Griffey’s the Winner, but McGwire’s the Star

The Green Monster met its match Monday.

Mark McGwire didn’t just conquer The Wall at Fenway Park during the Home Run Derby Monday night. He embarrassed it, making it look like little more than a picket fence. He sent one ball soaring off the light tower, about 100 feet above the field and 60 feet above the wall’s top.

By the time Ken Griffey Jr. repeated as champion, it was all anticlimactic. The crowd was buzzing about McGwire’s 13 home runs in the first round.

All the other All-Stars were on their feet, applauding him. Just like all of baseball last year.

McGwire’s 13 homers against Tim Flannery broke the one-round record of 12 set by Cal Ripken in 1991 at Toronto’s SkyDome.

McGwire got only three in the second round and didn’t make it to the final.

“Sitting and waiting tired me out,” he said. “I probably tried a little too hard. I was more relaxed in the first round.”