John Sterling’s iconic home run calls weren’t the greatest creations of the recently retired Yankee announcer.
That distinction goes to kids: 23-year-old triplets children Veronica, Bradford and Derek, and Abigail, 26.
The kids say they get their work ethic from their famous dad, who called 5,420 regular-season and 211 post-season Yankees games — including 5,060 consecutive from September 1989 to July 2019.
very good.” Courtesy of Sterling family
They tease their flip-phone-using dad for living “in his own fantasy land” filled with music, newspapers, books and every sporting event on TV.
“On the phone or whenever we see him he asks, “Are you guys happy and healthy?'” says Derek, a Ramapo College student named after Bomber great Derek Jeter.
“He is unlike any other human I’ve ever met,” notes Brad, who is in finance and living in Manhattan. “My dad is the Michael Jordan of not sweating the small stuff.”
He’s also quirky. Sterling famously has two TVs in front of his bed. “One of them will be sports, usually with the sound off — and then the other will be a great murder mystery or a black and white movie,” the son says.
Brad says one of his favorite home run calls by his dad is for Yankee slugger Giancarlo Stanton: “Giancarlo, non si può de stopparlo!” Loosely translated from Italian, it means, “You cannot be stopped!”
Abigail recalls “there are few things my dad loves more than Broadway show tunes and Frank Sinatra. Growing up, my dad always had Sinatra, Dean Martin, or Tony Bennett playing on the radio, and never missed an opportunity to educate us about how terrific music used to be.
“When we were little, he said he never minded watching Disney movies with us because the music was so great, and this is a man who sat through many showings of ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ Each year for our birthdays, he would take my brothers to see one show and my sisters to another. I think this was mostly an excuse for him to see two different musicals, but we weren’t complaining.”
The children recall that when they were sibling rivals, their dad predicted, “You’re gonna grow up and you’re gonna love each other.” And as Sterling has said, “And now they’ve grown up, and they love each other.”
The legendary Yankee radio voice got misty when a reporter relayed the Father’s Day bouquets his children tossed his way.
“Well, I’m very fortunate. I have four wonderful kids. And I really mean that. They’re very good people. And they have no prejudices. And they’re a joy,” the proud papa gushed. “I waited a long time before getting married and having children so it meant even more to me.
“In the newspapers it will read so corny, but what I did was just give them all the love I could every day of their lives. If they were going to play in a game or have a part in a school play, I told them how great they were gonna be and why it was a great thing to do. Anyway, it all sounds corny, but it all worked out.”
As for Father’s Day weekend, Sterling, who turns 86 on July 4, plans to take the kids out for dinner Saturday, and on Sunday they will do Father’s Day with his ex-wife Jennifer and her husband, Neil, “who’s a great guy and his family have adopted us. Everything is good.”
