Bob Sheppard, Legendary Yankees Ballpark Announcer, Dies at 99

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The New York Times
Sun, July 11, 2010 -- 11:24 AM ET
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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.