Yankees’ Announcer Blasts Players For ‘Infantile’ Pregame Act

YES Network's Michael Kay scolded two Yankees players for their "childish" actions before a July 4 game.

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, center, salutes Suzyn Waldman after her singing of the national anthem before the Yankees host the Boston Red Sox on Friday, July 31, 2020, in New York. DJ LeMahieu is at left and Gleyber Torres at right. / Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com /

Prior to the New York Yankees’ July 4 loss against the Cincinnati Reds, injured pitchers' Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet engaged in a national anthem standoff against two Reds players. 

In other words, Hamilton and Poteet remained standing completely still outside of the Yankees’ dugout for over a minute after the national anthem ended, hoping to outlast the Reds’ players who were doing the same in front of their own dugout. Hamilton and Poteet ultimately lost the standoff after New York manager Aaron Boone urged them to call it quits.

Graham Ashcraft and the @Reds win the standoff! 😅 pic.twitter.com/UhcApBnxJv

— MLB (@MLB) July 4, 2024

But winning the interaction was the last thing on Yankees’ announcer Michael Kay’s mind. The YES Network’s play-by-play man blasted Hamilton and Poteet for their “infantile” act during a July 5 episode of “The Michael Kay Show."

“What are we, infants? This is the New York Yankees,” Kay said. “The New York Yankees don’t play games like that. That’s silly, that’s stupid, it’s childish, it’s infantile. Let other ridiculous teams do that. Why would the Yankees do that?

“The New York Yankees, you’re wearing pinstripes,” Kay added. “You don’t do stuff like that. And you’ve been losing and playing poorly, and this is what you resort to? Come on, guys, you’re better than that.”

Kay doubled down on his sentiment during a segment on ESPN's “DiPietro & Rothenberg” show Monday.

“Two guys on the IL… I hate it, by the way: What would [late Yankees’ owner] George [Steinbrenner] do?” Kay said. “They might have been released if George was alive. And the manager would have been read the riot act to let it happen.”

The Yankees’ July 4 standoff was yet another chapter in one of baseball’s stranger traditions. While nobody knows when and where the anthem standoff craze was created, players in MLB have been recorded doing it since at least 2014, according to the Bleeding Yankee Blue blog.

The standoff was at its most popular in the mid-to-late 2010's but lost steam during the 2020 pandemic. Hamilton, Poteet, and the Reds proved that it hasn’t died down entirely.

Regardless of anyone’s personal opinion about the national anthem standoff, Hamilton's and Poteet’s iteration likely would have been received better if the Yankees were 16-6 in their last 22 games rather than the inverse.