Greetings from Detroit.

I listened to the Leafs take on the lightning tonight on XM radio as I drove across the 401 and I have to tell you I have never heard a more boring play by play duo as the guy on Tampa radio, one of whom sounded like Phil Esposito. I may not love Joe Bowen, but at least you can listen to the guy. When the opposing team scores, Bowen isn’t as excited as those rare opportunities when the Buds score, but he isn’t totally monotone as whomever did play by play for the Bolts. No joke, when the Leafs scored tonight, he may as well been reading the phonebook. His voice didn’t raise at all. One word… BRUTAL.

Meanwhile, the MSM took on the Brendan Burke issue today. The articles ranged from the good (Arthur, and Blair), the fair( Damien Cox) , the over the top, (Steve Simmons), the yawn, (Michael Grange) and finally, the absurd, (David Shoalts).

“Burke’s support for son could change hockey and all of sports” – That’s the headline from Simmons article in the Toronto Sun. Now, this is a big story, but come on guys. Don’t go too overboard here. I could be totally wrong but I just don’t see players across the league all of the sudden opening their hearts and embracing gay athletes in their sport because of the Burkes. That isn’t in any way diminishing the courage of either Brian or Brendan.

Simmons’s article isn’t all bad though:

” It took the kind of temerity his father is known for Brendan Burke, at 21, to go public. And Buccigross’ piece should be mandatory reading for those who care about family, love and support.

In various forms, I’ve known Brian Burke for almost 30 years: The longer I’ve known him, the more depth I’ve discovered. When you strip away all the noise, the headlines, the made-for-TV bluster, what you’re left with is a large man with an even larger heart.

“Just don’t tell anybody,” he once told a colleague. “I don’t want to spoil my reputation.”

But here is big, loud Burke now, in a remarkable position of sorts: In the historical and sometimes hysterical homophobic hockey world, he can suddenly become the voice of tolerance, the voice of acceptance. He can tell people it’s OK to play hockey, be belligerent, and be gay. He can tell people it’s all right to coach and manage and scout: Sexual preferences really aren’t anybody’s business. ”

That is important and entirely accurate for sure.

Meanwhile check out Michael Grange, a writer who’s work I generally enjoy:

“If you’re gay but can skate, handle the puck and stand up for your teammates, come on out.

A fantasy of a forward-thinking hockey future or a reality close at hand? It depends whom you ask.

The NHL is still waiting for its first openly gay lodge member, either active or emeritus. There’s never been a gay player come out during his career in any of the other three major North American team sports, either, and only a handful in retirement. ”

That’s just the start of a rambling piece that really doesn’t say all that much.

Here is, in my opinion the best Damien had to offer:

“Burke, the president and general manager of the Maple Leafs and one of the best-known figures in all of hockey, learned of his son’s sexual orientation at Christmas 2007. He knew ahead of time that his son, a student at the University of Miami (Ohio) and a student worker on the school’s highly regarded hockey team, had spoken to Buccigross and that a story was to be released Tuesday afternoon.

“The feedback has been awesome,” Burke said Tuesday, about three hours after the story was first posted. “My emails have been off the charts.”

At the same time, however, Burke believes there will be those who won’t embrace the family love inherent in his acceptance of his son’s orientation or of Brendan’s decision to go public with his sexuality. Burke remembered that when he was in California in November to vote in the U.S. presidential election – he voted for Barack Obama – he was aggressively confronted by anti-gay activists protesting a same-sex marriage proposition on the California ballot.

“I told them to (expletive) get lost,” said Burke, who also voted for the proposition. “But over the next two weeks, yeah, I expect to get some hate mail over today’s story. There is going to be a backlash. All I care about is if Brendan is prepared for it. It takes jam to do what he’s done.”

All things that I didn’t know about Burke before and am more impressed with him after learning. I read the quotes from Burke and you can 100% envision him saying those things.

Jeff Blair, hits one out of the park on this one, along with Bruce Arthur:

“t never hurts to have somebody tell you, “It’s okay.” But while Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke’s support of his son’s decision to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality is welcomed both for what it says about Burke as a father and administrator, it does little to make the shower stall any less tyrannical.

History suggests that for all the good intentions and words to come out of the story of Brian and Brendan Burke, as reported this week by ESPN.com, and for all the right-thinking ideas espoused, homosexuality is still a taboo in team sports. Actors, artists, singers and politicians have all managed to acknowledge being gay without necessarily ending their careers. But team athletes haven’t – not while they’re competing. ”

Call it cynicism, or negativity, but unfortunately, I think Blair is most likely right. It’s too bad, and it’s doesn’t reduce the positive effects of the Burke Boys, it’s just a sad commentary on the world of professional sports.

“One of the most telling aspects of the ESPN story on Brendan’s struggle with how to tell his father the news is the seemingly enlightened reaction of the University of Miami (Ohio) RedHawks men’s hockey team to the report. Although the cautionary part of it is Brendan Burke is not a player, but a student manager with the team and that counts when ranks close – as baseball learned all too well during the steroid era, for example.

So we’re a long way from where we need to be. It is the locker room that must be the area of effective change, and an active player who must be the agent of change, if being gay is to become less of a taboo in team sports. ”

I think Blair is entirely correct. Again, a sad commentary on where we are, and a rather large admission that the effect of the Burke boys won’t be nearly as great as the headline writer on Simmons’ story.

“The demeanour of the players tells much more about their feelings with regards to gay athletes than their words. ”

That is how Shoalts opens his piece on the story. It’s the beginning of the end for Shoalts. Why ask a question if you aren’t going to believe the question. If you ask it of guys, there has to be certain degree of faith that the answer you are given is truthful. Secondly, last time I checked I didn’t know Shoalts to be a licensed psychologist or lie detector who can sense that he is being lied to.

“All of those questioned were sincere in saying they would, like the Leafs GM, support any family member who revealed they were gay.”

Then why ask the question? Why start with the preamble that every quote in your piece is not to believed? Shoalts went down the line, Maple Leafs, players and coaches, and Tampa Lightning players too. He has quotes from multiple players. Yet he leads with a line that suggests he doesn’t really believe them. Why bother reading on? In all it’s not a bad story but for the beginning. Kind of surprising given the author.

We can’t be surprised by the coverage. The MSM is in the news business and this is news. It’s bigger than life because it’s Brian Burke and he is in Toronto. It’s good attention if it changes anything. However, I think Blair is probably right though, until a current NHLer comes out, little will change. We still live in a hurtful society.

In other news, the Buds almost lost one tonight having choked on a 2-0 lead. They percervered and won, beating Tampa, in Tampa for the first time in regulation. Small, tiny steps for this team. Let’s see them string a couple of these together, then we can get excited.

Happy US turkey day to all celebrating- prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Simmons is here

Grange is here

Cox is here

Blair is here

Shoalts is here

In the end of the season it won’t matter much, it will just be one of several. However all things considered it was a big win for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The fact that they had to win ugly is quite irrelevant. It’s not their fault that the Ducks spent the entire night in the penalty box.

The Leafs started off in similar fashion, trailing 1-0. The rest however was pretty much history. they tied it up and then were off to the races behind Niklas Hagman who scored a hat trick and Tomas Kaberle who followed with several assists.

The play of the night, at least according to Joe Bowen and the rest of the Leafstv crew was an early save by Jonas Gustavsson. It’s one the either McDonald or Toskala would have let in and instead of just being 1-0 it would have been 2-0. The difference a big save makes is all about confidence. All of the sudden the guys can relax a little bit play their game. It certainly appeared to give the Maple Leafs a boost as they went on to their first win.

Make no mistake about it though, absent the Ducks frequent visit to the sin bin this game was going to be a another one most of us would like to forget. It was ugly. A battle between two bad teams.

In the end it won’t matter, a win is a win is a win, especially when it is your first of the year after 8 tries.

NOTES:

I have to ask, is there anything more pathetic then the way Leafstv produces hockey telecasts? During the pre-game the audio dropped about a dozen times. There were several name screw ups by the guys talking and the overall production looked totally mickey mouse. Couple that with Mr. Rogers 10, the Ron WIlson run to the other coaches, Bob freaking Mcgill and all that was missing was Marco Moro! How does a team like the Maple Leafs get away with such a shitty product. This is, unlike the product on the ice is totally under their control. The features they show before during and after the game are like a funny SCTV skit, except they aren’t supposed to be funny. The commentary by Rogers 10 is soooooooooo pathetic. I mean the guy doesn’t add anything of substance to a telecast.

Lastly, I know that I am in the minority, but man does Joe Bowen have to use the Wholly Makanaw on EVERY big play???? It is so planned, so contrived, so unnecessary. You have his comments, then Millen talking about how great and important each goalie is and to be honest the games aren’t watchable from the pure tv side of things.

From my seat on the couch, I can tell you that Leafstv is about 15-20 levels below TSN, CBC and NBC/Versus. Hell Fox did a better job on games then these clowns.

One last comment, can we PLEASE lose that god awful Maple Leafs song they insist on playing. I have nothing but respect for the Glass Tiger guy who wrote the song. IT was fine the first 300 times they played it, but really enough!

Not sure what Joe Bowen is smoking but as the game just ended he said that Jonas Gustavsson won his first game and Brian Burke won his first game as President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs….hmmmmmmmmm NO!

In any event, they win and so in easy fashion in large part to the ducks being in the box all night….

Here’s your bikini of the day from bikinibeat.org:

On Fan 590 Tonight- thanks to Mike S.

- Open phones with McCown in the first hour

- Co-host at 5:05 is Matt Sekeres

- Friday roundtable from 5:05 to 7:00 with Jeff Blair and John Shannon

On 640 with Brady and Watters:

420 Joe Bowen, PBP voice/Maple Leafs

510 Hugh Michener, CEO/Softball Canada

520 Karl Hale, Tennis Canada

530 James Sharman, The Footy Show (in studio)

So it seems Leafs Nation loves Joe Bowen. So far over 81% of you have voted against a new radio/tv voice. You have also shown me what the next question should be in the poll

Did anyone listen to Glen Healy on the Fan this am???? If so, would you mind sending me an email torontosportsmedia at gmail dot com

I did happen to catch Nelson Liriano and Jesse Barfield, and you just had to smile (even if Vic Rauter was still on ). One thing I will say about Liriano, man the guy likes to talk…

Anyone read Bruce Garrioch this am? Two interesting thoughts:

“There is talk the Rangers might waive D Wade Redden at the start of next season and send him to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack to get his $6.5-million salary off the books. New York has tried to deal Redden, but nobody is willing to bite. He still has $32.5 million and five years left on his contract”

Now, do any of you recall a similar “rumour” about Bryan Mccabe last year. We were told that the PA would be all over this and that if Mccabe and others like him were sent to the minors the Leafs would have a very difficult time signing free agents in the future. Where is the same horror and outrage here? I’m just saying.

“The talk is Toronto GM Brian Burke has been trying to entice the New York Islanders, who are drafting No. 1 overall and the Bolts, picking No. 2, to trade their top pick in exchange for D Tomas Kaberle and the Maple Leafs’ No. 7 overall selection. “That’s not going to be enough to get it done,” said one league executive. “Burke is going to have to come up with more. You can’t give a No. 1 pick away. It means a lot to the franchise.”

So, sources tell me that Burke hasn’t talked to Garrioch in ages. In fact a recent quote that he ran from Burke looked, to these eyes anyways strangely similar to a direct quote from Berger’s blog a few days ago. I am not saying Garrioch stole it, but……. As for this rumour? The Islanders or any other team are going to have to evaluate their own needs and what is offered to them in exchange for anything they have. I will say this, with Tomas Kaberle you know EXACTLY what you are getting. There are no guarantees with any kid you draft and we can all list off a good list of first round busts over the year. I suspect that Snow and any other GM will do what they think is in the best interest of their respective franchise.

“Despite all the denials coming out of the Sunshine State, the Tampa Bay Lightning is trying to deal C Vinny Lecavalier. A league source told Sun Media yesterday the Bolts have informed the NHL they intend to spend at the salary floor of approximately $40.5 million next season. They already have $38 million committed to 17 players and have to sign to get to the 23-man roster limit. Getting Lecavalier’s $10 million salary off the books would clear space for the Bolts to sign blueliners. He’s not only the Lightning player being shopped. League sources insist there are others, but didn’t want to give out any names. A proposal deal to send Lecavalier to the Kings for D Jack Johnson is still on the table. Sources say Johnson, who is coming off an entry-level contract, is seeking a four-year deal worth $5.5 million per season. No wonder the Kings want to deal him. They aren’t the only team in pursuit of Lecavalier. Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal have all made calls.”

Certainly were lots of denials around this the other day. Here is my overall sense of Mr. Garrioch, he is, in my opinion only, universally, amongst his peers anyway, the least credible of all mainstream hockey writers….even more so than Al Strachan. This is my opinion based upon what I have read, heard and seen….for the record my opinion is worth less than the paper this is written on!

Anyone else catch this last night, Jeff Marek called the Cleveland ahl team, “The Fort Erie Monsters”….ummmm, that would be Lake Erie maybe?? Fort Erie home to….the word famous racetrack…..Lake Erie, is Cleveland….honest mistake I am sure… If you saw that then you had to notice the pained look on Scott Morrison’s face each time they do that segment. I happen to like Morrison’s work, but man he looks miserable every time he is on the TV. Could it be having to sit in a tv studio in Toronto while the game is in Pittsburgh????? Man, talk about being treated like Wilner….. ouch!

A kind reader sent me this earlier…enjoy your day TSM

Garrioch is at here

I am going to get shit for this, I know it….A loyal reader asked me to throw this up as a poll, and well he said please. So without further ado, the question to you leaf nation is….. Is it time for Joe Bowen to hang em up???

On 590 with Mccown and Kelly:
Dan Shulman of ESPN at 5:05
Leafs GM Brian Burke at 5:25
former NHL linesman Ray Scapinello at 5:45.

On 640 with Brady and Watters:
505 Darcy Regier, Sabres GM
540 Rob Higgins, Fantasy Hockey Expert
610 Darren Dreger, TSN
640 Joe Bowen, Leafs Broadcaster

A happy Sunday evening to all. I had a great time on the radio today. Murray and his crew were terrific. Little TSM and I enjoyed ourselves and I would love to do it again. Murray has promised me a copy of the segment and I will put it up as soon as I get it. For those of you who were kind enough to both listen and email me privately thanks for kind words, they are greatly appreciated.

With that review of my foray into the medium, lets switch gears and start to focus on the first media power rankings. Here is a review of the folks on the two radio stations that cover sports in the city:

On the Fan: Rick Ralph, Don Landry, Gord Stellick, Daren Millard, Nick Kypreos,Mike Brophy,Doug Farraway,Jack Armstrong, Doug MacLean, Bob McCown, Stephen Brunt, Jim Kelly, Roger Lajoie, Norm Rumack and throw in Eric Smith, Paul Jones, Paul Johnson, Sherman Hamilton and Jack Armstrong, Howard Berger, Rob Faulds, James Deacon and a myriad of regular guests(Dan Shulman, Rob Becker, Peter King, Brian Cooper, Jeff Blair, Richard Griffin, Bob Elliot, Michael Grange, Mary Ormsby, Keith Law, Iain Page, Gord Kirke, John Wells, David Shoalts, Glen Healy, Scotty Bowman, Jay Triano, Chris Schultz, Damien Cox, Elliott Friedman, Nick Kypreos, Pierre Mcguire, Adrion Smith, Eric Smith
On 640: Bill Watters, Darren Dreger, Greg Brady, Jonas Siegel, Andy Frost and their guests(Bob the Bear Cowan, Darren Dreger, Scott Morrison, BoB McKenzie, Christine Simpson,Brian Duff, Rob Higgins, Jim Ralph, Joe Bowen, Sean Baligian,
The first caveat is obvious, one is a 24 hour sports station, the other, well, it’s a talk radio station that does several hours of sports a day. The Fan is the measuring stick in this town. They have been here the longest, built an established brand and continue to create and host excellent programming. Are they perfect? Of course not. One of their biggest problems, in my opinion anyway, is that there simply is not that much to talk about 24/7. Having said that they do a damn good job filling the hours. I am not an Argo’s fan nor do i follow soccer or high school sports. I don’t bet on football either so there are times that I just have no real reason to listen. To either stations when those topics are being discussed.
I am not listening to the fan early enough to listen to Rick Ralph start the day, so I can’t comment on his show. I think he does a great job on his news updates though. Stellick and Landry, in my opinion are a big tease. They own the morning drive when it comes to sports. They are on a sports station but I feel that they do more sizzle and less steak. They don’t talk hardcore sports as much as they do hi-jinx. The odd joke or “bit” is fine. In my opinion it is just over kill. The John Gibbons, Ken Dryden, Vito from Woodbridge and the mind reader schtick are just lame now – again in my opinion. Their insiders can be great. When they talk sports they are terrific. The segments they used to do with Sam Mitchell were the best on the station. I could do without Kathryn Humphreys to be honest.

You listen to Mike Hogan and Mike Tooth, you can’t help but think these are two good guys. They love all things Canadian, junior and college athletics and of course the CFL. Unfortunately, and maybe it’s just for me, but, very little of that makes for interesting radio. Like I said, they sound like nice guys talking sports. They have some decent guests who seem to know a lot about the CFL and Canadian college football. They do get some good NFL guests as well, however I think I am the only sports fan in this city who is not enamored with Chris Schultz. From my perspective, he is way too technical and relies too much on that from his playing days. He too, seems like a nice enough guy, just not compelling enough to listen to. I find their hockey and baseball coverage lacking. They do spend at least an hour each and every week during the season on the Raptors and that is great to listen to. As I have said though, by virtue of not being an Argo/CFL guy there are at least 2 days a week where I will instantly change the channel because that is all they talk about.

The first daily battle starts at the noon hour. This is a war that is starting to get more interesting as the days go by. Every time Kypreos and Watters are on the tv together they look like they are going to kill each other. Watters the ex-agent, assistant GM, high school coach and color commentator vs. Kypreos the ex touch guy player turned analyst/insider. You can’t help but believe that they truly want to cream the other every chance they get and they go head to head on most days at the noon hour. Mallard and Brophy are there with Kypreos and a ton of quality guests. The one nice thing about this show is that it pretty unstructured. In this case it sounds like a couple of guys talking about hockey the same way we all do with our own friends. Brophy lost of respect from me this past week when he went toe to toe with Pat Quinn, tried to embarrass him and was wrong. Up the dial, you throw in Dreger and another great group of guests and you have a show that is quite good too. Dreger seems to the new(er) boy wonder on the scene. He breaks a ton of stories and where he used to have to sit in McKenzie’s shadow he has his own track record now and people look to see what he is going to have to say when a story seems to be breaking, if he wasn’t the one to break it. Kypreos is a little too pro-player and Wilbur too ignorant (I prefer bigoted but I am flexible Mike S.) and his anti-MLSE stance has just about run its course. Truth is, I try to listen to who and what each are going to be talking about on a given day and listen based on that information. If you don’t care about listening live then you can do what I tend to do and pick after the fact by listening in on the web late at night.
Doug Fairway is the Fan’s DH. I have no clue if this true, but I get the feeling that he is the go to guy at the fan. He does an admirable job filling in WHENEVER. He ihas some good opinions and I love listening to his sarcasm when he does the deadline show or other big event shows. I have never heard his 1pm show so I can’t comment on it.
The one show I really like on the Fan is Maclean who just needs to stop talking about his own wealth for a segment and Armstrong who seems to know his basketball (hell if I know) and makes a great effort to talk shop in all the other sports, including hockey. These guys work really well together, they get good guests and both bring unique perspectives to the events as they unfold each and every afternoon.
The big boys come out during the drive home show. As I wrote this past week, when McCown and Wilbur are ON their respective games, both are excellent. McCown with Burke this week was the best interview I have heard with Burke since he took the job. When Wilbur actually interviewed Collangelo and didn’t try to use jokes and innuendo to prove to his listeners how close he is to the guests as he usually does he proved to be a great interviewer. It was the first time I had heard that in him. He should go that route more often. The shows are very different if you think about it though. McCown is the host on Prime Time Sports. Kelly or Brunt (or anyone else sitting in as co-host) fill in with opinion while McCown leads the discussions and directs the show. On 640, it is almost as if Brady is driving the ship. That is not to suggest there is no deference on the air, it is clear it is Wilbur’s show (hell, look at the name). Brady is driving the show though; Brady leads the show through, calls, breaks, news traffic etc. He is the one who introduces guests. Neither format is right, but they are different. Kelly is McCown’s Ed McMahon, Brunt much less so. There is no real sense of that on 640. The guys disagree quite often and there seems to be a mutual amount of respect for the opinion of the other. To me again, it comes down to the guests. In this category McCown wins for diversity. Whom is best is based on opinion of course. Put Mckenzie on with McCown up against the combo of Dreger and Morrission on 640 and you have a pretty difficult decision. 2 nights a week McCown does round tables. I think the format used to be great. I am not overly fond of a lot of the folks who have been around the table recently. Nothing personal, but Rob Faulds, and Mary Ormsby just don’t interest me that much, and a result I seem to be flipping more often away from them as I did before. The same can be said for having Morrison and Dreger on every night. I know, this is a leaf town, and we all love to talk LEAFS, LEAFS, LEAFS…but I would like to have a little variety. As with the lunch hour, my listening depends greatly on who is going to be on the show (both hosting and guesting!) I look every night to see who was on the show I didn’t listen to and try to catch parts of what they put on the web.

There is no better interviewer in the game, in this city then Bob McCown. We all know if big news breaks in the world of sports McCown will have a take on it, and someone involved at a high level will be on PTS to talk about it. It’s hard to compete with that. When it is hockey related, especially the Leafs 640 is the place to go. Wilbur and Brady do a great job breaking down all things Maple Leafs. With Burke in town they are providing much more balanced opinions on the Leafs and despite the fact they are on each and every night, Morrison and Dreger have the league covered. I will take Jonas’s green-ness over Howie’s editorials every day. If Berger could just report on the facts he would be a good beat guy. Jonas needs to spend more time in front of the mirror and work on his own material.

After 7pm, I don’t listen that much unless I am in the car. I listen to pre, post and live games. If I have twitter on, the Fan does a phenomenal job keeping folks up to date as to what is coming up on the air. If any of the shows have interesting topics/guests I tune in. Norm Rumack (I know, I sound like a broken record)does get some interesting people on who just don’t get called upon during the normal business day. He is much easier to listen to know that he adopted a team other then the Leafs and his rah rah Syracuse is pretty funny. I will say this, I will take the personality of Andy Frost vs. Mike Wilner any day. Both guys have the worst jobs in sports media, taking post game calls. It has become more apparent that this has taken a toll on Wilner as he gets more crotchety each and every year. Frost seems to have the right demeanor for the gig and man no better a voice for radio exists in this town.
So, there you have it. A fairly comprehensive run down on sports radio here in Toronto. I am going to try to provide the weekly media power rankings. Everyone is fair game. Radio, TV, print, play-by play etc. So many of you send me clips, links and articles, I will need more of the same so keep em coming.

What Mike and I will be listening to tonight, AKA the battle of the Ralph’s

On 640:

David Nonis, Senior VP/Hockey Ops – TML
Brian Duff, NHL Network
Ryan Ellis, Team Canada/Windsor Spitfires
Rob Higgins, Fantasy Hockey Expert
Joe Bowen &; Jim Ralph

On 590:
Nik Kypreos,
Dan Ralph (CP),
Bob Nicholson
David Branch
Jack Armstrong

Love him or hate him, here is a guy who probably knows the players and the team better then anyone around. So when Joe Bowen throws in an opinion I am going to listen (at least just a little bit)

“My gut feeling is that Mats is going to retire and if he plays at all it might be back in Sweden. I do not have a deadline for this information.”

So, Bowen’s opinion is of high value in of itself, but what way be the most interesting is that it appears that his blog has since been yanked from the Leafs site. Kudos to Kuklas corner for getting a tiny piece of the story….

However ever since it was posted the following error keeps coming up:

“An error occurred while processing your request.
Reference #97.15b75640.1219885529.162da99″

So while it could be a coincidence, I am suspecting it just isn’t the type of thing the Buds wanted on their site….

but who knows.

In any event I take Bowen’s opinion over Hanky’s any day…..