How Jeter Got Younger at Age 35:

TYSON TRISH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

So with Yankees officials and coaches privately hoping their shortstop could restore his diminishing range and table the ultra delicate issue of a possible move to the outfield, Jeter hired a new fitness trainer before last season for the purpose of fielding more balls to his left.

“We discussed how we can keep him in the game as long as he wants to play,” said Jason Riley, director of performance of the Athletes Compound at Tampa’s Saddlebrook Resort. “Derek said it may not be eight to 10 years at shortstop, but that he wanted to play that long.

“So in his case we were looking at speed and agility. Our main focus was improving his defensive skills and first-step quickness.”

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Howard Refused to Eat Away Career:

Jeff Zelevansky

Some mornings Howard was told to show up with an empty stomach. Though it sounds like the beginning of a horror workout, the remaking of Ryan Howard is as rooted in science as anything, and Jason Riley advised Howard to do so intentionally: Early in the day, food was replaced with plenty of liquid and a belly full of amino acids, which would increase the fat-burning capability of his workouts.

Riley is the guru behind the Athletes Compound at Saddlebrook Resort, a boutique workout facility in Tampa, Fla., that caters to elite athletes who want to maintain their fitness or, in Howard’s case, overhaul it. In order to have lasting relevance – to be not just the first to 200 homers but 300 and 400 and beyond – he needed to evolve. He could hit home runs the rest of his career, content being one-dimensional, and that would be enough to make him beyond wealthy. Only that didn’t motivate him. Albert Pujols did. Howard saw the acclaim Pujols received for his glove and told his agent, Casey Close, he wanted to be like that. Close pointed Howard to Tampa.

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