In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series ’29 Black Stories in 29 Days.’ We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the fourth installment of the series.
Dave Sims sits against a bright red backdrop. It’s quite the contrast to the navy blue and forest green team colors he’s usually around. He said his wife wanted to freshen up the walls of their Manhattan home, restoring them to their original hue.
Family and a sense of honoring the past in the present has been essential to Sims’ journey of bringing a lively voice to the Seattle Mariners broadcasts. He learned a love of sports from his father and now embraces the Major League Baseball organization as his home away from home.
When the Mariners plunged into the history books in 2022 by breaking their 21-year playoff drought, Sims was the voice of the moment.
‘The dream lives!’ he cheered when Cal Raleigh hit his walk-off home run to send Seattle into the postseason with his now iconic ‘Hey Now!’ ‘They’re going to the playoffs! The drought is over!’
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Sims is entering his 18th season as the Mariners’ play-by-play announcer. The National Sports Media Association named him the Washington state sportscaster of the year three years in a row. He’s called plays by many Seattle greats and now witnesses the leadership that Julio Rodríguez brings to the team.
As one of eight Black announcers in league history, according to a list he had readily prepared, Sims takes great honor in following in Jackie Robinson’s footsteps. Robinson was the first Black player to play in an MLB game, and he was also the first Black broadcaster to call a major league game for a national audience.
Although Sims doesn’t see himself as a torchbearer in racial equality, he has helped carry the conversation. He is forging a path of his own with his signature hat and pure passion for the game.
The beginning of Dave Sims’ sports journey
Sims was raised in Philadelphia and grew up within walking distance from the Philadelphia Phillies’ historic Connie Mack Stadium. He recalled watching Jim Brown when the Cleveland Browns would play the Philadelphia Eagles and got to witness Philadelphia 76ers legend Wilt Chamberlain in action.
Sims said that he caught the sports media bug in high school covering football, baseball and basketball. He’s covered AFC and NFC championship games and the NCAA basketball championship tournament.
‘People ask me all the time, ‘Which one do you like more?” Sims said in an extensive interview with USA TODAY Sports. “It’s like asking which one of your children do you like more? But they’re all great.’
Dave Sims reflects on time with Mariners covering Julio Rodríguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Félix Hernández
Sims has had many special moments in his career, but being a part of the Mariners breaking their postseason drought stands out. He said the moment Raleigh hit his home run was ‘super historic.’
‘It was just, the euphoria, it was like a volcanic eruption,’ he said, ‘the satisfaction, the glee, the joy. I mean, it was just the best.’
Sims explained how this moment was different from the other highlights he’s seen.
‘When it’s your team, it’s something you’re emotionally invested in, you put in the time, you put in the work, you love what you do, to see that kind of glory happen right in front of you, to be a part of it, it’s amazing,’ he said. ‘It’s so visceral. I mean the tingling feeling you get and everybody around you got the same thing and everybody’s high-fiving and dapping up or hugging or whatever. And it’s just amazing. It’s just amazing.’
Sims has been a part of many chapters of Mariners history. He called the final home run of Ken Griffey Jr.’s Hall of Fame career. He was awed by Ichiro Suzuki’s “unbelievable” work ethic. He remembered the day Félix Hernández made a big first impression at spring training.
‘He walked in the room and everybody gasped because he had lost so much weight,’ Sims recalled. ‘He was a chubby kid. He trimmed himself down.’
Calling Hernández’s perfect game in 2012 ‘was one of the highlights of my career.’
Sims said Suzuki and Hernández were bright lights during some dark times for the club.
Rodríguez is now that shining star.
Sims said he’s impressed by the 23-year-old, calling him “the it guy” as is evidenced by the Mariners signing him to a 14-year, $210 million contract in 2022 and his “unworldly” record-breaking campaign last fall.
‘His performance on the field speaks for itself,’ Sims said. ‘He is a warm and generous person off the field. He carried the team and it really is true. If he’s going well, it means the Mariners are going really well and that’s how important he is to this ballclub.
‘When I look at him and I think of all the guys I grew up watching, I mean who always played with tremendous passion and joy and love for the game. I mean, it was so evident, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, people like that. And if you’re putting him in that same sentence, doesn’t get any better than that.’
Dave Sims’ Mariners calls go viral, inspire players
The players aren’t the only Mariners that have become household names.
A few seasons ago, the team’s social media director, Tim Walsh, suggested to Sims that they put a camera in the broadcasting booth to capture Sims’ reactions.
His call of Raleigh’s home run went viral as did a play from a year earlier. Sims punched the air in excitement and yelled, ‘Hey now!’ when Mitch Haniger’s base hit gave Seattle a win late in the 2021 season as they surged with playoff hopes.
‘People really like it. They get to see the raw emotion, the excitement,’ Sims said of fans watching the calls. ‘… I felt like I could have been body-snatched then. I mean, I was just, it was, you go to a whole other dimension.
‘I know how to play to a camera, but I was not playing to the camera. It just happened to be there and captured it. It was a heck of a moment.’
Sims said that he’s received compliments from former Chicago Cubs manager David Ross, Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
The reaction from Toronto Blue Jays centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier might be the best.
‘‘Dude, I watch that to get fired up before games,’’ Sims recalled the four-time Gold Glove winner telling him.
‘Especially coming from players, it really, it means a lot,’ he said. ‘It’s great to have it from your peer group as well, but the players, they can get caught up in emotion and if it’s not them, it’s one of those signature type of situations that you live through and you’re like, ‘That was really cool. I gotta say something to the guy. “Hey, man, great job.”’ That kinda thing.’
Dave Sims’ journey as a Black broadcaster in baseball
Sims has been a steady presence in the broadcast booth but also outside of it. He’s been a part of initiatives for racial justice like the Black Voices in Baseball panel for Juneteenth in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
Sims said he’s seen more Black players in the league since he got started and said he appreciates Griffey Jr. spearheading the Swingman Classic, an event highlighting players from HBCUs as part of MLB All-Star festivities.
‘I hear from a lot of guys and I hear from some of the Black players about, ‘Hey, man, you’re carrying the torch for us,’’ he said. ‘And I say, ‘Hey, happy to do it.’ That wasn’t my aim to hold that distinction. I just wanted to get in here and get a chance.’
In terms of experiencing racism, Sims said he received a snide remark in the early 1970s when he was an intern at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He recalled turning the other cheek and the higher ups at the paper commended him for how he handled the incident.
He said early in his career he was frequently asked for credentials more often than others. He said he finds it ‘quite annoying’ when he still occasionally gets pulled aside while trying to enter games even though his credentials are a ‘mile long.’ There was an incident on a road trip last season when he and reporter Shannon Drayer were pulled aside after four other men were allowed to walk in.
‘So it’s the Black guy and the female reporter,’ Sims said.
When he told the security people that he was on the broadcast team, he said the assumption was that he’s the color analyst.
”No, I’m the play-by-play guy,” he remembered saying. ‘And to see the reaction a lot of times, ‘cause people are not used to seeing us in those roles, and I do get a charge out of saying, ‘Hey, man. I’m calling the game, okay? I gotta get in there.’’
Dave Sims says Jackie Robinson ‘checks every box’ as role model
Sims holds Robinson as one of his greatest role models. He said he has a hard time calling the Hall of Famer by his first name, opting to say “Mr. Robinson” out of respect.
‘He checks every box,’ Sims said, recalling a childhood memory of his father telling him to buck up like Robinson when he would get hit by a pitch, ‘a great American, served his country during the war and then put up with unconscionable, unimaginable abuse performing a sport that’s already difficult enough, failing 70 percent of the time makes you a superstar.’
Sims never got to meet Robinson, who died in 1972, and hasn’t gotten to speak with many people who knew him. One detail he learned that stands out is that Robinson enjoyed golf. But when he’d play, he didn’t let opponents count a hole when they got close to the cup.
‘He says, ‘No, no, no, no gimmes. Put it in the cup,’’ Sims said. ‘I never forgot that. I said, ‘Geez, it’s just like my old man. I could never get a free stroke like that.”
Dave Sims on signature hats
Sims frequently wears No. 42 gear, sometimes on one of his many hats, which is his signature fashion statement. He wears all types of styles: panamas, Kangol hats, baseball caps, fedoras. The headwear has become so synonymous with his style that the Mariners hosted Dave Sims Hat Club Night at Safeco Field in 2010.
He said he wore hats all the time as a kid, but really embraced the look in the early 2010s when he ran into Mark “Mud” Grant during a series against the San Diego Padres. Sims told Grant ‘You’re one of the few white guys that can pull it off.’ The former pitcher had Sims try on his hat and then told him about the little shop in Pasadena where he found it. When the Mariners played the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sims stopped by.
‘I go there, small shop, narrow, must have gone 100 feet,’ he said. ‘They had hats all over the place. I bought a couple, three of them, wore one into the clubhouse and got, ‘Right on, right on.’ That was great.’
Besides the fun and camaraderie, Sims embraces hats because he thinks it’s a timeless look.
‘You look at old school broadcasters, a lot of them have a few of their photos, their headshots, they’re wearing hats. It’s great,’ he said. ‘My mom, dad, both grandparents, grandfathers, they wore hats, so sort of keep the tradition going.’
There’s another tradition that continues with Sims: using his award-winning voice to capture history.
