Yankees announcer Michael Kay dismisses concern over on-air spat

YES announcers Michael Kay and John Flaherty had an interaction during Friday’s broadcast of the Yankees-Cubs game that apparently caused some worry within the team.

General Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone expressed worry that the duo was beefing, but Kay pushed back against that notion during his ESPN show on Monday.

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“Unbelievable,” Kay said of the reaction to what seemed like an on-air spat. “Have you ever heard John and I do the games together? We kind of snark at each other. We’re good friends. We like each other a lot. John was getting phone calls from people, ‘What happened with you and Kay?’ Brian Cashman went up to [YES reporter] Meredith Marakovits the next day in the clubhouse and said, ‘What’s wrong with the two of them?’ [Sunday] I was getting on the plane, Aaron Boone said, ‘You and John OK?’ Yeah! I mean, it’s called kidding around.”

Kay said he was dealing with some “scary” vertigo.

“We are fine, we’re friends. We laughed about it,” Kay said of him and Flaherty. “I was about as ill as I’ve ever been in Chicago. I had vertigo. I felt like I was walking on a boat. I was throwing up in the booth on Friday. The Cub doctor had to give me a neurological exam to see if I had a stroke. I couldn’t walk. I had no idea if I could do the game. I didn’t even know how I was gonna get dressed in the hotel. That’s why I was quiet on the bus. That’s what led to John saying that. But he knew ‘cause he helped me onto the bus. I couldn’t walk.”

On Friday’s broadcast, Flaherty had teased Kay for not being “very talkative” on the bus to the field.

“So you’d rather me be chatty?” Kay shot back. “I wasn’t feeling great.”

“I haven’t seen you in a long time, right?” said Flaherty.

“You don’t work road trips any more when I’m on the road. So I thought we would catch up, and it quickly was evident that you weren’t in the mood, so I gathered my thoughts about how it would be nice to live close to Wrigley and walk back and forth to the park.”

“Interesting narrative that you’re putting together, because I’ve been told by executives that you prefer to work with [Ryan] Ruocco. That’s why you two guys are matched up all the time. That’s just what I heard, I don’t know if there’s any truth to it,” said Kay.

Flaherty responded: “I just put together that the road trips you don’t want to go on are the ones where I end up working with Ryan Ruocco, because you don’t want to work the games on the road.”