Chasing home run records nothing new for Big Mac

By Valerie Mendoza

Daily Trojan (U. Southern California)

LOS ANGELES (U-WIRE) - Before Mark McGwire chased Roger Maris and Babe Ruth, he chased Dave Hostettler and Kent Hadley.

On Tuesday night, McGwire made history by breaking Maris' 37-year-old major-league home run record with his 62nd home run against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium.

But chasing a home run record was nothing new to McGwire, who went after the Southern California single-season home run record 15 years ago.

In his freshman year at Southern Cal, after seeing former Trojan Hostettler's record of 17 home runs in 1978 match Hadley's 17 from 1956, McGwire made it a goal to break it.

He told the Daily Trojan in 1983, "I'm going to break that. Seventeen home runs looked like it could easily (be) broken."

Mark McGwire has been breaking home run records ever since he was a pitcher-turned-slugger at Southern California.

Amazingly, Southern Cal was the only school that offered him a collegiate scholarship. He did well his senior year at Damien High in Pomona, Calif., where, as a pitcher, he hit a team-leading .359 with five home runs and a 1.90 ERA. Arizona State showed minimal interest and sent him a letter saying that its scholarships had been given out, but that he could come on as a walk-on.

"The second-to-the-last week of the season (Southern Cal) gave me a call," McGwire said. "The next thing I knew I was sitting at Dodger Stadium with (then-Trojan coach) Rod Dedeaux."

He was drafted out of high school by the Montreal Expos in the eighth round, but he chose to attend Southern Cal.

"I ended up signing here because the money wasn't enough to go professionally out of high school," McGwire said. "I really wanted to sign, but the money had to be as much as a scholarship and it wasn't. I'm glad I came here. I now realize I was not ready at 17 for the minor leagues."

During his freshman year as a relief pitcher, he had the team's second-best ERA (3.04). In 75 at-bats he hit .200 and had just three home runs.

That summer he left as a pitcher, but returned to Southern California from an Alaska summer league as a first baseman and power hitter. There, with the help of then-San Diego State coach Jim Dietz and the coach of the semi-pro Anchorage Pilots, McGwire perfected his swing.

"One of the things that helped me the most that summer was that my coach never benched me for a game - even if I was playing poorly," he told Touchdown Illustrated in 1983. "He let me work my way out of any slumps. He also made a few adjustments in my swing which gave me a short, fast stroke.

"The environment in Alaska really helped me. I was away from home for the first time in my life with a group of people I didn't know. But instead of quitting and going home, which would have been the easy thing to do, I stuck it out. As a result, I gained confidence in myself - and I grew up."

He developed new skills and improved defensively while leading the Pilots with a .403 batting average and 13 home runs.

That spring at Southern Cal his heart was no longer in pitching, and his mind was now focused on hitting. But at the beginning of the season he didn't hit many home runs. Then he hit two in a series, three in a series and even four in a series.

But then McGwire went homerless for seven games after No. 17.

Hostettler got many of his home runs early in the season, but McGwire soon learned how difficult it could be to hit homers in the second half, when everyone knows who the power hitter is.

"I know that people are learning that I've been hitting the ball, so they are going to (pitch) me tougher," McGwire told Baseball America at the time. "But I really want to get this record. I would really like to put my name down here somewhere."

The pressure to break the record continued, but he went into a 1-for-12 slump. It was on his mind all the time: The pitches were there, but his stroke was gone. But then, fighting the wind on a late Sunday afternoon in the second game of a doubleheader at Cal, he finally connected with a shot over the wall in left center field.

"It was the first pitch they threw me and it was a slider right over the middle of the plate," McGwire told the Herald Examiner. "Right when I hit it, I knew it. It was just a relief."

McGwire led USC in runs (46), hits (61), total bases (127), RBI (59) and game winning RBI (6) and ended his sophomore season hitting .319.

In his junior year of 1984, he finished with 32 home runs and still holds the single-season Southern Cal home run record. The Oakland A's selected him as the 10th pick in the 1984 amateur draft.

In the spring of 1984 he told the Daily Trojan: "I just believe (God) gives somebody on this earth some special thing. He gave me the power to hit home runs."

09-10-98