Michael Kay Unnecessarily Shreds Yankee Pitchers Who Participated In National Anthem Standoff
Longtime New York Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay apparently doesn’t have a sense of humor and takes his team wayyyyyyy too seriously.
On July 4th, two players from both the Yankees and Cincinnati Reds engaged in a standoff after the national anthem was played. The goal for each pair of players was to be the last ones on the field in an attempt to humorously show their patriotism.
In all seriousness, what’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. If four guys want to be a little extra patriotic on America’s birthday, by all means let them!
But Kay apparently thought this funny standoff was a sign of the apocalypse.
He lambasted the two New York pitchers in the standoff - Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet - and said that they completely disregarded the Yankees’ reputation in the process.
"What are we, infants? This is the New York Yankees," Kay said. "The New York Yankees don’t play games like that. That’s silly, that’s stupid, it’s childish, it’s infantile. Let other ridiculous teams do that. Why would the Yankees do that? It’s dumb. . . . It makes the Yankees look small. They’re doing a stare-off like they’re in Williamsport? Like it’s the Little League World Series? The New York Yankees, you’re wearing pinstripes, baby. You don’t do stuff like that. And you’ve been losing and playing poorly, and this is what you resort to? Come on, guys, you’re better than that."
Can Someone Tell Michael Kay To Loosen Up?
Now, to be fair to Kay, the Yankees had lost 15 of 19 games heading into that July 4th matinee, so there’s a reason why the standoff might have been done in a little poor taste.
But there’s a heavy emphasis on the word little there.
Here’s a counterargument: maybe that display of goofiness was great for the team. I’ve been on sports teams where we’ve gone on losing streaks, and the goofy/fun loving guy on the team would do something that would lift the spirits of everyone else on the team. Sure, it might not have worked in the Yankees' case (they lost this game), but should they be ridiculed for trying?
Furthermore, it’s not like those were two stars on the team. Hamilton and Poteet were both low-profile pitchers on the injured list who decided to be goofy. So why are we ripping them to shreds?
Lastly, if you think you’re too prestigious of an organization to loosen up a little bit like this and have fun, then you’ve really lost your way. I get it, the Yankees and their supporters are sad that they haven’t won a World Series in 15 years and have been an afterthought for most of those years too. But do you have to be a bunch of uptight killjoys in the process?
Let the boys have fun on America’s birthday, even if they are wearing pinstripes.