Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Steve Paikin: Toronto Mike'd #613

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Mike catches up with the anchor of TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Steve Paikin.

What up, Mike? Toronto! VK on the beat, uh, check, uh I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love I'm in Toronto, Mike, wanna get the city love So my city love me back for my city love Welcome to episode 613 of Toronto Mike'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.

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Text TORONOM Toronto Mike to 59559 and get the link to the virtual open house this weekend. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is the anchor of The Agenda with Steve Paikin on TVO. Steve Paikin on TVO. Steve Paikin. Hello again, FOTM Steve Paikin. Oh, I'm now officially an FOTM.

That's nice. I appreciate that. You can now get like that embroidered on your house coats and jackets, dinner jackets. You guys give something like that out? I mean, this is my third appearance on your program now. Well, yesterday, Mike Wilner made a sixth appearance. Oh, my gosh. Somebody, I think it was Moose Grumpy, somebody wisely suggested I give away a Yeti microphone

to my six-time guests just to make sure they sound good. You could do a Lorne Michaels thing, you know, where they give, I think, five or 10 or 15-time hosts a special bathrobe on Saturday Night Live. Yeah, I think that started, I think, with Tom Hanks. Wasn't he the first five-time guest?

And then they gave him a jacket. And I think Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are now vying for who's hosted the most. Right. I think there's a lot of people in the club now, but you look good. Nobody can see you but me, but if they want to see you, they know where to find you. You're on TVO. That is correct. And you know what? It's amazing that that's still the case because, you know, we are doing something right now that I don't think any other broadcast in the country is doing.

And that is we are putting a program on the air every night on television with nobody in our master control. We are all doing whatever it is that we do in our home. So the director is directing from his home and I'm hosting from my home and producers are producing from their home. It's really it's a very different way of doing business. But but you know what? We're still on the air and it's working, so what the heck? Well, Steve, it's all about communication. And if you could get into our living rooms and communicate with people in Ontario, that's everything. And I've been tuning in because you're using, correct me if I'm wrong, but have you been using a piece of software called Stage 10? That is the one, yep.

So I've been using Stage 10 for my... Now, Mr. Pagan, come over here real quick and say hi to my friend Steve, and then you guys can go back upstairs real quick. I got a couple of intruders in here. Hold on here. Now, no one can see it. Is that Jarvis? No, we got a couple.

So this girl is Morgan. Morgan, you want to say hi to my friend Steve? Hi. So that is Morgan. Morgan, you want to say hi to my friend Steve? Hi. So that's Morgan. And Jarvis, I love you very much. I'm going to have a little chat with my friend Steve, and then I promise I'll come up and... Okay, where's mommy?

Okay. Okay, mommy is in the house, I should just point out. I have not abandoned these kids, but I'll be up in a little bit, okay? Love you. You know what's funny, Mike? I got a 16-year-old who I think, you know, we're sitting here taping this at 2.40 in the afternoon. I think she got up about an hour ago. So when you're a kid, well, as you would know, you do have older kids as well.

But when these two little ones get a little older, this won't be an issue. They'll be in their rooms sleeping. Oh, I know. I know. I know. And I was thinking like, because now the six-year-old, actually he turned six on Thursday, so his birthday is coming up really, really soon. But he's pretty independent now. Like he kind of, he gets his own cereal and stuff in the morning.

Like he's pretty independent. But that four-year-old, she just turned four. She's still, I was thinking, she's still awfully dependent. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, oh, this oh this should be she should be out having you know working for a living by now so i apologize i i take it uh you've never had uh a child interrupt uh the agenda i you know what uh there were times when i used to bring my kids even when they were very very little to the studio occasionally when i used to do the I used to do the agenda and the show before that called Studio 2, live for 16 years at eight o'clock at night. So occasionally, I'd bring them in. But of course,

there was a green room where they could hang out. And even if they were really, really little, they were pretty good about hanging out in the green room and not interrupting. And you probably had security guards to, you know, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, here I am. Probably not, actually. Now, on a serious note, you had a COVID-19 positive test at the workplace before you guys scattered remotely. Is that right? Oh, that is absolutely right. Yeah. I mean, I guess I was about to say in the interest of privacy, I shouldn't tell you who that person is. But the fact is, her name is Patricia Kozichka. She's a producer on the agenda. And I can say all this because we interviewed her on the show last week. And she, you know, she came forward and basically explained how it all worked, how the tests work, what in fact you have to do when you get tested, which is really quite unpleasant. If you haven't seen the test, it is a very unpleasant thing. I've heard. Yeah. Now, how's she doing? Well, she's fine now. I mean, it's run its course now, but of course she did the

isolation for a couple of weeks. And I think by now she's probably completely symptom-free. I think she was 90% better when she and I spoke for the agenda. But it does go to show you that this thing is everywhere and can strike anywhere. And that if we don't do our part, we are running the risk of having this go longer and harder and deeper and more dramatic than it needs to be. So we all have to do our part. dramatic than it needs to be. So we all have to do our part. Do you find it frustrating when you see on Twitter or read about a bunch of people going to Hyde Park, for example, to like kind of going about their days at busy parks with no regard to this stay home order we're all trying to abide by? Well, I'll tell you, I live about a 10-minute walk north of Mount Pleasant Cemetery,

which is truly one of the most glorious places in the city. There's so much history in that place, and it's one of my favorite places to go walk the dog, or just go for a walk on a nice day. And I did go there last week, I guess. I think I'd been out, I'd been indoors for four straight days or something, literally had not been outside. So I went for a walk, I was just feeling very rangy. And I went for a walk down there. And it was packed, was absolutely packed. And people were not practicing physical distancing. And you know, I don't want to be a jerk and start to chide people for behaving that way. But I made darn sure that I, it's such a big place, I made darn sure I was far away from everybody else. But when I heard a couple of days ago that the city, I don't know if it was the city who ordered it padlocked or just the people who run the cemetery decided to do it of their own accord,

but it's locked up now and you can't go down there anymore. And it's a shame because it's such a lovely place to go, Mike, but I guess I don't blame them. People were not being careful there. Are you at a point now where you would consider snitching if you saw people? Are we at a point now where you would pick up a phone and actually report that you see people not practicing social, what do you call it, physical distancing? Yeah. I don't think that I need to only because when I was out yesterday, I took a little walk to the corner store to get some stuff, doing all the right things, physical distancing. You know, it's very interesting how no one had to sort of tell us how to do this. But if you see somebody coming at you on the sidewalk,

one of you just sort of automatically moves to the middle of the road. It's funny how that just sort of happens. But I saw a couple of police officers on bicycles ride by. So I don't think they need me to snitch. I think they're on it. Okay, good, good. Before my kids interrupted it, I was in the middle of a sentence. I want to make sure I get it out. Because you are using Stage 10 to get your broadcast remotely onto TVO.

And I've been using Stage 10 to do my video streaming. Anytime anyone's watched a live video stream of Toronto Mike Derhebsi on Sports with that red banner on the bottom that says live, that's been Stage 10. I just want to shout out because they are a Toronto-based development

group. That's a little company on Carlaw. I've met the founder. I've worked very closely. Hello to Sonia. She's been a great assistant. So I just want to shout out Stage 10, a good Toronto company that's helping the agenda and Toronto Mic broadcast to the people. And I think they put up on Twitter actually last week when we used Stage 10 for the first time, I think they said, you know, without meaning to sound too self-promotional here, but I think they said something like, you know, this is a first in

Canadian history. We are, you know, we have a program on the air on a legacy television channel using stage 10 and nothing else. I mean, we're not, we have nobody in our master control right now. It's really quite amazing. You're pretty current on your Toronto Mic'd episodes because you've even heard the Wilner Squared episode. I have. Yes, indeed. Now, I tell you, of course, I knew about Mr. Wilner of the Blue Jays, but I didn't really know much at all about Mr. Wilner, who was the film critic. So that was interesting to me. I learned a lot about that. I heard your Lauren Honigman interview because I've known Lauren for probably 30 years.

We were street reporters once upon a time together before he decided to get smart and get out of journalism and go into the law. And I must say, I tend to like your one-on-one interviews most, but I gave one of your FOTM KOTJ episodes a try. And I got to say, I really liked it. What's nice about it is the songs where you really know them, it's very nostalgic and you can get into that. And then of course you learn something about the songs you don't know. So I appreciated those and I guess I'll start listening to those too. You could be on volume five. So I've got it locked and loaded. I just need to find some time to curve it together. But volume four is going to be in production very soon. I'm all set. But you, my friend, you could record 30 to 60 seconds talking

about a song you love, email it over, and I'll get you on volume five. As long as you don't mind playing some Frank Sinatra, you're on. I don't mind. And that's one thing I'm very good at. No judgment. Your jam is your jam. I will not judge. One time I did a little judgment on a gentleman's choice of a Pitbull song, and I regret it. Like I kind of made a little joke about, and then I realized, Mike, that's against the whole spirit of this thing. If somebody loves Pitbull, that's fine. It's all good. There's no judgment about somebody's songs, right? Well, I heard one of your guys who just submitted something. I think he submitted Mandy by Barry Manilow. And he said, I was kind of afraid to send this in last time because I thought people

would get real judgy on me. But then he said, no, what the heck? That's what this is all about. And he apologized to Barry, I think, for holding back. And he put it out there. And what the heck? It took me back to the early 1970s when I was a little kid and i liked barry manilow as well back in the day who doesn't like mandy and that yeah that was tyler campbell so fotm tyler shout out to you

so we're gonna get pagan mr steve pagan on uh volume five by the way volume four no volume three i gotta keep them all sorted here. Peter Gross submits a jam, and I won't ruin it for you because it's a great moment, but he tells a wonderful story about being a paperboy in 1962 and listening to this song, and it would warm him up on cold days. And it's a beautiful story until you realize the song he chose was released in 1967. So the story is all fake. Something's amiss. It's a different song.

But it's funny. The memory is like a copy of a copy of a copy. Through the years. I do listen to a little bit of Gallagher and Gross Save the World so I know what's going on in that brain of Peter's. It could be that there was some chemical shaving going on there that may have adjusted the dates.

Who knows? John Gallagher, by the way, turned the big 6-0 yesterday. He did, eh? I'm not far behind him. Well, the goal is to get there, right? Yep. That's my goal anyways. So I hope on that note, we're all going to practice physical distancing. And it sounds like you're doing a great job at doing that. You know, you're hunkered down there. I had a question from a gentleman.

I don't know if it's a gentleman or not, but the handle is Mukwah, M-U-K-W-A-H. And he or she says, is he going to escape to the cottage on Manitoulin? Good question. First of all, we don't call it a cottage. If you're from Northern Ontario, you call it a camp. Uh, that's just me still trying to be accepted by the locals by calling it a camp. Um, the short answer is Manitoulin Island, our cottage, our camp on Manitoulin Island is about a seven, eight hour drive. So when you go, you know, you go.

Islands about a seven, eight hour drive. So when you go, you know, you go. And at the moment, they have certainly put the word out and there's no COVID-19 cases confirmed on Manitoulin Island yet. But cottage country, as you know, many of the local mayors and Reeves and so on have put out the word that they don't want people coming up to cottage country right now for a couple of reasons. Number one, you know, the supermarkets aren't necessarily well enough stock to handle the onslaught of people yet. And number two, if you get sick up there, you're in trouble because they just simply don't have the healthcare infrastructure to deal with a whole bunch of COVID cases. So no plans to go there soon. I mean, I guess we would have probably planned to go Victoria Day weekend and open things up. But at this stage, I'm not sure we're going to. That's the thing about all this

is the great unknowns left, right, and center. Like I always kind of, not cringe, but I always wonder why waste a question on how long do you think this will last or when do you think this will end? Like every time I hear it. Yeah, nobody knows. Yeah, like stop asking politicians.

Don't even ask doctors. Like nobody, we won't know how it ends until it ends. Yeah. I think the one thing we can say is it will, it will take a lot longer to end and control if people don't do what we're supposed to do. And if we do do what we're supposed to do, then it'll be over faster. I think we can say that pretty clearly. Am I correct that your son has a wedding planned for September?

Well, you were correct about two months ago, but whether you're correct now, I don't know. In fact, we were talking about this the other day because, of course, he's got all the venues booked and all this business. I think you get three months notice. You have to give them three months notice if you want to cancel all this business. And I think you get three months notice. You have to give them three months notice if you want to cancel all this stuff. So it's pretty much any day now that he and his fiance have to decide whether they think they can go ahead or whether they're going to have to kill the thing. And I suspect they're going to have to postpone. And that's September, right? So yeah, I don't think anything booked in 2020. Well, again, this goes back to the fact we don't know when this will end.

So I wouldn't put my good money down on a September wedding being A-OK. I wouldn't bet a dime on that. I think you're right. John Moore, morning show host at News Talk 1010. Love him. Well, apparently he loves you as well, because his question for you is, why are you so nice? And I'm reading, that tone is my tone. I guess you could read that question a few different ways. Like, you know, I decided to read it that way. But why are you so

nice? I think John Moore is a Pagan fan. How does one answer that question? I have no idea. That's my answer to John. Actually, John mentioned me on his program the other day because I guess he read somewhere that my mother has never missed opening day for the Blue Jays ever. We were there in 1977 and I've missed a few over the years, but she never has. And so what would this be now? And I said, it's like, this was going to be the 44th, I guess, or something like that. Anyway, I don't know if my math is on, but I think this was going to be the 44th opening day. And, you know, at some point there's going to be opening day, I hope.

And when that happens, her streak will continue. But for the meantime, my poor 83-year-old mother is sort of in suspended animation waiting to continue her streak. Well, you're absolutely correct. The streak remains intact because you can't miss what doesn't happen. So it's interesting, though, like in baseball, we can point to a season with no World Series champion, but we can't point to a season with no opening day so no and there was i'm thinking now when was this mike maybe 25 years ago there was might have been longer i can't remember now but at one point the season started late because there

was a labor dispute during spring training and as a result the actual opening day didn't happen until a month after it was supposed to start. And she went to that game. So as far as I'm concerned, the streak continues. Oh, for sure. She was there on what was opening day. Well, let's put it this way. If there's an active player with a decent Ironman streak going, 100%, of course, if there's no games, that streak continues.

So absolutely. So here's hoping your mom gets to an opening day in 2020. That would be wonderful. That would be wonderful. That would be wonderful. I'm going to have some more baseball for you later, but I want to get your thoughts on the Canadian Jewish news ending in print. I just saw that the other day. Yeah, I just saw that. How old is that publication? 60 years old or something? Something like that. And I should say, although I personally haven't been written up

for some obvious reasons, I've had many podcasts I produce get some great press from the Canadian Jewish News. Gallagher and Gross. Mark Hebbshire, I've seen him many times, but they talk about Hebbsy on sports in there. And Ralph Ben-Murgy's Not That Kind of Rabbi with Ralph Ben-Murgy.

I've seen that written up in CJN. So it's sad that, you know, this is a great local publication, but hopefully it returns stronger than ever in some digital format. We shall see. I know that they've been having difficulties even before the COVID-19 crisis hit, but this certainly didn't help matters. You may have taught me something there, Mike. I didn't know Ralph Ben-Murgy was Jewish.

Is that really the case? I don't see religion, but I do understand he is. He will tell me periodically I'll get something like, oh, I can't record that day. It's Passover or something like that. And I go, oh, yeah, there you go. You know what? This just popped into my head now. And it's a complete non sequitur from what we were talking about. But while I see you,

I want to remind myself, I really loved the show you did with your mother when Kenny Rogers died. And it was meaningful to me for a couple of reasons. Number one, it was just a lovely episode to begin with. But number two, I went to see Kenny Rogers at what was then called Cops Coliseum in Hamilton with my mother. And I'm trying to remember how many years ago this was. I mean, it's easily more than 30. And it was, you know, we were both Kenny Rogers fans and we went and it was a great show. And listening to your podcast with your mom just gave me sort of that warm, fuzzy feeling of transporting me back decades ago. Well, thank you, because that's an episode.

So, you know, I did it very spontaneously. It just kind of happened. You know, all one take, and it's all very natural. And I'm glad. I wasn't sure when I pressed play on Kenny Rogers' Lady. I wasn't sure if she could hear it on the phone via the way I was set up, but she could hear it clear as anything. And that was very important. But I listened back to it one night before I went to bed.

I just listened back to it. And I got, I felt very emotional reaction. Like I started to tear up in it. And like, this is something I was there for the week. I put that together and I'm listening back and I'm listening and there's a moment in there where my mom, I could hear her voice. It's all making her very sad, the memories, the nostalgia, and then the thought that Kenny's gone.

And then she comes to this realization. She says something like, everything ends. And then that whole notion that everything, it's wonderful. Enjoy the moment, but everything ends. And it's something when you start to focus on that premise there, it can be a little overwhelming, right? Yeah, it's nice though. I mean, you experience one thing when you host your podcast, but then you experience in another way when you listen back, because the listener would. So I'm not surprised that you had two different reactions as you experienced it the second time.

And I titled that episode, well, it's not an episode because it doesn't get a number that's the way it works here at toronto mic studios if you get a number you're an official episode and that was just thrown on the feed as a bonus and i called it for kenny but in the subtitles actually but really it's for my mom so you know that's for kenny for my mom but yeah um my mom loved you heard it there but my mom loved Kenny Rogers and then I think her second favorite artist ever was probably is probably uh Blue Rodeo and one day I was able to take her to Massey Hall to see Blue Rodeo and that was a big deal to me that uh I didn't get to take her to a Kenny show like you got to go with your mom but we got to enjoy some some Blue Rodeo at Massey Hall and that was fantastic

hey everyone it's Toronto Mike here I hope you're enjoying my conversation with Steve Pagan Toronto Mike here. I hope you're enjoying my conversation with Steve Paken. He's the anchor of the agenda on TVO and he's quite the FOTM. I'm really glad we got to get to know each other and he's made three appearances and I'm sure he'll make more. It's always a good time. We'll get you back to more Paken gold, but I want to take a moment to thank the Toronto Mike partners. They helped make this happen. These are tough times. Dare I say unprecedented?

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Give them your address and find out if they'll do the delivery to your address for free. They're dropping off cases left, right, and center here in Toronto. And I encourage you to order yourself a case or two of Great Lakes. It's fresh. It's tasty. And they help fuel the real talk. They're also in LCBOs, and you can find them in some grocery stores.

And Palma Pasta is still open. They got four locations in Mississauga and Oakville. Go to palmapasta.com to find out where they are. You gotta eat during the pandemic. You might as well eat well. So delicious, authentic Italian food. Palm of pasta. Get your stickers here.

Stickers, tattoos, decals. StickerU.com is where you go. E-commerce, as safe as can be. They'll take care of you. You can upload the image and then order a variety of quantities. StickerU.com, fantastic partners. Really glad to be in business with them. And then there's Austin Keitner of the Keitner Group.

And Austin has recorded a greeting for everybody. So let's take a moment, hear from Austin from the Keitner group and Austin has recorded a greeting for everybody. So let's take a moment here from Austin, from the Keitner group, and then we'll get back to Steve Pagan. He's got a blue rodeo story for everybody. Hey, Toronto Mike and Hey, fellow Toronto Mike listeners and fans. It's Austin Keitner here.

Keller Williams, referred Keitner Group, real estate broker. I'm just letting you know we're doing everything virtual right now. 95% of our transactions are happening virtually. The other 5% are happening with extreme safety precautions, protocols for COVID-19, maintaining our physical distance. And part of what we're doing to remain virtual and to promote our listings and to get into the homes of potential buyers. And right now, by the way, there's a lot of opportunities and a lot of, or a lack of competition right now. So as long as everything's being done safely and 95% virtually, it's actually a really good time for some people to make their purchase. So they're not competing

anymore and they're not having to pay ridiculous inflated prices for the properties that they love and could see themselves living in. And part of what we're doing is virtual open houses. So this weekend, we'll probably be showcasing 10 or 12 of our listings and we're going to do it all virtually. We're going to have some commentary at the beginning with what's going on in the market, what's going on with the number of sales and prices in different categories. And then we're going to give you a quick 5 to 10 minute tours inside of various homes at various price points.

So you can text Toronto Mike at 59559 to get a link to the virtual open house again that's texting Toronto Mike to 59559 and we'll make sure that you get the link for that stay tuned in stay safe and look forward to seeing you guys in person but in the meantime hope to see at the virtual houses toronto mic to 59559 get that link and check out the virtual open houses with the keitner group now back to steve i got a little blue rodeo story for you think, gosh, what year would this have been? Late 1980s. And I was working for CBC Toronto Channel 5, I guess the six o'clock news at the time. I was the reporter. And Blue Rodeo was playing at, gosh, was the forum still going

at Ontario Place then? I believe so. Yes. I think they were. Yeah, I think it was because I seem to recall going down to the forum and doing an interview with the guys down there and getting all the shots and all this kind of stuff. And then I didn't see, the next time I saw them, might have been 20 years later, 15 or 20 years later. And I went to see them at the, gosh what the heck's it called it was the is it the budweiser stage or whatever yeah now it's the budweiser stage you probably saw it when it was the molson amphitheater yeah that's right that's right molson amphitheater and somehow i

guess i went with somebody who who managed to get us backstage afterwards and i went up to jim cuddy after the performance and i walked up to him and said, I said, Jim, you're not going to remember this, but about 15 years ago or 20 years ago, I interviewed you for CBC. And he looked at me and he said, Steve, of course I remember. And that just blew me away, completely blew me away. What a phenomenal talent he is. And even better, like a great Canadian, just a really lovely guy. I was going to say, you know, you're Steve Pagan, right? Like, of course he remembers. There's no reason he should remember. The guy meets a really lovely guy. I was going to say, you know you're Steve Pagan, right? Of course he remembers. There's no reason he should remember. The guy meets a lot of people.

I get blown away that Steve Pagan takes my calls. You're Toronto Mike. You're a big deal. A BFD. I try my best. That's for sure. I got another question for you. I know you... Yes, okay. We got a bit of time because we started early. Yes. That's for sure. I got another question for you. Shoot.

I know you, yes. Okay, we got a bit of time because we started early. Okay. Barrett says, he'd be interested in your assessment of the current political leadership at all three levels of government. I'm sure it will come up anyway. He's been around a long time and has seen a lot. I'll be listening.

Do you want to, yeah, do you want to assess? So we got Trudeau, we got Ford and we got Tory. I know I'm putting you on the spot here, but that's Barrett's question, not mine. Not at all. Barrett may have anticipated a column that I wrote for the TVO website. Oh, it's got to be a couple of weeks ago now where, where basically the premise of the piece was who is the most surprising political performer in the country right now? And I went on to say, well, it's not John Tory, the mayor of Toronto piece was, who is the most surprising political performer in the country right now? And I went on to say, well, it's not John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, because he's been the mayor for a while and he ran a huge company, Rogers Cable, before that. And he's been the leader of the opposition at Queen's Park. So the fact that this man knows how to perform in the middle of a crisis does not surprise any of us.

surprise any of us. I said, it probably isn't even Justin Trudeau, because after all, he's been the prime minister for going on five years now and, you know, has some understanding of what the job entails. I said, no, the big surprise right now is Doug Ford. I said, Doug Ford, not only who has, you know, so little political experience before becoming premier, but whose first year as premier was so bad and his his sort of meteoric fall so precipitous that most people would have probably thought he's not the guy to lead us through this crisis. But I tell you, Mike, every everybody I know says it. And I see this kind of thing on Twitter all the time. all the time. And you spoke of John Moore earlier. John Moore said on his show this morning, let's stop saying, you know, I don't normally like Doug Ford or I don't normally say nice things about him, but he's doing very well now. Let's just acknowledge you don't have to categorize or you don't have to characterize your compliment for the guy. He brings to every single one of his daily briefings, knowledge, transparency, plain spokenness. He doesn't get too far out over his skis. I make a big distinction between him and the president of the United States, whom he used to like so much and who has really disappointed him

a lot over the last few days. But if you compare a Donald Trump briefing, which is, I'll be really careful here, but it's like, it's an appalling exercise in narcissistic, you know, garbage. And what Doug Ford does, it's like night and day. And you don't see Doug Ford bragging about how big his ratings are. You don't see him talking smack about his political opponents. You don't see him abusing the privilege of having this daily access to the people of Ontario. He's really doing it the way he's rising to the occasion, which is the key in crises like this. So that would be my assessment of the three leaders. Fair on all three counts, I'd say absolutely uh the uh doug ford uh during this time i think if you had asked us all a couple of months ago i think we might have predicted uh it would have

gone uh far worse than it has and i think you're absolutely right all these accounts the difference between a donald trump and a doug ford is apparent in a crisis like this totally totally what do you like i know you were on a call today on this topic. So this will be rather timely because I'm going to you know, I'm going to put this online like shortly after we hang up. But so it'll still be fresh news. But what did you think about the U.S. President Donald Trump ordering 3M to stop exporting masks? And can you give us an update on where all that's at? Are masks getting over the border so that our healthcare professionals can use them? Well, as we sit here talking at

three o'clock on a Monday afternoon, the latest is that the Ontario government put an order in for almost 4 million masks. And apparently, Premier Ford, Deputy Prime Minister Christia Freeland, and the US Trade Ambassador Robert Lighthizer spent a lot of time on a telephone over the weekend, and they seem to have liberated about a half a million masks. These are the N95 masks, the really good ones, which we do not manufacture in Ontario, which is why we're so desperate to get them in from regions around the world. Apparently, they've managed to liberate a half a million of them. Lighthizer's okay with it. Friedland and Ford are okay with it. But the premier went, you know, was sort of at pains to say, I'm not going to be doing any celebratory dances until I actually physically see them on this side of the border. You know,

there was that shot. I don't know if you saw this, Mike, but there was a shot that went through Twitter of the premier loading some boxes of masks in the back of his pickup truck. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. And you know, that, that is, you know, as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words, you know, that, that was very Doug Ford. That was a very Doug Ford moment. You know, the premier out there in his civvies, back of the pickup truck open, loading boxes onto the back of the truck, just doing whatever it took to get the job done. And so I think that's the latest. Obviously, the difficulty is that on a per capita basis, two of our neighbors are doing

far worse than we are, and that's Quebec and New York. So it's going to be tough for us to get masks out of either of those jurisdictions for our needs when their needs are actually more desperate than ours. Right. I mean, this opens up a whole can of ethical worms here, too, like in terms of, I mean, 3M made a statement of that nature, which is that it's, you know, there's ethics involved here. You know, these are human lives. Well, there's a contract, Mike. There's a contract. I mean, 3M and the Ontario government signed a contract. You know, Donald Trump, as a businessman,

ought to understand what a contract is. And, you know, furthermore, I think there's, what did the prime minister say? There's maybe a thousand healthcare workers who live in southwestern Ontario who cross the Ambassador Bridge every day to go into Michigan to help Americans. So come on, we're all in this together. you hear i was at the mayor of uh the town was it gander newfoundland but did you hear that statement about how like and after 9-11 you know

newfoundland basically i believe it was gander newfoundland you'll correct me if i've got the yeah no that's right right they couldn't have been more accommodating to to to americans who were stuck there in this time and i mean they come come on, they've made musicals about it. Come From Away is all about that. I mean, it's a perfect rendition of it. Right. But this is what good neighbors do, right? This is, it's just so, I mean, again, you used the word narcissistic and I would use it, I would consider, and again, I'll be careful too, but some might suggest there's some sociopathic behaviors coming out of the president at this time.

And maybe that's not news to anybody. But really, I think Doug Ford might have said that in time when the chips are down, you learn who your friends are. And that's what's happening here. Well, and the odd thing about all this, Mike, is that Doug Ford loved Donald Trump. You know, they both came into office intending to be kind of populist, disruptive political forces. And because of this crisis, one of those two men has decided that, you know, I just can't. Who was it? Melissa Lansman, who ran the war room for Doug Ford in the last Ontario election campaign. She had a great line where she said, you know, the premier is a bull who brings his own

China shop with him. And that was kind of the way he did business for the first year of his premiership. But I'll tell you, as of the last month, you know, he's put that whole routine aside and he has acted like the adult in the room. He has acted like a responsible leader with his hand on the tiller. And I'm sorry, you just can't say the same thing about Trump, who goes off and tells people to try all sorts of medicine that hasn't been tested. And he says, what have you got to lose? Well, I mean, I think there's a couple in Arizona, one of whom died and one of whom's in critical condition because they just started freelancing with medication the president recommended. I mean, what have we got to lose? How about our lives here?

You know? Right. There are several side effects, one of which is death. Yeah. That's a pretty serious side effect. And Dr. Fauci, is that how you say it? Fauci? Yeah. I mean, he's the authority. He's the educated man. And the president seems to be unwilling to let him sort of speak unfiltered, which is kind of exactly what people need at this time.

But, you know, we could do an hour on this one. I think I can feel my blood pressure rising the more I talk about Trump. We don't want to do that. No, I need to, you know, I can't exercise like I used to. So now I have to be very, very careful here. So let me ask another question. This is Arthur Sinclair, and he says, this is for you, Steve.

How does he decide when to push a question when an interviewee is dodging and when to move on? So how do you make that call, whether to press further or to just move on? I guess there's a knack to that. I wouldn't want to say it's brain surgery, obviously, but there's a knack to knowing when you think you've pushed as far as you can. Clearly, if you ask a question and you don't get anything close to resembling an answer, you go back again. I think the most I ever went back was four times. There's a way of doing it, I guess. The first time you can say something like, that's a very interesting answer, but not the slightest bit responsive to what I just asked.

So let's try it again. And, you know, you can figure out maybe three or four different ways to re-ask the same question. I think after four, it's pretty apparent the person's not going to answer it at that stage, and then you can let it go. But, you know, they have been unmasked as somebody who's got something to hide by that point. Yeah, you give it the old college try. So a little add on to that question from Arthur is that his wife is a huge fan. And Arthur thinks his wife has a bit of a crush on you.

Well, Arthur, you can tell your wife that I love her too. But I still think we should continue to remain married to who we're married to. All right. I got a couple of questions from Banjo Dunk. Now Banjo Dunk is a performer with a bluegrass band called Whiskey Jack. He's a, you know, unfortunately there's no performances right now. He's missing that immensely. So hopefully one day these performances return for Banjo Dunk and whiskey jack but he writes he was very excited you were coming on and he gave me quite lengthy questions so bear with me steve karen and i watch steve for our corona news and we find tbo's coverage frustrating

for two reasons one we hate it when he has a great guest and then he says, I have 30 seconds left. We're used to Toronto Mike, who of course has all the time in the world. This is TVO. So I'll stop after this. He goes, why do they have a time limit? So I'll pause and let you answer that first beef he has. Sure. Well, I mean, here's the reality. We have an hour a day. I mean, the program is an hour a day and because it is on a legacy television station, the fact of the matter is, it's a finite amount of time. Mike, you're in the podcast world. I'm in the podcast world too. I do a daily podcast with John Michael McGrath called the On Polly Podcast, which is all about Queen's Park. There's no set time. We can go as long or as short as we

want for those. I know for some of your interviews, I heard with Jim Van Horn the other day, you did a solid hour. And then I know you do the kick out the jams with Mike, what is it, Wiseblood or what's his name? No, that's not jam kicking. Two things are going on here. One is every Friday during the pandemic, I have Stu Stone and Cam Gordon on to kick out jams, but, oh yeah, but the Mark Wiseblood is every single month. He's on for two and a half hours to write. And really, honestly,

if I may self promote for a moment, don't let that timestamp scare you away. It probably, it's the most dense, interesting two and a half hours outside of the agenda that you're going to hear in a calendar month. So shout out to Mark Weisblatt. Yeah, and it's good.

And as you know, I play you at double speed so I can get through it more quickly. So it all works out. But so this is the reality is that we got an hour and we carve it up. Frankly, I think with, I often remember hearing interviewers on all news channels say, you know, about five minutes into an interview, you know, I wish we had more time, but we got to move on to the next thing. And they're on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So they don't need to cut their interview short. Our interviews are long considering we only have an hour, you know, most of our, our panel discussions

are anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes and our one-on-one interviews are 15 to 25 minutes. So I don't think on sort of normal television, you're going to find longer chunks than that. I think you're absolutely right. I think what is actually happening is in this age of podcasting, I think people now kind of get used to the fact that you don't have to say, I got five minutes left.

You can let it have a natural conclusion. And now people are kind of remapping that expectation over to what I would call like, oh, whatever, terrestrial television or whatever the term is. And without realizing, of course, you have very strict parameters as to when you're actually broadcasting on the air. Yep. So it's my fault. It's my fault. You're a leader among podcasters. You know, I don't know if you've heard, but part of the origin story of this was a frustration with exactly what Banjo Dunk is talking about here. And this is not a, uh, not a criticism of your excellent show, but it just in general, cause you do some pretty long form stuff. A lot of times I

would get somebody interesting would be on something and it would be three to five if you're really lucky you might get up to seven minutes and that was it and it was sort of a soundbite culture maybe promoting the most recent thing and not no context or historical perspective etc and i found it very frustrating which is actually sort of why this all came to be is that i didn't like that you've interviewed kevin newman i imagine on your your podcast, right? I have not. You have not? Oh, you got to go get at Kevin Newman because once upon a time, he went down to the States for a few years and was the co-host of Good Morning America on ABC. And I've known Kevin a little bit over the years. And when he came back for a visit to Toronto, I saw him and we got together and I said, you must just have the most amazing job in the world. And he says, you can't imagine, Steve, the most important, powerful, significant people in politics, culture, everything. And I get to talk to them for three minutes.

affairs guy and he's got you know and he's got a brain so to to have access to these wonderful people and have literally three minutes to ask henry kistinger about you know what's the latest on this geopolitical crisis was very frustrating to him well i now need to have him on for sure so i can pull that clip and tell him we're uh we're blood brothers here for sure banjo dunk had a second question so you you're comfortable you braced yourself you're ready also he should look into inviting a cop onto the show i have a good friend who is a provincial court judge and she tells me the cops are overrun with domestic violence calls we don't hear much about this but common sense dictates this is inevitable it should be talked about also and i don't know if this is a new question, you'll have to be the judge of that,

but how are the social assistance people dealing with this? How are they being fed? I expect TVO to talk about this. I doubt the other stations, including the CBC, will give this the attention it deserves. Duncan Fremlin. So he signs his name. That's all we ask when you're doing that.

And I'll leave it to you, Steve, to respond. who run either shelters or provide legal services to women who are in crisis right now because there has indeed been a spike in domestic disputes. And trying to provide those kinds of services under these conditions is just appallingly difficult right now. You know, you have to remember that, you know, they're trying to practice physical distancing at the same time as maybe a woman who's just been beaten up, you know, just needs a hug from a social worker. You can't do that anymore. And the notion of trying to get their kids into a shelter and practice physical distancing when so much a part of recovery is sharing stories with other people and being able to establish relationships with other women who are going through all that right now. It can't be done. So that's our show tonight,

8 and 11 p.m. on TVO, live streamed on Facebook, live streamed on The Agenda's Twitter page, and available for viewing on our website, tveo.org slash the agenda. Dunk, thanks for the question. And I will reiterate that Steve's correct. We did not plan this, so that was completely a happenstance, if you will, but it's also maybe a product of great minds thinking alike

with your producers and Banjo Dunk there. So thank you, Banjo Dunk. Steve, do you have any comments maybe? I was learning of course, like everyone else that shirley douglas passed away and i am a bit younger than you not too much younger than you but i realize i only know her because of who her father is and who her son is this is how i know shirley douglas and then i started reading about her and realizing oh she's more than uh she's more than a

daughter and a mother uh but that was literally like my Shirley Douglas knowledge. That is interesting, Mike. That hadn't occurred to me. Of course, yeah. I mean, for those who don't know, her father, Tommy Douglas, was the premier of Saskatchewan who brought in North America's first Medicare program. He really is the father of Medicare in Canada.

And Tommy Douglas went on to become the first leader ever of the federal NDP. And of course her son is Jack Bauer, uh, Kiefer Sutherland, the actor from 24, uh, and so many other shows. And I guess what's that, what's that show that he's been doing on ABC for the last few years? It has been canceled because my buddy Dan Duran was in that thing. Uh, it was, uh, survivor, something survivoror, Designated Survivor. Designated Survivor, that's right. Filmed in Toronto. Oh, I didn't know that.

Okay. You know, I used to have a friend who said, Mike, everything connects. Everything connects. And this is another one of those moments because Kiefer Sutherland and my brother played on the same hockey team in Los Angeles, California, when my brother used to live out there. Everything connects. Well, the way I say that is I say similar to that is all the pieces matter. Like, and that's because I don't know if you've ever seen the television series, The Wire.

One season of it. Oh, you stopped after one season? I stopped after one season. Okay. Oh, you stopped after one season? I stopped after one season. Okay. It's very hard to find time to watch stuff when you have to watch 150 Red Sox games a year and, you know, maybe 50 or 60 Leaf games a year.

Well, now's the time, right? Yeah. I guess that's right. It's on Crave and HD. You get on that. But, okay, so Shirley Douglas. Oh, Shirley Douglas. Shirley Douglas actually in more recent years became quite an advocate for publicly funded healthcare and became a huge champion in latter years of her father's legacy. And whenever she thought she saw anybody chipping away at the Canadian Medicare system, she'd be all over that. So yeah, she led a long and meaningful life.

So good for her. she'd be all over that. So yeah, she led a long and meaningful life. So good for her. And I'm not sure about your first visit here because you came back with my lawyer, Ron Davis. Ron Davis, yes. Very fun episode. I miss the good old days

when we could just be sitting at the same table and hopefully those return sooner rather than later. But your first visit, I may have asked you about this, but you're an officer of the order of canada and invested into the order of ontario how the hell did that happen you're reading my my script here how the hell did that happen so like maybe a little bit about like like what did that mean to you personally? How does that happen? And are you happy COVID-19? This is a little side, but are you happy COVID-19 has distracted everybody so nobody's complaining about your salary when the sunshine list is published?

Yeah, this I think this is the first year in 25 years when no newspaper mentioned what my salary is. Of course, I'm on the salary disclosure list of the province of Ontario and have been since the Mike Harris government passed that law, and I'm perfectly fine to have people know what I make. They pay my salary, and so they're entitled to know. Okay, the short answer to your previous question is somebody somewhere decides that they want to put you up for it, and they go get a bunch of letters from other people who think it's a good idea. And then a committee considers the application.

And if it goes through, you get told. And if it doesn't, you don't. And I have to say 2013 was an absolutely unbelievable, astonishing year in your guest's life. That was a year that I was honored to get the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, became Chancellor of Laurentian University, and the Red Sox won the Third World Series in the 21st century. That's the best year of my life, bar none. Wow. Wow. That's 2013. It's all downhill from there. Well, on that note,

so I take it you're missing your Red Sox these days. Big time. Big time. Yeah, I told you a minute ago, I actually do watch just about every Red Sox game. My evenings are basically prepping for the next day's shoots for the agenda. And of course, I always have the ball game on. I got MLB.TV and I've always got a Sox game on.

And I subscribe to the Boston Globe as well digitally so I can read the game report the next morning. And yeah, I've been a Red Sox fan for 45 years, longer than the Blue Jays have been around. So it's been a huge part of my life. My dad took me to Fenway for my high school graduation present. And I think my 50th birthday, my mom and I went down to Fenway, and I've taken all my kids to Fenway. And it's sort of an annual thing. I went to university in Boston just so I could be near Fenway. And it's sort of an annual thing. I went to university in Boston just so I could be near

Fenway. You know, it's a big part of my psyche and my life. And yeah, I'm missing it a great deal right now. And it's very, you know, next month I was supposed to go down with a bunch of buddies and we were going to go to our annual game and it's not going to happen. And, you know, I not only feel bad for all the fans who, for whom this is a big part of their, their psychic gratification in life, but I really feel bad as well for all the people who make a living off this stuff. And obviously I don't mean the players who are still getting paid, but all the people, you know,

you think about all those people that go to Scotiabank arena who run, you know, have, have the restaurants, the ushers, the all these people who depend on hockey happening or baseball happening for their living. And to make, you know, when they win, we feel happier. I feel bad for all those folks right now. What you told me before I pressed record, you were telling me what's the area code for Boston?

617. So we're going to have to get you back for episode 617. This is 613, right? I just missed missed it we'll see what i can do here maybe i'll pull some strings for a good fotm like that but before we let you go every time you bring that cast up you just remind me you know i had my own buddy when when the heck did that happen i broke my finger on the last shift of my last game uh exactly a year ago so i was in a cast exactly a year ago which finger uh baby finger on my left hand i don't know if you can see this i'm holding it up the camera now i can see it but the the left finger is still like gross and misshapen

and my right finger looks sort of normal so So that's the bad one. Okay, interesting. Was it a bad break or anything significant? Only because about 18 months ago, I got what they call a bone chip in my right pinky in a bike crash. And they said all we do is I splint it to protect it while I sleep and stuff. But they don't actually put a cast on that. But you had a full cast, so there must have been a significant difference between my little chip and whatever the heck you did to that pinky. I guess so, because they put my baby finger and

the ring finger beside it into a cast, which went all the way up my arm for, you know, I think a month or something like that. Wow. Okay. You know my pain then. I'm in a cast for a good six weeks here because of the broken wrist. Hang in there, buddy. What choice do I have, right? You know, I got to hang in there. All these cards are being dealt. They're like, okay, there's a pandemic here.

You know, okay. Oh, you were going out for a bike ride for exercise and mental sanity breaks. Okay, here, now you're going to be shut down for six weeks. You know what? It's Kenny Rogers, right? You got to know when to hold and know when to fold them. I'm going to play this hand because I'm not ready to fold. I'm going to play this hand. You're not ready to walk away? Not ready to run.

And know when to run? Right. You're never the kind of guy who counts his money while he's sitting at the table. Because as you know, there'll be time enough for counting when the dealing is done. You're going to make me cry again here. Now, before I let you run, Steve Paikin, this came up yesterday with the Wilners, Wilner Squared. Norm, as you learned, is a movie reviewer for NOW Magazine,

and he loves movies and television, doesn't care for sports. Meanwhile, his brother Mike, baseball-obsessed Mr. Baseball, of course, calls Blue Jay Games now his dream job. I'm very happy for the man. Now, the common ground we found was talking about baseball movies. Since you've heard that episode, I was wondering maybe if we could hear what are some of Steve Paikin's favorite baseball movies?

They mentioned all of them, actually. I was very interested to hear what they were going to say. But I think my top two, and I think they're both tied for first, would be Field of Dreams and The Natural. I did like A League of Their Own very much. And I did like Eight Men Out very much. And just for straight know straight you know comedy you got to go with bull durham and you got to go with major league right yeah you hit them all there i mean i talked on that episode yesterday about uh i really like i mean it's as corny as

it is i think in some regards uh field of dream still strikes that nerve with me i know mike says it never seemed to work on him, but I really do tear up. If, uh, during the, uh, the catch scene, like,

it's like, just like, I, I don't know what your response is to that scene. Do you have anything? You want to have a catch? Stop it. This,

all the, the Kenny Rogers, the, the dad catch you're trying to, you're trying to make right for the heartstrings. I have cried. I cried with Aaron Davis, uh,

not too long ago. I emailed you after that episode. I told you right for the heartstrings. I have cried. I cried with Erin Davis not too long ago. I emailed you after that episode. I told you that was the best episode you've ever done. She was just, I mean, you two together were just astonishingly good. And the subject matter was so difficult and raw. And yet that was, anybody who has suffered a loss should listen to that episode because that episode is filled with pathos and empathy, and it'll help people deal with their own troubles. No, thank you. Aaron was Aaron was fantastic. Absolutely. What other movies did you know?

Yeah, The Natural. I I just loved The Natural so much. Like I've imitated that. So Roy Hobbs with the what was the name of his bat? Little Savoy? What was it again? Wonder Boy? Wonder Boy. Oh, he made a bat for the Bat Boy, right? And that was cool. Well, the reason I love that, part of the reason I love that movie, besides the fact

it's a great movie, is that, of course, as a Red Sox fan, Ted Williams is my favorite player of all time. And Roy Hobbs used the line that Ted Williams always used, which is, what do you want people to say about you? And he said, I want to walk down the street and have people say, there goes the greatest hitter that ever lived. And for my money, Ted Williams was. Ted Williams. Well, yeah. Last 400 batter, right? No, he's legendary. 406 in 1941, 521 home runs, and two tours of duty in World War II and the Korean War. Imagine what his numbers would have been if he didn't give up four years of his life. And correct me if I'm wrong, and I don't think I am, but you're the

authority here. The final game of the season, he's sitting on a 400 average. Was it a double header? No, he wasn't at 400. It was a 3996. And the manager said to him, you can just round it up to 400. And Ted said, absolutely not. I'm going to go earn this. Played both ends of a doubleheader, went six for nine, and he ended up at 406. That's the stuff movies are made of, right? Like, that's just incredible.

So we're all very familiar with a certain Blue Jay All-Star Hall of Famer who I think had a 299 something and sat out the last game of the regular season to round that up to 300. Who was that? I don't remember that. Robbie Alomar. Is that right?

Yeah. I did not know that. Who I just watched. Okay, so I haven't done much of this, actually. I've been surprised at how little I've missed sports. Like, I don't yet miss... Even though I was loving the Raptors, like, I was so excited to see what they would do this season.

I was watching every game. And then it all comes to a crashing halt, like I was so excited to see what they would do this season. I was watching every game and then it all comes to a crashing halt. And I was also excited to see if the Leafs could slip into the playoffs and make a little noise or maybe even went around for the first time since 2004. But, uh, I haven't missed it. Like,

I'll be very honest. I haven't, I haven't missed it, but I was watching last night, the 1992 world series games, uh, the Braves versus the Jays and watch that too and it's fast like i just and i love how they compress it right like so you get all the good stuff and none of the

fluff or whatever oh i got i got one for you here again from the everything connects department because last week they showed the american league championship series in 92 when robbie alomar hit the home run in the was it the 11th inning? No, that home run was the ninth inning, right? Yeah, he hit it in the ninth, and then the team went on to win in the 10th or 11th or something. And my brother and I were chatting the other day about, I only have one sibling.

I have a brother who's two and a half years younger. And we were chatting the other day about all the biggest home runs in, the biggest home runs in Blue Jay history. And we agreed on the list, which is of course, Joe Carter's home run is number one. Number two would be Jose Bautista, the bat flip. Over Alomar's? Okay. Maybe Alomar's over Bautista's. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you're right.

Maybe I'll let you do the list and then I'll pick it apart. Okay. Three, three was, well, remember B let you do the list and then I'll pick it apart. Okay. Three was... Well, remember, Bautista was in a deciding game. Yeah, the seventh inning of a... That game was tied when he hit it, right? In the seventh inning? Am I right? Yeah. And he hits a three-run homer in the crazy seventh inning. Okay, so you finish the list and then I'll retort.

And the fourth one was the wildcard game, Edwin Encarnacion against the Baltimore Orioles. And I said to my brother, you know what's great? I was at three of those four games. Wow. And my brother comes back to me and says, I'm going to one-up you. I was at every single one of those games. My brother was visiting friends in California at the time, and they scored a couple of tickets to that Oakland-Toronto ball game. And he's been at all four games of the biggest home runs in Blue Jay history. Wow. That's amazing. He's got to be the only guy. He's got to be the only fan.

I'm sure there were people who covered the Jays that were there. But he's got to be the only fan in the country who was it all for. Right. If you exclude the Dave Perkins and Bob Elliott and these guys. Yeah, which you have to. Yeah, which you have to. But there's a home run. You're missing a home run, which I'd argue belongs in the top three maybe. You're missing the Ed Sprague. Let me guess.

Oh, go ahead. Oh, all right. Okay, Ed Sprague against the Braves. Yeah, I saw it last night, and it's probably at this point grossly underappreciated and underrated. What a big home run that was. But it's tough to put it somewhere

because of course it's not a walk-off and that really helps. The Edwin Wildcard and the Joe Carter are walk-offs. So like they have, there's a whole, that's a whole different level. But it really is a key,

important home run in securing that first World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays. Oh my gosh. Without Ed Sprague's pinched home run, they don't win that game probably. And since we're now talking 92 series, so I'm watching it last night. Otherwise,

your list is fantastic. I don't even know. I'm trying to think of... That's perfect. Well, you could have one more. Doug Ault, opening day. And he hits two, right? He hits two. And obviously not important in the grand scheme of things, but just the first instant hero for the Blue Jays,

April 7th, 1977, and he hits two out of the park, and totally memorable. And now I'm sad again. He took his own life, Doug Ault. Now that I didn't know. I knew he had died prematurely, but I didn't know that's why.

Oh, my goodness. No, terrible. But back to happier things, I'm watching that final, that game six, this game six against Atlanta in Atlanta, 92. And I'm realizing how damn shaky and scary that was with Tom Henke, that ninth inning with Tom Henke. I'm sorry. And I mean, come on, no Tom Henke. I'm sorry. And I mean, come on,

no bigger Henke fan than this guy. I was wearing Aqua Velva all over my body for Tom Henke. I had Terminator Tom. But man, not very good. It is. And I know what's going to happen in that game.

And I thought I was going to develop an ulcer watching him try to close that out when we were up by one. Oh, up by. Yeah, up by one in the ninth inning. And then you get to hear, they do a nice thing on Sportsnet where they bring, for the big moments,

they bring in the radio call. So you hear Tom or Jerry and you hear Tom in that ninth because he's there to call the first ever, you know, he's an open, he's a day one play-by-play guy for the Blue Jays. He's been there for every single game they played and he's there to take you home

and bring you the first ever World Series in Blue Jay history. And it's not meant to be in that ninth inning. And it's scary. And there's a moment where I think it's Candy Maldonado sails the ball into the fans. And then I remembered when I watched it in real time as a teenager,

and I see the ball sailing the fans. In my mind, the guy on third gets home. He gets to advance a base. So I actually think at the moment that the Braves just walked it off and we're going to game seven. And it all came back to me, that feeling at the time. And then, you know what it's like,

similar to actually the clinching game with the Raptors versus Golden State Warriors. At the very end, there's some chaos and you're really loud and into it. And it's, as you know, from your 2013 Red Sox, it's just unbelievable what's happening when your team's about to win something and you're not sure what's going on. You don't really stop down and listen closely to the commentators. And there's a bit of confusion. And I absolutely had a, I would say for a good 30 seconds, I thought the Braves had walked that game. Well, there's two things that need to

be mentioned about that. Number one, you know how classy Jerry Howarth was, right? In the 11th inning, because it was supposed to be his inning to call. And then he thought to himself, we're going to let Tom Cheek bring it home and call the Blue Jays World Series victory, which was, oh my goodness. I mean, what a selfless, classy thing to do. And that's Jerry Howarth. The second thing is, there's a wonderful trivia question. This is really a little piece of obscureness here, but you do realize that Joe Carter was the last guy to touch the ball in

both World Series, right? Absolutely. Mike Timlin to Joe Carter. Yep. In fact, sorry, go ahead. Because I'm going to beat you on this one. Right. Here's one for you. Okay. I believe there's only been two World Series ended with a home run. I hope I don't butcher this story. No, that's right. Okay, so Jamie Campbell was telling me about the fact

that in the first, and I don't remember any of the details of the first one. Maybe you do. But there's a guy on the team named Dick Schofield Sr., okay? Okay, you forget, Mike. You forget. I listen to your podcast. I know the story you're going to tell.

Can you deliver the story back to us since I'm going to butcher it except Dick Schofield's at home plate for both instances of this World Series ending home run, which is unbelievable. That is an amazing... Perkins brought that story forward.

Oh, Perkins, not Jamie Campbell. I'm giving credit to the wrong guy. No, no, it wasn't Jamie Campbell. It was Perkins when he was on with Bob Elliott. Bob Elliott. Yes. And they talked about it in that... Oh, God, I really love that podcast of yours. But yeah, no, it was 1960 and the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bill Mazeroski, hit a walk-off home run to win the World Series for the Pirates over the New York Yankees, despite the fact that they were outscored maybe three or four to one. You know, the Pirates won every game by one run and the Yankees won a few games by six or seven or eight runs. And Dick Schofield was waiting at home plate for the celebration.

And then, of course, fast forward to 1993. for the celebration. And then, of course, fast forward to 1993, Joe Carter hits the World Series winning home run, and his son, who played for the Blue Jays, Dick Schofield Jr., is waiting there at home plate for Joe. And that is a piece of baseball karma that is just cosmic. I mean, that's just karma.

Unbelievable. And you're right, Joe Carter is the last man to touch the ball, or yeah, to have, what do you call it? You don't touch the ball if a walk-off homer but the last engaged blue jay i don't know what the terminology would be but did you uh did you know who was on deck when joe carter hits that walk-off homer oh boy who was on deck let me think well it was wamco so white alomar mo Molitor, Carter. Was it John Olerud? Nope. It was not John Olerud. Was it Alfredo Griffin? Correct. Oh, okay.

And it's a really good, like now people, I think true J fans or a lot of baseball fans know the answer for being asked that trivia question in the past, but it's really a good trivia question

because, yeah, if Joe Carter doesn't, you know, if you need another at-bat, you got Alfredo, the game is on the shoulders of Alfredo Griffin. Well, you never know, but I think he was batting about 100 at the time,

so the chances were not good that he was going to hit it out. And then now thinking of Alfredo Griffin, now I just realize we lost Tony Fernandez this year. Oh, yeah. Wasn't that sad? That was sad. Best shortstop in Blue Jay history, without a doubt oh unquestionably the most hits most games played yeah i guess so i think so yeah yeah and best yeah best fielding percentage uh unbelievable and he's got that interesting thing where he's got like he had the record for best fielding percentage for a shortstop and then it actually got beat but

he still has the record for best fielding percentage by a third baseman because later in his career, he played a bunch of games at a third base. But Steve, honestly, I just checked the clock. I could do this all day. I know you got another call you got to prepare for and everything, but I really would do this anytime you want to do this during this pandemic. It's just great to connect with you. And I really enjoyed this chat, man. As did I, Mike. Thanks so much for calling. And as I've told you before, anytime you want to let me be a fly on the wall when you get Elliott and Perkins back, I'm all for that. I can't tell you how much I miss talking baseball and watching baseball. And

you know, the beauty of it, of course, is that it's every day. And I feel like there's just a lot missing right now. But hopefully, you know, we'll do what we're told. We'll get this pandemic over with. And, you know, we'll get our lives back at some point. You have my promise. It'll be Perkins, Elliott, and Pakin. Soon as it's safe to do so, I'm going to make that happen, just so we have like a carrot, something to kind of keep us going here. Perfect. to kind of keep us going here. Perfect. We're all in this together.

Thank you, Steve Paikin. And that brings us to the end of our 613th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Steve is at S Paikin. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U.

And the Keitner Group are at the Keitner Group. See you all next week when my guest is Dave Hodge. Well, I want to take a streetcar downtown Thank you very much. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.