While the Mets have a long history of great announcers, I was personally unfortunate to be born after the original broadcast crew had sort of disbanded. Lindsey Nelson moved on from the Mets airwaves long before I was born and passed away before the Mets were a part of my consciousness. Ralph Kiner, stricken with Bell's Palsy, was around on occasion but his visits to the booth grew less and less frequent. Only Bob Murphy was still a stalwart, calling Mets games nightly on WFAN with Gary Cohen and outside of car rides and late night games on school nights, I was a tv watcher.
So as a Mets fan currently in my mid-20's, my first memories begin in the late-90's, watching the Mets play on Fox Sports New York and listening to Howie Rose and Fran Healy describe the game. Occasionally, you'd have Gary Thorne and Tom Seaver broadcast games on PIX but Rose and Healy, for better or worse, are distinct parts of my early memories of Mets baseball. From Howie's signature "Put It In The Books!" to Fran going on about cans of corn and calling line drives "a big hang with 'em", I learned a great deal about baseball listening to both of them.
Once Howie shifted to the radio booth, he was really able to shine and I continue to enjoy him more and more when I get the chance to listen to his broadcasts on WOR with Josh Lewin. The interview embedded above shows how much he cares about and enjoys his job as the Mets lead broadcaster, though it comes through pretty strongly listening to him on the air.