WFAN morning yackster Craig Carton visited colleagues Howie Rose and Wayne Hagin in the WPIX TV booth a few weeks ago, an occasion marked by one of the play by play duo allegedly threatening, “”If Craig continues his antics, I am going to leave the show.”  Upon learning yesterday it was Rose who complained of hosting Carton, the latter went on the offensive, as transcribed by the New York Post’s Justin Terranova.

“The day before the show, I was at the game, the afternoon game, and Howie and I spent five minutes together,” Carton said.  “He couldn’t have been nicer, more gracious, it was like we were old friends.”

“And by the way, the (Stephane) Matteau call was exaggerated. Keep doing Islanders games.”

All the while Carton keeps complimenting Rose for his skills as a broadcaster and bemoaning the fact he has to take him on.

“He put himself in a bad spot with me. I fight back. Call (WFAN boss Mark) Chernoff and cry and whine all you want about it.”

Rose appeared on the “Boomer and Carton Show” Friday morning to explain. He said he made it known that he was willing to talk baseball — and baseball only — on the TV program, and if there were any “shenanigans” he would walk out.

“I wanted to make sure that all we talked about was hard-core, nuts-and-bolts, Mets-Yankees stuff, or else I wasn’t going to be a party to it,” Rose said.

Carton — who pushed for an apology he did not get — said he was told Rose was more adamant about walking out if things had gone off-topic, which bothered Carton because the two had gotten along only the day before. He maintained that Rose was “a little out of order,” which Rose would not admit to.

“Do you think that I’m going to turn into a complete phony, low-life overnight?” Rose asked.