Fans Boo New York Mets Iconic Voice For Slamming Buck

When you are a Major League Baseball play-by-play announcer/analyst, you are paid for your opinion. Ex-players and managers stack broadcast booths across the country to provide key insight. Mets play-by-play star, Gary Cohen grew up a New York Mets fan, not too far from Shea Stadium. Cohen along with former 1986 Mets Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez combine for one of the most popular broadcast booth trios in the game. On Sunday night, Cohen was part of the SNY postgame crew, as the game was on ESPN. The ever-popular Queens native got roundly booed by the live audience for his comments regarding Mets manager Buck Showalter.

At the outset of the postgame show, Cohen almost seemed to be angry. Then really went off on Showalter for asking the umpires to check Joe Musgrove’s ears for a banned substance prior to the Mets coming to bat. “I thought that considering the circumstances, 4-0, sixth inning, season on the line, it smacked of desperation and it was fairly embarrassing I thought for Buck to do that in that spot. It was not necessary. As it turned out, Musgrove was not cheating. If you’re going to pull a stunt like that, you better be right and Buck wasn’t right.” Those are strongly disparaging remarks by a play-by-play announcer regarding a manager that will probably go to the Hall of Fame if for nothing else longevity in the game and just won 102 games in his first year in the Mets dugout.

I like Gary Cohen a lot but I think what he said was wrong. At first glance, it may have looked like a "desparate" "embarrassing" "stunt". But what if Showalter, like he said in the post-game interviews, had spin-rate information that indicated that something was abnormal with Musgrove's rates? Should Buck tell the umpires something is up? The San Diego Padres hitters stepped out of the box to disrupt Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt. What would be wrong with Showalter trying to do what his hitters couldn't, either catch Musgrove cheating or disrupt his rhythm? In my opinion, that's exactly what the manager gets paid to do with 12 outs left, down by four, in an elimination game.