Fernando Tatis is not a baseball legend.  In fact, most fans probably don't realize he's still in the majors, having recently been called up by the Mets.

Tatis had one great year, though, in 1999, when he hit. .298 with 34 homers, 107 RBI, 104 runs scored and 21 stolen bases.  Unless you're a baseball immortal, you'd happily take numbers like those.

However, it's one particular game in which Tatis shone brighter than ever before or ever again.  Actually, it was one particular inning, and there's a particular reason I remember it so vividly, and that's aside from the accomplishment itself.

Back in the olden days of 1999, KMOX broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games, and you could listen to them online for free.  (What a concept!)  They even had an online scorecard that filled itself in as the game went alone as if someone was scrawling the details down in pencil at the ballpark.  April 23 happened to be the first time I got the audio running at KMOX's web site, so I was thrilled to listen to my Redbirds while living in Cincinnati.  Before that, I could of course catch the Reds broacast when the two teams squared off, or on particularly clear nights I could pick up a scratchy AM signal emanating from the Gateway City a few hundred miles away.

So imagine my surprise when in this first game I hear Tatis crack a grand slam off Chan Ho Park in the third inning.  And it got better a while later when Park was unable to finish things off.  Nine batters later, Tatis came to the plate again, and again the sacks were packed.  I remember calling down the hall to my wife, telling her there was no way it could happen again.  But then the pitch came in, the ball went out, and history was made.  Never before and never since has a player cranked two grand slams in a single inning.  Two long balls and eight ribbies - a pretty good week in a single frame.

So even though Tatis' career quickly careened into near-oblivion, he'll always have a special place in my baseball memories for doing something no one had ever done before.  Thanks, Fernando.  Thanks for the memories.