It could’ve been a scene from Curb.
YES Network Friday will air a commercial for its first broadcast of the 2026 season featuring Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David and Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay. In a hilarious exchange, David vents to Kay over the phone about not being able to find the Yankees game on TV.
“It’s very Curb-like,” Kay told SBJ. “I joked with him when the crew was in L.A. with him, I said you know this could be the next Ted Lasso. We could get a whole series out of this. And he started laughing.”
David is a passionate N.Y. sports fan, rooting for the Yankees, Jets, Knicks and Rangers. He’s also a friend of Kay, which is how YES landed him for the commercial. Kay declined to ask David directly due to their friendship but asked if he could send a pitch from YES to David’s rep. David provided his email and quickly said yes.
Say YES to our new Yankees commercial with Larry David! Watch now. pic.twitter.com/5YTEV6cFjZ
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 27, 2026
“I did not want to infringe upon a friendship and ask him to do something like that. I didn’t want to put pressure on him.”
David appeared on Kay’s old show Centerstage nearly two decades ago. The two have exchanged numbers since, trading texts back and forth.
“It’s funny he’ll actually text me during (Yankee) games, ‘What are they doing?’ or even during football season he has questions. It’s surreal,” Kay said.
Kay explained the unique way the commercial was shot.
“He was in L.A. so our whole crew was in L.A., and we felt that the best way to pull it off was I would do my lines on a speaker over the phone to him so he had my lines to act off of,” Kay said. “And then once that was done that same crew flew to the YES Network studios (in Connecticut) two days later and they played all the stuff that he said to me and then I did my lines off that on camera. They sliced it together, and it looks amazing. What I was told is he was really happy with the way it turned out.”
Kay has bemoaned the fragmentation that Yankee fans face during his ESPN New York radio show. But he understands the economics behind it.
“I’m sure it’s frustrating to the fans and obviously to people that enjoy watching the Yankees on YES, and yeah on my radio show today a lot of people are complaining I want my broadcast team (Wednesday for the Netflix game), but I understand the economic realities of it,” Kay said.
The 2026 season marks the Yankees’ 25th on YES.
