"It's one of the 10 (or so) commandments of sports: Thou shalt act like you've been there before.

When he hit his second homer of the game against the Padres in the series opener Tuesday, Fernando Tatis of the Mets did not do that. He had had a multihomer night before, but it'd been such a long time ago. Eight years. It'd been so long, Tatis did nothing to hide his excitement, repeatedly pointing to the heavens and even coming out for a curtain call at Shea Stadium.

Jody Gerut understood. While it's not his style to overdo the celebration - Gerut had hit a three-run homer in the same game as Tatis, and he started Wednesday night's contest with another homer on Pedro Martinez's first pitch of the game - he knew what Tatis was feeling.

He'd been there, too.

"Guys like us have a greater appreciation for being in major league baseball," Gerut said. "Probably more so than anybody would ever realize."

Earlier this season, Gerut and Tatis played against each other in a Pacific Coast League series in Portland. Among the majors' most celebrated young hitters as a Cleveland Indians rookie in 2003, the injury-plagued Gerut was coming off a two-year absence from major league baseball with the Portland Beavers, the Padres' top affiliate. Tatis - who hit 34 homers for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1999, played himself out of the majors and effectively was retired for two years - was in Portland with the Mets' Triple-A club from New Orleans.

An emergency call-up by the Mets on May 11, Tatis entered Wednesday night's game with an 11-game hitting streak, a .316 batting average and nine homers. Gerut, summoned to San Diego on May 9 as an eventual replacement for Jim Edmonds, was batting .400 over his previous 10 games and .340 since the All-Star break."