Michael Kay Is Stuck Between A Rock and A Mets Place

The year was 2006, and the Mets started the season with a lot of hope. Not only did the team replace an aging Mike Piazza with a younger Carlos Delgado in the lineup, but they also signed a future Hall of Famer, Billy Wagner, to close games.

So, on Opening Day at Shea Stadium, with the Mets nursing a 3–2 lead over the Washington Nationals, Wagner emerged from the bullpen to his customary entrance music blaring:

“Enter Sandman.”

A clean save in the ninth, and the Mets were 1–0 on the young season.

Great, right?

Well… no.

A couple of hours after the game, when WFAN’s feed returned to Mike and the Mad Dog, the two venerable hosts were dumbfounded that the Mets would allow Wagner to use the same entrance song as Mariano Rivera.

Never mind the fact that Wagner had been using it longer than Rivera, and that Metallica themselves had said they were fine with it. You’d have thought the Mets were handing out Mickey Mantle bobbleheads in Mets jerseys the way those two carried on.

Mike Francesa and Chris Russo gave New York a masterclass that week in controlling the narrative. Yankee fans tuned in because they agreed. Mets fans tuned in en masse just to get angry.

Fast-forward to today, and we’ve seen Michael Kay take a page from his old rivals.

This time, the ESPN radio host and YES play-by-play man decided to control the narrative surrounding Juan Soto. After last month’s Subway Series, Kay went on his show and claimed that Soto only signed with the Mets because his family wanted him to, and that he looked glum on the field.

Then last week, he doubled down:

“Mets fans cannot enjoy any kind of success,” Kay declared on his Thursday ESPN New York radio show. “Because they always have to have a grievance. They always have to have something to complain about. And they’re so thirsty when it comes to being right and proving somebody who said something about their team wrong. So then they misappropriate what people do say to fit their silly little childish narrative.”

In fairness to Kay, I don’t believe he made the story up. I’m sure someone with the Mets said something to him. In fact, he probably got bits and pieces from different people and when he added one and one, he got three.

It’s no secret that Soto’s mother hit it off with Alex Cohen and feels very comfortable with the way Mrs. Cohen treats the players’ families. Soto himself is also a serious, focused player. He’s like an artist at the plate—rarely satisfied with his at-bats, even when the result is positive. He doesn’t smile all the time like Francisco Lindor, and he doesn’t have Pete Alonso’s goofy personality.

No, Soto is Soto—always striving to improve, and far more serious than some of his fun-loving Mets teammates.

In fact, he’d probably fit in better in the Bronx, with their famously buttoned-up, corporate persona.

Kay knows this. And with fewer co-hosts to carry the load—no more Don La Greca or Peter Rosenberg—he has to fill more air time on his own. So he controls the narrative.

I’m pretty sure his bosses at ESPN don’t want the "Yankee Superpower Hour," and now that ESPN Radio broadcasts Mets games, Kay still needs to talk about the Amazins too.

The problem is, because of his day job, he can’t go too deep into Mets coverage. So he does what he can: he pieces together a story based on what he’s heard, then attacks the fan base that doesn’t particularly like him anyway. Mets fans tune in to hate-listen. Yankee fans cheer their guy for putting “little brother” in his place.

But the problem is, Kay isn’t as nuanced as Mike and the Mad Dog were. His masterclass feels more like amateur hour.

At least he’s not doing ad reads for the “Best Booth in Baseball.” So, he’s got that going for him.