It was a marvelous first week of spring training, and it was a horrible first week.

It had uplifting stories, including the initial bid by Tampa Bay pitcher Nick Bierbrodt to make the team less than a year after nearly being killed by a gunshot. It had one terrible story, the death of an Orioles pitcher, 23-year-old Steve Bechler, which is where our roundup begins.

	Mike Hargrove has had to deal with the deaths of three players in his time as a manager.

This spring marks the 10-year anniversary of the deaths of Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews in a boating accident. In December, Orioles manager Mike Hargrove, who was the manager of the Indians during that tragedy, recounted it for a story being done by ESPN. Hargrove wept openly as he recalled the loss of two members of the family, which is what a baseball team becomes with the amount of time it spends together.

A death in the family is something that no manager should have to endure ... and now Hargrove has had to handle it again. Thankfully, no manager in the game is more equipped than Hargrove, whose feel for people is extraordinary. He's a big, tough Texan with a voice of gravel and a touch of softness.

After the deaths of Olin and Crews, Hargrove called his team together in the clubhouse in Winter Haven, Fla., gathered them in a giant circle and spoke. Everyone cried. No one on the Indians fully recovered from that, but as second baseman Carlos Baerga said at the time, "Mike helped all of us try to get through this.''

And he will again with the Orioles.

Here's more news from around the camps:

Brewers
New third-base coach Rich Donnelly has found another home for a great idea. Last spring, he brought in firefighters from the Tucson, Ariz., area to shag balls during the Rockies' batting practice. It was his way to honor them. The firefighters had a blast doing it and the Rockies pitchers didn't have stand around shagging all day. Now, Donnelly has firefighters in Brewers camp.

"They love it,'' Donnelly said. "The only problem is, on the second day, we had a fire. One of the guys made what looked like a hell of a running catch, then he kept running out of the ballpark, to the fire station. So, from now on, we've cancelled all fires from 11 to 1 every day.''

	Kearns

Reds
Cincinnati believes it'll have a dynamic offense this season. The outfield consists of Ken Griffey Jr., who is primed for a comeback season; Austin Kearns, who has bulked up so much this winter that the Reds think he has 40-homer power; and Adam Dunn, who at 6-foot-6, stands to be perhaps the tallest leadoff batter of all time. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 1956 Reds and 2002 Braves are the only NL teams to have three 25-home run outfielders (min: 125 games in the outfield). The '03 Reds could make it three.

The infield has the Reds equally excited. Rookie third baseman Brandon Larson, according to one scout, "has more power than Dunn. He could hit 30 home runs. He has the quickest bat on the club.'' With Larson at third, Aaron Boone will play second base, which he appears capable of handling defensively. Boone hit 26 homers last year. If first baseman Sean Casey has a comeback season, expect the Reds to score a ton of runs.

Yankees
They tried all winter to trade Raul Mondesi, but he's back and near certain to open the season in right field.

Defense, especially in the outfield, is the Yankees' only weak point. But Mondesi, for the most part, stopped teams from going first to third, and second to home, after he was acquired on July 1.

Whether he'll hit, we'll have to wait and see. Last season, Mondesi batted .232 with 88 RBI. One hundred and five active players -- that's 105 -- have a 100-RBI season in their careers, including Fernando Tatis and Damion Easley. Mondesi, beginning his 11th year, is not one of the 105.

Hideki Matsui is big and strong, especially in his legs. He has a flat swing, "more like a right-handed hitter's swing,'' said manager Joe Torre. When he sets up in the box, he looks a lot like Tino Martinez. A scout who saw a great deal of Matsui in Japan says he has "Jim Edmonds-type of power.'' The Yankees will take that.

But, he's just an average runner, defender and thrower. Unlike Ichiro, he can beat you only one way, with his bat. But he can really swing it. From early indications, he might be a 30-home run guy.

	Martinez

Red Sox
Pedro Martinez arrived in camp and pronounced that his arm felt better than it did last season, when he led the league in ERA (2.26), strikeouts (239) and winning percentage (.833). In finishing with the marks, he became the only pitcher in history to lead in those three categories and not win the Cy Young.

The Red Sox protected Martinez beautifully last year, holding him to 30 starts (five fewer than Barry Zito) and 199 1/3 innings (60 2/3 innings fewer than Randy Johnson). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Martinez joined Bob Grim of the 1954 Yankees as the only pitchers in history to win 20 in a season of fewer than 200 innings. With Pedro, less could mean more.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and a regular contributor to Baseball Tonight. E-mail tim.kurkjian@espnmag.com.