by Brian Sobel

For the 55th consecutive season, a deep and resonating voice introduced the starting lineups at Yankee Stadium last Sunday when the home team hosted the world champion Boston Red Sox in the season opener, won by the Yankees, 9-2. It was the voice of Bob Sheppard, once again delivering important information to the crowds at Yankee Stadium, as he has since 1951 and will again this afternoon when the Yankees play the Red Sox in the final game of a three-game series. Mr. Sheppard has been the public-address announcer for the New York Giants for nearly a half century, too, retired as a teacher nearly six years ago after 50 years in the classroom.

Working as the PA announcer at Yankee Stadium has brought Mr. Sheppard an interesting type of fame. “For years and years,” says Mr. Sheppard, “nobody knew my face and I could walk around the stadium with 50,000 people and I would never be recognized. Then after many years and a few television shows and movies, such as Billy Crystal’s ‘61*,’ wherein I played myself, my face was becoming better known.”

Still, it is still the voice that people first recognize. “It happens that I will be speaking with someone, perhaps ordering a drink at a bar, or vacationing here or there,” says Mr. Sheppard, “and a person will say, ‘You know, you sound a lot like that fellow at Yankee Stadium.’”

Mr. Sheppard, whose tone, diction and articulation have the ability to lift or quiet a crowd has witnessed baseball history several times over. He was the stadium announcer in 1956 when Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history and there again when Roger Maris hit homerun number 61 to erase the previous record of 60 homeruns in a season set by Babe Ruth.

Some of the rare historical moments are Mr. Sheppard’s special favorites, such as the dramatic ending to Game 5 of the American League Championship Series in 1976 when the Yankees’ Chris Chambliss hit a homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Yankees their first American League championship in a dozen years. “Thousands of people jumped out of the stands and Chambliss had to fight his way around the bases,” says Mr. Sheppard. “It was like the stadium burst at the seams. Normally, in a case like that I would attempt to clear the field. But that day I didn’t try. The Marines could not have stopped the people who came on the field. And, as Chambliss battled to run around the bases and touch home, I was watching, absolutely stunned. What an ending.”

Mr. Sheppard also recalls the drama in 1977 when Yankee Reggie Jackson hit three homeruns in a row, on three first pitches, against three different pitchers, a feat that will stand for all time, especially since it occurred in a World Series game. In fact, besides Mr. Jackson, only the immortal Babe Ruth ever hit three homeruns in a World Series game, actually doing it twice, once in 1926 and again in 1928. Mr. Jackson, the player nicknamed “Mr. October” for his post-season heroics, has long admired the work of Bob Sheppard, calling him the “Voice of God,” a colorful description originated by the actor Billy Crystal.

Mr. Sheppard, who will not discuss his age, started PA announcing in his spare time while teaching speech at St. John’s University in Queens in the late 1940s. “I was working football games on Sundays,” he says. “Around that time some of the New York baseball people heard me and asked if I would come to the Yankee Stadium as the public address announcer. Initially I said I could not, because in those days the vast majority of major league baseball games were played during the day, and that conflicted with my work in the classroom. However, I was eventually able to adjust my teaching schedule so I could get to the ballpark in time for games and thus combine the two professions.”

Mr. Sheppard made his announcing debut at Yankee Stadium on April 17, 1951, when the Yankees hosted the Red Sox. Stars in the line-ups included Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and for the Red Sox, Ted Williams. “In fact, the first person I introduced that day was Boston center fielder, Dom DiMaggio, Joe’s brother,” says Mr. Sheppard.

The announcer who has made an indelible mark at Yankee Stadium for the Bronx Bombers, and for the New York football Giants first at Yankee Stadium and now at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands, also treasures his time as a teacher. Armed with an undergraduate degree from St. John’s and a master’s degree in speech from Columbia, Mr. Sheppard believes his fifty years in the classroom as a speech teacher in the public school system in New York and then as a professor at St. John’s were infinitely more important than his work as a public address announcer. “My contribution to society, in my view, was teaching young people. When I receive letters from former students saying I helped them with speech, public speaking, voice, diction, debating and oral interpretation, well, I know then I somehow made a difference.”

Mr. Shepard, a Roman Catholic, works as a lector at Mass each morning and during the baseball season serves in the same capacity at Sunday services held in the stadium clubhouse. “Even after these many years, I am still very nervous before a game starts. There is always a lot of pressure and I never knew a performer that didn’t get butterflies before they went on. So, before each game I pray for a few minutes to keep me correct.”

Preparation is extremely important to Mr. Sheppard, who typically arrives at the park three to four hours before a game. But he says he still sometimes makes mistakes. “When I err, everyone hears it. I recall a time when I was announcing at Giants Stadium in New Jersey after having worked a game at Yankee Stadium that afternoon. I remember saying, ‘Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Yankee Stadium.’ Of course, I couldn’t correct it and there was warm laughter that was not derisive in the least. It was like, ‘Oh, Bob, you forgot where you are.’ I learned immediately not to announce in two venues in one day.”

These days, Mr. Sheppard works his magic from an enclosed booth high above the floor of Yankee Stadium, but in earlier times, things were different. “Before the renovation of the stadium in the 1970s, I had a section to announce from at the end of the press box along the third base line. It was open to the wind, rain and the cold. My location now is a big improvement, at least for me,” he says.

Surprisingly, perhaps for some, is that Mr. Sheppard’s work as the Yankee PA announcer does not often extend to close friendships with the players. “I don’t really go into the locker room very often. Perhaps twice a year,” Mr. Sheppard says. “If I met some of these fellows on the street I wouldn’t know them, and you know, they wouldn’t recognize me either. However, I know every name and uniform number and work diligently to pronounce each name correctly.” Some names Sheppard has enjoyed announcing more than others. “Mickey Mantle, is an example,” says Mr. Sheppard. “The name just rolls off your tongue.”

Still, Mr. Sheppard has enjoyed a better than casual relationship with at least a few of the players. He cites Reggie Jackson, for one, and Mickey Mantle, as well.

“Mantle and I seemed to hit it off,” Mr. Sheppard says. “I recall one time when Mantle, after his playing days, was booked as a guest on ‘Good Morning America’ on ABC. The producers asked that I come to the studio and introduce him on television. About ten minutes before going on the air, Mantle came in and saw me and said, ‘Bob, didn’t they think I was going to make it?’ No, I replied, they want me to introduce you just like I used to at Yankee Stadium. He smiled, and said, ‘Every time you did that I would get shivers.’ I replied, ‘Mickey, so did I.’”

In 2000, it was Mr. Sheppard who was honored when the Yankees held “Bob Sheppard Day” at the stadium. “The Yankees called me to give me the news and frankly I was speechless,” says Mr. Sheppard. “That rare honor, started in 1932, had been reserved for Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra and a select few others, not for the public address announcer. The day arrived and the stadium was packed and my family, including my wife Mary, was there, and it was an incredible, memorable moment in my life. And, that I should have a plaque out in Monument Park in center field with the Yankee greats and two popes, is truly wonderful.”

This season, the Yankees will once again look to write another chapter in baseball history. For his part, Bob Sheppard, “The Voice of Yankee Stadium,” will remain a steadfast witness to the remarkable events and players in “The House That Ruth Built.”

April 6, 2005