It has taken a little more than a year, but St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire has made good his promise to help abused children.

In September 1997, McGwire launched the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children with a pledge of $1 million annually for three years. Last week, he cut checks of $175,000 from his own account to help four charities, all of which specialize in treating child abuse, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The beneficiaries are the Evangelical Children's Home and the Family Resource Center, both in St. Louis, and the Stuart House and the Children's Institute International in California.

"God gave me the ability to make people happy and help them out," McGwire said. "This is the start of something I plan to be involved with for a long time to come."

The baseball player, who set the record for most home runs in a season this past year, acknowledged some frustration getting the foundation up and running.

"We were just getting things off the ground," he said. "I feel that we didn't really start the foundation until this year. It was always my intention to make my first contribution near the end of 1998."

McGwire's donations total $700,000. Of the other $300,000, he said about one-third went to producing and airing public service announcements that ran during last fall's playoffs and World Series; another portion will be saved for a documentary on child abuse and the rest will be spent on administrative costs.

McGwire, who heads the foundation's four-person board, has chosen former board member Ali Dickson as the foundation's executive director.

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