Rose reflects on call 'that will stand the test of time'
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PHILADELPHIA -- “Here’s the pitch. Swing and a fly ball to right field, pretty well-hit. Frelick back. At the wall. He jumps! It’s gone! He did it! He did it! Pete Alonso with the most memorable home run of his career! Pumps his fist as he rounds second! It’s a three-run homer! He’s given the Mets a 3-2 lead! They all pour out of the dugout! Alonso on his way to home plate. They’re waiting for him. He hits the plate. He is first congratulated by Nimmo. Hugged by Lindor. There are a dozen Mets waiting for him outside the dugout. Pete Alonso keeps this fairytale season going with the fairytale swing of his career. Three to two New York!”
These were the words Howie Rose spoke into his microphone Thursday night in Milwaukee, where the Mets came from behind to win a 4-2 game over the Brewers in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series.
Circulated widely on social media, it almost instantly became one of the most celebrated calls of Rose’s career. Even Alonso took notice. After the Mets boarded their charter flight from Milwaukee to Philadelphia late Thursday, manager Carlos Mendoza approached Rose to tell him he enjoyed the call. President of baseball operations David Stearns, a lifelong Mets fan, congratulated him as well.
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Then the Mets began playing Rose’s call over the airplane PA system. As dozens of Mets players, coaches and staff members cheered, Rose shriveled from embarrassment.
“I mean, I wanted to crawl under the seat,” Rose recalled over the telephone the following day. “But then the way they responded, because they were so hyped up and emotional. … I said I’ve got to go back there and hug him.”
So Rose did, getting out of his seat and telling Alonso: “I’m so happy for you.”
“That’s all. I just said, ‘I’m so happy for you. Congratulations.’ He just said, ‘Thanks man, thanks.’ It was a very quick exchange. And then I very sheepishly walked back to my seat.”
Yet that was not the end of it. For the entirety of the next day, friends and fans alike sent Rose clips of his call. Reporters asked him for interviews. Rose’s phone did not stop buzzing, which flattered and exhausted him. He had, after all, another game to prep for Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.
Among those who reached out were 1969 Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda and Keith Kranepool, Ed’s son. Rose told them that “with all the guys we’ve lost, especially from the 1969 team, I think Buddy [Harrelson] and Eddie [Kranepool] and a lot of them who are up there, they’ve gotten together, and they’re cooking something up here.”
Perhaps Rose’s call of Alonso’s homer indeed won’t be his final iconic one this year. It certainly wasn’t the first of his career. Best known for his “Matteau! Matteau! Mattaeu!” celebration of Stephane Matteau’s double-overtime goal to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals for the New York Rangers in 1994, as well as his call of Mike Piazza’s home run in the first game in New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, Rose has had a decades-long knack for describing some of the most impactful moments in New York sports history.
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“Listening back to Howie’s call gave me chills,” said Wayne Randazzo, Rose’s broadcast partner from 2017-22. “In October, when everything is tight, and there’s so much tension, he is weaving through the painting of the picture in a way that really I don’t think anybody else can. And as that home run leaves the ballpark, he just explodes. I mean, it’s just perfect.”
There is also more to the story for Rose, who grew up a Mets fan attending games at Shea Stadium, broke into the broadcasting field in 1975 and has been a part of the Mets universe since 1996. Rose took a leave of absence in Sept. 2021 to undergo treatment for bladder cancer. Since that time, he has cut back his road trips given the toll they take on his body. Rose isn’t ready to retire, but he acknowledges he may have already left if not for the fact that he still wants to call the final out of a championship.
“If that ever happened to where they won the World Series,” he said, “I would just hope I would be able to hold it together on the air.”
Further success from this Mets team would also heighten the importance of the call Rose made, stitching it into the fabric of New York sports history.
To this day, Rose keeps in touch with Matteau, who texted him after the Alonso call. The two sign autographs together and say hello whenever Matteau happens to be at a Mets game.
“In 30 years now, they’re still connected due to that call in that moment, that they in some ways shared together,” Randazzo said. “I hope it’s that way for Howie and Pete. I hope they’re connected in that way forever, because I think that was the kind of call that will stand the test of time.”