The Great Chase: Take 2

Is a sequel ever better than the original?

This year’s production of the Great Home Run Chase II has not attracted the attention of last year’s classic, but it is headed for a dramatic and sold-out conclusion starting tonight, when Mark McGwire’s St. Louis Cardinals face Sammy Sosa’s Chicago Cubs in a three-game series.

“A magical coincidence,” St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa said of the final pairing.

A World Series, perhaps, for McGwire and Sosa, whose teams have long been eliminated from postseason contention.

“There’s going to be a lot of energy and excitement,” McGwire said, “but you can’t compare it to a World Series. It’s supposed to be about a team and a game, not two individuals. Last year it was historical. This year it’s just a number. There’s nothing significant about it, just a number.”

Which number(s), however?

With two lightning bolts traveling a combined 929 feet to dead center in a doubleheader sweep of the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night, McGwire shot past Sosa for the major league home run lead. McGwire has 63 and Sosa 62.

Ho-hum?

Nonsense.

Only two players in major league history have hit more home runs in a season, and they were also named McGwire and Sosa.

The focused and often stoic redhead from Southern California and the free-swinging and ebullient Dominican took turns last year knocking Clinton and Lewinsky from the front page before knocking Roger Maris from the baseball record book. McGwire hit five homers on the final weekend to finish with 70, outlasting Sosa, who had 66. Both surpassed the hallowed home run record of 61, set by Maris 37 years before.

Now, in a season in which McGwire became the 16th player to hit 500 homers in his career and they both became the first players to hit 60 or more in consecutive seasons, some critics contend they have cheapened the memorable ride of last year, lessened its once-in-a-lifetime aspect.

The more accurate appraisal seems to be that they have legitimized their 1998 accomplishments and, in particular, their place on another planet in this era of unworldly offensive statistics.

If the sequel hasn’t attracted the same national spotlight, that was probably to be expected.

“Last year they were closing in on one of the most dramatic and revered records in sports,” La Russa said. “They were doing something that hadn’t been done in more than 37 years, and it was right in everyone’s face.

“Now it’s been done before, and the interest of the casual fan is probably not as intense. But the irony is that the serious fan is likely to give them more credit this year than last year because it’s so tough to repeat in any aspect of sports. There are hundreds of examples. It’s human nature not to push as hard, but these two are just the opposite. They’re pushing even harder. They’re battling on every at-bat, reaching deeper, and the serious fan is likely to recognize that.”

The Race

Despite all the home run meters, there is no race, McGwire has long insisted.

Sosa agrees, although his position on that has wavered at times.

“Everyone wants to be the best,” he said during the Cubs’ visit to Los Angeles in late August. “I admit that I would like to finish ahead of Mark once. You should want to finish first in everything you do.”

On the eve of this final showdown, however, Sosa took a different approach, preparing for the inevitable, perhaps, or simply lurking in the weeds, as he did last year when he slyly kept insisting that McGwire was “the Man.”

“It doesn’t matter who wins because there is no race,” he said. “We’re just out there trying to do our best. He’s put everything together to have another great year, and I’ve done the same. Whatever happens happens.”

McGwire can accept that.

“There is no home run race,” he agreed. “You don’t play to win a home run title. There is no trophy or prize for winning a home run title, and there shouldn’t be. As I’ve said before, I measure myself against my own expectations, not what other people do or what other people expect. We tend to send the wrong message by putting so much emphasis on individual statistics. The fact is that after Sunday, no matter who has the most homers, both Sammy and myself are going home, and that’s unfortunate.”

McGwire celebrates his 36th birthday today. The home run title may not be foremost on his wish list, but it would be a measure of solace, at least, in another disappointing season for the Cardinals.

La Russa suspects his first baseman doesn’t want to finish second in anything.

“He’s a competitor,” La Russa said. “You don’t just turn that on and off. I’m sure [the home run title] has got significance to him, that he cares, but it’s not where his focus is. After listening to him and watching him the last two years, he’s dead set on taking his best four or five at-bats, and whatever happens happens. He’s not going in thinking that ‘Sammy’s got 61 so I’ve got to hit 62.’ It’s a hell of an approach because any time you focus on a certain result, whether it’s hitting .300 or winning 20 games or hitting 40 or 50 home runs, you almost always do less.”

McGwire has always done more. He is oblivious to the pressure and expectations when challenged or close to a milestone. He has hunkered through September despite a groin strain and the ache of another losing season. His three-run homer in the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against a pitcher, Andy Ashby, whom he described as throwing darts, drove the Cardinals back from a 5-0 deficit.

“I admire so much what he’s doing,” La Russa said. “He’s reaching really deep to play these final games. It’s not easy playing a doubleheader at this time of year, especially with his leg the way it is. He would not have been kicking and screaming if I had sat him in the second game or taken him out at any time, but he also recognizes his obligation to do it right.”

Although the Cardinals and Cubs lead the majors in road attendance, a tribute to the two sluggers, it has been a one-ring circus rather than the three of last year. McGwire has not required security, is not tailed when he drives home in his silver BMW and can dine out in comparative peace. With all of that, he would love to know that his next stop was the big top of the postseason.

“Anybody who says it’s easier to play for a losing team, to do what Sammy and I have done, doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” McGwire said. “It’s tougher to come to the park, to get up for the game and to stay focused. I don’t think anybody around here would say they want to go through another season like this one. It’s one thing to finish .500 or so, but we’re not even close. I’m just very tired right now, and [the losing season is] a big part of it.”

The Rewards

There has been an occasional media hit for allegedly failing to do the little things, on and off the field, that a leader of his stature should, but Sosa says, “If I am doing good and the team isn’t, that doesn’t mean I’m an individual player. People sometimes expect too much. Sometimes they are never satisfied.”

The Cub right fielder is doing well in many ways. He is living La Vida Sosa, in fact, with an endorsement income--about $100,000 at the start of last year--now likely to outstrip his 1999 Cubs’ salary of $9 million. While there is some confusion as to who actually supervises and negotiates his endorsement contracts (a longtime Dominican friend, Domingo Dauhajre, is said to be his business manager) with several different entities claiming jurisdiction, the deals are getting done.

“I have to say that business has been great,” Sosa said. “Michael Jordan opened the door, and I want to be in the top 10 among athletes.”

As the gregarious Sosa hobnobs with heads of state, opens a Chicago restaurant, extols TV watchers on the wonders of a Dominican vacation and flits from one endorsement obligation to another, McGwire shakes his head and flinches at the thought.

“That’s just not me,” he said. “I like my time and my privacy. I’ll be out of the country for three or four months this winter. I’ll be tough to find.”

Said Bob Cohen, his longtime Los Angeles agent: “Mark sees [the endorsement business] as a distraction. He’s focused on baseball during the season and wants to unwind when it’s over. He does have a few contracts, but most are tied to his foundation [for abused children]. I don’t think he should be criticized so much as complimented for not chasing every buck.”

McGwire is arguably baseball’s most recognizable player. The industry might benefit if he were more visible, but a recent study by the players’ union revealed that, in the wake of the McGwire/Sosa dramatics of last year, 50% of American adults consider themselves major league fans compared with 33% three years ago.

No question about it in Chicago and St. Louis. The last-place Cubs set a franchise attendance record this year, and St. Louis economists credit McGwire for generating $35 million in new income for the local economy in ‘98, when the Cardinals set a franchise attendance record of 3.1 million they may eclipse this weekend.

McGwire, paid a comparatively modest $9 million this year, receives $1 for every admission over 2.8 million. He is signed through 2000, with a 2001 option that is certain to be exercised, but he is not interested beyond that until certain there will not be a labor dispute after 2001.

“As a player I wouldn’t want any part of another strike,” McGwire reiterated. “I would be too embarrassed to put fans through that again.”

Sosa, who received numerous humanitarian awards for his relief work in the Dominican Republic in the aftermath of Hurricane Georges, has two years remaining on his contract, at $10 million for 2000 and $11 million for 2001. He and the Cubs have a mutual option for 2002 at $12 million, and agent Adam Katz has had preliminary discussions with the club on an extension, though it may not be completed until Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez take the market to a new high with their next contracts.

“It’s going to happen; they need to keep Sammy,” Katz said of an extension. “What he has done on the field is unique, and what he has done for the [Chicago] Tribune Co., has been unique and very profitable.”

The Reality

They have been Affirmed and Alydar, Palmer and Nicklaus over the last two seasons, but approaching the final series of the season and 1990s, McGwire is in a sphere of his own.

Although injured for most of the 1993 and ’94 seasons, he has 403 home runs in the ‘90s. Only Babe Ruth, with 467 in the ‘20s, and Jimmie Foxx, with 415 in the ‘30s, hit more in one decade. His 63 this year give him 520 for his career, one shy of tying Willie McCovey and Ted Williams for 10th on the all-time list. He has hit 50 or more for a record four consecutive seasons, and if he maintains his average of 61 for that period over the next four years, he will break Hank Aaron’s record of 755.

“It’s more than I can comprehend,” he said. “You don’t think about all that as kid growing up or even as a professional player, and I probably won’t be able to really grasp it until after I retire. It all comes down to concentration and preparation, and I’ve been able to maintain my consistency at a level that I amaze myself at times.”

Said La Russa: “I lean on what guys like Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst and George Kissel say here, which is that he is the greatest home run hitter they’ve ever seen, and they’ve seen them all. I mean, when you see every at-bat and how tough he gets pitched, you have to admire him even more. I don’t care if we’re up by 10 or down by 10, nobody ever says, ‘Here’s a strike down the middle.’ ”

McGwire takes his walks and is pitched far more carefully than Sosa, who remains a basically undisciplined swinger. Sosa has 167 strikeouts and 77 walks while also having driven in 138 runs. McGwire has fewer strikeouts (140), more RBIs (145) and far more walks (128). While Sosa has said that his statistics are deserving of a second consecutive most-valuable-player award, McGwire has had the superior season. Neither, however, will win the MVP.

Chipper Jones, Jeff Bagwell or Matt Williams will probably get it in the National League, but theirs is not the great race.

McGwire and Sosa have produced the sequel.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

HOME RUN RACE

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MARK SAMMY MCGWIRE SOSA 63 62

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MARK SAMMY MCGWIRE SOSA DNP Thursday 0 64 On pace for 63 158 Games 158 65 1998 65

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Homer Comparison

Mark McGwire played 105 games with A’s in 1997 (34 homers), and finished the season with Cardinals. Sammy Sosa played 25 games with Texas in 1989, then played for White Sox until joining Cubs in 1992 (* injured):

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McGwire YEAR Sosa 3 1986 -- 49 1987 -- 32 1988 -- 33 1989 4 39 1990 15 22 1991 10 42 1992 8 9* 1993 33 9* 1994 25 39 1995 36 52 1996 40 58 1997 36 70 1998 66 63 1999 62 520 Total 335

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