The narrative about the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998 has been enhanced through repetition and selective memory, with the nuance washed out through the haze of time. The narrative is that baseball was on life support at the time and that McGwire and Sosa tag-teamed to perform CPR and resuscitate the sport following the devastating 1994 strike that led to the cancellation of the World Series.
The truth is more complicated.
There was enormous attention and excitement around the sluggers' pursuit of Roger Maris' long-standing record, and people showed up and tuned in to watch the dynamic duo. But the game was well on its way to a full recovery, and beyond, pushed along by a variety of events, personalities -- and a whole lot of steel girders.
Some of those factors:
