Keith Hernandez

I was up late Saturday night with the baby, and as I often do when the Yankees aren't on, I was watching the Mets game.

The Mets announcers frankly suck. Don't get me wrong -- most baseball announcers suck. The Yankees announcers have their own set of problems. First of all, there are too many of them (about eight at last count). They also have a tendency to be smug (Michael Kay) or amateurs (Dave Justice, John Flaherty, etc.).

But back to the Mets. Their announcers tend to be depressing or negative and the team really isn't bad enough to merit that. This is not Tampa Bay or Kansas City. This is a big market team with some exciting young rookies and they're probably going to make the playoffs -- so lighten up already.

Keith Hernandez in particular never misses an opportunity to point out how the current players can't play the game or to say something generally obnoxious. On Saturday he went the "generally obnoxious" route. Mike Piazza, now with the Padres, hit a homerun. Mike goes into the dugout where he's congratulated by the other players and team personnel, one of whom happened to be a woman.

Well, Keith wasn't havin' none of that.

"There's a GIRL in the dugout! There aren't supposed to be any GIRLS in the dugout!"

He was quickly informed that the "girl" was a massage therapist (no, not that kind) and part of the training staff for the Padres. She had every right to be there.

Well, Keith wasn't havin' none of that. He drops this gem:

"I'm not saying girls should be in the kitchen, but they shouldn't be in the dugout."

What a dick. And he continued to repeat variations of this statement throughout the rest of the game.

It especially bothers me that someone of Spanish descent would say something stupid like that, but I guess sexist machismo runs deep. What if someone said, "I'm not saying that Latinos should be picking lettuce, but they shouldn't be in the broadcast booth."

That would be wrong, right?