Big Mac

    I am in complete awe of Mark McGwire.  Everything about the man is massive.  His 6'5" frame, his 250 lbs. of pure muscle, and his home runs.  However, the most jaw dropping thing about him is the fact that he is a good guy.  I know that doesn't sound that amazing, but apparently it is, judging by the actions of other professional athletes.  Yeah, he's made mistakes in the past, but here's the amazing thing -- HE ADMITS THEM.  I know it's hard to believe, but there are a few athletes with a heart and McGwire is one of them.  He made mistakes in his marriage and now he's divorced, but he is good friends with his ex-wife and her new husband and a great father to his son Matt.  He does something that only non athletes are supposed to do, he learns from his mistakes.  Last year, he captured our imagination like no other athlete ever has.  Sure Michael Jordan was great, but he never captivated us at a pursuit of a record like McGwire did.  McGwire had people asking him if he could break Maris' record in Spring Training last year!!  McGwire's was an individual record, he didn't have help doing it, which the Cardinals record proves.  How many NBA titles would Jordan have won without Scottie Pippen?  McGwire captivated the entire country.  When people asked each other, "Did he get one yesterday?" they weren't referring to Pres. Clinton and interns.  McGwire brought me back to baseball after the strike of '94.  He was traded to the Cardinals and actually stayed with them taking a pay cut from what he could get in the open market.  He wasn't supposed to do that.  He was supposed to go to the highest bidder and then say that it wasn't for the money.  Then, he donated $1 million of every year's salary to charities supporting child abuse and actually cried at the press conference.  He hooked me right then.  I've been hooked ever since.  I rooted for him all of last year to break the record.  He brought such a purity and love back to the game and when he hit his 62nd home run to break the record and he crossed home plate and lifted his son up in the air, I cried.  I realized how much I loved this game.  For its innocence, for its purity, for its magic.  He finished the season with 70, edging Sammy Sosa by 4 with a 5 home run barrage in his last three games.  He was my hero.

    This past week I made a little trip up to Atlanta to watch the Braves play McGwire, excuse me I mean the Cardinals at Turner Field.  Now, don't get me wrong I'm a big Greg Maddux fan and I like the Braves, but I was only there for one reason.  Monday night, Tom Glavine pitched well and held McGwire in check as the Braves had a late inning rally and won 4-2.  It was a good game, but not great.  Unfortunately, we didn't watch batting practice that day.  The next day, we got to the stadium about 3 hours before the game, and yet there was still about 8,000 people in the stadium.  Every one of them was seated in left field!!  The game was supposed to start at 7:40, and the Braves took batting practice first, much to the crowd's dismay.  At about 6:00, the crowd instantly went nuts and this was just for him coming onto the field.  He stretched out, then he went to the outfield and goofed off shagging some flies.  Then, he made his way over to the stands, where there were about 2,000 along the fence waiting for his autograph.  He signed for about ten minutes smiling the whole time.  When he made his way to the batting cage, the whole crowd started cheering and both 8 and 50 year old children slipped on their gloves hoping to catch their hero's ball.  He bunted the first pitch and everybody booed.  This was batting practice for crying out loud, the most laid back part of a game, and people actually booed the man for bunting.  The next pitch he swung easy and hit it into the left field stands, we all cheered.  He took about 5 sets of 8 pitches which would be 40 pitches and he hit about 20 home runs.  It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.  The ease that he swung and the distance the ball went.  He hit one ball off the scoreboard in left center field about 520 feet from home plate.  We all just stood there in awe.  In complete awe.  It was as if we were all kids again, which wasn't that long ago for us, but it was like that in the whole stadium.  He left the batting cage to a standing ovation.  That night he hit a grand slam, just like our heroes when we were younger, he came through when we wanted him to most.  Nothing like baseball can make complete strangers instant friends.  Everybody was there to see the same thing.  We all wanted to see a piece of that magic he gave us last year that made us forget everything that's wrong with this country.  We wanted him to awe us like he had so many times before.  And when he did, we all cheered together.  It didn't matter if we had racial, political, or religious differences, we were just fans.  Fans of the same great man.

    The Cardinals won that game, and the Braves won the next game, but I didn't care.  That's not what I went to see.  I went to see Mark McGwire hit a home run and just like always, my hero didn't disappoint.  I realized that it wasn't his breaking of the home run record that was magical, it was the man himself.  Because he is magical.  Everything about him.  If you don't believe me, watch him take batting practice once and see if you don't feel like a kid again.  I guarantee you will and for that brief moment of time all of your troubles will drift away . . . just like the baseball.