{"id":648452,"date":"2026-05-05T02:39:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/648452\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T02:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:39:46","slug":"legendary-yankees-broadcaster-john-sterling-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/648452\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Yankees broadcaster John Sterling dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 John Sterling, the theatrical New York Yankees<\/a> radio broadcaster known for extravagant, individualized home run calls, has died, the team and radio station WFAN announced Monday. He was 87.<\/p>\n

Sterling had undergone heart bypass surgery this winter and after the procedure was attended to by health care aides at his home in Edgewater, New Jersey. The team said he died at a New Jersey hospital.<\/p>\n

He had called 5,631 games \u2014 5,420 regular season plus 211 post-season \u2014 when he\u00a0retired in April 2024\u00a0just after the season’s start, citing fatigue. Sterling broadcast 5,060 consecutive games from September 1989 through July 2019 after beginning with the Yankees as a pregame host. He\u00a0came out of retirement\u00a0to broadcast Yankees games during the 2024 post-season.<\/p>\n

Sterling’s call for a player\u2019s home run became as treasured a part of a Yankees identity as an initial set of pinstripes or a championship ring. As rookies prepared for debuts and former opponents arrived in trades, fans speculated how he would label the newcomer’s first longball.<\/p>\n

From \u201cBernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!\u201d for Bernie Williams, to \u201cIt\u2019s a Jeter jolt!\u201d for Derek to \u201cIt\u2019s an A-bomb from A-Rod!\u201d for Alex Rodriguez, \u201cThe Giambino!\u201d for Jason Giambi and \u201dA thrilla from Godzilla!\u201d for Hideki Matsui, Sterling created personal stamps resonating from the clubhouse to the bleachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t meant that way. I just happened to do something for Bernie Williams. He hit a home run and I said, ‘Bern, baby, Bern!’ And it kind of mushroomed from there,” Sterling said at the time of his retirement. “But it never was intended for every player, because, frankly, I\u2019m not smart enough to do something for every player. But I did the best I could, and it\u2019s amazing what started out as \u2014 became so big.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did say ‘A-bomb from A-Rod!’ when he hit a home run and I did say: ‘Robbie Can\u00f3, don\u2019t you know,\u2032 and I think those were pretty good,\u201d Sterling said of calls for Rodriguez and Robinson Can\u00f3.<\/p>\n

Born Josh Sloss on July 4, 1938, Sterling grew up in Manhattan and left college to work for radio stations. He had wanted to be a broadcaster since hearing \u201cThe Eddie Bracken Show\u201d in the 1940s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be Eddie Bracken. I wanted to be the guy who says: ‘Live from Hollywood!\u2019\u201d Sterling said. \u201cAnd I knew that maybe a year or two later, but before puberty I knew I was going to be on the air. And it really helped me because I didn\u2019t worry about school, because I knew what I was going to do. And it was a good thing because I was a terrible student \u2014 terrible.”<\/p>\n

He started his radio career in 1960 at a station in Wellsville, New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was preparing this all my life. It was easy,\u201d he said. \u201cI could always open my mouth and talk.”<\/p>\n

Sterling cited Mel Allen, Russ Hodges and Jim Karvellas as influences. He wound up joining Allen in the history of memorable Yankees broadcasters along with Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank Messer.<\/p>\n

Sterling announced the NBA\u2019s Washington Bullets and Morgan State football in his early years and gained notoriety for shrieking \u201cIslanders goal! Islanders goal!\u201d during the hockey team\u2019s games from 1975-78 along with those of the NBA\u2019s Nets from 1975-80.<\/p>\n

Sterling\u2019s first connection with the Yankees was during WMCA pregame radio talk shows from 1971-78. He moved to Atlanta and worked for the Braves from 1982-87 and Hawks from 1981-89 before switching to the Yankees, where he replaced Hank Greenwald.<\/p>\n

Sterling was seldom in the clubhouse and dressed in Brooks Brothers suits even though he was on the radio.<\/p>\n

He partnered with Jay Johnstone (1989-90), Joe Angel (1991), Michael Kay (1992-2001), Charley Steiner (2002-04) and Suzyn Waldman (since 2005). Sterling and Waldman were inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2016.<\/p>\n

Sterling was proud of his unique style.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry Caray told me some years ago,” he recalled in 2024 of the famous Chicago Cubs and White Sox broadcaster, \u201cand he says, ‘John, all the guys are great. We just have different styles.’ And no one has a more different style than I have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 John Sterling, the theatrical New York Yankees radio broadcaster known for extravagant, individualized home run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-648452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}