NEW YORK — If there’s one thing for sure about John Sterling’s future as the voice of the Yankees, it’s that it’ll be up to him when to call it quits. The 84-year-old has become a New York City legend over the last 30-plus years with his quirky home run calls and unmistakable baritone. And though in recent seasons he’s lightened his work schedule, he isn’t thinking about retiring anytime soon. In fact, Sterling, dealing with a cold that has sidelined him the last couple weeks, said he’s feeling much better. “I’ll be back,” he said in a recent phone call with The Athletic, pointing to when the Yankees return from their West Coast trip and host the White Sox on Tuesday.
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But when Sterling makes his return to the booth, it’ll mark the end of an extended, unofficial public audition for his potential successor.
Sitting in an empty booth overlooking Yankee Stadium last week, Justin Shackil, 36, let the idea sink in and immediately tried to shake it off. When he was a kid growing up in Wayne, N.J., Shackil would sneak to the back of his middle school’s computer classroom and, when nobody was looking, change all the screen savers to read, “The Yankees win! Theeeee Yankees win!” Back then, it was Sterling’s most popular catchphrase. It still is.
Me? Replacing John Sterling? Shackil cuts off the thought.
“I don’t think it’s healthy to look at it that way,” he said. “You’re probably setting yourself up for failure.”
Justin Shackil and Suzyn Waldman. (Courtesy of Justin Shackil)Since May 11, Shackil has been in the booth every game with Suzyn Waldman, the Yankees’ longtime color commentator whose legend includes being a pioneer for women in sports. By the time Sterling returns, the pair will have worked 23 consecutive games together. According to Brett “Spike” Eskin, vice president of programming at WFAN, Shackil had been scheduled before the season to cover only 30 games with Sterling handling the rest of the 162-game schedule. Last season, when Sterling took time off, WFAN filled in for him with Brendan Burke, Ryan Ruocco, Rickie Ricardo, Sweeny Murti and Shackil. This year, it’s just Shackil, who took over the job doing Yankees pregame and postgame at WFAN vacated by Murti in January.
Shackil knows he’s under pressure to perform.
“There’s a lot of expectations here,” he said. “A lot of eyes on me. I know that because I’ve been told that. ‘There’s a lot of eyes and ears on you. I’m sure there are a lot of people, just because of the nature of the industry, hoping that you do slip up, (but) there’s a lot of other people that are rooting for you.’ You take it all in stride. If you allowed the other crap, the superficial stuff to enter, then there’s too much clutter in your head. Just focus on the field in front of you and do the job.”
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Waldman said Shackil has been “doing wonderfully” so far.
“He’s got a good, easy style, a really nice voice (and) he knows what he’s doing,” she said.
“He sounds like a total pro,” Eskin said. “If you were to enter the market and not have any history or context of the Yankees’ broadcast team and turn on our broadcast, you would not bat an eye, which I think is an amazing accomplishment for somebody who just started with this, and with us, last year.”
Eskin said it would be “insane” to think that when Sterling decides to retire that WFAN wouldn’t factor in Shackil’s performance during this stretch while considering possible permanent replacements.
“I don’t know when that will happen,” Eskin said, referring to when Sterling might pass the torch. “Is it possible that Justin receives a great opportunity before we’re in position to make that decision? Absolutely possible. Sure, it absolutely could be construed as an audition, but I don’t think we’re approaching it as it is his audition specifically for this. There has been no decision from John or us about when John decides not to do it anymore.”
For now, Shackil is taking it a game at a time. Though he may be unfamiliar to many Yankees fans, he’s got a long resume. After graduating from Fordham University, he called minor-league games for several years in Trenton, N.J., Mobile, Ala., and Knoxville, Tenn., before returning to live full-time in New Jersey and landing jobs with WCBS 880, the NBA and SiriusXM.
In 2015, the Yankees hired him to do pregame spots on the stadium scoreboard, which led to work at the YES Network and WFAN. He hosts a weekly podcast with former Yankees pitcher David Cone for Jomboy Media and he’s called boxing matches for DAZN. He lives with his girlfriend, Allison, in Paramus, N.J., a 40-minute drive to the Bronx. To unwind late at night after games, he said he dives down YouTube rabbit holes to learn how to “figure out the perfect smoked BBQ.” His sister, Alyssa, is Michael Strahan’s personal makeup artist.
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Shackil knows he could never replace simply Sterling, even if he hopes to succeed him one day. He often takes time to remind fans of that, too. He’ll start some innings with, “I’m Justin Shackil, in for John Sterling.” And even Sterling knows he’s a difficult act to follow. When Shackil took the job at WFAN in the offseason, he spoke with Sterling, who offered advice.
“Do it your way,” Sterling told Shackil. “I’ve obviously done it my way, and that works for me, but you need to find out what is your way and do it that way.”
“When you are replacing someone who is larger than life, you have to be who you are,” Waldman said. “I think Justin, though I get a feeling he’s a little nervous — I think he’s not as comfortable as he will be. I see that a lot. But I think it’s really good to have a sense of who you are. For someone who’s as inexperienced — and he’s not inexperienced, but he hasn’t been doing this forever and he hasn’t done it on a major-league level — I think he’s going to get to realize that he should be a little more comfortable in his own skin than he is, because he’s very good.”
And that’s going to be Shackil’s plan.
“If you look at it as filling in for John Sterling, so many people say, ‘Well, he doesn’t sound like John Sterling.’ No, I sound like Justin Shackil,” he said. “Obviously, that’s the only way I know how to do it. If I wasn’t being myself, then I wouldn’t be here. The best thing that you can bring into the booth is yourself because no one else can do that. That’s what I keep reminding myself.”
(Top photo of John Sterling, Justin Shackil and Suzyn Waldman: Courtesy of Justin Shackil)
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