John Sterling, the longtime play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees, is coming out of retirement to call postseason games for the New York Yankees. Sterling will call both home and road games for the team, working alongside longtime partner Suzyn Waldman, preceded by him calling the final week of regular-season contests. Since he retired this past April, Yankees radio broadcasts on WFAN have featured Justin Shackil, Rickie Ricardo and Emmanuel Berbari rotating the play-by-play role.
Although the Yankees have yet to clinch a postseason spot, the team sits in second place in the American League East and in the first Wild Card spot with 22 games to play, sporting a record 20 games over .500. News of Sterling’s impending return to the radio booth was first reported by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
“We’re going to make it official – Audacy and Chris Oliviero nicely asked me if I would return,” Sterling explained during Thursday’s edition of Evan & Tiki on WFAN. “I took a few days, and I said, ‘Yes.’ I miss the meeting with all the other broadcasters and writers and people behind the scenes. I kind of miss that, and I’ll tell you what I really miss – I miss broadcasting with Suzyn, who was such a fabulous partner and we were together so long, and this will give me a… chance [and] a last hurrah to work with Suzyn again.
Sterling’s postseason return will be his final run in the radio booth, resuming his retirement once the team either wins the World Series or is eliminated from play. Over his 64-year broadcasting career, he called Yankees games for 36 years, including 5,060 consecutive contests without being absent. In total, Sterling called 5,631 Yankees games when combining the regular season and postseason, and he was honored in a pregame ceremony earlier in the season for his legendary career.
“I took a few days before saying ‘Yes,’ and I kind of feel a little sorry for the guys who have been doing the games,” Sterling said. “All of them, there are so many of them, and they’ve done such a great job, but they asked and I said ‘Yes,’ and now that I said ‘Yes,’ I’m getting to really looking forward to it.”
Shackil, Ricardo and Berbari are all said to be candidates for the Yankees full-time announcing job next season, along with Seattle Mariners play-by-play announcer Dave Sims. The report also indicates that both the Yankees and WFAN could opt to look at other teams to find their next lead voice. Earlier in the year, Sterling hosted a 90-minute show on WFAN in which he took calls from listeners and told stories from his broadcasting career.
