And Mark McGwire makes three.
Three of baseball’s finest ambassadors to ever step between the lines announced their retirements during, or after, one of the sport’s most successful seasons. Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn stepped away from the game recently, following two decades as baseball immortals.
But now comes the news of McGwire’s departure from the sport he loves, and although it was done without much fanfare, baseball will lose one of its greatest symbols in the history of the game.
The year was 1998. Only four short years earlier, baseball was mired in the worst work stoppage in the history of professional athletics. Major League Baseball was losing money. But then along came McGwire and a fellow named Sammy Sosa.
Their historic home run chase proved to be the most exciting race in recent memory, and what would ultimately lead to baseball’s continuing reign as “America’s pastime,” a name it was beginning to lose because of all the labor unrest.
McGwire’s 70 and Sosa’s 66 home runs should be remembered along with the New York Yankees’ 27 World Series wins, Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters and even Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs.
What those home runs did that season has never been done in the history of sport.
Another gentleman, if that’s what you can call him, decided to abolish McGwire’s single-season record this past year. Barry Bonds, even though he plays for my beloved San Francisco Giants, had no right breaking that record. When McGwire did it, he did it with pizzazz and a genuine love. When Bonds did it, he wouldn’t even comment on it.
When McGwire did it, he didn’t immediately run and ask to be traded or ask for a new contract because he wanted more money. When Bonds did it, the first thing that came to everyone’s minds was whether it was going to take $20 or $21 million to sign the 37-year-old.
No, instead, McGwire returned home, happy in his accomplishment and knowing that his record probably helped save the game of baseball. What he did for the sport is immeasurable. Had he and Sosa not pushed each other, who knows where the game would be today. The owners and players still don’t have a collective bargaining agreement, so is there going to be a 2002 season, at least on time?
Dan Patrick, best known for his creative catch phrases and enthusiasm on SportsCenter, recently wrote a column for the station’s Web site. He discussed McGwire’s retirement, raising a point that McGwire, unlike the greats, will never have a specific number associated with him.
Babe Ruth has 60, and although that record was broken in 1961, no one even came close to breaking it for so long. Roger Maris will have 61, not only because he hit 61 out of the park, but also because it was done in the magical season of ’61. Come to think of it, weren’t ’98 and ’61 pretty gosh darn close in resemblance?
“He doesn’t even have a special claim on his uniform number, 25,” Patrick wrote. “It’s the same number Barry Bonds wears. Then again, 30,000,000 is a nice number. That’s the number of dollars on the contract McGwire chose not to sign.”
McGwire passed up a two-year, $30 million contract extension last spring training, maybe because he had an inkling of his .187 batting average and 29 home runs to come, but whatever the reason, it must have been pretty solid. Not many players would have done that, further attesting to the man’s love for the sport.
And he always said, especially in the past few years, that since 1994, he didn’t want to see another lockout or strike from either side.
And now, with him leaving the sport he loves, — surely to be remembered as one of the greatest ambassadors the game has ever seen — it kind of raises a question about next season, doesn’t it?