Howie Rose explains his call of Mike Piazza’s iconic post-9/11 home run

It’s one of the most iconic home runs in New York Mets history. As far as regular season moments go, it might also be the most important.

The year 2001 will always be remembered most for the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11. In the midst of a postseason race, Mike Piazza delivered a memorable home run against the Atlanta Braves which many even non-Mets fans remember as a moment when things began to feel at least a little normal again. This is how it happened:

In all of the excitement, Mets broadcaster Howie Rose may have made a mistake with this call. “This one has a chance” isn’t exactly accurate. Well, 21 years later, Rose went on Twitter and explained his choice of words.

Mets broadcaster Howie Rose explained why a 450 foot home run from Mike Piazza “had a chance”

Here’s Howie’s explanation in his own words as to why a no-doubter was described the way it was:

It’s a more than fair, honest, and certainly candid look at what was going on in the broadcast booth at the time. Unable to use typical baseball terms like “bomb,” Rose may have indeed been caught a little off guard. Piazza’s long home run cleared the fence with ease. Rose, a professional, was sure to do the job as explained to him.

What might be interesting would be to hear how Rose would have called this home run instead. Would bomb have been the choice of words or would he have gone in another direction?

One thing Howie did seem to violate was the excitement. How could he not? As he explained in his video, broadcasters were expected to be a little less loose. However, in this moment, he couldn’t resist.

Maybe most unbelievable about this story is that it took 21 years for Rose to finally reveal the story. Was there a statute of limitations? Probably not.

With Rose on Twitter regularly and a new outlet for him to share his thoughts, feelings, and behind-the-scenes look at his life calling Mets games, we can only hope there are more stories like this about some of the great moments in team history.