• Mark McGwire is a former Major League first baseman who split his 16-season career between the St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland Athletics. In 1998, McGwire broke Roger Maris's single season home run record by clubbing 70 round-trippers.

  On March 13, 2009, during an interview with the New York Times, Mark McGwire revealed he has worked as a hitting instructor for the A's and the Cardinals. McGwire has removed himself from the public eye after 2001 when he retired from playing Major League Baseball. He has since made headlines for notorious reasons, especially in 2005, when he refused to comment in a congressional hearing on his possible use of steroids during his playing career.ESPN.com: McGwire talks about teaching hitting March 13, 2009)

• Fast Facts:

  1. Full name: Mark David McGwire
  2. Born: October 1, 1963
  3. Birth place: Pomona, California
  4. Height: 6'5"
  5. Weight: 250 lbs
  6. Bats: Right
  7. Throws: Right
  8. College: University of Southern California
  9. 1987: Rookie of the Year
  10. 1998: Hit 70 home runs in a season
  11. One of many former players named in the Mitchell Report

• Early Career

  A native of the Los Angeles-area, McGwire entered the Major Leagues with a bang, hitting 49 home runs and 118 RBIs for the Oakland Athletics in his first full season in the majors. His 49 home runs is a Major League record for a rookie, and that year McGwire was awarded Rookie of the Year honors. The next three seasons, McGwire clubbed over 30 home runs each year, and, in 1989 helped lead the A's to their first World Series triumph since 1974.

• The 1990s

  While McGwire was clubbing home runs, his batting average began to fall. In 1991, he hit only .201. However, in 1992, McGwire reinvigorated his game and his look (he grew a goatee and moustache), and begin hitting long balls again, and finished the season with a .268 average. In 1997, McGwire split the season between the Athletics and the Cardinals, hitting a combined 58 home runs, just three shy of tying Roger Maris's record. The following year, McGwire, Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa, and Seattle Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. all vied for the home run record. On September 8, 1998, McGwire hit home run #62, breaking Maris's record. McGwire finished the season with 70 home runs and Sosa ended up with 66. In 2001, Barry Bonds broke McGwire's record by clubbing 73 home runs.

• Controversy

  In recent years, McGwire has fallen under suspicion of having used steroids during his home run chase, calling his record into question. In 2005, McGwire testified before a Congressional committee investigating the use of steroids in baseball, and although he refused to say whether he had or had not used them, his evasive answers reduced his public standing. Although McGwire is currently eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame, he has not yet been voted in.

  On January 23, 2009, news agencies reported that Jay McGwire, the brother of Mark McGwire claimed he injected the former slugger with steroids. The revelation was made in a book written by Jay McGwire. In the book Jay McGwire defends his reasons for making the revelation, he states, "Mark is a man I think most would like to forgive because his reason wasn't nefarious it was for survival. My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom which is the only way to live."ESPN.com: Book proposal implicates McGwire (January 23, 2009)

• Related Pages on Mahalo

  Mark McGwire Comeback | Mark McGwire Steroids | Jose Canseco | Sammy Sosa | Barry Bonds | Tony La Russa | Oakland Athletics | St. Louis Cardinals | Jim Edmonds | Curt Schilling | Ken Griffey Jr. | Roger Maris | Miguel Tejada Steroids

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