Book Review: Loudmouth

By Bill Jordan
Updated: June 26, 2013

Sports radio listeners have been hearing Craig Carton in many markets across the country for decades now. For those familiar with Carton, there will be no surprise that his first book, Loudmouth, is extremely entertaining. In fact, Carton’s new work is likely the most fun you will have reading a book from the sports section of your local bookstore this year. Carton touches on everything from sex to drugs to his parents to his unique career through the sports broadcasting community. Like a murder mystery that with so many twists and turns that a reader just can’t put the book down, Carton’s new work is a page turner from cover to cover.

Carton’s book is full of personal stories from his life as well as a somewhat detailed description of his entire life with asides of his sports beliefs sprinkled in. Much of the first half of the book is spent with Carton telling the sad tale of his youth. Although Carton’s parents wanted the best for him, they had a hard time showing it and he illustrates how the few events in his young life that should have been positive still turned out to be negative memories because of how his parents handled them.

There are also various stories from his youth such as how he chose his college by driving through Syracuse and seeing that there were more hot girls on campus than any other he visited. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of his teenage years was that he was an All Star caliber soccer player, but his parents forced him to quit soccer and join the marching band because he was not receiving all A’s on his report card. Carton was so good, in fact, that even though he stopped playing soccer at 15, he still received some scholarship offers when he was a senior in high school.

Carton also includes some interesting rants about sports. For instance, he spends a few pages describing how much he hates when people show up to play recreational games wearing what the pros wear. For instance, those who show up to their beer league softball game rocking a complete Yankees uniform with the number 13 and the name “Rodriguez” on the back of their jersey. He also has interesting comments surrounding players who have had multiple kids with various different women and strong words of encouragement and recommendation for those who fall into this category.

Of course, most of the book focuses on how he has become one of the most well respected names in sports talk radio. Like most stories of the man who made it to the top, Carton started at the bottom, but his journey was by no means conventional. For instance, even though he knew he wanted to be in radio, he actually turned down the first job he was offered because he didn’t feel it was the right fit even though he didn’t have anything lined up as an immediate replacement at the time.

Carton details how he quickly rose through the ranks of being in a small market to moving up through the ranks of Buffalo, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New Jersey and eventually New York City. He is in awe of the fact that he now has the number one ranked morning show in the largest market in the nation and has a great perspective on what helped him achieve the things he has accomplished in his life. Despite the fact that he is now extremely successful, Carton clearly doesn’t take a day for granted and appreciates all of the people who helped him during his path to success.

The book is extremely entertaining and because of that, won’t take much time to get through. Many parts are laugh out loud funny to the point that the other people in the room with you may think you are watching stand-up comedy instead of reading a book. The book hit stores in the first week of June and retails for $24.95. If you remotely like sports and have $25, you should buy it.

Rating: 5/5