It's hard to believe 23 years have passed since Jerry Seinfeld (and his stocky, slow-witted bald friend, George Costanza) happened upon former New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez in that health club locker room.
The two men enjoyed different levels of celebrity - "He's Keith Hernandez; you're Jerry Seinfeld," as George so tactlessly put it - but still forged an immediate connection from that chance encounter, the demise of which was chronicled over two episodes of Seinfeld's eponymous sitcom in February of 1992.
Though Jerry was initially stricken by anxiety over impressing his new ballplayer friend, he was quickly turned off by Hernandez's aggressiveness. The 11-time Gold Glove award winner quickly tried to leverage his friendship with Jerry into a romantic relationship with Seinfeld's good friend and former girlfriend, Elaine Benes, before asking Seinfeld to help him move into a new apartment.
"What? Well, you hardly know the guy," said Kramer, Jerry's incredulous neighbor. "What a nerve. You see wasn't I right about this guy? Didn't I tell you? Now, you're not going to do it are you?"
Hernandez, incidentally, shared a turbulent history with Kramer (and Newman, another one of Jerry's associates) that could have poisoned his relationship with Jerry.
Though his relationship with Hernandez ultimately fizzled, Jerry likely took solace in the fact that George's concurrent cockamamie scheme to pretend to be a latex salesman went for naught, as usual.
Hernandez, meanwhile, eventually returned to baseball after his friendship with Jerry crumbled, and is entering his 10th season as a color commentator for the Mets on SportsNet New York.