00:00We found out this morning that John Sterling, longtime Yankees radio play-by-play man, legendary John Sterling,
00:07passed away at the age of 87 due to heart failure, so we have been remembering and celebrating the great
00:13life and broadcast career of John.
00:15And we welcome in now a friend and colleague of John's for many years in the current Spanish-language radio
00:22broadcast voice of the New York Yankees,
00:25also the Philadelphia Eagles, our friend and colleague Ricky Ricardo.
00:29So, Ricky, good morning.
00:30Sorry we are speaking under these circumstances, but certainly needed to get your thoughts and memories of John this morning.
00:37Oh, Gio, you know, I was awakened by the news just maybe a few seconds before Al reached out to
00:43me,
00:43because, you know, I do our sister station, WIP, until late Sunday night's talk show down there,
00:50so I didn't really get to bed until like 2.30.
00:53You know, I'm on a baseball schedule, so I really don't wake up until usually like 9, 9.30,
00:59catch the end of you guys' show every day and keep it moving.
01:02But, look, obviously it's a huge loss for the baseball world, for the broadcast world itself,
01:10because this is a man that goes back to the 70s who did it all in this business.
01:15You know, what we do for a living today was made possible in a certain way by John Sterling.
01:21He did talk shows.
01:22He did hockey.
01:23He did basketball.
01:24He did, you know, Braves baseball when it first was on TBS,
01:29when, you know, the country could watch Braves games each and every night,
01:33and then obviously transitioned to being the radio voice of the Yankees.
01:36But on top of all that, he was my friend.
01:39He was almost like a second father to me.
01:41Guys, I had never, I got in the radio business, so I didn't have to wear a tie, okay?
01:47That was one of my goals in life was to be able to work and have a career and not
01:51have to wear a tie.
01:53And I got used to wearing a shirt and tie because John preached to me the professionalism to honor the
02:02job.
02:02It's a place of business and to always look sharp.
02:05And I didn't get that from anybody else but John Sterling.
02:08He was a pro's pro, but he was a man's man, and he will always be in my heart.
02:14We had a lot of great times.
02:16We could do two shows together about John's stories if we wanted,
02:19but today we honor the life and legend of this great man.
02:23Yeah, Ricky, and there was this amazing story about how you were able to save John
02:30when you saw that his car was being flooded.
02:33I mean, you talk about a relationship going to another level.
02:37I mean, the fact that that is a part of your guys' relationship is truly unbelievable.
02:43Well, the night, what happened was, you know, we were doing games remotely because it was post-COVID
02:48and nobody was traveling, so, you know, we were doing the games from Yankee Stadium.
02:53The Yankees were on the road in Anaheim that night, and it was an early start in California at 4
03:00o'clock,
03:00so it was a 7 o'clock start that night.
03:03I'll never forget it was a Thursday, and John and Michael Kay, the first two to leave,
03:09they leave right after the game, but I do my own post-game show, so I lag behind for about
03:1320 minutes.
03:14And Susan was doing her part remotely from her home, and I get a call from Susan that says,
03:20hey, John is stuck on a flooded road in Edgewater, New Jersey, right along the Hudson River.
03:26You know, he could use some help.
03:28I said, oh, all right, I'll be down there in about 5, 10 minutes.
03:31And then when I left, it was really, really bad.
03:34But when I got to John, the water was up to his door handle, and the car had completely shut
03:41off.
03:41And the poor man was sitting there behind the wheel, and the water's rising right there by the river.
03:48And it's all converging, and I was able to, you know, get him out of his car into my Jeep.
03:53I had, you know, a taller SUV.
03:57And for the extra literally quarter mile that would have taken to get John to his apartment,
04:02it took us about an hour and a half because all the streets were flooded.
04:06We had police escorts trying to take us, you know, down this way or up that way, and nothing worked.
04:12So it was a night I'll never forget.
04:14And we created a bond that night that is unbreakable for, you know, forever.
04:19But, like I said, we could be here all day giving, you know, John's stories.
04:24You know, he'd want us to have a shot in a beer and celebrate his life.
04:28We're talking to Ricky Ricardo, his Spanish language, play-by-play broadcaster of the Yankees on WADO Radio.
04:35And, you know, Ricky, I was talking this morning about you, about the Yankee family.
04:39You know, John had been around for 35 years.
04:42So he's been with Brian Cashman, he's been with Randy Levine, he's been with Lon Trost.
04:46He's obviously been with Joe Girardi, Aaron Boone, Joe Torrey.
04:51I mean, you just think about the amount of people that have come through the Yankees and the people that
04:56are still there.
04:57And what do you think tonight is going to be like at Yankee Stadium?
05:01Well, it's obviously going to be a somber, you know, vibe tonight.
05:06We will celebrate his career.
05:08When he retired, I remember they gave him this giant 90-something-inch television because, you know, he had said
05:15publicly that he's going to watch sports.
05:18This is what John liked to do.
05:21When they asked him, well, what do you – and I said to John, Gio, you're going to kick out
05:25of it.
05:25I told him, John, why aren't you the king of, like, Boca Raton?
05:29You could wear, like, a captain's hat, you know, and go to the early 5.30 buffet and be, like,
05:35the king of the geriatrics set in my beach.
05:39And he said – he told me, he said, no, Ricky, that's not me.
05:43You know, I love being in New York, my boy, as he used to refer to me as my boy.
05:48I love where I'm at in Jersey.
05:51But tonight, obviously, at the stadium, it'll be a very somber mood.
05:56I look forward to see what the Yankee family have, you know, in mind.
06:01That day they gave him this huge 90-something-inch television, and he never took it home!
06:06The TV was still sitting at Yankee Stadium months after that.
06:11And I asked him, I said, John, you know, do you want me to get a couple of guys to
06:15go pick up the darn TV and have it delivered to your house?
06:18And he said, for what?
06:19I already have three TVs, and I can only watch one, one, maybe two at a time, because, you know,
06:25John loved to watch the football.
06:28You know, when I spoke to him, guys, the last time I spoke to him was the morning after we
06:33did the thing on draft night, Friday,
06:35because John would always call me to ask me about the Eagles.
06:40Boomer, he was friends.
06:42John grew up with Burt Bell's son.
06:45Does that name ring a bell to you?
06:47Oh, yeah, sure, of course.
06:49Burt Bell was the commissioner of the National Football League and owner of the Eagles at the same time.
06:55This goes, going back, you know, 60, 70 years, whatever it might be.
07:00And John was best friends with Burt Bell's son.
07:04So he developed, you know, a passion for the Eagles, and he loved the Giants, too.
07:10So he would call me after every Eagle game in the offseason, and we'd discuss the moves.
07:15And then that day, the draft, the recent NFL draft, you know, the only person that I heard outside of
07:22the normal realm was John,
07:24and he wanted to know about the moves the Eagles made, and he was happy that the Giants had done
07:29what they did in the draft.
07:30So, you know, John was on top of things.
07:32He loved watching all the hockey, all the basketball.
07:35That was his passion.
07:36He just sat around and watched sports, and I'd hear from him, you know, from time to time about the
07:41moves that the football teams were making.
07:43But I knew things were starting to get bad when there were, you know, times that I would usually hear
07:49from John, you know,
07:50when they announced the trade with the Vikings, that the Eagles had gotten Grenard.
07:54You know, I'll probably hear from John.
07:56I didn't.
07:57I would reach out to him, and maybe he'd answer.
08:00Maybe he wouldn't.
08:01And, you know, through the grapevine, I heard that, you know, he was not well.
08:07And, you know, it obviously finishes with the events of today.
08:11But tonight will be a special night at Yankee Stadium.
08:14That night that you guys were talking about when we were both in that flood is something that, you know,
08:19I'll never, ever forget.
08:20But the little things that I picked up from John Sterling that we all did.
08:24I mean, Emmanuel, the young guys, the Justin Shackles.
08:28You know, we learned by osmosis from this man because he was truly a pro's pro.
08:33Yeah, and, you know, what I really admired about him is he didn't really seem to give a crap about
08:39what anybody thought about his style because he was just unapologetically himself.
08:45And, you know, this day and age in any sort of professional media, you know, there's so much crap on
08:51social media and people with their own opinions and all of this stuff.
08:55And John certainly had a lot of opinions out there about his style.
08:59But I think because when he grew up in the business, none of that affected him.
09:03And he was always himself and he never changed for anybody.
09:07And I think if any person who's coming up in the business now could take one thing from John Sterling,
09:11I think it's that mentality.
09:13You know, I once asked him in private, we were out to dinner one night having a steak because he
09:18loved going down to the River Palm Steakhouse.
09:20And I said, John, you know, why have you never been nominated for the Ford Frick Award to gain, you
09:27know, for the broadcasters to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
09:30And I kept seeing guys that, yeah, that are talented guys around baseball that would get nominated, would get elected,
09:36and they would go in and go in.
09:38And I kept hearing, you know, well, this year's ballot is these three, these four guys.
09:43And I never heard the name John Sterling.
09:45And I said, John, why is it that, you know, you're still around, you're still doing it, and I never
09:52hear your name nominated for the Ford Frick Award.
09:54And he looked me in the eye and he laughed.
09:56He said, oh, my boy, I guess they just don't appreciate my style.
10:00But that's okay.
10:01You know, I don't have a problem.
10:03He was comfortable in his own skin.
10:05As you just said, Gio, he was unique.
10:08He was one of a kind, misunderstood by many naysayers around baseball and around broadcasting.
10:15But, you know, in these parts, we all treasured him and all the little quirks and things that made him
10:19different and special.
10:20We celebrate that instead of looking down on it.
10:23You know, the thing about it is for us, Ricky, here at WFAN, and Gio said it earlier this morning,
10:29that nobody's voice probably had been heard as much as John Sterling's when it came to replays and, you know,
10:37the night before, some of the home run calls and all the different things that he got himself into that
10:43just basically stood alone.
10:44I mean, like, he was genuine.
10:45That was the thing that I would always take from what he did and how he did it.
10:50And I don't think, you know, maybe you're close to it.
10:52Kevin Harlan's close to it.
10:53You guys give a little bit more, you know, I would say energy.
10:58You're a little bit more adventurous with your calls and things of that nature.
11:02But nobody, I don't think, really was able to compare to John Sterling when he was doing his calls.
11:09Well, he was an entertainer, Boomer.
11:11And the one thing he told me was, you know, Ricky, anybody can just give you the play-by-play.
11:17Not everybody can also entertain the audience at the same time.
11:21I took that to heart.
11:23And, you know, I'm the first one to raise my hand when they say I've taken a lot from John
11:28Sterling and just made it my own.
11:30But the concept in itself of entertaining a baseball audience, not just boring them with the play-by-play, that's
11:37something I got from John.
11:39I am proud to say it here over these airwaves that I learned from the master to not just call
11:45the game, but to entertain that audience, make them feel like they're a part of your inner circle.
11:50And that I get directly from the great John Sterling.
11:54Ricky, thanks for joining us this morning.
11:56Really few people better to talk to about John's life and celebrate him this morning than you.
12:01And we really appreciate the time.
12:03As John would have said to me, thank you, my boy.
12:06Have a great day.
12:08Thank you, Ricky.
12:09Thanks, man.
12:10Yeah, and at some point, obviously, we will hear from Susan Waldman as we think about her this morning.
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