Keith Hernandez certainly had his say regarding the Jose Reyes tantrum from last Sunday, where Reyes slammed his glove down on the ground after making a throwing error on a routine grounder. Since Hernandez's job is to speak on television, most of us here in New York heard what we had to say. But nobody heard Reyes' response to Keith on the team plane to St. Louis on Sunday night ... until now, thanks to the New York Post.
A team source described the situation aboard the plane as "very heated." One player told The Post that he thought Reyes and the popular former Met - now an analyst for the club's SNY TV network - were close to exchanging punches until others stepped in.
Reyes said yesterday he was angry at Hernandez after numerous friends and relatives told him Hernandez accused the Mets of "babying" Reyes during the broadcast of Sunday's 3-1 win over the Yankees at Shea Stadium.
"He got his point [across] and I got mine," Reyes, when asked to describe the confrontation, told The Post before he drove in three runs in the Mets' 11-1 victory over the Cardinals last night. "I'm not too happy with the way he's been talking."
Will this story end in a chokeslam? Read on and find out ...
After Jose Reyes made an error in the seventh inning of yesterday's game against the Yankees, he threw a temper tantrum that would make Tanner of the Bad News Bears proud. While Jose Molina was batting, he threw his glove and sunglasses to the ground. Luckily the ball settled into Ryan Church's glove and the shortstop wasn't needed to do anything that required a glove.
Cohen: Reyes has taken his glove off and is standing hands on hips out there, with the glove on the ground. That's something you don't like to see. That's not a good look.
Hernandez: Well, he's got to get over that. Enough babying going on now. He's a grown man, he's been around a long enough time. Take off the kid gloves.
John Delcos of the Journal News didn't care for the display either.
He does these things because the Mets let him. He loses focus because the Mets don't do anything about it when he does.
Some players have said Willie Randolph wanted to lean on him harder, but the front office wouldn't let him.
He's 25 now and time is running out on reeling in his behavior.
My suggestion? Stop putting everything the Mets do in a petri dish and examining it for a cure to cancer.
When I wrote about Gary Carteropenly campaigning to replaceWillie Randolph as manager of the New York Mets, I said that I found the move to be somewhat classless and sleazy. It's one thing to publicly state your intentions if the job is open, but when Willie Randolph still has the job, it's just uncalled for.
"I have great respect for Gary as a player," said Hernandez, now a TV analyst. "He's a Hall of Famer. When Johnny Bench left the game, he was the premier catcher in the National League.
"But that being said, and I've kept quiet for such a long time, but for the people out there listening, just go in the dictionary and look up 'unconscious' and you'll find a picture of Gary Carter.
"I know that's strong, but it just happens too many times and it's just, you're walking around unconscious."
Well, Gary may be unconscious, but Keith Hernandez is a liar. I just went to dictionary.com and looked up 'unconscious' and I did not see a picture of Gary Carter. That being said, I don't think Keith is going to be asking Gary to help him move anytime soon, nor do I think Gary will be willing to help.
Keith Hernandez is, if for no other reason than his ubiquitous Seinfeld appearance, a voice of authority. I have no lingering sentiment for the man, but that Seinfeld appearance sealed the deal. I will listen to anything Keith Hernandez tells me. (Except when he's talking about women in the clubhouse. Best to ignore that.)
In an interview with Metsblog's Matt Cerrone (see, bloggers interview people!), Hernandez spreads some of his fatherly wisdom on relatively new development in baseball: the strenuous in-season workout program:
Keith Hernandez: I think I disagree with all the workouts that these guys do. I think that the workout programs have made them better players than we were. If we had done the same thing, I think I would have had better numbers. But, in the course of a season, I think they do too much. I think it's a long year and a guy like Jose Reyes, who plays hard and plays everyday and steals bases, you cannot leave it in the trainer's room. You cannot leave it in the weight room. I think it should be scaled back. I think it's a big mistake they are making. You're 24 years old, you shouldn't get tired. But I think they just do too much working out. This is not a criticism of Jose. It is a criticism of their work regimen. They can do all that stuff in the off-season and work hard all they want to get themselves bigger and stronger. But, when the season starts, you have got to have some gas in the tank when it comes August, September. [...]
Keith raises a good point: I can't imagine that during the course of a 162 game season it's a very good idea to maintain offseason workout levels. Baseball isn't the most physically challenging game in the world -- we're not talking about soccer, or football -- but it seems pretty elementary that players would take things down a notch if they're at the ballpark every day for six months.
Plus, you know, steroids are bad now. You can't max out on bench everyday for five months and expect not to tear something, at least not anymore.
Keith Hernandez is in the news today, have you seen this, have you heard about this
Apparently Keith Hernandez thinks that working out too much is bad for athletes. Immediately after saying this, Jose Canseco stood up and added, "Oh, yes, I also think that working out is a bad idea for anybody playing professional sports." A few seconds later Mike Schmidt ran into the room with a towel around his waist, hair still wet, and said, "am i too late to say something about the current players"
Keith Hernandez makes the mistake of stepping in front of a gun while it's aimed at lats of steel in today's Dugout, after the jump.
(and hey, why was Matthew Stockton of Getty Images taking a picture of Keith Hernandez's butt?)
At one point, Gary Cohen described Hernandez as "testy." Testy? Please. This guy was in the mood for mayhem. It started early with Hernandez (fourth inning) saying Florida "is sleepwalking, that's all there is to it," before destroying Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla after he committed a throwing error.
"We've seen enough of Uggla," Hernandez said. "That's just all about baseball instincts. He doesn't have any."
The bashing continued in the fifth. A jubilant Chris Seddon appeared on the screen, toweling off in the dugout after being lifted with only 75 pitches under his belt.
"Why is he smiling? He should be saying: 'Leave me in. I'm not tired.' It's just absolutely amazing," Hernandez said. "... Lowering the bar, across the board."
And that was Keith being tame. Later, he flipped out on Mets third base coach Bo Porter and reminisced on almost assaulting a 14-year old kid:
After we brought you the 1986 Mets singing and dancing, we have yet more evidence of musical talent from that team ... more specifically, Keith Hernandez and Mookie Wilson making a cameo for a Sesame Street Pledge Drive special from 1988. There are many great guest spots from outside the world of sports included also, including Pee Wee Herman and the late John Candy. Keith and Mookie appear at the 1:47 mark, and members of the New York Football Giants (Sean Landeta, Karl Nelson, Mark Ingram, and Carl Banks) are featured at around the 3:37 mark.
Ah 1986 ... the days of Iran Contra, ALF, and the New York Mets, who swore, drank, and pillaged their way into your hearts. Oh yeah, and they won the world championship as well (which is how their swearing, drinking, and pillaging became public knowledge).
They were music stars as well, as August of that year saw the debut of "Lets Go Mets Go", their response to the Chicago Bears who starred in "The Super Bowl Shuffle" earlier that season. Check out not only the players clowning around, but the celebrity cameos near the end, including Tony Bennett, Dr. Joyce Brothers, and a very young (and very hairy) Howard Stern. Joe Piscopo made a memorable cameo as well. Piscopo recently admitted he was a life-long Yankee fan, which basically means that I can never look at this video quite the same again. But it's still a fun watch.
No, it's not going to lessen the sting of losing Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS, but beating Chris Carpenter is always a good way to get your season off on the right foot, which the Mets did on Opening Night by a score of 6-1.
Of course, the Mets had to start the night by watching ceremonies which honored past Cardinal World Series champions (with Mets announcer and World Series hero Keith Hernandez representing the '82 Cards) and present ones too ... punctuated with a motorcade featuring the World Series trophy, and the raising of the Cards' 2007 World Series banner. Mets starter Tom Glavine couldn't help but notice.
"There's no question for us as a group that it was a little bit of a disappointment that it wasn't us," Glavine said. "It could have very easily been us, but it wasn't. Maybe it's the kind of thing that you watch and know that when the season is over for us, that's what we want to be doing."
David Wright noticed as well.
"Hopefully, we have that in the back of our minds and that gives us that extra motivation," Wright said.
If the final score was indicative of motivation the Mets might have been feeling, then that's a good sign for their next game on Tuesday, when the Cardinals are presented with their World Series rings in a separate ceremony. As far as the Mets are concerned, the Cards can keep that motivation coming. Perhaps the Braves can have ceremonies commemorating their 14 straight division titles when the Mets hit town over the weekend (with Glavine throwing out the ceremonial first pitch). Motivation is a good thing.
Keith Hernandez certainly had his say regarding the Jose Reyes tantrum from last Sunday, where Reyes slammed his glove down on the ground after making a throwing error on a routine grounder. Since Hernandez's job is to speak on television, most of us here in New York heard what we had to say. But nobody heard Reyes' response to Keith on the team plane to St. Louis on Sunday night ... until now, thanks to the New York Post. 
After 
When I wrote about 
Keith Hernandez is in the news today, have you seen this, have you heard about this
In the latest installment of our ongoing series, "Professional Athletes: 
No, it's not going to lessen the sting of losing Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS, but beating Chris Carpenter is always a good way to get your season off on the right foot, which the Mets did on 
