(upbeat music) - Good morning, good morning, sports at 5.9 in the van, man, that's brain-gunning. It's Tuesday, it's weird. Gonna have to get used to it. Also, this is a weird week for me, I'm doing this show, and then I'm doing Blair Barker the rest of the week, and then I'm doing Blair Barker three days next week, and then I'm back on this show. It's one of those weird stretches of thought, "How's it going?" I'm good, I'm good, I'm doing well. I have to be honest, I knew you were off for a couple of days this week, and when you sent the first volley to our group text, of like, "Hey, here's what I'm thinking for tonight." Now, it won't divulge the day, but I did think there was a small chance we were gonna have this scenario that's already happened once where you were not working the show, but we're sitting here in the morning. I didn't think there was a chance that was gonna happen, but I also think we've all been bit enough by that in once, so it wasn't gonna happen again. - Yeah, I'm thrilled to see your face. - Yeah, thanks, buddy. - No, yes, it's a good thought, and thank you for looking out. - Well, no, but I didn't, 'cause I just kept continuing to play on the show with you. I didn't, there was no text, they said, "Are you sure you're working tomorrow?" I was just like, "Hey, this is great. "One way or another show's getting planned, "so either you're gonna do it with me or not, "so no, I was not gonna be looking out for you. "I was actually only looking out for numero uno." - You know, I spent a lot of, I've been at this radio station for almost 20 years now. It's crazy. - I think I just passed my 19-year anniversary last month, Agadirt. But I've only been full-time at this radio station for, I don't know, less than half of that amount of time. And the best part about being full-time, and especially having a weekday gig, is you don't have to look at the schedule every week. - Ain't that the truth? - And when I was looking at the schedule every week, it wasn't every week, it was every day, 'cause I'm so paranoid about missing a shit-door. - No, I know. - Misreading a schedule, it's not as bad as misreading it when you're not supposed to work and you are working, the worst is the opposite. - Yes, it is. But yeah, once that happens, once it's not gonna happen again. - Yeah, I was a little more diligent about checking this work schedule when I did not have the set Monday to Friday than I was like, sorry to my managers, it's sport check back in the day. I was not quite as diligent. There was the odd like, oh, sorry, knowing damn well I was supposed to work. - You worked at SportCheck? - Oh yeah. - There's like a cadre of us here who have died. - I was one of the first employees, so I was, yeah, I was literally, the first employees of the SportCheck at Winston Churchill and Dundas. - Well, God, of being on the ground floor, how did you feel? - Oh, and put it together? Like we literally put the racks together, put the first skates up on the skate wall. - Wow. - Selling hard goods? - There's also, this is what should, this super inside baseball, but like shocker, every guy I know who's worked at SportCheck though also works here. Hard goods. - Yeah, obviously. - Oh, you wanna sell some skates? Yeah, for sure. Do you wanna sell shoes? Probably not. - Oh man, I got really good at pretending I knew what went into a good set of skis. - The worst, okay, this probably happened to you once or twice though, where you think you're doing well. - Yeah. - And then the guy's like, so I was on my, I don't even know ski terminology, but it's like, you know, the hardest skiing up in the Swiss Alps. And I'm like, oh crap, this guy's gonna smell my stuff out in a second. The best is when you get the like person who's like, hey, just like I have this much money to spend what's the best stuff I can get. - Well, let me show you right over here. - Yeah, yeah, my faking the amount of knowledge I had in hard goods only came back to haunt me once where I told somebody, yeah, these skates are obviously moldable. Yeah, you come in here, we heat them up and go on your kid's feet and come back tomorrow. I wasn't working tomorrow. And I got somebody had to deal with the wrath of that guy who found out, yeah, the hard way that those skates were not moldable. - And as we all know, hockey dads in this country just have a great understanding of mistakes happening from time to time and just keep their cool at all points in time. - Yeah, I wouldn't know 'cause I wasn't there to see it. Thank God. And that was not, I was supposed to be there. I was a scheduled day off. Any who, time for me to put my money where my mouth is because Canada basketball is playing wemby in France today. And if they lose today, there's no chance of a medal. So that's true for both sides. - Yeah. - In France, they lost a game in their opening round. They, in fact, went to overtime against Japan. They went two-in-one. They got smoked by 15 by Germany who at last check was trailing early to Greece today in their quarter-final match. But if Canada loses to the home favorites with one of the best up-and-coming young players and also Rudy Gower, maybe taking advantage of the one serious weakness of this Canadian team, which is lack of size. Yeah, it's going to be an abject failure for just about everybody. And again, I'm on record as saying anything short of the silver medal, but a medal in general. And especially if you're avoiding the Americans till the gold medal final, which they are, is a huge disappointment. Where's your level of anxiety headed into this game? - Yeah, this is not a house money situation. We've been in this situation with this program at times where you can say, okay, let's see what this result looks like, but I think they've got to a point where we're happy. We're not there yet, but I also don't know that I'm where you are either. This will shock you from anyone. I'm going to go like full Troy McClure here. It's like, you may recognize this take from Leaf Season's past, but kind of depends what happens today. Victor Wembanyama is a one-of-one that it is entirely possible we are having a conversation in three months time about him being one of the five best players that plays that game on planet Earth. And I can easily see a world where he has his coming out party can't exist for someone as well known as him. But his true kind of ascension game on a global stage in a moment that matters. And when the best bigs we have or the bigs we have, I could see a world where that happens. And I don't know that I'm ready to hammer that home as a defeat of defeats. Now, anything short of that if Wembanyama has a good game and it's really go bare that's hurting you and some shooter gets hot and Nick, but the corpse of Nick Batoon is bad. Then different story, yes, disappointment. We can talk about it that way, but I just think the Wembanyama of it all in a sport like this, this isn't hockey, this isn't soccer where one guy can make a huge difference when they have it, but it is the sport where the one player matters the most. And he will be at worst the second best player on the floor, but he might be better than Shay today. It's entirely plausible. - Yeah, as of this second, Shay Gillis Alexander is a better basketball player. Now, they're not comparable players. It's like a foot separates the two about what we haven't seen from Wembany all that often, if at all, is used in the way that ultimately he will be used when he's in the postseason for the Spurs, which is like playing 40 minutes. Like, is that what we see from France today? Even if it's, if we do, I'm sorry, like it's inexcusable to lose in the quarterfinals. I get it, they're the home nation, they have a superstar in Victor Wembanyama, it would still be an abject disaster to not even get to the semifinals, have no chance of a medal, considering all the positives that are surrounding the team, considering you went three and all in the group of death, and you're the reason why it was the group of death. I know it's unfair, it's tough, this is your first foray into the Olympics in 20 plus years, but that's the way she's gotta be. - Well, I will say, like, this isn't me, like I think I made this clear, but let me just double down on the point that this isn't just, well, hey, if they lose Wembanyama's there, no, I will only give them the, what are you gonna do, it's Wemb, if it is some, you know, 37.15 board, seven block game, which is not out of the realm of possibility by any means. - But they've been desperate for victories in the first three, like it's not as desperate, I guess, as a single elimination, but they had a chance to finish at the top of their group with a win over Germany and set themselves up for a better, like, do you think they wanted to play Canada? - No. - I think they'd rather play Greece, despite the fact that Germany is just barely trailing to Greece in the second half. Actually, now they've taken the lead, they have a three-point lead on Greece. I think they'd rather play Greece, or they'd rather play Australia instead of Canada, and they would have been in that position, had they beaten Germany, and they had Viktor Webb and Yama playing his guts out. - Totally. - They lost by 15, okay? - Yep. - Again, they needed overtime to beat Japan, so maybe they've figured it all out, and it's a different team than we've seen through three games of this tournament so far, but the team through three games of this tournament should not be a match for the team that just won rough shot through the toughest groups in the entire Olympics, and obviously they didn't have to play the Americans, and it's a different deal. Serbia's one loss was by like 35 to the United States. It's a different looking point differential and record if they play the Americans, but I'm sorry, the way Canada has played, the way they're set up, the talent that's on that team, and I, Viktor Webb and Yama, nobody's 74 on Team Canada, but we got some seven footers. Unfortunately, the seven footers aren't guys that are defensively proficient and nowhere near the same planet as Wembley, although I don't know who is, but yeah, the bar is clearly gotta be France, and the way they've played that should not honestly be a huge task. - Well, I just think, I think you mentioned Germany there, and that is a team that's just set up so much better to deal with France. Like you got Wagner's plural there, you have some size, and it's just Canada, again, like it is a tremendous team that has been put together by Fernandez and Rowan Barrett and everybody that has been a part of this, but you can't, much like we talk about with Candice Ocker, this isn't, you can't go trade for somebody, you have the people that are available to you and the lack of size is there. I'm with you in that if it is a quote unquote normal game, then you're right, like that is a massive, massive disappointment, I just think we have to, again, like we're, I'm not having this conversation if it's, you know, like super unfair to Dennis Schroeder, a FIBA World Cup MVP. I'm not having this conversation like, well, Dennis Schroeder went off, what are you gonna do? No, sorry, I don't have as much mileage on that, but it's just, when Ben Yama is the freak of freaks, he's the one of one, it'll be his league for, you know, as long as he is healthy, as long as he's operated, it'll be his league. So I just think you have to be mindful of that. Be disappointed, I'm not gonna tell you how to feel about it, but yeah, that's where I continue to fall. - I gotta tell you, like it's pretty remarkable how not anxious I am about this thing. And part of it is we've got some reps under our belt. - Yep. - Keep talking about like the pivot point of that Brazil game at the World Cup where they lose that thing and it's like, well, same old Canada, it doesn't matter if you have an MVP candidate, I just can't, you put that, the Canada basketball jersey on and you just become a choker and you fritter it away. But they bounce back and they come back from 15 points down, they beat Spain, they beat the Americans after having that game tied in the dying seconds of regulation on one of the most remarkable three-point shots to send it over and you still win. - Yep. - And you take a big lead against Greece, it gets fritter down in the last couple of minutes and it's a potential collapse, but you know what? Come through again. Same thing against Spain. I mean, the Australia game was just nipping talk right until the end, you pull away, but the Spain game, that was in their grasp. But they had that game locked up and again at the end of the game, almost blew it, but held on because this team, I guess, has this incredible confidence when it comes to close games against very good basketball nations. Like the reps that I now have under my belt of watching this team, like almost go through the crushing defeat after blowing a big lead, but hold on because they come through in clutch moments. That eases my anxiety. Now, feel free, of course, to more to roll the tape back when they blow it against France, but I'm just telling you what I've seen in like the last half dozen important games for this team has been proof positive that they're as good as we thought they'd be. - Yeah, no, I wholeheartedly agree with that. And I know I've been kind of doom and gloomy here of like, "Oh, the wenby ghost is lurking." I think the thing that Canada has going well for them. And again, not the victor, Wenbin Yama is a stranger to fever basketball or playing a European style game, but you can get a little more physical with him. Like, you know, go bare and Wenbin Yama, they are big men, obviously. But, you know, this isn't like prime shack, we're just gonna park in the post. Like these guys can be, you know, bodied a little bit, especially Wenbin Yama. And he's probably stronger than we give him credit for, but just look at the frame, they're look at the, like, center of gravity on him. You should be able to kind of be a little more physical with him and, generally speaking, fever refs, allow for a little more of that. So I do think that's something that boats well for Canada as well, not to go on top of everything you said there. - Yeah, so the A teams remaining are Germany and Greece. And again, Germany leading Greece right now. Serbia, Australia, Brazil in the United States, all these quarterfinals going today. So the United States, the top seed, Germany the second seed, Canada the third seed, but they should be playing the sixth seed Australia, but because you can't match up against a team that was in your same group, they're playing France. But the benefit of the way the cookie has crumbled and because they can't play Australia means that they're in the opposite side of the bracket of the United States. But they beat Australia and Australia is fine, but that's clearly a team that you'd feel more comfortable against, but you'd be on the United States, on the United States side of the bracket. So you would meet the Americans in the semi-final and not the gold medal match. Would you prefer to have an easier match up today? Because so a loss in the quarter final, not acceptable, means no medal. A loss in the semi-finals depends on who it's against. If it's against the Americans and it's like a tight battle and then you go on and you win the bronze medal match, certainly a more acceptable fate. Would you rather have that fate where it's like, today's, you know, less anxiety riddled. Again, for me, not as anxiety riddled, but you got a very good France team. Like there's just no question about it, they're at home. They have Victor Webb and Yama. Would you rather have an easier opponent in today's quarter final, Australia, but meaning that you will face the Americans in the semi-finals or would you rather have it play out the way it's playing out today? - I think we have to start with the idea of Australia being an easier match up. You have beat them, but that was not the world's most comfortable game. Josh Giddy, you know, like, I'm not going to sit here and tell you he's as good as Shae Gilger's Alexander 'cause just ask the thunder. They certainly don't think so, but that player with the ball in his hands, able to lead, he's clearly a more kind of dominant player than he was given the opportunity to. That Australian team, they are the classic Fiba team that those guys have played together for a really long time and there's continuity in there. I don't know that it'd be an easier match up now for the Americans of it all. You want to just do everything in your power. You can't avoid them 'til the gold medal game. If you're looking at it as I'm just here to win a medal, then you probably want to go the way it's gone here and you can always say, okay, then we have our semi. But I think if you look at yourself and say, I want to win the best medal, I can win. I want to beat the Americans that it has to kind of come in the gold medal game. So I look at this and say that, one, Australia, not necessarily an easier match up. And two, I think you're happier this way 'cause now you can go be the team you're supposed to be and you don't have to sit here. There's also some element of it and maybe for the elite athletes that these guys are, it doesn't factor in. But the idea of like, well, I mean, we can win this one, but we're dead the next round 'cause America's just sitting there and waiting. There's an element to that in it as well too. Yeah, the point I made last week still stands. Canada's the second best team in this tournament. And the depth of talent, two through six, and I haven't watched the Brazilian team, but the Brazil team is the one team and the Americans get them in the first round where it's like, they're separate. Spain, if Spain had made it through. Look at the battle they put forth against everybody in the group. That's a tough team. That would have been a tough match up. I think the idea of waiting all the way until the gold medal game for the Canadians to face the Americans is the one and only thing that I cared about going into the seating of these quarterfinals. But you got to take care of some tough teams including Wembley and France this afternoon. I don't want to sit on this too long. There's just a bunch of other stuff to get into, but this part of it, I love thinking of it always from the league's perspective or the sport's perspective. Obviously, basketball wants America in the gold medal game. Let's not get cute and say no, they'd actually prefer a Canada-France final. But if those are the two options for, if it's gonna be the States in one semi-final, do you think Canada or France is a sexier story to sell? Because on one hand, it's the up-and-coming basketball nation that is Canada and they have this MVP candidate right there, but the other ones went Benyama and he's right there too. - At home, there's no question it's France. - Well, no, that home leads to the story of this, but I mean like what this does to like, like I don't think Benyama playing in a gold medal game and losing 'cause it's at home means more. Like I look at it that way. So I'm not, I think it's probably France just-- - I hate talking about growth of the sport though. - Yeah, growth of the sport. The story you want to tell for the next decade or so. - Well, we have an NBA franchise that just won a title in this country five years ago. They don't play basketball in the NBA in France. - They do not, they do not. - That's your answer. - Yeah, okay. - I think, yeah, and the NBA is talking in earnest about opening up a league in Europe, right? Like to compete with some of the European leagues and maybe having some sort of intertwining schedule or some ultimate matchup against the NBA champions. - Now I'm out. - Yeah, obviously Adam Silver is thinking, hey, it doesn't have his finger on the scale, but what would he prefer? He'd rather have the guy who's gonna be, as you said, the face of the league for the next decade plus. - And you didn't. - Shea is not exactly ancient either, but yeah, there's a difference between the seven foot four guy who can do everything who's from France as opposed to Shea. - We're gonna get a good whistle today. You did just mention it. Whenby at home, finger on the scale. I like, 'cause the foul trouble is gonna be a massive thing in this game. Like whenby gets too early or something, that changes the complete complexion of the game. Whoever they're gonna be throwing at whenby, if they get too early, like we've seen what it does when door, when brooks go out early in these games, it does throw, you know, camp's been able to overcome, but it throws a wrench into their plans here. Like, I'm not sitting here getting conspiratorial about it, but what the whistle looks like in this game is going to be a massive factor in it because how can you defend whenby? - Yeah, yeah, it's very difficult. I will say that in general, I like the way the Fiba game is called, and then it's way more physical. - Oh, yeah. - Way more go. - Yeah, I see a lot of, I've seen refs like two or three times. - Yeah, get up, oh, yeah. - Oh my God, looking like me, watching my kid play sports. - Get the get up. - I'm not too worried about it. I think now that you're in the fourth game of this tournament, you understand what the standards are generally, and of course it differs from official to official, but I'm not too worried about it. And generally, what happens is the big guys, now it's usually more physically imposing and not as rail thin as whenby, but like the big guys do not get the benefit of the no. - No, no, no. - So if you're the little guy, maybe you can hack the bone a little bit. - It was actually kind of funny. I don't know if you saw this, but like the well dang, who of course is like, you know, the chief basketball emeritus of South Sudan there, like he just runs the whole show. He's like, we don't have any African officials in here, which I think is a fair gripe, you're gonna. But this part I thought was interesting. They don't know how we play the game. There was no element of like, our team needs to adapt. It's like, we play more physical, give us the benefit of the doubt. And I kind of like that, so often we see like, we need to know, just badger the officials, tell them this how we play the game. It's Viva, it's supposed to be rough. Let's go, I love that from him. - I love it. So I think there is a natural tie into this next topic, because Canada winning gold would be historic. Gold, not silver, gold. And it would be their second basketball medal in Olympic history. The last one was like in 1930, whatever, who cares. Summer Macintosh, her Olympics are done. That's pretty successful, I'd say. - I'd say. - Three golds, one silver, almost a fifth medal, as I finished fourth in the relay. First Canadian to ever pick up three golds in the Olympics. Is there any way that she's not the flag bearer at the closing ceremonies? This is a thing we all predicted. It was part of the reason why nobody was picking her to be the flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Also, she's 17 and had won an Olympic medal, so that would have been a very bizarre choice. - Side to the point, it was all very much leading to her holding the flag at the closing ceremonies. Damien Warner did it four years ago. Oof, tough, tough, decathlon for Damien Warner. - Brutal. - Anyways, is there any way that she's not carrying the flag at the closing ceremonies? - No, but please, God, Canada, go in gold in men's basketball, so we can have the great debate of all time, because this is it. This is what we talked about with the opening ceremonies. I'm like, yeah, wouldn't Shay be a great, yeah, but he's too famous, oh, we all love him. He's so rich. Look how much money NBA players make. We couldn't possibly bestow this honor upon him. I don't know, I think we probably could, if he goes and wins gold, but I can't sit here and tell you it's not gonna be summer Macintosh. That's who it's going to be. But I think that that's the only way this even, quite frankly, becomes a conversation. There were other names that could have wormed their way in there. I mean, Canada soccer, we saw what happened to them against Germany over the weekend. If that goes the other way and a star kind of emerges from that group and we just go, you know what, let's flip off the IOC. Flagbearer, Deb Briesman, go. Not actually, but like somebody from the team. - The guy that's filling in for her just looks like the sweetest cutie pie I've ever wear. - God, they, what does the deal with the fanny pack thing, the strap that they have to wear across their shoulder? - So I think part of it is they're just so, and you know, different events are very like hard and fast about credentials. I think these guys just like have to have their credentials. Like Scotty Scheffler, when he was like going to go to the podium, winning Olympic gold, it's like, oh, I gotta get my credential. They won't let me in there. They're very on it. But it is odd, he did look like a youth who just like wandered there, wearing his like, cool, lulu lemon fit. And he's got his fanny pack on. - And he spends his neck. - Okay, there you go. I'm happy you had it 'cause Lord knows I wasn't going to. - No, there's just like, he's very, he smiles a lot. - It just looks very earnest, yes. - He just seems like if you were another soccer nation, what is the Canada women's soccer coach look like? It would be like, yeah, he spends this smiling face. - I like to think he's like, oh, this is great. We're going to be the darlings of the tournament we win this game and no one could blame me. I didn't get fired for any droning, but that was it. Like there were other paths to where this could have happened, but to grasp got his moment and obviously didn't happen for him. Like I just think that it's going to be Macintosh with the exception of SGA if he is transcendent, but I don't even then. I just think we're going to do the thing where he's too famous and he's so beloved and accolades. - There is a counter to summer though. There's like, she's going to be there in four years and she'll have her moment. - I hate that. I hate that. - Yeah, 'cause you never know. - Nothing in life is promised, man. Like a week I'll get hit by a car today, driving home. An asteroid could come, there's a Leo movie. They're in the pandemic. It's coming for like, I load the argument of, much like I load the argument of like, well, she'll just Alexander has two nights of house and nice cars and he's so famous and beloved. We can't give him this honor. Disagree, we can, just 'cause summer Macintosh probably has two, three more of these things ahead of her. Doesn't mean we should just presume she's going to, again, like think about the presumption that's being made. I know these are Olympians and it is remarkable how they're able to do this, but yeah. So just, you know, four years from now be just as good and even better, which like, of course, the math tracks. You get stronger, you get older, growth cycles, you know, peak performance, all that, it makes sense. But I don't know, like, hey Ben, in four years time, we'll give you this honor that you deserve right now. How's that sound to you? 'Cause you're going to be here. No, I don't like that if you're asking me. Yeah, I don't either. You know, Penny Alexiac is 24 years old. Yeah, okay. Agent. Well, this is, we thought for sure this would be, it would just, it would be the same thing. It'd be a million Olympic cycles. She started in the 2016 summer games. It was eight years ago, she was 18. Whatever, 17, it's a similar age to summer Macintosh. And she won the four medals, including gold and the 100 meter. And then she won three medals last Olympic cycle in 2021 at the Tokyo Games. And now she didn't qualify for any of the individual events at these Olympics. And she's done at 24 because of physical ailments, because of, yeah, because of people aging differently. So yeah, it's a good point in that you just never know. I love that. Like I just, let me hammer that point home one more time. If you think she deserves it, give it to her. I don't care if she's 99, I don't care if she's nine. Go on. Okay, if she's 99, you better give it to her. 'Cause she definitely ain't gonna have. I will hear the other side of it. I'm like, this is the last one. Three gold at 99. Whoo! That's incredible. We'd be, we'd be renaming the Northern Star Award after whoever that would be. God. It would have been an interesting discussion as well if the Canadian women's soccer team was still alive. What, that was a great match against Germany. Lots of chances for all the ways. Oh my God. That, okay. Them saying Bien with the Canadian striker and none of the goals being good was just driving me, not driving me nuts. They had so many looks. Germany had their chances as well. Then it goes to the penalty shoot out, or penalty kicks. Sorry. And the keeper for Germany steps up after making some big, like it was just, it was drama, man. We've been on the other side of it. How fun was that last time? Welcome to sports. Sometimes it sucks. You wonder what it would have looked like if perhaps, you know, there was some drone footage. What? Some penalty practice. How dare you? Maybe. Maybe. But actually, maybe. Yeah. Steph Lebe said, not no information gleaned from that. Okay. Three years ago, okay? But yeah, it is interesting. It's curious. Yeah. It does suck 'cause now we can never live in the world of like... Yeah, what if so? Yeah. Apparently everybody's doing it. I don't know. We'll get to the Olympic golf final, which was unbelievable. And lots of narratives come out of that. Oh yeah. We'll get to that later on in the program. But when we come back, Blue Jays lose two out of three in the Bronx. The Yankees. A little more watchable now, though. There's things to like glean from these games. Who's got the upper hand as far as showing the most as a potential everyday player for 20, 25 plus Saturday had one of the low points for me of the entire season. I'll get into that. And more next. The fan morning show continues. Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning, SportsF590, the fan. Dive deep into Toronto Sports and the NFL. The JD Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning shows, SportsF590, the fan, Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning, Blue Jays. Take the opening game of that three game series in the Bronx against the Yankees. Get them a bit of a scare. Out Astros in the rubber match, ever they lose two out of three to the New York Yankees. Before you launch into your point about this, I just have a funny little story about this. You know, I told you before we started the show, I was solo dadding. I don't call it babysitting because he's my kid. You know, it's just taking care of him. But I was like, let's, let's come up with some fun activities to do. And I thought, you know what? I haven't taken them to a Jays game yet. And I got all the way down the rabbit hole on StubHub before I was looking at the seats. I'm like, those look weird. That doesn't look like, and I was honestly one click away from buying the tickets and being like, all right, I guess me and my three year old are going to New York tomorrow. But luckily I avoided that and did not pay any money to obviously not go to the game. So how is the long car rides? Generally speaking. Okay. Like it's just a matter of like the sleeping that will happen. And then I have to deal with like the Tasmanian devil that awakes from said slumber. But yeah, no, generally speaking pretty good. Hard to sleep through the entirety of a road trip to New York City. That's a tough one. I would I would think. And yeah, I might you know, I might want to try like, I think the longest I've done with them is like four. So I guess I have gone like like partly halfway, but yeah, just I was so close to buying those tickets. I was like, I am going to be the dad of the gear. We're going to I'm like, why fourth? That's not even a section or Roger Center. Why does that make sense? And again, good job by me not paying money. Good job. Good job by me. Avoiding my mistake. It's the bar I've set for myself, man. Padding myself on the back for avoiding mistakes that I set for myself. Yeah, you would have seen an interesting series. No question. And then I had to take them to an IBL game, little little Hamilton cards action to make up for. Yeah. That's sick. It was wonderful. Lesser strain on your credit card, I would imagine. Much. Anyways, Blue Jays, it's not about the wins and losses anymore people, but the friends you make along the way or something. It's about watching the young players, I suppose, and the Blue Jays have going into next season, you would think at least three openings for offensive players and four if you include another catcher. But yeah, the prospect catcher that they acquired in this hall of prospects before the deadline is not likely going to factor in. Well, we won't see him at all in the majors this season and likely not next season either anyways. I feel third base and DH, what that means, just like another bat. Yes. Those are all positions that are attainable by some of the players and some of the players that they have that are trying to fight for spots. Play those positions right now. Funny how that works out. Joe Loperfido is down and established Toronto Blue Jays. He played, I think, the day after the deadline, of course, he was in the major leagues for the Astros. He has nine strikeouts in four games as a Blue Jays. Yup. Also has four hits though. Has it triple? Yeah. Yeah. That's all we've seen at the major league level. Now in the minor leagues, Will Wagner, also known as Billy Wagner Jr., but not Billy Wagner Jr., Will Wagner, seven for his first 11 with the Bisons playing the third base. He's got three extra base hits, three walks. He's also got a home run. This is apparently a guy whose power is limited hasn't been so far in his early returns as a member of the Bisons. Also a defensive questions about him. Let's just start with this though. How do you feel watching the Blue Jays right now? Because this was obviously before the deadline, a march to nowhere. It's still, again, not about wins and losses, but at least there's things that you can be excited about watching from an individual perspective. This is a weird analogy, but I think it makes a lot of sense. How I feel about watching these, the Blue Jays, is how I feel when I'm sometimes watching golf on like a Saturday afternoon, and I'm, you know, watching golf in air quotes. But then it's like the announcer perks up and there's an interesting shot and they got it. And then that's what this part of the Blue Jays season is for me. I've been, you know, a little bit kind of leading up to the deadline. All right, we're going through the motions, we're waiting for the trades to happen. Now that it happened, I'm kind of perked up, I'm a little intrigued. There's something going on. You mentioned the low perfito of it all, the stuff happening at Buffalo, just the idea of something new. It doesn't mean that something new is real and it's spectacular and it's going to be a part of the Major League roster for five years or some, some stretch that would be nice, quite frankly. It doesn't mean any of that, but it's just a different conversation to have. It's something different to look at when you get sick and tired of the same diet all the time. It's just, hey, all right, throw a little paprika on this. Let's spice it up a little bit. And I think that's what you've seen. It just, this season so badly needed a reset. And I think when we talked about that, leading into the deadline, people would hear that and go, what? You want to completely blow it up. You want to tear everything apart, don't kind of, but that's not what I meant. You just needed some new life. The moments that we're supposed to bring the new life never came. Okay, Ricky Tiedemann, that was supposed to be one of those shots in the arm. Well, go ask him about the arm. He went and got a shot in the arm, okay? And then you look at, you look at Arelvis Martinez. We know what happened there. You were so excited and then one game, last one game, he gone. So you finally have a little bit of just new life, hope. For once, it's not a dangerous thing. This is the time when hope is allowed to be fun and you can just kind of wonder. It's not even hope. It's just wonder. I'm curious. Let's see what happens here. Yeah, low perfetos Major League resume is getting filled out, but still he's not the finished product and he's a projectable guy and obviously swing and miss has been a big part of his offensive profile in not just Major League time, but in the minor leagues. You know, it's the guy that's really heating up at the Major League level is not one of the guys that was called or was acquired at the deadline. It's a guy in his second stint at the Major Leagues right now in Addison Barger. In his last six games, he's hitting 350 with a pair of homers, three doubles and a couple of walks as well. I wonder if maybe he's been spurred on by like the potential new competition surrounding him or maybe it's just the fact of a guy who's seen Major League pitching once. It didn't go so well. Going back to the minor leagues had some success again and has renewed confidence. And he's seeing some of the massive hacks that he takes result in in positive outcomes. Again, a guy that can play third base. I think defensively, he leaves a little bit to be desired and need to see more of them there playing corner out field spot. He's a guy that I'm super interested in. I wonder how much will Wagner has to do before he gets called up like you can kind of miss me with this Louis de Los Santos dude who's 26 years old and he has a sub 700 OPS in his minor league career. I think he's easily shipped off and you can bring in Wagner who again plays a position of need for this team is off to a hot start. There's an interesting question also in Buffalo right now. I tweeted this out the other day because I wonder what happened to him. Where's Joey Votto? As you all every three days, your brain just sends a ping to you like, I haven't thought about him. What's going on? Well, ask and you shall receive. He's back after I wasn't asking after rolling his ankle yet again before the first game. He was called up to play in Buffalo for the Bisons. And then again, missed multiple weeks where I'm sure it was a message that it won't be that bad. Apparently, there's also been a back thing that he's been dealing with. That's what happens when you're four years ago. I was going to say, have you ever met a 40 year old man? You are one. So man, I'm 40. He is, he's two for five in now three games, a couple of pinch hitting appearances, but he's hit a home run. Oh my God. With the Bisons. So that's a very small sample, granted seven played appearances, five at bats hitting 400 with a 571 on base percentage, a 1000 slug for a 1571 OPS. You obviously need to see more from Joey Votto. But even if you see more from Joey Votto and he continues to tear it up in Buffalo is this a guy that you, maybe wrong guy, no, I, you know, I want to see Joey Votto this season. I'm going to shock you, Ben. I, I've seen enough. I want to see Joey Votto play in baseball games in Toronto this year at Christie Pitts for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That's where I want to see him play in baseball games in Toronto. The season has gone away that if he performs and you feel like he deserves it and you want to give him his send off and sure, I'm not going to begrudge him even though I do begrudge him. I rush every conversation from spring training and his letter and mount his suit and all that stuff. We don't need to do it. But you know how I feel. If you want to give him that, I'm not going to begrudge the org that I don't think there is so many precious pieces that you're taking, you know, in that bad way there. But I also think that, you know, need to force it either. You obviously brought him in. This was always going to be a question of, well, what's he doing here if he's not going to go play for the big league club. So I think you've kind of made your own bet in that regard, but I would have no, I would not begrudge them giving him the spot, but I also don't think he's owed anything either by them. So I am very kind of whatever the Blue Jays want to do on this. I know you would expect me to kind of be like, I'm done. I'm done. I don't want to see him. I am done. I don't want to see him. But I'm also not blind to what this season is and having that moment and I don't know, it's like the graduated class from Richview Collegiate comes and why it's like I guess tough when, you know, graduation was months ago, but you understand what I'm saying. You can have a way to have his storybook moment and does he deserve it? Sure. Do I have to enjoy it? No. But I think that's probably where this trends if, if, if he doesn't miraculously step on a bat today, yeah, which is, yeah, very, very possible because this happens twice already. I'm fine with it. In fact, I think it would be very cool, especially now that there's no Kevin Kiermeier send off, like to have his final moment as a major league or be in Toronto as a member of the Blue Jays. Oh, man, imagine he got called up in September and, you know, middle of September hits a home run, gets removed from the game defensively and gets at that final send off a wave to the crowd. That'd be a cool moment. I don't want it interfering with any of the, the, the playing time of the, of the young players that are actually potentially part of the future of this team. I think there's enough room though that you can allow that to happen, like you're playing Stuart Barrowa, no offense, like, sounds like a little, yeah, again, they're playing Luis Delos Santos, like this room to get Will Wagner up here and Addison Barger and like Joey Loper Fido, some opportunities. And we, I think we know a little bit more about Ernie Clement and Spencer Horowitz, honestly, I have a pretty good sense of what he is. I think David Schneider, same deal. Like I, I think there's enough room to get Joey Votto, his little moment and give somebody a little catnip in a, in a season that's been so disappointing without messing with the plans for 2025. Yeah, I, I agree, but I, and I, I started this joking about the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. I actually could like easily see a world where Joey Votto like makes a, not this year, but like at some point in time Toronto guy, yeah, just like, uh, now how about I play home games? Sounds great. Joe. Yeah. Butler brothers played for like world series winners of Paul Spaldieric playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Do you think, do you think Joey Votto like stocks someone around the bases? Probably not. He's not a pitcher. But yeah. Amen. Why didn't Russell Martin ever go try to pitch for them? Yeah. That's true. Or play shortstop at least. Anyways. Okay. I managed your shortstop and pitcher. God, but a life. I gotta talk about Saturday. Yes, you do. I don't. You're disgusted. And I know it's Tuesday. And I know it, it happened in like a game that ended up with an eight three win for the New York Yankees. I was almost there. Could have seen this firsthand. Yeah. So let me take you back to Saturday way back machine, Aaron judge who's having an unreal season. You thought him hitting 60 plus home runs in an MVP campaign was the best he'd ever do. Is doing better right now. He's disgusting. He's impossible to pitch to and we'll get to that in just a second. But it is 41st home run of the season in the first inning of Jose burrios. Yankees bat around so much that he came to the plate again in the second inning. By then it was for one by the lead by the New York Yankees. There were two out. There was nobody on John Schneider in his infinite wisdom decided to hand him an intentional base on balls. Now according to codified baseball, this is the first time in over 50 years that an MLB batter has been intentionally walked with two outs and no one on base and the first two innings of a game. So there's of course harkens back to Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds has been intentionally walked with the bases loaded, okay? Insane. But even Barry Bonds was not intentionally walked in the second inning with nobody on and two out. So I just said that this season is not about wins and losses for the Toronto Blue Jays, right? If that being said, you don't go into a game intentionally trying to lose it. No. So if this was a move in an attempt to win the baseball game, that's one thing. Frankly, it wasn't like there are numbers to suggest that the Blue Jays had a worse chance of winning the game when they handed even the great Aaron judge a base on balls and kept them from hitting yet another home run. It doesn't help you win the game. It doesn't help you develop a young player. The pitcher was Jose Barrios. I mean, I could maybe understand it if it was Jake Bloss on the mound. You're like, hey, we don't want you to. But let's just know it's Jose Barrios, your opening day starter, it doesn't send a positive message to your team that you don't trust your opening day starter to capably, even if he doesn't want to throw him a strike, pitch around somebody who's having a Barry Bonds like season, and frankly, and this is way down the list, but it is a factor in a season that is so lost and so tough for Blue Jays fans to watch. It's not fun. Okay, I get it. This was in the Bronx. It wasn't at Roger Center, but imagine the same scenario played itself out at Roger Center with the fans. Sure, they want to see a win, but it's 4-1 in the second inning against a team that actually has a chance of doing something against this Blue Jays team where your starter is going to be out early and you've got to go to the worst bullpen in all the baseball, and that's now after they've traded away the guys that were even capable of pitching out of the bullpen. Imagine this happened at Roger Center where like one of the most intriguing parts of this game against the Yankees is, is Aaron Judge going to hit another home run? You deprived them of that moment. For what, for explain to me what, because it's not to win the game, you're not winning the game anyways, and even if you thought it had a better chance of helping you win the game, it factually doesn't. And secondarily to that, the same scenario played itself out in the fourth inning with the exact same score. There were two out and nobody on. Guess what John Schneider did? What? He pitched to Aaron Judge. What are we doing? Okay, so I think there's a lot of interesting questions that go into this specifically the second one or the last fact you mentioned there that it came up, the very same scenario in the exact same spot, just a couple innings later, and they pitched around or they went to pitch to him as opposed to walking him. Do you think there is any part of it where Jose burrios was like, that's disgusting. Don't make me do that again. That's disgusting. Don't make me do that again, because I want honestly when, because if you, we know, like we don't need to get into the whole burrios thing from last post season, but you mentioned if it was at home, people would be yelling, just take him out of the game then. That would be getting screamed at at Schneider if you're going to walk Aaron Judge in that spot. But I honestly wonder because they're, they didn't, John Schneider, like, and Lord knows listen, all the things I've had to say about him is I'm not his number one fan, but I don't think he just like rolled a dice and it's like, all right, even, even we walk him, odds we pitched to him. I think he wanted to do that. And so the idea of burrios, like that is to me the most interesting part of this is that did, because I would just like to state I'm as disgusted with you as this. I'm not quite as like angered by it, but I think it's ridiculous that they did this. The me the most interesting part is did burrios go there and stand up for himself? Did the catcher stand? Did the peep walker stand up for his picture there? Like what led to them changing their mind the second time around? That's actually to me the more kind of like interesting part of this. I am, I agree with you, gross rolling over the fact that it's burrios. That's the other part that makes it so bad, but that's also the part that makes me think he may be found some spine in this after what happened in the postseason last year and making him do that. He's the ace. He's got the hundred plus million dollar contract. If anybody could say absolutely not, you'd think it'd be him. And I do wonder if that's what happened. Yeah. I mean, he had more of a leg to stand on when he was having a great season a year ago and was pitching a super well in a postseason series. Oh, God. Could you imagine if he was just like, no, he, well, this season, he's got an. Inflated ERA outside of being pitcher, American League pitcher of the month in April, he's not been frankly very good. And it's not a surprise that Aaron judge hit a homerun off him. In the post game, he did say I was surprised that they asked me to do it, but I guess I get it. He's a dangerous guy. I think John Schneider's answer was also telling. He said, I just didn't feel like watching him swing the bat again. Okay. So you just going on feels like I don't understand again. But give me a reason that makes some sense other than I just didn't want to see him swing the bat again, but you did so like in the fourth inning, you wanted to see him swing the bat again. Well, I mean, despite the fact that he's a baseball fan, he's like, God, that was boring last time. We got to see him take a cut here. It's just, it sickens me truly. It does sicken me because this is a season in which so much has gone wrong and it's not about wins and losses. Again, that being said, you don't intentionally try to lose baseball games. There's a sanctity of the sport element to play here that the Yankees are battling for a playoff spot. And you would like to think if the shoe was on the other foot and you were in a playoff spot and and somebody else was playing the Yankees that you would hope that they tried their darn this, even though they weren't making the playoffs to make the Yankees earn it. Of course. That's not what we're talking about here. Like if it's a tie game, if it's a tie game in the eighth inning, if it's four or four, and there's two out and there's nobody on, maybe I can understand it. It's the second inning. It's four one. It's your ace on the mound who's not pitching like an ace. I get it. It's all you got in a season in which you could be on the chopping block, I guess, in John Schneider. And you know, you're going to have to explain this decision after the game. And to do that, to deprive, I guess, at least it's Yankee fans and it's it's the bleacher creatures and it's not the people of Toronto. I haven't checked. I don't think I think are the Yankees done coming to Toronto, but if that's if this happened in Toronto, I would like to think a different decision would be made. Not that you want to see Aaron judge hit a home run. How about like you try to beat him beat him. Despite the fact that he is like right now playing like prime Barry Bonds, well, this will shock people who have followed baseball, baseball their whole lives. Like even the best players get out all the time, like, you know, failure, big part of the sport. You can go ahead and try to make them even to Aaron judge who has an insane on base percentage of four 56. You know what that means? That like I do 55% of the time he's making it out still. One person did like this, though, one person, Louis Severino. He's like, yeah, see, that's what happens when he got two good hitters, boys. Right. And I also understand like walking the dude. Yep. Right. The throwing in the towel element of it. You could pitch around a guy without intentionally walking. Totally. I didn't like it. All right. I met. I could tell. I love it when you get upset about things. Time now for the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL week nine starting with a dominant performance by the blue bombers. They shut out the lions. 25, nothing. Winnipeg looking like their former self seem that controlled the West for the past few seasons showing maybe why that we were preseason. Great cup favorites. They're in the great cup game a year ago quarterback Zach Caleros looking like his previously dominant self as well. He threw for 295 yards and a score. Another highlight was kicker Sergio Castillo, who was a perfect six for six, including his CFL record second 60 yarder of the season, worse than the loss though, for the lions, BC's quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. suffering an injury in the fourth quarter had to leave the game. Much needed win for Winnipeg there are now three and six dropping the leos to five and three aliwets continuing to separate themselves from the rest of the league as they got their seventh win of the season coming out of Hamilton with the 33 16 road win over the Tiger Cats. That was back on Friday night. Ticats falling deeper into the basement of the East. They're now two and six and his first start Trey Ford leading the elks to their first win of the season and their first win since August of 2023 going out of Regina with a 42 31 win over the Rough Riders. The Canadian QB might have dominated the headlines going into Edmonton's battle with Saskatchewan on Saturday. It was Javon Leake who stole the show with a three touchdown performance against the West division leaders, Kevin Brown on the one game injured list, Leake putting up 169 yards rushing three scores against that Saskatchewan run defense elks stay at the bottom of the West there. One and seven riders remain tied for the best record at five and three with the BC Lions and the stamps, keeping their perfect record at McMan Stadium alive with the comeback win over the Argos trailing Toronto by 16 at halftime Calgary putting up 21 unanswered in the fourth quarter to win 2723 two teams both at four and four middle of their divisions will see each other again in the second half of their home and home in week 10. That was the Canadian football report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. When we come back, Canada, France, SGA, Victor Webb and Yama, we'll talk to Jeff Zillget of USA Today. As the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportcent 590, the fan.
