Home run race
The "Home Run Race" of 1998 was a pivotal event in Major League Baseball that helped revive the sport's popularity during a challenging time. As other sports like basketball and football gained traction, and following a player strike in 1994 that dampened fan engagement, the race became a beacon of excitement. The race primarily involved Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who emerged as fierce competitors, both striving to break the long-standing single-season home run record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961.
McGwire began the season strong, but Sosa quickly caught up, creating a dramatic narrative between the two players. Their friendly rivalry culminated in a historic moment on September 8, 1998, when McGwire broke Maris’s record, followed shortly by Sosa reaching 62 home runs. This season saw a remarkable display of power, with three players hitting over 50 home runs—a feat unprecedented in baseball history. The race not only rekindled interest in the sport but also raised questions about the impact of performance-enhancing drugs, casting a shadow on the achievements of the era. Ultimately, the 1998 home run race played a significant role in re-establishing baseball's place in American culture.
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Subject Terms
Home run race
The Event Major League Baseball attendance booms as sluggers chase the single-season home run record
Date 1998
The Major League Baseball renaissance of the latter half of the 1990’s was inextricably connected to the league-wide surge in home run production. Two players in particular, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, typified the trend with their dramatic pursuit of Roger Maris’s home run record.
As the middle of the 1990’s approached, a series of circumstances threatened baseball’s popularity. Two other American sports leagues, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL)—through innovative marketing and game paces that reflected the increasingly ambulatory American culture—jeopardized baseball’s position as the national pastime. Furthermore, the 1994 Major League Baseball players’ strike depleted attendance figures and disenfranchised most baseball fans. The home run race of 1998 rescued baseball from its slide in popularity and was the culmination of the decade’s unprecedented power display.
On opening day of the 1998 season, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his first home run—a grand slam—commencing the historic race. McGwire was the primary candidate to break Roger Maris’s thirty-seven-year-old record of sixty-one home runs. McGwire hit forty-nine home runs in his rookie season (1987), fifty-two in 1996, and fifty-eight in 1997, falling three short of Maris’s magical number. Unlike Babe Ruth, who was the first to reach the sixty-home-run plateau, McGwire had competition in his quest to establish a new home run record. The most obvious rival was Ken Griffey, Jr., who hit fifty-six home runs in 1997. Other sluggers such as Manny Ramirez, Greg Vaughn, Barry Bonds, José Canseco, and Albert Belle were legitimate challengers to McGwire’s supremacy.
Two months into the 1998 season, McGwire had twenty-seven home runs and a degree of distance between his challengers. Suddenly, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs emerged as McGwire’s primary competitor, hitting twenty home runs in June, a record for one calendar month. The juxtaposition of the two hitters—representing traditional and geographical baseball rivals—framed the already intriguing story line. The relationship between McGwire, a humble, often serious American, and Sosa, an affable, gregarious Dominican, developed into a genuine friendship that advanced the popularity of both players. As the likelihood of a new home run record increased, McGwire mused, “Wouldn’t it be great if we just ended up tied?”
On August 19, the Cubs played the Cardinals. In the fifth inning, Sosa hit his forty-eighth home run, passing McGwire for the first time. In the eighth inning, McGwire answered with his forty-eighth and reclaimed the home run lead with a game-winner in the tenth inning. On September 1, McGwire hit his fifty-seventh and broke Hack Wilson’s National League record. On September 8, the Cubs and Cardinals reconvened. In the fourth inning, McGwire sent a line drive over the left-field wall to break Maris’s record. As he touched home plate, he lifted his son Matt into the air in celebration. Next, he embraced Sosa—the two were compatriots in an exclusive club. In the same week, Sosa hit his sixty-second.
Obscured by the media attention surrounding McGwire and Sosa was the fact that, on Labor Day, Griffey hit his fiftieth home run, signifying the first time three players had hit fifty or more home runs in a year. On the final day of the season, Vaughn joined the fifty-home-run club. The home run race did not end once McGwire and Sosa passed Ruth and Maris. The new home run kings emboldened each other to extend the new all-time mark. On August 25, when Sosa hit his sixty-sixth, he had hit the most single-season home runs in history. His record lasted forty-five minutes before McGwire tied it. Over the last weekend of the season, McGwire hit four more home runs, establishing the record at seventy. The home run record, long thought to be the most elusive of all baseball feats, was broken again in 2001, when Bonds hit seventy-three.
Impact
The inflation of home run production in the 1990’s—climaxing with the record-breaking 1998 season—was indicative of an era that associated grandiosity with superiority. The home run, a symbol of pomp and potency, reconnected a generation seemingly apathetic toward the game. Given subsequent accusations of a pervasive use of performance-enhancing drugs during the era, speculation clouds the legitimacy of the decade’s batting records. Regardless, the home run race of 1998 reminded the American public of both the relevance and necessity of its national game.
Bibliography
McNeil, William. The Single-Season Home Run Kings: Ruth, Maris, McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2003.
Paisner, Daniel. The Ball: Mark McGwire’s Seventieth Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream. New York: Viking Press, 1999.
Schreiber, Lee R. Race for the Record: The Great Home Run Chase of 1998. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.