That lasted for a year before he started calling the Hawks and Braves, which meant he was calling 244 regular-season games per year. 1, 1981, after the network hired more than 100 reporters and was in significant financial trouble almost immediately because it hadn’t solidified enough advertising support.Įnterprise shut down in September, and Mike Faherty, who was one of Sterling’s closest friends and WSB Radio’s general manager, offered him a job to host a talk show in Atlanta. Sterling arrived in Atlanta in the fall of 1981 after working for Enterprise Radio Network for only a few months because Enterprise’s business quickly failed. ![]() I didn’t want to be an old man and say (mimicking an elderly man’s voice), ‘I should have done the Yankees.'” You get the Yankee job, though, and it’s a pretty big job. “I was told by the guy who was running TBS Sports back then that I could have been with the Hawks forever. I got the Yankees job without an audition. I said I would, but would you call them up and make a deal?’ Sure enough, Mike called and made a deal. I said, ‘Would you call this guy? They want me to do the Yankees. I called a buddy of mine who I had broadcasted the Nets with and who was a former big-time college basketball player and referee, Mike DiTomasso. “I’m at my place in Buckhead, and I get a call from Fred - I know you won’t believe this - but I got the Yankees job without an audition,” Sterling said. Winehouse didn’t care for the team he inherited, so he called Sterling. The Yankees’ booth shuffled around for a few seasons before the team settled on Hank Greenwald and Tommy Hutton in 1987. Sterling had a national presence in Atlanta because the Hawks and Braves, which he also called from 1982 to 1987, had some of their games air on TBS, so it was easier for Winehouse to continue listening to his games.īy 1984, longtime radio broadcaster and former Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto neared the end of his tenure and stepped aside to Frank Messer, who became the lead play-by-play man in the booth. Winehouse listened to Sterling on the airwaves in the 1970s in New York City, where he hosted a talk show and called New Jersey Nets and New York Islanders games. Shortly after that series, Sterling received a phone call from new WABC general manager Fred Winehouse in New York City. That would be Sterling’s final game with the Hawks. Even the Boston people came up to me and said, ‘John, you will never call a better game than that one.’ It was beautifully played.” ![]() All of the Hawks’ plays were run perfectly. Bird went 9-for-10 in the fourth quarter. “Dominique (Wilkins) and Larry Bird were incredible. “The seventh game was the best-played game of any sport that I’ve ever seen in person,” Sterling, now 81, said by phone last week. Atlanta, once again, lost by two points, and its season was over. Winning a Game 7 in Boston was going to be challenging, but the Hawks believed they could win in the Boston Garden because they had done it two games prior. The Hawks played sloppily in Game 6 and didn’t get much production from their supporting cast, but they only lost by two points.
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