Sara Sutfin

Cathlena Martin

LIT2120

25 March 2004

The Mac Attack

The St. Louis Cardinal’s first baseman Mark McGwire is a non-traditional example of a hero. Yes, he performed many heroic actions, but he also went through many trials. Joseph Campbell, a leading authority on folklore, lists many attributes of a hero, such as happenings in the early years, departure, crossing the first threshold, victories and reintegration with society, among others, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. These qualitative ideals will be compared with Mark McGwire’s life and prove “the Mac” to be a hero.

McGwire started out a modest life in Pomona, California. He played ball as a youngster and excelled at it. Campbell states, “A blunder—apparently the merest chance—reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood” (51). This “blunder” in McGwire’s life happened when he stumbled upon Little League baseball. Neither of his parents were all-star athletes, in fact his father had polio since he was a young boy, but they wanted to get their son involved with out-of-school activities (Christopher 5).

The departure phase of a hero is difficult in itself. For McGwire, golf was a passion. While being amazing in baseball, golf fits his relaxed personality and he felt better with a club in his hand as opposed to a bat. Campbell says, “The original departure into the land of trials represent(s) only the beginning of the long and really perilous path of initiatory conquests and moments of illumination” (109). The departure for college baseball at the University of Southern California was a difficult task, but McGwire passed through the stage, like all heroes, and continued on to cross the first threshold (Campbell 77).

According to Campbell, a hero must go through the “crossing of the first threshold” (77). For McGwire this was the climb up the Minor League ladder, into his first Major League team, the Oakland Athletics. He was the tenth overall pick in 1984 (he did not make his debut until August 22, 1986) (Christopher 22). When he crossed this threshold, the victories Campbell writes of started to accrue.

Campbell writes, “there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies, and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land” (109). When considering the trials and victories McGwire has amassed, one can clearly see his heroic status. In 1987 he became the Rookie of the Year and shortly following, in 1990 he had the honor of being the American League Gold Glove at first base (Christopher 41). These victories are considered among the elite awards in baseball.

The accolades seem minute to the 1998 season McGwire had. He overtook Roger Maris’s season home-run record (61) with 70 (Christopher 4). Campbell remarks, “The tests imposed are difficult beyond measure. They seem to represent an absolute refusal, on the part of the parent ogre [or baseball world], to permit life to go its way; nevertheless, when a fit candidate appears, no task in the world is beyond his skill” (344). This relates McGwire and Campbell’s view of a hero because the home run record McGwire established appeared impossible to do. This “refusal” by the game of baseball found its “fit candidate” in McGwire.

The record McGwire established in 1998 is important for more than just the sports world when one considers what was happening in our nation at the time. McGwire was able to take the focus off of an adulterous President and bring America’s attention to a great past time. This victory qualifies McGwire as a hero because he brought light to good, or as Campbell writes, “it is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse” (391).

The present day focus is on politics, as Campbell clearly explains. He writes, “Its [the world’s] ideals are not those of the hieratic pantomime, making visible on earth the forms of heaven, but of the secular state, in hard remitting competition for material supremacy and resources” (387). With this in mind, one can see that the tribulations America’s President was going through shocked the nation and made the citizens desperate to find the good in society. That good was the American pastime of baseball and the power hitting of McGwire. He shone through the evils of society and brought about a needed distraction to Americans.

McGwire eventually reintegrated with society upon his retirement. He proved to society what he could do and was given the freedom to live a normal life. When he reintegrated with society, he formed the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children. According to biographer Phelan Powell, “this organization helps neglected and abused children” (38-39). This deed shows McGwire’s love for children and Campbell believes a hero can be a lover (342). The lover quality comes about when the male hero fights for a woman. In case of McGwire, his love of children comes from his own son Matthew. He spends a lot of time with Matt, who held the position of batboy for the St. Louis Cardinals. This love, even though it is not for a woman, is an attribute that builds McGwire into a hero.

When writing of McGwire as hero, one sees an individual raising a society, and Campbell believes the modern-day hero does just that. He writes, “…today no meaning is in the group—none in the world: all is in the individual” (388). McGwire may not fit previous definitions of heroes, but he has adapted to present-day standards and become a hero in his own right. Throughout his life he goes through a departure, trials, initiation and, finally, a return to society--these traits assert McGwire to be a hero.

Works Cited

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1973.

Christopher, Matt. At the Plate with…Mark McGwire. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 1999.

Powell, Phelan. Mark McGwire. Minnesota: Capstone P, 2001.