Cameron Classy in His Own Respect

With four home runs in the game already and a chance to break the record, Mike Cameron chose to follow baseball decorum instead.

That may be one reason why so many people in baseball were happy for Cameron, now known for so much more than being the player who replaced Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle.

After hitting home runs in his first four at-bats against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night at Comiskey Park, Cameron came up in the ninth with a chance to become the only major league player to hit five in a game.

After Mike Porzio threw three consecutive balls in a 15-4 game, Cameron let a hittable pitch go by for strike one, following the age-old practice of not swinging at a 3-0 pitch in a blowout.

“It wouldn’t be too good for my team if I swung 3-0,” Cameron said Friday before going 0 for 4 in Seattle’s 6-2 victory over the New York Yankees.

“That’s not the way you play the game with that kind of lead in the ninth inning.”

After fouling off a 3-1 pitch, Cameron lined an opposite-field drive that had fans thinking he had hit it out. But right fielder Jeff Liefer made a running, backhanded catch at the front of the warning track.

“Fortunately he threw me a strike and I had an opportunity to go for No. 5,” Cameron said. “I have respect for the way the game is played.”

White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams said he wouldn’t have had a problem had Cameron swung 3-0 but was impressed that he didn’t.

“He’s got a chance to do something no one’s ever done,” Williams said. “It’s our guy’s fault he got to 3-0 in the first place. I thought it was Mike Cameron showing his class.” Cameron’s teammates left a homemade silver bat, wrapped in aluminum foil, in his locker Friday, to go along with the “King Cam” crown he had been given the night before.

Cameron then went out and hit only one ball out of the infield--a drive to deep center in the fifth.

The Mariners got home runs from Jeff Cirillo and Desi Relaford off Ted Lilly (0-3), and Freddy Garcia (4-2) allowed two runs and three hits in eight innings.

Garcia beat the Yankees, 1-0, last Saturday when Relaford’s RBI single broke up Lilly’s no-hit bid with one out in the eighth inning.