20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Sept. 7, 1998 -- Mark McGwire Ties Home Run Record

September 7, 1998: Mark McGwire hit his 61st home run, tying Roger Maris' single-season record. It's hard to overstate what a huge deal the 1998 home run derby was, since the horse race aspect was something easy for non-baseball fans to get caught up in.

In retrospect, we all probably knew there was something mighty suspicious about all these dingers hit by men with basketball-sized heads and canned hams for forearms. But that would come much later.

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]