5 greatest calls of Howie Rose's Mets broadcasting career

The New York Mets have been blessed with some of the best broadcasters in baseball history during their more than six decades of existence, from Bob Murphy, Ralph Kiner, and Lindsay Nelson from yesteryear to Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling today.

But Howie Rose has often been under the radar with many of the team's highlights over the past 20 years tagged by TV commentary. But Howie Rose remains one of the best New York sportscasters in the business, from his 20+ years covering the Islanders and Rangers on TV and radio to his nearly 30 years of calling Mets games on TV and radio, and has been on the radio full-time since 2004.

Tomorrow, Howie Rose will be inducted, alongside Gary Cohen, Al Leiter, Howard Johnson, and Jay Horwitz into the New York Mets Hall Of Fame. So to celebrate, we are counting down his five best Mets-related calls in his career.

5. Howie Rose beautifully described the pandemonium of the New York Mets winning their fifth National League pennant on October 21, 2015.

The 2015 New York Mets were a team for the ages, given how crazy that season was from the ups and downs to the euphoria of their first World Series trip in 15 years. Howie Rose had not been behind the microphone for any of the first four pennant-clinching moments in the franchise’s history.

And here he was behind the microphone for one of the best moments of the 21st century thus far for the franchise. “Here’s the payoff pitch from [Jeurys] Familia to [Dexter] Fowler on the way. And it’s … in there! Strike three call! The Mets win the pennant!”

Now the call might not be that creative, but it is the tone of jubilation that makes this list after all they went through that season and how stunning a turnaround it was, and how stunning it was that the Mets not only beat a Chicago Cubs team that swept the seven game regular season series, but that the Cubs never really had a chance in any of those games thanks to the Mets’ domination from their starting pitching and Daniel Murphy.

That call is part of the Mets’ soundtrack forever.

3. Howie Rose won an award for his commentary on New York Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon’s RBI double on May 31, 2015.

Bartolo Colon was one of the most enjoyable watches for a Mets fan over the past 10 years, from his entertaining plate appearances to that famous home run in San Diego and losing his helmet while he swings.

But Howie Rose’s best and most creative call of Bartolo Colon came in a late May game against the Miami Marlins. Colon laced an RBI double in the bottom of the second, in which he rumbled to second base in humorously slow order, whereas in most cases, it would have been a triple. “They’re timing Colon with a sundial,” said Rose upon Colon’s jog to second base. Rose does an outstanding job here describing the process of the fun nature of a Bartolo Colon at-bat that Mets fans had enjoyed for more than a year, despite being an .084 career hitter.

Entering the 2015 season, he set a goal with hitting coach Kevin Long to get more than three hits (exceeding his total of two from the 2014 season). And the double was his third hit of the season, and he finished with eight hits!

Rose later received an Esurance MLB Award that season for his call of the double.

2. Howie Rose said to put Johan Santana’s no-hitter, the first in New York Mets history, on June 1, 2012, in the history books.

Howie Rose knows the history of the New York Mets from his back pocket, dating back to the losing years in the 1960s, when he grew up in Queens as a die-hard Mets fan. So naturally, their game against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 1, 2012, was like any other baseball game going into it.

The Mets were surprising people amidst year two rebuild, Carlos Beltran returned to New York as a visiting player for the first time since leaving the Mets, and Santana throwing a complete game shutout in his prior start.

But nobody thought Mets history would unfold that night, as the Mets finally no-hit the opposition in the 8,020th game of their existence, and it was Johan Santana who did it, a year removed from major shoulder surgery that kept him out of baseball the year prior. And this how Howie Rose reacted to Santana’s 134th and final pitch of the night. “Put it in the books, in the history books.”

Rose managed to avoid saying the words “no-hitter” during the event and said once about Santana's no-no that he felt “really dirty and slimy,” though he said he’s not a no-hitter jinx.

Gary Cohen said after calling the no-hitter himself on SNY that the first thought in his mind was to hear Howie Rose’s description of the history-making night that nobody thought would ever come, even Cohen and Rose themselves thought the same thing.

1. New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza’s home run after 9/11 was Howie Rose’s best call.

It had been 10 days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center (and the Pentagon and over the air in Shanksville, Pa), and it was the first major sporting event to be played in New York since then. It was one of the most emotionally charged nights in franchise history, because of the city and communities (and a healing nation) the Mets represented. And they happened to play their biggest rival, the Atlanta Braves.

Howie Rose was still the TV voice of the Mets, which he was from 1996 to 2003 before he moved to radio. And the face of the franchise, Mike Piazza, stepped to the plate down a run with a runner on base in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Rose describes the result of the at-bat, with a chance for bedlam. “Lopez wants it away… and it’s hit deep to left center, Andruw Jones on the run, this one has a chance... HOME RUN, Mike Piazza. And the Mets lead 3-2.”

It was a magical night for Piazza and the Mets, as the Mets not only won the game 3-2, it also gave New York, and the nation, reasons to come back to work.