Bob Sheppard, the longtime public address announcer for the Yankees, is stepping away from the microphone for good.
I hope he enjoys whatever he decides to do, and while I'd guess that it would involve reading -- the man has devoured books in his lifetime the way Kobayashi eats hot dogs -- he could always find time for another of his talents, the 50-yard sprint.
On most game days in the four years I covered the Yankees, from 1998 to 2001, I would wind up at the back of the press box with Bob and Eddie Layton, the team's former organist, whenever a game was one out from its end. I usually filed the first draft of a game story with the editors at The New York Times by the top of the ninth inning, and because I wanted to make sure I was on the first elevator down to the basement level, I'd move from the front row of the press box to the back, closer to the door. Bob and Eddie always wanted to be on that elevator, too, because they wanted to beat the crowd out of Yankee Stadium.
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Buster Olney
