Keith Hernandez
Keith Hernandez | ||
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Keith Hernandez (born October 20, 1953) is an American former
A
Hernandez is currently a color commentator on Mets games for
announcements, in September 2022, along with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling.Early life
Hernandez was born in San Francisco, and grew up in
Hernandez was perceived as having attitude issues because he sat out his entire senior high school season due to a dispute with a coach. He played briefly at the College of San Mateo, a local community college, before being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 42nd round of the 1971 Major League Baseball draft as the 783rd player selected.[6] Hernandez was the last player selected and signed in the 1971 Major League Baseball draft to play in the Major Leagues. He batted and threw left-handed, and through most of his career was listed as being 6' tall (1.83m) and 195 lbs. (88.5 kg).[7]
During his childhood, Hernandez's brother bought a book on Civil War history, which ignited Hernandez's passion for the subject. His interest in the Civil War landed Hernandez guest spots on KMOX radio when he was with the Cardinals, was featured in the New York Times when he was with the Mets, and appeared in episodes of the television series Seinfeld.
Baseball career
St. Louis Cardinals
Hernandez's
Hernandez ended up splitting 1975 between Tulsa and the Cardinals. Though he had a .996 fielding percentage with only two errors in 507 chances, Hernandez struggled with major league pitching, batting only .250 with three home runs and 20 RBIs.
Hernandez wore uniform number 18 for the first two years of his career. In 1976, he switched to number 37, insisting that his uniform number end with a "7" in honor of
From there, Hernandez became a perennial .300 hitter, and one of the top stars in the
After multiple disagreements with Cardinal management, most notably manager Whitey Herzog, Hernandez was traded to the Mets on June 15, 1983, for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Herzog said he felt that Hernandez had become a cancer on his team and never regretted the trade.[9]
Hernandez, after the trade, said that he believed his cocaine use while playing for the team was the impetus for the trade and that he even played a game while under its influence (although he couldn't remember which game). Hernandez testified that in 1980 perhaps 40 percent of MLB players were using the drug but that use dramatically declined after that season. He said he did not use cocaine after being traded to the Mets.[10]
New York Mets
The Mets had retired number 37 for former manager Casey Stengel, so Hernandez switched to number 17 upon joining the club, which he wore for the remainder of his career. As a result of this trade, Hernandez went from a World Series champion to a team that narrowly avoided a hundred losses (68–94) and consistently finished at the bottom of the National League East. Hernandez, however, was determined to prove Herzog wrong, helping to fuel a rivalry between the two teams in the mid-1980s.
Under new manager Davey Johnson, the 1984 Mets had their first winning season since 1976, finishing 90–72, and six games ahead of the Cardinals in the NL East (6.5 games behind the eventual division winner, the Chicago Cubs). Hernandez finished second in the NL Most Valuable Player voting behind Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg, and emerged as the Captain of the Mets' young core of ballplayers that included 1983 and 1984 Rookie of the Year Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, respectively.
Hernandez had such a strong and accurate throwing arm that, as a result, the Mets re-routed their relays through him. Due to his quick instincts, Hernandez was also able to play farther off first base than other first basemen, allowing the other infielders to play farther to their right.
Hernandez is widely considered one of the greatest fielding first basemen in major league history. He made brilliant diving plays far to his right and left. Hernandez defended bunts by charging so aggressively that he occasionally discouraged opponents from attempting to
Hernandez also was adept at picking runners off first base by taking pickoff throws with his right foot on the bag and his left in foul territory so that he could make tags to his right more readily. As a result, umpires began to more strongly enforce the defensive positioning rule which states that all defensive players except the catcher must be positioned in fair territory while the ball is pitched.
In 1985, Hernandez's previous
Well before the commissioner's decision, the Mets and Cardinals had become embroiled in a heated rivalry atop the National League East, with Hernandez, newly acquired
Hernandez set a record for game-winning RBIs in 1985 with 24, a statistic that was only official from 1980 to 1988 (the previous record was 22 by the Chicago White Sox's Harold Baines in 1983). His career total is 129, which is also a record.
Hernandez credits his father, who played ball with Stan Musial when they were both in the Navy during World War II, for helping him out of a batting slump in 1985.[citation needed] His father would observe his at-bats on TV and note that when Keith was hitting well, he could see both the "1" and the "7" on his uniform on his back as he began to stride into the pitch. Not seeing both numbers meant Keith was bailing out on inside pitches, trying too hard to pull the ball, and vulnerable to outside fastballs or outside breaking pitches.
1986 World Series Champions
Hernandez and the Mets would not be denied in 1986, winning 108 games and taking the National League East convincingly by 21.5 games over the Philadelphia Phillies. Hernandez hit .310 with 83 RBI. The Mets won the 1986 World Series in seven games over the Boston Red Sox. Hernandez batted only .231, and recorded the second out in the now legendary tenth inning of Game 6, lining out to the deep center field. In Game 7, Hernandez broke through against Red Sox lefty Bruce Hurst, who had shut out the Mets into the sixth inning, with a clutch two-run single. He also drove in another important run his next time up, giving him 3 RBI for the game. Carter and Hernandez finished third and fourth, respectively, in NL MVP balloting.
Team captain
Given his "Mickey Mantlesque" approach to playing baseball in New York City, and the celebrity status that comes with it, Hernandez became seen by some as the poster-boy for the "party hard; play harder" Mets of the '80s.[13] In 1987, Davey Johnson named Hernandez the first team captain in franchise history. A season later, Carter was named co-captain.
In 1988 he was featured heavily in the William Goldman and Mike Lupica book "Wait Till Next Year" which looked at life inside the Mets over the whole 1987 season (among other New York sports teams). Hernandez is portrayed as the most vocal of the Mets in dealing with the press and giving his opinion on teammates, alongside his prodigious beer consumption.
In 1988, Hernandez won his 11th and final Gold Glove and led his team to another division crown. The heavily favored Mets, however, lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 National League Championship Series. Both Hernandez and Carter were in the twilights of their careers as back, knee, and hamstring problems limited Hernandez to only 95 games. Carter, meanwhile, batted .242 for the season and famously struggled to hit his 300th career home run.
Hernandez's batting average fell to .233 in only 75 games for the 1989 Mets. The Mets chose not to re-sign him after his contract ran out at the close of the 1989 season, and on November 13, he was granted free agency. A day later, the Mets released Carter.
Cleveland Indians
Hernandez signed with the Cleveland Indians for the 1990 season. He was injured much of the time, and appeared in only 43 games, batting .200 with one home run and eight RBIs. He retired at the end of the season.
Retirement
Hernandez has published five books; If at First: A Season With the Mets (his diary of the 1985 New York Mets season),[14] Pure Baseball: Pitch by Pitch for the Advanced Fan (a detailed player's look into baseball strategy),[14] Shea Good-Bye: The Untold Inside Story of the Historic 2008 Season,[14] and Murder at Shea: A Baseball Murder Mystery for Kids (a young-adult novel about a fictional Met solving a murder).[citation needed] His most recent book, I'm Keith Hernandez, was released on May 15, 2018.[15] The book covers his life through early in the 1980 season, and, depending on sales, may lead to a follow-up tome picking up the narrative from that point.
On September 27, 2012, Hernandez had his familiar mustache shaved off for charity.[16]
Legacy
Hernandez batted over .300 seven times in his career and led the National League in runs scored (1979 & 1980), batting average (1979), doubles (1979), on-base percentage (1980), and walks (1986) during his career. He also won 11 Gold Glove awards for his glovework at first base, setting a Major League record for the position that still stands. Hernandez shared an MVP award and played on two World Series champions, for one of whom he was the co-captain. He is the all-time Game-winning RBI leader, and in 1985 set the single-season record for this stat as well (this statistic was kept between 1980 and 1988). However, he never received enough support from the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2004, after nine years on the ballot, Hernandez received votes from fewer than 5% of the writers, thus ending his eligibility.
Hernandez has been eligible for consideration for induction by the Veterans Committee since 2011 (20 years after his retirement) but has yet to be inducted. It has been said that the two issues that have hampered him were his occasional perceived lack of hustle as a Cardinal and his public history of drug use. Some also say that as a first baseman, he did not display the power numbers expected of the position. That last issue almost certainly colored Hernandez's candidacy negatively during the steroid era, when outrageous power statistics became the norm; however, it can be argued that Hernandez did not play during the steroid era, with the era starting in the very late 1980s and Keith Hernandez's retirement from baseball after the 1990 season.
However, it can also be argued that first base already had a reputation as a power-hitting position, with Hernandez's career overlapping that of slugging first basemen such as
Hernandez was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1997 and was voted the Mets' all-time first baseman by fans in celebration of the team's 40th anniversary in 2002. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mets, Hernandez was selected as the Mets' all-time first baseman by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters that included Marty Noble, Mike Lupica, Gary Cohen and Howie Rose among others. In the event held on June 17, 2012, Hernandez recalled how he was, at first, upset by the trade to New York but soon acknowledged it as a refreshing change and said it "reenergized" him because of the "young talent, young guys that [sic] were hungry".
In 2021, Hernandez was elected to the Cardinals' Hall of Fame. An official induction ceremony was held on August 21, 2021.[17] On July 9, 2022, the New York Mets retired his number 17.[18][19]
Acting
Hernandez guest-starred as himself in "
Hernandez appeared with Mookie Wilson in an episode of Sesame Street in 1988. In the episode, the pair try to teach Mr. Snuffleupagus to play baseball.[21] The two also appeared in the song "Put Down the Duckie."[22]
Hernandez also appeared in the final episode of Seinfeld, which aired in 1998. Hernandez makes about $3,000 a year in royalties from the show as of 2015.[23] ESPN columnist Bill Simmons coined the phrase "having a Keith Hernandez Moment" about the point in Hernandez's Seinfeld appearance where he recovers from a moment of self-doubt by simply reminding himself: "I'm Keith Hernandez!"[24] The "I'm Keith Hernandez" quote became the title of Hernandez's fifth book two decades after the Seinfeld episode aired.
Hernandez also appeared in a 1994 episode of Law & Order entitled "Wager", and in the movies The Scout and The Yards.
He also made an appearance in a 1993 episode of the children's series Ghostwriter entitled "Building Bridges".
Commercial appearances
Hernandez and Walt Frazier have appeared in several television commercials for Just for Men, a men's hair-coloring product.[25]
Hernandez has appeared in television commercials for the Coin Galleries of Oyster Bay, a coin dealer with several locations on Long Island, New York. In the ads, he says that Coin Galleries is "where you can turn your pot of gold into cash."
Broadcasting career
Hernandez, alongside
On April 22, 2006, Hernandez created a controversy during the broadcast of a game against the San Diego Padres. After witnessing Padres team massage therapist Kelly Calabrese giving San Diego catcher Mike Piazza a high five in the dugout after he hit a home run, Hernandez said, "Who is the girl in the dugout, with the long hair? What's going on here? You have got to be kidding me. Only player personnel in the dugout." After Hernandez was informed later in the broadcast that Calabrese was a club employee, he maintained his position, stating, "I won't say that women belong in the kitchen, but they don't belong in the dugout." After the game, San Diego manager Bruce Bochy expressed displeasure with Hernandez's comments.[28] Hernandez apologized and alluded to his words being nothing more than tomfoolery by saying, "You know I am only teasing. I love you gals out there — always have."
Hernandez, along with Cohen and Darling, had a website, www.pitchinforagoodcause.org where the net profit from the merchandise sold by the website goes to the Cobble Hill Health Center,
Hernandez won two 2010 New York Emmys. He won an individual award for Sports Analyst and as part of the
Hernandez joined the
Politics
Hernandez said on a Fox Business appearance in June 2019 that he is a fan of President Donald Trump because the president had "helped everybody" in regards to the economy. "I think the people have gone to work of all different races and creeds and colors – unemployment is down everywhere," he said.[31]
Hernandez has donated thousands of dollars to GOP candidates, including Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, Rudy Giuliani, Allen West, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler.[32]
On November 19, 2021, Hernandez
Personal life
Hernandez is the son of John Hernandez (1922–1992), a minor league first baseman affiliated with the
Hernandez married Sue Broecker in 1979 and the couple had three daughters; they divorced in 1983. He married Kai Thompson in 2005; they divorced in February 2011.[39][40][41]
See also
- List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions
- List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
- List of St. Louis Cardinals team records
References
- ^ a b "Keith Hernandez". Fangraphs. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- ^ "K% and BB%". Fangraphs. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- ^ Ioselevich, Dmitriy. "10 Best Defensive First Basemen in Baseball History". Bleacher Report.
- ^ Bodig, Chris (October 20, 2019). "Why Keith Hernandez Belongs in the Hall of Fame".
- ^ Reeves, Glenn (August 22, 2007). "Royals' coach McClure pride of County baseball". East Bay Times.
- ^ Cardinals' Media Relations, ed. (2001). St. Louis Cardinals 2001 Media Guide. Hadler Printing Company. pp. D–18.
- ^ Crasnick, Jerry (June 6, 2007). "From unknown to very well-known". ESPN.com.
- ^ "San Francisco Giants 8, St. Louis Cardinals 2". August 30, 1974.
- ^ Herzog, Whitey; Pitts, Jonathan (1999). You're Missin' a Great Game. pp. 188–189.
- ^ "Mets' Hernandez admits "massive" amount of cocaine". Los Angeles Times. September 6, 1985.
- ^ a b Bodley, Hal. "Ueberroth took action in 1986 cocaine scandal," USA Today (March 4, 2004).
- ^ Inquirer Wire Services. "Ueberroth Punishes Baseball Players Linked To Drugs," Philadelphia Inquirer (March 1, 1986).
- ISBN 978-0803278226.
- ^ a b c "Keith Hernandez Author Page". Amazon.com. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
- ISBN 978-0316395731.
- ^ Berger, Joseph (September 28, 2012). "Farewell to a Mustache Forever Linked to the Mets". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
- ^ "Cardinals Hall of Fame Vote presented by Edward Jones". MLB.com.
- ^ "Former 1B Keith Hernandez cherishes 'a great moment,' as New York Mets retire No. 17 jersey". ESPN.com. Associated Press. July 9, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ DiComo, Anthony (July 9, 2022). "Mets retire Hernandez's No. 17; Alonso pays homage with homer". MLB.com. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- Baseball Reference. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ Clair, Michael (January 18, 2018). "Looking back at Major League Baseball's illustrious history on 'Sesame Street'". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Sandomir, Richard (September 4, 2012). "Famous Sports Mustache Is Going ... Going ... Gray". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
- ^ Braziller, Zach (June 16, 2015). "Keith Hernandez still lining his pockets with 'Seinfeld' money". New York Post.
- ^ Simmons, Bill (2005). Now I Can Die in Peace. New York: ESPN Books. p. 381.
- ^ a b Sandomir, Richard (January 6, 2008). "Just for Men Just Right for Former Stars". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
- ^ Athlon Sports 2008 Baseball Annual
- ^ "Keith Hernandez Mustache". Baseball-Reference.com. September 20, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
- ^ "Network calls Hernandez's remarks 'inappropriate'". ESPN. Associated Press. April 23, 2006. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ "SNY's Mets coverage wins five Emmy Awards". SNY. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011.
- ^ "Keith Hernandez Joining FOX Sports/FS1 MLB Studio Show". Sports Illustrated. October 1, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
- ^ Limitone, Julia (June 19, 2019). "World Series champ Keith Hernandez 'barely' gets away with being a Trump fan in New York". FOXBusiness. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
- ^ "FEC Campaign Finance Data". FEC.gov. Federal Election Commission.
- ^ Regina, Nick (November 20, 2021). "Twitter reacts to New York Mets legend Keith Hernandez promoting anti-vaccine book". Staten Island Advance. SILive.com. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Phillips, Ryan (November 19, 2021). "Keith Hernandez Promotes Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Anti-Vaccine Book on Twitter". The Big Lead. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "John Hernandez Minor Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ "SPORTS OF THE TIMES; HERNANDEZ: FATHER AND SON". The New York Times.
- ^ Fleming, Kirsten (May 1, 2018). "Mets legend Keith Hernandez isn't ashamed he cried". New York Post. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "Gary Hernandez Minor Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "Keith Hernandez Romance". New York Daily News. May 17, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- ^ Hamill, Pete (April 7, 1987). "New York's Met: A Fan's Notes". Village Voice. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- ^ McKinley, Jesse (September 6, 2018). "An Arrest? An Affair? Keith Hernandez? Just Another Day in the Julia Salazar Campaign". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
Further reading
- Hernandez, Keith (2018). I'm Keith Hernandez. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316395731.
- Hernandez, Keith (2009). Shea Good-Bye: The Untold Inside Story of the Historic 2008 Season. with Matthew Silverman. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1600781704.
- Hernandez, Keith; Bryan, Mike (1994). Pure Baseball: Pitch by Pitch for the Advanced Fan. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060170905.
- Hernandez, Keith; Bryan, Mike (1986). If at First: A Season With the Mets. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0070283459.
- Martell, Michael. "Keith Hernandez". SABR.
- Nack, William (October 13, 1986). "He's Still Not Home Free". Sports Illustrated – via SI.com.
- Wertheim, Jon (September 4, 2017). "The Big Interview: Mets Legend Keith Hernandez On Baseball, Books, Broadcasting And Battles". SI.com.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet, or Ultimate Mets Database
- Keith Hernandez at IMDb
- I'm Keith Hernandez a film by Rob Perri