Mac Mania
McGwire's exploits way overshadow winning in St. Louis
Posted: Monday September 07, 1998 01:44 PM
ST. LOUIS (CNN/SI) -- It is the only thing.
And it’s not just here in St. Louis, either, but all over the country. All
over the world. It’s all-consuming.
It’s like The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have
electrified the world of baseball like few others ever have. The chase for
Roger Maris’ record ranks with the best moments ever in the game.
I’ve seen some great things in baseball. The Streak by Cal Ripken. Hank
Aaron’s 715th home run. Pete Rose’s 44-game hitting streak. Nolan Ryan’s
seven no-hitters.
When people mention some of the great moments in baseball, this will rank
right there with all of them.
In St. Louis, maybe the best baseball town in the country, the chase has
been the talk from Day 1 of the season -- even before, really. At the end
of last season, when McGwire finished with 58 homers (24 of them for the
Cardinals), people started believing that he could break Maris’ record.
They don’t even talk about winning here any more. Winning hasn’t entered
anyone’s mind around here in a long time. It’s just “How did Mac do today?”
And now, with McGwire on the verge, the city has gone haywire. The two-game
series between McGwire and the Cardinals and Sosa and the Chicago Cubs has St.
Louis buzzing like it never has before.
And maybe never will again.
The record that McGwire is about to break is a great thing for baseball,
but to me, it’s not the toughest record in baseball to break. That RBI
record of 191 that Texas’ Juan Gonzalez
challenged briefly this year is still a huge one in my mind. Gonzalez is
having a great year, with 40 homers, 148 RBIs and a .312 average. The fact
he’ll fall way short of the RBI record shows you just how tough that record
is to break.
Still, the home run record will get more consideration from fans and the
media because baseball is so offensive-minded now. There is nothing that
gets people going like a home run.
Right now, it’s a race to the wire, with the wire being No. 62. It’s kind
of funny, because who wins the home run title this season is almost
secondary to who gets past Maris first. It’s like Hank Aaron’s home run
record. Everybody remembers 715. But who remembers 755?
Will baseball ever see anything like this again?
Maybe, if McGwire can keep this up for a few more years and challenge
Aaron’s career record. It’s not likely. McGwire is still more than 300
homers behind. And he’ll soon be 35, so he doesn’t have that many more
seasons left.
But if he can stay healthy, like he has been these past few seasons, and
keep up this pace for a few years, there’s no telling.
Now that’ll be something to see.
The 6-4-3 with Ozzie: McGwire’s Bash Brother from his days in
Oakland, Jose
Canseco, is helping the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays
make a late surge toward the American League wild card.
The Jays have won 10 straight and have climbed to within five games of the
Boston Red Sox. The
Jays just completed a four-game sweep of the Red Sox, and Canseco was one
of the reasons. He has 40 home runs this season and 93 RBIs. And with the
pitching the Jays are getting -- led by the Rocket, Roger Clemens
-- the Jays could make Boston’s life miserable in the last few weeks of the
season. Ozzie Smith, a 15-time All Star, is the baseball analyst for
CNN/SI, the 24-hour sports news network from CNN and Sports Illustrated.
His column appears every Monday exclusively on CNNSI.com.
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