Sims thanks pioneer for 'paving the path' for Black broadcasters

NEW YORK -- It had only been a day or so since Dave Sims had been officially named as the Yankees’ next radio voice, and amid a deluge of congratulatory phone calls and text messages sat an urgent request: you need to go to Philadelphia, shake Bill White’s hand, and thank him.

Sims immediately recognized the significance, responding, “You’re 100 percent right.” The meeting was swiftly scheduled and occurred in mid-January, when the Yankees’ second African American play-by-play voice visited the living room of the first.

“It was just great to see him,” Sims said in a telephone conversation. “He just turned 91. I told him, ‘You were the first Black guy that I saw do sports on TV. Thanks for paving the path for me.’ He said, ‘Get out of here, come on. You did it yourself.’

“I said, ‘No, I’ll tell you what, seeing you do that was certainly inspiration.’”

For fans of a certain age and background, White needs no introduction. A slugging first baseman and outfielder over an excellent 13-year big league career from 1956-69, mainly with the Cardinals and Phillies, White became a full-time sportscaster after his playing days.

Joining the Yankees’ broadcast team in 1971, White called the Bombers’ games on radio and television through 1988, where he was most frequently paired with Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer. White then served as the National League’s president from 1989 through 1994.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy,” said Sims, who believes White deserves a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This return to the East Coast represents a homecoming for Sims, who grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia and can recall seeing White and other greats in action at old Connie Mack Stadium, where he watched the likes of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson.

“I’d hear stories about Jackie Robinson,” Sims said. “At that time, my father was a child of the Depression and World War II. There was still Jim Crow in this country. I learned early on how big Jackie Robinson was to the Black community. My father, he and his boys would go up to the World Series games in 1947, ’49, ’52, ’53. I mean, I’ve been around sports all my life.”

Indeed, Sims said his first experiences with broadcasting involved calling his stickball games and lending his voice to countless tabletop Electric Football gridiron battles.

“My father took me to everything in Philly,” Sims said. “I grew up watching Jim Brown, [Sandy] Koufax, [Don] Drysdale, Bill White, all those guys in the ’60s. I had a real good idea that I wanted to do this, and I think it was confirmed around my sophomore year of high school: ‘Hey, you’re a really good athlete, but you’re probably not going to make it.’”

Not in cleats, perhaps, but fortunately there was another path. Sims’ ease in recalling long-gone legends and moments provides a glimpse into the institutional knowledge Mariners fans adored on their broadcasts over the past 18 seasons, which Sims will bring as Suzyn Waldman’s next partner, succeeding the retired John Sterling.

“It’s a wonderful choice,” Waldman said. “He is warm, he is funny. He knows baseball. We see people on the field, we come at the game the same way, and we’ve been friends for so long. He’s a great, great broadcaster. I’m so excited; I can’t wait to get going.”

Sims agrees that he and Waldman view baseball from a similar perspective.

“Suzyn and I see the game as a people game,” Sims said. “The stats are the stats, and they have their place. We’re not going to strangle people with every stat in the book. We’re going to be more like, ‘Why is this guy in a slump? Well, we talked to him today and he’s got X, Y, Z going on in his life.’

“There’s humanity in baseball, and it’s the best radio sport there is. I love the history of baseball, the history of the Yankees. There’s so much rich tradition. To be part of it, it’s been amazing.”

And the red light hasn’t even flipped on yet. When Sims introduces himself to the new audience this spring, he expects to feel the presence of those who came before him. He recently viewed footage of the 1952 World Series on YouTube, realizing he now resides in the same club as the broadcasters on that game, Red Barber and Mel Allen.

Already a few times since his hiring became official, Sims said he has asked his wife, Abby, “Did this really happen?”

“It’s been fabulous,” Sims said. “You get the Yankee job and you’re coming home, I mean, it’s a hell of a story. I hear other guys talk about, ‘Who would have thought I’d be the voice of this team or that team?’ Hey, when I was 8 years old, I wanted to be in this business, but I didn’t think I’d end up being a voice on radio. It’s a big deal, man.”