The New York Yankees have World Series expectations, but there’s one problem. Without John Sterling, who will be on the call if they win their 28th championship in franchise history this season?
Two months ago, Sterling retired from the Yankees radio booth after 36 years and left a massive void to fill alongside Suzyn Waldman. The Yankees and flagship radio station WFAN have relied on a rotating cast of announcers to fill that void, led by Justin Shackil, Emmanuel Berbari, Ryan Ruocco, Brendan Burke, and Ricki Ricardo.
Last week, a caller even alleged Waldman would like former WFAN host and current Seattle Mariners TV voice Dave Sims to be Sterling’s long-term replacement. The claim deserved to be met with some skepticism, but it prompts the question of who deserves to be in the radio booth for the Yankees this October? In a perfect world, Sterling would return for a playoff run, but it’s unrealistic and probably even unfair to assume he could turn it on in October after being retired for six months.
The current pool of announcers is very capable of doing a serviceable job, but a playoff run, maybe even a World Series run, deserves to be narrated by the voice of the Yankees. None of their current radio play-by-play announcers are the voice of the Yankees that John Sterling was, and Michael Kay is.
Kay is the TV voice of the Yankees for the YES Network, which means he doesn’t get to call their playoff games. In recent years, Kay has been assigned a Wild Card Series for ESPN, but once the regular season is over, so are his game-calling duties for the Yankees. Kay should answer the Yankees radio question for the Division Series and beyond. Fans would subscribe to the move and so would Waldman.
TV play-by-play voices have shifted into the radio booth for the MLB playoffs before, Gary Cohen did it in 2006 with the Mets. But this wouldn’t be Kay bumping another announcer from the booth the way Cohen did for a few innings each game in 2006. The Yankees have a unique in-season need for a radio voice, and with Kay’s schedule loosening up in October, it seems like a perfect match.
There’s one obvious hurdle. Kay in the Yankees radio booth means he would be featured on WFAN. The Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York is a long-time WFAN rival, creating the potential for an awkward partnership. It would be undeniably strange for Kay to leave his ESPN Radio show in the evening and hop over to WFAN for playoff baseball. And if Sterling had retired last season, Kay calling games on WFAN would have seemed like an impossibility. But ESPN New York is dropping its 98.7 signal on August 31, 2024 to focus on digital distribution, effectively ending its traditional ratings battle with WFAN.
ESPN New York and The Michael Kay Show will still be in competition with WFAN, but they won’t be focused on Nielsen’s measurement. The signal change should make the idea of ESPN New York loaning Kay to WFAN for the playoffs a little more palatable.
It’s unorthodox for the TV voice of an MLB team to move into the radio booth for the playoffs. And it’s unheard of for competing major market sports radio stations to collaborate the way ESPN New York and WFAN will need to if Kay is going to make this move. But this is a unique circumstance where Kay could join the Yankees radio booth for the playoffs and no feelings would be hurt. A legendary broadcaster retired, and Michael Kay is best suited to provide the Yankees soundtrack this October.
