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 Inside Baseball
Posted: Tuesday April 27, 1999 02:52 PM Barry Bonds Injured | Comiskey Cell Block Spotlight: Sean Casey Fernando Tatis -- who else? -- hits two bases-full blasts in one inning By Tom Verducci
It's entirely fitting that the man who had the greatest inning in history isn't one of the game's gods but a 5'10" third baseman who made his lone previous mark on baseball with peroxide. Say hello to the Cardinals' Fernando Tatis, the only player to hit two grand slams in the same inning. In basketball only a Wilt Chamberlain, never a Tom Boerwinkle, could score 100 points in a game. Baseball's record book is far more democratic. So what if 4,777 slams had been hit before last Friday without two coming from the same man in the same inning. Such a feat was unlikely, sure, but anyone might do it. Tatis was delighted by his accomplishment and the acclaim it brought. "That's what every baseball player is looking for, to be famous," he said. "I think my name is going to be famous." Infamy is what awaits the Dodgers' Chan Ho Park, who served up both salamis to become only the second pitcher after Whoa Bill Phillips to give up two slams in the same inning. (The woeful Whoa Bill did it 109 years ago, when relief pitching had hardly been invented.) Park threw 49 pitches to 13 batters in that historic third while an overworked L.A. bullpen was being held out as long as possible. With none out, Tatis, slamless in 2,424 professional at bats, walloped a 2-and-0 fastball 450 feet into the Dodgers' bullpen for his first home run. He double-Parked with two out by driving a 3-and-2 slider into the leftfield pavilion. Mark McGwire, the National League's active career grand slam leader with 11, made both bases-full blasts possible, first with a single to rightfield to load the bases for Tatis's opening shot and then with a pop-up to right to leave them full for Tatis's second smash. Tatis was hitting cleanup only because of an injury to Eric Davis, who shares the National League record for grand slams in a month (three) with Mike Piazza. Until last Friday the 24-year-old Tatis had been known, if at all, for his bottle-blond 'do of last season, which he has replaced this year with a subdued orange streak. The Rangers signed Tatis in 1992 out of a tryout camp in San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic after he had hit line drives from both sides of the plate. He was a natural hitter, the son of a former infielder and coach in the Astros organization who, after a crisis in his second marriage, fled the DR when Fernando Jr. was very young. "I thought Fernando [Jr.] was a better hitter than Sammy Sosa," says Omar Minaya, who scouted both players for Texas. "Sammy had more power, but Fernando always looked like he'd be a .300 hitter." Tatis, whom the Rangers made an exclusively righthanded hitter to ease his transition to the U.S. and professional baseball, reached the big leagues in 1997. One day in August of that year Minaya pulled him out of the batting cage before a game and said, "We found your father. Are you ready to talk with your dad?" The father had been living a remade life in Florida. He had married once again -- to a relation of Hank Aaron's. Father and son were soon reunited in Texas. Last July 31 the Rangers traded Tatis and pitcher Darren Oliver to St. Louis for pitcher Todd Stottlemyre and shortstop Royce Clayton for short-term results. Tatis had hit .264 with 11 home runs in 155 games with Texas. It was a win-now, pay-later transaction, just as when the Rangers gave up Sosa, then 20, in a 1989 deadline deal. That year, Texas finished fourth. Last season, the Rangers won their division. It's too early to know if Tatis will join the likes of Sosa, Jeff Bagwell and John Smoltz as ghosts of late-season trades past that haunt the organizations that first let them go. Having just made a name for himself, Tatis can now go about carving out a career. He followed his slams with three straight whiffs, which gave him 17 in 16 games. He added another, solo, home run last Saturday night and led the Cards in homers (seven), RBIs (21) and runs (17) through Sunday. It's clear that Tatis understands the randomness of the baseball universe. He actually disagreed when someone suggested his record would never be broken. "Baseball's a crazy game," Tatis said. "Anything can happen."
Understudies Get the Call:
Kelly, 31, signed on for his second stint with the Blue Jays -- he played 80 games at their Triple A Syracuse affiliate in 1998 -- and has plugged the infield hole. In 10 games through Sunday, Kelly, a career .248 hitter who's never hit more than seven homers in a season, was batting .300 with three dingers. With him in the lineup, Toronto had won seven straight and vaulted into the American League East lead before getting swept by the Yankees last weekend. Kelly is one of several scrap heapers who have kept their teams afloat by subbing ably for injured stars. Here are three others who deserve recognition:
Barry Bonds Injured: What was the reaction in the Giants' clubhouse on April 20, when the players learned that leftfielder Barry Bonds would miss more than two months following surgery to repair a damaged left triceps and to remove a bone spur in his left elbow? "Honestly," said one San Francisco player, "I don't think too many people in here give a s---." Honesty being the theme, it must be said that Bonds, a three-time National League MVP with a notorious me-me-me rep, isn't universally beloved by his teammates. In the Giants' clubhouse there's a whiff of resentment, a weariness at being tabbed Barry's Team. "Without Barry in the lineup, I still believe we have enough to win," said reliever Rich Rodriguez. Said second baseman Jeff Kent, "Our makeup is different, but we're still a threat." Maybe. The Giants, 13-7 through Sunday, think they're playoff bound with yooouuuur starting leftfielder, Stan Javier! There may be no Yankees or Indians set for a runaway in the National League West, but three teams in the division (the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers and the Rockies) boast deeper staffs than San Francisco's and payrolls at least $10 million higher than the Giants' $44.9 million. Beating all three without Bonds would be quite a feat. San Francisco manager Dusty Baker has openly fretted about making up for Bonds's all-but-certain .300-35-100 line, calling the situation "the largest challenge I've faced." Jerk or not, Bonds has value that goes beyond the three-run dinger and his stellar defensive play. Batting in the number 3 spot, he guaranteed that shortstop Rich Aurilia, the regular second hitter, saw good pitches. Through week's end, Aurilia, who batted .408 before Bonds's injury, was just 4 for 26. "Bonds is a presence," says Jerry Spradlin, a newly acquired righthanded reliever. "There are guys in every lineup you never want to see. He's one." Baker doesn't expect Javier and rookie outfielder Armando Rios to make up for Bonds's absence. He knows the Giants will have to find new ways to score. "We'll mix and match, play with lineups, experiment," he says. What he's hoping is that some of his starting pitchers regain their form of recent seasons and others mature quickly. San Francisco hasn't had a bona fide No. 1 starter since righthander John Burkett in 1993. Then, on a balanced club with 103 wins, it didn't matter so much. Now, without Bonds, it does. Through Sunday the Giants' ERA of 5.36 was 15th in the league, nearly 1.2 runs higher than last year's 4.18. Mark Gardner, the lone veteran starter and a 13-game winner last season, is on the DL with an inflamed shoulder. Last year 28-year-old lefthander Kirk Rueter led San Francisco with 16 wins; this season through Sunday he was 1-1 with a 13.50 ERA. Lefthander Shawn Estes, 26, won 19 games two seasons ago, battled a strained shoulder in '98 and has struggled in '99, going 2-1 but with a 5.40 ERA. Against Colorado last Saturday he won despite allowing four runs and five walks in seven innings. Second-year starter Russ Ortiz (2-2, 2.89) and rookie Joe Nathan (1-0, 0.00), both righthanders, have been impressive, but, says catcher Scott Servais, "with young kids, you never know until they're tested. We'll find out how good we can be when we see if these guys maintain it over a long stretch." Clubhouse indifference notwithstanding, that long stretch has begun. The White Sox' Big Hang-up At the behest of outfielder Darrin Jackson and pitcher James Baldwin, the White Sox have banned cell phones from their clubhouse before and after games. "Using one is disrespectful to other players," says Baldwin. "Any time you get a chance to talk, you should be talking to other players about baseball." Infielder Greg Norton, for one, approves of the rule. "I leave my phone in my truck," he says. "You can't get good reception in here anyway." Issue date: May 5, 1999
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