It is high....it is far....John Sterling is gone from the Yankees broadcast booth

[RedOctober3829]

The legendary radio voice of the Yankees, John Sterling, is planning to hold a news conference Friday where he is expected to announce plans on his future, he told The Athletic.
There is an expectation among Yankees and WFAN officials that he will retire because of health concerns, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. The team and the station have left it up to Sterling, leaving the possibility he could change his mind.

WFAN will replace Sterling with 37-year-old Justin Shackil and 24-year-old Emmanuel Berbari, who combined are 24 years younger than Sterling. The two were already slated to call the majority of the road games this season with Suzyn Waldman.

https://theathletic.com/5417468/2024/04/15/john-sterling-announcement-yankees-retirement/

 

[Over Guapo Grande]

A Stantonian retreat.

 

[Buck Showalter]

Emmanuel Berbari.

I've met this kid numerous times while he was in high school --- doing play-by-play.

Great young man.

 

[bankshot1]

It is high, it is far...

Father Time always make the catch.

 

[Van Everyman]

He’ll say he’s gone only to show up for routine duty the following day.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

I know lots of people hate Sterling, but he has been my lone broadcast connection to my favorite team for a very long time. He has a tremendous voice and despite his failing vision, still offers fantastic calls. His home run calls have been cringe at times (ARod and Matsui come to mind), but for the most part offer a fun tradition to broadcasts.

Plus, I love the random factoid that he called Larry Bird's 60 point game.

 

[ThePrideofShiner]

Yankees just made it official. Sterling has retired effective immediately and will be honored at the Stadium on Saturday.

Is he on death's door or something? I know he is really old, but this is all very bang-bang.

 

[ifmanis5]

View: https://twitter.com/BryanHoch/status/1779974406241915076


John Sterling is retiring, effective immediately.

“I am a very blessed human being. I have been able to do what I wanted, broadcasting for 64 years. As a little boy growing up in New York as a Yankees fan, I was able to broadcast the Yankees for 36 years. It’s all to my benefit, and I leave very, very happy. I look forward to seeing everyone again on Saturday.”

 

[luckiestman]

Great radio voice. Weird combo for many but losing Gorman and Sterling sucks for me.

 

[bankshot1]

Look on the bright side

The booth is half-filled.

MFY fans still have Suzyn

 

[EvilEmpire]

I’ll miss Sterling. We’ve talked about him a bunch over the years, good and bad. Like Rizzuto was, he’s been a part of my fandom for a very long time. I appreciate his work and enjoyed the banter he had with Waldman. It was a comfortable listening experience.

I hope his health is ok and he gets to enjoy many years of retirement.

 

[cromulence]

Damn, what an abrupt end. I've been extremely frustrated by him for at least ten years now, but that was just him aging and hanging on too long. He always had great pipes, though - I'll miss the sound of his voice on a summer night.

 

[joe dokes]

I know lots of people hate Sterling, but he has been my lone broadcast connection to my favorite team for a very long time. He has a tremendous voice and despite his failing vision, still offers fantastic calls. His home run calls have been cringe at times (ARod and Matsui come to mind), but for the most part offer a fun tradition to broadcasts.

Plus, I love the random factoid that he called Larry Bird's 60 point game.

My first exposure to him was his radio of the NY Raiders of the WHAs 1st season. He gave a goaile the nickname The Lone Raider, which 12yr old me thought was clever. Im pretty sure R-r-r-aider goal!!! Raider goal!!!!! Raider goal!!!!!!!!!! was the primordial soup from which "Theee Yankeees win!" emerged.

I think he also called a legendarily long Braves extra inning game in the mid 80s.

 

[pedro1918]

Well Suzyn, in life, all good things must come to an end.

 

[Vinho Tinto]

Well Suzyn, in life, all good things must come to an end.

We all need people to love us like Suzyn loved Joe Torre.
View: https://youtu.be/8m6CRBsWb3U?si=GWH8Ckmk8R-ZxBQO

 

[nattysez]

Yankees just made it official. Sterling has retired effective immediately and will be honored at the Stadium on Saturday.

Is he on death's door or something? I know he is really old, but this is all very bang-bang.

I wonder if he did a couple of games earlier this year and realized he wasn't going to be able to keep doing it.

The thing that doesn't really make sense is announcing a Friday press conference with no specifics. Did they think no one would figure out that he was going to announce his retirement at that presser?

I enjoyed making fun of him over the years, but fully admit he was a very good announcer for a long time.

 

[Bongorific]

I’m in Yankees radio territory so I’ll certainly miss him and Suzyn. Together with the actual circus music WFAN uses during the pre and post game, it presented a fantastic comical package.

 

[greek_gawd_of_walks]

As long as I wasn't listening to a Sox/Yanks game, I always enjoyed Sterling and Waldman's banter. Sometimes they'd be talking right past each other. Sometimes it was comical. Other times, astute.

Crazy to see two people so synonymous with their team's depart a day apart in Gorman and Sterling.

 

[Petagine in a Bottle]

Another NYC resident here- this should have happened years ago but it is still kind of sad in that yet another link to those glory days of the rivalry is gone. Time marches on.

 

[Average Reds]

He hung on waaaaayyy too long, to the point where he’s been self-parody for years. But Sterling was a throwback (in his style) and his absolute love of the game was evident every minute he was on the air.

It’s been well over a decade since he was at his best, but he had a great baseball voice, he knew what he was taking about and he understood the cadence/rhythm of how to make a radio broadcast enjoyable. His unabashed fandom for his team and the game was always amusing, even touching.

 

[Humphrey]

I know lots of people hate Sterling, but he has been my lone broadcast connection to my favorite team for a very long time. He has a tremendous voice and despite his failing vision, still offers fantastic calls. His home run calls have been cringe at times (ARod and Matsui come to mind), but for the most part offer a fun tradition to broadcasts.

Plus, I love the random factoid that he called Larry Bird's 60 point game.

(going to post this in the Gorman thread too)....has anyone come across Gorman's call of the event? View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRUlpUkPMLA

 

[Greg Blosser]

I listened to a few games during spring training and the first week of the season and Sterling seemed his usual self, for better or worse. I'm going to miss him, though - despite who they worked for, John and Suzyn were ridiculous, hilarious, strangely endearing, and totally New York. I always put them on in the background, especially during day games - their kvetching was hypnotic. The end of an era, indeed.

 

[RS2004foreever]

Stirling was great - and given Red Sox success over the last 20 years easy to troll. He and Susyn spiraled after the Wild Card Loss in '21 - just good clean Schadenfreude for Red Sox fans.
Baseball on the radio can be great - it's like background music. Stirling was perfect for it.

 

[Vinho Tinto]

One thing that has kind of been lost with time was how front and center Sterling and Kay were during the Yankees run in '96. Their radio calls were regularly played on SportsCenter. Sterling had been calling Yankees games for a while, but I don't remember "Yankees Win!" being so prominent before then.

 

[Congo]

I remember listening to Sterling on the radio in the early 90s, so it's going to be so strange not hearing him anymore. And as annoying as his manufactured calls are, he's got such a great voice for radio.

A lot of people mistakenly think of him as a huge homer but I don't think that's true. He just thinks everyone is fantastic. He's as complimentary as anyone on the other roster as he is of any Yankee.

 

[EvilEmpire]

He's as complimentary as anyone on the other roster as he is of any Yankee.

This is true. He had some moments, but far more often than not, I think he was looking for good things to say about players on both rosters. I don't know if it could be considered old fashioned or not, but he had a gentlemanly way of calling a game. Opposite of edgy.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

There were some Yankees Red Sox games a few years ago where they did booth crossovers so you could hear Castig on the Yankees broadcast and Sterling on the Red Sox. He was really cool during those segments. Knowledgeable and gracious, well spoken about the rivalry. He went from a guy I thought of as a punchline to a guy I decided I would like. And from then on, I have, notwithstanding my feelings otherwise for that repulsive franchise. :0)

 

[chrisfont9]

This is true. He had some moments, but far more often than not, I think he was looking for good things to say about players on both rosters. I don't know if it could be considered old fashioned or not, but he had a gentlemanly way of calling a game. Opposite of edgy.

Yeah, that was my impression. Kind of surprising to me when I finally discovered him and Waldman. I rather enjoyed listening to them from time to time. They were more dignified than I had imagined a Yankee broadcast being (I don't know much about NY radio besides WFAN).

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

My first exposure to him was his radio of the NY Raiders of the WHAs 1st season. He gave a goaile the nickname The Lone Raider, which 12yr old me thought was clever. Im pretty sure R-r-r-aider goal!!! Raider goal!!!!! Raider goal!!!!!!!!!! was the primordial soup from which "Theee Yankeees win!" emerged.

I think he also called a legendarily long Braves extra inning game in the mid 80s.

The Rick Camp game.