Eventually, it would all come back to Michael Kay.
The New York Yankees’ play-by-play voice for YES Network and ESPN Radio host claimed last week that the Toronto Blue Jays weren’t a first-place team. Only to later have egg on his face, which led to Sportsnet’s Jamie Campbell dunking on him after the Blue Jays swept the Yankees in a four-game series north of the border for the first time in franchise history.
On Sunday, Kay finally responded. Before a single question came his way during a sit-down with Nancy Newman, he used his pregame platform to push back at Campbell, and at anyone else who, in his view, twisted his words or missed the point entirely.
At the start of his Sunday conversation with @NancyNewmanYES, @RealMichaelKay addresses comments aimed in his direction regarding the Blue Jays. pic.twitter.com/saBCJ4ARsx
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) July 6, 2025
“It’s interesting, so what I would say to Jamie is: I could easily say the Blue Jays are a first-place team because I’m not a fawning fan boy,” Kay said at Citi Field on Sunday. “I’m a broadcaster. And the bottom line is they’re, in fact, a first-place team. Also, the whole narrative has been skewed by people who misinterpreted and didn’t hear everything that I said on my radio show.
“I was talking about the Pythagorean Theorem of run differential, which would indicate that the Blue Jays should not have a record as good as they have. In fact, I was complimenting the Blue Jays that they’ve exceeded the expectations that the numbers would put on them. I never said that run differential was more important than wins and losses, of course it’s not. But Baseball Prospectus, places like that, they take the run differential and they try to figure out how exactly what the record would be. And the Blue Jays have exceeded that with their gritty, gutty style of play.”
And while Kay insisted he was complimenting Toronto, it’s hard to imagine anyone inside Rogers Centre hearing it that way.
“And one final thing: it’s kind of funny if you think about it,” Kay continued. “Imagine if Jack Curry was waving a broom on the Yankees’ postgame show. He would probably be called into the office and shortly fired after that. Now, I love Toronto. It is a cosmopolitan city. It’s one of the greatest cities in the world for me. I think it’s great. You’re waving a broom on a postgame show, you’re turning it into Mayberry R.F.D. I just don’t get it. I don’t understand it. You should be proud of the fact that you’re 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.”
Kay’s trying to have his cake and eat it, too, all while taking a victory lap for being “objective,” while scolding a rival network for enjoying a moment their team earned.
The Blue Jays swept the Yankees for the first time in franchise history. If there was ever a time to wave a broom or hang on the rim, this was it.
