Bright House Field

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It was 10:03 a.m. Wednesday when I carefully pushed through the glass doors that lead to the bullpen and infield diamond that sits below the main entrance to Bright House Field. A light rain fell as I turned right, walked about 30 yards, and headed toward the Carpenter Complex Fields, where I have watched men stretch, throw, hit, run, and play baseball since Mike Schmidt's final spring training as a player in 1989. I didn't know I was being watched. As I passed the closed weight room and neared the steps that lead up to Frenchy's Tiki Bar in left field at the Phillies' spring-training home, I could hear men talking on two-way radios.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Just before the start of spring training, the MLB Network did a countdown of the 10 best current managers in baseball, and the Phillies' Charlie Manuel checked in at fourth on the list. Now, for the first time since he was hired in 2005, the Phillies manager is being paid like one of the best in the game. After prolonged negotiations, the team announced Thursday that Manuel had received a two-year extension that will keep the manager in the Phillies dugout through the 2013 season, when he will be 69 years old. Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. disputed his team's own news release and said Manuel's new deal is actually for three years because the Phillies gave Manuel a raise over the $2.4 million he was supposed to make this season.

Who: Phillies (5-6) vs. Baltimore Orioles (4-3) When: 1:05 p.m. Where: Bright House Field, Clearwater, Fla. TV: None Radio: None On the mound: LHP Cole Hamels; RHP Justin Duchscherer

Individual tickets for Phillies spring-training games go on sale today at 9 a.m. The Phillies will play 18 games at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla. The first game is Feb. 26 against Toronto. The Phillies will host two World Baseball Classic exhibition games, on March 4 vs. Canada and March 5 vs. Team USA. The exhibition season will end with the Phillies playing the Tampa Bay Rays on April 3 (7 p.m.) and April 4 (1 p.m.) at Citizens Bank Park. Tickets are available online at www.phillies.

The Phillies are No. 1 . . . In scoreboard size in the National League. The team announced a $10 million upgrade that includes their video board in left-centerfield at Citizens Bank Park. The new HD screen will be 76 feet high and 97 feet wide, totaling 7,372 square feet of digital space. How big is that? Well, the original board, which has been in place since the park opened in 2004, was 2,759 square feet. "The new technology and dramatically larger screen will bring our fans closer to the action than ever," said Mark DiNardo, director of broadcasting and video services.

MILWAUKEE - When Roy Halladay first arrived at Phillies spring training, those around him in the clubhouse marveled at his work ethic. What time did he get here? 5:30 a.m.? Seriously? Halladay was busy. He followed the same demanding workout routine he had for years with Toronto - except many were noticing only now because he was on a winner, a big-market team with plenty of attention surrounding it. This was lost in the commotion: Quietly one day, Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee introduced Halladay to a split-finger grip for his change-up.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It was 10:03 a.m. Wednesday when I carefully pushed through the glass doors that lead to the bullpen and infield diamond that sits below the main entrance to Bright House Field. A light rain fell as I turned right, walked about 30 yards, and headed toward the Carpenter Complex Fields, where I have watched men stretch, throw, hit, run, and play baseball since Mike Schmidt's final spring training as a player in 1989. I didn't know I was being watched. As I passed the closed weight room and neared the steps that lead up to Frenchy's Tiki Bar in left field at the Phillies' spring-training home, I could hear men talking on two-way radios.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - He hears the voices now. Maybe they were there before, maybe not. Jimmy Rollins isn't quite sure. He knows only that when he walks down the foul line that leads from the Phillies' spring training clubhouse to the dugout at Bright House Field, the hushed voices of fathers speaking to their sons breaks through, finds his ears. "There goes Jimmy Rollins," he hears them say. "You watch him. " He is 33 now, with a contract that should keep him a Phillie until he is 36. He has been with this team, his only team, since he played a few games when he was 21. We have seen him go from much hair to no hair.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jim Thome wore a wide grin in the Phillies dugout at Bright House Field before he even took batting practice Sunday morning. "Man, it's exciting," he said. The occasion was Thome's first appearance at first base in a major-league game since 2007. He played five innings in Sunday's 3-3 tie with Baltimore and mastered what little action was required. No balls were hit to Thome, who recorded three putouts. That didn't make it any less awesome for Thome.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Fans at Bright House Field will see something Sunday that has not happened since June 30, 2005. Jim Thome, veteran slugger and likely Hall of Famer, will play first base for the Phillies. "I'm ready for the big show," Thome said Saturday after seeing his name in the lineup that was posted for Sunday's game against the Orioles. "I feel good. " With less than two weeks to go before opening day, the Phillies are still optimistic that Thome's 41-year-old body will enable him to make one or two starts a week at first base as Ryan Howard recovers from surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jimmy Rollins slouched in the corner of an empty Phillies clubhouse after the 25th straight day of work under the Florida sun. This is helplessness, and Rollins officially reached it Monday, when he stepped onto Bright House Field with an infield rife with unfamiliarity. This is nothing new in spring training. But on this day it came with the realization that unfamiliarity could last deep into the regular season. So Rollins took a good look around. "This is what I have to get used to," he said.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Reaction from most corners of the baseball universe was all gloom and doom. "[The] Phils are no longer the NL East favorite," a National League scout said soon after hearing the news Monday morning that Phillies second baseman Chase Utley is now listed as doubtful for the start of the 2012 season. Go read the comments on philly.com and you'll get the sense that this Phillies season is over even though it has yet to begin. There is, of course, another angle from which to view this developing story.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Carlos Ruiz called for a change-up Monday, and Joe Savery had to pause for a moment. It had been about 18 months since he threw one. That was before he became a hitter at single A, a pitcher in double A, and a major-league reliever by the end of 2011. Savery nodded and tossed the change-up. Detroit's Audy Ciriaco swung and missed at it for strike two. Now things were definitely right. "I'm feeling good out there," Savery said. He's just one of the lefthanded relief candidates in Phillies camp who can boast that.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - As the sellout crowd at Bright House Field cheered a leadoff home run by Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins on Saturday, Jim Thome went through the task of testing his aging back for the second time this spring in a sparsely attended minor-league game at the Carpenter Complex. Thome, after being too sore from his first appearance Monday to play Thursday and Friday, gave a positive report after his four-inning stint with the Phillies' triple-A team. "After playing, I definitely felt a little bit of soreness the next day," Thome said.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - They wore green on the field and in the stands Saturday, the annual spring sign that meaningful baseball is less than three weeks away. The crowds on the concourse at Bright House Field tested fire codes. The Phanatic did an Irish jig with two umpires. And the Phillies' aging infield suffered another blow. "Happy St. Patty's Day," Charlie Manuel said. These are the scenes that begin to sting as the calendar inches toward April: Ryan Howard again hobbled to the dugout in a boot.