Tampa, Florida					Thursday, September 09, 2010

In the Spring, a Young Man’s . . .
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
TAMPA—This longtime epicenter of the marvel of sports that is baseball spring training was again the focus of media attention—heck, and maybe fan attention as well--on this opening day of this delightful preparatory time, though it is not presently the home of a defending champion. This was so because Tampa is the home away from home of the New York Yankees, and the principal owner, George Michael Steinbrenner III, because its physical location is a bullseye for the 17 teams who train in the State of Florida, and because GMS III has retooled these 2004 Yankees dramatically, with yet another galaxy of stars that he expects to put the Pinstripes back on top, and perhaps set attendance records as well. If the first day of spring training is a harbinger of what lies ahead, look out, baseball, the Yankees are out of the blocks as hoped. Surely no spring camp opened in Florida or Arizona with a bigger, more enthusiastic, more diversified media following, maybe none with more fans watching the first official day of “work,’’ and none with more ideal weather or in a better training facility, and stadium. And as in about all of Florida, from Dunedin to Miami, all teams beat the afternoon rainstorm that swept the state, watered the thirsty soil and tropical crops, getting in their ceremonial practice, and making the good news sports headlines. The good weather, the off-season trades and first appearances of old stars and hopefuls who took to their first field of dreams, and the anticipation of all baseball people that things will be better this time, gave more cause for the right stuff to come out of Florida and Arizona and take their honed talents home for the games that count in April. In Tampa, at Legends Field, a 10,000 seat replica of Yankee Stadium from foul line distances to the walls, to yards from dugouts to home plate, opened its gates to two lines of two abreast that nudged at the 3,000 mark, perhaps just beating out the number of media throngs from the USA, Japan and Hispania. They were at Legends for the fun of it. They were there in the hope that lies always in the hearts of faithful this time of year, to see more of the returning talents plus the bigshot players for the first time in the Pinstripes, those who wear them and hold them so dear. The Yankees of GMS III, of Manhattan and the Bronx have to be better, most think, though even Steinbrenner told a gabble of reporters Tuesday, the Boston Red Sox surely will be favored in their best of all American League East Division that also includes tough, tough Toronto, tough Baltimore, improved Detroit, and the improved Tampa Bay Devil Rays, training now only a few miles away in St. Petersburg, their regular season home. The Devil Rays would be contenders in any other division of the majors and Lou Piniella, a Tampa native and resident who now manages this team, surely will field a competitive club. See, when the Devil Rays were carved out of this west coast of Florida, the managing general partner turned down a shot at a niche in the American League West in favor of the spot he got in the American League East. He did that because of the draw he thought the AL-East teams would be for fans hereabouts. He was right, but. . . So three of these four Al-East teams, plus Toronto (Dunedin) and Detroit (Lakeland), spring train on Florida’s West Coast. Baltimore trains down in Fort Lauderdale where the Yankees made spring home until 1996 when GMS III struck a deal with Tampa, to come here if a Legends Field was built. It was, with mutual involvement of the Yankees/Tampa/Hillsborough County. It has been a fine marriage. The Yankees have led the bigs in spring attendance since and the future is only bright. It will be brighter for all, if those new Yankees so many of the opening day	do as expected, or better. “Sir,’’ a friend said to GMS IIIl the other day, “you have not thrown a strikeout, and you have not hit a homerun yourself, and yet, you once more have turned baseball on its ear, made the great headlines again, and may have a champion again.’’ He nodded. He is not a happy non-champ. The opening days crowd Tuesday, including a gentleman I followed through the gate and to his seat, came to see the best player in the game who is now a Yankee, infielder/slugger Alex Rodriquez, acquired at the llth hour; Tampa home-grown outfielder Gary Sheffield; premier hitter and base-stealer, Kenny Lofton; new stud pitcher Kevin Brown; repaired pitchers Steve Karsay and Jon Lieber; and returning heroes Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui and the world’s best closing pitcher, Mariano Rivera. But, for the moment, new all-universe players Sheffield and A-Rod Rodriquez, who agreed to move from shortstop to third to accommodate the Yankee captain and shortstop, Jeter. Some in my craft seem to have detected some unhappiness between Jeter and A-Rod. GMS III was asked Tuesday if the animosity and or clash of the two was but a media made story line and he said it was, that it would “go away,’’ if the media would leave it alone. Many in my craft, again, agree. Jeter has always been a team man, as has been A-Rod. And what the Yankees got in Rodriquez was the game’s best player today, a leader, a charitable and cooperative player who with Sheffield and Lofton add punch comparable to that of the old Yankee Murderers’ Row, of the Ruth/Gehrig times. A-Rod in his first spring training batting time in the cage at Legends Field, hit the seventh pitch thrown by Luis Sojo out of the park over center. Drew cheers, or course. Sheffield hit well, too, to show his gratitude. The Sheffield family home is but 15 minutes from Legends, and on the water. He’s a Yankee, made even happier because he joins his uncle, Dwight “Doc” Gooden, a coach/teacher, on the Yankees. When Sheffield was being so successful at Atlanta last year, he bought and shipped a fine Italian luxury sedan to Uncle Doc. Young Denae Blanco, Yankee intern and daughter of Diann Blanco, director of administration for the Yanks and based in Tampa, had a clicker to record attendance at Legends Tuesday. He showed it to me when the clicker hit 862 and moving with the swelling crowd entering. The man ahead of me, was Dr. Tony Salatino, a retired college professor in Social Science now living in Clearwater. Poor leg circulation had caused him to move with the assistance of an electric walker, “but I wouldn’t miss this, the opening day of the spring,’’ he said. “I wanted to see Rodriquez and all of the other great ones. Yes, I have always been a Yankee fan, from the Buffalo area, and then to professorships at Columbia during the Lou Littler coaching day.’’ His story was not an uncommon one among these fine crowds at spring training games in Florida these days. Legends is approaching a total sellout stage. It will sellout,’’ ticketman Vance Smith said. Indeed, it is now, virtually. And, hey, why not? The great field of dreams and those there seeking to fulfill theirs with The Boss encouraging them to do that, to be champs again, and in such superb surroundings, physical and human, lead afield by the manager of GMS III, Joe Torre, about to set the record for uninterrupted service in that admired role. And, so it has begun again, this spring pursuit of the best in their business, and perhaps right here in Tampa, that epicenter of it all since the days of Babe Ruth, and Mickey Mantle, and Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford, and Yogi, and now, A-Rod. Bet here is that what has gone around will come around again. ##
Back to Top