Keith Hernandez

Hernandez was born in San Francisco, and grew up in Pacifica and Millbrae, California. He attended Terra Nova High School in Pacifica during his freshman year, then transferred to Capuchino High School in San Bruno for the remainder of his high school years. Hernandez was a star athlete in high school and graduated in 1971. One of his teammates at Terra Nova High School was a future major league pitcher Bob McClure, who had also played Little League baseball with him when they were younger. Given his surname, and the fact that he is from California, it was incorrectly assumed that Hernandez was of Mexican descent, and he was nicknamed Mex by his teammates. In actuality, his father's ancestry is Castilian Spanish and his mother is Scots-Irish, as he explained during a Mets broadcast on SNY.

Hernandez's batting average hovered around .250 for most of his minor league career, until his promotion to the Tulsa Oilers in the second half of the 1973 season. With the Cardinals' AAA affiliate, Hernandez batted .333 with five home runs and a .525 slugging percentage. The following season, Hernandez's average jumped to .351, earning him a promotion to the big league club. He made his major league debut at Candlestick Park on August 30, 1974, against the San Francisco Giants,, going 1-for-2 with two walks, and earning his first major league RBI with a single in the ninth. Following the season, the Cards traded first baseman Joe Torre to the New York Mets for Tommy Moore and Ray Sadecki to make room for their budding young prospect.

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 Mickey Mantle (with whom he shared a birthday). While Hernandez became more comfortable with his bat, he was always recognized as a fielder first, snatching his first Gold Glove Award away from perennial winner Steve Garvey in 1978. In 1979, however, Hernandez's batting improved markedly as he led the league with a .344 batting average, 48 doubles, and 116 runs scored, and went on to share the National League's Most Valuable Player Award with Willie Stargell. For the first and only time in major league history, two players received the same number of points from the Baseball Writers' Association of America and shared the MVP award for that year.

Hernandez married Sue Broecker in 1979 and the couple had three daughters. They divorced in 1983. He married Kai Thompson in 2005 and they divorced in 2015.

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.

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 cancer on his team and never regretted the trade.

In 1985, Hernandez's previous cocaine use (and distribution of the drug to other players), which had been the subject of persistent rumors and the chief source of friction between Hernandez and Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, became a matter of public record as a result of the Pittsburgh trial of drug dealer Curtis Strong. MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth found that Hernandez was among seven players who had used cocaine and been involved in its distribution. The players received season-long suspensions, that were commuted on condition that they donated ten percent of their base salaries to drug-abuse programs, submitted to random drug testing, and contributed 100 hours of drug-related community service. Hernandez has always maintained that his cocaine use was recreational and limited to a time when baseball players routinely used the drug and have adamantly denied he ever distributed the drug. Initially, Hernandez considered challenging Ueberroth's finding against him, but ultimately accepted the option available, which allowed him to avoid missing any playing time. Part of his reasoning was that he expected the Mets to make a World Series run in 1986.

Hernandez set a record for game-winning RBIs in 1985 with 24, a statistic that was only official from 1980–1988 (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. 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.

Hernandez batted over .300 seven times in his career and led the National League in runs scored (1979 & 1980), batting avg (1979), doubles (1979), on-base percentage (1980), and walks (1986) throughout 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. He won an MVP award and played on 2 World Series champions, 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, he 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's 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 disputed 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 MLB 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 like Willie McCovey, Eddie Murray, and Tony Perez. First base's reputation as a power-hitting position may have also made Hernandez's stellar defense at the position less of an asset, as sluggers who can't field are generally moved to first—among players who have won at least 10 Gold Gloves, first base is the only position to have a player with 10 or more Gold Gloves who is either not in the Hall of Fame, currently on the BBWAA ballot, or not yet eligible. 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, Howie Rose among others. In the event held on June 17, 2012, Hernandez recalled how he first was 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 were hungry".

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 right 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. On the Mets' World Champion team in 1986, Carter and Hernandez finished third and fourth, respectively, in NL MVP balloting.

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. In 1987, Davey Johnson named Hernandez the first team captain in franchise history. A season after the "C" was added to Hernandez's uniform, Carter was named co-captain.

Hernandez guest-starred as himself in "The Boyfriend", a two-part 1992 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. In the episode, Hernandez dates Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character Elaine Benes, and Jerry Seinfeld develops the male-bonding equivalent of a crush on him. A subplot of the episode is a parody of the movie JFK and the "Magic Bullet Theory" featured in it. According to the show, on June 14, 1987, the Mets were playing the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium, and Hernandez committed an error in the ninth inning, allowing the Phillies to score five runs and costing the Mets the game (in reality, the Mets defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates on the road on that date; Hernandez played, but did not commit an error). Hernandez exited the players' gate, where Kramer and Newman were waiting, and Newman heckled Hernandez. Kramer and Newman then spent the next five years claiming that Hernandez had spat on them, when in fact it was Roger McDowell. 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. 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!" The "I'm Keith Hernandez" quote became the title of Hernandez's fifth book two decades after the Seinfeld episode aired.

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, 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, Juvenile Diabetes Research Center, and The Danbury Women's Center. Hernandez is also a strong supporter of the Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter. His mother, Jacqueline Hernandez, suffered from Alzheimer's for nine years before dying in 1989.

Eleven different Mets players have worn his number 17 in the 16 seasons since Hernandez left, most notably pitcher David Cone. In 1991, Cone switched from 44 to 17 in tribute to Hernandez. Former teammates Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda and Roger McDowell have also worn number 17 in tribute to Hernandez for teams they played for after leaving the Mets.

He also made an appearance in 1993 episodes of the children's series Ghostwriter entitled "Building Bridges".

Hernandez also appeared in a 1994 episode of Law & Order entitled "Wager", and in the movies The Scout and The Yards.

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. 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, alongside Gary Cohen and Ron Darling, is now a baseball commentator serving as an analyst for Mets' television broadcasts on SNY and WPIX (WPIX games are produced by SNY). He's become known for wry humor and ironic commentary, as well as blunt outspokenness, on the mic. A television advertisement for SNY Sports referred to Hernandez's mustache by imagining a celebration known as "Keith Hernandez Day" at which all attendees are required to wear authentic Keith Hernandez mustaches. One sports fan, who refuses to respect the day by wearing a mustache, is met by the steely, disapproving stare of Hernandez himself. Hernandez admitted that he never wore eyeblack while playing because he had high cheekbones.. In 2007 Hernandez won the "Mustache Madness" contest on newsday.com, and the American Mustache Institute chose his facial hair as the "top sports mustache ever". Baseball-Reference.com ranks Hernandez's mustache as the fourth-best in history.

On September 27, 2012, Hernandez had his familiar mustache shaved off for charity.

Hernandez has published five books; If at First: A Season With the Mets (his diary of the 1985 New York Mets season), Pure Baseball: Pitch by Pitch for the Advanced Fan (a detailed player's look into baseball strategy), Shea Good-Bye: The Untold Inside Story of the Historic 2008 Season, and Murder at Shea: A Baseball Murder Mystery for Kids (a young-adult novel about a fictional Met solving a murder). His most recent book, I'm Keith Hernandez, was released on May 15, 2018. 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.