Gary Cohen
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sportscaster
Sportscaster
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
, best known as a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
play-by-play announcer for the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
.
Cohen joined the Mets' broadcast team in , after stints as the voice of the minor league Durham Bulls
Durham Bulls
The Durham Bulls are a minor league baseball team that currently plays in the International League. The Bulls play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park located in the downtown area of Durham, North Carolina. Durham Bulls Athletic Park is often called the "DBAP" or "D-Bap". The Bulls are...
and Pawtucket Red Sox
Pawtucket Red Sox
The Pawtucket Red Sox are the minor league baseball Triple-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and belong to the International League...
. He also called ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
games for Providence College
Providence College
Providence College is a private, coeducational, Catholic university located about two miles west of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, United States, the state's capital city. With a 2010–2011 enrollment of 3,850 undergraduate students and 735 graduate students, the College specializes in academic...
, and football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
for Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. Along with his work with the Mets, Cohen has also called postseason MLB games for ESPN Radio and CBS Radio
Major League Baseball on CBS Radio
Major League Baseball on CBS Radio was the de facto title for the CBS Radio Network's coverage of Major League Baseball. Produced by CBS Radio Sports , the program was the official national radio broadcaster for the All-Star Game and the postseason from 1976 to 1997.-Contracts:CBS first covered...
.
In addition to his baseball duties Cohen has called men's college basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
games for many years, starting with his duties with St. John's
St. John's University (New York City)
St. John's University is a private, Roman Catholic, coeducational university located in New York City, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission in 1870, the school was originally located in the borough of Brooklyn in the neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant...
on WFAN and, following WFAN's loss of the radio rights to St. John's games, Seton Hall
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University is a private Roman Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan university in the United States. Seton Hall is also the oldest and largest Catholic university in the...
on WABC which he continues to do to this day. He also served as a backup announcer on New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
radio broadcasts as well as calling Olympic hockey
Ice hockey at the Olympic Games
Ice hockey tournaments have been staged at the Olympic Games since 1920. The men's tournament was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and was transferred permanently to the Winter Olympic Games programme in 1924. The women's tournament was first held at the 1998 Winter Olympics...
and NCAA tournament games
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
for Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
on multiple occasions. Cohen graduated with a political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he began his broadcasting career with WKCR Sports. While at Columbia, he announced soccer games with future presidential adviser and Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
host George Stephanopoulos
George Stephanopoulos
George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television journalist and a former political advisor.Stephanopoulos is most well known as the chief political correspondent for ABC News – the news division of the broadcast television network ABC – and a co-anchor of ABC News's morning news...
.
Radio
Cohen's signature radio phrases included (bold face indicates calls that make Cohen's announcing style similar that of the late Harry KalasHarry Kalas
Harry Norbert Kalas was an American sportscaster, best known for his Ford C. Frick Award-winning role as lead play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies...
of the Mets division rival Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
).
- "And a pleasant good afternoon/evening everybody", used at the start of every game
- "Back to talk about it in a moment" at the conclusion of each game
- "SWING and a miss, (he) struck him out!" after a meaningful strikeout
- "[Player name] would be next" when a player is on deck with two outs
- "It's outta here!" when a player hits a home run
- "...and the ball game is over!" for the ending of the game by describing the final play and finishing it
He is known for his vivid and succinct description of the game action, his smooth baritone voice, corny joking with former broadcast partner Howie Rose
Howie Rose
Howie Rose is an American sportscaster. He is currently the radio voice of the New York Mets on WFAN, and the television announcer for the New York Islanders on MSG Plus.-Early life and career:...
, and his sometimes biting, but always well-informed baseball commentary. In , Cohen became the Mets' lead radio voice following the retirement of Bob Murphy
Bob Murphy (announcer)
Robert Allan Murphy was an American sportscaster who spent 50 years doing play-by-play of Major League Baseball games on television and radio. The Oklahoman was best known for announcing the New York Mets, from their inception in 1962 until his retirement in 2003...
.
In October 2006, during the Mets' postseason run, Cohen returned to the WFAN booth with Rose and newcomer Tom McCarthy
Tom McCarthy (broadcaster)
Tom McCarthy is an American sports broadcaster. He is the play-by-play announcer for Philadelphia Phillies television broadcasts...
for a couple of innings each game; he was behind the microphone for Endy Chávez
Endy Chávez
Endy de Jesus Chávez is a Major League Baseball outfielder.Chávez bats and throws left-handed and is considered to have good fielding skills, speed, and the ability to hit to all parts of the field...
's miraculous catch in Game 7 of the NLCS
2006 National League Championship Series
The National League Championship Series , the second round of the 2006 National League playoffs, began on October 12 and ended on October 19; it was scheduled to begin on October 11, but was postponed a day because of inclement weather. The St...
which the Mets lost.
Television
It was announced on November 9, 2005 that Cohen would become the play-by-play announcer for the new Mets cable television network, SportsNet New YorkSportsNet New York
SportsNet New York is a New York City-based regional sports cable network which airs in the New York metro area and all of New York state, and nationwide via satellite. It is owned jointly by the New York Mets, Time Warner Cable, and NBCUniversal...
(SNY). As part of the agreement, Cohen also calls about 25 Mets games per year on WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
along with analysts (and former Mets) Ron Darling
Ron Darling
Ronald Maurice Darling, Jr. is an American former right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Mets, Oakland Athletics and Montreal Expos...
and Keith Hernandez
Keith Hernandez
Keith Barlow Hernandez is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. He is currently a baseball analyst working for the New York Mets, for whom he played from –, on SportsNet New York and WPIX television broadcasts...
.
Because of their popularity, Lynn Cohen along with Gary and Keith and Ron have created a website www.pitchinforagoodcause.org where the net profit from the merchandise sold by the website goes to charity.