Craigie & Damian Cheer on Bayonne's Little League World Series Run

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
All right, 341 Carton Show with Big Mac. Damian Woody here for The Duration. I should also mention that there's a bus right now.
I'm guessing on Route 80, if I have my roads right, going away from New York City, towards Pennsylvania, towards Williamsport, with a bunch of rabid, awesome blue collar people from Bayonne, New Jersey, getting ready to watch tonight's 7 o'clock game for the Bayonne Little League squad. And I've got Matthew Gill from Bayonne, who I think is on that bus right now. Check it in, Matt. Damian Woody, Craig Carton on the fan. How's everything going today?

**Matthew Gill** (0:43)
What's up, brother? Great to hear from you. Thanks for having us on. Yep, we're on the bus. We're heading on I-80 West, passing a lot of farms. We're almost at Williamsport.

**Craig Carton** (0:50)
You're in God's country. You're going to go past Allamoochee, a great town in New Jersey, all farmland. Then you hit Pennsylvania, the Delaware Water Gap, and Williamsport's around the corner. What's it like on the bus right now?

**Matthew Gill** (1:02)
The vibes are high. We're making pom poms. We got kids are making signs.
We're all ready to go for our 7 o'clock matchup against the home team tonight. So we're coming in four buses deep, trying to make it a Bayonne home game out there.

**Craig Carton** (1:17)
And give us an idea how many total people you think from Bayonne are going to be out there watching the kids play tonight.

**Matthew Gill** (1:24)
We're hoping to have, we got about 225 going on buses.
A lot more that are ready at hotels. We're looking at about 500 people from Bayonne in the stands, being loud, cheering on our boys. We can't wait.

**Craig Carton** (1:39)
Look guys, you know, I've adopted the team. I knew nothing about Bayonne Little League prior to this amazing run. But as a New Yorker and a guy that coaches kids in Little League and played Little League and all that stuff, you know, I've kind of adopted you guys because I miss kids playing sports in my house. You know, Damian's still got a younger son that's playing some ball now as well.
But when did you guys know that this group of all-star Little Leaguers might have something special to do something that Bayonne's never done before, which is get to where you're at right now?

**Matthew Gill** (2:09)
Well, you said it, Craig. As a former coach, and you know, you coach your kids, you know, this is the pinnacle of our sport and youth baseball.
This team won an eight-year-old North Jersey state title. So back then we knew, hey, this group may have a chance. They won again, they won a sectional title as 10-year-olds. They went to the state, in the state playoffs as 11-year-olds. So this is not new to them. They've been playing high level. This is, they've gone to the next level now, really clicking on all cylinders. They're hitting the heck out of the ball. They're pitching well. They're playing defense. They're playing real blue collar Bayonne baseball. They're doing all the things you got to do to win.

**Damian Woody** (2:49)
Hey, it's Damian Woody here. I got a question. What is this meant for Bayonne? I mean, when you experience something like this, it usually energizes the town.
Can you just talk to me about the environment of what this whole experience has been like for you guys?

**Matthew Gill** (3:04)
Damian, you know, as a jet player, you know you probably have a lot of crazy Bayonne fans in your life, Damian, over the years, right? And, you know, listen, our mantra, it's all over our t-shirts, and we're gonna send t-shirts to the station. We tried to get it off to you guys this morning, but Bayonne versus everybody. You know, we don't care who we play.
We're coming at, we're not afraid of you. We're gonna beat you, and we're gonna do it in our way.

**Craig Carton** (3:30)
How do we keep Mason and Cohn's ego in check after the walk-off home run?

**Matthew Gill** (3:35)
Hey, listen, he's living every kid's dream. Every kid practices that exact swing when they're playing with football, or learning how to play catch with their dad. Everyone wants to hit the walk-off home run in a World Series game, and the kid is special.

**Craig Carton** (3:51)
He's got that memory that we all dream about. You're right. Like, we might remember, you know, the one youth soccer goal you scored in a big game, or maybe it's RBI, whatever it is. We've all had that dream, because, look, the reality is that these kids are not going pro at some point. Fingers crossed if they want to, they get there. But, you know, the odds are against it. So for him to have that moment on TV, you guys get a Little League World Series win in advance. Yeah, awesome. And I want to say this, because we also live in a world, unfortunately, where people like to bring other people down.