Kay apologizes for clumsy jab at Frazier

Michael Kay desperately wanted to make a clarification.

After Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier took offense to the way Kay discussed his injury on Kay’s ESPN radio show Monday, the broadcaster scrambled for damage control. He first took to Twitter to directly answer Frazier’s tweet about the incident before going on his own show Tuesday — while on vacation — to issue a lengthy explanation.

“I was kind of shocked because people that have listened to the show for a long period of time — or not even a long period of time, just this year — know that I have been staunch in my defense of Clint Frazier,” Kay said in a phone call to the show. “Anybody that has questioned the veracity of his injuries, I’ve said, ‘Listen you can’t get inside anybody’s head, especially when it’s a head injury.’ ”

Kay, who is also the Yankees’ play-by-play man for the YES Network, went on to explain the incident to listeners who weren’t up to date, claiming that as he pointed out Monday how the Yankees were forced to start Shane Robinson in the outfield Sunday night against the Red Sox he used a poor choice of words to express his disappointment in not having Jacob Ellsbury (hip) or Clint Frazier (concussion) playing instead.

“I said shame on Jacoby Ellsbury and shame on Clint Frazier for not getting better, meaning obviously I meant that they’re not here, it’s a shame that they’re not here,” Kay explained. “And I said shame on — thinking that people would obviously understand the words but ... I messed up.

“I certainly apologized to Clint Frazier on Twitter, because he was the one who put it out there, saying, ‘You shouldn’t question me.’ And I can’t be angry at him because if you didn’t know the history of what I’ve said about him, you would think that that was what I meant, that I was questioning it.”

Kay stressed he believes injuries are not to be questioned because “obviously when somebody misses baseball they’re missing baseball because they can’t play.”

In addition to his Twitter apology, Kay said he called Frazier and had a nice conversation with the 23-year-old outfielder who he believes now understands where Kay was coming from. Frazier apparently told Kay he desperately wants to get back to playing.

Aaron Boone commented on the matter before Tuesday night’s game in Chicago.

“I have not seen the exact comments that Michael made,” the manager said. “I saw Clint’s tweet and I saw Michael’s response this morning, a little bit apologetic. I know Michael and Clint spoke this morning and had a good conversation.’’