Michael Kay

Michael Kay is the Emmy Award-winning Yankees play-by-play announcer for the YES Network who also hosts the network’s CenterStage series and its various programming specials. Kay has earned 21 Emmy nominations and 3 Emmy wins while at YES.

The YES Network, the most-watched regional sports network in the country the past 10 years, is the exclusive television home of the 27-time World Champion New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Nets. YES, which has earned 266 Emmy Award nominations and 60 Emmy Awards since its March 2002 launch, also televises original biography, studio and magazine programs, in addition to college sports.

In addition to his work at YES, Kay hosts The Michael Kay Show, a sports talk show heard weekdays on ESPN Radio 98.7 in New York. The influential Radio Ink magazine, which covers the radio industry, named him the second-most influential local sports talk show host in America in December 2012. Kay also handled play-by-play duties for the ESPN Radio Network during the 2008 National League Divisional Series (Phillies-Brewers), and has been a frequent contributor to the Emmy Award-winning Sports Reporters television show airing on ESPN on Sunday mornings.

Prior to joining the YES Network in 2002, Kay worked at the MSG Network since 1989 as a Yankees reporter. In 1992, he added Knicks locker room reporter to his responsibilities, and continued in that role until the 1998-99 season.

Kay was awarded the Dick Young Award for Excellence in Sports Media by the New York Pro Baseball Scouts in 1995. In 1998, he was on the MSG Network team that won a New York Emmy for "Outstanding Live Sports Coverage – Series." In 1996 and 1997 he was a member of the MSG Network team that won New York Emmys for "Outstanding Live Sports Coverage - Single Program" for Dwight Gooden's no-hitter and "The Battle for New York: Yankees vs. Mets." He was also a part of the Yankees/MSG Network production team that was nominated for New York Emmy Awards for six consecutive years.

In addition to his television work, the Bronx, NY, native worked as Yankees analyst on WABC Radio from 1992 through the 2001 season which concluded with the classic Yankees-Diamondbacks World Series. Kay was a winner of "Best Sports Reporter" honors at the 2000 New York Metro Achievement in Radio Awards. In 1998, Kay also began co-hosting Sports Talk with John Sterling and Michael Kay, a nightly sports radio call-in show which aired on WABC Radio during the winter months.

Shortly after graduating from Fordham University in 1982 with a B.A. in Communications, Kay worked at SportsPhone and as the public address announcer for the New York Pro Summer Basketball League.

In 1982, Kay landed the job as general assignment writer for the New York Post. Two years later, he began covering college basketball (1984-85) and then spent two years as the writer covering the New Jersey Nets. In 1987, he moved to baseball at the Post, serving as the Yankees beat reporter. While he was in that position, he got his first television job with MSG Network as host of the Hot Stove League segment of MSG's SportsNight.

In 1989, Kay moved to the New York Daily News, where he was the Yankees beat reporter before taking the job as a Yankees broadcaster on WABC Radio in 1992. With that jump, Kay became the first newspaper reporter in any sport to make the move into the broadcast booth full-time, performing both play-by-play and analysis.

Kay stayed on the radio for 10 years, broadcasting the Yankees’ four World Series championships during that time, before moving to the television side to become the lead play-by-play man for YES in 2002.

Kay has been involved in the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.), a charitable organization whose mission is to provide assistance to members of the baseball community. He co-hosted the 2013 B.A.T. fundraising dinner in New York. Kay also was master of ceremonies at the 2013 Thurman Munson Awards fundraising dinner in New York.

In 2005, he was honored in his home borough of the Bronx, having an honorary street sign in his name erected on the Grand Concourse. Kay is active with the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of his mother, Rose, who passed away from the disease in 2006. He has also teamed up with Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Girardi’s Catch 25 Foundation to organize annual charity dinners to raise money for Alzheimer's research.

Kay and his wife Jodi Applegate have a daughter, Caledonia Rose Kay, born in January 2013.