I awake before my alarm goes off at 9:30 and head downstairs for breakfast. Coaches and players watch �SportsCenter,� two of them working on crossword puzzles in the newspaper.

�Hey Dan, you know what the fiber in a coconut is? Four letters,� one asks me. �Or the capital of Switzerland?�

I can�t help him. At 10:15, players begin boarding the bus for the morning workout, a ride over to Fitness Today, a trip through residential neighborhoods, past modest ranch homes, condo and apartment complexes, a retirement home and cul-de-saced developments. At this mandatory session the players and coaches will get some cardiovascular and strength work in. Seven of them begin with a session on the stationary bikes, watching �SportsCenter� again on the TV above their heads as they pedal.

As two bikes open up, Irv walks over sits down to ride alongside the batting coach. I take the open bike between the wall and Irv and spend 20 minutes myself pedaling along while �SportsCenter� gives way to another rerun of yet another World�s Strongest Man competition.

�You ever watch these?� Irv asks. �I love these things. Those guys lifting those huge rocks for no reason.�

Important life skills, lifting boulders and grist stones, pulling buses and tractor-trailers.

The workout lasts an hour, though some players finish before others and wander upstairs for a drink, or perambulate through the shopping center. The intermittent rain that began while we entered the fitness center, then stopped, has started again, so we walk through the raindrops back to the bus.

The staff is cleaning my room, so I take Kerouac�s �The Town and the City� down to the lobby and, having just missed �The Price Is Right,� read my book while the local noon news comes on the television.

After I shower, I join the coaching contingent and head back to Ruby Tuesday for lunch, sitting again in Leila�s section.

�Back for more, huh boys?� she asks. �What can I get y�all to drink?�

I tell her she knows what I�ll have, after I downed the Cokes yesterday, but this time I ask for a straw since I know she�ll bring out the 32 oz. monster glass. She makes some sort of comment, and I tease her right back, prompting a �You know I love you� response and a hand on my back. Such friendly Southern service.

After lunch, Leila says she�ll need one of our room keys in order to get us the discount, and she looks at Paul and adds, �Did they tell you the story from yesterday?�

I look up and answer, �Yeah. We were just reminiscing about the day we met.� She rolled her eyes.

I don�t know what it is about me, but once I have a girl, I don�t care anymore about what others think of me. It�s almost as if I get more confident, but I think it�s more that the pressure is off. I don�t feel like I have to impress anyone else, so I don�t dwell on it. And I suppose it just makes me look more flirtatious, which is a terrible tease, because I�m taken. Well, it�s a tease for anyone on whom my �advances� might have an effect.

It turns out with the rain this morning and whatever may have fallen overnight that the field is wet. Neil calls me.

�We�re going to get a call from Greensboro�s GM at 4:30,� he says. �Apparently, their outfield is in bad shape.�

The rain hadn�t seemed significant, but one coach had a message on his phone at 11:30 a.m. saying batting practice was off because the field had not been covered.

�They said, �There was no rain in the forecast, so we didn�t put the tarp down,�� he tells us before calling the players to inform them that the bus will leave for the ballpark at 5 p.m.

At 4 p.m., Neil calls back: �It�s off. Doubleheader tomorrow, 6:05.�

And now we�re left to a night on our own in Greensboro. I look at the free copy of Triad Style, a weekly entertainment tabloid, I picked up at the gym and wish I could rent a car and drive down to Charlotte for the Barenaked Ladies concert. Or that I could be in Raleigh Saturday for their appearance with 12 other bands at a music festival at the Alltel Pavilion. But instead, I�ll see what the plan is, if there�ll be a bus outing to a local mall or movie theater, something to keep us all occupied during our unexpected night off in Greensboro.

To stave off boredom, the batting coach, Neil and I walk along the highway and the overpass over I-40 and make our way to the Best Buy store visible from our hotel. It�s a circuitous route, involving hopping a fence into a Ferrari/Porsche dealership, down past another hotel, and up another road to the store.

Inside, half the pitchers and some other players are there, buying CDs and testing out video games. Two relievers are sporting clean-shaven heads, spawned from an idle afternoon in a Greensboro Microtel Inn.

It�s an accomplishment for me to spend half an hour in Best Buy and emerge having not spent a cent. On the way back across the highway, on the overpass while cars and trucks rumble beneath on I-40, we spot Celebration Station, an amusement center with go carts, bumper boats and miniature golf. �Twenty-five cents a hole,� the batting coach says. �Let�s go.�

Walking in, we discover there�s also an arcade � save for the aquarium and tiki bar, it�s all the Point Pleasant boardwalk has to offer, with video games and skee ball and even worthless trinkets to purchase once you�ve saved up enough tickets.

We walk through and pay for a round of golf and start off on Course A. My phone rings part way through, and the batting coach looks up and says, �Tell them you�re busy. You�re on the seventh hole.� It�s my first call on the course since I bought the phone (joke).

Through the front nine, I have a two-stroke lead but have won only one hole. After 17, I�ve still won just one skin; Neil has two and the batting coach has three. The rest were tied by two or all three of us, including the last seven. So we cannot tee off on the 18th, because the ball disappears and the round is over.

As we debate how to settle the tie, Neil suggests continuing onto Course B and the batting coach wonders if that�s allowed. �Hey, I�m Jewish,� Neil says. �I want to get as much as I can for my money.�

The batting coach laughs and says, �That sounds like a joke: An Italian, a Jew and a Polack are playing golf ...�

We move to Course B to break the tie, continuing all the way to No. 6 before I win 13 holes worth of skins by two-putting a hole on which the others need three strokes.

Later, Keith joins the three of us and we walk over to Ruby Tuesday and sit at the bar, Neil and I ordering dinner. We watch Mark McGwire hit his 573rd career home run, taking Greg Maddux deep to center to tie Harmon Killebrew for fifth all time.

As I call into the office to check for any questions on my story, Keith notices just before I end the call. �I love you!� he says, mocking my call, thinking I�m talking with my girlfriend. After the game the night before, one of the coaches spoke to his wife on the phone and then asked to call her back. �Because the entire team�s listening to our conversation right now,� he tells her, prompting Paul and Keith and others to start calling, �I love you! Say it, �I love you!��