When Michael Kay and John Sterling return to the booth for a pair of New York Yankees Spring Training games this March 15 and 22 on YES Network, it will mark their first time working together on a broadcast since the 2001 World Series.

Two of the most iconic voices in Yankees history, Kay and Sterling have long been household names to Yankees fans across the globe thanks to their decades of experience and the countless unforgettable moments the team has allowed them to call through the years.

“It’s going to be fun to work with Michael again,” Sterling said. “We got along as good as you can get along for ten years in the booth.”

“Those were good times those ten years, so it will be nice to revisit,” Kay said. “[YES Network President of Production and Programming John J. Filippelli] came to me with the idea and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’ I can’t wait.”

The duo first began their decade-long run in 1992, when the Bombers were far from the dynamic world-beating team they eventually came to be. As the Yankees began to transform into one of baseball’s most dominant dynasties of the 20th century, Kay and Sterling’s partnership developed right along with the success of the team.

“The first year I was on the radio, [Buck] Showalter got the job and you could see things were starting to turn,” Kay recalled. “Then in ’93 they got better, ’94 they had the second-best record in baseball when the strike hit, then in ’95 they made the playoffs. It just seemed like all we had the opportunity to call when we were in the booth together was winning teams.”

Before beginning his radio career, Kay cut his teeth as a sports reporter for the New York Post and Daily News. He quickly had to learn how to tackle radio play-by-play duties, as well as how to complement Sterling’s distinct conversational style on the mic.

“Michael has a great feel for everything, and he works hard at it,” said Sterling. “He’s very bright. He had to learn how to do play-by-play, which is just a rhythm thing, you’re just speaking in the English language, but it’s kind of a rhythm thing so it just took a while. But it never took a while for him to talk to me, and so that’s the relationship that we had. It was as good as good can be.”

“[John is] just the perfect radio announcer. He has an unbelievable voice, great cadence, he has a rhythm to his announcing,” said Kay. “That’s probably one of the things I picked up from him, just the rhythm of how he calls the game. He also has a distinct style where he liked to have a conversation where the listener was listening in, and they could feel that they were part of it.”

It’s that highly accessible style that has helped Sterling lead such an accomplished career for so many years, and what has endeared him to the legions of Yankees fans who have enjoyed games on their radios for decades.

“[John] taught me to always be on my toes, always be ready for anything. He could ask me something, I could ask him something. I never told him not to ask me a question, I thought it was great if he did,” said Kay.

As Kay and Sterling steadily grew into a dynamic radio duo, they soon earned the recognition and admiration of none other than “The Boss” himself, George M. Steinbrenner, who made his feelings known after the Yankees’ “agonizing” (Sterling’s words) postseason loss to the Mariners in 1995.

“I did the postgame and then I came downstairs, and the only way to get to the bus – which was behind the center field fence – was to go through the dugout and go on the field,” Sterling recalled. “So I’m going through the dugout and I see George Steinbrenner. He was not looking happy. As I was going past him, he said to me, ‘Don’t worry, there’ll be changes. Not you and Michael, you guys are great!’”

Sterling admits he never shared any direct advice with Kay in the early years of their partnership, instead opting to let Michael develop his own style behind the microphone.

“I don’t give advice, you know why? Obviously, I broadcast a little differently than other people, so I can’t tell someone to broadcast the way I do, we’re all different,” Sterling explained. “Michael had to learn the rhythm of play-by-play, but he’s super bright. Of course he learned, it didn’t take very long. But as far as schmoozing back and forth, that’s why we hired him. Before he was hired, I knew he’d be good at that and it’s turned out he’s been great at that.”

For Kay, one standout memory comes to mind as he reflects back on his early years with Sterling in the booth, and that was during the incredible and dramatic 2001 World Series between the Yankees and Diamondbacks.

In Game four on Halloween Night (later known as Derek Jeter’s “Mr. November” game), the Bombers headed into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 3-1 as Diamondbacks reliever Byung-Hyun Kim attempted to lead Arizona to a commanding 3-1 series lead. But before Jeter’s extra-inning heroics could take place, it was Tino Martinez who shook Yankee Stadium to its core with a game-tying two-run home run to keep hope alive.

Jeter eventually led the Yankees to victory with a walk-off home run off Kim the following inning, but on the very next night, the Yankees found themselves in an almost identical situation trailing 2-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth. This time it was Scott Brosius who played the hero in the Bronx.

“If you listen to John’s call his voice is kind of quavering, and the reason is that we could not believe what we were seeing,” said Kay. “[John] stood up as the ball was going out and I stood up, and I just started punching him in the side, and you could hear his voice going in and out because I’m hitting him. He wasn’t mad or anything, it was just the excitement of the moment. The stadium was literally shaking. I’ll always remember that moment because we looked at each other and by that point we had seen so many unbelievable things being together in the booth. I didn’t know at the time that that was the last series that I would ever do with him, but it will always stay in my mind.”

While the Yankees ultimately did not win the 2001 World Series, it marked the last of five October Classics that Kay and Sterling were able to call together, the first four of which ended with championship parades for the Bombers down the Canyon of Heroes.

“Every day was just a great moment waiting to happen and we had the opportunity to document it on the radio,” said Kay. “It was just amazing.”

Perhaps the most notable quality between Kay and Sterling over their 10-year-long run together was an undeniable chemistry, something almost impossible to predict or forecast when bringing together two talented voices such as theirs.

Echoing a quote from Hollywood legend Paul Newman, “You can’t cast chemistry. It doesn’t work that way,” Sterling said. “Michael picked it up immediately, and it obviously worked out great.”

This spring, as Kay and Sterling get set to reunite for two more Yankees games together, fans will get a rare opportunity to travel back in time and enjoy a true throwback experience as they sit back and enjoy the two esteemed broadcasters reigniting that infectious on-air chemistry once again.

“For some reason it worked, it just meshed,” said Kay. “We turned out to be a really good match.”