Take Anyone to the Rack - June 6, 2023
Audio: Are you ready? Let's go. From AMI Central. Now start playing in the neutral zone. Here's the pitch on the way. 36 yards for the win. Here comes the big chance. The shot. Is this the dagger? The neutral zone. Home run. 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. First things first, I want to send a big thank you to anyone that listens to this show for the calls, the texts, the social media support about my recent health challenges. I will tell you that I am getting better, but that asthma never seems to totally relinquish itself. Who knows? You might get a cough here and there, but I'm pretty quick on the mute button. Sit back, relax, and enjoy another edition of The Neutral Zone. Today, we released another Paralympic Summit interview.
This time we're going to speak with Canadian wheelchair basketball athlete, Blake Mutware. Also, we bring you up to speed on the Para Ice Hockey World Championships, and we're going to discuss Toronto Blue Jays reliever Anthony Bass, who had some recent homophobic Instagram post, which we all have a lot to say. Stay tuned for all that, and you never know what else happens on any given edition on The Neutral Zone. With that, let's get into our headlines for this week.
Audio: Neutral Zone headlines.
Josh Watson: Former Calgary Flames General Manager Brad Treliving will become the 18th general manager in Toronto Maple Leafs history. Brad has made it to the playoffs only twice in his career, has yet to win the Stanley Cup, but seems to be the best person for the job here. We'll wait and see. He's got a lot of things on his plate, but hopefully, he is able to make the Maple Leafs a stronger team in the future. We shall see what happens.
Brock Richardson: Congratulations to the Quebec Remparts for winning the 2023 Memorial Cup. They were victorious over the Seattle Thunderbirds, 5-0. Listen, this was a completely dominant performance from top to bottom from Quebec and the Remparts. It was just a wonderful event. They led their league with 155 goals against this year, and over 300 scored on their opponents. They were just simply better, and they proved it this year in Canadian hockey. Congratulations to them.
Claire Buchanan: Another one-sided final game happened yesterday in the World Para Ice Hockey World Championships where the United States took their third championship in a row over the Canadian, 6-1, and Czechia landed their very first medal at the tournament. Congratulations to all the teams.
Josh Watson: Former Toronto Raptor head coach Nick Nurse has a new home. He will now coach, excuse me, the Philadelphia 76ers. That's a tongue twister today. I, for one, am glad to see that Nick has landed somewhere in the league. A little disappointed that he's landed in the same division as his former team, but we will see what he can do with the 76ers.
Brock Richardson: Those are your headlines for this week. And as is classic Neutral Zone fashion, that headline that Josh read is one that came out literally as soon as we pushed the stop recording on last week's episode. We thought we would throw it in on this week's episode. For this week's chat discussion, I thought we would put a bow on the world championships. I will say this, I am very, very happy for Czechia. Their goaltender was unbelievable. Well-deserved bronze medal. The United States, what can you say? Well-deserved gold medal. Canada seems like the same old, same old.
I will tell you this, six power play opportunities for Team Canada. The best they could show for these six opportunities was short-handed goals for the United States. Not a very good output for Team Canada. Guys, what say you? What are your thoughts? Let's spend a little bit of time on this. Josh, start with you.
Josh Watson: Well, I mean, what can you really say? The Canadian team dominated where they were supposed to dominate. But when it comes to the Americans and even Czechia, they were I would say average at best. I mean, I think Czechia gave them more of a scare than they expected, even though they still won that game. But when it comes to the Americans, the Americans are just simply better right now. I don't know if it's the makeup of the American team.
I don't know if it's a strategy on the part of Team Canada. It's just there seems to be some pretty glaring issues. I, for one, am not sure how you correct this, at least not anytime soon. I mean, how do you give up to short-handed goals when you're supposed to be on a power play? Keep better possession of the puck. It's a power play. I'm very confused. I'm very perplexed. I don't know how we proceed from this.
Claire Buchanan: I think that their power play just is not as good as it needs to be. They're not very defensive minded I think at this point. They started off the gold medal game really well and really clogging up the middle and actually had a couple really good chances to score. One hit the post and threw the US goalie completely off. One of the broadcasters I think touched on where those gaps lie, and it's at the rec level and at the development level where the United States players are constantly playing with high level teams outside of their Paralympic squad.
I know here in Ontario that there's this back and forth of, do we let the Para hockey guys play in certain tournaments? Can they be here and there? It's a constant back and forth, and I think that needs to be set in stone of giving these guys more opportunity to, yes, play on different teams aside from the Paralympic squad, but play high competitive games like they would in the A division. I think it's just a lack of resources that they're being able to tap into and just more ice time makes you better.
I think that's where the gap is. I remember last World Championships, we were talking about check-in that they were the most physical team in the tournament, and again, they came out being the most physical team in the entire tournament yet again. It put Canada on their toes for a minute there. That was a game that really could have turned the entire tournament around if Czechia took that one.
Brock Richardson: The thing I'll say about this is I was always made to understand that one of the reasons these guys, excuse me, were unable to play at different tournaments was to save injury. That was one of the reasons, and I want to reiterate that. For me, we have to look beyond the reasons of saving injury. We as a nation are nowhere even close to what the United States. We are so far apart from what we've seen that we need to stop protecting these individuals to the point that it's like, oh, we can't do this event because of this, because of travel, because we don't want to overwork the national team.
Well, you could say that if there was results penetrating from that. There isn't results penetrating from that. Some of that is the fact that you just have to tip your cap and say, "Team USA does what they do and they're funded and their sledges are funded," and et cetera. All that's true, but I just think we need to move past this idea of... I don't want to say what's in my head, but I have to. We need to move past the babying of the national team. We have to say, you have to prove results. And in order to earn rest, you need to put better effort out there, Claire. To me, that seems to be a real glaring obvious thing.
Claire Buchanan: You see it in the NHL Playoffs every year. The teams that get as far as they do is because they're sacrificing their bodies. They're putting it all on the ice, and they're sacrificing their body and risk of injury, and sometimes mostly playing with injuries to reach that final spot. Like you said, I think that we need to stop cradling these guys and shift how sledge hockey is played in Canada. I can only speak from being an athlete here in Ontario. I currently play in the B division.
If you stack and have a requirement of, okay, we're going to put the national guys back in the A division, okay, then the other players surrounding them have to make a decision of, am I at this level or do I need to go play in the B division because the B division is lacking players as well? I think having these guys back on the ice will make them better, make the next generation better, and make the other divisions outside of A division better because it's going to level out with better athletes across all divisions.
Brock Richardson: Josh, final comment.
Josh Watson: I think one of the things we noticed yesterday in some of the play and the ways that goals were being scored is that there's either a lack of teamwork, a lack of communication, or just a lack of time together that is preventing this team from succeeding. Realistically, that has to change. Whether that's bringing back an A division, whether that is putting more into grassroots hockey to develop newer athletes, I don't know what the answer is, but it doesn't look like they're playing as a team.
It doesn't look like they're talking to one another to prevent some of what's gone on. I mean, personally, what I would've liked to have seen in that game last night was for some of the younger players, some of the less experienced players, to get some more ice time considering that the game, unfortunately, did get out of reach. We didn't see that. We saw the same group of people on the ice for most of that game and they kept getting caught.
Claire Buchanan: I was hoping the same thing, absolutely, that they would tap in and give those guys at least some ice time to get used to it and fill those gaps, but it didn't happen.
Brock Richardson: It feels like we're beating a dead horse, or they are beating a dead horse, in that you need to understand that at times you have to throw in the towel. You have to give the experience to the people that haven't got it. And unless they get it, how are they going to improve all those things? For me, what bothers me, and this is where I'll leave this conversation and then we'll move on, what bothers me is when you look at this A division idea or saying to them, "You guys got to play in this tournament," the problem is they're still playing as in individuals. What I see is I see the necessary need to play as a team.
When I played with the Paralympics or any getting ready for world championship, we went to the smaller events and played as Team Canada. I'm not sure that's entirely possible in Para ice hockey, but it is something that we need to look at and we need to say, because it's one thing to say, oh, let's spread the national team out into the A division and let them go and let them be and whatever. It's another to say we need the team building. You can all build your skills as individuals, but unless you have the team, these are the results you're going to continue to get.
There needs to be fundamental change in not only what happens as the national program, but what happens as the national program in the other levels beyond the national team, because the results we're seeing now are not good enough. If you like our conversation or anything else we have on the program and you want to get ahold of us by social media, here's how you can do it.
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Brock Richardson: I misspoke and said Blake earlier when telling you that we were going to release another interview. I am happy to report that we are going to be speaking with Blaise Mutware from the national team, who has made the national team for the upcoming world championships later this week as we record this. This is the next event on our Para sports calendar, and we will keep you apprised of what goes on in this event.
But as I mentioned, I sat down with Blaise Mutware at the Canadian Paralympic Committee Summit. Here's the interview. We hope you enjoy. Blaise, you were born outside of Canada and you've lived in different places. Can you talk about life in different places outside of Canada?
Blaise Mutware: I was born in Rwanda. I grew up and lived in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa. Growing up for me as a '90s kid and early 2000s, life was pretty much outdoors. There wasn't as much technology. Life for me as a kid was just growing up playing outside, playing with friends and just being active.
Brock Richardson: It's always good to be active for sure. You mentioned to me before we went to record this that you're hoping to bring Para sports and wheelchair basketball outside of Canada and do some teaching. Can you just talk a little bit broadly about that?
Blaise Mutware: Yeah, I'm hoping to be able to... I've never been to Africa since coming to Canada, and I think having an opportunity to go there and maybe teach kids that are in similar situations than I am about wheelchair basketball or just Para sport in general, I think that can open up eyes and open up doors for a lot of kids like me that can find success. Me growing up as an African kid, I didn't think I was going to end up in the Paralympics of all places. I think it's inspiring and I want to be able to inspire people from all walks of life.
Brock Richardson: It's easy to stay in our own lanes and play wheelchair basketball in Canada. Why is it so important to you to bring Para sport beyond the walls of our wonderful nation that is Canada?
Blaise Mutware: I think it's important just be able to grow... It's a way to grow the sport, bring awareness to Para sport. Like I said, there might be kids that... For me personally, I never knew anything about Para sport prior to my injury. I think it just opens up a world for people, and that way it can help with inclusivity and just having everybody find love through a sport that they find interest in and make friends and open up opportunities as well.
Brock Richardson: I recently went down to the Para Pan Am Center. We interviewed your teammate, Patrick Anderson, on our program, and I then found out that you guys were doing a mini-series against Japan. I went down and I took my attendant and her son to the games, who really had never been exposed to wheelchair basketball beyond just being there and doing it.
Obviously, the result from a standings point of view didn't really mean much other than in the internal walls to see where you guys stood. You guys played, quite frankly, dominantly against Japan. What did that do for you guys as a program to help push it forward?
Blaise Mutware: I think it really showed that we knew how to win, and a lot of the times we didn't even play our full national team lineup. We played a lot of our development team guys and we still were able to come out on top. I think it helped us understand that Canada is just starting to blossom and the sky is the limit for the group of young guys that are just now starting to make the national team as the dominant Canada basketball team from the early 2000s.
A lot of them have either retired. I think Patrick Anderson and a couple other players are the only ones left from the gold medal team. I think it helps us see where we are in the future and could really encourage some of the younger guys to really step up.
Brock Richardson: What does the development team mean to you personally? Why is it important to have a development team? Obviously, because people are going to retire. But can you speak a little bit to the importance of the development team beyond what we just said there?
Blaise Mutware: Right. No, they're very important, just because even if they're not pushing anybody else for retirement, they are making everybody else better. We want to make sure that the pool of players we have in Canada is a really strong pool. And that in turn, we can have an internal competition that's only going to build us up. If our internal competition is as strong as our external competition, we can be unstoppable and become another dynasty.
Brock Richardson: Is there almost a mentorship program between your development program and the national team? Are there guys when you see them and you say you're going to be someone without boosting their ego so much that they can't get their head through the door, but is there a point where you just turn to somebody and say, "Stick with this because you are a good wheelchair basketball player?"
Blaise Mutware: Oh, there's plenty of instances. I think I was on the other end of that. I was a part of the development program for four or five years trying to make the national team. We want to encourage that. We want to encourage young talent to be able to stick with it and understand that it's a sport that takes experience and practice, and you're only going to get better from there. The payout, if it's already not great, could be even greater. We want to push. There is a lot of mentorships, individual mentorship, especially if someone resonates with a younger player.
Brock Richardson: You were on the program for four to five years. Was there ever a moment where you felt, I may not crack this roster? And if so, did you reconcile with that in your mind when you went through those phases, if at all?
Blaise Mutware: I think there were times where I did feel, especially each year prior to the tryouts. When I didn't make it, I was very discouraged, yes, but I think what kept me going for me personally was the love for the sport. I would've been doing the sport I guess for any team or played it at any level. For me, it was just the game was fun. It was always challenging, and I wanted to be able to represent my team, represent Canada, but I also want to make sure that Canada was successful. I didn't want to just be on the team just to be on the team.
I wanted to make sure I'm able to make Canada successful, whether that's me as a development player pushing some of the guys on the team to help them prepare for competitions. I just wanted to really help the team, and I love the game that much that it didn't matter if I made the team or not. I just enjoy playing it.
Brock Richardson: Wheelchair basketball is one of those sports that in the Para sport world is blessed to be well-funded and it's due to the success. Can you speak to the importance of funding and what that's done for the organization as a whole?
Blaise Mutware: Funding is one of the key important roles in what we do just to be able to be successful. It takes a lot of pressure from other things, from food, nutrition, or even living conditions and stuff like that, have offset costs for equipment. That can be really expensive. Playing in a high-level sport, you can go through equipment pretty quickly. Funding has really helped. It helped me personally be able to elevate my game as I got better.
My funding didn't start kicking in until later in my career. That's when I was able to get that boost from the funding to be able to put more focus on my craft and finally make the team and be more, I guess for lack of a better word, serious about what you're doing and more deliberate, I should say.
Brock Richardson: When you look back on your career and it's over, what's the legacy that Blaise wants to leave with wheelchair basketball Canada and Para sport as a whole?
Blaise Mutware: I want to be able to make an impact. I think that's a great question because I don't think I got that question before and have really thought about it. But I know when I first started, I didn't really have a scope of what my career would look like at all.
But now I'm nearing a decade of playing wheelchair basketball, I want to be able to leave something behind and accomplish something for Canada, accomplish something for everywhere I play, at the University of Arizona, or even if I decide to play pro in Europe, I want to be able to inspire the next generation and be able to have young players pick my brain and really just grow the sport. I want to be able to be one of the pioneers that's able to take the sport to the next level.
Brock Richardson: If somebody is listening to this interview on any of the platforms that it's going to be broadcasted on and they say, "I want to get involved in Para sport, but I don't know where to do it. I don't know if I want to. I don't know what sport to try," what would you say to the person that really wants to, but doesn't know where to start?
Blaise Mutware: I mean, the easy way to start is if you can find a way to contact me, I can probably help figure out what direction you want to go. But aside from that, checking the websites for the local gyms, even athletes sometimes. Reach out to them. They're willing to help. For me personally, you can reach out to me and I can help you in a general direction that can help. Because for me, I didn't know about Para sport aside from my injury. I think just being able to ask and check local gyms or local sports programs that have Para sports.
Brock Richardson: Where do you see there being a level of growth in the Canadian Paralympic Committee and what have they done really well?
Blaise Mutware: Level of growth, I think just being able to find ways to bring exposure to Para sport. What they've done really well is the ParaTough Cup stuff they've done. I think that's a great way to get organization and potential fundraisers to be able to help build a sport they tried.
And in turn, I guess, everything will come full circle as more people see the sport, more people want to try the sport. I think the emphasis on trying, because a lot of people will see a sport and be like, eh, maybe it's not for me. But I think just trying it can open up a whole new world, and it's fun for all ages and all groups of different sizes.
Brock Richardson: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. We greatly appreciate it.
Blaise Mutware: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Brock Richardson: That was Blaise Mutware, who is a Canadian national team member for wheelchair basketball. I sat down with him at the recent Canadian Paralympic Committee Summit, and we wish him nothing but the best at the upcoming world championships, which again, we will discuss next week and beyond as the results come in. If you like what you've heard, please don't hesitate to reach out to us by phone. Here's how you can get ahold of us by voicemail.
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Brock Richardson: One of the cool things we've gotten to do recently is name the episode, and this week's episode is I'll Take Anyone to The Rack. The reason I named this episode what I did was because after the interview with Blaise, he said, "I'm so passionate about wheelchair basketball, I don't care who it is, I'll take anyone to the rack." He wheeled away and laughed hysterically and said, "Good interview. We really enjoyed it." For me, that's the thing that stuck out to his interview beyond the content in which you just saw, but that is why the episode is called I'll Take Anyone to The Rack. This month marks Pride Month, and it also marks Pride Weekend, this upcoming weekend, for the Toronto Blue Jays.
June 9th and 10th is the upcoming Pride Weekend, and they're going to be giving away lots of giveaways. It's some kind of cool cape that they're giving away that represents pride. Personally, my favourite giveaway that they've ever done is the pride hat with the CN Tower skyline that they did underneath the bill of the hat. The Blue Jays logo was in the pride colours and it was really good. This was a number of years ago. I always think they do cool initiatives. Something that isn't so cool, if we can put it that way, is recently it was reported that Toronto Blue Jays relief picture Anthony Bass had homophobic Instagram posts. He apologized for this later to both his teammates and management.
He is expected to fully participate in Pride Weekend with nothing more from the team and he will not suffer any discipline. Now, this isn't a league decision. This is a team decision that he will not suffer any consequences. He was recently booed in a home appearance that he made last week, and I thought that this was a great conversation to have here on the program. Claire Buchanan is a member of the community, and I just thought we should kick the conversation off with Claire. Claire, what say you on this whole situation?
Claire Buchanan: I want to start off by saying that I approach situations where I'm faced with either experiencing homophobia directly to myself or just hearing it in conversations. There's never a "consequence" that gets put out there. It's more of an opportunity for education and understanding, because I've learned that hate comes from ignorance and ignorance is a lack of education. Yes, we want to jump on these situations and lay down consequences and say, "No, you need to do this to get back on the right page." I think that the actions that we've seen both him take and the team take in this situation is that they're giving him an opportunity to educate himself and to learn.
Yes, there isn't any out baseball players right now, but they're in the locker room. They're there. They exist, and maybe those teammates that he has around him are having those conversations with him. I saw a quote from the organization You Can Play. They reached out to the Toronto Blue Jays and they worked directly with them, not just in this situation, but continuously throughout the year of making sure that these conversations are happening. The silly part of this whole situation is that a grown man used social media to spread hate.
One being a professional athlete, I think you should have a little more maturity when handling social media, and you have to know that what you put out there is going to get reactions, whether it's good or bad. I think he felt his consequence when an entire stadium booed him at home on the mound. It's in those moments where he's going to go, "Oh man, okay, I get it." You know what I mean? That's all the community is looking for is we're not out here to say, "Hey, no, you should be banned from this," and blah, blah, blah, because that's what we experience is being shut out of places.
We don't want to push anyone out of their comfort zones and stuff like that and not give them an opportunity to grow and to educate themselves. Because down the line, they're going to have someone in their lives that does the same thing, and now they can have a conversation with them and say, "Hey, you know what? I went through something similar and this is how I tackled it."
Brock Richardson: Josh?
Josh Watson: The part of this that is most troubling for me as someone who considers themselves an ally is a phrase that he used during his statement, which if it's all right I'll just read very quickly.
Brock Richardson: Yes, please do.
Josh Watson: He said, "I recognize yesterday I made a post that was hurtful to the pride community, which includes friends of mine and close family members of mine." Let that sink in for a second. If you have close friends and family members who are part of this community, how are you even going down this road in the first place?
And then to even sit there, give this rather contrite, rather curt apology statement, which I don't think he wrote, quite frankly, and then say, "I'm not taking any questions," and walk away, y'all are bigger people than me if you accept that apology because I think that's crap. I think that is total crap.
Claire Buchanan: Well, yeah, I agree with you. Those words are crap until they are matched with actions. I say this to a lot of people in my life that your words have to match your actions. If you're going to say you are going to do something and you are saying you're going to put the effort into growing and getting better, do it, show it, prove it. If at the end of the day, that doesn't happen, then your words mean nothing. I hope that a lot of action gets followed up by this very minimal quote. I agree, Josh, very minimal.
Josh Watson: I just think that it's great that you're going to make use of the resources that the Blue Jays have at your disposal. That's wonderful, but we are now never going to know whether you actually do. We are not going to know if you've followed up and done what you've said you're going to do. And that for me is a problem. Because we've seen it in the NHL last season with so many pride nights either being cancelled or seeing guys on teams saying, "Well, because of my Christian beliefs, I'm not going to participate in this."
And yet you participate in the game after the warmup is done and the pride jerseys go away. What's that all about? This to me is a very similar circumstance in that you've put this out there on social media, so clearly there's a part of you that believes this. But now, because it's the political thing to do, you're going to apologize and you're going to say, "Oh, I'm going to learn from this." But you say, again, I keep going back to close friends and family members are part of this community and you still do this. There's no apologizing from that.
Claire Buchanan: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it puts into question how close he is with these friends and family. Does he just have these people in his circle, but he's not actively being an ally for them? You know what I mean? That makes me really question how close he is to these people that he's referring to.
Brock Richardson: Here's the thing, I have two ways to think. One was before Josh read the empty statement really, and the second one was after. Before my response was, okay, Claire just told me as a member of the community, listen, we don't want anybody to suffer, to be taken out of things because we already feel that way. That's fine. Until I hear the statement where it says, my family and close friends. At this point, I look at that and I say, all right, so now you can't play the ignorant game of I don't know anybody because you made this statement that was ridiculous, in my opinion, and you outlined friends and family.
We're in 2023, guys. This is not acceptable. This is just simply not. What I want to ask both of you, starting with Claire, is we saw him get booed at home in a game, as I mentioned, last week. At what point does it become too much? Would you accept him to be booed during Pride Weekend? But then again, if he got booed in late July over this, is there a point at which as you being who you are, is there a point at which this is too far and we think, okay, this has gone too far and this is too much. Can you weigh in on that for me, please?
Claire Buchanan: I mean, I hope that the boos don't continue. I don't know. I just don't like it. The fans voiced how they felt about it, and yes, every right to be angry. I am very interested to see how he conducts himself through this weekend. He has an opportunity to get back into the spotlight in the right way and show that he is putting in the time and the energy to become an ally, because, I mean, he said it himself that he has people around him that are from that community. What are you doing to say, "Hey, I made a mistake. My heart is in the right place and I'm trying to go about this the right way."
I think he just has a big opportunity this weekend to turn the tables around and get on the better side of this. But yeah, I agree with you that across all sports where this has been an issue, that there does need to be some just basic... See, I hate saying the word consequence, but it is. It's a consequence of not involving yourself in something like that and being able to play a game after or being able to pitch a game after. Yes, I really feel that there needs to be some sort of standard in that concept, but I don't know.
It sucks that this is still happening right now. It's hard to see. It's one of those things that as a community, we just don't look at the comment sections of stuff like that during pride because we know it's there, and it's just something that we don't need to be a part of. Those people need to have conversations and do the work themselves. It's not up to the community. It's on these people to say, "Hey, I want to do better and how can I?"
Brock Richardson: It's not a community problem, it is an individual problem. It's not fair, Josh, to put this on the community and say this. I'm a little bit, in fact, I'm a lot disappointed in the fact that after that statement, the team still stands by, there's no consequence here. We stand by our athlete.
Because if I'm part of the organization, after that line of my friends and family members, kay, then you deserve some sort of consequence that goes beyond an audience booing you or saying or whatever. To me, there just deserves to be more of a consequence, and I'm a little disappointed in the Toronto Blue Jays as an organization as a whole.
Josh Watson: Whether it's a good consequence or a bad consequence. Now, I don't know if either of you have noticed this, but the other night when he came in, they did mention that he had not pitched in a couple of days. I wonder if that was John Schneider saying to him in the office, "Okay, look, you screwed up. You're not going to pitch for a couple of days. When you do, be prepared for what you're going to get." I think the booing was only to make him aware of the fact that people are not happy. I think now that they've had their chance to boo him, that part will be water under the bridge.
Brock Richardson: My argument to that is, okay, John, if you did pull Anthony Bass aside and say, "This is what we're going to do," then say that as an organization. Say, "We're not going to allow him to pitch. We're not going to allow him to do this or that." Don't say that there'll be no consequences associated with this. Stand by your guns.
If you've taken him in the office and said, "We're not going to allow you to do that," say that, as opposed to "letting him off the hook" and not doing anything. Because if that is the action, that's fine, I'm good with it. But you said in a statement he's not going to suffer any consequences, and that to me is where that's the problem, Claire.
Claire Buchanan: Yeah, you're right. That comment from Schneider really puts it into light and it sent a message that, hey, yeah, we do care about this, but it's fine, whatever. You know what I mean? It lightened the situation too much with a comment like that. On the other side of that, I question how much we are entitled to with in terms of what goes on behind the cameras and what information the fans and media are delegated to.
Because I mean, there is things that happen in the clubhouse or in the offices of any sport that we don't know about, and there are things that we don't know the inner workings of what's going on back there and what those conversations are. If the consequence that he had was not pitching for a couple of days, how much of that information are we entitled to, and how much of it is kind of we're going to handle this privately as a team?
Brock Richardson: Even if that's the case, even if you're going to handle it privately, you owe it to that community, the pride community, to acknowledge something. We're going to handle it privately. It's different than saying he's going to suffer no consequences.
Claire Buchanan: Very true.
Brock Richardson: You allowed yourself as an organization out to say, "We're not going to make him suffer any consequences." You allowed as an organization simply, no, we're not going to do this. To me, your words, as we said early on in this conversation, your words and actions are two very different things and their words proved otherwise. Their actions may have been what they may have been. Like we said, there may have been an office conversation, but we don't know that because we're not privy to. What we are privy to is we're not going to do anything and it's that simple, Josh.
Josh Watson: Much like the apology itself, the reaction from the club is almost as perplexing in my opinion. I wonder if there is something in the collective bargaining agreement about discipline that is maybe preventing them from saying something, but that doesn't feel appropriate either. The whole thing is gross.
I just don't understand where some people's heads at. I really don't. I've known a lot of people, yourself included, Claire, and people are wonderful people no matter what situation they're in, no matter what their beliefs are, no matter who they love. As soon as we can get past that, this world will be a better place, because realistically, it's none of my business. None of my business.
Claire Buchanan: See, you said it perfectly. How people's relationships with their significant others is on any level, whether you're part of the queer community or not, is none of anyone's business. Your relationship, Josh, is none of my business, and likewise. You know what I mean?
Josh Watson: Absolutely.
Claire Buchanan: It's at the end of the day, like I said earlier, the community, we just...
Josh Watson: You just want to be left alone.
Claire Buchanan: We just want to be left alone. You know what I mean? Leave us alone. There's no why. Why are you putting so much energy into hating someone that you have no idea who they are?
Brock Richardson: I don't know why we, as a society, feel like we need to put our fingers on other things. I mean, I'm part of the straight community. I mean, I get bothered when people ask too personal of things, and this is going far beyond sports, just for a second, but why? This is the real question of why are we where we are? Why? That's the only question that I sit here and ask is why. We leave our neighbours alone. Leave communities alone too.
Josh Watson: Yeah. It comes down to also, why do we expect the community to educate us? We're the ones that are inserting ourselves into their lives. Maybe we should be the ones that try to understand them. Because last time I checked, you're not that hard to understand.
Claire Buchanan: I am a very simple person, yes. This spans not just sexual orientation, we can have a whole episode on this, but it spans racial communities.
Josh Watson: Disability communities.
Claire Buchanan: There's so many marginalized communities out there that are receiving the same kind of hate every single day. It's got to stop.
Brock Richardson: Full disclosure, speaking of another community, and I recognize what I'm doing with three minutes left here, but speaking of another community that I think can be disrespected is the Para sport community, because we're looking in a world right now where it's like, oh, we put this event over here, but there was no commentary. There was no this or that.
It's like, why does that community have to be disrespected? If you put on a Stanley Cup final and you said there's no audio, people would be losing their minds, but yet it's acceptable for the Para sport community to do that. We could go on and on and on and on. Claire, final thoughts here just as we wrap up?
Claire Buchanan: Oh, that's a great comment, Brock. Yes, there's a big gap in what effort gets put into Para sport and how it gets displayed into the media. Absolutely.
Brock Richardson: I just teased it a little bit, but we are having an entire conversation over this exact thing. Because you want to talk about disservice marginalized communities? That's another one that I just... I'm watching things lately and it's like, what are we doing and why do we think it's okay to get away with? Anyways, to close out the program, enjoy Pride Weekend. Do what you want to do if you're going to the game this weekend, but understand that at some point, we just have to move on from Anthony Bass and say he's going to learn, we hope.
And it's as simple as that. That is the end of our show for this week. I'd like to thank Claire Buchanan, Josh Watson. I'd also like to thank Marco Aflalo, our technical producer. Ryan Delehanty is the podcast coordinator. Tune in next week because you just never know what happens when you enter The Neutral Zone. Be safe. Be well.