Keith's Just A Regular Guy

Neil Best - Newsday had an article about Keith Hernandez yesterday that is interesting. He chronicles Hernandez' long trip from Sag Harbor, out on Long Island, to Flushing to provide color commentary on NY Mets games.

Hernandez admits the trip is a bit much, but he loves his home in Sag Harbor where he and his wife Kai reside from April until September. The rest of the year he and Kai live in Florida.

Best describes how Hernandez is a “normal” guy; he usually awakes around 8:00 AM, and by 10:00 he is in downtown Sag Harbor at his favorite Coffee house, Java Nation. Mex knows many patrons by their first name.

Hernandez' home is occupied by he, Kai, Duncan, their 90 lb flat coated retriever, and their three cats. Both Keith and Kai are voracious readers, and have a large library of books. They plan on reading Moby Dick together...out loud

Hernandez loves Sag Harbor, describing it as "This is a little slice of heaven.'' The Hernandez' live a modest life. Hernandez doesn't get into the whole huge mansion life style: "These people who buy mansions, I don't understand that; they are nuts.''

Mex is one to go to the hardware store to purchase items he might need to perform home repairs himself.

Hernandez does lament his long trip from Sag Harbor to Flushing, and then back again. "It does bother me,'' Keith Hernandez said, somewhere in the dark monotony of the LIE's outer reaches, during the 90 minutes (if he's lucky) journey from Citi Field. It gets tiresome.''

During his long trip, he is wont to listen to talk radio, usually in the political realm. He will also listen to WFAN, where he enjoys Steve Somers opening monologues. He usually turns off WFAN when the callers start chiming in. "Unless it's a night when Mets fans are just ready to jump off a bridge,'' he said. "I have to laugh, because they're just so into it.''

Having had the pleasure as a young man watching Hernandez define the 1B position, be a manager on the field, teaching a young team how to win, and being an intense leader, it is quite comical to see and hear how aloof he can be. If you ever saw him play the game, you would find his personality in the booth to be that of another person, not Keith.

Best does a great job letting us into Keith's life away from the park. It is worth the time to read this article, and find out more about the leader we called Mex.