Mac Hits It Clean Out of Park

In a game of dueling milestones, Tony Gwynn and Mark McGwire advanced on history Wednesday night, but that may not have been the evening’s biggest news.

McGwire, the St. Louis Cardinal slugger whose record-shattering home run performance in 1998 was accompanied by a controversy over his use of the supplement Androstenedione, revealed that he stopped taking it at the start of the 1999 season. There has clearly been no loss of power.

McGwire hammered his 42nd homer in a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres to tie Sammy Sosa--his running mate in the great home run chase of last season--for the National League lead and move to within one homer of becoming the 16th player to hit 500.

Gwynn, the Padre right fielder, had three hits, including a grand slam, and needs only two hits to become the 22nd player to get 3,000 in his career.

A Busch Stadium crowd of 43,546, respectful of history and tradition and treated to so much of it by McGwire when he hit 70 homers last year, saluted Gwynn with the same standing ovation after each of his hits as it did McGwire, when he rocked a 436-foot homer in the seventh inning.

Now, in what would be an unprecedented chapter in baseball history, McGwire and Gwynn can reach their milestones in tonight’s series finale here--a possibility that left both saying they would pay to attend.

“I’m sure Mark’s got his gold card and so do I, but I’d still pay,” Gwynn said, “There’s not many times you have the possibility of seeing two major milestones on the same night.”

Said McGwire: “If you love the game of baseball, you find a way to get into the ballpark. It should be exciting.”

How many times did McGwire respond last year, when only an occasional reference to his use of Androstenedione distracted from a spectacular summer?

He is supplement-free now and said of his 42 homers and league-leading 99 runs batted in: “I’m using my hands, eyes and brain to do what I’ve done my whole career. I elected to stop using [Andro] because I don’t need it and I got tired of having my name associated with it as if I was endorsing it. I got tired of young kids associating my name with it.

“I’m not saying there is anything wrong with [the use of it from a health standpoint]. The studies baseball has done and the studies anyone has done are inconclusive, but I didn’t want to create the perception that I was saying it was OK for a high school kid to follow in my footsteps just because I’m a professional athlete. If they want to make that decision when they’re older, that’s different.”

Androstenedione is legal in baseball but banned by the NFL, the NCAA and International Olympic Committee.

Its effectiveness as a possible testosterone-boosting performance enhancer and its potentially damaging impact on health have been widely debated. McGwire insists he took it only to help sustain his workout regimen. He began using it with the Oakland Athletics while coming back from injuries that sidelined him for almost all of the 1993 and ’94 seasons.

His use of it, however, was not reported until last year, when it became a controversial adjunct to the duel with Sosa and his assault on Roger Maris’ 37-year-old home run record.

Asked Wednesday if his performance this year doesn’t represent a stinging response to his 1998 critics, McGwire said he doesn’t have anything to prove, his career speaks for itself.

“Anyone who tried to say that last year was the result of Andro, I just laughed and considered them incompetent,” he said, adding that as often as Andro was part of the story in 1998, he had not been asked about it again before Wednesday and chose not to reveal he had stopped using it without the question being posed.

McGwire was asked what he would recommend to youngsters as a substitute for Andro--if, in fact, they were taking it because they thought he was endorsing it.

“Eat a lot of protein and work hard,” he said, having also had some advice for Gwynn as they stood on first base after the Padre star’s third hit in the seventh inning.

“It’s the first time he’s had to deal with the media crush,” McGwire said, “and I said to him, ‘Listen, you don’t have to explain every day why you didn’t get a hit. It’s just a game, you know you’re going to do it, it’s just a matter of time. What pitch? What inning? What game? Relax. Try to enjoy it.’ ”

Family and friends traveling with Gwynn have been “busting my chops” with the same message, but Gwynn said his mechanics have been flawed since leaving the disabled list for the second time.

Of course, he would have liked to get No. 3,000 in San Diego, but Gwynn will take it anywhere now, although St. Louis would seem to be preferable to the apathy of Montreal, his next stop.

“I’d gladly accept it happening in Montreal,” he said, “but if I have my druthers I’d like to get it done [tonight]. I want to get my two hits, take my bows and get it over. I’m not comfortable with the focus. I want to get back to being just one of the 25.”

They have come too far and done too much for Gwynn and McGwire to ever again be just one of the 25 players on their respective teams.

Power Comparison

Comparing Mark McGwire’s 1999 home run pace to his performance last season:

1999

Games: 108

Cardinal record: 55-53

At-bats: 354

Homers: 42

At-bats per home run: 8.43

Projected total homers: 63

1998

Games: 108

Cardinal record: 51-57

At-bats: 340

Homers: 45

At-bats per home run: 7.56

Total homers: 70