Mac Hacks Way to NL Record

Mark McGwire buried Hack Wilson under 922 feet of home runs Tuesday night, rocketing to within four of the major league record 61 hit by Roger Maris in 1961.

The St. Louis Cardinal first baseman slugged his 56th and 57th home runs in a 7-1 victory over the Florida Marlins to break Wilson’s National League record of 56, set in 1930, a remarkable season in which the Chicago Cub outfielder also established the major league record of 190 runs batted in.

A crowd of 37,014 at Pro Player Stadium, where the disbanded and dispirited Marlins have attracted few fans and fewer reasons to cheer, responded to McGwire’s two homers with thunderous approval, prompting curtain calls after each and more waves when he took his position to renewed ovations.

“It’s a pretty awesome feat,” McGwire said when asked what it meant to break the National League record. “I didn’t realize until the other day what the record was. It’s totally exciting. Everyone in the dugout hugged me and the fans of South Florida gave me two curtain calls. There is no greater feeling for an athlete.”

The next major objective, of course, is Maris. Asked if he can see that light at the end of the tunnel now, McGwire said:

“I know it’s going to be tough. As I’ve said a thousand times, hitting home runs isn’t easy. The pitchers don’t put the ball on a tee for you. I want to just enjoy this right now. Only one person knows if it’s meant to be, and that’s the man upstairs.”

With 57, McGwire is now two home runs ahead of the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in this captivating duel.

Every time Sosa mounts a challenge, as he did by tying McGwire with his 55th homer Monday night, McGwire seems to respond. But he insisted again that he can only take care of himself, that he isn’t motivated by what Sosa does.

Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said he believes that’s true.

“Mark has such incredible discipline and is so focused that he doesn’t need Sammy and doesn’t need a target number,” La Russa said. “I turned to [pitching coach] Dave Duncan before Mark’s fourth at bat [when he hit his first home run] and said ‘it’s just unbelievable the pressure he’s under. It’s unfair to ask him to keep doing what he’s doing.’ Then he did it again.”

Now, La Russa said, he believes both McGwire and Sosa will blow by Maris.

“Based on what they’ve done the last five months, I think they’ll both hit 70,” he said. “The only thing that might stop either one is not getting the at-bats.”

Livan Hernandez, 23, a hero in the distant memory that was the Marlins’ World Series victory last year, and veteran Donn Pall, 36, opted to challenge McGwire on Tuesday night with painful results.

McGwire had a single in three at-bats against Hernandez when he opened the seventh inning by hitting a 1-1 fastball on a towering trajectory toward the blue canvas batting eye stretched across the field level seats in center field.

“That ball was hit so high,” Florida coach Rich Donnelly said later, “that fans had time to go to the concession stand, get a hot dog, put mustard and relish on it and get back to their seats before it came down.”

It came down an estimated 450 feet from the plate--a wedge shot compared to the 545-foot blast McGwire hit off Hernandez on May 16 at Busch Stadium--as youngsters and oldsters scrambled perilously across the tarp in pursuit of the ball.

Many of those same fans were already on the tarp and waiting when McGwire provided another souvenir off Pall in the ninth, breaking the Wilson record by clubbing a first-pitch forkball an estimated 472 feet.

“Jeez,” said Florida Manager Jim Leyland of the two shots, “they looked like pingpong balls going out.”

A part of history?

“I didn’t want to be part of history,” Pall said. “There are a lot of mass murderers out there who are part of history. It means nothing to me, no matter what number it was, but I can hold my head high. I went after him with my best stuff.”

The home run balls were retrieved by Jason Duncan, 11, of Fort Lauderdale, who was attending with his family, and Michael Pitt, 17, a high school senior from Sanibel Island, Fla.

Pitt said later that he has car payments and a school trip to Europe to finance and the first thing he thought about was selling No. 57 to McGwire or a collector for $5,000 or more, but he agreed to give it to McGwire, as Duncan and his family did, because “this is baseball, this is priceless.”

McGwire, who traded for the ball when he hit his 400th career homer in New York earlier this year and had wanted the 50th of this year but didn’t get it, gave both Duncan and Pitt two autographed bats, two balls and two jerseys, as well as six tickets each to tonight’s game, when he faces Jesus Sanchez, the victim of his 478-foot 17th homer.

Fifty-seven? McGwire technically hit 58 last year, 34 with the Oakland Athletics and 24 after being traded to the Cardinals.

He is loose and having fun, he said, and has 24 games left in which to eclipse Maris.

“I’d love to go back and play with those guys,” he said, referring to Wilson and other legends, “but I’ve never really been a student of history and I think that helps me because I don’t think about it and am not burdened by it.”

Prior to his historic accomplishment Tuesday night, former Angel Manager Doug Rader, who as the A’s hitting instructor in 1992 helped McGwire rebound from his 1991 season when, beset with personal problems, he hit .201 with 22 homers. They embraced, Rader wished him well, and La Russa speculated that McGwire had “a little extra inspiration” because of it.

McGwire, of course, seems to have an entire country pulling for him. He had that in mind when asked if what he and Sosa were doing didn’t reflect the poor state of major league pitching.

“Who cares?” he said. “It’s history. Why criticize? Why find fault? Why ask, ‘why are they doing it, what’s wrong with it?’ Everybody’s excited. It’s a great thing for baseball and America. Let’s just ride the wave. I mean, I wish everybody could feel what I’m feeling.”

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* COMING UP EMPTY: Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs was hitless in four at-bats in a 6-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. C7

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National Lumber Company

Most homers in an NL season: *--*

Player (Year Team) HR AB-HR Mark McGwire (1998 St. Louis Cardinals) 57 7.6 Hack Wilson (1930 Chicago Cubs) 56 10.4 Sammy Sosa (1998 Chicago Cubs) 55 9.9 Ralph Kiner (1949 Pittsburgh Pirates) 54 10.2 George Foster (1977 Cincinnati Reds) 52 11.8 Willie Mays (1965 San Francisco Giants) 52 10.7 Ralph Kiner (1947 Pittsburgh Pirates) 51 11.1 Johnny Mize (1947 New York Giants) 51 11.5 Willie Mays (1955 New York Giants) 51 11.4

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