NEW YORK -- Howie Rose walked out of a fifth-floor elevator and into the radio booth at Citi Field shortly before 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. Rose had one more hill to climb, one final broadcast as voice of the Mets, a role he has held in some capacity since 1995.
No one knew if the weather would cooperate. Inclement weather forced the Mets to postpone Sunday’s planned retirement ceremony to the opening weekend of the 2027 season. Rose, cognizant of the forecast the night before, gave his goodbyes on air at the end of Saturday’s game, just in case.
As it turns out, Mother Nature obliged long enough for Sunday’s Mets-Phillies game to proceed as planned. The Mets lost, 7-2, in their final home game of the 2026 season. They could not muster any late-game magic, so Rose could not impart one last iconic call.
For Rose and Mets fans everywhere, a legendary chapter came to a close.
“Would have loved to honor him with a win, or a 300th homer [for Francisco Lindor] today, something that would have been fun to call,” interim manager Andy Green said. “Basically, I think all we did was give him a lot of dead time with the rain and field surface delays. He probably had time to tell some extra stories.”
The storytelling began well before the broadcast even started.
In a special pregame press conference, Rose likened his circumstances to a particular moment in Mets history as only he could. The Mets were scheduled to play their very first game as the National League’s newest franchise on April 10, 1962, in St. Louis. Several members of the team got trapped in the hotel elevator while leaving for Busch Stadium. When they finally arrived, they discovered that the game had been postponed due to weather.
“There’s some ironic symmetry to how this has worked out today,” Rose said.
If the Mets could wait one more day, Rose could wait for his party, too.
“He’s as good as the game has ever had,” Green said. “We connect the voices of our organization. They’re the throughline through generations of Mets, and the fanbase hasn’t had a better throughline than someone like him.”
Rose has been a Mets fan since the franchise’s inception in 1962. Born in Queens in 1954, he spent his summers in Section 1, Row 1 in the upper deck at Shea Stadium, once carving his initials into the wooden seats.
“That’s the nerve that touches me every time,” Rose said. “I was just the lucky one who got out of the upper deck and into the broadcast booth.”
Rose first joined the Mets broadcast in some capacity in 1987, before becoming a voice in 1995. For more than three decades, he has tried to represent the fans, embracing the sort of intimacy that radio permits. Rose has been the soundtrack to their summers and the voice of their defining memories, from Pete Alonso’s home run in Game 3 of the 2024 Wild Card Series to his “Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!” call of the New York Rangers’ triumph in Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals.
On Sunday, dozens of fans stood in the rain outside Citi Field more than three hours before the scheduled first pitch, donning “Matteau” jerseys and sweatshirts with Rose’s signature catchphrase, “Put it in the books!”
After the bottom of the eighth inning, Citi Field serenaded Rose with The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.” An announced crowd of 33,611 turned toward the radio booth, where an emotional Rose blew kisses. Synchronized chants of “Howie Rose” followed in the ninth.
When the game ended, the Mets emptied the dugout, turned toward Rose and tipped their caps.
“I know his impact won’t be lost on each and every one of us,” said Jonah Tong, who took the loss on Sunday after allowing four runs in 4 2/3 innings. “He was one of the first people I met when I came up here. His catchline is one that I’ll always remember moving forward.”
Rose likened the past few weeks to Tom Seaver’s near-perfect game in 1969, when the Hall of Famer felt as if he was “levitating” in the later innings of his outing. He was 15 years old when the Miracle Mets won the franchise’s first of two world championships, forging an unbreakable bond. Cleon Jones and Art Shamsky, two hallmarks of the ‘69 team, were in attendance for Rose’s press conference on Sunday. So were Mookie Wilson, Howard Johnson, Terry Collins and Lee Mazzilli.
“The wildest, wildest fiction writer could not have come up with this,” Rose said. “So I’m very, very blessed.”