TAMPA — You’ve got Allen Iverson’s voice in your head: “We’re in here talking about practice.”
Terms like “Grapefruit League” and “Cactus League” add the veneer of legitimacy and charm to exhibition games and give life to the whole mini-industry of spring training. But we are, at the end of the day, talking about practice.
Nevertheless, we can’t help ourselves, right? When Giancarlo Stanton comes to the plate Friday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field — for his first time wearing the Yankees’ pinstripes in a game of any form, in front of thousands of fans — it’ll feel like an event.