Guest Comments by Michael Margolis

The writer is manager of media relations for the New York Yankees baseball team.

NEW YORK, United States – With deep sadness, the New York Yankees announce the death of longtime public-address announcer Bob Sheppard, “the Voice of Yankee Stadium”. He has passed away, aged 99, at his home in Baldwin, N.Y., with wife, Mary, at his side.

Born in Ridgewood, Queens, Sheppard started as the Yankees public-address announcer on April 17, 1951, the opening day of Joe DiMaggio's final season and Mickey Mantle's Major League debut. Among his approximately 4,500 baseball games were 121 consecutive post-season contests (1951-2006).
 
“Most men go to work, but I go to a game,” Sheppard said. “How many people would love to do that?”

Sheppard's incredible career behind microphones started when he volunteered for a charity football game in Freeport, Long Island, in the late 1940s. An executive from the Brooklyn Dodgers football team liked Sheppard's style (“clear, concise and correct”) and hired him. The football Dodgers folded after one season at Ebbets Field (1948), but an opponent, the New York football Yankees, heard Sheppard's booming voice and offered him the PA job at Yankee Stadium. Baseball's Yankees then heard him and offered the same role for them. He turned down the offer for 1950, but reconsidered the next year.

Plus Sheppard served as the public-address voice for the football Giants for 50 seasons -- from 1956 until his retirement after the 2005 season. He also served the New York Titans of the American Football League, the New York Stars of the World Football League, the New York Cosmos (soccer) and St. John's University basketball and football.

Among the events he listed as most memorable were: Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series; Roger Maris' 61st home run in 1961; Reggie Jackson's three home runs in a 1977 World Series game; and the Giants-Colts overtime NFL championship game in 1958.

Once a talented athlete, Sheppard received a football scholarship to St. John's College. Later at Columbia University, he earned a Master's degree and worked up from teacher-in-training to department chairman. To supplement his teaching salary, Sheppard played semi-pro football on Sundays in Long Island, earning US$25 a game.

To commemorate his legacy, Yankee Stadium's media dining room was named “Sheppard's Place” before the 2009 season. In the year 2000 a plaque was dedicated to Sheppard in Monument Park of the original Yankee Stadium.
 
This native New Yorker was elected to the St. John's University Sports Hall of Fame, the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame and the New York Sports Hall of Fame. He made cameo appearances in motion pictures and TV shows, including It's My Turn, It Could Happen to You, Anger Management, Seinfeld and Mad About You.