Michael Kay doesn’t want to do this forever.
Now, what does forever mean? Well, it doesn’t mean broadcasting well into his mid-80s like John Sterling, but it also doesn’t mean taking his ball and going home after this MLB season. There are plenty more Yankees games to call on YES Network and plenty more Mets fans to denigrate on his afternoon radio show.
Appearing on The Marchand Sports Media podcast with Andrew Marchand, Kay was asked by The Athletic’s sports media insider about his eventual career arc.
“You know what? I was never asked these questions before,” Kay told Marchand. “I never thought about this. I guess I’m at the age (64) where you have to think about it. I’m not sure I want to go forever. I mean, I want to live forever, but I’m not sure I want to go [forever]. I mean, I don’t know. I see the value in what Al Michaels is doing. I see the value in John Sterling staying around until he was 86. ”
Kay pointed to his family as a major factor in the shift. He got married later in life, and with young kids at home, he’s already scaled back. That’s part of why he stepped away from ESPN’s full afternoon drive shift and opted for the earlier 1–3 p.m. ET slot, so he could actually be home when his kids walk through the door.
“Do I want to get out then, when the kids are out of the house in college?” he asked. “I don’t know. Do I want to get out now? No, I mean, I’ve gotta pay the bills.”
Marchand quipped that Kay would never truly leave the business. Kay didn’t entirely disagree.
“I don’t know. Again, I don’t know. Let’s put it this way: I do 135-140 Yankees games on YES, and if they want me around, I could see myself staying around awhile,” Kay replied. “But, I’m not going to go at that pace. If somebody says, ‘OK, you want to do 100 games?’ That would be much more palatable, but we’ll see. Again, never say never because that’s stupid, and I never want to have somebody say, ‘Oh, you said this,’ and I never want to go back on something.
“But I do enter the ‘twilight years’ with some trepidation because what do I do if I retire? I don’t have any interests. I read. I don’t play tennis. I don’t play golf. I mean, I would probably be boring as hell. I’m not sure what I’d do.”
Kay may not know when he wants to stop, but he knows he’s not done yet. And while he jokes about being boring in retirement, that same restlessness might be the very thing that keeps him sharp — and keeps him behind the mic — for a while longer.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.