CINCINNATI • By the time the Cardinals left spring training, reliever John Brebbia had found a place he never had in the minors: an apartment of his own. But he didn’t sign the lease. He had purchased his wife a plane ticket to New York for opening day — on Southwest Airlines, because it could be cancelled without penalty.
He had been told he was going to make the major league team, got ready as if he had made the major league team, and yet — old habits die hard — still employed the crafty budgeting tricks he had to develop in the minors, right along with his fastball.