Howie Rose loved his job calling Islanders games, but the Mets are his life.
“They are in my DNA. They are in my blood, it’s my life’s work,” Rose said.
“I can’t be more adamant about the fact that this is what I do in the most enjoyable sense. Look, it’s a business, and we have to make decisions that are right for financial reasons. The thought of stepping away from the Mets — I don’t care what the number says (Rose is 62 years old), I am young, I am a kid. I am looking at this with a long-term vision.”
Rose made the difficult decision to walk away from the Islanders booth last week after 20 years as their lead play-by-play man on MSG Network. But that move was not a prelude to him leaving his role as the radio voice of the Mets on WOR 710, which he currently shares with Josh Lewin.
Rose’s love affair with the sport started in 1961 and the Roger Maris-Mickey Mantle home run race.
“It was eye-opening beyond anything I could have ever imagined,” Rose said. “When I walked into the ballpark the entire outside world ceased to exist. What a year to be introduced to the sport and then the Mets coming along the next year … being the typically selfish and narcissistic kid, I thought the Mets were created for me. And then [1969] was a sports euphoria that will never be matched because I will never be 15 again.”
As the Mets celebrate the 30-year anniversary of their most recent World Series this weekend, Rose hits his 29th year involved with the franchise. He started doing pregame and postgame reports on the radio for the team in 1987, a season after they conquered the baseball world.
“I get teased a lot because my first year as a Mets broadcaster was right after that,” said Rose, who has bounced between the TV and radio booth in those 29 years.
But Rose was in Shea Stadium in 1986 as a reporter for CBS Radio, calling in updates periodically and providing postgame sound from the clubhouse. Rose remembers turning his recorder on when the team was down to its last out in Game 6, and left it on through the stirring comeback.
“If someone only had saved that tape. Who knows what they’d hear?” Rose said.
Now, Rose is hoping for his chance to call Mets’ World Series history. The team is positioned to be in contention for years to come with its young pitching, and is the defending National League pennant winner.
“That’s the unfinished business,” Rose said. “Believe me, when those words: ‘The Mets win the pennant’ came out of my mouth in Chicago [last October] that was an amazing moment of introspection for me.
“In the few seconds it took to make the final call when [Jeurys] Familia struck out Dexter Fowler, it’s like my whole childhood of sports dreams flashed in front of me. The germ of a dream to broadcast for the Mets and ultimately in the World Series, and knowing they were going was such a huge, huge thrill. But that’s not the biggest thrill. It is up until now — but there’s still room for one more.”