Keith Hernandez: Cool the Workouts, Kids

Keith Hernandez is, if for no other reason than his ubiquitous Seinfeld appearance, a voice of authority. I have no lingering sentiment for the man, but that Seinfeld appearance sealed the deal. I will listen to anything Keith Hernandez tells me. (Except when he's talking about women in the clubhouse. Best to ignore that.)

In an interview with Metsblog's Matt Cerrone (see, bloggers interview people!), Hernandez spreads some of his fatherly wisdom on relatively new development in baseball: the strenuous in-season workout program:

Keith Hernandez: I think I disagree with all the workouts that these guys do. I think that the workout programs have made them better players than we were. If we had done the same thing, I think I would have had better numbers. But, in the course of a season, I think they do too much. I think it's a long year and a guy like Jose Reyes, who plays hard and plays everyday and steals bases, you cannot leave it in the trainer's room. You cannot leave it in the weight room. I think it should be scaled back. I think it's a big mistake they are making. You're 24 years old, you shouldn't get tired. But I think they just do too much working out. This is not a criticism of Jose. It is a criticism of their work regimen. They can do all that stuff in the off-season and work hard all they want to get themselves bigger and stronger. But, when the season starts, you have got to have some gas in the tank when it comes August, September. [...]

Keith raises a good point: I can't imagine that during the course of a 162 game season it's a very good idea to maintain offseason workout levels. Baseball isn't the most physically challenging game in the world -- we're not talking about soccer, or football -- but it seems pretty elementary that players would take things down a notch if they're at the ballpark every day for six months.

Plus, you know, steroids are bad now. You can't max out on bench everyday for five months and expect not to tear something, at least not anymore.