Keith Hernandez is a little late to the bandwagon.
The SNY broadcaster who infamously told audiences back in August he’d requested not to call Phillies games because they’ve “not been up to it” defensively and fundamentally, somewhat retracted his statement after the Phillies upset the 101-win Atlanta Braves in a 3-1 NLDS win:
Credit to Hernandez for owning up, but the timing is especially rich given that his New York Mets — 101-game winners themselves — were eliminated in the Wild Card Series a week ago, coming up at least two rounds short of the Phillies’ playoff run.
In reality, the timing never made a whole lot of sense in the first place; Hernandez’s harsh words on Aug. 9 came the night the Phillies moved to 20 games over .500 since the start of June. The overall sentiment of Hernandez’s statement wasn’t exactly wrong: The Phillies finished 25th in baseball in defensive runs saved and 29th in outs above average during the regular season. However, the aforementioned timing — coupled with the fact that Hernandez was in the midst of calling a game featuring the 44-66 Cincinnati Reds — made it slightly curious.
He’s right, in some senses, that this isn’t the same team he criticized earlier. As well as the Phillies were playing at the time, they’re playing even better now, having won five of six postseason games (and two in quite convincing fashion to move past the Braves), suddenly with a legitimate chance to earn a World Series appearance that once felt unthinkable.
But that doesn’t mean Hernandez exactly hit the nail on the head in August — in fact, far from it, and the comment looks even more inaccurate in hindsight, despite the mea culpa.
Maybe Hernandez figured it was better late than never to flip sides and buy in on the Phillies.
Judging off the reception, however — just look at the quote tweets — maybe “never” would’ve been best after all.
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