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I grew up before the 24-hour news cycle started, when social media constituted of passing around the headphones of a Walkman as you ‘streamed’ music on the radio. Maybe if one was lucky, they could ‘share’ their cassette recording of said song so everyone could hear it.

It was a suburb of northern New Jersey, not far from the George Washington Bridge but to a teenager it felt like a world away. I mean, I knew I could pay $2.50 and take the 175 bus on NJ transit across the bridge, but that wasn’t a realistic option. I was more likely to catch the bus to the Garden State Plaza in Paramus and wander around the mall.

While I did make a few trips to Flushing, the majority of my fandom was observed from afar. WOR broadcasts the majority of Mets game at the time, but commandeering a television wasn’t always easy. However there was one surefire way to catch the game.

The alarm clock that woke me up for school had a radio and from as early as I can remember, the dial was set to WFAN 660 AM. For as long as I can remember (a number that shrinks by the year thanks to old age), I would go to sleep listening to Bob Murphy and Gary Thorne, then Gary Cohen, describing what was happening less than 20 miles away.

I can remember being on vacation in southern Virginia and if you twisted the dial just right, you could pick up the 50,000 watts of the Flagship State for New York Mets baseball. But when I moved north to Boston for college, that wasn’t possible.

As I grew older and moved farther and farther away from Flushing, I considered getting the MLB Extra Innings package but didn’t have the disposable income available for games I wouldn’t be home to watch. Sure, I made time on the calendar whenever they were featured on ESPN or Fox Saturday baseball, but then something special happened.

The MLB At Bat app became available for free to download, providing news, stats and most importantly – Live Radio Feeds.

I didn’t hear Gary Cohen’s last year before SNY made him part of the best local play-by-play team in baseball, but I can remember hearing Tom McCarthy and wondering why the Phillies guy was calling the Mets game. Wayne Hagin was serviceable at best, but I think they’ve struck gold with Josh Lewin joining Howie Rose.

Rose has always been the voice of the Mets in some form or fashion, whether it was ‘Mets Extra’ before or after the game or just talking about the Mets on WFAN. He’s proven himself a Mets historian of the first order, something you can hear as he routinely spouts facts about the team from the 70s and 80s.

Howard Cosell would say Howie has a face for radio, but he’s also has a voice for it. While he clearly bleeds Orange and Blue, it’s not as obvious as some other area broadcasters I don’t think I have to mention (Cough, cough. John Sterling. Cough, cough.)

As Mets fans, we’re blessed to have great broadcasters and on Thursday at 1 p.m., Howie Rose will start another season searching for the Mets to put it in the books and I can’t wait.

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