[MUSIC] >> Fan molecules. >> Of course, that 5-9 of the fan base. Frank Gunting is a home run derby champion. >> That was true. >> Junior. >> That was a derby like home run. Hang in breaking ball, middle, middle. That's what you're supposed to do with that baseball. That was satisfying to watch, right off the bat. And for my money, if you're going to hit a home run more than 400 feet, certainly more than 450, and that one apparently only 450. Hit it to straightaway center field. And ideally have a ballpark like they have at the tarp, which is no good for many things. But at least like having that batter's eye, like hitting it over a batter's eyes, it always does it for me. >> Yeah, it's great. I mean, I'm trying to think like there are other like kind of iconic spots, like you have the fountains in Kansas City. >> Yeah, it's a rock pile in Anaheim. >> Yeah, it's a long way. >> But you're right. Like there's just something, is this the first time in history the sentence is about to be uttered? There's just something aesthetically pleasing about watching that at the tarp. It really was like, yeah. >> The tarp is not a hitter's ballpark. >> No, it's also not a defender's ball. It's a very weird, it's nobody's ballpark. >> I was going to say it's the devil's ballpark. >> Because bring back the devil race because it's the devil's ballpark there on good Friday. But yeah, it's that was so aesthetically pleasing. You would have taken, I mean, you would have taken three for four of him just having a solid day to be able to take in a wall scraper, but to have it start that way and a no doubter. It's just it is such a cathartic start to the season. Normally you have that like when there's been a lot of scar tissue building up, you need to have like the cathartic moment, but it felt that way early on incredibly impressive. So Buck said he's got the Homer jacket and then he said, thing of the past because yeah, it was the invisible jacket again. >> Oh, yeah. >> Sir LeBron put like miming the jacket being put on him. So George Springer hits the first home run of the season, but he hears my guess if we're going to if we're going to divide these guys up and maybe we should do a draft maybe where we guess where the dividing line lies and the factions of jacket guys versus non jacket guys. >> I think like we're talking about this like it's like a like a Senate vote in the States. It's like they lost Matt Chapman, obviously a key tenant of no jacket club. What will be shed? >> He's reaching across the aisle trying to change hearts and minds. >> It's true. >> Yeah. >> We're John King in the big one. >> It's a little more blue. >> I don't like it. >> That's jacket because the jacket is blue. >> Well, I was just going to say a very Republican take to be like, no jackets get it out of here. It feels very on brand as well. >> But it does feel like George Springer would be one of the first selected. Well, obviously, Vlad, he's like he's he's his jacket. He's the jacket majority leader. >> It's his his Technicolor dream coat and we're all just living in it. >> Right. I think yeah, his speaker of the jacket. >> Yeah. >> I think his right hand man is George Springer's. They try to like whip up some votes for the jacket. >> I know we're mixing metaphors a little bit here, but when he's giving the state of the jacket address, George Springer is sitting to his right, nodding like all. >> Another good point you make about the jacket, meanwhile, Bo is sitting over his other shoulder just disgusted. >> Bo at the end of the state of the jacket address does his rebuttal to the set of the jacket address. >> No, he's like, we now go to Bo for his rebuttal. >> It's about winning, I love this is the dumbest thing ever. >> Maybe we should do this right now actually. >> Okay. >> Okay, so George Springer, jacket guy, let's just go through the nine guys in the line up yesterday. So George Springer, top two, easy, easy breezy, George Springer, jacket guy, Vlad, he obvious jacket guy, Bo obvious, non jacket guy, Justin Turner is where it gets interesting because like veteran guy, we don't know, we're just still learning about him, like he's trying to assimilate, he's saying all the great things, but I love on the bright guy, he's a hockey guy too. >> Okay. >> He loves to play for a whole country, like it's right out of central casting for him. >> He didn't slather his bat and maple syrup before he went up there. >> Right. >> Let's come back to Turner because I think it's a tough one. >> Well, I have to be honest, just in baseball lore, it's like he feels more like golden thong guy than he does jacket guy to me like Jason Giambi's like famous thong from the Yankees run. So like that's like a story to just give you all that, you know, Justin Turner it. >> But yeah, doing jobs, Jack Daniels and wearing a golden thong. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, that's the Jason John. >> But it's okay. There's that he does give off those vibes, but he is a winner guy, right? Like so. >> If I, but it's not a gun to my head, he's jacket, got into my head, he's a jacket guy. >> See, I would have said the opposite. >> Okay. So we have to park him. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> What can I get in the deal to get you to come to this camp? >> Yeah, he honestly feels like key to the, like he's the jacket discourse. >> He's the undecided voter. >> He really is the myth out there that doesn't exist. >> Dalton Varshot does feel like he's just being bullied into either jacket, no jacket. >> He feels, I agree with you that he can be so easily swayed. It's like the best idea is the one he heard most recently in this debate. >> But a jacket guy. >> I go the other way with him, I'm like, he can't feel like he's a little, and maybe this is just that the year went so bad last year that don't you dare be a jacket guy? But I go the other way on him where I'm like, I feel like he's more no jacket than jacket. >> Interesting. Alejandro Kirk, I feel like he's a jacket guy. >> Buddy. >> Yeah. >> Jacket guy. >> Born in it. >> Yeah. >> Kevin Kiermey are fun-loving dude, but also like the hard-nosed guy, I could see him being non-jacket. >> He could be pulled into that camp, but I think the fun-loving side of him more over overrules, and I think he would, he's like, he claims he's undecided, but he knows that his heart of hearts he's gonna wear the jacket is how I feel about him. >> Isaiah Connor, full-life non-jacket guy. >> Yeah, no, he better not be. >> He's not even allowed to look at it. Why would they dare allow him? >> Yeah. He's like, I'll never wear it, so I hate it. >> Yeah, I hate it. >> Kevin Beijo, non-jacket guy, I feel like. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Kevin Beijo, boba shout, I feel like, Kevin Beijo, Bo, and Vlad all came up together, but I feel like since the years have passed, he and Bo have kind of separated themselves. Again, this is all perception. I have no inside information here. >> Of course. >> I'm watching the same way you are, maybe I have a little more information, but yeah, this is mostly just from watching body language stuff. So where did we land there? That feels like a lot of jacket guys. >> It did. >> It feels like an overwhelming majority when it comes to jacket land. >> We had two, okay, George and Vlad jacket. >> Yeah, that's- >> So you said Varsho, no jacket? >> I think no jacket for Varsho. You feel differently. >> Kirk jacket. >> Yeah. >> Hear my jacket. That's four. >> Yeah. >> That's four. We are literally like Justin Turner determines whether it's jacket, no jacket. >> But once he's back, it's like this guy's gonna get a lot of playing time too. So I know he's not one of the nine from yesterday. >> And you will lose a key jacket tenant in Alejandro Kirk, Danny Jansen jacket or no jacket? >> No jacket. >> No jacket. >> No jacket for Danny Jansen. >> No, like extra padding on his hands, please, but no jacket. >> This is huge. >> It's like wear boxing gloves, but not a jacket. >> Okay, by the end of the show, we gotta come back around to Justin Turner and whether he's a jacket guy. Maybe we should throw a poll out. >> Yeah. >> Whether Justin Turner is a jacket guy or not. >> I cannot wait to hear shy wins when I ask him that in about 20 minutes or so. >> No, cuz that's a Brent impression, what you were about to do, but last time we asked him something of this ilk was about the see-through pants, and I was like, I don't know, they wear the pants. It's like, I'm about the bats and the balls and the numbers and what it'll be like. >> Is when it was right before the NHL All-Star game. And I tried to have it like a joke, he was like, hey, who's number one on your big board for the All-Star draft with Jason Buckle, and he goes, no. >> Just that number. >> And then I tried to jokingly bring it back around again, I was like, who's your number one goalie? You're sticking on that? He's like, I'm not thinking about this. And I love him for it. I want to be clear about that. >> Mm-hm. >> So yeah. All right, to more pressing matters. >> Obviously, infinitely more important to the Blue Jays season. >> Joey Votto, maybe. >> At the game yesterday, deciding till mid-game to alert us to the fact that he was at the game. >> Mm-hm. >> And as a fan, Instagram sends out a picture of him in the second deck. Now, okay, hold on, hold on, just the wording is important here. Instagram did not send out a picture. >> He, Joey Votto, sent out a picture on Instagram. >> Is that what I said? Like, Instagram sent out a picture? >> No, it's just like, I think this is an important part of the conversation, it's like Joey Votto. >> Yeah, look at me. >> On his story, yes. On his Instagram story, I happen to see it 30 minutes after he sent it. But yeah, it wouldn't miss opening dates, him giving the thumbs up of the camera on the rail, looking down the Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. This is a guy who is under contract to the Toronto Blue Jays, albeit as a minor league field. >> He's just a minor league player. >> Yeah, he's working his way back. I didn't have a report on what he did yesterday, honestly, when Justin Turner took the ball off his hand and he's squeezing it and I was like, boy, Joey Votto got to be thinking about there. >> Yeah, ramping up his ability to get back into a major league game, instead, no, he was actually at the game as a fan. Is that, is that not weird? >> It's very weird. I'm actually, I know you're throwing the ball to me, but it's given go here. This is one touch. I'm putting it right back to you. I know what my reaction is. I'm pretty sure you can guess what my reaction is. >> Yeah. >> I'm actually very curious what your reaction is. >> Yeah, it's weird. >> Okay, because he's acting like a guy who doesn't think he's going to be in the major leagues. It's not a very professional thing to do, it's funny and it's interesting and I like the engagement and I like the idea that we can talk about it and it's kind of cool, but it is strange. I'm not going to deny that it's very strange and not that, I don't think, given his brother, it's weird. Blue Jays start the season in Tampa. >> Right. >> So close to Dunedin. >> Right. If they're in, I don't know why. I suppose they say something. >> That would be weirder. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Not since that. That would be the ultimate weird. But yeah. >> I would actually, I would have the complete opposite opinion of that. >> Yeah. Go stick into those Reds fans, Joey. >> Yeah. Say it's like, boy, the Red Sox, tough start to the season you have to start on the West Coast in Seattle. But like say it's in Seattle. >> Yeah. >> Probably not. >> Yeah. Flying all the way to Seattle to buy a ticket to opening day. So that's part of it. And I don't, I think, I guess there's probably a league rule that does prevent minor league, players on minor league deals from being in the dugout. >> Sure. >> Maybe. >> Maybe. >> But sounds right. >> I, like, that he's not in a private box. I guess this is the Joey Votto thing though, right? >> This is it. >> He does love to be at the masses. >> To play chess. >> Yeah. But there's something strange to a guy who is attempting to re-reach the major leagues and be a non-insignificant factor on a team with World Series aspirations buying a ticket to opening day and sitting in the second act. It's just, it's just weird. It's just a little weird, like it's cool, I guess, like it's interesting and kudos to you for doing it. >> Sure. >> But there's some, there's an element of weirdness to it. >> Yes. >> Because he also, sorry. >> Yeah, no, please stop forever. >> The other thing that's weird is that, remember how he ended up in this position of having a minor league deal and working his way to the Blue Jays, he reached out to them. >> Yes. >> It just feels like a guy that's desperate. There's an air of desperation to it, right? Not only is he not being given a uniform and being able to be in the dugout, so pay, probably a premium price for like a secondary market ticket and now that I'm crying poor for Joey Votto's made over $260 million in his career, but there's just, yeah, there's a slight stench of desperation to it. It's more than a slight stench. It'd be weird enough if he wanted to go to the game and we found out about this because the guy sitting behind him. Now, part of this is just baseball and, you know, Joey Votto's a very recognizable person, but it's also, if you're not looking for Joey Votto, the baseball player, you're just thinking some guy in the stands, I would feel differently about this if we were alerted to it by, no, I would also throw conspiracy theory up and say this person is just like a Votto plant, but I'd feel differently about it if we just saw it of a camera found him or somebody tweeted about it. It is a look at me aspect of it and I think that this is a big part of, and I think that he is smart enough to be of a dual track mind of this, that it is obviously going to help his perception here if he catches on, if he has seen to be this guy, if I just want the team to win so bad, look at me here, I'm watching them play, but it's also a guy who's clearly trying to endear himself to this fan base, whether that is because of the Canada baseball stuff, whether that is because you want to have a final, you know, stretch that doesn't end in awkwardness. I don't know, but I also think part of it is adding the PR machine of like, look at me, let me make this, let me inject myself into this conversation. I don't know how you can be blind to that, and I'm not accusing you of that, but it's like, that is a big part of this as well of just, hey, did you guys, did you, opening day, you guys forget about me for four minutes, look at me, over here. And he's of my generation, so I guess I couldn't, can't put this thinking on him, but like, honestly, that's my thinking around Instagram as a whole, I don't, I don't post there because like every time I, I think about taking a picture of myself or something that I'm doing, I'm like, oh, well, then, like, it's like, hey, look at me, look at the thing I'm doing, hey, look over here. And I don't, like, that makes me feel icky, and do Joey Votto and I are very similar in age. Yeah, so I would think naturally that would be his feeling, but you're like, that's part of it. It's actually one of life's great miracles. Oh, no, I did post but on Instagram was about say, I was on the golf course and I didn't post picture of it. Yeah, you absolutely did. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Something else is picture. Yeah. That feel, make me feel 1% better about it. Is it posed picture? Yeah. The key did say get over here getting. Yeah. That's nice. But I'm not Joey Votto and I'm allowed to post whatever I want. I just, I think it's, I'm not blind to the reality that it's like, it's a little funny. This is all part of the experience. Yeah. I don't want to be too much of a sour pose about it because like, yeah, here's the other, like, here's the alternate reality of it. Guy just loves ball. Like he just wanted, he's like, oh, what a confluence of events that I'm still working my way up to full health here within driving distance of the place where the team I'm hoping to one day play for is opening up their season. Wouldn't it be fun to just sit in the stands with some other baseball fans and watch a baseball game that I want to watch? Anyways, like that's, that's a possible reality. And even if that is the reality, the, the air of awkwardness for me is a little strange. You love baseball so much. I don't know. Like a go in part though wisdom you have from your Hall of Fame career on the guys you're allegedly teammates with right now. Yeah. But again, like I don't think he's allowed. No, no, I don't. I don't mean go down to the dugout. I mean, like, I don't know. Why don't you order some wings down in wherever spray trader, you know, extended spring is and watch the minor league guys. It's like, do you not like if you love baseball so much, what it, it's like, I'm not blind to the reality of how fun it is and enjoyable it is to go to a major thing like he's by himself. Right. There's somebody. Yeah. I'm like, do you think he just turned around? He's like, hey, take this picture. No, that was, that was a selfie. I think it was a selfie. There isn't, yeah, an unknown element of Joey Votto that, like, is he doing all these things by himself? I don't know. Again, like we know he plays chess, he takes the go trade and he's tweeting through it a lot. Well, certainly. He's been wanting to do that. Yeah, a little bit. The picture of him on the bench was taken by somebody who's taken that picture. No, no, again, remember that wasn't a picture of, that was like a Photoshop of him on the Keanu Reeves. No, it was. That picture on the bench. It wasn't a Photoshop. It was like a recreation. I don't, I think it was a Photoshop. I think if you look at like the shoes and the jacket, it was the exact same one. Yeah. And again, our chief beamologist, Josh Santos, was the one who alerted me to this, but I'm pretty sure that's what was happening there. Okay. Anyways. It just changes everything. I know we got it. You know what? Let's do, redo the segment. There's a whole new light of information we have in this. Probably not. Probably not. Um, again, like serious stuff that I want to hit in the segment on the broadcast yesterday on sports time for the lead game, they threw up a term I had never seen for the guys not in the core for forwards. Yes. Well, I missed this. I didn't see this. Oh, yeah. They were talking about percentage goals scored by the core four and then the guys outside of the ground for like the ancillary scoring the secondary scoring. Yeah. You know, we did. Yeah. They had the Tyler Batuzzi with the other two goals yesterday. You had Bobby McMahon, another goal. They referred to them as the eight mates. Oh, I love that. That's great. The eight mates. That's very good. Eight forwards who are not part of the Matthews Marner Tavares, knee lander group. I like that. I thought it was okay. I wondered if we could do better. Okay. Here. Thank you. Good job. All right. Here. Here are the other three that I came up with. And then I have a fourth that somebody helped me with that I think is also very good. Okay. The forgotten friends. Oh, that's very good. I like that. Secondary scoundrels. I don't know. The scoundrel is going to think of another word that's like you said. Scoundrel is. I don't know. I don't mean Bertuzzi. McMahon's a little mean. Here's the favorite. Here's my favorite that I came up with. The ancillary amigos. That's pretty good. But then it's like his Austin Matthews offended that he can't be it. Like I feel like if there's amigos on the team, he wants it. It's like I want in. I'm not saying he would be like bothered by the call of themselves that I'm just saying he would he'd want in. And shout out to Ryan who I think had the best addition to that group. The more four times two. That's pretty good. I do like that. It's like if it can't be perfect, it should just be very obvious. The more four is so good. Plus two. Yeah, you've got the core four and then you got the more four times two. That's so good. That's very good. That is actually, that's actually my favorite. I agreed. All right. Do you want to do like a semi serious sports topic before we break here? I actually have one. Okay. No, go ahead. I was just going to say like Joe wall. We talked about him. It's a good game. Good job by you. I want to shake your hand. You're happy you performed that way. Presuming Samson off healthy. He gets the net on Saturday. I know like presuming it was Samson off health is among the most dangerous. It's like hunting man is the most dangerous game. The second most dangerous game is presuming the health of really Samson off at any given moment. But if he gets that game on Saturday, where are we at hitting into Monday? We can we can it is actually the only real rolling conversation we have about the leaves because every other one right now is parked on Mitch Marner's health. Basically gone. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Everything's in flux. A blue line. Shake it up. The gold heading conversation. We can have an actual real one about that isn't couched on a million different things. What is like what Samson off playing for if he gets it on Saturday? Where are we at in terms of the 60% chance? Yeah. And what kind of a test is it for Hey, we saw how bad the capitals are. I mean, that saber's team is worse than the capitals. Okay. And what does it mean if Samson off returns and plays well against that saber's team? What did yesterday's performance honestly mean from Joe Wall? And you're right. There was like one chance where it was, you know, you thought, Oh, okay. That was a thing made a save other than that. Not tested all that much. I mean, it does feel like burr in a spot where once again, you know, for the guy that got the two Bruins game, it's going to be Joe wall. On Monday, getting the most important game of the season to this point and a Panthers team that by the way, I'm sure they have a game in the meantime, but they blew a lead yesterday and Paul Maurice wasn't all that pleased with his team like he is upset. So yeah, and it seems to be that time of year where the teams that are locked into playoff spots aren't necessarily playing at their absolute best. The Bruins have fallen on hard times as well outside of their win over the Panthers. But yeah, you're going to have a, I think a highly motivated Panthers team that still wants to win the president's trophy. If I had a guess, it's Joe wall making that start that there's nothing that Elias Amsterdam can do outside of boy, at least really laying an egg and him having to make 50 saves against a bad saber's team. And even still coming off an injury, do you want to start him just two days later on a Monday? I don't, it feels like if I had to guess Joe wall's making that start on my I would agree. I think the only thing that can change it is actually, it's kind of counterintuitive, but Samsung not being unavailable. Like if Samsung is unavailable for that Saturday game or they want to give them the extra day, then do you just go like, do you want to give wall three straight starts? What does that say? Are you, you know, keeping. I mean, he was backing up yesterday. Yeah. So I got a figure he's available. I would imagine as well. But again, it's like, what is available unavailable means, least roll in three goalies, they can do whatever they want, like they can message this thing. However, they want also, this is, this is a real hockey game because we're in the year 2024, but man, this is, this is the most drags of the NHL scheduling game. If this was like five or six years ago, then panthers next game is tomorrow at 1230 at home against the Red Wings, 1230. Yeah. 1230. 1230. Professional hockey. Professional hockey. 1230. On a Saturday. Florida. You know, like you're, you're like cup finalists from last year at 1230 on a Saturday. And like, oh, we don't have college football. We better get something to tailgate for just nuts. I can't believe that. And again, it's like, that's a real game. It has stakes. Wings don't put all that. But can you imagine that game was was four years ago? It looked like the A's game yesterday or five years or whatever. So is that like, is that a nationally televised game? No, I think that's just a, I think that's just a, they want, I wonder, like, I haven't looked into it. I don't know if the heater playing and maybe they need to do a arena changeover situation. And that's why you need the game earlier in the day. I haven't looked at, I forgive me, you alert, you, you, you, you called your cracked research staff in here to find out when the Panthers play them work and as fast as I can. That'd be my guess is like the heat half to play or there's, I don't know, is there like a, a, but this just, again, puts like hockey in that same perspective. I literally had the thought of, I don't know. Is there a parade or something and they had to move the game up? I don't know. Yeah. I, that's just weird. I mean, we do have March badness, uh, elite eight games, couple of them, but that's a night. Yeah. So whatever. Okay. Moving on. Uh, when we come back, we'll go back to Florida and talk to shy Davidi after the Blue Jays, impressive showing in their first game of 162 yesterday against the Rays. Game two going today. Uh, this is the fan morning show, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sports at five, nine of the fan. Unrivaled insight, analysis and opinions on all things Blue Jays, Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, fan morning shows, four, seven, five, nine of the fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning. It's only game one of 162, but here's what I feel comfortable saying. Still early. See? See, I disagree. He's right. I feel comfortable saying that the Blue Jays approach and the offense that they will display the season, that will continue. It's nothing but Dangers and eight runs a game for this Blue Jays team as they, uh, high bar. They, they, they saw Zach Afflin. Yeah. One time through the order and they're like, all right, we got, yeah, all right. Well done. Good job. Good job. Adjustments. And then bang. The adjustment was, hey, if you're just going to throw strikes, which is the Zach Afflin thing, then we're going to swing at the first pitch, uh, George Springer did a pretty good job of that. Yeah. Blue Jays changing the narrative in that game. And they were off to a one and O start after an eight to victory in Tampa yesterday, game two goes today as it's Aaron Savali getting the start for the raise against Chris Bassett, 650 PM first pitch and Blue Jays central gets just a set for the game at six p.m. on sports net. Blue Jays talk after the game on sports net five 90, the fan let's talk to Shai Davidi from Tampa. How's it going? All right. What's going on guys? It's really good to be talking about regular season baseball and I, I, you know what, Dan said it during the broadcast yesterday. He's like, yeah, spring training is cool. It's nice to like see baseball again. The first couple of games here, like the juices are flowing, but holy cow, it's a whole lot different when we're talking about regular season baseball and we can have some, some takeaways, albeit, yeah, just one of a 162 game sample, but the thing we were most, or at least I was most looking for as far as a takeaway from that game was, okay, we've heard about this approach and what does that look like in, in practice and turns out like pretty good. What did you make of their first game offensively? Yeah, same thing is my, what I was watching for and was really curious about and it did feel different even, even before the results started coming in, you said you saw that the blue jizz were hunting certain pitches and they went up there and like they hit a few balls pretty hard in and around a few of the outs there, but even the just George Springer's first about a game, it's, it's a, it's a line drive for an out, but like, okay, well, that, that's a pretty good at bat still and you know, the Ben Flymaker Jr's up next and he hits a ball 108 miles an hour, it's right at the first baseman, but it's a ball 108 miles an hour. You're like, all right, this is something Aaron, so I think, I think that started playing out and eventually paid off and produced results and that, that sixth inning was really a microcosm of how the blue jizz won the offense to play out where you know, you're getting some power from the top line up. I know there was also the homer from Visio in the ninth spot, but it's Vladimir Guru Jr doing some damage there and then you're seeing some good situational hitting and some smart bats beyond that. So one game sample size, all the usual caveats apply, but if you're, if you're a blue jizz fan wondering about how their offense is going to do this year, you have reason a little bit to, to feel optimistic because of the process as much as the results. Yeah, and you know, I think a guy you can kind of like, and you know, I'm not accusing you, but it's like, it's very easy to say, yeah, latte, look at the, look at the process. Obviously you feel better about it when it goes for 50, but even feel like I like Varshow, like, you know, he doesn't have a ton to show for it. He works a walk yesterday. It did just seem like it wasn't a concerted thing for a few guys. It really did seem like a new approach kind of up and down the lineup. Like that was the thing that jumped out to me is you'd feel one thing. If it was, okay, they ran into a few, but it wasn't just the case of them running into a few and, you know, having cabin and, and Springer and Vladigo deep again, like Varshow was a guy who jumps out to me that it even felt like he had a, a better approach and I don't know, maybe it's opening day and you're looking at things with more rose colored glasses, but I, but I certainly saw that down in lineup as well. Right. And I think that's where the, the, the situational approach really applied and that you get bases loaded there after the, the Guerrero home run and Alejandro Kirk comes up and he's not trying to hit a grand slam there. He just gets a pitch that he can drive up the middle. He drives it up the middle. There's a two run single and it's Kevin Caremire afterwards and he shoots a ball through the left side using a bit of a raised defensive scheme against them and he's able to bring home another run. And then the next inning, it's a couple of walks that set the stage for Boba Shet who lashes a two run double for, for some more add on runs. So I think that's the kind of thing that you're hoping to see and, you know, it's a good picture that they did that against the exact effluent and a raised bullpen that is also pretty good. So that has it's encouraging again, one game, but for all the questions that are around the team, like ego, opening day isn't, you can't take it as an indicator and say, okay, this is going to apply over the entirety of the season, but it's like in one game, it answered so many of the questions that have lingered over the off season. And you're like, okay, that's, that's what you wanted to see in the first game of the season. We've seen a lot of games at the trough less so recently when the divisional games have been chopped down to 13, but you're seeing anybody hit it over the batter's eye? No, that I was actually debating that afterwards, I was like, have I seen a longer home run here? I feel like there might have been someone who who crushed one to laugh or to write. I looked it up, by the way. Did you look it up? Because I did. No, I was writing because I have responsibility. Yeah. I have no responsibilities to take artists over here. Yeah. No, I looked it up. So no, uh, Alex Rodriguez has a ball that is regarded as the longest home run at the trop at four seventy five, I want to say, but it was more left center and you couldn't say like definitively it went further than the Vlad one. Like I think, I mean, as far as I've the games I've seen, that's the farthest home run I've seen hit at that ballpark. Yeah, it's definitely like right up there in terms of home runs that I've seen here. And that is there was some conversation afterwards of like, you know, I think four fifty might have been a little bit light on that one. Yeah. That was pretty funny afterwards, he was just like, for me, anything, anything above four hundred is bonus. So it is a clear offense and I'm good. But I think again, the Vladimir or junior one is one of several players who's looking to sort of turn around or turn the page on the way last season, it went for them on a personal level and he had a great spring. You saw the way that he was lacing balls and the way that he was elevating and his swing just looks some fiercer and it certainly worked. And then right again, you get some positive reinforcement opening day. So for him, particularly, how important is that to see the results early on and not the results of you're, you know, slapping some singles the other way, but truly driving the ball. I mean, hey, like you said, it's not going to be four fifty every day, if it was, we're talking about a pretty special season. But for him specifically in terms of sticking with a different approach, how important is it to see these results early on in the season to allow this to kind of take hold before you start expanding or you start kind of pushing in other ways because we haven't seen that in the past with him specifically. Yeah. And it was pretty interesting on the workout day, I asked him where he feels most different this opening day compared to a year ago and he talked about how mentally he felt he feels so much better. You see, he's got the off seasons work to lean on and to trust in to know that that's going to be underpinning everything that he does. But he also talked about just wanting to not, not try to do too much in certain situations and knowing to trust his teammates and to not put everything on himself. And, you know, that's obviously easier said than done, he's someone who is, who knows that he's carrying a significant portion of this team's hopes this year on his shoulders. Every conversation that you have, it all comes here. You hear people say, you know, this, we need our offense to be both Latin George to driving it and that recognition is there. But at the same time, he seems to be in a place where he's not going to, doesn't want to force the issue. And he knows that if he can do the damage that he does, then he's going to be all right. And I think he saw really good swing decisions from him yesterday. Everything was sort of right around the belt and up a little bit that he was swinging at. And that's where he's going to do his damage. And he, he forced, he was forcing the race to come to him rather than trying to hit what they wanted him to hit. And that's, those are all good sides. I think that's, that's when you're seeing Vlad when he's locked in. Yeah. It was really good. It's a really good swing decision. So I think we all could have guessed exactly how that lineup was going to look yesterday. Maybe it looks exactly the same today. It's like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I wonder how you think how fluid this lineup will be. And maybe early in the season, you just want to get everybody into a game. So maybe that's, that's what you get today. You get the run, sort of run a game. You get the Daniel Volga ball game. You get the David Schneider game, but specifically Schneider and boy, you know, Camabigio hits a home run yesterday. Maybe this isn't the day for that, but like, how fluid do you think the lineup will be? Or is that the like the set it and forget it lineup against righties? I don't think they're going to have exactly a set it or forget it kind of season. And up at the top with the front four, sure, there will be some stability there. Beyond that, there's going to be some movement because one of the things that the Blue Jays really feel that they've done is that they've got guys who can hit different kind of pitches in different kinds of zones. And so yes, you'll see decisions made based on platoon, but you'll also see lineup decisions based on whose hot zones match up with where a pitcher, where a pitcher's hot zones are. And you'll see sometimes lineups built around defense to really complement whoever it is starting that on a given day. You're going to see some flexibility and that's going to largely be a second and a third, but a little bit in left and center as well, where you'll just see those pieces moving around. And that's largely where the bench can augment too. So there will sort of be a sort of set it and forget it portion of the lineup. And then around that, there should be some reasonable amount of flux. So a one person who may be part of that flux eventually was not in the lineup was not on the roster, but doesn't mean they weren't in the ballpark last night. I'm sure you saw Joey Vato's there. Our reaction to that was just that it was kind of odd. Do you have any reaction to that at all? I mean, maybe this is just par for the course of the Joey Vato experience. He's a little bit different, but yeah, I just thought it was odd to see him in the ballpark last night. Did you make anything of that at all, Shay? That's Joey being Joey, there's not much to make beyond that. And he's obviously a baseball fan first foremost, obviously he's a Hall of Fame caliber player. But you know, Joey Vato still got some, got a ways to go before he's on the field. And he hasn't resumed baseball activities yet. And once he starts out, he's going to need a buildup to get himself ready. We keep hearing that he wants something akin to a full spring training. So that's going to take some time for him to go through all that. So there's quite a bit of runway here before we can have a real conversation about whether or not he's, he's on the cusp. But you know, Joey Vato finding his way to the ballpark, I don't think that's so he'll be a surprise for anybody, even if it is sitting in the stands. But I'm going to presume this, but I'm guessing there are major league baseball rules that meant he couldn't, you know, hang out with the team like he had to go sit in the stands. Are there rules that would have prevented a minor league player who's not on the 40 man or anything like that from having been? I mean, I know we'll see it occasionally where after the draft, it's like, Oh, this guy's going to take some BP or you will see this occasionally. What would do you know if there'd be rules that would prevent Vato from if he wanted to have been there just being, I don't know if it's in the dugout in the clubhouse, but with the team in some capacity or their major league rules that would have prevented that, do you know? I mean, with on the clubhouse, I don't think so. In terms of the dugout during the game, there are some rules around who can be there. There's been some push around those in terms of how many people are allowed in the dugout, how many staff members are allowed to believe the Yankees are a team that may count how many people, how many staffers are in an opposing opposition dugout and complained to MLB about it. You know, that probably would be a surprise knowing that organization. But they need it. But you know, there some of the injured list guys were around the team in the clubhouse yesterday. Yeah. They're Swanson, Romano, and Noah, yeah, they were they were around there, too, and it's different with guys who are who are injured. So yeah, that that's probably a factor about it, too. But all things considered, Joey ended up being, Joey ended up by, excuse me, ending up in the stands is not necessarily out of character either. Yeah. You know what it reminded me of? Like the last time I can remember, and I guess he wasn't a current player paying for a game buying a ticket to a Blue Jays game and being recently in a Blue Jays uniform. Remember when Billy Koch, I think it was his second time around trying to catch back on with the Blue Jays signed a minor league deal was with them in spring training. I want to say this 2005 and then it was upset at being cut and then like because he had a bunch of school kids, he was going to bring to the game the spring training game. I think Blue Jays, I forget who they were playing in spring training, but instead of them being decked out in Blue Jays uniforms, he had the opposition team. Do you remember this? Like, am I misremembering this? Do you have a memory of this? I feel like it might have even been at the Trop for Wiggles' game and like he was jokingly heckling the bullpen from the stands. Yes. Yes. I don't remember the exact year and the exact scenario, but yes, that does sound very familiar. And look, you know, I don't think Joey paid for that, Jake. I mean, I disagree. I disagree. No, I disagree. He probably probably has a hook up that's like, yeah, we'll get you a good seat. Don't worry about it. You're a convention. I know there's no cap, but you know, yeah, no, I don't know. Okay. Last one. It's the most serious question. This is honestly shy. Be ready for this. You need to steal yourself. This is the biggest journalistic thing that will be asked of you today. Okay. So we wondered whether we would see the home run jacket yesterday. George Springer hit the first home run, no jacket, and then Vlad's back to doing the Pantomime jacket thing. And then we, you know, we're going down the nine man line up yesterday or yeah, that we saw yesterday and trying to evaluate who would be likely to vote yes on on Homer jacket and who would be likely to vote no on Homer jacket. And it felt like, so we left Justin Turner aside because we're like, we know so little about like we, we don't know so little about him, but we're just getting to know him and he kind of does like you can make arguments on both side. And we went through the line up. There was four guys on each side. So it feels like he's the, he's the deciding vote here. I mean, you getting to know him and understanding the, the, the Justin Turner of it all. Can you weigh in one way or the other, whether you think Justin Turner is a jacket guy or not? Wow. Yeah. You're definitely stealing myself for the hard hitting stuff. The, it's interesting. I actually think that he would maybe, he would look for the, the pulse of the clubhouse is my guess and that he would want fans would want to know, I think he'd want to see what where the groups collective would be on something like that. And I don't think that he'd want to do something that would in opposition to a big portion of the clubhouse. And so the, the home run jacket is an interesting topic. I think externally internally, I think it's, it's something else, but there's so much focus on, on the jacket and a home run celebration externally. You know, I'm not sure that that's, look, I think this blue juice team understands that there's a real opportunity for them this year that there's a window of opportunity that shrinking a little bit that wants to emerge from last year and some of the difficulties both in terms of scoring runs and the postseason, the, the jacket is probably further down the list. I mean, I'm glad brought it up with his own volition during a, you know, preseason interview. I don't know. Okay. Can you, can you confirm that it's like, is it with the team? Like if they wanted to do the jacket, know the whereabouts. I believe it is in, it is in this area. Yes. Wow. All right. Breaking news. See we, you, you thought you jokingly said you're going to steal yourself to do some journalism and look at that. Breaking news. Good job. I'm like, we're, we're air quotes journalism. All right. You might. Yeah. No, that's not us. That's legit. Man. Great job as always. Shy. Enjoy another round of regular season baseball today. I appreciate it. Looking forward to it. And then like you guys said at the beginning, it is nice to, but we, to spend so long talking about what it might look like, it's nice to finally start saying what it actually looks like. Yeah. And after one game, pretty good. See you. Shy. Try to be. It's a jacket with the team. Like you seem pretty confident there. Like, yeah, no, I love the wording of the area in the air because you have it. No, does, does Joey Votto have the jacket? Was he going to throw it down there last night? Okay. Can we park jacket for two seconds? Not that it's any more serious. This is equally as wishy washy, whatever. You baseball guys got to make up your mind if stack cast is right or not. I can't live in a world where there is a website that can tell me the exact degree that a ball was launched at and far be it for me to understand how the physics of all this work. But there's just equations for the like, I should be simple. I don't like that all of you, like it's like Schneider's doing it. You're doing it. Shy's doing it. I know. I don't know. What's 450 really? And I just, I need to know if it's real or not, because I see this stuff of like, oh, O'Neill cruise through the ball 101 miles an hour. I don't know. Maybe that. Yeah, I know. It should be. It needs to be real. In or out. You're right. I find myself going to that. I never go to it. The NHL edge. It's a myth. For all I know, it would get, it would just redirect me to baseball stack cast. But I do find myself going to stack cast a lot. You have to be right or like, you cannot have a website devoted to all of this and it, and we're all sitting here and I'm not even saying you're wrong to do it because you're not on an island here. It's everybody's on the island if it is one, but yeah, you're in and you're out. I don't like the wishy washy nature. Each start for the Blue Jays bad start for stack cast. Yeah, I mean, speaking of stack cast and whether we believe it or not, I mean, the stack cast doubters were in in full display yesterday or maybe the ball doubters were in full display yesterday because Mike Trout hit a home run and he gave the Angels a brief lead against the Orioles ended up being one of two hits the Angels had and the absolute beat down the hands of the Orioles is, you know, because they're the angels. Yeah, no more dwells, Joe to no more, but yeah, the crux of it still hits. Anyways, so he hit a home run. There was a little deep dive into how odd that was that he hit a home run on that particular ball because he hit it at 37 degrees and between a hundred and two, a hundred three miles an hour and doesn't seem to track the average pull ball at that degree and at that speed traveled 378 feet last year. The one he hit traveled 400 and two fit feet yesterday. So we have numbers that suggest that that should that ball shouldn't have gone as far as did. But it did yesterday. So it's magic though. So it's a little different. Yeah, either the ball is different and also it's not, you know, the balls generally travel further in the warm weather, but I don't know, I don't know, some weird stuff happening with stack yesterday. Maybe they did, it takes the maybe stack has just early season. It's early season. Okay. I'll, I'll allow it. I just, I don't, I don't like the sport that prides itself on everything being the most measurable. And it wasn't even like a finicky measurement. They've been measuring stuff in feet for like thousands of years. This isn't some ex-fip rating. What else? How far did a ball go? We're all questioning it. Tough. Great start. Again, amazing start for the Blue Jays. Rough start for stack gas. Get it together. Or maybe they were just right and like, yeah, we won't be. Swayed by the facts. I didn't want to start there. I do tend to believe the computer as opposed to you. It's like John Schneider, I can have a different opinion on, but you, I'll take computer any day. It's probably a smart move. Time to have the Waken Reich presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown Sportsbook 19 plus bet responsibly. It is hockey night in Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs headed down the highway to Buffalo to play the Sabers, wrapping up the season series. The season series that they're just trying to split down the middle, finally got their first win of the season against the Sabers last meeting. I came in overtime, obviously last time they were in Buffalo, didn't go so great. Neely Samsonov was looking over his shoulder a whole bunch. He'll probably, I think, be the starter on hockey night in Canada against the Sabers. Sabers still mathematically alive in the Eastern Conference playoff race, but boy, feels like their season once again coming to a disappointing end and the Leafs all of a sudden have some things to play for, especially the way the Panthers have played recently, like home ice advantage is still a thing, the lightning are coming on strong, but yeah, always a big game between these two teams because of the proximity, there's a bit of a rivalry there. They're always, they're always will be, Dalina Matthews just kind of can't stand one another. I think that if you want to get some value on this game, you've got to assume it's eggnite for the Leafs and you go Sabers Moneyline, like the only place you'd find value is least by one and a half, Sabers always play them tough, that's tough, taking an under in this game is hard to see, but I don't know, like we've seen the overs hit a lot, so I think you either got to look at the over or you got to go Sabers just on the on the Moneyline is going to be where you're going to find your value in this game, I would think. Yeah, there's an argument to be made that this is a trap game with the game against the Panthers looming on Monday, but if they know it's a trap game, is it really a trap game? I mean, hard. Yeah, mine in a box here. My brain is in a pretzel. All right, that was the way can write presented by Sports Interaction. Your home grown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Jack Adams award winner, Bruce Boudreau, fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 5-9 to the fan.
