John Sterling Dies at 87 After 36 Years With Yankees

john sterling died Monday at 87, ending the run of a broadcaster who spent 36 years as the Yankees’ play-by-play announcer. He called 5,631 Yankees games and became the radio voice attached to five championship seasons.

Sterling and the Yankees

He joined the Yankees in 1989 and stayed through 2024, a span that covered eight World Series appearances and more than three decades of October baseball. Sterling also called every game of Derek Jeter’s 20-year career and every pitch thrown by Mariano Rivera.

His presence stretched beyond the box score. Sterling was there when Aaron Judge hit his American League single-season record 62nd home run in 2022, and he was known for his “The Yankees win” call after final outs, along with “Thuuhhh Yankees win!” and his pre-pitch “Thuuhhh pitch.”

Signature calls and milestones

He became known for home run calls that matched the player on the moment: “Burn, Baby, Burn!” for Bernie Williams, “An A-bomb, from A-Rod” for Alex Rodriguez and “Robbie Cano, don’t you know?” for Robinson Cano. Sterling also emceed the uniform number retirement ceremonies for Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams and Joe Torre, among others.

Those Yankees years included five championship clubs in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. He was nominated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and was a member of the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Retirement and family

Sterling retired in 2024 after calling 5,060 consecutive games before missing his first game in July 2019. His career also included 211 postseason games and five World Series wins.

He had a heart attack in January. Sterling was married for 12 years to Jennifer Sterling, and they had four children: Abagail, Veronica, Bradford and Derek. Born John Sloss, he grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, wore a tailored suit, tie and dress shoes to work, and spent 64 years in broadcasting before his death.