From “All Rise” to Go Sit.
Yankees longtime radio voice John Sterling got only a bit ahead of himself when scuffling Yankees star Aaron Judge sent a dangling fourth-inning curveball to left field.
“And the breaking ball, there it goes, deep left-center field,” Sterling, 86, said along with his voice punctuated, able to deliver his patented home run call.
“And, Teoscar [Hernandez] is there to make the catch. Oh, did I get fooled on that. With that swing and the ball majestically going to left field, Suzyn [Waldman], I actually thought it was going to be out. And it wasn’t close.”
“He really did get some good wood under it,” Sterling’s broadcast partner Suzyn Waldman said. “However it looked, obviously, prefer it was off the tip of the bat.”
The loud out within the fourth inning was an element of an 0-for-3 showing from Judge because the Yankees again fell to the Dodgers 4-2 and are actually down 3-0 within the World Series.
Waldman checked to see if perhaps the wind was an element.
“I’m seeking to see if the flags pulled that one in. Nope. Flags blowing in a bit of bit,” Waldman said.
Fans on the Stadium thought it was out as well, getting very excited seeing the initial contact from Judge with many immediately jumping out of their seats on the sight of the ball soaring to the outfield.
We’ve seen the Yankees’ legendary radio broadcaster get fooled repeatedly in recent times.
In October 2021, Giancarlo Stanton hit a rocket off the Green Monster in Boston which Sterling called a “Stantonian home run,” before realizing that the ball was now within the infield.
On the lookout for answers Sterling asked, “What did I do incorrect?”
In 2022, Sterling made multiple errors, including in May when he thought then-Blue Jays third baseman Matt Chapman hit a house run when Stanton actually made a leaping catch on the ball, robbing Chapman of an extra-base hit.
Stanton also hit what appeared to be a house run that April. This time, Sterling outright called it a house run before Toronto’s left fielder Raimel Tapia caught it on the warning track in Yankee Stadium.
Sterling previously retired because of health concerns throughout the 2024 season but has since returned for the postseason.
It’s entirely possible that the subsequent Yankee loss will likely be his final in a radio booth.
