Editing Mark McGwire (section)

====Later playing career (1999–2001)====
McGwire kept his high level of offensive production from 1998 going in [[1999 St. Louis Cardinals season|1999]] while setting or extending several significant records. With 65 home runs, he led MLB for the fourth consecutive season. It was also his fourth consecutive season with at least 50 home runs, extending his own major league record. Sosa, who hit 63 home runs in 1999, again trailed McGwire. Thus, they became the first, and still only, players in major league history to hit 60 or more home runs in consecutive seasons. McGwire also set a record from 1998 to 1999 for home runs in a two-season period with 135. He also owned the highest four-season home-run total, with 245 from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, he drove in an NL-leading 147 runs while only having 145 hits, becoming the first player with more RBIs than hits in a season.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1999/10/04/power-struggle-mcgwire-finishes-with-65-sosa-63/bf09193d-7a3a-4dc7-bc0a-76c67f4a8c42/|title=Power Struggle: McGwire Finishes With 65, Sosa 63|first=R.B.|last=Fallstrom|work=Washington Post|date=October 3, 1999|access-date=June 1, 2024}}</ref>

Following the 1999 season, McGwire and the Cardinals exercised a mutual option in his contract for the 2001 season which would pay him $11 million for the 2001 season. Shortly before the 2001 season, McGwire and the Cardinals agreed to another extension through the 2004 season for $30 million which, according to Phil Rogers in the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', was far less than he could have made in free agency.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rogers |first1=Phil |title=McGwire's contract breath of fresh air |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114959096/mcgwires-contract-breath-of-fresh-air/ |access-date=December 21, 2022 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=March 2, 2001 |pages=45 |archive-date=December 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221142155/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114959096/mcgwires-contract-breath-of-fresh-air/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Mark mcgwire.jpg|thumb|left|McGwire hitting a home run in St. Louis against the Tigers on July 14, 2001]]
However, in 2000 and 2001, McGwire's statistics declined relative to previous years as he struggled to avoid injury, hitting 32 home runs in 89 games in 2000 and 29 in 97 games in 2001. He retired after the 2001 season.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mcgwima01.shtml |title=Baseball-reference.om McGwire stats |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=November 7, 2012 |archive-date=February 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228203815/http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mcgwima01.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>