Mets broadcasters lend charm and calm to 7 train
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Keith Hernandez and his buddies in the SNY broadcast booth Ron Darling and Gary Cohen have recorded several subway announcements that will play over the 7 train’s loudspeakers through the start of October. Photo by Marc A. Hermann / MTA
By Jacob Kaye
If there are two places Queens residents love to be miserable, it’s on the train and it’s on the couch watching a New York Mets game.
And while previously, only one of those two places at least offered the jovial, insightful and oftentimes hilarious voices of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez, that all changed this week.
Mets fans will no longer have to tune into the game to hear the broadcasters’ assuring voices – they just have to hop on the 7 train.
For the next several weeks, the voices of Cohen, Darling and Hernandez will play over the loudspeakers of 7 line trains running to and from Mets-Willets Point, the home subway station of the New York Mets.
The broadcasters have recorded a number of announcements typically heard on the subway, while throwing in their own Amazin’ flavor.
“This is SNY’s Gary Cohen and this is a Mets-Willets Point bound 7 express train, the fastest way to get to Citi Field to see the Amazin’ New York Mets,” the play-by-play announcer says in one of the announcements. “This train is outta here, out of here.”
One recording features Darling shaming an imaginary New York Yankees fan for riding the 7 train while decked out in pinstripes.
“Are you sure you're on the right line? Because this train is headed to Citi Field,” Darling says. “Let's go Mets.”
Hernandez, a noted speed demon who spoke at a press event to announce the new recordings, said that as a ballplayer, he’d often take the 7 from his Midtown apartment to the stadium.
“I know that when I lived in the city, it was my preferred mode of transportation,” the Mets legend said. “In the summer, when I lived in Midtown, all the traffic – I got around so much faster on the subway.”
“What’s a better way for fans to come to the ballgame than on the subway with a bunch of cars full of met fans and sharing the excitement of going to the ballgame together,” he added.
The announcements are scheduled to run through Oct. 5, the day of the Mets’ final home game.
If that seems like a long time to be subjected to the announcements, Cohen is right there with you.
On Wednesday’s SNY broadcast, Cohen opined that riders listening to the announcements may question whether they’re riding the 7 train or sitting in the seventh circle of “you-know-where.”
