SNY analyst Keith Hernandez has made plenty of unusual on-air comments over the years. One of the latest came in the Mets’ clash with the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday. There, a discussion of a bunt from the Cardinals’ Victor Scott II led to Hernandez referencing former Mets’ player, coach, and manager Bud Harrelson, but with an unusual “I know you’re not supposed to say it” before getting to the term “drag bunt”:
“This is shades of Bud Harrelson, who was a terrific — I know you’re not supposed to say it. They call it a different term, but in our day it was a drag bunt.” – Keith Hernandez. pic.twitter.com/Qxu0dTgeot
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 4, 2025
There don’t seem to have been any notable complaints against the term “drag bunt” to this point. “Drag” certainly is a term used in many different contexts, some which might not be appropriate to bring up on air. But “drag bunt” itself is a well-established phrase with its own Merriam-Webster Dictionary page. (For the record, “noun, : a bunt in baseball made by a left-handed batter by trailing the bat while moving toward first base, broadly : a bunt made with the object of getting on base safely rather than sacrificing.”) And it’s unlikely many listeners would have made the particular connection Keith Hernandez did here without him bringing it up.
Perhaps Hernandez was referencing some of the occasional criticism he’s received for other remarks. A few controversial ones there have included his San Francisco reference on Fox in 2017, his “porous borders” comment on SNY in 2023, and his election fraud conspiracy comments on social media last October. And he has made seemingly-joking references to politically-correct language before, including “Person. You can be neutral. They can’t get you that way” last July in reference to SNY play-by-play voice Gary Cohen referencing a ball girl. Thus, it’s possible this was intended as a joke and/or complaint along those lines.
Update: An compelling alternative theory here is that Hernandez was previously corrected on using “drag bunt” on a bunt towards third, but didn’t realize why he was being corrected:
this was about a left-handed player bunting towards 3rd base… he was probably corrected one time (that's not a drag bunt, which is when a lefty drags it with him towards 1st) but did NOT process what was wrong with it.
— finallysock.bsky.social (@finallysock.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
In any case, this was just part of an unusual amount of bunting discussion on SNY Sunday. Cohen and Hernandez conversed on some past players who excelled at bunting, and Cohen had a funny line about Hernandez’s interest in history:
Keith cites Maury Wills as a terrific bunter.
Gary: “Brett Butler, Juan Pierre…”
Keith: “I always like to go further back in history”
Gary: “I expect you to go back to the Civil War to tell us who on the Union side liked to lay down the occasional bunt toward third” 😂 pic.twitter.com/yETqwdiv6i
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 4, 2025
(For the record, there may have been bunts towards third in rounders-variant games resembling baseball during the Civil War. But don’t credit Union general Abner Doubleday for them.)
At any rate, Hernandez didn’t say anything objectionable here, unlike his attempt last September to coin a new term for “corner bunt.” But it was certainly strange to hear him profess “I know you’re not supposed to say it” about “drag bunter.” And if there ever was actual censorship imposed on Hernandez, this would not be the place to start.
