My family headed down to the Old Stadium with Yizthak and we took our seats just before game time in the Tier Box. As I was trying to explain the rules of the game to Yitzhak (which was pretty much a failure with a cultural and language gap separating us), suddenly Bob Sheppard's voice came on and said "Good evening, ladies and Gentlemen... and welcome to Yankee Stadium"
My cousins eyes turned wide at the voice, he looked around at the speakers and then he looked at me and he said "WOW!" I smiled back at him and all I could say was "yup!" My cousin wasn't excited by much at the game that night, but that voice got to him like it did to so many others.
Most of the time I would take Sheppard's PA announcing for granted, but that was one night I listened extra carefully to it. I'm happy Sheppard's voice will always live on in Yankee Stadium and will follow Derek Jeter whenever he comes to bat as a home player (though I'm sad that Sheppard never got to work the last game of the Old Stadium or any game of the New Stadium). Yitzhak didn't care much about the game that night but he couldn't get over Sheppard's voice (nor the fact that they played Hava Nagila on the organ) for the rest of the trip. I will certainly remember that voice as well.
A few other people with much better stories to tell shared their thoughts as well including The Futility Infielder's Jay Jaffe, Richard Goldstein of the New York Times, George Vecsey of the New York Times, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, JMK of River Ave Blues, Jason@IIATMS, Yankees' trainer Gene Monahan (via LoHud's Chad Jennings), and other members of the Yankees organization (also via Chad Jennings).
Rest In Peace, to The Voice of Yankee Stadium.
Picture from Wikipedia
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So much to say about the voice of Yankee Stadium. It took me years as a child to actually remember his name. I only knew him as the guy who did the announcing at Yankee Stadium (and after attending my first Giants game, Giants Stadium). It was a commanding, but soothing and reassuring voice. In an age where a dark side of the game of baseball always appears to be popping up, there can never be a dark side to Mr. Sheppard.
ReplyDeleteOne Bob Sheppard story if I may. Andrew and I were at the final game at Yankee Stadium, where we had the opportunity to hear Mr. Sheppard announce the lineups one more time and read his valedictory that he had written to honor the Stadium. As usual, the his prerecorded introduction for Derek Jeter was played before very Jeter AB, as Sheppard was absent from the Stadium for the its final season. Of all of the player names that he had read over the years, none flowed as beautifully as his pronunciation of Mariano Rivera's name and his announcement of Rivera's entrance into the game was as if God was announcing his enemy's impending doom. I so badly wanted to hear Mr. Sheppard introduce him one more time. At the top of the ninth, as Rivera began jogging in to the noise of the Stadium faithful, I listened to the public address system, expecting to hear backup PA man Jim Hall introduce Rivera. However, once I heard the first few words of the introduction, I knew that Mr. Sheppard has answered my prayers - a prerecorded introduction for Mariano Rivera. To put it quite simply, if Bob Sheppard was the voice of god, then his introduction was the announcement of all of the ten plagues combined into one and deposited onto the Yankees' opponent.
Then again, when Mr. Sheppard was asked about his analogy to the voice of god, he replied quite simply that he's not the voice of god, but just a human being. He may have been a human being, but his voice will always remind us of everything good in life.
Bob Sheppard was a patient in the same ophthalmology office that I used to be a part of. I remember going into Dr. Greenspan's office and seeing all kinds of Yankee memorabilia. We would discuss the Yankees, and he eventually told me about his long-standing relationship with Sheppard--as doctor and a friend. I once asked Dr. Greenspan how old Sheppard was. (This was of course before his age was made public.) Dr. Greenspan simply said, if he told me Sheppard's age he would have to kill me. :)
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