By Zack Richner
For 52 years, Sheppard has been the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium. It is his resonant voice that introduces each batter as they stride towards the plate; it is that voice that reverberates across a half-century of Yankee history.
Though his voice is known to Yankee fans around the world, Sheppard can be found right here in Baldwin.
Robert Leo Sheppard grew up in Queens rooting for the New York Giants. An intelligent and athletic young man, Sheppard attended St. John's University, where he played first base for the varsity baseball team and quarterbacked the varsity football team for four years, missing only one game, due to the death of his father.
It was at St. John's that Sheppard realized his love for speech and sports and knew that he wanted to continue with his two passions.
After graduating, Sheppard became a semi-pro quarterback, but it was speech that he returned to. With a master's degree and two honorary doctorates in speech, Sheppard became a professor of speech at his alma mater.
In the late 1940s, Sheppard volunteered to do the public address announcing for a charity football game at Freeport Stadium. The game was between two All-America Conference teams, the New York Yankees football team and the Chicago Rockets.
At that time, many baseball teams also owned football teams of the same name. After the game, Sheppard learned of an opening as public address announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers football team. Sheppard went for an interview and was hired on the spot -- it turned out that the interviewer had been at the charity game in Freeport and heard him at work.
Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Dodgers football team folded after that season. It didn't take long, however, before the other football team in town, the New York Yankees, approached Sheppard to do their announcing. Sheppard took the job, and before long was asked to do Yankee baseball.
Sheppard declined the offer in 1950, because his teaching schedule would not permit his attendance at most of the games. A year later, the Yankees made him an offer he could not refuse: Sheppard could do as many games as his schedule allowed, as long as he provided someone to do the games he could not attend. Sheppard agreed to take the part-time job on a temporary basis. And so in 1951 began a new era in the life of Bob Sheppard and New York Yankee baseball.
Around this time, Sheppard moved to a small house in Baldwin. He recalls how quiet Long Island was back then. As the Sheppard's family grew to two sons and two daughters, the Sheppards moved to a bigger house in Baldwin, where he and his wife continue to live in to this day.
Sheppard has become a fixture at Yankee Stadium, a tremendous part of the climatic experience.
"I follow a pattern that has become rather closely associated with my name," said Sheppard.
This distinct pattern has been instilled into the hearts of Yankee fans throughout the world. His method never falters -- not even during game seven of a World Series -- which makes Sheppard's style so effective.
Sheppard prides himself on "the three 'C'" -- clear, concise, and correct. Although in 52 years, mess-ups are bound to happen.
"The night that the Giants Stadium was opening," recalls Sheppard, "I had done a baseball game in the afternoon at Yankee Stadium. And when the baseball game had ended, I jumped in my car, and went over to the new Giants Stadium. Seventy-seven-thousand people present, and at the right time I said to the people there, 'Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Yankee Stadium.' There was gentle laughter in the crowd."
But who came before Sheppard?
"Nobody knows," he said. "It's a question that has been asked a million times. What I think happened was somebody would do it for a year and drop out, somebody would do it for a year and drop out, there was no continuity. And that's typical of many, many, big league teams. Public Address announcers rarely, rarely stay any length of time."
"I probably have lasted longer than anybody in the history of baseball," Sheppard continued. "In the time, for example, that the New York Mets were founded until today, they probably have had 10 or 15 public address announcers."
Sheppard sites three main reasons for this: The job doesn't pay well, it is a part-time job, but it has a very demanding schedule. Yet at Yankee Stadium, the same man has become engraved into the Yankee legacy. His voice is as much a part of Yankee Stadium as the facade that graces the top.
Not only does he do Yankee games, Sheppard also announces New York Giant football games and, up until his retirement as a teacher at Saint John's three years ago, announced SJU basketball and football as well. He has been doing New York Giant games for 47 years and says he loves doing baseball and football games equally.
"The Yankees are perfect in the summer," said Sheppard. "The Giants are perfect in the winter." But he concedes that the energy of a World Series game can not be beat.
Sheppard estimates that he has announced between four and five thousand games, and has thousands of memories. Choosing the most memorable from such a long career can prove daunting, but Sheppard recalls Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Reggie Jackson's three-home run game in the 1977 playoffs, Roger Maris's 61st home run, Mickey Mantle's home run that almost cleared the roof, and the 1958 championship game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts as the gems in history that he has witnessed.
Sheppard has watched many hall-of-famers grace the field, but he has not the slightest hesitation before proclaiming Joe DiMaggio as the best player he has ever seen. "DiMaggio was marvelous, magnificent, smooth," reminisced Sheppard.
He would not dispute, however, that Ted Williams was the best hitter of all time, but still thinks that DiMaggio was the better overall player.
"I think that DiMaggio was a better defensive player than Ted. DiMaggio might have been a better baserunner than Ted. I think DiMaggio came through in the clutch a great deal. I'm not sure he did it more than Ted. They are two icons. It's like choosing chocolate ice cream and strawberry ice cream," he said.
Aside from DiMaggio, Sheppard says the most intriguing to watch was Mickey Mantle.
"For power and speed and versatility, he had a lot of drama to him. Mickey was explosive," he said.
Another, more infamous, personality also adorns Sheppard's list. "Billy Martin, I guess, was the most tempestuous as a human being, as a player, as a manager. I loved Billy," he said.
Nevertheless, Sheppard believes that the teams today are better. "The players are bigger, are stronger, are faster," he said.
When not at the Stadium, Sheppard loves going to Point Lookout to walk the beach and swim in the ocean. Sheppard occasionally watches Yankee games on television, but like so many other Long Islanders, he does not get the YES network.
Sheppard and his wife are very involved at St. Christopher's Parish on Merrick Road. There, the couple are regular lectors at daily mass.
Even after thousands of games, seeing history in the making on a daily basis still propels him to work, full of suspense, not knowing what sensational play or incomprehensible highlight he will see.
"I never get tired of looking at baseball," said Sheppard, "It's still exciting to me after 52 years."
