Two for the record
Home run battle heats up again as Sosa catches Mac at 62
Posted: Monday September 14, 1998 08:07 PM
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Move over McGwire: Sammy Sosa stakes out his place in history with home run No.62 AP |
CHICAGO (AP) -- Every day in baseball is cause for a party. Or a fiesta.
On Sunday at Wrigley Field, Ernesto Kranwinkel jumped to his feet and
added his voice to the rest of the loony congregation screaming its lungs
out in salute to Sammy Sosa. What
distinguished Kranwinkel from everybody else was that a.) he was screaming
in Spanish, and b.) having access to the airwaves of TV Dominican-Channel
4, he was screaming to an audience thousands of miles away.
"There it goes!" Kranwinkel shouted once, twice, a third time. "There it
goes!"
On the occasion of Sosa's 62nd home run of this delirious baseball
season, a more appropriate call might have been "Here he comes!" As in: Now
that Sosa, too, has passed Babe Ruth and Roger Maris, here he comes after
Mark
McGwire.
"It was chilling when McGwire did it. I was dumbfounded," said teammate
Mark Grace,
whose dramatic leadoff homer in the 10th inning sealed an 11-10 Chicago win
over Milwaukee and kept the Cubs a game ahead of the Mets in the NL
wild-card chase.
"I thought the home run race was going to be McGwire's. But when my
buddy gets hot, he can hit them in a hurry. And he proved that. I just hope
Sammy gets the attention he deserves."
That may yet come at season's end, when it's time to total up the home
runs and call in the sculptors, or cast votes in the balloting for National
League MVP. In the meantime, Sosa will have to make do with the noisemakers
and party favors left over from the McGwire celebration.
Not only that -- major league baseball's security staff has been taken
off full alert. The balls weren't marked with special ink and nobody from
the commissioner's office was there to bail out the guys who tracked down
the last two homers off Sosa's bat. That duty fell to the Chicago cops.
"We got him out of there," police Sgt. Mary O'Toole said of the man who
wound up in possession of No. 62, "because we thought he was going to get
his behind kicked."
Both balls are likely headed for auction, which isn't the only less
sentimental touch. When commissioner Bud Selig did get around to
congratulating Sammy, he did so by phone. It seems the former owner of the
Brewers was watching his old team get beat from the comfort of his home and
apparently decided to pick up the horn not long after the youngest of
Maris' four sons, Randy, did.
And not only was Sosa shortchanged on the up-close-and-personals; there
isn't a chance that the Cubs, like the Cardinals, would present him with a
classic '62 Corvette as a token of their appreciation.
"A blue Corvette," Grace suggested in the giddy aftermath of the Cubs'
second comeback win in as many days. A second later, he came to his senses.
"The team is going to be mad at me just for mentioning it."
The guest of honor, though, didn't feel slighted at all. Sosa was
nervous and near tears half the time; he was thumping his heart, blowing
kisses and thanking everybody he could remember. Especially McGwire.
"Mark, you know I love you. It's been unbelievable. I wish you could be
here with me today," Sosa said. "I know you are watching me and I know you
have the same feeling for me as I have for you in my heart."
After all this time, it's still impossible to tell whether Sosa is a con
man or a real-life version of Chico, the character from the old "Saturday
Night Live" routine whose "baseball been very, very good to me" line he has
appropriated. He may even be a little of both. Sosa may be willing to let
McGwire have the attention and all the attendant pressure so he can make
his final run at the wire.
Every time Sosa has pulled even or gone ahead in the race, McGwire
answered within 24 hours. But Sunday night, he went 0-for-2 against the
Astros in Houston and left the game in the fourth inning with minor back
spasms.
The timing couldn't have been worse for McGwire. After going without a
homer for five games, Sosa hit four in three games against Milwaukee. He is
pumped and in the middle of a race for a playoff spot. McGwire, on the
other hand, is showing the wear and tear of the chase. Through Sunday
night, he was only 1-for-14 since hitting No. 62.
This is what people mean by slippery slopes: Maris had the record to
himself for 37 years. McGwire was forced to share it after only six days.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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