John Sterling is entering the bottom of the ninth inning of his illustrious Yankees play-by-play career.

The longtime Yankees radio voice is expected to announce his retirement at a news conference on Friday, The Post has learned.

“We’re going to wait until the press conference,” Sterling told The Post in a brief phone conversation on Monday.

“I don’t want to do 100 interviews before the press conference. That’s obvious. I’m going to wait for the press conference to talk about anything.”

He declined to confirm that he would be retiring.

The Yankees offered Sterling a chance to work in a reduced role, but the expectation is he will walk away altogether.

The press conference and the possibility of Sterling’s retirement was first reported by The Athletic.

Sterling, 85, has cut down on the amount of games he calls in recent seasons — he does not travel as often — due to recent health concerns.

Justin Shackil, 37, and Emmanuel Berbari, 24, are Sterling’s replacements on WFAN.

Sterling has been the voice of the Yankees since 1989, a stretch that has included five World Series championships.

He has been calling the games alongside Suzyn Waldman since 2005, which was when Michael Kay became the TV play-by-play broadcaster for YES Network after years of being paired with Sterling on radio.

Sterling’s signature home run call, which any reader can hear in his/her head upon seeing it in print, was “It is high, it is far, it is gone!”

After Bombers victories, he would exclaim, “Yankees win — the Yankees win”, with “the” drawn out longer for bigger accomplishments.

In an interview with The Athletic earlier this month, Sterling responded “not very” when asked how much longer he plans to call Yankees games though he didn’t have a set retirement date.

“Obviously, I’m near the end,” he told the website. “I’ve been on the air 64 years and I’m so tired of traveling. The games are fine. They’re easy.”

Sterling has remained a sentimental favorite of Yankees fans, who wished the day he’d retire from the job would never come.

Sterling’s career began in 1970 as the announcer for the Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards), and prior to his time as voice of the Yankees he also spent years doing Nets, Islanders, Braves and
Hawks games.