It was 10 years ago next Monday that Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire drilled a line drive just inside the leftfield foul pole and just over the wall off Cubs righthander Steve Trachsel with two outs in the fourth inning in St. Louis.
His 62nd home run of the year eclipsed the record Yankees rightfielder Roger Maris had held since 1961 and baseball has never been quite the same since.
That moment capped a building celebration, pure and innocent joy, made all the better by the fact that he had been battling Cubs rightfielder Sammy Sosa for longball supremacy all season. So after the ball disappeared, he began his stately tour of the bases - almost missing first in the excitement before being pulled back by coach Dave McKay - and shaking the hands of each of the Chicago infielders as he passed. And Sosa ran in from his position to give his friendly rival a high-five. And when he got to the plate, he lifted his 10-year-old batboy son, Matt, in the air and ran over to the box seats to hug the Maris family.
Nobody would have anticipated on that glorious night what a Pandora's box had been cracked open, what woes would come flying out over the next decade.
Androstenedione ... The Mitchell Report ... deca durabolin and sestanon ... "Juiced," by Jose Canseco ... congressional hearings ... winstrol ... "I'm not here to talk about the past" ... Human growth hormone ... "Game of Shadows" ... injections in the buttocks ... The cream and the clear ... "I have never used steroids. Period" ... BALCO ... performance-enhancing substances.
These days, McGwire lives a quiet and reclusive life in southern California, his reputation sullied, probably forever. Baseball has endured a deluge of bad publicity for allegedly turning a blind eye to the transgressions that took place as power numbers skyrocketed.
McGwire broke a record that had stood for 37 years and went on to hit a mind-boggling 70 home runs that year. It seemed an unassailable standard.
It lasted all of 3 years, when Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001.
By then, baseball was squarely in the cross hairs of public opinion. Congress was sniffing around. There were some who seriously suggested that the home runs hit by players suspected of using steroids have those numbers removed from their career totals.
Some good came out of this mess. For years, the Major League Baseball Players Association resisted drug testing. Now baseball has one of the most comprehensive testing programs in professional sports.
Coincidentally or otherwise, power numbers that threatened to turn the sport into what some derisively called arena baseball, have leveled off in recent seasons.
History is never etched in stone. Instant judgments are made and then revised as subsequent events warrant.
With that in mind, the Daily News contacted six men who were intimately connected to the events of Sept. 8, 1998, at the old Busch Stadium and asked two simple questions: What did you think of McGwire breaking the record when it happened? And what do you think of it now?
These are their stories.
Connection: Commissioner. Selig frequently mentions his interest in history. And as a historian, he's well aware how perceptions can change. "It's called revisionism," he said during a recent phone call from his Milwaukee office. Still, he said, his opinion hasn't changed much.
Then: "When we went to St. Louis, it was a gigantic civic celebration. National television. The Maris kids. It was very touching. My wife and I were sitting with Bob Costas. And here comes Mark McGwire and he hugged the Maris kids. It was very emotional. The Cardinals had a big party that night.
"There was no question I felt history was being made. It was very dramatic.
"Obviously, much has gone on since then and I'm proud of how far we've come. People have a tendency to remember what they want and to rewrite history. But in that era, there was zero discussion of steroids. Zero."
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