Apple rejects YES offer of Kay & more to air Yanks’ game Friday

THE Yankees have tried to facilitate a trade with Apple TV+ to put the Yankees’ game Friday on YES, The Post has learned. They have offered Michael Kay, David Cone and Paul O’Neill plus production support to Apple.

While Apple and MLB, as of Thursday night, had declined the offer to put the game on YES, there was hope Kay would be in play on a loaner deal that would make him part of the Apple broadcast for Friday night as Aaron Judge approaches Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers.

Thursday night, however, Kay told the website Front Office Sports he would not be part of the Apple TV+ streaming broadcast, citing a de- sire not to upstage Apple’s usual play-by-player, Stephen Nelson.

The website also reported that Kay said he was never approached about taking part in the broadcast, but contacted Apple after learning about it online.

“The first I learned of this is from The Post’s website,” Kay told The Post. “At first blush, I would feel very uncomfortable taking the assignment away from someone else.”

Apple TV+ is scheduled to have the exclusive broadcast of the game Friday. While it is a subscription service, Apple has been offering its Friday night MLB games for free. It is scheduled to have the broadcast team of Nelson, Hunter Pence and Katie Nolan on the call.

Kay also is a part of ESPN’s MLB coverage, hosting on some “Sunday Night Baseball” games with Alex Rodriguez on SNB’s “KayRod” broadcasts.

While YES officials are still holding out hope that MLB and Apple would be willing to allow YES to air the game in conjunction with Apple TV’s national stream, sources with knowledge of Apple’s and MLB’s thinking remained pessimistic.

YES, according to sources, is also amenable to just running Apple’s broadcast on its air to make it easier for Yankees fans to watch. That would allow Apple to maintain its exclusivity

around the country.

Fox Sports also made overtures about the game, but the discussion did not go far.

Apple and MLB officials so far have balked at the proposals, as is their contractual right. They made the deal to see whether baseball can help Apple’s service grow. Judge’s pursuit of Maris’ 61 homers is about as good a game as it could imagine to have on its air.

That said, without YES, the fact that Judge’s at-bats will only be on Apple TV+ on Friday is likely going to cause a stir.

While you are informed because you faithfully read The Post’s sports media coverage, sadly, not everyone does. There is anticipation that such a monumental moment in baseball history will fail to have the full distribution channels.

Apple sees the game Friday night as a chance to grow its business, even though the nature of its agreement with MLB does not give it continuity. Though it will likely get an increase in viewership Friday, will those same people return in a week? And will it be worth the ill will?

While Amazon Prime Video is the home to 21 exclusive Yankees games this season, Apple only has each MLB team on a few times.

The nature of how fans watch baseball is local, with a familiarity with its network and its broadcasters.