Mets Keith.jpg

An old photo of Ron, Gary and Keith.

(NE News Consortium DIGIPIX)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Keith Hernadez has seen a lot of Mets teams through his nine years as a broadcaster for SNY. Most of it has been bad.

But the Mets have high hopes this year and, finally, so does Hernandez.

He took some time in a cramped hallway of the Mets clubhouse to talk the Mets, Matt Harvey and Seinfeld with NJ Advance Media.

(NJAM questions in bold)

Matt Harvey is returning. What do you think of him now as opposed to 2013?

He's more polished. He's been throwing great from the get-go. Some days he has his fastball, some days he doesn't. Which is understandable with the surgery. He knows what he's doing out there. He's not just throwing like he did when he was all pumped up when he first came up. He has an idea of what he's doing out there. He's carrying himself like a 15-year veteran. So I've loved everything I've seen about him.

Have you seen anything different about him, personality-wise?

No.

Some have said he's more mature, more businesslike.

He's always been a little aloof for me. But I'm a member of the media. He's fine. He's a man of very few words. I don't see anything different.

Interested to see what he'll be like?

I am interested and excited to see what he's like. I'm interested and excited to see what a lot of guys are going to do this year. It's the first time I'm optimistic.

What do you think of what they can achieve this year? Is this a postseason team?

I said in the beginning 85 wins would not cut it. So 86 and above. We'll see what they can do.

One last thing. Roger McDowell is still receiving royalties from his Seinfeld appearance. Are you too?

Yeah, of course.

How often do the checks come?

Every time they show it. I get around -- I'm going to say they show my episode a lot. So I'm going to say I get a check every month. Nothing less than six weeks. They show it all the time. It's international and everything.



What do you make per episode, if you don't mind me asking?

It used to be almost $1,000. It diminishes as the years go by. So it gives me around $3,000 per year. I'll take it. For doing nothing. So you can imagine what Jerry gets. The principal actors, what they get.

Shoot, you can live off of that.

They are.

Mike Vorkunov may be reached at mvorkunov@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mike_Vorkunov. Find NJ.com Mets on Facebook.

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