Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #60

Episode Date: January 8, 2014

Mike and Elvis discuss Dean Blundell, Todd Shapiro, the ice storm, the Winter Classic and much, much more.

Welcome to the 60th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com. Joining me is my brother from another mother, Elvis. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. Happy New Year, Elvis. Big day, Mike. It's a big, big day. Is it a big day because for the first time in four threats, you actually showed up to record? Huge day.

Huge day. Tell me why. Today, 78 years ago, January 8th,th 1935 the king of rock and roll was born in east memphis uh no no sorry east tupelo mississippi elvis aaron presley was born and of course his twin brother was uh still born uh but so happy birthday to uh the king of rock and roll elvis aaron presley you know elvis uh elvis a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me. He did. I actually know that he meant a lot to you.

All right. Moving on to the agenda. Very busy agenda. Ridiculousness of you calling out Elvis. So you think Ryan, my brother, is a credible source for such things? Absolutely. I definitely think that he is a credible source. So you're the one.

I'm going to go to him for news on you and uh the brand of green axe to purchase that's a great story that we will not use on this podcast i don't think he listens it's two other things i wanted to say before we get dive into the actual podcast itself i want to say uh hello to mrs elvis and uh i also want to say hello to Liz. It'll be interesting for me to learn whether Mrs. Elvis enjoys this performance as much as she enjoyed your blog sucks. You know, I'm sure I'll report back if I've ever given the opportunity to come back on this show or we can wait for the next episode of your blog sucks whenever that may happen and we can find out what she thought of it then.

Maybe before I find out how your Christmas and New Year's was, I would maybe make a little announcement to the many fans of Your Blog Sucks that that I was involved with was put on hiatus slash canceled slash unknown next air date. Ten fantastic episodes in the archives. It felt like such a beautiful round number. And really, I had a lot of fun with it. There's a couple of things going on here. One is we live so far from each other that it's really out of the way for me to come here but can i tell the people three not once not twice but three times in a row i went to bed thinking uh elvis is coming and uh to basically very early because we do all this

before work bright and early the sun hasn't barely come out and i get a i always wake up to a g chat window and it says can't make a dude or something like that right yeah three times the other factor is that my my my job is is sometimes unpredictable and it can be difficult for me to make that make a commitment when obviously we both have real jobs outside of this so uh i think it's probably for the best it certainly was a lot of fun I do enjoy being back on the air again. But at the same time, it is only a hiatus. Perhaps we'll be able to make things a little bit easier in the future for us to do this. And I thought of maybe, because Rosie, I guess we call her the regular co-host of Toronto Mic'd,

is her availability has gone to shit because she went out and got herself a job and messed up everything. So I'm going to have other voices with me. You know what? You're like Bob McCowan now. This is primetime sports where there is a revolving co-host chair. And you're Damien Cox. Well, there's two official co-hosts, right? There's Damien Cox and Stephen Brunt.

Stephen Brunt will never host ever, ever, ever. Damien has hosted a few times. But quite regularly, even with those two guys as the official co-hosts, there's other guys who step in because invariably Damien and Steven Brun. I've got a whole roster of people ready to step in. I'm telling you. I've got a brand new voice that you're going to hear. I've got some guy named Todd Shapiro who's going to come in in a few weeks

and sit down with me. I've got Bingo Bob who's going to pay a visit. Humble's girlfriend Amanda is going to come in in a few weeks and sit down with me. I got Bingo Bob, who's going to pay a visit. Humble's girlfriend, Amanda, is going to make a return. You're going to come back. You're getting invitations left, right, and center. I fucking love you. If you need anyone on the third mic even, keep me up to date. I'm happy to be here.

You'll always get the invitation because you're only going to show up 25% of the time. I just got to make sure there's many people coming. Okay, so Your Blog Sucks. If you're waiting for episode 11, you're going to be waiting a while. Keep waiting. We might embed. I have an idea. A segment in Toronto might could be the Your Blog Sucks segment,

and we could kind of revisit that format, but we'll discuss that. It was fun. I loved it. Ten great episodes. It was a great idea I had in the shower that day. And how was your Christmas for the kids and Mrs. Elvis? Everybody happy? I think I have another small outlet of Toys R Us in my basement at the moment.

So you have a Costco room, right? Do you have a Toys R Us room as well? Apparently, yeah. No, the kid was very successful. The kids were very happy with all the presents and the loot that they got. And we got to see some family. So that was nice. I'm just saying that it wasn't nice at all.

But it was good. It was good. Good to have time. I had two full weeks off. Maybe even a little bit more than that. First time in a long time. So that was a nice break for me. Very good.

How about you? Oh, my Christmas and and nears were fantastic um real quick version is i had no toys at all because i have two kids too old for that crap and then i have one kid in the womb didn't get anything nothing nothing oh you ruined it i don't i did you know when our first daughter was in my uh wife's belly I gave my wife a little onesie as a present. Well, you're actually a sweetheart. I did not, but he'll get a lot of gifts next Christmas. But yeah, everybody's great.

And yeah, I had some time off as well. Quick story on New Year's Day. So New Year's Eve, I went to two New Year's Eve parties. I usually go to no New Year's Eve parties, but this year I did not have the kids. They were with my ex. And then Monica and I went to a raging storm party in which they celebrated New Year's. They celebrated the countdown at 10 p.m. because there were lots of kids at this party. So at 10 p.m., we pretended it was midnight and we did the whole champagne and the countdown. And then I left that party for humble howard's house in which we celebrated midnight at

midnight like adults and after midnight so i'm coming up the stairs because he's got the big tv in the basement and we watch the countdown and there's a little magic show because his his daughter's boyfriend is a magician believe it or not and we come up the stairs and i can smell the like i can smell shit somebody has taken a dump in the living room and i it's a strong smell and i turn the corner it's the biggest pile of it looked like elephant dung like at a zoo and an elephant takes a shit and it's like a foot high and it's like two feet wide the biggest shit i ever saw uh one of the guests had brought his uh great dane he was dog sitting and it was a 200 pound great dane and it took and i didn't know I've

never been around a 200 pound Great Dane I didn't realize that it was like I had a dog and if you collected all the shit my dog produced in its lifetime of 16 years and you put it in a pile it would look like what I saw on the living room floor uh like 20 minutes after midnight no it was a hardwood so basically a garbage bag scoop it up lysol anyways the party went on but it was the funniest thing to see uh shortly after midnight yeah we uh we took the kids to the zoo if you remember new year's eve this year it was cold as it has been for most of the winter here in toronto but the zoo does a special kids sort of um day at the zoo or evening at the zoo it started at five o'clock and so bundled the kids up, put them in a wagon

and saw some camels and some hawks. You got to go really... Is this the real zoo? The Toronto Zoo. They brought some of the animals out onto the pathway so you could get up close to them. Reindeers, a couple of reindeer. There's no plural, sorry.

We saw the pandas and the wolves and the polar bears and stuff. And then they had a countdown at 8 o'clock for the kitties, but we left a lot sooner than that. We were only there for about an hour. So I saw the animals that we wanted to see and then went back in the car because it was frigid. That's cool, though. And with a four-year-old and a one-year-old, it wasn't, you know, they're not overly understanding of, well, if you just move around, you'll get warm. Are we allowed to say you're from Oshawa?

Sure. I can't remember the rules. Rosie had more rules than you do. I got to keep track. So how was Oshawa affected by this ice storm we all got in Toronto? Good question. I think Oshawa itself still has a – the utility system is owned by the city. So we're not Hydro One or Toronto Hydro.

We're Oshawa PUC. And so they're dedicated, obviously, just to the city of Oshawa. So I think most of the power was restored within the first 12 to 16 hours or something like that. We were out of power for about 12 hours starting at sometime in the middle of the night. So we were only out of power for half a day and we just went to our in-laws. My neighbors, funny enough, had power when we did not. And then, then following day, they didn't have power and we did. Oh, that's funny. Yeah. So, so for that 48 hour period, I think maybe 72 hour period, there was, you know, uh, different places in the city that didn't have power, but we got it

back relatively quickly and didn't really have a lot of the situations that were here in Toronto where more than a week people were out of power. Yeah, I actually felt disconnected, believe it or not, because this pocket, New Toronto here was completely unaffected. I woke up that morning. None of us, no one in New, I don't think anyone in New Toronto lost power. Can we not say New Toronto? Yeah, well, would you say Lake Shore and Islington? If Dave Boland

is going to put on NHL.com that he's from Mimico. Stupid. But people, Lake Shore and Islington, that's too specific. New Toronto, it's still close. You know exactly where the guy is, but it's a little more. I'd say Tobacco. No, Tobacco could be rexdale for god's

sake that's a mile doesn't say rexdale then if you're in rexdale i know it's you're in rexdale you can say rexdale new toronto so like east of uh sorry west of mimico uh there's no power loss it was uh i i read somewhere there's a lake effect where the lake heats it keeps us warmer in the winter and a little cooler in the summer and that meant we didn't get the same ice. So basically we didn't have the same weight of ice. So there were no trees crashing down on lines and stuff. Right. No power loss here.

I had a brother closer to like Islington and Dundas who lost power for days. And my mom and my ex lost power in the old York, kind of near Humber. Well. People know these neighborhoods, Elvis. This is a Toronto mic. It's a very local podcast. So in York, they lost power. But yeah, my brother, who was at Queensway in Islington, he did not lose power. See, in Oshawa, there's a lot of places that have really – because Oshawa has been around for a long time, and there's a lot of really old trees. So driving in the older sections of Oshawa, it was a disaster zone i mean there's trees everywhere on the ground because i saw

pictures from brampton that looked like that it was crazy where i live in north oshawa which is more of a newer very north i've been there yeah very nor a very newer type of subdivision so there really wasn't any type of damage but your lines they're not buried right there's still no we're buried the lines are all buried so wouldn't that minimize this yeah but our lines eventually have to go to somewhere where there's a transformer apparently there was a bunch of transformers that blew up and stuff more than meets the eye right so but there was no trees that fell down in our neighborhood because they're all you know no more than say six seven years old so they just bent you know if if that even so so what's gonna happen next summer like when i'm

biking the streets of toronto like there'll be no trees where the trees go yeah it's crazy and the funny thing is is that people are saying well we need to invest more in in burying these lines the problem is is that uh the reason why we had all the trouble in the summertime with the was that when you bury the lines and then there's a flood then that sort of you, you know, you're kind of damned if you do damned if you don't. So, you know, these people aren't really necessarily thinking about what happened just six months ago when there was this major flood and all those underground lines got just flooded out with all the water that came into the city.

Okay, so this ice storm was very close to Christmas and it was cold out. And I made an offer via Twitter twice, actually. I said, if anyone out there has no power and wants a warm bed to sleep in, because I had two nights where the kids were at my ex's house. So I actually had two empty beds, warm beds. I had full power. And I was on Twitter and reading, you know, listening to the news and everything and watching the news and seeing how many Torontonians were without power,

like a number, like a hundred thousands. Yeah. Like, yeah, it was a big number and I made the offer. So I said, if anybody needs a bed to sleep in tonight,

I was fully going to open my door to whoever wanted. I was, we had neighbors come over. Neighbors is one thing, but I was opening it up to any, I didn't know what no neighbors needed it. So I was like, and no family would like the one family who needed it didn't want to take me up on the offer.

So I offered it to family and friends first. But then I said, if anyone wants a bed. So Monica was upset with me for this. She said that I can't do that. Like, I don't know if she thought maybe we'd have an axe murderer sleeping like in the basement who in the middle of the night would kind of come up the stairs and hack us to death or whatever it might have been something that you should have cleared with yeah yeah yeah your roommate i guess my question is uh and i thought it was like the nicest thing i've ever done like and i was fully ready like any first come first serve who needs the bed uh it's a cold night near christmas and i got this freaking nice warm house the nicest thing you ever would

have done would have been asking yeah i forgot. I did forget to ask first. Cause I thought, how could anyone be? I just didn't think about it, that you got to clear that first. Cause it just seems so like genuinely like nice. I know. Anyway,

but then the best part was someone, someone retweeted the message. So she, and I said, originally I said, well, it's only in my circle of Twitter. I'll vet them.

I said, I'll vet them via Twitter. Like I'll know them for your Twitter. They're following me and I'll look and see how many tweets they did, what they tweet about. I can detect the axe murderer from the content of their tweets. I'll vet them via Twitter. Then it got retweeted, and it entered different Twitter ecosystems, and I lost control of the offer. But at the end of this day, and I took a little heat, but then I kind of warmed her up to it.

I explained how, like, amazingly how I'll vet them a bit and i'm not gonna be an axe murderer it's gonna be probably a nice little little maybe a couple or a family or somebody needs to warm them whatever and i was like you know whatever i was all set to be so freaking nice and then she warmed up to it but nobody took me up on the offer well here's part of the issue and this is this is something that's happening in oshawa right now with the with uh – there's a faction who dislikes city council immensely. In every city, but go ahead. All of the communication about what to do in this storm was delivered through medium that required power. And if you didn't have power, how were you going to be able to read the notification saying, hey, I'm Toronto Mike.

I have a warm bed to offer. Now, I understand that people can tell other people, and there's ways in which your message will get out. And I thought maybe with smartphones, when they lose their charge, maybe they would get somewhere where they could charge. Right. So I'm not blaming you so much, but certainly cities and the province itself. Like Hydro, because all my info from Hydro

pretty much was coming through Twitter, of all things. That doesn't sound like the greatest... Right, and like the city's defense is that, well, we posted all of the press releases online. Well, I mean, what is that going to do? If you can't get online, then how are you going to be able to read all this stuff? So good for you on the thought,

but I think the execution was a little flawed. But yeah, I didn't have access to terrestrial radio stations in which to convey my message. Do you have a crank radio? I do not. I do. And I am wondering perhaps if maybe I should, as well as, you know, we've got tons of batteries because of our Costco membership. Because of your, because Mrs. Elvis's habits. Costco membership. And certainly your, because Mrs. Elvis's habits. Costco membership.

And certainly had enough food and whatnot. But, you know, it is difficult to, because I think we probably could have, you know, waited it out knowing that it was, it only lasted the outage for us until about lunchtime. But having a four-year-old and a one-year-old telling them like, hey, today we're just going to like, you know, wrap ourselves in blankets and stay in bed.'re just not willing to do that so we needed to get

get out of there and get somewhere where there was power and heat so cool it was interesting certainly uh christmas that i think most people will remember both good and bad they say it's uh like the worst i don't know they were calling it the worst toronto storm in recorded history or something which i never thought was right like i mean of all, what's the death count on this thing? Zero. Zero, right? Because Hurricane Hazel came in, because I do a walk in which I go by this monument to Hurricane Hazel. It's along the Humber River.

Only in Canada would we have a monument to weather. Yeah, well, it was a monument to the rescue efforts of people in 19, I think it was 53 or 54. It's like early 50s this happened. And then they had the death toll on the monument. And it's bigger than zero. I think it's 1954, wasn't it? Yeah, it might have been 54. It might have been 54.

So in 54, Hurricane Hazel comes in, and a bunch of Torontonians die in this. I would think that would be the worst storm. Well, I think it could be a product of the times as well though right because i mean it were were supposedly in these modern times and for us to be basically shut down for a significant period of time i think is significant more significant than shutting something down in the 50s where we weren't necessarily as technologically advanced just snow removal techniques for one is is pretty you know the the it's pretty you know remarkable as to how quickly they can clean the city i'm sure that that wasn't the case back in

the 50s so i think it could be more significant even without the number of deaths fair enough because we're also better at building houses and shelter and whatnot than we were back then too although this house did exist at that time. Right. And it's, well, you had the lake effect, like you said,

there's a lake effect protecting me. And if it's like, if you have one of those 45 degree days and you're just like, just, I could see you just sweating, you're dripping, you're sweating, you can't take it. Come here.

It'll be like a 37 degree day. Wait, in new Toronto. Cause you're like, I know the lake effect. Yeah. Uh, let's talk a tiny bit of, uh, hockey. I want to ask you, because you're in Lake effect. New Toronto, the Lake effect. Yeah. Let's talk a tiny bit of hockey.

I want to ask you, did you watch the Winter Classic? You know what? I did not. Whoa. I did not see any of it. I saw, I didn't even see the highlights. I read about it. I heard about it.

I wasn't really interested in it. I haven't even seen 24-7 yet. I'm waiting to get the bootlegs of that. I wasn't really interested in it. I haven't even seen 24 seven yet. I'm waiting to get the, uh, the, the bootlegs of that, but, I have seen them all.

Um, I'm interested in 24 seven, not interested in the winter classic. It's just another game happened to be outside. If I was going, I'd be way more interested, but I'm not, I'm not interested in going to see a regular season game with 105,000 people in the freaking cold.

Okay. A couple of thoughts. First is 24 seven. Um, first of all it's our team so that alone makes it must see tv like i think if it wasn't it wasn't compelling i think if you weren't a fan of the red wings or the leafs well no i disagree because i've seen the other 24 7s and they're an interesting insight to professional i know this one seemed to be missing a lot of that like uh it seemed to be missing the personalities and such that would draw you in

regardless whether you'll see which i'm not surprised given that traditionally toronto maple leaf athletes rarely have anything to say to the media they tend to be a very very closed organization in that way so i'm not surprised that they would have been dull in that sense when you uh finish watching we'll talk again because uh my favorite part of this entire series was um witnessing this beautiful bromance beautiful pure bromance that exists uh with phil kessel and tyler bozak and tyler bozak i knew i knew in episode four so you're gonna have to wait till four to see it but i knew that they were roommates it's beautiful like It's actually beautiful. Forget sexuality for a minute here, okay?

This is a beautiful, beautiful relationship. We could all learn from it, regardless of whether they're sexual or not is irrelevant. This is a beautiful, beautiful relationship. Tyler has a lot to be thankful for with his friendship for Phil because he would have never gotten that contract that he did without phil's uh influence well i read a joke somewhere that tyler bozak will be going to sochi because he'll be he'll be he'll be sleeping on phil kessel's couch beautiful beautiful so yeah i look forward to your feedback on that one and we'll talk more um i i wasn't you know just to just to close it off i wasn't uh i wasn't overly

excited about it. I mean, I understand. It's kind of like an all-star game to me. But wouldn't you watch a regular, if there was a game on a New Year's Day, which is, you know, usually a day that you're kind of at home and chilling out, and there was a Leaf game on at 1 p.m.

at the Air Canada Center against Detroit. Wouldn't you tune into that? Yes, if I, I wouldn't, it's not, what I'm saying is that it wasn't must see tv for me a game in january and february is it damien cox is all writes about this all the time these are sort of the boring days of the nhl hockey season in between game 40 and game 60 it's really just sort of like okay let's get to the more exciting stuff i will watch hockey at any given opportunity but if i have something more exciting to do uh which that level of excitement it doesn't have to be very high i

wouldn't very fair point uh but i personally was drawn in by this event eventness of this it drew me in because um how often do i see the leaves play a game that matters outdoors like never so i wanted and it was very interesting to me to see it because it's just it was so different well if you listen to tim lewicky which he's got a lot to say who knows how much of it is actually true uh toronto will be hosting a winter classic here very very shortly at b but there won't be 105 000 people there no it'll be at bemo field and probably like 40 000 or something after they destroy their soccer experience which he said he wouldn't do you're a soccer guy so we we signed this canadian former tfc player i wanted to call him derosen but that's uh the raptor that's right uh what's his name uh d-row d-row yes uh what's his real name full name duane de rosario so is it uh he's from scarborough are we gonna have are we

ever gonna play yeah, that's okay. Give me an idea. I know that Mike Myers is from Scarborough. So here's the deal with TFC. I just got my notification to act on my renewal yesterday. So they pushed back out the renewal opportunity or renewal window for season seat holders. Usually happens before the end of the year, and they pushed it out because they wanted people to see what they were going to do during the off season.

And there's been two and a half significant, significant signings by this team. One is a Brazilian, a very young Brazilian player. He's about 23 years old. His name is Gilberto. He's a kid, highly skilled. He's a very short player, which is likely why he's coming over here to play in MLS as opposed to Europe. But he is he's a big, big signing for this team. He's a proven commodity, a big name and should add some much needed skill up front. Dero is the other player. He's certainly uh beyond his years at this point in time he can

still pot some goals i think but he's around 36 years old he's the leader of the canadian national team and and likely will be able to add some stability to this team that we haven't seen in a long time the point five is is the rumored signing that is very very close to happening and this is a massive massive signing if it happens and that's jermaine defoe who plays for uh tauntonham right now in uh in the premiership uh big time player former uh england uh player and uh he would be a massive addition to this team so i've got a decision as to whether or not i renew my tickets what kind of cash is this for what for your for your you have two seats in the supporters section. Correct.

What do they want from you? I haven't, you know what, I haven't, they froze the ticket prices again. So this is what they did. Last year, because of all the ridiculousness that's been going on with this team, they said, you know what, we're going to roll back prices to what you paid the first year that you joined

or the first year that we entered the league. And this year they froze ticket prices again. So we're back to year one pricing for the second year in a row. I believe I paid $10 a seat per game. Wow. That sounds super reasonable to me. Yeah. I'm in the cheapest part of the seat.

You know, that's the most fun part of the stadium. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't want to sit anywhere else. No. So, I mean, I should point out, I, you, I've been lucky enough to sit in your seat uh not on your lap but in your seat and you never take me up on that offer i think it's been several times it has been several times and it's great because everybody's jumping up and down and singing and there's chants and it's in french and then there's a dickio chant and i mean there's a whole like dickio's on tv this is the greatest thing ever i turned on sports netting he's there

on tv and i'm like the man the legend danny diccio is on tv his picture is up his signed photo is up in my basement i love danny diccio and he's on tv now good for him i love so will these moves be sufficient to win back one of your more uh high profile fans david miller who uh very publicly denounced the team is well i think and forget about david miller me back, I think, is something that You're number two. They have to, certainly these signings go a long way. I'm likely going to renew. I haven't made my final decision yet.

But I will say that the proof needs to be in the pudding. They need to win on the field. And if they do, then I think with the foe and a couple other smaller moves that they may make, this is a playoff team. And if they can do that, they have to make the playoffs. If they don't, then it's game over. It's game over. I think that this team is in big, big trouble.

Look, I need you to renew those tickets or I'll never see them. I can't see them. One last sporting note. What did you think of Team canada do is there anything there that's irking you because this was a big topic in the uh the cherry hawks dressing room last night and every if you look hard enough you can find things to complain about but i didn't have any real complaints because it's such a deep roster and there's great players that are going to be left off this deep roster like jerro and the one that everyone's upset about is saint louis

i like him as much as anyone but 38 year old i mean the fact is it's not the it's not a grave slight in my opinion that they went with like a rick nash instead well i think saint louis is uh you know having a fantastic couple of seasons he's doing like he just he's lighting it up um but you're right i mean i think age has to play a factor this is a compressed a very very compressed type of schedule you're basically playing like every other night or every third night um and so who knows how that he would uh he would stack up to that um i really don't have a problem with the roster other than i would have maybe taken a look at thornton me too he's uh he's uh i would too he's the league leader in assists right now. And you always need those guys to be,

he's a veteran, like a, one of those like a gruffy vet guys, right? Now the, the knock against Thornton, I guess, is that he brings baggage.

He certainly was there last time they won gold and he's a winner on the international stage to a certain extent. But you know, in the, during league play and, and Stanley cup playoffs, he's traditionally a guy that hasn't performed very well. So,

and this is a big ice surface too. He didn't take a, a very, uh, you know, play and stanley cuff playoffs he's traditionally a guy that hasn't performed very well so and it's a big ice surface too he didn't take a very uh you know if if memory serves he didn't take a real strong leadership role or or made a huge impact uh in vancouver and so perhaps that played a little bit into it who knows he's also a you know a little bit longer in the tooth than some of the other guys that they for sure shows for sure uh so no no big uh surprises the one the one thing that i guess is maybe a topic of conversation but i'm not necessarily against it is that flurry isn't on the team and he was such a big part of the team in vancouver that that to me is the right call because uh i love when my leaves are not playing i root for pittsburgh that's a fun fact for you and particularly in the playoffs and i two two

playoffs ago, I was heavily rooting for the Penguins versus the Flyers, and Fleury couldn't stop a beach ball. It was like the worst goaltender performance. They ended up playing somebody else. But look at all the... Even last year, they pulled him

and played the other guy. He's got the heart condition, whatever his name is. Look at 1-2, though, on Canada. I mean, you've got Luongo, who's certainly having a better season. But at least he's been there, done that. And Carey Price. Both of those guys

at some point in time in their career have been horrible. I'm not arguing with you. I see your point. If I had to be a picky guy and say the one thing, I don't understand how you I think there's room for Claude Giroux on this team. Just based on

the fact that he actually has, I believe, more goals, no, more points than anyone else, any other Canadian over the past three years or something, some silly stat like that. I remember at the same period, like a couple of years ago, they were talking about maybe he was up there with Crosby. Not me talking, obviously, because I watch the games. But there was discussions about how good Giroux was. And his stock seems to have plummeted pretty damn fast

because he had a rough start. And he's hot again, but he had a bad first 15 games, and his stock plummeted. You know, I don't think that they chose anybody who is, like, who was that, Rob Zamner? Yeah, you know what? When they announced that team, I was watching live, and they were announcing it, and they were doing it alphabetically.

And they had one more name to come, and we were low in the alphabet, as low as you can get. And I swear to you, I was 100% sure Stevie Eisenman was being called. And they called Rob Zaminer. And I remember 98, right? This is Nagano? Yep. I remember. I mean, they explained it.

They wanted this checking grinder guy. But I didn't understand how Steve Eisenman doesn't make Team Canada and Rob Zaminer does. I don't think that there's a rob zamner on this team but i don't think that claude geroux is off of this team because they chose a guy like rob zamner if that makes any sense um i'm happy with the team and i think uh now it's it's a matter of making sure that um you know they take advantage of the fact that bobby ryan is in the olympics and uh i realize how i'm if i'm if it's not playoff hockey or leaf hockey, I'm not watching enough hockey. I'm a busy

guy because certain names have been elevated to statures without me noticing. One guy is Jamie Benn. Now I'm catching up. I'm catching up quick. I'm catching up quick, but he's spoken of as this slam dunk member of Team Canada. And I'm like,

who? Jamie who? Jamie Benn? And I'm trying to catch up. And I feel kind of team canada and i'm like who jamie who jamie ben and i'm like trying to catch up and i feel kind of like my brother ryan would be like quoting his stats from junior a hockey right now what does your brother think about uh what's his name uh the italian stallion there oh barni you know i don't know because uh the topic's been banned from family get together and i can't get him back he has i can't get him back here so i don't know how to get him back here i would love to have him on and just grill him on a few things because he said a few things he he told me that jay's team was the best jay's team he ever saw guaranteed world series team and he told me barniani was a top 10 uh center and both well one

of them i started because i love the jays i started getting excited like oh ryan knows this shit this is exciting you bought it that was march yeah i did buy in so in march i was excited but by april 15th i was writing harsh commentary this is a shitty team so i was not i was quick to catch up to the reality but the bargnani thing caused lots of fights because because me and steve the photos are fantastic the bargnani thing is real it is real it It is not staged. And we did not talk about it this Christmas because... That's too bad. Yeah, it is too bad because, yeah, we all know what happened there. Okay, no more sports. We just lost Liz. Sorry, Liz.

But I want to ask you about local Toronto radio news really briefly here since you used to be a DJ in London. Just pretend it's London, England. It sounds better. You were on BBC too, right? Yeah, that's right. BBC Ocho. I don't even know. There's a lot of BBCs.

Dean Blundell has been fired. Yep. Dean Blundell... They took away his right to free speech. That's my favorite. It's so ridiculous. These people don't understand what free speech is. It's unbelievable.

You can represent the company on your shirt and start tweeting, you know, God hates fags. And they're going to be okay with that because it's free speech. That's right. This is insassinine. It's mental. You know what? It's probably a combination of a couple of different things. It's probably a combination of a couple of different things.

They're probably getting pressure from advertisers and from sponsors about what he was saying and what some of the other people on the show were saying. But I don't think that it's entirely that. I think there's also sort of they probably grew tired of constantly having to suspend him, warn him, reevaluate the content. I think it's probably a combination of both. I don't think it was purely a money issue. Because when you're a manager and when you're managing talent of any kind, whether it's public or private, you get to a certain point where you just want them to do their job. And you don't want to have to worry about what they're doing day to day.

And I think it got to the point where they were worried about what he was doing day to day. to have to worry about what they're doing day to day. And I think it got to the point where they were worried about what he was doing day to day. And he's not the type of person who is bringing in tens and hundreds of millions of dollars like someone like Howard Stern was. They essentially paid someone a lot of money to be on a button for Howard Stern every single day. But he was also nationally syndicated.

He's bringing in tens of millions of dollars. I don't think it's fair to compare Dean to Howard Stern and his style. And in that situation, I think it's, it's, you know, they just grew tired of it. And so did the sponsors. I have some inside perspective. I have spoken to people, I won't name any names here, but I've spoken to people who some are, others were in this exact industry. And some, so basically I'm going to tell you what i've been what some consensus is i don't know the truth i'm just sharing what i understand to be true and uh take it with a grain of salt this is allegations but i'm told that um and this one knocked me over when i heard this but that dean blundundell was making a million dollars a year.

Okay, this is the number I've been told. Okay, so I'm just quoting what I've been told. True, Toronto radio personalities don't make a lot of money, but there is a... Radio personalities, period. Right. Don't make a lot of money. Yeah, radio personalities don't,

but there is a very small exclusive club of big market toronto basically toronto people i'm gonna just a few names like john derringer uh i'm sure bobcat's got a big fat contract like this uh aaron davis of all wonderful people uh two-thirds of the roger whoever in maryland show that's been around forever on 104.5, that there's a certain core that make real money, like big fat money, like Elvis money. And that he was one of the ones after 13 years at the station, he had a pretty good contract and it was paying him about a million bucks a year. That's what I heard. I'm not, I'm not surprised by that. I know that there is certainly, there's the haves and have nots in radio. And most people are have nots. You know, there's usually one,

maybe two people at any given radio station that are making some good money. And even then, it depends on the radio station. You're not going to be paying a lot of guys on boom or top dollar, but you know, the top radio stations like CHFI, like Q107, and certainly the edge in their market was a big numbers draw. So I'm not surprised by that number. I wouldn't, you know, there's been a lot of talk on your blog about whether or not they were able to void his contract. Okay, that's my next point. So there is, of course, there's this like, what do they call it?

Morality clause or whatever they call it in this contract. Code of conduct usually. Yeah, that you represent the company and they have the right to cancel it if you you know i guess if you yeah yeah there's a lot of things morality wise that they could do and it's possible that they found an opportunity to uh act upon this clause to cancel the remainder of the contract it's possible they felt that after all these warnings now that the judicial judicial system's involved, that they actually felt they could get out of this contract. And why would they want to do that, right? Because Dean Blundell is printing money. My understanding is from people who have seen the ratings, and I

know the people I've talked to have actually seen the ratings, because you pay big money, you get these reports or whatever, that he used to perform above the station, but in the last couple of years, he has not been performing above above the station which means he's not doing any better than the station is doing so in theory you could drop somebody making like a hundred thousand a year in that spot and not miss a beat ratings wise at this point here's a thing to consider though about that particular move um if you're going to find somebody who's violated their contract you can pretty much guarantee that they're going to sue you back because removing him from the air is – and people get removed from the air all the time and their show gets canceled. But they have guaranteed contracts in this industry and they're paid out for the remainder of their term. Unless there was something very, very obvious and glaring here that they've realized that it probably would cost them more money to go through the lawsuits and all that kind of stuff and to eventually settle than it would be to just pay him out whatever's left on his contract.

And I guess that's the variable that we don't know is how many more years did he have left on his contract. We know there was more years left on the contract and it was a big contract. But yeah, we don't know. It is 13 years he was in that spot. He took over for Humble and Fred when they left for 640, which they were calling Mojo 640. Yeah, Mojo. Back in 2001, early 2001. I enjoyed that station, Mojo. There was a guy on in the afternoon who had this, I don't think it was scruff connor oh uh ripken

ripken yeah and who was his sidekick it was like some italian guy anthony or tony or something but i remember ripken i do i enjoyed ripken and i i've looked him up every once in a while winnipeg they used to like bring in uh like syndicated shows from uh buffalo and stuff too which were which were enjoyable uh there was one guy he had cancer and stuff too eventually later on but uh it was i i enjoyed that station um unfortunately it didn't stick around no i know i'm well first of all humble and fred jumped ship at some point that's right and went to uh 99.9 i wonder what they think about that the mix have you ever asked them if they were if i interviewed each of them time would they do they regret that decision yeah i got it okay so i've had i've had them both in just your seat there and i've each independently and i've i've asked

them all these questions your podcast sucks i don't listen to no this podcast your podcast was canceled remember um they fred has big regrets he was at that station for a long a lot longer than humble so right he was there since late 70s like wow when it was in brampton he was at the part of the pete and geese show he did the he would do sports right and he became part of that show and he was you know with steve anthony for a while and mike stafford yeah mike stafford did news yeah so this is back in the the old brampton yellow house in brampton yeah you know the true spirit of radio days uh with dave marsden and everything yeah so uh he

was in durham now he's in yeah he's uh got a the mars bar whatever he calls it you know what again off topic but 94.9 the rock uh is a great station in in oshawa it's a really great station i heard good things about marsden has some show where he plays whatever he wants or whatever sunday evenings yeah and i've heard good things about that so uh fred if he could go back in time would stay where he was because i think they felt they were too old for that audience at the time and they should move on and i i can tell you fred regrets it howard's more of a you take a chance and you go for it and i think i don't think howard has the same regrets that fred has uh they got a big contract from the mix 99.9 more money than he had ever made and it was the guaranteed contract which helped them out because they weren't on air for

that entire contract uh so i i think fred definitely regrets it because he was at 102.1 forever and he he probably i he i don't think he's admitted this but i get a sense that he and howard had lots of convos i think howard wanted to make the jump and i think he talked Fred into it, and then Fred did it, and then it all went to shit very quickly. And I think he wants a time machine. I think Fred wants a time machine. Do they negotiate together as a sort of mini partnership or whatever? That's a great question. I don't know.

I don't know. But their contracts were the same length, and they ended at the same time. Right, right, right. Which would make sense if you're at the station. They removed Fred a year before they removed Howardard so fred that's right fired a year before howard so fred's kind of at home you know doing nothing and hearing the humble howard show on mixed right and who was howard partnered with again i can't well they put him uh solo at mix 99.9 was just called the humble howard show i thought he was with a woman that's as you know

he took another job at easy rock man that's what it was with colle woman. He took another job at Easy Rock with Colleen Rusholm because they fired Stu. By the way, when they ended up firing Howard again from Easy Rock became Boom. They fired Howard again and then they hired Stu to replace Howard. Stu's there today.

Radio's a ridiculous industry. I think Edge 102 should hire Stu. I've just done something that I criticize you for doing all the time, which is talking about radio in the past. He's there today. Radio is a ridiculous. I think Edge 102 should hire Stu to do more. I've just done something that I criticize you for doing all the time, which is talking about radio in the past. But it is interesting to see. It's funny. Come on. We're all humans, Elvis.

Yeah. So Dean Blundell's gone. Big change because it came not too long after, you know, they fired Todd Shapiro, who I met via Humble and Fred. I was there and we met and then we've had phone conversations because he's coming in to do my podcast. He will not be... Originally, I think it was going to be a tell-all. He was going to tell the whole story because there is...

I know the story and I will never say it on this podcast, but it's got a very interesting component with Todd Shapiro's dismissal. But he had some sobering thoughts about telling that part of the story. So I think he's going to tell almost all. Which is fine.

Which is fine. I mean, I'm going to ask him the questions and he can either answer or not answer. We talked about this online where you're going to play the role of the interviewer. And we use the example of Howard Stern here. I am the Howard Stern of Toronto Podcast. You're going to ask all the questions and Todd has the ability to say,

you know what? I don't feel comfortable answering that. And that's fine. And that's fine. Are you going to ask him if he ever sucked a cock? No, no, you're not. So you're not going to be like that. I'm not going to be that Howard Stern. No, that's fine. I'm the, uh, no one. I do. Have you ever sucked a cock? But, uh, no, I got to make it up. That's happening in like 17 weeks from now? He said three weeks because he's getting married to a Russian girl. Oh, wow. So yeah, good for him. You know, by the way, he looks pretty young, right?

There's a picture of me and him. I look like his grandfather. Have you seen this photo floating around? But did you know he's older than me? Did you know that you color your hair silver? I wish. Good for you. I love my hair.

At least I have hair. You're doing okay too, but there are others not so fortunate. You're hanging in there. I'm by a thread. So was there anything else we should talk about with Dean Blundell? So very interesting. He's gone. I don't know who the new morning show is going to be.

Some money. If Vegas has odds, there'll be odds. Fearless Fred gets it. There's odds they bring in somebody new. I don't know what they're going to do fearless fred hates me as you know so if he gets hired i'm gonna replay that audio i think the fearless fred argument is interesting i think that that that's that's a strong possibility but i also think that they could probably just you know shift something excuse me shift somebody else around i don't think that um there is a pressure

to replace him with another big name. I think they might want sort of like a debriefing period or like a, you know, a period where they can do Jeffrey's period. They can just sort of like, you know, wash themselves of of of what's happened over the last, you know, 13 years and stuff. It's it's difficult to insert a new big name in after a big name is already left, I think, in my mind. So I know I never think of him as a big name, but's uh he's cheap compared to dean much cheaper sure and young but then you have to worry about who your afternoon drive guy is then right and that's another big uh that's another big ratings block for for for the station don't they just like go see who's doing well and like what's that guy in edmonton garnett andrews or somebody like that they just go to like a smaller market and see who's kicking ass there and say come to the big smoke we'll give

you a few more bucks well tsn did that and they're you know bottom of the shit can right with mike richards in the morning oh that's true mike richards did not worry but he was here first that's the difference like he was here first yeah but he was a he was the the man well what about the other guy andrew crystal uh crystal didn't he he go off Easter somewhere and he became a big shot? And then he brought him back and he was just a disaster. He was. Yeah, yeah. Big time.

He was a disaster. Okay. Love radio. Yeah, radio is fun. I don't think anyone talks about me, though, in London, about where I've been and who I got fired from and all that stuff. You were never fired. No one's having a podcast. You just graduated.

Is that what happened? No one's having conversations. No, no, no. I worked there after I graduated. Oh, after? So how long did you work there for? Just a podcast you just graduated no one's having conversation no no i worked there after uh oh after so how long did you work there for just a year after i graduated and you have any old tapes you can bring in i have a lot i actually can you convert them to mp3 no first of all i don't know how why don't you just make a plea now and somebody will leave a comment i have what do you have i have cassette tapes cassette somebody out there has a cassette to mp3 adapter if anyone has a cassette to MP3 adapter. If anyone has a cassette to MP3 adapter, please let us know.

Let Mike know in the comments section of his blog. I'd really appreciate it. I'd love to be able to put them into MP3s. I really would. Put your email address in the email field when you leave the comment, and then I'll write you a note, and we'll hook this up, and we'll see if we can hear some Elvis from his London radio. Please, please, please.

That'd be great. A few little notes before we close off one real quick one is my son who is not a prolific goal scorer although he's the guy get in front of the net and hack away because he's a kind of a big James Van Reams type guy Dave Anderchuk yeah Dave Anderchuk's a good compare so that's my son's job and he has one pretty awesome goal on the season which which I witnessed. But then last Saturday, something happened because he scored a hat trick. That's amazing. It is.

So he quadrupled. How often does a player quadruple their season goal total in their 12th game or whatever? Good for him. Way to go, James. Unbelievable hat trick. And you actually, in this league, they cap individuals at three goals.

So I think that's a house league thing where you could have a little Sidney Crosby out there who could score like 100 goals if he wants to. And it's like an equalizer rule they implemented. Sounds communist to me. It sounds communist, but you can't score a fourth goal. So basically there's a – James McCarthy cracked down on this league. It's a lot like – no, he's anti-communist. Come on.

Yeah, I said he cracked down on this league. Oh, sorry. So I was going to call you out on he's anti-communist. Come on. Yeah, I said he cracked down on this league. Oh, sorry. So I was going to call you out on your history. Come on. I play a lot of Jeopardy with my wife, and I routinely kick her ass. And the other day there was a rap category, so I went five for five on the rap category.

Good for you. That's a special day when you can go five for five. I love the five for fives. And the funny thing is the day before, there was a 1950s baseball category. I went five for five. Wow. I know.

1950s baseball. Yeah, 1950s baseball. I used to be a huge baseball historian. Like, it was a big back baseball category. I went five for five. Wow. I know. 1950s baseball. Yeah, 1950s baseball. I used to be a huge baseball historian. It was a big back in the early 80s. I just read all the stats and stuff. I was crazy about baseball history. Nice. Thanks.

I've lost a little touch because now I'm not sure who Jamie Benn is. Or Vlasic, okay? So when did Vlasic become one of the four best defensemen? Was that the last two years that happened? You're asking the wrong guy, man. We're sort of like, you know, you've got a baby on the way. Because his name looks a little foreign to me. He's got like a weird character in his name, Edouard,

and there's like a couple of dots over the O or something. Hey, you know we're a country of immigrants, my friend. Well, Gretzky is a Ukrainian name. That's right. And Borylko is a Ukrainian name. Good for you. A little fun fact right there. You're full the fun facts. Last thing I want to say is my wife has a blog called Toronto Mommy dot com in which she writes about her pregnancy.

She's having her first child in April. I'm told it's also my child, which excites me. And she's kind of documenting this there. And it's kind of interesting if you're a new mother or just a mother or just like interested in like stalking me torontomommy.com i may completely ruin this podcast but i there's one thing that i wanted to talk about quickly very very you may quickly talk about i unfortunately was listening to the fan 590 the other day and someone was called in and said you know it was george from thornhill i He is an idiot. He is suggesting that we should be trading Nazem Khadri for any other player that is – and he suggested that we're going to get a very good second-line player. Does this – it confounds – I don't know why I listen to talk radio when there's callers because they're all idiots. I'm not sure why this person thinks that we're going to be able to trade a guy who's struggling for a guy who's amazingly good and the other thing that bothers me is please please please can we stop as much as i love wendell clark and i know you love i love wendell clark and i listen to the

all heart tribute video on youtube every single day please can we not describe wendell clark as a great player he was not a great player. He was an extremely good player on an extremely shitty team. He brought a lot of things to the plate that we love to see as fans. Those intangibles. Yes, he was a first overall draft pick. He was all heart. He was all heart. He is not a great player, everyone. If we have a roster full of Wendell Clarks, we're not winning the stanley cup it's not happening please please please you need to put things into perspective the people who think wendell clark should be in the hall of fame and ridiculous things like that

are the same people who were upset yesterday that no leafs made team can it's the same group because you know there were leaf fans and i don't there were leaf fans that felt like how could there be no leafs like they just don't seem to, they were pulling for Dion, right? There were Leaf fans that felt like, how could there be no Leafs? Like, they just don't seem to go deep under the headlines to look into it and realize, oh, like, no one... I knew... In fact, I think we were chatting about Team Canada,

me and Monica, just the day before they announced it. And she mentioned Dion Phaneuf, because, you know, she doesn't know who Vlasic is either. Or Petrangelo and these guys. So she just knows Dowdy, because she drafted him in a playoff pool a couple years ago. She doesn't know who Vlasic is either. Or Petrangelo and these guys. So she just knows Doughty because she drafted him in a playoff pool a couple years ago.

She knows a few of them. Duncan Keith and those guys. Shea Weber is my favorite. She's like, oh, FNUF have a chance? And then I'm explaining. He's like, he's probably 11th or whatever. I pinned him at 11th or something. And I'm like, we're only going to take eight.

So no, there will not be any D on FN fun of anyone who bothered to like spend one minute looking into it with no no leaves were going to be called the best chance i felt we had is very very outside chance and not realistic in hindsight but in my blinders i thought maybe bernier might be like i know i thought in 13 i thought they you know we don't have anyways i was wrong but i wasn't i did put on my blog somewhere what i thought they should do and then what i thought they you know we don't have anyways i was wrong but i wasn't pleased i did put on my blog somewhere what i thought they should do and then what i thought they would do and what i thought they would do is exactly what they did it's documented the if i'm david clarkson who sucks and i hate if i don't give up and they ever called me wendell clarkson i would immediately

run away because there's no way that he can live up to that. Then why take the number 71 if they're doing that? He's playing into it, and it was a wrong move in my opinion. Because he, like me, grew up – well, he was 10 years younger than me, but he grew up with this aura of Wendell being better than he was. We all grew up with it. And listen, he was the team for such a long period of time. He is the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 80s. Well, until Doug shows up, yeah.

He was the man and is the man, ands in the 80s. He was the man. And is the man. And don't get me wrong. I love him. I love what he's done. And I love watching him play. But we have to put things into perspective. He's no Cam Neely. He's not going to be on the wing with Wayne Gretzky.

It's not happening. But a healthy Wendell Clark is Cam Neely-esque. A healthy Wendell Clark played for Team Canada. And is Cam Neely-esque. And is Cam Neely-esque a healthy wendell clark played for team canada and was and cam neely-esque and is cam neely-esque i'll give you i'll give you cam neely is better cam neely's a hall of famer correct because he played longer and you know he didn't have to fight as much but um wendell clark will make team canada on one of those canada cup teams and stuff and he did play for team canada but he's not necessarily you know a top four line player in that particular situation right fourth line like he's not making an olympic team either the

argument is that he is in his prime great please stop he's a very very very very good toronto maple and easy to fall in love with in route absolutely and my buddy mike kick just uh just met him at that easterals skate. Seems like a great guy. I put on, in Facebook, I shared the All Heart video with him just two days ago.

Love that video. Whoever did that needs to, I don't know, be made known in Canada. Down Goes Brown, my friend Down Goes Brown, his real name is Sean and now lives in Ottawa,

unfortunately, did an interview with the guy who put that video together. Really? And somewhere on downgoesbrown.com, he has a great interview with the guy who put together video together. Really? Somewhere on downgoesbrown.com, he has a great interview with the guy

who put together the All Heart video. And I'm always pleased that it doesn't get taken land because he's using the Metallica song and he doesn't have permission. So I always get worried one day Metallica, who they wanted Mapster shut down. Remember this? We should download that from YouTube

and make sure that we have it in Cuba. We should all, every Canadian should download their own copy of this so it can never, yeah. I'm going to do that at work. Just so we can share it personally on Toronto Mic Tube. Okay, let's wrap up here. If I can. This is a long podcast, longer than we normally talk.

We had a lot to do. I'm exhausted. The Dean Blundell news is. The studio audience is dozing off. I'm exhausted. The Dean Blundell news is... The studio audience is dozing off. And that brings us to the end of our 60th show. It's a milestone, Elvis.

Can I come back for 69? 69 will be an epic, epic show. Maybe that'll be the Todd Shapiro show. Even if it's really the 63rd, I'll call it the 69th episode. Beautiful. You can follow me on Twitter, at Toronto Mike, and Elvis, at Elvis Run. But it's really boring because he mainly tweets work stuff.

You need a second account. I know. See you all next week. Later.