Howie Rose’s final afternoon in the Mets radio booth arrived with rain in the forecast, a postponed ceremony and a 7-2 loss to the Phillies, but Citi Field still found its moment to salute one of the club’s enduring voices. The 2026 home finale became a long goodbye for the Queens native who turned a childhood seat at Shea Stadium into more than three decades behind the microphone.
Key takeaways
- Rose completed his final Mets broadcast Sunday after serving in the club’s radio coverage since 1987 and as a primary voice since 1995.
- Weather pushed his planned retirement celebration to the opening weekend of the 2027 season.
- The Phillies beat the Mets 7-2 in New York’s last home game of 2026, with Jonah Tong charged with the loss.
- An announced crowd of 33,611 sang, chanted Rose’s name and watched the Mets players tip their caps toward the radio booth.
- Rose grew up a Mets fan in Queens, attending games at Shea Stadium from the franchise’s first season in 1962.
A final call delayed by rain
Rose stepped off the elevator onto the fifth-floor broadcast level shortly before 10 a.m., preparing for what he knew would be his last assignment as the Mets’ radio voice. The weather had already complicated the day. With poor conditions expected, Rose had delivered his on-air farewell after Saturday’s game in case Sunday never got underway.
The game did go on, although the retirement ceremony itself could not. The Mets moved that event to the first home weekend of 2027. Rose noted the fitting historical twist at a pregame press conference: before the Mets ever played their first National League game on April 10, 1962, several players became stuck in a hotel elevator in St. Louis, only to reach Busch Stadium and learn that bad weather had postponed the game.
Rose called the circumstances a case of “ironic symmetry,” and said that if the club could wait another day, he could wait for the formal celebration as well.
On the field, there was no late comeback for him to chronicle. The Mets fell 7-2, and Francisco Lindor did not reach the 300-home-run milestone that interim manager Andy Green said would have made for a memorable final moment on the air. Tong surrendered four runs over 4 2/3 innings in taking the defeat.
Green joked that the delays caused by rain and field conditions at least gave Rose extra time to tell stories. Then the manager turned serious, calling Rose one of the finest broadcasters the sport has produced. Green described the team’s announcers as the thread connecting generations of Mets players and fans, and said no one had served that role better for the club than Rose.
From Shea’s upper deck to a Mets institution
Rose was born in Queens in 1954 and became attached to the Mets from their beginning. As a kid, he spent summers in Section 1, Row 1 of Shea Stadium’s upper deck, even scratching his initials into the old wooden seating. He said the part of his story that always reaches him is simple: he was fortunate enough to move from those seats to the booth.
That fan’s perspective became central to his work. Rose joined Mets broadcasts in 1987 and became a regular voice eight years later, bringing radio listeners close to the game and giving shape to some of their biggest memories. His Mets calls include Pete Alonso’s homer in Game 3 of the 2024 Wild Card Series, while New York sports fans also know his famous “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!” call from the Rangers’ Game 7 victory in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals.
Hours before first pitch Sunday, dozens of supporters stood outside Citi Field in the rain wearing Matteau gear and clothing bearing Rose’s familiar signoff, “Put it in the books!” Inside, the tribute built as the game moved toward its conclusion. After the eighth inning, the ballpark played The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye,” and Rose, visibly moved in the booth, sent kisses toward the stands. Chants of “Howie Rose” rolled through Citi Field in the ninth.
After the final out, Mets players left the dugout and raised their caps in Rose’s direction. Tong said Rose had been among the first people he met upon reaching the majors and that the broadcaster’s signature line would remain with him.
Rose compared the emotion of the previous weeks to Tom Seaver’s 1969 near-perfect game, when Seaver later said he felt as though he were floating through the late innings. Rose was 15 when the Miracle Mets won the franchise’s first championship, an experience that sealed his lifelong connection to the club.
That history filled the press conference room. Members of the 1969 champions Cleon Jones and Art Shamsky attended, along with Mookie Wilson, Howard Johnson, Terry Collins and Lee Mazzilli. Looking around at the people and memories gathered for his final broadcast weekend, Rose said even the most imaginative novelist could not have devised the scene, adding that he felt deeply blessed.
