Yankees radio announcer Dave Sims has no regrets about taking time off in May to see his son, despite his WFAN colleague’s dismay.
Sims, in his first year in the Yankees booth after replacing the retired John Sterling, responded to Boomer Esiason who criticized him for taking time off during the Yankees-A’s series, just over a month into his inaugural season covering the Bombers games.
“People in our business — in this line of business — take time off,” Sims remarked on the Awful Announcing podcast. Previously the Mariners’ TV play-by-play announcer for 18 years, he explained, “I have a son in Seattle. The three games I missed were in Sacramento. If you check the schedules of almost every broadcaster in the major leagues, they take time off. It’s not like I took time off on Labor Day in the middle of a pennant race. It was May — nearly mid-May — and I wanted to see my son. It was our only trip out west, and we had some things to bring to him, etc. I wasn’t going to make my wife handle that alone.
“The radio station was supportive, saying, ‘Fine, you have a certain number of days off. If those are the days you want to take, go ahead. We’ll cover for you. Have a safe trip.’”
Esiason was in disbelief that Sims, 72, would take a series off at the time.
“I’ve worked with Dave, great guy,” Esiason said on the “Boomer and Gio” show on May 12. “We love Dave Sims, but I’m gonna call it out as I see it. You just got started as the Yankee announcer, and he’s 40 games into his career as the Yankee announcer, and he decided to take off.”
There is “plenty of time in the offseason” to be with family and friends, Esiason went on.
“What are you doing? You just took the Yankee job! It’s supposed to be the job of your life,” Esiason said. “If he had been here as long as John Sterling had been here — if John wanted to take a weekend off later on in his career, totally acceptable.”
Esiason and his radio partner, Gregg Giannotti, were out last week on vacation.
