Of his successful run with the Yankees, culminating in four World Series titles, Sterling said, “… You want to broadcast big games. … The ballpark [Yankee Stadium] is always filled and on the road it brings out all the Yankee haters. So the fact that the Yankees are good is good for a broadcaster. It’s grist for your mill.”
 
“You want attention. You want people listening. You want the [advertising] time sold. You want them to charge great rates.”
 
The Yankees carry that clout, something Sterling said would be absent with another team, making his association that much sweeter.
 
As far as a downside to his longstanding relationship with the Yankees, Sterling reflected, “I’m at the end of my 21st year and it seems like about two … or three years. You have to love what you do. It’s very time-consuming during the season. I can’t imagine doing this if you didn’t love it. I happen to love it.”
 
He did find one factor of being the “Voice of the Yankees” that isn’t as appealing.
 
“The tough times are if I miss something involving the kids. … I tell them, ‘Well, this is how daddy makes his living.’”
(His eldest daughter turned 12 in October. He also has a set of triplets, two boys and a girl, who turned 9 this month.)
 
The consummate professional said he loves all ballgames equally, whether a meaningless matchup in May or facing the Red Sox in the playoffs.
 
“I don’t mean they’re all great games. But I like the way the game unfolds. … The day-to-day drama, especially in New York, everything is a soap opera in New York. … It’s fun to be part of. “
 
Home-run calls 
 
Part of Sterling’s entertainment value is his ability to create personalized home-run calls for the Yankees. Surprisingly, he said there’s no preparation involved.
 
They are made “right off the top of my head---for most of them.” He said he hadn’t planned on calls for each player, but “now it’s become an absolute thing.”
 
So much so, fans have sent his notoriety soaring by sending in ideas.
 
Sterling said Pete Abraham, now a writer for the Boston Globe, suggested a home-run call for Eric Henske.
It began innocently enough for Sterling with just a few famous calls: “Bern-Baby-Bern” [for Bernie Williams], “The Bam-tino” [Tino Martinez], “Giam-bino” [Jason Giambi].
 
“It’s like a cottage industry --- [but] it’s kind of grown,” he said.
 
His calls will occasionally pop up on highlight shows across the country, notably ESPN. But Sterling always is his own harshest critique.
 
“I usually wish I did it better.” Sterling admitted, “I never listen to tapes. … Watching or listening to tapes are very tough.”
 
However, Sterling is at peace with his expanding popularity. “The calls are now heard everywhere, so that’s a very good thing.”
 
The evolution of his signature victory line began innocently enough while broadcasting Atlanta Hawks games, yelling “Hawks win! Hawks win!” When he joined the Yankees in 1989, the team was very bad. Sterling recalled there were few dramatic moments to chant “Yankees win, Yankees win.”
 
One day, in an effort to separate the phrases, he added a “the” in the middle.
 
With a final change, Sterling had his familiar happy ending in place. “One day, thank god, I don’t know why, I put some rock n’roll into the ‘the,’ … and then I started to hear it being played.”
 
He also credits WFAN’s “Mike and the Mad Dog,” who played many of the calls on their highly successful sports talk show. 
 
Dealing with the public
 
One of the perks of being a famous play-by-play announcer in New York has been the fan support.
 
Sterling called his meetings with fans “unbelievable.” 
 
“Everyone works, and everyone wants to be appreciated for their work—no matter what they do. … Everywhere I go, people are so great… everywhere, every single place,” Sterling recognized.
 
He also recognized that the positive feedback from the public is due to the Yankees becoming “bigger and bigger” year after year.
 
When meeting with families, it’s the kids who can be counted on to do the ubiquitous Sterling impersonation.
 
Dealing with criticism
 
If the fan support has been a perk of his longstanding career, then media criticism of Sterling has been a drawback.
 
Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News and Phil Mushnick of the New York Post
have led the charge against Sterling for years.
 
When the topic was brought up, though, Sterling didn’t shy away.
“I don’t think that you say ‘Oh goody, I’ve been knocked.’ … The first time it happens, it hurts. The second time, it hurts, but it hurts, but it hurts a little less. By the millionth time… I don’t bother to read it,” Sterling acknowledged.
 
He added that “maybe they’re doing it to fill up their articles, or to use a name that people know…. I think there may be an ulterior motive.”
 
After more than two decades calling Yankees games, Sterling said if listeners agreed with the comments of columnists they’d “turn it off.”

Joining the Yankees
 
The man who would be the “Radio Voice of the Yankees” got the job without much fanfare. After WABC [that held the broadcast rights at the time] chose not to renew Hank Greenwald’s contract, new Yankees general manager Fred Weinhaus had Sterling high on his wish list. Weinhaus was aware of Sterling from his WMCA days in the 1970s and of late with the Hawks.
 
Without an agent at the time, his lawyer/confident Mike DiTomasso acted as go-between with the Yankees.
 
In October 1988, “They made the deal. I didn’t audition,” Sterling said. He admitted it’s quite an “odd business.  … and here it is 21 years later and I haven’t missed a game.”
 
As the Manhattan-native Sterling was contemplating a move back home, a decision swayed in his favor because he “didn’t want to become an old man and say I should have done the Yankees. … So I thought let’s roll the dice and thank God it worked out.”

Booth mates
 
Three of Sterling’s most prominent on-air partners were Suzyn Waldman, Michael Kay and Charley Steiner.
 
With Waldman, he was instilled as the only Yankee radio play-by-play person. “They [WCBS] decided that [we] would have these roles. … Suzyn would do the color analysis.”
 
“She is a very good reporter and she really works at it. She [also] establishes this relationship with all the players,” Sterling said.
 
He refers to the Sterling/Waldman team as “a pretty good blend.”
 
If/when Waldman were to leave the Yankees, Sterling said, though he’s not contractually obligated to pick his next partner, his experience should count.
 
“I have a great relationship with the Yankees and also with …CBS, so I think if Suzyn decided to leave one of these years I would hope they would come to me.”
(In 2007, Sterling and Waldman signed extensions to remain with the Yankee radio team through 2011.)
 
Sterling had a hand in hiring his previous boothmate, Kay, a former New York Post and New York Daily News reporter.  Despite Kay’s lack of professional radio experience, their synergy grew into a 10-year relationship. 
“He was very bright and he could speak extemporaneously, so I thought he was great,” Sterling remembered.
 
The pair of Sterling and Steiner didn’t mesh. Sterling put it simply, “He’s a broadcaster.” Elaborating, the veteran Yankee announcer said Steiner has his own style. “I would say that I’m better suited to Michael or Suzyn because they’re more given to extemporaneous exchanges.”
 
Sterling, said though, he and Steiner “never had an argument” during their three-year partnership.
 
Radio bug bites
 
A young Sterling, growing up in Manhattan, had his career “a-ha moment” when he heard an announcer on the radio belt out: “Live from Hollywood, it’s the Eddie Bracken Show…”
 
Sterling recalled, “I didn’t want to be Eddie… I wanted to be the announcer. That caught me and I’ve never forgotten it.”
 
He also was enamored with WNEW-AM early on. “That was like the Yankee uniform to me. Everyone who was on was great.”
 
No matter whom he has worked with or what team/station he’s worked for, Sterling is grateful for everything he’s achieved.
 
“I’m very lucky. … [but] there was no question of what I was going to do for a living.”