Mark McGwire is a man among boys. “Big Mac” continued his assault on the record books with his 53rd home run in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

The blast, which came in the 8th inning off Pirate relief ace Ricardo Rincon, was his fifth in five days, and he is now only nine home runs away from Roger Maris’ record of 61 set in 1961.

McGwire now has 32 games in which to hit the nine home runs he needs. That means he would have to average one home run in every 3.3 games. So far this year, he has hit one home run for every 2.5 games.

He is currently on pace to hit an incredible 66 home runs for the year. A closer look at McGwire’s statistics reveals startling consistency.

McGwire got off to a fast start in April, home running in the team’s first four games, a major league record. He ended the season’s first month with 10 home runs.

He was just getting started, however, and as the weather heated up, so did he. In May, he hit 16 home runs, setting the National League record for that month. That meant that on June 1st, “The Man,” as fellow slugger Sammy Sosa refers to him, was over halfway to fifty home runs with 26.

The month of June was another good one for McGwire, as he had ten bombs. On July 1st, he was still on pace for 68 home runs as he had 36.

July was the first month in which McGwire “struggled.” The oppressive St. Louis heat and the obtrusive media seemed to hold McGwire down.

He had eight home runs to push his season total to 44, and he began to put a moratorium on all the chase questions. He decided to hold a press conference on the first day that he got to each city, and field all the home run questions there. After that, there would only be questions about the day’s game for McGwire.

So, with two months left in the season, Big Mac had 18 homers to hit to enter into baseball’s truly elite.

It is here in the month of August that McGwire has really put himself in the position to break the record. With his recent barrage, nine home runs in 23 days, he has pulled the record back within reach.

McGwire has always said that the record shouldn’t even be talked about until a slugger has 50 home runs on September 1st. With 7 days left until his deadline, he has 53. It’s time to start talking.