(upbeat music) - Goodner. Bad morning, Joe. Sports at five times. - Bad, bad, bad. That's pretty good. Bathing suit. If you glad that they went back to the jacket as opposed to a bathing suit? - Like the Mancini. - Yeah, I mean, I think you would've had to go like full Borat Mancini. If you're gonna do it, go all the way in with like the shoulder straps. And, you know, you have that visual now. I had to think of it you all do as well. God, they've been talking about it. Can you imagine if that got out before last night? Oh, the clubhouse. They've just been waiting for the outburst. You know why? They want to bring back the jacket. Yeah, it's all sports are the dumbest sport. This is when it's baseball's turn to be the dumbest sport whenever we have jacket discourse. It's a log season. I love it. And good morning, Ben. - Good morning. - Yeah, it's dumb. Sports, I kind of like when sports get into the weeds of dumbness. - Of course. - Okay. We can have our big brains and, you know, people can be paid their millions of dollars to analyze the swing speed and the depths of... - Hell? - Oh, no other things. - The depths of amateur sport to try and find the next diamond in the rough. And they can have varying degrees of success. I would tend to think that, you know, the average fan isn't that far off with their ability to evaluate such things. You know why? Because sports are random. - Yes, they are. - And they're played by human beings. And sometimes like stupid stuff like, wearing a man Keni or breaking out a home run jacket or a red carpet, which I didn't realize the Blue Jays were using previous to yesterday's game. That was not a new thing. That was news to Dan and Buck as well. There's like a red carpet, which I guess is put on the ground of the dugout after a home run or is it always there? Anyways, they already had a red carpet. - Just don't put a Blue Jays logo on it. 'Cause then we get into other dumb sports cut. - No, there is. - Oh, like that's right. Blue Jays logo on it. - Don't step on it. - I know, I think it was stepped on. - I know, this is the thing. It's like another dumb sports rule. We've done this ad nauseam. We're like, oh, don't step on the logo. And it's like, well, they'll put it on the floor. I'm glad to see that they were able to avoid the dumbness of that particular partner. - I loved it though. Honestly, this was such a topic heading into the season. Silly, funnily enough. And I have no problem with it. I just like, let me be on the record there. There are going to be takes to be had. There were takes to be had. It's a long season. - But you know what? I think that's a straw man argument. I think there were moments. I think honestly, the Homer jacket people who have proven incorrect here that like, hey, this team isn't serious enough. You got to trade away Teosker Hernandez, Lourdes Gouriel Jr., because this team needs to focus. It needs to be super professional. Like, I think the idea that you alluded to some big discussion in the city of Toronto where like the same Mimico dads that want Mitch Marner shipped out of town for nothing. And like yelled at on his way out of town that those guys are also going to have their discourse about how the stupid Homer jacket is embarrassing the city of Toronto. I don't see that happening. - No, I don't. - I think everybody views it probably in the correct light right now. And I'm open to being wrong, which I've been in things that I thought I was pretty certain I had the temperature of the city on. But I just, I don't think, like people are primed for this, like, oh, here comes, you know, the people that were anti-jacket out of the woodwork. No, I just, I do not see it happening today. - No, I agree with you. I think, I think where jacket discourse goes from here is to where like one started is like, who's the leader of this team? Who's clubhouse is it? And what tenor does it want to take? But guess what? The team's scuffling, they can't hit a lick. They've got their first Homer out of the cleanup spot in the season last night. We're way too deep into the season for that to be happening, lean into it. I don't think the discourse, if there is any to be had about it, is that? I do think, and it's like the strawman of strawman's, but like, you know, somebody has every take of like the people will not like it in a series against white stars that I know you won, but you had the embarrassing out in the night before. There's going to be a little bit of that, but it's not, it's not jacket referendum like we've had. - I think the, here's, listen, maybe that exists? And I'm, yeah, I'm sure there's some person that thinks this is stupid and beneath this team. And despite the fact that like every team in baseball has some sort of a home run celebration, the Orioles do like a beer bong, and they drink water? - Yeah. - Seems like more elaborate than putting on a jacket. But I, okay, all I wanted from this team is to do something desperate, right? We're in desperation land. - Yep. - Blue Jays were five games under 500. They had just been too hit by the worst team in baseball and shut out five nothing. We're in danger of going a full calendar month without winning a series. The organization has one of the best power hitters in the minor leagues. Now, whether he's one of the best prospects or not, that's up for discussion. But Arelvis Martinez and the power that he's displayed since being called up to, or since being moved up to the upper echelon of the minor leagues has been, he's hit the most home runs. And he's done the thing that they asked him to do. They're like, be more selective, take more walks. He's like, no problem. Did that, continues to hit home runs. He's sitting there. But Blue Jays hit no home runs. He's just sitting there. - Yes. - He's continuing to mash. Spencer Horowitz, we've seen at times in his brief Major League foray look like a Major League hitter. Addison Barger, off to a great start. We saw him for a little bit, but that was due to injury. Kevin Kiermaier was on the injured list. We saw him for five games and he had one hit. And that was it, fairly well. This organization has not acted in urgency. They had, until what, four days ago? George Springer leading off. Despite 150 plus games of league average offense of play, a season ago in every metric telling you that he has diminished bat speed. The organization's not doing anything desperate. What do the players have at their disposal? Not much, but one thing. How about this? And it's stupid. - It is. - And there's no logic to be had. But yeah, if you got a thing, it's all you got. Might as well use it, they use it. I honestly, I give the Blue Jays players kudos for trying something because the manager's not doing anything drastic, the organization's not doing anything drastic, the player's taking it upon themselves to do something stupid, but in this market, drastic bringing the home run jacket back. And it looks different, better, I would say. There's like the sleeve with the Canadian flag. Kudos to the players for doing something. - I can't go quite that far. I will say I am a big believer in like the juju and like, hey, you put on your right shoe all the time. Let's try the left shoe. It's like, yeah, a little bit of that from Chris Bassett. He went to the high socks. It's like, I don't feel like we see that from him ever, if not very, very often. So I'm a believer in all that stuff. I think it is absolutely, it is not lost on me how funny it is that it's Bo who hits the homer and we all believe like he hates the jacket. - That's the number one reason to believe that this team is like doing whatever it takes. Like Bo even smiled as he put the jacket on, right? Like Bo, because everybody, it didn't have to be a hundred percent consensus when they went to decided to bring the jacket back. But obviously, everybody's- - Do you have the board out like your John King on election night? Like, all right, we have the Alejandro Kirk referendum in here, let's see how the voting goes. - I would love to see the breakdown on this. - You joke, but like, clearly this was a team discussion, right, like this is not, well, it was a team discussion to remove the jacket from play. We know one guy, Vladimir Greer Jr. wasn't too pleased about that. - He loves it. - He was on record with Hazel May that hey, maybe we bring the jacket back and really like the jacket. It took until the end of May for it to return, but there was clearly a discussion had amongst those players, whether it was as formal as, yeah, like, hey, which constituents do we need to move to my side of the aisle, some bartering as far as somebody giving up something to get something? - Now I need to go back and look at all conversations had around the cage the last three days. It's like, oh, I don't know, Bo and Vladi, they're really talking here. They're cutting a deal on the jacket. Here's what I can guarantee you though. If there was something bordering on formal, Boba Shett would have been the leader of the opposition. Like, Boba Shett was, he was, you know, you have the state of the union, then you have the rebuttal. - That's exactly where I was going. - You got the rebuttal, which nobody watches? - No, I mean, people watch the clips that get made fun of from the rebuttal. - Yeah. - Yeah, Boba Shett would have had the counter-argument to the jacket, but you know what, he lost? And he smiled because he hit the first home run out of the cleanup spot this season for the Blue Jays. She had, again, to John Morose. I feel like that was on nobody's radar till John brought it to us. - I was floored by that stat. I wouldn't have sat here and said they had 20 or 10 homers out of that spot, but I don't know, more than one maybe. And I don't know, if there's any other sad stack, sad stack, sad stack, there we go, Blue Jays stat, we should probably bring it to light 'cause I didn't know we had these powers. We have to lean into them. I didn't realize we could do that. - Yeah, that one, we also had John Schneider, I don't know. - Feels like he should be talking to Choyotani's, a translator/bookie guy because he, before the game, predicted that Boba Shett would go yard. And that, on this team, is impressive to predict anyone to hit a homerun 'cause the Blue Jays are bottom 10 and baseball on a homerun. - You know what, you got to tip your cap to John Schneider for that, man. Like, we had a lot of hat-tipping conversation. You got to tip your hat to Schneider there. Played the hunch, put him in the spot. Boa was bound to go deep one of these days, but it is just, I couldn't help but watching that or think about that driving in. It's just the conversation of the tenor we had of his postgame yesterday of, "Well, you got to tip your hat to crochet, you got to tip your hat." And it's just, this sport will do this to you where you feel like you're watching a completely different, and you're not, like, still the Blue Jays, still all the problems that existed that we were talking about yesterday still exist in part today, at least. But that's the thing that I just continued to, I couldn't stop thinking about driving in, is just how night and day any team can look in this sport, specifically this one. - Yeah, they beat the worst team in baseball to improve to four games over 500. They do the bare minimum in that series, which is not nothing. Like, you can't ask a team to sweep a series. It would be nice, and on the return engagement in Chicago, sure, but feel well within your right to sweep the worst team in baseball. Taking two out of three, absolutely bare minimum, as the Blue Jays now head on the road to Detroit. George Springer, notably not in the lineup yesterday, but just like, you know, he's aged. - Yes. - He's not gonna play every day. He played pretty close to every day last season, though. I wonder, and listen, George Springer probably tees off on the rookie with now an ERA, approaching 12 as well, but, and not to say that, like, Kevin Bijio is some incredible option offensively, and some incredible upgrade over George Springer, but the potential exists for him to be an offensive upgrade over George Springer. I wonder if the Blue Jays don't sprinkle in a few more rest days for George Springer. Under the guise of, hey, you were the healthiest, you played the most you played as a Blue Jays last season, it didn't result in better offensive play. So how about this year, George? We ease up on the accelerator, and twofold things happen. Maybe the thing that we said is the reason why you're getting extra days off, actually does manifest itself in that you play better because you're more rested and you are in your mid 30s, or if that doesn't happen, somebody else has a higher offensive ceiling than you right now, and they give us a better chance to win when you're not playing. Yeah, I think you have to. Obviously, if you're messaging it to Springer, you start with the first thing you said, but I think the more important thing is the second. I think you can just get better at bathroom somebody. The thing that I think is interesting with Springer, and this is not a George Springer thing, this is an aging baseball player thing, as opposed to the other kind of four major sports, is that you can't play George Springer 11 minutes a night. Like, you can bring him off the bench if you need a bat, you can put him in as a defensive replacement, if that's what you want to do, but if he's not playing, he's not playing. Like, you can't do the thing like, you know, we've seen this with the Leafs, if Jason Spetza's gonna give you, you can have 19 minutes of okay play, or 11 minutes of awesome play. We see this in the NBA all the time, with rotation guys, and then they're asked to start, maybe doesn't go quite as well. I think you have to try this with Springer, because the idea that there is a better player on this team now, what they're getting on a Springer, and what they can get is very true. But I still think George Springer's ceiling is potentially, especially if there is some, you know, not truth, but if there is some benefit from this rest theory here, that you still have to try this, because you're paying the guy 20 sheets a year, still gonna need him to do something for you. And it's just how many times in the Springer, well, the last two August and September's, we've been having these conversations. So I think you have to try it, but I also think it's not an apples to apples comparison, like we see in the other sports, with the idea of, you know, giving a guy 11 minutes, a night or, you know, knocking down his minutes in an NBA game. >> Yeah, at the most optimistic, or if you're George Springer, the most pessimistic, you're gonna be about how many games he's gonna play this season. If he's fully healthy, it's still, you know, 135 plus this season should be stated. So Kevin Bijo's off to a rough start this season. We can all agree, right? Like hands, we'll all shake hands and say like, hey, Kevin Bijo had a nice end of the season last year, and you wondered if he could carry it over, hasn't really been seen that yet. Kevin Bijo's got, even in this horrible start to the season, a 330 on base. >> Mm-hm. >> George Springer's got a 285 on base percentage, okay? And like last season where George Springer was a league average player, OBS plus of 102. So 2% better than league average. He had an on base percentage of 327, which is lower than what Kevin Bijo's is right now. Again, like Kevin Bijo ain't no Barry Bonds out there. But the bar that you're asking for that player, whether it be George Springer or George Springer's replacement, the bar you're asking that person to reach, not stratospheric. So yeah, the idea that he gets a night off and you roll the dice with the Kevin Bijo or, you know, it's Addison Barger, gets another kick at the can or Spencer Horowitz, who's spent some time in left field this season and it's Dalton Varsho in right field, or something, whatever it is. Yeah, they don't have to do too much to make you not think wistfully of George Springer. >> No, and I think the other part of it as well is not that Springer was ever a pure power guy when he came in here. I mean, you know, we know what he's done out of the lead off spot in terms of starting games that way. But I'd feel a little differently about it too if you still felt like, okay, he's a guy who's gonna, like I understand he's a better option than Kevin Bijo to run into one. But with this team's lack of pop, I think there is a world where you could thread that needle if you felt like he was still more of a kind of power threat. I know he has the three homers this year, but- >> Yeah, one fewer than Vladimir Grasor Jr. >> Well, this is the problem with like the extremely low bar for what is a, what's considered a power threat on this team. That's the other reason why I think, I think why I think you have to go this route with him and trying to kind of slow play it. Maybe you get a better version of him if it's four days a week as opposed to five or six. >> Chris Bassett, I thought was pretty good. Like he had a third inning there where- >> Yes. >> Basis were loaded thanks to a Vladimir Grasor Jr. error. I was able to escape that jam. He goes seven innings giving up zero earned runs, five hits, four strikes, a couple of walks, EO right now at four, three, nine. Nice bounce back for Chris Bassett against the line up that was full of lefties, albeit a lineup that again, is trotted out by the team that has scored fewer runs than the Toronto Blue Jays. There's only one team that's on that. It's the Chicago White Sox. But whatever, scoreboard, he did the damn thing. I think we can all, at this moment, while we can say Kevin Bijo is struggling, we can all agree on that. I think we can all agree on this too, right? >> Okay. >> That if we're judging by performance and expectation. >> Okay. >> That Chris Bassett today is this team's fifth starter, right? Like not in name. >> Right. >> I started game three of the season, but is he better than Jose Barrios? >> I think pretty clearly not. >> Jose Barrios had one bad start, but he was the April American League pitcher of the month. >> Pretty good, yeah. >> You say Kukuchi, despite the fact that he had three walks devastatingly in the middle game of this series and wasn't able to shut out the White Sox giving the Blue Jays a chance to win in 45 innings. He's been great, okay? I think Kevin Gossman, there's real reason to believe that the slow start was due to him rushing himself back, due to the injury he sustained in spring training. Looks a lot closer to the Kevin Gossman we've seen in the last couple of years. Alec Manoa, it's just two starts, but holy cow man, and against not the White Sox. >> Right. >> In those 14 innings, I think it's given you more than what you are expecting at a Chris Bassett. Is it okay if Chris Bassett's your fifth starter? >> Okay, it's exceptional. Now the team had finishing outs out of a playoff spot with the starting rotation where a guy who would be a lot of teams like number three starter, that is untenable. But it's a great position to be in that Bassett is there. I'm with you, I'm a Noah. I think you have to look at the pedigree, what he has done, the ability for young players to get lost in the wilderness and find it again. I don't know that I'm quite ready to say that I would trust Manoa more in a spot than I would Bassett. I think I'm still more comfortable with the floor you get out of Bassett, but I'm not blind to the reality that in a month's time that is a foolish conversation. I'm not saying it's gonna happen. I think we're very much in a tipping point with Manoa. He stacks one or two more of these things together and I kind of feel like he's all the way back. The thing I'd say about this is if you're gonna be and just copy and paste the conversations that had about this offense all season long, if you're gonna be the hitting or sorry, the pitching and defense team, Chris Bassett doesn't have to be your five starter, but I don't know that he can be your number three starter with a button and not that that's the way this team is constructed, but it's just, yeah, Chris Bassett four, Chris Bassett five, that's what it is gonna take for this team to have any semblance of a chance because of what the offense is. So it is not a good position to be that the team has been kind of built in such a lopsided way that the rotation is so stacked and you have these questions on offense, but I don't know how I can look at it as anything other than an amazing position for this team to be in the Chris Bassett as their number five starter. - No, it's awesome. - Yeah, okay. - Okay. - Awesome. - I was very, I have to be honest, you texted me that last day? You're like, Chris Bassett is the number five starter. What does it mean? I'm like, it means sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops. I was very confused. Yeah, it's great. - Yeah, Chris Bassett finished 10th in Cy Young award voting last season. People forget that. They're like, Chris Bassett was pretty good. He had the horrible start, remember his debut where the pitchcom thing wasn't working and he gave up a quadrillion runs to the cardinal since first start. You're like, oh, what did the Blue Jays get here? And then bounce back incredibly after that to finish the season with the 3-6 ERA. And again, finishing 10th in Cy Young award voting ended up with 200 innings on the nose. Okay, the results haven't been great this season and especially against left-handed hitters. Like, that's been problematic. Like, watch with your, with your peepers, your eyeballs. Now, the walks have been more than you'd like at a Chris Bassett. And even after yesterday's start, his walks per nine career high since he had his Tommy John surgery in 2016 at 4.1 walks per nine. But he's thrown, like I've seen 97 from Chris Bass, and I feel like this season. Like the velocity seems there. Like the swing and miss seems there when he's on. And I know it's a white sock, but man, you know he's capable of that. How many starters have a, or how many teams have a fifth starter that are a guy that a season ago finished top 10 in American League Cy Young award voting? And has it to say none. - Ben, there's not many teams that have like a third starter that's in that position. Not to say there are none, but it is not. I think that's the thing that we're kind of, or I'm kind of slowly coming to the realization. It's not even a realization, 'cause I knew the unit was great, but this isn't merely a good starting rotate. This is elite best stuff in baseball. And I think that there is still, this isn't to say they are definitively the best staff in baseball, I think you can make arguments for other rotations out there. But for this group, that is why this season feels so hair on fire. I mean, there's the bow and Vlad timeline of it all, but we talked about it yesterday, the idea of wasting this. And where you have a Cy Young, a guy getting Cy Young votes as your number five starter. The guy who are sitting here debating, who's four, who's five, was the crown jewel of the organization. And one of the three pillars, they were looking at building this thing in Alakmanoa. It is an incredible spot to be. And the other thing about this is outside of Kakuchi, sky's got control, they're not going anywhere. I mean, they might be going somewhere, depending on what this team does. But that's the other thing about this is that this isn't, all right, well, they're all mercenaries, they're here on the last year of their deal, or one year deals, that's not the case. You have these guys in theory, if you could ever find something on the offensive side of the ledger, you have this unit to build on. - So good vibes all the way around. Three, the last four games have resulted in victories for the Toronto Blue Jays. Four games now under 500 as they go to a Tiger's team, who they're trying to track down in the American League wildcard chase. It's too early to look at standings, but Blue Jays. - I've been looking. - I mean, the state of Major League Baseball is such that they are only three and a half games out of a playoff spot, despite being four games out of 500, they got the Tigers for four starting today. You mentioned, hey, maybe you're not going to be part of this team if this team doesn't perform two expectations. We're going to talk to Rob Longley, the Toronto Sun later today, who had a story. Yesterday, that included a quote from Kevin Gossman that reads "thusly." The reality is if we don't play well, this team will not be together for much longer. It might take another year. It might take another year and a half. It might take a couple of months. That's just the reality. If we want to have success and be competitive with these guys, we've got to do it now. We've got to go. Now, it's an element of this team that you don't often think about or at least I don't, because yeah, I think of the money being the thing and myself in a professional athlete situation. It's like, yeah, I like these guys, but I'm really mostly thinking about myself and the money. But these guys have already had many millions of dollars, right? The money is gonna come wherever they go. These are guaranteed contracts. And it does feel like this team has a semblance of camaraderie. And this is, despite there being the odd Justin Turner and even Kevin Kirmar, who's on a one-year deal, he's part of this team. He was here last year. Just feel like this is a team that, I don't know if you can say that they believe in themselves, but there's obviously an element of that that they think that this team is good enough to do damage the rest of this regular season and into the postseason. But it doesn't necessarily want this to end, at least if you believe what Kevin Gossman said. - Yeah, I think it's interesting that it comes from Gossman 'cause the way I read that is that, yeah, if I'm a position player, I wanna be a part of this. Those guys give us a chance to win every single night and the camaraderie aspect, they don't think you can overstate as well. We talk about the changes that have happened and there have been a lot, but there have been kind of key tenants of this thing. Like, we roll our eyes at it, but it's like, Kevin Bezier, how long has he been around and part of the furniture here? Vlad, Bo, I mean, you mentioned Gossman, he's been around for a while now. Alec Manoa, these are guys that have been together and as frustrated as we've all been at the one run in the playoffs last year and what happened against Seattle? You know who's more frustrated about it? I dare say, or at least as frustrated, Kevin Gossman and guys of that ilk who have been through those traumatizing moments for a fan base, for lack of a better term. And I just think, how could you not want to, or how could you at least not have an appreciation that there is a real chance that you will not get to, forget to finish the job, like borderline start the job here. And Kevin Gossman might not have intended it to sound this way, but that was to me the biggest indication that there could be a growing divide between the pitchers and the offensive players here. Like, you could have an offense defense thing, but you occasionally get in the NFL, which has happened like seemingly every single year under Zach Wilson with the New York Jets, right? I hate that guy. We're all like, agree. The starters in particular seem very tight. Even when Alec Manoa's not going great and he's on the il and he's working his way back, everybody walks out together. I've been all over this. Manoa, like, even when he was far from a certainty to be back with this, he is a part of that rotation thick as thieves, they all are. They all had a you say kukuchi bobble head, according to Dan and Buck yesterday. And they look around and they're like, you guys, like we're setting the bar offensively as low as we possibly can. You guys are limboing under that. And as a result, we have to wave goodbye to you say kukuchi in July. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, man, maybe something we should consider going forward if this offensive output, not yesterday, but like the overall season offensive output continues. >> They should give the starters their version of a jacket, like instead of handshakes when a guy's out of the game, it's like they actually deliver all the time. They should get a thing. It's you say kukuchi's $3,000 bottle of Japanese whiskey. >> And that's only when he starts. It's like, I feel like Kevin Gosman deserves something if he has a good game. Alec Manoa, same deal. >> Yeah. >> And also God, what I'd give to get in on that $3,000 whiskey tasting club. >> I had some Japanese whiskey the other day. It's a little sip. Neighbor had a birthday. >> Told me about this, yeah. >> Not $3,000. But yeah, it's pretty good. All right, when we come back- >> A couple of years. >> When we come back, Sheldon Keefe, despite telling us when he was on that lake, that he's gonna take some time off, hang out with the family, and boy. >> He was Kyle Dubis' man. >> Yeah, really. >> It would take a ton for me to leave what seemed like the most idyllic setting on planet Earth. We found something that would pull him away from that, as he is the next head coach of the New Jersey Devils. And it seems more likely that the Maple Leafs found the next man gonna be charged with fixing their power play. That and more next as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan. >> Hey, it's Ailish for a Fire. >> And I'm Justin Cuthbury. >> Join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night. >> It's the fan pregame, 6 p.m. Weekdays on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 590, the fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC] >> Fan morning, Joe Sportsnet 590, the fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, MSG House of Horrors for fans of New York sports. Game seven loss by quadrillion points. Nix watching Jalen Brunson's hand disintegrate, had surgery. >> Yup. >> And unable to advance the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals. And then Game 1, the Eastern Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup playoffs, resulting in bunch of hype and a lot of excitement in the first game until the end. But not a whole lot going on, and not even a Matt Rempe to be seen. >> No. Healthy Scratch in Game 1 prompting ESPN's Mark Messier to say, hey, what's going on in this hockey game? Perhaps a spark required. >> All right, so there is somebody's voice, so I think resonates louder. >> In that market in particular, than anybody else's. If you're a peer lab, you'll let out. I was like Matt Rempe and not in the game too long after Mark Messier goes on record. And you, I mean, not that Matt Rempe is going to score. >> No. >> But like you do nothing, not a whole lot. Like there was a little sequence there in the third period. And so I gave Bob Ross, he was flailing around. But what did you have? Like did they hit the 20 shot? >> I don't, I thought it was 19. I thought they finished at 18, whatever it was. >> Yeah, that's, nobody has, like maybe in North American pro sports, who has a more outsized voice when it comes to one organization, then Mark Messier bringing a Stanley Cup to the New York Rangers for the first time in quadrillion years in 1994, guaranteeing a victory over the Vancouver Canucks. >> Yeah, he says Matt Rempe has got to play. I guess Matt Rempe has got to play again too. >> Well, it's also the right thing to do. Like I'm just going to agree with like, whether that was Mark Messier or Joe and Mimico saying it, you know what my reaction is? >> Hard agree, good job, good, good take had by all. You, this is a Florida team there. I know the Keynes were the ones who called themselves like the bunch of jerks. These are the real jerks of the NHL, okay? This Florida team, they love war crimes. They love to main people out there. They want it to be greasy and, and they always want to be the biggest, toughest team on the ice. And I don't think one guy changes that, it changes it when he's out there. And like, that's not to say the Rangers are lacking toughness. I mean, like true about a couple of huge hits last night, because he's Jacob Truman, he played in an NHL game. He's physically incapable of not doing that. But I think you need to have Rempeh in there. And it's not to go out there and completely change the game. But it's get in on the forecheck, get the building rocking, have some semblance of energy. And I also think that it's not just a tough guy thing, because I sometimes think people hear this and they go, "Oh what, the Rangers feel tougher?" Because I don't even know that it's that, but you know what it is? They clearly feed off the energy that he brings. I remember there was the moment earlier where he had the goal, an MSG, and he's doing the interview afterwards. And they go, "Oh, your mom was in the building. Do you have a little more juice?" He goes, "Oh, come on, baby. You know, I always got juice." Like he's just that guy. And you lost game one of a series. I would have had him in there to start it. But if you want to get the momentum back, you've already lost on home ice. Got to get him back in there. Yeah, pretty clearly. And again, Mark Massier says you do a thing, and you're the New York Rangers, you do the thing. The Panthers is going to be tougher for them to claim that they're the underdog in this series. No, after that game one handled late and controlled the play against the president's trophy winners. Last thing from me on this one, the goal that was called back that could have made it two nothing, that in the moment felt super important, obviously. Yeah. One nothing, you know, with five minutes left in a hockey game, a lot different than two nothing with five minutes left in a postseason hockey game. And maybe it's easier to do this because the Panthers did win the game, and they didn't allow the Rangers to score it all. But Palmer is just like, yeah, it's the right call, which I mean, seemed pretty 50-50 to me. The argument was that Ryan Lomber got into the crease before he was eventually pushed further into Igor Shusterkin, which I could see. But man, is there a way to get more clarity on this thing? No, I was like, that's a 50-50 call. I could see it both ways. No, I don't think there is. Unless you want, and I don't think there's a soul who wants this, unless you want to go back to the Brett Hall rule of like, well, it shouldn't be called that. It should be like the Brett Hall exception. He was allowed to have his toe in his crease. Nobody else was like, unless you want to do that. And I don't want that. I like guys in the blue pain. I like guys battling for position, especially at this time of year. I am not shy to criticize NHL officiating. And a lot of times people say, oh, it's hard getting to fit. I say, I don't care. That's what the money's for. Figure it out. This is the one place I do have sympathy. I don't know what you're supposed to do. I think they made the right call there. But if it would have gone the other way, I think I probably would have said, okay, that's fair. Now with the Maurice of it all, pick your battles. He's going to pick them. This is the guy who now, maybe although he's playing the Rangers, so it's like, it's not the least, but it's the next team that would garner the most attention that he loves to do is five to one and throw up the hand signals of how many penalties they've had. He's going to be screaming at the refs later on in this series. He's going to be working the media, looking for an angle on something. So pick your battles, say, oh, who cares? Right call, let it go. Timberwolves lose game one of the Western Conference final in the NBA. It's not great to lose home court advantage, but they won both games on the road in Denver. Denver bounced back with three straight. So yeah, they don't prove a concept of being able to get off the mat here. And they had an opportunity to win this game at the end if Carl Anthony Town's put back wasn't called goal tending. Luca Donchich with a game high 33 in this one. Did you see this from Keith Smith, NBA reporter yesterday? Who broke down the numbers? So it does feel like, well, one TNT is going to lose the broadcast, right? So we're going to lose inside the NBA. Just go suck. But somebody's pointed this out. This is very important. We have a year of Charles Barkley understanding he is losing, at least that job at the end of the year. That's true, right? Yeah. And somebody else is like, he hasn't had his contract. He'll land some. I think he'll be able to hear Chuck and possibly Shaq, but certainly Chuck. Yes. Somewhere else, whether it's on NBC or whether like some streamer just grabs that show entirely, even if they don't have the play-by-play rights to the NBA. Yeah. And they just air that show. And that becomes the place that you go to in every intermission. And NBC is like, they're trying to. Hey, look at me. Wacky waving inflatable into whatever that guy is called. Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing two men. So the NBA is getting $7 billion per year for the media rights. This from Keith Smith, which will likely lock in 10% cap growth. That's the max the cap can go up per season starting in 25, 26. If so, the cap will top 200 million in the 28, 29 season. The 35% max salary that year projects to be $72 million. So this is important. There's one more year for Luca Donchich. And then he has a player option, which is obviously going to opt out. The fifth year salary on that max deal. So that the first year of that max deal in the 28, 29 season 72, the fifth year salary on that max deal. Mm. 95 million dollars. [LAUGH] It's a one year. Yeah, I want 95. Yeah, 95. The total value of that max deal. Five years, $419 million. So almost a half billion dollars on a five year deal. And $100 million almost, 95 million on the final year of that deal. So where my mind immediately went with this is soccer. Obviously, they're the guys who make the most money now. But it's always very wishy-washy. I'm sure if I cared more, maybe I would have a hard and fast figure of how much Mbappe made. But it does seem like it's like they get paid per week. It's that there's transfer fees involved. Well, it's like, hey, you can take the money and go to Saudi Arabia, Cristiano Ronaldo, and make $100 million a minute. So I have no understanding of how that world works. This feels like soccer money. The idea of a nearly half billion dollar. This ain't the NFL fully guaranteed contract. I don't begrudge these guys. Look, guess what? We all love the NBA and they were able to sell this package for billions of dollars because of Luca and because of Shay and because of LeBron. And pick whoever else you want to throw. Yo-kitch as well throw in there and Charles Barkley must be honest. Like he is part of the furniture with the league. But it is just so mind-boggling to see that figure of half a billion dollars. Yeah, that's a cap sport now. It's a soft cap. And baseball, you know, all the salaries are going to be rising. Maybe in Major League Baseball, we have somebody with a contract that averages out close to $95 million by that time. I don't. I probably don't think it seems a lot. Yeah, we'll see what Juan Soto signs this off season. Or in season with the New York Yankees. Although now, Hal Steinbren is saying. What happened there? We're not spending. I'm not trying to derail the conversation. But yeah, it's like three minutes ago. Yeah, how about just like stop talking, Hal? Yeah, or I got to be honest, if you are going to cry poor, keep crying and but stick to your guns. I don't want to hear you cry poor all season long. And then I got to watch you shaking hands with Juan Soto with a podium. Yeah, so we'll see. Maybe Juan Soto averages over $40 million a year. And that, I mean, they're allowed to have contracts that extend beyond five years. Unlike the NBA. Or they could just give guys money into perpetuity as well. But like it does feel like NBA players will almost be like royalty. Like they'll be a different sect of society. Like they'll be separate from the other professional athlete brethren. Like when you're making $100 million a year in salary alone, like not including the ancillary things that come along with that. Like you're in a different, like who's the comedian who has the expression about like being rich and being wealthy? And it's like, oh you think, like Shaq is rich. But you know who's wealthy? The guy that gives Shaq his money was like signing Shaq's check. Like you become wealthy. Like you're, I understand somebody signing their checks too. I was going to say Mark Cuban, but he doesn't own the Mavericks anymore. But this is a weird deal where he like owns them in name. Yeah, but like that's a different level of society. Even amongst that insane quadrant of human being. Man, can you imagine, and I get not to make everything about the Leafs, but it's like how many of these teams share buildings with other sports? Oh yeah. And you're Austin Matthews. Dude, it's. And the best in the world are like among the best in the world of what you do. And you got to look at whoever the Grady Dick is by the time the cap goes up to where it's a $95 million max salary is making two thirds of what you're making. It is absurd. And again, I do not begrudge the mid at all. No. It is just remarkable. And you're right to point out the chasm that this will create kind of among North American athletes. Like there is all it does seem like all the guys at the top of the stratosphere and like we'll just completely remove the NFL from the, or sorry, the NHL. Cause those guys just don't sniff what the other top guys make. But it's like my homes and Juan Soto and a Luca Donchich. It's like those guys all fit in the same club in terms of what they make right now, or will make when they get their big, big deal. Yeah. It's not going to be the case if these guys are getting $95 million a year. And also how does it make, how does it make any sense? Like from a, again, just looking at comparisons of the joy, you probably shouldn't do it. But it's like, you're Patrick Mahomes. You're like, hold on. I'm the king. And I know this is your take. So sorry for, and everyone's other than mine. But it's like you won three or four. You're the king. You're the, you know, goat in waiting. And I make half the money. Luca Donchich is going to make the, and the NFL is still king. That's the other part that is just so jarring about this. Yeah. We only have to play 17 games. Yeah. And not 82, but put your life on the line. And you're going to play 65 though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And your contract is not guaranteed. No, honestly, it has made, we were talking about, hey, these guys sharing the same building and having to interact with each other. Yeah. You know, you get major like baseball team. And it's like George Springer making $25 million. And you got the, maybe Spencer Horowitz gets called up at some point this season. And everybody's out to dinner. And everybody obviously like just pays for Spencer Horowitz's meal. Right. Right. Spencer Horowitz isn't going to the wall. No. But like if you're, yeah, if you're Austin Matthews, and you're going out to dinner with Luca Donchich, making a hundred million dollars a year. Like he, Luca probably looks at you. And he's like, oh, man, he's like, yeah, like put it away. No, no, no, no, no. We don't have to play the credit card game. You know what? We'll play it. I have five here. We'll just do it with all of my credit cards. Insane. All right. No, you're, you're right to point that out. Cause I think like we see the big muddy stories in sports and like, you know, we had it this summer or sorry, this winter with Otani and his deferred payments. And it's, you know, 700 million or whatever it is. But yeah, it is so he's not getting that. No, no, no, no, no. But like, all right. So say he was just none of that money was deferred. What is it? 10 year deal? I thought 10, maybe 12 though. Yeah. So that's 70 million dollars a year. So he's looking up. He's like, there's a George Springer between him and what Luca Donchich is making. Yeah, there was just the, just a whole marquee free agent in the sport between the two of them. The most overpaid player on the Blue Jays in the, yeah, the biggest contract the Blue Jays have ever handed out to a free agent. That's the gap between Show Hay Otani and the money he could be earning and isn't. Like, isn't. But like, if there were no deferred payments, he was making 70 million dollars a year. What Show Hay Otani would be earning and what Luca Donchich could earn as a max eligible extension player is a whole George Springer. So stupid. Yeah, it is. So something else I'm thinking about with this is like, you know, we see this all the time and generally speaking, there's a lot more room between this where you'll, you know, you'll hear players from, and this is again, this is all sports in the 80s. And it's like, oh, we're making X, Y and Z compared to these guys. It's nuts. It is possible with these rules that, you know, maybe it's crazy to say about Luca. It's like, maybe here's a little bit in the league a little too long, but it's like, you know, Victor Wenbinjama might pass LeBron James in career earnings. By the time he's 30 or something, like if you're LeBron, and you know, I know everyone's like, oh, yeah, you're in the tank for LeBron, cry more. But if you're LeBron and you like, he didn't build this league, it was here before him, but it's like he was the steward of it for two decades effectively and not that he wasn't very well taken care of by rules that him and Chris Paul put in place for themselves to get as much money as they possibly could, which I don't begrudge them. But it's like, I think his player option is for 51 million. Again, not crying poor for him. But if LeBron James is going to sit there and go in his and, you know, who knows how much time he has left, but maybe it's two, three years left. And his last season, he's making 55 again, not crying poor for him, 60 million. And then a year and a half, two years later, there's Luca signing a deal that'll eventually pay him 95 in a year, whatever it is. It's just, it is insane to think about that. And it's like, you don't need to make it about LeBron. You could make it about Curry. He's been a guy who's shepherd of this league along as well. And guess what? Stephen Curry's not going to be hanging around long enough to get the Luca Donchich 95 million dollar deal. Yeah. And that's one year. And again, I don't begrudge. I mean, this is the way, well, one is the way capitalism works. And two, this is the way, like this is a cap to sport, right? So the players are just earning 50% of the revenue that the league doesn't. Soft cap, though. Sure. Like you can go over and luxury tax and penalties. Yeah. But the salary cap is determined on the amount of revenue that is entering the sport, right? And certainly the new CBA has been more prohibitive to spending above and beyond it. Sure. Like the level of which your hard capped is much lower. Anyways, we'll get to the Sheldon Keith thing in just a second. Let's do a quick little story here today. Yes, please. Maybe it'll be a big story tomorrow. So the footage is going to be released today of Scotty Sheffler's interaction in Louisville, Kentucky before the Friday round at the PGA Championship. So we've already seen the arraignment delayed until what, like June 3rd. Anyways, it's supposed to be this week and it's first week of June. And we've seen some intimations that there'll be some dropping of the charges. Yeah. But if that were the case, why would you be? And this is the Louisville Police Department that is releasing this information that today there will be a media availability and that the footage of this interaction will be released. Does that indicate anything to you? No, I think it indicates him getting a lot of calls. I think that's probably the biggest thing is that they've been getting inundated with the golf media. It's like, you know, we just had a major, you know, our beloved RBC Canadian opens coming up, but they got some time to dig their paws into into some other things right now. You know, I'm trying to remember the timeline of all this and it's, you know, so forgive me if I don't have the exact details, right? But I could have sworn the aftermath. There's like, ah, the body cam wasn't on. It wasn't working. Yeah, it wasn't not on. I know, funny. Not on. But now they have footage of it. I, I expect this is a big nothing to be perfectly honest. I don't think they're having an availability today to be like, look at this thought. Look at what he did. I don't think that's what's going to happen. I think they've been getting hammered by it because it's not just a golf story, right? Like CNN wants in on this. Everybody of that, of that ilk. So I don't be wrong. I'd love this story to have some legs and us to be able to talk about this tomorrow because that we're going to do this show hopefully for a long time. I don't know that it'll ever get more fun than that Friday morning of watching everything that happened and see his mugshot pop up and all of that. But yeah, I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be a big nothing. We're going to see how the cop ripped his pants. Okay, well, that's right. We're going to see in the police. Yeah, for everybody. It is $80. We're going to see how that happened. We're going to see exactly what it means to be attached to a car and how long he was dragged. And I mean, whether that was embarrassing for the police officer. Is there any, is there, do you think there's any world where something is seen today that changes the narrative on this from Scheffler's perspective? Because again, I was. I'm not so curious about like it does feel like, and I guess if you're the police department, you're legally obligated if you have the footage, I suppose, to release it publicly. Again, this is not. State rights. I don't know what's going on. Yeah. This is not body cam footage. So this is footage from like, there's a, on a poll, there was a security camera. Right. Outside of the gates of, of Valhalla. If you're not obligated to release that footage, like you, if there's a trial, there's obviously everybody has access to that if you're on either side prosecution of the defense. But the idea that we all get a chance to say, I don't know if legally that's just you have to do that. And if you don't, and you're the police department, aren't you indicating that this is an argument on your behalf that, hey, I also think it's quite, it would have been well within their rights to just say, hey, we messed up. We didn't understand that all the circumstances. And it's all gone. Like it's over. We dropped all the charges. It's nothing to see here. Big mistake. Me, a culpa, that hasn't happened yet either. So like, I'm open to the idea that something comes out today that it's like, oh, it's a, maybe not Scotty going away for a long time, but that, that the idea that his lawyer, you know, in a week and a half's time has done his job and finished his billable hours, maybe not. Yeah. By the way, just like, what a come up for that Louisville lawyer who like, I don't know if sheffler is like switched attorneys. And I feel like he probably has one on retainer seems like something somebody of that stratosphere would, would maybe deal in. But yeah, it's, I, I, the immediate reaction to me was not surprising, but it was so jarring of one trillion percent. Oh my God. How could, how could they do this to poor Scotty? And like, I'm not saying that that's not what we're going to see today. But it is, I'd be very curious to see how bad the video would have to look for people to amend their takes on this because it does feel like everyone's kind of made up their mind from the outside anyways of like, yeah, he did nothing wrong here. The cops have even said so, so he was able to play how bad could it possibly have been. I, I do wonder how, how bad it would have to be for perception in the golf world to change quite honestly. Because again, I made the, I made the case on the Friday morning. It's like, you go tell literally any guy in that gallery that like an NFL or NBA player, exact same scenario. They'd be like, well, I don't, I'm playing that night. It seems a little absurd, but when the golfer, they have a little more latitude to maybe see things his way. I'm curious what the video would have to look like for people to amend where they're at. I think what we're going to see is Scotty Sheffler dragging a police officer for 20 yards and his pants falling down, maybe getting ripped. I mean, does that change your perception? I got to see how fast he's driving. What in the cop? I'm like, where's he? Did he attach himself to the back bumper? No, I think he's hanging on the window. I do too. I do too. I'm very curious. This is why we, this is why when we have food on, he was like dying to get his jokes off. I'm like, oh, hold on. Hold on. Yeah. I mean, one thing is for sure going to be true. At the end of Scotty Sheffler's career, I mean, the image of him in the orange jumpsuit and whatever video is released today will be part of the montage of the career highlights of Scotty Sheffler. 100%. All right, we'll come back. Yeah, Sheldon Keefe hired with the Devils. Looks like we're days, if not moments away, from Marks of Art being hired as an assistant coach to Craig Barouba. We'll get into both of those next is the fan morning show continues. Ben Ennis, Frank Gunning, sports net 590 the fan. I don't even look at it as getting fired. I said, damn, I get to play more golf.
