It wasn’t quite a dream come true, but it was pretty darn close.
Gary Cohen grew up in Queens cheering for the Mets and hoping to play for the team. He’s had to settle for being their play-by-play man on SNY.
“I wanted to be the shortstop for the Mets, but I couldn’t play, or power forward for the Knicks, but I didn’t grow up to be 6-9,” said Cohen, who did minor-league radio broadcasts with Durham and Pawtucket before getting the Mets radio gig with WFAN in 1989. “So, as far as childhood dreams go this was No. 3 on the list. So it worked out really well.”
When the Mets launched SNY in 2005 they tabbed Cohen to move over to the television side. It was similar to what the Yankees did with Michael Kay, who was raised in The Bronx.
In 2002 when the YES Network was created, they pulled Kay out of the radio booth to make the move to television. Though Kay had taken a different route than Cohen — starting in the newspaper business with The Post and the The Daily News and spending time on MSG’s Yankees postgame show.
The teams they call games for will continue their Subway Series rivalry tonnight, but the play-by-play men hardly bring any animosity to the booth.
“If I was a fan I would listen to us, but Mets fans have a great thing there,” joked Kay, who said he realized at age 9 his future in sports was behind the microphone, and not on the field.
“They are really good. I am a big fan of Gary’s, they don’t come much better than him. I think they do a great job on their broadcast. Keith [Hernandez] and Ronnie [Darling] are great, too.”
“Michael’s great. I go on his [ESPN Radio] show all the time and I consider us good friends. They put on a good show over there,” Cohen said.
Though they enjoy each other’s work, there are pointed differences between the two booths. SNY has chosen to go with the consistent three-man booth with Cohen and 1986 fan favorites Hernandez and Darling doing most games together.
“Ronnie, Keith and I have known each other for a long time and it really clicked from day one,” Cohen said. “The most important thing that we have going for us is that even though we have two guys that were incredible players in their day, we have a booth with no egos. No one needs to be the star, and I think that’s why it works so well.”
While Kay is the one constant in Yankees broadcasts — with the exception of a few road trips — YES deploys a rotating group of analysts that includes Ken Singleton, David Cone, Al Leiter, Paul O’Neill and John Flaherty. Cone and Leiter, who both pitched for the Yankees and the Mets, will be in the booth this weekend tonight and Sunday at Citi Field with Fox broadcasting tomorrow’s game nationally.
“It adds a freshness to it. Fans don’t know what combination they are going to get,” Kay said. “Each one has a different vibe and a different feel to it. And for me it’s kind of exciting, you never really get bland, or the same guy telling the same stories. There’s always a different dynamic to the broadcast. I think that’s the difference. The other way there’s going to be consistency like you see with Gary, Ron and Keith. I don’t know which fans prefer. We both seem to be doing OK.”
justin.terranova@nypost.com