'FAWNING FAN BOY': Yankees broadcaster rips Sportsnet as on-air dust up amplifies

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The air is getting spicy between the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays. And it’s got nothing to do with the on-field dramatics — and Toronto dominance — of the previous week.

After getting torched by Sportsnet studio host Jamie Campbell following the Jays’ decisive four-game sweep of the Yankees that concluded on Thursday, Yankees play-by-play man for the YES Network, Michael Kay, fired back on Sunday morning.

On his regular Sundays with Kay segment on YES, Kay pulled no punches on what he thought about Campbell’s comments directed at him this past Thursday and the fact that the Baseball Central host did his root-for-the-home-team act of waving, then tossing, a broom on air following a sweep.

“What I would say to Jamie is I can easily say the Blue Jays are a first-place team because I’m not a fawning fanboy, I’m a broadcaster, and the bottom line is they are in fact a first-place team,” Kay said after being set up for his response by longtime YES host and Toronto native Nancy Newman, who earlier in her career worked for TSN.

“Also, the whole narrative has been skewed by people who misinterpreted and didn’t hear everything I said. In fact, I was complimenting the Blue Jays that they’ve exceeded the expectations that (run differential would suggest.)”

To backtrack, Kay and his comments became a flashpoint for the Jays following the 12-5 Canada Day win over the Yankees, in the second contest of the four-game sweep.

“The Blue Jays are not a first-place team, I’m sorry,” Kay said dismissively on his radio show on ESPN New York. “If you look at run differential … they’re not playing great baseball. I’m sorry, they’re not.”

Those comments hit a nerve in Toronto, especially as the Jays swept the Yankees and won the first two of a series against the Los Angeles Angels to take a three-game lead in the AL East.

Kay was clearly irked by some of the criticism from north of the border — including a subtle shot from Jays manager John Schneider, who referenced the “not a first place team” comments in a session with Toronto media.

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But what seems to have put him over the edge was Campbell’s comments directed at him, which came after he threw the broom from the Baseball Central set at the Rogers Centre.

“I can think of a certain Yankee broadcaster who is going to have to go on his show tomorrow and admit the Jays are a first-place team because the standings prove it,” an emotionally charged Campbell said on the Sportsnet post-game show.

Kay said the last thing a Yankees broadcaster would be caught doing is waving a broom on air after the team swept an opponent.

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“It’s kind of funny if you think about it. Imagine if (YES studio host) Jack Curry was waving a broom on the Yankees post-game show,” Kay said. “He would probably be called into the office and shortly fired after that.

“Now I love Toronto. It’s a cosmopolitan city, one of the greatest cities in the world for me. You’re waving a broom on a post-game show you’re turning into Mayberry R.F.D. (a reference to the 1970s sitcom about a rural community.) I just don’t get it.”

That final point wasn’t Kay’s last word on the matter, however.

“One final thing: You shouldn’t hang on the rim three minutes into the third quarter of a basketball game,” Kay said. “Feel good about sweeping the Yankees. Feel good about winning all those games in a row. Feel good about being in first place. But to hang on the rim this early? Let’s hang onto the rim in October. That’s when you hang onto the rim.”

We get the feeling that we haven’t heard the last word in this amusing on-air dust-up. And with the Yankees in town for three more games beginning on July 21, the potential for the next episode isn’t far off.