Calling play-by-play of Mets games 'incredible' for Jake Eisenberg

So, Jake Eisenberg, how was your recent trip to Phoenix and St. Louis?

“The entire experience was equal parts amazing and overwhelming and incredible,” he said.

Such gushing is not commonly associated with visits to Phoenix and St. Louis, but for Eisenberg it represented a professional dream come true.

With Howie Rose cutting back on his Mets radio schedule this season by skipping trips to the West, Eisenberg is filling in alongside Wayne Randazzo.

It began with six games against the Diamondbacks and Cardinals and will continue in late May at Colorado and San Francisco and in early June against the three Southern California teams.

This is heady stuff for a 27-year-old who grew up an avid Mets fans in Port Washington and whose primary job is calling games for the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers.

“It was absolutely incredible,” Eisenberg said from Omaha. “Every single day was just like, ‘Is this really happening?’

“There were several moments where I had to kind of recognize that this was reality, and that I had the chance to call a New York Mets game, something that I've dreamed of doing ever since I decided this was a career path that I wanted to pursue.”

As understandable as such “pinch me” emotions were, Eisenberg had a job to do. He said he did it with the support of Randazzo and producer Chris Majkowski, along with advice from the likes of Rose.

“They made me feel like I belonged, and that was massive for my confidence,” he said.

Eisenberg was too busy to get nervous before that first game on April 22, and too busy near the end of it after a frantic experience he likely will be telling stories about for decades.

Eisenberg was assigned play-by-play for the third, fourth and seventh innings, plus even-numbered extra innings. He was on field level preparing to do a postgame interview when Arizona tied the game on a home run by Daulton Varsho in the bottom of the ninth.

Before the ball landed, he was running back to the press level, at which time he encountered a locked door that precipitated a mad, circuitous dash that got him into the booth with about 30 seconds to spare.

“I’ll never forget sprinting around Chase Field trying to get back to the booth and then ultimately getting to say the Mets won, 6-5, in 10 innings, in my first game,” he said.

While Eisenberg is about four decades behind Rose and SNY’s Gary Cohen in his Mets fandom, like them he is a lifer.

He has vague memories of the 2000-pennant-winning Mets, clear memories of his favorite player, Mike Piazza, hitting a home run in the first game at Shea Stadium after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and vivid memories of the 2006 team.

“That Adam Wainwright curveball is still a devastating moment in my childhood,” he said of the pitch that struck out Carlos Beltran and gave the Cardinals a Game 7 victory in the NLCS.

Eisenberg was there for the last game at Shea Stadium in 2008 – the seat he sat in is in the basement of  his parents, Mark and Jill – the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field and Wilmer Flores’ tears-to-cheers walk-off home run in 2015.

So yes, he is a true believer.

Eisenberg went 0-for-5 in his varsity baseball career at Paul D. Schreiber High School, but more importantly, he worked at the school radio station and was sports editor of the newspaper.

At the University of Maryland, he initially thought he might become a hybrid writer/TV personality like ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian, but he gravitated to play-by-play, baseball in particular.

With two fellow students, John Vittas and Matt Present, he founded the Maryland Baseball Network and soon found himself calling the Big Ten Tournament at Target Field in Minneapolis, something he called “a wild and incredible experience.”

He called Brooklyn Cyclones games in the summer of 2017, then paid some dues in a variety of college and minor league jobs before landing in Omaha in 2020.

Eisenberg said the Storm Chasers have been understanding and accommodating, because after all, Triple-A is filled with players looking for an MLB shot, just like most Triple-A announcers are.

Reviews of his early work among fans on social media have been positive, which Eisenberg could not help noticing. But he said he focuses first on his own standards and those of his colleagues and employers.

Might all this lead to more regular big-league work? There are no guarantees, and no need to worry about that now.

“I think about it the same way a player might think about coming up [to the majors] for the first time,” Eisenberg said. “I'm so grateful for this opportunity and so lucky that the people that are in charge at WCBS and everywhere else have trusted me and encouraged me and welcomed me and given me this chance.

“I'm just taking it one game at a time. Every day is a new day. Every game is a new challenge and a new opportunity.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

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.