**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Two o'clock straight up!
It's The Carton Show with Big Mac, all the way to six o'clock on a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon here in New York City. Phone number to join, as always, 888-808-119. Got a great show for you today. Actually, a bunch of football today on this gorgeous Tuesday here in New York. It's at a second, but I think we can finally all admit to ourselves what I said yesterday, against what Big Mac said yesterday. The Home Run Derby sucks. It's an unwatchable sporting event that I pay very little attention to and have very little interest in. Good afternoon, Big Mac, how are you today?
**Chris McMonigle** (0:41)
I'm doing great because last night I enjoyed the Home Run Derby. What are you talking about?
**Craig Carton** (0:44)
I know you do.
**Chris McMonigle** (0:45)
Last night was awesome.
**Craig Carton** (0:46)
It was not awesome.
**Chris McMonigle** (0:47)
The Home Run Derby was way better than it's been. The format was way better.
**Craig Carton** (0:50)
There were a hundred fewer Home Runs.
**Chris McMonigle** (0:51)
Yes, they hit a lot less Home Runs.
**Craig Carton** (0:52)
How is that better? It's a Home Run Derby.
**Chris McMonigle** (0:54)
I understand that.
**Craig Carton** (0:56)
It's like, hey, let's have a dunk contest with less dunks, right?
**Chris McMonigle** (1:01)
I wish.
With more stars, less dunks, it built the drama. I thought the best part by far were the fans in Philly. And we don't like to give the fans in Philly much credit around here. But man, they made that. They were booing everybody. They were booing the kids in the outfield dropping pop ups. Yeah, they booed everybody. That wasn't Harper or Schwarzer. It was awesome. I thought the drama built. We got to see the Home Runs go into the stands as opposed to just watching swing after swing after swing every three seconds like we actually saw the drama build. I thought it was an incredible atmosphere. To be fair, it felt like a playoff game. It was awesome.
**Craig Carton** (1:34)
It felt like a playoff game.
**Chris McMonigle** (1:36)
The atmosphere was playoff game.
**Craig Carton** (1:38)
Oh, no, it was not.
**Chris McMonigle** (1:39)
It stunk.
**Craig Carton** (1:40)
There's nothing good about it. If it wasn't, if it wasn't, 20 swings meaning we're going to sit there and watch four balls go past us and not swing the bat because we're not up against the clock. Dude's father's can't throw strikes.
**Chris McMonigle** (1:51)
That's true.
**Craig Carton** (1:51)
19 different camera angles I don't need.
**Chris McMonigle** (1:54)
That's true.
**Craig Carton** (1:54)
El Duncan, who I like but was terrible as the host, Alex Rodriguez, who knows nothing about Justin Verlander, who's a first bout Hall of Famer, who didn't realize he was like the second overall pick in a draft and was never sent down.
**Chris McMonigle** (2:08)
That was surprising by Alex.
**Craig Carton** (2:09)
Right?
**Chris McMonigle** (2:09)
Yes.
**Craig Carton** (2:10)
Like, well, what are we?
**Chris McMonigle** (2:11)
Will Ferrell wasn't funny.
**Craig Carton** (2:13)
Will Ferrell's not funny anymore? But this was a playoff atmosphere?
**Chris McMonigle** (2:18)
In the end, when it was Schwerber or Harper weren't in the finals, it wouldn't have been. But because Schwerber was in the finals, and the way they treated it, they were cheering every miss swing and non-home run. They were booing the home runs.
The crowd for Schwerber's home runs were awesome. It was, look, did it have the same pit in your stomach that you feel during a playoff game? No. But the atmosphere from the crowd, the crowd was incredible and the drama built, it was awesome. I thought that was one of the better home run derbies we've seen in a long time. I'm with you on some of the things. I thought Netflix that typically does a bad job with these live events. I thought they did a lousy job with the opening day game. I thought this was much better. They still used way too many camera angles. I'm a guy, I want to see the ball off the bat so I can tell whether or not it's a home run. We're experienced baseball fans. I want to say, oh, that one's going to go. And instead it was like weird looking up from their feet, camera angles. I'm trying to read their face on whether or not the ball is going to go out. So yeah, there was a couple of things like that that bothered me. But overall, I think the format is way better than the clock. I still think whatever you say, this is by far, by far, it's not even close. This is the best all-star game festivity by a mile. It's better than the game. It's better than anything the NHL provides outside of, I guess, the tournament now that they've created.
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