John Sterling, the enthusiastic and eccentric New York Yankees announcer who spent more than three decades calling 5,800-plus games on the radio for the Bronx Bombers, died Monday. He was 87.
A finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024 and 2025, Sterling had suffered a heart attack in January and was recuperating at his home in Edgewater, New Jersey. His death was announced by the New York radio station WFAN.
Sterling started doing play-by-play with the Yankees in 1989 and handled 5,060 consecutive radio broadcasts until he missed his first game in July 2019. He also worked more than 200 postseason contests — calling the final out for five World Series championships — through his retirement in 2024, and his most popular line was a thunderous “Thuuuhhhh Yankees win.”
“I am a very blessed human being,” Sterling said when he announced his days as a play-by-play man were through. “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.”
Born John Sloss on July 4, 1938, Sterling was raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He attended Moravian College, Boston University and Columbia University before landing his first job at a radio station near Buffalo, New York, in 1961.
He worked at stations in Providence, Rhode Island, and Baltimore, where he called games for the NFL’s Colts and NBA’s Bullets, then returned to New York in 1971 to join radio station WMCA.
He also worked contests for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets from 1975-80 and the NHL’s New York Islanders from 1975-78 before moving to Atlanta to handle games for baseball’s Atlanta Braves and the NBA’s Hawks for TBS and WSB Radio.
He took over as the Yankees’ pregame host and play-by-play broadcaster for WABC at age 50 in 1989 and spent 10 seasons in the booth alongside Michael Kay and another 19 with Suzyn Waldman, two of his color analysts. Along the way, he joined the pantheon of memorable Yankees announcers that includes Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer.
His over-the-top home runs calls included “Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!” for Bernie Williams, “It’s a Jeter jolt!” for Derek Jeter, “It’s an A-bomb from A-Rod!” for Alex Rodriguez, “The Giambino!” for Jason Giambi and “A thrilla from Godzilla!” for Hideki Matsui.
The baritone’s iron man streak ended on July 4, 2019, when illness forced him to miss the first of three games. He even worked the 2000 American League Championship Series on the day his wife, Jennifer, gave births to triplets Veronica, Bradford and Derek. (Survivors include another daughter, Abigail.)
After he was replaced by Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims, the 12-time Emmy winner hosted a weekly radio show on WABC last year.
“Showing up to perform virtually every single day since 1989, he was a pillar for Yankees fans who relied on the comfort and familiarity of his voice to be the soundtrack of their spring, summer and fall,” the Yankees said when he retired. “Given the tremendous care he had for the team and his performance on the air, it’s not a stretch to believe that our fans live and die with every pitch, because John Sterling did the same.”
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