The FAN Morning Show

The Future of Canada Soccer w/ CEO Kevin Blue

The FAN Morning Show goes into its final hour of the day with Brent Gunning & Daniele Franceschi talking about the summer of soccer that Canada is currently experiencing. They are pleased to be joined by General Secretary and CEO of Canada Soccer, Kevin Blue. Kevin discusses his short time at the helm of Canada Soccer and what the priorities have been. B&D ask him about recruiting Jesse Marsch and how seeing him as the right man for the job is paying great early dividends. They delve into the success of the men’s team at COPA AMERICA, what it means for the program and organization as well as how they keep that momentum going to 2026. The trio also takes time to discuss the women’s national team as they get set to compete at the Paris Olympics and why they seem set for success in a post-Christine Sinclair era. In the back end of the hour, the morning duo are joined by MLB Network’s Adnan Virk, recently back home from being at the All-Star festivities in Arlington. They take time to go over what stood out during his time there including diving into Teoscar Hernandez’s Derby win, Paul Skenes starting the game for the N.L. and maybe the biggest talking point, the ASG uniforms! The trio manage to sneak in some pop culture TV talk as well.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Duration:: 47m
Broadcast on:: 18 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) - Kevin Blue, the Secretary General, comes from the University where they know how to improve. He got me here. He recruited me here. So I already said to him, look, we need your skill set and we need your experiences to help so that when I go out and visit with these players, we can show like look what we're building. And by the way, maybe one of the best positives from us doing well in Copa America is that we can show us on the school and the national set. The program is serious and we're going places. And you should want to be on board. - I was about to say the dulcet, but I'm going to switch that up. Those are the very successful tones of Jesse Marsh. Our man, it is amazing how a program that maybe you have different expectations of success for when a coach seems to kind of take ownership. I mean, I harken back to last summer at the FIBA World Cup and all of us kind of fallen in love with Jordi Fernandez. And again, different conversation, we're going mmm, dark away. All right, okay, fair. We got Jordi like that one. No, no, look, that's what happens. You see these international tournaments and we, the players are known commodities or at least they're becoming much more so, especially with Canada soccer. But the coach is always going to be the focal point. They're the one who talks every day. They're the one who face you see all the time. They are literally and especially in that sport of soccer. They're the guy who you see wearing the emotions on their face all the time. And Marsh has so quickly become as important a face. He's not more important to Canada soccer than Alfonso Davies or Jonathan David. But in terms of a face of the program, a leader, you hear the talk about recruiting, it's hard to think, you're hard pressed to think of somebody that kind of means more outside of the handful of players that we can name off the tip of our tongue than Marsh. It's just, honestly, it's a remarkable, remarkable job he has done and somebody who did a remarkable job to bring him in as part of it is Kevin Blue, general secretary and CEO of Canada soccer. Kevin, I had a little bit of dealings with you in your former life in the golf world. I loved all the work you did there. And I think pretty safe to say Canada is very happy with the work you're doing now with Canada soccer. - Thanks so much for joining us this morning. - Yeah, Brett, thanks for having me on. Happy to be talking soccer with you guys. - Yeah, as we should be, I mean, can we just talk about your kind of expectations, not from what the team was going to do with COPA America, but what it could mean for the program. And, you know, I think I won't speak for you, but I don't know that you could have dreamed it would have gone this way in terms of the country wrapping its arms around it. What has it done for Canada soccer to have the successful run at COPA America off the back of qualifying for the World Cup and then playing in the first one, you know, in generations. What has this run done for Canada soccer and the feeling around it? - Yeah, I mean, when I accepted this job because it was an opportunity to really make an impact and try to build the organization and build the sport at a really, really critical time as we look ahead to 2026 in the World Cup. And obviously the result and the positivity and the momentum that the COPA America result from the players and the coaches creates really helps accelerate that. And it helps us, you know, really continue to push the popularity and the agenda of global football within Canada, which is, you know, the World Cup soon. And this result really helps us emphasize how important that's going to be and get people rallied around it. So it's been all positive. - I wanted to focus on Justin Marsh for a second here, Kevin, because obviously that was, I've note the biggest move, at least publicly that we've seen from Canada soccer over the last few months. And it's remarkable that in the span of, you know, well, I believe it was 60-something days, 60 odd days. Since Jesse Marsh was hired, he went from taking a team that obviously had lots of promise with a ton of young talent and encouraging pieces. And there's reason for optimism there, but go from that to facing some of the premier soccer nations in the world and finishing with a fourth place result at the Copa America, where now there is this reinvigorated spirits surrounding the team with an eye towards, as you alluded to, the 2026 World Cup. What was it about Jesse that really jumped off the page in this entire sort of search phase, this hiring process that you guys went through? As you look to fill the vacancy, that was the head coach position for the men's national team. - Yeah, there's several things that gave us an indication that Jesse would be an excellent fit. And I relied, you know, for the technical and tactical football aspects of evaluating. And I relied on several men's national team alumni, people that are involved in front offices around the world. And so there's a few things, the fit with our player pool and how he likes to play was excellent, right? He's an aggressive front foot, high tempo, high press in some cases type of coach. And we've got great athletes, right? So that fit was excellent. Obviously his global experiences, even though his experiences internationally were with the United States as an assistant coach, but his global experiences at the club game, were, you know, he's seen the sport at the very, very, very highest level. And that's something that with this player pool that's young and maturing, maturing quickly, his experiences we knew would be really valuable for this team. And then, you know, lastly, some of the things that he brings to the table off the pitch, his interest in being a builder for the sport in Canada, he's interested in helping with coaching education, he's interested in helping with player development, he's interested in building the commercial and philanthropic footprint of the sport in Canada. Like he's genuinely and truly interested in those things as well. And that's a really good fit for what we're trying to do right now with the sport in Canada. So, you know, Jesse, as we got into it, it was clear that he was our preferred candidate and we just needed to do what we could to recruit him. - So, okay, you said the word there, recruiting. How important is it to kind of be able to walk and chew gum at the same time here? I mean, you mentioned Marsh and all the things he wants to do in the long-term vision of what you can do at Canada Soccer to kind of push Canada to be a soccer nation, you know, for generations beyond now. But that's not gonna help for 2026. I don't know, I think you guys can do it quickly. I don't know that we can develop things quite that quick. How important is the idea of recruiting some of the dual nationals that are out there that are unaffiliated as of yet? And then I think one of the things that goes into that is the resources surrounding the program. How confident are you guys in your ability to recruit some of these dual nationals and how much does Marsh kind of play into that? - Yeah, well, the dual nationals is something that Jesse and the program. Like this is not a new topic, right? It's something that everybody has thought about for a while. And in fact, you know, under John and under Mauro, we've had some success. And so this is an ongoing topic of conversations and ongoing focus. And I would think that some like players who have Canadian affiliation have seen what the team has been able to do and the direction that we're heading. And I would think it makes it much more attractive for folks. At the same time, we like our guys, like we like our guys. So if we're able to add with some dual nationals, great, if it doesn't work out for one reason or another, we like our team. So we'll continue to work through that. And as far as generating resources to support the program, that's something that we are focusing on. I think we've been successful in generating philanthropic support in a number of areas already. And we will be really, really working on that in order to build a sustainable, prosperous future for our national team programs. And frankly, for the infrastructure of the sport in Canada, it's like a, that's the area of biggest growth opportunity for the sport in Canada is for the commercial and philanthropic side to catch up to the participation that we see in Canada. So that's obviously, that's a primary focus of mine. - What does the, and I don't have the figures in front of me here, but it's not nothing, like the actual cash you get for making it as far as you did in Copa. What does that do to the coffers for the Oregon? Again, like I don't mean to constantly bring it back to it, but it has been such a topic of conversation surrounding the organization. I mean, long preceding your time, quite frankly, Kevin, what did the actual injection of cash and how meaningful was it following the successful run at Copa? - I mean, obviously it's positive, but I would add a little bit of context. The first bit of context is that obviously, the players, are sharing in some of that upside, according to, we're working through and working according to a compensation agreement that we have with the players, which is fantastic and positive and collaborative. So of course the players are going to be rewarded, with some of that upside earnings that have been secured. The association does definitely benefit, which is great, but I would also point out the fact that, as somebody running the organization and responsible for its finances, what we are trying to do is build a sustainable business model in the sense that annually recurring revenues and annually recurring costs are better matched up. These one-time injections, or I should say, occasional injections of revenue are fantastic, right? But that's not how you run the business. Like you can't run the organization depending on prize money as an annually recurring source of revenue, 'cause here's not playing in those events where the prize money's there and the outcomes are not always predictable clearly. So this is a helpful injection of some upside. It's something that, of course, everybody's enthusiastic about, but we're really focused on the long-term and annual business model being more structurally sound. And that's where we're gonna turn the corner when we can get that aligned. We're getting there. - Yeah, it's healthy to have that incentive at your disposal when you do, when your teams perform well, obviously. But I think you hit the nail on the head there in terms of identifying what has been a major source of consternation as it relates to Canada's soccer for many years and decades at this particular point in time. And, you know, Brent kind of alluded to it with that last question. This is where I think my head immediately went in seeing how much this team really galvanized the country. Like the biggest thing here was not necessarily just the results in winning a couple of games and obviously one being a significant knockout match and having another ultra-competitive showdown against a very good and polished or a Uruguay inside in a third-place game, but bigger picture, it was more about, okay, now that this interest and this passion, this optimism has been recaptured again, similar to what we saw in 2022, why should the Canadian population, Canadian sports fans have more confidence in the federation that they are better equipped now to capitalize on this momentum as opposed to what we saw when this first popped off in 2022 reaching the World Cup for the first time in more than three decades. That was sort of where my focus lended most of my attention. And I know it's probably somewhat unfair to ask you that question 'cause you weren't with the organization and the federation at the time, but why do you think, or why should Canadians feel more confident that now Canada soccer is in a better position than to capitalize on this momentum compared to where they were a couple of years ago? >> Yeah, I think that the sport has matured even in a couple of years, right? And the public is more ready for to embrace rallying behind our national teams, both men and women. I would answer the question by saying hopefully the management of the organization is professional and understand how to take advantage of these things, obviously, but the, look, people ultimately judge us by what we do and not what we say. And in the days immediately following the COPA America concluding for our team, Jesse and I flew from Charlotte on Sunday to the GTA, went directly to a CPL match to, he was doing some scouting and some evaluating and meeting the folks that are involved in that league. The next day, we were running around downtown Toronto doing a bunch of media. We had a donor lunch. We did a happy hour with media and some supporters and then flew to Montreal that night to repeat the same process in Montreal. Like there was not, like, oh, let's just take some time off here. Like we are trying to build, build, build, build, build, build. And the fruits of that labor hopefully will be realized. Like people have asked me, hey, you're gonna take some time off now that COVID is over, actually quite the opposite. Like for me, especially, like now is the time we have to work. Now is the time we have to take advantage of this stuff, especially building into the Olympics and what our women's team, you know, we're all hopeful for a really great showing from the women's team, which will be, again, a national phenomenon for Canada. So like that's the spirit through which we're approaching this and, you know, media coverage and telling the stories and the players, like that's also on us as a federation to convince the media and convince you all to keep covering and keep telling the stories of, you know, Jesse Fleming and Jeanine Becky and Adrianne Leon on the women's side and what they're gonna do in the Olympics. And then when everybody goes back to club, we need to keep telling stories of Jonathan David and, you know, Fonzie and these players. Like this cannot be a once in a while, you know, the national team's play. So let's talk about them. This needs to be building Canadian heroes, talking about them all the time. It's great content for media. It's my job to convince you all that you should keep doing it. So that's, you know, that's what we're focused on. Yeah, hey, if the results keep looking like Copa, you won't have too much of a problem there. I think it's great that you mentioned the Olympics, obviously, I mean, the women's national team has been what's galvanized this to be a soccer country if it has been one for the past decade here. And, you know, how this is less of a question for somebody like you, but you've been around sport your entire life. How do you feel when an org undergoes a transition? I'm not talking about you coming in, but Christine Sinclair, she had been the epicenter of not Canadian women's soccer, but Canada's soccer for the better part of a decade, probably longer than that. What does it do for an organization? And again, like the team perspective is one thing, but she'd been more than that. I mean, you want to talk about selling the game. I can't think of a Canadian soccer face. I've seen more than hers. What does it mean to, and I don't want to speak about it as a loss as though she's not around or never a part of this anymore, but you do want to sell those new names that you mentioned about. How hard of a shift is that for an organization to make? Yeah, I mean, I think that obviously, whenever you have the greatest player of all time on your team and then, you know, retire from international competition, there are several voids to fill, you know, leadership, you know, recognition, the chemistry of the group will change. But I think, you know, everybody in Canada is thinking about the amazing transformational legacy that Sink is leaving behind. And frankly, without Sink, we would not have the women's program in such a world-class position as defending gold medalists and as one of the best teams in the world and the players that have come behind her are inspired by her. So, you know, sure. There's obviously an adjustment period, but Beth Priestman has skillfully handled the transition, right? Like really, really beautifully handled the transition. And the team has performed really, really well, you know, after Sink's retirement and has not lost in regulation time since I believe the World Cup in '23, right? So, it's something that we're navigating as a program and really Beth has done a masterful job with it. Obviously, they're gonna compete hard in the Olympic Games and I'm sure Sink, not being at the Olympic Games is going to be something that is new for everybody, but they're ready to honor her with their performance. - Yeah, I can imagine having, I'm not gonna pretend I'm best friends with her, but having interviewed her a couple of times. I can imagine there's nothing she would want more than them to look just as good as they ever did when she was a part of it. Obviously, the Olympics, a big temple this summer, we continue to look to 2026. Are there things that are on your kind of to-do list, checklist before then? Again, like we understand the idea of potentially recruiting and, you know, you're right to point out. I certainly like the way that team looks, so maybe we don't need to do too much of that. And, you know, there is infrastructure work to be done, but what are the things that you're kind of most focused on between now and 2026? I mean, it's a World Cup. There are gonna be games played here. It's something that, again, a generation ago would have been unheard of quite frankly. Just how big of an undertaking is it for the org between now and 2026? - Yeah, we're working urgently every single day. Like people think 2026 is far off. It's like tomorrow as we're thinking about it. And so we're urgently working every single day to make sure that the 2026 World Cup, that, you know, the men will co-host, is the transformational event in our sport for Canada, for all of soccer, right, that it can and should be. And there's a lot of things that we're doing here. Like we're trying to really make sure Canadians understand what's coming. Like you're thinking, like the World Cup, each World Cup game is bigger, far bigger, in viewership, globally than the Super Bowl, right? It's a significant massive global. It's gonna be gonna be the biggest sporting event ever, ever hosted when it happens in 2026. So, you know, getting Canadians ready for something of that size, making our players famous, household name, Canadian heroes, right? That's another thing that we're all focused on, and we challenge the media to keep telling their stories. These players are worthy of everybody's support. The general sports fan, not just the footy fan, the general sports fan in Canada, ought to be proud of people like Jonathan David, who's a world, world, world-class player, one of the best players in the French League, and, you know, the general sports fan, prior to this Copa, probably didn't know much about him. And so, that's our responsibility, as we build 26, collectively, to really make these players recognizable heroes. And then, of course, as a federation, our responsibility is to make sure participation continues to grow. So, we're working on ways where the attention and the focus and the energy around the World Cup can be something that all of soccer, including the grassroots, it benefits from, and we want to see the participation numbers continue to grow. So, like, there's a lot of urgency here, right? There's a lot of behind the scenes work in preparation for the world's biggest ever sporting event. - Yeah, that's honestly just hearing you talk about it. It's exciting. As far as the participation numbers go, I can attest, like, I take my kid to a soccer every Saturday morning. It feels like there are more kids there than ever, and he's always off. He's only three and a half. But, like, maybe save a spot for, like, 20, 40, something. Something along those lines. I don't know, like, the Schaffelberg of Burlington. We'll workshop it a little. Kevin, I thoroughly enjoyed this again. I got to know you a little bit in your time working with Golf Canada. Watching Nick Taylor have his win, that was special. And watching your face, I can only imagine the pride you had watching. Candidist team at Copa, and you will have watching the women coming up at the Olympics. Exciting, exciting times ahead. Thanks so much for taking the time this morning, Kevin. Yeah, thanks for having me on. And keep talking about us. Appreciate you guys. Thanks, Kevin. We will. That sounded a little bit like a threat, though. And I don't like being threatened in the morning. But we will, Kevin. We will. There he goes. Kevin Blue, general secretary and CEO of Canada Soccer. I've said it before. Again, I was not going to pretend to be uber intimate with the business dealings there. But just whip smart guy. You got to hear it. I think Canada Soccer's in really good hands. I mean, we can sit here and talk about it at the very, very top with him. We could talk about it with what's going on with Marsh. Even he mentioned it there. Christine Sinclair, no longer on the national team. And that's going to leave a void. But, I mean, we saw those ladies last time the Olympics rolled around. We've seen them the women's World Cups. There is a lot, a lot, a lot to like with that program as well. So it's just, it's jarring, the summer of soccer. And I started off, OK? Like summer soccer. No, you know. I know how you are. But how am I now? I'm in. No, get out of here with well. I played FIFA last night. Oh, yeah. Yes. Whoa, there we go. Well done. I know. Yeah, we've roped you in big time. That's fantastic. I got trying to lead Norwich City to the Premier League. Oh, that's the best. I love it. I got one going actually right now as well. We'll stop that there. I know. I did have two takeaways from that conversation with Kevin. One, I mean, actually three then. OK. Three takeaways. One, two more. He's an incredibly polished individual. There's no job. He wants to stand for it. Shocker. I know. Yeah, former division one athletic director. I know. But I mean that, obviously, as a massive compliment, you can tell he's very, very thorough, very, very detailed in what he's doing. And there's a discipline to it. So credit to him. And it makes you-- it actually provides a massive source of confidence as a-- never mind, just a Canadian soccer supporter, but as a sports fan in this country in general. It's awesome to see that we have an individual like that running one of the big federations in this country. OK. Second, results. They matter. He said it. The results matter. It's about what they do and how they continue to perform. It's not about what they say. And that is a big deal. You can see clearly, and Jesse Marsh, it echoes exactly what Jesse Marsh said to our very owner Ashmond Annie earlier this week. It doesn't matter. We just need to continue to get results. And I'm going to add one more addendum to that. That's like, this is a point on your point, is not that Canada soccer would have felt this way. And I don't love the idea of the World Cup doubling in size. But now that it has, the idea of like, well, what do you want? It's a 2016 field. We can't get it. That's dead and gone. And the two bases, they don't-- I don't know if you follow the NFL schedule and how it just keeps growing. Yeah, it doesn't go the other way. They're not going to have less teams in the World Cup going forward. That's the other part of this is that the natural-- and again, you just heard that guy talk. There's no natural inclination from him on this, or Jesse Marsh, or Alfonso Davies, or any of these guys. But there would have been a world where, OK, they make the run. And, well, it's a 2016 World Cup. Pretty tough to qualify. We added some tough break. No, that's gone. A 46 team World Cup, you're in the top 40 in FIFA rankings. I don't know if they've actually changed yet, or they will be changing, but they're going to be in there. That's done. You have to qualify going forward. That is the insane to say that we've got here already. That's the bare minimum qualification now. And I think that, again, not that these guys need it. But I think that just holds the program to a standard as well. That there's no world where we can live, at least with this group of players, that they're not going to World Cups now. Yeah, the standards are high. And they should be fairly high. Now, again, you're talking to a guy that is of Italian descent that just watched a national team fill the qualifying in successive World Cups. Hopefully, that changes this time around. I think they'll get in with 46. You know what? It's not a guarantee, though. I will say that. It is not a foregone conclusion, obviously, Canada's in, because they're one of the host nations. But it's not a foregone conclusion. The road can be very winding and very complicated at times. My third point was the emphasis on grassroots. There's clearly, and we heard it from even the head coach, who is clearly making a concerted effort to ingratiate himself into the fabric of the Canadian soccer community, not just at a national level, but in the weeds, locally, domestically, trying to figure out, how does the system work? Where are there opportunities for improvement? And how do we make that happen? It is paramount that before we can have success at the highest of levels, what do you, they always say, you've got to start from the ground up. And so it goes back to now there is a clear focus and an area of concentration where this federation is valuing how they are introducing young individuals to the sport, placing them in a pipeline, providing them with the appropriate resources to understand what a pathway looks like. Because for decades, that was incredibly murky. Although soccer was always a high participation sport in this country, if you ever had somebody that was remotely good at the sport, and I only know from experience here in the GTA, guess what? The path forward in terms of getting to higher levels was always very complicated. It was difficult to understand what door am I going through? Whereas with every other sport in this country, it's pretty clear and obvious what the path looks like. And I think it's important for Canada soccer to help refine that slightly. So those were my three primary takeaways. And I come away bullish about what Kevin Blue can do, about what Jesse Marsh can do, and about the future of Canada soccer as a whole, all encompassing in all respects. >> Yeah, you've, I mean, you've heard these stories for years of, you know, you 15, you 16 teams will go down to these big American tournaments and do just fine, but it never really leads there. And to your point, I mean, the pipeline, not to say we want these guys to all leave, but the pipeline doesn't always have to, as long as it leads to Canada soccer, it doesn't always necessarily have to exist here. >> Correct. >> If you want to play in the NBA, you know what the pipeline is? It's moving to America when you're 15 to go to Mount Verde Academy or IMG. And that's changing a little bit. There are definitely other pathways, but that was it. And guess what? That didn't mean that RJ Barrett is not going to, I mean, okay, he's a bad example. >> That's a bad example. >> That's literally the GM. >> Let's use Nemhard as an example. >> Okay, that doesn't mean he's not going to want to play for the program or anything along those lines. And I think that it is just about evaluating those options. And again, this isn't me sitting here like, oh, let's ship all the kids off to Germany and surely that'll work out. That's not what I'm suggesting, okay? But it is about identifying all the different pathways. And I think in this sport specifically, it is the hardest to do that in because you talk about doors to walk through. You know, if you're a young hockey player in this country and you want to go pro, you kind of got two doors to walk through. You could be a CHL kid, or you could play junior A, keep your eligibility, go to scholarship route in the States. Yup, basketball, you would know better than I, but they're a couple different. With soccer, it could take you literally, literally, anywhere in the world. I don't know about Antarctica, so maybe I shouldn't say literally, but almost anywhere in the world it can take you to. And I think it's just about evaluating the right pipelines for players. How can you help them? How can you keep that connection to the passport? 'Cause hey, if we're going to talk about other us recruiting dual nationals for other countries, you think people aren't going to come looking at Canada soccer and say it. So I just think that these are all important. And I thought that was another important point for him to kind of hammer home as well. Look, every team wants to get better, but the idea that you got to throw six, seven, eight guys overboard, careful with that, okay? So I think that was all really good. I'm with you. I don't know how you can come away, not feeling more confident about the program there. If you want some Def Leppard tickets, I could help you with that. Def Leppard and Journey coming to Rogers Center, August 2nd, and we're giving away tickets to enter. All you have to do is tune into the fan morning show, listen for the code word, then text the code word to 59590. Standard message and data rates may apply. Today's code word is freedom. Again, text freedom to 59590 right now to enter for your chance to win tomorrow is the last day for the giveaway. But if you don't win with us, tickets are available on sale at ticketmaster.ca. I'll give you a little update on the open championship on the other side of things. And Adnan Burke is going to join us. Baseball, the second half of the season, or at least the unofficial half, starts in earnest tomorrow. What are the big storylines? Who's most likely to lead up? And what did he take away from MLB's All Star Weekend? Adnan Burke, back and clean up to close out the show next on the fan morning show on SportsNet 590, the fan. Diving deep into the biggest stories in Toronto sports and the NFL, the J.D. Bunkist podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - I was gonna try to have a playoff that, but I can't. I got absolutely nothing. - Total bang journey, of course. - I think of two things with this. One will be near and dear to your heart and one's near and dear to mine. I think it will be anyways. - Okay. - Is Tony Sperano getting whacked? That's what I think of, or maybe not. I don't know. - Maybe not, we don't. - Spoilers for the end of Speranos, I don't know. - Sorry, you guys, sorry. - Sorry, this was, if you've never watched TV before, the screen cuts to black. And this also always reminds me of my time in Windsor, 'cause it was our running joke. Like there is no South Detroit, South Detroit is Windsor, 'cause Windsor is South Detroit. So, there you go. - I expect that Adnan Burke to have something to say about the Speranos thing. Hopefully nothing to say about the second. He is our final guest of the day, back and clean up for us. Adnan, how's it going? Always thrilled to chat with you. How are you doing today? - Of course, Brent, I think my pleasure fellas. Yeah, God, I've been thinking about the Speranos pretty much every day of my life. Ever since it aired and ever since it ended, and I love all the varying theories, and I've been at the time, here's what I find most fabulous at the beginning, 'cause I do think it's brilliant. But at the time, I thought it was terrible. Like, I was furious. I was watching a friend of mine, and he thought the cable went out, and I said, "No, of course not your door." (laughing) I said, "David Chase, when he's independent of tours, "he thinks he's so smart. "I just invested 86 hours of my life, "and the guy gives me an open-ended ending. "I said, "God, what a crock, I'm so mad." (laughing) And over time, I said, "God, how brilliant is this guy? "He's so talked about the Speranos." And it's all these years later. It's an absolute genius. And I like the varying conspiracy theories. The one that I really enjoy is that Chase wax us. - Oh, it's all, right? It's all seen through Tony's viewpoint. It's two for our viewer. We keep looking up at Tony. But the last shot is his POV, his point of view. So he looks up, right? Of course, it opens the door. And then the screen goes black. So it's not that he got whacked. We got whacked. Show's over, folks. Don't find something else to do. We're not gonna entertain you with this gangster anymore. So I've always, I've found that very pretty cool. - That's good. I do like that. It's so funny because, you know, I was not a, I was not like a live Speranos watcher. This was one I watched. Like, "Hey, you shouldn't--" - I shouldn't admit this, but I was probably six years old after that show. - You should, okay, good for you. You should watch Speranos. And it's so interesting going into it knowing that there is this controversial, and like, you know, I'd seen the literal last scene before, but it's so interesting going into a show knowing that there's this controversial ending or, you know, wishy-washy versus the idea of expecting it. 'Cause I watch it and I was sitting there like licking my chops with anticipation of how am I gonna feel when the screen does cut to black. It's just amazing how, like, the knowledge you have of a film or a movie going into it can kind of almost completely change your perspective of it. - Yeah, I've heard people who were reluctant fellas to watch Speranos who would never see it 'cause they go, "Oh, I heard the ending sucked." And I said, "Are you kidding? "You're not gonna invest in, for me, "the greatest show of all time." Because if a controversial, like, "I'm trust me, "you're going to like the show." Even if you don't like the ending, which I didn't at the time, I still thought it was the most brilliant thing I've ever seen. So it's an incredible show, man. And of course, I've read a book with the Sipano Sessions. It's a great book. I encourage you guys to read it. They went through literally episode by episode, interviews of the cast. Of course, Imperial, he has his podcast. It's even Shrippa, which is really good, so. - That was a big pay-demic prior. - That got me through the pandemic. - That was amazing. - Yeah, Imperial, and Shrippa, yeah. - Yeah, that was right up my alley. And then I think what also just, and I know you're a big film buff, and you follow things closely in that community. - And you are buff. - There we go. I gave you double confidence there, and then you're welcome when it comes, but when it comes to the Sopranos, what's always stood out to me is, we all, it's such an iconic show, but with many iconic shows, we always have the appetite to be like, all right, where's the reboot? Where's the sequel? With that show, it's almost like we're afraid to ever touch it. We don't want to diminish whatever that show represents and what it's accomplished. And I think that honestly, probably pays the biggest compliment to the legacy of that show, is the fact that we know it can never be replicated. The success that it had, the way that it impacted and resonated, it will never be replicated. And I think that speaks to how great it actually was. - Yeah, I think no matter what David Chase would never want to touch it again as far as the show, we'd call it, you know, I think he's passing. Ultimately, whether or not he would've been in any sort of a sequel, 'cause depending on what you think happened to Tony, that ended that conversation, which you're right. You couldn't have spin off with Michael Emperio. Always character Christopher, who was always my favorite character on the show. You could have done stuff with Carmelik, and that's about other characters, you know, Furio, whoever. It was such a popular show, like you said, you could treat it like Star Wars and just have a spin off for each of you. - Yeah, exactly. (laughs) - They did have the movie, of course, the many states of Newark, Chase has such a big, it's a big movie for years, he lamented the fact, he finally had a gigantic hit with a TV show in his mind, he used to always grew up thinking. Movies are better than TV if you're a movie person. And unfortunately, the movie just couldn't quite capture the magic of the original, 'cause I just think the show was so layered, and obviously didn't have to be in his character. It was a noble attempt, but it was funny. The many states of Newark were the one chance you've had to kind of get that Spanish nostalgia, and it did not match up to the show, of course. - Yeah, I certainly felt it falling flat, and it was almost, you know, and again, like you try to tell a story, but it almost ended up being like a Sopranos jukebox. It's like, oh, he's gonna say he's not a varsity athlete. Here it comes, here it comes. And yeah, that was kind of my expectation of it. And just it's funny to hear you say that. They are not you, but chase the idea of, and it's so funny how it's flipped, and quite frankly, I think it will flip again, 'cause I mean, life's a pendulum, and we're all kind of vlogged for the ride, but it's funny how it's gone from like, movies, movies, how you do TV. Yeah, that's nice for you, but come over here to the big boy table, and now it, I'm not gonna say it's done a complete 180, 'cause big blockbuster movies are still super popular and being part of our lexicon, but it does feel like all the power kind of resides with TV nowadays, just funny how these things flip. Oh, from 2019 to I would argue last year, TV had the upper hand, like you couldn't name another movie star who wasn't doing another TV show, a streaming limited series, et cetera. Only last year, it really felt like movies punch back, went to Oppenheimer, the Bumenheimer, in fact, it was a strong year for movies and more people. And now it's funny, the TV shows, which have been some of the best shows, are now gone. Succession is gone. Fairy is gone. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is gone. So now you kind of have a bit of a void. I mean, now, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday, the bear did really well, shogun did well, but it's funny. TV, they have dimmed a little bit, but you're right, Brent. The way it's changed over the course of our lifetime, it's crazy. - Yeah, it has. Okay, no real way to transition. We'll just talk about some sports now, if that's all right with you, Adnan. I know we're all in fun talking to Brando's here. MLB All-Star Weekend, it's always funny with this game. The point I was making about the home run Derby when we came on talking about it, or after the Derby was, you can gamify these things and you can try to have a better format. And I'm all for trying different things, but really it's going to come down if you get an awesome moment or not. And we did at the end, like, yeah, Bobby Whit Jr. trying to do that, then you're nearly doing it, then you fast forward to the game itself. You have Duran, a young star. He has the big bomb. Well, what did you just make of All-Star Weekend as a whole in terms of kind of selling the game, telling stories of maybe some kind of different faces? - Well, it was hot as hell. That was the first thing that sucked out. - Well, thank God you're not in this studio right now, Adnan. I'm about to do this show in a bikini tomorrow. This thing is hot. - Yeah, I got her in a sweat. (laughing) - I know Toronto has been tilted with thunder showers as well. God, the Drake video, unbelievable. That thing went viral, but not. Yeah, Texas has been good. It was actually a great environment because the fact that everything's very centrally located, you know, they've got a globe-like field there and they've got all these restaurants and, you know, the studio is there. Like, it's really, it's really well set up. I think for fans, it was very convenient. As far as the show itself, thank God, globe-like field is air-conditioned, which, you know, it's a little hot one. There's 50,000 there, but still, it's much better than the alternative as far as having an open roof. And listen, the Holman Derby was excellent in that you had a pleasant surprise in the final because so often these things can feel predictable. And Alonzo was the heavy favorite going into a tight griffy as, you know, a three-time Holman Derby champion. But instead, you had to ask for Hernandez, full of Blue Jays great note against Bobby Witt, and the fact that that last one from Witt, you know, it was a half a foot short, whatever it was. That was a pretty cool drama. And at least from a personal level, I was thrilled because we talked to T. Oscar, a pre-show, and Dino Evil was the guy throwing to him, E.B.E.L. I kept wanting to say, "See no evil here, evil." But yeah, Dino Evil, who is Albert Poubles, this guy, who also threw to him in the home run derby, he's the current Dodger's third base coach. So anyways, Poubles is with me, of course, Albert, three time MVP, 11 time all starts. Great to work with him. He tells T. Oscar, I'm picking you because of Dino. T. Oscar, win it's a home run derby. So I got to interview him before and after he was great. I interviewed him again the next day because we had all four daughters on set. And by the third time I talked to him, "Hey, man, I really missed you on the Blue Jays." He's like, "Oh, thanks, thanks, man." Great guy, man. It's a good thing with much better than I thought. Obviously, kind of power. He's on pace for a career-high time, 32 home run. So my big take with me, all-star game, yes, Duran was the MVP. Yes, we got to see Skeens versus Judge, albeit anticlimactic, one pitch at bat. But T. Oscar Hernandez, always a great Blue Jays legend. And I'm a fan for life. Great guy. I was thrilled to see him win. Yeah, he provided a reminder to everybody, not just here in Toronto, but across baseball that he is one of the true heavyweight hitters in the league. He is a guy that in the right environment is capable of doing serious damage and being a 30 home run guy, 100 plus RBI, and he's on pace to do that, yet again, this time in Dodger Blue. Last thing on the all-star game, and then the uniforms. This has been a hot topic. It's been such a hot topic for many years. Obviously, I think it was up until 2019, like pre-COVID, it was traditionally always the guys where their team issued uniforms. Bring it back. Right. So this is where, what's the verdict, Adnan? We need a verdict, and I turned to you for some guidance on this one. Are we in favor of returning to the old school idea of having players just wear their team uniforms for this game? Brent said it eloquently in three words. Bring it back, period. I mean, this is the way we grew up, and it was always the coolest thing to go, "Oh yeah, there's the one Blue Jays representative. Here's the one Kennedy Royals representative." Like, I love that. To me, that's what made the All-Star game so special. Now, I get it. So much of this is about what? Merchandising and money, another jersey you can sell. Right? So just have them wear those as batting practice jerseys. If that's fine, if you want to make the money, that's cool, you'll have an All-Star jersey, a Napoli jersey, but once game time comes, you absolutely should go back to wearing the jerseys. I missed that. Even if I guess if you wanted to go jerseys and wear the hat, I mean, that would be similar to half measure, still a lot of good. But I'm with you guys. I would love to see the jerseys return. And a couple of All-Star game thoughts. I want to quickly mention Freddie Freeman, who every time I see him, I have to mention Canada's own, because even though he's not Canadian, his parents are Canadian. And I always remember, and I think he appreciates, his parents are from Peterborough and Windsor on Wikipedia. I believe it says Toronto and Windsor. And I go, "You ask any Canadian, Toronto and Peterborough are not within the same, you know? Nope, I'm saying district." I just saw like 90 kilometers, I want to say, between Toronto and Peterborough. So Freddie Freeman, always a great guy, proud Canadian, didn't get to see Josh Naylor, unfortunately, the pride of Mrs. Saga Ontario, but that would have been cool. And last thing, when we had Soto and Judge on for the pre-show, I said, "Listen, we're all looking forward to seeing schemes versus Judge, but Judge is batting fourth, and schemes is only going to pitch winning." And Soto stood without basically being, "Don't worry, I'll make it happen." Which was just a funny thing in the moment. But then he actually did. He wasn't able to make sure we got to see Judge indeed. So it was a pretty funny moment. You mentioned the hats there. Mike, our airman show would be very disappointed with you. No half measures. We do not do that. We were going to wear the full jersey or we're not. I love that you got the reference, Brett. Good for you. Somebody mentioned, breaking back when we were on set to square around. We talked about Ozamandias, which is one of the greatest episodes ever, of course, where Hank finally gets it. But you're right. That half-measure speech to me is, Mike airman show, all-time great character. I love him. It is still among my most quoted ones that I end it, can be for anything. It's like, "Yeah, should we do this?" You know, half measures. We're going to do it, or we're not. You mentioned schemes there. I love the baseball leaned into this. If this was 10 years ago, they would have said, "Hey, kid, good work. Maybe you'll get the sixth if the closers don't want it." I think it's awesome that baseball leans into this. He has been, for my money, the best story in the game this season. Again, not that there aren't a million others that you can choose from, but he seems like a unique figure in that not that he was an unknown commodity, he was a number one overall pick. He was a college champion. He's dating an internet superstar, so it's not, but he was not expected, I don't think, to appear this, not appear this quickly, but be this, this quickly. And just baseball leaning into the, again, however small or big it is to you, the surprise of him being this early in his career. I love that they gave him the opportunity to start the game and put him on the pedestal that quite frankly he deserves. I completely agree, Brent. You know, as far as team stories, the Phillies have been amazing, eight all-stars on their team. It's the best team they've had in quite some time, and they've been a perennial contender. Yankees and Orioles battling AL East is a great story. Judge on pace for 57 home runs. Otani having his best offensive season yet amazing. Now they no longer has to pitch, but there's an individual story it skeens without question. And what he's been able to do, a sub-two ERA, 1.90, and still have 87, 89 strikeouts in 66 and a third inning. It's like, that's amazing. He's on a very short list of guys that a sub-two ERA that many strikeouts in his first 11 starts. And the even shorter list is the fewest starts in terms of starting an all-star game. 11 starts, he ties the record with Dave Stenhouse, and he's all in the list of like Hideo Nomo for Interbalance. Well, it's quite good and like, he's on that list of young phenoms who have come up and mass expectations. Andy said a record in terms of being a guy drafted first overall, and then pitching the all-star game, and not just pitching, but starting as you said. I agree with you. Lean into it. The all-star game doesn't have any consequence, right? It's not like it matters for home till it bears the way it once did. It's not like it matters when we were growing up, because back then there was not in a league play. So it was very cool to see the best of the National League, the best of the American League. So you have to add some sort of sizzle to it, and schemes provided that. You know, at the very least, a casual baseball fan said, okay, I will spend 15 minutes watching the first inning. I want to see schemes against Soto and Judge and all the rest of it. Yeah, who wouldn't want to see Paul Skeens right now? Again, a lot of great stories in baseball, but he is my favorite one right now. Adnan, I've loved the chat today. I'm happy we'd managed to stink a little baseball into our spranos and break-and-back conversation. Yeah, normally we go baseball, we sneak in a couple at the end. I like to be one of like five or six deep until like pop culture. Like, oh, we should probably talk some baseball. And most importantly, Brent Dignelli, hopefully get some AC in that studio tomorrow. Well, our producer, Jeff Azaparti, is like, oh, don't worry, I fixed it in the control room for me and Josh Santos. Well, the talent here, my face is melting off. It's first time and last time I think I'll ever refer to myself as that. Adnan, love getting on. Thanks so much for jumping on, man. Thanks, Adnan. Thank you, boys. My pleasure, Adzo, to look it up himself. I'll give him some crap for you. All right. And like all things here at Sportsnet 590, the fan, Azaparti didn't fix anything. He told Neil that a thing happened. And then our man, Neil, fixes everything here. Shout out to that guy, but not until he fixes the air, the AC in here. Okay. Because I'm dying. I think I'm about this. I know. I dropped my hat off. I'm so hot. I wear a hat like 300. Yeah, I can tell 300 hours a day and I'm dying in here. Start aware. I feel great by that. I'm fine. Good. I'm thrilled for you much less for me. Do you think we'll ever see a world where baseball does what all the other sports do now and just has a draft? Like if the interleague of it all doesn't matter. It's a great question. Yeah. I don't know how it took me really consider that. I don't know how it took me until 852 of the All-Star break being over to get there. Where was that two days ago? I know. Well, Adnan mentioned the like the interleague play of it all. And yeah, like judge and soda captains or old Tony and judge. I mean, I guess it doesn't matter. They're in opposite leagues or on opposite teams. But if we're going to do this thing where the interleague play, it doesn't matter as much. It is odd that that's the one lee or the one sport where they say, no, no, no, stick to the leagues. There's no drafting. There's no three on three. I don't. I and you were the one who made the point that the baseball players really seem to be leaning into the festivities of it all. I could see them. I could see them really enjoying it playing it up. Yes. It just surprised me. Every other league has leaned into that aspect of it. Obviously, the NBA and NHL kind of started at the Pro Bowl is whatever it is now. But I'm surprised baseball. There's really seems to, unless I've missed it, seemingly no talk of it. No, there hasn't been a discussion of this ever. But if you really wanted to drum up more curiosity and general interest surrounding that event, would that not be a logical thing to do? Totally. Like it really does. That's a freebie for getting standpoint. Or if you want, like, I think you should be selling the current stars of the game, but like, okay, Jeter and Ortiz are both doing TV. Have them draft the guys, right? Have them be the captains or however you want to go about it. They do that. You know what's funny about that to that aspect of it, having these honorary captains. They do that for all these future games or whatever, because they need name recognition. So they have all these Hall of Famers or quasi like TV analysts who were former players are in the dugout with these guys throughout the entire game. It makes sense. Totally. It really does. That's a very, very good point you raised. Oh, thank you. I like that. Again, it only took me until 854 of the show, but then we could have fun like doing our own draft. How is the draft done for? Who goes first? Where does this guy land? How do it? When do the pitchers go all these things? It would be fun. Well, you can. You can do that next year, but I'm definitely taking vacation this week. That's what will happen tomorrow. We'll be back. Yes. Open championship. The Blue Jays will finally not have played a game, but there will be a game that day on the docket. We'll talk about that and more tomorrow. I've been a fun edition of the fan Morty show at Sportsnet 590, the fan. Good morning.