Islanders television play-by-play man Howie Rose has announced that he has called his final game with the team according to Newsday so that he can concentrate on his duties as the radio voice of the Mets and to spend more time with his family. Rose has been the Islanders voice on MSG since 1995, immediately following his most iconic moment as a hockey announcer on Rangers radio during the ’94 ECF:
Rose had been with the Rangers for ten years before taking the Islanders gig, and combined that with being a host on WFAN radio and the radio play-by-play voice of the New York Mets. Rose, for 30 years, has been very busy.
“It’s the textbook definition of mixed emotions. That’s exactly what it is. I don’t know that I’ve ever been more conflicted about a decision I have had to make in my life. But I’m confident I made really the only one I could make at this point in time in my career and life. Strictly, it’s the idea that I could have an offseason like most people who do what I do for a living. Maybe my wife would disagree on some level, but I think it’s only right that she has her husband around more than he’s been. Again, that might be open to her interpretation. But at the end of the day it’s something that I do with, as I say, the epitome of mixed emotions.”
Rose hasn’t had the opportunity to call a lot of Islanders great moments, but you could hardly fault him between the team not being very good, and local announcers not getting the opportunity to call games on television past round one. But Rose can say his hockey swan song hit a high note.
His favorite moment with the Islanders was his final one — another double-overtime goal from behind the net, this one by John Tavares on April 24 to clinch a first-round playoff victory over the Panthers. It was the Islanders’ first postseason series victory of Rose’s tenure.
“That’s the one,” Rose said. “I don’t know how else to describe it but that it was my little Stanley Cup for the Islanders because we don’t do any more than the first round. I was really starting to become afraid that I would be known as the Horace Clarke of the Islanders and so when Tavares scored that goal it was a release, even a catharsis to an extent.”
https://youtu.be/fK2j2JGIL2w?t=5m27s
Rose has always been known as one of the better announcers in hockey, just as he has been for the Mets in baseball. And it’s amazing to be a jack of all trades and to perform those trades well, but Howie Rose did it for over 30 years. That’s incredible once you think about it. I’m sure he’ll miss hockey, but he’ll probably miss it a little less as he catches up on some sleep.
[Newsday]
