By Nick TavaresPresent Tense

Short of the World Series and pennant races, sometimes the best baseball has to offer is in the weird happenings that occur during the course of 162 games.

Its a schedule designed for the weird to float up, and this week we got just that. On Tuesday, Reds second baseman Scooter Gennet went 5-for-5 with four home runs in one game.

Scooter Gennett! How about that.

On the decent chance you didnt know who he was beyond, maybe, fantasy baseball rankings, Gennett is a 27-year-old second baseman with the Reds. Its his fifth season in the majors and first with Cincinnati, who picked him up off the Milwaukee Brewers. He can move pretty well around the diamond, and hes now in an exclusive club for the rest of his life.

There are only 17 players who have hit four home runs in a game since 1894. My second thought went to Shawn Green, who went 6-for-6 with four home runs for the Dodgers in 2002. But I had already forgotten about Carlos Delgado busting out four home runs the next year for the Blue Jays, and completely blanked on Josh Hamilton doing the same for the Rangers in 2012.

As hard and fluky a feat as it is, Hamilton, Delgado and Green at least fit the mold of players who could have pulled it off. Gennett only had three home runs in 2017 coming into his game and, while no slouch, isnt thought of as a power threat.

Gennetts grabbed his weird little piece of baseball history, and hes going to forever join the collective memories of fans who remember those guys. He might even become their go-to four homers in one game guy.

And heres where my first thought went. My go-to was and forever will be Mark Whiten, who, on the second half of a Sept. 7 double header in 1993, went 4-for-5 with four home runs and 12 RBI. And from that moment on, Whiten was a baseball god.

Its so dumb and it so explicitly dates me, but my primary memory of Whitens monster game was courtesy of Mel Allens This Week In Baseball. On the Saturday following his Tuesday night performance, Whiten took up the majority of the shows half hour that morning. It left an impact.

The idea of four home runs in a game seemed absolutely impossible. I was four when Bob Horner hit four home runs for the Braves against the Expos in 1986 and wasnt alive when Mike Schmidt did it against the Cubs. Whiten was a good player hes actually praised briefly in a newspaper clipping during the movie Bull Durham and he had a solid career. He hit 25 home runs in 1993 and 105 in his career. He finished in the top 10 in Rookie of the Year voting in 1991 split between Toronto and Cleveland, and he had a rocket of an arm in right field.

But certainly, he was not the superstar hed been elevated to in my mind. Baseball-Reference.com lists his most comparable player as Mike Davis, a 1980s outfielder who hit 91 home runs in a 10-year-career and has his own bit of lore he was standing on second base when Kurt Gibson hit his home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers.

Whitens reputation was in total because hed had a good year when I was 11 and, again, did something in a game I hadnt even realized could be done. I was visibliy excited when he was sent to Boston for Scott Cooper before the 1995 season, thinking that with him, Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco, the Red Sox would have a monster of a lineup.

That didnt happen. The Red Sox would win the division, but Canseco had one home run heading into June and Whiten was gone before the July 31st trade deadline, sent to Philadelphia for Dave Hollins, who played all of five games in Boston. They both spent their short stints wearing Carlton Fisks no. 27, weirdly enough.

Its all a jumble of factoids and stolen moments. In between the All-Stars and the also-rans live a collection of guys who were able to do something that etched their names in the baseball conversation for years after their time on the diamond had ended.

Whatever happens to Gennett now until the end of his career, hes grabbed onto his little piece of baseball immortality. There are more than a few players who can only wish theyd accomplished that much.

Nick Tavares' column appears Sundays in The Standard-Times and at SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached at nick@nicktavares.com

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