Stress for Success.(George Brett, Mark McGwire and other players)

George Brett, Mark McGwire and others have had to deal with pressure and distractions during milestone record chases

IT WAS OBVIOUS FROM HIS question, the Philadelphia doctor had no idea who George Brett was or the daily ordeal he had just endured for the final six weeks of the 1980 season.

Brett had hit .390, captivating baseball fans in his attempt to be the first player since Ted Williams in 1941 to hit .400. The World Series was going to start the following day with Brett's Kansas City Royals playing the Phillies in Veterans Stadium. And now Brett was in the office of a doctor he had never met, along with Royals trainer Mickey Cobb, listening as the doctor confirmed what they already knew.

Brett had hemorrhoids.

"I said, `How do you get these things?'" Brett said. "He said, `There's a lot of different ways you can get it. Have you been under any stress this year?' It was like, `Yeah, I've had a lot of stress.' Me and Mickey kind of looked at each other and started giggling.

"Then he asked me about my diet, and I said, `Well, I'm 27 years old and single. What's that tell you? I like Mexican food. I like margaritas and I like beer and cheeseburgers.' He said, `Well, it could be a combination of both -- stress and diet.' I said, `Well, I'm a perfect candidate for that then.'"

More than 20 years later, Brett laughs heartily as he recalls that dialogue with the Philadelphia doctor. But there are bittersweet memories from that season that are anything but funny. Brett has recollections about daily press conferences before and after games that were tedious but necessary and remembers feeling like a hermit on the road, his hotel telephone shut off. And he remembers being close to tears the late September night he walked out of the old ballpark in Minneapolis, realizing he wasn't going to hit .400.