Another baseball game was played on the North Side on a perfect September afternoon, but there was no mistaking what really mattered to the 27,284 fans on hand.
One man. One record. One ballpark.
St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire brought his chase of Roger Maris’ hallowed home-run record to Wrigley Field on Wednesday, moving one step closer with his 53rd homer in the Cardinals’ 12-9 victory over the Cubs.
A day after signing a three-year contract for more than $28 million and pledging $3 million to a foundation for abused children, McGwire hit a towering, opposite-field home run into the right-field bleachers off Rodney Myers in the third inning. Pulling within eight of tying Maris with 11 games remaining, McGwire has hit the most homers by any player since 1961, when Maris hit 61 and Mickey Mantle had 54 for the Yankees.
McGwire also tied a major-league record by hitting home runs in 16 different ballparks during the same season.
McGwire could tie or break Maris’ record without being crowned a home-run champion. Thirty-four of McGwire’s homers came in the American League while he played for the Oakland A’s and that total has been surpassed by Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr., who has 52.
Wednesday’s homer was McGwire’s 19th in the National League, where Colorado’s Larry Walker leads with 47.
Like Cal Ripken Jr. during his much-publicized pursuit of Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games record, McGwire has grown tired of hearing the same questions after every home run. But McGwire is mistaken if he believes no one wants to hear what he has to say about one of sports’ most treasured milestones.
“What’s there to talk about?” he said after Wednesday’s game. “People are tired of hearing about it. (The media) has been talking about it all year, so how much more can you talk about hitting a home run? You have to see the ball and hit the ball and try to get a hit. It’s not easy to do. If it was easy to do, 61 wouldn’t be a number to be chasing. It’s the hardest thing to do in sports.”
McGwire’s mere presence led to a sizable crowd of fans hanging out on Waveland Avenue before and during the game. He cranked eight home runs onto the street during batting practice and, in an awesome display of power hitting, nearly reached the left side of the center-field scoreboard.
Many of the regular ballhawks who maintain a vigil outside the park during home games said they had been looking forward to these games since McGwire was traded to the Cardinals from Oakland on July 31. Some even scheduled time off from work to wait for a McGwire home-run ball to come their way.
Inside, some fans came out early with their children to watch McGwire take batting practice before his first regular-season game at Wrigley Field. He was 0 for 2 there in the 1990 All-Star Game.
“There’s just something a little more special about watching a home run leaving the yard,” said Tom Phelan, 39, of Downers Grove. “Almost anyone can hit a home run nowadays. But there’s not too many guys who can hit them as far as McGwire, and there’s hardly any ballparks where you can actually hit a ball out onto the street. It’s a perfect combo.”
Each McGwire at-bat prompts a buzz of anticipation in every ballpark in which the Cardinals play, most notably their own. Though McGwire has maintained he’s enjoying himself, he repeatedly chided the media for overhyping the chase, particularly his batting-practice sessions.
“You guys–the media–have made it a big thing,” he said. “It’s good for the game, yes. But there’s other guys on the team. Why cheer for just one person? I’m not the type of person who likes to have all the attention. This is a team sport, not an individual sport. One player can’t control a baseball game, not like a basketball game.”
Told by a reporter the media merely was reflecting the interest in the record, McGwire disagreed.
“No, the media has created it because the media has been writing about it,” he said. “So now the fans are coming out to batting practice because the media was writing about it. Earlier in the year, before I was traded, nobody used to come out to batting practice. Now all of a sudden I get traded to the National League and everyone comes out to batting practice. I enjoy it, don’t get me wrong. But this is a team sport. It should be equal.”
The game itself was over in an instant, leaving time for the crowd to focus on McGwire. Cubs starter Miguel Batista lasted only one-third of an inning, giving up five runs on four hits, including Royce Clayton’s two-run homer. Batista (0-5) also walked two. The only batter he retired was McGwire, on a fly to left.
With the Cardinals leading 5-0 in the third, McGwire jumped on a Myers curveball and sent it into a 13-m.p.h. wind blowing out toward right.
“I’m not an opposite-field hitter,” McGwire said. “Believe me, if I hit a ball to right field, it’s by accident.”
Legend has it that the pressure of chasing Babe Ruth’s record 60 homers caused Maris to lose his hair in ’61. McGwire, who hit 52 last season and 49 as a rookie in 1987, is having no such problems. There is no pressure, he said.
“That’s because it’s a longshot right now,” he said. “If I get there, I get there. If I don’t, I still had a pretty good year.”
