One of the things that has made the GKR era of Mets broadcasts truly enjoyable is what Keith Hernandez has brought to the table.  His sheer honesty, and his ability to make the occasional gauche comment makes even blowout Mets losses worth watching.  Really, Mets fans cannot get enough of Keith Hernandez.

And in many ways, we want to see and hear what he is like when the cameras aren’t on.  We did get a small glimpse of that the day SNY came back on the air earlier than the booth expected, and we all reveled in Keith’s comment that National’s starter Tanner Roark had been “getting his tits lit.” That and other Keith Hernandez moments made him the Mets personality most fans wanted to get a twitter account.

Well, it has finally happened to the great joy of Mets fans everywhere. In this week’s version of the Mets Blogger Roundtable, we react to Keith’s Twitter account:

Michael Baron (MLB)

Obviously, for us its very entertaining and its a great way for us to engage with someone we all admire. But for him, its an excellent opportunity for him to enhance his own personal and professional brand, which is both colorful and eccentric and allows us to see a different angle of Keith many don’€™t know and don’€™t get to see.

Roger Cormier (Good Fundies)

I have yet to feel “excitement.” Keith even tagged me in a response to someone else, yet all I feel is impending doom (more so than usual). My podcast partner perfectly described this situation as all too similar to the once beloved Milkshake Duck’s. Keith has already mistakenly tweeted out his phone number, before somewhat adorably thanking the first person to point this out and asking how to delete the picture. He has also yet to change the lowercase ‘k’ to an uppercase ‘k’ for his first name in his twitter bio. Even with 280 characters, nuanced thoughts can be expressed very poorly and problematically by the savviest of internet folk, so Keith tweeting something considered to be of poor taste is pretty much inevitable. But for now, yes, he’s showing *clears throat* good twitter fundamentals.

Michael Ganci (Daily Stache)

Having Keith officially join Twitter is akin to walking down the steps and seeing the presents on Christmas morning. You can see from his brief experience, his account oozes with his personality, and I for one, have set mobile alerts for when he Tweets. Why is he simply the most entertaining guy on Twitter? Simple. He’s Keith Hernandez.

Mark Healey (Gotham Baseball)

I don’t get too excited about celebrity Twitter accounts, but he seems to be actively using it himself, so that’s pretty cool.

Joe Marcic (Loud Egg)

Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)

It feels as if a Rubicon has been crossed. All those fleeting thoughts of “what would Keith Hernandez be like on Twitter?” have come to “oh, so that’s how it is.” He’s Keith Hernandez.

A part of me was hoping he’d stay Tweetless, as if to maintain the mystique. I felt that way about R.A. Dickey, too, but R.A. was engaging and complex in any medium. Same for Keith.

I wonder if early in a previous century there was this much speculation over how so-and-so would come across over the phone. One more device by which to communicate is what it boils down to.

James Schapiro (Shea Bridge Report)

By far the best part of having Keith on twitter will be getting more of Keith, plain and simple. Keith already doesn’€™t work every game, and it’s noticeable when he’€™s not there.  Gary and Ron are just a bit too grounded and serious when there’€™s no Mex between them. Even when Keith isn’€™t working games now, we’ll be able to get inside his head, and, of course, it’s rightfully easy to read his tweets in your head in a perfect Keith tone. Just because he’€™s not actually saying the words out loud doesn’€™t mean you can’€™t hear Keith’€™s implicit superiority to the guys on the field today, or the strangely emphasized words (Brou-HA-haa). Having Keith on twitter is our chance to hear from Keith far more often. And I don’t think there’€™s any need to be more specific: Keith on twitter means more Keith, and that’€™s something that all Mets fans should cherish.

Mets Daddy

What fascinates me with Keith’s Twitter account, and maybe it shouldn’t, is how right from jump street, he has already mastered how a celebrity should use a Twitter account.  He provides the voyeurism aspect like his tweeting out pictures of him having dinner with his daughter and her friend.

He gives us a sense that he’s just like us in how he tweets out silly picture of himself (his profile picture is him wearing a mustachioed poop emoji), he uses the occasional toon response in a tweet, or how he adores his now famous cat Hadji.

He also replies to Mets fans just enough to keep them hanging on his every word, and he is not afraid to call someone out for being an idiot.

And like with his Zack Wheeler comments, we get to see Keith not just as contemplative and not reactionary (as comes with the job) when something happens during a Mets game.  More to the point, it shows just how closely Keith does pay attention to the team even when he is not actually working the game.

Lastly, Keith has mastered the job of advertising the Keith Hernandez Shop and his upcoming book, which may have been impetus for firing up the Twitter account all along.

On the other hand, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by this.  During the telecasts, Keith has shown himself to be far more than comic relief.  He’s an intelligent and pensive man, who in many ways, is a modern Renaissance man.  Keith was a great baseball player, has had great cameos (everyone overlooks his Mr. Baseball cameo), and he has been great in both the booth and the studio.  Personally, I’m looking to see what a man with varied interests like Keith Hernandez has tweets during the offseason.

While Keith has only recently been on twitter this group of Mets bloggers have long had twitter accounts which we all use to promote our own writings and thoughts about the Mets.  While you are checking in on Keith’s tweets and the things he is selling, I encourage you to check in on the excellent things this group of writers is writing about this amazingly 10-1 Mets team.