Four-ever: Josh Hamilton makes history with 4 HRs

I had every intention of Tuesday, May 8, being a normal night.

After I left work, I changed clothes, exercised for an hour, came home, showered, cooked some tilapia, and sat down to watch the Rangers take on the Orioles on mlb.tv streamed through AppleTV. Nothing too crazy going on here in Kansas City.

Turns out, it was one of the craziest baseball nights I have ever witnessed.

Josh Hamilton blasted four home runs in a single game, something that's only been done 16 times in MLB history. In all my years of following baseball, I've never watched a live game where a player accomplished that feat.

Let's take a look at a short clip of all four homers:

Remarkable. Perhaps most impressive was that every blast was either smashed to dead-center field or the opposite field. That cliche where players say they rarely try to hit home runs could actually apply to Hamilton's monster night.

I've watched a lot of baseball over the years, and I've never seen anyone in my time with the complete game of a healthy Josh Hamilton. Not Ken Griffey Jr. Not Albert Pujols. There is literally nothing on a baseball field that Hamilton cannot do; and do at a well above-average level.

It makes that white elephant in the room - also known as the Josh Hamilton contract situation - all the more interesting. If Hamilton, due to become a free agent after the 2012 season, stays healthy this year, his price would escalate quite a bit.

I've thought about this contract situation numerous times before tonight. Many times, the thought of extending Hamilton to any kind of long-term deal scares the hell out of me. But then, on nights like tonight, he reminds us that he's a once-in-a-generation player who only comes around once every 30 years or so.

In our instant gratification society that places essentially all of its sports reactions on the concept of "what have you done for me lately," many people would suggest it's imperative to sign Hamilton after tonight.

But at what price?

The good folks over at the Baseball Do blog (Twitter @BaseballDo) suggested to me in a Twitter conversation after Tuesday's 10-3 victory that they would be ecstatic with five years and $120 million for Hamilton. I would agree that's a fair and balanced price, given his injury and drug/alcohol history, combined with his elite-level of playing success in the past four-plus years.

Right now, however, the contract doesn't much matter, for a number of reasons:

• Hamilton will be a Ranger for all of 2012, which looks like a decent year for Texas to reach the World Series for the third consecutive year.
• The Rangers became the first team to reach 20 wins this season, and are sporting an MLB-best 20-10 record.
• Hamilton is currently hitting .406 with 14 HRs and 36 RBIs.
• In all four of Hamilton's homers tonight, Elvis Andrus (who's suddenly hitting .319) was on base.

Let's hope Josh saves a few for Sunday night.