[MUSIC] Swing and fly ball, legs center field, going back over, and that ball's down on track. Springer scores, far show held up. It hits in 20 straight games for Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. This ball hit well right field, over going back, leaps at the launch goal. His 10th homer in the 20-game streak, yeah, I just don't get the opposing pictures. This continued to pitch to Vladimir Guerrero during this night's stretch. Guerrero hits it in the air, deep right field, going back over, and it's up the wall. Guerrero looking for a triple, and he gets in standing up. What can this guy do right now, another RBI for Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.? That's the second time in the last 10 days or so he's been a triple or a single away. He's as good as anyone right now, really. I mean, I can't really say much more than that. He's been the same guy every single day, and throughout this last couple of weeks, it's just fun to watch him. He's not giving it bats away, you know, and I think that's what separates good from great. You're watching a really great player, kind of figure some sh*t out right now. That bad boy, John Schneider, a little potty mouth to kick off your Friday morning, fan morning show gunning and Marquesi here, Ben Shulman, asking all the pertinent questions. What can't Vladi do? Will this team do the playoffs single-handedly and hit a single? Are the two answers to those questions, another hot night from Vlad and Marquesi? I'm just going to set up the show the way I set it to you when I walked in the studio. I have some very pertinent and interesting Blue Jays opinions this morning, I think, and I'll be honest, after watching a lot of these games, after the trade deadline specifically, I haven't always been thinking that, but another fun night at the ballpark, and it's always a fun night if you're watching Vlad right now, how you doing, Marquesi? I'm good. It is funny because you don't have too many of those thoughts right now, but when you have one of the hottest, well, probably the hottest hitter on the planet right now, who is not locked into a long-term extension and has been talked about as part of the future of this organization without said extension, I think you can glean a lot of things from what we've seen from him in the last two months. One of them being, and it's more of a question than an answer right now, and I'll ask it to you, do you get a little bit caught up and say, "Games don't mean anything right now"? Is that something that maybe holds you back a little bit? Or is that the Toronto sports fan in you that is all doom and gloom like, "Ah, this can't be real because the games don't mean anything"? I can't believe I'm the one that's about to say this, but yeah, no doom and gloom involved at all. I think it's a fair, if you're asking the biggest of biggest picture questions of, "Is Vladimir Greo Jr., a top five player or asset in baseball for the next half?" Sure, those are all pertinent questions to ask about doing it in games that don't matter and the street kind of kind of perfectly coinciding with when the team was out of it, out of it. I'm not completely blind to drawing those lines. I just think when a player is doing this for this length of time, I kind of lose that argument a little bit. I can understand it when we do the playoff thing of like, "Hey, look at what the playoff numbers are, look what they are for Bo," or these, the guy. Like, I can understand asking those questions. I just don't think we have enough of a sample size to have anything close to an answer. I go the other way on this. I've had enough of a sample size of this run to not believe that this is what he is. I mean, it's funny, there's the stack going around. I sent it to you guys last night of all of the things that Vlad leads baseball in basically since the hitting streak has started, including hitting 500. It's kind of crazy what he's been doing here that you have to believe. You have to buy into this guy. And I think those are all questions we'll revisit. Like, the problem with the Blue Jays, ultimately right now isn't, "Oh, can Vlad get it done in a game that matters? It's can this team play in a game that matters?" And guess what? The road to games that matter include having at least one guy that's doing it like that. So I just, I kind of just wanted to start just giving Vlad his flowers a little bit. I feel like we, we do this all the time. It's the yo-yoing. It's the up and down. And especially in baseball, you know, when the season's gone away, you know, a 10-game hit streak doesn't perk people up the way it has. This is his good run in Toronto sports as we've seen. Now, it's not the season long. Like, I'm not going to sit here and tell you Vlad, he's having a better year than I just saw from Austin Matthews. I'm not going to sit here and say he's putting up a Kawhi Leonard performance because these things are all very different. But this is his good run. We've seen from a Blue Jay going back to Batista's heyday. This might be, if you just want to do the, you know, exact sample size of the hit streak, this might be a better run than, than Batista quite, quite frankly, ever had. I'm not going to sit here and say the Vlad's accomplished what he has and has had the run and quite frankly means as much to the fan base. But I just think we have to start there today. And, you know, I kind of did this at the, at the start of the week. If you can't get excited about a Blue Jay's team occasionally winning a game, and I know last night was more frustrating than exciting, but what are you doing? Why are you watching this team? So if you're someone who loves the Blue Jays and is watching, whether it's one game a week or you're watching all 162 to just not be able to sit there and marvel at that for a minute, you've got to do it. Well, what do we talked about? We talked about this yesterday about the appreciation for the Toronto Maple Leafs and sometimes it kind of flies under the radar. And the Vlady thing is, is a little, I'm just talking about appreciation in sports in general, but the Vlady thing is, is different in that. Let's not forget how poorly this season started for him and all of the, I don't want to call them haters, but there was a lot of Vlady hate about the haters and losers of which there are many. Yeah, correct. And I think with that, I think there should be more of an appreciation because he's really come kind of full circle here this season. And what he's been able to do is is reminiscent of Boba Shet in 2022. At the end of the year where he was, the hottest hitter on the planet for a good month and even two months where when you look at his numbers that year, he hit 345 from, for like 60 games. And that just to me, it just kind of tells you the level that Vlad is on right now and that he can be an elite player in this game and an elite hitter because there were a lot of questions. I think the biggest thing for me gunner in this whole thing is remember the talk about he's just going to be like a 25 home run guy. Yeah. And everybody was kind of like, okay, I'm fine with that. The fact that the power numbers are there again, and it starts to give you that hope because there's one thing with this team especially that we don't see a lot of and that's power. Nashing. But if you can bring that to the table, that alone makes you an exciting ball player, especially on a team that struggles offensively and granted they haven't struggled offensively as much as they were early in the season, which is a shame because now they can't really pitch. But yeah, this whole flatty thing is just fascinating to me because I wanted to, I wanted to ask you a question because I thought about this last night because I feel like people are saying, well, it's nice for you to think about things for the show. Yeah, I do try. I do try. And it was like, do people actually believe that with every passing day that Vlady continues this history and continues on this hot run that the dollar amount just keeps going up? Oh, I don't. I don't think about that at all. Because I don't because I don't think that that exists. I think the contract is what it is. And it's just whether or not they can get pen to paper here. I goes back to, you know, that conversation we had yesterday about the way we think about different athletes in the city and how much the cap affects at all. I think we blush at the like total number for Vlady, whatever it ends up being. But I don't think anyone cares if it's 300 or 280 or 320 or whatever. Like, if that is outside the realm of what other players at his position are getting paid, it's an issue. But as long as it's within that realm, I don't think, again, we don't do the thing where we sit there and go, man, you'd love them if it was just two mil less. We just don't do it in this sport. I think the other reason why if this was a different, if this was a different off season, then I think you're having a very different conversation. But the fact that Juan Soto is going to go out there and set the bar, Vlady is already boxed in to a certain extent. There's nothing he can do between, he could quite frankly have a hit streak the last from now until the end of the season doing what he's doing. And I don't think it changes him getting more money than Juan Soto. Maybe that would change the overall total dollar figure if it was something truly unhuman that he did quite frankly. But that's the way I look at it is just Soto has already, I mean, he hasn't technically done it yet because there's no pen to paper, but he's going to go and the Yankees are going to give them money or the Mets are going to give them the money. And that is going to place the cap on not just what the Blue Jays will give Vlad, but what Vlad can even think about asking for quite frankly. So I don't, I don't look at it. You mentioned the power. I think this goes without saying duh, duh, power matters in baseball, especially for your first baseman that you want to give a ton of money to. He better be able to hit for power. It's the hitting mistakes. This is something you wasn't doing at earlier parts of the season. This is where go back to all the Vlad conversations we've had. And you know, they're not typically, they're the typical thing we keep circling back to is his inability to punish mistakes for so long. It was expanding the zone, but then it kind of all circle back to, okay, when you get the mistake, what do you do with it? Dean Dean Kramer through him a 93 mile an hour meatball dead over the heart of the plate. It could not have been more middle, middle. I'm going to give it one more. That was middle, middle, middle. Not quite as zero, zero, but the exact opposite. We loved it. In fact, but the Vladiv old or the lesser versions of Vlad that we've seen at times, that ball's a single to right center or ground ball or ground ball. We've seen that happen. That's the worst version of Vlad. But even when it's been going fine and you talk about him and say, okay, maybe it's this 20, 25, Homer guy, that ball slapped into right field. That wasn't what happened last night. The triple was loud. Double was loud. The Homer was super loud. And I just think that is the. If you're flatty, I think that's what you need to take out of this is obviously you just want to keep this run going as long as you can. You want to keep performing. You want to keep feeling good. You want to keep giving people a reason to come to the ballpark, all of that. But I also think you just need to hone in on that part of it as well as, okay, you're clearly seeing the baseball well. Can you do damage on these mistakes, not just do a little something with them? And I think that's what takes him from, you know, the nice first baseman that's a cog of a roster that has a bunch of other good hitters on it to the guy you build your, your team and your lineup around. So the last 45 games since June 15th, Vlad is slashing 386 434 773. His OPS is 1.206. He's 16 home runs and 46 RBIs in that time. My goodness. Like, and he has 14 walks. That version of Vladi is. MVP, almost MVP season, Vladi. For sure. Like that's where we're at. So if you extrapolate that over 162, that's a 58 home run season. Yeah, it's not happening. No, but if he's, but if he's 35 100 and he's hitting 290 and his OPS is 900. Yeah, you take that every day of the week. And I think that we had gotten so, I think that almost MVP season was a little bit of a detriment to Vladi in the way that he was evaluated because that was the clear outlier there. And I know that people are like, well, he was hitting in, you know, in smaller ballparks and, no, Vladi hit like 386 against the fastball. That's something that he had not been doing. I just feel like what we have seen is he knows he needs to get paid here. He wants to be a part of this thing. And what we have seen from him has shown that he can be that guy while playing, you know, pretty darn good defense at first base as well. I think all of that means something. I just don't know what it means in terms of. What's the impact on this team for next year? Because during this stretch, yeah, they're still 20 and 25 in those 45 games. So I think I think that is the thing that ultimate, that's where ultimately people lead is, OK, you can do that. And I guess the question that kind of is entrapped in that is, have has he kind of swung everyone over to his side of the argument? Because you mentioned the idea of like, do you think about the dollar figure going up? I think of it from the people who said, I'm not ready yet. And I don't think there's been even even the biggest Vlad detractors in the world. We're not going to get this guy out of here. You can't build around this guy. It was, I don't know if I'm ready for the 10 year again, whatever the number figures out to be deal here. And I think that this has and that this stretch is twofold. It is one, illuminated the lack of anything else that you can project super long term going forward on the team and just needing him. And I think also the fact that they kind of missed the ideal window to trade the player has kind of won everyone in the fan base over to the idea. Even if you were not the biggest, again, like, laddy fan, if you were just not a believer that he could be the aircraft carrier for a lineup, I think even those people have been swung to at least begrudgingly. All right, you got to pay him. You have to pay him here. Yeah, I think that I think that's very fair because I was one of those guys that was kind of just like, if there was a guy you were going to keep, it's probably both. And I'm not saying don't keep both because if you have that opportunity, a guy at a premier position like that, I really feel the ship is still sailed on that. Well, I do because I think the money that he's probably looking for is not something that, especially after this year, that I'm willing to pay. Do I think that he is a prime guy that he's going to go somewhere else and flourish? Yes, absolutely. Also, does he not feel like the exact guy that and I don't know, like money papers over a lot of things, but the J's would step to him. Like, let's say the year plays out super Rosalie next year, the J's are great teams win in there in the playoffs, but shet's a big reason why. Then they go, all right, here's all the money you want. He goes, Oh, where was it last year? I wanted it last year. Where was it? Like, could you not see him kind of having that, that chip on his shoulder aspect of it? I could. I could also just see him saying like, I'm still going to test free agency because the money that you're offering, somebody else may be even more desperate. Totally. And that's where I think it's kind of heading, which is why I believe that they have no choice but to to deal bow because I also think that you can deal him and really, I think you can still improve this line up for 2025 if you deal him in the office. Yeah, I kind of, I mean, look, if they can get anything close to his value, I'm not remotely opposed to the idea of trading it. It's just, I mean, what's the line? Like, it's the, the fridge line of like when people, when you're drowning, people typically don't throw you a life preserver, you're an anchor, right? And that's exactly the position the blue jays are going to be in. You mentioned next year, you see the start from Kevin Gossman last night. That's where a lot of people's mind goes. I'm going to ask the exact same question to ask when Chris Bassett had a slightly worse start earlier on in this series and only slightly. Yeah, honestly, like it's a hey, no shots. It's like you were just worse than eight innings pitch, three hits, two where and runs while striking out to sorry, you're just worse than that doing that over seven innings as opposed to eight basically. The thing I look at is if the jays, and again, like who knows what they could have got for them, it is not an impossibility that they could trade Bassett or Gossman in the off season. But you better be good next year, having hung on to those guys at the deadline and what you were able to get for, you say, Kakuchi. And again, like I am not blind to the reality that strange things happen in all sports, really strange things happen in baseball, where teams are better and they outperform projections and you don't want to throw in the towel on next season before this season has even ended. But I look back at this and say with the idea of holding on to Gossman holding on to Bassett and the performances those guys have had against non slouch lineups since the deadline, it is really just going to be, I think something we look back at in, you know, May of next year, if it's not a good start to the season, then we go, Oh, what could you have got for those guys last year or the or in the off season? I don't disagree with that. My only thing is, is that, I mean, Bassett still has one year left, Gossman will have two years left or a year and a half or whatever. So I think that there is still some value, which is why I'm okay with them not doing it. I bet you that they probably listened, but maybe they felt like, okay, if we're like, I didn't think you say Kakuchi was coming back. And I don't think that the J's were going to be willing to pay him probably what he was looking for or what he would get on the open market. So I'm fine with moving him. I'm also fine with the idea of holding on to Bassett because again, if you want to be competitive, you got it, you're going to need guys that good or bad are going to eat innings for you, especially because your bullpen is just, what is this bullpen right now? And what's it going to be next year? We have no idea. So I'm okay with it, but I also believe that these guys are going to have value next year as well. And teams will overpay for a guy like Kevin Gossman, especially with terms to left on that deal. And they may overpay for a guy like Chris Bassett, especially because there's just more teams involved around the trade deadline now because there's so many teams in it, you know, so there's that aspect. But I'm also of the opinion that for next year, I think there's some value in having those guys around because I don't know what the other two spots in the rotation are going to look like. Are they going to be two younger guys? Like is Bloss going to be one of them? Is Tiedemann going to be one of them? Is it someone else that we haven't thought about? Like, where does that all work in? And having some veteran presence in that rotation is, I believe has some importance, at least for the beginning of the year, see where you are. And then you kind of go from there. No, totally. You're not wrong on that. It is the ultimate. Like, I am not, I am not sitting here saying it was a colossal mistake that they held on to Chris Bassett and Kevin Gossman. I'm just saying it will be if they don't win next year, which is, you know, goes for a lot of things. There's going to be a lot of colossal mistakes between now and then, if this team isn't still winning games next year, I just think that's something we're going to kind of kind of ask. I don't want to turn this into like Orioles talk, but my God, you know, you get, and I know the bats woke up against a putrid Blue Jays pen at the end there. That was, but I see, by the way, like Zach Pop doing me dirty. You know, I tried to be a good patriot and have listed it was my X factor of the year at the beginning of the season. Yeah, X as in X him off the bullpen card. Do not want to see him again. But this is not a good time for them to be hitting the way they've hit. Quite frankly, again, like he get quieted down by two good starters. That's what you're going to face in the playoffs. It is the Blue Jays. It could actually be a perfect reminder for this of the Orioles. If you want to talk about another team in the city, go ask the Leafs. Nothing's ever promised, man. We've been sitting here talking about the O's like they're the juggernaut of all juggernauts, just ready to break through. They got their big rich owner finally took over this year. And it's just, I don't know how you can leave a series where you lose it to the Blue Jays of all teams and you get quieted by two pitchers that quite frankly, you probably could have gone out and gotten the deadline, ambassadors and it's just, it's a little concerning for them you'd have to think right now. It is. And this is what happens. Like, you talk about nothing being promised. Like, you can lose all those years and have zero to show for like, yeah, you could have guys like Jackson Holliday before McDavid showed up. Yeah, exactly. And I still haven't won anything. You can have guys like Jackson Holliday, which is great because he's just such a wonderful player. And if you're if you're in the poochase organization, like, yeah, I'd love a guy like that there. But it just goes, trying to trade the chat forum for like the first three months of the season. That didn't work. Yeah, I could see why both of you may not want to do it. This is like me being like, you think Detroit will give us Mosider in a knee-lander trade last year before the season? So yeah, similar ask. I actually think that, right? Anyway, we don't need to do that, but I'm sorry. I don't think it's actually that far off. But no, I I think if you're Baltimore, there's something to be said about, yeah, okay, they they got in last year and and it's not and it was a nice story. Now the pressure's ramped up. It's a different man. It's an entirely different conversation now. Like it was it was like, yeah, they got in. It's great experience. It's all that. But after you know what the one thing about having experiences, you understand what pressure looks like. Because when you're just young and young and dumb. Yeah. And you're just like, yeah, I'm old and dumb now. But yeah, I feel the same way. But when you have that inexperience and you just kind of show up and it's like, oh, we're here. This is awesome. When you have that experience, now you're like, I remember what this is like. And for some people, we know this in the city, that can be almost I don't want to say detrimental, but for some people, it can be crippling. Yeah, man. And again, like I don't, this is a bigger picture issue. And I don't think Mitch Marner, like the clamming up is always the most true thing. But you go back to that first playoff run and this guy's blocking shots with his face at the end of a Bruins game. And it's just, you just play loose. You play free. You're not overthinking things. You're not, you're just going out there and letting your kind of natural ability take hold there. And that that's exactly what you've kind of seen for all of these young teams. Again, like pick the young up and coming team in any place. Look at the Texans last year. They just had no idea they were even supposed to be here. And they were able to kind of use that going going forward. It is, it's a healthy reminder. Also, I thought about this the other day, now I'm not going to put last night's bullpen struggles on Mark Shapiro. But I don't know, like, you know, we're both parents here. I don't know if I've heard this. It's like, you know, should let your kids like hear you saying nice things about them even if it's not to them. Then they'll take in like, Oh, I am smart. I am brave or whatever. You can't be talking about your bullpen in public like that. Look, what happened? You threw him under the bus. You said, this is the reason the season's gone that way. There were many reasons and they performed that way last night. It's just, uh, there are a lot of problems with the 2024 Blue Jays. And yeah, I guess your pyros, right? But God, they didn't have to prove them right so quickly. No, they sure did. And that's why this whole notion of like, yeah, we want to be competitive next year and all that like, I, I understand the notion and we kind of talked about this with shy yesterday, but does it not feel like there's just too many holes to fill? Like, I think shy, I think shy said he feels they probably need like seven or eight bullpen guys. Yeah, that's a lot to try it. Like, okay, maybe you have a pen. That's all. Yeah. Yeah, just the entire bullpen. And that's fine in theory. And maybe you have, because you don't have to do it all in free agency. You don't have to do it all in trades. Maybe you have some guys internally that may take a stop for a guy that's going to be good for some team. Maybe not. Yeah. So that part is like, okay, but then you look at some of the other parts, it's like, okay, who are the other two starters in this rotation for you? Yeah. How do you fill out your lineup? Like, who's your starting second? Who's your, you don't even know if you have a starting shortstop? Yeah. At this point, like there, to me, there's just so many questions that I look at and say, outside of spending a boatload and free agency, which I don't think it's going to, again, like I said, the payroll parameters, right? It's going to be guys that are not in the upper echelon, but in that lower tier. And as you said yesterday, that's a dangerous ballpark to play in. But this bullpen is just, it's a disaster right now. And it's not always the fault of the players, because some guys are just frankly, they shouldn't be there. Yeah. And that's where, and that's where this kind of lies. But boy, oh boy, that needs a lot of work. And I just, I don't know that you can get that done in one off season. Eight guys, like that is not insignificant. No, it's not. But I also, the bullpen quite frankly, at least to my concerns, it's the building out of the lineup, the starting staff is a fair question to have. I mean, should I mention Bowden Francis yesterday? And I was somebody again, like, hand up, I was wrong. I said, I kind of like it. I'm okay with Bowden Francis, fifth starter. Seen it. Yeah. I'm good. You don't want to see it anymore. You don't want to like him as an work guy, or maybe a long man, or something along those lines, but not somebody who is penciled in at the very least, to be a starter next year. Like there have been strides, your Rodriguez have been a nice find for them. But I also think we're aware of what the ceiling is there. Like he doesn't have to put a ceiling on himself. He should go out one day, want to be the Blue Jays ace. That's not going to happen unless the team is brutal. Quite frankly. Now he could be one of those guys because I know that he's had, you know, a long time in the bullpen. That maybe that's a guy, one of those high lover drums out of the bullpen because he's done it before. No, you definitely can have him. And I think it's funny. He, he is actually the perfect guy to point to for the Blue Jays problems. I think a lot of orgs that have a more, and not that starting depth has been the Blue Jays biggest problem this year, but it has, you know, it's gotten chipped away at here. But I think in a lot of orgs that your Rodriguez is exactly that. He is your two inning leverage ish guy, you know, you're not going to be a closer if you need if your clothes are down. A few guys go down, but it's also like it's the old Andrew Miller role there of like, okay, when is a important spot that's not the eighth or ninth inning of a game? He's going to come in there, but the Jays just quite frankly can't afford to use him that way. They've also given him the term. So you want to make sure they try to get the most they can out of them. And as good as a bullpen arm is as important as it is. Ain't anything close to even a guy who could be your three or fourth best starting pitcher. And the Andrew Miller role is great when you're a good team. Because if you don't, if you don't have, you're not a playoff team, there's no use. Yeah, if you'll notice Andrew Miller made a career of getting traded, he'd be on a good team. And then they would slowly get bad. And then he would get traded to a good team because that's the way it has to go. And it worked out well for him. Yeah, it certainly did. Olympic Games continuing. We'll get into a little bit more of that on the on the other side of things, including God, I can't believe I'm about to say this. A courageous bronze medal from from Noah Lyles. That was something on the track last night. Also, fun summer kicker topic. You get any event in the history of sports. Now can involve your team. So no, I would change. I know I know wide right doesn't count. Wide right. I'm going to change all of them to go wide right. I want that's my preview of this. But if you could change any outcome of any sporting event, what would you change and why we'll get into that in the other side? Fair morning show. Continue sports. Now five night at 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. Okay. Good morning. I gotta be honest. The things I agree with Kanye on, they've taken a strong dip from early on in his career to where we're at now. But on that, I can 1000% say I agree. Good morning. Kanye. Good morning. Toronto. Good morning. Everyone getting this later on a podcast. Just want to touch all my bases here. Fan morning. Like Vlad. He did last night. There you go. Well, I mean, he did technically touch first. He just didn't stick there for too long. Stay there. Yeah. God, that's got to just quickly on that. Like you finish a Homer or especially for somebody like Vlad, a triple shot and you go. Okay. I mean, wasn't that is what it is? What do you want from me, folks, especially when he was felt like he's maybe going to get the extra bat there for a second. The way things were going. Ultimately, I'm sure he's happy with the dub and the going going three for four at the dish on his night just continuing to rack up the tremendous streak he's been on during this hit streak as well. The biggest of which was the Homer, but Olympic games also continuing. Canada going to go for shock or another rowing medal. I believe it's kayaking. We got it. We got on the go. That'll be off at 640 this morning. So should we win a medal? I'll update you on that later on in the hour. But once again, track taken center stage last night, we had the men's 200 meter final. Noah Liles. This was his second of the triple gold he was going to go for. And we don't need to like get to into what him not winning the 200 means, but running the 200 meter with COVID and then basically like being wheeled off the track afterwards. And he is now out of the four by 100 meter relay. I hate like walking upstairs when I have a bad case of COVID. I could not imagine anything quite frankly, sucking less or more than running a not 100 meter, but a 200 meter sprint with COVID sounds awful. And doing it well enough to win a bronze medal for shame on the rest of competitors also. Yeah, I'm of the opinion that I don't like to running 200 meters at all or walking 200 meters. I'm very anaerobic in my exercise abilities. But no, it is impressive. And it just goes to show like adrenaline in the big moment. It just it really does take over. And you can, you know, for these athletes, you can do kind of superhuman things. It's not it's not quite the Paul Pierce leg cramp in a wheelchair thing, but it just happens. Like how many athletes have we seen that I've had broken bones or broken legs, hockey players with broken feet, ankles on. And they just, you know, it's tape it up. Yeah, you just can. That's why I think we need to have an appreciation for just elite athletes in general, because what they are able to do and how how much they separate themselves from the average human being. I just don't think that people understand sometimes because again, we just get caught up in fandom and we sit on our couches and watch TV and whatever. And we're like, Oh, yeah, that guy's good. But it's always the same thing that I talk about with hockey players, because that's yep, that's the world in which I grew up in. And I always tell the story and you'll appreciate this. I was playing in a they call it a pro tournament. Yeah, and it was in Brampton at the Powerade Center. And we show up and we're a bunch of junior guys that are playing new home at the steelheads new home of the steelheads. Yeah, don't tell Josh Santos that I heard he got really upset about that. But what ended up about the sports opinion, I got to stay up shocked. But what ended up happening was we played a team that was some OHL guys, some AHL guys. And one of the defensemen on the other team was Mark Geradano, who was just playing in the AHL at the time. I love hockey so much. He did. He did. Still does. And he was just playing in the AHL at the time. And I remember for checking on him. And he's just kind of backpedaling into his own zone hash marks, drops a saucer pass that probably got to about, I don't know, six or seven feet high from his own hash marks to the far blue line, dropped it on the guy stick cutting across the guys guy goes in scores. And I just looked at it and went like, this is exactly the moment where you're like, that guy's incredible. And he still hadn't made it yet. So that's when we talk about these athletes, the elite of the elite at the Olympics, like, yeah, even the fifth place finishers kicking everybody's ass out there. And people are like, I'm like a finished fifth. And that was a very impressive shut up. Well, the thing I mean, that's why it is so, I mean, quite frankly, like incredible that Lyles was able to get a bronze. I mean, we got out of bed. We look at the world where these guys are separated by fractions of a second, you know, third decimal paces or places on a on a stopwatch, that kind of thing. It is remarkable that he was able, he was able to do it. And I just think it's one of those achievements that is going to be, I mean, no, Lyles will never forget about it. But it's just going to be completely lost in the sands of time. He goes in the bucket of, okay, he he won the hundred. Good for him. We'll remember it. He'll look to do it again. And in four years time, and, you know, I'm sure him carrying the mantle of fastest man still matters a lot to him, but not being able to run the four by 100 now, not picking up gold in the 200. It's just it go. There's, you know, again, this brings me back to my point out, and I arrive at at the summer games of like, yeah, the swimmers, they just get too many chances. Guys, not a swimmer. He doesn't have 15 races to go run. It doesn't get to go to the 800 now in this and that. This was it. It was the 200. And then he had a relay after this. And now he's done. And it was a guy who did feel like he was kind of shaping up to maybe not completely own the games, but own the second week of them. And now that's just kind of gone. Like, again, like an awesome story. I just wanted to highlight it, highlight it there. And then again, like, I'm super jacked up for the four by 100 meter. It's going to be especially now. Well, it's going to be the weirdest feeling whenever the Jamaicans aren't there. And the fastest man in the world will not be on the American relay team. How often does that happen? I'm going to go out on a limb and say never. I'm going to say that that has probably never happened where both of those things have lined up. But I also would imagine the fastest man in the world being on the Jamaican for about 100 reader generally speaking. Generally speaking. So this wasn't what got me thinking about this yesterday. But you pitched the topic to me earlier in the week of like events you could change. I think a lot of people had saw one slip out of their hands yesterday when Serbia was beaten up on America. That's the one we're changing already. Well, no, I think a lot of people are going, no, give me that. I want to see a world where America gets beat and it's yoked shit. All the horse farmers he's with out there is just him and a bunch of Jack Wine specialists. They're at the in timeouts. They're not talking about plays. They're just talking about, you know, feed and like, Oh, you put your yours is like a carriage horse. Oh, mine's a big thoroughbred. I got the jockey on there. I imagine that's what they're all doing. That's probably super off base. And I don't think anybody likes horses as much as he does. Borderline in the world. It's a miracle. He hasn't got lost in the dressage events. And he's actually playing basketball. But shoot, I got a game. I got to get through it. But I actually do think that there are a lot of people watching that yesterday. I mean, I was fielding texts of, Oh, this is great to see. And ultimately, it ends. I mean, it was closed was a nail better. Good on the stage for coming back. Ultimately, it ends like we expected. But if we're going to talk about supporting events, the people wish they could change. I think if we're going to do super recency bias, a lot of people would have changed that one. Oh, yeah. And that came yesterday. I mean, I can't it just goes to show you that when the US because of the depth that they have, because of the superstar talent, like, even if they had a team that of all the guys that are on this roster now, they weren't allowed to play and you could feel another team, it'd still be pretty darn good. Yeah, probably the favorite still probably. And so the fact that credit to Serbia for jumping out to that massive lead at halftime and you're like, Oh boy, is this is this the end of it? And then, you know, the game happens and you're like, of course, when B versus the United States in the gold medal final, exactly how everyone would have loved to have written it. And now it's happening. But it just goes to show you that this US team, because of the talent they have, they can just literally go and they flip that switch on and it's lights out. Yeah, and it's also kind of funny the way these things work out. Like, you know, all these guys will say the right thing and always just want to win gold and we're here to, you know, be a part of the team, whatever that is. Steph Curry hadn't really like had a moment yet. Yeah, he had it in his first Olympic games. Kind of crazy that it's probably one and done for for him unless he wants to be some like, you know, shooter slash mascot on the next team, which I'm not entirely ruling out. But yeah, he hadn't had his moment. He certainly got it yesterday. So we teased it enough. Again, you, you, you kicked off, you pitched the topic. So I'll let you start us off. Just pick an event in sports history that does not, that does not involve your favorite team. And what would you change it to? Give me yours, Mama case. This was really difficult because I have so many bad memories of my teams. And it was like, I really got to go through this. You know, you can go through Super Bowls and you can go through Stanley Cubs. I actually went to, and this is kind of off the board a little bit. It's hockey, but it's off the board. I went with the 2016 World Cup of hockey. Okay. September 19th. Okay. Russia defeats team North America in regulation. Okay. This is the key here. Yes. I would like to change it to team North America gets an overtime loss, which still puts them in second place behind Sweden to face off against Canada in the semi-final. So I was at the, I went to a ton of those World Cup hockey games. It was, this is both super telling of how much I enjoyed it and super telling of how little the rest of you did. I was working a shift where I was basically done here at 12, one o'clock every day. And I would just go on StubHub and grab the best seats I could find for 25 bucks. And guess what? They were all lower bowl because it was great. I was at that Sweden North America game where team North America thought they had done enough to advance. But because it was an overtime, they were already kind of cooked there. I mean, watching some of those games in that tournament, I remember watching them play Sweden and McDavid went in on a breakaway 14 seconds in and within two and a half minutes into the game, Austin Matthews had dangled Victor Hedman from his knees. Riley had then got the plaque. Matthew scores off the Riley rebound and they're chanting Matthew's name. And I'm going, Oh my God, the Leafs are going to win. And he hadn't put he hadn't even played a game yet, right? To be a lift. This was his draft year. Marner also eligible for that team wasn't on it because he wasn't, he hadn't played a game in the NHL yet. It was just remarkable seeing that. And that North America team was it is. I'm again, I think I'm the only one who loves that tournament because I went to so many of the games. But if we would have got a North America against team Canada and what that would have done to the stakes of that tournament and just getting to see that game with stakes, Oh, it would have been, it would have been electric. I love, love, love that one that you put in there. So that team, we will look back on that team and say that's one of the coolest teams ever assembled because at the time we did not necessarily believe that we're like, Oh, it's gimmicky, like team Europe, whatever. Here's the list of the P and the even the coaching staff. So Todd McClellan, head coach, the assistants were John Cooper, Pete DeBore, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft, the goalies, John Gibson, Connor Hallibuck, Matt Murray, the defense. Okay, no, no, no, sit there for a second. People need a reminder of how young Matt Murray is. Matt Murray was on the young guns team at the 2016, which I know was a thousand years ago now, under 20, again, aged Matt Murray, who looked like they took him out of a prison cell before the opening face off last year. And they're like, look how injured he is. Don't anyone question the cell T.I.R. By the way, back with the Leafs, Matt Murray on the on the on the Martin Jones of 2024. I don't disagree. But just we cannot over what we're talking about this team. We cannot overstate that part of it enough that Matt Murray, Matt Murray was young enough to be on a young guns team with Austin Matthews. Just let that set home for you. I, you know what? It's funny that you say that because I wasn't even thinking about that. That's like, yeah, that's pretty wild. Their defenseman where Shane Gosses-Bear, Seth Jones, Ryan Murray, Colton Pareko, Morgan Riley, and Jacob Truber. Morgan Riley also feels so old to be on that team. Here's the forward group. This is where this is where it's fantastic. And again, just remember, I'll tell you can pick who you'd kick off. And I know we're all still kind of kind of pouty about him here. But Mitch Martyr was left off this team. Yeah, Sean Caturier, Jonathan Drewah, Jack Eichl, Johnny Goodrow, Dylan Larkin, Nathan McKinnon, Austin Matthews, Connor McDavid, JT Miller, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Brandon Saad, Mark Schifley and Vincent Trocek, who replaced Sean Monahan, who was originally on the team. And he couldn't play because he was hurt. So Trocek went in there. That's up. Put that team together now in an international event. It was funny. It is funny how things kind of, how things kind of change. Because I remember looking at that list two or three years after the tournament, and I felt a way about it. But I mean, think about how you feel about JT Miller now, compared to how you feel about him. I mean, forget five years ago, like 18 months ago, how you feel about having that player in the fold there. It is, it's remarkable. The defensive group is not very good. No, Ryan Murray battled it. Ryan Murray is supposed to be a stud. And so with Seth Jones, Seth Jones has certainly looked that way. But Ryan Murray was supposed to be, you know, the next best thing. And it just didn't pan out like that forward group. Yeah. I mean, I mean, again, not that you'd not that you're like itching for a forward there. They also could have had, I know, not really, but play along with me Calgary's own William Neemander. Yeah, that's true. Would have been part of that. It would have been out of the age to have been on that tear. Their fourth line center is Dylan Larkin. Not exactly a guy I personally put in the checking role for this team. But yeah, pretty good. Pretty good fourth line center. Pretty good. Okay. I am of the belief that misery needs company. And that will lead you to my next event. I would like to change. I would like you take you back. Actually, I believe also to 2016 to the greatest baseball game ever played where my boy, Matt Viscurgen, hit us with the Santa Maria. On several home runs in that game, I cannot live in a world. And I know people would be like, oh, but the Browns, but the lot, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Leafs now stand alone, the like North American sports misery pyramid. I need a little company back here. And I need it from a team that wears blue and white as well. Have the Cleveland Guardians or I guess whatever they would have been called at the time. I'm not going to say it, but you know what they were. Maybe they wouldn't have changed the name. I don't know. Maybe I'm all of a sudden, not like in this history anymore. But give me the Cleveland Guardians beating that, beating that Cubs team. Jason Hayward speech. It didn't matter. We all talk about him as he tried to make it about him, given a great speech and it distracted the boys in the rain delay. I need a team atop the sports misery pyramid with me and my Leafs. So have the Cubs lose that game and have them still be the lovable losers. Wow. That is, there were so many nice things that happened. And I love that game. And I agree. But could you imagine just everything that we got from that just disappearing from history? And it's the Cleveland's that end up winning. They still they still hate Steve Bartman. I mean, maybe they'd still do in Chicago, but probably still do really still hate Steve Bartman. Yeah. No, that's a really like that just changes the entire course of history, too. C.O. Epstein, who is he? Yeah, whatever, ended one drought. So what? Yeah, didn't end another one, right? Like that. It's not like, it does feel like, I don't know if you're a back to the future guy, but I'm not, but I'll go back to the future too. Gray sports, Almanac and everything that happened. Like, you know, you step, you step on an ant in, you know, 2021 and changes and whatever. But anyway, but yeah, that, that cub story, I mean, you see what happened with all those years of history and them winning. And it just kind of doesn't it give you, get you in the fields of like what it would be like in this city of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, but I want, but if I'm going to live it, like, okay, everyone always talks about waking up from a nightmare. And you're like, oh, at least when you like get yourself together, the world's still good. Yeah, I have had the like, oh, what would it be like if the Leafs won dream? Yeah. Yeah. And then I wake up and I have to just like, come back to the drudgery that is like, maybe this year, it'll be different. So that's the only thing is like, I saw into the window of what it would look like. It's like, I saw it with the socks that I saw with the cubs. No, too many people have seen it and I still haven't gone to. So I'm going to go there. I have another one. Do you want to? No, go ahead. Go ahead. Okay, this other one. This is, I think this is going to surprise. Well, if you truly know me, this shouldn't surprise you. That's going to be a golf thing. No, it's not. Wow. It's going to be a hockey thing. We're going to take you back to 1993. And the Los Angeles Kings are going to beat the Montreal Canadians in the 93 Cup final. So even bigger lag to stand on of Gary Bettman hating Canada. And then we won't we won't be talking about a 30 year cup drought. It only be a little longer. Like, you know, the Oilers won in 90, but just give me that remove the kind of one off. Because it was Montreal. No, that's the other part. I get to take that away. Maybe that's like too close to the rules. It's like, yeah, you told me I couldn't do anything with my own team, but I'm allowed to know that's fair happiness from Montreal. So I and the ultimate happiness I'd want to remove from them is the bubble series against the Leafs, but that involves them. So I'm not allowed to. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Just remove the Montreal Canadians from that. And then the other ones feel different. Like then we're into Oilers dynasty. And it's like, well, that was a dynasty. You can't really talk about that. Like a Canadian team winning the cup. Wayne won the cup. And then he went and won one one with the games. You'd get to say that as well. So yeah, I think that's the other one I would I would definitely change. That one also changes the trajectory of hockey in California as well. Because the first Stanley Cup that we saw one in in California was would be the ducks. Yeah, Berkey's ducks. Yeah. And so we're talking about what? Over 20 years. Yeah. Oh, seven. So that to me is like that. That's not. Oh, sorry. It was not quite 20 years. It was whatever it was, 14 years. Yeah. But point being is that that changes entirely, not and not even from an NHL perspective. But I think it changes completely the dynamic of grassroots hockey in California was already starting them. But a cup win, I believe changes everything. So I think that's also because it would make Habs fans shut up for a little bit. Here's another crazy one. Like probably no. Does it change the way things pan out with Patrick Juan Montreal? Like if they don't win, does he feel like he has the clout? Well, he may go like you understand what I mean? Yeah. But he but but he also may think he still has the clout and end up elsewhere because he would have won a cup in 86. Yeah, that's true. So he may have left earlier. Yeah. Like there's that as well. I before before we go. I sure because you're talking about the Stanley Cup. Yeah. And we're talking about the Cubs and stuff. I had this this thought while you were saying it. Have you ever thought of where you would want to be and who you would want to be with if the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup? Like this is getting really deep. Yeah. I would love. It's funny. Like you asked me this question every three years and the answer has changed a lot. You asked me like before I have a kid. Yeah. It's a thousand percent like I want to. I don't know that I want to be like out at a bar, but I want to be like with people. If I now this is also if I know they're going to win. Like if they have a three one lead in the series or something, I'm happy to do that. And then oh, Jeff gave me the look like I should never have said three one. That's right. Two one lead in the series. I'm like happy to watch those games with people. But a game seven, I'm just like, I'm not wired that way. If it was a it was an oiler situation where they found themselves in game seven. It's like I'm locking myself in the basement and like, all right, son, you can come here and watch this pain with me, but no one else is allowed to see this. So that's the thing is my real answer is by myself, I am not a big games with big people kind of person. But in in a perfect world where I knew they were going to win or could ever be confident about that. Yeah, I think I'd love to be at like a buddy's house with like, you know, couple generations of leaf fans poking around. Maybe someone's dad who's not me is there kind of thing that that's where I'd be at. What about you? Oh, be with my dad. Yeah. Just because we've, you know, with that miseryless company and we've done it enough and we cheer for the same teams, right? So we've we've had plenty of that like when the Raptors won, I was here. I was, I was actually doing the post game. Nice. And I called, I called, yeah, I called my dad after and it was like, I was, I was overcome with joy, but not, it's not the same. Like, it would be the same thing if the bills were in the Super Bowl. Like, I try and watch every Bill's playoff game with my dad because it's also one day and not seven. It's a lot, it's a lot more difficult when, you know, you have kids and whatever, but for one game like that, yeah, it would be my dad and, and my, and my kid while there's another one on the way, but it would be dad and kids also because it'd be like, I want to tell my kids, like, it doesn't always have to be the way it used to be. Yeah, but you're still going to cheer for this team. Whether they wouldn't. Totally. Yeah, it's funny. Raps is different, right? Like Raps, I was content to go out. I, I, well, I joke about it, but it's not a joke. It's true. It's like the lucky bar that I watch that raps game with is for me still on ice. I've not been back. I mean, part of it's that I move and it's no longer like a 15 minute walk for my apartment. That's a big part of the reason, but it's like that game. I watched it there. I was out with a bud. We were like partying with strangers in the streets, shut up rich. It was awesome. Like getting to watch that, but we're, I'm just going to be honest. It's like the level of happiness was as high as I could possibly feel happiness, but the level of anticipation or import heading into it. It's just impossible for me to quantify what that felt like versus what it would feel like if I ever ever got it with the, with the Leafs. I think that's where I ultimately kind of, kind of fall at. And yeah, the kid part of it, it's funny you mentioned like the traditions of the things you think about, you'll do like the, I forget which, and no free ads, but some liquor company did a series of special like whiskeys with the NHLPA alumni. And I have a Wendell Clark one, and that is on ice. Well, it's not on ice. It's in the cupboard somewhere, but it will not be touched or opened until the Leafs win the cup one day. And it's like, I'm sure my son will enjoy that without me in a 900 years from now. Because that'd be aged finally by that point. Boy, boy, boy will it. Man, fun topic there. We may get more into things as we, as we proceed on the show here. But coming up in the next hour, going to dive back into what we got going on at the Olympics, Blue Jays back at it as well. But my boy Anthony Petrielli also going to join us in the next hour of the show. Gotta talk to him about his latest leafs notebook. And is, is Yani Hawke and Pa actually a leaf? Or does more, maybe more importantly, does anyone know what's going on with that? Well, I'll ask Anthony as the next hour continues here. A fan morning show, sports snap five nine of the
