Well, judging by Sammy Sosa's four-homer
explosion over the weekend, McGwire needs
to meet his son's heightened expectations if his
reign as the single-season record holder is
even going to begin.
He took a break from making history to sit
down with Patrick for the Sunday
Conversation:
Patrick: Is there a pitcher you hit a home run against
this season who you're pretty sure you had no business
homering against?
McGwire: Oh yeah. Willie Blair. He owns me. It's
amazing. For some reason he just gets me out all the time,
and it ends up that I hit my 50th home run off him this
season.
I wrote on a bat when he was still playing with the
Diamondbacks before he got traded to the Mets, the last
time we faced the Diamondbacks I didn't think I was going
to face him again this year. I wrote a bat, saying "Willie,
you absolutely own me -- Mark McGwire." And I sent it
over to him.
Patrick: You have a history of giving. Are people now
telling you not to give away your shoes, your gloves and
your bat?
McGwire: No, I do it all the
time. I gave Jim Leyland my
batting gloves after my last
game down in Florida. I gave
Bobby Knight -- who was here
a few weeks ago -- my shoes I
hit 50 through 55 in. I gave my
second father, Jim, my bat that
I hit 50 through 55.
Those things mean a lot to me,
but it means even more that I
can give them up.
Patrick: I talked to Dan
Marino a couple of weeks ago, and he said his son
wanted a birthday present: Mark McGwire's bat.
McGwire: Yeah, he called me up in the clubhouse in San
Francisco. They go, "Hey, Dan Marino's on the phone."
Yeah right. I've never really met him, but I get on the phone
and you know his voice from the Isotoner glove
commercials.
I get on the phone, and he says, "Yeah, my son, he wants
something from you, and can I do anything for you?" I said,
"Sure, how about signing a jersey to my son." I get back
with a jersey that said, "To Matthew." It was unbelievable.
Patrick: Do you worry that you can't be the public
Mark McGwire anymore? You can't walk on a golf
course and just play. You can't be out in the front yard
with your son. Have you sacrificed or lost a little bit of
that?
McGwire: I'm going to be the same person I'm going to be.
People say, here he's thrown into all this success and he's
going to change. You know what? No. I'm not going to
change. You know what happens? The people around you
change because they look at you differently. They think,
"Here's this guy, oh my God, who hit 62 home runs. Oh,
he's a different person."
No, I'm not a different person. I'm the same person, I'm
going to be the same Dad, I just hope people are too.