Give the Yanks credit for a touching video tribute to Bob Sheppard. Towards the end of the montage, Sheppard states how he doesn’t attempt to be flamboyant or clairvoyant. Instead, he sums up his professional attitude in three words: Clear. Concise. Correct.Then cut to the bumbling, stumbling “Voice of the Yankees,” Mr. Sterling. Hopefully, he was paying close attention to the Sheppard tribute and will pick up some pointers from a class act.
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No knock on Bob Sheppard, but he was a PA announcer--and it's a great irony that the man who has been celebrated as "the voice of God" worked in a stadium where every second that the ball is not in play is filled to the brim with deafening, mind numbing noise. Not just organ music, but idiotic JUMBOTRON blasts and bleats, cacophanic explosions of "Cotton-eyed Joe", the over-worked "YMCA" (with all subtext of the song conveniently ignored) etc. ad nauseum. It could make JOHN STERLING! seem man-sized and Mr. Sheppard a vaporous wisp in all that swirl and moil. Sheppard was always a graceful respite from all that jibber-jabber. However, he was an announcer, not a goddamned broadcaster and I can guaran-f'in-tee you that you'd all be in a desperate, feverish tizzy if the man worked as a broadcast announcer--you'd've lined up like an unsightly mob and criticized that the man had lost touch, wasn't entertaining, wasn't equipped to do a three hour broadcast, do pre- and post-game interviews and shows, left too much dead air on the game, etc. You goons. I can only imagine how you'd have jumped on him for saying "POSADO" and the vile names you'd have called this oracular majesty. You wanna compare JOHN STERLING! to a sadly deceased Yankee legend--well, compare him to THE BOSS, b/c they were cut from the same voluminous and pinstriped cloth--larger than life characters that blew and will continue to blow like nature's majestic volcanos. Like it or lump it, but THE BOSS knew intimately what resonated with fans and JOHN STERLING! thank the heavens, gives the good gravy night after night. RIP Mr. Sheppard, you will be missed forever in my book, esp as the canned din in the new stadium grows ever louder. RIP George for much too much to ever quantify, but one piece of praise goes to you for keeping JOHN STERLING! in the Lowe's press box, pontifcating to the masses. Hallelujah and amen, my pinstriped brethren!
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