Inside John Sterling’s final days: Football, friends and one last wish

“When we last talked, he said he was still having a little difficulty with his legs, but he was home and doing OK,” Ricardo said. “He said his kids were fantastic. He said they were taking care of everything.

“The last thing he said to me was, ‘I can’t wait until we can go out to dinner for a big steak.’ That would have been great, but he’d been back and forth from the hospital several times the last several months, and my gut told me this wasn’t going to end well.”

I last spoke with Sterling during spring training. He was excited about the upcoming Yankees’ season and knew everything that was going on. He said he’d be watching every game.

Before hanging up, Sterling wanted a message passed along to the other writers: “Tell everyone that I’m doing fine. Tell everything that I said hello and I miss them.”

The Yankees quickly set up a pre-game tribute to honor Sterling, the playing of some of his memorable calls, bouquets of flowers being placed on home plate by Yankees TV voice Michael Kay and Waldman plus a moment of silence.

Also, Marc Chalpin, the Bleacher Creature who starts the Roll Calls after the first pitch of every home game from his Section 203 seat behind right field, decided to include said Sterling at the end on Monday night.

“John was the voice of the Yankees for not one, but two generations and a lot of people obviously are feeling the effects,” Chalpin said. “I grew up with Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White calling Yankees games, so I know how attached you can get to announcers that really were the voice of the team.

“It’s a big loss to the Yankee family. God bless his family. Obviously we’re thinking of Suzyn Waldman right now, too. They were partners for so many years.”

Sterling, like so many Yankees he chronicled, was a franchise legend.

Born John Stoss in Manhattan on July 4, 1938, Sterling joined the Yankees’ radio booth at age 50 for Opening Day 1989 and went on to call 5,060 consecutive games, teaming with Jay Johnstone from 1989-90, Kay from 1992-2001, Charley Steiner from 2002-04 and then Waldman for two decades.

Sterling abruptly retired early in 2024 and was honored before a Yankees home game six days later.

Asked how he’d like to be remembered, Sterling responded. “Never missing a game. I was working and I would do the next game and do the next game. Luckily, I had good health and good stamina. So they can remember me anyway. I hope the people who like it who will remember that they liked it.”

Sterling was original with his famous home-run calls: “It’s an A-bomb for A-Rod” and, of course, his final out call after victories, “Yankees win … Theeeeeeeee Yankees win!”

Sterling missed calling games in his first year of retirement and returned to the radio booth that September to finish out the regular season and call the Yankees’ playoff games, which included a run to the World Series.

After the ’24 season, the Yankees hired Dave Sims, a longtime broadcaster for the Seattle Mariners, to replace Sterling.

Sterling toyed with asking the Yankees if he could return for select home games in 2025, but opted to enjoy retirement.

A 12-time Emmy Award winner, Sterling was a finalist three times to make the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Ford C. Frick Award winner, including in 2025.

**“**I don’t think I’ll ever make it, and I think it’s style,” Sterling told NJ.com in 2021. “I don’t think it’ll happen, and I’m cool about it.”

Curt Smith, a longtime Frick Award voter and baseball historian, thinks Sterling is deserving.

“Like Saul on the road to Damascus, I have seen the light on John Sterling,” he told NJ.com five years ago. “He gives you all the qualities that you would want in a broadcaster. He has the voice, the knowledge of the game, the ability to tell a story. He keeps you up to date on what has transpired in the field and he has a great sense of humor. I think he captures the ambiance of the greatest franchise in all of professional sport.”

Sterling wasn’t just a great baseball announcer. Before joining the Yankees’ booth, he was the voice of the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets and Atlanta Hawks, the ABA/NBA’s New York/New Jersey Nets, the NHL’s New York Islanders and the World Football League’s New York Stars.

Sterling’s dream job was calling Yankees games. He was a fan as a kid.

“I met him in ’87,” Waldman said in 2024 right after Sterling’s sudden retirement. “I want everyone to know that this is the only job that John Sterling ever wanted in his whole life, and the fans … I hope everybody appreciates the love and dedication and how much he gave to this, he gave his life to this team.

“He adores this team. It is the only thing he has ever wanted to do since he was a little boy and used to go to the ballpark with his buddies way back.”

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