NEW YORK — John Sterling, the hyperexcitable New York Yankees broadcaster known for decades of indelible, personalized home run calls, announced his immediate retirement Monday at age 85.
Sterling made the unexpected decision a few weeks into his 36th season as the Yankees’ radio play-by-play voice. He had cut back his schedule in recent years and was not with the team for its current trip to Cleveland and Toronto.
He called 5,420 regular-season games, the last against the Blue Jays on April 7, plus 211 postseason games. Sterling broadcast 5,060 consecutive games from September 1989 through July 2019 after starting with the Yankees as a pregame host.
Sterling will be honored in a pregame ceremony before Saturday’s game in the Bronx against Tampa Bay.
“I have been able to do what I wanted, broadcasting for 64 years,” Sterling said in a statement. “As a little boy growing up in New York as a Yankees fan, I was able to broadcast the Yankees for 36 years. It’s all to my benefit, and I leave very, very happy. I look forward to seeing everyone again on Saturday.”
As the team evolved into its latest dynasty, winning four World Series titles from 1996 through 2000, a Sterling moniker for a player’s home run became as treasured a part of a Yankees identity as an initial set of pinstripes and a culminating championship ring.
From “Bernie goes boom! Bern, baby, Bern!” for Bernie Williams, to “It’s a Jeter jolt!” for Derek to “It’s an A-bomb from A-Rod!” for Alex Rodriguez, “The Giambino!” for Jason Giambi and “A thrilla from Godzilla!” for Hideki Matsui, Sterling created a personal stamp that resonated through the clubhouse all the way to the bleachers.
For the latest group of Yankees, “It’s a Judge-ian blast!” became a familiar cry for Aaron, joined by “Nobody beats the Rizz!” for Anthony Rizzo and “David John makes long gone!” for DJ LeMahieu.
He could be obscure in recent years, using “Giancarlo, non si può de stoparlo! (Italian for “You can’t stop it!) for Stanton and “A spettacolo oggi!” for Anthony Volpe (Italian for “At the show today!). He added “He’s Juan-der-ful, marvelous” for Juan Soto this year, singing to the melody of Cole Porter’s “It’s De-Lovely.”
But through it all, fans pined to hear him follow final outs with “Thuuuuuuuh Yankees win!” with an elongated “the.”
“Day in and day out, season after season, and city after city, John Sterling used his seat in the broadcast booth to bring Yankees fans the heartbeat of the game, employing an orotund voice and colorful personality that were distinctly, unmistakably his own,” the team said in a statement. “John informed and entertained, and he exemplified what it means to be a New Yorker with an unapologetic and boisterous style that exuded his passion for baseball, broadcasting and the New York Yankees.”
Sterling 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.
A native New Yorker, Sterling broadcast the NBA’s Washington Bullets and Morgan State football in his early years and gained notoriety for shrieking “Islanders goal! Islanders goal!” while announcing the hockey team’s games from 1975-78 along with those of the NBA’s Nets from 1975-80. Sterling’s first connection with the Yankees was during pregame shows while he worked on a WMCA radio talk show 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.
“I grew up listening to Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn. I was the kid falling asleep, like many of you, to the radio,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said Monday. “I have a romantic relationship with baseball on the radio. I’m bummed out about it, sad about it, but certainly just want him to be in a good spot and healthy moving forward.”
ASTROS: Ace Justin Verlander will throw a side session Tuesday, and if that goes well he’ll make his season debut this weekend against the Washington Nationals.
Houston Manager Joe Espada made the announcement, but wouldn’t say which game of the series Verlander would start. The three-game set begins Friday night.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner opened the season on the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder. He made two rehabilitation starts, the first for Triple-A Sugar Land on April 7 before Saturday’s start for Double-A Corpus Christi.
OBIT: Ken Holtzman, MLB’s winningest Jewish pitcher who threw two no-hitters for the Chicago Cubs and helped the Oakland Athletics win three straight World Series championships in the 1970s, has died, the Cubs announced on social media. He was 78.
Holtzman’s brother, Bob Holtzman, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he died Sunday night after being hospitalized for three weeks. He had been battling heart issues.
Holtzman grew up in the St. Louis area and starred at the University of Illinois before becoming a two-time All-Star. The left-hander posted a 174-150 record and 3.49 ERA from 1965 to 1979 with the Athletics, Cubs, New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles.
Holtzman won nine more games than the Dodgers’ great Sandy Koufax, who was 165-87 over 12 seasons.
Holtzman played his first seven years with the Cubs, a stretch that included back-to-back 17-win seasons and no-hitters against Atlanta at Wrigley Field on Aug. 19, 1969, and at Cincinnati on June 3, 1971. His no-hitter against Atlanta remains the most recent in the majors thrown without a strikeout.
Holtzman got traded to Oakland for Rick Monday following the 1971 season and joined Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter in a rotation that helped the Athletics win three straight World Series starting in 1972. He made All-Star teams in 1972 and 1973, when he won a career-high 21 games.
Holtzman was dealt to Baltimore along with Reggie Jackson on April 2, 1976, and traded again that season to the New York Yankees. He got another championship ring with the Yankees in 1977, though he did not appear in the playoffs, and was traded back to Chicago during the 1978 season.
MARINERS: The Seattle Mariners called up top prospect Jonatan Clase, looking to help spark an offense that has underperformed in the first 2 1/2 weeks of the season.
Clase, a 21-year-old switch-hitting outfielder, was hitting .311 with four doubles, two triple and two homers in 12 games with Triple-A Tacoma to begin the season. He spent last season split between Single-A Everett and Double-A Arkansas. He appeared in 15 spring training games with the Mariners, who so far are batting .204 in the regular season and have an .590 OPS.
Clase is ranked as the No. 10 prospect in Seattle’s organization.
MARLINS: The Marlins placed infielder Jake Burger on the 10-day injured list because of a left intercostal muscle strain, another setback for Miami during a nightmarish start to the season.
Burger leads the Marlins in RBI with 15 and is tied for the team lead in homers with three. Miami is 3-13, the worst record in the NL.
PADRES: Infielder Donovan Solano signed a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres.
Solano, 36, will report to the Padres’ extended spring camp in Arizona.
Solano batted .282 with a .369 on-base percentage, five homers and 38 RBI in 134 games for the Minnesota Twins last season, playing first base, second and third.
He has a career batting average of .279 with a .334 on-base percentage, 32 homers and 244 RBI in 820 regular-season games with the Miami Marlins (2012-15), New York Yankees (2016), San Francisco Giants (2019-21), Cincinnati Reds (2022) and Twins.
CUBS: The Chicago Cubs placed right fielder Seiya Suzuki on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain.
The 29-year-old Suzuki, in his second season with the Cubs after coming over from Japan, had a similar injury last year on the left side and missed six weeks.
MONDAY’S GAMES
ORIOLES 7, TWINS 4: Cedric Mullins saved a run with an exceptional diving catch in deep left-center, then homered and drove in three runs in Baltimore’s home win.
RANGERS 1, TIGERS 0: Michael Lorenzen pitched five spotless innings in his Texas debut and three relievers completed a five-hit shutout as the Rangers won at Detroit.
Lorenzen, signed to a $4.5 million, one-year contract as a free agent late in spring training, gave up three hits and walked five, striking out four against his former team.
Jonah Heim had two hits and scored the only run.
GIANTS 4, MARLINS 3: Jung Hoo Lee had two hits, including a tying single in the seventh inning, and visiting San Francisco overcame an early three-run deficit to beat NL-worst Miami.
The Marlins fell to 3-14, and their frustration boiled over in the bottom of the eighth when plate umpire Laz Díaz ejected Manager Skip Schumaker. Earlier, Schumaker emerged from the dugout and had a heated exchange with Díaz but wasn’t tossed.
METS 6, PIRATES 3: Harrison Bader drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning for the second day in a row, hitting a two-run double off an angry Aroldis Chapman that lifted New York over visiting Pittsburgh.
New York overcame a 3-0, sixth-inning deficit and reached .500 for the first time this season. The Mets have won 8 of 11 following an 0-5 start under first-year manager Carlos Mendoza.
Chapman (0-1) was ejected by plate umpire Edwin Moscoso for arguing balls and strikes after Bader’s double. The Mets stole three bases in the eighth against the Pirates, who have allowed 13 steals this season without throwing out a runner.
BLUE JAYS 3, YANKEES 1: Chris Bassitt pitched into the seventh inning to win his second straight start, Alejandro Kirk reached base three times and Toronto handed visiting Yankees their consecutive loss.
The Yankees lost a series-opening game for the second time in six tries, with both defeats coming against the Blue Jays. Toronto won 3-0 in New York’s home opener on April 5.
ROYALS 2, WHITE SOX 0: Seth Lugo pitched seven crisp innings, Vinnie Pasquantino homered and Kansas City won at Chicago.
ANGELS 7, RAYS 3: Mike Trout’s two-run homer highlighted a five-run outburst in the eighth inning and visiting Los Angeles beat Tampa Bay.
PHILLIES 2, ROCKIES 1: Cristian Pache hit a walk-off single with one out in the 10th inning after Bryce Harper made a leaping, run-saving catch in the top of the inning to lift Philadelphia over visiting Colorado.
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