If you spend enough time clicking around the deep corners of Mark McGwire Baseball Reference pages, you eventually start to feel like you’re looking at a glitch in the Matrix. Some of the numbers don't even make sense. How does a guy hit 70 home runs and not win the MVP? How do you have a career where more than 35% of your hits are home runs? Honestly, it feels like someone went into the "Create a Player" mode in a video game and cranked the power slider to 99 while leaving the "speed" and "contact" sliders at basically zero.
McGwire was a walking anomaly. He was 6'5", 225 pounds of pure, terrifying power. People forget that before the controversy, before the "I'm not here to talk about the past" Congressional hearing, and before the 1998 circus, he was just a kid from USC who broke the rookie home run record.
He didn't just hit home runs; he changed the physics of the game. He made stadiums feel small.
That 1998 Season is a Fever Dream
When you look at the 1998 entry on his Baseball Reference page, the "HR" column says 70. It still looks weird. For those of us who lived through it, that summer was everything. Every time he stepped to the plate, the entire world stopped. You’ve probably seen the highlights of him hugging Sammy Sosa or lifting his son at home plate after number 62.
But look closer at the peripheral stats.
McGwire had 162 walks that year. Think about that for a second. Pitchers were so scared of him that they gave him a free base once every single game on average. His On-Base Percentage (OBP) was a staggering .470. He only had 152 hits that season, which means he actually walked more than he singled, doubled, tripled, and homered combined. It’s a stat line that belongs in a beer league, not the National League.
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Sosa actually won the MVP that year. Why? Because the Cubs made the playoffs and Sammy drove in 158 runs while batting .308. McGwire hit more homers, had a higher OPS (1.222!), and arguably more cultural impact, but the MVP voters in '98 still valued team success and batting average.
The Weirdest Ratio in Baseball History
One of the most fascinating things about the Mark McGwire Baseball Reference data is the "AB/HR" (At-Bats per Home Run) metric. He is the all-time leader. Period.
- Mark McGwire: 10.61
- Babe Ruth: 11.76
- Barry Bonds: 12.92
Basically, every ten times McGwire walked to the plate and didn't get a walk, he was likely to park one in the seats. It's a efficiency of power that we haven't seen since and probably won't see again. Even Aaron Judge, in his monster seasons, hasn't touched that career-long clip.
He had 583 career home runs. He only had 1,626 hits.
Think about that ratio. Most guys in the 500-HR club have well over 2,500 hits. Willie Mays had 3,283. Hank Aaron had 3,771. McGwire? He just didn't do the "singles" thing very often. He was the king of the Three True Outcomes (Home Run, Walk, Strikeout) before the term was even popular.
The Oakland Years: The "Bash Brothers" Era
Long before the St. Louis red, McGwire was the face of the Oakland Athletics. He and Jose Canseco were the Bash Brothers. They wore the massive shoulder pads under their jerseys and high-fived by smashing their forearms together. It was peak 80s/90s aesthetic.
In 1987, he hit 49 home runs as a rookie. That record stood for 30 years until Aaron Judge finally passed it in 2017. What’s wild is that McGwire actually missed the last few games of that '87 season to be there for the birth of his son. He could have easily hit 50.
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His Oakland stats are a bit more "human" than his St. Louis ones, but not by much. He won a Gold Glove in 1990 at first base, which is a detail people often miss. He wasn't just a DH playing the field; he was actually quite good over there for a few years.
The Mid-90s Injury Lull
If you scroll down to 1993 and 1994, you see the "dark years." Foot injuries almost ended his career. He played only 27 games in '93 and 47 in '94.
| Year | Games | Home Runs |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 27 | 9 |
| 1994 | 47 | 9 |
People thought he was done. Then 1995 happened. He hit 39 homers in just 104 games. That was the spark. That was when the "Second Act" of Mark McGwire started, leading directly to his trade to the Cardinals in 1997.
Let's Talk About the Elephant in the Room
You can't talk about Mark McGwire Baseball Reference pages without acknowledging the "Steroid Era" context. In 2010, McGwire finally admitted to using PEDs on and off for about a decade, including that magical 1998 season. He claimed he did it for health and recovery rather than strength.
Fans are still split. Some think his numbers should have an asterisk the size of a beach ball. Others argue that everyone was doing it and he was still the best at what he did.
The Hall of Fame voters have made their stance pretty clear. McGwire spent ten years on the ballot and never got close to the 75% needed for induction. His highest percentage was around 23%. It’s a weird reality: the man who "saved baseball" after the 1994 strike is effectively barred from its most sacred building.
What Most People Get Wrong About His Stats
A lot of people think McGwire was just a "all-or-nothing" hitter who couldn't see the ball. That's a total myth. His career Walk Rate was 20.8%. That is elite-level plate discipline. He didn't just swing at everything; he waited for his pitch. If you didn't give it to him, he took his base.
He finished his career with a .394 On-Base Percentage. That is higher than Tony Gwynn (.388).
Let that sink in. The greatest contact hitter of our generation reached base less often than the guy everyone calls a "slugger." It shows that McGwire’s value wasn't just in the long ball—it was in his refusal to give away outs.
Why His WAR is Lower Than You'd Think
If you look at his Career WAR (Wins Above Replacement), it sits at 62.2. That's very good—borderline Hall of Fame—but it’s not "Top 10 of All Time" good. Why?
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- Defense: He was okay, but a first baseman doesn't get much WAR boost.
- Base Running: He was, to put it lightly, slow. He had 12 stolen bases in 16 years.
- Injuries: He missed hundreds of games in his prime.
If he had played 155 games every year from 1991 to 1996, we might be looking at a guy with 700+ home runs and 80+ WAR.
Using These Stats for Your Own Analysis
If you’re trying to use these numbers to win a bar argument or settle a fantasy baseball debate, look at the OPS+ column.
OPS+ is a stat that adjusts for the era and the ballparks. 100 is league average. McGwire’s career OPS+ is 163. That means he was 63% better than the average hitter of his time over his entire career. For comparison, Mike Trout’s career OPS+ is in that same neighborhood.
Actionable Next Steps for Baseball Nerds
- Compare the Eras: Go to the Baseball Reference "Neutralized Stats" tool. It allows you to see what McGwire’s 1998 season would look like if he played in a different year, like 1920 or 1960. It’s a great way to see how much of his power was "him" versus the high-offense environment of the 90s.
- Check the Splits: Look at his performance against lefties versus righties. He actually hit for a higher average against left-handed pitching but his power was remarkably consistent against both.
- The "Home Run Log": This is the best feature on the site. You can see the exact date, pitcher, and distance of every single one of his 583 home runs. It’s a rabbit hole worth falling down.
The legacy of Mark McGwire is complicated, messy, and loud. But the data doesn't lie—it just tells a story that feels too big to be true. Whether you view him as a hero or a cautionary tale, those black-and-white numbers on a screen represent a time when baseball was the biggest thing in the world.
To really understand the impact, you have to look past the 70 homers and see the 162 walks. That's where the real fear lived. Pitchers didn't just want to avoid the home run; they wanted to avoid being the next highlight on SportsCenter. And for a few years in the late 90s, Mark McGwire made sure everyone was watching.
Next Steps: Check out the St. Louis Cardinals team pages from 1998 to see how the rest of that lineup performed compared to Big Mac. It provides some incredible context on just how much he carried that offense. For a deeper look at his peer group, compare his JAWS score (a Hall of Fame metric) against other first basemen like Frank Thomas or Jim Thome.