Baseball Broadcaster Impressions: New York Mets

Continuing the Baseball Broadcaster Impressions project today with a look at the New York Mets broadcasting teams. 

TV Broadcasters: Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling (Occasional fill-in for Ralph Kiner)

If any broadcasters have a drinking game then they are good announcers in my book. And the team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Gary Darling are good announcers in my book. In fact they're the only thing "good" about the Mets.

These three have a chemistry together that is hard to find. You'll listen to some broadcasters and you can tell they mainly just put up with each other to get through a broadcast (See: Miami Marlins, Oakland A's). These three though you can tell enjoy working with each other, making each other laugh, and enjoy calling a game together.

Gary Cohen isn't a sabermetrically familiar announcer like a Dave Flemming, but it is funny when he awkwardly tries to bring up sabermetric stats. For the most part Cohen is a fair announcers who gives opposing teams their fair due and isn't a big homer. Cohen is also a good moderator between Hernandez and Darling and doesn't have a chest full of cliches to use during the broadcast.

Keith Hernandez is the entertainment of the trio. Between falling asleep during a broadcast, mentioning his appearance on Seinfeld(I'm Keith Hernandez!), and his out of context sayings like "Dickey threw the hard one", it's hard not to like Hernandez on the Mets broadcasts. He's funny, entertaining, and can be insightful about fielding and hitting.


Ron Darling is the brains of the trio. He breaks down the pitchers like an Ivy League grad would. Darling though isn't a complete stuck up though as he will join in with Cohen making fun of Hernandez or will join Hernandez in telling stories about the glory of the 80's Mets.

Radio Broadcasters: Howie Rose, Josh Lewin

Rose and Lewin are solid radio announcers. Rose in particular is everything you want in a radio announcer. He describes the action with clarity, doesn't forget to mention the count or how many outs there are, and doesn't have any catchphrases. He's nothing spectacular and probably could tell a few more stories between pitches, but he's a solid announcer.

Lewin, while also not the greatest story teller, brings a solid knowledge of advance stats to the broadcast along with an occasional one-liner from Seinfeld. Lewin can be very dry, but that's not a big enough complaint to deter anyone from listening to Rose and Lewin.