Signs That Things Are Going to Michael Kay’s Oversized and Misshaped Head
June 9, 2010 – For those of our readers outside New York and Japan who may not know, Michael Kay is a New York Yankee television broadcaster and radio host on NYC’s ESPN outlet during prime afternoon commuter time. He was born and raised in the Bronx, educated at Fordham and served as a sportswriter at the New York Post and The Daily News, which led him through a Yankee beat job to an eventual broadcast spot.
On May 23rd, New York Post writer Phil Mushnick, called out Kay in a discreet way for lifting from his column and using the information practically verbatim on his ESPN radio show and not attributing the source. This prompted Kay to launch into a five-minute, over-the-top, ignorant and vicious attack on Mushnick that uncovered Kay’s contention that “he has stuff on [Mushnick] you,” that Mushnick reports from his couch and only attacks “popular people.” He also offered that when Kay dies “more people are going to be sad than happy” but when [Mushnick] dies “more people are going to be happy.” Nice.
The group at Mushnick’s funeral would be led by Michael Kay, a sycophantic, brown-toothed, big-headed (a new teasing point by rotating broadcast partner Paul O’Neill) and overweight misogynist. Next in line would be Kay’s former broadcast partner John Sterling, facelift starved Suzyn Waldman and the whole crew from Bristol, CT. You can probably add Mike Francesa and his former partner Chris Russo, who has apparently fallen off the face of the earth, to that front row.
For a serial self-seeking, servile flatterer and fawning parasite like Kay, taking on one of the best sports media critics in the land marks his step up from a somewhat humble, ‘just delighted to be here doing my dreamjob,’ to “I’m Michael Kay, New York Yankees broadcaster. Soon Kay will be talking about his World Series ring.
To consider himself “popular” is just one of his troubling flaws. Kay was so not missed by viewers during a recent play-by-play stand-in by the YES Network’s studio host, Bob Lorenz. It was like Jim Leyland said of Ernie Harwell a few weeks ago, “he broadcast the game for both teams.” For a change of pace, listeners were treated to how a game should be called, without constant chatter and all the extemporaneous adlibs about how to manage a game, how close he is to players and Joe Girardi, how long the games are, false home run excitement on flies caught at the warning track, and how fawning he is to his broadcast partners by mining stories about their often not-interesting careers. I for one, didn’t miss his disparaging comments about the competition. According to Kay the Yanks would go 163-0 because everybody is their inferior.
Michael Kay’s popularity is dreived from a system where listeners would be there anyway. Ad salespeople could book the time with Joran Van Der Sloot making the calls. Arbitron or whatever measuring device the media buyers use, go by the numbers generated by the subject matter. Guys like Kay and Francesa take those numbers as tributes to themselves. The game or the time period locked in your car will always be the attraction, and whoever is talking is just what “they wrap the ads around” as they like to say on Madison Avenue.
So how entrenched and cocky has Michael Kay become. He has an agent and he’s being paid big money. His ESPN spot leverages his Yankees spot and you have to wonder how long he’d last if he didn’t do the Yanks. He has a limited schedule on YES which either suggests the Yankees are aware that their viewers need a break from him, or he’s gained the power to dictate. Suzyn Waldman represents the model for job security at Yankee Stadium having been involved in various broadcast capacities for over 20 years. Her novelty as a woman has considerable cache when overlooking her many foibles, as does that it is widely held that her selection as part of the Yankee broadcast team was directly due to George Steinbrenner. Kay has similar “homegrown” sentimentality from the Boss and the marketplace for play-by-play men isn’t as brimming as it is for ex-Yankees to rotate in as color men.
But how long will it be before the new regime of Steinbrenners and the cash demands of the Yankee money machine in the Bronx and at YES signify a change? Perhaps Kay will slip up with his penchant to drool over women like he does with his traffic reporters at ESPN and YES talents Kim Jones and Nancy Newman. Although he seems to have calmed down, there’s something about Kay’s 49-year old bachelorhood and his creepy interest and inquiries about the sex exploits of his zoo-like support crew at ESPN that smack of Mel Allen living with his mother all his life.
