Beloved New York Mets color commentator Keith Hernandez asked SNY to not have him call games between the Mets and Philadelphia Phillies for one major reason.
During the SNY broadcast of Tuesday’s game between the Mets and Cincinnati Reds, play-by-play man Gary Cohen was going through the Mets’ schedule for the next few weeks. Hernandez said that he will miss this weekend’s Phillies series because he will be in St. Louis for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of his 1982 World Series-winning Cardinals team. When Cohen asked him about what his excuse was for next week’s Phillies series, Hernandez took a pretty brutal shot at the Mets’ division rival.
“I’ve expressed to our front office at SNY that I hate doing Phillie games,” Hernandez said. “They never seem to disappoint. As far as fundamentally, defensively, the Phillies have always been just not up to it.”
Hernandez did admit that the Phillies were hot right now. Cohen mentioned that SNY could still try to fit Hernandez in for the series, to which Hernandez replied, “Don’t hold your breath.”
As Hernandez said, the Phillies are on a hot streak at the moment. Entering Tuesday, Philadelphia had won five straight games and was 10-1 in their last 11 games. At 60-48, the Phillies were a game up on the San Diego Padres for the second National League Wild Card spot prior to Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins.
Perhaps the Phillies will use Hernandez’s slight as motivation for their six games against the Mets in the next 12 days.
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