Life wasn't especially pleasant for Willie Mays when he awoke on Sunday, April 30, 1961.
The San Francisco Giants centerfielder had gone 0 for 7 in two games against the Milwaukee Braves. And he had gone to bed with a stomachache, which got so bad during the night that he had to summon the trainer to his hotel room at 3 a.m.
When Mays got to County Stadium later that morning, manager Alvin Dark wasn't sure he would put him in the lineup. Mays assured Dark that he felt well enough to play.
“I guess he proved it, all right,” Dark told reporters a few hours later.
Yes, indeed. Four home runs in one game are a definite sign of fitness.
Mays broke out of his little slump by becoming only the seventh man in this century to accomplish the feat. Unless someone does it this year, the 1900s will end with 10 major-leaguers in the four-homer club, one of the most exclusive groups in the record books. Even perfect games are more numerous, belonging to 13 pitchers in this century.
“I could see the ball real good today and I got stronger as we went along,” said Mays, who had eight RBI in the Giants' 14-4 victory.
He seemed strong enough right from the start; all of his homers were estimated to have traveled at least 400 feet.
He started with a 420-foot shot off Lew Burdette in the first inning with the bases empty. Mays took Burdette about 400 feet deep again in the third with one man on.
In the fifth, reliever Moe Drabowsky became the pitching “hero” of the day by getting Mays to fly out to center. But in the sixth, Seth Morehead wasn't as fortunate.
With two men on, Mays hit a drive that, according to one newspaper account, “was high enough to clear the left-field bleachers, but it veered to the left and landed between the asphalt and the grass in the picnic area.” Estimated distance: 450 feet.
Mays completed his big day with a 430-foot blast off Don McMahon in the eighth with one man on. And he almost had a shot at a fifth homer.
He was in the on-deck circle when second baseman Frank Bolling threw out Jim Davenport to end the Giants' ninth, an opponent's out that the crowd enthusiastically booed.
“To tell the truth, I don't think I would have hit anything,” Mays said in the clubhouse. “You see, I started to think about it when it was announced over the public address and I know I'd be pressing, trying to go for another.
“Sure, this was my best game and it was my biggest thrill in baseball, too.
“The biggest day before this? What difference does it make?”
Mays' record wasn't the only one that day. The Giants hit four other homers, two by Jose Pagan and one each by Orlando Cepeda and Felipe Alou. San Francisco's total of eight homers tied the major-league record at the time, and it remains the National League record today.
What's more, Hank Aaron chipped in with two homers, and the two-team total of 10 tied the major-league record at the time. So the meager crowd of 13,114 saw six homers from the men who would wind up first and third on the all-time list.
There's more: The Giants had socked five homers the day before, and they still hold the major-league record of 13 homers in games on consecutive days.
The Braves were no strangers to barrages of homers. They hit eight against Pittsburgh on Aug. 30, 1953, and gave up eight to Cincinnati on Aug. 18, 1956. But those two games were on the road; that Sunday in 1961 was County Stadium's biggest as a launching pad until April 25, 1997, when Cleveland and the Milwaukee Brewers combined for 11 homers.
Another thing to note about that weekend series in 1961: The Giants' two-day homer explosion may have been fueled by frustration; in the opener on Friday night, April 28, they had been the victims of Warren Spahn's second no-hitter.