David Sims (born February 14, 1953) is an American sportscaster. He is the radio

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

commentator for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He was previously the television play-by play commentator for MLB's

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

. Sims was the 2018, 2019 and 2020

National Sports Media Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports journalism, sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the Inte ...

's Washington state Sportscaster of the Year. He is the former co-host (with

Mike Krzyzewski Michael William Krzyzewski ( , ; born February 13, 1947), nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980–81 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team, 1980 to 2021� ...

) of ''Basketball and Beyond with Coach K'' on

Sirius XM Satellite Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger ...

Early life

Sims grew up in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He attended Chestnut Hill Academy, where he was co-captain of the baseball team his senior season. He then attended Bethany College in

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

. At Bethany, Sims played one year of Division III varsity football, finishing third in kickoff returns in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, and played

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

for the Bison baseball team. He majored in

mass communications Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large population segments. It utilizes various forms of media as technology has made the dissemination of information more efficient. Primary examples o ...

Career

Sims began his career as a sportswriter for the ''

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

''. In the early 1980s he was a sports reporter for the short lived " Satellite News Channel". Moving to radio, Sims became the host of WNBC's ''SportsNight'' (1986–1988) (replacing

Jack Spector Jack Spector (September 15, 1928 – March 8, 1994) was an American radio disc jockey and TV host, particularly known for his work in New York City during the Swinging Sixties, 1960s "rock radio" era. Career 1955-1969 Spector began his rad ...

), a five-hour nightly sports call-in show that was a precursor to the all-sports talk format of

WFAN WFAN may refer to: * WFAN (AM) WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, with a sports radio format, branded "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New Y ...

. He was hired by

Michael Weisman Michael Paul Weisman (born January 13, 1950) is an American television producer, specializing in sports, news and entertainment programs. Early life Michael Weisman was born in Queens, NY, the middle of three children to Edward, who was a public ...

as a reporter covering

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

' telecast of the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

. He went on to cohost the midday show with Ed Coleman on

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

's Sports Radio 66 WFAN, Sept. 1989-Feb. 1993. He then became a weekend sports anchor at

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS New York, is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–lic ...

(1995–1998) and also was a radio host for the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

(1986–1993). Sims' play-by-play announcing career began (1990–1992) as the radio voice of

Temple Owls football The Temple Owls football team represents Temple University in the sport of college football. The Temple Owls compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). They play thei ...

in the

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

. Moving to TV, Sims was the TV voice of the Big East Conference football game of the week (1993–1994) and then again (1998–2007). In

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

, Sims joined

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

as a play-by-play announcer for

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

, and added

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. He primarily called Big East contests on the ESPN Plus regional network. He continues to broadcast college basketball games for

FOX Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

and FS1 beginning in 2016. Sims was the #2 broadcaster for

NFL on Westwood One Sports ''The NFL on Westwood One Sports'' is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League (NFL). These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada (the latter through ...

's Sunday afternoon doubleheader before taking the permanent play-by-play position on '' Sunday Night Football''. He replaced Joel Meyers on the ''Sunday Night Football'' game in 2006. Sims worked "Sunday Night Football" games from 2006 to 2012. From 2013 to 2014, Sims returned to Sunday Afternoon NFL action while working with former NFL quarterback

Mark Malone Mark M. Malone (born November 22, 1958) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils football, A ...

. In addition to ''Sunday Night Football'', Sims also called college basketball for Westwood One (1998–2014) with his most notable call to date being the George Mason-UConn regional final in 2006 (where #11 seed George Mason upset top-seed Connecticut to become the second #11 seed in history to reach the

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

). While working in other sports, he occasionally provided

play-by-play for

(1993–1994) and did an internet radio show for MLB.com (1999–2000). In , he took the opportunity to return to baseball full-time as part of the

television broadcast. Sims is one of the few African-American broadcasters in the history of the sport. His broadcast partner was former Mariners third baseman Mike Blowers. In 2009, Sims served as the television play-by-play host for the UFL on Versus. Sims was the broadcaster on

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

on April 21, 2012, describing Philip Humber's perfect game. However, the game was broadcast in its entirety only in the Chicago and Seattle markets, because the rest of the country heard

Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster for ESPN. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck, he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for Fox's Nati ...

and

Tim McCarver James Timothy McCarver (October 16, 1941 – February 16, 2023) was an American professional baseball catcher, television sports commentator, and singer. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1959 to 1980 for four teams, spending almost ...

call a game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Because the game was broadcast on FOX in both markets, Sims had to call the game from a neutral standpoint as a broadcaster and not as the usual Mariners broadcaster, even though his team lost to a perfect game. Just four months after calling Humber's perfect game,

Félix Hernández Félix Abraham Hernández García (born April 8, 1986), nicknamed "King Félix", is a Venezuelan-American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners from 2005 through 2019. Hernánd ...

threw the first perfect game in Mariners' history. Sims called the game for Root Sports in Seattle. This is the first time that one broadcaster has called two perfect games in the same Major League Baseball season. After the 2024 season, Sims was hired by

to be the radio play-by-play announcer for the

, succeeding John Sterling.

Notable catchphrases

Sims is noted for using the following

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

s on Mariner broadcasts: *"Giddy up! Baby! Giddy up!"- used on exciting plays and also used on balls that may go over the fence for a home run. *"Bye-Bye!" - Home Run. *"Boomstick Baby!"- used whenever

Nelson Cruz Nelson Ramón Cruz Martínez (born July 1, 1980), nicknamed "Boomstick", is a Dominican-American former professional baseball designated hitter and right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Ranger ...

hit a home run. *"Holy Mackerel"/"How about that?"- used for exciting plays. *”Bro-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-ther.” - used after a particularly dispiriting loss or play. *”Hey Now!”- used after exciting game changing plays. *”Got him!” After a pitcher strikes out an opposing batter. Sims is a staunch believer in letting his audience know when a pitcher is working on a no-hitter. "I have to tell the audience what’s going on…if a guy’s throwing a no-no, I have to report it."

References

External links

*
DingoTalk interview with Carlo Guadagnino
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Dave Living people 1953 births 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people African-American sports announcers African-American sports journalists American sports journalists American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Bethany College (West Virginia) alumni Bethany Bison baseball players Bethany Bison football players College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters NFL announcers NBA broadcasters New York Knicks announcers Seattle Mariners announcers Sportswriters from New York (state) Sportswriters from Pennsylvania Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcers Television anchors from New York City Television personalities from Philadelphia Temple Owls football announcers United Football League broadcasters