Yankees baseball on the radio will never be the same.
That’s because John Sterling, the legendary voice of the team since 1989 announced on Monday he’s retiring from the broadcast booth, effective immediately.
To say this is devastating news is an understatement. I obviously knew this would happen sooner rather than later given the fact he’s about to be 86 and had been severely cutting down on his broadcast schedule, but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.
Sterling on the radio was the soundtrack to my childhood. I remember being at summer camp in suburban Pennsylvania as a 9-year-old with my transistor radio while everyone else in my cabin was sleeping, hoping the signal would be clear enough on WCBS 880 where I could catch a glimpse of a Sterling call, whether it be a Bernie Williams “Burn Baby Burn”, a Hideki Matsui “Thrilla by Godzilla”, a “Robby Cano… don’t ya know”, a Mark Teixeira “Tex Message” or an iconic “Ballgame Over… Yankees win… Theeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win!” Everyone thought I was crazy, and I probably am, but in an age before social media, my only outlet to getting information about my favorite team at camp was Sterling. And he delivered every time.
In my bedroom in New Jersey, I would mute the TV announcers because I would rather listen to Sterling. After games would end, I would turn on my bedside radio to hear Sterling’s postgame coverage when they replayed his best calls from the game. Whenever I was in the car and got to listen to the team on the radio, I prayed I would get to hear a Yankee home run. And when I did, it was the highlight of the ride. Once Twitter was invented, an account was made called “John Sterling Calls”. There was nothing better.
I had a John Sterling bottle opener where every time you opened a bottle, you would hear his call of a walk-off home run. I also had a cup holder that did the same thing. When the Yankees announced they would be giving away a John Sterling bobblehead on the day of my cousins’ wedding in 2022, I got a ticket, picked up the bobblehead, left the Stadium and went straight to the wedding.
I don’t know if the rest of my lifetime there will be another announcer as synonymous to the identity of a team as Sterling. He called every single Yankees game from 1989 until July of 2019, a span of 5,060 consecutive games without a single day off. He called every pitch of Mariano Rivera’s career and every single at-bat of Derek Jeter’s career. There literally isn’t another person who exists that can say that.
Sterling had his flaws. He would lead you to believe Giancarlo Stanton hit a ball to the moon, only for it to be either caught on the warning track or foul. I had friends and family members who despised him, mocked him for his home run calls. None of the criticism phased him. He never changed for anything or anyone. He always stuck to being himself. How could you not have the ultimate respect for that?
It’s truly the end of an era for the Yankees. The radio broadcasts will continue with other announcers. And much like how Bob Sheppard will always be the voice of Yankee Stadium, John Sterling, to me, will always be the voice of the Yankees.
Here’s to retirement, John. There will never be anyone else like you ever again.
Lucas Frankel Sports 