‘I blame Yankees fans’: Michael Kay hits boiling point over relentless Aaron Judge criticism

There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes from watching someone do something extraordinary — and then being forced to listen to a chorus of voices explain, at length, why it still isn’t good enough. That frustration was all over “The Michael Kay Show” on Thursday, and Michael Kay was not holding back. And while the debate over the Yankees captain is hardly new, Kay reached a boiling point on Thursday. “Derek Jeter has five World Series championships and he’s called overrated. Aaron Judge has no World Series championships and he’s called overrated,” Kay said, via YouTube. “The haters are out there in full force. That’s just the way of the world right now.” It’s a paradox that exposes something broken in how a vocal segment of sports fans engage with their own teams’ greatest players — and Kay wasn’t about to let it go unaddressed. “As I said this (Wednesday,) I blame Yankee fans that try to find the warts on this guy. Those are the people I don’t get,” Kay said. “And I know you’re starved for another championship. I get it. (It’s) been since 2009. I understand. But you’re Yankee fans and you see what he does to get you into the postseason on a yearly basis.” One caller from Rockland drew a sobering historical parallel, noting that Mickey Mantle was booed at Yankee Stadium because he wasn’t Joe DiMaggio. The standard was always impossible. The goalposts were always moving. This isn’t a new disease; it’s an old one with a new platform. And then came another caller from Plainview — a self-described 89-year-old traditionalist — who landed arguably the single most memorable line of the show. “I was listening to you yesterday, and I got to tell you how you suffer explaining the talent that Aaron Judge puts on a baseball diamond to the rear end of a horse is beyond me,” the caller said. “These people will never understand.” When Judge’s career is over and the highlights are being played on loop, the same voices that questioned him will be among the first to claim they always knew how special he was.