This interview will be on “St. Louis on the Air” over the noon hour Friday. This story will be updated after the show. You can listen live.
In the summer of 1998, Joan Niesen fell in love with baseball. A lot of St. Louisans did.
And why not? Major League Baseball was back in fans’ good graces after a players’ strike cut short the 1994 season and soured many on the game. Instead of labor strife, the 1998 season featured a home run race like no other — with the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa and the Cardinals’ Mark McGwire vying to beat both each other and Roger Maris’ 37-year single-season record. What more could a 10-year-old St. Louis kid ask for?