Rickie Ricardo (born Jorge Lima Jr. in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

) is a Spanish- and English-language sportscaster, talk show host, and voice-over actor. He calls games in Spanish 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 ...

, the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

, and the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

. He also hosts programs related to these teams.

Music broadcasting

Ricardo attended broadcasting school with the intention of being a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

. He met

Frankie Crocker Frankie "Hollywood" Crocker (December 18, 1937 – October 21, 2000) was an American disc jockey, VH-1 VJ, TV host and actor. Crocker helped grow WBLS, the urban adult contemporary and black music radio station, into the #1 station in New York ...

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

; after a successful audition, Crocker gave him his nickname and Ricardo started a midday shift on

WBLS WBLS (107.5 MHz) is an urban adult contemporary radio format, formatted FM broadcasting, FM radio station, city of license, licensed to New York, New York. It is currently owned and operated by Mediaco Holding, along with sister station WQHT (97 ...

in 1981. Crocker also introduced Ricardo to

Rick James James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his tee ...

; James later made Ricardo his master of ceremonies for six years. In 1992, at New York's

WSKQ-FM WSKQ-FM (97.9 FM) is a radio station in the United States, owned and operated by Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS). Licensed to New York, New York, WSKQ broadcasts in Spanish with a tropical music format. WSKQ-FM's transmitter is located at ...

, Ricardo helped to create and name the "Mega" brand targeted at bilingual Hispanic listeners.

Sports broadcasting

After the Florida Marlins (now

Miami Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League East, East Division. The ...

) dumped many of their stars in a

fire sale A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. It may or may not be defined as a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventor ...

after winning the

2003 World Series The 2003 World Series (also known as the Centennial World Series) was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2003 Major League Baseball season, 2003 season. The 99th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-s ...

, the club sought Ricardo's help to attract young Latino fans. He started doing Spanish-language

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 ...

as a fill-in in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. The next year he started broadcasting

games in Spanish. He also hosted an English-language

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

show on

WIP-FM WIP-FM (94.1 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc. and broadcasts a sports radio format. The WIP-FM offices and studios are co-located in Audacy's corporate headq ...

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 ...

which led to him becoming the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

' Spanish-language announcer on

WEMG WEMG (1310 kHz, "Mega 105.7") is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Camden, New Jersey. The station is owned by Mega-Philadelphia, LLC, Debtor in Possession and airs a Spanish hits format. History The station was first lice ...

. From June 20 to 22, 2022, during a Yankees road series at the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. They are one of two major ...

, Ricardo filled in for John Sterling on the Yankees' English-language play-by-play radio call on

WFAN-AM WFAN (660 AM broadcasting, 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 York metropolitan ...

. Mark Chernoff, program director of WFAN, hired Ricardo in 2014 to be the Spanish radio voice of the

on sister station

WADO Wado may refer to: * WADO, a radio station in New York City; * Wadō (era) (Japanese: ), a Japanese era * Wadō-ryū (Japanese: ), a style of karate * Wadokai (Japanese: ), a karate organization * WADO, a standard for web access to DICOM Digita ...

. Ricardo is credited along with WFAN salesman Joe Rojas for growing Spanish-language ad sales on Yankee games from just over $300,000 to nearly $2 million between 2014 and 2017. Ricardo cites as his sportscasting influences

Jon Miller Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997, he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball ann ...

, English-language voice of the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

, and

Felo Ramírez Rafael "Felo" Ramírez (22 June 1923 – 21 August 2017) was a Cuban-American Spanish language sports announcer, most notably for the Miami Marlins. Born in Bayamo, Cuba, Ramirez was also a boxing expert, having broadcast fights for Latin Ameri ...

, Spanish-language voice of the Marlins.

Notable calls

In football, Ricardo is known for his calls following successful and unsuccessful

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...

s. After Jake Elliott's 61-yard game-ending field goal helped the Eagles defeat the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

in 2017, Ricardo said ''¡Sí, señor!'' (Yes, sir!) five times. When

Cody Parkey Cody Parkey (born February 19, 1992) is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Auburn Tigers and was signed by the Indianapolis Colts as an ...

kicked the infamous Double Doink, a blocked field goal that caused the Eagles to defeat the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

and advance in the

2018–19 NFL playoffs The National Football League playoffs for the 2018 season began with the Wildcard Round on January 5, 2019, and concluded with Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 3, 2019, when the New England Patriots defe ...

, he shouted ''¡No, señor!'' six times in a call that went viral.

Personal life

Ricardo is of

Cuban Cuban or Cubans may refer to: Related to Cuba * of or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban Americ ...

ancestry. Ricardo lives in

Edgewater, New Jersey Edgewater is a borough located along the Hudson River in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 14,336, an increase of 2,823 (+24.5%) from the 2010 census count of 11,5 ...

. On September 1, 2021, after a Yankees game called remotely from

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the home field of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. The stadium opened in April 2009, replacing the Yankee S ...

, Yankees broadcaster John Sterling (also an Edgewater resident) was stranded in his car by flooding following

Hurricane Ida Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive tropical cyclone in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In terms of m ...

. Ricardo was driving his

Jeep Cherokee The Jeep Cherokee is a line of sport utility vehicles (SUV) manufactured and marketed by Jeep over five generations. Marketed initially as a variant of the Jeep Wagoneer (SJ), the Cherokee has evolved from a full-size SUV to one of the first ...

home and rescued Sterling, driving both home safely.

References

External links

* {{twitter, rr_ricardofan American people of Cuban descent American radio sports announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Miami Marlins announcers NFL announcers New York Yankees announcers People from Edgewater, New Jersey Mass media people from Newark, New Jersey Philadelphia Eagles announcers Philadelphia Phillies announcers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people