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"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
- Art Buchwald

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Keith Hernandez on his Seinfeld experience. Hernandez wasn't familiar with the show when his agent called with the opportunity, but the pay was good, so the recently retired ballplayer took it. "How lucky was I?" he says today:

In 1997, TV Guide ranked [the Seinfeld episode] "The Boyfriend" No. 4 on its list of the 100 greatest TV episodes of all time, and Seinfeld often cited it as a personal favorite.

Hernandez, forced to retire from baseball in 1990 because of a back injury, says his appearance on the show extended his celebrity "shelf life," noting that it's rare when more than a few days pass without someone asking him about it.

Ex-ballplayers, even those such as Hernandez who twice played on World Series-winning teams, "fade into the twilight," says the 11-time Gold Glove winner, who spent most of his career with the Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.

But "I have people walk up to me in the airport and say, 'Can I help you move?' Grown adults, kids," he said. " 'What was it like kissing Elaine?' Those are the basic questions. It's just amazing, and it's throughout the country.

"I travel a lot and just last night in Denver this woman with airport security looks at my ID and goes, 'I know who you are.' I said, 'Well, baseball,' and she goes, 'Yeah, but "Seinfeld." ' That happens all the time." ...

"It certainly was one of the two greatest experiences of my life," he says. "Playing major league baseball for 17 years, playing in two World Series, that has to rank No. 1. But being on that sitcom has to rank No. 2. It was one of the great life experiences for me. I was just so fortunate."

Labels: Seinfeld, television

posted by Paul Murray at 12:15 AM | permanent link |