He Shows Power in Reserve : Backup Parent Hits Two Homers; Padres Defeat Astros, 6-1

HOUSTON — If it had taken you 10 years--during which time you’d been on 11 teams in four countries--to finally hit a ball that hard, you probably wouldn’t have been able to watch it either.

“I finally found the ball just as it was going over a sign and into the bleachers,” Padre backup catcher Mark Parent said of his shot off Houston’s Joaquin Andujar Sunday afternoon. “I thought to myself, ‘Don’t look at, don’t look at it.’

“I thought, if I look at it, next time up, Joaquin is putting a ball in my ribs.”

Ah, but he saw it. His hoarse and hugging teammates saw it. His wife Wendy in the Astrodome stands saw it.

“I guess for the rest of my life,” admitted Parent later, “I will see it.”

At 2:31 p.m. in the Astrodome Sunday, a 26-year-old who is a rookie even though he has been in the Padre organization since 1979, fulfilled a dream that had grown tired and ragged.

In the fourth inning of a 6-1 Padre win over Houston, Mark Parent hit his first big league home run.

What is it they say about those who never have anything never getting enough?

Thirty minutes after his first homer, Parent swung right through that dream and dented fantasy. In the sixth inning, he hit his second big league home run.

And they weren’t just home runs. Ten years of waiting had put something on them.

“I was standing in the on-deck circle for both of them,” Padre pitcher Eric Show said, “and from there, they sounded like cannons going off.”

The first homer, a two-run blast on a 1-0 pitch, traveled about 410 feet into the left-field seats. Left fielder Billy Hatcher never moved.

The second homer, another two-run shot, on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Dave Meads, traveled about 420 feet into the left-center-field seats. Center fielder Gerald Young never moved.

In Parent’s final at-bat in the eighth inning, he weakly fouled out to right field and escaped the booing crowd of 29,712 to the familiarity of the dugout.

“I just wanted to get that (last at-bat) over with,” he said, “By then, you could say I was a little rattled.”

By then, he had already singled in another run, giving him a 1988 team-high five runs batted in for the game, one more than he had accumulated in his entire big league career.

He did this having not played in the last 12 days. He did this having played in only 26 of 116 games before Sunday, putting in the fewest hours of any player on the team. Even pitcher Greg Booker has played more.

Who says days like this never happen anymore in games played by adults? By the blank stare and dazed smile of Mark Parent late Sunday afternoon, believe that they happen.

“Sometimes, shoot, I feel like I got to retire,” Parent said. “I’m not in the lineup and I get depressed, I get depressed a lot.

“But then, heck, I can take it. I’m just 26. I’ve got a lot of living left to do in in this game.”

It’s just that playing so infrequently makes that living tougher.

“After today, I might not physically be able to play for a couple of weeks. I might not be able to walk. “ As for his teammates, they couldn’t have been happier.

Twice they surrounded Parent with embraces and high-fives. On his first homer they fought each other to be the first to grab his hand. On his second homer several players literally leaped from the bench and nearly over the dugout fence.

“We’re shouting, ‘We’ve got a new catcher, we’ve got a new catcher,” Ed Whitson said. “We were all hooting and hollering. You love to see a boy who works his butt off every day and never plays do good in his one chance. You love that. He is one of us.”

Said Garry Templeton: “The man sits around the bench longer than anyone. Then when he gets a chance--he does this. That lifts everybody up.”

That, and another gem by Eric Show. On any other day Show would have been the one surrounded by the dozen reporters, but Sunday he was left alone to muse over his fourth complete game in his six starts, a six-hitter that improved his record to .500 (10-10) for the first time since April 26, 1987.

Is this the best 10-10 pitcher in baseball? Perhaps. His earned-run average is down to 3.20 and he is tied for second in the league with eight complete games. With no walks Sunday, he has also walked only 41 in 171 innings, or about two per nine innings.

“If you underplay yourself you are accused of false modesty, and if you use overstatement you are accused of arrogance, so understanding that, I will say that anyone who watches the game closely should not be surprised how I’m pitching,” he said.

The same can not be said for Parent. Until Sunday, you couldn’t watch the game close enough to see him.

Until this season he had been with the Padres twice, in 1986 and 1987, but just briefly each time, for a total of 20 games. Thus this spring, when he stuck with the big league team for the first time as Santiago’s backup, he was still classified as a rookie. This is even though he signed in 1979, just one year after Tim Flannery, Andy Hawkins and Show. This is even though between then and now, he has played in every kind of winter and minor league to prepare himself.

And this is why he was happy that the first player to greet him at home plate after his first home run, a man who was on third after an RBI triple, was the almost equally hidden Flannery.

“I’ll never forget the look on Flannery’s face when he was waiting at home plate for me,” Parent said. “It was all happy and crazy, like, I was the best player who ever lived.”

Funny thing about this game is, some days you are. No matter who you might be.

Padre Notes

Mark Parent’s heroics overshadowed one of the strangest plays of the season in the first inning. Roberto Alomar hit a one-out double off Joaquin Andujar but was called out after the Astros protested that he missed first base, and first base umpire Jim Quick agreed. Rookie Alomar was so upset, he kicked the bat rack, flung a folding chair, then kicked that chair in the dugout. “I thought I touched it, barely, but I touched it,” Alomar said. . . . The Padres were given an unpleasant surprise Sunday when Houston Manager Hal Lanier juggled his rotation. He’ll start Nolan Ryan in today’s game instead of Jim Deshaies. Ryan is 14-11 lifetime vs. the Padres. Deshaies is 2-3 lifetime, and 0-2 this season. Ryan will be pitching on three days rest, but Lanier reportedly feels this is an important enough game for his struggling team to warrant it. . . . The last time a Padre had five RBIs in a game was on the same date last year, when Shane Mack had five RBIs in Cincinnati.