New York Mets television announcer Gary Cohen had a strong opinion on Mets manager Buck Showalter’s decision to have umpires check San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove for an illegal substance while trailing in Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series Sunday, saying “it smacked of desperation” calling the situation “embarrassing” before adding “if you’re going to pull a stunt like that, you better be right and Buck wasn’t right”. WFAN midday host Brandon Tierney said it was extremely unlike Cohen to take a stance of that magnitude.
“Now here’s the thing about Gary. Gary has no time for sports radio debates. That is not Gary Cohen. He is an amazing play-by-player for the Mets and Seton Hall. I remember I had him on my old show years ago, right? I forget what was going on with the Mets but something was going wrong — like usual — and I’m being me. And he basically said, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘I have no time for this type of conjecture’. Something like that. And all respect to Gary, but Gary’s not’s a sports radio guy. He doesn’t like debating like we do and have to do. He’s just different like that.”
Cohen was booed by Mets fans, who were stationed behind the SNY desk as the postgame show aired live, while making his comments after the team lost the series-deciding contest. He is widely regarded as one of the best local announcers in baseball, as the SNY booth of Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez was named the best local announcing crew by The Athletic subscribers in 2020.
