Yankee In Exile

Introduction 

On May 4th of this year, one of the most iconic voices in baseball history passed away. John Sterling spent an incredible 35 years as the voice of New York Yankee radio. This time period includes his outstanding streak of 5,060 consecutive games from 1989-2019. If you think about it, he called every at bat of Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada’s careers and every pitch that Mariano Rivera ever threw. Wow. Truly amazing. Over the years, Sterling was, perhaps, most known for his home run calls, most notably “Bern, Baby, Bern” for Bernie Williams and “An A-Bomb, from A-Rod” for Alex Rodriguez. Sterling’s style was truly unique and one of a kind, and someone like him will probably never be replicated within the broadcast industry. The Yankees are the team that he will forever be associated with. That’s fitting because it’s the franchise that he grew up on the Upper East Side rooting for, and where he spent the most amount of time. However, few people know that Sterling made many other media stops during his famed life. Here are ten other jobs that the “voice of the Yankees” had in order of most well-known to most obscure. 

10. Atlanta Braves Baseball 

Sterling called Braves games for Turner Sports from 1982-1987. Ted Turner, who was the same age as Sterling and who also died a few days ago, gave him this job. During this stint, he split time between television and radio, sometimes even changing platforms mid-game. Sterling was lumped in with a variety of other broadcasters, including Ernie Johnson, Sr., Skip Caray, and Pete Van Wieren. During his stint calling games at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, he is most known for his call of pitcher Rick Camp’s memorable home run. In a now viral moment, Sterling delivered an iconic call as Camp smashed a game tying blast in the bottom of the 18th inning on July 4, 1985 (The announcer’s 47th birthday). Some say that this call, not any one with the Yankees, is his greatest call of all-time. You can listen for yourself and be the judge. Anyway, after “Billionaire Ted” replaced him in 1988, John could have been very bitter. However, he simply rolled with the punches and continued calling Hawks games. About that……

9. Atlanta Hawks Basketball 

From 1981 to 1989, John Sterling also called games for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. In fact, this was the job that originally caused the New York native to move down south. This seems weird to us today, because we don’t associate the voice of the Yankees with basketball. However, back in the early 80s, the hardwood was where Sterling was most known for calling games. Since Ted Turner also owned the Hawks, he was technically John’s employer for this job as well. It was in Atlanta that he first came up with the practice of calling players by nicknames. This started with Dominique Wilkins. The announcer would exclaim “Dominique is magnifique!” to describe the French-born player. In his nearly a decade calling the Hawks for TBS, Sterling was able to be courtside for some special moments. One of these was Larry Bird’s 60-point game against the Hawks on March 12, 1985. This game was played in New Orleans, as were 11 other “home” Hawks games that season. The reason for this was that NOLA was without a professional basketball team at the time, and John provided residents of the “Big Easy” with a friendly voice that made them feel like the Hawks were at home in their city. However, the Hawks weren’t even Sterling’s first venture into the NBA……

8. New York/New Jersey Nets Basketball 

Before he was the voice of New York baseball, Sterling happened to be the voice of the Nets radio network. John’s run with the team began with an ABA championship in 1976 and the opportunity to commentate Julius Erving. However, when the Nets moved to the NBA that same year, they were transfered from Long Island to New Jersey. Somewhere in that move, they lost Erving to the 76ers, took up residence at Rutgers University (while they waited for the Meadowlands Arena to be completed), and wound up with the worst record in the league in 1977. Some lean years followed, but Sterling still called the action the only way he knew how, with total and euphoric enthusiasm. He was paired with Mike DiTomasso for most of his run, and established a great friendship with head coach Kevin Loughery. However, the Nets weren’t the only team from the tri-state area that Sterling was the voice of during this time……

7. New York Islanders Hockey 

From 1975 to 1978, John was the radio play-by-play man for Islanders hockey. Because of the rise of Youtube, more modern fans have become aware of this fact because there are at least a few recordings of Sterling calling games from the Nassau Coliseum available. Many older Islander fans look upon this time with fondness as he provided friendly stability in the early days of the franchise (established 1972). Before John was lighting-up Yankee games with iconic calls, he had a signature call for hockey as well. Whenever an Islander player would “light the lamp”, Sterling would shout “Goal! Islander Goal! Islander Goal!” Mostly paired with Bob Lawrence, he left Islander hockey before their “glory days” of four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1980-1983. So far we’ve discussed Sterling calling baseball, basketball, and hockey. There’s no way he could have completed all the major sports in this country by being a football commentator, right?!? 

6. Morgan State University Football 

From 1971 to 1978, Sterling called radio football games for Baltimore, Maryland-based Morgan State University. Yes, besides New York and Atlanta, John also had a memorable stint working in “Charm City.” As was the case with the Nets, when he began his partnership with MSU, they were very successful. In the first few seasons they were led by Hall of Fame head coach Earl “Papa Bear” Banks. However, in 1973 they were reclassified to NCAA Division II, where they remain today. Sterling wasn’t about to give up on his team, though, and remained with them for another five seasons. In a 2015 “Ask Me Anything” interview for MLB Network, he was quick to remind listeners that he had once held this role. Speaking of his time in Baltimore…..

5. Baltimore Bullets Basketball 

Sterling’s first venture into the sport of basketball was his lone season calling radio games for the Baltimore Bullets in 1970-1971. A young John was on the mic for a very memorable season as the modern day Washington Wizards beat the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals (Wow, the Knicks lose a lot in this round) in a dramatic seven game series. However, in the NBA Finals, the Bullets were swept by a Milwaukee Bucks team led by Lew Alcindor and Oscar Roberston. John Sterling was now out of a job, but he was plunged into some very obscure roles. Keep reading…. 

4. New York Stars Football 

Simultaneously with Morgan State, Sterling called the lone season that the New York Stars played in the World Football League (1974) on radio. The independent league team played at Downing Stadium, A Works Progress Administration construction on Manhattan’s Randalls Island. Interestingly enough, Yankees legendary PA announcer Bob Sheppard also served as this forgotten team’s public address man. Facilities at these games were not great, as John and others had to sit on orange crates as they called the action. Also, Downing Stadium itself did not have any lighting, so all games had to be played during the day. The upstart WFL ended up playing for one more year in 1975, but went bankrupt after that. However, the Stars weren’t even the first alternative league team that Sterling was the voice of…..

3. New York Raiders Hockey 

Sterling’s first venture into hockey commentating was with the World Hockey Association’s New York Raiders from 1972 to 1974 on radio. The team originally played downtown at Madison Square Garden, however, in their second season, they were kicked out and relocated to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which is much closer to Philadelphia. The team also applied to play at Nassau Coliseum, who flat out rejected them. The WHA lasted from 1971 to 1979, but Sterling left after the 1975 season to take the Islanders’ job. He ended up working in Nassau County after all. So, another bizarre sports job for John Sterling but…….. You ain’t seen nothing yet. 

2. Kitten Bowl for the Hallmark Channel 

Please, don’t adjust the lighting and no, you don’t need to get your eyes checked out. From 2013 to 2017, every Super Bowl Sunday, John Sterling was the voice of the Hallmark Channel’s “Kitten Bowl.” Flanked by Mary Carillo, he called cats playing football with the enthusiasm, puns, and wit that only he could. Sterling wasn’t the only sports personality involved as former Bengals Quarterback and NFL analyst Boomer Esiason functioned as the league’s commissioner. John and Carillo then reunited to call the “Paws Star Game”, a spoof of MLB’s All-Star Game in the summer while Maria Menounos, Mario Lopez, and Al Roker cheered on. I’ll shamelessly admit that I watched just about every edition of the Kitten Bowl and Paws Star Game, just to hear Sterling’s voice. And for the cute cats, of course. Go and watch some clips of these masterpieces on Youtube and tell me you don’t love every minute of it. 

1. Non-Sports Talk Show-WMCA Radio New York 

Even though Sterling’s involvement in the Kitten Bowl sounds absurd. At least it qualifies as some kind of sport. Sports parody maybe? However, would you believe that, in the early 1970s, John hosted a talk show for WMCA radio in New York City? He was fresh off his stint in Baltimore, and ready to make an impact in the “City that never sleeps.” However, there was just one problem. This was not a sports show. Although Sterling sometimes incorporated athletics into it, the program functioned as simply a medium for callers to phone him to discuss a variety of topics from politics to the economy to current events. Even though it seems surreal not to listen to John Sterling pour his heart into a sports team, I’d imagine this was still a good listen. Anything with him was. Do yourself one more favor and look up a clip (it wouldn’t let me post it) of John dealing with, and finally snapping on, a very rude old woman one fateful day on his show.

Conclusion 

Though most recognizable in the press box at Yankee Stadium and exclaiming “Yankees Win! Theeee Yankees win!” John Sterling worked hard for many years to be able to call himself the voice of the most successful franchise in North American sports. From commentating no-name independent sports franchises to taking abuse from callers on talk shows, to having to rotate between other announcers in Atlanta, John took the road less traveled and it finally worked out for him in the end. At fifty years old he got his dream job, and never looked back from there. Even when he got to the Yankees though, things weren’t always so good. The late 1980s and early 1990s were some of the most dreadful years in the history of the organization. It was not until 1996, that the good times started to roll. To summarize, all of the stops John Sterling made in his legendary life made him the man that he was when calling games for the Yankees. And during each stop, he handled himself with enthusiasm and class. The moral of the story is to never give up on your journey. Rest in peace to my favorite broadcaster. You will be missed.