Longtime New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling called it a career this week. After providing the Yankees’ soundtrack for 35 years, Sterling retired this week and will be honored on Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
Sterling’s retirement came abruptly as the 2024 MLB season just recently began. And even after it seemed like Sterling was ready to roll, the Yankee radio announcer opted to hang it up.
Father Time comes for us all someday. Sterling has been the only voice for many Yankee fans who grew up during their most prominent recent run in the late 1990s. Now, he’s done in the booth. Maybe it makes you wonder: What would you do in that situation?
That discussion found its way to The Michael Kay Show on YES Network Tuesday. Kay, the longtime TV voice of the New York Yankees and former radio announcer along Sterling’s side, has done this broadcasting deal for a long time. Does he know how he’d approach a similar situation? The longtime Yankee voice does.
“Unless I was profoundly ill, right? I don’t see myself just saying ‘no,'” Kay said. He brought up that Sterling has understudies behind him, but that since he has over 100 games on his contract, he feels it would be “unfair” to the network if he abruptly called it quits.
“I think I would probably finish the year and then I’d walk away,” Kay said. He went on to credit Sterling for having a lot of guts to do what he’s decided to do. He said he asked Sterling if he felt content or not, and Sterling said he knew for sure that this was it.
Co-host Don La Greca noted that most professional athletes talk about how they want to do their profession until they don’t want to anymore. So La Greca perhaps suggests that it wasn’t in Sterling’s spirit anymore. He recalled that the Yankee radio announcer said it “felt right” at the ballpark, but perhaps those other elements played a crucial role in his decision.
Of course, Kay didn’t come off as mean-spirited or decidedly against Sterling and his decision to retire. In fact, Kay was particularly complimentary, saying he sounded great in his final home run call. “He’s going out with one of the great voices of all time,” he said.
The longtime YES Network personality simply stated his perspective. Whether you agree or disagree is your choice.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022