Gary Cohen, the longtime and highly regarded announcer of the New York Mets, will deliver the commencement address at Seton Hall University’s graduation May 21 at the Prudential Center in Newark.
It’s unclear if Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling will offer witty comments during the speech.
Now in his 36th year with the team, Cohen is one of the area’s great play-by-play announcers. He received the New York Chapter Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Willie, Mickey and the Duke Award following the 2022 season (alongside Darling and Hernandez). And he was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in June 2023 and the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
Cohen also has done games for the New York Rangers and Seton Hall basketball over the years.
Before coming to the Mets, he broadcast minor league baseball for Boston’s Pawtucket (AAA) club of the International League, the Durham Bulls (A) of the Carolina League and Spartanburg Spinners (A) of the South Atlantic League. He was the basketball and hockey voice for Providence College and broadcast football for Brown University. He has broadcast play-by-play for various sports at the University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina-Spartanburg and Old Dominion University, as well as Columbia University, from where he holds a degree in political science.
Also receiving an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters and giving brief remarks at the ceremony will be Sister Raffaella Petrini, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist and secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State. Petrini was appointed as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State by Pope Francis in November 2021.
A native of Rome, Petrini holds a degree in political science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, a Master of Organizational Behavior from the University of Hartford and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. She is a board member of the faculty of social sciences at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where she is an associate professor of Welfare Economics.
