Extra, Extra! Read All About the Extra Money

Mark McGwire’s record-breaking 62nd home run was worth about

$1 million to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The newspaper received more than $300,000 in extra advertising revenue and $600,000 in circulation revenue and poster sales after the historic home run.

After the homer, according to Editor & Publisher magazine, the Post-Dispatch sold 1.54 million copies of the next day’s edition. The paper’s daily circulation is about 330,000.

Post-Dispatch Vice President Terrance Egger said, “I feel like he hit the ball, and we caught it.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for consecutive games played?

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The breakthrough: The late Florence Griffith Joyner holds the women’s world record in the 100 meters at 10.49 seconds, but she startled the world of track and field on June 25, 1988, when she won the 100 in 10.89 seconds while running into a slight head wind at an invitational meet at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.

Her previous best 100 time was 10.96. So it was an improvement of seven-hundredths of a second.

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Alternate plan: Third baseman Vinny Castilla of the Colorado Rockies on what he hopes will be a Gold Glove season:

“When you don’t make noise with the lumber, you have to silence the opposition with leather.”

He hasn’t exactly been silent at the plate. Before Tuesday’s game, Castilla was hitting .322 with 45 home runs and 140 runs batted in.

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Extra, extra: Woody Paige of the Denver Post, putting things in perspective for his readers: “We interrupt another reporting of the Starr report with a much more consequential story: John Elway hurt his hamstring Sunday afternoon.”

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Man for all seasons: Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe on Cal Ripken Jr.:

“He is part of baseball history. We will not see his like again. Someone else might hit 68 or 70 home runs in our lifetime, but I believe Ripken’s record of 2,632 consecutive games will stand forever.”

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Sobering up: Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic wasn’t impressed with Arizona State’s 34-15 victory over North Texas after an 0-2 start:

“You can look at the bright side. But this is a football team that teased you with talk of a national championship and, yes, we all inhaled.”

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Expensive trip: The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported that Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners was jolted when he received his twice-monthly paycheck.

Many states collect taxes from visiting ballplayers. Griffey discovered that the states of Missouri and Minnesota, combined, had taken more than $14,000 in taxes for the first five days of the Mariners’ road series against the Royals and the Twins.

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He’s waiting: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “How bad was [the pressure] really for [Roger] Maris in 1961? Tony Kubek once told Terry Pluto of the Akron Beacon-Journal of a conversation he had with Mickey Mantle after Maris died.

“Mickey told me that one day someone is going to break the record and when that player passes away, Mickey said Roger would be waiting for him at the Pearly Gates. Roger would put his arm around the guy and say, ‘Come with me, you’ll finally have some peace and quiet up here.’ ”

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Looking back: On this day in 1978, USC upset No. 1 ranked Alabama, 24-14, at Legion Field in Birmingham.

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Trivia answer: Jim Marshall, 282, with Cleveland in 1960 and Minnesota from 1961 to ’79.

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And finally: St. Louis Cardinal catcher Tom Lampkin, commenting on McGwire’s dominating presence:

“You pick up the newspaper, he’s on the front page. He’s on the front page of the Living section. He’s on the front page of the Money section. They might as well change the name of the paper to the St. Louis Post-McGwire.”