Mac Hacks Way to NL Record

With two mighty cracks, Big Mac passed Hack.

Mark McGwire homered twice, raising his season total to 57 and breaking Hack Wilson’s 68-year-old NL record with an electrifying performance that led the St. Louis Cardinals over the Florida Marlins 7-1 Tuesday night.

“It’s a pretty awesome feat,” McGwire said. “I’m totally excited.”

McGwire homered against Livan Hernandez leading off the seventh inning, sending a 1-1 pitch an estimated 450 feet over the center-field wall.

“It hung up there so long, I wondered if it was ever going to come down,” McGwire said.

Two innings later, he hit the first pitch from Donn Pall to almost the same spot. This time the estimated distance was 472 feet.

It was McGwire’s seventh multihomer game this season and the 50th of his career, leaving him four short of Roger Maris’ record with 24 games left. He began the night tied with Sammy Sosa at 55 homers in their race to break Maris’ 37-year-old record.

McGwire is on a pace to finish with 67 homers.

“This is a great thing happening in baseball,” he said. “We don’t know if it’ll ever happen again.”

No. 56 landed on a tarp beyond the wall, and several boys scrambled for the souvenir as the crowd of 37,014 gave McGwire a standing ovation. He touched the plate with a big grin and playfully punched teammate Ron Gant in the stomach before returning to the dugout.