Hopefully John Sadak Or Jake Eisenberg Return
Throughout the New York Mets history, they’ve gotten many things wrong. After all, they traded Tom Seaver.
However, one thing they’ve gotten right was broadcasters. That started right from the jump with Lindsay Nelson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner. All three would enter the Hall of Fame (Kiner as a player).
Murphy passed the torch to Gary Cohen. Cohen has long been the best of the business. He’s been a multiple time Ford C. Frick nominee, and at some point, we should see him in the Hall of Fame.
While Howie Rose isn’t given the same consideration, he should. He’s a legend in his own right, and he’s taken the torch from Murphy and Cohen to continue radio play-by-play excellence.
Arguably, the best the Mets booth has ever been was when it was Gary and Howie. In addition to being great on the call, these were lifelong New York Mets fans with an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire history of the franchise.
Since Gary went to SNY, Howie has had a few broadcasters join him in the booth with differing levels of success.
Tom McCarthy was terrific, and as a younger lifelong fan, he seemed to be a perfect person to carry the torch. However, the Philadelphia Phillies made him a great offer to return, and so he did.
Wayne Hagin replaced him, and while Howie defended him, Mets fans despised him. This led to his being replaced by Josh Lewin, who was absolutely fantastic. When he left, he left a hole behind while could not be filled.
His replacement was Wayne Randazzo. Curiously, he had his fans despite his not being well versed in the team prior to his first being hired in 2015, and his knowledge base not expanding in future years.
There was also the matter of butchering big calls like Pete Alonso’s record setting homer passing Aaron Judge’s rookie home run mark in 2019. Well, as we know, he won’t be butchering more calls as he was hired as the Los Angeles Angels TV announcer.
To a certain extent, the Mets were unprepared for this, but as we also know, they’ve been looking at other people the past few years.
The Mets had John Sadak as a fill-in host in 2019. Jake Eisenberg filled-in this past season. Both were phenomenal and seemed as if they could be future voices of the Mets.
Sadly, they were both apparently too good. Sadak is now the Cincinnati Reds TV announcer, and Eisenberg was hired to announce Kansas City Royals games on the radio.
Either would have been perfect to replace Randazzo. Truth be told, they both should’ve been hired to take over for Randazzo anyway as they were both much better at the calls with a vastly superior knowledge of the Mets.
Unfortunately, it’s highly doubtful either returns, at least not now. Sadak isn’t likely going to turn down a TV job to be the Mets junior radio announcer. Eisenberg likely won’t leave a job he was just hired to do.
That leaves the Mets in a lurch. Hopefully, they can find someone on par with Sadak or Eisenberg, but that is far more easier said than done.