Summer of 62: McGwire Makes History

Hammering a home run Tuesday night that was short in distance but long on history, St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire broke the most hallowed record in baseball--perhaps in sports.

The 6-foot-5, 250-pound personification of a power hitter belted his 62nd homer of the season in the fourth inning of a 6-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs to break the record for home runs in a season and ignite a roaring and emotional celebration at Busch Stadium.

A crowd of 49,987, on its feet in noisy anticipation of the record homer, saw McGwire connect off right-handed pitcher Steve Trachsel, scorching a low line drive that barely cleared the outfield fence just inside the left field foul pole.

It was estimated at 341 feet, the shortest home run the Cardinal first baseman has hit this season. It was a chip shot compared to some of the 400- and 500-foot homers he has hit during a season in which his dramatic home run race with Cub right fielder Sammy Sosa has captured national attention and been credited with revitalizing interest in baseball after the 1994 players’ strike.

The redheaded McGwire, who launched his baseball career by hitting a home run in his first at-bat in the Claremont American Little League and went on to play at Claremont Damien High and USC, had tied the record for homers in a season with his 61st on Monday. Roger Maris of the New York Yankees had held the record for 37 years, hitting 61 in 1961 to break the 34-year-old record of 60, set by the legendary Babe Ruth in 1927.

Only Ruth, Maris and McGwire have reached the 60 plateau, but while the muscular McGwire now stands alone, his record--and lead in the 1998 home run race--is not set in stone.

Sosa, whose gregarious personality has helped light up their competition, is four behind. He failed to hit a homer in the two head-to-head meetings with McGwire on Monday and Tuesday, but he has 58 with 17 games left. McGwire, who has homered every 7.36 at-bats this year, has 18 left and could come close to an improbable 70 if he maintains that ratio.

“I don’t know how high the [St. Louis] arch is, but I honestly feel that the arch is off my back,” McGwire said after Tuesday’s game.

“It’s an absolutely incredible feeling. I’m almost speechless.”

The pressure and expectations have been building for McGwire since he hit a combined 58 homers last year, when he was traded to the Cardinals from the Oakland Athletics in late July. He has faced constant questions about his ability to break the home run record since the start of spring training but responded with a focused and consistent performance that prompted St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa to describe the 34-year-old McGwire as a “self-contained phenomenon.”

McGwire broke out of that self containment after hitting No. 62.

“I’ve been trying to imagine what that trip around the bases would be like, and I was sort of telling myself that I think I will be floating, and I sure in the heck was floating,” McGwire said. “I’m going to have to see the tape, because right now I don’t remember any of it.”

McGwire slapped hands with each of the Chicago infielders, tapped his heart and pointed to the sky when he reached the plate and lifted his 10-year-old son, Matt, who was serving as a bat boy, in a bear hug. He individually embraced each of the Cardinal players as they streamed from the dugout, hugged Sosa, who had trotted in from right field to offer congratulations, and then climbed into the stands near the Cardinals’ dugout to embrace members of the Maris family, including the late outfielder’s four sons and two daughters.

The game was interrupted for 10 minutes during the celebration, which concluded with McGwire taking a microphone to salute Sosa, the Maris family and his teammates, and to dedicate the record-breaking home run to the fans of St. Louis.

The game was the last of a Cardinal homestand. The team opens a two-game series in Cincinnati tonight.

“After doing what I did yesterday for my father [hitting his 61st homer on his father’s 61st birthday] and having my son show up [from his Orange County home] this was a great way to end the homestand,” McGwire said. “I really wanted to do it here, for these fans. I think there will be a lot of champagne on the flight to Cincinnati tonight.”

The home run record, taken to mythical heights by Ruth, has long been considered the most romanticized and important in baseball. McGwire’s feat--given the pressure of the media and fan interest and the timetable of a 162-game schedule that ends Sept. 27--is considered by most in baseball to be more demanding than the inevitability, for instance, of Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s record for playing in consecutive games or Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb’s record for hits in a career. Neither accomplishment was confined to a single season.

Enhancing McGwire’s accomplishment is that he reached 62 much faster than Ruth had reached 60 or Maris had reached 61. This was the Cardinals’ 145th game. Ruth needed 154 and Maris 163 in the first season of 162 games (the Yankees played one extra because of a tie). The expanded schedule resulted in the Maris record carrying an asterisk, but there will be no taint to the McGwire mark.

“What a feat,” he said of the quickness with which he set the record.

Roger Maris Jr., at a news conference after Tuesday’s game, reflected on the end of his father’s reign and said he was numb with emotion. But he called McGwire a worthy new home run king who had treated the family and his father’s memory with grace and caring.

McGwire has said repeatedly in recent weeks that he truly believes Maris is “watching and walking with me.”

And when Hall of Fame officials gave both Sosa and McGwire a pregame opportunity to hold the bat Maris had used to hit his 61st homer, McGwire rubbed the barrel against his chest and said, “Roger, you’re with me.”

Memorabilia collectors had speculated that the record ball might be worth millions of dollars, but it landed in an unoccupied area under the lower-level seats in left field, where it was retrieved by groundskeeper Tim Fornaris, who gave it to McGwire, who in turn gave it to officials for the Hall of Fame.

For McGwire, there was the gift of a ’62 convertible from team owners--”a classic car for a classic player,” said managing partner Bill DeWitt--and the first historic achievement award from Commissioner Bud Selig, who credited McGwire with helping spark worldwide interest during a “summer to remember.”

Above all, there was the echo of the crowd and a record that many believed was unbreakable.

* A MOMENT TO REMEMBER: What does McGwire’s home run mean for baseball? And how does it rate among the greatest sports moments in history? S1