I have been a NY Yankees fan since I can remember. I remember Mickey’s best years, I was so enthralled by the ’61 season and forever became a Roger Maris fan (I wore his number 9 during my little league career). I can still hear Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto on my 6 transistor radio that was under my pillow so I could listen to the west coast night games. While there were other broadcasters who were part of the radio and TV telecasts during that time, it was, for me, a straight line from them to John Sterling.

While I love to watch baseball, for me, it remains a radio game. The pace allows for it to be in the background while life is moving around. The pictures a great announcer paints are as vivid visually, maybe even more so, than what your actual eyes see. John painted those pictures incredibly well. Some were soft like a Van Gogh, some scattered and frenetic like a Jackson Pollock. Whatever he painted fit the moment as well as the entire event.

Summer 1993: I had ruptured both patella tendons in late June when I jumped with joy when my son Drew’s little league team won a semi final playoff game and my mobility was severely limited for that entire summer. He had just turned 9 earlier that June, was my constant companion and one of the things we did a lot of was watch and listen to Yankee baseball. It created a bond that has never diminished even though geography and life has us pretty far apart physically today (as an aside, I’m working on remedying that #iykyk)

I had not seen the news yet this morning about John’s passing but at 9:13 AM, just as I finished the round of the daily tournament on Golf+VR that I play each day, I got a text from Drew that simply said “Shit, John Sterling passed.” No other words were necessary, that text spoke volumes and whoever tells you that there is no emotion in a text is simply foolish. For 36 seasons his voice was a constant, for most of those 36 Drew and I (and yes, Katie as well) would listen in the car, at home, out in the yard, and even for a few years on the boat I owned. Spring training was a sign of a new start each year, and also the sign that the school year was ending and summer was on the horizon. There is, to this day, magic to the sturm and drang of both a baseball game and the entire season. Drew was born in 1984, John became the radio voice of the Yankees in 1989, almost exactly at the time that we started listening together, and for many of the years since we have been incredibly lucky to follow a team that has been largely successful ’96 was very special, ’98,’99,’00 was a run that helped us through some tough times. Through it all, there was one constant… Baseball (specifically Yankee baseball). (Ok, I kinda stole most of that thought from James Earl Jones and part of that constant was John Sterling. From “Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!” all the way to “All rise! Here comes the Judge!” the home run calls were frequently rebroadcast on highlight shows both on radio and television. While he was clearly a “homer” when it came to calling a game, he was never less than honest. One comment during a particularly inept period sticks in mind: “Boy, if that wasn’t the Yankees. That’s what they do, run the bases like drunks!”.

You could hear the sadness in his voice when they lost, but you also waited for the final call when they won: “Ballgame over! The Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!” (The length of “the” often matched the excitement of the win). And, of course, the best version of all was “Ballgame over! WORLD SERIES OVER, The Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees WIN!”

All who had the opportunity to listen to John Sterling for those 36 seasons were winners… He was and always will be an American Original. Rest well, sir, you will be missed but never forgotten.