McGwire’s Hat Marks the Spot

It was just moments into the game when Susan Sandell heard a roar from the Abbey restaurant, a block from her Seal Beach apartment.

She knew immediately that one of two things had happened: “Either [Mark] McGwire hit a home run,” she said, “or they got a new shipment of hats.”

As it turned out, McGwire hit the homer in the first inning, matching the record Roger Maris set in 1961 and sending the bar-full of fans into a fit of cheering and toasting.

The hats arrived about 15 minutes later. Hard to say which event got people more excited.

McGwire, who spends the off-season in Huntington Beach, has never set foot in the Abbey, a gourmet pizza and beer spot that opened two months ago. But he’s made the place Orange County’s unofficial hangout for home run fans.

It’s all about that hat. The hat he wears at every press conference and in every postgame photo op, the gray one with the red script that says The Abbey, Seal Beach.

McGwire started wearing it about 20 games ago, and he’s hit 15 home runs since. Who can blame him for keeping it around?

Brothers Mike and Rob Burdick, who own the restaurant and know McGwire, couldn’t be happier. They visited the slugger in Chicago a few weeks ago and gave him the hat. He offered to wear it at press conferences, maybe help out the new business a little.

Now, especially when the St. Louis Cardinals are playing, it’s hard to squeeze in the door. “Last night, I was outside at 10, and there was a line of cars driving by, people pointing at the place,” said Mike Burdick, with a bit of wonder in his voice. “If just 1% of those people stop in and have a bite to eat, we’ll be in great shape.”

Monday was typical of the scene the Abbey has become. Inside, customers stood elbow-to-elbow, straining to get a look at the three television screens. Most were locals.

“I haven’t been this excited since the Mets in ’69. It’s good, clean fun,” said Gloria Maria Schwartz of Seal Beach. Added her husband, Don: “This is great for the game. It’s bringing people back, and it’s making people aware of the history of the game. As a historian [at Long Beach State], I like that part.”

Outside, about 70 people stood in line for a promised shipment of hats, due at 11 a.m. The hats arrived late. People were forced to choose: Watch the game or stand in line. Most didn’t budge, so they missed McGwire’s one home run of the day. But they got hats.

Triumphant hat-buyers included Hank and Lily Rios, vacationers from Philadelphia who heard about the Abbey hat while on the Queen Mary Friday. And there was David Vincent of Anaheim, who promised a hat for his daughter in St. Louis. “She’s got tickets to his last home game. She’s going to try to get McGwire to sign it,” he said.

The hats--only one to a customer--sold for $20. And the 50 that came in Saturday were gone within minutes. The restaurant has sold nearly 1,000 so far, and has taken names for another 1,000 mail orders. “Who could have guessed?” said Burdick.

And who could have guessed that an otherwise insignificant game between Chicago and St. Louis would fill a new bar in Seal Beach on a sunny Labor Day afternoon? The place was so crowded that customers occasionally pushed their way outside, for a breath of air and some quiet.

After the early home run, Rob Burdick proudly stripped a “0” off the sign that hung in the Abbey window and added a “1”, marking McGwire’s 61st homer. There was a clear expectation that it wouldn’t last long, and that McGwire would hold the record alone by the end of the day.

During each at-bat, the bar grew boisterous, cheering and chanting: “Home run, home run, home run.” His third hit, the ball soared, then fell inside the park. An easy out, but hope surged. “Ooooh,” went the crowd. “Aaaah,” followed quickly when the ball was caught.

“That’s the rush you get on a roller coaster,” said Joseph Barbara, owner of Finbars Italian restaurant down the street. “You’re going up, and then you’re down. But it sure is exciting.

“This is one of those great moments in baseball,” he said. “You’re going to remember it for years. Look how long the last record held. It’s not like in a couple of years, someone else gets it.”

When the other slugger in the game, Sammy Sosa, who has 58 homers, came to the plate, the crowd cheered just as wildly.

For hours, beer flowed as baseball stories flew. “Remember when we listened to Hank Aaron break the [career home run] record in ‘74?” reminisced Larry Rusin and Robert Sapia, who played Little League together on a Downey team. Rusin now lives in Seal Beach and Sapia in Huntington Beach.

“Yeah, remember,” Rusin said, “we were listening between innings on a little transistor radio.”

Rusin said he is bound to remember this season just as clearly. “He’s going to blow the record away,” he said, “and he couldn’t be a better guy. Just like the hat, he’s trying to help out a friend. He could get a million bucks for wearing a Nike hat.”

Like many in the bar, Rusin said it was easy to cheer McGwire. “He’s a good role model, not just for the kids, but for single parents. As a single father myself, that means a lot to me.”

James Buccini of Long Beach said McGwire’s home run gave him chills. “I’m 68, I’ve been following baseball for more than 50 years, and I never had a more exciting moment than when he hit that home run,” he said. “It was a great thrill for all of baseball, all over the world.”