It is hard to believe that the great McGwire-Sosa home run race is almost twelve years old. The epic showdown of two home run hitters on rival teams had America's baseball fans captivated, checking the highlights each night to see who had taken the lead in the chase to break baseball's greatest, most cherished record.The great race of 1998 gave new life to baseball. In the early to mid-90's, many fans and critics claimed that the game had not properly adapted to the younger, less attentive, video game-playing spectator. A faster pace was needed to compete with football, basketball and hock ... er, NASCAR.
Then came 1998. Fans that had left, quickly and blindly returned and critics began to count home runs and track down the Maris family.
The home run battle, however, was recently forever tainted by Mark McGwire's announcement that he used performance enhancing drugs during that period.
Were there any clues at the time that either player was using PEDs to power the historic run? Some are pointing to the record-breaking home run celebration by McGwire, when he lifted his then 10-year-old son, and batboy, off the ground and high into the air.
"After [McGwire] hit number 62 it never even occurred to me that PEDs were involved," said Cardinals' fan Jack Gaffney. "But when he touched home plate and lifted that son of his high into the air ... I really began to wonder."
"After he lifted his son, I turned to a colleague of mine in the press box and said I should really investigate this and find out where this sudden burst of strength came from," said New York Times reporter, Victor Styles. "But I ended up writing an article about the Maris' family sightseeing tour while they were staying in St Louis."
"Honestly, when my dad lifted me up I began to wonder," said son and former batboy, Matt McGwire.
No comments:
Post a Comment