For the first time since 1988, the New York Yankees have a new full-time play-by-play announcer on the radio.
Dave Sims replaced John Sterling, who retired early in the 2024 season but briefly returned for the postseason, on WFAN. Sims was previously the television broadcaster for the Seattle Mariners.
Sterling, of course, never missed a game from 1989 all the way until the summer of 2019, including the postseason. But Sims was not on the call for the Yankees’ series this past weekend in Sacramento against the Athletics.
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Sims had said on social media he would be missing the series to visit family in Seattle – before the Yankees’ three-game set there this week.
Sims’ absence bothered Boomer Esiason, who hosts a daily morning show on the Yankees’ radio network.
“John Sterling didn’t miss any games, did he? You just take a week off?” Esiason said. “I’m sorry, I love Dave Sims… what are you doing? You just took the Yankee job. It’s supposed to be the job of your life.”
“You don’t miss a Yankee… you just don’t do that.”
Esiason reiterated his fondness for Sims, “but I’m going to call it out as I see it.”
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“He just got started as the Yankee announcer, he’s 40 games into his career as the Yankee announcer, and he decided to take off,” Esiason continued.
Perhaps the issue hit a sore spot for Esiason, who has traveled to call NFL games and managed to make it back to New York to host his show, which he co-hosts with Gregg Giannotti.
“I would fly to Monday night games and fly back in the middle of the night to be here in studio with Craig [Carton], especially when we were being simulcast… I have done the same thing with you, as well. It’s the Yankees for God’s sake,” Esiason, the 1989 NFL MVP, said.
There was a rotation of several announcers last year for the Yankees, but they landed on Sims over the offseason.
The Yankees and Mariners series, where Sims will be calling the game from the visitors’ broadcast booth, kicks off Monday night.
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