Let’s rank all 70 of Mark McGwire’s 1998 homers

In 1998, Mark McGwire hit 70 homers to break Roger Maris’ record, and we ranked them.

Mark McGwire didn’t just break baseball’s single-season home run record in 1998 — a mark that stood for nearly four decades — he beat that record by 15 percent! Not all homers are created equal, though, so let’s rank all 70 home runs hit by McGwire that year, shall we?

70) The shorty

Seventy home runs is a ridiculous amount for one season, and there is a lot of bulk involved that can get forgotten. Especially a home run like this one, McGwire’s sixth of the season, the middle dinger of a three-home run game against the Diamondbacks. But what struck me about this one is the similarities to his record-breaking 62nd home run. Both were line drives down the left field line, and this one traveled just 347 feet, McGwire’s second shortest (No. 62 was 342 feet). This one ricocheted off the facing of the left field seats just behind the wall but was otherwise in basically the same spot as the record breaker.

69) Nice

I’m as immature as they come and I will giggle at the mention of this number, even as it has permeated our daily discourse. Sixty-nine jokes are abundant on social media these days, but 20 years ago we weren’t quite ready for such a bold, out-in-the-open proclamation, as we were still recovering from Bryan Adams 14 years prior. McGwire hit two home runs on the final day of the season, but had he ended with just one his record total would have turned the country upside down.

68) The Bob’s buzzing

McGwire hit his 31st home run of the season on June 12, a grand slam against Big Burly Andy Benes in Phoenix, in just the Cardinals’ 65th game (McGwire was actually on pace for 77 homers at this point). But something more notable happened before the game. Per The Sporting News:

“During batting practice June 12 in Phoenix, McGwire became the first player to hit a ball out of the confines of The Bob, which is how Bank One Ballpark is known. It landed on a catwalk 90 feet above the left field fence and bounced out of the yard through a huge sliding panel door that was open for the balmy breeze. The Diamondbacks sent a couple of stadium employees out to Jefferson Street to search for the ball, to no avail. Estimated distance: 510 feet. And it may still be rolling.”

67) The other slam

McGwire hit two grand slams in 1998, with the first coming on opening day against Ramon Martinez of the Dodgers. It started a streak for McGwire...

64-66) Move over, Willie Mays

One day after the opener, McGwire hit a three-run, walk-off home run to beat the Dodgers, then homered in each of his next two games. By this point the Cardinals played four games, and McGwire homered in each one, joining all-time great Willie Mays as the only National Leaguers to open a season like that.

63) The other walk-off

McGwire had two game-ending home runs in 1998, and the second one was a come-from-behind winner. Astros closer Billy Wagner was the victim this time, turning a one-run Houston lead into an 11th-inning Cardinals winner with an upper deck shot crushed down the left field line.

“He hit the tar out of that ball,” Wagner said. “I looked up and I couldn’t see it. I thought it was out of the stadium.”

53-62) The seats are still warm

McGwire was a force of nature in 1998, an oversized figure with oversized expectations and somehow managed to surpass it all. But if you went to a game it was basically expected that McGwire would homer, as impossible as that sounds. He batted third all year, which guaranteed he batted in the first inning of every game, so you had to settle in early or else you might miss something.

McGwire got things out of the way early on 11 occasions this season, hitting .291/.458/.615 in the opening frame with a home run every 13.9 plate appearances. That was actually worse than his overall season. After the first inning in 1998, McGwire hit .301/.473/.793 with a home run every 8.9 PA. One of those 11 first-inning shots is mentioned below.

52) London calling

In a game that saw Mark Petkovsek start for St. Louis, a fellow named Marc Pisciotta pitched for the Cubs, and gave up this home run to McGwire — his 11th, on the final day of April —but nobody could blame anyone for not seeing it. Just look at this fog at Wrigley Field!

51) Keeping up with the Joneses

McGwire hit his 47th home run of the season on August 11, against Bobby Jones of the Mets. Not to be confused with Bobby Jones of the Rockies, against whom McGwire would homer in 1999. Both Bobby Joneses played for the Mets in 2000, and not so coincidentally they went to the World Series.

50) Big round numbers

On May 8 in New York, McGwire homered off Rick Reed — his 13th of the season, and 400th of his career. Here’s how prolific McGwire was in this period: He hit his 400th home run in 1998, and hit his 500th home run in 1999, the only person ever to reach such milestones in consecutive seasons.

44-49) Multiplicity

This is hard to fathom, but only five pitchers allowed multiple home runs to McGwire in 1998. He hit 70 home runs, which is ridiculous in itself, but that he hit them off 65 DIFFERENT PITCHERS is nothing short of amazing. Of those five pitchers to allow multiple shots to McGwire that year, only two — Jeff Suppan (April 14) and Tyler Green (May 19) — allowed them in the same game. Rick Reed and John Thomson both allowed shots in separate games, and one of the Thomson shots were covered above in the first inning. The second against Suppan on April 14 was ranked 70th above, and one against Reed — McGwire’s 400th — was mentioned as No. 50.

Livan Hernandez also allowed two home runs to McGwire. The first of those home runs off of Hernandez gets its own ranking, a little later on.

7-43) So many home runs

Good lord, 70 home runs is a lot. Who would possibly try to rank all of them at once? In an unrelated incident, just over half of the dingers tied in this very thorough ranking process. In case you missed any, here are all 70 home runs in one long video:

6) The final push

McGwire beat the Roger Maris record first, but Sosa wasn’t too far behind. Who would finish first at the end of the year was still very much in question. On Friday, September 25, the start of the season’s final weekend, Sosa got to 66 home runs first with a home run in Houston. Just 45 minutes later, McGwire thought he tied Sosa with a shot down the left field line against Expos pitcher Shayne Bennett, but it went foul.

The near-miss did produce this image, at least.

Four pitches later, McGwire was able to get one over the fence in fair territory, and Bennett took his role in stride.

“I came to America on vacation, now I gave up the 66th,” Bennett joked, per CBS News. “I never should have stayed. He didn’t even hit it on the good part of the bat; if he did it would’ve gone out of the stadium.”

5) The big 5-0

On August 20 against Willie Blair of the Mets, McGwire hit his 50th home run of the season. After hitting 52 home runs in 1996 with the A’s and 58 more in 1997 between Oakland and St. Louis, McGwire was the first player ever with 50 home runs in three consecutive seasons.

“Obviously, it’s history,” McGwire said, per The Sporting News.“There’s been thousands of power hitters to play this game and nobody’s ever done it. I can sit here and say I’m the first major league player ever to do it. And I’m pretty proud of it.”

4) National League history

Before 1998, only two players got to 60 home runs — Babe Ruth and Roger Maris — and both were in the American League. McGwire joined them on September 5 with a shot off Dennys Reyes.

It was set up perfectly by Cardinals announcer Joe Buck: “The Cincinnati Reds have not allowed a home run to Mark McGwire in 1998 — the only team in the National League that can say that.

“They can’t say it anymore.”

3) 545 feet

McGwire’s most Herculean blast came on May 16 against Hernandez, a towering shot to end all towering shots.

The home run was so massive that it required stadium repair. From The Sporting News:

“They’re still buzzing in St. Louis over the drive McGwire smoked to straightaway center May 16 in Busch Stadium against the Marlins’ Livan Hernandez. The inexact science that estimates home run distances pegged that one at 545 feet. But the ball might still be rising today if it hadn’t hit the giant St. Louis Post-Dispatch sign some two stories about the eight-foot outfield fence. Some clever stadium wonk pasted a gigantic Band-Aid over the wound where the ball did its harm to the sign.”

2) The final number

I was tempted to put McGwire’s final home run of the season atop this list, if only because Joe Buck’s call is so embedded in my head. To this day, anytime the number comes up my cousin and I will scream “SEVENTY!” at each other because of this home run.

What sold this for me was Buck’s, “How much more could you give us, Big Mac?”

Since this was in the seventh inning of the final game of the season, and McGwire’s final at-bat, the answer was nothing.

1) The record-breaker

Ultimately, the top dog for McGwire in 1998 had to be No. 62, the record breaker. It’s hard to overstate how huge of a moment this was. We weren’t quite in the era of being able to watch any game we wanted, so it was a big deal that big Fox put this Tuesday game on network television to capitalize on the hysteria.

The setup was perfect. The family of Roger Maris was in the first row, and the Cardinals were playing the Cubs, with McGwire’s home-run-chasing partner Sosa in right field. The fateful shot came in the fourth inning, against Steve Trachsel.

It took 37 dang years to beat Maris’ home run record, which was longer than the time between Babe Ruth and Maris himself (34 years). To say this was an historic moment is an understatement, so it’s understandable that nobody really knew how to handle the moment. So you’ll forgive Cubs infielders for shaking McGwire’s hand and/or hugging him as he rounded the bases, rivalry be damned. It just felt right in the moment.

McGwire himself was so caught up in the hysteria that he forgot to touch first base, and had to go back to touch it. Then came the hugs. From McGwire embracing his batboy son, Matt, and lifting him to the sky at home plate, to Sosa himself celebrating with McGwire after the record, knowing full well what he was going through, No. 62 was the moment of the season for McGwire, and that’s why it takes the top spot.