Hour 1: Accountability or New Players?

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Michael Kay (0:34)

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Michael Kay (0:41)

And good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Wednesday. It's October 14th, 2026 Me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagements. The fastest moving two hours in Sports Talk Radio. And one of the reasons is I have great co-hosts. You guys, 1-800-919-3776, that's the application number to be a co-host. We got a lot of stuff to talk about, a lot of stuff to do. I am in studio today.

I did very un Michael Kay-like things because I've got to go to a meeting after this, so I didn't drive in. So I actually took the train and then the subway, and that was fine. But I have not been in the city all that often of late. I used to live in Manhattan, and when I lived in Manhattan, you kind of got used to the smell of urine or whatever the case may be. Now, wherever you walk, it's a pot fest. You smell marijuana wherever you walk. I know it's legal, but it is an intrusion on people's senses. It really is. I'm not going to be that guy, but it's everywhere. I walked into the building where the studio is. I got into the elevator and it smelled like Columbia. And I don't mean Columbia University. It was unbelievable in the building.

So there's no hiding it anymore because you don't have to, because it's not illegal. But I mean, does that mean that you get to smoke anywhere you want? It's like, let's bring a skunk wherever we want.

Let's bring a skunk into an office building, because that's what it smells like. It smells like a skunk sprayed them to somebody. Amazing. The world has changed. The world has changed. But one thing that has not changed is the Yankee story continues to roll on and on and on. And as I said yesterday, it's not the columnists, it's not the people who have radio shows, and it's not just people on antisocial media. It's not. Those people are angry, obviously. But people that you would not expect to make such pointed comments have done just that.

New on the scene is my colleague from the Yes Network and a former Yankee manager.

A three-time world champion is a player with the Yankees, and a manager who managed the team to its last world championship in 2009, Joe Girardi, was on the show. That's the podcast with John Heyman and Joel Sherman. And this is what Joe said. This is what Joe Girardi said. Joe is pointed on the broadcast. He doesn't pull punches. But again, he used to manage this team. And by the way, it's Joe Girardi's birthday today. So happy birthday. Listen to what Joe Girardi said on the show with Heyman and Sherman.

Joe Girardi (3:42)

It's hard to say because I'm not in the clubhouse every day, but there are things that happen. You wonder like, is someone saying anything? Like you said you would have did the same thing over again. No, you can't do the same thing. It didn't work. Some of the base running cues, all the sliding over the bases, like someone's got to say some enough is enough. And sometimes though, a player needs to be sent down and like have a wake up call and say, look, you need to do this better. I think it happened with Anthony Bowlby. I think he was better when he came back up because he got sent down and said, hey, I can't keep doing what I'm doing. It's not working. And the other thing that I see other teams, I think do is they understand their role really well. Like you look at Tampa, the first four hitters don't bunt. They play big boy baseball, but the next five guys absolutely know what their role is. My role is to get on base, is to steal a base, is to sacrifice a safety squeeze. It's not to hit the ball out of the ballpark. And I'm not going to try to hit the ball out of the ballpark. I think the Yankees bottom half of the order could do a better job. Imagine if Jazz had a 350 on base percentage, how many bases he would steal. It would be off the charts, and it would really help the team win.