HOUR 4: Suzyn Waldman & Emmanuel Berbari Join | How The Red Sox Can Steal It

Craig Carton (0:00)

Three hours away from first pitch now, and joining us, the longtime voice of the New York Yankees, Suzyn Waldman. Suzyn, good to see you again.

Suzyn Waldman (0:07)

How are you? I'm great, thank you. I wish they'd play this game right now.

Chris McMonigle (0:11)

I've been up since 5.30.

Suzyn Waldman (0:12)

I'm like, God, what can you do here?

Craig Carton (0:14)

What time did you get to the stadium today?

Suzyn Waldman (0:16)

About two o'clock.

Craig Carton (0:18)

At a six hour free game.

Suzyn Waldman (0:19)

It's ridiculous. I know it, but you're on a schedule, and you have to go, and now we're just sitting around, but I get to talk to you guys.

Craig Carton (0:26)

That's exactly right. So give me your initial thoughts a couple of hours ago. We all heard that Jean-Carlo Stanton is on the roster for the wild card round, and Aaron Judge is not on the roster.

Suzyn Waldman (0:38)

Okay. First of all, Jean-Carlo Stanton, don't forget, has actually played games. He has actually been shut down a couple of times at Somerset. He's gotten at bats, and I just think the presence of him sitting there and coming up, it wouldn't be great if Gareth Crochet, who hasn't pitched in a year, and Jean-Carlo Stanton come out in the bottom of the night fitting with a tying run on third. I don't know what would happen, but I understand that one. I really do. He was closer. As for Judge, and you and I go at this because you're picking on this guy, there isn't an elite athlete in the world that doesn't think that he's superhuman, and I'm trying to think back, and I brought in things way back, but CeCe Sabathia was like that. CeCe Sabathia actually blew his arm out, telling everybody he was fine to go out there. I watched Larry Bird lie down on the parquet with people moving his ribs around or his back around, thinking that they weren't as good without him, and he was right. Jimmy Key pitched game six of the 96 World Series with two tears in his rotator cuff. He said, I can do it. They all think they can do it until they can't.

I don't think he's that far off. I would not be surprised if he were on, if they get to the Division Series.

Craig Carton (1:52)

It seems like the last hurdle is running the bases.

Suzyn Waldman (1:54)

He's got to run, but that's, you have to see, the other thing is Jean-Carlos Stanton is very used to running a certain way. He can get there. Aaron hasn't done anything, and I wonder if they're afraid, and I haven't asked him. I wonder if they're afraid the adrenaline will take over and he'll try and beat out an infield to him.

Or something like that. But I know they had a long talk after he had batting practice yesterday against Weathers. He hit against Weathers, he hit against Elmer Rodriguez, and he never moved out of the box. As soon as I saw that, I said, no.

Craig Carton (2:28)

No, they can't risk it because we were just saying off the air, he's a gamer, he wants to play, everybody respects that. He can obviously swing the bat.

Suzyn Waldman (2:35)

Right.

Craig Carton (2:36)

But what happens if he hits the ball into the gap, and he's got a leg out of double, like you said, hits a ground ball into the hole. And now he's got to bust his butt down to first base. He's at risk of tearing the Achilles, and if there's baseball next year, he ain't playing.

Suzyn Waldman (2:50)

That's exactly right. But Boone said to me on the manager show, which you're going to all listen to in about seven hours, that he's not that far away. And I guess the trainers and Boone sat with Judge last night after the batting practice and went over it and what they thought.

But ultimately, it comes down to Aaron Boone, and I know Aaron talked to him later last night.

Craig Carton (3:13)

I guess the question I had was, because of the gravitas of who Aaron judges as a person and as a great player, three-time MVP, et cetera, et cetera, could he have bullied his way onto the roster? And the answer is no.

Suzyn Waldman (3:27)

No, absolutely not, because then if something happens, the trainers are at fault. No, no, you can't do that. Aaron doesn't like talking about...

CeCe for those last two years said, I'm fine. And then we found out there was mush in his knee. And it was mush. And he never talked about it. I'm fine, I'm fine. These kinds of guys don't like to talk about it. And I'm sorry, I know it makes us crazy. And it makes fans crazy. But that's who he is. He's not bullying Aaron Boone. He's not doing anything and mad at him and getting him fired. It's not happening. He wants to play.