John Sterling will retire immediately as the lead radio voice of the Yankees, the team announced Monday.
Sterling, 85, has had health challenges in recent years, including early this season, and has cut back severely on his schedule on WFAN, especially for road games.
The Yankees will hold an on-field ceremony for Sterling at Saturday’s game at the Stadium against the Tampa Bay Rays.
“Fans find a certain comfort in the daily rhythms of baseball,” the Yankees said in the news release. “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. John informed and entertained, and he exemplified what it means to be a New Yorker with an unapologetic and boisterous style that exuded his passion for baseball, broadcasting and the New York Yankees.”
Sterling has held the job since 1989 and called 5,420 regular-season games and 211 postseason games for the Yankees.
“I am a very blessed human being,” Sterling said in the news release. “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.”
This season, he worked the Yankees’ opening trip to Houston and Arizona but was scheduled to limit himself to home games and short road trips thereafter.
In a brief interview with Newsday on Monday evening, Sterling did not respond to a question about the state of his health and whether that was a factor in his decision. His final game was the Yankees’ 8-3 victory over the Blue Jays on April 7.
He sounded more relieved than saddened by his decision. “I’ve wanted this for a long time,” he told Newsday. “I should have done it March 1.
“I had this great offseason. We didn’t make the playoffs and I was off October, November, December, January, February and March, and I really rued the coming of the season. If I had any guts, I would have quit on March 1.”
“Anyway, it’s something that I very much want to do, and I can’t wait for it to happen.”
Justin Shackil and Emmanuel Berbari have been filling in for Sterling alongside Suzyn Waldman and presumably will continue to do so for the rest of the season.
Waldman, Sterling’s color analyst since 2005, choked up a bit talking about her longtime partner and friend.
“To see it on paper is pretty final. I’ve known for quite a while, but it’s pretty final to see it on paper,’’ she said. “That gets me emotional. I’ve said to people before, 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 . . . We’ve been friends since ’87 when I was doing updates on FAN and he came in and did a talk show. He stood up for four hours with his hand in his ear and I said, this is a really interesting human being . . . he’s one of a kind. You can’t even describe his personality because that would diminish it. There will never be another person like that.”
Sterling had not missed a game since 1989 before he skipped some in 2019.
His signature home run calls and offbeat style have been a staple of Yankees broadcasts across multiple generations of fans.
Chris Oliviero, market president for Audacy’s New York stations, including WFAN, told Newsday last month, “We all recognize reality, and at some point, my phone’s going to ring and it’s going to be John and he’s going to be like, ‘No mas; I’m done.’ ”
That reality arrived Monday.
“Yankees radio will never quite sound the same without the signature voice, wit and humor of John Sterling,” WFAN said in a statement. “To generations of Bronx Bombers fans, he was a beloved companion that when you heard John, you knew it was time for baseball. Though he never wore the pinstripes, except of course for his fine tailored suits, he was one of the most colorful personalities in Yankees history and in all of New York City radio. All of us at WFAN tip our cap and salute our colleague and friend on a truly iconic career.”
With Erik Boland
A collection of John Sterling’s home run calls of current Yankees (in alphabetical order):.
Oswaldo Cabrera: “Oswaldo Cabrera. The wizard of Oz.”
Aaron Judge: “All rise! Here comes the Judge! On Judgment Day, he homers to [location]!” It has become: “A Judge-ian blast . . . It’s Judge-ment Day, and here comes the Judge.”
DJ LeMahieu: “David John makes long gone!”
Anthony Rizzo: “Nobody beats the Riz. Rizzo rakes once again.”
Juan Soto: “There is a Soto photo,” followed by a melodic “He’s Juan-derful, marvelous.”
Giancarlo Stanton: “Giancarlo, non si può stoparlo! It is a Stantonian home run!”
Gleyber Torres: “This is Gleyber Day! And he is the Gleyber of the month!” as well as “Like a good Gleyber, Torres is there!” It has more recently been combined to: “Oh what a Gleyber Day. Like a good Gleyber, Torres is there.”
Jose Trevino: “Hooray, Jose!” which later became “Ole, Jose!”
Alex Verdugo: “Alex Verdugo! . . . Alexander the Great trots around.”
Anthony Volpe: “Anthony Volpe! A spettacolo oggi! The fox socks one to left!”
Austin Wells: “All’s well that ends well.”
