Yankees announce John Sterling replacements for upcoming road trips

Legendary New York Yankees broadcaster John Sterling isn’t quite ready to give up his historic gig just yet, but over the next few weeks, fans will get a peek at what a Sterling-less future will sound like.

Sterling, who will turn 84 years old on July 4, will drastically scale back his road workload in the second half to reduce travel and wear-and-tear. While the veteran broadcaster will be making one trip each to Fenway Park, Camden Yards and Citi Field, he’ll ultimately be removing 25-to-30 road games from his docket.

In an interesting corollary to the fans who begged for WFAN to get Sterling back in the building and pay for his travel during the mid-pandemic 2021 season, it turns out the iconic voice of the Yankees might have preferred for that not to have happened.

“It is just to recharge my batteries. I’ve been doing road games with teams for 52 years. I love this game, but I hate being on the road,” Sterling told The New York Post. So … with that in mind … who comes next?

On Thursday, WFAN got the exclusive scoop (of course they did) and revealed the first two names in the informal Sterling replacement pool: Justin Shackil, who you may know from pregame features at Yankee Stadium and Jomboy Media’s Toeing the Slab Podcast, and Rickie Ricardo, the Spanish Radio Play-by-Play voice of the Yankees.

These “auditions” will begin on June 17 with the series in Toronto, followed by a three-game set in Florida.

Yankees reveal Justin Shackil, Rickie Ricardo as John Sterling replacements

Some cynical “fans” will focus on Sterling’s recent lapses and claim this news isn’t coming a moment too soon, but in reality, this is a major deal. It’s certainly time for the team to begin to use Sterling’s particular talents more judiciously, especially if he’d prefer not to travel far and wide.

The man is entering his mid-80s, and as frustrating as his gaffes may be, his win warble is the singular exclamation point on a Yankees victory for fans of a certain age … meaning, anyone under the age of 40. A World Series victory without Sterling on the mic would sound extremely different, and if you want him ready for that moment, you might want to force his foot off the gas pedal.

Not permanently, but more often than was currently in the playbook.

https://twitter.com/WFAN660/status/1534872902591557632?s=20&t=nHrja045DgzMNjfv5wWZgw

Ricardo and Shackil are the first two, but they won’t be the last (and, as soon as Ryan Ruocco’s schedule lines up, you can be assured he’ll be involved, too).

These crucial divisional tilts may sound a bit different, but luckily, this 2022 team does a pretty good job of telling its own story.

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