Bob Sheppard

September 25, 2014. Bottom of the ninth, Yankee Stadium, game tied against Baltimore. A recorded voice booms out of the speakers: "Now batting for the Yankees... number two... Derek Jeter... number two." The man attached to that voice had been dead for four years. Bob Sheppard never saw the single that followed, never saw Jeter pump his fists at second base in his final home at-bat -- but he was there anyway, the way he'd been there for every big Yankees moment since Harry Truman was president.

Sheppard announced at Yankee Stadium for 56 seasons, from 1951 to 2007, across six decades and some of the most star-studded rosters the sport has ever fielded. He called out DiMaggio, then Mantle, then Reggie, then Jeter -- never a nickname, never an ad-lib, just a name, a number, and that unmistakable cadence. Reggie Jackson gave him the nickname that stuck: "The Voice of God."

A Speech Teacher Who Said No Three Times

Robert Leo Sheppard was born October 20, 1910, in Richmond Hill, Queens. He went to St. John's University on an athletic scholarship, earned seven varsity letters between 1928 and 1932, and picked up a master's degree in speech education from Columbia in 1933. He spent his career teaching speech -- in the New York City school system and at St. John's -- and treated Yankee Stadium as a part-time job for most of his life, not the other way around.

Yankees officials first heard him in 1948, delivering a tribute to Babe Ruth at a college football game, and offered him the PA job on the spot. Sheppard turned them down. He turned them down again the following year. He didn't say yes until 1951, and only after the club guaranteed him an understudy so the job wouldn't cost him his classroom.

Clear, Correct, Concise

Sheppard called his own philosophy the three C's -- clear, correct, concise. "A public address announcer should be clear, concise, correct," he said. "He should not be colorful, cute or comic." Every game started the same way, his voice rolling out over the crowd noise: "Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen." No exclamation points. No hype. Just that measured baritone, built to reach the upper deck without ever sounding like it was trying.

That restraint is exactly what made him a legend instead of a novelty act. He announced Joe DiMaggio in his final season, then Mickey Mantle for eighteen years, then Reggie Jackson's three-homer night, then Derek Jeter for two decades. Different eras, different rosters, different championship runs -- same voice, same unhurried delivery, every single time. On May 7, 2000, the Yankees marked his 50th year (plus two weeks) with "Bob Sheppard Day," dedicating a plaque in Monument Park while Walter Cronkite read the inscription aloud and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. He kept working another seven years after that.

The Voice Outlasts the Man

A bronchial infection ended Sheppard's in-person career in September 2007. He never came back to the booth. When the original Yankee Stadium closed for good on September 21, 2008, Sheppard couldn't attend -- so he recorded the farewell greeting and the full starting lineup from home, and his voice echoed through the building one last time on the night it mattered most: "At shortstop... number two... Derek Jeter... number two." More than 54,000 fans heard a man who wasn't there say goodbye to a building he'd defined for 57 years.

Jeter had already made sure that voice wouldn't disappear. Years earlier, before Sheppard's health forced him out, Jeter had personally asked him to record a permanent introduction just for his at-bats. "That's the only voice I'd heard growing up, and that's the only voice I wanted to hear when I was announced at home," Jeter said. "Fortunately he agreed to do it." From that point forward, every Jeter at-bat at Yankee Stadium opened with Sheppard's recorded voice -- through the 2009 championship, through the new Stadium, through Jeter's 3,000th hit, all the way to that walk-off single in his last home game in 2014.

That's the only voice I'd heard growing up, and that's the only voice I wanted to hear when I was announced at home.

Jeter wasn't the only one. When Mariano Rivera made his final regular-season entrance at Yankee Stadium on September 26, 2013, jogging in to "Enter Sandman" for the last time, the bullpen door opened to Sheppard's recorded call: "No. 42... Mariano Rivera... No. 42." Two of the greatest Yankees of the dynasty years, both introduced by a voice that had stopped announcing live baseball six years earlier and had been silent for good since July 11, 2010, when Sheppard died at his Baldwin, New York home at age 99, his wife Mary at his side.

Key Moments

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Bob Sheppard, and why was he called 'The Voice of God'?

Bob Sheppard (born October 20, 1910, in Richmond Hill, Queens) was the Yankees' public address announcer at Yankee Stadium from 1951 to 2007 -- 56 seasons across six decades. Reggie Jackson coined the nickname "The Voice of God" for Sheppard's precise, formal, unmistakable delivery, and it stuck for the rest of his career.

Why did Derek Jeter use a recording of Bob Sheppard's voice for his at-bat introductions?

Jeter asked Sheppard to personally record his introduction years before illness ended Sheppard's in-person career in 2007. "That's the only voice I'd heard growing up, and that's the only voice I wanted to hear when I was announced at home," Jeter explained. He kept that same recording playing before every home at-bat for the rest of his career, including his final game at Yankee Stadium on September 25, 2014, four years after Sheppard's death.

Did any other Yankees use Bob Sheppard's recorded voice besides Derek Jeter?

Yes. Mariano Rivera's recorded introduction, "No. 42... Mariano Rivera... No. 42," used Sheppard's voice as well. It played when Rivera made his final regular-season entrance at Yankee Stadium on September 26, 2013, jogging in from the bullpen to "Enter Sandman" one last time.

When did Bob Sheppard start and stop announcing at Yankee Stadium, and when did he die?

Sheppard announced his first Yankees game on April 17, 1951, and worked in person until a bronchial infection forced him to stop attending games in September 2007. He recorded a farewell greeting and starting lineup for the original Yankee Stadium's final game on September 21, 2008. Sheppard died on July 11, 2010, at his home in Baldwin, New York, at age 99.

The stadium he introduced fifty-six years of ballgames in doesn't even stand anymore. The man himself has been gone since 2010. But for seven years after he stopped attending games -- four of them after he'd already died -- that same measured voice kept announcing Derek Jeter to the plate -- number two, number two -- like nothing had changed at all.