Earlier this week, Michael Kay called out a bat boy for donning the New York Yankees’ uniform with long hair. And he’s not happy with the response to those comments.
The Yankees have maintained a “Neatness Counts” policy since 1976, when the late George Steinbrenner outlawed the team’s players from having beards, beads, mutton chops, or long hair. Almost 50 years later, the Yankees continue to implement the outdated, ridiculous, and borderline offensive grooming policy.
With the Yankees traveling to Cleveland on a road trip this week, the home Guardians gave them a bat boy who had long blonde hair and possible scruff on his face. Kay took issue with the person wearing a Yankees uniform while having long hair.
“If the players aren’t allowed, I don’t know if the bat boy should be allowed,” Kay said on the broadcast. “There are rules. Rules are rules. He’s disobeying two of them. I think there’s facial hair, and, obviously, the hair is below the collar.”
Kay didn’t know it at the time, but as it turns out, the bat boy is the son of Guardians’ radio broadcaster Jim Rosenhaus. Was Kay about to go down to the field and strip the bat boy of his uniform? No. But Kay was not kidding when he questioned whether the bat boy should be allowed to wear the uniform based on his appearance. We wrote about Kay’s agitation, as did several other outlets. On Wednesday, Kay pushed back on being criticized for his comments on the bat boy’s hair. Although our article was more of a recap than a takedown, we fell victim to his wrath nonetheless.
Unfortunately, Kay made the comments during a portion of his radio show that wasn’t simulcast by YES Network, so we can’t get video of his rant. But you can hear it around the 33-minute mark of the above podcast.
“People on Twitter are saying ‘Old man Kay giving this kid smoke.’ I’m not giving anybody smoke!” Kay ranted. “This is really an awful time. It’s an awful time. It’s an awful time in our history as a planet, it really is, and as a human race. Everybody sucks. I’m telling you, they really do. To dig into something like that and say I attacked someone. I didn’t attack anybody!”
Kay questions whether someone has a right to represent the Yankee brand based on their appearance. Outlets write that Kay questioned whether someone has a right to represent the Yankee brand based on their appearance. Kay whines about the reaction to questioning whether someone has a right to represent the Yankee brand based on their appearance.
“I got ripped on Awful Announcing, too. ‘He’s the same guy that tried to get a producer at ESPN fired.’ No, I didn’t, you clowns. You a-wipes,” Kay continued. “I never tried to get anybody fired.”
No issue with you calling Awful Announcing “clowns” and “a-wipes” based on something I wrote, but please quote it correctly.
“This is a person who flexed his muscle and threatened to have an ESPN Radio producer fired over a ratings quip,” I wrote in the article about Kay on Tuesday. I did not accuse Kay of “trying” to have a producer fired, I accused him of threatening to have a producer fired, because he did.
“Ray Santiago made a comment about ratings?” Kay asked during a February episode of his ESPN Radio show. “Do you realize, Ray, that all I’d have to do is make one phone call, and you would be on the unemployment line. You have the nerve to say something like that about this show? One phone call, which I’m considering making, and you will be fired!” Kay ranted. “Remember Ray, I am really, really sitting on the fence right now about getting you canned, opening your mouth when you shouldn’t have.”
In the above quote, Kay tells an ESPN Radio producer he is capable of getting him fired and then states he’s on the fence about whether or not he should get him canned. That qualifies as threatening to have an ESPN Radio producer fired.
“This is truly the bottom line: people suck! Everybody is out for somebody’s throat. The world sucks!” Kay continued on Wednesday. “I’m sorry. I feel guilty sometimes about bringing children into this. This place sucks. They do! They absolutely do! To get clicks, they’ll sell their soul. To get ratings, people sell their soul. I can’t live like that.”
I love clicks. I will not sell my soul for clicks. But the next time Michael Kay questions if a person deserves to wear the Yankees uniform out of respect to George Steinbrenner’s disrespectful grooming policy, we will absolutely write about it again.
