Word: griffey
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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McGwire and Griffey will be asked about hitting until the subject is like chalk in their mouth; each will be asked about his childhood and diet, race relations and Monica Lewinsky. To hit 62, each man will have to want it so much that he can wall it all away. Yet if he seems to wall us out, we'll fix him with a mortal disdain that will outlast any record he can set. Even so, Griffey and McGwire could make it to the record and beyond, to that Elysian realm where a man seems to stand for something good...
Which is why these guys just might hit. The stars may be lining up just right. McGwire brings to the task a bulky precision that is riveting. He hits moon shots. Griffey has a more modern cool of the stylish synchromesh variety that Michael Jordan brought to hoops. It's about Griffey's joyful acceptance of his personal power...
...think baseball is boring, you'll hate the games Greg Maddux pitches. At a time when hitters like Ken Griffey Jr. are thrilling teen fans bloated by a media diet of MTV and asteroid explosions, watching Maddux throw for the Atlanta Braves is like flipping to PBS. His fastball isn't fast (nearly 90 m.p.h. on his best day, vs. around 100 for a Nolan Ryan). His curveball barely curves. He has never pitched a no-hitter. All he does is win games. How? He finds a batter's weak spot and throws right at it nearly every time, which...
...baseball connoisseurs who worship him. Listen to this encomium by Serious Baseball Person and Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell: "Mark McGwire, Griffey and the rest are fabulous, but there have been others like them throughout history. It's possible, and becoming more probable with each amazing season of legerdemain, that there has never really been anybody like Greg Maddux." Indeed, Boswell said Maddux may be "the most remarkable and historically important player in baseball." Ever? Yes, ever...
...that was last year. Fast on the heels of Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr., Sosa is the dark-horse candidate to shatter the single-season record for home runs. Thanks to a spectacular--some might say freaky--June in which he popped 20 home runs, a major league record, the Dominican native showed that he is finally harnessing his impulsiveness. As of Saturday, he had racked up 36 homers, just six behind leader McGwire. Sosa's batting record of .319 this season is a full .57 points higher than his career average...