As Mark McGwire circled the bases after hitting his 500th career home run, he experienced what he later called “just total relief.” Like a big-game hunter, he had put another massive trophy on his wall.
But of course, this being America, this being the cusp of the new millennium (as you may have heard), nothing is ever good enough. We want more, more, more! So, what do you think, Mac, do you have another 250-plus homers in you?
Now that McGwire holds the single-season home run record and reached the magical mark of 500 faster than any of his predecessors, there’s only one power-hitting record left to get. That would be Henry Aaron’s career record of 755, which Aaron walked away from as 42-year-old designated hitter with the last-place Milwaukee Brewers in 1976.
Aaron always lists Ken Griffey Jr. as the active player most likely to challenge that record. But barring a physical catastrophe, there’s no reason McGwire couldn’t climb the mountain toward 755 if he wanted to hold that record too. He would probably have to end his career back in the American League as a DH, but name a team that wouldn’t want his power at the plate and box office.
Common sense says not to bet against a 35-year-old slugger who has hit 224 homers in 554 games over the last four seasons. That’s an otherworldly rate of one homer every 2.5 games.
Why can’t McGwire average 50 a year for another five seasons? That would put him on the doorstep of 755 in August 2004. His 40th birthday would still be two months away.
“I wouldn’t count him out,” Tony Gwynn said Thursday. “He sure makes it look easy. He really does. For four days now I’ve watched him take batting practice. It’s not really a muscular swing, it’s just a rhythm swing. No, I wouldn’t count him out.”
McGwire often talks as if he would rather be at the beach than playing baseball. But if that were truly the case, he would not have been able to fight his way back from the foot problems that limited him to 74 games in the dark days of 1993 and 1994.
There is something about the challenge of hitting a baseball that he thrives on. He is at peace when he shuts everything out of his life and tries to focus on swinging his Rawlings Big Stick-model bat at a pitch zipping toward home plate.
Like few hitters ever, McGwire channels his energy into the job at hand. At times it seems he can almost hit home runs at will.
With two games left in a homestand last September, McGwire homered off the Cubs’ Mike Morgan to tie Roger Maris’ record one night and then homered off Steve Trachsel the next night to break the record. Forty-five minutes after Sammy Sosa went ahead of McGwire on the final Friday of last season, McGwire homered to tie him. He then hit four more in the final two games of the season, extending the new record to an unthinkable 70.
It appeared almost certain that McGwire would still be in search of 500 this weekend. But he banged out seven homers in a seven-game homestand to reach 501, including three in his final five at-bats against San Diego.
He has homered once every 7.5 at-bats since being traded to St. Louis in 1997.
“I give credit to my mind,” McGwire said. “My mind is very, very strong. When I get in that box, I’m that focused. It’s something I’ve really learned how to do. . . . I know what I need to do to get ready every game.”
McGwire is in the second year of a contract that figures to pay him $40 million plus incentives over four years, providing the Cardinals exercise a club option for 2001. He said this spring that he’d like to play until he’s 40, provided there is not another work stoppage after the current labor agreement expires at the end of the 2001 season.
McGwire was on the disabled list eight times in his first 10 seasons with Oakland, but has avoided it for more than three seasons. He says any run at Aaron will “come down to health,” with back problems his biggest concern.
Injuries can happen to anyone, no matter how strong the mind. But if McGwire sets his sights on Aaron, he just might be able to catch him. If he gets in the neighborhood, he’ll catch him–and he’ll do it in front of his home fans, whether they’re in St. Louis or some AL outpost.
Human glue: The Braves may regret sending pitching prospects Micah Bowie and Ruben Quevedo to the Cubs last week. After much internal debate, GM John Schuerholz decided Terry Mulholland and Jose Hernandez could help hold the injury-riddled powerhouse together.
“I was on the phone with everybody, our own people, other people, measuring the deal, weighing the deal, contemplating the deal,” Schuerholz said. “I was saying, `Yeah, I’m going to do it . . . no, I don’t want to do it . . . it’s too much . . . we’ve got too many injuries on our club with too many key guys for us to give up this kind of young talent because there’s no certainty that we’re going to have enough to get through this.’ Finally, we did it.”
Surprisingly, Mulholland may have been the key to the deal. He made his first Atlanta start Saturday, replacing rookie Bruce Chen in the rotation and earning his 100th career win in the process.
“I want to get him some innings,” manager Bobby Cox said. “If something goes wrong with (John) Smoltz, then Chen can get in there.”
With the Braves still hoping to get Walt Weiss going, Hernandez could wind up being used as a bench player. He won’t get many starts in center field, which is Andruw Jones’ territory, or at third base, where Chipper Jones plays.
“I just want to be out there,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think (the position) matters to me.”
Instructions included: Thumbs up to McGwire for ditching the androstenedione. He didn’t need the testosterone-producing supplement, but had a blind spot about its impact on his image.
Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell is among the hitters who tried andro. He stopped using it after his home run total declined.
“I guess in my andro bottle they forgot to include the little pamphlet telling me how to hit home runs,” Bagwell said. “And that’s the point. Hand-eye coordination is something you can’t get from a bottle.”
Incomplete masterpiece: The addition of Billy Taylor and Chuck McElroy makes it even more likely that the Mets could become the first major-league team to win a division title without a complete game.
“I think the bullpen is a lot more important (than starting pitching) over 162 games,” GM Steve Phillips said.
The Mets’ starting rotation is hardly a disgrace. With Al Leiter and Orel Hershiser on track, it’s among the best in the NL. But manager Bobby Valentine has weapons available in the bullpen and he uses them.
Hershiser is the only Mets starter to go the mound in the ninth all season, and he was taken out with two outs to go in a 5-1 win over Florida. He was lifted as soon as he lost his shutout, even though he had only thrown 93 pitches. Leiter is the only Met who has thrown 120-plus pitches this year, including a season-high 135 last Sunday at Wrigley.
Complete games are no longer signs of a winning team. Texas has had only two this season; Cleveland has had one.
Hard-hat zone: The moment Phillies fans have been awaiting all season arrives Monday. J.D. Drew, who spurned Philadelphia after being taken with the second overall pick in the 1997 draft, makes his first visit to the Vet.
Cardinals teammate Ricky Bottalico, a former Phillie, has advised Drew to wear his batting helmet while playing outfield.
“He laughed, but I was serious,” Bottalico said earlier this season. “I told him it’s not going to be like two minutes of booing, it’s going to be all game, all day. He’s never been to Philly and I tried to make him realize it’s not like (St. Louis).”
At least Drew is back on his game. After spending a month in remedial hitting courses at Class AAA Memphis, he’s batting .313 since the All-Star break. Although other clubs applauded the resolve of Phillies GM Ed Wade during the holdout orchestrated by agent Scott Boras, there’s no getting around the fact that the Phillies made a big mistake by not signing Drew.
Passing the bat: Desperate men do desperate things. That’s why the Anaheim Angels decided to all hit with Jim Edmonds’ bat the first time up Wednesday against the Royals.
The silly idea got sillier when home plate umpire Tim Tschida misinterpreted the intentions of leadoff man Orlando Palmeiro. After taking a borderline pitch for strike three, Palmeiro laid the bat beside the plate and started to the dugout. Tschida took it as an act of disrespect and tossed Palmeiro.
Teammate Gary DiSarcina eventually convinced Tschida that Palmeiro was just leaving the bat for him. It was not an easy sale.
“After Tim threw Orlando out, I went up to him and said, `Tim, I’m going to use the bat. The whole team’s using this bat.’ There were a few expletives and then he said, `I thought I saw it all in this game.’ (Kansas City catcher) Chad Kreuter’s like, `What do you mean, you guys are using the same bat?’ He kept asking me, so finally I said, `Are you deaf? Yeah, we’re all using the same bat.’ “
The experiment actually worked. The Angels’ lineup went 4 for 8 with a walk while sharing Edmonds’ bat en route to a 4-3 victory.
