Howie Rose On His "Eternal gratitude" To Mets As He Retires

 

Howie Rose at Citi Field on Sunday morning. Photo by Jason Schott.

Mets radio announcer Howie Rose called his final game on Sunday, capping off a historic run behind the mic.

It was a surprise they were able to get in the game against the Philadelphia Phillies, but due to the bad weather, Rose's on-field celebration was postponed until Opening Weekend of next season.

Rose was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2023. Known for his "Put it in the books" call when the Mets win, he started with the Amazin's in 1987 when he hosted pre- and post-game shows on radio.

In 1996, Rose's run as the play-by-play voice for the Mets on television began, and he did that for nearly a decade before he shifted to the radio side in 2004. 

Rose graduated from Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, and a was a fixture at Shea Stadium as a kid. He was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 2012, and was also welcomed into the New York State Hall of Fame in 2019.

On Sunday morning, there was a press conference for Rose, and here is what he had to say before he called his final game:

"First of all, I just want to thank the Mets organization for honoring me, not only with their intentions for today, but in some ways even more so, when they could have just said, 'we'll do something a little more muted today,' but they were adamant about wanting to reschedule this for Opening Weekend next year, and I'm so flattered by that, particularly because there are so many emotions involved, running around inside me right now, and there's a certain, I don't know, melancholy, it can be kind of somber when you reach the end of a career, but you know, God willing, we'll all reconvene here next year, and it's going to be a party. It'll be happy, and I won't have to go to work right after the game, as I would have today, so, you know, in a sense, it's the best of both worlds, and I really, really appreciate everything the Mets have done to make this day possible, so thank you to them.

"Look, there are three people I just want to come around here a minute because they're the reason I'm here, my wife Barbara, my daughter Alyssa, and my daughter Chelsea. I'm not here without their indulgence, their support, and their love because, you know, the baseball life, it's not a life, it's like not having a life, especially when you're doing every game as a broadcaster, and for players, or uniform personnel. I can't believe it, (Mets Manager) Andy (Green), it used to be the Manager, didn't Maz (Lee Mazzilli, who was there), tell me, Lee, didn't you tell me you and Torre and Zimmer, you'd go to the track until three o'clock in the morning and then go to the ballpark. Now, I'm in the hotel on a road game, these guys are getting ready to go to the ballpark, 11, 12 o'clock in the morning, and that's every single day, for pretty much eight months when you consider when spring training really starts, and the season ends, so my eternal gratitude to everyone connected with the New York Mets.

"Andy, you've been nothing but great these last few months, and the more we have of you here, the better. I just want to add one thing, that I think there's some ironic symmetry to how this has worked out today because the New York Mets were scheduled to play their very first game in the National League on April 10th of 1962. They were in St. Louis, you know what happened? It was raining, and a lot of the guys, I think they were at the Chase Park Hotel, so they were all in that hotel, and would you believe this now? A whole bunch of them got stuck in the elevator on the way downstairs to the lobby, and it took a while to get there (to the ballpark). They finally get there, and what happens, game is postponed. So, all I would offer you as a suggestion for today, take the steps."

Howie Rose. Photo by Jason Schott.

On remaining tied exclusively to New York and not seek out national broadcasts like other announcers: I've done a few here and there, but I don't know that there is a network producer that can say he's got a demo tape of me on his desk; I never pursued it. It was never what I wanted to do. I always wanted to work for a team, ideally a team in New York, even more far-fetched, a team I love, and I had the opportunity to work for two of them, between the Mets and the Rangers, the two teams that controlled my moods growing up, and I've got friends and family who can vouch for that, and landlords who saw some ruins before we moved out, who can vouch for that, so I always wanted to be a local guy, especially in New York, and I know this sounds not the right thing to say, but in retrospect, I really did feel that, if I was working in New York, I didn't care about working anywhere else, you know, like the song says, right, so I'm very grateful to have the career that I've had, but particularly all here in New York and for the two teams that, you know, as a Rangers season ticket holder, and grew up in the upper deck at Shea Stadium. If somebody told me 'here's your career' when I was age 15, I wouldn't have believed it. I mean, the wildest fiction writer couldn't have come up with this, so I am very, very, very blessed.

On how he hopes fans remember him: As one of them. That's the nerve that touches me every time, you know, I was just the lucky one that got out of the upper deck into the broadcast booth. But, I maintain all along, it could have been any of them if they'd had those same aspirations, and maybe a lot of them did, so I always felt that I'm representing them because we have the same sensibilities, right. We have the same feel for what this club has meant to people over the years, and what's really complicated that, in a way, is just how they've treated me, not only this year, but for all the years that I've been doing this, but especially with everything I've read and heard over the last couple of weeks, you know, Barbara and I look at each other when we're reading another column, and go, 'who are they writing about? Who is this?' You know what, I remember Tom Seaver saying that, when he came within two outs of pitching a perfect game, and Art (Shamsky) and Cleon (Jones) [both were in attendance], you both remember it very well in 1969, he said, as he was on the mound in the latter innings of that game, he felt almost as though he were levitating; it was nearly an out-of-body experience to him, and that's what these last couple of weeks have really been. 

And, I have to thank Joe Torre too because, unknowingly, he gave me some advice, which I really heeded. He was in here a couple of weeks ago with his Safe At Home Foundation, and we were catching up because I've known Joe since he managed the Mets, and we're talking about this, and I told him, you know, the emotions are really taking hold now, and he just said to me with his little grin, he said, "don't fight it," because, as you know, Joe's a pretty emotional guy, and when he was accepting some of those World Championship trophies, he was crying, and I get that, and what his message really was, was don't suppress any of this, don't try to kick it to the curb and revisit it later - feel it, experience it, embrace it, so that's what I've been doing, and I don't think I can begin to understand it all until I get down to Florida and I come home all  pissed off because I shot a hundred again (on the golf course), and I need something to make me feel better, and I'll think back on all of this.

On what aspect of the job he won't want to forget: You, you, you, you, people, and I think it's that way in any business, really, any retirement party that anybody has, it's, you know, we root for the uniform, we know people in the offices, and I'm going to keep coming back to that same word, people, because if I start naming any, I'm going to leave people out, but everybody in the environs right down here, all the security people, the people who work in the media dining room, just all of the people you see on a daily basis that you smile and say hello to, and maybe we don't know a whole lot about each other personally, but they've been part of this journey for years and years and years. 

So, I'm gonna miss everything about it because this is really all I know how to do. I mean, I saw a clip recently on social media...Larry David, who likes to play golf was a driving range, and I don't think this was staged. Larry was not happy with how he was hitting them on the range, and there was a woman who kind of came into the shot, and said 'boy, you don't look pretty happy,' and he just says, 'you know what, God gave me the ability to do one and only on thing in this life,' he said, 'and that's comedy,' and I feel the same way about myself and broadcasting because, as my brother and sister - where are Debbie and Bruce? Stand up and wave please - they'll reiterate that I was raised to stay out of the way because I can't do a thing except talk into a microphone, so I look forward to trying something new and see if I emerge in one piece.