Maris’s thirty-seven-year-old record of sixty-one
home runs. McGwire hit forty-nine home runs in his
rookie season (1987), fifty-two in 1996, and fifty-
eight in 1997, falling three short of Maris’s magical
number. Unlike Babe Ruth, who was the first to
reach the sixty-home-run plateau, McGwire had
competition in his quest to establish a new home run
record. The most obvious rival was Ken Griffey, Jr.,
who hit fifty-six home runs in 1997. Other sluggers
such as Manny Ramirez, Greg Vaughn, Barry Bonds,
José Canseco, and Albert Belle were legitimate chal-
lengers to McGwire’s supremacy.
Two months into the 1998 season, McGwire had
twenty-seven home runs and a degree of distance be-
tween his challengers. Suddenly, Sammy Sosa of the
Chicago Cubs emerged as McGwire’s primary com-
petitor, hitting twenty home runs in June, a record
for one calendar month. The juxtaposition of the
two hitters—representing traditional and geograph-
ical baseball rivals—framed the already intriguing
story line. The relationship between McGwire, a
humble, often serious American, and Sosa, an affa-
ble, gregarious Dominican, developed into a genu-
ine friendship that advanced the popularity of both
players. As the likelihood of a new home run record
increased, McGwire mused, “Wouldn’t it be great if
we just ended up tied?”
On August 19, the Cubs played the Cardinals. In
the fifth inning, Sosa hit his forty-eighth home run,
passing McGwire for the first time. In the eighth in-
ning, McGwire answered with his forty-eighth and
reclaimed the home run lead with a game-winner in
the tenth inning. On September 1, McGwire hit his
fifty-seventh and broke Hack Wilson’s National
League record. On September 8, the Cubs and Car-
dinals reconvened. In the fourth inning, McGwire
sent a line drive over the left-field wall to break
Maris’s record. As he touched home plate, he lifted
his son Matt into the air in celebration. Next, he em-
braced Sosa—the two were compatriots in an exclu-
sive club. In the same week, Sosa hit his sixty-second.
Obscured by the media attention surrounding
McGwire and Sosa was the fact that, on Labor Day,
Griffey hit his fiftieth home run, signifying the first
time three players had hit fifty or more home runs in
a year. On the final day of the season, Vaughn joined
the fifty-home-run club. The home run race did not
end once McGwire and Sosa passed Ruth and Maris.
The new home run kings emboldened each other to
extend the new all-time mark. On August 25, when
Sosa hit his sixty-sixth, he had hit the most single-
season home runs in history. His record lasted forty-
five minutes before McGwire tied it. Over the last
weekend of the season, McGwire hit four more
home runs, establishing the record at seventy. The
home run record, long thought to be the most elu-
sive of all baseball feats, was broken again in 2001,
when Bonds hit seventy-three.
Impact The inflation of home run production in
the 1990’s—climaxing with the record-breaking
1998 season—was indicative of an era that associated
grandiosity with superiority. The home run, a sym-
bol of pomp and potency, reconnected a generation
seemingly apathetic toward the game. Given subse-
quent accusations of a pervasive use of perfor-
mance-enhancing drugs during the era, speculation
clouds the legitimacy of the decade’s batting re-
cords. Regardless, the home run race of 1998 re-
minded the American public of both the relevance
and necessity of its national game.
Further Reading
McNeil, William.The Single-Season Home Run Kings:
Ruth, Maris, McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds. Jefferson,
N.C.: McFarland, 2003.
Paisner, Daniel.The Ball: Mark McGwire’s Seventieth
Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American
Dream. New York: Viking Press, 1999.
Schreiber, Lee R.Race for the Record: The Great Home
Run Chase of 1998. New York: HarperCollins,
1998.
Christopher RagerSee also Baseball; Baseball realignment; Baseball
strike of 1994; Griffey, Ken, Jr.; McGwire, Mark;
Ripken, Cal, Jr.; Sosa, Sammy; Sports. Homeschooling
Definition Education of children at home rather
than in a school
Homeschooling is a viable educational option for parents
who, for various reasons, wish to be involved in their chil-
dren’s education under conditions involving reduced
stress. In the spring of 1999, approximately 850,000 chil-
dren across the United States were being homeschooled.
An alternative to traditional school, homeschooling
is a flexible and diverse educational option for fami-428 Homeschooling The Nineties in America