Many fans arrived early to mix and mingle at a special pregame reception on the deck in center field, and all attendees received a Fordham maroon quarter-zip sweatshirt with the Fordham and Yankees logos. 

Shackil said that he had been told earlier in the year to keep the weekend free to potentially fill in for the broadcast, but the news came as a surprise to Berbari.

“I was at WFAN about a month before just doing a regular shift, and I went to talk to one of my bosses—I thought it was going to be a five-minute-long catchup,” he said, laughing. “Then they asked me if I had ever been to Pittsburgh. … I walked out of it like, ‘Wow, I’m going to be doing the series with Justin.’”

From Mentee to Co-Broadcaster

While this was the first time the two teamed up for a broadcast, their relationship goes back to 2017, when Berbari was just a first-year student at WFUV, Fordham’s public media station, and he sent broadcasting tapes to Shackil for feedback.

“There’s a particular sort of pride that I’ve had watching him flourish in these roles at a young age,” Shackil said, “and then to share a booth that is at a really high level—it was really comfortable, because I’ve known about Emmanuel’s work, his cadence and rhythm, so there was no easing-in period. And we’re cut from the same cloth: WFUV.”

The WFUV Legacy

Both Shackil and Berbari said that their approach to calling games stems from Marty Glickman, the famous Knicks, Jets, and Giants broadcaster who became an advisor to WFUV Sports in the late 1980s. Glickman brought on Bob Ahrens, who became WFUV’s first full-time executive sports director and carried on his teachings.

“Consider the listener—that’s a Marty Glickman credo,” Berbari said. “I try to put myself in the seat of the one person that could be driving on the highway listening, and what do they need to know in this moment?”

Shackil said that he draws on lessons he learned from Ahrens.

“I’m really all about the fundamentals of describe, describe, describe, because our job is to inform and educate, and at the same time, entertain as best we can,” he said.

Working for the Yankees

Even when they’re not calling the games, both are involved with Yankees broadcasts. Shackil, who is the backup play-by-announcer, hosts the postgame show on the radio and fills in on the YES Network, in addition to calling boxing matches and hosting a podcast with legendary Yankees pitcher and announcer David Cone. Berbari fills in on the postgame when Shackil is calling the games, in addition to working on-air at WFAN and calling games for Siena College.

Both said that it’s been incredible to work with and learn from Sterling and Waldman.

“John, at 85 years of age, the energy stands out above everything—he’s so passionate,” Shackil said. “For Suzyn, she’s a Radio Hall of Famer, she’s a reporter at heart, she’s probably the best reporter in the Yankee sandbox—just the way she approaches the job is unmatched.”

Berbari and Shackil said that the opportunity to fill in for those legendary broadcasters—and work with each other—was an incredible experience.

“I kept thinking about how rare something like that is—not only getting to work with Justin—but I was thinking for us both in this booth, at the same time, at this level, what are the odds of that happening?” Berbari said.

More than 1,300 people joined the Fordham University Alumni Association at Yankee Stadium to watch the Twins squeak out a 4-3 victory over the Bronx Bombers on a night that began with a pregame reception for alumni at Yankee Tavern on 161st Street, continued with the distribution of special-edition, Fordham-branded Yankees jerseys inside the gate, and featured no shortage of Rams apparel and block Fs mixed in with the pinstripes and famous interlocking “NY” logo of the Yankees.

Some in the Fordham contingent were seated in right field, just below the Yankee Stadium “Judge’s Chambers” section and a baseball’s toss away from the super-slugging Aaron Judge himself. Among them was the University’s new president, Tania Tetlow, who attended with her husband and daughter and paid a pre-game visit to the press level, where she met with broadcasters Michael Kay FCRH ’82, and Justin Shackil, FCRH ’09, as well as Greg Colello, FCRH ’07, senior director of scoreboard and video production at Yankee Stadium.

“It’s clear that Fordham loyalty runs deep,” said Tetlow on the strong turnout from Fordham grads. “It’s so exciting to know how much Fordham alumni want to come together and to be at the other heart of the Bronx, Yankee Stadium.”

‘So Much Fordham Spirit Up in the Bronx’

It wasn’t Tetlow’s first game in the Bronx: She said her family had taken one in earlier in the summer, when they first arrived in New York. “We got our requisite gear and hats and started training our daughter, Lucy, on the joy of baseball,” she said. The family’s allegiances had been up for grabs because their former home, New Orleans, doesn’t have a big-league team. But Tetlow said their rooting interests are settled now: “We are fully committed to the Yankees.”

Fordham trustee Kim Bepler said she was excited that large groups could once again gather for “fantastic” events like this. “People want to be with people, and what’s better than going to Yankee Stadium?” she said. “And part of the joy of this is also accompanying our new president. So I get to see her cheer on the Yankees with her family.”

Samara Finn Holland, FCLC ’03, a member of the Fordham University Alumni Association Advisory Board, also praised the outing’s large turnout.

“I think it’s amazing,” she said. “It’s so great to see so much maroon and so much Fordham spirit up in the Bronx. And I think it’s really important as Fordham continues to unify all of its schools to have an event like this, where you have alumni from all the undergraduate colleges, as well as the graduate schools, all be able to come together and then celebrate.”

A Ram on the Mound, Camaraderie in the Stands

The Fordham grads in attendance got to see one of their own on the field: Greg Weissert, GABELLI ’18, who made his big-league debut on August 25, becoming the first Fordham grad to play for the Yankees since Johnny Murphy in 1946.

Weissert’s appearance in the Fordham Night game marked the seventh outing of his rookie season, in which he’s shown off deceptive sinkers and sliders, as well as a wicked two-seam fastball. A day after picking up a win with an efficient three-pitch outing to improve his record in relief to 3-0, Weissert entered in the eighth, giving up a home run that would prove to be the difference in the game.

But while the outcome of the game wasn’t what the Yankees fans in the Fordham group were hoping for, the night was about more than the result on the scoreboard.

Steve O’Dowd FCRH ’78, said he and his wife had been planning to come up to the New York area from the Jersey Shore for a wedding the weekend after the game. But when they heard about the alumni outing, they extended their trip (and added a pre-game detour to Arthur Avenue).

“I actually became a Yankees fan starting around the time I went to Fordham,” said O’Dowd. “Prior to that, I was a Mets fan, believe it or not. We’d cut classes and come to a lot of games. Thurman Munson was my hero; that’s why I have this number [15] on my jersey.”

Debbie Myllek, FCRH ’90, another former Mets fan who switched sides upon arriving at Fordham, said her family jumped at the opportunity to bring two generations of alumni to the event.

“We’re Yankee fans and massive Fordham fans,” she said. “My husband and I met at Fordham; I was a sportswriter on The Ram and he was my editor. Now both of our kids go to Fordham. For our friend group, we try to make sure we all sit in the same section, and now my son and his friend started doing the same. It’s really nice.”

—Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06

The fundraiser? An online auction, the third such event hosted by the Fordham College Alumni Association (FCAA), with a novel twist this year: celebrity alumni. Several offered virtual face time to the highest bidder, helping to propel the event far beyond its usual total.

The auction “gets bigger and better every year,” with all proceeds going toward scholarships and grants for students, said Debra Caruso Marrone, FCRH ’81, the association’s president.

It’s one of several events sponsored by the FCAA each year, complementing the broader efforts of the Fordham University Alumni Association, the Office of Alumni Relations, and other groups that serve students and the alumni community.

Founded in 1905, the FCAA is the University’s oldest alumni organization, and primarily serves Fordham College at Rose Hill students and alumni.

Contacting Celebrity Alumni

The idea of featuring celebrity alumni in December’s auction was driven in part by the pandemic, which put the kibosh on, say, auctioning off event tickets. “We really had to pivot,” said Christa Treitmeier-Meditz, FCRH ’85, who spearheaded the effort to reach out to various prominent alumni.

In the end, they were able to auction off a virtual comedy writing lesson with Saturday Night Live writer Streeter Seidell, FCRH ’05 (someone bought that for his wife, an aspiring comedy writer, Treitmeier-Meditz said). They also got help from some prominent alumni thespians: Golden Globe winner Dylan McDermott, FCLC ’83, contributed a virtual meet, and Golden Globe winner and former Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson, FCLC ’82, contributed a virtual master class and a post-pandemic in-person engagement—dinner out and tickets to the next Broadway show she appears in.

People also contributed various items, memorabilia, or experiences, such as a master cooking class or a trip around Manhattan by yacht. “It’s everything and anything,” Treitmeier-Meditz said. “The Fordham alumni community is very generous.”

Other planned events were canceled due to the pandemic lockdown last year: a sit-down for a dozen alumni with John Brennan, FCRH ’77, former CIA director and counterterrorism adviser to President Barack Obama, and an event with sportscasters Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, and Mike Breen, FCRH ’83.

Through such events, the association has raised money for various funds, including a summer internship fund for journalism majors, recently renamed for Jim Dwyer, FCRH ’79, the New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner who died in 2020. A new scholarship fund named for Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, is for students who reach new heights of academic achievement after arriving at the University.

The association provides other important support such as funding for undergraduate research and for student travel, noted Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “I’m so pleased to see how that support has grown over the past several years,” she said. “I am grateful for their commitment to the college, to our alumni, and to the larger Fordham family.”

The association’s Giving Day gift—a matching gift—was split between two scholarship funds: the FCAA Endowed Legacy Scholarship, a need-based scholarship for legacy students, and the Rev. George J. McMahon, S.J., Endowed Scholarship, awarded to students at Fordham College at Rose Hill and the Gabelli School of Business.

Serving on the board is a labor of love, Caruso Marrone said. “We’re doing something good: we’re raising funds, we’re helping students go through school,” in addition to bringing alumni together at events, she said. “The members of our board [are] of various age groups, various backgrounds, various careers, [and] we all come together and do this work and enjoy it immensely. We have just a great group of people who are dedicated to Fordham.”

But on Sunday, September 13, the Yankees made Vitalone’s dream come true, in a slightly different fashion. The team played a video of his rendition of the anthem for the players and coaches in attendance, as well as viewers watching the broadcast of the Yankees’ afternoon game against the Baltimore Orioles.

For Vitalone, a World War II veteran, developmental psychologist, and former coach and professor at William Paterson University, the inspiration to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Yankee Stadium came from a desire to honor a boyhood friend who was killed during that conflict.

“The reason for all this is the loss of my friend Joe [Romano] during World War II,” he told Jack Curry, FCRH ’86, on Curry’s show YES We’re Here on the YES Network last April. “This has been a lifelong dream to sing at the Yankee Stadium, but after Joe was killed, every time I heard ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ I thought of Joe automatically.”

Vitalone told Curry that the boys grew up together and bonded over their common love for baseball.

“I think it says so much about you that a person that you met when you were both altar boys in Yonkers as 12-year-olds, that all these years later—and it’s so unfortunate that Joe was lost more than 70 years ago—but yet, that bond was so strong that you still think about him, you still talk about him, and he still brings you such calm in your life,” Curry said.

Singing the anthem was the latest achievement for Vitalone, who besides his service and teaching record, has won numerous Senior Olympics medals. Vitalone credits being active with his ability to “stay young.”

“I realize that the thing that has been my saving grace has been my attitude towards activity, which is something I developed as a playground athlete when I was a kid,” Vitalone told Fordham News in 2014. “The thing is, the more active you are, the more you can delay the descending curve.”

Watch Vitalone sing the national anthem for the Yankees.

For this third annual Fordham Night at the stadium, the Fordham University Alumni Association worked with the Yankees to give the first 1,000 ticket-buyers a custom jersey with a Fordham patch on the sleeve.

Prior to the game, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham—and perhaps the University’s No. 1 Yankee fan (he once threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the stadium)—stopped by the YES Network broadcast booth. He provided Fordham hats to the announcers, including former Yankee Paul O’Neill, who was calling the game with Michael Kay, FCRH ’82. When Kay gave Fordham a shoutout and mentioned Father McShane during the broadcast, O’Neill remarked on his “nice new (maroon) golf hat,” and recalled going to a Fordham basketball game once at the “really cool” Rose Hill Gym.

Also in attendance was Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., the new dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, a native  New Yorker and longtime Yankee fan whose great-grandfather once staged a production of Verdi’s Aida at the original Yankee Stadium. In an update to an Instagram post celebrating the home team’s victory, she noted that one lucky fan, Patrick Mulvey, FCLC ’78, even caught a foul ball hit by Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner. “Truly a magical night!” she wrote.

[doptg id=”163″]Photos courtesy of Sally Benner, Barbara Ann Hall, Sara Hunt Munoz, and Bryan Zabala.

Jack Curry, FCRH ’86, arrived at Fordham as an undergraduate hoping to play college baseball. The Jersey City native had played at Hudson Catholic High School, but after one practice with the Fordham team, he realized he was in over his head. He signed up for The Ram and WFUV the next day.

Now, that experience as a student journalist provides the foundation for a major league media career. Since 2010, Curry has been an analyst for the New York Yankees on the YES Network. He’s also the co-author of two best-selling books with Yankee legends. He worked with Derek Jeter on The Life You Imagine: Life Lessons for Achieving Your Dreams (Crown, 2000), and his latest book, written with David Cone and published last month, is Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher (Grand Central).

Curry had been thinking about the project with Cone for close to 20 years, from the time when he was a Yankees beat writer and a national baseball correspondent for The New York Times. He wanted to write a book with a pitcher with a creative mind, one who could really explain the mentality needed to master the craft, and he thought Cone—whom his former teammate Paul O’Neill calls “as smart and gutsy as any pitcher I ever played behind,” and whom former pitcher and author Jim Abbott calls one “our generation’s finest and most clever pitchers”—was the perfect fit for the job.

While Cone may be best remembered for his perfect game with the Yankees in 1999—a feat that has only been accomplished 23 times over the course of Major League Baseball’s 144 years—Full Count is full of anecdotes and insights that highlight his place as one of his generation’s greats: a five-time All-Star, five-time World Series champion, and the 1994 Cy Young Award winner.

With the assistance of Curry, a four-time Emmy winner, Cone tells of his working-class upbringing in Kansas City and of the mental and physical demands of a 17-year baseball career. Of particular note are chapters in which Cone describes playing for the thrilling but hard-partying Mets teams in the late 1980s, the unique nonverbal conversations performed by pitchers and catchers to try to outsmart hitters, and being part of a dynastic Yankees team from 1995 through 2000.

Throughout Full Count, Cone and Curry weave a story of all that it takes to play baseball at a high level for as long as Cone did, from his brainy approach to facing batters—like staring in a certain way at his catcher instead of shaking his head to disapprove of suggested pitches, so as not to tip off the batter—to his off-the-field commitment to studying the game. Baseball fans will walk away from the book with a deeper understanding both of this particular player and of the science of pitching. From throwing off batters to finding ways to recreate a spitball without illegally adding moisture to the ball, there are many lessons to be learned for young players and fans of the game alike.

As Curry says, “Thanks to Coney’s insight in this book, I now have a doctorate in pitching.”

While his play-by-play work makes for an already-packed schedule, in the spring of 2017, he and Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia decided to act on an idea they had talked about many times over the years: starting a podcast together.

The two share an easy rapport and many of the same interests, and they knew from the start that they wanted the project to be less about debate and hot takes and more about candid, casual conversations with interesting guests.

The weekly podcast, R2C2 (a play on the hosts’ names and their mutual appreciation for Star Wars), has featured current and former Yankees, like Giancarlo Stanton and Reggie Jackson, and personalities across the sports landscape, like Terrell Owens, Mark Cuban, and Sue Bird.

“We think about who is interesting, is a good talker, who has cachet, and who we have some sort of relationship with,” Ruocco says of how he and Sabathia decide on their guests. “[CC] is the perfect candidate to be able to do something like this, because he creates an atmosphere that is so comfortable and fun for everyone, but he also has the respect of anybody who sits down with us.”

The hosts’ desire to create a relaxed environment where free-flowing conversation can thrive has clearly paid off. Whether the dialogue stays focused on sports or veers into pop culture, food, or politics, everyone on the mic opens up and seems to have a great time, often resulting in hilarious stories that sports fans wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to hear.

“One of the coolest parts is, almost every single guest that we have, when they get done, they’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so much fun, when can I do it again?’” says Ruocco. “It’s fun to [have]a loose format, to not feel so uptight, to be able to disseminate these stories to people in a way that’s just like, hey, we don’t need to be so formal. It’s life, let’s talk about it, you know?”

Ruocco traces his success back to his time at Fordham, where he, like so many other sports announcers, got his broadcasting start. His experience as a student working at WFUV under former executive sports producer Bob Ahrens, he says, made his career possible.

“It’s this simple,” Ruocco says. “If I did not go to Fordham and work at WFUV, I would not be here doing what I’m doing today. Period.”

As for the future of R2C2, Ruocco says he and Sabathia, who signed a final one-year contract last fall to finish his career with the Yankees, “are all in on” the show, and are even considering expanding into video.

“We love doing it, and we have no plans of stopping anytime soon.”

Does it feel odd to get a lifetime achievement award with, hopefully, a lot of career left?
Yes! I’m wondering if someone is trying to tell me something. A few days prior to the Scully Award, I was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame. I guess it’s a good thing to get them while I can still enjoy them.

Did you always know you wanted to go to Fordham and then become a sports broadcaster?
I knew I wanted to be a Yankees announcer since I was nine years old, and when my sister Debbie attended Fordham and told me about WFUV, I knew that it was the best place for me to pursue that dream. I actually wanted to be the Yankees first baseman, but I realized I couldn’t hit and didn’t enjoy getting hit by the baseball.

Are fears about the future of baseball overblown, or is the game actually in danger of losing its place as America’s pastime?
It’s not overblown. The game pace is too slow-moving. I love it the way it is, but I am not the future of the game. You have to capture young people who have come from a “microwave” society. They want things happening instantly, and baseball is not that. They need to figure out how to appeal to the younger audience while keeping the integrity of the game in place.

Why are there still so few female MLB announcers?
I wish I knew. I think sports is slow to change. And it’s not so much the decision-makers, although they have to take some of the blame, but rather the viewers and listeners who complain when something is different in their broadcast. But people like Suzyn Waldman and Doris Burke and Sarah Kustok are changing all that.

You’ve said that the “stick to sports” idea doesn’t make sense, because the political elements of sports are there, so they need to be talked about. Do you feel like, on the whole, people understand that now more than they did five years ago?
I think people have selective outrage. They want you to stick to sports when you give an opinion that they don’t agree with. Now, I would rather not go into things other than sports, but when the president brings sports into the equation, it’s hard not to talk about that.

When it comes to journalism, you expressed your disgust with last year’s layoffs at the New York Daily News. How do you convince young sports journalists—and young journalists in general—that they shouldn’t jump ship and think about another industry?
It would be hard to be honest and tell them that. The print industry is not exactly thriving, and I think that’s a bad thing for this country. If we don’t have a free, independent press, then those in power simply cannot and will not be checked. That’s dangerous. I would tell all these kids that if you become proficient at writing, there will be a job for you in the industry, either in print or behind the scenes in TV. And, of course, a good writer can always go to a thriving website, like The Athletic, and earn a good living.

How has having two young children changed the way you approach your work?
It has put it all into perspective. In the past, I was a workaholic and would take any job or new opportunity. My workaholic past certainly played a role in my present success, but now I’m happy with what I have professionally because I’m so happy personally.

What has it been like for both you and your friend from Fordham, NBA announcer Mike Breen, FCRH ’83, to succeed in the ways you have?
He is one of my best friends in the world. We are the same two guys who used to sit in the campus center at Fordham and tell each other about our dreams. He wanted to be the Knicks’ announcer and I wanted to be the Yankees’ announcer. The fact that we were privy to each other’s dreams and know how starry-eyed we were makes it sweeter to enjoy each other’s success.

You’ve been a mentor to Ryan Ruocco, FCRH ’08, and many other young announcers. What do you enjoy most about your role as a mentor?
I just like to provide whatever help I can give to a young person. I never really had that entrée into the business when I got out of college, so if I can provide a little help or lift to someone, that would be awesome and would maybe provide a couple of more speakers who have kind words at my funeral.

How did you develop your style as an announcer? Did that come out of those who taught or mentored you?
I think it happened organically and was a combination of those I listened to growing up, those I spoke with along the way, and those I worked with. You end up becoming an amalgamation of hopefully the best of the people you came across in your life.

What’s the most memorable game you’ve ever called?
Probably Game 1 of the 1998 World Series, when the Yankees scored seven runs in the seventh inning against the Padres at Yankee Stadium. After the grand slam by Tino Martinez, the stadium was literally shaking and I just leaned back and took it all in. It was pretty special.

Both, it turns out, burnished their nascent broadcasting careers sitting next to each other at ABC News Radio after being hired on the same day in June 1963.

Both revisited the occasion, and the decades that followed, at On the Record, WFUV’s annual awards dinner, on Nov. 7 at Fordham Law School, at which Koppel received the CharlesOsgood Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

“You’re a model of broadcast journalism at its very best,” Osgood, FCRH ’54, a WFUV alumnus, said in presenting the award to his longtime friend.

Koppel recounted the pair’s early, but ultimately unsuccessful, effort to create a morning news show for ABC television. “We became friends, and we conspired on certain schemes to obtain fame and perhaps also hopefully wealth,” Koppel, who briefly attended Fordham Law School before committing full-time to journalism, jocularly recalled. “All of those schemes failed.”

Nevertheless, he said, with both he and Osgood now nearer to what Koppel called the conclusion of their professional journeys, “it turned out alright.”

Longtime New York Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay, FCRH ’82, was also honored at the dinner, as the recipient of the Vin Scully Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting,

The award, Kay said, had deep resonance given that it is named for his broadcasting idol.

“To be given an award with Vin Scully’s name on it is beyond anything I could have ever imagined,” Kay, who will start his 28th year calling Yankees games next spring, said following a short videotaped message from Scully. “He is the patron saint of WFUV Sports, he is the patron saint of anybody who does baseball play-by-play. He is the best at what he’s done.”

In presenting the award, John Filippelli, the president of production and programing at the YES Network, said Kay embodied excellence.

“You are truly a renaissance broadcaster, Michael,” he said. “You’re generous to all your boothmates. You’re warm. You’re extremely knowledgeable, always respectful. You really embody integrity.”

[doptg id=”130″]Proceeds from the awards dinner, which this year raised more than $230,000, help fund WFUV’s training programs for University students. Among the roughly 200 attendees were current CBS Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley, cartoonist Garry Trudeau, and former Mets and Yankees pitchers and current broadcasters David Cone and Al Leiter.

In a Q&A discussion moderated by Sara Kugel, FCRH ’11, a producer at CBS Sunday Morning, both Kay and Koppel soberly assessed the current state of journalism, with Koppel saying that both “the business side” of the industry and the internet were to blame for journalism’s decline. He suggested objective reporting was being compromised by the ease with which people can disseminate their views, which, he suggested, are too often noxious and divisive.

“The more outrageous you make that website, the more hits you’re going to get; the more hits you get, the more money you make,” Koppel said.

Kay agreed. “Any person who’s sitting in his mom’s basement with Cheetos dust on his fingers could report on news now,” he said.

But Kay, who recalled that he has wanted to be Yankees broadcaster since he was 9 years old, nevertheless encouraged the 20 WFUV students at the awards dinner to pursue the trade with abandon.

Two of those students also received recognitions. Julia Rist, FCRH ’20, was given the WFUV Award for Excellence in News Journalism, and Raffaele Elia, FCRH ’19, was presented with the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism—named for the station’s recently retired executive sports producer.

“Never turn down an opportunity to be on the air,” Kay told Rist, Elia, and their student colleagues. “Work harder than anybody else. That should be the norm. Just like running hard to first base should be the norm, not the exception.”

–Richard Khavkine