It’s turning out to be quite the week for New York Mets broadcaster Howie Rose. The longtime radio voice is not only set to be inducted into the team’s hall of fame on Saturday, but was honored ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Phillies with a bobblehead giveaway.
Rose joined Carton & Roberts earlier that day. He said seeing his face on a bobblehead was wild to him.
“It’s a little surreal to see yourself in that form,” Rose said. “It looks more like my dad than it does me, I wish I looked that good. But it’s cool!”
The bobblehead also played Rose’s signature victory call, “Put it in the books!” Howie said he was inspired by legendary Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman’s victory call, and went with something he and his buddies would say to each other when they won a stickball game.
“I wanted to think of something that I could use in a similar vain,” he said.
Co-host Evan Roberts told Rose that his most memorable “Put it in the books” calls came when Johan Santana threw a no-hitter in 2012 and in 2015 during the Mets’ World Series run when they beat the Dodgers in the Division Series.
But Howie said in his mind the most memorable in his mind came during the 2006 season in a subway series game at Shea Stadium against the Yankees. A come from behind Mets win had Rose put a different variation on the call.
“Put that in your books!” Rose shouted.
Howie has been calling Mets games since 1995, and is among the beloved voices of the team for fans. Being a lifelong Mets fan, Rose said former broadcasters Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson and Ralph Kiner have meant a great deal to him. He added that he made sure to have a photo of the trio in the booth at Citi Field as both a tribute and as a source of inspiration when you’re in the doldrums.
“When a game starts to drag on, or if there’s a season that you know will not end in a postseason berth, and the games start to feel or look alike – or it’s just one of those nights where you’re ready to say, ‘You know I’ve had enough for tonight let’s come back tomorrow,'” he said. “If I ever get to that point, I very subtly look over my right shoulder at those three guys and that picture and I absorb what they meant to me.”
Howie added that he takes great pride in talking to Mets fans young and old who mention him among the greats like those three.
“When they say that, that is the highest compliment anybody can ever give me in my role as a Mets broadcaster, because I know what they represented to me, what the sound of their voice meant,” he said.
