John Sterling, the Yankees' legendary radio play-by-play voice, will retire effective immediately, the team announced in a press release Monday night.
Sterling, 85, will be honored at a pregame ceremony Saturday afternoon and will visit the WFAN radio booth during the game.
“I'm a very blessed person. I was able to do what I wanted to do while working in broadcasting for 64 years. As a kid who grew up in New York as a Yankees fan, I've been a Yankees broadcaster for 36 years. Everything has been beneficial to me and I'm very, very happy and looking forward to seeing everyone again on Saturday,” Sterling said in a statement.
Sterling's famous winning call — “The baseball game is over! The Yankees win. Oh, the Yankees win!” — has remained synonymous with Yankees baseball for decades.
The Upper East Side native played in 5,420 regular season games and 211 postseason games with the Yankees, including 5,060 consecutive games from September 1989 to July 2019.
Sterling was in the booth when the Yankees won four World Series championships in five years from 1996-2000. He was also behind the microphone when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009.
During his 36 seasons with the Yankees, Sterling frequently deployed his signature home run call: “High, far, gone!” — often punctuated by personalized catchphrases tailored to players circling the bases.
Some of his most famous songs include “Bern, Baby, Bern!” For Bernie Williams: “Robbie Cano, don't you know?'' For Robinson Cano: “Everyone stand up, here comes the judge!'' For Aaron Judge.
Sterling's last game of the season was a home game between the Yankees and the Blue Jays on Sunday, April 7, which the Yankees won 8-3.
In a statement, the Yankees called Sterling “a pillar for Yankees fans who relied on the comfort and familiarity of his voice as the soundtrack of spring, summer and fall.”
“He cared so much about our team, and considering his performance on the broadcast, John Sterling did the same, that our fans lived every pitch,” the Yankees said. , and it's not unreasonable to believe that they will die.”
Sterling's career spanned six decades and included stops in Atlanta and the Baltimore/Washington, DC area. He also broadcast games between the Nets and Islanders.
In 2016, he and partner Sujin Waldman were inducted into the New York State Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
