After eight season as the on-field reporter for the New York Mets, Kevin Burkhardt will be leaving SNY following tomorrow’s game against the Washington Nationals, while the Mets wrap up their final road stand of 2014. When the season is over, Burkhardt will be joining the FOX Sports team as a play-by-play announcer for NFL games. He already has experience doing so, as he has been with FOX Sports as an alternative broadcaster since 2013. But Burkhardt will be leaving more than just the SNY team; he will also be leaving eight years of memories behind. Burkhardt has been through it all alongside the Mets, including both good memories, and bad.
Burkhardt calls Bartolo Colon’s first hit as a Met: During the previous offseason, the Mets signed 40-year-old pitcher Bartolo Colon. Although Colon was dominant for the Mets, he faced severe problems concerning his at bats. However, when Burkhardt was filling in for Garry Cohen as the Mets play-by-play man in St. Louis, Colon hit a line drive down the leftfield line that resulted in his first base hit of the season…a double. When contact was made, fans could tell how excited Burkhardt was to be able to call this moment in the Mets season. “…it’s a base hit Colon! Let’s watch him run!” Burkhardt said, and was laughing when Colon pulled all the way into second base.
The “Horny-Uh” Diagnosis: A lesser-known “highlight” in Burkhardt’s career came on August 8, 2014. While the Mets were playing the Phillies during a day game, Burkhardt gave a report in the bottom of the seventh, explaining how Mets’ closer had been out with due to discomfort with his “horny-uh.” As is the custom for East Coast fans, they immediately took to Twitter and made fun of Burkhardt who, with a good heart, had a good laugh about it with the fans.
Post game interviews: How lucky does someone have to be to interview players directly after a Mets game while still on the field? For 81 games a season, Burkhardt got to hold that honor, interviewing the standout performers from each game. Burkhardt has interviewed R.A. Dickey after his one-hit shutout against the Phillies in 2010, Johan Santana after the first no-hitter in Mets history, and many, many more. He has also been pied a few times, and always keeps a smile on his face.
Love and appreciation from players and fans: Throughout his tenure on SNY, Burkhardt has seen much appreciation from the players and fans. Very seldom is there a bad word said about the man, and rightfully so. Burkhardt is a great man with a great sense of humor, a big personality, and perhaps the largest appreciation for the game concerning on field reporters. When he broadcasted his final game at Citi Field with the Mets, hundreds of fans brought their signs to show their love and support for Burkhardt.
Burkhardt may never win the broadcaster of the year award, but that is the least of his concerns. Burkhardt has done seemingly everything a reporter/broadcaster can do…including hosting a game show on SNY. Sadly, the man we have all come to love will not be broadcasting any more Mets games, but he will be moving on to FOX to broadcast for the NFL, so on behalf of all of us at mets360.com, both writers and viewers of the site, I would like to wish Kevin Burkhardt a heartfelt Good Luck!
I wish him well. He does a good job on NFL games. I remember him running in the Brat Race in Milwaukee, and going down the giant slide there. He called good games during spring training. I hope Steve Gells is not his replacement.
I thought I disliked KB and then I heard Steve Gelbs.
Anyway, it’s the position that I detest. Good luck KB — while you weren’t my cup of tea you seemed to make a lot of people happy and there’s tremendous value in that.
KB was fine,it’s the man in the stands reports that annoy me to no end.I hope they stop doing that but alas they wont.
Kevin made those reports top-notch information sharing, sometimes. Other times it was trifling anecdotes that nobody needed. But that’s the job, and he did it extremely well. Best of luck to him in the future!