Keith Hernandez has spent most of his broadcasting career sharing a booth with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling, but even he still has a dream broadcast partner.
Hernandez (who will miss some upcoming broadcasts due to back surgery) recently joined SNY’s Niki Lattarulo for an edition of Mets Mailbag, where the former first baseman fields questions from fans. And one of the questions was “what person would you like to have in the booth with you for a couple innings?” accepting baseball and non-baseball people as answers.
Predictable answers may have included Jack Buck from Hernandez’s time with the St. Louis Cardinals, also Willie Mays or Lon Simmons from his time growing up as a San Francisco Giants fan. But that’s not the route Hernandez decided to go.
“Winston Churchill,” Hernandez answered after briefly mulling it over. “He was brilliant, and he would have a sense of humor. He would be a piece of work up there, that would be fun.”
Hernandez could have opted to raise some eyebrows by going to his well of more polarizing favorites, such as Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or take the more salacious route by picking the woman he had infamously fawned over as she ate a hot dog.
Lattarulo revealed that Gary Cohen was asked the same question during a previous edition of Mets Mailbag, and he gave David Wright as his answer. Sure, if you ask the same question to 1,000 Mets fans, half of them might give Wright as their answer. But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would pick Winston Churchill, and that’s what makes Keith Hernandez great.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com