Howie Rose has been synonymous with the New York Mets organization for nearly three decades.
Rose has called Mets play-by-play on radio or television since 1995. Rose spent eight years on TV before replacing iconic announcer Bob Murphy on WFAN Radio for the 2004 season. Rose remained the lead radio voice through the team’s move from WFAN to WOR and later from WOR to WCBS, where they remain.
While the 70-year-old Rose is still going strong, his schedule was scaled back earlier this year.
Rose had cut his schedule from 162 games to 125 after being diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2022. He told Newsday before the 2024 MLB season that he’ll be cutting his schedule even further, expecting to call around 100 games.
As Rose eases into the twilight of his broadcasting career with a slightly lighter schedule, former Mets manager Terry Collins took the opportunity on his The Terry Collins Show to ask the beloved announcer about his future plans.
“I’m gonna sound like a player here now, but I go year-by-year at this point,” Rose replied. “You know, we get to the finish line. I take a month to decompress, and I kill every remaining worm in South Florida with my ridiculously bad golf prowess. I mean, Terry, you can’t start playing this game at my age and think you have a chance, but for some stupid reason, it’s fun. Once I get a month of that under my belt, I take a deep breath because I’m decompressed at that point.
“I talk it over with my wife and say, ‘OK, do we have another year in us?’ And if we come to the answer is yes, then I go on…And my mindset is, ‘Do this year and one more, and then see where we’re at.'”
Collins, voicing the thoughts of countless Mets fans, pleaded with Rose, hoping he’d be around for a “long, long time.”
We certainly like to share that sentiment, as well.
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.