NEW YORK — First on radio and then as the television voice, Michael Kay is most closely associated with the Yankees baseball. In 2026, that relationship has entered its 35th season, making him a legend in New York sports media landscape.
The workload has not faded with time. YES Network lists this season as Kay’s 25th in its television booth after 10 years on Yankees radio, and he is scheduled to call 136 games in 2026. That is more Yankees games than he has handled in any of the previous five seasons, even as his weekday radio schedule has become shorter.
The timing has made the contrast harder to miss. Kay turned 65 this year, while the Yankees are moving through another postseason race. John Sterling, his longtime former radio partner and one of the defining voices in franchise history, retired in 2024 after 36 seasons calling Yankees games. Sterling died in May at 87, prompting a season-long Yankees tribute.
Kay remains highly visible. He still handles the Yankees’ primary television play-by-play work, hosts a weekday solo show on ESPN New York and appears across YES programming. Yet a career built around travel, late nights and overlapping responsibilities has begun to create a question that rarely followed him earlier: how long does he want to keep doing all of it?
Kay starts thinking seriously about the end
Kay addressed that question during a recent appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast, and his answer went beyond a routine denial of retirement talk.
He said turning 65 has changed the questions he hears and forced him to think more directly about when a broadcaster should leave.
“I never was asked these questions at 63 or 64, but 65 seems to be a magic number. And I’ve actually been thinking about the end. When do you walk away? When is it the right time?” Kay said.
Kay did not announce a retirement date. He did not suggest he plans to leave the YES booth after this season. Instead, he described a decision that has become more personal as his children get older and as he weighs how much time he wants to spend away from home.
That distinction matters for Yankees viewers. Kay is not signaling an imminent exit. He is acknowledging that retirement has moved from an abstract possibility into something he now considers.
Sterling becomes the unavoidable comparison
Sterling naturally sits at the center of that conversation.
Kay worked alongside Sterling on Yankees radio beginning in 1992. Sterling eventually became one of the longest-tenured voices in baseball, calling 5,426 regular-season Yankees games and 225 postseason games before retiring in 2024.
Asked whether he could see himself continuing into his 80s the way Sterling did, Kay made clear that he does not expect to follow the same path.
“I don’t see myself being alive in my 80s. And if I was, I don’t see myself doing the games, but I guess you can’t rule anything out,” Kay said.
The broader point was about lifestyle as much as age. Kay has an 11-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter. He said their ages make the timing of any retirement decision complicated because leaving now would create a different daily life before either child reaches college.
A smaller radio role changed the equation
One of the most important pieces of Kay’s current situation has little to do with the Yankees booth itself.
At the end of 2024, Kay ended his long afternoon-drive partnership with Don La Greca. He moved to a two-hour solo show on ESPN New York, airing from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. YES Network’s official biography and ESPN New York’s current lineup both list that schedule.
The change removed one of the most punishing parts of his old routine. Kay previously had to finish a lengthy afternoon radio show and then rush into Yankees preparation and play-by-play duties on game nights.
He said that former schedule had reached a point where it was wearing him down.
“I had told so many people the last year I did the afternoon drive that that was it. I just couldn’t do it anymore,” Kay said.
The shorter radio window changed his thinking. Kay has said the new setup improved his quality of life and allowed him to continue enjoying radio instead of viewing it as a burden he needed to escape.
That helps explain why his Yankees schedule has actually expanded in 2026. Retirement may be on his mind, but his current workload does not resemble someone already easing out the door.
Yankees may eventually face another broadcast transition
For Yankees fans, Kay’s comments matter because broadcast continuity has long been part of the franchise’s identity.
Sterling’s retirement ended one era on radio. YES has built its television coverage around Kay and a rotating group of analysts that includes David Cone, Paul O’Neill and Joe Girardi.
Kay’s longevity is now approaching Sterling’s in one notable way. The 2026 season is his 35th broadcasting Yankees baseball. By next year, he would match Sterling’s 36-season Yankees run, though their roles and schedules have differed.
There is no indication that milestone will trigger a decision. Kay appears unwilling to set an artificial date while he still enjoys the work and remains uncertain about what retirement would look like.
The candid part is that he is finally considering it.
For years, Kay’s future in the Yankees booth was treated as open-ended. At 65, he is now weighing family, travel, health, workload and purpose while continuing to call one of the heaviest Yankees schedules of his recent career.
No farewell has been scheduled. No final season has been declared.
But Kay is openly describing the decision that will eventually reshape the sound of Yankees baseball.
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