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| Michael Kaye and John Sterling |
Michael Kay broke down on air Monday while paying tribute to his former radio partner John Sterling, the longtime voice of the Yankees, who died at age 87.
I didn’t think I had any tears left to cry today, but man, was I wrong. My heart breaks for the Sterling family. Love and prayers. Thank you @RealMichaelKay for doing an amazing job portraying the kind of man Mr. Sterling was. I don’t know how you held it together but we are… pic.twitter.com/HfxYbnP4vz
— Madyson (@Majorleaguemadd) May 4, 2026
Sterling passed away after suffering heart failure roughly one week following open-heart surgery. He had endured multiple heart attacks and was left bed-ridden for so long after the procedure that he lost the ability to walk, Kay said on his ESPN NY Radio show.
Despite the setbacks, Sterling had been aggressively pushing through rehabilitation, driven by his desire to walk his oldest daughter, Abigail, down the aisle at her wedding this summer.
“Michael, I have to walk her down the aisle,” Sterling told Kay, according to the emotional broadcast.
Kay grew audibly emotional and paused at length before continuing: “And that’s why he was hanging on. ... But he’ll be walking her down as he looks down on his family.”
Kay noted that Sterling, a lifelong Yankees fan for whom broadcasting the team “meant the world,” ultimately could not achieve that goal in person.
The two worked together as radio partners on ABC from 1992 to 2001. Kay described Sterling as authentic on air as he was in life — “one of a kind” — and said he had “never, ever, ever in my life met anyone like him.”
“It’s hard to talk about him in the past tense,” Kay added, “because I’ve never met a man who was more full of life.”