CBS Poll: Mac, Sosa Should Tie
Many Americans want baseball sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to finish the season in a tie for the major league record for home runs, according to the new CBS News/New York Times poll.
More than four in ten say they would prefer a tie. A quarter want Mark McGwire to win, while 15 percent are rooting for Sammy Sosa.
While fans around the country prefer a tie, baseball fans in the Midwest [where McGwire's St. Louis Cardinals and Sosa's Chicago Cubs are located] prefer a clear winner in this race.
| Who Do You Want To See Hold The Home Run Record? |
| 26% 42% |
Fifty-five percent of fans in the Midwest want either McGwire or Sosa to hold the record. Only 35 percent of Midwestern fans prefer a tie. Fans in other regions of the country would be more satisfied to see a tie.
The home-run race excitement surrounding baseball this year appears to have resulted in a substantial increase in interest in the game.
When asked how interested they are in watching or following baseball, 63 percent now say they are interested in following or watching the game. A year ago, in the aftermath of the bitter 1994 players' strike, 42 percent said this.
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A year ago, a majority of people — 58 percent - said they were not at all interested in America's pastime. In this survey, that number has dropped to 37 percent.
This poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 960 adults interviewed by telephone September 22-23, 1998. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus three percentage points for results based on the entire sample.
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