Two Cool

Forty-five minutes.

The hit of a lifetime lasted forty-five minutes.

Welcome to the underbelly of the great home run race, where fame requires countless years and thousands of miles . . . and lasts less than an hour.

Welcome to Sammy Sosa’s nightmare.

With a 462-foot laser into the fourth deck above left field at the Astrodome on Friday night, Sosa became the first home-run hitter in baseball history to travel Route 66.

But about a mile later, this familiar red-headed guy pulled up alongside him.

Excuse Sosa while he smacks the dash.

“It’s, uh, very exciting,” Sosa said.

That’s one word for it. Jeff Bagwell had another word.

“This is a joke, an absolute joke,” the Houston Astro first baseman said. “I mean, we’re all laughing at it. McGwire hits one. Sosa hits two. Sosa hits one. McGwire catches him again. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

This morning, with two games left, a couple of things are happening here that would be jokes, if they were not absolutely true.

Sosa and McGwire are tied with a major league record 66 home runs each, with each having probably eight or nine plate appearances left.

Sosa’s Chicago Cubs, after a 6-2 loss to the Astros, are tied with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants for the National League wild-card spot.

“It’s never easy, not in this uniform,” said Mark Grace, Cub first baseman.

Particularly for Sosa, who has seemingly trailed the likes of McGwire from the time he was playing catch with a cardboard glove in the Dominican Republic.

Nobody will argue that Sosa’s trip to this point in his career was much tougher than McGwire’s.

Nobody should argue that Sosa’s trip throughout this season has also been more difficult.

On May 24, he trailed McGwire by 15 home runs, 24-9.

He hit a major league record 20 homers in June to make it a race, but he was obscured again by McGwire’s early September outburst when McGwire broke Roger Maris’ 37-year-old record of 61.

Imagine you are Sosa, standing in right field of St. Louis’ Busch Stadium on the night McGwire hit his 62nd.

Imagine leaving town that night trailing him by four home runs, with the sports world thinking the chase is over.

Then imagine, almost a week later, summoning the strength to hit four homers in three days in Milwaukee to climb back into it.

Before Friday, the longest Sosa had led in this race was for 57 minutes, on Aug. 19 against McGwire’s Cardinals in Chicago.

He took the lead with his 48th homer in the fifth inning that night. But McGwire hit two more before the end of the game as if to show him who was boss.

And now this.

Sosa hit Friday’s homer in the fourth inning, on a one-strike fastball from Jose Lima to tie the score, 2-2.

He shook his fist as he approached home plate.

He blew kisses to the crowd of 51,831, particularly the large Dominican contingent waving flags in right field.

The anonymous fan who caught the ball--he refused to talk to the Cubs or the media--scurried for the exits.

There was a buzz in the stands, jumping around the dugouts, the air in the giant building was rich with history.

Then two innings later, in the middle of the sixth, it was sucked right out.

While the Cubs were throwing around the ball, the scoreboard over Sosa’s shoulder in right field suddenly displayed a replay of McGwire’s long ball.

And for perhaps the first time all summer, Big Mac was booed.

Sosa said it wasn’t him.

“Disappointed? Why?” he said. “Mark is my friend, not my enemy. I am disappointed for who? This is great.”

He said it while conducting his postgame interview session in front of a locker in the bowels of the Astrodome--instead of going to a spacious interview room like McGwire in St. Louis--because he was mad the Cubs didn’t win.

They lost when Kevin Tapani suddenly tired, and middle reliever Chris Haney was ineffective, and catcher Tyler Houston dropped a catchable relay from left fielder Brant Brown to allow the Astros’ go-ahead run to score in the fifth.

It was more than enough for Lima, who afterward defended himself against those who have claimed that he grooves pitches for his countryman and friend. In one game last month, Lima also gave up homers 50 and 51 to Sosa.

“There is no way I wanted to give up a home run to Sosa--this is my ERA, this is my career,” he said passionately. “And people who say I want to give up a home run to a Dominican but not a white guy?”

He shook his head and raised his voice. “My wife is white! My wife is white! What is that all about?”

Lima, incidentally, has also given up a home run to McGwire.

And if you are still insistent on following that weak story line, McGwire, a Southern Californian, has hit homers off 12 guys with Southern California ties.

“I guess McGwire and I were just meant to tie,” Sosa said.

Which for him, after all this, might be a victory.