Ultimate Mets Database - Memories of Howie Rose

Glen Slater
April 23, 2002
Gary Thorne is Mr. Loud and Annoying. Fran Healy is Mr. Annoying and Mr. Buffoon. Howie Rose puts it ALL together: He's Mr. Loud, Pretentious, Arrongant, AND Annoying. Add an air of self-importance to all that, and what have you got? Howie Rose. He takes buffoonery to heights never achieved by even that great newsman, Ted Baxter.

He knows a lot about Mets history, I will give him credit for that, at least. But he will just about bash you over the head with a shovel to let you KNOW that he KNOWS. Allright, Howie, we get the point, already. We're impressed. Now please go home.

With all of the boredom, pretentiousness, self-importance, buffoonery, arrogance, and loudness perpetuated between Howie Rose, Gary Thorne, and Fran "What Do You Get When You Cross Kermit The Frog with Julia Child?" Healy, it makes want to get down on your knees and thank God for inventing capsulated Tylenol.

NJTank
May 18, 2002
I don't understand why people don't like him. I think he is a great Play by Play announcer. I know being with Healy hurts him, but when he with Hernandez or Kiner he shines.

Ed K
May 29, 2002
Howie did the pre-game show for several years when Davey Johnson was manager and clearly wanted to get to do play by play. One season, maybe because a regular announcer was out for a while, the Mets had what can only be termed as auditions on the air by bringing in young guest announcers for a few games. Howie didn't get asked and was clearly ticked off. I also remember him interviewing Davey before each game and doing a lot of second guessing. Davey got so annoyed that he reportedly tried to get Howie fired. Howie sure knows a lot of Met history though. I guess he really studies those books he keeps putting Met games into.

Mr. Sparkle
May 30, 2002
Last night Howie voiced his opinion about the uniform as the Mets wore the traditional pinstripes with the blue caps. He loves the traditonal uniforms and made that clear last night without slamming the ugly black ones. It was good to hear him say it although I'm sure he has to be careful about what he does say.

And I love to hear him say "Put it in the books!"

Feat Fan
June 22, 2002
Gracious and accomodating when I called him on old WHN pregame show....Jewish boy from Bayside and a Beatles fan...How can you go wrong!

Jimmy Jude -The Battlecats
September 4, 2002
Howie Rose has a GREAT voice. His play by play is better than any in the game. When he calls games for the Islanders, it adds to the excitement.

Mr. Sparkle
December 24, 2002
I used to love Howie on the FAN with Mets extra. He was a huge fan and always was a straight shooter. I love him now doing the games and he adds excitement to the game. He's great with Mets trivia. He has a giggle like a little girl and is one ugly dude but I think he does a great job in the booth. He must love working with Hernandez, Seaver, Kiner and the immortal Bob Murphy.

Metsmind
December 28, 2002
This guy is the bushest announcer ever to hit NYC airwaves. He NEVER shuts up, and unlike his boothmates who actually played the game and may once in a while have some insight, he just rambles like this run on sentence. Clearly a guy who just likes to hear himself talk. What Met fan give a flying f+++ if his daughter is scared of Mr Met? Give the Uniform number and batting average, mention the score now and again and who fielded the ball. That's what play-by-play men do. Or else shut up. Better yet-- go work for Bud Selig's brewers. Two blowhards meant for each other.

Bob R.
January 9, 2003
Gee, I haven't seen or heard Howie in over 20 years, but I went to Queens College with him when he started his radio career at the college station. It used to be fun talking sports with him (especially about the Rangers) and listen to his Marv Albert imitations while smoking a joint (Hey it was the 70's! Lighten up!) Anyway, I'm glad Howie made it big time in sports broadcasting.

Kenny Leichtling
June 5, 2003
I recognized the picture on this site as the kid I used to hang around with at PS 205 in Queens. I'm pretty sure he wore glasses. We were in the same class for several years and were two nerdy but nice little kids...He did not have a special personality that would have told you he was going places.

Brooklyn511
June 17, 2003
Earlier this season Howie Rose said: "This year the all-star game will be determining the home-ice advantage for the World Series."

Jonathan Stern
October 10, 2003
Because he had been my favorite WFAN personality, I have been pulling for Howie Rose ever since he joined the Mets broadcast team. Somehow it hasn't worked out. He has gotten his facts wrong on the air (i.e. Answered a trivia question by saying that John Franco, not Ed Kranepool, had put in more consecutive years with the Mets), has never developed chemistry with any of the other announcers, and seems to have been vanilified in his tone and insight. Maybe the front office ordered him to soften the blows the day they first hired him. Whatever the case, it hasn't worked as well a I had hoped it would. Ed Coleman would be the better guy in the radio booth with Gary Cohen, while neither Rose nor the excellent Ted Robinson can salvage any broadcast with Fran Healy. If Rose proves to be the odd man out, I'd feel terrible, but I would not have difficulty understanding why. I hope he stays.

Steve Davis
November 15, 2003
A very solid announcer. Has great phrases such as "Put it in the Books" when the Mets win and a very different but amuzing Home Run call "That's a goner" I think he comes in a close second to Gary Cohen for Met Play by Play announcer. I actually think Rose & Healy make a good combo and hope they can do more games together in 04.

THe Big Mook
November 15, 2003
I like Howie. Good play-by play caller. Love his old Baseball extra and Hot stove shows. Howie is living our dream. A true fan who finds himself in front of the mike.

Joe Figliola
November 27, 2003
I agree with Steve Davis. Howie's very consistent. Oh, and let's not forget one of my favorite calls, "Put a circle around that one," when he describes an outstanding defensive effort. I also like that Howie's very in tune with Met history, right down to the dates and scores. He's great to listen to.

The only drawback I have about Howie is that he's calling Islander games. Maybe that's why the Rangers haven't returned to the playoffs in so long. "MATTEAU! MATTEAU! MATTEAU!"

Rosey
March 13, 2004
Unbearable, unlistenable and wordy beyond belief. He makes Tom Seaver sound like a humble man.

Mike
May 22, 2004
Howie is the ultimate expert on Mets history. While listening to him broadcast games, he will always tell stories about specific games that he remembers from his childhood. He knows that exact dates, scores, matchups, etc. I like his style of announcing, and him and Gary make a great team (Gary calling 1st,2nd,5th,6th,8th and 9th, and Howie calling the 3rd,4th,and 7th) He is a true diehard Mets fan, and a traditionalist (He hates the Mets alternate uniforms and only wants them to wear the pinstipes and BLUE caps). He is also a really nice guy...I met him a couple of times in the Shea parking lot before and after games and is very friendly and loves talking Mets baseball. I hope Howie and Gary remain a team for many years to come!

Jonathan Stern
August 6, 2004
Now here's a reason for a Met fan to feel good. Despite preseason comments by Mike and the Mad Dog about Howie Rose and Gary Cohen hating each other's guts (are Mike and the Dawg really believable anymore?) not only does that not come through at all, if it's even true, but the two of them are making sports broadcasting history. Above, I wrote that I suspected that Howie was hampered by Fran when he was on TV, though I wasn't sure. Now I am. The radio booth, combined with his being paired with the incomparable Cohen, has brought out the best in the former WFAN personality and I couldn't be happier for him. I hope these guys stay together for another thirty years. No matter how the season goes, they make listening to the Mets on the radio as artistic as anything I have ever heard from Orson Welles. I don't even own cable anymore.

David
October 21, 2004
One half of the best broadcast duo in Sports today. Howie , and Gary add humor, smarts, amazing chemistry, and knowledge of the game. The call the game the way it should be called they don't try to make themselves bigger than the game like that clown Sterling. Let's hope Howie, and Gary stay together for a long time.

Putbeds 62
December 23, 2005
Funny, knowledgeable and then some. When he was on the TV side and there was a night game and the camera would show a shot of a full moon, He would do the introductions of "The Honeymooners" etc. Now, whenever I look out into the sky and there is a full moon, I think of Howie Rose. Now that Gary Cohen is going to SportsNet NewYork; lets hope that newcomer Tom McCarthy and him click like Gary and Howie did these last few years.

Mark Corrao
March 29, 2006
Howie Rose is great! He is a local guy and a true fan of the sports he broadcasts. Those who don't like him, you can simply turn down the volume. The majority of us enjoy him. How sweet it is!

Kenny Leichtling
April 8, 2006
I knew Howie Rose from PS 205 on Bell Blvd. in Bayside Queens. I think we were in the same third grade class. He was a skinny kid with glasses. A nice guy.

marc
June 4, 2006
As a kid, I used to love listen to Howie as host of Mets Extra... first on WHN and then on WFAN. However, as a play-by-play announcer he SUCKS! He's corny, not very insightful, and downright annoying. It is such a shame that the Mets replaced a great talent like Gary Cohen with such a pitiful announcer.

Am I the only one who feels this way? If I'm off base, let me know.

Steve
September 1, 2006
Marc you are entitled to your opinion but I disagree. I think Howie is a very solid announcer and does a good job with the play by play. He may be a notch below Gary Cohen who is one of the best in the business. Howie is also very good and recently did an excellent job filling in for Gary after he had his appendix removed. I would love to see SNY or FAN find a way to rotate their announcing crews and have Howie sitll work some games with Gary as I think they are a great team.

Mr. Met
September 1, 2006
Howie did a hellluva job filling in for Gary Cohen when he had appendicitis. His interaction with Hernandez and Darling was superb. Funny how a guy that is so maligned by some of the less-informed people on this site runs rings around anyone that YES has to offer.

Jeremy Cohen-Rosenblatz-Feldstein
September 15, 2006
Howie Rose is the best announcer the Metsies have ever had!

More Howie please!

Why not make him the "Voice of the Mets" in all of their promos and TV works as well.

Nobody better than Howie!

James Cooney (jimmy jude -the battlecats
October 1, 2006
I wish Howie was on TV once in a while. I think Gary does a great job with Keith and Ron, but I wish Howie had a few games. His love of the Mets and his passion for the game are evident in his calling in the booth. I get the same feeling when he says "put it in the books" as when Ralph Kramden said "baby you're the greatest" ...both mean it's over and it's time to go to bed! I will listen to Howie throughout the playoffs on the radio and watch the nationally televised games with the sound off.

KennyJoe
December 30, 2006
Howie, you rock! I love your call when the Mets win "put it in the books" and your Mets home run call "gone!!" Well, actually that's kinda common. But you belong on the radio; it's perfect for you. I gotta go watch SNY. (I'm only 10.)

Eric
September 16, 2007
Howie makes it difficult to listen to a game. His nasal tone drones on inning after inning. He has no chemistry with his partner and is most happy when speaking on and on and on. Howie never lets the game speak for itself, he feels compelled to give his opinion , usually more than once until we either accept his premise or just change the channel.

I have been a lifelong Met fan and grew up with Bob Murphy painting a beautiful "word picture". Please Mets replace him NOW.

Jimrat
April 29, 2008
Howie was the first sportscaster I ever heard that was from a Met fan's generation. When talking about his youth experiences, he would only mention Shea Stadium and Mets' games and players. There were no referrals to any Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field or any people from those days. Starting out as a Mets' fan myself, it was nice to hear someone on the air who was just like me.

It wasn't so nice, though, when Howie compared the Mets' teams of the 80's to the Yankees of the late 70's. He used to say that those Bronx guys were "winners" while the Mets often came up short. It was shocking that he was not more supportive of the team he covered and cheered when he was a kid. There was no reason for him to be this way.

Howie should have looked at that situation like this: From 1984 to 1990, the Mets won two East Division titles and had five second place finishes. The teams that won it those years (Cubs twice, Cardinals twice, Pirates once) eventually became Central Division teams. Also, the Mets had better records than the Braves (in the West at that time) every one of those years. In other words, if the 3-division alignment was in use in the 80's, the Mets would have been East Champions SEVEN YEARS IN A ROW!! That is something that 'Reggie & Co.' didn't do, and still wouldn't in a 3-division setup!

The Mets of the 80's WERE winners, Howie! Only the format deprived them of their chances to prove how much.

Otis Evans
June 29, 2008
Howie: Please, take a breath. Talk, talk, talk. It's about the game, Howie, not you. Just tell us what is going on on the field.

Matty
August 4, 2008
I really think Howie Rose should be the play-by-play man on SNY. He does a good job with the Islanders and has experience on TV.

But, this is coming from a guy who isn't the biggest Gary Cohen fan, losing interest in Cohen big time and most of the time I have to mute the TV

The Big h
May 18, 2009
Howie knows the Mets as well as anyone. Overall he is pretty good. I certainly like his "Put it in the books" close, better than the clown across town who whinnies into the microphone like a horse on its deathbed, "the ******s win, the ******s win". Although I hope JJ Putz has a lot of success with the Mets, I would don't want to hear Howie do what he did on Putz's first save, which was "JJ Putz it in the books."

Unacceptable!

community chest
March 19, 2011
Here's a very funny memory of Howie's early days doing Mets Extra in the late '80s. Back then, he had a talent for rudeness with fans that would've made Howard Cosell blush. He was brutal, particularly when a caller displayed ignorance of Mets history, which is his specialty. One night it got so bad that fans started calling Steve Somers' show to complain about Howie! I vividly remember two female callers in a row begging Somers to do something about Howie Rose, until finally Steve sheepishly said, "I'll talk to him." Flash forward a couple of decades, and Howie is everything you could want in a play-by-play man.

Nick
May 29, 2011
I'm a fairly a new listener of Howie Rose, but what I have noticed is he has a good radio voice and seems to know his stuff. One thing that annoys me is the constant mention of the weather throughout the entire game. Whether he's complaining how cold it is or what not. It gets very tiring to hear him talk about the weather as if he was a meteorologist.

Gets by Buckner
July 23, 2011
You can feel Howie's passion for the Mets when he broadcasts...especially when the opposing team gets a hit and he says "that is now 7,903 games in Mets history without a no-hitter." Howie...I hope in your lifetime you get to see a Met no-hitter!

Hot Foot
May 23, 2012
I have to completely agree with community chest's comments from last year. I have two impressions of Howie Rose- the super-mean radio call in show host from the 80s, and the current voice of the Mets on the radio.

I remember when I was a kid I used to feel bad for the people who called into his show. He seemed to enjoy being mean to the callers. The slightest thing would tick him off and give him an excuse to tell them how stupid they were. The worst was when people suggested hypothetical trades that were one-sided in the Mets favor. Then he would really go off.

Now I like listening to him on the radio. I think he does a good job with the play by play and I like when talks about Mets history. He also seems a lot nicer nowadays. The mean Howie doesn't come out anymore. Thankfully he's mellowed out a bit.

Jonathan Stern
May 23, 2012
Has there ever been a better signature call then "Put it in the books!" I can't think of any.

Dennis
August 31, 2013
Put it in the books! Might be a nice ending to the game but that's where it ends for me as far as calling Howie a great play by play man.

Basically I will sum up my displeasure with Howie's style by saying , could he possibly shut up once in a while? I like a good story once in a while during a broadcast but Howie talks so much about matters not directly related to the game that a whole inning can go by and I have no idea what happened. It's like calling balls and strikes or a hit or out is incidental to the broadcast.

I know things have changed in the broadcast booth in the last few years in so much as these announcers think we tune in because we want to listen to them talk.

Trust me we don't! What we want is a full description of the activities on the field. For example and I quote, the pitcher is looking in for the sign here' s the wind up and the pitch fastball outside ball one.

Then I would like him to shut up let us hear some of the crowd noise if he must talk, talk about something that has to do with the game at hand.

Howie has plenty of stories to tell. Fine. He should save them for his books and personal appearance.

For this Met fan can only wish for the days of Kiner, Nelson and Murphy.

Eric Tartaglione
August 11, 2015
I think Howie is fantastic. When he shared the radio with Gary Cohen, I likened them to the Red Barber and Mel Allen of our generation.

Shickhaus Franks
November 28, 2015
His call of the last out in Game 4 of the 2015 NLCS is an all-time classic and he yelled THE METS WIN THE PENNANT (before he yelled PUT IT IN THE BOOKS!) just like Russ Hodges did in 1951 when Bobby Thompson hit that classic HR off of Ralph Branca to win the NL Pennant! It's going to wind up being his Mets baseball version of "MATTEAU! MATTEAU! MATTEAU!"

Eric Tartaglione
June 20, 2016
Howie is the industry standard for broadcast excellence. When he was working with Gary Cohen I said they were the Red Barber and Mel Allen of the 21st Century

Jim Snedeker
March 26, 2019
Howie is the best. With him on the radio and Gary, Keith and Ron doing TV, the Mets have the absolute best set of broadcasters anywhere. Put that in the books!

John Carrick
February 8, 2023
I hope he gets better. I'm a big fan of his. I see him all the time on the TV. I listen to him broadcasting the Met games on the radio and when they retire jerseys into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I met him in an elevator at Citi Field and he was very friendly and nice. I liked it when the game was over, he would say "Put it in the books!" I wish him a speedy recovery and hope he keeps broadcasting games. Sincerely, John Carrick

Eric Tartaglione
June 24, 2023
Met him at Mets Fantasy Camp. Nice guy and engaging. Great broadcaster ! When he and Gary Cohen did radio together it was something . They are the Mel Allen and Red Barber of their generation

Mike Fuchs
October 7, 2024
"...It's gone!!! He did it! He did it! Pete Alonso with the most memorable home run of his career!"

With this iconic call, a legend immortalized one of the greatest moments in Mets history. Howie Rose’s voice has become synonymous with Mets baseball, and over the years, the baseball world has come to recognize what we Mets fans have always known: he’s one of the best. The call, and the video of it being played over the team plane’s PA system, with players high-fiving and embracing Howie, still gives me goosebumps. For nearly 30 years, we’ve been lucky to have Howie narrating our summers. And I can only hope that one day soon, he’ll get to deliver the ultimate "Put it in the Books!" for Mets fans everywhere. From one Bayside boy to another, thank you, Howie, for being the voice of our memories.