AILSA CHANG, HOST:
For 36 years, one man was the voice of the New York Yankees.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN STERLING: Ball game over. Yankees win. (Yelling) The Yankees win.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Legendary Yankees announcer, John Sterling - he died today at the age of 87. He started as the team's play-by-play announcer back in 1989, and he called every single game after that until he missed his very first game in 2019 before mostly retiring in 2024.
CHANG: That includes every single game from one of the most famous Yankees ever, as he told NPR that year.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
STERLING: I called every game Derek Jeter played.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STERLING: (Yelling) That ball's high. It is far. It is gone. And there it is - hit No. 3,000.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
STERLING: In fact, near the end when Derek was going to retire, one of the writers who has covered the Yanks for years, Bryan Hoch, he went to Jeter and he said, do you know that John Sterling has seen every game you've played? And Jeter said, boy, he must be tired of seeing me play.
KELLY: Yankees fans will remember him for his distinct style on the radio. He came up with his own personalized home run calls for each player, like these for Lance Berkman, Bernie Williams and A-Rod - Alex Rodriguez.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
STERLING: Sir Lancelot rides to the rescue. C'est lui. C'est lui.
Bernie goes, boom. Bern, baby, Bern.
Alex Rodriguez has made Major League Baseball history - the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs. An A-bomb from A-Rod.
CHANG: For Sterling, broadcasting was a childhood dream come true.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
STERLING: I was a little boy at home, maybe 10, and the radio was on. And this is what I heard. The announcer with a great voice was saying, live from Hollywood, it's "The Eddie Bracken Show." Well, I didn't want to be Eddie Bracken. I want to be the guy who said live from Hollywood.
KELLY: And for decades, that's what he was. John Sterling brought the Yankees to life for generations of fans who tuned into their favorite team on the radio.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALTHVS' "JOHANNA'S DREAM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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