The best part of the best day of Rob Mackowiak's life came long after the cheering stopped.

Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Rob Mackowiak celebrates his grand slam Friday night. Click photo for larger image.

In the dark quiet of a hospital room at Allegheny General Hospital, as his Pirates teammates were out celebrating a most amazing doubleheader sweep Friday night, Mackowiak leaned back and contemplated exactly what he had done.

No, not the two improbable home runs he had sent into the night to help beat the Chicago Cubs twice.

The precious life he had helped to create.

The baby slept peacefully on Mackowiak's chest. He could feel the strong heartbeat, the one-of-a-kind warmth of a newborn. Those hugs and back slaps from his teammates a few hours earlier had been wonderful. Times like that after a big win or -- if you're really lucky -- two wins in one day are why a guy plays sports. But this moment was the one he'll remember the rest of his life.

"It's still kind of hard to believe I'm a father," Mackowiak was saying yesterday. "You think about it a lot and try to imagine what it'll be like, but you have no idea until it actually happens. To be able to sit there and hold my son -- my son! -- is an unbelievable feeling."

Everything that happened to Mackowiak Friday defies belief, from his wife's routine 8 a.m. appointment with her doctor -- or so she thought -- to her emergency Caesarean section to the arrival of Garrett Matthew Mackowiak -- all 8 pounds, 5 ounces of him -- at 11:12 a.m. to his dad's home runs on the most thrilling baseball night in Pittsburgh since the Francisco Cordova-Ricardo Rincon no-hitter.

"That's not supposed to happen to a guy like me," Mackowiak said of the home runs. "That's for guys like [Brian] Giles and [Gary] Sheffield."

Mackowiak's first home run -- a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning -- gave the Pirates a 9-5 win in Game 1. Seeing his blue hospital bracelet on the right wrist he pumped in the air as he headed toward first base and watched the ball settle into the right-center field bleachers made it seem that much more surreal. It also was pretty cool seeing his teammates smother him at home plate. There haven't been many pictures like that at PNC Park.

Mackowiak didn't get a chance to celebrate long. He rushed into the clubhouse to call his wife, Jennifer, to make sure everyone was OK. He had left her reluctantly at 3:30 p.m. to make the 5:05 game but was comforted knowing that Craig Wilson's wife, Jill, would spend the night with her.

"I would have stayed if there had been any complications," Mackowiak said. "I have to be there for my wife. That's more important than what we do here."

Jennifer Mackowiak was crying on the telephone. Make no mistake, these were tears of happiness. For her husband. For her son. For her family. It was all Mackowiak could do to keep from joining her right then, but there was a second game to play.

Mackowiak's second home run also came in the ninth and tied Game 2, 4-4. Wilson won it with a home run in the 10th, presumably leaving his wife in tears.

These were big wins for the Pirates, who pulled to .500 this late in the season for the first time in almost five years. All Mackowiak could think about was getting back to the hospital. He had talked about the joys of parenthood with Jason Kendall, a new father of a son in the offseason. He had seen the changes for the good in Kendall, who always was a great competitor but wasn't always a great teammate. "He was just such a different person coming into the spring," Mackowkiak said. "A lot of the guys noticed."

Now, Mackowiak was about to experience his first night as a father.

After a quick stop at home to let the dog out, of course.

It's a good thing Mackowiak was able to doze for a few hours with his boy. He and his wife had to be up again early yesterday. She had laser surgery to remove kidney stones and probably will be hospitalized with the baby until Tuesday.

That blue bracelet will come in handy for Mackowiak for security purposes.

"The nurse wouldn't let me cut it off," he said. "She said I couldn't get another one. She was kind of mean about it, actually."

Not that Mackowiak was complaining.

"I'm thinking maybe it's good luck. I'm going to keep it on until it falls off."

The home runs were Nos. 9 and 10 for Mackowiak, who has come to symbolize the overachieving Pirates. He wasn't supposed to be more than a role player this season, but he's taken advantage of Chris Stynes' lack of production and Raul Mondesi's unconscionable defection to start 34 games. He provides, along with Wilson and Daryle Ward, a little thump in the middle of the lineup.

If Mackowiak makes that same kind of progress as a father, he'll do just fine.

"I smelled something this afternoon," he said, grinning. "That's when I looked at my watch and told my wife, 'It's 2:30, honey. I have to get to the ballpark.'

"I don't think I'm ready for the diapers yet."

Mackowiak is a fast learner. He'll get the hang of it.