Keith Hernandez shares secret behind Mets booth’s chemistry

Everyone seems to be trying to recreate the magic in the booth that the New York Mets and SNY have perfected, but no one can truly replicate it.

David Samson, former president of the Miami Marlins and current Meadowlark Media personality, admitted as much to Keith Hernandez during a recent episode of his Nothing Personal with David Samson podcast.

The Mets have the best booth in baseball. I’ll gladly be a homer and say it, but our readers at Awful Announcing seem to agree.

Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling have an unmatched ability to elevate their broadcasts beyond just the game on the field. Nearly 20 years and the trio of ‘GKR’ is still the gold standard. For two decades, they’ve been the soundtrack to New York Mets baseball through thick and thin, cultivating a devoted, almost cult-like following along the way.

“Next years going to be our 20th year in the booth together,” Hernandez said. “And the fans relate to the broadcast. 20 years we’re together as a team, you have a whole generation that’s grown up watching this, and they identify with us…”

But why does it work so well?

“What I think makes our broadcast good is No. 1, Gary’s the foundation of the broadcast,” Hernandez added. “He grew up a Mets fan, he knows Mets history, he keeps us sharp; he makes people around him better. We have to be on our toes when we’re broadcasting with him. He’ll ask pointed questions, and I can’t drift. I can drift in some of the games when they were three and a half hours. Thank God for the (pitch) clock.

“We decided in spring training when we started, we didn’t know what to do, and I said, ‘Ronnie, you’re the pitcher; I’m the hitter. I can’t talk about the fundamentals of pitching like you can. You handle the pitching, and I’ll handle the offense — the hitting part of the game.’ So, the fans get a pitcher’s point of view and a hitter’s point of view. And I think that’s critical.”

What’s also critical is they’ve been able to do this with the Mets making the playoffs just five times in those nearly 20 years (’06, ’15, ’16, ’22 and ’24). And you could argue that despite following two games short of their first World Series berth in nearly a decade, this was the most fun Mets team that Hernandez has witnessed in the SNY broadcast booth.

Over the years, they’ve stood idly by the team, unafraid to criticize an underperforming product. This was especially evident during the Wilpon era, when, despite being in the largest sports market, the Mets operated like a small-market franchise after the fallout from the Bernie Madoff scandal.

So, to say that Hernandez and his counterparts deserve this — as well as the fanbase — wouldn’t exactly be speaking out of turn.

“As a broadcaster, yes, we’ve had some bad years in New York with the Mets — and the teams have been not very good, much more than they’ve been good,” said Hernandez. “And it’s always as a broadcaster when you got a team out there that plays good baseball — and fundamental baseball — not just batting cage major leaguers where they bash you to death, they also play the other side of the field and the defense and running the bases. That’s the beauty of the game. That’s what I love.

“And that’s what they did last year. It was just a treat, and I’m looking forward to them doing the same thing and improving on it.”

[Nothing Personal with David Samson]