plz i need more info on mark?

Answer 1

Mark McGwire, Baseball Player


* Born: 1 October 1963
* Birthplace: Pomona, California
* Best Known As: The slugger who broke the single-season home run record in 1998

St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Mark McGwire was one of the most fearsome power hitters in baseball in the 1990s. McGwire was the first player to break Roger Maris's 1961 record of 61 home runs in a single season; he set the new mark by hitting 70 homers in 1998. (Chicago Cub star Sammy Sosa hit 66 homers the same year.) The next year McGwire became the 17th player to hit 500 home runs or more in a career, joining Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, among others. McGwire played his first major league game in 1986 and was a star for the Oakland Athletics when they won the 1989 World Series. Injuries and a hitting slump slowed him down in the early 1990s, but by 1995 he was suddenly bigger and stronger and hitting the ball out of the park again. In July of 1997 he was traded to St. Louis, where he became one of baseball's biggest draws. The 1998 back-and-forth home run contest with Sosa captivated the public's attention and McGwire became a celebrity beyond the ballpark. After a season of more injuries, he announced his retirement from professional baseball in November of 2001. In 2005 he was called as a witness in congressional hearings on steroid abuse in major league baseball. McGwire's refusal to answer questions about his own history caused a stir, and he took a beating in the press.

McGwire's single-season record was broken by Barry Bonds, who hit 73 homers during the 2001 season... McGwire batted right-handed and wore #25... McGwire played for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team... He founded the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children, which supports agencies that work with child-abuse victims... McGwire's use of a body-building drug, androstenedione, was much discussed during his record-breaking season; though legal in professional baseball, "andro" was banned by many other professional sports leagues. McGwire later stopped taking the supplement, saying he didn't want others to emulate him... Hank Aaron is the American career home run leader, with 755; Sadaharu Oh had 868 in his career in the Japan League.

Mark David McGwire is a former professional baseball player, who played his entire career with the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. McGwire was a prolific "power hitter" during the 1990s. In the 1998 season, McGwire broke the single-season home run record by hitting 70, which remains the second-highest home run total in one season behind Barry Bonds's 73 in 2001. For his career, McGwire averaged a home run once every 10.61 at bats, the lowest at bats per home run ratio in baseball history (Babe Ruth, who retired in the 1930s, is second at 11.76). McGwire was known for the distance of his home runs, hitting several over 500 feet. McGwire's nicknames included "Big Mac," "Big Red," and "Colossus."




Oakland Athletics career
McGwire hitting a game-winning home run in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series.
McGwire hitting a game-winning home run in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series.

McGwire began his major league career with the Oakland A's in 1986 and played there until 1997, prior to being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He won the World Series with the Oakland A's in 1989. Perhaps Mark McGwire's most famous home run with the A's was in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and former A's closer Jay Howell. McGwire's game-winning solo homer in the bottom of the 9th inning brought the only victory for the A's in the 1988 World Series.

In his first full Major League Baseball season in 1987, he hit 49 home runs, a single-season record for a rookie; he was named the American League Rookie of the Year. McGwire hit 32, 33, and 39 homers the next three seasons, the first Major Leaguer to hit 30+ home runs in each of his first 4 full seasons. His batting average, .289 as a rookie, plummeted to .260, .231, and .235. Then in 1991, he bottomed out with a .201 average and 22 homers. Manager Tony LaRussa sat him out the last game of the season so his average could not dip below .200. Despite the very low batting averages during this time of his career, his high bases on balls totals allowed him to maintain acceptable on-base percentages. He rebounded to hit 42 homers and bat .268 in 1992.

Injuries limited him to a total of 74 games in 1993 and 1994, and to 104 games in 1995 (but he still slugged 39 homers in 317 at-bats). The next season he belted a Major-League leading 52 homers in 423 at-bats.

McGwire worked hard on his defense at first base and resisted being seen as a one-dimensional player. He was regarded as a good fielder in his early years, even winning a Gold Glove in 1990. In his later years his speed was reduced making playing the position more difficult.

McGwire's 363 home run total with the Athletics is a franchise record. He was selected or voted to nine American League All-Star Teams while playing for the A's, including six consecutive appearances from 1987 through 1992.
St. Louis Cardinals and HR record chase


In 1997, he hit a major league-leading 58 home runs for the season, but did not lead either league in homers, as he was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals in midseason. It was widely believed that McGwire, in the last year of his contract, would play for the Cardinals only for the remainder of the season, then seek a long-term deal, possibly in Southern California, where he lives. However, McGwire signed a long-term deal to stay in St. Louis instead. (It is also believed that McGwire encouraged Jim Edmonds, another Southern California resident who was traded to St. Louis, to sign his current contract with the Cardinals.)

As the 1998 season progressed, it became clear that both Mark McGwire and Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa were on track to break the late Roger Maris' single-season home run record. The race to break the record first became an international media spectacle as the lead swung back and forth. On August 19, Sosa hit his 48th home run to move ahead of McGwire. However, later that day McGwire hit his 48th and 49th home runs to regain the lead.

On September 8, 1998, McGwire hit a pitch by the Chicago Cubs' Steve Trachsel over the left field wall for his record-breaking 62nd home run, setting off huge celebrations at Busch Stadium. The fact that the game was against the Cubs meant that Sosa was able to personally congratulate McGwire on his achievement. Members of Roger Maris' family were also present at the game.

McGwire finished the 1998 season with 70 home runs, a record that has since been broken by Barry Bonds. Sosa finished the season with 66 home runs.

In 1999, McGwire drove in a league-leading 147 runs while only having 145 hits, the highest RBI-per-hit tally in baseball history.

McGwire ended his career with 583 home runs, which was then fifth-most in history. He led Major League Baseball in home runs five times. He hit 50 or more home runs four seasons in a row (1996-1999), leading Major League Baseball in homers all four seasons, and also shared the MLB lead in home runs in 1987, his rookie year, when he set the Major League record for home runs by a rookie with 49.

Honors

In 1999, the The Sporting News released a list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. The list had been compiled during the 1998 season and included statistics through the 1997 season. McGwire was ranked at Number 91. That year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2005, The Sporting News published an update of their list and McGwire had been moved up to Number 84.

In the 2007 balloting for the Baseball Hall of Fame, McGwire failed to attain election to the Hall, receiving 128 of the 545 cast, for 23.5% of the vote.[1]

Steroids controversy

Many of McGwire's accomplishments, particularly his home run surge late in his career, hitting 70 home runs, have come into question with his connection to the steroid scandal plaguing Major League Baseball. After an article written by Associated Press writer Steve Wilstein[1], McGwire admitted to taking Androstenedione, a dietary supplement banned by the NFL and IOC. It should be noted that Androstenedione was an over-the-counter supplement and was not a banned substance in baseball or the FDA at the time. Also noted was a dramatic weight loss of close to 40lbs off of McGwire's frame.

At a Congressional hearing on the subject of steroids in sports, McGwire repeatedly and somewhat conspicuously refused to answer questions on his own suspected use.

"It's fabrication," Cardinal's manager Tony La Russa told 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace.
“ The product of our good play and strength of our players — Mark was a great example — what we saw was a lot of hard work. And hard work will produce strength gains and size gains. ”

McGwire repeatedly denied using illegal performance-enhancing drugs in television interviews, but he declined to answer under oath when he appeared before the House Government Reform Committee on March 17, 2005. As McGwire said in a tearful opening statement,
“ Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers 'No,' he simply will not be believed; if he answers 'Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations." During the hearing, McGwire repeatedly responded to questions regarding his own steroid use with the line, "I'm not here to talk about the past. ”

McGwire also stated,
“ My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family, and myself. ”

[2] When asked if he was asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, McGwire once again responded:
“ I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject. ”

Personal life

McGwire married Stephanie Slemer, a former pharmaceutical sales representative from the St. Louis area, in Las Vegas on April 20, 2002. They reside in a gated community in Irvine, California with their sons, Max and Mason. McGwire also has a son, Matthew, by his first wife Kathy. Matthew was often a bat boy for the Cardinals during summer vacations from school while McGwire was playing and was present when his father hit his 62nd home run of the 1998 season.

He also created the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children to support agencies that work with children who have been sexually and physically abused.

McGwire currently chooses not to speak to the media and has distanced himself from many old friends. [3] He spends much of his free time playing golf. He is an exceptional golfer and it has been rumored that he will try to qualify for the Senior PGA Tour when he turns 50 in 2013.

His brother Dan McGwire was a quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL in the early 1990s.

Trivia

* Has appeared in the Backyard Baseball computer game series.
* Mark studied law at Cal State Monterey Bay.
* Had a cameo in the TV show The Simpsons.
* Also appeared on the TV show Mad About You.
* A mathematical property is named after McGwire, along with Sammy Sosa and Roger Maris. Two numbers form a Maris-McGwire-Sosa pair if they are consecutive numbers such that when you add each number's digits to the digits of its prime factorization, they are equal. Engineer Mike Keith named this property after the sluggers because he noticed that the numbers 61 and 62 have this property, and McGwire and Sosa both hit home run number 62 in 1998, both passing the record of Maris, 61.
* A five-mile stretch of I-70 through St. Louis, from the city's western edge to the Illinois border is named in his honor, "Mark McGwire Highway".

[edit] Career totals

* Games played 1874
* At bats 6187
* Runs 1167
* Hits 1626
* Doubles 252
* Triples 6
* Home runs 583
* Runs batted in 1414
* Walks 1317
* Strikeouts 1596
* Stolen bases 12
* Caught stealing 8
* On base percentage .394
* Slugging percentage .588
* Batting average .263

Date of Birth
1 October 1963, Pomona, California, USA

Birth Name
Mark David McGwire

Nickname
Big Mac

Height
6' 5" (1.96 m)

Spouse
Stephanie Slemer (20 April 2002 - present) 2 children
Kathlene Hughes (29 December 1984 - 1990) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

In 1998, he and Sammy Sosa were both neck and neck in the homerun race, trying to break Roger Maris's record of most homeruns hit in a single season with 61. McGwire established a new record of 70 homeruns that stood until surpassed by Barry Bonds of the San Fransisco Giants.

Has a son named Matthew, born 1987.

Agreed to a 2 year-30 million dollar contract extension in 2000. However, retired in 2001 and revealed that he never actually signed the contract and did not take the guranteed money.

Like Babe Ruth, started his career as a pitcher.

Member of the 1984 USA Olympic baseball team.

St. Louis Cardinals All-Time Slugging Percentage Leader (.683).

St. Louis Cardinals All-Time On-base Percentage Leader (.427).

Oakland Athletics All-Time Homerun Leader (363).

First Baseman for Oakland Athletics (1986-97) and St. Louis Cardinals (1997-2001).

Named to 12 All Star teams (1987-92 and 1995-2000).

1987 American League Rookie of the Year.

Won 1990 American League Gold Glove Award.

Member of 1988 and 1990 American League Champion Oakland Athletics teams. Member of 1989 World Series Champion Oakland Athletics team. Member of 1992 American League Western Division Champion Oakland Athletics team. Member of 2000 and 2001 National League Central Division Champion St. Louis Cardinals teams.

1987 American League Rookie of the Year for leading league in Slugging Percentage (.618) and Home Runs (49).

Finished in top 10 in voting for American League MVP in 1987, 1992 and 1996. Finished in top 10 in voting for National League MVP in 1998 and 1999.

Notable career statistics: .394 On-base percentage (77th All Time), .588 Slugging Percentage (9th All Time), 583 Home Runs (6th All Time), 1,414 RBI (56th All Time), 1,317 Walks (31st All Time), 1,596 Strikeouts (20th All Time), 841 Extra-Base Hits (62nd All Time) and 78 Sacrifice Flies (75th All Time).

Named to Baseball Digest magazine's 1987 Rookie All-Star Team.

Made major league debut on 22 August 1986.

Refuses to talk about his alleged use of steroids and the past

McGwire was named The Sporting News college player of the year in 1984, when he played for the U. S. Olympic team before entering professional baseball. The 6-foot-5, 225-pounder was used mostly at third base in the minor leagues and in a brief stint with the Oakland Athletics in 1986, but when he joined Oakland to stay in 1987 he was installed at first base.

A very strong right-handed hitter, McGwire was named rookie of the year after leading the league with 49 home runs, a record for a first-year player. He batted .289 and had 118 RBI that year.
Mark McGwire

Over the next four seasons, McGwire hit a total of 126 home runs, but didn't come close to his rookie total. In 1992, though, he had 42 home runs despite a heel injury that limited him to 139 games and 467 at-bats. Because of that injury, recurrent back problems, and the 1994 players' strike, he appeared in just 74 games over the next two seasons.

After hitting 39 home runs in only 317 at-bats in 1995, McGwire had his best all-around season as a hitter in 1996 with a .312 average, 52 home runs and 113 RBI, even though he had just 423 times at bat.

McGwire had 34 home runs for Oakland by the end of July in 1997, when he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He hit another 24 in the National League, tying Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg for most home runs by a right-handed hitter in a season.

But he was just getting warmed up. He tied Reggie Jackson's record, set in 1969, by hitting 37 homers in the first half of the 1998 season. Unlike Jackson, though, McGwire kept up the pace, and he was joined by Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs. By mid-August, it was obvious that they would both break Maris' record of 61 for the season, barring injury. The question was, Who would get there first?

The answer was McGwire. He hit his 62nd home run on September 8 against the Cubs. With three weeks to go, though, he and Sosa were still in a race to see who would lead the league. Sosa hit his 66th on September 25 to go ahead, briefly. McGwire caught up with him later in the day. Then McGwire closed out the season with a flourish, hitting two home runs in each of the final two games of the season to reach 70, while Sosa remained at 66. McGwire also hit .299 with 147 RBI, walked 162 times, and scored 130 runs. His slugging percentage of .752 was second in National League history to Rogers Hornsby's .756 in 1925.

McGwire and Sosa were in another race in 1999, though it wasn't quite so dramatic. Again, McGwire won with 65 home runs to 63 for Sosa. He hit his 500th career home run on August 5 that year, in his 5,487th at-bat. No other player ever reached the 500 level in fewer at-bats.
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Through his final two seasons, McGwire was troubled by injury. He hit 32 home runs in just 231 at-bats in 2000, but patellar tendinitis relegated him to pinch-hitting duty for much of the season. After knee surgery in the off-season, he still wasn't healthy in 2001. He had 29 home runs in 299 at-bats, but his batting average was only .187. In November, McGwire announced his retirement from baseball.

McGwire had his detractors, who suggested that his record-setting numbers were due to a juiced-up ball and inferior pitching. He was also embarrassed in 1998, when a sportswriter discovered that he was using an over-the-counter muscle enhancer, androstenedione. Although banned by the NCAA, the NFL, and the International Olympic Committee, andro wasn't prohibited by major league baseball. McGwire announced in 1999 that he had stopped using the substance.

Teammates and opponents, though, knew McGwire as a classy person who valued team victories above his individual exploits. He won applause when he announced, after signing his 1998 contract with the Cardinals, that he was giving $1 million to aid abused children in California and the St. Louis area. And, during spring training of 2001, he verbally agreed to a two-year, $30 million contract extension but never signed the agreement because he felt he couldn't perform up to the level the contract would call for.

As a rookie in 1987, Mark McGwire blasted 49 homers, setting a record for freshman. After battling injuries and struggling to find his swing, he burst onto the national stage when he broke Roger Maris's single-season mark for homers in 1998. In the process he rejuvenated his career and opened the way for a spot in the Hall of Fame. Over a four-year stretch in his mid-30s, McGwire clubbed an amazing 245 home runs. In 2005, his evasive and emotional testimony in front of a congressional committee investigating steroid use in baseball, left McGwire's legacy in doubt.

Best Season, 1998
Set an NL record with 32 homers on the road. He hit three homers in one game twice. Hit 21 homers in his first 41 games, 40 in 90 games, 50 in 125 games, and shattered the ML record with 70 for the season. In the process he set a Cardinal record with 145 RBI and a NL record for 162 walks. McGwire hit 33 solo homers, 28 two-run homers, seven three-run homers and two grand slams. Hit homers against 65 different pitchers. He led baseball in slugging, OBP, and total average. For some reason sportswriters selected Sammy Sosa as MVP.

Awards and Honors
1987 AL Rookie of the Year
1990 AL Gold Glove

All-Star Selections

Post-Season Appearances
1988 American League Championship Series
1988 World Series
1989 American League Championship Series
1989 World Series
1990 American League Championship Series
1990 World Series
1992 American League Championship Series
2000 National League Championship Series
2000 National League Divisional Series
2001 National League Divisional Series

Description
McGwire was always big, even when he first came up with the A's in 1986. He had broad shoulders, a thick neck, huge arms, and later in his career, very muscular legs. He usually wore a goatee and had sported a mullet in the late 1980s.

Where He Played: McGwire played 1,763 games at first base. He was a DH 37 times, played third base (24 games) and some outfield (four games in 1987-1988).

Post-Season Notes
Game Five of the 2001 NLDS against the Diamondbacks was the last game of McGwire's career. Curt Schilling defeated the Cardinals, 2-1. It was the only Ultimate Game of McGwire's career.

Feats: Set single-season home run record with 70 in 1998. Became first man to hit 50 homers in three straight seasons (1997-1999). Both of those records were later matched or topped by Sammy Sosa and/or Barry Bonds... McGwire hit three homers in a game five times. He did it in 1987, 1995, twice in 1998, and once in 2000.

Milestones

* July 5, 1989: 100th HR... Off Charlie Leibrandt

* June 10, 1992: 200th HR... Off Chris Bosio

* June 25, 1996: 300th HR... Off Omar Olivares

* May 8, 1998: 400th HR... Off Rick Reed

* August 6, 1999: 500th HR... Against Andy Ashby… Came in his 5,487th at-bat, a record pace for hitting a 500th homer.

Batting Feats

* June 27, 1987: 3 HR...

* June 11, 1995: 3 HR...

* September 8, 1998: 62nd HR... Off Steve Trachsel

* September 27, 1998: 70th HR...

Transactions
Selected by Oakland Athletics in the 1st round (10th pick overall) of the free-agent draft (June 4, 1984); Granted free agency (October 26, 1992); Signed by Oakland Athletics (December 24, 1992); Traded by Oakland Athletics to St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews and Blake Stein (July 31, 1997).

Data courtesy of Restrosheet.org

The Home Run Race of 1998
The chase was hardly a chase at all as late as May. On May 24, 1998, Mark McGwire had 24 home runs, while Sammy Sosa was at nine. But soon, Sammy made his move and the race was on. From May 25-June 23, Sosa belted 21 home runs in 30 days. He set a record with 20 home runs in June, which was also the most homers ever hit in any month. It became clear that both McGwire and Sosa were drawing a bead on roger Maris's single-season home run record. The question was: who would get there first?

On August 19, Sosa hit his 48th home run and passed McGwire for the first time. But later in that game, McGwire answered with a pair of homers and reclaimed the lead. "Big Mac" would stay relinquish the lead just once more.

Over Labor Day weekend the Cardinals and Cubs played each other in St. Louis and the media circus surrounding the home run chase collided in one location. The two sluggers embraced the publicity, helping put baseball back on the front pages and in the news. On September 8, McGwire finally passed Maris, lining a shot over the left field wall at Busch Stadium. Sosa watched from right field and applauded. McGwire made an emotional trip around the bases, pointing to the sky as he crossed home plate to honor Maris, whose sons were in attendance. Soon, Sosa arrived and hugged McGwire, who lifted Sammy off his feet. Baseball had a golden moment. But three weeks still remained in the season and the chase was still far from over.

Five days later, Sosa hit two home runs in Wrigley Field to tie McGwire at 62. Adding to the tension of the McGwire/Sosa race was the fact that the Cubs were in a fight for a playoff spot. On September 25 in Houston, Sosa hit #66, creeping ahead of McGwire for the final time. McGwire responded by hitting a homer of his own a few innings later in St. Louis to bring the chase to a tie once more. Sosa failed to any more homers, while McGwire belted four in his final two games to finish with an astonishing 70 for the new single-season record.

Three years later, Barry Bonds broke McGwire's record, which many thought would last longer than Maris's had. Bonds blasted 73 homers to establish the new standard, in 2001.

Home Run Facts
Hit his 500th career homer on August 5, 1999, off Andy Ashby of the Padres.

Hall of Fame Artifacts
Bat used to hit his 70th home run of the 1998 season. Jerseys he and his son (bat boy) wore in the game in which McGwire belted his 70th homer.

All-Star Selections
1987 AL
1988 AL
1989 AL
1990 AL
1991 AL
1992 AL
1995 AL
1996 AL
1997 AL
1998 NL
1999 NL
2000 NL

Replaced
The immortal Bruce Bochte, who hit .256 with 20 extra-base hits in 125 games as the A's first sacker in 1986.

Replaced By
35-year old free agent first baseman Tino Martinez, in 2002.

Best Strength as a Player
Hitting for power.

Largest Weakness as a Player
Staying healthy, and hitting for a high average.

is this enough lol

Answer 2

Holy crap - how much more info do you need? I don't have his home number or know where he will eat tonight...

Wait.... are you with a government agency? Ar you looking for weapons of mass growth?

I was wondering how you guys heard all those rumors.. It's through Yahoo Answers and Conseco has an account....

Answer 3

ok, Mark McGwire had over 500 homers in his career and had 70 homers in one year!

Answer 4

first of all he uses roids.And if you want info that bad go to google and search him.

Answer 5

hes a juicer

Answer 6

Mark McGwire
Personal Info
Birth October 1, 1963 (age 43), Pomona, California
Professional Career
Debut August 22, 1986, Oakland Athletics vs. New York Yankees,
Team(s) Oakland Athletics (1986 - 1997)

St. Louis Cardinals (1997 - 2001)
Career Highlights

All-time records

* At bats per home run ratio (10.61)

Notable achievements

* Second highest single-season HR total (70)
* Single season rookie HR record (49)
* 1987 American League Rookie of the Year
* 1998 ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year

Mark David McGwire is a former professional baseball player, who played his entire career with the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. McGwire was a prolific "power hitter" during the 1990s. In the 1998 season, McGwire broke the single-season home run record by hitting 70, which remains the second-highest home run total in one season behind Barry Bonds's 73 in 2001. For his career, McGwire averaged a home run once every 10.61 at bats, the lowest at bats per home run ratio in baseball history (Babe Ruth, who retired in the 1930s, is second at 11.76). McGwire was known for the distance of his home runs, hitting several over 500 feet. McGwire's nicknames included "Big Mac," "Big Red," and "Colossus."
Oakland Athletics career
McGwire hitting a game-winning home run in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series.
McGwire hitting a game-winning home run in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series.

McGwire began his major league career with the Oakland A's in 1986 and played there until 1997, prior to being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He won the World Series with the Oakland A's in 1989. Perhaps Mark McGwire's most famous home run with the A's was in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and former A's closer Jay Howell. McGwire's game-winning solo homer in the bottom of the 9th inning brought the only victory for the A's in the 1988 World Series.

In his first full Major League Baseball season in 1987, he hit 49 home runs, a single-season record for a rookie; he was named the American League Rookie of the Year. McGwire hit 32, 33, and 39 homers the next three seasons, the first Major Leaguer to hit 30+ home runs in each of his first 4 full seasons. His batting average, .289 as a rookie, plummeted to .260, .231, and .235. Then in 1991, he bottomed out with a .201 average and 22 homers. Manager Tony LaRussa sat him out the last game of the season so his average could not dip below .200. Despite the very low batting averages during this time of his career, his high bases on balls totals allowed him to maintain acceptable on-base percentages. He rebounded to hit 42 homers and bat .268 in 1992.

Injuries limited him to a total of 74 games in 1993 and 1994, and to 104 games in 1995 (but he still slugged 39 homers in 317 at-bats). The next season he belted a Major-League leading 52 homers in 423 at-bats.

McGwire worked hard on his defense at first base and resisted being seen as a one-dimensional player. He was regarded as a good fielder in his early years, even winning a Gold Glove in 1990. In his later years his speed was reduced making playing the position more difficult.

McGwire's 363 home run total with the Athletics is a franchise record. He was selected or voted to nine American League All-Star Teams while playing for the A's, including six consecutive appearances from 1987 through 1992.

[edit] St. Louis Cardinals and HR record chase

In 1997, he hit a major league-leading 58 home runs for the season, but did not lead either league in homers, as he was traded from the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals in midseason. It was widely believed that McGwire, in the last year of his contract, would play for the Cardinals only for the remainder of the season, then seek a long-term deal, possibly in Southern California, where he lives. However, McGwire signed a long-term deal to stay in St. Louis instead. (It is also believed that McGwire encouraged Jim Edmonds, another Southern California resident who was traded to St. Louis, to sign his current contract with the Cardinals.)

As the 1998 season progressed, it became clear that both Mark McGwire and Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa were on track to break the late Roger Maris' single-season home run record. The race to break the record first became an international media spectacle as the lead swung back and forth. On August 19, Sosa hit his 48th home run to move ahead of McGwire. However, later that day McGwire hit his 48th and 49th home runs to regain the lead.

On September 8, 1998, McGwire hit a pitch by the Chicago Cubs' Steve Trachsel over the left field wall for his record-breaking 62nd home run, setting off huge celebrations at Busch Stadium. The fact that the game was against the Cubs meant that Sosa was able to personally congratulate McGwire on his achievement. Members of Roger Maris' family were also present at the game.

McGwire finished the 1998 season with 70 home runs, a record that has since been broken by Barry Bonds. Sosa finished the season with 66 home runs.

In 1999, McGwire drove in a league-leading 147 runs while only having 145 hits, the highest RBI-per-hit tally in baseball history.

McGwire ended his career with 583 home runs, which was then fifth-most in history. He led Major League Baseball in home runs five times. He hit 50 or more home runs four seasons in a row (1996-1999), leading Major League Baseball in homers all four seasons, and also shared the MLB lead in home runs in 1987, his rookie year, when he set the Major League record for home runs by a rookie with 49.

[edit] Honors

In 1999, the The Sporting News released a list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. The list had been compiled during the 1998 season and included statistics through the 1997 season. McGwire was ranked at Number 91. That year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2005, The Sporting News published an update of their list and McGwire had been moved up to Number 84.

In the 2007 balloting for the Baseball Hall of Fame, McGwire failed to attain election to the Hall, receiving 128 of the 545 cast, for 23.5% of the vote.[1]

[edit] Steroids controversy

Many of McGwire's accomplishments, particularly his home run surge late in his career, hitting 70 home runs, have come into question with his connection to the steroid scandal plaguing Major League Baseball. After an article written by Associated Press writer Steve Wilstein[1], McGwire admitted to taking Androstenedione, a dietary supplement banned by the NFL and IOC. It should be noted that Androstenedione was an over-the-counter supplement and was not a banned substance in baseball or the FDA at the time. Also noted was a dramatic weight loss of close to 40lbs off of McGwire's frame.

At a Congressional hearing on the subject of steroids in sports, McGwire repeatedly and somewhat conspicuously refused to answer questions on his own suspected use.

"It's fabrication," Cardinal's manager Tony La Russa told 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace.
“ The product of our good play and strength of our players — Mark was a great example — what we saw was a lot of hard work. And hard work will produce strength gains and size gains. ”

McGwire repeatedly denied using illegal performance-enhancing drugs in television interviews, but he declined to answer under oath when he appeared before the House Government Reform Committee on March 17, 2005. As McGwire said in a tearful opening statement,
“ Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers 'No,' he simply will not be believed; if he answers 'Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations." During the hearing, McGwire repeatedly responded to questions regarding his own steroid use with the line, "I'm not here to talk about the past. ”

McGwire also stated,
“ My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family, and myself. ”

[2] When asked if he was asserting his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, McGwire once again responded:
“ I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject. ”

[edit] Personal life

McGwire married Stephanie Slemer, a former pharmaceutical sales representative from the St. Louis area, in Las Vegas on April 20, 2002. They reside in a gated community in Irvine, California with their sons, Max and Mason. McGwire also has a son, Matthew, by his first wife Kathy. Matthew was often a bat boy for the Cardinals during summer vacations from school while McGwire was playing and was present when his father hit his 62nd home run of the 1998 season.

He also created the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children to support agencies that work with children who have been sexually and physically abused.

McGwire currently chooses not to speak to the media and has distanced himself from many old friends. [3] He spends much of his free time playing golf. He is an exceptional golfer and it has been rumored that he will try to qualify for the Senior PGA Tour when he turns 50 in 2013.

His brother Dan McGwire was a quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL in the early 1990s.

[edit] Trivia

* Has appeared in the Backyard Baseball computer game series.
* Mark studied law at Cal State Monterey Bay.
* Had a cameo in the TV show The Simpsons.
* Also appeared on the TV show Mad About You.
* A mathematical property is named after McGwire, along with Sammy Sosa and Roger Maris. Two numbers form a Maris-McGwire-Sosa pair if they are consecutive numbers such that when you add each number's digits to the digits of its prime factorization, they are equal. Engineer Mike Keith named this property after the sluggers because he noticed that the numbers 61 and 62 have this property, and McGwire and Sosa both hit home run number 62 in 1998, both passing the record of Maris, 61.
* A five-mile stretch of I-70 through St. Louis, from the city's western edge to the Illinois border is named in his honor, "Mark McGwire Highway".

[edit] Career totals

* Games played 1874
* At bats 6187
* Runs 1167
* Hits 1626
* Doubles 252
* Triples 6
* Home runs 583
* Runs batted in 1414
* Walks 1317
* Strikeouts 1596
* Stolen bases 12
* Caught stealing 8
* On base percentage .394
* Slugging percentage .588
* Batting average .263