Just as he predicted, Robin Ventura had to get up early yesterday morning to take his kids to the school bus stop in their new home town of Greenwich, Conn.
No matter that he did something in the most cherished of baseball categories – home runs – that hadn’t been done by Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew or even Mark McGwire. He still had his parental chores to handle.
In fact, by hitting two grand slams in Thursday’s doubleheader sweep of the Brewers, Ventura did two things that had never before been accomplished in the long history of major league baseball.
First, Ventura became the only player in history to hit grand slams in both games of a doubleheader, which is amazing when you consider how many doubleheaders they used to play in the old days.
And yet, no one ever did it before Ventura did Thursday night, hitting one off Jim Abbott in the first inning of Game One and hitting another off Horacio Estrada in the fourth inning of Game 2.
Also, because he was already in the elite group of players to have hit two grand slams in one game, he became the first player ever to hit two grand slams in one day two times.
The last time he did it was Sept. 4, 1995, when he hit a pair in the same game off Danny Darwin and current teammate Dennis Cook, then of the Rangers.
“It’s kind of better this time because it involved two games,” Ventura said. “It’s a little more satisfying. The last game was kind of out of hand. This time, it affected two games.”
Ventura now has a dozen grand slams in his career, tying him for second with McGwire on the active list, one behind Harold Baines. He was also 6-for-9 (.667) with the bases loaded with two home runs and 12 RBIs going into last night’s game against the Phillies. Over his career, he was 42-for-118 (.356) with 12 homers and 134 RBIs with the bags full.
When asked before yesterday’s game whom he thought was the best hitter with the bases loaded, Bobby Valentine didn’t hesitate.
“Robin Ventura,” he said, half-jokingly.
After his big night, Ventura led the team with 36 RBIs and eight home runs, making him general manager Steve Phillips look pretty darn good for signing him, a lot better than he does for trading for Bobby Bonilla, for instance.
“I expected him to hit a home run every time he came up with the bases loaded,” Phillips joked.
And if he did that, he might make up for Bonilla’s lack of production.
Ventura was also only the 19th player in history to hit grand slams in two consecutive games, and the first Met to ever do it. But with all that history and glory under his belt, Ventura was doing his best to shrug it all off after the game, looking towards the future as much as possible and not dwelling on the past.
“I can’t drive home and say, ‘I’m pretty cool now,'” he said. “I’ve still got to do something tomorrow. I’ve got to stand at the bus stop [with his kids] and I’ve still got to change diapers.
“Maybe at the end of the season I can look back and think about [the record],” he said. “But unless I’m thinking that, yes, I’m thinking about the fact that I’m feeling good at the plate and how to use that in the upcoming games, I can’t let it consume me.”
His two slams marked the third time this young season that someone has hit two grand slams in one game. Cardinals third baseman Fernando Tatis and Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra each hit two grand slams in one game, and Tatis did it in one inning off the Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park.
For Ventura, the home runs helped to lift him out of a little slump. He didn’t have a hit for three games prior to the doubleheader and even with the two big slams, he was still hitting 3-for-16 (.188) during this homestand.
But there’s nothing like getting eight RBIs in one day to lift a player’s spirits.
“It was a good day to have a doubleheader,” he said with his usual flair for understatement.