Hernandez's Revisionist History

    Keith Hernandez was a fine player and leader; a two-time world champion; a former MVP; and a potential Hall of Famer had he not flamed out and gotten hurt in his mid-to-late 30s. Hernandez was also a player with quirks that didn't endear him to the managers he played for. He's also a good broadcaster with great potential if he dispatches some of those same quirks that he's taken from his playing days into the broadcast booth.
    Hernandez was always a player who marched to his own tune, but now as he broadcasts games for the New York Mets on SNY, he's forgetting about some of the things that he did that irritated the aforementioned managers. In today's game, the lack of hustle is prevalent. Standing at the plate and admiring balls that may or may not be home runs; jogging out ground balls; not running at all on pop ups; inattention to fundamentals----all are things that Hernandez has focused on during Mets broadcasts, with good reason. The simple aspects of the game such as running everything out or being in the right place at the right time can win or lose a team a championship. But Keith Hernandez wasn't a paragon of all-out play during his career. This isn't coming from my memories of him as a Mets fan in the mid-80s, but from Hernandez's own book, If At First, chronicling the Mets 1985 season:

    Here's the objective truth (what else?) on the Hernandez hustle question. I hustle like hell when I need to. When I'm clearly out at first on a grounder, no, I don't sprint across the bag to break the tape. If Pete Rose wants to do this, fine, but my legs and ankles are sore enough, and I have miles to go before I sleep at the end of the season. As it is, I have to soak the legs many nights in a hot bath; late in the season, almost every night.
    Besides, who are these gung ho guys fooling? Some of the fans are easily duped perhaps, but never the players. I've been called a ballplayer's ballplayer by managers, writers, and announcers I respect, and I'm proud of that designation; not a fan's ballplayer, but a player's player. They're the ones who know.
    Find a player or anyone else who says Hernandez doesn't play for his team, and I'll listen closely. But bring them to me. I don't want to read about it in a book first. (If At First, by Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan; pages 69-70.)

    Of course playing for the team and hustling are two different matters entirely. Hernandez's head was always in the game and he thought about things that would and could happen five moves ahead. He'd make a fine manager, but (and this applies to his playing career and broadcasting career) he's too lazy. By lazy, Hernandez wasn't all that enamored of hard work. Players in the 70s and 80s weren't into the physical fitness craze as many are today (the argument could be made that that's why so many are getting bizarre injuries that didn't happen back then); had Keith Hernandez been more vigilant about keeping himself in tip-top shape and not been the bon vivant he was with the Mets, he might not have gotten heavy in his early 30s and had the back problems that shortened his career and possibly cost him a chance at the Hall of Fame.
    That laziness has carried over to his broadcasting career. One of the things that irritates Mets fans and analysts about Hernandez on the broadcasts is that he occasionally acts as if he'd rather be doing something other than broadcasting the game. That isn't to say he doesn't love the game; that isn't to say he doesn't add a lot to the broadcasts, but that he sometimes lets his fertile mind wander to things he'd rather be doing.
    The further he gets from his playing days, the more he seems to forget that he himself likely wouldn't have run out many of the ground balls he's chastising players of today for not running out. And he definitely never ran very hard on pop ups. Hernandez wouldn't have stood admiring home run balls because he wasn't a Reggie Jackson-type home run hitter; he'd hit his 12-16 a year and they were line drives rather than bombs.
    The "I'm gonna do things my way" attitude Hernandez carried throughout his career was one of the main reasons that Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog traded him to the Mets in the first place for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. The trade turned out badly for the Cardinals and was a windfall for the Mets, but did it really affect the Cardinals that adversely? They went to the World Series twice in the four years following the deal, so they obviously landed on their feet.        
    With the Mets of the mid-80s----a young team with a young manager that needed a leader on and off the field to provide guidance and a tutorial on how to win----Hernandez was a perfect addition to add credibility and astuteness. With the Cardinals, Herzog was in charge of the organization from top to bottom and was one of the most intelligent talent evaluators around. Herzog wanted Hernandez to behave a certain way befitting the leader of his baseball team; as Hernandez was unwilling to bend and fall in line, Herzog dealt him away. The Mets were far more willing to deal with Hernandez's quirks and it worked well for both teams.
    It's not a giant problem for Hernandez to contradict the way he was as a player to what he expects from players now----that's part of the job of being a good broadcaster----but he does appear to be forgetting that he didn't hustle as much as he might like listeners to believe he did, but those who remember the Hernandez who played for the Mets in the 80s and saw his career end prematurely remember the badge of individualism Hernandez wore so prominently and was both a boon and a detriment to his career.

    Please check out and purchase my book The Prince Of New York's 2008 Baseball Guide also available on Amazon.com and BN.com.