ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>BOB LORENZ, CNNSI ANCHOR: The amazing thing about Mark McGwire's homerun chase that particular night was that every time he stepped to the plate, it captivated not only the hard-core baseball fan and everybody who was in attendance, but even casual fans who watched that game on TV and wanted to see what was happening, because they were seeing something, in a lot of people's lifetimes, that they had never seen before, and that was the pursuit of Roger Maris's single-season, homerun record.</s>MARK MCKAY, SPORTS ANCHOR: Many of us thought that was an untouchable record. To think that anybody could do it, he could -- just his build and his style and his dedication to the sport.</s>LORENZ: There was electricity that rippled, I think, not only throughout that crowd at the stadium, but throughout everybody who was watching. If they were watching at home or in bars or wherever, they were seeing a piece of history.</s>MCKAY: And when he did it, it seemed like the world stopped, because everyone who was into the sport really just paid attention to that. And he literally had the stage to himself that night and the subsequent days after.</s>LORENZ: The images that stick out in my mind are not only the home run, but him with the Maris family. He seemed to sort of pay respect to Roger Maris and his family. You could tell he has a genuine respect for the game and for the tradition, and he really had realized what he had done.</s>MCKAY: He became, you know, larger than life. He's reaping those benefit now. It did so much more for the game itself. It gave people a good feeling about the game.
CNN 20: Mark McGwire Breaks Record, September 8, 1998