John Sterling

Say "Theeeeeeee Yankees win!" to anyone who grew up with a transistor radio or a car stereo locked to the Yankees' flagship station, and they don't need the rest of the sentence. That stretched-out "the," held like it was fighting off a full stop, was John Sterling's sign-off for 36 seasons -- the sound of a win becoming official before the highlights even made it to TV.

Sterling called Yankees radio from 1989 to 2024, 5,651 games in all (5,426 regular season, 225 more in October), including a stretch of 5,060 in a row that ran from September 1989 through July 2019. He was there for eight pennants and five championships, for perfect games and record-setting home runs, and for a home run call -- "It is high, it is far, it is... gone!" -- that became as much a part of a Yankees summer as the anthem before first pitch.

Fifty Years Old and Just Getting Started

He wasn't born John Sterling. He was born John Sloss on July 4, 1938, growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side as a Yankees fan who had no idea he'd spend the back half of his life calling their games. He started in radio in 1960 at a small station in Wellsville, New York, and spent the next three decades bouncing around New York and Atlanta sports -- the Islanders and Nets in the mid-1970s, WMCA's Yankees pregame show from 1971 to 1978, then the Hawks and Braves in Atlanta through the 1980s.

He was 50 years old, not some fresh voice out of a broadcasting school, when WABC hired him in 1989 to replace Hank Greenwald as the Yankees' full-time play-by-play voice. General manager Fred Winehouse had heard him call a Hawks-Celtics playoff series that spring and remembered his earlier New York work (turns out the audition tape was two decades of NHL, NBA, and MLB games nobody outside those markets ever heard). Sterling took the job and never really left it.

A Call for Everyone in the Lineup

Most broadcasters have one home run call. Sterling had dozens. Derek Jeter got "El Capitan." Alex Rodriguez got "an A-bomb from A-Rod." Hideki Matsui got "a thrilla by Godzilla." Bernie Williams got "Bern, baby, Bern." Robinson Cano got "Robbie Cano, don't ya know!" And when Aaron Judge arrived, Sterling built him one too: "All rise! Here comes the Judge!" -- a call that got a real workout on October 4, 2022, when Judge hit his American League-record 62nd home run of the season.

Not every call landed clean, and that was half the fun of listening. Sterling occasionally called a ball gone that stayed in the park, or the reverse, and just talked his way through it like nothing had happened. Fans didn't hold it against him. If anything, it made the good calls feel earned instead of scripted.

I am a very blessed human being. I have been able to do what I wanted, broadcasting for 64 years. As a little boy growing up in New York as a Yankees fan, I was able to broadcast the Yankees for 36 years. It's all to my benefit, and I leave very, very happy.

The Streak, and the Retirement That Didn't Take

The 5,060-game streak is the kind of number that sounds made up until you sit with it: nearly 30 years without missing a game, home or road, rain delay or blizzard, until Sterling felt "under the weather" and skipped a Tampa Bay road trip in July 2019. He came back and kept going for five more years.

The real ending came fast and without much warning. Sterling called an 8-3 win over Toronto on April 7, 2024, and eight days later announced he was retiring at 85, citing fatigue after the club's season-opening trip to Houston and Arizona. "You know what," he said, "I'm really tired." That should have been the last word.

It wasn't. Five months later, Sterling was back in the booth for a September tune-up series against Baltimore, then called the entire 2024 postseason alongside Aaron Boone's club and longtime partner Suzyn Waldman -- the ALDS clinch, an ALCS pennant win, and a World Series against the Dodgers that the Yankees lost in five games (he still got one more "Yankees win" call in, off a Game 4 victory, before it ended). After that, he was done for real. "Not a chance," he said when asked about 2025. "This is my last hurrah doing baseball games."

Frick Finalist, Never a Winner

Sterling was never inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he shouldn't be confused with broadcasters who were. What he did earn was Ford C. Frick Award finalist status in back-to-back years -- 2025, when Tom Hamilton won, and 2026, when Joe Buck won. Two finalist nods and zero trophies (the closest parallel on this site is Mel Allen, who won the very first Frick Award in 1978, a distinction Sterling never got to add to his own resume). He did pick up a smaller, real honor in 2016, inducted alongside Waldman into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

Sterling suffered a heart attack in early January 2026 and underwent bypass surgery that winter, recovering at his New Jersey home with his four children looking after him. He died on May 4, 2026, at Englewood Hospital, at age 87.

Key Moments

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was John Sterling, the Yankees' radio voice?

John Sterling (born John Sloss, July 4, 1938) was the Yankees' radio play-by-play announcer from 1989 to 2024, calling 5,651 games across 36 seasons, including 5,060 straight from September 1989 through July 2019. He's best known for the home run call "It is high, it is far, it is... gone!" and the sign-off "Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!"

What was John Sterling's home run call for Aaron Judge?

Sterling's call for a Judge home run was "All rise! Here comes the Judge!" He used it for Judge's American League-record 62nd home run of the 2022 season, among hundreds of other Judge blasts across his tenure.

Is John Sterling in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

No. Sterling was never inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a Ford C. Frick Award finalist in both 2025 (won by Tom Hamilton) and 2026 (won by Joe Buck) but did not win the award either year. He was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2016, a separate regional honor.

Did John Sterling really retire twice?

Yes. He announced his retirement in April 2024 at age 85, citing fatigue, after calling his final scheduled game on April 7. He returned that September for a tune-up series and called the Yankees' entire 2024 postseason run, including their World Series loss to the Dodgers, before retiring for good.

When did John Sterling die?

Sterling died on May 4, 2026, at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey, at age 87, several months after a heart attack and bypass surgery that winter.

Two years after his last "Yankees win," the booth still sounds a little different without him. Sterling never claimed to be perfect -- he'd be the first to admit a call or two got away from him over 36 years -- but he showed up, night after night, for three decades of Yankees baseball that included five parades and one voice loud enough to make every single one of them sound like the biggest game of the year.