[ls7plus]

McGwire certainly was--he bolstered attendance ON THE ROAD to an incomparable, unfathomable degree, unmatched by anyone else since, except possibly Kershaw. Large portions of the crowd would even arrive early to watch him take batting practice (including me, in 1999 at old Tiger Stadium, where I saw him park four over the left field roof, which only Frank Howard, Harmon Killebrew and Cecil Fielder had ever done in a game. One of them cleared the roof not anywhere near down the line, BUT OVER LEFT CENTER! We were sitting in the left field upper deck, and while the long blasts of his teammates were landing rather softly in the upper deck, his were still coming with the velocity of cannon shots! No one hit them as far and as often as Big Mac! I still remember him parking one high off the scoreboard well beyond the right centerfield fence in old Shea Stadium). He was truly "Bunyonesque." Then of course, as we all know, he fell out of favor.

But it appears the younger generation simply doesn't care much about the steroid revelations--don't look now, but his '85 Topps PSA 10's and 9's have virtually doubled in the last year! And there are over 260 PSA "10's" and 5,000 "9's!" Now either that is speculation running rampant, or one h_ll of a tidal wave in demand!

Best to all,

Larry