Recorded Audio:
Are you ready? Let's go. From AMI Central. Now circling in The Neutral Zone. Here's a pitch on the way. 36 yards for the wind. This... here comes the big chance, the shot... is... is this the dagger... The Neutral Zone? This is as good as it gets. Now, here's your host, two-time Paralympian Brock Richardson.
Brock Richardson:
What's going on? It's time for another edition of The Neutral Zone. I am indeed your host, Brock Richardson, and today is a busy show, as always. Let me tell you what we have on the show. Today, we're going to be speaking with Jessica Kruger, who is a wheelchair rugby athlete and she had the opportunity to represent Canada at the recent Women's Cup, where she and her team won the bronze medal. Plus, we're going to be discussing some mainstream sports topics, which include the MLB season as it is up and coming in a couple of days this week, plus a little Toronto Raptors. I'm alongside Josh Watson and Cam Jenkins. Let's get into our headlines for this week.
Recorded Audio:
Neutral Zone headlines.
Cam Jenkins:
We kicked things off today with the World Baseball Classic. This year's champion was Japan after they defeated the United States 3-2. Japan has now won three out of the first five titles in the WBC, and wow, what a World Baseball Classical it was, right down to the last batter and the last hitter, Mike Trout and Ohtani. That was an epic matchup for the ages, and I think that's really going to start to be even a better World Baseball Classic in the years to come.
Brock Richardson:
Another Canadian Blind Hockey Championships is in the books, and we send a big congratulations for Team Canada as they went undefeated in the three-game series against the United States. The scores were as follows, 11-0, 5-4 in overtime, and 6-0 in the third game. With that said, I think the United States will eventually be on par with the Canadian team, so right now we can bask in the glory that is Canada being very good in blind hockey, but I do believe in the coming years it's going to get a lot tighter.
Josh Watson:
The Canadian Paralympic Committee and CBC Television and CBC Radio have announced the extension of their partnership to broadcast to the next two Paralympic games in 2024 in Paris, France, and 2026 in Milano Cortina, Italy. I, for one, would love to see more coverage, more representation of the Paralympics on platforms like television. I do think this is a great start and I look forward to seeing what CBC has planned for us. I do know that they have some great broadcasters in the form of Scott Russell and Devin Heroux, who we've both had on this program many, many times now, and look forward to having them again once these events get a little closer.
Cam Jenkins:
The Toronto Six wins the Isabel Cup for the first time in franchise history. Congratulations to all the ladies involved, and what an epic game that was as well, going to overtime. It'd be interesting to see if they're going to change that because I believe it was three on three for the overtime and I really feel that should be five on five, so going to be interesting to see how that goes in the future.
Brock Richardson:
And I have something hot off the press for all of you today, and that is to tell you that Moose Jaw will host the 2023 Para Ice Hockey World Championships from May the 28th to June 4th. It's always good to see Canada represent on home turf and we wish them nothing but the best, and of course, we will keep you posted on results as the event progresses and gets closer. Those are your headlines for this week, and I want to chat about something with the two of you that I know that we all love.
We all love curling, and we did not put this in the headlines this week because I just figured we would have a chat about it now, and that is the fact that Canada has gone back to back in bronze medal victories with the Einarson team, and she wins the bronze again. However, the ice was brutal that week. And I remember in either the semi-final or the bronze medal game, she said quote, "I want you to put the rock somewhere in this area," and just glanced over it with her brush in the back four foot because she literally had no idea where this stone was going to be. Josh, I know you watched a lot of it, comment from you.
Josh Watson:
Yeah. It was a very interesting event over in Sweden. The venue itself, they only ended up using about a quarter of the space that was available in order to have this curling event. It is just a massive, massive venue. I don't particularly think it was suitable for this event, personally. I would rather have seen it in a traditional arena, but I'm sure there was a reason that they chose to host it in that particular venue. And I just really hope that the World Curling Federation takes a look at this and says, "Okay guys, we can't have one standard device in North America and another standard device in Europe."
It's just not appropriate. These are the best curlers in the world, they need the best ice surfaces, and I would say that that is not a high enough quality ice surface. It wasn't a temperature problem from what I saw because they commented all week on how Carrie was just absolutely frozen because of how cold and the venue was. So there's got to be something else that occurred there that made it difficult to keep the quality of ice up, and I don't know what that was, but it was awful.
Cam Jenkins:
It was completely awful, and all the teams ended up having to curl under those conditions as well. But when it's the best curlers in the world, as Josh said, they should have the best ice in the world because you should be able to protect where your rock is going, especially for skips. At the end of the day, the skips, once they draw weight, they know their draw weight and if it's going wide left, wide right, there's absolutely no excuse for that. So hopefully they get that figured out. I think that when it is a big building, they do have to make it a lot colder there to try to keep the ice the way it should be, but if it gets too old, that can do crazy things to the ice conditions as well. I think Josh's point is right as well as far as having it in some sort of an arena, like a hockey arena that's tried, tested and true, and they should be able to do that.
Brock Richardson:
Yeah. I really had some trouble with this event, and I want to preface the audience in saying that 99% of the games that we were privy to here in Canada were the Canada Games. We did not see much other games aside from updates here and there, and that's it. Having said that, I think that it is a crime to put your best in the world and let them be at their best, allegedly, and make the ice be that much of a conversation. And I know that you should have conversation about ice day one, day two, even day three I would accept it. But when we're having conversations on day nine and 10 in the championship games about nobody knowing where these rocks are going to finish, that's a real problem.
And I think you did a complete disservice to the women's game. And yes, Switzerland was able to figure it out. They now have a record of 35-0 in the last four years, they've done great things. And I do hear the argument of everybody plays on the same ice surface, but this goes across the board. And I just think as Josh pointed out, it's something that we have to take a look at in where and when we have these events because the best in the world, whether it's Canada or anybody else, should be able to put their craft on display and I think they were unable to do that at portions of the week.
Recorded Audio:
And welcome back to The Neutral Zone AMI broadcast booth, and we are set to get this ballgame underway. The first pitch brought to you by Brock Richardson's Twitter account @neutralzonebr. First pitch, strike. And hey gang, why not strike up a Twitter chat with Claire Buchanan for The Neutral Zone. Find her @neutralzonecb. And there's a swing and a chopper out to second base, right at Claire. She picks up the ball, throws it over to first base for a routine out. And fans, there is nothing routine about connecting with Cam and Josh from The Neutral Zone @neutralzonecamj and @jwatson200. Now, that's a winning combination. And this organ interlude is brought to you by AMI Audio on Twitter. Get in touch with The Neutral Zone, type in @AMIaudio.
Brock Richardson:
Our guest today is a wheelchair rugby athlete who had the opportunity to represent Canada in the Women's Cup where she and her team took home a bronze medal. Who am I talking about? That's Jessica Kruger from Vancouver, British Columbia. She's here to talk about her life and sports career. Jessica, welcome to the program. Nice to have you along with us.
Jessica Kruger:
Hi, Brock. Thanks so much for having me.
Cam Jenkins:
So Jessica, I thought we'd start off if you could maybe tell us a little bit about your story. As I understand, you were in a bit of a freak accident?
Jessica Kruger:
Yeah. When I was 15, I was working for a house painting company and second week on the job, up two stories at the top of a ladder and I fainted and fell that two stories and broke my neck, and ended up with a spinal cord injury that left me a quadriplegic.
Josh Watson:
I'm curious, what point in your journey did parasports become important to you and part of really who you are?
Jessica Kruger:
So before I had my accident I was super athletic, very involved in lots of sports, so it was definitely something that I was looking to fill immediately after I had the accident. And while I was going through rehab, I was introduced to a bunch of different wheelchair sports and wheelchair rugby was kind of the one that stuck that I fell in love with. And it was really the first year after my accident that I started playing and coming out to practices and getting a taste for it.
Cam Jenkins:
And as I understand it, at one time in your career, you were the only female athlete on your rugby team. What was that like being a trailblazer for you?
Jessica Kruger:
I was lucky in that when I started the sport there was another girl that was playing, so it helped to introduce me to this sport. I was the only female at one point and also the youngest. I was 15 and playing with mostly 30, 40-year-old guys, so definitely lots of things making it a little bit more intimidating for me. But honestly, the community is just so strong and so supportive and so encouraging that I was barely aware of the fact that I was the only girl out there at one point in time.
Josh Watson:
Oh, that's awesome. You recently competed at the Women's Cup, as Brock mentioned in the opening. I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about that experience.
Jessica Kruger:
Yeah, for sure. So this is the first time that Canada has sent a women's team to an event, and just such a huge honor to be playing it for Canada and so incredible to be playing with other women. There just hasn't been enough women in this sport to be able to do this until this point, so it's really exciting to see how the sport is growing and how more and more women are getting involved. And we're getting these opportunities that we've never seen before. It's very exciting and a huge honor for me.
Brock Richardson:
We're joined by Jessica Kruger, who is a female wheelchair rugby athlete, and you're listening to the Neutral Zone here on AMI. I'm your host Brock Richardson, alongside Cam Jenkins and Joshua Watson. So
Cam Jenkins:
Jessica, as you alluded to, this is the first time Canada has sent a women's wheelchair rugby to an event. Can you maybe talk about this decision of being able to do that and how it will affect not only wheelchair rugby, but para in women's teams in general?
Jessica Kruger:
I think a huge part of the reason that it's taken this long to send a women's team is because there just hasn't been enough athletes to choose from and to build a team. So really exciting in terms of the fact that it means that now the sport's progressing where more and more women are hearing about it and feeling like there's a space for them on that team, it's not too intimidating for them, and just very exciting in terms of what that could mean for wheelchair rugby. Is it going to be something that ends up being represented at the Paralympics one day as a women's event as well? I think that's kind of what we're all hoping we might one day see, so very exciting to see the steps that are being taken and we'll find out where we end up soon, I guess
Josh Watson:
Now, stepping away from the sports arena a little bit here just for a while, you do also have a business called The Stubborn Baker. I'm wondering if you can chat with us a little bit about that and why you chose to call yourself the Stubborn Baker.
Jessica Kruger:
For sure. The Stubborn Baker is custom dessert business. I do special occasion, wedding cakes, cookies, cupcakes, all the treats. And the name came from the fact that surprise, surprise, I am very stubborn, and that is the trait that I've leaned on as I've faced some adversity being a person with a disability starting a small business. So just from the very beginning when I decided I wanted to go to pastry school, I was told no by two schools. One, they didn't want to accommodate somebody in a wheelchair and the second one said I could pay for two spots because I'd take up double the room. So definitely facing some challenges right from the get-go there and really leaning on that stubbornness, resilience, whatever you want to call it. I feel more comfortable saying stubborn. And just continuing to look for a place that was willing to accommodate me, and luckily I found that in VCC and was able to get my start.
Cam Jenkins:
So with the university or college that accepted you, what was it about them that you ended up going there or how were they able to accommodate you for you to feel comfortable to go there?
Jessica Kruger:
So Vancouver Community College is where I ended up, and they have a disability services coordinator that I went in and met with, and at that point I'd already been rejected by two people, so I was going in there with low expectations. And fortunately, when I said, "I think I can make this work," he just said, "Okay. We've never done this before. No one in a chair has ever completed the program, but you tell us what you need and we're going to make it happen so you can do it." So it was definitely a very pleasant surprise to feel like I was finally welcomed into that program, and the only adaptation that they ended up doing was making me an adjustable height workstation. Everything else I was able to work with what was there, so pretty minimal ask, but they made it happen for me.
Cam Jenkins:
And you definitely didn't have to take up two spots to be able to. That's unbelievable that they would do that.
Jessica Kruger:
Yeah. No.
Josh Watson:
People are crazy. In your bios, there's certainly a common theme and you talk a lot about the support of your husband, so we wanted to ask a little bit about him and why he's been so important to you in your journey so far.
Jessica Kruger:
For sure. So husband is kind of a new term. We just got married this last summer, but we've been together for six years and since I started my business, while I was going through school and facing some challenges there, he's been like one of the main people that's just been supporting me, encouraging me. There's been some days where I've questioned my life choices and he's been the one to help me see what I'm doing and why I'm working so hard and why we push past the people that maybe doubt us and whatnot. So he's the one that might show up at 1:00 in the morning to help me package things because I'm losing my mind, and shows up at the farmer's markets with me and helps me get my tent and whatnot sorted. I couldn't do what I'm doing right now without his support, so I'm really so grateful to him.
Cam Jenkins:
What I'm kind of wondering, because you love to bake, not only what do you enjoy baking or what do you like to eat, but maybe you could make some The Neutral Zone cupcakes and mail those out to us.
Jessica Kruger:
Well, I don't know how well cupcakes mail, but.
Cam Jenkins:
Okay, fair enough. Cookies. We'll take cookies as well. Cookies as well, if they'll mail out from BC.
Jessica Kruger:
Oh yeah. Okay. Cookies I could probably work with. I've heard your request.
Josh Watson:
We do seem to have a sweet tooth and personally, I'm curious to see how that Starry Night cake is going to turn out.
Jessica Kruger:
Oh, awesome. You're following along with me on Instagram, hey?
Josh Watson:
I am, I am.
Brock Richardson:
So I want to go back to the fact that you won a bronze medal. Obviously, when we go into events as Canadians, we go in and we look and we say we want to be on the top step of the podium. Now that you've had some time to step back and recognize the accomplishment, are you satisfied with this accomplishment with your team?
Jessica Kruger:
Yeah. I definitely am really proud of what we ended up doing. We didn't really know what to expect going into this tournament because we've never played together as a team before. We had one tournament where we got to play with most of the lines that we ran in Paris, but literally all of us are from all over Canada. We're normally competing against one another, we're not playing together. So to come in off of having had one weekend essentially to practice as a team and perform in the way that we did, I think we saw huge growth throughout the weekend in Paris that we were all really proud of. And to be able to podium in any way and bring home a bronze medal for candidate definitely feels good, and now we have a better sense of where we sort of stand amongst the other teams and what we need to work on for next time to hopefully bring home a gold.
Cam Jenkins:
And what's next for Jess as far as training routine? Baking and training to me doesn't really go together. I don't really have the willpower to not eat, but what's the training like or what are the next steps for you moving forward as far as being an athlete in rugby?
Jessica Kruger:
The great part about being my own boss is I get to build my own schedule. So we've got Vancouver Invitational coming up next weekend here, so that's our next big rugby tournament and I'll be playing as part of the BC provincial team. So not on my women's team this time round, but still playing wheelchair rugby and hoping we'll be able to pull out a first or second place there this weekend. And then after that we're going to be heading to New Brunswick for national Championships, so we're doing our practices usually twice a week leading up to that, and then hopefully we're going to pull out some medals at those two competitions as well.
Brock Richardson:
If you were to step back and let's say there's a young female listening to this interview, what would you tell that young person in order of why they should get involved in parasports, but wheelchair rugby as a whole?
Jessica Kruger:
Honestly, wheelchair rugby changed my life. It was the thing that made me feel like being a person with a disability could have the same sort of meaning and the same sort of independence that I had as an able-bodied teenage girl, so definitely strong supporter of anybody getting involved in any wheelchair sport. If wheelchair rugby feels scary, I would just urge you to give it a try. I think once you get in that chair and you smash someone, it's pretty hard to go back from that. Even if you feel a little bit timid, I feel like anyone can get a taste for it. So I would really encourage anyone that's even remotely interested to get out there and give it a try because I'm pretty sure the sport's going to speak for itself, the community is going to speak for itself, and you're going to fall in love with it like I did.
Brock Richardson:
Just the fact that you said, "Get in a chair and smash someone," makes me want to get in a chair and try it myself, to be honest with you.
Cam Jenkins:
Personally, I'm scared of Jess now. I don't want to get smashed.
Brock Richardson:
That's fair. Jess, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. We greatly appreciate it, and best of luck next weekend and beyond.
Jessica Kruger:
Thank you so much, guys. It's been a pleasure.
Brock Richardson:
That was Jessica Kruger talking to us about her wheelchair rugby career and stubborn baking career as well. If you like what you heard and want to leave us a voicemail, here's how you can go ahead and do that.
Recorded Audio:
Hey, if you want to leave a message for The Neutral Zone, call now. 1-866-509-4545, and don't forget to give us permission to use your message on the air. Let's get ready to leave a voicemail.
Brock Richardson:
I always find that there's things in each interview that you can step back and you can realize that was a lasting impression, and I think it happened towards the end of the interview for me and it was, "Get in a chair and smash someone." That was the lasting impression in the Jessica interview. I really appreciate the honesty of people, and it's lovely because all truth be told, if you step back and you listen or watch wheelchair rugby, it really does sound like there is more smashing than anything else.
Cam Jenkins:
They don't call it murder ball for nothing.
Brock Richardson:
No kidding. No kidding. We really appreciate Jessica's time, and best of luck in her baking career as well. Cameron, you really tried to get us some baked goods on The Neutral Zone.
Cam Jenkins:
I wanted some baked goods so bad. I'm so hungry right now and I realize I'm not going to get those cookies for a week. And we didn't give her our address either, so I don't know how she's going to get it to us. But anyways.
Brock Richardson:
Hey, you're the social.
Cam Jenkins:
Oh, I'm the social media guy? Maybe I'll reach out to her and give us each of our addresses and Neutral Zone cookies and ship it to us. You know what? Even if she did a cookie with the red and then the white with The Neutral Zone on it and took a picture of it, I'd settled for that.
Brock Richardson:
You can't eat the picture though. This is the problem.
Cam Jenkins:
No, I know, I know, but that's okay. I'll go get a piece of red velvet cake from the local grocery store and I'll be happy with that. But I'm sure she bakes phenomenal stuff and I'm just so hungry right now.
Brock Richardson:
Another one of my favorite remarks from that interview was Cameron, who said baking and athletics don't go together because that's literally what I was thinking and Cameron was the one that said it.
Josh Watson:
They don't go together for us, gentlemen. It's fine to bake, as long as you don't eat your product.
Cam Jenkins:
Oh, man. Well, she has to taste test it for to make sure it's okay.
Josh Watson:
Well, that's what the husband's probably for.
Cam Jenkins:
It must be so hard because I'm sure it's so good, and how does she have the willpower? I was about to say, "How does she have the wheelchair?" She has that. How do you have the willpower to not eat your own baking and not mess up being a high-performance athlete?
Josh Watson:
That's a good question.
Cam Jenkins:
Obviously I can't do it. I was just in the community league because I eat way too many cookies in the day.
Brock Richardson:
See, this would be the thing. I don't have any willpower, and if any of you can see me on camera, you know that I don't have any willpower when it comes to baked goods. The blessing is that I can't bake, so I rely on others to bake, but I have many people in my life that will bake. So once again, I appreciate Jessica's time and best of luck in everything that she hopes to endeavor, and it was a pleasure having her on the program.
Well, I thought we would try to divide this segment into two, and I use the word try because even though I try, I often fail to divide these segments into two, so let's just see how this goes. Let's start with the MLB regular season. As we are only a few days away from the beginning of the season, what is your hopes and desires for the league as a whole this year if we just look at it as a big picture, Cameron?
Cam Jenkins:
As a big picture, I think it's going to be really interesting at the beginning of the year with the rule changes to see how teams play. There's going to be no more shift and the pitch clock as well. I think that's going to be really interesting, to see how the pitch clock works. So those are the two things that I'm really excited to see on how that's going to work out and how much that's going to mess with teams, and how they're going to have to adjust. And was spring training enough with the pitch clocks to be able to get used to it in time for the regular season? Because there's a lot of teams that are really good out there, but one thing can knock you off your pedestal and I'm not sure if that's going to be one of the things that's going to knock certain teams off their pedestal until they get used to it. So those are the two things that I'm really looking forward to this year.
Josh Watson:
For me, it's going to be similar. It's going to be along those lines, but it's going to be how well are we going to enforce those new rules? Because it's fine in a spring training game to say, "Oh, you took more than 20 seconds. Ball one," but if it's the seventh game of the World Series and there's two outs and two strikes, are you really going to call a ball four and possibly walk in a winning run on a pitch clock violation? That whole wording about umpire's discretion makes me a little nervous.
I think rules are best enforced when they're black and white, and so that will be the interesting thing for me is to see how strict are we going to be with this? But overall for the season, I'd just like to see competitive races in all the divisions. I want to see the NL East come down to the last weekend of the season, the AL East. I want to see our Blue Jays on top of course, but it would be fun if there's meaningful baseball in September. The NL West tends to be a one or a two team division, so let's see if some of the others can make it more of a race. That for me is what's interesting, is when things are unknown until the end.
Cam Jenkins:
I think that with the wild card games that they have, that's added it a little bit more competitive to it as far as getting into September, October and teams still being into it. But that's a great point, Josh. It'll be interesting to see how deep it goes as far as the races and if they're over a couple months before it's all said and done or if it's going to be the last week of the season.
Brock Richardson:
Funny to your point, Josh, about the enforcing of the rules. It's hard to enforce something when the officials are new on this as well. Everyone's going into this completely new. Yes, we've used umpteen amount of spring training games to implement these rules. That's all well and good, but when the lights are on and they become bright and all of that, it does get tougher. And I did ask this on one of my recent hits and somebody responded to me and said, "Yeah, but that is what they're going to do is they're going to walk in the winning run if it goes past the 15, 20 seconds depending on runners on base or not."
I have a hard time swallowing that as a pill. It's tough. I understand that it's the letter of the law, but it really is a tough pill for me to swallow and say the winning run could potentially be walked in because some guy is a millisecond off of the pitch clock. We might as well end the World Series in a home run derby then if that's the way we're going to be. I don't know. That might be a bit overzealous on this, but I don't know. It is something that scares me.
Cam Jenkins:
I was just going to mention about curling, and they never used to have a clock before and then they had a clock and there's been times where time has run out and they haven't been allowed to throw any more rocks. So I think that because it's a new rule, yes, people will be up in arms once an umpire calls it to the letter of the law, but after a few years everyone's going to get used to it, just like they did the time clock with the curling.
They got used to it as well, and some of the old people that still remember when there weren't clocks in curling, they still might say, "Oh, well," but it's good and it's great for television. It shortens the game up a little bit in curling and it's going to do the exact same for baseball, so you're not there for three or four hours, you're going to be there for two to three hours. So they'll get used to it, but yes, people are going to complain, but in a few years nobody's going to remember.
Josh Watson:
Yeah. That is going to be the interesting thing for me because I agree with you that it should be simple. Okay, the clock is at zero, you didn't throw your pitch or the clock is at eight and you're not looking at the pitcher. It should be that simple, but it's one thing to end a spring training game like that, which we've seen. It's completely another thing and there will be a completely different uproar if the last game of the World Series is decided because somebody wasn't looking at a pitcher or somebody didn't throw a pitch. That's all I'm saying. You have the owners of the New York Yankees or Texas Rangers or whomever losing the World Series because somebody didn't throw their pitch on time, I don't know how that's going to be stomached.
Cam Jenkins:
Guaranteed they're going to be upset or they're going to complain, especially if it's the big, bad Yankees. But at the end of the day, if you're all the way to the World Series, you've played 162 games with that pitch clock and I'm not good in math, but how many games is it in the playoffs to make it to the World Series? If you're using that as an excuse as to, "It's not fair because we lost the World Series," I just say that's a bunch of you know what at the end of the day.
Josh Watson:
Baloney?
Cam Jenkins:
We'll use baloney. Anything but baking. I don't want to talk about any baking products, but baloney we'll go with. 162 games plus all the playoff games. If the big, bad Yankees want to cry because they didn't get one pitch off and they lost the game because of it, too bad. Sucks to be them.
Brock Richardson:
Fair enough. There's one thing I want to get in here before we finish on the side of the Toronto Blue Jays, and that is if you follow Cam Jenkins @neutralzonecamj, you will notice that he has been doing something for the last month, let's say, and every time he gets an opportunity, he takes his shot. And this is about Yusei Kikuchi because he knows that I'm not a fan of Yusei Kikuchi whatsoever, and every time he has a good spring training start it's like, "Oh, he went seven innings and threw seven strikes." Well, I'll be damned if that's good, and that's usually my response.
So if you want to see some amusing back and forth with Cam Jenkins and I, follow us on Twitter, and if you don't know our Twitter handles, it's @neutralzonecamj and @neutralzonebr, and @jwatson200 is where you can get us. But man, you are driving me insane with these tweets and I have to say this in a public forum. Good for Yusei Kikuchi. Do it when it matters because I don't believe it and I won't believe it until mid to three quarters of the way through the season because the wheels will eventually fall off the track.
Josh Watson:
You mean you don't want him to pitch against minor league pitching?
Cam Jenkins:
He's my boy. Kikuchi's my boy this year, man. He's going to be the dark horse and he is going to end up pitching fairly well. He's going to be able to pitch deeper into games.
Brock Richardson:
Oh God.
Cam Jenkins:
He's might have a .500 record, but he's going to be able to pitch a lot of innings and do well and then you're going to be eating those words. I guarantee.
Brock Richardson:
Guarantee.
Josh Watson:
I hope you're right.
Brock Richardson:
What are you going to put on this alleged guarantee? Because I'm not believing this guarantee. Put something on this podcast right now what you're going to guarantee and what you're going to do if he doesn't do it. Is there a dinner, baked goods, something on the line here?
Cam Jenkins:
Yeah. I can bake you something, for sure. If I'm wrong I'll bake you something, and if you're wrong you have to bake me something. Hashtag what can we come up here with?
Brock Richardson:
I'm going to ask you guys two questions here and one's on one side, one's on the other, and I want you to fill out the blanks here, starting with Josh on the first one. The season would be a success for the Toronto Blue Jays if blank. How do you fill in the blank?
Josh Watson:
The season will be a success for the Toronto Blue Jays if they get past the play-in game. After what happened last year when we were supposedly seeing the movie instead of the trailer and now they don't want to say anything at all, I just want to see them make it to a seven-game series, quite frankly.
Cam Jenkins:
For me, they took away the home run jacket, they seem to be a lot more serious or a lot more professional this year, and to me it's World Series or bust.
Brock Richardson:
Oh wow.
Cam Jenkins:
They've got to make it to the World Series.
Brock Richardson:
Okay. So let's do the reverse. The season would be a failure if blank, Cameron.
Cam Jenkins:
Well, if they don't make the playoffs at all, that would be disaster considering the expectations that they have on them and what they did last year, and with the defensive-minded people that they got in the off-season to be better in the outfield as far as defensively, if they don't make the playoffs at all, that's utter disaster.
Josh Watson:
Well, we agree on this one, Cam. I'm right there with you. If they don't make the playoffs, I don't know what's going to happen. I think you're going to see Schneider gone, I think you're going to see Mattingly take over and I think you're going to see players traded because it will be a sign that this has not worked.
Brock Richardson:
Hold on, hold on. Can't move on that one. Are you saying then that if they don't make the playoffs, that three-year deal that John Schneider just signed in the off season is going to mean nothing because they're going to move on from him if they don't make the playoffs?
Josh Watson:
Josh, I don't see how they can. I don't see how they can keep him. He was supposed to be the replacement for the previous manager, whose name of course has just completely eliminated itself from my brain.
Brock Richardson:
Charlie Montoyo.
Josh Watson:
Thank you.
Brock Richardson:
Cameron's favourite.
Cam Jenkins:
My favourite manager in the whole wide world.
Josh Watson:
For some reason I was going to say Carlos Tasco, which is like 20 years ago, but anyway.
Cam Jenkins:
That works.
Josh Watson:
John Schneider is supposed to be the one who can talk to them and who can get them to be more professional and can do this and can do that. Well, if they don't make the playoffs or if they don't get any further than they did last year, how do you keep him? You've potentially got the next bench boss right there on the bench as his right-hand man.
Cam Jenkins:
Yeah, but kind of what I'm thinking, I agree with you-
Josh Watson:
They're supposed to win the World Series.
Cam Jenkins:
No, absolutely. And I agree with you, John Schneider, maybe he will be gone. But both the Schneider and Montoyo, they're just puppets for Atkins to play with and just to do what they want him to do, and same with John Schneider now. So it wouldn't surprise me if they got somebody else that's just a mouthpiece, but I really start to wonder is Atkins going to be gone? Is Shapiro going to be gone if they don't make the playoffs? And that'd be really interesting to see.
Josh Watson:
They should be.
Brock Richardson:
Some real interesting stuff thrown around about the Toronto Blue Jays, puppets and paper, basically all that the contract is worth according to Josh Watson. So interesting to see what the season will be or won't be this year, but it gets going at 4:10 PM Eastern at the St. Louis Cardinals against the Blue Jays. And we have 162 games to dissect this Toronto Blue Jays team and tell you what's good and bad, and maybe Cameron will get another hate on for another Charlie Montoyo-esque-like this year because he doesn't have Charlie Montoyo.
Cam Jenkins:
No, it's all positive and it's all about Kikuchi this year for me, so nothing but positive and it's going to be all about Kikuchi. But I just wanted to say one other thing before we hopped on the air here, that I saw that they're having a hotdog at the Rogers Centre that is a poutine hotdog that's like $9.99.
Brock Richardson:
Yeah?
Cam Jenkins:
Oh my. I thought they only did that stuff at the exhibition, not the dome. My gosh.
Josh Watson:
Anything to fill the seats.
Cam Jenkins:
Here I go talking about food again, but how can you put food on, man?
Josh Watson:
We have a theme today, don't we? I think maybe we all ought to agree to eat before the show next time.
Cam Jenkins:
If I go I probably we'll have one of those things, but-
Josh Watson:
You got to try it.
Cam Jenkins:
... I don't think I'll be all leaving the dome unless it's in a casket if I have one of those things.
Josh Watson:
Be interesting.
Brock Richardson:
Oh, the visuals. Oh, the visuals that just appeared.
Cam Jenkins:
Clog the arteries.
Brock Richardson:
I would try it. I did see it and honestly, by the look of it, for those of you that may not have seen this, but it's cheese curds, gravy, I think I even saw a french fry lingering around somewhere in there.
Cam Jenkins:
On top,
Brock Richardson:
It doesn't look good, but it certainly sounds like it might be appealing, not so much for the artery, but for the stomach it would be good.
Josh Watson:
It looks like a knife and fork meal. You're not going to pick this thing up and eat it.
Cam Jenkins:
Sorry to get sidetracked, I just had to mention about that poutine hotdog. It was on my mind that I'm just like, "Oh."
Brock Richardson:
You never do know what we might talk about here on the Neutral Zone, and I got to tell you that sometimes I should eat a hotdog with a knife and fork without poutine on it because it's just a disaster even with just ketchup on it, let alone adding poutine. But nonetheless, I would be trying that. I do wonder if that would classify as the one of those $1 hot dogs or $2 hot dogs at the ballpark on whatever day of the week they do that on, but I doubt it because Rogers has got to make their money.
Cam Jenkins:
No, $9.99 cents because you know marketing, you can't have it at $10 because people go, "$10? Oh my gosh, I'm not going to do that. That's too expensive." But if it's $9.99, "No problem. That's not expensive at all. I'll buy that."
Josh Watson:
Yep. There's a whole science behind that, unfortunately, which we don't have time for.
Brock Richardson:
Right, and we're not a marketing show, so not going to go down the minutiae of that.
Josh Watson:
That's good.
Brock Richardson:
Let's talk about something else that has been really, truly inconsistent. The Toronto Raptors are in the mix for the play-in tournament and if anyone can tell me how the play-in tournament works, that would be great because you need a real abacus to figure out who plays who and where and carry the one over here over there. But what's to you guys? Are you satisfied with the Toronto Raptors being in the play-in? Yes, no? What are we saying Josh?
Josh Watson:
Satisfied? Satisfied with the Toronto Raptors? Are we telling jokes now? This has been a disaster of the season. Absolutely awful, awful season. I don't even know where to begin with this team. They're so consistently inconsistent. That's the only way I can put it. They play up to the best teams in the league, they play down to the worst teams in the league. It's to a point where I don't remember the last game I watched because I got so frustrated. Just a consistent effort, that's all I ask for. Just put in a good effort day in, day out. That is your job, that is what you're supposed to do. And we watched them go through the regular season, we got the trade deadline. We talked about, "Well, maybe they'll sell off."
No, no, we added because why would we not sell off and prepare for next season? No, no, that would make too much sense. No, we decided to bring back Yakob Poeltl, which I'm not saying that's a bad move. He's done well for us. He's helped out, but it's just like do we really want to get into this quagmire that is the play-in tournament? I don't think so. If you sat Musai Ujiri down at the beginning of the season, and Bobby Webster, and said, "Where is this team going to be?" I don't think they'd say, "Oh, we're going to be happy to be in the play-in tournament." No. So guys, let's figure it out. We've wasted a year of Scottie Barnes, we've potentially wasted the last year of Fred Van Vleet depending on what he decides to do.
Brock Richardson:
Oh, he gone.
Josh Watson:
Gary Trent Jr is hot one day and he's ice cold the next. I don't know what to do, and maybe it's because I'm not enough of a basketball fan. I'll have to defer to one of you or declare on that, but I'm just completely turned off by this team this year.
Cam Jenkins:
I think at the end of the day, they should've traded up the trade deadline. Van Vleet, he's going to be gone. In my opinion, they're going to get nothing for him. I'm sure that could have got something useful for Fred Van Vleet at the trade deadline.
Josh Watson:
At least some picks.
Cam Jenkins:
Exactly. Anunoby, depending on who you talk to, he doesn't want to be here or he does want to be here and somebody offered three first-round picks for him. But is it MLSE? Is it the board saying, "No, we want some playoff dates, even if it's one playoff date," because then they make a bit more money? Is it the owners going with this or is it Ujiri saying, "I want to give these guys one last chance and then I'm going to do the deconstruction in the off-season before the draft."
And maybe he'll be able to wheel and deal out the draft and get some good first-round draft picks at the draft, and do the famous retool and maybe the raptors will be good next year if they do some retooling before the draft. So maybe Ujiri's trying to do something like that. Ujiri keeps it so tight to the vest, and so does Webster, that it's really hard to know what they're thinking or what they're going to do. So I really hope that they get the business before the draft, they make some trades and we're able to turn it around next year.
Brock Richardson:
The truth of the matter is, even if they are to win through this play-in tournament, they're going to end up playing Philadelphia or Milwaukee in the first round, no matter how this shakes out. The best they can do is finish seventh or eighth, which in my mind means a two-game home series. That's all you get because either of those teams are going to come in there and they're going to sweep you like you weren't even there. And so is the $1 million in revenue between the two games, is that worth it to the organization? I'd like to think not. I'd like to think that the championship was more worth it. Maybe I'm a naive fan broadcaster, but to me, I want to see us be competitive.
And I think the Toronto Raptors failed miserably this year not getting into the top six and getting into this playoff play-in series. I just think it's a fail altogether and I do not like the narrative of, "We need more playoff exposure." The only person on this team that needs more playoff exposure is Scottie Barnes. Other than that, there's nothing to it. Everybody else has had playoff experience. OG's been around. Yes, he was injured for the playoffs. Gary Trent Jr. was around in playoff time. All that's all well and good. The only person that we're looking at and saying needs playoff experience is Scottie Barnes, and I'm not sure the play-in is the experience that we need from him. Very quick thoughts from both of you on this, starting with Cam.
Cam Jenkins:
I think getting Scotty Barnes some experience would be nice, but do you want to have it where it could be a one-and-done game in the play-in experience? So I don't think that's going to give him a lot of experience. The only way to do this is to I don't want to say blow apart the team, but definitely some of your big stars. Quote, unquote, "stars," and I use that term loosely, you're going to have to trade them and then it's do you want draft picks for those people or do you want some other useful players that are 25 and under or around the age of 25? That's the decision that to me, the Raptors have to make.
Josh Watson:
There's enough veterans on this team that can guide Scottie through a playoff series, in my opinion. They don't need to get into a play-in tournament just so Scottie can find out what it's like to be in the playoffs. He, as far as I remember from his college days, did play in the NCAA March Madness tournament. He knows what it's like to be in big games. The NCAA March Madness is the college version of the NBA finals. If he can handle March Madness, he can handle the NBA finals.
Brock Richardson:
I agree. I think that this has been a complete and utter fail for the Toronto Raptors this year. I think if I'm Masai Ujiri or Bobby Webster, I think they had their opportunity to get into the sixth seed and maybe make a run at this but they didn't, and now we're into this web that is the play-in tournament and I don't think it's going to mean much. Like I said, even if they are to play in an actual seven-game series, it's a four-game sweep and that's it. And I would put my money where my mouth is and I will do something if they win a game in the playoffs that's in a whole round. That's it. Other than that, if they get nothing but swept, that's exactly what they are and what I expected them to do. I think that we need to take a hard look at what management did this year. They didn't do enough at the trade deadline in getting rid of people, and I think it was an epic, epic fail on their part.
I just want to preview what's coming up next week. We're going to be delving into my experience at the Canadian Paralympic Committee Summit, where I sat down with 14 athletes. We're going to start with Zak Madell next week, so stay tuned for that. And over the next number of months, we're going to roll out some of those. It was fun and I cannot wait to share more with you in regards to that. That is the end of our show for this week. I would like to thank Josh Watson, Cam Jenkins. I'd also like to thank our technical producer, Marco Gallo, plus Ryan Delehanty is our podcast coordinator. Tune in next week because you just never know what happens when you enter The Neutral Zone. Have a great week. We'll talk to you next week. Be safe, be well.
