Sammy Sosa made Mark McGwire better

The Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa, the also-ran of baseball's home-run chase with 66 dingers, was voted the MVP of the National League today. The Baseball Writers' Association members, who did the choosing, were virtually unanimous. The only dissenters among 32 voters who made Sosa their first choice were two scribes from St. Louis. They voted for the only other slugger to hit more than 61 home runs in a season: Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals. If they hadn't, what would the home crowd have said about them? Without a doubt, McGwire holds the sexiest record in American sports. By hitting 70 home runs this summer, McGwire didn't just break the record held by Roger Maris, he played Godzilla stomping on Tokyo. People can talk about expansion-diluted pitching all they want, but it takes a real slugger to hit moonshots. We'd better hope that none of the balls he hit out of the atmosphere deflect an asteroid our way. For hitting 70 home runs, McGwire was acclaimed the savior of baseball. He helped bring people back to Major League ballparks. To hear wistful baseball fans tell it, McGwire was Babe Ruth and Albert Schweitzer rolled into one. Cheers were heard in parks where only the wind had moaned since the baseball strike of 1994-95. People came in droves to watch the guy take batting practice. They booed if their home-team pitchers wouldn't pitch to him. Clearly, everyone was ready for the record to be broken. Maris set it 37 years ago, breaking Ruth's 60-run record from 1927. Consistent Mark, surprising Sammy McGwire didn't want to talk about the home-run pace he was on. He said that it wasn't worth talking about breaking the Maris record until a player had 50 runs at the beginning of September. In fact, he started getting downright testy in the face of continuous questions about the home-run record. Although he did seem a little happier after he hit 50 by the beginning of September, he seemed hard-pressed to enjoy what he was doing. When McGwire's use of androstenedione, a muscle-enhancing drug, was questioned, he seemed on the edge of losing it. Sosa, on the other hand, seemed to relish attention. He quipped that he took performance-enhancing drugs, too: Flintstone vitamins. In the later stages of the home-run race, commentators all noted the difference between the way Sosa and McGwire took the pressure. Writers speculated that Sosa was grateful because he came up from the poverty of the Dominican Republic. McGwire had been dogged by the press much longer, and maybe Sosa wouldn't have been so happy if he'd been mindlessly asked the same litany of questions every day since spring training. Each year since the strike, people have put money on McGwire to break the home-run record. Sosa, on the other hand, crept up on everyone. A free swinger most of his career, he didn't get much notice as a slugger until he hit 20 home runs in June, setting the Major League record for long balls hit in a single month. In responding to questions after the MVP was announced, Sosa continued to say what he's said all year, that the real MVP and baseball hero this year was McGwire. He humbly accepted it, but gave the impression he didn't get why he should have been voted in over McGwire -- especially in a laugher. So who's the MVP? As do all judgment calls, this MVP award has its boosters and detractors. The debate heated up many a barroom and sports-talk radio phone line. The McGwire boosters say, and rightly so, that McGwire led the charge that made baseball vital to fans again. People who weren't fans knew who McGwire was and kept track of whether he hit one out on any given day. He set records in walks as well as home runs this year. However, most importantly, they argue, if 70 home runs -- a number that still leaves some fans giddy -- doesn't get you the MVP, what will? Sosa's boosters argue that he had a better all-around year than McGwire and helped put his team into the post-season. This argument also holds some water. I can't pretend to know what the baseball writers were thinking when they voted, but I have to agree with their choice. However, not for any of the reasons mentioned before. The X factor Sammy Sosa was the X factor that made the season interesting. The camaraderie that he and McGwire shared seemed to help McGwire lighten up and enjoy the home stretch of the season, just when it appeared he was losing patience with the whole circus. Without Sosa, McGwire's getting the record was virtually an inexorable, foregone conclusion. Imagine what the season would have been like if Sosa wasn't on his heels. Unlike the 1961 race between Maris and Mickey Mantle, neither Sosa nor McGwire was taken out of the running by injury. So there was some question as to who would end up with the home-run record this season. When Sosa hit 66, McGwire's answering shots became more dramatic. Now that it's over, people forget that the race was still on and it was an open question whether Sosa would overtake McGwire. If McGwire had been the only one in it when he hit 62, he probably would have let up. Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said that McGwire did express relief that it was "over" after he hit 62. If not for Sosa, everybody could have gone home happy that Maris' record was finally broken, and that a new generation of ballplayers finally found their place in the pantheon where Ruth sits. However, the main reason it didn't stop there was Sosa. McGwire racked up 70 because Sosa hit 66. McGwire has the sexy record, and he'll be remembered by far more people for that record than any league MVP ever has been. If McGwire's record was the biggest thing to happen to baseball this year, then Sosa definitely was an MVP for keeping it exciting to the last day of the season. Copyright © 1998, Salvatore Caputo