Tampa, FL., March 31 — We witnessed the alpha and the omega, the yin and the yang, the long and the short of spring baseball, on this our last day under the hot Florida sky. After surviving a three-hours-plus, nine-inning tie in Clearwater under an 89-degree sun with high humidity, we weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived in Legends Field this evening for the second half of a two-city doubleheader. In the early game, the Blue Jays and the Phillies had battered each other and 10 pitchers for 18 runs, six home runs, and 24 hits. Not only were we getting weary, we had dulled the points on all of our pencils.

But when Mike Mussina delivered a first-pitch strike to Devil Rays left fielder Carl Crawford to start the night game, our baseball world turned on its head. Moose was absolutely on his game, and if this last tune-up has any bearing on what we can expect from Mike in the upcoming season, Yankee fans have many happy days ahead. Moose used 12 pitches to retire the Jays on two swinging strike outs and a harmless infield pop that frame.

Even more significant for the outcome of this game (though not necessarily the coming season) was the first-inning struggle Rays starter Scott Kazmir had with the strike zone to start the bottom of the first. The baseball world has been intrigued with the potential of young Kazmir ever since the Mets swapped him to Tampa Bay last year, and he has his chance to prove himself on the Tampa mound this year. But by the time he got a handle on his control in the first, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were on via walks, and Gary Sheffield was waggling his bat angrily in the batter’s box. Here, Scott got a bad break, and then a good one. With Carl Crawford reacting to Shef’s violent 0-2 swing in the same manner all we down the left field line did, by the time he and shortstop Julio Lugo closed on the unexpected pop to short left, the ball fell out of reach. But Derek Jeter guessed “catch” and retreated to second, so Carl was able to force him at third.

The Yankee braintrust and their fans spent much of March concerned that “maturing” centerfielder Bernie Williams would not respond after some back trouble, but we have been watching him play all week. We’ve seen him single left and right, and he smacked a triple to the wall in right center on Monday, so were not surprised when he drilled Kazmir’s next pitch to right for single and a 1-0 Yankee lead. And nobody any longer expects Hideki Matsui to struggle against lefties of any quality, so it was no surprise when he promptly doubled the Yankee score with an 0-1 single to right. With two quick tallies on a pair of singles, the fans roared for more.

But Jorge Posada lined to center to close the frame, and the Yankee offense took the rest of the night off. Fortunately Moose and two relievers were good enough to preserve the lead, and in a game played like all the participants must have been double-parked, the Yanks closed out the Rays by a 2-1 score. Moose allowed a loud home run to Tampa DH Josh Phelps in the second, and singles to Jorge Cantu, Toby Hall, and Aubrey Huff over three frames. Apparently when the Yankee offense left, they took the Rays’ “O” with them, or perhaps Moose was just that good. What is clear is that if economy of pitches equates to superior pitching, Moose was superb.

Kazmir, who was almost scary-good after the early trouble, threw 26 pitches in the first inning. Mussina did not reach that mark until Hall singled in the third. This was the third of four safeties off Moose; Jeter promptly erased both Hall and Phelps, the next and last successful Devil Rays hitter, on double plays up the middle.

Mussina managed seven innings on just 72 tosses largely because the inning-by-inning count of pitches he made off the plate wouldn’t intimidate a kindergarten graduate: 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, and 2. He hit bats with 34 of 52 strikes, and the first three (of six) times the young Rays swung and missed resulted in his only three strike outs on the night. The 52/20 strikes/balls ratio was lights-out, and he threw 15 of 23 first-pitch strikes.

Bernie Williams copped the night’s last hit on a single off Kazmir in the fourth. Tino Martinez then worked a nine-pitch walk off reliever Travis Harper to start the home fifth, and Rays shortstop Julio Lugo walked off Tom Gordon with one down in the ninth. If you want to read more offense, we’ll need to revert to the afternoon in Clearwater. Harper, Bobby Seay, Lance Carter, and Jesus Colome quieted the Yanks. Felix Hernandez got a rare (this spring) one-two-three relieving Mussina in the eighth, and Gordon pitched around the lone ninth-inning walk.

We have been lucky enough to attend several Legends Field Spring Training openers, but this was our first season closer (the Yanks complete their Florida slate with a tilt vs. the Tigers in Lakeland tomorrow). Before the game, young Yankee infielder Andy Phillips was presented with the James P. Dawson Award, given by the baseball writers to the most promising young player in camp. Then when Aubrey Huff lined Gordon’s 10th ninth-inning pitch to Rey Sanchez at short to close the contest in an unheard-of two hours and three minutes, the scoreboard counted down from 10 and unleashed a fireworks extravaganza.

But even as the short but vibrant pyrotechnic light show unfolded beyond the Legends Field left field fence, we mused about the flight back north, and cold and wet New York in early April. Locals and vacationers in the stands had been bonding and sharing baseball stories all game, but now it was time to say, “Good Night” and “Au Revoir.” It was on this day in 1889 that the Eiffel Tower in France was dedicated, honoring the French Revolution from a century before. In the classic and beloved World War II film Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart utters the immortal line, “We’ll always have Paris.” As long as the Bombers train by the big bay on Central Florida’s Gulf Coast, we’ll always have Tampa too.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!