This Day In Baseball
History: June 25, 1998
It was on this date in 1998 that
Chicago Cubs’ right-fielder Sammy Sosa set the Major League record for home
runs in a single month when he went deep in the seventh inning off of Detroit
Tigers’ pitcher Brian Moehler at Tiger Stadium for his 19th home run
of the month of June. The previous record of 18 was held by Rudy York of the
Tigers, who accomplished the feat in August of 1937.
The Tigers defeated the Cubs
6-4.
Sosa would end the month with 20
home runs and after only hitting six in April and seven in May, the
record-breaking month launched him into his chase, along with Mark McGwire of
the St. Louis Cardinals, in pursuit of Roger Maris’s single-season home run
record of 61 set in 1961.
And we all know how it ended up:
McGwire would hit 70 home runs while Sosa would finish with 66. And although
both players would be linked to PED use many years later (McGwire would
eventually admit to using) the excitement the home run chase generated for
baseball was much needed in bringing back fans’ interest in Major League
Baseball, as some were still sour over the players’ strike of 1994.
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