You’ve probably read by now that longtime Yankees trainer Gene Monahan is battling a serious illness and will miss his first Spring Training since the early 1960s. Over at the LoHud blog, Sam Borden wrote, “Every baseball reporter has a story about the time they got sick or the time they stabbed themselves with a pen or the time they got a bloody nose in the clubhouse, and Monahan is a great guy who was always there with a band-aid or a Tylenol.”

I have a story like that. About five years ago, I went up to the Stadium to do some interviews. My pass was mislaid, and I spent about an hour outside the press gate in the midday sun while the Yankees tried to locate the guy who could resolve the problem. It was a terrifically hot day. I didn’t realize it, but I was becoming