Nineteen years ago Roger Maris’ family watched their dad’s record fall. Now they are hoping it happens again.
“I think for baseball it’s exciting. We’re enjoying watching it,” Roger Maris, Jr. told me last week as Giancarlo Stanton continued his march toward what some still call the real home run record, even though it’s now the seventh-highest total in single-season history.
On Sept. 8, 1998 Mark McGwire hit home run number 62 — on his way to 70 — and broke Maris’ 37-year-old home run record.
The thing is, it was broken again that same year by Sammy Sosa, who hit 66 homers and finished second to McGwire in an epic race that captivated baseball fans everywhere.