September 10, 1998
Students’ thoughts on McGwire mania
By James Cleary
Of The University News
Over the past several months, fans of Major League Baseball have been witness to one of the most remarkable individual performances the game, and perhaps professional sports, has ever known.
The talk about Mark McGwire began with spring training-he has lived up to his billing. On Sept. 1, McGwire broke Hack Wilson’s National League record of 56 home runs.
Tuesday, he broke Roger Maris’ legendary record of 61 home runs. Yet, perhaps the only thing more phenomenal than McGwire’s prowess at the plate, however, has been the media frenzy it has created.
While the chase of Maris was once something reserved for the sports sections and ESPN, it quickly became something that no one who reads a newspaper, watches TV or even walks down the street can ignore. McGwire’s chase has become such a part of St. Louis life that the monitors at Lambert Airport now read: “GO REDBIRDS AND MARK MCGWIRE.”.
The media attention, by McGwire’s own admission, has been superfluous. What it has succeeded in doing, however, is making Mac someone the whole country can get behind. “It’s great that on Labor Day, a day we celebrate national unity, we can also celebrate a triumph in the national pastime,” said Paul Spitzmueller, a SLU sophomore.
“The funniest thing to me is how indifferent he seems to be to all the attention he gets,” said Rebecca Hall, a sophomore from Hermann, Mo. “He just wants to play baseball.”
1,200 SLU students witness history
By Diana Umali
Of The University News
“I hate baseball. But I was excited when Mark McGwire hit his home run because it was my first game.” Anita Sethi may not be the world’s greatest baseball fan, but she shared in the excitement filling Busch Stadium during Tuesday night’s historical Cardinals-Cubs game.
Sethi, along with 1,200 other students, witnessed the record-breaking 341-foot home run that propelled Mark McGwire into baseball history.
“I didn’t know that it was going to be his 62nd home run,” said Sarah Griffin.
The timing worked out perfectly for the eight terrace-level sections filled with SLU students.
“If you looked all around, you saw students jumping and hugging when he hit his home run,” Griffin said. “It was amazing.”
“It was the most exciting moment of my life because it was history in the making,” said Cardinals fan Eric Dupont. “And I was there to see it.”
October 11, 2001
Home run conundrum: Bonds meets Maris
By Derek Johannsen
Of The University News
How quickly we forget.
It was just three years ago that the entire country was captivated with Mark McGwire chasing Roger Maris. Every night as he approached the record, it didn’t matter if you had on MTV or the Food Network, McGwire was there.
But now, it’s October 2001, and the record that McGwire captured is no more. The once untouchable record of 70 home runs has been eclipsed.
The record, of course, is now 73 home runs and is held by Barry Bonds. While the record that Bonds now holds is the same that McGwire previously held, the treatment of Bonds by the media was nothing like that of McGwire in ’98.
In 1998, McGwire was the idol of most Americans. He could have walked into most restaurants across the country and gotten free food or free gifts in malls. People loved him. This year, however, the treatment of Bonds was a direct contradiction to that of McGwire in `98.
Bonds became the evil stepchild of the media. Unless Bonds had hit a home run that night it was difficult to find a positive comment about him in the paper the next day. If he took the day off, he was a slacker. If he didn’t speak to the media, he was stuck up. Why did the media hate Bonds so much?
It is true that Bonds’ personality isn’t the same as McGwire’s. Bonds is soft-spoken and keeps to himself. He has openly admitted that he doesn’t enjoy talking to the media because he feels that they pry into his personal life.
For a man who just broke what had become the most historic record in sports today, the media’s treatment of him was downright despicable. It mirrored their treatment of Maris in the summer of `61. Maris was the beneficiary of death threats, abusive language and intense media scrutiny.
This year, Bonds received some similar media treatment. Bonds became the 21st century version of Maris. He was attempting to break the record of the public’s golden boy. McGwire had become the Babe Ruth of our lifetime. He was bigger than life, both figuratively and physically. There were few who disliked him; except for Cubs fans.
What McGwire did was unify the country in one passion and one dream. Bonds was unable to do that, for obvious reasons. The public became almost apathetic toward a record that they had cared so much about just three years before.
The game of baseball did not change. The home-run record did not change. What changed was the person who was breaking the record. Bonds’ breaking of the record proved that our country has a very short memory. The country forgets how important something was to them just three years before.
The day after McGwire broke the record there were pictures of him holding his son in the air in every single paper across the country. When Bonds broke the record, he did the same thing, but there wasn’t a picture to be found.
In the end I ask one question: What does it say about our country that we fail to get behind someone simply because they keep to themselves?
