[MUSIC] What, no big sexy intro today, Josh Santos. You couldn't pull all the good from the sports world last night. Why, you didn't go scanning the Sahara. You weren't handing for gold out there in the content mines. What, what, I can't get a, I'm about to say a guy who plays for Inter, Miami, Miami FC, whatever they call themselves. But guess what, all the guys I know just finished playing Copas. >> That's right. >> So I bet they weren't playing in that game. >> Bingo. >> Yeah, Toronto FC, this will shock you out there. It'll certainly shock Bill Manning. They lost 3-1, the final. Yeah, we're leading TFC, no, we're not, but that's all that happened last night. >> I mean, sure. >> No, no, no, there's a mask involved. >> No, there's summer league. >> Yes. >> No, all right, there was summer night. >> No, no, no, keep that over there in your corner of the road. I don't bring Euro talk here. And you don't break summer league talk here unless it's brought to change really good. >> I mean, the most positive thing is that there's golf on our television now, which at least that is nice. That is a pleasant. >> I do love golf. It's a positive and a negative though, cuz- >> What's the negative to this? >> Well, I have to work and not just sit here and watch golf. >> But it's a welcome distraction. It's something we can monitor and actually discuss. >> I've come all the way to McKee's take yesterday like this open championship. >> Really? >> No, not actually, but just Thursday and Friday if they could start it. I don't know, like 10, 15 when I get back to my house, that'd be nice for me personally. But no, of course, nice to have some golf on the go, but every year we do this thing. And it's funny is, as you work in this business or even you just grow in your life, right? Like we all have things we're obsessed about early on. And I think people find like a happy medium or a happy balance or life grows. There's more things in it. And then I think, yeah, I'm not so sports obsessed as I used to be. I'm going to talk to me after a leaf loss and it certainly feels that way. Okay, very different. I think, you know, I'm not so sports obsessed. And then a night like last night happens. And I'm just like- >> Did you feel like a lost human? >> Well, I mean, you know, like again, I'm a father now. So I just like take this cap off, you know, the golf hat that I'm wearing and then put on like a- >> Guy cap. >> Yeah, dad hat, literally a dad hat. So that's fine, we do that and it's like great night, but nine o'clock comes. I got an itch, I got a little inkling for something. I need it. >> You need, yeah. >> Then there's nothing there and every year, that is the thing that every year this hammer's home to me is just when I think, have I- >> Dare matured to a point in my life that I don't need sports to shepherd wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. A day like yesterday makes me think reflect back on four years ago and I sit in there yesterday afternoon and even as we're late afternoon, it's getting closer to what would traditionally be Blue Jays time and I'm flipping and I'm like, there's nothing on hold. It's just summer, now for me, summer league basketball, I'm okay, I'm fine, but even the Raptors game was on at five and I watched a little bit, but then you know, at a certain point you kind of mentally check yourself out here and there. It's kind of more of a passive viewing experience and I couldn't help but hearken back to 2020 and we went months with nothing. How did we survive? >> Well, you know what? >> What? >> With nothing. Like, wait, and then this, this medium, you and I talking, other humans talking on the radio interacting with you, it never stopped. >> No, it didn't. And there was nothing, we were searching for any morsel of activity of content and there was nothing and yet we somehow made it through and yesterday it felt like the Sahara Desert and I was like, goodness me, we're not going to survive, we're not going to make it. We are going to be, we're deprived of sports. We are going to be dehydrated from sports content and it's going to hurt us and we're not going to make it. >> Well, and look, I remember doing shows during that very pandemic you mentioned there and, you know, showed out to, you know, Woodbridge's own but we won't say that in Vancouver. Now Vancouver's favorite son, Dan Riccio and I forget what the hook was to have him on. Obviously, you know, like, you got a book, a guest for a reason. I think we just talked Tarantino movies with him. I think that's what we did and that's probably as good a title as any to plug ad never coming up later on the show today, so who knows where we'll go with him. But you know what we did because there was literally nothing. We just watched old somethings, like, I did a show again, like McKee was my partner through so much of the pandemic there. And we just talked about watching the 86 masters on TV because that's not something like it's something. It's one of these things you've heard about or like for those galsicos, it's like that was the Holy Grail until Tiger got his and then generations, you know, a few things differently. But I remember doing shows talking about what it was like to watch old sports or remember this. And, you know, it wasn't always stuff going back to the 80s. Some of it would be they re-showed Tiger's Master win on TV or there'd be great, like NHL rewind games on and stuff with her. But that again, just hammers home the point that we need it so bad. The idea of just having that is a and, you know, I do this, I do this all the time. Part of it is I'm just coming off a huge buddy's trip. But it really is like the great unifier of like a fan of guys and like not the women don't love sports as well. But it's like how many times you find yourself, you're just sitting there and you're like, I don't know, I got to talk to this guy about sports. Did you see the game? Exactly. And the best part of that one is it's like, yeah, that's all selecting. He could pick any game he wants. And it's just we don't have that in this particular dead zone. And I think the other thing that's hammering home the frustration about it is that for in years past with this Jay's team, there's been frustration, there's been questions, but there's been a very clear direction of where things are headed and where things are going. And like not to make this about the Jay's, but it's just I think that's the other part of it is that all the teams we look at, there is this waiting for the thing to happen. Even the Olympics are right there. If this was a month ago, we could be having, now we weren't because there was other stuff going on, but we could be having a conversation about is Melvin Edge. I'm going to make team Canada for the Olympics. But that's done. And guess what? The Olympics hasn't started yet. Everything right now is just in this point of stasis or you're just waiting for stuff to happen to make it about the least for two seconds. It's like, okay, we're, we're done there. Yani Hockempah may sign may not, Mitch Marner almost certainly just going to show up at camp. Okay, I guess the coach has been hired. Yeah. Savvy's plugged in on the power. Okay. So we're all done there. Raptors, their worksmen. And to your point, some of you are going on, but the rosters set. I think that's the thing that makes this year in particular, and I don't know, maybe I'm feeling it more than most, but this year in particular, it just feels like we are truly in this waiting period because again, with deer's gone by of the Jay's, you could have the conversation about, which bat do you actually, if it is a bat they need, which bat do you like better? We can't have the conversation was all about the bullpen or about the bullpen, whatever it is. You can't have the conversation of, who would I most like them to trade? You say kukuchi to, but I don't know, whoever gives them the best prices. It's kind of a pretty straightforward answer there. And we can, and, and I think unlike other sports, now the Blake Murphy's of the world disagree with them. All right. I shouldn't even say disagree. In a different way. But unlike other sports, we're not sitting here going like, what's your, why don't you give me your, you say kukuchi trade? Because we're not doing picks and the prospects are such widely, quite frankly, unknown commodities and luster at the absolute elite level. I think that's the other thing that's kind of leading to this just malaise right now, because everything we're looking forward to again, even the thing that maybe you're not excited about of like a blue Jay sell off. Yeah, we're going to wait, like unless someone blows their socks off in the next day or two, we're probably going to get a deal pretty close to the deadline for kukuchi for, you know, go, go through the list of names, Olympics right there. We're telling the stories, but there's nothing to discuss because it's going to happen two weeks from now. I think that's the thing that's just leading to this, this almost kind of malaise right now. I've never been more appreciative of international soccer in my life. Honestly, where would we be? Where would we be? There was a European championship, which is always a marquee event. But man, really from a content perspective, from a sport media standpoint, thank goodness for Canada soccer, thank goodness for the job that they did in making it to the final four, the semi finals of the Copa America, playing for even even the third place game was incredibly compelling against Uruguay. Where would we be without those storylines, those narratives, heck, we're going to talk to Kevin Blue. I would have never like, would you have predicted we'd be talking to Kevin Blue in the middle of July, still working for golf Canada? There you go. Right? Not, not for these purposes, not under this pretense. That's for sure. So, I mean, yeah, you hit the nail on the head. We're kind of, we're stuck in limbo right now. We're waiting for something to happen. But to your point, the Blue Jays of this all, that is the, that is the crux of it because they generally have this entire canvas to themselves. But right now, it's hard to devote a lot, not, I don't say devote a lot of attention, but it's hard to get excited about anything that's going on there because there's just so much uncertainty. It's not like we're even, even if we, five years ago, on the precipice of bow and Vlad breaking through and arriving at the major league level, you at least understood what was happening and we could project forward. So maybe we weren't talking about the big league club, but we were always focusing our attention, concentrating on what was going on in the minor league system, how was Vlad performing as he's progressing through the ranks, how was Bow looking as he was progressing through the ranks. Here comes Kevin Bizio being a great story. So we have things that we were actually tangibly able to look forward to. They were people, actual humans that we could point to. And in this particular instance, when it comes to even the trade market, we're sitting here talking about all the impending free ages that they might sell off at the deadline, but we don't know what they're getting. We can't point at, well, you know, player X, we don't know what player, who player X is. We don't know what prospect B is going to be. And so as a result, it makes it really challenging to even try and project forward to what their second half of the season means, what it looks like, what the deadline looks like into terms of raw assets that are going to be coming back to them. So that's where we're at. We're stuck in a holding pattern because we're waiting for these things to happen. That's essentially it. I also think this is a bit of a, and I, you know, I want to be careful. Like everyone has their own biases here. Maybe other people feel differently about this, but it's like, I feel like this is a bit of a baseball problem. When we're leading in to the NHL trade deadline, I'll just use that one right, right off the top. Hockey brand. But even when the Leafs, like how many conversations do we have about the least of the deadline? I'm like, eh, I made do a little something. It's going to be kind of, we, we never stopped talking about all the other teams that we're going to get good throughout the deadline. Yeah, sure. And in baseball, not to say there isn't an interest, but no one, guys, no one wants to hear the Yankees are loading up. Okay. And guess what? They're not preparing to do that from everything we're seeing. It'd be different if we had pass and coming on here every day. And it's, it's an arms race between the Dodgers and the Yankees. They know they're going to meet in the world series. That's the story we can all get behind. But just because of the nature of the sport, it's so regional. It's in your division. And then specifically, again, to bring it back to the Jays, it's because there's just such a chasm between what's going on there and what is happening at the top of the division. I think that's the thing that's kind of sticking out to me with baseball specifically. And, you know, some years it's not that way. Some years there are two or three juggernauts in a league and it feels like they're really kind of loading up and you're, and it's, hey, who's going to make the move first? There's one key trade asset out here. Who's going to go get them? It doesn't feel like that is, and again, there will be people who point to, oh, what about this player? Yes, there are players that are going to get moved that are going to help. But this is not two teams loading up and saying, I have to, I have to go out and get somebody or I have to act first to make it exciting, quite frankly. And I think that's the other thing is that in other sports, even at the NBA, right? We talk about it. Be it with the bio guys, be it at the deadline of who is available with the NFL. We talk all the time about got teams that are not the Buffalo Bills. We'll just sit here and focus on, okay, what's going on with Prescott? Cause it seems like all roads lead back to him or Rogers at some point in time. But with baseball, there is, and part of it is the beauty of it that it's just every day. But the finish line seems so far away and the teams that are closest to being truly great and truly transcendent, they're not necessarily acting in a way. And I think it'd be different if, and obviously the bachete of it all would make this different. Sure. But let's say bachete was having a nail season and it's, hey, Dodgers, Guardians, who's going to pony up. That's again, like, of course, we'd be interested in here, but even if Boba Shet was a Marlin and it was a player who's led the league and hits, but like if Luis Arise was available in a trade right now, there's an easy narrative and I know he's already been moved this season. So that's why I pick him. But that's the thing that's kind of jumping out to me now is that compared to even other sports leading into the deadline, it doesn't seem like there's that arms race and it's not always that way every year in every sport, but it's certainly kind of a down year for that in baseball. I am confident if you pulled people within the baseball industry, whether they're insiders, reporters, analysts, whomever, and you said, and this year, this is a exclusive this year, you asked the question, who's the biggest name that's going to be moved at this deadline? You'd get a hundred different answers. Everybody, you might get a couple familiar answers here and there, like a Terrace School you might hear Kakuchi's name on occasion, all right? You'll probably hear Garrett Crochet, but it's going to vary. Two years ago, if you asked that question gunner, the answer was unanimous. It was Juan Soto. Yeah. Bit of a difference maker. Totally. And I'm thinking back to even, I can't remember what your was, but for example, when the Astros got Verlander, and it was clear as day, Justin Verlander was the big prize, you can get behind that. Well, I'm trying to. That was the waiver today. Well, I was going to say that if I remember, we got to do it twice, yes, we got to do the trade deadline of like, Oh, is Verlander gonna? Oh, no. And at the deadline, the Astros were the first and the non waiver. They were pushing hard, couldn't get it across the finish line. Then he decided to, because he had a no trade clause, he decided to waive his no trade to eventually go there before the, uh, the end of August. But that's part of the only non, the only non dirty Astro, in my opinion. I love Verlander. You're big. He's the, he's like one of the last ones I got. He's older than me. So heck, I even point the last year at speaking of Verlander. Another instance where last year, the Mets there, they were major power brokers at the deadline, but for all the wrong reasons, because they invested so heavily in their team, but they were forced to trade off Verlander, trade off Scherzer. And there's intrigue there. It with all the respect to you say, if we're pointing at this, this market, and we're saying, who are the biggest names? Now that might play favorably for the Blue Jays, but it's hard to sort of, you know, muster up the energy and the excitement to talk about, uh, all right. Player X is going to be the marquee name moved at this deadline. Okay. Well, what is the, what is the pedigree there? What are the bonafide? You can point, at least with a Soto two years ago. It's obvious. So one of the best players in the game, one of the best players, the young players in the game, nevermind, just overall, he's the youth was on his side and how he could change the complexion of a team, all that stuff, but we just don't have that right now. And part of that can actually be attributed to what you currently see in terms of playoff landscape. It's the fact that there are, you know, six teams that make the postseason in each league. It's the expanded playoff that is now even as we were seeing it, we're experiencing it to an extent. It's kind of diluting even what the trade deadline has become because you have so many teams that are still holding on to some degree of false hope and they are not in a position where they're definitively saying, all right, you know what, we got a guy here with a couple years of control, but we're not going anywhere. So it doesn't align with our timeline. Let's just ship this guy away and we are not seeing that happen. And that's actually doing more damage to the trade market than it is benefiting it in terms of the intrigue surrounding player movement at this particular time. Yeah, I certainly love the idea of player movement, but I also like funny, I hear you say that and I think well, good, like I don't like the idea that every team believes they're in it. But I do like the team, the idea, because for too long in baseball, and I think we're, instead of more teams trying to get better, we've just had more teams trying to be okay now. It's exactly. And that is the issue is that there is this, there is this ability or belief of like, okay, we can throw it. We can trade away this asset and it's not really going to set us back because we don't believe in setbacks. It's the whole Jerry DePoto of like you just want to win 54% of your games and what world is that the goal in any sport in anything in life? Imagine if I told you, I was going to have like two, like that would have flew with your parents in school. I just imagine I go to a percent. Imagine I go to our boss and I'm like, ah, Monday, Wednesday, half of Friday, and I don't know, one block Tuesday, you do with that what you will. I'm just going to be bad. No, no, no, no, no, no. So I think it is part of the, and again, it is every sport is different, right? Like the NFL is going to always be the most every year you have to go for it because you just, you can't ask a guy to play football and not try to win. It's impossible. And nobody asked players not to win, but you understand what we mean in terms of roster construction. Baseball is the longest one. It is always going to have the most ability to kind of talk yourself into things because just over the course of a season, the worst teams in baseball, they're going to go win 60, 70 games, the worst of the bunch. Okay. And I think that that is the problem or why you have these team or these players or sorry, I should say these teams holding on to players. I don't love the idea that everybody's in it at the deadline, but I do like the idea that it kind of forces at the very least, the idea of false hope onto these teams because for too long in baseball, there were teams that were just content to kind of be cannon fodder. And hey, if the prospect cycle works out long enough and we have a good couple of year run, great. We're going to do it again. Look at it. You Pittsburgh Pirates. We're seeing it right now. And I just, there will always be teams that are effectively fear teams for the Yankees, for the Dodgers. Hey, the Blue Jays spend money too or the Blue Jays. But I just think that because of the way the deadline shapes up now with the expanded playoff spot, it just doesn't force teams into decisions one way or another. It allows them to live in this kind of mushy middle world, which I hate. Yeah, I really despise that because I feel the same way about that system in the NBA and how the play and tournament in my estimation has has really endorsed bad decision making. Yeah. These are now incentivized to make really dumb, stupid, bad decisions. And you saw the Toronto Raptors fall victim to this a couple of years ago in the in the hurdle trade. Now, I mean, he still is a serviceable player and it's going to obviously has a prominent role on this team. But that was a dumb trade. It was a terrible miscalculation. And you see that routinely now because leagues, the NBA being one of them majorly baseball being another dangling that carrot of like, you just have to be just a little bit above mediocre. Just be average and you can find a way to get your foot in the door and step on the dance for when it comes to postseason experience. But really in the grand scheme of things, what does that what does that mean? Like, what does that do for you? And it goes back to, well, I think it's different and different in different sports. It really is. Like, like baseball is different. I get that. I understand that. I mean, it goes back to the root of this, which is philosophically, what are you building your team for? Are you building your team with the intention of winning and winning in a meaningful way, that being chasing a real championship? Or are you just building it to be relevant? And if you're building it for the latter, then I think your priorities are off. And that's where actually this all ties back to the Blue Jays. That's part of my concern here when it comes to this current front office, because they are in a position where they can't admit failure. They can't throw up their hand and have an admission of guilt for some of the misstep that they've made. So now they're kind of married to what they're doing. And the only reasonable, logical pathway forward for them is to make sure that their team is relevant, which grunts counter to the idea of actually doing what's best to build a championship team. You see where there's a bit of a dichotomy there in terms of the philosophy? Well, I think the other problem, again, it's like each sport is so, so different in this regard, right? The NBA, you get in as a play in team, and I know you're not beating a once. I know we'll forever have the heat to ruin this for us, but that's the heat. But that was a one-on-one. That's what I hate. Yes. I hate that point so much. I wholeheartedly agree. I think the other problem is with baseball is unlike these other sports, and again, like basketball is a little different because you can build all the nice pieces you want. But if you don't have the one or two guys that matter, it really doesn't matter, slick. But with baseball, you know, a team, let's say a team does do a hard pivot. Let's say it was the Blue Jays. And I don't think this is happening. It's certainly not before the deadline. But there, everybody's got a scorched earth. You want burrios, you can have, you want gosmen, you can have them bow, flat, everybody's up for sale. Everybody's got to go. That's a death. Unless you are getting guys who are right there on the doorstep of the major leagues, that is a death sentence for an org for forever, or it shouldn't say forever, but you're looking at a half decade before things turn around with just the runtime, the lead time that baseball prospects need, whereas if you, again, like you, the least can make a Mitch Marner trade and it's a hard one to make, but for a couple of guys who were in the American League last year and then a marquee player and all of a sudden, well, that team's not, again, like we don't, it's a bigger conversation, but you're not in a completely different space than you were before. I think that's the issue of it with baseball is that once you take the step back from being on the doorstep, it is, and it doesn't mean it has to last forever. We have seen teams do quick rebuilds. We've also seen a take forever looking at the Orioles. I think that's the problem is that it is such a, it's such a mountain to climb from nothing to respectability in baseball, that it's so hard to kind of step back. And yeah, you can go and paper it over with free agency, but that is just so fraught with bad decisions that eventually come back to roost. See Springer, George. See Springer, yes. I mean, if you're, see, have your bias, yeah. There are a lot of good examples of that. You know, my philosophy is a little bit different on that front, Gunner, to be honest, because I think a lot of it, and I understand what you're saying, I think what it comes down to is where do you fall in your competitive window? And how does that, how do those players fit in your timeline? So when it comes to, well, let's use burio says an example. You named him. I think he's sort of an outlier and a bit of an anomaly in this particular instance as it pertains to where the Blue Jays are, which we know they're not remotely close to being able to actually compete for a championship, they're not there. And likely under this regime, under this administration, led by Ross Atkins as a general manager, they're probably not going to get there. But he's young enough, affordable enough, and still, as an asset, extremely attractive to the point where he probably is still able to factor in to being a quality member of your team going forward to the point where you hope you envision that in some capacity, he's going to have a role when your team is back to the level of being a legitimate, contending force in the American League. So you can kind of envision that. But if I look at gauzman as the next example, I'm less positive, I'm less certain of that. So given that the timeline might not align, like, see, this is why I think with Vlad and Bo, it's an interesting conversation. And I mentioned this yesterday, personally, from my perspective, I think you have to ensure you keep one of them. But part of the reason I think it's logical, and it makes sense to go that route, is because purely from an age standpoint, even if you go through a two, three year cycle here where you're not great, and you're starting to try and build up again, they're still going to be on your roster when they are reaching their primes. That is the difference. It's not, we're not talking about a 30 year old player here, we're not talking about a Peter Lanza who's about to be 30, and we're trying to have this discussion, well, what are the merits of keeping him at age 30, but you might not be good until he's 32, 33 years old. Is he going to be that same player? No, no, no. With Vlad and Bo were in their mid 20s, you can at least talk yourself into the notion that they are still going to be very good. If not improved by the time your team is back to being at that level, gauzman, this brings us back to Kevin Gosman, I think now is an opportune time to try and contemplate the idea of trading him, because if we're being realistic, is he going to be this version of himself in two years or three years when your team is back in a position where they probably, that is probably the next window for them to be good again. Like I don't see a pathway contrary to what some people believe, contrary to what the team is trying to tell us, I just don't see the pathway for 2025 to resemble a team that is capable of being good and making the playoffs and doing damage in the playoffs. So where does that leave you with some of those guys that are still very productive, but are sort of on the tipping point of that aging curve? Where does that leave you with them? That's where I think it's all about timelines and how it fits. And when it comes to the players like we laid out, I think Brielle, you don't touch that guy, but when it comes to gauzman, Bassett, those are the ones that I think you have to seriously consider, because what would be the use, even from their standpoint as individual athletes, what's the use of being on this team when this team has a ceiling that is really capped at this point? So where does it fit? How does that contribute to winning? Are you going to be, you know, instead of winning 76 games, you're going to win 81. Is that going to make you feel better? Is that going to make you feel better as a fan? I don't know the answer to that. But I think that is what you're kind of, that's what you're, that's what you're weighing right now, if you're in an organization like the blue chase. Yeah. And you know what? To kind of transition to the other, other side of this, and we'll do this on the other side is that, and how important is that vision to the one guy you want to keep around? If you're Vlad, do you want to sign up for three years of, of toiling away and then maybe by 27 28, we're looking at a winner? I don't know. But that's a question for Vlad. He also update you on what's going on at the open championship. Love it. Yeah. There's a lot going on. And by that, I mean, there's just, it's just golf. That's what's going on right now. Eventually, baseball will be played again. I never thought I'd miss it so much. Fan Morty Show continues. Yes, I do. Agreed, Tiger. Fan Morty Show continues. Sports stuff. I'm not in the fan. Diving deep into leaps, rafters, J's and NFL, the JD Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A hundred and fifty second playing of the open championship is underway. I always joke that like the open championship truly made for me. I don't, I haven't got a chance to, I did sneak in a touch of coffee golf before I, I drove in this morning, but I haven't got a chance, you know, I'm speaking to you. Yes. I can't very well listen to what they're saying, but you know, at all the majors, they do these wonderful like vignettes of the course and you know, depending on where it is like, you know, the masters, they love a little Ray Charles, Georgia mixed in there and everything. It's always iconic. Yeah, it's great. It's awesome. But for the open championship and I, and like for those of you who don't know, they're like a huge Game of Thrones nerd, but like respectable, I guess there's no such thing. Huge Game of Thrones nerd. I am who I am alone at. They had like one of the actors from the show, like voicing the vignette. So I'd be sitting there at like some ungodly hour drinking coffee and I'm like, oh my God, that's Stannis Baratheon talking to me about the open championship. This is incredible. So it truly was made for me. I don't know who they got cooking up the vignettes this year. It's always awesome. Just quick little rundown of of what's going on there. Oh man, our, our man, Nick Taylor, thank God he won the Canadian open because it does not go well for the sky in in majors. He's four over on the day last I checked there. Leaders right now, you got Alex Norton, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, a gentleman I told you about yesterday, Justin Thomas and Russell Henley. They all share the lead at two under. This will shock you. It'll definitely shock yesterday's guest, Sam McKee. It's rainy, cold and windy over there and looks like those guys are having no, no, no tights fun. Rory McElroy, eventful start, Bogey Parbordi. So exactly where he started having done everything, Bryson struggling a little out there. Yeah, four over. Just made double bogey his second of the day. So God, yeah, you hate to see it. I don't. I'm not surprised to be perfectly honest. I know how you feel. So yeah, I'll keep the, I'll keep the open championship updates coming throughout the day. And yeah, just again. I did have a golf question for you. Please. I know. Yeah, trust me. I mean, I, I do my thinking. I try. Okay. Of the four majors. Yeah. So we know we're Sam. He sits on this because he alluded to it yesterday. He despises. Yeah. Yeah. Where does it fit for you? This is the, this is the. Okay. So can I actually take your question and do quickly my favorite like summer radio topic? Yeah. Sure. We used to have like, I don't know where you fall on this. Like are you a tennis guy at all? I used to, you could just say no, it's normal. I will be mad. You could do. Okay. You used to be sure. Not as much anymore. I used to be as well. Although I wasn't the driveway playing a little with my kid yesterday. Oh, no. You know, sports got to do it. But my favorite actual summer radio topic was to have a golf guy and a tennis guy power rank. The eight grand slams and majors and the running joke that's just true is the Australian open is always dead last. That one's the worst. I'm sorry. Okay. But for golf, it's so tough because outside of the PGA championship, which is obviously the worst major, just like going to go. Okay. So you just like it is the worst. It has going to finding characteristic and we've had great PGA championships lately. Yes. And guess what? It's a golf major. So it can be very, very good. But it's the only one that doesn't have a hook, a thing, a reason. I suppose for some people, they'd say, Oh, that's what makes it the best is that it's just one. No, disagree. The masters is the masters and it's always going to be the masters. And this is the most important thing. It's first, not I don't mean first in my power rankings. I do. But it's the first major. It is the thing that makes us feel like, and I don't even get so bogged down in this cause cold and winter means hockey, but the cold death of winter is coming, is ending its grips on Southern Ontario when I'm watching the masters. So that's why it will always be one for me. And then it is so tough for me because the entirety of the experience, I enjoy the open championship second most. It is my favorite, favorite, favorite. I love getting up early. It just fits my schedule more. I do love the idea of creative shots that the guys have to play. I love that they always look kind of miserable. I love that there's randoms that are in the mix and points and times. So for the entirety of the experience, I go open championship next, then US open, then PGA caveat, the single best day on the golfing calendar every year is the final round of the US open because I am just a sucker for fathers and sons. We always get it on Father's Day and it just, we get all the great moments from that sport specifically. So that is how I would look at them. If I'm just rank in the total events as a whole, it's masters, it's open, it's US open, it's PGA championship, then you can have all the tennis ones and the Australian opens last just to clarify. But the best singular day of any golf major is Father's Day, Sunday, US open, and especially now that I'm a father, it's like our car bunch, I'm like, blocked in the golf, leave me alone. So that's my power ranking. I mean, we didn't need to necessarily take a shot at tennis in this discussion. You didn't. And I won't. But I do feel vindicated by your rankings because that is exactly how I would power rank it to. Okay. Growing up, I always really looked forward to the open. I really enjoyed the open championship. So there were two big tournaments, no surprise, which to there. Two tournaments in particular that as a young kid really got me hooked and attracted to golf. The masters and the open, the masters for obvious reasons, iconic venue, so much history and tradition. I mean, it's just the perfect backdrop for a golf tournament, right? And if you had to advertise, yeah, if you had to advertise the game of golf, pick one event to say, to try and convince somebody to be a golf fan. That's the one you point to and say, watch this. Just watch. If you had to watch any tournament, please carve out the time and watch the masters for once and then make your, make your, make your judgments after that, whatever you choose, so be it. The open was always second for two reasons. One, I admire the fact that it's distinctly different than every other tournament. I agree. The fact that there's something unique about the style of play, what is required in being asked to the players, the fact that as you alluded to, it always looks miserable. Like the conditions are always never the only guy who ever smiles at the open every year is the guy who wins it. There's one guy who smiles. That's it. We were joking before the show. I went into the control room and I was chopping it up with Josh and our producer, Jeff Azeparti. And I referenced it wouldn't be the open if it wasn't raining. Of course, it has to be raining. That is part of the, the requirement for it to be considered a major championship in the UK, the open, if we're competing for the Claret Jug, there better be rain. So that's one second reason. It was the only major on the golf calendar that never overlapped with the school year. That might sound like a weird thing. No, I get it. But honestly, it was something that always, always excited me because there were, and that's where, that's why I loved Wimbledon too, as honestly, because it always coincided with the right at the end of your school year as a kid. Yeah. And I would be able to wake up early and get excited about watching some sports that are happening because at that point, you know, hot stuff, basketball's done, all these things that I would particularly enjoy and I would just sit there for hours on end and I'd be able to watch morning golf, day golf, morning tennis, afternoon tennis. And that's why this tournament has a special kind of resonance in place of my heart. For that reason, that's why it's number two on my list. I have held a grudge against tennis ever since Jeannie Boucher got waxed in about six minutes and now we're Wimbledon final. I'll never forget. I remember that. I'm so like, you know me, I'm Patriot, I'm like, I love to cheer for the flag, okay? And I remember like my mom, she gets very, she doesn't always get wrapped up in every sport. But like when she's in, she's in and she was jacked up, it's like we're doing breakfast at Wimbledon. You're coming over a make breakfast, we're going to watch and we're excited. And I don't think the coffee was made by the time the match was over and I'm like, okay, mom, like we can hang out. We could, we could just hang out. We don't need to watch Wimbledon and we can't because it's over, but that was a moment to die for me. I'd say, we're just going to throw out the idea of like the singular, it's not a singular day. We get this everything night matches at the US Open. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Now it does lead me to wasn't going to go here with this, but it does lead me to like a golf question. And I guess the answer would be that the US Open has kind of become this and it's fitting that it's the US Open and tennis as well. But you know, we have Augusta and the storied nature of it. We have the open and it has its, you know, gritty golf that you need to play. There's not really, and again, I guess as I'm saying this, the US Open's kind of becoming this. We don't really have the rowdy golf major. We have the Ryder Cup, we have the President's Cup where guys are putting on jerseys and screaming and booing good shots from guys that don't want to win. We see that and we see it, the Canadian Open, certainly a rowdy event. We know what goes on in Phoenix every year, pretty rowdy there and I don't want my golf major to look like that. But it is interesting that it does feel like that's kind of becoming the defining characteristic of the US Open and I don't know that it wasn't a conscious thing, but it's just funny that it's like that is the way the US Open is defined in tennis as well as the night matches and the crowd. And it's just, it's a complete different animal than it is at the French Open or Wimbledon or, sorry, I don't know what goes on in the Australian Open. I just know they didn't let Novak Djokovic in one time and Joe Drussik's never let me hear you. He's like, that's why he doesn't have another major on his resume, God damn it. That's why they didn't want him to have another conspiracy theories all across the board as to how they're trying to shaft Novak Djokovic. I do like that, that thought on the crowd. I mean, I don't mind to per se with the majors because it's more of a classy kind of event. It's about the spectacle of what they're chasing and what the pursuit of that particular trophy and the championship means. But it is nice on occasion to see some of those distinct characteristics of what an audience contributes to a sporting event. And it goes back to, I mean, that's why the Canadian Open is always fun. The ring call speaks for itself, but it is interesting that as you point out, and I wouldn't have thought of this, that the two, it's the two US Open's on both sides that seemingly have at least some distinct character, like audience, spectator, character is what it is. You call what it is. It's jerky Americans and it's okay. They own it. They are who they are. It's fine. Yeah, it's good. That's character. I don't mind it. I think it's fun. I agree. I really do. All right. So Blue Jays, they're not going to play tonight because heaven forbid a team play a sport today can't have that. Oh, God. Not do that. No, we're not going to do that again. We're not going to do this. No, like, come on, like, yeah, it's baseball. You play every day. You took your day off. Let's go back to back to work here. My attention is not even fixated on that right now. We're going to do a CFO, a Canadian football report at some point here, right? Yeah. And that's the league that infuriates me the most because I actually did research on this subject. I really did. It was it irritated me so much mind you again for clarity. The CFL, there is no game tonight in the Canadian football league for reference. It's week seven. For six weeks of the season, there was at least one Thursday night games. Guess what? After this week, there's four straight weeks with Thursday night games, but the one week in the calendar where there isn't a Thursday night game is when there's absolutely nothing happening. Why do you continue to kick yourself when you're down, put yourself behind the eight ball when you have this entire sporting canvas to yourself and you fill the capitalize on it? Why? Why? I understand this is the other thing. It's the one week a year where they can really capitalize, right? This has been a conversation all this day. But people have suggested play on Wednesday, dominate every day of the week. I'm like, no, that's not realistic. It's not very pragmatic. It's not plausible. Think about the turnaround time for some of these. It just doesn't make sense. Yeah. What would the NFL do? Well, I'm grinding their guys through dust. They would. They would. They would. They would. Okay. Sure. Okay. Fine. A day of the week that has been a staple in the calendar for the CFL every year, every week of the season that the one week they choose to not play a Thursday game happens to be the one where there is nothing happening. That is that is the definition of mismanagement and failing to capitalize on opportunities. I don't get it. And this is the thing, right? If you are and all these other leagues are dormant right now, but if you're the NFL, if you're the NHL, if you're the NBA, you don't need to capitalize on this blank period. I'm not. Not to say there couldn't be room for something. I don't know what, but you could make it happen, but they don't need it, okay? Like they have their time of the year and with the NHL like to increase its place in the pecking order. Sure, sure, sure. But I got news for you. Some happening in July on the ice ain't going to do that for anybody. Okay. Even even I'm telling you that. Okay. So park that. I mean, I'll throw in, I don't even know what it's called, but whatever lacrosse league is blowing up in the States down there. Okay. That should be involved. WNBA. It was going last night. MLS Toronto FC, they played last night now, they're off, but it's like, hey, they packed the schedule last night with a ton of games. Those are the types of leagues that do need to bend over backwards to find the soft spots in the schedule. When can we get some, what can we dream coverage, not a ride, some, some more eyeballs? Yep. And I think the, and, and I think the CFL, it actually is interesting because they should have kind of proof of concept with this now. It's so much easier to get excited about the literal gray cup than it is a week seven game. Yeah. But how many times, and I'll put my hand up here, I am somebody who every year goes into the gray cup with a curiosity of like, Hey, again, I'm a patriot, I'm going to watch this thing. I love a Super Bowl party. Let's have another one. Yeah. Let me order some food. Let me make some wings. Let's do it. It really ends up happening. At least the last few years, it's been an amazing game that we end up talking about the game in and of itself. Now again, I'm not going to pretend you're going to get the eyeballs on a Thursday night in the dead of summer when people are kind of sports checked out. But the CFL should have proof of concept that you clear out, you make a little space or sort, or sorry, don't, don't make space, find the space that is open for you. And we will talk about the product if it's great in front of us. I think that's the thing, because I don't know about you, but I've had countless shows where I'd say, okay, like, well, yeah, we'll talk about the gray cup a little, see how it goes. And then, uh, great. Up to the lead. Sorry. That game was awesome. And we have to talk about it. And I think that's the thing that's kind of frustrating is they should have proof of concept that when they have the space to themselves, if the product shines, and look, like some games are good. Some games are bad. That goes for every sport in the world. But if the product shines through, generally speaking, it will kind of capture hearts and minds or however you want to phrase it. I come at it from a different perspective, too, because I spent time covering that league, that sport and being around the sport. It was always the topic of conversation and it felt like one day there was going to be a logical progression that the CFL would understand this is a marquee opportunity to showcase your product. And anytime there, we talked about the gray cup, we've even had it where in years past recently here, we've talked about Eastern finals after the Argos have either won or lost because they've been on both sides of that ledger. But it's been a topic of discussion. It has been something that we can actually point to and view not just as like an event, but we talk about it for what happened in the game, the sport itself. And I always believe that the CFL would be smart enough, wise enough to at some point, actually identify as you put it, the soft spots and capitalize on them because you need to. And yet, it still hasn't happened and it's 2024. And as somebody that first started working within that league 12 years ago, in 2012, and the fact that we're here 12 years later, and it's the same exact narrative and story, same song and dance, that is very frustrating to me. And frankly, I'm saddened by it because I really liked that league. And I would have, I certainly would have looked forward to having the opportunity, whether we talked about it or not on our show tomorrow, to at least sit down tonight, flip on something, looking around. And I would have probably settled quite honestly on the CFL and watching whatever game was on television. So it's just disappointing. Yeah. No, I think I think a lot of people kind of echo that sentiment. And I think sometimes, and we've all been there in life like, no, no, no, I am, I am me. I'm going to, and you want people who are going to stick to their guns and do things the way they want to do it. But you also have to be realistic about where you're at. It's like, again, like not to make everything about myself or like my professional journey, but it's like, imagine, I was like, no, I'm not doing night shows. I'll wait. Yeah. I'll wait. They'll give me a morning show. I'm good. It's like, well, I mean, maybe, probably not. You might want to do some night shows CFL might want to find gaps in the schedule. A quick little check in back at the open championship, not a ton of change there other than a bogey from Justin Thomas. So he's now one shot back of the lead, big pack at two under that includes Tom Kim. He got Chris Kirk, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Alex Norrin there, Tony Fino, also lurking one shot back. We do have Tiger. We get on the course early this morning, cold and wet, no bueno for, for an old man like Tiger. And I can say that because he, he knows he's an old, he's aware. Yeah. He doesn't want to admit it, but we can, we can talk about it there. And then the, the Canadians, four of them in, in fact, are there this week, Nick Taylor looking to kind of buck his major bugaboo has not gone the way he has wanted as of late. You mentioned the CFL there. I should say that it is definitely time to get into our CFL report. It's the Canadian football report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. No Thursday night game in the CFL, but there is a double header on Friday night. Week seven kicks off in Ottawa and features a rematch a last week's battle between the red blacks and the still windless elks three weeks in a row Edmonton has lost on a walk off field goal by the opposing team. It led to the elks to believe it was time for a change, dismissing their GM and head coach Chris Jones earlier this week. He got fired on my last day in Alberta, tough beat for him. They're hoping it can at night a team spark and have them put their first victory of the season and early season change work well for the Oilers. The elks hoping it can turn things around for them as well. Gee Roy Simon takes over as GM, Jerry Jackson taken over as the head coach, both of those on an interim basis in the second game of the Friday double dip. Jones moved to Regina where Sasky hosts Winnipeg in the first meeting of the year between those rivals. The rough riders are coming off their first loss of the season and head straight into another tough matchup with a resurgent Blue Bombers team who make a trek into Mosaic Stadium having won two straight. The bombers started the year off as Grey Cup favorites, but now reside near the bottom of the West. A riders win would help them stay neck and neck with BC for top spot in the division on Saturday. Another pair of rivals hit the field in the hammer as the Tycats welcome the Argos in the battle of the QEW. Those two longtime foes have their first meeting of the season. Toronto's had the better record. The winless Tycats may have the advantage coming off their bi-week and playing at home. And finally on Sunday night, the West leading BC Lions head out on the road to take on the stamps. The Red Hot Lions bring their five game win streak to McMahon Stadium to run that started in week two at BC plays when the Lions came away with a 26-17 win over the stamps. The defending Grey Cup champ Als are on the by this week and no matter what happens, their spot atop the East Division is safe. That was the Canadian football report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL again, Blue Jays. They will start their season back up. Not tonight as you dutifully reminded me at the end of yesterday's show because, you know, wishful thinking on my part. One more day, then they start up a series with the Tigers. We're going to talk to Adam Stanley on the other side of the break here, but before we do that, when we talk to it, when we, before we set up Stanley there, we're going to get into the Tigers. How much of a prism with which the Blue Jays look at a potential rebuild should there be? There's also a couple other teams at the American League that I think improve kind of good foils for the Blue Jays. So we'll get into that and more on the other side of things. Also, Adam Stanley coming up to talk open championship and all things going on in golf and I'll update you on the leaderboard. Next hour of the books are he's in the books here on Fan Morning Show on Sportsnet 590. the game. (upbeat music)
