Joe Torre

Joe Torre trudged through the spring training clubhouse at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., the same way he walks out to the pitcher's mound late in an important game. There was that distinctive lumber: dogged, plodding almost, head down, long arms station- ary, eyes not giving anything away. He threw a poker-faced glance at his players, many of whom were sprawled in front of their stalls chatting, slowly pulling on their uniforms. Most paid little attention to him, as if they didn't even notice he was there.

This should have been the first month of the rest of Joe Torre's life. He could have treated his wife to Sunday brunch, or cheered his 13-year-old daughter at her softball game. He might have joined his fellow New York Yankees' legends for the first weekend of the new Yankee Stadium, or offered expert analysis from a broadcast booth. He should be enjoying retirement today, not managing the home team at Dodger Stadium. That was the way he planned it.

Dodger Stadium will be turned into a circus of sorts today for the Dodgers' home opener, decorated with flags and roamed by stilt walkers and face painters. What is likely to be an over-the-top ceremony will precede the first pitch Chad Billingsley throws against the San Francisco Giants. But the truly absurd already took place Sunday in Arizona, where Manager Joe Torre manufactured a run with his voice when the Dodgers had trouble doing so with their bats.

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Told that he looked particularly relaxed Wednesday, Dodgers Manager Joe Torre admitted that he was. Pitchers, catchers and players rehabilitating from injury were due to report to Dodgertown the next day. Many had already done so. But there was a weight that Torre often felt at this time of the year that he said was noticeably absent, or what he called the pressure of "trying to satisfy the people you work for." That is, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- From behind the portable cage, Joe Torre got his first close look at his new closer. What Torre saw of Takashi Saito on Saturday as he threw live batting practice had the Dodgers' new manager saying he was convinced that hitters wouldn't be able to catch up to him the way they did to other pitchers who relied on deceptive deliveries. "This isn't only deception," Torre said. "He has command. He has a number of pitches he can go to. He can locate the breaking ball away.

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Nearly two weeks into his first camp with the Dodgers, Joe Torre said he is sensing that players are starting to get comfortable with him. When he walks into the clubhouse these days, he said, players no longer stop their conversations. Asked whether that was true, pitcher Brad Penny said he wasn't so sure. "I think I might've noticed that one time," Penny said Monday. "It's out of respect."

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- There is a team that Dodgers Manager Joe Torre frequently references when talking about what he wants to see from his own: the Angels. "Very distracting," Torre called their style. Torre would know. During his 12-year stint managing the New York Yankees, the Angels were the only American League team to post a winning record against them, beating them in 61 of 116 regular-season games.

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- So far, they smile and hug and make nice. Jeff Kent spends 20 minutes working on a swing with Andy LaRoche. Nomar Garciaparra spends quiet moments joking with locker neighbor James Loney. Everybody watches Matt Kemp's baserunning blunder, and nobody says a word. So far this spring, the Dodgers veterans and kids look nothing like the factions whose ugly September fight cost a team its season and a manager his job. "This is family again," Loney says. But look closely.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Derek Jeter trudged into the Yankees clubhouse during the sixth inning of a recent exhibition game, his face streaked with sweat and his uniform caked with dirt. In most years and in most spring training camps, Jeter's day would have been done. But not this year. Not in this camp. "Gotta go do my running," Jeter said as he tossed a half-empty water bottle into his locker before following teammates Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano to a back field for another conditioning session.

DODGER manager Joe Torre thinks he has problems? I've got 10 kids in camp, three with virtually the same name. Brendan, Brandon and Braden. Nice kids, but I'm constantly calling Braden by some other name. There's also an Adam, whom I keep calling Alex, and the twins, Connor and Ryan, who only God and their mother can tell apart. Basically, the only people I can identify with any confidence are my own son and my assistant coach James. Or is it Jim? Joe Torre thinks he has holes in his lineup?