New York Yankees radio announcer Dave Sims enjoyed a few nice days with his family in Seattle until Boomer Esiason found out about it.
The Yankees began a West Coast trip last Friday in Sacramento against the Athletics without Sims on their radio broadcast. Sims flew west last week, but went straight to the second leg of the road trip in Seattle, where he awaited the Yankees’ arrival by spending time with family. Prior to joining the Yankees, Sims spent 18 seasons as the play-by-play voice of the Mariners.
Sims is in his first season as the radio voice of the Yankees after succeeding iconic play-by-play announcer John Sterling, who retired last year. And while Sterling was known for his 30-year iron man streak with the Yankees, Sims is being criticized by Esiason for already taking a series off.
“I’m sorry, I love Dave Sims, but unless there’s something major going on that I don’t know about, then I’ll gladly retract the criticism – what are you doing?” Esiason said on his WFAN morning show with co-host Gregg Giannotti. “You just took the Yankee job! It’s supposed to be the job of your life.”
According to Sims, there is nothing major going on. Last week, Sims announced on social media he was in Seattle and would be “skipping the A’s series to have a few extra days here to spend with family and friends.”
“We love Dave Sims,” Esiason insisted. “But I’m gonna call it out as I see it. He just got started as the Yankee announcer. He’s 40 games into his career as the Yankee announcer, and he decided to take off…it could be in his contract. I just found it very interesting that 40 games in, we’re already taking a weekend off.”
Although he’s in his first season with the Yankees, Sims is not new to WFAN, having previously worked as a midday host on the station in the early ‘90s. Esiason and Giannotti championed the hire and had Sims in studio after he was announced as the Yankees’ radio voice last year. Surely, Sims appreciated the support. But the 72-year-old broadcaster probably won’t appreciate Esiason attempting to dictate how he uses his vacation time.
Sterling’s 5,060 consecutive game streak with the Yankees was amazing, but that shouldn’t now be a prerequisite for every other play-by-play voice in their future. Baseball announcers take time off. And if a Yankees announcer is going to take a series off, skipping a trip to a minor league stadium in Sacramento seems like a reasonable time to do it.