McGwire Launches Two More Home Runs

By Rachel Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 3, 1998; Page B1

MIAMI, Sept. 2 – Even Mark McGwire had to catch his breath tonight when he realized the realm he had just entered. The entrance policy had been pretty exclusive – just Roger Maris and Babe Ruth allowed inside, no others need apply – but when McGwire hit his 58th and 59th home runs tonight in the St. Louis Cardinals' 14-4 win over the Florida Marlins, he earned his way inside the velvet ropes of history.

He broke his personal record of 58 home runs, set last season, and has Ruth's mark of 60 just a long ball away. Maris's record of 61 is a swat beyond that, and McGwire still has 23 games left to play. When Maris was chasing Ruth in 1961, he had 54 home runs at this point in the season.

"God, that's wild," McGwire said when someone mentioned the names McGwire, Ruth and Maris in the same sentence after the game. "It blows me away, it really does. It almost leaves you speechless."

If McGwire couldn't find exactly the right words, the 45,170 fans at Pro Player Stadium had plenty to supply, giving McGwire a hero's welcome from the moment he stepped onto the field for batting practice. They clapped every time he came up to bat. They clapped every time he took his position at first base. They clapped every time the corner of his right elbow peaked out from the dugout. The crowd was even juiced up enough to give a loud round of applause to Cardinals pitcher Kent Mercker, who hit a grand slam – his first career home run – in the fourth, even though it put the Marlins down 6-0.

But the pandemonium broke out for good in the seventh, when McGwire took a low pitch from reliever Brian Edmondson and turned it into home run No. 58. Edmondson, who struck out McGwire on Monday, could only watch as the ball soared so high and so fast there was a moment when it looked like it might clear the stadium walls. It didn't get lost in the lights, because for most of its journey it was above them, just a small white speck against the black night sky until it finally landed in the left upper decks, the ones the Marlins had opened up especially for this three-game series.

McGwire, who broke the National League home run record the night before when he hit home runs Nos. 56 and 57, looked even more excited about No. 58, pumping his fist in the air as he saw it land 497 feet from home plate. Edmondson, who has long considered McGwire a hero, was not as pleased.

"No matter who you are playing, you want to get him out," Edmondson said. "It's kind of disappointing, but you have to say he's having a very special season when he takes a pitch almost to his shoelaces and hits it halfway to Tampa."

Marlins catcher Randy Knorr was equally dumbfounded, asking right fielder Brian Jordan how McGwire had "golfed" the pitch when Jordan followed McGwire to the plate. Knorr was still talking about the home run when McGwire came up again in the eighth, although after Marlins closer Rob Stanifer's first pitch he had a new topic of conversation. McGwire got every inch of Stanifer's slider, sending it 458 feet into the lower decks of center field, this time under a sign bearing Don Shula's name. The fans couldn't have cheered any louder if the beloved former Dolphins coach had caught the ball himself, and McGwire took one more curtain call at the dugout before leaving the lineup for the night.

The two home runs moved McGwire three ahead of Chicago slugger Sammy Sosa. Sosa, who hit a home run in an afternoon game today, has three home runs in his past four games, but hasn't been able to keep pace with McGwire, who has 11 in his last 16.

The pace has left McGwire's teammates, who in the middle of the season thought they might be getting used to the public fascination with McGwire, now equally fascinated themselves.

"He thrills me, and not too many people thrill me," Jordan said. "Baseball is a funny game. Things come in bunches. When it comes, it comes, and it is coming now. It's fun to watch."