Mark McGwire's 70-home run season: A timeline of monster shots and memorable moments
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Sosa would hit 61 three days later and followed with his 62nd homer on Sept. 12. That generated an unmatched excitement for the second half of the season. McGwire provided his voice for a 1999 episode of The Simpsons titled "Brother's Little Helper", where he played himself.
McGwire hit four homers with 12 RBIs in his first four games — all at Busch Stadium — to set the tone for a record-breaking season. In a 1999 list of the 100 greatest baseball players, The Sporting News ranked McGwire at number 91. The list had been compiled during the 1998 season and included statistics through the 1997 season. That year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2005, The Sporting News published an update of its list with McGwire at number 84. NBC News comes right out and calls that period of baseball history the Steroid Era, and players left and right were using the performance-enhancing drug; MLB wouldn't even implement wide-scale steroid testing until 2003.
Value of McGwire's home run ball drops
I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in Saint Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come. Did you know that Mark McGwire is one-of-only three Major League players with four fifty-homer seasons, alongside Babe Ruth and Sammy Sosa in the Record Book.
Mark McGwire had been known throughout his career as a great home run hitter. In 1998, he changed the record books as the whole world watched. He, and Chicago Cub Sammy Sosa, brought back memories of the 1961 Mickey Mantle / Roger Maris home run race. McGwire eventually "won" by hitting the record breaking sixty-second homer seven days before Sosa. McGwire went around the bases eight more times before season's end, leaving the new record at seventy.
BASEBALL MARK MCGWIRE 70 HOME RUNS SINGLE SEASON 1998 LIMITED EDITION COVER
At the time of his retirement, his 583 home runs during his playing career were the fifth-most in MLB history; they are currently ranked 11th. During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster.
McGwire was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on August 22, 1986, with the Oakland Athletics. Mark McGwire is known as one of the greatest power hitters in the history of baseball. He led the league in home runs five times, in addition to being a 12-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion. Considered one of the slowest runners in the game, McGwire had the fewest career triples of any player with 5,000 or more at-bats, and had just 12 stolen bases while being caught stealing eight times.
Advanced Batting
McGwire's decision to admit using steroids was prompted by his decision to become hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. According to McGwire, he took steroids for health reasons rather than to improve performance. McGwire was honored with the inaugural Babe Ruth Home Run Award for leading Major League Baseball in home runs. Although McGwire had the prestige of the home-run record, Sammy Sosa won the 1998 NL MVP award, as his contributions helped propel the Cubs to the playoffs . Many credited the Sosa-McGwire home run chase in 1998 with "saving baseball" by attracting new, younger fans and bringing back old fans soured by the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike.
McGwire kept his high level of offensive production from 1998 going in 1999 while setting or extending several significant records. For the fourth consecutive season, he led MLB in home runs with 65. It was also his fourth consecutive season with at least 50 home runs, extending his own major league record. Sosa, who hit 63 home runs in 1999, again trailed McGwire.
Mark McGwire Home Runs
McGwire made a name for himself at the beginning of his career with the Oakland Athletics before moving to the St. Louis Cardinals for what would be the twilight of his career. Sosa, after two brief and lackluster stints with other teams, joined the Cardinals' National League rivals, the Chicago Cubs, and immediately became a star player on the team. Few players in the game have left as big of an impact on two organizations the way Mark McGwire did.
"We had tape delay. It was before really became a prime-time show," McGwire said in 2016. "I don't even know how many home runs I hit. I just remember ... that it was pretty awesome winning it. It's the only one that I got to win, even though I've done pretty well in the first rounds a few of them." Whether with Oakland or St. Louis, McGwire had plenty of memorable feats. Yet, former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa continued to deny any knowledge of McGwire’s PED use. Sosa and McGwire’s accomplishments may look great on paper, but it will never get them where every player dreams to one day be, Cooperstown.
McGwire was born in the Los Angeles suburb of Pomona, California. He attended Damien High School in La Verne, California, where he played baseball, golf, and basketball. He was drafted in the 8th round by the Montreal Expos in the 1981 amateur draft but did not sign. He played college baseball at the University of Southern California under coach Rod Dedeaux.
Thus, they became the first, and still only, players in major league history to hit 60 or more home runs in consecutive seasons. McGwire also set a record from 1998 to 1999 for home runs in a two-season period with 135. He also owned the highest four-season home-run total, with 245 from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, he drove in an NL-leading 147 runs while only having 145 hits, the highest RBI-per-hit tally for a season in baseball history. McGwire led the major leagues in home runs in five different seasons, and set the major-league record for home runs hit in a four-season period from 1996 to 1999 with 245. He demonstrated exemplary patience as a batter, producing a career .394 on-base percentage and twice leading the major leagues in bases on balls.
The ESPN 30-for-30 documentary "Long Gone Summer" will chronicle the 1998 home-run chase between the Cardinals' Mark McGwire and the Cubs' Sammy Sosa — a memorable season that has been tainted by steroids. The first award was given to Mark McGwire after his 70-home-run season in 1998. It is also believed that McGwire later encouraged Jim Edmonds, another Southern California resident who was traded to St. Louis, to forgo free agency and sign a contract with the Cardinals in 2000.
The two faced a mass of media, as every eye in the country turned to see who would win the place in the record books. On September 8, McGwire did just that as he hit an 88 mile per hour fastball off of Steve Trachsel of the Chicago Cubs. Sosa was there to celebrate the milestone; he celebrated his own five days later.
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