Mark McGwire

Born in 1963 in Pomona, California, Mark McGwire was raised in a big, brawny, sports loving family. Mark and his four brothers, each of whom ended up over six feet tall and weighing over 200 pounds, grew up playing baseball, football, golf, soccer and other sports. Mark's brother Dan played football at the University of Iowa, and professionally with the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins. Their father, John, was a dentist who was also a well-liked Little League coach. Mark would later describe his childhood as typically middle class, and himself as a normal child who liked sports and had to work hard to be good at them.

Mark's first involvement with organized sports was Little League baseball. Despite his modesty, it was obvious from the start that Mark McGwire was an especially talented baseball player. In his first Little League at-bat, when he was just eight, he hit a home run off a pitcher who was four years older. Two years later he set his first home run record, 13 in one season in the Claremont Little League. He was also-like Babe Ruth sixty years earlier-a gifted pitcher, the best pitcher on his team, in fact. As a high school player, he could throw at nearly 90-miles-per hour, faster than many major league pitchers. His high school performance attracted the attention of major league scouts, and when he graduated in 1981, the Montreal Expos claimed him in the expansion draft. McGwire chose instead to accept a baseball scholarship from the University of Southern California (USC).