Depending upon who you are, spring training can have a variety of meanings. If, for instance, you are Carl Yastrzemski or Fred Lynn, it means five innings of baseball, a few wind sprints in the outfield, a quick shower, and the rest of the day off.

If, on the other hand, you are Bob Heise or John Balaz, it means having to sweat out every ground out to third because it may be your last in a Red Sox uniform for quite a while.

Regardless of your playing status, however, spring training is a month in the Florida (or Arizona) sunshine, a month of drinking freshly squeezed Anita Bryant oranges and Busch Bavarian beer.

It is a month to work on tans, to predict whether you will hit .246 or .247, and to tell reporters that if everything falls into place, and the pitching comes through, then your team could be a real contender this year.

From Winter Haven to Tampa, from Bradenton to Ft. Myers, nothing differs at the 24 major league camps save for the insignia on the uniforms and the fact that of the nearly 1000 players who arrive in camps at the beginning of March, only 25 will become World Champions in October.

*****

"Yeah, I know where Harvard is," Pete Rose said as he awaited his turn in the batting cage at Redsland in Tampa, Florida. "Some girl on a game show last week didn't know where it was but I do," he continued.

Rose, chicly attired in baseball pants and a tee-shirt with his picture on it, was skipping an exhibition game to take extra batting practice. "You don't get no fuckin' work if you play three games in a row," Charlie Hustle explained. Rose said that he had only taken about 12 swings in the three games, but by staying behind, Rose would have many more opportunities to smack the white pill into the outfield.

Other world champion Reds had the same idea as Rose. Joe Morgan also took his turn in the cage and when he wasn't working on the baseball, he worked on his teammates. "Looks like I'm going to have to carry you guys again for the first month," Morgan chided some teammates. Eventually, the talk drifted to contracts. "They had to sign me," Morgan contended. "They already put me in the press guide."

Outfielder George Foster provided the play-by-play commentary while Bob Bailey was hitting. Bailey hit a line-drive to the outfield, and Foster screamed, "Oh what a grab by the centerfielder!" Then Bailey slashed one down the third base line, and Foster yelled, "Brooks Robinson dives and gets it!" "They're grabbing everything," Bailey responded.

George Foster has been around professional baseball for a while and knows how to gear himself for each new season. "I relaxed over the winter," Foster said. But even then, baseball is still on his mind. "I think about particular pitchers and how they pitch to me." But once he gets down to Tampa, Foster says, he works on "all facets of the game" as well as conditioning his hands, wrists and arms.

Foster had to adjust to another part of baseball, the multitude of fans and autograph seekers. "We have to try to set the best examples. Kids idolize us. We have to show that we're doing things we want to do. But the main thing is to maintain health and strength. We have a great chance of repeating."

*****

Sixty miles away from Tampa, the Red Sox practiced in Winter Haven, home of Polk Community College. The Red Sox prepared for a exhibition game with the Montreal Expos by warming up their arms in front of the stands on the first base side. Fans constantly yelled requests to the players. "Hey Yaz, look over here," one Instamatic-toting woman yelled. Carl Yastrzemski obliged by looking into the stands for a second and then resuming his warmpup. "Hey Pudgie, I came all the way down to see you," a Bosox partisan screamed to Carlton Fisk. Fisk trotted by and said, "I gotta warm up now."

The Red Sox found ample time to clown around. Carl Yastrzemski played a game of dodgeball, ducking out of the path of the ball a fraction of a second before it would hit him as it sailed in from the outfield. On the bullpen bench, outfielder Rick Miller and catcher Tim Blackwell engaged in a fierce game of hockey. Miller used the handle of a bat and shot a baseball forcing Blackwell to make some spectacular kick saves as well as a few tremendous diving saves. Blackwell also made good use of a rusty nail, poking his opponent to keep him out of the crease.