30 YEARS OF YANKS WITH STERLING

TheradiovoiceoftheYankees,YankeesJohnSterSter- ling,tookatimeoutforsomeQ&Awith PostcolumnistSteveSerby. Q: How would you have called a Babe Ruth home run? A: I probably would have done something with Bambino (chuckle). I don’t know what, but that’s why I did Bamtino and Giambino and Sanchino. Q: How about Joe DiMaggio? I just thought of one for you actually. A: What? Tell me! Q: No no I want you to ... A: Joltin’ Joe jolts one ... I don’t know (laugh). Something like that. Q: I got a better one for you. A: OK, what? Q: A ripper, from the Clipper! A: Yeah I like that. Writers give them all the time. I love them for it. Q: Do you have a favorite? A: I love Bobby Abreu. I had an engineer then, the late Carlos Silva, who gave me this info. Bobby Abreu’s dad played in Venezuela, and was called El Comedulce, the Candyman, he liked candy. And so with Bobby, I would say El Comedulce — I don’t think people had any idea what I was saying — and then I’d say, “Bobby Abreu is sweet as candy (laugh).” The one that is repeated the most would be A-bomb for A-Rod. Robby Cano I like very much, it just came to me one day —“It’s Robby Cano, don’t ya know!” Q: Reggie Jackson ? A: Reggie jacks one (laugh)? Q: How about, “Reggie, has been eating his veggies”? A: Yeah I like that, I like that. Q: How do you feel about being a polarizing figure? A: I have very strong likes and dislikes, on radio, television, movies, music, literature, I read as much as anyone reads. And so, if someone doesn’t like it, don’t listen. I’m really cool about that. Q: What criticism of you that you feel has been the most unfair? A: That I don’t tell the truth about the Yankees. My broadcast is as honest as can be. And people think because I get excited and exuberant over Yankee success, that I’m a homer. You know it used to kill Mel Allen, when he’d be accused of being a homer. He used to bend over backwards — we used to kid about it as teenagers — “Oh, the always-ready White Sox, and the ever-charging Tigers.” It killed Bill Chadwick that he was called a homer. I don’t let anything bother me. If you don’t like it, you know, they have an idea what they can do. Q: How would you characterize your announcing style? A: From the seat of my pants. I don’t get bogged down by these stupid statistics, and I give scouting reports on every player all the time. Q: What would you hope Yankees fans say about you? A: They like to listen to the games. Let me tell you this, about criticism and all: Every single day of my life, I’m so lucky. ... Everyone wants to be regarded for their work. Every single day of my life someone tells me how great it is to listen to me, thanks me for broadcasting the games, blah blah blah blah blah. Every single day someone comes up to me — which I obviously appreciate very much. That’s why the criticism doesn’t bother me. I get so much love from the public. They treat me with great respect everywhere I go. I was doing Christmas shopping in a mall one day, and a car drove up, I was standing there outside one of the stores in this strip mall. A guy rolled down the window, and yelled, “Bern, Baby, Bern! You’re the reason the Yankees are great.” How would you love that, OK? Q: Describe the first time you met late owner George Steinbrenner. A: I’m in an elevator with The Boss in spring training of ’89 ... and he said to me, “I just want you to know I always wanted you to be a Yankee announcer.” Q: You came to his defense a couple of years later. A: He was getting knocked, the Yanks were lousy. And I said on the air, “I really can’t understand why they knock George. The players are the ones who are not playing well.” A couple of days later we’re in Milwaukee, and there’s a rain delay in the old stadium. And George says, “I want you to know, you’ll always be a Yankee announcer. If they ever try to hire someone else, I’ll veto it!” I figured he had heard what I said a couple of days before (chuckle). Q: Howdid you feel about his suspension? A: The second time was the Howie Spira thing. And I thought it was unfair. All right, he paid someone to get dope on [Dave] Winfield. I mean, everyone does that. Q: I don’t know if everyone does that ... A: Well, what I meant is he wanted to get information in this quest. ... Anyway, I felt it was unfair. Q: Describe the day you emceed the ceremony for the groundbreaking of the Stadium. A: I guess [Steinbrenner] was there or coming up, and he sagged. And I caught him. I had my arm around him and I caught him and held himhim. I think he might have gone down. He fainted seeing one of his grandchildren perform in Carolina, and I called him up, and he said, “Oh John, it was very hot.” He didn’t want you to know that he was failing, you know? Q: Why should The Boss be in the Hall of Fame? A: Changed baseball. When free agency came — “Oh it’s gonna ruin baseball. Only the rich teams” — all that nonsense. People react,r they rush to judgment. And he showeds the other owners how, in cable television, to build your team, how in marketing to build your team. He helped make baseball whatw it is now, a $10 billion business. Q:Q Why are the Yankees in good hands with Hal? A: He’s superintelligent, and feet on the ground, and is not gonna make rash moves. This is a very exciting time because, in my opinion, the Yankees are building something that’s really gonna be great. I think that [Gary] Sanchez, [Greg] Bird and obviously [Aaron] Judge are gonna be big stars, are gonna be 30-homers, 100-RBIs kind of guys, on-base kind of guys, and they’ll build around them. I think they’re gonna stay in the pennant race — am I a homer because of that? How stupid is that? It’s an honest opinion. Q: Describe Derek Jeter’s Opening Day in 1996. A: It was freezing in Cleveland, and Jeter makes that phenomenal catch of the pop fly in short left, and hits a home run but he’s not a home run hitter. What I remember most, I did postgame, and I got in the clubhouse, and David Cone said, “Hey, I want to show you something.” And it was so cold his fingers were blue. But it had nothing to do with the cold, he was having an aneurism. Q: What are your all-time favorite Yankees announcing moments? A: Well, first of all Cone [1999 perfect game] and [1998 David] Wells, and Jim Abbott [1993 no-hitter], who I loved. As nice a guy as you ever met.

Q: So you called three no-hitters.

A: Four: Doc Gooden [1996].

Q: You love the big games.

A: [Hideki] Matsui’s double against Pedro [Martinez] — that game is one of my favorites. The seventh game in 2003 against the Red Sox. First of all there’s a water main break outside Yankee Stadium, I didn’t think I was gonna get here (chuckle). Then they’re down by three runs with one out, no one on in the eighth inning. And they rally to tie and they win it. Matsui’s one of my favorite players.

Q: Any other electric Yankee Stadium moments stand out?

A: [Jason] Giambi hit a grand slam in the pouring rain to help the Yankees beat Minnesota [2002] and it was like his signature coming-of-a-Yankee moment. ... The backto-back home runs by Tino [Martinez] and [Scott] Brosius in Games 4 and 5 for the Yankees to tie Arizona [in the 2001 World Series], then they won in extra innings. ... [Jim] Leyritz’s home run to win that game in 15 innings against Seattle in ’95. They played “New York, New York,” and the cops are ringing the field, and they’re leading the stands in “New York, New York” (laugh).

Q: Who is one baseball announcer in history you could listen to?

A: Vin Scully. ... When I was a kid, I like to think before anyone else knew he was great, I knew he was great. He just had the right sound and the right rhythm, and I just loved him. Scully said he profited from a generation of mistakes, and I never forgot that.

Q: Describe Mel Allen.

A: He was one of my heroes, I had many. I loved the Yankees, and I loved listening to him. He had a great sound, and I loved his calls.

Q: Harry Caray.

A: (chuckle) I like a variety of announcers, and he was as different as any other announcer.

Q: Bob Uecker.

A: I love him on the air and I love him as a person. ... He’s funny, and he’s different — he’s Uecker. I like the guys who are personalities.

Q: Suzyn Waldman ... passionate?

A: Oh boy, that’s a great word — passionate. Boy, is she ever passionate, yes.

Q: Michael Kay.

A: He could go back and forth with me from the very first moment. I knew right away that he could do it, and we had this terrific rapport right away.

Q: If you could change one thing about your performance in the booth?

A: I wouldn’t be as quick. I always want to be ahead of the play, and sometimes I get burned by it by being ahead of the play. I’d like to take it back a half a notch.

Q: You’ve been criticized for not seeing well.

A: Gee, I see fine. I make every call. No problems.

Q: Sometimes you’ll call a home run that’s not a home run.

A: It is high and far. ... Hey, listen, you can’t please everybody, and you shouldn’t try.

Q: Were your boyhood dreams doing what you’re doing now?

A: At a very early age, I knew I was gonna be on the air. I have four kids, and I wonder, I worry at the end of college, that they’re gonna say, “Now what do I do?,” you know? I didn’t have that worry. At 10 years old, I knew what I was gonna do — be on the air. I couldn’t have dreamt, I couldn’t have fantasized, I’d get the Yankee job. I really wanted to be on WNEW, 1130 AM.

Q: When did you become aware that you had a natural voice for TV or radio?

A: As a little boy. I’d be at cocktail parties serving, and adults would say to me, “When are you gonna grow up to your voice?” One day, I’m at a friend’s house, and his mom, who really was very lovely, very beautiful, and I was listening to a game and they interviewed someone and he had a terrible voice ... the player, not the broadcaster ... and I said to this guy’s mom: “Boy, listen to that. He sounds like a girl.” And she said to me, “Oh he doesn’t have a big deep voice like yours.”

Q: How old were you?

A: Probably 12, 13 Q: Why do you prefer radio over television? A: Well, you paint the picture. You’re not at the mercy of the director telling you, “You gotta follow what’s on the screen.” Also, baseball’s a great radio sport. The other sports are more TV now.

Q: You lost three World Series rings in an apartment fire.

A: And Hal gave them back to me ... a marvelous gesture. I have four children who I love beyond belief who are great kids and love their daddy very much, so I’m a very lucky person.

Q: Why don’t you have a computer?

A: I haven’t gotten with it yet (laugh). I don’t feel I’m missing something, no. Q: How long do you want to do this? A: I don’t think I’m ever gonna retire. If my health is good, I’m gonna broadcast a long time.