At Home With Keith Hernandez ( Keith Staying @ Home?)

[metirish]

Video here

http://www.newsday.com/news/the-home-of-keith-hernandez-1.1442754

Neil Best story here

Ex-Met Hernandez finally safe at home

It was near midnight on Tumbleweed Tuesday, the name East Enders give the day after Labor Day, when they reclaim their towns from seasonal visitors. But one celebrity resident was just returning home from work, a commuter completing another long ride from the big city and trying to stay sane by checking off a dozen milestones on his 86-mile slog. "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.'' Eventually, though, it was over, and he reminded himself why he endures it. At 1 a.m., as he walked Duncan, his beloved, 90-pound flat-coated retriever, around his neighborhood just outside Sag Harbor, Hernandez looked around and said, "This is a little slice of heaven.'' It is a slice he has carved for himself at 55, the formerly hard-playing, hard-partying leader of the 1986 Mets now happily married to his second wife, Kai, and happily living a small-town life. When he pulled onto Main Street Wednesday to visit his favorite coffee shop, Java Nation, it was as if he had planted eclectic local characters as props to impress a visiting reporter. It was real, though. Hernandez - 1979 National League co-MVP, star of an iconic "Seinfeld'' episode, popular SNY analyst - is used to passers-by saying hello to him. But within two minutes of arriving in Sag Harbor, he had said hello by name to a half-dozen people. "We can be normal here,'' Kai said. That's relative, of course. Hernandez prides himself on living in a home of modest proportions - "These people who buy mansions, I don't understand that; they are nuts'' - and on going to the hardware store and doing his own repairs. But he's still Keith Hernandez. Much as he enjoys the blue-collar vibe of the year-round residents, he is not quite one of them, staying only from April through September. He spends the rest of the year in Florida. Hernandez, long divorced from his first wife and with three adult daughters (and two grandchildren, the second born last weekend), was a committed Manhattanite from 1984 until several years ago. The nudge East came from Duncan, named for the King of Scotland in "Macbeth.'' The big dog needed space, and his family didn't mind going far to find it with Hernandez then working a limited schedule for MSG. Kai had owned a cottage on the East End and liked the area. "There was no SNY then,'' Keith said. "I had no idea I would have a full-time job.'' Now he works 105 games a season, about half at home. (He stays in the city when a day game follows a night game.) Hernandez passes the miles listening to political talk radio, and sometimes sports, especially Steve Somers' opening monologue on WFAN. Usually, he turns it off once the callers chime 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.'' (Hernandez admits preferring that the Mets win, too. But he tries to stay "detached'' from the day-to-day emotions of a fan.) Mostly, he keeps to 80 mph or less in a Mercedes built to go far faster and studies the psychology of LIE exit numbers. "Seventy, 60, 50, those are my marks,'' he said, referring to the round numbers as the exits fly by. "The distances between 70 through 50 are much longer, so as you go from 50 to 40 to 30 they get tighter and it seems faster. Going back out east it's like forever on 50, then forever on 60.'' Relief from the tedium comes at the home he shares with Kai, Duncan, three cats and robust collections of books, bobbleheads, vintage movie posters, 19th century firearms and art, as well as baseball treasures such as his MVP award. The highlights include two mosaics made by his late father, John, from pebbles Keith and his brother collected on Pebble Beach when they were kids growing up in the San Francisco Bay area and there still were pebbles there. His hundreds of leather-bound, gold-accented classic books come with a personal twist. Some include inserts summarizing their contents. It turns out Kai wrote many of them for a part-time job during graduate school in the mid-1980s - long before she and Keith met. "It's all come full circle,'' said Kai, a freelance pastry chef who sells to local stores and who whips up homemade cake and ice cream just for fun. (Keith would like to lose 20 pounds. Good luck.) Hernandez, still adjusting to Eastern Time after a recent road swing, didn't bound out of bed and into the kitchen until 9 Wednesday morning. But typically he rises around 8, catching up on news and sports and heading to town for coffee at 10, followed by fetch with Duncan at the beach and/or in the backyard pool. His biggest meal is lunch, usually back in downtown Sag Harbor, followed by a 30-to-60-minute nap, then into the car around 3:30 for the schlep back to Queens. Thrills? It was enough Wednesday to encounter several wild turkeys by the side of the road. He was so excited he stopped his car and got out to make sure Kai, who was driving a car following him, had seen them, too. "People think I'm more of a loose cannon than I really am,'' Hernandez said. "I'm not that far off the charts. My life is pretty mundane. When people meet me and they're all excited, I tell them, 'Trust me, I'm overrated. Just ask my wife.' '' Hernandez removed the copy of Moby-Dick from his collection and announced one of his offseason plans: Joining Kai in reading the book. Aloud. Such is life for Mex these days, where the only fast lane that matters is the one on the LIE.

Edited September 14, 2009 by Guest

[ashie62]

Thanks for posting this!

[metirish]

Thanks for posting this![/quote:3l0yzpam]


Thank you for caring , the rest here apparently could care less about Keith's wonderful life in Sag Harbor.

[Guest themetfairy]

I enjoyed it Irish. I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier.

[Guest cooby]

Nice

[metirish]

Keith's wonderful life might not be so wonderful now with his name getting dragged in to the Gotti trial.

Met great caught up in Jr. case

He didn't take the stand, but one of the biggest names in New York Met history loomed large in Manhattan federal court yesterday as the fourth trial of John "Junior" Gotti got under way. A chronic gambler who once worked for the Mets testified that he pretended to place bets for Keith Hernandez while racking up a massive debt to a Gotti-run gambling ring in 1984. "I lied," said Joseph Deluca, 49, a former assistant equipment manager for the team. "I had to assure them the bets were going in for someone who could pay them." Growing increasingly desperate as his losses grew to $32,000, Deluca ultimately decided to take a chance and approach the perennial Gold Glove first baseman for a loan. "I had a good rapport with him," Deluca said about Hernandez. The former MVP took pity and agreed to loan Deluca $7,000, which the gambler promptly blew in Atlantic City. The move infuriated Gotti's right-hand man, John Alite, who broke Deluca's nose and then brought the mob scion to the gambler's house to meet with his parents, Deluca testified. A spokeswoman for Hernandez declined comment. After three previous racketeering trials ended with hung juries, prosecutors took a different tack yesterday by depicting Gotti, 45, as a money-hungry mobster who once carried out acts of violence with glee. A witness to a March 1983 barroom brawl in which Gotti allegedly stabbed a rival to death said Junior had the gall to go back inside the Silver Fox bar and taunt his dying victim with a Porky Pig impression. "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!" Gotti said as he swung open the doors and waved to the shocked crowd, according to barfly Kenneth Seidel, 50. "For those 10 seconds, it got very, very quiet. Everybody kind of froze," Seidel said. Seidel said victim Danny Silva had been cut open from his belly to his sternum. "It was deep. It was wide. You could pretty much look . . . and see his insides," Seidel said. At the start of the trial day, 10 jurors asked to be excused in notes to Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel, who refused all their requests. Two said they were deathly afraid. "I think I will be very nervous and intimidated for this. Had a hard time sleeping at night," one juror wrote. In opening statements, Assistant US Attorney Elie Honig told the jury Gotti left "a trail of victims in his wake." Attorney Charles Carnesi repeated Gotti's defense that he left the mob in 1999 and therefore can't be convicted of racketeering under a five-year statute of limitations. kati.cornell@nypost.com

[Guest Edgy DC]

I can't see Hernandez in much trouble for that.

[metirish]

I didn't mean to imply that I thought he would be in trouble , just that I doubt he likes having crap like that brought up in a trail for a goon like Gotti.

[ashie62]

I saw the name Deluca and thought Loduca lol

So the "man" had cut off Deluca who then said he was placing bets for Keith but was actually still betting for himself.

Kinda like Matt Damon getting dicked by Ed Norton id Rounders.

Geezz...Keith was into risky behavior back in the day.

[Guest Edgy DC]

You hit on something there. This may explain why Keith spent Paul LoDuca's first season his pronouncing his name. He's got DeLuca on the brain.

[metirish]

From Bob Raismann today

SNY's Keith Hernandez airs dirty laundry of contract negotiations during finale

Is the four-year SportsNet New York partnership of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez over? Was their Sunday call of Nelson Figueroa's 4-0 shutout of Houston, in the Mets' season finale, the trio's final performance together? Following the game, on the air and in no uncertain terms, Hernandez raised that very possibility. Cohen had just finished talking about how well they've worked together and Darling thanked fans for sticking with them during a season of Mets injuries and abysmal play. It was then that Hernandez steered off course, dropping a bombshell. "I've enjoyed the four years and, hopefully, I'm in the middle of negotiating my new contract, hopefully, I'll be back (next season)," Hernandez said. Darling, eyebrows raised and totally surprised, looked at Hernandez and asked: "Are you doing that (negotiating your contract on TV) now?" "Hopefully I'll be back," Hernandez said. "If not, it's been a great four years." Responding to our question about Hernandez making his contractual situation public, and raising the possibility he could be history at the network, an SNY spokesman would only say: "We don't comment on contract status or negotiations." Hernandez has earned a well-deserved reputation of delivering the unpredictable. His loose lips are a big part of his persona, his on-air charm. While SNY suits have become accustomed to his style, they likely were surprised to hear Hernandez air his business laundry on television. This likely is not part of some calculated plan or negotiating strategy. Or as one broadcast agent said: "Even if you work without a safety net, like Keith Hernandez, you are usually inclined - and encouraged - to keep contract information private. Your employers don't expect to turn on a game and hear you say you are negotiating a contract and may not be coming back." Then again, everything about the Mets' 2009 season has been strange. From the injury epidemic, to Omar Minaya's meltdown over Daily News sports writer Adam Rubin, to the lack of fundamentals on the field, to Jerry Manuel's confounding postgame soliloquies. Considering all this weird stuff, maybe no one should be surprised that following the final game of the season, a few minutes before signing off, Hernandez would announce his uncertain future at SNY. What's going on here? Unless there's something bubbling under the surface, all appearances suggest SNY is happy with Hernandez, and he's happy working with Darling, Cohen and the network's production team. A negotiation could be about many things, including the number of games a voice works. Perhaps Hernandez wants to cut back his schedule. Of course, in most of these situations, it's all about the moolah. On this issue, from the outside looking in, Hernandez may have some leverage. Darling is locked into a multiyear contract. Cohen ain't going nowhere, either. SNY's Mets booth is the best in the city, maybe - in terms of regional telecasts - the best in the country. Does SNY want to risk breaking up its highly acclaimed team by letting Hernandez walk over dough? Probably not. Still, in this business strange things can happen, as evidenced by what exited Hernandez's mouth Sunday afternoon. On this account, Hernandez made a huge mistake. And it has nothing to do with business. In the final two minutes of this telecast, the only eyeballs left were diehard Mets fans. Throughout the season, these loyalists have swallowed plenty of garbage from management and players alike. So now, when it's finally over, when they can finally take a deep breath and begin waiting until next year, Hernandez, a voice synonymous with their baseball summer, ends their terrible Mets season by delivering more bad news, basically saying this: Hey, I'm negotiating a contract. And if I don't get my way, I'm out of here. Thanks for the memories. That's no way to treat fans who stuck by you to the bitter end. Unless you, Keith Hernandez, want to be perceived as just another selfish ex-ballplayer. braissman@nydailynews.com

[Guest Edgy DC]

He certainly didn't give away anything of consequence, or use his position to gain leverage with the network.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I must have tuned out just before Keith's statement. (I watched the postgame until the first commercial break.) My sense is that Keith didn't want to just disappear without saying good-bye to the viewers, but he also didn't know if he is actually going to disappear. So he said, I hope I come back, but I might not, and if I don't, I wanted to say that it's been fun.

I don't see anything wrong with it. It may not have been something a polished broadcaster would have done, but Keith isn't polished, and that's a large part of his charm.

[HahnSolo]

Not much to add here, but I'd like my kids to grow up with Gary, Keith and Ron much like I did with Lindsey, Bob, and Ralph.

[metirish]

By Adam Rubin

Gary, Keith and Ron won't be splitting up on SNY telecasts of Mets games. According to the Mets' web site, Keith Hernandez is re-signing after lengthy contract negotiations. You may remember the '86 Met made reference to his squabble on-air at the end of the season.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He made a passing reference to the note that he may not be back.

I'm glad he will be.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'm surprised by how gratified I am by this. (I blame the kidlet.)

[metsmarathon]

yay.

[metirish]

Very happy Keith is back....who knows who'd be brought in if they still wanted the three man booth. If it were Howie then fine but I doubt that would happen.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's almost certainly have been another jock strap.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Excellent news!

[Guest themetfairy]

Good news

[HahnSolo]

Rib Eye steaks for everybody!

[Frayed Knot]

NY Post:
The deal is not signed yet, but �it�s as good as done,� the source said. ...
The deal will keep the often outspoken Hernandez with the network at least through 2012.

[TransMonk]

Did we miss this on Monday? See ya Chip.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-tbs-caray&prov=ap&type=lgns

Chip Caray and TBS part ways

ATLANTA (AP)�Chip Caray has called his final baseball game for TBS.

Network spokesman Jeff Pomeroy confirmed Monday that TBS and the announcer have decided to part ways.

A son of late Braves broadcaster Skip Caray and a grandson of famed broadcaster Harry Caray, Chip Caray had called first-round playoff games for TBS during the past three seasons. He originally worked with Tony Gwynn(notes) and Bob Brenly, then teamed with Ron Darling and Buck Martinez.

Caray also was part of the network�s Sunday regular-season package.

Pomeroy said no replacement has been picked.

�Since the end of the 2009 MLB Playoffs, we�ve had several discussions with Chip Caray regarding 2010 and beyond. Both sides agree that now is the right time to move ahead on different paths,� the network said in a statement.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Where to?

[Benjamin Grimm]

We won't know until you write a poem about it!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Where to?[/quote:lq3685kt]

Wherever they appreciate the true worth of bad, inaccurate play-by-play men, dammit.

[metirish]

I'm biased of course but I would really like to hear GK&R doing playoff games.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Where to?[/quote:2jvc96yu]

Wherever they appreciate the true worth of bad, inaccurate play-by-play men, dammit.[/quote:2jvc96yu]

I think the Yankees, Cards, and Cubs have to be on the short list.