Keith Raad feels 'surreal' to join Mets' radio booth alongside Howie Rose

Keith Raad was at Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS, but he did not see it end on Robin Ventura’s “Grand Slam Single” in the 15th inning. He left early.

This illustrates a couple of important things about the Mets’ new radio announcer:

First, his history with the team goes way back, even if his father, Donald, initially steered him toward his own Yankees fandom.

Second, he cannot be blamed for leaving and having to hear the end of the Mets’ 4-3 victory as the family car pulled into his driveway in Valley Stream. That is because he was 6 years old at the time, and had school the next day.

“That was a bummer,” Raad told Newsday on Monday, shortly after he and fellow twenty-something Patrick McCarthy were added to the Mets’ radio crew.

But it is the sort of Mets history Audacy executives like about Raad, who will succeed Wayne Randazzo as Howie Rose’s primary partner. McCarthy will be doing pregame and postgame reports, and filling in when Rose takes off for select road trips.

Even before the Ventura game, Raad’s first big-league game was at Shea Stadium. But it was really over the past five years that he cemented his ties to the team.

As the announcer for the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets’ High-A affiliate, he got to know the franchise and its people — and it opened the door for a big promotion.

“Audacy, they were super-interested in somebody like me who knows the system literally from bottom to top,” he said, referring to WCBS-AM’s (880) parent company.

They also were looking for announcers from a younger generation of Mets fans. Rose turns 69 next week.

Raad, a Chaminade High School and University of Dayton alumnus, initially began thinking a job with the Mets was possible last year. That was when his predecessor in the Cyclones booth, Jake Eisenberg, who is from Port Washington, got the job as Rose’s fill-in.

When Eisenberg later got a full-time gig with the Royals, Raad thought perhaps the role of No. 3 man at WCBS might be available to him. Then Randazzo left for a TV job with the Angels, and suddenly Raad was being considered for the No. 2 job.

“It’s a lot of timing and luck,” he said, “but it definitely started with Jake and forging that path a little bit and then realizing that I could be good enough to throw my hat in the ring.”

He called the turn of events “a little surreal. It’ll be surreal probably until game, I don’t know, 46? . . . It’s hard to put into words, which is not something that should be good for a broadcaster to say.”

Raad had an extensive resume before going to Brooklyn, including stops in 2016 with the Long Island Ducks and in 2017 with the Double-A Frisco (Texas) RoughRiders.

Now this.

Raad said working with Rose will be a bonus. He particularly admires Rose’s willingness to be “really, really unique and not cookie-cutter.”

“I’m sure with big leaguers, guys will go from Triple-A to the big leagues, like a [former Cyclone] Brett Baty and say, ‘I want to see how Pete Alonso works. I want to see how Francisco Lindor works.’

“I want to see how Howie Rose goes about his business . . . I’m really excited to be a sponge with Howie.”

When Rose is off, McCarthy, a son of former Mets radio announcer Tom McCarthy, will work with Raad.

It has been a whirlwind couple of months for Raad.

“The fact that it's all happened since I sent my stuff in right before Christmas, sent my tracks to WCBS, and here we are on February 6, and I'm Howie Rose’s new partner, I mean, you can't even think, ‘OK, this is the plan; this is what it's going to look like when you get there,’” he said.

He added, “Baseball is fun. I would like to bring some youthful exuberance to it by being a new, young voice in the booth. But yes, it's surreal, even though I can do it.”

Still no SNY deal for Keith Hernandez

Keith Hernandez still is without a contract agreement with SNY as the start of the Mets season nears, an industry source said.

The sides have exchanged proposals but Hernandez’s camp currently is waiting for a response.

Hernandez, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling have been SNY’s Mets announcing team for 17 years, matching the original trio of Bob Murphy, Ralph Kiner and Lindsey Nelson for the longest such stretch in Mets history.

SNY still is controlled by the Wilpon family, not by Mets owner Steve Cohen.

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.