NY Mets: Top SNY Moments from the 2021 season

New York Mets fans are spoiled with the best broadcast team in baseball. Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, and Steve Gelbs, along with the entire SNY crew, put together broadcasts that are entertaining and funny, yet also informative and educational. Even when the team is getting blown out or on a prolonged losing streak, fans watch the games to see Gary, Keith, Ron, and Steve.

Cohen is an amazing play-by-play caller. He has a sense of what moments matter most and calls them with childlike enthusiasm. He also expertly sets up Keith and Ron to talk about how they would handle certain situations based on their playing experience. Keith and Ron talk about hitting and pitching, respectively, with incredible detail and offer tremendous insight. Gelbs is an integral part of Mets broadcasts from the first base camera well, or wherever his stories take him, which can be anywhere.

Thanks to this mixture of wit, intuition, and storytelling, fans with differing levels of interest in baseball can enjoy Mets broadcasts. There’s something for everyone, whether it’s the baseball knowledge and history, the humor, or the wide range of stories that get told. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Mets fan who, after watching a Mets game, didn’t feel some sort of satisfaction.

Thank you to Shea Station for putting together a highlight video of some of the best booth moments this season, which was very helpful with this story! Let’s take a look at some of the top moments from Mets broadcasts in 2021.

Mets broadcast moment #4: The M&M Conversation

How you doin’?!

The classic Joey Tribbiani line made it on a broadcast this season. The Mets were hosting the Cardinals at Citi Field, and with Lars Nootbaar at the plate, Gary, Keith, and Ron, started talking about candy. Specifically, a fictional “Nootbaar.” Keith decided that a “Nootbar” would contain nougat, nuts, and a little caramel. Sounds pretty good to me.

Keith and Gary decided that this fictional candy bar would be an M&M product with a red color “for gusto and attitude,” according to Gary and “for the Cardinals,” according to Keith. They then started talking about the M&M’s on the left field wall. Gary decided the red, blue, and green M&M’s were New Yorkers, while the yellow one was more midwestern and friendlier like St. Louis.

The camera then zoomed in on the blue M&M and Ron chimed in “The blue one’s like ‘How you doin’?!’” They all shared a laugh over that one.

Watch the Joey Tribbiani moment here.

Mets broadcast moment #3: The Fake-Background Exposé

The Mets were on the road in Miami, Gary and Ron were calling the game from Connecticut, Steve was in the SNY studios in Manhattan, and there was a concert at Citi Field. Just your usual broadcast.

I don’t know the context of this, but the clip starts with Gelbs saying “I can’t see anything” over James McCann batting. SNY then cuts to a quad box of the four locations mentioned above, with Steve poking at the background behind him saying, “I know it looks… this is not real.” Gary got a case of the giggles from this.

“None of it’s real,” Ron replied.

“The illusion is part of what makes this work, Steve, and now you’ve busted the entire illusion!” Gary said.

“I’m nothing if not honest, I’m nothing without my integrity,” Steve said. “This is fake,” he added declaratively.

Gary started talking about how beautiful the view is from the SNY studios, prompting Steve to pull up the curtain. Unfortunately, there were no windows back there, just a blank wall.

“You should be getting the email, just about now, Steve,” Ron said. “From corporate,” Keith chimed in.

Watch it here.

Mets broadcast moment #2: The Ghost of Kevin Burkhardt

Michelle Margaux was making her TV Aux Two debut, filling in for Steve Gelbs. To put Michelle’s nerves at ease, SNY put together an epic montage of Gelbs acting as if he was about to go live on his first broadcast.

The clip starts with Gelbs telling himself “You got this.” twice. He’s very fidgety in his swivel chair. Next, he tries to say “Back to you, Gare,” but his voice cracks and he tells himself to be “strong.”

After tooting his own horn about his admittedly pretty-nice shirt, the next clip is of him gasping for air, sweating, and getting his blood pressure checked. He tries to say “Back to you, Gare,” again but his voice cracks even worse.

“You’re going to be fine. I mean, he’s not a God, he’s a human. I just feel like I can’t get away from this guy,” Gelbs says as a crew member slides a picture of Kevin Burkhardt into the set. Gelbs turns his chair around and exits the frame as the camera zooms in on Kevin’s smiley headshot.

In the next clip, Gelbs is breathing into a paper bag. He then tries to say “Back to you, Gare,” again with his worst voice crack yet. The clip ends with Gelbs’ head in his hands as he gets his blood pressure checked one last time.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to follow that, guys,” Margaux said.

“You’ve got a long way to go. Enjoy every moment,” Gary said encouragingly. “At least you don’t have [Kevin] looming over your shoulder.”

“I was wondering why Gelbsy was aging like a President. Now I know why,” Ron joked.

Watch below.

Mets broadcast moment #1: The David Palmer Debacle

SNY was showing a newspaper photo of Keith fighting with David Palmer, which led to the funniest moment of the season.

First, some context: Gary Carter hit a home run off of Palmer and pimped it. Palmer didn’t like that, so his response was to drill the next batter, Darryl Strawberry. Strawberry obviously didn’t do anything wrong, so he charged the mound and the benches cleared, leading to a brawl.

Ron and Keith were at the bottom of the pile, with Palmer screaming at Keith. Keith replied, “David, Darryl didn’t do anything. We understand that Kid upset you with [the pimp job]. Hit Kid next time, no one’s going to bother you.”

Gary and Ron exploded with laughter.

“You really said that?” Gary said through giggles.

“I did,” Keith replied. “I was out of that dugout in a heartbeat because I knew Darryl was going to get drilled. Darryl was perfectly innocent. Drill Gary, why Darryl?

“I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing,” Ron said.

“I’m a great teammate,” Keith replied while laughing.

Watch the conversation, with original video overlayed, here.

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The Mets’ broadcast team never fails to entertain. I can’t wait to see what incredible moments they give us in 2022.