SNY is beginning its 10th season televising Mets games, and the net "has kept intact its popular three-man booth of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, as well as producer Gregg Picker and director Bill Webb, for the entire, decade-long run," according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. Hernandez: "We're fortunate we get along. ... Another important thing, too, is we're popular with the fan base and I think we give an honest broadcast and I must say we're getting full support from the network and ownership. And I emphasize the ownership. I think it's very important that the fans know the Wilpons want an honest broadcast." Cohen: "We were all starting kind of from scratch, other than Bill Webb, who obviously transcended the business for decades. But I think what that did was it took a group of people, all of whom have fairly strong personalities, but all approached it in a very low-ego way." SNY Senior VP/Production & Exec Producer Curt Gowdy Jr. said, "I think viewers have grown to love the fact they hear the same guys entertain and enlighten them every single game." Picker added of keeping telecasts interesting amid years of poor play, "We've always prided ourselves on more of a global broadcast, and when the team is not doing well, or as well as fans would hope, we have things to fall back on because I think we like to credit the New York baseball fan, or the Mets fan, as being very well-educated and interested in not just the Mets but the opponent and what's going on in baseball." Cohen said of aspiring to match the 17-season continuity streak of former Mets broadcasters Ralph Kiner, Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy, "If we stayed together for 30 years, we would never accomplish what [they] did. ... We're not even in that conversation" (NEWSDAY, 2/26).
