Ralph Kiner

From The Met Wiki

Ralph Kiner has been a broadcaster for the Mets since the team’s inaugural season of 1962. He has served as a play-by-play announcer on television and radio for the team. Kiner also hosted the Mets’ post-game show, which was called Kiner’s Korner.

Kiner had a 10-year career as a major league player with the Pirates, Cubs and Indians. He had a .279 batting average with 369 home runs and 1,105 RBIs. Ralph led the National League in homers every season from 1946 to 1952 and was a six-time N. L. All-Star. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.

After spending the 1961 season as an announcer for the White Sox, Kiner joined Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy to form the Mets’ first broadcast team the following year. The threesome covered the team on both radio and TV for a period of seventeen seasons. Ralph usually announced the early innings on radio and the middle innings on television, after which he would prepare for his post-game show. On radio in 1969, Kiner called the final out of the Mets’ 7-4 win over the Braves that clinched the National League pennant on October 6.

In the 1980s, Kiner was shifted solely to television. He worked with Tim McCarver, Steve Zabriskie, Rusty Staub and Fran Healy during the Mets rise into contention. In 1984, Ralph was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. He continued to host Kiner’s Korner for Mets home games on local TV and covered the team’s championship celebrations of 1986 and 1988. At Shea Stadium on October 27, 1986, the Mets won Game 7 of the World Series to clinch the championship on Kiner’s 64th birthday.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Kiner continued to serve as a Mets’ broadcaster in a lesser sense. Ralph appeared on the air for fewer games due to a bout with Bell’s Palsy and his advancing age. As a result of his condition, Kiner had mispronounced people’s names and made comical comments for which he had never been known previously. On occasion, Ralph had referred to Mets’ catcher Gary Carter as “Gary Cooper” and his broadcast partner McCarver as “Tim McArthur.”

Despite his shortcomings, Kiner continued his role with the Mets as they entered Citi Field in 2009. The television broadcast booth at the new ballpark (as it had been at Shea) was named in his honor.