10 QUESTIONS FOR KEITH HERNANDEZ
Ken Hoffman tees up Keith Hernandez on kissing Elaine on Seinfeld and visiting Houston this weekend
Feb 7, 2020, 12:08 pm
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
This article originally appeared on CultureMap.
Keith Hernandez batted .294 over his 18-year Major League Baseball career. He shared the National League MVP Award in 1979, starred on two World Series champions, played in five All-Star games, won a batting title, 11 Gold Glove Awards in 11 consecutive seasons, holds the record for game-winning RBI, was named to the New York Mets all-time greatest team and is considered the best-fielding first baseman ever.
Wow! What an amazing career. Hernandez will be in Houston this weekend for Tristar Sports' 34th annual Sports Memorabilia and Autograph Show at NRG Arena. Other sports heroes appearing for autograph sessions are Joe Montana, Lance McCullers, Randy Johnson, Ryne Sandberg, Yuli Gurriel, Brooks Robinson, and dozens more.Visit the official site for celebrities, tickets, and times.
I'd love to talk baseball with you, Keith Hernandez but I've got my priorities straight: Tell me about the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and Newman accused you of spitting on them after a Mets game and you got to kiss Elaine! TV Guide ranked Seinfeld the "Greatest Show in Television History" and the two-part episode with Hernandez, titled "The Boyfriend," the greatest episode of the greatest show. Even bigger wow!
CultureMap: What's tougher, facing a Nolan Ryan fastball or not laughing doing a scene with George Costanza on Seinfeld?
Keith Hernandez: For me, the Seinfeld episode. But the funniest guy was Newman. It was hardest to keep a straight face when Newman and Kramer walked into Jerry's apartment and saw that I was there. They brought up the game against Philadelphia where I made an error and cost the Mets the game and ruined their day and accused me of spitting on them.
CM: How did you get the role on Seinfeld? Did you call them or did they call you?
KH: It was 1991, the year after I retired from baseball. Ironically, they went through my last baseball agent, who wasn't under my employ anymore. It was Scott Boras. They called him in Los Angeles and he called me and said, 'Do you want to do this sitcom called Seinfeld?'
I was a baseball player and we play mostly night games, so I never watched prime time television. I still don't. (Hernandez is a broadcaster for the Mets.) I didn't know what the Seinfeld show was. Scott Boras said they just wanted me for a guest shot. And that's how the ball got rolling. (The story goes, if Hernandez had said no, Seinfeld producers were going to ask Mets catcher Gary Carter.)
CM: Like most Seinfeld fans, I've seen every episode, oh, about 20 times and can practically recite the scripts by heart. Seinfeld seems to air on every station around the clock now. How many times have you seen your episode?
KH: I do not watch it. I've seen it twice, once when it first aired in 1992 and one other time. I just get embarrassed. I think I did OK, but it's embarrassing to watch yourself. I had a ton of lines and I did memorize them and I didn't screw up." (Hernandez still receives $3,000 in royalties each year for his Seinfeld appearance.)
CM: What were you doing the year after you retired from baseball?
KH: I was doing nothing. I had back surgery and I was recovering from that. That's why I retired at 37. It took me a year to recover. I wasn't in a wheelchair, but I was working my way back physically from a serious operation.
CM: When you were a kid, did you ever imagine that people would stand in line for your autograph or take a photo with you?
KH: Absolutely not. I grew up in California in the era of the San Francisco Giants and Willie Mays and Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal. If they had sold baseball jerseys in my day like they do today, I would have had a Mickey Mantle jersey, number 7, on my back. Mickey Mantle was my idol. I happen to share a birthday with him. I certainly would have badgered my dad to take me to an autograph show like this weekend in Houston.
Continue reading on CultureMap to find out what Keith Hernandez thought of the Seinfeld script when he first read it, and much more.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
No, we have not been transported back in time to 2012 and are again stuck with an atrocity of an Astros team heading for well over 100 losses. I’m pretty sure anyway, even though the Astros are in our nation’s capital for the weekend looking so far this season about as dysfunctional as the federal government often seems to be. At 6-14 this is a dung heap of a squad to this point. The Astros are two and a half games behind the A’s! The rightfully heralded back end of the bullpen has already lost four games the Astros have led after six innings. They are 5-4 in games they led after six, which is awful.
Last season the Astros were a good team, not close to a great team. The 2023 Astros finished 72-6 in games they led after six. Then there’s the offense which has some nice raw stats, but been weak with runners in scoring position (.686 OPS ranks 19th among the 30 Major League teams), weaker with runners in scoring position with two outs (.631 ranks 22nd), and demonstrated meager come from behind ability. The Astros have zero wins in games they have trailed after six (0-8). They are 0-5 in one-run games. But hey, good thing they kept the roof closed for all six games of another failed homestand. Going back to last season the gruesome ledger over the Astros last 42 home games reads 11 wins 31 losses.
As bad as things have been, those already seeking a priest to administer last rites for this season, chill! Be worried, be angry if you’d like, but chill. At least a little. The Astros are fortunate that no one is off to a great start in the American League West, the worst division in MLB over the season’s first three weeks. Obviously the Astros need to pick it up, or they will wind up dead and buried, but the plug will not be pulled on playoff chances in April. They have stunk, but it is also a fact that over the 20 game flop start, the Astros have played zero games against a team currently carrying a losing record. Furthermore, on the subject of 20 game schedule portions, the Texas Rangers had a 20 game stretch last season over which they went 4-16.
JV returns
41-year-old Justin Verlander will be no savior, but starting his regular season Friday night at the Nationals is certainly a welcome sight. We’ll see when Framber Valdez returns. This is the Astros’ second series in Washington D.C. since sweeping three games there during the 2019 World Series. Then they came home, yada, yada, yada. In the four seasons since, the Astros have been to four more American League Championship series and won it all for the second time in 2022. Since taking down the Astros to win the 2019 Fall Classic, the Nationals have posted four straight last place finishes in the National League East. The Nats are off to an 8-10 start this season.
Altuve has been a bright spot
Once before, Jose Altuve has finished April with his OPS over 1.000. 2016 was the season in which he elevated from star to superstar. Altuve awoke May 1, 2016 batting “only” .305 but with an OPS of 1.011. With nine games left this month the numbers could change markedly, but wow what a start to 2024 for him. Altuve carries a .388 batting average into the weekend with an OPS of 1.137. That’s a whopping 225 points higher than Yordan Alvarez’s second best on the team OPS of .912. Of course Altuve won’t finish batting near .388 but if wondering what’s the target number if a career best is in play, in Altuve’s AL Most Valuable Player Award-winning 2017 season he wound up batting .346 which won his third AL batting title. The under on .346 for this year is the highly likely outcome, but wouldn’t feel totally comfortable emptying out the retirement fund to bet on it.
The Abreu dilemma
Between Manager Joe Espada and General Manager Dana Brown I believe they have blown through their 2024 quota of “look at the back of his baseball card” references to pedantically expect everyone to believe that hapless Jose Abreu will be just fine. Jeff Bagwell has used that line too. Guess what fellas? Take a look at the back of Bagwell’s baseball card. He was an awesome offensive player. Until he wasn’t. Ditto Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, and a multitude of other players greater than Abreu was at his best and better at their worst than this mess Abreu is now. At some point, washed up is washed up.
Here's a plausible Abreu scenario. He comes up with “back problems” and goes to the Injured List. That’s followed by a handful of games with Sugar Land and/or Corpus Christi. Then he rejoins the Astros. If he then resumes performing at or close to the rotting corpse level of performance he’s produced through the first 20 games, then the Astros release him. Obviously, Jim Crane prefers to not cut checks of 35 million dollars to Abreu for him to not play for the Astros. Paying him to continue to play is worse. It’s doubling down on damage.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.