Michael Kay was not bashful about criticizing Joe Torre on his 1050 ESPN radio show even when Torre was managing the team for which Kay works as a play-by-play man.
With Torre on the West Coast, though, Kay has added another layer to his Torre repertoire, calling him "St. Joe," as he did Tuesday in criticizing the Dodgers manager for having contact this season with former players of his such as Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada.
I asked Kay about this Tuesday between his radio and TV gigs.
"He’s earned that aura from all his years," Kay said. "He can do no wrong. I don’t think he’s doing anything in his mind that’s wrong. But he shouldn’t be calling players from other teams in my opinion.
"I said I don’t think anybody is going to do anything about it, because it’s St. Joe. You can’t go up against Joe Torre, and I know I’ll be criticized. A caller called up and said, 'You must not like Joe Torre because he was on with [WFAN's Mike Francesa and Chris Russo].'
"I don't care that he was on with them. He had a relationship with them, he got paid by them. That really has nothing to do with it. I just feel it’s improper.
"I never used St. Joe when he was here. I just put 'saint' on it. Even when he got fired it was like you’d gotten rid of Pope John Paul. So now I call him St. Joe.
"I don’t mean it in a derogatory way. I actually think that’s the way he’s thought of, as a saint. A lot of people take that as a negative."