John Sterling (sportscaster)

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John Sterling, born Harold Moskowitz on July 4, 1948, is an American sportscaster and the radio play-by-play announcer of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees. He has announced Yankees games since 1989, calling 162 games a year, plus pre-season and post-season, without missing one. His Yankee broadcasts have been carried on the strong-signalled WABC and, since 2002, WCBS, in addition to a variety of stations across the Northeastern United States and elsewhere that make up the Yankees Radio Network.

He is currently paired with Suzyn Waldman on Yankee broadcasts. Past partners have included Charley Steiner (2002-2004), Michael Kay(1992-2001), Joe Angel (1991), and Jay Johnstone (1989-1990).

In addition to his radio duties, Sterling hosts the YES Network's Yankeeography series and introduces and concludes Yankees Classics games. During the baseball offseason, Sterling occasionally appears as a host on WFAN and has done play-by-play for Ivy League sports.

He is famous for his line, "Ball-game over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!!" articulating the "the" in a prolonged manner with due enthusiasm (if the Yankees lose he will say the same thing substituting the winning team without the prolonged "the", for example 'Ball-game over! The (insert other baseball teams) win').

In March 2007, it was reported that Sterling and Waldman had signed contracts to continue as the Yankees' radio announcers through the 2011 season. [1]

[edit] Player nicknames

Some of Sterling's nicknames (often heard after a Yankee home run)

Bobby Abreu: "El Comedulce!"
Melky Cabrera: "The Melk Man delivers!"
Robinson Cano: "Robbie Cano! Don't you know?", and "Cano can do!"
Johnny Damon: "Positively Damonic!"
Jason Giambi: "The Giambino!"
Derek Jeter: "El Capitan!", and "a Jeterian swing..."
Tino Martinez: "The Bam-Tino!"
Hideki Matsui: "A thrilla by Godzilla!"
Jorge Posada: "Jorgie juiced one!"
Alex Rodriguez: "Alexander the Great!" , or "an A-Bomb from A-Rod!"
Bernie Williams: "Bernie goes boom!", and "Bern baby Bern!"

[edit] Previous assignments

Sterling began his New York career as a talk show host with WMCA in the early 1970s. He later served as the radio voice for the New York Raiders (WHA), New York Stars (WFL), New York Islanders (NHL) and New York/New Jersey Nets (NBA).

Sterling then spent nine years in Atlanta, working for Ted Turner and covering the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks before replacing Tommy Hutton as the Yankees radio announcer.