On Monday afternoon, iconic New York Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling announced his retirement, effective immediately. The 85-year-old Sterling has reduced his travel and workload in recent years for health reasons. Now he’s stepping away from the booth entirely. The Yankees will honor him with a pregame ceremony this Saturday.
“I am a very blessed human being,” Sterling said in a statement. “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.”
Sterling’s final series in the booth was last weekend at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees hosted the Toronto Blue Jays and his final home run call was a Giancarlo Stanton grand slam. Here is the final home run call of Sterling’s career:
Sterling is famous for his personalized home run calls — “Bern baby Bern!” for Bernie Williams and “An A-bomb for A-Rod” for Alex Rodriguez, on and on we can go — and he broke out the showtunes for Stanton following his trade to New York in 2018.
The New York City-born and -raised Sterling called over 5,400 Yankees games after joining the radio booth in 1989. Prior to that, he called NBA games for the then-Baltimore Bullets and Atlanta Hawks. He also called Atlanta Braves games in the early 1980s.