On August 30th, 1974, Keith Hernandez made his major league debut, going 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and an RBI for the Cardinals. The Cardinals however fell to the San Francisco Giants 8-2, as starter Sonny Sievert gave up 6 earned runs over the first two innings. Only 3,111 fans showed up at Candlestick Park to see his debut.

We usually think of Keith Hernandez as a Met. But if you look at his Baseball Reference page, you can see that he actually played for the Cardinals for 9.5 seasons and for the Mets for only 6.5 seasons.

He is associated with the Mets I think for three reasons:

• He is on the Mets television broadcast team
• He was a member of the 1986 Mets World Series team
• He was on the television Seinfeld playing himself

As a Cardinal, Hernandez was the National League MVP in 1979 when he led the league in Batting Average (.344) and Runs (111). His best seasons were probably with the Cards.

As a subscriber to MLB.TV, I get to watch all the different television broadcast teams. The Mets’ broadcast team with Hernandez, Ron Darling, and Gary Cohen is head and shoulders the best.

Here is a link to a fun MLB.com article on the Top 10 highlights of Keith Hernandez’s career.