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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Hellickson to debut in Yankee Land

Posted Mar 4, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Mar 4, 2010 at 02:18 PM

PORT CHARLOTTE Like David Price and Wade Davis, the Rays are going to take Jeremy Hellickson out of the the garage Friday when they play the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field.

“I’m real excited,” Hellickson said Thursday. “It’s my first spring training action. It’s what I’ve been going through the minors for and working my tail of for. I’m looking forward to it.”

Price had a memorable performance in 2008 when, after hitting the first batter he faced, he struck out the next three.

Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Matt Garza were among the Rays who watched Price pitch from a TV in the visiting locker room.

Garza jumped up and down as Price pumped fastballs past Yankee hitters.

“I’m glad he’s on my team,” Pena said.

Davis started his game last season and faced the Yankees varsity. He handled himself well.

Hellickson? The Rays have high hopes for the young righty. Vice president of baseball Andrew Friedman said we could expect to see him pitch at the Trop sometime this season. Rays manager Joe Maddon likened Hellickson to Davis of last year, the top pitching prospect in the organization preparing for his promotion to the bigs.

“I’m eager to see him,” Maddon said.

Hellickson has impressed during the first two weeks of camp. But pitching in a real game and in that setting will be interesting. It’s his spring training debut. It’s against the defending World Series champion. He would like to show the Rays brass that he’s ready.

“Kind of. I’m not trying to impress anybody,” he said. “If I just go out there and throw strikes and do what I’ve been doing, I think they like what they’ve seen, so I’m not really going out there to do anything different. Just go out there and throw strikes and get people out.”

Hellickson doesn’t know when he will be pitching, which means he may face a few regular Yankees or he may get the minor leaguers he’s faced before. Still, he said seeing the famous uniforms in the other dugout will be a bit of a rush.

“A little bit. I grew up a Yankee fan,” he said. “It will a little bit, but I haven’t been a part of anything we’ve done up here, so it might be a little different. Just facing those guys, if I do, it will be a little special.”

Hellickson is from Iowa, so the obvious question is how does a kid from Iowa become a Yankee fan?

“My dad loved Reggie Jackson,” he said, “so I just took after him.”

Hellickson’s favorite player?

Do we have to ask?

“Jeter.”