John Sterling is officially retired as the radio voice of the New York Yankees, and WFAN is succeeding him with a familiar face. Per an official announcement, former on-air personality Dave Sims will take over in the booth alongside Suzyn Waldman next season.
Sims, 71, signed a two-year contract and was the main TV voice of the Seattle Mariners since 2007. His peak WFAN days came from 1989-1993, when he and longtime New York Mets reporter Ed Coleman worked the mid-day slot. Sims clearly has the energy for the job, having been behind the mic for several key Mariners calls over the years.
WFAN is close on a deal to hire Dave Sims as John Sterling’s replacement.
He served as the Mariners TV announcer and has delivered some INCREDIBLE calls
pic.twitter.com/mO5GryJsfk— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) November 14, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWFAN tested several candidates in the radio booth before settling on Sims. YES Network sideline reporter Justin Shackil worked play-by-play for some games, as did WFAN’s own Emmanuel Berbari. Shackil and Keith McPherson also called a game together over the summer, and Spanish-language broadcaster Rickie Ricardo was also a finalist.
In the end, Dave Sims gets to come home. He’s no spring chicken compared to Sterling, who retires at a healthy 86, but he more than makes up for it in energy. Furthermore, his only signing a two-year deal seems like he knows he won’t have the job for long. In a way, it’s his career coming full circle.
Better yet, much as we love Sterling, it’ll be nice to have a broadcast focused on baseball and not just corny jokes. I love “All rise, here comes THE JUDGE” and “Giancarlo, non si puo stoparlo” as much as the next guy, but the bit got old long ago. Probably older than Sterling, at this point!
But if we pay paraphrase the broadcasting legend one more time, he would sum up hiring Dave Sims perfectly:
“Hiring process over, Yankees win. THAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Yankees win!”
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