SEATTLE — Yankee Stadium’s voice had been missing for a while. Yesterday it left forever when legendary PA announcer Bob Sheppard died.
It was a voice fans never tired of, a voice that made players’ skin pebble when they heard their name roll perfectly off Sheppard’s lips.
So forceful was it that Reggie Jackson called it “The Voice Of God.”
“I told a writer that if they ever made a movie, the best character to be the voice of God would be Bob Sheppard,” Jackson said yesterday after hearing the 99-year-old icon whose first season was Mickey Mantle’s rookie year, 1951, died at his Baldwin, L.I. home.
Like almost everybody that Sheppard touched, Jackson adored him.
“We were opposites, I was outgoing and braggadocious and he was humble and very sensitive,” said Jackson, who was tutored by Sheppard for his Hall of Fame speech, and for the speech he made the day the Yankees retired No. 44.
“We were opposites, but we certainly were attracted. His ways rubbed off on me.”
Prior to spanking the Mariners 8-2 yesterday at Safeco Field, the Yankees’ morning was spent remembering Sheppard, a Richmond Hill native and World War II Navy vet.
“He was the most polite man I have met through my work,” longtime trainer Gene Monahan said. “He would stop by every once in a while and poke his head in and ask me, ‘May I have a few lozenges?’ That was the only thing he ever asked us for. He was very polite and very sweet. I put him right there with [legendary equipment manager] Pete Sheehy. You always thought it was something you didn’t deserve. You heard him say your name and it made you sting inside.”
The Mariners held a moment of silence for Sheppard. By the time the Yankees host the Rays on Friday night at the Stadium, the players’ uniforms will have a tribute to Sheppard on them, and it will be more than the usual black armband the Yankees normally attach. There was talk yesterday about a microphone being part of the deal.
Sheppard announced for other teams in other sports — the football Giants for 50 football seasons, the Cosmos in soccer and St. John’s basketball. But he died best known for his work with the Yankees, which ended in 2007 due to illness.
Derek Jeter, who asked Sheppard to tape his introduction, “Now batting, No. 2, Derek Jeter, No. 2” a few years ago when Sheppard missed some games while ill, will continue to be introduced by Sheppard’s recorded voice.
“I grew up a Yankee fan, and it was a voice I always heard,” Jeter said. “He is as much a part of the organization as any player.”
“Every time you hear it [Sheppard’s voice], you get the chills.”
The first time Sheppard announced Jorge Posada’s name, he got it wrong, saying Posado.
“He came down later and asked if I liked Jorge or George and if it was Posada or Posado,” Posada recalled. “That’s why Derek calls me Sado. It’s a sad day for us.”
George Steinbrenner called Sheppard the benchmark for the PA profession.
“I am deeply saddened by the death today of Bob Sheppard, a good friend and fine man whose voice set the gold standard for America’s sports announcers,” The Boss said in a statement. “Bob Sheppard was a great member of the Yankees family, and his death leaves a lasting silence. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Mary, and their family.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi had to wait until becoming a Bomber in 1996 to hear Sheppard introduce him.
“When I think of Bob Sheppard, you think of all the tradition,” Girardi said. “You think about [Babe] Ruth, [Lou] Gehrig and Yogi [Berra], Joe D [DiMaggio] and Mantle, and I think you mention Bob Sheppard. That’s how important he was to this franchise.”
Said Andy Pettitte: “It was cool to hear him announce your name. All the great players he was around, you think of the old Yankee Stadium, and you think of him.”
Former Yankees manager Joe Torre viewed Sheppard as the speech instructor he was at St. John’s.
“The man was truly a Yankee legend, and was a great teacher for all of us,” Torre said.