Editor's note: This column originally appeared on ESPN.com on Sept. 8, 1998.

ST. LOUIS -- Move over, Babe. Make room, Roger. Mark McGwire has crushed his way into history.

McGwire joined Maris as co-holders of baseball's most cherished record Monday afternoon, slamming a 1-1 fastball from Chicago's Mike Morgan 430 feet into left field for his 61st home run.

The historic blow came in the Cardinals' 3-2 win over the Cubs at 1:22 p.m. ET. The crowd of 50,530 erupted and stood in unison as McGwire held both arms wide and high as he approached first base, pumped his fist as he circled the bases, got a high five from Cubs first baseman Mark Grace, shook hands with former teammate Gary Gaetti as he reached third base and jumped on home plate with both feet.

He then immediately picked up his 10-year-old batboy son, Matt, who was waiting for him at the plate and carried him for four steps in a joyful hug.

Matt arrived from California just in time to see his Dad make history -- on the day McGwire's own father, John, celebrated-- get this -- his 61st birthday.

"I was down there getting my bat," McGwire said. "He said, 'How you doing?' I gave him a kiss, told him him I loved him. The next thing I knew, I hit a home run."

After he set Matt down, McGwire was mobbed by his teammates as fireworks crackled over Busch Stadium. He saluted the crowd, hailed Sammy Sosa in right and in a touching tribute to the man he matched, McGwire acknowledged Maris' children by pointing his right index finger to the sky, tapping his heart three times and blowing a kiss.

"He tapped his heart, like dad was in his heart," said Kevin Maris, a son of the former New York Yankees slugger, who died in 1985.

Indeed, that was the message: "I know he's with me and that's really all I can say - thank you to all the Marises," McGwire said.

		Mon, September 7 It's very important for the game of baseball that this spectacle is happening between St. Louis -- which I believe is the best baseball town in America -- and Chicago, which is darn close. The romanticism that has built up around Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in their respective cities has been a tremendous boost for the game. The players on the Yankees roster are great players, but the team spent between $75 million-$100 million to put that roster together. This series in St. Louis was different. These are two truly great baseball players. I don't think any of us can imagine what kind of pressure McGwire is under. I'm not sure there has been anything quite like this in athletics in my lifetime. This has been building since spring training. I talked to him the second day he was in Florida, and asked him if he was ready for the pressure that would come. He said he wasn't sure. Then he homered in the first four games of the season and the race was on. McGwire is a man of tremendous concentration and extraordinary character in terms of his ability to look at other people. That's what people haven't understood for much of this season. He felt all the attention dedicated to him took away from other people, especially teammates. But it will be very difficult now. Once he hits home run No. 62, will he take a deep breath and collapse from exhaustion like someone who has just won a marathon? Will the fact his team is out of the playoffs allow him to relax while Sosa will be in a pennant race right down to the last day of the season? It will be interesting to see who ends up in the record books as the home run champion.

In right field, Sosa, nipping at McGwire's heels with 58 homers, clapped into his mitt. Meanwhile, the grounds crew immediately ran out and changed all the bases.

The ball hit off the facing of the luxury suites in left field and then bounced into the lower deck, where it was caught by Mike Davidson, a 28-year-old from St. Louis, who said he plans to give the ball to McGwire and wouldn't ask for anything in return.

"They are my brother-in-law's seats," Davidson said. "He gave them to me because he had to work today."

The first fan to get his hand on the ball was Rich Reichert, 32, of St. Louis. But he couldn't hang on and cut his left ring finger as he tumbled to the concrete.

"After the ball bounced off my hands, it was a little bit of a blur," Reichert said. "All I know was I got knocked down by about 10 guys."

McGwire's first chance to break Maris' record came in the third inning, when he singled sharply past Gaetti at third. In the fifth, he swung at the first pitch from Morgan and flied to shallow center. In the seventh inning against reliever Matt Karchner he he hit a soft liner to center.

Sosa, ironically, popped up to McGwire in his first at-bat. Sosa came to the plate to a similar reaction that McGwire has been getting -- loud applause. Sosa, obviously moved, tipped his helmet to the sellout crowd. Sosa went 1-for-5 and struck out with Lance Johnson and third to end the game.

McGwire hit his 61st homer in the Cardinals' 144th game of the season (they've had one tie and McGwire has played in 136 of those games). Maris hit his 61st on the final day of the 1961 season (it was Maris' 159th game played). Babe Ruth hit his 60 home runs in 1927 when baseball played a 154-game schedule (Ruth hit No. 60 on the final day of the season).

And in contrast to Maris, who set his record in front of a crowd of only 23,000 in Yankee Stadium, Busch Stadium was sold out beyond capacity and a national television audience on ESPN looked in.

The blast capped an incredible eight-day stretch for McGwire, who hit his 55th home run of the season in a game against Atlanta two Sundays ago. He homered twice on Tuesday and twice on Wednesday in Florida, then reached 60 on Saturday with a first-inning homer off Cincinnati's Dennis Reyes.

Rather than succumb to the pressure, McGwire has thrived. He has hit 14 home runs since Aug. 19, when he hit Nos. 48 and 49 at Chicago. He hit his 50th one day later in New York, making him the first player in history to come into September with 50 home runs.

McGwire and Sosa spent the early part of the morning holding a news conference together. Sitting bicep to bicep, they took turns praising each other.

"Wouldn't it be great if we just ended up tied," McGwire said. "I think it would be beautiful."

With how many homers, guys?

"Seventy would be a nice number," McGwire said.

Sosa and McGwire also said that they were excited for their historic meeting.

"Both of us are aware of the history and what it means," McGwire said. "But I can't think about it right now."

Busch Stadium was alive with excitement as the two rivals squared off. The added drama of McGwire vs. Sosa head-to-head brought it to a crescendo.

"Like I've been saying, your heart's not beating if you're not excited about today," McGwire said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.