@CardsMagazine CARDINALS MAGAZINE 93
By Joe Ostermeier
If Cardinals fans judged Keith
Hernandez’s new book by its cover, they
might find little reason to peek inside.
After all, those are Mets colors he’s
wearing in his close-up portrait that fills
the front jacket, and it was New York
where he played most of his final eight
seasons in the majors.
And that connection remains strong in
retirement; Hernandez, 64, is nearing 20
years as an analyst on Mets telecasts. Look
him up on Twitter (@keithhernandez) and
his header photo shows Hernandez the Met,
sitting in the dugout with Mookie Wilson
and Rusty Staub. Visit his online apparel
shop and you’ll discover 42 of the 44
products offered for sale are Mets-themed.
Even the book’s title, “I’m Keith
Hernandez,” boasts a Big Apple-flavored
backstory. It’s the (now) famous line the
former ballplayer delivered (subconsciously)
while appearing as himself in an episode of
“Seinfeld,” the 1990s sitcom based on the
misadventures of a quirky quartet of friends
in New York City.
Of course, most Cardinals fans remember
where the story started for the game’s
consummate-fielding first baseman (11
Gold Gloves) and line-drive-hitting marvel.
Before he was a Met, Hernandez was drafted
by St. Louis (1971, 42nd round) and spent
12 years in the organization. Hernandez
the Cardinal, at 25 and playing just his
fourth full season in the big leagues, won
the National League batting title in 1979
(his .344 average topped the majors) and
was co-MVP with Willie Stargell.
So, if you’re curious in the least,
perhaps tempted to open the book, here’s
a suggestion: Take the chance – you might
decide it’s well worth your time.
The first hint of what’s to come appears
even before the contents page, where
Hernandez dedicates the book to his mother
and father, his brother, his three daughters
and several others with Cardinals ties, most
notably Kenny Boyer, Lou Brock, Jack
Buck, Bob Kennedy Sr., George Kissell and
Joe “Ducky” Medwick.
Scan the introduction, and you’ll learn
the book isn’t about Hernandez the Met.
Instead, it’s a story of his development
as a player in the Cardinals minor league
system and the lessons learned that helped
him reach the big leagues, and ultimatelythrive there. What the book isn’t, he writes,
is a tale about his ’82 season with Whitey
Herzog’s world champs (more on that later).
Or the entirety of his Cardinals career (he
slashed .299/.385/.448 with 396 extra-base
hits and 595 RBIs over seven full seasons
and parts of three others).
The focus, instead, is from 1972-79, which
Hernandez says became his “goalposts” for
structuring the content. “Every time I tried to
move beyond ’79, I came back to that span
of years – particularly to ’74, ’75 and ’76,”
he writes. “Those were the hardest yet most
instructive years.”
The narrative, co-written with Mike
Poncy and published by Little, Brown
and Co., was released in May, shortly
before Hernandez confirmed to Cardinals
Magazine: “The book is a lot of Cardinal
stuff; it’s my formative years. It’s a book
that I think is more for St. Louis fans than
New York fans.”
Hernandez, who has been on all five
Cardinals Hall of Fame ballots since fans
started voting in 2014, also shared another
nugget that might attract anyone who
loves the Birds on the Bat to the book:
“I was always a Cardinals fan growing up.In his new memoir, Keith Hernandez takes readers along for an often rocky andraucous ride that carried him to the big leagues and his f ifirst taste of success,winning a batting title and MVP award during the 1979 season in St. LouisGROWING UP
A CARDINAL