Linebacker Clark Haggans arrived in San Francisco this year and wasn't surprised to hear the training staff address the four major types of lifting weights.

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Mr. NEAL: Typically, when I talk to local coordinators, we hear this general theme that the only type of equipment or training we can do is related to terrorism, that the specific hazards for the community--whether it's floods, whether it's hurricanes--we can't get the money to train for that.

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But in baseball, where every player arrives at spring training having found the panacea that will make this the best year of their career, to hear a star player acknowledge the obvious sounds downright alien.

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