It's the end of an era for SportsNet New York executive producer Curt Gowdy Jr.

Gowdy, 68, is retiring after 17 years at the network. SNY launched in 2006.

"When I look back at everything, the places around the world I've been, the people that I've met, the athletes, male and female, that I've been able to be associated with and be friends with, boy, in my wildest dreams, I never would have imagined that my life would have been changed forever because of the career that I was in," he told Neil Best of Newsday.

Gowdy was responsible for helping assemble the current SNY broadcast team for New York Mets games. Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling are beloved by the Mets fanbase.

"I can't take sole credit for it. But as head of production, that was my job – to put the best booth together and the best broadcast team, and the truck as well," he said.

Gowdy said time spent at ABC producing Olympics, Super Bowls and World Series, helped achieve a level of presentation they sought out to produce.

"The philosophy that I wanted to bring to the network was I always wanted to have a national sensibility to the way we presented our broadcasts on a regional level," he said.

Retirement for Gowdy entails a move to Wyoming where he plans to help run a ranch with his wife and writing a children's book. Best wishes to Gowdy on a great career.