March 15, 2018
A former major league baseball All-Star and MVP--and current TV analyst for the New York Mets--reviews his boyhood and the dawn of his professional career and reveals some of the secrets of his success.Although Hernandez claims that he doesn't want his text to be like other baseball memoirs, in fundamental ways, it is exactly that. The author provides game-by-game accounts, descriptions of influences (good and bad and mixed), and details about influential managers such as Ken Boyer and fellow players, including Pete Rose--though the author does not comment on the Rose exclusion-from-the-Hall-of-Fame controversy. We learn about Hernandez's Spanish heritage (though his teammates called him "Mex"), his flirtation with drugs, his sometimes-excessive drinking, and his struggles with his father, who trained him but ultimately couldn't let go. But in his style, Hernandez does distinguish himself, offering a variety of chapters: flashbacks to boyhood (italicized), accounts of his current occupation as a broadcaster, and details about his journey through the minor leagues and into MLB, where, after experiencing some difficulties and frustrations, he soon emerged as a major talent. He alternates the chapters, shifting readers from past to present to past again, and he pauses periodically to elaborate on certain elements of today's game that annoy him: the obsession with home runs and the consequent shrinking of baseball parks and the soaring influence of statistics (see Moneyball). Hernandez concludes one minitirade with this: "Boring, one-base-at-a-time, home-run baseball. Yuck." We also learn some things about the author that may surprise readers--e.g., he likes to draw, and he collects first editions and works of art. Refreshingly, he also blames himself for the dissolution of his first marriage, confessing that he cheated on his young wife.Often candid and even self-deprecating memories by an athlete who once stood at the summit of his profession.
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March 26, 2018
In the introduction to his entertaining memoir, two-time World Series Champion and five-time All-Star Keith Hernandez claims he didn’t want to write a “boring” baseball book. Mission accomplished, as the outspoken first baseman-turned-broadcaster covers the highlights from his impressive career trajectory, beginning with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970s and his game-by-game battle against Pete Rose for the 1979 batting crown and continuing with dalliances with prostitutes and cocaine. Hernandez, now 64, retired in 1990 after spending most of his career with the Cardinals and later the New York Mets, with one final season in Cleveland. He focuses almost entirely on his years in the Cardinals organization (they were “the most instructive,” he writes), while also discussing his opponents and his post-baseball career as a color analyst on Mets’ telecasts. Frustrated with how long today’s games are, the use of sabermetrics, and the impact of league expansion, Hernandez brings a witty veteran’s view to today’s game (“call me old fashioned,” he tells readers before stating an opinion). These observations, however, along with his bar-conversation writing style and self-deprecating humor, will appeal to baseball fans of any era.
April 1, 2018
Hernandez (coauthor, If at First) was a two-time World Series champion and a ten-time Gold Glove first baseman. In this memoir, he honestly explores his career from the minor leagues to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970s and the New York Mets in the 1980s. Hernandez does not shy away from his transgressions--including experimenting with drugs and alcohol as a young ballplayer--and honest opinions. He shares details of the trying relationship with his persistent father and the pressures of making it to the Major Leagues. His time as a TV broadcaster for the Mets provides perspective; how he sees the game now versus when he was a player. Today, Hernandez describes himself as a dinosaur who believes the game is too focused on home runs and strikeouts and not enough on the fundamentals. The book is not without faults, however; the prose is riddled with incoherent tangents. But anyone who has seen a Mets broadcast in recent years knows that this is exactly who Hernandez is. VERDICT Hernandez's unique analysis of the immense pressure to succeed in an unforgiving game will be well received.--Keith Klang, Port Washington P.L., NY
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