Word: mcgwires
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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...
...them turn into jerks. But Sosa, 29, got his paycheck and relaxed. He let us see the generous, fun and classy person he is. And he performed. With a league-leading 154 RBIs, a .309 average and the most home runs of any other major leaguer, except Mark McGwire (he had 63 to McGwire's 64 at week's end), has ever hit, Sosa has had one of the best offensive years of any other player, any other time. Most sportswriters think that he'll swipe the MVP award from McGwire and that he is starting to cut into...
...Dominican Republic. "Oh, it was big," he says, using his large hands to illustrate an ostentatious circle. "Sometimes you do some things, and it's just a situation. And after a while you think, 'Wow, I shouldn't have done that.'" Now, he deflects compliments by calling McGwire--and just about everybody else...
...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...