Fran Healy (baseball)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Xavier Healy (born September 6, 1946 in Holyoke, Massachusetts), is a former baseball catcher best known for his long tenure calling television broadcasts for the New York Mets on the MSG Network and Fox Sports Net-New York. In his baseball career, Healy played for the Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees, accumulating a .250 career batting average.

After his playing career ended in 1978, he worked on radio broadcasts for the Yankees until 1981. In 1979, he added the Yankees' cable television broadcasts on SportsChannel (now Fox Sports Net New York) to the resume, staying with the cable crew until the end of the 1983 season. Healy was noted for his close relationship with Reggie Jackson while on the Yankees, and served as a mediator between the fiery slugger and Yankee manager Billy Martin.

Healy worked on Mets telecasts from 1984 to 2005, also working as the host of Mets Inside Pitch and Halls of Fame. When Keith Hernandez was added to Mets telecasts, Healy and Hernandez's game-calling often became humorous, pointing to a sometimes-contentious relationship between the two. Healy was not signed to be part of the Mets' new cable channel for 2006.