Jimmy Rollins

Benny Looper wandered over to a back field one afternoon this spring to watch some minor-league Phillies take batting practice. As assistant general manager of player development, it is Looper's job to see that the Phillies can one day replace an aging core with young and productive players. "There are a lot of position players in our organization that we like," said Looper, taking a seat in a blue folding chair. "One of them is right here. " The bald, folksy Oklahoman pointed at Roman Quinn, a diminutive, switch-hitting shortstop chosen with the 66th overall pick in 2011.

WE THOUGHT Ryan Howard was on first, but now we're not so sure. On Sunday at 10 a.m., ESPN's "SportsCenter" is airing "Who's on First?" to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the classic Abbott and Costello routine. Jimmy Fallon, along with several big-league players - including the Phillies' Howard and Jimmy Rollins - attempt their version of the skit. Here's a preview of the Phillies duo: Rollins: "You got an outfielder?" Howard: "Sure we've got an outfielder. " Rollins: "The guy in left, what's his name?"

DUNEDIN, Fla. - On Sunday, Ben Revere landed on second base after he pushed a bunt toward Dustin Pedroia and Boston's Gold Glove second baseman hastily threw it wide of first base. On Monday, Toronto's Gold Glove shortstop Jose Reyes barehanded a ball hit by Revere on one bounce on the infield dirt, fired it quickly and accurately to first, and the throw was late. Two infield hits, three total bases, including what has kiddingly been referred to as a "Ben Revere double. " "Hopefully, I can do that 20 to 30 times this season," Revere said of the fortuitous bunt.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - He went from the buzzing crowds in Miami to some 100 people watching a minor-league game under grey skies, and Jimmy Rollins still could not understand why players scoff at the World Baseball Classic. Rollins will be 38 years old in 2017 when the next incarnation of the tournament happens. He is inviting himself. "If I'm still good enough at the time, and I can be brought back in any capacity . . . I'm leaving spring training. I'll tell you that right now," Rollins said.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Charlie Manuel can't mask his love for Freddy Galvis. From the time the slick-fielding infielder stepped into the second-base spot for the first time in his life last spring to his holding down the position - and looking like a Gold Glover in doing so - in the first 2 months of the 2012 season, Galvis won over his big-league manager. But Chase Utley is healthy and set to take the field for his first Opening Day start in 3 years. Jimmy Rollins is back from the World Baseball Classic and ready to return to shortstop, and veteran Michael Young has handled his return to third base with ease this spring.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR! The weather is warmer, the sun is out later, people are starting to become tolerable again and the Phillies are all over your TV screen. Except they aren't playing baseball for real just yet. First up is Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins , who will cameo on the Fox cartoon "The Cleveland Show," a "Family Guy" spin-off, next Sunday in an episode titled "California Dreamin' (All the Cleves are Brown). " Rollins isn't the only famous face appearing on the baseball-themed (duh)

BRADENTON, Fla. - Space is tight at 90-year-old McKechnie Field, and the Phillies encroached upon the Pirates' batting practice when they began stretching Monday. Gaby Sanchez jogged past, dodging red jerseys and the batting cage. The Pittsburgh first baseman noticed Chase Utley in the pack and made eye contact. "How are these?" asked Sanchez, who put his hands on his kneecaps. Utley nodded his head and smiled. "Good," he said. Tuesday marks the three-week point of Phillies camp in this elongated spring, one defined by cautious optimism.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The route that Darin Ruf used to navigate leftfield in the top of the third inning on Thursday looked a lot like the route a paper airplane might have taken had it been thrown in the general direction of Ramiro Pena's sinking line drive. Turns out, the shortest distance from point A to point B is not a converted first baseman. That doesn't qualify as a revelation, of course. At no point over the last 3 months have the Phillies given the impression that they envision Ruf as their Opening Day leftfielder.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Spring training is difficult to describe from a baseball writer's perspective. Whenever you talk to your friends, family, co-workers or bosses back north, the tone in their voices is a mixture of enthusiasm and envy, as if every minute they spend on the phone with you is 1 fewer minute you have to drink mai tais and play tennis and frolic on the beach as a warm breeze dances through your hair. And if you say anything that might attempt to temper their sense of wonder, the response is usually some form of a sarcastic, "Oh, OK, sure, whatever . . . have fun!"

CLEARWATER, Fla. - For a few minutes every day, a Major League Baseball team is a dance troupe. On Wednesday morning, a group of Phillies gathered in left field for the slow ballet of warm-ups and stretches that precedes batting practice. There, among the regulars who didn't make the long bus trip to Fort Myers, was Chase Utley. A nation, or at least that portion clad in "ill" T-shirts, exhaled. It is one of the profound changes wrought by social media. A day earlier, Utley was scratched from a game against the Yankees after hours of drenching rain turned shallow right field into a knee-wrecking bog. Almost instantly, Twitter lit up with concern that there must be Something Up with the injury-plagued second baseman.