Howie Rose, radio voice of the Mets, says he will retire at season’s end

The legendary voice of the New York Mets, Howie Rose, will retire at the end of this season, he and the team announced Thursday.

Rose, a native of Bayside, Queens, will still be the master of ceremonies for any Mets on-field special events at Citi Field, including Opening Day, Mets Hall of Fame induction day and number retirements, the team said in a news release.

“It just feels amazing when I think back to being a kid in the upper deck at Shea Stadium,” Rose said Thursday, “knowing there was no chance I would ever get down to the field as a player, that I would move two levels down to the broadcast booths and stay there for so long is something I’m not even sure I’ve come to grips with yet.”

Rose has spent nearly 40 years calling Mets games — he’s been part of the team’s radio or TV broadcasts since 1987 — and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2023. This season will mark his 52nd year in broadcasting; he got his start in 1975 when he became one of the original voices of SportsPhone.

The 72-year-old has had a decorated career as a voice in New York, most notably with the Mets, but he has also been in the booth to call Rangers and Islanders games. His radio call of Stéphane Matteau’s goal in Game 7 of the 1994 conference finals that put the Rangers into the Stanley Cup Final is one of the greatest in sports broadcasting history, with Rose memorably repeating, “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!”

Rose revealed in February 2023 that two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. He has continued broadcasting but has reduced the number of road games he calls. Rose is scheduled to call all 81 home games this season and three Subway Series matchups in the Bronx, but no other road games.

“It’s time,” Rose said. “I’m very comfortable with the decision.”

Rose was eight years old when the Mets played their first game, and his family moved to Queens that year, as if preparing for the Mets’ arrival at Shea Stadium two summers later. Much of Rose’s youth was spent in Shea’s upper deck; he carved his initials into his preferred wooden seat in Section 1.

His professional career never took him to a job outside of New York. And so, it can feel like Rose has seen every game the Mets have ever played.

“He is the custodian of Mets’ history,” said Gary Cohen, the Mets’ TV broadcaster and Rose’s radio partner for two years. “He goes back to the first days of the franchise so that for people who are not as old as we are, he brings full circle the history of the ballclub and the feeling of what it is to be a Mets fan. … He is an indelible piece of the Mets’ firmament.”

“He’s an encyclopedia on Mets history,” said Phillies TV broadcaster Tom McCarthy, who partnered with Rose for two seasons himself. “Nobody will be able to understand it the way he understood it. Mets fans will miss that he was one of them.”

“His passion for the Mets has carried across the airwaves and into the homes and hearts of fans everywhere, bringing the franchise’s most memorable moments to life,” said Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen in a statement. “Generations of Mets fans have grown up listening to Howie call the game with authenticity, energy, and a deep appreciation for what this team means to our community.”

Rose said Thursday that he never wanted to overstay his time in the booth. He also alluded to possibly losing a bit “off his fastball.” That was wrong. He still brings it.

The Mets’ 2024 season offered strong material. Rose made the most of it. His call on Pete Alonso’s home run in the National League Wild Card series instantly reached legendary status. On the plane after the game, players gave Rose an ovation.

“I realized I sat next to Matteau! Matteau! Matteau! 2.0,” Rose’s broadcast partner Keith Raad said. “Not that it came out of nowhere, but it was like, holy s–t. He just made that the most memorable moment ever, and he met it perfectly.”

“I just embrace so many of those moments,” said Rose, whose famous calls for the Mets also include Mike Piazza’s home run in the first home game after 9/11 and Johan Santana’s no-hitter. “Being able to make calls at big moments and, if not nail them, at least not embarrass myself, that’s the most gratifying thing to me.”

“He brings a joy and an understanding and a commiseration at times of what it means to be a Mets fan,” said Gary Cohen. “People respond to that.”

Rose’s dedication separates him from his peers. He jokes with colleagues often about how he wishes he could sometimes show up for a game at 7 p.m., just in time for first pitch. Rose doesn’t operate that way. He still arrives at the ballpark more than four hours before the game to obsess over notes, talk with players and participate in the daily pregame news conference with the manager.

Another former partner, Wayne Hagin, called Rose “the preparation king.”

Rose is at his best when he is relaying nuggets of vital information and analyzing possible moves during lulls in the action.

“I feel like I think like a manager now because Howie has taught me that,” Raad said.

“He is as true a play-by-play announcer as you will find, just from a style, a passion and an intelligence standpoint,” McCarthy said.

He will retire among the all-time greats in Mets broadcasting history, including Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner, Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. For Rose, being in the same breath as Murphy, Nelson and Kiner — the broadcast trio he grew up with — is beyond a dream come true.

“That’s the most flattering thing anyone can say to me,” he said about such comparisons, “and the sentiment that humbles me the most.”