Keith Hernandez (born October 20, 1953, San Francisco, California, U.S.) is an American professional baseball player who earned 11 consecutive Gold Glove awards (1978–88) during his 17 seasons in Major League Baseball. He played on two World Series championship teams (1982, 1986) and appeared in five All-Star Games (1979, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1987).
Hernandez was born in San Francisco. His mother, Jacquelyn Jordan Hernandez, was from Beaumont, Texas, and his father, John Hernandez, was a minor-league first baseman who had been a prospect for the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers). Keith, who would also play first base, developed his fundamental baseball skills from his father and became an outstanding baseball player in high school. He continued to play baseball at the College of San Mateo and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League (NL) in 1971. Hernandez, who batted and threw left-handed, made his big-league debut with the Cardinals in 1974. In 1979 he led the NL in putouts (1,489), batting average (.344), runs scored (116), and doubles (48), and he shared the NL Most Valuable Player award with Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also led the NL in double plays in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, and 1984.
Although Hernandez helped lead the Cardinals to a seven-game triumph over the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1982 World Series, he was traded during the following season to the New York Mets, with whom he played from 1983 to 1989. In 1986 he batted .310 and led the NL in walks (base on balls) as he played an integral role on the Mets team that won 108 games in the regular season and captured its second World Series title, defeating the Boston Red Sox in seven games. Hernandez earned his final Gold Glove award in 1988; his 11 career Gold Gloves are the most ever for an NL first baseman.
Hernandez finished his playing career with the Cleveland Indians (now the Cleveland Guardians) in 1990. He amassed a lifetime batting average of .296 with 2,182 hits and 162 home runs; on the defensive side, he made 17,916 career putouts. After retiring as a baseball player, Hernandez worked as a broadcaster for the Mets and as a commercial spokesman and appeared as a guest star on the popular television series Seinfeld in the 1990s. Hernandez also participated in a charity event in 2012, shaving off his signature mustache in front of 300 baseball fans and raising $10,000 for the Jacquelyn Hernandez Adult Day Health Center in Brooklyn—a facility for patients with Alzheimer disease that was named after his mother, who suffered from the disease.
Hernandez was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2022 the Mets retired Hernandez’s jersey number, 17.