Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling discuss Opening Day plans since the Mets game isn't on SNY
New York Mets broadcasters, from left, Keith Hernandez, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling at Citi Field on July 22, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
As they begin their 21st season together in the SNY Mets’ booth, Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling were asked on Monday about their plans for Thursday’s Opening Day.
They won’t be calling the game, much to the dismay of Mets fans who want “GKR” – as the trio is affectionately known – behind the mics. Thursday’s opener will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
“I’ll be on my couch,” Cohen said.
“I’ll be in Manhattan, watching somewhere,” Hernandez said. “Having probably a baked potato and a New York Strip, medium rare.”
“I have a 10-year-old,” Darling said. “I’ll be watching the game from our booth because there’s no one in there.”
SNY’s first broadcast will be the Mets’ second game of the season on Saturday afternoon.
Opening Day for both of New York’s teams will not be televised by their own networks. The Yankees will be on Netflix on Wednesday night.
You can complain about it – YES’ Michael Kay recently told Newsday it “sucks” to not be broadcasting the Yankees’ opener -- but these Mets voices won’t.
“Opening Day is special,” Cohen told Newsday in a group interview with his boothmates. “We’d like to be doing it, but that’s just the nature of how the [TV] contracts work, and we just have to live with it.”
The Mets’ 2021 opener also was not on SNY. It was televised by ESPN.
The good news for Mets fans is that the majority of their 2026 games will be broadcast by SNY and WPIX. Hernandez has reduced his workload from 110 to 95 games in the first year of a three-year contract, but he re-signed and the gang is back together.
In an ever-changing sports broadcasting landscape – where it can be hard to know where to find your team’s games and if you do having to live with different announcers – the GKR trio is considered the gold standard of baseball booths.
“I just feel that when [former SNY executive producer] Curt Gowdy put the team together,” Hernandez said, “I just thought it was a brilliant idea to have a pitcher, Ronnie, with his expertise, and a hitter. I think Gary is a professional. Ron and I, this is not our -- it is our profession now, but we weren't trained in this. Gary was trained to be a play-by-play guy, but I think the fact that [Gowdy] brought in a pitcher's perspective and a hitter's, I think it made the transition for three in the booth seamless. Gary, of course, I've always said he's the maestro, and he brings us in and out. He engages us for our opinions. I just think we got used to each other, if I recall here, real quick.”
Said Cohen: “I've always felt as though it goes back to our genesis when we first began: None of us really knew what we were doing. I was coming from radio. Ronnie had done one year in Washington without a whole lot of direction. Keith had dabbled but never really done it as a full-time gig. So I think in many respects, we had to lean on each other right from the beginning, and I think that has helped us as we've gone along.”
Darling talked about the “trust” that has been built up among the trio, and that trust is passed on to the viewer. Mets fans know GKR is not going to sugarcoat it when the team is going bad. But the joy in the calls when the team is winning is apparent and appropriate.
All three agree that a lack of ego is key to their longevity together. That plus the firm hand of producer Gregg Picker, who Darling calls “the boss of the show.”
There will be one change this season that may or may not be noticed by the viewer: After the offseason resignation of director John DeMarsico – who was known for his cinematic flair -- SNY’s fourth-ever lead director will be Eddie Wahrman.
“I've already worked five games with him in spring training and it's seamless,” Hernandez said of Wahrman, who was promoted from associate director. “Eddie's been in the truck. He's like an old friend. That's a familiar voice in the truck, in our ear, and it was just business as usual.”
That has to be music to Mets fans’ ears – even if they have to wait until Saturday to hear again from their old friends in the SNY booth.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
