When the Yankees fly to Florida following Wednesday night’s series finale against the crosstown Mets, a familiar face will be absent from the team charter. Longtime radio play-by-play man John Sterling is taking a break from his duties, something the veteran broadcaster hasn’t done in almost thirty years.
Sterling has called over five thousand consecutive regular and postseason games for New York, a stretch that will come to an end on his 81st birthday as the club opens a four-game set against the division-rival Tampa Bay Rays.
Known for a distinct style and signature home run calls that are customized for many players who don the pinstripes, Sterling hasn’t been feeling well lately and hopes skipping this series along with the upcoming All-Star break will provide enough of a respite that he’ll be recharged for the second half.
He’s expected to return to action next Friday when the Yankees kick off a ten-game homestead against Toronto. YES Network and ESPN announcer Ryan Ruocco will join Sterling’s partner Suzyn Waldman behind the mic at Tropicana Field Thursday.
The last time the Bombers’ modern-day iron man missed a broadcast was in 1989 due to the death of his sister, Jane. It was Sterling’s first year as the Yankees’ radio voice, and the team was headed to Seattle for a late-season series.
While Ruocco has extensive experience in multiple roles including play-by-play, Sterling’s fill-in at the Kingdome that September three decades ago was not exactly a seasoned pro. WABC Radio’s Yankee producer at the time, Chris Lentine certainly knew his way around the booth but hadn’t done much in the way of on-air appearances.
Rather than call in an emergency reserve, the station opted for the then-26-year-old Lentine to cover two games.
"John's sister unfortunately passed away,” Lentine told Forbes earlier this week. “We were on our way to Seattle so rather than ask a TV announcer to sub, my boss decided to give me my ‘big break’.”
Lentine’s voice had graced the airwaves before, but never in this capacity.
"My experience to that point had been producing Washington Redskins pre and post-game shows before joining ABC and the Yankee Radio Network,” he said. “My ‘on-air’ work was interviewing players in DC for both Redskins radio and the University of Maryland football."
Now the Senior Director of Data Operations for MLB Advanced Media, Lentine always aspired to be a part of the Yankees organization.
“I always dreamed of playing third base for the Yankees,” he said. “So broadcasting a few games was a pretty good second choice.”
New York won both contests with Lentine on the microphone, defeating a rookie fireballer turned Hall of Famer in the opener.
“Randy Johnson had just come over from Montreal and pitched in one of those games,” Lentine recalled. "Both teams were pretty bad that season, (Don) Mattingly was hurt most of the year, the pitching was pretty bad, but what stood out if you look at the lineup Deion Sanders was the starting left fielder.”
His companion for the pair of victories roamed the outfield for eight different clubs over a 20-year big league career, a prankster with one of the game’s more interesting personalities.
"My partner those two games was baseball funnyman Jay Johnstone, who worked for ABC doing Yankees radio for the ’89-90 seasons,” Lentine said. “Needless to say it was a unique experience to work with John and Jay.”
Lentine’s familiarity with the club and its radio broadcast were key in calming any potential jitters once that first pitch was thrown.
“I had been at every Yankee game for the past two seasons so there was not a lot of extra prep time needed as that was pretty (much) my routine as the producer/director already,” Lentine said about his performance. “It would have been interesting if in '89 there were fifty 24-hour all-sport networks like there are now! But I passed and certainly was not nervous and was well prepared."
Lentine resumed his regular gig behind the scenes when Sterling returned, but those two nights in the Pacific Northwest will always be an interesting footnote in a long and storied career in the sports world.
“John is the best, he really is. My main concern then was how he was doing, was a horrible thing for him to have to go through,” Lentine said. “It's not surprising after 30 years John and I are still friends."
