Rich Hofmann: Sosa news won't erase thrilling memories of 1998 home-run chase

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, June, 2009

THE SUMMER of 1998 grabbed and held baseball fans. It was not the other way around. It was not a voluntary act. There was no resisting the pull of your communication device of choice: laptop, newspaper, television, radio, all. It became a compulsion, waking up and then immediately finding out if Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa hit another one.

Remember the feeling? Well, nothing or nobody can take that away.

The assault was on a cherished baseball record, the 61 home runs hit by Roger Maris in 1961. McGwire was the Bunyanesque leader of the pursuit, and Sosa was his genial foil. They took their act around the country and played to excited millions. Some say they even restarted the heart of a sport that had flat-lined during a strike that canceled the 1994 World...