John Sterling recalls 'harrowing' escape from stalled car on flooded road in New Jersey

John Sterling was able to joke about the experience less than 24 hours later, but at the time late Wednesday night there was nothing funny about an ordeal amid the remnants of Hurricane Ida that he called "harrowing."

It included a stalled car on a flooded road in New Jersey, and a rescue orchestrated by two of his Yankees radio colleagues — Suzyn Waldman and Rickie Ricardo.

Sterling told Newsday on Thursday that as he drove home to Edgewater, N.J., from Yankee Stadium after calling the Yankees’ 4-1 victory over the Angels in Anaheim off a monitor, he "saw a lot of stranded cars, and I really got scared and thought, ‘Whoa, what if that happens to me?’"

When he got within a half-mile of his home, his car shorted out in the rising waters and he could not restart it.

"It was raining like crazy, and the water was up to your knees," Sterling said. "So I called Suzyn, who is much brighter than I am, and figured she would be able to figure something out."

Waldman did, calling Ricardo, who lives near Sterling and was on his way home himself.

Ricardo went in search of Sterling, recalling in an interview with WFAN on Thursday the struggle to reach Sterling on his cell phone before finally connecting with him and identifying his friend’s car in the dark on River Road.

Ricardo said that by then the water was covering Sterling’s wheels and was getting into the passenger cabin.

"I had to wade into [Ricardo's] car," Sterling, 83, said. "You can’t believe how high the water was."

Ricardo, who was driving a Jeep, followed a circuitous path through the chaotic streets to get Sterling home, then needed another hour to reach his own home about a mile from Sterling’s, he told WFAN’s Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis.

"It was harrowing, one street after another, you try to find an area where there isn’t high water," Sterling said.

On Thursday, he profusely thanked Ricardo, the Yankees’ Spanish-language announcer, and Waldman, his longtime on-air partner, for their help.

"It’s unbelievable what Suzyn did for me and what Rickie did," he said. "I don’t know what I would have done, I really don’t."

The irony of the situation was that the Mets were rained out at Citi Field, but because Yankees announcers are not traveling to road games, they had to work from soggy, empty Yankee Stadium, then try to get home.

Michael Kay, Sterling’s TV counterpart, never made it home to Connecticut and spent the night at his alma mater, Fordham, in the Bronx.

Sterling said as he and Kay walked out of the stadium after the game, they looked at the outfield and saw it was "a complete lake."

Sterling noted the seriousness of the storm – "People died," he said – and added, "I’m very lucky, and Michael’s very lucky."

He praised local police, who towed the stranded cars to a local ballfield, including Sterling’s leased Cadillac.

"It’s a nice car," he said, "but it’s not amphibious."

By Neil Best

Special to Newsday@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.