1998 is one of the most important seasons in the history of baseball. The McGwire/Sosa home run race and Cal Ripken's consecutive games played streak are the only two reasons baseball recovered as well as it did from the strike that ended the 1994 season. McGwire playing against Sosa when he broke the record is the kind of stuff movie writers would say is not realistic enough. We now know a lot more about what was going on in baseball during this time but back in '98 none of that mattered. The single season home run record was maybe the most important in all of sports. I don't want to turn this into a steroid rant but both of these guys belong in the hall of fame, for 1998 alone. They brought baseball back. For a number of reasons we will never see another season like the summer of '98.
PS it's fun to remember that this occurred before the internet exploded. If this happened today it would be big news for a few days on Twitter (and would lead to some Sosa/MJ crying memes) but would then disappear. Having to check the newspaper and watch the news to get updates on these guys was awesome.
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