I'm Keith Hernandez by Keith Hernandez

Domestic life just wasn't for me, especially on the heels of a batting race with Pete Rose and playing in front of 40,000 people on their feet every time I came up to the plate.
--Keith Hernandez, I'm Keith Hernandez (Little, Brown and Company 2018)

If you don't watch the Mets on SNY then you may not know what an enormous ego Keith Hernandez has; you can read this book to find out.  In 1979 he won the batting title and a Gold Glove but still resents that he had to share the MVP title with Willie Stargell of the Pirates, who Hernandez didn't think had as good a year.  For someone else this might have been an opportunity to reflect on the question of how MVP is defined, many writers and fans thinking that it goes beyond statistics, which Hernandez is quick to criticize when he is mocked for not hitting home runs.

Like many players married to baseball Hernandez's world is quite small; ever since his father (a minor leaguer turned firefighter) had him hitting a tennis ball tied to a rope Hernandez had wanted to be a baseball player and was always looking for father figures ("my father taught me …" is stated many times), finding them in managers such as Ken Boyer and thoughtful players like Pete Rose, who taught him some basic arithmetic about hitting and batting average.

Hernandez admits to smoking marijuana and cheating on his wives ("it was hard not to want something I had never had before") but fudges the question of cocaine use:  "if someone offered me coke I probably said sure."  The book ends before Hernandez is traded to the Mets, so perhaps there is another book in the works that deals with drug use and his years with the Mets, where Hernandez had a key role in the 1986 championship.

For those who listen closely to the Mets broadcasts it is clear than Hernandez's color commentary partner, Ron Darling, knows more of the vast world outside baseball than Hernandez (Darling was drafted in his junior year at Yale) but Hernandez gives as effective analyses of hitting as Darling does of pitching.  I do give Hernandez credit for mentioning in his book the key roles of Curt Flood, Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith, as well as the players union, for bringing the onerous reserve clause to an end.