April 23 is officially Tatis day in LA forever, as Fernando Jr. belts 2 HRs on ann’y of pop’s 2-slam game

Jon Helmkamp|published: Sat 24th April, 10:22 2021

Fernando Tat ís Jr. hit two home runs against the Dodggers on the aiversary of his father hitting two grand slams in one inning. source: Getty Images

The odds on this were probably a million to one, but it happened anyway (aka, that’s baseball, Suzyn).

On April 23, 1999, Fernando Tatís memorably belted two grand slams in one inning off of the unfortunate Chan Ho Park in a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodger Stadium.

Then, last night, on the 22nd anniversary of the Tatís milestone, his 22-year-old son — Fernando Tatís Jr. — homered twice in last night’s San Diego Padres win … over the Los Angeles Dodgers … once again in Dodger Stadium.

20 years following the anniversary of the elder Tatís’ accomplishment, he was celebrated at a Cardinals home game, and said even then that it was something always discussed.

“Oh, man. I can’t count it,” he said on how many times he’s seen the two grand slams. “Many, many times. We always talk about that, and we are a family of baseball. We always talk about the two grand slams back in the Dominican [Republic] all the time.”

And in that same sit-down with the Cardinals broadcast, he also talked up his then-20-year-old son, Fernando Jr., who was already one of the top prospects in baseball, and had made his Major League debut weeks earlier.

“It’s a lot of hard work that we do back home in the Dominican to try to get him at this level so that he can really understand how important it is to prepare yourself at the big league level,” he said, acknowledging how proud he was/is of his son.

It’s been a hell of a past several days for Tatís Jr., who returned from injury on April 16, the same day he covered MLB: The Show, and last night he belted the two historical home runs. Tatís Sr. might as well have said, “I told you so,” while in the Cardinals booth two years ago.