‘ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!’ Yankees Announcer Michael Kay RAGES at Manager Aaron Boone For Using Clips Of 2004 Collapse Against Red Sox to Motivate Current Team
New York Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay ripped into Yankees manager Aaron Boone after a mental skills coach showed clips of the 2004 collapse the Yankees suffered to the Boston Red Sox.
In 2004, the Yankees blew a three games to none lead against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. It was the first time in Major League Baseball history that a team came back from a significant deficit. The Red Sox won their first World Series that season and reversed the famous “Curse of the Bambino.” The curse haunted the Red Sox for 86 years after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919.
The Yankees faced the same predicament last week, when they trailed three games to none against the Houston Astros in the 2022 ALCS. Boone and his management team decided to make a highlight reel of one of the Yankees’ darkest days in an attempt to motivate the current team. The tactic did not work, as the Yankees were swept by the Astros Sunday night.
The desperate move did not sit well with Kay — as he tore into the Yankees organization and Boone for the decision on Monday on his radio show, The Michael Kay Show.
“The Yankees have a mental skills coach; he put together a video of the 2004 Red Sox coming back from 0-3 down,” an annoyed Kay said. “How in baseball god’s name can you be so tone-deaf as an organization, as if to do that? How can you be that tone-deaf?”
Kay expressed his concern about how the move was received by past players.
“I mean, talk about bad optics,” Kay added. “Are you out of your mind?! Do you know I talked to three players from the ’04 team? They were outraged by the fact their failure was being used as motivation for the 2022 team. How could you do that?”
Kay referenced the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and if someone used his death to help motivate his own family.
“It would be like someone from Lincoln’s family, and you’re trying to teach them about shootings in theaters, and you use their dad as an example of how to avoid it,” Kay continued. “I mean, are you out of your mind?”
Kay explained how ESPN’s Eduardo Pérez had facilitated a phone call between Boone and former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who was on the 2004 team, about what it took to come back from a three games to none deficit.
“And then to make it worse, Eduardo Pérez, who’s doing the game with Dan Shulman on ESPN Radio, has Aaron Boone Facetimed with David Ortiz, and Ortiz supposedly gave some advice.”
A fired-up Kay believed Boone should have said no to the phone call.
“Aaron Boone has to say to David Ortiz or to Eduardo, ‘Thank you, but no, we’re not going there,'” Kay said.
Kay was further perturbed that Boone would actually admit his motivation tactics publicly.
“They told the media, Aaron Boone told the media, ‘oh yeah, we put together a tape of the 04 Red Sox,’ oh my goodness,” Kay added as he put his hands over his face.
“You’re gonna use the darkest moment in Yankees history, the darkest moment on field in Yankee history, where they blow a 3-0 lead, the only team to ever do that, and you’re going to use that as motivation for the 2022 Yankees?”
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