Has it really been ten years?
Ten years ago today, Mark McGuire hit his sixty-second home run. It was the event that got me interested in baseball again, after the strike and the canceled World Series and all the other bullshit from the early nineties. Curiously, I was watching the game at the time, and I saw Mac slowly rounding the bases, and I saw the whole game stop and the field become a media event in the middle of an ongoing game.
The Cardinals were hosting the Cubs that game, which was ironic, since Mac’s closest competitor was Slammin’ Sammy himself. I thought it was a great moment, when McGuire finally finished his tour of the bases; as he crossed home plate, Sammy Sosa was headed that way too. He met McGuire a bit past the plate and shook his hand, and then gave him a giant bear hug. That was the day that, for me and for many other people, baseball was reborn.
People nowadays want to look on it with cynicism, through a sort of steroid-coloured glass. I suppose that’s understandable. But for me, the spectre of steroids can’t ruin the moment. The only substance either of those men has ever been linked to that was banned by MLB at the time is cork, if you catch my meaning, and I don’t really see the need to dig up the past. It doesn’t matter to me.
What I’m saying is, hey, Jeff Passan? Keep the angst to yourself, please.
