MCGWIRE MANIA: SLUGGERS' MEMENTOS WILL INCREASE IN VALUE

Though 20-year-old Ray Smith saw Mark McGwire hit home runs number 62, 69 and 70 last year, he hadn't planned to be at the Cardinals game Thursday night. At the last minute, he and some friends drove to the sold-out game, bought tickets from a scalper outside and took their seats at baseball history.

Smith and the crowd of 45,106 stood and applauded every time the St. Louis slugger came to the plate needing just one home run to reach the exalted 500 plateau.

"You kind of had a feeling he would do it. You just didn't know when," the Scott City resident said.

McGwire thrilled the stadium by hitting home runs in the third and eight innings.

It means something to Smith to have witnessed McGwire's milestones in person. "It's something I can't wait to tell people," he said. "Generations down the line won't believe how great he was.

"He's the Babe Ruth of now."

Thursday's feat is certain to increase the value of McGwire mementos. Chris Taylor, manager of Front Row Cards in West Park Mall, said memorabilia and card prices are driven by people buying the product. "People definitely will be buying more of his products now because he's in the limelight," Taylor said.

McGwire's home-run binge of the past few weeks already had boosted his card and memorabilia sales, Taylor said.

The prices of sports memorabilia and cards are updated monthly. The most popular McGwire item currently is his 1985 Topps rookie card, in which he is wearing the uniform of the Olympic baseball team. It sells for $200.

This month's prices for McGwire goodies are:

-- Autograph, $60.

-- Signed baseball, $200.

-- 8-by-10 signed photo, $125.

-- Signed baseball card, $60.

-- Signed bat, $300.

-- Signed cap, $150.

-- Authentic signed jersey, $500.

-- Signed batting helmet, $250.

Some collectors want newspapers reporting McGwire's feats, expecting they will be worth much more someday. Others save the newspapers as they saved newspapers reporting President John F. Kennedy's assassination -- just to remember.

Copies of Friday's Southeast Missourian with the McGwire color poster on the back were scarce. Circulation manager Mark Kneer said the paper put an additional 500 copies on the street, and 165 copies have been put on reserve by callers to the newspaper. He estimates the newspaper will sell 750 more copies than the usual 2,400 single copies sold on Friday.

Last year the newspaper sold out when McGwire broke Roger Maris' home-run record. A commemorative issue the following Sunday and the annual YELL issue containing McGwire photos also were in demand.

"Mark McGwire has been very good to the newspaper industry," Kneer said.

Jess Bolen, manager of the McDowell Capahas, was at Thursday's game with his grown son Tommy.

"It was a very exciting night," he said. "The ceremonies afterward were pretty good with all the owners there, a big crowd. It was a very, very electric atmosphere."

Bolen doesn't have any McGwire memorabilia himself. "I don't really go in for that kind of stuff. But you see so many people with McGwire shirts," he said. "My son Tommy even has one."