There's a wasted opportunity.

Four hits and a walk - and no runs - in the first two innings.

Fors employment got a shout out

APIAD wrote:

Fors employment got a shout out

 
Nepotism ..

I dont agree with big mac not being in the hof or more memorialize in stl.  He got everyones attention and that is something.

tkihshbt wrote:

It's hard for anyone who wasn't in St. Louis in 1998-1999 understand, but McGwire was a freaking deity here. Walmart and JC Penney had all kinds of McGwire apparel. They named a section of I-70 after him. Now he's just a guy. I still appreciate everything he did, but it's insane to think that 17 years ago it was a big story that he was meeting the pope and today he's just the Padres hitting coach.

 
It wasn't just St. Louis. The entire country was obsessed with home runs in 1998. The only other sports people whose reputation has turned faster are Joe Paterno and Lance Armstrong.

What the hell. Just throw it off his skull.

Now not batting ...

Stop scoring! Don't give Matheny a reason to bring in Rosenthal.

Lead off walk scores



Again




And again




And again



And.........

tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

tkihshbt wrote:

It's hard for anyone who wasn't in St. Louis in 1998-1999 understand, but McGwire was a freaking deity here. Walmart and JC Penney had all kinds of McGwire apparel. They named a section of I-70 after him. Now he's just a guy. I still appreciate everything he did, but it's insane to think that 17 years ago it was a big story that he was meeting the pope and today he's just the Padres hitting coach.

 
It wasn't just St. Louis. The entire country was obsessed with home runs in 1998. The only other sports people whose reputation has turned faster are Joe Paterno and Lance Armstrong.

I recall Mac being a big star and leading off SportsCenter every night, but since I was only 12, it's hard to remember the media circus. By the time I became of age to understand media obessesion, Terrell Owens was trying to kill himself and doing sit-ups in his driveway. The substance of what constitutes media coverage was quickly whittling down.

 
The former sports director at the only 24-hour news radio station in Boston was a man named Gil Santos. He was also the Patriots radio play by play announcer going back to their days in the AFL. You're probably aware of him because he was the one who started singing "We are the champions" on the air after Vinitieri kicked the field goal to beat the Rams in the Super Bowl the Patriots never should have played in because they lost to the Raiders two weeks earlier.
Santos' morning drive time sports reports on the quarter hour usually consisted of announcing the Red Sox/Bruins/Celtics scores from the night before, and then filling the rest of the segment with news about Patriots' OTAs or the battle for the third string tight end spot on the roster. He especially hated baseball. Except in the summer of 1998, when he would open his segments by announcing whether McGwire and/or Sosa had hit home runs the previous night.

Last edited by artie_fufkin (7/18/2016 10:16 pm)

artie_fufkin wrote:

Santos' morning drive time sports reports on the quarter hour usually consisted of announcing the Red Sox/Bruins/Celtics scores from the night before, and then filling the rest of the segment with news about Patriots' OTAs or the battle for the third string tight end spot on the roster. He especially hated baseball. Except in the summer of 1998, when he would open his segments by announcing whether McGwire and/or Sosa had hit home runs the previous night.

This is the kind of story people would tell when the Steroid Era came crashing down and I thought it was overblown. But it very much confirms that McGwire and Sosa reinvigorated baseball. 

I think one reason the media circus has left McGwire alone and hasn't made that big a deal about Barry Bonds is because they are so deeply embedded in Goodell's asshole that he has to tell them the weather that day. The other sports don't get wall-to-wall tabloid coverage like the NFL does. I'm not sure what could happen in baseball to grab attention and headlines like Bonds and Clemens did in 2007.