A tribute to Dave Sims, Mariners legend
After 18 years, the legendary announcer and legendary human being heads home.
I still remember when I converted to a Dave Sims Guy.
It was in college. Sims started with the Mariners when I was in eighth grade, and throughout high school, not knowing any better, I felt that Dave’s occasionally errant style detracted from the overall broadcast.
My friend Travis, with whom I’d later found Mariner Muse, flipped my perspective on its head one day. Dave’s style was uniquely his own, he contended, and his occasional deviations from typical announcer standards were not only refreshing, but totally hilarious.
From that point forward, I greatly enjoyed Dave Sims, Mariners lead television broadcaster. Every wacky comment was a joke to share in a group text. We even came up with “Simsisms” as a way to chronicle his idiosyncrasies. Those verbal signatures also extended to Dave’s trademark fashion sense. Nobody in sports wore a fedora or a Kangol hat and made it his own quite like Dave.
As my voice in the Mariners online community grew, I championed Sims as master of the craft in his own unique way, and the Mariner Muse bio read “Big Dave Sims Guys.” Our group chat even bought four cutouts of Dave to put in the stands during the COVID season.
Over the past five years, Sims leveled up from Mariners mainstay to Mariners legend. Previously, he’d been known for a couple of big calls, most notably Félix Hernandez’s perfect game, his funnier moments (Hey Lloyd! Get the truck! To the airport!) and a couple of his catchphrases like “Hey Now!” and “Boomstick Baby!”.
The pandemic was a turning point for Sims, in my opinion. That year, which coincided with important national conversations around the treatment of African Americans by police, the Mariners had the most black players in MLB. Sims was at the forefront of hosting panel discussions about African Americans in baseball, and it felt like he truly came into his own with the organization at that moment.
The following four years were a rocket ship for both the Mariners and Dave. The 2021 Mariners are arguably the most purely joyful team in franchise history, as they erupted out of nowhere to totally outperform their talent level and win 90 games. Although they fell short in Game 162, Game 161 produced what I believe is Dave’s best call ever.
“Biggest pitch of the year here for the Mariners, three-and-two, bases loaded, Cishek, the pitch…BASE HIT LEFT FIELD, HERE COMES JP, BAUERS SCORES, JP SCORES, MITCH HANIGER! WHAT A NIGHT! WHAT A NIGHT! I’m telling you hey now, hey now, HEY NOW!”
It’s a perfect call, both in how he tees it up and drives it home, and how perfectly Dave it is, where he gets caught up in the fervor of it all and yells “WHAT A NIGHT” before pausing and delivering his equivalent of a Mike Breen “Double Bang” with three Hey Nows. Even the nuance, in the heat of the moment, of pointing out the go-ahead runner first, then calling the tying run, then switching back to the key runner, is completely masterful.
What really made the Haniger call stick in the annals of Mariners history was a stroke of genius by the Mariners social team. They filmed Sims delivering the call, and with every fist pump, Mariners fans realized this moment meant as much to Sims as it did to them.
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Then, in 2022, Dave got the opportunity to call a Mariners playoff team for the first time in his career. As their only playoff team in a generation, the 2022 Mariners had the most big moments per capita than any other in recent franchise history, but there was no moment bigger than “The pitch from Acevadooooooo”. And yeah, if you’re reading this, you don’t need me to explain that reference. Cal Raleigh even said his family members would hit him with Dave’s signature call around the house during the months he spent at home the following offseason.
Once again, the Mariners had the camera rolling as Dave delivered another impeccable call. And once again, his passion shone through with every syllable.
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Dave has gone through a lot as the Mariners announcer for 18 years, and so have Mariners fans. Along the way, he was nothing but gracious to fans, despite the fact that a loud minority of fans never ceased to criticize and mock him online. He also always told it like it is in his own way, often letting out a “Bruhhhh-THER” whenever the hometown nine made a silly mistake.
Above all, Dave was just a delightful person to have around our favorite team. No one has a bad word to say about him as a person, and the outpouring of support and well wishes he received after announcing the news Thursday speaks for itself.
It’s going to be strange not having Dave around. As confident as I am in the strength of the forthcoming Goldy Era in Mariners broadcasting, Dave became a central figure for the last three eras of Mariners baseball. From the Félix dark ages, through the Canó/Cruz years and into the 54% era, Dave’s energetic voice illuminated it all, nailing every big moment, no matter how few and far between at times.
The Yankees own their place as boogeymen in Mariners lore, always looming to hand Seattle a devastating defeat or, more aptly in this case, poach a rising talent with their deeper pockets. But knowing everything I do about Dave, I’ve never been so happy to see a Mariner head to the Big Apple. He’s a New York media lifer, and if you ever listen to him call a Big East basketball game, you can feel how rooted to the soul of the bright lights and the big city he is. Replacing John Sterling and joining his friend Suzyn Waldman on the Yankees’ broadcast is a dream come true for him, and getting to do it at the end of his career must feel like a culmination of everything he’s done.
At the moment, I feel plenty of mixed emotions about Dave leaving, from sadness, to excitement for him personally, to disappointment we didn’t totally appreciate how 2024 would be his final year in the Mariners booth. Ultimately, though, my most overwhelming emotion is gratitude. I’m grateful for the nearly two decades we had with Dave, where I became a fan of the announcer and the person, and got to watch his rise as an elite big moment caller and now, a Baseball Hall of Fame nominee.
There’s really only one way I can think to end this:
Thank you, Dave.
Patrick Leary wrote for the original SeaTown Sports 15 years ago. These days on the sports internet, he runs Mariner Muse on X and Bluesky. He lives in Seattle.
How is it that Sims is able to go "all in" on his team in a way virtually no one else his age is able to? He is special. I particularly admired this because an attitude of New York superiority and detachment could perhaps even have been expected. But he was "all in" and "all there", and I'm sure made Mariners fans feel good. And that is partly what an announcer is supposed to do. Vin Scully had no illusions about his allegiance and responsibility to the home team.
A New Yorker, I go way back to the first days of WFAN when Sims was a radio host and Suzyn Waldman a correspondent covering the Yankees. The Mariners' loss is the Yankees' gain.
Very nice write-up -- I got the chance to meet Dave Sims on MLB Network once, and he was SO nice and SO gracious to me. Really a great guy.