John Sterling's controversial Ichiro home run call

New York Yankees fans are used to the odd and sometimes disturbing nicknames and calls Yankees' radio announcer John Sterling comes up with for the home town players.  This is the guy who brought you home run calls like "It's an A-Bomb for A-Rod" for an Alex Rodriguez dinger, "That's a Tex Message" every time Mark Teixeira goes long and calls Curtis Granderson "The Grandyman."

Innocent enough, but after Ichiro Suzuki hit his 100th major league home run — and first for the Yankees— many people thought the Voice of the Yankees a crossed the line by calling the Japanese star's seventh inning shot with, "Ichiro, the Yankees rising son, says sayonara."

Listen for yourself.  Is it insensitive?

Sterling's outlandish home run calls, catchphrases and nicknames are legend in the Yankees Universe and he has been forgiven for many gaffes in his use of language, statistics and overall enthusiasm.

I don't know if Sterling will use "Ichiro, the rising son, says sayonara" as his trademark every time the new Yankee outfielder jacks one, but he's sure going to hear about it.

Maybe Suzuki drove all 750 cc's into that one would work.  Nah,  that's even too silly for Sterling.