Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez promise an engaging, honest 'KayRod' alternate telecast

“ManningCast,” it is not. Then again . . .

“We're presently in the legal maneuverings to get adopted by a pair of people so we can actually be brothers, Michael Kay said on Wednesday, "so that will give us more of a ‘Manning Cast’ feel.”

Kay was joking – presumably – on a video news conference to promote ESPN2’s new “KayRod Cast,” premiering on Sunday night and featuring Kay and Alex Rodriguez on an alternate telecast of “Sunday Night Baseball.”

There will be eight such programs this season, with three in the first four Sundays, including Red Sox at Yankees this week and Phillies-Mets on May 1.

“I thought the ‘ManningCast’ was great,” Kay said, referring to the popular alternate “Monday Night Football” show featuring Peyton and Eli Manning that premiered last season.

But Kay said he and Rodriguez do not intend to replicate exactly the Manning brothers’ approach.

“It’s just going to be different,” said Kay, the Yankees play-by-play man on the YES Network and a host on ESPN New York radio. “I think we’re going to pay a little more attention to the game.

“Sometimes the game became secondary with the ‘Manning Cast.’ They were brilliant, and in big moments, they were locked in. I think we’ll be locked in as well.”

Kay said he will have to find a balance between doing traditional play-by-play and the conversational vibe of his radio show.

The Mannings initially featured active players as guests but mostly focused on retired players and other sports and non-sports celebrities.

ESPN senior vice president Mark Gross said “KayRod” is more apt to be “topical” with guests, such as featuring a player who did something notable in a game earlier on Sunday.

Mostly, the goal is a relaxed feel that takes advantage of the close, longstanding relationship between Kay and Rodriguez, who last season was an analyst in the regular Sunday night booth.

“The way I look at it is like we’re going to the ‘Michael Kay Pub,’” Rodriguez said, “and we're inviting whoever wants to show up and just eavesdrop.”

Said Kay, “We’re going to have a party on ESPN2, and whoever shows up at the party, we want them to have the best time that they could possibly have.”

For the first show, Kay and Rodriguez will be together at ESPN’s South Street Seaport studios. Most of the time, they will appear from different locations.

Rodriguez said he told ESPN he no longer wanted to work every Sunday because of his commitments, including as a part-owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves.

He said his comfort with Kay enticed him to maintain a limited role on the network, and in a more freewheeling format than that of the primary telecast.

“We have an opportunity to go narrow and deep and really engage into some great topics,” Rodriguez said.

Unlike the Mannings, Rodriguez carries plenty of personal baggage, including a season-long suspension from baseball in 2014 for performance-enhancing drug use.

Rodriguez this year was named on only 34.3% of Hall of Fame ballots on his first try, far short of the 75% needed for induction.

“I hope I get in one day; it would be an incredible honor,” he said. “I would be terribly disappointed if I don't get in. But if I don't get in, I have no one to blame but myself.

“But I'm certainly going to make it a point and have so far to stay out of it and play it straight and let the chips fall where they fall.”

Kay said there would be no topic off limits. He said he would ask Rodriguez about his current dating situation during Sunday’s telecast, prompting a laugh from Rodriguez.

“It's not like there's a third-rail issue we wouldn't touch,” Kay said. “I think that kind of unpredictability is going to make this ‘KayRod Cast’ something you want to tune into, because anything can happen on any given day.”

Rodriguez was asked about his relationship with Kay overcoming Kay’s prior criticism of him.

“I don’t blame Michael,” he said. “I blame me. I'm the jackass that got in trouble, and Michael was doing his job. That’s why he's good at his job and that's what's going to make this show, I think, really good, is because you're going to get forthrightness from both him and I.

“Honestly, pre-suspension I think the show wouldn't have been as good, because I wasn't as comfortable, and I think I'm just more comfortable in my skin today. And we're going to let it rip.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.