McGwire Lets His 1 for 3 Do All the Talking

The great home run derby is in the final furlong. Three games to go. Still tied at 65. Mark McGwire basically talking only through a pool reporter. Tony La Russa, his manager, convinced that the first baseman is mentally and physically “geared to go” through Sunday but also certain that “it will be time then for this to end.”

“I think when Sunday afternoon comes around he’s going to be very relieved,” La Russa said Thursday night, when his St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Montreal Expos, 6-3, as Ray Lankford slugged his 31st home run and Brian Jordan his 25th but McGwire failed to connect.

Will he, indeed, be relieved Sunday?

“I said that about three weeks ago,” McGwire said, according to the transcript of a tape gathered by a pool reporter, the media’s only link during the first three days of this final home stand, a process providing few insights.

“Are you as relaxed right now as you could possibly be?” the pool reporter asked.

“Yeah, that’s why I don’t understand the big fuss,” said McGwire in one of his longer responses.

In other words, who needs Linda Tripp? These tapes aren’t evidence of anything.

“I think he’s got a mind-set to do exactly what he’s been doing,” La Russa said. “I think he’s determined to do that.”

Let Sammy Sosa entertain the media in the interview room. McGwire will go only when there is a meaningful reason.

There have been 65 in this remarkable season, but a crowd of 41,911 stood and waited in vain Thursday night.

In three at-bats against rookie Javier Vazquez, who came in with a 5-14 record and a whopping yield of 30 homers in 167 1/3 innings, McGwire walked, struck out and singled. In a final at bat against Shayne Bennett, he tapped back to the mound on a check swing.

“This was a very good example of how he’s been pitched all season,” La Russa said. “He saw very few pitches in his zone, but the worst thing you can do is complain about it. I remember Pete Rose complaining once about a changeup that Gene Garber threw him [to end his 44-game hitting streak]. It’s a competition. They’re obligated to compete and they did.”

Montreal Manager Felipe Alou met with his young pitchers before the game and said he told them that the real pressure was on the pitchers who were worrying about giving up No. 62, the homer that broke Roger Maris’ record.

“When McGwire broke the record, I said, ‘Good, now there won’t be any pressure for our kids when we get there,’ ” Alou said. “Now we’re here and he and Sosa are tied and the whole world is wondering how it’s going to turn out. Well, we’re not going to walk him like cowards, but we’re not going to put it on a tee for him either.”

Alou has deep Dominican roots with Sosa and said as much as a Sosa victory in a historical home run contest would be the ultimate, incredible achievement for his country, “it would be sad to see McGwire not win. I think of him celebrating when he hit his 62nd. I think of him leading all season with all the pressure. A tie. That would be the best thing for everybody.”