By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Aug. 31, 1998

Mark McGwire should have known better.

That

Mark McGwire (left) led the way Saturday as the Cardinals ganged up on umpire Sam Holbrook. (AP)

he lost his temper in front of friends, family, St. Louis Cardinals teammates and half the world Saturday afternoon is obvious. The next thing you know, doctors will be hypothesizing that he got ejected in the first inning of Saturday's game with the Atlanta Braves because he took too much androstenedione that morning.

It's a conclusion that would be obvious -- a testosterone booster coupled with excessive stress while going after the baseball record books, plus a bad call by an umpire, logically lead to a temper tantrum. Of course, you can pull all of the above out of the equation and just leave a bad call by an umpire setting off a baseball player, but that's beside the point.

THE REAL REASON HE WENT OFF is more apparent than that. His son was there as the batboy, his parents were in from Southern California. Bob Gibson was there. It had all the makings of an exceptional sporting event. They weren't the problem. None of the above had the impact of one passing moment.

So what happened to throw everything out of kilter?

McGwire had a brief chat before the game with Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight.

So if androstenedione and pressure combined can't get your riled up, certainly Knight can, as McGwire joked afterward. There is no other high-profile person in sports more prone to childish temper tantrums than Knight. While becoming one of the most successful college basketball coaches ever, he also had thrown more fits and embarrassed more people than any basketball coach in history.

And McGwire rapped with him.

Then McGwire lost it. Later, he thought it was funny.

NOT WANTING TO BE OUTDONE, THE the fans followed suit in what turned into a potentially dangerous situation. We can only take the word of home plate umpire Sam Holbrook that he restrained himself from booting McGwire as long as he possibly could ... we all know umpires would never stand up a player with 54 home runs and a chance to break the all-time record of 61.

After all, he broke the most divine rule of baseball -- arguing a called third strike. We all know that's a cardinal sin! Perhaps more to the point is Tom Glavine, like his fellow Cy Young-winning teammates of this decade, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, continue to have strike zones the width of the St. Louis Arch.

It all set up a wacky post-mortem to McGwire's ejection. The crowd of nearly 48,000, ripped off with their hero headed to an early exit, began showering the beautifully refurbished Busch Stadium field with debris. Crew chief Harry Wendelstedt had to stop the game for a good 10 minutes or so just to calm everybody down. (Do you think any of the fans took androstenedione before the game just for extra energy?)

FORTUNATELY, THE GAME CONTINUED WITHOUT further incident. The Braves won, which was no surprise. But McGwire was left without a chance to thrill everyone on a Saturday afternoon just made to order for something special.

The off day wasn't a total loss for McGwire, as Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa was homerless – but at least Sammy went down swinging. But Sosa took advantage Sunday afternoon, tying McGwire with 54 homers apiece.

Embarrassed by his rare emotional outburst, not to mention missing a chance to impact the game and the home-run chase, McGwire ultimately laughed it off with the media after the game. Considering manager Tony La Russa was ejected before McGwire, and pitching coach Dave Duncan followed later, it's tough to refute it was a bad pitch.

McGwire conceded he deserved to be ejected for his behavior. But he also allowed for his one major error before the game.

"I think this happened because I'd been talking to Bobby Knight before the game," McGwire added, tongue-in-cheek. "I'm sure he's happy with me."

If not happy, certainly proud. It takes a real man to throw a fit in a high-pressure situation that has nothing but negative ramifications to everybody else around him. Thanks, Bobby. Once again, we've been told the barometer for poor taste and actions lies between your ears and comes out of your mouth. Now, even Mark McGwire has been suckered into believing -- if it's OK for Bobby to do it, then it's OK for me too.

Yeah, yeah, you never asked to be a role model for bad taste. It just sort of happened.