I'm not buying yesterday's announcement. No way.
John Sterling's "retirement?" I refuse to accept it. Let's call it "a leave of absence," maybe? An "extended vacation," perhaps. Maybe "semiretirement."
I cannot accept that it's over.
Seriously. Can there be a Yankiverse without win warbles, without home run calls?
No, that doesn't compute. Are they saying we'll never know the HR call for Spencer Jones? Or Caleb Durbin? Or half the present Orioles lineup? No. I'm not accepting this.
Never again, an "IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR..." Never again, an admonition about predicting baseball? Or the assurance that tonight's horrible defeat shall only last until tomorrow, when the pitchers are new?
Are they claiming that, never again will I go to bed after a tough Yankee loss, knowing that I'm not alone in feeling the anguish? Because John was there.
No, I will not buy this.
There have always been critics, people who feel Yank fans don't deserve a home team-leaning announcer, that a big city broadcaster should be coldly impartial - and that, because of dynasties that occurred long before we were born, that the Yankees have simply won enough. Many of these folks pinpointed their hatred of the Yankees onto Sterling.
I cannot predict tomorrow's game - it's impossible, it cannot be done - but I predict Sterling's critics will miss him heartily. They must find a new excuse.
Are they saying that I will never again drive through a stormy night, windshield wipers blasting, but feeling safe because John and Suzyn are guiding me home?
Are they saying I will never again sit on my back porch, fuming because a home run ball that was so high and so far... and it turned out to be caught?
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
We can't predict baseball. But it's a long season, and I believe John Sterling will return. Honestly, I have no choice...
I have to agree. I cannot believe that he won't continue to call even the occasional game. Would the change of the guard at WFAN not allow that?
ReplyDeleteYou had me getting teary-eyed, Duque...
ReplyDeleteHaiku Tuesday - He is Gone!*
ReplyDeleteAn odd sense of loss
Sudden Confounding and Sad
We have each other
Unless it's a very bad health diagnosis, John will call game(s) again. If he's healthy, and the Yanks make a deep playoff run this year, Justin Shackil's calling those games? I'll believe it when I hear it.
ReplyDeleteThe radio broadcast yesterday was so dull, so cheerless, so matter of fact. None of the fun and easy banter John always provided.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the Yanks lost. How can you hit with joy in your heart, when there's no longer any joy in your Montefiore Health broadcast booth?
This is just terrible. Awful. Crushing.
John did say that he loves being at the Stadium and calling the game, but he just can't take the trip to and from. Can't he do it remotely? He and Suzyn were calling games without actually being at the respective ballparks just a couple of years ago. Can't FAN arrange for him to cover games from home? Or provide fast, easy, helicopter transport to the Stadium?
Something. Anything. Just bring him back.
Unfortunately, his sudden retirement announcement, just shortly after the season began, logically points to a serious ailment. I hope that is not the case, but he had the entire off-season to gauge his physical ability to drive to and from the Bronx. If that were the case, a limo would fix the problem.
ReplyDeleteSterling just says he doesn't want to work anymore. No talk of an ailment here though--you never know--he may be concealing something from the public:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIMJnv9Jxlc
Some perspective...
ReplyDeletehttps://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/yankees-john-sterling-retirement-near-end.htmlt
Carl -
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the case where he signed on for the season and then, after a couple of weeks realized that he just can't do it and, instead of torturing himself pretty much every day for the next several months, just decided to hang it up.
At least I hope so.
I know onomatopoeia can lend itself to different spellings, but Andrew Marchand’s piece about the Master in yesterday’s Athletic had John’s shout after a Yankees win as “Theee-ugggh Yankees win!”
ReplyDeleteI think he's being upfront. I'm not 85, but there's no way I want to take the trip from Jersey, over the George Washington Bridge, and along the hideously crammed Cross Bronx Expressway, then do it all again to get home. It's pretty awful. And that's just doing it once, not day after day during home stands.
ReplyDeleteAA - Really good haiku. Well done.
ReplyDelete---
Sterling says good-bye.
Well, I'm not a numbers guy
but thirty six years...
----
"That's high and outside"
Actually,low and away.
It's still a ball.
----
Sterling's called his last.
We shudder,and ask,"What's next?"
Waldman unleashed? Oy.
Vin Scully had a Didger provided driver in his dotage. Yankees/WFAN mad e Sterling drive his own Corolla over the bridge every day. Shameful.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Duque!
ReplyDeleteI come here especially for all the John Sterling tributes. I am not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI dug up that Arnold Schwarzenegger email that I mentioned on a previous post. So good that I archived it. Here it is:
ReplyDelete"I have been lucky to have a lot of fantastic mentors who lived to their 90's and I've asked all of them their secret to still working at that age. One thing I hear over and over from them: 'what choice do I have?'
It reminds us that the purpose of life isn't living for some far off retirement. It's living today, working and struggling and overcoming, because what choice do we really have?"
And so, if John Sterling really is retiring, we'll salute The Master, but we'll soldier on!