Yankees history is flush with an embarrassment of luminaries—not just on the diamond, but in the broadcast booth, from Red Barber and Mel Allen to the late John Sterling. Ken Singleton was both a terrific ballplayer and an outstanding broadcaster who spent nearly 25 seasons covering the Yankees on MSG and later the YES Network. While the native New Yorker never suited up for the Yankees in his MLB career, his smooth baritone voice and chemistry with Michael Kay and the rest of the YES crew made him
a fan-favorite in the Bronx.
Kenneth Wayne Singleton
Born: June 10, 1947 (New York, NY)
Yankees Tenure: 1997-2021 (broadcaster)
Singleton was born in New York City and raised in Mount Vernon, in Westchester County. He was a two-sport standout in high school and attended Hofstra University on a basketball scholarship—eventually, though, he chose to pursue baseball.
It was a good choice. Singleton’s advanced plate discipline and ability to switch-hit made him a highly sought-after prospect, drafted in the first round by the Mets in 1967. A few seasons into his big-league career, he was traded to the Expos, where he broke out in 1973 with 23 homers, 103 RBI, and a MLB-best .425 OBP.
A December 1974 trade to Baltimore set the stage for a highly fruitful decade for Singleton with the Orioles. He made three All-Star teams and finished in the top-three in MVP voting twice (runner-up to the Angels’ Don Baylor in 1979, when he hit a career-high 35 bombs), and remained an important veteran leader in 1983 when the Orioles won their third World Series. The switch-hitter would eventually be named to the Orioles Hall of Fame, earning induction in 1986 alongside his longtime teammate, Jim Palmer.
Singleton’s pro career wrapped up after the 1984 campaign, hanging up the spikes with 246 homers and 44.4 fWAR to his name. Soon enough, his second pro career—in the booth—began.
Singleton found his first long-term broadcast home north of the border, in Montreal. The former Expo called games there for a decade, most famously being on the call for Dennis Martinez’s perfect game against the Dodgers in 1991. During his tenure north of the board, Singletton became not just an adept color commentator but a proficient play-by-play man. “Not everyone can do play-by-play,” Singleton told Yankees Magazine in 2022. “So, I started doing it, and that was one thing that I had going for me that other former players didn’t. It certainly helped pave the way to a long career and to me coming to New York.”
In the offseason after the Yankees won the World Series in 1996, Singleton auditioned to join their broadcast crew at MSG Network. He had initially worried that Yankee owner George Steinbrenner would reject him, since he’d never played played in pinstripes. That concern proved to be unfounded as Singleton got the job. “Years later, I found out that he had actually tried to trade for me when I was a player, and it all started to make sense,” he said.
Singleton came aboard at a good time. In his second year calling games alongside the likes of Bobby Murcer and Jim Kaat on MSG, the Yankees put together one of the greatest seasons in MLB history. “I felt like the weatherman in San Diego,” he said about covering the 1998 Yankees, who put him on the call for another perfecto with David Wells. “They were good, and they knew that they were good. They knew that if they got the ball into Mariano Rivera’s hands, people in the Stadium could start looking for the car keys.” Singleton was able to help call good news for the remainder of the decade, as the Bombers took three consecutive championships.
Even as the titles stopped becoming an annual event, Singleton was still behind the mic for plenty of thrilling moments. Tapped to join Murcer, Kaat, Michael Kay, and Paul O’Neill in the YES Network’s inaugural season broadcasting rotation for 2002, Singleton was behind the mic for Jason Giambi’s walk-off grand slam to beat the Twins in 2002. (The official MLB highlight clip has John Sterling’s call, but the Singleton clip is out there on YouTube.)
Singleton made many more memories on the call, but perhaps his last famous one came 17 years later, when he was in the booth in Arizona for CC Sabathia’s 3,000th career strikeout.
Plenty more examples abound of memorable calls from Singleton—in addition to his trademark phrases like “LOOK out!” and “This one is gone!”—but his preparation and bevy of insights from a long and successful career in baseball made him one of the finest color commentators in the business.
Additionally, his gregarious personality gave him great chemistry with everyone he worked with, but especially the head play-by-play man Kay. When, in the penultimate game of the 2021 season, Singleton announced he would be retiring from broadcasting, he and Kay both became emotional.
Singleton had previously stated his intention to retire from YES ahead of the 2018 season, but was convinced by Kay and executive producer John Filippelli to return on a slightly lighter workload—which allowed him to call Sabathia’s milestone moment the following season. This time, though, his retirement was final. The Yankees honored him in a ceremony ahead of the following day’s season finale.
It’s clear that Singleton and Kay shared a special bond: “There’s not a finer person I’ve ever met in the world,” Kay said after Singleton’s announcement. While Kay has continued admirably in his role as the TV voice of the Yankees and David Cone in particular provides great insight, games on YES haven’t quite been the same without Singleton’s sage presence.
The bond between a fanbase and a star player is matched only by a fanbase and a broadcaster. Ken Singleton’s legacy is that of universal kindness and respect, dedication to his craft, and a brilliant approach to discussing the sport he loves. Even though he never played an inning in pinstripes, Kenny’s a Yankee legend. Just say his name around another Yankee fan and watch their face light up—that’s all you need to know.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
