Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Peter Gross: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1537

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

In this 1537th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with FOTM Hall of Famer Peter Gross about his legal issues, a rained out King's Plate, CityTV peeps, New Kids on the Block, Dave Stieb, Phil Donahue, and my glasses. There's also an awesome game of 'word association' with several names from CityTV's glory days. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1537 of Toronto Miked. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Home of pasta, that's why Peters here. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Paul ma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team the best baseball in the city Outside the dome with eight championships since 1967.

We're going for nine. We made the playoffs. It's coming. Recycle my electronics dot CA committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past and Ridley funeral home. Pillars of the community since 1921. pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto Mike is FOTM Hall of Famer, Peter Gross. Welcome back, Peter.

We put about four S's on the end of that, didn't you? I let that ride, buddy. Let it ride. Peter, when you introduce yourself to people you're meeting for the first time at woodbine or wherever you are Do you say hello? I'm FOTM Hall of Famer Peter Gross No All right, I didn't think so, but I thought I'd check in how are you like give me an update on your your health You're well-being. How is Peter gross? Oh, I'm reasonably good I have had a throat issue for about two months.

Had to go see doctors, had chest x-rays. What did they say? They said there's nothing there. There's no problem. The problems between your ears? Yeah, well they gave me some puffers and some steroid crap. And I sound a little bit crusty in the throat,

but that's... Well, I listen to every episode of Down down the stretch and we'll talk more about horse racing. Cause I got to ask you about the King's plate and the rain out and what's happening. I got all those questions in the, in the, in storage for you. But when I listened to down the stretch, I didn't even notice. It's only when you pointed it out that I can now hear it. Hang on a second. See, now I've caught you in a lie because you say you listen to every episode. Well, why you're going to say you've referenced four episodes ago.

I was unable to speak. So I, I parceled out all of the elements to various people. I had my mother doing a segment. I had my grandson doing a segment. Did you do the intro? I, well, if you listen to it, I'm trying to do the intro and then I fell apart. How is your mother? My mother's sensational. And she's a hundred years young, right? No, she's 101. Oh my God. Seeing her tonight actually. Okay. So, and, and she still lives in dependent independent independent,

not nothing wrong with her. That's amazing. Your mom could live forever. Yeah. Yeah. Is that the goal? I'll tell you that it that on Facebook or X or whatever it's called. Well, they're two different She's an absolute icon in the extended family. Okay Facebook probably I'm thinking for that now your mom though How is her like? Happiness quotient like is she happy she's a she's an incredibly well-adjusted Very happy person with a great sense of humor happiness quotient. Like, is she happy? She's a, she's an incredibly well adjusted, very happy person with a great sense of humor. Uh, and she's embarking on a new career. The, there's,

there's a gentleman named Ethan Cole, who's producing a documentary using my mother to illustrate the waste of time that people spend on their cell phones and their apparatus and, and see there's a video of my mother doing sit-ups at 101 years old. And so this is a, sorry, uh, when can I see this footage? Like, I can't help you with that. Okay. But that's amazing that your mom's part of that and that she's 101 and she's doing great. This,

this is a good indicator that you'll be on Toronto mic'd in 30 years. That's the plan What what time because I may be booked So many places I want this is gonna be one of those all killer no filler we're gonna go over the place, but Now that we got an update on your health He sounds like you got a little scratchy throat thing going on there. Your mom's doing better than you are. She's doing great. I will tell you, I had a phone call with Jennifer Valentine last week, like a very lengthy,

detailed phone conversation with Jennifer Valentine. Did you know her as Jennifer Peck or Jennifer Valentine or both? I guess both. Both. Okay. She was telling me a story about, and I've heard this from many other people and we talked about it at your first visit here, but she had a substitute teacher named Mr. Gross who looked like you.

My older brother, Dan was a substitute teacher and the poor guy, he hated it when people would say, are you Peter Gross's brother? Sometimes he denied it. That's difficult to do, right? Cause I, I never had the pleasure of meeting Dan, but sounded uh, sounded like you maybe or looked like you or both. Dan was, I suppose he probably looked a bit like me. He had a full beard and they never shaved long hair, full beard. Um, very different for me, quite frankly. Okay. But, uh, you couldn't pull one past a young Jennifer Peck.

She said this is a Peter Gross relation. So, and I, Dan passed away, right? Um, nine, 10 years ago. Yeah. Nine, 10 years ago. Okay. Can you give me, so how many siblings are still with us in the, uh, I had four. I've lost two of my brothers. I'm sorry. I was one of four. I lost. Okay. So who else is with you? Uh, you have a brother that's still with you. My youngest brother, John, uh, who is the brightest of the family, doing very well. He runs the true North rock climbing club at the Downsview airport.

Amazing. You know, there's a Jonathan Gross who's an FOTM, but this is obviously a different Jonathan Gross that Jonathan, the other Jonathan grows. It's hard to say that Jonathan gross, uh, he helped co-write with his sister, Marjorie gross, uh, who passed away far too young as well, uh, the episode Fusilli Jerry episode of Seinfeld with the, the Fusilli remember the pasta vaguely vaguely. It's funny. I've seen most Seinfeld's, but okay.

It's a very memorable episode Fusilli Jerry and, uh, yeah, Jonathan gross had a role in that with his sister Marjorie Jonathan Gross was part of the battered newsman. Yes, which was a silly story I did 1977 For City Pulse, okay, give me a little more Like what would like to give us a little vibe on they had a rock group, a terrible, like a punk group. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. The battered newsman and like the battered wives,

whatever the circumstances were off, I went to document them and then I ended up performing with them very badly. That's funny. I'm going to play a little something of you from back in the day from a FOTM who runs a wonderful Twitter account called Dave Stebe Today in history. I got it documented here, the exact handle, but it's about Dave Stebe, this day in history. I'm going to do something I've never done on Toronto Mike and I'm going to do with you. My question for you, Peter, is I know you're in your early seventies.

Don't kick the camera. What, how is it that you don't wear glasses? Like, uh, have you had LASIK or something? Do you just have perfect vision? Like why is it I look at you and you're never wearing glasses? Um, the last time I had my eyes checked vintage two years ago, they told me I didn't need glasses. It's as simple as that. So let me ask you when you're looking at your phone or you're on your, I don't know, laptop or desktop or whatever's going on there in the gross household, your iMac or whatever,

you don't have any issues with a scene, uh, like a six versus a five and everything's crisp. Um, I probably do. I probably do. Okay. Well where I'm going with this is that, um, like I got, when I left the corporate world, I drained my, what do you have that, like, you have like a chunk of money for like stuff that OHIP does not cover, okay? So I used, I had to drain this before I left because you can't take it with you.

So I said, okay, I'm gonna get my prescription for my eyeglasses done, I'm gonna get my eyeglasses, I'm gonna get my sunglasses, I'm gonna get it all done because it's now or never. I'm leaving my corporate job. And I never needed these glasses. Like they literally never go on my head. But I'm gonna make... this is the debut. So Pete, are you excited? I wanted to do this with you. You're an FOTM Hall of Famer. For the first time in Toronto Mike's history, I'm gonna record this episode of you wearing my glasses because I find since I turned 50, I really, really need to see the crispness of the characters on my computer screen. Of course, I don't make mistakes

and the best way is to wear glasses. So are you ready? I'm going to put on my glasses. You're going to tell me how I look 40 years from now. People will remember where they were. August 19th, 2024. It's happening now. Okay. So Peter, episode 1537. Okay. So I got a nice case. And again, I haven't had a corporate job since 2018. So we're actually six years since I got these. And for the first time, I'm going to wear them. Cause since I turned 50, I've been wearing them more only when I'm on the computer. I I'm fine like otherwise, but I need them for doing like computer work and I need computer work. I have notes and stuff.

So you see this? You're gonna tell me I want a full review. Okay. Ready? Going on my head. By the way, you look amazing. I didn't stop kicking my camera. This is important, Peter.

How do I look? It's it's it's neat. It's cool. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Peter Gross gives me a thumbs up. So I have a live stream going live dot Toronto Mike comm so if anyone is there Let me know how I look I'm gonna wear glasses and I might have to start wearing glasses for all Recordings because I'm often looking at my notes, etc And I thought I'd debut it with you because I'm so comfortable with you and and it's interesting It's a completely different look like Clark Kent. You could never tell he was Superman because of the glasses Do I look smarter? That's what I want to know. Okay. Did you ever meet Phil Donahue? I did not. And now I guess I never will. Now, so you've, you've heard that news. It's kind of breaking news, but I think of 80s icons,

you know, I, and many of them are actually starting to pass away here. And Phil Donahue is one of those guys, but Peter Gross is another one of those guys and again I'm going to play a clip in a minute here but did you ever tune in? I just remember as a young man, a very young man watching him on tv and he'd like kind of go caller are you there caller and then there'd be this voice from the heavens or whatever and I remember him him with his glasses he had iconic glasses but Phil Donahue seemed to be a fixture of eighties daytime television and now he's passed away. Shout out to Ridley funeral home. Any thoughts on Phil Donahue? No, I'm really not. Except that he was married to Marlo Thomas, who in the sixties and seventies was that girl, right? Absolutely. Okay. And Marlo Thomas, you know, her dad, by any chance,

Danny Thomas. Yeah. Everyone's there's some channel that still runs the Danny Thomas shows and they weren't too bad. No, you know, that was a good sitcom for them, but that one never made it to like syndication when I was watching. So like where I saw, I, I grew up watching a lot of like leave it to beaver. Uh, what's the, uh, I dream of Jeannie, like there's certain shows, of course, Brady Bunch and, uh, Gilligan's Island, certain shows I dream of Jeannie. Like there's certain shows, of course, Brady bunch and, uh, Gilligan's Island, certain shows I watched a lot of cause that's what they played. But that show, a Danny Thomas show,

I don't think it was airing on anything syndicated that I would have tuned into. I completely missed it. The Dick van Dyke show from the sixties was the brightest, was the funniest. And, uh, much like your mother, he's gonna live forever. Yeah, he's still around. He's still around. Okay, lot of ground I wanna cover, but in the last couple of episodes,

we've been kind of discussing your insurance issue. I won't recap it all. If you go back and listen to Peter Gross episodes, we go into great detail, except just the highlight is basically that you were unable to get insurance so that you could deliver food for the food delivery services.

And that's how you were supplementing your income. Can you give us an update? Cause you filed a lawsuit, we played the clips, you were misled. At some point, you know, you and I ended up in trouble with the courts because I aired your appearance in court and we got in big trouble and you had to appear before the judge.

Can you put a bow on that though? You got a letter from the judge that says basically, we're not in trouble anymore. Is that correct? No, I didn't get a letter from the judge, but I got an email instructing me to appear before the judge. Yeah, yeah. We covered that one. And the judge scared me by saying, what you did is punishable by $10,000 or six months in jail.

Which is worse, like what would you take? I would take the six months. I'd take the six because I don't have the 10,000. Um, but she let me off with a warning. Okay, but you got that in writing, right, that we've been told just don't do it anymore and we're okay. There might have been. I think so, because you said you got a letter.

Yeah. Okay. What's the update on your insurance so that you can deliver? Well, in that settlement discussion that we recorded and wrongly aired, the arbiter or the judge in that strongly suggested that I get a lawyer. So I got a lawyer and I gave him a retainer, which was a lot of money for me and for it for two or three days he seemed very active on it he was calling me and now about two months has gone by and now I'm hearing nothing so I don't like this I

feel like what because you know when Mike Stafford came on the program do you know Mike Stafford yeah you know of him okay so he had no money and he wanted to file a suit against chorus and your former colleague, Lauren Honigman actually got a friend, a lawyer friend of his to do it on a, what's it called when you take a cut from the backend, like no upfront money. So that, okay. So program, yeah, well there's a term for this. It'll come to me like work on pro bono, pro bono, sorts of C I think, but it'll come to me. But you didn't, you didn't pursue that. You didn't, maybe Lauren or somebody else, you know,

had a friend who would take your case and then instead of charging you money upfront would, would, would take a percentage of whatever you got. I had a number of discussions with Lauren and what he emphasized is that the insurance companies have all the leverage that. That trying to beat an insurance company is a real bang your head against the wall effort. So I decided I should get a lawyer. And when I spoke to this guy at first, he seemed very comfortable with this issue

of suing insurance companies, seemed to be up to speed. And the last time I spoke to him, he just said, look, we're dealing with two different courts on this. They're not speaking to each other. Uh, so nothing's happening. I don't like that. Okay. So we'll get you back for another update soon, but I don't like how quiet that's got. I don't like how much, I don't know the number you haven't told me the number, but if you, you consider it a significant amount of money he took upfront from a guy guy who you know, you admitted you don't have a pool of disposable income from which to draw.

Well, the other benefit is that before I gave the money to the lawyer, I was agonizing over this several hours a day. And now I've just sort of left it in someone else's lap. So I'm just waiting. So you paid for some peace of mind here. Yeah, I got something. Okay. So obviously we're going to get a thorough Kings plate update from you. I listened to almost all of down the stretch.

I might've missed a bit of one episode there. I apologize. It's called Dave Steve today. When I get to that, uh, Blake bell is the gentleman who runs Dave Steve today on Twitter and he's an FOTM. Cause I was at Christie Pitts he dropped by since I said the words Christie Pitts. Peter Gross there's a book there for you the history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Did you ever do like a World According to Gross or a live hit for City TV from Christie Pitts during the Toronto Maple

Leafs baseball game? Probably not. I know that I probably did some stories on it. Never a live hit though. No, not during. Okay. Cause you, it's not too late. Okay. So that book will give you the full ongoing history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. I don't know if you're in there. I didn't check the index. You might've been in there now. They're in the playoffs. I think they wrapped up the regular season yesterday. So I'll be providing great detailed info for listeners of Toronto Mike about the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff run, which begins now. It wasn't a great regular season, but again, you just got to make the playoffs and then put it together. So it's all happening now. It's again, best value in the city because no ticket required. You don't got to buy a

ticket. You show up at Christie pits for these games and you get a spot on the hill or you can bring a chair and put it on the field somewhere, not on the field. Maybe don't put it in like deep left center field or something, but you can watch the game, get a hot dog and enjoy a fresh leafs logger. It's the best value in town, Peter. Geographically, it's a remarkable place

because you've got the hills and then at the bottom of the hill is the diamond. It's a comfortable place. You know what they say, it's the ninth wonder of the world. It's a geographical marvel, fill the hill, Christie Pitts, we love our Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. I mentioned the Leafs Lager.

Peter, you're clean, like you do not drink an ounce of alcohol. No. Okay. That's why I'm not giving you any fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. Delicious fresh craft beer. That's what we drink around here. We love the support.

I urge people to subscribe to Between Two Fermenters, which is the Great Lakes Brewery podcast. If they knew what they were doing, they'd make sure, I know why have Peter Gross as a guest? He's not going to drink the fresh craft beer during the episode. But listen to Between Two Fermenters and listen to Life's Undertaken. I had a great episode last week with Brad Jones,

who's the funeral director at Ridley Funeral Home. Life's Undertaken, he's at a place called Honey Harbor, which sounds like heaven, and he was checking in and it was a great conversation. He's just such a fascinating guy. He owns Ridley funeral home and Peter, the way you're going, you're never going to end up at Ridley funeral home. Well, keep a good thought.

I'm going to put it out. My over under on that is like from today, 45 years. I think that you're going to live a very long time. That would make me almost 120. Yeah. And then, you know, you're sadly, your mom will have to attend your funeral. Yeah, maybe so. Yeah. Okay, lots going on here. You are here for the Palma pasta and yes there is a large meat lasagna in my freezer for you. Garnet Barnesdale if

you're listening would you please fast forward two minutes. I don't want you to hear the next two minutes. So Garnet Barnesdale, fast forward two minutes. I don't want you to hear the next two minutes. So Garnet Barnsdale, fast forward two minutes. Peter, what are your thoughts on Palma pasta lasagna? Well, I had no desire to be on your show today. I have no interest in talking to you or discussing this, but I knew that I was going to get this frozen meat lasagna and it's fantastic. And the reference to Garnet Barnsdale, of course, is he makes a very good lasagna He puts little meatballs in it so as you're eating the lasagna you get this surprise, but the the palma Lasagna is is the best lasagna. I've ever eaten. It's it's really a thrill and

I'll take this home and and Roger and I will get three meals out of this and scene perfect well done Peter Here's your here's your money. Okay. But no, that was all authentic. And just like the Italian food is authentic from Palma pasta. All right, Peter Gross, before I play a little song to get us set up for the Kings plate update, and then we're going to try something new that I'm going to use of Leona Boyd. It's like a word association game where I'm going to say the name of somebody.

And you're just going to to without even, you know, you're not going to stop and ponder from the, from your heart, from the top of your, your big brain. You're going to tell us your thoughts, your feelings, your memories quickly of the name that I've uttered. This is coming soon. I'm very, very excited about that. That's right after our Kings Plate update. But may I just tell you about my night last night, Peter Gross? I think you should. Okay. So last night I was at a concert at Budweiser stage. It was, uh, well it was DJ Jazzy Jeff, Paula Abdul and New Kids on the Block. Are you familiar with any of these

three? Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are you familiar with any of these three ads or all of them? Okay. So I did not, I never in my life and I will tell you Peter, you spent many years at all news radio 680. Many years. How many years were you at 680? 24.

24 years. Okay. Shout out to Mike Apple. Shout out to Richard Southern. I often when I bike with pants on, I'll use my 680 news tie on my leg. They got new branding now, so they had to get rid of all the old green stuff. There's no more use my 680 news tie on my leg. Uh, they got new branding now, so they had to get rid of all the old green stuff. There's no more green at 680 news. But before 680 went, by the way, Mike Apple's listening right now. Anything you want to say

to Mike? Mike Apple's your biggest fan. I thought you were my biggest fan. No, Mike Apple cares for you way more than I do. I got a great know from Mike Apple yesterday about how he says he could listen. And I hope I'm allowed to say this Mike, but this was a comment. He could listen to me talk to Ed Keenan forever. So I'm gonna call his bluff. My next Ed Keenan episode is going to go like 12 hours. We'll see if Mike Apple's still in.

Apple listens to all of your podcasts. I can't listen to my own podcast. I just got this tiny span of attention. Yeah, well listen, you were there. You want fresh content. But Apple does love Toronto MIT. He's listening right now. So before 680 went all news,

I was an avid listener of the all hits 680. So I'm thinking now age-wise, I guess from the time I'm, I don't know, eight, nine, eight, nine years old, and I start kind of listening to more radio, until basically, pretty much until it goes all news. I'm tuning in to 680 for the top six at six. I was very interested in top 40. Like I'm no longer, I've lost touch with top 40, but I was very keen on all hit radio top 40 music. So I heard

a lot of Paula Abdul and New Kids on the Block. And when you hear these pop songs over and over again on you know the old Top 40 where they repeated quite often you just knew these songs and you could you could sing along you knew the words so I am here to tell you Peter that I know like from my heart an almost embarrassing number of New Kids on the Block songs can you name any can you sing any New Kids on the Block song for me? I'm trying hard. I'm digging deep into my memory and the answer is no. Because you were not listening to in the late 80s into the early 90s, you were not listening to Top 40 Radio. No, no, that'll explain it. Okay. So I didn't ever never once though that I have a thought like I want to see new kids on the block in concert. Like I just don't go to pop acts. I

never buy a ticket for a pop act, you know, it's just not my bag or whatever. But unbeknownst to me, Monica got some deal through her work and she bought two tickets and then she, she nicely asked me to be her plus one. So I was excited to go to these, you know, top 40 acts from the eighties and nineties with Monica. So we go, we take the go train, we get off at exhibition, we walk through the X and then we were there for and I was There for the entire Paula Abdul set the entire new kids on the block set Fantastic like fun night, but the ratio of women to men at this concert. I was trying to gauge it I'm gonna put it at 25 to one really 25 woman for every man. I saw at Budweiser stage last night

Unbelievable what's your reaction you wish you were there? Yes, I do every man I saw at Budweiser stage last night. Unbelievable. What's your reaction? You wish you were there. Yes, I do. The funny thing is, so the men's washroom lines are, you just walk in, it's easy peasy, but the woman washroom lines are extensive. So obviously what happened was

women just started going in the men's room. So the men's room became like a non-gender specific unit, whatever. Anybody can go into that man's room. And that's what it was like. So I went in to take a leak. The urinals, okay, the urinals are men only. The stalls were basically women. That's what happened there. But it was quite something. This is a huge... What I saw was, just to share my experience, I saw... Monica was actually a bit young for this crowd because Monica's birthday is tomorrow, she turns 43, so happy birthday Monica. Monica was too young for this crowd, but this was basically, it looked to me like the average, a lot of 50-something year old women who were in love with New Kids

on the Block in 1988, who were kind of dressing up like that era, going with a bunch of girlfriends, and they're at this concert and their teenagers are pre-teens again. Like it was a miracle all these 50 something year olds who just were singing along and Mark, almost called him Mark Wahlberg because I watched Boogie Nights last year, coincidentally I watched Boogie Nights again yesterday. But Donnie Wahlberg will take, he lifts up a shirt and he shows his like his six pack and these girls are creaming their jeans and this crowd is going nuts it was something man I pause for Peter Gross reaction. The only thing I can think of in terms of

going to watch a group sing something familiar to you I went to see the Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964 Wow and the group that we call the group that I went to see the Beatles at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964. Wow. And the group that we call the group that before the main group. Opening act. The opening act was the circle. And they had a hit song called Red Rubber Ball.

And no one was going crazy for the circle. So you could actually hear the rendition. And I remember thinking it was the first time in my life I'd seen a live rendition of a song that I'd heard on the radio. Wow. And that was 1964. That was only 60 years ago. Right. I still remember that. I can't remember a note of the Beatles because everyone was screaming and that sound system was shit. Of course. The maple leaf gardens, right? And is that the, when they did the two shows in one day? Cause was that when Ballard like pulled a fast one or something and they had to

do two shows in one day? Yeah, yeah, they did. And, and the shows were 24 minutes long, not, not like Taylor Swift's four and a half hour show these days. Okay. So what was the ratio of women to men that day? Do you remember it wasn't 25 to one 13 to seven 13, I calculated, okay. I calculated it then. By the way, remember, you know, speaking of what's the word name for this word, remember that C word for lawyers?

Thank you to Hayref. It's contingency fee. So you need a lawyer on contingency. They're hard to find, I guess, but it's sometimes if you know somebody, or if you're Mike Stafford. A little music here. So I wanna ask you about the King's Plate.

Didn't it rain, children? Yeah! Rain, oh yes. Didn't it, yes? Didn't it, you know it didn't, didn't it? Oh, oh yes. How it rained. I said it rained, children.

Woo! Is this Sister Rosetta Thorpe? Thorpe, Thorpe. You saw her in concert too right? No this is this is a remarkable piece of video that you can find on YouTube from 1963 or 64 and she's making the song up as she goes along. She's doing it on a train I don't know where a train platform I believe maybe somewhere in England. And this was a middle-aged, rather large black woman. She's a remarkable guitar player. If she did her act today, she'd be a gigantic star. And the reason you're running this is that late Saturday afternoon, as I was preparing

to insert the King's Plate into my podcast, which was otherwise completed. So I had a five minute gap to put in the King's Plate. And this podcast is called Down the Stretch. And anybody right now who has any degree of interest in horse racing in Ontario should subscribe immediately, free subscription, and it's very thorough. As Freddie P will tell you, as Mike Wilner will tell you, as Jason Portwondo will tell you, nobody puts content together like Peter Gross. Thank you for that.

But I had to, you know, I was planning to put, you know I had a five-minute gap of my podcast to put in the Kings plate and at five o'clock as I'm watching the races I see this message From woodbine races 6 to 13 have been canceled It rained so it was this extraordinary rain and it just destroyed the track and it wasn't safe And they had to cancel it. So now I'm thinking what do I do? What do I do? I don't have five minutes of content. And as it turns out I went with my son and my grandson to see Twisters and as they're watching this movie I'm remembering

this piece of music by Sister Rosetta Tharp and it started to sort of build in my mind how I could put a few minutes about the rain and this wonderful song by Rosetta Tharp. So that's what I did. I put together a story about how the Kings Plate was rained out using the music of Sister Rosetta Tharp. And you talked to some interesting people too about this because this is an unprecedented happening. Never never happened. One hundred sixty five times. This had never happened. And. And who did you talk to? Like you talked to some well, heavy hitters.

Kevin Atard is this great trainer and he had four horses in the plate. And he's also a very accessible guy and he's a pleasure to talk to. So I did an interview with him because he talked to his jockeys. What happened is so strange because they've had heavy rain before for the Queen's plate and the rain on traditional dirt tracks just turns the track into mud. The sand absorbs the rain and although it can be messy, it's not terribly dangerous. But what happened here is they have a synthetic

and they spent millions of dollars putting in all of this drainage underneath. The synthetic does not absorb the water. And when there was so much rain that it overwhelmed the drainage system, the water was pooling on top. And then there was a tunnel where the horses go from the paddock area to the track that was flooded.

And a lot of trainers were saying, well, I'm not walking my horse through three feet of water. The horses would panic. All kinds of terrible things could happen. So it had just rained so much. It was, you know, the word unprecedented is appropriate. Woodbine had no choice. And they're going to run the 165th queen. Sorry. Oh my goodness.

Kings play. You know what I knew? You know what? I remember when, when queen Elizabeth the second passed away, I tweeted about how, Oh, I guess it'll be the Kings plate now. And, uh, Jim Lawson replied to my tweet to tell me, and I basically hold your horses not so fast. And of course that was inevitable, right? This is how it has always been historically. When there is a king, it's the king's plate. And when there is a queen, it's the queen's plate, right? Exactly. Okay. So the hundred and sixty fifth king's plate at Woodbine racetrack is actually going to happen Friday. So you'll be there Friday? Probably not. No. Okay. Um. I mean, what I do is I sit at home

and I record the races as they go by. There's four other stakes races. That's terrible for me to say. I produced this podcast and I'm not going to the Kings Park. Yeah, I thought for sure you'd be there. You dress up, you know, you get your monocle. I can see you wearing a monocle.

No, if I went, I would go with the way I'm dressed now in the t-shirt and jeans. Right. It's funny, I'm just in a stage now where you can watch all the races on TV, where I'm dressed now in the t-shirt and jeans. It's funny, I'm just in a stage now where you can watch all the races on TV, on your computer, on your phone, and I produce all of this stuff,

and I wanna get at the, I've got, for example, the 145th issue of Down the Stretch, which is our online newspaper, is completely filled except for the one page of the King's plate. So I'll be writing this on Friday, sending it to the proofreader. You work hard and you know your stuff. Shout out to my proofreader, Susan Nash, by the way, does a fabulous job. She's great.

It's amazing. I will write these stories and I'll look at them carefully and I'll see, this is perfect. I don't really have to send this to Susan. Susan gets it, finds nine mistakes. Oh, she's a keeper. Yeah. So, um, that'll be a great day at the track on Friday, but but what might have some serious problems because they sold 17,000 reserve seats. And a lot of the people who bought these reserved seats won't be able to go on Friday. So do they refund them? Do they offer them?

What are they going to do? You did talk to Mike Copeland, right? In this episode I was listening to of down the stretch. Well, don't misrepresent me. No, I didn't speak to Mike Copeland. I was watching and I saw a clip Brody Lawson interviewed him. I found that on TV and I read it now. It says a canceled Kings plate. Mike Copeland and Kevin Attard explain. It doesn't say you spoke. Okay. Gotta, gotta be truth. Blake McIntosh, Nijinsky, Diego Bennett, Ben Benitez, Yannick Gingras, Yannick Gingbright. By the way, if you're listening to the podcast,

he had 13 drives at Harris Philly last Friday. He won with 10 of them. He was second with the other three. It is the most extraordinary day any harness driver has ever had in the 150 year history of harness driving in the world. And that's the kind of good shit you get at Down the Stretch, the definitive Ontario horse racing podcast produced and hosted by Peter Gross, FOTM Hall of Famer. So people should absolutely subscribe to that.

Now, Phil wizard, do you know the name Phil wizard? Yeah, he's, he's the, the break dancer when gold. Yeah. He, uh, did he perform? I don't know. There was a lot of rain, but did he get in his performance? He was going to perform at the 165th Kings plate at wood by, I don't know for sure. I, I think not. Our Lou Kala, the, this pop rap singer. Are you familiar with Lou Kala by the way? No. When would bind announced that Lou Kala would be performing, I look, Google them. Yeah. Yeah. Her, her, her. Sorry. See, that's how much I know.

And she's quite remarkable. And I think she's a, she's a big star. And I think would bind did the research properly and found someone who would attract young people to the track. But I don't think Phil Wizard performed, I don't think Lou Kalla performed, perhaps that will happen Friday. Okay quick baseball break, I know I already talked about Toronto Maple Leafs baseball but this will be a Toronto Blue J baseball, a Major League Baseball break before we get to this name association game that I'm very very excited about. Let me just remind you Peter that at RecycleMyElectronics.ca that's where you go if you have old electronics, old cables, old devices

piling up in that Mississauga home of yours. You don't throw that in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill. You go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, put in your postal code, find out a good place to drop it off to be properly recycled, safely recycled. You know that though, Peter, because you're an FOTM Hall of Famer. Do they take batteries? You know what? Ask me that later and I'll give you a good answer.

Okay. I got a big bag of batteries. Now I got to fix it in post. Okay. Blake Bell is a gentleman, one of the gentlemen behind the aforementioned Twitter account, Dave Stebe Today. He heard you were coming on Toronto Mike.

Blake Bell, by the way, again, has appeared on Toronto Mike, because he was on the mic when I was recording at Christie Pitts a few, a few weeks ago. Now he says you, Peter Gross did some beautiful video pieces with Dave Steve in the early 80s. What was your relationship like with Dave Steve back in the 1980s when you were at City TV? I think it was probably better than he had with a lot of the other reporters. Like like Hep C? Dave, Dave Steeb, um, didn't have a lot of patience for the typical questions that reporters would ask him. One of my favorite moments with Dave Steeb, he pitched a three hitter, a three hit shutout. He was awesome.

Two of the hits were the batters ducking out of the way and the ball dribbling off their bat. They gave up nothing. And so in the locker room, there was this ring of reporters, about a dozen of them around Steve and because they were all taller than me, I'm behind them and he can't see me. And so they're asking these inane questions and he's bristling and he's not overly friendly. And from behind this wall of reporters, I shout out, how do you explain the three hits? And he took his hands and he parted them and he looked at me and he says, yeah, I guess

if I was pitching to you, you would have walked. That's why they have the Eddie Gazelle rule that prevents you from playing the midget. Yeah, the Eddie Gadell. Gadell. Was the midget. Yeah. You're not allowed to call him the midget. The little person.

Little person, right. Yeah, midget, that word's been banned from this broadcast. Now I have to fix two things in post. But that was a stunt. I think he was far shorter than you. He was three foot two and and they ruled that which if you were one of the little people you should probably sue because You'd have a great because you'd have a six inch strike zone. Yeah, that's the joke and but but Dave Steve of that sinker Although that wouldn't help him with calling these strikes here

Can I again Blake Bell shared a bunch on Twitter people should if they have any interest in? Again, Blake Bell shared a bunch on Twitter. People should, if they have any interest in 1980s Blue James baseball or Dave Steeb, who should be in the hall of fame. You Peter Grosser in the FOTM hall of fame. Dave Steeb should be in Cooperstown. Do you have an opinion on that? Oh yes.

He should be in Cooperstown, right? I think he pitched a no hitter after going into the ninth inning with no hits two times previously. At least two times. There was two weeks weeks in a row like two starts in a row He went into the eight and two-thirds of no hit ball before he gave up Like bad luck to a bad bounce on the infield just bloops it's just bad luck. Yeah bad luck Okay, so let me just play one of the many things using this Dave Steep story for an hour and a half Well, no, I'm actually, okay, well.

And here are Peter's 10 amazing facts about the game of baseball. That's like my mom. Baseball is a game of endless mathematical possibilities. Like a snowflake, no two ball games are exactly alike. And just when you think you figured this game out, it throws you a curve. You think you know everything about baseball, pay attention.

Here's 10 amazing things I'll bet you didn't know. Now here's Damaso Garcia, the Blue Jays leadoff hitter. Did you know that he could come to the plate in nine straight innings, even though the Jays lose one to nothing? And how about old hard luck Steve? Did you know that Big Dave could strike out every batter he faced and still lose the game? How about this? A pitcher could give up only rocks and home runs and still win the game for his team.

And while we're talking about pitchers, you may find this very difficult to believe, but a pitcher can win a ballgame even though he's been dead for a month. And if you believe that, you'll believe this, that a pitcher can win a game even though he belongs to the losing team. And did you know that it is possible for a pitcher to win a game without throwing the batter a pitch? How many strikes till you're out in a ball game?

Did you know that a batter and the same official like that can take four balled strikes and not strike out? Baseball is a game in which foul balls don't count, but a foul ball can win a ball game. That's right. Baseball is a game where the team that wins the most games in the majors might still not make the playoffs. Do you believe that? Let's go to the next ball game. And finally, my favorite irony. All baseball games are scheduled to go nine innings, so

why is it most games don't go nine innings? I'm Peter Gross for City Pulse. You probably want me to explain all this to you, do you? Well, good luck. I haven't got a clue. So Deanie Petty and Gordon Martino are kind of the bread in that Peter Gross sandwich and their names will come up in a moment when we play name association. So, Deenie Petty and Gordon Martino are kind of the bread in that Peter Gross sandwich, and their names will come up in a moment when we play Name Association.

But most of those I get, one of them, a batter can get, I mean, not that you could remember what you did in the 80s here, but so there's a batter could be up all nine innings and they could still lose one nothing. Yeah. Something like that. Can you explain that one? Okay. Damis Lodgers, see your leads off.

Walks. Next guy walks. Next guy walks. Next guy strikes out. Next guy strikes out. Next guy strikes out. Okay. So Damos Garcia came to the plate in the first inning in the second inning. Yeah. The seventh batter walks. Seven, seventh batter gets out. Eighth batter gets out. Ninth batter walks or gets a hit. So now Damos or Garcia is at the plate for the second time in two innings as he's at the plate, the guy at first gets picked off.

So Damaso Garcia leads off the third, but he appeared at the plate. The wording is important. Right. Can Damaso Garcia appear at the plate in all nine innings? Okay. So it's not an ad bad. It's a plate appearance. I don't know. And it's the same. It's considered the same plate appearance, but he appeared in the plate in the second inning. Then he'll lead off the third, repeat the sequence. It's never happened. Okay. No, of course not. But so in a lot of those, the answers, a lot of them is like, so you can have a game suspended and then

they pick it up like six weeks later. A player could be traded or whatever and could play for the, get a win for the other team. And that explains how you can die and get the win. Cause you could have be the pitcher or pitcher record and they pick it up a month later, but you died. And like, of course, you know, sack fly, you know, if you catch a foul ball, you can still tag up. Right. And the other one that, explains some of those is box, right? So a pitcher could come into a game. I don't know. He could balk around. When I did that, I was thinking pitcher comes into a game

It's tied top of the ninth. He picks off the guy at first in the inning doesn't throw a pitch to the batter Team wins in the bottom of the ninth. He's the winning pitcher without throwing a pitch, right? Okay so fascinating and I just pulled that quickly because many were shared on that Dave Steve account and You had many an interaction with Dave Steve who should believe should be in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Speaking of which, real quick here before we move on to my name association, which I

am very excited about, I want to ask you about Pete Rose because I follow you on social media and particularly Facebook. And I believe you, maybe you saw a documentary series or something that kind of influenced you so that you thought Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame and a great discussion and I just want to hear your thoughts on it because I Think that it's he bet on his own games I think that is like that is the third rail of all this is that he's not just spending betting on sports He's not even just betting on Major League Baseball, which is actually, you know grounds for whatever ban banishment or whatever

But he bet on his own games. Yes, he's picking his team to win. But as you know, as a baseball fan, as manager, he could drain the uses best relievers in that game to get the win. And then that causes the next game to be you know, you can't use those relievers again, like he could have a lot of influence over that game that he wouldn't have done that if he didn't bet on his team, like it's, it's, it's third rail to me. I want to hear from you about Pete Rose because no one cares what I think about Pete Rose.

I believe Pete Rose should be in the hall of fame. Um, it's funny. I got an argument with, with Garnet Garnet does not believe Pete Rose should be in all of them because Pete Rose is an asshole. Oh, that's not a good reason. Because Ty Cobb was an asshole. Ty Cobb beat a one-armed man during a baseball game. A lot of assholes in baseball. Yeah. If you're, if you're going to measure character, then, then you, you know, you start going down a slippery slope. Uh, just the way Pete Rose played the game, you know, I think of Vladimir Guerrero and,

and fortunately he's been playing much better since May, but there were a couple instances early in the season where he hit a ground ball and walked to first and the, and the infielder fumbled the ball and Pete Rose never, Charlie hustle. Yeah. He, he, he's famous for breaking the guy's leg, climbing into home plate at an all star game. And he would run to first when he walked, right? Like this is a guy who would take a walk

and he'd run to first. He was an exciting ball player. He was a great skilled ball player, a fabulous hitter. Does he still hold the record for most hits? Yep. How can you keep the guy who holds the record for most hits out of the whole thing? Yeah, but you know the answer to that question

because he bet on baseball. He's admitted it. He hasn't completely, he had the answer to that question because he bet on baseball. He's admitted it. He hasn't completely. He had the opportunity to say I was wrong. I shouldn't have done it. Uh, I regret doing it. He should have specifically said that I don't know what went on between him and baseball commissioner or commissioner Barjia Mehdi, but, um, just based on his career on what he did on the baseball field, keep

in mind, he bet on baseball when he was a manager. Right. So don't put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame as a manager, but as a baseball player, just on the numbers alone. And the fact that he's been barred from the Hall of Fame, has it been 30 years? It's been a while. Now Moose Grumpy's got yourred from the Hall of Fame, has it been 30 years? It's been a while. Now Moose Grumpy has got your back in the lifetime.

So also, thank you Ian Service who confirms what I was waiting for confirmation from the great Ian Service. Yes, recyclemyelectronics.ca takes batteries. That's huge. So your battery question, I don't have to fix it in post because I came back to tell everybody recyclemyelectronics.ca, batteries are accepted. Okay. And Moose Grumpy, who's got your back says Pete Rose. I think she means Pete Gross. No, it's not. Pete Rose should be in the hall of fame. There are a lot of players getting away with far worse now, domestic violence, drug abuse, far worse than betting.

So I'm just going to chime in and say two, two things. One is you're, you being an asshole should not have any, that's, that's where I hate it. I don't think assholes should be prohibited from being in the hall of fame. Okay. There's a lot of assholes. I think this might've worked against Dave Steve because unlike you, Peter Gross, a lot of sports writers who had a vote had bad experiences with Dave Steve and they kind of want to stick it to the guy. I wonder if his career was not as long as others. I'm not sure what his wind total was. Late seventies to early cause 92. And then he does the little comeback where he comes as a reliever just to do

a little mop up the ambit, but over a decade. Okay. But now, um, let me, uh, just say, so the character I'm with you a hundred percent, the character shouldn't have anything to do with it. And I also agree that it's what happens between the lines, but the betting on baseball is the reason he's not in the Hall of Fame, the reason he's banned from baseball. And I think you can argue what's worse, betting on baseball or beating your girlfriend up or something. No contest what's worse, but that's not what this is about. This is about the fact that you have this third rail in baseball where if you bet on baseball And you have an influence over the game like a manager

That's no that's not acceptable. You agree that as a betting man you agree that you can't have your manager Betting on his own team. No, that's wrong but so maybe maybe in a different universe where he Owns how wrong that is and he's says he's sorry and maybe after a certain amount of time they let him back in or something like that but he didn't even do that move I'm not sure that he's been apologetic enough by the way in horse racing it's completely acceptable for the owner of a horse to put a $20 wind different in the helmet of his jock yeah that's different though right cuz cuz you're that's an individual sport, if you will. It's like, right. This is a team sport. And

like I said, the best example I can think of is, okay, you got your, your reliever, uh, you have a series of three games series or whatever. You basically drain the swamp in terms of a available relievers to win that game as if it's game seven of the world series. Okay. Meanwhile, you got to play tomorrow and you've depleted your, uh, your, uh, your bullpen, huge advantage to the other team for that next game. And even the game afterwards, that's the kind of shit that will go down when you bet on your own team. Like you're not playing. What if Pete Rose was betting on everything then he would could be considering that. Well, if we get the slips, okay, find the set that Pete Rose bet on every game to win, we're going to put them in the hall of fame. Okay. So, but I do like his hustle and I don't care that he's an asshole. By the way, I need to point out

just to promote myself. The night Pete Rose hit, what was the number? 4,292, I think it was 4,292. I remember the day. I did one of my better stories. I went out with this wonderful camera woman, Sheila Cameron, and I think you can find this on YouTube. Pete Rose got his record-breaking hit that night in Montreal while playing for the Phillies. That afternoon, I went out looking for my 4,292nd story, and it starts with Sparky Anderson reading the record book going, Pete, look at this!

You know, Pete Rose, Pete Gross. Love it. And if you can find it, it's a lot of fun. And of course, Sparky Anderson, former Toronto Maple Leaf. Do you know that baseball? Of course. Who are you talking to? I went to...

Who am I talking to? I went to, um, who am I talking to? I went, I went to a Toronto Maple Leaf, Montreal, um, what was the Montreal Royals? Thank you. The Montreal Royals. This was a game in 1961 and um, Jackie, Jackie, Robin Sparky Anderson was the playing manager at second base and a guy named Al Seacott pitched an 11 inning no hitter. I used to go to all of the Toronto Maple Leaf baseball games down at the old Maple Leaf Stadium. Okay.

Shout out to Larry Milson who was often there as well and has told us that story on Toronto Mike. Okay. So quick fun fact. I think it's fun. It's fun because you're so healthy and you look so great right now, but on this exact day, August 19th, on this exact day in 2020, you visited my backyard because COVID wouldn't let us do it down here.

And you told us all about your stroke. That was episode seven hundred and nine years ago, four years ago. And I'm still alive. And you're just thriving. And by the way, since your last appearance on Toronto, Mike, there was an episode with John Gallagher where he took my phone call and we had a lengthy conversation. Did you catch any of that? I believe I did. Well, maybe you've been over since then.

Could you come over? Okay. So John Gallagher also had a stroke and he seems to be suffering more than you in that he gets very tired often and you just seem to never miss. You never skipped a beat with your stroke. First of all, it was a TIA. It's called a, I don't even know what that stands for, but the most mild stroke you can have the most benign stroke. I had 40, I had 45 minutes of shattered vision,

which resulted in me getting an eye test, which resulted in the optometrist saying 45 minutes. I feel like I've had that. I feel like there's these, I've seen like, I've had tunnel vision before. You may have had a stroke, but what was frightening was, um, even though I was completely cogent within my brain, I couldn't make the words come out. And I remember I was sitting there just laughing at myself and then it went away and then it was fine. Um,

and I remember I think the next day I phoned my mother and I said, I had this unusual thing happen. And she said, you stupid boy, get yourself. So I ended up going to the hospital and spent 26 hours at Queensway. And I'm on some kind of medication and there's been no recurrence. Can you name that artist? Oh, it's familiar. This is Graham Shaw.

Oh, but that's all City Pulse music. I'm going to just bring you back with some music. Before the Rocky theme. Yes, before Gonna Fly Now. Speaking of the Rocky theme, I'm flipping channels. We used to do this back in the day. I'm talking to a guy who remembers. And nowadays, no one flips channels because they just on demand select what they want.

They go right there. Tonight on City Pulse, Peter Gross. So we're going to talk about that. So I'm flipping channels, and I just catch the last half an hour of Creed 2 Creed 2 Apollo Creed Sun played by Michael B. Jordan from the wire and I'm watching it So you got sliced alone is in his corner and then I see oh my god

It's the Russian from Rocky 4. So and the guy that Creed is fighting is So and the guy that Creed is fighting is the guy from Rocky IV, the Russian, his son. So it's like, but then I hear the chords to Gonna Fly Now. And I'm all for it, man. It's like they just keep making the same movie over and over again and they just kind of add like, okay, now it's Apollo Creed's son and now he's fighting the Russian's son and Sly is the ring man sort of like slip the jab Rocky anyway I enjoyed the last half hour of Creed 2 that's all but

what do you think of when you hear this music I think of Deenie Petty okay well let's start right there this I've been so excited about this Peter this could this could sink like a lead balloon by the way I love that you dated a camera woman named Cameron. Is that her name? You didn't date her? No, no, she's shocked. She's a great woman, a great, she was great.

You did not date her. We did wonderful stories together. Okay, my apologies. I wish I did. I thought I heard you dated her. My apologies, okay. Okay, so Peter, I'm gonna say a name and you're just gonna tell me your initial thoughts

on this name. I'm gonna do the same thing of Leo and gonna tell me your initial thoughts on this name. I'm gonna do the same thing as Leo and avoid but I need to test and practice and you're the person practicing it. Ready? Deenie Petty. Deenie Petty, outrageous, charming, beautiful, uninhibited, and I'll tell you the most ridiculous Deenie Petty story. Yes please. We'd gone to shoot some the most ridiculous Dini Petty story. Yes please. We'd gone to shoot some intermediate hockey game, Junior B or something, and so we're in the dressing room doing interviews

and one guy for reasons that I can't explain dropped his pants, posed complete naked in front of the camera and said, say hi to Deeney Petty for me! And I think we showed it to her and she was very good. She was good with it. Okay, I'll just point out Deeney Petty is an FOTM but not in the FOTM Hall of Fame like you, Peter. So there you go. Very fond, very fond to Deeney Petty. Just a great, a great anchor person, a great journalist, and a really

interesting, attractive human being. And because we heard his voice introducing that segment I played from Dave Stebe today, Gord Martino. Gord Martino is a much better news anchor than anyone gives him credit for. I'll tell you a story that I saw him do this one time. It was the end of the show the last few minutes and I think it was might have been Maple Leaf Gardens and it was Ted

Kennedy was speaking at Maple Leaf Gardens and they threw the copy on the teleprompter thank you teleprompter that was the word I was like I'm from the business okay and which Ted Kennedy quickly, cause there's a famous may believe Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy. The Kennedy. One of the Kennedy brothers. But on the teleprompter, it said Bobby Kennedy. Oh. Okay. So now you're Gordon Martino and this is coming up and you had no idea. Right.

And without missing a beat, he said Ted Kennedy. That's, that's number one. I never forgot that he's a pro. And number two, I watched, I was at, um, the city television studios the day of nine 11 and they worked Martino from like nine in the morning to 10 at night. And he never lost, lost a beat. It was just, it was incredible journalism. He's also a great guy. And I'll tell you, I got a third story. I got two tickets. I think it was 1981 when Canada played Russia in, in that hockey series. And that's, so I ended up saying to Gord,

do you want to drive to Montreal? And of course he wanted to, because he's from Montreal off we go. And that was the game that the Russians beat Canada I think the score was eight to one and he was I didn't give a shit, but he was furious He was stomping his feet and he just he it was agony for him and afterwards He took me to a bar. We went to multiple bars Everyone recognized him and kept buying us free drinks. So, um, wow.

Gordon Martino, the consummate pro and a really engaging individual coming up next modern family. Okay. So now this is a woman I mentioned, I just talked to Jennifer Valentine and I shared that story about the substitute teacher who was your older brother, Dan. Here's a woman I just chatted with and we're working on getting her to make her Toronto Mike debut, but via zoom because she lives in the United States of America. So it's tough for her to get to South Etobicoke.

Thalia Assures. I can't, I don't know much about that. That's part of this fun is like some people you won't have anything to say, but you know this person was there. Competent, bright reporter. Uh, I'm not sure what her length of tenure was. I don't think it was terribly long. She went to global. Okay. We went to global and then she went to the United States, obviously successful.

So no, you didn't snort any Coke with her in the back of a limo. No, I didn't. I would not. I would know if I did. Yeah. Jim Taddy. didn't, I would know, I would know if I did. Yeah. Jim, Tati, Tati. Yeah. I have to restrain myself. That's not part of this game, Peter. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, Tati, Tati did wonderful work with Bob McCowan on,

uh, on sports lines. That what it was called. And yes, and global sports line. Okay. So, so a very, very, yes guy, um, but what stands out for me with Jim Tati is, is this, and, and, and it's just kind of weird remembering it. Uh, I was sports director there for a while and we hired Tati and somewhere along the line, there was a, um, gay baseball tournament and I said to Jim, go, go cover the gay baseball tournament. And he went, Oh oh no somehow afraid that if he was seen covering the gay baseball tournament people would think he was gay and I just thought that was weird that

he refused to do it all right you're not holding back today Peter okay here's a name for you and I've been trying to get this gentleman on Toronto Mike then any help you can give me would be appreciated. I would even let him zoom in. I'm trying to get Jojo Chinto to make his Toronto Mike debut. I did have a phone call with him, but I'm trying to get him on the program.

Jojo Chinto. I spoke with Jojo a while back and he seems somewhat inclined to do it. He's not a hundred percent healthy. He's got some kind of slow cancer in an organ and he may have had one organ removed. Um, but he can zoom it in. Jojo Jojo Chinto is amongst the top five most fascinating people you will ever meet in your life. And I'll tell you something about Jojo. Um,

I left city TV in 1986 and a blaze of unglory. Right. And I lived on the third floor of a house for several months, no income whatsoever, no car, no girlfriend. I did have a cat, which was important. Couple of times, Jojo just came by on his own and gave me 50 bucks. That's beautiful. Like, like I'm not phoning him saying, Joe, I'm in trouble. Can you help me out?

Just gross. You need, you need help. He'll money. Can you help me out? Just gross. You need, you need help. He'll money. Like that's my very bad Jojo Chinto. Everyone does a Jojo Chinto. Wonderful. Great, great human being. Um, love running into him when I do, unfortunately, I don't think he's in the greatest health. I will try ask him if you tell him, I'll even do it either on the phone or zoom, he prefers and just to capture his like his bio sort of like I did with Harold, well Harold Hussain who's in much better condition it sounds like came here for his Toronto mic debut but it's the only he says it's the only interview

he's done about his career this is I'm talking about Harold Hussain I don't see a lot of Jojo Cinto content out there and I desperately want to capture it. So you'll just tell them I'm willing to zoom. I will do it via smoke signals. We can use walkie talkies. You know, you know, it's funny, Jim McKinney, I was speaking with, I speak with him quite often. And in our last conversation, he said he was in Burlington and had lunch with Stephen Earlbott and Jojo Chinto. I said, why didn't you call me? I would've come. Yeah. You would, you would have been a fit right in there. Okay. Hurlbutt and Jojo Cinto. I said, why didn't you call me? I would have come. Yeah, you would have been fit right in there.

Okay, Hurlbutt though, don't tell John Gallagher you're lunching with Hurlbutt. Gallagher, he just becomes like a Jekyll and Hyde. He becomes an angry monster when you say the name Hurlbutt. But you have a decent relationship with the man. Yeah, oh, Hurlbutt fired me. This is called Stockholm Syndrome. Hur it's a complicated, uh, individual, um, extremely bright, um, qualified five stars to be a news director, but there was a period at city

pulse where people were terrified of him. And I, I can say this, um, with impunity And I can say this with impunity because I worked at 680 News for 24 years. That was never, 680 News was never a poisoned environment. City Pulse, when Stephen Hurlbut was there, was a poisoned environment. Toxic they call that. Yeah. David Onley tells a story about interviewing some psychological advice. I don't know what the guy was. And so they're sitting in the, in the middle of that open, uh, city pulse newsroom. And at one moment,

the guy looks at Anli and says, did somebody frightening just step into the newsroom? And Anli could see behind his guests that her obit of walked into the newsroom. People were terrified of him because her, but it was famous for castigating people in front of everybody else. I can tell you a Catherine Humphrey story, Catherine Humphrey, if you were going to, I love Catherine Humphrey's by the way. Um, Catherine Humphrey's did a news, a sports cast one time,

and she ran a very funny, I think at the end, a very funny shot of a soccer player who'd scored a goal and in the celebration he slides on his knees and his teammate slides face first into his pants so that his face is right in the guy's crotch. Right. And Catherine was just probably hilarious saying, I guess that's just how they express affection. And from what I understand, right after the newscast, Hurlbut came barreling into the sports department, screaming at her and screaming at Perry Gray, the sports director. Why would you run that? Why would you run that? Um,

so there were some style moments from Steven Hurlbut that, that frightened people. I'm sorry to hear that. Uh, cause it looked like such a happy group. And then to hear there's some toxicity, but okay, here's some more names from this group. Okay. Ann Moroskowski, Ann Moroskowski, you just a great anchor person, little, little wound up a little car, I think. Like because she was a serious news woman. Yeah.

And I may be treading into uncomfortable territory because she was in her 40s or maybe early 50s at the time, terrified and she was a very attractive woman. She still is by the way. Terrified that younger, prettier women were gonna take her place. Here's my Ann Mariskowski story and it goes along with her but we were asked to show up at a public school just to talk to the kids about broadcasting and when we're in the car so

we were a cameraman was driving us I'm in the car with Amarovsky. She's steaming. She's furious. She doesn't want to do this Okay, she's swearing. She's just like really wound up we get into the school Absolute professionalism, right? Right. She couldn't have been nicer or sweeter Okay, good. Uh, yeah, I always have great experiences with Anne Ruskowski. She's probably a great interviewer when you do her. One of the greats, honestly. There's a woman who should be in the FO team, Hall of Fame. Her two visits were both epic. And I got to meet her significant other recently. He actually runs the Toronto Festival of Beer. And I was there to see Cypress Hill just merely a few

weeks ago. So small world here. Okay. Lauren Honigman. Lauren Honigman. Uh, I've been talking to Lauren a lot lately. Delightful, right? You're talking to him about Bob Dylan. Is that correct? No. You know, and I know these are some of these names are going to be obvious, Lauren, there's going to be, you know, Lord Honigman, but uh, just what, just, just a delight. I know some of these names are going to be obvious, Lauren Honigman, but just what? Just a delight.

Well, just really intelligent guy. And think of the career, a television journalist and a lawyer. I was a television journalist and a cab driver. Is that origin story? We debunked that myth, right? That Moses just liked the cut of your jib when you were driving him somewhere. It's a little more complicated than that. I picked up

Phyllis Switzer one time. I never picked up Moses. Wait so we all know the name J. Switzer. What name is this? Phyllis Switzer is J. Switzer's mother and Phyllis was instrumental in the origin of CityTV. Maybe even more so than Moses. So you pick up Phyllis Switzer and Moses, how does Moses come? Like she basically likes the cut of your jib. I think there was a, this was 1972. Pick up Phyllis Witzer in my taxi. And I was living with four or five other people

in this house at Bay and Scholared. And we were living this sort of bohemian existence. And I think I said to Phyllis Witzer, would you consider bringing a camera in and we'll just sort of sew all of the elements of our lives together. Like it was, it was a premise for a reality show 25 years before there was any reality show and she was very interested and she wanted to do it.

And ultimately it never happened for a number of reasons. One week we couldn't come up with a script and they were, they're simply, you couldn't bring in those massive television cameras. Right. You need, you needed the shoulder packs, which weren't even invented yet. So, right. But, but through Phyllis Switzer, well, I ended up, uh, infiltrating city TV somehow. And, um, writing, there was a newscaster named John middler and they had a half hour news show at

nine 30. I ended up writing the sports for $5 a night. And there's your gateway. And the rest is history. And it just kind of evolved from there. Okay. Cause that myth is out there that, uh, Moses needed a cab and you were the cab driver and he just liked your character and Moses like just said, Hey, come on, that never happened. Come to 99 Queen Street East. There were multiple times when there was one city television cameraman, Don Purser, and

the city television camera truck broke down. And so on multiple occasions, they would call me and I would pick them up. I would pick them up. I would pick them up. And I think at one point he said, hold the mic, hold the mic or do something. And I might have done a story because of that. Amazing. Did you know a cameraman named Greg Valentine? I think Greg Valentine worked for the breakfast show and not for C. He may have worked for

C. Greg Valentine was Jennifer Peck, knocked knocked up Jennifer Peck I think is his official title. Okay I can't say anything about Greg Valentine. I didn't know. Just there's a famous wrestler named Greg the Hammer Valentine that I grew up with with uh used to wrestle with Brutus the Barber brief beefcake uh so shout out to Greg the Hammer Valentine but Greg Valentine is how Jennifer Peck becomes Jennifer Valentine And I just learned last week that he's a huge Toronto Mike fan. So I want to say hello I'm told he's also I'm also told he's very shy but I want to say hello to Greg Valentine and kudos to you, sir, Jeff Ansell

Jeff Ansell did did he at some point take over from Peter Silverman with the consumer? No, because Silverman helps is cancelled when Rogers owns City TV and Jeff is long gone by then. I thought Jeff Ansell did consumer stories. Again, another guy that I worked with. That was Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred. I will call him back. We hung up on Fred. So again, by the way, Fred Patterson, who tells me he would copy

your style when he would do sports commentaries on CFNY for the Pete and Geet show. He says he would look at what Peter Gross was doing on city TV and try to mimic that because he felt you were the greatest at your craft. I don't think no joke. I don't think that's true. Well, that's his opinion, man. Pat Patterson had his own style. Patterson tells me he mimicked his style based on you. Someone has to inspire. Everybody's inspired by somebody. You inspired Fred Patterson. Well, just like you inspired just like you, you're responsible for the careers of Mike Willner and Jason Portwondo Mike Willner would never have been anything in this industry if it wasn't I know now that's not well

He you hired him at 680. I I did I did and and I even a big star I quite frankly had to crack the whip with him Because I saw a really really talented guy I said, you know get your ass in here an audition, right? And what about Jason Portwondo because you know, Jason is the reason I produced Donovan Bailey's great podcast and they were here Just uh, I guess it was Thursday or Friday last week I've lost track but Jason Portwondo got in the game because of you as well. Well, we've told the story many times I'm standing in line before you to the next name

Well, we've told the story many times. I'm standing in line. Before you said the next name. At a bank machine at Woodbine to get more money to bet and he comes up to me. When is this? It might have been 1990, 19, whatever. And says, I'm an exercise boy. I wanna get into broadcasting.

And like I said to everybody, anyone who ever came up to me, I'd say, give me a call. You can come down to the station. And he came down and he was very good. And he ended up, he is very good by the way. He ended up being, I believe, the first black sportscaster in Kingston. He parlayed that into business at Sportsnet

and some great stuff anchoring the races at Woodbine. And now he's a, At TSN, yeah. Now he's a judge, which is, you know, it's a job for life that pays well. And he's got the great background for that. Yeah, he's amazing. Now here is a gentleman I've always wanted to ask you about.

And I'm finally going to do it right now. John Saunders. Oh, John Saunders. Lovely man, lovely man. We hired John Saunders, lovely man, lovely man. We hired John Saunders. It was weird. I was the sports director and we hired John Saunders who was so much a better sports anchor than I was.

So they gave him the six o'clock show and I couldn't complain about that. He was just a terrific sports anchor. And one of the great moments in my life is, um, uh, Sonny's halo had won the 1982 or 83 Kentucky Derby. And so he was going to run in, in the pre-kness in Baltimore. And at that time, John Saunders was a sports anchor with WMAR in

Baltimore and and he said well if you come down I can get you passes and we ended up watching the Preakness from the roof of Pimlico racetrack with John Saunders which turned out to be a very expensive day because I bet $700 to win on Sonny's halo and he was done by the far turn. Oh, that's funny. Now, John Saunders left us far too soon. We've had many, Leo Roudens, for example, we've gone on and on about their relationship when the Raptors come to town in 1995. But John Saunders, sad loss, it sounds like a lot of people were mentored by him. I think he committed suicide. You didn't want to say that.

Well, not that first of all, I don't know what's going to come out of your mouth, but I don't know that to be the fact. But you might know that to be the fact. I don't know. Regardless, it's sad. It's sad. However, John is a six year show that day, by the way, just to tell you a little anecdote about John Saunders that day he's driving me around and as he's driving, he pulls his pants down to his knees, takes an insulin needle and jabs himself in the thigh. Oh, he was diabetic. Yeah.

Okay. Well, you know, that's a U of T invention discovery, if you will, insulin to control diabetes. Nothing gets by you, does it? Banting and Best, Frederick Banting and I can't remember, Charles Best, I think. I bet it, but Banting and Best. I went to U of T and they made a big deal out of it. Okay. Brian line of hand. Oh my goodness. Brian line of hand. You know, just to do a little sidebar here.

I often say that you Mike Boone are the is the, is the Brian line of hand of podcasting. This, this man set the bar so high in research. There was nothing like Brian line a hand and the, the, the gag, the repetitive gag is the famous actor or actor saying, how did you know that? Right? He, he did his research. Right. He was a wonderful, wonderful, in the days before Wikipedia, he was the, he

just, he was so prepared. I, I'm not sure if I talked to him three or four times in my life. He was always nice. Good to hear. Uh, well, burnt. I realize now that I got a few minutes. We'll burn through some of these names here, but Roberts. JD Roberts I once hosted Toronto Rocks. But you know he wasn't the main host of Toronto Rocks right like that was John Major. Oh John Major yeah. But you can say a word about John Major too but JD Roberts was the new music and then he's the first VJ at Much Music and then he went into news. Yeah what a transformation. Yeah now he's John Roberts and now he won't talk to me on Toronto. But it's a quick one sentence on her because we talk about her so often.

Jeannie Becker. I love Jeannie Becker. I love Jeannie Becker just and you know what I love about Jeannie Becker is nobody suffered as much as Jeannie Becker in terms of terrible comments in the media and from people about Jeannie Becker and she's just soldiered through. But what terrible comments? I'm just curious because she's cute as a button still wearing the swimsuit. People commented on her looks and said terrible things about her. It's too bad because... I just my memory is that nobody else had to put up with that as much as Jeannie

Becker. Trailblazer maybe. She was, yeah, fashion television and still going strong. I know she's had some health setbacks, but she seems to be dealing with it all in, in, in kind of there. But we all root for FOTM Jeanne Becker on this program and you've had some fun times in limousines with her. One fun time. Yeah. Yeah. We went to the Queen's Plate ball, which they don't even have anymore, and I rented a tux,

and she wore a taller Cranston outfit that he designed. And the story of us doing cocaine in the limo is not necessarily true. I don't know. It may be true, Maybe it isn't. Okay. And roamer and roamer. Did you ever see the Toronto sunshine picture of Anne Romer? No. Do you have it in your phone? Your phone there? Let me see. No, I don't have it. Oh my, I need to see that. Absolutely. Just hook that to my

veins. Let's go. She was maybe 20 or 19. Just absolutely a door. I mean, she's, she's an extremely attractive woman. Um, what can I say about Anne Romer? You know, that, um, there was a point where she quit city pulse or what, uh, to become a, an airline hostess or to work with the airlines and, and clearly that didn't work out and then she came back. And now she's selling thermal windows. I know Anderson windows, I see these ads all the time. She found a way to get back on CP 24.

That's the way to do it. Lot of time as everybody knows, we have a lot of time for Ann Romer on this program. Just one sentence about this gentleman, Mark Daly. Oh, just one sentence? Well, you know, it's up to you. I don't know how much time you have. I know we were gonna do an hour.

I went to Mark Daly's funeral. How many people do you think will be at your funeral? Oh God, I shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. I'm thinking it's got to be at least as popular as a TMLX event, right? So I don't know. There was like 600 and the premier of Ontario and the chief of police. Wow. Um, what a character, what a talent and the business between him and Katherine Humphreys is legendary. Just the charisma, the, the, the rapport,

the rapport between them on the late show. There's nothing like, nothing like it in TV right now. Well, TV is boring now, right? There were characters and it was interesting. And? The following program contains adult themes, nudity in coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. See, I'm surprised.

What I'm expecting there is the following program contains nude content. Oh boy! You know, that's what Mark would say. And then he would throw to a movie and he'd say, this movie I saw it. I think it sucked, but I hope you like it. It's porkies Man I I was having these like memories lately of movies

I'd watch on late great movies in the 80s And then I can find them on like to be or something and kind of revisit him one that I revisited this weekend that I used To watch on late great movies was Rock and Roll High School. And the Ramones are in this thing. And it's just a wild trip, man, to just go back and watch Rock and Roll High School and remember watching it on City TV's late great movies. You know what?

You've brought up a cast of characters from the 70s that these people don't exist on TV anymore. And, and they were loved. People loved. But can I ask you, do you think it's because the corporations running media now are risk averse? Yeah. And if you have these characters, they're less controllable. They're you, you're at more risk because who knows what a Peter Gross is going to say. This all has to do with Moses Neimer who came out of the

CBC and wanted to deconstruct the the very very narrow parameters of news reporting right that's why he hired me right I did not look like a 1960s news anchor that's why nobody would have hired Jojo Chinto. They actually sent Jojo Chinto to diction classes because his accent was so strong. When they hired black people in the late 60s and 70s, they hired black people who looked like white people. Jojo Chinto looked like an African. There's a story about Mary Garofalo.

Okay. Again, she's on my list, There's a story about Mary Garofalo. Okay, she's on my list, so let's talk about Mary now. Well, the story I want to tell you, she came to Moses as Mary Garofalo, and Moses said, what's your real name? She said, Mary Garofalo. He said, you will be Mary Garofalo. Well, it's like Anne Raskowski.

No one asked her to become, I always say, like Anne Malone or something like that, right? Well, Gordon Martino was Gordon Martin when he worked in Montreal. They had to Anglophilize it. That's bullshit right there. So what was your relationship like with Mary? Garofalo? Um,

Gareth. Gareth. Gareth. Gareth. Fine. Fine. Okay. Fine.

Fine. Um, but again, not, not someone that I associated with on a social basis. Right. Uh, she came up recently. I'll drop this name too, because he just came on since your last appearance, Dominic Shulo.

Dominic Shulo was, he started out as a cameraman and then I think he became an important producer for shows for Moses. And again, somebody that I saw, someone I may have talked to from time to time, I don't have much insight into into obviously a very bright Professional individual and I when he was on Toronto Mike T's his speaking pattern and delivery style to me He sounds like Moses Neimers Like he's been adopted it almost like maybe he's talked to him so much. He's become that persona a little bit Did you ever see the video I did where?

Colombo interviews both yes, of course I have I have absolutely. I used to do a reasonably good Moses. Debbie Van Kiekeveld. Oh Debbie Van Kiekeveld. Okay so here's a great because we want to include as much nude content as possible. Viewer discretion is advised. I don't know what we were shooting at a club that Debbie Van Kiekewell worked for. Jim McKinney and I were there. We may have been playing squash. So we go and we're having a shower. So Jim and I are showering and it's leaking on the floor below.

So Debbie Van Kiekewell has to come up. Jim and I are having a shower. It was just funny. We didn't give a shit. I think that was Porky's too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're describing right now. Debbie Van Kiekewell. First of all, second of all, third of all, whatever,

whatever. And Romer takes her gig, right? I feel like that was the seek. Wasn't, didn't Ann Romer take over for Debbie van Kieke belt? Maybe, maybe I'm fuzzy on that, but I can tell you this in, um, 1990 680 news offered the morning show sports cast to Debbie Van Kieke about she had two young children at the time. She wasn't going to come in at four in the morning. She said, you should get Peter gross. That's how I got that gig for 10 years. Okay. But that's, so that's before it went all news. Yeah. Okay.

When it was still all hit, right? It was six 80 news then 1990, I think 93 or something. Only because I recently did that anniversary episode with the aforementioned, uh, Richard Southern and Mike Apple. And of course Scott Metcalf as well. There's also a great 32nd promo of, of me, uh, Jim and Debbie for the city pulse sports team. If you can find it. Amazing. I will dig that up for sure. It's out there somewhere. It's great. Russ Salzberg,

Russ Salzberg. There's a character I have to say to big for this country. We lost him. He was too big a care. I have to say that I'm fond of Ross, but we hired Russ Salzberg and I wasn't particularly happy about hiring him. I said, why would we hire a guy with a Brooklyn accent? And about six weeks in, he had done a number of interviews, or as he called them, interviews. And I was sports director, McKinney ran three or four of these interviews, and

Moses had been very specific that he wanted to see things moving. He didn't want to see- Kinetic, yeah. That was the word he used. He wanted to be kinetic. That's why the environment was such. And interviews were death. So I was criticizing McKinney for running so many interviews.

And the next thing I know, Russ Salzberg is in my face. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're, which was extraordinary behavior for someone towards his boss. There was nothing I could do about that. He, while he was at City TV, he was constantly moving videos of himself to New York.

And he ended up and to his credit ended up for a certain period of time working in both television and radio in New York, getting, making a shitload of money, incredibly famous for the split screen with Mike Tyson, which I'm sure you're aware of. Tice Tyson is swearing and Russ is saying, Mike, why are you using this language? Why are you talking like this? And Mike says, so turn your TV off. Turn it. And, and, um, Russ does Russ cuts off Mike. Oh, that's funny. So, um,

but if I ran, if I ran into him, I, it would, and I have many years ago, uh, it would be fine. Here's a woman I ran into recently, Kathy Kastner. Kathy Kastner, one of John Kastner's younger sister. Um, you're going way back with me cause she was at city for a short period of time. She did get a camp, so the, I don't know if you'll ever be able to see it, but the 299 Queen Street West documentary about much music

has like this little clip of Kathy Kastner talking on City TV. I think about getting the license for much music or something like that, but she does have a little cameo in there. But I met her at this event, this David Kynes breakfast for Hollywood Suite. I met Kathy Kastner and I wondered if you had any interactions with her.

I can give you a second degree of connection with her, with John Kastner. Well, the Kastner's are all kind of fascinating. Tell me about... I was doing standup comedy with Jean Taylor at the Friars Tavern at Dundas Square and Young. And I was sometimes... You know, they renamed that it's San Cofa Square. Okay. Yeah. Um, I was sometimes amusing, obviously not a great standup comedian. John Kastner came in one night and slayed and just killed. And I'm watching going, he's so much better than me. I'll not,

I'll never make it as a stand-up comedian. Oh that's funny. Glenn Cole. Glenn Cole. Because that's the voice like often you'll hear the voice tonight whatever Peter Groves on Dave Steve's No No. Just a lovely man and I see this image of him sitting at the end of that desk at 99 Queen not at 299 Queen, in the original newsroom, which, you know, the size of it is laughable by standards today. The lovely, sweet man, again, probably a guy who died much too early. Absolutely, absolutely.

I don't even have a good memory of this guy, but John Burgess. John Burgess. John Burgess. Like, does that name resonate with you? Well, he did some entertainment stuff, didn't he? Yeah, just wondering if you... Yeah, that's much like some of the other names. I worked with John Burgess. Tall guy, I can tell you that.

That's not much insight. Well, you know, to you, everybody's tall, right? So, you know, you think Stu Stone is a giant. Call in Vaughn, call in Vaughn. Yeah. I remember he died on New Year's Eve, I think. Um, great reporter. There's a guy who he, he was a, we got counselor, a Toronto counselor who became a reporter, totally fearless. And so that his insight into politics was unassailed.

Four more to go here. I'm actually loving this. This was like, again, this is just a dress rehearsal for me to do the name association. I'm going to do this of Leona Boyd in the fall, but I wanted to practice it and see how it would fly. And you were the perfect guy to do this with. So four more names, okay? David Onley. Oh, I'm gonna cry if I talk about David Onley. That's what I'm hoping for. That's the money shot right there. There was a period at City TV where we shared the desk, we

faced each other. You know the story of David Onley, one of the last people to get polio. And he tells this wonderful story because he was so bright. He was doing these science reports on the radio and he got a call from Moses. And in a million years, David Onley thought I can never be on TV because I'm in a wheelchair. Right. And because Moses was Moses and wanted real people, he understood that putting an individual in a wheelchair opened it up to a huge population that would,

my mother called me the night she saw David Onley on TV and she was crying. She says, I can't believe that they would do something that is so beautiful and I think the story goes the first couple times that they shot David they shot him from the waist up and Moses said you shoot him in the wheelchair you show him well done and I think I'm trying to remember why I, I interviewed David Onley because he, he once represented the queen at the queen's place. And again, this is a great story. So yeah, he was lieutenant governor.

So I went to Queens park and this is funny because it's kind of like if you became the lieutenant governor, well, I knew you as a friend before that. So I go and some guy in just the $1000 suit meets me and says, you will wait here and the lieutenant governor will come out. And you go through this whole process and I remember interviewing him about the Queen's Play and about representing the Queen, but I asked him at the time. Do you remember me? Or I asked him, I guess I asked him subsequently

about the anti-vaxxers and he got furious. He got rude because had there been a polio vaccine so many years before, I mean, polio was wiped out because of a vaccine. Yes. Meio was wiped out because of a vaccine. Yes. Measles wiped out because of a vaccine. And here are these anti-vaxxers who, in his opinion, were causing people to die. Right. So I remember that interview with him that he got angry.

I'm a wonderful, lovely, brilliant, brilliant man. And an FOTM, let's not forget. Who overcame extraordinary difficulty. And he was very close with Ann Romer until his final moments. And Ann Romer visiting him in the hospital, she told me all about that, but they were very, very close. And David Onley, rest in peace, buddy.

Okay, FOTM David Onley. Now three more names. This gentleman I'm recording with his daughter next week, Morty Schulman. Oh this is Morty Schulman. Again, all of these people from an age in city TV where Moses encouraged us to be ourselves, where he hired people with character and with temperament, and he allowed us to be uninhibited. Morty is famous. He had an overweight woman, and he's interviewing her about her weight loss clinic, and he says to her, you're fat!

And the other thing, Joan Schaeffer was the producer of this morning. The Morty Show was a 90 minute show at six o'clock before city pulse. Okay. And that's where I got my start reporting. Joan Schaeffer had me doing horse racing tips and every time Morty had to throw, he'd say, these are so seedy. I don't like, I mean, who else would do that? He said, I have to run this racing tip with Peter gross, but I don't want to. I think it's inappropriate.

Well, that man had his bona fides, right? He was a elected politician. He was a corner chief corner, a fascinating individual, Morty Shulman and his daughter, Diane Schulman, would become Diane Sax, who is currently a city councilor. But Morty Schulman, another one in this cast of characters, no one else like Morty Schulman. Alright two more names here. Bill Cameron. Oh, I'm going to cry again.

I got Kleenex here if you need it. Okay, I'm going to tell you a story about bill Cameron that I think I attended his funeral and I and I was almost weeping and I don't cry too often, but I think there was a we used to come on Monday nights and we'd come on Monday nights. City City Pulse at the time had the the NFL games on Monday nights, so we come on at eleven thirty eleven forty five and I just thought anyone watching is drunk The Pulse at the time had the NFL games on Monday nights. So we'd come on at 1130, 1145,

and I just thought anyone watching is drunk and stoned. They'll put up with anything. There'd been a heavyweight fight, not actually it wasn't a heavyweight, a welterweight fight. I can't even remember the names of the fighters. And I couldn't get any video of it. So what I did is I got a paper bag

and I drew the name of one fighter on the paper bag. And so I held it up and I said, okay, so imagine that this is so and so and imagine my fist is the other one. And I started beating the crap out of the paper bag. The camera cuts to my side to Billeron playing the stodgy uh, anger to formal anchorman. That's that's actually, is that anyone famous? What's your mom? Um, like doing,

doing this act of a person too important to be on with this idiot. And it was hilarious. It was so funny. And, and at the end of the show he turned to me and he went, that was great. So he understood television. He was, when I was on the show doing goofy, ridiculous stuff, um, he, he would be this, uh, almost play the stuff shirt, right. Uh, but he was a wonderful anchorman. He died. And imagine he died far too young. I imagine that getting throat cancer, being, being a broadcaster and getting throat

cancer. So we lost Bill Cameron. I would watch him on a CBC after his city TV career. He was an anchor at CBC and you want to get it. If your mom, you get it, get it. That's important here. And I will just mother listen. I'm sorry. I hung up on you I'm right now in the middle of a podcast with Toronto almost done. I'm gonna call you in 15 minutes Okay, is mom okay, and now you're put now you're part of the podcast Bye See now I can call your mom in FOTM because she's been on the podcast there you go. That's amazing

Okay So Bill Cameron shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Last name, because I didn't want to close with somebody who you've attended the funeral of. This is a gentleman. You'll never attend his funeral. He'll live forever. But final thoughts for this episode. This was fantastic, by the way.

Love seeing you. Can't wait to give you your lasagna. Take the photo. Jim McKenney. Ever heard of him? I'm trying to think if I've ever done anything. Would you recognize Jim McKenney? He was a former may believe, I don't know if you need it. I called it a Bobby or I don't know how he refers to me, but Jim McKinney is my

best friend. Um, have you got half an hour? Have we got another half hour? I would make it. I would drill a hole in my schedule for you to talk to the Jim McKinney. Um, he, he was an absolute delight when he was with the Leafs. He was such a character. He was, by the way, I believe Jim McKenney is still fifth all time in defenseman scoring with the Maple Leafs, someone like 364 points. He was a great, great hockey player. He'll never tell you that. Well, I think we talked about it cause you brought him in and we had a great

chat, but he was being compared to Bobby or when when he was young and that did him no favors. Yeah, the story was, was it Tarasov? The Russian coach was brought in to watch a junior B game to see Bobby Orr. And after the game, they said, what did you think about Bobby Orr? And he said, Bobby Orr, good hockey player, Jim McKinney, best guy on ice. Yeah. And Jim hated that. Jim hated being told he was terrific

because then you have to be terrific again. He used to live next door to Moses. They would go on runs together. Moses said, I'm gonna give you to Peter Gross and he will train you to be a sportscaster. And I love the guy. He was terrible at first. He was so stiff and unnatural. And we did a number of rehearsals after the show. So at 11 o'clock after the, the city pulse at 10 show, we would bring Jim into the studio

with the teleprompter and I had difficulty getting him to be natural and to be warm. And so what I would do too bad, there's no video of this cause it's probably insane. As he was reading, I would stand behind the camera and act out the guy throwing the football or hitting the baseball or sliding into first and it made him laugh. And he subsequently became a very, very fine and long-term anchor and greatly loved on city pulse.

And of course my experience with Jim is the 26 or 27 trips to Saratoga that we've got. I'll tell you another story. He bets a pick three, the pick three is where you try and pick three winners in a row. And he hits the first winner. Um, the jockey is Cornelia of Alaska's and I still remember him screaming down the stretch. Go, corny, go, go, corny. The horse pays $95. So like almost everyone's wiped out of the pool.

The next race he bets Cornelio Velasquez again and Cornelio Velasquez wins and it's a $60 horse. So now he's live on three outrageous pick threes. One's paying 16,000, one's paying 10,000, one's paying 8,000 and he's got all three. And as they're coming down the stretch, we can see that the horse that's gonna pay 8,000 and he's got all three. And as they're coming down the stretch, we can see that the horse that's gonna pay 10,000, we're sitting mid stretch and you can see,

this is where the race really develops. You can see that this particular horse is slowly but surely going to the lead and going to win the race. He wins $10,000. Mind you, the track held on to like $3,000 because of the take. So we had to track Jim, me and the late Clint Nickerson. That night in the hotel room, Jim takes thousands of dollars,

throws it on the bed and says, help yourselves guys. And covered all of our bets the next day. Wow, that's a true friend. No wonder he's your best friend. That's Jim McKenney. Oh, everyone's calling him. That's Fred Patterson again, I gotta call him. But is there anyone I didn't name

that you wish I had just as their name for next time? I really wanted to mention Bill Atenasoff. Oh yeah, please, let's, okay, yeah, please. We went to Bill's 70, maybe 71st or 72nd birthday two weeks ago. Bill Atenasoff was the finest sports cameraman ever. And Jim McKenney and I loved to work with him. God, he could shoot sports. And about 10 years ago, and he was a workaholic.

He loved to save money, liked to pay off his house. Late one night he gets a call to cover some police incident. And in fact, um, the reason there was an ambulance at the scene is the perpetrator, the guy that police were looking for had jumped and committed suicide. Bill sets up in the middle of the street. It's got the camera on his shoulder, a guy driving a limousine at 40 miles an hour runs him down. He smashes into the face first, into the windshield,

breaks his neck, breaks his back, one of his legs is so badly mangled they have to remove it. Becomes a quadriplegic, blind. And for 10 years he's been, he's in this special apartment. He has 24 hour care. So that's the dreadful story. The uplifting part is that when we go to visit him, it's as if nothing happened to him. He is so upbeat and funny and laughing and not

once in 10 years, as Bela Tenisov ever said why me why this happened? He totally accepts it and it's a delight to visit him and see how he's handling the worst possible thing that could happen to a human being. I'm glad you shared that story. I've seen photos from these like I guess it's his birthday party or? Yeah we go to his birthday party. Like I've seen those photos and I see there's there's Lorne Honickman and there's Jojo Shinto there's Gord Martinow of course there's Peter Gross it's just great that you guys are still tight and that's a great story you shared. So thanks for this Peter I loved it very much and the word association with gangbusters we'll see if Leona Boyd is... I liked that that was a good idea. Thank you. I don't know

Leona Boyd. I have nothing to say about her. Well, I'm gonna ask her. You'll be one of the names. I do name it so just to see if she knows you. See you. Everyone subscribe to Down the Stretch, the definitive Ontario horse racing podcast. Peter Gross kicks ass, takes names. Just ask Freddie P who I got a call in two minutes. And that brings us to the end of our 1,537th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm at Toronto Mike. Go to torontomike.com for more. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, got your lasagna, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, the Toronto Maple East baseball team, you've got your history book, and Ridley Funeral Home.

I'm recording, this is an episode, somebody told me this episode would never happen. I'm going to my calendar to tell you, because this is very niche, I doubt you'll know who I'm talking about, but I'm going to do a deep dive with a gentleman named Blair Richard Martin and Blair Richard Martin was in a band called you know, the name of this band. Not at all. You don't know the name of the battered newsman.

That's actually not a bad guess at all. But here, let me stand by because... I don't... The Raving Mojos is what I want to say. The Raving Mojos. Let's see if I have that name right. This is a band that has come up a few times on Toronto Mic. For people a little older than me, a little younger than you,

they speak about The Raving Mojos as their favourite band of all time. And I know nothing about the Raving Mojos. I miss them completely. I know there's a jitters connection with Blair Packham, but Blair and many others said, oh, you know, he's never going to do your show. I'm going to make it happen. It's happening... What day did I say? Tuesday? Tomorrow? Is it happening tomorrow? It's happening Wednesday. Tune in for that. And then Thursday night at eight o'clock, live at live.torontomike.com is a super secret exciting episode. I can't say anything more about that or I'll have to kill every one of you. Peace and love. See you all Wednesday.