The man who had to be the best. Detroit, 1912. Three men are trying to mug Tiger star =TyCobb. But =Ty battles back. He's not about to let himself be robbed. =Ty's a fighter, even when he's playing ball. He's been known to climb into the stands and slug a fan who's booed him. Once when he was heckled, he threw his bat into the seats. He shouts at umpires and spikes fielders guarding the bases. Many players think =Ty is insane. But now he is fighting for his life. One of the men has a knife. He stabs =Ty in the back, and blood pours from the five inch wound. That just makes =Ty angrier. He starts to punch fast and hard. Two of the men fell, but =Ty chases the third down. He hits him so many times, he believes he's killed him. =Ty's own wound is serious, yet he refuses to see a doctor. Wearing a homemade bandage, he plays the next day. Blood soaks the dressing, but =Ty slams a double and a triple. Not even a stabbing can stop him. =Ty would always do anything to succeed. "I've got to be first -- in everything," he said. He didn't just slide into a base, he flew spikes first at a fielder. Players knew he'd try for the extra base, so they rushed their throws and made errors. But it was pitchers who feared =Ty the most. He did whatever he could think of to annoy them. On deck, he would grit his teeth, swinging three bats at a time. With his hooked nose and small eyes, he looked mean. The first slugger. It's the third game of the 1932 world series. The New York Yankees are in Chicago to face the Cubs. The score is tied in the top of the fifth inning when Yankee slugger =BabeRuth comes out on deck. =Babe is baseball's first power hitter. By clouting homer after homer, he has changed the game more than anyone else. But he's 37 now. Is he too old to hit anymore? =Babe, however, still believes in himself. Cub fans boo as =Babe steps into the batter's box. Players on the Cub bench heckle him. When the first pitch is a strike, some shout "Baboon Potbelly"! =Babe, who is overweight, grins and raises one finger. For years he's had trouble keeping himself in shape. He won't exercise like his teammates, or follow a diet. For breakfast he eats 18 egg omelets. Six hot dogs and six sodas make up a snack. At dinner he wolfs down two whole fried chickens. The last 400 hitter. September 28, 1941. The Boston Red Sox have come to Philadelphia to play the Athletics. There's a doubleheader scheduled, but the fans are interested in something else. They've come to watch =TedWilliams bat. =Ted is only 23, but he's hitting 3995. More than anything, he wants to bat 400. Today is the last day of the season. If he doesn't play, his average will be rounded up to 400. But he takes the field - he wants to prove he can really do it. =Ted has been feeling the pressure - his average has dropped 13 points in the last 12 games. Just last night he walked 10 miles, worrying. The Philadelphia crowd is rooting for the Red Sox slugger. Even some of the Athletics wish him luck. As he comes to the plate, the umpire tells him to relax. But =Ted is so nervous his hands are shaking. He steps into the batter's box and keeps his feet wide apart. Wiggling his hips and shoulders, he jiggles up and down. He swings his light bat and twists his strong hands around its handle. He's fussy about his bats - once he returns one because the handle is off just five thousandths of an inch. Hammerin' Hank. Atlanta, April 8, 1974. =HankAaron slowly walks to the plate. A hush falls over the jam packed stadium. Over 50,000 fans are at this Braves-Dodgers game. Right now they all have their eyes fixed on =Hank. Is tonight the night he'll break =BabeRuth's home run record? Some white people don't want =Hank to outhit =Babe. Because =Hank is black, they don't feel he's =Babe's equal. They mail letters that threaten him and his family. The FBI is brought in to investigate. =Hank gets protection from a police bodyguard. This isn't the first time that baseball has placed =Hank in danger. When he began his career, some felt that whites and blacks shouldn't play on the same team. White fans jeered him. Some threatened to shoot him. Players called him terrible names. A few pitchers threw at him on purpose. Their prejudice make =Hank determined to succeed. He knew that the best way to show that blacks are equal was to play as well as he could. Because he was a quiet man, few fans noticed his achievements. But tonight he can prove he's a great player. He'll make history for himself and for all blacks. It's the fourth inning. =Hank stands in the back of the batter's box. The Dodger pitcher knows he must be careful - =Hank can hit almost anything. It's especially hard to throw a fastball by him. Home Run Kings. =SaintLouis, Missouri, September 8, 1998. A sellout crowd is watching the Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs. It's two out in the bottom of the fourth and Cardinals' slugger =MarkMcGwire is at the plate. All 49,987 fans are on their feet. They want their red headed hero to smash a home run. If he does, he'll break the most famous record in all of sports. In 1961, New York Yankee =RogerMaris slammed 61 homers in a single season. Yesterday =Mark tied him, with 18 games left to go. Now, with one swing, he can become the first ever to wallop 62. Crouched and pigeon-toed in the batter's box, =Mark waves his bat around. It looks like a toothpick in his hands because he's so enormous. Six foot five, 250 pounds, he has arms as big as a person's head. He's so strong, his homers soar an average of 425 feet. One player says, "He's like =Godzilla." =Mark waits for the first pitch. It's a low fastball right down the middle. He takes his short 80 mile an hour swing as hundreds of flashbulbs go off. Fans are taking photo in case it's the record setting blast. The ball shoots off the bat, a low liner that rockets to left field. =Mark is not sure it will clear the eight foot high wall 341 feet away. Digging for first base, he keeps his eye on the ball. "The next thing I knew," he says ," the ball disappeared I did it!"