On Monday, Feb. 3, Pizza with the Pros kicked off the spring semester by welcoming a newly named Radio Play-by-Play Broadcaster for the New York Yankees, Dave Sims.

Sims attended Chestnut Hill Academy and Bethany College in West Virginia. At Bethany, Sims majored in mass communications, while also spending one year as the kickoff returner for the football team and catcher for the baseball team.

Before becoming the play-by-play announcer he is today, Sims started off his career touching different aspects of the sports world, writing for the New York Daily News and reporting for Satellite News Channel in the early 1980s. Sims would go on to replace Jack Spector as the host of WNBC’s SportsNight from 1986-88, also covering track and field for the network’s telecast of the 1988 Summer Olympics.

After working his way up, Sims would finally get his chance as a play-by-play announcer, being named the radio voice of the Temple Owls football team from 1990-1992. During that period, Sims also joined ESPN, but this time as a TV play-by-play announcer for college basketball, while also providing occasional play-by-play for the MLB. Sims announced college basketball for 16 years at Westwood One and has broadcasted games for FOX and FS1 since 2016. 

He has also had his fair share of announcing big football games, announcing the Big East Conference game of the week from 1993-1994 and 1998-2007, while also replacing Joel Meyers as the Sunday Night Football play-by-play announcer from 2006-2012, largely due to his success as Westwood One’s broadcaster for Sunday afternoon doubleheaders. 

However, fans will remember Sims mostly for his work in the MLB. In 2007, Sims would return to baseball full-time as a member of the Seattle Mariners television broadcast. He is one of the few African-American broadcasters in the history of the sport. 

During his career in Seattle, he became the first broadcaster to call two perfect games in the same season, but his most notable moment came a couple of years ago when he perfectly executed his call on Cal Raleigh’s postseason-clinching walk-off home run that sent the Mariners to the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

Sims’ broadcasting career in Seattle would come to an end on Nov. 14, 2024, when he was hired by WFAN to replace John Sterling as the radio voice of one of the greatest franchises in sports, the New York Yankees.

One student asked Sims if he asked Sterling for any advice after receiving his role with the Yankees.

“I know this is going to come off cocky, but I don’t mean it to be cocky, but I didn’t think I needed to get advice from John Sterling,” Sims said. “Three times I was the Washington State Sportscaster of the Year, so I’m not afraid of this. I know John, I’ve known John since 1977, he has his style, I have my style.”

The Philadelphia native already had ties to New York before being named the new radio voice of the Yankees, being the radio host for the New York Knicks, co-hosting the midday show on New York’s Sports Radio 66 WFAN, and sports anchoring on the weekends at WCBS-TV in New York.

Taking after the great John Sterling is a tough task for anyone, but based on the level of confidence that Sims showed in himself today at Rowan proved more than enough to students that he’s ready not only to take the role, but embrace it. 

Next week, Pizza with the Pros will welcome the Director of Social Media for Rush Order Tees and Sports Content Creator Jordyn Erad-Coupe. 

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