John Sterling, the radio play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees over the last 36 years, is retiring from the role effective immediately. Sterling has called 5,420 regular-season Yankees games and 211 postseason Yankees games and has made an indelible mark on the team, Major League Baseball and sports media as a whole. He will be honored in a pregame ceremony on Saturday, April 20 and will also visit the WFAN Yankees radio booth during the game, in addition to partaking in a pregame press conference.
Upon the news of Sterling’s retirement becoming official after it had been reported by various media outlets, he joined Evan & Tiki in afternoon drive on WFAN to explain the rationale behind his decision. Since the Yankees did not qualify for the MLB postseason last year for the first time since 2016, Sterling was not working in October and found that he had more time to live his life happily, consuming sports from afar by watching games and engaging with talk programming.
“I guess if I was smarter – and I’m not – if I was smarter, I would have done this March 1 or March 31,” Sterling said. “During the winter, the Yankees – obviously you know we didn’t make the playoffs – we were free October 3, and October, November, December, January, February, March – I lived my life as happy as I’ve lived it, including listening to you guys all the time and watching all the games.”
At the beginning of the season while being interviewed for a piece by The Athletic, Sterling remarked that the end of his broadcast career was forthcoming. Afternoon drive co-host Tiki Barber asked Sterling if it was a difficult decision for him to make, a decision that he reportedly informed Yankees and WFAN management about late last week as reported by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
“It was not a hard decision, and I can’t wait for it to finally happen,” Sterling said. “As I’ve told my family – I’ve got four kids who are grown – and my friends, I’ve said, ‘Now we can have dinner anytime,’ so that’s how I feel.”
Sterling acknowledged Audacy New York market president Chris Oliviero during his on-air appearance, conveying that he is an intelligent and well-meaning leader. Over the last several seasons, he has cut back his schedule to calling home games and select road games. He was on the Yankees’ season-opening road trip where the team faced the Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks in seven games. Afterwards, Sterling called the team’s opening homestand against the Toronto Blue Jays and Miami Marlins and was behind the microphone for his final contest on April 7, a game the Yankees won 8-3.
“I don’t want to get up in the afternoon and have to go somewhere,” Sterling said. “In fact, I’d much rather listen to you guys and then listen to the game. I can watch 800 games here; in fact, that’s my plan. I’m going to watch and listen to 162 Yankee games, Mets games, all the games on Turner and ESPN, all the games on MLB.”
Afternoon drive co-host Evan Roberts concluded the interview by offering Sterling a guest spot on their radio show any time he would like. As a former talk show host in Baltimore, New York City and Atlanta, he articulated his staunch belief in that facet of sports media and told them to give him a call any time they wanted him on. Before that though, Roberts said he is glad Sterling did not retire before the season started because the Yankees look like they could win the World Series.
With a 12-4 overall record, the Yankees currently have the most wins in Major League Baseball and feature a young, dynamic lineup anchored by Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Sterling concurred that the team is looking good thus far but that there is a long season to go. As the Yankees look to earn their 28th World Series championship, Sterling will be watching the team from afar and feeling the fervent zeal and passion of the Yankees fans.
“You know I’m the greatest sports fan in history, and I’ve got TVs all over the joint, and I should have stopped then,” Sterling said. “Anyway, I just don’t want to do any more work. I’ve worked for 64 years, and in July I’ll be 86, so let’s face it, my time has come.”
