NEW YORK – During his 18 years calling Seattle Mariners games, Dave Sims maintained his family residence here.
“We never left,’’ said Sims, whose ties to New York reach back decades – making his new play-by-play gig more than just a unique opportunity.
“This is like a dream job for him,’’ said Ed Coleman, Sims’ former WFAN co-host, as Sims moves into the Yankees’ radio booth following the retirement of legendary broadcaster John Sterling.
NFL, college and pro basketball games are part of Sims’ vast repertoire, too, yet “I always wanted to do baseball, but never thought I was going to get the Yankee job,’’ said Sims, hired in November.
“It was on the list, but it was out near Mars.’’
Dave Sims’ signature style
Sims, 71, arrives with his own signature style – including an excitable nature in the biggest moments.
“They didn’t bring me in to be a ventriloquist. What else am I going to do but do my thing?’’ Sims told The Record and NorthJersey.com, somewhat surprised at questions about whether he’d make any alterations to his Yankees broadcasts.
“If you’ve heard me on radio or TV, I have my own style,’’ said Sims. “John’s one of the all-timers, I’ve known him since the Nets moved to Jersey. He wasn’t trying to imitate anybody.
“He was himself and that’s what I’m going to do.’’
What you’ll get, as Mariners’ fans can attest – hearing Sims call the end of Seattle’s 20-year playoff drought in 2022 – rings authentic.
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“It’s not manufactured excitement. It’s real,’’ said Suzyn Waldman, Sims’ new radio broadcast partner, and a friend since their NBA coverage in the late ‘80s.
“Radio is the most personal of mediums,’’ said Waldman. “And fans know within two minutes whether you’re real or whether you’re just another guy.’’
Plus, “we cover games the same way because we both started as reporters,’’ said Waldman.
“Dave and I work both clubhouses every day, and that can only make the broadcast a lot richer because we see the same game. We see people, not stats.’’
Sims began in New York as a sportswriter, and in “seven years at Daily News, it was like getting my Masters’ Degree without a piece of paper.’’
Dave Sims’ New York homecoming
As a midday sports radio talk show team in the early ‘90s, Sims and Coleman have fond memories of their once-a-week broadcasts from Mickey Mantle’s since closed restaurant in Manhattan.
“We got along great, we had a lot of fun together,’’ said Coleman, though the show’s title foisted upon them – Coleman and the Soul Man – was something “neither of us particularly liked,’’ said Coleman.
“They used it as a marketing thing. We had no choice. We kind of joke about it,’’ said Coleman, retired and living in New Hampshire.
It wasn’t lost on Sims, who grew up in Philadelphia, and Coleman, a Bostonian, that they’d converged as sports hosts in New York, with a show Coleman said that was “a little more local’’ than most on WFAN, regularly featuring college basketball coaches and the like as guests.
But at Mantle’s, any entertainment, broadcasting or sports star might appear – and often did – including Willie Mays, Wilt Chamberlain, Joe Namath and The Mick himself.
Coleman regularly tossed his car keys to the parking attendant at the nearby St. Regis hotel, young Nick Turturro, on the cusp of a notable TV acting career.
“Those were good times,’’ said Sims. “I’ve worked with, like, 110 people, and Eddie’s an all-time great guy with a great sense of humor, knows his stuff and just has a great way about him.’’
Learning from broadcast legends
Like fellow broadcasters Marv Albert, Sam Rosen, Mike Breen, Bob Costas and Charley Steiner, to name but a few, Sims’ early career was influenced by sportscasting pioneer Marty Glickman, a New York legend.
During Sims’ time at NBC Sports, headed by Michael Weisman, Glickman coached promising young broadcasters in the art of play-by-play, and Sims became a Glickman protégé.
“On radio, he was such a stickler for details, (telling me to) ‘pretend like you’re broadcasting to someone who lost their sight,’ ’’ Sims said of Glickman’s demand to know minute details, with timely score updates.
That broadcast lineage is important to Sims, who recently – along with industry friends Marty Appel and Ed Randall – visited Bill White at his Bucks County, Pennsylvania, home.
On Yankees broadcasts from 1971 through 1988, White became the first African-American to regularly conduct play-by-play for a major league team, and Sims thanked him “for paving a path for me.’’
And when the moment is right, Sims pays an homage to White, 90, by saying: “Deep to left…’’ on a home run, echoing White’s call of Bucky Dent’s dramatic 1978 playoff home run at Fenway Park.
“Same tone and everything,’’ said Sims. “It was just so memorable, so classic, and so him.’’
All in with the Yankees
After hearing that Sims had landed the Yankees’ radio job, Coleman immediately phoned his former broadcast partner and said, “I think you’ve wanted this for a very long time.’
“Even though he’s a Philly guy, he became a part of New York,’’ said Coleman. “He’s always kind of wanted that gig, I felt, and it’s great to see it come to fruition.”
And there will already be a broadcast chemistry between Sims and Waldman, old friends who would frequently exchange texts during Yankees games, often before the Mariners would take the field.
After 20 seasons as Sterling’s on-air partner, Waldman, a Radio Hall of Famer and groundbreaking broadcaster, offers a reminder that Sims already “basically replaced a Hall of Famer’’ and broadcast legend in the late Dave Niehaus, who started with the Mariners from their inception.
In Seattle, Sims broadcast the end of Ichiro Suzuki’s Hall of Fame Mariners career, and experienced “King” Felix Hernandez’s elite prime, though Octobers were routinely empty.
Now with a perennial postseason threat, Sims likes how the Yankees have pivoted since Juan Soto’s free agent loss, adding Max Fried, Devin Williams, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt.
“I think the pieces are there,’’ Sims said of another run at the AL pennant. “It’s not like this is a total rebuild or anything. If you’re a Yankees fan, there’s a lot to be jacked about.’’
And at a critical moment, Sims’ voice will rise to fit the Yankees’ occasion – just as he did in Seattle.
“That’s how I roll, that’s what I do – I’m into it,’’ said Sims. “When I was with the Mariners, I wholeheartedly wanted them to win and end the damn (playoff) drought.
“I’m all in on the Yankees, and that’s the way it should be.’’
