Howie Rose (Photo: Lloyd Mitchell/AMNY)
Howie Rose is being fueled for one last go at the microphone by the same two motivators that have nagged at his consciousness for as long as he’s worked with the New York Mets in 1987.
The 72-year-old New York native — who grew up a Mets fan entrenched within the upper deck of Shea Stadium and idolized the legendary broadcasting trio of Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson, and Ralph Kiner — wants to call the final out of his boyhood club’s World Series championship.
“Times’ getting short for that, at least as far as I’m concerned. Paul [McCartney] and Ringo [Starr] are in their eighties, too,” Rose joked, adding he also wants to meet the two surviving members of his favorite band, The Beatles. “So I got to hit the gas here, but there’s only so much I could control.”
But the 2026 season also provides one last opportunity to honor his father, the man who introduced him to baseball but never got to see him reach the immense heights in broadcasting he achieved. Alzheimer’s took him in 1978.
“It kills me. I’ve carried around a little chip on my shoulder my entire life,” Rose said. “I’ve always been somewhat bitter about that… If I had one huge regret… the bond that you have with your dad when you learn and follow baseball together was so deep with me. For him not to have shared any of it with me is something I’ll never get over. I know he’s proud.”
Rose announced his retirement following the 2026 season on Thursday, allowing him to take the victory lap he deserves this summer in what will be his 40th season working with the team.
He hosted “Mets Extra” from 1987 to 1994, then moved to the TV booth. He has been the team’s lead radio voice since 2006.
“That is extremely humbling because I knew what Lindsey Neson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner did for me,” Rose said. “They were in my eyes and ears for seven months every year, so they became very much part of a family of sorts. I looked at them in an avuncular way. So when people tell me that I’ve had that impact on them, as those three did on me, that’s, frankly, the most flattering thing anybody could say to me. That sentiment humbles me the most.”
Rose had already let it be known last month that he would be cutting back even further on his broadcasting schedule. He will not travel with the Mets this season, calling all 81 home games and the three Subway Series games in the Bronx against the Yankees — down from the 100 games he did last season.
He is thankfully in good health after a bladder cancer scare in 2021 that forced him to undergo a radical cystoprostatectomy. This decision is predicated on family and enjoying life away from the ballpark.
Rose and his wife, Barbara, sold their house on Long Island and moved down to Florida full-time. He will rent a place for the 2026 season.
“I’m sick and tired of coming home at 11, a little after 11, and there’s Barbara sitting at the kitchen table or the living room on her computer…I can’t do that to her anymore,” Rose said. “My wife and daughters have sacrificed so much for so long. I’m 72 now, to me, that’s just enough. If I’ve lost a tick or two off my fastball, I’ve learned to compensate for that. But I don’t want to hang around too long, where it becomes noticeable that they’re not what they were. I don’t want to be one of those guys where people say, what’s he still doing on the air? Doesn’t have any other interests. I’ve got some other interests, and I’ll pursue them at the end of this season.
“I want to enjoy retirement, not stagger into it. I want to be able to screw up on a golf course as continually as I do and try other things that I’ll no doubt stink at. But I’m in a position physically, I can do that. None of us is guaranteed anything beyond our waking day. So I just can’t imagine working long enough so that when I retire, I’m basically not capable of doing anything.”
Before that happens, though, perhaps one more magical run awaits — the kind that he got to witness as a 15-year-old when the Miracle Mets won the 1969 World Series.
“I appreciate everybody with the Mets, and I hope this year ends up on the steps of City Hall,” he said.
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