This Would Give Record a Spin

We hate to be the ones flickering the lights and telling everyone to drink up, but . . .

Question: What is the only thing that can disappear faster than No. 62?

Answer: Mark McGwire’s place in history, if he doesn’t keep hitting home runs this season.

We don’t like it, don’t want to believe it, don’t want to talk about it, but it’s true.

While the rest of us stagger about this city’s confetti-strewn streets plumb out of adjectives and perspective, Popeye still has some work to do.

It is one thing to break a single-season record with more than two weeks left in the season.

But this country’s finicky nature dictates that more enduring will be the man who has that record when the season ends.

To ensure his place in history, McGwire must continue to hold off the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa and walk away Sept. 27 with his name on that top line.

While one home run race has ended, another is just beginning.

Not that this one won’t have the same conclusion. It probably will. McGwire leads Sosa by four home runs and has one more game remaining, 17 to 16.

While at the beginning of the week they were fairly even, McGwire’s two big swings seemed to knock Sosa flat out. Standing helplessly in right field for McGwire’s 61st and 62nd home runs, Sosa seemed to shrink with every pop of every flashbulb.

Sosa clapped and smiled and even jogged in for a hug, graceful and classy in disappointment.

But when McGwire looked out there to salute him during his 61st trot, he couldn’t, because Sosa’s head was down.

And when Sosa struggled at the plate during the two-game series in Busch Stadium, barely getting a ball out of the infield, his head was everywhere but down.

So it will probably end up the same way. McGwire probably will end up with about 66 homers, Sosa might reach 61, and nobody will get their biceps in a twist.

But what if it doesn’t? What if McGwire, having reached this awesome mountaintop, discovers he barely has the strength to stumble down the other side?

Nobody has been there before, remember? There are no signposts, no guidebooks, nobody to call, nobody who can help.

What if McGwire steps to the plate in Cincinnati or Houston this week--fans roaring, the sky lit--and subconsciously decides, enough already? Remember, this is a man who, only a few months ago, angrily compared parts of his life to that of a caged animal. This is a man who celebrated the halfway point of his record chase by blowing off the media and blowing up at others.

This was before friends persuaded him to relax and enjoy it, which he did, delightfully changing the tenor of the race and his attitude.

“Yeah, I learned a lot about myself through all this,” he said Tuesday night.

But what if these changes were as temporary as the bright tails of a Roman candle? What if, after a quick round of parties and talk shows, McGwire subconsciously decides he has already had his fun?

The bat gets heavier, the season gets longer, the attention feels as anticlimactic as the expectations. . . .

And up in Chicago, in the focused parameters of a wild-card race, Sosa is still taking them deep. Still hitting home runs in an attempt to win ballgames. Still motivated, still hopping and gesturing and telling his mother he loves her.

What happens if, on the final day of the season, McGwire collapses from exhaustion while Sosa is being smothered by a teammates after hitting a home run to put the Cubs in the playoffs?

And, by the way, that would be home run No. 65.

While McGwire has been stuck on 64.

Sosa is the home run champion, and what happens then?

Put it this way:

Ten years from now, when some lumpy outfielder from Milwaukee has hit 33 home runs at the All-Star break, who will everybody say he is chasing? Sammy Sosa.

Twenty years from now, when everyone is talking about unbreakable home run records and remarkable seasons, who will be the first name that is mentioned? Sammy Sosa.

And when another player finally does challenge this year’s winner, whose family will be sitting in the stands on that record-setting day to receive a hug from the new hero? Sammy Sosa’s.

McGwire’s Tuesday night moment was special and deserves to last forever. But if he doesn’t hold the single-season home run record, how much will ultimately remain of his memory?

To understand this country’s fascination with only the best, St. Louis fans need to look no further than their own Lou Brock, the Hall of Famer who dramatically broke Maury Wills’ single-season stolen base record in 1974.

When people nationwide talk about stolen bases, what is the first name they mention? Rickey Henderson, of course.

In 1982, he broke Brock’s record.

We don’t like it, don’t want to believe it, don’t want to talk about it, but it’s true.

In meeting one of sports’ greatest challenges--knocking the bejeezus out of it, actually--Mark McGwire has only earned himself another challenge.

“How about 70? How about, we both hit 70?” McGwire was saying to Sosa the other day. “What if we ended the year in a tie? Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

Sosa smiled and nodded, but he probably didn’t mean it. McGwire laughed, but he probably didn’t really mean it either.

The chase continues.

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For complete coverage of this year’s home run-record chase, with additional photos, stats, audio and video, go to The Times’ Web site at https://www.latimes.com/homeruns.

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* RECORD RATINGS

Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run gave Fox the highest regular-season baseball rating in 16 years. C5

* NO JOSHING

What would Josh Gibson say about No. 62? The Negro league catcher hit 84 home runs in 1936. C5

* ‘THE NEW MICHAEL JORDAN’

After McGwire hit it long on the field, he is expected to score big in the endorsement game. D1