Summer of '98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America

Mike Lupica

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999 - Fiction - 209 pages

In the summer of '61, Mike Lupica's father left notes for him in the night: Maris hit another, Mantle two-for-four, Yanks won. That was his first golden summer. He thought there'd never be another one like it -- until the summer of '98, when he found himself leaving notes for his own sons: Sosa hit another, McGwire hit one back. And the Yanks won.

In 1998, the conversation of the country was about baseball again, as the taste of the 1994 strike was finally washed away in a sweet flood of glory. With humor and feeling, Lupica recaptures that season, but not in any ordinary way. In Fargo, North Dakota, Roger Maris's boyhood best friend watches McGwire hit 62. In Washington Heights, New York City, the scout who saw Sammy Sosa get off the bus from Santo Domingo celebrates, along with half a million Dominicans. The Little League champions from Toms River stand in awe on the field at Yankee Stadium; Joe DiMaggio talks as he watches the Yankees have the kind of year he always had; Cal Ripken speaks from the past about how he always intended his streak to end; a divorced father watches with a lump in his throat as McGwire lifts his son at home plate. David Wells, Kerry Wood, Shane Spencer, Ken Griffey, Jr. -- all the boys of summer come alive in unique and special ways, as we're reminded, for one season at least, that, yes, they do play baseball like they used to.

Contents

• prologue: 1
• APRIL: 17
• MAY: 37

About the author

Michael Lupica (born on May 11, 1952 in Oneida, New York) is an American newspaper columnist. At the age of 23, Lupica began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post. In 1977, he became the youngest columnist ever at a New York newspaper when he started working for the New York Daily News. He has also written for numerous magazines during his career including Golf Digest, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, Men's Journal and Parade. In 2003, he received the Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation. He has been a television anchor for ESPN's The Sports Reporters and hosted his own program The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2. Lupica has written both fiction and non-fiction books. His novels include Dead Air; Limited Partner; Jump; Full Court Press; Red Zone; Too Far; Wild Pitch; and Bump and Run. He also writes the Mike Lupica's Comeback Kids series. He co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells and collaborated with William Goldman on Wait Till Next Year. His other non-fiction works include The Summer of '98; Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back; and Shooting from the Lip.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Summer of '98: When Homers Flew, Records Fell, and Baseball Reclaimed America
• Author: Mike Lupica
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999
• Original from: the University of California
• Digitized: Jul 24, 2008
• ISBN: 0399145141, 9780399145148
• Length: 209 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History; Sports & Recreation / Baseball / Statistics