Yankees: John Sterling returning in 2022 with reported big adjustment

The New York Yankees‘ radio broadcasts will reportedly sound extremely familiar in 2022…but not every night.

If you’re a native New Yorker who lives and breathes baseball, your summers have probably been colored by John Sterling’s voice more evenings than you’re willing to admit.

He’s the soundtrack of the summer, and he’s also the flawed eccentric who you reflexively defend, even as you likely mock his gregarious style and repeated mistakes behind closed doors, too.

Sterling’s our guy, after all. Only we can laugh when Giancarlo Stanton’s line drive single bounds off the Green Monster at Fenway Park, leaving him sputtering and scrambling. That’s how it works.

There are certainly a number of baked-in excuses for Sterling’s recent struggles, though. Following a 2020 season unlike any other, the Yankees’ broadcast partner did not provide lodging and transport for Sterling and Suzyn Waldman to travel to road games in 2021 once restrictions were lifted; neither did the YES Network with the television crew, to be fair.

Additionally…the fact of the matter is the man is 83 years old.

Per sources, Sterling has extended his deal for 2022 (phew), but the new contract will come with a reduction in games called (subscription required). Unfortunately, it’s probably time to begin that transition, especially as the logistics around road game-calling become more muddled post-(mid?-)pandemic.

Yankees broadcaster John Sterling is taking a part-time role in 2022.

Sterling’s reaction to the adjustment? Reportedly, his public pronouncement was quite simple: “That’s cool.”

Cool with us, too.

We’ll miss Sterling whenever he does walk away — and we’ve already had to deal with Ken Singleton’s official recent departure — but it looks like the transition will be a slow one. It might even sound more like the broadcasts we’re used to next season. According to Sterling, he plans to travel to more road games than he did in 2021 (a total that…basically sat at zero).

Though the Yankees aren’t exactly the feared dynasty they used to be, we’ve enjoyed defending Sterling’s boisterousness in public much the same way we used to publicly back A-Rod during the more contentious parts of his tenure.

Sterling’s brash boisterousness is the type of attitude the Yankees should embody. More Sterling, not less.

Yankees: John Sterling’s call after NYY snaps losing streak is just what we needed

New York Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling helped us enjoy the team ending their five-game skid and it was exactly what we needed.