Clearwater, Fla., March 8 — First, it is vacation after all, and Jack Russell Memorial Stadium in Clearwater is 10 minutes from our Gulf-front headquarters, rather than the 25-30 minutes to Legends Field, not to mention the one hour to McKechnie Field in Bradenton where the boys were playing today. Second, we had just picked up our nephew from Philly at the airport, and although he has rooted on the Yanks with us many a time, how could we keep him from watching his hometown heroes in Clearwater at least one of his three days? (If you can’t relate to a boy — or girl — and their hometown heroes, you may be a great fan, but not one like me.) And last, the opportunity to see ex-Yank Ricky Ledee in his new environment was too much to resist.

Although I see that the Yanks had a pitching-focused nailbiter against the Pirates that wasn’t settled until the last batter, the Phillies/Blue Jays tilt was quite entertaining too. But once the Jays added a six-spot in the third to go up 7-0, it didn’t seem that way. One would expect that if a comeback was possible that bangers Rolen and Abreu would get them back in the game, and those two responded with a double/homer two-run rally right away. But it took big help from the Jays to even things out. Sandwiching two errors around a Phillie no-out fifth-inning single, the stage was set for this to become a game, and Ricky came to the plate as the principal player. He responded with the key hit, and then added the game-tying stroke in the sixth.

Ricky made no great (or poor) outfield plays today, and it must be added that he did have two K’s in his two for five. But the two key rbi’s had me battling the postgame traffic with a smile on my face. And I don’t know how (or even if) Ricky celebrated the Phillies 9-8 victory. But we did it at the pool on this, the nicest day of our Tampa trip. I hope that bodes well for the two Legends Fields games that remain, the Devil Rays tomorrow and the Red Sox on Sunday.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!