Sammy Sosa never had a chance. With five home runs in his last three games -- including a couple of laser shots in Sunday's season finale -- Mark McGwire emphatically capped perhaps the greatest single-season achievement in baseball history, finishing up with 70 round-trippers for 1998. Although Sosa can still technically wind up with 71 -- his Cubs face San Francisco in a one-game playoff Monday to settle the National League wild card race and the results will count in the season stats -- he'd have to hit four home runs to simply tie McGwire. Only 11 times in major-league history has a player hit four homers in a single game; no one has ever hit five.
69... 70...
Sammy Sosa never had a chance. With five home runs in his last three games -- including a couple of laser shots in Sunday's season finale -- Mark McGwire emphatically capped perhaps the greatest single-season achievement in baseball history, finishing up with 70 round-trippers for 1998. Although Sosa can still technically wind up with 71 -- his Cubs face San Francisco in a one-game playoff Monday to settle the National League wild card race and the results will count in the season stats -- he'd have to hit four home runs to simply tie McGwire. Only 11 times in major-league history has a player hit four homers in a single game; no one has ever hit five.
