McGwire Is the King of Swing in Baseball

	Mark McGwire lifts his son, Matthew, at home plate after hitting his 62nd home run. (Jeff Hanyes/AFP)

By Thomas Boswell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 9, 1998; Page A1

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 8 – As irony would have it, the shortest of all of Mark McGwire's 62 homers this season will be remembered longest. With a 341-foot line drive that barely cleared the left field wall – and was barely fair – McGwire surpassed the single-season home run total of Roger Maris.

Many expected that McGwire, who still has 18 games to play, might break his sports's most glamorous slugging record with one of the longest or highest home runs ever hit. Instead, he hit one of the fastest. His rocket off the Chicago Cubs' right-hander Steve Trachsel in the fourth inning left the park so quickly that neither McGwire, nor the standing room crowd, realized it had left the field until – in a breathless split second – everybody realized there was no carom. How could an event as long awaited as Home Run No. 62 come as a surprise? Yet it did.

McGwire, sprinting full speed in anticipation of a possible double, suddenly fired his right fist in the air, leaped into the arms of first base coach Dave McKay and – missed first base. In a comic moment, McGwire had to return to touch first, but he did touch them all as he led his team to a comeback 6-3 victory over the wild-card contending Cubs.

Everything about the past five days here in McGwire's home park – in which he has hit home runs No. 60, 61 and 62 – has had the feeling of an affectionate middle-American home movie, dripping with sincerity, sentiment and the impulse to include every possible person in the festivities.

In the past two days, McGwire has surpassed the legendary totals – learned by millions of American children – of 60 homers in 154 games by Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees in 1927 and 61 homers in 162 games by the Yankees' Maris in 1961. By stunning contrast, this was merely McGwire's 145th game. Baseball has a new heavyweight slugging champion: by a knockout.

	First-base coach Dave McKay points an exuberant Mark McGwire back to first base after McGwire hit his 62nd home run. (Reuters)

As a further twist of fate, McGwire has no assurance he will finish this season with the all-time record. On the same field tonight was the Cubs' Sammy Sosa who has 58 homers. After McGwire lifted Sosa in the air in celebration – just as he had his 10-year-old bat-boy son, Matthew, moments before – the pair exchanged hugs as well as Sosa's trademark heart-tap-kiss-blow gesture. Despite their sportsmanship, which has elevated the tone of this national drama for weeks, the deal between them isn't done. Few pennant races will get as much national attention as their home run race for the last three weeks.

Over the past three seasons, in which he has hit 172 homers, the 34-year-old McGwire has established himself as the most prodigious slugger since Ruth. And perhaps the best including Ruth. But he has also become, perhaps, the most open, demonstrative and sharing slugger since Ruth as well. That emotional largesse came naturally to Ruth. For McGwire, it has been hard won – through divorce, career-threatening injuries, horrible season-long slumps and several years of therapy.

Tonight, however, even a Ruth could not have risen to the moment with more genuine exuberance. McGwire hugged Cubs infielders, did his version of the Sosa shuffle as he approached second base and pointed his finger to the sky in honor of the late Maris all before he had touched home plate. After being pummeled by his teammates, he raised his son – a full arms length above his head – at the plate.

With the 11-minute game-stopping celebration barely in full swing, the precious 62nd home run ball – for which offers of $1 million have been made – was already in McGwire's possession. Who got it? In a sense, nobody did. The ball never reached the stands. Instead, it clattered around a storage area just beyond the fence when Cardinals groundscrewman Tim Forneris picked it up and retrieved it for McGwire. So much for $400 bleachers tickets as a kind of Home Run Ball Lottery. Fittingly, McGwire now has his last seven home run balls, all returned to him in exchange for nominal gifts or nothing at all.

	Sammy Sosa gives Mark McGwire a hug after the St. Louis slugger hit his record-setting 62nd home run. (Ray Stubblebine/Reuters)

What happened to greed? Perhaps McGwire, who donates a million dollars a year to a foundation to help sexually abused children, has set a different tone. In his one off day in the last two weeks (last Thursday), he spent 10 hours filming a public service announcement, paid by himself, on child abuse which will run on national TV during the baseball postseason. In such a climate, perhaps balls get returned. Or hit to the groundscrew. McGwire, in turn, plans to give all the "memorabilia" balls to the Hall of Fame or the Cardinals for public display.

As McGwire's liner headed toward the wall, one person seemed to know that the ball would carry farther than any normal hitter could expect. Kevin Maris, one of Roger's five children at this game, said, "There it is," as the ball was in flight. The split second it left the yard, he threw his arms in the air and cheered – _not as though his father's record had been broken, but as if something grand had happened. That, too, has been a product of McGwire's work as he has sought out the Maris family since they arrived.

Tonight, McGwire climbed the box seat railing and, in a series of bear hugs, drew multiple Maris children to him – whispering in their ears, exchanging private thoughts in a public moment – not for seconds but for tens of seconds each. Maris got a terrible press 37 years ago, but, thanks to McGwire, he's gotten a great one for the last week. "Like I've always said, Mark's a better person than a player," said St. Louis Manager Tony LaRussa on Monday.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of McGwire's achievement is the way he has gotten stronger, hit better and embraced the public spotlight more as he's approached No. 62. "You can't waste any brain cells thinking about it for hours and hours," said McGwire, who has tried to block out Big Thoughts away from the park. Once on the field, "sometimes. . . . you might be shaking a little bit, heart beating a thousand miles a minute," he admits.

Yet, for the most part, he has been model of composure in recent days. Once, last Friday, he had to call time out at the plate when the crowd's roars and his own excitement had him gasping for breath from hyperventilation. But Sosa's presence seems to have calmed him the past two days. Home runs No. 61 and 62 followed.

"It has been quite amazing. I think I have amazed myself. I think I have amazed other people. So it is hard not to have emotions for this," said McGwire on Monday. He hardly knew that this constituted understatement. Tonight, his home run was short and quick, but the emotions that followed afterward were long, slow and deep.