Word: mcgwire
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Amid the hoopla surrounding Mark McGwire's new major league home run record, the sages of the national pastime are unanimous on one thing. McGwire, they say, has saved baseball. Writing in Sports Illustrated, Tom Verducci declared that McGwire "has rekindled the country's interest in baseball." Peter Gammons, the normally reserved analyst for ESPN and The Boston Globe, wrote yesterday that "in this season...baseball regained one generation and gained another that some felt never would turn its MTV/Nintendo eyes...
...McGwire isn't the first man to save baseball in the last few years. Sometime around 1995, the phrase "good for the game" entered the vocabulary of sports commentators, and has lingered ever since to honor those admirable players who have taken it upon themselves to save the sport. Cal Ripken Jr. saved the game in 1995, when he passed Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record at 2,130. The next year, the New York Yankees again saved the game from imminent demise, pulling together a scrappy and inspirational team of rookies, recovering drug addicts and itinerant veterans...
...Mark McGwire's significance to baseball should not be downplayed. He has broken--indeed, shattered--one of the most sacred and enduring marks of baseball, and has brought excitement to a season bereft of pennant races. But he also should not be elevated to something greater than he is. He is a great ballplayer, a hero to millions, but not a savior. The game can take care of itself...
...learning more and more about how to play the game the right way," says Mark Grace, who hits cleanup after Sosa. "I think he realizes, 'I've done enough individual stuff, let's go out there and win as a team.'" Unlike McGwire's Cardinals, Sosa and the Cubs are vying for a play-off spot, and every home run could mean that the Cubs get a chance to win their first World Series since 1908 and make up for what the fans like to call "a bad century." And while Sosa's 62nd homer didn't technically break Maris...
...Sosa smiled through it, pshawing any accusations of America's racism and enjoying the Chicago fans' McGwire-worthy celebration. Maybe that's because he knows that the celebration in the Dominican Republic when he returns after his season ends will make the scene in St. Louis look like an Amish wedding. Maybe it's because he knows a burst of fame isn't 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...