John Sterling, Voice of the Yankees, retires after 36 seasons
Long-time broadcaster for the New York Yankees, John Sterling, has announced his retirement (photo courtesy ofJim McIsaac/Getty Images).
Longtime New York Yankees play-by-play commentator John Sterling abruptly announced his retirement after 36 years on Monday, Apr. 15. Sterling, who will turn 86 on July 4, 2024, cited fatigue as his reason for the decision, despite many speculating he was quietly struggling with health concerns. No matter the reason, Sterling is both a New York and baseball legend who will be remembered by Yankees fans for years to come.
Sterling began his radio career in professional sports as a commentator for both the New York/New Jersey Nets of the NBA and New York Islanders of the NHL on WMCA, WVNJ, WOR-TV, and SportsChannel New York throughout the 1970s. At the turn of the decade, Sterling left for Atlanta and became a prominent voice for the Hawks in the NBA and the Braves, his first job with Major League Baseball (MLB), in the mid-1980s.
In 1989, Sterling returned to New York and was hired as the play-by-play commentator of the Yankees. Throughout his 36-year-career, Sterling was paired with multiple on-air partners including, most notably, Michael Kay, the Yankees’ current TV play-by-play commentator from 1992-2001, and Suzyn Waldman, MLB’s first full-time female color commentator beginning in 2005 and continuing until his retirement.
From the start of his tenure with the team until July 2019, Sterling called 5,060 straight games which included five World Series championships for the franchise and every at-bat of captain Derek Jeter’s 20-year career. After taking on a more reduced role in recent years that included limited traveling throughout the season, Sterling wrapped up his career last week after a total of 5,631 games. His illustrious career and games called amounted to nearly 30 percent of all games that the Yankees have played over their 121-year history.
In the booth, Sterling is most well-known for his ingenious and creative home run calls that almost always included a pun or play on the batter’s name. Some of his most famous include “Bern baby Bern,” which he would shout after a Bernie Williams dinger in the late ‘90s, or “The Grandy Man Can” which he would sing to the tune of Aubrey Woods’ “The Candy Man” from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, when outfielder Curtis Granderson would wallop a hit into the bleachers in the early-2010s. On top of the home run calls, the Yankees’ commentator always ended his broadcasts of a team win with his signature “Sterling Shake” in which he put his fists in the air while yelling “The Yankees win, theeeeeeee Yankees win!”
In a statement following his retirement announcement, the Yankees franchise expressed Sterling’s importance to the fans, saying, “Day in and day out, season after season, and city after city, John Sterling used his seat in the broadcast booth to bring Yankees fans the heartbeat of the game, employing an orotund voice and colorful personality that were distinctly, unmistakably his own.” Along with the team, Waldman stated, “Nothing will ever be the same. It can’t be… Life goes on, and we all go on, but nothing will ever be the same…Everything about him is unique. He’s one of a kind.”
Sterling was honored by the Yankees following his announcement on Saturday, Apr. 20, in an on-field ceremony in which he was presented with a video featuring retired Yankees expressing their gratitude for him, along with physical gifts such as a television with which he can continue to watch Yankees’ games on following his retirement. Before that event, however, Sterling recalled his tenure with the franchise and thankfulness for the position, stating, “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.”