John Sterling Obituary May 4, 2026
John Sterling, the broadcaster whose booming baritone and theatrical flair made him the defining radio voice of the New York Yankees for more than three decades, died May 4, 2026, at the age of 87.
Sterling was embraced by generations of Yankees fans who listened to him on summer nights throughout the New York region, and by the wider baseball broadcasting community, as an irreplaceable personality whose love of the game was evident in every call. The Yankees, in their official statement, said his enthusiasm for broadcasting “perfectly complemented our city and our fans,” and that his signature calls would resonate “for as long as we put on pinstripes.”
Born John Sloss on July 4, 1938, in New York City, Sterling grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side as a Yankees fan. He briefly attended Moravian College and Boston University before leaving to take his first radio job at a small station in Wellsville, New York, adopting the name Sterling along the way. His early career took him to Baltimore, where he called NBA games for the Bullets, then back to New York in the 1970s covering the Nets, Islanders, and others across multiple sports. He then spent eight years in Atlanta covering the Braves and Hawks before the Yankees hired him in 1989.
From that first season through 2019, he never missed a game: a streak of 5,060 consecutive broadcasts that spanned five World Series championships and four decades of New York summers. He retired in April 2024, returned to call the postseason, and made his final broadcast in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.
