Again: Sosa Catches Up to McGwire

Sammy Sosa joined an elite group after hitting his 62nd home run Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo)

By Brian Carney
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, September 14, 1998; Page A1

CHICAGO, Sept. 13 – Amid an almost deafening din of rhythmic clapping and cheers of "Sam-my, Sam-my," Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa stepped to the plate this afternoon at Wrigley Field and made major league baseball history.

He hit two home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers, giving him 62 for the season and tying him with St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire for the all-time single-season record. McGwire surpassed Roger Maris's previous record of 61 in a game agains the Cubs on Tuesday night in St. Louis.

Sosa hit his first homer of the day in the bottom of the fifth inning off Brewers reliever Bronswell Patrick. He hit his second – and his fourth in three days – off Eric Plunk as part of a bottom-of-the-ninth-inning rally that ended with the Cubs tying the score at 10.

They went on to win the game, 11-10, when first baseman Mark Grace-batting one spot ahead of Sosa-homered in the bottom of the 10th inning. Sosa was carried off the field when the game was over.

"It's unbelievable," Sosa said. "It was something that even I can't believe I was doing," It can happen to two people, Mark [McGwire] and I."

Sosa's effort sets up a final sprint for baseball's most cherished record. The Cubs have 12 games remaining, the Cardinals 13 after their game tonight against the Astros in Houston.

There was no doubt about whether either of Sosa's drives today would be homers. Both exited the friendly confines in a hurry, sailing over the ivy-covered wall in left-center field, over the famed bleachers and even over Waveland Avenue, the street that parallels the left field wall.

The Dominican Republic native's first home run ball of the day bounced up Kenmore Street, barely missing a Dominican flag that has been raised at the corner of Waveland and Kenmore as 50 or so fans took off in pursuit.

After the second homer, which-like the first-was estimated at 480 feet, fans in the bleachers littered the field with cups and other trash, causing a delay of nearly 10 minutes. During that time Sosa made two curtain calls and waved to the crowd, which was in a frenzy. In contrast to what occurred when McGwire hit his 62nd homer, there was no ceremony, no immediate comments over the public-address system.

Sosa gracefully joined in celebrating McGwire's feat, trotting in from his position to embrace McGwire during an 11-minute stoppage in the game that occurred after McGwire's historic homer. McGwire, in turn, saluted Sosa over Busch Stadium's public-address system.

Today, even the postgame commemoration of Sosa's feat was lower key than that which occurred earlier this week. Sosa received congratulatory phone calls from Randy Maris, Roger's son, and Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig, both of whom were in attendance for McGwire's 62nd homer and both of whom participated in a lengthy postgame ceremony during which McGwire received the ball he had hit and a vintage convertible automobile.

"The last three days I have been more patient and more relaxed," said Sosa, who had been in a five-game homerless streak before this latest outburst. "That's one of the keys why I go to home plate and don't chase so many bad pitches and wait for my pitch. I was telling [McGwire] that when I was in St. Louis I think I was swinging too hard and I can't be as relaxed. . . .

"At one point, Mark said in St. Louis, 'You know, it would be beautiful to end up tied,' and it could happen," Sosa said. "I'm so happy that I'm here with Mark McGwire. He is the man."

In Sosa's native Dominican Republic, where many watched the game live on television, residents who cheered after No. 61 flooded the streets after No. 62, from the capital of Santo Domingo to Sosa's home town of San Pedro de Macoris. "We're all as if we had hit that home run ourselves," local journalist Julio Reyes told the Associated Press.

In Chicago, today's game was attended by 40,846 – the largest crowd of the season – at Wrigley Field. It might also have been the largest crowd of the season outside Wrigley, with a hundred or so fans waiting on Waveland Street hoping to catch Sosa's 61st. And in a coincidence, Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel made his first start since Tuesday, when he gave up McGwire's 62nd.

Steve Palmer and Ryan Satrom, both 17-year-old high school seniors from St. Paul, Minn., drove eight hours on Friday night to get to Chicago in time to watch the Cubs' Saturday and Sunday games.

On Saturday, Satrom wore a large, blue permanent marker "6" on his bare chest, and Palmer wore a "0" in anticipation of Sosa becoming only the fourth major league player this century to reach 60 home runs. After Sosa hit his 60th home run, Palmer and Satrom became almost instant celebrities, with people wanting to get their pictures taken with them. When they woke up Sunday morning, Palmer traded his "0" for a "1," but also had Satrom write a "2" on his back just in case Sosa broke Roger Maris' old record of 62 home runs.

"Last night we went home, spent an hour scrubbing the numbers off, knowing that we were going to do it all over again today," Palmer said. "Anything for Sammy."