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After being taunted with a broom, Michael Kay dropped a hammer.
Kay, the play-by-play announcer for the Yankees on YES Network and a radio talk-show host on ESPN, responded to being called out by Jamie Campbell of Rogers Sportsnet in Toronto. This happened after the Blue Jays swept a four-game series from the struggling Yankees and climbed to first place in the AL East.
Campbell, while waving a broom, remarked, “I can think of a certain Yankees broadcaster who will need to go on his show and acknowledge that the Blue Jays are leading the division because the standings speak for themselves.”
So, how did Kay respond?


In response, Kay stated during his conversation with Nancy Newman before the Yankees-Mets game at Citi Field, “My message to Jamie is that I have no problem recognizing the Blue Jays as the top team because I am not a blind supporter. I am a professional broadcaster, and the reality is that they are currently leading.”
Kay wasn’t done. Not by a longshot. Not with about half of the season remaining.
“Imagine if (YES Network studio host) Jack Curry was waving a broom on the Yankees postgame show,” Kay said. “He would probably be called into the office and shortly fired after that.
“Now, I love Toronto. It is a cosmopolitan city. It is one of the greatest cities in the world, for me. You’re waving a broom on a postgame show, you are turning it into Mayberry RFD. I just don’t get it. I don’t understand it. You should be proud of the fact you are in first place.
“And one final thing: You shouldn’t hang on the rim three minutes into the third quarter of a basketball game. Feel good about sweeping the Yankees. Feel good about winning all these games in a row. Feel good about being in first place. But to hang on the rim this early? Let’s hang on the rim in October. That’s when you hang on the rim.”
The back-and-forth started with comments that Kay on Wednesday during the middle of the fates-turning Yankees-Blue Jays series. He cited run differential as a reason that the Yankees are a better team than the Blue Jays.
“The Blue Jays are not a first-place team, I’m sorry,” Kay said, via Awful Announcing. “If you look at the run differential, the Yankees’ run differential is +105. The Blue Jays … they’re +4. Do you realize, they should be a .500 team because of a +4 run differential? And the Yankees should have at least four or five more wins with a +105 run differential. They’re not playing great baseball. I’m sorry, they’re not.”
Those numbers have changed as the Blue Jays have kept winning and the Yankees have kept losing. The Yankees are back in Toronto on July 21.