A new but familiar voice will soon rejoin WFAN — and in a way he hasn’t been heard before.
The station will tap Craig Carton to work alongside Suzyn Waldman on three New York Yankees broadcasts next month, Carton announced on the station Monday alongside hosts Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber.
He’ll be on during the series at home against the Texas Rangers from Aug. 9 – 11. Carton said that the Yankees had called him directly about the gig.
“It’s a great honor,” he said. “It’s a great privilege.”
So yes it is true – The Yankees have asked me to do the radio play by play for their series against the Rangers on August 9,10,11 on WFAN with Suzyn Waldman. Beyond blessed and honored and gonna have so much fun doing it.
— Craig Carton (@craigcartonlive) July 15, 2024
Carton left WFAN last summer to focus on his morning talk show with Fox Sports 1.
Carton said he won’t be over the top.
“I want to be clear about that,” he said. “I’m not going to do something that’s clownish. I got to leave the crazy home run calls to the memory of John and his greatness of all of the years. But I’ll do my best. I’ll make sure that it’s unmistakably me and it’s just awesome.”
He added that he hopes he brings the Yankees a bit of luck. The team has struggled of late, going 8-18 over its last 26 games. It lost its final game of the first half Sunday in brutal fashion, getting walked off by the Baltimore Orioles after committing a pair of errors. Still, the Yankees are just a game behind the O’s for first place in the American League East.
“All they really need is a little positive juju,” Carton said. “Like a good luck charm, if you will. The (New York) Mets had the rally pimp in April. They had Grimace in June. They had some fat guy dancing to ABBA, I think, now. That has worked for them.”
A week ago, the New York State Broadcasters Association announced that Carton would be inducted into its Hall of Fame this year. Waldman has been working with a rotation of play-by-players since John Sterling retired in April. Sterling had been calling Yankees games for 36 years. He had paired with Waldman for 20 seasons.
As for whether Carton would ever consider being the Yankees’ radio play-by-play man full-time, it didn’t sound like much of an option.
“There’s got to be a lot of zeros in that check,” he said.
Carton added he’s not sure exactly how far he’ll go if he feels the need to criticize the team while calling the games.
“Here’s the real question,” he said. “At some point, if you see something like Giancarlo Stanton walking to second base, you might have to be critical. I’m wondering, does my phone ring on the way home from the Yankees?”
Since Sterling’s retirement, Waldman has worked games with Justin Shackil, Emmanuel Berbari, Rickie Ricardo and Brendan Burke.
The expectation is that WFAN will use the rest of the season to try out different play-by-players and make their decision on a full-time replacement in the offseason.
“I am a very blessed human being,” Sterling said in a statement at the time. “I have been able to do what I wanted, broadcasting for 64 years. As a little boy growing up in New York as a Yankees fan, I was able to broadcast the Yankees for 36 years. It’s all to my benefit, and I leave very, very happy. I look forward to seeing everyone again on Saturday.”
GO DEEPER
After prison, Craig Carton returns to WFAN
(Photo: Seth Harrison / The Journal News)
