Mark of greatness
McGwire ties baseball's most glamorous record
Posted: Tuesday September 08, 1998 12:24 PM
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Mark McGwire pumps his fist after tying Roger Maris for the single-season home run record AP |
ST. LOUIS (CNN/SI) -- Mark McGwire
now has a share of baseball history.
McGwire hit his 61st home run, tying Roger Maris for one of baseball's most
recognized single-season records, just barely fair and deep to left field
in the bottom of the first inning during Monday's 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.
The St. Louis
Cardinals slugger now has 20 games left to break Maris' record, which
was set in 1961 and has stood for 37 years as the benchmark for major
league power hitters.
McGwire hit a 1-1 pitch off Cubs starter Mike Morgan, who
was acquired from the Minnesota Twins last
month, with two outs and no one on base.
Chicago's Sammy
Sosa, right behind McGwire in his pursuit of history, popped out in the
top of the first to remain at 58 home runs.
The crowd stood in unison while the St. Louis first baseman held both arms
wide and high as he approached first base, receiving a high-five from the
Cubs' Mark
Grace. He also received a high-five as he rounded third base from Cubs'
third baseman Gary Gaetti, a
former St. Louis teammate.
Security officers immediately came onto the field. McGwire's 10-year-old
son, Matthew, a St. Louis batboy waiting at home plate, got a big hug from
his father, who first hopped on home plate with both feet for emphasis.
Mark McGwire hit a 1-1 fastball off Cubs starter Mike Morgan AP | |
The Maris family, watching from first-base seats, applauded, too, as did
Sosa. McGwire then came back on the field and acknowledged the Maris family
by pointing his right index finger to the sky, tapping his heart three
times and blowing a kiss.
"He tapped his heart, like dad was in his heart," said Kevin Maris, a son
of the former player.
McGwire's own father, attending the game with other family members, also
celebrated his 61st birthday Monday. His son's drive slammed off the facade
of the stadium club -- the third deck at Busch Stadium -- and fell into the
packed stands below. Mike Davidson, a 28-year-old from St. Louis, wound up
with it after it deflected off the hands of three other people.
"They are my brother-in-law's seats," Davidson said. "He gave them to be
because he had to work today."
Davidson said he planned to give the ball to McGwire and wouldn't ask for
anything in return. The first fan to get his hand on the ball was Rich
Reichert, 32, of St. Louis. He couldn't hang on and cut his left ring
finger as he tumbled to the concrete.
"After the ball bounced off my hands, it was a little bit of a blur,"
Reichert said. "All I know was I got knocked down by about 10 guys."
When Sosa came to the plate in the top half of the first, the crowd --
clad mostly in Cardinal red -- saluted the Cubs' slugger with a standing
ovation, quite a tribute considering the long rivalry between the teams.
Sosa tipped his hat to the crowd and gave his trademark two-finger salute
to McGwire, holding a runner at first.
In his other at-bats, Sosa struck out looking in the third and swinging in
the fifth before singling to left in the eighth and striking out swinging
in the ninth. McGwire singled to left in the third, popped out to center in
the fifth, and lined out to center in the seventh.
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McGwire watches from the plate as his 61st homer heads over the left-field wall at Busch Stadium AP |
McGwire's record-tying homer opened pandemonium's box and closed intense
scrutiny that stretched back to last season, when McGwire missed the record
by only three homers despite changing cities and leagues in August.
But now, the Maris who passed a man larger than life was caught by a man
larger than, well, most everybody. Described in a recent Sports Illustrated
as "a 6-foot-5, 250-pound duplex with pillars for forearms," McGwire struck
No. 61 at the same age, 34, that Maris was when he retired from the game --
as a St. Louis Cardinal.
Despite the likelihood of breaking Maris' mark, McGwire is not even favored
to win his own league's award for most valuable player. Of the 18 players
to hit 50-plus homers between 1930, when the award was sanctioned, and last
season, only seven of those players were named MVPs.
This season, McGwire most likely will lose the MVP to Chicago Cubs
outfielder Sammy Sosa, who has trailed McGwire closely throughout the
season's home run race. Sosa's team, unlike McGwire's, has a shot at a
postseason berth via the wild card, giving the Cubs' clubber the edge under
the unwritten most-valuable-to-his-team rule.
Sosa emerged as McGwire's running mate in midseason. But the expectations
were placed on McGwire shortly after he was dealt from the Oakland Athletics at
last season's trading deadline for three mediocre pitchers in a downsizing
since outdone by the 1997 World Series champion Florida Marlins.
Notions were cultivated during an off-season that, in an expansion year
(like 1961 when Maris set the mark) and with a livelier-than-ever ball,
1998 might be year McGwire challenged 61.
On March 31, McGwire opened the season and the flood gates of speculation
with a grand slam over the left-field wall at Busch Stadium against the
Dodgers' Ramon
Martinez.
McGwire's 448 career home runs place him 21st on the all-time list, four behind Carl Yastrzemski AP | |
On April 30, he hit his 11th homer off Marc
Pisciotta in Chicago to tie the Mariners' Ken Griffey
Jr. and the Rockies' Vinny
Castilla for the major league lead. Exactly one month later, having
already established a major league record for home runs by the end of May,
McGwire launched No. 27 off Andy Ashby in San
Diego.
On June 30, McGwire tied Reggie Jackson for most homers before the All-Star
break, cracking his 37th homer 470 feet to left off the Royals' Glendon Rusch.
Five games remained before the Midsummer Classic.
He went without a homer in those five games, and went without making much
of an impact in an event preceding the All-Star Game, the exceedingly
anticipated home run contest. McGwire hit only four homers in the affair,
bowing out after the first round, but not before crushing one 510 feet
through the thin air at Denver's Coors Field. On July 26 in the same
ballpark, McGwire punished John Thomson's
first offering 452 feet to left for home run No. 44 -- with two months left
to play.
In a showdown with Sosa at Wrigley Field on August 19, McGwire struck his
48th and 49th homers. And a day later in Shea Stadium, McGwire struck No.
50 in the first game and No. 51 in the second game of a doubleheader,
becoming the first major leaguer to hit 50 homers in three consecutive
seasons.
Reluctant throughout the season to discuss surveillance by fans and media
known as the Maris Chase, McGwire finally acknowledged the prospect of
reaching the single-season record for homers.
"I'd have to say I do have a shot," said McGwire after the doubleheader. "I
know it will be tough. I believe that if someone got 50 by September,
they'd have a shot."
Two days later, McGwire broke yet another major league record with his 52nd
homer of the year and 162nd in the past three seasons, surpassing "The
Sultan of Swat," Babe Ruth's total from 1926-28.
After back-to-back, two-homer games in Miami to start September with his
56th, 57th, 58th and 59th homers, the announcement was deafening, yet
unspoken.
It was only a matter of time.
McGwire's 448 career home runs place him 21st on the all-time list, four
behind Carl Yastrzemski. Hank Aaron, who hit a career-high 45 homers in
1962, hit his all-time leading 755th career home run at the age of 42.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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