Is it possible to be a New York Mets fan and not know what Keith Hernandez looks like? One would think that after starring for the team and winning a World Series, having his number retired by the team, being selected as the Mets’ all-time first baseman, and broadcasting for the team for 28 years, the answer would be no. Throw in his ads for Just for Men and his appearances on Seinfeld, and it would have to be impossible, right?
Amazingly, that would be incorrect. At least according to a story that Keith Hernandez told his broadcast partner on Saturday, Steve Gelbs, during the New York Mets broadcast in San Diego.
“So, I flew on Delta from JFK to San Diego,” Hernandez recalled. “I made the mistake of having a window seat, and I was in Aisle 1. And I had a guy sitting in B next to me on my right in the aisle seat. And he had his full Met regalia. And he didn’t recognize who I was. I was into my iPad, the whole thing. The whole flight, did not know who I was.
“We’re descending, and the flight attendant discovers that I had my laptop. I had it hidden in my newspapers. He goes, ‘You’ve gotta put that up in there.’ I had to get up and sidle over his legs.”
Keith Hernandez literally fell into the Mets fan’s lap and he still didn’t recognize him
“When I sidled back into my seat, I bent my leg, and I went down almost in his lap. And I just grabbed his television in front of him, and it basically saved me from falling in his lap. And he still didn’t know who I was!”
“He didn’t recognize you then?” a shocked Gelbs asked.
“No,” Hernandez replied. “So, to make a long story short, there was a couple behind that were Met fans and knew who I was. So, I turned to the wife when we landed, and I said, ‘Would you mind asking your husband to get my bag for me up on top?’ And they said, ‘Absolutely.’
“And so the guy [next to] my seat went and got it, and then he looked at me, and he went, ‘Keith!’ I said, ‘The whole flight!’”
“The whole flight, and you fell in his lap, and he still didn’t understand,” Gelbs said with a laugh.