Word: mcgwires
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...Rookie pitcher Kerry Wood tied the record of 20 strikeouts in a game--and did it at age 20. The most famous mark in sports, Roger Maris' single-season home-run record of 61 in 1961 (Can you see why we weep?), is being attacked on three fronts: McGwire, who had 42 homers as of Saturday (only a bit more than halfway through the season), has been joined by Griffey (39) and some guy named Sammy Sosa...
...McGwire, 34, is the only player in history to rack up 400 home runs in fewer at bats than Ruth. And the home runs are just as big--at well over 500 ft., several ought to count as a homer and a double. His blasts are cathartic in their destruction, and the damage is sanctified giddily: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sign he cracked with a 545-ft. homer at Busch Stadium proudly wears a giant Band-Aid, and a replacement front-porch handrail outside Wrigley Field goes unpainted to commemorate a stadium-clearing batting practice shot...
Like Ruth, who got his nickname for being so much younger than his teammates, McGwire was a phenom. At eight years old, in his first Little League at bat, against a 12-year-old pitcher, he smacked one over the fence. And like Ruth, who was a dominating pitcher, McGwire was the best righthander on his sophomore U.S.C. team, allowing fewer runs than teammate Randy Johnson, who has since won a Cy Young award...
Even more than Ruth, McGwire symbolizes stark simplicity. He is a redhead of the kind we haven't seen in centuries--not a pasty Thomas Jefferson or a cutesy Ron Howard, but a scary Redbeard. In his red Cardinal uniform, with red Oakley sunglasses and his bright red goatee, McGwire is more frightening than Carrot Top. McGwire, more than Ruth, strips the game bare. Cro-Magnon man didn't court the media or haggle over free-agent contracts, and neither does Big Mac. He comes to the plate to the tune of the Guns 'N' Roses war dance Welcome...
...that it would really matter if he weren't a nice guy--Mike Tyson captivates--but McGwire happens to be Oprah-fied in all the right ways. He missed the opportunity to hit 50 homers in his rookie season in order to be present at his son's birth. After a batting slump and a divorce from his first wife, who had been a college girlfriend, he started therapy, and he has stayed with it. His three-year, $30 million contract stipulates that that his son Matthew, now 10, who is often the Cardinal bat boy, gets a seat...