Word: home-run
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...Mickey Mantle, the gifted man-child; Roger Maris, the decent citizen victimized and nearly rendered mute by the crippling weight of publicity. But of all the baseball titans, Mark McGwire in some ways most resembles Joe DiMaggio, coincidentally stricken by life-threatening illness just as McGwire was setting the home-run record. Admired by their teammates, considerate of their foes, blessed with a spare, natural grace, both men represent the merging of two traits not always found in close athletic proximity: talent and dignity...
...affable presence from the very beginning of his remarkable career. It was in June 1987 that the Los Angeles Times first put the words McGwire, Ruth and Maris in one headline. McGwire's major league life wasn't yet 60 games old. Soon he rushed past the rookie home-run record, and crowds of reporters buzzed around him like so many mosquitoes on a July night in St. Louis. Still, his mien was so benign that one of his nicknames was McGee-Whiz. In September of that year--he hadn't yet turned 24--he looked to become only...
McGwire would wait nine long years for his 50-home-run season. Divorce, injuries, eye trouble, crises of confidence and of desire conspired against him. For the eyes, he changed contact lenses as often as some people change socks. For the crises, he sought the help of a psychiatrist, which was rare enough for a professional athlete; rarer still, he spoke about it in public. In time he regained his confidence, his health and his unprecedented ability to hit home runs. When he finally had a 50-knock season, in 1996, he apparently decided to make it a habit...
Carl Morris, statistics professor, Harvard: Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and Mark McGwire's record of one homer per 7.27 at bats will last well into the next century. The best home-run hitters, playing in Colorado, might hit more than 70. But McGwire hit his 70 in just 509 at bats, with 33% more homers per at bat than Sammy Sosa and 17% more than Ruth's previous major league record...
...worth worrying about when immortality is on the line. Or maybe it's just because Sosa is such a nice guy. Either way, when he hit 61 and 62, Chicago fans threw him a little party, Dominicans in New York City have taken to writing Sosa's name and home-run count in soap on buses and car windows, and more than 100 reporters have credentials to the Cubs' clubhouse. Infielder Mickey Morandini, looking for a seat in the dugout before a game last Thursday, asked, "Is this the player bench or the media bench...