New York Yankees Announcer Michael Kay Lacks Maturity at His Job
May 24, 2010 · Leslie Monteiro · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Bob Raissman and Phil Mushnick write about sports media for the New York Daily News and the New York Post respectively. When their papers publish their columns, it’s a must-read.
Those two are not afraid to savage any media personality. They point out their stupidity on the airwaves.
Michael Kay is a fixture on those columns. No one can go through a week without reading a criticism of Kay in the paper.
Kay deserves it. He brings this all on himself.
The Yankees announcer is terrible at what he does. It’s amazing he has been doing TV play-by-play since 2002 yet he is not getting better at all.
He has no idea how the game is played. He loses track on the play too often. He does not know if the ball is going to be gone or not. He rarely adds any analysis, and he does not make his analysts better.
Like John Sterling, he is more into doing catchphrases and loving the sound of his voice rather than calling a good game.
He is poorly prepared when he does the games. For example, he wondered why the Rays were bunting along with stealing bases in a game last week. What he does not realize is the Yankees are capable of coming back at anytime. It’s hard to blame the Rays for their approach.
That’s how the Rays play the game. This is something an announcer should be knowing. It’s called doing research, but that’s not how Kay does his job.
Kay’s strength is to start something up and ripping people on the air. It’s been his shtick for years, and it is tiresome.
He likes to take shot at teams. He often rips the Red Sox, Mets, Rays, or any other successful team. He criticizes Joe Maddon, Ron Gardenhire, Terry Francona, Joe Torre, and other managers. He makes fun of people too.
This is a guy that picks fight with another regional sports network in town. Last month, he ripped SNY for doing a call-in show in a middle of a game. Only he knows why he sense the need to do that.
How does this writer know all this? It’s because Mushnick and Raissman mentioned this.
It’s time for Kay to grow up and start getting better at his job. He shouldn’t be resorting to this. His job is to describe the game and let the analysts do the talking.
If anything, Kay does most of the talking. Not one Yankee analyst can get a word in.
It would be nice if he stopped acting like a shill. He mentioned the litany of injuries to reason why the Yankees are struggling. It sounds convenient, but the Yankees’ pitching is still good enough to win games on their own, which is what Raissman pointed out Sunday.
Plus, it’s pathetic when an announcer has to whine about injuries on the air.
One wonders what Kay ever done to earn a job as an announcer. He wasn’t special on the radio back in the day.
He said lot of stuff that resembled junk on the radio. It worked well for him since he worked with John Sterling, who did the play-by-play.
On TV, it does not work well, period. One would think Kay would work hard to get better at his craft, but he shows no inclination to do so.
It’s a joke the YES Network insists on having him to do the games, but it shows lack of credibility of the network and the Yankees.
Kay will always suck up to the Yankees at every opportunity. In that regard, the network and the organization will continue to enable him.
Baseball fans deserve better than this. For this viewer, I cringe watching the Yankees game on television. I try to put them on mute, but it’s hard to watch a baseball game on mute.
Why should pressing the mute be an option? Baseball is meant to be listened not hearing in silence.
An announcer should know how to paint the picture well. It’s similar to what a sportswriter has to do in presenting his or her thoughts.
Kay does not mirror those things. All he does is speak nonsense and treat viewers as if they are stupid.
When is enough is enough? When does YES hold him accountable?
Yankees fans love it when their announcers say nothing but good things about their favorite team. With that said, they can’t stand Kay. It’s hard to come up with one Yankees fan that like the guy.
It’s an indictment of how bad he is as an announcer and a human being.
He should be ashamed of himself for what he is. One figure he would have some sort of pride and start working.
That’s not how he is though. He can care less. He is making money. He has a dream job that people wish they had. He is not afraid to rub it in and tell people he has a better job than others.
Maybe he is inspired to do that because he was picked on a lot as a kid.
With that anal voice of his and the way he looks, he was probably picked on.
It’s just sad he has to resort to stupidity. He can be a better announcer if he wants to be.
What a shame!
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