Bob Sheppard Robert Leo " Bob " Sheppard ( October 20 , 1910 – July 11 , 2010 ) was the long - time public address announcer for numerous New York area college and professional sports teams , in particular the MLB New York Yankees ( 1951 – 2007 ) , and the NFL New York Giants ( 1956 – 2006 ) . Sheppard announced more than 4 , 500 Yankees baseball games over a period of 56 years , including 22 pennant - winning seasons and 13 World Series championships ; he called 121 consecutive postseason contests , 62 games in 22 World Series , and six no - hitters , including three perfect games . He was also the in - house voice for a half - century of Giants football games , encompassing 9 conference championships , 3 NFL championships ( 1956 , 1986 , 1990 ) , and the game often called " the greatest ever played " , the classic 1958 championship loss to Baltimore . His smooth , distinctive baritone and precise , consistent elocution became iconic aural symbols of both the old Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium . Reggie Jackson famously nicknamed him " The Voice of God " , while Carl Yastrzemski once said , " You ' re not in the big leagues until Bob Sheppard announces your name . " Early life . Sheppard was secretive about his age throughout his life , but according to New York voter records he was born October 20 , 1910 , in Richmond Hill , a section of the borough of Queens , New York City . He graduated from Saint John ' s Preparatory School in Bedford - Stuyvesant , Brooklyn in 1928 , and attended St . John ' s University on an athletic scholarship , where he earned seven varsity letters from 1928 to 1932 ; three in baseball as the starting first baseman , and four in football as the left - handed starting quarterback ; and was elected president of his senior class . He received a Master ' s degree in Speech Education from Columbia University in 1933 . Teacher . Sheppard began his career playing semiprofessional football on Long Island with the Valley Stream Red Riders and the Hempstead Monitors , earning $ 25 a game , and teaching speech at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood , Queens , NY . During World War II he served in the Navy as a gunnery officer aboard cargo ships , both in convoys and on independent missions in the Pacific Theater . After the War he became Chairman of the Speech Department at John Adams High School in Queens , and taught evening courses in public speaking at his alma mater , St . John ' s University . He also served as speech and debate coach for Sacred Heart Academy ' s Forensic Team in Hempstead , New York . His multiple teaching jobs overlapped more than 25 years into his announcing career , and he always maintained that his academic work was far more important than his accomplishments as an announcer . " My sports activity , " he said , " . . . cut down on what I really contributed to society , and that ' s teaching . . . when I hear from former students and they say I helped them achieve their goals , I feel I have contributed to society more than all I have done in sports . " As an announcer , he said , " All I have to recommend is longevity . " Announcer . Sheppard first worked as a public address announcer for St . John ' s football and basketball games after World War II , a job he kept well into the 1990s . In the late ' 40s he also became the announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All - America Football Conference , at Ebbets Field . He came to the attention of the Yankees when a front - office official heard him deliver a tribute to Babe Ruth at a Dodgers football game in 1948 . He was offered the Yankees announcing job , but did not accept it until three years later when the Yankees agreed to hire an understudy , so his duties with the team would not interfere with his teaching responsibilities . He debuted at Yankee Stadium on April 17 , 1951 with the Yankees ' home opener , a 5 - 0 win over the Boston Red Sox . In 1956 , when the New York Giants football team moved from the Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium , he began announcing their games as well , and remained with them when they moved to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford , New Jersey in 1976 . Sheppard ' s first year as the Yankees ' announcer was the only one in which Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle shared the outfield . His first game featured eight future Hall of Famers : DiMaggio , Mantle , Johnny Mize , Yogi Berra , and Phil Rizzuto for the Yankees , and Ted Williams , Bobby Doerr , and Lou Boudreau for the Red Sox . The first player he introduced was the Yankee Clipper ' s brother , Dominic DiMaggio . His 1951 salary was $ 15 per game , $ 17 for a doubleheader . Sheppard ' s distinctive announcing style became an integral component of the Yankee Stadium experience . For more than half a century each game began with his trademark cadence - " Good afternoon ( evening ) . . . ladies and gentlemen . . . and welcome . . . to Yankee Stadium " - his words reverberating around the massive structure . Each in - game announcement evoked a bygone era : " Your attention please , ladies and gentlemen . " He introduced every player , Yankee or visitor , rookie or immortal ( as described on his Monument Park plaque ) , " with equal divine reverence . " He communicated all essential information ; no more , no less : the first at - bat : position , uniform number , name , and number again ; each succeeding at - bat : position and name . " A public - address announcer should be clear , concise , correct , " he said . " He should not be colorful , cute or comic . " So in Yankee Stadium , Dennis Boyd was never introduced as " Oil Can " , nor Jim Hunter as " Catfish . " He once listed ( in order ) his favorite names to announce : Mickey Mantle , Shigetoshi Hasegawa , Salome Barojas , Jose Valdivielso and Alvaro Espinoza ; and he expressed his special affection for the natural resonance of many Latino players ' names . " Anglo - Saxon names are not very euphonious , " he said . " What can I do with Steve Sax ? What can I do with Mickey Klutts ? " But Mickey Mantle remained his favorite ; Sheppard said Mantle once told him , " ' Everytime Bob Sheppard introduced me at Yankee Stadium , I got shivers up my spine . ' And I said to him , ' So did I . ' " He took great pride in pronouncing every name correctly , and made certain to check directly with a visiting player if he had any doubt on the correct or preferred pronunciation . Minnie Miñoso , for example , preferred a precise Spanish pronunciation of his name , complete with tilde ( Meen - YO - so ) , and Sheppard , unlike many announcers , obliged . He admitted that early in his career , whenever the Senators were in town he particularly feared tripping over Wayne Terwilliger ' s name . “ I worried that I would say ‘ Ter - wigg - ler ’ , " he recalled , " but I never did . " He did stumble on at least one rookie ' s name : Jorge Posada was called up from Columbus late in the 1995 season , and made his first appearance as a Yankee in Game 2 of the 1995 American League Division Series against Seattle , as a pinch runner for Wade Boggs . Sheppard , who had not yet met Posada , announced the substitution , Posada ' s major league debut , in extra innings of one of the greatest games in Division Series history , with an " o " at the end of his last name . Posada ' s friend Derek Jeter noticed immediately , with amusement , and has called him " Sado " ever since . Sheppard made another rare professional error in October 1976 at the Giants ' first home game in New Jersey , against the Cowboys , which he commenced with the startling announcement , " Ladies and gentlemen , welcome to Yankee Stadium . " His other famous faux pas occurred in 1982 at Yankee Stadium , when he inadvertently left his microphone on as Shane Rawley gave up a double on his first pitch in relief , instantly turning a 3 - 2 lead into a 4 - 3 deficit . Over the stadium speakers came Sheppard ' s familiar voice : " Boy , what relief pitchinginginging ! " Sheppard , ever the gentleman , went to the locker room after the game and apologized to Rawley . Throughout his career , Sheppard famously refused to reveal his age , once abruptly ending an interview when Jim Bouton asked the question a second time . He readily disclosed his birth month and day , October 20 ( possibly because he shared it with Mickey Mantle ) , but never publicly acknowledged the year . For years , there was conjecture that his compulsive secretiveness stemmed from a fear that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would think him too old and replace him , but Sheppard denied it . " [ Steinbrenner ] never questioned how old I was , " he said . " He knew I was there every day for 57 years or so . " In fact , it has been said that Sheppard may have been the only Yankees employee never criticized by Steinbrenner , who called him " the gold standard . " Over the years , Sheppard also served as announcer for multiple other teams and venues , among them Adelphi College ( predecessor of Adelphi University ) ; the AFL New York Titans ( later the Jets ) and the International Soccer League , both at the Polo Grounds ; the WFL New York Stars at Downing Stadium on Randall ' s Island ; the All - America Football Conference ' s New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium ; the New York Cosmos at Yankee Stadium , Downing Stadium , and Giants Stadium ; Army Black Knights football games at Michie Stadium and Giants Stadium ; and multiple Army - Navy games at the Polo Grounds , Giants Stadium , and Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia . " You name it , I did it , " he said . In later years , the many baseball honors bestowed on him overshadowed his work in other sports . Phil Rizzuto once asked him to name the greatest Yankee Stadium game he had ever announced , probably expecting to hear a good baseball story . " The day Pat Summerall kicked the field goal in the snow in 1958 , " Sheppard replied , referring to the legendary December 14 Giants victory over Cleveland . Retirement . Sheppard retired from his position with the Giants , a fifty - year handshake agreement with Giants owner Wellington Mara , at the end of the 2005 season , when the commute from his home on Long Island to East Rutherford , New Jersey became too strenuous . His final game was the Giants ' playoff loss to the Carolina Panthers on January 8 , 2006 . He was succeeded by his long - time understudy , former debate student , and colleague in the Speech Department at St . John ' s University , Jim Hall . At age 95 health issues began to take their toll : In 2006 Sheppard missed his first Yankees home opener since 1951 after injuring his hip . He was back in time for the next homestand , but it marked the beginning of a slow but inexorable deterioration of his health over the next two seasons . He called what turned out to be his final game , a 10 - 2 win over Seattle , on Sept . 5 , 2007 . The following week he was hospitalized with a bronchial infection , forcing him to miss the final homestand and the AL Division Series against Cleveland , thus ending his streak of 121 consecutive postseason games at Yankee Stadium . Although he signed a new two - year contract with the Yankees in March 2008 , and he particularly looked forward to announcing the 2008 All - Star Game , which was played at Yankee Stadium , he missed the entire 2008 season . He also reluctantly admitted that he lacked sufficient strength to call the final game at the original ballpark on September 21 , 2008 . " I don ' t have my best stuff , " he said . Sheppard ' s recorded voice did announce the starting lineups for that final game , however , a 7 - 3 victory over the Orioles . Jim Hall replaced him for the 2008 season , and Paul Olden took over when the Yankees moved to the new ballpark in 2009 . Two weeks after his 99th birthday in 2009 , the day after the Yankees defeated Philadelphia to win their 27th World Series , Sheppard officially announced his retirement as the Yankees ' public address announcer . " I have no plans of coming back , " he told MLB . com . " Time has passed me by , I think . I had a good run for it . I enjoyed doing what I did . I don ' t think , at my age , I ' m going to suddenly regain the stamina that is really needed if you do the job and do it well . " He died at his home in Baldwin , New York on July 11 , 2010 , 3 months and 9 days shy of his 100th birthday . In announcing his father ' s death , Sheppard ' s son Paul said , “ I know St . Peter will now recruit him . If you ’ re lucky enough to go to Heaven , you ’ ll be greeted by a voice saying , ‘ Good afternoon , ladies and gentlemen . Welcome to Heaven ! ’ ” Legacy . Sheppard was elected to the St . John ’ s University Sports Hall of Fame , the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame , and the New York Sports Hall of Fame . He was awarded honorary doctorates from St . John ’ s University ( Pedagogy ) and Fordham University ( Rhetoric ) , and in 2007 , received St . John ’ s ’ Medal of Honor , the highest award that the university can confer on a graduate . St . John ' s University annually awards the Sheppard Trophy , one of its highest awards , to the most outstanding student - athlete . In 2008 , the Yankees ' captain and 12 - time All - Star Derek Jeter asked Sheppard to record his at - bat introductions . The recordings have been used to introduce each of Jeter ' s home at - bats since the beginning of the 2008 season , and will continue to do so for the rest of his Yankee career . Sheppard was flattered : " It has been one of the greatest compliments I have received in my career of announcing . The fact that he wanted my voice every time he came to bat is a credit to his good judgment and my humility . " In 1998 Sheppard was presented with the prestigious William J . Slocum “ Long and Meritorious Service ” Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America , and the “ Pride of the Yankees ” award by the Yankees organization . Sheppard is one of only two people ever awarded both a World Series ring and a Super Bowl ring . The other was Bill King , the long - time radio play - by - play voice of the Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics , and another man famously secretive about his age . In 2000 , during his 50th year with the Yankees , Sheppard donated the microphone he used for a half - century of Yankee Stadium announcements to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown , New York . May 7 of that 50th year was designated " Bob Sheppard Day " , and a plaque honoring him was unveiled in Yankee Stadium ' s Monument Park . At the pre - game ceremony Walter Cronkite read the inscription , which states in part that his voice was " . . . as synonymous with Yankee Stadium as its copper facade and Monument Park . ” The media dining room in the new stadium is named “ Sheppard ’ s Place ” . The Yankees wore a Bob Sheppard commemorative patch on the left sleeve of their home and road jerseys for the remainder of the 2010 season . The Yankees ' first home game after Sheppard ' s death , a 5 - 4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on July 16 , 2010 , was played with an empty PA booth and no public address announcements . On November 16 , 2010 a resolution " commending Bob Sheppard for his long and respected career " was passed by voice vote in the United States House of Representatives . It was introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy from New York ' s 4th Congressional District , where Sheppard lived for 70 years . Private life . Sheppard was married twice . He had two sons , Paul and Chris ; and two daughters , Barbara and Mary ; four grandchildren ; and ( as of 2008 ) nine great - grandchildren . His first wife , Margaret , the mother of all four of his children , died in 1959 of a brain tumor . He and his second wife , Mary , were married from 1961 until his death . Sheppard was deeply religious , " . . . as strong in his Roman Catholic faith as anybody I knew , " wrote his longtime friend , George Vecsey . " [ In old age ] he hated to admit he could no longer serve as a lector . His faith never wavered in the trying days . His daughter [ Mary ] is a nun . He referred to [ his wife ] Mary as ' my archangel , ' meaning she saved his life , day by day . "