Gary Cohen to MTV

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

This kinda sucks if you like your Mets on the radio. But ain't nothing wrong with GC.

METS' TV NET TABS COHEN

By ANDREW MARCHAND


November 9, 2005 -- In a move that will give SportsNet NY instant on-air credibility, it will announce today that Gary Cohen is moving over from radio to be the new voice of the Mets on TV, The Post has learned.

Reached by phone yesterday, Cohen declined to comment, but SNY has a teleconference set up for 11:30 a.m. today to make the news official.

After Dave O'Brien chose ESPN over SNY two weeks ago, SNY and Met executives honed in on Cohen to be their man in the TV booth. Cohen is expected to work nearly all of the Mets' games on TV.

The Mets' owner, Fred Wilpon, has been outspoken in wanting his TV voice to call all the team's games. This hurt the chances of Ted Robinson because he works grand slam tennis for NBC and USA.

Cohen is likely making the move in large part because television is more lucrative financially than radio. As a radio play-by-player, besides being on top of the action, Cohen was known to be critical when it was called for. Under greater scrutiny on TV, it will say a lot about SNY and Mets' ownership if Cohen is not pressured to tone down his assessments.

The only foreseeable drawback for Cohen is if he will be able to demonstrate the levity that TV sometimes demands compared to the nuts-and-bolts of radio broadcasting.

Cohen's partners on TV have yet to be decided. SNY executives have spoken to Keith Hernandez and David Cone. Al Leiter is another possibility.

On the radio side, WFAN � which is on the verge of signing a new deal with the Mets � could make Howie Rose the lead play-by-player and then search for a new No. 2 man.

Cohen, who had been in Shea's radio booth for 17 years, grew up in Queens as a Mets fan. Cohen also calls Seton Hall basketball on ESPN Radio.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

I have a sinking feeling about this

A while ago Michael Kay was ripping the Mets for not considering Cohen

Its common knowledge that Nelson Doubleday heard Mike & The Mad Dog say that the Mets should get Piazza, and Piazza was brought here so it seems logical to wonder

Unless Cohen thinks he can be to SNNY what Kay is to YES (including Center Stage like shows) this is quite a bad move for his "legacy" usually its the radio guy that gets the most reconigtion when it comes to the local team, TV is more national scope

Eh, maybe it will work out who knows... but I'm a bit skeptical

So Coleman replaces him in the radio booth?

Steve

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

mlbaseballtalk wrote: Its common knowledge that Nelson Doubleday heard Mike & The Mad Dog say that the Mets should get Piazza, and Piazza was brought here so it seems logical to wonder

Really??? Have Mike and the Mad Dog been taking credit for the Mets getting Piazza?

I wouldn't exactly call that "common knowledge."

[Guest sharpie]

Cohen is great and a massive step up from Fran Healey. I only hope that they get someone good to replace him in the radio booth.

[metirish]

]A while ago Michael Kay was ripping the Mets for not considering Cohen

And why would anyone give a fiddlers fuck whay Kay thinks?

Gary to the TV side is just great....

[Guest Edgy DC]

]A while ago Michael Kay was ripping the Mets for not considering Cohen Its common knowledge that Nelson Doubleday heard Mike & The Mad Dog say that the Mets should get Piazza, and Piazza was brought here so it seems logical to wonder

...ergo the current Met ownership were foolishly badgered into hiring Gary Cohen to be an air personality for their fledgling TV network?

Many holes in this line of reasoning.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

mlbaseballtalk wrote: Its common knowledge that Nelson Doubleday heard Mike & The Mad Dog say that the Mets should get Piazza, and Piazza was brought here so it seems logical to wonder

This is common crap.

As if a superstar might come available at a position where the Mets have a guy hurt and those dicks wouldn't be pumping the idea ...

[Guest ABG]

Dammit....three days after I get XM radio. I was looking forward to hearing Gary next year.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

In related news, I'm receiving delivery of a ginormous new TV on Friday.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: ="mlbaseballtalk"]Its common knowledge that Nelson Doubleday heard Mike & The Mad Dog say that the Mets should get Piazza, and Piazza was brought here so it seems logical to wonder Really??? Have Mike and the Mad Dog been taking credit for the Mets getting Piazza? I wouldn't exactly call that "common knowledge."

:sigh:

This is the timeline

Piazza is traded to Marlins who then proceed to let it known that his days in Florida are numbered

The Mets (Wilpon and Phillips) announce publicly that there is no interest and Hundley is told under no circumstances will Piazza be a Met

Doubleday hears Mike & The Dog talking where Piazza should go and the Mets are one of the "good fits" and Nelson decides that the Mets should go after him

End result, Piazza is in Flushing

Doubleday has said this through the years, not Mike and Chris. In fact it may have been sports radio period and Nelson used the biggest names in town.

I mean Mike's first apperance on WFAN he actually thanked Mike and Chris for helping bring him to New York, so yeah, I'd say the buzz on the radio influenced Mike's coming to the Mets

My point here is that using this for policy can be a frightening thing. Yeah it worked with Piazza, but thats a rare thing

Steve

[G-Fafif]

Happy for Gary if this will gain him a higher profile and a bigger payday. But I will miss him terribly from inside my ears. He's been a bigger constant there than wax for seventeen seasons and a whole lot more welcome.

Suddenly it matters a great deal if Cablevision and Comcast screw around on distributing Snigh. I had taken the position that even if they pull a YES on us and keep it off our system that that's all right, I've got Gary and Howie. Now it's Howie (presumably) and I don't know who. Won't be the same. Can't possibly be as good.

Assuming that the TV cablecasts are eventually available in my home, it won't be the same Garywise either. What your announcers tell you on the radio matters. Haven't felt that way about TV since Tim McCarver was in his salad days. Maybe Gary will re-revolutionize the medium. But pending technology, you don't take cable TV everywhere you go. Radio is ubiquitous in the life of a baseball fan. Gary made it preferable.

It's easy to assume your play-by-player is the best because you don't have a lot to which to compare him. But I heard a number of different announcers via XM this summer and Gary beat them all or at least every one whose last name wasn't Scully.

I'm happy for Gary. I'm not happy for me.

http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/5/1282724.html

[Centerfield]

I am really sorry to hear that Gary and Howie will be split. They had a fantastic dynamic on the radio last year.

I'm happy for Gary that he'll be making the switch to TV, but I think his style was a better fit for radio. And I will miss him during my sunday drives.

[metirish]

Yeah Gary not doing games on the radio will be weird, my usual thing was to listen to the last 3 innings on the radio while I was online here, I hope they don't stick Ed Coleman full time with Howie, he's truely awful, how much will Gary have to change the way he calls games ?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Is Frannie under contract? He may be the guy Gary bumps.

[metirish]

Fran is not under contract, he's an MSG employee, I think he's done with the Mets..we'll see him here more no doubt.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Ya know, Gary n' Keith sounds like a good idea.

[Frayed Knot]

Essentially none of the holdovers from the TV side are "under contract" since this is an entrely new venture.

Fran has long been rumored to be a favorite of the Dolans (Cablevision's controllers) not neccesarily the Met hierarchy and it's been widely assumed by followers of the situation that he'll not be part of the new channel.

Not sure if Keith wants to do this announcing thing full time. Be good IMO if he did but supposedly the team is looking for guys - at least the main guys - to be fulltime or bust.

[Frayed Knot]

Y'know one thing this means is that any potential Gary Cohen post-season calls are gone. Local TV coverage, unlike their radio counterparts, can't follow the team into post-season when the networks take over. We'll also "lose" him for a handful of the more important reg season games - Met-v-Yanx, etc - that FOX & ESPN will carry.

[Centerfield]

That's a great point FK. I say we kick Ed Coleman out of the booth (if that's who it ends up being) and give Gary his old job back for those games.

[G-Fafif]

Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know one thing this means is that any potential Gary Cohen post-season calls are gone. Local TV coverage, unlike their radio counterparts, can't follow the team into post-season when the networks take over. We'll also "lose" him for a handful of the more important reg season games - Met-v-Yanx, etc - that FOX & ESPN will carry.

GC just on the FAN with Ego & The Idiot. He acknowledged the post-season dearth is the one drawback. Otherwise (naturally), he was practically giddy. Says he's been assured Snigh will be a legit network not one that "drinks the Kool-Aid" (nice knock on Yeech). Also indicated, as others have, that Snigh won't be Metsographic as a rule but a sports outlet that "gets this market," et al. He said this as if it's a good thing.

He's moved on. I haven't.

http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/11/9/1366304.html

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know one thing this means is that any potential Gary Cohen post-season calls are gone. Local TV coverage, unlike their radio counterparts, can't follow the team into post-season when the networks take over. We'll also "lose" him for a handful of the more important reg season games - Met-v-Yanx, etc - that FOX & ESPN will carry.

Perhaps he keeps his gig with ESPN to do postseason radio and we get lucky enuf to get his series.

[Guest Spacemans Bong]

Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know one thing this means is that any potential Gary Cohen post-season calls are gone. Local TV coverage, unlike their radio counterparts, can't follow the team into post-season when the networks take over. We'll also "lose" him for a handful of the more important reg season games - Met-v-Yanx, etc - that FOX & ESPN will carry.

That doesn't mean he can't do radio.

The Giants TV guy, Duane Kuiper also does radio, and did radio during the World Series in 02 (since Miller is an ESPN guy too, he did the Series for ESPN radio).

Besides, Cohen is so good that I wouldn't be surprised at all if he starts doing national stuff.

[Valadius]

FUCK!

[Guest GYC]

Please don't ever refer to Met's TV as MTV again. That scared me, and I thought Gary Cohen lost it and started doing shitty television.

But I will miss Gary. I watched 23 games on TV this year, listened to 134 on radio, and missed 5.

[seawolf17]

Heard the same interview on the FAN with Gary. (What was weird was that it didn't sound like him at all on the phone. This is a guy whose voice I know better than anyone's but my wife's, so I can tell you it didn't sound right, but I digress.) He did rip YES a bit, which was funny, and he does seem really excited for this opportunity. It has to be better financially for him, and better from a national-exposure angle. So I wish him nothing but the best, but he will definitely be missed on the radio. Considering I listen to waaaay more games than I watch, this one sucks from my end, depending on who replaces him.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

seawolf17 wrote: Heard the same interview on the FAN with Gary. (What was weird was that it didn't sound like him at all on the phone. This is a guy whose voice I know better than anyone's but my wife's, so I can tell you it didn't sound right, but I digress.) He did rip YES a bit, which was funny, and he does seem really excited for this opportunity. It has to be better financially for him, and better from a national-exposure angle. So I wish him nothing but the best, but he will definitely be missed on the radio. Considering I listen to waaaay more games than I watch, this one sucks from my end, depending on who replaces him.

People do sound different when they are talking on the radio via a phone rather than a studio/booth

According to Cohen doesn't seem that this will be that Metcentric, so no real ongoing Metographies I guess, I hope they still intend to do Mets Classics as they don't have any winter teams lined up

Anyone know when the Icelanders are free from Dolanville? They would fit perfectly for very obvious reasons, same with Jet football talk, and the Nets if they weren't locked up for the next decade or so with YES

Steve

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Edgy DC wrote: ]A while ago Michael Kay was ripping the Mets for not considering Cohen Its common knowledge that Nelson Doubleday heard Mike & The Mad Dog say that the Mets should get Piazza, and Piazza was brought here so it seems logical to wonder ...ergo the current Met ownership were foolishly badgered into hiring Gary Cohen to be an air personality for their fledgling TV network? Many holes in this line of reasoning.

I think my sinking feeling was more towards listeners would be hearing Kay gushing how "This is what I said the Mets should do and they did it!"

Then again who knows, maybe one of TPTB at SNNY heard Kay's comments and said "Ya know, Cohen on TV would be JUST the thing we need!" as you didn't hear Gary being tossed around untill today

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Mets do a lot of things I suggest they do. Anybody who believes me if I try to claim a cause/effect relationship is a sucker.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

^
Agreed, especially if the Mets come out and admit it. And especially if you "brag" about it on the forum the way Kay did this afternoon (and he did the "not to toot my own horn, and I'm not suggesting, but..." route)

But like I said, coming from a Kay would be different than coming from Russo/Francessa (who have never actually taken "credit" for Piazza coming BTW, like I said they happened to be named by Doubleday who probably threw their names out meaning New York City sports talk radio) as Kay has some credibility in the broadcasting biz.

Not to go into a tagent, but if Russo gushed about a kid he heard on WVOF in Fairfield, CT doing a sports talk call in show, and if within a short time frame that kid ended up doing sporadic shifts on WFAN I would figure that WFAN's PD probably heard Russo talk about the kid and thought "Why not..." because Russo has some cred when it comes to doing sports talk call in shows and might know talent when he hears it

Steve

[seawolf17]

Oh, and Michael Kay can go blow it out his you-know-what. But I think I've expressed that opinion before.