Here at Fordham University, some of the most iconic sports broadcasters have walked through campus: Vin Scully, FCRH ’49, Mike Breen, FCRH ’83 and Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, just to name a few. However, Fordham cannot claim the absolute greatest of them all, the voice of the New York Yankees, John Sterling, who just recently decided to hang up the mic and call it a career.
I started listening to Sterling when I was just a baby. While other parents played their children lullabies or sang to get them to sleep, mine put on Sterling. I have continued that tradition for the last 22 years, from the days of trying to get a signal on my radio before lying down in bed up until today when I put on the Yankees game on my phone before I fall asleep. Each and every night, hoping to hear the legendary “Ballgame over! Yankees win! THEEEEEEE YANKEES WIN” in my dreams.
Like many others, Sterling has not only been an integral part of baseball, but been an integral part of my life as a whole, creating memories for me that will last for a lifetime. Growing up in Massachusetts, when my dad and I would go to a Yankees game, it would be an all-day venture. We would get up early in the day to drive the two hours to the stadium, listen to the pregame show on the way, watch the game and almost always leave about an inning early in order to avoid the traffic for the two-plus hour drive back home. For most people, leaving a game early would be considered a sin and, early on, I thought it was, too. But over the years, I started to love leaving early because it meant that my dad and I could hear and say the classic Yankees win line together.
The iconic line was always great to hear because it meant that the Yankees did, in fact, win. But I would not say that was my favorite part about Sterling calling a game. Again, when either driving in the car with my mom or dad, listening to the game at Nonni’s Lake or on the lawn mower on a hot summer day, calling a home-run ball with him will be what I miss most about Sterling calling games for the Yankees.
There was no better feeling than being caught off guard with a “Hit in the air to deep left, that ball is high, it is far, it is goneee!” Along with the accompanying unique home run call for each individual player on the team throughout the years. Some of my personal favorites are “Robbie Cano! Dontcha know?,” “Gardner plants one!” and number one on my list, “Mark sends a Tex message! You’re on the Mark, Teixeira!”
It is hard to put into words the impact that Sterling has had on my life, and there aren’t nearly enough that would do it justice. Through hard times, through relationships fostered with family members and friends, through the up and down emotions that following the Yankees comes with, one thing has always been constant: Sterling and his soothing and perfect narration of Yankees baseball. He has been there from when I was a baby, throughout my childhood and now into my 20s. In a way, with Sterling retiring, it almost feels like my childhood is over, and it is time for the real world, almost in perfect sequence with the trajectory of my own life.
There will never be another John Sterling, someone who can paint a picture of the beautiful game of baseball, allowing you to see every play that is made without watching a single second. For all these years of doing just that, making words come to life, John, I thank you.
