It's going to be a good one. Bad morning shows, 4-7-5 down at Van Anand, a sprint gunning, weird. Blue Jays have a five game winning streak, Boboshette shows up, and they're on a one game losing streak. They lose lost in Red Sox yesterday. Boboshette was taking ground balls at Fenway Park yesterday, and shortly will go out on rehab assignment and then return to the Blue Jays. And at his best, Boboshette is one of the best hitters in the American League. In fact, twice in his career, he led the American League in hits. I've interviewed Boboshette, and I've heard him interviewed, but I don't know a thing about Boboshette. I can just tell you the way he makes me feel. It's bad vibes. I don't get the good vibes from Boboshette, and obviously when you're winning all the vibes are good, right? I can just talk about this, and I can't even quantify what that means. I'm sorry. I think part of it means though, he just looks like he doesn't want to be here. Very dour. Yeah, that's it. It doesn't... You don't have to look like not everybody's Vlad, right? And pretty clearly he's not. He hated the jacket and Super Pro, and just like that's not how he goes about his business. He's just a pro, man. He just does his thing, and he hits baseballs, except for this year where he didn't. Who knows if he had been healthy, whether things had been different. I don't know. It just... Am I wrong? Do you get the same sense from Boboshette that he just... The vibe is off with him, and maybe it's only come to light this year, but I am kind of revisiting his entire career as a Blue Jay, and how he was the leader of anti-jacket, and he was the leader of Get Charlie Montoya, the hell out of here, that he's like... I don't know about the vibes around Boboshette. Just for the record. I feel very differently about him trying to get those two things the hell up out of here. Yeah. Just for the record. I feel like he is a bang-on home one, just so we're clear. That was Chuck, just in case anyone couldn't read between the lines there. As you asked me this question, there's one line that kept coming to my mind, and it'll shock you. I'm going to go to the world of hockey. And for the second day in a row, I'm going to talk about Brian Burke on this show. Get a line about Ryan Kessler. Some people are just grumps. Coffee's never any good, never got a good night's sleep, driving to the arena was never any good, never had a good day, movie saw last night sucks, no good shows on TV, dinner. Just some people are grumps. And it's a weird thing to say, and I'm sure a lot of people say, "Get that the hell away from me. I don't want anyone near me and my life like that." But when it's not a team of five people, but it's a team of 25, 26, 27, you need different personalities. You need grumps. You need our guys. So I don't disagree with what you're saying, except for the part where I go, "I don't like this." I think I have long felt in a perfect world, the Blue Jays are led by twin pillars of darkness and light. And it's like Vadimbo, and like one guy's super, super happy all the time, one guy's super, super sour all the time. It's like, one guy's thrilled they're one. One guy's sad they allowed two runs and the 11-2 win. And I think that you really do need both, and you don't want a team made up of just that. And you would not want a team where the only leadership available to you was, "Nope, not good enough. Do better." You can't have that in baseball, but I really think you do need some of it. So like, I don't disagree with every way you lay it out. I just look at it as a necessary evil, if you will. Yeah. And that 2015 Blue Jays seems had a bunch of grumps, but they were really good at it. It was a veteran team, and they just hit home runs. So who cared? Hard to be grumpy when you're doing that. And the vibes were immaculate. So good. Even when Josh Hamilton was saying, you know, just swear words to the opposite dugout, that was awesome. It's not the tri-leagues. Get it done, League. But this is a team with a bunch of young players, and it's not about wins and losses and feels like if you get a, and to your point, like you want guys like this, but feels like if Boboshette were playing on the team where like the end result wasn't that important, that wouldn't appeal to him, right? Like that? Am I wrong? And that's a good, you're right. Like that's not the worst thing, but I wonder if it's not the best thing for this group for the final month of the season. And right, they're going to, they're going to be a different deal in 2025 back to trying to compete. So you need the super serious Grumpo, Matic 5000 in there, but like maybe for the last month of this season, like, yeah, how did the vibe like, no, the vibes maybe aren't great for the kids that are just getting their majorly careers underway. You got low Perfido and Barger, they're doing like the cool like high fives and whatever. And then it was like, uh, guys, none of that act like you've been here before. We haven't. We just got here. Why should we act like we've been here? Tough. You're, you're right to point out that there is such an enthusiasm and not to say that the J's are walking around thrilled if they're losing games, but there is an understanding of what's at stake. There's an understanding of what you need to accomplish in this last month and change. And yeah, you know, ultimately, if everybody on the team does what they want to do, then you're going to win a ton of games. But I also think there's an understanding of, okay, building towards next year and Bixette maybe looks at it in a different way. But again, I just think that that is something that is not the worst thing in the world for the kids to be around. Yeah. Now, would it be weird if it was like, I don't know, let's say Joey Vado was just on this team and, you know, he's not exactly been Mr. Sirius throughout his, his, his career. But if he was doing that, I think it's one thing. I also think it's very good, quite frankly, that it comes from a guy in Bixette's kind of age range. It's one thing when it's a 35 year old guy and he's got, you know, three kids and, you know, more. Well, I don't know about the mortgage payments made really baseball, but like he's got three kids and he's got bills and it's like, it's one thing to hear it from that guy. One other thing to hear it from a guy who three years ago was, was kind of in your shoes, but you're, you're right to point out the, again, it's like the word I keep coming back to is just Dower. Like he's just a little, he's a grump. Yeah. And, and there was a time where like bringing the grumps, right? Grumps, more grumps. Yeah. Too many fun loving guys in 21 and 22, 26 men and no smiles, 26 men, 26 cabs, zero smiles among them. Yeah. So I'm, I'm cognizant of that. I understand the pendulum swinging one way to the other, but yeah, it had me thinking of the other guys, well, hold on. What other thing I think about this is like, I pictured that this is like a party and everybody's just like having like just a grand time just yucking it up in there and it does kind of feel like the shots walking in the room and just like cracking a beer bottle on the bar. He's not doing anything, but it's like, if he needs to, he's ready, 100% you're right. Like that is very much like the old left saloon, everyone's yucking it up. Boom, twin doors, swing open and it's like nothing's happened yet, but you better be on your toes. Well, so to that point, his brother in arms and like bad vibes or different vibes, maybe different vibes. Okay. So it's not viewed as a pejorative as much. Okay. Okay. Your topic. You set it up. Different vibes, his brother in arms and vibes, like the other guy that I think of that is of this ilk and again, it works if you're performing, but if you're not so much and if so much of your value is based on defense, but no offense or you're under performing offense. Like Matt Chapman felt like that like super serious. Yes. And that was he arrived in Toronto with that reputation, right as a guy that's a tireless worker. Yes. You're going to get nothing but professionalism out of, which is great. If you're winning and good, but if you're, you know, have one great month and then five other horrible ones and your team can't score. And yeah, you do feel like a Boba Shett type in which you're just maybe even tamping down what I bet you, okay, if we were going to rank in that season where the home run jacket disappeared, the guys that most wanted it to disappear, Boba Shett, number one, I probably put Matt Chapman, number two, it feels like don't disagree with you at all. Yeah. One of those guys that had the same type of vibes. Yeah. No, very like almost like militaristic, right? Like he's got the high and tight haircut. There's no messing around. He's just all about his work and his business. And I think it's also not that these two things should be connected, but it's hard not to do like we, and we did it at the time a little bit of like the Donaldson thing, very serious third base by coming from Oakland, but very different flavors of serious, right? Like Donaldson was just hair on fire and everything with knots all the time and serious and, you know, like competitor and all that, but in a very, very different way than like Chapman knew it's like you feel like, I feel like again, I would have to address this, sir. Yeah, it's, I don't know. Maybe this isn't true and maybe somebody's going to show me a gift that is going to disprove this theory. It feels like Josh Donaldson was capable of celebrating where like Matt Chapman wasn't, right? Like you never saw a smile or any celebration after a home run from Matt Chapman where it's like Josh Donaldson could at least acknowledge something awesome happen. Matt Chapman leads the league in Guy who would look the funniest if somebody put the bubble gum bubble on his hat, right? Like that's kind of what you're getting out of here. A hundred percent God. Yeah. That's the metric here is like just how silly and not in a ha ha, but like her way with the guy look with it on. Oh man. And you know what? This, this is what we missed. Yes. We get back to my list of five, five guys. But what we've missed in, in this Blue Jays team underperforming is like the good teams that have like nothing to play for because they're so locked into a playoff spot. Yes. This is going so well. The bubble gum on the hat, the Teosker Hernandez seed throw or like a hot foot. If we still did that, I talk, I remember talking to Tim Leeper. I think this is about a year ago and like he hit the nail on the head. The problem with the hot foot is the joke isn't look how good I am is the problem. Like it's like that's generally speaking with the ha ha's in baseball is like, look, I'm great. I hit a home run. This is funny. It's not like at someone's expense, which like God bring that back. The hot foot was great. Verlander was. That's why I love him. He's such like an old head that he loved a good hot foot. Yeah. Bring it in. Light it in. Light it in. Light it in someone's foot on fire. Not. I mean like only if they're not paying attention. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm with you. Although, God, what would have been worse like jacket discourse or hot foot on a dreadful team? Oh, my God. Yeah. With the young players. Oh, my God. You feel empowered enough to do hot foot Addison, Addison Barger hits like John Schneider with with the hot foot. Yeah. And we could have a real, real core of about it. Um, this is like a deep cut for bad vibes, guys. But the real Blue Jays fans will know, yeah, Kelly Johnson was a bad vibes guy. This is great. Okay. Kelly Johnson acquired by the Blue Jays from the Arizona Diamondbacks just never looked like he wanted any part of it. And part of it was that he just, he didn't perform in his brief time and then was sent out of town. But Kelly Johnson, ultimate like bad vibes guy, of course, of course. This is a great one. That is a very deep cut, but it's also a great deep cut when you can immediately picture the guy. Like it's just like this. I didn't even have to close my eyes and just like, bam, he flashed before it's like, you stopped doing the show. I was doing it with Kelly Johnson for, for a second there. I love that. If I'm going to give one of my own, this feels like the free space on the bingo card, but the ship is sinking. Do it for yourself. Was written on the whiteboard in the Blue Jays club. Oh, yeah. Okay. So yeah, like Shea Hill, the bread. Yeah. I feel like you got it. Go to, and then it's like Ted Lilly, maybe the involved in that as well. I think like this. Yeah. This is the freest of free spaces on the bingo card. But if we're going to do it, the ship is sinking. Do it for yourself was written on the whiteboard in a clubhouse in the major leagues and the other guy punched his manager in the head. Yeah. So, but I don't know, like maybe if somebody had punched Montoya, like a boat shed, punched Montoya before he got fired, would you do that differently? I'm not saying he should have just to just, just to clarify, like, I have to say this, I guess. Okay, for physical violence, but please God, give me that story. No. Like what I would have given to have been doing this job when that happened. Yeah. God. Here's the thing. I don't think anybody is as great as John Gibbons is nobody felt bad for John Gibbons. Like John Gibbons can hold his own. Yeah. And I'm sure Charlie Montoya is, you know, not as much of a sweetheart as he appears, but like, I would have felt bad for Charlie Montoya was like, Oh, well, you can fire him ever. Give on his bongos. Yeah. Like, yeah, okay, you give him a promotion out of that job, so he doesn't have to do it anymore. Don't you know who Queen Victoria is? Yeah. I mean, you want to tell me, I got a cheat. I got a cheat from the end. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Actually got a couple of cheats. I feel like I go ahead, but I feel like I know who it is. Goron Dragus. Oh my God. Of course, right? Like, again, because he did play in a couple of games before mouth and off to Slovenian papers. God, they don't, Lord knows they don't have the internet in Canada. Yeah. He was like, he did play and yeah, he lost his starting spot and he was on the bench and then eventually he's like, Oh, he's away for a personal reason. The personal reasons. He did it. Yeah. He's like, get me the hell out of here. There's two, there's two more Raptor's free faces as well. What are they? Bull. Hito Turkelos. Yeah. Bull. He, the greatest, the greatest post gave interview in the history of Toronto sports. What's the difference is bull because you had it and you were making some plays. It's just incredible, well-being, like, you know, again, like we, maybe it's fair, maybe it's not fair to do this. It's like well-being guy whose, you know, fitness levels were questioned, was doing pizza advertisements where the joke was he's in bed, eating pizza and the coaches like come practice. That was the joke of the commercial. Yeah. That was bad. And then it's like, you know, who knows how true all this stuff is, but there was the stuff about like him being out in nightclub while missing games and God, it was just I don't know. If there's any proof of this or this is even true, but does feel like a guy that would hack some darts. Oh, yeah. No, but that would have added like that would have gotten back in my good books, right? He's like, oh man, got a smoking athlete in the 2000s, what I'd give for it. And then there is one more Raptors free space. It's not fair to him because he's like, he's a sweetheart is the exact opposite, but it's the barks. Like, it was just like, it was just bad from the jump. We're all like, what's going on? Premal. So it's like, it just all of it is just, it's just, I'm sorry, like, it's not. I mean, it is his fault, but it's also ours. And just everybody is bad vibes, bad vibes from him. Yeah. Bad vibes from my big stern to an outfit way back when many moons ago, maybe when you're seven feet tall, like get a rebound, but yeah, just God, like just do angel Reese, just like miss a bunch and grab it worst case scenario. I had the guy I thought you were going to say is obvious was Rudy Gay. Oh, yeah. Bad vibes. Well, especially because of the video before he was a raptor of the guy. No, not this guy. Which is like just a great Toronto sports team cut, if you're old enough, you know, and you know how I know he was bad vibes guy. Well, they tried away and immediately became good, but also he, man, I was like, Rudy Gay never played on a good team. It's like remarkable how few teams were even relevant that he's laid for. He's the fixer in that you get him the hell out of there and things get fixed. But only three times that his so four times his teams made the playoffs, but only three times that he play in the playoff series that they played in amazing. And they never won a round like he's never won a postseason round. It's remarkable. Yeah, like he ultimate the bad vibes travel everywhere for Rudy Gay, where he after hockey has only only one guy kind of came to mind for me. I had two that jumped out and it's like it's just so unfair to one of them and the other one is just like classic overpay, but it wasn't his fault. But it's Jason Blake, my commissaire, just like from the jump. And again, this is more just like didn't fit them bad vibes, but it's like Jason Blake killing us on the aisles, then coming here and killing us again a little bit. Yeah, it's just tough. That one, that one always always just never, never felt right to me. And I'll throw one in here for my like, for the guy who's sitting in this chair tomorrow, it's like Sam McKee would say Jason Spetsa, because he's a turn. Oh, well, he was immaculate by him. I know. I agree. Like my top leads like a top 10 favorite leaf for the last 10 years. Honestly, the only guy that appeared to care in the most season, him, him throwing three good punches against Boone Jenner and then Boone Jenner remembering, oh, I'm 25 years old. Strong is an off. Yeah. And that going exactly how you thought it'd go. Yeah. God, I love Spetsa. Of course. Yeah. My guy is kind of similar. It was Lee Stampniak. Oh, yeah. But like traded for a couple of guys and one in Alex Dean, who actually turned into something but Carla Colyak of all part of that. And like just never anything as a Toronto Maple Leaf and felt like, oh, yeah, it's just a matter of time before this guy is gone and eventually was gone. Yeah. Brutal. Yeah. Brutal, brutal. I think we did a good job with all the bad vibes guys. Awkward. Or we're back to bad. You saw something. Some of them were bad. Okay. You decide listener. How many literal cancer survivor in there. So just like careful with your wording. I was not going to mention that because I was going to let you have your Jason Blake. Hey, man. I said it. Yeah. So you, you listener, you can decide how many guys have weird vibes. How many guys have bad vibes? Yeah. God. I'll leave the weird vibes for Boba. We should. Oh, God. I'm so mad we did this this late in the summer because we really should have done like we should have the all time best vibes guy in place now, but that's too like that's too much fun. Yeah. First pick for me. Deanna Navarro in the cop hat. Oh my God. No, but like not Deanna Navarro. Yeah. Exclusively. We're in the cops hat. Just that. God, that's a good one. That's really good. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Mark DeRosa. Excellent vibes. Oh my God. Obviously. Just like that. It is cheap to do the Kawasaki. Yeah, I feel like there's a pretty divide. Like I feel like there's a clear and fast dividing line of people who like very much appreciated it and very much did not. But I think in that clubhouse, they all loved it. Of course. Deanna Rosa. Like those two were. I was hit. That's when Mark DeRosa was like, oh, I'm going to work for MLB network when this is all over. So like let me do some crowd work here as I'm still a player. I was at that game. The the Kawasaki walkoff or DRO like translating for it. Yeah, I was there. I was at that one. Oh my God. My lovely wife just happened to have by happenstance and it's like, you know, we have the we have good seats. We're straight. Like I watched my own eyes. They're like DRO translating interview. It was great. Yeah. The only good moment in a horrific 2013 Toronto Blue J.C. Anyways, all right, before we take a break, that's a tour championship. Yes. I mean, who's not geeked up for East like we got a Canadian in the mix. Taylor Penrith is there at the conclusion of the tour championship. We will have our FedEx Cup champion, which will settle once and for all who the player of the year is. Is it Zander Shoffley? Is it Scottie Scheffler who, you know, one of the masters and all those VJ tour events and a gold medal. But anyways, Scottie Scheffler in that one of his pre tournament media availabilities was asked about, you know, how he spends his time off. And one of the things he talked about is that he plays golf with his buds who are obviously not professional golfers. Is there anything interesting that you do to make it equitable with your friends when you play with them, whether it might be having to play your worst ball or something? No, most of it's just strokes, just like the handicap system. I think it's one of the great parts about our game is, you know, I can go out there with whoever it is and we can come up with some sort of a fair match just based on the handicap system. So what are you giving? Typically. Depends on the game. But at home, I'm typically playing to a plus seven. I used to be a plus five. They moved me to a plus seven. So now we've got guys in the group that are getting like two strokes a whole and I typically still will win more often than not, I feel like. But it's just fun. Like it's just entertaining. You don't know. Like if you go out there with a 12 13 handicap, you don't know what the heck's going to happen. And for playing Wolf, there's a lot of volatility there and it's fun. I win all the time. Yes, it's fun. No, I love it. It's great. What is Wolf, by the way? Have you ever played Wolf? I am not like a huge like, I have no problem like gambling on other things, but it's like I don't hate myself enough to like throw more stress on my golf game. But Wolf is basically very cold notes. It's like one guy hits T shot, he either picks a partner or he's the lone wolf and he has to like win the hole by himself and it gets more complicated than that. But effectively, yeah, you either you start off and you pick a partner or you play him with somebody or you play by yourself and you have to like beat the low score of the guys around you. I feel like he like he likes play Wolf a lot. Probably. I'll be the lone wolf. The best player in the world. I think I'll go by myself. Thank you. Thank you. No, but he's he's got a good point. Like that is the great thing about golf. It's like doesn't matter how different the skill set is like we can attach a number to you and make it closer. It's the truth. Especially if we're playing match play. I play I'm going to play match with my dad today and I've got I love watching you too. Like it's not haggling. It's just like the clarification is like what a stroke here. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's the worst bookkeeper when it comes to like oh wait, yeah, like we're on the green and he's like oh yeah, no, I do get a stroke here. It's like what? Yeah. Where would I ask you on the tee and you said anyways? Yeah, I know. That's what's great about the handicap system in golf. Would you play Scottie Scheffler if he's a plus seven? Now you don't have to reveal your number here if you don't want to. Yeah. I'll reveal mine. Yeah. But in this discussion. But would you play Scottie Scheffler in a match if he's a plus seven? So for the uninitiated when it comes to golf handicaps, like even par you if you shot even par every every time at an at a normal golf course, you're you would be zero. You'd be a scratch golfer. So it's like Scottie Scheffler on a normal golf course is going to be seven under par. Yeah. Would you play Scottie Scheffler if he's a plus seven? No, I need him. I need more strokes and that like I think a few more than that the like you you're in the same boat. Oh my god. So I'll tell you like my index is like 10 point something whatever. So I'm only getting a stroke a hole and one hole. I'm not getting straight up. That seems fair. I need to like Scottish and yeah it's not fair because I'm imagining him playing my golf course which is like it's not in the PGA Tour circuit like to, you know, weird. It's only 6200 yards from the from the blues whatever he's obviously birdying every hole. If it's not a birdie and like eagle like he's on into like using an a wedge on all the par fives everything like I'm trying to think there's a par five he could drive. But no like he's he's easily breaking 60 easily. Yeah, so close to the the negotiation has to start with two strokes a hole where it's like, okay, if I if I par a hole like I'm pretty good to win that. And if I if I bogey like, okay, yeah, yeah, there's some intrigue there but it has to start at 36 strokes I get from Scottish. The other thing that has to go into this and this actually like I mean, I suppose it's taken into the handicap system because like, you know, you playing golf is what gets you your handicap. But there's also the thing of Scotty Scheffler, like being a winner, you know, has had a close. Right? Did you forget about that part of it? That's not a number. No, I know. But it's like, I suppose although with the putter, although like the worst putter on tour, like how amazing he would say funny you say that because I have a buddy who I play with and without fail and not every time. But like if he has a like 11, 12 footer, he loves asking me like, would Christian Benazin how make this putt what 72% of the time, like, yeah, something like that, it's ridiculous how how how nails these guys are. This got me thinking about Tiger's number. Yes. In the peak of his prime. Oh, you have it. I do have it. So the peak of his prime according to this is 2000 or sorry, 2008 sorry squint in here. That is the best year of Tiger's handicap index, according to a loose stagger guy, great numbers guy. What would you guess it is? If if Scheffler's plus seven or again, do without what you will, because he said he was plus five and they bumped whoever whoever they, I mean, I know it's guys plays with it. Yeah, they sound nefarious. We have his scores. Can't we just actually generate a handicap form? But anyways, I mean, it's got to be plus 10. So it was plus nine point four, but this is the frightening part about it, which loose dagger adds is that you consider this was not adjusted for tour conditions. So like they're just taking so it's like he's playing Tory. They're just taking the slope of like the blacks or gold or whatever you would play. They're not accounting for, yes, the faster green, yeah, thicker rough and what and again, like dangerous. And no gimmies, right? Nothing involved in there. So if it was, it would probably be two to three shots better. So you're looking at like an 11, four or a like 12, four, he was a plus seven or better for 35% of all the like years they they did, he was at least at that four. Yeah. Ridiculous. Yeah. It's got a Scheffler like reverse sandbagger here. Mm. Yeah. Or against him. Yeah. It's you have been. Yeah. It's you're on the front lines. Yeah. It's brutal. It's brutal. There's absolutely no world in which somebody who's not a pro should be getting fewer than two strokes a hole from Scottie Scheffler. Oh great. All right. When we come back. Suck the Josh cloak of the athletic with the great report on John Herdman flying drones who's recently is this July that and more next is the fan morning show continues Ben and his brain gunning sports F5 nine to the fan big opinions and in depth conversations covering the Leafs, J's Raptors and the NFL the J.Bunken podcast subscribe and download the show on Apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning show sports and five nine to fan bananas, bread gunning, thinning men's national soccer team going to play some friendlies in September against the United States and Mexico and we now have a roster for those games and Jesse Marsh is our new hero as he led the Canadian men to a deep run at the Copa America. John Herdman still applying his trade with TFC who did get through forge into the next round of the Canadian championship yesterday. But yeah, maybe had some some drone help, which brings us to our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom visit Don Valley, North Lexus dot com. Today's insider Josh cloak of the athletic. How's it going? Josh. Good morning. How are we doing guys? Doing very well. So you had the great report on the athletic about John Herdman perhaps flying drones is recently as July. So since then obviously we had the Olympics and the investigation, which I assume is still ongoing. But what is the happen to John Herdman if that report comes back and he's as I believe to be revealed to be the mastermind behind like a series of drone usage spying things with Team Canada and now with TFC. Yeah, that circuit's kind of sticky, right? Because on one hand you could say, well, Canada soccer and John Herdman have no ties together anymore, right, Jesse Marsh is the new head coach and you know, perhaps if John Herdman were still coaching the men team, you could say, well, shouldn't he be suspended from the organization, that kind of thing. So on one hand you could say, this is if this is the case again, we're still dealing with ifs here, if that turns out to be the case and John Herdman was found to be at the center of the spying scandal, then perhaps Canada soccer could say this is it, but we've moved on from that, you know, and there are other people that I've talked to that have said, well, hold on a second, right, Canada soccer still governs the game in Canada and in a lot of ways, Canada's NLS teams fall under Canada's soccer's governance, right? And that's why I think, you know, the report that I wrote and the people that I talked to really shared a lot of concern because, you know, if and again, got a stress still dealing with ifs here, you know, drone usage was attempted on behalf of TFC, then you can say, well, if they're playing in, you know, Canada soccer governance competitions, like the Canadian Championship last night, wouldn't that fall under their purview and, you know, wouldn't John Herdman be in some kind of trouble then? It's just, it's still so early before the, you know, the report is released there. Sorry, independent review is released and I think there's still a lot of questions to be asked, but I think what's clear, you know, especially considering last night is that questions about, you know, John Herdman and drone usage, they're not going away. I know that like, there was a lot of a feeling of what overkill, like this was the story of the Olympics as far as Canada was concerned in the summer, and I think there were a lot of people, there were people I talked to, frankly, that said, well, come on close, like what are you doing right in this thing? Like, we're done with this. We've moved past this and I get it. I get that there's a lot of fatigue about this, but this story is not going away. And I think culturally there's a lot to be revealed about, you know, why John Herdman was able to use possibly, again, why he was possibly able to use drones and create this being just culturally okay. Those are some big, big questions that still have to be answered. Okay, so let's unpack a little bit of what you just said there. And again, just like explain the old Michael Scott, like explain it to me like I'm five. I thought we had kind of come and again, like maybe the answer is I misunderstood this, but it did seem like the soccer community at large and I'm not talking Canada soccer. I mean, there were American players who had said this, you know, did he a drug that had his comments about, you know, the drone usage, it is not an accepted part, but maybe an understood practice that is used on occasion by teams like how much of a cardinal sin is this viewed as again, not for Canada soccer, but just soccer the world over. Well, I do think we need to focus in on the Canada soccer, but because contextually there are differences here. I don't think it's unfair to label Canadians, just I know we're a big, big group of big society, but is it not fair to kind of culturally call us like rural followers, do you not get angry? Yeah, no, no. Butts in line, fair. No throws. Yeah. Oh, God. You know, so I just think that culturally it's different, right, we've all been to places around the world where people jump the queue and that's just the way it happens. We're just cheating as a society is just is part of it, right? I'm not going to name names here, but we've all been on vacation to places where, you know, greasing palms is the way of the world. I think in Canada, we like to see ourselves as different from that. People can argue with me otherwise, and that's fine, but I think that's why this is a real cause for concern. And if you have like the DIA drug, and I know Tyler Adams, you know, the American midfielder said, you know, it's for a fact that's happened all over the world, that's fine. Maybe it does. Right? I can't say 100% that, you know, the DFB or the FA, you know, have never used drone usage. It's just the fact that, you know, the Canadian men's national team and the women's team under Ben, or Ben Priestman, excuse me, they just became such feel good stories in Canada. And like how often were you guys talking to soccer writers 10 years ago on the Morning Show? Right? Very, very rarely. It just felt like, okay, Canada's becoming a soccer nation, and we're doing it because we have great players and people are investing in the game. And it's becoming, you know, a new sport that's better representing the face of the country, which is always changing. And then to feel like I think the rug is being pulled out and that like some of the success perhaps is due to cheating, which I think Canadians are just not on board with. I think that's where the issue is. So I understand the question about, well, how, where does this happen all over the world? I can't say definitively, but I think we can all agree that it just feels like it just is not fair because we were all feeling good about Canadian soccer, right? Yeah, God, did the ups and downs of being a fan of Canadian soccer over just like the last few years has been wild, making the World Cup feels like 100 years ago that Sydney Crosby was standing in there, Calvinizing the men. It's just nuts, wild wacky stuff. But it, and man, it was not that long ago that John Herdman was lionized in this country and viewed as the savior for both programs. It was unbelievable. Nobody does that. Go from the women's program to the men's program and then leads them to unparalleled success. And then you had like the immediate aftermath and then, well, I mean, during the World Cup, the lack of performance and just the one goal scored, but like the Croatia stuff and then the nation's league final against the Americans and then like some rumblings about maybe some discord in that locker room. But he left of his own accord, the soccer Canada really luck out there. And then Jesse Marsh is like turned into the next guy. It's like, oh, we use better. He actually knows what he's doing. Like did Canada soccer luck out that John Herdman said thanks, but no thanks and then found a soft landing spot in TFC. But was that like almost a fortuitous turn of events for Canada soccer? Perhaps. I think that's a fine way to look at it, right? I think if you're John Herdman, the men's national team was never going to be your final stop, right? He's young enough as a coach. You know, he charted his career path from like the New Zealand women's national team up. Like Canada was never going to be his final stop and you know, I just think as a coach, he wanted to go somewhere, you know, with more resources and that's fine. I frankly don't think, you know, Canada will be the final stop for Jesse Marsh as well. So did they get kind of lucky? I don't know. I do know this for a fact. Canada soccer under Kevin Blue, you know, the new CEO, they are so committed to earning A, earning back the trust of Canadians ahead of 2026 and B, proving to Canada again ahead of 2026, which we haven't even mentioned yet, like this promises to be this could be, you know, right on par with like the Vancouver 2010 Olympics is like the biggest sporting event ever in Canada. But the first thing you have to do is prove to Canadians that you can be trusted as an organisation, that is literally job number one for Canada soccer right now. They've got less than two years to do that. So yeah, I guess your question, did they kind of luck out? Sure. But I do wonder, you know, if he would still be around like performance wise, you mentioned it after that nation's league disaster against the Americans where he was completely tactically outclass and he called out the organisation with, you know, the the interim CEO sitting in the press conference, like that should have been the end anyway. And I think if you're Canada soccer, you feel like you should be taking, you know, the results a little bit more seriously. And I think that's what Jesse March is doing. So yeah, they lucked out, but I do think it's just part of a bigger picture. I just think this organisation has to be and is really trying to move on from scandal after scandal. It's hard. It's really, really hard. You were listening off, you know, that that litany of ups and downs. I was sweating in there for all of them. And I'm like, you know, it's kind of like your own apocalypse now, but no, I that is the focus right now. And I think that's why if you are a fan of the men's national team with Kevin Blue with Jesse March, you are feeling a lot better about where things are headed. Yeah, I think that's that's at least the best hope you can put is in is in those two guys right there. And obviously like a ton of talented players, but the players haven't been the issue, at least in the interim here one, one last one on the Canada soccer, Niko Segar. How excited should I be? This was one of the things we heard coming out of COPA is there are a couple of dual nationals that you're trying to recruit. How important is it for Canada to kind of continue in this and how much does he in particular move the needle? Well, you should be very excited about Niko Segar because of his age, right? That's one thing to some of the players that, you know, my understanding, Canada soccer is going after. They're kind of on the late end of the 20s and maybe they might not be as impactful. But again, all you're thinking about right now is 2026 and Niko Segar is a really dynamic midfielder. And I think if you look back at, you know, to 2022, Canada suffered because they were literally quite literally slow in the middle of the park, right? They saw it against Croatia. No disrespect to him. He is, you know, the greatest men flare ball time at Tiva Hutchinson. But at that point, there just wasn't a lot of pace and technical quality in the middle of the park. Niko Segar has the profile to build into that player that can, you know, really dominate the middle of the pitch, but he's still so young. You really, really like the upside. What I think you like, especially though, is that the results, my understanding is, you know, when John Herbin was trying to lure in dual nationals, which he did really well in. We have to give him credit. You know, he brought Stephan Asakio in, who is, you know, one of Canada's most important players. He was good with luring in dual nationals, but he was selling players on hope and selling them on the opportunity to change the sport in the country. That's one thing. You know, what Jesse Marsh is doing, my understanding is he's going to them, and he's literally saying, we're a really good team now. Like, we have the results now to prove it. Do you want to be part of a winning team? And I think when you get at Soteric with players and say, oh, do you want to change things culturally? They go, yeah, it's kind of nice, sure, I guess, you know, it's a philosophical standpoint. Or do you want to win to boost your profile and eventually get better contracts down the line with your club side? Yes, that is something I'm going to sign up for right away. So I think if you're, if you're, you know, if you want to feel good about the way dual nationals are going, it's results, you know, based, and that's really, really good. I don't think he's going to be the last one, like Nico Seager committed to Croatia. And then he said, you know, he didn't say that, you know, the famous phrase when it comes to Croatia, Canada, and soccer, but he did kind of walk away from them and like, that's important when you have players, not just choosing Canada over, I don't know, some team ranked 150th in the world. You're saying I choose Canada over a really good team in Croatia. That's big. That's really, really big. And I think that's why you personally should get very excited about Nico Seager and what comes next. Should I also get personally excited about the possibility of Leo Messi playing in the city of Toronto? Tata Martino said that, you know, he's going to play a regular season game last regular season game for TFC is at home against Inter Miami. You talked about 26 being the biggest sporting moment since 2010 in this country. What would Messi play in here? I mean, we saw David Beckham and that was a big deal, but like, what would that mean to have Messi playing a game in Toronto? And will someone throw a beer at him? Well, great questions all around. Will someone throw a beer? No, I mean, if you are in the stadium to see Messi, you've probably dropped hundreds if not thousands of dollars to do so. So you're probably, you're probably not going to throw what are, what are beers at the Emo field? Don't go for now. It's too much. Like, so you're not going to, I don't think you're going to waste a beer like that. I mean, what would it mean? Obviously, it would mean a lot. It would be fascinating to see where TFC are at in the standings because that game late October has the potential to be kind of a must win to get into the playoffs kind of kind of game. But yeah, if you're if you're Canada, if you're Canadian fan, you just want to keep having these big stars come because you know it's just a precursor to what happens next. I don't know. I saw Messi play three times in guitar and I still rank it as like literally like a sporting highlight of my life. I saw Michael Jordan play in that Raptors, that Raptors debut season. I saw show Hayatani, you know, hit his first pitch out of the park at the dome and I put Messi up there with all those. So yeah, you want that. I don't know until play in 2026. That was a big topic of debate at KOPA. So this might be the last chance for people in Toronto to see him, but it's big of course it's big. But more importantly than all this, don't waste your beer. Yeah. Don't waste your beer. That's one thing I've learned. Obviously, just a good lesson in life in general, also applicable in this situation. But like, yeah, at all times, don't waste your beer. Josh, great reporting and always great to chat, buddy. Thanks. Likewise. Take it easy, guys. Hey, to Josh Cloke of the Athletic, our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley North Lexus.com. Where do you come down on the like seeing greatness in the flesh? I'm a massive, massive proponent of it. I dragged my wife on our honeymoon to the Bahamas to watch Tiger Woods play golf so I could get as close as humanly possible card for that is pretty good, right? Although I like to constantly maybe throw in the face is too strong, but like, remind my wife I couldn't as like the golf loving guy go around being like, you know, it's my honeymoon. You should do something special for me. But it's like, I feel like if she talked to somebody, it's such a small group there. It's like, say, I'm on the honeymoon. I feel like Tiger would have come over and sent a photo to me. He was chatting there. So it's something I always think of. But yeah, no, I you could have also said, no, what am I going to do? Go to Joe Lacava and be like, Joe, it's my honeymoon, but it's coming from the wife it's so much different. You can't see you. You can novel. Yeah. And they're good at growling. No, right. He's invented it is resulted in his tangible. Here's the difference, though, gifts is I've grown as a groveler, right? This many moons ago, I attempted. We don't need to go into what I successfully groveled for. But one year ago, I was success or unsuccessfully groveling for that same thing that I that I was able to grovel successfully for this year. So maybe I've just improved. Yeah. Do you always go back and wonder what we could have done differently with knowledge and who knew I'm so much better at groveling now. Oh, yeah. I mean, how many professional athletes say that? You know, if I only knew then what I know now, how things would have gone differently if you had been the groveler, I am the groveler that you've grown into. I was eight ninths of the groveler that I now have become the elite groveler that you are now. Yeah. Yeah, things could have been different. Could have been different. Yeah. I'm wearing a hat right now that I got for free. Grovel. I know. I'm the man actually and a sweater. Now that I think about it, God, I am a media member through in through. Do you pay for anything? No. I don't think so. No. But no, I'm a massive proponent of like, if there's greatness, you got to see. Yeah. Like it's just one of those, one of those things like I, I ticked a bunch of these guys off for hockey doing like the job I did for the last few years, but also World Cup of hockey. I don't think there's like a notable guy in the NHL that I haven't seen right now. Other. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Yeah. No, they're really not. Just because of the other than the dart, I guess. But yeah, I'm a massive believer of it. If you have a chance to see greatness, you should. Like I've been lucky to see McDavid, a handful of times in person and that's all, that'll probably be of this era, like the most special one for me. But yeah, I'm a massive, massive believer. Would you roll the dice on tickets for that Toronto FC? Me? God, no. But if you were like soccer person. Yeah. That's what I mean. So it's October 5th. And like I said, the head coach of Inter Miami says that, hey, he'd like to see and believes that Leo Messi will play in a regular season game before the playoffs start. He has not played since that Copa America. Yeah. Right? Like he left the Argentina game. Oh, yeah. That's right. I remember watching that. So tickets looks like you can get in for $266 to be Mo Field right now. If you're a, if you are a person that like considers Leo Messi, holy and tight soccer is your game. That is a, you know, finances are what they are, but like that's a good bet or a decent bet to make. Quite frankly, if, if we find out he is in fact, they're on playing, add, add a one in front of that number. Maybe. Honestly. Yeah. All right. Time now for the wake and wake presented by sports interaction. Your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly, Blue Jays trying to get back in the wind column at Fenway Park against the Red Sox tonight, 7 10 sports net and sports net five, 90, the fan Chris Bassett against Brian Bayo, who is an era approaching five. The Blue Jays are underdogs, pretty significant ones as well as the Red Sox minus 161 Blue Jays plus 135. The total is nine and a half in this game, Brian. I think we're due for a little bit of a quieter game. Bassett's been pretty good lately. I'm going to take the under there. I know you got to pay a bit to do it minus one 15, but the nine and a half I like getting the extra half there. That's thing I'm most confident about. Give me the under there. I know. Fenway. I know. I know. I would, if I was playing the total, I would, I would think over Raphael Divers is dealing with a shoulder injury and of course red Sox did win that I guess second or third game of the series, depending on how you view the resume game. But yeah, I, I like the Blue Jays and the offense that they've shown recently, despite the fact they only scored, you know, they did not score a ton of runs yesterday. They had a bunch of hits out hit the Red Sox and Bayo's having a rough year. I like the Blue Jays and plus money. They've been pretty money recently, plus one 35 I'm taking the Blue Jays. That was the wake and write presented by sports interaction, your home grown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly when we come back, we'll talk to Dan Schulman as the fan morning Don't you continue as Ben and his friend Gunning Sports said 590 the fan.
