Dodgers utility man Kike Hernandez still reflects on what he considers the best game of his life — Game 5 of the NLCS against the Chicago Cubs this past October.
Until that night he had yet to hit a postseason home run. He surpassed that hitch and then some, by slamming three out of Wrigley Stadium and dashing Cubs fans hopes of seeing a back-to-back World Series appearance. It became a career-defining moment that helped punch the Dodgers’ ticket to the Big Show for the first time since 1988.
To Hernandez, the night didn’t fly past him in a blur or get lost in the celebratory champagne showers. But three months later, it’s still a memory that’s hard to describe.
“I wish I could help you out and throw some words out there,” he said on KLAC-AM 570’s “Petros And Money” show.
Sitting between hosts Petros Papadakis and Matt Smith, in front of a cluster of Dodger fans, he talked about the ups and downs of the postseason and the grind that wears and tears on a pro-ballplayer.
“What’s the toughest part?” Smith asked him. Is it all mental, or is there some physical ailments that develop over the course of that season?”
The answer is — both. Hernandez said from opening day to October, the team gets one day off per month. When they’re not on the field, they’re on a plane traveling to another. If it’s an East Coast series, they land around 9 p.m. Then it’s off to find a place to eat and get enough rest to catch the bus to work the next day, where the whole cycle begins again.
“Doing this you’ve got to fool yourself,” he said. “You’ve got to stay positive. You’ve got to tell yourself that your entire body doesn’t hurt. You’ve got to tell yourself it’s all worth it at the end of the day.”
Looking back at his grand slam night is just one moment of many that proves that it is.
Back then, he sported a shaved head under his helmet. Now he’s silver-haired and smiling in January, less than a month from pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training.
He jokingly referred to his hair, which at one point fittingly turned Dodger blue, as a nod to the 39-year-old Chase Utley whom teammates dubbed as “Silver Fox.”
Utley has served as a role model on and off the diamond, especially during the slumps of a season. He’s admired by the 26-year-old Hernandez for not only his consistent domination at second base, but for the commitment he’s given to the league throughout his 14-year career.
“I have a fiance and two dogs, he has a wife and two kids, so I can’t imagine not being able to spend as much time with my kids as I would like to,” Hernandez said. “He puts the team first before everything. That’s something that you sit back and say — ‘I wanna be him when I grow up.”
Utley’s “team first” mentality serves as a reminder to the rest of the Boys in Blue as they try to reignite the magic from last year’s 104-win season.
For now, Hernandez soaks in the last days of the offseason, which has been a productive one so far. He’s attended teammates weddings, like Justin Turner’s in December. He visited Walt Disney World — both Epcot and the Magic Kingdom parks. He’s played in the snow at Mammoth with his two Labradoodles.
Then, there’s his visit to Puerto Rico.
A native of San Juan, Hernandez was locked-in postseason play when Hurricane Maria hit. It wasn’t until after the World Series that he was able to make the trip back where he found the island with barely any power.
His donation page that he launched with his fiancée Maria Vicente, has raised over $100,000 dollars and is still open for contributions.
That October night served as a tribute to Puerto Rico and his father Enrique Hernandez Sr. whom he credits for giving him passion for the game.
“I want to be remembered as a guy who fought for it,” he said. “Nothing was ever handed to me.”