Stop looking at the All-Star ballot for the name of that Oakland rookie who`s hitting all the home runs. It isn`t there.
Stop looking for Mark McGwire`s name in the record books. It isn`t there either.
Yet.
But rest assured, by 1988 this mild-mannered 23-year-old`s name will be as prominently displayed on both the All-Star ballots and the updated record books as it has been displayed in newspapers and on radio and television since McGwire`s barrage of five home runs in two games last weekend.
And the 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound Californian will probably be just as embarrassed about that as he is with his current fame.
”It is sort of embarrassing,” McGwire said of the crush of notepads, cameras and microphones that have been thrust under his nose in recent days.
”It`s hard to sink in that people want to talk to me. What I`ve done is good, but it`s over with.”
By now, even the most casual baseball observer knows that McGwire became the 14th player and first rookie in major-league history to hit five home runs in two games when he hammered three Saturday and two more Sunday in Cleveland. That burst of power brought McGwire even with Toronto`s George Bell for the major-league lead with 27.
And the baseball fan knows that McGwire is only the fifth player, and the first since a fellow named Stan Musial in 1948, to score in nine consecutive at-bats. That, coupled with a weeklong .565 batting average that brought his season average to .283, earned him accolades as the American League Player of the Week.
Fans probably even know that, barring injury or a slump of enormous proportions, McGwire is a virtual cinch to shatter both the American League rookie home run record of 37, set by the Indians` Al Rosen in 1950, and the major-league standard of 38, shared by the Braves` Walter Bergner (1930) and the Reds` Frank Robinson (1956).
But they may not know just how much all this attention has taken the soft-spoken McGwire by surprise. Here is a player, an All-America at Southern Cal and a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, who hit 47 home runs in less than two minor-league seasons but who started the season being platooned at first base with fellow rookie Rob Nelson.
Nelson, one of 14 AL first basemen listed on the All-Star ballot, is in the minor leagues.
Meanwhile, McGwire, who hit his 28th homer Tuesday against the Sox to break his tie with Bell, could well be on his way to following teammate Jose Canseco as the league`s Rookie of the Year.
McGwire has hit 31 homers in less than a year in the big leagues. But whether his career ends with 50 or 500 home runs, this rookie who makes the major-league minimum salary of $62,500, has every intention of keeping his feet on solid ground.
”I don`t set any personal goals, because I feel like if I set goals and then get close, I start pressing,” he said.
McGwire is one of five sons of a Claremont, Calif., dentist. His brother Dan, who passed for more than 6,000 yards and 65 touchdowns in high school, has been tabbed to quarterback Iowa this fall.
McGwire, rookie center-fielder Luis Polonia and second-year player Canseco have blended with veterans such as Reggie Jackson and Carney Lansford to pull the A`s within two games of first place in the AL West.
”We`re coming into our own,” McGwire said. ”As for me, I try to do things the same way every day. I go out, work hard and let things happen.”
