The morning of March 22nd I woke up before the alarm clock rang. I'm not sure if it was the bright Florida sunshine or the excitement of being at spring training that got me up so early, like a child on Christmas morning. I had only slept about five hours (and the night before our flight to Florida I had slept only three). But I don't feel fatigue much when baseball is concerned.

I dressed and went early to Dunedin, while the rest of the family stayed behind to snooze and have a leisurely breakfast. Dunedin has been the spring home of the Toronto Blue Jays since the team was formed twenty five years ago, and this offseason Grant Field underwent renovation with the Jays adding more offices, a new visitors clubhouse, and an elevator to the press box. I walked into the new offices at 9:30am that morning and asked the secretary there if media credentials were waiting for me. She asked to see my press pass (I still have a press card from when I wrote regularly for Sterling's Magazines in the 1980s) and then looked around her mostly-empty desk. "I don't seem to have anything," she said. "Who did you talk to?"

I gave her the name of the media relations director and she called him on the phone. "Oh, I see," she said, and then hung up. "He says he can't help you."

"What do you mean, 'can't help me?' Isn't he the one who makes the decisions? Is there a reason why they wouldn't be granted?"

She seemed confused by the fact that I would have anything further to say to her. "I can't imagine what the reason is," she said with a shrug, then added, "I'm only a temp, I only work during spring training. And you know..." she leaned forward and lowered her voice, "they're from Canada. They're different."

Well, that gave me a little chuckle. I doubt very much it had anything to do with them being Canadians. Maybe they figured the press box was going to be too crowded as it was, what with all the writers normally following the Yankees around.

As it turned out, almost none of the Yankees regular beat writers made the trip to Dunedin that day--because the team had decided to have Roger Clemens and Mariano Rivera throw in Tampa, against the teams at the minor league complex. So the poor Reading Phillies got to face the heat, Joe Torre stayed there for his daily chat and to see a few innings, and the writers stayed, too.

And I, freed from the restrictions of a credentialed reporter, was able to hound for autographs with the other Yankee faithful. Here it was, ten in the morning and the team bus not even there yet, and there were a dozen fans in NY regalia clustered behind a fence on the third base side. As part of the Grant Field renovation, the visitors dugout was moved to the third base side and lower fences were installed.

It was a small, calm group there that day. One fellow got a cell phone call from a buddy who had gone to Legends Field telling him who was on the bus. "No Clemens, no Giambi, no Jeter," he told the group. A couple of people left when they heard that. One guy I guessed was a professional autograph dealer said he was going to go over to Clearwater to see the Phillies instead. But those who stayed were die hards.

And their faith was rewarded. First Ron Guidry (photo) came out and began to sign autographs. He worked his way patiently up and down the fence, chatting and signing. Ron Guidry! I couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't make him feel old (you know, like "gee, I was eleven years old the year you won 25 games...") so I just had him sign my ticket and then thanked him for it.

Then came Don Zimmer (photo), who shepherded the team until Torre arrived midway through the game. And Zim, too, went patiently from one end of the fence to the other, signing and talking with fans. "How's the knee?" I asked him. "Better," he replied. I had already gotten Guidry's autograph on my ticket and wasn't sure what to have Zim sign. But David, a guy next to me on the fence, gave me a baseball card from 1991, when Zim was manager of the Cubs.

David had a shoe box of cards, arranged neatly with dividers so he could find a card quickly if needed. Before long, he had also given me cards of Ron Coomer, Randy Choate and Todd Greene (photo), as each of those guys came to sign. Jay Tessmer, Adrian Hernandez, and Shane Spencer also signed quite a lot. By the time "El Duquecito" (Hernandez) was signing (photo), the crowd had swelled to a hundred or more, spread all the way from the left field fence all the way to the dugout. 'Cito went down the line and was still signing when someone finally came and pulled him away. Shane Spencer signed quite a few, and then said he'd be back. People were surprised when, twenty minutes later, he did come back, and signed a bunch more right before game time. (photo)

Compared to past years, that was quite a bonanza autograph haul for a single day. I'd never seen so many Yankees sign in one place outside of a charity benefit. We'd always had better luck in Dunedin than in other parks, but eight in one day? Unprecedented. I was sorry the rest of the family wasn't there to get in on the fun.

They did arrive shortly before game time, Julian and Heather, my parents, corwin, and corwin's parents, who had driven up from Miami to meet my parents for the first time. I know, you'd think with corwin and I having been together for ten years that our parents would have met before now. But there hadn't been many chances to get them together. Now they both live in the same state!

Everyone seemed to be getting along great when I got to the seats, which were in the third row behind the Blue Jays dugout. The PA announcer helpfully informed us that it was 32 degrees in New York and cloudy, and in Toronto it was minus fourteen, with a high expected of minus six. Loud cheers followed this announcement. (In Dunedin it was 79 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky.)

Last year we'd sat in almost those same seats and watched Sid Fernandez try to make a comeback. What I remembered most about those close up dugout seats was how clear the varying speeds of the pitches was. You could really tell the difference between a fastball and a changeup in a way that is just not obvious on television.

Today, because Clemens had pitched in Tampa, Mike Thurman was on the mound. I don't have a lot to tell you about Mike Thurman other than that he had been with the Expos and somehow ended up in Yankee camp. He's had some injuries that have kept him from reaching his potential--or so some scouts say. He's a tall righthander, and in his first several outings in the spring, he hadn't given up a run. He was starting to come back to earth a bit when he got hit hard in his previous start, getting knocked out in the second inning. What would he be like today?

He started out good, with two strikeouts and a fly ball in the first. Then he had the first two men down in the second when Darrin Fletcher (C) hit a home run. Okay, well, you figure anyone who pitches around the plate is going to give up a bomb from time to time. They say the same thing about Curt Schilling. In the third, oops, did it again, this time to SS Chris Woodward. Then the Jays got another run in the fourth, on a single, an E-6, a wild pitch, and an RBI single off the bat of Woodward. Then in the fifth, again, a home run to the leadoff batter, this time former Yankee 2B Homer Bush. Oops. Although he struck out Raul Mondesi, Thurman gave up another run on two hits and left the game with two men on. Not really what I would call a good outing, but Thurman's chances of making the club were probably contingent on Steve Karsay getting injured anyway. (I read last night that Thurman was just reassigned to the minors.)

On came Jeremy Blevins to pitch. I was trying to remember what I had read about Blevins because corwin, and other Yankees fans in my section, wanted to know who he was. Here's what I told them. "If I remember right, he's got a good arm but they worry about his control." I saw him pitch in Norwich last year, I think.

Well, Blevins struck out the next two men he faced, to end the inning--although one of the inherited runners did score on a steal of third and a throwing error by catcher Todd Greene. (I thought Greene looked like he was throwing the ball better than he has in the past--getting rid of it nice and quick--but I guess if it doesn't go where you want it, it doesn't matter how quick it is. That was bad news for Greene, who was eventually released from the team. I guess giving all those autographs didn't make a difference.) Blevins went on to strike out five, though he walked two, and gave up no hits. Hmm. Then Steve Karsay came in for the eighth and gave up one more, though he didn't look too terrible. No one pitched the ninth for the Yanks because the score ended up 7-5 Blue Jays.

The score seemed secondary to the fact that Nick Johnson, who looks more and more like a good DH candidate every day, hit two home runs, a single, and walked once. They never got him out. One of our minor league sensations, Marcus Thames, continued his tear with a walk, a double and a home run, and more great plays in center field. He and Juan Rivera were making a strong case that if Rondell White wasn't healthy or if any other outfielders went down with injuries, they should be playing in the big leagues. Meanwhile Gerald Williams went 2-for-5, trying to prove that he still has something left.

Still, all that was only good for five runs, the Jays had seven, and by all variations of the rules, that still meant the Jays won. It was the Yankees' first loss after a long winning streak (nine games?) so we barely felt it. In fact, I'd forgotten about the loss until I just looked in my scorecard now...

When we got back to the house, corwin and I played catch in the back yard until my elbow began to hurt, and then we went to get dressed for dinner. Thus ended the baseball portion of our day. We went that night to Bern's Steakhouse, which was quite a culinary adventure, complete with tour of the wine cellar and kitchens, but if you want to read more about that, you'll have to wait until I start a web site called "Why I Love Food."

Tomorrow: Legends Field!