Gary Cohen, SNY.tv
Here's a Q&A with SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen with his thoughts on the Yankees and Mets potentially being in the same division for a season, his mentor, a game he'd love a front-row seat to and more...
1. One of the latest plans for the MLB season that's been reported involves the Mets and Yankees playing in the same division. What do you think a potential scenario like that would mean for the rivalry?
Let's be clear that this is just one of many possible scenarios being discussed for a potential start to the 2020 season. And ANY plan is going to be dependent on far wider availability of testing than currently exists.
But if it does happen…
I have felt for years that the novelty of interleague play, which began in 1997, has long since been exhausted. The reality is, the only games that resonate in interleague play are the games that involve natural rivals: Cubs-White Sox, Dodgers-Angels, Giants-A's, and of course, Mets-Yankees.
Some believe that placing the Mets and Yankees together in a regular season grouping would detract from the passion of the rivalry. I disagree. You only have to look at the NHL, and the ongoing rivalries of the Rangers, Islanders and Devils, to see that division grouping for those local rivals only enhances the competition among fan bases.
I still believe in the sanctity of the two leagues, and I would love to see interleague play disappear, except for the natural rivals.
But if we're going to experiment and get a little wild this season (if there is a "this season"), then why not let the Mets and Yankees duke it out?
2. On Beyond the Booth Live, Keith and Ron talked about their mentors in the game. Who were some of your mentors during your career and who inspired you?
This is really a two-part question.
Inspiration arrived for me at an early age, with the voices coming out of my AM radio. Marv Albert doing the Knicks and Rangers, Al Albert doing the Nets, Lindsay, Ralph and Bob calling every inning for the Mets.
It was those guys who inspired me to even conceive of play-by-play as a career possibility. Without their passion, talent and wisdom, my life would have taken a completely different turn.
As for mentors, I really only had one. In 1982, I took a sportscasting job at WORD in Spartanburg, S.C. My boss there was an amazing sportscaster named Gary Sparber, who like me had migrated South from New York. Gary had an amazingly clear voice that rang like a bell, and an extremely comfortable delivery.
Gary Sparber was the person who encouraged me to stop trying to sound like a "sportscaster," to relax, and let my personality shine through.
It took me years to fully accomplish this. Even after I reached the major leagues with the Mets, Gary would tell me that he needed to hear more warmth from me. Without Gary Sparber, I would never have developed my craft as I have.
3. SNY is airing games from the 1969 World Series next week. If you could have a front-row seat for any playoff game, which one would it be and why?
I would have to go back to Oct. 3, 1951. Game 3 of the pennant playoff between the Giants and Dodgers at the Polo Grounds (this was technically a regular season game).
The Giants were 13 games behind the Dodgers on Aug. 11, in an era where the first place finisher in each league advanced directly to the World Series. The Giants stormed back and tied the Dodgers on the penultimate day of the season, and the teams embarked on a best-of-three series to decide who would face the Yankees in the World Series.
After splitting the first two games, the teams were tied 1-1 in Game 3, before the Dodgers scored three runs against Sal Maglie in the top of the eighth. Don Newcombe retired the side in order in the bottom of the eighth, but in the ninth, the Giants touched up Newcombe for three hits and a run with only one out.
Charlie Dressen, the Dodger manager, went to the bullpen, and brought in Ralph Branca to face Bobby Thomson, even though Branca had pitched eight innings and lost two days earlier in Game 1, allowing a home run to Thomson.
Sure enough, on an 0-1 pitch, Thomson drove a three-run homer into the seats in left, and the Giants' historic climb to the pennant was complete.
I'm not sure how difficult it would have been to score a front-row seat that day, but I do know this: In a ballpark that held 55,000, the attendance for Thomson's memorable "shot heard round the world" was only 34,320.
4. Jeff McNeil is going to join you in the virtual booth on Tuesday -- if you could choose any Mets player throughout history to call a game with, who would it be?
I think I would stretch the definition of the question, and opt for a man who played for two New York teams, but never for the Mets - their first manager, Casey Stengel.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Casey, who passed away in 1975, but from all the stories I heard from Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner, there was no more entertaining figure in Mets history.
Casey had his own circuitous, syntactically-challenged way of speaking, which came to be known as Stengelese. While amusing, this patois belied the fact that Casey was a brilliant man. His winding prose always led back to a logical conclusion.
And the man had energy! Murph and Ralph told stories of hiding behind potted plants in hotel lobbies to steer clear of Stengel, who well into his 70s was raring to go, when the younger men were ready to drop from exhaustion.
So having Casey Stengel in the booth would be a complete hoot. It might be problematic getting to commercial breaks on time. But can you imagine the conversations that might develop between Casey and Keith?
Watch Gary, Keith and Ron during Beyond the Booth Live, every Thursday at 4 p.m. Check out our most recent episode below: