First-Class Men in the TV Booth for the Mets

After frightening us by interviewing Don Sutton, SportsNet New York proves that they get it, and put together a great announcing team. While I will miss Gary Cohen on the radio side for those 15-20 games a summer I listen to on radio, I will certainly enjoy the 100+ games I watch all or part of on TV with Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.

I will enjoy watching the same announcers on the weekend as during the week. Dave O'Brien was a good play-by-play guy, but you can't cover a team 2 days a week and really have a feel for what's going on. As for Tom Seaver, I'm sure whatever they find for him to do on the new network will be better than listening to him sleepwalk through his weekend games.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Ron Darling, who I remember as intelligent and articulate as a player, will do in the color job. After only seeing Keith Hernandez a handful of times last year, I am psyched to know that he will be doing 150 games this year. Now if my cable system will only carry SNY...

New York Times: The Dream Team
Richard Sandomir applauds SNY for ending the chaos in the broadcast booth from the last few years. He seems to be happy that Fran Healy won't be coming along for the ride -- a sentiment that seems to be shared by many.

Sandomir can't get Hernandez to discuss the mystery of why his schedule was cut down to only 32 games last season, but Hernandez indicates it wasn't his choice:

I always wanted to do more games. This [SNY] is the biggest job in my post-playing career.

Sandomir cites Hernandez that there was a time after his career ended when being a baseball analyst didn't seem like it was in the cards:

In 1991, I got away from the game for four years and I barely watched. I cleared my head and realized it was a beautiful game.

Especially when there is a competent and interesting color guy in the booth.

Mets.com: Speaking of Ron Darling
Brian Hoch reports that Ron Darling will be taking part in an hour-long chat with Mets fans 2 PM today on Mets.com.