Although it had already been pretty clear, Bob Sheppard recently officially announced he is not coming back. Sheppard told Bryan Hoch, “I have no plans of coming back. Time has passed me by, I think. I had a good run for it. I enjoyed doing what I did. I don’t think, at my age, I’m going to suddenly regain the stamina that is really needed if you do the job and do it well.” He certainly had a good run for it. The first game he announced at Yankee Stadium was on April 17, 1951. He announced every game from that day until 2007, when he fell ill. That’s about 4,500 games, pretty impressive. Well, he sure had a great career, and he definitely deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. I hope he continues to recover from his sickness, and hopefully he can enjoy what is left of his life. It would also be great if he could visit the new stadium for a day, and the Yankees could hold a “Bob Sheppard Appreciation Day”, even though they did that back in 2000. Anyway, I wish all the best for Mr. Sheppard and I’m really going to miss hear his voice. Here’s a video from the tribute in 2000:
161st Street 
Bob Sheppard Your angelic, eloquent sound will recall with in our hearts forever and a day as it did all those yrs in the Cathedral of baseball game : http://electricitymonitorblog.com