Knowing what we do about John Sterling and his regular use of pop-culture references in his home run calls, we’d just assumed that one of his old Bernie Williams calls — “Bern, baby, Bern” — was a reference to the song “Disco Inferno.” Of course, that phrase could have been in reference to other things — like the case of William Epton, for instance — but considering that this is a man whose calls have referenced mainstream pop-culture works like Austin Powers and “The Candyman Can,” we’d always figured that Sterling made a connection between “Bernie” and “Burn,” remembered the lyrics of that song, and went with it, not giving much thought to any previous uses of the phrase. But today, in a piece about Sterling and his expiring contract, the Wall Street Journal tells us otherwise: “Sterling said he derived his signature praising phrase for former Yankee centerfielder Bernie Williams (“Bern, baby, Bern”) from the infamous rallying cry of Black Panther Party leader H. Rap Brown.” Who knew? [WSJ]