A cute birthday tribute

[samhexum]

Yankee radio announcer John Sterling has called every game since 1989. He's very much a "love him or hate him" figure, best known for his (showy, overly planned, ego-driven) home run calls, which almost always include "It is high... It is far... It is gone!"*** even when it's a low line drive barely over the wall. His call for Giancarlo Stanton includes a line in Italian, even though Giancarlo ain't Italian.

 

Annnnnyhoo... July 4th was his 80th birthday, and as a tribute, TV announcer Michael Kay (Sterling's former radio partner) called a Stanton home run Sterling-style:

 

 

*** When it was announced during spring training in 2000 that his wife was preggers with triplets, the joke going around the press box was that he'd name them High, Far, & Gone.

[samhexum]

OKAY… THIS IS COOL…

 

Tuesday night the Yanks & Twins played what many are calling the game of the year (for all of baseball). The Yanks had gone ahead 14-12 in the 10th inning, but the Twins loaded the bases with 2 out in the bottom half. Then Max Kepler (the first MLB player born & raised in Germany) hit a screaming liner to left center that was definitely going to clear the bases and win the game… until Aaron Hicks made a sensational sprinting, diving, backhand catch to end it. Yankee announcer Ryan Ruocco was appropriately insane about it.

 

Well… T-shirt company Rotowear has combined Ruocco’s words & Hicks’ dive to create an awesome t-shirt.

 

 

WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE HOW WELL THEY DEPICTED THE DIVE AND THE EXHILARATED RUSH OF WORDS:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrfualDo9nY

 

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

 

SCINTILLATING TV today: Ruocco, who started as an intern with the YES (Yankees Entertainment & Sports) Network, has had his status explode in the past month, filling in for 2 NY powerhouse voices.

 

Yankee radio announcer John Sterling (great voice, annoying personality) was hired in 1989. His sister died that year & he missed 2 games. He had since called 5000+ straight games until recently taking a few off because he was under the weather. (He turned 81 July 4th, so he’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy). Ruocco got kudos for his fill-in work.

 

I recently saw John Lithgow on "Center Stage." He's a wonderful person to have a conversation with, and I find Michael Kay a much more relaxed interviewer than Charlie Rose, the darling of the intellectuals. Michael knows how to interview someone: he does NOT interrupt, and does NOT drown out his guest with his own comments.

I didn't know that anyone watched Center Stage! Michael Kay is a sports announcer for the Yankees, and Center Stage is his vanity production.

Yup, Center Stage has a gay audience -- of at least one. I like Michael Kay (also from The Bronx), and Center Stage interviewees aren't limited to sports. Lots of actors on this program.

 

The face & voice of YES is Michael Kay. He does most of the games on TV, hosts a weekday ESPN radio sports talk show that YES simulcasts, and has a talk show (no regular schedule) called CENTERSTAGE in which he’s interviewed many big entertainment & sports figures (and also his uncle, Danny Aiello).

 

ANYHOO… about a month ago he called a game with horrible laryngitis, took a couple of days off, came back & sounded better, then announced he had to have vocal chord surgery and would not be allowed to talk for a month (which is why Ruocco was calling the game).

 

This was especially tough because he married at ~48 and has 2 young kids. To communicate with them & his wife (former morning news personality Jodi Applegate) he got proficient at typing his words into his phone, then letting it speak for him.

 

ANYHOO… again… I was watching TMKS (The Michael Kay Show) today on YES and one of the co-hosts (he has 2) mentioned that Michael was in the building (it turns out he was in the area to see Michael Buble in concert tonight). So he eventually came on the set & sat down at his normal seat, but he’s still a week away from being allowed to speak, so they interviewed him and he typed all his answers into the phone, then held it up to the microphone. CLASSIC TV!

 

One funny moment… they asked him how he’d have called Hicks’ catch. He started typing… and typing… and… one of the co-hosts read a GEICO promo in the interim. Finally, he played it back, and it was actually damned good!

Edited July 25, 2019 by samhexum