We Gonna Rock Down to Rivera Ave? Not If Craig Carton Has His Way

"Rivera Ave? It's Over there."

I was just reading a story in the New York Post regarding NYC financier Tom Ferrara's efforts to get River Ave., which runs along the current Yankee Stadium and the site of the old Stadium, re-named to Rivera Ave. in honor of the Yankees' closer.

It's a nice gesture, unless your WFAN's Craig Carton, who went ballistic on Ferrara during Boomer (Esiason) and Carton's morning show. Here's an excerpt from the Post:¹

Ferrara: There’s symbolism here. River Ave. connects where the old Stadium was and where the new one is. Mariano for his entire career has been a Yankees, connecting the old Yankees with the new Yankees. And if you have ties into The Bronx and you have an emotional attachment to the team, as literally hundreds of thousands if not more fans do, River Ave., not unlike Mariano, is that connection.

Carton: Oh, stop, come on. With all due respect, it’s like a 12-year-old idolizing a ballplayer.

Ferrara: You guys, candidly, are the only ones I’ve come across have a negative view on it.

Carton: Because you’re talking to your own friends! You guys are running the poll. [Ed. A yes-no poll on CBS' own website had Rivera Ave. backers comfortably in the lead.]

Carton: Here’s what the average Yankee fan will tell you, if they’re being honest with you: “Hey, if they did name it after him, great, all good. Love Mariano Rivera. Do they have to name it after him? No!” They don’t care!

Ferrara: Can I ask you a question, Craig? Why are you so jaded about this?

Carton: It’s not jaded. It’s stupid! The notion that because Mariano Rivera was a great baseball player, we now have to honor that career with a street, doesn’t make sense. That’s why.

Carton: OK. You know what you should do? I don’t know what you do for a living — that should be a new job for you, decide how we can rename every street in the five boroughs after people that you liked. Yeah? Or no?

Ferrara: I’m not gonna answer that question.

Ferrara: It’s an accolade that a majority of people…

Carton: A majority of what people?

Ferrara: If you’d stop interrupting me…

Carton: Hold on. Timeout. A majority of who? Of the five people you talked to, three said yes?

Carton: He needs a shrink.

Carton: At 58 years old, you have to sometime recognize that your admiration and idolization only matters to you! That’s the problem here! Alright!

Carton: (with Ferrara signing off) Don’t touch the button! Don’t touch the button! Don’t touch the button! Don’t touch the button! Don’t touch the button! Don’t touch the button! Don’t touch the button!

These are the times that Esiason must second guess partnering with the volatile Carton and said as much - "I’m so uncomfortable when you get nuts like that"..

And it's the reason that I never listened to Carton on Jersey 101.5 or Boomer and Carton in the morning.  I will give Carton this much though...I don't truly believe that the majority of fans care one way or the other. And what happens when Derek Jeter  retires? Jerome Ave. becomes Jeter Way?


1 - NY Post