The zone
So how does this happen, anyway?

Mike Cameron is a great player -- an All-Star, a Gold Glove center fielder, a run producer, a basestealer, an asset to any team.

But did anyone on the planet expect him to be the first player in nine years to hit four home runs in a game? Not even he expected that, especially since he'd only gotten four hits in his previous 32 at-bats. So a day later, he still wasn't sure quite what had come over him.

"Man, oh man," he said. "I can't even explain that. I guess that's how Barry (Bonds) felt when the season started. But I don't know. I don't know what it was. I have no idea what was going on. I refuse to even think about what was going on.

"It was just a feel -- for one day. It was like an unbelievable zone to be in, for one day. It's the first time in the major leagues I ever felt that. I don't know how many people have ever felt like that for one day. It was just a feel -- like every time I put a swing on a ball, I knew I was going to crush it.

"I just hope I get that feel again. Not to hit home runs, but just to have that feel, where every time I made contact, I felt like I hit it so hard. That must be like Joe DiMaggio felt in the 56-game hitting streak."

Of course, if Cameron can hang onto that feel for another 55 days, then he'll really have something to explain.

The first inning
The astounding part of this game is that what happened just in the first inning might have been more historically significant than what happened the rest of the night.

Bret Boone and Cameron hit back-to-back homers off White Sox starter Jon Rauch in the top of the first, before the Mariners made an out. One cycle through the lineup and one pitching change later, Boone came up and homered again, off Jim Parque.

Since that made Boone only the second player in history to hit two home runs in the first inning of any game, that set him up to be the big story of the day -- until Cameron came up and became the third to do it a few seconds later.

They were the first teammates ever to homer twice in the first inning or any inning, let alone the first to go back-to-back twice in any inning. But not only that: Never had two players in the whole sport hit two home runs in an inning on the same day.

And these two guys did it back-to-back twice in the first inning, wearing the same uniform. At which point they were also the first teammates ever to have multihomer games going in which they had as many home runs as their team had made outs.

"If that inning had been my whole night," Cameron laughed, "I'd take it."

Three for three
Ah, but the night continued. So up he marched again in the third inning to hit another home run.

If you're wondering, that made him only the second player ever to hit three home runs in the first three innings of any game. The other, according to David Vincent, was the immortal Carl Reynolds -- who may sound like a Baseball Tonight host but actually played for (who else?) the White Sox. He did it on July 2, 1930 at Yankee Stadium (including two inside-the-parkers).

After No. 3, Cameron shook his head all the way around the bases, feeling sort of like a guy who was halfway through the best round of golf of his life and trying to figure out whether he had anything to gain by playing the back nine.

"When I hit the third one," he reported, "I said, 'I've gotta come out of the game right now. I hit three jacks in a row. I've gotta come out.' But I stayed in."

The fastest four
Well, he's sure glad he stayed in. Since he'd gotten the first three homers out of the way so fast, he had practically all night to hit the fourth. But he didn't need it.

He was the third hitter in the fifth inning. He took a ball from Parque, then squashed an inside fastball into the left-field seats. But hold your applause. It was also 50 feet foul -- but long gone. That's how locked in he was. Even his foul balls went 400 feet.

"I can't even explain it," Cameron said. "I don't know what went on. I've hit two home runs in a game before. I've gotten four hits. But this was unbelievable. I mean, even the balls I hit four were home runs.

"I hit that foul home run the fourth time up, and the pitcher was just looking at me like, 'No way. What am I gonna throw now? I know I've gotta throw something, but what am I gonna throw?' It was a weird feeling, man."

Four Is Fun

Players who hit four home runs in one game and their game totals: Mike Cameron, Mariners May 2, 2002, at Chicago: 4-5, 4 RBI, HBP (lines out to deep RF in final at-bat) Mark Whiten, Cardinals Sept. 7, 1993, at Cincinnati: 4-5, 12 RBI (also tied record with 13 RBI in doubleheader) Bob Horner, Braves July 6, 1986, vs. Montreal: 4-6, 6 RBI (Braves lose anyway) Mike Schmidt, Phillies April 17, 1976, at Chicago: 5-6, 8 RBI (Phillies win 18-16, overcome 11-run deficit) Willie Mays, Giants April 30, 1961, at Milwaukee: 4-5, 8 RBI (missed chance at 5; on deck in top of 9th) Rocky Colavito, Indians June 10, 1959, at Baltimore: 4-4, BB, 6 RBI (came in consecutive at-bats) Joe Adcock, Braves July 31, 1954, at Brooklyn: 5-5, 7 RBI (Adds double for record 18 total bases) Gil Hodges, Dodgers August 31, 1950, vs. Boston: 5-6, 9 RBI (Came off four different pitchers) Pat Seerey, White Sox July 18, 1948, at Philadelphia: 4-6, 7 RBI (4th HR comes in 11th inning) Chuck Klein, Phillies July 10, 1936, at Pittsburgh: 4-5, 6 RBI (4th HR comes in 10th inning) Lou Gehrig, Yankees June 3, 1932, at Philadelphia: 4-6, 6 RBI (Feat overshadowed when John McGraw retires same day) Ed Delahanty, Phillies July 13, 1896, at Chicago: 5-5, 7 RBI (Phillies lose anyway, 9-8) Bobby Lowe, Beaneaters (Braves) May 30, 1894, vs. Cincinnati: 5-6, 6 RBI (Boston wins 20-11)

And two pitches later, he had a weirder feeling, when he pummeled his fourth home run of the night over the center-field fence -- his third center-field shot of the game (making him the first since Joe Adcock, in 1954, to hit three of his four out to center).

"It was so strange," Cameron said. "My body felt so calm, it felt kind of like a willow tree. It was like that ball was going out in slow motion. I watched it. I saw Kenny (Lofton) go back. He looked up. I saw it go out. I saw the look on his face. All that happened, and I was only like halfway between home plate and first base.

"It was an amazing feeling. It was like I was running in slow motion. I don't know that I'll ever experience that again. It was like I was in a dream or something. It was just weird that everything seemed so calm. It was like I was a willow tree in south Georgia, just weeping in the wind."

Ah, but that's not all he was. He was also a man with four home runs, playing in a game that wasn't even official yet (not until the White Sox batted). Of the 14 four-homer men in history, Cameron was the first to hit his fourth by the fifth inning.

Just to put that in perspective, he hit his fourth homer at the same point in the game that the last man to hit four in a row in one game, Schmidt, hit his first of the day -- with two outs in the fifth.

So obviously, even if this game wasn't going extra innings the way Schmidt's game did, Cameron knew he had a chance to hit more homers than anyone who ever played. Heck, the game was half over. How did we know he might not hit four more?

"I was looking at the scoreboard," Cameron said, "and I was like, 'Hold on, I've got four jacks and we've still got a lot more game to play. I'm gonna get like two more at-bats. What's gonna happen?' I was shaking. I couldn't even think about it."

The drive for five
Not many men have had one shot at hitting a fifth home run. No one ever had two. But Cameron did indeed get two more trips to the plate, both against reliever Mike Porzio. But a jittery Porzio hit him with a 1-1 pitch in the seventh inning, then ran a 3-and-0 count on him in the ninth.

So Cameron stepped out for about 10 seconds, looking to manager Lou Piniella and third-base coach Dave Myers for guidance. Should he take? Should he swing? Should he retire? But they "didn't know what to do, either," he said. So he stepped back in -- and took a fastball right down the middle.

"Man, if I'd swung at that 3-and-0 pitch, I know I was going to hit that ball out of the park," Cameron said. "It was right down the middle. Every pitch I hit was like right down the middle. You know, a lot of guys have said, 'If I just get four balls down the middle, I could hit four in a game.' Well, it happened to me.

"It was like I had a vibe or something going on. Everything they threw, it felt like it came right down the middle. Even the breaking balls would break back over the middle."

After he took that pitch, he could hear his teammates yelping that he should have swung. But Cameron said he didn't feel right hacking at a 3-0 pitch in a 15-4 game, because "you have to respect the game."

That didn't stop him, though, from hacking at a 3-1 pitch that almost hit him in the shoulder.

"Hey, I wasn't going to walk," Cameron laughed. "I had to foul off the 3-1 pitch just to get another opportunity -- and it was a ball, up and in, and I even put a good swing on that. I said, What is going on'"

Porzio came back with one last pitch away, and Cameron pounded it to right. His heart -- and thousands of others -- leaped, but just for a moment. This shot never got high enough to leave, and right fielder Jeff Lieper made a running catch in front of the fence.

"I thought when I hit it, 'I got it,'" Cameron said. "But then it started to die in the wind. I was just amazed he caught it. I drove that thing to the track. I couldn't believe I didn't get a hit out of it."

We'll never know, had it landed, if he would have kept on running until they either threw him out or he'd legged out an inside-the-parker. But what the heck. Settling for four homers will just have to do.

Afterward, he got back to the clubhouse and found that Mark McLemore had made him a cape and cardboard crown. And his teammates stood in two lines and made him walk under a canopy of bats.

"I felt," Cameron said, "like I just married the king's daughter."

He had 23 voice-mail messages on his cell phone by the time he first turned it on. And at last check, he hadn't stopped talking, laughing or floating since.

"Just to be a part of a night like that," Cameron told Week in Review, "I'll never forget it. I was part of 116 wins last year. And now, for one particular night, I was the best player on the planet. I don't know if I'll ever feel that way again. But for one night, I was the best.

"Man," said Mike Cameron one more time, "What is going on?"

Subplots of the week
When a man hits four home runs in a game, the story lines are flying in every direction. Here are three that didn't exactly lead the evening news -- but amused us, anyhow:

Best supporting actor of the week: Poor Bret Boone. He coulda been the star of the game.

He did, after all, become the second player in big-league history -- and the first player in American League history -- to hit two home runs in the first inning of a game. Ordinarily, it would be tough to do that and not get some serious coverage.

After all, think about this: That's 102 seasons of American League baseball, and Boone was the first man ever to have a two-homer first inning.

Except how long did his record last? Exactly one at-bat -- or until Cameron homered again.

"It was great to be part of something no one has ever done before," Boone later told the Seattle Times' Bob Finnigan. "But by the time he was done, Cammy had overshadowed everything and all of us."

Of course, he didn't have to. Boone had just as many shots at hitting four home runs as Cameron did. And judging by the force of their hacks after the first inning, he was the one trying harder to do that, too.

"I told him, 'Cameron, now if I hit a home run in my next at-bat, don't be choking. You better hit another one, too,'" Boone said afterward. "Then I struck out and he hit one. And I said, 'I choked. I'm sorry'"

Dibble factor of the week: We do need to give Jim (Out of the) Parque his due for his contribution to this night. He did give up three of Cameron's home runs -- and he wasn't even the starting pitcher. That made him the first relief pitcher ever to give up three homers in a four-homer game.

But Parque is also a guy who has allowed six homers in nine innings this season. So clearly, hitting your fourth homer off him isn't as herculean a task as hitting your fourth off, say, our pal Rob Dibble.

And it was Dibble -- a man who gave up only 27 homers in his career -- who allowed No. 4 to the last fellow to make four trots in one game, Whiten.

"Normally," Dibble told Week in Review, "I'd have knocked him down in that situation. But Mark and I knew each other from the minor leagues. So I got to 2 and 0, and I think Mark sensed I was going to say, 'OK, here it is. See if you can hit it.'"

So Dibble whooshed his best flameball in, and Whiten pounded his best flameball out -- and out and out and out.

"I know he hit it over 450 feet," Dibble said. "But I threw it 95.

"So obviously," chuckled Rob Dibble, "I supplied the power."

Four-homer footnote of the week: When people look back on the great names in history who hit home runs in four consecutive at-bats, we'll concede that Jeff Manto might not be the top name on their list.

But check that record book, friends. Jeff Manto did that, all right. In the major leagues. As a Baltimore Oriole. In 1995. We invite you to look it up.

And Manto's special challenge was that it took him three days to hit his four in a row.

He thumped his first homer on June 8, in a game against (how perfect is this?) the Mariners. Then he came back the next night and hit two more against the Angels. Then he finished his march to history with his fourth straight homer the next night.

So you think it was tough for Mike Cameron to hit four home runs in four at-bats? Seems to us it was way harder for Jeff Manto to string it out over three days. All by design, of course.

"Sure," Manto told Week in Review. "I wanted to make people keep coming back for more."

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.