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J O H N S T E R L I N G , T H E YA N K E E S A N D A N E R A L I K E N O O T H E R
INTRODUCTION • 1
The Lineup BOOK EDITOR Gene Myers
THE RECORD/ NORTHJERSEY.COM SPORTS EDITOR Dave Rivera YANKEES COLUMNIST Pete Caldera EXECUTIVE EDITOR Blake Kaplan
USA TODAY SPORTS MLB EDITOR Jesse Yomtov SPORTS WEEKLY EDITOR Stephen Borelli REPORTERS Steve Gardner, Kristie Ackert DIRECTOR OF COMMERCE OPERATIONS Kate Ellsworth BOOKS EDITOR Andy Harper
About the book “It Is High, It Is Far, It Is Gone!” chronicles John Sterling’s legendary 36-year career as the Voice of the Yankees and the greatest moments from the Sterling Era: five World Series titles, two perfect games, 3,000 hits for Derek Jeter, 600 home runs for Alex Rodriguez and 62 homers for Aaron Judge. This book features the prose and pictures across the decades from more than two dozen award-winning journalists from USA TODAY Sports and the nationwide USA TODAY Network, which includes The Record/NorthJersey.com of Bergen County. For continuing coverage of the Yankees, go to northjersey.com/sports/yankees. Order print or digital subscriptions or access the eNewspaper for The Record by calling 888-282-3422 or going to subscribe.northjersey.com/offers.
On the cover During John Sterling’s 36 years as the Voice of the Yankees, the Bronx Bombers won the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009 and featured stars such as Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Aaron Judge and CC Sabathia. VIOREL FLORESCU / NORTHJERSEY.COM PREVIOUS PAGE: Sterling rode in style with
his family up the Canyon of Heroes during the Yankees’ championship parade in 2009. New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies in six games for World Series title No. 27. D ARRYL BAUTISTA / POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL OPPOSITE: In August 2012 at new Yankee
Stadium, Sterling prepared for one of the 5,651 games he called for the team. He always wore a suit to the ballpark. V IOREL FLORESCU / NORTHJERSEY.COM
E-COMMERCE SPECIALIST Clarissa Shine PROJECT COORDINATOR Gene Myers
SUPPORT TEAM DESIGNERS Lee Benson, Joey Schaffer PROOFREADERS Sherrill Amo, Heather Hewitt SPECIAL THANKS Alicia Del Gallo, Chris Thomas, Chris Fenison, Douglas McMurray, Ryan Ford
2 • IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS GONE!
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher. Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com Printed in Canada. This book is an unofficial account of John Sterling’s career by The Record/NorthJersey.com and USA TODAY Sports and is not endorsed by the New York Yankees or MLB.
Copyright © 2026 by USA TODAY Sports All Rights Reserved • ISBN: 978-1-63846-212-5
IT IS
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J O H N S T E R L I N G , T H E YA N K E E S A N D A N E R A L I K E N O O T H E R
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CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
THE MAN
THE MYTH
THE MOMENTS INTRODUCTION • 3
FOREWORD
The John Sterling we knew owned a voice that felt personal to us all PETE CALDERA
NATUR A LLY, YOU COULD NEV ER bring yourself to delete a voicemail because of… that voice. And that big, familiar baritone — the casual sound of summer, the narrator of so many signature Yankees moments from their last great baseball era — would now and then leave a call. Like a minibroadcast, just for one person. It was 30 seconds of John Sterling talking about restaurant reservations. It was John Sterling about a score from a Broadway musical, or what the Yankees really should be doing instead of that, then circling back to the who-what-when details of dinner. In that moment, you were the only listener. And damned if there wasn’t something so special about that, and that you now realize nine saved voicemails (of the 12 currently on
your phone) were Sterling calls? This morning brought the calls and texts that John Sterling was gone. He was already, upon his play-by-play retirement, among the last in a baseball broadcasting class we would never see again. Identified by his team. By his unapologetic, uniquely entertaining on-air style. By his signature home run calls. By a passionate appreciation for the legends he followed and admired, like Mel Allen. By a voice that he trained, beginning at a very early age, to be heard over the radio. A voice that spoke conversationally and directly to you, as if you were connected by telephone. When he left the Yankees’ radio booth after the 2024 World Series, you knew you would never hear anything like Sterling again. But you selfishly wanted to still hear him broadcast, maybe emcee an event or be part of an Old-Timers’ Day — something
PETE CALDERA HAS BEEN A Major League Baseba ll writer at The Record/NorthJersey.com since 2000, covering the New York Yankees and Mets, including the 2000 Subway Series when the Bronx Bombers prevailed in five games for their third straight World Ser ies ch a mpion sh ip. A native New Yorker, Caldera graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in journalism. He has won mu ltiple Associated P ress Spor ts Ed itors awa rds for his baseball beat coverage and was honored with the Dick Young Award, presented by the New York Professional Baseball Scouts Association. Caldera, a past chairman of the New York Baseba ll Writers Association, resides in Manhattan with his wife, Jeannine.
OPPOSITE: Surrounded by his family during a retirement ceremony on April 20, 2024, John Sterling received a jersey that documented
the number of games he called as the Voice of the Yankees. Sterling died at age 87 on May 4, 2026. J OHN JONES / IMAGN IMAGES
4 • IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS GONE!
INTRODUCTION • 5
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to keep him near a mic. He did a brief weekly New York radio sports show for a time, calling it more of a talk show than a call-in show because he liked giving his opinions and having his sportswriter friends as guests. That voice remained strong, and you would hear him say that — in those last few on-air seasons — calling the games wasn’t the issue, it was the grind of getting from city to city. But, hey, there would be fewer interruptions as he read his newspapers and novels. There were all those hockey and basketball playoff games to enjoy, and he watched them all. And, of course, more time to schedule
dinners in Manhattan. Classic Italian or classic steakhouse. Waiters in white coats, maître d’ in tuxedo, piano in the front played by someone who knew the standards. Oban on the rocks, at the bar, before moving into the dining room with a few pals from the press box. That was Sterling’s kind of night on the town, and yes, he would be glad to take that selfie with you, dear Yankee fan. The heart operation happened in late January. By early April, the strength was back in Sterling’s voice, and so was the optimism. Once he got in walking shape, we would all get back to the old routine. You hoped, anyway.
ABOVE: Clockwise from the left: John Sterling held court with media members Anthony
McCarron, Dom Amore and Pete Caldera at Keens Steakhouse in Manhattan. Famous for its massive mutton chop, Keens opened in 1885. P ROVIDED BY CALDERA OPPOSITE: Sterling, an emcee with Michael Kay, listened intently as right-hander Hideki
Ricardo Kaulessar NorthJersey.com USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY
John Sterling, a resident of Edgewater, and the voice of the New York Yankees on radio from 1989 to 2019, shown here on Aug. 17, 2012, in the Bronx. Sterling died May 4 at 87. NORTHJERSEY.COM FILE
Forever Sterling After his death, brief calls endure as quiet farewells from the legendary Voice of the Yankees On the Yankees Pete Caldera NorthJersey.com
See CALDERA, Page 3A
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Officials warn fans: Don’t walk to MetLife Illegal route risks safety during World Cup travel
USA TODAY NETWORK - N.J.
Naturally, you could never bring yourself to delete a voicemail because of… that voice. And that big, familiar baritone – the casual sound of summer, the narrator of so many signature Yankees moments from their last great baseball era – would now and then leave a call. Like a mini broadcast, just for one person. It was 30 seconds of John Sterling talking about restaurant reservations. It was John Sterling about a score from a Broadway musical, or what the Yankees really should be doing instead of that, then circling back to the who-what-when details of dinner. In that moment, you were the only listener. And damned if there wasn’t something so special about that, and that you now realize nine saved voicemails (of the 12 currently on your phone) are Sterling calls?
Immigrant advocates are urging New Jersey officials to stop accepting funds from Palantir Technologies, the firm that created immigrant tracking software. Palantir Technologies has been the target of numerous rallies in front of politicians’ offices and other public places across the state since September. The protesters oppose Palantir because the company, co-founded by tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally Peter Thiel, created software used for tracking and deporting immigrants.
Katie Sobko NorthJersey.com USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY
Longtime Yankee announcer John Sterling is honored during a pregame ceremony on April 20, 2024, in recognition of his retirement before a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. JOHN JONES/USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS
Irabu addressed fans at City Hall after the Yankees won the 1998 World Series. Sterling stood behind the team’s trophy from the 1996 World Series. M IKE SEGAR / REUTERS
Despite what some soccer fans are considering in videos on social media, officials say walking to MetLife Stadium is not an option for this year’s FIFA World Cup. In addition to being illegal, it is just outright dangerous, regional host committee CEO Alex Lasry said at a Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce event on Friday, May 1. “Do not walk. It is illegal to walk to the stadium, and it is not safe,” Lasry said. “You are going to be putting yourself, you are going to be putting law enforcement and people on the road in danger if you walk to the See FIFA WALKING, Page 3A
GARY STELZER / USA TODAY NETWORK
6 • IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS GONE!
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INTRODUCTION • 7
INTRODUCTION
A tale of two Yankees broadcasting legends and a budding sportswriter STEPHEN BORELLI
Longtime New York Yankees broadcaster John Sterling died on May 4, 2026, at age 87. USA TODAY journalist Stephen Borelli wrote this tribute when Sterling announced his retirement two years earlier. N EW YOR K YA N K EES FA NS A R E waking up to the reality of a third weekend without their warm, familiar voice. For 36 years, John Sterling was a constant presence, dancing (and sometimes blasting) through their ears, whether it be in the car, through headphones or just flowing out into their living rooms. He took us along for one of the great rides in Yankees history, wherever we were. I used to tune into him on North Carolina nights in the late 1990s, where the powerful Yankees radio network could be picked up hundreds of miles away. I was working in my first job out of college, starting out in a
profession, and I sometimes felt Sterling was right there with me. That was so much in itself. I had no idea he would someday mean even more to my career. Sterling stepped away April 20 as, in his partner Suzyn Waldman’s words, “the Voice of the Yankees.” He retires with many friends in the game. I don’t claim to be one of them, but I will always remember how he supported me. Mentors can work that way, even if their interactions with you are sporadic or brief. If you are an athlete, especially a young athlete, you know the feeling you get from a senior influence in your life. It might be the older kid down the block who takes time to offer pointers at your driveway hoop. Or, when you’re older, it’s the towering player on varsity who stops to introduce himself or herself after you’ve made JV. Those moments stay with us in life, like Sterling did on all those summer nights. Thanks to my profession, I eventually got to meet John, shaking his hand on
STEPHEN BORELLI HAS BEEN a n e d itor a nd w r iter at USA TODAY since 1999. He grew up in suburban New York City and moved to the Washington area for h i g h scho ol a nd c ol le ge. He has worked on USA TODAY S p o r t s We e k l y s i n c e 2 0 0 5 a nd has been t he maga zi ne’s e d i to r, a s we l l a s e d i to r of USA T ODAY ’s spor ts sp ecia l editions, since 2016. He wrote the definitive biography of late New York Yankees broadcasting legend Mel A llen (“How About That! The Life of Mel A l len”) in 2005. Borel li recently published “Coach Steve’s Youth Sports Survival Guide,” which is based on the weekly sports parenting column he writes for USA TODAY Sports.
OPPOSITE: Broadcasters Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman placed flowers on home plate before Yankee Stadium observed a moment of
silence for John Sterling. They were his former partners in the radio booth. K EVIN R. WEXLER / NORTHJERSEY.COM
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INTRODUCTION • 9
the field at Yankee Stadium in 2001. It was there that Sterling, in surprisingly self-effacing fashion, told me the origins of his most famous phrases on the air. “For 1,000 years, when two guys hit home runs, they say, ‘Back-to-back,’” he said. “Harry Belafonte has a calypso song — years ago — and he’s singing, ‘And they go back-to-back and belly-to-belly.’” Those seven words — back-to-back and belly-to-belly — happily, and sometimes musically, came out of Sterling when the Yankees hit consecutive home runs. “So odd, so dumb,” he said then. “It doesn’t even mean anything.” It meant more than he knew. I got a deeper look inside him when I was researching a biography on his most famous predecessor in the Yankees booth, Mel Allen, a few years later. “Mel represented for me the best of New York,” he would tell me. “You know, Madison and Fifth Avenue, networks, CBS at 485 Madison. I was really drawn into that. “He was my hero.” As it turns out, he became Sterling’s mentor, too. Through both of their stories, I learned how we can always pay it forward, no matter how successful we get. Sterling’s father sold menswear advertising in New York when John was a wide-eyed boy following baseball. Allen, who started out as a young CBS staff announcer, knew his father from a showing. “How could you possibly know that,” Sterling told me when I mentioned to him that Allen had met his father. I had found out where Sterling and Yankees were staying on a road trip in May 2004 and called the hotel. I asked the front desk for him and they put me 10 • IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS GONE!
through. He answered after a couple of rings. He didn’t remember me, but he immediately took an interest in my project, I think, because I was prepared with the link between Mel and his father. Sterling invited me to Yankee Stadium to continue our discussion before a game. Our conversation, and his friendly guidance over a young writer’s career, was just beginning. Baseball broadcasters are your friend, even if you don’t know them. The natural pauses in the game, especially before the pitch clock came about last season, allow for that friendship to grow through the narrator’s stories and personal touches.
Allen could sell beer (Ballantine beer) like no announcer could during those pauses. Sterling remembers watching him, around the onset of TV, pull one out of a little cooler and pour it for his viewers. “He would sit there and say, ‘We have to wait till after the game, but you can have yours right now,’” Sterling said when I met him at Yankee Stadium again a few days after our phone call. “And he would take a beautiful beer glass and it would be some July, August night, you see this big, heavy, sweaty man, and he’d pour it. … It’d hit the top side and it would come out perfectly. “Now do you think that sold beer?!
Wow!” When I reminded Sterling how he had dedicated his broadcast to Mel on the day Allen died in 1996, he grew silent in thought. He was choked up. He had lost a friend that day. And it wasn’t the first time. Sterling was in his 20s when Allen, the soundtrack of a previous Yankees dynasty, virtually disappeared from the airwaves. The Yankees decided in 1964 to pull the plug on him after 25 years doing their games, looking for a fresh voice and new image. Dismissing a broadcaster is common in the business, but this one resounded all over New York because Allen was bigger than life to so many.
OPPOSITE: With big-league baseball
on its All-Star Game hiatus, the Voice of the Yankees still donned a suit and headed to a ballpark for an independent league game. John Sterling visited TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey, on July 12, 2017, for the Atlantic League All-Star Game, hosted by the Somerset Patriots. Sterling, a proud resident of Edgewater, New Jersey, called the home run derby before the game, and former Yankees reliever Sparky Lyle and second baseman Willie Randolph were the honorary managers. They were selected to mark the 40th anniversary of the Yankees’ 1977 World Series championship. B OB KARP / DAILY RECORD
Unlike with Sterling, the Yankees regime at the time never gave Allen a proper forum to say goodbye to his fans on his own terms. It was a cruel way to handle someone who had spread the team’s popularity to so many fans, including Sterling. “It’s so tough for me to relate exactly what I feel,” Sterling told me about Allen, “because I’m not able to put (it) into words. There I am, a guy with a big mouth. I loved every game he did. I thought it was an event.” You can imagine how he felt when he met Allen in the late 1970s. Sterling was around 40 and still hadn’t become the Yankees play-by-play man. He was doing a talk show on New York station WMCA,
which looked to capitalize on the Yankees’ re-emergence under a young, enterprising owner named George Steinbrenner. Sterling found himself on Yankees pregame and postgame shows with Allen, whom Steinbrenner had welcomed back into the Yankees family. They became good friends, taking a shared interest in each other’s pursuits. It’s kind of the way I felt talking to Sterling, eating with him in the Yankee Stadium press dining room and listening to his stories about interviewing celebrities in Steinbrenner’s office after a clinching World Series victory. Sterling, of course, was working next to one of his favorite celebrities of all. “Whoever you’d think is great, including
Cary Grant and (Walter) Cronkite, whoever you think is big, we had on,” Sterling said. “And Mel, to his dying day, when he’d see me, he’d say, ‘Can’t we get tape of that? That was the best show I ever did. John. We should get a tape.’” Sterling loved how Allen would kid him about his Grant impression and, more deeply, felt Mel’s support when Steinbrenner hired him to be the Yankees’ play-by-play guy in 1989. Think of the best player in your school’s history coming back to hand the ball off to you. Allen knew about the importance of giving back when we get opportunities in our careers like he had. In the 1950s, he had taken a blind phone call from an assistant
LEFT: Sterling and Suzyn Waldman spent a few relaxed moments in the WCBS broadcast booth at Yankee Stadium before the Bronx Bombers played the Tigers in May 2005. That was the first of 20 seasons Sterling and Waldman worked together as the radio team for the Yankees. They had known each other for two decades. At 3 p.m. on July 1, 1987, Waldman spoke the first words on WFAN, the country’s first 24-hour all-sports radio station. For a spell, she handled sports updates during Sterling’s call-in show. “He stood up and he cupped his hand over his ear and he talked standing up for four hours,” Waldman said in an interview with the station years later. “And I said this must be a really interesting person. And he could talk about anything.” DAVE KENNEDY / THE JOURNAL NEWS
INTRODUCTION • 11
RIGHT: John Sterling and former
Yankees reliever Sparky Lyle joked around at the podium awaiting Joe Torre’s arrival at the Hilton Short Hills in New Jersey. The date was Feb. 3, 2009, the official release day of Torre’s book “The Yankee Years,” which already had generated controversy. The event was a book signing to benefit the Somerset Patriots of the independent Atlantic League. Lyle had managed the Patriots from 1998 to 2012 and won several pennants. The team would retire his No. 28 in 2014. Torre’s book, cowritten by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, detailed friction with owner George Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman during his 12 seasons at the helm that produced four World Series titles. It also revealed that his teammates sometimes called Alex Rodriguez by the nickname of “A-Fraud” and that he had an apparent obsession with Derek Jeter. Days earlier, Torre appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and said he was proud of the honesty of his book, he didn’t violate the sanctity of the clubhouse and he thought it would be “a piece of history” for chronicling the Yankees’ latest dominant era. A .J. MENEZES / MYCENTRALJERSEY.COM OPPOSITE: Over the decades, Sterling signed countless autographs for Yankees fans whether at the ballpark or a restaurant or a Broadway show. Other notable left-handed broadcasters included Vin Scully of the Dodgers, Joe Nuxhall of the Reds and Jim Kaat of the Twins and Yankees. BOB KARP / DAILY RECORD
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football coach at Northwestern who was exploring a career in sportscasting. “ He d id n’t k now me f rom Eve,” Steinbrenner told me in an interview for my book, which was published in 2005. “He cared about the little guy. I tried to never forget it.” Sterling laughed, along with Waldman, when I recalled the story for them of how Mel spent 45 minutes talking to young George on the phone. We were on the air. “Strike on the inside corner,” Sterling said, still chuckling. “And you know very well because you’ve done so much research: Mel could speak for an hour.” I was an unknown, like Steinbrenner
had been, standing behind them during a Yankees-Pirates game and holding a microphone. Waldman turned to me and smiled. “We’re talking with Stephen Borelli, who’s written a terrific book,” Sterling told listeners. “Now we can both recommend the book because we both read the book. And it touches on many sensitive issues as well. … It’s a heck of a story.” He repeated a version of that line three times during the interview, which he expertly weaved in between pitches like Mel had done on those beer ads. Like with our previous meeting, Sterling had casually told me to let him know when
I could come to Yankee Stadium, where he would put me on the air for a half inning to promote the book. In this inning, though, the Yankees quickly recorded two outs. “Well, this is a great interview, Stephen,” he said in his conversational style. “Two pitches, two outs. So I think we’ll have to keep you to the bottom of the third, give you a break.” He and Waldman gave me more than that. It was my 10 minutes of fame. More importantly, he gave me a moment for which we all hope: an act of kindness from a senior that propels us forward in our endeavors, whether it’s in sports or in life.
Surefire tips for finding and keeping a mentor like Sterling For USA TODAY Sports each week, Stephen Borelli’s column on youth sports offers all kinds of advice to parents and children. Here are his tips for finding and keeping mentors at any age.
myself and others in my field.
We have to work at not only locating mentors, but at fostering the relationships. Here are four tips to help you find the right match:
3. Don’t ask specifically to be a mentee: I called Sterling for an interview for my book and he took an interest in me. Let your relationship occur naturally, too.
1. Do your homework and show your expertise: If you want to talk to that kid on varsity, know the details about his or her games first. Those details can serve as your icebreaker. Not only had I listened to John Sterling on the radio extensively, but I learned he had a passion for Yankees and broadcasting history before I contacted him. When I uncovered through newspaper archives his father had known Mel Allen, I knew I had a unique way to connect with him. Find that connection yourself. 2. Make it personal: Never send the same form letter to potential mentors. Personalize each letter to that recipient. I have gotten a number of inquiries from aspiring journalists that are sent as a group email to
Express to one person why it is him or her you are seeking out. Instead of cold calling, write a letter or email and follow it up with a phone call.
Tell the person you’d like to learn more about their profession or, in the case of an athlete you admire, to learn from them. Your initial interaction might be brief, but if you are eager and prepared, it might lead to future encounters. 4. Don’t expect a “full-service” mentorship: Have one specific question prepared for each interaction. My consultations with another mentor, Bill Gildea, a longtime Washington Post sportswriter, were career-changing. Yet most of them occurred in a series of short phone calls over a number of months and years. Successful people don’t often have a lot of time, but if they like you, they will take your calls. Be persistent, but also be respectful of their schedules. INTRODUCTION • 13
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PREFACE
Sterling’s often imitated ‘Yankees win!’ call had its roots at a time when the team stunk STEVE BORELLI AND GENE MYERS
THE RENOWNED RADIO CALL OF “Yankees win!” took shape at a time when the Yankees lost. And lost. “ Ya n kees w i n! T H U U U U U U U H YA N K E E S W I N! ” Joh n S terl i n g screamed with each victory in his deep, jolly voice. But the call wasn’t so frequent when he joined the club in 1989. That year, New York went 74-87 in the first of four straight sub-.500 seasons. The Yankees bottomed out with 95 losses in 1990. “They were awful, and they didn’t win, so when there was a dramatic game that they won, I’d yell, ‘Yankees win!’” Sterling recalled in 2001. “It started to become a thing, and I’d go, ‘Yankees win! Yankees win!’ and then in my mind — I do everything extemporaneous — I thought, ‘Yankees win, the Yankees win.’ And then it became bigger — I started hearing it a lot — and then I decided to put some rock ’n’ roll
into it.” Sterling’s call became synonymous with the Yankees. “I read a lot,” he said. “I’ve read a lot of (Bob) Hope books, and he said on his old radio show that they would throw a gag in and it didn’t mean anything at all, and then they’d hear it coming back on the streets. It had become part of the public consciousness, while all the lines on ‘Get Smart’ became part of the public consciousness. So, when you hear it back, you think, ‘Oh my God, people are picking up on it.’” Those weren’t the only well-known catchphrases for Sterling: It is high, it is far, it is gone! “It was a Dale Murphy home run off Doc Gooden. I was doing TV, and I saw a breaking ball, a hanger. In Atlanta, home runs were really framed because it was circular stands, there weren’t any open places, so the stands framed it. That ball was out, so I said, ‘It is
high, it is far, it is gone.’ Out of my consciousness. And when I got to the Yankees — and now I’m doing all nine innings — I started to use that for long home runs.” Sterling took a little poetic license tracing the lineage of his home run call over the years. He was on the TV mic for the Braves on April 30, 1986, when Murphy hit his lone career homer off Gooden. But that wasn’t his call that night in Atlanta. Maybe it inspired what his call would become. Murphy, a two-time MVP, wasn’t in the lineup because the previous night he suffered a cut on his right hand from a plexiglass outfield wall. He was expected to miss a week to 10 days, which would end his streak of consecutive games at 675. With a bandage around his hand and the Mets ahead 6-0, he hit for the pitcher in the fifth inning. “The curveball … is hit to deep left field!” Sterling exclaimed with typical
enthusiasm. “How do you like it? Home run Murph!” That homer was high, far and gone! That ball will go ALL the way to the wall! “(Darryl) Strawberry hit a ball in Detroit, in the old ballpark, and it hit the gap, and the outfield in right-center and left-center was very deep, and it was a long roll.” Back-to-back and belly-to-belly! “For 1,000 years, when two guys hit home runs, they say, ‘Back-to-back.’ Harry Belafonte has a calypso song — years ago — and he’s singing, ‘And they go back-to-back and belly-to-belly.’ So odd, so dumb. It doesn’t even mean anything.” Also titled “Jumbie Jamboree” in the 1950s, Belafonte’s 1962 version was called “Zombie Jamboree” with the lyrics “back-to-back, belly-to-belly/don’t give a damn, I done dead already.”
OPPOSITE LEFT: In 51 at-bats against Dwight Gooden, Atlanta’s Dale Murphy hit .235 (12-for-51) with one double, one homer and 15 strikeouts. M ANNY RUBIO / IMAGN IMAGES OPPOSITE RIGHT: Against Atlanta on April 30, 1986, Gooden allowed six hits over eight innings in an 8-1 Mets victory. He struck out five, throwing 101 pitches. I MAGN IMAGES
INTRODUCTION • 15
The night New York’s baseball writers honored Sterling and Waldman The Baseball Writers’ Association of America was founded on Oct. 14, 1908, in Detroit after initial planning meetings in New York. Its purpose was to ensure proper facilities for covering baseball games and professional environments existed in stadium press boxes. Over the decades, the BBWAA devised a series of awards that remained the standard of excellence each year — for the top player, pitcher, manager and rookie in the American League and National League. The BBWAA also came to be the entity that elected players to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The BBWAA had a chapter in each city with a major-league franchise. The New York chapter held a gala banquet each January to honor the major award winners, attended by a who’s who from the sport. On Jan. 25, 2025, at the Hilton Midtown, the New York chapter staged its 100th awards dinner. It bestowed upon John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman the William Slocum and Jack Lang Long and Meritorious Award. Sterling had retired during the 2024
season after 36 years as the radio voice of the Yankees. Waldman had been his partner for the last 20 of those years.
Sterling for encouraging George Steinbrenner to “put a woman in the booth when nobody wants her.”
Waldman, 78 at the time, delivered her remarks first as the junior member of the longstanding team but as a trailblazer for women in sportscasting. She pointed out that 35 years earlier the late Lang got a policeman and had her “physically removed” from the dais room at the banquet and how the term “radio girl” had been used to disparage her.
Then she introduced “the one and only John Sterling.” He was 86 at the time. His remarks in their entirety:
“So,” Waldman said, “the irony of this award is not lost on me and probably not on Jack, either. But we’ve come a long way, baby.”
“When I was a kid, oh, 7 years old, I knew what I was going to do. I was going on the air.
The Hall of Fame’s Scribes & Mikemen wing included a handheld microphone Waldman used for on-the-field interviews in 2005, her first season with Sterling. She thanked journalists who assisted her rise from an actress and singer in musical theater to the first voice heard on WFAN as the country’s first 24-hour sports station to covering New York teams for the station to broadcasting Yankees games on TV and ultimately to the team’s radio booth. She thanked
“Thank you, Suzyn. You know, this award, which I don’t deserve, is long and meritorious award for my lifetime contributions to baseball. Well, actually, I should be giving baseball the award.
“I never dreamt that I’d get the Yankee job. And I had a pretty good career going when in 1989, out of the blue, I got the Yankee job, by far the luckiest thing that ever happened to me. “And here it is 36 years later, 20 years with Suzyn Waldman, a woman I, obviously, love and admire. “Here’s another thing: Feb. 1, 1960. Whoa. Were any of you born then? That was my first day on the air. And when Feb. 1 comes up in a few days, it will be 65 years on the air. Doing something
that I wanted to do all my life. How lucky am I? “Thank you, baseball, for the award. Thank you, everyone, for being here. And God bless you all.” The BBWAA award wasn’t the first time Sterling and Waldman shared the spotlight for meritorious service. In 2016, they were jointly inducted in the Hall of Fame of the New York State Broadcasters Association. Their pages on the Hall of Fame’s website included a small headshot and a photograph of them hugging on the field. His bio started off: “John Sterling has been the ironman of radio broadcasting and is nearing his 5,000th consecutive Yankees broadcast.” Her bio began: “Suzyn Waldman’s 30-year career pioneered the way for women in broadcasting. … (She) has spent the past three decades overcoming the obstacles that go along with being a female sportscaster and has risen to the very top of her profession.” — Gene Myers
OPPOSITE: John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman received awards for long and meritorious service from the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in January
2025. Sterling told the gala at the Hilton Midtown that instead of receiving an award for his contributions to baseball he should be giving one to the sport. R OY ROCHLIN / GETTY IMAGES
16 • IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS GONE!
INTRODUCTION • 17