Yankees radio broadcasts will sound different in 2025, as Dave Sims will replace the retired John Sterling in WFAN’s booth moving forward.
Sims will team up with Sterling’s longtime partner, Suzyn Waldman, after signing a multi-year deal. The 71-year-old Sims had been the Mariners’ TV play-by-play man since 2007, but he has plenty of experience in the New York market after starting out as a Daily News sportswriter before working at WFAN, WNBC, and WCBS, among other stops.
Despite his familiarity with the area and Waldman, Sims told The News that his first spring training game — he’ll do about six or seven exhibition broadcasts — will be like the “first day of college.”
Below, Sims discussed his new job, replacing a legend for the second time, and what Yankees fans can expect from the Ford C. Frick nominee.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
DAILY NEWS: WFAN HAD A BIG HOLE TO FILL WITH JOHN RETIRING. HOW DID YOU GET THE JOB?
DAVE SIMS: “I live here in Manhattan, and I took the opportunity to reach out to WFAN and the Yankees and had good conversations. I told them I bring a lot. ‘The situation is perfect for you. It’s perfect for me if we can do this.’ And here we are. There were a lot of conversations, and Suzyn was a big advocate for me because we go way back. I said, ‘Listen, I’m a New York guy. I was born and raised in Philly, but I’ve been in New York for a lot longer than I lived in Philly.’ I started at the Daily News with Dick Young and that whole crew. So WFAN, WNBC, Channel 2, Channel 4, I’m New York guy, c’mon.”
DN: YOU MENTIONED SUZYN. HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO BE WORKING WITH HER?
DS: “We’re good buds. When I was at WFAN with Ed Coleman doing middays, she was covering the Knicks. We’d have her on a lot, and we got to know each other. We’d agree, disagree, and have some laughs.
“Flash forward to when I got the Seattle job, and she’s already entrenched here on Yankee broadcasts and it’s like, ‘Hey, somebody I know!’ And we hit it off even better. We’ve spent the last 17, 18 years texting each other during games or before games, exchanging information, having laughs. She’s got a great sense of humor. I think this is going to be a good match. I really do. I’m psyched to be here. She’s psyched to have me. It’s going to be fun, and the familiarity is going to be wonderful.”
DN: THIS IS A HIGH-PROFILE JOB, BUT IT ALSO SOUNDS LIKE ONE THAT MEANS A LOT TO YOU PERSONALLY
DS: “My dad was a mega sports fan. Growing up in Philly, I’d go to his softball games. If you’re familiar with 30th Street Station, across the street was the General P.O. and that’s where he worked. He worked his way up white-collar jobs and executive positions. Anyway, in his playing days, I was 4 or 5 years old. He’d take me to games at Fairmount Park. I watched him play softball and be the commissioner of the basketball league. And then we lived 15 minutes away, so we always went to see Phillies games. I saw the great players of that era, Mays, Koufax Drysdale, Dick Allen, The Hammer, Henry Aaron, Clemente. We had season tickets for several years. We’d see the Eagles. I got an autograph from Jim Brown. We used to go to seven 76ers home games a year. Wilt was still with the Warriors at that time.
“Going to those games live, not to mention all the stuff you watch on TV, I was always enamored with the announcers. I remember Chuck Thompson, Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Tony Kubek, Joe Garagiola, Lindsey Nelson. I got to work with Charlie Jones at the Olympics in 1988 for NBC. So I say all the time, I was not meant to be an accountant or a chemist. I was meant to be in sports broadcasting.”
DN: THOSE ARE SOME ICONIC ANNOUNCERS. YOU’RE REPLACING ANOTHER IN JOHN. IN SEATTLE, YOU REPLACED THE LATE DAVE NIEHAUS. WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU LEARNED FROM THAT EXPERIENCE THAT CAN HELP YOU NOW?
DS: “John’s had a great career, Hall of Fame-worthy. But they didn’t bring somebody in here to mimic him. I always remember when Vince Lombardi left the Packers and everybody said, ‘You want to be the guy who replaces the guy.’ Well, this is the second time around for me. I think it worked out pretty well the first time replacing a legend. So I’m just gonna be me. I’ve had some success, and it’s paid off, and here I am.”
DN: FOR YANKEES FANS WHO HAVEN’T LISTENED TO A LOT OF MARINERS GAMES, WHAT DOES YOU BEING YOU SOUND LIKE?
DS: “A lot of energy. A lot of description because I’m a Marty Glickman disciple. And Suzyn and I will have great dialogue. I love to describe everything on radio. As much as a lot of guys like to turn it into a sports talk show, which I’ve done, I know the line of demarcation.
“You don’t hire somebody to be a duplicate or clone the guy. That’s not the aim. It’s gonna be different. I think it took people in Seattle X amount of time before they got used to me. I remember my son texted me once saying, ‘Dude, you’re getting killed on the internet.’ I said, ‘Yeah, new guy, East Coast guy, Black guy. C’mon.’”
DN: IF SPRING TRAINING IS GOING TO BE LIKE COLLEGE, WHAT WILL OPENING DAY BE LIKE?
DS: “I’ll be stoked. I think I bring a lot of energy, and I’m able to sustain it. I hope I don’t jinx myself.
“When I was at WNBC, if there was no game on, I was going 7:30 to midnight, and a friend of mine said, ‘How the heck are you still fresh at 11:45 p.m.? I said, ‘I like what I do. What can I tell you?’ Talking sports, that’s what I do.”