The Home Run Race That Saved Baseball | McGwire vs. Sosa 1998

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In 1998, Major League Baseball was still reeling from the devastating 1994 players’ strike, which had canceled the World Series and alienated millions of fans. Attendance had dropped, TV ratings had slumped, and the sport’s image was tarnished. But that summer, two sluggers — Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, ignited a spectacle that would captivate the nation. Their pursuit of Roger Maris’s single-season home run record of 61 became more than a sports story; it was a cultural event that brought casual fans back to the ballpark and glued viewers to nightly highlight reels.

From Opening Day, McGwire set a blistering pace, homering in each of his first four games. By the end of May, he had 27 home runs, and the baseball world was buzzing. Then came Sosa’s historic June, when he hit an astonishing 20 home runs in a single month, vaulting himself into the race. The chase became a nightly drama, with sports networks cutting into other programming to show each man’s at-bats. Fans debated who would break the record first, and stadiums across the country sold out whenever either slugger came to town.

The defining moment came on September 8, 1998, when McGwire, facing Sosa’s Cubs in St. Louis, launched his 62nd home run of the season, breaking Maris’s 37-year-old record. In a moment of sportsmanship that transcended rivalry, Sosa sprinted in from right field to embrace McGwire, creating one of the most iconic images in baseball history. McGwire would finish the season with 70 home runs, while Sosa ended with 66, both shattering the previous record. Sosa, however, won the National League MVP award, thanks to his all-around performance and the Cubs’ playoff berth.

The impact of the home run race was immediate and profound. Attendance surged, TV ratings soared, and baseball regained much of the goodwill it had lost after the strike. The McGwire-Sosa duel was credited with re-energizing the sport, inspiring a new generation of fans, and restoring baseball’s place in the American cultural conversation. Memorabilia from that season, including McGwire’s record-breaking home run ball, sold for millions, and the story was immortalized in books, documentaries, and ESPN’s 30 for 30 film Long Gone Summer.

In later years, revelations about performance-enhancing drug use by both players complicated the legacy of the 1998 season. Critics argued that the “Summer of ’98” was built on a foundation of steroid-fueled power, casting a shadow over the achievement. Yet, even with that controversy, the emotional impact of that summer remains undeniable. For one magical season, McGwire and Sosa turned baseball into must-watch theater, rekindled the sport’s romance with its fans, and reminded America why the long ball has always been baseball’s most electrifying play.