With A Mets Video Game Broadcast, SNY & “GKR” Inject Some Normalcy Into A World Missing It

One of the many great things about the SNY broadcast trio of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez — known in New York and by Mets fans as “GKR” — is their humanity and candidness. While it’s good for business and they’re happiest when the Mets are faring well, the trio is at its best in more trying circumstances. Who can forget Cohen breaking down in tears during the pre-game show on Sept. 25, 2016, when the Mets played the Marlins the day after Miami ace Jose Fernandez died in a boating accident?

Cohen, Darling and Hernandez remain at the top of their games even when the Mets aren’t faring well — and especially when they are embroiled in one of the many fully avoidable controversies that seem to envelope every Mets season. Yoenis Cespedes’ sudden interest in a good night’s rest led to some entertaining in-game banter in April 2016. Last June, Cohen blistered Jason Vargas in the latter’s first start since he profanely threatened to beat up a reporter.

Cohen, Darling and Hernandez should be in that most glorious spot of the season right now — the second full week of the campaign, when promise is limitless and the canvas likely not yet stained. Except, of course, the only thing that is limitless is the uncertainty, and the likelihood grows with each day that the 2020 baseball season never presents a canvas due to the coronavirus pandemic that has brought the world to a screeching halt.

The trio did its best to fill the void a bit Tuesday night, when they provided play-by-play and analysis to SNY’s online broadcast of MLB The Show 20’s simulation of the Mets-Astros game originally scheduled to take place Tuesday in Houston (what a decidedly wordy and perfectly 2020 sentence that is).

Listening to and watching Cohen, Darling and Hernandez broadcast the Mets’ 2-1 video game win (the broadcast and “game” was recorded the night before) wasn’t quite like slipping into a familiar easy chair while wearing a comfortable pair of shoes or sweats. But from the moment Cohen, pictured in between Darling and Hernandez, introduced his booth mates by glancing to his right and to his left, their chemistry and ability to balance light-hearted yet layered banter with analysis — even in a video game — provided some semblance of what we used to recognize as normal.

“We just saw something that we would never see in real life: Brandon Nimmo jogging to first base,” Cohen said after Nimmo, famous for a post-walk sprint to first that makes Pete Rose’s dash look downright jaunty, drew a leadoff walk in the first against Justin Verlander.

In the bottom half of the first, a discussion that started with the quiet surroundings of virtual Minute Maid Park turned into an opportunity to mock the Astros for their sign-stealing scandal that, once upon a more innocuous time, seemed likely to define an entire season.

Cohen: “Well, you know what comes to mind is: You can hear very little from the crowd tonight — it almost feels like you’re playing in a library. Which would mean that any sound that might be emanating from the dugout — say, the sound of a trash can being banged — would be quite formidable.”

Darling (laughs)

Hernandez: “You know, I think that would definitely raise a red flag, Gare.”

Despite the innings moving much faster in the digital world than the real world (no one tell Rob Manfred about the pace of game), the trio managed to ponder the absence of real umpires from the game, the Great Gazoo-esque hat sported by Mets starter Jacob deGrom and the digital version of Astros star Jose Altuve.

Darling: “Looks a lot beefier, digitally, to me. I don’t know about you guys.”

Hernandez: “Well he’s got that beard, digitally, it really looks cut fine, very fine angles.”

Cohen: “Can’t get a good look at the neck tattoo from this angle.”

All this in the first inning!

Later, Cohen noted digital Robinson Cano ran out the type of routine grounder his human self might not. Hernandez, the winner of a record 11 Gold Gloves at first base, expressed his skepticism at the accuracy of a nifty backhand play by typically defensively-challenged Astros first baseman Yuri Gurriel. In the third inning, the trio mused that perhaps the crowd at Minute Maid Park was sparse because of social distancing. Darling wondered what algorithm had the Mets’ free-swinging shortstop, Amed Rosario, drawing two walks in a game. Hernandez “scolded” Darling about bringing family into the booth when Darling’s child was overheard in the background.

In the top of the fourth inning alone — remember, there was minimal wasted time between pitches — Cohen coaxed Hernandez into talking about how Tim McCarver plotted a game plan against Willie Mays and asked Darling if pitchers are relying less on their fastballs despite throwing harder than ever. The trio also discussed the likelihood of the video game including some nifty bat flips and wondered how they really would have approached the comeback of Yoenis Cespedes, the oft-mysteriously injured star who hasn’t played since July 2018 but made his virtual season debut Tuesday as the designated hitter.

Darling: “Now I’m just thinking if we were doing this and it wasn’t a digital game, it was live, we would lay out and just enjoy this Cespedes at-bat, right?”

Cohen: “Either that, or we’d talk about how unprecedented it is for a player to come back from a year-and-a-half on the sidelines after an encounter with a wild boar.”

Darling: “We would have some deep statistical analysis on boar attacks, I’m sure.”

Cohen, an expert traffic cop even in a virtual setting, later asked his partners if the Astros might consider bunting with rookie catcher Garrett Stubbs following Josh Reddick’s leadoff double in the fifth. (They did not, Stubbs struck out and the Astros didn’t score — small ball for the win!)

An inning later, Cohen asked Hernandez how Alonso would deal with expectations following his record-setting rookie season. (Hernandez, who never hit more than 18 homers in a season, reminded viewers that a 30-homer season is still pretty good)

There were dozens of other exchanges and moments that would have normally come and gone as part of the cadence of the season but stood out as a welcome distraction and dose of normalcy Tuesday night. A friend of mine texted me and said the broadcast made him the happiest he’d been in weeks. SNY reporter Andy Martino Tweeted Wednesday that listening to the sounds of spring, summer and early fall unearthed the emotions he’d been trying to conceal ever since society was shut down.

But as is their custom, there was no attempt by Cohen, Darling and Hernandez to fool viewers about what they were seeing, and, in this case, why they were seeing it. After the Mets scored the tie-breaking (and what proved to be the game-winning) run in the top of the eighth — just after deGrom had virtually thrown his final pitch but still in time to get him the victor — Darling noted he was “…still trying to get used to a world where Jacob deGrom leaves the game and gets a run.”

Replied Cohen with a laugh: “Yeah. Must be an alternative universe.”

In the third inning, deGrom struck out the first two batters on six pitchers, which, as Darling noted, put him two-thirds of the way to the “immaculate inning” — three strikeouts on nine pitches. Alas, deGrom’s first pitch to Alex Bregman was out of the strike zone.

Cohen: “And there goes the immaculate inning. See, you can’t — you can’t mention an immaculate inning!”

Darling (laughing): “You of all people telling ME that you shouldn’t jinx it? That’s hilarious.”

Cohen: “It’s different in the digital world, Ronnie.”

Darling (laughing): “This is the bizarro world.”

Cohen (laughing): “We definitely have gone to the other side of the universe, haven’t we?”

We have, but for about 80 minutes Tuesday night, it was terrific to have a reminder of the less bizarre side of the universe looked and sounded like, and to join Cohen, Darling and Hernandez in moving about 80 minutes closer to whatever we will eventually define as normal again.