Sosa's 66th is bittersweet 

 Mark McGwire says no one should be disappointed with the outcome of the home run race.  
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 ST. LOUIS -- Bob Davidson tried. Joe West tried. You could even argue that Shayne Bennett tried. 

 In the end, however, Mark McGwire wasn't going to be denied his 66th home run of the 1998 season. 

 

	There goes No. 66.

It only seemed that way. 

 McGwire first thought he had No. 66 last Sunday in Milwaukee, but second-base umpire Davidson ruled fan interference on a ball that cleared the left-field fence and McGwire was left with a ground-rule double. 

 In the fifth inning of Friday night's game against the Montreal Expos at Busch Stadium, it looked like Big Mac once again had hit his 66th when he launched Bennett's first pitch -- an 88 mph fastball -- high into the Missouri night. 

 "That was so high and so deep, from my vantage point I lost it in the lights," said manager Tony La Russa. 

 While it was still in flight, McGwire crouched just to the right of home plate, saying "stay fair, stay fair." 

 It went well over the left-field pole and hooked foul in the eyes of third-base umpire West. On the replay, it looked like a home run before it hooked foul, but it was another tough judgment call for the men in blue. 

 "I thought it was pretty close," McGwire said after the Cardinals' 6-5 win. "Fair or foul, I don't think anybody would argue it. But I've hit four or five of those in the last week, so it was like, 'not again.' 

 "And it did (hook foul). So I go back to my bat and battle. At the time I had two more strikes to stay alive. He threw a fastball by me, then he went with a slider and then came back with the same pitch." 

 Which in the end was a bad decision by Bennett. 

 At 8:39 CT, McGwire took the umpires out of the equation when he sent a 1-2, Bennett offering 375 feet into the left-field seats -- below Big Mac Land -- to give the Cards a 4-2 lead. 

 After the indisputable home run, McGwire circled the bases under the flashbulbs and fireworks going off, was greeted by Brian Jordan at home plate, then offered a salute before disappearing into the Cardinals dugout. 

 Moments later, he came out for the curtain call that the near-capacity crowd was demanding. 

It took six days, but McGwire finally had 66 home runs and, more importantly, a share of the home-run lead which he had briefly lost. 

 Forty-five minutes earlier, the Cubs' Sammy Sosa had taken the lead with his 66th of the season in the third inning at the Astrodome in Houston. 

 It may seem like Sammy and Big Mac have been feeding off of each other during the chase, but for his part McGwire insists it's purely coincidental. 

 "We don't have any control over it," he said. "He has to battle, I have to battle. It's one of those things that's unexplainable -- and let's leave it unexplainable." 

 Also bordering on the unexplainable was La Russa's admission regarding how important it is to him that McGwire wins the home-run battle. 

 "Today's win assures us a winning record and that's a nice mark for our club based on where we were," La Russa said. "It may sound like heresy to say this, but as far as I'm concerned, Mark McGwire and the home-run chase is the most important thing in the next two days. 

 "I wish there was some way we could help him but it's on him and that's a good place for it to be." 

 McGwire's proven that at least 66 times this season.