As for Sterling’s home run calls, various languages have been represented. There was Spanish for Bobby Abreu (“El Come Dulce”) and French for Lance Berkman (“Sir Lancelot rides to the rescue! C’est lui! C’est lui!”). The latter is a reference to “Camelot” — citing old Broadway shows is another Sterling tradition. Talking to Sterling off the radio is not much different from listening to him on the radio. Asked when he was born, Sterling quotes from the play “Mame.”

“Say I’m somewhere between 40 and death,” he says. “Well, you can say 50 and death.”

Public records and interviews with associates past and present suggest Sterling is in his early 70s. Sterling, who looks much younger, says he does not mind speculation about his age, but in a business in which everyone rightly fears ageism and fibs accordingly, Sterling prefers to be imprecise.

“I not only need to work,” Sterling said, “I love what I do and want to do it until the day I die. So, I don’t do age.”

Growing Up With the Radio

His memory for all other details about his life is remarkably sharp.

Raised in Manhattan, where he lived on the East Side in the upper 80s, he was well read but not a good student. His father, Carl, was an advertising executive.

“He made pretty good money, and we probably lived up to it,” Sterling said last week.

Early recollections revolve around the radio.

“My family was listening to the radio and I heard a guy with a great voice say, ‘Live from Hollywood, it’s “The Eddie Bracken Show,” ’ ” he said. “Listening, I didn’t want to be Eddie Bracken; I wanted to be the announcer.”

He played sports but spent many hours by the radio trying to learn from broadcasters of all types. Because he was a Yankees fan, that included the voice of the team then, Mel Allen.