THE DODO DEFENSE

Hernandez’s type of fielding prowess now extinct

KEITH Hernandez? He was a dodo bird, poultry in motion. Allow me to be the last, this week, to check in on Hernandez.

There may never be another Keith Hernandez, the player, drug-sanction warts and all. Not because he’s beyond duplication. Hardly. But because MLB no longer, as a matter of training or demand, produces such players.

To a great, inevitable and unfortunate degree, Hernandez is and was a dodo, trending extinct.

His foresight, confidence and skill after fielding ground balls at first base with runners on first was special, even among the special. He knew what to do, when to do it, how to do it. Thus, he’d regularly pass on the easy out at first for the force at second, his throws so accurate that they could be returned for a double play.

The combination of double plays that included any combination that began with the first baseman followed by the shortstop, second baseman, pitcher or return throw to the first baseman, made for beautiful ballet. Craig Swan Lake. It also won games. But it has become an antiquated, neglected art for no reasonable reasons:

1) First base has become primarily a “hitters’ position,” those paid huge dough to hit home runs, bang into the shift or strike out, no advanced or even limited fielding skills required. First base is now one position removed from DH.

2) Second basemen and shortstops are unaccustomed to such play from first basemen, thus are rarely in position to take such throws should a first baseman risk it, let alone consider it.

3) The shift has often placed infielders too far from second, often in the outfield, to take throws from first.

Hernandez, Don Mattingly and Steve Garvey were among the last of a dying breed trained and eager to be complete, two-way first baseman.

Thus, if a young player, especially one signed to a huge bonus, chooses to play the field as Hernandez did, that’s strictly his own business. It’s no longer a required course in order to graduate. And it shows.