#BILL CLINTON 1994 MLB STRIKE PROFESSIONAL#

Three of them came on one day against the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, who were playing just the 14th game in franchise history, 12 of which they’d lost. 163 for the Yankees).Īt the end of April, 1998, McGwire already had 11 home runs. Maris broke the record–on the last day of the season (an early season tie game made it No. As Jane Leavy chronicles in The Last Boy, her superb biography of Mantle, “Maris lost gobs of hair the circles under his eyes appeared etched in charcoal. Maris, only two years a Yankee, was a dour figure who grew more and more uncomfortable as the publicity over the chase intensified. He was the golden boy, the career Yankee, the good-time party guy. If anyone was going to break the record, people wanted Mantle to do it. (In fact, Frick didn’t use that word, and it doesn’t.)įrick wasn’t alone in looking askance at Maris’ quest. The implication was that a 61st home run in Game 155 or later would have an asterisk in the record books. Would it be fair?īaseball commissioner Ford Frick, who once had been a ghostwriter for Ruth, declared in the middle of the season that anybody trying to break Ruth’s record would have to do it in 154 games. Ruth had hit his 60 home runs in 154 games.

As Maris closed on the record (with Mantle not far behind), consternation broke out. In 1961, the American League added two teams, and eight games, to the schedule. As on the horse track, front-runners faded in the stretch.įor all of major league baseball’s modern history, the regular season schedule had consisted of 154 games. Those who kept track as generations of sluggers chased Ruth’s record were dutifully reminded that being on pace to beat it in June, July, August was meaningless because 17 of the Babe’s home runs had come in September of 1927. The accomplishment seemed to make no one happy, not even Maris. Then, in 1961, an era of home run ascendance peaked with an all-time-high homer rate and a chase after Ruth’s standard by two latter-day Yankees, Maris and Mickey Mantle. … whichever slugger ultimately claims the record, which now stands at 61, the increasing likelihood that Roger Maris and Babe Ruth will be relegated to third and fourth places in the history books has reminded the nation of baseball’s uncanny ability to capture hearts and bridge generations.įor a third of a century, if you had memorized any American sports record, it was Ruth’s nice round number 60 home runs of 1927.

#BILL CLINTON 1994 MLB STRIKE PROFESSIONAL#

A generation of parents who watch their children grow up with non-competitive soccer, a nation of fans who shake their heads as professional athletes eschew any obligation to behave responsibly, has joyfully embraced the polite redhead with the Popeye muscles and the self-deprecating Dominican.

…in an era of disillusionment with heroes, in a summer of soiled role models, McGwire and Sosa–who hit his 57th homer Friday night–have captivated millions of erstwhile fans who had soured on baseball. From the Washington Post in the first week of September: Louis Cardinals and Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, whose home run feats captivated the nation. But this is about baseball, and all agreed in that summer of 1998 that this was the year the game was saved from the doldrums.

Bill clinton 1994 mlb strike