FanHouse

Keith Hernandez certainly had his say regarding the Jose Reyes tantrum from last Sunday, where Reyes slammed his glove down on the ground after making a throwing error on a routine grounder. Since Hernandez's job is to speak on television, most of us here in New York heard what we had to say. But nobody heard Reyes' response to Keith on the team plane to St. Louis on Sunday night ... until now, thanks to the New York Post.

A team source described the situation aboard the plane as "very heated." One player told The Post that he thought Reyes and the popular former Met - now an analyst for the club's SNY TV network - were close to exchanging punches until others stepped in.

Reyes said yesterday he was angry at Hernandez after numerous friends and relatives told him Hernandez accused the Mets of "babying" Reyes during the broadcast of Sunday's 3-1 win over the Yankees at Shea Stadium.

"He got his point [across] and I got mine," Reyes, when asked to describe the confrontation, told The Post before he drove in three runs in the Mets' 11-1 victory over the Cardinals last night. "I'm not too happy with the way he's been talking."

Will this story end in a chokeslam? Read on and find out ...

"A lot of people told me, and that's no good," Reyes told The Post. "I was mad at myself because I make an error in that situation. It makes me mad, because [Hernandez] played the game, too. He knows it is not an easy game. And he knows when you make an error, you are supposed to feel bad."

So no, no chokeslam. In fact, accounts differ on just how heated the altercation got. Hernandez, for his part, claimed that it wasn't a confrontation, but a "conversation", and that he and Jose are fine. This isn't the first time Keith alienated the Mets with his words ... in '02, Keith made a comment during a broadcast that the Mets had "quit" on Bobby Valentine, prompting the team, and Mike Piazza in particular, to take offense to the point that Hernandez was forced to apologize to the club. So this is nothing new. But when Jerry Manuel says publicly that he wants Luis Castillo to be more of a positive influence on Reyes, the evidence of what Keith said is right there.

As for Reyes, tantrums are fine. Tantrums show you care. And in certain instances, tantrums are fun for the whole family. But tantrums in the middle of the field ... where it's easy for the media (especially the New York media) to make assumptions as to your motives ... don't do anybody any good.

Just another day in the soap opera of the New York Mets.