Yankees legend delivers emotional tribute to John Sterling: ‘Everyone loves and revered’ him

There are broadcasters, and then there are legends.

John Sterling was the latter — and if you needed any proof, you only had to listen to Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez talk about him.

When WFAN’s Craig Carton and Chris McMonigle invited Rodriguez to share his thoughts on the death of Sterling, what followed was a ballplayer reflecting on a man who helped define the soundtrack of Yankees baseball.

Rodriguez explained that in the biggest moments, you wanted Sterling on the call.

“I mean, I remember ‘Bern baby Bern. ‘Cano, don’t you know?’ I mean, so, ‘A-bomb by A(-Rod)’ — such a big deal and it really crystallizes a great moment and it stamps it in time,” Rodriguez said on Thursday, via YouTube. “You can go back, you know, a decade, two decades and share the John Sterling home run call or ‘the Yankees win, the Yankees win.’”

Rodriguez also made a point that speaks to the sheer reach of Sterling’s legacy.

When Carton brought up the moment David Ortiz, the Red Sox icon known as “Big Papi,” mimicked Sterling’s signature call on a national Fox broadcast by declaring “Yankees lose, Yankees lose,” it stopped Rodriguez in his tracks.

“Unanimously, I would say that everyone loves and revered John Sterling,” Rodriguez said.

Sterling gave generations of Yankees fans a voice for their greatest memories. On Thursday, Rodriguez made clear Sterling deserved a place alongside the legends he spent decades calling.

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