You’d be hard-pressed to find a better play-by-play voice in the industry than Gary Cohen. Yes, it’s well established that Cohen, who was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame last month, grew up a fan of the New York Mets and is living out his childhood dream. At the same time, he’s never let that cloud his professionalism, as he’s often added a refreshing perspective to the SNY booth.
He, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are always rooting for the Mets, but don’t get it twisted, they have never backed down from telling it like it is. And Cohen has often done that this season, which hasn’t gone particularly well for the Mets. Despite a record $353 million Opening Day payroll, the team is just 43-50 on the year as of Monday. That puts them fourth in the National League East, 18.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves (whose Opening Day payroll was only $203 million).
And while the Mets had lost four straight dating back to before the All-Star break, the team got a much-needed win on Sunday over the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. Luis Guillorme plated Bretty Baty with a walk-off RBI double to give the Mets a 2-1 win in extra innings. After winning six straight games, the Mets had seemingly turned a corner, but four games against the Dodgers and San Diego Padres proved otherwise.
Cohen, the Mets’ local TV announcer, provided a call that was worthy of the moment on Sunday.
“And the Mets win the game 2-1 to put an end to this dastardly four-game losing streak.”
The Mets didn't simply snap a four-game losing streak. They snapped, in the words of Gary Cohen, a "dastardly four-game losing streak." pic.twitter.com/Boan4P6YR6
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 17, 2023
You can hear a slight pause in Cohen’s voice, as he chose his words carefully before landing on “dastardly.”
And he’s right. The Mets losing streak involved being one-hit by the Dodgers on Friday and losing due to a comedy of errors on Saturday could also be described as “wicked” or “cruel.” This isn’t the first time, Cohen has used some harsh words to describe the Mets, including last month’s 42nd loss that saw another bullpen meltdown:
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1673074619883098112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1673074619883098112%7Ctwgr%5E7f77349bfbf01e18f7d25070cf4da9c1bc4ac2ca%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fawfulannouncing.com%2Fmlb%2Fmets-gary-cohen-horrific-loss-buck-showalter.html
Perhaps Cohen will have some more opportunities to call some big moments for a Mets team that’s in desperate need of a big run. In any event, he’ll tell it like it is, just like he always has.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.