The New York Yankees Ken Singleton has given so much to fans and TV viewers: Humility, grace, charm…and of course his amazing voice. Now, still, at the start of the end of his career, we get a chance to say a proper thank you, but never goodbye.
The New York Yankees have so many great announcers that the great Ken Singleton was not at first among my favorites.
Between David Cone’s punchy pronouncements filled with sabermetric facts and historical tidbits, and Paul O’Neill’s old school, shoot-from-the-lip emotional exuberance counterpoint, Ken’s deep voice did not immediately resonate with me.
That’s partially due to Michael Kay. Some New York Yankees fans find him to be the quickest, most erudite broadcaster on the air today, while others think he should take his caustic style to another town, and team; I am in the former camp.
So after hearing his syllabically-filled sentences and overtly wicked jabs, I foolishly found Ken’s more restrained and mature style a bit boring. We all make mistakes.
To be fair to me, some of this was because I was more familiar with the other three. I, like all New York Yankees fans, had spent the nineties and very early 2000’s watching Paulie and Coney win championships. And Kay often took me from his show to the game.
There Was No Google Then
And so I was least knowledgeable about Mr. Singleton, even though I started watching baseball in the mid-70’s. But I only ever watched the New York Yankees play and never checked stats. I barely knew who Ken Singleton was, or how great a player.
Matt Kelly over at MLB.com did such a great job synopsizing all the things I did not know then; it is only fair to present his fine work in total now:
"A native of Mount Vernon, N.Y., just outside the Bronx, Singleton was the Mets’ No. 3 overall pick in the 1967 January Draft and went on to play 15 seasons in the Majors, 10 of those seasons with the Orioles. He placed in the top 10 in league Most Valuable Player voting four times, including a second-place finish to Don Baylor of the Angels in 1979 after hitting a career-high 35 home runs. Singleton was a three-time All-Star and led the Majors with a .425 on-base percentage in 1973 while with the Expos, who acquired him the year before in a trade that sent Rusty Staub to New York. Singleton finished his career with a .282/.388/.436 line and 246 career home runs. He helped the Orioles capture an American League pennant in ’79 and a World Series title in ’83."
I knew none of that when I started watching YES in 2006. And so I thought Ken Singleton was the least of a group that included the insightful and loquacious former New York Yankees pitcher Al Leiter, as well.
As I said, we all make mistakes.