Keith Hernandez

Keith Hernandez (born October 20, 1953) is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman who played the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets.

Hernandez was a star athlete in high school and graduated in 1971.

One of his teammates at Terra Nova High School was future major league pitcher Bob McClure, who had also played Little League baseball with him.

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 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.

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).

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.

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 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 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.

Hernandez was a five-time All-Star who shared the 1979 NL MVP award and won two World Series titles, one each with the Cardinals and Mets.

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.

From there, Hernandez became a perennial .300 hitter, and one of the top stars in the National League.

His Cardinals won the 1982 World Series, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games.

In game six, Hernandez and Cardinal catcher Darrell Porter hit home runs in a 13–1 St. Louis victory.

Hernandez also contributed eight runs batted in during the seven-game World Series.

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.

Since 1998, he has been a color commentator on the Mets television broadcasts.

A contact hitter with a .296 career average and a walk rate of 12.5%, Hernandez's career hitting productivity was 31% above league average.

For his defensive work, he received 11 consecutive Gold Glove awards, the most by any first baseman in baseball history.

Hernandez is widely considered the best defensive first baseman of all time.

Hernandez is currently a color commentator on Mets games for SportsNet New York, alongside former Mets teammate Ron Darling and play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen.

He has been a studio analyst for MLB on Fox since 2017.

He was also announcing MTA NYCT subway 7 line announcements, in September 2022, along with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling.

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.

During a Mets broadcast, Hernandez said he nearly enrolled at Serra High School, a boys' Catholic high school in San Mateo that graduated Barry Bonds and Tom Brady.