Inside Yankees legend John Sterling’s heavenly ballpark sendoff

NEW YORK — If Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and other Yankees greats were playing a baseball game in heaven Monday, Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto surely would have passed the microphone over to John Sterling for a few innings.

Take a few seconds and imagine what that would sound like.

On this sad day when a franchise legend’s booming baritone was silenced exactly two months before his 88^th birthday, Sterling’s soothing voice was revived for a few glorious minutes before the scorching Yankees beat the Orioles 12-1 at Yankee Stadium.

Yankees players and coaches were in the dugout for the start of a tribute that included early-arriving fans being treated to a few minutes of vintage Sterling calls from his 36 seasons in the Yankees’ radio booth from 1989 to 2025.

All of the Orioles were in the visiting dugout, too.

During the audio tribute, there were smiles, cheers and tears.

Baseball fans across the country knew Sterling’s voice. He made up home run calls for every Yankee position player, and whether they were clever or corny, belted out or sung, everyone seemed to enjoy them … baseball fans, players, everyone. His catchphrase calls were so unique and so good that MLB Network, ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and sports talk shows across the nation replayed them.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone loved Sterling’s famous victory declaration so much that he belted it out while shaking hands with his coaches right after the final out:

“Ballgame over, Yankees win. Theeeeeeee Yankees win!”

Even Aaron Judge’s parents were fans.

“Especially my mom,” the Yankees captain said. “She listened to a lot of the games when she was working on the yard. She had John and Suzyn on.”

Sterling would have loved calling this Yankees game from start to finish, although he probably would have yelled for everyone to stop making a big deal out of him beforehand and get on with the game.

It was sad to watch two of Sterling’s radio partners, Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman, walk out arm in arm and place bouquets on home plate before a moment of silence, which was followed by a fan in the third-base stands yelling out a cliche Sterling used, probably 1,000 times over the years:

“That’s baseball, Suzyn!”

Suzyn heard it and loved it.

“That’s the one time I smiled,” she said during her broadcast with play-by-play announcer Dave Sims.

Suzyn hoped that the Yankees would honor Sterling “with a patch or something,” and they did: His initials were added to the back of everyone’s hat.

“I walked in at some point in my office and saw the JS on the back of the hat and I thought it was awesome,” Boone said.

There were more tributes after the game started. Following the first pitch, the Bleacher Creatures’ Roll Call ended with John Sterling chants.

“John was a major player in Yankee history, so obviously there’s a lot of respect there,” said Marc Chalpin, who leads the Roll Call every game.

In the Yankees’ first inning, Kay paid tribute to his former radio partner while calling the game on YES. When Judge followed Trent Grisham’s leadoff double with a two-run homer to right-center field, Kay abandoned his signature “See Ya” home run call to do Sterling’s:

“It is high, it is far, it is gone! Aaron Judge! A Judgian blast! Here comes the Judge!”

After hearing the news on Monday, Judge listened to some of Sterling’s home run calls. One of his favorites was “Gio Urshela, the most happy fella!” He also listened to a replay of his 2022 homer that broke Roger Maris’ American League single-season record.

“Yeah. I went back, especially today, and listened to his call on 62 just the way he described it. He was talking about Yankee right fielders … Maris, Ruth, Judge. Just incredible.”

Judge said Yankees players would “make a little bet” on what Sterling would come up with every time a new position player joined the team.

“It didn’t matter if we just traded for the guy and the first day he had a home run, like (Anthony) Rizzo,” Judge said. “He was ready to go. It’s just impressive. He brought this game to life on the radio.

“I’m just gonna remember he brought the New York theater to the ballpark. I think that’s the best way to describe it. He just brought such enthusiasm.

“He was almost a kid up there in the broadcast booth talking about the game, him and Suzyn going back and forth.”

From the time news broke of Sterling’s early-morning passing, the whole day was a tribute to the long and amazing life of a franchise legend.

All day, WFAN played classic clips between guests telling stories of Sterling the broadcaster, Sterling the sports fanatic, Sterling the Broadway music lover, Sterling the kind soul.

Waldman held up well, telling stories on the radio and to reporters at the ballpark.

“I think this man lived life to the fullest,” she said outside the Yankees clubhouse. “It should be a celebration, not a mourning thing. Who lives their life like that and is able to accomplish everything from the time he was 6 years old? This is what he wanted to do, and he did it. And for a very long time, he did it better than anybody.”

John Sloss was born in New York City on July 4, 1938, and was raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side., he was raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Baseball was one of his first loves. He played some ball, but fantasized about broadcasting Yankees games. He did a lot of pro basketball and some hockey before his dream came true at age 50, when he replaced Hank Greenwald in the Yankees’ radio booth.

Sterling’s first partner was Jay Johnstone, a former big-league outfielder who was known for his zany personality and clubhouse pranks. After three seasons, Kay transitioned from being a newspaper beat writer to calling games alongside Sterling, a role he held for 10 years. Kay transitioned to TV when YES started, and former ESPN SportsCenter host Charlie Steiner joined Sterling from 2002-04.

After that, Sterling teamed up with Waldman, who made history by becoming baseball’s first full-time female commentator.

“And by the way, if it weren’t for John, I wouldn’t have gotten this job,” Waldman said. “When people were saying, ‘You can’t have a woman do Yankees radio,’ George (Steinbrenner) came over and said (to John), ‘What do you think of this? A woman?’ He said, ‘I think a woman is wonderful, as long as it’s this woman. Go ahead and hire her.’

“And he did that also with Michael Kay. A lot of people wanted that job. A lot of players wanted that job and John said to George, ‘This is who I want.’ So both of us owe him a lot.”

The tribute continued through the final out when Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman grounded to first base.

On this night, fans heard Sterling’s “Yankees win … Theeeeeeee Yankees win!” on the sound system before the start of Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”

Boone hopes the Yankees keep it up.

“I’d love it,” he said. “Right on into Frank (Sinatra)!”

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