Sep 16 2013 11:41 AM
Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld returns to the broadcast booth to offer analysis 
He’s Jerry Baseball. Jerry Seinfeld is back to talk about nothing — and this time it’s his beloved Mets. With the team more than 20 games out of first place, long-suffering fans who may not have tuned in to Tuesday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants will at least have Seinfeld in the broadcast booth alongside Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, Bobby Ojeda and ringmaster Gary Cohen. It’s Jerry’s second time since 2010 offering analysis of a Mets game on SNY — and his old friend Hernandez is thrilled. “We just let him run, because he’s funny,” says Hernandez. “People want to hear what he has to say and his sense of humor comes out, so it’s our job just to step out of the way.” Hernandez, of course, appeared in two episodes on Seinfeld’s classic sitcom and almost two decades later Jerry has returned the favor. “Obviously there’s a connection with me and Jerry,” says Hernandez, who thinks Seinfeld should put in an appearance on SNY annually. “Four guys who love to talk sharing one broadcast booth sounds like a bad idea on its face. I don’t even know if the chairs will fit,” said Seinfeld, who refused to be interviewed, though he released a statement about the gig. “But to spend an evening with Keith, Ron and Gary, I will stand if I have to. Those guys, and the incredible Bobby Ojeda, are the all-star team of baseball broadcasting.” Jerry’s 2010 booth appearance was a Father’s Day gift arranged for him by his wife and SNY bigwig Curt Gowdy Jr. This time SNY reached out to him after he spent much of the summer enamored with Ojeda — whom he frequently contacts on Twitter, although the two have never actually met. Earlier this summer during a game that he was presumably watching at home, Jerry tweeted: “Bob Ojeda is my favorite person on TV.” Then he added the following hashtags: #insight #smart #energy. But being a sportscaster isn’t just sitting in the booth yapping about stats and cracking jokes — or at least it shouldn’t be. There’s timing, insight and knowing when to shut up. “Gary [Cohen] is in control of that,” says Hernandez. “He’s the orchestra leader, as he is in every broadcast; he’ll know exactly what to do — it went really seamlessly last time. We had fun and by no stretch of the imagination did it get in the way of the broadcast.” Hernandez calls Jerry’s arrival in the booth — just as the Mets sputter into their final stretch of games — “a nice diversion.” Seinfeld, who stuck around for about seven innings last time, is not likely to last through the entire game, Hernandez says — but he might. “After he leaves it’s our job to try and hold the viewer,” he says. It sounds like when he’s in Flushing, Jerry will *be master of this domain. |
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... z2f4w5fJ5n
