540. A Tribute to John Sterling

Legendary Yankees play-by-play announcer John Sterling died on May 4th, 2026. His broadcasting career began in the 1970s, but in 1989, he was hired as the radio voice of the New York Yankees. He called their games from 1989-2024, and in the process called 5,060 consecutive games from ’89-’19. He was a 12x Sports Emmy Award winner. His career included calling games for the New York/New Jersey Nets, the New York Islanders, the Baltimore Bullets, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Atlanta Braves. He was a talk show host in New York before the invention of 24-hour sports radio.

Longtime Yankees radio engineer Jack “Candy” Maldonado traveled with John and worked with him for decades. In this episode, he explains what made John so endearing to Yankee fans. He discussed the various partnerships, including working with Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman. He also told some class Sterling stories, as well as the origin of his nickname after former baseball player Candy Maldonado.

John Sterling was 87.