A Year Later and A Different A-rod

Alex Rodriguez was under a tent last year in Tampa admitting his steroid use. He went through a very difficult press conference and then had to go to Colorado to have surgery and rehab his hip. He came back to the Yankees on May 8th and was a different person buying into the team concept. He went on to become a World Series Champion and playoff hero and now he was under the tent again this year in a very different press conference. Today was all about how last year was, how he has changed. He said he will continue to do the things he did last year and just focus on baseball. He said the taste of being a champion only leaves him hunger for more. Here are some of the quotes from his press conference today " I kind of divorced myself from the idea of numbers." This is what he said on Johnny Damon "I was just crossing my fingers, hoping he would come back." This is what he said about Derek Jeter " He was born to be a Yankee." The full audio of the press conference can be found at http://yankees.lhblogs.com/ It can also be heard at http://mlb.com/ and http://yankees.com/ The springs first live batting practices were today and basically the pitchers called out the pitches and location and for the most part the hitters just stood there. Here are the pitchers who threw batting practice and the 2 groups they were in. Field 1: Chad Guadin, Sergio Mitre,Jon Albaladejo, Royce Ring, Grant Duff and Arias Field 2: Alfredo Aceves,Jason Hirsch,Dave Robertson,Segovia,Sanchez and Sanit. They tried to mix up the outfield assignments for instance both Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson were in LF. Ramiro Pena was at second. CC Sabathia will start the second spring training game. One of the 5th starter candidates will start the opener and it won't be Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes according to Joe Girardi. He made that announcement today so it will be Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre or Alfredo Aceves.