NEW YORK — The ball left the bat. Aaron Judge started around the bases. Michael Kay reached back for the only words that felt right.
It was the first inning of the Yankees’ 12-1 rout of the Baltimore Orioles on Monday. John Sterling had died that morning at 87. The night belonged to his memory. And the person who set the tone first was not a player or a manager. It was the man who sat beside Sterling in the broadcast booth for a decade.
Kay called Judge’s 14th home run the way Sterling used to call them all. He reached for Sterling’s signature language. The Bronx, still grieving, heard something that sounded like the old voice had not quite left.
Kay’s call echoes Sterling’s words
When Judge connected on a Shane Baz pitch in the first inning for a two-run homer, Kay paused. Then he delivered Sterling’s most famous Judge-specific phrase: “A Judgian blast! All rise! Here comes the Judge!”
It landed differently on a night when the man who invented those words was gone. The crowd heard it. The players heard it. Judge heard it too.
After the game, Judge was asked what crossed his mind as he rounded the bases on a night full of emotion. He described what it felt like to circle the diamond with Sterling fresh in everyone’s thoughts.
“Definitely seeing that tribute hit home because he loved the Yankees,” Judge said. “He loved this team. He loved this franchise. He loved the fans. He loved everybody he talked to on a nightly basis. So to do that there in the first, just kind of was chuckling around the bases thinking what he was probably saying.”
A pregame ceremony and a night of remembrance
Before the first pitch, Yankee Stadium held a ceremony honoring Sterling. Kay and Suzyn Waldman walked to home plate and laid flowers. The crowd fell quiet.
The Yankees then played the kind of baseball Sterling always loved most. He preferred power-hitting lineups because teams that made things happen gave him room to entertain and, in his own words, do his act. Monday was that kind of night. Judge hit the homer. The Yankees scored 12 runs. The Orioles left having been outscored 39-10 in four games.
The main news: Judge wants Sterling’s voice to live on after every win
After the final out, something different happened at Yankee Stadium. Before Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” filled the building as it always does after Yankees victories, something else played over the public address system first.
Sterling’s baritone boomed through the stadium. His most famous line rang out at full volume.
“Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theee Yankees win!”
It shook the building. Manager Aaron Boone was in the middle of leading the team’s post-win handshake ritual in the dugout when the sound hit him. He described what happened when Sterling’s voice came through the speakers.
“It drowned me out a little bit, happily,” Boone said.
Aaron Judge then made a direct appeal after the game. He spelled out exactly what he wants the Yankees to do from now on. The idea is simple: make Sterling’s voice part of every home victory, just before Sinatra.
“I think it’d be a nice little tip of the cap to John and what he meant — so much to this franchise and this fan base. I think it would be pretty cool,” Judge said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone disclosed he had been yelling “Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theee Yankees win!” in the dugout before starting handshakes for a couple of seasons. Monday was the first time the stadium crowd got to bellow along with him.
Asked directly whether he wants Sterling’s voice to play after every win from now on, Boone’s answer was brief and clear.
“Yeah, I’d love it,” he said. “Right on into Frank.”
Judge’s night by the numbers
Judge finished 2-for-4 with an intentional walk and four RBIs. His 14th homer leads the majors. He added a two-run single in the eighth. The homer was his 91st as a Yankee, trailing only Babe Ruth (126) and Mickey Mantle (103) in franchise history. It was his sixth first-inning homer of the year, best in baseball. His 53rd career long ball against the Orioles came on the day the Yankees honored the man who called so many of them.
The stadium speaks
When the game ended and Sterling’s recorded voice filled Yankee Stadium for the first time since his passing, the building’s response answered the question Judge had already posed.
The crowd did not need to be told to cheer. They already knew what those words meant. They had been hearing them for 36 years.
If the Yankees make it official, every home win will now begin with Judge’s ball leaving the yard and end with Sterling’s voice telling the Bronx what it already knows.
The Yankees win. Theee Yankees win.
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