85 Year Old Baseball Legend John Sterling Is Retiring, Effective Immediately, After 36 Seasons Of Being The Voice Of The New York Yankees

Bryan Yablonsky. Getty Images.

Pretty sad news in Yankee land today as John Sterling, the iconic radio voice of the New York Yankees, has announced he'll be retiring effective immediately from the broadcast booth. The legend has been doing this since 1989, having called over 5,000 games. John went three decades without missing a single game, before ending that run in 2019. Once that run ended you knew this day was coming sooner rather than later, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. 

(The Athletic)

The legendary radio voice of the Yankees, John Sterling, is planning to hold a news conference Friday where he is expected to announce plans on his future, he told The Athletic.

There is an expectation among Yankees and WFAN officials that he will retire because of health concerns, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. The team and the station have left it up to Sterling, leaving the possibility he could change his mind.

John retiring effective immediately, just two weeks into the season, made me fear his health was rapidly declining. 

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Fortunately, Michael Kay just said on his radio show that Sterling's health is fine and that he's just tired and feels it's time to step away. I hope that's actually true. 

While his health being in a good shape is obviously great news, it makes me so sad that we won't get to tune in for one more game with John on the mic. That's the kind of guy he is though, never putting himself above anyone. Retirement tour? No thanks, he's tired and wants to just relax at home. 

On Saturday he'll have a press conference and be honored by the Yankees at the Stadium. Seems like he'll also do a half inning in the booth before hanging them up for good. 

John Sterling has been a staple in my life ever since I was born. From April through October if we were in the car it was up to John to entertain us with his call of the Yankee game. He truly was the soundtrack of the Yankees for me up until right now. 

And sure, as he got older the calls got crazier. Dickheads out there would make fun of his mistakes, ignoring the fact that he'd been doing this shit for longer than they'd been alive. It became more of the charm. You'd still get the iconic voice, the passion, the personality, just now he might call an Aaron Judge home run off a replay he saw, or a Stanton homer that went squarely off the Green Monster.

John calling games was the best. He'd give it to you straight. If the Yankees stunk, he'd be brutally honest. That made it even better when he'd get excited because you knew it came from a genuine place. Being in the car when he called a great moment was euphoric. For me that was Jeter's 3,000th hit, a homer off David Price to tie the game, as I was  coming back from a travel baseball game. We nearly drove off the road in excitement. Yes we missed it on TV, but at least we got John for it. 

And of course there were calls that will live forever, like Tino's bomb in the 2001 World Series. 

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or Brosius' game-tying homer the very next game

(don't ask about what happened after these games, the WS was best of 5 that year) 

Thrilla from Godzilla, Bern Baby Bern, or Bamtino are some of my immediate favorite home run calls, but there are legit COUNTLESS others. 

Maybe my favorite thing I've ever done in my life was interview him for an hour down in Tampa. One of the best conversations I've ever been apart of. Guy even complimented us afterwards since he'd never even done a podcast before. I'll never forget it. 

Do I wish he had one more game left in him? I'd kill for it. But you know what my grandpa was doing at 85 years old? Taking his walker and leaving our house as he tried to catch the next train out of Poland to escape the Germans. We lived in New Jersey and he had no idea what was going on. At that age John was taking foul balls off the dome and continuing on with the call like the legend that he is. 

 I bid John Sterling a great retirement, with as much health as can be. Saturday is gonna break me. After 5,420 regular season games and 211 postseason games the journey ends. Goddammit.