Keith Hernandez was doing his usual job as a color commentator on Monday when he referenced a casual baseball saying that was untimely given the holiday.
Daniel Murphy was facing Phil Hughes in the bottom of the first of Monday’s New York Mets-New York Yankees Subway Series game and broke his bat on a 94-mph inside fastball from the pitcher. After Murphy was thrown out at first on a ground out, the camera focused on the broken bat on the field.
“Well, that is a dead solider right there, folks, laying on that infield dirt,” Hernandez said in reference to the broken bat. “That’s what we call getting sawed off. Nothing to be ashamed of — it happens.”
Ordinarily people wouldn’t think much of someone calling a broken bat a “dead soldier,” but the saying sounded especially bad coming on Memorial Day when the country pays tribute to all the real soldiers who died fighting for the country. Not only does Hernandez’s saying trivialize the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of US soldiers, but it also shows an incredible lack of awareness.
In the top of the second, Vernon Wells broke his bat on a pitch and Hernandez didn’t make any mention of the broken bat. Perhaps someone said something to him about his poor choice of words.
Maybe this is a good reminder to all of us that war analogies should not be applied to everyday life in general.
