How Steve Gelbs overcame his fear of play-by-play to become Gary Cohen’s Mets backup
November 20, 2025
How Steve Gelbs overcame his fear of play-by-play to become Gary Cohen’s Mets backup
22 comments
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Look I love Steve, he’s great in the dugout and whenever I run into him at the ballpark he’s a mensch but he can’t do play by play
Other comment was needlessly mean but I agree he’s still not great at it. Serviceable as a backup but he has a lot more improving to do if the idea is for him to replace Gary eventually
I think he’s capable of doing it. I’m sure Gary wasn’t great when he started doing radio at Columbia.
I thought his call on Lindor’s walk-off in the beginning of the season vs. the Cardinals was pretty good, so the potential is there. He is definitely a work in progress and rough at times and doesn’t come close to Gary Cohen but I think he gets a little too much hate from the fanbase for a guy who has been with the organization for many years now.
Nooooooooooo. Dudes terrible. I miss Kevin
He is so bad. I have to watch the Mets on mute when he fills in.
He was *much* better in 2025, but I can’t lie, when Gary isn’t there it feels like a legitimately completely different experience. Do you guys remember Lindor hit a walk off homerun to lead off the 9th inning early in the year? Gelbs call was good. But Gary is just… not replaceable or replicable. It’s gonna suck so much ass when he retires and it’s a genuine blessing that he doesn’t do what Joe Davis does and put his career over his team (understandably). I complain about being a Mets fan a lot, but having Gary Cohen call like 150+ games a year for us is truly spectacular and having Keith in there with him most days is an embarrassment of riches in that department.
He has to work harder at it…he has potential but….a few times last year I noticed he zoned out during innings…completely lost focus of doing the play by play
My dream is for Brendan Burke to one day replace Gary. It would be in tradition of Howie by being the play-by-play guy for both the Mets and Islanders. Plus he sometimes does Apple games and he’s great.
Yea I like Steve as the sideline guy but he is rough in the booth. Not the worst in mlb but going from Gary cohen to Steven is shocking to the ear.
I think it’s pretty clear Steve is very much a work in progress. Perhaps Keith raad could go from radio to TV
The comparisons to Gary seem a little harsh. Gary has been working Mets broadcasts in some capacity since 1989; even by a conservative estimate he probably has close to 15,000 hours of calling baseball for the Mets alone, not to mention his time calling various college sports through the 80s or his 30 years of broadcasting St John’s and later Seton Hall basketball games.
On the other hand Gelbs has what, *maybe* 100 hours in the booth? It’s one thing if you don’t like his voice, but expecting him to even be in the same universe as Gary Cohen when doing play by play is like backing a middle schooler going one on one with a prime Michael Jordan.
Gelbs is a rising star. You cant compare him to Cohen. Cohen is like David Wright and Gelbs is like Brett Baty. These are two very different people at the time of the comparison. Gelbs has promise and is getting there. Hope he keeps getting more comfortable and delivers more memorable calls. I appreciated his Lindor walk off call from 2025 at citifield.
Gelbs sucks at play by play
Gelbs is unwatchable as play by play. It ruins the games. If he’s not actively working to get better at this than there is simply no excuse.
Gary is not allowed to take any more days off
Amazing what a pipeline SNY has become. Look at our boy KB!
I hate to be mean to Gelbs but if any SNY producers are reading this thread he CANNOT be the replacement. He’s fine is his role but he doesn’t even know baseball ( or atleast Mets history?) well enough to be play by play full time
Too bad Randazzo went to the Angels and Apple TV He’s a very good play by play guy.
The ppl saying he’s unwatchable I “currently”agree. But how can the man get better if he doesn’t get his reps in!!! Let him practice his craft & in 5yrs he might be qualified to be a replacement. Will anyone ever be Gary though? NOOOOOOO
I am not a Gelbs fan really as a sideline guy either. I know I’ll probably be downvoted for this. Sideline guy humor is tolerable when it can be balanced with knowledge of the game. Problem is he is not funny, and has limited knowledge of the game. To imagine he’s equipped to be the PBP successor to the best in the business, when he’s already a subpar sideline guy, is absolutely wild to me.
22 comments
[deleted]
Look I love Steve, he’s great in the dugout and whenever I run into him at the ballpark he’s a mensch but he can’t do play by play
Other comment was needlessly mean but I agree he’s still not great at it. Serviceable as a backup but he has a lot more improving to do if the idea is for him to replace Gary eventually
I think he’s capable of doing it. I’m sure Gary wasn’t great when he started doing radio at Columbia.
I thought his call on Lindor’s walk-off in the beginning of the season vs. the Cardinals was pretty good, so the potential is there. He is definitely a work in progress and rough at times and doesn’t come close to Gary Cohen but I think he gets a little too much hate from the fanbase for a guy who has been with the organization for many years now.
Nooooooooooo. Dudes terrible. I miss Kevin
He is so bad. I have to watch the Mets on mute when he fills in.
He was *much* better in 2025, but I can’t lie, when Gary isn’t there it feels like a legitimately completely different experience. Do you guys remember Lindor hit a walk off homerun to lead off the 9th inning early in the year? Gelbs call was good. But Gary is just… not replaceable or replicable. It’s gonna suck so much ass when he retires and it’s a genuine blessing that he doesn’t do what Joe Davis does and put his career over his team (understandably). I complain about being a Mets fan a lot, but having Gary Cohen call like 150+ games a year for us is truly spectacular and having Keith in there with him most days is an embarrassment of riches in that department.
He has to work harder at it…he has potential but….a few times last year I noticed he zoned out during innings…completely lost focus of doing the play by play
My dream is for Brendan Burke to one day replace Gary. It would be in tradition of Howie by being the play-by-play guy for both the Mets and Islanders. Plus he sometimes does Apple games and he’s great.
Yea I like Steve as the sideline guy but he is rough in the booth. Not the worst in mlb but going from Gary cohen to Steven is shocking to the ear.
I think it’s pretty clear Steve is very much a work in progress. Perhaps Keith raad could go from radio to TV
The comparisons to Gary seem a little harsh. Gary has been working Mets broadcasts in some capacity since 1989; even by a conservative estimate he probably has close to 15,000 hours of calling baseball for the Mets alone, not to mention his time calling various college sports through the 80s or his 30 years of broadcasting St John’s and later Seton Hall basketball games.
On the other hand Gelbs has what, *maybe* 100 hours in the booth? It’s one thing if you don’t like his voice, but expecting him to even be in the same universe as Gary Cohen when doing play by play is like backing a middle schooler going one on one with a prime Michael Jordan.
Gelbs is a rising star. You cant compare him to Cohen. Cohen is like David Wright and Gelbs is like Brett Baty. These are two very different people at the time of the comparison. Gelbs has promise and is getting there. Hope he keeps getting more comfortable and delivers more memorable calls. I appreciated his Lindor walk off call from 2025 at citifield.
Gelbs sucks at play by play
Gelbs is unwatchable as play by play. It ruins the games. If he’s not actively working to get better at this than there is simply no excuse.
Gary is not allowed to take any more days off
Amazing what a pipeline SNY has become. Look at our boy KB!
I hate to be mean to Gelbs but if any SNY producers are reading this thread he CANNOT be the replacement. He’s fine is his role but he doesn’t even know baseball ( or atleast Mets history?) well enough to be play by play full time
Too bad Randazzo went to the Angels and Apple TV He’s a very good play by play guy.
The ppl saying he’s unwatchable I “currently”agree. But how can the man get better if he doesn’t get his reps in!!! Let him practice his craft & in 5yrs he might be qualified to be a replacement. Will anyone ever be Gary though? NOOOOOOO
I am not a Gelbs fan really as a sideline guy either. I know I’ll probably be downvoted for this. Sideline guy humor is tolerable when it can be balanced with knowledge of the game. Problem is he is not funny, and has limited knowledge of the game. To imagine he’s equipped to be the PBP successor to the best in the business, when he’s already a subpar sideline guy, is absolutely wild to me.