However, he did not lead the league in any of those seasons ; in 2001, he finished behind Barry Bonds, who hit 73 homers, breaking the single-season home run record set by McGwire in 1998 ( 70 ).

Seitzer finished the 1987 season as the runner-up for the American League Rookie of the Year award, behind the Oakland A's Mark McGwire.

Sosa eventually became the NL MVP that season, even though Mark McGwire finished with 4 more home runs.

Since then, only Ted Williams ( 1960, 29 ), Dave Kingman ( 1986 ; 35 ), Mark McGwire ( 2001 ; 29 ), and Barry Bonds ( 2007 ; 28 ) have hit as many or more homers in their final season.

It was in this season that both Sosa and Mark McGwire were involved in the " home run record chase ", when both players ' prowess for hitting home runs drew national attention as they attempted to pass Roger Maris ' single season home run mark of 61 home runs that had stood since.

Then, McGwire passed him late in the season to become the first ever to hit 70.

In the season, Sosa hit 63 home runs, again trailing Mark McGwire who hit 65.

McFarlane bought at auction multiple balls from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's 1998 race to establish a record for the greatest number of home runs hit in a single season.

His accomplishment of 61 home runs in a season, which was greatly debated in its own time, came back to the forefront in 1998, when the record was broken by both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

* New York Yankees Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927 during a 154-game season ; although the record was broken three times since then ( Roger Maris, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds ) those records were set during a 162-game season.

While investigating the use of steroids in sports, the panel called numerous baseball players to testify, including former single season home run record holder Mark McGwire.

Kevin Brown's tenure with the Padres during the 1998 season was somewhat marred when the San Diego fans chose to cheer slugger Sammy Sosa during his home run chase along with Mark McGwire.

) 56 home runs stood as the NL record until the 1998 season, when it was broken by Sammy Sosa ( 66 ) and Mark McGwire ( 70 ).

He had three seasons with at least 100 runs batted in, and four with 30 or more home runs-including the legendary season, when he hit 50 to finish 4th in the major leagues behind Ken Griffey, Jr., Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire, who set the home run record that season.

During spring training in 2001, Mark McGwire told Cardinals ' manager Tony La Russa " If you don't put on the roster for the 2001 season, it might be one of the worst moves you make in your career.

" From left to right: bat used by Babe Ruth to hit his 60th home run during the 1927 season, bat used by Roger Maris to hit his 61st home run during the 1961 season, bat used by Mark McGwire to hit his 70th home run during the 1998 season, and the bat used by Sammy Sosa for his 66th home run during the same season.

Bautista led the major leagues in home runs for the second consecutive season with 43, becoming the first player to lead in consecutive years since Mark McGwire in 1998 and 1999.

* The ball that Mark McGwire hit for his 70th home run of the 1998 baseball season, then setting a new record, was sold by a fan to Todd McFarlane for $ 3. 2 million at auction.

" This is almost identical to the real television call by Joe Buck when Mark McGwire had 61 home runs and then hit number 62 to break what was then the single season home run record set by Roger Maris in 1961.

In his final season, he batted. 399 with 78 RBI and a. 748 slugging percentage in 70 games, also scoring 75 runs to tie the school record held by Rich Dauer and Mark McGwire ; his 23 home runs and 193 total bases ranked second in school history behind McGwire's totals of 32 and 216.

Sosa caught fire in June, hitting a major league record 20 home runs in the month, and his home run race with Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire transformed the pair into international superstars in a matter of weeks.

Mark David McGwire ( born October 1, 1963 ), nicknamed " Big Mac ", is an American former professional baseball player who played his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The players and languages featured were Ken Griffey Jr. ( English ), Alex Rodriguez ( Spanish ), Chan Ho Park ( Korean ), Kazuhiro Sasaki ( Japanese ), Graeme Lloyd ( English, with an Australian accent ), Eric Gagne ( French ), Andruw Jones ( Dutch ), John Franco ( Italian ), Ivan Rodriguez ( Spanish ), and Mark McGwire ( English ).

Both men end up breaking the record ; McGwire with 70 and Sosa with 66.

On April 22, he hit a home run into SkyDome's fifth deck, putting him in prestigious company with José Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Joe Carter.

Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals was also honored twice, but shared his second award with Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs.

* In a 1999 commercial aired in the midst of the Y2K fears, when the studio's electricity goes out ( due to Y2K tests ), amidst the ensuing mayhem — which includes Mark McGwire smashing a computer with his bat — Charley Steiner walks away, wearing face paint and a necktie as a headband, holding a lantern and screaming, “ Follow me!

Howard is one of four players ( along with Harmon Killebrew, Cecil Fielder, and Mark McGwire ), to have hit a ball onto the left-field roof at Tiger Stadium.

He won the Player of the Month award again in June after hitting. 429 with eight home runs, 29 runs scored, and 28 RBIs, becoming the first player to win back-to-back NL Player of the Month awards since McGwire in 1997-98.

In 1998, the family of the late Roger Maris are preparing to go to Busch Stadium to watch Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals break their father's record with 62 home runs.

Decades before Mark McGwire, Dick Allen entertained the St. Louis fans with some long home runs, at least one of them landing in the seats above the club level in left field.

He was called to the big club with the rest of the 40-man roster and made his debut on September 8, 1998, the night Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris's single-season home run record.

Lupica also wrote The Summer of ’ 98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America, which detailed how the 1998 and the Mark McGwire / Sammy Sosa home run chase had allowed him to share a love for baseball with his son.

Major League Baseball, however, is still able to spy on the Simpson family due to an autographed bat McGwire gave Bart, with which he hit his 70th home run of the 1998 Major League Baseball season, which contains equipment that notes down every detail of the Simpsons ' house at 742 Evergreen Terrace.

Days later, he sat down with McGwire for an exclusive interview elaborating on the decision.

McGwire put Oakland on the board in the sixth with a single that scored Sierra, but the A's could only manage another run against the Jays.

Other future major league players that signed with the Elks but never played include Mark McGwire, Randy Johnson, and Cory Snyder.

On a positive note, the home run chase between Sosa, McGwire and Ken Griffey, Jr. helped professional baseball to bring in a new crop of fans as well as bringing back some fans who had been disillusioned by the 1994 strike.

He has the seventh-highest slugging percentage lifetime of any ballplayer in major league history, at. 605, ahead of such sluggers as Mark McGwire and Joe DiMaggio.

For example, Topps obtained a license to produce cards featuring the U. S. Olympic baseball team and thus produced the first card of Mark McGwire prior to his promotion to the major league level, and one that would become quite valuable to collectors for a time.

In that same game, St. Louis Cardinals ' First Baseman, Mark McGwire hit his 500th major league home run.