As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Montgomery to debut:
Left-hander Jordan Montgomery is slated to make the first start of his Diamondbacks career tonight after two starts at the Triple-A level to help the southpaw build up after he missed Spring Training while lingering on the free agent market. Montgomery will take the ball opposite fellow late-signing lefty Blake Snell and the Giants in San Francisco, with first pitch scheduled for 7:15pm local time. The lefty is already on the 40-man roster, but Arizona will have to make a corresponding move to clear space for Montgomery on the active roster before tonight’s game.
The 31-year-old enjoyed an excellent season with the Cardinals and Rangers last year, pitching to a 3.20 ERA in 32 regular season starts before going on to post a 2.90 ERA with Texas in the postseason en route to the first World Series championship in franchise history. Now with the Diamondbacks on a short-term deal, Montgomery will look to avoid the slow starts to the season other late signers such as Snell (12.86 ERA), Cody Bellinger (75 wRC+), and Matt Chapman (82 wRC+) have suffered so far this season.
2. Verlander to be activated:
Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander has been sidelined to this point in the 2024 season amid nagging shoulder fatigue that cost him virtually all of Spring Training. The veteran righty has since made two rehab starts in the minor leagues and built up to 78 pitches, which was enough for the Astros to decide he was ready to make his season debut tonight against the Nationals in D.C. opposite young lefty MacKenzie Gore. Verlander, 41, took a bit of a step back last year from the dominant form he had shown since first joining Houston in 2017 but was still a well above average starter, posting a 3.22 ERA (130 ERA+) and 3.86 FIP in 27 starts between the Mets and Astros. The 510th start of Verlander’s illustrious career is expected to begin at 6:45pm local time this evening.
3. Yankees broadcaster to be honored:
John Sterling has been the radio voice of the Yankees since first joining the club’s booth in 1989 more than three decades ago, but a press release from the club earlier this week announced that the longtime play-by-play man has retired after calling his final game earlier this month. The 85-year-old called more than 5,000 games for the Yankees in total and saw them make the postseason in 24 of his 36 years as the club’s radio voice, including their World Series championships in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009. Sterling will be recognized for his lengthy tenure in the Bronx tomorrow, prior to the Yankees 1:05pm local time game against the Rays.
“I am a very blessed human being,” Sterling said in a statement earlier this week. “I have been able to do what I wanted, broadcasting for 64 years. As a little boy growing up in New York as a Yankees fan, I was able to broadcast the Yankees for 36 years. It’s all to my benefit, and I leave very, very happy. I look forward to seeing everyone again on Saturday.”
was there any word on why sterling retired so abruptly? I know he’s old but I’m just hoping nothing bad happened that he had to quit on the spot
He said it wasn’t health related. I think he was going to try one more year and just didn’t feel up to it.
Joe – Could have been an involuntary retirement, you know how that goes.
I will always remember him for calling Larry Bird’s 60-point game, he did a great job with it.
I seriously don’t think anyone but him decided this… he was still the best
No
If the Yankees make the postseason, which that looks very realistic, he should come back for that playoff run.
Yeah but why retire so early in the season? It has to be health related. Otherwise he wouldn’t have even started the season.
There have been signs and it’s a grind. He already was committed to not doing a full slate. Regardless, he deserves to make the decision so he can enjoy the rest of his life. As a Sox fan, I sometimes laughed at his ‘mistake calls, cringed at his “Yankees Win, Yankees Win” end of games call but overall believe fans are blessed to have long term stability in the booth. The Sox TV crew is missing a lot without Remy and Eckersley. I like Yukie but he’s a work in progress.
The Sox need Kevin Millar full time in the booth. Youkilis is just so dry to listen to and has no personality.
dewey – I go back to the days of Curt Gowdy, Ned Martin, the Hawk and Bob Montgomery. The one that really bothers me is how John Henry and Tom Werner treated Don in forcing him out.
I miss Remy too, but not as much. Maybe it was because of his son, but for many years he just seemed kinda miserable.
Eck will always be my #1, his enthusiasm and knowledge and colorfulness was a perfect combination. Kinda like a more intelligent and knowledgeable Millar.
Sterling was an entertainer. Even Yankee fans would cringe at some of his home run calls, but we always wanted to hear what he came up with next. It was a love/hate affair, with an emphasis more on the former. The sports talk radio shows would play them, the national TV programs would play them. He understood the theatrical element. You could love them, you could hate them, but you couldn’t ignore them. He knew that.
Sterling for most of his career was a good play-by-play man, but about a decade back his skills in that area took a step down. Was it a vision problem? Was he not quite as focused as he was when he was younger? Not sure. He also used to set up the perfect HR calls for replay, which would lead to those funny mistakes. It’s high, it’s far, it’s….caught at the fence.
The next Yankee radio announcer will be blandly professional. Sterling was unique at a time when all announcers seem the same. His exit was perhaps overdue, but he will also leave behind a legacy and a void that won’t be replaced.
Millar is great but will never commit. Yukie can and will get better.
Fever, agree with nearly everything you said. Monte was underrated and I also liked in the radio booth Tripiano. My favorite radio team was only one year, Martin and Jim Woods.
Rob – His replacement is supposed to be Emmanuel Berbari.
Any Yankee fans have knowledge of the guy? Is he good?
dewey – I totally agree with everything you said! Millar is perfect and happy with his MLB TV gig, and Youk will become more colorful as he gets more comfortable.
dewey – Monty and Martin put me to sleep.
I don’t remember Woods at all.
Millar is horrible. That guy is as dumb as a rock.
Oh my …. I meant to write “Millar is perfectly happy” ….. sheesh, and I’m not even drinking yet ….
Fever, It was only one year that Woods did the radio with Martin but it was magic. Not great story telling. Just two pros at the top of their game working together. As for Monte, I was mad when Remy replaced him (who knew Remy would be the best color man ever to call Fenway his home?).
Agree to disagree. He makes laugh every game he’s in the booth.
He is just too old. He can’t handle all the exponent and strain of calling a game then traveling. The guy is closer to 90 years old than 80 lol he needs to do nothing for a few years go to a few games & and maybe call a post season game here & there. But that’s gonna be it. & play some golf.
178 – If he calls another game, they need to install a protective shield in front of him after what happened last year.
Yes but didn’t he know that a month ago? Why the sudden realization? It doesn’t smell right.
Man you are really worked up over this. Maybe its a personal reason that is no one’s business.
Sterling had his schedule cut back in recent years cos WFAN, key station for Yankees radio, was getting complaints from affiliates about his blown and fudged calls. There are social media accounts that chronicled his on-air mistakes.
Source?
They cut his radio time down because he didn’t typically travel with the team. None of this crap you are spewing is correct at all
I suspect he realized he just wasn’t up to the 162-game schedule. He had been scaling back as is. He’s 86. He may not have a significant health issue, but at that age simply moving about brings aches and pains and other issues.
I worked with John many a year back. Nice guy. Loves baseball and the Yankees. I think after broadcasting for 60+ years he’s simply tired and wants to stand down and wasn’t going to mail it in.
I ache and I’m in my 40s!
I read he had intended this to be his last season. He likely got a couple weeks into the season and he realized he wasn’t up to doing this for the next six months.
I have it on good authority that the pain he couldn’t stand anymore was having to watch Gleyber’s fielding!
After Torres’ 3rd booted ball he quipped, “I can’t stand this amateur hour – I’m out. That’s retirement Susan…”
Nothing bad happen. He woke up one morning and wasn’t feeling it anymore. The Yankees were expecting him to quit at a moment’s notice and he has more than earned that right.
Sterling was a big part of my childhood when I would stealthily listen to games on my Walkman after my parents sent me off to bed on school nights. Game times started at 7:35/8pm back then. The extra innings games running past midnight were a struggle. lol
Am I the only one that finds Monty facing Snell in Monty’s first game a perfect alignment of the stars. How ironic.
And is anybody surprised at the bad starts for all of the Boras Five that have played so far. Not only did they get screwed out of much bigger contracts, they will likely have seasons that aren’t nearly as good as last year because of the missed ST.
Hopefully Boras has finally learned his lesson and will stop the stall tactics. .
Way too early to assume they’re gonna have bad years
Fraham – I’m not assuming, I wrote likely. They will probably regain their form at some point in the season, but the bad starts will make it a lot harder to have final numbers on the same level as last year.
“Way too early to assume they’re gonna have bad years”…Maybe not, because there’s years of data on guys that sign late and it’s rarely good. They either get injured or perform poorly 90% of the time. Snell’s ERA is near 13 and Scott Boras’ palatial backyard pitching/batting simulator is no substitute for a real spring training.
Whatever you do bet the over tonight. Ahahaha!
Exactly what I was thinking! Great minds and all that…
Battle if the Borii!
Michael Key should go to the radio,,he is boring on TV,,,like a funeral silence
Sterling was great. Very unique style (particularly the HR calls), but as a fan of the Yankees, he was alive for 21 World Series Championships. Not many people who walked the Earth will ever be able to say that.
Best wishes to him and his family.
Clip – I think his best quality is his pipes, he’s got a great voice. He was a great basketball announcer too.
I guess you loved his singing show tunes every time a Yankee hit a HR too.
Dodger – It was entertaining, yes.
The part I could do without was the premature adulation when he called a homerun that was just a fly ball out well before the warning track.
And the “Yankees win” chant at the end, that too.
“Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!”
Ryan Ruocco would have been a phenomenal replacement but his schedule is already chaotic.
To the MLBTR staff/management,
Is there a glitch with the system? I’m not seeing notifications of replies, even if I refresh but users are replying and thumbs-uping some of my posts. If I click on the bell, it will show new replies but the actual notification isn’t lit up.
Also, noticing that my user image doesn’t seem to appear anymore, even though I check my profile and it’s there. I push save at the profile page and it appears in the posts again. Weird…
Old York yyour user image is up as far as it goes for others seeing it. I’ve had a problem recently with my image not showing up when I comment but if I leave and come back to it it comes up.
My biggest issue lately is that the text from the article is larger than the comment section unless I turn my phone sideways and turn it back.
Having the same issues. My user image does not appear to me, but I can see everyone elses.
Hope Montgomery has better luck than Snell, Bellinger and Chapman to date. Also hope Montgomery doesn’t take Nelson’s spot on the roster after Nelson got hit by a batted ball in last night’s game. He appeared to be in a great deal of pain. The Dbacks had few injuries last year, but have run into some bad injury luck so far in ’24.
Good
Sterling and Waldman worst announcers in the league.
I used to listen to the game on the radio with the volume turned all the way down.
I never seemed to know what was going on.
The world needs to know what aroldis said
So glad Sterling is calling it quits. His ‘Th-aaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa Yankees win’ comments sound like a goat who got caught on an electric fence. If only Christopher Russo would follow suit.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand what are you complaining about?
There’s a great announcer that nobody hears and that is Ken Korach of the A’s. Great voice, superb home run call and tremendous knowledge of the game and it’s history and future.
Giant – Did he do a play-by-play of that couple by themselves in the left field upper deck?
“Her first pitch is a spitball.”
Hilarious! I haven’t heard that one. I have only been listening to him for a few years. He might be the best.
Did Montgomery not drop Boras as his agent last week?
Compo – Yes he dropped him very quickly.
Sterling and his iconic calls will be greatly missed. I hope that this is not for health reasons, but at 85 and after 30 years with the Yankees he deserves to retire when he wants.