Life

JUPITER, Fla. -- Earlier this week, the St. Louis Cardinals were riding the bus to Ft. Lauderdale to play the Orioles when Jim Edmonds' cell phone woke him from a cat nap.

On the other end: Mark McGwire, calling from his southern California home and reveling in his new life of leisure. Edmonds reports that the former home run king isn't missing baseball, or the spring training life, or especially the prying media, one bit.

"I said, 'Everybody's still talking about you.' I told him that they're still bugging me every day and he said, 'Tell them to stop!' " Edmonds said.

McGwire, 38, appears to be the picture of contentment. He's engaged, wants to start another family, has bought a new home and is not interested in looking back or revisiting the glory years.

That's quick closure to one of the more compelling sports stories in recent years.

General manager Walt Jocketty has never made a better deal than getting McGwire on the trading deadline in 1997. Big Mac ushered in home run inflation to the game, hitting a then-record 70 in '98 and 65 more the following year. And financially, the McGwire years were the best of times for the team because Big Mac ball also meant night-in, night-out sellouts.

So magical was the McGwire impact in St. Louis that he even turned batting practice into an event, routinely swatting 10 or more balls over the wall and sometimes denting scoreboards in the process. Fans lined up hours before game time just to watch him get his early cuts, oohing and ahhing with each moon shot.

"A lot of days, what he was doing and when he was taking batting practice, it was part of the show," manager Tony La Russa said. "We don't have that same situation now."

La Russa managed McGwire for all but one of his 16 major-league seasons, and he tried mightily to persuade Big Mac to return after he batted just .187 last year. La Russa reasoned that McGwire, with an offseason of rehabilation and conditioning, could easily contribute 30-40 home runs to the Cardinals' quest for a third straight NL Central championship.

"He knew what I felt, and he was dead-set on retiring," La Russa said.

Now, even La Russa has let go. Partly, he does this in deference to Tino Martinez, the free agent first baseman they signed as McGwire's replacement.

"He had a definite presence," La Russa said. "It's fair to say we miss him as a teammate. But I think we're excited we have the first baseman we have."

La Russa also isn't certain what McGwire's departure will mean to the team's bottom line. The Cardinals didn't exactly founder the last two seasons while he was battling knee injuries, going to the playoffs both years, and they were also-rans his two biggest years.

"I think the big leagues are a distraction anyway," La Russa said. "There's distractions every day. I just think it's one of those non-issues."

They will miss his leadership, although it wasn't prototypical. From time to time McGwire felt compelled to speak out on baseball's big-ticket issues, often railing about the lack of a labor deal. During the shutdown last fall in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., he ripped owners for dragging their feet before deciding to postpone games.

"He was a definite leader in the clubhouse, even if he didn't say a whole lot," Drew said. "To not have him over there is a little bit different."

Now there's a void that no one really is anxious to fill. Edmonds is the resident big star now, but he's not anxious to claim the clubhouse as his own.

"It's Tony's clubhouse, or Walt's," Edmonds said. "It's the team's clubhouse. We're not trying to be a one-man show. And we don't sit and talk about who's going to be the leader."

Martinez comes from years on top with the New York Yankees, but he's only three weeks or so into his first spring training with the team.

"I'm just trying to get comfortable here and fit in with the team," Martinez said. "I'm just feeling my way around a little bit."

The worst thing about the McGwire years was his awkward exit, considering he failed to inform the team and his manager first. Yet it also had an element of grace, because he walked away from the last two years of his contract worth $20 million -- only $1 million less than it took for the Cardinals to sign Martinez to a three-year deal.

Teammates give McGwire a lot of credit for allowing the team to reload. Beyond that, they believe it's simply time to move on.

"Regardless of if we didn't get anybody for him and had a young guy trying to take his spot, you still couldn't really say much because he's gone. No matter what you say, he's not coming back," pitcher Garrett Stephenson said. "I just think we've got to turn the page."