Mark McGwire, whose memorable home run chase with Sammy Sosa made the summer of 1998 one of the most thrilling in major-league history, didn’t think his record-setting 62nd bomb had enough. “I got a sinker down. I hit a line drive,” recalls McGwire of his 341-foot round-tripper—easily the shortest of his 70 homers that year—off Cubs right-hander Steve Traschel (nicknamed “The Human Rain Delay” for his agonizingly slow pace) on September 8, 1998. “I’m thinking that’s a double down the line.”
McGwire hustled out of the box in anticipation of a double, but when base coach Dave McKay told him to pump the breaks rounding first, the Cardinals legend knew he had made history. “I’m shaking guys hands and hugging people,” the former Cards and A’s first baseman told Dari Nowkah and Mel Kiper in a 2016 interview aired for the first time on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight Podcast. “I don’t know what came over me.”
McGwire’s record-setting 62nd long ball, accomplished on a 1-1 count in the fourth inning, ended Roger Maris’ 37-year reign as MLB’s single-season home-run champ. Big Mac topped out at 70 homers, four more than runner-up Sammy Sosa. Early in the year, McGwire thought Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr. would be his stiffest competition for the home-run crown. But Sosa came on strong by swatting 33 of his 66 homers after the All-Star break. “It was Ken Griffey and I that was battling up until the middle of the season,” said McGwire, whose record fell three years later when Barry Bonds upped the ante with 73 trips to Souvenir City, which still stands as the league’s high-water mark. “Then Sammy came pretty much out of nowhere and just started hitting a bunch of home runs and caught me and next thing you know, he and I were in a battle all the way until the end.”
Sosa was one of the first players to congratulate McGwire after he passed Maris, meeting the St. Louis slugger at home plate. “He just said, ‘You’re the man,’” said McGwire, remembering what Sosa told him after No. 62 left the yard at Busch Stadium. “He used to always say, ‘You’re the man. You’re the man.’”
McGwire’s 1998 season is the subject of a new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, “Long Gone Summer.” The 56-year-old McGwire described the experience of breaking Maris’ record as “eerie,” owing to a number of strange coincidences. “A lot of weird things happened that series against the Cubs. On September 7, I hit my 61st home run on my father’s 61st birthday,” said McGwire, who spent nine seasons as a coach for the Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres following his playing career. “I hit No. 62 in the fourth inning, the same inning that Roger Maris hit 61.” McGwire also noted his birthday, October 1, falls on the same day Maris belted his historic 61st homer.
MLB used special commemorative balls during McGwire’s at-bats on the night of his record blast, each marked with its own number. Can you guess which one made it over the fence? “No. 62 was marked No. 3,” said McGwire, alluding to the number Babe Ruth wore when he launched 60 homers for the Yankees’ iconic “Murderer’s Row” team in 1927, a record that stood until Maris (also a Yankees alum) bettered that mark by one in 1961.
The 1998 season was a circus for all involved and McGwire acknowledged that the pressure and intense media attention got to him at times. “To this day I don’t think an individual has gone through what I’ve gone through in the ’98 season,” said the 16-year MLB vet, recalling the high-stakes environment he faced on a nightly basis. “The whole nation was watching.”
McGwire wasn’t just performing in games, either. Fans, sometimes as many as 25,000, would arrive to games early that year to watch Big Mac take his cuts in BP. McGwire recalls wanting to take a break from batting practice during a late-season series in Miami. Despite his obvious fatigue, the former AL Rookie of the Year was convinced to take the field after then-Marlins owner John Henry paid a visit to the Cardinals clubhouse, begging McGwire to suit up for BP.
“To play a game before the game actually happened. Think about that,” said the one-time Gold Glove winner. “You start putting these things together. To this day I still don’t think any athlete has ever gone through what I’ve gone through on a personal level.”
McGwire has yet to crack Baseball’s Hall of Fame and likely never will after admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career. Regardless of his past PED use, McGwire still thinks he’s deserving of enshrinement in Cooperstown. “Are my numbers Hall of Fame worthy? Absolutely,” said McGwire, rattling off a list of his accomplishments including his 12 All-Star nods and 583 career home runs, 11th-most in major-league history. “And to bring the game back from the strike of ’94. That says a lot.”
Baseball fans feeling a sense of nostalgia can take a trip down memory lane with McGwire and Sosa when “Long Gone Summer” debuts Sunday night at 9 PM ET.
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