The Mets announced a bit of news that many thought was years, even decades, behind schedule, when they said they would be retiring Keith Hernandez’s No. 17 in July of this season.
Hernandez, part of the most beloved team in franchise history while winning five Gold Gloves and earning three All-Star selections in his six full seasons with New York, never wondered why his number wasn’t displayed at Citi Field, even if it was consistently on the mind of many Mets fans who watched him during the franchise’s golden era.
“It wasn’t something that crossed my mind very often,” Hernandez told reporters on Wednesday. “I was very pleased that [Mike] Piazza’s number was retired. It was very much worthy, and also retiring [Jerry] Koosman’s number, so I think when those things happened, and remember, Mike was the first number to be retired in quite some time, so maybe it was starting to turn a bit. Then they retired Koosman’s, then I thought that things were kind of going in right direction, that maybe it could happen. It’s not something that I thought about, it wasn’t gonna ruin my day. If it happened, it happened, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
Now it officially will happen, which Hernandez learned of when he received a call from Mets owner Steve Cohen, which completely caught him off guard.
“His name popped up on my screen, I’m going ‘Oh, okay, maybe he wants to talk about the team,’” Hernandez said. “So we had around a 10-minute conversation about the events that have happened…for the Mets. And then he said, ‘Well, this isn’t the reason why I’m calling.’ And then he dropped the bomb on me. So it caught me completely by surprise.”
Hernandez is already a member of the Mets Hall of Fame, and is now enshrined in the Cardinals Hall of Fame as well, but Tuesday’s news stands out above the rest as acknowledgements he has received from a team that he was a part of during his spectacular career.
“This is the highest honor that an organization can give to a player,” Hernandez said. “I do feel like I’m lost in space. It happened to me, an honor like this, and it’s something I never dreamed of. You dream of being on a world championship team, you dream of being a batting champion or an MVP. The thought of having a number retired never crossed my mind as a kid growing up and as I was playing in St. Louis or in New York.”
One of the only remaining post-retirement honors for Hernandez would be a ticket to Cooperstown through the Era Committees. He boasts five All-Star selections, an MVP, and 2,182 hits and a .296 batting average across his 17-year career, and he hasn’t lost hope that he could see himself elected one day.
“Maybe it will happen before I kick the bucket,” Hernandez said.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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