3 best and 3 worst NY Mets color commentators in team history

The three worst color analysts were – it’s actually painful to mention them because I loved all three and loved their STORIES and their personalities - but they were NOT very good at bringing analysis of the game to the fans.

3) Rusty Staub was fan favorite for the New York Mets before his time in the broadcast booth for the 1986-1995 seasons.

Poor Rusty stuck around as a player until right before the Mets “86 Championship season. Keeping him around as a color analyst for that season was a nice sentimental touch by the Mets for one of the biggest fan favorites in Mets history. But other than that 1986 season, and 1988, the Mets weren’t that good, and neither was Rusty. He never seemed very natural and it was not a very comfortable watch. Unfortunate for one of the most popular players in Mets history.

2) Fran Healy came to the New York Mets as broadcaster, doing TV for the 1983-2005 seasons.

Healy was a very hard listen…and when he was together with Rusty…ugh. He would make a really good sideline reporter. His play-by-play wasn’t good, and as someone who wasn’t a “broadcaster” you could expect that. However, as an ex-player, especially a catcher, you had to expect more. And Healy didn’t give anything that would be interesting enough to keep you listening even when the team was good, let alone when the team was bad.

1) Ralph Kiner did radio AND TV since the inception of the New York Mets in 1962 until 1981 and then TV only for the 1982-2013 seasons.

KIner was a GREAT storyteller. He was fun to listen to. But if you are talking about an analyst to dissect the game for you…it was painful. Not as painful as his play-by-play…but painful nonetheless. He would have so much trouble attempting to explain something and, inevitably, he would use the wrong word, the wrong name, or just go off on a tangent that would make you shake your head long before “SMH” was an acronym. Put Kiner and Yogi Berra in the same room and your brain could explode. But he DID give fans a great post-game show. His Kiner’s Korner was the best and could never be duplicated.