he night before last, Barry Larkin had seen Mark McGwire and pals from the National League hammer balls high and long over the fences at Fenway Park, particularly the Green Monster in left field.
''I was expecting more of it,'' said Larkin, the Cincinnati Reds shortstop.
Larkin was the first batter for the National League last night against Boston's Pedro Martinez. He whiffed. Larry Walker was the second batter. He fanned. Sammy Sosa was next. He struck out.
''In batting practice before the game,'' Larkin went on, ''guys were hitting balls over The Wall, and I was thinking we were going to keep on doing it. I'm surprised we didn't.''
The Cardinals' McGwire was the fourth National League hitter, leading off the second inning. McGwire's bat never touched ball. And after Arizona's Matt Williams reached on an error - surprise of all surprises, by Robbie Alomar at second - Jeff Bagwell swung. And, like so many of his teammates, missed.
''There wasn't a whole lot of talk going on [in the dugout] when that was going on,'' said Jeromy Burnitz of the Milwaukee Brewers. ''Guys aren't coming back all happy and gay when they strike out, you know.''
So it went for the National League, just as it has in all three All-Star Games at Fenway Park. Despite playing three times in one of the premier hitting parks in baseball - in 1946, 1961, and now last night - the NL has yet to hit a home run here.
And for much of the game last night, especially against Martinez, just hitting the ball seemed a feat for the National League players. It was not at all what they expected from watching games at Fenway on television and thinking and dreaming of The Wall so close in left and what might happen if they had a chance to hit here.
Nothing happened.
''When you see the best of the best,'' said McGwire, ''you know you're not going to get many good pitches. Pedro is going to come right at you with nasty stuff. And facing Pedro and David Cone, and Mike Mussina went right at me with a fastball ... So that's what happens.''
Nothing.
Walker tore out a piece of the Fenway turf to take back to Colorado with him. The slugger said the combination of Martinez and Cone throwing nasty pitches to him and the emotion of batting in Fenway moments after Ted Williams had toured the grand little gem of a field was all too much for him.
''This is Fenway Park, and this is my only chance to hit here,'' Walker recalled thinking when he stepped to the plate in the first. ''I didn't feel my fingers or my arms when I was up there hitting in the first. I had no feeling. I was in awe, looking at the sign that said `Fenway Park' and the big wall in left field. I struck out at Fenway Park and I'm proud of it.''
Walker was far from alone. The National Leaguers thought of hitting in Boston, and went down swinging in Fenway. National Leaguers saw balls soar high in the Home Run Derby, but saw their bats whiff the air when real baseball began. The only kind of baseball Boston ever appreciates.
So it ended with the National League futile and the Red Sox' Martinez making a complete about-face from last year and his early apprehensions about playing before such passionate fans.
Said the Reds' Larkin, ''With Pedro, and then Cone, and Mussina ... It's the old adage ... good pitching beats good hitting.''
Yet if there was any regret by the National Leaguers, it perhaps was best expressed by McGwire, the regret that Fenway Park someday might be replaced.
''It amazes me they let it run down to the point where they can't refurbish it,'' said the slugger. ''I think the best thing they should have done 10 years ago is refurbish the place, and you wouldn't have to demolish it and build a new one.''
And the National League could have a fourth chance to do what from afar seems so easy to do at Fenway Park - hit a home run.
