Crossing Paths
30 years after his father helped set records at ESU, Keith Hernandez is guiding the Hornets to even bigger feats
By Jesse Newell
Friday, April 25, 2008
Photo by Jesse NewellJustin Ogleby
Justin Ogleby
Emporia State’s Keith Hernandez stands outside Gym B in the ESU HPER Building, a place where both he and his father, Fred, practiced for their respective Hornet baseball teams 30 years apart.
Keith Hernandez says he can’t help but think about it during the long practices in the HPER Building. Or during the quiet walks to class on campus. Or during those times he puts his uniform on in front of his locker.
Keith isn’t just living his own life at Emporia State.
He’s also reliving his father’s.
“He just told me that he loved it when he was here,” Keith says, his lightly freckled face beaming underneath a batch of dark, red hair.
And the stories start. Keith’s heard them since he was a boy in Rio Rico, Ariz.
Turns out Fred Hernandez loves to talk about the long winning streak in 1977, about the hitting workouts on snowy days deep inside Gym B, about the pretty girl he met on campus that later became his wife.
It never even dawns on Keith as he continues talking.
Some day, Keith will probably come back to this campus. He’ll probably bring along his kids. And that’s when the stories will start.
He’ll talk about that long winning streak, the one back in 2008. About the hitting workouts on snowy days deep inside Gym B.
And, of course, about the pretty girl he met on campus that later became his wife.
“It just seems like 30 years later,” Fred Hernandez said, “everything seems to be going in a circle.”
•••
He had just made the three-hour drive to Hays, and Bob Fornelli needed a program.
The ESU baseball coach had just signed Keith Hernandez and had traveled to watch him play for the Hays Larks summer league team.
Fornelli wanted to walk up and say hello to his future player. He couldn’t.
That’s because the coach had no idea what Keith Hernandez looked like.
Fornelli had never seen Hernandez play at Pima Community College. The baseball budget didn’t allow for plane trips to Arizona for recruiting.
So, the recruiting took place in an unorthodox manner.
The two finalized everything over the telephone.
Keith had some help. Barton County coach Mike Warren had played Keith’s team during the junior college season. Warren also had played at ESU back in the 1970s with Fred Hernandez.
Warren made a call to Fornelli. Fornelli then made a call to Keith.
It didn’t take long for Keith to make up his mind — with some help, of course, from his father.
Keith said he still remembered what his dad told him: “You’ll become a better player if you go there.”
A few days later, Fornelli received a commitment.
After grabbing a roster in Hays, the ESU coach didn’t need much time to realize his faith was going to be rewarded.
“He was everything we thought he would be,” Fornelli said, “and maybe more.”
Little did Fornelli know. Before he even played in one game for ESU, Keith would have to be recruited all over again.
•••
As the story goes, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight for Carolyn Mockry.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Turns out the Olpe girl couldn’t stand Fred Hernandez when she first met him in John Baxter’s ESU class back in 1976.
“My dad was pretty persistent with her and continued to talk to her and talk to her,” Keith said. “Finally, he got a date out of it.”
The effort paid off. The two later student-taught together during their days at ESU.
Soon after, they were married in Emporia, with Fred staying two years longer before they moved to Arizona.
Baxter remains involved with the baseball program, serving as the head trainer in his 42nd season at ESU.
It’s not the only way Keith and his father are linked through the school.
During his first year on campus, Keith lived in the same apartment complex — Village Apartments — as his father did 31 years ago.
When Fred came for a visit, the two realized their respective rooms were just down the hall from each other.
Though the two played at different home ballparks — Fred’s team played at the Old Hornet Field — both of them practiced in the same indoor hitting facility in Gym B of the HPER Building.
During the 1970s, there was only a single net that separated the gym. Now there are a few more barriers, including a tunnel at one end for live batting practice.
The two also have been on teams that will be remembered for their winning streaks. Fred’s Hornets won a school-record 18 straight games back in 1977.
Keith’s Hornets have nearly doubled that, setting a conference record with their 35th straight win last Sunday; in that game, Keith hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 10th.
Perhaps the best thing to happen to both father and son, though, was the introduction to their fiancées.
Keith’s lucky day came when working at an ESU football game, when he first met former softball player Laura Pfautsch.
The two have dated for more than a year now. Keith proposed a few months ago during a trip to Mexico.
“Nothing’s changed,” Keith remembers his dad saying to him. “It’s just like you’re walking in my footsteps now.”
•••
Keith Hernandez shouldn’t be a part of the winning streak. He shouldn’t even be at ESU this year.
If everything went as planned, Keith would have graduated last year.
But things didn’t go perfectly.
Keith arrived at ESU in 2005 with two years of eligibility remaining. He was convinced he had made the right choice.
As time went on, though, he began to doubt himself.
He started having problems with a girlfriend back home in Arizona. He began to get homesick.
“When he left, he really was not prepared to go to Emporia,” Fred said. “I don’t know if he really was there at heart.”
It finally got to the point where he couldn’t stay. Keith packed his things and moved back to Rio Rico before he’d even had one at-bat with ESU.
Fornelli, however, didn’t give up on Keith.
“We stayed with him and stayed with him,” Fornelli said, “and tried to get him to come back.”
The same coach that had signed Keith without seeing him play kept in contact and told him the door was open to return. He even saved some scholarship money, just in case.
Fornelli’s patience paid dividends. After weighing his options, Hernandez made the decision to return to ESU.
“Not too many coaches would give somebody else another chance, but we are very, very grateful for that,” Fred said. “I think Keith is the one that has benefited from it.”
Still, Keith had obstacles before he could return to the team — the largest of which was schoolwork.
Because he was behind on classes, Keith had to take — and pass — 19 credit hours in the fall of 2006 to become eligible to play the next semester. That amount was about five hours more than a typical college workload.
Determined to not let Fornelli down a second time, Keith completed all his coursework. He was able to play for the Hornets last year.
Keith says he believes everything “happened for a reason.”
That reason, he hopes, might just be this season.
•••
Just a few miles north of the Mexican border in southern Arizona, a house sits with an Emporia State flag waving from the front porch.
Once inside, an ESU baseball is one of the first items that guests see, along with an ESU mat in the hallway.
Guests ask Fred Hernandez about the items all the time.
He doesn’t hesitate when talking about the school that has given him so much.
“I just had the best time of my life there,” Fred said.
Three decades later, Keith is doing the same.
After leading the MIAA with 78 RBI last year, Keith is putting up even better numbers this year.
The senior, who was named after former Major Leaguer Keith Hernandez, is leading the conference with a .479 batting average in 35 games. He also is third in the MIAA in RBI (57), home runs (13) and fourth in runs (50) despite missing 10 games earlier in the season because of an injury.
Most importantly, though, Keith has helped ESU to a 42-3 record and a perfect 28-0 start in the MIAA.
He’s only missing one thing that his father had: a trip to the College World Series.
“He said I can’t say anything,” Keith said, “until we get as far as them.”
That’s the goal, of course. But, like his father, Keith knows he’ll leave ESU with much more than baseball abilities.
He’ll leave it with a better life.
Who knows? Someday he could be the one telling his kids about the long winning streak in 2008, about the hitting workouts on snowy days deep inside Gym B, about the pretty girl he met on campus that later became his wife.
And maybe, just maybe, he’ll talk about the days — while walking on ESU’s campus — when he never felt more like his father’s son.
“Just knowing that this school’s been here and that my father walked these halls, and I’m doing the same thing,” Keith said, “that just brings a lot of happiness to me.”
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