By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
NEW YORK – For a few minutes Friday, Mike Cameron sounded like a beauty contestant wishing for world peace.
“I wish everyone could have a night like I had, feel what I felt,” Cameron said a night after hitting four home runs in a game. “For one night, at least, I was as good as anyone who ever played the game.”
The reality, of course, was that not many people are going to get the chance – and Cameron drew laughter when he pointed that out.
“How many people have had a night like you just had?” one New York writer asked.
“You probably haven’t,” Cameron said – and even the New York writer broke
up.
Only 13 players in major league history have hit four home runs in a game, and Seattle’s center fielder is now one of them. Cameron was without pretense about just how much fun the achievement was.
“I watched the replays about six times,” he said. “On the flight to New York from Chicago, we all talked about it, about the history of the game and the names involved.
“I went to bed laughing. I laughed in my sleep. I woke up smiling.”
Cameron spent considerable time Friday on the telephone.
“Everybody called me,” he said. “My mom, my dad, my buddies – even my son. He said ‘Dad, you hit a lot of balls last night.’”
During the game Thursday, Cameron’s Mariners teammates got quiet, treating his effort almost like a no-hitter. Cameron wasn’t about to change his approach.
“I was focused in every at-bat, but on the bench I was talking like I always do,” he said.
Asked about the concentration required during his at-bats, Cameron waxed poetic.
“I was like a willow tree in Georgia, hanging out in the wind,” he said. “My mind was clear, everything felt as if slowed down up there.”
Finally, he said, he felt as if he were emerging from the shadow of Ken Griffey Jr., the player for whom he was traded.
“You can’t do what I just did trying to be someone else,” he said. “I still haven’t reached my potential. I’m not saying I can hit 50 home runs or anything. I’m not like Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa, but for one night I was as good as anyone.”
Cameron always has been popular, playing with an infectious joy similar to a young Griffey before the trade that sent Junior to Cincinnati for Cameron and three other players.
That attitude was one reason why even some of the White Sox, including owner Jerry Reinsdorf, were pulling for their former teammate Thursday night. The White Sox dealt Cameron to Cincinnati after the 1998 season.
Even his former teammates in Cincinnati took notice, watching highlights of the game before taking the field half a continent away in Los Angeles.
“I tell people all the time that my favorite all-time teammate is Mike Cameron,” said Reds third baseman Aaron Boone, whose brother, Bret, teamed with Cameron to hit back-to-back homers twice in the first inning Thursday – the first time that’s happened in the majors.
“He was really kind of starting to come into his own as a player when he came over to us. He’s continued to get better in Seattle.”
How do you follow up a night like that?
“I rebooted my mind,” Cameron said. “Nights like that, you put them away in a little box and bring them out once in awhile to look at. I’ve moved on, except when people ask about it.”
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