Athletes - Mark McGwire

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	Athletes - Mark McGwire

Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963 in Pomona, California) is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played from 1986 through 2001.

McGwire was a prolific powerhitter during the 1990s. For his career, McGwire averaged a home run once every 10.61 at bats, the highest home run ratio in baseball history (Babe Ruth is second at 11.76). In 1998, McGwire broke Roger Maris's single season home run record of 61 by hitting 70 (McGwire's record has since been broken by Barry Bonds). In addition, McGwire was known for the length of his home runs, hitting a couple that surpassed 500 feet. McGwire's nicknames included "Big Mac," "Big Red" and "Colossus."

Early career

McGwire was raised with his four brothers in a middle-class neighborhood in Claremont. His first sports interest was golf. When he was five, he began caddying for his father John, who taught him how to grip the club. Not until three years later did McGwire begin swinging a bat instead of a club.

McGwire won a silver medal with the USA amateur baseball team in the 1984 Summer Olympics; that team was coached by Rod Dedeaux, who had also been his college coach at the University of Southern California.

Oakland's Big Basher

McGwire began his career with the Oakland A's and played there until 1997, when he concluded his career with a few years with the St. Louis Cardinals. He won the World Series just once, with the Oakland A's in 1989. Perhaps Mark McGwire's most famous home run with the A's was in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. McGwire's game winning solo homer off of Jay Howell in the bottom of the 9th inning ultimately became the only game that the A's won in the 1988 World Series.

In his first full Major League Baseball season in 1987, he hit 49 home runs, a record for most home runs by a rookie, he was named the American League Rookie Of The Year. McGwire hit 32, 33 and 39 homers the next three seasons, but his average, which hit .289 as a rookie, plummeted to .260, .231 and .235. Then in 1991, he bottomed out with a .201 average and 22 homers. He had lost all confidence in his ability.

But with the help of a therapist, he regained his mental edge and with the aid of a weightlifting program, he became even stronger. He rebounded to hit 42 homers and bat .268 in 1992.

Injuries limited him to a total of 74 games in 1993 and 1994, and to 104 games in 1995 (but he still slugged 39 homers in 317 at-bats). The next season he belted a Major-League leading 52 homers in 423 at-bats.

McGwire worked hard on his defense at first base, and resisted being seen as a one-dimensional player. He was regarded as a good fielder in his Oakland days, but his increasing bulk and reduced speed made playing the position more difficult in St. Louis.

St. Louis icon

In 1997, he did not lead either league in homers, as he was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals in midseason. It was widely believed that McGwire, in the last year of his contract, would play for the Cardinals only for the remainder of the season, then seek a long-term deal, possibly in Southern California where he lives. However, McGwire instantly fell in love with the Cardinal fans (considered among the most knowledgeable and loyal in baseball) and signed a long-term deal to stay in St. Louis instead. (It is also believed that McGwire encouraged Jim Edmonds, another Southern California resident who was traded to St. Louis, to sign his current contract with the Cardinals.)

In 1998, the year when McGwire and Sammy Sosa spent much of the season chasing the single-season home run record of Roger Maris, the two shared Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award. It is worth noting that McGwire admitted to taking the dietary supplement Androstenedione, one of the chemicals the body uses to produce testosterone, during the same year, although at the time it was not tested for by the MLB and was not against the rules at that time.

McGwire also had a sense of baseball history that is rare among modern players. He graciously involved the family of Roger Maris when he broke Maris's single season home run record on September 8, 1998. He finished the season with 70 homers, a record that has since been broken by Barry Bonds. (Appropriately, a section of Interstate 70 through St. Louis is named the Mark McGwire Highway.)

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Athletes - Mark McGwire

Early career

Oakland's Big Basher

St. Louis icon

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