The Mets defeated the Padres 11-5 on Monday night, hitting 16 hits in their offense and hitting 10 off starter Carlos Carrasco. Since the game was in San Diego, probably past the normal bedtime of Mets broadcasters Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen, things have gone awry in the booth. Any fans who stayed up until midnight on the East Coast were treated to a Socratic debate over a stroke.
In the sixth inning, Hernandez praised the Mets’ attacking prowess, praising them for “hitting out” eight hits. It became clear then that he and Cohen had different interpretations of what the term meant.
Okay, so there are baseball type strokes, medical type strokes, and then the type strokes you don’t want to do because then you will be a “terrible old man”. They are mostly talking about the first two here. In most cases. The announcers put the rest of the innings a bit ahead, with Hernandez wondering, “Medically nice stroke?” No, as Cohen mentioned. The pair laughed before Hernandez said, “We’re getting stupid.”
If the two continue this conversation during tonight’s game, they may try to discover the fourth meaning of “stroke out”. Then they will go from fool to pioneer.