Orlando Sentinel
Sept. 30. 1998
Why All The Fuss? Homer Mark Is 72
62 MAC-NIFICENTOk, So It's A Minor-league Record. But Joe Bauman Hit 72 Homers In 1954 - And He Did It In 138 Games.
September 09, 1998
By Michael Rosenberg, Chicago TribuneCHICAGO - The media frenzy around Mark McGwire has reached a crescendo, and it's hard to figure why. All this fuss, and McGwire isn't even close to Joe Bauman's record.
That's not to say McGwire can't catch Bauman. If the St. Louis Cardinals slugger has a hot September, he might surpass Bauman's historic mark of 72 home runs. But really, even that would have to go into the record book with some kind of asterisk, for McGwire has 162 games to slug 72, but Bauman did it in just 138 games.
Of course, most of you older fans already knew that, having spent that magical summer of 1954 following Bauman's Roswell (N.M.) Rockets through the Class C Longhorn League.
McGwire might not reach Bauman, but he can continue his climb up the all-time list. With home run No. 60, he caught Forrest ``Frosty'' Kennedy (Plainview, Southwestern League, 1956), Tony Lazzeri (Salt Lake City, Pacific Coast League, 1925) and Babe Ruth (New York, American League, 1927). Tuesday, he passed someone named Roger Maris, also of New York of the American League, who hit 61 in 1961.
He is now tied with some really big boppers: Ken Guettler of Shreveport in 1956 and Moose Clabaugh of Tyler (Texas) in 1926 hit 62, followed by Joe Hauser of Baltimore of the International League, who hit 63 in 1930. Then come Bob Lennon (Nashville, 1954) at 64 and Dick Stuart (Lincoln, 1956) at 66.
Finally, McGwire will be staring down Bob Crues (Amarillo, 1948) and Hauser again (Minneapolis, 1933), both of whom hit 69.
If McGwire catches Crues and Hauser, then - and only then - can he start thinking about Joe Bauman.
Like McGwire, Bauman felt the pressure of his chase. He hit No. 69 with five games left in the season, then hit a dry spell. When he woke up on the morning of a final-day doubleheader, Bauman was still tied with Hauser and Crues.
In his first at-bat of the doubleheader, Bauman pulled one down the right-field line to make the record his own.
``It created quite a stir,'' recalled Bauman, now 76 and still living in Roswell. ``I was glad it was over.''
Like many of today's sluggers, Bauman received extra money for every home run. But the method of payment was rather unconventional.
``The fans would just poke it in the chicken wire in the fence, and you would go around and pick it up,'' Bauman said. ``I'd make $40, $50, maybe up to $100, sometimes more. The night I broke the record, I got $800 or $900.''
Backed by that kind of loot, Bauman could do what he really wanted to - get out of baseball. He retired 1 1/2 years after breaking the record so he could work full time at his gas station and tire distributorship.
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This article ran in the Orlando Sentinel on Sept. 30, 1998
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