Dave Sims' ‘amazing' first week in Yankees radio booth: ‘Welcome to Home Run Derby'

New York Times

02-04-2025

Nope. He wasn't in Seattle anymore.
Imagine you're Dave Sims, the new radio voice of the New York Yankees. It's last Thursday — Opening Day — and your heart is thumping.
It's your first day on the job of a lifetime. You're the proud successor to the legendary John Sterling. You've been thinking about this day, this game, for months. Preparing your notes. Preparing to deliver a message of appreciation and anticipation. You have three hours of baseball ahead of you to put your thoughts into words. And then …
The home runs start flying through the New York sky. One after another after another …
Starting with the very first Yankee to come to the plate since you settled into this booth — Austin Wells … leading off the season with a home run … and setting the stage for a 15-homer barrage before you've made it through your first weekend in the gig.
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So Dave, anything happening with the Yankees since you showed up?
'Naaah,' Sims told me and Doug Glanville on the new episode of our Starkville podcast. 'I took a subway ride off to the ballpark — and then … next thing you know, it was: 'Hi, everybody, and welcome to Home Run Derby.''
No broadcaster has ever started their career with a new team quite like that. That's just a fact. Fifteen home runs in your first series in the booth? Have we mentioned that the new voice of the Yankees was not in Seattle anymore?
He'd spent 18 great seasons there, and loved every minute of them. But he's an East Coast kind of guy, a former New York sportswriter and talk show host, and a man who has spent the past 50 years living in New York when he wasn't calling baseball games in Seattle. So when Sims awoke before dawn on Opening Day, his adrenaline was already flowing.
He was jotting down notes by 6 a.m., pedaling on the Peloton before 8 a.m., riding the subway to the stadium by mid-morning. And then his day really became a blur. The handshakes. The congratulations. The catching up. The clubhouse meetings. And by that 3 p.m. first pitch, it hit him.
'I'm exhausted — at 2:45,' Sims said. 'And then … Wells goes deep. I mean, are you kidding? Come on. It's one of those deals where I went: This is really happening. Wow. I mean, Minute One of the regular season? Voice of the Yankees? That's amazing.'
There are many cool things about calling baseball games in Seattle. Firing up all your signature home run calls would not be one of them. In the 18 seasons Sims spent in Seattle, the Yankees hit over 800 more home runs than the Mariners — oh, and also narrowly outhomered them in the postseason, by a count of 138-4.
It took the Mariners three weeks to hit 15 home runs last season. It took the Yankees three games to hit 15 this season. Could there have been a more powerful reminder that not all baseball broadcasting jobs are made the same?
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'I love those guys,' Sims said of everyone in Seattle. 'But, good grief, nothing compares. I had two unbelievable moments there — that Cal Raleigh home run to send us to the playoffs in '22 and the Félix Hernández (perfect game) in '12. Those were monumental. But on this stage? In this town? Where I live? It's the New York Yankees, franchise of franchises.'
Had this opportunity never presented itself, Sims would still have been a happy man, leading an idyllic life. He'd become a face (and voice) of Seattle baseball. He'd won two Emmys … and three straight Washington sportscaster of the year awards. He appeared on a Ford C. Frick Award ballot as a candidate for the broadcasters' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It was quite a run. And those Washingtonians were sad to see him go. But when the Yankees are offering you a spot in one of the most hallowed radio booths in America, you don't say: 'Yeah, but it's tough to leave the cedar plank salmon.'
'I was talking to my wife about this,' Sims said. 'To be in the same — I won't say the same sentence or paragraph — but at least maybe the same page as Mel Allen and Red Barber and Bill White and Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer, I think at the end of the season it will really blow me away. But right now, I'm so focused on just doing the job, having fun and doing it the right way.'
Nevertheless, as a self-professed lifelong 'broadcast nerd,' Sims doesn't need a media guide to know who has preceded him in that Yankees radio booth.
'Growing up in Philly … I knew, (at) World Series time, it was always Mel Allen. When I moved to New York and I was at the Daily News, I knew it was Scooter (Rizzuto) and Bill White and Frank Messer. Bobby Mercer (was) in there. I know the late, great Greg Gumbel had a time in there. Paul Olden. Geez, Charley Steiner. I am well aware of the guys who have been in that booth. And boy, it is nice to have my name next to them, I tell you.'
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And then there's Sterling, the man who called Yankees games for 36 seasons, in his own, distinctive way. But just as Sims didn't step into Dave Niehaus' shoes in Seattle and get out the rye bread, the age of 'Judge-ian' blasts in the Bronx is also over.
In the broadcasting business, there's a balancing act between honoring those who came before you but still being yourself. Sims not only understands that tightrope walk but also understands just what it means to succeed a legend.
'Well, I'm honored,' he said. 'I've known John since 1977. He was the voice of the Nets. I was covering the Nets with the Daily News. We don't hang out, but professionally, we've seen each other every year — a couple or three times a year. And certainly, his work spoke for itself. The only thing I can do is come in and (be myself).
'John said: 'I want to do my act.' He did it his way. I have my newspaper training behind me, along with a lot of time with the late, great Marty Glickman, who was like the guru, the rabbi of so many New York broadcasters, on how to do radio.'
But even Glickman couldn't prepare him for calling back-to-back-to-back homers on the first three pitches of a game … or 15 home runs in one series … or explaining what the heck a torpedo bat is and what it might mean for the sport.
Sims, 72, talked about all of that on Starkville — plus how he almost got hired by the Yankees over a decade ago — and much more. But he also put into words exactly how special it is to find yourself starting your dream job … a half-century into your career.
'I wasn't meant to be a mathematician,' Sims said, 'or a chemist working in a mortuary or anything like that. I've been around sports all my life. I tell guys I saw Wilt Chamberlain like five, six times a year — live. I saw Jim Brown every year — live at (Philadelphia's) Franklin Field — for about five, six years. I saw (Willie) Mays, (Hank) Aaron, (Roberto) Clemente, (Bob) Gibson, (Don) Drysdale, (Sandy) Koufax. …
'I love this stuff,' Sims said. 'And to be able to be calling games these last 18 years, and now with the Yankees? I mean, there's a great song on Broadway … 'If My Friends Could See Me Now.' I've got some guys back in North Philly; I'd like to say, 'Yo man. Hey. Take that.''
You can find the whole conversation with Sims, plus fun stolen base trivia and a Strange But True look at the Yankees' nine-homer game last Saturday here.
(Top photo of Austin Wells: Mike Stobe / Getty Images)