In May, Yankees and YES Network analyst Ken Singleton announced he was retiring at the end of the season.
We were somewhat skeptical, and with good reason; Singleton had said he’d be retiring in 2018 as well, and obviously changed his mind. This one has more of an air of finality, though, as we saw today when Singleton paid tribute to broadcast partner Michael Kay.
Ken Singleton gets choked up as he thanks Michael Kay for being by his side through all these years as a broadcaster pic.twitter.com/ooFxXgtWWi
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) October 2, 2021
“I can’t overestimate what it’s meant to work with you all these years, Michael. Our job is to inform and entertain, and there’s nobody more informative than you. Nobody. And as far as entertaining, we’ve laughed at each other’s dumb jokes over the years. Hopefully people out there thought they were funny. If not? Well, you can get a sense of humor just about everywhere. But I just want to say thank you very much from the bottom of my heart to all of you. I’ve been involved with baseball since I was four years old. But now it’s time to move on.”
Yeah, the booth got a bit dusty there, huh? Here’s what we wrote earlier this year about Singleton’s schedule and plan:
Singleton ended up returning with a reduced schedule, allowing him to still work a few dozen games per year while also giving him more time to spend with his family, which was his main reason for wanting to leave the booth. Now 73, Singleton looks like he’s actually, officially retiring this time, with YES preparing a proper sendoff at the end of the year.
Assuming this is final, that was a lovely tribute to his partner, and we certainly wish Singleton all the best in retirement.
