Broadcaster makes hilarious historical mistake

Benjamin Franklin is a significant figure in American history, but longtime New York Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay has now credited the Founding Father with an invention created centuries before his birth.

During Monday’s matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees, the Amazon Prime Video broadcast captured B-roll of a Franklin statue depicting him using a printing press.

“Well it was very fortuitous that Ben Franklin invented the printing press and the printing press gives you your newspapers,” said Kay. “So start spreading the news. Have the Yankees turned the corner? Have they snapped out of their funk?”

Franklin is of course synonymous with helping draft a number of important U.S. documents such as the Declaration of Independence, and he also became America’s first great printer, introducing new and improved printing technology in the colonies.

But he did not invent the printing press. That honor goes to Johannes Gutenberg, a German inventor who accomplished the task on an entirely different continent more than 250 years before Franklin was born.

It’s a hilarious mistake that Kay might have a hard time living down. And as you may expect, a number of viewers were quick to pick up on Kay’s error during the game.

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