Howie Rose on the New York Sports Moment

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Matt Katz: I'm a long suffering Mets fan. What that means is I'm both cynical and pessimistic and also I believe. You got to believe because the Mets are in first place and it's not April, it's not May, it's almost mid-June, plus our nemeses up in the Bronx are also in first place, so that's very exciting. The two best teams in baseball just may be in the Big Apple, even after last night's losses by the way. Plus the Rangers are on the verge of making it to the Stanley Cup finals. Who better to check in with all of this New York sports riches than Howie Rose, who does all the play by play for the Mets on WCBS 880, something he also did for the New York Rangers at one point. Welcome back to WNYC, Howie Rose.

Howie Rose: That's so funny, man, because yes it is a bit of a homecoming. The very, very first play by play broadcast I ever did that anyone could hear was on February 22nd, 1975 when Queens College, and I was a student at Queens then, played against the defending champ Immaculata, this is women's basketball, and the first women's intercollegiate game in Madison Square Garden history. I was proud of that and I'm proud to be back with you all these years later.

Matt Katz: Amazing and I imagine you remember who won that game.

Howie Rose: Immaculata [unintelligible 00:01:32] yes, for officiating, as I recall.

Matt Katz: I bet you do. Even though you have an amazing memory you will not remember this, but before we begin I have to bring something up. It was 27 or 28 years ago and I wrote a letter to the Mets asking if I could cover a game for my high school newspaper The Southerner. Shout out to Great Neck South High School. The Mets were as you know pretty terrible at that point.

They let me come and they gave me pre-game access to the field and the dugout and that was in heaven. I remember two people who were very kind and welcoming to me that day. One was Bobby Bonilla, former Mets outfielder who happens to still be on the Mets payroll, but that's a whole other story. The second person was you, Howie. You were doing the pre and post-game Mets Extra Show, I believe at the time.

Howie Rose: Probably, yes.

Matt Katz: You sat in the dugout and you talked to me about the Mets and journalism and it was a very long time ago, almost three decades ago. I used to listen to you every day on the radio back then and still do now and now we're talking on the radio about the Mets. I'm very excited and thanks for hanging out with a kid who was interested in this stuff back then.

Howie Rose: Matt, it was my pleasure, because I lived in Great Neck for a little while, not at that time but I did. I always have a soft spot in my heart for my homies.

Matt Katz: Very good. You are New Yorker through and through, you were a fan of this team from the jump and then obviously you've reported on this team and broadcasted about this team for so many years. How good are the Mets right now in the scheme of things?

Howie Rose: They're very good. They're banged up right now, as we know. Most recently the injuries to Alonzo and Marte which at the moment are listed as day to day. Those things have a way of changing if they don't get significant progress in the next day or so. Fortunately for the Mets they're off today, so that's a free day to improve, but don't be surprised if there's not significant improvement for either or both of them in the next day or so that they go on the IL. It's a prudent thing to do. I'm not saying that that's going to happen because I don't know, but I think that you have to be careful not to let the hope of somebody coming back linger for too long.

Because then you really hurt yourself as far as your roster composition is concerned. What we've seen is a different level of offensive capabilities and prowess than we've seen from the Mets in a long time. I keep coming back and it's not a very sexy word when you talk about a ball club. They are as professional an operation from top to bottom, ownership on down as I've seen in a long time. That will serve them well throughout the rest of the year. They're pretty deep offensively, despite the injuries right now. They'll get deGrom back, they'll get Scherzer back at some point, Megill will be back this weekend. I just think that that they're geared up to make a real strong run at it this year.

Matt Katz: I want to talk about the possibility of a Subway Series, also want to talk about the Rangers. Listeners, who do you think will be the next New York team to win a championship? Do you think the Rangers? It's been a while. The Mets? It's been far longer, or the Yankees can win it all? Do you have any questions for walking Mets encyclopedia Howie Rose call us at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. With multiple New York teams in most sports, how do you pick your team? Did you inherit team loyalty? Is it that you live closer to where they play? Did you happen to catch a moment that lasted forever? Like when Mookie Wilson hit a ground ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs maybe.

Has your heart been broken? I'm sure it has if you're Metz fans. By early triumphs do you remember a time when so many New York teams were in contention as they are right now? Give us a call, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Howie, some people are starting to whisper Subway Series. It's been 22 years since the Mets and Yankees last met in the World Series, but both teams are in first place. Have these teams both been in first place this late in the season at any time in the recent past?

Howie Rose: I have to look back, but when you say recent past I guess if I had to go back to '06, that would be one possibility. I'm not sure where the Yankees were, how late in the season. The Mets ran away that year, the Eastern division of a national league, and I'm sure the Yankees spent at least a little bit of time up there, if not a lot. Certainly, 2006 would be one guess, late '90s, early 2000 would be another. Certainly 1985, which was a tremendous [unintelligible 00:06:21] from the Mets perspective, which they missed out by a few against the Cardinals. That was a year when the Yankees and Mets both spent I think a significant amount of time in first place, but savor it because it doesn't happen every year.

Matt Katz: That's for sure. Can you give a little background to your history with the Mets? You were a fan when they started in the early '60s, what made them your team?

Howie Rose: What happened was the year before, my dad introduced me to baseball. That was 1961. I was seven-years-old. We lived in the Bronx at that time as did some of my other relatives and so we went to Yankee stadium a lot. That was the year that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris staged their epic home run duel, trying to break or tie Babe Ruth's all time record, which Roger Maris eventually did on the last day of the year. Imagine being seven-years-old, falling head over heels in love with baseball and your earliest memories are of Maris and Mantle and the great 1961 Yankees.

Anyway, now the Mets come into existence the next year and as a typically precocious and narcissistic eight-year-old, I thought the Mets were being created for me personally, because I was a new baseball fan. We were moving to Queens, the Mets were going to move to Queens. It's like okay kid here you go, have a team of your own. I remember night one, April 11th, 1962, I couldn't stay up for the whole game. I did go into my parents' room as my dad was getting dressed for work the next morning I said, "How'd the Mets do?" My father said they lost and I was disappointed, and that's how it started.

Matt Katz: How about that. Then at that point or was it much later on when you envisioned calling Mets games on TV and radio?

Howie Rose: That progressed and, I think, developed and evolved over time. I think my very first sports broadcast idol was Mel Allen. I think as a kid, boy, wouldn't that be cool and then as I got a little older-- I'll always remember one game in particular in 1966, when the Mets were playing the Giants and long story short, they were down five, nothing against [unintelligible 00:08:40] and came back to win the game [unintelligible 00:08:42] hit a pinch, hit home run to win it in the bottom of the ninth inning.

I was there with a friend of mine and all the way home on the Q27 bus from Main Street Flushing to Bayside the entire way home all I could think about was I wonder how Lindsay Bob and Ralph made it sound. I was 12-years-old then. If I had to point to a particular game that crystallized in my mind that broadcasting and specifically for the Mets was what I wanted to do. I probably could point to that very game.

Matt Katz: How about that. It's funny. I was at the game a few weeks ago with my seven-year-old son when the Mets came back in Philadelphia against the Phillies, they were down by seven [unintelligible 00:09:21] there, it was thrilling, my son said it was the best day of his life.

Howie Rose: He'll remember it. I bet you he remembers that day as long as he lives.

Matt Katz: Without question and [unintelligible 00:09:33] threw him a ball in between innings. Those moments when you're seven and eight years old really do stay with you. I will say because I wasn't listening to the game, when I got home I did go and listen to how the radio broadcast called that ninth inning, because I had to listen to it.

Howie Rose: You have the option to do that now. I didn't in 1966.

Matt Katz: That's right. I want to take a moment because you have also called Rangers games and there is a moment that New York sports fans will remember. The Rangers are now today almost at the point in their season when you made this famous call.

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Now is was Matteau's winning goal over the New Jersey devils in the seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals May 27th, 1994. Howie, do you believe that that call is now almost as famous as the play itself?

Howie Rose: Well, I've always lived in a little bit of disbelief at how that call has endured. It actually has fostered a relationship and a friendship between Stefan Matteau and myself which is cool. We're in touch now and then he lives in Florida as I do when the Mets are not playing, and we've played golf. You should see him and a golf ball, by the way. He's just such a good guy. Just a good person who really is interested in giving back. He does a lot of charitable things. He's around the garden from time to time during the year.

That level of fame that that one moment produced for him will be carried for the rest of his life in as responsible and special a fashion as you could imagine because he doesn't cash in on it. He's not looking to do things to make a buck off of it. He gives back. He's got a foundation and he is done a lot of charitable things and he's recognizable as a hockey name because of the goal. If the call helped along the way so be it but he's just a wonderful person and I'm proud to be a friend.

Matt Katz: That's great. You're listening to the Brian Lehrer Show. I'm Matt Katz filling in for Brian today. Listeners, who do you think will be the next New York team to win a championship? Do you have any questions for Howie Rose? Call us at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. I know you're, obviously, a professional baseball guy now but let's stick with the Rangers for a moment. The Ranger's going to win the Stanley cup for the first time since 1994?

Howie Rose: Well I'd still be surprised but then again I said all year I don't think they're ready. The character of the team certainly doesn't come into question the way they came back against Pittsburgh in the first round down three games to one and against Carolina losing the first two and finally beating them on their home ice in game seven. They've got to be better though than they've been the last couple of games and sometimes there's an event, as Mike Keenan calls it, that happens in the course of a game that can change the scope of an entire playoff series. Sometimes it's a goal, sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a penalty and I feared the worst after the Rangers took the two to nothing lead in game three.

They've got a chance to just put their foot on the throats of the lightning, but almost immediately upon taking that two to nothing lead Jacob Truitt takes the interference penalty and Tampa based scores on the power play. I just had a bad feeling that things might start to go downhill. They did in that game, they did in game four. They've got to be the team on home ice tonight that they were in the first games of this series but they're facing a different lightning team now than they played then. I don't care what anybody says whether it's baseball, hockey, basketball you lay off as long as they did after winning a playoff series easily or at least in four games they'll tell you it wasn't easy and they're probably right.

There's going to be an effect. It's going to take a little time to get your sea legs back and to become the team that they've been. Then I think that when they're backed up against the wall a little bit their championship medal is tested, it's come through with flying colors over the last two games. I expect the Rangers to have a much, much different opponent tonight than they did in the first two games of the garden. I hope they can get by. I'm not sold that they can. [unintelligible 00:14:23] got to be close to perfect and that's how I see things but, again, if they hold serve on home ice they're in the final so look at it that way.

Matt Katz: Excellent. Let's go back to baseball and let's go to the callers. Richard in Staten Island. Hi, there, Richard.

Richard: Yes, hi. I am another Mets fan and the fact that how we mentioned Juan Marichal as a giant fan brings back many fond memories of Juan Marichal. He was a great pitcher. Anyway, Howie, you gave one of the best calls I've ever heard. I was driving in my car, the Mets were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers and you had given the scores in the American league and the national league. One of the teams was the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and you said, "Well, that's the end of whatever inning that third inning and the score is the New York Mets three and the Brooklyn Dodgers the Los Angeles nothing." I started laughing.

Howie Rose: I remember that.

Richard: That was great.

Howie Rose: I remember that and the moniker or the official team name as it was Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If for no other reason then it's as easy to ridicule as I obviously made it sound that just was ridiculous.

Matt Katz: Howie, what's the future of baseball on the radio? You've taken to new technology like Twitter but the world is changing so quickly. What do you think?

Howie Rose: Boy, that's such a great question I'm bullish on it on one hand because there are many different ways that you can hear a baseball game as opposed to see it than there used to be. I know that the company I worked for probably wouldn't appreciate me plugging satellite radio but that is an option. They would prefer that I mention the Odyssey app which is a great option and a superior one. As I say between the MLB app, the Odyssey app, satellite there are many different ways to receive the content now than simply turning on your transistor radio or listening in the car.

We all grow up in this age of immediacy wanting to see everything now rather than hear it and there are options to do that as well. I'm just bullish on radio because I love the medium so much. I love the ability to take a blank canvas and create an image. That's what makes to me baseball broadcasting on radio maybe the biggest challenge in sports broadcasting because it's a different game. You don't just as you do in a hockey game strap yourself in and go for a ride. The game dictates what you're going to say because it's so fast and all you have to do is keep up.

In baseball it's a more languid pace and you've got to be able to weed stories in and out and not as so many young broadcasters do right now get to enthralled with statistics and throwing out all kinds of information that they want you to know that they have whether it's relevant or not. A listener can only absorb so much at once and a broadcaster's got to be able to control the pace and flow of how that information is disseminated and at the same time create a vivid image.

That vivid image is the biggest responsibility. That will never change. I think there are people who still appreciate hearing that, visualizing the game that way. The fact that it's a summer sport and people are outside and have the opportunity to do something else while they've got the game on the radio. However, they receive the content is what makes me think that baseball on the radio is and certainly something that will be around for a long time to come.

Matt Katz: I certainly hope so. It sounds like from that you prefer doing radio than TV. You've done plenty of TV but radio is where your heart is.

Howie Rose: It is from an artistic standpoint. Television is far more lucrative as we all know, and I walked away from a TV job so I can have my winters off. I'm not so sure as I came to just despise everything about winter particularly up north that if they played hockey during the summer I might not still be doing hockey. That was a TV job that paid about the same for half the work but the more romantic side of me will acknowledge that there's just nothing like calling baseball on the radio. That's how it's evolved, that's what I do, I'm proud to do it, I love every minute that I am doing it and I hope to do it for a while to come.

Matt Katz: We love listening to Howie Rose play-by-play legend, you can hear him call Mets games on WCBS 880. Howie, can we end with the catch phrase that you end every Mets game with please?

Howie Rose: In other words you'd like me to put it in the books.

Matt Katz: Amazing. I'm Matt Katz this is the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Thank you so much for listening.

Howie Rose: My pleasure, Matt.

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