Listen to Yankees announcer John Sterling getting nailed in the forehead by a foul ball
New York Yankees play-by-play announcer John Sterling is nothing if not a professional.
The longtime Yankees radio voice was struck in the line of duty Saturday during a game against the Boston Red Sox. With Yankees reliever Clay Holmes on the mound to close out a 3-1 win, Red Sox designated hitter Justin Turner racked up a full count, then hit a pop-up foul directly behind home plate.
Sterling, who was working without his usual partner, Suzyn Waldman, called the play all the way up to the ball striking him in the forehead and soldiered on to finish the game. You pretty much have to hear him react to the impact in real time:
“Ow! Ow! Ow!”
Yankees radio announcer John Sterling got hit by a foul ball, but still called the final outs of the game 🫡
(via @JSterlingCalls)
pic.twitter.com/ZmDuT3joJx— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) June 11, 2023
Sterling's call before, during and after getting hit by the ball:
"And now the 3-2. Swung on, a pop foul back here. [Thud] Ow! Ow! Ow! It really hit me, I didn't know it was coming back that far!
"So once again, it'll be a 3-2. And the 3-2 is grounded foul."
Turner's at-bat ended in a groundout. Sterling remained in the booth to finish the game.
According to The Athletic, the ball hit Sterling in his left eyebrow. He reportedly said the impact left him with "a little bit of blood," which was immediately treated with a Band-Aid. He promised it wouldn't stop him from calling the Yankees' series finale against the Red Sox on Sunday:
“I’m not going on the IL,” he said.
The incident is a contrast to Sterling's broadcast incidents in the recent past, which arose from him being too far away from the baseball rather than too close. While calling road games remotely for the Yankees, he mistakenly called flyouts as home runs multiple times, as well as once at home.
Sterling has called Yankees games since 1989, at one point racking up a streak of 5,060 consecutive games that ended in 2019.
