Yesterday on WFAN, former host Craig Carton was on with Evan & Tiki in the afternoon to talk about some big news. Carton announced he would be serving as the radio play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees from August 9-11. Carton will be joined by analyst Suzyn Waldman, someone he used to impersonate on the air, an impersonation Waldman wasn’t a big fan of. That was one of the topics this morning during Boomer & Gio with hosts Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti.
“I saw the news of Craig Carton going on with Evan & Tiki and talking about how he is going to do three Yankees games on the radio on WFAN and of course he is going to be sitting next to Suzyn Waldman,” Giannotti said. “So with this John Sterling unexpected retirement you have some opportunities here for people to fill in. Craig said it was a lifelong dream of his.
“People love the play-by-play. So, it’s an exciting idea, it creates some buzz, it’s fun. But it does beg the question, how did Suzyn Waldman turn and do a 180 from really disliking him, I am saying it kindly, for many years when he would do the impersonation of her when you guys were working together?”
“I have so many thoughts about this,” Esiason said. “This is unbelievable that this is even happening.”
Esiason said he was aware this could happen after talking with ‘The Architect’ Chris Oliviero. Esiason passed along this wasn’t a decision made by Oliviero or anyone at the radio station.
“It’s not happening because of [Oliviero] or anything that was done here, but because the Yankees wanted to have this happen. They actually reached out to Craig. And then of course if you are the partner of the Yankees you say yes to whatever they want. You want to keep the Yankees happy if you’re a good partner with them and sometimes you have to make compromising decisions that may not look so good to everybody out there, including one Suzyn Waldman.
“Now I know for a fact that [Carton and Waldman] have not spoken yet and that they will probably have a conversation today. I know also for a fact, that according to my sources, Suzyn seems to be good with this. If she is good with this, here’s the reason why: she’s a survivor. She knows this is business and she knows this is entertainment. She has been around for a long time. This is not WFAN trying to jam Craig into that booth to make her unhappy.”
After audio of old Carton clips impersonating Waldman played, Esiason made the point, “That Craig Carton will not be doing the Yankee games…The Yankees, I think, have an affection for Craig due in large part to our charity softball games we had over there. I think the Yankees really appreciated that from Craig.
“It’s entertainment. The interesting thing for me is how close they’re going to be sitting next to each other for three games. And on top of that, I wonder how Michael Kay feels about this. If he gets on his high horse, he is going to be like ‘This is a travesty, this is the worst thing ever, this is the Yankee brand, what are we doing cheapening the brand?'”
“I hadn’t thought about that angle because I generally don’t care what Michael Kay thinks, but it is interesting,” replied Giannotti.
Esiason later joked, “I think the Yankees should call up Mike Francesa and have him manage the team that weekend, that would be great.”
After Esiason said he believed the station and team will get ripped by some for doing this, Giannotti said, “I don’t know why anybody would take it that seriously…with everything going on, who cares. All of it is entertainment.”
Gio later added, “As much as Craig has been an entertainer and a crazy guy on the radio and in this business, it sounds to me…he is going to take this very seriously and it’s not going to be a mockery.”
