McGwire Goes Quietly Before, During, After

Mark McGwire went hitless and speechless Friday night, disappointing a Busch Stadium crowd of 48,076 in the one case and more than 600 members of the media in the other.

“You go 0 for 3, what’s there to talk about?” McGwire was quoted as saying by Brian Bartow, the St. Louis Cardinals’ public relations director, after the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Cardinals, 3-2, and kept McGwire at 59 homers, two away from Roger Maris’ record with 22 games to play.

The Cardinal first baseman struck out twice, walked and flied out as his lead in the Great Home Run Race was reduced to two when Sammy Sosa hit his 57th in the Chicago Cubs’ 5-2 victory at Pittsburgh.

It has been the Cardinals’ practice--in an effort to accommodate media and reduce the demands on McGwire--to stage a news conference before the first game of every series, but McGwire, who has generally been relaxed and engaging during them, set the pattern for his later silence by electing not to attend Friday night’s, to the chagrin of the media mob.

“He wants to clear his head, concentrate on the game and has nothing new to say,” Rich Levin, baseball’s public relations director, announced.

A sign of mounting pressure and the still-difficult task confronting McGwire?

“Mark makes home run hitting look so easy that if he doesn’t get one for five or six at-bats, people ask what’s wrong,” Cardinal pitcher Kent Bottenfield said. “No one has been more accommodating, but you can only answer the same questions in so many ways.”

The Reds had pitched McGwire cautiously this year, issuing 11 walks in his 25 plate appearances as he went two for 13 with no homers.

In this one, veteran Pete Harnisch and submariner Scott Sullivan challenged McGwire, getting him to chase an unusual number of high fastballs in another indication that he might have been pressing some. McGwire flied to right in the first, struck out on four pitches in the third and walked on a full count in the fifth, all against Harnisch. Sullivan struck him out on three swings in the seventh--a high fastball and two down-and-away sliders, or what St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa called “three Hall of Fame pitches.”

Harnisch called it a very distracting night to pitch with the noise level--”they went crazy when he was in the on-deck circle and crazier when he was in the batter’s box”--and explosion of flashbulbs every time McGwire swung.

Cardinal starter Bottenfield agreed. Referring to those illuminating Kodak moments, he said: “I don’t know how Mark shuts it out. I’d go blind if they did it every time I threw a pitch.”

McGwire has maintained an extraordinary focus and it might be wrong to suggest that it wavered some Friday night and premature to suggest that the anticipation and expectation is finally having an effect. McGwire might have been asked about it, but he wasn’t available.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Maris Watch

Tracking the pursuit of baseball’s single-season home run record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961.

ROGER MARIS

Season: 54

Game 140: 1

MARK McGWIRE

Season: 59

Friday: 0

SAMMY SOSA

Season: 57

Friday: 1