Captivating Cardinal Fans In St. Louis Flock To Cheer Mcgwire, Even When He Whiffs

Now that the St. Louis Cardinals have had a taste of Mark McGwire, they’re hoping he’s not just a rent-a-player.

General manager Walt Jocketty, who engineered the July 31 trade with Oakland that brought McGwire to St. Louis, has talked to ownership about possible ways of signing him to a long-term deal and fitting the slugger into the budget.

“We’re going to try,” Jocketty said.

Why not? Despite being with the team only a short time, McGwire already is the most popular Cardinals player by far.

The team opens the gates a half-hour early so thousands of adoring fans can watch him hit tape-measure shots in batting practice. McGwire was assigned a security guard for Sunday’s photo day, lest any overzealous types try to get too close.

When the Cardinals acquired him, ticket sales immediately spiraled. They drew 132,060 for the just-completed three-game series with Atlanta.

Reliever Dennis Eckersley, a longtime teammate of McGwire’s in Oakland, said the first baseman had to be impressed.

“It was like that in Oakland when we were playing good a long, long time ago, but he hasn’t seen this type of atmosphere in a while,” Eckersley said. “You’d think we were 10 games up.”

Instead, they’re 9-1/2 games behind Houston in the N.L, Central. But the fawning can’t hurt come contract time.

Last Wednesday, McGwire homered twice and had three RBIs in a 5-4, 10-inning loss to New York. When he struck out in the 10th, he received a standing ovation.

“I wish every ballplayer could feel like that,” McGwire said. “It’s fabulous … overwhelming.”

Now the question is, can the Cardinals afford him? St. Louis has a $44 million payroll this year and McGwire will command at least $10 million a season.

The Cardinals could create some room by letting go of either pitchers Todd Stottlemyre or Andy Benes. Stottlemyre has a $4.7 million club option for next season, Benes a $3.3 million player option. They also could trade disappointing outfielder Ron Gant, who has three years left on a five-year, $25 million contract.

Manager Tony La Russa said he has no idea what will happen with McGwire.

“But I know without him coming over for these two months we had no chance, or virtually no chance,” La Russa said.

“He gets to see what we’ve got here, the type of fans we have, the National League style of play, and all of that is going to help us. What it comes out to mean, I don’t know.”

Even if the Cardinals come up with the money, McGwire might opt to play on the West Coast, where his 12-year-old son lives. But at least he seems to have an open mind about the Midwest.

“The way the fans are, I can visualize it,” he said. “This is unbelievable.”

Curiously, picking up the player who’s second only to Babe Ruth in career home run frequency hasn’t done anything for the Cardinals’ postseason prospects. They’re 5-11 with him; they averaged 4.2 runs before he arrived, and 2.6 since.

Changing leagues for the first time wasn’t easy for McGwire, who started 3 for 34 with one home run and one RBI. But in the past week he began hitting, belting five homers.