NewYork.Mets.com

By Kevin T. Czerwinski / MLB.com

Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson and Ralph Kiner have been synonymous with Mets baseball. (NY Mets)

Rose, who is a longtime staple on the New York sports broadcasting scene himself, remains amazed by the man who is one of the few original Mets still working in Queens. While Murphy's fantastic 41-year run as the voice of the Mets will come to an end Thursday evening at Shea Stadium, the memories he has provided for Rose and millions of others will certainly last longer than the time Murphy spent calling baseball games in the Big Apple.

Murphy, who announced his retirement earlier this season, will call his final game as the Mets play Pittsburgh on Bob Murphy Night at Shea Stadium. It will give the former Marine from Oklahoma one more game to leave a lasting impression. There will be a pregame ceremony to honor Murphy and the start of the game will be delayed until 7:30 p.m. ET.

The 78-year-old Murphy has had a 50-year career that began in the minor leagues in the '40s. He covered the Red Sox and Ted Williams in the '50s before moving on to the Baltimore Orioles. He's called more than 6,000 Mets games, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1994 and, along with Ralph Kiner, had his own bobblehead day this year.

"It sounds trite but he just meant the Mets," said Rose, a Queens native who grew up listening to Murphy, Kiner and Lindsey Nelson. "Because he has such an unmistakable voice and such an inimitable voice, the instant you heard it, you thought Mets. He was one of the guys; more so than anyone I can remember -- and I remember Mel Allen's last few years with the Yankees -- that you imitated.

"I can remember playing stickball and announcing them Murphy-style and I wasn't the only one. There was a kid, a red head, now this is close to 40 years ago, a curly red-haired kid and we were playing a game of punch ball at PS 205 in Bayside. Someone punched one into the corner and he was playing right field and I was playing center field. And as I go to back him up, he's announcing the play as he goes to pick it up. In fact, he called himself Johnny Lewis, who played for the Mets in 1965, and he's doing it Bob Murphy-style. 'Here's Lewis, the throw to the plate, they may get him.' People just didn't imitate other baseball broadcasters in New York as much as they did Murph."

Gary Cohen, who is the Mets main radio play-by-play man now, has sat alongside Murphy in the broadcast booth for the last 15 years. Cohen calls Murphy "The Voice of Summer," a title the current generation of baseball fans has also bestowed on him. The pair go together marvelously, each appealing in a different way, each presenting the game with the eyes of a different generation in mind.

Cohen recalls fondly the first time in 1988 that he slid into the seat alongside Murphy to call a game. Cohen was understandably nervous and at one point got a little tongue-tied. Murphy, 78, never missed a beat, easing his young counterpart through the situation, a fact that Cohen has never forgotten.

"More than anything else, what separates Murph from all the other broadcasters is that he's not contrived," Cohen said. "People define broadcasters by signature phrases and they write about Murph and the 'Happy Recap' but what defines Murph much more is his ability to rise to the moment in games.

"When it's 3-2 in the ninth inning and the bases are loaded, he has a way of drawing you to the edge of your seat and making you feel like you're in the ballpark. You can see it and feel it and smell it and that's what Murph has always been about, the ability to bring a game home. And there are times, 15 years later that I have to pinch myself and say, 'Hey, this is Bob Murphy I'm sitting next to.' So it's a very cool thing."

Cohen wasn't in the booth, though, when Murphy witnessed what he says is his favorite memory of all from his time with the Mets. The 1969 World Series? Nope. The 1973 playoff run? Nope. Game 6 in '86? Well, sort of. But not the Game 6 about which everyone thinks. Muprhy looks back at Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, considered by many to be one of the greatest games ever played, as his most exhilerating Mets moment.

"Game 6 of the 1986 playoffs in Houston," Murphy fondly recalled. "Roger Craig almost cost the Mets that World Series by teaching Mike Scott how to pitch the split-finger fastball. He beat the Mets twice and they were going to face him in Game 7. The Mets were down 3-0 in the ninth inning of Game 6, rallied to tie it up, took the lead in the 14th and won in the 16th. Many would tell you that was the best postseason game ever played."

Murphy also speaks warmly of the early Mets with Casey Stengel and the glory years in the late '60s and early '70s under Gil Hodges. He freely admits that he was closer to the players back then. Mostly, he and Kiner remain as the final link to those days.

Kiner has also been part of the Mets broadcast team since 1962 and, unlike Murphy, has no plans on retiring. They, along with Nelson, formed a memorable trio, one that took the club through its first 17 years of existence. And though Nelson left the Mets more than 20 years ago, passing away a few years after moving on from Queens, the trio is still the most recognized set of broadcasters the club has ever had.

"We were together 17 years," Kiner said. "The longest that one team has worked with the ballclub. Bob became a brother to me. I was an only child and we grew into brothers."

And now it's time for one of the brothers to go home. Murphy will retire to Florida and perhaps be coaxed back to call a game now and then. He and his wife, Joye, will always be welcome at Shea Stadium, where a piece of Murphy will always remain. The radio booth is named in his honor just as the television booth is named in Kiner's honor.

"It's honeydew season now for me," Murphy laughed. "Honey, do this. Honey, do that. Otherwise, I don't have a single thing planned."

Baseball will go on and the Mets will be back in Queens next season. It won't be the same, though. Rose knows it. Cohen knows it. The Voice of Summer is going home.

Kevin T. Czerwinski is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.