Pete Alonso became the Mets' all-time leader in home runs earlier this week as part of an offensive explosion so big the team ran out of fireworks. When Alonso passed Daryl Strawberry it was a nice moment for a team in the middle of a very rough patch and SNY's play-by-play voice, Gary Cohen, responded with an enthusiastic call to mark the occasion.
One person who didn't appreciate the call was Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who went on First Take the next morning to rant about the Mets celebrating the accomplishment. Near the end of his rant he also called out Cohen for his nickname-centric call saying, "I love Gary, I hate to do that. ‘Polar Bear on an iceberg?’ I mean, really now? This is not Henry Aaron against Al Downing!”
Chris Russo goes full Mad Dog on the Mets' celebration and Gary Cohen's call of Pete Alonso's franchise-record home run. pic.twitter.com/FMcNcpP4cU
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 13, 2025
Unsurprisingly, there was at least one person who then took issue with Russo's rant. That would be ESPN New York's Don La Greca who went on his show later in the day to explain that the call wasn't for Mad Dog.
https://t.co/IRzjTY8qma pic.twitter.com/1gE74VG9Ju
— ESPN New York (@ESPNNewYork) August 13, 2025
"Dude, this is a Met moment," said La Greca. "If you're a Yankee fan or Chris Russo, a Giant fan, a Red Sox fan, don't care about baseball. What do you care to have an opinion? It was for the Mets fans. It's a Met broadcast by a Met announcer who grew up a Met fan talking about a Met record. He's playing it to the room."
"You're not involved! You weren't invited," La Greca continued. "I don't understand why you should even care. I don't need to hear a San Francisco Giant fan peeing all over it. It's disrespectful to Gary. It's disrespectful to Met fans. Chris, I love ya. I don't care what you think. I don't! Your opinion doesn't count because you're not part of the club that that call was for. That call was for Mets fans. Watching the game. Living and dying with the team. Not a guy that's a San Francisco Giant fan that doesn't get it. Of course you don't get it because you don't know because you're not a Met fan."
As far as media feuds go, this one features a lot of players. You've got ESPN, ESPN Radio, SiriusXM, SNY, First Take, Peter Schraeger giggling. Pretty much everybody and everything.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as New York Radio Host Goes Off On ‘Mad Dog’ Russo After Rant About Mets Broadcaster.
