Aaron Judge finally paid off the hype on Tuesday night in Arlington when he hit his 62nd home run, the most in a single season for any American League player in history. If fans thought they got sick of waiting for it to happen, just imagine how Michael Kay felt.
The television voice of the Yankees joined The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday morning and said that he was as frustrated as everyone else. Preparing for a moment that could happen at any time requires a lot of juggling for a broadcaster.
“It became a little trying for everybody, and I am sure for the viewers as well Dan, because you’re doing television,” Kay said. “You know this is going to be a stand-alone at bat if he hits the home run, so you’ve got to layer all the important parts, you know, what’s coming up. And you know, we were also welcoming in a national audience that was joining us on ESPN and MLB Network. There was a lot of that bookkeeping to do. So after a while, it got really really old.”
Kay says he was not shielded from the criticism of the coverage Judge’s chase received. In fact, he did not disagree with the people that were turned off by the narrative that Aaron Judge’s 62 home runs was the new home run record despite Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs in 2001.
“A lot of people were saying, and this was spurred on by Rober Maris Jr, who is a real gentleman, that this is the real record. It’s not the real record. Even Aaron Judge says it’s not the real record. The real record is Barry Bonds.”
He was also very aware of how frustrated college football fans were the last two Saturdays as games were interrupted on ESPN networks to show Judge’s at-bats. He noted that “negativity has a louder megaphone than anything positive,” but added that the message was clear.
“I guess everyone that wanted to see it was watching YES or the MLB Network and those that didn’t want to see it didn’t want to see it, so they wouldn’t be bothered with it.”
