In the US, that was a huge story. The whole country was rapt by the chase to catch that record. The home run record is generally seen as the most impressive single-player achievement in American sports. But I imagine people in countries where baseball is not popular would not have heard a word about. Besides, it later came out that McGwire was using illegal steroids to break the record, and his record was broken just a few years later by another guy...who was also using illegal steroids.
Yup - it was widely recognized that the home run race in '98 did much to resuscitate baseball after the '94 debacle. "Chicks dig the long ball" was MLB's slogan and the brass turned a very willful blind eye to what was going on (MLB owners and broadcasters very much dug the long ball too). I think something like 11 of the 17 highest single-season home run totals came between '98 and '01. Feel free to correct me. And in the aftermath, the narrative quickly became that it was all the players' fault, while the owners begged for - and generally got - hundreds of millions in public subsidies for new stadiums (which the team owners would own) to go with their new, and massively increased, tv deals.
And in the rest of the world, the story had absolutely no relevance. You could as well ask for some Indian cricket player or a Japanese sumo match. I'm sure that you'd find stories that were huge there in 2014. But those kind of local stories should be omitted from tests like this one. They are worse for it.
I certainly remember coverage in the UK. Maybe not huge, but still enough for a baseball denier like me to remember. I'm limited to McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Ruth, DiMaggio & Gehrig, and a few others I've picked up whilst doing these quizzes.
US sports is one area where my general knowledge is almost entirely lacking, at least for those sports that are primarily played in the US. Give me a question about Serena Williams, Michael Phelps or Tim Howard and I'll be fine.
Not sure. Maybe was uneventful, though I personally think it was eventful. Most of it was bad stuff tho. Like *that* event early in the year as well as uprisings of terrorism.
They often come up in pub quizzes in the UK so can be a good source of points as well as enjoying some good sports (especially baseball)