Melky Cabrera's Hidden Ball Prank Fooled Michael Kay and John Sterling
By Kyle Koster
New York Yankees fans watching last night’s game on the television or listening on the radio were briefly misled by the venerable play-by-play voices on each broadcast — and for good reason. Aaron Judge — currently the most prolific longball hitter in baseball — blasted a deep drive to left in the notoriously hitter-friendly Guaranteed Rate Field. White Sox left fielder Melky Cabrera made a jumping attempt to catch it and then acted as if he hadn’t caught it.
Both Michael Kay (television) and John Sterling (radio) were understandably tricked and went into their home run calls.
Inaccuracy loves company. And to be fair, Cabrera’s prank was as effective as it was unnecessary. Kay and Sterling both come off looking a little better because the other read the play the same way.
It’s still probably a safe bet to just assume all deep fly balls hit by Judge will end up in the seats. Hard to imagine getting burned by doing that too often.