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Celebrating
70: Mark McGwire's historic season
By Bernie Miklasz, Ron Smith, Mike Eisenbath and Dave Kindred, 184 pages
$20.97 at Amazon.com,
30% off the list price of $29.95
By
Randy Williams
The epic 1998 season of Mark McGwire is difficult to put into words but
The Sporting News answers the call with Celebrating 70,
an outstanding look at the greatest home-run season of all-time.
With McGwire books flooding the market, TSN's effort is one of the
most unique with a breakdown of each of Mac's 70 long balls. Readers are
treated to a profile of each game McGwire homered in, with the
pitcher who was victimized; McGwire's season statistics at that date;
a box score of each of his plate appearances on that particular day; the
running homer tally of McGwire's competition, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey,
Jr.; and a photo of where the baseball landed.
If that's not enough, each homer profile also includes a brief story with
quotes from teammates, managers and rivals and a look at when Babe Ruth
and Roger Maris hit their home runs, helping readers to track McGwire's
pace.
For example, McGwire hit his 26th dinger on May 29 against San Diego pitcher
Dan Miceli. Ruth hit his 26th homer in 1927 on July 3 and Maris hit number
26 on June 20, 1961.
Celebrating 70 also discusses the McGwire batting practice phenomenon;
a look at Ruth and Maris; a piece on the player and Matt, his batboy son;
a great profile or record-setting home run #62; and a nice section about
the historic race waged with Sosa. The book closes with an in-depth statistical
profile of the seasons of McGwire and his Cubs rival.
It's hard to imagine a better effort than the editors of The Sporting
News have put forth with this book. Sure, the magazine's St. Louis base
made the logistics of such an undertaking easier to handle but TSN, like
McGwire, came through in a big way. And this is coming from a Cubs fan.
Grade: A
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