Michael Kay (born February 2, 1961) is an American sports broadcaster who is the television

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

broadcaster of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

and host of ''CenterStage'' on the

YES Network The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (YES) is an American pay television regional sports network owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (which owns 20%), ...

, and the host of ''

The Michael Kay Show ''The Michael Kay Show'' is a sports radio talk show airing on the New York City radio station WEPN-FM 98.7 ESPN New York. It is hosted by New York Yankees television play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay, New York Rangers pre and post-game radio ...

'' heard on

WEPN-FM WEPN-FM (98.7 MHz) branded as ''ESPN New York'', is an all-sports radio station licensed to New York City. The station is owned by Emmis Communications and its operations are controlled by Good Karma Brands, under a local marketing agreeme ...

in New York City (which began being

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

on the YES Network in February 2014) and

ESPN Xtra ESPN Xtra is a satellite radio station that carries sports talk programming produced by ESPN. The channel was originally on XM 141, but is now broadcast on Sirius XM Radio channel 81. In February 2008, three shows from local ESPN Radio owned- ...

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its se ...

Early life and education

Kay was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. A fan of the Yankees, Kay wore number 1 in

Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationBobby Murcer. Wanting to be the Yankees announcer when he grew up, he did all the school reports that he could about the Yankees, so he could know all about them. Kay began reporting as a youth at the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Sp ...

and then at Fordham University for

WFUV WFUV (90.7 FM) is a non–commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Fordham University, with studios on its Bronx campus and its antenna atop nearby Montefiore Medical Center. WFUV first went on the air i ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

from Fordham.

Broadcasting career

Kay started his professional career with the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' in 1982 as a general assignment writer, with sports-specific assignments to college basketball, the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

and the

New Jersey Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

happening over time. He received the writing assignment covering the Yankees in 1987. In 1989, Kay left the ''Post'' for the '' Daily News,'' still primarily covering the Yankees. Kay also served as the

Madison Square Garden Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provid ...

Yankee reporter starting in 1989. In 1992–99, he was MSG's locker room reporter for the New York Knicks. He had previously worked for the network as a contributor on the news-format sports show ''MSG SportsDesk''. Kay left the ''Daily News'' to host a sports talk show on WABC in 1992, briefly returning to write "Kay's Korner" for the ''Daily News'' in 1993, before taking a job doing radio broadcasts of New York Yankee games with John Sterling. Kay also worked as a reporter for

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

in the late 1990s.

Announcer for the New York Yankees (1992–present)

Michael Kay, Paul O'Neill, Ken Singleton in broadcast booth

Kay spent a decade partnered with Sterling as the radio announcers of the team on WABC from 1992 to 2001."YES Network announcer bio"
yesnetwork.com; accessed March 28, 2018. Kay and Sterling also paired together in 1998 for ''Sports Talk with John Sterling and Michael Kay,'' a nightly radio show which aired on WABC. During the baseball season, the duo hosted ''Yankee Talk,'' a weekend pre-game radio show. From 1992 to 1993 Kay hosted his own show on WABC. Kay continued during that time as a spot reporter on ABC Radio, doing off-season shows with Sterling and as a fill-in sports reporter on

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neig ...

. When ESPN Radio began leasing (and later purchasing) WEVD radio in 2001, Kay was chosen to host a daily radio show on the newly rechristened "1050 ESPN Radio". When WCBS acquired the radio rights to the Yankees broadcasts in 2002, Kay moved to the debuting

on television and Sterling remained on the radio. Kay has been the Yankees' lead television play-by-play announcer ever since. Kay has worked with a series of partners on YES, often with three or four different partners in the same season. Most have been former professional players, including Ken Singleton,

David Cone David Brian Cone (born January 2, 1963) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher, and current color commentator for the New York Yankees on the YES Network and WPIX as well as for ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball.Al Leiter Alois Terry Leiter (; born October 23, 1965) is an American former professional baseball player and current television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from to for the New York Yankees, Toronto Blu ...

, Paul O'Neill,

Jim Kaat James Lee Kaat (; born November 7, 1938) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a left-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins (–), ...

, John Flaherty,

Joe Girardi Joseph Elliott Girardi (born October 14, 1964) is an American former professional baseball player and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Girardi played the catcher position for the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, and S ...

Lou Piniella Louis Victor Piniella ( usually ; born August 28, 1943) is a former professional baseball player and manager. An outfielder, he played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and ...

, and Bobby Murcer. Kay calls about 125 games a year for the

and

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

(the Prime games were formerly broadcast in the Yankees' territory by a network led by

WPIX-TV WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of The CW ...

). In 2008, Major League Baseball invited Kay to call the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium during that year's All Star festivities. On September 21, 2008, he joined

Jon Miller Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997 he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball annou ...

and

Joe Morgan Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, ...

to call the seventh inning of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

's broadcast of the final home game at

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

against the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

. According to Miller, Kay was brought in because ESPN felt that they should include the local aspects of broadcasting for the Yankees for this special game, as the

was not allowed to cover the game. Michael Kay World Series parade

Since the late 1990s, Kay and Sterling have co- emceed such events as the Yankees' annual

Old-Timers' Day Old-Timers' Day (or Old-Timers' Game) refers to a tradition in Major League Baseball where a team devotes the early afternoon preceding a weekend game to honor retired players who played for the organization during their careers. The retired play ...

ceremony as well as players' number retirements, anniversary celebrations for the team's World Series victories, and the City Hall celebrations after Yankees'

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

victories.

Other announcing work

Kay and Sterling also provided play-by-play commentary for

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

's '' All-Star Baseball'' video games from 1999 to 2001. In addition to his Yankees work, Kay has called play-by-play of several postseason games on ESPN Radio, including the 2008 NLDS between the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers, the 2013 ALDS between the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics, and Game 3 of the

2016 ALDS The 2016 American League Division Series (ALDS) were two best-of-five game series to determine the participating teams in the 2016 American League Championship Series of Major League Baseball. The three divisional winners (seeded 1-3) and the wi ...

between the Texas Rangers and

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

. In January 2022,

hired Kay and

Alex Rodriguez Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975), nicknamed "A-Rod", is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman, businessman and philanthropist. Rodriguez played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the ...

to broadcast an alternate '' Sunday Night Baseball'' broadcast on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

, similar to the critically acclaimed "

Manningcast ''Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli'', colloquially known as the ''Manningcast'', is an alternate live television broadcast of ''Monday Night Football'' hosted by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. It is produced by Peyton's production com ...

" for ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...

''.

''The Michael Kay Show''

In 2002, he began hosting a drive-time talk show on WEPN (the former WEVD). That same year he began hosting the YES Network's ''CenterStage'', a sports and entertainment interview-format show. During past baseball seasons, Kay frequently broadcast live from the vicinity of the stadium that the Yankees were playing in that evening (his contractual exclusivity prohibited him from hosting the show from inside

). This is no longer the case. From 2009 until 2011, the 6:00 hour had been co-titled ''New York Baseball Tonight'' throughout the baseball season. Kay did not usually appear during that hour if he was broadcasting a Yankee game that evening. Don La Greca often hosted this segment and appeared with Kay on the rest of ''The Michael Kay Show''. When Kay is on the air for the end of his program, he usually signs off with the following: "In the words of Billy Joel, life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, and I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again," before promoting the following program. Kay opened his first ever simulcast on the

on February 3, 2014, by dumping a bottle of

Diet Coke Diet Coke (also branded as Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Diet or Coca-Cola Light Taste) is a sugar-free and low-calorie soft drink produced and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. It contains artificial sweeteners instead of sugar. Unveiled on ...

into the garbage, a move meant to poke fun of the channel's former occupant

Mike Francesa Michael Patrick Francesa (born March 20, 1954) is an American sports-radio talk-show host. Together with Chris Russo, he launched ''Mike and the Mad Dog'' in 1989 on WFAN in New York City, which ran until 2008 and is one of the most successful s ...

. The canned action was widely criticized.

Awards

In 2003, he was added to the Bronx Walk of Fame. In 2007, Kay was nominated for a number of New York Emmy Awards for his work with the YES Network, both for Yankees broadcasts and for his highly rated interview program ''Centerstage''. Kay won one New York Emmy for his work on the YES Network as part of the team of the NYY broadcast: New York Yankees Baseball "Manny vs. NY – Yankees/Red Sox- 5/24/06." (YES Network). In 1998, Kay was on the MSG team that won an Emmy for ''Outstanding Live Sports Coverage—Series''. In 1996 and 1997 he was a member of the MSG team that won Emmys for ''Outstanding Live Sports Coverage—Single Program'' for

Dwight Gooden Dwight Eugene Gooden (born November 16, 1964), nicknamed "Dr. K" and "Doc", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Gooden pitched from 1984 to 1994 and from 1996 to 2000 for the N ...

's no-hitter and ''The Battle for New York: Yankees vs. Mets'', and he was awarded the ''Dick Young Award for Excellence in Sports Media'' by the New York Pro Baseball Scouts in 1995, and the award for Best Sports Reporter at the 2000 New York Metro Achievement in Radio Awards.

Personal life

Kay married television journalist

Jodi Applegate Jodi Applegate (born May 2, 1964)"Anchor Jodi Applegate Shares a ...

on February 12, 2011, with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani officiating. Guests included former Yankees such as

Al Leiter Alois Terry Leiter (; born October 23, 1965) is an American former professional baseball player and current television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from to for the New York Yankees, Toronto Blu ...

Tino Martinez Constantino "Tino" Martinez (born December 7, 1967) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 1990 t ...

, Paul O'Neill, actor Robert De Niro, actor Bobby Cannavale,

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

, and actor/uncle Danny Aiello. The couple have two children: a daughter, Caledonia, born in 2013 and a son, Charles, born in 2014. He and his family reside in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...

. Michael is an avid fan of the Flintstones and The Odd Couple. On July 3, 2019, Kay announced that he would undergo vocal cord surgery, keeping him out of the broadcasting booth from early July until late August. Kay returned to the booth on August 17, and returned to his radio show on August 26.

References

External links

*
ESPN Radio Biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Michael Living people American sports radio personalities American television sports announcers The Bronx High School of Science alumni New York Yankees announcers Fordham University alumni Sportspeople from the Bronx YES Network Sportswriters from New York (state) WFUV people American people of Irish descent American sportspeople of Italian descent American people of Italian descent 1961 births