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We Come in Full Praise of the Great Keith Hernandez and His Spot-On Analysis

Also in Traina Thoughts: Big ‘Thursday Night Football’ news; Kyle Brandt will name your fantasy team; Ronald Acuña Jr. makes a young fan’s day and more.

Jimmy Traina

We Come in Full Praise of the Great Keith Hernandez and His Spot-On Analysis
We Come in Full Praise of the Great Keith Hernandez and His Spot-On Analysis /

1. Mets analyst Keith Hernandez hasn’t been on a roll like this since he starred in Seinfeld’s “The Boyfriend.”

Hernandez recently caused a big stir in Philadelphia when he revealed he asks SNY to give him time off when the Mets play the Phillies because he can’t stomach the way Philadelphia plays the game.

“I’ve expressed to the front office—not the Mets’ front office, our front office at SNY— that I hate doing Philly games, so I guess they gave me the series off. … They’re hot right now, I would like to see them. But as far as fundamentally and defensively, the Phillies have always been just not up to it.”

A lot of people connected with the Phillies—broadcasters, producers, the Phillie Phanatic—mocked Hernandez.

There were Keith Hernandez graphics.

And the Phanatic carried around a Hernandez puppet.

There was only one problem. The Mets took three of four games from the Phillies over the weekend, and Philadelphia played so poorly its lowlights ended up being made into a 2-minute-and-20-second video set to The Benny Hill Show’s theme music.

After earning that TKO, Hernandez scored another win Tuesday morning while appearing on WFAN’s Boomer & Gio Show in New York.

While baseball broadcasts are now so analytics heavy and filled with so many farkakte stats, Hernandez spoke for many of us old-timers who don’t give a flying fruit pop about exit velocity while telling a story about Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil and new manager Buck Showalter.

“[Play-by-play guy] Gary [Cohen] has to say, ‘Exit velocity, 108 miles an hour,’” said an annoyed Hernandez. “I could care less. I know when someone hits the dog out of the ball. I don’t care what kind of miles per hour it is. But Jeff kind of told the analytics people, which were so much in control last year, which Buck has put in their proper place, which is a tool for the manager. They bring a lot of information. A lot of it’s too much. A lot of it is very very helpful and pertinent.

They were always last year, ‘Your exit velocity is down.’ A guy came up to him a couple of times and said, ‘On that base hit, your exit velocity wasn’t very good,’ and Jeff goes, ‘I don’t care about exit velocity. What was the result? I got a base hit.’ I LOVE that!”

It used to be the case that analytics-heavy telecasts were alternative broadcasts. Now, baseball broadcasts have gone so all-in on analytics that we need alternate telecasts that don’t mention analytics at all.

And Keith Hernandez should be in the booth for those broadcasts.

2. If you've listened to the SI Media Podcast, over the past few weeks, you've heard me ask many times, "What will happen in bars and restaurants during Thursday Night Football now that the game will air exclusively on Amazon Prime?”

Well, that problem was solved today. DirecTV and Amazon announced a multiyear agreement to offer Thursday Night Football to more than 300,000 sports bars, restaurants, hotel lounges and several other key venues nationwide.

3. It’s been a while since a video went viral so fast and then becomes tired and played out as this one from the stands at last night’s Mets-Yankees game during which one fan used his hot dog as a straw for his beer.

4. I was done with fantasy football many years ago, but every year at this time, I enjoy Kyle Brandt’s Fantasy Name Generator bit.

5. I know athletes live a totally different life than normal people, because they make  loads of money and have to deal with fame and people constantly bothering them, but it’s important to remember that all it takes is one little wave to make a kid’s day.

6. While Ronald Acuña Jr. did a nice job of being kid-friendly in that video above, Heat star Tyler Herro went with the complete opposite approach while going one-on-one with a youngster on the court.

7. This week's SI Media Podcast features an interview with Tim Burke, also known on Twitter as @Bubbaprog, one of the former Deadspin reporters who broke the 2013 Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax story that is the subject of a new Netflix two-part series.

Burke gives details on how Deadspin got the tip about Te’o and how long they worked on the story before publishing it. He also talks about being surprised by the reaction to the story, what he wanted to accomplish with the story and what he’d do differently.

Burke also discusses the recent kerfuffle he found himself in after posting a spliced video of Sean Hannity and Ron DeSantis, how he was the first person to post the uncensored video of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, how he’s able to monitor so many things throughout the day and more.

The podcast closes with the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata, from WFAN and SNY in New York. This week, I go on yet another rant about streaming, with the new NFL+ service as the target. We also discuss the NBA vs. NFL battle that is now set for Christmas Day, the NFL’s decision to add a Black Friday game next season and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

8. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I got some emails and tweets from people who really enjoyed the old CBS NFL Today intro that I posted in this space yesterday. Here’s how the old NBC pregame show looked in the early 1980s.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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