, like you saw in the movies. And he was the guy that kind of glued it together. Dan could answer any question,

acquire anything that was needed by anyone for any purpose, legit or illicit. Yeah, kind of knew where all the bodies were buried. And he's the guy that would come up to you, and when the teletype machine would go ding, ding, ding, I forgot how many bells it was for a big story, and he'd come up and say, hey, you know Michael Jackson's dead.

He was like the first many great news events I heard first from Dan Driver. Wow. Yeah, so we used to used to yeah back in the day when you know newspapers are full of crusty old people who went out and drank afterwards you know that's not I don't think it's like that anymore. Sometimes not afterwards. But yeah he was he was very much a part of the culture at the Globe as you know as much as anybody who had a byline. Thank you Brad Wheeler.. Yeah, thanks Brad. For chiming in there. I hope Dan's well wherever he is out there.

Now cut these again, I'm mopping up here that we've already answered most of this, but Diane Sweeting says, Steven's calming influence while collaborating with Jeff Blair is greatly missed. I also, and again, ha ha ha. I also miss his baseball insight and common sense. What's he been up to in any new books

or projects in the works? So new podcast coming soon and possibly a book project. Maybe a book and I, you know, I saw, when I watched, I do watch Blair and Barker sometimes. It is, especially when I was down East this summer, when I, the time zone thing kind of worked and I would flip it on and, you know, and I love them both.

They're, they're, they're, they're. They're both, and I had a lot of, you know, again, I've known Blair for a million years. And he's a hammer guy. He is, yes, but he is, I knew him when he was like the Montreal Gazette originally when, first day I saw him, met him in the press box at the Olympic Stadium, he said, I'm gonna get fired tomorrow.

And he's been saying that essentially every day for the last 40 years, as far as I can tell. I'm going to get fired. So, and they haven't, no one's fired him yet. And he's probably other than, you know, Roger Lajoie, who's a pay as you go guy. I'd say Jeff is the longest serving person on the airwaves at five 90. You know, he, that's, he probably is. Geez. I didn't even

thought of that. Second would be like Ben Ennis, right? And Ben Ennis, I still think of him as a kid. No, I do too. Yeah. Yeah, I guess he is, you know? That's probably, that is probably correct. But yeah, speaking of crusty old newspaper guys,

but there are times when I do feel like, you know, if I was with those two guys, I would be saying, you know, like they do work themselves up into a lather, you know, about things that, and I do have a little more of a tendency to take the long view. So that's kind of my, that was kind of my job sometimes. And Brian Gerstein, we did address this and we even talked about McCowan, but he says with Shannon gone in a new job with a new job and Deitch only helping out part time, there's a possibility of a reunion.

So there are a couple of people because they listen to primetime sports and for many years you were the cohost for the bomb account on primetime sports who are looking to get you guys back in podcast form. But uh, one of those six guests is Bob McCallum. One of those six guests that you'll be taught not as not as currently configured. No. Okay. Any further comment? I feel like it was a long time ago and good for Bob for soldier and on my God, you know, it's, it's, um, you know, I, I have, I have checked it, checked it out. Um, you know, Shannon's a buddy of mine and, uh, it's, uh, it's, it's quite amazing that he perseveres. Jake the snake chimed in when he heard you were coming back. All right. Jake loves you

because you wore the Argo suck button. I, yes. And we were both mourning or the tiger cats, failure to make the, you know, it's 25 years now since the last gray cup. So I got a shout out, Mike Rogatsky from Esri, uh, who wanted me to ask you what happened to the tie cats this year? Well, you know, they started off, they dug themselves a pretty big hole, you know, and then couldn't get out of it. And, um, you know, it's weird. Like I would say right now they're, you know, they're one of the, you know, they're not the best team in the league, but they're,

they're certainly competitive with anybody in the league and believe on Mitchell in the end has had a really good season. And, but you know, if you dig yourself that much of a hole to start, you can't get out of it. So they were, they were, they've been, you know, second half of the season, they were pretty good. Well, specifically Jake, the snake wants me to ask you about Garnie Henley. Oh yes. Is he the best ever to play for the Ticats and who would be second and third best player

in the history of this storied Hamilton franchise? I don't know. I'd see that's that we gets tricky after Garnie, but I would say Garnie Henley. Yes. Two way player, played defense, played wide receiver was brilliant at doing both last cut of the green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi in the glory of years came from Huron, South Dakota. Wow.

So yeah, he's the guy, there's a lot of other guys after that, but yeah, I would say he's my favorite tie cat of all time. I think he's the best. One more Jake the Snake question. What team won the Ballard Trophy this year? Hamilton. And what is the Ballard trophy this year?

And what is the Ballard? Why? Sorry. I think you used the wrong word here. Why is the Ballard trophy often wrongly called the Ballard cup? Uh, that I can't, I can't. What the heck is the Ballard trophy? The tie cat VR goes thing when Ballard on the tie cats. So people, you may forget that Harold Ballard did on the tie cats. I remember going to Maple Leaf garden as pretty young, but I remember being in the grays at the gardens and there was like signage, go cats, go stuff going on.

And I knew Harold Ballard owned the Hamilton tiger cats and the Toronto maple. Yeah. And he and King Clancy used to go to the tie cat games that there's a, and when Harold, as he started to deteriorate, they had to, there was no elevator to get up to the press box at civic, the old, old, uh, Iverwin stadium. And they had to haul them up there in a grant with a crane. Wow. Um, yeah. So there you go. There's a, there's, there's, there's, that's not in that Harold Ballard. Is your book about Harold Ballard? No, it's not.

What did you think of that Harold Ballard doc? Oh, I'm in it. So I'm a little biased. You're a talking head in that thing. Yeah, I'm a talking head in it. I thought there's some good stuff in there. I think it's hard. This is Jason Priestley. Was he the director of this? Yeah. He interviewed me. I didn't realize a talking head in it. I thought there was some good stuff in there. I think it's hard. This is Jason Priestley. Was he the director of this?

Yeah, he interviewed me. I didn't realize. I didn't know. I didn't. Weird. Look, I got to tell you, it was all. You know, he's an FOTM. It was deep pandemic time, right?

And they did. They had Barberian's Restaurant in downtown Toronto is where they shot it because it was shut down. And so almost everybody in that documentary has bad pandemic errors, you may have noticed. My mind wasn't too bad. I'm not sure how I managed to get a clip, but yeah, so this guy's, yeah, the guy pulled me into interview me and, and I did this, this Jason dude.

And, and you know, he was looking pretty pandemicy as well. And I didn't recognize him at all. That I didn't realize till about three quarters of the way. Well, I know, I know who he is, but it was, I literally, I was three quarters of the way through the interview where friends, Oh yeah, that's him. But yeah, I thought it had some really good it was, I literally, I was three quarters of the way through the interview where friends, Oh yeah, that's him. Um, but yeah, I, I thought, uh, it had some really good stuff in it. Let's put it that way, but it's, it's, it was hard for, I think it's hard for people. Like even for me,

like I came in at the end of the Ballard era professionally, you know, I'd like the guys who really, you know, you know, like Ali Eagleson was really the only guy in the whole piece who really knew him, like really knew him. Well, that's a good point. Cause there were actually talking heads in that who wouldn't even remember. Like Donovan Bennett doesn't remember. No, no, no, no. And it's, you know, it's kind of hard to, you know, I could, I could talk about things

that happened before I was born, but you know, to really kind of understand what, you know, the kind of the, the, the contradictory nature of Ballard and what he meant, you'd have to kind of live through it. I feel like you got to get some Mary Ormsby what he meant. You'd have to kind of live through it. I feel like you got to get some Mary Ormsby and Paul Hunter. They'd have some good stuff. Yeah, they were there. Well, Mary's in there. Mary's in it and she's great. Right. It's been a while since I saw it, but I also remember cause when I was talking to Jason, so he directs that thing, but then he start, he's in the, uh, the,

I don't know if you caught the Borsal Boree, Salman mini series. I, you know, I watched a little bit of it. I found it kind of odd, but yes, he is in it. Yeah. I didn't finish the series. Is that okay? That's okay, because I'm gonna ask you about a different series in a moment, but I'm gonna get to another song here.

I'm just making sure I have no more questions about you starting a podcast and Bob McCowen, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, no, I think that covers all of those. But let's get to another song and we'll talk about this. So I know it. Mi pitu sa lirako I limit o maya ma Mama Inu to omang ii La naa Nalini

Aini ta I need time Now I need time Loma Oima lona Loma Oh, my love My face is so happy Steven, who are we listening to here? This is Ella Sampi.

Now, this is, I don't know this track actually. Because that's, it's a big production and stuff. Most of the stuff I've been listening to of hers is way more stripped down than this, but she's very cool. She's just released a very great album of covers, like really unexpected covers. And she's in, she sings in Inuktitut, right? So, very cool.

Like I know nothing. I'm learning so much from you right now. Yeah, she's one. So how did you discover her? Well? Well, somebody kind of gave me a heads up and I've been listening to her and I've been trying to book her for next summer. I'm not sure I'm gonna get her. So are you the booking guy? Yeah, that's one of my jobs. That sounds like a dream job. It's kind of fun. It's interesting because you know you're always, you know, you have to

kind of... I word of mouth's good. Like, I can rely on people who played there in our venue, because otherwise you're saying, you want to come play at 200 C room in Western Newfoundland, and it's a, that's a tough, that's a tough opening play, you know, for negotiation, but, um. But do you aim for the stars and then see where you end up? Yeah, I always have, you know, I've got kind of a long list, you know, and sometimes it takes some years to get people and it has to kind of like we're not on any touring route. Like, you know, you're not going to go from where we are somewhere else. Like, is there a white whale or is there a certain artist that you've been trying to go gourd was the way well I got him. You know that like that that was the way it's a good segue for my next question actually but is there a white whale still out there that you're hoping to land?

I've got it. Like, let's put it this way. I got a list. I think I know what next next summer's show is going to be. And it's kind of a rusty, isn't it? Cool. Do you want to tease it? No, I can't. This is because it gets a one off. It's never it's going to start. It's going to happen only once.

A hostile witness never happened before. So it's the contracts are assigned. But yeah, you know, it's it's it's no so it's the contracts are signed but uh but yeah you know it's it's it's no it's fun because we've had like you see we had Jeremy this year we had Serena Ryder the year before that you know we've had uh you know Joel Plaskett we've had Blackie Nerodeo Kings uh Ron Sexsmith um Kathleen Edwards Sarah Harmer um you know like pretty like you know pretty significant Canadian acts for sure. And, and Gord, you know, um, Gord Downey, which was amazing. Um, but yeah, you, you

know, you have to kind of, it's a relationship thing, right? You have to kind of work through managers and agents and they give you a quote. Usually they say, well, normally for this show they would charge you $75,000 and you go, well, I have significantly less than that. And then it kind of goes from there. to $75,000 and you go, well, I have significantly less than that. And then it kind of goes from there. But do you find it, because I don't know how to relate to it except to say that I try to get these same people

on my show and I hate dealing with like management or a layer. Like I, please let me speak directly to Kathleen Edwards. Yeah, it's, well it's true. Like that's their job though, right? So I understand what agents and managers are supposed to do, which is they're supposed to be the jerks. Right. And if they were working for me, I would want them to, you know,

first of all, sort it out. Yeah. They don't want the nuisance. So sort out the nuisances and you don't give me as much money as you can. And, um, and you know, and what I can offer is an experience, right? I can say, well, like we pay really well for a 200 seat room, but what I'm, I'm going to give you an experience. I'm going to bring you to a place that's amazing and, and put you in front of a very cool crowd in a really cool venue. And you can bring your family and we'll get you a house for the week.

And you can experience we're right in the middle of gross morning national park. It's pretty, it's pretty, you sold me I will happily be your moderator next. So yeah, that's me twice. So, you know, but it's, yeah, no, I, I've learned a lot about the music biz, you know, having been on the other side of things. But you ever think of like, maybe that's the next chapter of your, maybe it's, you know, you got to be the guy in the GTA. You bring these great acts. You know, my buddy, Mitch Melnick, the great radio host,

I have a question about him. Yeah. So he's doing, he does these shows, right? He just, he just announced one yesterday. I was on with him yesterday and he's got a, uh, a last Waltz recreation that he's going to do in November. Um, I just, I had David Marsden here two days ago and, uh, cause he used to manage a band called the revels and, um, a member of the band was in the rebels and then got introduced to romp and Ronnie Hawkins and who brought them to Arkansas and then of course a David

Marsden and Richard David Mickey absolutely so Richard Manuel was the member of the rebels and then that's where leave on helm comes into the fold and then basically Ronnie Hawkins is like I want that guy to be in my band Richard and then that became the band. And anyway, and also John Donahue, voice of an angel. Absolutely. Uh, gone, I think he was 42 and he passed away. Very sad. But also I was just chatting with and booked and then we're going to postpone, but he'll be back soon. John Donahue be good, great personal friends with leave on helm. Uh, and, and Robbie Robertson, but was invited to the last waltz but I'm sorry for you you mentioned that the last waltz and I

Think so. Let me ask the Mitch Melnick. Yes, so Brian wants to know curious Stevens affinity to Montreal and his relationship with Mitch Melnick there the longtime afternoon sports drive host Yeah, I find Montreal so hockey centric to the exclusion of other sports in my opinion Montreal is a better More involved hockey city than Toronto. What does Stephen think? He's probably right about that. I would say yeah I even even when the Habs are bad like it's it's it's it's like there's so much of the focus because you know like there's people talk a little bit about the about the owls and and about the the the impact the the owls and, and about the, the, you know, the, the, the impact, the,

the soccer team and, and other stuff. But, um, no, it's very half centric. Uh, I, you know, I, I went there a lot as when I was at the globe, I, I covered a lot of, I would even know when the, if, if the Leafs were in the playoffs, I was the guy that got sent to cover the Habs in the playoffs, which is great. Um, I had a lot of, a lot of great memories. And then Mitch, I've known Mitch for a million years and for a long stretch, I think for geez, 10 years I was on his show five days a week. Like we, we, I was on every day.

Wow. So Mitch and me, let's say Mike, are we the only two sources for, if you want to hear Brunts thoughts on things you got, you got Melnick show in Montreal and you got Toronto Mike. Well, I, and I, but I got, I had to give up Melnik where we had to give up each other because when they rebranded his TSN radio, right? Cause he was, they were the team, right? So when I was part of that whole scene and then when they rebranded it as TSN radio, my, my Roger's affiliation at that point got in the way. So we had to, we had to an amicable parting. Um, but we, you know, we still kept in touch and,

uh, and now I'm back. Yeah. I'm back on there once a week, which is, is a blast. So very cool. Yeah. I really enjoy it. And we, yeah. So we talk about, you know, all kinds of stuff, but often not sports. You talk music. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Mitch is a huge music guy. Mitch is an unknown entity. I guess, cause I was born and raised in Toronto. I don't know the Montreal. It's a really, it's, he's really interesting. I've always kind of wondered what he would be like,

what that show would be like, whether it would translate here in this market. Again, we're talking about when radio was radio, but you know, it's this really, I'd have that talk. A really eclectic show, um, really smart and, uh, and, you know, it was kind of its own culture, but it would be different than anything that's that's that's been done here in sports Radio sounds like a podcast. Yeah. Well

Everything sound like a podcast you mentioned Kathleen Edwards a couple of times and there is a note on the live stream from Rob del Mundo So hello to Rob Kathleen Edwards played a great show in Markham last Friday. This is part of the same tour You saw in Paris, Ontario. She has a new song coming out for which the closing lyric is, the leafs still suck at playoff time. So he ties music back to sports, which we like to do. Yes. Well, she's, you know, she's, she's, she's an Ottawa gal, right? You know, you're the great one. I'm Marty McSorley, right? That's, that's, that's, yes. She is not, she's living in Florida now. she's living in st. Pete so but yeah she is Ottawa Stittsville she had the coffee shop when she gave up music for a little

while and I'm glad she's back out there I think I think she's great I've always loved her her songwriting I love her voice absolutely I need to know your thoughts since I've got you here so M M L S E. Yes. It's going to be primarily owned and operated by a year old, uh, your old friends at Rogers. I'm just dying to know your take on this. Like, is this good for Toronto sports? Is it bad for Toronto sports? What will it be like when Rogers owns basically almost, almost, I don't know the top five sports teams in this city. I don't, you know, you can argue, I know they don't own a couple of things but most of the Toronto professional sports teams will be owned by Rogers I you know, I actually you know this look I think it's I think it is going to be net positive to be honest

I'm you know, it's it's It's it's you know, it's it's a it is fascinating the way it happened how quickly it happened like I didn't you know I didn't actually know that bell was short of cash. Um, and we're one step above a junk bond, uh, and needed the money. And so, cause no one thought like, I do know people, you know, that, that know stuff and, um, none of them thought this was imminent. Like everybody thought something would happen in 26 when Tannenbaum shares came on the market, right. And that,

or they had the right to buy out Tannenbaum and that some, somebody would make a move. But the bell guy, Mirko was telling people apparently like two months ago that there was no, there weren't, there weren't selling to Rogers. There wasn't going to happen. So obviously something changed and you know, the other guys made a bold move. You, you know, like that's, you put that together for the Shaw deal. Like they've made some pretty bold moves, you know, in the last year, or a year or two. Um,

it will be the first time since Steve Stavro that a human being is identified as the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Um, which I don't, you know, not that the Stavro era is, you know, remembered with any great fondness necessarily, but, uh, you think about it, you know, the faceless corporate ownership, right? The pension fund, the, you know, the, the MLSC triad, you know, the faceless corporate ownership, right? The pension fund the you know, the the MLSC try on, you know The triad like there's actually somebody who's gonna be the guy and I think the other thing that's gonna happen in this, you know, is that

They're gonna there's gonna be an IPO here So they're gonna split off Rogers is gonna split off all the sports stuff But I will like add the J's basically the MLSC and then have an initial public offering That's so they can pull some of the money like they have all they have all the value with the J's basically the M L S E and then have an initial public offering that's so they can pull some of the money. Like they have all, they have all this value with the J's. I forget what they paid for them, but not much. They're now worth a whole lot. They're, you know, they sell their broadcast rights to themselves. So it's a way that they can pull a bunch of money out of it. Um, but I, you know,

I think having an owner who is that invested in sport, um, is potentially not a bad thing. Like in the cap sports it doesn't really matter that much you know like you can only spend so much on the Leafs you can only spend so much on the Raptors and go into the luxury tax. But from a Jay's point of view you know they've already seen they've made massive financial commitments to this team in the last you know and they'll make you know and if again if there's an IPO they'll be able to that frees up a bunch of the last, you know, and they'll make, you know, and if they, again, if there's an IPO, they'll be able to, that frees up a bunch of money. So, you know,

like I think they're going to want to win now, you know, whether they are competent at that, whether they hire the right people to do that. But I, you know, it's, you know, when you had a pension fund owning it, it's pretty clear what the pension funds mandate is, right? Which is to make teachers' retirements more comfortable. Right. Um, this is now, this is different. And, and, you know, Edward Rogers has not been a guy who's ever stepped out,

you know, and be, being the public face of any of this stuff. Like he did, they did the one little interview when this happened, the Ron McLean thing, but, um, you know, he's the guy now. So, you know, like it can be bad having somebody as the guy like Jerry Reinsdorf in Chicago has not exactly been, you know, great for the teams he's owned, or especially with the baseball team. But I, yeah, I think there's a way that this could actually kind of work out. I think I would rather have a human being with their name on the thing with their name on the thing, who wants a legacy project to perhaps separate himself from his famous father, you know, and who really liked that Raptors victory parade apparently,

to, you know, motivated to win something. From a fan point of view, that's what you want, isn't it? A hundred percent. Do you think the next ploy here is they got to get an NFL franchise? I don't know how you do it. I like, I've been talking about this. I first started talking about this like 40 years ago. Right. Need a stadium. The NFL has got to want to do it. I think the Ralph, the Ralph Wilson, the end of Ralph Wilson was the moment. And, you know, and I think, you know,

I don't think people necessarily saw Pugula showing up, but you know, it looked like that's when they would swoop in and get a team. I don't, and I think the NFL would be loathe, especially with the bills putting all this money in the new stadium. I think they would be very careful about hurting that market. Why, why do you think MLSC didn't want the WNBA team? Don't know. No idea. Yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I, you know, I don't know what the money in money out looks like on a WNBA team.

I have no idea. And that, you know, and again, there's every possibility that that team is better off having Larry Tannenbaum as the guy. Well, on that note, do you think MLSC would part with the Argonauts? Do the Argonauts fit into that portfolio? You know, they didn't, right? Like you remember that it wasn't, it was Larry and Bell that owned the Argonauts and then, you know, kind of, right. There was some kind of quid pro quo where they were allowed,

the Rogers allowed them into the under the MLSC umbrella. So I, you know, Rogers has never shown a whole bunch of, ton of enthusiasm, but you know, it's doesn't cost much. Um, but you know, they basically control BMO. So I guess it's another tenant and there's, there's the stadium that they didn't pay for but they seem to run You know like you know and You know, would there be an owner at this stage it would somebody else buy it like that's always been an issue

I'm right. Maybe there would be no they found an owner I know I know a guy who would like to own the team, but I don't know if they're selling so yeah I don't know. I I don't really know I would think it to be honest I would think it's not front of mind right now. Right. You know, and they've got to go through a bunch of regulatory stuff. So it's probably, we're probably two years away from this thing being finalized. That's true. That's true. What's your, remind us, I know you have a history with Keith Peli, but what's your relationship with Keith?

Oh, I love him. Yeah. I, I, I first time I worked with him. He was the, he was the truck producer for a fights boxing. I think we did boxing during, I forget which NHL labor dispute it was. So there was hockey, there was no hockey. And we, we did a, we did a fight card in like at the Verdun arena or something, it was really grotty. That's what I remember. But yeah, I've, so I've, yeah, I've known him forever. I worked obviously really closely with him during the, uh, the Olympic

consortium 2010, you know, he was the, he was the kingpin of that whole thing. Uh, is he the reason you ended up at Rogers? Yes. Cause I remember your first appearance and the reason I'm actually keep telling now in charge of MLSC. Yeah. I just got a note on the live stream from Kevin and Alberta who would like to hire you, Steven to narrate his life. Okay. But I'm just, I'm available. I'm afraid. I'm a friend. I'm a contractor now.

Like I'm surprised. I would think M L S E would would would want Steven Brunt to be the, the voice of their, uh, their, their sporting enterprises. Like, can you find a more authoritative sports voice in this country? Yeah. I was like, I was thought, you know, I would like to Mark Daly gig. That was the one. The evil. I have, okay. Well you dropped the name Mark Daly gig. That was the one. The evil. I have cable. You dropped the name Mark Daly. So now I've got to play this for us.

Yeah. The following program contains adult themes, nudity and course language, viewer and parental discretion is advised. That's my, that's, there you go. But is there a, I don't know. Do you have chats with Keith lately? Any, I've talked to him a bit since he's come back. I'm really prying now. He's had it, you know, he's had an interesting journey, right? He was over running the European tour and then got caught up in the live golf thing and with the Saudis and Keith comes out, he, I'll tell you something. He always comes out smelling like a rose.

Yeah. You know, he really does. And he's had a great journey, you know, like the whole, you know, he left Bell, the Bell Globe, what was then bell glow media to go to Rogers. He was persona non-grat at bell because of that, um, left Rogers ended up landed on his feet with the European tour. He's played a lot of golf and a lot of really nice places. Apparently he's still got a nice house in England and he's back here running,

you know, MLSE running MLSE running the Leafs. He's, you know, I saw him at the press conference yesterday, the TFC press conference. He was pretty authoritative there. I know. I think he's, I think he's going to have a ball. Yeah. Running MLSE, running the Leafs. He's, you know, I saw him at the press conference yesterday, the TFC press conference, he was pretty authoritative there. I know. I think he's, I think he's going to have a ball. Yeah. I, and he's, you know, one of the great bosses, you know, I, I've been lucky to work for some really good people.

Scott Moore is great guy and I love Scott and Keith. You know, I worked with some excellent folks. So, um, it was always fun working with Keith. Absolutely. Okay. Now I earlier, I told you, I was done with all the questions about what you're doing next and getting in pocket, but there's one more. I just did. I realized Dan PB, he says he, I truly miss hearing Steven on the radio unfathomable. I can barely say that word unfathomable. Am I saying that right? See, you're the authority of sounds unfathomable to me that SportsNet or TSN aren't using his talents, but I guess that sports media in 2024. Yeah. Well, you know, radio's like, I don't know, like I love radio,

but I'm not sure there's going to be radio radio. It's it's um, and I know people said that like when apparently when television arrived, they said that's the end of radio and they were wrong, it's, um, and I know people said that like when, apparently when television arrived, they said, that's the end of radio and they were wrong, but there's been a shift, right? This is a whole different disruption though. This is an audio disruptor. This is not your part of the problem. You got a podcast.

Well, it's not just that. You know what, what really pushed it over the edge, I think is the, it was when people, while the pandemic took people out of their cars, you know, that that's who listens, like who listens to the radio people in their cars. No, a hundred percent. Yeah. And so there was that moment when there was no,

suddenly there's nobody on the road and you know, sports radio, what your audience is essentially guys in cars, but that's, that's who listens. Then, you know, that's, that was, you know, they think of McCowan that was guys stuck in traffic on the Gardner, you know, and, and Bay street guys and guys who worked in factories and guys are all manner of, but as long as they're sports fans and then you took them out of cars and by the time, you know, everything sorta came back, people's habits changed, you know, even before that, like radio was, you know, like it's, it was,

it was, it was struggling. So yeah, no, that's just, it's, it's changed, right? Like it's, um, it, but it's, you know, the same way newspapers changed. I, I'm, I'm trying again, I try not to's, but it's, you know, the same way newspapers changed. I'm trying again, I try not to go good old Daisy, as you know, but. Well, even if you just look at advertising dollars, right? So if you look back,

cause this happened to your old industry, the newspaper industry, right? And now it's hitting radio, but the everything's going digital, right? So, and that would be lots of money in the pockets of a Metta and Alphabet, and then maybe a few podcasters too, that would be lots of money in the pockets of a Meta and alphabet. And then maybe a few podcasters too, but, uh, it's the, the, the advertising dollars are leaving radio. They are, well,

they've left and, and you know, that's why I was kind of like, I see these things. Sometimes people say, boy, talk about radio play by play rights for sports and how valuable they are. And boy, they never shut that station down cause they've got, they have to every like radio play by play. God love there's, you know, I love radio play by play. It's, it is a great art form, but you know, the reason they stopped paying for guys to go on the road is cause there's no money. Like nobody's listening. There's no advertising. There's nothing.

So it, you know, like I, I, I wish it was what it was. And I wish everybody was, you know, sitting there with the radio pushed up against their ear, but it's just not like that anymore. And I, and I what it was. And I wish everybody was, you know, sitting there with the radio pushed up against their ear, but it's just not like that anymore. And I still love it. I love to, I would rather do radio than anything I've ever done. It's my favorite.

The theater of the mind. Yeah, it's just, it's great. I love it. I love, you know, and people who do it well are, man. All right, so I'm going to play another song. Okay. And then I have a bit more on the other side, music and sports talk,

but I want to give you a few gifts here and let the listeners know that TML X 16. I got to track this. So in June we had TML X 15 at Great Lakes Brewery, but we're at the GLB brew pub. That's Jarvis and Queens Key where their Monday, this coming Monday, this is October 21st, 2024, from six to nine PM. That's for TMLX 16. And that my friends is you had to RSVP right away to get on the list because I'm capped at the number of attendees I can have because GLB is going to take care of us. They have food at the GLB Brewpub. Of course, they make great beer. So that's happening Monday. I look forward to seeing everybody on the list at TMLX 16.

But the one that everyone listening can go to because there is no cap is TMLX 17. That's November 30th from noon to three. That's a Saturday. And we're going to all collect at Palma's kitchen for a recording. That's what you attended last year, Stephen. It was amazing to see there. So no pressure. But if you're around, you know, you'd you get some food. Maybe we have another Phantom flight to discuss.

Who knows who would be on it? Soto who knows going to be on that flight. So everybody listening is invited to come to Palma's kitchen, November 30th from noon to 3 p.m. So be there, but you are taken home with you, Steve. Back to the hammer. You got a lasagna. It's in my freezer. Awesome. You got the fresh beer from Great Lakes brewery.

No, you love that. Give it a good home. Yeah. There's a wireless speaker from Monaris. They would love for you to listen to season seven of yes, we are open. The Al Gregor hosts this show. He'll be at the upcoming TMLX events. I was shouting out, and he went to Winnipeg and he spoke to Katrina Tessier, owner of Scout Coffee and Community, and Katrina shared her story of opening this unique Winnipeg cafe that provides a welcoming space for parents to relax while their

children play. Al gets these great inspiring stories of small business owners and he packages Al gets these great inspiring stories of small business owners and he packages them together for Yes We Are Open, subscribe and then you can listen to anything you want after you hear season 7. But that's your speaker. Thank you. And I don't see one in front of you. I got to give you measuring tape from Red Leaf Funeral Home because you don't know what you need to measure. Yeah, Steven. It goes to six feet six feet under shout out to Brad Jones and life's undertaking another great podcast you should listen to and Last but not least recycle my electronics dot CA

That's where you go if you have any old electronics old cables that you need recycled You don't throw that in the garbage because then those chemicals end up in our landfill. You go to recycle my electronics dot c. Take out the jazz, motherfuckers! Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay I want it I think I'm mad Watch out! I want it, take a look Yeah! Let's go!

Yeah! Workin' real pretty good I guess that I could get crazy now baby Cause we all gotta do when the dressing room gets hazy now baby I know how you like it, child, I'm a little tight The girl can't help but wake up to the ride Put me up on the stand And let me kick out the chance Well yeah, kick out the chance I wanna kick the man Well yeah This is not MC5, what are we listening to?

This is No Bros from Montreal channeling the MC5. Yeah, I mean you tipped me off they had a cover of Kick Out The Jams. As you know I love that phrase and I use it often and I even got to work blue here today some MF'er here. So how did you discover No Bro? You know I heard them I was at Frank the Frank Turner shows and they opened one of the shows with Frank Turner up at the at that god-awful new venue at Woodbine. You know apologize to Woodbine but my god it's the great Canadian something casino something okay I've never it's like it's like it's like hearing abandoned an airplane hangar it's just vast and empty

and oh but they came out these these young women from Montreal came out and just tore the place up so Frank Turner obviously so he curates his own opening you know he does these four night residencies once a year, different place in the world every year. So he did the four nights in Toronto and he curates the opening act. Usually drawing from acts from like when he's in Canada, Canadian acts. And so on one of the nights, one of the openers was No Bros. And they were also, they were their players finalists this year, too

Amazing and did you attend the show of Dave Hodge by any chance? Hodge when I were in the same spit we were in the I saw him there that night. He's a Huge Frank Turner. He's a personal close personal friend of Frank Turner. Yeah, and I realized now we're mid October So won't be long before Dave Hodge returns. He kicks out his hundred favorite songs of the year every calendar year. That's a tradition we've had for several years now and I always look forward to Dave Hodge. Well you know what he's gonna he'll mention No Bros, guaranteed. He loves them. I gotta keep that loaded up in the soundboard. No Bros, okay out of Montreal. Yes. Love it. They're really loud. I like it loud. You know that. Okay love it. right. I wanted to ask you just

because we, we opened with the Phantom flight of showy Otani, but I just wanted to ask you in your many, many years of following baseball, Oh Tony had a 50 50 season. Like where does that rank? I mean, to me, my, my, he had that, was it that one game he had, which was like, I'm trying to remember now he had three home runs and he stole a couple of bases and he, he had some wild game that I think that's the night he hit 50 50, if I'm not mistaken, but just like, can you give us a little perspective? Like how much of a unicorn is show you Tony on the field? Well, he pitches to, right?

But can they also, yeah, I mean, here I am interrupting the legendary Stephen Brant, so people are yelling at me right now, but can he, if he pitches, he can't steal 50 bases, right? Like he's only able to steal the 50 bases because he's doesn't pitch this season. I'm not going to put it. I can't, I can't see, I can't, I can't put any cants in front of this guy.

I don't know. Could he? I, he's, he's the best player, you know, he? He's the best player. You know, he may well be the best player who's ever lived. You know, it's entirely possible. Um, you know, and you know, that we define that in different ways. Usually, you know, you have to have a long, you know, longevity is a big part of it, et cetera. But you know, kind of in the moment, you know,

in terms of what he can do. I know Babe Ruth was a fine pitcher, but there's, there's nothing, there's no comparable, right? There's just, there isn't. So, uh, yeah, we may be witnessing, you may be watching the greatest baseball player who's ever lived. Unbelievable. I mean, I remember like a Barry Bonds and we, we had, I remember Sean Green was a 30, 30 guy, right? Am I, I get it? was a 30, 30 guy, right? Am I? Yeah, he was.

Yeah. And I remember like that whole combination of power with speed was like, cause you know, the speedsters often, they were like slashers or whatever. Like, but this whole power plus speed, I never thought I'd witness a 50, 50 guy. Like that just to me didn't work. That the guys who were going to hit 50 homers

weren't going to come close to stealing, you know, 10 bases, let alone 50. Yeah. No, to come close to stealing, you know, 10 bases, let alone 50. Yeah, no, he's, he's a crazy athlete, right? He's just ridiculous. And, um, yeah, it's not just a run of the mill pitcher. Like he's not, he's not like your fifth starter. No, he's a front of the rotation pitcher. You know, Jay should have, should have signed this guy. What's going on? They should have. Yeah. They, they, you know, made another couple of bucks. Maybe they could have,

they could have convinced them. Wow. Yeah. No, I just think sit back and enjoy, right? Like, you know, it's, it's, it's like, but the, you know, just had an adult retiring tennis and say, you know, you just, you lived through the greatest era in history. The Dow, Federer, Djokovic, you know, like, you know, they're, they're in, those three are in the top five, no matter how you slice it. And they were all playing at the same time and you lived, you lived to watch it. So, you know, sometimes you get lucky.

I'm being told by Canada Kev that he says there's a new MC five album that was just released today. So, uh, got to see what that, what that is. From the archives. I'm not sure they're all alive. I don't think any are alive. No, Sonic's definitely dead. My goodness gracious. And he's worried, you know, what if coming off this injury, what if, uh, Otani can't pitch when he returns to it? But this will find out next year.

It'll just be the greatest offensive. Yeah. You just get a slum in and just be the greatest offensive player in the history of the game here. You worked with Jeff Merrick. Yes. Gentleman Jeff, who a beloved FOTM himself. And speaking of Harold Ballard, you know,

Jeff will tell you if you grab a beer with Jeff, I don't even know if he drinks anymore, but if you grab a coffee with Jeff, he'll tell you he buried Harold Ballard at Park Lawn Cemetery. Yes, yes he did. What do you think? I don't know what you know,

and maybe you only know what I read in the athletic, etc. So Jeff got let go from Sportsnet, and this is a very knowledgeable, I would say capable, but that's not doing him justice. I think he's one of the greats at what he did. And it's just, I'm kind of sad. I know Jeff will probably be announcing something big soon, and maybe he's one of your six guests, I don't know. But what do you think about how, what happened with Jeff?

I, you know, I don't, I don't know enough. I like, I, I, I, I honestly don't, um, I like, I always will. I love working with the guy. He's incredibly smart. Um, I like listened to him. I thought, you know, he and Elliot on 32 thoughts. I thought that was spectacular. Um, yeah, if you don't know, you don't know. I know that. I thought, you know, he and Elliot on 32 thoughts. I thought that was spectacular. Um, yeah. If you don't know, you don't know. I know that. I just, you know, it just, it seems, you know, it's obviously, um, you know, it happened. It was very abrupt and, uh, and very final. Well he was in Vegas one day and then he was on his way home and, uh,

he was never on the, uh, sports net airwaves again. But I look forward to him showing up somewhere, you know, he's hockey and wrestling, live audio wrestling. Yes. Absolutely. I was talking to somebody about that the other day about the days of live audio wrestling and you know, Strombo and some of those other Bob Mack which junior and all those guys who were around the fan back in the day as the game, they call that show. Yes. And uh, it was,

it helped when the program director was named Bob Macklewitz senior. It did. Yeah. But it was kind of, it was like kind of letting the kids, you know, do whatever you want. I think Jim Richards was a part of this. He was, yes. And maybe Elliot Friedman as a, like a, some kind of an intern. He would have been around. Yeah. And I'm thinking it's Barry Davis, a part of this.

When you think about who might've been. It was a, it was an interesting, you know, again, you think there's, there was quite a chunk of talent there, right? Working for 20 bucks a shift at two in the morning. Unbelievable time in the, and I've covered this with all of these guys, cause I'm fascinated by this era. Uh, yeah. And to this day, you know, Macko Jr is still working with Strombo on various projects and those guys are all still, still tight. So yeah, that was a, an overnight show, which Stephen, I can tell you now this doesn't even exist anymore where you can

have young youngsters on the overnight show to cut their teeth. That's syndicated American radio. Wouldn't you rather listen to somebody talk about American college football? So we're like, I guess you started the big market now like in the midday, like where I don't even know where people cut their teeth and put in the reps in order to improve as a broadcaster. If you don't have the, even the smaller markets have all dried up because now they're just syndicated. You get Ross and Mocha in small town.

That's right. Yeah. It's like, what do you do? You just start a podcast, get good at that, and then you get a radio gig. I kind of, you know, like, well, you know, at the, or you produce, you know, you come in through the producing ranks and try and get yourself on there. A lot of guys, some of the guys that the, uh, the fan have done that over the last few years, but no, it's, it's, it's like,

you know, again, it's led a lot like talking about newspapers, like where's, you know, to go work in a small town daily somewhere. Well, they're all gone. Every one of them is gone. You're depressing me. Okay. Len lumbers, Len lumbers says a pouring over 1980s media for our Dave Steve thing got me, uh, by ways on this day and Dave Steve history is it is the Twitter account that I follow that I think Len Lumbers is involved with. But, uh, in fact, his, uh, Blake is a God. Oh, my goodness, Mike, what's his first name? But Mr. Blake, uh, did jump on the mic during one of our Christie Pitsri recordings to talk about this wonderful account. But to read Len's question again, pouring over the 80s media for our Dave Steb thing

got me thinking how differently athletes and organization heads answer questions nowadays. Candor, opinion, anger, introspection, even humor, is in shorter supply, or am I wrong? Steven, how is the state of the modern player interview? Wow, geez, Dave Steed, like I was thinking, all my fond memories of interviewing Dave Steed, they're none. Right. And we did a piece, we did a little doc with him

years, many years later when I was at SportsCent about the no-hitter, and we went, and he, actually he sat down, we interviewed him in Reno, where he lives, and although he was refusing to about the, about the no hitter and we went and he actually he sat down. We interviewed him in Reno where he lives. And although he was refusing to do the interview for the longest time, and then we went there to interview his former agent and Dave just showed up. So and did it and he was great and he was charming, but he was, he was a brutal guy to deal with, like just the worst, um, angry, you know, an angry resentful guy.

And uh, yeah, I have many memories of standing in like baseball club houses waiting for a naked baseball player to Dane to turn around and speak to us. You know, you kind of, it was kind of a humiliating, you know, uh, you go, cause you had to get your post game quote from, you know, Dave Steve or somebody else and you sat there and waited for them to Dane to speak to you. But no, the flip side and what he's getting, I was talking to somebody about this the other day is that we did have access though.

So like dressing rooms were actually the dressing rooms, you know, where the guys actually had to be and go, and there was nowhere to hide. And you could have a conversation with anybody who played for any team, um, after a game or after a practice, you could sidle up to them, you could put your notebook, you know, or your tape recorder in your pocket and just talk.

And you know, you did have a sense, far more of a sense of what people were like as human beings and you could build a relationship, you know, with athletes that way because you weren't just sitting there trying to grab a quote and get it up there. You could, you know, you could say, Hey, what's going on here. And you would, you would understand, you can understand more about the, you know, the unstated part of what was going on with the team, um, which then would filter into kind of a informed speculation. Let's put it that way. Right. And, and that, you know,

then they started to stage manage it a lot more and, and, you know, they would bring a guy out for a, you know, like the Leafs had this kind of Potemkin dressing room. They were the first one of the first teams where there's this other room that you went to, but it wasn't, but the guys were all somewhere else and they bring one guy out at a time and then 50 people would stand around them and, you know, hold their mics in front of them and ask them

questions and they spit out a bunch of cliches that the media training people had given them and then they'd leave. And then, you know, like, I used to go to Montreal Forum, you would go into that dressing room and it's tiny, the famous dressing room, but the famous stuff on the wall and every one of those guys was sitting right there. You know, everybody was on that team and you know, Gila Fleur couldn't go hide. You could go and talk to Gila Fleur if you wanted to. So that is, that has changed, you know, it really has changed.

And I think, you know, there are sports still like baseball where there's still a lot of access. There's a lot of time before games, a lot of hanging around, a lot of batting practice, a lot of access to the clubhouse. So you, it's easier, but no, they've, they've, they've thrown up a bunch of barriers and, um, you know, now there's far fewer people covering the teams than there used to be, you know, there's far fewer beat people, you know, who are there every day, you know, who really, that's again, a big part of getting to know people, you know, who are there every day, you

know, who really that's again, a big part of getting to know people, but no, he's onto something there because that's, that's it's, and it's, it's a bit of a loss. I think it's a loss both ways. I think you're a hundred percent right. One of the chaps I often saw at Christie Pitts when I was watching these Toronto Maple Leafs baseball games was Larry. Yeah. He like lives like, right.

He loves his Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. He does. He lives his Toronto Maple Leafs baseball He does he lives in the neighborhood and yeah, no, but you know and God knows how many years he covered Well, I think no one's I think he might have the record maybe for blue jays beat reporter I did have an episode of milson Bob Elliott and Dave Perkins. Yeah together and my brain can't even compute how many years of blue jay coverage that is a lot And my brain can't even compute how many years of blue jay coverage that is a lot You know and that's 162 games not that they did every game but 162 games plus probably a month at least of spring training

Plus whatever postseason yeah, that would be yeah those teams used to win postseason games So long well, they're also about 20 years when they didn't make it so though Yeah, so it but it would know it so it was it was a, yeah, a long haul and, um, and you did build up relationships with people for better or for worse. You know, I, even not that long ago, Bob Elliott would be able to contact and directly talk to Edwin and Carnacion like Edwin would like confide in Bob Elliott stuff that he wasn't telling anybody. Like even those days seem like ancient and that's Edwin. Yeah. Not that long ago. No, that's not that long ago. Um, you know, but Bob was there every day, right? And they, the ball players got to know that and Bob knows the sport and,

and he kind of, you know, he knew a lot of people, no scouts, knew all kinds of people who knew stuff. Okay. Uh, one last note on Dave Steven and also correct for the record. I called him Mr. Blake. That is embarrassing to me because of course, this writer's name is Blake Bell. And I had a great chat with Blake Bell and Christie Pitts and I am very sorry to Mr. Bell that I couldn't remember that full name there but Blake Bell has the on this day and Dave Steve history page. So a couple of quick things on Dave Steve front one can any as

you know I hosted a show of Hebsi and I talked to these guys and they have similar stories yours no fun dealing with Dave Steve is a member of the media. I have to say had nothing but bad things to say. Two questions. One is, does Dave Steve belong in Cooperstown in baseball? Yeah. If you look at it, I would just beg people to go and look at him with the advanced stats that we have now with them. You know, nevermind the fact that the guy threw 200 plus innings every year, you know, and, but go look at his numbers because you know, back,

there was that whole thing about it was, you know, wins, right? year, you know, and, but go look at his numbers. Cause you know, back, there was that whole thing about, it was, you know, wins, right? Like, you know, how many did you, you know, three, you gotta be a 300 game winner to get into the hall of fame. Wait, it's, we know more now. Right. Right. We understand it, but look at, look at his, look at his, him through that, you know, he's easily one of the top five pitchers in that era.

And way undervalued historically. So let me ask you this. Is it possible that his ill treatment of the media playing career worked against him on this front? Well, it both like, yeah, no one was going to go to bat for him as, as you know, he's, he's, he wasn't, he didn't make friends. There is a PR aspect of the hall of fame thing for sure. Um, but I think still because of the guys relying on old, old numbers, you know, old school numbers that he probably still

wouldn't have got a sniff, you know, even because of that. But yeah, he didn't, you know, like there are guys who, yeah, um, made friends, you know, and, uh, we're very available to the media. And given that that's who actually gets to vote, uh, again, for better, for worse, uh, that, that does it, it is, it can be a bit of a popularity contest or it has been. There's a question in the live stream from Andrew ward who, uh, he remembers when Fergie Oliver was on Toronto mic'd, we discussed this fact that I learned

from Hepsey that Fergie would have like like I think $50 bills or something and he you know if you wanted an interview with I don't know who he name it Lloyd Mosby or whatever Lloyd knew he was getting a $50 bill for it did you ever flash for an interview Globe and Mail didn't do that no but no one did that except Fergie but but it's true and you know and now ballplayers didn't make quite as much money then as they do now But still you wouldn't think that 50 I would move the needle but it's amazing it did it did. Oh, yeah There's a move also Kevin says we got a retire number 37 should the Blue Jays retire number 37 for Dave Steve because there's a guy gonna be wearing it in 20

I you know the whole retiring numbers thing I guess the other they they they they wearing it in 20, 20, you know, the whole retiring numbers thing, I guess, the other, they, they, they, they, they're very conservative about it, right. For, you know, I guess there are reasons. Um, but I, you know, again, if you want to list the greatest players in the history of they're coming up on their 50th anniversary, um, will that be super awkward considering a persona non grata is the greatest position player in the history? It's a no win. Like what do you do? But what do you do? I know I've told, uh, persona non grata is the greatest position player in the history of the franchise.

No, it's a no win. Like what do you do? But what do you do? I know I've told, no, I've had this conversation because I've worked on stuff, you know, about the history of the team. And, um, I was in Oakland when he hit the home run and, uh, he's, you know, one of the best athletes I've ever seen in the city. Had all the tools and, uh, in the hall of fame and yeah,

five great years with the blue J's we're talking of course about Roberto Alomar. And what I find interesting from a fan perspective is that the way that we were kind of told, okay, this guy did something bad. Trust us. We looked into it and we're banning him, but we don't actually know anything about what happened, right? Publicly, there's no info on what actually went down. Am I right? But there's been no, no, and there was no, obviously there's no criminal charges. So that would do, cause if there were charges, then you would know,

and it would be open. Right. So, so it's kind of interesting. And again, I'm not quite, I'm not doubting that. I think it is what it is, but, you know, this is, there's not been a hint though, Mike of anybody trying to kind of, um, rehabilitate his image like none. No, but so we had recently, we had like a reunion of the 1992 team or whatever. Like, so I kind of know, I noticed a couple of people weren't there that I, I knew Roberto Alomar was not going to be there of course. And who,

I don't know what they'll do for this anniversary or whatever, but Kelly Gruber seems to be on the shit list. Yeah, I don't know. Kelly's an odd duck. So, you know, he may just have drifted away like, well, but I do remember the pitch talks event because I had Ashley talking on the show to discuss that one. He was inebriated and said some misogynist things. He said some dumb things. Yes, you're correct. But I am a little, I guess I feel like maybe times have changed and that's enough to kind of put you on the same list as Alomar. I don't know. I don't think he's on the same list.

I think there's only one guy in that list in terms of this team, but yeah, I don't know. It's funny. I haven't, um, yeah, his name hasn't come up in any of my discussions around stuff there. Um, but what a key part of that 92 world series team and Yeah. And a beloved Blue J, as I recall. Kelly Gruber, everybody loved him. And then, yeah, then he wasn't, right? Yeah. But yeah, a bit of a, yeah, I forgot about the pitch talk

saying that was not. Oh, I don't think he did. He did not distinguish himself. But I feel like that was the moment. It feels like since then, he hasn't been a part of any official. I'm not even sure before that, though, Mike, how much he was around.

Yeah, you know, he's not certainly not as visible here as, like, Carter has been or other of any official. I'm not even sure before that though, Mike, how much he was around. Yeah. And I, you know, he's not, certainly not as visible here as like, you know, Carter has been or other guys have been. Carter's an FOTM. That's a sweetheart right there. Now I'm going to play a little more music. You've been amazing. And then I'm going to ask you about a document. We basically, mainly music the whole rest of the way before we say goodbye here, which is coming up. But, and again, you didn't tell me what songs to play. And I found this one challenging actually,

but I'm gonna, I don't even know if you know this song, but I'm gonna play a bit of this music and we're gonna talk about this gentleman on guitar. ["I've Never Spoken To You"] I have never spoken to anyone the way that you speak to me Don't make you so sad, the kind of thing that you'd see on somebody's TV It's all misery and mortals for days I keep thinking I'll be on my way Oh, but I'm out here chasing the tide Losing money and pride What the hell am I doing anyway? Anyway. Everywhere I used to be

Have you ever heard this song? No. Ok, so the guitar on this is Champagne James Roberts. Ah yes, Champagne James. What can you tell me about Champagne James? Man, kind of the musician's musician I would say. So he's, let's see where people would have heard him. He's, well with Dwayne Gretzky now, the world's greatest cover band. He's really part of that. I love Dwayne Gretzky.

He does, he's in a surf band with Colin Cripps, the great Colin Cripps. Blue Rodeo. He's got a new project called Moon River with one of the guys from The Wooden Sky. He is a great player and an original interesting player. Like that's, you know, that he's kind of doing his thing there, but if you hear him on his own, so he plays, he plays a gig, he lives in Hamilton now. He plays a monthly gig at a place called the Capitol Bar,

which is very cool, great little bar. And so one Sunday night a month and the entire room, so he plays with it, just with a drum and bass, really tight little trio, all originals. And the entire room is music nerds. Like everybody's nerding out. But has he recorded this music? Like are there studio versions of this music?

Yeah, there's some. Only because I really struggle to find like a champagne James Roberts recording. The Moon River stuff, I hope that that'll get a little bit more play, I would think. find like a you know a champagne James Roberts yeah well the moon river stuff I hope that you know that'll get a little bit more play I would think but I'll tell you you know he's tons of sessions right so he plays a ton of sessions but he plays only his original stuff at the capital bar I think he's got a similar gig in Toronto but I'm not sure where that is. Original stuff, sorta jazzy, really smart,

really beautiful lyrically. And I say this room, man, it's, you wanna, you wanna, you know, run into musicians in Hamilton, come to that bar on that night. Wow. And everybody's, everybody, and it's, you know, it's like, people listen. You know, it's a bar. You don't have to listen

You can get a meal but people people just lock in on this guy and you love Hamilton like I do There's no better place for you to be in the winters here. You know, you can't be a Newfoundland I guess you come back home. It's gonna be Hamilton till you die. Yeah, I know I love it It's my you know, I was born there, you know, I Have yeah, it's I'm very loyal to my to my town beautiful now that song if you're curious the listenership It's called everywhere I used to be and it's Mariel buckle is is her name and yeah champagne James on guitar Speaking of the Hamilton in 1974. That's 50 years ago. I know that it's the year of my birth. Mr Brunt so 1974 deep in the steely bowels of a Hamilton rehearsal room for teenage boys Discovered their own sound and never looked back

50 years after congregating in that cold cement block basement Teenage head is celebrating their 50th anniversary at the Phoenix Concert Theater as part of the Phoenix's 33 and a third anniversary special. Phoenix is gonna be shouting out Ridley Funeral Home in 2025, but it's Teenage Head's 50 frantic year anniversary and it's all part of that final spin series. Before I close with a different Canadian band from Kingston, thoughts thoughts on teenage head.

Oh, well they're there. They're the quintessential Hamilton band, right? Like, you know, we lost Gord Lewis a couple of years ago with the awful situation. Of course, Frankie's been gone for a while. But you know, that's, I, I, the, the riot at Ontario place, you know, like, I think there's people, you know, like punk happened in, in England and it happened in New York. Um, but it happened here at around the same time. And those guys, you know, when you listen to it now, it feels, you know, you kind of think, well,

it's rock and roll, right? It's basically kind of rockabilly kind of, let's shake. But Frankie was a threatening figure to people, you know, and, and, um, you know, they came out of a West L high school, which is just around the corner from where my is where my kids went and, uh, like played in the cafeteria. And, uh, and I say, Frankie was, uh, you know, a particular kind of talent. Um, and, uh, yeah, they kind of, uh, you know, like the people were upset about that riot at Ontario place. It was like the, uh, you know, the barbarians at the gates kind of thing.

Right. So, uh, you know, and know, we got to put them in with people like the Ramones, you know? Like they're concurrent with people like the Ramones. So yeah, an important Canadian band, but very much the spirit of Hamilton. Yeah, shout out to FOTM's Dave Rave and Gene Champagne. Dave Rave, I saw him at Champagne James Robertson a couple of sessions ago. And now that I'm thinking, I saw him at Champagne James Robertson a couple of sessions ago.

And now that I'm thinking, I saw you in Hamilton, because I went to the musical based on Oh, Tom's, yeah. Beautiful Scars. Yes. With Tom Wilson, and I saw you there, and I saw Dave Rave there. Yes.

Yeah, it was great. That was a great show. Wasn't a great show. Yeah, Kevin Drew was there, all kinds of cool people were there, and yeah, I was really happy. Dave Hodge was there great show. Wasn't a great show. Yeah. Kevin Drew was there. All kinds of cool people were there. And, uh, yeah, I was really happy. Hodge was there. I'm really happy for Tom. You know, he's having a, he's having a moment. Tom is. Yeah. Well, absolutely. And, uh, I know he's doing some more junk house shows cause I'm a junk house

guy. Like I love Tom's work, but it gave me the junk house. Yeah. I love junk house. Um, again, they've lost a few guys over the years too, but they, man, they still put on a kick-ass show. Yeah. Well, they lost one since I saw them last winter. Uh, sad to hear that. Okay. So here's how we're going to close. I did a, uh, I recorded a podcast with a, uh, FOTM named JD. JD has a podcast about the tragically hip. In fact, JD did want me to put a bug in your ear that if you were game, he would remotely chat you up about your love of the Tragically Hip for half an hour so no pressure but I might have to follow up on that as a big favorite of JD so I'm

putting that bug in your ear right now but I'm wondering did you watch the prime documentary so what were your thoughts on the four episodes of the Tragically Hip documentary? I love it I thought Mike did it Mike Downey did an amazing job. It's funny, because obviously the concert film from the last tour, that documentary is, I can still not watch it without bawling my eyes out. But I thought, and I didn't know, and I know Mike's been working on it for over a long, long time. And, and, uh, you know, obviously spelled, it's been a huge responsibility to try and tell the story and the complete

story and the fact they got, you know, basically everybody and, um, you know, all the managers, um, all, you know, all the people kind of around, but the guys telling your own story. Um, I, I, you know, I, I, why I just binged it. I just watched the whole thing straight through. Me too. And I thought it was spectacular. And you don't have to be a hip obsessive.

I think if you like music, if you like Canadian music, it's such a human story too. I agree. But the archival stuff, wasn't it great? Like, even the stuff, the saxophone player. Yes. Yeah. And there were moments again. So that last episode, you're going to need a lot of tissue, but there that the part about fiddler's green and then we,

the whole movies of the kid, the whole movie is the kid, uh, Charles. And then when, uh, Gord sister reads the letter that G whole movies of the kid, Charles. And then when Gord's sister reads the letter that Gord wrote her when he, you know, about Fiddler's Green and man, I mean, actually it's funny when I was talking to JD on his podcast, I spent a long time talking about Fiddler's Green. Cause even thinking about it kind of chokes me up.

Yeah, no, that whole, because it was them and who's brother because it was them and and whose brother it was yes, gordes, gordes and clairs brother who died in high school right, so it's the two, the two deaths and two very premature deaths and that song by the way, you know our pal tom wilson always plays that song in the sets. You know it does an amazing version of that song, but yeah, if you can get through that section of this, you know, I, I'm getting, you know,

I'm a good emotional thinking. And now I'm thinking that, you know, September 17 for a girl, I know it's mother's day and I was always kind of September 17 that is at his birthday. Yes. And that, that, that's actually the date that he passed away at three and a half years old. It September 17 1989 when he passed and I mean just yeah watch the dog It and again, I agree if you you don't have to be a hip head But you don't have to be a big tragically hip fanatic I feel like I'm gonna get a note from Jay gold that I didn't say the tragically hip

But you don't have to be a TTH fanatic to enjoy the hip doc And I did want to talk to you about it and what I found very revealing as a big fan of the band who had Paul Langlois down here last summer Paul played live and I asked him a bunch of the questions that you'd want to ask a member of the Tragically Hip but I didn't realize how bad things got in the Bob Rock era yeah that I was personally very interested in hearing from the members of the band when Bob Rock was producing those hip albums. Yeah, you know, that was fascinating. I don't know, did you have those,

you know, they released those tracks that Gord did with Bob Rock. I think are awful. It's the worst of both worlds, I would say. But yeah, the fact that Bob Rock and Gord were kind of off doing their own thing and the band were just being treated like sidemen, there's that.

Also, how fractured things were after Gord died. And I knew a little bit about that. You know, I knew that the guys had kind of all gone off to their own spaces and, um, you know, that it was hard doing kind of basic business, the business of the band. Um, and I think that it brought that really to the four as well. Just, you know, like it's, you know, it feels like there are things have healed a bit for them. Um, I had used, well, they brought back Jake gold and I feel like Jake is good for that band and that you talked earlier about why do you have managers,

the good cop, bad cop, and Jake is sort of that bulldog. And he goes out in, you know, does all this stuff and then the four surviving members of the tragically hip can, can do their own thing and you know, be their own. They fired them. Right. And then, you know, Patty and Bernie came in and ran things and then, you know, yes, I was, I was surprised when Jake came back, um, when I heard they'd rehired him cause of, you know, that, but you're, you know,

he seems to have been essential to kind of pulling some of this stuff together. And I like them because he brought Paul Lang one to my basement. So big props to can't argue with that. Steven, you were amazing. Always amazing, but I'm just wondering if there's anything we left on the table you wanted to, to share. I don't think so. We covered a lot of ground. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Are the Leafs going to win a playoff series this year? You know what? Wouldn't that be like we did

win a series two C two years ago. I hate to say it, but you know what a great setup for Barubei, year? You know what, wouldn't that be? We did win a series two years ago. I hate to say it, but you know, what a great setup for Borube, right? You show up, you pick up the pieces. Maybe you got a goalie now, you know? You've already won a cup, you don't have that personal pressure, and this is the year.

This is the year, you heard it here first, everybody. I'll pull that clip when you come back next year. This is the year, eternal optimist. Shout out to the lowest of the low eternal optimist. Playing Hamilton coming up. I feel like did they ever open for Frank Turner? They may well have. They're playing Bridgeworks though on the 20 something of October. I'll be there. Love that band. Love you Mr. Brun. You're great. Keep being great. Thanks Mike. And let me know when you want me to be a guest on

your new podcast. Okay. You got it. And that brings us to the end of our 1,567th show. You can follow me all over the place. Go to tronnomike.com and follow me everywhere. Twitter everywhere. I know you can find me if you're looking for me.

Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery. Steve's got his beer here. Does anyone call you Steve? Yeah. So I have a brother named Steve. A lot of people do. And spelled the same way as you, and I just found Steve.

I don't know if you know him. Yeah, a lot of Steve. Okay, a lot of Steve. Paul Maposta, you've got your lasagna. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Raymond James Canada, subscribe to the Advantage Investor podcast.

Minaris, season seven episodes of Yes We Are Open are dropping now. Al Gregel has been piecing them together. And of course Ridley, Funeral Home. Steven, I got to go to my calendar and just see who's next because I have no idea what's going on in my life here. So this was a big week. We had David Marsden, Steven Brunt. Weee-dee-dee-dee. Next guest, okay, musician, good friend of Blair Packham. I'm looking forward to talking to Adam Faux. Adam Faux, but now as I say Faux, I wonder if it's Fox. My goodness, I'll have to do a little research before Monday, but Adam is my next guest. see you all then!