Mets announcer Howie Rose cutting back his games on WCBS-AM in 2024
Howie Rose, who plans to announce 101 games this season, said his bosses have been “unbelievably cooperative” about his schedule. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Howie Rose plans to cut back on his slate of Mets games on WCBS-AM from 125 last season to 101 in 2024, he told Newsday on Wednesday.
Rose initially began to limit his travel in 2022 after being diagnosed and treated for bladder cancer, which caused him to miss parts of the 2021 season.
For the past two seasons, he mostly has skipped West Coast trips. Now he will trim his schedule further.
He plans to call every home game, plus the two at Yankee Stadium, select road games in the NL East and a weeklong trip in early May against the Rays and Cardinals.
It is possible Rose will add trips to Atlanta and Milwaukee in late September if the Mets are in the playoff race.
“Obviously, if they get to the postseason, I don't care if they're playing in Timbuktu, I'm doing those games,” he said.
Rose, 70, said he has not had a medical setback but rather is cutting back to keep himself fresh and healthy, given both his age and medical history. He jokingly called it “load management.”
“In deference to the difficulties inherent in traveling now, and my desire to keep going for at least the near term,” Rose said, “everybody's been just great in pretty much letting me plot my own schedule out.”
Rose’s partner, Keith Raad, will work with Pat McCarthy, the third man on the Mets’ radio crew, when Rose is out.
Rose said the Mets and Audacy, WCBS’ parent company, have been “unbelievably cooperative” in his scheduling needs.
“I don't take things for granted,” he said. “I'm the hired help. I'm not presumptuous enough to think that I do it as long as I want to. But they've made it clear that they're willing to work with me on whatever works best for me, and I'm very grateful.”
John Sterling, 85, now mostly limits himself to Yankees home games and short road trips on another Audacy station, WFAN.
He initially announced he was cutting back in 2022, shortly after Rose did so.
“I’ve been traveling nonstop for 52 years,” Sterling told Newsday then. “I am tired of traveling, but not tired of the games . . . Let me put it this way: The games are the easiest thing I do. Everything else is tough.”
Rose said he once looked at 70 as a “nice, round number” at which to retire, but after 50 years in broadcasting, he is not ready to call it quits yet.
“They say it flies by, and it really has, but that's a number I'm proud of, too,” he said. “Taking that number into consideration, realizing what it represents in terms of wear and tear, and pairing it with the goodwill of my employers to allow me to keep doing this, it's very gratifying.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
