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I agree. The coverage of this home run chase has been racist, jingoistic and shameful. One man has been ignored in favor of the heroic native son. An entire nation owes this man an apology.

I only hope Mark McGwire isn't too hurt to accept it.

Hell, yes! In the Dominican Republic, homegrown Slammin' Sammy Sosa has received boatloads more attention than McGwire has. Television has shamelessly hyped Sosa over McGwire. Day after day Sosa stories have been longer than ones about McGwire. You talk about a bunch of homers.

In the U.S. we're much too PC for that. Anyone with the nerve to openly root for the American to beat the Dominican in the Greater Tater Race is a swine-breathed right-winger with all the racial sensitivity of pine tar.

In a USA Today poll asking people which player they would rather see win the race, 79% said McGwire, and columnists all over the country started pulling their hair out. Hank Aaron said he thought people favored McGwire over Sosa because Sosa is "from the Dominican and also happens to have black skin." In an Internet interview last week one of my colleagues, Gary Smith, wondered if "unconscious racism" was at work in the coverage.

Bullchip!

What kind of numbers do you figure a similar poll would've had in Dominican Today? Sure, Sosa hasn't had as much media coverage in this country as McGwire, but he hasn't done badly. He has been on the cover of this magazine twice by himself. He is getting standing O's in every ballpark. He is a lock for National League MVP. Not bad for never having the home run lead by himself.

Well, O.K., he had it for 57 minutes, on Aug. 19, but got Macuumed up again. McGwire, meanwhile, has slept with the home run lead, and all the heat that goes with it, every night since May 16. You tell me, who are we supposed to cover more? Even Sosa expects Americans to root for McGwire. "Why?" somebody asked him.

"Because he's American," Sosa said.

Remember, this is how Sosa wanted it. He has called McGwire "The Man," rooted openly for McGwire to exceed 61 first and worked his ex-shoeshine-boy, just-happy-to-be-in-America shtick. Meanwhile, he kept free-swinging like mad, happy in the big man's shadow.

You don't think the homers have come easier to Sosa? Please. He has had one fifth the attention, a better hitter batting behind him, a better team around him and all the daily clubhouse juice that comes with being in the wild-card race, and he has taken about 260 more cuts than McGwire. Remember, when the spotlight was the brightest on Sosa, during the two monster games at St. Louis on Sept. 7 and 8, he hardly got the ball airborne. McGwire hit 61 and 62 in what may have been the best hitting performance under pressure ever.

All this doesn't make Sosa less of a hitter than McGwire, it just gives you some idea of what an edge it has been for him to be playing the Catskills all the time McGwire was under the klieg lights of Broadway. Sosa's plan was brilliant, and he just might pass McGwire at the end thanks to it.

True, you could've fit all the media who came to watch Sosa's 62nd into a VW Bug, as opposed to the 600 who made the pilgrimage to see McGwire's. No national network showed it live, nobody gave him a blue Corvette, and no baseballs pitched to him were dipped in decoder ink. The Maris family wasn't there, and neither was commissioner Bud Selig.

That was because his home run did not set a record. Why should the Maris family have been there? Their father's mark was toast. Sosa has been Sammy Sequel all the way. Ever heard of John Landy? He was the guy who ran a sub-four-minute mile after Roger Bannister. Were we supposed to throw him a parade, too?

I don't care who wins this. Sosa has been wonderful. McGwire has been wonderful. Throughout this whole Goosebump Festival, both have shown enough class, humor and sportsmanship to get us through the next dozen NBA seasons. But only one of them has had to slash his way through the attention and the pressure and the bunting the whole way, and it has been McGwire. What are you going to do? Some people feel a little patriotism in that.

So sue.

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Past Editions of Life of Reilly

Issue date: September 21, 1998