4 things Mariners fans might now know about Mike Cameron's 4-homer game

On this day in 2002, ownership of the Chicago White Sox and what was then known as Comiskey Park officially passed to Mike Cameron. He put on a power display for the ages, becoming just the 13th player to hit four home runs in a game to pace a 15-4 win for the Seattle Mariners.

If you're a scholar of the Mariners or Cameron's excellent 17-year career, then there's probably nothing left for you to learn about this game. But for the sake of educating others and making sure the legend doesn't fade, it's worth taking a thorough look back at it anyway.

So, here are four things you might not know about the game of Mike Cameron's life.

4 fun facts about Mike Cameron's 4-homer game from May 2, 2002

1. Lou Piniella's hunch paid off

After winning 116 games in 2001 — aided in part by Cameron's 25 homers and 5.9 rWAR — the Mariners began 2002 similarly hot with 17 wins in 21 games. But they went limping into the finale of a three-game set with Chicago, losing five out of six and scoring only 2.8 runs per game.

Thus, manager Lou Piniella played a hunch and reordered his lineup. That involved a move up for Cameron, who went from batting in the No. 5/6 spots to the No. 3 spot. It paid off instantly in a 10-run first inning, which matched the Mariners' output from their last four games combined.

It clearly wasn't a bad hunch on Piniella's part, but that's not surprising. In the broader storyline of Mariners commercials, it's canon that Piniella once saved Cameron's life with a hunch.

2. Cameron and Bret Boone made history together

As part of the new order, Bret Boone also got a bump up to the No. 2 spot behind Ichiro Suzuki. Boone made Jon Rauch pay for hitting Ichiro with his first pitch, instantly taking his second pitch over the wall in right for a 2-0 Mariners lead.

Four pitches later, Cameron had his first homer to go back-to-back with Boone. And then they did it again later in the inning against Jim Parque, resulting in history on multiple fronts:

• Two out of 62 players to homer twice in one inning
• Only teammates to homer twice in one inning

With just one more home run, Cameron would have achieved notable personal history. He'd had two homers in a game six times before, but never three.

3. Cameron got to four homers in record speed

As it happened, Cameron collected his third long ball just two innings later with another solo homer off Parque in the third. He faced Parque again in the fifth inning, and took him deep for a third time for his fourth homer on the day.

Eight players have since joined Cameron in the four-homer club, which now has 21 members in it. Yet he's still the only one to put four homers in the box score as soon as the fifth inning. He then had two more chances to go yard again and stand alone as the only player to homer five times in one game.

That didn't pan out, as he was hit by a pitch in the seventh and lined out to right in the ninth. The only real "What if?" with the latter is that Cameron didn't swing at a 3-0 strike from Mike Porzio that was right down the middle — though, to be fair, that was a case of him not wanting to make the Mariners look bad.

4. Cameron also robbed Magglio Ordóñez of a grand slam

We know that the four home runs Cameron hit on May 2, 2002 went toward a final total of 278. What we don't know is how many home runs he robbed, but what he did to Magglio Ordóñez in the third inning goes to show why he was known for that, too.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Ordóñez sent one Cameron's way deep in center field. But it didn't have enough juice to escape Cameron's reach, as he needed only a small leap to ensure the ball landed in his glove before it snuck over the fence.

An outfielder hitting a home run and robbing a home run in the same game is not as uncommon as you'd think. But as Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions wrote in 2023, there isn't another example of a player homering and robbing a grand slam in the same game in what was then 20 years' worth of data. It's a good thing we have the video to prove Cameron did exactly that.

Set aside great games by hitter/pitcher types, and you could argue that Cameron had the greatest game ever by a hitter. It's why we still remember it 24 years later. And why nobody will forget it any time soon.

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