New York Yankees radio play-by-play announcer Dave Sims was not on the air for the Sunday finale of the Subway Series against the New York Mets, revealing on social media that he was suffering from laryngitis. In fact, he divulged that it was the first time in his career he was going on the injured list because of this diagnosis. Sims’ condition was a topic of discussion on the Monday morning edition of Boomer & Gio on WFAN after a caller outlined how he listened to the game on the station and heard Emmanuel Berbari working with Suzyn Waldman. Esiason explained that Sims was under the weather and mentioned how he does not hold that against him.
The caller recalled Esiason showing up to work with a significant fever and wanted to know why Sims had no voice, especially after he took off a series in Sacramento against the Athletics. Sims was back on the air shortly thereafter when the Yankees visited Seattle to face the Mariners, the team with whom he worked for the previous 18 years. Esiason criticized Sims for taking the time off during a show last week, wondering what he was doing and articulating how the role was supposed to be indicative of the job of his life.
“I will tell you when you have a bad voice, whether it be you or me or Jerry or Al or anybody, it is tough, and the thing about having a bad voice having some sort of upper respiratory is that it’s frustrating to listen to,” Esiason explained, “so sometimes the better part of valor is to step away and do what he did.”
Gregg Giannotti, the co-host of the morning program, opined that Sims would not have made the post on social media if Esiason did not offer criticism towards his absence in the preceding week. Sims could be seen in the photo with a towel on his head leaning over a pot, presumably trying to inhale steam. While Esiason voiced that Sims was doing the right thing in this instance, Giannotti believed that there was a definitive connection between the post and what his co-host had said on the airwaves.
“I also think he did that as a direct result from the criticism that you gave him from missing the series,” Giannotti said, “so he needed to show everybody, ‘Look, I’m not taking another day off, I’m not taking the rubber game off of the Subway Series. I have to show you that I am ill.’ That, I think, was the whole point.”
“And by the way, I have no disrespect towards that at all,” Esiason said. “That’s fine, that’s what you should do. If you’re not right and you don’t sound right, you don’t want to torture the listeners.”
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