KEITH DIGS IN
Won’t back down from controversial comments
Keith Hernandez took the social media brush-backs, got off the deck and just dusted himself off.
The Mets broadcaster refused to walk back his controversial comments after taking heat on Twitter from everyone from journalists to sports fans to Hall of Famer Chipper Jones for saying he agreed with Marlins pitcher Jose Urena drilling red-hot Braves rookie Ronald Acuna with a 97-mph fastball on the first pitch of the game Wednesday night, .
“I can take it I’m not going to back down about what I said I feel strongly about it,” said Hernandez on Michael Kay’s ESPN radio show. “They’re entitled to their opinion I disagree. Pitcher out there is making a living, they’re getting killed. I don’t have an issue with it. It’s just my opinion.It was just part of the game.”
Kay was one of Hernandez’s critics who blasted the comments, saying, “In basketball, if a guy scores 40 do you punch him in the face?” said Kay, noting that this had nothing to do with a retaliation or showboating, but just a guy who was beating up the Marlins badly.
“You got a guy out there who’s killing you, you’ve lost three games, he’s hit three home runs, you got to hit him, I’m sorry,” said Hernandez while broadcasting the Mets game in Baltimore not long after the incident in Atlanta. “I know people are not going to like that.”
Acuna came into the game on a historic hot streak having homered in five consecutive games. He had eight homers in his past eight contests. He’d hit three straight lead-off homers, one shy of tying the MLB record, each against the Marlins.
Urena was suspended six games by MLB, Thursday.
The comments sent Twitdez’s ter into a frenzy, as Hernanoldschool baseball opinions were blasted for being those of a Neanderthal.
“So by this way of thinking, Jacob deGrom should get drilled cuz he’s the hottest pitcher on the planet? NO! I enjoy watching him pitch and I enjoy watching RAJ play the game. I’m old school just like this broadcaster, but these comments are waaay off base!,” tweeted Jones
“They can scream and yell an holler all they want,” said Hernandez. “I don’t think I said anything wrong. I didn’t think the pitch was too bad. I made it perfectly clear during the broadcast that I draw the line at head hunting.”
“Or a pitcher who throws at someone with the intent to hurt.”
But no matter how many different ways Kay asked Hernandez if he regretted his comments of he’d wished he hadn’t made them, the former , noting what happened Wednesday night was a part of the game he played as a big leaguer in the 70s and 80s.
“I’m from a different generation,” said Hernandez. “If a pitcher hit me, I never charged the mound… I would say OK fine. I’ll remember that am I’m going to get you the rest of my career.”
That’s baseball.