Yankees' Radio Announcer John Sterling Loses Yankee World Series Rings in Fire
 

John Sterling, the legendary voice to generations of Yankees fans, lost almost everything he owned, but luckily he and everyone else in the apartment building were unharmed.

Everyone getting out of the building safely is much more important than some world series rings that can be replaced, but But since this is the place to discuss championship rings I wanted to share what the rings looked like.

The New York Yankees’ radio voice for every inning of every game since 1989, received a huge outpouring from Yankees staff and also from his many friends.

Typically when something like this happens, the professional sports team will have the ring manufacturing company create replacement rings.

In this instance, Balfour made every single ring shown above and the new ones will look identical to the lost championship rings.

Edgewater is ten minutes from me ,,tragic .why were these rings not in a bank vault ,,

I know virtually nothing about rings which is the purpose of my post. I know a "recreated" ring is the closest thing to the original but how does value of recreated ring compare to original. Also, would a recreated ring how any physical characteristics to distinguish it from original?

Really sad to hear about his house and all those other people who lost their homes too. When I first heard the story I imagined Suzyn Waldman cooking him a sausage on a hot plate and telling him everything would be okay.

Those are two great questions!

Sometimes collectors don't know when rings are recreated and this happens more times than you would think. Sometimes rings can be modified and look different too. The original ring recipients (not the new owner should the ring be sold) have a lifetime warranty and send rings back to the manufacture for repair.

It can be a simple repair such as a resize, or something much more complicated, say a crack in the onyx stone that needs to repaired by taking apart the top of the ring, replacing the stone and assembling the ring again.

Championship rings are so scare and in demand with collectors, that a properly recreated ring will not be detectible with the exception of a very knowledgeable collector.

The easiest way to know a ring was recreated was to do tons of research on the ring and have samples of original rings. Often, a ring repaired or remade years later will have different stamping inside the ring. For instance a Jostens stamp inside a ring from the 1960s looks quite different than one from today.

If an auction house deals with a repeatable and honest consignor, they will specifically mention the ring was repaired or remade. This could result in a slightly lower price as long as the ring looks like it is supposed to luck.

John Sterling is lucky in the sense that the Balfour rings he lost will be remade perfectly since Balfour has all of the original molds from the 1990s through today. Should John Sterling ever decide to sell these new rings at auction, they would go for a lot of money, even though the general public would probably be informed the rings were remade.

Your second question about recreated rings looking quite different is a really interesting question too.

Unfortunately, sleazy dealers, such as Irv Lerner, use the excuse (especially with fake salesman samples) that Jostens or Balfour "lost the mold while moving" as his standard response when asked why his supposedly "real" salesman samples look off.

In doing research and speaking with the Yankees and Balfour, I have learned that there is some truth in that.

When a Yankee ring from the 30's, 40s or 50s needs to be repaired or recreated, the original molds and parts are sometimes long gone. Both Balfour and Jostens have been sold throughout the years and their factories have moved many times and molds were lost along the way.

Other situations where rings would look different, is when the original ring company is long gone. I own an Oakland Raider super bowl II ring that has Jostens stamped inside the ring, yet a company by the name John Roberts made the ring (and was later bought by Jostens). That means that my ring was either repaired or remade by Jostens which has the rights to that ring.

Dieges & Clust made the earliest Yankee rings and the Brooklyn Dodger rings from the 1950s, to those rings too, and with those molds and stamping no longer in existence, it would be impossible to exactly recreate those rings.

Suzyn Waldman is a class act. When reading about how John Sterling's lost just about everything he owned, an article mentioned that Suzyn had purchased John a very nice fine watch.

When she learned of his situation, she took the initiative to reorder a replacement watch for him.

Thanks Michael for your replies to my questions. That pretty much sums it up. :)
Thanks again!
Michael

If I lost my rings, replacements wouldn't feel the same for me. The originals that were given directly to you by the team, by the person- it's special.

Replacements are good in this instance, but I'm sure he's pretty upset about it.

I too cant believe these weren't protected in a safe. I can understand large bulky items may not fit in smaller safe but come on these could have been protected in a fireproof $20 Sentry safe from Walmart!!

Original would feel more special although I could only imagine replacement would have to feel pretty nice as well....especially considering thats the only alternative!

Here's another question/scenerio......one always hears that jewelry is covered under home owners insurance. If these are covered under his insurance he gets insurance payout PLUS his rings get replaced?

I would imagine they are getting made from his insurance if I'm understanding the question correctly. Anytime you receive a ring like this, you get paperwork and a value for insurance purposes that come with it.

Though for someone like him, perhaps the team or manufacturer is taking care of it due to the circumstances? I can't see how he would be able to get insurance money on top of that.

Balfour will remake the rings but not for free. The Yankees will probably try to have Sterling or his insurance company pay for them. I believe Sterling's salary is paid for by Radio station, WFAN, not the Yankees.

Here's an angle you probably never thought about before but it does occasionally happen: If a ring is lost or stolen and insurance pays out on the ring, and then the ring is found years later and returned to the player, technically, the insurance company owns the ring, not the player.

I picked up a gorgeous player-sized Ravens super bowl 47 ring from the insurance company that paid on the claim.