As a rookie in 1987, Mark McGwire hit 49 home runs but voluntarily sat out the final two games, passing up a shot at 50 to attend the birth of his first child. Born in Pomona in 1963, he starred at USC alongside Randy Johnson, won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics, and anchored the Bash Brothers era in Oakland that peaked with a 1989 World Series championship.

After his average cratered to .201 in 1991, he rebuilt through visual therapy and weightlifting, only to battle severe foot injuries. Traded to St. Louis, he became the face of baseball’s 1998 home run chase, then later the face of its steroid reckoning.

• Hit a record 70 home runs in 1998, breaking Roger Maris’ single-season mark
• Retired in 2001, declining an $11 million extension he felt he could not earn
• Admitted in a 2010 Bob Costas interview to using steroids on and off for a decade
• Owns the best career at-bats-per-home-run ratio in major league history
• Returned as a hitting coach and won a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 2011