BIG MAC STIRS BUSCH STADIUM BLEACHERS EARLY.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

Conversations stopped in mid-sentence. It was the end of a feverish wait.

Children snapped to attention. Mighty Mac was at the plate.

The left-field bleachers in the upper deck came alive with chatter. ``Up here Marky baby,'' one wee boy screamed at the batter.

It was not the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals two outs from being done. Mark McGwire was not at bat against the Chicago White Sox representing the tying run.

That would be the scenario later, but five hours before, the home-run king stepped to the fore.

Fans started filing into Busch Stadium at quarter past five. They converged on the bleachers like bees to a hive.

They came from Chicago, they came from Champaign. They paid $13 to see baseballs fall like rain.

A man named Jim said he drove nearly four hours, to get a closer look at McGwire's awesome power.

``It's definitely the place to be,'' he said of his seat. It might as well have been a tanning bed, so intense was the heat.

The temperature was 88 degrees in the shade, but up in ``Big Mac Land'' not a grievance was made.

There are 128 seats in this particular section, so named because McGwire's bat showers it with affection.

He hit so many of his home runs there in his record-setting year, plastic yellow hard hats are considered essential gear.

Ushers hand them out in the middle of the first. Though free, they can fetch enough to quench a mighty thirst.

One woman saw the hat and so wished to have it, she offered $10 for the souvenir trinket.

Another fan said before the game began, ``You're sitting there? You get a hard hat. You're so lucky, man.''

It did seem a bargain, at less than 20 dollars, to be right in the thick of all the whoops and the hollers.

It first got loud at about half past five. McGwire stepped into the batting cage and hit a few line drives.

His third visit to the cage, he hit a screaming missile, sending it into the upper deck in center field like an urgent epistle.

It went 500 feet if it went an inch; watching its arc, it was hard not to flinch.

The ensuing roar, like the goose pimples on your arms, was impossible to ignore. No way could the one fan be blamed, for saying batting practice ``is more fun than the game.''

Luckily, batting practice would make a few curtain calls; the ensuing nine innings producing four long balls.

McGwire batted in the first with two runners on base. The fans rose as one and rocked the place.

When he sent the first pitch over the left-field wall, a few people in ``Big Mac Land'' jeered. What gall!

(They obviously wanted McGwire to hit the ball to them or not out at all).

Maybe they were just hungry. If a McGwire ball lands in Section 383, the ticket stubs may be redeemed for a certain hamburger patty.

One unhappy camper in ``Big Mac Land'' was 7-year-old Travis, a huge McGwire fan. When his mother told him they were going to see McGwire play, Travis thought that meant up close, not some 500 feet away.

But Travis, his mom chided him, can't you see, what fun people are having in Section 383?

Indeed, it was hardly boring, what with people doing the wave and spraying cans of silly string.

The fans were anything but feckless when McGwire was on deck. They clapped and chanted and gave the poor pitcher heck (especially if he dared throw McGwire not strikes but balls; that about sent people over the wall!).

McGwire walked in the third and next time he flied out. But on a 2-2 pitch in the seventh there was not even a doubt. The ball sailed over the center-field fence - No. 31 for the season, for point of reference.

In the ninth, McGwire had a chance to do it all again, and this time maybe deliver a tie or set up a win. There was a runner on second when he stepped to the plate. For the White Sox, there seemed no crueller fate.

He grounded out and the runner moved to third. Two batters later, the Cardinals were cooked birds.

They were done, beaten by a single run.

Only then did the fans file out of the park. They had seen Mighty Mac's brilliance, but now it was dark.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Mark McGwire, shown waving to the crowd, has made batting practice an event in St. Louis.

James A. Finley/Associated Press

(2) Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire has re-invigorated the bleacher experience before and during games in St. Louis, as fans eagerly anticipate his next home run.

Amy Sancetta/Associated Press