Mark McGwire stepped to the plate and Busch Stadium lit up with flashbulbs. This wasn't September 8, 1998, when the slugger came up with a chance at No. 62. It wasn't even a game late last season as he pulled within sight of Ruth and Maris then left them far behind.
This was July 16, 1999; the Cardinals were already out of the pennant race facing the equally mediocre Chicago White Sox and McGwire was off his record-setting pace with "just" 29 homers. It was the bottom of the first with St. Louis and its inept pitching trailing 3-0, and yet from every part of the stadium tiny lights flickered on and off.
The fans didn't use up too much juice from their camera batteries, at least not on his first at-bat. McGwire swung at the first pitch and lined it over the fence in left-center for a three-run homer. All of Busch stood and cheered as he rounded the bases, while fireworks boomed overhead. And I practiced boasting about how I saw the new Home Run King go deep.
Maybe McGwire hit his first home run too quickly for the amateur photographers to get a good shot, because the flashbulbs were at it again for each of his final four plate appearances. He walked and flied out before smacking another three-run homer in the seventh. More cheers, more pyrotechnics, more tales for the folks back home. But thanks to more bad pitching, the Cardinals still trailed 8-7.
They were down 9-7 when McGwire came up for the final time, in the bottom of the ninth with one out and a man on second. On a 3-1 count, he dashed hopes for a three-homer game (and, oh yeah, a St. Louis win), grounding out to the mound. So ended a three-hour, 25-minute affair that major league baseball might want to deny all knowledge of. The White Sox won 9-8 in a contest featuring 26 hits, nine pitchers and five errors, including one in four consecutive half-innings.
But Mark McGwire hit two home runs, and I know I went home happy. Of course, I'm a Red Sox fan, a tourist who spent a few days in town for a convention and attended the game for free.
I even got a cool yellow McDonald's hard hat out of the deal for sitting in Big Mac Land, a section in the upper deck down the line in left field. If a Cardinal hits a homer into that part of the park, everyone in the stadium gets a free Big Mac. Only one player has ever supplied the Busch faithful with two all-beef patties, special sauce, you know the rest. Here's a hint: his initials are M.M.
A long ball into Big Mac Land would have made the night complete, but then again, I don't like red meat. I wonder, though, if the Cardinals fans went home as happy as I did, even after an ugly game and another loss. The night before, I waited for a trolley next to the stadium, and there was no mistaking the roar that accompanied McGwire's trips to the plate. For a team that's currently 20 games out of first, the slugger's about all they have to root for.
And that's too bad. The home run race was great PR for baseball last year, but the chase for 60 or 70 or 80 will get old pretty quickly. Do we need flashbulbs flashing every time McGwire comes up in a meaningless game in July? The Cardinals seemed reduced to a gimmick, like the hard hats in Big Mac Land. Come under the big top, see Bicep Man hit the ball farther than any man has hit before.
McGwire doesn't want it that way. After the game in July, he was asked if he takes any personal satisfaction from his individual performance.
"Why should you?" he said. "I never have, I never will.
"You're not going to win a championship; pitching carries you. You can have the greatest offense in the world, but pitching is the mainstay. Pitching is going to get you to the World Series. Things haven't been the greatest all year. We've had to battle all year, whether it's offense, pitching or the defense."
St. Louis deserves better than its pitching-challenged ballclub. The Cardinals aren't some expansion franchise, but an organization that has won nine World Series. Busch Stadium is a nice place to watch a game; as a Boston native (read: ballpark snob) I can say I approved. The field is grass. The place is surrounded by city streets, not parking lots and empty space. The Arch and Mississippi River are a few blocks away. Next to the hand-operated scoreboard in left field is a "flag deck" where the eight Cardinals retired numbers are displayed; instead of Musial and Smith, it's Stan the Man and The Oz.
But right now the only race Cardinals fans have to follow involves home runs. St. Louis visited the last-place Cubs and Sammy Sosa (61 and counting) last night and I bet the flashbulbs came out every time Mac and Sammy came to the plate. If only the fans were taking pictures of the Cubs and Cardinals battling for a playoff spot.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW is a weekly column written by a Chronicle sports columnist. It appears every Wednesday.
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