Bob Sheppard

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Bob Sheppard bigraphy, stories - Yankee Stadium announcer

Bob Sheppard : biography

October 20, 1910 – July 11, 2010

Robert Leo "Bob" Sheppard (October 20, 1910 – July 11, 2010) was the long-time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams, in particular the MLB New York Yankees (1951–2007), and the NFL New York Giants (1956–2006).

Sheppard announced more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over a period of 56 years, including 22 pennant-winning seasons and 13 World Series championships; he called 121 consecutive postseason contests, 62 games in 22 World Series, and six no-hitters, including three perfect games. He was also the in-house voice for a half-century of Giants football games, encompassing 9 conference championships, 3 NFL championships (1956, 1986, 1990), and the game often called "the greatest ever played", the classic 1958 championship loss to Baltimore.

His smooth, distinctive baritone and precise, consistent elocution became iconic aural symbols of both the old Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium. Reggie Jackson famously nicknamed him "The Voice of God", while Carl Yastrzemski once said, "You’re not in the big leagues until Bob Sheppard announces your name."

In popular culture

  • Sheppard’s voice can be heard on three episodes of Seinfeld:
    • "The Letter": Sheppard delivers the opening welcome, while Kramer, George and Elaine sit in team owner George Steinbrenner’s box seats. Elaine, from Towson, Maryland, wears the cap of the opposing team (her hometown Baltimore Orioles), and is asked to remove it. Upon refusing, she is removed.
    • "The Masseuse": Announcing a Giants game at Giants Stadium, Sheppard pages Elaine’s current boyfriend, who has the same name as a recently-arrested serial killer: "Will Joel Rifkin please report to the stadium office?"
    • "The Chaperone": Sheppard announces that the Miss America contestants in Yankee Stadium will be competing in the pageant.
  • Sheppard appeared in the films The Scout, Anger Management, For Love of the Game, and 61*, as well as ESPN mini-series The Bronx Is Burning.
  • Sheppard’s voice and traditional greeting, "Good Evening, Welcome To Yankee Stadium", were used in the Bugler’s Dream television commercial for New York City’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.NYC2012 Bugler’s Dream television commercial
  • New York-born comedian Robert Klein’s imitation of Sheppard, complete with simulated echo, was an integral part of one of Klein’s early routines.

Announcer

Sheppard first worked as a public address announcer for St. John’s football and basketball games after World War II, a job he kept well into the 1990s. In the late ’40s he also became the announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-America Football Conference, at Ebbets Field. He came to the attention of the Yankees when a front-office official heard him deliver a tribute to Babe Ruth at a Dodgers football game in 1948. He was offered the Yankees announcing job, but did not accept it until three years later when the Yankees agreed to hire an understudy, so his duties with the team would not interfere with his teaching responsibilities. He debuted at Yankee Stadium on April 17, 1951 with the Yankees’ home opener, a 5-0 win over the Boston Red Sox. In 1956, when the New York Giants football team moved from the Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium, he began announcing their games as well, and remained with them when they moved to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 1976.

Sheppard’s first year as the Yankees’ announcer was the only one in which Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle shared the outfield. His first game featured eight future Hall of Famers: DiMaggio, Mantle, Johnny Mize, Yogi Berra, and Phil Rizzuto for the Yankees, and Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, and Lou Boudreau for the Red Sox. The first player he introduced was the Yankee Clipper’s brother, Dominic DiMaggio. His 1951 salary was $15 per game, $17 for a doubleheader.Whose Voice Is That? Retrieved 2010-07-19.