Summer of '98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America

by Mike Lupica

An entertaining, provocative account of the record-breaking 1998 baseball season chronicles such milestones as the home-run battle between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, the Toms River, New Jersey, Little League champions, David Wells's perfect game, and more.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

209 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Michael Lupica is an author and American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.

Reviews

[TK421 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost perfect love letter to baseball and the baseball season of '98.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another terrific tale of a magical summer of larger than life sluggers and fathers and sons. Lupica writes baseball like poetry, lyrical, romantic and teeming with reverence.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a sappy homage to whole the '98 season, not just the McGwire/Sosa homerun chase. Just think of reading 200 sports columns in a row with little coherence and lots of repetitively redundant rehashing and you know what you're in for.

On the bright side, for beginning writers, this book could serve as an indispensible manual, in how to not use, and how to abuse, commas. Tons of sentence fragments, pissing off, and baffling, even the most grammar-ignorant.

Not to mention, about three pseudo-dramatic one-line paragraphs per page, displaying all of the above flaws.

Batter up!

[Kyle Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brother sent me this book written in '99 about the baseball season of '98 and about fathers and sons falling in love with baseball generation after generation. The summer of '98 happened to be when we moved to St. Louis, both fell in love with baseball, and converted our own father away from the Phillies to the Cardinals. At the time we didn't know we were falling in love with baseball at one of its highest heights, we just knew it was and must have always been the greatest game.

So, this book has special appeal to he and I and our shared story, but I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile read regardless. The constant praise of these sluggers who were pretty much all using 'roids hasn't aged well, but he nor we knew that in '99. That was the magic of it all.

[Micah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steroids aside this was a fantastic year in baseball. This book is a like a Time Machine to the 90s. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia of reliving my youth vicariously through the authors children. 1998 was so great with so much history being made. This book brings out the greatness of americas past time and takes you to a time when home runs we’re flying like never before. It’s presented in a way that brings out your inner child and makes you a fan of all of the hero’s presented (even if you don’t like the Cardinals or Yankees). Great book on a great baseball season.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people argue that what happened in the summer of '98 rescued baseball from the damage done by the strike in '94. It was the year Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa both broke the single season home run record. Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn were approaching 3,000 hits. It was the beginning of the Yankees dynasty and the season the San Diego Padres finally got back to the World Series.

All of these events are captured like snapshots and followed in captivating detail by Mike Lupica. Lupica comes across as just another baseball fan and he seems to recapture some of the wonder of childhood as he sees these events unfold. Now we know that McGuire and Sosa were both likely using steroids and that this era of baseball is referred to as The Steroid Era with good reason. You don't get any of that in Lupica's book as it was written in 2000 or 2001, before the biggest stars in the game became irreversibly tainted.

The only thing you get in this book is award-winning caliber coverage of the events and people that made the summer of '98 so unforgettable. Lupica also communicates a sense of wonder, as if he has rediscovered his childhood in the crack of rawhide on leather and the roar of excitement as a towering drive goes deep to left.

[Kiki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this summer and specifically where I was when Mark McGwire hit #62. I was watching the King & I on Broadway - I had taped the game to watch when we got back but as soon as my sister and I walked out of the theater and into Times Square, it was scrolling in big letters right in front of us. So much for watching the game fresh and not knowing. But it did save me three hours at 1am because I could just fast forward to his at bat so I guess it was for the best. Reliving the excitement of baseball in an era when I consumed a ton of baseball on TV and in person and therefore knew all the names in the book and most of the games Lupica discusses. I was even at one of the Shea games on Labor Day weekend when they were showing Sosa and McGwire's at bats on the scoreboard so I could relate to a lot of what he described.

[DC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike's book is about the "great Maris home run chase" of the summer of '98. This year was one of the last so-called "pure" years before all of the steroids/PED scandals broke in MLB.

I remember this summer as one of the greatest MLB seasons ever, because of the home run chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire!

As you read Mike's book, it transports you back to that time and sparks your own memories; that is the strength of his book! The spirit of the game and camaraderie between the two sluggers overshadows the eventual truth that both were tied to PED's.

I'm all about asterisks (especially for that $(%) Barry Bonds, mostly because he acts like an elitist, "better than you" A-hole), but this book allows you to really enjoy the race.

[Ronan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quote that stood out to me from summer of 98 “I watched with my sons, and with my father. And found myself hoping that in another baseball summer someday, one way down the road when i was old and looking to feel young, when new heroes would chase chase the same old records”. This is important because it wraps up the book really well.
This book was kinda hard to follow some of the time because it switched back and forth between a lot of different characters. In one moment you would with one character and then it would switch to another one. It wasn't all bad though because even if it was confusing some of the time, you would still see the point of view of a lot of characters.

[Kiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, fun read taking us back to all of the magical moments that the baseball season in 1998 encompassed. This was especially fun to read for me as in May of '98 Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters against the Astros, and the home run race involved the Cubs' Sammy Sosa. But the 1998 season was much more than this, and Mike Lupica does a wonderful job of whisking us back to that glorious summer when baseball got its groove back (and sometimes makes me wish I could watch games in his living room with his kids and their excitement for the sport).

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me cry like a small child. I'd forgotten how wonderful a summer '98 was -- I spent most of it furiously angry with the Orioles for firing Davey Johnson in the off-season -- but it really was, and Lupica weaves all the magic of that season into a story that's about more than baseball. Heavily focused on the McGwire/Sosa homerun chase and the Yankees' season, if you don't mind reading about the Yankees (and I don't), it's a quick, quality read.

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over all I enjoyed this book. Mike Lupica does a great job describing the 98 season when the notorious Yankees won yet another MLB tittle. There is no real main character in this book its just the season through the eyes of Mike's son's and his own opinions. In this book he mainly focus' on the Sammy Sosa McGwire race. He talks about how it affected the two emotionally and psychically. In the end Mark win and takes the record.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate Mike Lupica, and books like this are the main reason why. He jumps on hot topics, and attempts to profit from them. Whether it's a 13-year-old Little League pitcher, or Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa using illegal steroids to break hallowed baseball records. It doesn't matter, Lupica will turn a blind eye to it if he stands to profit from it - Summer of '98 is a perfect example of it.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. An easy read. I liked how Lupica waved other stories into the events of that season and how it was all related to family (especially fathers and kids). Especially liked how it started with him and his dad in 1961 and the Mantle - Maris chase and ended with McGwire -Sosa, with notes starting with Lupica's dad and how he continued the tradition with his sons.

[Brian Bice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Lupica writes a wonderful account of the 1998 baseball season. This was the season that many claimed brought baseball back to the forefront after the 1994 strike killed the last half of the season. While the book focuses on the home run record being chased by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, Lupica does recount other important highlights of the 1998 season.

[Douglas Graney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lupica draws on (as Lincoln said) "the mystic chords of memory" throughout this book. Grandfathers, fathers, sons and baseball with the backdrop of the McGuire/Sosa HR chase among other highlights of that remarkable summer. I feared at the end it would all be spoiled but it wasn't. Yet I can't help but wonder what Lupica's sons think now.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned we were drinking the long ball kool-aid back in '98.

[Frank Taranto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well writen book on the Summer of 1998 in Basebal. Brought me back to a more innocent time and reminded me why I love baseball so much.

[Mike Kriesel · Rating 4 out of 5]

How could you not be a fan of that summer.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

good writing and fun if you love baseball

[Shannon P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book, but was written before steroid use was widely speculated.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

And this is why i find the words "sports journalist so funny. Hey lupica i want my money back!

[Adam J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nostalgic look at the 1998 Mlb season and how a father experienced it with his sons. As much a book about family as baseball. Light, easy read that I enjoyed.

[Christopher Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Lupica's writing style, but in retrospect everyone's views changes. 98 may have saved baseball, and damaged it severely forever...

[David-jacky Breech · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes it wasn't only the ball that was juiced that summer. But it was great to watch and I can remember where I was when McGwire broke the record. Sorry but it was still great to watch.

[Sean Herrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about a defining moment in baseball history

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

good baseball book. good book about fathers and sons and baseball

[Alex Barron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1998 season really was one of the more memorable ones in my life, not only because so many tremendously exciting things happened on the field (the McGwire-Sosa home run race, Yankees' dominance, my Red Sox in the playoffs) but because of the newfound freedom that came with turning sixteen years old. My parents were willing to let me take the train from the New Jersey suburbs into the city and up to Yankee Stadium, for example. The first time my friends and I did this by ourselves was on Sunday, May, 17, 1998: I know this because it turned out to be the date of David Wells' Perfect Game.

Written shortly after the '98 season, Mike Lupica's book captures a time when national love of baseball seemed stronger and more uncomplicated than it ever was in my lifetime. We were a few years removed from the strike of 1994, and we hadn't yet reached the heartbreaking revelations about PEDs that were to come. It really was a wonderful summer for baseball fans, and I enjoyed revisiting it through Lupica's writing.

Baseball, more than any other sport, has always been a game that connects fathers and children (daughters as well as sons, as he deliberately points out). So in Lupica's telling of the season, everything that happens in the game is connected to something that happened earlier. You can't talk about McGwire without talking about Roger Maris. You can't talk about Wells' Perfect Game without talking about Don Larsen's.

It has also been my experience that baseball connects generations. Growing up, I spent so many happy times with my dad, either watching games, or just talking about them. I loved hearing him reminisce about long-forgotten players from the sixties. Now that my son is old enough, I love taking him with me to games, playing catch with him, showing him old baseball cards. So I get what Lupica is doing by jumping around from time to time and place to place. Unfortunately, this technique kind of gives the reader whiplash. An example: he's narrating a pivotal moment in Game 2 of the ALCS between the Yankees and the Indians. But instead of simply telling the story, he abruptly shifts back in time to tell another story about some other game at some point in the past. It gets frustrating.

It also must be said that the writing here is pretty sappy. To an extent, that's ok. Baseball stories have a way of bringing out guys' sentimental sides. Field of Dreams is a little sappy too, and it's one of my favorite movies. Summer of '98 goes even further: there are passages here that approach Hallmark Card territory.

But no matter. When you're reading a book about the summer you turned sixteen, sometimes you just want pure sentimentality.

[Tanner Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike Lupica’s *Summer of ‘98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America* is an exhilarating, nostalgic look back at one of the most unforgettable summers in baseball history. This book captures the magic of the 1998 baseball season, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated the nation with their record-breaking home run race. Lupica delves deep into the significance of that moment in time, exploring not only the impact on the sport but also how it served as a cultural reset for America in the wake of the 1994 strike.

Lupica’s writing is fast-paced and engaging, offering insightful commentary on the personalities, rivalries, and drama that unfolded both on and off the field. He does an excellent job of contextualizing the broader social and political climate of the time, showing how the excitement around McGwire and Sosa’s chase reignited the nation’s love for baseball after a period of disillusionment.

While the narrative is mostly focused on the home run race, Lupica also touches on the broader storylines of the season, including the struggles of other major players, the changing face of the game, and the controversies surrounding performance-enhancing drugs. The author doesn’t shy away from the complexities of the era, offering a balanced perspective on what made this summer so unforgettable—and what it ultimately meant for the sport.

Though the book is a bit heavy on the McGwire/Sosa narrative at times, it’s hard to deny the lasting excitement that their rivalry brought to baseball. Lupica’s passion for the game shines through, and he paints a vivid picture of how the sport reestablished itself as America’s pastime during that thrilling summer.

Overall, *Summer of ‘98* is a must-read for baseball fans and anyone who lived through that iconic season. Lupica captures the essence of that summer and why it mattered, blending history, sports, and emotion into a book that will resonate with anyone who remembers when baseball was truly America’s game.

[Wayne Finley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, it took me back to that glorious year. I’m a huge McGwire fan. But this book tells all the great story lines I forgot happened in 98. What a year! It was awesome to relive the sights and sounds of that year. Especially the family parts that were intwined within. My family was very tuned in also. My oldest was 7, but he was hooked on baseball and still is. Played NAIA college baseball and went on to coach high school baseball and teach. The night Mac broke the record , my wife, son and I were jumping, chewing, hugging. Just a great night. We were so loud , we woke our 2 year old . Phone calls made, just incredible.
Thank you to Mr Lupica! Well done sir