Curt Schilling doesn’t like the way Michael Kay called Aaron Judge’s 61st home run in Toronto on Wednesday night. He expressed his displeasure with the way that Kay didn’t allow the moment to “breathe” as Judge rounded the bases.
Michael Kay was in charge of the Yankees booth when Judged hit the homer to tie with Roger Maris’ 1961 record.
When Schilling was a guest on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich,” he talked about his disagreement with the way Michael Kay announced the historic home run. The former pitcher and six-time All-Star told:
“I just wanted to see and feel the moment. I didn’t need Michael Kay to explain to me that he just hit his 61st home run and that it was more than anybody since Roger Maris. We all knew it. So, shut your mouth and let the moment breathe.”
Schilling has won the World Series three times with the Diamondbacks and the Red Sox, and he also spent many years in the broadcast booth at ESPN. At those times, he told people what he had learned. After a failure to start a new studio, the former right-hand pitcher, who holds the best strikeout-to-walk ratio among former greats, is a commentator for BlazeTV.
According to him:
“I was always taught, one of the things I think that helped me in the booth, was there are some moments that speak for themselves. I thought that was one of them. He could’ve said everything he said after the fact. Everybody watching the game knew exactly what happened. They knew what the number was. But it’s also partial of today’s announcers.”
However, Schilling did admit that he has a “personal bias” when it comes to Michael Kay, who has been the play-by-play announcer for the Yankees with YES since the year 2002. The well-known telecaster had his first experience with calling Yankees games in 1992 on WABC radio broadcasts. He sat next to John Sterling then.
Aaron Judge is likely to hit his 62nd home run in a single season this weekend at Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. If he does, he will break Roger Maris’ record for the most home runs in the American League in a single season.
Amazon Prime Video is letting YES have a simultaneous broadcast of that game, so Kay will be on the call. However, Michael Kay and his team would have called the game no matter what.
Do you think Curt Schilling is right or Michael Kay is the best person to call the record home run?
