Hour 2: Craig and Big Mac on Boone's Benchings and a 9/11 Tribute

Craig Carton (0:00)

That's right, baby, 253 Carton Show with Big Mac. Yankees trying to take the second game from the Rockies after a bit of a barn burner yesterday, but they broke it open with Ramos going yard ski after Aaron Boone had the balls to bench Aaron Judge. I love him for it. Matter of fact, when he gets the manager of the year award, I think that's gonna be the moment where people say, he's not a puppet, he's not a guy that listens to Brian Cashman. It's not about analytics, because you would never bench Judge for Ramos. He said, I got a gut. My gut is, he ain't ready to play tonight. Sit down, Ramos, and bang.

Three runs later, it's 5-1, and all is right in the world again.

Chris McMonigle (0:45)

Everybody's looking for that accountability. He'll judge accountable.

Craig Carton (0:48)

That's right.

Chris McMonigle (0:49)

Said you can't have three lousy at-bats.

Craig Carton (0:50)

Matter of fact, I may have to call Aaron Boone up and congratulate him for that manager of the year type stuff.

Chris McMonigle (0:56)

In all seriousness, I know the fan base doesn't want to hear it. He should be in consideration for manager of the year.

Craig Carton (1:01)

Yeah, you can't get it if you don't win a division, I don't think, but yes.

Chris McMonigle (1:04)

You can. I mean, look.

Craig Carton (1:05)

Hard for Don Mattingly not to get it as well. It was nationally.

Chris McMonigle (1:07)

In the national, yeah. I think, well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_3 (1:10)

They're like 30 games over 500

Chris McMonigle (1:11)

If they don't win the division, though, can you give it to them?

Craig Carton (1:13)

I don't think you can.

SPEAKER_3 (1:14)

Okay.

Chris McMonigle (1:15)

Got to win the division for manager of the year.

Craig Carton (1:16)

Unless, I think the Mattingly example is a little bit of a better one, like an outlier, because they're 30 games over 500 with him as manager. They went from the seller, I know it was early, to be fair, but they went from the seller, I'll give you like, who's the guy that replaced Alex Cora in Boston? What's his name?

Chris McMonigle (1:36)

Terrible with names, the minor league guy. Yeah, that guy.

Tom (1:38)

That guy is going to get votes too.

Chris McMonigle (1:40)

He should get votes.

Craig Carton (1:41)

Red Sox went from 15 games out to in the wild card.

So yeah, I do think there's outliers to that statement, but I think Aaron Boone gets votes. Here's Tom in North Belmore on the fan. Tommy, how are you?

Tom (1:57)

Hey, Greggy, how are you?

Craig Carton (1:58)

Doing good, Spank.

Tom (1:59)

I heard you talking about 9-11.

Craig Carton (2:00)

Yeah.

Tom (2:01)

I heard you talking about 9-11 before and how sports affected people's lives.

My father passed away 9-11. He was an SDNY fireman with Quad Company 288 in Maspith, Queens. And fortunately for us, right afterwards, the Mets had donated tickets to their firehouse for the first game back after 9-11. And my mom, my brothers and I were able to go. And after the game, after Mike Piazza hit the home run, Jay Horowitz, who's the public relations director for the Mets, brought us down on the field and we got to meet Mike Piazza.

Craig Carton (2:33)

Wow.

Tom (2:34)

And shake his hands. My brothers have his bad, his wristbands from that game.

SPEAKER_3 (2:39)

Tom, let me ask you this.

Craig Carton (2:41)

Let me ask you this, having lost a relative who was brave enough to obviously put himself in harm's way that day, was there a discussion at all about we're not ready yet to go to a game amongst your family members or no?

Tom (2:58)

Very much so. We sat around my mom's kitchen table and all discussed. Are we ready to do something like this? And I played baseball through college. My brothers all played through high school.

So baseball is our thing as a family. So that was that was our first night out after we found out that my dad was one of the missing.

Craig Carton (3:20)

Yeah, I think that'd be a very tough conversation. I'm sure sadly there were thousands of those conversations about, you know, Dewey, it's an amazing offer.

But are we ready yet? Like you said, like I'm sure your mom didn't leave the house for a long period of time. So I got chills even just thinking about that. Yeah. But you're right, that's why it's when people, you know, who don't like or love sports, see how we react to a pitch, an inning, a game, a touchdown, et cetera, they don't get it. And events like this, I think make people like that have a better understanding of why sports is so important to all of us. And thank you for calling and I appreciate that very, very much.