Word: sluggers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Watching the slugger repeat from his hospital bed that he was a changed man, we could not help but believe him. If only Strawberry were a real actor, and not just a puppet (I hear cocaine is once again chic among the Hollywood...
Watching the slugger repeat from his hospital bed that he was a changed man, we could not help but believe him. If only Strawberry were a real actor, and not just a puppet (I hear cocaine is once again sheik among the Hollywood...
During the three seasons from 1958 to 1960, Mickey Mantle struck out 371 times. Reggie Jackson flailed in vain 313 times in two seasons. It is almost always part of the slugger's makeup, the monstrous whiff as companion to the mighty blast. But DiMaggio's relation to a pitched ball was as intimate as it was brutal. In his entire career he struck out only 369 times--this while hitting 361 home runs. During the magical 1941 season, he had 30 home runs, 13 strikeouts. (There are single weeks when modern sluggers strike out 13 times.) From his spread...
...didn't much like being turned into a carnival sideshow, but he never let it distract him. When a reporter spotted androstenedione, a legal but controversial steroid, in McGwire's locker, the slugger explained that he used it to protect himself from the muscle tears that so often plague finely conditioned athletes, especially those few so well muscled as he, and he left it at that. Though he was criticized, McGwire marched ahead, not even pausing to rip off the head of the reporter who'd gone peeking into his locker. What kind of a modern athlete would fail...
Another intriguing possibility was the gentle slugger Mark McGwire. When he came to our offices in November to be interviewed and photographed, normally nonchalant journalists lined the corridors just to catch his smile. We allowed ourselves to hope that years hence, we might recall 1998 for the entry he blasted into the record books, the way 1961 is associated with Roger Maris. No such luck. But we felt that his tale served as a sweet antidote to the big story of the year, so you can read in this issue Joel Stein's intimate profile, Dan Okrent's appreciation...