Mar 17, 2007 3 min read

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Veteran outfielder Michael Ryan is living a childhood dream this spring – and carrying a hot bat, too. Ryan, who spent parts of the 2002-05 seasons with the Minnesota Twins, is in spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates after signing a minor-league contract as a free agent.

Ryan grew up a Pirates fan in Indiana, Pa., and remembers well the first major-league game he ever attended: Pirates outfielder Mike Easler hit for the cycle at Three Rivers Stadium in 1980.

“Just to be able to put a Pirates uniform has been a great honor,” Ryan said. “It’s really been a dream come true just to do this in spring training.”

Ryan has made a good impression, hitting .429 (15-for-35) in exhibition play. He went 2-for-4 with a double Friday in an 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“You can’t help but be impressed with the way Michael Ryan has played,” Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. “He has been hitting the ball hard all spring.”

Whether that will be enough for Ryan to stick around remains to be seen. The starting outfield is set with Jason Bay in left, Chris Duffy in center and Xavier Nady in right.

Nate McLouth spent all of last season with the Pirates as a rookie in 2006 and Luis Matos, once the Baltimore Orioles starting center fielder, has also played well this spring.

“I’d love to be there on opening day, but I’m just concentrating on playing as well as I can,” Ryan said.

The Pirates have often said they would like to mimic the approach of the small-market Twins, who typically build their team primarily through scouting and player development rather than signing expensive free agents. Ryan sees some parallels between the Minnesota teams he played on and a Pittsburgh team coming off consecutive 95-loss seasons.

“The Pirates are very, very similar to the type of team the Twins had right when they started winning,” he said. “There is a great group of young starting pitchers here, just like the Twins have built their championship teams around. And there are also a lot of good young players in the lineup.

“In Minnesota, it was just a matter of us starting to win some games and gaining confidence that we could be a good team,” the 29-year-old said. “I can see that happening here. It seems to me that the guys in this clubhouse believe they are ready to start winning.”

The Pirates haven’t had a winning season since 1992, a year that ended with a ninth-inning loss to the Atlanta Braves in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

But Ryan is hoping this season marks the beginning of a bright future for himself and his childhood team.