All right, fan morning, Joe, sports net five nine in the fan. Ben and his friend gunning. This is why we lifted all those weights for game seven of the Stanley Cup final tonight at the Edmonton Oilers. Battle back from being down three games to none. It was after eight o'clock on sports net tonight. Fred, how you feeling going into game seven? Happy Monday. Happy Monday to you. I feel like I feel every time there's a game seven. I just channel the vibes of my boy. Zaza patrulia game seven baby game seven. Nothing easy. But it won't be hard for me because I just get to watch and have no, I mean, rooting interest. We've done this a million times, but it's just you get to put your fan hat on and just enjoy the amount of nerves and there'd be no enjoying this. There was any Toronto connection just be pinned the needle, but this. Yeah, some fun. Watch game seven. Oh, baby best. Yeah, I mean, sure, you'd want to see your team involved. Obviously you want to because you can, I mean, there's a 50 50 shot that well at the conclusion of the night, your franchise is capturing the Stanley Cup. But there's also the the other side of the coin, which if you're like me, your brain immediately goes to where there's bitter heartbreak on the horizon for one of these fan bases. And I know you're going to make fun of panthers fans that they live in South Florida. But like, yeah, the hardcore panthers fans that have followed that franchise their entire life. It's not the same as Euler's fans. Yeah, honestly, all seven of them will be gutted. I I just love a moment, right? Like, Hey, are we going to witness history? And there's very few times where you like, no, factually, even if it's a bad game tonight, we're going to witness history. Something historic is going to happen. Somebody will put forth a historic performance in this historic game. No question. Somebody's got to score a goal. If it's zero zero going into quadruple overtime, somebody's got to score the game seven overtime goal. But on the other side, like somebody's entire career can be defined by one mistake. It's just so much is on the line. When you get down to these one game scenarios, game seven of a cup final, there's just nothing like it. Yeah, there is going to be, there's going to be a play tonight that will live in infamy, right? There's going to be a big goal or a big save. And the good the big goal might when we all look back on it be Zach, I'm in scoring a minute and 12 seconds into this thing. And the Euler's are routing and it's over or the exact opposite. There's also going to be a moment that lives with one or both of these fanbases forever, though, that will kind of largely get lost to the rest of us. Like when we do the and the stakes aren't the same. It was the first round. But hey, it's all we got when we did Leafs Bruins game seven and we talk about Bergeron and the comeback and the every one remembers all of that. But what still sticks in my craw is Matt Fratton not scoring on the breakaway that would have put him up by one more goal. And then I mean, it's probably still would have found a way to blow it. But that's the one that sticks in my brain. And that is what I love about these is that there is going to be some shot block in the third period or a missed one timer on a power play in the second or whatever it is that the people. And yeah, it's the literal entire city of Edmonton. And it's, you know, seven, seven guys and people who are looking for something to do in South Florida. But they will remember that one kind of flash in the pan moment. And that's what is the best about this. We talk about all the time with sports. We love watching sports because partially because sports is cool to watch. Have you ever seen a guy hit a ball like 450 dead center? Awesome. You ever seen a guy go bar down? Have you ever watched Conor McDavid? It's all amazing. It's amazing. If they were doing it by themselves, it's amazing if they're doing it against a pitching machine. But this is really why we watch sports because of the stakes that are involved. Like we love the aesthetic nature of it. And it's beautiful to watch. And it's great. And it's amazing to see people do things that you could never imagine. But it's one thing to just see it. It's another thing to see it in moments that matter the most. And that is why this is truly the best. We don't get these very often. It's been what since the blues Bruins, which I know wasn't a hundred years ago, 2019. That's not that long. Oh, yeah. I don't know why I'm ahead of it is like 16. No, but before that it was 11, I think the Canucks Bruins. Yeah. I think so. I mean, the most the most recent one was literally only five years ago. I have some stats from that five years though. Like, okay, like if you get one of these every half decade, that's great. But my God, waiting half a decade for and I'm not saying this is without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest thing. But if it lives up to it, it will be the greatest thing the sport has to offer. Yeah. I mean, there's so much that leads to my excitement for it. And not that I need to get anybody anymore hype for a game seven or a couple. Like if you're not into this game, like you just even if you're just a passing sports fans, like, I know what hockey is and you're not engaged into tonight's game. Like, yeah, I'm sorry. You're just, I don't think you like sports. Can we get to talk about that for two seconds? I've been seeing these videos go around of like, you know, like domicision from the athletic and posted a video of real sports on Friday night. I guess it was when the Oilers win. And the place is going insane. I think part of this is like big metropolis, Toronto, melting pot people come from not necessarily Lee fans. No, I know, but I just I have a hard time believing there wouldn't be half of the bar ready to line up to fight Lee fans if they were doing that in any other part of the country. Like, I saw that and I was a little let people enjoy things, let people be happy. I know, but I was just like, oh, God, in the bar right across the street from Scotia, Bank Arena, where the Leafs play, there is a mosh that the people going, whoo, Oilers, I don't know, rubbed me the wrong way, did not like it, have to talk about it, but you don't have to, but I had to get it off my toes. Yeah, okay. I don't care. I did did not cross my mind at all. October 11th is when the Edmondson Oilers started their season. October freaking 11th. That was when they lost their first of nine games in their first 12, culminating in a 3-2 loss in how San Jose has sharks to start their season 2-9-1. Here we are, like, months and months and months and months later after being down 3-0 in this series, coming back to force tonight's game seven. So I mentioned that 2019, game seven between the Blues and the Boston Bruins. Do you remember anything about that game? Not really. No, actually, there's one thing I remember. One thing. And it's not because I remember it from the game. It's because it got posted over just about every Toronto sports social media in the aftermath of Leafs games have in this year. And that was Craig Bruh based speech. So we're men, we're going to leave here with a leap and cup. That's actually the only thing I remember. But do you remember that? I don't, like, I don't remember seeing that video until recently when he's obviously become the focal point. You know what? I do feel like in the aftermath of the Blues parade, I feel it might have been one of those things where you go, wow, leader of men. And then I forgot about it. Men in black stick from the brain, because who cares quite frankly? Of course, of course. The last guy got to number. So Blues beat the Brooks 4-1 in that hockey game. By the way, Oilers have to win tonight just to see what Wayne's going to do with that parade. Holy doctor. Yeah. Blues won that game 4-1. They scored twice in the first period. And then a couple more times to start the third period. It was four nothing. Okay. So it wasn't really a game. You know what? To me is the most noteworthy thing. How many penalties do you think were in that game? I'm going to guess like four or three. There was one penalty. Oh my God. There was one penalty. It was a penalty for delay of game. Punk over the glass. So there were literally no penalties. There was zero. The official said, Hey, if it's a judgment call, I'm out of it. You guys decide. I can't because it's like one of them. You problems as much as again, some player who's going to play a 20 year career. And I mean, I think Conor McDavid is largely absent this conversation because he's going to have plenty of opportunities. He's still Conor McDavid, but some player who's going to have super long career and do many different things might do something that will define their career. Say it is like a puck over the glass penalty that results in a power play goal for the opposition. These officials long careers. Lots of different big games. I'm sure they've officiated one call in this game tonight defines their entire career. So I'm not surprised the last time we were in this situation, game seven, five years ago, 2019 lose and Bruins, there were no penalties. Essentially, no, it's like, no, even that one there, I'm sure they were like, do we have to be okay? I guess, like, let her the law, that is the rule. Let's have a meeting about it just to fame that we might not call it, which normally, again, predicting or previewing this series between these two teams, I would have said five on five. That's bad for the Oilers. Oilers now lead this series in five on five goals. Just by a single one over the Florida Panthers, to me, that's been the biggest revelation. The penalty kill as well for the Oilers who've turned the Panthers into the Toronto Maple Leafs. They're one for 19 on the man advantage. That's been a huge part of it. But it's just, it's how good the Oilers have looked five on five in this series. Yeah, they've been a, they've been a different team. They flipped this, the switch in a massive way. I mean, I remember we all saw the stat, I forget what it was now, but the streak, they've gone on after three consecutive losses or more this year. And they've ripped off. I think it was at least five wins after every single one of them. This is what this team has shown a propensity to do this year. And, you know, I think part of it is that they were bound to find offense at five on five. You know, they were buoyed by a great power play, but it wasn't strictly that. They scored a five on five in the regular season. It wasn't at a clip necessarily at the highest mark in the league. They did most of their damage on the power play, but it's still a group that's capable of it. Connor McDavid isn't a good player simply because he's on the power play. Leon Tris idle scores a lot of his goals that way. So maybe you can sit there and talk about the goal score. He is at five on five. But honestly, those two guys in terms of what they do, Ryan Nugent Hopkins is maybe actually, I don't think you can be playing in a cup final and do this, but he actually might be the most underrated player in hockey for a guy who does what he does, plays the minutes he does was a first overall pick has been part of this thing the entire time. These are all guys that can kind of give them that of five on five. And then Zach Hyman, I think the thing that's kind of been the most remarkable about him in these playoffs is I mean, obviously the goal scoring is the what jumps out to you. But what we I remember what we said about him early on in his Toronto tenure when you'd have the playoffs with him is he almost seems negated a little bit in the playoffs because the thing that makes him the most special in the regular season is that he played every shift like it was the last shift of a game seven and not everybody could do that in January. And I don't know how he's done it, but he seems to have found an extra gear to be an even better player in that regard. I mean, that play, he makes the score the goal on Friday night breakaways too. Like it's, yeah, I know, like he's an easy guy to make fun of with all the goals, the bang in the net front, which is like, we joke, but like it does take a tremendous amount of skill. Not everybody scores 50 some odd goals, okay, even playing alongside Conor McGam. Jam Jam. But it's also like he has developed. Yeah, incredible skill. Big time. And you start to see the the end of his tenure in Toronto. But no, he's like really good and stuff. Yeah, would have been nice to maybe have kept them. Yeah, so we wouldn't have to be dealing with this right now. But that's okay. Yeah, it's totally fine. Yeah, no, Warren Fogle, if he was in this spot would be done. And like, I'd like to learn Fogle, but yeah, Zach Eimens, pretty special. Leon Dries out over special as well and started the scoring on Friday with that great saucer bass assist to open the scoring. Conor McDavid, though, in game six, not just off the score sheet, dear points, not a single shot on goal. Now, a huge part of their defensive effort. It's a guy that still has a chance to end up with the most points ever scored in the postseason. He's five away from Wayne Gretzky. I was going to bring this up later on in the program. You know, only five point playoff games Conor McDavid has. No, I have honestly, no clue. He has one. Okay. And it was this season. Okay. It was the first game of this postseason against the Los Angeles Kings. Okay. So Zach Hyman also three goals away from the all time playoff goals scoring. Mark. Yeah. Do you know how many playoff hat tricks Zach Hyman has? I'm guessing one based on the way you're setting this up. He has one. Yeah. Happened in that exact same game. Yeah. Those two guys, you want a little say with a book ending of the first game of the postseason and the last one. And then go share is he's on the cons might who Ben? I don't probably not. So yeah, the Oilers and them having the greatest player on planet Earth and maybe when it's all said and done the greatest of all time, which is like insane that we're having a legitimate conversation about this. But yes, the guy that plays with the same franchise as the previous or still reigning all time great. Jeez. Hold on. Hold on. He may Conor McDavid one day surpass him. That's part of the story. But it feels like the biggest part of the story is the collapse that is on the verge of happening for the Florida Panthers. Is that the headline item? Yeah, it is. Like if it is, it's unfair to the rest of us who want to make fun of the Panthers that McDavid is such a singular item that we can't vote. Because if this was a team that was doing this, if this was, I don't know, the Vegas goal of the night's quite honestly, that we're doing this exact thing and they came back and three, we would just be sitting here going, Oh, that is a team of men. Now let's talk about those choking dogs over in Florida. But because McDavid has been so truly transcendent in this comeback, and it's not just been the transcendent part of it, right? I mean, you know, people's mileage may vary on all this stuff. There's some people who say like, that's actually the best thing about them. Some people say, okay, roll their eyes a little bit at it. But all the stories you're hearing about McDavid, you know, if an equipment guy's like, Oh, play it. No, no, we're not done yet. No one's allowed to lose faith in that building. The drag him back to Alberta. All of that he has just been such a central figure. But if this played out in just about any other way where it was honestly any other superstar, even doing this, again, let's just use my goal tonight's example. If this the guy who went to in the draft, when Tim Murray was so disgusted to have landed Jack Eichl, if it was just Jack Eichl having a series like this, we'd go, wow, this is incredible for Jack Eichl. But we wouldn't have all the addendum conversations that we're having of, wow, is this guy on Mount Rushmore already? Wow, is he now the greatest of all time? Because McDavid is such a singular figure. And then in this market specifically, because there are just so many Toronto tie ins with the local kid of McDavid and the Zach Hyman of it all and even Connor Brown and Cody Cece, like there's just so much of that that I think naturally there's an inclination to just focus it on the Oilers. And because of that, quite frankly, the Panthers have, this is an insane thing to say, I think, but I do think it's true, kind of skated on how massive a choke this has been so far. We mention it at the beginning of every time we set up the topic on what a choke by the Panthers. Let's talk about these amazing Oilers. And we just kind of go away from it. It is the most understated story in sports right now that this team is choking like dogs nearly blowing a three-nothing seriously than they might tonight. And the face of it is choking like cats. The face of it has to be surrogate, but Brodsky. It has to be. I don't know how you can get away from it who, I mean, the media are taking the shots now because he doesn't do any media. He did one media availability and was off camera, was in a scrum. Oh, remember, we were all over this in the in the Leaf series, what, two years ago when it was, oh, Brodsky is not, okay, well, Joel was not going to talk then or Samson on stuff and talk. I remember this. Anyways, he had been great and was the cons my favorite coming into the series and like only cemented his case, first three games of the series. Totally. It a 953 save percentage and a 133 goals against average in games one through three. Game one was an unreal performance. And you wondered how on earth, even the great Conor McDavid, are they going to get pucks past this fella? But in games four through six, he's got a 793 save percentage and a 506 goals against average. So the team around him hasn't played well and he's facing all time. Great offensive team. So what? He's supposed to be one of the main reasons why this team is on the verge and they still are on the verge of winning Stanley Cup. He has to be the face. If this goes pear shaped again, continues to go pear shape for the Florida Panthers. He has to be the face of it. It's so funny how when we get to this level of the season, I just have the exact inverse of what I what I've said. It's like how many times have we said? Well, okay, just because Bobrovsky's good doesn't mean you can't score a goal on him. Yeah, just because Conor McDavid is shooting fire out of his nose right now or and Leon Dreyse that'll finally find in the back of the net and Connor Brown doing what just because all that's clicking doesn't mean you can't still be the transcendent guy that a week ago, we were putting into the Hall of Fame. Like it is remarkable the way this is happening for him right in this instance. Now, you're allowed to have a bad game. You absolutely are. You're allowed to have two. You know what, I'll even give you a four bad games for a goalie over two series. You cannot have four bad games in a row to close out the Stanley Cup title. This is remarkable the way this is happening. It is he has got to be, you know, I again, it's funny. I was about to say, I don't know what the coverage has been like in South Florida, but I feel like it's again, it's been it's a different tenor down there. But yeah, he has to be the biggest deodorant going for everybody else on that team. Yeah, because Matthew Kajak has one good game and he's just a ghost because you get to have, but we get to play the clip of him diving and swiping the puck off the goal line. So hero, I mean seconds later. Yeah, of course, of course, but do you know many times of see that clip going around? Because again, Babroski is the deodorant for everybody on that team. Maurice, we were giving him a ton of credit. All of a sudden, what's happening to the team that you're able to keep so light and light and breezy? I mean, again, Reinhardt, you'd expect more from him. Jackblad is such a weird case that he's like a first overall pick, exceptional status guy, but you also only expect like you don't think of him in the Norris class, the way you do some of these other guys. Death's door genuinely like my heart goes out to him. There's always like, there always seems to be like a sick child involved in these cup runs nowadays. Maybe the panthers should do it for Aaron Eckblad, honestly. But yeah, that's the thing is that there are so many other places if not to keep making this point, just going to be impossible for me not to do it today. If this were a Canadian team, there would be 15 guys in the witness protection program right now for the way these three games have gone. But because Babroski is the goalie and the numbers have been so jarringly bad, I do think he wears so, so much of it. And like, I don't, I don't want to say, or I don't think it's wrong to say rightfully so that he wears it, but that blame should be spread around. It shouldn't just be on him. But when you're getting all the flowers earlier, I guess this is them to breaks. Well, we'll break down who has the most instinct when it comes to their legacy. I know I'm trying not to go like so into it. It's hard. No, I'm like, Oh, no, I feel like Tom Cruise in like the mission impossible with the like laser thing is where I got like, Oh, let me slide under that. Well, I'm not very flexible. So we need to so let's let's end this conversation here. Sure. Talk about it. Okay. The biggest collapse in sports history is that what we're looking at here, because again, you're right. The work our eyes are being taken off the prize because of the shiny Conor McDavid, Zach Hyman to a lesser extent object that is the Edmonton Oilers right now. But let's focus on what I love to focus on in sports generally is the shot in Freud. Yes, like who's going to be most embarrassed at the conclusion of this? It's clearly going to be the Florida Panthers. Yeah. Is it the biggest sports collapse of all time? So the only things in the running like the 42 series, the Leafs come back against the Red Wings. You know, I was like, it's not even the original six, you're aware. Can I? Okay, sorry. The Brooklyn Americans played in the NHL that season. They were the only team to not make the playoffs. Everyone remembers the Brooklyn Jackie Robinson played for? No, the Brooklyn Americans in 1942 were like half the league was out fighting World War II. So that's the only other time in NHL history, somebody's come back from a three Oh series deficit in the Stanley Cup final. The only other competing series, and maybe you disagree? Like maybe you have something to add to this, but feels like 2004, Yankees blowing the three Oh lead to the Boston Red Sox. Not only that, but having late leads, ninth inning in game four, eighth inning in game five, blowing those leads and then blowing the series. But that was the American League Championship Series. Wasn't the World Series. And that's about it. Like, I mean, you can look at the other three Oh series leads and there's been a couple in recent vintage in the NHL again, not the cup final. Honestly, I don't know what's what's even close to what we could be witnessing tonight. My last point on the 1942 is if it was not broadcasting color, we don't get to talk about it anymore as a thing that like we can reference it as history, but it's just that it's a completely different world that does not happen. So like color TV is going to be my line. I don't even know when that happened. Whenever it happened, we'll talk today more about it. That's mean, but we love it. So so that is going to be my line of demarcation on it. The Red Sox Yankees one is immediately where my head goes. Obviously, I think the reason why even though it's a conference championship series, as opposed to the cup final that you can make the argument is, and it's two fold. It's one thing about those franchises. And it's one thing about this series. The thing about those franchises is it's those franchise. It was a severe big brother, little brother relationship that had been going on. The Yankees had their thumb on them. They were coming off the air and boom, walk off the year before. And so you let them off the mat. And quite frankly, I mean, I guess they're kind of back there now, but look at what that kind of, you know, 15-ish year run happened with all the World Series and all the success in there for the Red Sox. So I think that that's why it's comparable there. The other reason why I think you also, not that you don't dump this all in the feet of the Panthers, but unlike, and I don't know, maybe, no, there was another, the fact that Conor McDavid exists in this series, it makes the choke. There's no such thing as a palatable choke, but it is like, well, I mean, God struck us down. What do you want me to do? Say what you will about Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. And there might have been as close as baseball had of it in all four, but they aren't Conor McDavid in terms of the pecking order of their sports. And I don't mean to diminish those guys. Like, believe me, I love my a lot of love my heart for David Ortiz, but it was never close to this. So I think that's the reason why the two things are kind of, it's like you have the stakes between the two with Sox and Yanks. And then at the end of the day, if you lose it, is losing to McDavid. And we will look at this as a Panthers collapse, but it will always be the second part of it will be McDavid was amazing and the Panthers showed. Well, then let me throw one potential NBA equivalent at you because it's never happened that a team has come back from 3-0 in a series at any round of the playoffs in the NBA. But in the 2016 NBA finals, the Warriors were up 3-1. Now, same deal. There was LeBron James on the other side of the equation. And obviously game five huge mitigating factor was, no, Draymond Green was suspended for that one. But that adds to the lore. And maybe that's the biggest choke of it all that Draymond Green could not. He couldn't help himself, but get suspended for that game five, which is the years have gone on as only funnier. Yeah. And it was a memorable series because of the game seven that was an all-timer, all-timer, all-timer. But the previous six games were not close. No, any of them. But that was in a league in which you just do not get massive upsets. And the best team usually wins. And no one's ever blown a 3-0 lead to blow a 3-1 series lead to have home court advantage in a game seven. Like, is that like in the conversation? I think it is. I just think this is going to appear like a slight on McDavid, but I swear I don't mean it one. I mean it as one. I just think LeBron was truly more transcendent in that one specific moment in time than what we've seen out of McDavid. And that is not like, this is just comparing, I don't know, like landmarks to landmarks. It's like a beautiful waterfall versus, I don't know, something else beautiful in nature. It's like, it's hard. It's apples to oranges. But I truly do feel like LeBron was just extra peak of his powers, either. We could have an Under McDavid chase down block like, yeah, knocking the puck off somebody's stick on a, on a breakaway. I think I would prefer end-to-end rush where he undresses the entirety of the team. If we could get that tonight on like, I just, there's just so many things from tonight's game that I'm looking forward to. I'm genuinely so excited. Like all of these other games in the Cup final games on, you're excited. You're looking forward to it. But, you know, I'm going about my day. And then, oh, eight o'clock. All right, time to lock in. I'm going to be thinking about this all day. Like, I just, I, it's nowhere near a feeling like I said, if the Leafs played where you're sitting here actually like, nervous, right? It's just exciting. And God, oh, that's, that's fun. Yeah. And they're stakes, but they're not my stakes. That's perfect. Like going to somebody's house for dinner. Yeah. They're steak, but it's not my stakes. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully they cook it correctly. Yeah. Yeah. It's the final week of school for the kiddos. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, this is it. Really? Friday's a half day. This is the final week of the school year. I was talking to a teacher on the weekend. They've like, they severely underplayed this. Yeah. If I had two months off, I might, yeah, it'd be hard to control my excitement. Yeah. I was going to say, and it's like, he was talking to a guy who can also golf with him at 1030 every day. Oh, my God. Anyways. So, but there are days of school remaining. Okay. Doesn't matter. My, my eight year old gave him free rain to stay up for the game. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. But are you? Okay. He's awake. One pretending you worried that he's like, I hate the Leafs, no doubt. I only like Conor McDavid. I mean, that's been Trent. Not I hate the Leafs, but like he has his, his allegiances. There's no debate for him. He's rooting for Conor McDavid. Yeah. And the Oilers. That's the way she goes. Yeah. No. He's a Leafs fan. He has all his, all his NHL jerseys are Leafs jerseys. Same. I, I'm just like, I am so scared to show my kid McDavid in anything other than like a Canada jersey, which is why we invest on best. Come on. Get me to February after tonight, though. Like, tonight and then warp speed to February. I know you hate that sentence, but that's where I'm at. Yeah. I'm going to enjoy my summer. Anyways, we'll get back into game seven and the historic states, uh, stakes for tonight's game at seven o'clock. But coming up next, we'll do a complete 180 and talk about the absolute complete tire fire that is the Toronto Blue Jays, 2024 season, which now culminated in a Ralphus Martine as being popped for performance enhancing drugs yesterday. Good times fan morning chokes and you spent at his friend gunning sports at five ninety the fan. Subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning, Joe sports time, five, nine, and then it's Brian gunning. Yeah, that vaunted starting pitching, which is 14th in Major League Baseball in ERA, three, nine, eight, which is like above average. Got a hand in to him as that's the, the, the strong point of the Toronto Blue Jays. They're like pretty much average. Like I'm just starting pitching. Congratulations. It's kind of like me. It's like, I don't know what this is, but it's like, yeah, the strong point is like average, like, you know, it's like nothing exceptional. The things you do do them. Okay. Blue Jays swept yet again back to back sweep, six consecutive losses, six, five in Cleveland to the Guardians took a while to play out because of a rain delay, seven games under 500. They are now in the wild card race. They are six and a half games back of the third wild card spot here, the, the teams that are ahead of in the American League. All right. It's a trio. Angels. No show at a time. No, my trout. Very bad. Yeah. A's like they play in a dump. Uh, feels like it's like a major league scenario where they're potentially trying to lose and they're like way better than they ever anticipated being, but they're 29 and 51. And the White Sox, like they are historically, historically bad, offensively. Yes, we got a firsthand look at it. Remember that Blue Jays went five and one against them, which is telling of both things. Yeah, that's it. That end of list. Blue Jays, very bad. So here's the thing about the, the three wild card system. Yes. In major league baseball. It's cool. It keeps everybody involved, right? Like you're around the playoffs, even if you're a crappy, crappy bad. It's true. But if you're not close to the playoffs, it's an even greater indictment of the type of season you're having to be. And who knows, as we keep being told, like there's still lots of runway left for this team with no indications that there's that anything's going to turn. Mm hmm. But you finish so far up the track that you're not even in the race for the third wild card. And you were expected to contend for the division before, like there is just no sugar coating. Notice happening to the Blue Jays this season. No, there's nothing that we have had little fleeting moments of them beating bad teams. And you say, huh, look at this. They beat one of the three teams in the whole of the American league. They're better than obviously that proves a ton. I think, you know, we talk so much about the offense, the offense, the offense. And, uh, yes, problems, a plenty. Just go listen to literally any time we've talked about the Jays this year and it pretty much rinse and repeat in terms of the problems that there have been with this offense. But the bigger, or I shouldn't say the bigger reason. But the real reason why this team has no hope, no chance is because the starting pitching needed to be basically three to four side young guys. And that is not fair to expect of anybody. It'd be a lot to expect you to have two in your rotation. Quite frankly, most teams would kill for one. So that is the reason the thing that buoyed this team last year, the reason we talked about them, man, they got a chance here is because of that pitching and mostly the starting rotation. And guys have just taken a dip this year. They just flat out have Kevin Gosman. He had a little blip post all star break last year, got it back on track, had the injury and has never really been right this year coming out of camp. You know, Jose burrios has been pretty much solid, what you expect. But even he, I mean, we were having side young conversations about him. It's American league to start the month in April, right? It's not been that. He's not been the problem, but he's not necessarily been that. Kukuchi, he's been up and down a little bit, not quite as consistent as he was last year. And then Chris Bassett, I feel like even the people who are most bullish on him, you kind of go in to every start going, well, let's see what he has today. I bet he'll find a way to work around it and give you a chance. But I don't think anybody walks into a Chris Bassett start saying he's going to be dominant and shut down the opposition today. I often say he's going to find a way, but I rarely say he's going to give this team a chance, even if they scratch across two runs. And that shouldn't be Chris Bassett's fault, but that's the reason the team's in this spot. No, the rotation has been like fine, fine. And especially considering how good they were a season ago, I think most people rightly expected a little bit of a downturn for them, hand up, not a surprise. So let's, before we get into Ralphus Martinez, I think this is part of the conversation as well as like how much responsibility is the front office bear for him? And maybe we'll leave him aside for a second. How much does the front office, how much blame should we assign them for what has happened here? Because to me, George Springer season, maybe not being the worst qualified hitter in the American league, but like, yeah, he was a league average hitter last year. He's only a year older this year. This is predictable. It's not a surprise. Justin Turner, second half of last season, big time downturn, he's 39 years old, not a shocker that he's not holding your offense up. Vladimir Guerrero, Jr, not hitting home runs. He had 26 a season ago. This is clearly part of the offensive profile that just about every season he's finished with an OBS under 800. This is, this is what he is. He can hit for a high 200s-ish batting average, take the occasional walk. But he doesn't hit enough home runs to play the position that he plays, although in the American league, he's somehow does. But anyways, I think Vlad season has been pretty Vlad-ish. Yeah, Alejandro Kirk, Bloom was off the Rose a while ago. Who thinks about that guy being in the middle of your lineup? Kevin Kiermeyer had the best offensive season arguably of his career, playing as many games as he did, playing goal glove defense. He's a year older. I think he went into a free agency and everybody said the same thing that the Blue Jays should have been saying. Like, let's see you do that again, probably not likely. Guess what? Didn't happen. Alec Manoa, did we predict him to have Tommy John or the internal brace, whatever, Tommy John adjacent surgery? Maybe not. Could anybody have counted him to be in the rotation and be a valuable contributor for 162 game season? Absolutely not. Not a sane person, no. The area, I guess, that there's a little bit of luck involved where it's hard to criticize the front office too much is the bullpen because they have suffered numerous injuries and there has been lack of performance. Guess what? That's bullpen. I was going to say, have you ever watched a bullpen in major leagues before? Like this is just the way it goes. The reason the world's best relievers seem to like Mary on Rivera, you know, did it for a thousand years, whatever he eventually got got to. But the best relievers in the sport seem to have these three maybe four year flash runs and then they kind of go back into the category of you see what you get for this year. So that is the thing to the idea that you could bank on. Oh, we built up this amazing pen. Good. Good. Great. I think one other area where you can probably just in the interest of fairness, I don't think they should have expected Bulbashed to have this season like we're going to talk about bats not and like it's not they are not winning because simply because Bo isn't hitting. But I mean, it's Bo and Vlad's team and he is a massive massive part of the peak of his power off to a great start. I mean, how many close games they were playing previous to this recent slide? So he could have been responsible for a couple of wins. So I do think you I think you have to look at that. That is honestly probably the big of all the things that have gone wrong this season. There are a lot we can point to and say, uh, hello, we're complaining about this in January. I'm not getting anything out of a chef this year. Nobody could have seen that coming. So just in the interest of fairness, that is a that is a killer of your offense that is just quite frankly disappeared off the face of the earth. And I mean, right now, literally not on the roster. So, yeah, I mean, he'll be back tomorrow, I guess is the first day he's eligible to come off the injured list. And we told it was going to be a minimum stay. So to me, the the the two general managers in Toronto sports history that are at the tippy top of the pyramid when it comes to the faces of failure, yes, or the late Rob Babcock, general manager of the Toronto Raptors architect of the worst trade and Raptors franchise history. And it was under pressure understood, but like the Vince Carter trade. Horrific. And I mean, part of it was also like the way he dealt with the media as well. It's just like you seem like a bumbling idiot. And honestly, the the results kind of backed that up. And John Ferguson, Jr. Similar type, Brian, and similar when it came to his interactions with the media. Now both guys, so Babcock obviously had like the most notable single move that defined it. Can I can I throw one more in that I don't know if he's on that pile, but I do feel he is a like when we're talking, I remember this name getting bandied about a lot when the Leafs moved on from Dubas and they're going, I heard a lot of you don't want to end up with another knownness. And he is another one that I think I don't know that he is on the pantheon of those guys quite. But if we're going to talk about of recent vintage, I do feel like he's another one that gets lumped in there of you don't want to end up with that guy. Mm hmm. So maybe I don't know, do you put the Tuka Rask deal in the in that same pantheon? Not like it's so much different. It's so much different when you give up a goalie prospect, like I am the king of goalies or voodoo. So the idea of me getting mad at somebody trading away a 21 year old goalie. And this is also part of just like my age at the time of this happening. It was very hard for me to be, to tell anybody that Justin Pokey wasn't going to go on to win 37th business. So CHL goalie the year Canada. Oh my God. Awesome. The best. I didn't tell you that's not the best. I think you've like just retired too is playing over his feet recently. Good. Good. Good. Of course. Of course. Good game boy. Yeah. We're talking about even these general managers. We're not talking about their no personality or who they are. The only one of them might ever met is JFJ though. But I don't know his personality. But I think beloved in hockey circles is JFJ. Yeah. The reason he was able to be in different offices after his dive in the Leafs just not in the big chair. Stunk. Yeah. As a general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's not over for Ross Adkins, I suppose. But boy, if this ends with this season, will he be in that pantheon? Now, context took over at the conclusion of that 2015 season. They made the playoffs in 2016. They turned the ship around very quickly and they got back into the playoffs in 2020, missed the playoffs by a single game in 21, made the playoffs in 22, made the playoffs in 23, hadn't won a single playoff game. And now in 24, I don't know what the future is for this team. But selling at the deadline better be the future. I mean, is it fair to put them in that conversation? If things go the way they appear to be going for this team? Yeah, I think I think you have to. I think obviously there's context around all of this, right? The idea that, you know, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Not reaching the heights he was supposed to as a player in Bulbashed, not reaching the height. Well, I shouldn't say that he's having his first really down year. So let me remove him from that. But Vlad not becoming what he was when he was supposed to be the pillar of every team in baseball, would have sat there and said that I don't put that on Atkins. Okay, I don't put that on him. But so much else has gone wrong and precious little has gone right. Now, we've talked about the moves that have been good. It's really hard to think of a guy who would go on a pile like that that went out and got two different Cy Young winners in his tenure. I think a massive part of the reason for the Atkins and you kind of touched on this with the Babcock and quite frankly, that you have to have it all. Yeah, can't explain themselves. Can't confirm or deny like that was exactly. Yeah, it just he cannot explain any time he steps to the mic. He has never made anything better. It only gets worse. I think that's a massive reason. I also think this part of it with this regime specifically can't be overstated is what directly preceded them. The, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say the most popular figure. There were world series teams that people certainly love. But, you know, of the, you know, 2000s on, players included how high on the pecking order of just favorite Blue Jays figures is Alex Amphopolis for a lot of people. I think a massive part of it. And I'm not saying they are victims of this. They certainly had a lot of time to remove this. But I think so much of their perception is directly influenced by the guy who came before them. I mean, we talked about the media thing. There was a clip from this, this year of the winter meetings of AA is like, he's, he's going back and forth with fans. We're yelling at him in an interview, like, Oh, go trade for cease. And he's doing like, Oh, it's too extensive. We've been calling buddy. Like, he's just so good at that part of it. And Atkins is, it is such a shortcoming for him. I think that's a big part of it. It's not the only reason the moves are the bigger reason. But I don't think you can overstate that part of it as well. Well, and it's good contact. It's also, this was the, the son of the billionaire owner who was handed the, the company that's in great shape. So Blue Jays win the wild card game against the Orioles. They make the playoffs and they get to the American League Championship Series again. But then they go through the downturn of 17 and 18 and 19. But then like in 2020 and it being a brief season, they made the playoffs. And then 2021, it's like, Oh man, this is, this is the start of a decade long run. They were the Orioles before the Orioles in a minute. Look at where the Orioles are in 2021. Wherever we were just playing them in a wild card game in 2016. And you took what seemed like, and boy, Paul, any major league executive, the conclusion of the 2021 season again, but the Blue Jays best to play us by a single game. And so much of that season is bizarre because of the ballparks they played in. But, and so much of it was fleeting because of some of the guys that were on short-term games. And then not the least of it was Marcus Semian who had the most home runs every hit by his second baseman in major league history. Seems good. Vladimir Grir Jr, being the best offensive player in the American League. But anyways, seems good. Just pull any major league executive over that at the conclusion that's even a season, even with the Blue Jays missing the playoffs, the, and ask them which franchise would you like to be in charge of? It's the Blue Jays going forward. And they made the playoffs twice since. No playoff victories and seemingly getting worse year over year over year. God, I can't believe I'm making this stance because I'm sitting here like, yes, you're right. I agree with you. But you mentioned the Orioles comp as great as, you know, Anthony Satander has been for them. The reason they're the Orioles is because all the kids just came up and were amazing. Now drafting development, all that. But I don't put it on Ross Atkins. The Vlad, he has never come close to duplicate in that season. I don't put it on Ross Atkins this year that Boba Shett has been a ghost offensively, quite frankly. So I do put it on Ross Atkins that you trade away to Oscar Hernandez. I do put it on Ross Atkins that you don't do anything to support those guys. But that is so that is why it is so finicky and hard for me or I shouldn't say hard. I know my opinion on Ross Atkins. But when we look at this Blue Jays era, and this goes back to the conversations you and I have had so many times about coaches, I just have a hard time putting it on the team that Vlad and Bo, and let me stop saying Bo because he's in the midst of the one bad year he's had, but Vlad hasn't been that guy. I have a hard time putting that on the team and not on the player, not the only reason, but it's such a big part of it. But we could have predicted that he was not capable of carrying this offense all by himself. Go into this. I might not much I agree with. Yeah. The one beacon of hope for this team was the one position player that was a top 100 prospect in baseball. We should have listened to you all those weeks ago. You told us it's dangerous, man. Never hope. A Ralphus Martinez suspended for 80 games for using performance enhancing drugs. Now he claims he and his girlfriend were hiding from even their own families that they were trying to start a family. Yep. They were prescribed something called Regent 50 by a Dominican doctor. So the deal with this drug is it's like it's very clearly banned by Major League Baseball. This excuse in similar fashions has been used multiple multiple times again. Also this drug is labeled as being a female fertility drug. It's supposed to help with female infertility. There is like off label uses, but like this drug is for women. So take that one for what you will speak for myself. Please. This is absolute garbage is a straight up lie to our faces because that's what you do when this happens. And there will be no repercussions of why not lie. Yep. And the organization has they're well within their rights to accept your reasoning and your apology. You also accept responsibilities. You do two things, but you're lying. You're lying. You took this drug because you wanted to enhance your performance. This you're not just some guy that started playing baseball yesterday. You were handed a three and a half million dollar signing bonus. The second biggest in the history of this franchise, you've been in professional baseball for a half decade. Every year there's a spiel given to you by Major League Baseball Players Association, both English and in Spanish, whatever language you wanted in. But all the things that are banned, you understand the stakes of taking something that's not legal. And you took it. Yep. You broke the rules. Now you just spent it for 80 games. And now everything that you have been to this point as far as a prospect and being built entirely on your power is entirely in question. Now he's not going to be thrown out like the Blue Jays aren't going to say, well, we've this is this will not stand. No, he's going to remain in the organization. They'll hope to get him back to the heights that he was as a prospect within this organization when he returns. But I don't know how you can be a right thinking person and think, Oh, well, yeah, all the power like this guy leading the minor leagues in home runs and popping for performance and answers will clearly he'll get back to that. There might be a correlation as well as causation. Well, the thing is the good thing for baseball is there's certainly no history of this in the game, not at any time in the last like, you know, ever in the century since Lord Abner doubled a didn't fake invent baseball or whatever that. Yeah, of course, like we all understand this. Let's say let's just live in the world where to your point off label uses the Dominican doctor or some fertility site or whatever was like, okay, wink, wink. Go ahead. You take it to you're not allowed to, but it's actually good. Let's say that happened. You're allowed to keep secrets from your family. If you that's something like, hey, starting a family private between you and your wife, you want to keep it that way. All good. The team is not going to then go to your dad or whoever and say, hey, did you know our Elvis and his wife are trying to go talk to the team? Let's say, let's say you know, there's no excuse. No, no, here's the thing. Like we've all been in corporate trainings where it's like, yeah, yeah, click, click, click, click, click. Let's say he did that with the don't take steroids part of the spiel that they get. You still go to the team and say, am I allowed to take this or am I going to end up in this spot? So I, I just laid this 1000% at the feet of the player. I mean, we, this goes back to conversation we're having and the hey days of these conversations and people misremembering when they're testifying in Congress. Yes, the team should be on top of everything. And, you know, if it happens under your roof, whatever, all of that. Yes. But ultimately, it lies at the feet of the player. This one, I can't blame Ross Atkins or, no, not in Scott. No, no, no, no. No, they, they, they got a lying steroid abuser. I mean, not steroids performance and answers, whatever. Anyways, increases his testosterone level. And he's a liar. That's it. I, according to me, okay, I think he's lying. That would be my personal opinion that he's a liar. I don't disagree. All right, time now for the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Week three getting underway Thursday night is the Alawats beat the red blacks 47 21. They improved to three, you know, Ottawa dropping a one on one. They unveiled the, the team's 2023 great cup championship banner. It was the home opener. Al's exploding for three touchdowns, 30 points before half-time great cup MVP Tyson Philpott eight catches 150 yards and a touchdown on the first half alone. Tough start to the season for the team that they played in that last great cup. The bombers lost 26 24 to the lions dropping Winnipeg now to a winless 0 and three start BC two and one second in the west division. Man, what a tough start for the people of Winnipeg Argonauts. Keep getting it done. No Chad Kelly as they pick up a tight 39 36 win over the elks at BMO on Saturday. Toronto now unbeaten two and O elks falling to 0 and three. Same with the bombers. The bottom of the west division. And finally Sunday night rough riders celebrating their home opener with a fairly dominant 36 20 win over the tiger cats at Mosaic Stadium Hamilton scoring late in the first half, giving them a little life against the riders, but a pick six late in the third quarter pretty much sealed the deal for Saskatchewan riders alone atop the west division three and O tie cats. Yikes. Oh, and three bottom of the east. So recapping after three weeks in the CFL. Three undefeated teams left Saskatchewan Montreal at three and O each Toronto already had a buy. They're two and O on the year. Big divisional game coming up in week four rematch Alastair's East final between the owls and Argos at BMO this Friday. No Chad Kelly. So not capable of throwing four interceptions in that game. That was the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. When we come back. Game seven, the two sweetest words in all of sports. I mean, what's we'd have been game seven Stanley Cup final with historic stakes on the line. We'll break down the legacies on the line for tonight next as the fan morning show continues, Ben and his friend Gunning sports net five night in the band.
