A look into the Mets broadcast booth showing Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, and Gary Cohen Photo Credit: SNY
By Reice Shipley on

Keith Hernandez has never been afraid of speaking his mind in the New York Mets’ broadcast booth. Even when he is highlighting the past slaughter of the American buffalo, which happened to be the case during Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

The Mets went into Wednesday’s game losing ten of their last 11 games. But according to Mets field reporter Steve Gelbs, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza has done his very best to keep spirits high amidst their poor stretch of play.

Gelbs reported during Wednesday’s game that Mendoza had recently used an analogy with his team amidst their struggles, telling them to mimic a herd of buffalo, who come together and run through storms instead of running away from it and separating.

“It was interesting to hear about something he did the other day,” said Gelbs. “Where he referenced a conversation with the mental skills coach back in spring training. The mental skills coach talked about the buffalo, the animal the buffalo, in spring training. How it is different from many other species of animals in that, if a storm is coming, instead of running away from the storm, the buffalo come together as a herd and charge directly into the storm so that they can get through it quicker rather than running away and hiding.

“(Carlos) Mendoza pulled the team aside a couple of days ago and he said, ‘Hey guys, this is what we talked about. We expected this to happen. It was going to happen. Now, we stick together and have that buffalo mentality. And we get through this storm as quickly as we can.'”

Hernandez then shared his knowledge about buffaloes, highlighting how buffaloes “got slaughtered” in the 1800s because they froze when hunters approached.

“My understanding is the buffalo got slaughtered because when they got shot from long range,” said Hernandez. “They didn’t stampede or run away. They just froze; they were easy targets.”

Gelbs then responded by highlighting that the entire point of his report on Mendoza’s comments to his team seems to have gone over Hernandez’s head.

“Yeah, I think that was the point of the whole story,” Gelbs ironically said. “Thanks for the coda.”

“Gelbsy, always there to help you along,” added Ron Darling.

“There is only one (Keith Hernandez),” joked Gary Cohen.

“Well, it’s true,” said Hernandez. “They would get shot and they wouldn’t move,” added Hernandez. “Steve, maybe you can have a bison burger for lunch.”

Mets fans have understood for quite some time now that you simply can’t predict what is gonna come out of Hernandez’s mouth next. And this is certainly further proof of exactly that, which Mets fans voiced in their reaction to his comments on social media.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley