As a baseball fan, I enjoy reading these kind of books. This one I found just okay. Enjoyed some of it, but skimmed over some of it.

Former Major League All-Star and current Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez entertains with his new book, I'm Keith Hernandez.

The author states early on that he does not wish to provide the usual baseball memoir; a blow by blow account of games and on-field battles interspersed with information about life away from the field. In pursuit of that goal, Hernandez succeeds sometimes. He does provide quite a bit of game and individual play detail, but it does not take the traditional manner, encompassing the entirety of a player's career.

Instead, Hernandez is focused on his early life and early years in the major leagues. No time- none- is spent on the 1986 season in which Hernandez' Mets captured the World Series title in a thrilling seven-game World Series triumph over the Red Sox, ground ball scooting through Bill Buckner's legs and all. Rather, Hernandez' game recollections are focused on Hernandez' breaking into the major leagues, his attempts to stay there, and his breakout into a batting champion and co-MVP of the National League in 1979.

Hernandez also spends considerable time on his formative years, and quite a bit of time on his adventures in the minor leagues.

Hernandez is forthcoming in his recollections, and doesn't hide much. He drank a lot, chased a lot of women, smoked some pot, and dabble in cocaine. He likewise recalls several episodes of minor league hi-jinks worthy of Bull Durham.

Aside from his own life, Hernandez spends considerable time commenting on the current game. These entries have a bit of an "old man shouts at cloud" quality to them, but the points he tries to make are worthy of consideration, even if not in the absolute terms he often outlines.

Overall, I'm Keith Hernandez is a fun read from a popular form player and active broadcaster, one that any baseball fan is likely to enjoy.

Keith Hernandez was the Mets 1st baseman in the 80s. Prior to that, he was a Cardinal. Currently, he can be heard in the booth for Mets broadcasts and has been a bright spot in an otherwise pretty meh season so far from the team. Last month he released a memoir titled "I'm Keith Hernandez" which is his line in a Seinfeld episode. Although the book cover features him in Mets garb, most of the book focuses on his life growing up and making his way through the minor leagues and to the Cardinals team. It was extra interesting for me because most of his minor league time was spent in Tulsa, OK - a place I have been visiting yearly for the past 10 years. He bounces back to present day as well, as an announcer and how he was preparing to write the book and trying to figure out what he should include. (He opted to not touch as much on the Mets because he said that era has been written about a lot.)

Keith ended up doing a book signing tour and one of his stops was in Madison, CT! Keith is one of my favorites in the Mets organization so I knew I had to go. As luck would have it, I ended up having a business trip just before the signing and so I ended up getting an audio version of the book - which was read by Keith himself. The book was 9 hours and 45 minutes long - my trip was supposed to be round trip 8 hours. (I did listen to a couple chapters while eating dinner during my trip) I ended up finishing the book just as I was pulling into my driveway - got changed into Mets garb and headed out to meet Keith.

I have to say, the book is great, but if you have the chance to have Keith read you the audio of the book - definitely take it. It was great to hear his words in his voice and he even laughed sometimes if remembering a particularly funny moment or anecdote. I felt like I had Keith sitting in the passenger seat with me on my way there and back. When I met him he told me it took him 1 week to record it and asked me how I thought he did, "Oh it was great! I felt like you were in the car with me!" "Well, I was!" he replied.

If you are a Keith fan, a Mets or Cardinals fan, or even just a baseball fan - this book is for you! I definitely recommend it. I received a free e-copy of this book, purchased a hard copy and audio book version in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

If you are looking for stories from the 1980's New York Mets, look for a different book because you will not find your desired stories here. Instead, this book mainly focuses on the Hernandez's career from 1972 through 1979. You can read about the intricacies of Hernandez's rise from Class A to NL MVP with great detail. Hernandez is able to focus more on the stories from his rise to and within MLB, and sets the foundation for many of the stories we already have heard about Keith Hernandez.

For a guy who has spent almost all of his life around a baseball field, Keith Hernandez is becoming a prolific writer.

He had written two books earlier in his life, "Pure Baseball" and "Shea Good-Bye." Now he's back with book number three, "I'm Keith Hernandez." And it sure looks like there is at least another one to come.

Hernandez's first book was a pitch-by-pitch breakdown of a typical game, and it was the best one of the three - especially for those who wanted to learn how the game was played. The second book was a day-by-day account of the New York Mets' last season in Shea Stadium. It came across as forgettable, particularly as that year moved further back in the rear-view mirror.

This new one, though, has a much more interesting approach than the last one. Hernandez, a former standout first baseman who now works as a commentator on the Mets' telecasts, starts off this one by saying he wanted to write a book that was different than other sports stories. Therefore, he concentrates on the period of his playing career between when he first signed with the Cardinals and when he "made it" by winning a share of the MVP award in 1979. (Hernandez and Willie Stargell tied in the voting.)

And that works quite well for the most part, mostly because of the fact that time has allowed Hernandez to be honest about his feelings in that era. We rarely notice, but very few people arrive in the major leagues of any sport fully formed - a Hall of Famer from Day One. Albert Pujols and Mike Trout might be the best examples of that in baseball in recent times. For mere mortals, those early years are filled with fits and starts. How the adjustments are made along the way determines how well a particular player's career might take shape.

Here's an example of someone who didn't adjust. A young hockey player came up to the NHL as a first-round draft choice. He didn't find instant success, and had a chat with a psychologist about how bad things were. The analyst pointed out that he was about 21 years old, making almost a million dollars a year. In the big picture, how bad could things be? The player admitted that the psychologist was right, even if it didn't feel like it. Too bad he never acted like he believed it, as he washed out of the sport after a brief, uneventful career.

In Hernandez's case, he tells about how the help of others often gave him a boost when he needed it most. It might come from a fellow player, telling him to adjust his swing in a particular way. It might be a coach or manager who expressed confidence that Hernandez was going to be a very good player in the very near future, and put him in the lineup every day. It's evident in the book just how appreciated the advice was.

Hernandez also scores some point by being painfully honest about his behavior in those years, especially the early ones in the majors. The temptations of sex, drugs and rock and roll were everywhere and obvious in that time period, and Hernandez dove into the pool at times.

You could argue that Hernandez makes one good-sized mistake in the literary sense here. The story more or less ping-pongs by chapter between the story of Hernandez's development as a player, and other areas. In the first part of the book, those "odd" chapters (as opposed to "even," I guess) are spent with stories of his youth. But later on, Hernandez moves into some odd areas, such as analytics or broadcasting. They may be interesting, but they feel like they are from another book - such as "Shea Goodbye."

Reading the reviews on Amazon.com are rather interesting. They read as if some people saw the cover, thought they'd be reading a great deal in an autobiography about the Mets of the mid-1980s, and were disappointed that stories about that era were nowhere to be found. So let's make the point again - this is not that book. You'll have to wait, apparently, for a review of his life as a New York ball player.

What we have, though, is pretty interesting. "I'm Keith Hernandez" reminds us there are few short cuts to success - it's a long route that few of us must take to get to the desired destination.

Current fans of the New York Mets know that Keith Hernandez is not your typical baseball broadcaster. He will speak his mind and won’t care if it is the popular opinion of the day or will be favorable to the team for which he announces. This memoir which covers his days as a minor league player up to the early 1980’s when he was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals is written in this same manner.

Just the book format itself has Hernandez traits – he states in the beginning that this will not be the typical memoir, that he won’t be talking about his childhood or his time playing for the Mets (he was part of the popular Mets team that won the World Series in 1986) nor does it follow any other tried and true format. With some reminiscing about teaching sessions from his father and baseball games with his brother Gary, Hernandez talks about his time in the minor leagues and the initial struggles inside his head when he was a young player with the Cardinals in the mid and late 1970’s. I found his inner struggles with his confidence and his mechanics very intriguing. Watching him play and hearing him in the broadcast booth, confidence is something that I never believed he lacked.

In between chapters covering his playing days in the minors and with the Cardinals, Hernandez writes about his broadcasting career with the Mets, praising his partner Gary Cohen and the crew who makes the telecasts happen. It is in these chapters that the reader will really get to know Hernandez as he talks about the current state of the game and the expanded use of sabermetrics. Those readers who favor the continuing advancement of the use of these advanced statistics will be disappointed as Hernandez, in his outspoken style, criticizes this “growing obsession with sabermetrics” as he talks about the current importance of an uppercut swing to avoid ground balls, how some believe that stolen bases are to be “avoided” and the increasing dependency of offenses on the home run. Those are just a few of the current trends in baseball in which Hernandez expresses his disdain.

Lastly, while he doesn’t talk about his personal life outside of the game very much in this book, he does touch on sensitive topics such as the strained relationship with his father, his two failed marriages and his drug use. He doesn’t go too far into the last topic, mainly talking about using marijuana and amphetamines. He was known to use cocaine as well, and he shares the time he started using, but doesn’t dwell too much on that topic aside from this. That is mainly because the timeline of his playing days in the book ends in 1980 (one year after he was named co-MVP of the National League with Willie Stargell) and his heavier use of the drug came later.

While this won’t cover all aspects of Hernandez’s career that many would like to read about, such as his playing days with the Mets, it is nonetheless an outstanding look at his playing days in St. Louis and his thoughts on the current state of baseball. Since I hear him broadcasting Mets games often, I was “listening” to him while reading this and could see him sitting down and telling these story. This memoir felt truly genuine and was a reflection of the subject person. I would recommend this for any baseball fan interested in Hernandez and his take on the sport.

I wish to thank Little, Brown and Company for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.