NO MATTER THE MARQUEE, MCGWIRE'S THE DRAW.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Mark McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals came to town to face the Dodgers Friday night, whereupon McGwire said the following.

``Sometimes it upsets me when I read, `Mark McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals come to town . . .' ''

His point being that this is and always will be a team game, and no individual should get so much attention, especially when the club is playing well, which it certainly is.

This time, it was Fernando Tatis, the 175-pound third baseman, who stole the spotlight from a grateful McGwire, recording a major-league first by hitting two grand slams in an inning in the Cardinals' run-away victory.

Good, solid, old-school thinking in the team-first speech by McGwire. But, as it turns out, not the best argument against going to a baseball game to watch a lone home-run hitter perform.

The best argument is that it's sloppy consumering.

If you go to one of the three Cardinals-Dodgers games this weekend with the intention of seeing McGwire hit one of this year's 70 home runs, four things can happen, three of them bad.

The game could get rained out.

He could get hurt and miss the game.

He could go 0 for 4.

Chances are he won't hit a home run.

The first two almost happened Friday.

McGwire sat out Wednesday's game in Milwaukee after leaving the previous game in the fifth inning with a tight left hamstring. After a Cardinals off day, and two Friday-afternoon massage sessions in the clubhouse, it was determined that he'd be able to play. The crowd of 46,687 wouldn't know for sure until the lineups were announced at about 7 p.m.

At which point, rain began to fall on Dodger Stadium, delaying the first pitch by 18 minutes.

That was the evening's second wave of showers. The first had raised the awful prospect that batting practice would be rained out, costing the fans the sport's one sure thing - a McGwire BP display.

His BP scoresheet Friday showed 20 swings, five for home runs, the longest landing in the blue section of the right-center-field bleachers, maybe 430 feet from home plate. The gathering crowd, taking advantage of the Dodgers' decision to open the gates half an hour earlier than normal, cheered the long pop-ups and groaned at the line drives.

Friday's initial paparazzi count was 12, and that's just the ones who focused on McGwire when he stood at the first baseman's position during other Cardinals' BP.

It was insane, but people had this date circled in Cardinals red since the major-league calendar came out, so what could you do, tell them to take pictures of Manny Aybar?

This was McGwire's first game at Dodger Stadium since he was an Oakland Athletic in the 1988 World Series - he missed the Cardinals' three-game series here last May - and presented the prospect of his first homer here ever.

For that reason, Los Angeles wasn't the least jaded about McGwire Mania, even if Cardinals-watchers have noted some subsidence elsewhere.

Of course, the Dodgers fans weren't quite as entertained when the Cardinals jumped on Chan Ho Park for 11 runs in the third inning, an inning in which McGwire delivered only a check-swing single and a lazy fly-ball out amid the flashbulbs.

``It's you guys,'' McGwire said to reporters before the game, assigning the blame for making his home runs sound routine. ``The media have run it up so big that the public comes to expect it.

``You can't get a hit every game. You can't get a home run every day. You guys know that.

``I've said what happened last year will never happen again in our lifetimes. It's foolish to even talk about it.''

McGwire has homered in four games this year - including a two-homer game at Pittsburgh on April 13. He has also gone hitless in four games - an 0 for 4, an 0 for 3, and two 0 for 2s. He missed a game and a half with the hamstring injury. Rain wiped out a game in Pittsburgh.

If you go to see a McGwire home run, you'll probably be disappointed. It's not his fault, it's baseball.

Which is what stands in the way of McGwire replacing basketball's Michael Jordan and hockey's Wayne Gretzky as the greatest draw in sports. Even in subpar performances, Jordan and Gretzky would do something only they could do. McGwire might hit five ground balls.

In place of Lawrence Olivier, the crowd gets Don Adams.

McGwire remembers a different sports world, one in which he and his Claremont friends would go to an Angels or Dodgers game to watch a particular team, not the baseball celebrity of the moment.

``It loses what baseball's all about,'' McGwire said of the fixation on one guy. ``It takes 25 guys to win a World Series.''

Keep that in mind tonight, when Fernando Tatis and the St. Louis Cardinals are in town to face the Dodgers.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: At least during warmups, who wants to see Mark McGwire catch and throw?

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News