Video: Islanders announcer caught being honest, apologizes on air

Yahoo! Sports

Mon Nov 22 08:28am EST

Video: Islanders announcer caught being honest, apologizes on air

Howie Rose has been a New York Mets play-by-play announcer for the last 15 years on radio and television. He's also the voice of the dismal New York Islanders, who lost their 13th consecutive game on Sunday, 2-1 against the Atlanta Thrashers.

It's gotten so bad with the Islanders that Rose wishes he was covering spring training instead. Unfortunately, it's a wish he made while the mics were live and the Islanders announcing team was on the air during a break in the action. Oops:

Islanders owner Charles Wang no doubt enjoyed that part where Rose said "let me know how this game turns out ... I don't particularly care." The last time we heard an announcer this apathetic, Bob Uecker was taking swigs from a bottle of whiskey while Charlie Sheen was pitching for the Cleveland Indians.

Later, Rose made an on-air apology for the gaffe, lamely claiming it was frustration over technical difficulties before acknowledging that "if you've been watching the Islanders lately, you know we've all been in a frustrated mood." No kidding; via Crash The Crease, here's the clip:

Boy, the Islanders can't win. We mean off the ice. They ban a blogger from the press box for his criticism of the team, and end up with a play-by-play guy wishing it was baseball season in order to end his misery. This may be the first documented case in which someone claimed a New York Mets season could actually reduce pain and frustration ...

Stick-tap to Puck Buddy Brian for the video.