[MUSIC] >> Man's League one, I don't know what to tell you, I am an AL guy. We had a DH before it was cool, even when it was cool. And you vote for their play and nerd ball, what about a double switch? No, American League always superior, AFC, a superior conference. The Eastern Conference, superior, I know, no, I know, NBA will just leave that one alone. But it's from the NHL, it's where Stars reigns supreme. And yeah, the all-star game happened last night. We'll get into that for two seconds. I gotta say something, you can join me, you cannot, Danielle, this is a dealer's choice here. But I got some things to say, I am sick and tired of watching this city flood every time it rains. I'm sick and tired of it, okay? You know, I grew up in the west end of the city, you know, like kind of border, Tobico, North York, they're moved more into a Tobico in my teen years. It's a floodplain. If you go look at the map of Toronto, what it looked like before it was Toronto, it's just rivers and streams everywhere, okay? And like, I'm not going to sit here and go blame this person now. We got to fix this. We cannot have it. Now look, it's going to rain sometimes. And guess what? When it rains, especially like it did yesterday because it was biblical. Okay. And it's going to affect your commute, there's going to be a little pooling, there's going to be a little ponding. But the idea of what we saw yesterday, it's like, I got my parents, they got to pump out the basement. And this isn't just about me. I know they can't be the only ones. The power goes out and people didn't have, it's just nuts, okay? Again, there are smarter people than I, some of them, mere feet away from me in the 680 newsroom who I'm sure could say, you might want to point a finger here. You know, there are news people that wouldn't tell you that, but they might point you in the right direction. Sure. I'll leave that alone for now. Come at me in the DMs if you do all my thoughts on this, but we can't have this. We've got to find a way. You cannot just pave over the entirety of a floodplain and then say, yeah, it'll be fine when it rains. It'll be okay. Again, I don't look. I'm sports radio. I'm not going to come here and split the atom and fix this issue. This cannot stand. Okay. I love taking the DVP in as opposed to rolling up Jarvis. I got a thousand stop lights this morning coming up. This is absurd. Can you fix it? Can you tell Gunner's a little bitter this morning when it comes to the commute? No, it's like, it's fine, like, like I, I am in no position to complain. It's like, I hit six red lights, this cannot stay. There are people out there got a little worse than me with this flooding and everything. And again, like I understand you build a big city, make sacrifice. Yadda, yadda. I get it. Okay. But this cannot continue to stand because guess what? Again, we don't need to get into it. It's only going to get worse. This isn't a thing that's probably going to, eh, you know what, change your mind. No more rain, no more flooding. It's going to keep happening. Okay. So I had to get that off my chest. Everybody in, you know, I know it just again from where I grew up, West End of Toronto. I look again, we built the city in a floodplain. There's lots of areas that are low lying. So I know there are other people affected as well, just my thoughts going out to you who had to deal with that. And again, like there's varying levels of this, right? It's, yeah, I had no power. That's just annoying. I've been there. I hate it. I had to pump out my basement. That's a little worse. I mean, we'd saw the, I never know like what's real on the internet or not anymore. It's like we saw the videos of Drake's mansion getting flooded. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Like, you know, there's people I feel worse for than him. But that sucks. Can not happen. Can not stand. I don't know if you have anything to add on the matter or we can just move on and talk about sports, but there is no way I was coming in here without talking about that today. I mean, I was fortunate that obviously I didn't have any ill effects from, from what transpired yesterday. Two days ago actually was worse for where I was located. I was, we were chatting with Jeff as a party or producer before the show here. I also experienced a, he experienced a power outage yesterday. I had it happen a couple of days ago. But fortunately, no ill effects yesterday, that being said, in seeing some of the images and the videos that were circulating, even flipping on the news, which is something I don't often do, but I was curious, you were, um, I had some choice words. I did. I really did. Cause I, I, I did feel a little bit of anger and, and dissent and, and I was very frustrated with how this entire thing unfolded. And I felt genuinely bad, like I am, I am a people person in the sense that I sympathize with a lot of other human beings. I can empathize with what the common man or woman is going through. And so I saw what transpired yesterday and I was listening to all these people being interviewed as they're just trying to like, try, like, make the trek home. They rode away and they're like, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen. I might be standing here for three hours. I have no idea. And I'm like, God, that is awful. That is horrendous. We got to be better than that. And we have to have better safeguards in place, better preparation to ensure that that doesn't happen. It's not a, it's not, I know where sports is not a PSA, but I'm not going to lie. I, I did like you. I had some choice words yesterday when I saw what was going down. My last piece on before I do give a little sports adjacent to this, okay, I'll just leave it at this. She's a great clip of John Tory from when he was mayor talking about, oh, we can't handle this. If you want to get mad at somebody, go look at that clip. All right. I'll leave it alone. I guess I pointed the finger somewhere. You did. Okay. Now there's a group of people. I did, but also flood related that I feel genuinely awful for. It's my golfers out there, Danielle. I know you were going to go there. The pictures I was seeing of golf courses decimated. And again, like grand scheme things, like people are going to lose their house. Like again, like I did the serious stuff off the top because it matters more, but God, these golf supers that are going to have to whip these boys into shape, getting the, getting the courses back ready for me. Just guess what? I got some golf to play. Okay. Like I know I just had a bunch, but it's like I'm not going to stop playing. Golf. Because at range yesterday, we need to, I just saw that and again, like millions more serious things. But from a sports perspective, I was like, Oh, we all know the guy like I grew up playing a lot of baseball. I'll just shout out a field in the city, Keel's Dale was always like the most immaculately taking care of place. I cannot for the life of me remember the guy's name who runs him church, probably a different guy. Now I'm a little bit old than yellow. My heart goes out to that guy who's got to find, find a way because guess what? Kids are going to play baseball and kids are going to go play golf and soccer and whatever the sports are. Like I feel awful for the people that take and like again, like there's varying degrees of this, right? It's like, you know, I'm going to take my kid to a tee ball game that's going to be a mud pit and that's okay because it doesn't matter. But it's like there are people who put so much work and time into these things to make them beautiful to make kids feel like the pros or whatever. And it's just my heart goes out to that. All right. I like that. So now it's enough on that all-star game breaking news of the day, the all-star game happened and again, the lead is the man's league won the American League. Sure. It's great. I loved it. That might have been honestly saw the the win streak was snapped last year. It was nine in a row. That's going to be one of the craziest things in sports like the another random achievement and feat was always the Baltimore Ravens and the preseason. I don't even know if it's still in town. No, that I think they I think at the very end of preseason last year, like 20 games in a row. Yes, sir. It was stupid. How crazy it how long that streak had had reached. But at least, okay, here's the difference. At least the Ravens one, I can, I don't know that this is what was happening, but I can sit there and live in a world where the Ravens just take preseason more seriously than everybody and not in the terms of they're going to play Lamar Jackson, the whole preseason, but they just the coaches coach it in a way not to see what they have, but to win the game. Because guess what? The preseason for the coaches too, and they're trying to win, at least you can talk yourself into an explanation. This is a random assembly of the best baseball players we've got. And yeah, guys are hurt and different things, but it's not like, it's not like Dusty Baker has been the American League manager, the entire tire, Jim Lee Lind is like, boys, we're going to play the game. My way. All right. Exactly. Oh God, what I wish. Bring them back. I look at it and that's why this one's so odd because it is just, I mean, let's be honest, complete flu. Yeah, sir. In the, in the season we had Joe Hayodani switch sides like he was on the American League last year. Guess what? Serial loser lost two of these in a row now just saying just saying. That's the thing. But the judge out to me is it's just one of these odd streaks in sports. And yeah, it's funny the way these things work out. So Durant wins MVP now for him, for him, for my money, skeens far and away. Story of the night heading into it and I'm not going to sit here and say he was the story of the night, but he does what he does, takes care of business in a big way. Soto works a walk and then he immediately gets judge. I was trying to think of exactly how I want to reference this because it's not like Paul Paul Skeens is some uncovered gem. He was the number one pick on a national championship who is dating one of the most famous people on the internet. I'm not trying to say, I'm not trying to create a straw man of man. No one knew who this Paul Skeens was, but we've seen much more hype than baseball. Let's look right here, right now, Vladimir Gruyere Jr. Now maybe this is more of a local thing. We've been talking about this kid since he was 16 years old, Stephen Strasburg. I remember looking at covers of him, sports illustrated when he was committing to San Diego state, not there, not dominating in college when we started to know about. But committing Bryce Harper, talking about him since he was 15 years old, and then we go outside of baseball to other sports, LeBron, the chosen one, Crosby, McDavid, but Dard, these are all guys that are in our lives from the time they're the wonder kids, right? 15 years old or 14 or whatever ungodly age it is to start thinking of these kids as commodities. That's how long we thought about these guys. And again, Skeens is much more of a normal prospect is the number one pick him and his team. It's not an unthought of story, but it's remarkable to me how a guy could go from, yeah, like this is one piece first overall pick in his sport to, I'm not going to sit here and say he's the face of baseball, that's still judge, that's still Otani. But if you're making a, again, maybe Mount Rushmore is still too small a group for him, but if it's the top 10 most just discussed players in baseball this year, it's not even close that he's at the top of that list. And it's just jarring to me that he has been able to do it so quickly. And I think it's a million different things. I think, I mean, I'm not going to sit here and lie about it. I think a big part of it is that he's on the internet all the time because of who his girlfriend is. Like, I think there's a massive part of that. But he just has this kind of cool vibe about him and not that we haven't had athletes that have that before, but it's just remarkable to me how quickly he has kind of become a known commodity, I guess is the best way to put it well not starting from that base of a LeBron Crosby, McDavid type level. It's interesting because I think with baseball, it's tougher to have those kind of prodigious talents come through the pipeline. And I don't mean that from the perspective of developing those prodigious talents. I mean it from like just a notoriety standpoint. It's few and far between and you laid out the two that are most notable and Strasburg and Harper, like everybody can relate to that and is familiar with those guys and have been familiar with the history of those players from the time they were teenagers. But it's different now and I think it's different for baseball because you get varying degrees of success for players as they progress through their youth and their amateur careers. So in skiing's case, he pops off big time at LSU. But up until that point, and it just so happens to coincide with the fact that his girlfriend, Livy Dunn, is this famous internet mega star, also happens to be an incredible gymnast, a world-class gymnast in her own right. So she's a terrific athlete and then that elevates the profile of both he and her. And oh, on top of that, here comes Paul Skinta as an actual real commodity on the mound, a guy that's throwing 100 plus miles an hour routine lead and has this insane arsenal and you're just thinking, okay, here we go. But the exposure to get to that point was lessened. Like it was not as prominent as some of the other young players that we see and have seen over the years come through the pipeline. I mean, I agree with you. I think he's one of the more important figures in the sport because there's a couple reasons. From the standpoint of Major League Baseball, he's an American. Like that is something that- No, no, hold on. Let's hammer this home. He's not an American. He's an American. He served in the Air Force, he wants to go serve again. Again, a lot of this stuff is coded and people- No, that's a big deal, man. No, it is. But also the other stuff of, you mentioned this, I think it was off air to me, but his teammates are doing the speech, speech, speech after he gets elected to the All-Star game, he goes, man, thanks boys, I'm excited to do it. There's no fanfare to him. And then again, him and his girlfriend, they just look to a lot of people, the All-American couple. I'm sure the people are going to say, America looks a little different. Yes, it does. But if we're talking about the image of baseball, they've got a lot of other- American dream. Exactly, right? It's right there. And I think that is something, because the other guy I was thinking about with this was Otani. But, and I guess I shouldn't butt it, because it was very similar, but he was a comet. There was, you know, there was talk of Otani, but until he was posted, there was no conversations to be had. Absolutely. We're not, and I don't know, Ben was here, maybe he'd go, I was, but I am aware of the college national championship. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I follow it closely, but if there's good story lines going on, I'm interested, and again, I'm not watching these games, I'm just like paying attention. I'm following along. There's a passing interest. You're aware. I'm not doing that with Japanese baseball. I don't care who's coming. I don't care if it's literally the next Babe Ruth. I'll say, great. Let me look at the numbers when he gets here. Can't wait to see him. I think the other thing that goes into this as well, and you kind of touched on this, is that with all the other sports, to a certain extent, sorry, Ryan Leaf, sorry, Mark Srossell. There's an understanding that it's going to happen with baseball. It's very much, okay, hold on. I will get excited when I see it at a level that matters, because I think there's probably a touch more fanfare and hype with Paul Skeens than there was with a guy like Jackson Holiday. But I don't know. I think it's pretty close in terms of, now, a very different hype, right? One of them, son of a former Major Leagueer. He's on the greatest young team in baseball. Can he join that? It's a very different story. But there's a ton of hype around that player. And guess what? He came up and he's stunk. Doesn't mean he's going to be no good. Almost certainly not. But it does mean that it's just another log on the fire. People going, okay, it's a baseball prospect. We've been through this movie before. Even the best guys. I mean, again, not that, like, Doc Halliday back to the minors had the great career he did. It's just the way it works in this sport. And I think that's another reason why people are so almost hesitant to buy into it until they see it for real. Yes, pitchers are slightly different, though. That's true. pitchers, you can get more immediate results, more immediate success because they control more. Like the reality of it is if you're a position player and you're saying, I guess there is bad bit for pitchers. But I understand what you're saying. Right. Like if you're, if you're a position player and you're, you can be the best prospect of all time, but you got to get pitches to hit and you have to have a mature approach. And there are so many other boxes that you need to check beyond just having the raw talent and ability. Whereas with pitching, this is plays in part, this is, I mean, it's in line with what the identity of Major League Baseball has become in 2024. If you throw hard and you have a couple really strong, good secondary pitches, you can probably be a good starter and I'm probably painting a very simplistic picture there. But realistically, look at all the guys that we saw pitching that game yesterday. Right. I think like Mason Miller is an unbelievable talent for the Oakland Athletics and he's going to get traded. Why? Because Oakland does that all the time. He throws a hundred and he had a hundred and four on the radar gun and then he's spinning 88 with a slider and you're like, my goodness, no, of course, it doesn't matter who's in the box that's going to play. And that is the precise position that you can be in if you're a pitcher with an arsenal that's not even at that level. But in Paul Skeens case, he's throwing a hundred and he's not the only guy in baseball that is throwing a hundred. If it was 25 years ago, we would have been, Oh my God, where did this guy's arm come from? It's a robotic arm. How is he throwing a hundred miles an hour with that type of bite and break on his off-speed pitches? But it's different now. So I do think there is maybe as it's interesting pictures. I feel like if you're if you're elite, if you're ready, you can have a more immediate impact, but you're also more volatile for sure. Position players different. You're trying to play the long game. You're thinking about the longevity of it, but it all ties in beautifully to the unpredictability of what is a baseball prospect and player, which then brings us back to the point of because of that, it's harder to not buy into it, but you need to see it before you fully believe it. Whereas in other sports, we can watch these guys from the time they're 15, 16 years old and you can almost definitively point at them and say, physical tools, check the maturity in the game, check the IQ, check. But this, you know, and there are a couple of things like physically, there's the maturation and the growth that's going to, but besides that, you can almost project to a better degree that player X is going to make it. And or at the very least be a pro like that is like we can do that nowadays. Baseball is the one sport where you can't do it, but I think what was great about yesterday, it was great about this All-Star game specifically. And the theme of it all honestly was youth. Like I think about how many young players factored into the All-Star game, the outcome, the big moments. And we think of schemes. We think of Jared Duran who is making his first All-Star game appearance. We look at guys like Bobby Wood Jr. and Gunnar Henderson who were participating in their first All-Star games, like it was a lot about the youth movement. And I, you know, I don't know, Gunnar, I mean, I'm a sicko, I know you were talking about gosh, the baseball, but I'm a sicko. So I was watching the Red Carpet Show, this is like three in the afternoon. Let me tell you something, I was watching live from the Open Championship is what I was doing. Which I don't blame you. I know. But I'm sitting there and I'm watching the Red Carpet Show on MLB Network and they're parading all the different All-Stars through, right? And it was, first off, I thought it was, and I know every league does this. Yeah, I thought it was the best like Red Carpet Show out of any of the leagues. Okay. No, no, no. I'm not kidding. Please explain. I will because these guys come out, you could see that they're so invested, they're so happy and joyful to be there. Like we got, we got smiles at the NHL All-Star game in Toronto or in any other city where wherever it's taking place, you got to pay the guys to get a smile to crack a grin. Never mind that they're going to willfully actually sit there and say, "I'm having a great time." No, no. I saw every players walking out, they've got their family with them. It's a big deal. They're kids. They're having fun. They're all dressed up, the whole family's dressed up, and even the interviews, the amount of personality that all these guys actually have. And if you wanted to sell baseball or the personalities within the sport, I would just, I would say, "You know what? Take that three two-hour broadcast that was on the air yesterday afternoon as the Red Carpet Show and show that to any fan, and they'll tell you, "Man, how do you not like Ellie Dilla Cruz? How do you show how Toni was even standing there doing interviews and showing personality?" Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know why he was doing an interview because he wasn't going to get asked one tough question. That's why that stuff drives me insane. The idea of show, hey, okay, I know you're making a completely different point, but we're here right now. Sure. The idea of show, hey, like, "Oh, come fat me. I'm great, everyone. Look at how available I am. Come ask me all these questions. Look at me." Yeah, exactly. And then you know what's going to happen? He's going to go back to L.A. and they hide him under a cloak of darkness because he's scared and he's a back-to-back, all-star game loser. Ooh. Yeah, it's true. I mean, it is true, even though he provided all the offense. Yeah, okay. Cool. Anyway. No, my point is, in that environment, in that setting, we cannot get, and the NBA is probably the only exception, but really it's a struggle for other leagues to pull that out, to extract that from their players, from their athletes. We need to market you, do something, be nice, be human. And these guys, in painted two pictures, one, I'm like, "Oh, wow, there is personality in this league," and it speaks to the youth because a lot of these guys that were stepping up to the podium or going through various checkpoints with different media outlets, they're all running through, and a lot of them were young faces of the game, like young players who are, this is either their mating voyage or they've been at this only a couple of times now, and you could see that, again, there is joy there. It also illustrates that Major League Baseball needs to do a better job within the construct of their season of finding ways to place the spotlight on them in a more meaningful way. So one, and here's what's interesting, baseball, unlike other sports as we know, it's a daily grind. That is both a blessing and a curse. The positive is you can place a spotlight on all of those players on any given day of the week. The curse is it's difficult to do so because in the National Football League we only get it once a week. So we are glued to our televisions for eight hours because we know it's there and then it's gone for six more days. But baseball, the idea that it's there tomorrow, it's there the next day, I think actually in a way makes it trickier to even market those players. So it's a bit of a chicken and egg, but I do feel I watched that and I was actually pleasantly surprised because you would have thought, it's baseball, like these guys, you know how they are, but you look at A from the way that they dress and how they, these guys were all trying to be, they're all decked out in whatever they were, they were trying to look at their best, they're having fun, right? It's a great atmosphere, great environment, they're there with their families, like there's no better way to market and brand the game than seeing that. And I think, I just think Major League Baseball has to capitalize on that because there got a lot of young players with gravitational personalities that can really help elevate the sport to a different level. I don't, okay, my mileage completely varies on all of that. I don't disagree with the point you're making and I think it goes back to a time when leagues are in transition. We're kind of seeing this with the NBA right now. Now they're a little deeper into this and that we are more familiar with Donchich, you know, Brown and Tatum just want to title together. We've seen this, but this is what happens when a league is in a transitional period. I mean, look at all the guys you just mentioned, you know what, this is the thing. And I think this is the, this is the generational divide. I'm not even saying between me and you, but where it's going to happen is I sit there and I go, yeah, that's like, that's, that's great. Fairly Dilla Cruz. And I agree. He's super exciting. I love watching him play. Give me all the stack cast info. I can get on him. I want to see him. I don't even stack cast. No, no, I do. No, it doesn't for me. It's like the idea of, I want to know how fast him or O'Neill Cruz for that matter could throw him all can hit a ball. That's not the doesn't, but it ain't going to matter a lick if they don't play in a game that matters. Now the Reds have done these things. And this is where I think it happens is that you need these guys to have moments in games that matter. And this can be the like, welcome, hey, introducing you to them. That's great. But for most people, I would think, or again, this is where the generational divide maybe comes in. Maybe a 15 year old goes back, who cares, what game? Melly Della crude. Do you see that? That was sick. See the dread looks cool. It's cool sunglasses. Love it, love it, love it, love it. Look at O'Neill Cruz. He's so cool too. Maybe that maybe that's enough for people for me. It's not until those guys do it in a game that matters or have moments that matter. And it can be all star games like I'm not going to sit here and say I've never cared about an all star game moment. I remember being a kid and be we were all super tuned up for judge verse schemes when we got it last night, but it's a fleeting moment when it happens in that way. And I think that's the thing is that how do leagues kind of bridge that gap between a and again, the NBA is a kind of a very different place because they're in this one goes far as a golden generation, but it's just, you know, the, the second or greatest player of all time is heading out the door and the generation, he's kind of shepherd along with him or there in Durant and Curry. And with baseball, it hasn't been quite as apparent because it's not been about really one guy, but I think that's the interesting thing is how do you bridge that gap from having a moment like this to turning those guys into true, true stars? And I think that's the thing that baseball and it's exactly what you said. It's because everyone cares about their own team. It's very exciting when the reds come to town. It's going to be Ellie Dela Cruz or the pirates come to town, right? People that are interested in going. Yeah, I remember. And now this is always the thing when it's picture. It's like, yeah, do you want the picture coming to town because it's your team, but that's the way we consume it usually and it's, it's how do you go from the, but that's what I mean. It's a chicken and egg because it's difficult. It based on the sheer nature, nature of what the schedule entails. It's hard to put them in the like, it's hard to also capitalize on the fact that you are in everyday sport while also understanding that there are inherent disadvantages to the fact that you're in everyday sport. And the idea that you're going from city to city to city and not every player given the way the sport is constructed, you're not going to have the opportunity to author marquee moments all the time. It's just not going to happen. You need so many things outside of your control to break right for you as an athlete in baseball to be in the best position, like to have the opportunity to actually stand at the plate in the biggest moment in a big game. There are so many other people that you are dependent on, whereas in other sports, that's not necessarily the case all the time. Even in football, like we devote all of our energy and attention towards quarterbacks. But yes, it's a really almost the ultimate team sport. Like you can't win with just the quarterback, but the quarterback controls so much of the game compared to any other player on the field. So even that there's 22 guys on a field in the NFL, it still doesn't compare to what baseball requires in terms of how a team needs to help elevate an individual player just as much as an individual player can help elevate a team. It's a very interesting dynamic in baseball and it's tough. Again, I just admired almost the humility and innocent like joy and entertainment that I saw yesterday because if I point even at the NBA where everybody said, well, that's such a modern, contemporary liberal, fun league, right? Well, I think there's an arrogance to the fun of that league and how those players operate. Like I think there's an arrogance to what those guys, you know, how they can comport themselves publicly, whereas with baseball, it just seems a little bit more genuine. It's because those guys are gigantic stars. There's no such thing as an NBA All Stars that occupies the same place in the world as Santiago Espinal. We'll never in a world see NBA All Star, whatever you would have a name better to pull for me, but we'll never see that where there is just, and that's why you see those guys carry themselves that way. Because guess what? They are. They are that great. They are that good. And I just, I think with baseball, to your point, like if I'm sure there are a lot of people kind of feeling it that way, I think the other thing, the last kind of thing on this is just it's failure is just such a bigger part of the sport when the bronze, when the bronze James fails, when Austin Matthews fails, when, you know, quarterback X fails, it is a referendum on them right then in there. Do they have? Do they have it? Do they lack the guts? You know, first take it up, whatever way you want to go about it in baseball, even the people who want to be the most that way, there is just a realization that there's going to be failure. There are going to be bumps in the road. And I think that's definitely a big, big part of why the game feels so different. Oh, you can get into the Vlady stuff here. We will save that for actually do that at seven o'clock here and then we'll do our Leafs topic next. So Leafs, why, why does the pendulum constantly swing? We go from, we need to make it safe at the beginning of the Bab's era to welcome to Buru Bay's torture chamber now. What's the right place on the pendulum for this to swing? How safe do you want it to be to play in Toronto? It's mostly a leaf question, but I think it applies to the other teams as well. We'll get into that more when we continue fan morning show on SportsNet 5.9 of the fan. In-depth blue Jay's coverage with an analytical twist, Jay's talk plus with Blake Murphy, be sure to subscribe and download Jay's talk on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. The technical producer of the fan morning show, I think I might have just given him a promotion. I don't know exactly what better director or producer him and as a party can fight about that behind the glass fan morning show Gunner and Daniele along with you here coming up after seven going to talk about Vladie, obviously again, these temple moments in the season are big, big. We talked about it with JP for charity, not big for anybody in the game, but we like to set it up as though it is the all and all. You can make it too complicated. Yeah. Call a guy. He wants a guy. He says, yay or nay. Then I go like all hard guys. I play golf. It's not really not that hard, but we're going to get into the Vlad contract extension. What does it mean? How does his place in the game affect all that? It's coming up after seven, but right now there's been a lot of talk and, you know, we got into this yesterday, the idea of Boruba coming in and what's it going to mean in terms of accountability. And I want to make this about the Leafs, but I think it very much applies to all three, sorry, Argos and TFC of the major teams in the city here and the raps and the J's, okay? And I think safe in different sports means very different things. Safe and hockey in this town is very, very different from safe and basketball and that in and of itself is very different from safe and in baseball. Now at the beginning of this turnaround of the Leafs and the Shana plan and the cleaning out of the house and bringing him Babcock, there was the famous, we're going to make it safe and guys are going to want to come home. And they did the captain of the team, John Tavares, he came home. He got his 11 sheets a year. Other guys have come home since. I know he is persona non grata for many now, you know, you think of the Jason Spetses of the world, Mark Gierdano, who's stuck around to play for less. You now have Chris Tanev, who's decided to be a part of this. So I think it's safe to say that it's pretty safe, guys feel pretty comfortable. I'll just posit it very simply to you. Is that a good thing? No, no, you know what's safe equals? It equals sterile. Okay. That's what it equals. I think you need a little bit of discomfort, a little bit of, you know, a little reason to have pause on occasion. And yes, do you want, of course, the athletes to feel great and be comfortable in their own skin? All these under, you know, wonderful things, of course, of course, of course, but how do you get the best out of them? It generally is by putting them in uncomfortable positions and by pushing them into different areas that they're not accustomed to, by having a little bit, just a tinge of pressure, perhaps on their shoulders here and there. I think at times, you know, there's this idea, this notion that for whatever reason, because of the perception of the market, that now dictates how the treatment of the players needs to sort of unfold, and that we now need to be ultra cautious, extra cautious when it comes to how players are treated in this market. Frankly, and I know this has been widely discussed a ton, you know, we, the people outside of Toronto paint this picture that is difficult to play in this city, especially if you're on the hockey team, but it's honestly, it's not like, it's not the scariest, most frightening media market. People, I think, are fair, and it should mean more that there is, I don't want to say pressure, but there is an added sense of importance to what the team is doing. And if you as an athlete fail to recognize the value in that, then don't be here, but you got to find guys that are willing and able to understand that, compartmentalize it, and hopefully, it'll make them better. It shouldn't make them feel, they shouldn't, the Leafs or any other team shouldn't be in a position where they have to ensure that the players, quote unquote, feel safe, that the environment is safe, that they aren't subjected to pressures every single day and that they can live their lives, okay, if you want to do that, go somewhere else, because here, playing for the Leafs, wearing their uniform, there is more meaning to it. It does mean something. If you win here, that's why everybody talked about, God forbid you actually win here. Never going to happen, but yeah. It means more, and that should be the allure, or part of the allure, of what it means when you step in that locker room and wear that uniform. So, a couple of things. I think that the fact that there has been a run of, what is it, five, six, I forget what the number is of all Florida teams being in a cup final, it is proof positive that players will gladly sign up to play somewhere and good ones at that will gladly sign up to play somewhere where there is just flat out no pressure. It's a good day or it's a neutral day. There's no such thing as a bad day to be a panther. Well, Stephen Stammcose had exactly one bad day, or two bad days as a lightning. It's when he's like, give me the money and they're like, no. And then he tried one more time. He's like, give me the money. They're like, no, those are the only two bad days he ever had, remember the day of day lightning, okay. I think the thing that it all comes back to is we've got this all misconstrued of what it means to be safe. When Mike Babcock was talking about, we're going to make it safe and players are going to want to come home. Do you know what he was talking about? Because I'm pretty sure I finally understand it. It wasn't talking about, was Steve Simmons going to be mean to you? Is he going to ask you a mean? No, that's not what he was talking about. Is it going to be, oh, we're going to let these jackals in the locker room to talk to you five times. I don't think that's what he was talking about. Is it, it's going to be a first class org, a little bit, not that it wasn't before. I mean, the Leafs been spending money. Oh yeah. I mean, you know, balladiers aside, but they've been spending money, spending money, spending money. So he was talking about that a little bit. And he talked about making it safe and, you know, he started to build this, Keith took it over and then things grow stale. He meant building a winner. That is what it means to be safe as a leaf in Toronto. Again, safe as a raptor, safe as a blue jay, comfortable, whatever term you'd rather use. Very, very different things. That's what he meant about we're going to make it safe and guys are going to want to come home. Because guess what? You prove that this team can win guys are signing up to come here. They, and why do you think Kristin is here now part of it is they gave him like tons of money and years beyond when he'll probably be able to play hockey and we're not going to sugarcoat that. But a big part of it is that allure you talked about him wanting to have it now that has gone away a little bit. We've seen this with the Adam Henrik of the world saying, you know what, sign me up for Edmonton. That's a little more palatable part of it. He just had success there part of it. He knows it. But also part of it is they're coming off the afterglow of a championship and there will obviously be pressure if that team doesn't perform, but it's different than when this team doesn't perform. And guess what? Both teams are going to have stretches where they underperformed this upcoming season. So that is what I think we've kind of lost the plot in this all along is, oh, what does it mean to be safe? Is the media too tough? Safe just means building a team that wins because guess what? We can all be down on again, pick your guy, Mitch Marner, William Neelander, and do we do the thing in a win where we pick out the bad shift? Yes, we do, but it's a little anecdote as opposed to the be all and end all focus. So that is the thing that I think is jumping out the most to this for me with all this, is that what does it mean? It's just about building a winning team. And then guess what? It's going to feel now won't feel as safe as it will. It will never feel as safe to be a leaf as it will to be a panther, to be a pred, to be a star. I can keep naming teams because there's a lot of them that don't have the pressures, okay? But that's what they're talking about. That's what that was talking about. What seem seemingly feels like a hundred years ago at that opening presser. There used to be an old adage that, or I mean, there was a sentiment that was held by fans and certainly media in the city for many, many years. It always felt like if you were a coach or you were a marquee player and you ever made the jump to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was like, this is where careers, they don't start here. They finish here. They die here. And I think there has been certainly an evolution in that regard because mind you, it helps after two decades of sort of toiling in the realm of just general mediocrity that you are able to draft, develop, produce really, really good marquee players that are clearly at the heights of the peaks of their powers and are regarded as some of the best and most talented individual athletes in the National Hockey League. That helps change that perception a fair bit when you can point to a math, use a marner and knee later and you're like, see, I mean, you can be successful here. There's no way. So that's one factor in all of this. I do think that the winning culture aspect of it is really interesting. I will say you're never going to have it be, to your point, it's never going to be a mundane day here. But if you're in it for just a little bit of chaos with a passionate fan base and the fact that winning will probably feel slightly more fulfilling if you actually accomplish it here, that's a pretty intriguing and compelling recipe. And it's an interesting sales pitch to anybody that actually is a from here, a product of this environment and has an appetite to actually be part of the solution. That was always the thing. Well, who wants to be part of the solution? And now I think we've gone to the point where it's like we're not asking anybody to be part of the solution per se because it feels like they're sort of trending in the right direction on that front anyway. But now it's maybe that aspect of it, it's been, there's more comfort in coming here because of the fact that you can point to at the very least, and I know they haven't, they've only won't play off to you. At least you can point to the fact that you're in your own, they're perennially a playoff team. They are there. It's really easier for a Max's Domi to come home. It makes it easy, more palatable for a Chris Tana after all these years of being in the National Hockey League, a Toronto kid, but by all accounts has had a fervent desire to play for the Maple Leafs. It makes it easier for him. I wonder why Craig Conroy hates him so much, he wouldn't let him do that. It makes it easier for him at this stage of his career to just naturally make that transition. I think, and I think it was Brandon Tana have had a comment the other day at the Zach Hyman Gold Tournament where he talked about that exact point where he talked about how Chris always had a passion and a desire to play for the Maple Leafs, and you're seeing that more and more, which points to exactly what you said. Look how much the perception has changed in the sense that we always have doom and gloom. Okay, hold on, I don't want to cut you off, but I think this is an important point to hit on, is that Chris Tanev, now I don't think this is part of his calculation. I think he grew up a Leaf fan, he has always wanted to wear the sweater, his career is coming to an end, this was the last time in his career he was going to have a chance to make his decision on this, and he was going to make it to be a Leaf. So I'm not taking all that to account, but there is precious little chance, at least in the years of the deal that he's playing, that we're sitting there saying this is all Chris Tanev's fault. Brandon Tanev comes in, it's going to be the exact same thing. Now if you're Conor McDavid and your contract's up in two years, that's a very different calculation to make, and that's why I think these type of players, now Max Domi is a little different in that. He has a lot more of that personality about him, and I do want to just address something, you know, I won't read the whole text, but I see it on the text line here, I get this push back all the time when we bring this up. Well, what about the Cowboys and what about the Yankees? One, the Yankees, now maybe they don't want to do it, but they could just go right to check and buy anybody they want, okay? That's how that support works. I guarantee you, if the Leafs could go waving hundreds of millions of dollars in guys' faces, they'd find a way to feel okay about playing. They can massage it and feel good. And maybe I'm wrong about this, but I have not heard the, there have definitely been players who've said, I'm good on being a cowboy, but I have not heard this outcry of get me out of all the markets that matter from NFL players like we have from the NHL players. So that is why to me, it's very different. I hear this all the time, I'm like, oh, it was hard to be a Yankee? Yes, it is hard to be a Yankee, and they can compensate you as such. And all these guys make tons of money. I understand. I know that's coming. That is the part of this that jumps out to me is, is so much the culture of the sport. And it's the guys that will wear the heat. Max told me he needs to have that personality of I want the smoke because he's a lightning rod. We're going to talk about him there. And this isn't to say, Christian, if it's not going to make a bad pinch and we're not going to call about for it, but because he's the thing this team has been missing for a hundred years, guess what? I'm just going to tell you how it's going to go. It's going to be a little bit of kid gloves there. I'm just going to be honest about it. And that's not, that's not from me. That's just the general consensus. We've all been sitting there begging for a right job partner for Morgan Riley since honey and Hainsey were here, okay? So that's the thing I keep looking back to with that is it's one thing for players of that ilk to say it and Brandon Tannoff, like God, love great player. You'd love to have them as a caulk and your bottom six all that. Sure. We're not going to sit here talking about Brandon Tannoff winning them or losing them a series. Yeah, if he makes a gut wrenching play in that moment, sure, but it's not those guys that we talk about. We talk about truly making it safe, in my opinion. It's John Tavares. It's hopefully Conor McDavid. I think I even think there's an evolution at that level like you got to start somewhere. And I think that that honestly is, is the route at where this, this sort of evolution has occurred. Because look at all the different guys that have done it now. It's not. And that is, I guess the greatest litmus test will be if and when one of those elite guys come over again, like Tavares did it. Yep. And he got the seat. He got the captain's seat. What do you think guys are saying who were in their position? Do you think they're looking at John Tavares and going, sign me up for that. That looked like a ton of fun. Right. No, that looks so much fun. The guys are asking him to wave his no move after every single season and they're talking about stripping them of the sea. Do you think Conor McDavid thinks that looks like fun? I personally wouldn't think that looks like fun. If they had, okay, so I mean, it's hard to, it's really difficult because of all the different guys that have sort of walked in and out of that dressing room over the last eight years, let's say, in this era, the core pieces are all, they've all been drafted and developed right side of JT from John Tavares, who again, as this has gone on, as his tenure has progressed, we've seen his skill said diminish and there's regression that has set in. It has been generally the bottoms, those bottom six fringe roster guys that are really the prime examples you can point to that would support the theory that this has become a quote unquote safe environment. And I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't think that's an indictment. I think it is, it is an endorsement of what they've done, frankly, because you know, you point out the Spetsa, you point out Joe Thornton, you point out Patrick Marlow, you can, you point out, you know, Marcia Dannell, all these other, all these guys who have been through a ton of wars, they had all the battle scars, they, they spent the majority of the peak years of their career in a different city, but there was an appetite to come home and they felt comfortable enough to do it at that stage of their career. Part of it is because as you alluded to with Kristanev, you would never really point the finger at them as being the sole reason or one of the primary reasons in which the Leafs failed or fell short, but it's still a step forward. It's still a step forward, in my opinion, that those guys felt strongly enough and that Domi is more, a more applicable one because he's still an effective player that is can play up and down your lineup and is successfully resigned here, by the way. I think you point to those people and say that is a positive indication of the way in which the evolution of this organization has taken place and how the perception of what Toronto used to be, where we talked about, if you go there, your career is finished. You're probably going to leave there as a, as a, as a diminished, yeah, as a diminished asset and that perception has changed enough to where players from this city feel comfortable enough to come back and actually play for their home team. To me that is a positive, I take it, I do see a positive development in that respect. I think it's good the guys are, are open to it and you see it with the, there are definitely a, a, a sect of guys that feel that pull to come back and I think that's incredible. I am also wholly prepared to hear every single player of note who has protection at this year's trade deadline say I ain't going there because it's what we've seen at now. Tana, different story. It was Craig Conroy holding him back. It wasn't that. I think there are guys who do want it to your point. Zadorov, he didn't have his age on put out the trade request right before the game against the Leafs because he would have hated the idea of playing here. This isn't to say this is a blanket statement, but you see it time and time again every single year. There are guys saying get me out of here, get me to a market where it does not matter. And it is just this is the kind of crux of the issue with this sport right now. I'm trying to think. So, you know, apart from Ryan O'Reilly, is there anybody else that really comes to mind Leafs-wise that has sort of, right, like he's probably the only one unless I'm mistaken here, Gunnar. In terms of actually like not openly, but he's been fairly transparent in terms of his feelings as to how it went down and why for him. And again, everybody's entitled to their own opinion and their own experience. He didn't think it was a fit. He didn't see himself being able to play in this environment, in this market for a prolonged period of time. Power to him. That's okay. With him. I can't recall another guy in the last 10 years that has walked through this organization that has had an interaction with this organization, whether it's a brief pit stop or a more prolonged stay that has left or part of their motivation in leaving was because they couldn't quote unquote handle the pressures or I guess what Justin Hall? No, no, no, this is the and this is the good point to leave it at. There's one guy that comes to mind and he shares a trait with both of us in yellow. Okay. This is his name's Calvertis now I'm just being honest, like in that being the GM of a team for eight years boy, it's a little different than playing third line center, but that is the perfect way to add this conversation. All right. Vladimir Greg Jr goes over at the All-Star game. Who cares? He's not going to go over at the bank whenever his contract is due. What should that look like? How ready should the J's be to stroke the check and what factors go into that is strictly about performance. It is about his place in the game, or is it about something else that maybe is a little harder to define. We'll get into all that and more first hour in the books here fan morning show on Sports Step 590 to fan. [MUSIC] (upbeat music) (dramatic music)
