Mark McGwire

Baseball Player

• Born: October 1, 1963
• Place of Birth: Pomona, California

SPORT: Baseball

Early Life

Mark David McGwire was born to Ginger and John McGwire, a dentist, in 1963 in Pomona, California. He attended Damien High School in La Verne, California, where he played basketball, golf, and baseball. McGwire’s younger brother Dan later played quarterback for the National Football League Seattle Seahawks from 1991 to 1994 and the Miami Dolphins in 1995. Graduating from high school in 1981, McGwire declined an offer to sign with the Montreal Expos as a pitcher and attended the University of Southern California (USC) in 1982. Although a promising young pitcher at USC, he was switched to third base in his sophomore year because of his hitting ability.

The Road to Excellence

At USC in 1984, McGwire hit .387 and established a Pac-10 Conference season record of 32 home runs. He was named 1984 college player of the year and was selected to the college All-American team. He also played on the 1984 US Olympic team, winning a silver medal.

Drafted by the Oakland Athletics (A’s), McGwire chose to forego his senior year at USC. He played two full seasons in the minor leagues, spending 1985 in Modesto, California, and 1986 in Huntsville, Alabama, and Tacoma, Washington. At the end of the 1986 season, he was promoted to the major leagues and played in eighteen games for the A’s.

In 1987, after making numerous errors at third base, McGwire switched to first base. His 49 home runs established a major-league rookie record. His slugging percentage, .618, also set the American League (AL) record for a rookie. He tied the Major League Baseball (MLB) record for most home runs in two consecutive games when he hit three on June 27, 1987, and two more the following night. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America named him 1987 AL Rookie of the Year.

The Emerging Champion

As he gained experience, McGwire became a selective hitter. He learned to drive the ball in important situations and took equal satisfaction in reaching base via walks. He was selected to the AL all-star team nine times between 1987 and 1997. Although he helped lead the A’s to a number of post-season appearances, he never performed well in the playoffs or World Series. In four AL Championship Series—1988, 1989, 1990, 1992—he hit .258 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI. During three World Series—1988, 1989, and 1990—he managed only a meager .188 average with 1 home run.

McGwire worked hard to improve his fielding and won the AL Gold Glove Award for first basemen in 1990 and 1992. He was named first baseman on the Sporting News American League Silver Slugger team in 1992, 1996, and 1998. During much of the 1993 and 1994 seasons, he was sidelined with injuries. In 1995, he made a resounding comeback, hitting 39 home runs with 90 RBI in only 104 games.

McGwire’s home-run production between 1996 and 1999 was remarkable. In 1996, he hit 52 home runs, batted .312, had a .731 slugging percentage, and drove in 113 runs. He became the first major-league player to hit 50 home runs in fewer than 140 games. Playing in 105 games with the A’s in 1997, he hit 34 home runs with 81 RBI.

In July 1997, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. Afterward, McGwire hit 24 home runs in 59 games, bringing his home-run total in 1997 to 58—the most home runs hit in a major leagues season since Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961. Ironically, although he led the major leagues in home runs for the season, he was not listed among the home-run leaders in either league. However, The Sporting News selected McGwire as 1997 Sportsman of the Year.

Continuing the Story

Early in the 1998 season, McGwire hit his 400th career major-league home run, reaching that plateau faster than any player in history. He shattered the major-league record for home runs in a season by hitting 70, though his record was later surpassed by Barry Bonds, who hit 73 in 2001. He hit his sixty-second home run on September 8 to surpass Roger Maris’s record. Throughout the record-setting period, he showed humility, paying respect to the Maris family and to Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, who challenged him by hitting 66 home runs during the same season.

The home-run chase between McGwire and Sosa captivated fans and viewers throughout the world and reinvigorated the game of baseball, which had slumped since the 1994 players’ strike. McGwire’s 1998 statistics also included a .299 batting average, 147 RBI, and a .752 slugging percentage. He hit a home run every 7.3 at bats and set the National League (NL) record of 162 walks in a season. For his super season, he was selected as major league player of the year in 1998. He finished second to Sosa in balloting for the NL most valuable player award.

In 1999, McGwire reached the 500 home-run mark faster than anyone in major-league history. The achievement also made him the first player to reach multi-hundred home-run milestones in consecutive seasons. He went on to hit 65 home runs, bat .278, and drive in 147 runs. He played for the National League in the 1998 and 1999 all-star games. He was named to the US Baseball all-time team in 1999. In 2000, plagued with back pain and tendinitis in his knee, he played in only eighty-nine games, hitting 32 home runs and batting .305. He started the 2001 season but went back on the disabled list after only a few games. When he returned to the lineup two months later, he hit a home run in his first game. He then resumed his climb up the list of all-time leaders in career home runs.

A twelve-time all-star and a three-time Silver Slugger Award winner, McGwire retired following the 2001 season. He finished his career with a .263 lifetime batting average and 583 home runs—at the time, the fifth-highest total in baseball history. He hit 50 or more home runs in four consecutive seasons, from 1996 to 1999. In 2002, he married Stephanie Slemer, and the couple founded the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children to assist agencies in the care of abused children.

Despite McGwire’s impressive career totals, he was not elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first two years of eligibility. Linked to steroid use by former teammate José Canseco in 2005, he was subpoenaed to testify before the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee but declined to answer questions. Though he admitted in 1998 to taking androstenodione, a steroid-like substance, he was not prosecuted for steroid use. However, sportswriters seem reluctant to enshrine McGwire. During his first two years of eligibility for the Hall of Fame, he received less than 25 percent of ballots cast and failed to qualify.

For the five years that followed his retirement, McGwire retreated into hiding from baseball and the media to escape the public ridicule because of the steroid accusations. He attracted great media attention when he not only returned to the world of baseball, but he also addressed the longtime issue in an interview with the MLB Network in 2010. In addition to the news that he would be rejoining the Cardinals as the team's hitting coach, he confirmed publicly that he had in fact used steroids during his baseball career, including at the time when he broke the league's record for home runs. At the same time, however, he claimed that he only used the steroids as treatment for a succession of injuries that plagued him and that the drugs did not take away from his natural talent. After three successful seasons with the Cardinals, he left for Los Angeles to serve as the hitting coach for the Dodgers in 2013. When the Dodgers went through management changes, parting ways with Don Mattingly in 2015, it was announced that McGwire had been hired as the new bench coach for the San Diego Padres late that year. In 2016, his name was ultimately removed from the Hall of Fame ballot.

In 2022, McGwire's eldest son, Mason, was drafted by the Cubs, the rival team of McGwire throughout his career on the Cardinals because of his home-run race against Sosa. McGwire's younger son, Max, was also a baseball player for the University of Oklahoma and the University of San Diego.

Summary

One of the greatest power hitters to play in the major leagues, Mark McGwire retired as the all-time leader in home runs hit per time at bat. He was the first player to hit 50 or more home runs in four consecutive seasons and set a single-season mark of 70. He was selected as a member of Major League Baseball’s All-Century Team.

Bibliography

Allen, Bob, and Bill Gilbert. The Five Hundred Home Run Club: Baseball’s Sixteen Greatest Home Run Hitters from Babe Ruth to Mark McGwire. Champaign: Sports, 2000. Print.

Canseco, José. Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. New York: Morrow, 2005. Print.

Canseco, José. Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball. New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2008. Print.

Kirkpatrick, Rob. Mark McGwire: Record Breaker. New York: PowerKids, 2000. Print.

Leach, Matthew. "McGwire Opens up about Steroid Use." MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media, 11 Jan. 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

“Mark McGwire Exclusive: 25 Years after 1998 MLB Home Run Chase.” USA Today, 8 Sept. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2023/09/08/mark-mcgwire-exclusive-25-years-after-1998-home-run-chase-sammy-sosa/70781594007/. Accessed 25 June 2024.

“Mark McGwire Stats, Age, Position, Height, Weight, Fantasy & News.” Major League Baseball, www.mlb.com/player/mark-mcgwire-118743. Accessed 25 June 2024.

Noden, Merrell, ed. Home Run Heroes: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and a Season for the Ages. New York: Simon, 1998. Print.

Rains, Rob. Mark McGwire: Mac Attack. Champaign: Sports, 1998. Print.

Stewart, Mark, and Mike Kennedy. Home Run Heroes: Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Brookfield: Millbrook, 1999. Print.

Svrluga, Barry. "Baseball's Broken Hall of Fame Process May Deny Stars Like Mark McGwire for Good with Forthcoming Results." Washington Post. Washington Post, 5 Jan. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.