New York Yankees Radio Network - Broadcasters

Broadcasters

Since 2005, John Sterling (play-by-play) and Suzyn Waldman (color commentary) have been the Yankees Radio Network broadcast team. Waldman is currently the first and (so far) only woman to hold a full-time position with a major league team, and had previously served as a Yankees beat reporter for the YES Network before moving to the broadcast booth. Waldman was also one of the original personalities at WFAN upon its 1986 launch, where she served as a studio host for various teams (including the New York Knicks, for whom she hosted the pregame show) and also was the station's Yankees beat reporter.

Sterling joined the Yankees in 1989 (or more accurately rejoined; he had previously done work for the Yankees in the 1970s) after calling games for Turner Sports for the previous decade and has been at the mic for every Yankee game since, having never missed one game in his 22 years as Yankees play-by-play man. Prior to the Yankee broadcasts moving from WABC to WCBS, Sterling worked with Jay Johnstone, Joe Angel, and Michael Kay. He is widely known (and perhaps infamous) for his home run calls, which often involve one of his player nicknames or catchphrases and for saying Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win! after a Yankee victory. Sterling will often stretch out "the" for dramatic victories as well as say "Yankees win" in a more excited voice. (Naturally then, if the team loses, Sterling will end with a more subdued Ballgame over, (opposing team) wins)

WCBS newsman Steve Scott is the announcer for the fee plugs at the beginning and end of each broadcast. The network uses the instrumental version of "Here Come the Yankees" as its theme song, and highlights from past games/years are dubbed over it for game opens.

For the inaugural season of the Yankees Radio Network, the team continued the longstanding tradition carried on by WABC, WINS, and other Yankee flagship stations by having a two-man booth where both broadcasters would share play-by-play duties during the game. Because 2002 was also the first season of the YES Network and Michael Kay was called upon to be the team's new lead television voice, the Yankees decided to replace him with longtime ESPN SportsCenter anchor Charley Steiner, who was no stranger to calling baseball on the radio (having been ESPN Radio's lead baseball voice for the previous four seasons) nor to New York sports (having covered New York sports on radio for almost a decade and serving as the voice of both the New Jersey Generals and the New York Jets football teams). The duo worked together for three seasons, with perhaps their most notable call being Steiner's call of Aaron Boone's 2003 American League Championship Series-winning home run.

The Sterling-Steiner partnership lasted until the end of the 2004 season, with their final game together being Game 7 of that year's American League Championship Series that the Yankees lost to become the first team in Major League Baseball history to lose a series they led 3-0. After that season, to make room for Suzyn Waldman's move to the broadcast booth, Steiner was to become the YES Network's studio host for Yankee games as well as for its coverage of the then-New Jersey Nets, a spot that opened after Fred Hickman left YES for ESPN. This did not come to pass, however, as Steiner elected to go west and replace the fired Ross Porter at the Los Angeles Dodgers Radio Network.