Courtesy New York Newsday

(April 21, 2009) Sam Rosen was sitting on a battered couch in a cluttered hallway deep inside Madison Square Garden last night, awaiting the start of yet another in a quarter-century-long parade of Rangers games.

If there had been a photographer around, it might have made a poignant portrait of an aging TV voice, preparing for the red light to go on so he could tell one more version of an old, tired story.

But then Rosen opened his mouth, and the facts that he is 61 and has been the Rangers' voice for 25 years - the longest active term for a play-by-play man with a New York-area team - were beside the point.

The guy wasn't jaded; he was jacked.

"It's still the same exhilaration, the same fun, the same excitement, the same feeling coming into the building,'' he said. "Like right now: I'm just sitting here in anticipation.''

Well, sure, it was a playoff game. What about those dreary nights in November, or the playoff-free seasons in the early 2000s? "No, it's the same every day; every game is something new,'' he said. "It is what makes my job not a job.''

Rosen's colleagues confirmed the enthusiasm is no put-on.

"It's his life, his passion,'' John Davidson, his analyst for 20 years and now president of the Blues, said yesterday. "He's a New York treasure.''

Said Joe Micheletti, his partner the past three seasons: "He can't wait for the game to start, and it never wavers. It's the same every game.''

Joe Whelan, his producer since 1992, said: "Even during those down eight years, his energy level was still the same. His love for covering the Rangers was still the same.''

Rosen's most important trick, though, has not been that the seasons have worn well on him. It is that he has worn well on Rangers fans, for whom he is a comfortable part of the furniture, and whose 1994 call - "This one will last a lifetime!'' - will last a lifetime.

"I think they feel my enthusiasm,'' he said. " I think I'm able to transmit the love I have for the game and for what I do.''

Doing so without falling into the traps of screaming or shtick might be his greatest accomplishment in a business that often rewards such behavior.

Rosen debuted in 1977 at MSG - which, like Newsday, is owned by Cablevision - when his mentor, Jim Gordon, recommended him as a fill-in for a Knicks-Nets game on radio. By 1982, he was full-time. In '84, he was invited to take over Rangers telecasts - from Gordon.

"That was probably the most difficult thing I've ever faced,'' Rosen said. "Here was a guy who helped me get to where I was and they asked me to basically take his job. I really struggled with it.

"They said, 'Look, we're going to make a change, anyway.' Jim took the whole thing hard.''

Rosen is four years older than Gordon was then, but shows no signs of slowing down. (Gary Cohen and John Sterling, who began calling Mets and Yankees games, respectively, in 1989, are tied for second in active longevity with one New York-area team.) "I want it to go on, as far as I'm concerned, endlessly,'' he said. "I know this: I feel good. And I never have a down day doing a game.''

The most difficult thing is being away from his family, including his wife, Jill, two adult sons and two grandsons, the oldest of whom is nearly 8 and looks forward to the day each week when Rosen picks him up at school.

It helps that the MSG team has been together so long that it too seems like family, including longtime director Bob Lewis. Whelan said, "It's almost like we're able to read each other's minds.''

The connection that matters most is with fans, now multiple generations' worth. Rosen, who was born in Germany but moved to Brooklyn at age 2, likes to think it works because he is one of them.

"I try to approach it as a fan,'' he said. "I don't approach it as a job.''