It all started in 1995, when Mark McGwire played over 100 games for the first time in 3 years and broke Babe Ruth's 75 year old AB/HR ratio of 8.5 by smashing 39 homers in only 317 at bats or 8.1 AB/HR. But talk of a new HR record quickly died down as McGwire started the 1996 season on the DL. But he still ended up with 52 HR--the most in 19 years--in only 130 games and once again averaged 8.1 AB/HR. Going into 1997, many people thought he could break it that year and Big Mac started out good, but his chase ended as trade rumours distracted him and he barely homered at all in July before he was traded from Oakland to St. Louis on July 31. After joining the Cardinals, he went homerless in his first 9 games, but then exploded for 24 homers in his last 42 games to give him an incredible 58 for the season. After that, everyone was convinced that 1998 would be the year Big Mac would make a run for the record.

The questions started as soon as spring training did: Do you think you'll break Maris' record? How many HR will you hit this year? And Mark McGwire started answering them on opening day, when he started the year off with a bang, hitting a grand slam in his team's first game. He homered again the next games and then the next game and then the game after that, becoming the second player in history to hit 4 HR in his first 4 games and prompting ESPN to say McGwire is still headed for 162 HR this season, but of course he can't hit that many, can he?

McGwire then went into his first extended slump of the season and did not hit another HR for 10 days, but when he broke out of the slump, he did it in Ruthian fashion, crushing three homers on April 14 against Arizona. He went on to hit four more in April to end up with 10 in the month and 11 overall. McGwire hit only four homers in the first half of May, but then went on a tear and hit 10 blasts, #16-25, over a 10 day period, May 16-25! During this month, he hit 2 500-footers: #14 on May 12 was 527 feet, and #16 on May 16 was an incredible 545 feet--a career high, the longest ever at Busch, and the longest recorded HR since Mantle's 565 footer. He also took over the HR lead for good when he passed Colorado's Vinny Castilla with #17 on May 18. After that day, McGwire never trailed in the HR race at the end of the day for the rest of the season. And then he hit 3 HR in a game for the second time in 1998 on May 19 at Philadelphia. That gave him 20 for the season and 407 for his career in only 1423 career games, giving him a HR every 3.496 games, passing Ruth (3.50 G) for the all-time record. He also passed Ruth in career AB/HR ratio and tied Duke Snider for 25th on the all-time HR list. He ended up with a record-tying 16 home runs in May and a record 27 HR through May. It now seemed like he didn't just have a chance at breaking Maris' record, but a very good chance of shattering it!

And McGwire didn't show any signs of slowing down in June as he kept pulling away from Castilla and Griffey. He hit #31, the halfway point on June 12 and broke the record for the most HR through June (Griffey, 32) on June 18, with 12 days to go! He finished June with 10 homers in the month, just like April, and an astounding 37 HR overall. Sammy Sosa of the Cubs hit an amazing 20 HR in June, the most by anyone in any month, to enter the HR race with McGwire and Griffey. Sosa at one point trailed Big Mac 24-9. But going into July, McGwire was still in control of the HR race.

In July, however, McGwire slumped, barely batting .200 for the month. He didn't homer again before the All-Star break, giving him a tie with Reggie Jackson for the most HR through the break at 37. In fact, he didn't hit one out in July until the 11th in Houston. He followed that up with #39 and #40 on the next day and hit two again on the 17th. He hit 3 more home runs in July to give him 45 through the month, breaking the old record of 41 through July, but with only 8 HR in the month, his lowest monthly total of the season.

McGwire continued to fizzle in early August, prompting questions of whether he would actually break the record or not. Through August 18, he only had 2 home runs in the month and was barely on pace to break the record anymore. In addition to that, the Cubs' Sammy Sosa had tied his HR total (the Cubs had also played 2 more games at that point in the season). But then after Sosa hit #48 to briefly pull ahead of Big Mac, McGwire exploded. He homered in the 8th inning and again in the 10th for the game-winner. He then decided that his worries that people would look back and say he had a bad season if he didn't break the record were unfounded and he decided to enjoy the HR chase.

That set off a typical McGwire tear of 6 homers in 5 days as McGwire reached 53 by August 23 and for all practical purposes ended any questions of whether or not he would break the record. He was just 8 short of the record with 5 weeks left and usually has good Septembers (he had 12 HR in September in '95 and 15 in '97). McGwire hit two more monster shots (#54 was 509 feet and #55 was 501 feet, tying his own record with five 500-foot blasts in one season) in August to end the month with an astounding 55 HR, one short of the NL record set by Hack Wilson in 1930. With his 10 HR in August, he broke the record for most HR through August by four. But Sosa also ended the month with 55 HR after a hot streak of his own (and the Cubs had still played one more game than the Cards). McGwire had said all season long that he didn't want to talk about breaking the record until someone had 50 by September 1. He got to 50 a long time before that. And so the stage was set for maybe the most memorable month in the history of baseball.

It started in Florida on September 1, against the worst pitching staff in the NL. McGwire went homerless in his first three plate appearances against 1997 NCLS hero Livan Hernandez, but his fourth time up, leading off the seventh inning, Big Mac blasted a 1-1 pitch 450 feet over the center-field fence to tie Hack Wilson's NL record in just his first full year in the National League. But he wasn't tied for long. He came up again in the 9th and smashed releiver Donn Pall's first pitch 472 feet to almost the exact same spot, passing Wilson and setting a new NL record with his 57th home run of the year on September 1! The next night, McGwire also went homerless until the 7th inning, where he crushed a ball 497 feet of Brian Edmonson with one on for his 58th homer of the year, tying his own career high and the record for a right-handed batter. But he wasn't done yet, the very next inning, Big Mac got up again and with one on again, he took Rob Stanifer yard for #59! Four homers in two days to bring him to within two of the record!

After #59, a special set of ultraviolet marked baseballs, numbered from 1 to 48 were to be used for every one of McGwire's at bats so his HR balls could be verified. And also from Friday Sept 4 until McGwire broke the record, the Cardinals would be playing on national TV every game. And McGwire didn't disappoint. On Saturday, Sept 5, in the first inning against Cincinnati, Mark McGwire sent a Dennis Reyes pitch sailing 381 feet over the left field wall for HR #60! Sixty, what a magical number in baseball--the Babe's record. Ruth hit 60 in 154 games in 1927. When Maris hit 61 in '61, he only had 59 through 154 games. McGwire blasted #60 in the 141st game of the year! And when you looked at the box of specially marked balls, the one missing was the one marked #3, Ruth's number. The next day, McGwire just missed #61, pulling it just foul, finishing with one HR against Cincinnati. Now the Chicago Cubs were to come into town for a two game set before St. Louis left on a road trip.

September 7, 1998. Mark McGwire's dad's 61st birthday. His parents were both in attendance. Roger Maris's children were all in attendance, had just flown in for this series. Sammy Sosa and the Cubs were in town for just 2 games before St. Louis went back on the road. And just before McGwire went out to the on deck circle, his son (the team's batboy) arrived to the dugout. Mark McGwire stepped out for his first at bat and hammered a pitch off of Mike Morgan 430 feet off the glass just below the upperdeck down the left field line! McGwire, instantly knowing it was gone, threw up his arms as he ran towards first base. He got high 5's from the Cubs and the old Oakland Bash from third base coach Rene Lachman as he rounded the bases. As he crossed home plate, McGwire pointed to the Maris family and pointed to the sky to say that Roger Maris is in his heart. Once again, astonishingly, the home run ball was returned to McGwire. Just like the previous 7. Even Ruth had now been passed in the 143rd game of the season and McGwire was just a swing away from sole possesion of the record!

September 8, 1998. Could it happen today? Everything the last few days has seemed so perfect; it couldn't have been written better. The Dow Jones even had it's biggest one day point gain ever today, 381 points, one for every foot McGwire's #60 traveled on the first day of trading since he hit it! The last day before the Cardinals started a road trip. McGwire wanted to break the record in front of the home crowd. His parents and son were still in attendance, as were Maris's children and once again, they were playing their arch-rivals, the Cubs and Sammy Sosa. The atmosphere was electric. Before the game, McGwire held the bat that Roger Maris hit #61 with. In the bottom of the fourth inning, it happened, on the first pitch from Steve Trachsel, McGwire sent a screaming line drive just over the left field wall! It was estimated at 341 feet, McGwire's shortest homer of the year, but the biggest home run in the history of baseball. McGwire was so shocked that it cleared the fence that he raised his arms and jumped right past first base into the arms of first base coach Dave McKay. He touched first and rounded the bases, again receiving high 5's from the Cubs and was greeted at the plate by his son, who he picked up and hugged, and his teammates. The game was delayed for 11 minutes as the crowd gave a hugh standing ovation, and McGwire went up into the stands to hug and talk to the Maris family. Sammy Sosa came in from right field and was bear hugged by McGwire. So in the 144th game of the season, McGwire was done chasing history...he had caught it and passed it and was now making history! McGwire had gone on an incredible tear, smashing 15 HR in 21 days, going back to Aug. 19, just when people thought the pressure was getting to him and he was going to slow down.

After #62, understandably, McGwire was emotionally drained and went homerless for the next 6 days, allowing Sosa to tie him. But one week later, on Sept 15, McGwire extended his record to 63 with his 450th career home run at home against Pittsburgh, and added #64 three days later at Milwaukee. Then on Sept 20, with one on in the first inning, McGwire hit #65 off Scott Karl of the Brewers to tie Carl Yastrzemski for 20th place on the career HR list with 452, also moving him 2 ahead of Sosa for the season. He came up again in the 5th with the bases empty and drove a Rod Henderson pitch over the centerfield wall, but was robbed of the HR. Not by the centerfielder, but by the 2nd base ump. The umpire ruled that a fan had reached over the fence and caught the ball, making it a ground rule double, although everyone else in the world clearly saw that the ball cleared the fence by 3-4 feet before the fan caught the ball. So what should have been #66 was taken away.

McGwire went homerless for the next four days and Sosa tied him at 65 going into the last weekend of the season. On Friday, Sept. 25, Sosa hit #66 to take a very brief lead from McGwire, who hit his own #66 in his first at bat after Sosa's HR. That would be Sosa's final home run of the season. On Saturday, McGwire hit #67 off Montreal's Dustin Hermanson in the 4th to re-take the lead, and followed that up with #68 off Kirk Bullinger with one on in the 7th for his 10th multi-homer game of the season! But Big Mac wasn't done yet. On the last day of the season, McGwire smashed #69 off Mike Thurman in the 3rd! The crowd was so loud that the fans at the St. Louis Rams game a few blocks away heard, and picked up the cheer as well. They were so loud, that it cost their own team a delay of game penalty! But Big Mac wasn't done yet. He saved the best for last. In the 7th inning with 2 on, in what everyone knew was going to be his last at bat of the season, McGwire sent a Carl Pavano pitch sailing 370 feet over the left field fence, just above where he hit #62, for his incredible 70th home run of the year!

Who would have ever thought 70 HR was possible! He was on pace for it when he hit #62, but still, 60 was the magic number for countless years, but 70 is unheard of! To break a 37 year old record, not by one, not by two, but by 9, by 15%! And to do it in a season when he was walked 162 times, a NL record! McGwire finished with 15 HR in September for the second straight year, and every time it was a big pressure situation, McGwire delivered and then some! McGwire hit those 70 HR in just 509 AB, shattering his own record for AB/HR ratio! It took Sosa 643 AB to hit 66. If McGwire had that many at bats, he would have a projected 88 HR! Not only did he hit 70 HR, he drove in a career best 147 RBI and had the highest slugging pct (.752) since Ted Williams, led the majors in on base pct, scored 130 runs, and had maybe the best season in 60 years! After the season, McGwire was approached by someone wanting to make a movie based on the season. McGwire's reply: Why would you want to make a movie out of it? You saw the real thing. What could be better than that?

Indeed, it could not have been scripted any better.

Mark McGwire's 1998 statistics

ISO=Isolated Power | PRO=Production | EBH=Extra Base Hits | RP=Runs Procduced | PR=Power Rating | TPR=Total Player Rating | EFF=Efficiency | TBR=Total Baseball Ranking

For the formulas for all computed stats, click here.

Note: Efficiency is the best measure of how good a season or player's career is overall. Babe Ruth's 1921 season has a .999 efficiency, the best ever, and Ruth also holds the career record at .834. McGwire's 1998 season ranks 13th all time at .887 and only Jeff Bagwell's 1994 season (.916) has been higher in the past 60 years.