The Voice of Yankee Stadium

Bob Sheppard, Legendary Yankees Ballpark Announcer, Dies at 99

Bob Sheppard, whose elegant intonation as the public-address announcer at Yankee Stadium for more than half a century personified the image of Yankee grandeur, died Sunday at his home in Baldwin, N.Y, according to The Associated Press. He was 99.

From the last days of DiMaggio through the primes of Mantle, Berra, Jackson and Jeter, Sheppard's precise, resonant, even Olympian elocution -- he was sometimes called the Voice of
God -- greeted Yankee fans with the words "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Yankee Stadium."

In an era of blaring stadium music, of public-address announcers styling themselves as entertainers and cheerleaders, Sheppard, a man with a passion for poetry and Shakespeare, shunned hyperbole.