The 1998 Major League Baseball home run chase in Major League Baseball was the race between first baseman Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and right fielder Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs that resulted in both players breaking Roger Maris's long-standing and highly coveted record of 61 home runs.
 McGwire broke Maris's record on September 8 against the Cubs and finished with 70 home runs.
 Sosa finished with 66.
The Bash Brothers are a duo of former baseball players consisting of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.
 Both prolific home run hitters, the two were teammates in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seven seasons with the Oakland Athletics, helping the team win a World Series title in 1989.
 The two began celebrating homers by bashing each other's forearms, which spawned a marketing campaign that was a takeoff on The Blues Brothers.
 After retiring from playing, Canseco and McGwire both admitted to using anabolic steroids during their careers.
José Antonio Bautista Santos (born October 19, 1980) is a Dominican professional baseball right fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB).
 He previously played in MLB for the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas City Royals, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
 His professional career began when the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the 20th round of the 2000 first year player draft.
 In 2010, Bautista became the 26th member of the 50 home run club while leading the major leagues in home runs for the first of two consecutive seasons, and, from 2010–15, has hit more home runs than any player in the major leagues.
 An MLB All-Star selection six consecutive times, he has won three Silver Slugger Awards and two Hank Aaron Awards.
 In addition, he has received the American League Player of the Month Award five times and the Player of the Week four times.
 Before being traded to the Blue Jays, Bautista primarily played third base.
Thomas Joseph Thevenow (September 6, 1903 in Madison, Indiana – July 29, 1957 in Madison, Indiana) was a professional baseball player who played shortstop in the Major Leagues from 1924 to 1938.
 He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Bees during his career.
 Thevenow epitomized the good-fielding / weak-hitting shortstops that prevailed in the era, ending his career with a fielding percentage of .947, but a batting average of .248 while hitting only two home runs in his 15-year career.
 He hit two home runs in 1926, both inside-the-park home runs, and then never hit another home run in his next 12 seasons, setting a major league record of 3,347 consecutive at bats without a home run.
Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed Big Mac, is an American former professional baseball player and currently a bench coach in Major League Baseball (MLB).
 As a first baseman, his MLB career spanned from 1986 to 2001 while playing for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals.
 He quickly grabbed media attention in 1987 as a rookie with the Athletics by hitting 33 home runs before the All-Star break, and would lead the major leagues in home runs that year with 49, setting the single-season rookie record.
 He appeared in six straight All-Star Games from 1987 to 1992 despite a brief career decline related to injuries.
 Another string of six consecutive All-Star appearances followed from 1995 to 2001.
 Each season from 1996 to 1999, he again led the major leagues in home runs.
In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 50 home run club is the group of batters who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season.
 Babe Ruth was the first to achieve this, doing so in 1920.
 By reaching the milestone, he also became the first player to hit 30 and then 40 home runs in a single-season, breaking his own record of 29 from the 1919 season.
 Ruth subsequently became the first player to reach the 50 home run club on four occasions, repeating the achievement in 1921, 1927 and 1928.
 He remained the only player to accomplish this until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa matched his feat in 1999 and 2001, respectively, thus becoming the only players to achieve four consecutive 50 home run seasons.
 Barry Bonds hit the most home runs to join the club, collecting 73 in 2001.
 The most recent player to reach the milestone is Aaron Judge, achieving the feat during the 2017 season.
Ryan Matthew Jones (born November 5, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player who spent 14 seasons in minor league baseball and the independent baseball leagues.
 He hit over 200 professional home runs in his career.
 Once considered a potential 30 home run hitter at the major league level, he peaked briefly at Triple-A but never reached the big leagues.
 He had been compared to Mark McGwire.
The Oakland Athletics' 1987 season involved the A's finishing 3rd in the American League West with a record of 81 wins and 81 losses.
 Mark McGwire set a rookie record by hitting 49 home runs.
 At the beginning of the season, the word "Athletics" returned, in script lettering, to the front of the team's jerseys.
 Former A's owner, Charles O. Finley banned the word "Athletics" from the club's name in the past because he felt that name was too closely associated with former Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack.
 In his first full Major League season, Mark McGwire hit 49 home runs, a single-season record for a rookie; he was named the American League Rookie of the Year.
 McGwire would be the first American League rookie since Al Rosen of the Cleveland Indians in 1950 to lead the American League in home runs.
 The 1987 season also saw the return of Reggie Jackson to Oakland.
Frederick Stanley McGriff (born October 31, 1963) is an American former professional baseball first baseman, who played for six Major League Baseball (MLB) teams from 1986 through 2004.
 A power-hitting first baseman, he became a five-time All-Star and led both leagues in home runs in separate years – the American League in 1989 and the National League in 1992.
 McGriff finished his career with 493 home runs, tied with Hall of Fame player Lou Gehrig, and only seven homers away from joining the 500 home run club.
 He won a World Series title as a first baseman with the Atlanta Braves in 1995.
 He currently works in the Atlanta Braves' front office as Special Assistant to Baseball Operations.
August Joseph "Gus" Williams, Jr. (May 7, 1888 – April 16, 1964), known also as "Gloomy" Gus Williams, was a German American professional baseball player whose career spanned 10 seasons, five of which were spent in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the St. Louis Browns (1911–15).
 Over his major league career, Williams batted .263 with 171 runs scored, 367 hits, 58 doubles, 31 triples, 12 home runs, 147 runs batted in (RBIs), and 95 stolen bases in 410 games played.
 Williams career started out in 1909 with the Monmouth Browns of the Class-D Illinois–Missouri League.
 After playing in the minor leagues for two seasons, Williams made his major league debut in 1911.
 He had another stint in the majors in 1912.
 In 1913, Williams served as the Browns regular outfielder.
 He was a dead-ball era power hitter for the Browns, ranking in the top-10 amongst American League hitters in home runs during the 1913 and 1914 seasons.
 He led the league in strikeouts in 1914.
 Williams would make his last appearance in the major leagues during the 1915 season.
 He would go on to play in the minors with the Toronto Maple Leafs (1915), Nashville Volunteers (1916), Louisville Colonels (1917), and Indianapolis Indians (1918).
 In the minors, he compiled a career batting average of .293 with 838 hits in 759 games played.
 Williams also played semi-professional baseball after leaving the professional circuit.
 He batted and threw left-handed.
 During his baseball career, Williams stood at 6 ft and weighed 185 lb .

Question: Ryan Jones and Mark McGwire were both American former professional baseball players, which one led the major leagues in home runs?
Answer: Mark McGwire