Let's watch videos of (almost) every four-homer game in MLB history

A four-homer game in baseball is even more rare than a perfect game. So, in some ways, it's even more exciting to watch it unfold.

There have been 18 players in MLB history to club four long balls in a single game. Roughly a dozen of them have come in the era of television, which means most of these mighty feats are preserved on video for baseball fans to enjoy decades after the fact.

MORE: 10 single-season MLB feats we'll never see again

Here, thanks to the MLB archives, is video of every four-home run game for which video exists (or, at least, that we know exists).

Willie Mays, 1961

Willie Mays hit 660 homers in his Hall of Fame career, but the four he hit on April 30, 1961, against the Braves might have come as a surprise. Mays said he was up all night before the game with apparent food poisoning. But even some bad pork ribs couldn't stop the Say Hey Kid.

Mike Schmidt, 1976

Wrigley Field has seen a lot of home runs, and it saw a lot of Mike Schmidt's 548 career homers during the '70s and '80s. Plus, when the Phillies and Cubs got together in those days, weird stuff seemed to happen. Schmidt's four-homer game on April 17, 1976, was just one example.

Bob Horner, 1986

Bob Horner was a masher. He looked the part, and he played the part. Playing in the Launching Pad (aka Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium), Horner put many, many balls over the wall, though the apex of his long-ball career came on July 6, 1986, when he smacked four homers in a game against the Expos. Unfortunately for Horner, he did it in a losing effort. #Barves.

MORE: That time a minor-leaguer hit eight homers in a game

Mark Whiten, 1993

Mark Whiten was an intimidating presence at the plate in the '90s, earning him the nickname "Hard Hittin' Whiten." Besides the nickname, Whiten's biggest claim to fame is the day he hit four home runs for the Cardinals against the Reds in a 12-RBI explosion on Sept. 7, 1993. Whiten actually had 13 RBIs on the day, as his four-homer output came in the second game of a double-header. In the first game, Whiten went 1-for-4 and drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. Bonus: Listen to a young Joe Buck call the homers.

Mike Cameron, 2002

It had been nearly nine years since the last four-homer game when Mike Cameron of the Mariners clubbed four dingers against the White Sox on May 2, 2002. Fans may recall that Cameron just missed becoming the first player with five home runs in one game when he flied out to the warning track in his final at-bat.

Shawn Green, 2002

Baseball fans didn't have to wait long for the next four-homer game. Just a few weeks after Cameron's big game, Shawn Green of the Dodgers had perhaps the greatest offensive game in MLB history against the Brewers. Green not only hit four homers, but went 6-for-6 and accumulated a record 19 total bases.

Carlos Delgado, 2003

The Blue Jays' Carlos Delgado accomplished multiple feats on Sept. 25, 2003. Yes, he fit four home runs against the Rays, but he also hit the 300th homer of his career and his 40th of the season. Like Mays decades earlier, Delgado was sick the day of the game and almost didn't play. So, yeah, it was a big day for Carlos.

Josh Hamilton, 2012

When he wasn't injured, Josh Hamilton was about as dangerous a hitter as anyone in baseball. He proved it for the umpteenth time against the Orioles on May 8, 2012. Hamilton's four-homer game in Baltimore was part of a 5-for-5, 8-RBI night for the former MVP.

Scooter Gennett, 2017

If someone bet money that the Reds' Scooter Gennett would join the Four Homers in a Game Club, that person probably made a nice chunk of change after Gennett's surprising, neigh, shocking four-homer, 10-RBI barrage against the Cardinals on June 6, 2017.

MORE: MLB's most improbable single-game performances

This is why baseball is beautiful. You never know what you'll see at the ol' ballyard. 

J.D. Martinez, 2017

For the first time in 15 years, baseball had two four-homer games in the same season when the Diamondbacks' J.D. Martinez left the yard four times against the Dodgers on Sept. 4. Martinez's four dingers came off Rich Hill (1), Pedro Baez (2), Josh Fields (3) and Wilmer Font (4), with the final blast coming in the top of the ninth inning. Unlike Gennett's big-RBI night a few months earlier, Martinez finished the game with "only" six RBIs.

List of four-home run games in MLB history