Feeling the heat
McGwire, Sosa learning to deal with media army
Posted: Monday September 07, 1998 11:46 AM
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Sammy Sosa seems to be handling the media exposure with ease AP |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- With each thunderous blast off the bats of Mark McGwire
and Sammy
Sosa, the media hoard surrounding them has grown like piranhas in a
feeding frenzy.
"Dealing with this many media, I don't wish it upon anybody," McGwire said.
"I've been seeing the same people everyday, the same reporters," Sosa said.
A small army of reporters and cameras track their every move like
bloodhounds. Once Sosa and McGwire are cornered, they've had to answer
every question imaginable, even the most inane ones.
"I don't know what more to talk about," McGwire said, adding that he's been
answering the same questions since spring training, "one-thousand times"
But the inquisitions aren't likely to end soon. The two sluggers' assault
on Roger Maris' record 61 home runs in a season is more than a sports
story. It's front-page news even in the world's most important newspaper --
The New York Times -- or, as Big Mac himself says, "Pressure is
knowing every eye in America is watching you."
But if McGwire and Sosa feel hunted now, consider the circus that trapped
Maris. When he was taking aim at the Babe's record 37 years ago, the media
descended on him unchecked, with few public relations buffers and or
training-room escapes.
"The press was everywhere and they were not barred," said Roger Maris, Jr.
"You could turn around and there was someone with a mike or a camera, and
it was just unbelievable."
Thirty-seven years ago, the athlete-reporter relationship was more intimate
than it is today. Beat writers and players traveled together and were often
friends. But when dozens of journalists new to the story hopped on the
Maris bandwagon, he began spending up to three hours both before and after
games with a media that turned everything he said -- no matter how mundane
-- into the nation's newest headline.
Maris felt violated by this massive invasion of privacy. He later wrote:
"During the last couple of weeks I was half nuts. I had splitting
headaches, I was smoking twice as much as I normally do and the crowds, the
tension, the same questions over and over again, were driving me out of my
mind"
Roger Kahn, the author of "Memories of Summer," recalls Maris' dealings
with the media deluge.
McGwire's chase of Maris has helped revitalize fan interest in the game AP | |
"He was very confused by this," Kahn said. "He became angry and he tried to
withdraw. But where can you withdraw in an open clubhouse when you don't
have professional public relations help?"
Help is the only way to deal with today's media onslaught. The media has
grown explosively since 1961, with broadcast networks, cable networks,
all-sports networks, sports talk radio, magazines and even web sites
documenting McGwire and Sosa's chase. While less than 35 journalists were
present when Maris made history. Major League Baseball expects 600
credentialed media members for the potential record-breaking moment.
"It's a lot tougher to prepare for that kind of media because no one has to
handle that kind of number," said Pat Courtney of the Cardinals. "No one
has plans to accommodate 600-700 members of the media during the regular
season, but we're going to do our best."
McGwire's soft-spoken demeanor is similar to Maris. He's claustrophobic,
and has said that at one point, the unyielding crush of media on the road
got so distracting that he felt like a caged animal. Unlike Maris, however,
McGwire has drawn the line. With the help of the Cardinals' public
relations staff, he restricts his pregame comments to a single news
conference before the first game of each series.
"I think it's easier..." McGwire said. "Now that it's like this without
microphones stuck in my face."
Meanwhile, Chicago's Sammy Sosa seems to enjoy the spotlight, and realizes
the new-found avalanche of attention is something to embrace.
"That's why I say baseball has been very, very good to me," Sosa said,
laughing.
"Nobody talked about him in spring training," McGwire said of Sosa. "But
because he had such an awesome June and hit 20 home runs, now live
attention has come to him."
Those who watched Maris' marathon sessions with reporters are aware of the
staggering number of journalists pursuing McGwire and Sosa. But many feel
it may be easier to cope with the media today because both sluggers and
their teams have set parameters, something Maris and the Yankees didn't do.
"Today they control the press," said Pat Maris, Roger's wife. "You have so
much time allotted before the game and after the game. In his day, it was
just two-three hours before the game, two-three hours after the game, and
this was every single day towards the end, so I don't think really the
pressure today could be really any worse than it was then."
Pressure is like fire; it can melt you. But so far Mark McGwire and Sammy
Sosa have controlled the heat and used it to help fuel them. Now the
fascinating thing to look for is how each of them will deal with it when
number 62 is only a pitch away.
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