Baseball Broadcaster Impressions: New York Yankees

Jackass #1

Continuing the baseball broadcaster impressions project today with a look at the New York Yankees.

TV Announcers: Michael Kay, Ken Singleton, David Cone, Al Leiter, Paul O'Neill, John Flaherty

Like the Pirates, the Yankees use a rotating cast of announcers throughout the year. Unlike the Pirates some of the combinations actually work. You can't look at the combinations though without looking at each individual announcer.

Kay- I'll say this about Kay, every time I listen to him I don't hear a homer. He'll give just as equal praise to the other team and will be just as excited if the opposing team does something well. That's more than you can say about a lot of announcers. Here's the thing about Kay though that is so irritating, he carries the radio shtick over to Yankees broadcasts.

Quick story: Grant Napear is a local radio host here in Sacramento. Napear is from New York and he brings his "I'm a New Yorker don't fuck with me attitude" to his radio show. Napear though leaves the radio shtick at the radio station and is a professional broadcaster when calling a Kings game. Kay doesn't do this. The shtick comes with him. So you're treated to a broadcast that feels like a call-in show. I half expect Ronnie from Yonkers to call into the booth during the games.

Singleton- Singleton calls games when Kay can't get a passport to Canada or doesn't feel like traveling to Kansas City. I have to say I love when Singleton is calling games. He brings professionalism to the booth that is refreshing after listening to Kay. He's also not that bad of an analyst. He doesn't bring sabermetric analysis like Cone (we'll get there) but he doesn't say dumb shit like "Nova has a knack for winning," like that dumbass John Flaherty (we'll also get there).


Cone- I love listening to Cone. He'll talk about sabermetrics in a smart way and somehow gets Kay to leave his radio shtick at the door. If the Yankees ever made a tandem permanent and Kay sticks around, then the Kay/Cone combo should be it.

Al Leiter- Whenever Leiter appears on the MLB Network I'm not impressed with him. Not that he's bad, just that he's like every other analyst on a network. These guys come off a assembly line in case you didn't know. Leiter though on the Yankee broadcasts is surprisingly a good listen. He doesn't bring a sabermetric approach like Cone, but he doesn't bring an approach that just makes you shake your head like Flaherty. Plus Leiter does a great job breaking down what a pitcher is doing.

O'Neill- Paul O'Neill is fascinating to listen to. He treads that line between acceptable and "my God he shouldn't speak again". My favorite parts when O'Neill is on the broadcast is whenever someone reminds him that he was a huge hot-head when he was playing and shows old video of him breaking a water cooler or kicking the ball in Cincinnati.

Jackass #2

Flaherty- I hate John Flaherty. Not only does he say stupid things like "Ivan Nova has a knack for winning," like Nova was born with some special trait to collect MLB victories, but he brings the absolute worse out of Kay. I felt sorry for David Cone last night because he had to sit with these two jackasses while they made fools out of themselves. Flaherty and Kay should co-host their own radio show because they have both perfected the radio shtick.

If I was running the media section of the Yankees organization, I would make Singleton and Cone the announcers with some guest appearances by Leiter if Cone needs some time off. If Kay has to stay because he has dirt on Brian Cashman, then I would make Cone and Singleton his partners and would dump Leiter, O'Neill, and Flaherty.

Radio Announcers: John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman

Honestly what else can I say about these two that hasn't been said before? My favorite theory about why these two are still calling games on the radio is because the Yankees want to make the radio broadcast so bad that people are forced to buy subscriptions to the Yes Network. That's one conspiracy theory that might actually be true.

"Well you know what they say Suzyn. You can't force someone to listen to us."