Bob Sheppard has officially announced his retirement from public address announcing after celebrating his 99th birthday and serving more than 50 years for the Yankees organization.
We all know his great legacy by now, as he has been announcing the Yankees lineups since April 17, 1951. His career has spanned approximately 4,500 games, including 121 consecutive postseason games.
The last lineup he announced was recorded in his home for Yankee Stadium’s final game on Sept. 21, 2008. This guy is truly one of my favorite Yankees. It just shows how popular this guy is when you can’t name any other PA announcers in baseball.
The Legendary Mr. Sheppard speaks:
“I have no plans of coming back,” Sheppard said on Wednesday in a telephone interview. “Time has passed me by, I think. I had a good run for it. I enjoyed doing what I did. I don’t think, at my age, I’m going to suddenly regain the stamina that is really needed if you do the job and do it well.”
“I haven’t been well,” Sheppard said. “I had problems breathing for a while, and then I had a loss of weight. Now I’m trying to build myself back up again to get back to the stamina that I had when I played football at St. John’s [University] many, many, many years ago, and life-guarding in the summer. I was at one time, about two years ago, down to 103 pounds.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Kevin Rozell
M. B. Rozell
Ray Rothfeldt
Eduardo Perez
I got goosebumps watching that video.
They GOTTA have a Bob Sheppard Day next season. Maybe they can even get him to announce that one game. That would be a perfect farewell.