Celebrating 70: Mark Mcgwire's Historic Season

by Ron Smith

The venerable Sporting News, located in St. Louis, was around and flourishing when the Babe set the mark of 60 in 1927, and when Roger Maris broke it with 61 in 1961. It saved the real celebration, though, for its hometown hero: Mark McGwire is virtually coronated in this smart, photo-rich, comprehensive veneration of his record-breaking season compiled under the Sporting News aegis. Each home run gets the royal treatment: every McGwire at-bat of the game is codified, the pitcher identified, the count remembered, and a picture of the ballpark shows where the shot landed and just how far it was hit. There are lots of fascinating bits and pieces--facts and figures, quotes and observations--thrown in to complement solid reportage and good writing, ending with a table of fascinating historical data to give McGwire's achievement added perspective, as if the number 70 wasn't perspective enough. --Jeff Silverman

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction, Sports

184 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Cam Phinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book. This is a non-fiction book about Mark McGwire's 70 home run season. In this book it tells about every home run. It tells the pitcher he hit it off, the inning, where it went in the stadium, the count, if any people were on base, the outs, and some pictures of the fans. Also it has some quotes from players and coaches, the home run race with Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. In the bottom left corner of the page it also has the date Babe Ruth and Roger Maris hit that many of the home runs. Did you know Babe Ruth and Roger Maris were the single season home run holders before Mark McGwire came along? Did you know they were both on the Yankees? Sadly we later found out that Mark McGwire used steroids and Sammy Sosa corked his bat. Now the single season home run recored is 73 with Barry Bonds. We found out he also used steroids. So it may be impossible for someone to beat Roger Maris' single season home run record (61).