Mark McGwire Fan Page
Another BEEFCAKE Production
The new baseball season is in full swing, and what better way to get it started than Big Mac hitting home run #1 in Game #1 of 1999. The odds of him hitting 71 home runs are very high, but with Mac, you never know.
8.5.99: Tonight, Mac hit home runs No. 500 and 501 at St. Louis. Those two shots put him exactly on pace at where he was last year on his quest to break Maris' record of 61. Any more doubts that No. 70 will not be broken by none mother than the man who initially made it a record? Will he set a new one? We'll have to wait and see.
Right now, Mac has
After breaking Roger Maris' home-run record on Tuesday, September 8th, Mark McGwire hit eight more over eighteen additional games for a total of 70 home runs, a new single-season home run record.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 1998: As Mark McGwire was chasing history and fame during the 1998 baseball season, the media attempted to put a negative spin on the situation when they started to abuse the fact that Mark used a steroid called androstenedione, which, while it is legal in baseball, was not legal in most other sports. They say that the fact that he used steroids should be the "asterisk" to his magical season. (Meanwhile, on the day he did break Maris' record, and set the ultimate record on September 27, there was NO word from most of the media involving his steroid use. Oh, by the way, here's my personal commentary about the whole steroid thingie.)
On August 20th, he set a record for the most seasons with 50 home runs back-to-back. (El Bambino, Babe "Yankee God" Ruth, did it twice - twice!!!)
On September 1st, he set a new NL record for most home runs in a single season, breaking the 56-year-old record by Hack Wilson.
On that night, as well as the following night, he hit two home runs. That's the second time he's done that this season, I believe... two-home-run games back-to-back...
On Saturday, September 5, Big Mac tied Babe Ruth's season record with his 60th home run!
On Monday, September 7, he tied Roger Maris' record with his 61st home run in the 1st inning.
The next night... well, you know what happened...
He would then hit only three more home runs over sixteen days, and during that crucial period, Sammy Sosa was creeping back to haunt him. After Mark broke the record that Tuesday, he was stuck at 62 for a while, and within that time, Sosa hit four home runs of his own to tie McGwire, including two during a September 13th game. So as far as records go, you can say that Sosa was, albeit not the first, the fastest to match AND break Roger Maris' record.
McGwire would hit number 65 on September 20, and during a later at-bat, he, as well as a sellout crowd, had agreed that he hit Number 66 as well, but fan interference was called on the play, and it was labeled a ground-rule double instead. From then on, fans who made their own signs or banners for the stands simply added "1/2" to the total that Mark has hit for the season.
The final regular season weekend of the baseball season: On Friday, September 25th, Sammy Sosa would actually take the lead in the home-run race with his 66th home run, only to claim the lead for 45 minutes, when McGwire hit his own 66th home run during his game in St. Louis. And the rest, you can say, is history. Two home runs apiece for the next two games, an astonishing record set by an astonishing individual.
After September 27th's game, McGwire took the field at Busch Stadium to address the crowd, assuring that he "will never, ever forget" the 1998 baseball season.
And neither will we.
Here are the actual web documents from sports news sources on the night Mark McGwire hit number 62. (NOTE: some might be defunct links.)
I would like to thank Mark McGwire for entertaining us with his astounding exploits and fascinating feats en route to baseball immortality.
And I also want to thank the first members of Army of McGwire who joined our webring during that magical season. If you have a Mark McGwire-oriented website of your own, I encourage you to enter it into the Army.
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home runs!
Here's the scoop from Fox Sports!
And this story from CNN/SI!
Finally, ESPN's take on this historic event!
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