Carlos Baerga’s Cleveland memories

When shared, baseball memories endure forever.

Just ask Carlos Baerga.

“Every April 8, they call me,” Baerga said. “People won’t let me forget.”

In the early 1990’s,while playing for the talented Cleveland Indians, Baerga was one of the best second basemen in the game. Fellow Puerto Rican Roberto Alomar was in the midst of winning two world championships with the Toronto Blue Jays, but Baerga was a lean, mean, hitting machine seemingly on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

Fast living and bad knees got to him, ending his major league career in 2005 after 14 seasons. But Cleveland fans never forgot his infectious energy and incandescent smile.

The Indians’ de facto captain, Baerga was nicknamed “Papi” or “Daddy.” Inside the clubhouse, he was always talking, moving, even dancing. On the field, he played hard and led by example.

Which is why they always remember April 8, 1993 — the night at Cleveland Stadium against the New York Yankees when Baerga became the first in history to homer twice in one inning from both sides of the plate.

Ambassador Baerga

“Every time I go back to Cleveland, they always remind me and ask me to speak,” said Baerga, who still works for the team as a scout and ambassador.

“I was back in Cleveland this year on April 8,” he added. “They called me to talk on TV. They called me to talk on the radio. It’s very hard to forget those moments.”

In Cleveland, it’s hard to forget 1993. After four decades of rebuilding, the Indians had put together a young core of future All-Stars that included Berga, center fielder Kenny Lofton, left fielder Albert Belle and catcher Santos “Sandy” Alomar Jr.

But it was also a season touched by tragedy. During spring training, the team lost pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews in a power boat accident that claimed their lives. The third person on the boat, starter Bob Ojeda, suffered severe head lacerations that would cost him most of the season.

In a record display of support, more than 73,000 fans showed up for the season opener on April 5, a game that the Yankees won, 9-1.

Two days later in front of a much smaller crowd, the Indians got even, beating the Yankees, 4-2. Baerga hit a single and a double with one run scored and one RBI.

It was all a preamble to a night unlike those that had come before, a story whose excitement hasn’t waned in its many retellings.

Spring heat

A spring day with a high of 71 degrees, the temperatures on April 8 stayed in a comfortable range after sunset. Little did anyone among the 13,834 fans in attendance imaged that the skies would soon heat up.

With Baerga hitting third, Cleveland struck first, scoring twice in the first inning and thrice in the third. Baerga contributed a double and single and two runs. Thanks to his early production, the Indians led, 6-2, at the start of the seventh.

In the top half of the inning, the Yankees got back into the game by rapping out five singles and scoring three runs.

Pinch-hitter Álvaro Espinoza of Venezuela led off the bottom half of the seventh. On the seventh pitch, he singled to right field. Baerga then stepped into the batter’s box on the right side to face lefty reliever Steve Howe.

Normally a free swinger against hard throwers, Baerga also battled for seven pitches, working a full count until he got what he wanted — an inside fastball. With a mighty hack, he sent the ball more then 380 feet over the left-center field wall, setting off fireworks inside Cleveland Stadium.

Howe then plunked Belle, infuriating the moody outfielder. After many heated words and dirty looks, the game resumed. Clearly off kilter, Howe allowed three straight singles and two more runs.

Down 10-5, the Yankees brought in righty Steve Farr to stop the hemorrhaging. He got two quick outs before misplacing his fastball. Lofton singled home another run. And Espinoza, in his second at-bat of the inning, then cleared the bases with a three-run homer.

While the fans went bonkers and the Yankees simmered, Baerga stepped into the box for the second time in the inning, this time from the left. The first pitch was a ball. The next one came in high and tight. Baerga’s memory is certain on that one.

“So many things happened in that inning,” Baerga said. “There were two near-brawls. We scored so many runs. Alfredo Espinoza hit a home run right before my next time and Steve Farr threw at my head, almost starting another brawl.

“One pitch later, I knocked it out of the park.”

That’s right, on a 2-0 count, Baerga blasted a high fastball to the empty bleachers in right center — punctuating an eight-hit, nine-run, seventh frame that propelled the Indians to a 15-5 victory.

Baerga ran the bases almost nonchalantly.

“I didn’t know it was a record,” he said. “I get back to the dugout and the scoreboard says that I was the first ballplayer in history to do that.”

Because the fans didn’t stop hooting and hollering, Baerga stepped out of the dugout for a curtain call. He looked bashful, still not quite believing what he had just accomplished.

“The game ended, we win and when we get back to the clubhouse, they asked [for] my uniform, my cap, the baseballs so they could take them to Cooperstown,” Baerga said. “I never got to Cooperstown. But everything else is there. My uniform, my cap, my bat, everything.”

An unforgettable year

Baerga actually had a Hall-of-Fame caliber year in 1993. He averaged .321 with 200 hits, 21 home runs and 114 RBI — tying the great Roger Hornsby as the only second basemen with back-to-back .300/200/20/100 seasons.

Baerga went on to hit .312 or better four straight seasons. But the 1994 players’ strike that canceled World Series interrupted his run at further immortality. And injuries soon afterward derailed his career. Yet he still made the Indians Hall of Fame in 2013.

Baerga, 49, has remade himself, first as an ESPN broadcaster and now as general manager of the Indios de Mayaguez in the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League. He was part of the organizing committee for the recent Puerto Rico Series. He’s hoping to parlay his success managing and running a winter league team into a coaching job with a major league organization.

But regardless, he will always have April 8, 1993. While 60 players have hit two homers in the same inning — including 15 Latinos — Baerga was the first to hit them from both sides of the plate.

Only two other switch-hitters have equaled Baerga’s feat — Mark Bellhorn in 2002 and the Cuban Kendrys Morales in 2012.

“What surprised me was that I was the first,” Baerga said. “There have been so many great switch-hitters. Mickey Mantle. Eddie Murray. Chipper Jones. Chile Davis. Rubén Sierra. That I was the first is so amazing.”

And once every year, Cleveland never lets him forget it.

Featured Image: Ronald C. Modra / Getty Images Sport