Aaron Judge is closing on the American League record and set to write history with a new record both for the Yankees and the league. This tempts everyone associated with baseball to nurture a hope to become a part of his historic moment. Yankees’ TV announcer Michael Kay is one of them.
Kay wants to call the historic home run that makes Judge the AL homer leader. However, the sports broadcaster is unsure as to whether he will be able to make them.
Aaron Judge has already hit 57 home runs and is going to Milwaukee this weekend with Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in sight.
After the next five Yankees games, which will be shown on YES and could be Judge’s 60th, 61st, and 62nd home runs, the Yankees will be shown on another, different channel.
Fox will have a national broadcast of the first game of the four-game set with the Red Sox next Thursday. Aaron Goldsmith and John Smoltz will be on the call. Apple TV+ will only show the Yankees-Red Sox game next Friday. Stephen Nelson, Hunter Pence, and Katie Nolan will be in the booth.
Kay will have another chance with YES the next day, and then Karl Ravech, David Cone, and Eduardo Perez from ESPN will each have a turn on Sunday night. Michael Kay will be on his alternative show “Kay-Rod” that Sunday night with Alex Rodriguez.
Kay has been able to put great moments into the right words. His best ones have been about Derek Jeter’s achievements. He would like to be the one to call the historical moments.
According to Michael Kay:
“I’ve thought about it. I’m not going to be selfish. When he does it, he does. It will be a bummer if YES is not covering it. Forget about just me, but for YES, that would stink. It is what it is. And if he hits it on one of the days that we’re not doing the game and we just have to live with it.”
Like Michael Kay, every announcer harbors a desire to call Judge’s historic moment. But with one channel having the rights, its announcers have the first chance to do that.
On the radio, John Sterling is scheduled to do the rest of the games. However, Ryan Ruocco will do the play-by-play for the three games in Toronto at the end of the month.
The latest predictions believe Judge will have his 60th home run at home and the 62nd is most likely to occur in Toronto.
In the more than 30 years that Michael Kay has been a Yankees announcer, he has had some memorable moments in the booth. Jeter’s best hit was his 3,000th hit, which was a home run off David Price of the Rays.
Making it more memorable, the Yankees broadcaster called:
“The 3-2 … That one is way out in left field… returning Joyce… looking up … See ya! … Three-thousand! History, with a capital letter! Oh, what a way to get to 3,000 hits! Derek Jeter has done it in grand style!”
Kay said that he does think about the moment and what it means, but not about what he will say. Judge’s goal is a little strange because Barry Bonds’ all-time record of 73 hits is questioned because of steroid use.
Kay has a talk show where people argue about what the real record should be over and over again, but on the call, he said he won’t get involved in that debate. He just wants to get it right.
Michael Kay says:
“You get a little nervous because you want to do it justice. You don’t ever want to mess up his moment. That’s all I care about. I don’t care about putting my imprint on it. I just want to know 40 years from now when [Judge] watches this that you know, it’s not going to be a screwed up call for him. I just think about making the call, but certainly not what I’m going to say.”
These calls go down in baseball history more than any other sport.
Michael Kay called the World Series Game 4 home run by “Mr. November” in 2001 and Derek Jeter’s last hit, which won his last home game in 2014.
Do you feel Michael Kay is the best placed to call Aaron Judge’s historic home run? Who are the other announcers you love to hear?
