Hernandez gets 'call' of a lifetime

Cesar Hernandez knew that special call was coming, yet he couldn't believe his ears when the phone finally rang.

He listened closely to the voice, refusing to believe it actually was Jose Reyes on the other end of the line -- and that the Mets superstar was interested in knowing all about his life.

The conversation is something Hernandez will remember for years to come. And thanks to the Mets' new initiative called Amazin' Calls, Hernandez, his mother and siblings, Jennifer, 16, Jackie, 14, and Isaac, 4, will be Reyes' guests this Mother's Day afternoon to watch the series finale against the Dodgers at Citi Field.

"I'm super excited," the 17-year-old Ridgewood native said. "To get a phone call from Jose Reyes is exciting. I thought it was a joke. I couldn't believe it. I'm living a dream. It's hard to believe."

The Mets will continue to place more "Amazin' Calls" such as this during the course of the season. So far, Ike Davis, David Wright, Mike Pelfrey, Angel Pagan and Josh Thole already have called deserving individuals and invited them to a home game. It was done through the team's relationship with The Urban Dove -- a Manhattan-based program geared toward enriching the lives of at-risk youths in New York City -- that Reyes found Hernandez.

These days, the high school student doesn't talk much about the father he barely knew, and lost far too soon.

"I was barely 1," he said quietly. "The story I was told was, he was killed."

Hernandez credits his mother, Lucia Torres, as the constant in his life, the person who's "been able to fill that void."

Nevertheless, he longed to have a male figure in his life; someone to show him how to play basketball and baseball.

"To me, the hardest thing is not having someone to talk to," he said. "With basketball, it was hard because I learned it myself. It was hard growing up like that. I didn't have a father."

Said Reyes: "To know that he lost his father at such a young age -- that's very hard. To go through that, it's tough."

For one day, at least, Hernandez will have plenty of male role models to chat with -- starting with Reyes, who is anxious to pick up where their last conversation ended. But there's one Met in particular who Hernandez is even more excited to meet face-to-face.

"He asked, 'Is David Wright going to be there, too?' " Reyes said with a smile. "I said, 'Yeah, yeah, he's going to be there. Everybody's going to be there.' "

Hernandez becomes animated at the mere mention of the Mets third baseman.

"I really like watching David Wright," the giddy teenager said. "I play third base, so I really like watching him. His swing -- it's wonderful the way he sets up his feet to hit the ball. My swing is kind of like that."