SNY’s annual Kidcaster program, which sees a child invited to the broadcast booth to call a half inning of a ballgame alongside the New York Mets announcers, went down last week. Winner Christopher Ivazes of New Jersey visited the booth, the 14th participant in the Kidcaster contest. Ivazes, who just turned 11, described his August 8 booth debut as “unforgettable.”  

Some Kidcaster alumni have parlayed their childhood moment of fame into a job in baseball. Johnny Gadamowitz was a Kidcaster in 2013, when he was 12. He said eight youths were picked to try out in Manhattan, calling the game as a replay of Johan Santana’s 2012 no-hitter aired. 

A couple of days later, he got the call that he’d won. “As a 12-year-old kid, I don’t think I fully understood the importance of what I was doing, and the number of people who would be tuning in,” he said. “I was thrilled to say the least.”

Once in the booth, Gadamowitz, in a suit and tie, said play-by-play guy Gary Cohen and analysts Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez “made me feel right at home.” 

Cohen told him, “You are immediately the best-dressed Kidcaster we’ve ever had on the show.”

Speaking on his 11th birthday, Ivazes echoed Gadamowitz in discussing his veteran boothmates. “Very nice and very helpful,” he said. 

After his time in the booth, Gadamowitz began thinking more and more about a career in broadcasting. Years later, he called a wide range of games that were live streamed for his Long Island high school, Harborfields, including baseball, football, basketball and lacrosse. He then enrolled at Syracuse, where he called basketball games. For a couple summers, Gadamowitz called baseball in the Cape Cod League. 

Kidcasters “really launched my passion for sports broadcasting,” he said. 

Graduating from college in May, Gadamowitz now calls games for the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets’ minor league team that plays at Coney Island. 

“It’s a unique spot to be calling baseball,” Gadamowitz said. “The backdrop is the amusement park and beach and boardwalk. It’s everything I could’ve hoped for.”

Two years before Gadamowitz first stepped into the SNY booth, Jacob Resnick did so as an 11-year-old Kidcaster. He said he had just one batter to call, and was allowed to pick his favorite player. After he picked Jose Reyes, the shortstop responded with a fortuitous home run. Resnick mentioned how his call of the round-tripper ended up on ESPN’s SportsCenter. 

“It was incredible. It was a whirlwind,” he said. “I felt like I was floating when I was calling the play.”

His Kidcaster stint resulted in more TV work. A year after his debut, Resnick hosted Kids Clubhouse on SNY, which led to covering the Mets for an assortment of blogs. 

Resnick mentioned the “domino effect” that began with Kidcasters. He studied broadcasting at Quinnipiac College, and his first job out of school was covering minor league baseball as a reporter for MLB.com. 

These days, Resnick, who is 23, works for the Mets as an associate in minor league operations. He started in April, and described the job as helping the young players with their needs, assisting club executives with their endeavors, and studying how the higher-ups go about their business. 

Resnick’s Kidcaster stint got it all going. “I don’t think I can stress enough how much of a one-thing-led-to-another kind of deal my career has been,” he said. “I was in the right places to meet the right people who’d heard from me in the previous thing I’d done.”

Time will tell if Christopher Ivazes goes on to a career in baseball. He described following in the footsteps of play-by-play guy Gary Cohen as a dream job. 

A few Kidcaster alums, for their part, say the program has been vital in their own careers. 

“If not for that Kidcaster experience,” said Gadamowitz, “I really don’t know if sports broadcasting would be something that crossed my radar.”

Google-owned YouTube TV will drop SNY, the last remaining New York City-area regional sports network on its lineup, as of July 1, the virtual MVPD said Thursday.

In an email  to subscribers, YouTube TV said that SNY — which televises New York Mets baseball games and offers coverage of the NFL’s New York Jets, among other programming — “will no longer be available on YouTube TV.” The move also eliminates all library content recorded from SNY. 

YouTube TV also said its subscribers will be able to continue watching select national Mets games on other networks such as Fox, ESPN, and TBS.

SNY on Thursday confirmed the move in a Tweet, stating that “despite our good faith efforts, YouTube TV is preparing to drop SNY and our exclusive live Mets games on July 1.” 

YouTube TV’s removal of SNY comes after the service dropped New York-based YES Network in 2020. Earlier this year the service also dropped MLB Network from its lineup.

YouTube TV will add the NFL Sunday Ticket package this fall to its offerings after Google in December purchased the distribution rights to the out-of-market package formerly distributed by DirecTV.

Keith Hernandez has signed a three-year deal with SNY to remain in the broadcast booth of the New York Mets. His previous contract expired when the 2022 season ended. 

Hernandez shares the booth with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling. Hernandez’s new contract keeps the trio together for 18 consecutive seasons as of the upcoming season. MLB.com reported that the 18-year partnership is a Mets record, surpassing the team’s original broadcast trio of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner, who were together from 1962 to 1978. 

An analyst known for his candor and wit, Hernandez began broadcasting Mets games for MSG Networks in 1999 and joined SNY when it launched in 2006. Hernandez was a post-season analyst at Fox Sports in 2017. He also played himself in an episode of Seinfeld, titled “The Boyfriend,” in season three. 

Hernandez, who is 69, played first base for the St. Louis Cardinals 1974 to 1983, the Mets from 1983 to 1989 and the Cleveland Indians in 1990. He had his No. 17 retired by the Mets last season. 

Hernandez, Cohen and Darling will be in the booth in Florida when the Mets’ spring training opener happens February 25. ■

Sports channel SNY will live-stream New York Mets games during the 2017 regular season.

The service is available, at no additional charge, to authenticated SNY subscribers at SNY.tv and on the NBC Sports app. It includes pre- and post-game coverage.

SNY is owned by Sterling Entertainment Enterprises, Charter Communications and Comcast. Bearing the slogan “Get your New York sports here,” SNY is the Mets’s cable home, while also covering the New York market’s other sports teams.

The network is available to subscribers throughout New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania, and nationally on DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, Comcast Cable and AT&T U-verse.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

SNY and Verizon are going to do something amazin’ with the regional sports network’s telecast of the New York Mets game on Thursday night: add more content and lessen the commercial load.

Viewers of SNY’s June 12 coverage of the Mets’ contest against the Milwaukee Brewers at 7 p.m. from CitiField will witness SNY’s first-ever limited commercial interruption broadcast, which is being billed as a Mets+ telecast.  

In partnership with Verizon FIOS, the SNY telecast will minimize commercial interruption between innings in order to bring viewers closer to the action via unprecedented in-game audio enhancements, features, and on-field access from the RSN’s broadcast team of Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez, Gary Cohen, and Kevin Burkhardt. Citi is on deck to sponsor a limited-commercial interruption telecast on July 10, when the Mets host the Atlanta Braves.

Among the features are in-game interviews between field reporter Burkhardt and Mets players and coaches from the clubhouse, dugout and bullpen, and in-game discussion between the on-air team and lead studio analyst Bob Ojeda. There will also be specially produced segments, including "Mets Memory" vignettes, player reports, and player profiles, and expanded studio cut-ins with highlights and analysis from games across Major League Baseball’s diamonds.

The extra content will emanate from a reduction in the number of commercial breaks in the telecast. On June 12, the game coverage will feature four 2-minute pods, including one before first pitch, exclusive of Verizon ads. For its part, the telco will have three dedicated breaks of only one :30 second-spot. Verizon commercials will also run during pitching changes which is the case for all Met games.

SNY didn’t disclose the financial consideration involved to present the game in this fashion.

“Our sponsorship of Mets+ is a continuation of a long and successful partnership with SNY,” said Angie Klein, vice president of marketing for Verizon’s Northeast region. “This unique SNY-Mets+ broadcast is similar to the TV viewing experience our customers get when they subscribe to our recently introduced FiOS Quantum TV.  This new innovation from Verizon delivers the best, most satisfying TV experience to customers, with features and functionality they want such as more choice, storage and control. We’re happy to bring New Yorkers this unique broadcast, with limited commercial interruptions.”

The FiOS Quantum TV experience also will be on display during the June 12 in the form of Burkhardt presiding over a segment from the Quantum Ultimate Viewing Chair, a specially designed leather, massaging fan chair. 

To be given to one lucky fan later in the season, the chair allows viewers to watch TV on a 19-inch HD TV, surf the web on two built-in tablets, and enjoy their favorite snacks from holders on the sides of the chair.  It will be on display at Citi Field in front of the Verizon Studio starting June 14.