Um, OK, I don't like Michael Kay, then, since you put it that way!

Just to change the subject ever so slightly but still stay on topic (the YES Network)...

...there's an article over at ESPN.com about women in baseball, and along with Kelly Calabrese (the Padres' massage therapist), 5 other women prominent in baseball are listed. The YES Network's Suzyn Waldman is listed among the 5. She's the ONLY one who doesn't have a picture alongside her name.

I'm sure just about any Red Sox fan familiar with Google could have supplied ESPN with her picture...

I don't have as big a problem with Kay as many NYY fans do. Yeah he plays the homer buffoon when things are going well but I don't think he's incapable or unwilling of pointing out the team's failing and weaknesses.

As for Orsillo - to me he's just a generic announcer. I liked Sean McDonough much better. Remy is fine but this worship of him like he opens up a whole new understanding of baseball everytime you watch a game is over the top.

I completely agree. I literally yelled at my TV when he laid that gem on me. I passed off the "wind carried fly ball" comment, but this was unbelievable. I absolutely love Jeter as a player and would kill to have him on the Sox, but the guy does argue almost every strike call. If an ump has the nerve to call the corners, viewers are treated to an assortment of head shakes and looks of suprise. He is no different than Ortiz in this respect, or any other player for that matter.

As BBtB said a few posts later, there are worse out there than YES. Of course, I wouldn't expect a Red Sox fan to be more annoyed by Rex Hudler than Michael Kay, if just for the simple fact that Hudler is an Angels' annoncer and Kay is a Yankees' announcer.

I actually went to college with "Mike Kay," worked with him on a newspaper, and knew he pretty well. I can tell you that although Kay never played ball, the players on the Fordham team respected him (he called games on WFUV and wrote articles for the paper where he was sports editor) as a hard worker who was always well prepared to call games. Even then, he was publicly known as "Michael Kay" although he was on an informal basis with many of the players on the athletic teams.

Jamie is right. If you met Kay and spent some time with him, you'd like him. Even athletes who joked about Kay being unathletic did it good naturedly. SO when you hear O'Neill or Leiter bust Kay for being unathletic, believe me, they are just busting him good naturedly. Kay is actually very good friends with O'Neill and Leiter in particular. Indeed, I once bumped into Al Leiter during his playing days and told him I was friendly with Michael Kay in college. Leiter went on and on about what a great guy Kay is.

Kay is a smart guy too. He went to Bronx HS of Science, a distinguished and selective high school, and even went to Fordham on merit scholarship, I believe. A lot of the stuff he says on the air rings true. He really means it when he says he's grateful that you've tuned in to listen to him. He was always that kind of guy in college. He'd offer you his notes if you missed a class, and he was known for helping classmates who needed help for preparing for an exam.

He always had a corny sense of humor and sometimes I just roll my head when I hear some awful joke on the air.

Kay always wanted to be the Yankee broadcaster. We used to joke about that. "There goes the voice of the Yankees," we used to joke. But the guy is living his dream, and God bless him for that.

Some of the gripes about Kay have merit but overall I think he's doing a darn good job.

So what? He sucks eggs on the air, period. What's his off-air personality prove besides his persona is an act to be obnoxious and garner viewers?

The guy just plain sucks on the air. And no, not just because he announces for the Yankees. His calls are awful. 'it is high, it is far, it is gone', for any home run, even a line drive that squeaks over the wall. His corny nicknames like 'the giambino', 'bamtino', and the rest of the awful names, or his stupid 'a belly to belly and a back to back', 'bern baby bern', and other "signature" calls. And of course, worst of all, his 'thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yankees win' call, which he uses whether they win a game 7 world series game, or a 19-3 blowout game.

He is just awful.

You are talking about John Sterling not Kay right?. Who I used to like but now he's becoming annoying. His best quality is he's better then Susan Waldman. I heard a rumor that he called Damon the Damonbino. If it's true he should be made into glue.

Obnoxious? I don't think so. Remember Kay is paid to broadcast games to primarily a Yankee audience. No doubt he expresses home town opinions and I guess if you're a Sox fan that can get under your skin.

But when I'm in Boston and catch a Sox game, I think their broadcasters tend to be homers. But so what? I'm listening to a Boston broadcast. What should I expect? Just because they offer forceful home-town opinions doesn't make them obnoxious.

Every single announcer that has ever existed has at least had a hint of bias toward their team. Kay goes beyond that and is actually obnoxious. Orsillo is not.

no doubt, hubris and incompetence can get under my skin......

in the never ending search for impartiality, home team announcers are working under a handicap because they are almost too familiar with the home town boys.....thus, to the occasional visitor from another team's fandom this familiarity lends itself to homerism....big deal, says i, to be expected but when an announcer openly roots for the team in question then he has breached journalistic integrity (was that an oxymoron?).......and michael kay, imho, falls into the latter category.....

Phillips, Dunn, Freel, and Aurilia, though things have been in flux because of injuries. The Mets were brilliant to unload Kris Benson and his albatross contract, as he demonstrated aptly tonight. Kay is still one of the biggest $%$%$%$% ever. I guess I should have his job.

You're right about Leiter, though. I like his style.

You'd have a better point if I didn't point out that his homer-ism didn't bother me in the slightest- not 5 posts before your response.

He's just an idiot, and one with diarrhea of the mouth, as a play-by-play guy. I'm sorry, but there's not a very compelling argument against this, and I have reams of examples. That, to me, is tremendously obnoxious.

Through the wonders of MLB extra innings, I hear a TON of broadcasters. The absolute bottoms of the barrel are in Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Houston, AL Chicago and... AL New York. If you'd rather write the point off because it's coming from a Red Sox fan, knock yourself out. I can't believe an even slightly informed/ savvy baseball fan having anything but fits with Michael Kay's calling of a game. He's objectively atrocious, his homerism notwithstanding.

I really don't have any desire to debate this point but I suspect you find anyone who dismisses sabermetrics as uninformed and anyone who is forceful about it to be obnoxious. Couple these facts with the fact that Kay is a Yankee homer and your post is not surprising.

But if you want to ponder these things objectively, ponder why Kay is paid (handsomely) to discuss sports -- and baseball in particular -- while you give your thoughts away for free on a message board.

Seriously, if you were being fair and objective, you would give credit to a guy who has worked long and hard to get the job he's always wanted. And you would hear some very valid points Kay makes about the game during his broadcasts -- as well as the good questions he asks his color commentators to answer.

JJ you make some good points. Whether or not Kay is good is a matter of opinion and open for debate. But why JTB does not like Kay is not. He is really the sole authority on this subject. I’ve seen posters whose logic is clouded by their hatred for the Yankees on this site, but they are the exception not the rule. History says JTB is not one of them.

Well, it was the diarhhea of the mouth comment that I don't find appropriate. Kay anchors for the most part a three-man booth. Not only does he do a good job sharing the microphone, he does an excellent job of inviting commentary from his color commentators. Listen and you'll notice. Rarely do the Yankee announcers talk over one another -- even though there's three of them in the booth. That's a credit to Kay because he is the leader in the booth and is responsible for controlling the conversation.

Second, JTB has to remember that not everyone is as familiar with the game as he is. Kay is calling the game for experienced viewers, but he is also calling the game for people who aren't as familiar with the game, and people like my son who are just learning the game. Much of what JTB finds boring, repetitive and uninformative is fresh, new, and informative to my son. Michael Kay does a good job in explaining things we take for granted to new fans like my son.

In 2004, Kay frequently called the Yankees' relief tandem "QuanGorMo" (for Quantrill, Gordon and Mo Rivera) and called it a "three-way monster" waiting in the Yankee bullpen. Many fans hated it, but the little viewers loved it. My son would run around the house pretending he was "QuanGorMo."

His contention (correct, I think) that Derek Jeter was arguably the best player in baseball in 1999-2000 proves this.

What I don't like about Kay exactly corresponds to the YES Network's tiring (to us non-fans) hyper-glorification of Yankee greatness. He seems to abdicate his role as play-by-play man in order to launch into two-inning-long superlative-laden dissertations about veteran Yankees, or about the "winning attitude" or "tradition" or other such stuff. He also seems unwilling or incapable of providing any interesting detail about the Yankees' opponents -- this giving the impression that the rest of the league's clubs are mere sparring partners for the Pinstriped Juggernaut. When he does make a comment, it's usually an obvious or poorly-informed cliche (a shot at Manny's lack of hustle, or something about Ortiz's popularity).

He reached the nadir last season when, in commenting about the Red Sox putting Manny on waivers (and finding "no takers"), he said, "Can you imagine what would happen if the Yankees put Jeter on waivers? He'd be gone instantly. He wouldn't last a second." At this point I yelled at the TV, "WITH THAT CONTRACT? ARE YOU STUPID??!?"

I wouldn't even mind an occasional look back further into Yankee history: How does Posada compare with Munson? With Berra? What separated the DiMaggio brothers in terms of their play? What if the rumored Ted-for-Joe trade had happened? Why did the Red Sox REALLY get rid of Babe Ruth (and "to finance a musical" would be exactly the poorly-informed cliche I would expect from Kay)? But Kay's memory extends as far back as (maybe) 1978, and he appears to have learned nothing from 2004.

In this vein I much prefer John Sterling, who (perhaps because he's a radio guy who has no video feed to help his viewers) generally stays involved with the action on the field and ALWAYS has background information on the other team.

For Kay defenders, this is part of an article from the September 21, 2004 edition of the NY Daily News:



Proof he is not just a "Yankee-homer", but a jack-ass as well.

Yeah, he does, but I find his brand of homerism... and that ridiculous "Thuh Yankeeees Winnnnn" chest-thump at the end of games... to be incredibly disconcerting.

Kay betrays a dislike for the Red Sox, indeed, and he does poke at other organizations, and he stays on his rants too long. Sterling doesn't really even attempt to hide his homerism, in my opinion. What do you think? I listen to Kay far more than Sterling, obviously.

Obviously, that he criticized Francona for a mid-game interview with FOX at a time the Sox were losing 9-0 bothered you far more than it bothered me. I remember the game and the comment. I thought he was over-the-top with that comment but didn't really give it much thought thereafter. I mean, who really cares if Francona took time to do the FOX interview?

I said I didn't want to get into an extended discussion over this. From your perspectives, I readily grasp why Kay gets under your skin. I jumped in here because someone questioned why Kay even has his Yankee gig. The point I was trying to make is that even though he never played the game, he has worked long and hard to get where he is. And he deserves some props for that. The kid who played right field for two innings in the paper-The Ram softball games at Fordham has become the Voice of the Yankees. He worked his tail off to get the job he wanted.

I'll never forget the time that Kay started ranting about Juan Rivera stealing Jeter's glove and being kicked off the Yanks as a result. He must have spent an entire half inning retelling the story and saying how stupid it was of Rivera to steal when anyone would have given him the money instead. During the break someone must of told Kay that it was Ruben Rivera who stole the glove and not Juan. Kay very casually mentions that he made a mistake and dropped the issue entirely after a brief correction.

I have to listen to these fu*kers tonite. Here is to at least getting Al Lieter to make it somewhat watchable.

I don't mind Kay, except when he does Sox games.

When I'm forced to watch YES for Sox games... as I now am because of where I now live... (MLB.tv will be blacked out, so no chance for NESN)... I watch it without the sound until we're leading. Then, of course I love to hear his deflation, and I crank it up.

His call of Papi's three-run blast in the Fenway game was priceless. Like someone here said, he called it as if it were a high pop-fly to mid-center. The "See ya!" was more of a "see ya."

Maybe he should be on the cartoon network then.

If not for his desire to fellate anything in pinstripes, (including Steinbrenner) he wouldn't have a job. That also applies to Sterling, Waldman, Justice, Kaat, Murcer, and Singleton as well. There is no objectivity anywhere in a MFY broadcast. Someone else hit the nail on the head in this thread when they mentioned a YES broadcast being like a Harlem Globetrotters game, and the other team just happens to be on the field. Unless you are a Yankee fan, YES is unbearable.

I don't really find the Sox announcers to be all that objective, either. I don't know radio, as I haven't heard the Sox on the radio since the Ken Coleman era, but on NESN, they're certainly obvious in their sympathies.

"Obvious in their sympathies" is fine. I would expect as much from every local broadcast team in the country.

When it comes to acknowledging general strengths of, or specific good plays by opponents, though, I'd say Don & Jerry a bit more generous than I can recall hearing on any of the YES broadcasts I've been stuck with. By and large, it seems as though praise for non-Yankees from Kay & Co. comes only grudgingly, faintly, and/or with a backhanded insult as part of the equation.

It is clear to me, Jim, that you, since your "big break" as a promo caller on Kay's show, are in the business of Michael Kay-lovin'. I checked with my wife, and she says in her (limited) experience, gargling with Pepsi afterward gets the taste out of the mouth quicker.

As for the Yankees' TV broacasters, I find Kay by far the worst of the bunch. I, too, would expect them to get more excited over the Yankees fortunes, but generally, I look for broadcasters to have some basic objectivity for calling a game that doesn't try to minimize or downplay any success the other team has. The Kay call of the Ortiz homer is a perfect example. That ball was a moonshot that was muscled deep into the night through a gale-force wind, and to have a flat call of that moment -- no matter where your rooting interests lie -- is disingenuous, insulting to any viewer's intelligence, and completely devoid of the perspective.

I completely disagree. Not that I mind homerism either way, but NESN broadcasters, in my experience, are among the most objective in baseball. That's been my observation. I don't think that makes them better/ worse/ whatever, but there's no comparison in homerism between the two. Not even close.

What am I gonna do, argue? You're f'in right.

OK, yeah, I trysted verbally via cellular on a cold March night with the gutteral Michael Kay, and on that night, his gentlemanly deference toward my bombastic opinions catalyzed a latent potential of hyperkinetic proportions within my cerebral cortex into a full-on man-love.

Either that, or I kinda felt like the promo was a back-door ass-kiss of Red Sox fans in New York City. "Sox fans! Listen here! (1050 ESPN Radio)"

What's better than a back-door ass-kiss?

/drops thesaurus.

Last night I heard a little of both... and I actually found myself not hating Kay. He was unusually subdued (possibly a consequence of the game's outcome) and let the other guys talk. Kaat made an excellent comment about shaking off the catcher's signs: "You never see 'winning catcher' in the newspaper the next day."

They also came up with a rare salvo of praise for Manny as a smart hitter who does his homework.

Of course, the Yankee errors were all the result of the wind, or undetectable "bad hops." But in general, I thought the three of them did a pretty good job of keeping the game interesting, especially for their Yankee fan viewership who would probably rather have been watching "Idol" by the fifth inning.

I don't get the YES network, but I listen to Sterling on the radio quite a bit. (We get both the Sox and the Yankees up here in northwest VT.) The Yankee propaganda machine exists through the radio, too...

I feel the need to elaborate a bit about John Sterling...



Isn't he just amazing? The "The-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e Yankees Win" superiority proclamation, the mindless Jeter deification, the total disregard for anyone else's opinion (read: talking over and blatantly ignoring Suzyn Waldman, a former BLOHARD by the way), the ridiculously hackneyed home run calls- Alexander the Great Conquers Again!, An A-Bomb from A-Rod!, The Giambino!, Jorgie Juices One!, Another Thrilla' from Godzilla! They're the exact same call every time. It's like he's trying to live out his own highlight reel. He misses calls all the time. When the Yankees are getting blown out he calls it like he's doing TV- no description, not really keeping up with the action, nothing. When he narrates his own highlights at the end of the game it's like he's trying to read the cues off of post-it notes stuck to the side of his coffee mug- misintroductions, inaccurate situational statements, etc. Ugh, the list goes on.

The point of this rant? I urge everyone to listen to Yankees Radio a couple times. Maybe not the Sox games (except for the innings where the Yankees completely fall apart with, say, a couple walks, an error, a wild pitch..) but listen to a few Yankees-Royals games or Yankees-Jays games. You'll appreciate the professional approach of Joe and Jerry. You'll appreciate being a Sox fan. For the most part, Yankees fans buy all that crap he puts out there. It's no wonder that there are millions of people in NY that think that Aaron Small just needs to "right himself" this year to regain his 2005 form. Or that defensively, Derek Jeter coulda taught Ozzie Smith a thing or two.

As a broadcaster, you can be a homer while maintaining objectivity. Remy does that well. Castiglione does that alright if you take the average of his giddy optimism and his I'm-going-to-hang-myself-the-Red-Sox-will-never-win bipolar thing. But Sterling is just fiction. It's Yankee-foil wrapped garbage. It's a disservice to baseball. Entertaining though, if you're the type that likes to stare at people with disabilities...

Honestly, I was pretty impressed with Kay and Company last night. Even before the game was a blowout, Kay was talking about Beckett's dominance back in 2003, disagreed with Bernie arguing the 1st K, agreed that Manny and Ortiz were both safe on close plays on the bases, etc.. Later on in the game, the whole group got pretty animated for Manny's solo HR and for Pena's nice catch on the Jeter line drive in the 8th.

Last night's Player of the Game: Josh Beckett.

It sends to me likeyour jealous because you live in Vermont and not NYC. Don't take it out on John Sterling. He's colorful, and he's a homer. I just guess his act doesn't play in the sticks.

As for Aaron Small, I know a lot of fellow die-hard Yankee fans. I don't think anyone is expecting that much from him this year.

Stretching out "Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" strikes me as incredibly unimaginative. Then again, I also think Castiglione sometimes sounds bored by the game, and Remy typically sounds like he's half in the bag by the fifth inning.

Oddly enough, the broadcasting duo I've found to be most enjoyable is the Nationals' duo of Dave Jageler and Charlie Slowes.

That might be the dumbest post ever.

Don't get me wrong, Vermont is a pretty place. I just sensed a little bit of jealousy in his post, that's all.

Should you watch the Sopranos if you are 8 years old? The answer is NO.

It doesn't mean that the Sopranos isn't a fine show, it's just not geared towards an 8 year old audience.

The John Sterling audience is NOT geared towards the Vermont/Red Sox (8 year old ) audience.

Just because your team got embarrassed lat night is no excuse to start trolling here.

Just because you can't win an argument, don't get nasty. There's just no need for that on this board.

you claim calling red sox fans 8 year olds is winning an argument?.....that's rich....

Shouldn't that be Giambi Juices One?

No, I was making an analogy.

In a nutshell, broadcasting is subjective. Some people love Sterling, some people hate him.

Yes, but it was poorly presented. That was the problem. I'll buy your making an analogy argument, but you can see where your writing makes it look like you were reffering to Sox fans/VT residents as 8 year olds, especially after your response earlier.

You should have said, John Sterling (Sopranos) isn't for the VT/Red Sox (8 year old) crowd - but, you're a Yankee fan, so I can understand where you'd miss that. (kidding, of course.) I know how we all get when we watch a game like the one yesterday - the Sox have been on the receiving end of those, so I know how it feels.

NYY fan or no, he's right. Let's not turn the thread into a flame war. Thanks.

Charlie Slowes is another Fordham guy I knew back in the day. Slowes, in fact, was Kay's successor as sports editor at what was called "the paper" (from January '82 until January '83). They were pretty tight. Slowes is a great guy with an incredible & professional voice. Another WFUV alum who got his start calling Fordham baseball.



Just one?

I just sat through my first Sterling broadcast because it was the audio feed for MLB.tv. Truly awful. You hit the nail on the head. The Jeter ball-washing was out of control. Then he starts wondering at the end of the game why many Sox fans would prefer to see Papelbon in the rotation. Meanwhile Paps is standing right in front of him, throwing meaningless innings in a game that was already out of reach. He said something to the tune of, "Closer must be the most important thing for a pitcher to do, because that's what Rivera does, and I'm asking him to be my prom date after the broadcast." The guy is the darn commentator for the MFY and he doesn't even remember that Rivera was a bust as a starter before he got sent to the pen.

NESN's "Voice of the Fan" with former GE CEO Jack Welch was very enlightening last night. Who's idea was that? Charles Steinberg?

Let's hope YES doesn't follow suit and bring in Donald Trump for some incisive Yankees commentary.

I'd have to agree that that segment is total crap. Why do I care what Jack Welch thinks about baseball?

If you keep listening to him you'll hear the word "Jeterian".

Jeterian (adj.) 1. a general descriptor for anything that Derek Jeter does, particularly a single to right field 2. like, or as if, a Man-God

(used in context... Sterling: Oh, there it is again! That Jeterian, inside-out swing! Isn't he just amazing! Suzyn: Oh John, he's just dreamy. Derek Jeter.... mmm-mmm... Where were you 30 years ago?! Sterling: Suzyn, couldja wipe that up for me, thanks.)

It's incredibly silly and I doubt it lasts much longer. Perhaps LL was having cocktails with Welch and he suddenly had a brainstorm...

Anything that takes away from Ecks' airtime is a bad idea. Come to think of it why not just tell Jim Ed and Gary D that their services are no longer required.