While baseball was talking about welcoming back fans, the game was saying goodbye to some familiar faces.
Jeff Reardon, invited to spring training at age 39 by the Montreal Expos, retired Thursday after a 16-year career."I felt I wasn't helping the team and I decided it was better if I retired now, instead of later," said Reardon, second on the career saves list with 367.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, meanwhile, released one-time wunderkind Tim Wakefield.
Wakefield nearly pitched the Pirates into the 1992 World Series with his knuckleball. But he never recaptured that success, going 5-15 in the minors last season and struggling this spring.
"The Pirates gave me every opportunity to prove myself these last years and I didn't produce," said Wakefield, 28.
Also, the Texas Rangers announced that manager Johnny Oates has been given a two-week leave of absence to be with his wife, who is hospitalized with exhaustion. Third-base coach Jerry Narron will run the Rangers until Oates returns.
"It's two weeks - maybe less, maybe more - and we're just trying to win as many games as we can," Narron said. "We want to make sure when Johnny comes back we're not buried in a big hole."
With opening day set for Tuesday, baseball officially unveiled its new slogan: "Welcome to the Show."
"We wanted people to refocus on what they liked about baseball and on what makes this game unique and different from other kinds of sports," said Jeff Goodby, co-creative director for the agency that developed the ad campaign.
The New York Yankees became the latest team to make a goodwill gesture to fans, offering 4,500 free bleacher tickets to every game during the first week in May.
Whether the locked-out major league umpires will be welcomed back in time for the start of the season was uncertain. The umps and owners made no progress Thursday.
"I remain pessimistic, but hopeful," management negotiator Robert Kheel said.
Feeling a little better were Eddy Martinez and Rico Brogna.
Martinez, a 17-year-old shortstop from the Dominican Republic, ran through a stop sign from Baltimore third-base coach Steve Boros and slid home head-first for an inside-the-park grand slam in the Orioles' 15-5 win over Boston at Fort Myers, Fla.
"I saw the sign, but kept going. I wanted a home run," he said through an interpreter - third baseman Leo Gomez.
Martinez, 2-for-6 this spring, is headed to the minor leagues. With Cal Ripken around, the Orioles aren't exactly in need of a shortstop right now.
"The kid's going to be an outstanding player with a little experience," Orioles manager Phil Regan said. "It's amazing that a 17-year-old kid can come in and do what he's done."
Brogna hit three home runs for the New York Mets in a 10-8 win over Los Angeles in Vero Beach, Fla. All three shots came off Chan Ho Park, who allowed seven runs and nine hits in 3 2-3 innings.
Roger Clemens made news, too, when the Red Sox said their ace will stay in Florida for extended spring training. He'll probably rejoin the team for Boston's second homestand, which begins May 9. Clemens has been bothered by tendinitis in his right shoulder.
"If it's some time before that, that would be a bonus," manager Kevin Kennedy said.
The Cleveland Indians lost pitcher Willie Smith for the season with a ruptured ligament in his right elbow. He will have a tendon transplanted from a wrist into the opposite elbow.
The Oakland Athletics added free agent catcher Brian Harper, who batted .291 for Milwaukee last season.
Among the players left at the free-agent camp in Homestead, Fla., Frank Viola threw for 12 minutes without pain. He pitched batting practice to Glenn Wilson, Tom Foley and Doug Dascenzo, the first time he'd faced hitters since he tore a ligament in his left elbow last May 3 with Boston.