Mets fans like myself tend to be loyal to a fault and forever seeing the glass as half-full. That’s especially true among the ones who are less seasoned than moi who are about to begin their 40th season without a world’s championship. But at least over that span they’ve been able to count on a constant presence in their lives who had a far longer and deeper connection to the team whose gravely Queens accent was a perpetual reminder than someone just like them was along for the ride. Yesterday we all learned that was about to come to an end. As the nameless at ESPN reported:
Longtime New York Mets broadcaster Howie Rose announced Thursday he is planning to retire at the end of the season after spending four decades with the organization. Rose, 72, began his Mets broadcasting career in 1987 and has served as the team’s lead play-by-play radio voice since 2006.
Rose began his Mets broadcasting career in 1987 as a pregame and postgame host who occasionally handled play by play. He transitioned to television in 1996 as the Mets’ lead announcer and stayed in that role through 2003. Rose returned to the radio booth in 2004, initially working with Gary Cohen and then taking over as the Mets’ lead radio voice.
Rose explained his retirement decision by saying “I just felt it was time.” Rose noted that while he maintains a home in New York he spends most of his time in Florida. He also talked about wanting to spend more quality time with his family. “My wife and daughters, Alyssa and Chelsea, have sacrificed so much for so long,” Rose said.
And as DEADLINE’s Dade Hayes explained to his readers, this was news that transcended far beyond, as Rose sardonically refers to the Mets’ Citi Field home, “the Great Wall of Flushing”:
While not a truly national media figure, Rose has cultivated a strong following in the New York area in the decades since joining Mets broadcasts in 1987. He capped off every win by the team by crying out his signature phrase, “Put it in the books!”
That aside, it was the anecdote that he shared that the ESPN bots picked up that makes this one all the more bittersweet for moi:
“I’m just feeling amazing when I think back to being a kid in the upper deck at Shea Stadium, knowing that there was no way I was ever going to get down to the field as a player,” Rose said during an online news conference. “That I could move, I guess it was two levels down from the upper deck to where the broadcast booths were, that was just fine. And the fact that I’ve been able to achieve that and stay there for so long is something that I’m not even sure I’ve come to grips with yet.”
I was also one of those kids in the upper deck at Shea Stadium, frequently enjoying $1.30 seats with a Sabrett’s hot dog, naturally topped with Gulden’s Spicy Brown Mustard–the very same mustard that Sharon Grote, wife of Mets’ catcher Jerry, shamelessly hocked in commercials that always seemed to air on the shows I watched. Washed down with a lukewarm container of Sun Dew orange drink (most definitely not juice). The very same crap that Rose would be responsible for lugging coolers filled with it to the tables that served as home bases at North Shore Day Camp, which is when I first crossed paths with him.
The camp was based at a park mere minutes from Shea, and at the time Rose was a long-haired hippie who was making a few bucks (and trust me, it was well below minimum wage) as a counselor where I was one of the more frequently misbehaving kids in attendance. On a typical day the biggest things we would have to be concerned about was avoiding catching poison ivy and avoiding finding the dead bodies that we were told turned up along the hiking trails we were supposed to get our exercise in on. On occasion the camp owners would bring in guest speakers that they knew from their tony Long Island neighborhoods, and on more than one occasion we were treated to a visit from Art Shamsky, one of the unsung heroes of the Mets’ miracle 1969 championship team and a nice Jewish boy to boot. Yes, you fans of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, the very same Shamsky that was Ray Barone’s hero and the inspiration for the name of his dog. It was on those visits where I’d most often see Rose, even then peppering with questions and sharing his unabashed fandom with him.
How serendiptous and inspiring it was to eventually see Rose introducing him on numerous Old Timers’ Days and number retirement ceremonies– a role Rose claims he will continue to have even in “retirement”. Certain loves transcend time and supercede health and family. I know that’s something else Rose and I have in common besides our respective distant pasts.
Fortunately, Mets fans still will have Rose for at least 84 more games–all of this year’s Citi Field home games and the three road games at Yankee Stadium. The good Lord and the potential of Carson Benge willing there will be some additional post-season games. Hoping against hope that Rose might be able to put his career in the books with a long-desired call of a world’s championship that he just missed out on at the onset.
So if you have access to a super sugary tepid fake orange juice of your own hoist a glass in celebration and join in with the same chant we’d intone while riding the school buses through the steamy streets of Queens on humid summer days as tribute to North Shore Day Camp. “We all love you, YEAH!!!!!”
Courage…