New York Mets Keith Hernandez
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Today is a historic day that changed the course of the New York Mets forever thanks to the acquisition of Keith Hernandez 35 years ago. 

Let’s not beat around the bush — being a New York Mets fan right now isn’t a walk in the park. They’ve lost 11 of their last 12 games heading into Friday night, are continually squandering Jacob deGrom‘s dominance, and they flat-out can’t score runs.

Since good pieces of news are few and far between these days, it’s important to latch onto something fun when it comes around.

Former Mets first baseman and current SNY broadcaster, Keith Hernandez, did his best to not think about the 2018 squad when he sent the following tweets out.

There were a handful of acquisitions that were crucial toward the Mets winning the 1986 World Series, but trading for a player like Hernandez is definitely at the top of the list.

While he noted above that dealing with the trade was somewhat tough, you wouldn’t know it by how he produced at the plate. Hernandez slashed .306/.424/.434 through his first 389 plate appearances in Queens, which began an incredible stretch of production.

Between 1984 and 1988, the slick-fielding first baseman went to three All-Star games, won five Gold Glove awards, one Silver Slugger award, and earned two top-10 finishes in the National League MVP voting. Oh yeah, and that one world title.

That was already enough to endear him to Mets fans forever, but the entire baseball world has been blessed with his presence in the booth alongside Ron Darling and Gary Cohen on a regular basis.

Can you imagine him not being in the booth during the season? When New York is going through a stretch like the one they’re currently on, Hernandez still knows what to say to make us laugh.

His insight and thoughts about the game are also great, but it’s the sound bites he provides on a nightly basis that makes everything worth it. Thank goodness Frank Cashen made the deal, and thank goodness Hernandez decided to stick around by re-signing. The Metsies just wouldn’t be the same without Keith around.

Matt Musico is an editor for ESNY. He’s been writing about baseball and the Mets for the past decade. His work has been featured on numberFire, MetsMerized Online, Bleacher Report, and Yahoo! Sports.