Stepping into the shoes of a legend is never easy, especially for one of the most storied franchises in all of sports. Public address announcer Paul Olden did just that, taking over for one of baseball’s most revered voices as the Yankees opened their new $2.3 billion ballpark back in 2009.
The late Bob Sheppard was as much a part of New York lore as the megastars he introduced for more than a half-century, his dulcet tones as synonymous with midsummer Bronx nights as open fire hydrants and ice cream trucks. On the heels of wrapping up his tenth season behind the mic, Olden reflected on how this high-profile position came to be and what it was like replacing the man nicknamed “The Voice of God.”
Year One
Expectations were high for the Bombers entering the ’09 season, with an expensive new home as well as big-ticket free agent signings that included $423-plus million in contract commitments to starting pitchers A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia along with first baseman Mark Teixeira. The action was limited on River Avenue during the season’s initial weeks, however.
“Oddly, the first month of the 2009 season was a lot of hurry up and wait,” Olden told Forbes during a recent interview. “We opened the ballpark in early April with exhibition games versus the Cubs, who were still managed by Yankee great Lou Piniella, and then we only had 7 or 8 (regular season) games at home that first month due to a quirk in scheduling.”
Things heated up quickly in May, with 16 home games on the schedule and the Yankees starting to show signs of what would eventually become a dream season.
The trio of superstar newcomers combined for 16 bWAR in their debut campaigns, each playing key roles in the club’s first championship since downing the crosstown Mets in 2000.
“2009 in its latter stages is a blur to me now. You never anticipate going all the way to the title because so many things have to fall into place,” Olden recalled. “One of the highlights was watching Derek Jeter become the all-time Yankees’ hits leader when he passed Lou Gehrig in mid-September.”
The other new face, the one manning the PA booth, got to share in the team’s success.
“The long and happy season didn’t end until November 4th when Hideki Matsui has that 6-RBI game versus the Phillies to help clinch the championship,” Olden said. “So I got an engraved World Series ring in my first year.”
Big Shoes to Fill
Olden’s voice was also a big part of the new Stadium experience, one noticeably different from what generations of fans had grown accustomed to. Sheppard debuted in April of 1951 on the same date as Mickey Mantle and worked his final game on Sept. 5, 2007, stepping aside due to a bronchial infection in a move that was supposed to be temporary.
In fact, Sheppard did not officially announce his retirement until after the ’09 season, passing away the following July at age 99. His fill-in for the remainder of ’07 and all of ’08 was Jim Hall, Sheppard’s longtime understudy whose delivery was so similar that many in attendance did not often notice a difference.
Former Yankees PR director Rick Cerrone even pinch-hit a few times over the years, the first instance in the middle of a Saturday game in 2000 as Sheppard dealt with a case of laryngitis.
“It was the FOX game of the week, and the person that was running the scoreboard, Mike Bonner, came over to me in my spot in the press box and said to me ‘Hey, you might have to step in for Mr. Sheppard’,” recalled Cerrone, who did a spot-on imitation of Sheppard that afternoon. “He might as well have said you need to bat third this inning, because that’s a daunting thing to do, the P.A… So I think I picked it up in like the fourth inning, and not only do I have to do the P.A., I’m doing it with Bob Sheppard sitting there with me, so you talk about a little pressure.”
When Olden took over it was a new sound in a new venue, albeit not drastically removed from Sheppard and Hall’s traditional approach.
“I’ve been very lucky in that my P.A. style was already much like Bob Sheppard’s delivery in that it’s no frills, no yelling or drawing out player names and the like,” Olden said. “I would say my style is conversational in that I strive not to sound like a stereotypical announcer.”
Another thing that helped him settle in was the encouragement he received from Sheppard himself.
“Well it, his blessing so to speak, didn’t come right off. It took a few weeks of him listening through the TV, since he never actually made it to the new Stadium in person, and getting feedback from people he knew,” Olden said of the man who announced the likes of DiMaggio, Mantle and Jackson, to name a few. “We’d talk on the phone about twice a month, just me calling to say hi, and he mentioned that he’d heard good things about my work and was pleased his successor was getting good reviews.”
Although he wasn’t able to step foot in the new ballpark, Olden and Sheppard had crossed paths in the old building across the street years prior while he was part of an Emmy award-winning Yankees broadcast crew, learning from a master at his craft over several pregame meals.
“At the old Yankee Stadium press dining room Bob had a favorite corner table where he held court with whomever joined him on a first come, first served basis,” Olden remembered. “I usually got down there early enough two to three times a week to join him.”
The media dining room at the new Stadium is named after Sheppard, and Olden can often be seen there chatting with others as his predecessor liked to do.
“Paul is a true professional. He does an oustanding job, and the Yankees are fortunate to have a P.A. announcer of that quality,” said Cerrone, now Editor-in-Chief of Baseball Digest and an adjunct professor at Iona College. “But one of the things that worked in his favor if there would be any backlash of the man who followed Bob Sheppard, is that they didn’t replace Bob with Paul. It wasn’t like ‘Hey, we’re going to move on.’… Paul did not have that situation because Bob could no longer do the games. The other advantage that Paul had was a completely new building. He’s the voice of that building. I think it would have been a little more difficult replacing Bob in the original Yankee Stadium.”
No Stranger to the Big Apple
Olden’s past history in New York, in particular covering the Yankees, also played a factor in his initial comfort level as well as that of the fans.
“I think it helped that I was already a known voice in the tri-state area having done Yankees TV games on WPIX with Phil Rizzuto and Bobby Murcer, and New York Jets radio play-by-play,” Olden said. “So despite being from Los Angeles I was very comfortable in New York and the fans and the newspapers and radio and TV critics already knew what I was about. So that, and the fact I had known Bob for many years, helped smooth the transition.”
It was that familiarity that led the Yankees to summon Olden in the first place, who at the time was working at a radio station in Los Angeles and received a call out of the blue from Bonner.
“It was a combination of Bonner remembering me on TV with Phil and Bobby and my long track record of working the Super Bowl and my general experience of working as a broadcaster for many years,” Olden said.
Working alongside those Yankees legends resulted in some fond memories for Olden.
“It was fun working with those two,” he reflected. “Bobby was the consummate pro with a fun, playful side to his personality. Phil also was great to work with and I took care to make sure he had the on-air space for Phil to be Phil.”
The one that stands out most took place in the Motor City, and involved the Hall of Fame shortstop saving Olden from a pesky bug in the booth.
“My most memorable moment with Phil came in Detroit at old Tiger Stadium where a bee flew into our booth while we were doing the game. I’m deathly fearful of bees and while I’m calling the play-by-play, I’m also swatting at the persistent bee,” Olden said. “Phil chimed in and got our director, John Moore, to get a shot of the booth antics. And while on camera, the bee landed on Phil’s side of the booth and he took his little paper bag filled with birthday and anniversary best wishes and he swung and smashed the bee, much to my delight.”
He added that Rizzuto later blamed him for attracting the bee in the first place, joking that Olden was wearing too much cologne.
P.A. Pedigree
Born in Chicago, Olden’s family moved to LA when he was four years old. Inspiration to get into broadcasting struck early, thanks to another baseball lifer also enshrined in Cooperstown.
“I was small for my age and not very athletic but I wanted to be involved in sports so I settled on being a play-by-play announcer,” Olden said. “At the urging of the late Dick Enberg, who was broadcasting Angels, Rams and UCLA basketball as I would later do, I bought myself a tape recorder (3-inch portable reel-to-reel) and started practicing announcing anything that moved.”
Olden spent so much time practicing his chops at USC’s Bovard Field that he was eventually offered the stadium P.A. job, his first foray into baseball public address announcing. As luck would have it, the University’s baseball coach at the time was the estimable Rod Dedeaux, a friend of former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck.
Veeck was looking for a “qualified black announcer” for his club at the time and Dedeaux recommended Olden for the gig, which led to an on-air audition with another broadcasting heavyweight.
“I did a couple of innings with Harry Caray and Lorn Brown in May of 1976,” Olden said. “Very nerve-wracking since I knew of Harry Caray and that was before he got really huge with the Cubs, but he was very accommodating and gave me a nice on-air buildup as I did my work. Turns out, the open job call eventually led to them changing their vision and they hired a controversial ex-player, Jimmy Piersall, instead of another basic play-by-play guy.”
Since then Olden has had quite a career, his voice heard over the airwaves and through stadium loadspeakers throughout the country.
“In baseball, aside from Mr. Sheppard, I often channel the vocal style of the former longtime Oakland Athletics P.A. man, Roy Steele, who has a deep, smooth, almost whimsical conversational style that I really liked,” Olden said. “I was lucky to hear many great P.A. stylists in my play-by-play career: Sherm Feller in Boston, Bob Casey in Minnesota, Rex Barney in Baltimore, Steele in Oakland and Bob Betts in Milwaukee.”
Olden served as P.A. announcer for a dozen straight Super Bowls, and was the play-by-play man for some historical milestones including Wade Boggs’ 3,000th hit with Tampa Bay.
“Another thrill was, while doing Jets radio play-by-play, guessing on-air that Miami quarterback Dan Marino was fooling the Jets into thinking he was going to spike a center snap and instead caught the Jets flat-footed and threw a TD pass in one of his patented comebacks in 1994. That was Pete Carroll’s last season as Jets coach.”
Root, Root, Root for the Home Team
Now that he’s no longer a broadcaster, Olden isn’t bound by the rules of objectivity and can actually cheer for the team that he works for.
“I’ve been a New York sports fan since childhood even though I’m from LA. It seemed every baseball movie or book was about a Yankees team or the Yankees played a major role in the storyline,” Olden said about his childhood fandom. “I liked the Knicks and Jets to the point of having their felt pennants on my bedroom walls, kind of a quirk that I’d end up announcing for two of those teams. I root for the Yankees to do well and when the P.A. mic is off, I’m cheering and yelling just like the fans!”
While he doesn’t allow himself to get too close to any of the players, Olden does have a favorite member of the current team when it comes to announcing his name – right fielder Aaron Judge, whose name and number is spoken with a little more emphasis than the rest of New York’s lineup.
“Rarely do I do anything special with name embellishments, but Judge is an accepted exception as long as it’s done at an appropriate time,” Olden said. “If the team is down 9-0 in the fifth inning I likely won’t crank up his number and name. But fans tell me they like the way I announce him.”
Future Plans
Entering his second decade as the voice of Yankee Stadium, Olden still keeps in regular contact with Sheppard’s widow, Mary, and makes sure her late husband is always in view while he’s working.
“I do indeed have a photo of Bob in the P.A. booth,” Olden said. “It’s a good reminder to strive to meet the standards he set.”
An avid runner who’s covered at least a mile for the last 700-plus days, the 64-year-old has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
He added: “I’m not sure if I’ll do 57 years as Bob did for the Yankees. I’ve done ten so far and at age 64 I’m in great shape so I’ll be around, if they’ll have me, for many more years to come.”
