updated 9:57 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2005

TAMPA, Fla. - Jason Giambi took a swing, the ball cleared the right-field wall and the crowd cheered.

He was back to hitting baseballs in public, not dodging questions about steroid use, happy to return to a venue where grand slams are discussed more often than grand juries.

“Today was a big day, today was a fun day, for me to get out there and be part of the mix and get back into playing baseball,” he said Tuesday.

Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson and the rest of baseball’s first $200 million team took the field together for the first time as the New York Yankees began fullsquad workouts ahead of their March 3 spring training opener.

Fans were lined up an hour before the gates opened, and 2,772 came to Legends Field just to watch batting practice, bullpen work and conditioning drills by this glittering array, which included 18 All-Stars with a combined 77 All-Star appearances. The group has five Cy Young Awards (all by Johnson) and 13 Gold Gloves.

There are three World Series MVPs (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Johnson), two American League MVPs (Giambi and Rodriguez), two AL championship series MVPs (Rivera and Bernie Williams) and one All-Star game MVP (Jeter).

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Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Mike Mussina don’t even merit above-the-title billing. When the Yankees play an intrasquad, it’s an All-Star game by itself.

“It’s good to know they’re on my side,” Johnson said. “Tomorrow I’ll introduce myself to a few of the players.”

He grinned.

“I’m throwing batting practice tomorrow,” he said.

It was the first time all the Yankees were together since October’s historic collapse against Boston in the championship series, when the Red Sox became the first major league team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

“I think we developed even more of a thirst after the way we ended last year,” Rodriguez said.

Yankees manager Joe Torre addressed the team for an hour before the workout, but didn’t touch on last year’s low point. Then the players, counted on by owner George Steinbrenner to win the title for the first time since 2000, took the field.

With Torre and hitting coach Don Mattingly looking on, Giambi homered on four of 29 pitches from Yankees minor league manager Joe Breeden, hitting three to right and one to center.

“I didn’t think I was going to hit grounders to second,” Giambi said, laughing.

Giambi tried to use all parts of the field, hitting 17 balls to right, eight to center, three to left and one off the batting cage. Last year, when he tried to play through an intestinal parasite, strained groin, respiratory infection and benign pituitary tumor, he became a pull hitter. By the time his season ended, he didn’t hit much at all.

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