John Sterling died this past week at the age of 87. He was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Bronx Bombers and so much more. He and his voice will never be forgotten.
Over the course of covering the Yankees for 36 seasons (1989-2019), Sterling called 5,651 total games, including 211 postseason games, and an otherworldly 5,060 consecutive games.
–Sterling did not hit monstrous home runs like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Alex Rodriguez, and Aaron Judge.
–Sterling did not trot in from centerfield in the ninth inning to a thunderous applause the way Mariano Rivera did, while Enter Sandman blasted through the stadium, en route to closing out the game 652 times.
–Sterling did not manage the Yankees to seven World Series titles, the way Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel did, or to four titles, the way Joe Torre did.
–Sterling did not make personnel decisions like Brian Cashman, or fire and rehire managers, the way the late George Steinbrenner did.
–Sterling did not go airborne the way Derek Jeter did, and do the patented jump throw in shallow left field, or flip the ball to Jorge Posada at home plate, or finish sixth all-time in hits, including with the most postseason hits of all time.
But it’s more than fair to say that Sterling is the Joe DiMaggio or Cal Ripken Jr. of sports broadcasting. He took us along for the ride—literally. With Sterling behind the microphone, the Yankees won five World Series Championships and appeared in the Fall Classic eight times.
I dare say, there is not a single Yankees fan who cannot credit John Sterling with getting them through a National Lampoon’s style family vacation car ride … or a never-ending traffic jam on the FDR drive … or a late-night West Coast game on a hot summer night when the AC conks out, and the only relief is a radio with John Sterling’s voice coming through it.
And who can forget the nicknames Sterling applied when various Yankees hit home runs.
“Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!” for Bernie Williams
“Jorgie juiced one!” for Jorge Posada
“El Capitán” for Derek Jeter.
“It’s an A-Bomb! From A-Rod!” for Alex Rodriguez.
“The Bam-Tino!” for Tino Martinez.
“A thrilla by Godzilla!” for Hideki Matsui.
“Robbie Canó, don’t cha know?!” for Robinson Cano.
“He sends a Tex message!” for Mark Teixeira.
“Giancarlo, non si può de stopparlo!” for Giancarlo Stanton.
“All Rise! Here comes the Judge!” for Aaron Judge.
Sterling made you realize that baseball is the only major sport in the modern era where the radio still means something.
And in a city full of larger-than-life people and institutions, he embodied the New York Yankees during the gritty Yankee dynasty years of the mid-to-late 90s and early 2000s. His thunderous baritone, like that of the late, great, longtime public address announcer Bob Shephard, was majestic, much like the way the Twin Towers once embodied the New York City skyline.
Consider this. During the 2001 World Series, with the nation still reeling from the September 11 attacks, and trailing 0-2 against the Diamondbacks, the Yankees took the next three games in the Bronx, with one late-inning heroic after another, each seemingly more dramatic than the previous night.
Listen to his call of Scott Brosius’s game-tying, ninth-inning home run in Game 5 of the 2001 World Series. It will tell you all you need to know about who John Sterling was, and the passion that he brought to every pitch of every game
“Swung on and hit in the air to deep left! That ball’s high! It is far! It is gone! I don’t believe it! Once again, deja vu! A two-out, game-tying two-run home run by Scott Brosius!” Sterling bellowed, creating his own Bobby Thomson “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” moment.
There’s more, of course. Listen to Sterling’s call of the final out of David Wells’ perfect game in 1998.
“The 0-1, swung on, he’s gonna get it! Popped up to right field, O’Neill, near the line. He makes the catch! David Wells! David Wells has pitched a perfect game! Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down! Baseball immortality for David Wells, and the Yankees win! Theeee Yankeeeeees Winnnnn!”
Sterling did more than simply call Yankees games. He painted a portrait of what was happening. In one breath, he could describe the play that happened and then contextualize it (as the academics like to say) better than anyone else.
Proof of that is his call of Jeter’s famous stands-diving catch against the Red Sox in 2004. Watch the clip, with the sound, and then play it again with just the sound. The audio-only version, what radio listeners heard that night, is almost as good as watching the catch.
It didn’t matter where we were when listening to the Yankees on the radio. John Sterling always made us remember exactly where we were … listening to the Yankees on the stoop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, during the August blackout of 2003, or enjoying a mint-chip ice cream cone, outside Soco Creamery, in Lenox, Massachusetts.
No matter where we were, with his voice, John Sterling took us inside the stadium and down onto the field.
In a very real way, John Sterling was a baseball poetry podcast.
His excitement for the Yankees was our excitement. His disappointment was our disappointment. Yankee triumphs were Sterling’s triumphs, and all of us were victorious together.
Sterling’s voice will never be forgotten.
John Sterling (photo via Reddit)
