Michael Kay fires back at Mike Francesa
Fox Sports 1 has emerged as a contender to simulcast Mike Francesa’s WFAN radio show, which if it occurs could make for some very interesting company picnics.
Now that Fox is set to increase its stake in the YES Network to 80 percent, the simulcasts of both Francesa’s show and Michael Kay’s ESPN New York radio show could both be on Fox-owned channels.
Did I mention Francesa and Kay are not currently on the best of terms?
After Kay opened his first simulcast Monday by dropping a plastic bottle of Diet Coke – Francesa’s favorite drink in his YES years – into a trash can being held by partner Don LaGreca, Francesa told Newsday it was a “classless, loser move from two guys I have been burying in the ratings for over a decade."
YES subsequently cut the scene from a rerun of the show, a hint that executives there were not amused.
But Kay was unapologetic in an interview published in the New York Post Friday, saying, “I just thought it was funny and kind of a changing of the guard and it meant absolutely no disrespect meant at all. I am actually totally amused some took it as if I desecrated a religious artifact.
“A lot of people have asked, would I do it again? I’d absolutely do it a hundred times again. I thought it was hilarious and anybody took it seriously that’s their issue, not mine.’’
Kay told the Post he laughed at Francesa’s comments to Newsday, because “ever since I started this radio show I have done nothing but been respectful.
“I’ve called him the gold standard of what we do. But, of late, all he does is make comments about ratings, comments like a pea shooter, and to me that’s insulting and to me that’s a lack of grace and class. And what I did is something funny and it wasn’t as if I took a shot at a guy that hasn’t taken a hundred shots at us for every one that we’ve taken at him.’’