Gary Cohen (born ) is an American sportscaster, best known as a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

announcer for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. Cohen currently calls Mets broadcasts for SNY and WPIX and Seton Hall basketball games on

WNYM WNYM (970 AM) – branded "AM 970 The Answer" – is a commercial radio station licensed to Hackensack, New Jersey, and serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is owned by Salem Media Group and programs a conservative talk radio ...

Career

Cohen graduated with a

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

degree in 1981 from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he began his broadcasting career with WKCR Sports. While at Columbia, he announced soccer games with future presidential adviser and '' Good Morning America'' host George Stephanopoulos. Prior to joining the Mets' broadcast team in , Cohen worked as the voice of the minor league

Spartanburg Spinners The Spartanburg Spinners were a minor league baseball team located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The team played in the 1983 South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Basebal ...

(1983–1984), Durham Bulls (1986), and

Pawtucket Red Sox The Pawtucket Red Sox, known colloquially as the PawSox, were a professional minor league baseball club based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. From 1973 to 2020, the team was a member of the International League and served as the Triple-A affiliate ...

(1987–1988). He also called

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

games for Providence College from 1988 to 1989, and football for Brown University in 1987. Along with his work with the Mets, Cohen has also called postseason MLB games for ESPN Radio and CBS Radio. In addition to his baseball duties, Cohen has called men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

games for many years, starting with his duties with St. John's on WFAN, for which he broadcast from 1995 to 2002. Following WFAN's loss of the radio rights to St. John's games, Cohen began broadcasting

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...

games, which he continues to do to this day. He also served as a backup announcer on

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

radio broadcasts, called Olympic hockey at the 1992, 1994, and

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

, and NCAA tournament games for

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

on multiple occasions. In September 2022, Cohen pre-recorded announcements along MTA New York City Transit's 7 line, along with Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.

Television

It was announced on November 9, 2005, that Cohen would become the play-by-play announcer for the new Mets cable television network, SportsNet New York (SNY). As part of the agreement, Cohen also calls about 25 Mets games per year on WPIX along with analysts (and former Mets)

Ron Darling Ronald Maurice Darling Jr. (born August 19, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player and current television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher from to , most notably as a m ...

and

Keith Hernandez Keith Hernandez (born October 20, 1953) is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman who played the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. Hernandez was a five-time All-Star who shared the 1979 NL MVP ...

Personal life

He is married to Lynn Cohen, and lives in Connecticut. He has five children.

References

External links

SportsNet New York Profile of Gary Cohen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Gary 1958 births Living people American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Jewish American baseball people Jewish American sportspeople Major League Baseball broadcasters Minor League Baseball broadcasters National Hockey League broadcasters New York Mets announcers New York Rangers announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Seton Hall Pirates basketball Sportspeople from Queens, New York SportsNet New York Columbia College (New York) alumni 21st-century American Jews