The 1998 season was very personal to me for reasons beyond the Sosa-McGwire showdown. As was suggested by a friend, the similarities between the ’98 Cubs and this year’s version are minimal at best. It also doesn’t look like the Cubs will reach outside the organization for answers this season.

However, I’ve recently read a few articles suggesting that a handful of sluggers are hitting homers at the same pace as McGwire, Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr and more recently like Aaron Judge. It’s fun to project and guess what’s going to happen, but not the answer for long-term wealth.

As exciting as the new version of the game is, I don’t think the majority of fans or the media will be focusing on stolen base leaders-we’re going to follow the home run chase. It’s natural I guess, to liken Jorge Soler to Sosa, but unfair in the end and Matt Olson of the Braves is a superior all-around player than McGwire. For some, sitting back and watching the explosions is entertainment enough. Others like me, will measure the worth of those dingers in pushes for the postseason.

I recently read a review of Jack Curry’s The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Team Ever. Hyperbole or not, that particular crew did somehow win 1,000 games with cousin Tino Martinez leading the team with only 28 homers that year. The team did mash 207 that year though.

Likening one team’s great start to a season (the 2023 Rays) to another team’s (1984 Tigers) can be a fool’s errand as well. The 35-5 Tigers never lost two straight to the 24-30 Cubs.