The Yankees honored John Sterling the other night, commemorating 25 years of service as their radio play-by-play man, and here are two of the things that stuðąck and struck the largest as the team gave him a European vacation on the arm in lieu of a gold watch for hisę§ wrist:
1. Those fans whoâd already settled iāđnto their seats delivered a vðery warm, very sincere ovation.
2. The two Yankees who helped with the presentation â Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano â weāĶre just as warm, just as sincere, and seemed just as happy to be part of the festivities as Sterling himself.
These reveal two important truths about why Sterling has had such staying power behind what heâs often described to me ð°as âthe beę§st microphone in sports.â Start with the players â or, more familiarly, âGrandy Manâ and âRobbie Cano âĶ a-doncha-know?!â from their Sterling home run calls â representing close to two generationsâ worth of Yankees who have grow so obviously fond of Sterling.
You may shrug at this â even for those of us who like Sterling, itâs not like heâs ever going to go Mike Wallace on a struggling player â but in 2013, for any athlete to feel anything â hot, cold, anger, affection â for anyone in the media givâes you an idea of what Sterling means to the Yankees, embodied by the fact that vets who know things always wonder aloud when they arrive how Sterling will māĩĐemorialize their blasts.
The other?
Look, thereð is a definite polarizing force behind Sterling, and âĶeven he acknowledges that. There are some â and this would include just about every listener not inclined to root for the Yankees â who are, to be kind, not fans. And there even some Yankees fans for whom Sterlingâs style â and it is a âstyle,â not a âshtick,â not an âact,â not a role â simply is not their cup of tea.
But there are a lot of Yankees fans â a lot â who only know Sterling ðas the Voice of the tðeam, who can give you their 10 favorite Sterling calls (and, sure, maybe their five favorite Sterling slip-ups) on demand. They grew up with Sterling, who lent voice to their burgeoning baseball passions, who get a kick out of him. And since when is it against the law for baseball to maintain any residue of fun?
All you need to know about how Sterling affects the masses is this: At gameâs end, when the Yankees win, and Sterling bellows, âThuuuuuuuuuhhhh YANKEES! WIN!!!!â as he has, with increasing fervor, since the â96 playoffs, those who detest the Yankees â still a sizable crew, even within the city limits â want to stab pencils in their ears. And those who love them, whose days still are defined by them, invariably, involuntarily find themselves saying: “Thuuuuuuuuuhhhh YANKEES! WIN!!!!â
Even if they arenât listening to the radio.
It was a tough week for Sterling. He botched a play in Toronto on an Alex Rodriguez fly ball that he thought had cleared the wall but died in an outfielderâs glâove, and whenever that happens there is great glee among the pundits and the haters. Fair enough: You do public job so publicly, thatâs part of the deal.
But Sterling does tend to inspire vitriol far beyond what seems rational. The great Ernie Harwell â itâs against the law anywhere in the contiguous 48 not to say âthe greatâ before his nameð§ļ â used to tag all his home runs âloooooong gone!â even if they cleared the fence by a whisker, and Harry Caray used to plead âIt might be! It could be!â even if it was clear a ball was heading for someoneâs ðĄfront yard beyond Wrigley.
Even Bob MurpáĢhy â whom I can best describe as âmy Sterling,â the voice I grew up with â would almost always say of a home run â on the radio â âLetâs watch!â
Those were styles â not shticks, not acts â and itâs a style rapidly fading from view. You donât have to like Sterlingâs. But youâą have to admit this: You think of the Yankees, better or worse, thereâs only one voice attached. That says something.
VAC’S WHACKS
There isnât a team in baseball â and that starts with the one that plays its games in Queens â that shouldnât look at what the Red Sox have done tâhis year â especially given what the Red Sox did last year â and ask: Why canât that be us?
I almost feel like Iâve been falling down on the job by waiting so long to start devouring âOrange Is the New Blackâ on Netflix. PlęĶease, please, please: Donāīât make the same mistake.-
I will study this and ponder this and torture myself over this in the weeks and months and years to come, and I coâĶuld well change my mind 473 times, but as of right now, when it comes to the Hall of Fame, water pistol to my head, I say: Mike Mussina yes, Andy Pettitte no.
All this talk about teacher and student, master and pupil, mentor and protÃĐgÃĐ between Rex Ryan and Mike Pettine âĶ has anyone noticed that a forgotten man of the Jetsâ defensive staff the past few years, Bob Sutton, has the Chiefs playing defense like they havenât seen in Kansas CityęĶ since Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith were roaming free?
WHACK BACK AT VAC
Bob Buscavage: So once agðain Andy Favre â or is it Brett Pettitte? â has announced his retirement?
Vac: Two things: 1) Brett Pettitte has the better ring to it; 2) if I was a pro athlete,ðĶĐ theyâd have to get a crane and a forklift to get me off the fðģield. I understand.
Steven Schafler: In terms of the Matt Harvey situation of rehabbing insteaðd of surgery, logically it seems like a good plan. Being that it involves the Mets, it has backfire written all over it.
Vac: There ought to be some kind of class-action suit Mets âfans can file for citing the past couple of years, no?
@rockosmodurnlif: So if they rename River ð§Avenue after Mariano, whatâs Jeter going to get named after him?
@MikeVacc: Do you think âThe BronxâęĶŊ has run its courðžse?
Bob Andreocci: I am sure the Wilpons will get the same treatment as thęĶe De Roulets got toward the end of their ownership tenure. Letâs hope we can forget the Wilpon era just like we, as Mets fans, forgot the De Roulet era.
Vac: Amazing to remembeęĶŋr the name of one of the saviors of that dark Mets time: Fred Wilpon.