TORONTO (May 4) — If they weren’t so damned polished and professional. Those two grizzled broadcasting icons that date to my time covering the Maple Leafs for The FAN–590. Back in the days before the Internet, and deranged car manufacturers running the United States. Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph. Together in the radio booth since the 1998–99 season, when Maple Leaf Gardens gave way to the Air Canada Centre. Just after an American kid named Auston Matthews celebrated his first birthday. When John Tavares turned eight. The year that Pat Quinn took over from Mike Murphy as coach of the Maple Leafs. The summer that Curtis Joseph left Edmonton to sign in Toronto as a free agent. Yeah, Joe and Jim have been radio partners for a very long time. They simply do not deserve the dishonor from their current employers, Rogers Communications and Bell Canada Enterprises.

Look, I know I’m beating a dead horse here. But, neither do I give a frig. I will stand tall for my former media colleagues against these selfish, unyielding and myopic bean–counters who care for nothing, and nobody, except the bottom line. To them, money is like a powerful opioid. You need more and more to generate the same high.

As such, it isn’t likely that Bowen and Ralph will be with the Maple Leafs in Florida for Games 3, 4 and (possibly) 6 of the upcoming Eastern Conference semifinal. That shouldn’t surprise any person aware that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment refused to spring for a horse–and–buggy ride to Ottawa during the first playoff round. The Atlantic coast of Florida may as well be Saturn. It is far beyond budgetary range… unless Ed the Conqueror and his Baroness decide to brown–nose at Mar–a–Lago. Then they roll out the private jet. To pony up comparative pennies so that the Leafs radio crew can be credibly on site for Stanley Cup playoff games? Hell no! Just think of the economic impact such travel would have on the conglomerates that sucked in a paltry $45 billion last year.

But, you know, it’s not even about money. Rather, it speaks to the utter contempt and impudence among the corporate fat–cats toward a tradition that dates to the very beginning of the Maple Leafs franchise, when Foster Hewitt called games from the old Mutual Street Arena. Once the Gardens opened (in November 1931) and Foster moved into his famous gondola amid the west girders, he never missed a game, home or away, traveling with the Leafs through the great Cup dynasty of 1942–51, when the teams of Conn Smythe, Hap Day, Ted Kennedy and Turk Broda won six Stanley Cups in 10 years; then through the Punch Imlach–led reign of 1962–67, with Johnny Bower, Tim Horton, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich and George Armstrong becoming legends across our land.

 
AMONG THE FEW IMAGES (TOP–LEFT) OF THE GONDOLA AT MAPLE LEAF GARDENS, CONSTRUCTED FOR FOSTER HEWITT WHEN THE ARENA OPENED IN 1931. HEWITT CALLED LEAFS ACTION FROM THE FAR-–RIGHT BOOTH, OVER THE LETTERS “ST”, AS SEEN (TOP–RIGHT) ON DEC. 2, 1967, PRIOR TO A GAME AGAINST THE OAKLAND SEALS.

Any putz could have called hockey off a TV monitor even back then. Poorly. But, possibly. Yet, there existed proper respect for the tradition of live, on–scene transmitting of Leafs games from all parts of the continent — even today, a largely affordable undertaking for these communications giants. Be it Boston, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Los Angeles, Vancouver, it mattered not. No one thought twice about broadcasters traveling with the hockey club.

Until much later, that is, when the COVID–19 pandemic hit and cross–border travel restrictions compelled games to be called remotely off television. At the time, it was a necessary move; a temporary adjustment. Or, so we figured. The problem, however, quickly became two–fold: Such broadcast professionals as Bowen, Ralph, Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez somehow made it sound and feel as if they were on site at the arena or ballpark.

Shulman and Martinez actually worked from their homes in Toronto and Florida, communicating between pitches with a silent microphone. It was the most–remarkable broadcasting feat I’ve ever witnessed. Part 2 was inevitable — the blue bloods in the ivory tower saw they could save minuscule travel and engineering costs. Rogers and Bell are blessed with extraordinarily gifted broadcasters who were able to pull off the makeshift assignment. For whatever reason, the baseball voices have been returned to full travel. Yes, TV makes more money than radio and Rogers owns 100% of the Blue Jays. I get it. But, the Leafs are the most–widely followed sports team in Canada.

Even if streaming devices and mobile phones have lessened the impact of radio, plain respect for a Toronto institution could easily apply during the Stanley Cup chase. Big advertising revenue isn’t necessary at these mammoth corporations. Again, it’s about honoring tradition for a company (MLSE) that owes its entire influence and economic might to the Maple Leafs logo. Instead, Bowen and Ralph aren’t even cleared for a highway trek to Ottawa.

With no discourtesy toward Ralphie, who is one prince of a fellow, I feel mostly for Bowen.

Joe and I didn’t always mesh during the years we traveled with the Leafs. He worked for the team and I rarely waved the flag. Which was practically unheard of in radio (and, sadly, still is). So, I was largely an outcast when I covered the team for The FAN–590. Still, I sensed some mutual regard with Joe and we grew more friendly toward the end of my radio career. Over the past 42½ years, the Sudbury native has become a legend in his time.

Like Hewitt, beforehand, he is intrinsically enmeshed with the Maple Leafs.

NO ONE HAS CALLED LEAFS GAMES ON RADIO WITH MORE PRIDE AND EXUBERANCE THAN JOE BOWEN. THE INDIGNITY CAST UPON HIM BY ROGERS AND BELL IS THOROUGHLY DISGRACEFUL.

Did you happen to notice the nationwide esteem that Sam Rosen richly garnered while retiring as the long–time television voice of the New York Rangers? Americans admire and revere their sports broadcasting icons. We, in Canada, disparage and scorn. What did Bob Cole get? A few minutes of appreciative memory on Hockey Night In Canada after he died last year? An ovation or two in his final season? Beyond that, there was virtually nothing.

Bowen, who turned 74 in April, has never called a game in the Stanley Cup final. He began with the Leafs in October 1982, merely 15½ years after the last NHL championship. And, he’s still waiting. But, who in franchise history has been part of the club for more than 42 years? Not even Smythe, the founder, can lay such claim. He started the Leafs in 1926. By 1968, 42 years afterward, Smythe was long gone; replaced by his son, Stafford. Harold Ballard (1957–90) spent 33 mostly destructive years as a club executive. Off the top of my head, only Hewitt (1926–76), King Clancy (1930–86) and Johnny Bower (1958–2017) were part of the Leafs longer than Bowen. What has it earned the Hall–of–Fame broadcaster? The fattest indignity of any person to call pro sports in Toronto — a cold chair and a TV monitor while the hockey club battles in the second round of the playoffs.

Only five people in nearly a century have regularly called Leafs games on radio: Bowen, Foster Hewitt, Ron Hewat, Peter Maher and Dennis Beyak. With part–time help from Bill Hewitt (Foster’s son), Ken Daniels and Dan Dunleavy. That’s a fairly exclusive club. No person has come close to calling as many Leaf matches as Bowen.

That mega–wealthy MLSE has thumbed its nose at Bowen and Ralph, after so many years of loyal work for the company, is appalling. Tony Staffieri, the president and CEO of Rogers, should be ashamed to look in the mirror. So should his boss, Ed The Conqueror, yet there’s no public indication that the head of Rogers has a conscience.

This applies, equally, to Mirko Bibic and Sean Cohan, the tall thinkers at BCE, who also signed off on the absurd, cheesy decision to keep Bowen and Ralph at home while the Leafs battle for the Stanley Cup.

If those who employ Bowen had one–fifth his character, I wouldn’t be writing this blog.

But, the moguls at MLSE have proven they don’t give a sh**.

Two years ago, they were shamed into sending Bowen and Ralph to Florida for the second playoff round, after TV mistakenly showed Morgan Rielly, not John Tavares, in the seconds after Tavares eliminated Tampa Bay in overtime. Bowen had no alternative but to tell listeners that Rielly ended the series. It looked so deliciously good on the penny pinching tycoons at Rogers and Bell. Two years and $45 billion later, there isn’t enough pocket change to similarly fly the broadcasters to Fort Lauderdale. Were Bowen anything but a true professional — and you know that being stapled to the Sportsnet studio is eating away at him — radio listeners on Thursday night would not have heard his unique (and sorry) rendition of Happy Days Are Here Again, the post–World War I anthem co–written, in 1929, by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen. Joe’s singing voice has the aplomb of a jackhammer. Still, he warbled the famous tune, in its entirety, after William Nylander clinched the Ottawa series with an empty net goal.

My preference would have been for Joe to belt out the 2024 song Dirt Cheap, by country crooner Cody Johnson.

No phrase better describes the autocrats at Rogers and Bell.

FROM THE VAULT…

A look inside the program Johnny Bower signed to me from Game 4 of the 1967 Stanley Cup final at Maple Leaf Gardens. The final Leafs loss of that championship playoff year: 6–2 to the Montreal Canadiens (folklore has it that goalie Terry Sawchuk was half–in–the–bag after carousing the previous night, certain that Bower would start the match. But, was forced between the pipes when Bower suffered an injury in the warm–up). This is from Apr. 27, 1967:

It definitely was the end of an era in the NHL, as six new teams would be added for the following season: the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues. Leaf broadcasting legends Brian MacFarlane and Foster Hewitt collaborated on a look–back.

 
The Leafs introduced their re–modeled jerseys for the 1967 playoffs against Chicago and Montreal. Toronto would wear this design through 1969–70. And, look at the music names of the era scheduled to play at the Gardens.

Front page of the Gardens program–insert, which was always a turquoise color back then.

 
The Junior Toronto Marlboros were playing the Quebec League–champion Thedford Mines Canadiens in the semifinal of the Memorial Cup. Toronto would prevail, then defeat the Port Arthur Marrs for the national title. And, more famous names of the era were booked into the O’Keefe Centre at Yonge and Front Streets.

It was Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967 and the Gardens line–ups page celebrated the occasion.

 
Centennial Cool–Out (such a 60’s title) played the Gardens 20 nights after the Leafs last hoisted the Stanley Cup. How about that new group from Winnipeg, the Guess Who? Every Gardens program had a score–card page with the corresponding date. And, can you buy a good set of tires today for the price of a new car in ’67?

 
Gordie Howe ate candy bars. And, who can forget the Shopsy’s ad on the inside–back cover?

EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM