Going, Going, Not Quite Gone

Young sluggers are assaulting some of baseball's most cherished records. But can the big bad boys stay hot all summer?

Paul O'Neill had an off week at the ballpark. In just eight games, the New York Yankee outfielder's batting average dropped 43 points -- all the way down to .429 after Saturday's game. Well, it's a hard life but a hopeful one: if O'Neill soldiers on and maintains his .429 until the season's end, he will prove himself the most proficient batter of the 20th century.

That probably won't happen. O'Neill, a lifetime .268 hitter, will glide earthward and be hitting an imposing but not epochal .310 or so in October. But this spring, baseball has been bustin' out all over....

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