June 19, 2006

I Heard That, Michael Kay

Great moment in broadcasting during Monday night's Yankees-Phils game: Before the top of the 5th inning, Bob Lorenz took it out of commercial from the YES Network studio with an update on the Red Sox-Nationals game. At the end of his update, which finished "so the Red Sox lead it right now 4-3," the Yes camera cut from the Sox highlight to a crowd shot in Philly. After a moment's silence, the following exchange took place between Yankees announcers Ken Singleton and Michael Kay (transcribed after several rewinds on the DVR):

Singleton: "I'm surprised John Moore's showing, yeah."
Kay: "He's not, he'll be off that shit."

A moment later, Kay went back into announcer mode, saying, "Back here in the top of the fifth inning, Johnny Damon leads off and the pitch is a strike."

Whoops -- looks like someone left Michael Kay's mic open. I wonder how many people out there noticed this. It was actually pretty quick and kind of quiet; they were talking in a conversational tone, not booming announcer voices, and I was pretty sure I heard an "S" bomb in there the first time I heard it but without the magic of DVR I never would have been able to confirm it.

Being the investigative and journalistic genius that I am, I called up one of my people on the inside (or more truthfully, I did a quick Google search) and confirmed that there is a John Moore who won a New York Emmy award as a director for YES (do a CTRL+F once you get to the document and you'll find his name).

So, it follows that if Moore was directing the game, Ken Singleton must have been saying to Michael Kay that he was surprised Moore was showing a particular shot, to which Kay responded he'd be "off that shit," meaning Moore would switch to a different shot before they went on air.

Is this the kind of thing Michael Kay or someone at the YES Network will get in trouble for, or did no one else really notice?

If Kay does get disciplined or fired, I think it's only logical that I get his job.

19 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

MIchael Kay went on a tirade accusing Juan Rivera of stealing Derek Jeter's glove and selling it last year. He thinks all latinos are the same, and he got busted cold for that and apologized on air. It will take a lot more than this to get that dooshbag off the air.

10:14 PM, June 19, 2006  
Blogger jimmyrad said...

Im' in Houston and have no idea who this guy is, but I'm kind of interested now.

Kind of like when I heard a few years back how literally everyone in Chicago hated Chip Carey. It caught me off-guard, but got me interested.

By the way, was the shot of hot chick, like many crowd shots? If so, Kay is clearly a horn dog and Moore clearly doens't show enough boobie during the broadcast. I'd be with Kay, if that were the case.

11:02 PM, June 19, 2006  
Blogger Filthy Fowl said...

Michael Kay won't go anywhere because the YES Network will never find a bigger homer to replace him with. I think he has a direct line to Big Stein's el grande pooper.

1:53 PM, June 20, 2006  
Blogger Lisa Ann said...

I can only hope that f***ing asshole gets fired. I hate him. HATE. He is such a pompous know it all doofus. Ugh. He is the reason they invented the mute button.

2:49 PM, June 20, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

fithy fowl, two words: Hawk Harrelson. Biggest homer ever (good guys win) and an atrociously bad announcer. Kay is a gem compared to him.

3:06 PM, June 20, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kay is only a gem if you could somehow magically crush a poop into a diamond.

4:42 PM, June 20, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hate to ruin all of the fun, but I TiVo'd the moment as well and it was clear that he said, "He'll be off that SHOT". If you think about it, that makes more sense than cursing as you about to return to a live broadcast. There are plenty of other reasons to dislike Michael Kay, but this isn't one of them.

5:32 PM, June 20, 2006  
Blogger Jeff Gray said...

Matt, you're now breaking news. You're a phenomenon.

5:41 PM, June 20, 2006  
Blogger The OCC said...

You need to listen more closely, Anonymous (if that is your real name) -- I too considered the possibility of him saying "shot," which is why I listened to it about 10 times, but it's pretty clearly a "shit." Unless he somehow pronounces "shot" with an "it" sound at the end.

I agree that saying "shot" would make more sense than saying "shit" when going back to a live broadcast, but the whole point is that he doesn't know he's on the air.

Just listened about 8 more times and if he didn't say "shit," he said a four letter word that rhymes with it and is spelled the same way.

7:57 PM, June 20, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not surprizing about Michael Kay. Apparently there is some satellite option in which you get the actual feed from the stadium, not whichever network is carrying the game. In this case, there are no commercials, so in between innings you get the announcers "off-air" banter. From what I've heard, the camera men scan the crowd for hot babes, and Kay provides his commentary. This fits with the story related by the OCC.

8:09 PM, June 23, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just outright cannot stand Michael Kay's voice, he's extremely annoying and negative.
Please tell that an organization like the NY Yankees can do better than Michael Kay.
PS I really dislike Susyn Waldman.

9:35 PM, July 05, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't mind Kay too much, just wanted to throw in my two cents on Waldman. Everytime I hear her voice I want kill the nearest living thinkg, she's the biggest worthless annoying piece of shit. David Justice is probably the stupidest ANNOUNCER though. He says more obvious things than John Madden, and has the worst accent to accompany it.

2:26 AM, August 06, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What about Michael Kay's sexuality. I think he is another Mel Allen - a private gay. Anyone else out there know about his private life? nfvpgjikl

6:26 PM, September 30, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a huge Yankee fan since I was young and I can't stand listening to Michael Kay talk during the games I love to watch. We need alternate audio on YES. I do enjoy the games Michael Kay can't get to for what ever reason. Most of the time I have to mute the audio and listen to music while I watch the game.
Anyone else feel this way?

2:18 AM, April 11, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah Michael Kay is a BONEHEAD!!!

2:20 AM, April 11, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You know its bad when John Sterling comes across as an objective announcer, as compared to Kay. He just sucks.

1:51 PM, April 14, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Michael Kay is an outdated nasal dork who shouldn't be broadcasting Little League games. George, if you're reading this, most of Yankee Nation hates him.

12:15 AM, August 08, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

He just got married-but so did many other in the closet gays. He's a gay Bronx boy and a bottom.

7:24 AM, November 04, 2012  
Blogger Unknown said...

I have heard a ton of Michael Kay's YES Show during the day. The show is half gossiping and arguing and bullying the sidekicks such as Ruocco, Rosenberg and Rothenberg, who are all less informed than Michael Kay and Don. The other half of the show is ALL HYPOTHETICAL CONVERSATIONS. Mike Francesca as arrogant as he is, his ENTIRE SHOW IS FACTS, and he knows his stuff. Michael Kay and Don LaGreca both start every opinion with "What if he was to do this? What would you think about that? Then mix in a semi-opinion, then back to another hypothetical, "What if he would have done this!!" Just STATE YOUR OPINIONS and don't worry if the YES network fires you. Don LaGreca just rants and raves and drones on for 5 minutes finding exhaustingly-long ways to say simple things.

The biggest problem with Michael Kay is that he is so overly loyal and subservient to the Yankees that his entire being is devoted to them, and within minutes, his talk always inevitably comes back to "The Yankees" no matter what. As a Yankee announcer, Kay says the word "Yankee" literally every 5-10 seconds, even when it is not needed. I can understand when he has to read promos but he incessantly uses the word Yankees CONSTANTLY which YES loves.

He spends soooo much time promoting and building up the Yankees organization in a million ways. His entire being is focused on "Don't screw up my Yankees thing" His YES show and CenterStage both are super-focused on the Yankees REGARDLESS of whether or not it is a Yankee network. Every single thing Kay does, says, thinks, feels, is all YANKEES. All he is, when you break it down, is just a pawn in promoting the Yankees, despite him denying this on-air.

His show is not the worst out there, but it is only mainly good for gossip and light sports-talk. There are wayyy better sports talk shows around with hosts who have an ACTUAL OPINION, unlike Michael and Don and their clueless sidekicks they cycle through. Without the Yankees needing Kay as a YANKEE PROMOTER to BUILD HYPE, God knows where Michael Kay would be, and I doubt he would have any legitimate sports talk show. EVERY SINGLE SPORTS TALK HOST on NY1 which probably pays nothing, are wayyyy more knowledgable about sports than anyone on Michael Kay show.

I have nothing against Michael Kay and find some of his thoughts on life interesting, but I don't need to hear Yankees hype come out of his mouth every 10 seconds and it would help if he had an ACTUAL OPINION on something once in a while. He can't have an opinion because he is too afraid to be fired by the Yankees, which would mean, every gig he has. He works hard but he also is clueless about sports compared to most hosts on WFAN, NY1, FSNY, etc.

And all his supposed opinions or criticisms of Yankees players, managers, coaches, etc. are ONLY WAYS to blind people to the fact that his bread and butter is PROMOTE YANKEES PROMOTE YANKEES. So many people more deserving of his job, money and career. Michael Kay HIMSELF is average or slightly below-average on his own, and his sports knowledge is not even as good as any NY1 hosts. Kay deserves the type of talk show Russ Salsberg had on channel 9 or 11 all those years ago, brief and in a small market. 5 hours of Michael Kay plus 125 Yankee games plus Center Stage with his idiotic questions is ABSURD.

1:36 AM, April 17, 2016  

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