Michael Kay (sports broadcaster)

This is about the sports commentator. For the XML developer see Michael Kay (software engineer).

Michael Kay (born February 2, 1961) is the main play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees on the YES Network and their broadcast television partner WWOR-TV.

Background

Kay started his career as a New York sports reporter. A New York Yankees fan growing up, he started reporting at the Bronx High School of Science and then at Fordham University and wrote for both the New York Daily News and the New York Post. His main assignments were the Yankees and the NBA. Kay has been the Yankees' lead television announcer since 2002, after spending a decade partnered with John Sterling as the radio announcers of the team on WABC-AM. Kay also served as the MSG post-game locker room reporter.

When WCBS-AM acquired the radio rights for 2002, the same year the YES Network debuted, Kay moved to the television side while Sterling remained on the radio.

Since the late 1990s, Kay and Sterling have co-emceed the Yankees' annual Old-timers day ceremony (following in the tradition of the late Mel Allen and Frank Messer), players' number retirements and the City Hall celebrations after Yankees' World Series victories.

Broadcasting style

Kay has developed his own style and notable on-air phrases. On radio and TV, Kay has been best known for yelling "See-ya!" during his home run calls (it's also his signature phrase at the end of his broadcasts).

Though the Yankee uniform has not changed very much since the days of Babe Ruth, he has become known for his frequent signature description of the teams' uniforms at each ballgame, especially the "interlocking N-Y" and "midnight blue" of the Yankees' home jerseys and caps. Kay has stopped doing so in recent years because his switch to television makes the description redundant.

Kay is also known for referring to extra innings as "bonus cantos" and "free baseball" and a team's last inning of hitting as its "last licks." At the end of the top of the seventh inning, Kay traditionally urges the audience to "get up and stretch!" (and for home games, introduces the playing of God Bless America, performed at Yankees home games). However, in 2006 he stopped saying "Get up and Stretch" and now says, "Its time for the seventh inning stretch."

Other work

Kay also has a talk show on 1050 ESPN Radio from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST Monday through Friday. Kay is also the host of the YES Network's CenterStage, where he interviews people from all different branches of sports and entertainment and he occasionally appears on ESPN's The Sports Reporters.

Fan Outreach

On December 13, 2006, Kay and the rest of his radio show team hosted "The First Annual Michael Kay Christmas Party," held at Blondie's on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The show that day was broadcast live from the second floor of Blondie's from 4-7, as per usual, and then the party officially began with roughly 100 listeners having been granted access to the "VIP list," as Michael kept calling it. The fans enjoyed it and got the chance to meet Michael, Don LaGreca, sound man and musical talent Joey Salvia, traffic reporter Christina Stoffo, producer Ryan T. Hurley and others and tell them just how much they liked the show and appreciated the effort the whole group puts forth.

Towards the end of the party, Michael, Don and Joey sang some of the songs the show has made famous, including the theme song and "The Don Song."

Controversy

In August 2006, on Kay's radio show, Kay and a caller got into an extremely heated argument on whether or not it was "baseball etiquette" to talk about a perfect game on television, dating back to a July 28, 2006 game that Kay called on the YES Network in which Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang took a perfect game into the fifth inning. Kay took offense to the caller's remarks, saying that the "rule" didn't make sense, just like the Holocaust and slavery didn't make sense. The argument between Kay and the caller, "Jimmy", got so heated that Kay called "Jimmy"'s remarks "stupid" and "infantile" and remarked at the end of the call that he had never been as angry as he was at that point. When asked by show engineer Joey Salvia if he believed in "baseball gods," Kay replied, "Sometimes I doubt whether there are any gods the way the world goes."[1] Kay's sporadic appearances since the incident had created speculation that he had been suspended or fired. However, rumors of Kay's departure were put to rest on September 12, 2006, when it was announced on 1050 ESPN that Kay's mother, Rose, had died after a battle with Alzheimers Disease. After the Yankee game on August 21st, Kay did not call another game on YES or WWOR until September 18th, a hiatus of 27 days. During the 2005 season when the Yankees visited the Angels, Kay said on TV that Juan Rivera was the person who had stolen Derek Jeter's glove from Yankee clubhouse where in fact it was Ruben Rivera (Mariano Rivera's cousin). Kay said on the air that Juan Rivera was let go by Yankees due to that incident. Kay tried to apologize to Juan Rivera but it was reported that Juan Rivera didn't even want to talk with him.

Kay also receives substantial criticism from others in the New York sports media because of the perception that his play-by-play work for YES and his talk show on 1050 ESPN Radio conflict with each other. On TV, critics allege that he is less willing to question or criticize players and team officials unless the Yankees approve it. But on the radio side, he allegedly is more objective and open in his opinions.

Kay has suggested that he is unlikely to continue doing both jobs on a long-term basis.

Trivia

• He is the uncle of New York Jet Qb Chad Pennington.
• Like fellow New York area play-by-play announcers Bob Papa and Chris Carrino, he is an alumnus of Fordham University, the school where the legendary Marty Glickman once taught. On January 17, 2007 Michael Kay confirmed rumors of being the captain of the Fordham Chess Club, live on his radio show, The Michael Kay Show (TMKS) on 1050 ESPN radio in New York City. (He denied that he ever played Chess let a lone was the Captin of the team on 1050 ESPN radio in New York City)
• Michael also honed his sports reporting skills while an undergraduate at Fordham as he observed most of his classmates in varsity, club and intramural sports.
• From 1998-2000, Kay provided color commentary for Nintendo 64's All-Star Baseball 1999-2001 with radio personality John Sterling.
• Michael Kay recently changed his middle name from John to Lee because of his affection towards Asian-Americans.
• He once took an IQ test on a dare by fellow YES Network announcer, Paul O'Neill. Kay's test resulted in a score well below the average person's intelligence. It was then realized that Kay had accidentally skipped an entire page of the exam, making the score moot. When approached for a re-take on a mid-2006 show, Kay snapped "I have proven that I am an idiot, and have nothing more to show."
• Former co-anchor, John Sterling, has been up front with his ill feelings for Kay, claiming "working with Michael is one of the most painful things I've had to deal with in the history of John Sterling's career in broadcasting." Kay has been suspiciously and uncharacteristically quiet and abrupt when asked about his feelings towards Sterling.

Links

ESPN Radio Biography