Rskingdom
Geregistreerd op: 21 Feb 2019 Berichten: 4
|
Geplaatst: 23-02-2019 01:17:06
Onderwerp: part of a cynical ploy by MLB The Show 19
|
|
|
Races involving 87-win teams are, well, lesser races.People can argue that baseball is mostly a regional sport and that no races will get everyone's attention, but the current setup all but ensures little national buzz.McGwire vs. Sosa was, obviously, not a pennant race but a home run derby. The two started going dinger for dinger in midsummer and America stopped to watch.McGwire had primed the pump the previous year by hitting 58 homers combined for the A's and Cardinals, who acquired him in a July deadline trade.
After re-signing with St. Louis as a free agent MLB the show stubs in the offseason, he led a home-run flood.McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. set fast early paces that had fans thinking that this was the year Maris' mark would fall. Sosa didn't join the fray until after he hit 20 home runs in June.By the All-Star break, the show was on. The Sporting News, still operating out of its original home, St. Louis, gave fans front-row seats:Millions more bought tickets to the daily performances. They followed along with the simple, yet thrilling, plot. Normally barren venues such as Three Rivers Stadium, Olympic Stadium, Riverfront Stadium and Joe Robbie Stadium sprang to life.The Sporting News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch collaborated on a commemorative book, "Celebrating 70: Mark McGwire's Historic Season," that was published shortly after the last homer had landed.
Then-Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz, writing in the book's pages, summed up McGwire's national appeal this way: When Big Mac came to town, it was a civic event. McGwire's batting practice was the best warmup act in sports. All across America, he hit cannon balls and took curtain calls. He pounded baseballs. He pounded baseball's bad image. The PED revelations/allegations hadn't yet tarnished the accomplishment. McGwire was still being hailed as a gracious giant.A national television audience watched him get to 62. Newspapers across the country (including the New Jersey daily that employed me as its sports editor) scrambled to get the news to everyone else by the next morning. The audiences swelled and the attention intensified after Sept. 8 because McGwire and Sosa were MLB The Show 19 Stubs for sale still competing to set the bar for the next guy who came along.
|
|