There were only two really bad pitches at Milwaukee's County Stadium last night: the one that started the evening and the one that ended it.
Jeromy Burnitz homered off Alan Benes with one out in the bottom of the ninth, giving Milwaukee a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Bud Selig, baseball's acting commissioner and the Brewers' owner, badly misfired the ceremonial pitch that commemorated the first interleague game at County Stadium.
``I haven't practiced my pitching, I've been too busy,'' said Selig, under whose stewardship interleague play was introduced last week.
Selig's pitch bounced 20 feet short of home plate - and 20 feet wide, to boot. Benes's fateful pitch wasn't nearly as bad, but it was equally embarrassing.
``It was a fastball away,'' Benes said. ``He's a hitter that gets right on the plate . . . That's a good pitch to a lot of guys, but probably not a real good pitch to throw to him in that situation.''
``I was excited,'' said Burnitz, who hop-skipped around third base as the crowd of 23,503 - 9,152 higher than the Brewers' average attendance - went crazy. ``I'd never hit a game-winning homer. I knew it had a chance because I smoked it.''
The ball traveled 410 feet directly to center, and it was the only pitch the Brewers hit hard all night.
``He pitched so good,'' Cardinals manager Tony La Russa lamented. ``Most of the time, there's no justice in this game.''
Brewers ace Ben McDonald scattered four hits in eight innings and struck out a career-best 12, but wound up with no decision. Benes (6-6) matched his career high with 11 strikeouts. He gave up four hits and three walks. But it was Bob Wickman (4-2) who got the win after pitching out of a jam in the ninth.
Before the game, former Brewers Cecil Cooper and Gorman Thomas exchanged baseball caps with former Cardinals Darrell Porter and Bob Forsch, all stars in 1982 World Series, which St. Louis won in seven games.
Surfing the interleague:
CALL IT A DRAW Interleague play is a big hit at the box office, drawing 37 percent more fans than the average game during the first 10 1/2 weeks of the season.
Teams averaged crowds of 35,341 for the first 56 interleague games through yesterday. Before interleague play began Thursday, teams were averaging 25,833.
