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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1835332, member: 289"] THE GREAT RACE Then came the excitement. The home run pace didn’t slacked from 1994, although record-breaking was again postponed as the strike bled into the 1995 season. Still, Albert Belle became the 12th player to hit 50 home runs in a season with exactly that number. He did it in 143 games, which over 162 games would come to 57 home runs. But Mark McGwire emerged from a long stretch of injuries that had held him back to hit 39 homers in only 104 games, a 61 homer pace. He didn’t so much get better in the late 90’s as he simply became healthier, although he did say that getting the chance to observe the game and other hitters during the years when he couldn’t play much, (27 games in 1993, 47 the next year), helped him. Jay Buhner hit 40 homers in 126 games, a 51 homer rate. Juan Gonzalez hit 27 in 90 games, a 49 homer rate. Mike Piazza had the highest rate the National League with 32 in 112 games, (46). 1996 was a full season and McGwire celebrated by hitting 52 home runs in 130 games, (a rate of 65 per 162 games, pointing toward what would happen in a couple of years). Brady Anderson improbably rose from 16 home runs in 143 games in 1995, (18 per 162) to 50 in 149 games, (54 per 162). He’d never hit more than 21 and fell the next year to 18 in 151 games (19 per 162). People are still trying to figure out what happened there. Ken Griffey Jr. hit 49 homers in 140 games, (57 per 162). Juan Gonzalez hit 47 in 134 games (also 57). Belle hit 48 in 158 games (49). Andres Galarraga led the NL with 47 in 159 games but a new force was on the horizon: Sammy Sosa, who hit 40 in 124 games (52 per 162). To this point, Roger Maris’ home run record had lasted 36 years and nobody had actually hit more than 52 home runs in that time, so it had never been seriously challenged. Batters would get hot early and be ahead of Maris’ pace, (Roger had been asked to try to hit for a better average in 1961 and didn’t have a home run in the first 11 games- then they told him to go back to hitting home runs), but they would always fade and wind up well short. But in 1997, Mark McGwire got off on a roll that made people wonder if Maris’ record would finally go down. He hit 11 home runs in April and another 8 in May, 10 more in June and two more before the All-Star break for a total of 31. Then he hit three more in two days, 7/15-16 to get to 34. But there were rumors that the Athletics were trying to unload his contract. Perhaps because of that, he didn’t hit another the rest of the month. He was finally traded on July 31st to the St. Louis Cardinals, where his old manager Tony LaRussa was now employed. #35 didn’t come until August 8th. He hit 24 homers in the final seven weeks of the season. He was ninth in the American league with 34 home runs and ninth in the National League with 24 home runs but #1 in the majors with 58 home runs in 156 games (60 over 162 games). McGwire hadn’t yet caught Maris but if he’d somehow been able to play 162 games a year, he would have had consecutive years of 61, 65 and 60 and it seemed inevitable that he would catch Maris. But others were also knocking on the door. Sammy Sosa wasn’t one of them: he did play 162 games but could muster a measly 36 home runs. But Ken Griffey Jr. belted 56 in 157 games, (58 per 162). Juan Gone hit 42 in 133 (51). Larry Walker hit 49 in 153 games ((52) while batting a whopping .366. 1998 was the year. Griffey again hit 56 home runs, this time in 161 games. Albert Belle hit 49 in 163 games, (I’ve never understood how or why they can count stats in partial game: The White Sox had an 80-82 record but Belle played 163 games? ). Jose Canseco hit 46 in 151 games (49 per 162), Juan Gone had 45 in 154 games (47). A new name, Manny Ramirez, had replaced Belle in Cleveland. He hit 45 in 150 games (49). Another, Greg Vaughn hit 50 in 158 games for the Padres, (51). Nobody cared. All eyes were on McGwire. Mark again hit 11 home runs in April. Then he had a monstrous May with 16 homers to bring him to 27. He “cooled off” to 10 in June but still had an amazing 37 homers halfway through the season. But something even more amazing had happened. Sammy Sosa re-emerged in a very big way. Sammy had hit 6 homers in April and 7 more in May and was 14 short of McGwire as the month of June began. But in June, he “busted out all over” to hit a record 20 home runs in one month. He hit two on June 1st, one on the third, One each from the 5th to the 8th, , one on the 13th, three on the 15th, one on the 17th, two on the 19th, two more on the 20th and one on the 21st, 24th, 25th and 30th. That gave Sammy 33 home runs, just 3 short of “Big Mac”. Neither McGwire or Sosa hit another prior to the All-Star break. Baseball geared up for an incredible race in the second half of the season. I think most people wanted McGwire to win it, possibly because he was white and American while Sosa was black and from the Dominican Republic but more likely because McGwire had been knocking on the door for the last several years while Sosa seemed an interloper. Also the much larger McGwire was hitting some of the longest home runs seen since heyday of Ruth and Mantle. Sosa was more or a line-drive hitter and his shots were not as majestic, although they got there fast. McGwire seemed like Paul Bunyan, or maybe John Henry: [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bunyan"]Paul Bunyan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/URL] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_(folklore)"]John Henry (folklore) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/URL] McGwire was more of a folk hero. Sosa was more the “steam-powered jackhammer”. But any thought of rooting for one guy and against the other fell away when people saw Sammy’s big smile and good nature and the fact that McGwire seemed to like him as much as everyone else did. Here is a blow by blow of their daily rivalry, documented on the nightly news, not just sports reports and, in the late going by constant TV cut-ins to check their at bats. Here is, literally a blow by blow of what we saw that summer, 18 years ago. 7/9 Sosa hits #34 7/10 Sosa hits #35. 7/11 McGwire hits #38 7/12 McGwire hits #39 and #40 7/17 Sosa hits #36 but McGwire hits #41 and #42 7/20 McGwire hits #43 7/22 Sosa hits #37 7/26 Sosa hits #38 but McGwire hits #44. 7/27 Sosa hits #39 and #40 7/28 Sosa hits #41 but McGwire hits #45 7/31 Sosa hits #42 8/5 Sosa hits #43 8/8 Sosa hits #44 but McGwire hits #46 – in the same game 8/10 Sosa hits #45 and #46 to catch McGwire 8/11 McGwire takes the lead again with #47 8/16 Sosa ties it up again with #47 8/19 In Chicago, Sosa took the lead with a 5th inning home run, (#48) but McGwire took it back with homers in the 8th and 10th innings to tie and then win the game, 8-6. He now had 49 home runs. 8/20 In New York. McGwire hit #50 and #51 off the Mets. 8/21 Sosa hit #49 8/22 McGwire hit #52 8/23 Sosa hit #50 and #51 but McGwire hit #53 8/26 Sosa hit #52 but McGwire hit #54 8/28 Sosa hit #53 8/30 Sosa hit #54 but McGwire hit #55 8/31 Sosa tied it again with #55 9/1 McGwire hit #56 and #57 9/2 Sosa hit #56 but McGwire hit #58 and #59 9/4 Sosa hit #57 9/5 Sosa hit #58 but McGwire hit #60 It was obvious by now that Maris’ record was finally going down after 37 years. And the Cubs were scheduled for a series in St. Louis. I remember the Labor Day storm of 1998 hit and my yard was full of downed tree limbs. I had to spend a weekend with a saw and axe and some clippers trying to tame that jungle but I had a radio and earphones on and every time McGwire or Sosa came to the plate, I rushed inside to see what would happen. I even kept the TV on so I wouldn’t have to fumble with the remote when their turn came. On 9/7, McGwire hit a home run in the first inning to tie Maris’ record. Neither player could add to their total in the remainder of that game, although they each got an additional hit. McGwire had made contact with the Maris family and they were his guests for these games. (Roger had, of course, finished his career in St. Louis). #61 had gone a McGwiresque 430 feet. I, like everyone else, hoped #62 would be something special- maybe a majestic 500 footer. It turned out to be his shortest home run of the season but nobody cared: [MEDIA=youtube]6cMwDLxr-1A[/MEDIA] That was September 8, 1998, one of those days you never forget. I remember the feeling it game me, a feeling I wouldn’t have again until American Pharoah won the Triple Crown in 2015- also after 37 years. I’d not just seen a great achievement- I’d seen history. I was not quite 8 years old and not yet a baseball fan when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run in 1961. For all intents, this was a record that had been in place all my life. I felt like I was living in a new world. The sight of all the downed limbs and the people working to clear them seemed symbolic. But the great race wasn’t over: 9/11 Sosa hits #59 9/12 Sosa hits #60 9/13 Sosa hits #61 and #62 to tie McGwire again. 9/15 McGwire again takes the lead with #63 9/16 Sosa ties it up again with #63. 9/18 McGwire takes the lead back with #64 9/20 and he extends it with #65. 9/23 Sosa ties it up again with #64 and #65 9/25 Sosa takes the lead for a few minutes with #66 in the top of the fourth in Houston but McGwire ties it up again in the bottom of the fifth in S. Louis. Nobody knew it but Sammy was finally done. Big Mac wasn’t. 9/26 Closing it out with a flourish, McGwire hits #67 and #68… 9/27 and #69 and #70. [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_TAd4gUAA"]Big Mac hits 70th home run[/URL] Neither baseball nor any other sport had ever seen anything like it and they’ve never seen anything like it since. It’s hard to image how any other sport could produce such a day-to-day spectacle. Buck O’Neill, in Ken Burns 1994 documentary “Baseball” said ““When Babe Ruth hit the ball, it had a distinct sound. I had never heard that sound before, and the next time I heard it, I’m in Washington in the clubhouse and I raced out, it was Josh hitting the ball. The next time I heard it was right here in Kansas City. I was coming out of the Stadium Club, and I heard it again. Who was hitting that ball? Bo Jackson.” [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8yMH6v3fM"]The Ultimate Ball Field Sound[/URL] In 1998, he was asked if he heard that same sound when Mark McGwire hit the ball. He said he did not. [/QUOTE]

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