[MUSIC] >> Man, morning shows, 4759, man, it's Brent Gunning. Happy Monday morning to you, a Monday after the Toronto Blue Jays depart Oakland for the final time with a series victory. How's it going, Brent? >> Yeah, it's going, you seem very chipper, I gotta be honest. Like I came in here not chatty today and I dare say you wanted more chat on me, okay? All right. >> It's, yeah, you have the wrong sense. >> Okay, good, I was trying to be affable, yeah. >> Okay, we're done, we can move on to the sports? >> Yeah, we can, no, I just, I'm still trying to get a read on you. I was like, does he want more talk, I don't have more talk today. >> I felt like you were just being that nice guy, yeah. >> No, I wasn't gonna say I didn't know you had that in you. I just like, that's what that looks like, okay, okay, for me, all right. So good job, happy Monday, the Blue Jays beat a team in a series, good job by them. >> Yeah, you know what else? I'll tell you what else. >> What do you got? >> You don't have to answer that, cuz I'm gonna tell you either way, okay? >> Don't ask that by the way then. >> The Toronto Blue Jays no longer dead last in the American League East. How about that, you know why? Because the Tampa Bay Rays are dead, like one of the worst teams in the big fly factor this season. And it's finally starting to show itself in the standings. Blue Jays surpassed the Rays, they had a chance to surpass the Red Sox over the weekend. But as it stands right now, half game back of the Red Sox, they are in fourth all by their lonesome in the American League East, just one game below 500. So this team, again, until I see something that you can bank on a little bit more than taking two out of three against the Oakland A's, one of those victories coming in extra innings. >> Yes. >> Until I start seeing Vladimir Guerrero Jr carry this offense, Boba Shett looked like his best hitter in the American League South. I'm loathe to say that this team is bankable, but it is true that they have a better record than, well, I mentioned it, the Rays. The defending World Series champion, Texas Rangers, a perennial playoff team, the Houston Astros perennially in the American League Championship Series, Houston Astros is true. The San Francisco Giants were the biggest players in free agency this offseason season. The Chicago Cubs who landed maybe the biggest free agent in the offseason was a guy that came back to their club in Cody Ballinger, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are the defending National League champions. So again, two things can be true. And I think this is where I land on the overall thesis statement of this. So two things can be true, Blue Jays not very good. Lots of teams also not very good. >> Welcome to baseball in 2024, baby. >> So that's it. The Yankees, the Dodgers, those teams are good, the Braves, those teams are good. The Blue Jays are in this murky middle and I don't think they're as good as the Rangers who have like a positive run differential despite having a worse record than them. They're not very good, but there's a lot of not very good teams battling for those final wild guard spots in both the American and the national league. >> Yeah, we're very much getting to a not point of the season, but just a point for me with this Blue Jays team of you are what your record says you are like we've had enough of these things and you nail all the teams there. They are very much a part and parcel of that group. It's like what I might much like you have the Texas Rangers above them before sitting here doing a power ranking or whatever. Yes, of course I would, but I also think that there is enough talent despite everything I've said about this Blue Jays team of these airwaves this year. There is enough talent for them to have a hot month, have a hot streak and play better baseball than any of those teams right there, but there are also more than enough question marks that if the game goes the other way for them that any of those teams can look better on any given day like they are very much a part of the mushy middle and it's just very mushy and there's a lot of it in baseball in 2024 like you have to start winning series. You have to start splitting them. So kudos to them. Like I'm not going to sit here and poo poo a series win albeit against the A's and I don't want to make too much of that either. But those are winning habits and you just have to find a way to kind of stack those together for this team. I don't think it's going to happen. I think we're going to have a lot of false starts of Oh, is this it? And then Oh, you got a Brewers team that's actually maybe half decent and you're going to see what that looks like coming up here. But that's that's been my read on this Blue Jays team over the course of I don't know. I feel like we've been looking at it kind of in these two week stretches where you had the bad stretch against the the the pirates and the white Sox and who else in there the Tigers were in there. And then okay, you have a split against the A's and you go ahead and take care of your business as you know by the skin of your teeth honestly against an A's team but you can't sit here and poo poo that either. So yeah, I think I think when you lay out all those teams makes a ton of sense where they're at. All right. We've hit our limit on poo poo. Okay. And no more poo poo. Okay. Yeah, they've been poo poo. Yeah, the series victories that they have over the last month now has reached four teams. There are four teams they've won series against over. It's actually more than a month sample. Okay. White Sox twice. Wow. Congratulations. They took five of six games against the white Sox. That is what it that's not a series by the skin of your teeth. So good job. No. And look at Hey, Red Sox just split a series against the white Sox. I was just kidding. It was good to say it's funny that you when you gave the standings at the beginning of the week and they didn't catch red Sox. It's like well, they were playing the white Sox. So it seems kind of impossible. Yeah, it almost happened. I know. They needed an extra innings victory yesterday I think to salvage it. Exactly. Six four. Yeah. In 10. I heard your red Sox affinities shining through. I was looking at the box versus one anyways. So yeah, they've eaten the white Sox and beat them five out of six times beat the pirates in a two out of three series to salvage that eight and five 13 games stretch through bad teams. And then they beat the Oakland A's and again their final series ever in Oakland. There's not a ton to take away from this game or this series, honestly, in general, it's like, well, congratulations like Kevin Gossman, Chris Bassett, look, you looked amazing both of you. Hey, the A's can hit some home runs here's our last 27 Yankees, right? They're not the 1927 Yankees over there that although they have some pitchers, holy cow, like if you think so maybe Jimmie Barry Zito is you think Jimmy Garcia is at the top of the reliever available while like I think the guy that averages a hundred and one miles an hour Mason Miller who has a strikeout percentage of 50% which is like that's just insane and it looks nasty to when you see him. Yeah, I think that guy likes coming. I think, yeah, if you're looking for a really reliever, it might be that guy that you probably will and there's all your chips on the table for multiple years of control. Yeah. So that thing, but anyways, um, kudos to Chris Bassett and Kevin Gossman who look all shades of amazing and incredible that Kevin Gossman's been in, he's been doing this thing throwing baseballs for like a long time. It's first ever shutout. I mean, it does speak to the, the era that we live in when it comes to starting pitching, but still it was shocking for me to see that he had not at any point in his entire major league career registered to shut up. But kudos to those dudes. The, the relievers just needed to throw one pitch in the first two games that it was. Yeah, Chad Green, give it up a walk off tater and game one of the series or else we'd be talking about maybe a three game sweep for the Oakland A's and Bowden Francis did a bounce back to and yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. And the Blue Jays tying the game up with some small ball, whatever, the A's stink. Blue Jays needed to pick up a victory, um, in Oakland to get closer to 500. Now it's a real series against the Brewers team. I did want to talk about that being the final game in Oakland. Okay. Before we do that, you mentioned Kevin Gossman's complete game. I don't need to sit here and soliloquy on there, you know, have a 10 minutes, soliloquy about it, but I love that. I love that for him. That is a guy who has been the, you know, not, I don't want to sit here and make it out like someone else has been more of the heart and soul. They've all been heart and soul, but Kevin Gossman really feels like he's been at the, the center of this rotation. I mean, burrios has had his, you know, blip season. We know what has happened with Manoa since his, you know, year where he kind of burst onto the scene. Gossman has been the constant for this team and yeah, there have been dips. I've been the one kind of occasionally bringing the alarm bill up. Please. This can't happen. I love to see that from him. I think the idea of just complete games in 2024. The fact that we can have that it comes in a shut out. Awesome to see for him. So I don't like, it's just one of those stats that doesn't, it almost feels like it means more than it does. It's he had a hundred pitches. It was a great outing, but he's had a hundred pitches and seven innings and is that, you know, it is technically less impressive, but I just, I wanted to remark on that because we just do not get them in 2024 anymore. So seeing it from Gossman and for it to be him, it would have been special if it was Bassett because he prides himself on all that stuff. And Koochi would have been floored and everything else there. But for it to be Gossman, it feels very kind of fitting. Yeah. Again, kind of mind bending that he did not have a shut out in his major league career. Chris Bassett has two in his career. Sorry, no. Yes, he has two. He has his, both of Chris Bassett's career complete games were shut out. So, yeah, I mean, if you're going to do it, might as well shut them out. If you're going to hang out there in the whole time, percent, yeah, no need to call it a complete game shot out because a shot out by definition is a complete game. But it's like, it's like a unicorn in 20, like the complete game to me is almost more impressive. You need to like iterate. You do is like nine innings. Yeah. Well, okay, maybe that's a little nine inning complete game shot out 27 out 27 out nine inning complete game shot out. Yeah, let's extend the name. We really should for him. Kevin, how many? Let's be honest, how many more of these are we seeing from a Blue Jays starter this year? Probably not. Well, they're out of White Sox games. And now they're, I guess we haven't seen the A's at home though. So and what will the worst team in baseball look like in September? I don't know, like maybe the J's will get a chance at it. Yeah, we'll see. All right. Anyways, kudos to the Blue Jays for taking the series. And again, the offense showed up and hey, guess what? Isaiah kind of fell off. I had a moment again where he looked like Blue Jays best hitter in X ratings yesterday. But yeah, Oakland is a weird place to think back on. And that ballpark in particular, because that's it. Whether they eventually end up in Las Vegas or not, there's been in the next three years in Sacramento in a minor league ballpark. They're leaving that ballpark. Great. Okay. So I agree, right? Like it's a horrible ballpark. And apparently the infrastructure there is brutal, brutal, brutal. My great was actually going to play the minor league ballpark for the next three years. Oh, well, there's also a double great right now. But no, it's it's viewed as one of the worst ballparks in major league baseball. I've been there. Congrats. Yeah, I did a California baseball road trip where we saw every single California ballpark except for the big A. I will say we got the best weather in Oakland. And it was like the most intriguing baseball experience for me as we walked through the tailgate out front where we saw. I couldn't have been older than 12 years old, the 12 year old drinking a beer riding on a skateboard. So that was interesting. Can you, by the way, just how cool does that kid sound? Yeah, don't do that kids, but like how cool this he said. Yeah. Yeah. We walked through like a tunnel and there's barbed wire all right. Nice. That actually reminds me of the walk into the old Joe of like the tunnels there with the Detroit like people mover. Anyways. Yeah. So I've been there and it and it does. I think if you did a straw poll of worst ballpark experiences is probably up there. I mean, if you're a pitcher, you probably very much enjoy pitching there. It's not even the dimensions or how difficult it is to hit a home run. It's just so money foul ball thinking you don't even think about being in play. You say Kukuchi knows this very well. We talk talk about his little so journey into the action yesterday. Didn't think he was good. Didn't think he was participating in this series. He wasn't listed as a probable starting pitcher, but yeah, factored in to the end result. Anyways, so that let me ask you a question. Okay, it's good, good spot to do it. We got a few hours to chat here. So I'll take your I'll field any questions you have. How will do you think the Coliseum is? That's a great question. Like when do you when do you think it opened? I would guess like a guest late 80s. 1968. Oh my God. The Oakland A's have been playing in the Coliseum since 1968. I don't know all the fingers there. Is it before that? I mean, I feel it's got to be so the guys in the broadcast there, uh, Danny and Joe did a great job talking about the history of that ballpark and the names that are at the very top because they typed off the topics. They don't act stadium by the right to the right though. Imagination. It is a historic ballpark. It's a joke now. And part of it is that they've allowed it to fall into disrepair and there's no football tenant there anymore either too, right? Like the Raiders are gone. So it's a sad situation, but that ballpark has immense history. And we've all seen muddy ball like that team played there. That's true. It's some all time all like Ricky Henderson is on the short list of greatest baseball players in the history of the sport spend almost his entire career playing home games at that ballpark. So it's a joke and we think about like the sewage leaks that they've had there and how it feels like a football stadium and like actually the bigger joke is probably when the Raiders played there in the middle of baseball season and they had to, you know, run over the the infield actually my lasting baseball bet like not actually, but that is a top five thing I will think of with that stadium is watching some running back tackled into the infield. Yeah, my lasting memories of the Blue Jays playing there will be of most teams that I thought had a chance to play meaning full September baseball, you know, before we got the the resurrection of this franchise in 2015. It felt like the California road trip, which started in Oakland, would always signify the beginning of the end of any hope for Blue Jays teams. But there's so that that ballpark's a joke and it's an absolute travesty, what's happened to that franchise. But it is weird that that ballpark, I guess, it's it's only slightly younger than the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won a Stanley Cup. 1968, the Oakland A's have been playing that it's unbelievable. Yeah, they should, the least should win a cup and and hurry up and make that not a sad anymore. But for the Oakland thing, you're right, even the franchise. I mean, obviously, like the Eckersley Alamar moment is going to tie the franchise together forever. Obviously, A's fans were like, yeah, I don't know that I love that that's what you think of with us, but it is. That's the thing. And, you know, obviously, we understand everything that happened with Alamar, but that is still an iconic moment in franchise history. And honestly, that's the thing. I think of that ballpark. You mentioned it, like I go bash brothers, I go Barry Zito and that is the honestly that like that pitching staff with Mulder and Zito and everything that they were able to do. And then you do take a money ball and it's funny, of course, like all the world series, those money balls teams won. Oh, wait, none. Don't ruin the movie. Okay, they won a bunch of games in a row and it was very exciting. And then Brad Pitt's daughter played the guitar. Okay, don't don't bad American League West. Yeah, can go and then get ready for this. It's caved in in the American League playoffs. Imagine I had a Shawshank as a agonist like they did win the World Series in that movie. I don't know what you're talking about. That'd be great. Except that's true. Unlike the Shawshank one where I'm writing you all think I'm wrong. But that's the thing I think of is the first thing I think of with A's and that call to see him is going to be Alamar and the hands up and accuracy getting taken deep. That will always be it. But there are these kind of touchstone moments like bash brothers and then those the money ball is that again with their famous millions of World Series wins that they have in their back pocket there. It is a sad sack ballpark and honestly that franchise has always felt I'm trying to think of what the right word is to me because it's almost like a diamond in the rough. It's kind of how I felt like the A's like the green uniforms. It's just something we don't see in sports and just the whole way the whole org is falling into disrepair. And honestly like my lasting memory of that park will be when it was I know you said I can't say poo poo anymore. So just say it once is when there was poo filling the stadium and they had sewage leaks in there. That is what they allowed it to go to. So yeah, once proud franchise and the ballpark's kind of befitting of where that's at now. Yeah. And I like that we have the occasional weird ballpark. Yes. And like you can't go a series as the visiting team playing in Oakland without some comment or some play that happens in foul territory that is bizarre and unlike any other in Major League Baseball and we had the most bizarre play I think of the season in Oakland. With with you say Kikuchi running into Tyler Sotostrum in foul territory, which is like a weird play. And he said like I didn't realize or kind of lost my bearings that there was no railing at the bullpen. Of course, when you're that far removed from the field of play, you don't think that you're going to be involved in the field of play. But like a very bizarre situation that he was the only guy, one that got up and two seemingly like ran right in to the play. Yeah, you know why that happened because he didn't have enough sleep right in the throes of nap time. Yeah. Like I know you're out of this stage of child rearing, but you know my guy gets a little cranky and a little funny if he doesn't go down and nap and you say Kikuchi and I understand what he was trying to do. If he sees the player running towards him, the ball is kind of near him. He's I'm just getting out of here. I can understand the thought process. But then get out of there. But then the idea of running more into the field of play. He should have if anything like scaled the fence or the the netting that they have there. That would have been safer. I cannot wrap my head again. It is the most this dude just woke up and I'm half joking, but half not of everyone else in the world going, Oh, I'm going to go to my seat, you know, away from the baseball game when this happens. And you say, just looking dead into the sun, like he was Trump in a watching the solar eclipse and then sprinting into the middle of the diamond or as close to the action as he could get. I'm not blaming him. It's a it's a fast twitch thing. It happens. A bad decision doesn't matter to me. But my God, that is just such a cavalcade of bad decision making that led to that at all. One spot by reminded me and I'm watching the video right now because I was like, did I remember that correctly? And I did the most bizarre foul territory play that I can remember in my watching of the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay, was in Kansas City. I don't know if you remember this in Kansas City is a like a routine puff lie into foul territory. And Raj, I gave us the right field. There's like running over there. And it's like, yeah, 50 50 plays is going to get there. Here's the ball boy like not even close to the railing, like almost on the foul line, like camp under it. I don't remember this. Oh my God. Yeah, Raj Davis doesn't catch it because of course that this guy, you know, called him off. Anyways, yeah, very bizarre situation in Oakland. Not quite the same. The one that always jumps to my head with that is Manny Ramirez catching a ball on the warning track, seeing a Red Sox fan above the wall and high fiving him before turning around and getting all back into play. There's like the David Wright play that's always better like where he pauses at the wall than just full blown dives into the stands. But in Oakland, you know what that would have been routine fly ball. That's right. But you mentioned something about the quirks of ballparks. And not that we're getting away from this. I don't think every ballpark is completely uniform. I mean, you see what they've you made fun of me for making fun of it earlier. So I'll say great things about it. It's like the wonderful ballpark in San Diego where they have like Western metal supply or whatever it is. It's like Camden Yards, these unique features. And we just can't ever get away from that. No, no, I agree. Everything has become so bring back the hill and used. Okay, let's not. If you're going to, okay, if you're bringing back the hill, you have to put the flag pull back. Yeah, of course. No, no, there cannot be one with an alligator pit. Sure. Why not? But they should have a flagpole in the center center field like a CFL in zone. Just say, watch out. Careful out there. Bring the money monuments back into the field of play in Monument Park and at Yankee Stadium. But I do think there's, I mean, you know, we've had this in other sports where, you know, how many, you know, urban legends about, oh, the soft spot in the boards where guys know they could dump it in and get a weird kick. And I don't know that we need to have that. But baseball is the sport where this stuff should always be a part of it. I don't want to, I don't want somebody making a ballpark going, look how quirky it is. I don't want that. But I do want unique environments where the sport is in the complete complete with the same. And I'm going to sit here and tell you like Oakland is some aesthetic dream because it's not. But just the fact that it's different, I like having it in the mix. I won't miss it at all. But I do like having it in the mix because it's different. Yeah. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. People have told me that. And then I go, you know what I say, more to the same thing I eat for dinner every night. Thank you very much. Yeah. You're aware of that, but you don't subscribe to the theory. I subscribe to it for other people. I'm like, that's a good job for you. Go variety it up. All right. I will. So the bigger conversation around the Blue Jays revolves around a couple of roster moves. Yeah. One was their own decision. One was not. Kevin Bijo and Alec Minoa. So Kevin Bijo is the guy that's DFA'd for Spencer Horowitz and shout out to our pal, Ben Nicholson Smith, who opined on the possibility of Horowitz joining the Blue Jays on this road trip. And in fact, he was activated just as the Blue Jays departed Toronto. Nailed it. For Oakland takes a walk and scores the first run in a first inning in a month for this Blue Jays different spanker. Anyways, Kevin Bijo is the guy that's thrown overboard, not Ernie Clement, not Daniel Vogelbahn, which at first I was like, Oh, the guy who's like, you know, had a few more moments more intrinsically tied to the history of this franchise good or bad than those other dudes. He's the guy thrown overboard. But then you think about it for a second. If you are going to run with Spencer Horowitz, especially if you think he's a capable second baseman in short sample, I mean, I saw enough to convince me that he's gonna make the routine plays can apparently play left field on occasion as well. And we know he's a first baseman by trade. But if that's his job, and he's left handed and he takes walks and he hits for average, maybe it doesn't have the power potential of a cabin Bijo. But yeah, no, this is you're hoping to get a rich man's cabin Bijo at a Spencer Horowitz. I understand like Ernie Clement to me hasn't and there shouldn't be an expectation that he will be a difference maker on this team. But he's right. He's factually right handed. Yep. And brings more to the table defensively than cabin Bijo Daniel Vogelbahn. You know, in theory, you can hit home runs. He's hit one. Yeah. So that's the guy. Yeah, I guess. But if if you're not cutting the court on him, and you've already kind of made your bed with that, like, yeah, it's funny for the team that doesn't hit home runs to give up on the guy that theoretically does hit them. No, it just feels like after more reflection on the topic, this makes the most sense because Spencer Horowitz is supposed to be, like I said, a rich man's cabin Bijo. I completely understand not making Clement the guy you move off the roster to make spot for for Horowitz. I get that. I probably would have looked at that a little closer, quite honestly, but you're right. He's right. He gives you a more competent glove. If that's the way you go late in a game or for a ball game on that particular day, but it keeps going back to Vogelbahn for me. I think the cabin Bijo, yes, there is a world where out of Horowitz, they get a rich man's beat. I think it's just as likely that we're sitting here having frustrated conversations about Horowitz. I'm not saying you shouldn't have called him up, but I think that the role for Daniel Vogelbahn is so, so minimal. You have a guy in Horowitz who can play first base and not can. That's his position. It's the other things he can do. And then you have a guy in Vlad that you have at least opened to the idea of moving around there. I understand the financial commitment you made to Vogelbahn. And I'm sure that's some element of it, but that is just far and away the decision I would have made. I think that if you think, when is cabin Bijo getting into a baseball game? If Spencer Horowitz is on the baseball team, there's never a decision where it's like, "Well, we'll go to cabin instead of Spencer Horowitz." If you have Spencer Horowitz, you don't need a cabin Bijo. You're not wrong about that, but then where's the time that Daniel Vogelbahn is coming in? And you're going to say, "Well, start against Rides in a DH spot and not perform all that well." Sure, but yeah, if you need a home run, that's why he's here. He hasn't done the thing that he's been asked to do, but he's being asked to do something different than cabin Bijo and Spencer Horowitz are doing. The point I was getting to is that I think, if you think you're a playoff team, and I certainly don't think that, but I don't think the Blue Jays would go as far as to say that, I can see a world where the guy who can play multiple positions, and albeit, none of them greatly, none of them at a gold glove level, but most of them competently and can give you, at the very least, an honest at bat, where, yeah, is he going to stand up there with a bat on his shoulders and probably watch four or five, six pitches and entirely possibly watches strike three? Yes, he is. But I think that is more valuable than what you get out of Vogelbahn. And I don't think this is a, for me, it's like, it doesn't really move the needle one way or another, whether it's Bijo, whether it's Vogelbahn right now. But if you think this is a team that is going to go into September and play games with multiple extra innings and all of that, that's the world where I see Bijo making more sense. I don't think this is some crucial error and how could they have done this to poor Kevin? No, I understand the thought process. It's just, for me, it would have been Vogelbahn. And I understand what he theoretically can do. It's just, there's a lot of people who could theoretically do things. I would like to see him actually do it with my own eye. Okay, how about, how about twice? Is that so much to ask? How about three times? It's the middle of June. Right. Right. It's the middle of June. Yeah. Anyways, yeah. It's six and one and a half dozen the other. I don't disagree. It's just, I want the half dozen. Yeah, I mean, Kevin Bijo has a lot more runway left in his major league career, although he's almost 30 years old. He's 29. Just turned 29 in April, but aging him. Look at you. I just want to, like, we don't need a huge, like, long reminiscing about Kevin Bijo, but I will say that this is a guy that was not supposed to be even a major league, or I know the last name, you're like, well, it was written in the stars that Kevin Bijo was going to be a major league, or he was a non prospect. I'm telling you, guy was expected to be an organizational guy. Quad a player in the minor league system of the Toronto Blue Jays didn't have a major league profile until he started hitting home runs, the minor leagues. And then in 2020, in that bizarre, weirdo 60 game season, emerged like at times as the Blue Jays best hitter. And when we've all, who among us hasn't had the dalliance of, oh my God, he's realizing the potential. The eye, it's, it's, it's combining with the being able to hit the mistakes out of the ballpark and the left and end the versatility, second base, third base corner, outfield spot all over the diamond, first base. Yeah, it just, it didn't quite click. I think he's certainly a major league talent. At this point, we can all agree on, on that. I don't know if he's rosterable on a championship caliber team. But yeah, any, I think he, not any fault of his own got kind of lumped in because he's the son of a major league or a Hall of Famer got lumped into the bow and the Vlad of it all, and clearly not that level of player. He's, he's going to be an not an everyday player, wherever he ends up. But yeah, I don't have a ton of bad things to say about Kevin Bijio. Who does? No, no, I think, I think the only thing, the only reason people have bad things to say about him is exactly the last point you made there lumped in with the son of all the major leaguers and what Vlad did and what Bo did. And we can be frustrated with them in our various times. But that also certainly raised the bar for Bijio completely, unfairly. You're right to point out, you know, the, that he wears some of that. If his name was, you know, Kevin Smith, we'd be sitting here talking about what a gritty guy I'm not saying he'd be David Schneider, but we'd be having of like, look at this guy just found a way kept plugging away, is supposed to be an org guy. And look at him here. When the thing I keep coming back to with him, and he can be more than this, but that is just such the perfect 26th man on a roster. Maybe different, maybe you feel differently. Some people are a belief like, I want the pure speed threat. I want this. And so I'm wrong. I love me a splinter of the diamond. Get yourself on base at the occasional home run. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing is you don't need to be pigeonholed into a spot. So I think that's where I keep coming back to it. My didn't didn't even plan to do it today. My impassioned defense of, of Kevin Bijio and Algmanoa done for the season. He's having elbow surgery, whether or not it's Tommy John. I mean, it's, it's almost moot. He's going to miss either eight months or like 14 months. Yeah, it's not good. It's as you would expect when a guy feels like a pinchy sensation in his elbow going to require elbow surgery. I was already at this place with Algmanoa. But now it's like, you have to, everybody has to be in universal agreement that anything you get out of Algmanoa going forward in his major league career as a Toronto Blue Jay is bonus, bonus stuff like this. His, his era of being an effective major league or may in fact be over. We think about Tommy John as being a thing everybody bounces back from. It's not true. And especially not true considering we don't know what he was before the elbow surgery. But that we've those two years that we saw out of Algmanoa being one of the best pitchers in the American league. Those could just be, you know, a couple of footnotes in the history of this franchise. Yeah, entirely possible. He's going to be he's 26 this year. He's going to be 27. And that's the beginning of next year. But like you said, there's no guarantee that this is just a eight month thing. It could stretch longer than that. I have deep into next season is entirely possible. And we've seen it with Kevin Gosman, a guy who obviously didn't have anywhere near his serious, uh, an injury. And the team for sure rushed him back a little, but we know what Kevin Gosman's capable of and look at what not being right at the start of a year did to him. For Manoa, it is just, it's a brutal, it's a brutal, another kind of fork in the road moment for him. But you do wonder from his perspective, if no, he's not sitting here like, Oh, thank goodness. I have to have elbow surgery. But this is a true hard and fast reset that you have now. There is no more come back in August. Kind of see where you're at. See if you can get the, no, have a hard reset. You're going to need to do a full bore rehab. You're going to be a new pitcher when you come back and all the stuff that made him Alec Manoa, it was not 99 on the black every time it was being a competitor and all that. And he can still find that within him, but it's going to be as a completely different guy. And I think that this is in the best for the long term. Obviously now it's a brutal blow for more so him than the J is quite honestly, because I don't know how much they were banking on getting out of him as the fifth starter this year. They had the two nice starts, but that seems so fleeting now. And this just gets to be a kind of hard and fast reset for him when he comes back next year. Santana coming to Budweiser stage this summer on June 26 with counting crows as part of their oneness tour. We have tickets to give away to listen to enter, listen daily to the fan morning show, listen for the code word, then text the code word to 59590 to enter today, text the code word marathon to 59590. Again, that's marathon to 59590. If you don't win with us, tickets on sale at ticketmaster.ca. We will of course get to the Oilers game one loss to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final look ahead to game two tonight after seven o'clock. But coming up next, hmm, Kyrie Irving now Olin 12 in Boston after stomping out Lucky's head as Luca questionable. And then looked like the best player on the court first half Celtics though overwhelming also Scotty Sheffler overwhelming fifth PGA tour victory as we're not yet in the middle of June. We're not yet to the U S open that and more next is the fan morning show continues Ben and his friend gunning sports at 59590 the fan. And we'll get to the Stanley Cup final after seven o'clock which despite a game one shutout by the Panthers, I don't think anybody thinks that this is going to be some landslide victory by Florida over Edmonton at this point. Unless I guess Sergey Babrowski just continues to look like a mutant again. We'll get that just a second as for the NBA finals. Yes. I don't know if I can say the same. So I thought you were going to be like ask if the Mavericks were wondering like we get a goalie. It seems like that's the recipe like a just a hot goalie seems to be the only thing that can prevail over the clearly better team. Yeah. Yeah. The the Celtics were and are and look like the better team than the Dallas Mavericks to this point. Now game two a lot closer than game one. Yeah. Was so excited. 29 point lead. We had that fleeting moment in game one when Luca hit the the bomb three to get it to eight. Yep. And that was pretty much it. That was it. This game started to finish a lot closer and boy, Peyton Pritchard doesn't hit that heave at the bus. Yeah. Very different game. And the end we don't get Derek White and Jalen Brown combining with the combo block on PJ Washington, which might have been a foul as well or ticky tack. Like the lead is maybe three at that point. Anyways, this is different games entertaining wildly entertaining games start to finish. I didn't know a crowd like I knew a crowd could have an effect on the game, but I actually believe and it was only because it was Peyton Pritchard who heaved it that the entire Celtics faithful did will that one into the basket. I actually think that's what that is like their first three of the second half. Like they just could not hit a three to save their lives from that in that part of the Celtics. Anyways, Luca questionable during the day that was like this rumbling growing rumble throughout the day that all maybe not gonna play obviously did play was in the starting line up shock looked unbelievable, especially in the first half he starts nine of 13 for 23 points in the first half look like full on Luca. Now here's the question. Is anybody any person on the Mavericks going to help him give him any aid at all? Kyrie Irving hasn't he had a three now in two games in this series. It looked I guess marginally better in game two than he did in game one. But this is a guy that's now 0 and 12 on the road against the Celtics in Boston since he stomped on Lucky's head. The the Mavericks do not have a team commensurate to with just like the depth of talent that the Celtics have. They have the best player and he's looked like the best player boy chasing Tatum and a bunch of sis yesterday but holy cow. No. Yeah. Jesse Kidd might have been right when he said Jalen Brown's the best player on the Celtics. He looks that way through two games. I mean if it's not true holiday, I was going to say it's still still got the wrong guy. It is and role players play better at home. So I mean I still have hope for the series but holy cow man can somebody please step to the podium and just be like behind but like close to Luca in this series and we'd have something interesting on our hands. Yeah. We use this analogy a lot. We would even take just the person nodding in the state of the union address behind it. Like if Luca just go do the thing we would even take Kyrie behind him going agreed. Yes. We like that that he's doing it by himself role players play better at home for sure. Kyrie Irving makes too much money and way too famous to be a role player. Also way way too good. You need more from him. This is a guy in Kyrie who things have gone kind of perfect for this year. He's been able to be the model citizen him and Luca have molded or melded together their games kind of seamlessly. This is the first time it's got really hairy for them because if the Mavs lost in any of these other series guess what the Mavs were kind of supposed to lose in any of these other series they came in as a five seed. Now the pressure is all on him. It's not on Luca. Luca continues to do this and we're not going to sit here and blame Luca Donchich. I think Kyrie is really feeling it now. I would not remotely put it past him to have a massive game in game three. He is still Kyrie Irving. But yeah the Celtics have clearly found a way to bottle him up and it's not just a mental they've got him in a vice grip mentally thing. They have the bodies and the defenders to throw at him drew holiday. I mean what he has been able to do. Yeah offensively the 26 points or whatever it was he finished with but being able to shut down Kyrie make things as hard as they're allowed to be for for Luca Donchich and then Jalen Brown as well like just his length and his ability on defense. I don't want to make it just about them. Like Derek White's done a good job. Tatum has pitched in there as well but that's been the thing is just the bodies that they have to throw at those guys. It's something that you would have assumed going through the defensive player like and everything that happened with the timber all that you would assume that they would have had to have crossed this bar this or check this box before at this point in the playoffs. But they haven't had to yet and this is why the Celtics are the best team. It's not just that they have the best players on the offensive side of the ball because they don't. Luca's the best player on the offensive side of the ball but they have just so many guys to throw at you and waves and when you only really have two guys to defend makes it easier to do that too. I understand why the Bucks traded for Damien Lillard right like that that and theory made tons of sense. Couple of superstar players playing side by side that's not why they did it though. I mean to appease Yana. That's why they did it. But I mean they're appeasing Yana's because they're like, hey, here's another superstar to share the offensive workload with you and like who didn't think that the pick and roll between those two was just automatic bucket every single time. It couldn't have worked out any worse in the early returns of this thing. They had a championship formula with the guy who I was an incredible stat. They were thrown on the broadcast as a best winning percentage of any player in the NBA over the last four years is true all the day. What a stat. Oh boy. You know who's mad about that Jimmy Butler. Yeah. It feels like it would have been him. If you would have just told me who has it. Yeah. Yeah. That's like a hockey guys like not. Oh yeah. I'm actually going to give up on that guy. I am actually going to text my hockey buds. That's good. I also I would like I don't know if this has been done yet. Maybe they've already done this in Milwaukee. The second the trade was consummated. The Buck will never win a title again. And it is the curse of Drew Holiday. Now now there there was a I have to live in reality. There was a very real world where that was the best Jana season we've ever seen. And the only way the bucks are winning a title is Jana's being superhuman. So we might have already seen the bucks title with her without Drew. But that's no fun to throw all these caveats on it. I like it. The curse of Drew Holiday. You traded him away. You should enough. He winds up at the team. You're trying to beat. He looks like Mr. Heart and Soul and also very good. Sometimes we throw on the heart and soul for guys like him a little too much when we forget to talk about how good they are at basketball. This is also the guy that connected with Jana's on the play that sealed the chip for you. Only the second one in franchise history. The curse of holiday. They will never win another title again. I don't know how they like rectify it. I don't know if afterwards they have to like bring him back and retire his jersey or something. But they're that's done. The bucks are done. They're dumb winning chips after that trade curse of holiday. Yeah, he's really, really good. He's like, yeah, I mean, when you talk about him just being the piece of a couple of championship teams and it does feel like we're trending in that way. It's like, imagine like Big Shot Bob, Robert Orrey, but except like, you know, starting and like, yeah, just like actually more, not just hitting the biggest shots in the biggest games, but like being a huge part of the regular season and the whole thing and also the other thing. Yeah, and being disrespected by being cast off after being a huge part of a championship team for Superstar and now being the most respected. Oh, he also is saying all the right leader-y things. I don't think this was preface. I don't think he was prompted to do this, but afterwards in the Encore interview, making a point to look up at the stat sheet that I'm assuming was still up on the jumbo triangle. Yeah, Jason Tate, I'm almost triple double nine board. We needed him tonight. Throwing it like he gets it. There's never, I shouldn't say there's never, but he is just, he truly gets it. This is a guy who's deep in his career, but he's still in the kind of peak of his powers prime. He can give you everything on the floor. Great leader guy, but because he's not the best player on the team, it doesn't need to all be about him. And I don't say that as a knock about NBA players who it needs to all be about when you're the star in a heliocentric sport, it happens. But he is in just that perfect window of does more than enough to have a really, really loud voice, but doesn't need to be the best player to carry things through. Honestly, just a perfect guy. He's not the player you would build around if you were starting a franchise, you go, you know, several dozen more names in the NBA quite honestly before you got to him. But in terms of a culture setter, I cannot think of a better player. Yeah, he's just a culture, but also really good. Yeah, no, that that's the thing I'm trying to meld with it though is there have been, you know, like late in his career, Shane Baddie on the bench and telling people what to, that's not this. This is in his, this is a peak of his powers right in his prime championship winner, but to be too 10 champion. And it does feel like we're getting the thing where it's like Jason Tatum has been not awful. And he's doing some other things. He's got a good no credit for this NBA title court. But yeah, I mean, you had the Jason kid comments after game one, the Jalen Brown's the best player on the team, which I mean, is it true? Wasn't true coming into this thing. Jalen Brown's very, very good. He's looked amazing. Also through the first two games. You better say it or he's going to get mad. Yeah, disrespected and not appreciate. I mean, who didn't think also that that was well calculated by Jason kid after game one? Good, good attempt. It's good try. You got to try something. But it looks like we're headed towards this place where the Celtics are the obvious, just better team have better surrounding talent, have so many options. We'll see. Chris Dapps, poor Xingas is healthy for game three. That's kind of limped off the court at the end of yesterday's game. But that Jason Tatum's going to have his championship and he will be in the grand scheme of things, the best player on this team that won this championship. But for me, the questions will still remain in the postseason. I'll also get this. I'm not saying it's over because again, well, listen, if we're going to go to cliche town, the most off use cliche in the NBA playoffs is the series and start until the team loses a home game, which has yet to happen. But if this does play out the way the first two games would indicate it might, that this is a very short series in favor of the Boston Celtics, I will feel like a pang of regret. And listen, they had a chance to be here that the Nuggets aren't there, that there's no not a more suitable foe for the Boston Celtics that they were tested properly. I have exactly as much regret about that as Nikolay Yokich possesses. Well, he's whitewater rafting or whatever that video was. I saw him. You mentioned the Tatum. It feels like it should be his moment. I would love to watch him walk into USA basketballs, you know, training camper, whatever this summer as they get ready for the games. And all right, I hear I am one of the big dogs championship winner best player on the team. Kids table still. No, no, no. Where's Drew? Bring him over here. I love it. Also, we kind of touched on it with Luca and hey, whatever, like, whatever you need to do, if you're going to perform like that, we got to stop with the histrionics going to questionable. I'm sure he's hurt. No one's not at this time of year, but he's like, God, his chest wrapped up as they're listening to the anthem. And then then he does that. Which one is it? Come on. Like, I, I am not even the guy who is a crybaby. I think a lot of that's overstated to be perfectly honest for me. Yeah, that was a breaking point for me where I might have just have to join all of my complaining about Luca's complaining brethren because that was too much. You can't have your chest wrapped up like you can't breathe and then go do whatever that was in the in the first half. We got it. You're hurt. We got it. You're kind of slow. So you don't need to, we're not going to, we're not going to question your athleticism if you're laboring around there a little. We don't care about your athleticism to be perfectly honest. It's you and your kids are just remarkable and that you don't have any of it and you do the thing. So I need to, I need to see that stop. I can't or or lean all the way into it and just shed a full body cast before the next game. Yeah, it's one or the other. It's, it's, it's, if you need an indication that the Mavericks feel like they got to pull out all the stops to win this thing. It's the head coach trying to sow discord between the two stars of the opposition and then, oh, maybe the best player in the series being in a full body cast. Jason kids going to bust out the water trick. Oh, yeah, bump into me, bump into me, bump into me, dump it on the court, but it like, like splash Jalen Brown with it, trying to get in his head. I don't think it'll work. That'll be a good one. All right, time now for the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. What a week one. Here's your week one recap. Season opener, great cup rematch, not close at all as much while beating the great cup favorites. This season Winnipeg blue farmers, 27, 12 stamp eaters, spoiled bully by Mitchell's return to McMahon Stadium, Calgary, beating the tie cats 32 24, Argos, no Chad Kelly and Cameron Dukes behind center back and forth the fair. And they come back and beat the BC lines 35, 27 dukes. He was 21 of 27 254 yards through for three touchdowns. Rush for another. It could be interesting if he not only keeps them afloat, like it's good before Chad Kelly returns after his suspension, all West match up between the Rough Riders and Alex says Saskatchewan, beating Edmonton 29 21. Nice little start for the CFL. Yeah, you want to talk about a quarterback controversy 21 for 27. I know he lost a big fumble at the end there, but you throw for three, you run for another. That's as good a way as any to start one up and he's going to have some time before before Kelly's back. So yeah, not a not the start they wanted, but a nice start for him. Yeah, much better than Chad Kelly was last. We saw him in the East Division final for interceptions than a lost fumble. All right. That was the Canadian football report brought to you by a security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. When we come back, Euler is looking at even up the cup final tonight in Florida. Can Sergei Brabrowski back up his game one performance. That and more next is the fan morning show continues. Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan.
