New York Times

February 22, 2001

By BUSTER OLNEY

TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 21: The first full-squad workout of spring training always feels like the first day of school, Paul O'Neill said this morning. You look around and see who all your new classmates are.

The faces in the seats surrounding O'Neill are mostly familiar. Yankees Manager Joe Torre addressed the team before it took the field. Because many of the players have heard the start-of-spring-training speech from Torre each of the last five years, he touched on only a few themes. Don't take anything for granted, he reminded the players who will try to become the first team in half a century to win four consecutive World Series championships. Remember that everybody will be shooting for you, now more than ever, because of what we have accomplished.

Then the players slowly filed onto the field, Chuck Knoblauch first and Tino Martinez and the others following. The small crowd waiting in the stands of Legends Field erupted with distinctly female and adolescent shouts when the player wearing No. 2 ambled from the dugout. This was the first day of spring training for Derek Jeter, his first workout since he signed a 10-year, $189 million contract with the Yankees.

Nothing has changed about Jeter. He spent most of the off-season training here, concentrating on some particular aspect of his play that he wants to improve. This off-season, it was his defense. He maintains the same playful nature, offering a self-deprecating smile after swinging and missing at a batting practice fastball.

But now he plunges into the fishbowl created by the contract. There will inevitably be greater expectations placed upon him, because of the money, although his manager has only one expectation: that Jeter continue to be himself and continue to play hard. The most dangerous expectations, actually, may come from within. A star player putting too much pressure on himself after signing a big contract is a baseball cliché, and Jeter's contract is the second largest in the history of team sports.

"I understand the reason that I've got the deal is because of what I've done in the past," Jeter said. "So I really don't feel as if I have to go out and change and hit 40 home runs and carry the whole entire team. This is a team, and we need everyone to do their job in order to win. I don't think that now that I have a long-term deal, all of a sudden I've got to pick up this huge load.

"It's a little bit different if you come to a new team. But I've been here for a while and people pretty much know what to expect when I'm playing, so I really don't feel as if I'm stepping into a new situation where people expect I'm going to take over."

Torre said he would take another season like the ones the Yankees have been getting from Jeter, which would be a pretty good year. Jeter has averaged just under 200 hits a year in his five full seasons, along with 120 runs a year and about 50 extra-base hits. Torre hopes the contract will not create undue stress on Jeter's play.

"For sure, he's a very proud individual, and I've had players sign contracts before who have all of a sudden felt they had to be superhuman," Torre said. "I don't think that'll be the case, but we'll have to wait and see."

Torre paused in his meeting today to reintroduce Ron Guidry and Goose Gossage to the players. The former stars and shareholders in the Yankees' tradition work here as spring training coaches. Don Mattingly stood nearby. Several other club officials spoke before Torre wrapped it up and they went about the real business of training camp. Pitchers threw live batting practice under a relentless sun, the younger pitchers throwing especially hard, the veteran hitters struggling to find their timing.

The actor George Clooney appeared on the field and then watched most of the workout from the dugout, awed by the physical size of the players. Martinez returned to the dugout to retrieve his bats and was overcome by Clooney's smile as he approached him. "Big fan," Martinez said and Jeter followed Martinez, extending his hand. "Hi, Derek Jeter," Jeter said, introducing himself.

And Clooney chuckled at the fans' reaction when Jeter took practice swings near the stands. Some of the fans screamed for Jeter to turn once in his backswing and face the stands with a smile, for photographs. When he did, they quickly snapped pictures and cheered.

Everything with Jeter is the same. Everything is different, too, because of the contract. "It may be for a period of time," Mattingly said. "But I've also watched him make so many adjustments so quickly that you know he's going to adjust to that even if it is a problem. Last year, he did pretty well, and I don't think things change that much, really."

INSIDE PITCH

DON MATTINGLY missed induction into the Hall of Fame by a wide margin in the voting announced last month, but said with a shrug that it did not weigh on him. "I don't feel I could do much more than what I've done," Mattingly said. "I played, I'm done. I don't think anything would change for me." Mattingly reiterated that his priority now is spending time with his family, and that he would not manage or coach full time for the foreseeable future. . . . NICK JOHNSON, the highly rated minor league prospect who is considered the heir apparent to first baseman TINO MARTINEZ, missed last season after hurting his wrist in spring training. This year, on the first day of full-squad workouts, Johnson was sent back to his hotel room because doctors think he has chickenpox. The team's trainers are in the process of determining the other players who may be vulnerable. . . . The battle for the No. 5 starter spot is wide open, said Manager JOE TORRE, who listed RANDY KEISLER, TED LILLY, ADRIAN HERNÁNDEZ, DWIGHT GOODEN and the newly signed SID FERNANDEZ among possible candidates.