Longtime Yankees radio announcer John Sterling dies at 87

When legendary Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard died in 2010, there was simultaneously an air of somber inevitably and at least a little surprise. Yes, he had walked this earth for a remarkable 99 years, but how could the man that Reggie Jackson once dubbed “The Voice of God” be gone? He was Yankee Stadium, even if the old ballpark was all but gone itself by that point.

It didn’t feel right. It was like waking up one day to learn that the Statue of Liberty’s torch had vanished. This morning, I felt the same way when I learned of the passing of incomparable Yankees radio voice John Sterling.

WFAN, his broadcast home for the last decade-plus of his long career in New York, just announced the sad news a little over half an hour ago. It’s not at all unique to say that Sterling was one of the voices of my childhood and right there as I grew into an older baseball fan. When you’re on the job for 36 years, you’re part of the same story for such a large number of fans that it could fill many stadiums.

We knew that he was corny. We knew that he sometimes took a tad too long to remind fans who could only listen what the score actually was. We knew that the home run calls could border on ridiculous.